Ajacii and Demons: The Ingenairii Series (35 page)

The head of the arrow flew through the air and struck the window sill behind Alec’s former location, making the men inside the room look up at the guard, startled by the shot. They disappeared back inside the room, and in half a minute were outside, standing with the guard, talking in low tones.

“
See the dry spot,” the guard was saying. “That’s what I shot at.” He stepped down to ground level and walked across to the puddle. “And look at this water that splashed clear out here. This doesn’t make sense, unless it dripped off something.” Alec moved further away, and cursed the housekeeper who had dropped the water on him that raised the suspicions.

“
Well, there isn’t anything to see here, so let’s just maintain security and carry on,” one man said. Alec recognized his voice as that of the third man who had spoken in the room, the one who seemed to be a leader. “Are our guests still detained?”

The guard looked across the street for a second, then glanced back to the speaker. “Nothing appears amiss. Jankers, go check on the guests,” he directed his fellow guard, and gave him a push to propel him across the road.

Jankers crossed the road, and Alec tried to cross the road as well, hoping that he wasn’t leaving a dripping trail of evidence of his movements. He looked down and saw only occasional drops, nothing that would seem to show his movement, and he crowded into the building behind Jankers as the man walked past the guards at its door to enter the front hall.

The building appeared to be an office building, not a prison. There was no sound, no stench, on extraordinary security, and no appearance of anything but a typical building where work mostly occurred behind desks or around chairs. Jankers proceeded to walk forward and then left, moving slowly down a set of stairs, with Alec cautiously following. The stairwell grew dark as they went downstairs, and Jankers pulled a lit torch off the wall at a landing as he opened a door and began to descend further below.

The second staircase had walls of bare stone, and a damp feel that seem much more in keeping with a dungeon. “Have you got the prisoners down here?” He asked as he stepped onto the floor.

A shadowy figure rose from a chair at the far end of a long, dark basement. “Of course I’ve got them. What are you doing bringing a bright light like that down here? Don’t you know you’ll get them all excited? Are you going to take a look at them?” the guard asked in an oily tone of co-conspirators. “Do you reckon they’re getting a little lonely? Ready to take one out, are you?”

“
Don’t be an idiot,” Jankers said mildly. He turned and left the basement, taking the torch with him, and leaving Alec’s eyes struggling to adjust to the dark. After several seconds he began to regain his sight, and perceived that there was a spot of dim light, a candle, on the desk where the watchman was returning to his seat. Alec dropped his own invisibility, unneeded in the dark basement, and used his Spiritual power to reach out, seeking to detect who else was in the basement as well.

The watchman’s mind was a simmering mess of random, unpleasant thoughts, and there was another prisoner who seemed to be mostly insane. And then he found Bethany, morose, unhappy over being unable to fight for freedom. His mind jumped from her to Caitlen, and the princess’s mind reacted immediately to the touch of Alec’s examination.

Is it you? Are you here in this forsaken place?
She called to him spirit-to-spirit.

I am here in the basement with you. I love you
, he told her.
I’ve come to set you and Bethany free.

I’m so glad to know you’re alive!
Caitlen added in tones of exultation.
They told us that a demon would kill you on the day they came and kidnapped us; I laughed and said you had killed up to three demons at once before! They didn’t say anything more after that for a long time.

I can’t believe you found us!
She rustled about in her cell as she stood up and walked to the door, peering through the tiny opening to try to spot him. Both Alec and the watchman heard the sounds of her movement, so tantalizingly close.

“
Get back. Sit down. Otherwise you’ll have visitors coming in to punish you,” the watchman said as he heard Caitlen’s movements.

Have they hurt you?
Alec asked.

No, not so far. Bethany seems to be safe as well. I tried to send her messages to let her know that you’d be coming for us soon, because I knew you would
, Caitlen told him.
But she can’t project responses to me if she’s getting my messages.

We’ll leave this place tonight, in just a few hours,
Alec told her.
Just wait patiently, my love. I’ll send a message to Bethany
.

How is Elisan?
Caitlen asked.

He’s fine,
Alec assured her.
He misses his mother, and he’s being well-taken care of.

Bethany, I am in the basement with you and Caitlen, hiding in the shadows,
Alec sent a message to her.
This evening we are going to escape from here. Be patient; I’ll let you know when it is time to act.

Alec slumped to the ground to consider how he would proceed. This was to be a tricky maneuver on his part as he would need to use large bursts of his ingenaire powers rapidly, then have to sustain more energy for an extended period of time. He would need to rest and recover as soon as they reached the top of the long climb up the mountainside, he foresaw, which would mean several hours tomorrow hidden somewhere, and probably most of their travel thereafter during the night.

He could help his cause if he began his plan early, although it increased the chances that he might be caught prematurely. But after thinking about how much energy he would need to use, after having used much already today while traveling invisibly, Alec concluded it was worth the risk. He rose slowly and edged through the dark shadows at the edge of the room to get closer to the jailer, then tossed several pebbles across the room.

The jailer looked up into the dark, but his reactions were not those of an Ajax. Alec sighed in thanks for that small favor, and tossed more pebbles.

“
Is someone there?” the jailer asked, trying to pierce the shadows with his sight. He rose, and picked up his small lantern, raising it high as he began to walk towards the noises. Alec brought his fist down on the back of the man’s head, knocking him unconscious, and pitching the room into total blackness as the lantern fell and was extinguished.

Alec immediately laid hands on him, and threw a powerful blast of Healer energy into the unconscious body. He had never done anything exactly like this before; it didn’t have to be perfect, but it would have to be good enough to buy them hours or more of escape time.

Alec, what happened to the light?
Caitlen asked him.

Are there any other prisoners down here?
Alec asked in response.

No, no one else besides the insane man. Just the two of us
, she replied.

“
Caitlen, Bethany, I’ve knocked your jailer unconscious. We’ll wait until his replacement comes, then prepare to leave. Just remain calm and wait in your cell for the time being,” he spoke out loud. “And don’t try to talk to me; I need to focus on something for the moment; I’ll let you out shortly.”

His work would be imperfect, but he suspected that the Ajacii would not notice, at least not immediately. He counted on people only seeing what they expected to see, and overlooking obvious imperfections.

Alec labored on, satisfied he was doing well enough, until he came to the need to check his work. He sat back momentarily, then caused a ball of light to flare overhead. His work looked satisfactory. There, lying unconscious on the ground in front of him was a copy of Caitlen. He began to remove the man’s uniform, checking to make sure that the body appeared appropriately female. As he looked, he was satisfied that it would pass visual inspection; no one here was going to perform the delicate examination needed to detect the surface gender change Alec had performed.

“
What’s that light, Alec?” Bethany asked him softly. “Who’s that on the floor?”

He looked up and saw both women’s eyes staring through the small windows in their prison doors. “This is your jailer. He’s unconscious for the moment. I’ve made him look like Caitlen.

“
The light is a new talent I have. I don’t handle it well, but I have the powers of a Light ingenaire now. It allows me to manipulate light in many ways, such as drawing energy together to form a light source,” he explained.

“
Do either of you know where the keys are kept?”

“
He puts them in his shirt pocket,” Caitlen observed. “How do you go out and just gain new powers to do miraculous things?”

“
I’ll explain after we do this,” Alec grunted as he felt the man’s shirt, finding a metallic bundle of keys. He tried each key in Caitlen’s door until one fit in and opened it, releasing the princess to tumble outward into Alec’s waiting arms. She was disheveled looking, and unwashed, but Alec noticed none of it as he held her in his arms and kissed her passionately.

“
I’m so sorry I wasn’t there to protect you,” he murmured.

“
You don’t have anything to apologize for,” Caitlen assured him.

“
This is all touching, but could you stay focused on the matter at hand?” Bethany asked. “I’d like to leave my humble home if you’ll just unlock the door.”

Alec grinned at Caitlen, then released her to fumble through the keys to open Bethany’s door. He embraced her as well, then got down to work as both women circled the ball of light that illuminated their space, examining it with wonder.

“
Help me drag him – or her – into Caitlen’s cell,” Alec told Bethany.

“
That doesn’t look anything like me,” Caitlen protested. “I’m skinnier than that!”

“
Yes dear, but I can’t really make him any skinnier than he started out,” Alec winked at Bethany.

They carried the unconscious jailer into the cell, then exited and pulled the door shut.

“
When the replacement shift comes down we’ll knock him unconscious, and make him look like Bethany,” Alec explained. “Then I will use my Light power to make myself invisible.”

“
You can do that?” Bethany asked in astonishment.

“
I can bend the light around me, making a kind of bubble that lets me stay invisible,” he answered. “And if each of you stays right next to me, I think you’ll stay invisible too. That should let us escape without detection.”

“
And when the next guards come down they’ll think that we’re still in our cells!” Caitlen exclaimed.

“
Exactly,” Alec agreed. “At least for a while we’ll go without pursuit. I hope.”

He separated himself from the two women and picked up the broken lantern, then placed it on the desk, and focused on directing his ball of light into the lantern. He turned the illumination down until it was similar to the glow the lantern had previously provided. That done, he gave each woman an examination with his Healer powers, treating the minor aches and injuries they had suffered during their captivity.

After that they talked, each telling the other what had happened since the day Alec had taken his group of young people out into the country. They spoke in low tones and explained their respective histories until they heard a distant sound.

“
Both of you go wait in Bethany’s cell,” Alec instructed them. As they went to their location, Alec sat at the guard desk with a hat pulled low to hide his face and the light in the lantern turned down even lower than usual. Seconds after everyone was in place, the door on the far side of the dungeon hallway squealed open, then clanged shut again.

“
Robb, why do you have it so infernally dark down here?” the new guard asked. “Would you turn that lantern up so I can see you?”

Don’t look out here; shut your eyes
, Alec mentally warned Caitlen and Bethany, as he rose from his seat, then closed his own eyes while he made the light flare up into a virtual miniature sun for three seconds, before turning it down to normal illumination.

“
What happened? I can’t see!” the new guard shouted. “Did the lantern explode?” he asked just before Alec reached him and knocked him unconscious. Alec knelt next to him and began to reshape the man’s face, and to darken his hair, making it lengthen slightly.

“
Can we look now?” Caitlen asked.

“
Yes. Come on out,” Alec grunted as he began the more challenging part of altering the man’s physique.