The Grey Ghost: Book Two of the Archaic Ring Series

by Reed R. Stevens

  Nolan remained in front of the doorway. “Who are you?”

  “That’s none of your concern,” the man said. He stood with an impatient snarl and then gave a threatening glare. “All you need to know is that we’ve captured your friends, and if you want to see them again—”

  Nolan dashed forward and kicked in the man’s kneecap with a loud snap, grabbing a handful of hair as he buckled with surprise. He smashed his menacing face into the hardwood floor, which caved in from the force. Before the startled man could put up a struggle, Nolan produced the demonic fox tooth and gingerly pressed its tip against the man’s jugular vein.

  “You—how did you...?”

  “That’s none of your concern.” Nolan brought his lips up to the man’s ear. “All you need to know is that if you don’t answer my questions, well, you’ll wish you did.”

  Praying that the man wouldn’t make things more difficult than they had to be, Nolan put a bit of pressure on the fox tooth, drawing a line of blood at the neck.

  “You said you’ve captured my friends. Tell me, what do my friends look like?”

  “I’m not telling you shit!”

  Though it was at an awkward angle, Nolan stomped on the man’s right foot. He cried out in pain, but Nolan smothered his voice by shoving his head further into the splintered floor.

  “Nolan! Are you alright?” Jason’s worried words carried over from the hallway. “What’s going on in there?”

  “Go wait in the lobby.”

  A few moments passed in silence. “Are you sure?”

  “Just go, I’ll be down in a sec. Trust me.”

  He tracked Jason with his spiritual sense, only lightened the pressure on the back of the man’s head once the others were out of earshot.

  “I won’t ask again. What did my friends look like?” Using his right foot he pressed down on the man’s fractured ankle.

  “Ah!” He bucked like a frantic horse in an attempt to shake Nolan off. After wriggling around in futility for a few moments, he finally opened his mouth, which was smudged with blood from the cuts that the wood had clawed into his face. “Will you let me go if I answer your questions?”

  “My word.”

  “There were two people, a girl about your age and a big fellow that she kept calling ‘Brother.’ He was at least a head taller than me, hair a bit longer than mine, same colour. The girl was a looker, had black hair and eyes darker than I’ve ever seen.”

  Nolan felt a touch of dread. Nyla and Quin had been captured?

  “Who helped you capture my friends, and why?”

  “I…”

  Nolan kicked at the man’s other ankle. “Answer the question.”

  The man grunted from the pain of having his ankles hobbled. “We—we didn’t have a choice. A few days ago some powerful cultivators showed up at our camp and basically took control of the place. They’re searching for a youth at the fourth level of Body Nourishment, and they’re making us look for him.”

  “What did these men look like?”

  “They were all young, dressed quite p—plainly.” The man paused for a moment, struggled to subdue his pain. “We think they’re disciples of some foreign sect.”

  Nolan had only ever heard of a single sect, one that he had a history with. “How many were there? How strong were they?”

  “T—there were five of them. I’m not sure of their strength levels.” His face had grown pale and covered with sweat, his breathing rapid and heavy. “Our boss is at the second level of the Profound Entry stage, the same as their weakest man. Even Boss couldn’t sense their leader’s cultivation.”

  If he’s telling the truth, then the leader’s at least at the sixth level of Profound Entry. If that were the case then he stood a snowball’s chance in hell of rescuing Nyla and Quin. Even so, he couldn’t just abandon them. He couldn’t help but think of the supposed son of Greenwall’s city lord. Day in and day out he did his best to make due with life in this new world. Despite that, he was feeling more helpless by the hour.

  He glared at the whimpering bandit. “Why are they looking for me?”

  “They said you had a priceless treasure in your possession, some sort of bow! I forgot, okay?”

  They’re after the evernight bow? That couldn’t be right. If they’d captured Nyla then they should already have it. “What else?”

  “T—there’s nothing else.”

  He kicked at an injured ankle. “Tell me everything you know!”

  “I don’t know anymore, I swear it!” He broke out in a fit of hoarse coughs, his face now dangerously pale. “Ah, they’re burning—my eyes are burning! It hurts, it hurts!”

  A thin vein had appeared beneath the man’s left eye, a black tendril that grew more prominent by the second.

  Shit! Nolan moved the tip of the fox tooth away from the man’s throat. He’d cleaned the weapon quite thoroughly with a wet rag, but there must have been some residual poison on its point. He’d only wanted to injure the man and then leave him in the room, though something about the guy’s deathly pallor told him that this wasn’t in the cards.

  “Tell me where your camp is.”

  “Make it stop! Please, make it stop!”

  “If you tell me where your camp is, then I’ll give you the antidote.”

  “E-east of the city! Five leagues south of Broken Hill! The forest—” the man choked on his words. A few more black veins had appeared throughout his face and neck.

  “Are my friends at your camp?”

  “Yes!”

  “Is that where you were supposed to bring me?”

  “A-antidote…”

  “Were you supposed to lead me to your camp, or somewhere else?”

  “Else…”

  Foam spilled from the man’s mouth as his eyes rolled into the back of his head. Nolan didn’t have the heart to watch him spasm, so he snatched his coin purse and then rushed out of the room.

  Since the kidnappers hadn’t planned on bringing Nolan to their camp, it was highly likely that they didn’t intend to reunite him with his friends.

  If I’m actually gonna do something, then the sooner the better.

  Nolan’s heart was pumping so strongly that he had to stop on his way to the lobby and steady himself against a wall with a shaking hand. This was so abrupt. Was he going to die today? He could always flee with Jason and that girl to a safer location, though what sort of person would that make him?

  An odd buzz of warmth awoke within his heaving chest, and soon the soothing coolness had spread all throughout his body. What the…? This strange energy was coming from the stone ring within his chest. As soon as he zoned in on its source, the odd sensation disappeared like snowflakes on a warm hand.

  He felt an odd assurance that if he were to inject all of his energy into the ring right now then it would give off some sort of reaction. As far as he could tell, it was an intermediary that sent him to and from the glade, which meant that there was a chance that he could return. With how dense the Origin Energy of that place was, he might be able to increase his chances of saving his friends, even if only by a little bit.

  No, if I go there then I’ll still run out of time. That would be the same as dooming his friends to death. Even if time passed differently in glade, several days would still pass while he was gone.

  He pushed his mind to its full potential, thoughts flowing rapidly as he tried to think of the best approach to the situation.

  Entering the lobby, he spotted Jason and the girl at a far corner of the open room. Jason had bought her a bowl of soup and some bread slices, his eyes wary as they discreetly monitored the area.

  “Nolan, what was that about?”

  “We need to leave. I’ll tell you while we walk.”

  He led them out of the inn’s back entrance and out into the back alley, still trying to think of a way to deal with this mess.

  “Who was in our room?” Jason asked. “What the hell happened, man?”

  Nolan filled them in on what
had just transpired, though didn’t mention how he’d accidently killed the man.

  “This is crazy,” said Jason. “So this guy said that these five cultivators might be disciples from a sect. You think it’s them?”

  “Most likely.”

  They arrived at the main road of the southern district and hastily made their way toward the centre of the city. The girl peered at Nolan and Jason through her tangled hair, a wary look on her dirt-smudged face as she tried to get a hold of the situation. The roads were less crowded than they usually were around this time, even with the sudden influx of visitors for grand tournament. That could only mean that the spectacle had already begun.

  “I’ve got a feeling that the blond guy was someone important,” said Nolan, “or at least related to someone who is. I kind of got the feeling that he was in charge of the other guys, and his spatial bag had a lot more in it than the other one.”

  “They probably came here for revenge.” Jason pursed his lips and then inhaled deeply through his nose. “So, what do we do?”

  “You know that nice-looking inn with the blue sign, by the alchemy shop we’ve been going to?”

  “What about it?”

  “You guys head there.” He passed two spirit stones and a stack of golden cards over to Jason, who wore a complicated frown as he tossed them into his spatial bag. “I’ll do something about Nyla and Quin.”

  Jason grabbed Nolan’s arm and pulled him to a stop. “Nolan, even if you have all that gunpowder, you probably won’t even get the chance to use it. I don’t really understand how all these levels and stages work, but it’s easy to see that each breakthrough makes people a lot harder to deal with. I’ll bet all five of those guys are as strong as the blond guy, so what are you hoping to do by going after them?”

  “How could I not know that?” Nolan pulled his arm free and kept walking. “I said I’ll figure something out, so I’ll figure something out. Now stop psyching me out.”

  “Let me come with you.” Jason’s eyes contained a firm resolve. “I can’t do much, but you going alone is a bad idea.”

  “You need to look after her,” he nodded toward the girl. “Go to that inn and reserve it for three nights. If I’m not back by then, head for the nearest city on that map you bought the other day, the one we all agreed to head to after Greenwall.”

  Before Jason could say anything else, Nolan spun around and darted into a nearby alleyway. He couldn’t waste any more time trying to convince Jason, not when every passing second could mean life or death for their friends.

  Chapter Fourteen: Preemptive Strike

  Nolan slipped onto the main road a few minutes after he parted ways with Jason and the girl. He still wore the black cloak that he’d thrown on after leaving the slave auction, pulled the hood over his head and made for the east district with an erratic heartbeat.

  It was difficult to guess how effective the small casks and leather bags of gunpowder might be. The bags were tightly bound and contained around a kilo of the deadly powder, with at least five times that amount in each of the casks. He’d obviously never tested a gunpowder explosion on a real person before, but he had confidence that they’d work against even the stronger people of this world. The ingredients also contained a good deal of Origin Energy that they’d naturally absorbed over the years, though he was unsure if that would have an effect on the outcome.

  I’ll only have the element of surprise for the first move. After that they’ll know to look out for anything I throw at them.

  The surrounding people made way as a group of several dozen guards hurried passed, their plated mails jangling as they left a trail of heated discussions in their wake. Nolan stopped to listen in on some of the gossip.

  “Is something going on?” a young man asked a female stall owner.

  “Perhaps something happened at the grand tournament?”

  “I heard they captured a disciple of the Bloodhand Sect,” an elderly man leaned in. “Just a lad, committed suicide during his interrogation.”

  The young man spat on ground. “Serves him right. They know they’re not welcome here.”

  “If there’re any more within the city, I hope they’re captured soon.” The stall owner sounded uneasy.

  So it really was the Bloodhand Sect.

  The hateful reactions of the surrounding citizens gave him a burst of inspiration. He knew where the rest of the disciples were currently camped, so if he just informed the guards then it was likely that they’d take care of the rest. Would they believe him, though? When he thought about it, what credibility did he have as an individual?

  He was just a random kid with a relatively low cultivation. How could he have stumbled upon such a dangerous camp and then managed to get away unnoticed and unharmed?

  Should I tell them the truth? That the disciples are here for me?

  After thinking on it for a while, Nolan decided to report what he knew to the next guards he encountered. Going alone would probably mean certain death, in which case there’d be nobody left to tell the authorities where the camp was located. If things didn’t go smoothly then he could lose his chance at rescuing Nyla and Quin, but if the guards believed his words and the city lord decided to dispatch some men to check out the area, then there’d be a chance to save them.

  “I heard you the first time!”

  Nolan subconsciously glanced in the direction of the displeased shout. A well-dressed youth stood outside of a nearby building, a high class establishment just a few properties down from the city’s inner walls. Judging by its location, it should have been one of the top taverns of the business district.

  “Your father has ordered you to return to the palace until—”

  “As I will, once I’ve indulged in a few drinks.” The young man dipped a hand into his lavish white robes and withdrew a dazzling spirit stone from a hidden spatial bag. He tossed it to the man, who pocketed it without blinking. “I will deal with Father. Now, go inside and clear out all of the men, discreetly.”

  “Right away.”

  The man entered the building, followed closely by five others. The few that hung back were all around the same age, each dressed in lavish robes that were clearly meant to show off their wealth. The small group joked around with one another as they waited by the front entrance.

  Many bickering men began to trickle out of the smoothly varnished doors, some casting angry glares at the young nobles before going off to look for other places to drink.

  Nolan’s eyes narrowed as dormant fury was suddenly awoken. The handsome youth at the centre of the young nobles was none other than Dartan, son of the city lord.

  That smug smile forced Nolan to relive memories from the time that the young noble caused trouble and him and Nyla in that store. If the Chancellor hadn’t arrived to stop him, who knows what sort of torments would have awaited Nyla at the city lord’s palace? On top of that, he would never forget Dartan’s bloodthirsty expression as his uncle dragged him from the store as if he were a misbehaving child. He’d even drawn a line across his neck with a thumb on the way out, and mouthed the word ‘dead.’

  There weren’t many street vendors in this area of the business district, not so close to the heart of the city. Even so, Nolan found a small table near Dartan’s group where an old man was trying to convince two young women to buy some of the jewelry that he had on display. Several others idled around the stall, which Nolan quickly approached. He feigned interest in the products as he listened in on the conversation between Dartan and his friends.

  “Why do we have to miss the grand tournament just because you were turned down by a girl?” The speaker was a thin, brown-haired young man dressed in a stylish set of purple robes. “We can go out drinking any time.”

  The other two youths grew quiet, their group seized by an uncomfortable silence.

  Dartan ran a hand through his long hair, fiddled with an oaken strand as if his friend’s words were of no importance. “Don’t speak as if you understand the situation,
Fenton. I, the city lord’s son, was refused by a commoner. It happened in front of dozens of wealthy citizens, no less! For the honour of my family, I must fix this.”

  Fenton rolled his eyes. “And you haven’t failed to remind us at every turn of the hour!”

  “It’s not just about the girl. She was beautiful, true, but there are many beauties to be had in this city.” His eyes flared with a murderous glint. “Her plebeian companion actually dared to stand against me.”

  “Maybe they were lovers?” Fenton said. “I certainly wouldn’t let someone lord my woman off to their bedchambers without at least speaking a word in her defense. Must you be so unreasonable?”

  Dartan’s fists began to shake as he glared at the brown-haired youth. “When a noble strikes a commoner, the commoner gets hit. That is how things are.”

  One of the other boys, a stocky figure with a timid frown, finally spoke up. “Your grievances will be cleared up soon enough, won’t they? You’ve already sent some people after them. Soon the boy will be dead, and his woman your contracted slave. What’s there to worry about?”

  “He’s right,” said Fenton. “Now, if we make for the tournament grounds, we can still…”

  Seeing that the young men were only three properties ahead of him, Nolan slipped into the alleyway and began to form a devious plan, one much more effective than simply telling the guards and depending on their good faith.

  Nolan shut off his mind and resolved to commit to the sudden change of plans. His heart was still numb from when he’d accidently poisoned the bandit earlier, the subtle prompt he needed most right now.

  There were a few beggars in the alleys that surrounded the paved streets of the business district, but Nolan kept track of their locations with his spiritual sense and made sure to avoid these people. Huddled in the dingy alleyway, he peered around a corner at the noisy streets beyond. He was about ten metres away from the main road, with Dartan about a dozen paces to the right of the alley’s exit.