Yeah, tell me about it.
“And… I can’t sense anything from her now,” I voiced my concerns. “Given what she just went through I can’t be certain she isn’t…”
“You’d know,” Lhorine whispered as she settled the guard against a tree trunk. “It doesn’t matter what sort of link you have, if they die, you’d know, you’d be certain.”
I breathed a little easier, but I was still worried. Izzy had endured something which had made her scream in agony, swearing like a sailor. And the snippets of coherent thought I’d managed to catch hadn’t been great:
Oh God! My legs!
Or…
How in the blazes am I still conscious after that? Damned elven endurance!
Or the most horrifying one of all, just before Izzy had succumbed to wild and horrified screaming…
Oh shit, they know! She’s lost it!
What did they know?
If Saldrea had “lost it” then that would explain the horrified screaming afterward. That woman was insane and had no compunctions about ripping people apart when she was angry.
“Sorry,” I mumbled again.
“Don’t worry, we got there in the end.”
Lhorine put a binding on the guard to hinder his movement and magic, then we woke him and she used a second binding to make him talk. We got the information we needed, but none of it was good. Our plan wouldn’t work.
With limited time and information, we’d come up withthe idea to use Saldrea herself to get us in. Olinara would take Saldrea’s form — she and Koar were still back on campus trying to get close enough to the false princess to do so — while Lhorine and I found and interrogated a guard to discover the security measures inside the compound. We’d hoped to use the false princess’ influence — with an illusion over the rest of us, posing as Saldrea’s crew — to walk right through the front door. It was the only way in, since tunnelling wouldn’t work. Whatever magic kept earth-wielders from sensing inside also made the walls immutable, the stone couldn’t be shaped or altered.
But, according to the guard, even someone as influential as Saldrea had to submit to all security measures, which required their ID, and a pass phrase, different for each person. This guard didn’t know the pass phrases, only the head guard at the door did, and we didn’t have any ID for the princess, nor did we have time to try and steal it from her. So, our plan to have Saldrea bully her way in… wouldn’t work.
We needed an alternate… and fast.
When Koar and Olinara arrived, over two hours later, we told them the bad news. Though, given how upset Koar looked, I wondered if he and Olinara had some bad news of their own. The dragon radiated fury: jaw tense, brow furrowed, eyes tight, mouth set in a grim line.
“What happened?” I asked.
Olinara spoke, voice strained, taut. “I witnessed something I hope I never see again.” She took a long breath, and that’s when it hit me.
If Izzy had been tortured by Saldrea and Olinara had been close to the false princess, then she’d have witnessed her granddaughter’s torment.
She confirmed my suspicion, talking through clenchedteeth. “Saldrea was in the middle of torturing Izzy when I found her. Everyone was distracted, so it was easy enough to slip in unnoticed and get a good read on Saldrea. But…” Olinara’s fury rose, speaking in a vicious hiss, “… she nearly killed Izzy! So, I had to stay until they’d all left. There was no way I was leaving my granddaughter like that. I healed her once they were gone, but that meant the whole thing took longer than anticipated.”
Olinara looked at Koar. “He’s even more upset about this than I am. He’s furious Saldrea stooped so low, angry at Vyns for not defending Izzy, irate at me for not stopping it, and beside himself that he couldn’t protect Izzy. I debated whether or not to tell him at all, but there were things we all needed to know: mainly, Saldrea knows Izzy is a royal.”
Oh shit, they know! She’s lost it!
That made a lot more sense now.
“And it was all for nothing, since our plan is toast!” Olinara spat the words. “Though… I am glad I was there to help Izzy. I can’t imagine how she would have fared otherwise.”
Yeah, spending a night on the verge of death didn’t sound relaxing.
“Did you two come up with any other ideas?” Olinara asked.
In fact, we had, but it wasn’t great.
“If we need IDs to get in, then we’ll have to steal some. We ambush some guards heading to the compound for the next shift, take their IDs, then Olinara takes one of their forms while using the illusion to make the rest of us look like the others.”
