Red Smoke Rising. Rick Psy.D. Anthony

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СКАЧАТЬ on the bricks and kicked at them. After two or three blows, the bricks shattered and gave way. A dark hole opened up between the two cells.

      “Lio?” Mia’s voice cut through the darkness.

      “Yes?” came the response after a moment.

      “Get in here!”

      A moment later, Lio crawled through the opening with a look of utter confusion on his face. Kale snorted and went to work again. He waved his hands around the base of the outside wall just as he had done twice before.

      “You did this?” Lio didn’t even attempt to veil his shock as he looked back and forth between the holes in the cell walls. “I thought you were some kind of moron. I didn’t think you could do this...”

      Kale ignored him, concentrating on the wall. The trio fell silent again as the Trademaster focused on his work. Something was wrong. His hands began to move faster. After a while his movements were less controlled, more erratic. He waved frantically, trying to change the bricks. His frustration was obvious, but there was nothing the other two could do to help. After a while he sat down, folded his hands in his lap and hung his head.

      “I can’t get it.” He sounded defeated. “The outside wall is different somehow. I’ve never seen an aura like this. The bricks on the inside walls of the prison have been hardened, as have these, but these ones are just…different. I can barely see the aura. I can’t make anything work.” His hands dropped to his sides.

      “You took the drug?” Lio asked.

      “Yes,” Kale nodded.

      “Maybe it’s wearing off?” Lio suggested.

      “No,” Kale assured him. “That’s not it.”

      “What about the inside walls?” Lio asked in a hopeful tone. “Over there, the ones that hold the cell doors.”

      “So we could break further into the prison?” Mia objected. “That is the exterior wall. The inside wall will take us further in and we won’t stand a chance.”

      “I have kuval I could give you,” Kale offered.

      “It wouldn’t help. My armband is back at Ipsamesh,” she explained.

      “I need help,” Kale raised his voice, his words quickening. “Mia, you’re a Master, aren’t you? What options do we have?”

      “I’ve never spent any time studying such things,” Mia tried to reason.

      Kale turned immediately to Lio. He was desperate.

      “Here.” From his shirt pocket he retrieved the remaining kuval the healer had given him. He held it out to Lio.

      Lio’s eyes widened. His craving made him salivate.

      “No.” He crossed his arms and backed away, but his tone wasn’t entirely convincing. He licked his lips and stared at the vial, eyes darting between Kale’s face and his outstretched arm. “I don’t know anything about bricks either.”

      “Yes, you do!” Kale snarled. “I took a class from you four years ago. Drink it and help us!”

      Lio didn’t make a sound. His lip quivered.

      “There’s no time to argue with you,” Kale fumed. “You know this stuff inside and out. I assume that’s how you got the job teaching in the first place? Take it! Look at the wall and tell me what they did to it! Teach! Help!”

      “I can’t.” Lio bit down hard on his bottom lip. “I get paranoid, don’t think straight. Things go badly,” he stammered.

      “Enough!” Kale advanced on him. “Whatever this drug does to you isn’t as bad as what those guards will do if they find us in here. Take it or I’ll force it down your throat! You’re going to help. We’re getting out of here.”

      There was no choice. If he was going to die in Ipswal Prison, he might as well be entranced. Lio reached out and took the vial from his former student without a word.

      He looked at the vial in his palm and watched the red liquid splash around inside. With a deep sigh he removed the stopper and pipette and raised the glass tube to his mouth. In one smooth motion he ran the pipette down the middle of his tongue and closed his eyes. As he waited he returned the stopper to the vial and handed it back to Kale.

      Lio’s face twisted into a grin. He swayed back and forth with his eyes tightly shut.

      “Lio!” Mia prompted after a moment. “You all right?”

      Lio’s lips cracked a smile. He squinted against the light. “Yes.” His voice was distant.

      “Snap out of it!” Mia urged. “You need to concentrate and help us. What has been done to the bricks on the outside wall?”

      Lio slowly turned to the wall.

      “This might have been a bad idea,” Kale commented, steadying Lio with a hand on his back.

      “No,” Lio assured them. “I’ll be fine. It’s just been a while. Seven years…” his voice trailed off. “Hold on.” The professor looked at the wall, concentrating. “The bricks on the outside are augmented differently. They aren’t just strengthened.”

      “We know that,” Kale growled through clenched teeth. “We’re running out of time. We need to know how they’ve been changed, remember?”

      “I remember...” Lio’s voice trailed off again. His eyes were vacant as he stared at the bricks. Behind him, Kale paced impatiently.

      Lio turned back to him. “This is something I’ve never seen before. The bricks have been strengthened like the rest, they’re as strong as steel, but their auras have also been dimmed somehow. It appears the augmentation not only makes them stronger but also prevents them from being changed again. It’s really quite impressive. Whoever did this was skilled. I doubt either of us can undo it.”

      “Wait…I have an idea,” Lio spoke up after a minute of discouraged silence. “The mortar that holds the bricks in place! It’s been strengthened like everything else in here, but it hasn’t been dimmed in the same way. Could you change that?”

      Kale smiled as he processed Lio’s words. He ran his hands over the wall as he inspected it. “Yes,” he said without hesitation. “I think I can.”

      Without the drug in her system Mia couldn’t see the flickering aura swirling around the mortar as Kale changed it. She couldn’t see the dancing, colourful swirl of light ripple and change as he worked his craft. She could, however, see the mortar itself begin to change. It oozed from the spaces between the bricks as though they had just been set into place.

      Kale kicked hard at the wall. The mortar came apart as though it had never cured and the bricks slid out into the darkness.

      Mia walked over and looked out. “Good, we’re only on the second floor. We can jump from here.”

      “I’m not really much for heights,” Lio declared in a worried tone. Mia was at a loss for words. The eccentric old man had some strange quirks. СКАЧАТЬ