"Kelpie!" Ciri exclaimed, rushing outside to embrace the mare, stroking the sides of her long neck. "How did you know I was here?" Ciri had not summoned her.
Of course, Kelpie did not answer. But she nudged Ciri's shoulder with her muzzle and snorted softly.
Onyx behind her was already busy feasting on Fealinn's garden.
"Take them around back," Fealinn said, watching them from the doorway. "They're less likely to be seen there."
Ciri nodded and did as told, leading both horses behind the cottage to another grassy patch where they could occupy themselves.
She allowed herself another two minutes of Kelpie-cuddles before she returned to Fealinn. She was pouring the tea as Ciri entered.
"Come sit," Fealinn invited.
"I've been sitting a lot lately," Ciri remarked, taking a seat anyway to not be rude to the gracious elf.
"Not in your blood to do so?" Fealinn ventured.
Ciri shook her head. "No. I've been restless ever since I was a child. I would always sneak out of the castle to play with the children of the village. Even when my grandmother forbade it."
Fealinn smiled, nursing her cup of tea. "She was a strict woman?"
"Very. But also kind. I miss her."
"The ones we have lost are still with us in spirit. In our hearts and memories. She is not entirely gone."
Ciri shrugged. "I suppose not. But I wish I could feel her more clearly. She would know exactly what to do in these situations. Of course, she had entire armies at her disposal. Might have helped."
The elf laughed softly. "Possibly." She pushed Ciri's cup towards her. "Drink, Ciri. It will calm your nerves."
Ciri obeyed.
Kain didn't waste time on sneaking around the city to see what was going on and went directly to the village.
They were finishing their tea when he came in.
Ciri stood immediately, her empty teacup deposited on the table. "Are they alright?"
"They are, the sorceresses helped. But there's another problem." Kain took his place at the table when Fealinn poured him a cup and gestured for the chair. Kain sipped his tea and told them about the royal messenger.
Ciri was silent while Kain spoke, but the moment he finished that stopped. "Then I have to go. I knew it was a bad idea. They shouldn't have gone!"
"You can't just go," Kain reasoned. "He's obviously prepared this, and you have no way of knowing what you're walking into. We need a plan to ensure all three of you get out of there."
"Obviously. But from what you told me we don't have much time." Ciri rubbed the back of her neck. "I can transport us all out of the castle but not unless I have Geralt and Yennefer close enough to touch."
"He wouldn't want to give you that opportunity," Kain said. "He might keep them locked up in different places. And then you can only save one at the time - which gives him a chance to kill the other out of spite and to punish you."
"I wouldn't put it past him if he went for such a plan," Fealinn said.
"So what do you suggest?" Ciri asked, bracing her knuckles on the tabletop. "Distraction technique?"
"I'm good at sneaking around unnoticed, but in a place so big and unpredictable as the palace it would be useful to have a doppler's help."
"Only there's probably some magic alarm in place," Fealinn said. "Any mage or creature using glamour will set it off and be killed or seized."
"Dudu would be willing to help, I am sure," Ciri mused. "But how can we bypass such magic? I do not even know which mages Emhyr has on staff. Think the alarm could be disabled by a sorceress?"
"Were it so easy, all mages would be doing it and passing into cities and castles undetected," Fealinn said.
"Then we'll have to manage on our own," Kain said.
"Are you certain?" Ciri asked. "You'd be the one doing all the heavy work. The one in danger."
"On the contrary: I will have to leave you alone with him."
"He won't kill me. At least not right away. He needs me alive. They all do."
"There are things worse than death. He probably wants to trap you there."
"Yeah, you don't have to tell me," Ciri muttered, sweeping her hair away from her face. "We won't know what he wants until I get there and it will have to be handled then. Our priority is to get Geralt and Yennefer, as well as yourself, out safely."
"There is one obstacle now since we couldn't predict it: your hair. We don't need him to know how you disguise yourself."
"That's a fair thought," Fealinn agreed.
"I can wash it out once we near Vizima."
"It's a good mix," Fealinn said. "You would need my help with that, otherwise it would hold for at least three or four days with daily washing, gradually fading."
"It's all right, I have another idea." Kain smiled at Ciri a bit cunningly. "You don't have to meet your father right away. Let's go."
Fealinn hugged Kain at the door and pressed her lips to his in a kiss. "Be careful."
Kain smiled, "Thank you for everything."
"You can always count on me." She went to hug Ciri. "Both of you. Be safe."
Outside, they mounted and rode quietly toward the woods to make a loop around the village and stay undetected.
"What do you mean I won't have to meet him? I am not risking Geralt and Yennefer's lives to keep my hair a secret," Ciri declared as they rode on.
"How well can you feel Yennefer?" Kain asked when they determined the direction to stay off the road. "I can only find Geralt."
"I can't," Ciri admitted. "I have never been able to. Not unless she opens a portal near me."
"Well, that's complicated," Kain admitted, contemplating. "Perhaps I'll be able to find her, but it would take more time. Do you have anything of hers?"
Ciri shook her head. "When I had to leave her as a child, I did not exactly have time to take any belongings. The closest would probably be the sleeping draughts considering she made them."
That certainly made it difficult. But there was no other way short of leaving her there, which was unacceptable.
"I'll try on my own, then."
Kain nudged his horse, and they sped up along the forest line, keeping to the shadows and trees until the city loomed ahead, a black lump under the starry sky.
"We stop here," Kain said dismounting. "You'll have to wait for my signal to get him. It should be precise locating. I hope you can do it. He's your destiny. It should be enough of a bond."
"I am getting Geralt?" Ciri asked, slipping off Kelpie's back. "And you will find Yennefer?"
"I'll do my best, I promise." Kain took Ciri by the shoulders, their eyes locking. "Don't do anything until I tell you. We can't risk any more than we do."
Ciri nodded. "I won't. Are we to meet here once we are out?"
She looked over her shoulder at Kelpie and Onyx. "Should we hide them further away?"
"I hope you can be quick about it - grab him and bring here. It might take us longer, but here is good enough to wait. If you will have to go further away, I'll find you. Worry about yourself, I'll do the rest."
"I will be in and out in a flash. If we, by some chance, aren't here when you return, get Yennefer to safety."
Kain's fingers squeezed on her shoulders, "Make it back in a flash, or neither of us is going anywhere if you're not here."
"Don't you dare get yourself hurt over me," Ciri warned, pulling him in for a quick kiss before she pushed him away. "Go. We don't have much time."
"I can say the same to you."
Kain had no problem getting into the city: the gates were open, probably waiting for Ciri to arrive. The guards didn't turn their heads when he went past them in his magical trance. No one noticed him on the way to the palace; people looked through him and thought it was a breath of wind when he walked past them.
The guards inside the palace were none the wiser. It took a bit to wait until the gate opened to let out another pair of soldiers to change the guards. Kain slipped inside like a shadow while they did.
Ciri watched Kain disappear into the shadows, then set her eyes on the palace. She had never been here before. Against all odds. But she had heard many tales of how spectacular it was.
It did not seem that way to Ciri. It felt cold and dark. A place she would not like to stay.
She wondered whether it had always been that way, or if it was the effect of Emhyr and his merciless, tyrant ways.
Kelpie came up behind Ciri and nipped at her fingers. Ciri pulled her hood up, directed the mare back to the grass with Onyx, and kept an eye out for Kain again.
The palace was huge, indeed, full of corridors and halls and chambers. It would take Kain all night to wander aimlessly. There was only one way to do this.
He found himself a temporal refuge in the corner near the entrance where he wouldn't be seen by the guards and disturb his trance to focus on Geralt, his energy, his scent.
After a while, Kain had something. A trail he could follow. With footfalls upcoming, he cleared his mind once again, but now there was a tug of the energetic residue. He snuck past the strolling guards chatting about some tavern girls and went quietly for the stairs.
The library was empty but lit very generously by numerous candles and three fireplaces, one in each room.
Kain slowly made his way around studying the books, maps and parchments on the desks. He shuffled among them and came up with a drawing of Ciri's face. A masterful work, the eyes, the expression of subtle worry, the strands of hair framing her beautiful face. The cheek with the scar was turned away from the viewer by the angle of the portrait: she was looking intently into the distance behind Kain's right arm.
He folded the drawing and hid it in into the inner lining of his jerkin, then continued his examination. Geralt's trace was more saturated here. Kain could sense where he had sat, what he touched. But it wasn't the one he was after.
It was much more difficult when it came to Yennefer. Kain spent more time wandering around the library sniffing her out.
She had been there, he found a bit later, but not long at all. There was a mere whiff of her presence, as fleeting as it could be if she walked in and out almost immediately.
Kain stopped at the fireplace, watching the flames while pondering his further actions. It was easier to try and follow her trail around the palace. But then it would take him longer and might jeopardize his disguise. It's hard to keep your mind empty and thus undetected while searching for someone. Kain could do that tracking from here, but it would cost more. And if someone walked in...
He sighed and lowered into a chair, closed his eyes and concentrated. No more time to waste.
The time passed painfully slow and the longer Ciri was left without any word from Kain, the more she worried, the more she paced. Not even Kelpie was able to calm her nerves. Ciri just wanted all three of them out safely.
While she waited, Ciri focused on her bond with Geralt, trying to sense for him, to ensure she would be able to travel to him when Kain gave his signal.
Yennefer stared at the hands for hours, a sickening blue as they began their steady disintegration. The guard who'd cut them off had come in regularly to abuse her about it, to drive deeper the mistake Yennefer had made and the fact that Geralt was dead.
He grinned about it and without even reading his mind Yennefer knew he was proud.
Ciri would hate her.
Yennefer hated herself. She also hated the soldier peeking at her through the bars as if she were an animal in a cage, who'd found at length a stick and prodded at Geralt's lifeless hands through the bars as if he expected them to fight back.
He couldn't even come inside to goad her.
She'd fought him off before, tried to protect the hands from harm as if Geralt might feel them in the afterlife, and snarled at the man. All that Yennefer could, all that was permitted now that she was no longer able to unleash her anger.
He laughed, nudging the sorceress's back, making a lewd suggestion she hardly cared to hear as she picked up the dismembered limbs, carrying them deeper into the cage with her.
It was going nowhere.
With a frustrated huff Kain opened his eyes and looked at the fire as if it could tell him how to fulfill his task.
It told him nothing, but the tiny white flickers in the heat of the flame-tongues dancing over the blackened logs like eager lovers made him think of something. He sat back and closed his eyes again.
Her hair... That luscious raven hair, smooth and heavy like heaps of silk... That scent... Almost impossible to forget, and Kain was certain it was chosen with that purpose, just like everything else meticulously collected in her image like a complicated elvish riddle composed of hundreds small pieces with uneven edges that were hard to place together so they fit. In her, everything fit like in some divine creation, and no piece went without the other and the other next to it.
The flickers of cold flame, blazing like little stars she had impossibly tamed to wear on her collar... They glistened and blinked in the dip between her collarbones, sitting in the rays of the black onyx star, and the pulse worried her skin over its tip in subtle beats...
The diamonds in her star... Tiny stars in a black one, shimmering with power, soaked with the very essence of what the sorceress was...
Kain felt it. Like a sudden cloud of a scent, a perfume that covers you as someone approaches. He sensed the trail now, and the hollow, murky stench of despair lacing it. He didn't dig in to explain it; he had to become a shadow once again.
He got up from the chair and followed the shimmering thread through the corridors and stairs.
"Don't ignore me, Sorceress!" the guard commented snidely from opposite side of the cell. "What you're in love with those hands? They can't do anything for you!"
Yennefer barely registered that the steel trap had opened until she felt hands clamp down on her shoulders and hoist her from the floor. The blue limbs dropped from her lap like two pieces of useless meat, clapping sickeningly as they hit the ground, sound that echoed around her and temporarily made Yennefer lose hold of her sanity.
There had only been one other time she'd gotten that close.
She gasped in horror, bringing her hands up to prevent the guard from stepping on him—on what remained of Geralt—only it was the least of his concern.
A flat hand connected with the side of Yennefer's face and her cheek flamed.
"That's better," the guard snapped as soon as her eyes had focused on him, laden with hatred and shimmering with their familiar violet warning.
"Beautiful," he commented discourteously, twisting her around, shoving her back into the wall, one hand coming to rest against her chest while the other hand wound its way around her throat. "You should learn manners."
And with that, he'd leaned in, the intention as clear as the smell of death on his breath.
"C'mon, hurry up, ye shit," the second guard said, casting a quick, shifty look over his shoulder to make sure they were alone and had time.
Who would care? Those sorceresses are whores, everybody knows that! One more, one less, who counts? Certainly not the Emperor. He wanted her punished, and they were doing what the king ordered. They always did.
The first guard detached his lips from her mouth with a loud smack, grinning, his hand tightening on her throat while the other fumbled under the lower rim of her corset in search of the waistband of her pants, pushing them down her hips. When she tried to fight him, he pushed her head into the stony wall harshly, making her vision darken for a long disorienting moment, his breath all over her face like from a large horse.
"You keep still, bitch, ye hear me? Or it'll be worse."
He pushed her black leather pants further down and shoved his hand between her thighs, fingers probing like claws. He grinned.
"Ye get wet for me, witch, ye'll get it good. I'll make ye forget yer freak."
He was so eager unlacing his pants' crotch that he very unfortunately failed to notice how his partner jerked with a quiet grunt and fell down like a cut down tree. The fallen guard's boots were still trembling unevenly when the first man was abruptly ripped away from his victim like a kitten grabbed by the scruff and thrown out of the cell. He connected to the wall with such force his metal chest piece cracked like a boiled egg when he fell on the floor. A thin trickle of blood snaked from one of his nostrils.
Yennefer began to slide down the wall when Kain caught her and held her upright.
"Hey, you hear me? Don't pass out, Yennefer."
The guard's hands had been there, his fingers nestled between flesh Yennefer never otherwise would have considered inviting him, and then, he was gone and she was incapable of keeping herself upright.
Whether it was because Yennefer hadn't eaten in how long or because she'd finally had the law straw, she couldn't be sure and nor did she care.
At least she didn't until she peered up into two familiar eyes.
Geralt?
How is he here? They've tricked me?
"Geralt?" Yennefer murmured, vision blurring with shock and tears, fighting the dark spell that wanted to pull her under.
"Yennefer, stay awake!" Kain hissed, glancing down briefly but making no move to make her decent. She had to do it herself. He tapped a hand on her cheeks to get her out of the lethargy. "Wake up, we have to go. There's no time. You hear me?"
Yennefer's vision cleared and Geralt's face faded away, giving way to Kain and the warmth of his hand on her cheek. She blinked with confusion and then shuffled to her feet, finding the strength again, feeling the black fade.
"How'd you get here? How'd you know? Where's Ciri?"
"Too many questions," Kain said, flicking his gaze down to her hips meaningfully. "Get ready, I shall take you out of here."
He turned away to give her privacy while he closed his eyes and invoked Ciri's image, her face, her eyes – her essence.
'It is time,' Kain sent to her, a mere whisper inside her head as if he stood behind her and she could feel his breath tickling her neck.
Yennefer followed Kain's gaze, remembering the position she'd been in a minute ago and then righted herself as best she could, using the wall to brace herself while she hauled up her pants in turn as her chained hands would allow, fixing the leathers together to keep them from going anywhere.
When he turned back to face her, Yennefer felt less insane and more in control.
Kain turned back when the jiggling of Yennefer's chains stopped, and approached, taking her wrists in his hands to examine.
"That's going to take efforts." Kain peered into her eyes, a shadow of sympathy passed through his face. "I can't help you with magic to not alert any possible mages the king has. Without it, it's going to be painful. I'm sorry, it's the only way."
"What is? You're— do what you have to."
"Try to be quiet," Kain said softly, taking hold of her left wrist, shifting the shackle to see. "It's very narrow, made specifically for women's wrists. It's going to hurt."
Yennefer glanced down at her hands, trembling slightly from the cold and in anticipation of what he was going to do or she had assumed.
"I can take pain."
He tightened his fingers around her shackled wrist and another around her hand, squeezing it like a dead chicken leg, then abruptly squished it breaking her thumb bone. He pulled the shackle off her broken hand as quickly as he could.
She'd had enough of pain and broken bones in her life. And yet, once the bone snapped, the urge to scream had torn through her like a kick to the chest.
She bit down on her lower lip, drawing blood, hissing in relief once he'd managed to remove the steel although the pain had remained, weakening the arm.
"Quickly! Finish it!"
Kain did as she asked. The bone, so thin and delicate in her hand, cracked softly, sickeningly, and the shackle came off, taking some skin with it, drawing blood.
Her hands were shaking, she was leaning against the wall and panting. Kain felt sorry for her pain, but a part of him couldn't help but recall Freya's Garden on Skellige and her choice to do away with it for a nasty spell.
There was always price to pay for ill choices. Even for mages. Power always tried to balance itself.
After the second finger had snapped, Yennefer had to lean into him to muffle the urge to shout out, temporarily feeling the strength evade her again.
The chains were gone and the magic awakened like a beast.
Only it was muffled.
"You're too weak," Kain remarked and held out a hand to her. "I don't know if I can heal you. But you can. Go ahead, take what you need."
She accepted his offer, focusing on taking a bit of his energy. The limbs straightened at once, popping into each their sockets with an echo.
Her drawing was painful; it tugged at Kain's innards as if she shoved a hand into his solar plexus and squeezed her fingers like talons of a big bird.
Yennefer let Kain go once she was sure she was strong enough.
He grunted, taking a moment to even out his breath and find his center.
Her pain didn't disperse, lingering, assuring her that her thumbs were weak and that they'd be useless for a while. That she needed to heal.
"Thank you," Yennefer breathed at last, working her fingers, trying to make sure they kept up and would work as was needed when the time came.
"I'm not sure I can get us out of here."
He peered up at her, focusing.
"Can you take yourself out of here? Can you feel Ciri? She's a mile from the city, waiting for you. Can you portal to her?"
Yennefer closed her eyes and felt for Ciri, attempting to probe her energy to latch onto that comforting familiarly.
Only her head wouldn't allow it.
"He's dead," Yennefer said and swallowed thickly.
She glanced down at the ground, to where the hands still lay, scuffed from the struggle and almost unrecognizable.
"I—I… they took his hands."
Kain cast a puzzled glance down at the floor where she looked and made out two severed hands in the dark. He winced, adding up the things she said in his head.
He couldn't think about it. Not at this moment.
"You have to go NOW, do you understand?" Kain took her by the shoulders like he did Ciri earlier, locking his eyes with hers in the dark. "Can you or can you not?"
Ciri was going to hate Yennefer once she told her, and that in itself was a fear. Also the least Yennefer deserved. She raised a hand, still aching from where Kain had cracked the bones, and a brief time later the portal appeared.
"Get out safely," she urged, not because she cared for the boy, although he had her in debt for saving her, but because of Ciri and because of who he now was to Geralt.
A moment later, Yennefer stepped through the portal.
Kain had not made it back since Ciri returned from the palace, and once more she was left pacing.
Something that stopped once a portal appeared a few feet away and Yennefer tumbled out. Ciri rushed to her, took her by the arms to support her.
"Yennefer! Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," Yennefer murmured once she felt Ciri's hands on her arms, drawing the girl against her tightly. "I couldn't bring him with me. I didn't have the energy."
"It's alright. I will go in after him if he's not out soon," Ciri said, urging her to sit down where she could rest her back against the tree. "What happened?"
Yennefer took her suggestion and moved to the ground, staring at her feet, finding for the first time in her life that she lacked the confidence to speak plainly and clearly to Ciri. "Your fath— the Emperor happened. He had Geralt and I locked away. He's trying to draw you in."
"I know." Ciri knelt before her. "He sent a messenger to tell me he'd kill you if I didn't come."
"And that's why you're here? You should have fled."
Ciri smiled a little, pushing Yennefer's curls away from her face. "I know the past years may have made it seem otherwise, but I don't like to run and hide."
Yennefer glanced up at her from where she sat and considered the truth.
"The Emperor dismembered Geralt."
Ciri stared at her, unsure she had heard her right. "What?"
"He took his hands."
"I… I don't know what that means."
Yennefer let out a shaky breath. "It means they chopped off his hands and that I've basically killed him."
"Who did you kill?" Geralt walked toward them from the woods where he had followed his call of nature earlier, frowning as he saw Yennefer. He squatted down before her. "Are you hurt?"
Ciri watched Yennefer with growing concern, worried she might have hit her head. Or was she delirious from whatever they had done to her in there?
For a moment Yennefer thought her eyes were playing tricks on her, that Kain had materialized like he'd done before. Only he hadn't, and every fiber before her was Geralt. But how? Had they got to him first?
Yennefer glanced down at his hands, taking a hold of them, shifting to her knees so that she could better inspect what damage they may have done to him.
"I'm fine—nothing but scratches," she muttered. "Are you?"
Frowning deeper in confusion, Geralt tried to determine whether she was in her right mind. "Chained me up in a cell, and that's about it. What happened to you? Did that bastard do anything?"
"Nothing but torture me mentally!"
Yennefer was angry now, but not at Geralt.
"I told Kain— does he know you're here?"
"He knows I was getting him out. I took Geralt, Kain took you," Ciri said, getting to her feet and peering down at the slope where Kain had disappeared earlier.
"Then hopefully he'll be fine getting back to us."
Geralt heard the noises coming from city. They knew their prisoners were gone.
"You two should go," Geralt said. "Take the horses and go. I'll wait for him and we'll catch up."
"Not happening," Ciri warned Geralt. "I am not leaving without him. And out of the three of us, I am the one who can get him out without a sword if it is needed."
"You're not going back in there, you hear me?" Geralt hissed, eyes blazing at her. "It's exactly what Emhyr wanted. We can't let it happen."
"Geralt's right. If you go in there—then it's exactly what he wants."
Yennefer pushed up off the ground.
"I'll go in after him. I shouldn't have left him."
"No one's going anywhere," Geralt said. "Yennefer, you're weak, and Ciri can't get close to the palace. I bet he has some mages at the ready the whole time. And now they're searching for us. He can take care of himself. He's proven it enough times."
It was a bit longer than each of them wished, but eventually, Geralt heard the horses galloping and reached behind his back for his sword. Two horses rode to them across the field, a man on the leading one. He stopped abruptly and slipped off as he neared them.
Kain. His hair was dark like Ciri's. Next to him was a worried Roach. Yennefer's horse began to graze behind them.
"We should go now," Kain said, shoving Geralt the reins. "Before they track us with magic."
Satisfied only when Kain appeared out of the dark, Ciri whistled for Kelpie and climbed onto her back, waiting until the rest of her company was ready before they hurried away.
They didn't take the road, sticking to the wooded areas where they would be harder to track and less likely to be seen.
"We can't go back to Novigrad," Ciri informed Geralt and Yennefer, having to strain to talk over the rapid hoof beats of their horses.
Geralt slowed down his horse, and Ciri's mare adjusted her pace.
"What happened?" he asked.
"The Hunt came. Put a price on my head - deliver me to Eredin when he returns in a few days time, or everyone dies. They're all searching for me now. As well as the two white-haired witchers I travel with."
It was hard to digest at once; Geralt didn't expect the Hunt to just come out of nowhere to attack Novigrad out of all places. It did make sense, however, that they took people by surprise.
"Fantastic," he commented. "Turns out we need to catch up."
They rode into the woods and settled with a small campfire to take a break.
"We can't sail to Skellige now, either," Geralt said. "They won't let any ships out."
"The Hunt will return in four days and kill people if they don't hand her over," Kain said. "We have to help people fight them back. But there's only one person who can convince them to do so instead of handing us over."
Geralt looked at Kain over the crackling fire. "Dijkstra, you mean. It's a wild card. Might work, or might not."
"There's only one way to find out," Kain reasoned. "Unless you want to try Radovid who Philippa hates so much."
"Or I lead The Hunt somewhere else. Far away from Novigrad, taking away their reason for going there in the first place. We can't put all those lives at risk. The children..." Ciri sighed.
"They're not interested to follow you away where you will escape again," Kain reasoned. "They know they've found something good here where they can actually get to you. No matter what you do with your magic from now on, they shall come in four days and gladly slaughter people even if you give yourself up."
"I agree," Geralt said, looking grimly at Ciri. "It's not in their interest to go on your wild goose chase now that they said they'll come. The only way is to meet them on their chosen ground. They might still not have the resources to bring more Riders like they did at Kaer Morhen. Therefore, we have a chance to beat them. But only if people of Novigrad cooperate."
"We need Dijkstra," Kain added. "And the Lodge. Though Dandelion said they were going to flee for Skellige."
"I might need to change their minds," said Geralt.
"What do we do about Emhyr?" Ciri asked, looking between the three of them. "No doubt he will send soldiers after us all, or maybe target someone else I care for. And do we even have the pardon we need for The Lodge?"
Geralt looked at Ciri somberly. "Right, we do need that pardon. But he'll never give it to us without meeting you. I don't say you have to, Ciri. We can think of something else."
"That'd be too many hunters after one deer," Kain said. "We have to try and resolve that issue with Emhyr. Also... While I was searching for a way out of the dungeon, I saw someone in a cell. A woman with the same chains on her hands. She could be a sorceress. We have to get her out."
"I'll take Ciri and we'll talk to Emhyr."
Yennefer had more than one bone to pick with him and she knew what to expect going in.
"I'll talk to him," Ciri said after a moment's contemplation, looking to Yennefer. "Are you sure that's wise? What if he tries to hurt you again?"
"I know what to expect now. It's the fastest way in and out and we'll control the conference. If for whatever reason I can't get us out, you can – no hesitation."
"I can't let you go alone," Geralt said.
"Who's going to save them if they fail?" Kain said.
"And if he executes Yennefer?"
Kain shrugged. "There is always some risk. But if Ciri is with her, there is no reason to do that in front of the princess."
Ciri looked to Kain. "Teach me how to send that signal. Should something go wrong, I can let you know."
"It took me years to learn," Kain said. "But even if your signal is weak, I'll catch it. I'll be listening. Just imagine me as closely as you can and send your message."
"You can't go now," Geralt argued. "Yennefer is too weak. There are mages serving Emhyr. He won't let you do anything. He won't be fooled twice in the same day."
"While the man sleeps, then. He has to."
"He might choose to not sleep until he gets us," Geralt remarked. "But Yennefer has to recover and we need to come up with a plan. That mage in his dungeon. If it's Fringilla, we need her."
"Not sure I'll be able to take us directly to his bedchambers, anyway," Ciri said. "I don't know the outlay of this palace."
"You'll go in without magic," Kain advised. "Thus we make sure no magic alarm hits you."
"Right," Geralt echoed.
"Great," Yennefer offered in return.
"You two should try to get some sleep," Ciri told Yennefer and Geralt. "Get your strength back."
"I need to get back to Novigrad," Geralt said. "Talk to the Lodge and make sure Dandelion is fine."
"No," Yennefer retorted. "We're all going back together. We're not splitting up anymore."
"And go see Dijkstra," Kain added.
Geralt nodded. "If we have to."
"Did you not hear the part about people searching for you as well?" Ciri pointed out.
"They already searched Dandelion's inn. We have to talk to the witches before they leave for Skellige or into hiding," Kain said.
"No," Yennefer repeated, grabbing a hold of Geralt's thigh as if she expected him to flee. "If it is Fringilla in those cells then you have to get her out. The Lodge won't negotiate without the pardons, anyway, and they might decide to negate the entire idea if they find out what Emhyr has done to us. We need to keep their faith."
"I need to make sure they don't disappear before we save her or not," Geralt argued. "I need to talk to them. Or Triss."
"Triss then," Yennefer agreed. "I'll send you back."
"You sure you can take us to Dandelion's? You need rest."
"If she can, she will rest there," Kain said. "Ciri and I will ride." He held a hand to Yennefer, "Take more, if you need it, and go."
"What about Emhyr?" Ciri asked.
"He isn't going anywhere."
Yennefer took Kain's extended hand, gently this time as a way of saying thank you for what he'd done for her in the jail and to accept his offer—only she didn't start drawing on him yet.
"We go now?"
"Take what you need to portal yourself and Geralt to Dandelion's. Ciri and I will manage on our own."
Yennefer did as he entreated, siphoning of his essence again, being sure just to take enough to open the golden door and rose of the ground, releasing him once she was fully on her feet.
"Thank you," she murmured.
Another skillful motion of her hands and a minute later Geralt and Yennefer were carried back to Novigrad.
Kain and Ciri watched Geralt and Yennefer disappear before they put out the fire and got back on the horses.
"Do you really think people of Novigrad will be able to hold their own against The Hunt?" Ciri asked, remembering how they had basically slaughtered an entire village back in Skellige.
"No one could take the city by siege," Kain said, maneuvering his horse between the trees. "But if the attack is from within, they have enough soldiers and people trained for battle to fight to maybe kill a few Riders. Aen Elle are stronger, better trained and dressed and have magic. Without our help Novigrad can hardly win this."
"People will still die," Ciri said, frowning. "I hate this. This senseless death in my name."
"You still don't get it that it's bigger than you. It's one world invading the other in whatever name or for whatever cause that they deem fair. There were many other worlds before this one. They keep doing it because they don't want to choose another solution for themselves. If not for that Elder Blood, there would be another reason, territory. Their world is dying, so they would take this one after cutting everyone else out. It is happening because of what they are like rather than you being you."
"I know that. And I know deep down were I to give myself over, these innocent people would all die anyway. But it still pains me," Ciri admitted.
Kain cast a look at her when they rode out of the woods and the crescent moon on the sky provided more light.
"Compassion is good for your heart," he said. "But there is a fine line between sympathizing and torturing oneself over someone else's crimes."
"Just another thing to work on." Ciri threw a small smile his way. "How are we going to enter town? Stick to the rooftops?"
"We have four horses with us, so no."
"We could leave them at a stable outside of town," Ciri suggested. "I've a feeling the color of my hair won't deter anyone from paying us extra attention."
Kain smiled a little, shrugging his shoulders. "Maybe you should use the roofs."
Ciri eyed him curiously. "Think you won't be searched at the gates?"
"I know how to not draw extra attention. I've been a spy for years."
"Alright." Though it was likely they would search everyone entering and leaving the town at the moment, considering what was at stake.
"Oh gods, you're all right!" Dandelion cooed, ushering Geralt and Yennefer into the furthest corner and up the stairs away from the crowd. Thankfully, his clientele was engaged by Priscilla's performance. "You both look too pale and exhausted, but it's all right, it can be fixed with some Erveluce and... and a bath..."
"The Lodge," Geralt interrupted when they stepped into his room. "Are they here?"
"Yes, for now," Dandelion nodded. "Although I honestly don't want to go in and see what they're doing there."
"Nor do I," Yennefer said. The short travel had hit her hard despite what she'd taken from Kain. "I need a mattress."
Dandelion nodded. "And my horse?"
"She belongs to the Emperor now," Yennefer jested.
He cursed, mumbled something about cursed violet eyes, and turned his attention back on Geralt.
"You should talk to Triss," Yennefer said and slid up behind Geralt. "Triss alone."
"Um... no offence, Yennefer, but you ehm... smell... a little... of... of... um..." Dandelion winced searching for any words that wouldn't turn him into a toad when Geralt came to his rescue with the harsh truth.
"It's piss and shit and death. We've been to Emhyr's dungeon."
"Oh," Dandelion looked from Yennefer to Geralt with an expression of both disgust and sympathy. "A bath it is, then. Please, um... open a window or... something. Did Ciri get you out?"
"Offence taken." Yennefer drew back from Geralt with a touch of self-consciousness and gifted the bard a glare. "She did. She's on her way back to Novigrad with Kain."
Dandelion's features softened with relief and he nodded. He'd opened his mouth to rattle on about some other trivial nonsense, probably to prod more about what had happened, but Yennefer'd had enough.
"Well, I would hate to further taint such a rich establishment with my smell and be accused for the cause of its lack of patronage. I need rest. Have your precious Priscilla send up some soup."
Geralt smiled, watching Yennefer's annoyance seep into every gesture and soak her expression. "You're still in my room, so I'm afraid I'm not going anywhere, nor are you." He turned to Dandelion as he lay the sword on the table. "We do need that bath right away, and… the soup, too. Thank you."
"No problem, coming right up," the poet said, backing away to the door. "I'll… eh… would bring the water myself, but… um… my hands are my bread, Geralt, you know that. And I can't really let you go downstairs and be seen with buckets… or even without them…"
"Just get the food, and Yen will manage the water." Geralt cast a glance at Yennefer, giving a small shrug, while Dandelion disappeared out the door.
The door closed behind Dandelion and Yennefer focused on Geralt. Had he remembered the baths she'd made for him in the past when they'd been together? Maybe the trauma of their time in the Emperor's dungeons had shook something loose in him?
"I won't be able to warm it up," she warned, knowing that even if she wanted to, she didn't have the strength for that task.
She could barely tend to this one.
Yennefer threw open the windows, focused on the well located outside of the Inn a short distance away. She hoped that there was no one there to see what she was about to do and to alert anyone as she didn't have the strength to check or make certain.
She extended her hands, felt the magic leap from her fingertips and snake out in search of its target, returning an instant later in form of a thick funnel of water that leapt into the bath with a messy splash.
She paused a moment to catch her breath, shut the windows and then slowly started to strip.
"Is it to your liking?"
Geralt merely smiled at the display of magic and approached to dip his fingers into the water. He gave Yennefer a mock displeased mien.
"Cold. You could do better, I was somehow so sure."
With a sigh, he shoved a few logs into the fireplace and cast Igni; the flames flashed and crackled gaining force and spreading over the wood.
Yennefer narrowed her eyes with playful irritation. It shouldn't be that easy given what they'd endured – she had endured in that jail – but it was.
Geralt was alive, Ciri was safe, and that's all that mattered.
Yennefer left her clothes in a heap at the window, knowing that for a time she'd never wear them and would opt for something else, and sauntered over to the bath.
She grimaced as her toes slipped into the cold water, brushing it off as she sank deeper and eventually submerged entirely, briefly trying to cleanse herself.
Geralt feasted his eyes on her figure until it submerged in the tub, then fed another log to the fire and sat at the table watching her.
The door opened and Dandelion clumsily got in carrying a tray.
"Here's your soup and- I'm not looking! Not looking! Excuse me... Here... Your dinner."
He put the plates on the table, trying to keep his back to the tub. "Ciri and Kain haven't come yet. But I suppose it's too early to panic."
"It is," Geralt agreed. "They'll be fine."
"You don't always have that certainty," Dandelion remarked. "Shame, because many times when I need you calm and relaxed you're just doing everything in your power to get yourself into more trouble."
"I don't need to remind you how your score of trouble is scarcely lower than mine," Geralt sneered.
Yennefer quietly broke the surface to catch her breath, wiping the water from her eyes, watching the two bicker back and forth and finding comfort in their normalcy. They were the strangest of companions.
"Do the two of you need some alone time? Should I step out?"
She'd positioned her arms on the edge of the tub, breasts pressed against the side of the wood, gifting the two with her most charming of smiles – even if forced.
"No," they reacted in unison, and Dandelion added:
"Perhaps you wish it's me who steps out, and I guess, all things considered, it's not such a far-fetched thought. I shall go back to our guests, but I will have you both know that I'll be needing the details of your Vizima adventures."
He gave them both in turn a stern look, summoned to install the belief that he wasn't joking, then left them alone.
Yennefer watched the door close behind the bard, gaze averting to Geralt.
"Need me to help you undress?"
She slipped a hand out of the water, using a single finger to pry about the belt with invisible hands, whatever was attached to it dropping to the floor with a clunk.
"Only if you plan on making the water warm," Geralt said, buckling the belt back and settling at the table to eat.
"I don't," Yennefer said, relaxing the hand, smiling as he moved to eat.
"But you are free to join me."
She splashed more water around herself, over her face and arms, scrubbing away the grime. Truth be told she just wanted to hold him, to revel in the fact that he was real, that he had his hands and that she hadn't killed him.
"The cold may do your muscles good."
"I do prefer to treat myself where I can, for those moments are too rare to miss out on any single one of them."
Geralt sent a spoonful of soup into his mouth and hummed with pleasure. He only now realized how starving he was.