Journey of a Betrayed Hero- Volume 2

by Brandon Varnell

  Finally, he opened his eyes. A canopy hung over his head, soft and sheer, draped over the posts of his bed with an artistry that made him think someone had way too much time on their hands. He looked to the left. Then he looked right. The walls were cream, decorated with lovely columns and artwork interspersed. He saw landscape paintings and a few small statues. Above the canopy of his bed loomed a vaulted ceiling with a painting of a man heroically holding a sword as he battled against the Dark Clan.

  “This is… Avant Heim?” he muttered, too tired to be shocked, but awake enough to realize that he should not be here.

  “That is correct,” a voice said.

  Jacob looked to his left, at the woman who was standing there. When did she arrive? He didn’t know. She had appeared without warning. She wore a black and white dress with numerous frills and a bodice that helped push up her chest. With her hands clasped together and her expression composed, she presented the picturesque image of what most people imagined when they thought of maids.

  “Listy,” he muttered. “It’s been a long time.”

  “That it has,” Listy replied. “I see you are in good health.”

  Jacob snorted. “If you consider being almost killed and then brought back to a place you never wished to see again ‘good health,’ then yes, I suppose I am.”

  “You are a lot more sarcastic than the last time I saw you.”

  “Thank you for letting me know that. I had no idea.”

  It had been a long time since Jacob had been to Avant Heim, three years, in fact. It had been his desire to never return to this place again. For him to be here now meant that someone must have found him in Tallus Caelum after the battle and brought him here. While there was no evidence to support his theory, he suspected that Caslain was the one responsible for this.

  “I see that you still feel resentment toward Queen Alice,” Listy commented, her tone cold.

  “Resentment?” Jacob chuckled, but there was no humor in it. “Is that what you call it? Sorry, but resentment isn’t what I feel.”

  “Then what is it?” Listy inquired.

  “Apathy.”

  He and Listy stared at each other for a long time, and he could feel the way her gaze tried to pierce the veil he’d thrown over his emotions. She was looking for cracks in his calm. If there was even a slip up in his demeanor, she would detect it and use it against him. That was the kind of person Listy was.

  “So I see,” she said at last. “Please wait here, Lord Jacob. I was ordered to inform Queen Alice of when you healed.”

  Jacob tried to raise his arm, but he was too tired for even that. While his wounds had healed, his body had still taken a beating. It would be awhile before he was strong enough to start moving again. It would be longer still before he could think of escaping.

  “Sure. Not like I have much of a choice.”

  “Thank you. I will return shortly. If you need anything, there are two guards standing at the door,” she said, dropping a subtle reminder not to do something stupid because he was being watched.

  Jacob said nothing. Listy left, the door slowly closing behind her.

  ***

  The day after Enyo woke up, she and Fellis traveled down a dirt road to the nearest village. It was a small town. Enyo didn’t even know its name, or if it even had a name. Wood buildings, plain designs, only a few hundred people at most, it was nothing like Tallus Caelum, or even Altus and Albany.

  “We need to find a place to stay the night,” Fellis said as they walked down the dirt road. “After that, we’ll need to gather information.”

  “Right,” Enyo agreed, though most of her attention was focused on the people around them. Everyone was looking at her and Fellis. It made her uncomfortable, but more than that…

  Why are there only men?

  It was something that she had noticed the moment they walked in, but there were only men in this village. Old men, young men, boys… there wasn’t a single woman in sight. It gave her the chills for some reason.

  “Who should we talk to to get information from?” Enyo asked.

  “Let’s see if there’s a village chief or someone of similar standing,” Fellis said.

  It took a lot of asking around to get anywhere—most of the men seemed wary of them. If it wasn’t for Fellis’s Mind Manipulation, they probably would have never gotten anywhere.

  The chief’s home was not a home at all, but a bar. It was an old place that showed its age in the worn out wooden tiles and the faded appearance of the tables. There was little light. Enyo could see where several fairy lamps had been at one point, but no fairies made their homes there anymore. They were just empty lamps.

  Fellis strode toward the counter in the back with a confidence that Enyo didn’t feel. She sat down, placed her left forearm on the wood, and leaned forward, pinning the older man behind the counter with a look.

  “Are you the village chief?” she asked.

  The man before them was old but not aging. There were no wrinkles on his face. Standing tall, the tight shirt that he wore showcased his thick arms and barrel-like chest. His short hair had no gray in it, but the mustache still made him look at least somewhat distinguished.

  “That would be me, I guess,” he grunted, eyeing the two of them with suspicion. Enyo tried not to squirm. “What’s a couple of women doing here? Travelers?”

  “That’s right.” Fellis smiled as though she didn’t feel the tension in the air. “We were hoping to get a little information, or maybe some directions to Alyssium. We’re somewhat lost.”

  “You picked a fine place to get lost in,” the man said.

  “I’ve noticed,” Fellis said. “It seems all of your women are missing.”

  “It’s not a problem for outsiders to worry about,” the chief said. “You mentioned wanting directions to Alyssium. It’s a month’s travel from here by foot and three weeks by horse. You have to pass through the Dius Mountains, which is to the west of here. You’ll want to be careful, though,” he warned. “There’ve been bandit sightings, and also, there’s a rumor going around that they somehow managed to tame a really powerful monster.”

  Monster taming was an old profession. There were several members of the Dark Clan who excelled at taming monsters, which were then used to help bolster their ranks when they waged war. During the most recent war with Terrasole, the most popular monster to tame had been the vargr—a wolf monster that the Dark Clan used as a mount.

  “We’ll be sure to keep that in mind,” Fellis said, and it looked like she was done talking to the man.

  “Um, excuse me,” Enyo spoke up. “But can I ask why there aren’t any women around here?”

  “I believe I said this isn’t something you outsiders should worry about,” the chief grunted.

  “But maybe we can help,” Enyo pushed. “If something has happened to them, then I’m sure Fellis and I could—”

  The man slammed his hand on the table. “What could a pair of women do that we can’t?! What could you possibly do that we haven’t already tried?! Don’t mock us by thinking you could do something that we’ve never succeeded at!”

  Enyo was startled by the fierceness in the man’s demeanor and words. However, beyond that, she felt annoyed. This man thought that she couldn’t help because she was a woman? Jacob had never looked down on her for that, and the Dark Clan didn’t care about stupid things like gender. It made her forget that most humans saw women as inferior.

  Standing up, Enyo slammed her own hands on the table and got in the man’s face. “I don’t know exactly what is going on here, but don’t think I’m going to put up with your rude behavior! I’m not some simpering little girl that you can force into submission by slamming your hands on the table and making a lot of noise!”

  Jacob had been rude when they first met, but he’d never once disrespected her because of her gender. Even that time where he had her pretend that she was his “mistress on the side,” he had stayed respectful of her position and only pushed enou
gh to make it feel like their relationship was real. This man was just being an ass.

  Wanting to make a point, Enyo unsheathed one of her daggers and stabbed it into the table between the man’s fingers. “Now, you’re going to tell me what’s wrong, and you’re going to do so right. This. Instant.”

  The man leaned back as she glared at him. Finally, after what felt like hours to Enyo, he sighed and gestured for her to sit back down. She frowned as she sat down, but she did not remove her dagger from the table.

  “It all started several weeks ago,” he began. “A few of our women went missing. We’re a small town, so we noticed when they disappeared immediately. We searched high and low for them, but we never came up with anything. As the days passed, the number of disappearances increased, until all of the women had suddenly vanished. One of the farmers said they saw several women heading into a forest about a day’s walk from here. We went there ourselves to try and find them, but what we found…”

  The man shuddered as if he’d come down with a bad case of the chills.

  “What did you find?” asked Fellis.

  “All of the women had been turned into undead,” the chief said.

  Enyo sucked in a breath. She knew that when someone or something died, if they were not properly sanctified and cremated, they would turn into undead. However, that didn’t sound like that was what happened here.

  “It might be a necromancer,” Fellis suggested. “Necromancy is a rare magic, but it’s not unheard of for some people to have it. If there is a necromancer living in that forest, they could easily turn all of you into undead depending on how much power they have.” Her brow furrowed. “That said, why would they only target just the women? It doesn’t make sense.”

  The chief shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

  “Fellis,” Enyo said, staring at the woman who, after a moment of looking at her, sighed.

  “Do you have a room that we can spend the night in?” she asked the chief.

  “I do,” he said.

  “How much will it cost?”

  The chief closed his eyes. “This village is doomed without its women. I’ll let you stay for free.”

  Fellis smiled. “That’s fortuitous for us. After all…” she cast an amused glance at Enyo “…we don’t have any money.”

  ***

  With nothing to do but sit around and wait, Jacob decided to exercise his body. It had been put through the ringer. He was stiff everywhere; his muscles felt like they hadn’t been stretched out at all, which was never a good thing for a warrior.

  It had been a long time since Jacob had done any strenuous exercise. He used to train habitually, but as the years rolled by and his life had been subsumed by his role as a barkeep, exercise and training became less important. Eventually, he had stopped practicing and training altogether.

  It was a wonder I’ve come as far as I have.

  His battle with Lust made him realize something: he was out of shape. Three years ago, maybe even as little as two years ago, he would not have been defeated so easily—not by Lust, at least. That woman hadn’t been as powerful as Alucard. She hadn’t been the sheer destructive force that the Dark Lord had been, and yet he’d been defeated by her. It was shameful.

  Jacob understood that simple exercise wasn’t going to fix his problem, not fully. He could regain his former strength, but he wouldn’t be able to regain the battle sense that he’d honed while traveling the world and fighting against the Dark Clan. Only experience could do that. Even so, it was a start.

  He’d long since discarded his shirt. He didn’t want it getting soaked in the sweat that was dripping down his back, arms, and legs. His movements were slow, his arms feeling little strain. Even though he hadn’t worked out in a long time, it seemed as if two hundred push-ups still wasn’t enough to call it a workout.

  As he methodically continued to do push-ups, he wondered how Enyo was doing. Had she and Fellis safely escaped the city? With the battle between Lust taking up most of his attention, he hadn’t been able to focus on their escape. He hoped they were okay.

  They’re resourceful, so I’m sure they’ll be fine.

  It was just as he reached his 556th push up that the doors to his room opened. He looked up as Listy walked in. She took one look at him, her eyes trailing down his back and arms, and then she frowned.

  “I see you’re still as uncultured as ever,” she said.

  “And you haven’t changed a bit,” Jacob sniped. “You’re still a bitch.”

  Listy clicked her tongue. “Queen Alice is waiting for you. However, you need to take a bath before you can even think of seeing her. I’ll not have someone who smells like swine come within a meter of her majesty.”

  Jacob thought about telling this asinine woman that he had no intention of seeing Alice. He even thought of telling her where she could shove her demand. However, that would not have been the intelligent thing to do. One doesn’t ignore a summons from the queen, especially not when they were at her mercy. What’s more, he had clearly been saved by Alice’s knights, galling though it was to admit.

  “Lead the way,” he said, standing up, grabbing his shirt, and gesturing at her.

  Listy huffed as she walked out of the door. “This way.”

  No conversation was made as he followed Listy, listening to the sound of their feet thudding against the marble floor. They had never gotten along. When he was younger, they would always argue; she would mock his attire, call him slovenly, get upset when he didn’t bow to Alice or addressed her too casually, and she hated it when he and Alice had snuck off into town without her. Their arguments, for that one year he’d spent in Avant Heim, had been legendary.

  It looks like nothing’s changed.

  Jacob wasn’t given much time to wash off. Five minutes in the bath and Listy was ready to drag him out. He barely managed to get dressed before they were walking back down one of Avant Heim’s many hallways.

  “Where’s Durandal?” Jacob asked as he looked out the window. They were passing a garden. He vaguely remembered climbing trees with Alice there, much to Listy’s consternation back then.

  “Your sword has been confiscated until we deem that you are not a threat,” Listy answered.

  Not a threat, huh? So, basically, until I break out and find Durandal myself.

  Jacob had already considered breaking out, but that wasn’t really feasible yet. He was strong. However, he wouldn’t be able to beat the entire Terrasole army, not unless he wanted to kill everyone there, which he didn’t.

  Listy lead him to a large set of double doors. They were guarded by two Terrian Knights, the personal knight force tasked with protecting the crown. Stepping in front of the doors, which were ornate and covered in artful designs, Listy coughed into her hand.

  “I am here to see Queen Alice. I’ve brought along the hero, Jacob Stone, whose presence has been requested by the queen.”

  The two guards shifted in obvious surprise; Jacob nearly rolled his eyes when their own widened at the sight of him. This was just another reason he despised life in the palace. If it wasn’t nobles and old farts trying to butter him up—or drugging and beating him to try forcing him into compliance—then it was guards, knights, and maids gawking at him as he walked by.

  Listy coughed into her hand. Startled out of their gobsmacked stupor, the guards saluted, and then opened the doors.

  Trailing behind Listy, Jacob took in the familiar meeting chamber. The tiled floor sparkled, the walls were the same as always with their unique designs and the many bookcases and works of art arrayed against them. On the opposite side was a large desk. It was not the same one that he remembered. Alice must have bought a new one in the last three years.

  Sitting behind the desk was Alice. Enchanting blond hair done up in elegant curls framed a face that reminded him of a fairy. Fair skin glistened in the light from the dying sun, which haloed her back, making her appearance akin to an angel’s. It was often said that Alice was the fairest wo
man in Terrasole. He agreed. Even if he could no longer stand to be in her presence, he would never deny her beauty.

  Her sense of fashion seemed to have become more refined as well, though he assumed Listy was to blame for that. Light blue with pink accents, the dress that she wore accentuated her feminine figure. It was sleeveless, exposing her arms, toned from training with a sword, yet the gloves that she wore kept her from appearing brawny. Even her bodice, which helped display her modest bust, lent itself well to showcasing her remarkable beauty.

  The moment he stepped into the room, Alice’s eyes had lit up. However, as he refused to smile at her, the mien of joy and happiness died down.

  “Jacob, you’re looking… well,” Alice said, and her voice contained so many emotions that Jacob needed to clench his fists to keep from letting his own slip.

  “About as well as could be expected, considering where I am.”

  Alice flinched. “I see… you still dislike me for what happened.”

  Standing up, Alice walked over to the window, pressing her hands against the glass as she looked at Jacob’s reflection. It was as if he couldn’t look at him directly.

  “If by ‘what happened,’ you mean how you broke our promise, then yes, I do,” Jacob said. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt more betrayed by anyone than when you betrayed me.”

  “I didn’t betray you,” Alice said, her gloves creaking as she clenched her hands. She whirled around to face him. “I never betrayed you.”

  “No, you just weren’t there when I needed you the most.”

  “I had obligations, Jacob! I still have obligations!”

  “So you do. It’s nice to know that you had so many obligations you couldn’t even help your lover as the nobles took advantage of their position to abuse him.”

  “I didn’t know what they were doing!” Alice defended herself. “It wasn’t until you fled the capital that I even realized what they were up to!”

  “And that,” Jacob concluded, “was perhaps your worst crime in all this.”

  After several seconds of silence, Alice slowly sat down again. The look on her face, one of abject defeat, tore at Jacob’s heartstrings, but he wasn’t going to let her off after what she’d done, or rather, what she hadn’t done. He couldn’t. The nobles had drugged him, kidnapped him, tortured him, and tried to break him so he could be brainwashed, and Alice hadn’t even known that he was missing from Avant Heim for an entire week. If he forgave and forgot what happened so easily, it would have been like spitting in the face of all his suffering.