“It is an honor to meet you all,” I said nervously, not knowing anything better to say.
“Is it?” Smiling Jade asked, sounding amused. “Curious. Not many think so.”
Staring at the strange Thief Lord, completely at a loss for words, I ground my teeth together, deciding that remaining quiet until I was asked a question was the best idea.
“He remains silent,” Smiling Jade noted with amusement. “Perhaps he will survive in our world after all.”
“Enough, Jade,” Stroud’s deep voice grumbled. “One of our own lies dead, and the city above us is in chaos. We do not have time for your games.”
“Pity.” The woman turned her body towards the massive warrior. “Since you are so eager, I will allow you to begin with the questioning.”
“If I must,” the large man grunted as Smiling Jade whirled around and began to glide back towards her spot, where I was shocked to discover that three identically dressed retainers waited, each appearing exactly like Smiling Jade.
Clearing his throat to get my attention, Stroud’s commanding voice filled the air. “Describe to us how you came across Fairfax’s body. I am curious to hear why you were near the palace in the first place. Since such a transgression would normally be punishable by death, or in your kind’s case, exile.”
“I didn’t find Fairfax’s body in the palace,” I answered as I shook my head at the Thief Lord. “We weren’t anywhere near it, in fact.”
Raising a single eyebrow in curiosity, the Thief Lord looked at me thoughtfully. “Oh? Where, then?”
“In an Undertaker torture chamber,” I stated, meeting Stroud’s eye as I spoke. “Someone was trying to get rid of Fairfax’s body, and it was only dumb luck that I was there before they managed to dispose of it.”
“An Undertaker torture chamber?” Stroud repeated, his nose and beard twitching at the mention of the street gang’s name. “What were you doing there?”
“I…was a prisoner,” I admitted after a moment, feeling embarrassed at the admission under the large Thief Lord’s glare.
“Why—”
“Let the man tell his story, Stroud,” I heard Kiera’s voice hiss from behind me, already tired of the other Thief Lord’s interruptions. “My fur is becoming damper every moment we spend here; let us finish this quickly so we can be gone. Ask your questions afterward.”
“Very well,” Stroud replied with a frustrated sigh before nodding at me to continue.
Speaking carefully, I retold the story of waking up in the torture chamber with the Sigil of Rage emblazoned on my chest, and how my memories had been blocked from the heist at the Arcaneum. The moment that I had mentioned the Mages Guild building, I heard a sudden intake of breath from everyone in the room, but no one interrupted my explanation as I outlined what had happened in the torture chamber and my decision to confront Cayden.
“Then Cayden told me he was supposed to meet—”
“So, you were the one responsible for destroying my gang and setting my building on fire?!” Dorian’s rage-filled voice cut through the air, causing me to turn around towards him, seeing the dark-haired man completely consumed by rage as he slowly stalked towards me. “Do you have any idea how much trouble you have caused by doing that?!”
“Dorian, what is the meaning of this?!” Kiera’s snarled viciously as she rushed in front of the Thief Lord and cut him off before he could reach me. “Your street gang was responsible for aiding someone who killed one of our peers. Lazarus was well within his rights to do what he did; I would expect my guild to do the same for me.”
“Are you actually buying any of the filth that he is spewing, Kiera?!” Dorian spat, as he looked over the Tul’Shar’s shoulder towards me. “He claims that his memories have been stolen from him ‘somehow’ during a heist into the Arcaneum, which we all know is nigh impregnable, and that afterwards he just happened to wake up halfway across the city, in the chambers of one of the most profitable street gangs in Eberia, which he then promptly destroyed, just because Fairfax’s body was conveniently there, also somehow appearing halfway across the city from the palace where he was rumored to be visiting.
“This story is full of too many holes to hold water,” Dorian declared, shifting his glance towards the blonde-haired spymistress. “This is merely an elaborate concoction with Fairfax just to destroy one of my most profitable assets and weaken my guild.”
“Are you serious?” I couldn’t help but hiss as I stared at Dorian over Kiera’s smaller form. “I saw Fairfax’s body with my own eyes, I took his key off his body.”
“Yet no one else did, and you conveniently don’t have a body to show us, either! With the Geas gone, all Fairfax would need to do is give you his key to be allowed into here!” Dorian growled at me. “Oh, and this mysterious woman that supposedly delivered both you and Fairfax to Cayden, who is she? Where is she? I find it remarkably convenient that there is someone nameless to blame in all of this.”
“I never said that I didn’t know who the woman was,” I replied, feeling my hackles rise as I took a step forward, refusing to be intimidated by the belligerent Thief Lord. “You interrupted me before I could finish my story! Cayden set up a meeting with her at Stone Sailor’s Pier, a meeting I attended in his stead! I in fact know very well who she is!”
“Do you now?” Dorian answered mockingly. “And how are we to know that this isn’t yet another fabrication in your carefully crafted web of lies?”
“This is ridiculous!” Isabella shouted from the far end of the platform. “Everything Lazarus has said is true, stop trying to turn this onto yourself, Dorian!”
“Isabella is correct, Dorian, you overstep yourself!” Smiling Jade’s voice rang out from behind me, her earlier playful tone gone. “I have heard nothing unbelievable in Lazarus’s tale, and it brings me to wonder why you seek to censure him so.”
“His actions have directly cost me hundreds of gold pieces a month in income during a time that the city is in unrest!” Dorian snarled. “It will take me time and money I do not have to rebuild a similar organization! I have a right to be angry!”
“You do have a right to be angry,” Stroud commented behind me. “However, it seems to me it should be directed solely towards Cayden.”
“It’s hard to be angry at a dead man!” Dorian barked as he began to turn around and stalk back towards his side of the platform. “I have had enough of this. As it is, I already have far too much to do with too little time, let alone spend it here while my holdings are being razed to the ground.”
“Dorian!” Isabella’s voice shouted through the air. “Where do you think you’re going?!”
“I am leaving,” the Thief Lord called over his shoulder. “I am tired of talking to those who will not listen to me, and I no longer wish to be here.”
“We are in the middle of a question, Dorian!” Smiling Jade exclaimed. “Just because you do not like the answers you are hearing does not mean you are free to leave!”
“Watch me!” Dorian shouted.
“Who was this woman you met, Lazarus?” Kiera asked, turning her head as she looked over her shoulder towards me, trying to get the meeting back on track. “Was she an Adventurer like yourself?”
“Yes,” I stated with a nod while staring directly at Dorian’s back. “Her name is Edith, and she confessed to me that she witnessed Fairfax’s death when I confronted her yesterday. Furthermore, I saw her summon the same kind of devils that were rumored to be involved in the slaughter of three Noble Houses’ heirs this afternoon.”
Dorian stopped walking and I heard him whisper a faint curse.
“Her name is…Edith?” Kiera’s yellow eyes widened as her head snapped back towards Dorian, a low growl emanating from her throat. “Dorian, the new Adventurer you presented to us last week shared the same, did she not?”
Several heartbeats passed as Dorian did not reply.
“I remember that name as well.” Smiling Jade’s voice grew louder as she glided across the platform t
owards us. “Curious. Perhaps your sudden haste to leave is because you are aware of what she has done? Perhaps she has done it on your order? This is most serious, Dorian.”
“I tried to save all of you,” Dorian said aloud with his back still turned towards us as he began shaking his head, his voice growing angry. “I tried to make sure that no one died needlessly.”
Spinning around with an angry expression on his face, Dorian’s eyes landed on me. “But you just had to meddle in things you didn’t understand! You have no idea what I’m trying to prevent!”
Shouting the same word of power I heard Edith shout the day before, Dorian quickly conjured a ball of fire in his hand and, before I could react, threw it directly at me.
Chapter 16
Covering my face as the fireball detonated just in front of me, I felt a wash of searing heat singe my body, followed by the twin shouts of surprise from Kiera and Smiling Jade as they were caught in the blast.
“Dorian!” I heard Smiling Jade shout a heartbeat before the dark-haired Thief Lord followed up his surprise attack with a wave of pure force that knocked Kiera and me completely off our feet and sent us flying backwards across the platform.
Taking the brunt of the blast, Kiera yelped in panic as the force sent her bouncing across the platform and over the edge, straight into the fetid black water below. Rolling in a heap, I bounced across the platform twice, before crashing into Stroud’s legs as he began to rush forward.
“Ugh, get out of my way!” Stroud grunted as he stumbled over my body.
“I tried to save you all!” Dorian repeated with a shout as he threw another fireball at Smiling Jade, only to have the enigmatic Thief Lord catch the spell on a force shield and effortlessly toss it to the side. “You have me left with no other choice!”
“What is this all about, Dorian?!” Smiling Jade yelled as a spell sent half a dozen purple bolts of energy streaming at the man. “You are committing treason against the Underworld! Stop now and you may yet safe your life!”
“You don’t understand! My life is forfeit if I don’t do this!” I heard Dorian scream as I began to push myself up off the ground and saw Dorian’s retainers rushing to attack Smiling Jade.
What the hell is happening?! The thought thundered through my head as I pushed myself upward, trying to shake off the stunning effects of Dorian’s attack that had scrambled my brain. He already knew what Edith was up to! He wanted to get out of here before I said her name!
“What have you done, Dorian?!” Stroud’s voice rang out in front of me, the massive warrior long having sidestepped my prone form as he ran towards the renegade Thief Lord. “Did you arrange to have Fairfax killed?!”
Any reply Dorian had was cut off by a quick array of magical blasts that slammed into Smiling Jade’s force shield, sending rapid thunderclaps echoing through the massive chamber in a bright flash of light. No sooner had the magic cleared than were there four identical copies of Smiling Jade throwing magic directly back at Dorian as the Thief Lord’s retainers joined the battle.
This is chaos! My ears could barely hear anything as the battle began, Dorian desperately trying to hold off the four spellcasters at once while Stroud rushed towards him.
Moving to protect their Thief Lord, two of Dorian’s retainers split up to block Stroud while two others rushed to threaten the cluster of Smiling Jades in melee range. Feeling that Stroud would be able to take care of the two thugs targeting him, I rushed towards the other pair, looking to intercept them before they could reach the quartet of casters.
Drawing my sword as I ran, I recklessly charged in front of the assembled Faceless Ones, trusting them to watch their aim as I slammed into one of Dorian’s thugs with my shoulder, sending the surprised man staggering off balance. Giving the man no chance to recover, I swept my translucent blade in a vicious downward arc, catching the man high on the collarbone and cleaving deep into his body.
Ruthlessly wrenching my sword free, I then landed a powerful kick into the mortally wounded man’s stomach, the impact completely carrying him off the edge of the platform and into the water below. Watching the second thug spin in surprise at my sudden dispatch of his comrade, I pressed my attack, forcing the man backwards towards the edge of the platform as he desperately tried to play for space.
Outclassing the thug in both skill and strength, I easily kept up with the man, parrying a poorly timed slash and then smashing the hilt of my weapon into his face. Stunned from my blow, the man reeled backwards, allowing me to once again land a heavy kick that sent him falling off the edge and into the basin.
Following the man’s fall, I couldn’t help but notice that the once placid water was now a near maelstrom of rage. Countless tentacles thrashed beneath the water’s surface, marking the spot where the man had just fallen in. Flailing desperately, I saw the man surface for the briefest of moments before a tentacle wrapped around his neck and pulled him back underwater.
What a way to go. I swallowed hard as I moved to turn away from the edge, still hearing the thunderous crash of magic all around me. But before I could move further than a stride away from the edge, a column of water shot up from the below, followed by a massive tentacle, easily ten times larger than the one that I had just seen pull the man under.
“Oh shit!” I gasped as the grey appendage began its descent towards the platform, exactly where I was standing.
Dodging to the side, I barely avoided being crushed as the tentacle slammed into the platform, causing it to crack ominously as whatever creature the limb belonged to began to pull itself up and out of the water. The thunderous cacophony of magic ceased as the platform shifted, forcing everyone off balance.
Water steamed from the tentacle beside me as a wave of heat emanated from it, filling the air with the smell of burning sewage. Staggering from the powerful stench, I backed away from the edge as a second tentacle rose into the air and smashed into the far side of the platform.
“Dorian! What the hell did you do?!” I shouted, dread filling my stomach as the platform shifted once more.
“What I had to!” the Thief Lord shouted, uncertainty filling his voice as we all watched the creature pull itself free of the water.
Continuing my awkward stumble away from the edge of the shifting platform, the sound of rushing water filled the chamber as something gigantic strained to pull itself out of the basin. Steam began to fill the air as more and more of the creature’s body emerged from depths, completely obscuring the far edge of the platform.
With a heavy thump, a thick, clawed leg crashed into the platform, at the same moment a bloodcurdling cry exploded into the chamber, sending a primal fear coursing through my body as I scrambled to get even further away from the ledge.
This is why I stayed in the cities! I cast about in panic as Stroud ran past me, towards the middle of the platform. I didn’t want to have to deal with huge monsters like this!
Two more legs slammed into the platform as the creature finished dragging itself out of the water and onto our small patch of dryness. A second roar tore through the chamber as the two tentacles that had lifted the creature let go of their hold and whipped themselves angrily through the air. With the thrashing limbs moving the air, the steam quickly began to clear, revealing a twisted-looking Otyugh of gargantuan proportions.
Standing nearly fifteen feet tall, the aberrant creature was covered in a layer of stone-like crimson flesh with a giant tooth-filled maw accounting for the majority of its twisted and deformed body. Three tentacles sprouted from its sides, two of them ending in a wicked array of barbs at the tip, and the third possessing a set of burning red eyes. Whatever transformation Dorian’s magic had attempted on the creature, it had only been a partial success, serving only to mutate and enlarge an already dangerous beast, leaving all of us staring at the creature in disbelief, a small tag helpfully appearing in my vision, highlighting the monster.
[Hellborn Gnasher - Rare Boss – Level 13]
Oh fuck. I felt my eyes widen at the
Gnasher’s level and rank, having never even seen a rare creature before, let alone a rare boss creature. How are we going to kill something this big?
Everyone stood deathly still as the twisted creature’s tentacled eye slowly swept through the air, glancing around its new environment, until it spotted all of us standing on the platform surrounding it. Bellowing with rage, the Gnasher’s maw flared red with magic and it began spitting out burning globs of fire all around the platform.
Of course, it can breathe fire now! Pandemonium erupted as everyone broke out into shouting, while simultaneously moving as they all tried to avoid the burning spit flying through the air. Forced to dodge in between two well-aimed globs, I felt my face burn as the Gnasher’s spit splashed when it hit the ground and filled the air with spray of fire.
“Ah!” I yelped as the burning spittle caused my eyes to burn, reflexively closing them while I stumbled along the length of the platform and away from the acrid glob of fire.
“What the hell is this?!” I heard Stroud’s voice shout out as I rubbed the spray of spit from my eyes. “These beasts shouldn’t breathe fire!”
“It’s being possessed by a devil!” Molly’s voice replied through the cacophony of sounds echoing through the air.
Opening my tear-filled eyes, I found myself in the clear on the far end of the platform, spotting Dorian and a single remaining retainer edging their way towards the walkway that they had arrived from.
“This is all your fault!” Dorian shouted at me, having seen my mad escape from the creature’s attack, and began to conjure a ball of fire in his hands. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?!”
“My fault?! You had Fairfax killed!” I yelled back at Dorian as I rushed towards him and his retainer, my free hand reaching for the bandolier on my chest, pulling free a throwing knife. Not wanting to let the Thief Lord complete his spell while I dealt with his minion, I timed my step and threw the knife towards Dorian’s head while triggering my Deadly Throw ability.
“Aah!” Dorian screamed in pain as the small knife slammed into his cheek and pierced deep into his mouth, causing his fireball to fizzle in a flash of light.
Hell to Pay (Ascend Online Book 2) Page 17
