Yann stepped out of a huge, tiled bathroom and found his uniform freshly laundered and waiting for him. It lay across an ornate, carved armchair in the biggest bedroom he’d ever seen.

Costico insisted that Yann and Anríq spend at least one night in his castle before they set off to find the captives.

Costico didn’t come out and say point blank that both boys needed a bath, a decent meal, and a good night’s sleep, but he might as well have said it.

Yann knew he needed all those things, especially a bath. He just never expected he would ever take one in a bathroom like that. It was practically a palace all on its own.

He made up his mind while he scrubbed the blood, dirt, and grime out of his hair that he would never tell anyone in the Watch about this. They would never let him live it down.

He didn’t ask how Costico’s servants snuck into this bedroom while Yann’s back was turned or how they laundered his uniform so thoroughly in so short a time. Yann didn’t ask questions like that anymore. They must have used magic.

The bedroom Costico assigned to Yann was as big or bigger than the drawing room in which he’d shown the boys the collapsing Layers of the Coil forming that Dark vortex over the town.

Another colossal veranda stuck out from the bedroom. Yann could have housed the entire population of Middleborough in this room and on the veranda.

Yann didn’t see the room where Anríq was staying. Yann didn’t have to see it. It would be the same.

Yann left his bedroom to go see where Anríq was and find out what they were supposed to do today. Yann didn’t even know where to begin to look for the captives—except that they were in a Layer under the church house.

Magical pictures on the wall kept showing different scenes changing in different parts of both this Island and other Layers of the Coil.

Some of them collapsed right there in the picture. They showed people getting caught in the chaos and getting torn apart by Darklings.

Yann stopped in front of one of these pictures to watch. He couldn’t understand why it fascinated him so much.

Whoever painted the original picture must have painted a nice, beautiful, calm landscape scene like the one outside this castle right now.

Then, after years or decades or maybe centuries, the picture showed what was happening in that landscape right at this minute.

While Yann stood there marveling at it, Anríq came out of a nearby room with his hair still wet. Someone had cleaned his leather clothing, too, laundered his bags, and even polished his weapons for him.

He cocked his head when he saw Yann studying the picture. Anríq stared into it, too.

Both boys watched in silence until nothing but swirling vapors and Darkness obliterated whatever might have been there before.

The two boys were still standing there when Costico came down the hall from somewhere.

“Ah, you both look much more rested,” he remarked. “If you would join me….”

“I think we should get on our way,” Yann interrupted. “We’ve spent enough time in this castle. We won’t find your daughter here. We should go.”

“Of course, my boy, of course,” Costico exclaimed. “If I can provide you with anything….”

“I think we’ll be fine,” Yann replied. “We know what we have to do.”

Costico nodded, but he wouldn’t stop frowning. “I could send my men to accompany you….”

“That won’t be necessary,” Yann replied. “Your men have already done everything to try to get your daughter back. Anríq and I will go out alone. We’ll do what we can and hopefully find her and bring her to you. Thank you for your hospitality. I hope we see each other again soon.”

“I hope so, too, my boy.”

Yann shook hands with him, but Anríq only bowed.

Costico accompanied them as far as the drawbridge. Then the two boys turned the corner, passed through the magical concealment barrier, and the castle vanished.

“You talk very well,” Anríq teased on their way back toward town. “You should become a Servant.”

“Then I wouldn’t be able to talk at all. Be grateful I’m around to get you out of all these sticky spots.”

Anríq laughed. “Yes. Thank you. I am most grateful.”

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“Did you ever think you could have saved a lot more lives if you searched for his daughter on the condition that he stopped attacking that town? You could have protected everyone inside the walls.”

“I don’t want to protect everyone inside the walls if they’re Darklings. I serve all of humanity, including him. The Corsairs are human and his daughter is human. His daughter is as deserving of being saved as those people in the village.”

Yann didn’t agree, but he didn’t argue. Anríq could have saved a lot more people by using the leverage of his position.

That wasn’t the Servant’s way. Yann understood that, but he didn’t agree with it. The Servants walked a fine line between saving people and letting some others get away with murder.

The boys retraced their steps back to the town.

“Are you sure the captives are here?” Yann asked.

“The vortex took them down here,” Anríq reminded him.

“It took them into another Layer. Those Layers could have collapsed or changed or shifted anywhere. Amala and the others could be anywhere in the whole Coil by now.”

“You didn’t see what I saw in that castle of his. He didn’t tell us everything.”

“What do you mean?”

“One of those paintings worked both ways. It showed a scene on the other side of the painting, but it also gave the subjects of that painting a view of everything in Costico’s palace.”

Yann frowned. “How can you be sure?”

“Because I spoke to the subjects of the painting. They talked to me and told me a very interesting story about our friend Costico.”

“You had a conversation with total strangers? Now I’ve heard everything.”

Anríq laughed again. “It has happened before believe it or not.”

“So what did they tell you?”

“Our friend Costico comes from a family of magic-users—very powerful magic-users. They used their power to fight the Darklings, but his family didn’t always succeed in killing them. The Voyant Mendicat isn’t the only wizard who serves the Dark and uses Darklings to do his bidding. Another one of this family’s adversaries named Simion Mihaili sent Darklings after the family and killed some of them. The family counterattacked, tracked Mihaili down, and imprisoned him in a series of tunnels buried between the Layers.”

Yann stopped walking. “You’re making this up.”

“I wish I was. Mihaili escaped many years ago and supposedly vanished. The family lost track of him and Costico and some of his brothers and sisters settled down to live their lives in peace with their families. Mihaili did not forget, however, and set out to get revenge. He created a beautiful painting that would allow him to spy on the family. Mihaili arranged for Costico’s wife to see this painting on display and she bought it. Mihaili monitored the family for years and watched Amala and her other more distant relatives grow up. I don’t think Costico knows that the other captives are his relatives.”

“Are you seriously telling me this wizard used Darklings to kidnap Costico’s relatives so he could hold them as captives….”

“In the same tunnels—yes,” Anríq finished.

“And he told you all that—through the painting?”

“He was surprised that a Servant would help Costico considering that Mihaili views Costico as an evil sorcerer. Mihaili gloated over his victory and told me everything to prove to me that I won’t be able to defeat his system. He plans to keep Amala and the others as prisoners forever to torment Costico and the rest for their mistreatment of him.”

“So do you know where the tunnels are?”

“Costico already told us. The tunnels are under the church house.”

“But Costico said the vortex took the captives to another Layer….”

“Another Layer under the church house,” Anríq finished.

Yann shut his eyes and shook his head. “I don’t understand any of this.”

“The Layer under the church house will lead us into the tunnels.”

“How can you be certain of that? Costico said he sent magic-users to the Layer under the church house to search for the captives.”

Anríq made a face. “Don’t you think Mihaili is smart enough to stop them from finding him? He must have put measures in place to make sure no one could find the tunnels if they came from Costico or his relatives or planned to tell them where the captives were.”

“But you and I fit that description. You and I come from Costico and we plan to tell him where the captives are—if we can’t free them ourselves.”

“Mihaili wants us to enter the tunnels. He wants us to engage with his Darklings so they’ll kill us.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because he told me so, my friend. He told me point blank that he wants to kill us. We’ll vanish off the face of the earth and Costico will never find out what happened to us.”

“Why didn’t you at least tell Costico all of this?” Yann asked. “Why did you keep it from him?”

“Apart from my oath keeping me silent? I didn’t tell him because it would have made no difference to our mission to rescue Amala and the others. Either Costico would have denied it and claimed Mihaili was making up a story to manipulate me….”

“Which he might have been,” Yann pointed out.

“Does it really matter? Either that or Costico would have countered with some claim of his own that Mihaili was evil and Costico’s family was somehow justified in holding him as a prisoner to stop his evil plans. None of it makes a difference. We’re going after the captives, not Mihaili.”

“What if Mihaili comes after us?” Yann asked. “What if we succeed and then he attacks us to stop us?”

“He won’t do that. He says that, if we find and free the captives, he’ll let us go with his blessing.”

Yann snorted. “And you believe him? You’re soft in the head.”

Anríq only grinned at him. “Yes, I believe him, Yann. Mihaili has no grudge against either of us. I think this must all be some elaborate game to him. He got Amala away from Costico. Mihaili knows now that Costico couldn’t find Amala or free her no matter how hard he tried. So Mihaili won his little game against Costico. Now Mihaili is playing a game against us. He has no beef with us, so if we win, he’s content to step aside and let us leave with our prize.”

“Or we both die. Is that it?”

Anríq burst into another huge grin. “Exactly.”

“Wonderful,” Yann muttered. “Just wonderful.”

“Don’t worry. We won’t die.”

“Says the man who comes close to dying every other day.”

“I come close, but I never die.”

“Until you do. You are going to die someday. You realize that, don’t you?”

“Of course I realize that, Yann.”

Yann clamped his mouth shut. He couldn’t decide if he should be happy that Anríq was talking this much.

Maybe it would have been better if Yann didn’t find out so much about everything that went on inside Anríq’s head.

Yann was the one who let that genie out of the bottle. Anríq would probably never put it back in.

He said at first that he started talking because Yann needed healing from all his doubts and uncertainties.

Anríq got Yann to admit what was bothering him, but Anríq didn’t stop talking. He didn’t go back to being silent.

Yann couldn’t ascribe Anríq’s behavior to trying to heal Yann. This went way beyond that.

End of Chapter 42.