by Hans Bezdek
“Wow, you two found that in no time,” said Zeke, scratching the side of his head. “I thought it was something a lot of people had searched for. No offense, but I’m surprised you found it so quickly and without any problems.”
“We weren’t the first to find it,” admitted Sloane.
“You weren’t?”
“There were a lot of skeletons of those that found it before us,” she said. “We were the first to survive getting in.”
“Yikes, Delvin must’ve been scared,” laughed Zeke. “What did you have to-”
A loud crack went off to their right. Out of the corner of Sloane’s eye, she saw a tree, broken in half, fly off into the woods behind them. The flying tree brought down a score of others as it collided into them and continued on into the distance. Everyone turned to see Delvin standing next to a stump. He was glaring at Zeke and held his mace up again.
“Woah…” marveled Xylona. “I’ve never seen a gnome so strong before....”
“Dang, Delvin,” said Zeke, his eyes wide. “Have you been working out?”
“I’ve been telling you I got this mace!” shouted Delvin, holding it high above him for the third time. “It’s magical!”
“Ah, that makes more sense,” nodded Zeke. “Did you get that at the Lost Citadel too?”
“Yes,” nodded Delvin. “We had to face a spirit named Anthony and pass his three tests. One of them involved getting a dragon’s head within a short time limit, and since there weren’t any dragons around there for centuries, no one ever passed it.”
“Let me guess, you summoned an illusion of one,” smirked Xylona.
Delvin deflated at the fae stealing his brag. “Y-Yeah…”
“Impressive yet again,” she laughed. “I couldn’t imagine summoning an illusion of a dragon! That far beyond my powers.”
Delvin did a complete 180, his face beaming with pride. “Oh, it was nothing, really…”
“Did the Lost Citadel have as much gold as you hoped it would?” Zeke asked Sloane.
Sloane winced at that, reminded of when Zeke called her a mercenary who didn’t care about anyone.
Zeke’s face dropped when he saw her wince, quickly putting his hands up. “T-That didn’t come out right.”
“No, it’s okay,” she smiled, resolved to putting this all behind them. “And it did. Far more than I expected, to be honest.”
“Great,” smiled Zeke. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “Listen, about what happened…”
“Don’t worry about it,” she said, shaking her head.
“No, I need to say this,” he said. “I’m sorry for everything. I was a jerk and I lied to you. I never should’ve said the things I did. We should’ve never split up.”
“And I’m sorry for the things I said to you,” nodded Sloane. “That wasn’t fair of me.”
“Actually,” chimed in Delvin. “If we never split up, we wouldn’t have found the Lost Citadel, and we probably wouldn’t have Lord Kutarm just one town over.”
“That’s true…” said Zeke slowly, grinning at Sloane. “Maybe this was my plan all along?”
Sloane playfully punched the elf’s arm. It was good to have the three of them back together. For all of his little remarks, she had missed Zeke.
“Speaking of Lord Kutarm...” said Kriket, clearing his throat. Sloane guessed the lizardman wasn’t one for much sentiment.
“Right,” nodded Sloane. “Do we have a plan for how we’re going to take out Kutarm?”
“Xylona told me she had one,” said Zeke, turning towards the fae. “We should listen to her.”
Sloane and Kriket shared a look but said nothing. If they were going to keep the fae around, they were going to have to start trusting her judgment sooner or later.
“Tell us,” said Sloane, forcing on a smile.
“My plan is simple,” explained Xylona. “We will walk through the men waiting outside of Stedforge now that it is light out. There will probably be some people watching us, but it isn’t out of the ordinary for a fae to walk around with prisoners. We’ll make it through their camps and into the city itself.”
“What do we do from there?” asked Zeke.
“We find Lord Kutarm, and then we kill him!” she said, pounding a fist into her hand.
“Right…” said Zeke, glancing away from everyone.
That wasn’t like Zeke. The last time Sloane saw him, the elf had been overflowing with confidence, no matter how false it was. Fighting the evil tyrant was never going to be simple when the man held an Arcane Staff. Was it that Zeke finally realized this wasn’t going to be a walk in the park? Or was there something else going on…
“I hate to admit it, but the fae’s plan sounds like the best we’re going to get,” conceded Kriket. “I say we go with it.”
“It sounds doable,” nodded Sloane. “We’re in.”
“W-We are?” mumbled Delvin.
“Of course,” wheezed Kriket with laughter. “Did you think we were going to come all this way to just not do anything?”
“O-Of course not,” stuttered Delvin. “We’re in.”
“I’m happy to hear that the three of you are so gung-ho about killing Kutarm… but you won’t be coming with us,” said Xylona, shaking her head.
“What?” asked Sloane and Kriket.
“Thank goodness,” Sloane heard Delvin whisper.
“Getting into the city with just Zeke is going to be hard enough,” explained the fae. “There’s a pretty decent chance that we’ll run into some problems.”
“Then wouldn’t we want their help?” asked Zeke nervously.
“We’ll draw less attention just the two of us, even if we have to fight a few people,” said Xylona. “No offense, but me escorting just an elf is one thing. Escorting an elf with a human, gnome, and lizardman will bring a lot of eyes on us.”
Sloane chewed on her lip. They did make a very strange looking group. Xylona also probably knew more about the inner workings of how Kutarm’s forces would perceive people passing through them. Surely a fae escorting one prisoner wouldn’t be that big of a deal. Besides, they might be able to help out in a different way.
“The Resistance fighters from Burston have taken over Westdale by now,” said Sloane. “They probably rested in the town for the night, but should be making their way towards Stedforge soon.”
“Yes, we heard that was a possibility,” nodded Xylona. “Have you seen the forces that Kutarm has gathered outside of Stedforge? Do you think your Resistance stands a chance?”
Sloane had seen them when she, Delvin, and Kriket arrived at the end of the road an hour earlier. They were amazed by how many people were there, and she’d be lying if she said she was confident they had the numbers to compete, let alone win. Still, there wasn’t going to be a better time to try and take out Kutarm. It was going to be now or never.
“I think there’s a chance, although it’s small,” admitted Sloane. “Still, with the knowledge that fighting will keep Kutarm distracted, it may give the Linsuk Resistance the morale boost it needs to overcome the odds.”
“So you will stay back and tell them what The Elf Thief and I will be doing?” asked Xylona.
“We will,” nodded Sloane.
“I’m all for hanging back,” said Delvin. When everyone’s eyes fell on him, he shook his head and laughed nervously. “I-I mean, t-too bad we’ll have to stay out of the fight!”
“Oh no, we’ll be fighting,” smiled Sloane. “Once the Resistance arrives, we’ll join them in the fight down at Stedforge.”
“We… we will?”
“And then the three of you can try to reach and assist us,” offered Zeke.
“Assuming Kutarm isn’t dead by then,” nodded Xylona.
“H-How has this turned into us having to fight more?” whined a perplexed Delvin.
“It’s settled, then,” said Kriket. “We’ll try to speed up the army of the Resistance, and the two of you will try and assassinate Lord Kutarm before anyone
knows what is happening.”
“I hate to split from you guys so soon, but I agree this is our best option,” sighed Zeke.
“I’d go with you if there was another way,” said Sloane, placing a hand on his shoulder.
Zeke placed his hand over hers and smiled. Sloane smiled back, happy to have this moment with her friend.
“I’m sure you would,” said Zeke. “You’d love to steal my kill and get all the credit for killing Kutarm! Not happening!”
And the moment was gone.
At least Zeke was back to his normal self.
Chapter 13
“We’ll see you down in Stedforge!” said Zeke, waving goodbye to his friends. He was thrilled that he got to see them again and repair any hard feelings with them.
It made walking off to his possible death a bit more bearable.
Xylona once again insisted that the two of them ride the same horse, with Zeke behind her. They could’ve taken one of the other horses with them, but Xylona was adamant that she would never bring a prisoner with her on their own horse. He conceded and found himself once again having to listen to the fae.
It was almost like his friends showing and ‘freeing’ him meant nothing.
The two made it out of the forest and back to the main road. They looked out over Stedforge again. Black and blue colors continued to fill the valley, and nothing seemed to have changed overnight. If anything, they probably increased in troop number.
“You sure this is going to work?” asked Zeke.
“No,” she said flatly.
“I appreciate the honesty,” sighed Zeke. “Is there anything we can do that would help sell me as being a prisoner?”
Xylona thought about it for a moment. “Cross your arms behind your back.”
“Like this?” asked Zeke, doing so. A black circle formed around his wrists. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
“This makes it look a little more realistic,” she said. “You not being bound was one of my concerns when that patrol stopped us yesterday. Now I don’t have to worry about that.”
“And if we’re stopped?” asked Zeke. “What should I do?”
“Fight against your natural instinct and try not speaking.”
Zeke rolled his eyes and didn’t respond.
“Great start, keep it up,” she said, grinning back at him.
Their horse led them down towards the masses. The majority of the men and women sat around, not paying anyone much attention. Even those on the outskirts of Kutarm’s forces seemed completely relaxed. Zeke found it understandable. Who in their right mind would try something funny against hundreds, if not thousands of armed men?
Xylona navigated through the crowd, doing her best to not step on anyone. Occasionally, Zeke noticed a few glances and bewildered looks being tossed their way. To his relief, no one seemed to be going out of their way to stop or question them. If anything, people seemed to scoot out of their way if they saw Xylona coming.
This didn’t last forever, though, and about halfway through the crowd a couple of mildly intoxicated people took note of them. Zeke made the mistake of making eye contact with a man for slightly too long, giving the soldier enough confidence to speak up.
“Oi, what he do?” asked the man off to their right, a wicked smile on his face. “He sure does look guilty, don’t he?”
Zeke gulped and looked anywhere but at the man. His desire to talk back was building, and it was taking a lot of effort to keep it contained.
“Yeah, he some sort of spy or somethin?” asked a woman near the man. “Off to torture him to see what kinda info he got?”
Zeke opened his mouth but closed it just as fast. He needed to let Xylona do all the talking here. He was just a prisoner and needed to keep quiet.
Xylona turned and gave the two of them a hard look. The happy looks dropped from their faces and they both found other things to do. While the patrol might not have been scared of a fae, it looked like the average soldiers were.
“I was hoping that would work,” mumbled Xylona under her breath to Zeke. The elf nodded but kept his mouth shut.
He realized he probably wasn’t looking defeated enough and started actively hanging his head low. Whenever someone met his eye, the elf would take care to look as zoned out as possible. He tried to muster up some tears, but it wasn’t working. When he opened his eyes from trying, he saw a few people giving him concerned looks.
“Quit that,” whispered Xylona over her shoulder. “You look constipated.”
Not the look he was going for.
The two of them made their way through the rest of the crowd with an issue, reaching the front gates of Stedforge. Most of the gates were completely blocked with people packed in like armored sardines, but one to the far left was open for emergency use only. Xylona made a beeline for it. Zeke figured they did have an emergency. They needed to kill Kutarm.
The elf badly wanted to share such a clever thought with the fae but figured he’d save that for after the fight. Assuming they both made it through in one piece.
An old human stopped them as they made it through the emergency gate.
“What is your emergency?” asked the old man, holding a handful of papers in front of him.
“I have come back with a high level prisoner,” said Xylona, not paying the man much mind. She glanced over his head, looking around for their next move.
“Now’s not really a good time for that,” mumbled the man.
“I don’t care what you think,” said Xylona. “I am on specific orders from Lord Kutarm himself to deliver this prisoner.”
The old man didn’t look like he wanted to fight with the fae. “I’ll see what I can do, I suppose… what is your name?”
“It’s Xy-”
“Xylona, is that you?” came a man’s voice off to their right.
Zeke, Xylona, and the old man turned to see three fae approaching them. The one in the middle had long gray hair up in a ponytail and was distractingly missing an eye. Zeke knew this, because there was no eyepatch.
Frankly, Zeke hardly got a good look at the other two because he was so distracted by it. One of them was a woman with nails that were about eight inches too long, and the other was a male fae that looked like he lived in the gym and ate nothing but protein. All three of them wore red flowing robes, with shoulder pads that held light green orbs.
The orb shape reminded Zeke of eyes, and that the fae man in the middle was missing his.
“It is you!” exclaimed the one-eyed fae. He turned towards the old man. “Your services won’t be necessary. She is with us.”
“V-Very well,” said the old man, hurrying away. Zeke didn’t blame him. He didn’t want to stay and look at the empty eye socket either.
“Elder Uriah,” said Xylona in a tone that held no warmth.
“We’ve noticed you haven’t been around for training exercises in quite some time,” smiled Uriah. “Is there a reason for that?”
“They’re a waste of my time,” shrugged Xylona. “I’m the most powerful mage we have. There’s no need for me to practice with what are effectively children.”
“Remember your place!” hissed the woman in red.
“Elder Cynthia has a point,” nodded Uriah. “Your absence also begs the question of your loyalty.”
“I’ve always been loyal to our people!” said Xylona, anger in her voice.
“And to those we align with?” asked Uriah, hinting at the obvious with his tone. “You were friendly with Gnarius, weren’t you? We recently found out that he was attempting to betray Lord Kutarm, and he had to be dealt with. You wouldn’t be doing the same, would you?”
“Of course not,” she said. “What… what became of Gnarius?”
“Naturally, he was killed,” smiled Uriah. “We can’t have thoughts like his spreading among our ranks, now can we?”
Xylona tensed up and grew quiet. Zeke could just make out her face from the angle he was sitting and saw what looked like the beginning of tears. Gn
arius must have been in her network against Kutarm. It wasn’t like Xylona to show emotion… Zeke worried that things were about to get out of hand. He had to stop that from happening. He had to do what he did best.
Zeke opened his mouth.
“I wish all you trash would keep killing yourselves,” grumbled Zeke, making sure his voice was just loud enough to carry to the three elders.
The three plus Xylona turned and looked at him in amazement.
“Come again?” asked Uriah, taking a step closer.
“Oh, sorry,” said Zeke, clearing his throat. He spoke louder. “I wish all you trash would keep killing yourselves!”
The smile on Uriah’s face faltered. Xylona raised an eyebrow at the elf.
“You all think you’re so much better than the other races, but us elves put the lot of you to shame,” sneered Zeke.
“Is that so?” asked Uriah. “But, I’m afraid to say it looks like our Xylona here has bested you.”
“She got lucky,” snarled Zeke. He was now fighting to not smile. He was starting to have fun pretending to be so hardcore. “I only surrendered because she promised to spare my friends.”
The three elders gave Xylona a surprised look.
“But, uh,” said Zeke, trying to think quickly. “But then she killed them anyway! Y-Yeah… I’ll never, uh, I’ll never forgive your people for that!”
The elders’ expressions softened and they exchanged wicked smiles.
“That does sound like Xylona,” laughed the meathead.
“She does have a tendency to get carried away,” smirked Uriah.
“Er, what can I say?” shrugged Xylona. She glared back at Zeke. “Enough complaining out of you, prisoner!”
A black circle appeared around Zeke’s neck, but she didn’t apply any pressure. For good measure, Zeke made a show of pretending to choke. He coughed up a storm, begging for Xylona to let him breathe again. After a few seconds, the circle disappeared. Zeke slumped forward, pretending to be exhausted.
“Who’s the prisoner, by the way?” asked Uriah. “Anything special about him, besides his knack for not knowing when to shut up?”
Before Xylona could respond, a messenger in blue and black ran up to them.