“Ha! You don’t know him like I do. He’s jealous to a fault.”
Arun moved toward the door. Nero grabbed her forcefully by the arm and twirled her around to face him. “Then don’t go to him now. Let’s run away together and leave this place behind.”
Arun pushed him away, but less forcefully this time. “The daughter of a great house can’t run away with a worthless surface elf. If I did, I wouldn’t live out another turn of the moon.” She broke away from him and made for the door.
Nero made one last plea that he hoped was just enough to push her, but not enough to convince her. “Don’t go, Arun.”
Arun stopped in her tracks for several heartbeats and then continued without turning back. Nero smiled fiercely and watched from the window as Arun emerged from the Keep and closed the door. She stood perfectly still with her head down in deep thought. She turned to the guard stationed outside the Keep, and Nero heard her say, “Do you know where the soldier went who just came out of this building?”
The guard shook his head. “I don’t know ma’am. Maybe the barracks.”
Arun took a step forward and stopped inches from the guard’s face. “How can you not know where he went? He just left this Keep!”
The lowly guard was completely flustered. “I – I – I’m sorry ma’am.” Arun turned around and walked toward the barracks at a brisk pace.
Nero couldn’t stop smiling as he turned away from the window. Perfect. He packed his things as the sun came up over the fortress wall. Luck, or the power of Venal, was with him still. He took a last look around at the apartment that had been his home for the last several days. It had been nice to take a vacation, but one didn’t get ahead by taking the easy path. At long last he was getting back into the action, and he was quite certain he wouldn’t be coming back to this room ever again.
Chapter 66: Evisar’s Gamble
Gram’s anger had barely been satiated, but he had gone as far as he could with Xander. The injury to Xander’s stomach was enough to kill him without Arun’s healing power, and he was the only link to the gem. Eventually the guard who he sent to fetch Arun opened the dungeon door and came galloping down the steps.
He came directly over and whispered into Gram’s ear. “Sir, I found the priestess Arun and gave her your message.”
Gram pulled away and said, “Thank you, soldier,” but the soldier did not move away and looked like he had something else to say. “Is there something else?”
The soldier looked down at his feet and waffled back and forth. He finally said, “Yes, sir,” and leaned in toward Gram’s ear again. “I feel I should tell you that when I found Arun, she was in bed with the elf who arrived two days ago.”
Gram turned his face sharply to see if what the soldier was saying was true, and he could see that it was. Anger swelled in him at the thought of Arun’s betrayal. Gram lost control of himself and nearly killed the soldier who delivered the horrible news. No, he would not kill the messenger. It was not his fault.
But there was nothing stopping him from giving Evisar a death worthy of a Krone torture chamber. He turned to the three guards on his left and said, “Take Xander down, put him in the cell, and hang the elf up in his place.” The guards took Xander down and moved him into the cell. Xander had nothing to lose by fighting. He tried his best, but he was badly wounded and in the end the soldiers had little trouble throwing him to the stone floor.
The three guards moved toward Evisar, and Gram mentally prepared himself for the escape attempt he would no doubt foolishly try. Evisar was smart enough to know he was about to die and that made him unpredictable and dangerous. A dragon was most lethal when it was cornered, but to his surprise Evisar allowed two of the guards to grab him under each arm. They led him out of the dungeon with the third guard aiming a crossbow not four feet from his back. Gram’s eyes fell to the bolt in Evisar’s stomach just for an instant, and that was when Evisar made his move.
He lifted his feet off the ground, planted one foot behind each guard in mid-stride, and flung himself backward with the strength of four men. The two guards holding his arms tried to step backward to regain their balance and tripped over Evisar’s widely spread feet. The guards went down hard on their backs as the guard standing behind them fired his crossbow. The bolt went flying over Evisar’s head, and Gram was unceremoniously forced to dodge to his right as the bolt flew past him and took one of the other guards in the chest.
Evisar landed on his back with such force that both his arms came free. Almost before he hit the ground, Gram watched Evisar gracefully bring his right hand over and pull the sword from the left soldier’s scabbard. With steel in his hands, Evisar came up on one knee in a single, fluid motion. He brought the sword around in a savage cut that went through the guard standing behind him and continued on to lodge in the neck of the guard to his right as the guard tried to get up. Gram heard Gaston and the rest of the guards draw steel at the same time Evisar jumped to his feet and charged.
Gram was impressed that he did not waste energy on words of revenge or yelling. Evisar chose instead to concentrate on the task at hand, proving he was not the child who had watched his father be murdered only a few moons ago. As Evisar ran forward the remaining guards rushed in from all sides. Evisar did not slow his advance, lest he be swamped from all angles. He made a sweeping swing with his sword in mid-stride that cut down one guard on his right and one on his left, clearing a path to Gram. The wizard was already in motion with his hand raised and words of magic on his lips. A cone of ice and bitter cold leapt from his finger and blew Evisar back against the wall twenty feet away. The young elf slammed into the wall with such force that he fell unconscious from the impact and dropped his sword.
Two of the guards still alive, along with the four who were dead, were likewise thrown against the wall by the force of the wind. All of them had a thick coat of frost covering their bodies when the spell was finished. With a flick of his hand, the cell door swung shut of its own accord before the other companions could react. He turned back to Evisar once again and said a chant to the spirits of the fifth hell. He looked on as four shadow demons rose out of the ground, two on either side of Evisar. Gram willed the shadow demons to each pick up a limb with his mind. They each picked up a limb and slammed Evisar’s body against the stone wall and held him there. As Evisar hit the wall, his frost-covered body came back to life with a groan.
Gram casually put his hands behind his back as he walked over to Evisar, who struggled pointlessly against the shadow demons’ grasp. “That was very courageous of you. Your talent with the sword brings true credit to your father’s name. I want you to know I have enjoyed our little talks, but as a lesson to Xander, I am going to have to allow Gaston to kill you now.”
Xander yelled out wearily from the cell, “No, Gram, I will tell you where I hid the gem. Just leave Evisar alone.”
Gram turned to Xander and saw he was hardly able to stand as his blood loss continued to mount. “You sound sincere this time, but unfortunately we are well past that point. There is a lesson to be learned here.” He turned to Gaston and said, “Kill him quickly.”
Gaston replied, “It’s about time.” He moved casually toward Evisar and drew Neverlost from the scabbard at his side, taunting Evisar with both deed and words as he walked forward. “This scene looks very familiar to me. Oh yes, now I remember. I killed your father in almost the same way. He was held in place, very much as you are now, defenseless. I took my time, circled around him, told him what a failure he was to his dead king and how Armena was about to fall. Then I stabbed him through the heart as you and your brother watched.
“It’s a shame we had to kill your brother. It would’ve been nice if he was here to see your death, but I suppose one of you had to die first. You’re so much like your father that I think your death should be the same as his. Like father, like son.”
For his part, Evisar looked Gaston in the eyes the entire time. He did not cry out or beg for mercy even though he kne
w what was coming. Perhaps all surface elves were not as weak as Gram thought. Gaston continued by saying, “You know, I’ve never come as close to death as when you pushed me into that portal. Now revenge is mine.” Gaston held the sword up to Evisar’s chest and found the most vulnerable spot.
Chapter 67: Strike Down Those Who Abuse Their Power
Mestel’s spirit settled over his broken body and by the power of Martel, Mestel felt rather than watched as he was made whole by his god’s hand. He moved his fingers and toes and was elated to be home once again. The elation faded quickly as Mestel opened his eyes and saw Tristan’s dead body lying next to him. He then heard rather than saw what was going on down the hall. “I killed your father in almost the same way. He was held in place, very much as you are now, defenseless. . . . You are so much like your father that I think your death should be the same as his. Like father, like son.”
Mestel slowly sat up and slid over to his bow and quiver along the wall. Gram, Gaston, and a host of guards were focused on Evisar and had their backs to him. They had no chance to see his small movements in the dark, thirty feet behind. He nocked an arrow and came up onto one knee in order to have the best possible shot.
Mestel didn’t recognize any of the guards, but Gaston and the wizard were burned into his memory. Jefon had been the first to arrive after his father had been stabbed through the heart, and he had watched as Gram and Gaston teleported away from the battle. What’s more, Mestel could never forget the face of the wizard who killed him during the fight at the fortress. Only by the grace of his god had he been given the chance for revenge upon those who imprisoned innocents and abused their power, and he would not be denied.
Gaston was talking to Evisar with Neverlost in his hand. Mestel sensed his brother had mere moments to live as he pulled the arrow back behind his ear.
“You know, I have never come as close to death as when you pushed me into that portal. And now revenge is mine.”
Mestel took precise aim and let loose the arrow. It hummed through the air and covered the distance in an instant, passing cleanly through Gaston’s neck, and leaving two gaping wounds spraying blood across the dungeon wall. Gaston, a leading member of the Talon Guild’s Inner Circle, dropped unceremoniously to the floor, and Neverlost fell from his hand.
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Gram saw Gaston’s blood spray against the wall, instinctively looked behind him, and saw something that could not be. The dead, dismembered elf he killed three days ago was up on one knee with a loaded bow in his hand. Gram did not stop to ponder the impossible as he shot a spell at the ghostly elf.
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Time slowed for Mestel as he looked at Gram and saw through his manner and body language exactly what he was going to do. He even recognized the arcane words the wizard spoke as he pointed his finger at him, something he hadn’t been able to do before. He threw his body to the right in a tuck-and-roll on the ground as Gram’s lightning bolt passed harmlessly overhead. Mestel seamlessly finished the roll and came up onto one knee with an arrow drawn back to his ear. The guards charged toward him with their swords in hand, and Mestel let loose arrow after arrow, killing each guard in turn. As quickly as thunder flashes across the sky, the last guard crashed to the ground with an arrow in his neck – dead before he hit the floor. Mestel was amazed by his lethality, and while there was no doubt he wasn’t as strong, nor fast as he used to be, somehow he was more dangerous. Just as Martel had promised, his sureness of hand, along with the almost sixth sense intuition he had about his enemy’s body language and intent, made up for the loss of physical skills in a way he wouldn’t have thought possible.
The advantage of surprise was gone. Gram quickly shot his arm into the air and uttered the arcane word that Mestel somehow understood would hurl several enchanted missiles at him. Thinking quickly, he managed to take two steps to his left and pick up Tristan’s shield. He dropped his bow and was barely able to lock the shield into place when five missiles came sizzling through the air. He managed to block four of the missiles, but he wasn’t quick enough as the fifth missile sneaked in under his shield and hit him in the thigh, taking his leg out from under him and knocking him to the ground.
Mestel lifted his head off the stone floor and saw Gram casting a more complex weave, intending to end the fight quickly by killing Mestel outright, forcing him back into purgatory.
As the spell took effect, his world went dark, and he saw a skull with red eyes come flying out of the nothingness toward him. The skull came to a sudden halt ten feet in front of him, and the eyes began to glow brighter. The skull opened its mouth and repeated one phrase over and over again. “Die, elf. Die, elf.” Mestel’s eyes and mind hurt from the blinding power of the light; he could feel his soul ripping away from his body as the eyes stared deeper into his soul. “Die, elf.”
But he was prepared for the battle of wills and said back to the skull, “I think not.” Mestel held his ground and didn’t look away as the ruby red eyes became brighter than the sun. “You have no power here, God of the Dead. Go back from whence you came.” After a few more moments, the skull crumbled to ashes.
Mestel’s sight returned. He knew the battle of wills, which seemed like an eternity, had actually taken place in the snap of a finger. He threw down Tristan’s shield and picked up his bow. He pulled the fletching back to his ear and aimed for the wizard’s heart. Mestel’s aim was true, but at the last possible moment, Gram yelled out a defensive word and the arrow deflected away from his heart and took him in the hand, shattering several bones as the shaft embedded itself in his palm.
The magical arts were so rare that people of unsettled areas often thought of them as myth and legend, but Mestel had been lucky enough to grow up inside a castle made by the race that invented magic. From the lessons of his youth, he knew a wizard needed the free use of his hands in order to cast spells. With an arrow sticking through Gram’s hand, he had effectively taken the wizard out of the fight. Gram yelled out in pain and stared incredulously at his broken hand. Mestel wasted no time in gloating as he nocked another arrow and fired. He grumbled to himself as the arrow deflected away from Gram’s chest once again and struck the stone wall.
Gram stood frozen, looking at his hand in stunned silence as Mestel pulled two arrows from his quiver this time and nocked both of them onto the bow. He aimed for Gram’s heart and throat simultaneously and fired. The arrow meant for his throat veered off again and hit the wall, but the magic shield around Gram either couldn’t handle two projectiles at once or else Mestel got lucky, because the second arrow meant for Gram’s heart veered off at the last instant and struck him in the left shoulder instead. The force of the impact threw him back against the wall and he fell to one knee. Gram looked up at Mestel, and through his pain he seemed to realize the severity of his situation. His mouth curled up into a snarl, and then he turned around and bolted outright for the stairs before Mestel could reload and fire again. Mestel ran to the base of the stairs in order to get a shot at the fleeing wizard and nocked two arrows once again. He shot the arrows at the wizard’s back, but this time both arrows deflected harmlessly away and hit the stone wall. Gram managed to make it to the top of the stairs and rounded the corner. Mestel ran up the stairs three at a time, but Gram shut and bolted the steel door just before he could force it open.
Mestel looked on for a moment before sighing inwardly. Revenge would have to wait for another time. His god’s creed burned in his heart. Mestel turned impulsively to free his brother and friends from their wrongful imprisonment.
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Nero sneaked out a back window of the Noble’s Keep and climbed down into the shadows of a back alley. Eventually he made his way to the Krone barracks and was approaching it from the shadows of the neighboring building when he saw Gram walking briskly across the open courtyard toward the soldier’s barracks with Arun and the guard who found him and Arun in bed together. Nero was
too far away to see much, but Gram seemed to be speaking very quickly and with a lot of anger. Nero smiled and nearly laughed out loud. Gram had been drawn out of the dungeon in order to avenge himself against Nero, just as he had predicted. Nero took a last look around to make sure no one was watching. He opened the door to the Krone barracks and headed for the dungeon.
Chapter 68: Mestel and the Companions
As Gram fled the dungeon and locked the door behind him, the shadow demons holding Evisar in place against the wall slowly melted back into the ground from whence they came, leaving Evisar down on all fours with a bolt sticking out of his stomach. Mestel stood calmly in the center of the room feeling the weight of everyone’s stare. Evisar’s amazement, disbelief, and gratitude could not be missed, but there was also uncertainty about who this new person was in front of him. Mestel stood there impassively as Evisar, with tears in his eyes, climbed to his feet and walked gingerly over to embrace his brother. Mestel accepted the embrace wholeheartedly, and the world stood still for several heartbeats as the brothers were reunited.
Evisar pulled away and said, “Jefon, you’re alive. How is this possible?”
Mestel was gratified beyond words that he had arrived in time to save his brother’s life, but he simply said, “Jefon is dead. My name is Mestel.”
Evisar pulled away from Mestel and stood back with an unhappy look. “Then where is my brother?”
Mestel knew what Evisar wanted to hear, but he couldn’t give him the answers he sought, lest he betray Martel’s newly placed trust in him. “My faith in Martel has brought me back. I serve the Faithful Falcon.”
Evisar cocked his head to one side in thought. “Are you saying you are my brother, and that Martel has brought you back to life in order to serve him?”
Do the Gods Despise Us? Page 23
