Journey of a Betrayed Hero- Volume 2

by Brandon Varnell

  “There is one other person,” she said. “My friend Mari. She spoke out and wouldn’t listen to the people who kidnapped us. They took her away somewhere.”

  “But you don’t know where?” Enyo asked. The girl shook her head. “Okay, then. Listen up, everyone! I’m getting all of you out of here!”

  “How do you plan to do that?” someone asked.

  “Yeah, you’re a captive just like us!” another shouted.

  Muttering a quick spell under her breath, feeling a tug on her navel, Enyo created a black flame in her hands, which ate the rope binding her. She showed her now-free arms to the women, who gawked at her like they’d just witnessed a miracle, and then she said, “I’m not a captive. I came here specifically to rescue all of you. Now, follow me and try to be quiet, okay?”

  The group of women still seemed to be in shock. However, they followed her anyway, as she broke the ropes binding them and led them out of the room.

  Enyo was thankful for her good memory, or she would have never been able to memorize the route that she had taken to get there. They reached the end of the tunnel after numerous twists and turns.

  The pirates were all offloading cargo, with some carrying large barrels while others offloaded giant boxes. It seemed women weren’t all they stole. She would’ve wondered what all that stuff was, but she didn’t really care.

  “How are we going to escape from this place?” one of the women asked.

  Enyo turned her head to grin at the person. “You’ll see.”

  Turning back, Enyo took a moment to calm herself. Slowly, as if in a trance, she started to chant.

  “Creperum. Ignis. Incendo. Exitium. Eversio. Ruina. Vena. Displodo. Abolesco. Flamen.”

  Enyo felt the tug on her navel as magic was pulled from her reserves. She held her hands about a dozen centimeters apart. Dark streaks of energy coalesced between her hands, gathering until it had formed a tiny ball about the size of a golden coin. Taking a calming breath, Enyo stepped out from behind the cover, and launched the sphere at the ship.

  The results were devastating.

  The sphere of compressed dark flames struck the side of the ship like the fist of an angry god. It exploded against the hull, busting straight through one side and going out the other side. Then came the turbulent winds. It was like watching a tornado appear sideways. The ship broke apart as a large vortex tore through the space. Everything was sucked inside—wood, water, people. A massive trench was created in the water as it was split.

  Enyo bit her lower lip. “I think I might have used too much magic.”

  She thought about that for a moment, but then she shrugged. These people were pirates. What did she care of she annihilated their stuff?

  “Stay right here,” she said to the women, all of whom were gawking at her. “My boyfriend should be coming in just a minute. We’ll get you out of here soon.”

  ***

  Jacob was liberally tossed out of his boat when a massive cyclone rushed out from the cave and capsized him. He yelped as he flipped through the air. Channeling energy into his feet, he struck the water’s surface with a massive splash.

  Standing on the water, Jacob looked at the cavern. There was a large vortex traveling out of it. It ripped through the water, a tornado traveling horizontally, creating massive waves that rocked the water he stood on, even though he was several meters away.

  “That girl…” He pressed a hand to his face. “She’s going overboard again.”

  Withholding a sigh, he raced across the water’s surface, sending a constant stream of energy to the bottom of his feet in order to stay afloat. Jacob reached the cavern in record time. Glancing inside, he saw that much of the surrounding waters had been disturbed—no surprise there. Enyo was on the cavern floor near a large cave entrance.

  She was also fighting barehanded against what appeared to be several dozen pirates.

  Not wasting another second, Jacob bent his knees, channeled energy through his lower body, and shot forward. The water roared underneath him as it turned into a wave. Launched into the air, he oriented his feet until they were pointed at one of the pirates fighting against Enyo. His feet slammed into that person’s back. The pirate went flying, slammed into the cavern wall, and there he remained, embedded in the rock.

  “Enyo!” Jacob shouted as he reached behind him, pulled out her daggers, and tossed them to her.

  She caught the daggers. This distracted her from the pirates that she was fighting. Fortunately, Jacob was paying attention for her and sent a massive wave of blue energy that slammed into the pirates like a rampaging elephanté.

  “Thanks!” Enyo said as she finally attached the sheaths to her thighs. She pulled out her daggers and, raising them in a crossguard, blocked a sword strike that would have split open her head. Then she kicked the pirate who’d attacked her in the nuts. As his scream reached several octaves higher than normal, her daggers became engulfed in magic; one was a dark flame and the other a bright, divine light.

  With Enyo now able to defend herself, Jacob focused on decimating his own opponents. He spun around, feeling the tip of a blade cut the air in front of him. He didn’t bother using a weapon—he didn’t have a weapon—and instead grabbed the man’s forearm and broke it with a small application of Linked Energy Manipulation. As his enemy emitted a girlish scream, Jacob crushed the pirate’s ribcage with a swift punch.

  Two more pirates came at him on either side. He guessed they were trying to trap him. Jacob moved back half a step, turned, and then grabbed the forearm of the pirate on his left. With a swift yank, he pulled his foe into the sword of his other enemy. The tip of a blade appeared in the pirate’s back. Jacob didn’t wait for them to die before kicking them into the one who’d done the stabbing.

  More enemies appeared before him. They fell like wheat before a scythe. Jacob smashed into them with energy infused strength and speed. Bones broke, bodies were crushed, and people were sent flying as Jacob pounded his fists into them. He fought his way through the hordes of pirates until he and Enyo were fighting back to back.

  “Why did you aim for their ship?” he asked as he plowed his fist into some poor pirate’s face.

  “Was I not supposed to?” asked Enyo, spinning her daggers around her hands, deflecting several swords before slitting the wrists of her two opponents. Blood gushed from the wounds like water flowing from a waterfall. “I thought that was supposed to be the signal.”

  “I said to shoot your magic out of the cave, not destroy their ship! Now how are we gonna get all these people home?”

  “Uh… whoops?”

  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Enyo’s sheepish grin. Scowling, he ducked underneath a sword, which swung over his head with a loud whoosh!, and then leapt up to uppercut the pirate in the jaw. Blood gushed from the man’s mouth as the jaw shattered. The pirate, already dead from his neck snapping, flew through the air and hit the ground several meters away.

  The scent of blood, oil, and steel filled Jacob’s nose as he continued to fight. Time and again he waded through the pirates, whose numbers dwindled until there were only a dozen, and then half a dozen, and then none.

  Clapping his hands as if ridding them of imaginary dust, he looked at Enyo, and then at the women who were staring at the two of them like they’d just witnessed an angel descending from heaven.

  “Are those all of the captives?” he asked.

  “There’s one more,” Enyo said. “She’s somewhere else, though. Apparently, she was badmouthing the pirates and got sent to a separate cell or something.”

  “You go find her. I’ll think up a way to get everyone out of this cave in the meantime.”

  “Why do I have to go find her?”

  “Because you destroyed our transportation out of here.”

  “Ugh… it was an accident.”

  “And it does not change the facts. Now, go on. Make up for your destructive tendencies by rescuing that poor maiden.”

  “I’ll show you who’s
a poor maiden,” Enyo growled as she stalked off.

  Rather than thinking up a way out of here, Jacob spent the next few moments watching Enyo walk away until she disappeared inside of the cavern.

  His girlfriend had one really fine ass.

  ***

  Jacob felt they were very fortunate. While the pirate’s ship had been destroyed, they weren’t the only ones living on that island. There was a tribe of people who lived on the opposite side of the island. They had come to see what all the commotion was about, apparently having felt Enyo’s attack all the way on the other side of the island.

  They had ships.

  After bartering for passage with whatever goods were left of the pirates’ haul, they and the captured women were given a ride to the Njord Peninsula. They had docked in the port town of Hargone. There, he and Enyo met with Barbosa, the town mayor, whom had been the one to originally create the quest they’d taken.

  “Thank you so much for bringing those women back safely,” the man blubbered as he and Enyo sat on a sofa across from him.

  “You’re welcome,” Jacob said, trying not to show his distaste of the man’s gaudy dress.

  Barbossa was a man with a scary name who was about as scary as a hairless monkey wearing make up—the fact that Barbossa did, indeed, wear more makeup than most women notwithstanding. He was thin and clean shaven, and he probably would have been handsome by most women’s standards.

  Jacob just thought he was weird.

  “It was no trouble at all,” Enyo added. “We were happy to help.”

  “And we are very grateful for your help,” Barbossa added. “Everyone’s heard of the Heroic Couple around here. We were fortunate when you two took on this quest.”

  Jacob didn’t want to blush, but he knew it was futile. The heat was already spreading to his cheeks.

  About two months after he and Enyo started taking quests, they became known across the Njord Peninsula as the Heroic Couple. Apparently, several people had seen them kissing after a mission and that was how the name stuck. Enyo thought the name was cute. Jacob wanted to punch whoever had come up with it in the face.

  “Now, here’s your payment. Five hundred gold pieces, as promised,” Barbossa said, handing the money to Jacob, who had a pouch to carry it in.

  “Thank you for your business,” Jacob said before he and Enyo left the man’s mansion and wandered into the town.

  Hargone wasn’t a large town, but it was one of the largest docking towns located on the Njord Peninsula—an isolated region of Terrasole that was about ten days’ travel from Alyssium. Jacob had chosen this city as their base of operations because it was, for one, so close the Alyssium that no one would expect them to live there, and two, news from Alyssium would arrive there faster than if they moved further south.

  As they left, several of the women thanked him and Enyo. He took their gratitude with a smile and a nod, but he didn’t otherwise focus on them. Enyo, on the other hand, basked in the attention. Jacob snorted when, as several of the women mentioned how “cool” they thought she was, Enyo puffed out her chest and grinned at everyone with a look of mixed embarrassment and arrogance.

  She must have heard him, however, because she gave him the stink eye seconds later. “Something in your throat?”

  “Yeah. Humor.”

  “Ah, that sounds like something a stick in the mud would have.”

  “Is that so?”

  “Yes.” Enyo grinned as she laced her fingers through his. “It is so.”

  They walked down the dirt road, and Enyo waved at several people who greeted them. Hargone consisted of many small buildings. Due to the forests up north and the natural red rock deposits inside of a mine shaft at the edge of the peninsula, the buildings were made of red bricks and wood. There was very little variation in design. The buildings were made to be sturdy in case of a hurricane.

  Their destination was a bar called The Hero’s Stop.

  As they entered the room, the sound of laughter and shouts hit their ears. Their footsteps went unheard as they walked along the wooden floor. Bright lights made it easy for them to see, which made avoiding several drunken patrons easier. As they swerved around people and tables, they eventually came up to the bar, behind which a familiar woman, with hair like dusk and bright yellow eyes, stood.

  “Hello, you two,” Fellis said as she strolled around behind the counter. “Shall I get you the usual?”

  “Yes, please,” he and Enyo said at the same time.

  Fellis’s long black skirt swished around as she walked, and the tight black bodice that conformed to her body caused several eyes to wander lustfully. Oddly enough, she attracted more women than men, which was funny because she still claimed that it was harder for her to seduce women. As she grabbed two mugs and filled them with hot chocolate, the ruffles of her white shirt rustled.

  “Here you two go.” She set the mugs down in front of them. “I swear, you both drink like children.”

  “Alcohol is disgusting,” Enyo said.

  Jacob nodded. “I won’t drink alcohol unless there’s no other option.”

  “Ha…” Fellis just shook her head, as if listening to them talk exhausted her. “Whatever. Enjoy your hot chocolate.”

  “Ha!” One of the bar’s patrons barked. “Those two make the perfect Heroic Couple! They even act like a pair of goodie two-shoes when they drink!”

  “I’ll shove these shoes up your ass!” Jacob shouted, which caused everyone to have a laugh at their expense.

  Sadly, before anymore festivities could begin, the doors to the bar burst open like a battering ram had slammed into it. Everyone stopped talking. Heads turned. Jacob and Enyo both looked at the doorway, where they were shocked to find a familiar figure standing.

  “Kindness!” Enyo shouted.

  She hadn’t changed much in the last few months since they had seen her. Skin the color of dusk glistened with a light sweat. Her outfit, a top that showed off her stomach, cleavage, and bare arms, attracted more than a little attention. Shapely hips were currently shaking from what must have been exhaustion, causing the flared-out pants to rustle. She was staring at Enyo and Jacob with eyes glazed over in pain.

  “Finally…” she mumbled. “I finally…”

  She never finished her sentence. Her eyes rolled up into the back of her head and she fell to the floor. There was an arrow sticking out of her back.

  “Not good! Fellis!” Jacob called out.

  Fellis already knew what he wanted. As he and Enyo rushed over to Kindness, Fellis began closing up shop. She placated the patrons as she kindly told them to leave, putting up with their wisecracks, and pinching the asses of several errant young woman who tried to cop a feel.

  The men who tried to do the same she decked in the face.

  Jacob knelt by Kindness, examining the arrow without pulling it out. He recognized the type. The notches in the feather gave it away. It wasn’t an arrow from Terrasole. It was a Dark Clan arrow.

  “Enyo, can I have one of your daggers please?” he asked softly. Enyo didn’t hesitate to unsheathe one and give it to him. “Thank you.”

  Dark Clan arrows were unique in that they were not just designed to impale a target, but also to inflict as much pain as possible. The tips were jagged and had hooks on either end. Not only were they painful going in, they were a bitch to pull out.

  Jacob knew this from having pulled several out of himself.

  “If you can numb the area around her wound, that would be great,” he said to Enyo, who nodded and placed her hands near the wound.

  “Torpens. Privo.”

  White light emitted from Enyo’s palms and engulfed the skin around the wound. Jacob cut away the cloth that kept him from seeing the full extent of the damage, but when he did, Enyo turned green.

  “Keep it together,” he murmured, not that he blamed her.

  Crimson ichor poured from the wound like a flowing fountain, drenching most of Kindness’s clothing. There was a gash at least six ce
ntimeters long with frayed edges as if something had torn apart her back. The arrow, impaled deeply into the wound, ripped at her muscles as she breathed.

  Jacob didn’t hesitate. He didn’t have time to hesitate. He dug Enyo’s dagger into Kindness’s back, widening the hole so he could pry the arrow free without doing even more damage. His hands became slick with blood. His grip on the dagger loosened. Sweat poured down his forehead as he narrowed his eyes in concentration, keeping his focus on removing the arrow quickly without doing more harm than help.

  Finally, with one last spray of blood, Jacob pried the arrow free. “Enyo!”

  “Medico. Medicor. Percuro. Sicco. Emaculo.”

  Jacob stood up as Enyo healed Kindness’s wound. He wandered behind the counter, toward the washing bowl, where he cleaned off his hands and Enyo’s dagger. Fellis, who’d finished closing up shop, wandered back in and looked at Enyo.

  “How is she?”

  “I don’t know yet.” Enyo shook her head. “Her wound is horrendous. While I can heal it, she’s already lost a lot of blood. I don’t know if she’ll survive.”

  “Do everything you can for her,” Jacob instructed. “Fellis, prepare Kindness a bed. We should move her to somewhere more comfortable once Enyo heals her.”

  Fellis nodded, though she didn’t leave at first. “That arrow. Jacob, do you think…?”

  “We can’t say anything yet,” Jacob said. “However, I’m going to scout the surrounding area.”

  Kindness must have already been close to Hargone when she’d been shot. She wouldn’t have lived long enough to reach this port town otherwise. If she had been close when receiving that wound, then it stood to reason that whoever had given it to her was still in the area.

  Jacob traveled up the stairs, entered his bedroom, and grabbed the broadsword sword hanging from the wall. It felt awkward in his hand. This weapon wasn’t Durandal, his partner and the only sword he’d used since he found it several years ago. It was just a regular broadsword. Decent balance. Well-made. Sharp.

  It still felt off.

  Traveling downstairs, Jacob offered a quick nod to Enyo and Fellis before he was out the door. He didn’t stop to greet anyone, though a few of the regulars tried to ask him about Kindness, but he had no time to answer. If there really was a scouting party of Dark Clansmen out there, then he would need to find and dispose of them before they reached Hargone.