Chapter six: Fugitive
Chapter six
The pack of demons stalked on down the cobblestone street. They were similar in appearance, all members of the same infernal breed. They were all covered in rough, brown fur, with long, gaunt limbs and thick, razor-sharp claws on fingers and toes. Their arms were as long as their legs, and they moved in a sort of hunchbacked lop, raising their muzzled faces to sniff the air and snarl from time to time.
Aseena, lurking by the chimney of a nearby house, watched them pass by in silence. There had been fighting by both walls now. A lot of demons had slipped past the Soldiers and were running loose in the city until the patrols found them or the force of the Demesne drove them to teleport out. Was this pack just out to torture and kill any human they run into? Or were they looking for her in particular?
Admittedly, the sensible course of action was the same in either case.
Once she was sure that the pack had gone out of earshot - as sure as possible, at least; some of those demons had superhuman hearing - she slipped down off the room, fell the short distance to the ground, and bent her knees as she landed, ending up in a crouch. The impact still reverberated all the way up into her spine. She grimaced.
Ignoring the pain, she ran across the street, into an alley. Quickly now. She just needed to make it a few blocks, and she'd reach one of her safe havens - no, make that one of the places she hoped were safe havens, if only by virtue of her pursuers not having turned up at them yet.
She had had to figure out a number of things very quickly in the last few months, but one thing that she was still foggy on was just who was chasing her. It seemed to be a number of different groups - sometimes it was Soldiers, sometimes civilians, sometimes even a demon or two. She was aware that she was getting paranoid, but she couldn't see what choice she had. After the third time you were chased down an abandoned street by a group of wild-eyed people who were shouting things like "Get her!" and "Don't let her get away!", she felt, you had earned the right to be paranoid.
It had been civilians the first time, the day she had been heading back from the National Archive, her heart thumping with fear from what she had at that point only just begun to unearth. A few men in suits - Nobles, from the look of it - had approached her, asking politely for the time. When she had started fumbling for her pocket watch, one of them had tried to grab her and push a chemical-smelling rag over her mouth.
It was clumsy - they had clearly had no real experience as kidnappers - but it might have succeeded anyway, just from the element of surprise. But Aseena had been a Soldier, once upon a time, before being dishonourable discharged for failing to have even a semblance of military discipline. She had kicked and punched wildly, and then ran.
By the time she had gotten to Tenchurchy Abbey, more of them had been waiting outside. She couldn't be sure of it, of course - it was just a group of men and women that she didn't recognise, sitting on benches in the park, reading newspapers. But at that point she had been too frightened to take the risk. She had walked away before they saw her.
After that, she had tried going to the Soldiers for help. They had seemed sympathetic enough to start with, taking her down to the garrison and giving her a cup of tea while they looked into the matter. Then some kind of order had come down the line, and their tone had gotten brisker. She was to be placed in "protective custody," though it wasn't quite clear who it was that was supposed to be protected by it.
She had managed to get an especially young and impressionable-seeming Soldier on his own and convinced him that this was clearly a mistake and that he would be her hero if he could just look the other way for a moment while she made her exit. Since then she had been running.
She had tried to get in touch with Jalon any number of times. Tenchurch Abbey was apparently watched, but he moved around the city - all she had to do was find out where he was at any given time and go there, without being spotted by her pursuers. It was, it turned out, even harder than it sounded. She had only managed to get through once, and then Marble Street had happened. The opposition was playing for keeps.
She had tried sending him messages, too. Once, she had asked him to meet her in a certain square, and then hung back and observed it. Jalon hadn't showed up, but a surprisingly large number of Soldiers had. That made her suspect that her messages weren't getting through - and also that if she went back to Tenchurch Abbey, she would find more than just civilian goons waiting for her there.
Officially, of course, she was missing, presumed dead. And that was ominous in its own way.
She ran up the drive way of a small manor house on top of a hill. At least getting around unseen was easy right now - what with the demon attacks, there was a curfew. Normally, she had to stay discreet, attract no attention, stick to back alleys and rooftops whenever she could. She had taken to wearing all blacks and greys, all the easier to hide in the Shadowed Citadel darkness. Having long, blonde hair didn't work too well with that, of course - she had thought of cutting it off, but after everything these bastards had taken from her, they weren't getting her hair too. Wearing a hood had to suffice, most of the time.
She knocked frantically on the door. Come on, come on, come on, every second she was out here was a second when someone could spot her, and then all hell would break loose...
A woman opened. She had a freckled, serious face framed by short, dark hair, and was wearing a Priest's long, white, flowing coat.
"Get in, quickly," she said.
Aseena felt a mix of shame and gratitude as she slipped through the door and Kim closed it after her. It was a rare enough person who would help a fugitive from... not justice, exactly, but certainly someone who could bend the system of justice to their will. And even most of the ones that would would have allowed themselves a bit of aggravated misery - You again? Now, with demons on the streets? I have three scores of children to protect! Not Kim. With her it was always, Get in, quickly.
That was something Aseena had had to learn, from her months on the run. When you were in dire need, you learned to be pathetically grateful for those who would meet it, even though you couldn't repay them. You also learned to hate yourself for having to take advantage of their generosity - and hate, even more, the people who had forced you into a position where you had to.
"It's started, hasn't it?" Kim said. She smiled unhappily. "Whatever Mansuur's lot has been preparing for, it's started."
"There was a big event at Ravenscar Hold last night," Aseena said. "I think that those murders were preparations for something. Whatever happened last night, it triggered it. It's going to be downhill from here." She grimaced. "And Jalon is right in the thick of it, and I can't even tell him why - insofar as I even understand that myself!"
"We'll find a way," Kim said. "Come into the kitchen and sit down for a moment. How long have you been on your feet this time?"
Aseena rubbed her forehead.
"What day is it?" she said.
"Tuesday," Kim said. "The seventh."
"Oh." Aseena paused. "Of which month?"
"Oh dear." Kim led Aseena into the kitchen and gently but firmly put her on one of the chairs surrounding the big table there. She went to fill the tea pot.
"Where is everyone else?" Aseena said dimly. "All the children?"
"Down in the sanctuary in the basement, along with Varen and Edrin," Kim said. "Until the all clear is sounded, we didn't want them wandering around.
Lordshaven Hall was a creche, a place for children whose parents did not feel equal to raising them on their own. Some got regular visits from their mothers, or fathers, or both. Others were citadel-raised - no true parents but the Demesne itself. Which in practice meant that they had Kim and the other Priests and Servants who cared for them. In an imperfect world, Aseena supposed that that was not too bad.
She was silent until her tea was ready, and after that she allowed herself to do nothing but sit and sip and try to keep her eyes open for a while. Finally, she looked up.
"Jalon left Ravenscar Hold along with a dark-haired woman who drove a gargoyle-pulled carriage," she said. "I've asked around - it seems like she was probably a woman named Dara of Sablecrest Manor, caste of Mystics."
"Was he coming with her freely, or was she coercing him?" Kim said.
"I was a little too far away to see." Aseena frowned. Trying to get close to Mansuur's own home had been almost suicidally risky, but when she had found out that Jalon was going there she had decided that she simply had to do something. "But if she was with Mansuur, and Mansuur wanted to kidnap Jalon, why take him away from Ravenscar Hold?"
"I can think of a reason," Kim said. "If you found out that he was going there, the Soldiers can find out that he was going there. So if he suddenly disappears, that's the first place they'll look."
Aseena rubbed her eyes.
"Right. True. Shit, I'm too tired. Can't think straight anymore." She took a deep breath. "Can you scry Sablecrest Manor for me? See if he's there?"
"Sure." Kim closed her eyes. Her breathing grew slow and rhythmic, like she was asleep. "Right," she said, her voice more quiet now. "Here's Sablecrest Manor. No one seems to be around except gargoyles, though..."
"This Dara character is a bit weird and figures she needs a whole mansion all to herself," Aseena said. "Do a sweep, would you?"
Kim was silent for a moment.
"I see him," she said. "He's in a bedroom... I think he's just woken up. He's combing his hair... oh, now he's finished. Now he seems to be admiring himself in the mirror..."
"I bet," Aseena said. "Does he check first the left side, then the right, then grin smugly like he's thinking, 'damn, I'm pretty!'?"
"Yes, actually," Kim said, sounding amused.
Aseena chuckled.
"Yeah," she said. "That's Jalon. At least everything that's happened hasn't broken his spirit. When he stops being vain about his looks, then I'll worry."
Kim opened her eyes.
"You really miss him," she said.
"Yeah." Aseena smiled weakly. "I think it might make me a little too quick to ask you to scry for him. Sorry about that."
"Nah, it's okay." Kim smiled. "I know what it's like. My boyfriend used to live at the other end of the city, so we couldn't meet that often. I scried for him all the time, back then."
Aseena snorted with amusement.
"Just what every man wants - an all-seeing girlfriend!"
Kim wagged her finger in mock-affront.
"Bite your tongue. Some men have nothing to hide." She smiled. "Actually, your guy doesn't either, as far as I've ever seen. I mean, he flirts shamelessly with every woman he sees, but he also flirts with every man, child and small dog he sees, so I don't think that he means anything by it. In fact, one time you had me scry on him, I think I caught him flirting with a glass of sherry."
Aseena giggled.
"Jalon feels strongly about sherry," she said. "The first time he tasted the Talmar batch from '77, he immediately declared that he wanted to have its babies."
Kim smiled - and then her whole face fell.
"Oh no," she said.
"What?" Aseena leaned forward over the table. "What do you see?"
"It's Mansuur," Kim said. "He's outside of Sablecrest Manor, heading for the gate. God, if you could see the look on his face... Aseena, I think he's going to do something horrible."
Aseena got up.
"I have to go there," she said thickly.
"There's a horse in the stables," Kim said quickly. "Brown, with white front legs. His name is Mellow. Take him and go - he's the fastest horse we've got."
Aseena shook her head.
"I can't," she said. "If they catch me with one of your horses, they'll know that..."
"... that you stole it," Kim said. "What a naughty girl you are, I'll pray to the UniGod for your sinful soul, now go!"
Aseena wanted to argue, but Jalon was in danger, and she wasn't there to help him. She got up from her chair and ran.
The pack of demons stalked on down the cobblestone street. They were similar in appearance, all members of the same infernal breed. They were all covered in rough, brown fur, with long, gaunt limbs and thick, razor-sharp claws on fingers and toes. Their arms were as long as their legs, and they moved in a sort of hunchbacked lop, raising their muzzled faces to sniff the air and snarl from time to time.
Aseena, lurking by the chimney of a nearby house, watched them pass by in silence. There had been fighting by both walls now. A lot of demons had slipped past the Soldiers and were running loose in the city until the patrols found them or the force of the Demesne drove them to teleport out. Was this pack just out to torture and kill any human they run into? Or were they looking for her in particular?
Admittedly, the sensible course of action was the same in either case.
Once she was sure that the pack had gone out of earshot - as sure as possible, at least; some of those demons had superhuman hearing - she slipped down off the room, fell the short distance to the ground, and bent her knees as she landed, ending up in a crouch. The impact still reverberated all the way up into her spine. She grimaced.
Ignoring the pain, she ran across the street, into an alley. Quickly now. She just needed to make it a few blocks, and she'd reach one of her safe havens - no, make that one of the places she hoped were safe havens, if only by virtue of her pursuers not having turned up at them yet.
She had had to figure out a number of things very quickly in the last few months, but one thing that she was still foggy on was just who was chasing her. It seemed to be a number of different groups - sometimes it was Soldiers, sometimes civilians, sometimes even a demon or two. She was aware that she was getting paranoid, but she couldn't see what choice she had. After the third time you were chased down an abandoned street by a group of wild-eyed people who were shouting things like "Get her!" and "Don't let her get away!", she felt, you had earned the right to be paranoid.
It had been civilians the first time, the day she had been heading back from the National Archive, her heart thumping with fear from what she had at that point only just begun to unearth. A few men in suits - Nobles, from the look of it - had approached her, asking politely for the time. When she had started fumbling for her pocket watch, one of them had tried to grab her and push a chemical-smelling rag over her mouth.
It was clumsy - they had clearly had no real experience as kidnappers - but it might have succeeded anyway, just from the element of surprise. But Aseena had been a Soldier, once upon a time, before being dishonourable discharged for failing to have even a semblance of military discipline. She had kicked and punched wildly, and then ran.
By the time she had gotten to Tenchurchy Abbey, more of them had been waiting outside. She couldn't be sure of it, of course - it was just a group of men and women that she didn't recognise, sitting on benches in the park, reading newspapers. But at that point she had been too frightened to take the risk. She had walked away before they saw her.
After that, she had tried going to the Soldiers for help. They had seemed sympathetic enough to start with, taking her down to the garrison and giving her a cup of tea while they looked into the matter. Then some kind of order had come down the line, and their tone had gotten brisker. She was to be placed in "protective custody," though it wasn't quite clear who it was that was supposed to be protected by it.
She had managed to get an especially young and impressionable-seeming Soldier on his own and convinced him that this was clearly a mistake and that he would be her hero if he could just look the other way for a moment while she made her exit. Since then she had been running.
She had tried to get in touch with Jalon any number of times. Tenchurch Abbey was apparently watched, but he moved around the city - all she had to do was find out where he was at any given time and go there, without being spotted by her pursuers. It was, it turned out, even harder than it sounded. She had only managed to get through once, and then Marble Street had happened. The opposition was playing for keeps.
She had tried sending him messages, too. Once, she had asked him to meet her in a certain square, and then hung back and observed it. Jalon hadn't showed up, but a surprisingly large number of Soldiers had. That made her suspect that her messages weren't getting through - and also that if she went back to Tenchurch Abbey, she would find more than just civilian goons waiting for her there.
Officially, of course, she was missing, presumed dead. And that was ominous in its own way.
She ran up the drive way of a small manor house on top of a hill. At least getting around unseen was easy right now - what with the demon attacks, there was a curfew. Normally, she had to stay discreet, attract no attention, stick to back alleys and rooftops whenever she could. She had taken to wearing all blacks and greys, all the easier to hide in the Shadowed Citadel darkness. Having long, blonde hair didn't work too well with that, of course - she had thought of cutting it off, but after everything these bastards had taken from her, they weren't getting her hair too. Wearing a hood had to suffice, most of the time.
She knocked frantically on the door. Come on, come on, come on, every second she was out here was a second when someone could spot her, and then all hell would break loose...
A woman opened. She had a freckled, serious face framed by short, dark hair, and was wearing a Priest's long, white, flowing coat.
"Get in, quickly," she said.
Aseena felt a mix of shame and gratitude as she slipped through the door and Kim closed it after her. It was a rare enough person who would help a fugitive from... not justice, exactly, but certainly someone who could bend the system of justice to their will. And even most of the ones that would would have allowed themselves a bit of aggravated misery - You again? Now, with demons on the streets? I have three scores of children to protect! Not Kim. With her it was always, Get in, quickly.
That was something Aseena had had to learn, from her months on the run. When you were in dire need, you learned to be pathetically grateful for those who would meet it, even though you couldn't repay them. You also learned to hate yourself for having to take advantage of their generosity - and hate, even more, the people who had forced you into a position where you had to.
"It's started, hasn't it?" Kim said. She smiled unhappily. "Whatever Mansuur's lot has been preparing for, it's started."
"There was a big event at Ravenscar Hold last night," Aseena said. "I think that those murders were preparations for something. Whatever happened last night, it triggered it. It's going to be downhill from here." She grimaced. "And Jalon is right in the thick of it, and I can't even tell him why - insofar as I even understand that myself!"
"We'll find a way," Kim said. "Come into the kitchen and sit down for a moment. How long have you been on your feet this time?"
Aseena rubbed her forehead.
"What day is it?" she said.
"Tuesday," Kim said. "The seventh."
"Oh." Aseena paused. "Of which month?"
"Oh dear." Kim led Aseena into the kitchen and gently but firmly put her on one of the chairs surrounding the big table there. She went to fill the tea pot.
"Where is everyone else?" Aseena said dimly. "All the children?"
"Down in the sanctuary in the basement, along with Varen and Edrin," Kim said. "Until the all clear is sounded, we didn't want them wandering around.
Lordshaven Hall was a creche, a place for children whose parents did not feel equal to raising them on their own. Some got regular visits from their mothers, or fathers, or both. Others were citadel-raised - no true parents but the Demesne itself. Which in practice meant that they had Kim and the other Priests and Servants who cared for them. In an imperfect world, Aseena supposed that that was not too bad.
She was silent until her tea was ready, and after that she allowed herself to do nothing but sit and sip and try to keep her eyes open for a while. Finally, she looked up.
"Jalon left Ravenscar Hold along with a dark-haired woman who drove a gargoyle-pulled carriage," she said. "I've asked around - it seems like she was probably a woman named Dara of Sablecrest Manor, caste of Mystics."
"Was he coming with her freely, or was she coercing him?" Kim said.
"I was a little too far away to see." Aseena frowned. Trying to get close to Mansuur's own home had been almost suicidally risky, but when she had found out that Jalon was going there she had decided that she simply had to do something. "But if she was with Mansuur, and Mansuur wanted to kidnap Jalon, why take him away from Ravenscar Hold?"
"I can think of a reason," Kim said. "If you found out that he was going there, the Soldiers can find out that he was going there. So if he suddenly disappears, that's the first place they'll look."
Aseena rubbed her eyes.
"Right. True. Shit, I'm too tired. Can't think straight anymore." She took a deep breath. "Can you scry Sablecrest Manor for me? See if he's there?"
"Sure." Kim closed her eyes. Her breathing grew slow and rhythmic, like she was asleep. "Right," she said, her voice more quiet now. "Here's Sablecrest Manor. No one seems to be around except gargoyles, though..."
"This Dara character is a bit weird and figures she needs a whole mansion all to herself," Aseena said. "Do a sweep, would you?"
Kim was silent for a moment.
"I see him," she said. "He's in a bedroom... I think he's just woken up. He's combing his hair... oh, now he's finished. Now he seems to be admiring himself in the mirror..."
"I bet," Aseena said. "Does he check first the left side, then the right, then grin smugly like he's thinking, 'damn, I'm pretty!'?"
"Yes, actually," Kim said, sounding amused.
Aseena chuckled.
"Yeah," she said. "That's Jalon. At least everything that's happened hasn't broken his spirit. When he stops being vain about his looks, then I'll worry."
Kim opened her eyes.
"You really miss him," she said.
"Yeah." Aseena smiled weakly. "I think it might make me a little too quick to ask you to scry for him. Sorry about that."
"Nah, it's okay." Kim smiled. "I know what it's like. My boyfriend used to live at the other end of the city, so we couldn't meet that often. I scried for him all the time, back then."
Aseena snorted with amusement.
"Just what every man wants - an all-seeing girlfriend!"
Kim wagged her finger in mock-affront.
"Bite your tongue. Some men have nothing to hide." She smiled. "Actually, your guy doesn't either, as far as I've ever seen. I mean, he flirts shamelessly with every woman he sees, but he also flirts with every man, child and small dog he sees, so I don't think that he means anything by it. In fact, one time you had me scry on him, I think I caught him flirting with a glass of sherry."
Aseena giggled.
"Jalon feels strongly about sherry," she said. "The first time he tasted the Talmar batch from '77, he immediately declared that he wanted to have its babies."
Kim smiled - and then her whole face fell.
"Oh no," she said.
"What?" Aseena leaned forward over the table. "What do you see?"
"It's Mansuur," Kim said. "He's outside of Sablecrest Manor, heading for the gate. God, if you could see the look on his face... Aseena, I think he's going to do something horrible."
Aseena got up.
"I have to go there," she said thickly.
"There's a horse in the stables," Kim said quickly. "Brown, with white front legs. His name is Mellow. Take him and go - he's the fastest horse we've got."
Aseena shook her head.
"I can't," she said. "If they catch me with one of your horses, they'll know that..."
"... that you stole it," Kim said. "What a naughty girl you are, I'll pray to the UniGod for your sinful soul, now go!"
Aseena wanted to argue, but Jalon was in danger, and she wasn't there to help him. She got up from her chair and ran.