Rise of the Grandmaster

by Bradford Bates

  Life seemed like it would go on forever, but it was infinitely short.

  In his mind, that was what made us such interesting creatures. People lived their whole lives knowing that they were going to die, and yet they gave to each other with such generosity. Sharing one’s soul with another was a gift that couldn’t be purchased.

  He would get out of this and back to ShadowLily. Even death couldn’t stop him.

  Chapter Seventy-Seven

  “Any word?” ShadowLily asked Ernie for what seemed like the hundredth time.

  Ernie scowled at her, then seemed to remember that she was on edge and needed to be treated with care. “None of our contacts have reported him being transferred to any of the smaller jails. There are only so many places remaining where he could be. We’ll find out soon enough.” The innkeeper frowned. “All of the remaining prisons will be almost impossible to infiltrate.”

  “Then we need access to a lawyer or some way to petition the crown. If Jepsom is behind this, maybe the high priest can stop him.” Cassie tried to sound hopeful. “We’ll get him back. That asshole can’t just do whatever he wants.”

  Gaston walked into the room and shook his head when they all turned to look at him. “Nothing yet. I’ve put the word out to see if anybody reported seeing the guards escorting him. If we can figure out which direction they went, we can quickly narrow down the remaining options.”

  “If Jepsom is behind this, you should probably just pick the worst one and start there,” JaKobi muttered and turned his attention back to the book he was reading.

  Cassie smacked him on the arm. “Not helpful.” She glanced at her bestie, expecting her to look crushed.

  “No, he’s right.” ShadowLily looked around the room. “Jepsom wouldn’t just have Tim arrested. He’d want him tucked quietly out of the way.” She focused on Ernie. “Is there someplace like that in the city.”

  Ernie ran a hand through his beard and cast a suspiciously quick look at Gaston. “There is one place.”

  ShadowLily made a “come on and spill the beans already” gesture.

  “They call it ‘the Hole.’” Gaston shuddered as he said it. “It’s not a very original name, but it’s an apt description for the place.”

  The assassin continued speaking as if he were reliving a traumatic memory. “Only one way in or out. And that’s if you make it through the courtyard of armed guards first. Last time I heard, the garrison supported at least forty men. So at the very least, we’d be looking at ten armed men, with thirty in reinforcements only footsteps away.”

  “How in the fuck are we going to break into that?” Cassie pouted.

  “You aren’t,” said a voice from behind them.

  ShadowLily spun, daggers in hand, but paused when she saw a woman in a dress standing there. Her manservant looked like he could cause some trouble, but the lady seemed harmless enough.

  “And you are?” ShadowLily tried to keep her voice level, but it might have come across as a little aggressive. She didn’t like it when an attractive woman showed up on her turf and started giving orders.

  “Lady Briarthorn. Surely you’ve heard of me.” One at a time, she took off her gloves and handed them to her servant. The man also took her coat before the lady glided into the room. She found a chair that looked sufficiently clean and sat with all the grace of a queen.

  Ernie and Gaston bowed to her. Cassie just inclined her mug toward the lady before taking another sip. JaKobi was sitting bolt upright. ShadowLily couldn’t tell if he knew who Lady Briarthorn was, or if it was her attractive appearance that was garnering the man’s full attention.

  “Tim’s spoken of you.” ShadowLily sat across from Lady Briarthorn. She looked the woman over one more time, wondering why Tim forgot to mention she was a stone-cold hottie.

  “I should hope so. We’ve accomplished quite a bit together. He’s a rather resourceful young man.” Lady Briarthorn gave her a wry smile in a way that said, “See? You don’t have anything to be worried about. I’m not interested in your man.”

  Lucy Briarthorn’s look grew more serious. “Thankfully for both of us, the high priest shares my high opinion of Tim, and has tasked me with securing his release.”

  ShadowLily felt the first genuine smile cross her face since she’d heard about Tim being arrested. “That’s great!”

  “I have a letter demanding his immediate release, signed by the high priest. Would you care to join me when I go to present it?” Lady Briarthorn watched ShadowLily intently.

  “Let’s go.” ShadowLily moved toward the door. She stopped when she realized no one was following her. “What’s the hold-up?”

  Lady Briarthorn rose from her chair and turned to face ShadowLily. Her lips were set in a frown. “We can’t go until morning. Despite my cajoling, the sheriff has refused to see us until ten.”

  “By cajoling, she means screaming obscenities at the top of her lungs,” her servant quipped.

  “Oh, Reggie, I swear I can’t take you anywhere.” Lady Briarthorn extended her hand toward ShadowLily. “Should I have a carriage sent, or would you like to meet me there?”

  ShadowLily looked at Lady Briarthorn’s hand, unsure if she should shake it or give it a kiss. Deciding that kissing her hand might place the wrong kind of boundaries on their relationship, she shook it. “I’ll meet you there.”

  “Then I will see you all tomorrow at ten.” She motioned for ShadowLily to follow her to the door. “Tim is handling a time-sensitive issue for us. The high priest is pulling a lot of strings to make this happen. See that Tim comes through on his end of the bargain.”

  ShadowLily nodded. There wasn’t a verbal answer she was ready to give. Until she knew what Tim was up to, she didn’t want to commit herself to a course of action. That didn’t quite seem to be a threat, but it let her know exactly where they stood.

  Tim’s get out of jail free card wasn’t free.

  ShadowLily opened the door for Lady Briarthorn and replied evenly, “See you at ten.”

  Lady Briarthorn slipped her gloves back on and beamed at her. “Don’t take it personally, dear. It’s just business.” Her eyes twinkled mischievously. “Although Paul does seem a little more worked up than usual.”

  Lucy stepped outside and climbed into her carriage. She called from the window, “I’ll see you in the morning. Don’t be late.”

  As if she’d be late for this. ShadowLily closed the door and turned to face the room. “I don’t trust her.”

  “Never trust the nobility,” Gaston retorted. “They’ll smile while stabbing you in the back.”

  “She didn’t seem that bad,” JaKobi countered with a smile.

  “Men,” Cassie sighed dramatically. “They’d run headfirst into a wall if it had a picture of boobs on it.”

  “Don’t knock ‘em till you’ve tried them,” JaKobi quipped back.

  Cassie grabbed her boobs. “Tried ‘em.” She flipped him off.

  “Point taken.” JaKobi put his head down and pretended to read his book.

  ShadowLily grabbed a beer from the table. “We have to be there before ten tomorrow. Let’s just hope Tim’s still in one piece when we get there.”

  Cassie lifted her mug into the air. “To our fearless leader!”

  Cheers went up from around the room. ShadowLily hoped Tim knew they would always come for him. That she would always come for him.

  The tower was bigger than ShadowLily had imagined.

  Not that the size of the single tower mattered in relation to the prison. Gaston and Ernie had assured her that the majority of the prison was below their feet. There was one building with a single door that led down into the darkness. If the prisoners somehow made it out of the dungeon, they would exit into the courtyard they were looking at now.

  A courtyard surrounded by ten-foot-tall stone walls that was filled to capacity with armed guards.

  By the time any rebellion made it out of the courtyard, the city guard would have been notified. The number of men a
potential escapee would face would have been insurmountable. The crown would never allow a prison break to happen; it would tarnish their spotless reputation.

  Ernie had joked that some of the thieves in the city said the Hole was the safest place in the whole kingdom, even safer than the palace.

  In short, without Lady Briarthorn’s help or an army, they weren’t getting Tim out of prison. Thankfully, the high priest had come through with the help they needed, but there was a cost. Tim was on a quest for the man, something important enough for Paul to exert his will over that of the cardinal.

  She didn’t like the idea of her man being stuck in the middle of this political cluster fuck. As much as ShadowLily hated to admit it to herself, Malvonis might have the right idea. Getting out of town and keeping out of this shitstorm until it blew over might have been the safest way to go.

  Unfortunately for all of them, it seemed Tim was on a quest chain that required him to be here. Maybe he finally got the kill quest, and all of this would be over one way or another. She smiled and thought of how Tim’s quests always felt like a classic game. In every game, all the major storylines ended when you killed the big baddie.

  Jepsom was definitely a giant fucking baddie.

  The bastard might not have green skin or four arms, extra legs, or a really cool weapon, but that didn’t make him any less deadly. The scariest part of the entire situation was they had no idea what kind of skills Jepsom actually possessed. All ShadowLily knew for certain was that the cardinal wouldn’t have made it to where he was inside of the temple’s power structure without being able to intimidate people.

  Their little group stopped outside of the gate. A few moments later, a black horse pulled a carriage up alongside them, and Lady Briarthorn exited with the grace of a queen. She walked up to the black iron gate and held out her hand. Reginald placed his walking stick in her palm, and she used it to bang on the gate until someone appeared.

  “No admittance!” The guard glared at the group.

  “I need to speak to Sheriff Hobbs.” When the guard didn’t respond, Lady Briarthorn continued, “He’s expecting me.”

  The guard turned and shouted, “Hey, Davros, the sheriff say anything about visitors?”

  “Only six times during this morning’s briefing,” Davros replied, sounding rather annoyed with the man. He waved the guard away from the gate and opened it himself. “Lady Briarthorn, it’s my sincere pleasure. Please allow me to show you and your companions to the sheriff’s office.”

  ShadowLily watched the man fawn over Lady Briarthorn and wondered if she’d ever be important enough in the game for people to treat her that way. It must be a crazy feeling to have people know who you are just by seeing you or hearing your name. On top of that, they not only recognized you but also fell all over themselves to give you whatever you wanted.

  Must be nice.

  It was too bad that kind of fame normally came with responsibilities. You had to make appearances even when you didn’t want to. Every time you left the house, it turned into a photo shoot. Maybe it was better not to be so popular. At least you could wear yoga pants at the grocery store without some asshole snapping a picture of you.

  Lady Briarthorn could keep the fame. All ShadowLily wanted out of life was to be comfortable. It’d be nice to wake up not having to worry about the future. She didn’t need to drive a Ferrari or live on a multimillion-dollar estate. She wanted to be happy and surrounded by people who cared about her.

  Sometimes when life was simple, it was perfect.

  Their group followed Lady Briarthorn and Davros to the tower and then inside. Before the door closed behind them, ShadowLily noticed men moving to encircle the courtyard. Getting Tim out of here might not be as easy as presenting a letter from the high priest.

  If it came down to a fight, there was no way they’d all make it out of here. They’d be better off getting arrested and then leveraging Gaston’s lock-picking skills to make a break for it once things settled down. ShadowLily hoped it didn’t come down to a fight. Tim and JaKobi hadn’t registered as adventurers, and she was pretty sure if Gaston died, he was gone forever.

  Now wasn’t the time for big setbacks or losing a friend. Right now, they all needed to take large steps toward the future. Being the first to do things and to find new areas or items was the only way to make enough money for all this to be worth it. She wasn’t leaving the game with a bigger bill than when she went into it.

  Davros motioned to a man sitting at a desk in the main room. “This is Richard. He will be attending to your needs until the sheriff is ready to see you.” He bowed. “If you’ll excuse me, I have some duties to attend to in the courtyard.”

  “Thank you for your assistance, Davros.” Lady Briarthorn blessed him with a smile that lit up the entire room.

  Davros exited the tower, and ShadowLily stood just behind Lady Briarthorn and whispered in her ear, “The men outside looked like they might be preparing for a fight.”

  Lady Briarthorn inclined her head to indicate she’d heard what ShadowLily had said. “I have a contingency plan in place.” She walked forward until she was standing in front of Richard. The man didn’t look up as he furiously scratched notes on a sheet of paper.

  “We have an appointment to see the sheriff,” Lady Briarthorn declared with the icy impatience of the affluent.

  Richard finished what he was scribbling and looked up. He did a quick double-take at all of the people standing before him as if they hadn’t been announced moments before. “I’ve prepared our conference room for you to wait in. The sheriff should be returning momentarily.”

  “If he isn’t collecting the man we’ve come to have released, there will be hell to pay.” Lady Briarthorn glared at the clerk with disgust. “Your sheriff is getting on my last nerve as it is.”

  “You’re preaching to the choir,” Richard grumbled as he stood up. “Not that I can do anything about it.” He motioned for them to follow him toward the only open door in the tower.

  “We’ve got water and food set up in here.” He turned to look at the lady and dropped his voice. “Probably best to avoid it, though.”

  Lady Briarthorn gave him a curt nod. “Thanks for the tip, and do tell the sheriff to hurry. I have other appointments I must keep today.”

  Richard looked at her and then lowered his head so he was staring at the ground instead. “I’ll do my best.”

  “I’m counting on it.” Lady Briarthorn turned toward the rest of the group. “It looks as though we’ll be waiting for a bit. Stay away from the food and drink.”

  “Never trust prison food,” Gaston rumbled as he walked into the room and took a seat.

  ShadowLily smiled. It was damn good advice. There were always stories on the news about the quality of food in prisons. While she didn’t think prisoners deserved organic everything, they did deserve to eat food that wasn’t expired.

  That was the burden of our legal system.

  If you’re going to lock people up, you have to take care of them. And while they didn’t need TVs and video games, prisoners deserved access to real food and clean water at the very least. Just don’t tell that to the people running the for-profit jails. Because if it comes down to serving you green baloney or spending two more cents to get better meat, they were going to save the two cents every time.

  Shit, this jail probably didn’t even have simple standards. This was the kind of place where when prisoners died, whoever had them arrested let out a sigh of relief. One less problem for the nobility to worry about when one of their accusers bit the dust.

  At least back in the real world, they had trials. They might not always be fair, but they had them. Here in The Etheric Coast, it seemed like all you needed to make people disappear was a fat stack of gold. Granted, that seemed to be the case in the real world too. How many people aligned themselves with politicians and ended up dead?

  More than she could count on both hands.

  ShadowLily sat on one of the available cha
irs. “What do we do now?”

  Lady Briarthorn sat and smoothed out the front of her exquisite dress. “We wait.”

  “I hate waiting,” Cassie grumbled.

  JaKobi pulled a book out of his robes. “I brought a little something to pass the time. One thing I’ve learned in life is that when you deal with a government agency, you have to be prepared to wait.”

  ShadowLily snorted. “But hey, at least we have snacks we can’t eat.”

  Cassie sat down next to her and put an arm around her shoulders. “Don’t worry. Loverboy will be back in your arms before you know it.”

  “And Reginald should be executing the second part of our plan now.” Lady Briarthorn grinned. “They aren’t going to know what hit them.”

  The two best friends shared a look and started smiling. ShadowLily couldn’t help but think this wasn’t a woman you wanted to trifle with. Lady Briarthorn was the kind of woman you wanted on your side when shit went down.

  A little bit of the tension ShadowLily had been harboring since arriving at the dungeon melted. Tim was going to be fine, and with the good lady’s help, all of them were going to get out of here in one piece. Sometimes having powerful friends wasn’t such a bad thing.

  Chapter Seventy-Eight

  “Son of a bitch,” Tim muttered as he worked out the kinks in his back.

  Who knew sleeping on the floor in a video game could make you feel so rotten? It was like that one time he and Xander had gotten so drunk they’d passed out under some bushes on the way home from a party. It’d taken at least three days for his neck to stop clicking.

  Sleeping in weird places was something best left to the extremely young. So it shall be written that any child over the age of fourteen who sleeps on the floor will wake up with at least one limb in agony. Tim laughed at his own joke; sometimes, he cracked himself up.

  It wasn’t his fault if no one else got it.

  Tim did a few of the stretches he’d learned from a yoga instructor he’d had a crush on. He might be shit at yoga, but he had a thing for women in phenomenal shape and tight pants—not that he’d be able to hit on them now.