Bloodfire (The Sojourns of Rebirth) (40 page)

She looked down at herself, at her filthy hands and feet, at
her skinny frame clothed in black prisoner’s garb and knew that
she couldn’t possibly be mistaken for anything but what she was:
an escaped prisoner.
“I believe it will work. I’ve lived in the Citadel almost my
whole life. People that live here and work here quickly grow
accustomed to minding their own business, and keeping to their
assigned tasks,” Ortis said, but she could hear the slight doubt
within his voice as well. He was not nearly as confident as she
hoped, but given his background and former position, she had to
figure that Ortis had considered all the options and determined
that this was their only shot.
She didn’t bother to ask whether she could trust him,
because simply being here was risking his life, regardless of
whether he involved himself with her or not. Part of her wondered
if this wasn’t some elaborate setup on the part of the Emperor to
lull her into trusting the man, only to reveal his hand later by some
betrayal. But Catelyn reasoned that this was very unlikely,
considering the mental state of both men.
She had heard the tone of Uriel’s voice when he had told
her “You are the reason that Ortis abandoned me.” The rest of that
diatribe of his had been delivered coldly and with purpose, but that
one sentence had hung in the air, tinged with barely-concealed
emotion. Uriel had felt truly betrayed by Ortis’ actions, and he had
tried to hide it from her, but she had heard it there however brief it
was.
The Emperor was human after all. Not much, but there
was at least one chip in that armor.
“I can’t go out there like this,” Catelyn said.
“We had some clothing that we brought in with us, under
the guise that I was delivering laundry from outside the camp, but
the outer guards have been ordered, probably by Uriel himself not
to allow anything from the outside in,” Silena recounted.
“Is Uriel really that paranoid?” Catelyn asked, realizing as
soon as she said it how silly a question it was.
Ortis chimed in “It’s standard Imperial practice. Each unit
is expected to be completely self-sufficient. If they take help from
another unit, they’re considered weak and unworthy, at least in
principle. In practice, I had been hoping that those guards would
look the other way for the prospect of clean clothing, which is a
luxury in camps like this. It’s likely those guards are even now
quietly selling the clothing we brought to their fellow soldiers.”
Catelyn shook her head at the sheer corruption that was
seemingly all the Empire existed to promote.
“Those guards didn’t recognize you, did they?” she asked
Ortis.
“No,” was all he said. Catelyn’s doubt must have registered
on her face, because Silena spoke up.
“Catelyn, the Empire is vast, and the Imperial Army itself
is at least as big. There are thousands of soldiers even within a
place as contained as the Citadel,” Silena tried to explain, to put
her mind at ease.
Catelyn looked over at her friend lovingly, feeling the
sense of connection and warmth in that haggard face streaked
with dirt, and smiled. The smile was returned, and Catelyn felt the
warmth of their affection fill her up and she let it buoy her as the
three of them stood in the small holding room, waiting for an
opportunity that would allow them to leave without drawing
attention to themselves.
More than anything, Catelyn knew, they needed a
distraction.
Catelyn reached out by instinct with her bubble, and
expanded it as far and wide as it could go. She initially fought the
additional information coming in from her eyes, but then she
weaved it in like the missing threads of a tapestry, and an entirely
new way of sensing the world opened up to her. She realized in
that moment that her eyesight hadn’t simply been returned, it had
seemingly been improved.
Her vision was clearer and her perceptions wider than she
remembered them being. It was like she was seeing, truly seeing,
for the first time.
She never imagined how much she had missed it.
Catelyn scanned her eyes back and forth, taking in
everything she could. The guards at the edges of the work camps,
the workers just getting their day started with dried meat on sticks
hung over the paltry fires spread around the camp. The dim light
of the sky just creeping up over the top of the walls of the Citadel.
She found that she could see the most whisper details even
in the low light, and she marveled at the quality of her vision. Over
the sojourns she had led herself to believe that the exquisite senses
she had mastered and refined were amplified as a result of her
being blinded; it was said that the body compensated for the loss
of one sense by improving the others, and she’d had no reason to
doubt that logic.
But she’d now survived an encounter with bloodfire twice,
and after each, she had experienced this kind of awakening with
her senses. She didn’t know how it had seemingly repaired her
eyes, but it was the only explanation for what had happened to her.
She would think on it more later though, she decided.
Right now, she needed to help find a way to get the three of them
out of the Citadel, and to do that they would need to walk straight
through the courtyard full of men. She flicked her eyes back and
forth a third time, and that’s when she saw it. She reached out and
grabbed Ortis’ shoulder.
He turned his head and she pointed in the direction she
was looking.
“There’s a canister of oil...there.”
Ortis looked, squinting his eyes in the gloom. “Are you
sure?” he asked.
“I’m absolutely positive,” she said, and turned to look into
his eyes. When she did, he recoiled like he was seeing a ghost.
“What is it?” she asked, looking behind her, but only
Silena was there, looking out the window as well. When Silena
turned to look at her, she too reacted in shock and covered her
mouth with her hand.
Catelyn touched her face, wondering if maybe some other
flakes of skin were peeling from her, but Silena told her “Catelyn,
your eyes...they’re...they’re glowing.”
Catelyn instinctively blinked and wished that she had a
mirror to see them for herself. Instead, she asked Silena to
describe to her what she saw.
“They look like, well back in my youth, before all the Walls
were completed there used to be these big birds that came down
from the woods to the north. They were called owls, and their eyes
shone in the dark like that too,” Silena said.
Catelyn felt her face, but she felt completely normal.
Whatever had been done to her, she seemed to have been given
something miraculous. She didn’t much like the source of that gift,
but she would be a fool to reject something that was only going to
help her life in the long run. She would never thank the Emperor
for it, but she would acknowledge her fortune at having been
changed so much. She was eager to be away from the cells, and so
she refocused her thoughts on their predicament.
“OK, well, trust me. I can see the oil canister as plain as
day. It’s right there near the fourth tent over. If we could upend
that on one of the fires, it would spread quickly, and everyone in
the camp would have to pitch in to keep the fire from spreading,”
Catelyn suggested, directing her words toward Ortis.
He looked at her appraisingly, thinking her plan over
briefly, then nodded.
“Both of you wait here,” he muttered, then slipped out the
door, turning his back to the nearest guards and making his way
toward the tent Catelyn had pointed out. She watched him walk
cautiously, and she reluctantly had to admit that the man moved
rather gracefully for someone of his age and size. She had to admit
as well that she was glad that he wasn’t on the opposing side of
her.
Catelyn was relieved to see that Silena had been right
earlier. None of the soldiers or workers paid any attention to the
man, and he looked like he fit right in. Catelyn turned to Silena.
“How is it that you two ended up working together?”
Catelyn realized that the question might seem a bit imprudent, and
she quickly added “I’m grateful, I just...it’s unexpected. You
seemed quite clear with how you felt about...him.”
Silena bowed her head slightly, and spoke in a soft
whisper.
“I prayed to the Divines. I asked them to help you, to keep
you safe,” she said.
Catelyn didn’t want to offend Silena with delicate
questions about her beliefs, so instead she asked “But Ortis?
Seems like the last person to answer a prayer with.”
Silena cracked a small smile, and looked up at her. “The
Divines have their ways. As I was waiting for an answer, or a sign,
there he was, stepping out of the crowd as bold as life. He told me
he could get you out, but he wouldn’t be able to do it alone.”
She paused, an uncomfortable look on her face and
Catelyn could read her shame and embarrassment.
“Go on, Silena,” she encouraged the older woman. “Say
whatever it is. It won’t come between us, I promise.”
“I tried to turn him away. I yelled at him to get away from
me. I told him I could never work with him. That I could never
forgive what he had done.”
Catelyn took a long breath, not entirely surprised, but still
feeling the weight of her friend’s words. “So what made you change
your mind?” Catelyn wanted to know.
“Erich and the girls of all things. I saw their faces, after I
went home that night, and I imagined them taken away by that evil
man, Uriel. In my mind, I saw them tortured, and killed, and I
knew. I knew I could never let that happen again to my family. Not
to any of them, and I vowed that I would work with the Demon
himself to save them.”
Silena reached out and touched Catelyn’s cheek with her
hand, and Catelyn held it to her face with both hands. Tears flowed
down both women’s cheeks, and they smiled at the recognition of
their deep bond of friendship. No, of their familial bond, as Silena
had indicated. No more words needed to be said by either of them.
Catelyn squeezed Silena’s hand, then turned to the
window to check on Ortis’ progress, but she could no longer see
him. She felt a jolt of panic as she wondered where he had gone or
if he had been recognized and taken, but the men outside were still
relaxed, as though nothing were out of the ordinary. She scanned
as much as she could from the window, but even with her
enhanced vision, he was not in her field of view.
She considered walking over to peek her head outside the
door, but thought that would be a mistake. There were at least six
or seven men, both workers and soldiers, with a clear eye line to
the door of the building they were in. They were already taking a
risk just by being near the window, but she knew that with the
light from the fires outside reflecting off the thick leaded glass of
the windows, they would not be seen standing in the dark inside.
At least, not easily.
Her head poking out of a doorway, on the other hand,
would surely have the potential to send alarms throughout the
camp.
Catelyn resolved to be patient a little longer, and she
reached out to grab Silena’s hand in hers. Silena took her hand and
squeezed, and Catelyn felt better for having her there with her.
Then everything turned to chaos. A massive explosion of
fire and smoke rocked through the work camp, and sent men
scattering in all directions. Many men ducked to the ground, while
some responded with professional calm, dropping what they were
doing to respond to the source of the calamity. Catelyn felt her
temples begin to sweat.
Ortis, what on Ereas have you done?
As the conflagration grew somewhere to the south of the
work camp, and additional, smaller explosions could be heard,
more and more men gathered their courage and made their way in
that direction. Soldiers and foremen ordered the rest to head in
that direction, and soon the courtyard was empty of all save two or
three stragglers, men who had avoided any call to action
whatsoever. Within whispers, Ortis appeared at the door of the
building, and ushered them out into the courtyard.
“What was that?” Catelyn hissed under her breath.
“The Emperor’s supply of fireworks. They didn’t just hold
public executions here back then, there was the occasional
celebration.”
Catelyn could hardly picture the people of the Seat
celebrating anything, but she didn’t question Ortis about it further,
she simply walked to the door, eager to leave. Against the
backdrop of flashing lights in the sky and popping explosions,
Ortis led them out of the building and across the courtyard,
sticking as much as possible to the shadows, and they quickly
reached the other side of the open space. Catelyn didn’t see anyone
left in the courtyard, and as she looked back toward the holding
area where her prison cell had been, behind the building she could
see the sky lit up in brilliant colors, as the fireworks continued to
burn and explode.
She could see a handful of workers at the edge of the
courtyard, but they were watching the brilliant display at the south
side of the Citadel.
The trio moved along one of the inner walls of the fort
now, and they soon came upon a gate leading to the outer
courtyard. The gate was raised, but in the open were a number of
additional Imperial soldiers. Many of them were also looking to
the sky, watching the light show, but just as many were rushing
around, and Ortis pushed Catelyn and Silena back against the
inner wall to keep them out of sight.
The fireworks he had set off had effectively distracted the
workers and soldiers in the inner courtyard, and they were all
working to contain the damage and ensure that any fires from the
explosions didn’t spread, but it had also stirred up the men in the
outer courtyard, who were now on alert, complicating their escape
route.
Catelyn tried to analyze her surroundings again, hoping to
see something that could help them escape. She had never been
inside the Citadel before, but she now had an ability that she
hadn’t had before, and she expanded her bubble as widely as she
could. As she did, she realized that it wasn’t only her vision which
had improved. All of her senses had.
She could hear farther, and with greater clarity. She could
detect the faintest odors at distances she never would have been
able to before. She had always visualized her bubble as being like a
rough painting in her mind, encompassing only select portions of
her surroundings. Now, couple with her restored vision, it was like
a slice of reality, a slice that she could move through in her mind
and use to inform her of all of their possibilities.