Chapter 4
Talwyn found Carrick and Rainier down the tunnel going over the known details.
“There’s a series of rooms like our Kiln where they burned rubbish. If they are holding her anywhere, alive,” Rainier paused, “they’ll have her there. The main incinerator is outside. It’s too public. Anyone nearby would hear her screams.”
He didn’t need to say it, but Talwyn knew he expected they would be torturing the girl. Damn Rainier, she thought. They needed to get going.
They convened in Egan’s room briefly. He would stay with the boy, while the rest went after his sister. There wasn’t time for good-byes or assurances. Talwyn gave Egan a nod and headed back through the tunnels.
Sybil joined the remaining three in step and motioned where to go. “There’s an open sewer under the building that leads to the river. We should be able to access the inside through there.”
Talwyn nodded and adjusted her course through the tunnels. They would reach the facility quickest by sticking to the waterways.
Noises fell flat as they ran. The river swallowed echoes, wrapping a blanket of unease around them.
Evidence of other underground dwellers littered the ground, but their progress was unimpeded.
No curious eyes tracked their movements; no street urchins scrounged for scraps.
No one dared venture out now, and an eerie sense of foreboding settled over Tal.
Their journey to the incinerator passed without obstacle, and their quickened pace calmed her nerves.
She needed to keep her head clear if she hoped to get the girl out alive, to get all of them out alive. They planned as they ran.
Sybil couldn’t see outcomes without knowing the location, and she’d never been inside the building. They would be entering blind, with only split-second warnings from the seer if they even had that kind of time.
Talwyn readied herself, keeping her breath steady and searching for her fury within. She would need to conserve her magic until absolutely necessary. One mage would be difficult enough to manage. They knew of at least two who took the girl. If they found more, their fates were left to the gods.
Despite being abandoned long ago, the smell of rotten refuse permeated every inch of the structure. Her eyes watered as she waited for direction, wondering how the stench could be worse than their tunnels.
Unsurprisingly, Rainier knew the layout.
With his palm, he directed them where to go once they got into the facility.
Sybil’s predictions were spot on, as usual.
No one waited for them at the sewage entrance, and they found a loose grate to climb into the heart of the building.
Once in, they stayed close together, daggers and knives out, Carrick at the front, Talwyn and Rainier flanking him, and Sybil at the back.
A single word from her guided them on which way to turn.
Apprehension alone filled the silence filtering through the corridors.
Sybil would warn them of any traps. She would know that much at least.
A man yelled incoherently up ahead, and their progress stopped. Talwyn eyed Sybil. “I don’t know.” She shook her head.
A green flash illuminated everything, and more shouts echoed down the corridor. Torches along every wall erupted in flames of the same emerald color. Metal clashed, followed by a child’s scream.
As one, they turned right, and the chaos came into full view.
Faceless men wearing deep green from head to toe crowded the corridor.
Some lay on the ground unconscious or bleeding.
Others were locked in a swordfight with someone out of view.
One figure’s hood remained down. As he turned, his blank face came into view.
Where eyes, nose, and mouth should have been sat only a blurred picture of mottled skin, like trying to remember a face, but not quite recalling it.
Apparitions overwhelmed every space, the deep forest of their cloaks punctuated by the gray of the floor or the occasional flash of red.
The group sprinted together, jumping into the fray.
Talwyn fought with barely contained fury, throwing her whole body into the brawl.
“Where is the girl?” she cried out after stabbing one enemy through the spine.
She screamed, aimed for the most painful blows, tore her knives through flesh, and allowed the apparition to get close enough to nick the skin so she could stab them in the heart.
“Behind the swordsman! Backed against a wall.” Sybil leered at the apparition in front of her before running at him and ducking at the last minute.
Her blade came up and connected with the figure’s middle.
It doubled over, and she stabbed again until it fell.
She yelled, cackled, and taunted each copy of a man.
She threw her knives without looking and struck true. “He’s trapped if we don’t help him.”
Carrick fought with brute force, punching, slamming faceless heads into walls, and pulling bodies onto his short sword. “I thought that’s what we were doing!” he called back.
Rainer danced into view. He avoided a blow with a graceful spin, his weapon continuing the movement until it connected with flesh.
He parried and side-stepped around assailants, slashing as he went, aiming for the most vulnerable points.
In between jabs, he spoke under his breath at the next assailant, telling him to stab his own throat, then commanding the next to attack his fellow apparitions.
Beyond, Talwyn caught glimpses of a lone swordsman, dressed from head to toe in a deep red leather, his hood pulled back, a mask of the same color covering the lower half of his face.
His dark, unkempt hair whipped this way and that as he fought, and his graceful form exposed a lifetime of practice.
Tal took a moment to admire how expertly he dodged the attack of one apparition, using his momentum to slice through the chest of another, then bring his sword back around and sever the neck of the first. Tal whistled in admiration.
“There!” Sybil threw a knife toward the swordsman. An apparition stepped in its path, unaware of the flying weapon, and crumpled on the ground before it could take another step.
A few paces in front of the body sat a malnourished little girl about five years old, covered in dirt, grime, and blood spatters from the fighting. Her blonde hair would have been curly if it wasn’t matted. She sobbed, head swiveling back and forth between the swordsman and his attackers.
He fought well, taking on multiple assailants at once, but they outnumbered him five to one and backed him into a dead-end. They weren’t going to make it to the pair at this rate.
“Carrick! Make a path! Syb, take the lead!” Talwyn slipped on a dark puddle. She used the momentum to thrust her dagger into the nearest apparition.
With practiced familiarity, they regrouped and barreled through the enemy toward the lone swordsman. The onslaught of forest green assailants continued, with even more appearing at their backs where none had been before. Talwyn searched for the source, but they appeared out of thin air.
“Where the hells are they all coming from?” Carrick threw a cloaked figure to the ground.
“The mages!” Rainier blocked an overhead swing with the weapon in his right hand and stabbed under his attacker’s ribs with the one in his left.
“Find them! It won’t stop until we kill the mages!” Tal screamed as an apparition grazed her thigh with something sharp. She thanked him with a slice across his gut.
“There’s no time! Get the girl and get out!” Sybil’s voice grew hoarse.
Carrick swore and barreled further, pushing and stabbing. Sybil ran along the space on the wall, throwing knives, ducking, pausing, and side-stepping, until she crouched next to the child huddled in the corner, sobbing beside the red swordsman.
“Where the hells have you been?” he bellowed, felling one enemy after another. A gap in the surge afforded him the chance to breathe and his gaze locked with Talwyn’s. “It took you long enough!”
Confusion made Tal pause. “To your right!” she warned.
He threw up his sword just before being bludgeoned over the head. He stumbled back, swinging, and his blade hit its mark. He gave Tal a wink before returning to the fight.
Sybil protected the girl from an overhead blow. “You knew we were here.”
“I went ahead when I saw you enter the building,” was his reply between sword strikes.
“Let’s go Syb!” Tal ordered before avoiding an overhead attack. “They aren’t slowing down!” A cry rang out and Talwyn spun to find the source.
“RAIN!” Sybil’s voice dripped with fear.
Rainier pulled a dagger out of his ribcage.
Talwyn locked eyes with Sybil, willing her to search for a future.
“The mage. Third room. Go, now! Rain, get up!”
“Quit pestering me!” he yelled back, his brotherly banter eliminating any concern for his condition.
Tal found the room Sybil had indicated. The door held no window, but she trusted her friend wouldn’t send her to her death. She tore open the door and threw a knife into the darkness. A cry rang out as a searing pain clawed at her mind.
The clamor beyond the door lessened, and Carrick yelled to retreat. She thanked the gods and hoped they’d make it out safely. The pain increased, and she let out a strangled scream. Her fury begged to be let loose, but she couldn’t, not yet.
Two mages took the girl. If she used up all her energy on one, they would never make it out.
She ignored the pain and ran into the room in the direction she threw her knife.
She swiped in a wide arc, hoping the mage had no experience in battle and would be frozen in place.
The gods must have favored her because she hit something soft, the pain in her head lessening.
She slashed and stabbed again and again, stopping only when the pain dissipated completely.
“Tal! Time to go!” Carrick's voice carried over the fighting still going on.