Enchantress Under Fire, page 16
part #4 of Arcane Artisans Series
After hiking for a while, I circled my way to the parking lot. As with each previous day, the cars remaining in the lot had been rotated, with all the previous day’s stay-behinds now out on patrol. This pattern hadn’t changed since I’d arrived, but I still breathed a mental sigh of relief.
Nobody was around. Quickly I unzipped the backpack and removed a small plastic bag of baking soda. I’d stolen it on my last dinner clean-up duty. I rubbed a streak of the white powder atop the rear left wheel of each car. Once every vehicle had been marked, I stashed the baking soda and trekked off the asphalt back into the trees.
A thicket of wild blackberry bushes grew near the parking lot. The bushes had been picked clean before I’d arrived here, but the bare thorns meant nobody from the Family would go poking around here. I stripped off my backpack and quickly stashed away two bottles of water, three granola bars, two plastic fruit cups, and a travel tube of antiseptic in a hollow beneath two of the prickly plants. Over the last week I’d tucked away a smattering of other non-perishable food and water, first aid supplies, and the pittance of wages I’d earned working for the Family. I couldn’t build Desmond and the others a proper stash–wandering off with a bunch of canned food would be suspicious–but fortunately they only needed enough to get them out of the compound and into the city. Half a day or so. I checked that the screwdriver I’d hidden three days earlier was still there. I’d located somebody replacing one of the compound’s curtain rods, and lifted the tool when she wasn’t looking.
Everything was in place. Everything I could do right now, anyway. I still needed the tracker from Kendall, and I had to hope Fael would actually show up tonight, that fear wouldn’t prevent him from taking action. But other than that, all I had to do for the rest of the day was wait. Wait and fret.
Already starting on that last task, I shouldered the backpack and resumed walking. I’d told people I was going for a hike, and I had to return to the compound selling it as truth.
A ways from the parking lot, I stumbled across an adorable little creek cutting through the trees. Small enough to step over, it bubbled its way along a rocky bed to a short drop. It waterfalled over the edge into a miniature pool before trickling its way back out into the woods. A pair of frogs watched me with bulbous eyes from the shadows of the drop-off.
I started tracing the creek backward, hoping to find its source. That would be a good enough story to assure anyone who asked that I’d really gone exploring today. But more than that, the creek was a work of small-scale natural beauty, and I wanted to appreciate it for its own sake. My life had lacked artistry lately.
I traced the creek to the wall of the compound. It trickled out from a small drainage arch at the bottom of the stones, only a couple inches in diameter. Nowhere near big enough for anyone to sneak in or out. Anyone human, anyway. I’d have to tell Kendall; maybe she could use it to make her nighttime trips less dangerous.
I rose from my crouch beside the hole and turned, then stifled a gasp. I wasn’t alone.
Enrique stood watching me, still shrouded in his oversized grey hoodie. His jeans hung loose on his skinny frame, and his eyes burned out of the jacket’s raised hood.
I held out a hand and smiled. “Enrique, right? We haven’t met. I’m Marcela.”
His eyes flicked to my hand, but he didn’t respond.
“I found this little creek while hiking and thought I’d see where it originated. Too bad the spring is outside the wall, huh? I bet it’s pretty.”
Still he watched me and said nothing.
“Okay,” I said. “I’m going to continue my hike now.” I was about to wish him a good day and leave, but something froze my steps.
You can’t recruit these people if you don’t let yourself care, my conscience reminded me. Don’t focus so much on your task that you forget why it matters. Enrique was just as much a victim as I was. He didn’t seem like he could be much help to my cause, but then, wasn’t I here to protect those harmed by magical conflicts? People exactly like him?
Instead of leaving, I held out my hand again. “Want to join me?” When he didn’t respond, an idea prickled in my mind. “¿Habla usted Inglés?”
He started at the Spanish and glanced warily over his shoulder, toward the central courtyard. “Está bien,” I said. “Estamos solos.” It’s okay. We’re alone.
When he didn’t reply, I continued speaking in a quiet tone. “Oí lo que le hicieron los Voids. Lo siento mucho.” I heard what the Voids did to you. I’m so sorry.
His lips thinned, and he gave a small shrug.
“¿Ahora se siente feliz aquí?” Are you happy now, here?
Another glance around. Another shrug.
My heart ached. Based on the whispered rumors I’d heard about Enrique, nobody was entirely sure what he’d been through. That meant he hadn’t been talkative about his experiences. But I knew, from the other side. He’d been held captive by Maribel’s rogue Voids for half a year, trapped in an abandoned mine and forced to craft enchantments for her. He’d managed to escape, only to be picked up shortly afterward by the cult. No wonder he moved like a frightened deer.
I knew what it was like to feel so hunted. So trapped.
Again I beckoned him downstream. “¿Quiere caminar conmigo?” Do you want to walk with me?
His tense features softened the slightest bit. I almost caught a smile hiding at the corner of his mouth.
Then his eyes clouded again. He turned and walked away.
I let him go, and hoped whatever had passed between us had done some good.
I hiked well into the afternoon. A few hours before dinner, I returned to the compound, planning a shower and a little socializing before the meal.
As I dropped my emptied backpack on my bed, something shiny caught my eye from the balcony. I opened the door and bent to retrieve a tiny flower-shaped earring. When I held it up, it leaned slightly to the left, angling out into the wilds of the compound.
I clasped the tracker in my hand and smiled.
Chapter 17
IN THE DARK OF NIGHT, Fael and I crept through the trees. Our shoes crackled on pine needles and dry leaves. I tried to lead us around the perimeter of the compound, hugging the wall and staying out of sight of the main paths, in case any higher ups had business out this way.
Fael walked behind me, though each time I glanced back I saw him silently shaking his head in the dim moonlight. Both he and I had been distracted during our pretend wizard battle that night, and Sydney had taken the victory. The loss had given us the excuse needed to retire early.
“What’s in the bag?” I whispered to Fael as we walked. He had a small backpack slung around his shoulders.
He shifted the burden. “Oh. Food.”
“What for?”
“In case I get hungry on this exhausting, long hike.”
“Haha. No, really.”
“It’s for her. The woman you saw. You said she was malnourished. I just figured, since we’re sneaking out here anyway, we might as well bring her something to eat.”
My heart swelled with affection. “You’re a good person, Fael.” I showed him my own bag. “I had the same idea.”
One of the rolls I’d snagged from dinner also contained some extras, but Fael didn’t need to know that.
I led him first to the caretaker’s house, where Tamika had treated Meg’s wounds. Then, as if retracing my steps, I directed us back out into the woods. In reality, I’d brought my tracker out here this afternoon and followed it to Tamika’s prison.
They’d locked her in one of the personal retreat cabins, a rustic wooden building with a painted green door and a matching colored chimney. The cabin was dark, the curtains drawn. By all appearances, the place was deserted. We crouched behind a boulder and watched for several minutes.
“No sound,” Fael whispered. “She’s probably in a closet or bathroom, with no windows so nobody would hear her from the outside.”
“Makes sense,” I whispered back. I was glad to hear him volunteer insights. I wanted him to feel like this was his mission as much as mine. “How do you want to get inside? Looks like the windows are all locked.”
Fael pointed upward. “There’s some tree damage on the roof. See that dark spot?”
I squinted. “Yeah.”
“Bet we can get in through there.”
“Can you climb?”
He scoffed. “Please. You ever seen the rigging on a sailboat?”
We hurried to the shelter of the cabin’s wall. Fael hopped onto a boulder near the building’s back corner, then boosted himself onto the gently sloped roof. I climbed onto the boulder, but my arms weren’t quite long enough to reach. Fael helped pull me up in a graceless scramble.
The hole in the roof led down into a small crawlspace thinly lined with insulation. We quickly found a trapdoor leading into the main room of the cabin. Fael pulled it open. Creaaaaaaaaaak. I winced, half-expecting someone to yell a challenge. But we were far off in the woods, and everybody else in the Family was back at the compound. There was no chance they’d heard.
I slid down first, landing in a crouch on the wooden floor of a one-room cabin. A plain bed stood in one corner. The entire room smelled earthy, of dirt sprinkled in the corners and pine needles dried on the floor.
Fael hopped down after me, and together we turned to the single interior door. From beneath it bled a thin line of light. I reached for the doorknob.
Fael caught my elbow and spoke in a whisper. “Wait. What if whoever’s in there rats us out?”
“You really think that will happen?”
“You never know. Desperate people will do desperate things if they think it will help them. And I’ve heard things about Voids ...”
“Who told you those things?”
“The Family. But ...”
“And do you think the people currently keeping a Void locked in a windowless bathroom might have some interest in making you think she deserves it?”
There was a pause. “Fair point.”
“Come on,” I whispered. “Nobody ever has to know we were here.”
After a hesitation, Fael squared his shoulders. Then he reached for the doorknob himself.
I smiled in the darkness. One little illegal step. One little shared secret. That was how the cult drew people in. Once they convinced you to take that first step out of bounds, to use your magic in a way you knew you shouldn’t, you became that much more willing to take the next step, and the next.
That was how they drew you in. It was how I’d draw Fael out.
The knob rotated, but the door wouldn’t open. My mouth opened in indignation. “What the ...”
Fael reached above my head and flipped open a metal security latch.
“Oh.” My voice shook as I gave a thin chuckle. “Duh.”
“Guess I’m not the only one sweating a little,” Fael said. The laugh that followed was strained.
As he pulled open the bathroom door, blinding light spilled out. I winced, shading my eyes. If I squinted, I could just make out the source. In addition to the bulbs surrounding the broad sink mirror, someone had set up a portable light that blazed hot sunshine into my eyes.
The bathroom was rustic, with brown tiles and a sink of dark wood. The shower was a small walk-in, but someone had removed its glass doors from their tracks.
Inside the shower, shackled to the faucet, sat Tamika.
Seeing her up close, I was appalled. Her eyes were sunken, her hair fraying from its normal thin braids, and old bruises marred her ebony skin. She looked up at us with spiteful, red-rimmed eyes as Fael and I stepped into the bathroom. “Better turn up the lights some more,” she snapped. “I think I was in danger of dozing off there.”
“Oh, come on,” Fael groaned. “They’re torturing her? Seriously? We’re supposed to be the good guys!”
Quickly I turned the standing light off. Tamika slumped with relief, but only for a few seconds. Then she straightened herself to a defensive posture. Blinking rapidly, she glowered up at us. “Realized you might need your only medic to get some sleep, then, have you? Or are we going back to the total darkness routine?”
I sank to my knees outside the shower stall. “I’m sorry.”
“Uh-uh.” She shook her head. “I’m not falling for this, either. Go tell the bad cop your routine didn’t fool me. I’m not telling anything, and I’m not switching sides. You’re gonna kill me either way, so there’s no real incentive here.”
Quietly I began pulling food out of my bag. “You don’t recognize me,” I said quietly, “but I saw you today. Neither of us knew they were holding prisoners here. We’re not your enemies.” I held out a dinner roll stuffed with flattened meatballs.
Tamika eyed it hungrily, then looked up at me with suspicion. “Is this some new trick?”
“If Geralt wanted to poison or drug you, he wouldn’t have to trick you to do it.”
Her lips pursed. “True.” She took the roll and began devouring it with a zeal I’d rarely seen outside of a college dining hall.
Fael unloaded his own food–an apple, another roll, and a packet of almonds. Tamika finished what I’d given her and tore into his offerings.
“Are any guards likely to disturb us?” I asked.
Between bites, she shook her head. “Bastards won’t be back until dawn. Don’t think they need to keep a constant guard. Where am I gonna go?” She laughed darkly and tugged on the handcuffs binding her right wrist to the faucet. “Besides, I don’t even know where I am.”
I snuck a glance at Fael. His eyes were riveted on Tamika’s face, on the bruises left there. He looked like a man trying to reconcile some very unpleasant news with his understanding of reality. Everything going according to plan there.
Studying Tamika, I again felt the shame that I’d nearly abandoned her to this fate. The red lines around her eyes weren’t fading now that the bright lights had turned off. “You’re sick,” I said softly.
“You a doctor, too?” she asked sarcastically. “Fantastic. Tell your master since he doesn’t need me anymore, he can let me die now. I’d do it myself, take the problem off his hands, if this thing were deep enough to drown in or they’d left the glass doors.”
“Don’t talk that way.” My voice came out sharp with alarm. “What they’re doing to you is getting into your head.”
“They?” She swallowed the last bite of food and glowered at me. “You, enchantress. These are your people.”
Fael flinched. I didn’t. “I heard you were shot during the battle for the city. How did you survive?”
She laughed humorlessly. “La Espectra made a bulletproof t-shirt at one point. I was wearing it that day under my other clothes. They shot me, and the impact knocked me down long enough for your people to reach me. They took my weapon, and I expected them to execute me. They brought me here instead.”
That damned shirt. I couldn’t have known what it meant when I saw it in Geralt’s collection backstage, but this revelation made me hate myself for abandoning Tamika all over again.
I withdrew a final roll from my jacket pocket. Tamika reached for it, but I held it back a bit, making sure she looked into my eyes. “We brought you a lot to eat all at once,” I said. “You should save this one for an hour or two, until you’re sure you can handle it. In fact, you might want to eat very slowly. Just break off one piece at a time.”
Her brow furrowed. She glanced from my face to the roll and back. “That’s your professional opinion?”
“Yes. That’s my advice. And do it in an hour or so, after we’ve gone but well before the guards return. That way you have time to make sure there are no traces left before they look for you.”
Her eyes widened. “I’ll do that. Thank you.”
Slowly she resumed eating, but she kept that one roll off to the side. Fael still looked drawn into himself, his thoughts elsewhere. I poked him. “You should get her some water from the sink.”
He startled. “Right.”
“And there’s something you should know.”
He paused halfway through standing up. “I don’t like the sound of that.”
“There are other prisoners here.”
Tamika froze at that news, but I’d intended for her to hear it, too. Fael closed his eyes. “You could have told me before.”
“I wasn’t sure you’d believe me until you saw this one.”
“Are we doing another humanitarian mission tonight, then?”
“I am. They’re across the compound, near the parking lot. You’re welcome to come.”
He worked his jaw. “I guess I’d better.” He looked down at Tamika, and a wave of compassion crossed his face. “I’m sorry. I wish we could do more.”
“You could take this handcuff off my wrist,” Tamika said at once.
Fael hesitated. For a brief, thrilling moment, I thought he might do it, might go all the way and release her. But then he drew back and shook his head. “I’m sorry,” he repeated, backing out of the bathroom.
I gave one last significant look at the spare roll, then met Tamika’s eyes. She gave me a small nod. Quietly I left the room and shut the door.
Fael boosted me back to the crawlspace, then hauled himself up with my help. We retreated back outside and climbed down using the boulder beside the wall. Fael sank to a crouch, head down. “We shouldn’t have left her.”
“I know,” I said softly. “We have to do something.”
He took a deep breath. “Tomorrow we’ll bring her more food. That’s a start. I just ... I wish we had the power to do more.”
I let the thought remain unanswered in the air, hoping it would inspire greater rebellion in Fael’s soul. I would have agreed with him, except he didn’t know about the note I’d stuffed into the last bread roll.
Follow this to help.
- L. E.
With it were three pieces of metal, their ends bent at the proper angles for picking locks, and the necklace for tracking the Void cashier girl. I didn’t know if Tamika could pick locks, or if a tracking enchantment would work in her hands, but I thought it wise to give her a backup plan.
