Chapter 34

Hel

The damned place was a maze. We'd snuck out of our rooms with little problem, but we had no map of the building to follow.

"Dammit, I think we've been down here already," Elex said.

"They all look the same," I said, frustration edging my voice.

"We'll find him, don't worry," Elex said, and I felt his reassurance flood our Bond. I could smell my father's scent throughout the building, but it was challenging to figure out which scents were old and which were new. Since Bonding with Elex my senses had expanded, but I hadn't had much time to practice understanding what they were telling me.

"I thought Master B said there would be a stairway here," Elex said, his eyes scouring the walls around us. We had learned from Allard that some few Elusians could sense the use of Mageian power so we were avoiding its use as much as possible out of fear of discovery. I nodded and closed my eyes, letting my senses expand. A breath of air flickered from between the wood.

"There is. There!" I exclaimed. Elex closed his eyes and the rings of power appeared around his arms. After a moment there was a click from in front of us and the door slid noiselessly to the side.

We found ourselves in a stairwell that crawled up several stories through the build, and led down into the depths. Inside the hidden stair were landings and stairs that led off in multiple directions. It was only dimly lit, but I could just make out small sliding windows placed at intervals throughout. On each floor there were doors that led off in different directions. From time to time we heard movement from either above or below.

"I think I know what this is," Elex said, looking around the area thoughtfully, his voice loud in the echoing chamber. He walked over to one of the small windows and softly slid the window open, peering in for a moment. He stepped back and nodded for me to take a look.

The smell of blood and other things emanated from the opening. Within I heard the sound of a man's muffled sobbing and a woman screaming in ecstasy. The color of the room was a deep green. Throughout the room a number of floggers hung suspended. A man knelt in front of a woman; her skirts were hiked up around her waist. A flogger in hand, she slashed forward, bringing the tails down on the bare back of the man with his face buried between her legs.

My rage began to build as the man screamed, only for the woman to grip his head and force him back between her legs.

I must have made some kind of noise or move because my Bonded gripped my arm.

Look closer,Elex ordered, switching to sign language. Learning sign language had been a huge boon for this operation.

I turned my gaze back to the pinhole and took a deep breathe. The woman's head fell backward, her brown curls falling back like a waterfall. I realized with a start that she was the courtesan who had been at Hestus' side, which meant the man pleasuring her was one of the "guests", so he was here voluntarily.

I stepped back and silently slid the window shut as Elex touched my arm.

When Luke and I were held here before, Hestus had a watcher keeping tabs on Maalik to make sure he didn't go too far, he signed. These windows must be how they keep tabs on their guests.

It turned my stomach to think about what Elex and Luke had suffered at the hands of their former captors but I had to direct my energy toward completing the mission.

So how do we find my father?I responded.

Elex pointed down. Kyris had said the eunuchs were normally housed in the basement of the building.

I nodded, but we paused to check each spyhole we passed, just in case. Kyris said he was often summoned to treat the injuries of Mageians or guests, so he could have been in any of the rooms. The scenes we saw were—challenging. Sometimes I saw Elex wince as we passed an area where the Mageia were being Suppressed. While the Suppression wasn't directed at him, the amount of power in the area could bleed through and affect him, unless he was actively working to block the Suppression. Many were Mageians being forced to serve a Calling. Every atom of my body wanted to tear through the walls to free them, every instinct demanding action.

We made our way to the basement. Kyris had given us a very basic outline of the building, but we hadn't had time to get a complete map from him. The basement was where the bathing pools were, as well as the sleeping area for the eunuchs. While Luke and Elex could make a rough map using their magic we didn't want to draw attention to us by using their powers.

Eunuchs were given a certain amount of freedom during the day, even able to run errands in the company of one of the guards, like Nigelo had earlier that day. In the evenings, though, they were chained to their cots to prevent them from trying to escape. We needed to find Kyris and Stergiou, as well as find a way to free them without alerting the whole House.

I saw Elex peer through one of the spyholes. Even in the dim light I could see his face go pale and a slight tremor run through his body. I had to physically move him aside, his body rigid as I peered through the spyhole and view the room. It was carpeted in a deep blue and seemed similar to the other rooms we had seen, except for the torture implements that were scattered throughout the room. In one corner of the room crouched a young woman, her back to the wall. She was naked and covered with whip marks. Shit.

I felt Elex create the Air shield that deadened sound around us.

"Her name is Maia," he said, his voice as cold as death. "She's a Fire Mageia and was a friend of ours in the Legion."

I felt the quavering rage in his body and I knew immediately this wasn't going to be a stealth mission anymore.

"Sometimes you gotta roll a hard six," I whispered, squeezing his shoulder.

He looked at me in confusion. "What the hell does that mean?"

I almost laughed.

"Something my dad said. Something to do with a dice game where you have to get the dice to total six in a specific way. It means you have to do things the hard way. So how do we get her out?" I asked. He looked at me, startled, then grabbed me to pull me into a bruising kiss.

"Thank you," he whispered, our foreheads pressed together. "Thank you for understanding."

I nodded.

"I've known this might be a possibility all along. I'm actually surprised we got this far before the plan changed," I said, a grim smile on my face. "I was surprised we didn't start a body county on the way into the city."

I'd suspected we wouldn't get out of Alexandria without creating chaos all along. I could only imagine what Elex was going through. If it were my people in this building, I ‘d be moving heaven and hell to free them as well.

Elex stepped back, his eyes now an electric blue.

"No retreat."

"No surrender," I responded.

His eyes darted around a moment before landing on the slim outline of a door nearby.

He started to reach for it but seemed to think better.

"Let me try something first."

He closed his eyes, a look of intense concentration on his face. After a moment he opened his eyes.

"There are at least two guards outside the door leading to t-the Indigo Room," his voice had a strange hitch to it as he named the room we'd seen. His scent spoke of fury barely contained, but also fear and remembered pain.

"Is that—is that where they—" My voice trailed off. Elex just gave me a sharp nod, dropping his eyes from mine.

I was not having that. I tipped his head back and kissed him again, this time slowly and carefully, taking the time to slip my tongue between his lips, cherishing the taste of him. I slowly pulled back, both of us slightly breathless.

"Let's do this," I said, using my Soma shapeshifting to turn my nails into claws. He smiled at me, his eyes changing quickly to a dark, stormy blue.

Elex swung the door open and I stepped through. The Elusian guards looked at me in confusion. It appeared that no one had told them the wall led to a secret stairway.

My claws struck and the first guard fell to the floor before he could even cry out. He fell clutching his throat as crimson gushed from between his fingers. The second tried to call a warning out but Elex had wrapped his head in a sound deadening bubble of Air. I saw his lips move frantically, then he dropped his weapons to claw at his neck as the air in the bubble began to run out. His eyes widened as my Bonded moved up behind me. As he clawed at his face I noticed his hands were bloody. Whatever had happened to Maia he had definitely participated. I felt Elex respond as the guard endeavored to bring his Suppression ability to bear. Rings of elemental power spread across his forearms as my Bonded nullified his Suppression. I saw the astonished look on the guard's face but didn't stick around to watch the guard die.

I opened the door that led to the Indigo Room. A fireplace to the one side was dark and the room was chilly. Across from us a large, mirrored wall reflected my image back to me and I realized I looked more beast than man. My eyes were like silver pennies in the low light. as I rushed to Maia's side.

"Can you hear me, Maia?" I called softly.

The woman's head shot up at the use of her name, her eyes narrowing.

"Who the fuck are you?" She demanded with a snarl, struggling to her feet, barely acknowledging the pain the movement had to have caused, because I could smell fresh blood from the opened lash marks on her back.

Her tone of voice was so like my Bonded's, I almost laughed.

"He's a friend," I heard Elex say as he stepped into the room, floating the bodies of the dead guards in behind him using his Air powers. "And so am, I still hope."

"K-kat? Kataramenos?" She asked, her voice quavering in disbelief as if she doubted what her eyes were telling her.

"You know it, mikri adirfi," he responded, using a term of endearment for a younger sister.

"But you—you're dead. They said you didn't survive the Machi," she stammered, her eyes foggy with pain.

"You really surprised that they'd lie?" he asked, kneeling down next to the woman. He reached out and gripped her hand, the blood on it smearing across his skin, the smell like copper pennies on my tongue. "I'm real. I'm here, and we're getting you the fuck out of here."

Relief washed over her face, then she paused and shook her head, pulling away.

"I c-can't. You know what will happen. They'll just take someone else."

"Not if there's no one left to take," he growled back, then looked at me.

"What are you thinking?" I asked.

He looked up at me, the blue of his eyes snapping as if sparks were literally dropping from his eyes.

"We don't just free the eunuchs. We free all the Mageia in the Legion."

My heart pounded in my ears. We'd been looking for some significant way to strike at Alexandria, something that would prove to Greece and Nova Roma that Illyria wasn't yet beaten, but this…

"How many Mageia are in the Legion right now?" I asked.

"Over four hundred," Maia responded immediately. "If you include all the cadets and Hoplites."

"Can we fit that many people on the Chrysalis?" I said. "How do we get them out?"

"It will take some finagling, but I think we can make it work," he finally said.

***

Elex, Maia and I retraced our steps to the top of the building. We systematically began moving through the building, killing the guards and Elusians and freeing the Mageians we found. We stripped the dead of weapons and armor and used those to clothe and arm the Mageia we rescued.

As a leader and healer I would normally have been against the wholesale slaughter of non-combatants, but I'd seen the wounds on the Mageians we'd freed. I'd also been the one to find a room on the first floor that was filled with the naked corpses of at least ten children, all of them with horrifying injuries on display.

One tiny little hand stuck out from underneath pile of bodies, fingernails painted a powder blue, and fingers that twisted and bent unnaturally. That was the scene that got me. I barely made it to a trash can before I lost what little I'd eaten in the afternoon.

"You okay?" my Bonded asked, handing me a canteen. I swished and spit to get the taste out of my mouth, then took another sip.

I just nodded. These assholes would get what they deserved.

My new healing powers were being put to the test as I worked to save the Mageians we freed. The injuries they bore were sickening: broken bones, whip marks, lacerations and contusions on all parts of their bodies. Some were missing digits on hands or feet. One girl we got to too late had had her arm amputated. I wasn't able to save her. I worked rapidly on all of them, trying to get them mobile as quickly as possible.

In one room we found a young red-haired boy who had almost been too far gone for me to save. When we'd found him, he had been bound to a torture rack and being beaten. His ribs were broken, and they had lacerated one lung; it took all my skill to save his life.

"They're sending kids to the Houses now?" Elex had demanded furiously of Maia when he saw the child.

"They've amped up Machis to every month instead of quarterly. They sent a fifteen-year-old boy to the Machi a few weeks ago," she responded grimly as she pulled the injured boy's arm over her shoulder to help him stand up.

"Roni here is only thirteen. He was sent here because he pissed off a guard because he tried to protect one of the little ones. They want to break us. We've heard whispers that they're running out of Mageia to support the war effort. Especially Fire and Earth Mageia. After you left, they started sending anyone they suspected of showing leadership potential here to the House of Eros to break them," Maia told us as we went floor to floor. She pulled a t-shirt stripped from one of the guards over her head and I heard a small gasp as the fabric rubbed against her open wounds.

I felt Elex's guilt weighing him down like a stone.

"This is not your fault," I whispered urgently to him as I worked on the boy.

"It kinda is," he said bleakly, his eyes roaming over the growing group of Mageia. "I didn't think about what might happen to the people we left in the Legion."

Maia surprised me by stepping forward and grabbing Elex's chin, forcing him to look at her, her bloody fingers pinching his skin.

"The only ones who caused this are Aurelius and the King," she hissed. "It's been going on for years before you and I were even born, Kat. I mean, Elex, sorry. The only thing you've done is give us hope, and for that, I thank you."

The Mageia around us murmured in assent. She held his gaze until he finally nodded once, then she let him go. I still felt the turmoil within him, but some of the guilt had faded.

I had healed her as much as I could, her awe at my ability disconcerting. As strong as my gift was, though, there were times it wasn't enough. We had freed almost a dozen Mageians, but two more died before we could get to the bottom floor, their blood seeping beneath my fingernails as I struggled to pull them back from death.

"Every member of our cross trained cohort has been either transferred, killed, or sent to Eros," she said. I didn't think Elex's face could look any grimmer, but somehow it did. I knew he had been working with Luke and Maia to train the Mageia to work together.

Elex kept his eyes forward, the rage building like a blue fire in his eyes.

When we finally reached the basement of the building, I was surprised to see that, even here, there were spyholes. We took the opportunity to peer through only to see row after row of sleeping slaves and servants. Each of the slaves was shackled to their bed frame, which was then bolted to the floor. The servants weren't shackled, but the door to the sleeping room was shut and possibly locked.

We paused, Elex once again bubbling us in a protective Air shield. We didn't dare use the shield too much. We couldn't take the chance that a brainwashed Mageia might pass nearby and report us. I couldn't imagine how any Mageia could submit to this kind of torture and continue to support the Elusians.

"What element is everyone?" he asked, looking around at our battered and bloody crew.

"We have three Water, four Fire, two Air, and one Earth Mageia," Maia responded.

"Who's the Earth Mageia?" Elex asked.

Roni raised his hand.

"I—I'm Earth—Mageia," he managed to gasp, his thin hands hugging his injured ribs. He'd been beaten by two guards while a female Elusian had watched. It had been a pleasure to gut her while Elex took care of the guards.

I shook my head; the boy had multiple broken ribs. There was no way he was going to be able to focus through the pain to open the locks on all the chains. Though, looking in his eyes, I figured he would die trying.

We need Luke,Elex signed to me.

Well, we don't have him, so howare we going to free them? I signed as Maia looked on in confusion. Are you strong enough in Earth to free all the chains?"

Elex looked through the hole, taking careful note of the fifty or so servants and eunuchs secured, careful to prevent any light from showing from behind him, then shook his head.

Not that and protect us from Suppression. Roni is too weak to be much help.

Elex had access to all four elements since we'd Bonded, but that didn't mean he had each in the same measure, especially since we hadn't had the opportunity to train before going on this mission. Earth and Air were diametrically opposed elements. A Tesseris Mageia was typically weakest in the opposite element of his primary power.

"I have an idea," Elex responded out loud, an evil grin spreading across his face as his gaze jumped to Maia's face. "But I am going to need everyone's help to get us out of here. I'm going to take a page from your book."

"I'm not sure I like the sound of that," I responded suspiciously.

"I'm burning this fucking place down," he said, his face a mask of fury. "We free the eunuchs and slaves before we set the place on fire. In the chaos that follows, it will take them time to figure out who all the bodies are. By the time they realize people are missing, we'll be long gone."

"Are you planning on the confusion of the fire helping us reach the Legion?" one of the Mageians asked. "Because they patrol the streets heavily at night."

Elex shook his head.

"We'll go through the sewers. They won't be expecting that."

"What if one of the servants or eunuchs decides to call for help?" Maia asked.

"That's where they come in," he said, pointing at the Air Mageia. "Can you all keep an Air shield up and prevent sound from traveling?"

The Air Mageia looked at each other hesitantly for a moment, but then nodded.

"Good. Here's what we're doing," he said.

Within a few moments we had them organized into squads based on their elements. We couldn't take a chance on someone turning on us, so the Air Mageia would be responsible for handling the slaves and servants. We would free as many as we could and offer them the opportunity of freedom.

"We need to find Luke and Rhu and tell them about the change of plans," I said.

Elex nodded.

"And get Luke down here to take care of the chains. While I do that, the Water Mageia will begin sucking all the moisture from the building. The less water in the wood, the faster the Fire Mageia can make it burn."

"I didn't see them in any of the rooms we passed," I said.

"I think the Gold Room is reserved for very high-level VIPs," Maia added.

"How do you—"

She leaned her head back displaying a necklace of bruises around her neck.

"The King gave me these in that room," she spat, her eyes sparking with fury. "They left me in there for two days waiting for him to come back before moving me to the Indigo Room."

A horrible thought swept through me, and I touched her shoulder, sending my Soma healing energies through her body. Shit. She was pregnant.

I couldn't do anything about it right now. We'd have to talk about it after we escaped.

"Are there any other rooms that we wouldn't have seen from the spying area?" I asked.

"I don't think so. I heard one of the slaves say that the Gold Room was built specifically for those VIPs that Hestus wouldn't have dared spy on," Maia said.

Elex just nodded grimly. He knew his father's penchant for violence first-hand. He tapped the microphone attached to the front of his shirt.

"Luke, can you hear me?"

For a moment I was afraid the system the Prometheus team provided hadn't worked, then I heard a strangely strained sounding Luke respond.

"Yes."

Elex smiled in relief.

"We need you. We're coming for you now."

We heard a soft intake of breath and the microphone cut out.

"Luke? Luke!" Elex hissed into the microphone, but all that came back was static. He slammed the received down.

"I have to go find him."

"That doesn't make sense," I said, interrupting him before he could continue.

"What the fuck do you mean?" he demanded angrily.

"You're needed here to protect the Mageia. Luke can block any Suppression field that comes his way, but the Mageia here need you," I said earnestly. "If they are caught here without a Tesseris Mageia to protect them…" My voice trailed off. We both knew what would happen.

He glared at me for a moment before slamming his fist into a wall. I saw the Mageia around us jump and I was glad we'd had the forethought to have them shield us from sound.

"Fine. You go. But that fucker doesn't leave this House alive," he said.

I nodded.

Vengeance, thy name is Elex,I signed back at my Bonded with a grin.

He grabbed me and pulled me down into a long, slow kiss, surprising me with his tenderness.

"Be careful," he breathed.

I nodded, then headed back up the hall.