by Tracey Alley
man.
“This Nikolai, he Trunk’s friend. You be Trunk’s friend?” Slade was once again struck by how easy it was to understand the huge creature, despite his thick accent.
“Yes Trunk. I’ll be your friend. Do you want me to rescue Nikolai?”
“Not yet. Nikolai need quiet, you go outside, we come soon,” Trunk said firmly.
For a second Slade wondered about the wisdom of pausing in their escape attempt, even for a brief while but then he turned and left the room, for now he would continue to follow the dreams instructions. Looking at the Wulfstan and the wizard he knew they had heard the exchange so didn’t bother to repeat it. Pulling the stone door closed behind him, Slade slumped down painfully with his back against the wall to wait. He felt suddenly grateful for the brief chance to rest, the adrenalin that had carried him this far deserting him as abruptly as it had come.
“All right, what’s going on?” Wulfstan asked still standing and glowering down at Slade. Slade looked up at the big warrior and gave a small shrug.
“I don’t really know myself. I just know that I have to get out of here, and it has to be with Trunk.”
“And Trunk is some kind of a, what? He’s half-troll, half-ogre, speaks understandable Common and has friends he wants to rescue?” Wulfstan asked, unable to keep the sarcasm from his voice.
“Looks like it, yeah.” Slade could see why Wulfstan would be skeptical but he still felt compelled to follow his dream’s directive.
“Who are you anyway?” Slade asked the wizard.
“My name is Roulibard. As I said before I’m a wizard. Don’t ask what I'm doing here because I haven’t got a clue. In fact, I’m surprised I can remember my own name, everything else is such a blur, anyway consider me ‘at your service’ Prince Einreich,” he said, finishing with a small bow.
“My name now is only Slade,” Slade said quickly, surprised that this young wizard knew his real name.
Roulibard certainly seemed inoffensive enough; yet Slade found that he was troubled by the wizards’ vagueness and lack of any apparent beatings from his stay in Diablis. Slade knew well, from his own experience, that all spellcasters were subjected to the most intense forms of torture from the very beginning of their incarceration. Unfortunately Slade’s body was not the only part of him that was not functioning well, his mind was simply too clouded and tired to think properly.
“As for the rest,” Slade continued, “well, I guess we need all the help we can get so glad to have you on board. This is Wulfstan,” Slade said pointing to Wulfstan, “in there,” he pointed towards the stone door, “as you no doubt heard, are Trunk and Nikolai. Do you know if there’s any way out of here from this level?” Slade asked looking at Wulfstan and Roulibard in turn. Both men shook their heads in a no.
“Diablis prison has a reputation for being impregnable; no-one’s ever escaped before. I’d guess it’s because there’s only one way in or out. Any surprise we may have had is gone now. Coming down here was completely stupid” Wulfstan finished angrily.
“Are you questioning my decisions?” Slade asked his voice dangerously quiet.
“As a matter of fact I am,” Wulfstan responded, “I don’t know what in the nine hells you were thinking of coming down here when the only possible way out was up there. Instead you’ve dragged us down here and for what?”
Slade stood up to face Wulfstan, his initial surprise at Wulfstan's arrogant anger giving way now to his own rising anger. Anger, if Slade was honest with himself, he knew stemmed from his own concerns about the wisdom of his decision. Slade had ‘followed the Trunk’ based only on the instructions of a dream, something Slade would once have condemned as a ridiculous way to make a decision. Now Slade could only hope that by following the dreams direction he was doing the right thing, and had not, as Wulfstan was suggesting, led them all down here to their doom.
“You are a soldier of the royal house and as such…” Slade began, arguing simply out of his own fear that Wulfstan was right.
“And you,” Wulfstan said cutting Slade off, “gave up your right to give me orders when you gave up your right to the throne so don’t start with me now. We should’ve left when we had the chance, by coming down here you’ve effectively signed our death warrants and I want to know why?”
“We came down here for a damn good reason and I do not like your…”
“And I don’t like the fact,” Wulfstan again cut Slade off, “that you’ve endangered us all. Up there we had others who would’ve fought at our side to get out. What have we got here? A skinny little wizard and…”
“And me,” Nikolai cut in, his voice as hard and cold as ice, “and without me none of you will make it anywhere alive. Now, both of you shut up, we have a lot of work to do and very little time to do it in and we do not have time for the two of you to argue.”
All three men turned to look at Nikolai standing in the doorway leaning heavily on Trunk’s arm. Unlike the rest of the prison population Nikolai was wearing his own clothes, loose fitting black leather pants and a plain black, linen shirt. His black hair was worn long, framing a pale face that would have been handsome if it weren’t so utterly devoid of emotion. As it was the sensually shaped mouth and beautifully modeled eyes seemed somehow repellent. Again, Slade noticed the chill surrounding Nikolai.
“Right now, we need to make plans.” Nikolai turned to address Slade, “Diablis is, or rather has been, impregnable,” Nikolai continued, “This means of course, that we will have to take the entire prison complex.”
“What,” Wulfstan asked sarcastically, “The four of us?”
“Five,” Roulibard said indignantly, still smarting over Wulfstan’s description of him as a ‘skinny little wizard’.
“Sorry,” Wulfstan said dismissively, “the five of us?”
It can be done,” Nikolai looked at Wulfstan only briefly then continued to speak to Slade, “there are only two levels to the prison, this and the upper level. We need to first gain control of this level, taking whatever we find to assist us, and then we’ll be ready to take the upper level. After all, we don’t really have a choice, we win or die.”
Suddenly Nikolai laughed. Slade felt his blood run cold hearing that laugh, it took all his courage not to turn and run. He could see that both Wulfstan and Roulibard also went a little pale upon hearing Nikolai's cold, emotionless laughter. Only Trunk appeared unaffected, gazing calmly at his friend.
Unexpected Allies
Outside in the bustling city of Diablis itself an unlikely trio of allies were waiting to find a way into the prison complex. The three were sitting at a small, round table outside a bake house across the plaza from the prison’s main entrance, surreptitiously watching the building across from them.
Unlike most cities in The Kingdoms, where prisons were kept largely out of sight in the poorer districts, Diablis city was actually built around the huge rectangular structure. The complex was surrounded on all sides by a cobbled plaza that featured small formal gardens, elaborate fountains and comfortable benches under leafy trees.
Surrounding the plaza was the main commercial district of Diablis with its taverns, temples, markets and vendors of every imaginable type, selling almost anything one might possibly want. The remainder of the city spiraled outward in ever increasing circles. The poorest sections of town were those furthest from the city centre, and they were little more than slums hidden in the shade of Diablis’s towering walls.
Diablis was normally a busy city, even this soon after daybreak. Today, however, it was even busier, with almost all of the marketplaces and street stalls already open and far more than usual numbers of people on the streets. This unusual activity was due to the Sun Ascension festival that was scheduled to be held today at the large temple of Vadatajs, outside the east gate of the city.
Vadatajs was a vile and evil demi-god, dedicated to violence, lust and bloodshed, whose symbol was a pair of red tinged eyes. Virtually a
ll the cities inhabitants were making preparations for the festival, which marked the mid-winter solstice. It would begin exactly at noon and would continue all afternoon and into the night, eventually developing into a very public drunken orgy as the day progressed.
Once, under the rule of Eldritch, the worship of Vadatajs had been outlawed, his few followers acting in secret. The Dark One however, had actively encouraged the citizens to follow the dark and perverted religion. Even those who were not truly devotees of the god would be attending the festival; under The Dark One’s rule non-attendance was a sure-fire way of coming to his attention, which was something no right thinking person wanted.
“Are you sure you can get us into the prison?” The questioner was a powerfully built male minotaur, dressed in the rough garments of a typical peasant. Although minotaurs rarely left their homeland, a group of small islands in the far south commonly called the Isles of Iona, those that did venture to travel throughout The Kingdoms found that they were welcomed by almost all wherever they went.
Despite the legendary savagery of the minotaur race, they were also well known for their strict code of honor. It was the very strictness of the minotaur code of honor that made them such welcome companions to the many mercenary groups and adventurers who wandered The Kingdoms. Many of those minotaurs who