It took longer than it should have. I wasn't checking my phone when I was in the cell, but now I was encased in my suit. The time was in the upper right corner: 7:04 pm. Haley had started climbing around 6:30 pm.

Even assuming it would take thirty minutes to scale the wall, she would have finished by now.

I was fairly confident that it wouldn't take anywhere near that long. I'd watched her start her climb, calculated her speed based on how far she moved, taking into account the possibility of slowing down, and come to the conclusion that if it were 1000 feet, she shouldn't take more than ten minutes to scale the entire thing.

I couldn't be sure where we were, making the question of how long it would take to either get my backpack or find a helpful flier an unknown. All the same, I thought it was most likely that the prison was under the rocky foothill that took up half the compound. Bearing that in mind, the distance to one of the two could be as low as a minute.

That meant that her lack of return could easily mean she was in danger, captured, or dead.

Okay--she probably wasn't dead. The fey weren't stupid. They had to know that visiting mortal lands and killing kids would prompt a response. Some heroes could handle themselves in faerielands, and they'd likely exact a price for it.

I waited for another half hour, trying to think of a way to get up the hole on my own. I didn't get very far.

Climbing wasn't a realistic option. Radio waves couldn't get through rock, so the only way I'd contact someone was if they happened to be at the top of the hole. Sound might actually work better. If the top of the pit were inside a room of the Compound, I might be able to make the entire room vibrate. If I did it at regular intervals, I'd be able to conserve my energy as well as make it clear that this was deliberate.

I narrowcast the sound, assuming that the distance would cause it to disperse, but hopefully not enough to make it useless. Then I selected the first section of Rush's song "YYZ"--chosen because of its insistent beat. It also happened to be Morse code for YYZ, the letters designating the Toronto airport.

I felt sure that anyone who heard it would forgive me for not actually being located in Toronto or being an airport.

Of course, there weren't a lot of people who knew Morse code in the first place.

I raised my arms and fired, letting the music run for a little while. Once it was done, I waited for a minute and played it again. Then I stopped watching the time except that I set an alarm to go off in five minutes. When the alarm rang, I repeated what I'd done before.

I did it three more times.

As I readied my arms to start the fourth, I heard wind blow. Moments later, I felt its pressure on my suit. Guessing who it might be, I stared upward. The sonar gave me a picture of three people descending. Amy had transformed and wore the Bloodmaiden armor, carrying her spear in her hand. Vaughn and Samita floated downward, still in their civvies, but held in the air by the wind.

Vaughn's hair blew back past his head. Samita clenched her fists, and held her arms close to her body.

I guessed she might be feeling scared, and I couldn't say I blamed her. Even if you didn't know his history, he didn't give the impression he took anything completely seriously.

They landed in front of me--with Vaughn and Amy landing effortlessly on their feet and Samita nearly falling over.

"Sorry," Vaughn said, as she straightened, and took a breath. She didn't reply.

"You wouldn't believe how glad I am to see you," I said. "Did Haley tell you I was here?"

Samita shook her head. "No. We didn't see her."

Amy said, "She got out? Did she climb all the way up?"

Vaughn looked upward. "Wow. we didn't see her at all--at least I didn't. Amy's spell was supposed to help see through illusion, but she said it would help us see in the dark too."

Amy frowned. "We would have seen her."

"Then she got out," I said. "She was going to grab me a rocket pack, or at the least, grab someone to bring me up. Um... How bad is it?"

"Bad," Amy said.