Chapter 15 Maintain Dungeon Security
(Unless Your Staff Decides Otherwise)
Kazimir
Griffin stood in the laboratory doorway like a man awaiting execution.
His gangly frame trembled, those ridiculous amber eyes wide behind his askew glasses.
Behind him, Vex maintained her usual composure, though the slight twitch in her left eye told me whatever Griffin had done was spectacularly bad.
Sebastian hovered near the back, looking distinctly uncomfortable.
“Speak,” I commanded, my voice deceptively calm. The kind of calm that preceded someone losing vital organs.
“My lord,” Griffin began, wringing his hands. “I was—that is, Vex was showing Lord Sebastian around the citadel, as planned.”
“The non-sensitive areas,” Vex clarified, which immediately told me they’d gone somewhere they shouldn’t have.
“Yes! Absolutely non-sensitive!” Griffin’s voice cracked. “Just the… the dungeons.”
“The dungeons,” I repeated. The temperature in the room plummeted. One of his preserved experiments frosted over.
“Just the Necromantic Wing, my lord!” Griffin hastened to add, as if that made it better.
“I was retrieving samples from the storage vaults. For the purification research. The texts suggested that understanding how death magic interacts with corrupted life essence might give us insight into reversing the ley line contamination. And I ran into them during their tour of the lower levels—”
My shadows darkened with my impatience.
“We started talking about magical theory.” Griffin’s words tumbling out faster now.
“The interaction between life magic and death magic, the theoretical applications of biomantic principles in necromantic spaces—it was fascinating, really, and Lord Sebastian had such insightful questions about the containment matrices—”
“Griffin.” Arabella’s voice cut through his rambling. “What did you do?”
He paled further, which I hadn’t thought possible. “I—I wanted to demonstrate a simple reanimation principle. Just a small spell! A tiny manipulation of the death essence in Cell Block Seven—”
“Cell Block Seven,” I said slowly, “where we keep the high-security prisoners.”
“It was supposed to be contained to the empty cell! But the spell, um, sort of cascaded.”
The runes in my bones began to burn, responding to my rising fury. “Define ‘cascaded.’ ”
Griffin opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again. No sound emerged.
With a sigh that suggested she’d rather be literally anywhere else, Vex stepped forward. “Sir Darian Lightbringer escaped his cell, my lord.”
The silence that followed could have frozen hell.
“I assume,” I said, each word precise and lethal, “that you immediately recaptured him and returned him to his cell.”
Griffin squeaked like a dying mouse.
“No, my lord,” Vex said, meeting my gaze steadily. “The spell somehow created a connection between two separate parts of the prison system. Lightbringer, who has apparently gone quite mad from his withdrawal, managed to grab Lord Evenfall during the chaos.”
Arabella gasped.
“They both escaped through one of the Tempest Cages,” Vex continued.
The Tempest Cages—those delightful iron spheres suspended beneath the floating isle that housed the dungeons, dangling over the void on enchanted chains. They swayed perpetually in the storms below, a special torment for prisoners I particularly despised.
Arabella shook her head. “I don’t even understand how that happened. How did they get from their respective cells down to the Tempest Cages?”
“The magical specifics are still unclear,” Vex admitted, her jaw tight.
“But the general sequence is this: Griffin’s spell created a feedback loop through the containment runes.
The Silent Sentinels glitched—their animation briefly confused by conflicting signals.
The cells opened themselves, and there was a few minutes of chaos.
But most of the prisoners headed upward to escape, and we apprehended them without any trouble. ”
Vex sighed. “But in his addled state, Lightbringer stumbled through the corridors during the chaos and encountered Lord Evenfall. They headed for what they thought was an exit—the chain-hauled lift.”
“But the lift took them down,” I said slowly, understanding dawning.
“The undead operator was glitching from the necromantic surge,” Vex confirmed. “By the time they realized their error, they’d reached the Tempest Cage platform. When they tried to retreat, the cascading spell hit the enchanted chains. The nearest cage released and plummeted with them inside.”
“Then they should be very dead,” I said, grasping for that one silver lining.
“They should be,” Vex agreed. “But as you know, some of the defensive wards have been temperamental since the Guild’s attack. Instead of falling to their deaths, they sort of…” She made a floating gesture with her hand. “Bounced. Downward. Slowly.”
“Are you saying they floated?” Arabella’s voice rose an octave.
“Like dandelion seeds on a breeze,” Sebastian offered helpfully, then immediately looked like he regretted speaking.
My gaze snapped to him. Of course. The mysterious Lord Sebastian, who just happened to arrive seeking sanctuary, who just happened to be touring the dungeons, who just happened to be present when my prisoners escaped.
“You,” I snarled, shadows coiling around my feet. “You’re a spy.”
“Kaz—” Arabella started, but I was already moving.
“First you show up at precisely the right moment, then you ingratiate yourself with my staff, and now—coincidentally—two valuable prisoners escape while you’re touring the fucking dungeons?”
Sebastian backed up, hands raised, and he almost fell out the door. “Lord Blackrose, I assure you—”
“Your assurances mean nothing.” My shadows reached for him, ready to pin him to the wall and extract the truth.
Arabella stepped between us, her hand on my chest. “Let me.”
She turned to Sebastian, her hazel eyes sharp. “Did you have anything to do with their escape?”
“No, my lady,” Sebastian said immediately. “I had no notion this would happen—not even a fraction.” He winced.
Arabella studied him for a long moment, that subtle tension around her eyes that meant she was using her truth-sense. Then she nodded. “He’s telling the truth.”
“Actually,” Vex interjected, “Lord Sebastian prevented it from being worse. When Griffin’s spell began cascading through the other wings, Sebastian used his magic to seal them.”
“Vines and roots,” Griffin added eagerly, apparently forgetting he was still in mortal danger. “It was brilliant! The biomantic energy created a natural barrier against the necromantic overflow—”
“Griffin,” I said very quietly, “stop talking before I feed you to the void beasts.”
He made a strangled sound and fell silent.
“Where are they now?” Arabella demanded.
“I’ve already informed Thorne,” Vex said. “He’s taken a team to retrieve them. Assuming they survived the landing.”
“Oh, they survived,” I muttered. “Because nothing in my life is ever that simple.”
“My lord,” Griffin ventured, “I’m terribly sorry—”
“Sorry?” I turned on him. “You released a Hero’s Guild knight-commander who knows our defenses and a vindictive noble who sold his own daughter.
You compromised our security, endangered our operations, and demonstrated a level of incompetence that makes me question why I haven’t already turned you into a decorative wall hanging. ”
“My lord,” Sebastian spoke up, “if I may—the fault is partly mine. I encouraged his demonstration. I was genuinely curious about the theoretical applications—”
“Of course you were,” I snarled. “How convenient that your curiosity led to chaos.”
“Kaz, he’s trying to help,” Arabella said.
“Help? This is help?” I gestured wildly at the general catastrophe. “Your father is loose, and Lightbringer is on his way to Auremar to tell him everything he knows. And all because these idiots decided to play show-and-tell in my fucking dungeons!”
“To be fair,” Griffin said weakly, “the spell matrix was theoretically sound—”
“Griffin,” Vex and Arabella said in unison.
He closed his mouth with a snap.
I pressed my palms against my eyes, trying to ward off the headache building behind them. The runes in my bones throbbed in rhythm with my pulse, each beat sending fresh waves of pain through my body. First the corrupted ley lines, then the Heirloom fusing with Arabella, now this.
I turned to tell Arabella that Thorne had likely already found them, but she was gone. I stared at the empty space where my wife had been standing, then at the still-swinging door.
“Shit,” I muttered, and ran after her.
Behind me, I heard Griffin’s tentative voice: “So… am I fired?”
“Not yet,” Vex replied. “But I’d start practicing your groveling. You’ll need it when they get back.”