Fall of the Rightful King

Chapter Twenty-Four

Nick

"I don't know anything!" I yelled. A hoof kicked my leg, right where the other hooves had hit. It didn't break anything. Being honest, for an interrogation, this hadn't been as bad as movies had led me to believe. I'd been smacked around a bit, and hooves were a lot better at that than hands or feet, but they hadn't broken anything. Mostly they kept trying to cast spells on me. I could tell by the tinkling sound of unicorn magic, and sometimes I saw a glow through my blindfold. I'd seen at least three different colors, so I had a few people experimenting on me.

Someone else entered the room. Two legs, but they were still hooves. Great - a minotaur. He pulled off the ropes tying me to the chair and threw me over his shoulder. This left me blinded and with my wrists bound together.

"So where are we going now, big guy?" I said, trying to sound braver than I felt.

"Cell," he grumbled.

"Oh, great," I said. "Take the innocent guy who has no idea why Alexander's after him or why he's still human to a cell so-"

He opened a door and stepped through.

"Oh, Kim, Nick's supposed to be in the east room. Derek took Matthew and Jill with him."

We turned around, I heard another door open and shut, and we kept walking.

"So... Kim," I said. "That's... uh... not usually a guy's name?" Good plan, Nick. This was a good decision.

"Kimberly," he grumbled.

Ah. That was awkward. I had no more words. I was carried into a room and placed roughly on the concrete floor, but not so roughly that I banged my head. I felt a hoof press against my neck, not cutting off my breath, but unmistakably ready to do so.

"Keep locked up. Talks too much," Kimberly growled and clomped out of the room.

"You got it," I heard a voice say.

"Little bitch will wish he never came here," another voice said. Both were female.

As soon as the door shut, the hoof came off of me and I felt claws working at the ropes around my wrist. I also heard someone trying to use magic, but it kept flickering out.

"Careful, careful, don't move!" the second voice said. A claw nicked my wrist. "Oh, Nick, I'm sorry!" she said. The blindfold came off and I found myself looking at a brown unicorn, holding a strip of fabric in her mouth, and a dark grey griffon. Both looked concerned.

"Nick, please don't move, ok?" the griffon asked. "I'm going to bite through your ropes." She lowered her beak to my wrists and, with a few quick snaps, cut through them. I glanced back and forth at the two of them.

"So... what's going on?" I asked.

"We're with the Order!" the unicorn blurted out. "I'm Melissa, and this is Cassie," she said, pointing at the griffon with her horn. "I mean, we're with Manuel's Order. We're here to try and keep tabs on Derek.

"Yeah, but then he started to get really scary," Cassie said. "And he's super suspicious of everyone so we can't just leave. He keeps tabs on us."

Melissa opened up a first aid kit and pulled out some ointment and bandages. "And then my magic isn't working like everyone else's... and the - one sec." Cassie opened up the ointment, with difficulty, but her claws had to be more usable than Melissa's hooves. She put some ointment on my cuts. Melissa, using the sticky side of the gauze on one hoof to move it around, started bandaging me. It only took less than a minute to get my cuts covered. I insisted on bandaging the cut under my eye. I did not want talons that close to my eyes.

"You two are quick," I said. They looked at each other and Cassie tucked Melissa under her wing.

"Yeah, we've been practicing," Cassie said.

"Gotta learn how to live like this," Melissa said, still looking into Cassie's eyes.

"We still haven't figured out kissing," Cassie added. The feathers around her beak twitched upwards. Was that a smile? Probably.

"Yeah," Melissa said. "Last time we tried you cut my lip!"

"I said I was sorry!" Cassie said. She lifted a claw to stroke Melissa's mane. It had a gold ring on one of the talons.

"Is that a ring?" I asked. "Sorry, I just haven't seen people wear jewelry since... you know."

"Yeah," Cassie said, looking at it. "It's our engagement ring."

"It was so embarrassing," Melissa said. "When I first went to the jewelers to get it done, I told him her ring size was 6,"

"But I guess he wrote it down wrong," Cassie said, "since when she gave it to me,"

"It was so big!" Melissa said, laughing. "She was like 'did you get me a bracelet?' and I was so embarrassed,"

"And we were going to get it resized," Cassie said, "but we just never had the time. But then after I turned into a griffon, I noticed my talons were huge and I was like 'Maybe the ring will fit!'"

Melissa looked down at her hoof. "They really don't have rings in my size, so I'm glad she got to wear hers."

"No rings yet, anyway," Cassie said, and she hugged Melissa tighter.

"Anyway, we're sorry, but until we can get you out, you'll have to be in there," Melissa said, pointing at the cell. It was clearly just some metal bars and a gate set into the floor, partitioning off the room. A cot lay in the middle of the cell, taking up most of the available space. I walked in and they locked the door.

"Sorry, but everyone's suspicious of everyone else here," Melissa said.

"On Thursday they banned mirrors because they don't trust their reflections," Cassie said, giggling. Melissa rolled her eyes and groaned, but smiled.

"We'll let you know when we can get a hold of the Order," Cassie said,

"But we've been trying since we heard you were coming here," Melissa said, "and no one's answering. We keep leaving them messages."

"Yeah," I said. "About that..."

I gave them the basics about Manuel and us trying to find someone, Derek killing Manuel, and then Alexander crashing the party. As soon as I told them about Manuel's death, they clutched at each other, and Melissa covered her mouth with her hoof.

"We've got to get out of here," Cassie said. "If Derek's killed Manuel... there are a lot of cowards who will join up with him now."

"Or maybe they'll just hide," Melissa said. "Most of them didn't want to fight. Let me call them again," she said, pulling a phone out and dialing.

"We'll still get you out," Cassie told me. "We'll find a way."

That night, Cassie woke me up and put a claw on my lips. She put another claw in front of her beak. I nodded. We stood up. The door was open and we snuck out, moving carefully. I think I made more noise than Melissa’s hooves, somehow. We rounded a corner and moved down a hallway.

Cassie tapped my shoulder and tried mouthing something to me. I say “tried” because, without lips, it didn’t work so well. I blinked and raised an eyebrow. She tried again, but I stopped her by tapping her beak. She looked surprised, then embarrassed. She leaned in.

“We’re going to go through and see if anyone’s in there. Then we’ll have you come through,” she whispered.

I nodded and flattened myself against the wall. They opened the door and walked in confidently.

“Hey, Kim,” Melissa said. Her voice shook slightly. Kimberly grumbled. Damn it. Melissa started to leave the room. I could see her eyes were huge. She suddenly stopped and squeaked. Cassie stepped forward.

“Oh, Melissa, Melissa, Melissa,” Derek said. “Where do you think you’re going? It’s not like you have anywhere special to go, is it? Nothing’s quite as important as protecting what I asked you to, is it?”

Melissa started to float into the air, twisting and scrambling to touch the ground. Cassie grabbed her and tried to pull her down. Kimberly shoved them both aside and grabbed me, dragging me back along the hallway. Melissa fell to the ground with a yell. Derek glared at me.

“Let’s get things a bit more secure,” he said. I could see light purple fur around the edge of his collar.

"Hello, Nick, I have some very bad news." Derek said as we walked back to the cell. "First of all, I would love to interrogate you and find out just every single detail about how you're still human and why Alexander's so interested in you. I figure the two have to be related, because you're just not that special otherwise. But there's a problem. I have to leave.

"That journal, oh that journal, may turn out to be massively valuable. Perhaps even more valuable than the book I got from good ol’ Al. But it cost me a lot of time and time, dear Nicki, is the most valuable thing in the world."

Kimberly threw me into the cell and shut the door. I saw she had a hand holding both Melissa and Cassie’s tails. Derek pulled out a piece of black chalk, drew a circle on the ground and started making some markings inside it. Melissa and Cassie both looked scared at what they saw.

"To add to that, I lost two very valuable workers capturing you. It is so frustrating, Nick, because my workers are hard to get." He stood up and pointed at Melissa and Cassie.

Kimberly reached over and pulled the two apart, holding one in each hand.

"You see, Nick, there's a rumor that I summon my workers from other dimensions. Now that’s great, really just great. Misinformation is a wonderful resource to have."

He stood up and pulled out a gun. "I'm really sorry about this," he said, "but I'm pressed for time, I need Nick to stick around, and he's a bit of an escape risk. I have to have some insurance on an asset this valuable. It’s also clear I can’t quite trust you two, but I bet in a moment that little trust issue will be much less of a problem. It's unfortunate, but I'm out of better options." He pointed the gun at Melissa.

"So I have to find other ways," he said. "Get in the circle," he added. Melissa and Cassie looked shocked, but then Melissa stood her ground.

"No!" Melissa said, staring down the gun bravely. "I'm not letting you do that to me! I'd rather take a bullet."

"Which is why, horse, I want your bird girlfriend to get in the circle. Now, Cass, hurry up and get in there before I put a hole in the mare's head." Kimberly loosened her grip on the gryphon.

"No!" Melissa screamed. "Cassie, don't!" Cassie looked back and forth between Derek and Melissa. "Cassie, don't do it!" she yelled again.

"You'll leave her alone?" Cassie asked, her voice shaking badly. "You'll leave her alive?"

"Yes, yes," Derek said impatiently. "Trust me, once we're done today I'll have no reason to hurt her. Now get in the damn circle in the next ten seconds or I shoot!"

Cassie stepped forward and into the circle, tears starting to drip off her feathers.

"Cassie, no! Cassie!" Melissa shouted.

"You see, Nick," Derek said, "since outsourcing isn't an available option, I must make do with local talent. This requires a certain degree of training, but I look at it as investing in my workers." He made a few more marks around the circle.

What was he talking about? What was he planning to do? Chills ran along my body as I thought I was putting it together. No... he couldn't.

"Derek, please, don't do this!" Melissa said, frantically thrashing and trying to break Kimberly's grip. "I'll tell you anything! I'll do anything! I'll tell you about the Order! About the secrets it has! Please!"

"It's a difficult and time-consuming process," Derek said cheerily, as though he hadn't heard a thing. "But I do take a certain artisan's pride in it." He stood up, having finished the circle. "Now, I don't have time for a golem," he said, muttering to himself, "so I'll have to make do..."

"Derek, I'll do anything! I'll kill Nick! I'll kill Alexander! You can do whatever you want to me! Just stop!" Melissa yelled.

I started slamming on the bars.

"Stop!" I yelled. "Whatever you're doing, stop! I'll tell you anything you want!"

Derek took a breath, putting down the chalk and gun, and held out both hands towards Cassie. I saw shadows start to gather around him.

"Anything you want to say?" Derek asked Cassie.

Cassie glared at him, then looked at Melissa. She tried so hard to make her voice calm and loving, but couldn't quite stop it from shaking.

"Melissa, please, you have to be brave for me. You have to fight him."

"No! Cassie!" Melissa shrieked. Her voice was growing hoarse.

"Just please don't..." Cassie choked. When she started talking again, she was outright bawling. "Don't forget me!"

"This is touching, but we're out of time," Derek said. The shadows flew from his hands and started flying around Cassie.

Melissa made a noise that made her previous screams sound like pleasant music. I could have sworn she was dying, had I not been looking at her.

Cassie's feathers started to smoke and then burn. She screamed and arched her back as smoke and embers started to pour out of her mouth. Her skin turned charcoal black. It cracked and showed red light from underneath as the figure started to stand up straight, turning into a humanoid form. The ash and smoke burned away in a flash, leaving a girl made of fire standing in the circle. She looked at Derek impassively, appearing to not notice the devastated brown mare, now lying on the ground sobbing.

"Guard the room," Derek said, pointing at me while looking at Cassie. "Do not let him out." He stepped away, kicking Melissa aside, and drew a glowing line on the floor around the door. "If Nick crosses this line," he said, looking at everyone in the room, "I will know, and Cassie will find it rather unpleasant. Please don't disappoint me. It'll be easier for all of us."

Melissa gasped, an interruption in her sobbing. Derek left the room, with Kimberly just behind. The door shut.

Melissa looked up at Cassie, her eyes reflecting the orange and red light. She started to crawl towards her lover.

"Cassie..." she pleaded. “Please tell me you're still there. Cassie... please tell me you remember me..."

She reached out a hoof. I heard a sizzle and she jerked it back with a cry, holding it to her chest. Cassie glanced down, but simply stood there, completely unmoved.

When Melissa's sobs finally calmed down, I tried to say something. My throat felt dry and swollen.

"Melissa, I'm..." I swallowed. "I'm so sorr-"

She flew at my cell bars like she'd been shot out of a cannon. I fell back. She rained blow after blow at me through the bars, never able to hit me. The noise filled the room, only equaled by her screams of anger. Her eyes were blazing and she had a snarl on her face.

"You did this to her!" she screamed. "We were going to get married! And now..." Her horn sparked, but she wasn't able to gather enough magic to do anything. "I hate you! You can burn forever! You can stay in there until you rot!"