An angel’s road to hell

28. Of preparations, capabilities and a little bit of feelings

Cassandra Pendragon

Before anyone of the others had a chance to reply, I pushed my head through the leafs and said: “you’re in luck than. Hi, I decided to drop by and see if you need a hand.” They stared at me for a moment, stunned into silence. My mom was the first to find her voice and she pressed out: “What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be down in the garden! By the great fox, how did you even find us? And why are you soaked in blood?” Mordred didn’t seem surprised but threw me a resigned smile as if he had expected me all along. Greta even smirked and asked me: “what took you so long?” Ahri was obviously dismayed, her brows were drawn together and she fixated on me with a disappointed expression. My mother was on the edge of a mental breakdown as she looked from one to the other and mouthed: “you knew?”

“Not really,” my brother answered, “but I thought she wouldn’t do as she was told.” With a chuckle he added: “she even sort of announced it. It’s good to see you Cassy. How’s everything down in the garden?” I ignored my mom’s scandalised expression and replied: “not great. I don’t know what father already told you, but we lost too many. The merchants Arthur wanted to kick out are in cahoots with our attackers and kidnapped several children. The dwarfs cleaned house though and the garden is safe for the moment. It’s the palaces we have to worry about now. What about up here? I had to fly through a shower of blood to reach you…” I turned to Greta: “did you manage to replenish the energies in the coin?”

I was interrupted rudely when my mom slapped me. “That’s for ignoring you father and me!” She pulled me into a tight embrace directly afterwards, ignoring the condition of my clothes: “and that’s for never giving up. Thank you for returning, you were right, we need you.” I was stunned for a second but then I returned the hug wholeheartedly. Her fluffy ears tickled my cheek and I breathed in her scent. For a moment I truly believed everything would turn out just fine.

When we parted she smiled at me and squeezed my shoulders before she stepped back. Ahri took her place and said: “could we talk for a moment? It won’t take long and we probably won’t have another chance until all of this is over.” She didn’t wait for a reply and moved a few meters along the branch. I shrugged and followed her, curious what this was about. Was she seriously angry that I hadn’t stayed down in the garden like a good girl to leave all the heavy lifting to others? I couldn’t believe she knew me so little, but it seemed like I was spot on:

“Why did you come here?” She asked without preamble.

“You know why. I already told you, I will neither abandon you, nor my family and surely not my home. This is my fight, just as much as it is yours. Maybe even more so because nothing of this mess would have happened if I hadn’t been around. Do you really not understand why I’m here?”

“I do understand, but I don’t care. You shouldn’t be here! By the great fox, you realise that whoever goes into that palace most likely won’t come out again, don’t you? Cassy, I was fully prepared to die here tonight along with the others as long as you were safe! Don’t you get it? Every death, every burned tree would be for naught if they get their paws on you! They’ll have won! What were you thinking?!” She was close to tears and her body trembled slightly. I had never seen her this distraught before. I was missing something. I stepped closer to her and placed    my hand lightly on her cheek.

“Ahri, what’s wrong? What aren’t you telling me?” She closed her eyes for a moment before she stammered:

“I… I can’t… it’s not ... Please, couldn’t you just fly down again? For me?” That caught me off guard. There was practically nothing I wouldn’t do for her and she knew it. Asking me sincerely to turn tails and run was maybe the only way to get me down into the garden again. I blinked, torn between anger, impatience and a little bit of happiness that she cared for me enough to put everything else on the back burner. Was she… nah, I was still a child, she couldn’t have fallen for me, could she? Should I ask? Probably not, unless I was prepared to fulfil her request, which I wasn’t. Maybe…

“I could, but you have to tell me why. And it better be for a good reason, none of this ‘you’re more important than the others’ baloney. Convince me and I’ll do as you asked.” She stared at me unblinking for a long time until she finally answered:

“I can’t. If you’re dead set on joining us I won’t try to dissuade you anymore. Just… please be careful. I can’t even imagine losing you. Will you at least promise to not run in alone?”

“How about that: we stick together until the end. You can make sure I don’t do anything stupid and I can watch your back.” I smiled at her and, hesitantly, she reciprocated the gesture. On impulse I kissed her cheek. Before I returned to the others I could see her dreamily touch the spot my lips had brushed over. After a second her soft footsteps followed behind me.

I could see that Mordred and my mom were burning with questions and Greta was downright smirking but no one said anything when we joined the group again. Just as well, I didn’t understand half of what had just happened myself. I cleared my throat immediately, I wasn’t too keen on one of those heavy silences, and said:

“I overheard Greta’s last few sentences. What kind of enchantments and runes were you talking about before I interrupted your cozy get-together? And where is Mephisto?” I had added the last part deliberately. He had given me permission when the contract had nearly killed me. There was no way for me to know if it had been intentional or an accident, but I guessed it hadn’t been on purpose, otherwise he wouldn’t have bothered to put the clause into the contract in the first place. I didn’t know what had prompted it, but right then and there I had decided to never keep anymore secrets from the people present, at least not if I could help it.

Greta stiffened and made to move towards me, she probably expected me to topple over in pain after uttering the name. Mom was confused while Mordred was nowhere to be seen. I could hear the faint murmur of his voice a view meters away but I couldn’t discern the words.

“Who’s Mephisto?” Mom asked with a blank stare.

“My demonic mentor. He lives in a coin Greta has given me for my birthday. He has a nasty sense of humour, is a walking trove of knowledge and unfortunately had to spent most of his energy to save my life when the shadows first attacked. Now he can’t materialise but I hoped Greta would be able to fix that, that’s why I gave her the coin back in the courtyard.” And to keep taps on them, I added silently. Some small secrets were alright, weren’t they? “So, where is he?”

“I can’t help,” Greta answered. “It would kill me twice over to replenish his life force enough to take on a body and several times that of soul energy. I don’t even know if Boseiju’s energies would be enough, even if I was prepared to tap into them. Sorry kiddo, unless you find a nearly bottom less well of energy, we’re on our own. But how can you talk about him so freely? I already wondered back in the courtyard, didn’t he make sure that you won’t spread the knowledge of his existence?” Mom’s mouth hung open by now forming words soundlessly but she didn’t interrupt.

“He did, but then I was attacked on the training grounds…” I spoke fast and quietly and told the complete story this time.

When I finished, mom didn’t bother to commentate but I knew this wasn’t the end of it. Our first conversation under different circumstances wouldn’t be enjoyable.

“Hmm, that doesn’t help at all,” Greta said when I was done. “I hoped for something useful, but we’ll have to make do. Now, it’s pretty obvious that the real threat is somewhere within the palace in front of us, yes?” Nobody contradicted her. “With Cassandra’s help we have a chance of making it. To answer your question from before, the enchantments and runes on the walls have been strengthened. That alone wouldn’t be too problematic even though I’d need some time to break through. The nasty part is quite ingeniously hidden within the defensive mechanisms. Once you get inside, concealed soul runes activate and lock the palace down. There’s no escape from what I can tell. Each rune has been strengthened with a sacrifice, I can’t even begin to imagine how many had to die to power up such an array, but surely more than the few poor souls sprawled over there.” She pinched the bridge of her nose and continued: “with your wings you might be able to cut a way through. If you are all willing to risk it, we’ll have to spit up. I should go with Cassandra and deactivate the defensive mechanism. They’ll know somebody is coming but they won’t know who or how many. We’ll have a look around inside and see what we can do. As soon as we are discovered, Cassandra, you will fly away. You should be able to carry me along and I’m quite certain you can simply smash right through the soul runes, they shouldn’t affect you at all. You three should head towards the stairs and help the dwarfs break through the barricade. Maybe you can bring down the enchantments so the dwarfs can pass them.” Her plan seemed solid, I couldn’t possible carry more than one of them and Greta was the obvious choice with all her experience and the arsenal of spells she could cast, but…

“I’ll go with Cassy. You can deactivate the formation from the outside and we’ll sneak through.” Ahri spoke up. “I can analyse whatever we are going to find just as well and I can also protect Cassandra, maybe even better than you could. On the other hand there is no one more suited to crush the enchantments on the stairs than you. It won’t take you too long and you can rush right back here with 100 angry dwarfs in tow. If we are lucky, we will have our home back in an hour.”

I thought that to be a little optimistic. Never the less, even though I highly doubted she wanted to come along for these reasons, she was right. It would indeed be better to let Greta assault the stairs and make sure the dwarfs would get through as fast as possible.

“I agree,” I stated firmly.

“So do I,” my brother said from behind. “There’s something else you should know. Arthur is on his way back, he’ll be here in 4 days with 12 ships and over 200 warriors.” That was the best new I had heard in a long time but it didn’t change much for the present.

It turned out that my brother always carried the token Arthur had given him around and he had used the last few moments to activate it and have a little chat. I didn’t even remember where I had stashed mine. Old grievances hadn’t mattered in the face of our plight and Arthur had promised to come as soon as he could, bringing along provisions as well as soldiers. He had managed to establish a prospering kitsune colony some islands over and they had enough resources to help us out a lot. If we could get through the night, it appeared more and more likely that we’d be able to pull through. Dwarfs and Arthur’s aid would make sure of it.

“Alright,” it was Greta who pulled us back to our current situation, “that’s all great, but we still have to make sure he finds more than rubble when he arrives. Helena, you should contact your husband and tell him what your daughter and her maid intent to do. Ask him when the dwarfs are in position, we should get going as soon as possible.” Mom nodded and her forehead wrinkled in concentration while she focused on the crystal connected to my father. After a couple of seconds she opened her eyes again and turned to me.

“He’s not happy but agrees that you two are the best choice to get inside. He doesn’t want to wait and find out what they are doing behind these walls the hard way.” She faced Greta and continued: “He got most of the artefacts running, they won’t be of much use against the palace, but they should make it far easier to breach the stairs. I can contact him again as soon as we are in position, he can protect us from afar while we try to crack the enchantments.”

“Than let’s get going, I’ve never been a friend of dragging things out. Come on Ahri, we’ll give them a moment” Greta replied and shuffled along the branch towards the palace with Ahri close behind.

An awkward silence followed their departure but Mordred soon broke it:

“Well, I guess that’s it. Good luck Cassy, I’ll see you soon.” He hugged me swiftly and strode after the other two. Mom and I stood there for a moment without saying a word. I could still smell the blood from the platform some meters away and from my cloths. The heated wind had dried them up by now but they still stunk, cracked blots of blood mixing with ash and crushed leafs. I wanted to reassure her that we’d all be fine, that we’d get through the night and rebuild what we had lost, but I somehow couldn’t get myself to say the words. It had been easy before when I had talked to strangers but I couldn’t make myself look into her eyes and tell her something I didn’t believe in myself. Luckily I didn’t have to. She pulled me close once again and said: “Go, stay safe and please come back to me. Everything else can wait. I love you, Cassandra Pendragon, may the ancestors guide your way.” I choked up completely, all I could do was not sob into her hair. I squeezed her tightly and nodded. “Love you to, mom” was all I could get out. Before I lost my self control completely I stepped back and turned towards the palace.

From where I stood the branch continued on for a couple of meters before it widened into the wooden platform with the dead kitsune. A short walkway connected the platform to the main branch, similar to the training grounds back at our palace. Following the main branch to the right, a carved street ran for about 20 meters straight until it vanished under the wall of the palace. In contrast to our home, the second palace had an additional wall that circled the palace grounds. It had two gates, one facing Boseiju and one on the opposite side, towards the outbuildings on the side branches. That was the one we had to get through.

Behind the wall, a verdant and meticulously cared for garden stretched all the way to the palace itself. The palace resemble a squat tower with 5 floors. 30 on 30 meters at the base, the tower tapered, the layout of the highest floor condensing to maybe 20 on 20 meters. The building was dark, I could exert my eyes as much as I wanted to, I didn’t see any movements or the reflection of light within the dark windows or on the grounds. If I hadn’t know better I’d have thought it was a ruin, a well cared for and pristine one, but lifeless and long ago abandoned never the less. But that could as well have been my imagination because I suspected that none of the rightful owners were still alive inside. Then the wind changed directions and blew over the tower towards us.

The scent of blood, thicker than even on the platform behind me, assaulted my nose. I thought I could hear faint cries and whimpers, carried along through the night. Whatever the emperor had planned, he wasn’t finished. The torture still continued.

With her creaking voice Greta summed up what we all thought: “we should get moving!”