The wounded cloaked hulk lunged forward from the ground; the dark energy arrow faded from reality that dribbled blood as it came. With the flurry of its speed and lost comrade, the cloaked killer collided with Reef, who shot out of nowhere with blinding speed.
Fists and claws grasp each other with the sound of bones crunching and flesh on flesh smashing into each other. The two hulks stood like statues, starring at each other while trying to overpower the other.
Coral in her extreme excitement, bounced around on his shoulder giggling to herself. With a shifting assessment that it was a bit of a stalemate, she knelt on her perch and pulled her katana from its scabbard. The blade traced a fine line through the air, creating a thin orange line of magic through the air as it moved and quickly disappeared into the back of their attacker. A lasting howl of pain came from the beast along with the smell of burning flesh and fabric.
Removing the blade with blazing speed, she sheathed it before anyone could even take a breath. Reef grunted in the release of his stress and lifted the beast from the ground to throw it back against the close pillar that still had a lit brazier. Smashing into the stone, sending stone cobbles splintering it to the ground, the cloaked monster fell into a brazier below and wriggled around in pain as it feebly tried to get back into the fray. The few last mercenaries and bandits surrounded it quickly, plunging their steel into its hide and sending its final screams of death up with the smoke billowed out from the smoldering flames.
Chapter 17
Ruger’s back smashed against the stone wall, sending a forced grunt from his lungs. With the weight he was thrown into the wall, he couldn’t catch himself and fell to the ground clutching his chest. The others ran in and stood around him in the entry of the back chamber. Xen sat in the back in another large throne looking chair with a large cushion, puffing on a long pipe.
The rest of the room looked like it belonged in a high-class palace or estate home with tapestries and beautiful paintings of distance places and ancient looking creatures littering the walls. To break the artistry, small tables filled with knickknacks, small sculptures or expensive looking display pieces carefully placed throughout. On one side of the room with floor to ceiling bookshelves that were stacked to the fullest, were guarded by a handful of warriors. Candelabra filled with half melted candles lit the room in a very pleasant way and made sure that all the guards around the room could keep an eye on the new additions.
After tossing Ruger to the floor, Dominic leisurely strolled over to the old man smoking his pipe and sat in a nearby chair across from him. The Elven woman and Chyla kept near Ruger who was still struggling to get his breathing back in control.
“Why the bloodbath Xen?” Dominic sternly questioned the old man.
“I don’t need them alive to take the woman. Why give something that they want when I can just take what I want?” Xen shrugged and continued to puff on his pipe.
“There may be more of a picture than what you see old man. What is the Sigil after anyway?” Dominic spoke as he looked over his shoulder at Ruger, still on the floor.
“This.” Xen reached behind him and pulled out a small wooden box.
The box fit in one hand and had very few age markings on it. Only a small cluster of stars on the top made a side different than the others.
“What is it?” Chyla stretched her neck from her spot, trying to see the item. “That’s it?”
“It’s what’s inside that counts little one.” Xen flipped the box around with his fingers and popped the top with his thumb.
Reaching inside with his other hand he pulled out a small red cylinder. There was nothing special looking to it, a plain red rod, ten centimeters in length and five in diameter.
The room was silent in confusion.
“It’s a key to something that is no longer in this realm.” Xen smiled when he looked down at the small pill like rod.
“Why would The Sigil want it then?” Dominic leaned over the item and twisted back to give a questionable look at Ruger.
“Not a hundred percent but, from what my spies have been telling me; they sent in a raiding party into Estar to look for one of the Dragons relics. A cup I believe.” Xen puffed on his pipe between his words.
The elven girls head snapped toward them at the mention of the relic and quickly walked over to them.
“What about this cup?” The elf asked.
“My dear princess, it would be nothing you would need to trouble yourself with. It is a relic of ancient times said to be able to control the seals for this realm which protect it from the Dragons being in true form here.” Xen shuffled in his chair as he spoke, his pipe almost falling from his mouth.
“Necrolin’s Cup.” She filled in-between the lines and made Xen’s eyes widen in curiosity.
“How do you know this?”
“I am the one that took it from Mount Guul.”
Dominic and Xen both gave her a silent curious look. With a long inhale from his pipe, Xen sighed out a long puff of smoke before speaking in a quieter tone.
“That would mean you are Uridine’s daughter, Mya. It is a good thing The Sigil wasn’t able to hold onto you, but also one his Regale had such an effect on.”
“Regale?” My asked
“The small silver ball he has in his possession. An enchanted object which has the ability to incapacitate people, nullify their senses to a degree; works the best on royal blooded.” Xen took another drag from his pipe. “I have only seen three of them in my time, but they work well.”
“Why would The Sigil be after the Dragon relics?” Dominic interjected.
“No idea. But if they were wanting this key, the rumours about them working with the Neightur are just.” Xen responded through his haze of pipe smoke. “They are fanatics, a cult of strong magic users under the belief that Dragon rule is the only rule. Also, one of the reasons why so many people go missing and rulers become dethroned. Each with their own rarity of magic; from being able to summon the shadowed assassins, Furhdrae, to soul shattering or control over one’s mind.”
“On this topic, why I was wanting to bring him back here.” Mya butted in and pointed Ruger’s way.
“Why would he know anything about the Furhdrae?” Xen cocked his head to the side in question.
“As things were in chaos out there, he muttered something that caught my ear.”
Dominic stood from his chair, “then let’s go have a chat with the man.”
With a handful of paces over to Ruger, who was still on the ground being watched over by one of the guards and Chyla. Dominic noticed that Chyla couldn’t take her eyes off Mya.
“Everything alright? You look like you want to jump her.” Dominic asked quietly.
Without blinking she responded. “As I said before, something is different. There is something special about that elf.”
Dominic looked over his shoulder at Mya who was making her way over to them.
“One conversation at a time.” Dominic looked down at the man at his feet.
“What did you mean when you said, ‘he said he would wait’?” Mya angrily asked.
Ruger kept quiet and only shuffled around on the floor, pushing back against the stone wall. The guard standing beside him gave a sharp kick to his leg.
“Why is everyone so violent around here?” Ruger gripped his leg and rubbed it slowly looking up at his attacker.
“Answer the nice lady before everyone else gets a little more violent.” Dominic knelt beside him with a glare.
Ruger gave Dominic a sideways look and then up at Chyla who still her eyes trained on Mya.
“Xen mentioned he was having a problem with a certain contract and The Sigil wanted to help to better their contract with the Neightur.” The hesitation in Ruger’s voice was easily noticed.
“More to the story than that I bet.” Dominic raised an eye brow.
Silence filled the room again.
A loud sigh left Mya’s lungs before she quickly grabbed a small stone carving of a k
nife-like object from a shelf nearby and stabbed it into Ruger’s shoulder. Screaming out in pain and grabbing his shoulder, Ruger crumpled against his knees. Blood began to stain his clothing and spread out, dripping to the floor.
Dominic looked up at Mya with a look to ask if it wasn’t necessary.
“I’m tired of waiting, I have places I need to be. What is in this contract?” Mya’s fury filled the room, her voice flooded with frustration.
Ruger coughed through a mouthful of blood. “A simple contract. We retrieve three items for them, and they cleanse the three houses we need out of the way.” Spitting a mouthful of blood to the side. “Once an item is returned, things will be cleansed.”
“What are these items and which houses? Why did you leave Bardain and what business does The Sigil have on the mainland?” Dominic leaned in a little closer.
“The key called the Cartographers Pin from Low Realm for the House of Xen.”
Dominic looked over his shoulder at Xen who shrugged in his haze of pipe smoke.
“The other two?” Mya squeezed the wound in his shoulder with her thumb making him wriggle in pain.
“A map of Undergrowth from a church in Estar, for the house of Tuff.” Ruger spit a mouthful of blood to the floor. “A gem from the crown of Darke for the House of Uridine.”
Mya’s eyes glared at hearing her families name and squeezed his shoulder again, oozing more blood into his clothing.
“What does The Sigil want with the House of Uridine?” Mya’s voiced through clenched teeth.
“We don’t want, the Neightur asked for the condition. I was told to just get the pin.” Ruger coughed again through the pain.
“That means what we ran into in Tarna was them looking for the map, not the cup. But why burn the whole village? The only place a map like that would be is with the Leeman’s in their monastery on Mount Guul.” Dominic swatted at Chyla’s leg to pull her attention.
“Most likely got it by now if the monks didn’t put up a fight.” Chyla dropped her hip slightly and rest her hand on it.
“They are not known for their fighting prowess. But why trade for a Gnomish family?” Dominic went silent in thought and in a calm tone. “Tell us everything, from the beginning.”
“From what I know, our Director was approached by Sliver of the Neightur with a proposal. As much of their conditions lined with the orders goals, they finalized the contract quickly. Two cohorts were sent out for retrieval of the three items and Sliver would be handling the exchanged for their half of the contract.” Ruger paused a second to drain his mouth to the floor.
“Most of the men were sent into Estar for the map, with one of our main commanders to form the main battalion. Two contubernium split to find the key and two to head into the Darke lands to scout potential within the capital. Many of our other party members were lost in the pass coming up through Durindal to something we couldn’t handle, but we were able to quickly track down things here for what the old man had in his possession.” Ruger kept his hand on his shoulder, parts of his hand were white with the pressure he was pushing into the wound.
“Why would you capture the elf then?” Dominic motioned up with Mya.
“We were taking a break before heading into the city and she just happened to be along, gave us some luck we needed for the excha…” He was cut off by Mya punching his hand that held his wound.
“How did you know that Sliver would wait on his attack?” Mya asked.
“He spoke to us all before we left for the main land.”
“In Bardain?” Dominic filled in the question.
“Was not him exactly, a mirage of him. You won’t be able to stop us from completing what we are here for. Sliver will finish his side of the contract knowing that we are here.” Ruger’s voice altered Mya’s demeanor. The knowledge of her family being a target could be seen swelling inside her.
Forming her hand in the shape of a claw, Mya muttered under her breath a small incantation. Little sparks danced around her skin ever so slightly and sent little pops and clicks into the air around it. Reeling back her arm, with all her strength, punched Ruger in the side of the face, sending him motionless to the floor.
Blood trickled from his mouth and from the location of the strike where skin had flayed from his face. Ruger remained lifeless on the ground. Everyone held their breath and looked at her; she couldn’t take her eyes off Ruger, taking long heavy breaths.
“I need to get to the Iceclaws. I must speak with Thron-din.” Mya’s fury in her voice never faded, the intensity of her voice had Dominic on guard.
Keeping his eyes on Mya Dominic called out, “Xen. We are going to need a few things. Mya as well, she will likely be coming with us.”
“I take it you are after the old knuckle knives?” Xen took another puff of his pipe.
“Yes, and we will all need new clothing for the girls, and travel packs to get up through the forest.” Dominic paused and looked at Chyla. “Do you still have those khopesh blades?”
“The larger ones with the clip?”
Dominic turned to the old man on his cushion and nodded.
“They should still be there.” Without looking Xen waved his hand to someone on the side of his chair who bent forward to listen to a few whispers from the old man.
A subtle nod and the man disappeared through a nearby door.
“We will be even after this Deadwick.” Xen lowered his head and peered at Dominic.
“Not even close old man, you would still owe me from getting you through Nethershade.”
Xen took a long drag from his pipe and slowly filled the air around him with smoke.
“Suppose it would be one last favour. I must head home though, have over stayed my welcome here in Tulcarna. I don’t think the rabble here will be able to protect me if the Neightur advances. Cirna, can you take the young ladies into the other room so they can get some new clothes please.”
A young female guard stepped forward and waved over to Chyla and Mya, both still distracted by the dead man at their feet. Cirna walked over to Mya and lightly placed her hand on her shoulder.
“Come now miss, let’s get you cleaned up.”
Mya nodded in silence.
Catching Chyla’s attention with a wave of her hand, Cirna led them through a nearby wooden door, clanging the ring handle as it closed behind them.
The echo of the handle collapsing to the door rang out with new sounds of battle coming through the main chamber entry. Clashing of steel on steel and steel on stone, with screams of blood flooded into the room. Rundin’s voice could be heard calling out to Kallis with unintelligible words before silence filled the space again. Everyone had their attention queued to the doorway.
“Don’t worry everyone, everything is under control.” Rundin’s high pitched voice called out as he stepped into the archway.
“Then get in here boy, and bring the others.” Xen called out.
Before Rundin could get another word out, a shadow flickered behind him with a swift swipe of its arm, taking his head clean from his shoulders. Rundin’s arms fell to the side with the rest of him going limp and slumping to the floor. His head shot across to the side wall, splattering against it with a gooey slurp and knocking of bone before it fell and rolled into the lifeless corpse of Ruger.
The shadow bolted through the doorway and into the room and all Xen’s guards quickly readied to fight. Heavy footsteps could be heard from the other side of the large hulk, colliding with it and both hurdled through the air into a heap. Kallis quickly followed with her bow drawn and Coral close by, hands at her hip, holding onto her katana.
“Quickly. Now Coral.” Kallis yelled out.
Reef, with his muscular body forcibly held the shadowed assassin on the ground with just enough time for Coral to sprint up with her blade. Blood curdling screams filled the room with the single stab she made into its chest. The small light edge of the blade flashed briefly before she returned it to its scabbard as a mist of blood oozed from the wound.
Reef kept his weight and strength against the cloaked beast just in case it came back to life again.
Xen flipped his legs out from his chair and stood. Slowly walking over to the grapple, he placed his hand against the side of its head and muttering a few words under his breath. A soft blue light illuminated from under the cloak and within seconds Reef jolted to the ground as the body within disappeared.
“You are fine to get up now son.” Xen patted Reef on the shoulder who was cocking his head around trying to figure out what happened. Coral bounced in her happiness at their victory and climbed up onto Reef’s shoulder as he stood.
“Good work big guy.” Coral rubbed the top of his head and smiled down at him.
Slowly letting the light strands of her bow puller her hand in, the arrows knocked dissipated into the string as she lowered it to the ground, Kallis fell to her knees at the sight of her brother’s death. Her bow dropping to the ground with a ratcheting clank as it folded itself up into its box formation and skittered away from her. Tear streamed down her face as she cried silently, droplets falling to her lap as they reached her chin, beading on the leather belts of her outfit and streaming off with more are they collected.
“What did you do to it?” Dominic turned to Xen, who was already back in his chair and inhaling his pipe again.
“They are summoned creatures from Low Realm, bound to the summoner through special incantations. If not disposed of properly, they will not die in this world, nor be returned to Low Realm.” His calm tone carried through the chamber.
“So, the other will need to be banished as well?”
Xen shrugged. “They may not need to be with what weapons were used to kill it. This one is older than the others and not as easily dispatched.”
“What weapons?” Mya asked as she held her hand on Kallis’ shoulder.
“Imbued and forged with the Gnomish oils. Certain magic can banish the creatures or outright kill them. No one knows for sure which are able to.” Xen sat still with his pipe. “You have selected some of these weapons that are in our cache. Seraph will take you there to gather them, and Dominic, get some new clothes as well.” Xen lifted his hand in a silent order with an open hand pointing to a door on his left that was guarded by a heavily scarred warrior.
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