Crown of Steel (Chaos Awakens)

by Heath Pfaff

  Haley wasn't sure how to respond to Xan's recounting of his experiences so she kept her mouth closed. They reached the guard's room quickly enough and Kassa set to work unlocking the first of the two cells.

  "What are you doing?" Xandrith asked, noticing that the two women had stopped.

  "He told us where to find you. Without him we'd still be searching cell by cell." Kassa explained.

  Xan nodded, and then looked into the second cage. "Not this one, though. She can stay here and rot."

  The female mage spat on the ground at her feet. "I wouldn't accept freedom from you anyway, murderer."

  Xandrith stepped to the front of her cage and gripped the bars with his three fingered hands. "I at least gave your friends a clean death. How many hours did you spend sneaking into my torture cell between sessions and breaking the ends of my ribs off with your little hammer before they caught you?"

  Her mouth was drawn shut in a tight line, but it wasn't anger or shame that shown on her face. In fact, it looked to Haley like she was proud of what she'd done. That sparked a fire of rage in Haley's chest. This woman was sick.

  "How long have they lock you up in here for? What has it been, a few days? The black-robe was furious that you almost killed me. I do believe he wanted to be the one to finish me off." Xan said with a shrug. "He's a real bastard. I'm a fair judge of men, and that one likes to torture. It's not just a job for him."

  "You deserved every hour of misery you got, you disgusting monster." She ended the declaration with a short list of offensive language that Haley had never heard before. She was only certain it was foul language because of the vehemence with which it was spoken. The assassin's apprentice looked between the ruined assassin and the woman in the cell, wondering if Xan was going to kill her. She could see the restrained anger in his shoulders and in the way his hands almost shook on the bars as he held them. Quite suddenly he let go of the bars and gave a sharp sigh.

  "I probably did, but I have unfinished business that must be attended to. Enjoy your time with the trolls." Xan turned his back on her and headed for another door in the room. "Come along. I'll show you the play room." He said with an almost manic chuckle.

  Kassa undid the last of the man's shackles and handed him the keys, looking at the woman in the next cell. Haley watched this exchange silently, wondering whether she should tell Xandrith or not. Kassa was obviously implying that the man could free her if he wanted, which was exactly what Xan had said not to do. Kassa wasn't going to free the female mage on her own, but she was allowing it to happen. Xan had swung the next door open and he called back over his shoulder. "Are we coming?"

  Perhaps he'd known Kassa would do exactly what she'd done. Xandrith couldn't bring himself to let the woman go after all she'd done to him, but perhaps he'd let Kassa do it in her own way.

  Haley turned her back on the two mages and followed after Xan, trying to decide whether she was reading too much into the situation or not. Xandrith was, as ever, so hard to understand. He laughed when he was sad, and smiled when he was filled with rage. He often said one thing, and meant another entirely. He was a dangerous assassin, accustomed to violence and death, and yet he could be unbelievably kind and forgiving. Kassa fell in beside her and they went through the door behind Xan together.

  Chapter 6

  Vengeance, Thy Name is Xandrith

  Xandrith walked the narrow corridors like a wraith. He'd lost a lot of his muscle mass and he looked even more tall and gaunt than ever before. His hand traced the doors that they were walking past. He would stop occasionally and look in one, laugh darkly and mutter beneath his breath, and then he would move on again. "This one was particularly awful." He commented once as he passed a room with a wooden door that was painted black with tar. He didn't seem to be talking to anyone in particular, and that was perhaps the most disturbing part of their journey through that section of the prison. It was alarming for Haley to see just how unhinged the assassin's mind had become during his time away. It made her heart ache to see him wince as he walked past doors that hid unspeakable devices of torture. He'd spent at least a week trapped in this hell hole, and in that time they'd subjected him to every method of persuasion they'd had at their disposal. Xan stopped abruptly in front of remarkably normal looking wooden door.

  "Here." He said quietly. "This is where we'll find the tools to remove the crown and rings." He reached out and touched the door, but after a moment it became clear that he wasn't going to turn the handle. His eyes were haunted. "I can't ... Would one of you please open the door?"

  Kassa and Haley both jumped forward to grab the handle, but it was Haley who got there first. "I'll go." She said, though she wasn't entirely certain she wanted to. Kassa and Haley locked eyes for a moment, but finally Kassa nodded once, sharply, and backed off.

  "It's a wooden handled tool. The metal end will fit the screws on the crown." Xandrith said, bending over so that Haley could look at the fastenings before entering the room. As he bent over, Haley got her first really good look at the damage to Xandrith's head where his hair had been cut off from his scalp. The bone shone through, surrounded by patches of red and irritated flesh. The crown itself was fastened so tightly to his scalp that the sharp metal edges looked like they were biting into his flesh. Haley tried not to stare at the damage. She focused on the tops of the screws. They were box shaped with an offset box in the center of their top. "The device to snap the rings is a metallic vice with a pincer in the middle." He added as he lifted his head. It seemed the rings were mostly an afterthought.

  "Alright, I'll be back." She said, and stepped into the room that Xan didn't wish to enter. There was a heavy wooden chair in the center of the room fastened to the floor with steel fasteners. The chair had bindings built into it that could be used to restrain the arms, the hands and fingers, the legs, the feet, and the head. Next to the chair was a table with a vast selection of different implements atop it. Haley didn't even wish to guess at what most of those tools were for. Their shape and design implied an evil purpose, but she simply couldn't bring herself to think about it any further. These were tools of cruelty. They were the sort of objects that the man who had assaulted her would have loved to have had access to. That thought sent a terrifying chill down her spine. She forced it from her head and went to work looking for the tools they needed to help Xan.

  She located the device to break the rings first, but it took her much longer to locate the small device that they needed to free Xandrith of his awful crown. The tool had been tossed to the floor as though they'd never planned on removing the crown from the tormented assassin. Haley realized then that it would only be here because they had used it as a torture device against Xan. The memory of the way the crown pressed and tore into Xan's flesh came back to her. They must have tightened it here, tightened it as much as their strength against the handle would allow.

  She retreated back into the hall with the wretched tools, shutting the door behind her as she exited the domain of torture. With the door closed at her back she felt like she might almost be able to put everything she'd seen behind her. Almost. Unfortunately every time she looked at poor, ravaged Xandrith she couldn't help but recall that he knew only too well what most of those instruments did. "I've got it." She said quietly, holding the two devices up for him to see. He looked at them and nodded, his face turning somewhat paler than it had been before.

  "Alright. I need one of you to remove the screws for me. I would do it myself but I can't see them, and I can't grip the tool well enough to turn it." He didn't look happy to have to admit the weakness. "We'll worry about the rings after this damn thing is off."

  Haley was already shaking her head and stepping away from Xan. "I can't." She said quickly, feeling like a coward, but not willing to do what she knew had to be done. She didn't have the stomach for causing Xan pain.

  Kassa stepped forward and took the tool from Haley's shaking hand. Haley hadn't even realized her hand was shaking. The wood handle pulled from her fing
ers with ease as though she'd been on the verge of dropping the wretched thing anyway. Again that feeling of shame washed over Haley. If Kassa could do it she should be able to. She looked down at her feet in dejected silence. She felt as though she'd betrayed Xan. Kassa placed a hand on her shoulder. "It's alright." The older woman said, and yet Haley didn't feel any better.

  "There are eight screws." Xan said quietly. "Four in each half of the crown. Once they're all loosened, the two halves pull apart."

  Haley refused to look up, but she guessed that Kassa must have only nodded her reply because she didn't hear anything more from here. A moment later there was a sharp intake of breath, and the eerie sound of metal being unscrewed from bone. Haley tucked her head further into her chest and covered the ears of her mask since it seemed to channel the terrible sounds directly into her head. She desperately wanted to send herself somewhere else, somewhere where she couldn't hear Xandrith's agony. I am not strong enough for this. She thought sickly to herself.

  You are impossibly strong. The voice that spoke like hers but wasn't whispered through her head. You're only afraid. I could take that fear away for you. Better, I could help you push that fear onto others. I have that power, and that's just part of what I could do for you if you'd accept me.

  With the outside noise blocked, it seemed her axe was ready to have a go at twisting into her thoughts. She grimaced and refused to answer.

  I have only ever helped you. Remember that. The voice said after a short silence, and then it was silent in her mind once more. A hand touched her shoulder and startled her from her separation from the world.

  "It's alright, Not-Daisy. It's over." It was Xan's voice. Haley felt a flood of warmth at finally hearing the familiar nickname in his voice again. She turned to see him standing free from the crown, but the warmth fled her as she saw blood trickling down from the line cut into his head by its jagged metal edge. Haley winced at the damage, but Xan just gave her one of his half-grins. "Trust me, this little bit of blood is better than the damned crown. That thing was a constant pain, and made this terrible droning inside my head that made it impossible to really concentrate. I feel much better already." He assured her, though Haley wasn't exactly certain how he could feel much better when he still looked so terrible.

  "You still look like you're about to die." She told him honestly.

  "It's alright. I need to find someone to borrow some magic from and then I can heal myself a little. It's early enough that I might be able to save my eye if I can get a hold of some magic to do the work. Of course, I'm not very good at healing. It's an art. I know the spells, but making the most of them takes skills I just don't have. Still, I could at least improve my situation." Xan did seem to be in a slightly better mood without the crown. His remaining eye seemed a bit more alive.

  "You can take some from me." Haley offered. "I'm young enough that I have years to spare."

  Xan shook his head immediately. "No. I won't be doing that, but I do have someone in mind who could spare a few years, and as an added bonus he's someone that I already promised myself I'd kill, so I think that would work out for the best. Assuming the trolls haven't already gotten to him, I'd really like to end his miserable excuse for a life. In addition, it's on our way out! Now, let's get these rings out of my arms!" He sounded almost chipper.

  The process of removing the rings from Xandrith's arms was a difficult one. The tool that broke the rings made it so that the metal hoops could unrolled through the original wound, but Xan's flesh had already begun to heal against the steel. The wounds were reopened and bleeding freely by the time they'd managed to remove the last of the metallic circles. Xandrith, for his part, seemed almost indifferent about the pain and damage. While it was obvious he was in pain, the removal of the crown had greatly changed his disposition. They bound the wounds with scraps of cloth and within a few moments Xan was ready to go.

  "Let's get out of here." With that, he turned and started down the stone walkway with his bare feet smacking on the ground as he went.

  Haley and Kassa exchanged glances before shrugging and setting off in pursuit. Xandrith led them to the end of the corridor to another sealed room. He tried the handle as he approached it, but it wouldn't move. It was obviously locked from the opposite side. He looked from Haley to Kassa. "Kassa, would you mind picking this lock?"

  She nodded her consent and moved into position in front of the lock. She produced a set of picks from one of her inner pockets that she'd long ago acquired from Xan's left behind belongings. It only took her a few minutes of tinkering with the lock before she managed to align the tumblers and trip them. The lock was old which made the process a little more difficult, but the quality was poor as well, which was perhaps the saving grace. She stood up and turned the handle to open the door into a large room that looked something like an audience chamber, but instead of having an open theatre at one end there was a small open area featuring a wooden bed with shackles and straps running its length. It wasn't hard to imagine what it was for.

  Xandrith stepped inside, loathing hiding just behind his false smile. Haley could see it. She'd known him long enough to see through his attempts at hiding his discomfort. He looked frail in that room, as though a strong gust of wind might sweep him away into oblivion.

  "I spent a lot of time in here. Elder Shit-Stain really liked to interrogate in front of an audience. Wait, I might have pronounced that wrong. Shiplane? Shit-head? Shoe-stain? Shidsane. Yes, that was it. Elder Shidsane. He became most perturbed when I mispronounced that." Xan was wandering through the room running his three fingered hands over various pieces of furniture as he passed. "He's the same man who tortured me back before we started traveling together, Kassa. I don't think you'd like him very much. He's a festering sack of cock-meat." Xan stopped in his slow perusal of the room. He turned on his heels and pointed to a door towards the left most side of the audience area. "That is where he always entered from. I'd say that's probably our best hope of getting out of here alive, and of finding Elder Shit-Stain so I can make sure he dies screaming." He looked again from Kassa to Haley. "You don't have to watch that part if you don't want to."

  Some dark part of Haley wanted to see what Xandrith would do to his tormentor. She wanted to relish in watching the man that had caused Xan to suffer so much twisting in agony as he paid for what he'd done. Another part of her told her that she shouldn't wish suffering on anyone, but one look at the wreckage that remained of Xandrith chased that part of her back into the quiet corners of her thoughts. Xandrith deserved his revenge, and Haley wanted him to have it.

  "Killing him isn't going to repair all of the damage that he's done to you. What if one of us is captured because you're trying to pursue vengeance?" Kassa chimed in, ever a voice of reason. Haley could hardly believe that she would expect Xandrith to just give up on his revenge. "You'd never forgive yourself if something happened to Haley or me."

  Xandrith groaned and leaned his head back as though looking at the ceiling, though his eyes were closed. "He deserves to die." Xan said quietly.

  "Agreed." Kassa nodded as she spoke. "But do we deserve to die as well? This place is dangerous, Xan. We need to be out of here as quickly as we can."

  For a moment Xan didn't answer. Haley watched as he drew large breaths, inhaling until his chest was so full it looked like it might explode. Then he let it out in a slow, deep exhale. She wasn't sure what he intended to do, but she knew that she would support him either way. He'd saved her, and she still owed him for that. If that meant going against Kassa, despite the debt Haley still owed the woman, she would do that. Her debt to Xandrith was one she held above all others.

  "You're right. We need to get free. If we're forced to face him we will, but we need to be rid of this place. I'm not ready to lose anyone for my vengeance. Let's go." When he spoke, it was with a somber finality. Haley could tell that a part of him would forever regret not going after Shidsane, and he knew it as well, but he was doing what he felt was best for his friend
s. Haley wasn't sure she would have made the same decision. Vengeance was a powerful thing. She just hoped that Xandrith wouldn't come to resent her and Kassa for stopping him from doing what he so dearly wanted to do.

  They exited through the door in the back of the audience room. It wasn't locked, which was fortunate since it had a drop bar on the opposite side of the door that would have been very difficult to deal with. The mages had obviously assumed that it was highly unlikely any prisoner would ever make it so far without setting off a general alarm. Again Haley found herself grudgingly thanking the trolls for choosing such a perfect time for their attack on the mage stronghold. Haley and Kassa might never have even gotten to Xan without the chaos they'd stirred up.

  Having exited the prison area they couldn't be certain that the Trolls would have gotten so far through the fortress. The exit they'd taken through the torture chamber had led them to an entirely different part of the building and there was a chance that the trolls would no longer be a factor. Whether that was a positive or not was yet to be seen. Either way they were one man stronger than they had been coming in. It was difficult to be certain how effective Xan was in his current state, but any help he could provide was more than they'd had in finding him.

  "We'll want to keep heading up." Xan said as they passed through the halls in search of stairs. "We're deep inside the cliff and we have to climb if we want to get free."

  "Have you been through any of this area before?" Kassa asked. Haley could see the glimmer of hope on her face and she felt it drain away when Xandrith answered.