“We can’t just sit here idly, though...”
Lyse knew Sidis wouldn’t do anything too rash, but at this rate, she was leaving him to fend for himself. Moreover, the black stone below was an unforeseen element. Lyse couldn’t bear the thought of anything happening to her beloved.
“Miss Lyse, one of the captured terrorists has awakened,” reported the knight who was watching over the five cultists they’d detained in the service corridor.
“Does he know anything?” she asked.
“Not much, ma’am. They were just told to stand by for any of their allies escaping via that route.”
That meant there was no further information to be gained from the captured cultists. But all was not lost, for it was about then that Alcede’s troops arrived. They urged Lyse to come with them. She complied and was escorted to a nearby alleyway for a surprise.
“Your...”
She stopped herself short when she saw a white dog sitting beside Alcede. She could tell by their behavior it was Egbert and not Sidis. Observing them, it was clear to Lyse that the emperor had come back alone.
“Miss Lyse,” Alcede called out, “Sidis is still investigating the cistern below. We’ve confirmed that Seren and his cohorts are down there as well.”
Egbert nodded along and gave his account of what had happened, including how he’d been poisoned and what he’d learned of Caldo’s position within the cult. “I’m sure Sidis will be back shortly,” he said to reassure Lyse, but she found no comfort in his words.
“I can only hope so. We failed to infiltrate through the passage underground. We tried tunneling through the walls, but the other side was covered in a layer of black stone,” she informed him.
“Black stone, you say?!” Egbert and Alcede could hardly believe their ears.
“I saw nothing of the sort when I was down there...” the emperor protested.
“Are you sure you didn’t simply hit a storage room chock-full of them? They could have spilled out of the hole you made if there were enough of them, and the cultists would need a lot in order to turn so many people into dogs,” argued Alcede.
“The stones grew right in front of my eyes, like they were forming pillars,” Lyse explained.
Egbert grumbled, “I suppose there’s more going on here than we know. We still don’t yet understand the green light by the city walls either.”
“Well, let us wait for Sidis for the time being. Perhaps he may bring us more information,” Alcede suggested.
The three of them stood waiting by the shaft that Egbert had escaped from, but even after ten minutes elapsed, there was no sign of Sidis following.
“The designated hour is nearly upon us,” Alcede informed everyone with a glance at his pocket watch.
“Could it be...? Was Lord Sidis captured?” It was nearly unthinkable, yet Lyse couldn’t help fearing the worst.
Egbert placed a paw on her lap. “He’ll be fine if he remains in his canine form. It would be too rash to execute a dog, even for them.”
In spite of his comfort, Lyse remained quiet.
“At any rate, there’s little we can do but strategize about how to rescue Sidis as we proceed,” Alcede said as he slipped his watch back into his pocket. “There’s some cause for concern, but sticking to our plan and attacking the terrorists is the best way forward. We should be able to save Sidis along the way. I’ll go ahead and inform our people that the enemy may have captured another dog.”
Lyse nodded in agreement. It was their only hope of taking control of the situation. While they didn’t know Sidis’s current status, nothing would be resolved without taking down the Donan terrorists.
The clock struck two hours to midnight, and Lyse departed her hideout in the 11th district for the appointed meeting location. Building 13 was as barren as ever—Lyse could sense no presences upon her arrival. A few minutes passed before five figures approached. The man at the front of the group drew down the hood of his black cloak. The dark of night would have concealed his face if not for the lanterns he and his men were all carrying. Lyse recognized the middle-aged man. She’d seen him with Seren from afar before.
“As expected, Prince Caldo of the Alstran Kingdom,” Lyse hailed.
“Welcome, Miss Lyse Winslette. I appreciate your cooperation in coming,” replied Caldo with a grin.
“Show me the dog first, if you please. I’d like to make sure he’s safe and sound.”
“Bring the dog.”
As instructed, a man stepped out from behind Caldo carrying a white dog. It was about the right size, but Lyse could see that the length of its fur and the shape of its tail were different. She let out a sigh.
“I see you’re not sincere about this negotiation,” she uttered coldly. “Goodbye.”
“What are you... Hey!” Caldo panicked when Lyse turned to leave. “Cheeky wench. You want your dog?! Come over here!”
“And why should I? I can hear you just fine from here.”
Try as the Donans might to pull the wool over her eyes, Lyse was no fool. Caldo wanted her to step into his trap. That much was obvious. And when she wouldn’t do it, he snapped his fingers, signaling five more men to appear around Lyse. They all towered over her, their swords drawn and at the ready.
“Be a good girl and do as I say, and nothing will happen to you. Now get over here,” Caldo crowed when he saw Lyse surrounded, boldly assuming that she had no way out.
But he was wrong. Scornfully, Lyse clapped her hands twice. Caldo’s triumphant smirk turned to a blank stare when he heard her own signal, and that stare turned to alarmed confusion when he heard a stampede of footsteps descending upon their location. It was not the thunderous stomping of boots, but the clacking of claws against stone pavers—complete with excited panting. It was a brief auditory foreshadowing of the twenty-some large dogs that were about to encircle the men surrounding Lyse. Taking down a single hound would be easy for them, but the possibility of Lyse siccing a dozen or more on them was terrifying. Naturally, the dastards shrank back.
“Y-You harpy! I told you to come alone!” Caldo barked.
Lyse shrugged. “You said not to bring anyone with me, but you never said anything about dogs,” she quipped.
Caldo’s eyes rolled back into his head. “What are you waiting for?! End her! End her now!” he bellowed to his men.
The ruffians trembling around Lyse pointed their blades at her. The instant they did, the dogs cast spells that blew them tumbling across the empty lot. They shrieked as one of many planted pitfall traps opened up, casting them down to the bowels of the cistern.
“Curses!” Caldo exclaimed as he attempted to flee the scene.
Unfortunately for him, Lyse had accounted for this. Knights emerged from the dark alleyways behind Caldo and immediately closed in on him. Fortunately for the Alstran prince, however, there was one easygoing imperial around...
“Okay, okay. That’s enough,” said Alcede. “That’s one count of abducting a dog from the palace and one count of assaulting imperial royalty. You know, it’s terribly hard to turn a blind eye to either of those charges, so I’ll just have to arrest you and throw you behind bars,” he informed Caldo with a smug smile.
The Alstran prince’s face contorted as he jammed a hand into the breast of his cloak. “Imperial scum!” he shouted as he hurled some kind of sand at the knights in front of Alcede.
They crumpled to the ground as if their legs had suddenly given out. Lyse gasped at the sight.
“Everybody, get back! That powder will drain any magic you have!” she called to the dogs behind her.
It would be a catastrophe if the dogs had their magic dispelled, as they were really knights and infantry transformed by Alcede’s magic. They absolutely could not revert to buck naked humans in the middle of the city. Fortunately their rear flank was uncontested, allowing them to fall back as instructed. Alcede, too, ordered his knights to retreat and the able-bodied to carry away the fallen.
“Alcede! Scatter them across the lot!” Lyse instructed.
“You got it!” The duke withdrew a few steps and blasted the remaining cultists with a spell.
Caldo was somehow able to counteract Alcede’s magic with his own, but his lackeys were sent screaming across the grass. Unlike their comrades earlier, however, this wasn’t the end of them—they stood up from the holes they’d fallen in, grinning. There was apparently some kind of trickery at play, but before the shock settled on Lyse, Alcede had already cast another spell to knock out the still-standing hostiles.
Yet, strangely enough, something else rose in their place. Pillars of black stone stabbed up from the ground like a flurry of swords—apparently what the prince’s henchmen had used as footing.