by Hazel Hunter
“Thank you,” Hailey said. She would have said more, but at that moment, Piers came through the door, Kieran just a few steps behind him.
“How are things?” she asked, meeting them and accepting a kiss from both.
“Strained, as you may imagine,” said Piers with a shrug. “People know what they can do. They know what Templars are capable of. If the Castle falls, there are ways out that will take them through the mountains.”
Hailey had some idea how much it must have cost Piers to speak of the fall of his precious cathedral. She squeezed his hand tight, wishing that she could take away some of the fear in his voice.
“The Magus Corps is aware of what is happening here. The closest troops are close to a full day away. We can’t risk tipping our hand and alerting the Templars to our presence by flying in, so the ones who can get here have a long hike in front of them.”
Liona indicated that the three should lie down on the bed. Hailey lay in the middle, holding hands with both of them.
“I love you both so much,” she whispered.
She tilted her head to kiss Kieran, and then Piers. They looked determined, and she felt a fresh surge of hope. They could do this. She knew that they could.
She felt a brief prick on her arm as Liona injected her with the drugs that could send them to the Shadow Walk Prison. Her vision immediately started to dim, and she was overcome with a sense of intense weariness.
“Gods go with you, beautiful ones,” Liona murmured, and then Hailey felt nothing at all.
CHAPTER NINE
WHEN HAILEY OPENED her eyes to see the Shadow Walk Prison’s sullen sky, she was momentarily disturbed to realize that it didn’t feel foreign to her any longer. Instead there was something intensely familiar about it, even a sense of comfort. Liona’s words about getting lost in the strange realm ringing in her ears, she sat up.
To her surprise, instead of being in a field or in a forest grove, she was in a city. The buildings around her were blackened with soot, and the only cars that she could see were dismantled for their parts and sat like strewn, dead bodies on the broken streets. It reminded her of a few of the places that she lived. She swallowed hard before beginning to walk. More than once, she was convinced that there were eyes watching her from the broken windows, but whenever she focused on them, they disappeared.
Piers and Kieran, she thought fiercely. If I can just focus on them, I can find them.
She continued walking, ignoring the skitters of things that moved just beyond her sight. She knew who she was looking for, and she didn’t want any distractions.
She turned a corner, and found Kieran waiting for her patiently underneath a shattered streetlight. He was dressed in a tunic and leggings bound up to his legs with straps. Over all of it, he wore a wolf fur thrown over his shoulders, which failed to hide the sword at his side. He looked every inch the mercenary he had been for his early life. Something about it did not look strange at all in this place.
Hailey embraced him for a moment because it was simply so good to feel him in her arms. Then with him by her side, they continued.
They found Piers just a few moments later. Of all things, he was in one of the shopfronts, intent on a pinball game.
“Piers?”
He looked up, faintly embarrassed.
“I probably shouldn’t have underestimated how addictive these things are.”
Hailey smiled. It was a relief, in some ways. They were still themselves. They were together. She had just learned that Piers liked pinball.
They made their way through the city. Sometimes they could feel eyes on their back. Once Kieran thought that he heard his name being called. Hailey fell into the lead, and she wondered if she should have been worried that she was so comfortable in this strange and dark place. Navigating it was becoming second nature to her.
She remembered the fortress that she had found in her dream, and she concentrated on it. The Shadow Walk Prison wasn’t a real place, not like the Castle or a real country. It was a realm bounded by desires and dreams. She only had to remember how strong she was and how much she wanted what she did.
The buildings gave way to a grassy plain. When she looked back, the city was gone as if it had sunk beneath the rolling hills. They kept walking and soon enough, they saw the spires of the fortress.
“I don’t know what we are going to find here,” she said softly. “I only know that we have to free the people inside.”
Kieran unsheathed his sword, while Piers made one appear from nowhere. It occurred to her that her men were getting comfortable in the Shadow Walk Prison as well.
As it had been when she was last there, Hailey found the fortress deserted. She could hear the faint groan of desperate voices from the basement. Unerringly, she led them down the tunnels and the stairs. She realized that she didn’t know the way precisely. With a certain kind of dream logic, she only understood that she wanted to know the way, so she did.
When they heard voices, Kieran and Piers took the lead. They were no branchings in the tunnel, and when they came to the lit area again, they immediately confronted the pair of Templars that they found there.
The Templars shouted with surprise, but they immediately fell back into the room, to Hailey’s surprise.
“Kieran, Piers, stop!”
Hailey’s shout came just in the nick of time. They halted in their tracks just short of falling into the darkened room where the prisoners were held. She came to join them, and together they looked in.
The two Templars were holding something in their hands that glowed bright blue. They were an island of light surrounded by chained people, a human defense wall. Those people in chains stared balefully at the Templars and at Piers, Hailey and Kieran as well.
“I don’t think they know us,” she whispered. “I think they have been so hurt and enraged that they might tear us to pieces as they would the Templars.”
Kieran paced, a great tide of anger emanating from his body.
“They’re right there,” he growled. “Cowards.”
Cowards they might have been, but they were safe and protected even in the midst of the possessed. Hailey realized uncomfortably that the longer they were allowed to shelter there, the more likely it was that they would summon reinforcements.
“Perhaps they won’t harm us?” wondered Piers.
He reached tentatively in the room, but the hand that clawed at his answered that.
“They aren’t animals,” Hailey said suddenly. She wasn’t sure if what she was thinking was going to work, but she had to try.
Clearing her throat, she stepped right up to the doorway. Suddenly, it felt as if every eye was on hers.
“My name is Hailey Devereaux,” she said as loudly as she could. “I’m from the Castle, and I am here to help you. Please, let me try to break your chains. It will send you back to your bodies. It can take you back to where you were.”
A moaning came up from the crowd of chained people. At first she wasn’t sure if it was rage or even if they understood what she was trying to say. After a moment, an enormous man came to the front. He was easily as big as Kieran, perhaps even bigger. He stood impassively in front of her before kneeling down to show her his collar and chain.
Hailey bit her lip. The way the doorway was set up, she couldn’t get to the man’s chain unless she was willing to step into the room. She could feel the Templars’ eyes on her. Piers was saying something, Kieran was already reaching for her.
Taking a quick breath, she stepped into the room.
She could feel the presence of the possessed all around her, but though they watched her closely, they did not reach for her. Carefully, she took the man’s chain in her hands. Just as she had with Captain Warwick, she started to pull.
For a moment, she thought that it wouldn’t work, that it was mere luck or chance she had freed Warwick. It was like pulling on steel cord. Then abruptly, the cord burst, and the man sprang to his feet. She could see light and life in his eyes now. He g
rinned fiercely at her, mouthing thank you before fading away.
Now the possessed were stirring, crowding close to her. She was weary from breaking that first chain, but she was exultant at her success as well.
“One at a time,” she said. “I promise I will get to all of you, but in the meantime, Piers and Kieran must reach those men.”
A path immediately opened up between the doorway and the Templars. The Templars turned to run, but a dozen hands caught them. Kieran walked along the path, followed by Piers, both their faces grim.
As Hailey turned to free a woman, she saw Piers pluck the blue device out of one of the Templar’s frozen hands.
“I don’t think you are going to need that again,” he said.
• • • • •
Hailey worked for what felt like hours breaking the chains of the possessed. It was tiring and difficult work, but whenever she needed power or energy, she simply reached for Kieran or Piers, and they gave it to her.
A small eternity later, she had freed the last of the possessed, and the room was empty. She turned exultant eyes to her lovers.
“Let’s go home,” she said. “I want to see whether we’ve done well.”
The first time she had been in the Shadow Walk Prison, she had dreamed their way home. This time, Hailey simply concentrated. As Piers and Kieran watched, she sketched the shape of a door in the air. As she worked, it took a solid form, becoming a door frame and a normal wooden door standing in the middle of the empty room.
Piers walked in a circle all the way around it, raising an eyebrow at Hailey.
“Go on, open it,” she said.
When the door was opened, it led down a deep tunnel. At the very end of it, she could see a glint of light. It was so small, but she recognized it right away as the lamp from Piers’s bedroom. Suddenly, she was so homesick she could barely breathe.
“Let’s go home,” she said exultantly.
They walked together through the door, or at least Piers and Kieran did. Hailey realized that she was stuck. No matter what she did, she couldn’t make her feet cross the threshold. She couldn’t move herself over the step.
Piers and Kieran, already in the tunnel turned to look at her.
“I can’t move,” she said, her voice choked with fear.
It was true. Piers and Kieran together couldn’t pull her into the tunnel with them. Kieran couldn’t pick her up and carry her. She couldn’t run over it or jump over it.
Hailey sank to her knees in the room, looking at the door dumbly.
“Liona said it would happen,” she whispered. “She said that I might go wandering and never come back.”
“Liona says a lot of things,” Piers said impatiently. “You are not stuck here.”
It seemed to be true, though. No matter what she tried, Hailey couldn’t pass through the door. When it threatened to waver out of existence, she panicked, slamming her hands down on it. It killed the last bit of hope in her.
“You both need to go through,” she said finally. “I don’t know how long I can keep the door open, and I don’t know what might happen if you stay here. You’ve been in the Shadow Walk Prison almost as much as I have. You can’t stay here.”
Kieran was examining the door for what felt like the millionth time.
“We can keep trying,” he started, but Hailey cut him off.
“No. No, Kieran. There is no time.” Hailey did what she could to keep the sob out of her voice. “Don’t you see? There’s just no time.”
She tried to pull Kieran towards the door, but it was like pushing on stone. He only looked at her steadily.
“It doesn’t matter,” he said softly. “There’s all the time in the world. If you are not going through, then we continue looking until we find a way for you to get through as well.”
She stared up at him.
“Don’t you understand?” she said. “This isn’t a matter of finding the right door. I’m not going to suddenly open a door that I can walk through. The Shadow Walk Prison doesn’t work like that.”
“I think the Shadow Walk Prison reflects our own thoughts and desires,” said Piers gamely. “I think that we can find a way back. You were right. We beat this place before, we can do it again.”
It seemed somehow particularly cruel to have her own words thrown at her like this. Why couldn’t they understand?
“Go through the damn door!” she cried. “Don’t you get it? I can’t go through with you. I’ve stayed here too long.”
To her shock, Kieran carefully and gently closed the door. Then, resting his hand over it, he caused it to disappear. He looked a bit self-satisfied for a moment and then he turned to her.
“You’re the one who doesn’t understand, Hailey,” he said quietly. “If that isn’t a way home for you, it’s not one for us, either.”
Hailey stared at him, her heart beating a hundred times too fast.
“You can’t mean it.” She turned desperately to Piers. “You can’t agree with him. You have the Castle to get back to.”
“That was something I settled before I came to meet you in the bedroom,” he said. “I told Julie she was in charge in the event that I didn’t return. If I didn’t return in a month, she was to do what she saw fit.”
“I spoke with my commandant,” added Kieran. “He’s not pleased, but he’s not surprised, either. When old soldiers become unpredictable, well, usually it’s best to let them have their way.”
Hailey looked from one to the other, horror dawning on her.
“You have lives,” she whispered.
Kieran nodded.
“We do. And our lives are with you.”
She couldn’t take it any longer. She fell down into a heap and cried. After a moment, Kieran and Piers crouched down with her.
“We can have a life here,” Kieran said softly. “We are all of us stronger than this place, and we can shape it.”
“Speak for yourself,” Piers said with a snort. “I’m still certain we can find a way out.”
Having their hands on her helped. She wasn’t pulling power from them at the moment, but sensing it, Piers’s light and Kieran’s sea, helped keep her stable. Even then, though, she was exhausted. She had broken a hundred chains that day. She had found out that she wasn’t going home. She had nothing left. Hailey started to fall.
I just want to go home, she thought miserably, as their hands grabbed at her suddenly limp body. I’m with Kieran and Piers, she realized as they caught her. Her vision was dimming. They were shouting her name, but more than that, they both held her. It was precisely where she needed to be. I am home.
• • • • •
Hailey awoke to the sound of shouting. At first she wanted to bury her head under the pillow, because surely it was too early for that. But then it struck her that she wasn’t in a bed when last she remembered. She was in a broken fortress in the Shadow Walk Prison.
She sat bolt upright, ignoring the pain that shot through her skull. She was in bed, her bed, and beside her, Kieran and Piers were rousing as well.
Liona’s smile was wide, but Hailey only had eyes for her lovers. In a moment, they were in each other’s arms, holding each other, kissing each other, never wanting to let go.
“I thought we would be there forever,” she whispered over and over again. “I thought we were lost.”
“Never lost when I’m with you,” Kieran said, spitting out a lock of her hair.
“Once again, I do think we would have found a way out of there,” Piers said. “Even so, I am glad it happened sooner rather than later.”
Hailey only slowly became aware of a pounding on the door. She looked up just in time to see the door blow open and an enormous man push his way in.
“Where is she? Where is the little redhead?”
Liona started forward, fire in her eye, but Kieran and Piers were quicker. Piers pulled a sword from who knew where, and the temperature of the room dropped substantially.
“Who wants to know?” demanded
Piers.
The enormous man looked down on Piers from his great height, chewing on his mustache furiously. He was the first man whose chain she had broken, Hailey realized. In close quarters, he was even bigger, with long, blond hair and a braided beard that made him look like a Viking raider.
“I’m Asger Olafsson, warlord of the Solari, and I’m the one who wants to know.”
“Asger? Gods above, how extraordinary.”
As if there were not men armed all around her, Liona stepped forward looking closely up into Asger’s face. To Hailey’s surprise, the man backed off almost immediately, putting some distance between himself and the small witch.
“Liona,” he rumbled. “I should have known you would have had a hand in this.”
“The things that you should know would just barely fill an ocean, I think,” responded Liona tartly. She turned to the others in the room.
“Coven Master Piers Dayton, Major Kieran McCallen, Hailey Deveraux, this shaved bear is Asger Olafsson, the leader of what you would call the Magus Corps throughout most of the thirteenth century.”
Kieran’s jaw dropped.
“I’ve heard of you,” he said unsteadily. “You disappeared.”
Asger made a sour face.
“That I did, but now here I am, and I have that lass to thank.”
Hailey found herself swept up into Asger’s arms, hugged so tightly that she could barely breathe.
“Thank you,” he whispered in her ear. “From the bottom of my soul, thank you.”
When he put her down, Hailey turned to Liona.
“Liona, what do you see when you look ahead?”
Liona’s gaze went blank for a moment, and then she smiled.
“Oh, well then.” And she would say no more.
Hailey would have pressed her, but Liona handed her a mirror. For a moment, Hailey was confused, but when she looked, she grinned.
Her eyes were green again.