War of the Princes 02: Dragoon (24 page)

C
hapter 39: A Lifetime of Forgetting

“Hey!” Sterling said sharply, getting my attention. “He needs help.” My former classmate carefully pulled Professor Block up into a seated position.

Block slumped, his head responding to the movement as though it was far too heavy for his neck to hold up. As soon as he was half way vertical he cried out in pain.

Hurt and anger still pounded at me. It all seemed futile and I felt stupid for being so easily strung along. I wanted answers or a fight or a weeklong crying session. It was like I'd been poisoned. My mouth tasted sour, all I could smell was the filth of the room. Everything was wrong, all wrong. Emotionally, I swung between terror of the seemingly impossible odds at hand, and the kind of fury that gives you the wings of a hurricane.

Then there was Block.

“My chest,” the professor said raggedly, barely able to work his lips. “It's crushed.”

I looked down at the man who had taught me three years of high school history. He was the only person in Haven, besides me, that had made an effort to find out more about the Outside World. He'd told me that he was entranced by the mystery of it. He was bright
, kind and patient. Crumpled against Sterling, he looked like he might die. My mother had been a lie, but Professor Block was here. There was a moment where I consciously chose not to be self-centered.

We needed to get him out.

I navigated my way out of the fog of shock. “Can you stand?”

“
Miss Kestrel?” he said squinting up at me.

“
You know him?” Rune asked.

“
He was our teacher,” I told him and took in the dingy room for the first time after my revelation. We were one person short. “Where's Kyle?”

As if on command,
he appeared in the cell doorway behind Rune. Dull shuffling sounds echoed in from the hall. I tensed. We all did.

Seeing our alarm, Kyle held his hands out.
“I opened the other cell doors.”

“
You what?” Rune demanded, widening his stance and looking over Kyle's shoulder like he was ready for battle.

Kyle shrugged in his awkward, unassuming way.
“I couldn't leave them. How bad could they be if they were down here with, with... Professor Block?”

“
How many did you free?” Rune asked, edging against the wall and peering out the door. One of his hands rested on his sword.

“
Seven,” Kyle was saying, but his words became softer and softer as he focused on Professor Block. “Three weren't moving at first, but they're okay now.”

“
They're making their way out,” Rune said, peering out the door. “There'll be a flood of Dragoons down that stairwell as soon as they’re spotted. We have to leave. Now.”

Kyle dropped down onto his knees. When Kyle was afraid, his eyebrows would pull up and set little wrinkles into his forehead. His
eyelids would be open wide, like it would help him see better. His lips would part half way, hanging like he'd just taken a punch in the gut. That was how he looked now.

“
Professor,” he whispered. “You shouldn't be here. How did this happen?”

Block coughed
hoarsely. Blood seeped from the crack of his mouth.

“
We have to move him,” I told Sterling.

“
No! No,” Block hissed weakly.

Kyle reached a hand out, settling it on Block's shoulder. The older man coughed and cringed with every slight touch or movement. Then he began to
shake, roiling in agony. When he quieted, I thought he was dead. His good grey eye stared up, glossy and unfocused. A long slow breath escaped from his broken lips.

Block's hand, with scabbed, knobby knuckles, reached up from beneath the blanket of rags. His eyes regained focus and they skipped down to look at his chest, where his hand was pressing. Energy suddenly revitalized him, and wincing, he pulled himself up. He wasn't the picture of health, his cuts still oozed and he still frowned from the pain, but the difference was obvious.

“My chest... the bones...Mister Kiteman,” Professor Block said in astonishment. “You're a healer.”

“
No,” Kyle said, dragging himself up. Was that denial or sadness? I couldn't tell. “I'm not.”

Bewildered, I stared at Kyle. I'd heard of people with the Ability to heal, but I'd never met one, and I certainly didn't expect Kyle of all people to be one of them.

“I can get up now, I think,” Professor Block said to Sterling. “Thank you. Thank you very much.” He was still exhausted, and swayed as he stood.

Sterling rose to his feet and offered me a hand. I was far from being a wilted helpless girl, but I accepted his assistance, more out of friendship than necessity.

“Are there more of you?” I asked Block.

He looked foggy.
“Uh... there. No. No more of us. The others are all gone.”

“
We need to move,” Rune reminded us.

In the end, Professor Block still needed Sterling's help to walk, his arm slung about his former student's shoulder. The room outside was already deserted. Each and every door was swung open,
revealing empty cell upon empty cell. Maybe I should have been glad the other prisoners were free, but there was something eerie about it. Something I couldn't put my finger on.

We ran for the stairs, with Sterling and Block shambling after us. Rune had taken the lead, and I was close behind him. He took the steps two at a time, launching up to see if the way was clear.
The distinct sound of approaching footsteps echoed in the stairwell.

Rune threw me a warning glance and placed his hand against the wall near the torch sconces. The light of the flames flickered and fled to smoke one after the other all the way up the stairs. It would have seemed like a strong wind had blown them out, but I knew better.

The footsteps drifted off and I let a tense breath escape my lungs. A small blue light puffed up from Rune's hand, and I smiled at him. He smiled back.

Holding my right hand out, I called little swirls of lightning to my
fingertips. We wouldn't risk much light, but it was enough for us to get by. I waited for the others to catch up to us so that our light was evenly distributed.

I was in the back of the group, behind Sterling and Professor Block, when Rune was attacked. There was a horrible, thick crack, like someone had been slammed against the stone wall, and then two tangled bodies tumbled down the stairs, knocking Professor Block from his feet, and almost taking me down with them.

Rune caught himself as they fell, and pulled himself over his attacker, holding the escaped prisoner down as he repeatedly slammed his knuckles into the man's jaw. The filthy attacker was bald, wiry and lean, his clothes were soiled and torn. He was viciously feral, baring his broken teeth and grunting. He clamped one hand around Rune's throat, and the other clawed at his face, going for the eyes.

Barely able to see between the mad prisoner's fingers, Rune quit punching, and used both hands to grab the man by the collar. Hunched wide, his feet awkwardly separated by three steps, he heaved the man up, bashing him back down, hammering his head against the wall. By the second hit, the man went limp.

Breathing heavily, Rune dropped the prisoner, and climbed off of him. The bald man slid another step down, his head and one arm hanging. It had all happened so fast, I didn't have time to react. The attacker had been dispatched, and Rune hadn't even used his fire.

“
One of your friends,” Rune said, giving Kyle a dirty look. I took a step toward him, but he graciously dismissed me. A corner of his mouth curled up like he found my concern endearing. “I'm fine. He just really wanted someone to help him get some sleep.” He wiped his jaw with the back of one gloved hand and climbed back up the stairs to the front of the group.

I wondered if the prisoner had gone after Rune because he was a
Dragoon, or simply because he was ahead of the rest of us.

A few feet below the top of the steps
, we found a human-sized tunnel through the wall at our right. It broke partially into the parallel staircase, letting in the light of the other passage before disappearing into the darkness beneath the fortress. The burrow certainly hadn't been there when we'd come down.

“
The Shift,” Rune said surveying the opening. “Bad choice. They'll succumb to exhaustion before reaching the other side. If they pace themselves and the tunnel is discovered, they'll have to wall themselves in. They'll only live as long as their oxygen lasts.”

I couldn't imagine a worse death. If I were trapped in the dirt and rocks like that, I'd spend every last second digging, fighting and clawing to get out. The imagery was not comforting and I sh
ivered, rolling my shoulders as if that'd help to get the dark thoughts out of my head.

“
This is it,” Rune said, looking up at the mouth of the hall. “The moment where we live for our luck, or die for our decisions.”

The m
uted white noise of a place coming to life in preparation of morning greeted us. And so did a force of Dragoons.

C
hapter 40: A Cormorant Dragoon

The
Dragoons crowded the entrance to the stone stairwell, blocking out the light with their combined mass. Blue light colored the lower halves of their diverse faces and tinted their identical armor. They were like a dark cloud, and I had a feeling it was about to rain.

“
Cormorant Thayer.” A man's voice rang out from above.

I went rigid
. An untapped well of electrical power was swelling in my chest. I could feel it there, begging to slip out of my fingertips, pleading to turn the little light I'd created into a maelstrom. Emotions were running high. I didn't feel very much like myself. That scared me. I wasn't a fighter. I was just an occasionally obnoxious kid from Rivermarch. The Spark made things too easy.

There, in my mind, lay Calvin
Cale, splayed on the ground at my feet. I could feel it all over again like it had just happened. Realizing what I'd done was the worst part. The guilt had devoured me and left me to burn in the shame of reality. I'd run as quickly as I could, across the school grounds, to get help. I never wanted to feel that way again.

If there was going to be a fight now, I would not be the one to make the first move.

I stared up at the imposing force, pinning us in place, and held my defensive responses at bay. I breathed as steadily as I could, rhythmically, through my nose. Outside, thunder rumbled in the distance.

“
I'm here,” Rune said, climbing the remaining steps. His posture exuded confidence, but it always did. When he reached the top, he turned to face us.

I could almost hear Dylan calling Rune a puppet and
chastising me for trusting one of the Prince's tools. He would have surely believed that Rune was turning us in.

My faith in him stubbornly refused to waver. The whole world was spinning backwards, everything I'd believed was being turned over. If Rune betrayed us now, I'd lose my mind. I needed one constant. Just one. I needed it to be him.

“They're here to get us out. Hide in plain sight,” Rune told us.

“
So, what you're saying is,” Kyle said warily. “We're going to go with them, and they aren't going to murder us?”

The
Dragoons beyond Rune exchanged glances with one another. There may have been an exchange of some very subtle smiles.

“
No,” Rune said steadily. “We aren't going to murder you.”

Kyle exhaled
, puffing his cheeks out.

“
We have to move,” Sterling urged. Professor Block was leaning heavily on him and looked as though he might lose consciousness. Kyle swooped in to support our former teacher's other arm, and just like that, we moved into the ranks of the Dragoons.

There were thirteen of them. The group split as we moved among them, and formed an unbroken triangle around us. The distance they stood from one another could have been measured with a ruler. Each individual
functioned like an extension of a greater whole, with mathematical precision.

Rune was beside me
, and Kyle, Block and Sterling were just behind us. All of us together were guided to move in an arrow formation. It was all deliberate, and I hadn't even noticed until we were already moving.

The hall of the records room was devoid of people. I craned between the bodies of our escorts but saw no sign of
a threat.

“
Is this your squadron?” I whispered to Rune. The unfamiliar word rolled oddly off my tongue, but I was careful to pronounce it properly.

“
Not all of them. Some are like me.”

I wanted to ask him what that meant. I didn't think he was only talking about his military station. Did they suffer from the natural human need to have emotional connections? Had they met crazy girls from
far away places? Girls they were willing to protect with their lives? Great. I was already a wreck and now I was making myself a sentimental basket case. All I could think of was how easy it would be to wrap my arms around Rune's V shaped torso, and how inappropriate it would be. I thought about him kissing me in the secret room. My heart ached.

No one had spoken again un
til we passed beneath the set of familiar arches that opened into the grand hall. The white marble room was well lit, and nearly blinding to my unadjusted eyes. With armored Dragoons all around me, it was like I walked within the protection of a shell. I looked up at the round, open skylight, so many stories above us. It was still dark outside. The sun wouldn't rise for at least another hour.

“
This is it,” Rune said under his breath. “Brace yourselves.” He broke through the front of our formation to lead at the head of our group. I figured that a group led by a Cormorant was more credible than one without.

The great hall was less crowded than usual, but a steady stream of soldiers moved in and out
together, and Dragoon sentries were posted at all of the entrances and exits. There were Commanders too, their faces and hands mutilated with metallic growths. For the moment, they all seemed too busy to notice us, all but one.

He was on the balcony above us, a bald
Dragoon with a short beard. From his position, he could see us clearly. He was tracking our movements with his eyes, I could tell by the angle that he was looking down.

I blinked once, and the bearded man was gone.

Now, a passing Commander or two gave us a harder look over. A few Dragoons stared in our direction. Was I imagining it? Our shoes tapped on the perfectly clean floor until the sound filled my ears. We were in the center of the hall. The huge ever-open doors to the yard, and the raised portcullis beyond were just ahead. I wanted to make a run for it, just sprint out as fast as I could. I'd been in this position before, and even so close, I knew a million and one things could go wrong.

We were mere steps away from the open doors. Gusts of air, frigid from the absence of su
nlight, met my face and chilled my nose.

I could hear Professor Block wheezing with exhaustion behind me. I was wondering if anyone else would notice, or if we'd actually make it out, when a colossal boom erupted from the ground level of the
installment. The floor shook violently and the many sets of archways that paralleled two sides of the great hall spewed gouts of dirt, dust, and stone rubble. It was the largest explosion yet, and I nearly lost my footing.

Any curiosity we’d earned
was gone now. A terrible kind of silence followed the explosion, one that I knew would have devastating consequences. We were still walking. Our Dragoon escort would not waste such a distraction.

I looked back, turning and angling my head to see between Sterling, Block, Kyle and our protective ring of
Dragoons. The soldiers in the great hall were ducking for cover, and shouting orders between one another. I could hear the raw cries that bounced off of the walls, a grinding sound, and the heavy thunder of collapsing rock. Dragoons began to pour back into the fortress, while a few fled out for reinforcements.

“
North and south ground floor!”

“
Corridor 21 south is completely blocked!”

“
We have a cave in!”

“
Get men down here, now!”

“
Move!”

“
We need someone with the Shift, now!”

“
Any sight of enemies?”

“
The children's grounds have been destroyed! No, no way in!”

There
was so much yelling, I could barely pick one call out from the rest.

The children's grounds?
I reeled like I'd been struck. All of those young Dragoons in training were probably dead, all because of this stupid war. There wasn't time for me to linger on the notion.

“
Go!” Rune commanded our Dragoons. He didn't need to keep his voice down anymore. We were as good as invisible. And we were outside.

I
took a deep breath of fresh air. It was freezing, but I was already numb. The sensation of at least having escaped from the oppressive bulk of the installment fortress gave me a boost of morale so strong it hummed at my core. I could have laughed and cried.

The outer, packed-dirt yard was lined with large, empty automobiles, massive mobile contraptions that nearly looked like guns, and dark shadows made deeper by the city lights beyond the fortified wall.

Skeletons of horses burst from those shadows, letting the blackness cling and snap onto their forms until they appeared as solid as flesh and blood animals. Dragoons met with their warhorses and galloped off to make a circuit of the grounds. The portcullis was just ahead. It remained open.

“
Come on, Professor, we're almost out,” Sterling urged him.

The older man groaned and coughed.
“I'm... trying.”

We were nearly there. The iron teeth of the protective gate, hung above us. As I passed beneath them, I wondered what would happen if they snapped down on us, like the jaws of a hungry monster.

That was it. We were out. The warm embrace of Cape Hill's city lights welcomed us. I could see the harbor glittering out on the water, like it was lit up by fireflies. The Dragoons broke away from us, letting us go without a word. Some of them burst to action, as though they were responding to the sabotage.

Rune was behind us now, just below the gate. I
found myself smiling at him until a grating noise, raspy and delicate, powerful and ugly called out over the clamor.

“
Cormorant Thayer,” Margrave Hest said from somewhere within the installment yard. “To me. Forget what you're doing.”

The smile slipped away.
“No,” I whispered.

Rune's back went rigid. Was this when he'd tell me again that he was already dead? That it was too late for him to survive this story? His eyes were filled with apology.
“I'll be at the harbor by dawn. I promise. I'll be there.”