by D N Meinster
As he ran to his destination, Doren came up at his side. "It's not a race," he said, before passing Aros and taking a wide lead. The Prince was fast. His legs were longer, giving him a superior stride, and his stamina was better, letting him maintain his speed all the way there. Aros had never considered himself to be in poor physical shape, but compared to the Prince, he was. Royalty must have been required to remain in top form. At least Aros hoped that was a legitimate excuse.
The shield on Doren's back blocked Aros' view of the mausoleum until he was right beside it. Doren had gotten there first, but he had yet to go inside.
"Do we wait for Rikki?" Aros asked. She was still several minutes away from catching up.
Doren picked his shield off his back and stepped closer, signifying his answer.
"Right," Aros said, taking a blade in his hand and moving to the door. The mausoleum was like an enormous marble box, partially buried by the sand. The pillars that held it together were sullied by the environment, but it had remained standing unlike most of its brethren. There was only one door, which was easy enough to push. It only took a single hand and light touch for Aros to dislodge it from the entrance.
Doren grabbed Aros' arm before he took another step. "Look."
Aros examined the inside of the room, which was dark and poorly lit. It wasn't until his eyes searched downward that he discovered what Doren was pointing out. There was no floor inside. It just went down, straight to mysterious tombs below. There was no way to see what was down there from their position.
"Are they usually built like this?" Aros asked.
"No," Doren answered. "This has to be the place." He turned back toward Rikki, who was getting closer. "We need light!"
Rikki stopped and placed a hand on the top of her staff. The channeling crystal lit up for a second, until the light deserted the crystal and zoomed toward the mausoleum.
Aros and Doren ducked down as the light entered the mausoleum, revealing its decaying innards. There were cracks and cobwebs on the inside walls, but no trace of bodies one might expect to find there.
Doren peeked downwards to see how far the drop was.
"How far down does it go?" Aros asked.
"It's not that bad," Doren answered.
Aros waited for the Prince to jump down, but he kept on staring at what was below. Maybe it was further than Doren hinted, but it didn't matter. If Leidess was down there, that's where Aros would go.
He walked up beside Doren but didn't bother looking down. "I'll go first." Aros returned his blade to its magnetic holder and took a leap forward.
Aros felt his stomach rise and his chest tighten as he fell into the unknown. His feet smashed into the ground before he could start screaming, sending ripples of pain up his legs. He grabbed the hilt of one his swords upon landing, expecting to be attacked before he had a chance to stand up. He remained crouched, listening for signs of the Thalians. But all he heard was another person crash to the ground beside him.
Aros pressed his hand against the ground and pushed himself up. The floor was hard stone, covered with only flecks of sand. It was cooler down here, with the only light emanating from above. But Aros glanced the flicker of flames not too far ahead. This tomb was wider than the mausoleum suggested but was nowhere near as long as the sewer tunnels.
"You alright, Doren?" Aros whispered.
"I'll make do," he said with a grimace. Doren stood up, shield still in hand. "Lead on."
Aros nodded, taking the blade off his back and proceeding toward the other light source. There was a noticeable lack of bodies in these tombs. There either never were any, or they had been removed.
They both did their best to muffle their footsteps as they came upon two torches built into the wall. The only way forward from here was around a corner, which led to a brightly lit corridor.
The flames revealed only their shadows as they moved onward. There was no one ahead and no one behind. At the end of this corridor was a room as luminous as the hall. This is what Aros would have expected in these tombs. The room contained two closed sarcophagi resting against opposite walls. There was no one else here, except for the potentially dead inside the stone coffins.
"Should we look inside?" Doren asked.
"I don't know," Aros said. "This might not be the right place."
"It is," the voice told Aros, sending shivers up his spine.
"Then let's open them up," Aros said, and he moved over to one of the coffins.
"What is up with you?" Doren inquired.
Aros remained silent, but he knew his companions might catch on at some point. He was answering a voice that they couldn't hear, and there was only so often he could do that before they questioned his sanity.
"Let's just open this," Aros said, putting away his blade and grabbing the edge of the coffin's lid.
"I will ask again," Doren warned, dropping his shield and taking hold of the lid.
Together, the two of them pulled the lid off and exposed the body inside. Aros' mouth dropped as he recognized the man inside.
Ratch's eyes focused on him. "Aros?" he asked, bewildered.
Ratch was dirtier than Aros had ever seen him. There were open wounds on his face, still oozing blood and mixing with the sand and muck that covered the rest of him. Part of his beard appeared to have been burned off, and his hair was wilder than ever without his ponytail. His filthy clothes looked even worse stained with red, and he limply extended a battered hand toward them, hoping for a lift.
Aros wrapped both his hands around Ratch's and tugged, while Doren went for his back and pushed. Ratch rose up from the coffin, stumbling only for a moment. He climbed out of his confinement and started stretching his arms.
"What happened?" Aros asked, perplexed to find his master down here. "When did they take you?"
"Not sure," Ratch grumbled. "A day 'o two ago?" He rubbed the bleeding cut on his forehead. "Damn Thalians."
"I didn't even know they took you." Aros looked despondently at Ratch. "I feel like a horrible apprentice."
"Don' worry about it," Ratch said. "But then why are you here?"
"Leidess," Aros said, whipping back around to face the other coffin.
"What about her?" Ratch asked, but Aros was already on his way to the other side of the room.
"They took her, too," Doren answered for him.
"What!" Ratch bellowed. He took a better look at Aros' companion. "Who're you?"
"Doren," he mumbled.
"Doren?" Ratch responded. "Prince Doren?" Ratch started swiping at his hair in a futile attempt to straighten it out, taking a bow as he continued. "My liege."
Aros could hear Ratch and Doren, but he wasn't paying them mind. He placed both of his hands on the lid of the stone coffin, and without any help, pushed it right off its resting place. It smashed against the floor with a heavy thud.
Leidess was inside, as Aros had hoped. She was still wearing the last dress he had seen her in; a dress that was supposed to mark a day of celebration. It lacked the blood and grime that he had feared after seeing Ratch's attire. There was no apparent harm done to her. But her eyes were closed, and they did not open as Aros stared at her.
"Leidess," he said. "Leidess!"
She remained motionless, setting off a panic inside Aros. She couldn't be dead. She was alive. She had to be alive.
Aros reached into the sarcophagus and took her in his arms. He was relieved to find she was still warm. As he pulled her close, he could feel the slightest inflation of her chest up against his. She was breathing.
He brought her up and out of her entombment with one heave, then slowly slumped down against the nearest wall, keeping her in his embrace. She was alive but she was unconscious. What did they do to her? Was it poison? Corrupt magic?
Ratch and Doren both came up at Aros' sides, looking down at him and his slumbering love. "She's alive," Aros informed them.
"Don' look good though," Ratch said, before adding, "sorry."
"We'll get her back
to a healer," Doren assured him.
"Which her are you talking about?" a voice called out from behind them. "The one over there? Or the one over here?"
Aros tilted his head and saw Ale standing in the entryway. The Thalian looked especially pleased with himself, for he was holding a dagger to Rikki's throat. She didn't seem at all concerned about her situation and yawned while her companions glared at her captor.
Xander seemed less thrilled to be there than even Rikki. He was beside Ale, holding Rikki's staff in his clutches, but he kept throwing annoyed glances at his comrade.
Aros repositioned Leidess onto the ground, laying her back against the wall, before he stood up and took out both his clawblades.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk," Ale snickered. "I can cut your friend's throat faster than you can get over here. Now put those things down."
Aros didn't budge, and Doren, following his lead, grabbed his shield.
"The two of you are going to get her killed," Ale warned. "Do I have to explain how this works, little boys? I'm going to offer you a trade. We'll let you and this one go, and all you have to do is leave that one where she is." He nodded toward Leidess. "You can even take the oaf with you."
"Leidess is coming with us," Aros stated with chilling certainty.
"Then your friend dies," Ale replied, feigning gloom.
Aros prepared to charge at Ale, hoping he could get there faster than he could drag the dagger across Rikki's neck. He wasn't about to let her die, but he wasn't going to abandon Leidess either. He stole a glance at Doren, who seemed ready to go along.
Ale gave the impression he knew what was coming. "Very well," he said.
Aros leapt forward, failing to notice the green sparkle in Rikki's eye. Before he had even set his foot down, the dagger had vanished from Ale's hand.
Rikki elbowed Ale in the gut, then spun toward Xander, ready to reclaim her staff. But Doren had also failed to realize what Rikki planned. His airborne shield slammed into the side of her head and she crumbled to the ground.
"Rikki!" Doren shouted as he ran to her and his discarded weapon.
Xander cackled as Doren and Aros neared. "You two are idiots!" He threw Rikki's staff at them, which they easily dodged, and he withdrew an incredibly narrow sword from his belt. He brandished the blade, which lacked the rust one might expect it to have gathered over the hundreds of years it remained buried.
Ale straightened himself out, still clutching an arm to his stomach. "What an elbow." He raised up one hand and, from nowhere, a dagger appeared in it. It was short, with jagged edges, but was more than capable of puncturing his foes. He slowly raised his arm up from his gut, and a dagger manifested into that hand too.
The pair of Thalians stood in front of the pair of Magenites, each holding their weapons and waiting for the other to strike first.
"We could make this a staring contest," Xander mocked, as neither of them made a move on the other.
"You could just let us go," Aros suggested.
"You can go," Ale said. "But Leidess stays."
"Ratch!" Aros shouted. "Get her out of here!" He sprung forward, swinging both his blades down upon Xander.
Xander's sword halted the clawblades' momentum as the metallic weapons collided into each other. He pushed the blades back at Aros before coming in for a swing of his own.
Aros knocked the strike from its path, and he went in for another swipe at Xander. But Xander was spry with his sword, and he prevented the hit from landing.
"Two swords does not make up for poor skills," Xander taunted.
Instead of swinging, this time Aros tried to latch the tips of his blades onto Xander's. He caught the sword in the claws and suspected he might have nullified his opponent. But Xander extracted his blade with a seamless yank. Disappointed, Aros resumed his earlier strategy.
While Aros and Xander took swings at each other, Doren was busy dodging Ale's daggers. He was able to block each of Ale's attacks, which slashed his shield but left no mark, thanks to the enchantment. However, every time Doren went to knock his shield against Ale, he would adeptly evade the blow.
As Ale went in for another swipe, Doren bashed his shield against Ale's hand. He dropped the dagger, but another one replaced it almost instantaneously. "That's cheating!" Doren cried, unsure how to beat an opponent with an infinite supply of daggers.
Doren tucked himself behind the shield and charged forward, hoping to whack into Ale. But Ale turned into the smoke boy before the attack landed, and he hopped right through Doren.
Ale transformed back and stabbed both his daggers at Doren, but he spun just in time to block them with his shield. Both daggers stuck into the shield, and the two just looked at each other during this temporary stalemate.
Ratch had scooped Leidess up in his arms and was doing his best to shuffle through the battle without stepping on the unconscious mage lying amongst them. He sidestepped Aros as he swung wildly at Xander, failing to make a mark. And a flung dagger scratched his side when Ale starting throwing them at Doren.
"Switch!" Doren screamed at Aros as he blocked the unlimited supply of daggers that were soaring at his shield.
Xander stopped swinging his own blade as soon as Doren requested the change. "Well, go on."
A perplexed Aros ran over to Ale and slashed daggers out of the air before they could make contact with Doren's shield. Doren targeted Xander, while Aros prepared for Ale's onslaught.
Ale tossed a few daggers at Aros, who smacked them right back at their originator. Ale changed into smoke so the repelled daggers went right through him.
"Close combat it is," Ale said, returning to his normal form.
Meanwhile, Doren and Xander were hardly trying to harm each other. Each one easily blocked the other's attack, and they would take long pauses before they bothered trying again.
"How about you try throwing it at me?" Xander recommended.
"Why don't you try throwing yours at me?" Doren shot right back.
Ratch gradually increased the distance between himself and the battle. He was close to turning the corner, where the fighting would leave his sight. But someone faded into the hall, right in front of him.
Spira solidified and frowned. "Where do you think you're going with her?"
Before Ratch could even reply, Spira took him under her control and turned him around. He was walking back to the action, Leidess still in his arms.
Aros didn't understand how Ale was able to keep up with him with such tiny blades. Ale had nicked his arms more times than he was able to slice into him, and it just didn't make sense. It didn't help that Ale was able to transform into smoke each time he could have cut into him.
Aros saw Ratch reenter the room when Ale had again become the smoke boy. "What are you doing?" he shouted, but his question was answered when Spira entered right behind him.
Aros forgot all about Ale and threw one of his blades straight at Spira.
The clawblade soared right at its mark, but was struck out of its path by Uterak, who shifted into the room. His shoulder slammed into the sword, sending it hurtling into the wall.
Aros retrieved the blade but shuddered thinking of their numbers. Rikki was still out of it, Ratch was under Spira's control, and Doren was locked in a staring contest with Xander. It was two against four, but their odds got even worse when Sarin shifted into the room.
Sarin looked delighted to find his prey on his home turf. "You should have invited me sooner!" He summoned spears in his hands and at his sides. "Which one should I kill first?"
Rikki, still lying on the ground, held up her hand. Her staff flew into it, and she used it to thrust herself back on her feet.
Doren grabbed Rikki's shoulder and guided her backwards, so that the three companions grouped themselves together against the far wall.
They were surrounded.
"Help us," Aros whispered, begging the voice for assistance. Without any help, they were all going to die. Aros was sure of it. They couldn't defeat Xander and Ale. They fled
from Sarin. Uterak had kicked their asses. There was no hope for them. Rikki didn't have the strength to compete, and he and Doren were outmatched.
Aros focused on Leidess, still in Ratch's arms. She was sleeping, and he wouldn't be there when she woke up. He could feel his eyes start to water.
Doren grabbed onto his shoulder and held his shield out in front of him. Rikki followed suit, extending her staff so it touched the shield. Aros' clawblades joined his companions weapons. They all knew they weren't going to make it out of this room alive. But they would go out fighting and they would take as many Thalians with them as they could.
None of them said anything to each other. Their weapons parted, and they charged.
A man in a black cloak laced with gold shifted in front of them and blocked their way. A trilby hat adorned his head, while a magnificent staff was displayed in his grasp.
Aros could not see the man's face, but he knew it was Hatswick.
Hatswick's staff rose above his head, and he twirled it around and around. Each of the Thalians flopped to the ground, as if the staff was smacking them without making physical contact.
He turned to the group, showing them his middle-aged face and salt-and-pepper goatee. He held out his staff horizontally in front of them. "Grab on," he commanded.
"Ratch!" Aros shouted, hoping he was no longer under Spira's control.
The blacksmith, still a bit dazed, stumbled over to his side. Aros took Ratch's hand from around Leidess and placed it on the staff.
Aros was the last one to touch his hand to Hatswick's staff, but as soon as he did, his whole body instantly went numb.
Chapter Fifteen
Open Wounds
It was the second time in less than two days that Doren had shifted. One moment he was beneath the graveyard, the next he was inside Castle Tornis. Rikki was whisked away to the healer as soon as they arrived, along with Ratch and Leidess. But Aros and Doren weren't allowed to accompany them. They were dragged before the King, joined by their savior, Hatswick.