Prison of Darkness

Notes: We're close to the end now. Just three more chapters after this one. This chapter is dedicated to Divamercury who is almost always the first person to review. You make me smile.

Disclaimer: Status hasn't changed since last chapter. Castle and its characters are still not mine. The only thing I can claim is the other world.

Chapter 12

They traveled for two days, on foot and with frequent rests, and never saw more than a couple of people and lots and lots of trees. It was very tiring and even more boring.

Kate still hadn't awakened. Her feet ached, her back ached, and she often felt as if she were a hundred years old. At least her fat lip had gone down, though a faint bruise had appeared on her cheek, and her leg was starting to heal. She was getting to the point where she would have given anything for a shower—anything but her chance to save Castle.

Near the end of the second day, they started seeing more people on the road. When Kate commented on this, Jacek told her that they were nearing a town. Visions of water and beds danced through Kate's head.

"Will we be stopping?" she asked.

"We need supplies."

"Will we be staying over night?" Nahla asked the question Kate really wanted to know the answer to.

"If it's safe."

If her smile was any indication, Nahla was as happy with the thought as Kate.

The closer they got to the town, the busier the road became. It also branched off at several points. The people they passed were mostly quiet with eyes that shifted suspiciously.

By the time they reached the town limits, Kate was thinking it might be better not to stay in the town.

It was an old town, bigger than Nahla's home, with older buildings. Most of the ones they passed were tired and run down. The people were sullen and most of them had their eyes to the dirt.

As they went further into the town, the buildings got sturdier and cleaner. The people grew more bright and cheerful. On some of the corners, there were magicians entertaining well dressed children and their parents. Kate hoped this would be the part of town they would be sleeping in.

"Where are we?" Nahla asked as they walked down streets they shared with horses, donkeys, carts, people, goats, and dogs.

"Simoen. It's a town about two days from Rithisak's prison..."

"Jacek, I've been meaning to ask you," Kate said, "why is it called The Prison of Darkness?"

"Because when people go in, they are tortured and then they die. The few that do come out are never whole again."

Kate shivered and shut out thoughts of Castle being tortured. She reassured herself with the image of him she had seen in the stone. Rithisak wanted her partner alive and healthy to perform the ceremony. She had to hold on to that belief. It was the only one she had left.

They came to an inn that was fancier than Kalahn's but felt somehow colder. It was white with painted yellow shutters. The sign above it had a shapely girl in a white dress that was ripped and tattered. Tears dripped down her face. The words "The Weeping Virgin" ran along the bottom.

"Don't let the looks of this place fool you," Jacek growled under his breath. "The rooms in front are for the rich. We can't afford them. Our rooms will be in the back."

"And?" Nahla prodded.

"And we'll be rubbing elbows with gamblers, murderers, and thieves, but this is the only inn in town...unless we want to sleep in Garbage Town."

"Garbage Town?"

"A charming area like the one on the outskirts of town, only about a hundred times worse. Hold on to your purse and keep your mouths shut. You'll be fine."

Jacek didn't go into the front of the building. Instead, he walked around the side and towards the back. Kate found herself in a narrow alley, between the inn and the dress shop beside it. The alley was dark. Its dirt was worn by years of stomping feet. Kate's hand nervously went for the gun her mind told her she wasn't wearing.

"Maybe we shouldn't stay here, Jacek," Nahla said, moving closer to her cousin. In the first bit of magic Kate had ever seen her do, the girl wiggled her fingers and a tiny ball of light appeared above them.

"You'll be fine," Jacek repeated.

Kate stared at the ball of light, wondering if it were real. Her rational mind tried to dismiss it, but the other side of her, the one that had accepted all of this, shrugged it off. Either it was real or it wasn't. It wasn't important.

The alley was long and ended like many more mundane alleys, in two giant trash bins filled with garbage and flies. Kate wrinkled her nose at the smell.

There was also a large fence blocking the unseemly sight of the back door from the rest of the town. It was about eight feet high.

Jacek ignored the stench and the dirt and went in the back door. This side of the inn was also painted white, but it had none of the snobbishness it displayed on the street.

Kate shared a wary look with Nahla before the two of them followed Jacek inside.

It wasn't as bad as Kate had feared. It was crowded and smelled like alcohol and sweaty bodies, but it was mostly clean.

Tables of rowdy eaters and drinkers, mostly men, filled the room. Servers of all ages, mostly girls and women from about ten to thirty, weaved in among the tables filling orders and good naturedly pushing overly friendly hands away. Several of them had crude pendants hung on small chains around their necks. These girls were all more raggedy than the others, and they had sad eyes.

Jacek made his way gracefully through the throng. Kate and Nahla had a clear path in his wake. They went across the room to an enormous wooden bar. It was scarred and stained, and in one place it even looked as if someone had taken a knife to it. Behind the bar stood a bartender with fishy eyes and a hideous handlebar mustache.

"Hello, Jacek," he said with a smile that never went further than his stiff lips.

"Tee." He nodded his head. "We need a room for the night."

Tee's eyes flicked to Kate and Nahla. "One room?"

"Yes."

Kate could see all the evil things going on in the man's head through his eyes, but he just nodded. "All right. Same deal as last time. Money up front."

"Of course. I want three meals with that. The girls will eat now. I'll be in later."

"Fine, but that's extra."

"I remember."

Jacek took out some coins and slid them across the bar. The bartender snatched them up and put them in his apron. Then, he slid a key across to Jacek.

There were a couple of empty tables among the filled ones. They went over to one, and Kate and Nahla sat down.

"I'll be back," Jacek said. "Eat. Don't get in any trouble."

Kate was used to being the one in charge, and his tone rankled. She grit her teeth to keep them closed and watched him walk away.

"Your cousin could do with some lessons in charm," she said lowly as soon as the man was out of earshot.

Nahla waved her hand, reminding Kate of the light she had created and then extinguished at the end of the alley. "Oh, don't mind him. He can't help being an ass."

They hadn't been waiting very long when a girl in her teens, one of those with the strange necklace, came by with two bowls of soup and some bread. To Kate's surprise it smelled really, really good.

The server put down the meals without once looking into either Kate's or Nahla's faces. When Kate thanked her, she just blushed and nodded her head, mouse brown hair falling into her eyes.

As Kate watched her walk away, she asked, "Do you know what that pendant means?"

Nahla's expression turned to one of distaste. "I'd heard of it happening, but I've never seen it."

"Nahla?"

"People wear it whose parents have sold them into indentured servitude for life."

Kate's spoon had been moving from the bowl to her mouth. She started, knocking all the liquid back into the bowl. "Are you talking about slavery?"

"Near enough. The Old Ways abolished this practice long ago."

"It looks as if these guys didn't get the memo."

"I don't know what that means, but I do know that the practice is disgusting. If you don't have enough family, hire your help like an honest person, don't buy them like property."

"Maybe there's something you can do," Kate said.

"I don't know what."

Kate just shook her head and took a bite of her stew. She wished she could tell Nahla what to do, but she didn't have an answer.

The stew was really good. It tasted as if they were serving the same food on both sides of The Weeping Virgin. Kate had thought she wouldn't be able to eat after her discovery that slavery was alive and well in this world, but her stomach had other ideas. Nahla ate too, but she had a dark scowl on her face. It was quite a contrast to her normal open and cheerful expression.

The two of them were silent for a few minutes while they ate, but Kate had learned that Nahla couldn't be silent for long.

"Kate?"

"Yes?"

"Do you have any idea what you're going to do when we get to The Prison of Darkness?"

"Do you?" she countered.

"I just wanted to protect you and Jacek, in case there were any magical problems. I'm not very good yet, but I'm better than nothing. I've been thinking, though. Now, I think I'd like to help save your Richard Castle."

"I'm worried that Jacek is as dangerous to him as Rithisak."

Nahla looked down at her bowl.

"I know he's supposed to kill him if he can't save him," Kate added. "I just don't know how committed he is to the saving him part."

"I can't speak for Jacek, but I'll do my best to help you get him out of there alive. If he leaves the prison, the spell on him should be broken. You should both wake up and disappear."

"I appreciate that. I hope Jacek feels the same."

A disturbance two tables over caught Kate's attention and turned it away from thoughts of rescuing Castle. She looked over to see a table of four very drunk men. Three of them were talking and laughing, but the fourth looked very angry. He was a big man, about Castle's height and about a hundred pounds heavier. It was his bellow that Kate had heard. The rest of the room seemed to ignore it.

In front of him, a child was cringing. She looked to Kate to be about twelve. Her small body was too thin, and her black hair was cropped short. A pendant hung around her neck.

"Can't you look where you're pouring the wine, you stupid girl?" There was a red stain spreading over his chest like blood.

"I'm sorry," the girl whispered.

"Sorry, are you? I'll make you sorry."

The sound of his hand connecting with the girl's face echoed through Kate's head as the girl fell back against the next table with a wounded cry. The man's friends laughed and spurred him on. He raised his hand again.

Kate was moving before she even had time to think. Anger was bubbling inside her, and she let it propel her forward. She reached the man just as his closed fist was about to fall. She caught his wrist, and almost the whole room went silent.

Very quietly and very calmly, Kate said, "I don't think you want to do that."

The poor servant girl was looking up from the floor, her eyes wide and terrified. A bruise was already forming on her cheek.

The man whirled on Kate, and she ducked. He didn't even come close to hitting her with his drunken aim. Kate knew she was in trouble when his three friends stood up. She heard their chairs scraping the floor as they did so.

She didn't dare to turn around to look at them. That would give the gorilla in front of her an opening. As she was watching him, she noticed the small serving girl scuttle away under the tables.

"Don't touch her!" She heard Nahla's voice behind her. It shook a little.

"What is this, ladies' night?" one of the men slurred.

Kate really wanted to move so that she could see all four men at once. She got her chance when the big man swung at her again. She grabbed his arm and pulled him towards her, throwing him off balance. As he fell to the floor, she took a quick glance around her and saw nothing but silent patrons and hostile eyes. She and Nahla were in even more trouble than she had thought.

Still, Kate wasn't one to do things half way. She readied herself for the next attack. It came from two men at once, as the other one grabbed a squirming Nahla.

Kate elbowed one of the men reaching for her and jumped out of the way. The two of them stumbled drunkenly together, and Kate decided they'd be all right as long as the rest of the patrons didn't jump into the fray.

She went forward to help Nahla when somebody grabbed her from behind. She kicked backwards, catching a kneecap. The person behind her grunted in pain and let go.

Nahla had somehow managed to wiggle free of her captor, who was blowing on his hands as if they were burned.

The big man Kate had knocked to the floor was trying to rise. When one of his companions lunged at her again, she moved out of the way and he tripped, falling on top of his friend.

The other one swung at her, and she blocked him and swung back. Her half healed knuckle split again as her fist connected with his face.

The mob had been pretty quiet up until then, but now Kate could hear them grumbling.

She blocked her opponent again as he aimed another punch at her. Then, she lashed out and got him in the stomach. When he bent over from the sudden lack of air, she punched him in the face again.

As he fell, Kate heard more chairs scrape back as people got up around the room. The two on the floor were trying to get to their feet, and the man who had held Nahla had recovered and was reaching for the girl again.

Kate readied herself for another attack as Nahla nimbly avoided capture.

More men started circling them, but Kate couldn't watch them because when one of the men on the floor made it to his feet, he viciously lashed out for her nose. She was able to move her head in time to take the impact on her cheek instead. Still, she stumbled back and into someone's waiting arms.

A sharp jab of her elbow backwards freed her, and she saw Nahla bash the heads of the two men from the original four together. This was enough to knock them down, and this time they didn't get back up.

The girl rushed to Kate, and they stood there back to back, facing the room full of angry men.

"What now?" Nahla asked.

"We fight our way out. Know any magic that might help?"

Nahla didn't answer, but she mumbled under her breath. Two men rushed at her, but a small arc of light shot from the blond's hands. One of the men dropped like a stone.

"Nahla?"

"Sleep spell," she said.

Kate didn't reply because she was being attacked. She kicked out at the first person to reach her. She got his knee and his leg collapsed. She blocked the blow from another and managed to get him to trip over the first man.

There was a loud bellow from the doorway, and the din quieted down for an instant. Kate glanced over and saw an infuriated Jacek.

"Good goddess, woman, is this how you stay out of trouble?" he yelled at her.

He was immediately attacked by someone near the door. His fists began to fly.

"Make your way towards Jacek," Kate said to Nahla.

Three large men, the largest men Kate had ever seen, came through the door leading towards the fancier section of the inn. They started banging heads to restore order, and the mob that had been fighting Kate and Nahla turned on them instead.

Seeing attention was diverted, at least for now, Kate said to Nahla, "Let's get out of here."

The two weaved their way through the angry drunks, who were getting confused enough that they were starting to fight each other. Kate had to throw or avoid the occasional kick or punch, but, for the most part, they were forgotten.

When they reached Jacek, he was still heavily into the fray. He was fighting three men and stubbornly holding his own.

Kate grabbed one of the men and forcibly threw him against a nearby table. Nahla shot another one with the same mumbled sleeping spell.

"Come on, Jacek. Let's get out of here while they are still distracted." Kate had to almost yell to be heard.

Jacek nodded and punched his opponent with enough force to knock him flat. The three of them slipped out the door.

"Over the fence," Jacek said. "They'll think we went down the alley."

He propelled Nahla ahead of him and boosted her onto the nearest large trash bin. The girl's face shone white in the moonlight.

"Go," he said.

She reached up and grabbed the top of the fence to pull herself over.

Jacek turned to look at Kate. "Kate, you're next..."

XXX

Kate's eyes popped open. She felt disoriented and lost. Where was she? What was going on?

She heard a knock and it brought her to a groggy sitting position. A nearby clock told her it was eight-oh-five.

"Kate?"

She realized that she was in her hotel room. Her heart was pounding. Her cheek throbbed. She felt like death warmed over.

Another knock and another, "Kate?"

It was Josh. Was she supposed to meet Josh? Her head was so fuzzy.

"Just a minute," she called, her voice scratchy. "I was sleeping."

She got out of bed and winced as her booted feet hit the floor. They hurt.

She slid her feet out of the boots and made her way to the door. Each step brought her further away from the other world.

Kate got half way there and realized she had a heavy weight on her hip. Over the past two days, she had become so used to it that she had forgotten it was there. Her eyes traveled down to the hilt of the small sword. She wondered how she had managed to get out of bed without tangling her legs in it. Not that it mattered. What mattered were the questions Josh would ask if he saw her wearing it.

She went back to the bed and unbuckled the sheath from around her waist. Quickly, she took it and shoved it under the bed, away from prying eyes.

By the time she opened the door, she was feeling almost human again.

"Kate, are you okay? What happened?" Josh asked when she opened the door.

She realized suddenly what she must look like to him. She hadn't showered in two days. Her hair and body were gritty from the dirt of the road. Her clothes, old fashioned ones with no zippers or buttons, were dirty and bloody from the fight. Her knuckles were torn and bleeding, and her face throbbed from a well aimed punch. She probably looked as bad as she felt.

"I had a sparring match earlier," she explained, not exactly a lie, "and I was so tired, I just crashed afterwards. I look awful, don't I?"

He looked her over with a trained eye. "No harm done, I guess, but you should be more careful. And you should wash and disinfect that hand. Weren't your hands wrapped up?"

Kate ignored this question and allowed him to lead her into the bathroom. He gently bathed her hand and, after rooting around in her medicine cabinet, disinfected it and smeared it with Polysporin.

"Why would you put your body through this when you weren't feeling well?" he asked sternly as he finished.

She shrugged. "I thought it was stress, so I was trying to work it out."

He put a gentle hand to her forehead. "You don't feel warm. I don't think you have a fever. Don't forget to drink lots of fluids."

"I will. Thanks, Mom." She grinned at him.

He chuckled and led her back into the main room. His hand was warm in hers.

Josh really was a nice guy. She was reminded why she liked him. He was both gentle and daring, and he really cared about her.

"I want you to take care of yourself," he said. He turned and gently brushed her cheek with his other thumb. "It really looks as if someone tried to beat the crap out of you."

"That's essentially what sparring is."

He just shook his head.

Kate sat and asked, "Did you want me to order something up?"

"No, I can't stay long. When you canceled, I took another shift at the hospital. I just wanted to be sure you were all right."

"I think I'm going to just get something to eat and go back to bed."

"That's a good idea...By the way, can I ask you where you got these unusual pajamas?"

Kate looked down at her grubby shirt, vest, and trousers, all held together with fabric ties. "They were a gift."

"I like them. Very fifteenth century."

"I thought more like Middle Earth Hobbit."

"I hope you didn't say that to the one who gave them to you."

"She wouldn't have understood the reference anyway."

Josh put a hand under her chin so he could look into her face. "Do you need me to bring you anything?"

"No, I'll be okay."

"Call me if you want anything. The nurses will page me."

"Okay."

He bent down and kissed her gently. His lips were soft and tasted of coffee.

Kate took comfort from the kiss and she reached up to hug him. He brought her closer as the kiss ended and she lay her cheek on his shoulder.

"You're really worried about Castle, aren't you?" he asked, stroking her hair.

"I just want him to wake up," she admitted.

"I'm here for you, Kate."

"I know."

She let him go with reluctance and he kissed her forehead. Kate flashed him a smile of thanks.

"I'll call you tomorrow and we'll reschedule, okay?"

"Okay."

He went out, closing the door behind him. Kate just sat there, trying not to think about the fact that her feelings for Josh were more like friendship than passion. She also tried not to think about the fact that she had left Jacek and Nahla running away from an angry mob.

The only thing left to think about was Castle, and so she decided to call Martha and check on him.

First, though, she needed a shower.

XXX

Michael Woon was angry. He was so angry that he felt as if the top would blow right off of his head.

How dare she?

Those words ran around and around in his mind. She was his. How dare she?

He had been watching her. He always watched her now. He knew that the police were looking for him, but it didn't bother him. He knew how not to be found.

He saw her sleeping. She had looked exhausted when she came into the hotel room. She went in to get a shower and he mourned the fact that the bathroom had no windows.

Her friend had come, the dark woman with the kind smile. Michael thought he could like that woman. She wouldn't be the type to laugh at a man for failure. He might have been tempted to love her if Detective Beckett hadn't already stolen his heart.

After the detective's friend left, he saw her fling herself down, boots and all, and almost immediately tumble into sleep. He liked to watch her sleep. Her face relaxed, and the hard edges left her. She looked innocent and young in sleep.

It was after her nap, when she woke up suddenly looking different somehow, that the trouble started. Who was that man? Why was he touching Michael's Kate? Why did he kiss her and hold her? Why did she let him?

Michael had watched the events unfold in stunned silence. She was his. She was HIS.

The pain of her betrayal was like a knife thrust to his gut. How could she do this to him?

But Michael was not going to let it end like this. She would not betray him again.

If he couldn't have her, no one could.