CHAPTER 19
Nate Garrett
The Shadow Falls realm gate was made of similar materials as all the others, but the one in Portland glowed a dim purple. Getting from the bar area to the realm-gate room had consisted of going through several dozen guards and more than a few doors that required retina scans. Arthur might turn up here and demand to see Galahad, but this was Shadow Falls territory and if Arthur wasn’t careful he could find himself in a fight that would last for months, if not longer. The levels below the bar had stockpiles of weapons and supplies to last a long time. And I doubted that Arthur would want to turn a major human city into rubble just to get to Galahad. But clearly there were people within Avalon who would stop at nothing to start this war.
Rebecca was one of half a dozen guardians who worked with the realm gate I was asking to use. Half a dozen almost-immortal warriors who would defend this place to the last, so long as they remained close to the gate. If Arthur tried to force his way through, he’d need to get the guardians to open the gate—which would never happen—or make his own. And that was a lengthy process. Either way, if Avalon did try to take Shadow Falls by force, it wasn’t going to be a quick fight.
One of the guards in the realm-gate room activated the gate. “Harrison isn’t going to be pleased to see you,” Rebecca told me.
“He’s never pleased to see me. The man lives and breathes to be as miserable as possible at all times.” I stepped through the gate into Shadow Falls.
The realm-gate room in Shadow Falls was inside a temple on top of a hill just outside of the massive sprawling city by the name of Solomon. When I was last in the realm, a million people lived there, and from what I’d heard that number had increased over the years. Being a king suited Galahad a lot more than most people I’d met in the same position.
I stood in the realm-gate room as several guards and guardians watched me with a kind of concerned interest. I guessed that my friends had arrived and delivered the bad news. The realm gate shut off, and Harrison strode toward me as if he owned the place, which, because he was the head of Shadow Falls security, wasn’t far off from the truth.
Harrison was huge. Imposingly so. He had the kind of physique that people only achieve after years of injecting themselves with large quantities of steroids. His ginger hair was still long, and tied back in a ponytail. In fact he didn’t appear to have changed in any way since I’d last seen him several years earlier.
“I am not happy to see you,” Harrison said, his voice deep and full of bass.
“Yeah, well the feeling is mutual.”
He brandished a sorcerer’s band and passed it to me. “You need to wear one of these. Don’t argue. It’s law. All sorcerers wear one. Your magic is unpredictable here, and after Leonardo figured out about microscopic pieces of magic being in the air, it’s too dangerous to allow you to wander around without it.”
Shadow Falls, much like Tartarus, had a strange effect on my magic. In the case of Shadow Falls, using my magic ignited the magic that existed all around Shadow Falls with devastating, spectacular results. Even a small amount of use would quickly become out of control. Strangely enough, the last time I was in the realm, Leonardo had told me that sorcerer’s bands didn’t work, something that Harrison was keen to explain.
“Leonardo makes them,” he said. “They use a different type of rune than the bands on Earth realm. They’ll let you still feel your magic, but not use it. It’s thought of as being more humane.”
I sighed and put the bracelet on, clicking it into a locked position.
“Now do something small with your magic to check,” Harrison said.
“Fine.” I tried to create a small flame in my hand, but no matter how much I concentrated, I couldn’t make one. “Satisfied?”
“Excellent. Nathan Garrett, you will come with me to the prison, where you will be questioned as a possible spy for Avalon.”
I thought it was just a really bad joke until I saw several guards place their hands on their swords. And then I just got really angry. “Have you lost your fucking mind? Haven’t we been through this already? I figured you’d trust me after I saved your king’s life on more than one occasion.”
“That was then,” Harrison said. “Come quietly, or I’ll be forced to hurt you.”
“You really are a dumb fucking idiot.”
Harrison punched me in the mouth, knocking me to the ground, and my first reaction was to cleave him in half. I forced myself to calm and turned back to him. “Was that necessary?”
“In the last few days, a man calling himself Hellequin has claimed responsibility for countless acts of terrorism on the Earth realm. You used to go by that name. I’m not saying you’re guilty, but we need to find out one way or the other. I can’t allow someone to come into my realm if there’s a shred of evidence that suggests they will cause problems. Not after the murders of the last few weeks. You’ll be taken for questioning, and if I deem you to be uninvolved in these terrorist activities, then, and only then, will you be allowed to see Galahad.”
“Wait, you think I’m involved with murders? What murders?”
“That’s what the questioning you will undergo will determine. You will be placed in the prison, with your friends, until it’s determined what kind of threat you pose to this realm. And if you resist . . .” Harrison unhooked the massive hammer that hung from his back. He placed the head of the weapon on the ground beside me. “We’ll find a more permanent solution to the problem.”
I got back to my feet and allowed the guards to take me away. There was no point coming up with a witty remark, or threats—they wouldn’t have done me any good. Harrison was stubborn and arrogant, and had been out to try and find some reason to validate his hatred of me for decades. I thought we’d moved past it when we’d fought side by side, but apparently I was wrong. I only hoped that we could sort all this out before Arthur and Avalon arrived and things became considerably worse.
I was led out of the temple and into a waiting horse-drawn carriage.
“So, there have been murders in the realm?” I asked the guard beside me.
“Yes. I’m not allowed to talk about it more than that.”
“Okay, what are you allowed to talk about?” I looked around. “I see Leonardo didn’t get the crystals to power vehicles.”
“They kept blowing up,” said one of the three guards who got in the back of the carriage with me.
Silence descended for the rest of the journey, until we reached the prison outside the city.
“Well, that’s new,” I said as I left the carriage, looking up at the huge building that had been built into the very mountain. The dark rock stood out against the green that surrounded us. I didn’t even understand how we were going to get up there without a helicopter or something. It was hundreds of feet above where we stood.
“In there,” the guard who’d spoken to me earlier said. He pointed to the mouth of a nearby cave next to a small fort.
Six guards took me into the cave and down a set of steps to a lift that was big enough to take a tank. Small purple crystals glowed in the gloom, and the guards took me onto the lift and pressed one of two buttons on the panel inside. The metal doors slowly closed, and we began to ascend.
“Glad to see the crystals were used for something,” I said after a minute still ascending. “How long does this take?”
“Eight minutes,” the guard said. “We created the prison when it was obvious that we needed a place to put people who didn’t want to live by our rules. The palace dungeon was no longer deemed acceptable. We can’t move the lift quickly, as our alchemists discovered that it makes the rock shake too much. We’ve been trying to figure out a way to get around it. Eight minutes each way is a long time.”
We went back to silence after that for the remainder of the ride, until the lift stopped with a violent shake. The guard pressed the same button he had last time, and the doors began opening. The seven of us left the confines of the lift and walked down a long corridor that had been seemingly carved out of the mountain.
“Your dwarf friend,” the guard said. “Zamek. He really a true dwarf?”
I nodded.
“He could teach us a lot about alchemy.”
“He could, but you’ve imprisoned him, and he tends to take things like that personally.”
“It’s not like we’re doing this out of spite.”
I stopped and turned back to the guards, three of whom dropped their hands to their swords. “Oh, grow up. I’m not going to hurt you. And yes, this is personal. This is because Harrison is a complete fucking idiot who thinks with his biceps and wants to get one over on me.”
“He is doing what he thinks is best for Shadow Falls,” the guard replied. “And you haven’t been here the last few months. Things happened.”
“Those murders again?”
The guard looked away, clearly annoyed that he’d said anything. “Like I said, I’ve been ordered to remain quiet about it.”
I tried to push down my frustrations, but part of them still bubbled over. “He’s doing what he thinks is best for him. He’s doing what he thinks is best to show everyone that he’s in charge. Where is Galahad? What’s he doing? Will he even be informed that we’re here?”
“I don’t know. That’s not my job. My job is to protect my kingdom, and Harrison is my commander, so I do as he tells me.”
I was about to argue but thought better of it. “Just show me to my cell.”
It didn’t take long before we’d reached the end of the hallway, where the guard knocked on part of the wall, which moved aside like a door and not solid rock. “We’ve got Nate Garrett,” the guard said. “Harrison says he should be put with his friends. He’ll need to be interrogated sooner rather than later. He seems to have important news he has to get to the king.”
“Do I tell you how to do your job?” the thin, bald prison guard said. “No, no I don’t. I’ll decide when he gets interrogated, and Harrison has already asked that he be part of it.”
“Of course he fucking did,” I snapped.
The prison guard raised a small wooden club in my direction. “Did I ask you to speak?”
“You know that once Galahad knows I’m here, I’m going to get out,” I said.
He thought about it for a second, and I could almost see the calculations in his head as he tried to figure out just how much trouble he would be in once I got out.
“You really want to piss me off more than I already am?” I asked, pointing him in what was hopefully the right direction.
“You behave, we won’t have a problem,” the guard said, lowering his club and shrugging as if he was in no way doing that because of what I’d said.
I turned to the guard who had spoken to me on the way to the prison. “Thank you for not being an asshole.”
“I understand your anger at this situation, but we have to make sure you’re not here to undermine or hurt us. I’m sure it’ll be resolved soon.”
“Hopefully before Avalon turns up with an army,” I said, and walked through the hole in the wall, which closed behind me.
“You follow me,” the prison guard said. “You behave, we won’t have a problem.”
“You said that already. I’m not here to cause issues. I’m here to talk to your king. As I have said more times than I care to remember.”
The prison guard said nothing else as he and four others escorted me through the prison. Occasionally we’d come to a place in a wall where there was no way of going further, and one of the guards would use their alchemy to create a door for us. Eventually we reached what appeared to be a cellblock, where most of the cells appeared to be sealed with rock, with only a small, cat-flap-sized hole in each one. Each hole had several metal bars on it, making escape impossible for anyone over three inches wide.
After descending a set of stairs and moving through yet another wall, I found myself in a large room with four cells along the far wall. These cells had no rock covering the entrances and consisted of only the metal bars. The cells were large, easily the same size the lift had been, and most appeared to have a barred window.
Lucifer and Zamek were in one cell. Another held Sky and Selene. I was led toward the cell between them and told to go inside. One of the guards placed a hand on the bars, and they almost melted into the floor. I stepped inside, and the bars were quickly replaced.
“Behave,” the prison guard said.
I ignored him and looked around at my new room. There was a bunk bed against one wall, with two comfortable-looking mattresses. A small desk and chair sat against the opposite wall, with paper and several pens on it. I assumed they weren’t too worried about people using the pens to try and assault the guards. There was a toilet and sink next to the table. I walked over to the window and looked out over the city of Solomon far below.
“Nice view if nothing else,” Zamek said from the cell beside me.
“So, we can hear one another,” I said. “That’s useful.”
“Can’t use my alchemy, though,” Zamek said. “There are runes on the cell. I think they’re written into the very rock of the prison. It’s not an ideal venue for an impressive and bold breakout.”
“There’s nowhere to break out to,” Sky said. “We’re quite literally on top of a mountain. It’s freezing outside, but nice and warm in here even though there are open holes in the side of the cell. That’s some fairly serious rune work.”
“Thank you,” a voice said from the far end of the room outside the cells. “It took a lot of going back and forth to get it to work.”
“Leonardo,” I said as he walked into view. “It’s been a while.”
Leonardo had the appearance of a man who was in his mid- to late forties. He had a neatly trimmed white beard, which matched his hairstyle. “Nathaniel, it’s good to see you. Not so good to see you in jail. We’d best be doing something about that.”
“Yeah, how?” I asked.
“I’m just waiting for Antonio, and then we’ll arrange everything.”
“You’re going to break us out of jail?” Lucifer asked. “Won’t that make you an enemy of the state?”
“Probably, but there are more important things at play here.”
“Leonardo, we’re ready!” Antonio shouted as he entered the room through a newly formed hole in the wall.
“Hello, Antonio. What’s going on?” I asked.
Antonio was taller than me by several inches, and barrel chested. He was bald and usually wore a smile no matter how stressful the situation. He was the perfect antidote to Leonardo, who, for all of his intelligence, had a tendency to fixate on one thing at the expense of all others. “Nate. Essentially we know what’s happening, and you need to see something.”
“What?” I asked.
“A prison,” Leonardo said.
“We’re in prison,” Selene pointed out.
“An older prison,” Leonardo clarified. “Much older.”
“And what does that have to do with anything?” I asked. Sometimes getting answers from Leonardo was hard work. It was difficult being the smartest man everywhere he went, and he tended to think everyone had the same level of knowledge that he did, which often made for confusing conversations.
“Ah, I’ve gotten ahead of myself. Essentially Galahad wasn’t available, so when I heard that your friends had been captured, it was only a matter of time before I knew you’d be along. Then it was simply a matter of slowly using our alchemy to tunnel up and around the prison to get here, avoiding patrols and anything unpleasant. After all, I designed the place.”
“So, who arranged all of this?” I asked.
“Caitlin,” Antonio said. “Galahad’s daughter.”
“I know who she is,” I said. “I brought her here. I introduced her to Galahad. I still don’t understand why you’re breaking us out. Why hasn’t Caitlin gone to Galahad to get him to let us out?”
“No time. Galahad is off to the north, dealing with some unpleasantness.”
“What does that mean?”
“I’ll explain later. But right now we need to go.”
Leonardo and Antonio placed their hands on the floor in front of our cells, and the bars melted, freeing us. They walked over to the far side of the room and touched the wall, creating a door to step into where purple light glowed beyond.
“Originally, I was just going to get you out of the prison. We have a problem, which Caitlin and I think you can help with. But seeing as he’s with you, I think it would be best if you saw something.”
“By ‘he’ you mean me?” Lucifer asked.
Leonardo nodded. “There’s something inside the mountain I think you need to see.”
“Yes, a prison. You already said,” I told him.
Leonardo paused. “Yes, but it’s not just the prison. There’s something else.”
“What?” Sky asked.
“Runes,” Leonardo said. “Elven runes.”
Now that I hadn’t been expecting.