Page 36 of Immortals and Ink
“I missed you too," Alexis whispered and left without looking back.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The cell was at the back of the cistern, behind a black-iron door that Arslan unlocked with a key shaped like an ankh.
The chamber was small, with walls of dark stone, and each block was incised at its center with a sigil Alexis hadn't seen since his time in Egypt. They covered every wall in lines so close-set they appeared at first glance as a single pattern.
"These wards don't drain magic?" he asked. He still didn't know how Con's immortality worked, and he didn't want to accidentally kill him.
"No. Only neutralize," Arslan replied from the doorway. "I copied them from a book that was written in Edfu. They were drawn to hold a prisoner with the strength of a god and the temper of a beast. Whoever I have put in there has stayed in there and come out alive."
"Who exactly have you put in here?"
"One of them was myself, after a very bad winter. The other two are walking about. One of them is still my friend."
Alexis turned to look at him. "You held yourself in this room? Why?"
"I've lived a long time, amico. I'm not always the man I want to be."
There was nothing to say to that. There was a place under the villa in Venice that was similar, and Alexis had locked himself in it more than once.
Phaidros, who had been leaning in the doorway with his arms folded, came into the chamber and looked at the sigils with careful attention. It was easy to forget that Phaidros had been a magician of great skill long before he was anything else.
"It definitely won't kill him?" Phaidros asked.
"Absolutely not." Arslan looked between them, and Alexis could see the questions in his eyes. They still hadn't told him about Con's immortality, but Arslan was smart enough to know there was something different about him, or he wouldn't be offering a warded cell. "He won't feel the magic. Food and water will pass through the door. Books if he wants them, and he can always talk to his keepers."
Phaidros laughed. "I doubt it because I will be his keeper, and we have never tolerated each other for long."
They came out of the chamber, and Arslan shot the bolt and locked the iron door behind them. They walked back through the library chambers in silence, past shelves of books, and where the peri was still sitting with her nose in a book.
They came to the table where they had drunk tea the night before. A chart of the city lay across it. Phaidros had weighted three of its corners with cups, and the fourth with his own dagger.
"Tell me your plan," Arslan said as they sat down. "I've received a report from a Genoese spy that Mehmed is planning to throw every man he has at the walls until they get through."
"And what did the sultan promise to get them to agree to that madness?" Phaidros asked. "Honor? Titles? Eternal paradise?"
"No. Money."
Phaidros sighed. "Ah, the one true god. Let me guess? He'll let them loot the city."
"Exactly."
Alexis put a finger on the chart at Saint Romanus Gate. "Constantine will be at the wall when it breaks. I'll go in before the assault in the early dark and stay near him unseen. When the wall breaks, I'll make my move and take him."
"By force?" Phaidros asked.
"If I have to."
Phaidros made a sound that was half a sigh and half a curse. "He's going to fight you as well as the Ottomans."
"I won't fight him. I'll hit him from behind and carry him out under glamor the way I came in. I've already chosen the route. There is a postern between the second and third gate-towers north of Saint Romanus that the Genoese have been using to bring in supplies. I will go out that way."
"And if he sees you before the wall breaks?"
"Then I'll be there as a friend at his side when it happens, and I'll hit him a half-second after the first breach. He won't know it was me until he wakes up again."
Arslan studied the map of the city. "I can't be with you at the gates. I need to stay close to Galata to help the civilians and coordinate my men, but I can make sure I'm here waiting. If you bring him in, the chamber will be ready."
