Cal watched as Ash looked back at the bloody form on the ground, unmoving. Ash was unconsciously rubbing his knuckles, his jaw working again as it had when he saw the fate of the girl, the fate he’d changed. He looked at the ceiling once, then sighed. “I miss the sun,” he said.
They stayed seated like that for a long time.
Chapter 23. The First Cell
The torches burned low, the only sign that any time had passed. Cal stared at the flickering flames, wondering what would happen when they went out. The prisoners stared at the woman, then at Ash, endlessly gauging their chances at taking him without ending up like the wheezing bloody man still motionless in the center of the cell. He’d refused to die, keeping everyone awake with his labored, near-death breathing. Much as Cal hated the sound, it was a constant reminder to the other prisoners of what had come from challenging Ash before. But as the lights steadily dimmed, Cal wondered how long fear would keep the men at bay. Total darkness was a great equalizer.
Ash feigned sleep, eyes opening sharply at any sound of shuffling feet. The woman remained seated in the corner, rubbing her hands together nervously. Given the circumstances, she’d held together admirably. She too stared at the torches, not oblivious to the fragile nature of their small alliance’s security.
Finally, there came the sound of steps on the stairs outside the chamber. Cal rose quickly, stifling a groan as his battered ribs and healing wound protested. He turned to Ash and the woman. “Make it look like she’s been used badly. Maybe this was a one-time lesson and they’ll take her out of here.” He walked to the front of his cell, getting ready to distract the falsemarked with as much banter as he could muster. Maybe he could keep them from realizing their absence had a different outcome than expected.
The keys were taking longer than before in the locks. The guards had to try more than one to get the thick door open. When it finally did, a thin man in NEST blues entered. He was followed by another guard with a thick mustache. The third man in, also in NEST uniform, coldly scanned the room, eyes darting from side to side above an ugly pixie eye on his right cheek. It was Aaron. His eyes lit on Cal. He flashed a small grin then quickly hid it under a scowl.
All three held torches. The thin man led them, walking to the bars of the first cell and looking closely at the motionless man. He walked to the second cell, looked at Cal with no recognition. But looking past Cal’s shoulder, he saw who he was looking for. He’d come for the woman. He studied the cells quickly and made to move over to the third cell. Aaron caught his arm. The thin man shot him a furious look. Aaron held his eyes for a moment, then reached down and took the keys from him. Aaron turned to the cell door and tried unlocking it. On the second try he got the right key. The door swung open. “You’re coming with us,” he said to Cal. The command was delivered in a gruff voice for the benefit of the other prisoners. The thin man snatched the keys from Aaron and hustled over to the third cell. Cal watched as the second guard looked to Aaron for instruction. Aaron beckoned him forward with a slight nod.
The thin man unlocked the third cell door, drawing a blade before entering. The second guard followed on his heels, dagger drawn. As they entered, Aaron pulled Cal out of the cell, holding a dagger to his back. Cal did some quick thinking. It looked as if the three had come for the woman and they hadn’t expected to find Cal. Aaron might not be running the show. That was the first guy, the one who clearly was in love with the woman. The other looked to be one of Aaron’s men. They’d somehow gotten inside and were impersonating NEST guards. It looked like they planned to take the woman and Cal out under that guise.
“Don’t you turn up in the oddest places?” Aaron asked quietly.
“The Borhele are sitting this one out,” Cal replied, his back to Aaron as he watched the two fake guards make their way carefully across the crowded cell towards the woman and Ash. “The contract between them and Bray was just to build the Shields. Nothing else. Ulsor Vinn’s been sighted outside the Ashlands.” Cal wracked his brain. “And we need to talk about the Prisoner and the potential for a traitor in your inner circle.”
Aaron grunted. “Good about the Borhele. Bray’s false mark master is dead. Eostre Uprising led a small rebellion near the eastern landing tonight. It sucked a lot of the falsemarked away from here. That’s EU’s man up front there, Matt James. Trevor’s the other, one of Mario’s men.”
“The plan is to take the girl?”
“Yes,” Aaron replied. “That’s Shale Kormet. She leads Eostre Uprising. Bray caught up to her today.”
“Well, I need a plus one.”
“Who’s that?”
“The big guy in there. Name’s Ash. If things get dicey on the way out he’ll lend a hand.”
“Works for me,” Aaron replied. He pulled Cal closer to the third cell. Once he’d gotten the attention of Trevor, he motioned towards Ash. “The big guy comes too.”
The other prisoners were somewhere between agitated and intimidated. On one hand they saw their potential entertainment being taken away from them as the woman was led out of the cell. On the other, the big bruiser who had left a man who challenged him half-dead on the floor was also leaving. Their indecision cost them any opportunity to take action, however, as Shale and Ash were led into the hall and the cell door was locked again.
The prisoners were forced to watch as the three strange guards left with their three prisoners, taking much of the light with them. Only the flickering of the dying torches remained. One by one the prisoners sank back down to the floor.
Several long moments passed before the prisoner in the first cell lifted his head. He rose quietly, gathering his filthy robe around him, and walked to his cell door. He opened the unlocked door and strolled out to follow the path of the visitors, making no noise other than the slight whistle of his breath sliding in and out past a mouth full of broken teeth.
The Day of Alliance
Chapter 24. Back at the Apartments
Aaron Lorne stood at the center of the apartment in Gestlin Gardens, an almost empty whiskey glass hanging loosely from his fingers. It was the thick of night. There were only a few small pools of light thrown out by the lamps scattered around the living room. The curtains were drawn, blocking the view of the dark neighborhood. Best to take no chances.
Jardere sat near the door reading a book he’d pinched from Representative Muller’s library. He looked up, eyes drawn by Aaron’s stillness in the center of the room. Seeing he wasn’t being summoned, Jardere kept with his watch on the door. The only one in the apartment who hadn’t been in the Shields tonight, Jardere was also the only one to not instinctively seek solitude to lick his wounds. Cal had raided the kitchen and then the bar, taking his bounty into the study. Shale and Matt James were holed up in one of the bedrooms. The new man Ash had found his way up to the roof, where he sat staring at the sky. Aaron had no objection to a set of eyes on the sky. However relaxed the apartment felt right now, they were still in enemy territory.
Trevor was out bringing Mario up to speed. Aaron needed Mario to get a message to Conners Toren back in New Wyelin. It would take almost a week to reach him, but Aaron needed to get word back about the Borhele alliance, or lack thereof, as soon as possible. Mario would send a man on horseback. Assuming he alluded NEST patrols, he’d reach DeMarco on the Eostre-Tannes border in a few days. The message could be flown from there.
They needed to take care. Messages could be intercepted, messengers killed. The latest rumors had a Castalan Embassy messenger missing since a few mornings ago. NEST was cracking down on any unusual activity in Ellis. Soon they’d manufacture an excuse for a curfew, keep tightening their reins on the city as the local politicians slid deeper into their pockets.
Aaron ordinarily wouldn’t be comfortable with a newcomer in their midst, but Cal had given Ash a strong endorsement. Ash had had little to say so Aaron let him be. He was more worried about Shale. She’d looked troubled. The scars of what had happened in Bray’s hands were fresh, but nothing compare
d to what she was feeling over the loss of EU’s people which had led to her capture. She had quietly peppered Matt James with questions during the entire hurried journey across Ellis. They had immediately retired to private quarters, strategizing on how to repair the damage to the EU and avenge the new deaths that lay at Bray’s feet.
Aaron took a drink from his glass, only a finger of brown liquor left. He’d have to go see Cal in a minute. That Cal had taken the only whiskey bottle in the study with him guaranteed Aaron was following him. In a minute. Aaron rubbed at his pixie eye, thinking about the confusing swirl of emotions Shale was creating within him.
Matt James had found Aaron near sundown, frantic at Shale’s capture. He’d spent the long afternoon repairing the chains of communication broken when the Seven Streets EU arm fell. He’d done what he could to offer shelter to the EU men and women who managed to flee Seven Streets, knowing full well more than one of them were NEST spies. Then he’d pushed the attack on the east landing forward. The other arms were ready. And it would pull NEST attention, NEST manpower away from the Shields. Giving him a chance to save Shale.
Matt had barely given Aaron and Trevor time to strap on their swords before they were pushed out the door. NEST guards were in low numbers at the Shields, the clash in the eastern part of the city drawing many of their ranks. Getting in and out of the Shields with prisoners was difficult, but between Matt and Trevor there was a good working knowledge of how to access the lower levels. Trevor knew the latest exterior guard movements from monitoring it the last few nights and Matt knew the interior well. Almost too well. Aaron would have been suspicious that the man held more than one set of loyalties if Matt hadn’t been so clearly desperate to get to Shale. Instead, Aaron concluded two things. The first was that Matt James had at one point been in NEST uniform. He may have joined NEST as a spy or come over to EU that way and been turned double by Shale. Maybe the latter, because Aaron’s second conclusion was that Matt James was in love with Shale Kormet.
Aaron could see why. Not only was she painfully beautiful, she seemed to keep a cooler head in danger than any of the men. She’d brushed off the wounds of her capture quickly. Once they’d gotten outside of the narrow stairs below the Shields, she’d come up on Aaron, given him a kiss, then cut his cloak’s necktie with a knife she’d taken from Matt. She wrapped it around herself and retreated towards the back of the group, leaving Aaron wondering if it was a gesture of affection or aggression. Later, rounding the last few corners into Gestlin, she seemed to tire, face fallen. In the dim light her habitually roaming eyes began to look less like an expression of idle curiosity, more like that of an animal being hunted. The betrayal she’d seen today had hit her harder than she cared to display.
Aaron didn’t know what she wanted from him. Part of him couldn’t stop wondering what she’d do if he took her in his arms. Maybe they could wrap his cloak around them and just hold each other for a few minutes. Forget they were still in their enemy’s lair and going to ground instead of getting away.
There was not much chance on that. He finished the dregs of his whiskey. Screw it. It was time to see what Cal was up to.
Cal had his feet on Muller’s desk. His face was a map of bruises. He’d found new clothes somewhere in the apartment, the only clean part of him. A pile of bloody bandages lay atop his old clothes on the ground. “You look bad,” Aaron said.
“Thanks, let’s see what you look like when seven or eight falsemarked take boots to you.”
“I’ll pass.” Aaron took a seat across the desk from Cal and poured himself a measure from the bottle between them. “What was Barbayir like?”
Cal hesitated, then ground his cigarette out in an ashtray. “Different. Kind of thoughtful, but impossible to read. The Borhele are intelligent but in a totally different way than us.” He looked at Aaron. “Well, me anyway. You’d probably fit right in with your moody silences.”
“You want to go back to that cell?”
“No, thanks, I think my next appointment with Bray will be a little less pleasant.”
“What’d you guys talk about?” Aaron asked.
“Barbayir or Bray?”
“Both.”
“There’s more than that. I need to tell you about the beggar with the broken teeth.” Cal poured himself a drink. He quickly outlined his past few days for Aaron. He touched on seeing Clay Duren the night of the fires, the attack on the way to the west landing, the meeting with Barbayir, the Avlor assassin. He ended with his talk with Bray and the offer to serve as his second.
By the time he was done, Aaron had finished one drink and was halfway through another. He lit a cigarette and told Cal about his meetings with the SDC shareholders, the mark master, the trial, and Bray’s threats.
They sat in silence for a moment.
Cal finally said, “What next, do you think? We’ve survived this far, but Bray still holds all the cards. His army, his city.”
“Not all the cards. There are some opportunities out there.”
“What about the note? Find your way to us. Have someone in their inner circle. Any ideas on who?”
“Are you so sure it’s real? It could be a plant.” Aaron looked at Cal, but he was slowly shaking his head.
“I don’t know,” Cal said. “The expression on the beggar’s face. He really didn’t want to let it go. I don’t think he was acting. When I was running from the second fire, I was thinking how I needed to go back and put down Clay Duren. Every ounce of me wanted to turn around, but in the end I just couldn’t. There were too many of them back there. That’s what the beggar looked like. Like him losing the note was a mistake he couldn’t fix.”
Cal had kept his feet up on the desk during the whole conversation. Now he slowly lowered them, face tightening in pain as he did. He was showing the telltale signs of battered ribs. Cal had had a rough few days. It made Aaron’s path look surprisingly smooth. He’d done the right research, had the right guides in place, Mario, Trevor, Jardere, Matt James. Even Shale. But still. He sat quietly for a moment. “It’s bothering me,” Aaron finally said.
“What?”
“I’ve actually had it pretty easy since I got here. I wouldn’t say you have, but you did slip through their net to fly west even with someone knowing your face. I’ve had almost no resistance though. They were barely guarding their mark master. It wasn’t hard to slip into the Shields with the right escort. I think it’s been easy because they aren’t focused on us. We’re low on their list. They’re locking down Eostre. Eostre Uprising is next and now that they are focusing on them, they are breaking them. Once they start seeing us as a real threat, the stakes are going to rise. This is going to get much harder. No more escapes. If they have an inside man it could be really bad. We don’t have anyone in their circles.”
“So, what do we do next?”
Aaron felt the tightly knit muscles in his shoulders relax. Tension he hadn’t even known he was holding released. Aaron never questioned Cal’s loyalty, but everyone had limits. Cal had been dragged through hell and back as part of this mission. He could easily walk away, leave Aaron standing by himself. But he hadn’t and he wouldn’t. Aaron’s nightmare of Bray in New Wyelin was no less real than it had been two days ago, but at least he wasn’t alone. He said, “I need to hear what Shale and Mario have to say. Regardless, I doubt we’re moving before sunset.”
Cal shrugged. “I could use a break.”
Aaron rubbed at his pixie eye. “Me too.” He pulled out a Talent board and began to set up the game on the desk. Cal poured them each another drink as he watched carefully how Aaron set up the pieces, simulating the wartime positioning of SDC and NEST assets.
“No alliance with the Borhele?” Aaron asked. Cal nodded. “Then show me how you’d take the Deathbowl if you were Bray. Without the Borhele.”
Cal grunted, leaned over the board and began repositioning the NEST pieces. Aaron watched closely. They kept at it as the sun rose over Ellis. Eventually the light fought through the da
rk curtains, changing the mood and driving the friends to scrounge for the best furniture to sleep on, blades close at hand.
Chapter 25. The Price of Information
Hideon Bray sat under the morning sun. There were no shackles on his wrists, no bars between him and the world. Today could be a good day. Yet yesterday’s meetings had left him little to be cheery about. Aaron Lorne’s bizarre moves of the last few days were still shrouded in mystery. His true purpose in Ellis was unclear. What was clear was that he was making a serious nuisance of himself. The mark master was dead. Shale Kormet and Cal Mast had been liberated from under Bray’s nose.
The conversation with Cal had at least interested Bray, but it gave him little confidence Cal would come over to NEST. Cal was too firmly molded. Aaron had gotten there first and shaped him into a deadly weapon. Bray had known Cal wouldn’t break as easily as his sword had. Now, with the escape, Cal would share Bray’s story with Aaron. Bray had lost control of it. He wanted Cal back under his boot, and quickly.
The value of capturing Shale Kormet, the surprisingly resilient leader of Eostre Uprising, had been totally undone by her escape. There hadn’t been time to extract much info from her. Now Aaron, Cal, and Shale were all loose, presumably together, in Ellis. Bray’s men had allowed it to happen.
The escape had occurred during Bray’s final, and by far most unusual, meeting of yesterday. After meeting with Aaron, then Cal, then Shale, Bray had left the uppermost level of the Shields, where he liked to spend as much time as possible when not flying. He went to examine the corpse Aaron Lorne brought to Ellis. It was bloated and decayed. Bray didn’t recognize the swollen, distended face, not that he expected to. It was somehow tied to Aaron’s play, but since it wasn’t Cal, who was it? Not knowing what else to do with it at the moment, he had it stacked in one of the cells closer to the top floor.
Rise of the Falsemarked (Spies of Dragon and Chalk Book 2) Page 18