by Dan Wingreen
Eallair's head snapped around. He snarled in frustration, then brought his right hand up. Another shield snapped into life between Aidan and Anwir's group, opaque and dark blue. Aidan could hear bolts crashing into both shields. They became darker and weaker as Aidan made his way back to Eallair’s side.
"Try the doors!" Eallair shouted.
"What?" Aidan panted, coming to a stop.
"The doors! See if they’re locked! I can't hold this forever!" As if to prove his point, one of the shields started to shrink until it was no longer covering the whole hall; light from behind it began to glare around the edges.
Aidan looked around frantically. In the section of hallway that was with them behind the shields there were two doors on opposite sides of the hall. Aidan started to reach for the nearest one, then hesitated.
"But…they're interrogation rooms, aren't they?" he asked.
"Doesn't matter!"
"But what about the stone?"
Eallair gritted his teeth and growled. The shield that was shrinking suddenly burst back to full size and covered the entire hall again, but Eallair's arm began to shake with the strain of holding it up. "Avalon stone’s hard to get. They can’t all have it," he said. Aidan opened his mouth to ask what they would do if this one did, but he was cut off. "If these do, we'll deal with it, but if we stay out here we're dead, so get one of those doors open now!"
Aidan worried at his lip and wished Eallair had brought him an extra pair of shoes. He wasn't so sure that he could handle being drained again and he knew for a fact Eallair wasn't going to be able to "refuel" him a second time. Not with the sorcerer looking like he was struggling not to collapse. He had to trust that Eallair knew what he was doing, though. It wasn't like Aidan had any better ideas.
He grabbed the doorknob nearest to him and pulled.
Locked! Crap!
He spun around and practically dove at the other door, silently begging for it to be unlocked.
He pulled.
The door opened.
"It's open!" he yelled.
"Get in!" Eallair shouted, but Aidan had already darted inside.
The room was almost identical to the one Aidan had been held in. Same bright light and white walls, the only difference was—
No stone!
The floor was covered in the same thin carpet as the hallway and the table and chairs were cheap looking metal fold-up furniture, the kind of stuff Aidan helped Carl set up for WA meetings. Thinking of Carl sent a sharp stab of pain through his chest, but he pushed it aside. He could think about his friend's betrayal later. If they somehow got out of this alive.
And speaking of "they"…
He turned around to shout for Eallair, but he was already slowly positioning himself in front of the doorway. His jaw was clenched, and Aidan could see tiny beads of sweat on his forehead. With one last grunt of exertion, he dropped his arms—and presumably the shields since Aidan couldn't see—and dove into the room.
Immediately bolts of magic flew down the hall in front of the doorway from both ends. Aidan heard a scream of pain from one of the agents and then Eallair threw out his hand and a sudden gust of wind slammed the door shut. He pushed himself up and angrily brushed a wave of hair, which had come undone from its horsetail, away from his face. He held one finger out towards the door and a small ball of light flew from it, hitting the door and turning into another padlock.
Eallair pulled out the nearest chair and collapsed into it.
"There," he said. He sounded strained. Not quite exhausted, but definitely not as energetic as he usually was. "That'll keep for a bit."
There was a loud banging on the door, and Aidan jumped.
"Um, how long is a bit?" he asked.
Eallair turned to look at him, but more hair fell in front of his face. He shook his head in frustration and yanked the loosened tie out of his hair. Aidan was surprised at how straight and silky it looked unbound. It definitely looked better like that than tied back. Such a stupid thing to be noticing, especially right then, and Aidan added that to the list of thoughts he was firmly pushing out of his head. Eallair gathered it all up and retied it as he spoke.
"Do you panic easy?" he asked.
Aidan blinked. "What? What does that have to do with anything?"
"Well, if you panic easy, I'll probably lie and tell you we'll be safe in here for a while, what with you running around like a terrified kitten not exactly being conducive to thinkin’ up a way out." Eallair finished tying his hair and gave Aidan a small, teasing smirk.
Aidan scowled. "You're an ass."
"So I'm told," he said tiredly.
Aidan frowned. Not the words, but the tone. "Are you oka—" The banging suddenly got louder, and the door shook in its frame. Aidan bit back a yelp. "So, how are we getting out of here?"
"No idea," Eallair said. He pushed himself out of the chair with a soft groan and started looking around the room.
Okay. That wasn't exactly reassuring.
"You…don't have a plan?"
"Of course I have a plan," he said. "Just so happens the part of the plan after 'get into a room so we don't die when my shields collapse' and before 'escape into the sunset' is 'get out of said room, somehow'."
"Somehow?" Aidan asked. He waited for elaboration but wasn't exactly surprised when he didn't get any. He let out a small huff. "And? Any idea what that 'somehow' is yet?"
"Not unless you wanna be an idiot and try talkin’ me into one of them last stands you're so fond of," he responded. "Now, do ya mind? The questions are kinda getting’ in the way of the figurin’ out bit."
Aidan scowled, but bit the inside of his lower lip to keep from saying anything. He decided to look around the room also. Two heads working on a problem were better than one, after all. Even if one of those heads really didn't know what it was looking for and the other one was a massive, infuriating assho—
And that's not exactly helping.
Aidan shook his head and forced himself to think. The door was obviously out and there weren't any windows, but from what he remembered of the layout of the building, the room they were in was part of the outer wall. Maybe…
"Can you blow a hole in the wall? Then, you know, float us down like you did yesterday?" Aidan asked.
"Nope." He didn't even turn to look at Aidan.
Aidan glared at his back. "Why not?"
Eallair sighed. "Because even if I had enough energy to blow apart a wall and levitate a whole, fully grown person four stories down safely, I can't do it with two people at the same time and I can't do it with someone who ain’t me if they're more than a few feet away from me."
"Why not?" Aidan asked, suddenly more curious than annoyed. Levitating people was something he never even knew was possible before yesterday and he was always interested in new magic.
Eallair turned and looked Aidan in the eyes. "Because that's how magic works."
Aidan let out a breath. "Fine."
"Hello, Aidan!" Anwir's cheerful, booming voice echoed throughout the room. Aidan jumped and just barely bit back a panicked yelp. The voice sounded like it was coming from everywhere all at once and definitely not from outside the room. He looked around quickly, but aside from Eallair, the room was empty.
"Where is that coming from?" Aidan whispered, even though he wasn't sure why he was whispering. Surely no one outside could hear him.
Eallair had stopped looking around and was frowning at the ceiling. "Intercom spell. Probably set in the corners of the room somewhere."
"Right you are!" Anwir said. Aidan jumped again. He could hear them. "And you must be Aidan's mystery friend. I had hoped we'd be able to meet, but I didn't think it would be this soon. You and Aidan must be a lot closer than he was letting on, if you came all the way back here just to rescue him."
"Who is he?" Eallair asked Aidan, ignoring the tone and the implications, much to Aidan's relief.
"He—"
"I'm Aidan's new friend," Anwir said. "We just met today and,
while we didn't get to know each other as well as I'd have liked, once we get you two out of there, I think there will be plenty of time for the three of us to get to be good friends. Aidan only got a small taste, but if you can't wait to find out, I'm sure he'll tell you about it."
Eallair frowned. "What's he talking about?"
"He…" Aidan swallowed around the lump in his throat. "His name is Agent Anwir. He was the one who…interrogated me."
His eyes narrowed. "Did he?"
"Yes, I did!" Anwir said. Aidan was really starting to hate the way his voice echoed off the walls. "You might be interested to know he was remarkably reluctant to tell me anything about you. I'm hoping you'll end up being smarter than he was, but something tells me I'm getting my hopes up for nothing. Still, for the sake of thoroughness, I should probably try anyway. So here we go, you can save yourself and Aidan a lot of pain if you just open the door and answer all of my questions. We can start out with something easy if you like. What's your name, stranger?"
Eallair's jaw clenched and for a second Aidan was almost afraid of him. He'd never seen him look that…dangerous.
"No need to get so angry!" Anwir said with a laugh. "It's just a simple question. But maybe we'll start with something easier. This one's a yes or no type of thing, so you shouldn't have any trouble with it. Have you ever heard Aidan scream?" The cheer melted from his voice. "Because I have. And if you haven't, and you'd like to keep it that way, you might want to start answering my questions and open this fucking door!"
Aidan tensed, waiting for some kind of explosion from Eallair, but to his surprise, the hard, angry expression melted off his face and was replaced with a small smile.
"So, you can see me then?" he asked pleasantly. Without waiting for a response, he turned to Aidan. "Sorry ‘bout this." He closed his eyes.
Aidan opened his mouth to ask what he meant, but before he could, Eallair held his hand out palm up. Then there was a bright, blinding flash that filled the room.
"Ah!" Aidan yelped, more in surprise and annoyance than pain, and blinked rapidly to try and clear the spots from his vision.
Anwir, on the other hand, let out an agonized shriek that filled the room and had Aidan clutching at his ears and wondering which one of his senses was going to be assaulted next.
The scream abruptly cut off and Aidan uncovered his ears.
"What did you do?" he asked, rubbing his eyes. "Not that I'm complaining, I guess."
It had been very satisfying hearing that bastard scream.
"Not nearly as much as I wish I could," Eallair answered.
"Because that answers my question," Aidan grumbled. His sight was finally clearing up enough to properly glare at Eallair, who in turn was glaring at the ceiling.
He, almost reluctantly, tore his gaze away and gave Aidan a small smirk. "No crystals on the walls outside. The spell had to hook itself into his eyes directly for him to see us. That flash was just a bit annoying for you, but I'm pretty sure I just burned his corneas out his head."
"You blinded him?" Aidan asked, slightly disturbed to note that he wasn't at all bothered by the vindictive glee that spiked through his chest.
Not even a day ago that would have horrified me.
"Well, probably not forever," Eallair said with a shrug. "As long as he gets it healed quickly anyway. It'll definitely hurt for a while though," he added with a wicked gleam in his eye.
"Oh."
Aidan was slightly startled by how much disappointment filled that one tiny word, but Eallair didn't seem to notice. He was already back to studying the room. Aidan tried to leave him to it, but once the banging started up on the door again, he began to get nervous. He also didn't want to start thinking about what Anwir might do if he was fully healed and got to them before they escaped.
"What are they doing anyway?" he asked, breaking the silence. "Do they really think they can get in by kicking the door?"
"They ain’t kickin’ it," Eallair answered absently as he stared hard at a section of the wall. A moment later he shook his head and walked across the room, then bent over and looked under the table. "They're castin’ at the lock spell. Hammer spells, probably. Tryin’ to break through it with force, the idiots."
"But…the glowing padlock thing is in here, how can they hit it?" Aidan asked.
Eallair sighed and gave him a look as he stood up. "The shackle goes through the door, so part of it's on the outside. Now do you have any more questions, or can I get back to planning our escape?"
"Do you actually have a plan now?" Aidan mumbled under his breath.
"Yep," Eallair said.
Aidan glared to cover up his slight embarrassment at being overheard. "Well? How are we getting out of here then?"
Eallair's lips quirked. "Somehow."
Aidan stared at him. "I hate you."
"No, you don't," he said cheerfully.
"No, I really—"
"Aha!" Eallair yelled and grinned wildly at Aidan.
"What?" Aidan asked, crossing his arms. "What is it?"
"Somehow," Eallair practically purred.
Aidan blinked at the tone, then shook his head as what he'd said struck him. "Really?"
Eallair nodded.
Aidan let out an exasperated sigh. "Well?"
"First things first," he said. Aidan opened his mouth to ask the obvious question, but Eallair held up a hand. "Not now, I need to concentrate."
Aidan closed his mouth but couldn't stop from glancing impatiently at the door. Was it just his imagination or was the padlock starting to look a little duller and weaker?
Eallair raised his hand, palm up, and after a second a bright white ball flared into existence. Aidan winced and started to cover his eyes, but it never became close to being as bright as the last one. The ball hovering over his hand, Eallair stood stock-still with his eyes closed, muttering something under his breath. Aidan started to lean closer to try and hear what he was saying, but Eallair suddenly stopped and opened his eyes.
The ball took off and flew around the room.
Aidan ducked reflexively, but it never came anywhere near him. Instead, it stuck to the edges of the room, zipping up and down every inch of each wall with increasing speed. It reached the wall with the door and stopped briefly next to the padlock, flashing red for a second before continuing. When it got to the top far right corner of the ceiling, it stopped and flashed again. It went on, stopping and flashing three more times, once in each corner of the ceiling, before floating down and stopping right in front of Eallair's face. He tapped it, and it disappeared.
"Wh—"
"Shh!" Eallair interrupted.
He held out his hand again and closed his eyes. This time four very tiny balls of light, not even as wide as a fingernail, popped into existence. Aidan frowned slightly. Were they…buzzing? Even as he realized they were, Eallair was muttering something again. This time when he opened his eyes, the tiny balls flew off in separate directions. Each one stopped in a corner of the ceiling where the first ball had flashed red, then started blinking rapidly.
"There!" Eallair said with a grin. "Now they can't see or hear us. Or talk to us."
Aidan glanced skeptically at one of the flashing balls but decided not to question it. No matter how annoying Eallair was, the one thing Aidan was sure he trusted him on was magic. "Okay, so now what?"
"Now," he said. "I tell you how we're gettin’ out of here."
Just then, there was a loud cracking sound from behind Aidan. He snapped his head around to see that the padlock was barely even glowing anymore and looked more black than blue. But that wasn't all.
It was also fractured. Not enough to break it fully, but the U-shaped shackle that went through the door had several small fissures running through it.
And they were slowly getting wider.
"You'd better tell me quick," Aidan said.
"We go through the floor." Eallair walked over to the table.
Aidan blinked. "Seriously?"
"Yep. He
lp me with this," he said as he grabbed one end.
Aidan hurried over and grabbed the other end. He helped Eallair fold it up and they placed it against the wall, then went back and moved the chairs out of the way. Aidan looked down at the newly cleared carpeted floor.
"Now what?"
"Step back a bit," Eallair said, shooing Aidan away. Aidan took a few steps back until he was standing next to the folded-up table. "Now, watch close, because this bit's really cool," he said with a wink.
Aidan shot another nervous look at the door. He didn't care if it was cool, he just wanted it to be quick.
Eallair held up his palm a third time. A shimmering, two-inch-thick spike of dark blue energy slowly raised itself out of his hand until it was sticking up into the air about two feet high. It was…pretty, actually. The scintillating energy cast bluish moving shadows all over the room. It reminded Aidan of being underwater when he was a kid and his parents took him to the beach back before he manifested.
He jumped in surprise as Eallair suddenly jammed the entire spike into the ground.
He worked fast after that; summoning spikes and shoving them into the floor about six inches apart until they made up a rectangular shape about as tall as Eallair and half as wide. The light from the shimmering energy was starting to make Aidan dizzy as it danced across the walls and ceiling. By the time he was done Eallair was sweating again and his right arm was noticeably shaking.
"Are you okay?" Aidan asked.
"Aye," Eallair answered. His voice sounded hoarse and he looked like he was having trouble standing.
Aidan scowled. "Bullshit. You look like you're about to pass out."
Eallair opened his mouth, probably to protest that he was fine since that's what annoying sorcerers apparently did when someone showed concern for them, but Aidan cut him off.
"Look, I need you, okay?" Well that didn't sound at all like I'm coming onto him, did it? Aidan flushed. "To get out of here, I mean! I-if you're gonna fall over and die you need to tell me so I can…I dunno. Die a few minutes later, I guess. But you need to tell me so I'm not stupidly holding out hope that you're gonna get up again and save me when they finally break the door down. So, tell me the truth. Okay?"
Eallair's lips quirked into a tiny half smile. "How can I say no, what with you putting it so eloquently and all?"