As he stumbled to his feet, the guard glared at Milea and spat, “You're gonna pay for that, you bitch.”
The guard recovered quickly and shot up, then charged at her. She attempted to land another blow to his throat, but he caught her arm and twisted it aside, then wrapped his other arm around her neck.
“Now then,” he said, “we're going to have a little fun.”
“Oh no we're not,” Milea replied. She balled her free hand into a fist, swung it downwards, and grinned with satisfaction as it made contact with his groin.
The guard released his grip and fell to his knees with both hands clutching his injured crotch. Milea kicked again, this time hitting his jaw. She heard the snap of the bone being separated from his skull as he flew onto his back on the dirt.
With her attacker dispatched and lying helpless, Milea snatched the set of keys from his belt and kicked him in the ribs one last time before heading for the door. She locked the cell door behind her and made her way out of the prison.
Fortunately that guard was the only one keeping an eye on the prison, so whatever had been going on outside was pretty big to have taken up all their attention. Milea was even able to find her gear in a chest in the evidence room near the dungeon without running into any trouble. She was dismayed to find that her dagger wasn't in the chest with the rest of her weapons, but she assumed as much. With a heavy sigh, she determined that this precious heirloom simply wasn't worth getting caught again to steal back, and she could even almost hear her father telling her that she'd been stupid to waste her life over a worthless hunk of metal.
With her bow, quiver, and sword back in their respective places, Milea made her way to the first floor of the castle to try and find her way out, aside from walking out the front door. She saw very few guards patrolling the corridors, and those she did see were shouting orders to one another and two busy to look or listen for intruders. This of course made sneaking past them much easier, but it still didn't give Milea any clues as to where the exit might be.
Just as she heard a set of footsteps coming around a corner, Milea darted into the nearest door to hide. She ducked behind the door after shutting it tight and waited until the footsteps trailed down the corridor. She allowed herself to breathe and was just about to sneak out again when she realized she had somehow made her way into an office or study of some kind. Papers and maps were displayed on a board in the corner, with even more sprawled out on the desk nearby. She knew she wouldn't get another opportunity like this, so she made her way to the desk in an attempt to find information.
Milea didn't have to look for long before she found a letter from Alastor's general, which read:
My Lord,
We have done as you ordered and we have stationed troops near the border of Ironbarrow. Once you give the word, my men will attack the city and move on to Whitspire, Virland, and Rivershire from there.
General Mallux
Milea's heart sank. She quickly folded up the letter and stored it in her vest. She was about to leave when something else on the floor caught her eye. She picked it up to read its contents, and two words on the paper stuck out to her and struck her heart with dread.
It was a letter from Jin, which read:
Alastor,
You may move along with your plans to take Fellen, and once you are on the throne, I expect you to keep your end of the deal and help up to locate the key to the Crystal Wood.
The Serpent.
The key to the Crystal Wood. Though the name of Milea's former home was enough to send chills down her spine, the item known only as the “key” to the Crystal Wood stood out most of all, and it didn't take her long to form the truth in her mind: whatever this key was, it was almost certainly the Elvish artifact that Jin had been seeking.
Milea pocketed this letter and was just about to leave the study when she heard more footsteps, followed by voices just outside the door.
Milea ducked behind the door and listened as at least two people stopped in front of it. She readied herself in case they decided to barge through the door, but it thankfully never opened.
“He was in the garden when they first spotted him,” one of the guards said. “Reinforcements found the door to the storage area kicked down, so they think he's somewhere in the castle.”
“Kicked down?” the other man said incredulously. “Surely that would have attracted more attention than finding a hiding place?”
Milea froze. Surely no ordinary man could have accomplished such a feat. Could it be that...
“He probably didn't have enough time. The garden is almost on top of the courtyard, so it's a safe bet that once he was confronted by the first guard, he attracted the attention of the others,” the first guard pointed out. “On top of that, one of the men he injured before running off said he caught a glimpse under the thug's hood, and he swears that he had white hair.”
Milea heaved a sigh of relief knowing that Varg was alive, but she vowed to knock some sense into him for making such a scene and risking capture, if they managed to get out of the castle alive, that is.
“You don't think...” the second guard muttered, “it's him, do you?”
Milea could almost hear the first guard scowling as he said, “If it is, he's more foolish than we gave him credit for. All I hear are stories about how he single handedly fought and defeated the Serpent, and yet he's willing to rush blindly into enemy territory? Madness!”
“I hear we've got his elf friend in the dungeon,” the second guard said. “I'll bet he's here for her.”
“Well then, we'll have to make sure he doesn't get to her,” the first guard said. “Now come on, we're soldiers, not some petty skirmishers.”
Milea waited for their footsteps to fade down the corridor. She then exited the study and darted off down the corridor, following the noise of the guards as she went.
CHAPTER 5
Varg made his way through the storage area and the corridor that led down to the dungeon just as the guard had told him. He had enough time to make it to the dungeon door before any of the other guards came running, and he slipped inside when he discovered that it wasn't locked. This came as a shock, but he put it out of his mind and made his way inside, careful to close the door silently behind him.
The room he was in consisted of a single room with another door just across from him, but the room itself had a desk off to the side with a large board covered with bounty posters directly behind it. There were also a few shelves and weapon racks, but also a chest off to the side that was sitting open and empty. It struck him as odd, but he once again ignored his curiosity and headed for the door.
Upon opening the door, Varg peered inside and he didn't see anything other than the line of cells along the wall to the left. His eyes darted through the dark, and then he leaned inside and called out, “Milea?”
When he didn't hear a response, or even any movement, Varg took a couple of steps inside and whispered a bit louder, “Milea.”
After a minute, he still couldn't hear anything, but as soon as he continued walking towards the cells, he heard moaning coming from the first one, but he could immediately tell it was a man.
Varg picked up his pace and examined the dark cell. To his surprise, he saw whom he assumed was the jailer lying on the ground in the cell. He soon realized this was Milea's work and a smile spread over his face. After a quick check, he found that all the other cells were empty and that she likely already made her escape.
As Varg hobbled his way out of the dungeon, he suddenly heard rushed footsteps from the floor above him. Not a second sooner, several Eastwold guards appeared in the doorway to the stairwell.
“It's him! It's the intruder!”
The first line of guards lashed out, but Varg was ready. He swung his nicked sword up and met the first round of blows one at a time, then shoved the men backwards with the momentum of his counter swings. The men tumbled backwards and in turn, caused the lines of guards behind them to be knocked down as well.
The guard tensed up when he saw Varg and yelled, “He's here! The intruder is in here!”
Out of pure instinct, Varg shot his free hands towards the guard and sent a flurry of icicles his way. He jumped aside, narrowly avoiding the frozen assault. Varg cursed himself, for he knew that it would only be a matter of time before word of that display would reach the other guards, and it would only be a matter of time before they knew that their intruder was none other than the White Wolf.
Varg had no choice. He threw open the door to the basement and trotted down the stairs. It went down one flight before opening into a small hallway, then the lit basement. Almost immediately upon entering, Varg could see enormous barrels of mead, brandy, and beer that were taller than he was, and an entire wall lined with wine racks, and not a single slot was without a fine bottle of wine sitting in its recess. A tall stack of barrels stood near the opening, with an area behind it with a few crates lined up against the wall. The rest of the large room was stacked with various crates, barrels, and shelves full of food and other supplies.
Varg shot across the room, looking for a place to make his stand. He saw it in the corner opposite from where he had entered. He raced over and stood with his back facing the corner, then cast aside his cloak. His last step was to draw Frost Fang from its place on his back and hold it out in front of him, bracing himself for the storm that was about to come.
The seconds ticked by painfully slow, but Varg was starting to think that it was the pain catching up to him after settling down. But then he realized that the pain wasn't coming from his limbs, or his ribs, or even his head. As the sound of hurried boots scraping the stone at the top of the stairs moved closer and closer to him, Varg could feel a pain striking his very core. It tore through his very being, sending him into a state of blind fury. Even as the guards poured into the basement, with dozens of men blocking his only exit and his only path to Milea, he stood tall and strong as the mountain he found his axe, where he paid penance for his wrongdoings for ten long, lonely years.
Frost Fang hummed in his grip as he stood before the group of guards, ready to fight to the death if that's what it took. He let out a low growl under his breath, and the pain he felt turned into fury. His heart pounded, his muscles felt bigger, and a cold sweat formed at his brow. He heard his heartbeat through his ears, then several, and he soon realized that he could actually hear each guard's beating heart as his blood raced to the thought of ripping it from their bodies. The sound left his ears as he felt his body starting to change...
“Kill him!” one of the men shouted, and then every one of them charged forward before Varg could react.
However, before they made it far, the stack of barrels behind them came tumbling down on top of them. Seconds later, all the guards were on the floor and the barrels lay scattered across their backs. Some had even shattered, spilling liquid all over them and the floor. In the mess that followed, the guards were completely disoriented and Varg was so distracted that he almost didn't see the woman with wine red hair standing right behind where the barrels once were. Even when he did, it didn't fully register in his head until she spoke.
“Varg!” Milea said as she hopped over the bottom row of barrels and raced towards him. She went to embrace him, but instead she stopped, looked him over and cried out, “By Laelith, look at you. You're hurt.”
That was when the rush faded and the realization of Varg's condition came creeping back to him with a vengeance. All the running he'd done in the last five minutes had only made the problem worse, and it took everything he had to remain standing. His arms slacked under Frost Fang's weight and he would have dropped it had the blade end not hit the ground before it slipped out of his fingers. Varg hunched over, ashamed of his weakness even in front of Milea, and he gasped for breath as Milea put her hands on his shoulders.
“Don't move,” she whispered. “I'm going to have to tend to your wounds.”
A collective moan from behind her gave them both cause to look and see that a few of the guards were already starting to recover from the chaos. Varg tried to think of a plan until something caught his eye. The liquid that had crashed to the floor from the barrels was now beginning to collect into a puddle and travel to the edge of the room. He noticed that the direction it traveled sloped downward very slightly, and the area was lower set than the rest of the basement. Varg went over to the area where the liquid was escaping and in between two of the large barrels, there was a sewer grate in the floor where the liquid was starting to pour into.
Varg pointed to the grate and said, “All these grates lead outside of the city into the creek. We can make our escape that way.”
He then made his way to the grate, bent over, and grabbed a bar with each hand. He tried to lift it, but his ribs and back screamed in protest. As he gasped from the pain, Milea rushed over and took the other side, mimicking the way he grabbed it.
“On three,” Milea said. “One, two, three.”
With enough effort, the grate popped up from its place. They placed it on the floor off to the side and peered down into the dark.
It wasn't that far of a drop as far as Varg could tell. As the light from the basement poured into the area below, they could see a tunnel and at the bottom was cloudy water which, judging by the smell, was full of sewage. Though it certainly wasn't the most glamorous escape, it was their only option at the moment.
“You go first,” Varg said to Milea. “And hurry.”
Milea nodded, then in one quick motion she leaped over the edge and dropped down effortlessly. Varg heard the scuffling of guards trying to climb to their feet behind him, so he braced himself and dropped down next, careful to put his good foot out first. He landed without hurting it, but was caught off balance upon hitting the water and nearly tumbled face first into the ankle deep grime. Luckily, and with some help from Milea, he caught his footing before that happened.
They then looked up to the opening from the basement as they heard the guards starting to scramble to their feet.
“If they follow us, we're done for,” Milea said.
Without another word, Varg reached up and sprayed an icy mist along the edges of the grate entrance. A thick layer of ice formed wherever the mist touched, and Varg kept going until the edges met, then he kept layering more rows of ice in a spiral motion until the center was closed up. He lowered his hand an examined the wall of ice at least four inches thick that covered the hole, and to his delight a guard soon tested it with his foot and couldn't budge it.
Varg looked at Milea and said, “That aught to do it. Now let's get out of this city and get back to Ironbarrow.”
“Right behind you,” she replied.
They traveled through the slimy water as the noise from the castle died down behind them. They could hear the echo of the guards trying to pick their way through the ice with the sword. By the time it would take them to get through the frozen barrier, however, Varg and Milea would be long gone.
As they continued on, the tunnel branched off into other directions, which Varg guessed was because they were coming from other locations throughout the city. This was confirmed when he happened to glance down towards one that had another grate at the top with a dull moonlight coming through it. The path ahead of them was too dark to see what was further down, so they had little choice but to keep going and see if they could find a way out.
“So tell me,” Milea suddenly said over the sound of their feet sloshing through the sewer water, “what makes you think that this will lead outside of the city?”
“Most cities have this same sewer system, at least as far as Fellen and the kingdoms nearby,” Varg explained. “I've chased plenty
of criminals through sewers to know that its often the best escape route out of a city.”
He suddenly stopped and winced when he stepped on his injured ankle the wrong way. As he hunched over, Milea placed her hand on his back and said, “It's all right, Varg. Just take your time.”
“We don't have time to take,” Varg said with a gasp. “At this rate, the guards will find and surround us before we can make it out of the sewer. Just go on without me and get back to Ironbarrow to warn Conley. I'll find a way out of Eastwold later and get back to you, I promise.”
Milea suddenly straightened up and said, “Out of the question. We either both get out, or neither of us do.” She reached her arm around his waist, then placed his arm around her shoulders. She straightened up so that they were both standing upright and then said, “Now let's go.”
Varg huffed and walked forward with Milea's support. The latter moved towards the dim starlight ahead as the former did his best to keep up. Before long they came across an opening that led outside to a small stream. Nothing was blocking it, which was convenient for them, and they steadily made their way to the timberline of the surrounding forest.
“Almost there,” Milea assured.
The moment they reached the shadows, Varg finally allowed himself to breathe. They still moved along in the protective cloak of the forest until they could no longer see the lights from Eastwold in the distance. Once they were certain they wouldn't be spotted, Milea lit a small campfire and took a sleeping sack out of their bag, then helped Varg over to the sack and lay him down while she started to undress him. He winced as she removed his vest, boots, and other major garments to examine his wounds. She then got to work with her healing magic to ease his pain.
The Crystal Wood (Half-Breed Book 2) Page 5
