Page 72 of Queen Demon
“Anything can be fought,” Kai said absently. He pulled on a bar, testing it. “What is this made of?”
Someone else scooted closer and whispered, “It’s like a reed, like bamboo, but doesn’t need water. They’re hard as rock once they’re cut, we use them in camp. I’m Kaeter and that’s Tael, by the way.”
Kai found a join and wrapped his hand around it. There was life still in the wood, just a little. He drew it out and felt the hard substance shrivel under his hand. “Are you all here? I found four dead in the corridors.”
“Yes, all of us that survived,” Tael said, grief and despair thickening their voice. “They put Ilhanrun in a separate cage, further along the wall.”
Kaeter added, “We think he’s unconscious, we call to him but he hasn’t answered since—I don’t know, at least a day?”
“Longer than that,” Tael said.
Kai huffed under his breath. He had been hoping Highsun would be useful, but apparently not. He found the next join and drained it. “When I let you out, go back against the wall by the archway and wait for me.” He didn’t want to send them through those corridors without protection. Even if they remembered the way out, if they ran into what guarded this place, they wouldn’t have a chance.
“But how—”
“We’ve tried and tried to break it—”
Kai yanked the weakened section of bars out.
“Oh,” Kaeter breathed.
The mortals inside scrambled to move, whispering and bumpinginto each other in the dark. Kai went to the next cage. Those inside seemed weaker, and as he was draining the wooden joins, he asked, “Have you had any food or water?”
“Only what we brought with us,” a voice rasped.
With bitter amusement, someone added, “We rationed it, but we weren’t expecting to be gone this long.”
“You just have to get outside,” Kai told them. He pulled the pack Ramad had given him off his shoulder and passed it through the bars. “I’ll take care of the rest.”
“Who are you?” the first one asked.
“I was sent here by the Light of the Hundred Coronels and Chancellor Domtellan,” he repeated. He got the section of bars off. For all their questions, they didn’t hesitate; the first prisoner climbed out and reached back to help the next.
“But what’s your name?” someone persisted.
“Call me Kai.” He stepped away to look for Highsun. The next cage was further down the curve of the wall, the light from a fire pot falling on a slumped figure inside.
Then the sound of footsteps—slow, deliberate—came from around the curve of the Well’s platform.
Kai flung himself to the floor and started sketching out the fire design in the grime and dust. It was a trickier version of the one that had set the weed mat in the flooded Summer Halls alight, but it would need less pain to power it. As he fed stored pain into it, the lines took on the faintly luminescent, floating quality only an expositor could see. He didn’t like to think about how many lives he could have saved during the war if he had had the skill to make something like this back then.
From behind him, Kaeter’s voice whispered, “What are you doing?”
“Setting a fire.” Kai finished the design and pushed to his feet. The steps were closer. The slower mortals, more weakened by deprivation, were out of the cage and moving or being helped toward the archway. Kai would put the lives of fourteenmortals above one Immortal Blessed who he had never met, but they seemed attached to Highsun and he didn’t think he could keep their cooperation if he told them to leave without him. The confusion and darkness were keeping the scholars under control for now but it was a tenuous situation. When they heard the approaching footsteps, they might panic. “Lead the others down the corridor, I’ll catch up.”
Giving Kaeter a job did the trick and they darted back to get the others moving. Kai ran to Highsun’s cage and started to drain the joins between the bars. He kept his gaze on the bowl light further down the wall, and saw the instant a large figure stepped into that flicker of firelight.
Kai had known there must be expositors’ constructs here, but he had never seen one so big or so old. At least three people had gone into its making, as well as something with moldy rank brown fur. Its patchwork skin was a gnarled gray, and it had three legs, five arms, and its eyes were in its chest where the breastbone should be. Its uneven gate accelerated as it spotted Kai and the empty cages.
Kai ripped the weakened bars out and reached for the slumped figure. He touched the limp body’s head and felt the life still there. He grabbed the shoulders of Highsun’s coat and hauled him out of the cage. Highsun was almost as tall as Tahren but wider. If Kai had to carry someone out of here, he would rather it be anyone other than an Immortal Blessed, but there was no help for it. Cursing, Kai heaved the heavy body up, ducked down, and let it fall over his shoulder.
Straightening up was awkward and running was worse, but he had to get out of the chamber before the construct reached the spot where the design was drawn into the floor.
Near the archway, he stumbled on a rough paving stone and almost fell. The grubby crowd of mortals gathered under the bad light of a fire pot niche, their clothes torn and dirty, some streaked with dried blood. All stared doubtfully at Kai. Taelsaid, “Here, help him!” and two grabbed for Highsun, taking his weight as Kai dumped him unceremoniously.
Kai’s back protested with a sharp spike of pain and he braced himself on the wall, keeping his chin down so the shadow would hide his eyes. Despite the urge to feed the pain into the incipient intention, he gritted his teeth and tucked it away. He was sure to need it on the way out. Unfortunately, storing it or fueling an intention with it didn’t mean you stopped feeling it.
“Run, now,” Kai told them, remembering at the last instant to speak Belithan. He was certain most would understand Old Imperial, but Belithan would be more reassuring. “I’ll catch up and show you the way.” He pushed off the wall and moved to the side of the arch, leaning on the carved stone. The construct picked up speed, barreling this way. Another came into view behind it, smaller but no less hideous. Shadows moved in the dark behind them.
