by Logan Jacobs
Meanwhile, Maruk and Lena had moved out to get a better angle for their own attack, and there was the distinct sound of shattering glass a moment before a bloom of turquoise flame so bright that I could see it through my blindfold enveloped the gorgon. By the erratic motions of the creature's mana, I could tell it was flailing around in an effort to put out the flames, but Emeline was close on Lena's tail with a magic fireball of her own, and orange flames joined the blue and outlined the gorgon's serpentine body in fire.
Yvaine moved forward to stab at it again. I had opened my mouth to tell her to back off and let the flames burn out when I heard a smack followed by a yelp and the clatter of Yvaine's sword on the gravel.
Flames still flickered over the gorgon's body as it lunged for the noblewoman. My heart leapt into my throat as I threw my hand up and created a clone between them, and the gorgon screeched as it crashed into the clone, and the mana burned its body.
I lunged for Yvaine's sword then to return it to her, but I only had a vague idea of where it had landed based on the sound.
The gorgon shrieked again as another of my companions' attacks kept it at bay for the moment, and after a few terrible seconds of scrambling around in the gravel, my hand closed around the hilt of Yvaine's sword.
The noblewoman was about ten feet away, and I realized with a jolt that she hadn't moved. For a horrible second, I thought she might be dead, but no, her mana was as strong as ever. I realized then that she must have lost her mirror when she'd lost her sword. She couldn't see, so she was staying still. That was smart.
Just then, the gorgon lunged again, and the red blaze of mana sailed like a comet directly for Yvaine. I didn't even think about magic in that moment, I just ran the two steps forward it took to put myself between the monster and Yvaine and raised her sword in front of us both.
A shower of hot blood rained down over me as the gorgon, unable to alter its course in time, impaled itself on the blade. A second later pain tore across my arm as the gorgon scratched me, and I staggered back half a step as I dropped Yvaine's sword and drew my own mana dagger.
The gorgon, somehow, was still alive, and its mana wove in a dizzying pattern in front of me as it flailed and hissed and bled. I aimed for that light and struck out with the mana blade, and the red light exploded into white tendrils that traced through the monster's entire body like lightning bolts. The gorgon paused for a moment, stunned, and then I felt it shudder and fall to the ground at my feet.
I groped forward blindly until I could feel the creature's face, at once so human and yet so alien with its lipless mouth and merely two slits for nostrils. The body of one of the snakes on the monster's head slid past my wrist as I reached forward and closed the gorgon's eyes, and then I slumped down onto the gravel next to it as darkness took me.
Chapter 12
“Take that!” Dehn shouted, and there was a fleshy thunk as he hit the dead gorgon with his axe. “And that!”
I pulled off my blindfold and propped myself up on my elbows with a groan. My stomach lurched as I realized the sharp taste on my tongue was because I had gotten some of the gorgon’s blood in my mouth, and I spat it out onto the gravel. My arm felt like it was on fire where the gorgon had scratched me, but I was momentarily distracted from the pain when I saw Dehn still blindly whaling away at the monster’s thick, scaled tail. Blood and bits of flesh flew up around him as he hacked away with feverish abandon, completely unaware that his opponent was already dead.
“Don’t worry, I’ve almost got it!” Dehn cried out, and he punctuated each word with another hit to the creature’s corpse. “This! Stupid! Beast! Is no match - hyah! For a trained professional - ha! Such! As! Myself!”
Yvaine turned and peeked over at me, and when she saw that I’d taken my blindfold off, she sat up and dared to glance over at the gorgon and the halfling. The others, except for Dehn, quickly realized by the lack of hissing and roaring that the monster was dead and gathered around.
“Gods of the Vales,” Aerin breathed as she rushed forward and knelt beside me. “Look at you.”
I was pretty thoroughly speckled with gorgon blood from when I’d stabbed the thing with Yvaine’s sword, and the scratch on my arm was bleeding, and the skin around it was so inflamed that the redness of it was apparent even in the darkness.
“At least it’s not all my blood,” I joked as I pushed myself all the way up and brushed away the gravel that had stuck to my forearms. Aerin fixed me with a stern frown to let me know that even after all this time, she did not approve of me making light of the life-and-death situations we so often found ourselves in, but when she took my hand in both of hers, her grip was firm and comforting, and I knew she wasn’t really upset with me.
Her mana poured out like liquid sunlight, and I heard the familiar chime of bells as the healer murmured a prayer. As the magic flowed through me, the pain in my arm lessened dramatically, and I watched as the inflammation disappeared and the cuts from the gorgons claws closed themselves. Even the soreness and fatigue I’d felt from riding all day ebbed, and when Aerin released my hand a few moments later, I felt as good as new.
“There,” the redheaded elf said as she leaned back slightly on her heels.
“You’re a miracle worker,” I told her, and I cupped her cheek and pulled her face to mine for a kiss. When we broke apart, her pointed ears were tinged pink with a blush.
“Yeah, well, I still can’t raise the dead,” she muttered, “so try to be a little more careful.”
“Scout’s honor,” I replied, to which Aerin rolled her eyes and tried to hide her grin by turning to Yvaine.
“Hey, killer,” Lavinia poked at Dehn with a stick, careful not to get too close. “You can relax, it’s dead.”
The halfling finally stopped hacking at the gorgon’s corpse and pushed up his blindfold. “Aha! I have vanquished the beast!” He tried to strike a heroic pose by puffing out his chest and stepping on the gorgon’s tail, but the creature’s massive tail was so thick around that it reached Dehn’s knee, and he ended up with his boot propped up against it more than on top of it.
“That was a piece of cake,” the halfling went on. “I don’t know what you all were so worried about.”
Lavinia made a face and opened her mouth to correct him, but Maruk put a hand on her shoulder.
“Don’t start that argument,” the orc warned. “For the sake of my sanity, please, just don’t.”
Lavinia’s shoulders slumped, and she blew out an exasperated breath.
“Whatever,” she muttered and waved dismissively in Dehn’s direction while the halfling recounted the battle from his own perspective, which made his role out to be somewhat more significant than it actually had been. I didn’t blame Lavinia for being annoyed, but I didn’t really care if Dehn gave himself a little too much credit. He was helping us, so he might as well enjoy himself. Besides, the fight sounded a lot more entertaining to hear him tell it than it actually was.
“So, how are we gonna do this?” Dehn asked.
“Do what?” I frowned as I got to my feet and dusted off my pants.
“Split the trophy,” the halfling replied with an impatient gesture at the dead gorgon. The way Dehn had hacked the monster up, I’d say he’d already done a decent job of splitting it. The space where the gorgon’s torso met its tail was practically hamburger thanks to Dehn’s post-mortem assault.
“You want to keep part of that?” Maruk asked, his nose wrinkled up in disgust.
“It’s a trophy!” Dehn insisted. “Who’s going to believe there was even a gorgon down here if we don’t bring something back? Look, if it’s all the same to you, I want the head.” He clapped his hands together. “I think it’ll look great mounted in my office back at the station, and I can bring it out whenever I need to intimidate those teenagers who keep trying to vandalize the building.”
I exchanged a look with the rest of my guildmates. I wasn’t particularly inclined to haul around a gorgon’s rotting head for the rest of the
journey, and by the looks on their faces, the others felt the exact same way that I did.
“It’s all yours, Dehn,” I told the guard.
“I’ll just collect some of the blood and venom,” Lena said, and she approached the gorgon’s corpse with a small dagger and some empty vials. “They’ll be great for some potions I’ve been trying to develop.”
“Take a few scales, too,” Aerin instructed. “We can sell them for a fortune.” Now that the danger had passed, the healer didn’t seem to think slaying the gorgon was a waste of time.
“Hey, guys?” Emeline called. The panthera mage stood a little ways back, and she was looking out into the yard. I hadn’t noticed it before, but after the small, barren lawn area where we stood now, rows of overgrown hedges and walkways with cracked paving stones stretched out behind the house. Mangled topiaries and smashed urns completed the ruined garden, but I realized as I walked up to the mage’s side that the decor wasn’t what had gotten Emeline’s attention.
It seemed as though we’d caught the gorgon in the middle of a meal. The bodies of two elves lay on the path. One had had his arm torn completely off, and the other’s guts were spilled out onto the walkway, his body ripped viciously in half. A few bloody handprints around them showed where the gorgon had propped itself up as it fed, and scraps of clothing and the elves’ bags and weapons were scattered around the corpses.
I realized with a jolt that the elves’ clothes were strikingly similar to those of the bandits Orso’s men had taken prisoner, and I rushed forward and grabbed one of the bags.
“What is it?” Emeline asked with alarm.
“They must have escaped,” I said, and then I realized I hadn’t explained how I knew who the elves were. “I think they were with those bandits we were tracking,” I went on as Emeline came up and picked up the other bag. “They must have gotten away from the fire and the guards and thought they could hide out here. We were right behind them.”
“Damn,” Lavinia said. “Got away from all that just to end up as a gorgon’s dinner? That’s some bad luck.” She smirked. “Well, for them, anyway. Do they have anything good for us?”
I finished rifling through the elf’s pack but came up with nothing. Before I could answer, however, Emeline spoke up.
“Hang on,” the pyromancer said as she pulled a crumpled piece of paper out of the pack she’d been searching. She unfolded the sheet, and my heart leapt as I realized it was another copy of the heist notes, and it identified the elves as members of a gang called the Magpies, but that wasn’t all. There was another paper with it.
“It looks like the leader wrote down all their instructions without using the code,” Emeline said. Then her eyes went wide. “It mentions a costume party! It must be the masquerade the other notes mentioned.” She continued to read, her voice pitched up with excitement. “It seems to indicate that all of the bandit groups were going to meet in the Sunken Caverns at sundown on the night of the heist. Everyone’s supposed to go dressed up in disguises, and they have to bring their copy of the plans as an invitation. They’re going to get their final instructions there from this Cygne person.”
“Gods of the Vales,” Aerin breathed.
“No kidding,” Lavinia remarked. “A costume party? How ridiculous is that?”
“I like the idea,” Maruk countered. “There’s nothing wrong with a little drama now and then.”
“Indeed,” Yvaine agreed. “There’s something rather elegant about the concept, if I do say so myself.”
“They’re criminals, not show dogs!” Dehn barked. “We need to crash this party.”
“Well, we have our invitation,” I said with a grin as I held up the copy of the plans. “We can pass ourselves off as one of the bandit groups to get in and once we’re inside, we can capture Cygne and put an end to the whole thing right there.”
“Wait, hold on.” Lavinia held up her hands. “I’m all for shooting bandits in the face, but are you actually suggesting we dress up for this thing? How are we supposed to fight in ridiculous costumes?”
“There are still five bandit groups participating,” I told her. “We’re going to be outnumbered by a lot, so we can’t just barge in and try to attack them all at once. We need to be clever about this. We take the stealthy approach this time, and we focus on taking out the mastermind before he can finish giving them whatever last instructions he has. We can deal with the rest of the bandits later, and by then, we’ll be able to convince the city guard to come help us.”
Lavinia didn’t look happy about that, but she couldn’t argue with my rationale, so she just crossed her arms and stuck her lip out in a pout. Maruk, however, wasn’t going to let her off so easy, and the orc butted her with his shoulder and gave her a shit-eating grin.
“You’re going to have to wear a ballgown, you know,” he teased.
“Shut it,” the ranger growled back.
“There is another problem,” Aerin said. “Even if we make it back to the city by tomorrow morning, that only leaves us a day before this meeting to prepare. Where are we going to get costumes for a masquerade on such short notice?”
“We needn’t worry about that,” Yvaine said then. “I’m dear friends with one of the most excellent tailors in Ovrista. She’s received the highest acclaim for her work all across the hemisphere, she is just a genius with fabrics, you know.”
“You don’t mean Madame Julienne-Elizabeth Delafose?” Maruk asked suddenly, his eyes wide. “You actually know her?”
“I do,” Yvaine confirmed, and she gave Maruk a proud little smile when the orc gasped and put a large green hand over his heart. “As it would happen, she was just telling me about some sample designs for a line of formal wear that she was going to present at an upcoming gala. She’s told me I actually inspired some of the sketches, if you can believe that.” The noblewoman tossed her hair. “She’s such a dear, and I’m certain that if I ask her, she will let us borrow a few items for this masquerade.”
Maruk looked as though he might actually faint. “To think I could actually wear a piece designed by Madame Julienne-Elizabeth Delafose,” he murmured. “And I could actually meet her. Oh, someone pinch me.”
Lavinia was more than happy to oblige, and Maruk yelped and yanked his arm away while the ranger smirked.
“What?” She batted her eyelashes in a show of innocence. “You asked for it.”
“Let’s focus,” I said, eager to wrangle the pair back to the topic at hand before an argument started. “We don’t have much time to plan, the blood moon is in just two days. As soon as we get back to the city, Yvaine and Maruk will see about getting costumes for us, and Dehn, I need you to go to the city guard and take one last shot at convincing them to help us. Hopefully, now that we have more information, they’ll be more willing to take this seriously.”
“Don’t count on it.” Dehn crossed his arms. “It takes those schmucks three weeks to organize a patrol.”
“Just give it a shot,” I told him. “Lavinia, you said the Sunken Caverns are right outside the city. Do you know where the entrance is?” Unfortunately, even the Magpies’ leader wasn’t careless enough to have written it down, so we were on our own.
“It’s known as an old outlaw hideout,” the ranger replied. “But it was supposed to have been abandoned after a cave-in a few years back. We never had any bounties that took us there, so I don’t know exactly where it is, just that it’s nearby. I’d bet my bow it connects to that old drainage system, though.”
“Alright, so while Yvaine and Maruk get the costumes and Dehn talks to the guards, the rest of us will figure out exactly how to get to the Sunken Caverns and find a way to forge an invitation.” It would be safer to create a fake invitation for ourselves, I figured, than simply to use one of the notes that we already had and try to pass ourselves off as the Fire Birds or the Shrikes or the Magpies. These bandits obviously had some familiarity between them, and word would have gotten around by now about the groups that we’d taken out. It woul
dn’t do to show up claiming to be someone’s dead friends and blow our cover before we’d even gotten inside.
“I know a guy who operates out of the black market,” Aerin said. “I bet he’d be willing to help us out for a gorgon scale or two.”
“Excellent,” I said. “Let’s get back to camp, it’s late, and we’ll need to leave early if we want to get back to the city with enough time to prepare.”
After a day of chasing down bandits and fighting a gorgon, no one had any objections to a few hours of sleep, and we all made our way back to our camp and settled down for the night. Or, at least, tried to. I lay on my bedroll and petted Merlin while he dozed on my chest for about half an hour after everyone else had gone to sleep, but my mind was racing with plans and playthroughs of the mission ahead, and I couldn’t relax enough to drift off. After a few more minutes of staring up at the stars, I decided I just needed to try to walk off some of my nervous energy and got up as quietly as I could with my blanket wrapped around my shoulders.
Merlin stretched and yawned, but when he realized I was the only one up, he trotted over to Lena’s bedroll and nestled in among the alchemist’s blanket. She didn’t even stir.
I crept out of the camp and started for the gate and the woods on the other side of the road, since I figured a nighttime walk through the forest would be better for clearing my head than returning to that creepy house and the garden littered with corpses. It wasn’t until I was across the road that I realized I was being followed, and I turned to see Yvaine a few steps behind me. In the moonlight, the noblewoman’s pale skin seemed to glow, and she looked even more ethereally beautiful than usual.
“I do hope you’re not running away,” she teased as she walked the rest of the way up to me. Then her expression softened. “I heard you get up. You couldn’t sleep?”
“No,” I admitted. “I didn’t mean to wake you. I just needed to clear my head.”
Yvaine laid a hand on my shoulder and gave me a sympathetic frown. “Well, of course, dear. You’ll work yourself half to death, running around like you do. Noble men such as yourself are always worrying about something, but trust me, this will work out.”