Hellequin Chronicles 4: Prison of Hope

by Steve McHugh

  I reached the first man, the guardian from the realm gate control room. As far away as he was from the realm gate, his powers were no longer able to protect him from the brutal assault that had been launched on his body. He’d been stabbed over and over, drenching him in red. I moved his head slightly, and it flopped back. His throat had been slit with enough force to almost decapitate him.

  I reached out with my necromancy, hoping to get some answers, but while I could feel his spirit, I could do no more. He hadn’t died fighting.

  So I moved on to the second man, the siphon I’d fought with, and found him to have been given the same treatment. And the third man, the one Cerberus and Sky had subdued, had received the same as the other two.

  I exited the room at a sprint, running down the hallway with magically enhanced speed and bursting out of the building’s front door.

  “Hades!” I shouted, using my air magic to carry the words across the compound.

  I continued to sprint as fast as my body allowed. All the time I watched helplessly as the guard whom I’d spoken to earlier removed a blade from a sheath on the small of his back and launched himself at Hades. For a split second, I thought that was it—that Hades was never going to react in time.

  But Hades is always one for the unexpected.

  He reached out one hand toward his assassin, and the guard stopped in midair. He snarled at his boss, the words lost well before they could have reached my ears. Hades’s expression went from sadness to rage in a second. He flicked his hand slightly, and the guard flew aside, colliding with a nearby wall and crashing through it.

  I reached Hades just as another guard pulled the attacker from the rubble of the wall by his hair, dragging him across the compound and throwing him at Hades’s feet.

  “The prisoners are dead,” I said. “He killed them all.”

  Sky was at my side a few seconds later and was quickly filled in while Hades continued to stare down at his would-be murderer.

  “You were one of my people,” Hades said. “Why would you do this? Why would you kill them?”

  “They knew the end result of being captured. I will not betray my liege,” the guard snarled.

  “How many more of you are there?”

  “I will not betray my liege,” the man repeated.

  “You have to know that if you don’t answer my questions, this will end badly for you,” Hades told him and crouched down so that he was almost face to face with the assassin. “I am not the monster of legend. I do not wish to watch you suffer while there are more important things I could be doing.”

  The threat appeared to just wash over the guard. “I will not betray my liege.”

  Hades stood up. “Last chance. Who sent you, who did you set free, and why are you doing this?”

  “I will not betray my liege” was the rote reply.

  Hades nodded. “Your name is Wayne Branch. You are married, with two young children. I hope you said your good-byes this morning.”

  “I will not betray my liege!” he shouted. “There is nothing you can do to me.”

  “Not me,” Hades said and glanced my way. “Hellequin, can you talk to this man?”

  Wayne looked over at me. “There is nothing you can do to me.”

  “Yeah, keep telling yourself that,” I imparted, and Hades motioned for two more guards to drag Wayne away.

  CHAPTER 16

  I left Wayne to stew for half an hour. Hades had given very clear instructions that while he was to be searched for weapons and his clothing removed, he was not to be unduly harmed in any way.

  “I’d rather Wayne wasn’t killed,” Hades said when he found me leaning up against the outside of the interrogation building, drinking a bottle of water.

  “Why aren’t you asking him the questions yourself?”

  “He’s clearly not afraid of me. I figured maybe he would be of you.”

  I glanced at my old friend. “Bullshit.”

  Hades’s smile was ever so slight. “I could go in there, tear his soul out of him and force him to answer my questions, but there are runes on his body. I asked Lucie to take a look at him, and she tells me those runes will cause his soul to collapse should a confession be forced out. The three he killed have the same runes. Apparently, it’s a good thing I didn’t try to take their souls either. From what she tells me, I wouldn’t have enjoyed the experience.”

  All necromancers can absorb souls to increase their power and learn about the person whose soul they absorb. In my case, I can use the soul to enhance my magical power and to heal quicker. Once absorbed, the soul breaks down into pure energy, but the necromancer retains the memories he or she gained from absorbing it. The more powerful necromancers, like Hades, could also use the information to learn something the person knew, like a new language.

  Unfortunately, Lucie’s assessment made removing the soul impossible without destroying the evidence the prisoner held in his mind.

  “That would have to have been created by someone with serious power,” I said.

  “None of those killed or captured fall into those categories.”

  “So you want me to take a more physical approach to getting the answers.”

  “Do whatever you need to do, Nate.”

  “You sure?”

  “Their existence threatens my family and my people. Whatever you need to do.” He paused for a second before continuing. “Kay and his friends are wandering around my compound. I can’t order them to be kept in one place. That wouldn’t breed good relations with Avalon. So instead, I’m going to keep them on a very tight leash and only let them see what I want them to see. They want to talk to my staff; Kay isn’t convinced that all of the traitors have been routed out.”

  I mentioned Lucie’s earlier comments about Kay.

  “Either way, that man in there knows who was involved,” Hades said.

  “You hope.”

  “Yes, but right now that’s pretty much all I’ve got. I need to know that my people are trustworthy, and I need to keep Kay from putting his nose where it isn’t wanted. Besides, the prisoner said he won’t betray his king. We need to know who that is.”

  “So, why Hellequin? Why not just me?”

  “Because, old friend, despite your shouting that you’re Hellequin from every tall building you could find over the last few years, it still hasn’t filtered through that Hellequin and Nathan Garrett are one and the same. Also, I can tell Lucie that Hellequin was involved, so that when she writes her report she uses your alias.”

  “Spreading the name Hellequin as an ally of yours just a little further.”

  Hades placed a hand to his chest as if wounded. “I’m not above using a little manipulation to help in the long run.” He glanced at my hand. “Do you know what that rune on your hand is?”

  I’d actually forgotten all about it; over the last few hours, the ink from the pen I’d used to draw it had faded, and parts of the rune were now missing. “It lets me bypass runes that shut off my magic.”

  “How do you know it?”

  “I have no idea. I just . . . do. I woke up on the realm gate control room floor and just knew what rune to draw to allow me to access my magic.”

  He took my hand and stared at it. “We will need to discuss this further at another time. But know this. That is no ordinary rune; use it sparingly. The more powerful the rune, the more energy it takes to activate.”

  “You mean it might let me bypass security, but at the same time it’ll drain my energy from me?”

  “If it’s what I think it is, yes. It’ll drain you dry well before you manage to exhaust yourself.”

  I was suddenly grateful that the mark had faded. “Thanks for the info. Also, I used lightning.”

  Hades nodded slowly. “The grimoire worked then.”

  “No, that’s the point. Before I woke up, I couldn’t do it—not properly. But I switched it on like I’d been using it for years. How did that happen?”

  Hades thought for a second. “I don’t h
onestly know. It was fortuitous; I can say that much. Be careful if any other runes just happen to pop into your head, though.” He checked his watch. “It’s been awhile now. I think it’s time for you and Wayne to have your conversation.”

  I stood and brushed myself down. “You sure you want this to be me?”

  “Sky would kill him in a second, Cerberus is injured, and Persephone is not a woman given to hurting people who can’t fight back. She would release him to battle and kill him in the process. There’s no one else on base I trust as much as you to get the info we need without killing him. He wants to die. I would rather not give him that privilege until he’s of no further use.”

  I mulled over Hades’s words in my head for a few seconds. “Thanks. I think. One question: Hyperion was here; he left just before the alarm went. Any chance he was involved in what happened?”

  “Hyperion was only here to be part of the same group as Kay and Lucie. Avalon wanted to send an independent to verify their findings.”

  “And they sent Hyperion?” I asked, incredulous.

  “He’s been here many times to visit the Titans. I couldn’t refuse him this one time just because Hera arranged for him to be here.”

  “How many of the attackers today were your guards?”

  “A dozen. The rest were external people with smuggled uniforms and weapons. Even so, twelve is far too many.”

  I turned and entered the building, telling the two guards standing outside room 4 to leave and wait outside.

  I watched them go; then I removed my shoes and socks and entered the room.

  Wayne was stripped naked. Black swirls had been tattooed over his heart. He’d certainly prepared for the eventuality of being taken prisoner.

  He was tied to a chair, as I’d asked. The chair was similar to the ones he’d murdered his comrades in, but I’d also asked for someone to bring in a metal table, which was sitting to one side of the room. Knives and various bladed instruments had been placed on it.

  “Well that’s very helpful,” I said as I took a second wooden chair from the side of the room and turned it around so I could rest my arms on the back as I sat.

  Wayne didn’t even look my way, just continued to stare at the wall.

  “The knives,” I said after a second. “It was helpful of them to bring them in here. I didn’t ask for it. Hell, I might not even need them, but even so, it’s nice that they’re so conscientious about our needs.”

  Wayne was a slight, but hairy man. Thick dark hair adorned pretty much every part of him.

  “Not into manscaping then?” I asked with a chuckle. “Seriously, it looks overgrown down there. I always thought the ladies liked a little bit of tidying up, but did your wife go for a more natural look?”

  Silence.

  “This is an uncomfortable conversation for you, yes? You’re probably a little nervous about the fact that I went from discussing knives to talking about your cock. Yeah, I can see why you’d be worried about that.

  “Okay, how about the fact that your entire body is covered in blood? I assume you got undressed, killed your friends, and then dressed yourself. Your clothes are spotless, on the outside at least. Nice plan to wear three long-sleeved T-shirts, though; that was good thinking. Stop the blood from soaking all the way through quickly.”

  Wayne glanced over at me and then went back to looking at his spot on the wall.

  “Okay, Wayne. We’ve established that you can hear me. So, I’d like to know who sent you, how many of you there are, and who you helped escape today.”

  Silence.

  “Do you know why I asked them to strip you?”

  Silence.

  “It’s because it’s humiliating. Being stripped naked and tied to a chair. You strike me as a man who doesn’t like to be humiliated, who likes to be in control. Is that why you tried to kill Hades? So you could go out on your own terms.”

  Silence.

  “Why did you kill those men? Was it so they couldn’t say anything? Did they fail because they got caught?”

  Silence.

  “As your new friends were tearing your clothes off, I was chatting to those who worked with you. They said you were a bit of a hardass and a stickler for the rules, but that you didn’t like being told what to do by anyone other than people you deemed worthy.”

  I stared at Wayne for a few seconds and then got up, walked over to him, and flicked him on his nose. Hard.

  He winced and tried to move back, but couldn’t go anywhere as the chair was anchored to the floor. He settled for giving me an evil glare.

  I returned to my chair. “Now that I have your attention, we’ll continue. You’re a sorcerer, yes? A fairly low level one from the sound of things. Nearly a hundred years old and only learned one type of magic. But you’ve been with Hades’s organization for ten years. Before that you were in Avalon. Your record with them is sealed. My guess is you were BOA, the Blade of Avalon. They tend to seal records at the drop of a hat, and you look like the military type. Probably born into it; your father was Avalon too. Pretty high up in the pecking order as things go; not enough to have a say in the running of the place, but well thought of. He died two years ago. As did your mother. Someone strapped a bomb that contained pieces of silver to their car and killed them. Pretty fucked up way to kill someone. So, why’d you do it?”

  Wayne glanced up at me with a faint look of surprise on his face. “That’s quite the grasp at straws.”

  I smiled slightly. “The second you glanced at me, I knew that you’d killed them. You didn’t have the guts to do it face to face, though. Was it in preparation for this? Something like what you and your friends did today takes a lot of planning. Did one of them figure it out? Maybe they threatened to go to Avalon and expose you?”

  Silence again.

  “Look, it would be better to talk to me now, when we’re on the easy questions. Why’d you kill your parents?”

  “They were traitors to the cause.”

  “What cause? Is that the liege you were talking about earlier?”

  “They didn’t believe as I do. My father was having me investigated. I found out. He had to go, as did my mother.”

  “And what about your liege—who is that?”

  “You’re not worthy to know.”

  “Okay, let’s try something easier. How many more of you are there working for Hades?”

  We went back to silence.

  “Who did you release today?”

  Wayne resumed his wall-staring contest.

  I reached into my pocket and removed a photo of an attractive woman with short strawberry blond hair and a welcoming smile. She held two young children in her arms, a boy and a girl; neither was older than four, and both were the spitting image of their mother.

  “Nice family,” I said.

  Wayne’s attention was suddenly on me, his expression one of rage. “Don’t you speak of them.”

  “Why not? We could get them up here and all have a chat? Maybe I could make you watch as I asked them questions.”

  Wayne grinned. “Be my guest.”

  “No, I don’t think that’ll be happening. I’m not some sort of monster who would hurt children to get to you. Besides, we already know what you did. We sent people to your house and they found your family. I have a question for you: As you went around at night and murdered your wife and kids, were they asleep? Did they know that the man who was meant to protect and love them was about to betray them in the worst possible way?”

  I removed a few more pictures from my other pocket. “These were taken earlier. You used your water magic to drown your family as they slept.” I dropped the pictures showing his dead family on the floor in front of him.

  “It had to be done,” he whispered. “I waited until they’d fallen asleep before ending it. They would have been put through hell after my death here. I couldn’t have that. They suffered little compared to what Hades and his friends would have done to them. I’m prepared for whatever comes next.”

>   “You selfish little prick,” I said as anger flowed through me. “You’re not going to die here. Trust me on that. No matter if I have to give you the kiss of fucking life myself, you will not die here.”

  “Then what can you possibly threaten me with?”

  “Oh, death isn’t scary. We all have to stop at that particular destination at some point. No, death isn’t the scary bit. It’s the journey that gets you there, that’s what you should be scared of.”

  Wayne laughed. “Do your worst.”

  I walked around to the rear of Wayne’s chair and used a blade of hardened air magic to cut through his bindings. He rubbed his wrists as I went and sat back down. “Do they hurt?”

  “When I killed my family, for the briefest of moments, I really wished I could have made my wife suffer more. She would have been so shocked to see me there, killing her. Forcing the water to take up all of the space in her lungs.”

  “Ah, you’re trying to piss me off enough that I’ll kill you.”

  “My boy, he opened his eyes as I killed him. He knew what his dad was doing.”

  And I broke. I snapped forward, grabbing Wayne by his throat and dragging him away, slamming him into the nearest wall, squeezing his neck the whole time.

  “I did say I wasn’t going to kill you,” I said in his ear, the words dripping with anger. “Never said anything about this.” I created a blade of fire and plunged it through his wrist, severing the hand. I held the fire against the stump, cauterizing the wound as the smell of burnt flesh filled my nostrils, and Wayne’s screams filled my ears. He bucked and thrashed, but my air magic wrapped around him, keeping him still and ensuring he didn’t escape.

  When I was done, I picked up Wayne’s hand and showed it to him as tears fell down his cheeks. “I’m going to take one piece of you at a time until I get the answers I want. Who sent you? Who did you release today? How many more of your friends are there?”

  He coughed and tried to get his breathing under control. “None—I was the last,” he said at last, cradling his stump in his good hand. He watched in horror as I threw his severed hand across the room.