Page 55

“It wouldn’t do to mix the plebe with the nobles, even in a jail.” She grinned at me, finding the concept as absurd as I did.

But today, it served us well.

At the end of the dungeons, we finally reached one of the rooms. The iron door was rusted shut, and took no small amount of power to push, but inside, the room wasn't as awful as it could have been. The house spells must have maintained it; I doubted it had been used these last few centuries.There was no smell of damp, no dust or cobweb.

Still, the room was rather bare. I'd have to bring a few items of comfort; a throw, books, maybe flowers.

Walking in, I gestured to the floor, walls, and ceiling.

“I’ll be damned,” Kleos whispered, walking in. "All walls are iron?"

“Reinforced with steel, and a series of spells meant to stop magic.”

Straddling the doorway, I called fire in each hand. The one outside of the room ignited and grew to the size of a watermelon, while a tiny grape-size ball feebly flickered and died inside.

“Once the door is closed, I can’t summon so much as a spark.” I winced, knowing how awful it could be to feel deprived of our own power. “Originally, these were designed to keep dangerous individuals in. But for our purpose, it’ll ensure no one can perform spells on you, or find you, even if they have your essence.”

She swallowed, looking around.

“It’s not pleasant,” I admitted.

Kleos shrugged. “Whatever it takes.”

I suppose, after the horror she described from the night those runes were carved, she’d take anything—including a magic-dampening cell.

Zazel meowed for her attention from the door. I stared in disbelief. He could do that? Since when was that fiend acting like a sweet little kitty?

“You don’t like it here, huh?” Kleos interpreted for him. “Too bad. I would have loved the company.”

She meant the cat’s, not mine. I decided I was not envious of a damn lower demon.

The beast paced at the door until she walked to him and picked him up. And he let her. Without clawing her face.

“Traitor. For five years, I feed you, and you decide she’s better than me?”

Zazel’s red eyes communicated the fact that he very much thought exactly that.

Kleos grinned. “Who’s a good kitty?”

“Not him,” I asserted. “Next?—”

“The library?” she asked hopefully.

Something told me I would have a hard time getting her out of there.

“Let’s take a look at runes first, see if there’s anything to be done. My lab is down in one of the upper basements, so it makes sense to pop by there first before returning above the bridge.”

The wing I took her to next was considerably more pleasant. No bars or chains to be seen.

“Is that the garden we saw from the bridge?” she asked, pausing by a window.

I nodded. “One of them. There’s a stream running down the middle, so the two lower gardens are separated. I keep plants incompatible with each other on different sides.”

Zazel still in her arms, contentedly nuzzled against her tits, she moved closer to the window. “You weren’t kidding aboutfaebloom,” she said, eyes on the hundreds of flowers glowing softly along the little river.

“You should see them at night. They glow gold, brighter than the trees.”

“I guess I could look on Friday. If only there were a window in the cell. Then again, it would defeat the whole, ‘completely locked in iron’ thing.”