by Logan Jacobs
The Fae’s red curls brushed the tip of my nose, and I once again inhaled her woodsy scent. Finally, Edora nodded and stepped forward. In a single motion, the Unseelie woman dashed toward the centaur, leapt up into the air, and landed gracefully on his back.
“Did you need a hand up, Milton?” The Unseelie quirked her dark blue lips up into a smile as her golden eyes danced with mirth.
“I think I’ve got it, but I’ll let you know,” I retorted.
Kitar knelt down so the bulk of his body was almost on the ground. I placed both my hands on the middle of his back as I pushed myself up. His fur was soft and warm, and I was comforted to know this massive body was underneath me. I pulled myself as close to Edora as I possibly could, and the feeling of her tight ass against my dick made all sorts of dirty thoughts race through my head.
“Hold on tight,” the centaur warned, and then he broke into a slow canter.
The other two centaurs joined him immediately, and then Kitar shot forward at breakneck speed.
The jungle plants turned into a blur around me, and my body was thrown forward into Edora’s back. She snapped forward, too, and wrapped her arms around Kitar’s torso in an effort to make sure she didn’t fall of and fly backward into the forest.
I stared at the blur all around me. That was all I could see. Stripes of blue, green, orange, yellow, fuchsia, purple, and every other color under the sun bled together and created something that could have been art, if I’d had a camera and been able to take a picture of it all. The light breeze that had whispered through my hair was gone now, replaced by lukewarm winds that whipped against my cheeks and stung so much I was sure they’d be red by the time I slid off Kitar’s back.
I was thankful he seemed to know exactly where he was going. A tiny doubt crept into the back of my mind as I wondered whether I’d just thrown us all into some terrible trap, but I trusted Edora. She would have known if the centaurs were not on our side, and we definitely wouldn’t have gotten on them.
And then, all of a sudden, the beast underneath me pulled to an abrupt and hard stop. I was almost flung from his back, but at the last second he reached one of his bulky arms out and wrapped them around Edora and me.
“We’re here,” Kitar rumbled, his voice not much more than a whisper.
I got my bearings back and waited until my eyes adjusted, and then I looked out in front of us as Kanen and Kofa cantered to a stop.
The centaurs had taken us to the edge of the jungle. The plants and trees were all behind us, and we stood on a thin strip of the brilliant red dirt on the edge of an enormous cliff. The jungle fell off, and below us stretched a valley that was full of buildings. We were so high up it was hard to see what was really down there, but I could clearly make out the tops of different kinds of structures. Some were large and some were small, with varying degrees of width and architectural design. It reminded me a lot of the view of Jefferson City from my room in the guild, except for one very large difference.
Here, there were almost no people.
The usual hustle and bustle of city life was nowhere to be found amongst all these buildings. Instead, it was eerily quiet. Some of the buildings even looked like they’d been torn apart, like a bomb had exploded inside of them.
“That’s our city,” Edora breathed in front of me, and I could hear the emotion in her voice. “They took it from us.”
And then, from far down below, we heard the roar of many, many voices as they cried out in what sounded like an array of grunts. I looked around until I found the source of all the noise, and I was shocked at what I saw.
The city was split in half by a huge main street, and I watched as a wave of figures marched down the dividing road. Even from so high up, I could tell there were hundreds of people clustered together to form a small gathering. I could just barely make out that there were different kinds of Fae, and they marched in a militant fashion.
The Phobos had amassed an army.
“They didn’t have that before,” Edora breathed out. “It was just about a hundred of them, or so. Nowhere even close to this number.”
“The Phobos have been slowly gathering creatures of evil to help them fight,” Kitar said. “Ogres, goblins, orcs, and the like. This is not even half of what I’ve seen. I’m not sure where the rest are.”
“Shit,” I muttered.
This was completely unexpected. The entire time we’d been on this mission, we’d operated under the impression that the Phobos were still a small, yet terrifying, group of evil doers. This changed everything. The ones who stood before us looked intimidating, and the realization that this was only about half of them made a pit form in the bottom of my stomach.
“Did you see the other half go anywhere?” Ariette demanded, all business. “Or are they still down there?”
“I’m not sure,” Kitar replied calmly.
“What do you mean you’re not sure?” the elf retorted. “Have you been keeping an eye on them at all? A huge, dangerous group of rebel terrorists comes into your realm, and you’re not even sure where half of them are? I mean, really, you would think that centaurs, of all creatures, would--”
“Ariette,” I interrupted her. “They’re being as helpful as they can. It was probably too dangerous for them to watch the Phobos twenty-four seven. And even you have to sleep sometimes, you know.”
The elf glanced over at me and nodded, and then she took in a deep breath as she slid off Kanen and started to pace back and forth. I hopped off Kitar’s back and joined her.
“What’s the plan?” she asked me immediately.
I paused for a moment as I thought.
“Well,” I said slowly, “the first thing we need to do is find the leader. If I can get rid of him first, that leaves this army for us to deal with. Hasen should be here with backup soon.”
“He’s not going to know where to go,” Danira pointed out. “Kalista and I can backtrack and go meet him and the troops. When they arrive, we can lead them here to you.”
“Okay.” I nodded. “Good idea. Kofa, would you be willing to take them back to the entrance to the realm?”
“Of course.” The centaur nodded.
Danira slipped off Kanen, and Maaren slipped off Kofa’s back as the commander took her place behind Kalista.
“Hey, Milton,” Kalista called back to me as Kofa turned around to head back.
“Yeah?” I asked her.
“Don’t do anything stupid, okay?” she replied with a lopsided smile that did a poor job of hiding the worry in her eyes.
“Me? Stupid? Never!” I chuckled back.
I hoped the joke would lighten the small dwarf’s mood, but her violet eyes never left my face as Kofa cantered off into the jungle.
“How do we find this leader?” Maaren asked after a moment. “This Zolderon guy?”
“Well, Zolderon technically isn’t Zolderon right now,” I pointed out. “The only way we’re going to find out who he’s possessing is to get down there and check it out for ourselves.”
“From what we’ve observed,” Kitar explained, “it would appear they are using the old city hall as their headquarters. Perhaps you should start there?”
“Of course they are.” Edora shook her head sadly. “I can’t wait until I get my hands around one of their filthy necks.”
“Maybe we wait until we’ve got an army behind us,” I suggested as I climbed back on Kitar’s back.
Maaren and Ariette mounted Kanen, and the two creatures cantered along a small dirt trail for about a half of a mile. The cliff face wrapped around the city, and I got a bird’s eye view of what we dealt with as the centaurs moved.
The army seemed to have marched itself into the giant building in the center of the city, and I saw the last of them disappear inside. The building itself reminded me a lot of the Jefferson guild. It was the only structure in the entire city with its lights on. I hoped Zolderon was somewhere in that building as I reached a hand back into the knapsack to feel for the spell, and I w
as comforted when my fingertips brushed across the smooth paper.
After about five minutes, the sharp cliff gave way to a jagged, but more gently sloped mountain. The centaurs hoofed their way down it, and Edora and I hung onto Kitar’s torso for dear life as we stared down at the drop. But we made it to the bottom safely, and we now found ourselves on the outskirts of the city.
“Thank you,” I said to both centaurs as we slipped off their backs. “Thank you both so much.”
“Do not thank us, Milton,” Kitar said gently as he looked at me with his piercing blue eyes. “Just take them down.”
“We will,” I promised.
The centaurs bowed to us once more and then turned around to hoof their way back up the mountainside. I watched them for a moment before I turned back to the three women behind me.
We were on the very edge of the city. There were small, shack like houses in front of us, and cobblestone streets that zig-zagged into the center of town. About a half a mile away, the city hall stood tall and proud in the center of the small metropolis. Where we stood, it almost seemed like we were stuck in some sort of post-apocalyptic war. Many of the shacks had caved in roofs with burn marks. I took one look at the damage, and a sad realization churned my stomach.
Bombs. These shacks had all been destroyed by bombs.
Edora had tears in her eyes as she surveyed the damage.
“They’ve destroyed our city,” she whispered, and for the first time, I saw true, sincere emotion in her.
“We can rebuild it,” Maaren assured her. The hunter put a soft hand on Edora’s shoulder, and the red head nodded silently.
“That doesn’t make it any easier,” Edora sobbed.
“No, it doesn’t,” Maaren agreed. “But these were just physical objects. The most important thing is that our people, my father and the rest of your family, are alive and well.”
Edora took a deep breath and calmed herself before she turned back to us, her golden eyes hard with anger.
“I have a plan,” she said firmly. “When the city hall was built, the king had tunnels built into the walls. He wanted to be able to spy on the High Court of the Unseelie when they had meetings without him.”
“That sounds like my father,” Maaren snorted. “Thank God for that.”
“Is that common knowledge?” I asked Edora, and she shook her head.
“Nope.” She smiled. “Only a few of us knew. And I am sure Zolderon has no idea.”
“Perfect,” I said. “So how do we get there?”
“Follow me,” the Unseelie turned around and sashayed down one of the cobblestone streets.
We crept through the abandoned city blocks quietly, tucked near the buildings to keep out of sight. I halfway expected a goblin or an orc to show up and sound the alarm, but none did. It seemed the Phobos were too calm and confident to station guards around the city they’d taken by force.
The air down here was damp and heavy in a different way than the rest of the nether realm had been. It almost felt like the air itself was sad. The colors were duller, too. I wasn’t sure if that could be attributed to the Phobos, or if the city was like that anyways. With how happy and bright the Unseelie people had seemed when we visited them, I had a feeling the dullness was due to the unwanted guests.
Edora took us down some back alleys behind the buildings as we wound our way closer and closer to the city hall. It was sad to see the abandoned shops and restaurants that were scattered amongst the homes. A few of the windows had been broken, and many of the insides were completely destroyed, probably from looters that had come through. It reminded me of the sight that day in Jefferson City, when Oragon had transferred his powers to me.
Edora took us through the streets until we wound up in an alley behind the city hall. There were a few dumpsters in the back, and a broken down older car, but still no Phobos members to be seen.
The city hall towered above us for three stories. It was made out of red brick, and the entire back was completely windowless. In the center of the peaked roof sat a huge brass bell in a little tower. It reminded me of an old fashioned human village.
“Over here,” Edora whispered as she turned away from the main building and headed toward a small house on the other side of the alley. She crept through the broken-down wooden door of the dwelling, and we followed her inside.
This place was a mess. There had been a couch and bookshelf in the small room, but the stuffing was torn from the cushions and scattered everywhere. A huge pile of ashes sat in the middle of the room, remnants of what I assumed used to be the books on the walls. Maaren placed herself by the front door in case any enemies came by.
“Geez, they didn’t leave a thing,” Edora muttered angrily. “Whatever. We don’t need the books anyways.”
And with that, the Unseelie stomped over to the bookshelf and pushed her hand down on one of the center shelves. It shifted down about an inch, and then the entire piece slid to one side to reveal a pitch black tunnel about as tall and wide as I was.
“Classic,” Ariette said appreciatively.
“Classics are the best,” Edora agreed. “Let’s go.”
Ariette, Maaren, and I stepped into the tunnel first, and Edora came last. She did a quick check to make sure we hadn’t accidentally been seen before she pulled the bookshelf shut behind us and shrouded the tunnel in complete darkness. The darkness only lasted for a moment, though.
Both Edora and Ariette lit up the room simultaneously. Ariette had created blue balls of electricity that danced in the air above her Hand, and Edora had a tiny flame in her palm.
“Great minds think alike,” Ariette chuckled.
“Damn straight,” Edora replied brashly. “Come. This way.”
The Unseelie woman stepped past me and led the way down the tunnel. The dirt floor sloped gently downward for a little while, and the air was cold and damp as we trudged along for about ten minutes. Then, the floor sloped up, and I could hear voices come from somewhere off in the distance. Maaren, Ariette, and I all stopped in our tracks the moment we heard the beginnings of the raucous conversation, and we drew our weapons in defense.
“Guys, they’re not in the tunnel,” Edora whispered as she doubled back to us. “We’re in the walls of the city hall now. We can hear them, but they can’t see us.”
“Oh, good,” I sighed and re-holstered my gun. “Almost like a two-way mirror.”
“Almost,” the Unseelie woman confirmed.
We walked a few more feet before the tunnel lightened up significantly, and the wall to my right became see through. It was almost like the wall was a very thin piece of fabric. I could see the army of orcs, goblins, trolls, and ogres, as well as some elves and dwarves, through the barrier, but they were discolored and slightly obscured.
Their numbers were huge. There were at least five hundred in the giant room in front of us. They milled about and talked and laughed like they were at some college frat party, not an evil meeting in territory they had seized from innocent people. The orcs were absolutely grotesque, with twisted limbs and slimy, dark green skin. The trolls were stout and hairy, and the goblins were tiny little devil-like beings with sharp, jagged teeth and pointed ears. The few ogres in the room towered above their comrades and dripped saliva from their jowls as they wandered around.
The massive space looked like it had been a nice meeting room for the entire city at one point, with rows of wooden benches and a small stage up front. But the benches had all been thrown to the side, many of them broken, and the drapes were nothing more than shreds of fabric now. The stage, though, had remained intact, and on it stood a statuesque elf, with long black hair that hung loose about his shoulders and tight, dark blue jeans paired with a gray t-shirt. He had light blue skin a very similar color to Edora’s, and I wondered if this was someone she knew. He looked absolutely normal, except for the fact that he stood in front of a crowd of monsters.
“Is that the leader?” I breathed in Edora’s ear, hyper aware of the fact that the
re was a slimy green goblin just on the other side of the wall.
He tilted his head briefly right after I spoke, and we all froze and said nothing as we waited tensely to see what he’d do. However, he simply wandered away aimlessly into the crowd of monsters, and we breathed a sigh of relief.
“No,” Edora breathed back. “That’s not Patten. His name’s Gund. I … I thought he was killed in the takeover.” Something about the way the Unseelie’s shoulders tensed up told me the whole subject was something I didn’t want to get into.
But we were still left with a huge problem. Only half the army was here, and the leader was nowhere to be seen. Which meant Zolderon was gonna be a bitch to find.
Suddenly, the elf on the stage, Gund, started to speak.
“My fellow freedom fighters,” he began, and Ariette made a small gagging noise behind me, “today is a glorious day. The harpies have sent word that Zolderon has made it to the Seelie capital undetected! They have also said the Seelie spies who were sent to the mountains to come after us ran into the tunnels where the trolls live. They have no chance of getting out of there alive!”
“So you thought,” Ariette muttered cockily.
An enormous roar of approval and thunderous applause rose from the crowd of monsters, while we all looked at each other in horror. This guy wasn’t even in the freaking nether realm! He’d made it back to the capital to carry out whatever crazy plane he’d hatched. I was about to spin around and take us all straight out of the nether realm when Gund continued.
“I know you are all quite eager to join him,” Gund called out, “and we shall. As soon as Zolderon has taken possession of the king, we can go forward with our plan to rid the world of the human scum, the terrible underlings we’ve been forced to coexist with since the Great Collision. And the result? We shall create an ordered land where every race knows its place!”
Again, shouts and claps of agreement rose from the nasty beasts in front of us. I watched in horror as they smiled gleefully, like the mass destruction of races was akin to a birthday cake.
“Within the week, friends, we will be in the Seelie capital, and our new lives will begin!” Gund grinned out proudly at the crowd, but I turned away in disgust and started back up the tunnel.
