Seven bandits hesitantly did as they were told and moved out of the mob. The rest gripped their weapons with sweaty palms and looked around with wide-eyed expressions.
Tao shook his head. “Maybe I didn’t explain myself well enough.” Turning his back to the mob, he faced his new recruits and singled out Jerrick. “Did you understand my proposal?”
Jerrick nodded. “Yes Captain.”
Tao turned back to face the hold outs and rested his hands on the pommels of his swords. “Well they understood and your comrades understood. Therefore, I can only guess it is one of two things; either you want to die or you’re too stupid to know how close to death you really are.”
Tao nodded subtly to Cozad and he took his cue.
Calling upon the dark powers at his command the dreadknight summoned his pet gargoyle. The sight of the winged demon crawling its way out of the flaming pit of darkness was enough for the rest of the bandits. Dropping their weapons, every single one of them rushed to the safety of the Earth Elementals.
Kastle moved up beside the samurai and whispered, “Nice bluff.”
“It wasn’t a bluff. That was their last chance.”
After setting his pet to watch over the cowed bandits, Cozad joined them. “You should’ve just let me kill them. It would’ve been easier. After all, they’re nothing but NPCs.”
Tao knew the acronym stood for ‘non player characters’ – a generalized term that referred to any character in a game that wasn’t an actual player. It was a holdover from the old pen and paper role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons. He also realized that Cozad was struggling with the same problem he was, accepting that everything around him was real. After all, they were inside a game. Why should they care what they did to non-players?
Kastle shook his head. “I can tell you after living among these people for the last four years, they are not just computer generated images. They have lives, dreams, worries and problems just like any person back home.”
Tao nodded and said, “If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh?”
Cozad cocked his head to the side. “Huh?”
“Shakespeare, the Merchant of Venice.”
Kastle grinned. “I vaguely remember that play. Wasn’t the character Sherlock?”
“Shylock, a Jewish moneylender but that isn’t the point. I don’t remember the whole play but that line always stuck with me, especially while I was in Iraq. It was hard not to hate all Iraqis or Kurds or Sunnis or whoever was shooting at us on any given day. But whenever I felt my hatred threatening to overwhelm me and I wanted just to group everyone in the same pot and kill them all, that simple line came back to me time and time again.”
Cozad asked, “Why?”
“Everyone is an individual. Each person is responsible for his or her own actions. Those that took arms up against me or my brothers were the enemy. Everyone else was just trying to live with the cards that had been dealt to them. They just wanted to survive, day by day…just like us.”
The dreadknight slowly nodded. “You’re trying to convince me that these peons are really people and not just sheep that need to be slaughtered.”
The deadly samurai just shrugged his shoulders but remained silent.
Kastle rubbed his chin with his right hand as he thought about how to best explain his position. “Look, try to accept the fact that your natural viewpoint on this side will be colored by the Chaos Spirit. It may not seem that way but it’s a fact. It is part of your burden for choosing an avatar of Chaos during character creation.” The priest shifted his attention to Tao. “But don’t discount the Chaos Spirit just because we didn’t start our avatars that way. You saw what happened to Jagoda. There’s an old saying; power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Tao nodded. “Lord Acton.”
Kastle cocked his head to the side. “Who?”
“Lord Brandon Dalberg-Acton, an English politician from the turn of the century.”
The priest shrugged. “Wow. I didn’t know that. I was quoting from the Superman-Batman comic book.”
Cozad chuckled. “I thought that you were quoting from the Marvel X-Men comic books from the Phoenix storyline in the late Eighties.”
“Either way, the concept is the same. If you stay long enough on this side, you will learn that we are far more powerful than any of the general populace and even most of the rulers.” Kastle gestured at his soul bound hammer. “And these weapons are like WMDs when compared to anything else in the land. Trust me on this.”
Tao chewed on his lower lip for a second. “Sounds like there’s a story behind that remark…”
“There is.”
“Later. Right now we need to get these guys sorted out before one of them decides to act stupid.”
The two spiritual warriors nodded and moved off to implement the next part of the samurai’s plan.
With Jerrick’s help, Kastle began sorting out the subdued bandits into smaller groups. Cozad and five of the new recruits headed to the aerie to saddle up some wyverns. The plan was to disarm, blindfold and shuttle them to different locations, far away from Akrôtiri. No one group would have too many of the troublemakers in it nor would they be left in the middle of the desert to die. Each group would be dropped off safely, with their weapons, water, food and two pieces of gold per individual.
Tao knew that it was actually going to be a logistical pain in the ass to complete but it was the only way he could come up with to safeguard the civilians of the region. Even with the difficulties of the plan, Tao wished that finding and rescuing his wife would be so easy. He also wished, and not for the first time, that Marvin was back. He needed his oldest friend’s advice. He wondered if Aaliyah’s servant had been able to locate his missing friends but before he could ask, Jerrick signaled for him and he began the process of putting out fires. A leader’s job is never done.
* * * * *
Gamble took advantage of a brief lull in the assault to assess their situation and bandage his wounds. None of his injuries seemed critical but the gash on his forehead hurt like the dickens. However, it was still better than the alternative of decapitation.
The three of them had proved to be a formidable trio and had repelled the hunters’ assaults twice. He wasn’t sure if they could or would be able to stop their next charge. Mathias was completely out of arrows, he was out of runestones and throwing knives and Pixi was low on power. To top that off, all three were wounded and tired.
The only two positives in the whole situation had been that they had killed or severely wounded over half of the attackers. Unfortunately, that hadn’t been enough to convince them to retreat. If anything, it had infuriated them even more. In the first assault, not a single attacker had carried a bladed weapon. They’d all been using clubs, which had actually helped the trio in their defense. For some reason, the hunters were going for crippling attacks.
They didn’t know why but the Outlanders had taken full advantage of that fact and repelled them.
The second attack the hunters had tried to flank them with a small group attacking the opening while two larger groups had tried to climb over the walls. It was obvious when Pixi appeared out of thin air and burned them, that they hadn’t been expecting the faerie. Two of the surviving hunters had lost their clubs in the conflagration but pulled out swords and attacked. They both died but not before wounding the half-elf and the dwarf.
Gamble looked out at the remaining hunters and recognized what they were planning. Turning back to his friends, he steeled himself for the upcoming argument but knew they didn’t have a choice. “We won’t be able to stop the next charge.”
Mathias finished tying off the makeshift bandage on his thigh and nodded. The dressing was already blood-soaked but he ignored that fact. “You figure they’ll do a mass charge?”
“I would. We’ve stopped the last two and that’s the only thing they haven’t tried.”
Pixi was currently visible and near nor
mal size. “So? We’ll stop them.” She pointed at the surrounding corpses. “Look what we’ve already accomplished.”
Mathias shook his head. “No. We won’t be able to stop them this time. It’s simple numbers. When they rush forward en mass, they will completely swarm over the defenses and us. And there’s nothing we can do to stop it.”
Gamble nodded. “Except one thing.”
Pixi raised one eyebrow. “What’s that?”
“Mathias and I can keep their attention on us during the fight, which should allow you to slip away and find Tao. You have to tell him what’s happened.”
“No! I won’t leave you!”
Mathias frowned but nodded. He had realized the truth of their situation just as the dwarf had. “It’s the only way. What we cannot change we must endure.”
Pixi stopped protesting and thought about what he’d said. “That’s a good philosophy.”
Mathias snickered. “I wished I had come up with it. My fiancé is an avid reader. It’s a line in some romance novel she was reading. I can’t remember the author or even if it’s an exact quote but it stuck with me.”
Gamble couldn’t pass up the opportunity to jab on his friend. “A romance novel that SHE was reading…right.” The dwarf nodded and grinned. “I believe that.”
The half-elf’s eyes went wide and the slight flush of embarrassment rolled over his fair skin. “Seriously.”
“Hog wash!”
Whatever either of the friends were going to say next was forgotten as they spied movement in the hunter camp. Their attackers had fanned out and were moving towards them. They knew that they only had seconds until they charged. Gamble turned back to the faerie.
“It really is our only hope. If you don’t tell Tao about the hunters he’ll never know what happened and he might even send more of our friends into Antioch. However, if we do survive their attack and are captured, it’ll be up to you to make sure we’re rescued.”
“But…but…”
Mathias pulled his twin matching daggers and moved to one side of the open door. “Good-bye Pixi…Whitney. I hope to see you again real soon.”
Gamble moved to the opposite side. “Take care of yourself ya little Limey.”
Pixi hated the thought of leaving her friends behind but she knew that they were correct. Someone had to escape and warn the others. She was the logical choice but that didn’t mean she had to like it. Calling on the innate abilities of her faerie avatar, she shrank back down to her smallest size, about six inches or so, and turned invisible. Flying straight up to a height of about fifty feet, she hovered and watched. She might not be able to help them but she wasn’t going to abandon them, at least not without knowing the whole story.
Mathias and Gamble looked out at the rushing mob of hunters. There was no give in their eyes, only rage. They had been humiliated with their futile assaults and meant to redeem themselves this time and their payment would be blood. As the first two hunters rushed through the open doorway, the Outlanders struck.
Even as the hunters fell, two more took their place. Gamble and Mathias tried their best to remain near each other for a better defense but as more bodies poured through the doorway or over the walls, they were forced apart. They blocked and parried, stabbed and slashed, dodged and jumped to the best of their abilities but they both knew the end was near.
Suddenly the very ground beneath their feet began rumbling, violently. So much so that everyone, attackers and defenders alike, were knocked down.
Someone yelled, “Earthquake!”
When the stone doorway came apart and reformed into a vaguely humanoid shape, Gamble seriously doubted that was what it was. The stone creature surveyed the area but didn’t move. That was until two stupid hunters attacked it. Anyone with any sense would have realized that attacking a thirty foot tall creature made of stone with a two foot piece of sharpened steel as a futile gesture. Maybe that was their last thought as the stone creature shifted its form and slammed twin pillars of spinning rock down on top of them…squishing them like a bug.
That was enough for the rest of the bounty hunters as they broke formation and fled into the wilderness. The rock creature seemed to watch them flee for several minutes before it shuddered once and broke apart.
Gamble looked over at Mathias. The half-elf simply shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. He had no idea what had happened. Of course, the old saying about ‘not looking a gift horse in the mouth’ came to mind. No matter why it had happened, they were alive and that meant they had something to be positive about.
* * * * *
Sanguine Bolt shook his head as he listened to the reports from his hunters.
It was obvious that earlier reports about the Outlanders had left out one important fact. That they had a spellcaster with them, a wizard by all accounts and one that was very skilled in elemental magic. This was both good and bad. Good in the fact that the wizard might be strong enough to help him but bad because Sanguine Bolt had missed an important opportunity due to bad intel, or should he say incomplete intelligence.
He had tried his best to organize and train his own brand of intelligence network. They were nowhere near as sophisticated as MI-6 or the CIA but they were getting better. They were the ones who had discovered the Outlanders in his city in the first place. He made a mental note to chastise them about not realizing that they had a spellcaster with them but then it was his own fault for not taking that possibility into consideration himself. The only glimmer of good information had been from the old tracker that had been leading the chase.
When everyone else had fled, the old tracker had hunkered down and watched. Sometime around midday, a flight of wyverns had arrived and picked up the Outlanders. The old tracker had watched them fly off to the west before returning to Antioch.
The involvement of the wyvern riders was peculiar. By all reports the bandits preyed on anyone weaker than themselves and particularly focusing on anyone aligned with Atlantis. However the really odd part was that he’d never heard of them returning to pick up stranded warriors. Just one more thing that was strange about the whole situation. Plus, he had to take in consideration the latest reports about a large force of Peacekeepers camped near the small hamlet of Crooked Creek. He knew that the religious order was becoming more and more militant and sooner or later would take a stab at Antioch. It was the only logical reason for them to be operating in this region.
Wayne, or Sanguine Bolt as he was known in these lands, leaned back and contemplated the strange circumstances he found himself in. One day he was Alpha testing a new game and the next he was trapped inside that same game. However, it was in this realm where he really seemed to flourish and he found that the organizational skills he gained from his years of working in the Human Resources department of an up and coming software company began to pay off. He’d been able to pair his management skills with his new found magical abilities and work his way through the Wizard’s Guild. Originally in Atlantis but after Sartael stole one half of the Dragon Orb and the calamity that followed, Sanguine relocated to Antioch and proceeded to take over the Wands.
It would really help if he could figure out what Al Shaytan’s endgame was or at least what his next move would be. After all, he was the true enemy. The Outlanders and even the Peacekeepers were just pawns in his little game, just like the Goblin King and the High Mage of Atlantis had been a century before. Sanguine Bolt’s real challenge would be figuring out how the new Outlanders fit into Al Shaytan’s grand plan or if Sartael was directly involved somehow.
Not one to shy away from dangers, Sanguine Bolt rang the gong next to his desk and in rushed his servants. He didn’t even look up as he began giving orders. “Prepare my gryphon. I will also need supplies for a full week, although I don’t expect to be gone for more than a few days. Alert Vladimir over at the Guild of Blades that he’s covering for me for the foreseeable future. When he asks, be vague about my whereabouts.”
Jareal had been his manservant for the p
ast ten years and knew the drill. “I’ll give him the usual spiel that you’re off communing with the spirits. He won’t ask any more questions after that.”
“Good…there are a few things I need to take care of and I think it’s past time that I visited my wife again.”
Jareal kept his gaze averted. He didn’t want to see the pain in his master’s eyes at that confession but at least he knew what to expect when his master eventually returned. He’d been through this before and would be prepared.
Chapter 26
The twin suns of this strange land had already set when Tariq al’Nasir al’Rafiq set his plan in motion.
When Yeltzer and he, as Benedict the injured Peacekeeper initiate, had been assigned the task of watching over the prisoner, they had divided the detail into two equal shifts, day and night. Tariq had let Yeltzer think he was getting his way when the Peacekeeper had chosen the day shift. Tariq had wanted the night shift. As an assassin, or a Hashashin as he was properly called, he felt more at home in the darkness than in the bright sunlight.
Arriving late to relieve Yeltzer had been part of his plan. The Peacekeeper would be hungry and race off to the mess tent instead of hanging around to chat. At least that was the plan. As Tariq limped up, he made sure the new bandages were visible to his counterpart.
“Sorry about being late, the Sawbones took his time in changing these out.”
“Dammit Benedict, I’m hungry.”
Tariq shook his head and hunched his shoulders in what he hoped would be a sympathetic gesture. “I know, I know. Tell you what, sleep in an extra hour.” He lifted up his bag of rations. “I packed plenty of food since I knew I would miss chow with my visit to that quack of a doctor.”
Yeltzer brightened up at his suggestion. “Seriously? Thanks. I’m sorry about all the mean things I said about you over the last quarter hour.”
Tariq laughed. “No worries. I’m sure I deserved it.”
Lost Lands: The Game - Atlantis Page 21
