I steadied my breathing and tried to balance myself. I gritted my teeth and bowed my head. “Thank you for sharing information, Council. We would appreciate any help you could give us.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to reconsider our offer, Hellsfire?” Nairi asked, her intense, green eyes flashing.
“I—”
“He’s tired,” Ardonis said. “We all are. It’s been a long night and our guests could use some rest. In the morning, things might be different.”
“Very well,” Nairi said. “We’ll have our guards show you to your rooms for the night. Get some rest.”
“Good night,” Helios said.
“Good night, Council.” I bowed my head, concealing my twitching eyes.
As soon as we left the chambers, the dark fire receded. I wiped the sweat from my forehead and breathed easier. I shook my head. It probably had to do with the lack of a warm bed, hard travels, my lost friends, and being in the presence of that much raw magical power.
A pair of guards escorted us to our rooms. The rooms were like the rest of the castle—grimy and in disarray. The torn curtains covered only half the window, and the dresser was tilted, both legs missing on one side.
Guards stood outside our doors, but allowed us to move freely to each other’s rooms. Rebekah and Jastillian came and huddled in mine.
“You don’t plan on joining them, do you?” Rebekah asked me.
“I thought about it,” I said and paused. “I might have agreed, if they could help us find the others and cure the princess. But it isn’t what she would have wanted.”
“Quite right.”
“What do we do now?” I asked. “We can’t stay here, and I’m not joining their war.” I sighed. “If only we had more information. We learned one side of the story, but I doubt they’ll let us go to the other side to learn theirs. And they would be just as biased as these people are. I fear that by bringing down the Great Barrier, I may have broken whatever stalemate these people had.” I ran my fingers through my hair. “What’s our next move?”
Jastillian grinned. “We escape, lad.”
“When?”
“Tonight. It’s only opportunity.”
“What about the council and the other wizards?” Rebekah asked.
“Hellsfire can handle them.” Jastillian smirked and clasped my shoulder. I couldn’t help grinning, even though I didn’t agree with him. “You look exhausted, lad.”
I did my best not to yawn. “No more than either of you.”
“We still have a little more time before dawn breaks. Let’s get two hours rest. I have a feeling we’re going to need it.”
----
Jastillian and Rebekah came two hours later. I struggled to break my coma-like slumber. I knew I should have been ready, but with a belly full of food and a warm, if lumpy bed, it was hard not to succumb to sleep.
Rebekah and Jastillian had taken care of the guards outside our rooms. We backtracked our way out of the castle. We knew we should have gone through a side exit, or maybe even a servants’ exit, but we couldn’t spend time searching the place.
Jastillian took the lead, his superior eyesight guiding us through the dimly lit corridors. I used air magic to try to listen for noises and avoid anyone wandering around. I had to use as little as possible lest the council or another wizard feel my magic.
As we crept through the darkened hallways, what bothered me the most was that we ran into no one. There wasn’t a single guard or servant. No one was about. It was as if the entire castle was dead. There should have been more activity if this was the heart of their operations for the war.
We reached the entrance and peeked around the corner. We expected to have to deal with the four guards we saw earlier, but no one was there. I examined the area for magic and didn’t find anything. We cautiously skulked forward into the moonlight.
I allowed myself a glimmer of hope. I thought we might not only get out of Romenia, but that by the time they realized we were missing, we would have too much of a start for them to catch us.
We were twenty paces away from the castle when soldiers poured out of the streets and alleyways, rushing to surround us like water from a broken floodgate. They cut us off from retreating back into the castle. I summoned my mana to the surface while my friends drew their weapons. We stood back to back, staring at a hundred soldiers.
I cracked my knuckles, feeling the flame dance between my fingers. How did they know we were going to escape? I held my breath as I waited for them to make the first move. Their stony faces stared at us, yet they didn’t take a step forward. I didn’t want to kill them, but I wasn’t going to let them stop me from leaving.
The army parted, and out stepped three familiar figures.
“Going somewhere, Hellsfire?” Dylan asked.
Adriana had her mace drawn. The pair of them drew in magic. Malik did the same thing, although he looked disappointed.
“Are we not free to move around the city?” I asked Malik.
“That’s not what you’re doing.” Adriana said, narrowing her eyes at us. “No one said you could leave.”
“Since you couldn’t stay in the rooms we provided for you,” Dylan said, “we’re going to give you less...comfortable ones.” Dylan threw something at me. “Here, put this on.”
I caught it and stared. It was an open metal collar. If snapped shut, it would lock. “What is this?”
“Put it on, Hellsfire.”
I searched the collar and sensed an undercurrent of magic as part of its makeup. I didn’t have time to figure out what it was, but I wasn’t going to trust them. I matched his fierce gaze. “No.”
The army around us shifted. I glanced at an ogre and glimpsed the bloodlust in his eyes that I had seen in others in the Wastelands. It amazed me that he had the discipline to hold himself in check here.
“Hellsfire,” Malik said. “Please put on the collar and give us your weapons. We shall not harm you. I give you my word.”
“What will you do to us?” Rebekah asked.
“I’m afraid that’s for the council to decide.”
I looked at my friends. They were willing to die fighting, but that wasn’t our goal. That wasn’t why we came down here. I let go of my gathering magic and sighed.
“All right,” I said.
I put the collar around my neck and it snapped itself shut on its own, the metal clanging and the magic humming to life. The underlying hint of magic I felt in every living thing dimmed. I bent over and gasped for breath. It was as if someone had stolen my sight by wrapping a light bandage around my eyes.
I summoned my inner fire and grasped it. But when I tried to release it, I shrieked in pain. I tumbled onto the dirt ground.
“First time?” Dylan asked and smirked.
“What did you do to him?” Rebekah asked as she and Jastillian helped me stand.
“Don’t,” Malik said to me, with an apologetic look on his face. “That collar’s designed to stop the flow of magic. You can’t access the magic in the environment. You can access your own, but if you try to use it...well, you know what happens.”
I nodded.
“Hand us your weapons,” Adriana said.
Jastillian and Rebekah turned over their axe and sword.
“All of them.”
The pair shared a brief look before pulling out their daggers and other hidden knives. Just to make sure, Dylan searched them for more weapons.
“I promise you’ll get your weapons back once this is settled,” Malik said.
Adriana took my purse with all my potions. She patted me down and found my hidden dagger.
“I thought so,” she said. “Crafty wizard.”
Malik, Dylan, and Adriana, along with a dozen guards, forced us back into the castle. When we got to corridors I didn’t recognize, I wondered what they were going to do to us. Without our weapons and my power, we were at their mercy. This Elemental Council wasn’t the same one Stradus had told me about. They could do anything to us to get what they wanted. And I knew they would.
With these thoughts, I panicked and reached for my power. I strained to release it, forgetting about the collar around my neck. I cried out in pain and my knees buckled as the enchantment of the collar brought deadly daggers of pain to my neck.
Rebekah and Jastillian helped me up and carried my weight. I breathed heavily and in a raspy voice said, “Thank you.”
“What are you doing, wizard?” Adriana asked. “Do you enjoy pain?”
“Please, Hellsfire,” Malik said. “We’ll get this sorted out. Until then, I promise no harm will befall you or your friends.”
Eventually, they led us to a dim stairwell. Adriana told two of the soldiers to stay and guard the entrance. The dank smell assaulted my nose as we continued downwards. We came to a group of small cells, empty of people. There was still a dirty bucket in the corner of one of them, and bits of wet, dirty hay on the floor. They opened the cell. Rebekah and Jastillian walked in first. When I followed them, Dylan pushed me inside, then slammed the door shut.
“Hope you enjoy these accommodations,” Dylan said. “Since you didn’t like the last rooms we gave you.”
“How long will we be here?” I asked.
“Until the council decides what to do with you,” Adriana said.
“It shouldn’t be more than a few days,” Malik said. “They’ll need time. We’ll have food and water brought down.”
They abandoned us to our thoughts.
“What do you think they’ll do to us, Hellsfire?” Rebekah asked, slumping against one of the grimy walls.
“I have no idea. This council isn’t the one my former master told me about. They won’t be merciful. He would be saddened to see what they’ve become. He believed in them once.”
Jastillian growled. “How did they know we were escaping? We never even had a chance!”
“It’s my fault,” I said and sighed. “It was probably my magic. I should have been more careful.”
“Don’t blame yourself, lad. You did what you could. They just didn’t trust us.”
I shrugged, but I wasn’t going to give up yet. I would see Krystal and the others again.
I sat cross-legged on the ground and grabbed at the metal collar around my neck. I knew it was enchanted, but because of how it restrained me, I couldn’t feel the collar’s magic and they hadn’t given me enough time to study it before I put it on.
Despite Malik’s warning, I needed my magic. We had to get out of here and find the others. We might have been outnumbered by wizards with far more power than I, but my magic would at least give us a fighting chance.
I closed my eyes and siphoned in my energy, wrapping myself in the manas until a raging storm boiled inside me. Instead of trying to perform minor magic against the collar, I was going to hammer into it, hopefully overloading it and breaking the enchantment on it.
My body stiffened and I started to tremble. The magic ripped my body from the inside as if I were poisoned. My veins blackened and threatened to explode from my body. The magic ached to go somewhere and the only outlet was me.
“Hellsfire,” Jastillian asked. “Are you all right?”
I opened my eyes and tried to unleash the magic from my body. Instead of burning with fire, my magic smashed into an invisible wall. My neck felt as if someone had run a sword through it, and the pain spread to my shoulders, my back, and my legs, paralyzing them. My mouth gaped open with a silent scream. I crumpled to the ground.
“Hellsfire!” Rebekah said.
They rushed over to me, but I couldn’t speak. They were wise enough not to touch me as the backlash of unused magic continued its assault on my body. Several long minutes passed before my muscles loosened and the pain lessened. I let out a sigh.
“Are you all right, lad?” Jastillian asked as he helped me sit up.
“No.” I rubbed my sore neck above the collar, trying to massage my muscles. “I used too much magic in trying to escape this collar. Let me try something else.”
“Do you think that’s wise?”
“We have to get out of here for the others. It’s my fault we’re in here in the first place.”
“We’ll get our chance,” Rebekah said. “We just need to be patient.”
I agreed, but knew it would be better to get out of here sooner rather than later. I closed my eyes, and again saw the barrier. Instead of blasting it with a torrent of magic, I summoned a tiny portion and brushed it against the collar’s magic.
The pain returned, merely the force of a mosquito’s bite. I increased the flow of mana, searching for a crack or weakness in the collar. The more pressure I applied, the greater the pain. Sweat drenched my forehead and I bit down, grinding my teeth. I did my best to ignore the pain, but my body started to shake and my stomach wanted to heave its contents.
I finally released my magic, sinking to my knees and gasping. I pounded the ground, angry at myself for not succeeding.
Rebekah crept to me and forced my head down. She examined the collar. “If magic doesn’t work against it, I think I might be able to pick the lock by conventional means. But there’s nothing here.”
“It’s all right,” I
said. “We have far bigger things to worry about. I have no idea what the council’s going to do.” I put a hand to my mouth and yawned. “I suggest we get some rest...while we still can.”
----
A guard served us breakfast and dinner the next day, but it wasn’t until two full days later that one of the council members finally came to see us. We rose to face her.
“Wizard Hellsfire,” Nairi said, walking up to the bars with her hands behind her back. “I’m very disappointed in you.” She allowed herself a stiff smile. “Yet you’re so like your former master.” Her smile disappeared. “We still don’t know what to do with you. Any of you.”
“You can let us go,” Jastillian said.
Nairi shook her head, her aged cheeks jiggling slightly. “We can’t do that. We can’t allow a wizard of Hellsfire’s caliber to fall into the enemy’s hands. And you’ve seen enough of our city to give them plenty of information.”
“Your city’s in shambles,” I said. “And I have little interest in joining your war, be it on your side or theirs. All I want to do is find our friends and leave this godsforsaken place!”
Nairi’s pure green eyes met mine. “We know. We also know you won’t leave Tyree until you do find them. If you don’t find them on our side, you’ll find them on theirs. What would you do to get them back?”
I didn’t say a word, for she already knew my answer.
“Anything,” Nairi answered for me, before she turned and walked away.
----
The next day, Ardonis came to see me. “I wish it didn’t have to be like this, Wizard Hellsfire.”
I lifted my tired head and scratched my cheek. “If that were true, you would let us go.”
“Maybe if you cooperated more, we would.”
I crossed my arms. “I’m not killing anyone.”
He rapped his long staff against the bars. “We never said you had to. All we wanted was a liaison between us and the north, as we said.”
I raised an eyebrow at him.
“Give us information about what you call Northern Shala, and we’ll do everything we can do to reunite you with your friends.”
“We’ve already given you that information.”