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“It’s done,” she said, not meeting my gaze.
Her hands were clean as she stepped into the lit part of the cave. The sun was up in the sky now, and although the entrance to the cave was still hidden, I could see her eyes.
Cari’s coal-dark eyes looked darker now, somehow. There was a little redness to them too, as though she had cried for hours without any solace. She did not smile.
“You were right,” she said as she shivered. “The soldier told me what awaits us inside the castle and we would have been caught if you hadn’t decided to kidnap him.”
I felt guilty for causing that man so much pain.
“Did you hurt him?” Gethin asked behind me.
“I didn’t,” Cari replied quickly without hesitation. “I just went into his mind, and he didn’t like me probing.”
“You have no right to probe,” Gethin said.
Cari met my gaze. I knew what she was expecting.
“It was me, Gethin,” I turned around to face him. “I asked her to do it.”
“You didn’t order her to invade his mind,” Gethin got up too. “We could have questioned him without...”
“It would have taken longer and would cause much more pain,” Casja said, also getting up. “We don’t have that much time. It’s not pretty, but this was the quickest way.”
Gethin stood alone. Although that did not seem to change his mind at all, he stopped objecting. After all, there was no way to change what we had already done. Perhaps he had seen the futility, as well as the hypocrisy of waiting to object until the deed was done.
“What did you find out?” I asked Cari.
“There is an elite unit inside the castle, waiting for an attack,” Cari started explaining. “There is also the moat. Once we enter the castle, the only way to reach the prisoners is by passing a long hallway. Our friend informed me that the cell area is surrounded by a vacuum. The hallway is the only way to get there, and he was able to pass it only because he is an air elemental.”
“That’s how he flew?” I asked.
Cari nodded.
“And it doesn’t end there,” she continued. “There is a garrison nearby, south of Crimsontown. Lord Lugh has around a thousand soldiers stationed there, ready to respond to any direct attacks.”
“So we can’t get caught,” I replied.
“No,” Cari said. “They can’t know that we infiltrated the prison or they’ll sound the alarm.”
“How do they deliver the food and water?” Gethin asked.
“For water, they have a well,” Cari replied. “It’s also in a vacuum so he and another air elemental have to take turns carrying it for everyone.”
“Will they look for him?” I asked Cari.
“No,” Cari replied. “Apparently, he feigned sickness and informed everyone that he would stay in his room, only to sneak off and visit a brothel. They are not allowed to go outside, at all, so he had to hide his visit from everyone.”
Lugh was being overly cautious. Everyone knew that soldiers stationed in a castle endured it as long as they could get out from time to time. The longer they were isolated, the more they would be inclined to disobey direct orders.
If this man had been allowed to leave the castle at a normal hour, we wouldn’t have caught him as we had.
Lugh’s mistake was our gain.
“What else did you find out?”
“They deliver the food to the prison via portals. The portals are watched, so we can’t use them to get in. We’ll need extra air to pass the vacuum area.”
“We also have to fight the elite unit,” Gethin said, taking a step forward to stand beside me.
