Vulpine Summer

Traversing the maze turned out to be the easiest part of the break in so far. The only problem Fox had was how nauseous he felt. With the magic growing more oppressive with every door they opened and ever hallway they traipsed down, the walls changed height and the world grew increasingly warped. Some doors were tiny, some giant and the walls were increasingly becoming bent out of shape. That wasn’t the worse though. It was the discomfort the magic pressed on him with every correct turn. He felt his stomach twisting and his head aching. It dug into the back of his eyes, making his skin turn clammy and his fingers tingle unpleasantly. Even so, he pushed on. He kept going forward. Dupont relied on him to.

Fox was aware he wasn’t the only one being punished. Bull too was stooping lower, her face sweating and strides had shortened. However Absolon didn’t seem to notice. He remained sitting on Fox’s head, whistling and singing in contentment.

The Spirit kept close, watching curiously as the maze tried its best to stop them from entering the dungeon successfully. As promised, he didn’t say a word. He didn’t warn them if they were going to go down the wrong or right route. He just watched.

Luckily there didn’t seem to be anyone else roaming about the magic maze. No soldiers, no employees, no Wizards, nothing.

‘If we get lost, how long until we’re found?’ Fox asked, his voice coming out breathless.

‘This one does not know. Possibly hours to days. Who knows?’

That wasn’t a comfort and Fox desperately hoped Lithgow hadn’t screwed them over or slipped up when writing the directions. Being stuck in this maze longer than necessary would be just torture.

Abruptly, Bull stopped. She glanced at the door then at the paper before pulling down her googles.

‘Last door. If I’ve done this right, we’re leaving this maze now. Get ready for trouble.’ Bull warned.

Fox was relieved to hear it; a mix of desperation of getting out of this discomfort and finding Dupont flooding him. He prepared his gloves and secured his goggles back over his eyes. He was ready.

With a slight nod from Bull, she pushed the key Lithgow had given her into the lock. A thick thunk echoed and, quite swiftly, the magic melted away. The walls were normal, the air warm and smelt of burning oil and the atmosphere had returned to normal. No longer did Fox’s eyes fell like something was trying to scoop them out or he was carrying someone on his shoulders. It was gone. Finally he could stand upright and he flexed his fingers, making sure the aching of his bones really had passed.

But as the maze had gone, a new danger had replaced it. The earie silence had vanished, replaced by the sound of life. Voices echoed, doors opening and closing, the whirring of electricity.

‘Patrols, Bull.’ Fox hissed as he glanced at the door further up the hall. A man was sitting in a chair beside it, his nose deep in whatever book he was reading.

Fox didn’t like suddenly seeing guardsmen. It meant he was surrounded, when he hadn’t needed to worry about it at all recently.

Bull grabbed his attention and pointed at the door in front of her. Indicating he was ready, Bull counted down on her fingers then cracked it open enough for them to slipped inside.

The door was closed on the pair of them were on either side of the door, Bull beside a pillar while Fox slipped beneath the desk covered in files. They quickly created darkness by turning off the glowing lamp on the wall, hunkered down as still as they could and observed their new surroundings.

The wall there were pressed up against was plain. A cupboard here and there and a glowing light, but that was all. On the other side though were rows of cells. By the coughing, shouting and groaning, Fox knew that there were several occupied ones. But which one had Dupont?

Bull whistled softly, grabbing his attention again. She made a few hand signals and gestured further up the corridor. A pair of patrolmen were strolling down. She wanted me to help her take them down. The moment we did, we didn’t have long to find Dupont. Lithgow had been very adamant that the moment a guardsman was taken out, it was only a matter of minutes before someone noticed. The patrols ran like clockwork and connected all routes. The guardsmen were observant. They would notice someone missing and raise an alarm.

But they had little choice. They had to find Dupont without hindrance.

The moment the two guards had marched their way just beyond Fox’s position, Bull whistled again. Go now.

Fox went for the man closest to him while Bull swept up behind the tall woman like a shadow. Fox hand latched on the guard’s face before he could utter a word and activated his glove. Within seconds, he was slumped on the floor, snoring heavily.

‘Well done.’ Bull commented as she tossed him a set of keys she’d filched from the guard’s belt ‘Now go get looking. Find the lass. I’ll be with you in a minute.’

Fox ignored her as she began to drag away the sleeping bodies and turned his attention to Absolon. The Sprite twirled and whistled in curiosity.

‘Can you find her?’ He asked.

The Sprite whistled and instantly began to drift further down the corridor of cells. Fox followed, keeping to the wall and away from the bars, trying to keep himself as hidden as possible. He didn’t want to try his luck being seen by anyone here. It was more likely they’d bellow for guards, spiting whoever it was we were trying to get out, or bed for him to release them. Either way, they’d get noisy fast.

So Fox kept his glove active and would switch off any lights he found, keeping close to the wall. And then Absolon came to a door nestled between too cells; a metal door, heavy and clearly going deeper into the prison.

Fox glanced at the sign above it.

‘Tier two.’ He whispered, then recalled what Lithgow had said. Dupont wasn’t likely to be in the first ring of the prison block, but further inside. Tier one, precisely.

Fox frowned. This was exactly why recon was so important. Fox had no idea what was ahead of him, just vague advice from a man he didn’t really trust. But Absolon was pawing at the door and whistling for Fox to follow. Dupont was in there so Fox just had to follow. He had to get her out.

Steeled with determination, Fox flittered forward, trying to keep himself out of sight of the occupied cells. He approached the door and fiddled with the keys, matching up the lock to the numbered key. He unlocked it and opened the door carefully.

Instantly he felt his heart quicken. To the right was a guard-post, habited by a dozing old man clearly there to check who was entering and leaving the tier. He didn’t look like he was sleeping heavily, not until the Spirit at squeezed in through the gap of the door and floated over to him. Lord Bulwark licked the guard’s nose and instantly his body went slack. The white cat turned to grin widely.

‘I thought you weren’t helpin’.’ Fox hissed as he slipped inside and very carefully closed the door.

The Spirit just grinned further and slipped away, drifting deeper into the prison after Absolon.

‘Best follow quickly. The little one is charging off now.’ Fox heard him whisper.

Fox did but found it harder to keep himself hidden. Cells were on both sides of the wall in the tier, although the cells weren’t as heavily occupied. But there were lights everywhere and voices echoed about the cold air, forever reminding him he wasn’t alone.

But Absolon just drifted onwards with Lord Bulwark slithering after him. He drifted around the circuit then slipped down an aisle, then turned left down another before re-joining back to the main loop. Eventually he was brought to another thick door; only this one was armed with three heavy locks and two guard posts.

Fox hunkered down in the only dark spot he could find, keeping himself out of sight through his glove. He didn’t know what to do here. He needed Bull to be able to take them both out at the same time and there was no way he could slip by under their noses.

Absolon however seemed to have an idea, or was just being his curious self. He drifted over to the buzzing bulb, surrounded by moths and flickered lightly, and touched it. It exploded, sending out a surge through, covering the post in darkness.

‘What’s ‘at?’ One of the guards blustered and stood up to investigate, bumbling about in the dark.

Fox struck. Slithering through the darkness, he arrested on man’s wrist, digging his fingers in tightly and sending him to sleep, and then struck out at the other’s face. Both collapsed within moments.

Fox was quick to try stuff them back into their stations, trying his best to make it seem like they were just dropped off rather than knocked unconscious. It was hard and he wasn’t happy with their positioning, but he didn’t have time to faff about. With the pressure that it was only a matter of minutes before an alarm was raised, Fox hurriedly unlocked the next door and entered.

Here, the corridor was wider and darker with only one ring of cells like the first tier. There were no sounds of footsteps, no voices. Nothing.

Ensuring his glove was keeping him hidden with its shadow spell, he marched onwards, sticking to the cold wall and its darkness.

And then he found her.

She was huddled in the corner of her cell; a room barren save for a bed and a unkempt toilet. She was curled up, her head buried in her knees and her arms wrapped around her legs. Her black her was unkempt, her skin grubby. She looked so small, so frail. And it made Fox furious. Where was her pride? Where was her glowing smile?

Fox rushed forward, hissing at Dupont to get her attention as he tried to figure out if any of the keys worked.

‘Dupont! Dupont!’ He snapped.

Very slowly, Dupont looked up and the looked of defeat on her features just added fuel to the fire. Her eyes were red, her cheeks stained with tears, her mouth miserable. She was so broken.

‘Fox?’ She called out weakly.

‘Yeah, it’s me.’ Fox hissed tossed away the set of keys. None of them were working so he dug out his lock-picks.

‘No, no you’re not meant to be here.’ She groaned. ‘Fox, go away. You will get caught and chucked into prison. You don’t deserve that.

‘Neither do you.’ He snapped as he worked.

‘ I do.’ Dupont said, her voice catching in her dry throat. ‘Fox, I lied to you. I really had killed her. I killed my aunt. And I lied to you about it. I tried to run away and escape the consequences. I failed.’ She shuffled forward and let her soft hands touched his own. Her fingers quivered. ‘Just get out of here, Fox. I’m ready to die now.’

Something snapped in Fox. He tore his eyes away from the lock and snapped her gaze with his. It was different seeing it with his own eyes, the damage of her truth changing. Before she had been adamant she couldn’t die. She had to bring justice to her aunt. But now, she was willingly to die. He could see it in her eyes. That golden hue that had once been so full of life was dull from pain and self-hate.

What he found hurt most was that she was willing to leave him forever.

‘I ain’t leavin’ you!’ He snarled. ‘You did nothin’ wrong, Dupont. You ain’t no killer and I’m gettin’ you out!’

Dupont flinched and shook her head. ‘No, just go away! I do not want to go!’

Fox ignored her. That wasn’t Dupont speaking, it was Denver. That bitch was making her talk like that.

‘Absolon! Open this bloody lock already!’

Absolon whistled and hurried to the lock, slipping his hands inside it. And by the time he had pulled it free and Fox had shoved the door open, Dupont was at the ever end of the cell, cowering in her corner.

‘Do not make me leave, Fox!’ She begged, her eyes filled up with tears. ‘I killed her!’

‘You didn’t.’ Fox said firmly as he approached her. He hated how she curled away from him with terror in her eyes.

‘I did! I was jealous of her! I wanted her position, her money, her magical capabilities! So I killed her! I remember, Fox!’

Dupont was in a tight ball now, sobbing and pleading with him to leave her where she was. She kept repeating she had to die, that her guilt was too much. She didn’t seem to be paying much attention to him either anymore, as if she had retreated into herself. Even when he hunkered down next to her, touching her hair to calm her down with Absolon desperately singing soothingly, she kept screaming and screaming about her guilt. It hit Fox why she had been so scared of her truth changing now. Seeing her crumpling before him, panicking at the idea of being set free, being overwhelmed by memories of a murder she never committed, was painful to him. A mix of hot anger and a strong desire to cradle her close to him over took him; a desire to murder Denver himself for what she had done to Dupont.

Suddenly a hand slinked over his shoulder and touched Dupont’s cheek. In seconds, her pleading and wailing had stopped. She’d fallen asleep.

Fox glanced up at Bull who stared down at Dupont. He couldn’t tell what her expression was, the goggles covered up half her face, but her tone was stiff.

‘She was making too much noise.’ Bull explained. ‘And there’s no way she would’ve gone quietly.’

Fox understood. If anything, he was glad she was asleep. She didn’t have to continue to live through the nightmare Denver had shoved her into and he didn’t have to have his heart torn apart at hearing the sheer agony leaving her mouth.

Just as Bull hauled Dupont over her shoulder, an alarm began to blare out.

‘Crap!’ Bull hissed. ‘We needed more time!’

Fox was trying to think fast, racking over his brain about Lithgow’s plan to get them out, but his head was just filled with blaring wails and Dupont’s desperate screams to die. He couldn’t think.

But then something shifted, like the world warped then popped back into place. They were suddenly back in the sewers, surrounded by its stench and darkness.

Lord Bulwark slithered through the air, his eyes glowing eerily and knowingly.

‘Why?’ Fox asked. ‘You’re not meant to help us.’

Lord Bulwark was quiet as he stopped by Dupont’s head and touched her hair with her nose.

‘Never before has this one heard such pain. Pain the Bloxham Sprite has been forced to endure.’ Lord Bulwark glanced up. ‘This one’s nature is to protect and this one chooses to protect the Bloxham Sprite rather than this Tower. Erase the fake truth in her. Bring her back.’

‘That’s already the plan.’ Fox scoffed but quietly he was thankful the Spirit had dragged them out of them prison. He doubted they would’ve succeeded.

‘Let’s hurry, Fox. It won’t be long until the realise she’s missing.’ Bull urged and hurried onwards.

Fox snatched up Absolon, who was drooping miserably in his arms, no doubt upset by his mistress’ pain, and glanced one last time at the Sprit.

‘This one will give the thieves time.’ He promised before popping like a bubble out of existence.

Fox wasted no more time. He hurried after Bull, watching as she carried Dupont carefully through the sewers. Even unconscious, Dupont’s expression was pained and lost.

Fox tightened his grip around Absolon.

‘I’ll fix her.’ He promised.

Absolon whistled, hopeful; a feeling Fox didn’t share.

Just how was he going to revive her lost truth when even Lithgow had failed? How was he going to make her want to live again?

Fox didn’t know but he had to succeeded. He didn’t want her to leave him, not when he had just got her back. He wanted her to live. He wanted to see her smile, hear her argue, see her blush and hide her face from embarrassment. He didn’t want that gone so suddenly. He desperately didn’t.