by Jeff Sabean
“He’ll do,” the gnome muttered, as his eyes began to swirl with color.
An instant later, a shout arose from the wall, as a shadow elf appeared where the guard was previously standing watch. Confused, the “shadow elf” turned to face his fellow guards, who were closing in quickly on the hated intruder.
“Also mute?” Fion asked, unable to keep the amused expression from his face.
“Naturally. We do not want anyone figuring out my tricks before it is time,” Zatus replied. “You are up, my acquaintance.”
Nodding in approval, Fion stepped into the shadow of the glowing lamp post on the corner and disappeared, reappearing almost immediately between one of the crenellations of the wall opposite where the guards were engaged in battle with the confused “shadow elf.” With a quick wave to the companions still outside, he shadow-stepped again, disappearing from their sight.
“I wonder how long it will take...” began Aki, then he stopped as the small door set to the side of the main gate opened, and the ghostly white image of Fion in disguise waved them to himself.
“Here we go, no turning back now,” Zatus replied, giggling as they raced to the door and slipped through unseen.
◆◆◆
Hanging naked from a wall by his wrists in the interrogation room, Heishi was using every trick he had ever learned to not give any information to his enemy and keep his facial features impassive. His feet were hanging a full two feet above the floor, as they had been for much of the past few days. He had completely lost track of time and was not sure how much longer he could endure this, but still he maintained his discipline and gave away no information.
To his left hung Tiane in the same position as his team leader, although he wore a look of pure hate, unable to contain his disdain for his captors.
In the center of the room, with lights illuminating every inch of the torture area to avoid the possibility of shadows, Di’eslo was strapped to a table with his arms stretched above his head and his legs lashed together and pulled the opposite direction. Every so often, Trodgen would tighten the ropes, pulling his arms and legs in opposite directions and stretching his joints. As far as either of the humans could remember, no questions had been asked of the shadow elf in the preceding days: he was simply tortured.
Across the room on a table sat the pile of weapons, armor, and other gear taken from the prisoners. At first Heishi had wondered why they would be stupid enough to leave such powerful weapons within eyesight, but as the days wore on, he came to realize it was simply to give the prisoners a sense of hope where there was none. He would never reach his sword and put it to use against the powerful barbarian torturer, but as long as it was in view, he knew there was a chance. He had used similar interrogation methods in the past: give hope where there is none, and then strip it away all at once. Devious, but effective.
Trodgen tightened the ropes again, a satisfied smile crossing his face as Di’eslo grunted in pain, then walked to the table of weapons. He retrieved Heishi’s sword and walked over to the helpless team leader, his grin widening the closer he came.
“This is a nice sword,” the barbarian stated, then shook his head at the man on the wall, “but I expected better.”
“Let me down and I’ll show you what it can do,” Heishi replied, a defiant smile on his face.
Trodgen reached forward with the blade and slid it lightly across Heishi’s chest, creating a thin line of blood.
“I know what a sword can do. You will see. Yes, you will see,” he stated, then returned the blade to the table and picked up the handles of Tiane’s kamas.
“These I do not understand,” he stated bluntly, walking over to the sniper. “Why would you carry sticks? Am I a dog that you would fight me with sticks?”
Glaring at the sadistic barbarian, Tiane answered by attempting to spit in his face, which failed due to dehydration. Trodgen laughed at the young Staff Sergeant, then beat him around the ribs with the handles until he spit blood.
“I will get much use from these toys,” Trodgen stated, then laughed as he returned them to the table. As he picked up the flail he had taken from the shadow elf, a noise in the hall outside the interrogation chamber interrupted his thoughts.
Suddenly, the door burst open, and a high elf guard’s body came flying through and landed on the floor of the chamber.
“What is the meaning of this?” Trodgen demanded, taking a step toward the door and freezing in place as five strangers entered, weapons drawn and a murderous look on their faces.
“How dare you...” the barbarian began, shouting at the two “high elves” who led the charge into the room, then stopped abruptly when he noticed the two woodland elves and the human behind them. “Who?” he began, then stopped again, a look of understanding crossing his face.
Aki stalked across the room, starting his tonfa spinning, the shadows curling angrily around his arms and blurring the movements the closer he got to the barbarian. He glanced across the room and saw his friends, his family, hanging from the wall by their arms, fresh blood dripping from Heishi’s chest, and his face froze in a mask of rage as he took a swing at Trodgen with his right hand, the blades on his tonfa popping out as it closed on the torturer’s throat.
Trodgen stepped backward, reaching for his two-handed axe he had propped against the table of weapons and grinning at the feeble attempt to kill him with a single swing.
Aki did not expect to connect with the first blow, however, and followed through with a punch straight from his chest with his left arm, the spike at the end of his tonfa sliding out and just missing Trodgen, wiping the grin from his face. The barbarian countered with a swing of his axe, also not expecting to drop his opponent with the first swing, but to buy himself some breathing room as he regained his footing.
Coming in from the left side, shadows escaping the illusion of white skin and wrapping around his body, Fion slashed at the back-stepping barbarian with his left-hand blade, going for an easy kill.
Trodgen proved to be nimble for a man his size, and he rolled to his left side so the tip of Fion’s burning blade just grazed his rib cage, searing flesh and causing him to howl in pain as he ducked another tonfa aimed at his face. He thrust his axe forward in a jab, causing his two opponents to dive to the sides as he backtracked across the room. He had almost reached the rear exit when he saw a flame coming toward his chest, so he dropped to the floor just in time to avoid being burned alive by Mialin’s fireball.
“You missed, sister,” Ja’ade chided as she prepared to toss her own fireball at the torturer.
“Did I?” Mialin asked, pointing to the burning door and the now-trapped barbarian.
“Oh, well played, you crafty dragon,” Ja’ade congratulated as she hurled her fireball at the prone Trodgen.
He rolled to the side as the fireball hit, igniting the floor where he had just been lying, then jumped to his feet in time to avoid another flaming blade swung by an infuriated Fion. Knowing he was outmatched, he hurled his axe at the elf like a spear, then turned and burst through the flaming door, covering his face with his hands and letting the flames sear his skin. He fell through the blaze and rolled straight ahead into the hall, stumbling to regain his footing.
“That will not do,” Mialin pouted, waiving at the flames and extinguishing them as quickly as they had begun.
Seeing the flames extinguished, Fion rushed after the retreating barbarian as Aki ran to let their friends down from the wall and see to their wounds.
In the hallway, Trodgen made it a few paces, then stopped and turned to face Fion. His skin was burned and raw across his chest and arms, and his hair was mostly singed, but he straightened up and bellowed a war cry at the elf as he entered the hall, blades at his sides and pointed straight at Trodgen.
“And now you die for touching my brother,” Fion stated calmly, his red eyes blazing with hatred. He made it two more steps and then ran into an invisible barrier between himself and the grinning barbarian.
“No,
now you do not make it out of here alive, even with your pitiful disguise, shadow elf!” Trodgen laughed, then turned to walk away.
“Pitiful disguise?” Zatus scoffed from behind Fion. “I’ll show you a pitiful disguise you wretch!”
In a flash of rainbow-colored lights, the barbarian walking away in the hall began to shrink until he was slightly over five feet tall, and his skin began to darken, becoming as black as the darkest night. He stopped, looking at his hands, then turned in outrage toward the two intruders at the end of the hall.
“I will kill you for this!” Trodgen bellowed, taking a step toward Zatus.
“I think not, and that is enough from you!” the disguised gnome laughed, waiving his hand and cutting off the barbarian’s ability to speak and watching him run down the hall to escape.
Chapter 9 – Breaking Out
Satisfied that Trodgen would serve as a distraction inside the castle, the two rejoined their companions in the torture chamber, where Aki had just released Di’eslo from the rack he had been tied to. Fion grabbed his brother in an embrace, much to the embarrassment of the shadow elf who did not recognize him in his disguise.
“Oh, forgive me,” Zatus said sheepishly, removing the illusion so the two shadow elves could reunite properly.
He then turned to where Aki had begun tending to Heishi and Tiane and grinned.
“I suppose I have a surprise for the two of you, also,” Zatus stated, getting their attention.
“Zatus, is that you?” Heishi asked. “It wouldn’t be the strangest thing I have seen lately, but how are you an elf?”
“Oh, it gets stranger,” Aki replied, wrapping a bandage around the wound on Heishi’s chest and tightening it to let the healing salve in the material start working.
With that, Zatus removed the illusion from himself and allowed the remaining members of Ronin Team to see his true self: all three feet of it.
“You, ahh, what, ahh...” stuttered Heishi, looking to Tiane for support.
“Don’t look at me, Top,” Tiane replied, “I thought he was a weird enough guy as a human.”
“I will explain in more detail when time permits, but the short version is I am not from your plane of existence and never have been. Let that be enough for now, and I will give the long version later. For now,” he paused to reenable the illusion on himself as well as on Fion, “let us just escape this vile place.”
The rest of the team nodded their agreement, and Heishi and Tiane began quickly dressing and securing their weapons.
Zatus turned to Di’eslo, whose skin was emitting a massive amount of shadows as he secured his gear and shook his head.
“This will not do either,” the gnome muttered, then began working on an illusion to mask the shadow elf’s black skin. When that was complete, he turned to his team and decided it was time to turn all three humans into high elf guards as well. With flashes of colored lights, he was shortly surrounded by nothing but elves.
“That is a good trick, master gnome,” Mialin stated, nodding her approval. “However, do not forget that I see through your illusions, so as we depart, we must avoid any of the city’s dragon defenders. This could still turn into a fight for our lives.”
“Yes, I know, Dracorex already made it clear. Would you mind leading us out, m’lady? I cannot tell the difference between a dragon in elf form and an actual elf,” Zatus replied a bit defensively at first, then finished sheepishly.
Nodding in agreement, Mialin began to lead the group out.
“Wait,” Di’eslo said a bit too sharply. “We are still missing a member of our group. We must rescue Gabrielle as well.”
“Gabrielle Anaoilin you mean? The high elf who had you arrested?” Fion scoffed. “I think not, little brother.”
“Gabrielle Anaoilin, who was also arrested for treating me with respect and asking her sister to do the same. I will not leave without her,” Di’eslo stated unapologetically, staring his brother in the eye.
“He is correct,” Heishi stated, drawing all eyes to himself. “She thought your brother would be accepted here after he saved her, and her sister had her arrested and tortured because of it. She is a member of this team, and we will not leave without her.”
Sighing, Fion waived his arms in surrender.
“Go find her, then,” he stated exasperatedly.
Di’eslo rushed across the torture chamber to an unopened door, and when it would not open, he reached back his flail and swung, splintering the door as the stored energy in the spikes was released into the wood.
“OUCH!” came a frail cry from inside the room, then a beautiful elf stepped out, blinking her icy blue eyes in the light.
“You could have killed me! I demand...” she stopped abruptly, staring into the face of her rescuer. “Di’eslo? Is that you?” she asked tentatively.
Grinning, the disguised shadow elf dropped into a sweeping bow, then stood up straight to allow her to look him in the face again.
“How?” was all she could squeak out as she stared at her friend.
“It would appear that one of Heishi’s team is a talented illusionist,” he replied, continuing to smile. “Come, we are leaving, and you are coming with us.”
Nodding, she rushed to the table to retrieve her staff, the blue crystal glowing brightly as she picked it up.
“Now may we escape, little brother?” Fion asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
“Yes, now we may escape,” Di’eslo replied, grinning at his brother.
“Are we going to leave the other prisoners here to be tortured to death?” Heishi asked as they stepped out the door of the interrogation room and heard wailing coming from the cells.
“What do you have in mind?” Fion asked, glancing at the disguised human.
“I was thinking that if we let everyone out, we could slip away in the confusion,” Heishi replied with a grin.
“I like this one,” Fion stated as he rushed down the hall to begin opening cells. “I think I will keep you alive for a while!” he called over his shoulder.
“Funny, I was thinking the same of you,” Heishi replied as the rest of the group sprang into action, opening doors and releasing prisoners.
◆◆◆
A short time later, the group of counterfeit high elves led a mob of dwarves, gnomes, and humans through the halls of the dungeon, headed for the surface world. They heard fighting ahead and slowed, then turned the corner to see Trodgen, still disguised as a shadow elf, battling with his own guards!
“Serves ‘em right,” muttered Zatus, who waved the rest around the corner to the right, leaving the guards to fight amongst themselves.
Gabrielle took the lead, taking every shortcut she knew through the castle, and ending up at the wall leading to the city. Across the compound on the other wall, torches were lit and surrounded an ogre, bound and gagged, who was being tortured by the guards who had captured him.
“We should save that one as well,” Heishi stated, sliding his sword from its saya and stepping in that direction as the green electricity of the blade burst to life.
“Top, wait,” Zatus replied, motioning for him to douse the light from the blade. “You are going to love this.”
Staring across the compound to the other wall, Zatus picked another one of the guards in the rear of the group and grinned as the lights flashed around his target, transforming that one into a shadow elf. As the other guards gasped at the appearance of another hated enemy, the battle on the wall broke out once more.
“I can do that all day,” Zatus sighed, watching his handiwork.
“Except we do not have all day, master gnome,” Fion replied, pointing over the wall. “We must still reach safety before the entire city comes looking for us.”
“Right,” Tiane agreed, reaching into his bag and producing a length of rope. He tied it off to the crenellation of the wall, then dropped the end over the side, which easily reached the ground. “See you on the bottom, then,” he stated, then dove headfirst over the wall,
sliding down the rope Aussie-style.
“Your protégé is a bit of a show-off, my brother,” Aki deadpanned to Heishi, who simply grinned and dove headfirst over the wall behind the sniper.
“They are going to be the death of us all, I fear,” Zatus stated, trying to hide his grin as he began tying off a second rope to use in the escape. “I’ll see you on the bottom, doc.”
With that, Aki slid down the first rope feet first, and as he touched the ground, he heard the other two snickering behind him.
“I suppose when I get to be his age, I’ll have to do it that way too,” Heishi whispered to Tiane, a bit too loudly.
“Keep it up, wise guy, and you won’t live to be my age,” Aki stated bluntly, making a rude gesture at his friend and trying to hide his grin.
“I’ve missed you, doc,” Heishi replied seriously. “I was beginning to think we would never see you two again.”
The mood broke a moment later as Aki suppressed a laugh as an escaped gnome came bouncing down his rope behind him.
“Sorry,” he said, turning back to Heishi. “I was going to make a joke, but it was a little con-descending...”
“I take it back,” Heishi said as he turned to watch down the street for guards, “I didn’t miss you all that much...”
◆◆◆
Gabrielle led the group through the city back toward the market district. She occasionally ducked down a side street to take a shortcut, and before they knew it the group was near the guard post where Zatus had turned one of the guards to an ogre on the way in.
“Should we leave quietly or violently, boss?” Zatus asked, looking back to Heishi for guidance.
“Violently. We have made it this far, let us leave a mark on this city to start the war,” Fion replied without missing a beat.
The four members of Ronin Team turned to look at the disguised shadow elf, whose face left no room for debate.
“We’ll have that conversation later,” Heishi replied, answering the unasked question as to who was leading this group.
