Chapter 14 #2
At the bottom of the slope, a door of thick wood sat half ajar. Cold air leaked from the crack. I slipped through and found a second set of steps cut directly into bedrock. The walls sweated. A lantern sputtered on the lowest landing, wick turned low. Someone had been here not long ago.
‘They will want him alive,’ Val said. ‘Harrow knows Godric’s value.’
I swallowed. Alive was good, but alive could still be broken.
The crypt spread out like a small maze. Alcoves held old stone coffers, lids shattered and shoved aside.
Newer chains had been drilled into old pillars.
In the far corner, where the ceiling dipped, a prison cell had been fashioned with iron bars and a single door.
Two figures huddled outside it on low stools, playing at dice on an overturned crate.
I crouched behind an old chest and listened.
“Alpha’s dog is tough,” one was saying. “Harrow wants him presentable. No marks on the face.”
“Then maybe we break his legs,” the other said. “Legs don’t speak.”
They laughed softly.
I waited for the next rattle of dice. When it came, I rose, stepped into the lantern light, and lifted Valkaryn.
“Hi,” I said.
Both men lurched to their feet, hands flying to swords. I pointed the blade and let Val do the rest. Light pulsed, precise and quiet. They crumpled like sacks, not dead, only empty of consciousness. I caught the nearest by his collar and lowered him silently.
‘Keys,’ Val reminded me.
I found a ring at one man’s belt and moved to the barred door. The lock was oddly cut, as if a smith had been ordered to forge something ornamental. It looked like the third key on the ring. I slipped it into the lock, and the door groaned. I stepped inside and instantly smelled blood.
“Godric,” I said.
He lay on his side, hands chained behind him, one leg twisted strangely. His hair was matted with sweat. Shackles dug into his wrists.
‘I can see Mind Render’s power on him, probing his mind for control. He’s fighting.’
‘Can you break it?’ I asked.
‘Not without letting him know we are here.’
‘Do it.’ I didn’t want to fight Godric if Mind Render turned him against me. I couldn’t hurt my friend. There was a flare of yellow light from the tip of Val’s sword.
‘He’s free.’
When I kneeled and pressed a hand to his cheek, his eyes snapped opened, sharp even through pain.
“Brynn,” he rasped. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“Too late,” I said. “I brought Val.”
His gaze flicked to the sword at my hip. Relief softened his face, then he adjusted, going into soldier mode. “Harrow has doubled patrols looking for you. Mind Render is powerful. I fought but…”
“Val cut his power to you. He will know we are here,” I said.
I worked one of the keys from the ring into his shackles. The metal fought me, but eventually the cuff sprang loose. Blood-flow surged back into Godric’s fingers, and he hissed.
“Sorry,” I whispered.
His leg was the real problem. It was not broken, not fully, but the knee was so swollen that the skin shone. I guided him to lie flat on his back, resting his head on my rolled cloak. He watched me with the stoic look of someone masking pain.
‘I can knit what is torn,’ Val said. ‘But your strength will pay the price.’
‘I know,’ I breathed. I was a wolfkin now. I could take it.
‘You got Godric? How is he?’ Kaelric checked in.
‘I’ve got him. He’s going to be fine,’ I assured him.
I set Valkaryn lengthwise beside his leg, and she flared a bright orange. Light threaded from her blade into the swollen joint. It felt like a thousand filaments tucking loose fibers back into their weave.
Godric grunted. Sweat beaded his brow.
“Tell me a story,” I said to keep my focus firm. “Something about Val that will make her proud.”
His mouth bent in a rough smile. “When we were little, she stole our father’s corn cob,” he said. “He counted cobs like coins. She told him the birds ate it. He planted a whole row the next spring for the birds.”
I could feel Val’s warmth and fondness for the memory, even a little aching.
‘He did,’ she whispered. ‘He said the birds had good taste.’
The swelling at Godric’s knee eased, then tightened once more.
Val’s light surrounded the knotted part in a delicate grasp and waited.
I felt her pull a little more strength across the tether between us, and felt myself sway as the edges of the world blurred for a second. Healing took a lot of energy.
Godric’s hand closed hard around my wrist. “Enough, Brynn,” he said, voice low. “I can walk.”
“I need you to run,” I said.
‘Let him rise,’ Val urged. ‘If I do more, you will take too long to recover fully, and we could be attacked at any moment.’
I drew the sword back, and the light dimmed to a soft ember that glowed above his skin. Godric pulled himself upright, tested the knee, and exhaled. He stood, wobbling a bit, then steadied.
“I owe you a life debt,” he said.
“You can pay me back by not dying,” I told him, taking in a deep breath through my nose as my vision got sharper and my wolfkin magic re-energized what my human half would not have been able to. I handed him a sword from one of the fallen guards.
He took it and weighed the balance, then nodded briefly. “Thank you.”
We did not linger. I dragged one of the unconscious guards into the cell and shut him in. Godric set the other on the stool and tipped his head against the wall, as if drunk. It would buy us seconds at best.
“Do you know where Maelis is being kept?” I asked as we moved toward the stairs.
“My guess would be the third floor, in the east wing. There is a room just off the king’s quarters that was once a nursery. He would probably use that for his… concubines.”
Val had said the same thing, so I decided that’s where we were going.
It was time to find Harrow and end this.