Caged: Book 2 Of the King's Hand Series

by B. A. Monaghan

  “All I know is she taught me how to cast illusions, then we departed. She went her way and I went mine.” Roland made it sound like they really didn’t have much use for one another.

  Captain Baal looked sideways at Roland. “You stole this knife from her. She didn’t give it to you. This knife is too valuable for any mongrel to possess. This knife has been passed down from Elven leader to either their son or daughter. Your mother, if she had stayed, would have been the ruler of the elves. She would have had to wait a few hundred years, but she gave it up for what? She comes to the land of man to raise a mongrel. I’m so disgusted.”

  “Why did my mother leave if she would have been the ruler?”

  Baal answered before thinking about his response. “She didn’t want to marry my cousin. Stupid woman. My clan has more connections than any other clan. Eventually, we will rule. We are destined. Then we will throw out the humans off the continent. You would have been able to witness it, if you live beyond the few days I’m going to make you suffer.”

  Baal then stepped over to the healer. “Old man, are you ready to heal my men?” The old healer grunted as if he was still drunk. His breathing was faster than a sleeping man’s should have been. He was faking being passed out. Baal was disgusted and went over to Saika’s cage.

  “Listen up, woman. My second ship will head to your country today. If you want your family to ransom you, who do we tell the people we have? What is your name?”

  “My name is Saika. Tell them to tell the crown prince. He will take care of everything.”

  Baal had a huge smile on his face. “Well, well, well. I knew we had a noble but I didn’t think we had royalty. Why would royalty be travelling on a cargo ship to Lancaster?”

  “You should ask my uncle. He made the arrangements. I was to deliver a letter to the King of Lancaster but your buffoons used the paper from the sealed scroll to wipe there back sides.”

  This didn’t sit well with Baal. He could have had some good intelligence, instead his men wasted the opportunity. “You are right, I do have some buffoons that work for me. It is what one should expect when working with humans.”

  As he walked away, Roland could see his knife under the cape of the captain. Baal stopped halfway across the stronghold, then turned back and looked directly at Roland. “I thought they beat you last night.”

  “They did, but their best wasn’t very good.” Roland wanted to laugh but thought for sure it would only make the next beating worse.

  It wasn’t more than ten minutes later when the four men who had tried to beat him the previous night came back out. He cast a stronger persuasion spell on them. He persuaded them to hit lightly. While they were hitting like young kids, he would yell and scream. Roland could even hear Shadow laughing in his head about his acting abilities.

  The old healer rolled over when the men left. “I can heal you.”

  Roland rolled over and sat up. “No need. I’m feeling fine.”

  The old man just opened his eyes like he had never seen anything like that. Obviously, the men sent out to beat him within an inch of his life usually did as they were told. The old man expected more blood and bruises.

  Shadow tonight we make our move. I need my armor and knives back. I will need my other knives in the pack and my bow and arrows. I’ll get them when I get up there. I’ll grab one of the pirates and put his body on the floor so if someone looks in, they will think it’s me lying here. Is there any animal in the area that might help us?

  It was a few minutes before Shadow answered. I smell some rats. If you look around I’m sure you will find one willing to work for you. Tell him you will give him some food. I’ll bring it down.

  It took about four or five minutes before he spotted a rat near Saika’s cage. He coaxed the rat over to his cell. I need you to do me a favor. I’ll provide you with lots of food if you help me.

  The rat seemed amenable. Talking human, if you get me food I will do what I can. What do you want?

  I want you to find out where the human with the feather on his head sleeps.

  I already know that. He sleeps on the quiet side of the building in the back. He has good food. I know because I eat lots of his food.

  Roland sent the rat up to Shadow where he was given some meat. The rat was thankful. Roland needed for Shadow to figure out where the quiet side of the building was. Shadow if you could get near the building and figure out what the rat meant by the quiet side of the building I would appreciate it.

  Shadow came right back to him with an answer. Last night I checked the building out. The north side of the building is very quiet. All the pirates are on the south side drinking and yelling.

  Later that afternoon the pirates were up and about. The crew that had just arrived the previous night was heading out once more. There was more than a little complaining that the other crew was leaving so soon. That lasted about as long as it took Captain Baal to threaten the lives of his crew.

  That brought the number of pirates back down to a smaller number. If things went wrong, it shouldn’t be too hard to evade them. Captain Baal had to be dealt with.

  Shadow brought down some more meat and water. They hadn’t been given anything by the pirates. The old man was taken away late in the afternoon. He must be back healing the pirates and Roland was sure that he would be drunk shortly thereafter.

  Roland could hear Saika whimpering in her cage. This awful situation must be hard for a woman who was used to living a plush royal life. Roland wasn’t sure what that was like, but he was sure it wasn’t like living on a filthy dirt floor cage. It became dark quickly that evening. The moon wouldn’t be up for hours. It was waning in its last quarter.

  He slowly approached the lock on his own cage and quickly unlocked it, and found a guard close by. Roland was in his shadow illusion, and with one hit on the head with a rock, the guard was quickly lying in the cage looking like Roland. Saika was almost hysterical when he didn’t let her out.

  “Saika, listen to me. Stay here. I’ll come back to get you before I head out. You will just get in the way and make too much noise right now. I promise I’m not leaving you. Hang on for a bit longer.”

  He left her sobbing. He hiked up the hill to where his pack, bow, arrows, and knives were. He prepared as well as possible. Poison went on most of the blades. Shadow was his look out when he entered the building. He cast invisibility on himself right before he entered, quickly looking around for Baal. He wasn’t anywhere in site. He must be back in his room. Roland quickly moved to the quiet portion of the building. The rat was right, it was quiet compared to the other side were the drunken pirates yelled at each another.

  As he moved down the corridor, things seemed a little too quiet. He cast detect traps and discovered that just in front of him were three traps. The first was in the middle of the hall. The second was to the left side and the last one was to the right side. This man was paranoid. When he approached the door, he cast detect trap again. This time the door lock was trapped. It was a simple poisoned needle trap. Any thief worth his salts could get through this in less than a minute.

  The door opened and he stepped in. He heard a hiss coming from the corner. It was a lizard curled up in the corner. Its long black tongue flicking out and back. Its head was elongated and the eyes were golden. Roland identified it as a Black Mondo Lizard. He only knew about it from reading descriptions from books, and the books were accurate. The lizards were deadly and had a poisonous bite. Their normal prey was small animals so his presence shouldn’t be a problem. He just needed to stay clear of the creature.

  Baal wasn’t wearing any armor and neither was Roland. He was feeling confident. Baal spoke first. “You are foolish. You should have left without the Elven knife. Now I’m going to kill you. I’m going to teach you a lesson. Never bring a knife to a sword fight.”

  Roland had left his bow and arrows outside. They were too big for this confined space. He used two of his throwing knives. He was making sure he looked around the room t
o see what obstacles he could use. There was a bed, a dresser and a dog size lizard. It shouldn’t be too bad.

  Baal began breathing heavier as the encounter heated up. Baal stepped back and in low Elven said “Attack.”

  Roland was wondering why he would say “attack” in low Elven during a fight, when something suddenly grabbed the back of his leg. It was that stupid lizard. It had grabbed him by the calf of the leg and again his Manticore leather saved him from a potential cut and poisoning. Roland threw his knife, placing it through the lizard’s skull. He stepped back and pulled out another knife.

  Baal was breathing very heavily by this time. “You are full of surprises. I can see I should have had you stripped naked. Next time I’ll keep everyone in the cages naked.” By now, Baal had caught his breath and began an earnest attack with strong swings but the force of the attacks was decidedly weaker.

  The pirate captain was trying his best to get through Roland’s guard. For Roland, he had just been keeping up his defenses trying to decide how to get through the powerful swings of the sword. Baal’s reactions were getting slower and Roland was sure he could make an attack now that would succeed.

  Baal halted his attack and stepped back for another rest. He needed the break even though Roland wasn’t even breathing hard. Roland wasn’t going to let this elf take a break and he attacked again. He went high from the left and he went middle with the right. Baal slammed his sword up to fend off the attack. Roland side stepped the swing to the right and came back low to the left.

  The cut wasn’t much, it barely broke the skin of the pirate’s leg. Baal looked down and laughed. “I’m going to kill you slowly, mongrel, then I’ll have them peel the skin right off that mangy hide of yours.” He was in the process of catching his breath when he attacked out of anger.

  The new attack was weak and faltering. The pirate was sweating, and the floor was now wet with the perspiration. His breathing started to grow very heavy. In the next moment, his tongue began to swell and he was unable to swallow. It became hard to even catch a breath. He looked down at the cut across his leg. Then looked back up at Roland.

  Roland smiled at the elf. “It is Ogre Spider venom. You might have a few more minutes to live, but they are going to be very painful.”

  It was amazing how easy that was. The pirate was definitely over confident. The elf dropped his sword, his body in convulsions, and it looked to Roland like his heart was about to stop. Roland picked up the knife that his mother had given him and quickly located the rest of his equipment in an adjoining room. He took the pirate’s sword too. He wanted to prove he killed Baal. The idea of bringing his head back in a sack was too repulsive for Roland. He used his knife to cut a hole in the wall so Shadow could come in. They searched the quiet side of the house for over an hour.

  In the end, they found a chest of gold coins and a large number of gems. He put the gems in his pack. He could carry them. He didn’t want to leave the gold for the pirates so he took the chest outside and buried it. He made sure he cast navigation to mark the spot. When the crown ships came in to clear out the stronghold, they could recover the gold. He also found some documents that looked important. He would have to go through them later he thought as he stuffed them into his pack. Then he went over and took the ruby earring off of Baal. He headed back to release Saika.

  She was crying as he unlocked the door, almost hysterical. Roland did what he could to keep her calm and quiet. They began walking away when the old healer stepped out of a shadow. “You can’t leave without me. They will kill me. I’m a drunk I know, but I can heal. If you travel through the desert, you’ll need a healer. I can promise you that I will keep you healed. Too many of those stinking Stun Lizards.”

  Roland actually felt sorry for the old guy. If you come with us, you’ll need to keep up.”

  The old man had a look of determination. “I’ve been through the desert before. I’ll make it.”

  Roland led Saika and the healer away from the pirates and left Shadow to keep them together and safe. He went back to the ship, and with the Elven knife his mother had given him sank Captain Baal’s boat. It was amazing how easily the knife cut through the hull of the ship. He put the hole just below the water line and let the water do the rest.

  He returned to the small group and they remained under an overhang in the shade, sleeping away the rest of the day. The next night, they began the long trek back to the capitol. They arrived back along the edge of the shifting sands when the old healer began to shake.

  Saika let Roland know what was going on. “The old man is an alcoholic,” she said. “He hasn’t had any drink for a few hours now and is going through withdrawals. It might take a few days to get through this. Out in this heat and sand I doubt he can make it.”

  Roland was irritated. He had taken him because the old guy was desperate. “Let’s get out of the heat then.”

  Shadow quickly found a cave with a good amount of water. They made the old man comfortable and Roland gave him some elixir that would hopefully help him get through the withdrawals quicker. Shadow and Roland went hunting and came back with some scorpion meat which turned out to be enough for several days.

  The old man shook and was delirious. He woke up once demanding his drink, claiming he would die without it. He was in a bad way. He ran a fever and his heart rate was every high. They took turns watching the old man to make sure he didn’t do anything to hurt himself, or them.

  When Roland had some time, he pulled out the documents he had taken from the pirate captain. One of the documents turned out to be a letter of instruction for him to cause havoc on the seas. He was to make it hard for Lancaster and if he was able to get rich from the spoils they would be his. If he came back to the before he was told he would be severely punished. He had embarrassed the family one too many times. The letter was quite long and degrading. The letter was signed Tallesin Gremenor.

  There were more letters. Some were from the Thieves Guild and explained how they were exchanging favors for one another. Other letters were from people living on the continent of Canistan. The pirates didn’t seem to be picky about who they worked with as long as they could sell their ill begotten cargos.

  During this time Saika was able to clean herself up and get her hair under control. She was very striking. Her complexion was an olive brown color and her eyes were dark brown and oval-shaped. Her cheek bones were high and she had a soft round nose. Her hair was as black as a moonless night. She was a bit distracting at times.

  On another day while they were still resting, Roland cast night eye and went further back into the cave to do some exploring. He had never really looked too much in the caves, no reason to look for trouble. This cave didn’t seem to provide a residence for anything in quite some time. The ceilings were covered in stalactites and floors with stalagmites. Water was dripping from one to the other. Years, if not centuries, of minerals mixing together in the water left behind what looked like a cave with its own teeth.

  He went back into the cave about one hundred meters until he found a wall in the cave had collapsed. He could get through, but noticed some shiny crystals in the side of the collapsed wall. He pulled them out and discovered that they had an interesting look. He stuck the crystals in his pocket to examine later and went back to exploring the cave. It didn’t take long to see that the cave had an abundance of the beautiful red crystals.

  After about two weeks, the old man was ready to continue the trip. He looked better, but said the desire for the drink was still with him. Roland was glad they didn’t have any, and that none could be found out it this desert.

  The trip back to the centaur’s land took twice as long. It was Saika’s slowness more than the old man’s that detained them. Her shoes weren’t meant for trekking across a desert, and the shoes Roland made for her were ugly according to Saika. She wore them, but in protest and ultimately from necessity.

  When they finally met up with the centaurs, Saika recoiled in a panic. She thought the centa
urs would surly eat them. It took quite some time to assure her that centaurs didn’t eat humans. When they referred to Roland as a friend both she and the old man were intrigued. The old healer thought that they would have to go around centaur lands and after they were taken to the centaur camp and treated well, he was amazed.

  When the centaurs learned that Roland had rescued a woman of royalty, the female centaurs took Saika away and helped her with getting cleaned up and they even came up with some clothes for her. They took seriously the status of a person or centaur. With Roland coming to the rescue again, his status was lifted even higher with the centaurs.

  With all the hubbub that Saika caused, they remained at the centaur camp for three days. During that time, the centaurs actually rounded up a horse for Saika to ride. Normally they abhorred people riding horses, but because Saika was royalty, they made an exception. It was good because this allowed Roland to pick up the pace.

  The last leg of the journey went quickly. The old healer was doing very well and Roland finally found out his name. Calling him old man didn’t seem right. His name was Hamlin the Healer. He had been a well-known healer in Port Richard with a thriving practice until he had taken to the liquor too well. He lost his practice, his license to practice, and finally his family. He ended up on a ship that had been occupied by the pirates who eventually took him on as their own healer.

  He had done all right with the pirates because so many of them were addicted to the drink as well. When Captain Baal took charge of the pirate ship, things became rough for the healer. He was almost always too drunk to heal anyone and Baal would take the drink away from him to punish him if he wasn’t able to heal. Things for him deteriorated so fast that they were about ready to kick him out into the desert and let the hot sand take him. Then Roland arrived.

  When they arrived at the gates of the capitol, Roland let the guards know that Saika was a royal personage and that she had been rescued. Before Roland knew what happened, they summoned an honor guard to surround the lady and escorted her to the Karagandy Embassy.