Danny woke up in stages, his head aching. He groaned and shifted on scratchy cloth, his joints cracking, before he opened his eyes.
He saw a stone ceiling and walls, then an iron-barred door. Danny winced as he remembered his predicament.
He'd been captured. The egg was gone, as were all of his supplies.
And what was worse, his head was spinning unpleasantly. When he reached for his ghost powers to phase out of the cell, they slipped from his reach. Either his head injury was worse than he thought, or he'd been drugged. Either way, there wasn't much else he could do besides wait, rest, and recover, so Danny rolled over and closed his eyes again.
It was slightly strange, not panicking in a situation such as this anymore. He'd been captured and held powerless too many times, if he was this calm.
After he rested, hopefully his powers would be back online. None of the guards knew exactly what he could do, and Danny was banking on that ignorance to leave him an opening to escape. He would phase out of the cell, hide invisibly for a patrol to pass by, overshadow a guard to learn where the egg and his supplies had been taken, fetch said items, and fly invisibly away from the city. No problem. He just had to be patient.
Danny was dozing lightly when the cell door banged open and two soldiers entered. One was a decorated officer; the other was a foot soldier. Danny eyed them warily but made no move to get up.
The officer examined him for a bit before speaking. "I thought it was mighty suspicious when I heard a merchant talking about a shifty foreigner, but I never could have imagined I'd have landed myself such a fugitive," the officer sneered. "Now, how did you steal the dragon's egg? And how did you get from Urû'baen so quickly?"
Danny kept his mouth shut. He blinked, but gave no other outward indication that he'd heard the questions.
"Where are you from?"
Still, Danny remained defiantly silent.
"Answer me!"
Nothing.
The officer growled. "Fine. Let's see you hold your tongue in a few hours, once His Majesty's agents arrive!"
"Bring it on," Danny replied defiantly. He didn't take threats to his person lying down anymore.
"Silence, you impudent brat!" The officer backhanded Danny with all his strength. It would have hurt enough normally, but coupled with the iron gauntlets the man was wearing, Danny was just surprised his jaw didn't break or a tooth wasn't knocked out.
Danny spit out a globule of blood. "Speak up… or shut up… which do you want?" he said. It took more than a little pain to convince him to stop running his mouth at people he probably shouldn't be running his mouth at. Plenty of ghosts scarier than these soldiers had tried and failed to make him submit.
The officer's breath hissed through his teeth. "I will enjoy watching your defiance broken soon," the officer said before sweeping out of the cell with his underling, the door banging shut behind them.
Danny rubbed his face, imagining the no doubt magnificent bruise that was blossoming on his cheek. More worrisome, however, was what the officer had alluded to during the conversation. Danny doubted the king's agents would invite him for tea and cake. If he was facing torture, he absolutely couldn't stay here. He'd been lightly tortured before – between Vlad and Skulker, it wasn't a surprise – but it was never pleasant and he definitely didn't want to stick around to see if the king's men used more painful methods. (Knowing Danny's luck, they'd skip the electrocution his enemies liked to use and move straight to permanent physical harm.)
Now more worried than he had been when he'd been brought in, Danny reached for his ghost powers again and growled in frustration when they slipped from him. Again. He was on a tight schedule, now, and it would be nice if his ghost powers could get with the program.
But he still couldn't do anything more than wait for either his ghost powers to come back or for another visit from his captors. He flopped down on his cot but was too restless to settle down enough to doze.
He wondered what they'd done with the egg. Were they treating it okay? Had it already been removed from the garrison to be shipped back to the city he'd stolen it from (called Urû'baen)? Eventually, he fell into a meditative trance, the best he could do without actually sleeping.
Sometime later, the door to his cell screeched open again, startling him from his trance. The officer he'd seen before was back, this time with a whole squadron of troops to back him up. The officer smiled unpleasantly before grabbing Danny and hauling him from the cot.
Danny dug his heels in and struggled as handcuffs were forced onto his wrists and he was marched from his cell. A blow to the back of his head sent him reeling, making his head spin. He automatically reached for his ghost powers in response and got a flicker of a reaction, enough to turn the tips of his fingers intangible, which wasn't helpful. A head injury wouldn't keep him down for so long, so he'd definitely been drugged.
Danny was led farther into the barracks, out of the cellblock (which was curiously empty save for him). He was shoved into another room and chained to the wall. Danny gulped. This room looked like your stereotypical dungeon, with rods and clamps and other strange implements of all shapes and size stored around the room. One corner held a blazing fire with branding rods; another held a fully equipped iron maiden. The room reeked of blood and despair.
Danny definitely did not want to find out what some of these tools were made to do. He tugged at the shackles binding his wrists and ankles, looking for weakness. Nothing. He reached for his ghost powers again. This time, they responded sluggishly, rising up to where Danny was bound only to recede again.
The door ominously creaked open, admitting a heavyset man wearing leather clothes. He examined Danny head to foot. Then he went to the fireplace and picked up a branding iron glowing cherry-red.
"Shall we start?" the man rumbled, brandishing the iron threateningly. Danny shifted as far away from the iron as he could.
"Wait! Aren't you supposed to ask me questions or something?" Danny said frantically.
"That will come later," the man replied. A chill skittered down Danny's spine. They were going to torture him for the sake of torturing him. The iron inched closer to Danny's exposed arm.
He was out of time.
Panic leant him strength and clarity of focus that had been missing before. He grasped at his ghost powers, and this time, they responded with precision. He phased out of his bonds and flailed straight through the iron before landing heavily on the floor next to his torturer's boot.
The man jumped back before recovering and attempting to brain Danny with the iron. Danny rolled out of the way, letting the iron clang harmlessly on the stone floor. He needed to take down this guy, fast, before the man thought to shout for help. He couldn't afford to show mercy.
Transforming would take too long. Instead, ectoplasmic energy strengthened his limbs, and he moved faster than it was possible for a human to move (or even react). He lashed out with a leg and swept the man's feet out from underneath him, and the man went down with a curse. Danny wasted no time in scrambling forward, putting the man in a headlock meant to choke. The man struggled mightily against the hold, but despite his strong build, he was no match for Danny's otherworldly strength, and he went limp after a few minutes. Danny checked to make sure he was really unconscious before letting go.
Danny let out a shaky breath. That had been far, far too close for comfort.
He wasn't given any time to recoup, however, as there was a banging on the door leading to the torture chamber and a shouted question if the torturer needed help. The guards outside must have heard some of the struggle. Danny attempted to overshadow the man to make use of his vocal cords but was unable to. He was still affected by the drug, then. So, in the deepest voice he could manage, he attempted to mimic the man.
"Everything is fine. Return to your posts," he rumbled.
For a moment, he wasn't sure if it would work. But then he received a subdued, "Yes, sir," and the sound of someone retreating from the door.
Danny sighed. He'd earned a short reprise before the guards started wondering why they weren't hearing any sounds of torture. He had to work fast.
First, he tried to transform. Rings sputtered at his waist before winking out. Danny grimaced and attempted to channel ectoplasmic energy. It was always harder in human form, and the drug certainly wasn't helping things. But he managed to turn fully invisible and intangible for a few moments, enough to confirm that he could. He wasn't able to lift off the ground, so flying was out for the time being, as were most of his active powers, like his ecto-rays and ice. His passive abilities, like increased strength, reflexes, and senses all seemed to be fine. His problem wasn't so much the amount of power he had at his disposal as what he could direct it to do. While he could sneak around almost indefinitely, he needed to wait more for the rest of his powers to come back online.
So, intangibility and invisibility. He could work with that, even if it was difficult. His goal was to find the egg – he was too invested in it now to just leave it – if not the rest of his supplies, and leave as quickly as possible.
He invisibly poked his head through the door and saw the guards outside shifting nervously in the quiet. He phased the rest of his body through the door and tiptoed past the guards, thankful that they hadn't taken his sneakers. He invisibly moved down the hallway until he came to a fork, and then he was stymied. Since he couldn't overshadow one of the guards, he had no idea which way would lead him to wherever they'd taken his supplies and the egg. Thinking that perhaps the storeroom would be in the direction of the cellblock, he took the path he'd been lead down to get to the torturer's chambers.
He followed the hallway down to the cellblock, past some more guards and through a couple more closed doors to find his old cell. Danny wrinkled his nose and turned away. He didn't need a reminder of his incarceration. He continued forward, into the rest of the barracks. He found a break room filled to the brim with soldiers chatting and eating. Maybe, if he listened in on their conversations, he could figure out where to find the egg.
The soldiers, for all that they were on break, had a nervous air about them. Their talk was subdued and quiet, and Danny had to creep quite close to hear what they were saying. He heard mainly about the daily comings and goings of the barracks, as well as that the barracks had received some important guests, but nothing beyond that. Frustrated, Danny turned to the head of the table, where he saw decorated officers eating. Perhaps they would know something their subordinates wouldn't.
There were three officers eating in a group. Danny mentally named them Burly, Skinny, and Sweaty.
"…can't stand those weird agents. They're not natural," Sweaty was saying as Danny approached. Burly and Skinny unhappily agreed with him.
"I wish His Majesty would choose someone normal as his agent, for once. First Durza, now these… Ra'zac," Skinny said, pursing his lips. Danny wondered what the Ra'zac were, to evoke such dread and grudging respect. He probably didn't want to find out. (Then again, knowing his luck, he'd run into them on the way out, just to make his life difficult.)
"I'm going to go check on the egg again. Having it and the Ra'zac here is making me nervous," Burly said.
Bingo, Danny thought. Now I just need to avoid these Ra'zac.
Burly pushed back from the table and stood. Danny followed behind him as he left the break room. They soon came upon a heavily guarded storeroom.
"No one has come here, have they?" Burly confirmed with the guards. Meanwhile, Danny snuck by and prepared to phase through the door when another soldier ran forward, panting.
"The prisoner has escaped, sir!" the soldier said. "Our torturer was unconscious on the floor and the man himself gone, though we know not how he made it past the guards."
Danny's escape had been noticed. But he'd be okay so long as he remained invisible.
"Double the guards here! I don't want anyone getting ahold of what's in this room!" Burly snarled.
Too late, Danny thought gleefully as he phased through the door.
The egg was, indeed, in the storeroom, surrounded again by script. However, there were also two cloaked figures standing over the stone, clicking at each other in some strange language. Danny didn't like the vibe he got from the figures and resolved to keep his distance. He saw his pack, still loaded with supplies, on the table next to the egg and decided go after it first.
One of the hooded figures shifted as he took a step forward. "Who'ssssss there?" one hissed.
Danny froze. They hadn't actually heard him, had they? He stayed still and kept his breathing steady.
"We know you're there," the other said. "Your sssscent is quite disssstinguishable, thief. Or sssshould we call you Danny? Jugh wassss quite informative."
Well, shit. They knew he was there and they knew his name. He knew he shouldn't have spoken with Jugh, for all that he'd needed information.
Danny stubbornly and defiantly maintained invisibility to spite the figures. Then he noticed that there was a cloying smell in the air, like something sweet and rotten. The scent made him feel woozy and anchored him in place while the figures moved forward.
Danny shook his head to rid himself of the feeling. Now was not the time to be anything less than level-headed.
The figures had just about reached him when he managed to overcome his paralysis and turn intangible. One of the figures reached forward and slid a hand through him. There was frustrated clicking as the figure failed to make contact.
Danny sidestepped around the figures, no longer feeling dizzy, and approached his pack. He grabbed the pack and flung it over his shoulder before the figures could turn around, spreading his invisibility to cover the pack. When the figures turned and noticed the disappearance, they hissed in surprise and anger.
The two split ranks. One went for the door while the other hurried toward where the pack had been sitting, faster than Danny knew humans could move. He leapt out of the way as the figure that had stayed behind bulldozed through the space he'd occupied mere moments earlier.
Danny didn't land from the jump. It was how he figured out his power of flight was back online. But flight wouldn't help him retrieve the egg. Unless he hovered upside-down above it… but then things would fall out of his pack.
The attacking figure screeched and charged again while Danny considered his options, turning intangible to let the figure sail through him unimpeded. To add insult to injury, he forcefully shoved the figure once it had passed, sending it sprawling into a shelving unit.
First, Danny had to get rid of the script that was, again, surrounding the egg. The script seemed weaker than what he'd seen in the castle, but there were more sets from multiple sources. Since his flight was working again, Danny wondered if he could pool ectoplasmic energy in his palm to burn through the script. It was worth a shot.
Danny grinned as the room light up in neon green, a disembodied silhouette of a hand burning in full view of the figure, who was recovering from being thrown into the shelves, and the guards, who had burst into the room at the behest of the other figure. Danny heard muttered oaths as he swept his hand over the egg, burning away the script. He was able to pick up the egg before the soldiers got ahold of themselves and charged forward, weapons drawn. Danny turned the egg invisible and jumped up, over the heads of the soldiers. Instead of exiting through the door, he intangibly slid through a wall. If he kept heading in one direction, he would eventually exit the barracks, he reasoned.
He ran through several rooms, not bothering to keep his steps quiet anymore, and did eventually leave the barracks. He looked up at the sun and judged which direction was north before taking off, still invisible. By now he was starting to feel the strain of maintaining invisibility for more than just himself for an extended period of time. There was commotion behind him in the barracks, but Danny kept going without looking back. He dodged through the crowd and ran through a few homes before making it to the gate, which was unsurprisingly closed. Danny took a flying leap over the gate, maintaining invisibility for as long as he could before letting go of the power on the opposite side of the gate, panting. He heard panicked shouts behind him but kept running.
Danny fled Gil'ead, heading north.
Man, these soldiers were just so outclassed by Danny, even not at full strength. It's kind of funny.
Sorry this chapter took so long to get out. School started and it's been tough juggling everything. Updates will come more slowly and more infrequently, but they will come, so please don't worry.
-HM