One that doesn’t care if her soul snozzle is impressed by how much makeup she wears.
I don’t know what you’re implying, Sardelle said as she headed inside for her turn, but I hope you’re finding a dungeon door while you imply it.
Not yet. I can see several guards in there with Kaika—and there are two other prisoners too—but none of them are being polite enough to leave, so I can get a chance to see how they do it.
Can’t you give them the urge to void their bladders?
A noise of disgust came through ahead of Jaxi’s words. You want me to tinker with a man’s bladder?
How about the part of the mind that responds to urges from it? It should be easy for the soulblade who plucked the information about the family vineyards from a woman’s memory in a mere three seconds.
When Jaxi did not respond, Sardelle did not know if she was searching for some guard’s bladder controls or steadfastly ignoring her suggestion and hunting for the door herself.
Kasandral would do it, Sardelle teased.
That’s not funny. Now, give me a moment to figure this out.
While she waited, Sardelle took her time using the facilities herself, including a thorough washing of her hands and face. Despite Jaxi’s comment, she hadn’t had an opportunity to apply any makeup in weeks, so she couldn’t pretend to check that. She did polish Jaxi’s pommel for her with one of the silky towels by the sink.
Oops, Jaxi thought.
Sardelle returned the towel to its holder. Oops?
It turns out that the part of the brain that tells a man he has to pee isn’t much different from the part that tells him to pee. It’s having the same effect though. I’m pretty sure he’s heading for the door.
I can’t believe that in your hundreds of years of existence, you’ve never made a man pee before.
Really, Sardelle, what kind of soulblade do you think I am? Besides, for three hundred of those years, I was buried under a mountain of rock. Bladders didn’t come in my direction very often.
Someone knocked at the door, and Sardelle jumped.
I’m almost out of time, Jaxi. You’ll have to tell me how to get down there soon. And Sardelle would have to figure out how to escape the escort, too.
I will.
Sardelle opened the door, expecting an impatient Fronzo. Instead, another woman wearing a hood faced her. It wasn’t Cas.
“Sister,” Sardelle murmured and stepped out, ducking her head, hoping the woman’s needs would delay a conversation—or a who-in-the-hells-are-you question.
“May the forest breeze always bring pleasant winds, Sister,” the other greeted and stepped inside.
To Sardelle’s relief, a response did not seem to be required. The woman closed the door without further comment. Cas, Fronzo, and another man in castle livery waited at the front of the short hall.
“I’m ready,” Sardelle said, though she was already thinking of other ways she could delay until Jaxi told her where to go.
I’ve got it. First floor, follow the hallway that parallels the king’s audience chamber, then turn into the corridor that runs behind it. There are a bunch of doors, and the one at the end leads to stairs that go up or down. Go down, obviously, then all the way through the faux dungeon. Pull on an iron ring dangling from the wall in the back. There’s a secret door that opens. Our buddy who is in need of fresh trousers left, but there’s another guard in there. Kaika is at the end of a row of cells. Presumably Puddles will be back before long too. You might want to stage your breakout now.
Aware of Fronzo walking ahead of her, leading the way to stairs that went up instead of down, Sardelle could only respond with, I’ll do my best. Thank you.
Do you need your escort to be overtaken with the urge to urinate as well? Jaxi asked.
The urge or the actual bodily function?
Well, I thought that with practice I could refine things.
But they were already up the stairs, and Fronzo was stopping in front of a door, one decorated with two more guards. Unless Jaxi could encourage the need for a group pee, Sardelle did not see how she was going to walk anywhere except into that meeting room.
“Password,” one of the guards stated as Sardelle and Cas approached.
She caught a sideways look from Cas, who probably wondered if this would be the time to fight. Not ideally. If the guards in front of the meeting room disappeared, their absence would be noticed as soon as that other escort came up with the other woman. Even if she spent several minutes in the lavatory, Sardelle knew it would take longer to find those stairs and figure out how to get Kaika out.
“The moonlight glistens on the calm waters of the harbor,” Sardelle said, using the term Jaxi had plucked from the real Sai Forgolen.
“That’s the old one,” the guard said, his voice irritated.
“What?” Jaxi?
That’s all the vineyard girl had floating around in her wine-sodden brain.
“Can’t any of you people remember your codes?” the guard asked. “Some secret organization.”
He turned to the door, clearly intending to go in and ask someone to come out and verify that Sardelle and Cas belonged. Except that they didn’t.
She threw a gust of wind at the door, slamming it shut as soon as the guard opened it. He frowned and started to tug, but then seemed to think something suspicious was going on. He whirled back toward Sardelle. She was already summoning the gust of air necessary to plaster him and his colleague to the wall.
Fronzo stirred. “What’s—”
Cas spun on him, slamming the hilt of her pistol into the side of his head. He stumbled backward, and she followed the attack with a palm strike to the nose and a kick to the inside of his knee. He wasn’t unconscious, but he crumpled. Neither Sardelle nor Cas had brought rope, but Cas cut strips off the hem of her cloak. In impressive time, she tied the man’s wrists behind his back and improvised a gag.
“Better tie his ankles too,” Sardelle said, her voice sounding strained in her own ears. Most of her focus was toward maintaining the battering ram of air that had the guards flattened against the wall. They tried to reach for their weapons, but she slammed their knuckles against the unyielding stone behind them. Holding them this way took a lot of energy, and she worried about the consequences. What happened when that other woman walked up the stairs? Or what if someone already inside the meeting came out?
“We dragging them somewhere?” Cas asked.
“We’ll have to. Here, come tie up these two. I’ll hold them.”
One of the guard’s lips curled back, as if he wanted to deny that she could do that. His lips were all he could move. The other one wasn’t fighting her power so fiercely. He was staring at her with his eyes round.
The room across the hall from that one is empty, Jaxi said.
Good, thanks.
The guard who peed is back, so you’ll have two to deal with down there.
Understood.
So long as they could get down there. Sardelle heard voices from the floor below and winced. The other “sister”? Keeping the guards pinned down was taking all of her concentration, so she could not check. She did manage to lower her hand to open the door behind them. A dark sitting room lay inside, a few chairs and tables just visible in the gloom, along with another door open in the rear. Sardelle couldn’t tell if it was a meeting room or the living area of a bedroom suite. It hardly mattered. She couldn’t imagine it or the door keeping those guards for long once they figured out how to escape their bonds.
“Done,” Cas whispered. “Someone’s coming.”
“I know.”
Again using the wind, Sardelle pushed one of the guards across the hall as she stepped out of his way. She wished she could shove them both in at once, but she lacked that kind of precision control. The headache that had blossomed earlier throbbed in sync with her heartbeat now.
I think it might have something to do with proximity to the sword, Jaxi said. You haven’t done that much today.
/> I don’t know—I haven’t rested much since last night, either. Besides, I haven’t been very far from that sword since we found it. She maneuvered the second guard into the room, pushing both of them to the far side before knocking their legs out from under them. Perhaps it was a vain hope, but she hoped they would have trouble moving across the room and thumping on the door to get attention.
A woman’s laughter floated up the stairs. “It’s always a delight visiting, Hasham.”
Someone inside the meeting room asked something, but the door muffled the words. That made Sardelle extra aware of how close everyone was and how unlikely it was that this kidnapping would go undiscovered.
“Can you knock them out?” Cas whispered as she dragged Fronzo across the threshold on his back.
“Not when they’re this alert.”
Cas did not say anything else, but Sardelle imagined her wishing she had Tolemek there. His knockout potions never failed to work. Of course, Sardelle could have done damage that would have caused the men to lose consciousness, but she was loath to beat them up any more than she had already. Whatever these people accused her of, she did not want any of it to be true.
As soon as Cas dumped her load and came out, Sardelle closed the door. She took a step toward the stairs, but the laughter came again, closer this time, and she sensed that woman was half way up already. She grabbed Cas’s arm and pointed the other way down the hall. She had no idea if there would be another set of stairs that would take them back down to the main floor, but they would have to chance it. As she and Cas ran in that direction, Sardelle focused on the locking mechanism of the door of the room that now held the guards. She melted it, hoping that would give them a few more seconds.
The woman and her escort had nearly reached the top. There wasn’t time to get to the corner. Sardelle grabbed a door, wincing when she found it locked. Cas grabbed the knob on the opposite side of the hall and shoved the door open, charging inside. Sardelle leaped after her, worried those coming onto the landing had spotted her, and also worried that they would notice the lack of guards.
“What?” someone in the room blurted. “Who are you?”
Cas glanced back, a question in her eyes. Sardelle didn’t know the answer—what to do with the bald, frail man in the middle of dressing. Sardelle grimaced at the idea of beating him into submission, especially when they had been the ones to barge into his room. She brushed the surface of his mind, hoping to find some tidbit that would give her an idea as to how to assuage his suspicions in a way that would let them walk out again in a minute.
He’s the castle bookkeeper, Jaxi said at the same time as Sardelle discerned that their appearance worried him, not because they were intruders but because they were wearing those cloaks which meant they were a part of the queen’s special group.
“Sorry,” Sardelle said, smoothing her features. She was not going to panic because she was in the middle of an infiltration that was growing less likely to succeed with each passing minute, not her. “I don’t think you heard us knock.”
“I—ah.” The bookkeeper glanced toward the door, but seemed more concerned by the trousers around his ankles.
“The queen sent us to inquire about…” About what? Uhm. “Funding for a special project.”
“Another one?” The man wrestled his trousers up to his waist. He struggled with his belt, and they were in danger of slipping down again. The burden of slim hips.
“Yes.” Sardelle tried not to make it sound like a question.
“To the Trim and Tight Landscaping Service again?” Sarcasm thickened his voice. He succeeded in fastening the belt and propped his fists on his hips, recovering his equilibrium.
Cas had stirred at the name of the company. Recognition? From the name, Sardelle was imagining some kind of sexual services business, but she supposed the queen wouldn’t need to hire prostitutes to service her sisters.
Those types of perks were not mentioned in the organization’s encyclopedia entry, Jaxi shared.
Good to know.
However, I haven’t yet had an opportunity to look over that pamphlet you took from the queen’s desk.
“How much does she need this time?” the bookkeeper asked.
“Five thousand nucros.” As Sardelle plucked the number out of the ether, she scanned the hallway outside. It was empty. She did not know whether to assume that meant it was safe to leave. They probably weren’t going to find safe tonight.
“The job was completed to the queen’s satisfaction,” Cas added.
“Glad to hear it. That’s been very expensive landscaping.” The bookkeeper waved them toward the door. “I’ll get to work on it.”
Sardelle nodded toward Cas, then strode out the door. They jogged down the hallway, Sardelle slowing down only enough to see if anyone was on the stairs and make sure the guards hadn’t escaped their prison yet. They were still there, wriggling their way across the floor toward the door.
Worrying they had already been reported as missing, Sardelle took the stairs three at a time. Jaxi guided her toward the audience hall and the hallway behind it. Twice, she and Cas had to duck into rooms or closets to avoid guards patrolling the building. If not for her senses, they would have stumbled right into them. At least none of these rooms contained bookkeepers or anyone else.
Jaxi’s directions proved accurate, and they found their way into a very tidy and dust-free basement dungeon. Sardelle headed straight for the back, searching the gloom for the iron ring.
“Are those brochures?” Cas asked as she walked past the entrance. As Jaxi had promised, a holder supported a stack of papers, and there was a chalkboard, as well as illustrations and photographs next to neat handwriting that described how the dungeon had once been used to house enemies of the nation.
Once. Right. “I believe they’re educational pamphlets,” Sardelle said. “To be handed to schoolchildren.”
“Must have missed that field trip when I was a student.”
Sardelle tugged on the heavy iron ring, the kind that might have once secured chains to the wall. It did not move. You’re sure this is the spot, Jaxi?
Yes, apply more muscle. Or get Cas to do it. Her little arms are surprisingly strong.
Sardelle glanced at Cas, but another question popped into her mind first. “You don’t know anything about the Trim and Tight Landscaping Service, do you?”
Cas nodded curtly. “One of several fictitious business entities that my father uses to send invoices and collect payments.”
“Invoices?” Sardelle couldn’t wrap her mind around the notion of receiving an invoice in the mail from an assassin.
“He’s an organized man. The fictitious names allow people to hire him without their household knowing about it. Sometimes someone within the family is a target.”
Sardelle was starting to wish she hadn’t asked. She tried twisting the ring instead of pulling it, and it gave slightly.
“That’s it,” she whispered, remembering the guards that would be in the real dungeon on the other side of the wall. “Ready for another fight?”
A sickly green glow spilled onto the stones. “Ready.” Cas had drawn the sword.
Sardelle hesitated. “We’re not eviscerating, beheading, or castrating anyone, remember?”
“If Kasandral can cut through dragon scales, I’m guessing it can handle iron bars.”
A logical argument, though Sardelle did not like the way the green glow reflected in Cas’s eyes.
I can handle iron bars too.
I have no doubt of that, Jaxi.
“Here we go.” Sardelle checked on the placement of the guards before tugging on the ring. She doubted the dark green cloaks would explain their presence down here.
She expected them to be in the same spot as they had been a moment before, but was surprised that they had moved away from the door entirely and drifted down one of three rows of cells. To check on Kaika? Sardelle tugged on the ring. They might not get a better chance to sneak in.
The stone slab swung open more quickly than she expected. Sardelle charged through, a barrier in place in front of her in case she was wrong, and someone with a gun was waiting. But she was assaulted by smoke, not bullets. The hazy air slipped around her shield, stinging her nose and making her eyes water.
“What’s—” Cas started to ask, but a muted bang came from down one of the rows of cells.
A figure strode toward them, smoke swirling. Sardelle lifted a hand, prepared to defend herself again. The person who marched out of the smoke was armed, with a pistol in each hand, but she lowered them.
“Sardelle?” Captain Kaika asked. Soot smeared her face, and a dark bloodstain marked her wrinkled shirt, the same one she had been in the day before, but she looked ready to chew up some rocks and spit them out rather than tumble onto a fainting couch. “Is that you?”
Sardelle pushed back her hood. “How did you know?”
“There’s a ball of clean air hovering around you.”
Sardelle wrinkled her nose. “Not that clean.”
Behind her, Cas coughed. “We came to rescue you, Captain.”
“Good, because until you showed up, I didn’t know where the door was.” Kaika peered back over her shoulder. “I was going to ask one of them, but, uhm, they’re going to be too busy digging themselves out of that rubble to chat.”
“How in all the realms did you get ahold of explosives down here?” Sardelle asked.
“Made them. If you’re ever running a dungeon, make sure you do a thorough search of the prisoners, and don’t dismiss any powders or liquids they’ve tucked away in dark places.”
“I shall keep that in mind.”
Kaika coughed a few times and wiped tears from her eyes—they were leaving clear tracks down her sooty cheeks. She grasped her shoulder where she had been shot, but all she asked was, “Did you bring a cloak for me?”
“Sorry, that would have been a smart idea, but we didn’t think of it. Also, we’ve been harried and rushed for most of our infiltration.” Sardelle stepped back into the show dungeon, waving for Kaika to follow. “Speaking of that, we should go. I’m afraid that noise will have been heard, and there have been other… disturbances as a result of our entrance too.”