by Joe Jackson
“That’s a handy trick,” Kari said. “Maelstrom teach you that?”
Sonja shook her head. “Aeligos did.”
That came as a surprise. Only Sonja had spent any time practicing the arcane arts during the voyage, so Kari expected she was the only one who could. Then again, she thought, if Eryn had used the arcane arts to disguise herself, it wasn’t at all surprising that Aeligos knew a bit of the arts himself. “I had no idea he practices magic,” she commented.
“Only a little,” Sonja returned. “Just practical things that help with his espionage.”
Kari nodded and gestured for her friend to wait while she crawled forward slowly. She ignored the feeling of the muck on her hands and approached the corpse cautiously. She looked for any sign on the walls or ceiling that might indicate what killed him. The walls near the body were smooth-cut stone, and she saw no holes that might suggest mechanical traps, so she examined the ceiling, keeping Sonja’s words in mind, and saw nothing on the smooth stone above that would suggest any sort of mechanical trap, either. Finally, she moved up next to the body, and the first thing she noticed was the buildup of waste against his back, which faced farther up the tunnel. She looked to his faded eyes and surmised that he’d been dead for several days, and she gave him only a cursory examination as she suspected what had killed him. Kari beckoned for Sonja to approach, and she looked farther up the tunnel before turning her attention fully to her friend.
“I think he might’ve tried to escape this way, and poisoned himself to avoid capture when he realized he was trapped,” Kari whispered. “I don’t see any wounds, and the muck piled up against him says he’s been down here a while. They probably didn’t bother following him, figuring he’d have to come back out or they’d kill him when he came out of the pipe.”
Sonja nodded. After offering a silent prayer for the fallen scout, the two continued along. Soon they came to a point where there was a hole in the ceiling, though it wasn’t wide enough to climb up. They didn’t remain underneath it for long, as Kari quickly realized what it was for, and they made their way farther up the tunnel, which began to shrink in size. They passed several more holes in the ceiling, until they finally came to a wall marking the end of the tunnel. The wall was wet and smelled of urine and worse, and even as they stared at it, a small amount of sewage trickled down its face. The ceiling was cut away, leaving barely enough room to climb up, and Kari looked at her friend. Kari held her hands cupped before her, and Sonja stepped within them, reached up, and grabbed the top lip of the wall, which – as they expected – turned out to be a dam of sorts. Once Sonja had a firm grip, she nodded down at Kari, and the terra-dracon woman climbed deftly up her friend’s side until she could grasp the lip of the wall.
They pulled themselves up at the same time and glanced into the dungeon. Before them was a small rivulet of water mixed with the waste from the dungeon cells: the water apparently ran over the wall when the level reached a certain point. The dungeon didn’t appear extensive, as though it were only a small part of the lower level, and from their vantage point Kari could see a door which led out, and six cells, three to a side. A lone guard sat in a chair with his feet up on a table, and over the sound of dripping water, Kari could hear the soft drone of a sleeping rir.
Kari motioned with her eyes for Sonja to stay put, and the larger woman nodded and braced her back and wings against the wall behind her to take some of the strain off of her arms. Kari pulled herself up silently and slipped into the cold and disgusting water before them without a sound. Kari regarded the cells around the room for a moment: only one of them was occupied, and the person laying within was still and silent. Kari moved farther out and stepped lightly and silently from the water onto the drier cut stones of the dungeon floor. She crept on her toes toward the guard, and after what seemed an entire painstaking minute, Kari gripped the sleeping man’s chin and the back of his head and snapped his neck effortlessly. She grabbed the corpse and turned his chair so the body would lie up against the wall without sliding to the floor.
Kari beckoned Sonja to join her, and her friend hoisted herself up and approached as quietly as she could. “Watch the door a moment,” Kari whispered. Sonja muttered a quiet incantation, and a massive two-handed sword appeared in her outstretched hands. Kari nodded, impressed, and made her way over to the occupied prison cell.
Kari examined the lock for only a moment before she returned to the guard’s corpse and rifled through his pockets for the key. Once she unlocked the cell door, she approached the girl slowly and noted that her eyes were slightly open but glazed over. The girl was gaunt, as if she had scarcely eaten in weeks, she was lying in her own filth, and were it not for the pool of saliva gathering under her face, Kari would have suspected she was dead. Kari grimaced and wondered what had prompted the general to do such a thing to a pretty young woman. She continued to examine the prisoner. A touch to the girl’s smooth neck proved that she was quite alive: her skin was cool but not deathly cold, and Kari could feel a weak but steady pulse. She brushed the young girl’s fluorescent green hair back from her face and gave her a gentle shake, but there was no response. Kari peeled back one of the girl’s eyelids and her blue eyes were dilated and didn’t appear to be focused on anything. For a moment Kari wished Grakin was there.
She examined the shackles about the girl’s wrists, ankles, and neck, and recalled what Erik said about the girl being magically subdued. She tried the cell key on the shackles to no effect. “Sonja!” Kari rasped, trying to get the woman’s attention without yelling for fear there were other guards outside the door.
“What is it? Oh, gods,” Sonja said as she approached and saw the state the girl was in. “What did they do to you, sweetie?”
“These shackles are probably magical, do you think you can get them off?” the terra-dracon woman asked.
Sonja shook her head. “I don’t have any spells of that sort yet,” she said. “If she were trapped behind a dampening field or something, I could bring it down, but I don’t have anything that would break locks. Usually we rely on Aeligos to take care of this sort of thing.”
Kari patted her friend on the shoulder; she didn’t want to give Sonja the impression that she wished someone else was with her. Kari moved over to the guard’s table and found there were utensils left behind from his evening meal. She grabbed them up quickly and rushed back to the cell. Sonja regarded her curiously, and Kari smiled grimly. “You pick up a few things when you live on the streets,” she said. “Keep watching the door, it’ll take me a few minutes to impro…eh, make lock picks out of these. I should be able to get her out of these.”
Sonja nodded and returned to the doorway. Kari had only been working for a few moments when Sonja returned. “It doesn’t sound like they’re coming this way, but I hear voices out there,” she said. “Work as quickly as you can.”
Kari nodded but said nothing. She worked deftly, bending the outer tines of the fork to specific angles, and she used a seam in the stone wall to bend the knife’s blade slowly without breaking it. She moved to the other side of the cell so she could see Sonja, and every so often she would look up to see if the scarlet-haired woman heard anyone approaching. Once she had her improvised tools, Kari began trying to pick the locking mechanisms of the shackles. She moved slowly to make sure she didn’t break them: she knew she would get no second chance. Her eyes widened in shocked joy as the first of the five locks popped open, and when she held up a single finger to Sonja, the scarlet-haired woman smiled. Kari moved on to the second and checked the girl’s eyes for any sign of life, but she guessed whatever magic the shackles held would not be broken until she’d gotten several or all of them open. Biting her lower lip in concentration, Kari set to her task once more.
“Kari,” Sonja called softly.
Without hesitation the terra-dracon woman put down her improvised picks, drew her swords, and moved toward the wall beside the door. She could hear footsteps coming down the stairs, and Kari motioned for So
nja to wait for her lead. A single terra-rir male came through the door and chuckled. He nudged the “sleeping” jailor, but he backed up a step in shock when his companion’s head flopped limply to the side. He spun around and came face to face with Kari, and she drove her scimitars up and under his ribs, puncturing both lungs and leaving the man without an ounce of air to even groan with. She drove him backwards and into one of the empty cells, and she worked to lay the body down as quietly as possible. When she turned around, Sonja was staring at her, clearly surprised by the brutality of the kill.
“Do you have any spells that make noise, maybe sound like people talking?” Kari asked her quietly. “If there’s others out there but they hear voices, they might think the guards are chatting. Otherwise, they might wonder why the relieved guard isn’t coming out.”
Sonja snapped free of whatever she was thinking. “I’ll see what I can manage,” she said, and she closed her eyes to concentrate.
Kari returned to the kirelas-rir girl and took up her improvised tools. The second wrist-shackle popped off after only a minute, but when Kari looked at the neck and ankle locks, she realized they were different and would probably prove more difficult. Suddenly she heard the soft murmur of voices from outside the cell, and she took up her blades and prepared for battle. She saw only Sonja, and she realized her friend must have thought of an appropriate spell.
She began working on the locks again, and to her elation, the ankle locks popped open even more easily than the wrist locks, but the girl still showed no sign of coherence. With grim determination, Kari swept the girl’s hair to the side and began working on the neckpiece. Sonja backed over near the cell after a minute and Kari looked up, but Sonja motioned that she heard no other sounds from outside. With a nod, Kari set back to her task, and after several more minutes the final lock popped open.
She started to give the kirelas-rir girl a shake, but as soon as her hand touched the girl’s shoulder, Kari’s brain caught fire. She stumbled back out of the cell clutching her temples, and she was only just coherent enough to notice that Sonja was likewise affected. Kari fell to her knees in excruciating pain, and the shattering of her mind was worse than when she fought Ressallk. The depths of unconsciousness threatened to overtake her, but she fought the urge to scream, knowing that whatever happened, they could not alert the guards or all would be lost.
*~*~*~*
“What is this?” barked one of the men when Erik stepped in through the doorway holding his blades. There were five terra-rir males in the room: two who appeared to be guards, two others dressed in intricately etched plate mail, and the fifth apparently the general himself. The general was dressed in a light-looking suit of armor with a crimson cloak draped over it, and he drew a pair of longswords as Aeligos and the others stepped in behind Erik. Soon four faced five, all had their weapons drawn, and they glared at each other for a moment before anyone moved.
“Intruders! Intruders in the castle!” one of the guards yelled.
“I am Erijinkor Tesconis, Demonhunter of Zalkar, and by his authority I have come to remove you from power, Braxus Gaswell,” Erik said. “Stand down, and you and your men will be spared. Offer resistance and I have the authority to kill every last one of you.”
“Boldly spoken, demonhunter, but do you have any idea what you face? Your army is in the process of being crushed by my underworld friends, and you fools have walked right into Emma’s trap!” Gaswell said.
“He’s bluffing,” Aeligos whispered to Erik.
“If I were you, I’d be more worried about the trap you just walked into, Gaswell,” Erik snarled, and he approached their enemies.
“Their god holds no power on this island! Take them alive, my brothers; we don’t know if Emma’s trinket is among them!” Gaswell yelled. His guards rushed to the attack, and his two lieutenants moved forward after the briefest of delays. The guards carried longswords but didn’t have their shields with them. Each of the lieutenants wielded a longsword. Gaswell backed up behind his men and watched for an opportunity to join the fray.
Erik twirled his swords and beckoned for the lieutenants to come for him, and then he nodded his head toward the general. “Watch the corners, don’t let them pin you! Katarina, the door; Aeligos with me!” he barked, and the rogue stalked around his brother’s left side.
The room wasn’t very large, and Aeligos and his companions worked to keep their enemies before them to prevent being flanked or allowing anyone to escape to find more guards. One of Gaswell’s lieutenants engaged Erik, but the other moved along with one of the guards to engage the obviously young and inexperienced human to his right. Erik distracted the officer before him with a quick one-two combination and the strength of his blows clearly surprised the rir, but even as his longsword was parried, Erik turned it over in his hand and stabbed it backward at the lieutenant who had engaged Sherman.
Sherman backed up initially, but once Erik’s attack drew the lieutenant’s attention away, he swung his two-handed blade with a mighty chop. He surprised the guard, who expected him to take advantage of the lieutenant’s distraction: the human kept his eyes on the lieutenant but swung for the guard, a trick Serenjols taught him and made him practice extensively during their long boat trip. The guard tried to thrust under Sherman’s swing, but was shocked to find the greatsword descending for him and not his officer, and he collapsed in a heap, slammed with a crushing blow.
Erik executed a cross-pattern attack routine, something he had seen Kari do several times in practice, and he finished with a reckless spinning double-chop. It had looked impressive when Kari did it as part of her routine, and he expected the two lieutenants wouldn’t know what to make of it. He was correct in his assumption: both were forced back a couple of steps and he came back to his ready position before them. He marked each with a baleful glare and stalked forward slowly to re-engage.
Aeligos blocked a swing from the guard on Erik’s left, and he pushed the blade high and attempted to trip the man, going down to one hand and foot to sweep across with his other leg. The guard stumbled but didn’t fall, but Aeligos followed him, not giving him even a moment to ready himself before burying him under a multitude of thrusts. The katars didn’t have an optimal reach for engaging in combat with longswords, but Aeligos wasn’t looking to kill his enemy, merely push him back and distract him. He spread his wings out suddenly to further distract the man, and then he turned and drove one of his katars deep in the side of the lieutenant beside him.
Working in tandem, Erik stabbed the same lieutenant Aeligos did, and ran the man through with his longsword. He continued his momentum, driving his longsword to push the man back, and Erik spun to bring his scimitar around and knock the thrust of the other lieutenant harmlessly wide. He drew his longsword from the gut of the dying one, but saw Sherman moving toward Gaswell. Erik shouted for the young human to wait.
Sherman didn’t even hesitate once the guard fell before him. He drove the tip of his massive blade through the belly of the man’s armor and then stepped over the corpse and brought the weapon up before him once more. He paid Erik’s warning shout little heed, but made his way for Gaswell, his features hardened into a scowl. “Fool!” he shouted. “May the Armored Shepherd take you by my hand!”
Aeligos crouched and spun to face the guard once more. He feigned a high lunge but instead rolled forward and kicked out the man’s leg. He brought his knee up to deflect the weight of the guard as he fell atop the rogue, and Aeligos wrapped his legs around the man. The guard’s sword clattered harmlessly to the floor, and Aeligos stabbed his katars in an alternating pattern up each of the man’s sides until silver blood flowed warm and thick over his hands and out of the guard’s mouth. The man was dead even before Aeligos rolled the corpse off of himself and got to his feet. He turned to see Katarina bringing her sword up to fend off a roving guard attacking her from the hallway, and Aeligos moved to help the young woman.
Sherman chopped at the general with a cleaving, overhead swing, but G
aswell deftly sidestepped and countered. He came in quickly with a combination of short swings and thrusts, and stabbed Sherman hard through the right shoulder. Sherman had never sparred with either Kari or Erik, and the quickness and deceptiveness of the general’s movements overwhelmed him. Sherman yelped in pain, backed up, and tried to lift his sword to attack, but the blade was too heavy with a wounded shoulder. He cast the blade aside and drew the longsword that he wore at his hip, thankful that Erik had impressed on him the need for a backup weapon, and Sherman tried to fend off the general with his good left arm. He was far from proficient with his left hand, however, and found himself under a flurry from the more experienced terra-rir male.
Erik tried to help Sherman, but the remaining lieutenant circled to keep himself between the demonhunter and the injured human. The lieutenant pressed his attack. He wasn’t much of a threat with his one blade against Erik’s two, but he executed a brilliant feint to draw Erik’s guard up on his left side, and with the half-demon’s weapon out of position, the lieutenant slid next to his companion’s corpse. He picked up the second longsword that belonged to his dead partner, and then he grinned and beckoned for Erik to attack once more.
“Coming through!” Aeligos yelled, and Katarina’s instincts took over: she hopped back a half step and threw an arcing chop at the guard in the doorway. She caught her swing before it dipped below her waist. The cut was wicked enough to push the guard back, and Aeligos slid through the doorway at their feet and came up on the guard’s side. Together the two pinned the guard in the doorway, but he was no green recruit: he accepted a stinging jab from one of Aeligos’ katars while he ducked into the room to avoid Katarina’s next attack.
Sherman slapped at the general’s taunting thrusts, but as Gaswell pushed in harder, the young man panicked. He attempted to strike off the general’s head, but Gaswell easily parried and twisted his blade around and under the human’s, and pulled it from his feeble grip. Sherman attempted to back up, but the general rewarded his bravery with a stab to his other shoulder, and then he hacked brutally at Sherman’s belly. The longsword tore through the chainmail, and Sherman screamed as he was nearly disemboweled. He grasped at the wound, fell to his back, and curled into a fetal position.
