by Brian Beam
The sneaky little snake was goading me into a trap. “No, it hasn’t even crossed my mind,” I lied. “Now, if you’ll excuse me.” I turned to the door and put a hand to the golden knob. As I began to open the door, Galius’ hand smacked against it, slamming it shut.
“Don’t even try it.” His voice had become a razor’s edge with no hint of its prior whininess. “You’re a smart man. I know you have it figured out and that’s why I can’t let you leave. You want this gem for yourself and you know how to get it.”
There it was. He had planned on having me killed. I guess I should have been honored that he thought he needed six brutes and a wizard to do so. It was hard to feel honored when my life was possibly about to end, though.
“The Contract’s magic won’t keep me from killing your men,” I hissed, though I didn’t intend on killing anyone. I just wanted to plant myself as a threat in Galius’ mind.
“That’s what he’s for,” Galius whispered, gesturing to the clean-shaven wizard by the window.
My hand gripped the hilt of my sword to the point of being painful. Things weren’t supposed to be happening the way they were at this point. I was supposed to just give him the egg and leave. Given that my plan was shaping up to be a massive failure, I figured that I may as well test if my theory on the Contract had been correct to see if I had any hope of getting out of the manor alive.
“So, you put free will to good use in order to bypass the Contract. You just hired some men known for their rough nature and told them some vague instructions that let them know they would be paid well to hurt me without ever telling them to do so directly.” Though the idea had seemed too easy when it had first come to me, it made sense. Contracts are based on people being told exactly what to do. Free will is not taken into account. Galius did not seem to be the type of man to figure something like that out on his own. I figured the dragon egg had played a part in his breakthrough whenever he had employed Contract Holders in the past.
Galius chuckled with a devilish grin. “Ah, the honesty finally comes forth. Yes, all it takes is telling someone known to be prone to violence to do whatever they think it would take to please me when dealing with someone like you and they jump to attack at a nod or a gesture. It’s quite simple, really. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of tipping you off about it and so I have to put that discovery to use again. That is, unless you will Activate another Soul Contract with me to be my personal guard and protect the gem from being stolen. Of course the Terms would be indefinite. You seem quite capable and resourceful. I would be glad to spare your life for your service.”
Right then and there, I busted into laughter, causing Galius’ mouth to twist into a snarl. “Oh, but you do jest so. I will choose death over serving a greasy beggar-thief such as yourself any day of the year.”
Galius’ eyes widened and I could see him trembling with anger. He turned to the seven men behind him. “Take him to the basement and have some fun,” he commanded.
I drew my sword, ready to go down fighting, but it was wrenched suddenly from my hand by an unseen force and went flying towards the back of the room. The wizard snatched it from midair and let it drop to the floor beside him with a wicked grin.
The six men had weapons drawn and were just starting for me when the window in the back of the room suddenly exploded inward, shooting glass fragments in all directions. Arms flew in front of faces for protection, but glass still drew blood across hands and cheeks. Clothing was ripped by larger pieces of glass. Galius dropped to the floor and screamed like a frightened little girl. The glass didn’t touch me as if I had been standing behind an invisible wall. I smiled broadly. It looked like my plan was going to work after all.
With Galius whimpering on the ground and the seven other men trying to recover, I sprang into action. I darted for the nearest man to my right, a tree of a man missing half of one of his ears from some prior event. I dropped low and spun a kick against the back of his knees. Half-ear went down onto the strewn glass shards on the floor. I rose quickly and dropped my boot down onto his right hand causing him to drop the spiked mace he had been holding. His loss was my gain. I now had a weapon and was ready to go.
The five other large men had had enough time to realize the situation and charged after me as one. I couldn’t see the wizard and assumed he had been knocked to the ground in the blast. I had no idea if he was dead or alive and for the moment, didn’t care. I couldn’t survive against the five men in such close quarters, but I could try to stay alive until my backup arrived.
My mace came up to block another mace coming down at me, but the movement distracted me from stopping a fist driving into my side. I recoiled from the punch, wondering if the man had cracked a rib as a dagger shot past where I had been standing. If that wasn’t luck, then I’ve got a castle to sell you.
I leaned away from a sword swiping down at me, swinging my mace underhanded into the sword bearer’s crotch. I could feel the spikes penetrate his…um…area, then pulled the mace away as he dropped to the ground grabbing his injured manhood. I wasn’t proud of the cheap shot, but I was pretty sure I had put him out of the fight for good. The other four men paused for a split-second which was all I needed to fling open the door and jump back onto the balcony.
Tomil must have been coming to investigate the noise and the door slammed into him, knocking him to the floor. As I reached down with an arm to help him back to his feet, a ball of fire shot over my head and slammed into the front wall of the manor, exploding in a shower of flame that sent the two servants in the foyer scurrying out of the house with frightened screams. Tomil, paralyzed with fear, stared at the fire which had engulfed the curtains of the front windows.
“Run!” I yelled. With a start, Tomil hightailed it towards the front door, skipping four steps at a time on his way down the staircase.
Before I could make a retreat of my own, one of the men, a hairy lout with one lazy eye, lunged through the doorway with his dagger. I spun to the side as lazy-eye went past and swung my mace to catch the back of his leg. The mace embedded in his hamstring, bringing forth a gut wrenching scream from his throat. I pulled the mace free as he started to fall and brought the handle around to crash into his skull. He dropped unconscious to the floor. Before I could turn to face my next attacker, I felt something crash into my back that sent me sprawling over lazy-eye.
Flipping over to face my attacker, I could see four men, including half-ear, forming a semicircle in front of me with the wizard at the center of it. The wizard’s face was a mess of bloody scratches and he kept one eye closed. One hand was hidden in his sleeve, the other held out towards me. He must have been the one to knock me down. Behind the men, I could see Galius retreating from the room and running down the stairs.
“That’s enough from you,” the bloody wizard announced angrily. I felt a force push down on my chest as if someone had stomped a foot onto it to hold me down. I could see another fireball forming in front of his hand and could feel the heat radiating from it.
I was just starting to wonder where my window-breaking saviors were when a snake-like tendril of water meandered around the wizard’s shoulder and smashed into his ball of fire, snuffing it out with a small wisp of smoke. The shock was just registering on the wizard’s face when he went shooting forward as if fired from a crossbow and slammed into the balustrade. Only his quick thinking saved him from flipping over the balustrade to the floor below by ducking down so that his body remained below its railing. I jumped to my feet, mace in hand, as his spell lifted from me.
Sal’ appeared in the doorway, fury painting her features. “Hey, Korin,” she greeted with intensity as the four men turned in shock. She was holding my sword in her free hand and tossed it towards me—blade first.
I stepped aside and grabbed at the hilt from the side, dropping the mace from my other hand. “Fancy meeting you here,” I replied.
The wizard on the floor snarled, “I’ll take care of her. Kill the man.”
Another b
all of fire shot past me towards Sal’ which she deftly ducked and came back up, shooting out a ball of fire of her own. I had to jump to the side to dodge the spell as it sailed several feet to the side of Galius’ wizard-for-hire. I had forgotten about her hit-or-miss magic ability.
“Aim for him next time,” I called as I started for the stairs. I needed to draw the men away from Sal’ and to a place where I wouldn’t get killed by stray wizard fire if I wasn’t paying attention.
“Yes, you are welcome for me saving your life,” she called back with a small grin as she deflected some kind of crystalline projectile from the other wizard with some kind of magic shield. It seemed that she had warmed up to my humor a bit. Too bad I was actually being serious that time.
When I reached the stairs, I did what any self-respecting man would do and leapt onto the banister and slid down it. Fighting for your life doesn’t mean you can’t have a little fun.
I guess the other four men were a little more serious than I was and ran down after me, practically clambering over one another to get to me. Galius must have been paying well for such enthusiasm, most likely with a big bonus in store for whoever made him happiest. In case you haven’t been paying attention, the one who would make him happiest is the one who was successful in killing me.
Dropping off the end of the banister before I hit the lion-head post at the end of it, I landed in front of Til’ with his sling in his hand. Galius was lying at his feet, unconscious. “Hey, Korin, we came to save you. Look what I got!” He opened his other hand to reveal the dragon egg. “And you didn’t think we could help. I knocked out Galius with my sling and—”
“Til’ as thankful as I am, shut up. We have bigger problems.” I turned to face the oncoming men.
“Oh, them,” Til’ said offhandedly. “I wouldn’t worry about them.”
Before I could ask why, the lead man smashed into an invisible barrier, knocking him backwards and sending the four men falling into a heap. Max was suddenly at my leg, climbing up to my shoulder.
I turned to look at him. “Max?”
“No, I’m just a random magic talking wizard squirrel. Seriously, lunkhead, did you think I would let you take all the glory for yourself? How about a ‘thank you for stopping the big men from killing me?’” He twitched his little squirrel nose and arched his brow.
“Yeah, Max figured out your plan. He’s pretty smart you know. So when you…”
“Sal,” I breathed, ignoring Til’ and looking up to the balcony, hoping Galius’ wizard hadn’t hurt her. Sal’ was sitting on the baclcony’s balustrade with her legs dangling over the edge. One ringed hand supported her on the railing; the other was in the wicker case.
“You guys done down there?” she asked before dropping from the railing and practically floating down to the floor. When she landed, she looked back to the staircase where the four thugs were pressed back against the banister whimpering, too afraid to try to come after us again. Such a display of masculinity when faced with a magic talking wizard squirrel.
I rushed up to Sal’ and threw my arms around her, causing Max to jump to the floor. “I’m so happy you guys came,” I whispered in her ear.
Sal’ pushed away, and gave me a look with one eyebrow raised. “So, ‘aim for him next time,’ is it? There’s a wizard upstairs who won’t be on his feet for a while who would disagree with your criticism.” I thought Sal’ was going to go off on me, but instead she burst into laughter and leaned back into my embrace. “We would have come in earlier, but I could sense Galius’ wizard and we didn’t want to burst in before we knew how capable he was. You knew we’d follow you here the whole time, didn’t you?”
When we finally broke away I turned to see Til’ with Max sitting on his haunches beside him. Til’s face beamed with pride as Max stared at me with a hint of appreciation.
“Well, I was hoping you guys would come after me. After I realized how each of you had risked your lives to save me at some point, I thought you might do it again by trying to get the egg back for me. I couldn’t tell you my plan or the Contract’s magic would’ve stopped you,” I explained. “I don’t know how to thank you for doing this.”
“Yeah, we got it,” Max said with a huff. “You are just lucky Salmaea is pretty good with telescopic magic. She could sense the wizard up there and spied through the window. Once she could tell you were in that room with the wizard and that you were in trouble, she tried to attack the wizard.” He flashed Sal’ a glare and her face reddened. She had missed the wizard, but she had still saved me. “I helped float her up to the window. Took me a bit longer than I would have liked with this accursed body.”
I gave Sal’ a thankful smile. This had not been the first time she had indirectly saved me. For some reason, that indirectness made it seem more meaningful.
“Thank you, Sal’.” Sal’s pouty lips rose into a small smile back at me. How could I have lived a life without her if my plan had failed? I turned to Max. “What made you realize I knew how to get around the Contract’s magic, Max?” I asked.
“You just seemed a little too into this taking Galius the egg by yourself idea. With a little bit of thought, I came to the same conclusion you had. I was just a little upset that you were able to figure out how to circumvent a Contract’s magic before me.”
“Well, if it makes you feel any better, that thing beat us both to the punch,” I said as I pointed at Galius.
“The Academy wouldn’t know what to say if I brought that knowledge to them.” Sal’ threw an arm around my middle and squeezed as if to say she didn’t plan on leaving me to take the knowledge to the Academy. As much as I appreciated the gesture, my possibly cracked rib didn’t.
I turned to Sal’. “Well, how about when you do make it back there, you can take the credit for the discovery?”
Sal’ beamed up at me. My pulse quickened. “I’d surely get Rank for that!”
“Hey, do you think maybe you should run that by me first?” Max asked raspily. “I technically knew about it before her.” He gave us a big squirrely grin and we shared a laugh.
“So guys, do we take this thing to Bhaliel now?” Til’ asked. “Can I give it to her? I feel kind of bad for keeping it from her before. Remember? Back at Nansunic’s Temple? Hey, do you think she’d give me another ride? On her back this time, though. I was a little scared when I woke up in those claws. It wasn’t very comfortable being held that way. So—”
“Til’,” I interjected. “Yes, you can give Bhaliel the egg. We better get out of here before our wizard friend up there wakes up or one of Galius’ servants brings back the city guard. But before we go…” I trailed off as I walked toward where Galius lay. I grabbed his shoulder and shook him. “Hey, grease-beard. Wake up.”
Galius moaned and rolled onto his back. His eyes widened when he saw me hovering above him with my sword in hand. “You c-can’t hurt me,” he stammered, obviously not believing what he said. “I-I’m the C-Count of B-Byweather. Y-you’ll b-be arrested. Y-you’ll be h-hanged for this!” Spittle flew from his mouth as he stammered his words.
“Are you sure about that?” I asked. I brought up my left hand and attempted to flick him in the forehead, my finger stopping an inch from hitting him. “Damn,” I grumbled. And I really had wanted to punch him in the face.
Sal’ crouched down beside me. “Yeah, it’s a shame,” Sal’ said before punching Galius square in the nose, dropping him unconscious to the floor. “But, you’ve got to love free will,” she stated with a smile.
“Sure do,” I agreed with a smile of my own.
Chapter 23
One Step Closer To Extinction
After escaping through the back door of Galius’ manor and scaling a couple walls, we sneaked back to the Sea Breeze to retrieve our horses. I’m sure the magic of the dragon egg was somehow responsible for us getting out of the manor and town without any problems.
Sal’ and Til’ rode together on Windmane. Til’ had the dragon egg in his possession. I rode at th
eir side on Telis with Max curled up on the saddle in front of me. The two spells he had cast at Galius’ manor had completely worn him out. His squirrel body really was limiting for his magic.
Having kept the egg from Galius while still fulfilling the Ilgish-blooded count’s Contract Terms, I should have been happy. Now I would have time to see where things would go with Sal’. I was going to have the chance to find Raijom and possibly piece together the puzzle of why I had been taken away from my parents. For all I knew, I may have been able to stop Raijom’s warmongering. However, all I felt was unease while we rode towards the location I had agreed to meet Bhaliel as the clouds took on the orange hue of a beginning sunset. It was more than simple nervousness. It was more a sense of dread.
We reached the crossroads at sunset and changed our course to the west. Although I had told Bhaliel that I would meet her a league from the crossroads, the distance wouldn’t matter. She could hone in on the egg using her bond with the egg being out in the open. We would be early for the meeting, but leaving Byweather quickly had been in our own best interests. We were technically going to be wanted criminals when Galius awoke. I may have known who the true criminal was in the whole situation, but that didn’t do me much good. To tell the truth, I wasn’t going to miss being free to visit Byweather anyway.
The hillocks rolled gently beneath the horses’ hooves with trees and shrubs only occasionally dotting the landscape. The full moon illuminated the land around us, but hid the bright fall colors of the trees. Stars sparkled like diamonds in the darkened sky. The wind still carried the scent of the ocean miles behind us and we had to stuff our cloaks under our bottoms to keep them from whipping away from our bodies. Between my cloak’s lack of a clasp and having it tucked beneath me, I thought it was as likely to choke me as keep me warm.
After an hour of listening to Til’ ramble on about how excited he was to deliver the egg to Bhaliel while Sal’ and I shared secret smiles in the moonlight, we came to a large, grassy clearing with tall trees spaced sporadically around its perimeter. I was thankful there were no farms or houses lit up anywhere in sight. I hadn’t taken into consideration that I could have been leading Bhaliel to an area where our meeting would be witnessed and cause a massive scare for some poor individuals.