I paused just inside the archway to check what was in front of me.

Gallows Square was--shockingly--a square. It reminded me of a smaller version of the square outside the Six Coves administration buildings with the spire. It was about half the size of a soccer field, and was surrounded by two-and-three story buildings that had once been much higher. Even from the archway, I could see jagged lines of breakage on the upper stories. New roofs had clearly been added atop half-fallen walls. Lower down, vendors clustered in three section. One group formed around a well and two others formed gauntlets around the entrances of the wide boulevards that led into the area.

I scanned for other exits, just in case, and spotted five narrow alleys leading off between the buildings.

Directly opposite me, a stage stood at the base of the largest perimeter building. The execution stage. What was that called? An elevated platform where the executioner stood with his black hood and his huge axe and the basket for the chopped-off heads? There had to be a word for it, but silly me, I wasn’t up on executions. It looked sturdy, though, and bigger than I’d expected. Like if they’d wanted to behead ten people at once, there’d be plenty of room.

A semi-circular balcony jutted from the stone building above and behind the stage. It looked like the perfect place for a handsome prince to address the adoring peasants. Or for an evil vizier to issue orders to his cruel troops.

After a moment, I stepped from the archway and ambled into the square, pretending to consider the wares at a few stalls. The chatter of conversation filled the air, as did the scent of grilled chicken. The savory herbs made my mouth water. I didn’t buy a kebab, though. Instead, I peered with fake interest toward a green-skinned infenti woman selling carved wooden utensils and what looked like clumps of wool, then glanced back at the stage.

There was an open space beneath the platform. Bigger than a crawlspace. Maybe I could hide there until they dragged Erdinand into place for the execution?

Yeah, then I’d just need to fight my way across a square full of soldiers before I ended up in streets full of soldiers. Plus, there were archers on the rooftops, even now. I caught glimpses of them lounging in place. And, for that matter, there were plenty of soldiers in the crowd. Strolling around in groups of three and four.

Hm.

Too many soldiers. Like they’d expected someone to reconnoiter the area. With Tansy’s words echoing in my head--what could go wrong?--I headed for the nearest cart with ollie vendors, two old ladies in long, roughhewn, peasant-looking dresses, each about seven feet tall ... then angled behind them. I fiddled with my shoe for a moment, looking as innocent as a saint with two halos, then ambled back the way I’d come. Because I wasn’t sure what I was looking for, but I was extremely sure that I was in enemy territory ... and that some of them knew what I looked like.

My stomach tensed. I waited for the shout, for the pursuit. For the hail of arrows suddenly pelting me.

Nothing happened.

With my heart pounding, I reached the archway from which I’d entered. I managed not to sag in obvious relief. Instead, I scratched the back of my hooded head like a man with no worried, then slowly started downstairs. At least until I was out of sight of the square, at which points I began trotting.

The couple was still arguing in the storage room, except they’d moved on to disagreeing about sesame seeds. I unhurriedly walked past them, and a minute later was behind the crates again, breathing slowly to stay calm.

I tossed my borrowed apron into the corner and considered what I’d seen. I paused there for a long moment, waiting for a brilliant plan to occur to me. When that didn’t happen, I turned to smoke and seeped back through the bottleneck.

For my return journey, I knew that I wasn’t in a huge rush before my mana ran out. So I wafted slower and found another empty space, a kind of sinkhole off, to one side of the caved in hallway. The ceiling of the floor above had crashed through to this level, but three wide wooden beams kept most of the rubble overhead.

I turned solid there, crouching awkwardly on the bricks and stone. The space was the size of, well ... an SUV. Shut up, it was. An entire SUV, too, not just the interior. It would make a nice hidey-hole if I needed one. Though frankly, the entire cellar would make a nice hidey-hole.

After my mana ticked up a few points, I wafted off again, drifting between the fallen rock and tumbled brick, and returned to physical form beside Tansy and Hollis. Who were sitting on the stone floor, enjoying what looked like a lovely picnic.

“Really?” I asked.

“That’s so weird,” Tansy said, she tossed me a purple pear. “How you turn from smoke into skin and bone.”

“It’s not as weird as having a picnic in a dungeon.”

“What did you think we were going to do? Just stare at the bricks? Also, how come you don’t smell smoky?”

“Uh, I don’t know.” I sniffed, and noticed a familiar scent. “Is that wine?”

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Tansy offered me her mug. “Cherry wine. You want some?”

“No, I want to get my ass in gear. I need to know if Chetty found Erdinand.”

“Did you learn anything?” Hollis asked me, as he stood.

“Only how little I know,” I said.

“I could’ve told you that,” Tansy said.

I showed her my middle finger again, then led them away while she asked what that meant. I headed with great confidence directly across the first junction, instead of turning left and getting eaten by acid-worms. Then I immediately forgot which way to go next. So Hollis took the lead, and I drank cherry wine and Tansy complained that she hadn’t found any Sixers to massacre.

* * *

“Erdinand is in the drunk tank,” Chetty told me, when she reappeared after dinner. “Which is the lowest-security part of the prison.”

“That’s good,” I said. “That’s great.”

She shook her head. “No it’s not.”

“Why not? How is that bad?”

“It means he’s bait. They want you to think you can rescue him. ‘It’s only the drunk tank! How hard can it be?’”

I chewed my lower lip. “Oh. Okay, but ... how hard can it be?”

“It can be impossible, Alex. They have more soldiers then we do by a factor of twenty, and stronger ones too, who are also better-armed. You want to fight them on their ground, on ground they prepared? Where they’ve already established an ambush?”

“Do I have any choice?”

She lowered her voice. “I hope so, because if you go, the ollies will join you.”

“Good!”

“They’ll try to protect you, Alex. Especially Tansy. She’s ... she pledged herself to you?”

“I mean, yeah?”

Chetty shook her head. “She’s, uh ... well, congratulations, now you know a young woman who would throw herself in front of a blade for you without a moment’s hesitation.”

My stomach soured. “Really?”

“What do you think? And all them owe you for their kids. If you go, they will go with you ... and they’ll die.”

“Oh,” I said.

“I’ll learn more tonight, Alex. I promise. By tomorrow morning, we’ll ... “ She put her hand on my arm. “We’ll know something, at least.”

“They’re killing him tomorrow night. I’m not sure if ‘something’ is enough.”

“You need to rest,” she told me. “Sleep for a bit. I’ll wake you when news comes, actionable news.”

“There’s no way I can fall asleep right now,” I told her.

She told me that if I didn’t try, she’d sic her mother on me. Which was such a cute threat that I retreated to my room ... then paced and fretted for an hour.

Then I placed my golden beads carefully, one at a time, just behind my teeth, and from there I popped them into my domain. That gave me instant heals, invisible to my adversaries. I wouldn’t even need to use my hands. I thought for a minute, then I headed into the underground larder and did the same with cubes of cold meat and these delicious steamed buns packed with greens. I’d already stored food in my domain, but what if my hands got tied? What if I needed to eat and couldn’t even move? So I threw a few dozen mouth-ready meals into my domain. After that, I did the same with what Intuit labeled as watermelon. They weren’t like Earth watermelon, though. They were spherical, watery strawberries. Tasteless but extremely juicy. More of a liquid than a solid, really. Enough to keep me hydrated.

Finally, I returned to my bed and sat there, wondering what else I should tuck away inside my mouth. I closed my eyes and ...

* * *

... found myself in a resplendent world of criss-crossed rope bridges and arching staircases leading to various layers of an elegant treehouse manor, past swaying tapestries and harp-like instruments. Everything was smooth and rounded, flecked with color and iridescent with shimmering.

“Well,” I said, inspecting the ballroom around myself. “At least this isn’t the tortilla chip dream.”

“Alexanadine!” Princess called happily, scampering down a curved stairway toward me on eight legs. “You’re here!”

“Princess! You’re looking resplendent.”

“Only because I am resplendent.”

I smiled, but only for a moment. “Did you, uh, catch the news?”

“About the Plagues, or about Erdinand?”

“Take your pick, I guess. I meant about Erd, though.”

“Mm, yes. He strike me as the correct priority. Apparently we’re here to end the Plagues, which is ... rather like sending two butterflies to kill a wolf, if you’ll excuse the metaphor.”

“I don’t mind being a butterfly,” I said, feeling better just from seeing her.

“Oh, I didn’t mean that part, Alexeri! I mean calling the Plagues wolves. I know that you fancy wolves, but there is nothing beautiful or noble or even necessary about the Plagues, if I understand correctly. Which, as always, I do.. In any case, let’s take for granted that before we consider thinking about discussing the possibility of perhaps modestly opposing the Plagues, we must grow almost-unimaginably stronger.”

“Which mean, in your case, learning to stay awake for more than a minute at a time.”

She tilted her huge spider-monster head at me coyly. “Perhaps if you were interesting for more than a minute at a time!”

“Ha! Oh, is that the problem?”

“Well, your tediousness is certainly not helping, my yawnsome knight!” she said loftily, then stood on her rear legs and took my elbow with a fore-limb. “In any case ... Erdinand.”

“Yeah,” I said.

“Tell me what I may have missed?”

So we strolled the balcony overlooking the dreamscape of her inner world as I told her about Gallows Square, and the drunk tank, and everything else I could remember.

“I think that I, uh ...” I swallowed. “I think that to save his life, I might have to surrender.”

“Yes,” she said.

“Hey! You’re supposed to talk me out of it!”

“I know you from the inside, Alex. You’ll surrender if that’s the only way to save him.”

“Shit.”

“Language!”

“Darn.”

She mentally shared her amusement and fondness with me, then said, “However, I know a great deal more than your insides. I am wise in the ways of the world, my moonlit major. Of one world, at least, if not this one. I am a scholar and an artist, my lovely trunkless terror, and I am blessed with the bloodline of a--”

“Okay, okay!” I interrupted. “Does this mean you have a plan?”

“Not a plan so much as an inkling.” She squeezed my arm gently. “Answer me this. How is Commander Wren attempting to control you?”

“By, uh, setting a trap?”

“Much like a spider does. Precisely. And with what is she baiting her trap?”

“Um, with someone I care about? Someone I can’t--I won’t--leave behind. That’s the problem.”

“So your fondness for Erdinand is what forces your hand?”

“Yeah.”

“Which is a rather cruel turn of fate, to suffer for one’s affection. However! Listen and learn, my greatest of all apes. There may be people so unfortunate, so wretched, so tragic, that they care for nobody but themselves. However, Commander Wren does not strike me as one of those people.”

“No, she’d definitely not. She’s not exactly shy about revealing her affections, but how does that help us?”

“What did we say about bait again? I’m rather certain it was only a moment ago.”

“Would you just tell me! Stop playing games and--” Then I realized what she meant. “Oh. Oh!”