The Threshold Child Part 56

There was an audible crack as the bone snapped between the Rashad's powerful jaws. The man cried out in pain and fell to the ground. Ravi took another step towards him, bearing his teeth as a warning to remain still.

L'iam, on the other hand, was just as distracted as his opponent by Adesina's sudden reappearance. The s.h.i.+mat disarmed the L'avan prince and swept his feet out from underneath him.

Adesina s.n.a.t.c.hed one of her throwing knives from her belt and hurled it at L'iam's attacker. The knife struck him in the heart, killing him instantly.

L'iam slowly got to his feet and looked at his young companion. "Thank you."

She brushed the thanks aside, keeping to business. "Ravi, stay here and watch those two," she said, pointing to the wounded s.h.i.+mat. "We are going to find the right cell."

Her guardian didn't look very happy with the arrangement, but nodded anyway. She gestured to the ball of light floating above their heads, and it settled into her palm once more.

Ravi's night vision far exceeded that of a human's, so she knew that he would be fine if she took her makes.h.i.+ft torch with her.

As the two L'avan walked down the dank corridors, L'iam reached over and took Adesina's hand. It seemed a natural gesture between the two of them now.

"Are you injured? That woman appears to be set on murdering you."

A humorless smile crossed her face. "She has been ever since we were children."

He frowned. "Why?"

She shrugged. "Jealousy, perhaps."

Adesina went up on her toes to gaze through a window in one of the closed prison doors, but it was empty. When she glanced back at L'iam, he had an amused expression on his face.

She returned the look. "Well, I suppose I did nothing to endear myself to her."

He chuckled hoa.r.s.ely, "I thought not."

In the corner farthest away from the stairway, there was a heavy wooden door with a padlock on the bolt.

L'iam placed a hand on the door and nodded to Adesina. "One person."

After the earlier events, she was suspicious. "s.h.i.+mat?"

A pause was followed by a slow shake of the head. "There is so much pain in the soulaI am certain it is a prisoner."

She took a deep breath before flicking the ball of light upward and leaning forward to pick the lock. It was slightly more difficult to open than the previous one, but not enough to stop the determined young woman.

Drawing her Blood Sword as a precaution, Adesina drew back the bolt and swung the door open.

A ragged figure lay s.h.i.+vering on the icy stone floor, and the prisoner flinched away from the light, s.h.i.+elding it's eyes and cowering in antic.i.p.ation of pain. His face was swollen and discolored from numerous beatings, but Adesina could still recognize the face of the man she had seen in the High City.

She was surprised to find she couldn't move. Her feet felt like they were glued to the floor, and her heart was racing in circles. She struggled to fight back the tears that were forming in her eyes as she looked at the man she had been searching for her whole life.

He squinted and stared at the two silhouettes, trying to discern their faces. "Kendan?"

Adesina's heart skipped a beat. Why would her father think that L'iam was Kendan? Was it possible that her former Shar had been telling the truth?

L'iam took a few steps forward and knelt beside the prisoner. "No, Me'shan. It is I, L'iam."

Me'shan couldn't believe his eyes. "L'iam? What are you doing here? How is this possible?"

The young man smiled, unashamed of the tears that coursed down his cheeks. "We are here to rescue you! E'nes, Sa'jan and myselfa"

It was clear that he was waiting for Adesina to reveal herself, but she was still frozen in a sea of emotion.

"E'nes is here? Where is he?" the prisoner asked.

He nodded. "He is one level up, rescuing the other L'avan who have been captured by the s.h.i.+mat."

Me'shan still didn't seem to understand. "Howa?"

The L'avan prince's smile grew softer. "Well, we had quite a bit of help."

Not knowing what else to do, Adesina gestured to the ball of energy, calling it to rest in her hand. The light illuminated her face, and Me'shan gasped at the sight of his daughter.

"Ma'eve!"

"Her name is Adesina," L'iam corrected gently.

He shook his head in disbelief. "I never thought you would come. You should not have come."

Me'shan got to his feet shakily, taking the few steps between him and his daughter. He placed a worn hand on her cheek, as if he couldn't believe she was real.

"So beautiful. Just like your mother."

She could barely find her voice. "Father," she whispered.

His eyes drank her in, as if he too had been waiting for this moment for many, many years.

As much as she wanted to savor the moment, the s.h.i.+mat in her urged for haste. The others would be waiting for them in the stables.

Chapter Forty-eight: The Laboratories.

E'nes watched as Ravi sprinted away from them, frozen in the horror that they had been discovered. It was Sa'jan that spurred him into action.

"Hurry, E'nes!"

Together they ran down the steep, spiral stairs to the level just below. They burst through the door and stumbled straight into a surprised guard.

Sa'jan reacted the fastest, summoning his vyala. He slowed the movements of the guard, then grabbed the dagger at his side and drove it into the s.h.i.+mat's chest. The young guard fell to his knees and then flat on the ground. The L'avan didn't even pause to look at the fallen form before moving on.

E'nes shuddered as he stepped over the body. "I do not think I will ever get used to such a sight."

His companion set his mouth in determination. "It is not a matter of getting used to it. It is remembering that an alarm is sounding and we have work to do."

This level of the fortress was set up in a maze of narrow corridors with plain wooden doors every several feet. Sa'jan hurried to the first one and tried the k.n.o.b.

"It is unlocked," he said in concern.

"Is that not a good thing?" asked E'nes.

The older man shook his head. "That means that security measures have been placed elsewhere."

He opened the door slowly and stepped inside. E'nes waited anxiously until he was beckoned forward. He wasn't sure what he expected, but it certainly wasn't the sight that met his eyes.

While the corridors were dimly lit with torches, this room was filled with dozens of smokeless lamps. The walls were covered with hundreds of small alcoves filled with jars and gla.s.s containers of every shape and size. Some were filled with powders or what appeared to be odd colored pebbles. Others were filled with vibrant liquids or phosph.o.r.escent sludge.

In the center of the room there was a stone well with large rectangular tables on three of the sides. The tables were filled with books and parchment, as well as tools that one might see in the shop of an alchemista"several mortars and pestles, empty gla.s.s containers, scales, and miniature versions of braziers where things could be heated.

The thing that caught E'nes's eye was a series of large stone bowls on the farthest table. They were filled to the brim with a dark red liquid that almost appeared black, even in the bright light. He walked over to it, not sure that he wanted a closer look.

Sa'jan only gave it a cursory glance as he moved to inspect the contents of the alcoves. "Blood," he grunted.

A wave of nausea swept over E'nes. "Whose?"

"I have a good idea," he replied grimly.

After another moment of inspection, Sa'jan seemed to come to a decision. "E'nes, go get a torch. We are destroying this place."

The young man was only too happy to comply. He ran out into the corridor, glancing to make sure that there were no other guards, and returned to the room with the requested item.

"We had better hurry. I heard shouting getting closer."

Sa'jan nodded curtly and got to work. He overturned the tables and pushed them up against the walls, then he took the torch from his companion and set them on fire.

They shut the door behind them as they left that room. Moving as quickly and quietly as they could, they went on to the next room in the corridor.

This room was much smaller than the previous one and held nothing but an elaborate chair with a young L'avan strapped to it. He was tied down so tightly he couldn't move, and there were long cuts on each of his arms. Large bowls had been placed beneath his arms to catch the blood as it ran down.

E'nes ran forward to free the trapped L'avan. His eyes fluttered weakly and he looked up at his rescuers in disbelief.

"Who are you?" the prisoner asked in their native language.

"I am E'nes, son of Me'shan. What is your name?"

"Van'dan." he replied weakly.

Sa'jan began bandaging the young man's arms. "How did you come to be here?"

He didn't look very certain himself. "Iado not know. I was trading in a villageaand then I was here."

They helped him to his feet.

"Well, it does not matter for now. You are coming with us."

Tears of relief ran down Van'dan's pale cheeks. "Thank you."

E'nes tipped out the bowls of blood on the floor, not willing to leave anything that would aid further s.h.i.+mat experimentation.

Sa'jan's attention was on the prisoner. "Do you know where the others are being kept?"

He nodded slowly. "I know of a few others. We were all kept together before I was brought here. There may be others that are being held in a different cell."

The sound of numerous footsteps running past caught their attention. The L'avan looked at each other in a grim concern.

"It will not be long until we are discovered," their leader stated.

E'nes nodded his agreement. "They will probably begin searching each of the rooms."

"If they are not already," added Van'dan.

They opened the door a crack to look out at the commotion down the hall. A burly s.h.i.+mat was splitting the others into groups and instructing them on where to begin their search for the intruders.

One of the groups started in the room that the L'avan had set on fire. Their cries of dismay echoed down the stone hallway when they discovered the destruction in progress. Other s.h.i.+mat ran towards them to aid in putting the fire out.

While they were distracted, the three L'avan rushed across the corridor to the next wooden door. They ducked into the room before checking to see if it was secure; but their haste worked to their advantage, as they caught the s.h.i.+mat within by surprise.

She was a thick woman with blunt features that were wrinkled in concentration as she bent over one of the three tables that had L'avan strapped to them. She looked up in surprise as they ran in, and only paused for a moment before springing into action. There was just enough of a hesitation for Sa'jan to sprint across the room to grapple with her.

The s.h.i.+mat was unexpectedly quick and strong for her size. With a fast spin she twisted out of his grasp and brought his arm behind his back.

E'nes rushed forward to aid his friend.

Seeing the impending attack, the s.h.i.+mat jerked Sa'jan's arm upward, dislocating it with a sharp crack. She then pushed him away roughly and turned to face the younger L'avan. She picked up a jar of sickly yellow liquid that she had been testing on the skin of the prisoners and threw it at E'nes.

His vyala flared up to deflect the projectile, but it did not save him from the powerful kick that sent him flying backwards. He landed violently against one of the shelves on the wall, breaking a number of other gla.s.s containers.

Most of these jars contained powders or dried leaves, but there was one that broke over his arm that contained a thick, silvery slime. It soaked through the material of his sleeve and left his skin feeling cold. The chilling sensation ran up his arm and straight to his heart, weakening his knees and muddling his thoughts.

Van'dan rushed over to E'nes and began tearing at the infected sleeve. He ripped the material just above where it was saturated and flung it away from them. Then he immersed E'nes' arm in a nearby bucket of water.

The effects of the slime were lessened somewhat, and he became aware that the fight between the s.h.i.+mat and Sa'jan was still going on.

The L'avan was doing everything with his left hand, as it was his right shoulder that was dislocated, but he still seemed to be holding up fairly well. Unfortunately, not well enough to win. The pain Sa'jan felt detracted power from his vyala, and the most he could do was slow the s.h.i.+mat's movements enough to keep up with her.

Van'dan, seeing the problem, got to his feet and looked around frantically. He grabbed the torch that E'nes had been carrying and began using it to smash all of the gla.s.s containers in the room. The s.h.i.+mat was distracted, first by the noise and then by the destruction of her life's work.

"Stop!"