by Bill Albert
“If it were a puppy that might mean something,” Luvin said. He took a step forward swung directly at the pink one. The glancing blow caught the tip of the snakes knows and it reeled back in pain and anger.
“Keep them cornered,” Gallif called. “We have to pull together and force them back into the tunnels.”
They knew she was correct and tried to hold the line. They would take their swings whenever possible, sometimes hitting and at least causing some damage to the snakes, then take a step forward.
Gallif cursed several times as she was forced to curtail her swings with the flame sword. The pink snake managed to avoid a strike from her butt in the confined space the flame sword got entangled in one of the robes. It caught fire and she was distracted for a moment as she tried to stop the fire out. She knew another mistake like that could start everything in the room and burning.
The gray snake seemed obsessed with Rosario. It concentrated completely on her and she barely avoided several snaps of his jaw. One time, in a very unusual move, it ducked its head down and rammed her in in the chest. She was knocked off her feet and just as it began another attack a direct strike from Luvin’s hammer cracked its skull and killed it. Severely wounded by the move Rosario was slow to rise.
The tan snake had not been so selective and was striking it anything that moved. Kellis ducked just in time as it passed over her head. Gallif distracted it by circling the flame sword in the air to get his attention. Kellis can back up grabbing one of the giant robes as she did so. She tossed it at the tan snake and with incredible timing managed to tangle the snake in the robe’s sleeves. It’s a body wiggled with anger. Gallif jammed the frost sword into the robe and managed to hit the snake on the swords broadside.
Wounded and even more disoriented the snake quickly headed back to the gap. The pink snake, the smallest of the three also withdrew and disappeared into the darkness below them.
Luvin quickly grabbed the plate and slammed it in place. Despite the plate’s excessive weight, he moved it without help.
They paused and took a deep breath for just a second before they realized that Luvin was still hunched over the plate. Gallif nudged him and he fell back into her arms barely breathing. They could all see the points on his wrist where one of the snakes had bitten him.
Gallif desperately hung close to him and looked at Rosario begging for help.
Rosario forced herself to stay calm, tried not to show Gallif just how concerned she really was, and used everything she could think of to try and cure him.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX: INFERNO
The door to the dressing room burst open as two giants followed by two hobgoblins stomped in with their weapons ready. They stopped in the center, scanned the room, and were surprised to find it empty.
“Take a look at this,” one of the hobgoblins, an older chubby male said and ran to the back wall. One of the robes was lying on the floor. It was flat except for a small depression on one side. The hobgoblin pulled the roadway to reveal the opening in the floor.
“Where did that come from?” One of the giants, who was dark-haired with a long beard, asked as he looked down on it.
The hobgoblins ran to it and bent over sticking their heads inside. They looked in each direction and popped up to face the giant standing behind them. They didn’t catch a flash of something long and slimy slithering past the gap.
“It’s a tunnel,” the older hobgoblin reported. “There’s a path going all the way to the outer wall of the tower.”
“That’s impossible,” the female giant exclaimed. She went to the gap and was able, just barely, to stick your head inside. She looked around and stood and shook her head. “I can’t believe it!”
The male giant looked inside for himself. He thought he saw something moving so he pulled his head out and thrust in one of his arms. He groped blindly in the path under the floor for any levers, locks, or some kind of clues. Frustrated, he banged his fist against a wooden pillar hoping it would shake something loose. He stopped when he thought he felt something cool and wet slide past his wrists and waited. When nothing happened, he removed his arm and stood up not catching the snapping jaws that barely missed him.
“Follow it,” the male giant ordered the hobgoblins, and, without a pause, they jumped into the tunnel and started working their way towards the outer surface of the tower.
“We better report this,” the female giant suggested.
“Oh, let’s close it up first.”
“But how will they get out?”
“The other end will have a way out,” he said as if he knew what he was talking about.
They searched the room quickly and found the missing floor plate, replaced it onto the gap, placed the leg of a heavy metal dressing stand on it to keep it shut, then left.
As the door closed there was a slight ruffle of wind against some of the robes resting on hangers. After a few seconds they were ruffled again as Gallif and Luvin snuck out from underneath a heavy green robe and Kellis and Rosario emerged from an azure robe.
“Good idea,” Gallif said to Rosario as she supported Luvin.
“They’d avoid touching the sacred robes as much as possible,” Rosario explained. “It would also give you time to recover,” she said to Luvin.
“How are you feeling?” Kellis asked.
“My strength is coming back,” Luvin said. “I’m not so dizzy anymore. Like the venom is getting out of my system.”
“We’ll wait as long as we can,” Gallif assured him.
“No, I’ll be all right,” he said looking her straight in the eyes. He knew they couldn’t wait for him to feel completely better.
“We need to find another way up,” Gallif said.
“What about the gap between the walls,” Luvin suggested. “Like the one we used to climb up before.”
“For security they split that path here. We would have to get to the other side of the tower to continue up,” Kellis reported.
“What’s directly above us?” Gallif asked.
“Another layer just like this,” Kellis continued. “If any of the Ministers that were opposed to Krove are still in the tower they would be up there.”
“Want me to shadow form?” Luvin asked Gallif.
“No,” she said urgently. “I don’t want you to get that far away from us. From now on we all stay together,” she ordered, and they all agreed. “We need to head up as quickly as we can.”
They paused at the door to listen, heard nothing, then went into the hallway as quickly and as quietly as possible. They traveled without interruption until they were forced to backtrack after finding the body of the female giant they had seen before laying on the floor. She was badly injured with blows from both blunt and sharp-edged weapons and would soon be dead. Just beyond her the male giant was fighting to others.
The four of them forced themselves to turn away but had to recognize how unusual and disturbing it was to find Giants fighting Giants.
They took another route and came across more dead bodies. This time they were hobgoblins that had been clearly cleaved in half by a mighty swing of a giant’s sword.
They reach the opposite side of the tower only to find the door to the room they needed to enter locked. Luvin stepped forward and, after two attempts failed, he picked the door open and they went in.
They all stood in awe and what was before them as their eyes adjusted to the bright lights from torches.
Except for a path just wide enough for a giant to walk around the edges the entire floor was an incredibly crafted and detailed miniature replica of the Land of Starpoint Mountain. At their feet were waves of water painted into the wooden floor along the southern coast. On the right-side lower corner, the Southeast, there were even small blocks of wood carved to indicate some of the buildings of Outbound.
Gallif’s eyes started there and headed for the back of the model, which represented northward, towards the center. She sighed as she slowly looked up the replica of Starpoint Mountain. Even i
n this miniature world it still seemed a behemoth in the center of their land.
Her eyes drifted down to the smallest, unrecognizable spot on the replica that she was sure no one had ever looked at in detail before. It was the spot a redhead girl with green eyes had spent three years of her life. The spot where she bit Luvin, Rosario, Pate and Rayjen. The spot where the young girl with wishes, hopes and dreams had started her trip to explore the world. Where the woman who stood there now knew that someday she would return.
She walked up the right side, the Eastern border, and was disappointed there were no markings of anything in the swamps. No remembrances of where Maura and Veret had died.
As she headed north, she swallowed hard seeing the small wooden block, the size of a sugar cube, that by accident or design was the inn were Maura had lived. She thanked whoever had designed the map for making the decision to play something there. She blinked several times then joined the others at the boards they had removed from the wall. She looked inside, since no snakes, rats or spiders, then went in first and started climbing.
It was a short climb before they could hear the voices of two giants talking. They slowed and press their heirs against the wall to single out the words.
“What of the Second Minister?” the first voice asked.
“He was last seen those office meeting with his aides and guards. That was before the fighting began an information has been pretty spare since then,” a second voice reported.
“So, we have the King and one Minister secured inside the tower. We should have enough here to protect them.”
“Two Ministers,” the second voice corrected. “You’re forgetting about the first. He’s never left that chair up there.”
Gallif and Luvin glanced at each other enjoying what they heard. They had seen the empty chair before being rushed out the Council chamber. The fact that King Krove did not want anyone else to know what it happened even an advantage. They knew the truth.
To their surprise there was a third voice from inside the tower. This one was so distant and spoke so quickly they couldn’t understand a word. It was followed, however, by the hustling sounds of footsteps as everyone left the room.
“We need to get in here,” Gallif said after a moment of silence.
She expected Luvin to draw his cast hammer to break the way through the wall. She was surprised, and impressed, when he rested his hands against the wall at different spots.
“Here,” he said. “You still carry that blade?”
Gallif nodded and reached to a 12-inch blade she kept hidden in the sheath strapped to her inner side. She removed it and handed it to Luvin.
Luvin took the blade and inserted it in a very small gap between to the boards. He wiggled it back and forth before the wood came loose and then repeated the process in the opposite end of the board. He returned the blade to Gallif, drew his cast hammer and gave a very gentle tap on the opposite side. The whole board came loose and Luvin lifted it away without a sound.
Gallif smiled and patted him on the shoulder.
“Professor Haglin taught me that at school,” Luvin whispered to her.
“Was that how she managed to get into the safety zones during the contests?” Gallif asked wide-eyed. “I spent two weeks going over that trying to figure it out.”
Luvin refused to say anything but his giggle confirmed her deduction.
He quietly loosened another board so there was enough room for them to get through. Inside they found a staging area for guards. Weapons and extra close were kept here and the guards could rest and take breaks during their shifts. There was nothing here that these four could use, what few weapons were still in the racks were designed for either giants or hobgoblins and would’ve been difficult to carry. They listened at the door for any signs of movement outside in the hallway and got none.
“Where would the Second Minister be held?” Gallif asked Kellis.
“Were lucky,” she replied. “When they are not in the Council chamber they meet in a small room. They can relax, chat, sometimes work on their debates there. It’s right across the hall from us and there we doors on each end.”
“Will it be heavily guarded?” Luvin asked.
“Doubtful. The further down the tower the fighting is the LaSalle have appeared. They also still don’t know about us.”
“Maybe we should go straight after Krove then,” Rosario suggested.
“No, we don’t know what else he has up there defending him,” Gallif pointed out. “The second Minister will trust us and will, I’m sure of it, help us in any way he can.”
Whether she agreed with her are not Rosario trusted Gallif’s decision and readied to follow her.
“The lighting is pretty subdued on this level,” Kellis said. “It’s partly to keep a calm, relaxing feel to the place. We shouldn’t have any trouble getting across the hall as long as we stay quiet and low.”
Gallif reached up and was about to pull the door open when Luvin put a hand to stop her. He signaled for her to wait and then quietly extinguish all the torches and candles in the room. This way there would be no bright lights to be noticed in the darker hallway outside.
Slowly Gallif pulled the door open and the candlelight from the hall crept into the room.
She looked out and was surprised to find guards at both ends of the hallway. She thanked her God, Tebiet, that they were all facing outward, presumably to hold off any attacks from the lower floors.
Gallif waived for the others to wait and cross the hallway without making a sound. She took a few deep breaths to make sure the Giants didn’t move then pointed at Kellis to follow her. The woman moved silently and was soon next to Gallif on the opposite side. She signaled for Luvin next and then watched as Rosario came across the dark hall.
They slid along the wall in unison to a door that was only a few feet away from to the giant guards. The door opened easily and the four of them slipped inside.
The second Minister, sitting in a chair just inside the door, was as surprised as they were.
“Oh, my,” the second Minister said as he stood. “Gallif of Starpoint,” he said nodding to her politely.
“Yes, my Lord,” she said with a nod. “These are my friends Luvin, Rosario, and Kellis.”
“Very nice to meet you,” he greeted them. “We didn’t get a formal introduction before. Unfortunately, it was not under the best of circumstances,” he said honestly.
“Understood,” Gallif spoke for them. “I’m not sure how much you know, my Lord, but combat is already happening beneath us.”
“I’m afraid I know. They have felt free to tell me how things are going. At least, their version of things,” he said with a wink.
“If you follow us, we can get you out of here,” Gallif informed him. “There’s a secret way we know of. It would be a tight fit for a giant, but I believe we could get you to safety before anyone realizes you’re gone. We must leave immediately.”
“No,” the second Minister shook his head. “I must do my duty and stay here,” he said in waited for their protests to stop. “Being a Minister of the Giant Lords has its privileges,” he said flatly. “Despite what’s happened, the edicts of the new King, I do still have some influence. The guards out there, when they come to check on me, I speak with them. I asked him questions. I make them think about what’s happening.”
“You give them hope?” Gallif asked.
“In a way, but more importantly I give them doubt in their new King and the effects he’s having.” He looked down at Gallif with a sincere fondness and said, “I do to them what you did. I use the truth to get them thinking.”
“But I fear I may have failed to do the right thing,” Gallif admitted and they all look at her in surprise. “I may have started a war. After 200 years of peace Giants are fighting Giants. Would it have been better if I’d had stayed quiet?”
“No, no, no, no, Gallif,” the second Minister said and sat back in the chair so he could look at her face-to-face. “War, for so
me, is a bitter side effect of the truth. What’s happening now would have happened eventually. You just brought it to the foreground sooner,” he said looking at her warmly. “The future will recognize you for the Giants that you are. You did what you knew was right. You made a difference. These three who are with you now. Do you trust them?”
“Of course,” Gallif said without a pause.
“And they trust you. That is why they’ve followed you this far.”
Gallif looked at Kellis who nodded to show her faith. She faced Rosario who, despite the sweat on her face, smiled and winked in return. Then she faced Luvin and felt the deep-rooted affection he had for her that had been there for so long. She gently ran her fingers across his chin and he also not.
“Now you must go,” the second Minister said. “Let our new King face the truth.”
“We need to find a way to get past the guards,” Kellis said.
“Can’t we just go back to the inner layer?” Luvin asked.
“It’ll take us too long. The sooner we get there the better,” Gallif agreed.
“Very well,” the second Minister said heading for the door. “I will get them out of your way. Just watch carefully,” he informed them as he opened the door and walked out. He left the door slightly ajar and the four of them huddled nearby to listen for whatever would happen.
“I’ll be leaving the tower now,” they heard the sixth Minister announced at the far end of the hallway.
“My Lord?” The guard Captain Aston confusion.
“I’ll be leaving the tower now,” the second Minister repeated.
“My Lord, there are still a great deal of tension in the tower even though the fighting has temporarily subsided. Any movement could immediately reignite the conflict.”
“You have been given your orders to protect me directly from the King, correct?”
“Yes, my Lord.”
“He clearly stated that I was not to be considered a prisoner, correct?”
“Yes, my Lord.”
“Well, there are four of you in this hallway alone. I trust the four of you will be able to protect me.”
