The Crow King's Wife (55 page)

“I wasn’t done arguing that point.” Shade
called after him.

“I know you weren’t.” Grim returned in
amusement.

“You really are an ass you know.” Shade
muttered grumpily as he stared after Grim and tried to figure out
what exactly the man was doing without having to ask him.

“Yes I am.” Grim agreed as he paused beside
one of the cell doors and glanced back at Shade. “The council
meeting has started.” He said as the Shadows faded abruptly away
and the hall around them erupted into the loud rumble of thousands
of disgruntled prisoners. Without any warning whatsoever Grim had
dumped them both back into the world without any regard to
stealth.

“Shit!” Shade snarled as the shouts of guards
echoed down the hall toward him. A loud crack tore through the air
drawing Shade’s attention back to Grim as the priest calmly tore
the iron door from the first cell. Turning casually Grim threw the
massive piece of metal toward the rapidly approaching guards barely
missing Shade as he ducked to the side and flattened himself
against the wall. Another crack sounded as the second door was
ripped from its frame and Shade scrambled down the hall toward Grim
before the priest had a chance to throw it.

“You could have warned me what you were
doing!” Shade snarled as he slid to a stop beside Grim.

“We’ve discussed the plan six times. I
thought you had it down by now.” Grim returned dryly as he hurled
the second door. The shouts of more guards were echoing from
further inside the prison and Shade knew they were working on
limited time.

“I’m going to get Charm.” Shade announced as
the priest moved toward the next cell door.

“Good you do know the plan then.” Grim
replied with a faint chuckle as his hands locked around the iron
bars. “Stand back please I don’t want any of you to get hurt by
metal shards.” He warned the prisoners as they pressed themselves
closer to the door in their eagerness to escape.

“Bastard.” Shade muttered as he turned away
leaving the common prisoners in Grim’s capable hands. He had two
doors between him and Charm and at least six cells to open. He
sincerely doubted it would be as simple as tearing the doors free.
The doors restraining the Elder Blood prisoners would be layered
with magic and using Grim’s method of tearing them off the hinges
would likely result in an explosion of wards that would level part
of the prison.

“Black Bastard.” Grim corrected pleasantly
from behind him and Shade had to smile in response.

“Black Bastard.” Shade repeated as he pushed
open the first door and silently prayed any patrolling guards would
run into Grim first. He would need all of his attention to disable
to the magical wards and didn’t want the distraction of a fight to
interfere with his rescue.

He had seen the pale blur of Charm while
exploring the prison, and even through the shadow wrapped form he
could tell the man was in bad shape. If there was going to be a
fight it was going to be entirely on his shoulders, Charm would be
no help in his current condition.

The sound of fighting erupted from the halls
behind him as Shade slid through the second door and moved swiftly
toward the back wall that held Charm’s cell. Glancing around the
room he assured himself that it was empty of everyone but the
prisoners and felt a moment’s relief. It wasn’t that he feared
fighting. It was that he feared who he would be forced to fight. He
knew many of the Fionaveir from his time amongst them, and no
matter the situation he didn’t look forward to having to face a
friend in combat.

“Shade!” A familiar voice burst out from the
first cell along the wall and Shade froze in his tracks and whirled
in surprise as Lex pressed himself against the door. “Shade what
the hell are you doing down here?” Lex demanded.

Blinking stupidly Shade stared at Lex and
tried to make sense of why he was in a cell. Lex was the Empress’s
brother, and the idea that Symphony would have her own brother
locked away was ridiculous. Lex had served as bodyguard for Shade
for years and he knew the man didn’t have a traitorous bone in his
body. “Rescuing people.” Shade answered lamely.

He glanced at Charm’s cell then detoured to
Lex’s cell instead. The Fionaveir seemed to be whole, and Shade
knew he was a good fighter. It seemed prudent to release Lex first
and trust him to watch his back while he opened the rest of the
doors, though Shade wasn’t entirely certain that Lex would fight
the guards if they did arrive. Lex was a loyalist to his order and
even though they had locked him away he might still be sympathetic
toward their cause.

“Good to hear, I can’t say I object to the
thought of rescue. I’ve been down here for weeks.” Lex beamed a
smile at him and shook his head in amazement. “How did you know to
look down here?”

“A big ugly obnoxiously arrogant bird told
me.” Shade replied dryly as he bent to examine the lock on the cell
door. “Whoever designed the lock on this cell door was a complete
and utter son of a bitch.” Shade concluded after a moment’s
examination and straightened to look at Lex once more. “This is
going to take me a few minutes. I have talent, but not quite this
much talent. I will have to muddle my way thought this and pray
Fortune is feeling generous with me.”

“No time for that!” Grim snapped as he
stormed through the door. Not bothering to slow he pulled his coat
off and tossed it to the floor before pushing Shade gently back.
“We have to go now.” He announced firmly as he glanced through the
cell door. “This is Charm?” he asked as he centered himself in
front of the door.

“Wait! No Grim don’t do that. Big magic and I
am too pretty to die!” Shade yelped as he lunged forward and seized
Grim’s arm before he could break the cell door.

“No shit, really?” Grim replied dryly. “The
gate at Delvay had quite a bit of magic too. I’ll be fine.” He
added with a hint of exasperation in his voice. “This is Charm?” he
repeated.

“No. I am not Charm.” Lex said with venom
lacing his words.

Startled Shade loosened his grip on Grim’s
arm and stared at Lex in confusion. As far as he knew there was no
bad blood between Charm and any of the Fionaveir, but Lex’s voice
spoke of pure hatred. “This is Lex, also a friend of mine.” Shade
replied hesitantly.

“Charm is a Guardian. Leave him to rot he
deserves it. He helped lock everyone away here to begin with.” Lex
hissed and his gold eyes moved to the door of Charm’s cell with
absolute loathing written clearly on his face.

“Ok Puppy this is how it is. We came here to
rescue Charm. You can be a happy accident that we rescue as well,
but if you are going to cause problems when we free the one we
actually came here for I will use you as a projectile against the
next batch of guards I see coming toward me. I don’t have time to
deal with your shit we have to go now.” Grim snarled before Shade
could so much as open his mouth to defend Charm.

“Puppy?” Lex growled in response.

“That’s what you call little annoying things
that snuffle and growl when they don’t have the ability to truly
fight. Which you don’t.” Grim explained as he thumped the cell door
separating them to emphasis his point. “Are you going to play good
bitch and leave Charm alone or am I going to leave you here to rot?
The clock is ticking and my patience is already gone.”

“Why are you in such a hurry Grim?” Shade
asked cautiously. His gaze moved back to the door Grim had entered
as he tried not to contemplate what it would take to make the
Bloody Huntsman nervous.

“The guards that were fighting at the end of
the hall broke off the fight and let the prisoners go. I barely
caught the end of the orders they received through all the noise,
but from what I understood the bloody city is about to be attacked
and the Fionaveir can’t waste the manpower on escaping prisoners. I
don’t know what is attacking, but if we are going to rescue your
friends it would be best to finish while everyone in the city is
distracted.” Grim explained quickly then motioned for Lex to step
back. His grey eyes traced over the wards on the cell door as he
braced his feet. “Step back Shade.” He warned as he wrapped his
fingers firmly around the iron bars. Spidery black runes darkened
the skin on his forearms as his well-honed muscles began to tense
with effort.

Taking several steps back Shade watched in
fascination as the wards on the door crackled with bright light and
faded into the ink black runes that seemed to be writhing just
under Grim’s skin. He could see the Priest’s pain in his clenched
jaw but Grim didn’t make a sound as he calmly tore the door from
the hinges as easily as he had the others. Casting it aside Grim
headed for the cell containing Charm without a moment’s pause.

Shade shook his head in silent amazement
before turning to Lex. “I don’t expect you to fight the Fionaveir,
but are you in good enough shape to keep up with us while we get
you out of the prison?” Lex had always been in peak physical shape
for as long as Shade had known him. He had never been the sort of
narcissist that Grim and Finn were, but Lex had been in prime
fighting shape, now however his body was pale and the muscle tone
he had once possessed seemed wasted.

“I will keep up.” Lex replied firmly and
Shade could see the emotions warring in his old friend’s eyes. He
could imagine the sort of betrayal Lex must be feeling knowing that
the people he considered family were the ones that had brought him
to the sorry state he was in.

“Good then. I don’t think Charm will be able
to so I will be supporting him. If you are willing to help Grim
clear a path I would be grateful, but I won’t ask it of you. That’s
your choice to make and not a favor a friend should ask.” Shade
said with a quick nod as the crack of another broken cell door
echoed through the room.

“Do you want the woman too, Shade?” Grim
called back to him and Shade turned in confusion.

“What woman?” Shade asked pausing in his
steps to Charm’s cell.

“It’s Ingrid. She tried to get Charm out of
here a few weeks ago and was caught before she could even examine
the door properly. Faramir has been torturing her in attempts to
get information from Charm. Are you sure she is even still alive?
She didn’t look like much the last time they shoved her back in her
cell.” Lex explained with disgust dripping from every word.

“She is living. Her hand moved. If we take
her she will need a healer as soon as possible, and she will have
to be carried.” Grim explained with obvious hesitation as he looked
back at Shade and sighed. “Of course we are taking her. Why did I
bother asking?” He muttered the moment he saw the expression on
Shade’s face. Once again the Priest set his shoulders and wrapped
his slender fingers around the cell door without bothering to wait
for Shade’s response.

“I’ll take care of her.” Shade promised. He
understood Grim’s hesitation perfectly. It wasn’t that he truly
wanted to leave Ingrid behind, Grim simply saw her as an
inconvenience they couldn’t afford. He knew Shade would be helping
Charm along, and Lex was too weak to carry anyone, which meant as
far as Grim could see it he would have to carry Ingrid and still
somehow manage to defend them if they ran into trouble.

“Going to carry two people up all those
stairs then?” Grim asked as he tossed the third door aside and
gazed down at the crumpled figure on the floor. “Bloody hell. Carry
one and a half people that is. There isn’t much left of her.” He
amended in a sickened voice.

Grimacing at the description Shade nodded
once as he stepped calmly into Charm’s cell. He had expected the
rogue to come out the moment the way was clear, but there had been
no sign of movement. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the
dimmer shadows inside the cell, but he froze the moment he did.
Every surface of the walls was covered in dark script. On the first
wall the writing flowed as if a scribe had begun to pen a book on
the stone, but as the writing progressed it became shakier and by
the time Shade’s eyes reached the broken figure huddled near the
wall the words resembled the scratching hand of a child new to his
letters.

Shade’s throat tightened painfully as he
stared down at the rogue. The man wore little more than a filthy
loin cloth and every inch of skin Shade could see was burnt,
bruised, or scarred. His long blond hair had been shorn off to
rough stubble, but it was the broken wings that caught Shade’s
horrified eyes and held them. He had only seen Charm’s wings once
before and they had been magnificent, like the angels from his
childhood stories. Whoever had tortured Charm had taken the time to
pull every feather from the wings and the bones themselves looked
broken.
Not broken, poorly mended
. Shade corrected himself
silently. He could tell the bones had been broken at one time, but
they were healed now and painful to even look at. Someone had taken
measures to ensure that they healed badly and by the way they
jutted from Charm’s back Shade doubted there was any position that
was comfortable for him to sit in.

“Charm?” Shade ventured quietly and wasn’t
surprised in the least by the lack of response in the rogue’s
vacant eyes. Nodding absently Shade approached him slowly and
knelt. “Charm, it’s Shade. I’ve come to get you out of this place.”
He said gently as he wrapped an arm carefully around the rogue’s
waist and raised him to his feet taking care to not disturb the
broken remains of his mutilated wings.

“Shade, we need to go!” Grim bellowed from
the outer room.

“Coming.” Shade replied as loudly as he could
manage in his sickened state. “It’s ok Charm. I’ve got you now and
I’m getting you out of here. Can you walk at all to help me or do I
need to carry you?” Shade asked gently as he took the first step
toward the door and realized the rogue was nothing more than dead
weight in his arms.