The Duelist

by Eric Vall

  “Because he knows I have a copy of the map that leads to the dungeon entrance hidden inside the Ruins,” Tovish said as he rolled his eyes slightly. “He must have known I’d like the pair of you just as much as him, and that I’d probably lend you my copy of said valuable map.”

  “Was he right?” Zoie asked with a flutter of her pretty eyelashes in a move that was too perfect to be entirely innocent.

  “I know what you’re up to, you clever girl,” Tovish said with a crooked smile complete with a silver cap on one canine. “And yes, he was correct in thinking I would at least find the pair of you amusing.”

  “Kree!” Roofus called out as he swooped back into the parlor and dropped a book into Tovish’s waiting hands.

  “Good boy,” he said as he flipped through the book for something specific while the creature pecked at his pockets for a well-deserved sugar cube.

  “Kaw!” Roofus said when he found his treat, and then he hopped up to perch on my shoulder again.

  “So strange he took a liking to you.” Tovish paused as he observed how the crow-moth started to preen strands of my hair. “That’s not what he normally does with strangers.”

  “What does he normally do?” I asked as I scratched Roofus’ dusty neck ruff, which made the crow-moth trill out a purr.

  “He tries to rip out their eyes,” the eccentric innkeeper said and then chuckled at the no doubt horrified expression my face was making.

  “You are a creepy little guy, aren’t you?” I asked Roo, and he wagged his tail feathers like a dog.

  “Ah!” Tovish exclaimed as he thumbed his way to the middle of the book where a folded piece of parchment was tucked into the crease. He then set the tome on the table and gently unfolded the yellowing paper to reveal a faded map. “This will save you an entire half-day if you can make your way to the falls by going up the cliff face instead of around the slope. It is a treacherous route, but it is the quickest. And I suppose you ought to take Roofus with you. He will make quick work of the dungeons and crypts because he will be drawn to the hoards of gold hidden in secret caches in the palace.”

  “Thank you for lending them both to us,” I said as I took the map from his liver-spotted hands.

  “Don’t thank me,” he grunted as he closed the book. “I’m protecting my investment. If you can manage to bring back a fair sum of gold, I know a possible metallurgist who would be willing to work with you when you get back to Mec Valley. I’ll only require a modest finder’s fee if you will.”

  “If your map and Roofus can get us through the Ruins, then that is totally fair, Mr. Tovish,” I said as I carefully folded up the map.

  “Any whom my old apprentice calls a friend is mine as well,” the koala-elder said as he jumped down from his stool with a thunk of his wooden leg and gathered the empty dishes.

  Zoie and I stood up as well, and Roofus stayed right where he was with his head tucked under one wing as if he belonged there.

  “Thanks again for all your help,” I said.

  “Pah!” Tovish waved his hand as he ushered us out of the parlor and toward the stairs. “Off to bed with the both of you. The Ruins are brutal, and you will need your rest.”

  With a last little shove to the back of my leg, Tovish saw us off for the evening, and Zoie and I climbed the stairs up to our room at the top floor.

  “Come on, little guy,” I murmured as I urged the crow-moth off my shoulder and onto the footboard of the decent-sized bed.

  “Kerr?” he said with a confused look before he nestled his head back under his wing and fell back asleep.

  “I’ve always wanted a pet,” I chuckled as I was hit with a massive yawn.

  “Don’t get too attached,” Zoie said as she stroked the gold-seeker’s downy coat until he started to purr. “We’ll have to give him back, unfortunately.”

  “Yeah, now, come here,” I said as I took off my belt and shoes and crawled into bed. It had been an exhausting day, and all I wanted was to sleep in this comfortable bed with my wife before the treacherous days ahead.

  Zoie smiled and dropped her armored belt, pauldrons, and boots so she could join me, and when we were both cocooned safe and warm together, we both fell instantly asleep.

  Unfortunately, it seemed like only seconds before we were being roughly shaken awake by the frantic innkeeper.

  “Quick!” Tovish snapped as Roofus flapped around the room like a mini dusty tornado.

  “What?” I asked as Zoie and I scrambled to get out of bed.

  “That Asher you mentioned who wants to kill you, he wouldn’t happen to go by the name of Bala Ren, would he?” the koala-elder asked.

  “Yes, why?” I quickly donned my cloak, put my pack onto my shoulders, and then turned to him.

  Tovish wrung his furry gray hands, and all of us jumped sky-high at the sound of a massive bang.

  “Because he’s downstairs, and he brought friends.”

  Chapter 14

  “What do you mean, Asher Ren is downstairs?” I nearly exclaimed but then held back at the last second.

  “Fourth floor, clear!” came a loud bellow, followed by another crash that reminded me of a door being kicked off its hinges.

  “You must have been followed by spies,” Tovish said as he rushed to the window. He then slid it open, which caused a cool breeze from the river to waft in, and with it came the loud whirring sound of the water wheel. “He came to my door and barged in with his henchmen reprobates. When I wasn’t giving him the answers he wanted about your whereabouts, he ordered a search of all the rooms.”

  “Is there another exit out of this place?” I asked as my eyes darted around.

  “Yes, this,” Tovish said as he jerked his thumb in the direction of the open window.

  “You’ve gotta be joking,” I muttered to myself as Zoie ran up to the window so she could get a good assessment.

  “Not joking,” the furry man said as he thrust our travel gear at us. Once Zoie and I had scrambled to shove our arms through our cloaks and the straps of our travel packs, he then hauled us over to our only escape route by my wrist.

  “Fifth floor, clear!” came another loud bark from directly below us.

  “And you are officially out of time,” the innkeeper said and all but pushed me out the window just after Zoie’s tail disappeared through the frame.

  “Just follow me, Alex,” Zoie whisper-shouted as she sat perched on the eaves of the roof.

  Roofus cawed softly where he sat on the back of her pack as if he was saying it was totally not a big deal that we were over fifty feet up.

  “What about you?” I asked Tovish.

  “Don’t worry about me, just try to get to the caves located right next to the gate,” the furry white-faced man said. “They should provide adequate shelter until dawn. Now, go! I’ll distract them.”

  “No, you should get out, too,” I insisted. “This guy is ruthless and really has a grudge against me.”

  “This is my home, young Alex, and although I appreciate your concern, I’d rather be scourge-feed than let some entitled Asher take it from me.” Tovish’s wrinkled face took on a determined set, and he squared his shoulders.

  “At least hide yourself if you won’t leave,” I said one last time even though I could hear the pounding of feet down the hall.

  “Don’t worry about an old man past his prime,” the wizened koala-elder said with another one of those whip-smart twinkles in his beady eyes. “Take care of Roofus, he will treat you well. And don’t forget: bravery!”

  Before I could say anything else, Tovish shoved me out and slammed the window closed behind me.

  “Come on, Alex!” Zoie urged, and she was already up and running along the roof of the pump house toward the water wheel itself.

  “Zoie, wait!” I hissed as I tried to find my balance on the slanted roof, and I marveled once again at the excellent quality of the boots on my feet as they gripped the shingles with a good amount of traction.

  “Hey!” someone yelled, a
nd I glanced down at the street below to see a figure looking up at us. “They’re on the roof!”

  “Shit,” I cursed, and I wobbled as I tried to keep up with Zoie.

  If there were ever any lingering doubts about Ren’s intentions to eliminate me regardless of following the Rite of the Duel, they evaporated in that moment. Apparently, Ren really didn’t care if he killed me illegally, as long as I was gone. To him, if he was planning on taking over as the Lord of the Isle, then I was small fish in comparison, and if he succeeded in eliminating Mec, then he could ostensibly get away with playing by his own rules anyway.

  An arrow whistled past my head and cracked one of the ceramic shingles just as I was about to place my hand there so I could climb over the roof’s pitch, and I shouted as the entire row of shingles began to cascade off the roof and crashed down into the dark river.

  “Come back here, Brightwood!” a familiar voice screeched from behind me, and I whipped my head over my shoulder to the sight of Ren nocking another arrow on his bow.

  Of course, he would be an expert bowman along with Very Deadly With Swords. Man, this fuck was really starting to annoy me.

  “Come on, Alex!” Zoie said as she threw one of those shuriken things in the eagle-man’s direction.

  “Varthan bitch!” Ren shrieked as he dropped his next arrow due to her throwing star.

  “Kaw!” Roofus screamed and attacked Ren’s brown feathered pony-tail when the man tried to climb out after us.

  “Arrrrghhhh!” the eagle man bellowed and then crashed back through the window.

  “Roofus!” I called, and the crow-moth flapped back out of the window and landed on my shoulder. “Good boy.”

  Without looking back to see if Ren was following, I climbed the rest of the way to where Zoie was balanced near the top of the water wheel.

  “Alex, look!” she said and pointed to a large ferry-type boat that was floating toward us on the river. It was going to pass the great water wheel in about two minutes, and by the way Zoie was looking between the boat and us, I had a sinking feeling I knew what she was going to do next.

  “You’re not planning on jumping, are you?” I asked.

  “Yes, unless you want to go back the other way?” She flicked her tail as she tilted her head back in the direction of the room.

  “Nah,” I said as Ren roared again, and Zoie and I watched as he got tangled up in the curtains. “That guy’s a real bummer, I’d rather jump off this thing. Any advice?”

  “On my mark, we will run across the top, and then while it is turning, we will ride the wheel down until we are close enough to jump onto the boat,” she said.

  “Easy,” I said with a grimace, and Roo fluffed his neck fur as if he agreed with my sarcasm.

  “Okay, mark!” Zoie said as she sprang into action, and I took off after her.

  I was sure to take extra care in placing my feet where hers were as we ran across the boards of the wheel that were slick with algae and general river muck.

  On the side of the wheel, there were iron pegs Zoie grabbed onto so she could attach herself to the wheel’s side like some kind of jumping spider.

  I copied her position and really hoped I had my angles right.

  “Ready?” Zoie yelled.

  “As I’ll ever be!” I shouted back, and I mentally crossed my fingers as the boat was almost to us.

  When the wheel was about three quarters of the way down, and the boat was half-way to passing us, Zoie leapt like an acrobat across the six-foot gap between the wheel and the boat’s roof.

  I watched her sail through the air, and for a moment my blood froze when I thought she was going to fall short, but she hit the roof and rolled up into a ninja-like crouch.

  “Jump, Alex!” she shouted as the boat continued down the river without stopping.

  “Kaw! Kaw!” Roo flapped around in distressed figure eights.

  “Here goes!” I yelled and pushed off the side of the wheel with all of my might.

  I hit the metal roof with a bang almost before it was too late, and another arrow zinged off the water wheel as Ren managed to finally make it out onto the roof. A final ping as a third arrow missed, and I rolled over to rest on my back next to Zoie.

  “See?” I panted and turned to look at her as she caught her breath. “Easy.”

  I sat up as we traveled away from the water wheel, and I could just see the outline of Ren’s dumb flippy hair as he raged at me from the rooftop of the Gate’s Inn.

  The captain of the boat poked his head out to see what the loud bang of my landing had been, but once Zoie mentioned I was an Asher, he quickly ducked back inside and chose to ignore us. Then Zoie and I took the slow-going ferry about five miles up the river toward the formidable wall. It loomed over us like a silent giant as we got closer, and it was a relief when the ferry docked for the evening and we could slip into the shadows.

  We got off as discreetly as we could by climbing down one of the pile fenders and sneaking under the boardwalk along the river’s sandy bank.

  Tovish made it sound like the caves were just a hop, skip, and a jump away, but it was actually another ten miles along the beach. A moon-lit walk on the beach sounded romantic, too, if it weren’t for the fact that we were being hunted by Ren’s spies.

  Although, I did stop to kiss Zoie once or twice when the moonlight in her hair shimmered just the right way, or the heaving of her milky white breasts drove me to distraction.

  The blush that dappled her cheeks every time was worth the extra minutes it took to traverse the rocky shore.

  When we finally made it to the caves, it was all we could do to start a small fire before we collapsed in front of it.

  The mad dash through Gatetown in the dead of night was hectic, and even though we managed to slip away, it was a close call.

  “Can we sleep now?” I groaned as I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Just a couple hours where nothing or no one tries to kill us, is that too much to ask for?”

  “You should sleep, and I can take watch,” Zoie said even though she blinked heavily.

  “No way, you’re just as tired as I am,” I argued and then thumbed the dark bruising of fatigue under one of her eyes.

  “But--” she started but was interrupted by Roofus landing on her head.

  “Ker-ker-ker?” Roofus said, and then he hopped off and flew to a little ledge near the cave entrance where he perched with a pointed huff.

  “I think Roo is trying to tell us he’s got watch this time,” I said as Zoie and I tried to figure out how to speak crow-moth.

  The gold-seeker gave me a look over his shoulder and then trilled like he was confirming what I was saying.

  “It looks like you are right,” Zoie said and walked over to where he made his perch so she could scratch him under the chin. “What a helpful being you are.”

  Roo purred again as he nuzzled into her palm, and with one last pat on the head, Zoie joined me again back by the fire.

  I lifted my arm, and she crawled in beside me as we sat against the cave wall looking into the dying flames.

  “What do you think the Ruins are like?” I asked after a bit. Now that the adrenaline had worn off, my body was tired, but my mind was still taking a while to completely calm down from its alert state. “Do the legends say anything?”

  “Mhm,” Zoie hummed in a low voice. “There are stories about the creatures that overtook the Ruins back when it was an ancient city, and how they are still there deep underground with their hoards of gold.”

  “Where did these creatures even come from?” I asked. “I figure they are separate from the demons because I hear the term monsters a lot.”

  “People think the creatures that live in the fallen cities are from the time before the Sun,” Zoie said in her dreamy story-voice.

  “Are these the creatures you referred to that existed before the demons came?” I asked as I pulled the blue headscarf from where it peeked out of Zoie’s pack and tucked it around her so she would stay a little
warmer.

  “Yes, these are the Moon’s first children,” she answered in her mystic lore way.

  “What do they look like?” I asked like a kid staying up past bedtime at summer camp. The only thing missing was a flashlight.

  “Pictures and paintings have shown the monsters in a variety of shapes,” she said as her words became farther apart, and her head got heavier where it was resting on my chest. “They are usually covered in fur with large ears and teeth, and they run and hunt on two legs. They are the most powerful when the moon is fullest.”

  “They sound like werewolves,” I commented as my eyes grew heavy and the fire burned low.

  “Hm?” Zoie murmured as she curled up closer into my arms.

  “Never mind, kitten,” I whispered and kissed her between her dark eyebrows. “Get some sleep.”

  I pulled the pair of travel cloaks around us so we would be warm through the night, and suddenly this cave floor was the most comfortable thing in existence because my eyelids closed on my next blink and refused to open again.

  Unconsciousness was like falling into a sticky tar pit that clung to me and dragged me down. There was no dreaming, just the complete and total void of thought that was almost coma-like and hard to rouse from.

  However, if I was ever worried about sleeping in before, I didn’t need to one bit because the earth-shaking grinding noise of the gate being lowered for the day sounded like a warhead from our proximity in the cave.

  “Seriously need to find a replacement for the coffee situation,” I grumbled and put on my boots as a headache took up residence right at the back of my skull.

  “What is keffkee?” Zoie asked as she strapped her katana across her back and then situated her pack over top of it.

  “It’s a hot drink that makes waking up a lot easier,” I said as I dragged my fingers through my hair.

  “I should like to find something like this for you, husband,” she decided, and she walked up behind me and kneaded my shoulders.

  “You’re already an angel,” I moaned out as she attacked a stubborn knot in my neck. “If anyone can find me a replacement for coffee, I’m sure it will be you.”

  “For now, suck on a pappa sweet,” she said and brought one of the purple jawbreaker things up to my mouth.