Airie

Chapter 33

The door was narrow, and barely noticeable, of exactly the gray color as the stone wall around it. They had missed it completely the first time they had searched the place. It was locked, too, but Dusan didn't need a storm to take care of that. He stepped back and slammed the heel of his boot into the wood, hearing it crack from the blow. As he regained his balance, his legs got caught in the hem of his outfit, and he had to pause to gather the annoying folds of wet fabric in his fist. Then, he kicked the door again.

It took a few more blows until the lock finally gave in. The door opened a crack, and Dusan grabbed it and pushed it open into a narrow space that looked like a small utility room. It didn't contain any jars or boxes with body parts in them, thankfully. For one horrible moment, Dusan thought that there was no one there, despite the muffled calls for help that had brought them here. Then, as his eyes adjusted to the almost complete darkness of the windowless space, he saw a pale oval of a face and two eyes, wide open, staring at him.

"What's in there?" Tobias asked from the corridor. Being an airie, he'd kept his distance when Dusan had been kicking the door, careful not to get hurt, but, apparently, he wasn't above curiosity. "What do you see?"

"Oh my," said the person sitting on the floor, rising shakily to his feet. "Dusan? Tobias?"

At the sound of Reijo's voice, Dusan's knees went weak. The relief was unimaginable. A part of him had believed he would never see Reijo again, yet here he was, alive, not a box of grinded bones of a brain in a jar.

Dusan stumbled forward and wrapped his hands around him. The feeling of Reijo's body in his arms was so familiar, his smell, his presence—it was all too overwhelming. Dusan felt his own cheeks, on which the raindrops had long since dried, become wet again.

"You came," Reijo said into Dusan's chest. "How did you get past the gate?"

"A tree broke it."

"A tree?"

"Long story." Dusan paused, trying to get a hold of his emotions. "Come here."

He pulled Reijo after him, out of the small room. In the corridor, some moonlight was available, spilling through the tall windows, the glass in some of them shattered by the storm. In its weak light, he saw shackles on Reijo's hands and feet. A wave of anger rose in him at the sight, but he pushed it down. It didn't matter now. They could take care of the shackles later. Pale and visibly shaken, Reijo seemed mostly unharmed, and that was the important part.

"I don't understand." Reijo looked around at the debris on the floor and the glimmering shards of glass, then at Tobias who stood a safe distance away. "What happened? I heard so much noise, I thought the whole place was collapsing."

"There was a storm," Dusan said. "The oak tree fell and broke the gates."

"Oh." Reijo blinked. "That's... lucky?"

"Not lucky—arranged." Dusan nodded at Tobias who came closer, carefully picking his steps. "He's... of your kind."