"Well, that's the last one, how are we supposed to get to Alphaport now?" Iris said to Zelkith.
"Alphaport did you say?" said a stranger from behind them. Iris and Zelkith turned to see a bearded man, he wore a ragged shirt and trousers, with a strong aroma of alcohol.
"I be going to Alphaport matey, ye can come eboard if ye wishes," the man said with a slur. He had several silver teeth in place of missing ones. He seemed very untrustworthy, but they had no one else that would take them.
"What’s the catch?" Iris said bluntly, fed up with the way people had treated her here.
"Nothing at all me beautiful lady," he said, he continued to mumble under his breath.
"What do you mean, more or less?" Zelkith snarled at the man. Zelkith could hear much more than most others, and heard what the man said clearly. He pushed the drunken pirate against the wall with his front paws.
"I... I..." the drunken pirate stuttered, the fear was clear in his eyes.
"Zelkith what are you doing?" Iris questioned.
"I don't trust him!" Zelkith snarled.
"We have no choice, get down off him." Zelkith reluctantly got down.
"Now what do you mean, more or less?" Iris asked sternly.
"I err...Lost most of me crew ya see..." the drunken pirate said ashamed of himself.
"...lost?" Iris asked.
"All but one of me crew abandoned me for another captain, more promise of treasure ya see."
"I get it now..." Zelkith said, "you want us to man the ship?"
"I guess ye could say that...An eye for an eye as they say."
They agreed to help on the deck of the ship for a one way trip to Alphaport. The drunken pirate led them away from the harbour and onto a rickety mooring on a nearby beach.
Tied to the mooring was a single wooden ship, most likely a fishing boat and it was small enough for just a few people to maintain over the little portion of the sea. The three of them stepped into the tiny boat which swayed unevenly on the water.
The boat was worn and was hardly seaworthy, it had a small private cabin under the decks. The door to the cabin swung open, and a small thin Gnome stepped out. He looked wealthy and was well groomed, a cutlass to his side held in a golden plated scabbard.
"I got a crew me lad!" the drunken pirate said excitedly.
"A girl and a dog. This is not a crew, go and find someone useful" the Gnome said arrogantly.
"They shall see us to Alphaport me lad, they are more than capable."
"For the last time, I'm not me lad!" the Gnome argued frustrated. Everyone stood there silent for a few moments.
"Well off you go, get to work! I want this wreck in Alphaport sometime this year!" the Gnome ordered. The Gnome then went back into his cabin and slammed the door.
The drunken pirate got to work, he started to pull a series of ropes and winches. Iris and Zelkith just watched, as they did not know what to do. The drunken pirate instructed Iris and Zelkith on tasks they could do and after a short while the boat started to sail.
Iris let go of one of the ropes suddenly and ran to the edge of the boat. She leant her head over the boat and was violently sick.
"Would seem she be sea sick," the drunken pirate said. Iris groaned and held her stomach, slumped over the edge.
It took just over a day in the slow, rickety boat to reach Alphaport. For Iris, it felt like a fortnight as she was sick the entire way. The Gnome did not leave the cabin until they got to land.
It was early morning when they docked at a small mooring beside the main docks. The drunken pirate threw a rope around a stump on the mooring. Iris was so eager to get off the boat she jumped off onto the wooden mooring. She slumped on all fours, she still felt awful, but she was glad to be on land.
She looked up to see several bandits quickly approach. They all had a sword in hand and a bandana to cover their faces.
"Zelkith!" Iris croaked urgently. She still felt weak and was unable to move. One of the bandits grabbed Iris and put a sword to her throat. Iris felt her stomach lurch as the sickness rose up her body. Zelkith barked, leapt off the boat and snarled at the bandits.
"One step closer and she will get it!" the bandit said. The bandana muffled his voice. "You, off the boat," the bandit said, he pointed his cutlass at the drunken pirate. The drunken pirate climbed off the boat with caution, he turned his head to see the Gnome also had his cutlass pointed at his back. They had been set up, all this time it was a trap.
"Dunno about the old man, but the dog and lovely young Elf will fetch some money," said the bandit who held Iris.
Iris stomped her foot down on the bandit’s foot, who hissed in pain and released his grip. Iris pushed the sword away with the little energy she had left and slumped to the floor.
"You wench!" yelled the bandit. The bandit swung a punch at Iris when another one of the bandits grabbed his arm and stopped him.
"You know they won't sell for as much damaged," the other bandit said. He shrugged his arm away and huffed. Zelkith was ready to pounce and make an escape with Iris when the drunken pirate touched Zelkith’s back. Somehow the drunken pirate’s voice sounded in Zelkith’s head. "Don't do anything reckless, so long as we don't cause a fuss we won't get hurt," the voice said.
'Why the hell should we trust you, for all we know you set this up' Zelkith thought to himself.
"You have no choice, we have a better chance to escape as a sold slave than as captives by bandits," the voice said in return to Zelkith. He reluctantly did as the drunken pirate suggested. The three of them got chained up and were made to walk up onto the beach, into a small cabin on the outskirts of the city.
They were pushed into the tiny cabin forcefully. There was a man sat at a desk inside a small room with no windows. There was a small lamp that illuminated piles of paperwork both sides of him and on the floor.
"Yes?" the man at the desk said, he did not even lift his head to look. He had a pair of glasses sitting at the end of his nose with his head slightly raised to read the papers at his desk.
"We caught these ones stealing," the Gnome from the boat said.
"Liar! You set us up!" Iris shouted. The man at the desk ignored Iris’s outburst.
"Seventy, thirty," the man at the desk said, he still looked down at the paperwork and made no eye contact.
"Oh come on, you know how long it took us to get these three?" the Gnome argued.
The man from the desk put down his pen and looked straight at the thin man. "Seventy, thirty or nothing. Your choice" he said. There was no clear expression on his face or tone of voice.
"Alright alright, call them in" the Gnome accepted.
The person on the desk pulled a cord that hung beside the desk, which rang a bell on the wall behind him. An instant after the door behind him opened and two huge Ogres walked in.
"Get them ready," the man at the desk said, again with no expression. One of the two giant Ogres took hold of the chains and led Iris, Zelkith and the drunken pirate through the door. The other Ogre stood behind them and followed. They walked into what looked like a hallway of cells. A slight murmur could be heard from the previous room, the man at the desk and Gnome no doubt still argued over the deal.
The other Ogre started to search the drunken pirate, they took what looked like a small pouch of coin and a mostly empty hip flask. The pirate made a fuss as they took the flask, but was quickly silenced with a grunt. They did not even bother searching Zelkith and skipped straight onto Iris. Iris struggled and moved around in as much protest as she could muster. The Ogre looked in the small pouch with the cutting and ignored it, he then noticed Limbo and took them. The Ogre then attempted to take off the amulet from Iris' neck, but in the effort to take it, the chain burnt through one of the Ogres' fingers, which took it, clean off.
The Ogre roughly threw the three of them into a cell with so much force it almost crushed them into the wall on the other side. The Ogre locked the cell door and left Iris still in possession of the amulet.
The Ogre walked through to the room with the man at the desk and spoke briefly. The Ogre walked back inside, the man followed behind. The man from the desk walked in and looked at Iris, his eyes fixed on the amulet.
"It looks cheap, we will sell it with her," he said and then walked back through to the small room.
It was dark and damp inside the small confined cell. There were roughly another twelve cells, each with three to five people inside, all of mixed races. Inside each cell was a minuscule barred hole in the wall, quite often spray from the sea would trickle through. The Ogres stayed inside, one guarded the door and the other walked to and from each cell.
"You bastard you set us up!" Iris hissed under her breath at the drunken pirate.
"Do ya really think I'd be in ere too?" he argued.
"Do you have any idea what you're jeopardising!"
"Calm down Iris, we are all in the same boat here, give it a rest" Zelkith hushed his voice.
They soon learn from some of those inside the cells that they will be sold tomorrow, along with all their possession.
They hear the drunken pirates story, whether they wanted to or not. He used to be a captain of a famous cargo ship. He used to take many valuables from place to place until one fateful night his ship got overrun by real pirates. The pirates took everything from the vessel and killed his entire crew. They took the captain on board and sunk the ship, to later throw the captain overboard, stranding him on a desert island close to Ogre territory.
"So how did you escape?" Iris asked.
"Unknown to the pirates, I had just earlier that year delivered an urgent shipment to the Ogres of the village nearby. I did a lot of shipments for many different races, and was lucky enough to be able to swim ashore, and find myself a journey back."
With his failed delivery there was no way he would be able to carry on his job, so he withered away on drink until the Gnome came along and offered him a deal. He could captain a new boat on the agreement he could get a crew.
"I shoulda known it would be a trap!" he said.
"What were you called, back then?" Iris asked.
"Captain Thorley was me name when I was captain that is!" Thorley said.
"Well Thorley, looks like we're together in this now," Zelkith said.
<< >>
They slept for the night and woke up early the next morning, uncomfortable and hungry.
"It's started, the auction" Zelkith said, his ears raised high as he listened through the tiny window. Iris could only just hear a murmur and chatter.
It was mostly rubbish, but Zelkith repeated what he could hear for everyone to listen, including the Ogre guards. It was good entertainment for some who had been held in there almost a week. A few hours later, an item had started on the auction which was of interest to Iris, Limbo.
Auction number One hundred and Seven. Two broken sword handles, each with a diamond embedment and a fashionable belt holder the auctioneer called.
We begin this auction at...one hundred tado, do we have one-fifty Zelkith copied the auctioneer word for word. The price steadily increased as two bidders battled between each other.
Five hundred and fifty tado to the Human at the back, anymore?...Going once...'Seven hundred'... seven hundred to the new bidder at the back, eight hundred, nine hundred, one thousand! One thousand tado to the one at the back...going once...going twice...Sold!
"Wow..." Thorley said in amazement "That were really sum treasure ya had there" he added. Iris did not respond, angered that she had lost something so important and so easily.
It was not long until those auctions had finished, and the slaves from the cells were taken out, cell by cell. These sales took longer than the previous ones as the bidders inspected the slaves.
Iris, Zelkith and Thorley were the last to be taken out. The Ogre unlocked the cell and took hold of the chain. They were pulled out of the cells and past the desk. The desk had all the paperwork removed and was empty. They were taken outside, up some cobblestone stairs and shoved onto a large stage. The sudden brightness as they came out from the cells made them stumble as they walked. Once their eyes had adjusted they could see a crowd of various races.
"Here we have an interesting lot, including an intriguing magical amulet on the Elf here. We urge you not to touch it as it seems cursed" the auctioneer said.
Several people came over and poked them with sticks. They took particular interest in Zelkith, great wolves were renowned for extraordinary strength. There was, however, one person who took no interest in Zelkith at all. He was completely hidden in a long black hooded robe. The robed man stood up and stared at Iris. His eyes were strange and glowed murky orange in the darkness of his hood. She was overcome with a strange feeling in her stomach.
There was something strange about this person, but more so the way he made Iris feel. She felt the same way as she did during the Joining, with a strange feeling of familiarity. The robed person slowly reached out to Iris's chest and gently lifted the amulet from her neck. He held it in his palm like it was highly fragile, his hand was a dark purple in colour and he must have been a Dark Elf like Iris. He then placed it down just as carefully. It did not hurt him at all.
The man disregarded Zelkith and Thorley and walked to the back of the crowd. Iris was enthralled by this Elf. She watched him carefully and was completely oblivious that the auction had begun. The bids were steady and just near the end, the hooded Elf bid and won. Iris was shunted along and off the stage. Iris tripped and she lost eye contact with the Elf when she stumbled.
Iris looked back to see that he had already disappeared into the crowd. The three of them were taken off the stage, still shackled together. Another Dark Elf paid the person who was sat at the desk near the cells. He had all the paperwork next to him and took the money in return for a sheet of paper.
The Dark Elf rolled it up and slid it under his arm. The Dark Elf had four strange rings around his arm. He removed one of the rings from his arm and clipped it around Iris’ leg. The ring illuminated a bright blue and shrank to tightly fit her leg. He then did the same to Zelkith, Thorley and a fourth person Iris had not noticed until now.
The Dark Elf then told the Ogre to unshackle the prisoners. The Ogre did as he requested and unlocked the shackles. The moment the chains were released the fourth prisoner took a run for it and darted into the crowd.
"No, wait!" The Dark Elf yelled, but he did not give chase. Within fifteen seconds a bright white flash of lightning struck down within the crowd. Screams erupted and the crowd unintentionally surrounded where the flash came from.
All Iris could see was smoke rise from the crowd. The Dark Elf walked toward the smoke and paused. He looked straight at Iris and said that they would end up the same if they did not stay close enough to him. Iris, Zelkith and Thorley scurried along behind the Dark Elf. They pushed through the crowd to see a pile of ashes on the floor where the lightning struck. The Dark Elf leant down into the ashes and picked out the Bracelet that he had put around the man’s leg. In shock, Iris realised that the lightning had emerged from inside the ring.
"Took me ages to fill that," the Dark Elf said.
What a cruel way to keep people, making it so easy to escape, but certain death if you got far enough. Iris thought to herself.
They walked through the crowd to the outskirts of Alphaport. They turned off onto a cobblestoned pathway which dwindled into a dirt track.
The walk was several miles, but not particularly unpleasant. No one spoke, just the birdsong and the gentle gust of the wind that blew through the trees. The fresh air filled their lungs and the heavy chains had been removed. The peace was not long-lived however, as they soon reached a secluded little cottage with a thatched roof and smoke billowed from the chimney.
They stepped into a warm and cosy kitchen, various fruit and vegetables were spread along a wooden work surface. It was far from the torture room Iris had expected. The Dark Elf pushed them through the kitchen and opened a trap door in the next room. He o
rdered them to climb down the stairs and they obeyed. It was more like the inside of a cavern than a basement. The Dark Elf instructed them to go into separate cells, which were embedded into the rock itself, with just the cell bars to separate them.
The Dark Elf locked the cells and walked away. It was at that moment that Iris remembered that they were to assassinate two Dark Elves, and he was most likely one of the targets. They must have known they were from the Legion, Limbo and the amulet would have given it away to anyone who knew.
The same Dark Elf had bought Limbo and he had picked up the amulet from her neck and he did not burn his hands like everyone else. Iris gave Zelkith a look and Zelkith must have thought the same thing and just nodded.
The hooded Elf appeared from the darkness beyond, his robe draped long over his body and hands. He walked up to the cells and paced up and down beside them, looking into each cell as he went past.
"I believe you had something of mine," the Elf said in a sinister and firm voice. He stopped at the middle cell where Iris was and reached into his cloak.
"One of you was in possession of this!" he said, as he pulled out one of the handles of Limbo from inside his cloak. Iris and Zelkith tried to keep calm, but Thorley had a frightened look on his face.
The Dark Elf noticed Thorley and walked over to his cell. "So, it was you, was it?" The Dark Elf said calmly "where did you steal them, pirate?" he asked in a sinister tone. Thorley did not respond.
"So you’re going to play it like that then, are you?" The Dark Elf said, "well, there is another way to get information."
Iris watched as the Dark Elf’s eyes glowed orange. The Dark Elf then threw a sword into the cell that Thorley was in. Thorley picked up the sword without hesitation. The Dark Elf walked close to the bars of the cell with a smirk on his face. "It would be an awful shame if you lost a finger, wouldn’t you agree?" The Dark Elf said.
Thorley put the blade to his opposite hand and pressed deep into the skin. "I can't move my body!" Thorley stated in a panic, his face was full of fear.
"I will ask again, where did you steal them?" The Dark Elf said fiercely.
Amulet of Souls (The Sentinels of Wizgrad Book 1) Page 7
