It was already past noon when I bolted upright in bed, sweat dripping from my forehead into my eyes. My dreams had been filled with Darkness, faceless monsters and an invisible threat that followed me wherever I went. Rubbing my swollen eyes, I felt a knot in the pit of my stomach as I recalled the events of the previous night. I swung my legs out of bed and put on a long, silk dressing gown before rushing out of my door.
Larry's room was adjacent to mine. Dread squeezed my heart tighter and tighter when I flung open the door and found his bed empty. Ellie's room lay on the other side of the floor, but she was nowhere to be seen either. So I did the only other thing I could think of and rushed to Rowan's room so that we could panic together.
I was surprised to find Rowan fast asleep on his side in bed, whereas he was normally the early bird of the two of us. Last night's robbery and the following conversation must have taken its toll on him. I gave him a gentle nudge to wake him up, trying not to stare too much at the way his pectoral muscles rippled with every breath he took.
He groaned and opened one confused eye, but straightened up when he saw the alarmed expression on my face. "What is it?"
"Ellie and Larry are still missing," I panted. "I'm afraid they've been caught."
"Shit." He ran a hand through his hair, all color withdrawing from his face. "What do we do?"
I let myself fall onto his bed in a dramatic fashion. "If Cain finds out about us sneaking around the Tower of the Honored and Elijah tells him about the incident with the barrels ... We're doomed," I murmured.
"Slow down, Kenna. We don't even know if the Dark Sorcerers have thrown them into the dungeons. They could have escaped and gone into hiding until things at the tower settle down." Rowan, always the voice of reason.
"Well, there's only one way to find out, right?" I pushed myself up and looked at him, caging my fear so that it wouldn't undermine my determination to solve the riddle of the Dwarfs' disappearance. "We'll have to ask Cain."
His mouth dropped open. "Are you mad? We may as well surrender ourselves to him right now! What are you even going to say to him?"
"I'll make something up about having lost them on our way from the pub back to the Tower. It would tie in perfectly with their drunken performance last night." Without overthinking my rash decision in order not to lose courage, I opened the door to search for a servant who could give a message to Cain. However, before I could do so, I bumped into a tall, hard male body dressed in official armor. Mumbling a hasty apology, I looked up and swallowed hard when I stared straight into Elijah's brown eyes.
Acutely aware of my morning breath, I bowed my head and took a step aside to let him in. All the while, my heart hammered in my chest and anxiety strained every muscle in my body. What was he doing here? Oh dear, he knew it was us who had stolen the barrels. Maybe he even knew what had happened to Ellie and Larry.
Rowan had already gotten out of bed and put on a dark blue tunic, crossing his arms over his chest as Elijah strode into the room. "What are you doing here?"
The Sorcerer's head snapped up, his gaze boring into Rowan's. The soldier didn't move an inch; he only stared back with an equally cool expression. "I came here to ask you why you need two barrels of Instant Blaze potion."
I gasped.
"That is a serious accusation, my friend. Give me one reason why I shouldn't throw you out of my room right now for merely thinking that I would do such a thing." On the outside, Rowan exuded an aura of indifference, almost boredom, but a growing tension filled up the room and pushed the air out of my lungs.
"Don't lie to me, Rowan," Elijah said, his voice dangerously low. "Last night, two guards arrested those Dwarfs who accompany you and Kenna all the time after they had caused some trouble near the storage room, the exact same place where I spotted two barrels with potion rolling across the hallway by themselves. To top it all off, someone strangled me from behind only seconds later." His eyes narrowed, flicking back and forth between Rowan and me.
Images of Ellie and Larry languishing deep in the dungeons of the Tower of the Honored plagued my mind while I rushed forward and grabbed the sleeve of Elijah's long, black cloak. "What have you done to the Dwarfs?"
"Nothing," Elijah spat, yanking himself free from my grip. "Yet."
"And Cain—"
"Knows nothing," he finished my sentence. "I used my authority as a lieutenant to command the guards to remain silent for now. I wanted to give you both the benefit of the doubt before taking the matter to Cain."
I frowned, confused. "Why would you do that?"
"So you admit that it really was you who broke into our storage room?"
Clenching my teeth, I turned away from him before my face would betray the whole truth. Rowan sighed and took a step forward, putting a hand on Elijah's arm. To my surprise, the Sorcerer didn't pull away. "If you want to arrest us, you may as well go ahead and do so now," Rowan said softly. "Kenna and I won't tell you anything. However, since you came to us first, something tells me that you're not very eager to hand us over to Cain."
My eyes glided to Rowan's back, to the scars that ran over his skin, now concealed by his tunic. For Elijah's sake, I hoped that he didn't actually plan on arresting us, because I would rather kill him than subject Rowan to another round of merciless torture.
Silence descended onto the three of us like a blanket that blocked out the world and trapped us underneath, connecting our fates to each other. We were all in this together now and everything depended on Elijah's decision. If he decided to turn us over to Cain, that would seriously complicate my position with the Dark Sorcerers as well as every chance for Rowan and his mother to get out of this city in one piece. Yet, if he chose to help us or to turn a blind eye to the crime we had committed, he would betray his people. He didn't owe us anything; we were as good as strangers to him aside from his daily training sessions with Rowan. Still, something about his appearance gave me hope.
He turned to me, searching my face, although I had no idea what for. His eyes softened and he admitted in a quiet voice, "Not every Dark Sorcerer in these towers is loyal to Cain and his extreme methods of ruling over others. Some of us still fight the Darkness. Like you do."
Sucking the back of my teeth, I stared back at him, unable to avert my gaze. My lips curled up into a hesitant smile. "Does that mean that you're on our side?"
He shook his head, but the gesture wasn't one of denial. The doubt on his face was the same one that had stirred my own thoughts for almost two months now: the question whether there was really something like good and bad people. "I don't know what you and your Dwarf friends are up to and I'm not sure whether I want to have anything to do with it. But I know who you are, Kenna, and what decision lies in your hands. My gut tells me to trust you, which is why I'll help you get your friends out of the dungeons. But that's it," he quickly added upon seeing the hope and gratitude on my face. "If either of you get in more serious trouble later on, I won't come to your rescue again."
Both Rowan and I nodded, understanding what he was offering and what sacrifice it implied for him. He risked his position, possibly even his life, for ... for what exactly? For me? For Rowan? For the irrational hope that the world could be different, better? Anyway, his resistance to the established order, though so small, changed my impression about him from potential enemy to potential ally.
Rowan slapped him amiably on the back, no longer able to hide the relief in his eyes. "Thank you. And I'm sorry for strangling you."
Elijah's wry smile was in contrast with the sparkle in his eyes when he fixed his gaze upon Rowan. As I watched them, I wondered whether Elijah had also had a more personal motive to help us—or more specifically Rowan—out.
"How are we going to get them out?" I asked. The guards would need a reason for Ellie and Larry's release.
"Leave that to me," Elijah replied, straightening up as though he had been snapped out of a trance. "Follow me."
"Wait!" I gestured at my clothing, which was rather inappropriate for our mission. "I'm still wearing my dressing gown."
Elijah rolled his eyes, but said nothing while I sped out of the door and into my room. Barely two minutes later, I had put on a comfortable tunic and a pair of sturdy boots. Rowan raised his eyebrows at me, as if to say, I'd never thought to see you in pants some time. I snorted, suppressing a smile at the twinkle in his eyes.
Elijah's cloak swirled around his feet as Rowan and I hurried after him, down the endless flights of stairs, through a narrow corridor leading to the Onyx Tower's back door, and into the Tower of the Honored—using the front door this time. My mouth fell open while I took in the tower's spectacular hallway. The marble floor was so black I almost feared falling through into the abyss below. The dark stone walls were decorated with marvelous tapestries which depicted battle scenes. One of them illustrated a warrior dressed in black riding a great Dragon, whose scales shifted color from brown to green. I caught myself slowing down to stare at it for a while longer, my eyes roaming over the Dragon's magnificent appearance and the intricate detail with which he—or she—had been portrayed.
Someone grabbed my arm, startling me. "Let's go, Kenna," Rowan said, impatient. I let him pull me along to where Elijah was waiting in front of a pair of thick, steel doors.
Steel doors? By the Light, the Dark Sorcerers really preferred not to take any risks with regard to their prisoners.
Elijah fished in his pockets for a key ring and used one of the bigger keys to open the large doors, motioning us inside a windowless corridor illuminated by torches that hung at equal distance on the wall to our right. A bitter cold chilled my bones as soon as the doors closed behind us, although the air was rather damp. The sound of water dripping down mingled with soft whines and a humorless cackle that raised the hair on the back of my neck.
Elijah walked down another set of stairs with confident steps, as though he had done so countless times before. The lower we went, the colder I felt. I rubbed my arms to stay warm as my breath formed small clouds in the air. It took us so long to reach the underground part of the tower that I thought we were descending into the hell of the Void itself. It surely smelled like hell down here.
Rotten flesh, human waste, festering diseases ... It all mixed into a sweet, sickening stench that made my stomach churn. I gagged, tasting bile at the back of my throat. Death itself seemed to reside in these dungeons, its tongue hanging out of its mouth at the sight of so many people balancing on the thin border between life and eternity. I admired Rowan and Elijah for their impassive faces; I wished I could ignore my nose that well.
The stone floor at the bottom of the stairs was slippery and I would have fallen backward if it hadn't been for Rowan's almost supernatural reflexes. Scrunching my nose in disgust, I glanced at the slimy black substance sticking to the soles of my shoes. It's probably oil or something, I reassured myself. Other possibilities were out of the question if I didn't want to puke all over myself. I pitied Ellie and Larry for having spent an entire night in this hellhole.
Elijah led us around a corner and the whining grew louder when a long row of cells appeared in front of us. The thick steel bars simmered with magic, casting a purple light onto the interior of each of the cells. These spells were strong; touching the bars would paralyze the desperate prisoner behind them, possibly even kill them. Most prisoners shied away from the bars as far as possible, pressing their backs against the opposite wall and crumbling up into a ball in an attempt to escape the searching gaze of the Dark Sorcerer walking in front of us. My heart ached for them. The ever-present fear in their hollow eyes, the pupils overcast by clouds, confirmed the horror stories claiming the Dark Sorcerers tortured their prisoners on a regular basis.
How many of them are actually guilty of committing a crime against humanity? I wondered. How many are only here because they long for freedom?
Elijah stopped in front of a cell on the right, near the end of the row. Peeking inside, I spotted Ellie and Larry, the former pacing around in the cramped space while the latter sat against the wall, hugging his knees and staring at nothing in particular. As soon as Ellie saw us, she planted her hands on her hips, her eyes narrowing as she looked at us. "So, you finally saw fit to come to our rescue?"
I threw up my hands to declare my innocence. "Hey, I'm not the one who got caught while sneaking around the military headquarters, drunk as a lord." I made sure my voice was loud enough so that the guard who stood at the end of the row of cells could hear every word I said.
Ellie shrugged. "It's not my fault those idiots left the door wide open."
Elijah blushed, glancing in the direction of the guard. His eyes gleamed with what I believed to be genuine anger. "Do you happen to know anything about that, soldier?"
The guard shook his head. "No, sir. You should ask Isaac and Zachary; they were the ones who were on duty at the back door last night. That's the door that was unguarded when those two Dwarfs entered the premises."
"I will," Elijah nodded, although his eyes flicked to Rowan and me, more questions burning in them. I gave him my most innocent smile, at which he raised a skeptical eyebrow.
"Look, like I said before, it was a mistake, all right?" Ellie cut in, irritated. "We were drunk and when the guards insulted Larry and me, I got a little heated. It won't happen again. Can you let me out now, please?"
For a few moments, Elijah only stared at her, his expression grim and his mouth taut. Then he lifted his hand to the bars, and the spells playfully danced around his fingers as he mumbled something unintelligible. A soft breeze rustled his hair and cloak when the spells were deactivated. Screeching, the steel bars bent aside to create a passage for the Dwarfs to climb through. With more kindness than I'd ever seen her muster, Ellie reached for Larry's hand and pulled him to his feet and out of the cell. Both took a deep breath once they stood next to us, as though a weight had fallen off their shoulders.
Rowan turned to Elijah while the bars veered back to their original position. "Thanks a lot, man."
Elijah only nodded and shifted his attention to the guard, who straightened up under his scrutinizing gaze. "Remember, not a word to Cain about this. A ... An incident like this isn't worth bothering him with. And I'll have a word with Commander Ryden about those two guards who failed to fulfill their duty." The guard saluted him in response, which seemed to satisfy the lieutenant. He sighed, his gaze returning to the four of us. "Let's get the hell out of here."