The Crafter's Dominion: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 5)

by Jonathan Brooks

  As they passed through the doorway that had kept Echo locked up over the last few days, her eyes spotted the two Royal Guards that had been stationed near her “cell”. There was blood running freely down the forehead of the one on the left-hand side, though she couldn’t see a mark on the other guard. What she did see as she bounced past was one surprising thing: They were both still breathing.

  Before she could ponder the fact that the guards were still alive, despite Echo assuming the worst of the Elder and her associates, her vision was relegated to the large, wooden walkway that composed most of the pathways in the Royal Tree. These paths consisted of gigantic branches; the branches that comprised the roof of her cell (and were now keeping her confined) paled in comparison. Despite being hundreds of feet above the ground, the Elder and the rest of her captors ran down the branch, as though it weren’t on the steep incline it was. If he drops me, I doubt I would survive. I wonder if I can create some sort of cushion with my Air elemental energy? It would simply be the opposite of what I do to thin the air when I run quickly, so it might just be possible.

  Luckily, no one had taken away the Air and Holy Energy Orbs when she was placed inside her “cell” for safekeeping, meaning that she had already regenerated all of her expended elemental energy from moments ago. Not that she had spent a lot, of course, but now she had plenty to work with…if only she could figure out some way to get out of her current predicament.

  Though unable to lift her head to see exactly where it was coming from, Echo heard some yelling that seemed to originate from where they’d just left. It was fairly unintelligible, but she understood it well enough to know that someone had found the unconscious bodies of the guards near her former prison. It was obvious enough that her new captors had heard it too, from the way they sped up even more down the worn yet still-sturdy branch that led to the ground.

  The increase in speed bounced her around a bit, and though she was confined into immobility, it still shook her up. As a result, any thought of trying to escape went right out of her head as she struggled to keep from vomiting the undigested remains of her last meal. Echo wasn’t concerned about dirtying the blurry back of the one carrying her, of course; the branch keeping her from screaming for help was still in her mouth, and throwing up and choking on it would be a sad end to her captivity.

  With so much foliage above, there were plenty of shadowy parts of the Royal Tree on the way down. The Elder and her team seemed particularly adept at keeping to these dark spots and avoiding the large beams of the sun shining down on their beautiful capital of Lyringlade; in a matter of a minute, they had progressed further down than Echo had expected, where there were even more shadowy recesses in which they could hide from their pursuers – and pursuers there were. The captive Ranger could hear more shouts from above, even more urgent this time, and they seemed to be getting closer. Despite that (and if she remembered the layout and distances of the Royal Tree correctly), Elder Herrlot appeared to be getting away with her hastily stolen package without any major problem.

  A sudden light flared behind her, brighter than the daylight streaming through the trees, which illuminated everything around her in startling clarity – or as much as she could see from her face-down position, at least. Out of the corners of her eyes, she could see that many of the dark spaces along the main branch of the Royal Tree were gone, and shadows almost appeared to have shrunk back into seclusion at the appearance of such a light. Even the dark, blurry aura that her captors possessed seemed to have disappeared for the most part; from the few wisps of darkness flitting here and there, she could see that whoever was keeping it active was trying to bring back their cloak of concealment – but having no luck.

  “There they are!” A sudden shout made the one carrying her nearly trip from its close proximity, but fortunately for her, he kept his footing. If she was correct about how far they had traveled, there was still a distance of at least 100 feet down to the forest floor, and falling from that height – with nothing prepared to stop her descent – would probably kill her. “Stop!”

  If she could have spoken, she would’ve remarked that shouting, “Stop!” to fleeing criminals was probably the stupidest thing she’d ever heard. Like they are going to stop with a sternly spoken word or something. If anything, her impromptu porter and his cohort ran faster.

  A streak of frigid cold passed by her back, narrowly missing her by less than a hand’s-width. Echo heard the frozen projectile smack into the Royal Tree nearby, shattering on impact with the tinkle of delicate glass. The whistle of an earthen projectile as it shot between the legs of the one carrying her was all the warning she got as he leapt with amazing agility, avoiding having his legs broken by an extremely narrow margin. The rock crashed against the tree as well, breaking apart with the crunch and cracking of stone being split in two.

  This isn’t good; they’re likely to kill me before they can even catch or stop the Elder and her team. That thought was only punctuated as a vine came out of nowhere and wrapped around her throat; fortunately (she supposed), there was already a thick branch wound loosely around her precious neck, so it prevented her from being strangled. What it did do, however, was grab onto her tightly enough that it made her captor practically slam down backwards on the branch walkway at a full run.

  While he was surprised, he reacted quickly enough that he saved himself from breaking anything, though when her bound body collapsed on him she heard an *oof* of exhaled breath as she impacted his chest. Both of them ended up being fortunate, though, because a split-second after they hit the branch, another spike of coldness passed over her, breaking apart on the nearly impervious Royal Tree. It’s unfortunate that they don’t have to hold off on their attacks over fear of harming the Tree; only intense fire and certain acids created by Natural elemental users can harm it substantially.

  “Get up! I’ll hold them off!”

  Unfortunately, Echo was still face-down and couldn’t see what was happening, but the Elder’s voice was certainly recognizable. From what little she could actually feel and sense, there was a great rending of tree branches near her, almost as if some giant had come in and swiped away the nearby foliage. It didn’t go away, however, but was reassembled further up the main branch walkway – or so it sounded.

  The cracking of even more branches hinted that some sort of barrier had been erected and was in the process of being assaulted, but that was all she could really tell from her position. A moment later, she felt herself being handled again, though she had the distinct feeling that it was someone else now carrying her bound body.

  As she was settled on another shoulder, she was able to look back a little to see a thick wall of intertwined sticks and branches from where they had come from, blocking the pathway down. Echo suddenly had the realization that she didn’t know if she was hoping it would fail as it was heavily impacted from the other side. On the one hand, she was being stolen away by the Elder, whom she suspected was involved in some sort of conspiracy to destroy Sandra’s dungeon despite being aided by the dungeon’s heart. On the other hand, well…she had been held captive without any word about why, and now the guards were throwing out spells towards the fleeing criminals without thought that it might harm her. In fact, if I didn’t know better, it almost felt like they were aiming for me.

  But that would be ridiculous…right? They didn’t have any reason to kill her – at least, not that she knew about.

  “Ugh…keep running! I’ll catch up!” the familiar voice of the Elder said, though her tone sounded a bit strained. An explosion of *cracks* and the sound of splintering wood echoed through the entire area, and Echo felt a whoosh of air flow around her, as if pushed by some mighty hand. The restrained Ranger thought she heard Herrlot’s voice cry out in pain behind the running captors, but she couldn’t be too sure; within seconds, the slight hollow sound of their feet beating against the wooden branch faded as they reached the ground, only to be replaced by more shouting in the distance.

  But
by that point, they had escaped the majority of the bright light that had illuminated the shadowed forms of those escaping, and the blurry darkness settled over them like a cloak of obscurity. Faster than she had expected, they had escaped into the denser foliage surrounding the Royal Tree, disappearing from those pursuing them with relative impunity. In short, they had successfully gotten Echo away from her forced captivity…

  …but would this just be trading one problem for another?

  Chapter 7

  Now that she wasn’t afraid of falling hundreds of feet to her death if she tried to escape, Echo attempted to free herself from her restraints. Unfortunately, the run of luck that her captors had employed in their escape with their prize was maintained while in the dense forest environment that categorized the center of Symenora. It was one of the things she loved about her homeland, and she had missed it when she had been confined to Sandra’s dungeon. That love was severely tested, however, as the constant up, down, and jerky motions her captives took to navigate through the mass of trees made it hard for her to concentrate on manipulating her elemental energies.

  As a result, the uncomfortable run to their destination was so full of distractions that she couldn’t figure out a way to escape. Even what little she learned from Sandra and the other offensive spells she had knowledge of were of no use, since she couldn’t really see her targets. The darkness surrounding each of her captors was so strong that any Holy-based elemental attacks she might be able to use would be swallowed up by the concealing cloud of their powerful Nether-based ability. Huh…I wonder how they are maintaining such a strong spell? It has to be that strong if it’s covering them all at the same time; I know that the Elder doesn’t have access to Nether energy, so it’s most likely that only one of them is maintaining the spell.

  Despite her inability to escape, for some reason Echo felt a lessening of danger the further they traveled from the Royal Tree. This came as a surprise. She had imagined it would be the opposite, since she was being carried all trussed up like some sort of roast, as well as being near at least one of her captors that had access to Nether energy (which wasn’t forbidden, but its use was occasionally suspect and fairly well-regulated). Regardless, she nearly felt like she had been rescued rather than captured.

  The verdict was still out on that, though, especially considering who had been leading them. Echo wasn’t sure what had happened to Elder Herrlot after fleeing from the vicinity of the brief fight at the Royal Tree, because she only heard 3 sets of footsteps as they ran along – but she had secretly been hoping that the other woman had been captured.

  It was the Elder’s fault that Echo had been rounded up and detained “for her safety”, after all.

  As least, that was what the Ranger assumed by her strange actions when they had arrived via the back of a giant bird. There were very few places that they could land such a monster inside of Symenora near the capital, so the large open space approximately a mile out from the Royal Tree had been their destination. The only problem was, the Elder interrupted that plan by asking to be let off a few miles away from the clearing.

  “Are you crazy? There isn’t anywhere to land over this stretch—” she had asked, confused at what the Elder was wanting.

  “I may be many things, girl, but crazy isn’t one of them.” The Elder then pointed down towards the south, in a different heading than where Echo was vaguely sure the clearing was located. “Over there; if you can have this bird hover there, I can drop down onto that shelter’s walkway. I have to check on some things first before I head to the capital to lend my aid in convincing the King and Queen about the danger coming to our land.”

  Echo could see a vague wooden structure sticking out of a taller patch of trees; it was so well-hidden that if it hadn’t been pointed out, she would never have seen it. The closer they got to it, the more she could see that it wasn’t just camouflaged from the air, but that there was enough foliage beneath the treetop shelter that it would be practically invisible from below. What is that doing there? I’ve never heard of something like that before.

  Before she could ponder it further, they had arrived. Giving a verbal command to the gigantic Aerie Roc, she managed to make it dive down (which caused her stomach to do flips from the maneuver) and then somehow hover in place by flapping its enormous wings to maintain the same height. To be fair, it wasn’t exactly “in place,” nor at the same height, because it dipped down before rising again with each flap of its wings, but it was as stable as possible.

  While Echo was distracted trying to get the bird to do all of that, the Elder had unstrapped herself and was ready to go; as soon as they were about 100 feet above the shelter, the other Elf said, “You go on to the capital and I’ll be there soon.” She paused for a second, before continuing in a serious tone. “And take care of yourself. Things in the Lyringlade may not be all they seem.” Then she was gone, flinging herself off of the bird to the shelter below.

  Echo’s breath had caught in her throat at the abrupt departure, and for the fact that it appeared as though the Elder was going to miss her mark. However, as she fell, the older Elf gestured with her hands and branches writhed below, assembling themselves with a basket-like quality with a bedding of leaves. Almost as if she had planned it that way (Echo wouldn’t put it past the Elder to have done just that), the falling Elf landed safely and softly in the bed of leaves, before being carried over to the shelter.

  Within seconds, the Elder had disappeared inside the tree-top structure, but not before Echo caught a glimpse of a few others inside, as if they had been waiting for her. With nowhere to land and no ability to get down – not to mention a task that needed to be taken care of – Echo instructed the Roc to continue on, which was a bit harrowing in its execution. Because it had arrested its momentum as it hovered, the only way it could gain that kind of speed again was by diving – so that is what it did.

  Skimming the treetops with the barest clearance, Echo held onto the giant bird’s harness straps for her life. “I’m going to dieeeeeeeeeee!” she screamed out as the Roc was inches away from colliding with the field of wooden spears – that most people just called trees – and she closed her eyes waiting for the inevitable to happen. When the end didn’t come, and the bird’s wings started to flap, raising the monster into the air, the prone ranger relaxed her white-knuckled grip and opened her eyes.

  Contrary to what she had expected, the bird monster – and by extension, herself – was fine. It didn’t take long for them to arrive the few miles to the clearing where she could land, which seemed much smaller than she remembered; from high up above, it seemed entirely too small for their landing. However, as they dove down closer, she found her perception of the space had been deceiving – it was much longer than it was wide. She was relatively certain that they could squeeze inside, even with the Roc’s wings at full extension…but it would be close.

  Landing was a frightening affair, because she kept having flashbacks of nearly colliding with the trees not so long ago. As if to disprove her fears, the Aerie Roc slowly glided in and gently touched down, giving her a relatively pleasant experience that calmed her nerves somewhat. Of course, she couldn’t get out of the straps holding her to the harness quick enough to suit her needs, and in less than a minute she had scrambled off her ride, her wobbly legs practically making her collapse into a thankful heap as she touched solid ground. When she could finally pull herself together, she looked up at the sound of something behind her – and it wasn’t the massive bird she had just vacated.

  She was surrounded. By very dangerous-looking Royal Elite Guards.

  “Emmalyra Arlen – you need to come with us.” The use of her given name, as well as the Guards surrounding her with weapons bared without seemingly being concerned about the bird monster 15 feet away from the nearest of them, made her knees finally collapse underneath her.

  As they were dragging her away, refusing to give a reason why she was being detained – only to say that it was for her “pr
otection” – she looked back at the Aerie Roc sitting silent and still in the middle of the clearing. It was only then that she noticed that the crate of Energy Orbs that they had brought with them, along with the special bow and explosive bolts Sandra had created, were gone. Not because the Guards had stripped them off, however, because they were nowhere to be seen; no, the straps holding those items in place seemed to have been cut instead of undone normally.

  The Elder! She must’ve cut them when I wasn’t paying attention as I dropped her off! But why? There was only one answer that she could determine, which might explain how the Royal Elite Guards knew where and when she was coming – Elder Herrlot had betrayed her somehow. And despite her attempts at explaining who she was and why she was there, no one seemed inclined to care.

  It had unfortunately stayed that way even as she was led to her “room” where she was supposedly being kept safe – under guard, of course – but no one had come to talk or listen to her the entire time she was there. It wasn’t until Elder Herrlot and her crew had come to take her away that she had heard more than muttered voices outside of her cell, and for that she was thankful; what she was still uncertain about was whether she should be thankful to have been relocated.

  Luckily, it seemed as if she was going to find out.

  “Were you followed?” a voice came from behind her, which meant that it was in front of the running captors. As usual, she didn’t recognize the voice, but she could certainly recognize the tone of authority. If she didn’t miss her guess, the voice belonged to an Elite – and a very experienced one at that; from the few that she had known over the years, they tended to develop a certain no-nonsense lilt to their voice that demanded attention and obedience. Having lived hundreds of years, with many of those years in constant war against dungeon monsters, they were accustomed to being in charge and having others follow their orders just as quickly as they would follow the orders of someone with more authority. If they didn’t, it was possible that many more Elves would die.