Chapter 12 #2
Elnos’s mouth opened in surprise, and he jumped up from his seat.
“L--” He caught himself just before he shouted Iannis’s name aloud.
“Lord Iannis, Sunaya,” he said more quietly as he enfolded me into a quick hug.
“I’m so glad you were able to get here on such short notice.
” He looked absolutely nothing like the fresh-faced, gangly young mage that I knew—the man hugging me was more filled out, sporting a leather jacket and dark sunglasses rather than mage robes.
“As it turns out, you’ve landed smack dab in the middle of a mission the Minister’s sent us on,” I said as Iannis and I settled onto the couch across from Elnos.
“What?” Elnos’s eyes widened. “Do you mean to say that the Federation has taken a special interest in the Resistance compound here?”
“Be quiet a moment,” Iannis warned, lifting his hand. He muttered a Word and snapped his fingers. My nose twitched as the scent of magic laced the air, shimmering around us for an instant like a pearly soap bubble.
“There,” Iannis said, sitting back and making himself comfortable. “No one will be able to overhear us.”
“Really?” I arched a brow, and filed away the Word he’d muttered for later use. “That’s a nifty trick.”
“I should have thought to do that. Sorry.” Elnos sighed, scrubbing a hand over the lower half of his face. “I’ve just been so… frazzled, these past few days.”
“Yeah, you mentioned that you and Annia had been separated,” I said, my mood dropping. “What happened?”
“About ten days ago, the Resistance transferred Noria out here to work on some highly classified project,” Elnos began.
He took off his shades, exposing the dark circles beneath his worried gaze.
“It was pretty clear she wasn’t coming back to Canalo any time soon.
When Annia and I weren’t able to wangle a transfer to Noria’s new location, we deserted. ”
“So you made your way to Osero on your own?” Iannis asked.
“Yes. We obtained Noria’s location from a Resistance soldier using suggestion magic, then traveled by boat to Parabas.
We arrived four days ago, and, from the soldier’s description, we were able to locate the compound quickly enough.
It is an underground bunker hidden under a wooded hill, on the outskirts of the town. ”
“So it must be within walking distance,” I mused, glancing out the window.
“Yes,” Elnos confirmed. “Unfortunately, things grew more difficult from there. Security around the bunker is tight. Worse, there is some sort of ward surrounding the perimeter that prevents any mage from entering.”
“So Doctor Mitas wasn’t lying.” Iannis’s brows drew together. “They really do have a way to keep mages out. I will have to investigate this ward myself, to identify the spell and perhaps dismantle it.”
A server in a grey dress and apron came to our table then, and I ordered meat pies for all of us. “I hope you can break that ward, Lord Iannis,” Elnos said fervently after she’d gone, “because Annia is within those walls, and I’m not sure if they’ve taken her prisoner or executed her.”
“How did she manage to get caught?” I demanded.
Elnos took a long drink from his beer mug before replying.
“She was trying to find another way into the bunker from the back. Unfortunately, she was picked up by a patrol, and they nearly killed her right then and there. There was blood on the ground, from several people, I think.” Frustration sparked in his eyes.
“I told her to stay near me, where I could protect her, but she didn’t listen.
And because she was on the other side of the wards, I couldn’t get to her. She’s stubborn, like her sister.”
“Yes, she is.” A bittersweet smile curved my lips, then faded away as I thought of Noria. “Do you think Noria knows Annia is being held in the compound?”
“It’s hard to say,” Elnos admitted, his shoulders slumping.
My heart sank at the look on his face—I’d never seen him so discouraged.
“I don’t know exactly how large the bunker is, but the perimeter protected by the ward is huge.
I’m afraid it’s all too possible that Annia could be locked away in an entirely different section from Noria, and that Noria could be unaware of her presence, sequestered away in her technical work. ”
“Her work,” Iannis said softly, anger burning in his gaze. “She is helping the Resistance manufacture weapons that spread disease and epidemics, you know. Some of which are specifically targeted at mages.”
“No!” Elnos recoiled, horror widening his eyes. “I know that Noria is committed to the rebellion, but she would never consent to something so horrible. How did you come to such a conclusion?”
“Such a weapon was used to attempt an assassination on the Minister during the last Convention,” Iannis said. “The Minister’s office tracked the substance to a doctor, who is now in prison. He told us the lab that tests and manufactures these deadly weapons is right here, in Nika.”
“It’s possible that Noria isn’t being given all the information,” I consoled Elnos, who looked stricken.
“She may not know exactly what these weapons do, and she’s an engineer, not a chemist. I doubt she’s actually producing these substances.
They’ll have her working on some mechanical project, most likely. ”
“Perhaps,” Elnos said slowly, his gaze distant.
“But Noria is no fool. She would figure it out eventually, and if she is willingly dedicating her time to such a horrific cause—” He broke off, shaking his head.
“This is just so hard to think about. It’s like my mind just freezes. I don’t know what to do.”
We fell silent again as the waitress returned with our food. I paid her, then stared down at the tray she’d left on the coffee table. The meat pies looked and smelled amazing, but in the wake of Elnos’s distress, I wasn’t quite so hungry anymore.
“Let us focus on one thing at a time,” Iannis said, not unkindly. “We’ll eat now, and then you’ll take us to this hidden bunker. Once we get there and I can assess the lay of the land, we’ll decide our course of action.”
“Very well,” Elnos said, reaching for his portion of pie.
We all dug in silently, and I tried my best to push away the heaviness that settled onto my shoulders.
I’d be damned if I was going to sit here and act like this was our last meal together.
Iannis and I had faced ridiculous odds in the past—we would do it again, and get my friends home safe.
I just wished I knew whether or not I could still call Noria one of those friends.