“Yeah, so did I,” Vemar intoned. “I killed three of them, even doped up with that slut-shaming magic.”
“Shame fucking, you moron,” Lucille said.
“Right, yeah.”
“So, what now?” Tamara asked me. “And…are you wearing boots? And…tights?”
I looked down at the stretchy pants. “They were out of slips. I guess this is what they felt passed for men’s clothes, I don’t know.” I looked at the stairs, pausing to listen for any movement. “Do you think they’ve actually gone?”
“Only one way to find out.” Vemar disappeared from view before appearing again. Metal tinkled; he was going after the lock.
“What if they aren’t, though?” I said as quietly as I could while still being heard.
“Then I will get quite the punishment. Here that doesn’t mean death, since they need to keep siphoning our power. Aren’t we lucky?” He exited his cell, incredibly fast at picking the lock after years of practice. He walked silently to the bottom of the stairs and clicked on the light.
“Nothing like a little stealth to get the job done,” someone murmured dryly.
“I don’t see anyone,” Vemar said. “They could be lingering on the floor above us, I suppose, but I don’t know why they would. Guards don’t like to hang around here if they can help it.”
“We need to wait for the officers to put that lock in place,” Micah said, his deep voice rumbling around the space.
“Most of them are dead,” I said, hurrying to empty my hidey-holes beneath the stones. I picked up Nyfain’s notes, thankful that this clothing, odd as it was, at least had a couple pockets. Those stashed, I pulled the sword belt around my waist, fastening it in place. We’d never gotten to those lessons Tamara had talked about. There were a few opportunities, but we’d never felt well enough to take advantage of them. I wasn’t planning on leaving it behind, though.
“What, already?” Hannon asked. “That seems awfully fast.”
“It is. I couldn’t do any testing, though, so I just guessed about time and potency, hoping for the best. One was dying as we came through.”
Vemar stopped in the middle of the dungeon, a giant smile on his face as he looked at me. “And how did you explain that to the guards, Strange Lady?”
I told them about the conversation as I waited for Vemar to get me out of the cell. The lock clicked over, and he stepped aside as he opened the door.
“They believed that?” Hannon asked as Tamara helped him out of his cell.
“There is no love between the officers and the guards,” Tamara said, glancing at my sword. “I’m sure Denski didn’t care either way. He probably figured it wasn’t his business.”
But it would be if we escaped, and a bunch of dead officers was a pretty good tip-off of our plan. I wondered if he’d checked on them when he went back through. If he realized they were dead and called someone, we’d soon have guards to contend with. Which meant it was officially go time. It would be better to meet them up there, where there was room to fight, than have them cage us in down here.
“We need to get going. How can we check whether the obice is engaged?”
“I didn’t hear him muttering the spell,” said Vemar, ushering the slower dragons out of their cells.
I hadn’t even realized any words needed to be spoken. My cell was too far back for me to have heard anything.
“Still, we should check before someone loses a head,” I replied.
“I’ll do it.” Elex, the guy who’d been wary about escaping, limped toward the stairs with a pronounced hunch in his back. “I would rather go quickly than face what they’ll do to us when we get caught.”
“They won’t do a damn thing if they catch us,” I told him, “besides die.”
Vemar laughed and threw back his head. “Yes!”
“Would you shut up?” Tamara scowled at him. “We don’t need anyone to know what we’re up to.”
“Sorry,” he muttered, wrestling with his smile.
“There has to be another way,” I said as Elex climbed the stairs. “What if—”
Micah shook his head slowly, making sure everyone was out of their cells and getting ready to go. “Let him,” he whispered as Elex passed.
I didn’t understand why I should, but they’d all been in here much longer than me. I let it drop.
Elex bent toward the top of the stairs, half crawling under some sort of invisible line. Then he straightened suddenly, his whole body tense. Nothing happened.
Everyone released the breath they’d been holding.
“Jedrek, come on.” I gestured him out of the cell.
He stared at me with mistrust in his red-rimmed eyes. “Why? So I can get blamed for something else you’ve done? Not a chance. Your attempt will fail. I don’t want any part of it.”
“Leave him here,” Vemar said. “If he doesn’t want to come, more power to him.”
I gritted my teeth, knowing that wasn’t in me. Hannon saw my expression and, without a word, stepped into the cell and punched Jedrek in the face. Jedrek went out cold. Hannon picked him up and threw him over a wide shoulder.
“That’ll work,” I said, turning.
“And he’s always seemed so nice,” Vemar said, smiling again.
“Why would he not set the magical lock?” Hannon wondered out loud as we all started jogging toward the stairs. “Has that happened before?”
“Occasionally,” Micah replied as the others stepped aside so that we could take the lead. “Seldom, but mistakes happen. They don’t get too fussed about it. They figure the officers would keep us from getting through the dungeon, and someone else would stop us if we went through the castle.”
“We’ve stopped even trying to run when it happens,” Lucille said.
“But you’ve gotten out before…” I went up the stairs. Elex waited for us at the landing.
“When they forgot to engage the magical lock, yeah. And you’ve heard how well that worked out.”
“Not very uplifting, guys,” Tamara murmured as we poured into the second-floor dungeon.
We jogged through the cells, everyone awake and confused as hell to see us.
“Why didn’t they engage the obice spell?” Calia said, standing.
I explained as we jogged from cell to cell, releasing everyone.
“My love, you are early,” Hadriel said. “Why? How?”
I went through everything again as cells opened quickly, everyone stepping out in much better clothes than most of the dragons. This lot was better taken care of than we were. Of course, they had more to endure.
“Are we positive the officers are dead?” Leala asked as we headed back to the stairs as a group. Once again, everyone stepped aside to make room for the leadership, which had swelled with this last stop.
“Positive?” I asked, hitting the stairs. “No. Reasonably sure that at least a good portion of them are dead? Yes. One should be done dying right about now.”
“Wait.” Micah grabbed my arm before we reached the top of the stairwell. “We need to make sure this lock hasn’t been engaged either.”