by B G Mitchell
Gary, in a slightly surprised voice, replied, “I thought I was. I have no idea why I am suddenly Morkangin’s most wanted.”
Bloodhammer sighed a little too loud for Gary’s liking. “Well, this is a problem,” he replied in a whisper. “How far to the device?”
Gary opened up the laptop and got it out of standby mode and waited for the wireless to load. He then heard a cart role by and thanked whatever god or goddess was listening that he had the sound turned off as they sunk lower into the bush, making sure they weren’t able to be seen from the road. He checked the signal and found a wireless network. He stopped for a second. He actually recognised the network as one of the company’s wifi and connected to it using the company password. This was getting more and more unbelievable. He then proceeded to download an app he used for finding the location of wifi routers as he waited for the sound of the caravan to disappear down the road. He managed to fire up the software and found the most likely location of the wireless access point.
“Right,” he said to Bloodhammer. “According to this, it is about half a league straight across the road.”
Bloodhammer got up as slowly as possible, making sure no one was about, then indicated it was safe, allowing Gary to stand as well and letting them sneak across the road where Gary reached out and tore one of the posters off the tree. They made their way into the heavily wooded area and proceeded to walk, hoping they wouldn’t run into anyone eager to ask a lot of questions (such as, who is he and why does his face look so familiar?). He looked at the torn poster and whispered to Bloodhammer as they walked, “5000 Royal Sturgens, is that a lot?”
Bloodhammer snatched the poster from Gary’s hand and had a look of “good likeness, well I think that is a gold piece so quiet a bit, and it says wanted by the grand necromancer, either way it sounds like you’re in trouble. I imagine the Grand necromancer is not a man whose orders are easily ignored.”
Gary sighed. “He sounds like the type of man that makes you follow orders even if you are dead. Necromancy is the area of raising the dead.”
There was a loud click that awoke Sylvania from her restless sleep. A couple of guards entered her cell as her mind tried to shift gears from sleep to wide awake. They pulled the chain out from her ankle cuffs. She then saw the dark red headed elf that called herself Lathentia.
She looked into her eyes and whispered, “I am sorry.” She then grabbed Sylvania’s jaw, forcing it open and poured a strange liquid down her throat. She then closed her mouth, forcing her to swallow the foul tasting liquid. She then let Sylvania stand up and cough violently as she bent over, feeling like she was about to throw up. She coughed and she felt dizzy and felt her vision fade. Before she could do anything, she felt her body get very heavy and she collapsed.
When she awoke, she found that two guards were dragging her by the arms into a room made of stone. She saw the back of Lathentia with her long, red hair. She was led up to a strange looking device. It was a large wooden X with an extra wooden board down the middle. The guards pulled her to the wooden X and pushed her against it. She felt weak and unable to resist. She tried to say something but only gurgled as Lathentia grabbed her left wrist and, using attached leather strap, strapped her wrist to the top left hand side of the wooden cross as a guard pushed her legs apart and did the same to her left and then right ankle and reminded Sylvania that she was still wearing the simple prison uniform the consisted of a white shirt, white under pants, and a simple white skirt with a slit up the side. This did nothing for her dignity but that seemed the least of her worries at the moment.
Once her right wrist was secured, Lathentia grabbed the extra strap by her neck and leaned in close and whispered into her ear, “I am truly sorry. Just answer the questions, and it will be over soon.” She then secured Sylvania’s neck strap, making sure it was not too tight as to cut off her air and took a seat behind a desk with space for two more chairs which she only now noticed were occupied by two elves. Both looked slightly older than Lathentia, and one was male who had red hair with a black streak. The other elf was female with dark blue hair and a white streak. Lathentia whispered among them for a moment as Sylvania checked her restraints. They still felt tight, and the neck one seemed to cut into her chin.
Once their quick meeting seemed to be over, Lathentia stood up. “Sylvania, you are right now under interrogation, and the potion you have taken will force you to tell only the truth. If you do not respond to our questions, you will be punished. First question: is your name Sylvania?"
She noticed the blue haired elf proceed to copy notes down on a scroll. Sylvania replied in a voice which she noticed felt slightly hurt. “Yes.”
Lathentia replied, “What are you doing on the surface?”
The question stumped Sylvania. She did not know how to reply. At the time, the answer of curiosity seemed stupid, but she seemed to take too long to answer, as she felt a hot burning pain hit both her strapped ankles and legs as well as her neck and spread from those contact points. She tried to let out a scream but with the burning now being in her throat, it sounded like she was gulping for air. The pain suddenly ceased as she felt a painful numbness in her throat, arms, and legs. She choked out the word, “Curiosity,” in between coughs.
Lathenia looked at her sceptically before she moving on to her next question. “Curiosity is a bit ambiguous. Are you curious to know our current troop strength?”
“No,” replied Sylvania in a barely audible voice. “I just wanted to know what the surface elves were like as I had read about them since I was a child.” She began to feel tears falling down the side of her face and noticed that Lathenia started avoiding eye contact as the male elf stood up and spoke.
“What happened to the Zateria worshipers in your city?”
Sylvania sensing she got her voice back, replied, “They were instructed to leave after the arrival of the human.”
“And where are they now?” he replied in a stern tone.
She took a few seconds to figure out if she knew the answer or not, but eventually she managed to reply with, “I do not know.”
The male elf sat down again as Lathenia took up the role of inquisitor. She grabbed a glass of water before firing off her next question. “Which god or goddess do you worship?”
“Mikiria.” This turned into a sob as she replied. She missed the city and her sister, and here she was alone and being tortured by a group of surface elves. At least she finally caught the eye of Lathenia who moved in closer to her. “One more question. Does the rest of the city worship the same god?” Lathenia gently cupped Sylvania’s chin and allowed her to reply.
“Yes.”
Lathenia then brought up the glass of water to her lips, which only now did Sylvania notice that they felt dry and she did not realise how thirsty she was until Lathenia allowed the cool water to run down her throat. She gulped the water in, easily emptying the glass. Lathenia then got out a small cloth and wiped some of her tears away as she undid the strap from her neck
“I am again sorry, but it was necessary I put a sleep draft in the water. It should help you sleep, and you will feel better in the morning.” Sylvania felt very tired when Lathenia mention the draft, and by the time she finished her sentence, Sylvania could not keep her eyes open as she slipped away into sleep.
They were close. Gary could feel it. The wireless signal had shot up and was now almost at full bars, and he had even managed to check his personal email only to find it full of spam. He tried his work email account only to find that no longer worked, and one thing he did notice on the email date was that he had been gone for about four months now, and that seemed to match up with the last email he received (which, ironically enough, was a new lifetime savers account from his bank) and up ahead was what he suspected was the location of the mythical wireless access point (MWAP if you will which normally operates over a EAN Enchanted Area Network). It seemed to be a tall, round tower with a couple of stories to it, topped by a tiled cone roof, and they had a pr
etty good view from the hill next to the tower, and it was a good spot to hide and keep an eye on the front entrance which led to a road just below the hill.
Bloodhammer looked again at Gary. “Not that intimidating. Most likely owned by a low-level wizard. Strange he would have such a device and still be in such a small tower.”
“Maybe,” replied Gary, “he does not know what he has.” Gary looked at the tower. There did not seem to be much movement, and it did look kind of rundown. “Maybe there is no one in?”
Bloodhammer simply nodded. “Well, it is almost dark. I say we take our chances inside.” He grabbed his axe and slowly got up, followed by Gary clutching his sword. They both rushed over to the door of the castle at a half crouch, hoping no one saw them.
Bloodhammer then knocked loudly on the front door. In what seemed like an eternity, the door eventual opened and out popped the bald head of a human male who was about thirty. He was wearing a small, black goatee that said, “ask me about my plans for world domination,” and he was also wearing a lightly faded, grey cloak and a ruffled shirt that might have been white in the distant past but had adopted the colour grey as its new colour. He looked around then looked down, somewhat surprised he had a dwarf knocking at his door.
He then spoke in a very confused sounding voice. “I am afraid the butler is away today, but I don’t think we need anything mended.”
Bloodhammer gave him an annoyed look then smiled as Gary crept closer to the man “Actually mate,” he said, and emphasised “mate” in such a way that there was no way he could be any sort of associate, never mind a mate. “I am here to do a quick government survey. How many people are in the house at the moment?”
The man looked even more confused than before. “Uh, just me at the moment. Look here, I am a second class wizard and a member of the guild of magic. What is the purpose of this survey?” he replied in a rather harsh tone. Gary took that as his cue and hit him over the head hard with the hilt of his sword, knocking the poor guy out, who fell the ground with a thump.
Bloodhammer smiled. “That’s why, mate, to make sure there is no one to stop us have a look around your place.” Bloodhammer hopped over the blacked out wizard as Gary careful stepped over him as well. He then dragged the wizard in before checking no one was about and closing the door.
The room itself seemed to fit a medieval sitting room with a large, wooden table and a couple of dining room chairs. There was also a fireplace with a fire currently going and next to it was a large wooden chair, one which Bloodhammer was currently putting the human on and securing his hands and legs to it with a rope he found.
He turned to Gary. “Stop browsing, and find the damn thing.”
Gary got his laptop out of standby mode. It was close. He was right on top of it. He went upstairs and found what he would call a study. It had a couple of shelves of books as well as one of those book stands that require the reader to be standing for some reason. It also had a closet and a desk with a padded chair. He looked around the room but could find nothing that looked like a wireless access point. He even went through the shelves but nothing turned up. He then took a seat on the chair and looked at his laptop. It was close, it had to be in this room. In fact, he could be right next to it. He then looked at a small statue on the floor. It was grey and looked like a foot tall cat with a rather square face sitting with one paw in the air. The annoying thing was rather familiar. He had seen the thing before, and then it hit him. The exact same statue was in the hallway leading to his company’s offices. That couldn’t have been a coincidence, he thought.
He picked up the statue which seemed to be rather light for its size, and it sounded hallow when he knocked on it, something he never managed to do with the original. He then went downstairs with the statue and put it on the floor. By now the wizard had been secured, and Bloodhammer was keeping an eye on him, axe in hand, ready to make him one leg short if he tried to run.
He looked at Gary and the statue and then said in his gruff dwarvern voice, “What’s that then?”
“I think,” replied Gary, “this is what we have been looking for.”
Bloodhammer looked at him sceptically. “To be honest, I was expecting something, well, rather less ugly and more, let’s say, grander.”
Gary ignored the comment and put the statue down as he heard it clink. Bloodhammer picked up his axe, and before Gary could stop him he had hit the head right off the statue. Gary looked at the decapitated hallow statue in shock and turned to Bloodhammer and said in a measured voice, “Why did you do that?”
“Two reasons,” replied Bloodhammer. “One, it was hallow, and two, it was damn ugly and I am not going to be seen in public with that thing. Let’s see what we have.” He then turned the statue over and out rolled a rather large diamond.
By now the wizard had managed to open his eyes. “Hey,” he said. “That statue has been in my family for generations.”
“Well,” replied Bloodhammer. “I have just done your family a favour.”
Gary picked up the crystal and slowly turned it around in his hand. He could see a strange kaleidoscope. As he turned it he could make out fluorescent lights. He recognized the hallway of his office, he then saw a figure, a man that seemed to be in a business suit walking with another man also in a suit. He then put the crystal to his ear and could even make out some sort of sound. he made out the words, “you know who,” “still no word,” and that was it as the figures vanished from sight.
“It must be some sort of portal. This is where the signal is coming from,” Gary said to no one in particular.
The wizard then exclaimed in a rather loud voice, “Hey, I know you.” Gary turned to the wizard as he continued to talk. “Yes, you’re the guy wanted by the grand necromancer. He has put a heavy price on your head. Boy, I do not want to be you.”
Bloodhammer seemed to take offence at this and jumped up and pushed his axe underneath the poor wizard’s chin. “And what do you mean by that, mate?” He spoke in such way it gave the listener the impression that any other answer besides, “no of course not” could mean you find yourself a limb short.
Fortunately, the wizard understood this and replied with, “No of course not, it’s just odd that they offered such a high reward according to rumour.” He then turned about and made sure no one was looking before continuing in a whisper, “They say you destroyed an entire demon army using mighty magic, is that true?”
“Well…uh.” before Gary could even think how to finish his sentence, Bloodhammer interrupted.
“Yep, that is correct. He is indeed powerful.”
The wizard smiled. “Well, look I have no idea what that crystal in your hand does, but you can have it without any trouble in return for one condition. I become your apprentice.”
Bloodhammer decided to point out a certain fact which gave him and Gary a distinctive advantage. “We have you tied to a chair.”
The wizard looked down for a moment. “Hold on a sec.” He moved his fingers, and the rope fell to the ground. He rubbed his wrist as he stood up. He then put out his hand. “Greetings, my name is Throgerod.”
Gary decided to play this up for what it was worth. “Fine, you shall be my apprentice. I shall teach you the ways of computers and electronics.”
“Computers, electronics. I don’t think I have heard of those magical disciplines yet.” replied Throegerod.
“Well, of course not. Real power lies in there, so how do you break yourself loose anyway a ropes spell?” Gary queried while Bloodhammer looked on, slightly shocked.
Throegerod laughed. “Well, not really.” He then produced a small knife he had hidden up his sleeve; their thoughts were interrupted by a loud banging coming from the front door. “Quick, upstairs. I will handle this,” whispered Throegerod. Not seeing much choice, both the dwarf and the human rushed upstairs as Throegerod shouted at the door, “Coming.”
In the study, Bloodhammer and Gary bent down and listened to the conversation below. He heard Throegerod�
�s voice. “Yes, can I help you.”
Another male voice responded, “Good evening, my lord, just to let you know that we have spotted an Elven ship close to shore, and the Enforcer suspected it might havesomething to do with that wizard wanted by the grand necromancer, so patrols are increased, especially after a family has disappeared along blackfoot hills. Have you noticed anything strange happening?”
Throegerod paused for what seemed to Gary and Bloodhammer to be an eternity before saying, “No, can’t say that I have.”
“Not to worry,” replied the guard. “We suspect that he is currently meeting up with the Elven ship, so we have the shore well-guarded. Thanks for your time, my lord.” With that sound, the door closed, and Gary and Bloodhammer let out a sigh of relief until they heard footsteps coming up the stairs. Both took up a spot next to the stairway entrance as Throegerod stepped through. He looked for them for a second before turning around.
“Oh, there you are. Well, they are gone, what now?”
Bloodhammer spoke first. “Great, now we can’t get back, our lift has been spotted.” He paused for moment. “Hold on,” he continued as he turned to Throegerod, “tell me, are there caves at Blackfoot hills?”
Throegerod nodded. “Yes, a couple, but I am not too sure where they might lead.”
“Nevermind,” replied Bloodhammer. “If you can get us to the caves, I can take it from there.”
Gary thought he better be the voice of reason here and injected his thoughts. “But isn’t that where the family disappeared, so shouldn’t there be a couple of guards around the area?”
“Oh don’t worry about that,” replied Throegerod. “A lot of monsters hide in those caves, and a family going missing happens every now and then, so they most likely got bored and have now been reassigned to patrol the shore.” Gary was speechless. That was not the pep speech he was hoping for.
