The Sky Demons Part Two: Quest

Chapter Thirteen- The iron room

Kayira- The iron room

“Gods, you’re heavy,” I hissed at Ketsuo as we hefted his cage down the next flight of stairs. He looked at me and then down at himself as if to say, ‘Well, what did you expect?’

The sentry made no attempt to help us carry the cage- despite being a deishani with super strength on his side- and watched expectantly from the bottom of the staircase as we struggled to manoeuvre Ketsuo down it. Brutus- carrying the front of the cage- reached the bottom of the stairs first, I saw his head shift from side to side through the bars.

“There does not appear to be anyone guarding the lower levels today,” he commented.

“No,” replied the sentry, “the big boss- Miss Argenta- has taken most of our workers with her on a raid. She’s left her younger brother in charge with just enough guards to watch over the most important parts of the base.”

I let our group carry on down the corridor in silence for a few more seconds, before setting down my end of the cage with a thud. “Ah, this cage is so damn heavy,” I complained, stretching my arms above my head, “I’m sorry, but I’m just going to have to put it down for a few seconds.”

Ketsuo stared at me reproachfully, struggling to stand on the now diagonal surface.

“I am under the impression that you already have done so,” Brutus remarked dryly, setting his side of the cage down and giving Ketsuo even ground to stand on again.

I strolled around to the front of the cage, and leaned heavily against it.

“Oi, you two, you can’t rest up here all day. You asked to carry the wolf, so now you can carry it all the way to the break room in one go.”

“Why?” I asked, treating him to the most innocent expression I could conjure, “Do you think something bad will happen if we wait around here for a bit? Like, oh, I don’t know, the cage door coming open?”

I stepped away from the cage, letting the door that I’d just unlocked behind my back swing open. Ketsuo stepped out, and locked eyes with the senior guard. With glee in his eyes he slowly licked his lips and stepped closer to the man, letting a growl build up and rumble through his throat. The guard cursed and drew a knife, looking towards us for help. I smiled and leaned back against the cage.

Ketsuo pounced towards him, knocking the knife out his hand with a lazy swipe of his paw, easily outmatching the man for strength and speed. The sentry took off down the corridor and Ketsuo loped after him, letting him run for a while before knocking him head first to the floor. He sauntered back towards us, looking extremely pleased with himself, before finally turning back into his anian form so that we could speak to him.

“I’m assuming that you can’t sense anyone further down the corridor.”

“Nope,” replied Ketsuo, “we can carry on down to the next floor.”

We snuck down to the next floor, and the next and so on; passing living spaces and armouries, until we reached a floor filled with jail cells. We walked the length of the corridor, examining each one for occupants until we reached a cell with a door that hung limply to one side, the bars strangled with vines. I found myself stopping before it, staring at the broken shackles lying amongst the thick grass growing through the cracked stone floor. Old blood still stained some areas of the small space.

“Kayira? Is… is this the cell that Silvanus released you from?”

I turned. Ketsuo was watching me, his brows knitted together low over his eyes, he opened his mouth to say something else.