Chapter 32

Without giving too much thought to how odd and crazy the idea was, Pride clapped his hands and brought the ground up between Briar and the bird people.

"Pride?" she said quietly.

"Get out of here!" Pride snapped.

No point being quiet, the bird people had to have noticed him now. Briar just had to leave. It would make things better for both of them.

Pride brought spikes up out of the ground, pointed at the bird people, and made sure they'd work as a shield if Ther kept shooting, which he did. The sound of gun fire echoed around the hall, as well as Ther ordering them to use their swords instead.

Pride pulled away from the spikes. If he was lucky, one of those idiots would run into them, but he couldn't be direct. He couldn't hurt or kill anyone. Still, he had other options. Ther came around one of the spikes, gun still in hand. Pride used alchemy to make it burst into pieces.

The sound of more gunfire came from behind him, aimed at Ther. Well, if Briar had run like he'd asked, it made sense she'd be behind him now.

"Briar, I thought I told you to-"

He cut off as he turned around. Briar had fallen back, or more likely been pushed, into one of the spikes. Her body had gone limp. Pride stared. But . . . he'd tried to help her. He'd done the right thing, without being forced to, just because. She was supposed to be okay. And she was dead?

Someone hit him from the back, with enough force he flew into the wall. The world went dark for a moment, sort of ringing around him.

"What do we do with him?"

"Anything. He's a rebound. He can't die."

"Then it would be a waste to kill him. Come. Let's take him to the other prisoners. Perhaps he can also be executed in the morning. It will be good for morale, even if it doesn't accomplish much."

One of them grabbed him from behind, angling his wrists so he couldn't possibly press his palms together. Then they were off.

Dekk had taken Lilly away to some sort of back storage room. It held crates and mops, but based on the stains on the floor and even the wall, someone had died here before.

Lilly wasn't crying yet, but she was certainly breathing heavily. Actually, it felt more like she might throw up then burst into tears. This room did nothing to help with that.

"Please don't do this," she said. "Please, don't kill me. I don't want to die."

"And you think I do? We could've held out so well together, if you'd just kept your head on. But Ther is already suspicious of me, and if I let you go, I'll die. Not about to let you wander back to our enemies back for no reason either."

He set to work chaining her against the wall, each wrist going in a separate cuff attached to the wall.

Lilly shook her head, swallowing thickly against whatever was in her throat. "I'm not the enemy! I just came here by mistake! I just want to find the Doctor and-" The door opened. "Pride?"

Pride was being carried in by Ther, palms turned away from each other. He was surprised to see Lilly, but not very happy she'd shown her emotions so openly like that. It would be better if she played dumb until he could figure out a plan, something he didn't have a lot of time to do.

"Oh, so you know each other?" Ther asked. He turned to the other bird man, moving further into the room to chain Pride up. "Funny, this is a wizard. We found him at the enemies' camp. I thought you said you had no part in this war." That last sentence was directed at Lilly, but Dekk looked uncomfortable, like Ther was accusing him of something too.

Lilly made a face. She was probably trying to glare them, but her eyes kept twitching and her mouth kept puffing up, so it rather ruined the effect. "Figures you'd be sleuthing with the enemy," she said to Pride.

"Oh come now. The game is up. It's over. Stop playing innocent, false messenger."

"We are innocent! Or, I am at least. I didn't want anything to do with this. I'm just-"

"Give it up Lilly. They already know," Pride said.

Lilly shut her mouth, but out of confusion, not any desire to listen to him.

Pride smiled up at Ther. "You got us. But we can work something out."

"I sincerely doubt it," Ther said, chaining Pride up.

Pride noticed with some annoyance he wouldn't be able to clap. The chains were too short, keeping his palms too far apart.

"But don't you want to know who sent us?" Pride asked.

Ther had turned away, back towards the door. He stopped when Pride said that. "What?"

It was working. Pride kept his acting skills up so as not to grin smugly.

"We couldn't have come up with this plan on our own. We'd need information about your side, at least enough to know Lilly should come as messenger. And it's not like I could just waltz into the opposite camp either." Especially since Ther was supposed to kill the real wizard. He'd probably read between those lines. "So, don't you know about your traitor?"

Dekk suddenly started twitching, glancing towards the door, but he was between Ther and Pride. He couldn't possibly get out unnoticed.

"Who?" Ther asked, moving forward and bending at an almost ninety-degree angle to look at Pride.

Dekk was now behind both of them, and shuffled slowly towards the doorway. Lilly looked confused, but it was possible she was slowly catching on.

"I notice you haven't offered to let me go yet," Pride said. He looked down on Ther, an impressive feat when sitting chained up on the ground. "Don't tell me you don't have a guess."

There was quiet, and Dekk chose that moment to step in a puddle by the entranceway, making a soft splashing noise. Dekk was flinching before Ther even faced him.

"Dekk! It was you!"

"What? No. I've never met these people. I don't even know their names."

"Well that's an obvious lie," Pride said. "She just said mine."

"And you brought her here," Ther said. He made no attempt to be quiet, and had attracted attention from other bird people nearby, in the planning room this closet was in. "You were the one so insistent she was the Sun God's messenger. You've never respected me. Admit it! You're trying to get rid of me!"

Dekk tried to step back as Ther spoke, but it was hard with the crowd behind them. He looked around and stammered out a few things nervously, but the nerves became less frequent as Ther spoke. By the time he was done, Dekk had clearly had enough of him.

"Oh, I'll admit that. Gladly!" There were gasps from the crowd. "You are a terrible leader. You tell us to do, but don't follow your own rules. You expected us not to blindly follow her, but we should blindly follow you! And you hoard any rewards that have come from this God awful war to yourself. The rest of us don't want to be here!"

Pride couldn't see Ther's expression, only his back. But he did see Ther become more rigid, and then pull a blade out of his cloak.

"Dekk!" one of the bird people shouted, shoving him out of the way and getting stabbed instead.

Ther went limp with surprise. Dekk was seething. The man who'd been stabbed was gripping his side and bleeding out on the floor. Everyone was still for a moment. Then chaos broke out.