The Companions of Tartiël

by Jeff Wilcox

  *

  “Well, shit,” Xavier muttered. “Guess we’re staying here until Dingo lets us out.”

  “Or until someone kills us,” I added helpfully, earning a glare from Xaiver’s side of the room.

  “So,” Dingo said, grabbing our attention again, “that leaves us with one person left available to act.” He turned to Matt. “Wild, you see Kaiyr and Caineye get dragged to prison. Nobody seems to notice you watching, so you’re free to act.”

  A wicked gleam lit Matt’s eye, eager as he was to show off his rogue’s skills. “Okay, first, I…”

  *

  Wild frowned at the prison, listening to the various clanking sounds emanating from within. One of the handier aspects about being the size of a human child, he mused, was that taller folk often mistook him for one. It was one of the traits about his people that let him scrutinize the premises without attracting much attention.

  “Right,” he told himself, “If anyone asks, I lost my ball over there somewhere.”

  It wasn’t often that Billcock Wild had had reason to help another person out of a sticky situation, especially when giving such aid might get him thrown in the slammer, too. But Blademaster Kaiyr had proven himself to be a reasonable elf, and quite interesting. Wild found himself appreciating the blademaster’s company and decided to help him out, along with the druid, who had also made himself indispensable in that nasty battle the other night.

  First things first, then, Wild decided as he headed off, ducking into the shadows of an alley running perpendicular to the prison. Reconnaissance.

  Wild made a cautious circuit of the prison from afar, generally keeping to the opposite side of the streets running around the place and avoiding getting too near in the alleys. Outside, security was rather lax—a solid stone block did not need much in the way of protection, and anything that could pummel its way through the stone would have turned any unsuspecting guards to pulp, anyway.

  Aside from the main gate and a tiny window at the top of each cell, the only other way in was a small door in the back that was locked and barred from the inside—it didn’t even have a keyhole or handle on this side.

  Finally, after observing several rounds made by the watch and calculating their patterns, Wild decided to take a chance and find out exactly where his comrades were. During a lull in the watch on one side of the building, the halfling sneaked along the stone wall, peering into the ground-level windows. The earlier clanging of prison bars had had the muffled echo of being underground, so he suspected that the partially-buried level was where he would find the elf and the human.

  As luck would have it, he peered in one window near the back of the prison and spied a head of dark blue hair. “Master Kaiyr,” he whispered.

  “Master Wild,” came Kaiyr’s hushed reply. “You have been busy. I heard some of your comings and goings.”

  “Yup, that’s me,” Wild said cheerfully. “I’m gonna try to get you three out of there. All I need now is a plan.”

  “Wild, is that you?” came Caineye’s whisper from the next cell. Kaiyr motioned that Wild should speak with the druid.

  “I guess that answers that question,” the halfling muttered, turning to the druid, who held onto the bars and pressed his face against them. “Hey, there, Caineye. Your rescue party is here. Like I told the blademaster, I’m going to try to get you out. I don’t know how yet, but I’m pretty sure I can do it.”

  “Oh, by Alduros Hol’s grace,” Caineye breathed. “They say they’re going to execute us, maybe tomorrow, maybe the next day. We don’t have much time.”

  “That’s the best part. I work better under pressure, anyway.”

  “Hey, you! Get away from there!” came a shout from the entrance to the wide alley between the prison and the next building. Wild winced but winked at Caineye as he rose.

  “What do you want?” the halfling demanded in a petulant voice.

  A soldier hustled up to the apparent kid, one hand on his sword’s handle, though the weapon remained sheathed. “Get outta here, kid. Don’t think we won’t arrest a kid for snooping around the prison.”

  “But I lost my ball, and it fell through the bars here,” Wild complained, stomping his feet. “The nice man inside was just going to get it for me.”

  The soldier scowled. “Get lost, kid, before something else goes rolling through those bars.”

  Wild gave him a frightened look but stood his ground, as a pressured child might do. “I can’t even get my ball back? You’re mean, you big bully! I’m gonna tell Mommy an officer was picking on me. My daddy’ll get you fired! Hmph!” Turning on his heel, he stormed back the way he’d come. Once he was safely hidden a block away, he allowed himself a chuckle at the sight of Caineye’s grin, the druid having barely been able to contain his laughter.

  Rubbing his hands together, Wild’s grin turned wicked as he felt the beginnings of a plan forming in his head.

  Much of the day Wild spent reconnoitering the prison, taking even more notes about the place. When he got the chance, he scoped out the back door, hearing voices from within when he listened.

  As the sun went down, Wild checked his gear, loosened his daggers in their sheaths, wound back the winch on his crossbow, and locked the trigger in place. He ate a light meal of trail rations and water, the better to keep his mind away from his stomach but not to send all his blood there.

  Tightening his leather armor, the halfling padded silently between the buildings of Viel, little more than a giddy shadow flitting from cover to cover. Upon reaching the closed back door of the prison, Wild grinned and hurled himself at the wooden barrier, pounding and kicking at it for a few seconds. Then, listening, he was rewarded with the reaction he’d wanted and quickly found a most cunning place to hide.

  The door opened outward, and two soldiers appeared in the doorway, brandishing longswords.

  “Who’s there?” one asked the gathering darkness in a growl. Both parties waited, and when nothing presented itself outside the door, the soldier turned to his partner. “Well, we have to do a round of the building now, anyway. Come on. You go that way, and maybe we’ll scare something out of hiding.”

  The soldiers exited. Neither of them had looked up. If they had, they would have seen a silently laughing halfling clinging to the gutter before swinging down and rolling deftly inside the prison just before the door clicked shut.

  “Hello, Master Kaiyr,” Wild said in a whisper, his head popping out from around the corner as he peered into the blademaster’s cell. “I’m here to get you and Caineye out.”

  “Master Wild,” the elf said. “It is good to see our trust rewarded.” As Kaiyr rose, the halfling deftly picked open the lock on the door, gave it a tug—and fell back on his rear end.

  “What the—?”

  Kaiyr pointed up to the top of the cell’s door. “Adamantine locking bars,” he said in a somewhat gruff tone, the most annoyance the blademaster had put into his voice thus far. “I believe there is a lever somewhere down the hall.”

  “Wild?” came Caineye’s voice from the next cell. “Is that you?”

  The halfling hopped over to the druid’s door and picked the lock. “I know there’s the extra bar, but once I spring that, you’ll be able to jump right out of there,” he said by way of explanation. Vinto responded with a bored yawn but an eager gleam in his eyes.

  “That’s not such a great idea, kid,” the wall behind Kaiyr said in a female voice. Both Kaiyr and Wild jumped at the sudden appearance of a very feminine form that stepped directly out of the stone comprising the wall.

  Kaiyr masked his surprise well and composed himself in the blink of an eye. “Lady Astra,” he said by way of greeting as the beautiful woman shook out her waist-length black hair.

  “Hello again, Kaiyr. Looks like you’re in quite the rough spot,” she said, and Kaiyr gave her a helpless nod.

  “I am afraid so.”

  “Well, don’t worry too much about it. I’m going to make some noise and pop your d
oors open. Use the time wisely, Blademaster, and get yourself and the druid out of here. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be right behind you,” Astra purred, striding past Kaiyr and stroking a finely manicured nail along his jaw.

  The blademaster watched her with his usual level look. “Very well. However, some of our possessions are—”

  “I’ll take care of that,” the nymph replied as she pressed her hand to the wall between Kaiyr’s cell and Caineye’s. “Be seeing you.” She stepped through the wall, melding seamlessly into the stone.

  On the other side of the wall, Caineye looked up at Astra as she stepped through the wall. “Just checking to make sure you’re alive and well,” Astra greeted Caineye as he stood and dusted himself off.

  “Oh, thank Alduros Hol you’re here to get us out of here,” he replied.

  “Just leave everything to me. You follow the elf in the bathrobe and put your legs to good use. I’ll meet you once we all get out of Viel.” She waved at him, and Caineye nodded his accord as she slipped back into the wall of his cell.

  The trio did not have long to wait. Wild stood by the door in the back of the building, ready to burst out of it in a moment’s notice. Kaiyr and Caineye stood before their cells’ respective doors, also ready to shove hard.

  Surprised shouts and the ringing of steel on steel echoed down the hallway as Astra engaged the unsuspecting prison guards. The others tensed, even more ready to spring as soon as the moment arrived.

  The locking bars slid back into the walls, and before the now-loose doors could swing open on their own, Kaiyr and Caineye charged through them and into the hall. Wild kicked open the back door with his foot, but before he could do anything else, a hand grabbed the edge of the door and wrenched it open.

  With a surprised shout, the halfling sprang back and drew one of his daggers. Kaiyr hissed at the halfling and motioned for the short rogue to retreat toward him. As the halfling complied, Kaiyr ducked back into his cell after motioning for Caineye to stay back.

  Two soldiers rushed in after Wild, their swords drawn. With a battle cry, they came at the little man. But as they passed Kaiyr’s cell, a blade seemingly made of glass slashed out, gashing one of the soldiers’ arms. At the same moment, Caineye cast a spell and launched a bolt of fire right into the face of the other soldier. Neither one went down, but they both realized their doom as Kaiyr jumped into the hall, joining the fray.

  Together, the trio made short work of the two prison guards, and as soon as the second one went down under a flurry of strikes between Kaiyr and Wild, the blademaster’s soulblade winked out of existence. “Let us flee this place,” he intoned, turning for the door.

  Caineye and Vinto followed, but Wild spun and ran the other way. “I’m going to check on Astra,” he said, “I’ll meet up with you later.”

  Kaiyr opened his mouth to argue but then clamped it shut. “Let’s go,” Caineye said, and the two of them dashed out of the prison and down the dark, nighttime alleys.

  Back in the prison, Wild met up with Astra just as she was easing the constable’s corpse to the ground. No less than seven bodies littered the floor, and the tiny spatter of blood on the nymph’s cheek, the only blood on her, was not her own and could have been mistaken for decoration.

  As Wild entered, she slid her rapier, crackling with magical energy, back into its sheath. Scowling at Wild, she growled, “I thought I told you to get the hell out.”

  Wild shrugged. “Just wanted to see if there was anything to steal.” He looked down. The constable lay dead on the floor, his hands grasping at a precise wound in his ribs. Reaching down, the halfling divested one of those fingers of a gold ring, and he took a moment to inspect the inscription on its face. “Ooh, a ring of station,” he said, sliding it onto his own finger, next to the ring he’d taken from Cobain the other day. “Now I’m a priest and a constable!”

  *

  “You have got to be kidding me,” I groaned. Xavier rolled his eyes with me. Matt just grinned.

  “The worst part is,” Dingo said, “it’s really going to help him with Bluff checks to the point where he’ll barely need to make any, unless he meets with any personal friends of the people he originally stole these rings from.”

  “I’m going to make that one of Wild’s vices,” Matt added. “I’m giving him an unhealthy fascination for rings.”

  I shrugged. “Dingo’s right, though. They’ll actually be really useful. Just don’t forget to only show the ring you intend to.”

  “Yeah,” Matt agreed. “It’d probably be a bad idea to be wearing rings saying I’m a priest of seven different gods and maybe the king of three countries.”

  “That’d be hilarious,” Dingo replied.

  “Okay,” I said. “So, about that D&D game we were playing…”

  “Right, back to the story,” Dingo agreed.

  *

  Astra’s frown turned into a smile at the sight of Wild taking the constable’s ring. “Great minds think alike,” she said, jingling a few small pouches of gold she’d taken from the bodies on the ground.

  “I’m just borrowing it until he wants it back,” Wild said innocently. “Got their equipment?”

  “Yep,” the woman replied with a chuckle. “Let’s go before anyone makes a stink.” On a higher floor, someone began ringing an alarm bell, and it tolled out frantically in the night. “That’d be our stink,” she said. “Let’s go.”

  Nymph and halfling darted out into the streets teeming with activity. Both of them scurried into the shadows and made their way to the northwest path leading out of Viel.

  Kaiyr stepped out from the bushes along the road. “You are here. Excellent. Let us away.”

  “Yeah,” Astra agreed, “I heard them calling for a manhunt. We’re going to be pursued. Let’s get into the woods.”

  The idea was a wise one, and it saved the group from an unnecessary—and potentially lethal—confrontation as a score of riders thundered by, mounted on deinonychus—

  *

  “Deinonychus?” Matt snorted. “Seriously? Dinosaurs?”

  I couldn’t disagree. “Dude, dinosaurs in D&D? That’s probably the lamest thing I’ve ever heard.”

  Dingo threw up his arms. “What? Dinosaurs are cool!”

  “I’ll bet you wanted to be one when you grew up,” Xavier muttered.

  “He probably still does,” I said to him in a stage whisper, grinning.

  “Besides,” Dingo went on, ignoring us, “they’re in the Monster Manual, so they’re built into the game.”

  “That doesn’t change the fact that they’re lame,” I said, and Matt nodded his agreement. Then I sighed. “But whatever. So, about that D&D game we were playing.”

  Dingo just sighed. “They’re cool,” he muttered.

  *

  The mounted soldiers stormed by in a swarm, and the party watched as they turned northward when the path split.

  “Strange,” Kaiyr remarked. “They already know of our involvement at the abbey. Why would they not search there first?”

  “And they’re not combing the woods,” Caineye added.

  “Do they think we’re dumb enough to stay on the path?” Wild chimed in.

  Astra shrugged her shapely shoulders. “They are a bunch of dumb shits, you know.”

  “Well, yeah,” Wild said, scratching his head, “but still, I kind of feel insulted.”

  The party traded shrugs with each other and slipped silently through the forest. They arrived at the abbey and were welcomed back in by the wererat acolytes. The men were relentless in assuring the returned trio and Astra that rooms were ready and chores were done for the day.

  Kaiyr waved them away. “Go. Get some rest,” he told them. “I, for one, am hungry despite the hour.”

  Caineye nodded, and Vinto gave a quiet whine. “Yeah, they weren’t exactly keen on feeding us. Probably had something to do with them wanting to kill us for doing the world a favor.”

  “The world lets no good deed go unpunished,” Kaiyr
agreed gravely. Then he brightened. “I, on the other hand, reward good deeds with a hot meal. Let us dine. Lady Astra, you are welcome to join us at our table.”

  Astra pursed her lips, but her expression was otherwise unreadable. “All right.”

  As Kaiyr prepared the midnight meal, Wild and Caineye sat down with Astra. “Did you find what you were looking for, or do what you wanted to do?” the druid asked Astra.

  She shrugged uncomfortably. “Sort of. It’s really complicated, and you don’t really need to know about it.”

  Caineye returned the gesture. “If it’s something we can help with, I know that I, for one, would gladly aid you, since you are a creature of nature.”

  Astra frowned. “So you noticed.”

  The human pointed to himself, smiling wryly. “Druid.”

  “Touché. Well, it’s my own business, and I’ll advise you to keep your nose out of it,” she said without rancor. “The things I do are far too dangerous for you to know about.”

  “She was probably stealing all sorts of fun stuff,” Wild said with a wink at Astra.

  She smirked. “Something like that.”

  The table fell silent, and the three plus wolf were left listening to Kaiyr’s noises in the kitchen. At length, Caineye said, “So, Astra. We are with you in this. What is our next move with you? Where are we going next? Have you found out anything more about Sayel?”

  The nymph frowned. “I don’t really see the need to tell you that.”

  Caineye and Wild traded a meaningful look. The halfling spoke next. “Uh, I really do see a need to know how the hell we’re supposed to help you. Good gods, lady, you won’t even tell us what Sayel did to you.”

  Flames of anger smoldered in Astra’s violet eyes. “Why should I trust you with that kind of information? It’s a private matter!”

  Wild frowned as Kaiyr emerged from the kitchen, bearing a tray with five plates. “Uh, isn’t it obvious? We’re on your side.”