Crown of Steel (Chaos Awakens)

by Heath Pfaff

  The mages were fighting for all their worth, throwing spells and physical weapons into combat against their massive troll antagonists. The mages didn't even have time to look at Kassa and Haley as they slipped through the room. As long as they didn't pose a threat, the mages had enough to deal with. Strangely though, the trolls didn't seem directly interested in them either.

  A few times Haley thought the creatures looked directly at her, but then they would turn away and go back to ripping the mages apart. Haley wondered briefly if it was because of their masks, were the trolls mistaking them for strange animals? No, Haley placed her hand on the axe at her hip. She had a strong suspicion that it had at least some partial influence on the immunity they were getting from the immediate threat of the trolls. Why it hadn't helped with the troll in the woods was a mystery, but Haley wasn't ready to complain just yet. Anything that might get them out of this situation alive was welcome. It took several minutes of maneuvering, and more than once or twice Haley and Kassa had to stop in their tracks to avoid a particularly violent bit of fighting that burst out directly in front of them, but they made it out the back of the common hall and into the hallways beyond without having to directly fight or kill anyone.

  As the sounds of battle faded away behind them a deep and eerie silence settled in. The hallway quickly became darker and the walls closer together. It was a claustrophobic experience that had Haley stretching her shoulders and taking deeper than normal breaths. The air felt heavy.

  "This is definitely the way to the prison." Kassa said after a few minutes. "The design work is the same in just about every building like this I've been in. The walls are kept tight and narrow so that if prisoners escape they can be picked off easily."

  Haley just nodded. She didn't really know prisons all that well, though as they went deeper into the narrow hallways she was beginning to sympathize with those who'd been trapped inside such places. Wryly she thought that it was only marginally preferable to the room with all the trolls in it. It was a terrible feeling to be so constricted.

  They walked for a few more minutes before they found the source of the trolls. There was a large hole in the right side of the passage, and leading out from the hole was a tunnel that seemed to go back forever down into the earth. Haley and Kassa walked carefully around the massive opening. The trolls must have known about the fortress and been digging that connecting tunnel for quite some time. The fact that they emerged on the same night as Kassa and Haley's arrival was a strange crossing of fate. Whether it could be called luck or not was yet to be seen. Certainly the trolls had made crossing the garrison easier, but they still had to find Xandrith and get out. What if there were more of the creatures in the tunnels ahead? That was a thought that Haley didn't cherish. She had no desire to ever see one again, let alone to face one in the narrow confines of the dark halls they were now crawling through.

  Torches became far more sparse as they got deeper into the secure section of the strange cliff-carved fortress. Finally they reached a single open door that was nearly a full finger's length wide and made of an iron banded heavy wood. It was exactly the kind of door Haley would have imagined to be at the entry way to a fortified prison. The fact that it was swinging open with no guards in sight was slightly unnerving. She pulled the door open the rest of the way tentatively as though certain that something terrible would lurk beyond the ajar portal, but to her relief the door opened to a large and empty guard's room. There was a table, a few lock boxes, some scattered equipment, and a few chairs, but there was no sign of the guards anywhere. A voice called from one of the cells that was directly adjoining the main guard room.

  "Where are dem guards off to, and 'ho are you lot? Don't look like any guards I've seen 'roun d'ere 'fore. Look like dogs." The man accompanying the voice looked well enough, though he was in his later years, a bit red in the face, and he looked a little grimy. He was dressed in tattered wizard’s robes that weren't filthy, but looked like they had seen better days. "We 'eard 'owllin', then the men 'ere left, and it’s been quiet since." His hands were cuffed in a strange pair of shackles that stopped him from moving his fingers. They looked a bit like metal gloves that were hinged to allow him some movement of his hands, just not enough to cast spells.

  "We're here for Xandrith, where is he?" Haley asked the man, ignoring his question.

  "Xandrath?" The man chewed on the name. "Who'sat?"

  A woman in the next cell got up from her cot and walked quickly to the bars. She was cuffed in the same fashion as the man. "What do you want with him? He's some kind of monster. What did you people do with the guards that work here?"

  "The guards have other concerns." Kassa spoke with authority, implying they may have had something to do with the disappearance of the guards without lying about it outright. "Tell us where we can find Xandrith."

  "Guards!" The woman shouted, rattling her shackled hands against the gates. "Guards!" She yelled again, louder.

  Haley watched in shock as Kassa flew across the room in a blur of motion. It wasn't super human speed, but the fluidity with which she moved was remarkable. Her fist snaked between the bars of the cell and collided with the woman's face with explosive force. The female mage fell backwards and hit the ground like a dropped sack of potatoes.

  "'Ere now, you can't just come in 'ere and ..." The man began to speak, but Kassa cut him off quickly.

  "Yelling is a very bad idea. There is a large horde of trolls down the hall ripping mages apart like freshly roasted meat, and I don't think any of us will benefit from attracting their notice. The guards are probably already dead, but if you stay quiet and tell us what we want to know I'll open your cells so you can sneak out of here before the nasty beasts come down here and find you."

  The woman was getting back up while cupping her right eye as it quickly began developing a black circle around it. She looked furious. "Trolls can't get in here. This place is a fortress. It's carved into the side of a solid rock cliff." She almost spat the words, but Haley noted that she didn't speak loudly. Whether she believed Kassa or not, she wasn't taking chances.

  "Are you stupid?" Kassa snapped. "Trolls live underground. They’re adept at tunneling. So you think that being buried in a cliff side is going to save you from them? If anything, you've made yourselves even easier targets."

  The female mage seemed to think about this for a moment, her jaw working soundlessly before she finally snapped it shut.

  "Tell us where to find Xandrith." Haley piped up, eager to push the purpose of their journey to the forefront. She wanted nothing more than to find her mentor and get clear of this awful place.

  The woman looked at Haley incredulously. "Why would you want the monster? He's almost a troll himself. Are you here to kill him, or do you plan on letting him go?"

  "We're here to ..." Haley began, but Kassa cut her off quickly.

  "That doesn't matter right now, and it shouldn't matter to you anyway. The deal is that we will let you free from your cells in exchange for you telling us where to find him. Otherwise we'll go searching ourselves, and you can stay here and face the trolls when they discover this place."

  "That man killed friends of mine. If you think I'm going to tell you where he is so that you can set him free you must be out of your mind. I'd rather be killed by the trolls than see him go free without paying for his crimes." The imprisoned woman stood up straight and put her shoulders back, looking defiant and noble despite her imprisonment.

  "Speak fer yerself!" The other man exclaimed. "Yo' friend's in the lower cells." He began as the female prisoner began to curse and swear over the top of him, but he went on unabated. "Thro' that door on the right, down three levels and along t'de left. 'Ee's in one of the end cells. I 'aven't seen 'im meself, but I've 'eard the guards talking. Keys r'in the top desk drawer. Now let me outta'ere!"

  "You damned piece of shit!" The woman cursed. "That man killed our friends and you're going to let these people just walk out of here with him? Have you no respect for our
dead friends?"

  "Friends wuld'n't want us eaten by trolls, woman!" The man snapped back.

  "Alright, assuming your directions are correct we'll be back shortly to set you free." Kassa said as she grabbed the keys from the desk and began heading for the door. Haley was quick on her heels. They were finally going to find Xan. It was like a long nightmare was coming to a close, yet for some reason Haley couldn't help but feel an intense rush of trepidation and fear. What if Xandrith wasn't happy to see them? What if he was angry that they'd taken so many risks to track him down? What if Xandrith wasn't really Xandrith anymore? Try as she might, she couldn't push those daunting questions from her mind. No matter how many times she told herself that everything would be alright, her doubts still ate away at her and seemed to grow worse the closer they got to their lost friend.

  They followed the directions given to them by the prisoner and headed deeper and deeper into the cold, stale confines of the prison. Finally they reached the end of the corridor three floors below. There were only two torches in the hall and Kassa grabbed the second to bring further down the hallway. They both peered into the cells as they passed, if that was what these rooms could be called. They were just square stone rooms with sets of complicated shackles attached to the back wall. These were the sort of cells people were expected to die painfully in. To Haley, the entire floor seemed to reek of suffering that had soaked into the very stonework of the place. Hopelessness made the air sour and fetid on the tongue. Despair weighed down that hopelessness, making it feel as though someone had strapped lead blocks around her neck. Neither of them spoke as they approached the end of the hallway.

  "Nice of you to come and see me again so soon." A familiar voice croaked, echoing down the hall. It was clearly Xan, but it sounded dry, gravely, and angry. "Are we to have another little discussion with the Shit-Stain then? How is his leg doing? Has the skin grown back yet?" This last question was followed by a horrible and dark laughter.

  Haley couldn't help herself. All of her doubts were finally laid to rest, the oppressive weight of their burden lifted from her shoulders. She ran forward calling out the assassin's name. She couldn't stand to hear him talk like that. "Xan! We're here to set you free!" She called out as she reached the final cell on the right side of the hall, the place his voice had been originating from. Kassa came up quickly behind her as though Haley's haste had given her permission to run forward as well. As she reached the bars and the light from Kassa's torch reached into the cell Haley recoiled in horror.

  "Haley?!" Xan seemed startled. "No, no, no! That's not possible." He blinked several times before stumbling heavily forward a single step, the only thing he could do with the heavy shackles pinning him to the back wall of the cell. He came into the light and Haley's initial horror was confirmed. She'd been ready for the black pattern that flowed through his skin and eyes. What they’d referred to as tattoos in their descriptions of him had been there last time she'd seen him. She hadn't been at all prepared for the wreckage that the mages had made of her beloved Xandrith.

  His hair had been shorn away with knives, which left his scalp cut all the way to the bone in places. His left eye was entirely gone. It looked like it had been meticulously removed and then seared shut. He was naked to the waist, and every inch of his torso was scarred or burned. His arms had been pierced through in several places with metal rings, and those rings were fastened to the chains he wore that were holding him in place. He was also down to just three fingers on each hand. They'd taken his thumbs. Around his head was a crown that looked like it had been screwed into the top of his skull. Even his familiar twisted beard was cut away, leaving a piece of the bone from his chin exposed.

  "You can’t be here!" Xan roared, the loudest outburst Haley had ever heard from here, and the assassin surging forward against his chains and pulled at all the metal rings holding him in place.

  "Xan, Xan ..." Haley kept repeating his name, as if that would somehow reach into his tortured mind and grab him, but he seemed lost and locked in some world of pain and confusion through which there was no way to see clearly. Haley felt a single tear slip from her eye to be absorbed by the soft material inside her mask as though it were wiping the moisture away as she would have with her hand. There is no time to be weak.

  "Xandrith, we're here to get you out. The mages didn't bring us here. We are here to break you free, do you understand?" Kassa spoke loudly and clearly.

  "Free?" Xan seemed to calm for a moment, his good eye looking between the two girls. "The mages don't have you? This isn't some trick?"

  Kassa answered by unfastening the key at the door and letting it swing open. She stepped inside with the torch. "Free, Xan, but we've got to hurry. The trolls are sacking this place and we need to be out of here before they have the time to worry about what to do with us."

  Xandrith took his one step back and looked a little frightened. "This is real." He said calmly. "You shouldn't be here. I left you behind so you wouldn't be at risk. The plague ..." He looked back and forth between the girls again. "Can I see your faces?"

  It wasn't until he asked that Haley realized that she and Kassa were both still wearing their plague masks. Kassa pulled hers off quickly, and Haley followed suit with a slight hesitation. She enjoyed not having her scars visible for the world to see. As she drew back her mask and revealed her scarred face to her traumatized friend, a smile touched his lips, and she thought for just a moment that she saw tears roll from his eyes and down his cheeks.

  "Thank you." He said quietly. "You can put them back on now. I thought maybe you were a trick. They want information but I haven't given them anything. They think I know more than I do, which helps. So many questions and I have so few answers. Of course, they don't even understand which questions they should be asking."

  Kassa had moved in closer to Xan and was unfastening the locks on the chains holding him in the cell. Haley was happy to see that they'd used traditional locks and not magical ones. The locks were very well designed, heavy work that would have been difficult to pick even with a full set of fingers. After they removed Xan's thumbs they must have figured that he would be hard pressed to break himself free. As Kassa freed the last lock around Xandrith's throat, she stepped in close to the ruined assassin and leaned her head against his. Her hand touched his cheek and she whispered something, quietly, words that Haley couldn't quite hear from where she was standing. Xan put his damaged hand over hers and simply replied. "I know, and I'm sorry."

  Haley felt a pang of jealousy which she quickly swallowed down. She'd already told herself that she could accept that there was something different between Xan and Kassa than there was between herself and the assassin. Kassa helped Xan to his feet, though he seemed to stand pretty well despite the obvious damage he'd taken. The metal rings in his arms were still present, and the strange crown affixed to his head was still in place, but other than that he was free.

  Haley wanted desperately to tell him that she'd missed him and that she was happy to see him again, but that's not what slipped from her lips. "You look like shit." She said, wincing slightly at her own crassness.

  Xandrith smiled, and it was a wicked expression that played across his lips. His good eye had that spark of mischievous and dark mirth that had always been present, and his smile was like that of a starving wolf, full of menace and a macabre hunger. "I'm not feeling great." He said quietly. "But I'm going to get better. We need to get this crown off my head, and to cut things rings out of my arms. The crown blocks my magic. I'm useless without magic. They brought the cursed thing with them when they captured me in the woods. If I'd known what it did when they went to strap it on I might have fought even harder. The rings just hurt. I'm tired of hurting."

  Kassa snorted. "You're far from useless without magic. You're a master of hand to hand combat."

  Xandrith grinned. "I was, but I don't have that anymore. I gave that to you, remember?"

  Both Kassa and Haley looked shocked, but it was Kassa who spoke f
irst. "Wait, you mean you didn't retain any of the skills I was given?"

  Xandrith shook his head. "Not really, though I can sort of see parts of it all if I really concentrate. I can't count on those skills anymore though. I'm useless with a knife, but that's not such a big deal since I don't have enough fingers to hold one." He held up his hands and frowned at the three fingered mess of mangled flesh. "I can do other things though. When I broke myself apart to bring you back I had to fill the missing pieces of myself with something, otherwise I would have been incomplete. I used the bonesteel blade's life force. I wasn't entirely certain I could maintain my own humanity while doing so, and for a time I think I ceased to exist, but something remained and the bonesteel blade needed to find those pieces and revive them in order to survive in my body. We're stuck together now."

  "Come on, we need to find the room where Shit-Stain tortured me. It has the tools I need to get rid of these excess fashion items." He said as he pushed his way out of the cell and started up the hallway. Haley and Kassa moved quickly to follow him.

  As they walked, Xandrith spoke. "At first the blade thought that it would have free reign over what was left of me after we finally broke out of the Fae world, but it quickly discovered that there was a lot of extra baggage involved in living in a human body. It killed the first humans it encountered, but soon discovered itself overwrought with guilt. My humanity was more than it knew how to handle. It needed me to explain what the feelings it was experiencing meant, and it needed to know how to cope with it all. Believe me, it didn't want to give in. It had a purpose, but as it began to understand human nature, that purpose became something that it feared. Imagine that everything you've ever known or felt suddenly appeared corrupt and vile to your own eyes? That was what was happening to the bonesteel blade. Finally it let me consume it, and I became myself again. Or at least close to myself again. I think. Sometimes I'm not entirely sure what I am, trapped in this place time has lost meaning and I wasn't even sure if I was really alive. I thought perhaps I'd died and was paying for my crimes."