Looks like outdoor security hasn’t changed much in the last twenty-one years. I’m guessing they upped their game on the inside.
“Come on.” Sir nodded toward the open gates and pushed his sunglasses on top of his head. “I wanna get this over with before lunch.”
Cheyenne slipped her cell phone out of her jacket pocket to check the time. It was only 7:15.
Maybe the better question was why Sir was willing to give the drow halfling so much time inside the maximum-security prison for untouchable magicals. It really didn’t matter. She would’ve taken twenty minutes if that was the only option. Hopefully, it wasn’t.
Their footsteps crunched along the gravel drive until it gave way to the pavement stretching past the front gates. Cheyenne stuck her hands in her pockets because she had no idea what to do with them, but she made sure to keep up with Sir’s quick, authoritative pace.
“Morning, Sir.” One of the armed guards nodded, but neither of them moved from their posts as their guests passed.
“It’s definitely morning,” Sir replied, raising his eyebrows like he couldn’t believe he’d let himself be talked into bringing her here.
When they reached the entrance doors, another guard in the same uniform appeared out of nowhere to push the door open from the inside and hold it for them. He exchanged a curt nod with Sir, all business, and surprised Cheyenne by giving her the same. She lifted her chin at him, and that was it. They wouldn’t be this polite if they knew who I am.
Sir led her across the front lobby and past a small enclosed room on the left with a narrow pane of bulletproof glass. Another guard stood behind the window and the counter, but he barely looked up at them as they made their way toward the metal detector on the other side of the room.
Apparently, Sir was used to the process. He pulled out his keys, cell phone, and loose coins, then took off his sunglasses, undid his watch, and dumped it all in the plastic tray on the table. The guard standing behind the table nodded and ran the tray through the x-ray on a conveyer belt. Then Sir stepped through the extra-wide, extra-large metal detector that could’ve fit three people through it at the same time, and he was on the other side.
When Cheyenne stepped up to empty her pockets, the guard behind the desk raised his eyebrows at her but didn’t say a word. Out came her phone and her keys. She went ahead and took off her jacket, just in case metal buckles were an issue. Then she double-checked both pockets of her baggy black pants and didn’t turn up anything else. Last to go were the thick silver chains wrapped around both wrists. The guard behind the table just stared at her as she unwrapped them over and over before dropping the long string of chains into the plastic tray.
“Okay.” She rubbed her hands together and stepped through the metal detector. It flashed and beeped before she’d even gotten both feet through and onto the other side.
“Ma’am, please step back through. We need to try this again.”
Sir just raised his eyebrows at her, so she walked back through and waited for the guard to tell her what came next.
“Sometimes it’s the shoes. Take those off and place them up here on the belt, please.”
“Seems like a lot.”
“It’s policy.”
“Okay.” The halfling pulled off her shoes and ran them through, then headed under the metal detector one more time. The alarm went off just as quickly, and another guard stepped toward her from where he’d been standing by the opposite wall.
He grabbed the metal-sniffing wand from his belt and stopped just a little too close for Cheyenne’s comfort. “Spread your legs, please. Hold your arms out on both sides.”
Staring at Sir, the halfling did what she was told and waited for the guard to pass the wand up and down, side to side, from her collarbone all the way down to her socked feet and back up again. Then he looked up at her face and seemed to notice her piercings for the first time. He hesitated a little, then brought the wand up from her chin to the top of her head. The thing let out a squeal and two high-pitched beeps.
“Ma’am, I have to ask you to remove the various—”
“Yeah, the piercings aren’t coming out.”
“Ma’am—”
“No.”
The guard shot Sir a questioning glance, and the FRoE official shrugged. “Let her leave ‘em in.”
“Ma’am, is there a specific reason why you’re refusing to remove the various pieces of metal from your person?”
Cheyenne cocked her head and gave him a deadpan stare. “Yeah. They’re part of my religion.”
With a confused frown, the guard glanced one more time at Sir, then just shook his head. “Okay. Are you carrying any knives, firearms, or other weapons at this time?”
“No.”
“Do you currently have anything on your person that could be considered a weapon?”
She couldn’t help herself. This was Chateau D’rahl, after all, and it wasn’t like she had anything these guards hadn’t seen before. The halfling spread her arms and lifted both hands in front of her hips. It could have been a shrug or a wordless gesture to search her again if he was so worried about it, but then she slipped into her drow form in the blink of an eye and conjured the purple sparks, all the while staring at the man who’d asked the dumbest question he could have asked her.
The guard sucked in a sharp breath of surprise and took a step back. Then he frowned, which was about as close to reprimanding her as he was going to get.
Cheyenne cut off the sparks and pushed the heat of her drow magic all the way back down. “That’s about all I’ve got.”
Pressing his lips together, the guard just blinked at her and sighed. Then he grabbed her shoes off the x-ray’s
