by Logan Jacobs
“Ahhh!” the elven woman screamed next to me as her face caught most of the priest’s blood.
“Elf,” I removed my blade from the priest’s neck and stepped over to her, “look at me.”
“P-p-please,” she whimpered as she curled into a ball at my feet.
“What should I do with you?” I whispered as I knelt next to her, and the smell of her powdered perfume invaded my nose.
I debated if I should let her live to tell the Elven Guard another elf was responsible or if I should just kill her. I just needed to ensure that the elves would blame each other, but the wreckage from the magic blast alone should be enough to do just that.
“We’re waiting for you!” Skam shouted, and I looked behind my shoulder and saw the rope.
“I-I won’t tell anyone about you.” The elven woman convulsed like she was stuck in a snow storm as she glanced over to the dead priest.
“What would you say then?” I asked as I looked to the priest and then to the shattered room we were in.
Sure, she was afraid of me now, but would she become brave a few days later? Yeah, she probably would. She was an elf, and I couldn’t allow her elven pride to be my downfall like it would be theirs.
“I … I … ” The elven woman gripped onto my boots and sobbed. “Please.”
“Stop,” I breathed and took my mask off so she could see my real face. Killing her would be easier, anyway. “Is the prophet you spoke of human?”
“H-h-how, n-no …” Her lips quivered as she shut her eyes. “You can’t be.”
“I can’t be what?” I asked as I pierced my dagger into her gut and felt her warm blue blood soak my hand. “Human?”
I pushed her to her back as she gasped for air, and her ruby eyes turned black as she died.
Then I put on my mask again, sheathed my dagger, jogged over to the dangling rope, and held on tight as Skam began to pull me up toward the window.
“The others have already started their journey down,” Skam said in between grunts. “I’ve seen no human do what you’ve just done.”
“Neither have I,” I said as I gripped onto the window and pulled myself up on the ledge next to the burly dwarf. “Time to get off this building.”
“Aye,” the dwarf eyed me as if I had a third arm, “the hearse is waiting for us just below there.”
I followed the dwarf’s finger and saw the black wagon hidden in between some trees near the pyramid.
“No one saw you or Penny?” I asked as we shimmied along the window’s edge until we had to sit and drop to the next one.
“No one,” Skam chuckled. “Let’s go a little further to the corner of the structure. It’s designed like a staircase.”
“Oh, perfect.” I followed the dwarf along the slanted rim of the building until we reached the corner where steps were carved within it. “There’re the others.”
“Aye, they’ve made it down.” Skam went first as we took a few steps at a time to increase our speed.
“Almost there.” I panted as we jumped off the last step and back onto the ground. “Couldn’t have done this without you.”
“I think we can all say the same about you, lad.” Skam glanced over his shoulder as we ran toward the wagon.
“C’mon!” Penny sat in the front, and she waved at us as the others climbed into the back like before.
“Thanks for waiting,” I said with a smirk.
“Yeah, well thanks for catching a molten magic fire blast,” Penny scoffed. “How da fuck you know how to do that?”
“I have no idea,” I muttered as I slid into the back of the hearse and shut the two doors. Inside the carriage was dark, but not like the death chamber. I could hear everyone panting out of breath and sense their eyes on me.
“What do you think is in it?” Dar asked and tapped the chest in the middle of the carriage.
“We’ll find out soon enough,” I said as I sat next to Cimarra’s shadow. Then I pulled off my mask and tossed it next to the chest. “I can’t believe that just happened.”
“You have some explaining to do,” Ava said from across from me.
“I don’t know what to say,” I muttered and rubbed the back of my neck, “except that we did it.”
“That we did,” Cimarra echoed as she clung onto me.
“How is everyone?” I asked.
“Everyone is fine,” Dar said. “How’re your hands?”
“My hands?” I asked with a frown.
“Yeah, I mean,” Dar cleared his throat, “you caught a fucking magic blast, man.”
Selius laughed next to me and punched me in the arm.
“I’m fine,” I said as I searched my hands for any wounds, but found nothing.
“What does this mean?” Cimarra pondered.
“Listen,” I began, “I don’t have any answers, but as I said before, we did it. And we managed to give the Empire another massive middle finger on top of it all.”
I spent the next few moments sharing that the dead priests and the wreckage from the blast would cause the Elven Guard some trouble.
“They won’t know what to think or believe.” Ava nodded in approval.
“Exactly,” I said and extended my hand out to her. “We have a full-time position with your name on it.”
“I … I can’t promise anything yet,” she said as she looked away. “My guild will … ”
“I understand.” I smirked and gripped Cimarra’s hand tighter.
Then, for the rest of the ride, Selius told his version of the events that we all just witnessed. His version was a little over dramatic in how the elven priest was going to eat his head before I stabbed him, one hundred times to be exact.
Our wagon eventually slowed and stopped when we arrived at the stables.
“I wonder what’s inside?” Selius mused for what seemed like the millionth time.
“Skam wants to know where he should park this,” Penny said as she opened the doors for us.
“Leave it,” the dancer answered. “If the count asks, I’ll handle it.”
“Now, let’s open this fucking thing,” Penny said as her green eyes focused on the chest.
“Aye,” Skam agreed and jumped down from the driver’s seat.
“Here,” I said and shoved the chest to the edge of the wagon.
“Got it,” Dar replied as he swallowed the chest into his arms and scurried inside of the stables like it was a present on his birthday waiting to be opened.
I stepped down from the wagon with Ava waiting to walk in with me.
“What I wanted to say before is I’ll need to bring back answers to my guild leader,” she said as she lowered her hood. “The fact that you’re all still alive will come back to him along with the killings that just happened in the Elf District.”
“I see,” I sighed.
“It’s not as easy for me to leave.” Ava lowered her head. “They’d hunt me and us down for the rest of our lives, Wade.”
“We’d kill them all,” I said reassuringly.
“I just broke so many of our rules,” Ava breathed deeply, “including our most important code many times over.”
“It’s not your code to live by anymore,” I suggested.
“Either way,” Ava sighed, “I’ll need answers.”
“Hurry it up!” Selius waved us closer from the stable door.
“Let’s open this chest up first,” I said with a grin. “Then we can figure something out, okay?”
“And you can give me my payment.” Ava smirked as she looked at me.
“Can’t forget that, either.” I nodded.
Then I walked inside the stables to see everyone’s eager faces.
“Open it, Wade,” Selius demanded again and bounced on his toes.
“I’m going,” I chuckled as I moved to where I kept the magic keys. “Which one do I use?”
The seven colored keys glistened back at me in their respective slots inside the chest. I remembered the green one was supposed to open one of the more po
werful elven artifacts in the realm, but I wasn’t even sure if that was true or not.
Pick the one that feels right, Wade.
I reached in and hovered my fingers over the keys until my hand clenched over one of them. Then I pulled that key out for everyone to see.
“Ohh, it’s purple,” Selius gasped overdramatically.
“What if it’s dark magic?” Dar asked as he lit his pipe. “Why would the elves hide this along with the painting they sold off to Eleran?”
“Only one way to find out, right?” I shrugged, knelt down next to the second chest, inserted the purple key, and it clicked open.
Then the key disintegrated into sparkling dust on my palm.
“What is it?” Selius asked as he knelt next to me while I lifted the creaking wooden lid.
“I-It’s a flower?” I secured the lid open and observed a long-stemmed purple flower that was yellow inside and speckled with white and purple pedals. The flower just sat in the chest as if someone laid it there and forgot all about it. “How is it still alive?”
“A fucking flower that doesn’t die?” Dar scoffed and threw his hands up in the air. “We break into an elven temple for a--”
“Are those seeds, too?” Cimarra interrupted the frustrated halfling as she leaned over and pointed. “And what’s that in the corner?”
“Yeah, seeds and … ” I said as I picked up the few seeds in my palm and a shard of paper in the corner. “The paper has a name written on it.”
“What name?” Dar asked.
“Grod … ” I tilted the paper to try to see the handwriting, “Grodmick?”
“Grodmick Opalstone?” Skam wondered as he squinted at the paper in my hand.
“Yeah, that’s the guy,” I said and looked to the dwarf, who became excited.
“That’s a famous dwarven artist,” Skam explained. “He’s famous for not only paintings but the architecture you see in the Dwarf District.”
“Is he alive?” I asked.
“No, no, lad,” Skam chuckled, “he’s been dead for hundreds of years.”
“Well … ” I nodded as an idea began to take form in my mind, “maybe we get our feet wet in some dwarven art next?”
“Where do we even begin?” Dar shook his head as he puffed on his pipe.
“I don’t know,” I breathed. “And what about the flower?”
“It’s not just a flower,” Ava sighed, “and I’d put those seeds down if I were you.”
“Why?” I listened and dropped the seeds back into the chest.
“That’s the forbidden nightshade,” Ava answered, and her eyes focused on the plant.
“It’s beautiful,” Penny whispered as she became entranced by the colorful flower.
“And deadly,” Ava added as she looked at the flower like it was about to kill her.
“How?” I asked.
“Even just breathing in the scent for too long can kill you,” Ava said. “This was an assassin’s staple for killing high profile targets.”
“No wonder it’s forbidden,” Selius laughed nervously.
“The elves destroyed them out of fear of assassination attempts on their leaders during a rebellion,” Ava explained as she gestured toward the chest. “Apparently, they didn’t get them all.”
“Maybe this is the answer you need,” I glanced to Ava, whose eyes searched mine, “and something we can put to some good use.”
“Maybe … ” Ava nodded.
“We should pay your guild leader a visit soon,” I said with a grin as I picked up the deadly flower and handed it to the assassin. “I think we can come to an understanding.”
Even if we didn’t, then we’d make him, and anyone else who stood in our way, understand there was a new power rising in the realm. It was a power I couldn’t grasp fully yet. But all I knew was that no guild, race, or magic would get in our way.
Until death claims us.
End of book 2
End Notes
Thanks for reading Skulduggery 2! I’ll start working on book 3 when this hits 100 reviews, so please leave me a nice review here. Thank you!
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Copyright © 2019 by Logan Jacobs
