Aesus grinned. “I didn’t realize shaman had this ability.”
“Shamans are one with nature. Every living creature radiates a life presence, some more than others. Dragons have a very distinct life presence that’s very strong. While you may have the form of a man, your life presence is still that of a dragon. I know there’s someone hiding behind the table and another in the large chest.”
“Then there’s no reason for them to continue to hide, is there?”
Raah chuckled. “They can stay where they are. None of you are a threat to me.”
Aesus shifted his weight and planted his feet firmly on the ground. “What can I do for you, Grand Master Shaman?”
“There’s something I don’t know, and that’s the reason I’m here.” Raah pointed the tip of his staff at Aesus’s face. “Why did the crystal on my staff glow when you performed, like it does now?”
Aesus looked at the crystal at the end of Raah’s staff. “I don’t know.”
Raah retracted the staff and waved its tip in a circle toward the ceiling. He chanted some words in the orc language, and a storm cloud spiral formed against the inside of the tent. “The crystal does nothing for me as a shaman. The powers of the shaman are my own. The crystal provides youth, strength, and everlasting life. I will not allow you to take it from me.”
Aesus looked at the ceiling. “Toshen, you’d better take a look at this.”
Toshen stood and popped open the chest’s lid. He pointed his bow at Raah and drew the bowstring, but before he could release the arrow, he was struck by a bolt of lightning that emanated from the storm cloud in the tent. Toshen reeled in pain and collapsed back into the chest. Xan saw him fall from her position behind the table and whispered a spell to heal him.
Aesus cast two large fireballs at Raah, but Raah waved his hand and the fireballs disappeared.
“You don’t know what you are up against, dragon,” Raah said.
Aesus saw a flash of lightning directed at him from the storm cloud. He tried to dive out of the way, but the lightning struck his back and sent him to the ground.
While Raah’s attention was diverted away from Toshen, Toshen sprang up and fired three arrows into Raah’s chest. Raah grunted and directed more lightning at Toshen. Toshen’s eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed.
Xan stood and healed Toshen and Aesus. Raah grabbed an arrow in his chest and attempted to pull it out, but it was too firmly embedded in his flesh.
“Guards, guards!” Raah shouted as he fell to one knee. He coughed and blood sputtered out of his mouth. The spiral storm cloud slowed and dissipated.
Two of Raah’s guards entered the tent, short swords drawn. Toshen felled each guard with an arrow. Two more guards entered the tent and assessed the situation. Before they could react, Drakor came up behind one orc and ran his blade through his back. By the time Drakor had withdrawn his sword, Toshen had felled the other orc with an arrow.
Raah stood, let out a war cry, and swung his staff wildly at Drakor. Drakor ducked, dodged the staff, and drove his sword up into Raah’s chest. Toshen fired two more arrows into Raah’s back. Raah moaned and collapsed to the ground.
Drakor looked at the others. “Is everyone all right?”
Aesus nodded. “I didn’t expect the lightning.”
“Neither did I,” Toshen said.
Drakor sheathed his sword, picked up the staff, and stood it on its end. It was a relatively straight three-inch-thick tree branch without bark, a head taller than Drakor. He examined the crystal on the top. It was the shape and size of a chicken egg, but cut in half along its length. “This crystal looks like the one Baldazar removed from his staff.”
Xan examined the crystal. “I never looked at his crystal, so I wouldn’t know.”
“We can’t walk out of here carrying that,” Toshen said. “What if someone sees it?”
Aesus looked in the storage chest, pulled out a thin black blanket, and offered it to Drakor. “Maybe we can wrap it in this.”
“Good idea,” Drakor said. The others watched while he checked the length of the blanket against the length of the staff. The blanket was too short.
“I’ll cut it in half,” Toshen said.
Drakor nodded at Toshen and handed him the blanket. Toshen cut the blanket lengthwise and placed it on the ground, one piece overlapping the other. Drakor put the staff on the blanket and wrapped it up. Then he tore the extra length into strips and tied them at one foot intervals.
Drakor held the staff on its end. “How’s this look?”
Aesus snickered. “It looks like a staff wrapped in a blanket.”
They all laughed.
“All right,” Drakor said. “This will do.” He looked inside his satchel, expecting to see a glowing quest scroll band, but the satchel was dark.
Xan also peered into Drakor’s satchel. “It looks like we’re not ready for the next quest.”
“Apparently not,” Drakor said. He looked around the tent. “Maybe we need to do something about these bodies before the quest is ready.”
“Let’s put Raah in the chest, hide the others behind the table, and throw a blanket over them,” Toshen said.
“We can’t just leave them like that, can we?” Xan asked.
“We’ll ask Damon what to do with the bodies,” Drakor said. “We’ll come back for them after dark.”
“What about Kai?” Xan asked. “He knows Raah wanted to see Aesus.”
Drakor turned to Aesus. “If Kai asks, tell him Raah asked where you learned to control fire, you answered him, and he left your tent. Now, let’s move the bodies, head back to the house, and tell Damon what happened.” He handed the staff to Aesus. “This is your responsibility now. Don’t lose it.”
CHAPTER 21
Damon and Tess were sitting at the table in Damon’s house when Drakor opened the door, the others in tow.
“Do you have the staff?” Tess asked.
Aesus held up the wrapped staff.
“But we have a problem,” Drakor said. “Raah is dead, and so are his four guards.”
Damon’s jaw dropped. “You killed Raah? Do you know how much trouble we’re in?” He stood and paced back and forth. “They’re going to execute us for sure. I just know it.”
“Calm yourself. We’re the only ones who know he’s dead.”
“And what about the bodies? What did you do with them?”
“That’s why we came back here. What do you think we should do with them?”
Damon froze in his tracks and looked at Drakor. “What do I think? I think you shouldn’t have killed them in the first place.”
“It was unavoidable. We can’t change the fact that they’re dead.”
Damon continued pacing. “We can burn the bodies, but what about the smell and the smoke? We can bury the bodies, but I don’t know where. We can take the bodies with us, but it would be bad if an orc patrol stopped us.”
“Burying the bodies seems like the best option,” Tess said. “But where? Here at the house?”
“No!” Damon shouted. “Sorry,” he said in a regular voice. “Burying them here is a terrible idea. I’m coming back here after this is over.”
“How about a graveyard?”
“There are no human graveyards in the land of orcs, and the orcs burn their dead.”
“Is there a river nearby?” Toshen asked. “We could put the bodies in there.”
Damon stopped pacing and pointed at Toshen. “There’s a river just south of here. Let’s do that.”
“Don’t forget about our other problem,” Xan said. “What are we going to do about Kai?”
“What about the ringmaster?” Damon asked. “Why is he of any concern?”
“Because he told Raah where to find Aesus’s tent.”
“Are you going to kill him too?” Damon asked.
Drakor turned to Tess. “Do we need to kill the ringmaster?”
Tess sighed. “Do we need to kill the ringmaster? Let’s think about this. W
hat does he know?”
“The only thing he told Raah is where to find Aesus.”
Tess thought for a moment. “He doesn’t know if Aesus was in his tent, what Raah wanted with him, what happened in the tent, or what Raah did after he left the tent, assuming he left. So Kai doesn’t know anything.”
“But everyone saw Raah in the big tent, and now he’s disappeared,” Damon said. “The orcs will ask questions.”
“Yes, but how long will it take for them to notice he’s disappeared? We’ll be gone.”
“So what you’re saying,” Drakor said, “is it will take a few days before anyone notices he’s missing.”
Tess nodded. “And if we leave first thing in the morning, we’ll be back in Barland in three days.”
“Don’t you think it would be wise if Aesus performed one more time before we left? To show that Raah’s disappearance has nothing to do with Aesus’s latest performance.”
Tess tapped her fingers on the table. She frowned and looked at Drakor. “No, I don’t like that idea at all.”
“That would seem suspicious to me,” Damon said.
“Then we should burn down my tent,” Aesus said. “Make it look like Raah did something to me and then disappeared.”
“And then they’ll find Raah and his guards floating face down in the river,” Damon said. “How’s that going to look?”
“It’ll look like something happened to them after Raah killed Aesus.”
“Kai knows I’m staying with Aesus,” Tess said, “but I don’t think he knows about the rest of you, or Damon. The most he can say is that Aesus and the woman with him have disappeared.”
“All right,” Drakor said. “This is what we’re going to do. As soon as it gets dark, we’ll transfer the bodies to Damon’s cart, go to the river, and throw them in. Then we’ll burn down Aesus’s tent, and leave first thing in the morning. We’ll hide under blankets in the cart, so no one sees us as we’re leaving. Am I missing anything?”
“Sounds right to me,” Tess said. “Damon?”
Damon nodded.
At sundown, Damon pulled his cart next to a tree just outside of the fairground tent city. “We’re going to get caught. I just know it.”
Xan, who was sitting next to Damon, put her hand on his shoulder. “Stop worrying. Everything will be fine.”
While Damon and Xan stayed with the cart, Drakor and Toshen unloaded three wooden boards from the back of the cart, and Aesus and Tess grabbed the other two.
When they entered Aesus’s tent, they winced at the stench of dead orcs.
“I forgot about the smell,” Drakor said. “I hope no one noticed.”
“Let’s hope not,” Tess said.
Drakor and Toshen loaded the first body onto a board, removed the arrow, and covered the body with a blanket. The board was only half as wide as the orc’s body, so when they lifted it, the orc’s arms and feet dangled off the sides.
“That won’t do,” tutted Tess. “We need to tie his hands and feet.”
Looking around, she found two short lengths of rope. She tied the orc’s ankles together and then his hands, and placed them on his stomach. She was about to cover his head with the blanket when she noticed several long gold chains around his neck. She pulled them over his head and put them in Aesus’s satchel.
“We’ll need these, and the gold from the others too.”
“Check if it’s clear,” Drakor told Tess.
Tess took a quick peek out the tent. “It’s clear. Let’s go.”
Drakor and Toshen picked up the board and followed Tess out of the tent.
“Hey, wait,” Aesus whispered. “What about me?”
Tess stuck her head back into the tent. “Shush. Just wait here and keep an eye on things. We’ll be right back.”
Aesus nodded, sighed, and looked around the tent. He spotted Raah’s cape and headdress, and put them on. Looking at himself in the dressing table mirror, he adjusted the skull until it looked correctly positioned on his head. He stretched out his arms and walked around the tent.
“What are you doing?” Tess asked as she reentered the tent.
When Drakor entered, Aesus froze. “I’m keeping this.”
“No, you’re not,” Drakor said. “Raah has to be wearing it when we put him in the river.”
Aesus sighed, removed the headdress and cape, and placed them in the chest along with Raah’s body.
Drakor, Toshen, and Tess made four more trips to the cart without incident.
Moonlight lit the cart’s path to the river.
“I didn’t realize how loud the cart is until now,” Toshen said.
Damon turned his head from the driver’s seat. “Shush.” When he turned around, he brought the cart to an abrupt stop.
“What’s the—” Drakor said as he looked forward. He saw why Damon had stopped. Two orcs on horseback blocked the middle of the road.
“Watcha doin out dis late?” one of the orcs asked.
Before Damon could reply, Toshen slipped off the side of cart and fired two arrows that felled both orcs from their horses.
“This is bad,” Damon said. “Very bad.”
“What were you going to tell them?” Toshen asked. “That we’re lost?”
Drakor shook his head, got off the cart, and headed toward the two orcs. “Let’s get them in the cart.”
“What about the horses?” Xan asked.
Tess jumped off the cart and slapped each horse on its rump. They ran off into the darkness.
Damon found a raised embankment on the river’s edge to park the cart. One by one, Drakor and Toshen cut off the ropes that bound the orcs’ feet and hands, and lowered the orcs into the water. Raah’s guards went in first, followed by Raah with his headdress and cape, and the two other orcs they had just put in the cart.
“All right, let’s go back to the tent city,” Drakor said.
Drakor and Tess stood in Aesus’s tent, looking around to make sure they had not left any orc artifacts or arrows behind. They nodded at each other to acknowledge the tent was clear.
Tess picked up the extra container of lantern oil stored in the tent and emptied it on the dressing table, in the large chest, and on the bed. She made sure to leave a trail of oil around the inside of the tent. Then she removed the hanging lantern suspended from the center of the tent and held it in the air.
“As soon as we’re sure the table is on fire, we have to run back to the cart,” Tess said. “Make sure no one is outside.”
Drakor stepped outside, walked around the tent, and stuck his head through the opening. “It’s clear.”
Tess threw the lantern against the dressing table, and it was engulfed by flames within seconds. “Let’s go.”
When Drakor and Tess reached the cart, they heard people yelling “Fire!” in the distance. They looked over their shoulders and saw the tent burning, with plumes of smoke rising into the night sky. They got into the cart and Damon headed back to his house.
Toshen noticed Drakor’s satchel was leaking light. “Looks like we’re ready for the final quest.”
Drakor pulled out the scroll, opened it, and read the words out loud. “Place the staff on the Altar of Sacrifice in the Dark Forest and read the spell of fusion.”
The letters on the scroll burst into tiny flames and set the scroll on fire. Drakor released the scroll just in time to avoid burning his hands, and watched it disappear in mid-air.
“Do you know where that is?” Aesus asked Tess.
“No,” Tess replied. “I’ve never been to the Dark Forest.”
“Don’t worry,” Drakor said. “I know the location of the Altar of Sacrifice.”
“You do?” Xan asked.
“That’s where Baldazar freed me from the dark elves.”
CHAPTER 22
Damon departed Little Kazzix as the night sky turned to day. His cargo was well hidden under blankets in the back of his cart, which gave the appearance he was traveling alone. As soon as the city was a small spe
ck in the distance, his cargo emerged.
“It’s a good thing we don’t have to travel the entire way back under these blankets,” Tess said. “It’s very uncomfortable.”
“Definitely uncomfortable,” Drakor said. He tapped Damon on his shoulder. “Can you stop the cart? We need a stretch.”
Damon stopped the cart and scanned the horizon in all directions. “Make it quick.”
“From what I recall reading, there’s absolutely nothing in the Dark Forest,” Tess said. “No animals or vegetation. We’ll have to bring everything.”
“The forest is about as desolate as it gets,” Drakor said. “There are creatures and vegetation there, but nothing we would want to eat.”
“It wasn’t always that way, was it?” Xan asked.
“It used to be full of life before the dark elves used dark magic. Once they corrupted the plants and animals, everything died.”
“What do you mean by corrupted?” Tess asked.
“When the dark elves corrupt something, they steal its life energy. Plants turn black and die.”
“And what do they do with the life energy?”
“They use it to become more powerful and then fight each other for dominance, destroying everything around them in the process.”
“But why would they do that?” Xan asked.
“I can’t explain their ways. I only know what happened.”
“Let’s get moving,” Damon said.
“You seem a bit impatient today,” Toshen said.
“The sooner we’re back in Barland, the better.”
“I can understand his concern,” Drakor said. “If the orcs find out we’re responsible for Raah’s death, we’re all dead.”
“I know it’s uncomfortable, but can you cover yourselves with the blankets?” Damon asked. “The fewer people who see me with you, the better.”
Tess moaned. “Do we have to?”
“Damon did more than we asked to help us complete the quest,” Drakor said. “I don’t want to put his life in any further danger.”
Three Quest Deal (Tales of Former Dragons Book 1) Page 11
