Marcelle nodded. “Orion.”
“Savage!” Captain Reed slapped the manacle against the wall. “He’s the devil in disguise.”
Marcelle grasped Ilana’s hand and helped her rise. “Come with us, sweetheart. We have to find the others.” With every stiff-legged step, Ilana winced, and when they emerged into the corridor, she leaned against a wall and breathed a sigh.
Captain Reed opened the next door. A male toddler sat in a similar pose, arms raised and shackled. He appeared to be asleep or unconscious.
While Reed worked on his bonds, Marcelle pulled out his gag, a pair of dirty socks that had been jammed deep inside. He coughed, then sucked in a deep breath, but his eyes stayed closed.
“The poor kid could barely breathe.” She wadded the socks into a tight ball. “And Orion said they were well cared for.”
“I don’t know this boy, but I’m sure the general does.” Captain Reed scooped him into his arms. “He might just be dehydrated.”
Marcelle sniffed the air. “He was sitting in his own filth.”
“I can see that.” The captain looked at his soiled uniform. “This is the finest medal I have ever earned.”
With Marcelle leading the way, the torch in hand, he carried the boy to the hall and set him on the floor. “He should be okay here while we find the others.”
“Most likely.” Marcelle tuned her ears. Although a slight shuffling still sounded here and there, the rattling chains had quieted. Maybe the prisoners had grown weary of signaling.
Ilana staggered closer. “I’ll watch Alexander. He’s Colonel Jarvis’s son. I sometimes babysit for him.”
“Excellent.” Captain Reed showed the key ring to Marcelle. It trembled in his grip, rattling the keys. “Which cell next?”
She cupped a hand around the side of her mouth and shouted. “Shake your chains again so we can find you!”
The clinking of chains returned, this time coming from the cell across the hall.
“Shine the light on the lock,” Captain Reed said.
She set the flame close to the door. As Reed’s hand drew near with a key, his shaking arm made him miss the hole. With his second attempt, he inserted the key and disengaged the lock.
Marcelle yanked the door open and marched in with the torch. A dark-haired girl of about ten sat in the same position as the others, her expression forlorn as she tried to spit out the gag.
When Captain Reed walked in, her hazel eyes lit up. In spite of the gag, her muffled shout was clear. “Daddy!”
“Hazel!” He lunged to her, jerked a wadded rag from her mouth, and wrapped her in his arms.
Hazel sobbed. “Oh, Daddy! You came! You finally came!”
“Yes, honey.” He drew back and wiped tears from Hazel’s cheeks with his thumb. “And I’m going to get you out of here.”
Forcing air through her tightening throat, Marcelle spoke softly. “Captain, if you’ll give me the keys, I’ll see if there are any others.”
He tossed the ring to her. She snatched it out of the air, slid the door key off, and tossed it back. “If I don’t return soon, come looking for me.”
“I will.” Smiling broadly, Reed worked on Hazel’s manacles. “But if you can escape from that fire, I’m sure you can escape from anything.”
Marcelle opened the remaining doors and found another boy and another girl, both about eight years old. After removing their gags and whispering assurances to them, she returned for the key to the manacles and set them both free. For the next several minutes, she checked every cell in the other two corridors but found no more prisoners.
When everyone had gathered in the central corridor, Marcelle stood in the middle of the cramped circle, the torch held high. “We can’t very well parade them out the main entrance.”
Captain Reed, again carrying Alexander, nodded toward the far end of the hall. “There are two staircases leading to lower levels. The one to the left ends at a maze. If we can find our way through the twisting passages, we would come out at the dungeon’s rear gate, but that’s always locked. I didn’t see the key to it on that ring, and we don’t have the tools to break through. The staircase on the right leads to more cells, but it’s a dead end. Maybe we can hide the children in the maze and come back—”
“No,” Marcelle said. “I know a way out using the staircase to the right.” She lowered the torch. “We’ll carry the torch as far as we can, but we’ll eventually have to go in the dark.”
“Why so?”
“Extane. The tunnel down there is full of it.”
Reed nodded. “If you know the way, I’m sure we can follow.”
“Everyone join hands.” When the children had made a hand-to-hand chain, Marcelle nodded at Ilana. “Now hold my belt in the back.”
Ilana slid her hand behind Marcelle’s belt. “I’m ready.”
A squeak sounded at the main entrance. At the end of the hall, light poured in from the trapdoor, illuminating the bottom of the staircase.
“Where’s the torch?” a man asked.
“No clue. Maybe Orion forgot to put it away. Don’t worry. I have glow sticks.”
“Someone’s coming,” Reed whispered.
“Two someones. I’d better douse the light.” Marcelle tamped out the torch and threw it into a cell. She reached for her sword but drew her hand back. A battle with two armed men might be dangerous. Since Captain Reed had only a dagger, and since vulnerable children surrounded them, a quick escape was the better option.
Walking swiftly with Reed at the tail of the line, she led the chain to the far end of the hall, down the staircase to the right, and then to the right again, retracing her steps toward the extane pipeline.
Voices echoed in the corridor above—two men, neither one alarmed or agitated, at least not yet. When they found the unlocked and empty cells, that would change.
She picked up the pace. As expected, a bitter extane film coated her lips and tongue. The air was saturated with it.
At the end of the passage, she began pushing the loose bricks out, hoping their muffled thuds in the tunnel wouldn’t reach past her own ears.
A shout sounded from above. “They’re gone!”
Marcelle whispered, “Help me! We have to hurry.”
As several hands joined hers, the voices above continued.
“They couldn’t have left through the main entrance. It’s locked.”
“Check the maze. I’ll look on the lower level.”
“You check the maze. The last time I went down there, I got lost.”
“Then wait here while I check below. Then one of us can go around to the back gate. If it’s locked, they must still be in the maze.”
“Whoever got them loose has the keys. They could have gone out either way.”
“If you want to report the escape to Orion without making a search, then be my guest.”
“Get going, then! I’ll wait here.”
A hand touched Marcelle’s shoulder. “It’s big enough,” Reed said. “Go through. I’ll guide the children to you.”
Loud clops sounded from the stairs. Marcelle crawled through the hole and began helping the children climb down to the pipeline tunnel’s ground level, a drop of about three feet. The hands she held grew in size from child to child until Reed’s muscular hand clasped her own. As soon as he settled on the ground, he jerked away but stayed quiet.
“I know,” Marcelle said. “My hands are like ice.”
He seemed to ignore the comment. “I’ll collect the bricks while you patch it.”
As he handed her brick after brick, she felt for a spot for each to fit and slid it quietly into place. They might do a sloppy job, but this was no time for perfection.
Through the hole, a tiny red light appeared, the guard’s glow stick drawing closer. Every few steps, he stopped and shone the stick to each side, apparently checking the cell doors.
When Marcelle slid the last brick in place, the glow stayed visible through cracks in the poorly mended wall. Mak
ing a quiet shushing noise, she herded the children against the wall and pushed them low.
She returned to one of the cracks, her cheek pressed against Reed’s as they peered through. The approaching glow stopped at the final set of cell doors. A red halo surrounded the guard, an older, unfamiliar man. He pushed the glow stick between the bars of the cell window to the left and checked the latch, then did the same to the cell on the right.
Finally, the glow drew closer, the guard’s eyes directly behind it. Marcelle peeled away and pressed her back against the wall. Reed did the same.
The glow penetrated the cracks, sending a multitude of narrow red shafts of light into the tunnel, illuminating the pipeline. At the lower fringes of the scarlet halo, the children sat perfectly still. The slightest move would give away their presence.
A grunt filtered through, then the guard’s voice. “Crummy wall. No wonder there’s so much extane in here.”
The red shafts vanished, leaving them in darkness. Marcelle pressed her ear against the crack. The guard’s footfalls retreated into the distance.
“Join hands again,” she whispered.
Fingers pushed behind Marcelle’s belt. “We’re ready,” Ilana said.
Marcelle led them up the pipeline back to Dunwoody’s escape tunnel. A narrow ray of light poured through the hole leading to the tunnel, providing enough illumination to make a head count.
After touching each head, Marcelle whispered, “It looks like everyone’s here.”
Captain Reed smiled. “Excellent, but where is here?”
“I’ll explain soon. First we have to dig through this rubble.”
Captain Reed transferred Alexander to Ilana’s arms. “Let’s get to work.”
“The ceiling on the other side is fragile,” Marcelle said. “We’ll have to be careful.”
After about fifteen minutes, they had created a hole big enough to get everyone through. Once Captain Reed and the children had settled around the lantern, Marcelle scooped water from the barrel and passed the ladle around, beginning with Alexander, who stayed awake and alert after his drink.
Finally, Marcelle sat down in the ring and put on an exaggerated smile. “This is an old tunnel that almost no one knows about.” She nodded toward the entrance panel. “That leads to Professor Dunwoody’s archives room. He’s supposed to be coming in here tonight, and I hope he brings my father with him.”
“Very well.” Sitting with Alexander in his lap, Captain Reed pulled Hazel closer. “I will do anything in my power to help you gather an army, but even after we inform the other officers about their children, it won’t be a simple task. The officers will be behind you, but without the governor’s signature on an invasion order, we won’t be able to get the rations and equipment we need unless, of course, you can pay for them in advance.”
“I have access to funds,” Marcelle said, “but I don’t know how long it will take to get them, so I can’t be sure we can pay in advance. Professor Dunwoody is going to draw up a letter of marque for me tonight. If I can get Orion’s signature on a blank parchment now, maybe Dunwoody can use that for the letter.”
“Now that would be quite a trick. Do you have a plan?”
“Follow him until he’s alone and kidnap him.”
“Kidnap him?” Laughing under his breath, Reed shook his head. “My dear Marcelle, whatever illness has made you pale has also drained blood from your brain.”
“If you mean his bodyguard, he will be no match for—”
“Not a bodyguard.” Reed lifted a pair of fingers. “He has two most of the time, one who stays close and one who usually stays out of sight. He has become quite anxious about assassins.”
“When does he have only one?”
“When he leaves the palace, but then he has archers, usually six. They are quite adept at skewering someone from a distance. Some of the older ones were taught by Professor Dunwoody himself.”
Marcelle gave him a skeptical look. “Dunwoody was an archer?”
“The best in his time, but I’m sure he hasn’t picked up a bow in a while. No place to shoot an arrow in the archives.”
Marcelle raised her own pair of fingers. “Then it will take two warriors to capture Orion, but one of us has to stay here with the children.”
“I agree. It seems that we will have to wait for Dunwoody to return.” Captain Reed set Alexander in Ilana’s lap, rose to his feet, and nodded at the water barrel. “Do we have enough to wash them?”
“Probably, and we have sponges and soap, too.” Marcelle joined him. “I hope they don’t mind a bath that’s not so private.”
Ilana laughed. “After what we’ve been through, I don’t think anyone will mind.”
“Good, but first we’ll break into the rations Dunwoody keeps here. When everyone’s good and fed, we’ll get cleaned up.” Marcelle passed around the box of manna woodchips. While Captain Reed and the children chewed the bark to calm the effects of breathing extane, she opened one of the rations footlockers and handed out small paper bags filled with nuts and dried fruit.
When she gave a bag to the captain, he pushed a manna chip into her palm and folded her fingers over it. “Don’t underestimate the extane. I heard about a man whose heart ripped in half from beating too hard.”
“Thank you.” Marcelle popped the chip into her mouth and chewed. There seemed to be no reason to explain the lack of need for it.
Captain Reed picked up a rations bag and extended it to her. “Aren’t you going to eat?”
“I’m not hungry.” After stealthily spitting out her manna chip, she stripped off her cloak and sword belt and began gathering the bathing supplies.
“You will be later.” The captain pushed the bag into her cloak’s pocket, now on the floor near the lantern. “Every warrior needs to eat.”
She nodded. “Thank you again. I will be sure to eat when my body needs it.”
After the children had finished their rations, Captain Reed helped the boys clean up while Marcelle helped the girls, the boys facing one way and the girls facing the other. They washed their clothes, rung them out, and put them on again, though they were still quite damp.
After lighting two more lanterns, they gathered around the flickering lights, close enough to feel the warmth. During the next hour, Marcelle told Captain Reed her story, including all the details she could remember from her adventures with Adrian on Starlight, though she left out the part about being separated from her body.
Captain Reed stretched his arms. “I assume you must have caught an exotic illness on Dracon … or Starlight, I suppose.”
She nodded. “Exotic is an appropriate term.”
A tapping noise sounded from the panel. Marcelle leaped up and grabbed the sword and a lantern. She hustled to the entry, poised to strike the intruder.
When the panel popped open, Dunwoody poked his head through and crawled in.
Marcelle drew back and helped him up. “You’re early … I think.” She leaned over and glanced into the archives room, but without windows, there was no way to tell the time of day.
Dunwoody pushed the panel closed with his foot. “Yes,” he whispered, pulling her away from the panel. “How did you get here with the children?”
As they walked toward the others, she nodded at the pile of rubble, the gaping hole evident. “There’s a way to get here from the dungeon without going out into the open.”
“Excellent.” Dunwoody patted her on the back. “Well done.”
Marcelle picked up the cloak and sword belt and put them on. “So why did you come out of hiding?”
Dunwoody glanced at Captain Reed. “I see the captain is now our ally.”
Marcelle pushed her hood back. “Absolutely.”
“Very well.” He turned toward the archives. “I heard some important news that was worth risking my capture, so I returned here to gather some things from my office. The guards were gone, I assume, because of your execution, so the risk lessened greatly. I heard a bit of splashing and
giggling, and I guessed the cause right away. Since the door was closed and no one else was around, I went about my business. I am glad of the children’s rescue, but they must be quieter.”
Marcelle touched the top of Alexander’s head. “I’m sure we can persuade them.”
“Good. This refuge is only as safe as the refugees make it.”
“So, what’s the news?”
Dunwoody’s brow arched up. “Randall, the son of the former governor, has brought two dragons from Starlight.”
“Here?” Marcelle raised a pair of fingers. “Two dragons are here on Major Four?”
He nodded. “It is quite amazing what one hears while hiding under the gallows. Randall met some members of the Underground Gateway there and told them. I stayed hidden, just in case some of them couldn’t be trusted.”
“But why would Randall bring dragons? They’re dangerous.” She bit her lip. Would it be better to hide her knowledge that Magnar was here? He was probably the most dangerous of all. Why would Randall be so bold to bring him here? “Do you know their names?”
“Only that one is their king and one is a priest.”
“Magnar and Arxad,” she said with a sigh.
Captain Reed joined their huddle. “Your tone worries me, Marcelle.”
“Magnar’s the worry. Arxad might keep Magnar from going on a rampage, but I’m not sure we can trust Arxad, either.”
“Well,” Dunwoody continued, “it seems that Randall will send a message to Orion asking him to meet for a parley of sorts, but Randall was unclear about the dragons’ demands, something about getting help to solve a crisis on their world.”
Marcelle grasped the hilt of her sword. “Do you know where they’ll be meeting?”
“At the rear entrance to the dungeon,” Dunwoody said.
Captain Reed looked at the gap leading to the gas pipeline. “Randall must be hiding them in the dungeon. That entrance leads to a cave with a maze of passages. Based on Marcelle’s descriptions of the dragons’ size, it sounds like they could fit.”
“Probably.” She drew a mental picture of the dungeon’s rear gate and the surrounding area. “Lots of woods there, right?”
Reed nodded. “There’s a path leading to it from the palace, but it’s not well traveled.”