HeadingForJohannIndex | Time Under Chaos | Player Characters | Larissa Rohl | Threads involving Larissa | Heading for Johann
Larissa, one of her heavy law tomes under her arm, made her way past the guards and down the steps to the dungeons where Johann was confined. The guards at the head of the stairs saluted; clearly they had been warned that the defence might wish to visit her client. The stairs were carved from living rock but Johann was held on one of the higher levels, perhaps for convenience, perhaps to keep him well away from the Pattern. There was a long corridor here - halfway down, a wooden door marked where Johann was being held. But, oddly enough, there seemed to be no guards, even though the door seemed still to be firmly fastened ... Then Larissa heard a sound from the dark shadows at the end of the tunnel she was in. It sounded very like a snore, coming from near the ground ... And there was a greater darkness within those shadows ... as though someone had moved there swiftly to hide as Larissa approached ... Larissa stopped, a smile tugging at her mouth. "Whoever it is, I suspect I'm more on your side than not," she said to the shadows, and waited. Her voice was amused. The figure slipped out of the shadows. The black catsuit wasn't going to set a fashion trend in Amber, but probably would have given Morgan a thrill, since it did little to conceal the contours of its contents. The matching gloves, slippers, and hooded mask were more serviceable, as was the many-pouched belt. Only the startling ice-blue eyes were likely to give her away in the dark. Ness's voice issued softly from the mask. "I suspect you're right. Give me a hand: I'm having some trouble with the door." Larissa examined the door, then squatted for a better look at the lock. It had been one of the things she had intended to surveil with the Pattern earlier, but that had not gone as planned. "Worst case, I kick it off its hinges," she muttered darkly. "Did the guards have keys, Ness?" "Ah, now there's an idea," Ness replied. The mask hid her facial expression, but she still managed to look sheepish. "We'd probably have better luck with keys than these." She held up a pair of enameled hairpins, which might have been quite lovely before they were mangled into makeshift and inexpert lockpicks. "I'll go check." She slipped back into the shadows. Larissa heard rummaging in the dark, and Ness's voice murmur, "Well, that's quite nice, but of no use to me at the moment." Finally she returned, keyless. "I suppose Father thought it best not to keep the keys right outside the door," she said. "Any other ideas?" "It's never that simple," Larissa said, unperturbed. "Do you have any sort of magical perceptions?" she asked, fishing around oddly inside her tome. More of her arm was inside the book than its dimensions would have seemed to allow. "If the lock is sorcerous, these won't be of much help." She brandished a bundle of dark cloth far, far too large to have been concealed inside a book (even a law book). "Nice book. You could get lost in a book like that." "Maybe I'll teach you the trick someday," Larissa said, but she sounded sad. Larissa undid a tie and rolled out a truly impressive kit of lockbreaking tools that gleamed softly in the diffuse light. "I don't want to go fishing about in the workings until I know it won't set off a warning spell," she said, looking evaluatingly between the lock and her tools. "Be careful if you're going to poke around with something more than sight; there's some sort of effect on Johann that pulls psychic contacts into an utterly charming little folie aux plusiers." "If there were any sort of alarms on the lock, I'm pretty sure I would have set them off already. You go ahead, I'll stand watch. But don't go in once you have the door open. I overheard Father mention some of the things he's done in there, and I suspect Johann will scream and attack whoever enters. I can drug him, like I did the guards, but the other guards will come running. Can you get us out of here quickly?" "Yes and no. It will take me some time to open the way, but once established, we can step through the gate at leisure," Larissa said. She was once again groping inside her book. "Provided I don't fall over in a heap," she added darkly. "I'm exhausted, Ness. I've been invoking the Pattern as though it's a parlor game." Larissa found what she was seeking, and withdrew a sword, its belt wrapped around it. "Guards are not a problem," she said, and buckled the sword to her waist. It did not look as silly as it might have over her full skirt. Larissa selected a pair of slender lockpicks from her kit and started on the lock. It was not easy - indeed, nearly three quarters of that extensive kit had been essayed before Larissa found a set out picks that seemed likely to work. And then it took rather longer than she was expecting to manipulate the bolts and tumblers. In this time a couple of guards had come to their floor and wandered along to investigate. Clytemnestra slipped briefly away; there were soft groans, and she came back. And then, suddenly, the door was open, if not yet opening. "Got it," Larissa said, but she was scowling. "Too easy. Your father wants someone to succeed at this." She repacked her kit delicately. "At any rate, how shall we proceed? Once I start opening the gateway, I'll be of no use at all." Larissa looked searchingly at her cousin. "Could you hold the door for a minute or two? Cells are quite defensible," she added, with a ghost of a smile. "I think you'd better open the gate before we go in. I expect Johann's going to be quite loud, and despite the pile back there in the corner, there are still a lot of guards left. We'll have to leave immediately. My plan is to rush in, drug Johann, and drag him out through your gate. I might be able to hold the door, but I'd rather not have to try. "Won't be that simple," Larissa said. "He's chained, and the pins are fused. However--" she once again dug around inside the book (the study of law apparently having been a fruitful one for Larissa) and pulled out the most ridiculously impossible thing yet: a pair of bolt cutters with handles fully five feet long, "--I came prepared." She handed them to Clytemnestra. "I'd like to hold off briefly to see if those work. If they don't, I think I'll be able to sever the chains, but I can't do that and open the gate at the same time." Larissa sighed. "We can always spike the door. "Oh!" she said suddenly. "I'm a fool. I'm supposed to be here. They'll be slower to respond to the sounds of Johann's madness because they'll be expecting it." "You poor dear, you look exhausted. Maybe I can help." Clytemnestra removed her right glove and held her hand up against Larissa's cheek. Ness closed her eyes and concentrated, and Larissa felt some measure of warmth and energy return to her. Afterward though, her cousin looked drained. "I don't know now if I can hold the door," Ness sighed, leaning back against the wall. Eyes twinkling, she added, "I'm a lover, not a fighter. But I'll do what I can, if necessary." She fetched a sword from one of the sleeping guards and thrust it through her belt. She pulled a pad of cloth from one of her pouches, poured something aromatic on it from a vial, and put the vial back in its pouch. "Okay, I'm ready." Larissa nodded, shoved a scrap of metal into the keyhole, and pulled the door open just wide enough for her cousin to slip through. Johann was slumped up against the wall, singing nearly inaudibly from where his rescuers stood. There was as much slack in the chains as his confinement allowed, and he showed no signs of noticing the others' presence. Ness advanced steadily into the room, the cloth pad in one hand. Larissa followed, her skirts whispering. She closed the door, now unable to lock from having its workings jammed with bits of her last clockwork project, and shoved the blade of a dagger between the door and jamb with all her strength. Watching Ness to be sure she could cut the chains, Larissa began tentatively to reach for the Pattern, alert for any interference. ~You're probably a metaphor,~ Larissa thought, ~but if not, Unicorn, grant me strength...~ As Ness approached, Johann flailed wildly in the chains. Once she was in position to do so, Ness slipped her bare right hand behind his neck. He heard her whisper ... And a feeling of wild euphoria overtook him, as fierce and primal and savage as a bacchanal. His struggle became wilder, almost more exultant. With a heavy rasping, one chain tore lose from the wall, even as Ness clamped down the chloroform pad over his mouth and nose. It would take a minute for him to be overwhelmed by that - and a second chain seemed likely to give way ... And all the while, like a fierce animal, he was trying to snap and rend her fingers through the pad with his teeth. Johann let out a muffled cry of "Traitors!" through the rag and continued to struggle as he kicked and bit at Clytemnestra and struggled against the chains which still bound him. Ness moved swiftly, avoiding the kicking right leg. And there was something in her bearing, something in her demeanour that seemed to compel calming, soothing ... Perhaps it was working ... certainly Larissa seemed calm enough as she stepped forward. She strode up on Johann's left, sword held in a reverse grip, and swung a short sharp blow at his temple, hoping to knock him unconscious with the pommel--and also hoping she hadn't misjudged his condition badly enough to kill him. Johann, overcome either by the chloroform, the force of Ness's personality or the heavy blow, slumped down in his bonds, unconscious. Ness examined the tattered, saliva-soaked glove on her left hand. "Crap. I liked these gloves. Looks like I'm going to have some bruises to explain away too, but I don't think he broke the skin. I hope my nails are still...." She stopped, looked up at Larissa, paused for a moment, then set to work with the bolt cutters. "We heal quickly," Larissa said, almost too mildly. She took the pulse at Johann's throat, then peeled back an eyelid. "He's lucky his head's so hard, though I don't imagine he'll thank me when he comes to." She watched just long enough to be sure Clytemnestra was managing the chains, then leaned back against the none-too-clean wall of the cell. Clytemnestra was getting through the chains - perhaps a little more slowly than she would have liked. Larissa spoke. "If anyone comes through that door before I finish, stick them." She brandished her sword to accentuate the point, and propped it carefully next to her. "Don't worry overmuch about technique. It'll go through any armor the guards will have." ~All right, Unicorn, this time I mean it~, Larissa said. ~I hope.~ Her thoughts sounded tired even to her as once again, she began to call the glowing curves of the Pattern to mind.... The Pattern came - slowly, reluctantly, like a teenager collected by parental auto just as the party started to get really good. But it came. "Almost... ungh. done... crap. This last one's giving me some trouble." Ness yanked her hood off and used it to wipe her face before tucking it into a belt pouch. Then she set back to work with the cutters, trying a different link. "How's that exit coming along?" Larissa didn't say anything for a long moment. "Slowly," she finally said hoarsely. "Can't tell...if it's me...or something else." She was breathing deeply and slowly--the alternative was panting quickly and raggedly. "Just...let me concentrate." It took some time but just as the final link holding Johann snapped, Larissa managed to feel her way to opening a remote and somewhat dangerous passage that Bleys had shown her once, a long time ago. With a grunt and a clanking of links, Clytemnestra hauled Johann up on her back. "Whenever you're ready, Madam Counselor. Absence is the best defense." Her nose wrinkled, and she grimaced as Johann's head lolled over her shoulder. "I'm obviously going to have to talk to Father about the hygiene of the prisoners." "Step through," Larissa said, gesturing at a hole in the world that seemed to lead to a location about as pleasant as Johann's erstwhile residence. She appeared much more relaxed, but no less distracted. "I'll be along presently." She sheathed her sword, almost dreamily. Needing no further encouragement, Ness stepped through the hole. Larissa retrieved her dagger from the door, but left the bolt cutters. Before joining Clytemnestra and her troublesome burden, she paused at the threshold between here and there, and grinned a wicked grin. She gathered up the fabric of reality as though it were the hanging end of a tablecloth--and pulled. The remnants of spells and traces of energy went flying like so much upended silverware and crystal as the dungeon cell became suffused with Pattern. "Trace that, Mandor," she muttered, and stepped through her gateway, leaving the scene of the crime. Once on the other side, she let reality return to its normal, non-location-bridging state behind her, and sagged against a stony wall, no longer bothering to conceal her fatigue. "I'm quite through with Powers for the day, thank you," she wearily told a spot on the floor about six inches from the tips of her toes. Ness looked around anxiously, bowed under her load. "Okay, that's fine, it's just that we seem to still be in the dungeon. I thought that escaping would mean somewhere a bit further away. You know, somewhere with a different set of guards, or perhaps no guards at all." "Secret passage," Larissa said with a chuckle. "The Castle's lousy with them. We're nowhere near the dungeons...nowhere near anything else, really, come to think of it." She straightened. "Here, give me the problem child. He's going in the book with everything else." Watching Larissa stuff Johann into an extradimensional space was not an experience that was easy on the brain. That her hand came back out holding a folded pile of dark cloth that turned out to be a hooded cloak was just an added insult. Ness didn't seem the least surprised. It seemed likely that she'd seen something similar before. "If you'll trust a soon-to-be fugitive from the King's justice," Larissa said wryly, settling the cloak about her shoulders, "I'll take you as close to your rooms as I can." "Much appreciated, thanks, I've had enough excitement for one night. What makes you think you'll be a fugitive? Did you leave a calling card?" "Consider," Larissa said as she led the way through the cramped passage. "The Princess Larissa is seen to enter the dungeons, but not to leave. Moreover, there is a pile of drugged guards outside a suspiciously Johann-free cell. The Princess is well known to be tender-hearted. What conclusion would you draw--especially if you didn't care for said Princess to begin with?" "Ah, excellent points. Speaking of being tender-hearted, what about the guards? You seemed quite willing to skewer guards, who have done nothing worse than dedicate themselves to protecting this place, in order to save someone who gave no regard to innocent bystanders when he blew up a building and fired bullets into a crowd, intent on actual murder. Helping him escape execution I understand, manslaughter on his behalf I do not." "One may be fond of dogs," Larissa said, "and still not hesitate to put them down when they become a threat to people." The back of her head did not give much clue as to what expression she might be wearing. Clytemnestra did not respond to this, but merely followed her cousin through the darkness. After a few minutes of silent walking and a climb up an unpleasantly narrow ladder, Larissa stopped in front of a section of wall cunningly rigged to swing inward. "This is as close as I can bring you--there's probably an exit nearer your rooms, but I've never known the secret ways as well as Dad did." She indicated, but did not trigger the catch. "This is a corridor in the family wing. The door's hidden behind a tapestry, so you can peek out before making your appearance. It's nearest the yellow sitting room with that hideous portrait of Rilga. "Oh!" she said suddenly. "I am stupid today. It's right down the hall from where Flora put Helena.* I wish I could claim credit for planning, but I seem to be as oblivious as Chad this evening." Ness stifled a giggle, and it turned into an unladylike snort. "You're much too hard on yourself. Thank you for your guidance. And yes, it would be nice to drop in on my sister, but I think I'd better change first. This outfit might lead to awkward questions." "Good luck with our friend there," Ness said, nodding toward the book. "Where will you go now? And is there anything I can do to help you get there?" "It's better for us both if you haven't the faintest idea where I ran off to," Larissa told her. "In fact, I advise you to avoid Mandor and dear Damien for a few days. I covered for you--the whole dungeon is going to reek of Pattern for weeks--but you don't want to risk giving something away. You'll have a plausible excuse, what with your father's performance at dinner." Larissa put a hand on her cousin's forearm. "About that. Ness, he baited you into doing something foolish. If you want to be a player instead of a pawn, do things because they serve you, not because they spite your enemies." She grinned crookedly. "Of course, if you can do both, that's always best." Ness grinned back. "Then I'd have to stop being impulsive, and I'm not giving him the satisfaction of making me change." She gave Larissa a quick hug. "You be careful. You're worth twelve of him," she said, nodding at the book again. "Well, more than that. Stay in touch, if you can manage it without being noticed." Larissa returned the hug. "Oh, I think I can work something out. My regards to Helena, and my love to Tear, if you can find a way to deliver either without tipping your hand." Ness peeked out through the door, and seeing the corridor empty, pulled on her hood and headed for her rooms, keeping in the shadows.
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