Caracara's Hunt

The courtyard was a large one, and Arawn led the guards on a merry chase. From the corner of his eyes, he watched as Eliot entered the mansion through the guardroom.

"Halt!" one of the soldiers shouted out and fell behind. "Or we"ll shoot you."

That sounded dangerous, and Arawn glanced back. While two of the three men were still running after him, one had stopped near a rack with weapons. He pulled off a bow and two arrows. They were dummies with blunted heads meant for training, but the guard probably hoped that he wouldn"t be able to see that in the dark.

Arawn dodged behind a building and leaned against the wall to catch his breath. He really wasn"t meant for all the exercising. Just a minute or so of running, and he was already panting. It was a miracle he hadn"t been caught yet.

Footsteps followed after him. Arawn tensed and looked around himself for anything to use. He was in a dark alley between two buildings. It was only a meter wide, and farther in was a dead end.

The guards were almost upon him, so he walked deeper to hide in the shadows and have more time to think. He might have been cornered, but ether was always with him. Instead of materializing it, Arawn tried pushing it into the ground to move it. Yet the ether bounced off, leaving him dumbfounded.

He sent a smaller amount then and watched carefully. The moment ether came close to the ground, it stopped, unable to advance. If he continued pushing, it spread out, looking for any opening or entrance.

But that wasn"t it—finding a hole in the ground wasn"t the same as fusing with the earth there to move it. When Corwal used his water snake, it was flush with ether. It kept the form of the water and moved it.

In theory, it made perfect sense. Reality however tended to betray one"s expectations.

The guards reached the opening between the two houses and shouted for him to step out. They knew very well that there was no place to run from there. It was the truth, and Arawn frowned. As much as he wanted to avoid fighting, it seemed to be impossible.

He waited though. The guards were reluctant to enter the dark alley, and Arawn was fine with stalling out their confrontation. The longer the guards were busy with him, the longer they would be off Eliot"s tracks, and the kid could find someone to help Corwal.

Couple minutes and a lot of shouted insults later, the guards pulled out their swords and ventured into the darkness. It was already some time into the night, and all light inside was blocked by the two houses on the sides.

When they got close, Arawn called upon the ether. It materialized in his hands, blinding the guards. They winced from the brightness and covered their eyes. Realizing that he didn"t have to hurt them after all, Arawn slipped past them like a rabbit avoiding a fox. The men swiftly regained their senses, but he created a wall of light, and they hesitated to push through it.

Back in the courtyard, Arawn was about to run into the first house on the side when he saw movement near the mansion. Eliot was pulling a gla.s.ses-wearing young man toward the dungeon while whispering something rapidly. His voice was too low for anything to be heard though.

"Down there?" the man asked with some suspicion. "Did the prisoners injure a guard? What"s happening here?"

"Is he the doctor?" Arawn asked upon jogging over. Eliot jumped in shock upon hearing his voice, then nodded. "Hurry then. We"ll soon have unwanted company."

The kid pulled on the gla.s.ses man"s hand, hurrying him into the building. They entered, though the doctor was starting to look decidedly uncomfortable. He kept glancing between him and Eliot with squinted eyes.

While rushing forward, Arawn took notice of how the man avoided touching anything in the prison. He wore a sweeping green coat, which he pulled up to not come into contact with the walls or ground. From time to time, he would also scowl at his boots. They had been shiny dark brown, but the dust and general filth of the dungeon had already coated them with a layer of gray.

"Houn"s cursed child, you"re prisoners, aren"t you?" he muttered once they stopped in front of a cell in which Corwal lay. "Do you even know the penalty for abducting a certified doctor? You"ll beg for death, but won"t receive it!"

Arawn opened the cell and pulled the man in, dragging him to the straw bed. "You won"t have the time to regret your choice if you refuse to help us." There seemed to be something in his face that convinced the man, for he nodded reluctantly and crouched down while holding the bottom of his coat.

"Fine, fine. It"s not like there"s much difference between n.o.bles and criminals. I"d prefer if you didn"t threaten me though. It"s not— Corwal!"

His loud shout echoed through the prison and probably could"ve even been heard outside. Arawn swiftly grabbed the man by his coat. "Quiet!"

The stranger nodded, his gaze returning to the lying man. When he spoke, all his flippancy was gone. "Who the h.e.l.l did this to Corwal? I want to know who got tired of living."

"One of the soldiers that apprehended us," Arawn answered before realizing the problem. "You know Corwal?"

"Better than you probably. Now help me get him up. There"s no better place to breed disease than filth like this."

Arawn looked at Eliot who stared back at him with mirrored confusion. Could the stranger be trusted? They"d just met him, but he seemed to know Corwal.

After a moment"s hesitation, Arawn decided to do as the man wanted. Prisons were indeed filthy, and the guards would come for them sooner or later. It was a wonder they weren"t checking for them already.

As if having heard his thoughts, men stamped through the guardroom outside. Their heavy footsteps drew closer with each breath.

"Go!" Arawn helped the doctor raise Corwal then pulled Eliot in his place. "Is there any other way out of here?"

The gla.s.ses-wearing man nodded and motioned with his head at the back of the hallway. "There"s—"

"Fine, go!"

There was no time to waste. Arawn rushed forward to block the guards from entering the dungeon. They were still on the stairs, so they couldn"t see what was happening. If they saw the doctor, however, there would be no hiding.

Ether flocked to Arawn"s hands, and he threw it at the stairs like writhing snakes. As fast as it materialized, he sent one slash after another. They bore holes in the staircase and broke off chunks off stone.

The guards about to go down retreated. The next moment though, three men stepped forward. Without a word of warning, they sent three fireb.a.l.l.s Arawn"s way. He blasted them away with more ether, then returned to his work. Yet even as he made the stairs unrecognizable, he knew how pointless it was. If they had a couple strong earth mages, the staircase could be back in a couple minutes.

Using ether wasn"t taxing for him, but the constant motions of the hands was. Sweat formed on his brow and rolled down it, forcing him to blink to clear away his vision. As long as he kept sending ether, no one could come down, but the moment he stopped…

A glance back showed him that the doctor and Eliot were only reaching the end of the hall at that moment. They still needed more time.

But more and more mages were coming upstairs. The three fire ones were now a.s.sisted by a wind mage which made their fires a lot more troublesome. Arawn had to expend more and more energy to swat them away.

He felt like he was swinging a two-handed saber the size of himself to get rid of a fly. He was much stronger, certainly, but his power was unwieldy and simplistic to the point of ridicule. Its intricacies started and ended with him sending bolts of ether at whatever he wanted to attack.

And he couldn"t even move his attacks once he sent them forward. Noticing this, the mages upstairs suddenly paid more attention to their own control. One of the three fireb.a.l.l.s ducked the next time it rushed down, avoiding the burst of ether, and crashed into Arawn.

His shoulder went aflame. He put it out with a few pats, but his skin was burned and his clothes scorched. The putrid smell of smoke made him want to gag.

In retribution, he sent a five times larger bolt of ether at the men. They yelped and fell to the ground. One of them was slower, and the bottom half of his coat was seared off clean through. There was a loud rumbling when the ether hit something in the room.

People began shouting, and the mages turned away, using their powers for something behind them. The rumbling reminded Arawn that he could do more than just destroy the stairs. He sent ether at the doorway, destroying it.

Once he aimed even higher, an avalanche of rocks fell, blocking the way down. "This should stop them for a moment," he murmured and turned around.

Behind him, the doctor stood with raised eyebrows. "I came to call you over," he said. "But I see it was unnecessary. Just how much power do you actually have?" He shook his head. "Come. We need to get Corwal to my clinic."

They left, and the doctor led him into a cell near the end of the row. There was a large opening in its wall, which looked really unsafe. How could any prison have an open tunnel leading out of it?

The moment they pa.s.sed through the entrance, the doctor turned around and sent ether into the wall. It wasn"t the same as fusing, but something even more magical. The doctor"s ether touched upon the ether naturally in the wall and convinced it to move. In a few seconds, the stone closed, forming a meter thick wall.

"Never seen ether powered artefacts? They"re fascinating, aren"t they?"

"You"re not an earth mage?" Arawn asked in surprise. He wasn"t certain, but it seemed that this was what the man was implying.

The doctor rolled his eyes while going forward to help Eliot carry Corwal. "Would I be a doctor if I was? I"m no good with any of the elements, but the ether itself listens to me well."

At those words, he materialized a small ball of ether and raised it above them to light up the tunnel. Arawn blinked a couple times, not liking such brightness when his eyes had already gotten used to the dark.

"Don"t worry. We don"t need to go far. This place actually opens up near my clinic."

"Did you make it?"

"Didn"t I just tell you that I"m no good with the elements? It was built by the lord from five generations back. He imprisoned his lover when his affair was discovered, claiming she had seduced him with black arts. In half a year or so, however, he realized that he couldn"t live without her, but he didn"t want to lose his status or prestige, so instead of freeing her, he built himself a secret way into her cell."

They reached a room at that moment. There was nothing in it besides a rock bed and two cabinets. "He would call upon her here every other night. The girl wasn"t too amused though and took her life days later. She said she wasn"t going to be a slave to his desires."

"How do you know all that?" Eliot asked with distrust. "This should be a private secret of the lord"s family."

The doctor chuckled at his words. "You really think he"d tell his family? No, the only person who knew about it was his doctor, to whom he confessed when a wasting illness caught him. The two things weren"t connected, but in the lord"s eyes it was the G.o.ds cursing him for his wanton life. Since then, all the doctors of the family have kept the secret of the tunnel in case they were ever accused of things they didn"t do."

"Like helping criminals?" Arawn offered, and the man gave him an appraising look.

"Exactly."