Hunt for Justice (21 page)

Nolan stood still.

"Come on, old man. Don't make this difficult. Our orders are to not hurt you much. That leaves a lot of freedom to decide how much is much."

Nolan shrugged. Not much else he could do. Spreading his arms wide, he let the man see the damage he had done to his wrists getting free.

"Well, you're more resourceful than we all thought. That's a shame though. I'm going to have to tie your hands again. The rope certainly won't feel good on those wrists now. Maybe we can get that looked at tonight."

Nolan took a step back. This would probably be his only chance to escape, except the man in front of him was younger, stronger, and probably knew how to fight. Nolan didn't even have a weapon to flail about wildly at the man. His shoulder burned and his knee ached to the point he could barely keep much weight on it. Still, he had to try.

"Listen," the man took a step towards him, "I'll try to leave it as loose as I can without it being easy for you to slip out or get the knots loose. Best I can do."

Nolan took another step back.

"I swear, though, if you try to fight me in this, I'll make you regret it."

Nolan's back hit the wall.

"See? Nowhere to go. Now just stick your hands out--"

Nolan threw a punch.

It wasn't the most well executed attack, but he had watched Ezzy get in enough scraps to at least put a little power into it.

It glanced off the man's shoulder. The expression on his face was more of disappointment than pain.

The punch the man threw, on the other hand, struck Nolan square in the chest. He stumbled backwards and struck the wall, his knees buckling as the breath left his body.

"Now don't make me hit you again. I feel bad hitting an old man. Doesn't mean I won't knock a few of your teeth free, but I'll feel bad doing it."

Nolan lashed out a kick. It hit the man's shin, making him stumble a step. He retaliated with a back hand that rattled Nolan's teeth but didn't knock any free.

"Now I'm getting annoyed." Gripping Nolan's shirt, the man lifted him off the ground and slammed him against the wall. "If it will be easier to tie you up while you are unconscious, I have no problem with that."

Nolan grabbed the man's arm and tried to pull it off him, but he wasn't even strong enough to give it a good shake.

Another backhand almost succeeded in knocking him out, but he held on. Barely. Held up by the man, his eyes closed from the pain, Nolan wanted to just give in. Sleep was certainly better than lying awake on a stone floor. Peaceful sleep.

Then he thought of Ezzy.

Nolan wasn't sure what made him reach out with his magic. Maybe it was frustration at being so useless. Or it could have been desperation. In the end it didn't matter. He found the other man's consciousness. Felt the energy of his mind. It flowed through his incorporeal grasp like a gentle breeze.

He gripped it and tore it from the man.

The Orange Hound member's grip dropped away. His whole body dropped away. The gang member slumped to the ground, his eyes wide and blank.

Nolan had done something no one else in history had ever done before.

He had used his magic as a Thaljori to kill.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Hide and Seek

The reality of what Nolan had done rocked him more than any of the blows he had received.

He had taken a life.

He had taken a life using his magic.

Nolan stood there, in his cell, with the door to his freedom sitting wide open. He couldn't move. He could barely breathe.

When creating Vilathos, accidents could happen with deadly results. He had lost people before in the dangerous process. Some people had died, others had lost their minds, and some had even been los
t
i
n
their minds. But those people knew the risks, knew a variety of things could go wrong. Nolan always felt bad for the man or woman when it happened, and he tried his hardest not to let it happen, but sometimes things were out of his control. He had never dwelt on the lives that had been lost during the process.

But this was different. He had deliberately reached out and tore apart the man's mind.

A churning started in his stomach. Moved up to his throat.

"By the gods..." he managed to get out before bending over and throwing up on the floor.

With his stomach emptied and his body still sore from the beating he had received, Nolan tried to stand. Dizziness washed over him. He stumbled to the side, his shoulder slamming into the wall. The new pain mixed with the old.

"What have I done..."

All of the temples in Lurthalan saw the taking of life as an executable offense. Taking a life through the use of magic warranted an even worse punishment, although he had no idea what was worse than death. The law just stated the punishment was worse and anyone accused disappeared soon after. He could claim self-defense, but the laws written down by the temples applied differently when magic was involved. And as far as he knew, he was the first ever to use his type of magic to kill. Would they have to create new laws because of him?

But that was the future. He needed to focus on the here and now.

Ezzy and Shayua. They needed him.

"Focus."

Nolan was surprised to find that just that one word snapped his mind back into the present. It was more than that though. That haze that so often tried to cloud his thoughts was gone. He felt energized as well, sore of course, but energized. Had something happened when he had killed the man?

"Get moving," he whispered to himself.

He was out the door and glancing around in a heartbeat, despite his bad knee. The hallway ran straight ahead and a side hallway went to his left. Down either direction, doors similar to the one that had kept him caged sat closed. Nolan was about to call out for his companions but thought better of it. No one knew he was free. It could be a while before anyone even came down to check on them. Best not to waste that advantage.

So, which way?

Ezzy would be kept as deep into this place as possible. That idea made him choose to go left. There was only one door in sight in this direction, and he moved toward it and pushed.

It didn't budge.

Of course, it's going to be locked, you fool.

Moving as quiet as he could, Nolan returned to his own cell. He needed the keys the man he killed carried, but that meant he had to look at the man he had killed.

The body lay in the same spot where it had fallen. His legs were folded up beneath his body and his arms were splayed out at weird angles. Trickles of blood dripped out of his ears and nose. The worst thing was his eyes. They had turned a crimson red. Even with the pupils gone, the lifeless stare felt like an accusation.

Murderer. Butcher. Killer.

It took him a moment, but Nolan pushed away the guilt. The man could have been all of those things and probably more. Who knows what he had done in the past, the people he had hurt? Nolan shouldn't feel bad about defending himself.

As he removed the keys from the guard's belt, a thumping sound down the hall startled him to attention. The keys fumbled to the floor with a clatter. Nolan silently cursed and froze in place, listening until he was confident that his clumsiness had gone unheard. Snatching up the keys, he left the room and returned to the solitary door down the hallway. The lock clicked open without a problem, allowing Nolan to push the door open and enter the room. A cell that mirrored his own greeted Nolan as he entered. It was completely empty except for one thing.

The prisoner inside.

Disappointment washed over Nolan. The prisoner rose as Nolan entered. The rags of what used to be a shirt and pants hung from his stocky build. Thinning black hair, matted with dirt, framed the face of a man that looked to be close to Nolan in age. Fear shone through the man's brown eyes and his lips trembled. He started to shake as Nolan took another step into the room, and he grasped his bound hands in front of his body.

"Please, no more! I can't take any more."

"Quiet," Nolan whispered, raising his hands in a calming manner. "I'm not one of them. I was locked up as well but escaped."

"What do you take me for, a fool? A thin man like you taking down one of those thugs on your own? What game are you playing? Are you supposed to be the gentle approach after days of those others beating me silly? I'm too intelligent to fall for something so obvious."

"I don't have time for this."

Nolan turned his back on the man and walked out the door. Glancing to his left he noticed a passage and the beginning of a stairwell at the end of the hall he had missed before. Go up or search the other rooms down here? The choice was obvious to his focused mind. It only made sense that his companions would be down here as well. His captors wouldn't risk holding prisoners upstairs where they could call out or make a break for the front door. More likely than not, there were guards stationed at the top of the stairs as well. He would continue to search on this level. Stepping away from the room, he was about to move towards the first door on the left when a hand grabbed his arm.

"Let's say you are a prisoner like me," the stocky man said. "Shouldn't we be moving to those steps? The faster we can get out of here, the better in my opinion."

"I have other friends that I believe are being kept here."

"All the more reason to escape. It will be easier for just the two of us to sneak out of here. I'm pretty well known in the area, and I'm sure the Janpair family would swoop in here and get rid of these ruffians once they find out how I've been treated. They'll free your friends."

"I'm not leaving them here." Pulling his arm free, Nolan moved down the hall. The stocky man was quick to follow.

"This really is foolish. I don't know how you were lucky enough to get free, but there could be dozens of men stationed above us. Are you some kind of skilled warrior? You certainly don't look it, but I doubt you could take a dozen or so men. Unless you are an Elementalist? I'd even take a Sparkteller at this point."

"I'm a Thaljori."

"Ah, then you're just as useless as I am when it comes to a fight. I'm a Saniteal by the way. Iacane Brill, you might have heard of me."

So, that's where the man they had been looking for had disappeared to.

"Yes, I've heard of you, but not for the reasons you're probably thinking."

Iacane let out a nervous laugh. "But you have heard of me. That's what matters."

"If you say so."

They had reached the first door
.
Please let Ezzy be inside
.
Another lock slowed him down, but his key worked in it as well. He stepped inside the room with baited breath.

I find everyone except who I want to find.

The candles had dwindled down in the room, leaving the light in the hall the only bit that showed Shayua's tied up form. She sat in a chair, her head down, hair covering her face, and her chin on her chest. Her arms were behind her back, probably tied there, and Nolan could see the ropes that tied her ankles to the legs of the chair. She didn't raise her head as he entered. The warrior was probably plotting some kind of escape.

"What kind of a..." Iacane began but Nolan cut him off.

"She's a very dangerous bounty hunter you should not anger. Now be quiet." Nolan strode towards Shayua and knelt in front of her. "Shayua, it's me Nolan. Shayua?"

The woman didn't respond. Nolan slowly put a hand to her shoulder, hoping she didn't bite it off, and gave her a shake. She remained limp. Against his better judgment, he gently grasped her chin and brushed the hair out of her face.

Shayua looked like she had been trampled by a herd of horses. Her face was bruised and cut. One of her eyes was swollen shut. Her nose was broken in at least two places. A particularly nasty gash ran along the left side of her chin. The bounty hunter was breathing, but the air wheezed out of her mouth and nose.

"Iacane. You have to heal her."

Walking up to Nolan's side, the Saniteal bent down and examined Shay. After a few moments, he shook his head.

"She's too badly hurt."

"What? I thought people with your skill could heal much, much worse?"

"We can," he growled. "I can. But if I heal her completely, she'll be out for a while as her body recovers from the process, and I'll be in even worse shape. Think you can sneak out of here while carrying the two of us?"

"No, I..." He wanted to punch something. Punch Iacane, even if the man was telling the truth. Nolan really didn't know much about how a Saniteal's power worked. No one with any real magical power associated with people of different talents. By the Abyss, he never socialized with other Thaljori.

"Well, we can't just leave her here. Is there something you can do?"

"Move." The scared tone was gone, replaced by a steel that Nolan hadn't expected from the man. "Let me take a closer look."

Iacane crouched down again in front of Shay and placed both of his hands on the sides of her head. He remained there, eyes closed for what felt like forever. Nolan kept glancing at the door, expecting their captors to stride in at any moment and make them pay for trying to get away.

"I can wake her up, help her enough that she can move on her own. Just don't expect much else out of her. Help me get these ropes off of her first."

"Let's leave her tied up at least until she recognizes me. I don't want there to be any misunderstandings."

"Is she really that dangerous?"

"From what little I've seen of her in action. She tried to go head-to-head with a metal Vilathos twice her size."

"Yes, let's leave her tied then. Alright, hold on."

Iacane closed his eyes and grew still. Nolan had never seen a Saniteal at work before and had no idea what to expect. Right away sweat began to bead on his forehead. His face twitched. His body began to shake, and he let out a small moan. Nolan gasped as a small slash appeared on the man's chin and then disappeared. Did healing a person mess with a Saniteal's body in a similar way that creating a Vilathos damaged a Thaljori's mind?

With a gasp, Iacane fell backwards. He lay on the floor staring at the ceiling, his breaths coming in ragged gasps.

"Did it work? Is she alright?"

"Give me a moment. I did what I could. She had a few injuries inside of her body that I had to fix. Those take a lot out of me. You should be able to wake her up though."

"Thank you."

Nolan gave the woman's shoulder a shake.

"Shay. I need you to wake up. It's Nolan."

Shay lifted her head. Her one eye was still swollen shut, but her face was less bruised and the gash on her chin had closed. She glanced around, her gaze resting on Iacane for a moment before it ended on Nolan.

"Where is Esmerelda?"

"I don't know; we haven't found her yet. They are keeping her drugged."

"Is this man one of the ones that took us?"

"No, he was a prisoner as well. He healed you."

"Wonderful. Another man I owe. Why am I still bound?"

"Just making sure you didn't kill me by accident when you woke."

"A smart move. You may untie me now though, Nolan."

It took him longer than he expected to loosen the ropes. They had tied her as tight as possible to the chair. He couldn't blame them. If he had wanted to tie Shay up, he would have used chains just to make sure. When she was free, Shay rose to her feet on wobbly legs.

"I'm surprised you can even stand," Iacane said from the floor. "That much healing would keep a weaker person in bed for half a day at the least."

"I am not weak. Do you need me to carry you to prove it?"

"No, no." Iacane sat up, although he struggled to do it. "Last thing we need is you trying to show off and dropping me when your legs give out. Just try to conserve what strength you have. I'm sure you'll need it if we're going to escape."