Chapter 46 Amarhuk （Rook）
AMARHUK (ROOK)
“Izzy? Fuck. Izzy? What’s going on? Izzy!”
“What’s wrong with you?” Lhorine hissed, voice low. “Quiet!”
I hadn’t realized I’d been speaking aloud till the elf pointed it out, but I couldn’t help myself.
It was this damned mental link with Izzy.
A part of me was glad I didn’t share a mate bond or spirit link, as then I might have felt what the woman had just gone through, whatever it had been.
Instead, I’d caught her thoughts, but they’d been so jagged and disconcerting and horrible that I’d still been confused, filled with mental anguish.
Not all of her thoughts reached me, but when they were screamed at me with such distress, they rang through my mind so loud it was hard to concentrate.
The horrible part was, I had no context. I assumed Saldrea was doing something to Izzy from the scattered thoughts I’d received, but I had no clue. And whatever it was, it had been dreadful and painful and terrifying.
There had been some snarky mention of Saldrea earlier in Izzy’s thoughts, which was the only reason I knew the false princess was involved. But… wasn’t Vyns supposed to be ensuring Izzy wasn’t hurt?
Though, come to think of it, if Saldrea and all her goons showed up, there wouldn’t be much Vyns could do to stop them. We probably should have considered that.
Too late now.
And there was nothing I could do to help Izzy.
Lhorine and I were far from campus, staking out the prison compound Bayn had told us about, where his sister was being kept.
I still couldn’t believe the big titan wouldn’t help us until his sister was free, but then…
if it had been my family… I might have done the same.
The prison was hidden in the woods, far from prying eyes, about a half-hour’s walk from the city of Yrensil.
Veilblood Academy was in the opposite direction, miles and miles through dense woods.
The easiest way to get here would be to take the campus sigil point to Yrensil, then walk into the forest, but we’d wanted to avoid the known routes.
So, Lhorine and I had walked through the forest. Luckily, Lhorine had an earth-based enhancement which allowed her to move extremely fast through nature while seemingly only moving at a walking pace.
She’d gotten us here in just a few short minutes.
“Rook? You with me?” Lhorine whispered, intently. “Here comes a guard, you ready?”
Nope, not remotely.
We’d stationed ourselves along the simple path from the prison compound to Yrensil, in hopes of capturing a guard on his way home after his shift.
Lhorine would then bind him and get him to tell us any passwords or other security measures inside the underground bunker.
But after what I’d just experienced, I was distracted as hell.
It didn’t help that, after all that screaming, Izzy’s mind had suddenly gone silent.
That could mean she’d passed out, but what if Saldrea hadn’t waited for tomorrow?
What if she’d killed Izzy and none of us had been there to help?
I couldn’t get that thought out of my head as Lhorine took action.
“We need to go now!” she hissed at me, then leaped out from the bushes. She tackled the surprised guard, but he was quick, and an elf like her, so he fought back with everything he had.
I should do something, but given the frenetic chaos in my head, I couldn’t concentrate, and I might hurt Lhorine instead of helping her.
“Rook! ROOK!” Lhorine hissed as she struggled with the guard.
I reached out to Lhorine, hoping to enhance her spirit to help her fight… only I was muddled, and I didn’t use the right power. I did what came more naturally to me and surged her lust.
“Fuck!” Lhorine gasped, low and heated. “Not helping!” The guard had the upper hand now and was about to get free.
I sapped her lust and surged it into the guard instead.
The guard gave a startled moan. We’d see how well he fought with the world’s hardest erection in his pants.
Then, I leaped out of the bushes and managed to clock the guard, stunning him.
After that Lhorine overpowered him and subdued him easily enough.
“What was that?” she asked, out of breath, as she dragged the guard’s body into hiding. “What happened to you?”
“Sorry,” I said with a heavy sigh. “I’m connected to Izzy’s mind and she just endured something horrible. I was distracted.”
Lhorine huffed.
“What is it with that woman and binding herself to men?”
Yeah, tell me about it.
“And… I can’t sense anything from her now,” I voiced my concerns. “Given what she just went through I can’t be certain she isn’t…”
“You’d know,” Lhorine whispered as she settled the guard against a tree trunk. “It doesn’t matter what sort of link you have, if they die, you’d know, you’d be certain.”
I breathed a little easier, but I was still worried. Izzy had endured something which had made her scream in agony, swearing like a sailor. And the snippets of coherent thought I’d managed to catch hadn’t been great:
Oh God! My legs!
Or…
How in the blazes am I still conscious after that? Damned elven endurance!
Or the most horrifying one of all, just before Izzy had succumbed to wild and horrified screaming…
Oh shit, they know! She’s lost it!
What did they know?
If Saldrea had “lost it” then that would explain the horrified screaming afterward. That woman was insane and had no compunctions about ripping people apart when she was angry.
“Sorry,” I mumbled again.
“Don’t worry, we got there in the end.”
Lhorine put a binding on the guard to hinder his movement and magic, then we woke him and she used a second binding to make him talk. We got the information we needed, but none of it was good. Our plan wouldn’t work.
With limited time and information, we’d come up with the idea to use Saldrea herself to get us in.
Olinara would take Saldrea’s form — she and Koar were still back on campus trying to get close enough to the false princess to do so — while Lhorine and I found and interrogated a guard to discover the security measures inside the compound.
We’d hoped to use the false princess’ influence — with an illusion over the rest of us, posing as Saldrea’s crew — to walk right through the front door.
It was the only way in, since tunnelling wouldn’t work.
Whatever magic kept earth-wielders from sensing inside also made the walls immutable, the stone couldn’t be shaped or altered.
But, according to the guard, even someone as influential as Saldrea had to submit to all security measures, which required their ID, and a pass phrase, different for each person.
This guard didn’t know the pass phrases, only the head guard at the door did, and we didn’t have any ID for the princess, nor did we have time to try and steal it from her.
So, our plan to have Saldrea bully her way in… wouldn’t work.
We needed an alternate… and fast.
When Koar and Olinara arrived, over two hours later, we told them the bad news. Though, given how upset Koar looked, I wondered if he and Olinara had some bad news of their own. The dragon radiated fury: jaw tense, brow furrowed, eyes tight, mouth set in a grim line.
“What happened?” I asked.
Olinara spoke, voice strained, taut. “I witnessed something I hope I never see again.” She took a long breath, and that’s when it hit me.
If Izzy had been tortured by Saldrea and Olinara had been close to the false princess, then she’d have witnessed her granddaughter’s torment.
She confirmed my suspicion, talking through clenched teeth.
“Saldrea was in the middle of torturing Izzy when I found her. Everyone was distracted, so it was easy enough to slip in unnoticed and get a good read on Saldrea. But…” Olinara’s fury rose, speaking in a vicious hiss, “… she nearly killed Izzy! So, I had to stay until they’d all left.
There was no way I was leaving my granddaughter like that.
I healed her once they were gone, but that meant the whole thing took longer than anticipated. ”
Olinara looked at Koar. “He’s even more upset about this than I am.
He’s furious Saldrea stooped so low, angry at Vyns for not defending Izzy, irate at me for not stopping it, and beside himself that he couldn’t protect Izzy.
I debated whether or not to tell him at all, but there were things we all needed to know: mainly, Saldrea knows Izzy is a royal. ”
Oh shit, they know! She’s lost it!
That made a lot more sense now.
“And it was all for nothing, since our plan is toast!” Olinara spat the words. “Though… I am glad I was there to help Izzy. I can’t imagine how she would have fared otherwise.”
Yeah, spending a night on the verge of death didn’t sound relaxing.
“Did you two come up with any other ideas?” Olinara asked.
In fact, we had, but it wasn’t great.
“If we need IDs to get in, then we’ll have to steal some. We ambush some guards heading to the compound for the next shift, take their IDs, then Olinara takes one of their forms while using the illusion to make the rest of us look like the others.”
“That… could work.” Olinara bobbled her head from side to side.
“And if we need pass phrases, we can use a binding to get them from the guards, assuming we take them alive,” Lhorine added. “There’s only one problem, and it’s a big one.”
“What?” Koar growled.
“The next shift change isn’t until five o’clock,” I stated. “Which leaves us only three hours to get in, find Bayn’s sister, get out, get back to campus, find Bayn, then free Izzy and Myel.”
“Fuck,” Koar swore.
“Exactly,” I agreed.
“Three hours isn’t a lot of time, but it should be enough,” Olinara said, her hopeful tone sounding forced.
“But it also means we’re doing everything in broad daylight, not under the cover of night,” Lhorine added.
It wasn’t great, but it was the best plan we had.
As we waited, we came up with contingency plans and alternates for various scenarios. Then we tried to get some sleep. I couldn’t rest. My thoughts wandered down morbid alleys. I had to believe our plan to save Izzy would work, but a part of my brain kept toying with the what-if’s.
What if we didn’t get there in time?
What if Izzy had to fight Saldrea?
What if she… failed.
What would my mental link do then?
It had been hard enough hearing her thoughts when she was in pain. Hearing her dying thoughts…
Anyone who thought mind-reading might be fun or informative, was sorely mistaken. Most thoughts were mundane and trivial. On the rare occasion when they weren’t, it was often intimate details that you really didn’t need to know. And hearing someone’s final thoughts…
Well, I tried very hard not to imagine what that might be like.
Those who had slept were awake before dawn. We set up our ambush and waited. With the four of us, and the element of surprise, we managed to capture four guards before they could shout for help. Once again, Lhorine used a binding on each of them to get what we needed.
Olinara took the form of one and put a very convincing illusion over the rest of us. Then, we headed for the compound.
Given the men we were impersonating worked here — and we had their faces, and IDs and pass phrases — it was surprisingly easy to get in. I had a feeling after this, once it was discovered someone had escaped, security was going to get a lot tighter.
Fuck, no, not again! Izzy’s thoughts echoed in my mind. I stumbled, nearly falling down a flight of stairs as we made our way deeper into the underground complex. Thankfully, Koar caught me.
“Izzy,” I hissed to let the big man know why I was suddenly out of sorts.
His eyes widened with concern.
“Catch me if I stumble again, I’m going to try to talk to her.”
He nodded and we continued on down the stairs.
Izzy? I sent to her.
Rook? Oh… right… your mind-link-thing. Now’s not a good time.
Me neither. But I wanted you to know we’re coming for you, we just need a little more time. Are you okay?
I was, but Saldrea and her crew just returned. I didn’t think they got up this early. They weren’t happy that I was completely healed. Not sure how that happened. Saldrea is blaming Golana, but the dwarf doesn’t seem to know anything about it.
Your grandmother did it, afterward. She’s with us now.
Tell her thanks for me, allowed me to get a decent sleep. Still… it looks like I’m in for another round of roughing up before… nope… huh…
What?
They’re letting me out of the cell… I’m… they’re taking me to the arena.
Fuck! It’ll be harder to get to you there.
Yeah, sounds like they suspect someone got in and healed me and are taking me to a more secure location.
Once you’re there, reach out, let me know where you are, we’re coming for you.
I will, she said, but behind her strong facade there was fear in her voice. I’m working on freeing myself from this collar, but I don’t know if I’ll get it off in time.
Huh… she could do that? I didn’t think it was possible to break a binding collar while wearing it. But if anyone could…
We’re coming, I repeated. I didn’t know what else to say. Then I relayed what Izzy had said to those with me.
Koar swore.
Olinara let out a long, frustrated huff.
“Our plan doesn’t change,” Lhorine said. “Let’s get Bayn’s sister and get out. Then we can help Izzy… somehow.”
She was right. Though the uncertainty behind that “somehow” bothered us all as we crept farther into this secure facility.
So much of our plan had already gone wrong. We were well past “the other shoe” dropping. It was raining shoes, and I just hoped we could make it out of this storm before we were trampled.