“You didn’t,” Gin said as she continued to stare out across the now warming horizon. “The best place is from the checkpoint tower to the south, but this is beautiful.” She turned around to look at Sath. “I need to ask you a question. You wouldn’t lie to me, would you, Sath?”
The Qatu cocked his head to one side and studied her as his stomach flipped over with dread. “Why are you asking me that, Gin?”
“Answer me.”
“Gin, you know me,” he said, trying to ascertain the reason for the question before he answered it.
“Sath.”
“No, no I wouldn’t.” Sath’s heart sunk at the potential for untruth in that statement. “Tell me what’s bothering you, Gin; I’ll help if I can.”
“Who is Kazhmere to you?”
Sath closed his eyes a moment and took a deep breath before answering her. “She is someone I grew up with,” he said, thankful that so far he was not lying to her.
“Someone you loved?”
“Well, yes. I suppose I did, and still do,” Sath said. An awful realization coupled with a tiny ray of hope crept in around the corners of his heart. “Gin, are you asking me if I’m involved with Kazhmere?” Just the thought repulsed him but saying it aloud nearly brought bile into the back of his throat.
“Are you?”
“No.” Sath nearly sank to the ground with relief, followed by the thought that she was asking him because she was interested in him. “The absolute truth, Gin, is that I am not in a relationship with Kazhmere, not a romantic one anyway.”
“I see,” Gin said, her countenance still stern though her heart sang. “So what’s the plan then? We charge in and demand Kazhmere’s release?” She grinned in spite of herself. “I’m sure you and Tee and Hack will find new and exciting ways to test my healing abilities.”
“If it was up to me, Gin,” Sath said, leaning over to whisper to her, “I would take Anni and Tee and leave now so that the rest of you are safe.” He fought the urge to touch the scar on the side of her face. Gin giggled but her laughter soon faded as she realized that the look on his face was serious.
“I can’t believe you’re even thinking such a thing,” she said, scowling. “It’s not going to happen.” Before he could stop her, she hopped up out of her bedroll and pounced on Hackort and Elysiam. “Get up! Sath’s thinking of going without us!” she called out as Sath scrambled after her to silence her.
“What?” Hackort rolled over and rubbed his eyes with his tiny fists. “What’s wrong, Ginny?” Elysiam had come up out of her bedroll just as before, scimitar in hand and swinging madly. “Really, Elys? Do you ever really sleep?” he muttered as she missed stepping on him by a narrow margin.
“What does Gin mean, Sath?” Elysiam growled, pointing her blade in the direction Sath had just vacated as he grabbed onto Gin, holding her fast with his hand around her mouth as she struggled. “What are you doing? Did that other cat charm you?”
“I did no such thing,” Anni said as she slowly pushed herself up on her elbows. She was half in and half out of her bedroll. “What’s going on?”
“Gin thought that YEEEOUCH!” Sath dropped Gin as if she was a hot stone when she sank her teeth into one of the fingers he had held to her mouth. He roared in frustration at her and his pet appeared at his side, looking befuddled at his master’s current choice of targets for his ire. “Oh, take off, you silly cat,” Sath barked, waving his magical companion away.
“What you said is that you’d rather just wake Tee and Anni and go to Salynth’s Tower without us. What else was I supposed to think, especially after you’d just said you would never lie to me,” Gin said, her tone accusatory and biting. Sath winced at her words.
“Because I don’t want the other three of you in danger,” he tried to explain but Elysiam wagging her blade close to his face cut him off.
“What makes Tee so special? It can’t be his training because Hack is just as steady a warrior as the wee green man there,” she said.
“Aww, thanks Elys,” Hack said, blushing a bit as he pulled on his helmet.
“I also can’t imagine why you would want to go into a place like that without me and Gin and our FIRE MAGIC, Sath. That’s just suicide. I mean, how important can this Kazhmere be to you for you to…” Elysiam’s mouth slammed shut. She looked back and forth from Gin to Sath. “Oh.”
“We’re all up now, let’s just head on out and stick to the original plan, yeah?” Teeand said from behind Sath. “No one is leaving anyone anywhere, least of all Sath’s Kazhmere.” The dwarf raised his hands as protests came from all sides. “Enough! My wee children back in the Mountain follow direction better than you lot!” He bent over and started rolling up his bedding to stuff in his haversack, and the rest of them, one by one, did the same. Finally, they were all packed and standing around the cold remains of their fire, all doing their very best to avoid eye contact with each other.
Gin whistled for Beau, her magic pony, who appeared next to her and whinnied as she swung up into his saddle. Elysiam was next into the saddle of her own horse, pulling Hack up into its saddle behind her. Sath’s horse appeared third, a huge warhorse that suited his size, leaving only Teeand and Anni standing and watching. “Come on, wee man,” Sath said, holding out a hand low to the dwarf.
“No,” Gin said, her voice even and steady. She rode over to Teeand and put a hand down which he used to swing up behind her. “There’s no way that Anni would fit on my horse. She needs to ride with you, Sath.” Tee wrapped his arms around Gin and gave her a squeeze and she smiled.
“You know I’ve got yer back, our Gin?” he whispered to her in Dwarvish.
“Aye, Petal, I do,” she whispered back, her accent in Dwarvish making Tee laugh heartily. “And I yours.” She raised her eyes to meet Sath’s and frowned at the sadness she saw there. “Shall we go, Sath? Daylight’s wasting and so is your Kazhmere.” Urging Beau forward, she took the lead as they rode, up into the snowy Highlands and closer to freeing Kazhmere and defeating Lady Salynth.
Gin’s pony whinnied loudly in protest each time his feet hit the increasingly icy ground. Gin stroked his neck and whispered to him, but his nostrils still flared with unease and suspicion. “We can just make our way on foot,” Teeand suggested, “if our Beau isn’t sure he wants to be here.” Gin frowned, and then nodded her head.
“I’m sure the other horses don’t like this weather either,” she said, turning to Elysiam as she and her mount materialized by Gin’s side. “Hang on, Tee,” she said, whispering release to her magical steed who disappeared, leaving Gin and Teeand in a heap on the ground. Elysiam grinned at them as she too released her horse, but not before she pitched Hackort off into a snowdrift.
“Seriously, Elys, you’re coming off my list. Right now,” he said, sputtering and spitting snow everywhere. The others tried not to laugh out of respect for Hack, but failed. The laughter ceased, however, as Sath and Anni caught up to them on the back of Sath’s huge red and white warhorse. The giant animal sniffed the air with its massive, blunt-nosed head, and snorted. Sath looked at the rest of them, all on foot with no mounts in sight, and quickly dispatched his own horse. He helped Anni back up out of the snow and then turned to face his compatriots.
“Tower is off to the west from here,” he said. “I suggest we get going.” Anni remained silent as she fell in step behind Sath, followed by Hackort and Elysiam. Gin stood still a moment, taking a deep breath, and then moved to follow Elysiam. Teeand stopped her by placing an armored hand on her arm.
“I meant what I said, lass,” he said quietly. “I’ve got your back. Always.” Gin turned quickly, threw her arms around Teeand’s neck, and then released him, and ran to catch up with the others. Teeand plodded along behind, keeping an eye out as was his role in the group. “Always, Flower,” he muttered.
The Tower cut an imposing figure on the bleak landscape of the finger islands where the Highlands met the Dark Sea. A tall, cylindrical building, it was surrounded on all sides by wh
at resembled giant dragon talons rising up out of the snow. A snaky looking bit of frozen tundra wound its way around the outside of the Tower, but it seemed to lead nowhere. Almost out of sight was a small window on the western side of the Tower.
The imposing façade of the Tower was enough to turn back even the most fearless adventurer, but to further put off those who would enter and explore, the entrance was enchanted and moved about the base of the tower, back and forth between decoy “doors” that lead nowhere and deposited unwary travelers back out in the snow. When Lady Salynth first inhabited the Tower, it was said those nearby could hear her maniacal laughing echo across the tundra as explorer after explorer was unceremoniously dumped into the frozen landscape.
Lady Salynth was not a dragon per se, but was of dragon blood, an unhappy accident that occurred when the dragons burst forth from Orana so long ago. She was descended from humans that were unfortunately exploring the volcanic mountains in search of new land to colonize, and were caught in the flurry of magic, lava, and dragons that spewed forth onto the land from deep within Orana’s core. Some were killed by the lava and rock but others were caught in the tide of unfettered magic that poured out of the chasm and then separated the edge of the Highlands that became the Qatu Islands and created their inhabitants, the Qatu. Those caught in the magical flow were transformed into hybrid creatures, both humanoid and dragon, called dragonkind and gifted with magic and the ability to fly on huge, leathery wings. Such a creature was Lady Salynth.
The group approached the Tower on foot; all moving slowly and carefully. “It’s…tall,” Gin murmured, staring up at the horrific edifice. “Are we sure this is a good idea?”
Elysiam laughed heartily. “Well of COURSE it isn’t. When have we ever done anything that’s a good idea?” She clapped Gin on the shoulder and Gin smiled at her fellow druid. “Now then, how do we know which door is the entrance? Anni?”
The Qatu female furrowed her brow. “They are enchanted and only one of them is the actual entrance. We just have to try them. The problem is that they spit you out onto the other side of the tower so it’s hard to know which one you’ve tried.”
Hackort ran up to them, having made a circuit of the perimeter while no one was looking. “There are six of them all together!” he exclaimed. “That means we all go to each one and if it spits you back out, you stay where you’ve been…spit.” Elysiam made a face at him and he stuck his tongue out at her. “Then we know not to try that one again. We just move clockwise around the tower until we’re all standing at a door.”
“That is an excellent plan, tiny warrior,” Anni said, “as I was thinking back on our first attempt to enter the Tower. My group had no invisibility spells available and just plunged into one doorway after another. It took us the better part of the first day just to find the true door.” Hackort ran past the group before anyone could stop him and plunged headlong through the door.
“Aaaaaa that’s not it!” he cried out from somewhere on the other side of the tower. The group moved clockwise around the tower and stopped in front of a door just before Elysiam threw herself through it. They soon heard a thud just to the left of them followed by a string of curses in common tongue and Elvish.
“Guess that wasn’t it either,” Sath said with a chuckle. Gin giggled in spite of herself. “I’ll go next,” the Qatu male said. The group moved to the left and stopped at the next door and Sath hurtled himself through it…landing with a crunch opposite the group on the other side of the Tower.
“Hey, Sath, you okay?” they heard Hackort ask.
“Yep, right as rain,” Sath said, wincing. Gin heard the pained tightness in his voice and knew that he was not, but also that she could not go heal him. “Try another door,” he called out.
The group moved to the left again and this time Gin volunteered to go. Her thinking was that if she came out on the other side of the Tower at least she could heal the others there. She jumped into the open doorway and gasped with surprise when her feet made contact with a stone floor. She could not feel the icy wind swirling under her cloak and howling in her ears any longer. Rising slowly, she turned around to look behind her and motion for the others to join her, but there was no door there, only a solid wall. She turned back around to look into the first floor of the Tower and stifled a gasp. She seemed to be in a foyer of sorts that led to a larger room but offered her a bit of cover from whatever might be waiting in that room.
She carefully scanned the entryway where she had landed but saw no one, friend or foe, so she turned back the way she had come. With anxious fingers, she inspected the wall that had only just moments before been a doorway, but she could find no crack or secret door or lever to make the wall open. Was she in the Tower after all? She had heard of rifts in their world where one could go to a completely different plane of existence and knew that to be how her own transportation magic worked. However, this was different. This was like a prison.
“Help?” she said softly. There was no response, neither from outside or inside, so she beat on the wall frantically. “HELP!” she screamed. Her hands ached from hitting the wall but she continued, hoping against hope that someone on the outside would hear her and know that she was inside.
“GIN!” bellowed Sath. “Answer me!” He stayed at his door where he’d been thrown back out of the Tower, but ran back and forth by the entrance, his keen hearing alert for anything that might tell him where she was. Nothing came. He could hear the other members of the party calling out for her, then some arguing, and then suddenly Anni was flying out at him through the mystic doorway. Sath had no time to move and Anni crashed into him, knocking both of them backwards into the snow.
Anni rolled onto her back and then pushed herself up on her elbows, only to run into Sath’s rage-etched face. “Where…is…Gin?” he asked, clearly trying to contain his fury.
“She got in, Sath. I came over here to get you and the gnome. We know which door it is,” Anni said, deciding to meet his gaze rather than shy away from it. She no longer feared him as a loyal Qatu should fear her Prince. Something was wrong with him, some enchantment or illness had befallen him, most likely at the tiny hands of that wood elf. When Gin had not come out the other side, Anni had been sorely tempted to run away from the tower and leave her there to the mercy of the inhabitants but she knew that was NOT the way to win over Sath and make sure that her oldest friend, his sister, was safe. “If I may be permitted to return to my feet, Majesty?” she said in whispered tones, speaking Qatunari so that the gnome would not understand.
Sath growled low in his throat as he pushed himself up and off Anni and then held out a clawed hand to help her up. She took it, relishing the feeling of his hand in hers, and then shook her fur clean of the swirling snow. “Which door, Annilanshi?” Sath growled. Anni understood the warning in his tone and headed back around to the other side of the Tower with Sath and Hackort hot on her tail.
Teeand was holding Elysiam by her arm, his boots dug into the icy ground, when the other three appeared around the side of the Tower. “You’ll wait for the others is what you’ll do, lass!” he shouted at her as she struggled to free her trapped arm.
“Gin may need help!” the druid argued, her face red with frustration. “Also, you are leaving bruises on my arm with that armored glove Tee!” At that, Teeand released her and she jumped forward into the correct doorway.
“So much for having a plan first,” Hackort muttered as he ran at the door and passed through as though it was made of water. The others followed in a clump of bodies and arms and weapons, and landed on the stone floor inside in much the same fashion.
“That was one of the best entrances I think I have ever seen,” Gin said, laughing. She was standing in the entryway, watching the rest of them untangle and get to their feet. “Now, would you like to know what I’ve found out while you were all trying to use the door at the same time?” Gin stood, hands on her hips, with her lips pursed together in a thin line, waiting for an answer. Sath stood firs
t, pulling Anni to her feet. Finally, they had all gotten off Teeand, who somehow was under the pileup. “Well?” she said, clearly a bit annoyed.
“Keep your hair on, Flower,” Teeand grunted as he got to his feet and brushed himself off. “Now then, what’s our plan?”
Gin made a face at Teeand that made him chuckle. “There are shades everywhere in here...Elys?” she asked, frowning when she noticed the bloodthirsty grin that split her sister druid’s face. “Oh dear.”
“Nothing wrong with sending a few of the undead on their way, now is there?” Elysiam asked, licking her lips as she wrapped her hands around the hilt of her scimitar. “We’re doing them a service, Gin! Dispatching them to where Sephine intended and all that…”
“Elysiam!” Gin said a quiet prayer under her breath to the All-Mother, asking forgiveness for her daughter Elysiam’s bloodlust. “Why can’t we just make our way through until we find Kazhmere?” She frowned at Elysiam’s evil grin.
“Even better, bring it. I’m ready,” Elysiam said, gripping her scimitar tightly. Hack looked up at her and smiled.
“That’s why I…we love you, Elys,” he said. Elysiam looked down at him but he recognized the look in her eyes. The only thing that would get her attention now was a good fight. Hackort thought back to meeting Elysiam and the many long nights they had in the cells in the dungeons, plotting their escape from the dark elves that held them prisoner. She was there already when he arrived, and he found it tough to reconcile the Elysiam that was before him now with the wide-eyed, nearly feral wood elf druid he had met in the dingy, dripping dungeons. Even then, though, he had seen flickers of the warrior she had become.
She had surpassed her training with a fierceness that had almost been her undoing among her kin in Aynamaede. Only Gin had taken her as she was, and dared to journey out to explore Orana alongside Elysiam, in spite of what it meant for her reputation in the tree city that was their home. Gin probably did not have much to go home to now that she was a known associate of both Elysiam and Sathlir, the Bane of the Forest. Hackort’s mouth pressed into a thin line as he fused his will with his axe in readiness to protect Elysiam…and the rest of the group.
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