Chapter Fourteen: The Rat Catcher

Yuri woke up in the middle of the night to a jangle of keys. It was dark and he was half-asleep, but he was certain he saw a person walk past his cell. A low female voice said, "Commandant? Commandant, the emperor wishes to speak with you."

Flynn took a couple of seconds to reply. Yuri pictured him slowly waking up and looking around, forgetting for a moment where he was and why he was here. He yawned, and said, "Right. Of course."

The woman unlocked the cell and Yuri heard footsteps walk inside. Yuri yawned and stretched a bit, trying to go back to sleep. He briefly wondered what Ioder wanted with Flynn at this time of night, but it was probably some important empire business that Yuri wanted no part in. He closed his eyes and daydreamed about how much nicer this would be if they could continue house arrest.

Flynn stared to say, "What's-" and then broke into a cough. This was followed by the thump of a body hitting the floor, and Yuri's eyes flashed open.

"Flynn?"

All he got in a response was a muffled groan. Yuri sat upright, all thoughts of sleep gone from his mind. He jumped up and ran to the bars of his cell. "Hey, Flynn? You alright?"

"Mmm…mmph!"

Yuri's muscles tensed. He didn't know what was happening, but Flynn was in trouble. "Hey!" he shouted, trying to alert the guards. "We need help down here! Hey!" He grabbed the door to the cell and tugged, but he'd learned ages ago that this was useless. He banged on the door, and the iron rattled. All he could hear from the cell next door was muffled grunting. What the hell was going on? That woman who had come was bad news, and he was stuck in this rotten cell when Flynn was in trouble. Dammit, he needed to get out of here!

He could, actually. All he needed to pick the lock on this cell was a pin, and the pressure in his boot reminded him that he'd slipped Judy's pin in there back in Desier. He reached his hand into his boot and fished out the pin. He was in such a rush his hands shook and he missed the keyhole a couple of times. It was hard to focus when the only thing on his mind was that it sounded like Flynn was struggling to breathe.

The moment the lock was undone, he slammed the door open so hard it swung around and hit the bars with a deafening clang. By the time that happened, Yuri had already grabbed the unlocked door of the neighbouring cell and flung it open. He took half a second to see Flynn lying motionlessly on the ground, his eyes wide with panic, while an elderly women crouched over him with one hand covering his mouth and the other pinching his nose. Yuri darted forward and tackled the women, throwing her off Flynn.

An elderly woman wasn't high on his threat list, so he checked on Flynn first. "Flynn! Are you alright? What's wrong?" He was breathing again, but he hadn't moved a muscle.

Flynn stared at him and groaned, letting out a stream of unintelligible syllables.

Yuri frowned. "What?"

Irritated, Flynn tried, "Ih-ee ah-ee oh-en!"

Yuri noticed a small pouch on the ground, which spilled a bit of yellow-ish dust. Understanding shot through him. "Billybally pollen?"

"Uh!" Flynn said, which Yuri took as a 'yes'. It explained why he couldn't move at least.

"Dammit." Yuri turned back to the woman, but she had already gotten to her feet and run to the door. Yuri jumped up just in time for her to slam the door shut and lock it again. "Get back here!" Yuri roared.

"Oh afer er!" Flynn said.

"Give me a sec!" Yuri grabbed Judy's pin and struggled to pick the lock once again. "Who even is that lady?"

"Ah-el uh-er," Flynn said.

Yuri was certain he hadn't been this hard to understand when he'd gotten hit by the pollen back on Ehmead Hill. "What?"

"Is uh-er! Ississ Ah-el!"

The lock clicked, just as Flynn's words clicked in his mind. "Zadel's mother? Mrs. Zadel?"

"Uh!"

Yuri wanted to ask what the hell she had to do with anything, but she was already getting away. "Stay there, I'm going after her."

Flynn didn't have much choice in the matter, being paralyzed, so Yuri took off without another word. As he ran past the front desk, he spotted the guard lying slumped on the table. He'd bet his sword the guard was paralyzed too, but he didn't stop to check. He ran up out of the jail and into the deserted hallways. Mrs. Zadel ran down the hall ahead of him, surprisingly fast for her age. He didn't know what Zadel's mother had to do with anything, but she'd tried to kill Flynn and that was reason enough for him to hunt her down. He could only guess she was trying to take revenge for her son or something like that.

Yuri tore around a corner and into the main hall, just in time to see the guards opening the door for Mrs. Zadel. Of course, they didn't know she was anything other than a councilman's mother. Why wouldn't they let her through?

"Stop her!" Yuri shouted, powering forward.

"Huh?" The guards looked around in surprise.

Yuri paid them no heed. They'd already opened the door, so he flew right past them and down the steps. "The commandant's hurt!" Yuri shouted over his shoulder. "You'd better go help him!"

The guards were torn, but evidently they decided that going to Flynn's aid was more important than chasing after a criminal who wasn't wanted for anything dangerous. They turned and ran back into the castle, leaving Yuri to chase after the woman. He had just about caught up with her when she climbed into a carriage sitting in front of the castle. The young man sitting at the reins whipped it to life, and it took off. Yuri leapt, trying to jump on it before it got away, but he fell short. His fingers scraped the wooden back and then he landed hard on his knees with a grunt.

"Damn," he whispered, getting back to his feet. He was already out of breath from his race through the castle, but he needed to catch up to that carriage so he took off. Besides, he only had limited time before other knights got alerted to his jailbreak and came after him. Luckily, at this time of night the royal quarter was all but deserted. The carriage got far ahead of him, but it was the only one on the street so he kept running.

By the time the carriage pulled to a stop in front of a small - comparatively for the royal quarter - Yuri was panting hard and the muscles in his legs felt like jelly after sprinting all the way here from the castle. They were on the edge of the royal quarter now, where the homes were more akin to the fancier houses wealthy commoners might own rather than the extravagant mansions the rest of the nobility lived in. He saw the carriage driver hop down and open the door, and the woman climbed out and hurried into the house. Yuri paused next to a wall, leaning against it for a moment to catch his breath. The carriage driver got back up on his vehicle and drove away, but Yuri wasn't concerned with him right now. Mrs. Zadel was the one who had tried to murder Flynn, so she was the only one he cared about catching.

With a bit of energy regained, he walked at a brisk pace toward the house. He didn't have a weapon, but he didn't like the idea of stabbing an elderly woman anyway. She'd only overpowered Flynn by knocking him out first, so he was pretty sure he could take her with his bare hands. He tried the door, which was unlocked. Yuri stepped into a living room and looked around cautiously. It smelled like dust in here, which almost managed to mask the sickening aroma of sweet flowers. A thin layer of dust covered the mantle, but fresh flowers in a vase on the coffee table. Who the hell lived here? It didn't seem like anyone did permanently, based on the sheets covering the armchairs by the window.

Across the room, a chink of light bled from a door hanging a few inches open. From this room came the rattle of a drawer opening. Yuri stilled his breathing and crept toward the door, thankful the floor was covered in soft carpet that hid his footsteps, unlike the loud marble most nobles preferred. He paused outside the room, running his plan through his head. He was going to burst in there, tackle the old woman, and drag her back to the castle. Yuri braced himself, and then slammed the door open.

He burst into a small office, but he didn't see the old woman. "What-"

Crack!

A wooden board smashed him in the back of his head. Stars whizzed across his vision and dropped to his knees. The room spun in circles and a deafening rush filled his ears. The world went dark and fuzzy for what felt like a few seconds, until his eyes flashed open again and he realized at couple of minutes must have passed.

He knew it had been at least a couple of minutes, because he was in a new position. He was slumped on the floor by the desk, while a tiny gnome with a sledgehammer took up residence in his skull and went to work on his brain. It took only a couple of seconds to remember what he'd been trying to do, and then he jumped to action. He didn't get far, because as soon as he tried to move his arm, he realized he was handcuffed to the leg of the desk.

"Oh, come on!" He jerked his hand in aggravation. "I'm getting pretty sick of handcuffs." He didn't have long to dwell on it, because there were two scents in the room that took priority in his mind. The first was the mild tang of cinnamon, which was coming from a vase of flowers on the desk above his head. The other was gasoline.

He got to his knees and peered over the desk. Across the room, Mrs. Zadel carefully poured gasoline into the carpet. The desk drawers were all open, the paper contents already drenched in gasoline. Yuri had a sinking feeling he knew where this was going. He'd always expected burning horribly after dying, not causing it. He rested his hands on the desk, and then quickly pulled them away when they came back wet. He frantically rubbed them on the carpet to try to get the gasoline off him. This was going to be difficult enough to get out of without getting the gasoline on himself as well.

Mrs. Zadel paused and looked up. "You shouldn't have followed me. I had no reason to kill you."

"But you had reason to kill Flynn. What, trying to punish him for getting your little boy in trouble?"

"That upstart commoner had it coming," Mrs. Zadel snapped. "Don't get me started on my worthless son. Everything was coming together until he and his idiot friends bungled their chance to get rid of you."

Yuri nodded. The pieces of the puzzle started falling together. "It was you all along, wasn't it? You're the rat catcher who tied all their little tails together. I should have known those petty idiots couldn't have come up with this whole plan. You dragged your son into this and then arranged those dumb nobles to do all the dirty work so you could keep your nose clean."

"I should have done it all myself," she said. "The Council these days is a joke. Squabbling over cheese trays? Allowing murderous brutes like Ragou and Borden run amok? Listening to upstart commoners like Flynn? In my day, the Council had honour. It's a disgrace."

"You know, it's funny," Yuri said. "I've got a friend who's about your age, and he doesn't seem to think the 'good old days' were that good at all. 'Course, that's probably because he's from the lower quarter. Funny how that works." He scanned the room, looking for a way out. He'd dropped Judy's pin on the way out of the jail, so he wasn't sure how to get out of this handcuff. He tried lifting the desk to slip the ring under it, but it was made of solid wood and with one hand he couldn't get it more than a centimetre off the ground, and not for more than a couple of seconds. He had to hope that the knights had seen him take off after her and would come barging in to save the day again. As much as he hated having to get rescued by the knights, it beat burning to a crisp, along with all the evidence. All he could do now was try to keep her talking and buy himself some time. "So if you didn't kill Borden over a cheese tray, why'd you pick him? Let me guess, you didn't like his hair cut?"

Mrs. Zadel snorted. "Don't be petty. Borden was trying to take what is rightfully mine. I would have had him killed anyway, even if his death didn't get rid of Flynn too."

"What's rightfully… you aren't talking about the gold in Hypionia, are you?"

"What else would I be talking about, you stupid boy?"

Yuri frowned. "I don't see how you figure that's 'rightfully yours'. My sources say it should go to either Borden, Emmery, or some extinct group called Xavier. Zadel doesn't figure into it at all."

Mrs. Zadel finished off the last of her jug of gasoline, which Yuri took as a bad sign. "The Xaviers aren't extinct, boy," she said. "At least, not yet. My father had no sons so when I married the name was lost, but we're not all dead yet! As the last living Xavier, that land is rightfully mine. I planned it all, right here from my family home. The assassin, the group of fools to set up Flynn, I even had my own personal butler make a trip to Mantaic to kill Emmery, just to ensure she had no chance to make her own claim to the land. It was all coming together until that stupid little princess went sticking her nose where it didn't belong."

Yuri wasn't looking at her anymore. He'd given up trying to unlock the cuff somehow, and was now trying to smear as much gasoline on his wrist as he could. It was a dangerous gamble, because getting it on himself would mean catching fire that much quicker. But it was slippery, and maybe if he lubricated enough he could slide his wrist out of the cuff. As a last resort, he could try breaking his thumb. It would hurt like a bitch, but it was better than burning to death. "Where is Estelle, anyway? The rest of the clowns didn't seem to know."

"Of course not," Mrs. Zadel said. "You don't tell your pawns where you've stashed the enemy's queen."

"If you hurt her-"

Mrs Zadel laughed. "What? You're going to kill me? That will be difficult to do when you're charred to a crisp."

"You're off your rocker, grams," Yuri said. He gritted his teeth and pushed the cuff against his hand, trying to pry it off. Even if the gasoline to loosen it, he still couldn't get it off.

"Perhaps. But tomorrow, I'll be alive, and you and all the evidence incriminating me will be burned to ash, so let's see who comes out on top." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a book of matches.

"Dammit!" Yuri shouted, rattling the cuff as if he could shake it off with the power of his rage. He felt like he was burning up with fury, but that only reminded him that very soon he would be burning up with fire.

"If it makes you feel better, I don't think I'm going to bother going after Flynn again. I really was hoping to kill that fool, but it will be too much trouble to do so now." She struck the match, stepped out of the room, and tossed it to the floor. The gasoline-soaked carpet went up with a roar. "Goodbye, Yuri Lowell."

"Get back here!" Yuri shouted, getting to his feet. The movement made his head spin and he had to lean awkward to the side because he could bring his cuffed hand higher than the desk leg, but he wasn't going to die sitting down.

The fire spread around the room along the circle of gasoline, surrounding him in a searing ring. The carpet between him and the fire was dry, but it was only a matter of time before the fire spread through at a normal pace. Once it hit the gasoline-drenched desk, it would go up in seconds. Yuri didn't have much more hope for his own body, with his hands and arms now covered in the stuff.

"Hey!" Yuri shouted at the top of his lungs. "Hello!?" There was the issue of pride, and Yuri hated to think of having to be rescued, but when he weighed how much wounding his pride would hurt compared to how much getting lit on fire would hurt, shouting for help came out as the better of two evils. "Help! Hello! Hey! Is anybody going to notice that this house is on fire!? Hel-" he broke off in a cough, and then sunk down to his knees. Maybe standing up at been a bad idea. It was marginally cooler near the floor, too. He coughed heavily as smoke filled the air. Dammit, dammit, dammit that bitch was getting away and he needed to go after her! She'd orchestrated this whole rotten affair, and he was the only one who knew.

He coughed again and pulled the neck of his shirt over his mouth and nose to try to keep the smoke out. The room was so hot now he thought he'd take baking in the desert again over this. No one could hear him shout, the fire was getting closer, and he was running out of options. He grabbed his thumb and gritted his teeth. He was going to have to break it to get out the cuffs, and then figure out how to get through the ring of fire after that. He closed his eyes and steeled himself, reminding himself that as much as a broken bone hurt, burning to death would hurt more.

He was just about to make the snap when someone shouted, "Yuri!"

His eyes flashed open and he jerked his head up to peer over the desk. He looked just in time to see Estelle throw a soaking wet sheet on the fire in front of the door, smothering it to make a path.

"Estelle!?" Yuri shouted incredulously. He didn't think he'd ever been happier to see her.

She ran across the room in seconds. "Yuri, are you hurt? Can you walk?"

"I'm fine, just a little tied up at the moment." He shook his wrist meaningfully.

"I'll get that off!" She crouched and grabbed his wrist. "Uh, how do you get this off?" she asked, fumbling with the lock.

"You need a-" he paused cough, and then continued, "a key. I was going to break my thumb and slip out." It would still be a tight squeeze, but with the added lubrication of the gasoline and all the sweat pouring down his arms from the overbearing heat, he thought he could make it.

"No, don't do that! I'll lift the desk." She stood and dug her fingers under the desk.

"Estelle, I don't know if you can-"

"You push it up, and be ready to pull the cuff out!"

It was worth a shot. He gripped the bottom lip and pushed up, while Estelle pulled with a strained expression. Her arms shook and they got it about an inch off the ground. Yuri pulled the other cuff out from under the leg, and it hit the ground again with a thud.

"Thanks a lot." He jumped to his feet and grabbed the desk to stabilize himself. In all the smoke, fire, and panic from being so close to a fiery death, he'd almost forgotten about his recent head injury. He was about to take off for the exit, but stopped and looked in the open desk drawers. Sitting there, soaked in gas and waiting to go up like a candle was all the evidence they needed to prove Mrs. Zadel had been behind this whole thing. He stopped and pulled as many papers from the drawers as he could. The gas had smeared some of the writing, but enough of it was still legible. Just glancing over it, he saw mentions of money transactions to Dahngrest. Flynn was going to love this.

"Do you have everything you need?" Estelle asked, hovering worriedly by the desk. She covered her face with her arm and coughed.

"Think so," Yuri said. He took two steps toward the exit before the sheet, dried out from the extreme heat, burst into flames. "Shit."

Flickering flames reflected in Estelle's wide eyes, glassy with built up tears from all the smoke. "Oh no, oh no, what do we do now?"

"Dammit, you should have gotten out when you could!" Yuri kicked the desk, which hurt his toe but made him feel mildly better. It distracted him for a second from the searing heat pressing closer and closer.

Estelle planted her hands on her hips. "What, and leave you behind to burn to death?"

"Better me than both of us! You shouldn't have-" he broke off into a coughing fit.

"It's ok," Estelle said, pulling him against her. The stack of papers in his hand crinkled between them and she rubbed his back until he stopped coughing. Tears flowed down his cheeks, but there was so much smoke in the room it wasn't helping much.

"I'm sorry," Yuri said, wrapping one arm around her. Getting himself killed was far from what he wanted, but he could deal with it. Getting Estelle killed trying to save him, though, was intolerable. Over Estelle's shoulder, he watched the fire edge toward them. The walls burned as well, and flames crept along the ceiling. He doubted they had more than a minute or two before the centre of the room, and them standing there, went up flames. Yuri had burned himself cooking several times, and he recalled just how searingly painful a small burn on his hands could be. He tried to picture how it was going to feel when his whole body caught fire, and then tried to stop. Why imagine it? He was going to feel it in real life soon. Maybe he should try to take deep breaths and let the smoke knock him out first.

"Hold tight," Estelle said softly, hugging him fiercely. Yuri squeezed her tightly, hoping to give her at least some comfort before the end. She was whispering something, but over the roar of the flames he couldn't make it out.

The room seemed to darken, even with the red glow of the fire all around them. The next thing Yuri knew, his feet left the ground as Estelle floated a few inches into the air, still gripping Yuri tightly to keep him from falling. Yuri looked around in shock. "Estelle, what-?"

"Sacred Penance!" Estelle shouted. A burst of golden light blasted out in all directions. It hit the wall and kept going, taking the old brick with it. They dropped to the ground and Estelle grabbed his hand. Yuri didn't need any further guidance, and sprinted toward the smashed wall. The blast of Estelle's arte had blown a hole right through the wall of fire, leaving them a path to the outside. They gripped each others' hands so tightly they were both at risk of losing circulation, and bolted out of the room without looking back. They didn't stop running until they reached the calm street.

The world was very cold and quiet after being in that burning office. Yuri could feel himself shaking slightly, from adrenaline and excitement and how overwhelmingly happy he was to not be dead. He wasn't dead! And Estelle wasn't either! His relief spilled out in the form of laughter, and he was quickly joined by Estelle. The pair of them laughed for a good minute, wiping tears from their eyes and taking deep gasps of the fresh, clear air.

When she could finally compose herself, Estelle said, "It's so good to see you, Yuri."

Yuri took a long, deep breath and coughed heavily, trying to get the lingering smoke out of his lungs. His eyes watered from both laughing and smoke, and he couldn't keep the grin off his face. "Good to see you, too. Where did you come from?"

"I was in the basement," she said quickly. "I figured out that Zadel's butler was involved, but I guess he realized I figured it out. When Mrs. Zadel invited me to stay for tea, I thought it would be so rude and rather suspicious to turn it down, but…"

"Let me guess," Yuri said, his smile dropping. "It was drugged?"

"It must have been," Estelle said with a frown. "I had no idea Mrs. Zadel was involved in this too. I was on guard for Zadel, but I never expected I needed to use caution against his sweet old mother. Anyway, I woke up in the basement, but I couldn't get out. I'm actually starving, because I must have been down there for over a day. Then, just now, I smelled smoke and I heard your voice shouting for help, and I got this sudden surge of adrenaline and I kicked the door right down!"

"Wow! I'm impressed. Nicely done."

"Then I ran upstairs and saw the office burning, so I grabbed a sheet off one of the chairs, soaked it in the kitchen sink, and went to get you. Oh! Yuri, Zadel's butler is-"

"We know," Yuri said. "The butler, Zadel, and everyone else involved is already in jail." Everyone except Mrs. Zadel, that is, but there was no sign of her on the street. Wherever she was, she'd gotten enough of a head-start to disappear.

"Flynn is ok?" Estelle asked. "His trial was supposed to be today."

"Yeah," Yuri said. "He's currently serving a ten day sentence as punishment for breaking out of jail, but after that he's in the clear.

"Thank goodness," Estelle said, falling into Yuri's arms in a hug. Yuri wrapped one arm around her shoulders as she buried her face in his neck and mumbled, "I'm so upset with myself for getting captured…"

"Don't be," Yuri said. "If you hadn't gotten yourself locked up in that basement, I would have roasted in there." From the down the street, he heard ringing bells and running footsteps. Someone had noticed the fire by now, and the fire brigade was coming to put it out.

"We should get back to the castle," Estelle said, pulling out of the hug.

"Yeah. I've got a jail cell with my name on it," Yuri said with a forced grin.

Estelle frowned. "It's not fair that you have to go to jail for helping Flynn."

"It is what it is. I knew I'd get in trouble for it when I busted him out."

"Still…"

"Come on," Yuri said, wrapping an arm around her waist and starting down the street. "Let's go tell Flynn you're alright."