"I just want to ask you a couple of questions. If I ask something you don't like, go ahead and punch me in the face."
Seth set his meat brick aside and took Bracken's hands. Bracken gazed into his eyes. "Tell me your name."
"Seth Sorenson."
"Tell me a lie."
"The food here is terrific." Bracken grinned. "Tell me something true."
"Centaurs are jerks."
The grin broadened. "Are you a friend of the Society of the Evening Star?"
"Nope. I'm the opposite. A Knight of the Dawn."
Bracken released his hands and scooted the stool back. "I believe you. In fact, I know some things about you. You have friends here."
"My parents?" Seth said hopefully.
"Your parents might be here, but not in a cell we can access."
"So what are you, a human lie detector?"
"I'm good at reading people. I wanted a close look at you. They've sent down stingbulbs before. Now I know you're not a stingbulb, or a changeling. More important, your friends might have been mistaken about your allegiances. Hard to believe a shadow charmer could be on our side. But now I'm convinced."
Seth folded his arms. "I'm glad I passed your test. Do you have something I can hang on my fridge?"
"I left my stickers in my cell."
Seth rubbed his hands together. "It still doesn't prove whether I should trust you."
"Agreed. I'd question your judgment if you did. For starters, why don't I take you to visit one of your friends?"
"Sure. Do I have lots of friends here?"
"A few." Bracken grabbed the glowing stone.
"Where did you get the light?"
"I made it." He led the way to the gap in the back wall of the cell. "I'm pretty close to powerless these days, but I still know a trick or two."
"What are you, a wizard?"
Bracken chuckled, closing the gap in the wall. Then he started along a narrow corridor. "A wizard stuck in cells like these would be a sorry wizard indeed. I'll tell you more about myself once you know you can trust me. Let's go quiet for a stretch. The walls are thin up here, and a guard is posted nearby."
Bracken closed his fist around the stone so that only a little light escaped. Seth followed him up an incline, treading lightly. The floor felt slick.
The narrow passage eventually tapered to an end. "This part is a little tricky," Bracken whispered. He put the glowing stone in a pocket and pointed up. A tiny globe of light the size of a ping-pong ball leapt from his fingertip, hovering upward. The ball rose into a hole in the ceiling, which turned out to be a tall shaft.
Bracing himself against opposite sides of the passage, Bracken spidered up until his feet were well above Seth's reach. The sure swiftness of his movements made the maneuver look simple. "There are rungs in the shaft," he stage-whispered down, pulling himself into the vertical crawl space.
Seth chimneyed up toward the hole in the ceiling, bracing himself and then scooting upward in increments. The walls were spaced too wide to make the ascent comfortable. Arms quivering, he gained only a few inches with each movement. When he reached the mouth of the shaft, he braced with his legs and quickly reached up to a rung, then followed Bracken upward. At the top of the damp shaft,
Bracken raised a wooden hatch. Seth followed Bracken out into the new passageway. The top of the hatch was disguised to match the floor after Bracken carefully closed it.
Bracken recalled the floating ball of light, snuffed it out, and took the stone from his pocket. Seth followed him down the passage, through a hidden door, and along another passage until Bracken stopped.
"Here we are," Bracken said, his voice less hushed. "This character keeps his cell locked from the inside." Bracken used the rock to tap against the wall--four slow beats, two quick ones, a pause, and then three quick strikes. A moment later, an arrangement of stone blocks pulled inward, leaving a space large enough to crawl through. Bracken entered first.
"You bring him?" inquired a familiar voice as Seth crawled through. "There he is!"
Seth looked up in surprise. "Maddox?"
The burly fairy trader beamed down at him. "I'm sorry you're here, Seth, but it's good to see you." Offering a meaty hand, Maddox hauled Seth to his feet.
"You're alive!" Seth said. "The last time I saw you, it was an impostor."
"A stingbulb," Maddox said gravely. "I hoped you all would manage to see through the charade."
"Not at first," Seth said. "It did a good job. But we figured it out before any real harm was done."
"The stingbulbs come from here, you know," Maddox said. "The last known stingbulb trees are on this preserve. I'll be honest, if I ever managed to bust out of this dungeon, I'd be tempted to stick around and explore. This is an ancient preserve. Who knows what supposedly extinct species I might encounter!"
Seth scrunched his brow. "How can I be sure you're not a stingbulb?"
"Good boy!" Maddox bellowed. He glanced over to Bracken. "This one thinks like a survivor."
"My sentiments exactly," Bracken agreed.
"Bracken can tell," Maddox told Seth. "But I'll wager you don't trust him yet, either."
"I want to trust you guys," Seth said. "I just don't want to be an idiot."
"A stingbulb would have my memories," Maddox said. "There isn't much I can do to prove my authenticity. For now, it'll have to suffice that we won't press you for secrets."
"I'm not sure I have any in the first place," Seth said. "The Society already knows everything I do."
"Now, don't think like that," Maddox said. "You never know what odd detail might offer the Society an advantage. Keep those lips sealed."
"All right."
Bracken picked up Maddox's empty meal mat. "Cleaned your plate again, I see!"
Maddox gave an awkward smile. "I'll be honest, I've eaten worse."
"Worse?" Bracken laughed. "Where? Was it uncooked and decomposing? Seth, this guy wolfs down everything they serve here. He's put on a good twenty pounds since they brought him in."
Maddox reddened, smoothing his hands over the ratty skins covering his belly. "I'm not saying I would choose this grub over home-cooked lasagna. I was starving when they brought me here."
"I can't even bite the meat," Seth said.
"It's like a salt lick," Bracken said. He jerked a thumb at Maddox. "This guy chews it up."
"You can find fracture points if you probe for weaknesses," Maddox said.
"What about the hairy paste?" Seth asked.
"I'm not sure those are hairs," Bracken said solemnly. "Might be veins."
"Laugh it up," Maddox grumbled, waving both arms at them. "Mind my words. Best to store up a little extra when given the chance. You can't be sure when you'll see your next meal."
"I know when I will see it and what it will be," Bracken challenged. "I've been here a long time. Twice a day, like clockwork, we're served a compressed blend of dog, rat, and hobgoblin."
Seth laughed and gagged at the same time. "I hope you're kidding."
"Torch coming," Bracken said, crouching and covering the light from his stone. He stealthily backed toward the gap through which he had entered, and Seth did the same.
"It's not mealtime," Maddox whispered.
The faint light through the barred peephole shifted as footsteps approached. A torch swept past the small, rectangular opening, and the heavy footsteps continued along the corridor.
Bracken remained tense and quiet until the footfalls passed out of hearing. "They almost never come into the cells," Bracken said. "But with my luck, I try to be ready for exceptions."
"Say, Seth," Maddox began awkwardly, "I know I shouldn't press you, but have you had any non-secretive word from my brother, Dougan?"
Seth's face fell. Maddox didn't know about his brother.
"Uh-oh," Maddox said. "Bad news?"
"The worst news," Seth said.
Maddox's mouth twisted and trembled. He gave a quick nod. "Right. Did he go bravely?"
Seth nodded vigorously. "It was at Wyrmroost. A dragon got him. Dougan helped to save Kendra and the mission."
Maddox drew a ragged breath. "What dragon?" Despite his grief, he was already thinking about vengeance.
"Navarog. But then Navarog got killed while in human form."
"Navarog is dead?" Bracken exclaimed. Glancing at Maddox, he managed to restrain his obvious excitement.
Maddox plopped down on his creaky cot. He seemed to have suddenly aged. "We play a deadly game. Something like this was bound to happen."
Seth thought about Vincent. He worried about Kendra and his grandparents. Spending time in a dungeon might be safer than what they would face in the coming days and weeks. He had to find a way to help them.
"What are our chances of busting out of here?" Seth asked.
"Bleak," Bracken replied. "I've been trying for hundreds of years."
"Hundreds of years?" Seth exclaimed. "Some of us never get used to the food," Bracken lamented.
"We can move around down here," Maddox said, "but we've found no way to the upper levels, nothing close to a way out."
"I've searched long and hard," Bracken assured them. "Tunneled plenty as well."
"What about beating up a guard?" Seth asked.
"Even though our doors rarely open, I've tried a few times," Bracken said. "There are too many checkpoints on the way up, too many locked doors. And once the alarm sounds, the Sphinx musters too many powerful servants."
"What if we mobilized a bunch of prisoners?" Seth asked. "A big group effort?"
Bracken shrugged. "That probably has the most potential. It has been decades since I've orchestrated a big, riot-style breakout. Both of my prior attempts ended badly. The way up just has too many bottlenecks. One time they kept a magically reinforced iron door locked until we surrendered due to starvation. Another time we were subdued with noxious gas. As you might imagine, our captors are not kind to us after such attempts."
"You can make stuff glow and read people," Seth said. "Do you have other magic that could help?"
"Not much," Bracken said. "I could help run communications. And I have some skill at healing. My powers are relatively weak. What about you, shadow charmer? You might have more useful skills than mine. Can you shade walk? Quench fire? Disengage locks?"
"I can shade walk," Seth said. "Some shadow charmers can open locks?"
"With their minds," Bracken said. "You'd have to be a real pro, though. Several of the main doors are secured with spells."
"Is he really a shadow charmer?" Maddox asked. "Undoubtedly," Bracken replied.
"I don't know much about it," Seth confessed. "It happened by accident." He explained about the grove with the nail and the revenant, and then how Graulas had sealed his powers.
"I've heard of Graulas," Bracken said. "Never crossed paths with him."
"He's right on the brink of death," Seth said. "Because his death is so near, he doesn't care about allegiances anymore, so he sometimes helps me out of boredom."
Bracken looked pensive. "Graulas may have been of service in the past, but don't let yourself get comfortable around him. Demons are evil to the center. It is their nature to take advantage of others. Good never comes from them."
"You sound like Grandpa Sorenson," Seth said. "Graulas doesn't pretend to be good, but he really did help me."
"He's just saying to be careful," Maddox said kindly. "Bracken has some experience with demons. They may offer help when they see a selfish advantage in it, but they're always scheming. In the end, bad trees tend to give bad fruit."
"Well, he might be dead by now anyhow," Seth said. "He was pretty far gone last time I saw him. Tell me your story, Bracken. What powers did you used to have? Why do you know so much about demons?"
"We'll get into it some other time," Bracken said, averting his gaze.
"No need for modesty!" Maddox bellowed. "Tell the boy what you are!"
Bracken stared at the ceiling, as if wishing he were elsewhere. "He doesn't even know whether he should trust us yet. This is premature."
"I won't be spilling sensitive information anytime soon," Seth said, "but I think I trust you enough. My instincts say we're on the same side. By the way, you said you could show me other friends."
"I barely met your friend Mara," Bracken said. "She doesn't know me any better than you do. And I know how to reach your friend Berrigan as well. It's kind of a tricky climb. He's injured. I've been helping him heal."
"You have to tell me who you are," Seth insisted. "I'm really curious. You can't dangle stuff like this and then take it back. You're torturing me!"
"I'm a unicorn," Bracken said.
Seth laughed. "No, seriously."
"He's serious," Maddox said.
Seth considered Bracken skeptically. "Don't unicorns usually have horns? And, you know, hooves and fur and all that?"
"This is my human form," Bracken said. "Some unicorns have avatars," Maddox said. "You know, like dragons."