Velnias replied with a shrug. “Hey, man, just playing my part. Sorry.”
“You could’ve gone easier on me and the other prisoners,” Laughlan muttered, crossing his arms. Despite his flannel tunic, it was still obvious he was underweight, and, judging by the wound on his neck, he’d been recently fed on. The blood was dry around the cut. That could further explain his somewhat lethargic reaction.
“Who fed on you?” I asked, frowning.
“One of the generals,” Laughlan replied, prompting Velnias to scoff.
“That’s it, I’m blacklisting those greedy brutes,” Velnias said, crossing his arms. “Only the king and his sons are allowed to feed on the Druid. Wait till they hear about this. Who let the general in? I thought I left clear instructions with the guards!”
Laughlan sighed. “The guards let him in. He let them feed off me, as well.”
“How are you still alive?” I asked. “With all due respect, you look terrible, but not as bad as the fae couple we just saw.”
“Idris and Rayna? They’re still alive?” Laughlan replied, his eyebrows raised with surprise. I nodded my response, and he smiled. “Thank the Daughters. I haven’t seen them in… I’ve lost track, actually.”
As much as I understood the wonder and sudden rush of hope surging through him, I knew we didn’t have much time on our hands. The more questions he answered, the closer we got to our objective.
“Laughlan, what’s your secret?” I asked, then nodded at the scratched symbols in the corner. He followed my gaze, then chuckled.
“You’re quick,” he said. “I figured out what some of these charms do. Lumi taught me a few tricks during our trip, before we crash-landed in this hellhole. It’s not enough to get myself out of here, but I was able to override some of the charms. They’re meant to keep me docile and obedient, but now they help replenish my energy levels, drawing directly from the earth beneath and around us. The meranium actually works as a filter. It’s the only way I’ve been able to keep myself in a functioning state.”
“Consider me impressed,” Velnias replied, then scoffed.
Laughlan rolled his eyes. “Relax, you fiend! I haven’t figured out how to get myself out of here yet, if that’s what you’re worried about!”
“You mentioned Lumi,” I said. “Who’s that?”
“The swamp witch,” Laughlan replied. “She heralded the expedition. It was part of an Eritopian effort to explore our universe, to see what life lay beyond our stars. It started out as a great idea, until she got sick.” He sighed. “She convulsed and somehow affected the interplanetary spell. It wasn’t her intention, of course, but she nudged it off course and it collided with the asteroid belt over Neraka. That’s what made us crash. Those stupid, purple rocks.”
“So what happened exactly, after you crash-landed here?” Hansa asked.
Laughlan took a deep breath, then scratched his beard, narrowing his eyes as he tried to remember what I assumed was the correct sequence of events. After all these years, I couldn’t fault him for having a weakened memory.
“We found the Exiled Maras here. Well, up on the surface, in Azure Heights,” he said. “They seemed like they were getting their act together. Until one of them stabbed my brother, Ronas, in the neck, and consumed his soul. It happened so fast, and it was so unexpected. We really didn’t see it coming. They’d been so kind and hospitable, but they turned on us, fast. The first to fall was actually Lumi. When they attacked Ronas, Lumi was already bound and gagged, unable to use her magic to get us out of there. I guess that’s the downside of swamp witch magic. It’s useless if you can’t speak.”
“You know, Laughlan, a lot has happened since you left Eritopia,” Jax said. “Lumi is, in fact, the last of her kind now.”
“No,” Laughlan breathed, his eyes wide with shock. “How… How did that happen? They were powerful creatures, stronger than all of my kind put together!”
“A Druid happened, actually,” Jax replied. “But that’s a story for another time. Tell us, where is she? How is she?”
“Oh, boy.” Laughlan sighed, then shook his head. “It’s a miracle she’s still alive, but if anyone can outlive us all, it will probably be Lumi. I’m one of the few who knows where she is, and that’s purely because I scrambled one of the charms in here to eavesdrop on the conversations taking place outside—”
“You sly little Druid!” Velnias chuckled, genuinely impressed.
“Yes, well, I had to keep myself entertained somehow,” Laughlan shot back. “This place is incredibly boring. I haven’t felt the sun on my face in thousands of years!”
“Laughlan, focus,” I interjected, feeling him slip away again. His state of mind wasn’t in the best shape, but, with a little guidance, he could still function, from what I could tell. “What happened to Lumi?”
“They tortured her. They’ve been torturing her from the beginning,” Laughlan replied, his voice trembling, as his shoulders dropped. “But Lumi is strong, stronger than all of us put together. She holds out for as much as she can. Sometimes, she caves in and gives them a spell, but boy, does she string them along!” He chuckled, the bitterness in his voice punching me in the gut. Laughlan had feelings for her, judging by the golden tendrils coming out of him whenever he mentioned her name. “I think it’s why they haven’t killed her yet. Because she gives them spells once every few years. She started out with the minor stuff, then moved on to stronger magic. They still have to work out the ingredients, then experiment until they have a functioning spell. In the meantime, Lumi’s still bound, blindfolded, and gagged, somewhere in Azure Heights—”
“Wait, what?!” I croaked.
The revelation knocked the air out of my lungs. Based on the expressions in the room, however, I wasn’t the only one baffled by a most gut-wrenching truth. The swamp witch had been in Azure Heights this whole time!
“The daemons and Exiled Maras argued over this many times,” Laughlan replied with a shrug. “They eventually agreed for the Maras to keep Lumi, and for the daemons to hold on to the rest of us, as long as Shaytan had continued access to swamp witch magic.”
“So you’re telling me that the Exiled Maras have been torturing Lumi, the last of the swamp witches, for thousands of years?” Hansa breathed, still wrapping her head around this.
I felt queasy. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what it must’ve been like to be deprived of everything, repeatedly tortured for centuries on end. If Laughlan’s hopelessness felt toxic just from being in the same room with him, what could it be like for someone like Lumi?
Laughlan shuddered, then rubbed his eyes. He was in so much pain I could almost feel it. “They feed on her, too, I hear. The daemons aren’t too happy about that. They insisted that Lumi be left with her soul intact, since she had so much valuable information, but the Exiled Maras aren’t exactly known for their restraint. I understand that, over the past couple of years, Shaytan has had daemon guards stationed in Azure Heights, out of sight, to keep an eye on her, and to make sure that they weren’t draining her to the point where she could no longer provide them with spells.”
“Oh, wow. That’s just sick,” Fiona murmured.
Caspian was pale as a sheet of paper. The look on his face and the tortured glimmer in his eyes told me everything I needed to know. He knew. He’d known all along, but, because of his blood oath, he couldn’t say anything about it.
“I’m guessing Laughlan is quite accurate, huh?” I asked him, and he nodded slowly.
A few red spots blossomed on his cheeks, a reaction of his blood oath against the truth being exposed. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.
“It’s okay, Caspian,” I replied, moving closer to him. “Just blink once for yes, and twice for no. Remember that worked before?”
He gave me a weak smile, then blinked once.
“Do you know exactly where they’re keeping her in Azure Heights?” Jax asked Laughlan, who shook his head.
“No. I’ve tried to listen in on generals ne
arby, but the ‘hearing’ radius of my reversed charms is quite limited. But I do know they’re keeping her mostly unconscious. They wake her up to feed her, then put her back to sleep. She’s always gagged, so they force her to write the spells, whenever she finally gives in from all the pain.”
“Is that true, Caspian?” Hansa asked, and Caspian blinked once.
My stomach churned, and my throat closed up. The more I learned about Lumi’s condition, the more urgent our mission became. All the days we’d spent worried about ourselves and the Imen suddenly paled in comparison to what Lumi was going through.
“Listen, Laughlan,” I said slowly, “I promise you we’ll get her out of there. And we’ll come back for you and the others, too. This ends soon.”
Hansa then nudged Velnias’s shoulder. “How many Druid delegation members are still alive, and held here, in Draconis?” she asked. “We need to get them all out, and soon. Now that we know where the swamp witch is kept, we’ll need all hands on deck, including the delegation’s.”
Velnias nodded in agreement, scratching the back of his head. “There are six left in total. Idris, Rayna, and Laughlan here are on my block. There are two other Maras, and a Druid, too, over in the western block. Cells 120, 121, and 123, to be precise. I’ll help you get there once you get a plan together.”
“Good,” I replied, then walked over to Laughlan and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Laughlan, I need you to hang in there. We’re coming back for you, and we’re getting Lumi out, too. Eritopia lost plenty of Druids during Azazel’s occupation, and I’ll be damned if I’ll let a single Druid die in this place.”
“Thank you,” Laughlan replied, giving me a weak smile. “Just make sure Lumi’s okay. I don’t really care what happens to me, as long as she lives.”
“Laughlan, provided you don’t get yourself in trouble with all these little reversed charms, you’ll still be here when they come back for you.” Velnias chuckled.
“Okay, what’s the plan, then?” I asked, looking at Jax and Hansa.
“We should retreat upstairs, in that little safe space that Vesta showed us,” Jax suggested. “We’ll put our heads together and work out the best way to get everyone out, including Lumi.”
Laughlan then got up and went over to the side of his bed. He got down on his knees and pulled a small box from underneath. He flipped it open and handed over a bunch of scrolls. I unraveled them, and couldn’t help but smirk. “Velnias was right,” I muttered, “you are a sly Druid.”
I gave the scrolls to Jax and Hansa, both of them smiling as they read through the contents. Laughlan sat back on the edge of the bed and shrugged.
“Swamp witch magic,” Hansa murmured, reading through the ingredient lists. “With Nerakian herbs and crystals. How did you get these?”
“I overheard some of the daemons over the years,” Laughlan replied. “I have no access to the ingredients, but I kept the spells, just in case the day came that I would actually get to use them. Thanks to you all, that day is now upon us.”
“It’s a good thing I allowed the guards to give you charcoal sticks and paper to write on, then,” Velnias chuckled. “I thought it would help maintain your sanity.”
“I don’t know how much the writing helped with that, but at least I got to record some of these little beauties,” Laughlan replied, nodding at the scrolls in Hansa’s hands.
“Thank you for that,” I said to Laughlan. “You have no idea how much it helps us right now.”
The Druid gave me one more smile, but it faded with the sound of an opening door. By the time I turned around, a familiar and blood-curdling voice came through.
“You outsiders are getting really sloppy, you know,” Cayn said, standing in the doorway.
My heart stopped.
The First Prince was backed by at least a dozen daemon guards, from what I could glimpse over his shoulder. We all drew our swords, on instinct. Pheng-Pheng’s scorpion tail rattled discreetly, and the sideways glance that she gave me told me everything I needed to know: we were in trouble up to our necks this time, but we were going to fight this, tooth and nail.
My blood quickly defrosted, and the clench in my stomach dissolved as my instincts went into overdrive. With both my swords out, I looked Cayn in the eyes, and, with no time left to wonder how he’d caught up with us, I only focused on ways of removing his head from his neck.
Jax
It was one thing to be on edge, perfectly aware of your surroundings while infiltrating a daemon city. But it was something else entirely to have one of the higher daemons standing in front of you, with a smug grin that basically screamed “I’ve got you now!”, and guards behind him.
We were suddenly stuck in a meranium box, faced by the very creatures that wanted us locked up. Velnias’s cover was blown, at this point. He had no way of backing himself out of this, mainly because Cayn had probably eavesdropped on the conversation from the outside—I certainly would’ve done that, if I were him.
My gaze briefly met Hansa’s as I went over options in my head. I needed her safe and out of here. Most importantly, I could not let Cayn close that door on us.
“You’re all probably wondering how I knew you were all gathered here,” Cayn sneered, with one hand resting on the hilt of his still-sheathed, bejeweled broadsword. He didn’t seem threatened by all our blades.
“Personally, I’m wondering how long it will take for you to die, from the moment I slit your throat,” Harper replied dryly.
“Little vampire, I’ll enjoy eating your soul the most. You’ve got spunk. It’s refreshing. And downright hot.” Cayn chuckled, then let out a playful growl. “But, still, do let me tell you about how I, the First Prince on King Shaytan’s Council, outsmarted you all.”
“Ugh, desperate to blow his own horn here, obviously,” Fiona retorted, rolling her eyes.
“Oh, I don’t need to do that. My actions are already testimony to my sheer genius. You see, I’ve had you tracked since you escaped from Infernis,” Cayn said. “Two daemons with red lenses have been tailing you this whole time, with specific orders to not intervene until you were in a location where I could easily grab you and bring you back to my father. However, don’t beat yourselves up for not spotting them. They’ve kept a reasonable distance this whole time.”
It didn’t come as much of a shock, but it was still a sore disappointment. It wasn’t as if Harper could use her True Sight at all times, and, if the trackers were good enough, they could quite easily escape a sentry’s detection—which, unfortunately, they had.
We couldn’t have predicted this, either. After the mess we’d left the daemons with, back in Infernis, I didn’t think either of them would have the skill to track us from the moment we escaped from the gorges. The odds had seemed in our favor at the time. Chalk it up to experience, and pray you get out of this, now.
“I didn’t know about Velnias, though,” Cayn added, narrowing his red eyes at the High Warden, whose expression gave nothing away. “My trackers spotted you going into my brother’s cell, but I didn’t think Velnias was involved until you scoundrels walked out of there with him. Velnias, my friend, you are in so much trouble. You have no idea.”
“Oh, I might have a clue,” Velnias scoffed, his sword screeching as he pulled it out from the scabbard.
“I knew you’d come to Draconis sooner or later,” Cayn said, sneering at me. “It was only a matter of time before you self-righteous meat-bags made your way here. So I made sure to deliver Zane myself. Imagine my delight when I ran into one of my trackers on my way out. Oh, the joy! Anyway, settle in, my little ones. I added extra charms on the outside while you were catching up with your Druid. Your magic and dragon fire are useless in here. My guards will come fetch you once your transport cages are ready. My father will be very pleased.”
Cayn then took a couple of steps back, ready to lock the door. In that instant, I realized how lucky we were that he was such an arrogant bastard—he couldn’t resist coming in to gloat, instead o
f simply locking us in here.
I only had two seconds, tops, to do something, before we were really stuck in here.
“It’s fine, we don’t need any magic,” I muttered, then shot forward, my blades thirsty for daemon blood. I went straight for the kill, and my determination caught Cayn by surprise, judging by the speed with which the color drained from his face.
He had no choice but to put his sword up to block my attack. I came at him hard, each blow pushing him farther back, until we were outside.
The rest of my team followed, spilling out into the narrow street. Cayn’s plan had already backfired, prompting me to question his intelligence. I had a feeling that Shaytan was going to be king for a long time, still, given the intellectual quality of his offspring—especially since the only son I’d seen capable of great things, Zane, had turned against him by helping us.
There were two dozen daemon guards outside. One of them blew an alarm horn, and it gave us merely a handful of minutes to work with before more of them came in. Pheng-Pheng, Harper, and Caspian went first on the offensive, slashing and hacking left and right, while Fiona came from behind to deliver the fatal blows.
One by one, the daemons fell.
Hansa, Blaze, and Caia held their own, slightly over to the left, while Vesta helped Laughlan out. Velnias was nowhere to be found, and that pissed me off—a feeling which I welcomed, since I was still squaring off with Cayn at this point.
The daemon prince came back with heavy blows, but a sudden gust of wind knocked him right in the solar plexus and threw him backward. I glanced over my shoulder and saw the Druid smirking with his hands out. “Hey, I may be half dead, but I can still help,” Laughlan said.
“And that is much appreciated,” I replied, then frowned at Vesta. “Where’s Velnias?”
“I have no idea, but we need to get out of here, fast!” she shot back, then blocked a sword hit from an incoming daemon, while Laughlan found another ounce of energy to use for a second gust of wind—enough to knock over six of the guards.