by E. Molloy
"I'll have your head for this, Collector!"
Niko opened the door. "That would certainly make this investigation easier," he mused before the door closed behind him. Through the heavy wooden doors, he could hear things crashing to the floor, orders being shouted, and a woman's quiet voice. The guards outside the door looked at Niko, then at the door, then back at Niko. He shrugged. "Enjoy the rest of your day. I'll show myself back to my room."
"King's orders, you're not to be wandering by yourself."
"The king's orders no longer apply to me. Your kingdom, for all intents and purposes, is mine to roam freely at this point." He brushed a bit of dust off of the guard's uniform, smiling kindly. "You can ask him yourself, if you'd like, but-"
Another crash sounded on the other side of the door, and the guards gave each other a look. "I'll leave you to it, then," he chirped, then walked past them and back toward the guest chambers.
When he returned to his room, the door was cracked open. He heard no sound from inside, but wasted no time in barging through. If it was an assassin, he would be surprised. There was barely enough time for the king to stop throwing his tantrum before Niko had made it here. There, crouched on the floor in a pile of papers, was the young girl who had led him to his room. She squeaked in fear, slapping her hands over her mouth as if staying quiet would somehow keep him from seeing her.
"Well, this is disappointing. I know I requested some time with you, but I'm sure you knew I didn't mean this," he said. "What are you doing here?"
Tears formed in her eyes, and she bit down on her finger.
"I recommend you start answering my questions, or life will become very uncomfortable for you."
She opened her mouth, and words poured from her lips in a way he wouldn't have thought possible given their earlier conversation (if it could even be called that). "It was just orders. I can't disobey. Please don't kill me. I just do what I'm told. I don't have a choice."
"There is always a choice," he said solemnly, closing the door behind him. She jumped a little, and he reached his hand out. "Your keys. Give them to me."
She hurriedly grabbed the ring of keys that hung at her waist, handing them up to him before retracting into her fetal position against the bed. Niko picked through each of them, looking at them as if they had information written on them, but they didn't.
Suddenly, she quietly added, "It's that one." He held it up to confirm, and she nodded, pressing her chin to her chest after.
Niko locked the door behind himself, holding the ring in his hand as though holding it captive. As he spoke he removed the key to his room from the ring that held the others.
"So. Someone gave you the order to come here and look through my things? Or, just to mess it all up and make me seem a slob?"
"I was supposed to find writing."
"What writing?"
She shrugged a little. "Any kind. They said any kind of writing, I needed to memorize and bring to them."
"And did you find any?"
"Nothing I could read, I swear."
"No doubt. I'm surprised you read at all." He paused, looking her over. "So, your orders. I assume you don't know who they come from?"
"One of the sl...servants brings them to me. I don't know who he gets them from."
"Tidy. And this is the same person you were to give whatever you found here?"
She nodded. "Please, don't hurt me. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I just...I had no choice."
"Stop saying that," he reprimanded sternly. "There is always a choice," he repeated, and then his expression softened. He smiled at her. "You will return to this other slave, and tell him what you found. You will not mention our meeting, though. Let him think you got out of this clean."
"You want me to lie?"
He pressed a finger to his temple. "I'm giving you an out. If they found out you were caught in here, discovered, what do you think your punishment will be?"
Tears formed in her eyes again.
"Lying doesn't seem so dangerous anymore, does it?" Niko asked. She shook her head, and he continued. "Good. As I was saying. You will pretend this meeting never took place. You will be leaving the key to this door behind. Does anyone else have one?" She nodded. "Good, that simplifies matters. If you're sent here again to snoop around, you'll have to knock. I hope you don't mind. Now you'd best hurry, before someone notices that we're both missing."
She hesitated, and Niko made a wafting motion with his hand that seemed to get her feet moving quicker. The girl lifted off the ground, grabbing the key ring from his hand before rushing to the door. The Kainite unlocked it for her, and the young girl hurried out of her prison into another. She didn't say anything or look back, which Niko thought was probably the best possible outcome. Now that he could come and go freely from this room, it was time to start the real investigation.
He produced from his outer jacket pocket the pyramid again, setting it in the small stream of light beneath the window. A singular beam of light shot up from the top, and he pinched the top and twisted. A light formed at the base and expanded into a wide oval on the table. He spoke toward the cube in a quiet voice, foreign words echoing inside of the light there and repeating over and over until he released his pinch on the top. As he did, the light at the base retracted into the shape. He pressed on the light beam from the top of it and it seemed to go inside of the pyramid, light dancing through runes on its surface and illuminating the table. The shadows made forms, ones that didn't match the shapes on the pyramid. He studied the writing until the sun was too far down to fuel his device any longer.
Ansell the wizard, born and bred in a life of trickery and lies, found himself in a much bigger mess than he had ever expected with this job. An actor, really, his sole purpose in life was to dazzle, amaze, and confuse, all while claiming magic as the source for his tricks. He held no disillusion that he could actually affect anything with his 'craft', if it could even be called that, but prided himself on his ability to make others believe he was something to be wondered at. Having been raised in the life of a slave, and knowing there was no escaping it, the man had many years ago learned to market himself as a commodity, instead of just property to be won. If one must live in slavery, then let it be the most luxurious and exotic form known to man.
As the old man climbed the steps to the tower hurriedly, holding his shining blue robes all bunched up in a ball in his fist, he wondered what exactly he would do if things did in fact get ugly here. Slip away, most likely, and get as far away from here as possible. There wasn't much demand for court wizards in most countries: there were very few places left where magic was even legal. He wondered if the people of Kaine would accept him, or call him out for the fraud that he was. That would, though, be the ultimate trick: to fool the mages into thinking he was one of them.
No matter the future, he would have to take this one day at a time. Things were hardly ever tasking for him, but, with the pressure building now, he would have to stick it out until he couldn't take it anymore.
As he reached the top of the steps to the peak of his tower, he wasted no time in opening the door. Standing at the table in the center of the room, the young woman -the true mage- stood leaning over a wide bowl filled with water. She stared hard into it as it rippled rhythmically. There was nothing he could see that would cause the tiny waves, yet they pulsed nonetheless.
"What progress have you made?" he asked, feigning a confidence required for his position.
"The dragon has found them," the young woman responded, her voice sounding almost frightened.
"Oh?" Ansell replied, trying to contain his glee. "What of the wolf and the, the," he twirled his hand in the air as he tried to recall the word.
"The fairies," she finished for him, "Are no longer useful."
"How disappointing," he replied, and then slinked behind her to peer over her shoulder into the pool of rippling liquid. He saw only her reflection, her dark green eyes staring back up at him from the pool. A strand of bright orange
hair had escaped the hood and dangled down to almost touch the water. "The dragon will take care of this though, yes?"
She nodded slowly, and the imposter wizard breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
"Well, that certainly is good news, as it seems we have trouble our own here in the city. We must move quickly, my dear. The King fears you will be taken, enslaved perhaps, and that all will be lost."
"Trouble?" she asked, removing her eyes from the pool of water and turning them up to the wizard. The ripples ceased to pulse as her gaze left the liquid.
"A Kainite, and a nosey one at that. You must contact the Knights. It's time we took the next step, a little ahead of schedule."
Chapter 21
After the group had set up camp, eaten, and gotten an entire day's worth of rest, it was time to start moving again. The sun had gone down when Daveth finally woke up, feeling surprisingly refreshed. Glop was curled up in a ball next to him, looking dryer than usual. Lillian hadn’t moved at all in the night, still sleeping on her back. Daveth was loathe to think of how she was going to walk with her feet as injured as they were. Ragen and the bird looked like they had been up for hours. The large man's bedroll had already been packed neatly into a bag that had been in the pile of linens they'd brought to the camp. Of course he had energy, the man had somehow miraculously escaped everything so far without a single scratch to show. Daveth wondered how the man could end up with so many scars when he never seemed to get hurt.
While Daveth had argued the dangers of sleeping during the day and travelling at night, Ragen was adamant about them doing it just this once. Though it was going to take a big chunk of their time, Daveth and Lillian needed the rest. He had said that they would have to be at their best for whatever came next. Once they left the forest, they'd have to be on their guard constantly. It seemed a little backwards to Daveth, especially considering their experiences with the forest so far, but Ragen assured him that this was the safest place they could be right now. He kept insisting that the person that owned this land would protect them. Despite their supposed safety, Daveth and Lillian had both been supplied with weapons from Ragen’s stash. For Lillian, a short bow, which Ragen urged her to leave unstrung but the princess insisted on wearing it with the string at her back and the bow at her front. Like Daveth, she wasn’t content to just accept that they were safe simply because Ragen said so. For Daveth, Ragen had produced a short sword to accompany the one that Glop had eventually returned to him, as well as allowing him to keep the small knife he had given him before. The clothes he’d supplied the smaller man with had leather loops at the waist that caught the weapons at their hilts, leaving the blades to dangle freely at his side. Daveth argued that he wasn’t trained with those weapons, but his protests fell on deaf ears.
So, they had slept through the day, and spent the next two nights travelling the forest. Daveth and Ragen took turns carrying Lillian, who by now was clothed in fresh rags and shoes. Both of them were afraid to ask Ragen what he was doing with women’s clothing. Lillian’s stubbornness eventually had her back on her feet. It didn't last long, though, before she needed to be carried again. Other than her injuries, nothing of note took place. Ragen had been right, at least in the fact that nothing horrible happened to them for the rest of their journey through the woods. They were slowed down significantly by having to carry Lillian, but once Daveth could see the edge of the forest, it all seemed to come so quickly. No sooner had it come into view did it seem they were standing on the precipice, and he found himself hesitant to leave. Daveth’s feet grew heavy.
"You said a dragon chased you in here?" Ragen asked as they neared the forest's edge.
"You don't think it could still be out there, do you?" Lillian asked from within Daveth’s arms, her legs hanging over his one arm and her arms wrapped around his neck.
"Knowing dragons, it would have found something better to do. But, if it's under control of a witch..." He trailed off, and then shook his head. "Let's just tread lightly, alright?"
"If mind control isn't possible, then how can she control a dragon?" she turned her gaze to Daveth, expecting he would be the one to know best on that topic.
Daveth replied knowingly, "It's different to control an animal. They do everything their instincts tell them. Pretty much whatever pops into their head as an option is the only option, so they're pretty easy to get to do what you want since they have no opinions."
"Oh,” she said, almost sounding disappointed. “I guess I just thought dragons were smarter than that."
"Some are, but the red ones are pretty single-minded, so it could be easy enough to just convince it that you’re the next item it wants in its collection. Either that or he's got some vendetta against you, which wouldn't surprise me. Did you say something nasty about his mother before you left the tower?"
"Ha ha, you're hilarious," she feigned a laugh sarcastically. "I didn't realize they taught humor at the Knight's Academy."
"Call it a natural talent," he chuckled.
"Well, if he is out there, shouldn't we have a plan or something?"
Ragen chimed in, "Run like hell. There's no way I can win a fight with a dragon, and I doubt prince charming here will do much better than last time."
Daveth sighed. "White Knights are trained to fight dragons," he said, "It's how they get their promotion. Kill a dragon, save the princess. I should be able to fight him."
"Should, but can't," Ragen reminded him. "Don't need you going on some suicide mission for glory, kid. So, like I said, run like hell."
Lillian argued, "There has to be a better plan. Where are we going to run to? How exactly do you expect us to outrun it?"
Ragen shrugged, "I'm still working out the finer details. Feel free to share if you've got some genius advice, though."
Daveth cleared his throat. "Well, what if there's a way to break the spell?" There was a pause from the other two, waiting for an explanation. "There has to be a way, right?" he asked, not really having gotten any farther than that.
"Didn't they teach you how to negate magic at your school?" asked Lillian, referencing their conversation a few days ago.
"Not really negate, just defend against."
"How does that work?"
"Most magic is elemental, in one way or another. But that won’t really help here. If there is a Mentalist in play, the only defense I’ve ever heard of were the Eluri, and I’m not even sure what they are.”
Ragen interjected, "Seems to me the best option with something like that is to run."
"Run where? Back to the forest?” Daveth chided, and Ragen went silent. “There are symbols we can paint on our weapons and bodies that are supposed to help protect us, but as far as I understand, that’s only against the actual magic. Dragons don’t really have magic.”
Lillian seemed incredulous. “Then how do you explain the fire?”
“They have pockets inside of their lungs that produce…”
She waved a hand dismissively, as if she had heard enough. Glop was pulling at Daveth's pants leg, but he ignored it. The princess rebutted, "Let’s just use the symbols and hope that they help. It's better than getting eaten trying to run from a giant lizard with wings."
The tugging continued, and he could hear the anxious whining of the creature. He responded to the princess, "We wouldn't have had to deal with him now if you'd just stayed in the tower and let me save you like I was supposed to. It was your idea to run in the first place."
"Hey, guys," Ragen's voice sounded from ahead, but they were too caught in their conversation to notice.
The princess wiggled out of his arms, planting her feet firmly on the ground and almost landing on Glop in the process. It hurt, but her stubborn expression barely winced. Glop switched sides, anxiously tugging at Daveth's other leg as Lillian replied. She was wiping her dress, presumably to get his filthy peasant fingerprints off of it as they stopped to argue.
"You don't even know how you're going to fight him this time, let alone last time. If I'd
waited for you to come save me, we'd both be dead."
"I would have thought of something, just like I'm going to think of something, now."
"That makes me feel so much better. Nothing to fear, Daveth the Wannabe White Knight is going to think his way past a dragon."
"Not every battle is won with brute force, you know. Besides, what's your idea? Call on magic that doesn't exist? I think that's where you were going with that whole symbol thing, right?"
"At least I'm TRYING."
"Guys, we have bigger..." Ragen interjected, but was cut off.
"The only thing I see you trying to do is trying to make me turn around and leave you here to figure this all out on your own, princess."
She narrowed her eyes and lowered her voice. "You wouldn't dare." When Daveth didn't flinch, she retorted, "Fine. Go. We're better off without you, anyway."
Glop squealed, a high pitched sound that accompanied the tugging on Daveth's pant leg. The two stopped fighting, looking down at the small creature who held up a small gold coin to Daveth. That was more money than Daveth had seen in his whole life.
"Where did you-" he started, but his words were cut off by the ground beneath his feet rumbling. There was another rumbling sound, but it wasn't the ground, and all three looked to Ragen for an answer just as his raven flew past them back into the woods.
Ragen stood at the last stretch of the forest, about a dozen body lengths ahead of them. Past him, they could see an opening, and beyond the opening lay a large dark red-orange rock. The rock was moving, and from it was coming that deeper rumbling sound that laid over the sound that shook the earth. A head emerged from behind it, lowering itself to the ground to see beneath the tree covering. It was crowned with horns of varying lengths, with two large ones protruding from its lower jaw. The beast was massive. It opened one eye, the other remaining shut with Lillian's arrow still wedged in it.
The group stood frozen as the creature's head turned, and its deep golden eye stared directly at them. Lillian immediately drew her bow, pointing a well-trained arrow at the monster’s good eye. Ragen took a few steps back in awe. A guttural noise released from the creature, and much to Daveth's surprise, it spoke.
