Dead Man's Shadow, Chapter 5

“You were doing what?” Frida Rosario’s voice was nothing short of horrified.
“I told you, helping a priest deal with the Inquisition.” Elena tried not to get irritated at having to repeat her explanation. If their positions had been reversed, she would be just as upset with Frida as the other woman was with her. The two of them were having the argument in Frida’s tent, alone save for Quin, who leaned quietly against a tent post. He had delivered the Syrneth box to Frida earlier in the day, and had been waiting for Elena to arrive ever since. Elena herself had gotten back to the dig site only a few minutes ago, after finishing her work as a lookout for Felix.
“I can’t believe that you would risk something this important for some priest!” Frida angrily stalked over to where the obsidian box lay on a table. She ran a hand along it, her fingers finding several of the grooves that were etched into the box. “What, did he promise you more money than we are paying you with?”
Elena couldn’t quite tell if Frida was making a joke or not. “He knows Nic,” she said. “Did I not explain that before? His name is Felix Weiss.”
“Oh.” Frida’s hand froze on the box. From her position at the other side of the room, Elena could just see the dig leader’s lip curl in embarrassment. “I didn’t realize he was here.” Frida turned back to face Elena. “It’s fine, then. He’s a good man. What does he need?”
“He’s trying to rescue a member of the Invisible College, and he asked me for help doing it. Apparently, he can’t do it on his own, and it galls him to no end.”
Frida grinned. “That sounds like him. What do you need to help him?”
“Most of my gear, probably.” Elena had already picked up her climbing axes, satchel, and pistol, as well as changing into a slightly thicker teal top and brown pants. “I don’t think that my bow will help me all that much, though. Maybe also some rope and a lockpick set.”
“Sounds like the standard ‘B and E’ package,” Frida commented with a faint grin. She crossed the room to a chest near her cot and unlocked it. She tossed a leather container from it to Elena, who recognized a lockpick set right away. “You can take whatever rope you need from the supply when you leave. When do you leave, by the way?”
“Felix wants to do this tonight. Apparently, he knows where the Inquisition is meeting, and where they are likely to have Valeri. If we don’t get him out tonight, then we might not be able to get him out at all.”
“Do you need an extra hand?” Quin asked from his corner of the tent. It was the first time he had spoken since Elena’s return.
“I appreciate the offer, but I think Felix would object. He doesn’t really trust me yet, and having another person might be too much for him. Stay here and help Frida figure out what that box is.”
Quin looked unhappy, but he nodded. Frida had stood back up from the crate near her cot and was glancing over Elena’s ensemble. “You should probably leave your digger’s coat behind,” she commented. “We probably shouldn’t make it obvious that you’re affiliated with the Explorer’s Society. It might complicate things here in Castille for the Society if the Inquisition suspects that we are trying to help their prisoners escape.”
“Good point.” Elena shrugged. “I wasn’t really thinking about bringing it anyway, but that hadn’t occurred to me.”
Frida shook her head. “Now I almost wish that I wasn’t in charge of the dig here. I’d love to be able to help you out.”
Elena gave her friend a grin. “Don’t worry, what you’re doing is far more interesting than anything that I will get up to. I want to know what that box is supposed to do.”
“So far, nothing quite as interesting as those.” Frida gestured to the silvery bracelets that Elena still wore on her wrists. The twin artifacts were the ones that she had pulled from the ruins in the Walder, though she had only tried to use them once since that time, just enough to find out that they still worked. She still wasn’t sure what had restored their ability to function since being underground.
“Not yet, anyway.” Elena idly rubbed the symbol on one of the bracelets. “Maybe we’re just missing something else.”
“We’ll keep looking,” Frida assured her.
“Be careful,” Quin admonished.
Elena flashed him one of her signature grins. “Hey, it’s me!”
Quin returned the smile. “I know. That’s why I said it.”
His solemnity stuck with Elena as she departed the dig site and walked across the rocky ground outside the Barcino city walls. Normally, she would have had a hard time getting through the gate, but the Explorer’s Society had paid good money to keep one of the guards bribed to let their members through while traveling to and from the dig site. It was far easier in the free city of Barcino than it would have been elsewhere in Castille; the local government of Barcino was far more accommodating to the Society than the rest of the country. Even the Inquisition, while still incredibly powerful, found its power curtailed by the permissive nature of the General in charge.
Elena reached the closed door to Felix’s church shortly before midnight and knocked quietly on the front door, as he had instructed. It took less than a minute for the door to open, and Felix himself stepped out onto the porch of the church with her. He had changed back into his full priest robes, this time with the addition of a wide-brimmed hat in the same shade as his robes.
“Nice hat,” Elena said sarcastically.
“Stuff it. We need to get moving.” Felix closed the church door behind him and began to walk down the stairs. Elena fell into step beside him, and they began to move off across the city.
“What’s going to happen to Joana?” Elena asked as they walked.
“I’ve told her to lay low for the rest of the week. She is going to come to weekend mass at my church, and I will help her escape the Inquisition once she’s there. Unfortunately, she is probably going to have to leave the country. Luckily, it seems that the Inquisition hasn’t made a connection to her specifically.”
Elena nodded in acceptance of this fact. “It could be much worse, I guess.” She glanced around the deserted streets. “What’s the plan?”
“The Inquisition is meeting in a church at the other end of town,” Felix told her. “It’s something of a regular meeting. From what I have been able to gather, they’re using the opportunity to interrogate Dionís. It is likely that they will get what they need out of him either tonight or tomorrow. Their interrogation methods are dangerously effective.” He frowned. “If we haven’t saved him by then, we never will.” He walked in silence for a few more moments before continuing. “I’m going to go into the front door and draw some of the attention away from you. The Inquisitors know me. While I am keeping them occupied, you will have to sneak into the church.” He eyed her sideways. “You can sneak, right?”
“Of course I can. I’ve had more than a few opportunities to sneak.”
“Good. Now, it’s likely that all of the external doors to the church are going to be locked, so you may have to get in via the bell tower. The tower is open at the top, so if you can get up there, you can descend into the church without a problem.
“Dionís is probably being held in the catacombs under the church. You will need to get down to where he is and then free him. Getting in via the bell tower will help with that; the stairs are all right next to each other.”
Elena shot him a surprised look. “You certainly know a lot about this meeting place.” When Felix said nothing, Elena’s eyes narrowed. “Wait a minute… you’ve been there before.” The continuing silence spoke for him. “You… you’re one of them, aren’t you?”
A tight smile came to Felix’s lips. “If I encounter you while you are inside the church, I will pretend not to know you. And be aware, if you are caught in this meeting, you will likely be killed on the spot. Invading a secret meeting of the Inquisition is enough for you to be branded a heretic, even if you weren’t obviously a member of the Church of Avalon.”
“Is it that obvious?”
“You’re an Avalon. It’s a safe bet. Are you?”
“Um… yes, actually.”
“Then my point stands.” Felix fell silent again. Elena followed suit, swallowing against the anxiety that was beginning to rise within her at Felix’s words. She nervously ran her hands across the rope and axes at her belt, trying to take comfort from their presence. It was only partially successful.
The two of them walked in silence across the darkened city, encountering no one beyond a handful of the city watch, which Felix dismissed with a wave of a hand. It seemed that they recognized that he was on Inquisition business and did not want to get involved. It did not take them long to reach the church that Felix was looking for. A small building, the church sat at the end of a lesser-used street, far enough out from the other buildings that it was able to support a small graveyard in addition to a neatly-kept courtyard on the front. The steeple rose out of the back of the church, standing proudly over the two-story main building. The graveyard was on the back side of the church, closest to the steeple and opposite the courtyard. Lights burned inside the building, filtering out through windows made of both stained- and ordinary glass. Shadows passed behind the windows, indicating a large gathering inside. The front door was closed, giving the church an aura of foreboding that felt entirely at odds with the building’s intended purpose.
Felix came to a halt, and Elena did the same. He pointed to the right side of the courtyard. “If you go over there, you should be able to get into the graveyard without being noticed. From there, you will be able to make your way to the back of the church. Watch out for anyone patrolling in the graveyard or watching from the windows. Most of them are stained-glass on that side, but be careful.”
Elena nodded. “I understand. I’ll give you a moment or two before I head in.”
“Okay. Good luck.” Felix adjusted his hat and walked forward. Elena slipped to the right, using the shadows for cover as she moved across the courtyard. She crouched beside a well while Felix approached the door of the church. He knocked twice, a pair of staccato beats against the wood of the door that might have been a signal. After a moment or two, the door opened, spilling light onto the courtyard. Felix began to converse with whoever had opened the door, but Elena was now moving. She reached the fence that Felix had pointed to and vaulted over it. No cries of alarm sounded.
Elena began moving across the graveyard, using the headstones as cover. She did not see anyone in the graveyard itself, and when she trained her eyes on the upper levels of the church, she saw no signs of any observers. It seemed that the Inquisition was so used to being feared by the populace of Castille that they hardly bothered with guards anymore, trusting that no one would be crazy enough to interrupt them.
The only someone that crazy is someone crazy enough to go relic hunting in a vampir’s lair, Elena thought with a faint grin.
Minutes later, she reached the base of the bell tower. She crouched against the wall and glanced up, trying to pick out a good route up. The darkness made it difficult, but that would help her climb up unobserved. She gently brushed a hand on the stone that made up the church and paused. The masonry was surprisingly old, chalky and brittle, already crumbling in places. She supposed that the stone beneath the building’s façade would be more solid. Still, she hesitated. She had been planning on using her climbing axes to climb up the outside of the building, but now she realized that using them would probably punch through the façade and leave a series of ugly marks on the outside of the church. It seemed wrong to her to damage the church in such a way. It would also make more sound, which could lead to her being caught when she tried to climb the building.
Of course, it’s ironic that I’m worried about damaging the church when I’m planning to break into it, she thought.
A shadow fell across her thoughts as she realized that without the axes, she would have to free climb the outside of the church. She took a single step back from the wall and looked up at the top of the tower. She sighed, realizing the difficulty of her task. She swore under her breath.
Here goes nothing.
Elena returned to the base of the bell tower and began to climb. The façade was beginning to crumble, just as she had suspected earlier, and she was able to use those cracks as handholds as she began to climb. As she ascended, she occasionally used window ledges as well, but tried to do so infrequently. She didn’t want her shadow on the outside of the window to give her away. She also tried not to look down as she climbed, not due specifically to any fear of heights, but rather to avoid the realization that she was clinging to a wall of slowly-disintegrating plaster by just her fingers and toes. Before long, her muscles were beginning to strain, and she was having trouble finding new places to grip. She pressed onwards, however, and was making great progress until the crack that she grasped at crumbled away.
Immediately, she slipped and began to drop. She clung to the outside of the building, managing to keep herself from plunging down by virtue of the fact that she hadn’t put her full weight on her hand yet. Fear shot through her body, giving her new strength and bringing sudden clarity to the night. She huddled tight to the wall, breathing heavily. Somewhere below her, the piece of masonry that she had unintentionally broken off hit the ground with a muffled thump. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried not to think about how close she had come to joining it. She hung in place, not daring to move a muscle, while her heart calmed back down.
Once she was feeling more stable, Elena finally dared to look down. Once she did, she saw that she was probably level with the roof of the church by now, which would hopefully put her over the level anyone watching. She resumed her climb, taking extra time to confirm her holds before putting most of her weight on them. After a few more minutes, she reached the top of the tower. She pulled herself up and over the railing at the top, then slumped against that rail and took a few breaths. Her whole body trembled a bit, all of the stress of the climb catching up to her at once. It took a few minutes for her to return to normal.
That was far worse than I thought it was going to be.
Feeling better, Elena got back to her feet. No one had disturbed her during her brief recovery, and it appeared that the entire tower was deserted. The tower itself was a simple box, open at the top, with wooden stairs around the edges. The only light in the tower came in from the open top and through the narrow windows on the outside wall of the tower. The windows did not match up with the locations of the stairs, almost as though the stairs had been added as an afterthought. Before she set off down them, Elena made sure to tie the rope she had around the railing at the top of the bell tower. She did not drop the other end of the rope off the edge of the tower for fear that someone would come around the outside of the church and find it dangling there, but wanted it ready in case she had to make a quick escape later.
With that done, Elena set off down the stairs. The wood was dry and creaky, and she came to a halt more than once when a particularly loud sound emanated from the wood beneath her feet. Each time, her heart beat faster, and she strained her ears for the sounds of anyone below her. When nothing came, she would resume her descent. The pattern continued until she reached the base of the stairs and found herself on solid stone once more. She estimated that she was now on the second floor of the church, which would leave her at least two more floors to sneak down to reach the catacombs. Directly in front of her was a solid wooden door. It did not appear to be guarded. This struck her as odd until she moved up to it and tried the door. It was locked.
Luckily, this wouldn’t hinder her for more than a few moments. Elena retrieved Frida’s lockpicking kit and set to work on the lock. She had been practicing since her trip to the Walder, and Frida’s extensive kit made it easier to pick the lock than it was to do so with the basic pick Elena kept in her boot. She made a bit more noise than she was hoping to, but the lock obediently clicked open under her ministrations. With a whispered cry of victory, Elena returned the lock picks to their pack and carefully eased the door open.
Still kneeling on the ground, Elena found herself staring at the hand of a priest that had been in the process of reaching for the doorknob when the tower door had swung open.