“How did you even know this was here?” she asked.
“This church is famous around these parts. They used to hand out food here.”
Liliana paused. The last time that had happened was under the former king, in the aftermath of the attempted coup.
Did Gildo live in these slums back then?
She didn’t know his age, but he must have been young at the time. Perhaps he had sheltered in the church, whether briefly or for longer. Neither of them lingered on the thought, instead pressing on into the underground levels. Unusually for a church, there were three.
Together they descended a stone spiral staircase into the dark. With the mercenary’s permission, Liliana conjured a light with magic.
The lowest level opened into a relatively wide space. Gildo moved confidently through the winding corridors, with Liliana close behind. After some time, he motioned with his left arm for her to stop. Liliana dimmed her light until they could barely see.
“They’re here,” he murmured.
Tensions rose. Liliana deployed a protective barrier, prompting Gildo to glance at her.
“Did you put up a barrier or somethin’?”
“I did.”
A conflicted look crossed his face. “Doesn’t that mean we can’t attack?”
Barriers repelled attacks from both sides. Most blocked only magic, but some also guarded against physical attacks. They were effective defensively, yet the inability to strike through them made using one akin to retreating into a fortress. People typically relied on them only when reinforcements were expected—and soon. Gildo’s concern was natural.
“Don’t worry,” Liliana said. “I’ve tweaked it so it’s one-sided.”
“Damn...”
Gildo went a shade paler. As valuable an ally as she was, perhaps he was imagining what it would mean to face her as an enemy.
Suddenly, Liliana’s barrier flashed, and several knives clattered to the floor in front of it. Gildo stepped out from behind the shield and instantly sent their startled attacker crashing into the wall.
“Goodness,” Liliana remarked, smiling. “I never realized you were this strong.”
She hadn’t seen him fight up close before. Then again, he had stood his ground during the swarm and stopped every assassin who had come for her since. He was awful at submitting reports—he found paperwork too much of a bother—but she could forgive that. She had hired him to guard her, and she couldn’t have asked for better.
After bringing down three men in a heartbeat, Gildo said, “Let’s go,” and walked on, already seeming to have lost interest in the attackers he’d defeated. Liliana followed, leaving them behind; they still hadn’t reached their destination. Enemies struck in bursts as they noticed them, but Gildo dealt with each without trouble. There was no coordination to speak of.
The mercenary exhaled through his nose, looking bored. “Just a bunch of random thugs.”
“I didn’t expect to have so little to do,” Liliana admitted.
“Told you I could’ve handled this myself.”
Liliana answered with an ambiguous smile. She hadn’t expected to need her magic for combat in the first place.
Deep within the church, they found a prison cell with seven kidnapped children inside. There were no signs of enemies nearby, but Gildo kept his guard up as he approached.
“Wait,” Liliana called out. Something didn’t feel right.
“What?”
She gestured for him to come back, glaring at the space around the cell. Gildo looked unconvinced, but he obeyed.
“What’s this all abou—”
Before he could finish, Liliana began gathering her mana.
“Dissipé.”
The cell vanished in an instant, and the “children” inside twisted into mages. Gildo’s eyes widened, but Liliana remained unfazed.
“Damn it! They found us!” one of the mages cried.
They launched into weaving spells, rapidly uttering incantations. One raised his staff and hurled flames, but Liliana erected a barrier to block them. The difference between her mana reserves and theirs was clear as day. Gildo surged toward the mages before they could attack again.
“Mistral.”
Gildo brought down three, while Liliana incapacitated the remaining four with wind magic. She had dialed the spell back from what she’d used against the monsters, but it was still strong enough to tear the staves from her enemies’ hands.
“Magis null.”
She wove a spell that prevented the mages from casting again, then used another spell—trammel—to slice their robes into strips and bind them with the torn cloth. Gildo watched, slack-jawed.
“Do you even need guards...?” he muttered.
“These kinds of people can’t use offensive magic without staves, so they’re no threat,” Liliana replied calmly, tilting her head. To anyone who didn’t know her, it might even have looked cute. “Questioning them can wait. Let’s find the children first.”
Gildo sighed and shrugged, as though giving up on trying to make sense of her, then rubbed his chin. “If they’re not here, they’re probably on the other side. There’s another cell there.”
“Why does a church have prison cells in its basement, anyway?”
“These are catacombs, to be precise.”
There were different kinds of catacombs. Some held skeletons and other remains. These, however, were simply meant to store coffins.
Gildo led the way down a corridor toward the transept on the opposite side of the floor. Liliana stayed alert, but the lack of resistance suggested they’d already taken care of every threat in the building.
They soon reached the second cell. Three coffins sat inside, with several children crouched behind them. The iron bars were unfittingly robust for catacombs, as though they’d been installed later to turn the space into a prison. To Liliana’s surprise, neither magic nor raw strength seemed to work on them. She frowned, studying them carefully.
I could probably break through if I stopped holding back, but there must be a smarter solution. Perhaps I should stabilize the pillars and foundation with earth magic so the church won’t collapse, then destroy the stone above and below the bars.
The children trembled at the burly mercenary’s approach. They barely spared a glance for frail Liliana.
With a sour look, Gildo asked in a low voice, “Got the ash key?”
Most of the children looked baffled, but two reacted differently. They watched him warily as the older of them slowly answered, “The horse of the god who forged the green key has already withered.”
“Thy names?”
“Georg.”
Liliana stopped planning how to break the bars and focused on the exchange. It had to be a code, and the boy who responded was the person they were looking for.
The other child who had reacted—a girl—spoke in a hoarse voice. “My name is Ingeborg. And thine, my brother?”
“Gildo,” the mercenary replied in the same grandiose tone. Then he added something too quietly for Liliana to catch, and the air around him changed.
“Gildo?” she asked, confused.
His muscles bulged, and his presence swelled severalfold, leaving even Liliana at a loss. Georg and Ingeborg didn’t seem fazed, but the other children recoiled in terror.
Gildo closed one hand around an iron bar. He didn’t look to be exerting himself, yet the metal bent, and part of the stone ceiling crumbled with it. Once he’d opened a gap wide enough for the children to squeeze through, he stepped back.
Georg and Ingeborg hurried out first. The others, who had just moments before been paralyzed with fear, scrambled after them.
Gildo looked at the two children he had spoken with. “You goin’ back to the marquess?”
“Yes,” Georg said. “He’s been taking care of me.”
The mercenary gave a small nod, then turned to the girl. “And you?”
She swallowed, then answered without any further hesitation. “I’ll go with him. I have nowhere else to go.”
“All right.” Gildo didn’t so much as glance at the other children.
Just as I expected, Liliana thought. I never imagined I’d see them before the start of the game, though.
Keeping that to herself, she looked at Gildo, silently asking him what he wanted to do next. He met her gaze and shrugged.
“All I cared about was freeing these two. The rest is up to you.”
“Are you sure?” Liliana asked, giggling. Then she turned to the children—though most of them were older than she was. “It’s a long trek to the marquess, so I’ll take you from here. If anyone asks, this is what happened: You escaped on your own and went to the manor of Georg’s friend. Remember that.”
A bright light enveloped the children. By the time it faded, only Gildo and Liliana remained.