by Jasmine Walt
“Thank you.” Annia sniffled one more time, then gave the soldier a brilliant smile that had him blushing all over again. That blush crept all the way down his neck and disappeared beneath the neckline of his undershirt as Annia pulled off her sopping-wet top, leaving her standing there in nothing but pants and a white bra.
“So, is there really a dungeon around here?” Annia asked as she slowly slipped the soldier’s shirt on, taking her time in adjusting the fabric around her shoulders, which were far too slim for the garment. “Or was that other soldier just making things up?”
“Not a dungeon, exactly,” the soldier said, his eyes glued to the rounded flesh swelling over the cups of Annia’s bra. “But we do use the old mineshaft to hold prisoners, and you could say that’s kind of like a dungeon.”
“Oh really?” Annia’s dark eyes widened, her mouth forming a small ‘o’ of shock. “So the soldier wasn’t lying, I could be sent there?” She slipped the bottom button of the shirt through its hole as she spoke.
“I’m sure the captain wouldn’t actually send you down there,” the soldier assured her. “He wouldn’t want you there with those vile mages.”
“Mages?” Annia gasped.
The soldier stood up a little straighter, looking chagrined. “I think I’ve said too much.”
“That’s incredible!” Annia pressed a fluttering hand against her exposed bosom, and I had to admire how cleverly she directed the soldier’s attention back to her body. “I had no idea this camp was so hardcore. I know the Resistance is fighting against the mages, but I didn’t know we’d grown so strong that we could actually capture some of them.”
The soldier’s chest seemed to swell with pride at that. “Yeah, well, we had a pretty good plan –”
The door swung open, and Sergeant Brun stepped in. His eyes nearly bulged out of his head as he saw Annia standing there with the soldier’s shirt only halfway buttoned. “Private Gilliam, what is the meaning of this!”
“Sir!” The private snapped to attention, his cheeks coloring once more, and I nearly snickered at the abject mortification in his pretty blue eyes. “I apologize, but the recruit here spilled water all over her shirt. I didn’t think it was appropriate for her to be in a wet t-shirt, so I offered her my shirt to wear.”
“And you think this is appropriate instead?” Sergeant Brun asked, swinging his baleful gaze toward Annia again. She’d hastily buttoned up her shirt and stood there with her hands behind her back and her head bowed, looking sheepish.
“I’m so sorry, sergeant,” Annia said meekly. “It was an accident. I didn’t mean to get Private Gilliam in trouble. He was just trying to help.”
“I’m sure he was,” Sergeant Brun said dryly. “But I can’t have Private Gilliam on duty wearing only his undershirt. Go fetch another shirt from your quarters and change, and then hurry back here and give the private his shirt back.”
“Yes sir.” Annia saluted.
“And don’t let this happen again. I don’t need you distracting my soldiers with your charms.” His eyes narrowed.
“It won’t, sir,” Annia assured him.
“Women,” Brun muttered under his breath. It sounded like a curse. “Get going.”
He stalked out of the mess hall, and Annia winked at me before following him outside. Guess we knew our next destination now – the mineshaft. But how were we supposed to get there when we had watchers following us around at all times?
12
“Man, that was exhausting,” Annia groaned as she collapsed onto her cot. “I’ve never had to cook for so many people in my life.”
“No kidding,” I agreed, sitting down heavily on the edge of my own cot so I could pull off my boots. Annia hadn’t even bothered taking her own shoes off – she lay sprawled out on her bed, eyes closed as the light from the lantern flickered across her face. “At least the job gives us full access to the pantry.”
“Which you happily raided.” Annia snorted. “I swear I don’t understand how you eat so much, Naya. I’d look like a balloon if I packed in the amount of food you did this afternoon.”
“Yeah, it’s a real blessing having a food bill three times the size of yours.” I rolled my eyes as I stretched out onto my cot. “The grass isn’t always greener on the other side, you know.”
“I do know.” Annia opened her eyes as she rolled onto her side to face me. “I was just trying to lighten things up a bit. You’ve been pretty down in the dumps recently. Is it because of the dead end with the Chief Mage’s necklace?” she asked, keeping her voice low in case someone outside was listening.
“That’s a big part of it, yeah.” Folding my arms beneath my head, I stared up at the ceiling, tracing the old wooden beams through the darkness. “I thought for sure we were gonna find him at the other end of this necklace, so it’s pretty discouraging that the plan didn’t work out.”
“True, but at least we know the Chief Mage is in this area, right? We never would have been able to narrow it down that far without your charm.”
“Yeah, I guess so.” Reaching beneath my shirt, I pulled out the two serapha charms and gazed at them. They blazed to life instantly beneath my scrutiny, like two tiny stars clutched in the palm of my hand, and a rush of longing hit me, so intense it was painful. “It’s just…I want him to be here. With me.”
There was a long, pregnant pause, and color rushed into my cheeks as I realized I’d said too much.
“Naya…do you have feelings for him?”
“We’re master and apprentice,” I insisted, stuffing the charms back down the front of my shirt. “It’s not like I could help growing closer to him after all the time we’ve spent together.”
Annia snorted again. “Yeah, but it doesn’t seem like the kind of relationship you had with Roanas.”
“No one can replace Roanas.” A pang hit my chest at the mention of my dead mentor, the lion shifter and Shiftertown Inspector who’d taken me in after my aunt Mafiela had kicked me out of the jaguar clan. “He was the closest thing I ever had to a father.”
“My point exactly.”
I let out another huff. “What do you want me to say, Annia? That I wish I was a full mage, or that Iannis was a shifter, so that I could actually do something about my attraction to him?” My fists curled at my sides, and I itched to use them.
“You don’t have to have either of those things to get what you want, if you want it bad enough.”
I narrowed my gaze at Annia. “There’s no way Iannis and I could ever be a couple. I’m the embodiment of why mages and shifters don’t breed, and besides, masters and apprentices aren’t supposed to have romantic relationships. Iannis would never break the rules just to be with me, especially as the Chief Mage.”
“I dunno, Naya. He’s already flaunted convention more than once on your behalf. When he made you his apprentice he was practically snubbing all the other mages to their faces, which they couldn’t have been happy about. If he wants you badly enough, he’ll figure out a way to make it happen.”
“Yeah, well I’m not gonna bank on that. I don’t really know how he feels about me.” But warmth stole through me at the idea that maybe, just maybe, Iannis and I could be more. There were sparks between us, no question about that. On one or two occasions, those sparks had been hot enough that I’d been sure something was going to happen between us. But it never had, and I wasn’t sure how much of that was because of my reservations or because of his. Just because Iannis found me attractive didn’t mean he was going to act on it. Truthfully, if we were both smart, neither of us ever would.
“Sunaya?” Fenris’s voice echoed in my head, drawing me away from my melancholy thoughts. “Are you awake?”
“Yeah.” I sat up, instantly on alert. “What’s up?”
“I’ve managed to figure out the shift schedule for the guards watching the prisoners. If we time this right, I think we can get you in to talk to the prisoners, so listen close and follow my directions…”
An hour later, I was
creeping down the dirt road leading from the town to the mineshaft where the Resistance housed their prisoners. I wore the illusion of Private Remis, the soldier Fenris said was due to replace the one on duty, or at least I hoped I was. Fenris had described him in great detail, and I remembered handing him a trencher at both lunch and dinner, but there had been so many faces it was possible I could have made a mistake. To be safe, I was careful to stick to the shadows and remain as inconspicuous as possible.
The moon was over half full, providing plenty of illumination, and after about a ten-minute brisk walk the mine came into view. It was a large, vertical shaft carved into the base of the mountain, accessible only by a wire cage that could be hoisted up and down via a pulley system. Unfortunately, I wasn’t going to be able to use the thing as the mule used to pull the primitive elevator was stabled for the night, but thanks to Fenris I had other options.
As Fenris had assured me, only a single guard was posted outside the mineshaft. He was leaning up against the wall, his stance relaxed and his eyes wandering, but he straightened abruptly at the sight of me.
“Remis! Is it time for shift change already?”
“Not yet,” I admitted in a deep, gruff voice that matched my burly exterior. “I was having trouble sleeping, so I thought I’d come out early and keep you company.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean,” the soldier said as I approached, relaxing his stance. “Being stuck on night shift has been hell on my sleep schedule –”
I placed a hand on his shoulder, then murmured a Word that Fenris had taught me. Instantly, the man’s eyes fluttered closed and he sank onto his bottom, head thunking against the rock wall as he slipped into a deep sleep. According to Fenris, he would be out until someone woke him up, presumably the very soldier I was impersonating when he arrived for shift change.
Pretty effective, I thought as I stared down at the soldier, who was snoring lightly. And this was just one of the spells Fenris had taught me tonight. I’d tried to get him to tell me how he knew them, but he’d brushed off my questions, telling me he didn’t have time to explain. When we got out of this mess I was going to wring the truth out of him, but with less than half an hour left until shift change I didn’t have time to ponder it.
Assured that the soldier wasn’t going anywhere, I hurried to the edge of the shaft and peered down into the darkness. I could make out a very faint light from one of the tunnels that branched off from the main shaft, far below. I breathed a little sigh of relief – I had good night vision, but even I couldn’t see in pitch darkness. Taking a deep breath, I muttered the Words to the second spell Fenris had taught me, and after a few moments my feet began to lift off the ground. A mixture of excitement and fear bubbled up inside me at the fact that I was flying, but I tamped down on it and focused on controlling my trajectory as I guided my floating body down the shaft. There was enough space around the cage that I was able to squeeze past it, and I floated down through the darkness, heading for the glow. It steadily grew brighter the further I sank, until finally a tunnel opening came into view, lit on both sides by torches bracketed into the rough-hewn walls. I wrinkled my nose as the scents of urine, feces, and unwashed bodies rolled over me, and knew without a doubt that this was where the delegates were being kept.
I floated into the tunnel, then released the levitation spell and touched down softly onto the hard-packed dirt. A wave of exhaustion hit me – the levitation spell used a constant stream of energy – and I pressed my hand against the dirt wall to steady myself. In the murky shadows beyond the torchlight, I could make out several bodies propped upright against the wall with their legs stretched out in front of them, heads hanging in apathy. I frowned as I realized I didn’t see any chains or scent any magical wards holding them here, and wondered why they hadn’t escaped yet. They were all mages with more experience than I – surely they could have magicked their way out of here by now? And why hadn’t any of them noticed me?
Dirt shifted beneath my boots as I moved slowly toward them, and I raised a hand, conjuring a ball of fire for illumination. The sphere hovered inches from my palm, and as I held it high, it cast bluish-green light against the walls. The seven men stirred and moaned at the intrusion of light, and as I cast my gaze over their ornate but dirty robes I confirmed that they were, indeed, the delegates who’d accompanied Iannis on the dirigible. How different they looked now, from the proud officials who rarely gave me the time of day. I wrinkled my nose at the scent of vomit and other bodily excretions hanging in the air, and wished I’d brought something to tie around my face and block the smell.
One of them opened his eyes to stare at me, and I narrowed my own eyes at his blurry gaze and blown pupils that nearly eclipsed his grey-green eyes. “Wh-what do you want now?” he slurred, and my heart sank. No wonder the Resistance wasn’t worried about the mages escaping. They’d been pumped full of drugs.
Crouching down in front of him, I tamped down the flame in my hand so I wouldn’t continue to hurt his eyes. His dark brown hair was scraggly, his triangular jaw covered with a patchwork of stubble that told me growing a beard didn’t come easily to him. “I’m looking for the Chief Mage,” I said enunciating my words slowly and clearly. “Have you seen him?”
“’m not answering your questions.” Those grey-green eyes flashed with contempt, and the mage inched himself a little more upright while doing his best to look down at me from his long nose even though my head was above his. “I don’t…answer…to you.”
I nearly snorted. Typical mage attitude, always acting superior even in the face of death and starvation. Truthfully, it was admirable, but a little annoying since we were both on the same side. Taking a gamble, I dropped the illusion and allowed my true form to show.
The delegate’s eyes nearly popped out of his skull. “Y-you!”
“Shhh!” I clapped a hand over his mouth as the others stirred. “I remember you – you’re Bosal ar’Nuris, the Secretary of Education and Culture.” I tried to hide my shock at seeing him in such a state – I was used to seeing these mages striding briskly through the halls of the Palace, proud and aloof, not sitting here in their own excrement. “If you start yelling, you’ll bring the whole Resistance camp down here!” The delegate struggled beneath my hand for a moment, but he was too weak and disoriented from the drugs, so eventually he subsided and I released him.
The delegate tried to speak again, but the drugs proved to be too much of an impediment for coherent speech. On instinct, I touched my hand to his shoulder and pushed some magic into him, visualizing the drugs leaving his body and energy filling him. My stomach pitched with nausea, and I tightened my grip on his shoulder as another wave of tiredness washed through me.
Beneath my hand, I felt the delegate’s shoulders straighten. He sat up a little, some alertness returning to his eyes, and I let out a breath of relief. No, I hadn’t healed him, but maybe I’d helped him enough that he could talk to me now.
“You’re the…hybrid…” he slurred as he peered up at me through the darkness. “Lord Iannis’s apprentice. Did he…send you here to free us?”
“No, though of course I’ll do what I can. I came out here trying to find him. Why is he not with you?”
Bosal shrugged one shoulder. “Don’t…remember. None of us do. We were on the airship one moment…down here the next. No idea where Lord Iannis is. Hoped he’d escaped back to Solantha…but clearly hasn’t, since you’re here.” Disappointment rang in his thick voice, mirroring my own.
“Do you have any idea what the Resistance is planning?” I pressed, hoping to get something, anything out of the mage. “What was their purpose in taking down the airship?”
“Wanted…to stop us from attending the Convention.” The mage’s voice seemed to be getting a little stronger, and I wondered if the dose they’d given him was starting to fade. “Don’t know why, but they’re planning something.”
“Alright.” I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose with my free hand. A quick glance at my
wristwatch told me my time was about up. “I’d better get back before someone misses me.”
“Wait.” The delegate’s hand shot out, wrapping around my wrist with surprising strength. “You’re not going…to leave us here, are you?”
“I would like to free you, Secretary,” I said with regret, “but can you even stand? Do you have a spell to rouse the others, and get up the mineshaft?”
His growl of frustration sounded more like shifter than mage. “If we could, we’d be gone already. Don’t know what that drug…they inject us with is, but it’s too effective…and we don’t get enough water. We need help.”
“I’ll come back with reinforcements as soon as I can,” I promised. “But if I don’t go now they’ll just catch me too, and then nobody will find Lord Iannis.”
“Al…right…” Bosal sighed, releasing my hand as he slumped against the wall. “Just hope you come back…before they decide to kill us.”
Yeah, I thought as I took my leave. I hope so too.
13
I woke up the next morning with ravenous hunger clawing at my belly. By the time I’d made it back to the cabin last night, I’d been exhausted from all the magic I’d used, and had collapsed into bed after telling Annia and Fenris what I’d learned. Sleep had helped somewhat, but if I was going to recharge I needed food. Lots of food.
A tinge of pink washed over the dark sky as Annia and I made our way to the kitchens, a mere suggestion of dawn that made me grumpy as hell as I was not an early morning person. But we had to get the soldiers fed on time, and besides, I could use the opportunity to stuff my face so that I wouldn’t be too irritable by the time everybody showed up.
“By the Ur-God,” Annia muttered as she began opening tub-sized cans of corned beef hash. “We’ve been here less than twenty-four hours and it already feels like we’ve been assimilated into the camp.” She spoke quietly so that the sleepy-eyed soldier on guard couldn’t overhear.