I rush forward, knowing there's no time to waste.I draw my club, running at the guard Alaric, momentarily stunned.I can't let him recover enough to call for help.I can't give him any chance to join the fight, either.
I swing my club as I run, slamming it down into the guard’s head as he rises, meeting him with all the power I can muster.The guard slumps down again, fully unconscious now, showing no signs of moving.
Alaric is still struggling with the other guard.He’s hampered by the need to keep the guard from crying out for help, one hand occupied with that while his other is clamped onto the guard’s sword arm, trying to stop him from drawing his blade.
I come up behind the guard, hitting him with the same force I used to subdue his comrade.With the way the guards seem to treat the prisoners here, I don’t feel any need to hold back.The guard slumps in Alaric’s grip, so that for a moment it looks as though the two of them are dancing together, before Alaric lowers him to the floor.
“We need to work quickly now,” Alaric says.“We don’t know how long we have before they wake up.”
I search the guards, taking the time to tie their hands and gag them.I find a set of keys on one, and both have stones inscribed with multiple sigils, obviously designed to allow them to pass the traps in the prison.I pocket one, passing another to Alaric.It will make it far quicker for us to leave than it was coming in.
I unlock the gate into the high security area, hurrying through and consulting the map once again.It shows Domitian’s cell at the end of the hall, so Alaric and I rush forward.
“We can take him from the prison,” Alaric says.“We’ll put him under guard in a resistance safehouse, so Selene doesn’t have him.Maybe he’ll even be able to tell us something we can use.”
It will be hard to contain Domitian, but it’s better than leaving him here if Selene’s people are coming for him.I reach the door, unlocking it quickly.Alaric has his sword in his hand, and I keep my club in mine.Domitian won’t be happy to see us.
We rush in.The cell we enter is a large, mostly empty space, with little more than some straw at one end and a grate in the floor to allow waste to pass through.There are chains set on the walls, and runes around the room that I can feel pressing in with a wave of nullification magic, dampening magical power the way a dampener might.
Other than that, the room is empty.There’s no sign of Domitian.
“Are we in the wrong cell?”Alaric asks.
I shake my head.“It’s the one the map shows.It’s…”
What is it?What’s going on here?There are so many things that don’t add up.Why have there been no signs of Selene’s people around the prison?Why is the cell empty?
Why did Selene need to do this at all?That question comes out of nowhere, and I realize it's one I should have asked far earlier than this.Why would Selene need to break into this prison when she has control of the Senate?If she wants Domitian freed, she could just have the senate vote to show him clemency.Even the idea that she wanted him free seemed strange when he was a potential rival for authority.
All of which adds up to a horrifying realization.That none of this is truly about an attempt to free Domitian.Selene has outthought Alaric and me, knowing how we would react when we heard of the attempt.She knew we’d come here.Which means only one thing as I turn to Alaric with fear filling me.
“This is a trap!”
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
Even as I say the words, I hear footsteps thundering along the corridors outside.As I step from the cell, I reach out through the eyes of the animals in the prison, seeing guards hurrying towards the high security section of the prison.
“This was Selene’s plan,” I say.“She lured us here with the idea she was going to free Domitian.It’s all so we can be trapped here, in the most dangerous prison Aetheria possesses.”
“Cesca lied to us,” Alaric snarls.He sounds ready to kill her as soon as he gets out of here.Ifeither of us gets out of here.
“I didn’t feel any deception in her,” I say.“She believed everything she was saying.”
And somehow, Selene managed to use her to trick us anyway.But there’s no time to think about how, because now a host of guards is pouring around the corner, heading for the high security area.
They don't have hounds with them, as if they know they're going to be facing a beast whisperer, and any animals they bring will only be turned against them.I reach out for any animals I can, and I feel the hounds, but they're locked away now.All I can do is steal some speed, strength, and ferocity from them as the guards charge forward.
I hit one with my club, dodge aside from a sword blow, then slash at another with my knife.There’s no way I can hold back when there are so many of them, and they’re all working to Selene’s plan.Alaric seems to take the same view, cutting down one guard with a sweep of his curved blade, then throwing a knife to slam into the shoulder of another.Alaric uses his illusion powers to set three more versions of himself dancing among his foes, distracting them enough that he can wound another.
Some of the guards have their own magic.One sends a flicker of flame towards me, forcing me to duck out of the way.Another sends pulsing tendrils of psychomancy out, but I reach for the primal emotions within me, roaring in rage even as I strike down another guard with my club.The close confines of the prison mean they can’t all get to us at once, but the guards press forward in a mass, pushing Alaric and me back, beyond the boundary to the secure section.One lifts a hand, knocking Alaric back a step with a burst of force, but Alaric turns it into a spin, slicing across the chest of another guard as he does it.
“The gate!”I call out to him, and Alaric understands instantly.He helps me to slam the gate shut and I lock it, breaking the key in the lock so it will be harder for the guards beyond to get through.The same measures designed to keep prisoners in will keep the guards out, too, at least for now.
But I realize the mistake I’ve made as more guards pour forward.We’ve just given them time to get here, time in which to prepare for the assault they’re about to make.Not that they need to.If they wanted, they could just leave us here forever, trapped in the high security section of the prison.
But I don’t think they’re going to.Already, a guard is moving forward, putting his hands to the lock, which glows red in response as heat starts to spread through it.He clearly has enough magic to simply melt the lock, although it will take time.
At least it gives me a chance to talk.
