My head shot up and Tegan pushed off the wall. His eyes reflected my fear as we heard a half dozen pairs of feet trample across the earth near the hatch. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end as I crept over to Tegan. My mouth was as dry as a desert as I grabbed his arm with both hands. He set his hand over my limb as his green glowing eyes stared at the hatch while his other hand held his hot flame at the ready.
The footsteps shook the earth loose above our heads and dust rained down on us. The excited voices were now loud and clear. “You’re sure about this?” somebody wondered.
“The scent is pointing to this shed, sir.”
“Then they must be hiding beneath here. Find the opening.”
There was the sound of scuffling and scrambling, and a few things were tossed aside. My heart thumped with every footstep until I wondered if it was going to beat right out of my chest.
Then it came. The discovery. “Here, sir!”
“Open it.”
The hatch shook. “It’s stuck, sir.”
“Then break it apart if you have to!”
The wood rattled again, this time more violently. Tegan backed us up and narrowed his eyes. His body was as tense as mine as he drew me behind him.
“What the hell are you doing in my shed?”
The voice belonged to MacAlastair and his familiar heavy footsteps marched into the small outbuilding.
“Get out of here at once, sir, or -”
“Or nothing!” MacAlastair snapped as I heard something, or someone, slam against the shed wall, shaking the whole building. “You’ll have to answer to the king for this, you fiends! He doesn’t take kindly to anyone messing with the property of one of his oldest friends!”
A dead silence ruled overhead, followed by the stuttering voice of the leader. “I-I had no idea, sir. We were merely following orders-”
“You can go and talk to your leader about your stupid orders as soon as he wakes up from that tap of affection I gave him after he barged into my rooms!” MacAlastair growled.
“Y-yes, sir.” A hasty retreat was made and soon a tense quiet descended on the area.
MacAlastair grumbled as I heard him move about. “Damn fools and their damn cocky attitude. Thinking they own the whole capital.” He pounded a fist against the hatch. “You two down there?”
“Unfortunately,” Tegan called to us.
The hatch was wrenched open and the light from an oil lamp cascaded into the hole. MacAlastair’s burly mug stared down at us with pinched lips. “You can come out of that hole, but keep your heads and voices low.”
Even with that warning, I still gladly climbed the ladder and Tegan followed. We had indeed been below a tool shed at the rear of his inn. A dirty window looked out on the back street and I could make out figures with lights and some with flames in their hands like Tegan had done.
MacAlastair stepped back and looked us over. “I don’t know what trouble you caused at the office, but they’ve got all their people out looking for you two and they’re not caring whose business they barge into.”
“Even a friend of the king’s?” Tegan wondered.
MacAlastair shrugged. “I don’t like to use his help, but I didn’t have much choice. They’re not taking ‘no’ for an answer.”
My shoulders slumped. “Then I guess we didn’t need to leave our room.”
MacAlastair’s face twisted in fury. “I may have taught their leader a lesson with a hard smack in the face but the rest of his ilk had already managed to break into the rooms before I could stop them. If they’d found you in there it would’ve been bad news for all of us.”
“Any idea when we might escape your custody?” Tegan wondered.
Our host shook his head. “No clue, but it won’t be for a while. Conor overheard a pair of them talking about searching until you’re found. Something about how you caught the attention of the lady in charge of the capital office.”
My shoulders slumped. “Lucky me. . .”
Tegan folded his arms over his chest and frowned. “We can’t hide in here forever.”
“Or in the passage,” MacAlastair added as he nodded at the hatch. “Those fiends are using some sort of small metal box to find you two. It gives off a nice white light and seems to glow brighter the closer they get to where you are.” I started back at his description and Tegan didn’t look too pleased. MacAlastair noticed our faces and frowned. “That sounds familiar to you two, doesn’t it?”
“It’s a good likeness to Kate’s magic,” Tegan told him.
“The bloodhounds must be using that as a scent somehow, though only the Gods know how,” MacAlastair guessed.
I lifted one hand and studied the palm. “When she touched me, it felt wrong.” I closed my hand into a fist and lifted my eyes to Tegan’s worried face. “It wasn’t like when we connected because you told me you were only borrowing some of mine, but I think she stole my magic.”
He narrowed his eyes. “That’s possible, but under the laws of magic, it’s one of the severest crimes. You can only steal magic when your life is threatened by your opponent.”
I clutched my hand against my chest and shivered. “So it’s not like that conmagic thing you told me about earlier?”
Tegan shook his head. “No. Conmagicae only borrows, even if it’s unwilling. The user can’t hold on to the magic after its purpose has been fulfilled. What you experienced is called despolicae. The act of plundering magic from another.”
“You need to quit your lecture and figure out a way of getting out of here,” MacAlastair spoke up as he nodded at the door. “Those hounds will use that bit of magic to find her and even my invoking the king’s name won’t keep her out of their hands.”
Shouts from outside caught our attention. “It’s still leading us back here, sir!”
“Then start searching every building and don’t let anyone stop you!” the commander shouted.
My heart gave a leap as I pressed my arms against my chest and grasped my hands together. The footsteps hurried toward us and I could see light through the gaps between the wall boards. The door creaked open but MacAlastair slammed his shoulder against it.
He pressed his back against the entrance and nodded at the hatch. “Get back down there!”
Tegan grabbed my hand and drew me back into the dank hole. He followed behind, making sure to wrench the hatch downward so it stuck in its frame. Tegan skipped the last few rungs and hit the ground where he grabbed my hand as he ignited his other palm. “Come on!”
We rushed down the passage as I heard wood break behind us. Shouts and the sound of bodies flying echoed down the tunnel.
“Wait, Tegan!” I insisted as I dug my heels into the earth.
We stopped and he turned to me. “What are you doing?”
I shook my head. “They can only find me with whatever they have, right? That means you can get out of here.”
His eyebrows crashed down and he shook his head. “I won’t leave you behind.”
I scowled at him and pushed against his chest with both my hands. “I’ve been enough trouble for you! Now go!”
I made to push him again, but he grabbed one of my wrists. His light illuminated his face and I saw a tender look in his eyes. “I’m not going to leave you. If you’re found out then we’re both found out.”
Tears sprang into my eyes as I shook my head. “No, you have to go. This isn’t your trouble.”
A strange look passed over Tegan’s face. He released me and dug into his jacket. I watched with confusion as he drew out the folded papers that made up Domini’s contract and unfolded them.
“What is it?” I asked him as he perused the finer details.
“The emissary for Domini mentioned that should we sign the document all our troubles would vanish,” he reminded me as he scoured the pages. “What if he was being literal?”
I blinked at him. “I don’t follow-”
Somebody did follow as I heard shouts from the direction of the shed. They echoed down the passage, telling me MacAlastair had been breached.
Tegan flipped to the last page and read to the end where his eyes lit up. Still, he pursed his lips as he looked over the top of the page at me. “We have a choice to make: to sign this contract or to allow them to capture us.”
“What? Why?” I questioned him.
He pointed at the last paragraph. “There is a promise here that upon signing, we’ll be transported to our first assignment. I believe this contract is literally a way out of trouble. That is, a means of magically leaving where we are.”
My eyes lit up. “It’ll teleport us?” The confused expression in his eyes told me that word didn’t click. “It’ll transport us like you transported me into this world?”
He nodded. “Essentially, yes, but we have to sign.”
I pursed my lips as I understood his meaning. “So we might be going out of the frying pan and into the fire.”
“Exactly.”
More shouts came from either end of the passage, and they were getting louder. I sighed and rolled up one sleeve. That guy said it would have to be with blood, right?”
“Yes,” Tegan confirmed as he raised one hand and a single fingernail turned into a sharp claw. He looked past his finger and at me. “You’re sure about this?”
“I see a light!” someone yelled from one end of the tunnel.
I held out my hand to him. “I’m sure I don’t want to be caught by these people.”
Tegan nodded and pricked the end of my finger with his nail. I winced as a single drop of blood pooled at the tip. He held up the contract and I tried to sign on one of the two lines, but I ended up smudging it.
“That will work,” Tegan told me as he pricked his own finger.
A bittersweet smile slipped onto my lips as he applied his signature to the paper. “I hope Mrs. Brody forgives us for not picking up those pants.”
A light shone behind me. I spun around in time to watch a net of crackling electricity fly at me.