The mage stared at Talia for a moment, but he saw something in her eyes that made him flinch. “Bradley Dixon hired us. He told us a bunch of first-year students would be coming through the portal.”
“Bradley and not Isaac?” Jack asked.
The mage laughed. “Same difference. Isaac doesn’t do anything without his father’s permission. Isaac arranged everything, but it was the old man’s money that paid for it.”
“How’d you know we’d be here?”
“Didn’t. They sent mages to all of the portal circles you’ve used since they started tracking you.”
Jack’s brow furrowed as he considered this information. He looked at Stann. “Strip them both. Don’t leave them any gear.”
The mage protested. “How am I supposed to get out of here? I don’t have enough magic without my gear.”
“That is your problem,” Jack said. “It is that or I let my friend here finish you off.”
The mage started to say something, and then thought better of it. Once they’d dealt with the mage’s clothing and gear, Jack took the arrow out of his hand and put a healing-over-time spell on the enemy mage. “Get moving. The next time we see you will be the last,” Jack said. The mage started to run.
“What do you want to do?” Talia asked as she placed one of the mage’s rings on her finger.
“We keep to the plan. Only this time we are a little more careful coming out of the portal. If they’ve booby trapped that one it will probably be more dangerous. I’m guessing they sent a few mages and bandits to every portal, but kept the most for the last one.”
“I’ll be ready this time,” Stann said. He put his axe away and held his crossbow in one hand, the shield in his other.
Talia popped another mana potion and then nodded. She started casting her portal spell.
Jack cast his healing-over-time spell and then readied his magical shield. He put more energy into the shield that he’d ever previously tried—it kept increasing in size. “Talia, Lana, stay behind my shield until we know what we’re facing.”
The portal opened. Before Stann could go through it. Lord Scratches flew off of Jack’s shoulder and through the portal. An explosion happened on the other side. Some of the energy came through the portal, but most of it stayed on the other side.
Stann jumped through and Jack went right behind him.
On the other side of the portal they found a group of bandits waiting for them. There were at least three mages, a half-dozen archers, and another half-dozen warriors with swords and axes.
The dragon-induced explosion seemed to catch the bandits off guard. Stann was out and fired his crossbow before anyone reacted. Stann’s bolt struck one of the mages in the chest.
From behind the bandits a voice yelled out, “Don’t just stand there. Attack!”
Jack almost froze in his tracks. He knew that voice. It was McGovern, the man who’d killed his grandfather. He looked closer at the bandits and spotted Bob and his companion from the graveyard, McGovern’s minions. Distracted by the revelation that his old enemies were here, Jack lost focus until a powerful fireball slammed into his energy shield.
Regaining his focus, Jack studied the situation. The bandits were assembled in a horseshoe around the portal circle. It wasn’t a very smart move on their part. They’d ignored the natural cover that the ground gave them and had been relying on the strength of their initial attack. The fact that Lord Scratches had gone into the portal first had thrown that plan into the gutter.
From behind him, Lana and Talia were firing as fast as they could. They were targeting the archers on the sides of the horseshoe first as they were the biggest threat.
Stann was sitting behind his shield while reloading his crossbow. He’d stand up, fire a bolt and then retreat. He took some damage every time he stood, but he was scoring a killing blow each time, so the strategy was effective.
Jack kept his shield up while firing ice from his sword. He would’ve liked to use his solar burst spell, but keeping his shield up and playing a defensive role so Lana and Talia had protection while they attacked was more important.
Some of the bandit warriors charged at Stann.
Stann fired one more bolt at an archer and then dropped his crossbow and took up his axe. He dropped his shield and charged into the group of men.
Seeing that the bandit archers were now all dead, Jack stepped forward and dropped his shield.
The girls automatically started to spread out and focus their attacks on the two remaining mages.
Jack started healing Stann, who was taking quite a few hits, but his stone-body was absorbing most of the damage.
McGovern, Bob and two other bandits ran pass Stann straight for Jack.
“These ones are mine,” Jack yelled, knowing that Lana and Talia would kill them if he didn’t. He trusted the girls to take out the mages while he dealt with his old enemy.
Before the bandits could get to him, Jack cast one more healing over time spell on his friends. He then switched to his solar burst.
The first two bandits came running at Jack. He aimed at the second one, blasting him with a full solar burst and then ducked under the clumsy attack of the first bandit, slicing him across the chest. As the injured bandit’s momentum carried him past Jack, Lord Scratches swooped out of the sky and started attacking his face.
Bob and McGovern slowed down, warily watching Jack’s hands for more magic attacks.
“Been waiting for you, boy,” Bob taunted.
“Not as long as I’ve been waiting for this,” Jack said.
McGovern snarled. “I’m going to finish what I started back in Sunder.” He hurled a fireball at Jack.
The memory of McGovern hitting Ramy with a fireball had never left Jack’s mind, so when it happened, Jack was ready. He did a barrel roll under the attack and fired a solar burst into McGovern’s chest. Bob swung his axe at Jack, but he blocked the blow and then hit him with a solar burst as well.
With McGovern and Bob out of the way, Jack focused on the rest of the fight, but it was already over. The other three were looking at Jack. They’d been watching the fight. Lord Scratches hopped off the dead bandit and flew to Jack’s shoulder. Jack rubbed him behind the ears. “Crazy dragon. I hope you didn’t hurt yourself going through that portal like that.”
Lord Scratches chirped. It appeared he was fine.
“You knew them?” Lana asked, pointing at the dead men at his feet.
Jack nodded. “McGovern murdered my grandfather. His cronies baited me into a fight that got me put in jail in Sunder.”
“They got what they deserved, then,” Stann said.
Jack wasn’t going to argue the point. He just was glad it was done. He didn’t know if Ramy was watching from somewhere in the heavens or not, or if he’d even care that his murderer was now dead, but Jack felt a degree of satisfaction. But now he had more important things to worry about. They still needed to collect enough treasures to pay their fees. And the dangers of the city of Borcha still awaited them.
Stann and Lana started collecting the weapons from the bandits. There were a few ancient weapons, but the rest were normal steel and iron weapons. Talia inspected the mages. Jack checked McGovern and his henchman that he’d taken out. McGovern had a few magical items, but they weren’t that impressive.
Talia came over to Jack. “We may have a problem.”
“What’s that?”
“None of these mages had enough gear to portal straight here, unless this McGovern had enough power.”
Jack knew the stats of all of McGovern’s gear. “Highly unlikely. He’d have to have had a super high base mana, and I doubt he did. The magical attacks he used were pretty basic. He had a few decent items, but not enough for a trip here.”
“I think a more powerful mage brought them here.”
“That makes sense. The mages who we fought before had more power than these ones. It wouldn’t surprise me if someone used these bandits to test us. We’ll just have to keep
being prepared and assume the worst.”
“Should we keep going here or just double back to Pailron?” Talia asked.
“Well, if there are other mages, there is nothing stopping them from following us to Pailron. We keep going.”
Talia sighed. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
Jack looked at the temple. Mage Nowak had suggesting avoiding the temple, but he hadn’t said anything about the city. Maybe the smart move was to inspect the city. Maybe they’d get lucky like they had in Pailron. “Let’s head into the city. See if we can find a few hordes of undead.”
“Sounds good to me,” Stann said.
They started moving. The sun was already starting to hang in the sky. They had a few hours left before it would be dark. Since they weren’t going back to the Academy, they’d have to find safe shelter before dark. But that gave them plenty of time to do an initial search.
As they started going down one of the streets, they came to a series of small buildings. Jack assumed they were dwarven houses by the size of the doors. They didn’t run into any undead on the streets.
“Damn, it can’t be easy, can it?” Stann said as they came to a bit of a hill that allowed them a good view of the city. There were no signs of undead.
Talia bit her lip; she was still worried.
Jack shot Stann a nasty look. Stann looked confused until he looked over at Talia. He rolled his eyes and then nodded. He understood what Jack meant.
“Well, on the bright side, a lot of these buildings are intact. I’ll bet we find lots of stuff inside them,” Stann said.
“I’m sure we will,” Jack said. “Let’s start with this one.” The building was the first large building they’d seen. They went to the front door and Stann stopped. “Maybe you should go first, Jack.”
Jack frowned. Then he realized that Stann was going to have a hard time squeezing his way through the small door. “Yes, that isn’t a bad idea.”
Raising his energy shield, Jack pushed open the door and entered the room. Thankfully, the ceilings of the building were a reasonable height, even for Stann. He moved further into the room and yelled clear. Stann turned sideways and ducked down; he made his way through the door with fewer issues than anticipated. Dwarven doors were actually wider than human doors, so it was only the height that was an issue for Stann.
The girls came in behind them.
“Looks like it was a roadhouse, or a hotel,” Stann said.
Jack nodded. The room they were in was large, with several tables, and on the far wall was a bar. Most of the bottles were empty or destroyed, but a few looked untouched.
“Does dwarven wine age well?” Lana asked. “Some of those bottles might be worth something.”
“I have no idea,” Jack said. “But we’ll take them and find out later.”
They took the bottles on the shelf and found a few more under the bar. The next room they searched was a kitchen. They found a couple ancient knives and added them to the collection. Down one corridor they found the stairs leading upstairs. They followed them and found a dozen small rooms. It confirmed that this had once been a hotel or some sort of roadhouse. They found a few items, but nothing of significance. Undeterred, they left the building and kept going down the street. The next few buildings they came to were smaller than the hotel but larger than the first rows of buildings they’d seen. Jack decided to inspect the first one.
Once again leading the way into the building, Jack realized it was a house. It had one main room with a kitchen and dining area, and two bedrooms. In the bigger of the two rooms they found a closest full of dwarven clothing, including a full set of armor.
“That’s more like it,” Stann said.
They kept going, inspecting each of the medium-size houses as they went. Most of the houses were empty, but they did manage to find three sets of armor and a few weapons.
It was starting to get dark when they came to a part of town that seemed to be a little richer. The houses were bigger and spread farther apart. They also had two stories. While they worked, Jack couldn’t help but notice the dwarven buildings were functional, yet even the basic buildings had a degree of elegance to them. Everything seemed to be really well built and in good shape. Dwarven buildings weren’t exotic, but there was no denying the quality of the buildings. As old as they were, most of them were in exceptional shape. They saw a few buildings that had obviously been ravaged by war, but for the most part it looked like the magic that had killed so many hadn’t destroyed the buildings.
It was the third house they entered when they finally encountered danger. A pair of ghouls in full armor woke when they entered and attacked Jack. They were powerful and faster than any they’d encountered before, but as Jack held them off with his shield the others blasted them. It took several shots to kill the ghouls, but they eventually fell. Once they did, Jack inspected the armor the ghouls were wearing. Both had on magical armor. That was a good sign. Magical armor was of the most profitable items they could get.
As they searched the rest of the house, they found that it was completely intact and that it had several bedrooms. The main bedroom was large and had several armoires and dressers that were carved with intricate designs. Jack thought it was beautiful. But more than that, it was a house with sturdy doors and unbroken windows. “We’ll stay here tonight.”
“Let’s check a few more houses. We still have a little daylight, and now that we know we’re staying here tonight we can just circle around the house,” Talia said.
Jack agreed. It wouldn’t hurt to check a few more houses, especially the ones closest to them. If they had any undead roaming around it was better to deal with them now. They went to the next house; it was empty except for a few knives and a shield. They took them and kept going to the next one. It was completely empty. The next one had a trio of skellies that attacked before they even got to the door. The skellies had three swords and a couple dwarven helms. Inside the house they found more dwarven clothing.
When they went outside again it was dark. Jack used his magic to light the way.
“A few more?” Talia pleaded.
“Two,” Jack said. He understood her desperation to keep searching, but they had to be logical about it. The risks were higher at night, and they still needed sleep. Tomorrow was going to be a long day.
The next house was empty, and the last one had a ghoul with a wicked-looking axe and a partial set of armor. As they left the house and started to head back to the house they’d chosen to sleep in, Lord Scratches squawked a warning before taking off in flight.
Out of the sky, a dark shape flew down and hit Stann. Another hit Jack, while a third just missed Talia. Jack pushed his light magic higher into the sky.
“What the hell was that?” Stann asked.
“I don’t know, but it hit me pretty hard,” Jack said. The creature had hit him in the head, opening a cut and taking a third out of Jack’s health. He used his healing on himself while the others watched the sky. Suddenly, several birds flew down. Talia blasted one with her fire, while Lana hit another one. Stann swung at one with his axe, but the bird dove under the attack and flew away. Jack look at the bird Lana had killed. It was a blackheart buzzard.
“Damn buzzards,” Stann said in disgust.
“Run to the house,” Jack said.
They retreated to the house. Once everyone was inside, Jack stayed at the door. Lord Scratches was still out there.
“I’m sure he’s fine,” Lana said as she came back to the door.
Jack nodded. Lord Scratches was tough. Tougher than any buzzard, that was for sure. He just didn’t want to lock the little dragon out. Lord Scratches was part of the team and Jack didn’t want to close the door on his familiar.
A few minutes later, the little dragon returned. His beak and claws were covered in blood. Lord Scratches had been killing buzzards. “Good boy,” Jack said. “I hope you killed them all.”
Lord Scratches chirped happily.
They settled in and ate
a cold meal. Not that anyone complained. Chef Ramsey had made them sandwiches that more than satisfied. Afterwards, Jack made an announcement. “We’ll keep a watch tonight. Everyone will take a shift.”
Stann frowned. “You don’t think we’re safe here?”
“I think blackheart buzzards are predators. If they are here that means there are other creatures here. Who knows what other monsters might be roaming the streets? Our scent is all over the neighborhood and it leads back here.”
“I’ll take first watch,” Talia said. “I can’t sleep right now anyways. Stann will take second watch.”
“I’ll take last watch,” Lana said.
Jack started to protest but Lana cut him off. “Last watch is the hardest and makes for the longest day tomorrow. We need you at your best all day tomorrow. The more sleep you get, the better.”
Accepting her logic, Jack and Lord Scratches headed to one of the small bedrooms. The bed’s sheets were tattered, but the straw beneath it was still in good shape. He curled up on the bed and closed his eyes.
When Jack woke there was light coming through the window. He shook his head. Someone had taken his shift. He headed to the main room. Lana was sitting on a chair looking out the window.
“Nobody woke me.”
“We talked about it after you went to bed. Talia knew she was going to have a hard time getting any sleep so she took the first two shifts. We weren’t joking, Jack. We’re relying on you today.”
Jack sighed. He wasn’t sure if he was worthy of the trust they were placing in him. What if they failed?
“Oh no, I know how your brain works. No doubting yourself now. We’ve done great things and you’ve been the leader the whole time. You’re going to lead us to victory and that is that,” Lana said.
A smile cracked on Jack’s face. “Thanks for the pep talk.”
“No problem. I don’t know if it’s just because you are stubborn, or just not too bright, but you don’t give yourself enough credit. You have more potential than any of us.”
Menacing Misfits: An Epic Fantasy Adventure (Darkthorn Academy Book 1) Page 43
