The Price of Faith

by Rob J. Hayes

  Jez rushed up to the bars of her cell, ignoring the pain in her side. Thanquil walked into view, the Dragon Herald beside him looking as stern as ever.

  “Every time I leave you alone you go and get yourself arrested,” Thanquil continued, a smile playing on his lips as he squinted at her through the darkness.

  She reached through the bars and grabbed hold of his coat, pulling him close and she kissed him. The bars made the reunion awkward but Jez’s fervour was obvious and Thanquil returned with equal passion. When their lips parted Jez found herself breathing hard and she found Thanquil staring at her with moist eyes.

  “I missed you,” she whispered so quietly only he could hear.

  He nodded, grinning at her. “I can tell.”

  “I didn’t do it. I swear I didn’t…”

  “I know.” Thanquil was gripping the bars with both hands so tight his knuckles were white. Jez put her own hands on top of his. “I know,” he said again.

  “Now this right here is a touching reunion. Wouldn’t you say so, Travine?” Drake said. Jezzet didn’t bother looking at him but she could tell he was smiling by the mirth in his voice. Everyone ignored him.

  “Seems I’m forever breaking you out of gaol,” Thanquil said.

  “I’m high maintenance,” she agreed.

  He kissed her again quickly before stepping back from the bars and taking a deep breath, letting it out as a laboured sigh. “The Dragon Empress has granted me access to the prisoners in order to determine the legitimacy of the crime.”

  “The compulsion,” Jez said. “You can force the truth out. Nobody can lie to an Arbiter.”

  Thanquil nodded.

  “So ask me!”

  Jez saw him wince and she knew why. In all their time together he had never once asked her anything, never once used his compulsion on her and it wasn’t just because it was as addictive as a drug. She knew he hated the idea of dominating her will and she had felt an Arbiter inside her head before, it was not something she ever wanted to experience again, not even if it was Thanquil inside of her but she was willing to allow it to prove her innocence to him.

  Thanquil turned away from her. “I’ll start by interrogating Drake Morrass.”

  The pirate chuckled. “This should be fun. Never been interrogated by the Inquisition before. So, Arbiter Darkheart, where do we start? You want to break a finger? Or do you prefer just to beat on your prisoners ‘til they talk.”

  Jez watched as Thanquil approached the cell holding Drake Morrass. She saw the Dragon Herald tense and she could feel the change in the atmosphere almost as though Thanquil’s anger was actually poisoning the air around him.

  “Nothing so crass, Drake,” Thanquil said with real menace and Jez saw the grin slip from the pirate’s face. “All I need is a single question.”

  “Aye?”

  “Did you have sex with Jezzet Vel’urn?”

  Jez watched as Drake’s face contorted into a mask of confusion. Sweat sprung instantly from his forehead and he winced as Thanquil’s will dominated his own and forced the truth from his lips, forced him to admit to his lie.

  “Yes.”

  The world around them seemed to freeze. The Dragon Herald remained impassive. Thanquil took a staggering step backwards and Drake collapsed against the bars of his cell no doubt exhausted from the internal struggle. Jez let out a shuddering breath she hadn’t even been aware of holding. She sucked in another deep breath and let it out as a shout.

  “He’s lying!”

  “No,” Thanquil said quietly. He glanced Jez’s way once and then looked away but in that moment she saw the confusion written plainly on his face. “He isn’t lying.”

  “Thanquil please,” Jez pleaded pushing herself up against the bars. “He’s lying. I didn’t fuck him. Ask me. Ask me!”

  He didn’t. Thanquil didn’t even look at her again. He stuck his shaking hands in his pocket and stormed towards the exit of the dungeon with the Dragon Herald following close behind leaving Jez once again locked up in her prison.

  “I didn’t fuck Drake Morrass,” she screamed after them but if Thanquil heard he made no reply.

  Jez dropped onto the floor of her cell with a wet splash and felt despair take hold. How could he not believe me?

  From the cell across from her she heard Drake Morrass start to chuckle.

  Jezzet

  Both prisoners were quiet for a long time. Drake disappeared into the back of his cell, occasionally splashing about but otherwise noiseless. Jezzet knelt in the cold water staring into space. A few silent tears crawled down her face and were lost amidst the lake around her.

  She was angry and sad and a bit more angry but she couldn’t tell who the anger was directed at; the empress for arresting her, Drake for accusing her or Thanquil for not believing her.

  The darkness seemed to creep in around her and soon she started to shiver but Jez paid the cold no mind, she was far too lost to care about such inconsequential matters. You’ve been in some pretty shitty situations before, Jez. Worse than this by far… strange this one feels like the end of the world then.

  “Reckon we’ve spent enough time moping,” Drake said his voice sounding as though it had regained some of its usual cheer. “That and we need to have a bit of a chat. Time is short.”

  Jezzet didn’t reply.

  “You want to get out of here?” Drake asked.

  “How did you lie to him?” Jez asked sullenly.

  “I didn’t.”

  She looked up at the pirate and gave him her very best level stare. She didn’t know if he could see her face in the cosy gloom but then she didn’t really care either.

  Drake laughed. “All right. I lied, but then you know it’s possible, you’ve lied to an Arbiter yourself before.”

  She had. Back in Sarth she had lied to an Arbiter in order to discover the identity of the heretical Inquisitor. Thanquil had made her a ring and ever since Thanquil had given the ring to Jez she had never once taken it off. She looked down at her left hand now to find the ring missing, the skin a slightly lighter shade underneath where it usually sat. She looked up at Drake.

  “Interesting bit of jewellery this,” he said smiling at her as he held the ring between his thumb and fore finger.

  “When did you…”

  Drake flicked the ring through the bars towards her. Jez snatched it from the air and shoved it back onto her finger.

  “So, Jezzet Vel’urn,” Drake said. “Do you want to get out of here?”

  “I don’t need to. All I have to do is wait for Thanquil to come back. I’ll explain everything to him. He’ll ask you again, then he’ll ask me and your stupid bitch of an empress will have no choice but to free me.”

  Drake laughed again. “Always the same Jezzet. Gets herself into trouble then waits for whoever she’s currently fucking to get her out of it.”

  “Fuck you!”

  “Poor choice of words given my current proposition,” Drake said. “’Sides, I see two problems with your plan of wait to be rescued. I ain’t going to be here when your Arbiter comes back so they’ll be no more questioning of Captain Drake Morrass and given that it’ll be your word against mine I reckon my bitch of an empress will choose to see you dead. Ya know, just in case it’s true.”

  “How are you going to escape?” she asked.

  “First things first. You coming with me? Or staying here to face Rei Chiyo’s wrath? I expect she’ll feed you to her dragon.”

  Better alive and hunted than dead and… dead.

  “I’m sure your Arbiter will come after you. Give you a chance to explain when he catches up but by then we’ll be far enough away from Rei’s influence that not even her bloody dragons will be able to reach us.” Drake paced in his cell, his feet creating small waves in the standing water. “You can take a little time to think on it but don’t take too long, Jezzet. We’re running out of time… well, you are.”

  She looked at the pirate splashing about in his cell, smiling to himself. She k
new it was a bad idea; running would only serve to fuel the fire, add to the suspicion of her guilt but if Drake was right, and he had an unnerving way of being just that, then staying here would likely end in her untimely demise anyway.

  One of Yuri’s old sayings rang out in her head. When people expect you to do the unexpected, surprise them and do what they expect.

  The splashing had stopped and Drake was pressed up against the bars of his cell, studying her with a fierce intensity that would have made most women blush. Jezzet was certainly not most women.

  “How are we getting out of here?” she asked.

  The pirate grinned. “We wait.”

  “For what?”

  “Chaos.”

  After Jez agreed to participate in the escape Drake refused to elaborate on the plan and fell uncharacteristically silent. Frustrating was the only word Jez could think of to describe it but it was a word that did not do her feelings justice. It’ll be a fucking miracle if you don’t end up killing that man, Jez. She thought to herself but she knew she wouldn’t, right now she needed him but even more than that she needed to know his motives. He had implicated her in a crime that would sentence them both to death despite it never having taken place and now he intended to free her from prison so they could run away and be forever banished from the Dragon Empire. Something didn’t add up and Drake’s refusal to satisfy her curiosity only served to make her all the more curious.

  “It’s time,” Drake said eventually stepping up to the bars of his cell and taking a firm grip.

  Jez got to her feet and gave the pirate a sceptical look. “You going to bend the bars? The cast iron bars…”

  Drake looked at her with a grave expression. “You might want to hold on to something.”

  “Why?”

  Then the world realigned itself. The whole dungeon tipped to its side so far that all the water and Jezzet with it lost grip on the floor and crashed to the stone wall hard enough to make all of her injuries scream in pain and her with them. Somewhere nearby Jez heard an almighty crack followed by the sound of gushing water. A part of her registered how incredibly dangerous that sound was but her mind was stuck trying to figure out what had just happened.

  Still lying flat against the wall of her cell Jezzet gasped, the stale air of the dungeon rushing back into her body. Her eyes fluttered open and she saw water rushing past her, flowing into the dungeon and rolling past her towards their one and only exit.

  If she had thought she had experienced a strut shift before, this one taught her the error of her ways. For such a pronounced shift to occur half the city must have been sitting at an angle, the destruction and panic would be on a scale she dare not even imagine. It occurred to her that a good portion of the city might now be underwater. It would be chaos both inside and out and would provide the opportune moment to escape.

  Jez struggled to her feet, balanced at an angle between the wall and the floor. She heard a grunt and a moment later Drake Morrass grabbed hold of the bars to her cell, somehow freed from his own he had leapt the gap over to her.

  “You knew this would happen. How?” she accused.

  He grinned, already at the door to her cell and fiddling with the lock. “Is that really important right now?” There was another crack and a stone crashed along the floor along with even more water rushing down towards the exit of their prison. “I think we have more pressing concerns.” He looked at her. “Now before I let you out, how about a kiss?”

  Jez glared at him.

  “Worth a try.” Drake pulled the door to her cell open with a clang and clambered down a short way to give her room to pull herself out of her cell. “Now I should probably have asked this before but, you do know how to swim?”

  Jez shrugged. “Point where you want to go and kick.”

  “Good enough. Follow me.” With that Drake let go of the bars and dropped into the growing pool of water at the bottom of the dungeon.

  Jez waited a few moments but the pirate didn’t re-surface. The prison was filling up quickly now and Jez had no intention of drowning here or anywhere. She sighed, took a deep breath and let go, dropping into the pool just inches from where Drake had taken the plunge.

  Cold water assaulted her on all sides and Jez lost discipline, her body gasping despite her fervent orders against just that. The Emerald Sea rushed into her lungs and she panicked, kicking and thrashing in the dark wet. Then she felt air on her face. She coughed and spluttered and tried to gather her bearings. She was still in the prison, in the gathering pool and that meant she needed to dive down to find the exit. Another great crack sounded from somewhere above her and Jez needed no more encouragement. She put her head down, her arse in the air and kicked, pulling herself through the water, hoping she could find the exit.

  She saw a blurry Drake-shaped image in front of her and steered towards it. The blur looked to be waving at her and then it turned and swam away, Jez followed as quickly as she could and tried not to think of all the blood thirsty monsters that called the Emerald Sea their home. Water was their element but it was most certainly not hers.

  Jez followed the Drake-blur up a small set of stairs that bent back on themselves and through a near pitch-black room then up another similar set of stairs before he disappeared from view. Again panic started to set in, compounded by the lurching of her lungs as they rebelled, insisting that she was suffocating and attempting to trick her by claiming she could breathe water.

  Her face broke the surface of the water and Jez gasped on instinct long before her eyes cleared enough to focus. Strong hands grabbed her underneath her arms and helped pull her out of the water and she collapsed on top of someone, gasping for air and coughing up water in equal measure. Dimly she was aware that they were still on a distinct slant and it was only by the effort of the person she was collapsed upon that she wasn’t rolling down the floor of the room.

  Jez wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand as she coughed up the last of the water and looked about herself. She was lying on top of Drake who, it had to be said, looked good wet. He was grinning at her and returning the look. Jez realised she was still wearing somewhere close to very little and what she was wearing was clinging to her. She felt something move beneath her and Drake gave her a wink.

  Rolling off the aroused pirate Jez struggled to her feet, slipping once but managing to stand up in the distinctly slanting room. A paper lantern hung from the roof at a dangerous angle, still alight and giving the room an eerie blue tint. The room seemed to be a antechamber with a weapon rack attached the wall and two guards piled in a corner between the wall and the floor each with their throats well and truly slit. Jez glanced at Drake with a cocked eyebrow.

  The pirate coughed. “What luck, the guards appear to have conveniently committed suicide. It’ll be sometime before our escape is reported.” He looked back at the stairwell from which they had come. “Or they might just assume we drowned. Either way, we should go.”

  Jez started towards the weapon rack. The swords there were curved and not her favourite style but they were sharp and Blademaster without a blade was a master of nothing.

  “Leave those,” Drake ordered, already struggling towards the entrance to the corridor. “Weapons will only draw attention. Best folk just think of us as harmless foreigners attempting to escape the mayhem.”

  Jez thought about it for a moment then relented, following the pirate and praying to all the nameless Gods he knew where he was going.

  Drake hadn’t been wrong when he said he was waiting for chaos and, though Jezzet still didn’t know how he had predicted the strut shift, he certainly got chaos. There was evidence everywhere of the violent and destructive change in orientation. Water was everywhere as was the dark smoke that always accompanied uncontrolled fire. Distantly Jezzet heard people screaming and others shouting for help or giving orders, they passed people in the corridors who were in obvious shock, some curled up in balls muttering to themselves, others running about frantically with no thought of pur
pose, but they stopped to help no one. They had a mission and that mission was saving their own hides, Jezzet was more than happy to let the people of Soromo fend for themselves. She had had enough of this city weeks ago and now she was finally leaving though not, as she had imagined, with Thanquil.

  She let Drake lead the way and he did so happily, steering them through hallways and occasionally short-cutting through rooms when fallen debris blocked their way. He checked behind him from time to time, no doubt making sure Jez was still following and giving the odd word of encouragement. Jezzet laboured on in silence. Wet and miserable pretty much encompassed how she currently felt and no amount of forced cheer from her accuser and saviour was likely to lift the sullen mood she found herself in.

  Eventually Drake battered down a wooden door now sitting slanted in its frame and they were outside. Crisp air, dark and heavy with a spitting rain greeted them with invigorated gusto and it set Jez to shivering which in turn set all of her aches and pains to aching and causing pain.

  Drake took a deep, overly-dramatic breath and let it out with a happy sigh. “Told ya I’d get us out.”

  Jez considered leaving the pirate and running off, finding Thanquil and begging him to believe her, to run with her but she couldn’t be sure he would, couldn’t be certain he wouldn’t turn her back into the empress’ custody. The idea that she no longer knew whether she could trust him hurt more than any of her physical wounds and she wagered it did little to make her engaging company but Drake showed no signs of disappointment.

  Even from their low vantage point with the water of the Emerald Sea lapping up onto the covered walkways and the nearby garden completely submerged, Jez could see the city was a mess. Some sections leaned at awkward and unreal angles so much so that she couldn’t see how the buildings remained standing, other sections seemed to be almost unaffected. It was as if half the struts in the city had shifted and the other half had remained as before. It was almost like looking at the whole city sideways.