by S. M. Boyce
“Diesel helped.”
Fyrn laughed. “I’m too proud to thank him. He knows.”
Victoria rolled her eyes, but her smile didn’t linger. “We’re moving you, since apparently Luak is getting more violent in his hunt for us.”
“Unsurprising.”
“We’re going to the tunnels. Possibly there are rebels there who can help us.”
“Good, good,” Fyrn said softly.
“I’m going to have to carry you, aren’t I?”
“Hell yes, you are,” he muttered.
Victoria chuckled. “Fine, you big baby.”
Fyrn smiled. “I suppose you’re right. After all, I was merely tortured. No big deal.”
“Totally,” Victoria said with a sarcastic shrug.
The old wizard finally opened his eyes, and he inspected the relic in his hands. “Good, it’s all here. Nothing broke.”
“Would it still work if it had?”
“Yes, but not as well. This relic can never, ever be allowed to break,” he said with a somber glance her way.
“Noted. What artifact are you going to fuse it with, do you know?”
Fyrn sighed. “I have a secret vault in the tunnels where I house my more powerful artifacts. Though I enjoyed and protected my home, I always knew it might be compromised. One of the hazards of being powerful is having many enemies. Though they likely stole everything, Luak found nothing useful there.”
“Good,” Victoria said, crossing her arms.
“I need you to take me to my artifact room, and then we will be done with this once and for all,” Fyrn said, tapping the crystal.
“Of course,” Victoria said. “Anything you need, Fyrn.”
He smiled. “I knew I could count on you.”
“So are we bonding, or are you going to be a grumpy asshole again once you have your staff?”
“Grumpy asshole,” he said, settling into his pillow.
Victoria chuckled. Oh, good. She was worried his brush with death had made him all sappy and nice.
CHAPTER 10
Victoria could hardly believe her eyes.
She stood at the entrance to a magnificent cave with a marvelous crystal in its ceiling. Though this one was a fraction of the size of Fairhaven’s primary crystal, it glowed more intensely and lit the room with the fire of a star.
Fyrn’s secret cavern—one of many, as Victoria was starting to discover—held incredible treasures. Several chests filled with gold and jewels sat in one corner. Weapons of every kind had been hung on the walls, and a walkway cut through the various piles of staffs, mirrors, and even stacks of furniture.
Victoria had bought a bit of time by asking everyone to wait for her and Fyrn to run a quick errand, but she’d had no idea they were headed someplace as grand as this.
From her shoulder, Styx gaped in awe. He squeaked, then jabbered as though she could understand him.
“What on earth…” Victoria lost her train of thought as she stared into the massive room.
From his place against the wall by the entrance, Fyrn shrugged. “You collect a lot of shit over the centuries. I had to put it somewhere.”
“How rich are you?” Victoria raised one curious eyebrow at her mentor. To have bought all of this, he had to have had the wealth of a king.
“Very. Go,” he said, with a nod to the piles.
“Where do I start?”
“I need another staff, and there are several over on the far wall. Pick a white one, if you please.”
Victoria chuckled and obeyed, selecting a particularly elegant staff from among the ten that lay against the wall. Two were black, three were brown, and the final five were all white and had various runes etched into their bases. All had an opening at the top wide enough for the relic.
But this one—the elegant one—had a graceful tilt that reminded her of the elves. The end of the staff had tiny twirling ribbons of wood that almost looked like a cage, and the runes along its base glowed a vibrant blue even without anything powering it.
She offered the staff to her mentor, who nodded in approval. “Good choice, now stand back.”
He lifted the relic in one hand and the staff in the other and began to mutter to himself in a language Victoria didn’t recognize. Both objects began to glow brilliantly blue and Victoria squinted, the light too much to bear. Just then a blast of light cut through the entire room.
As it faded, Victoria slowly opened her eyes to find her mentor standing in front of her. He leaned on his staff as his body absorbed the light. His wrinkles faded, and the dark circles beneath his eyes brightened. The bruises from the torture had healed entirely, and he sucked in a deep breath as he stood upright.
“You’re back!” Victoria said, a swell of joy overtaking her.
Fyrn nodded. “And I have you to thank, Victoria, but we will never speak of this again to anyone. No one can know what this relic is.”
Victoria’s smile faded, but she nodded. “I understand.”
“Now, shall we go meet those rebels?” Fyrn asked, gesturing to the exit.
“Yes, let’s,” Victoria said with a grin.
***
At first Victoria thought they had gotten lost.
“There’s nothing here,” Audrey said, echoing Victoria’s thoughts.
“There is,” Lady Spry said with confidence, never once slowing in her steady march through the tunnels.
The tunnel was as dark as night, with only the glowing tips of the wizards’ staffs to light the way. As they followed the noblewoman she withdrew a wand and flicked it, igniting the tip with a brilliant white glow that lit into the endless tunnel. Styx’s wings beat the air nearby, but in the sparse light she couldn’t even see him.
Everyone from the safehouse was behind Lady Spry, and Victoria couldn’t help but be nervous. They were following someone they didn’t know well—and who Victoria still didn’t fully trust—into the recesses of the dangerous Fairhaven tunnels.
She almost stopped them right there. She almost called this off, convinced she could find another safehouse, but she remembered the pact she and Lady Spry had made.
To betray them meant death for the noblewoman, and Victoria doubted Lady Spry cared enough for Luak to sacrifice herself.
Cautiously optimistic, Victoria glanced around. “Where are they? The rebels?”
Without answering, Lady Spry ran her hand along one of the walls, humming to herself as she fiddled with the protruding rocks. After a few moments of hunting, she finally pressed her palm against one and it flattened at her touch.
The wall rumbled and the small group tensed as it slid open to reveal a massive, brilliantly-lit cavern. A glittering crystal shone overhead, giving off light so bright that Victoria lifted her arm to shield her eyes.
“Welcome to New Fairhaven,” Lady Spry said as the rumbling wall came to a stop.
Victoria peeked through her fingers to find a bustling city filled with stalls, makeshift homes, and at least two hundred elves and ogres. Everyone paused as the door opened, and they all stared at Victoria and her group with bated breath.
“It’s Victoria!” someone shouted, breaking the silence.
Slowly a roar of voices built, and the hidden citizens of Fairhaven flocked toward the door. Victoria hesitated, not certain she could handle strangers coming at her, but Lady Spry stepped between Victoria and the onslaught of people.
“Back, please,” she said in a loud and clear voice.
To Victoria’s surprise, the citizens obeyed. They kept their distance, but everyone continued to speak as Lady Spry led Victoria and her ragtag group of rebels into the hidden cavern. Once the last ogre had stepped through, the door rumbled closed behind them.
The voices overlapped each other, and Victoria could only catch snippets of each conversation.
“Mercy, it’s really her—”
“—come to save us—”
“—knew she would—”
“—told you she wasn’t dead! You owe me ten denni
!”
She grimaced. Great, now they’re betting on whether or not I’m alive?
“Miss Victoria?” a sweet little voice asked.
Victoria stopped in her tracks and looked down to find a young elvish girl, maybe six years old, hugging a tiny stuffed snarx as she stared up with wide eyes. Her little ears poked from her hair, too large for her head, and she had a dirt stain on her cheek.
Victoria knelt so that she would be eye-level with the little girl. “Yes?”
“Mommy says you’re a hero. Are you here to help us, like she said?”
Victoria briefly scanned the crowd, but she didn’t see any elvish women who looked like this kid. A twinge of sadness rocked her, and she wondered if her mother was in the dungeons, or worse. She forced as genuine a smile as she could muster and nodded. “I’m going to do what I can.”
The girl sniffled, tears in the corner of her eyes, and Victoria panicked. Fuck, crying kids. She could take on a dungeon full of mercenaries and rip an enchanted door off its hinges, but she couldn’t handle this.
“Hey, hey, cheer up,” she said a bit nervously. She frantically looked around for help, but Audrey just shrugged. Diesel chuckled, and Edgar crossed his arms as he lifted one thick eyebrow in curiosity.
An idea sparked in the back of Victoria’s mind, and she smiled gleefully. She pointed at Edgar. “Do you know who this is?”
Edgar stiffened. “What?”
The little girl nodded. “He’s Captain of the Plits, your Berserk team.”
“Dam…darn right,” Victoria said, careful to censor herself in front of the kid. “How about he puts on a little show for you guys?”
“A what now?” Edgar asked dryly.
Victoria frowned at him and mouthed, “Go with it.”
The big ogre rolled his eyes.
“A show?” the little girl asked.
“Yeah,” Victoria said, standing. “The whole team will. We’ll show you what Berserkers do to stay in shape and keep our minds sharp for the game. Anyone up for an impromptu Berserk match?”
The crowd roared, and the panicked faces relaxed ever so slightly. It was a distraction from the fear. A temporary one, but at least she could make them happy for a while.
In these tough times hope was their most valuable commodity, more precious than food. Hope could carry the rebels through the war, and Victoria would do anything in her power to keep them happy.
She grinned, scanning the crowd. “Who can show me to a decent Berserk field down here?”
CHAPTER 11
To be honest, Fyrn had to practically drag Victoria off the Berserk field. If it weren’t for the war at hand she would have stayed there for days, chasing the elf and ogre children across the field instead of fidgets.
Gently, of course.
Besides, there weren’t any bins on this makeshift Berserk field. She mostly just hoisted them over her head and ran around in circles for a bit before putting them down and chasing them again.
Great fun.
“Just five more minutes?” she whined as she followed her mentor to the designated war room. Two ogres stood at attention outside, their dented armor dull and lifeless, and both nodded to her as Fyrn pulled back the curtain so she could enter.
“Victoria, we have a dictator to kill. You can play with other people’s kids later.”
“Well, it’s kind of creepy when you word it that way.”
Fyrn shot a pointed look over his shoulder, and all Victoria could do was roll her eyes.
Ass.
An enchanted fire flickered in an improvised fireplace on the opposite wall, but no smoke clouded the room. Sconces along the walls lit the space well enough to see a map laid out on a crudely carved stone table in the center.
Several strangers lingered along the walls, including an elf who seemed vaguely familiar for reasons Victoria couldn’t fully articulate. Styx sat on the ground by the fire, taking miniature bites out of an apple slice. Lady Spry, Audrey, Diesel, and Bertha stood around the table, and everyone tilted their heads toward Victoria as she entered. She nearly blushed with embarrassment at holding everyone up, but deep down she wasn’t sorry.
She had needed a break, and she had given the rebels a bit of fun and hope amidst all the fear and suffering.
The familiar elf smiled warmly. “Thank you, Victoria, for giving them something to distract them from their pain.”
“You did a good deed,” Lady Spry said with a nod.
Victoria smiled. “My pleasure. Now, I believe we have a murderous Light Elf to kill?”
Audrey tapped her knuckle on the table. “Before we begin, I want to share that I infiltrated his army the other day.”
Everyone shifted their gazes to her, the stunned silence almost painful.
“You did what?” Victoria snapped.
“I shifted form and became an elf, donned their uniform and listened in on their meeting. They didn’t say anything useful, but I could continue doing it. You never know what we could learn.”
Victoria gaped, sorting through too many angry retorts to pick one. “What the fuck were you thinking?” and “Are you completely insane?” were her current favorites.
“Why?” was all she managed.
Audrey lifted one eyebrow in confusion. “It’s called ‘spying.’”
“But… But Audrey, this is dangerous. Someone will recognize you. You could get caught.”
“I got out, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, but you went once.”
“I’ve been three times, actually, and no one has stopped me. They’ve leered a little bit, but I can handle myself.”
Victoria set her hands on the table in an effort to suppress the scream growing in the back of her throat. “Audrey, you’re going to get yourself captured, or worse, killed.”
“He wouldn’t kill her until he had you,” Lady Spry said softly.
“Thanks, now I feel better,” Victoria snapped.
Audrey crossed her arms. “Victoria, we need to have spies in this city listening to everything Luak’s armies are doing. Lady Spry can only do so much. I’m helping how I can.”
Victoria bit her cheek to keep from yelling at her best friend, who was only trying to help. “Please don’t do that again, Audrey.”
Audrey didn’t answer.
“Has anyone stopped you?” Eldrin asked.
Audrey shook her head. “Like I said, nothing but leering glances and a few snide remarks, but mostly I’m ignored. I listen in on the meeting and slip out after—easy. I blend in.”
Her eyebrow twitched and Victoria caught the lie. With a frustrated sigh, she swallowed her pride. She would have to talk to Audrey about this later, since doing it in front of others would only make her more stubborn about it in the end.
Eldrin tapped the map with a finger as he absently scanned the city. “Luak’s army must be growing more quickly than we anticipated if the captains don’t recognize new recruits.”
Lady Spry sighed deeply—the first time she had shown anything other than composed grace to Victoria—and rubbed her jaw. “Most likely, yes. He officially declared himself king today, and I’m certain he mobilized quite a force before doing so.”
Audrey frowned. “Any bodies?”
“A few,” the senator said. “Some of the military men have disappeared, those I suppose he had hoped would be more agreeable once promoted. I’m grateful to see that Lieutenant General Eldrin is alive and well.” She nodded toward the familiar elf standing against the wall, who nodded somberly.
“Wait a minute!” Victoria said as it clicked for her. “Didn’t I carry you out of the dungeon?”
Eldrin crossed his arms, chuckling. “That you did, my Lady, and I am forever in your debt.”
In the aftermath of finding Fyrn on death’s door, Victoria had admittedly lost track of Eldrin once they had returned to the house. He hadn’t traveled with her group to the rebel area, so he must have used his connections to find the hideout on his own.
Diesel g
rinned. “Eldrin is an old friend of mine, and I couldn’t let him rot in those dungeons even if he does cheat at cards.”
A few of the soldiers and politicians in the war room laughed, and to his credit Eldrin merely shook his head in annoyance.
“We must focus,” Fyrn said somberly from his place by the wall.
