Page 62 of Inferno
Yorin braced himself for a lot of glares, a few harsh words, and another lecture about secrecy and lives at risk. But to his enormous surprise, Gosta looked morerelievedthan anything. “Well, it’s about bloody time!” she said, heaving a sigh.
“What’s about time?” Yorin asked, glancing at Kit in confusion. She seemed as baffled as he was.
“You and Nerik,” Gosta said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “That boy’s been waxing lyrical about you foryears.”
Years?Yorin tucked that snippet away for later, and firmly steered the conversation back onto the problem at hand. “Yes, and he’s now trapped in a cage in the town square.”
“I’ve already sent for Beetie, Forlegard and Tschecee,” Kit filled Gosta in. “And Mintesh and Caleon are going to help, of course, and we’ve got Zandro, who’s a new fire-dog who just came through the gate a few days ago.” Yorin raised an eyebrow at that. He hadn’t told Kit that. Zandro must have been having quite the chat to her while they’d been on their way to the town square.
“I’m not sure if it’s relevant or not, but the warriors have just captured a unicorn as well,” Yorin added, when Kit paused. “They’re taking it to the stables.”
“They’re takinghimto the stables,” Kit corrected him.
“Yes, indeed. Takinghimto the stables,” Yorin repeated. Unicorns and fire-dogs were not mere animals, and his language should reflect that.
“Now you’ve lost me,” Gosta interrupted anything else they might have had to say. “Start again at the beginning. Nerik has been captured? When? How? Why was he in infernal form? And what the hell does the unicorn have to do with it?”
Kit explained the whole story from the start, everything they knew so far and listed everyone involved, while Gosta listened attentively. When Kit finally fell silent, Gosta regarded them both with a look that was more mystified than anything. “And just what,” she asked, “are you expecting to be able to do about this?”
“Well, we don’t know yet,” Kit said, “but I figured gathering a few people to help come up with a plan was a good place to start.”
Gosta looked entirely unimpressed with the answer. “Do you remember what happened last time we were in this sort of situation?”
“Vividly,” Kit said. “And as I recall, I was the one who-” She glanced at Yorin and apparently changed her mind about whatever she was about to say. “I was quite thoroughly involved last time around, so don’t act like I don’t know how dangerous this is.”
“This,” Gosta said, sounding haughty about it, “isfarmore dangerous than anything I like being involved in, and this time,” she went on, cutting off Kit before she could object, “there areguardsaround his cage. And furthermore, the last time we did this, one of the warriors stole the key for the cage for us, so getting the woman out didn’t require breaking through solid iron.”
“What?” That was news to Yorin. “One of the warriors? Why would a warrior free a demon?”
“Long story,” Kit said, “and now’s really not the time. But back to the point at hand, the reason we’re coming to you is to get your thoughts on the whole plan. You’ve got more experience than most of the rest of us-”
“My thoughts,” Gosta interrupted sharply, “is that there is nothing in the world we can do for him, and we’d all be best off saying goodbye and then mourning him quietly.”
The temperature in the room dropped several degrees, as both Kit and Yorin glared at the woman. “You would just abandon him, then?” Yorin asked, unable to believe how callous she was being. “He’s one of you. He’s a damn good friend, or at least he is to me, even if you don’t seem to give a shit about him, and aside from any of that, he’s pretty much the last male alive out of his entire species, so there is no way in hell I’m going to be sitting back and watching him get killed like it’s some play on at the theatre!” His voice had grown harsher as he’d gone on, though he’d made an effort to keep the volume down, knowing there would be dire consequences if they were overheard.
“And what exactly do you plan on doing about it?” Gosta challenged him.
“I don’t know yet, but like Kit said, getting some people together to brainstorm ideas is certainly a good start.” He sounded far more confident about the idea than he felt.
“You have no idea what you’re up against.”
“And maybe that’s a good thing,” Yorin said, rapidly running out of patience for Gosta’s bad attitude. “Because at least that way I won’t give up too easily.”
“You said you came here for my experience?” Gosta said, turning her attention to Kit. “Well, firstly, know that I’m as fond of Nerik as I ever have been of any friend, and at the same time, I know that getting him out of that cage is going to take nothing short of a miracle. We would have to kill all the guards, break through solid iron and do it all in the middle of the night, without making any noise, and without anyone spotting us.”
Kit sighed. “Or we need to come up with a better idea,” she said. She wasn’t giving up, but at the same time, she sounded defeated. And even Yorin would have to admit that put like that, their odds sounded bleak.
But he had a perspective on this that they didn’t have. “I think we need to talk to Nerik,” he said, as an odd collection of ideas began to solidify in his mind.
“By all means, go and say your goodbyes,” Gosta began, but Yorin had heard enough from her for the time being. Ignoring her, he turned to Kit.
“Once Zandro and Maky get back, we’ll need their help to talk to Nerik. At least one of them should be able to get close enough to communicate with him. But it’s going to take forever to have a conversation, given that Zandro said a fire-dog can only talk to one person at once. So I’m wondering if there’s some way that he and Maky working together could speed that up-”
“You don’t need a fire-dog,” Gosta interrupted him, not particularly put out at being ignored. “You need a unicorn. But my question is what are you going to do once you have one?”
“Why do we need a unicorn?” Yorin asked.
“Good gods, it’s like leading a toddler through a swamp,” Gosta complained. “Now is not the time for you to be discovering every stray detail about every single species from Chalandros!”