They thought of nothing else but running. They dashed one after another through the doorway and came out in a large building that seemed to be one part bedroom and one part office or private study. It was Madge's chambers, and Daedalus took it in with reverence before hurriedly clumping the paper he’d written the doorway on into a ball, causing the doorway itself to vanish.
He could only imagine what powerful writings waited to be discovered in this study. He hurried to the nearest of four bookcases and began looking through books like an excited child, followed by excited child Zahria.
They got there and began to read, stacking up more and more books as the minutes passed. He continued Zahria's education, starting her on slightly harder books, as there were few beginner books to be found in the collection of one of the most learned of all the scholars of the spire. Despite this, Zahria gave her studies all she had. He sat with her as she sounded the words out one by one, and was impressed by the speed at which she learned, burning through the few books they had with them and advancing to Madge’s shelf.
Gedra was reading with the others before long, and soon they came together to talk about what they would do next. She picked out a small stack of books to look through and got to work.
Daedalus helped Zahria with her reading, and managed his own as well. There was a lot of material here, but they didn't have time to look through it all. They had to Help free Madge, Ayave and Silas, and to do that they needed to find help. The first step to that was putting together the books from here they would need.
Gedra began putting her books in a pillowcase from Madge's bed, and told the others each to put in theirs. In a drawer in Madge's writing desk they found a pen and a ring bound journal.
They had done nearly all they could do here.They took the things they had gathered and went to the door of the chamber, and into the library proper, keeping a keen eye out for any of those guards that might be about.They didn't see any, so moved forward with only a little trepidation.
The library was eerily quiet, and they kept low as they moved through it, wary of windows. There weren't guards inside that they could tell, and they did not see any standing out front through the windows, but did not go out the front, erring on the side of caution. Daedalus moved at the front of the group, with Zahria all but clinging to his arm, and Gedra not far behind.
Carefully they made their way to the back exit, knowing they would have to chance opening it without the benefit of windows, as there were none. Whatever they expected to see when they opened that door, the grisly scene that greeted them was not it.
There had been a horrible fight, and three guards were dead, two lying facedown in their own blood and one slumped against a wall. Zahria screamed and buried her face in Daedalus' shoulder while he tried to calm her, fearing she might bring more down on them.
It was the fourth body that truly shook him, a monster. The creature had ludicrously long limbs and in life must have been well over seven feet tall. Daedalus was nearly as distraught as his young pupil, and only Gedra kept her composure, going carefully to examine the bodies more closely.
“What do you think could have done this to them,” Daedalus asked, still holding a crying Zahria. “And where did whatever it was go?”
“I think at least part of the answer is right over there,” Gedra said, gesturing to the dead monster. “But there's more than that. Look here.” She pointed out a large crack in the ground which had snagged one of the dead men's legs, one of many such cracks, and then burned marks on the same man's uniform. “These men were killed by monsters fighting with tooth and claw, working with a reader. There is someone else in the city fighting back.”
“But who in the cities would fight alongside that,” Daedalus asked, pointing to the dead monster. “It looks like one of the monsters from the blasted lands beyond the cities.”
“ Why would I know? In any case, we shouldn't stay here any longer, more will be along soon.” She stood and started off the others following at her heels. “With luck maybe we'll find them.”
“Yeah,” Daedalus said. “That would be really lucky for us…”
Stolen novel; please report.
“At the very least we have a common enemy. We're in a bad spot, and should take whatever help we can get.” It seemed somehow wrong, but he knew they had little choice. They needed every advantage.
They had to find where these others had gone, and that meant they had to find someplace out of sight. Hesitantly, Zahria raised her hand before speaking up. “I think we should check in the sewers of the city. It's where I would hide sometimes.” It was deeply unpleasant but with no better ideas they had no choice.
“The closest access point should be down this street. A manhole.” Gedra pointed toward this as she spoke, and they hurried toward it. She grabbed the cover and lifted it with all four hands, and started down the ladder first, shutting her daytime eyes and opening her night eyes.
The smell hit each of them full in the face as they came down the ladder to a walkway meant for maintenance. There was a central canal that ran as far as they could see in either direction. The walkway followed this canal and also branched off in several places farther away, and with nothing else to do they picked a direction at random.
Gedra led them, with Daedalus next and Zahria just behind him. They made their way slowly, keeping their footsteps as quiet as they could. Anyone hiding from armed guards in a sewer might be understandably jumpy. They would hate to startle the people who made messy corpses of those guards.
For a while they walked, hearing and seeing nothing. They were about to turn and give up the search when they heard a sound coming from somewhere up ahead. They moved cautiously toward the source of the sound, trying to remain quiet.
They followed the sound down a turnoff, and before long they could make out a small number of voices, apparently quite sure that they were alone, not trying to keep their voices down.
As they drew closer, the indistinct murmurs coalesced into something Daedalus found familiar.
The nearer he got the surer he was that was the voice of Masona Braesome, a member of the council of scholars. He thought he recognized other voices, but could not be sure.
A voice he thought might have been councilor Anedi Saecono said “ “-We don't have the strength to take back the library. We need more people.” There was silence for a moment. They were very close now, down one more turn.
As they drew nearer, Daedalus took a chance. He called out to them, and their conversation instantly died. After a moment, Masona's voice responded.
“Who are you and why should we trust you?” Apparently she did not recognize them in the dark, after all that had happened.
“We are students of scholar's spire, our teachers need our help, and we need yours. We escaped from the people holding the city. They have our teachers, Silas, Madge, and Ayave. We have to save them.”
“You may have noticed, but we're just a little bit busy,” Masona said, her tone full of biting sarcasm.
“We will help you, and then you will help us.” By this time they had come around the last corner and were standing before them. There were five, two women and three men. All were members of the high council. Brendan Glaber, Alden Calemis, Anedi Saecono, sophia Meritas, and Masona Braesome standing at the center of the group.
“We need more people,” Anedi said again. Masona looked appraisingly at the newcomers..
“And what we need,” Said Daedalus, “Is more information. Who’s their commander, where's their base of command, all of it.”
“You ask for much,” Masona said, looking the young man in the eye. “What do you bring to us in return?” She looked appraisingly at each of them. Gedra was still carrying the pillowcase full of supplies from Madge's chamber.
“We bring books, and Daedalus and I are writers, and we have pen and paper. We escaped from them to come here, and we met one of the people who ordered this attack.” Gedra stared evenly back at Masona as she said this, and never blinked.
“This is... Acceptable.”
“There is one other thing we should discuss.” Gedra proceeded to explain about the bodies they'd found and about how they thought the men had been killed. Masona listened grimly.
Not all of the others seemed convinced. Alden Calemis said what all of them were thinking. “A scholar of the spire would never work with those monsters and the monsters would never do as bid if one tried. You Lie.”
“If you hurry the bodies will still be there and you can see for yourself,” Daedalus said, his voice taking on an edge of irritation. “We are telling the truth. We should find them, have them aid our cause.”
Masona remained intense but unreadable, and the others seemed almost angered by the very suggestion they work with such creatures. There was a moment of uncomfortable silence, and then Masona Spoke.
“We will help you find these creatures and the ones with them, and decide what to do when we have.” It was the best they could hope for, Daedalus thought. They were lost and struggling, but now they had just a little bit of hope. Now they could fight back.
Daedalus resolved to see his city free again, no matter the cost. He would find these so-called monsters and enlist their help in ousting the invaders, no matter what the councilors would say about it.
“We have a deal then,” Daedalus said to Masona. He respected her, which he could not say of everyone who sat the council. Still, she would have to take the attitudes of all the others into account with any decision she made concerning this new alliance. Many of them would sooner kill the creatures on sight.
If the woman gave that order, he would have to fight her, and he did not want that. “I am new here, but from the looks of it, you are a desperate few, and need any help you can get.”
Masona was silent for a long moment, and Daedalus saw he had made his point. “We shall see when the time comes,” was all she said. “Join our meeting and we'll bring you up to speed.”
Over the next half hour they did just that. They explained about a man who rode on the back of a firedrake issuing commands, and explained that the guards had citizens under strict house arrest, and it was not clear what would be done once people began to run out of food. Would they be starved out? That seemed to be the enemy's strategy.
The resistance told them that the enemy had barracks in what was an old military building from before the war that cut the cities off from the rest of the world, near the center of town, not far from Scholar's Spire. The Firedrake had been seen to land on the roof for rest when not flying the commander about. This was their next target.