DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
---------------------------------------------------------
Dragonbane
HTML https://dragonsbane.createaforum.com
---------------------------------------------------------
*****************************************************
DIR Return to: Creative Corner
*****************************************************
#Post#: 172--------------------------------------------------
Black Ties: Part 10
DIR By: Gallowtree
Date: September 27, 2020, 7:06 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 10
Brom dismissed the two wardens with a curt gesture; their grey
cloaks swept gently back as they sheathed their swords and left
the room. That was a good sign – something, maybe, that told me
that perhaps this wouldn’t end in Dante’s imprisonment or
execution. Dante shook a little beside me. He looked strung
out, as if all the physical strength he had had been drained in
one shot, exhausted by Kazvineroth in the throes of banishment.
His normal, flush complexion was pallid and waxy. He ran one
hand through his hair, and steadied himself with the other.
Brom was taking all of this in, his gaze fixed on Dante. I felt
like kicking Dante in the shins to get him to straighten up…this
was looking less and less recoverable.
“Everything’s under control here, boss,” I said, hoping that I
sounded more confident than I felt.
Brom looked at me, back at Dante, then began to pace around us,
looking at the symbols that Dante had drawn on the floor.
Gage’s eyes were on them too, and our eyes met for a moment.
There was a look of genuine alarm in the gaze she returned.
“You two are a little long in the tooth for doodling on the
walls, are you not?” Brom said, coming to a stop in front of us.
“We sure are, sir, and we’ll have this cleaned up and squared
away before you know it,” Dante said, getting back to himself.
“No, no, that’s all right,” Brom said, smiling, “I\m going to
have Gage and our other experts have a look at this in short
order; I’m sure it will be illuminating.
“Unless, of course, you’d like to tell me what it all means?”
“I take it I’m headed for a cell?” Dante asked, a touch of anger
in his voice.
This wasn’t going to end well; I knew that the moment I saw
Dante scribbling away, or should I say, Kazvineroth scribbling
away. We had locked up Dante four times since he started here
(only once before they put some fine touches on the spell that
bound Kaz). Every time we did it, I felt we were in the wrong,
because despite the danger that Kaz posed to us, he hurt Dante
even more by forcing us to imprison him. Having been in prison
a number of times in my life, I knew the hell that confinement
really was. Maybe Kaz knew that too, being imprisoned in Dante
as it was. They were both each other’s keepers.
“Brom, I know this looks bad,” I began, “but I think putting
Dante under confinement would be a mistake.”
“Oh really,” he replied, “and how would you suggest we proceed?”
I swung like any other dumb monkey out onto the limb, hoping to
make the next branch.
“We could have him escorted by a warden, maybe even one of us,”
I suggested, “maybe he could help decipher what the demon
wrote?”
Brom looked back and forth from myself and Dante, narrowed his
eyes, and shook his head.
“I don’t think so Max. Your presence here is questionable, and
since I am still in charge of this facility, I can’t let such a
thing pass.”
“Wait,” blurted Gage, charging in between Brom and ourselves.
“Do you have something to add to this, young lady?”
So…Gage wanted to soar above the jungle too…I exhaled and waited
for the hammer to fall; we were all going to be locked up.
“Dante was with me in the lab until about half an hour ago, and
he brought his bag with him to work out. He obviously went to
the gym after he left the lab, sir,” she said.
“The gym is usually locked up for the night,” Brom said, raising
an eyebrow at Gage.
“Whoa now,” I said, “that was my fault Brom – I picked it to get
in.”
“You never told me you could do that!” Gage said, turning back
to me.
Brom put a palm to his forehead and his other hand on his hip,
frowning.
“All right,” he said, quietly, “you,” he said, pointing to
Dante, “report to confinement immediately. You two will report
to me in the morning, and you better damn well have something to
say about tonight’s action in the park.”
I looked over at Dante, who was staring at the writing on the
floor; sweat had broken out on his forehead, and he stood very
still with his hands in his pockets. He looked up at Gage.
Gage inhaled quickly, and I grabbed her arm.
“It’s nothing,” she whispered, fixing me with a determined look
that said, more or less ‘shut up.’
“Problem?” Brom asked.
“Nothing, sir,” I replied.
“Good night then, children,” he said, “try not to bugger up any
more of my evening – sleep may be a luxury at my age, but it is
one I would like to indulge in for at least a couple of hours
tonight.”
Brom made a gesture to say ‘after you’ to Dante, and Dante left
the gym. Brom followed him out, his staff at the ready. The
old man mirrored our own disquiet. I turned back to Gage.
“What the hell is with you?” I asked.
“No, Max: my turn – what the hell happened here?”
I told her what happened in the gym.
“Now,” I said afterward, “what passed between you and Dante
earlier?”
In answer, she reached into her lab robe, down her front, and
pulled out the communication stone.
“While Bromwell was laying down the law, Dante had a good look
at the Kaz’ writing. You know Dante doesn’t know much about
deciphering magical script, but he found some of it pretty
familiar.”
“What do you mean familiar?”
“Have a closer look at the script,” she said, pointing a
particular point in the rambling scribbles.
I looked closely at them, trying to make out anything in the
snarl of writing. At first, there was nothing at all familiar;
the language was some dialect of infernal that I hadn’t seen
before – there were probably just as many kinds as the regions
of hell that demons called home. But maybe…there, and there…and
there again. There were strange little pictograms, separated by
lines of script. Holy crap, it was so obvious. I pitied Gage
sometimes, having to wait for me to get the punchline. Among
the scribbles, among the incomprehensible jumble of the demon’s
babbling, were pieces of an inscription that I had seen only one
place before – on Dante’s skin. Gage read the dawning
apprehension on my face.
“Dante must’ve had a stone in his pocket,” she said, “because he
communicated to me that he believes that the demon is working
towards breaking the lock.”
*****************************************************
Page 1 of 1