by Joseph Lallo
An elven woman had helped him up. She was pretty and short, with a bow slung across her back, tangled in her long brown hair. He could now see in the darkness of the cave around them. Dirt walls led off into the distance, and a few people sat around waiting.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“Yes." What is it with all these pretty elves? “Nothing bruised but my massive arse and my bigger ego.” He blinked. “Who cast the spell on me? I can see now.”
“It was me,” Vaste said from behind him. “I was afraid you'd fall into me, and frankly I'm not sure I could support your 'massive ego' since I'm too busy carrying your arse.”
She laughed, a lovely sound, like a wind chime. “I’m Elisabeth, from the Daring.” She looked past him. “Hi, Vaste.” The troll nodded as he passed them.
“Pleased to meet you. I’m Cyrus Davidon, with Sanctuary.”
She laughed again. “Nice to meet you. Hi, Curatio!” She waved past him. Curatio made his way over and they hugged. “Good to see you again!”
Cyrus looked around. The Sanctuary force had settled in for a break after their long hike. Curatio and Orion exchanged greetings with Elisabeth as others trickled over and joined them. Doing a quick head count, he only saw about two dozen people waiting.
“Cyrus, this is Cass Ward from the Daring.” Cyrus smirked at the warrior that joined them, a hulking human with armor painted grey. Catching the look exchanged between the two of them, Orion remarked, “Do you know each other?”
Cass answered first. “I would never claim to know this disgusting and uncivilized barbarian, who gives warriors of the Reikonos Society of Arms a bad name,” his voice dripping with a sort of mocking sarcasm.
“Nor would I ever claim to be affiliated with this boasting heap of horse dung.” Cyrus’s repartee was just a bit slower getting out. “Yes, we know each other – no we don’t hate each other. Cass and I were friendly rivals. We started at the Society of Arms at the same time, went through warrior training together.” Looking sidelong for a reaction, he continued, “He’s just never gotten over the fact that I am, in fact, a much better warrior – and much better looking – than he could ever claim to be –”
“Hardly!” Cass cut him off. Dropping the mocking tone, he finished Cyrus’s thought. “We’ve always had a grudging respect for each other.” A pause. “Well, he’s always had a grudging respect for me… I always thought he was as useless as an empty keg of ale…” His reply left Cyrus shaking his head but smiling back slyly.
Cass turned his attention to Orion. “We have about thirty here tonight. It was the best we could field at this point.”
Orion chewed his lip. “I appreciate your help, Cass. Goliath should be able to compensate for that.”
A voice broke in, feminine, abrasive, and straight to the point. “Goliath will not be attending tonight.” Cyrus caught sight of the owner of the voice as she edged closer. It was a female dark elf wearing the light robes and lettered shawl given to healers by the Healer's Union when they finished their training.
Curatio smiled, ignoring the poor tidings. “As always, it’s a pleasure to see you, Erith Frostmoor.”
The dark elf acknowledged Curatio’s greeting. “Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, Orion.” Her face wore a distasteful expression, as though the words she was speaking had soured within her lips.
Orion's jaw dropped. His head swiveled between Elisabeth, Cass and Erith. “Where’s your Guildmaster, Partus?”
Erith exchanged a quick glance with Cass and Elisabeth. “Partus and most of our more experienced adventurers decided to part ways with those of us who wanted to make the Daring a great guild. They took about seventy-five percent of our number and left to join Goliath.”
Orion looked stunned. “They have the largest force in this Alliance... and they aren't coming?”
Erith shook her head at Orion’s last inquiry. “The forces of Goliath are fully occupied in a march through the Ashen Wastelands.”
Curatio’s low whistle broke the group out of a moment’s silence. “They would dare to march through the dragon homeland?”
Erith nodded. “They’ve made the decision to kill dragonkin in order to ally themselves with the titans of Kortran.”
Cyrus shook his head in amazement. Why would anyone ever voluntarily align themselves with the titans of Kortran? Madness, he thought.
“They have some considerable wealth – perhaps unique armors and weapons as well.” Curatio shrugged, but his voice sounded hollow.
Erith shook her head in annoyance. “If that’s your price for being a servant of Emperor Razeel, then start begging now.” A pause emphasized her point. “Goliath will be killing dragonkin for the next three months before they’ll even be allowed into the city of Kortran to begin talking peace with the titan envoys.”
During this exchange, Orion was feverishly plotting, strain visible on his face. “We can still do this. We were planning to rely on stealth – now it’s just more urgent than ever with less than half the force we planned.”
“Why don’t we just cast invisibility on our entire force and sneak down?” Cyrus asked.
“The goblins will have guard checkpoints set up – they’ll have the ability to see through invisibility spells, so it won’t matter,” Curatio said. “Invisibility is only for short distances.”
Orion nodded. “We’ll need a screening force to take down sentries, and we'll focus our attacks on the guard points.” He nodded, almost to himself in affirmation. “This will still work; we’ll just need to keep a tight formation. And, J'anda,” he shouted, turned to the enchanter, who appeared from out of the crowd, looking very human today. “You'll need to be especially on guard. We'll put the warriors out front to occupy the goblins and give each a dedicated healer and support force.” He nodded to himself again. “This will work.”
“I can certainly keep quite a few of them contained,” J'anda said, “but I am uncertain about the abilities of the other enchanters to ensnare more than one mind at a time. It is...” he paused, looking for a diplomatic way to state his point, “...complex, keeping more than one enemy confounded at a time.”
If Cass was skeptical he kept it to himself. “I have full faith in your plans, Orion. I only wish we had more support to offer you, but the full might of the Daring stands ready. Which warriors will you choose for this excursion?” He gestured to himself in what Cyrus thought to be an overly dramatic fashion.
“You will be one of the three.” Cyrus caught a tone of appeasement in Orion’s voice. He was a little too enthusiastic in agreement with his ally. “Narstron and Cyrus from Sanctuary can be the other two, unless anyone else has a candidate to put forward?”
Cyrus was surprised. He knew there were other warriors in Sanctuary with longer tenure than he and Narstron. He looked at Orion and nodded with a confidence he didn't feel. “We won’t let you down.”
Over the next few minutes they broke the force into support groups, centered on the warriors. Cy found himself in a group with Elisabeth, J'anda, Niamh and with Erith as his healer. “Nice to meet you, Erith. I’m Cyrus Davidon.”
She smiled humorlessly. “You’ve healed one warrior, you’ve healed them all. Try not to make my job hard by doing anything stupid – like, say, getting yourself killed.”
“Well, ma’am, I can promise you I’m going to try not to die.”
“Try very hard.” She stopped smiling. “I don't know the resurrection spell, so if you die, you’re not coming back.” She reared her hand back and slapped him on the backside. “Now get in there and fight.”
He looked in disbelief at the healer, but she didn’t crack a smile. Almost positive that she wasn’t serious, but not eager to test the theory, he walked forward with the lead element of the army as they began their descent into the caves.
“I need a ranger out front,” Orion called out. “One who's good at stealth.”
Elisabeth raised her hand, slight smile on her face
. “I've never been accused of being sneaky, but I have been known to disappear stealthily from time to time.”
Orion did not return her smile, clearly frazzled. “I need you to sneak down the tunnel and scout the goblin defensive positions. Get their attention, bring them to us one at a time if possible, or in small groups.” Elisabeth nodded with some enthusiasm. “If you run across a checkpoint, leave it be; we'll attack it as a group.”
Elisabeth melted into the shadows of the cave, and even with his improved vision, Cyrus could not see her. She soon returned with three goblins – Cyrus attacked the first, slashing his sword into the scaled flesh. His group jumped into the action a moment later and the beast was hit with fire, ice, a small bolt of lightning that seemed to originate from midair, and a great many blades. It died within seconds, having never had a chance to do anything but stab at Cyrus once with its claws, drawing blood through a gap in his armor.
He heard Erith’s voice behind him. “You’re only getting three mending spells for the entire invasion, so you'd better pace yourself.” He looked back as he felt a healing wind on his arm as the spell took hold and saw her holding up her finger. “That’s one!” Irritated, he held up a finger of his own, and she was beset by a case of the giggles. “That’s two! I’d be careful, if I were you!”
They proceeded down the tunnel, Elisabeth bringing goblins to them a few at a time. They ignored side tunnels as Orion guided them down following a very worn map. They passed through areas of dirt and rock tunnels, and into areas of carved and intricate stonework, clearly built with incredible engineering skill. They alternated between action and boredom; long minutes would pass with no sign of the ranger, and then she would appear bringing groups of goblins in quick succession. None of their foes had a chance to run and their shouts did not attract others.
As they descended, a far-off chatter filled the air.
“It's the city,” Narstron said. “Goblins are awfully loud, aren't they?”
“Sounds like your snores,” Andren said under his breath.
Upon reaching a checkpoint, they halted, hiding in the shadows of the tunnel. About ten goblins were visible either in the entryway or atop a battlement built into the cave. They had a clear view for a long distance; there was no safe approach.
Orion looked ahead, face inscrutable. “This will be tough. It's the entrance to the royal chambers. We need to be careful.”
Narstron looked under the ranger's shoulder. “Why don’t we just charge the gate?”
Orion took on a pained expression. “There’s a garrison of at least five hundred goblins inside the walls of their complex, not to mention considerably more a few minutes away in the city.”
Narstron’s eyes went wide. “Good enough reason, I suppose.”
Orion waved for J'anda to join him. He discussed something at length with the enchanter while they waited.
“So where is the Daring's guildhall, Elisabeth?” Cyrus said, attempting to make conversation.
She looked at him before answering, favoring him with a smile. “We’re in Reikonos, not far from the bank, in the guildhall quarter.”
Erith cut in and gave Cyrus an amused look. “You’re a pretty lousy flirt, even for a meat-head warrior.”
He sent her a glare before he could stop himself but when he saw the ear to ear grin of triumph on her face, he held his tongue. Niamh pretended not to hear her and changed topics. “Erith, when did the Daring start having the problems you were describing?”
Her smile turned back to the sour look she'd worn since they met. It gave him a warm, happy feeling to see her like this. “It’s been a problem for years. We’ve been allied with Goliath since before Sanctuary came along, and with their fortunes on the rise and ours falling, it was only a matter of time before some rats decided to jump ship.” She grimaced. “Of course, I don’t think we’d anticipated that the rats in question would be almost the entire officer corps…”
“I had no idea that the Daring were having that much trouble.” Niamh's voice was sympathetic.
“It’s not something we’re publishing on our recruitment materials.” Erith’s voice turned hard. “We’ll build back; we just need some time. Unfortunately, without the Alliance we don’t stand much chance of being able to offer experienced adventurers what they want, which is a chance to get more powerful weapons, armor and gold.”
Niamh nodded. “I agree, but this turnout doesn’t bode well for the future of the Alliance. It just doesn’t seem like Goliath cares for supporting their allies. We all know this isn’t the first event they've failed to attend. I remember when we thought of this Alliance as one guild.”
“Many still do, Niamh.” A malicious grin split Erith’s lips. “It’s just that some of them think that instead of Alliance, it says ‘Goliath’ on our crest.”
Three goblins burst from the gates – the others looked strangely dazed. The first three were dispensed with in moments. Cyrus caught his with a slash of the blade across its skinny neck before the rest of his group could engage it. The goblin’s head floated through the air and came to rest in front of Erith, splattering her with blood.
She was irate. “You did that on purpose!”
Cyrus didn’t attempt to hold back his grin. “Did not.”
“Did too!”
“Children, please,” Cass said, smile bleeding through into his voice. “Nice work, Cy. If I didn’t know how truly wretched you were with a sword, I’d swear you aimed that shot right at your healer.”
Cy snorted. “If you know what a princess my healer is, you should know why she needed to play catch with a goblin skull.”
“Who are you calling princess?” Erith sputtered, all trace of humor gone.
Orion called for more incoming goblins but instead of three, six charged forth. Cyrus stepped forward, nicking the side of the first goblin but failing to penetrate the scaly hide. He swung his sword at the second target, and connected with its forearm, drawing blood. Both goblins screeched and clawed at him.
He managed to dodge the first one’s slashes, but in avoiding it he moved too close to the second and it managed to stab between the joining point of his arm and his chest plate. He felt the claw pierce him, and bit back the pain as he aimed a riposte across its eye socket. His slice took the goblin’s eye, causing a howl of pain. The rest of his party descended upon it, cutting it to ribbons as he turned to deal with the first.
He found it turning on its heel to flee, but before it had a chance he swiped with his sword, giving it a firm cut across its back. As it staggered, off balance, Cyrus watched a shape detach from the shadows – Elisabeth plunged two swords into its lower back, prompting a scream of pain that cut off as it fell backward and she slit its throat. She looked back to see Cyrus watching her, as she wiped her daggers off on the tunic of the goblin. “Not very pretty when you look at them up close, are they?”
“No,” Cyrus said, “They're not.”
The last sentry at the entrance to the castle needed to be dealt with, Cy reflected –
He looked up the see it dead, riddled with arrows. Orion and a few other rangers were replacing their bows on their backs. “Mesmerize is an impressive spell, isn’t it?” Orion chuckled. “It left them dazed to the attack going on.”
A piece of the puzzle clicked for Cyrus. A powerful enchanter could control the mind of their enemies, and J'anda had lulled the goblins into a virtual coma to get them to come in small numbers. Now he wondered if perhaps some enchanter’s spell had kept them from running when they realized they had waltzed into a trap.
He had no time to further reflect on this possibility, as Orion called them to action again and they swept through the undefended gates, finding themselves out of the darkened caves and into hallways of stone.
Chapter 12
Cyrus scanned the room as they entered a large chamber that could have come from any castle he'd ever seen. There were no patrols within the halls. “Easy so far, isn't it?” he
said to Cass, who was walking alongside him.
Cass chuckled before answering. “We're moving fast and we've been hiding the bodies of the sentries we've killed. It'll get tough; just wait. I expect one hell of a fight in the throne room. Many, many guards there in addition to the royal family, who are not weaklings – they're chosen from the finest fighters in the empire. It takes over a year of contests and battles to the death to determine the Emperor after one dies.”
“That process has to whittle down their numbers,” Cyrus realized.
“Weakening their military by killing a great many of their veteran fighters,” Cass finished for him. “You've got it. That's why Orion's plan is ingenious.” The warrior smiled. “We let them destroy themselves as a fighting force and we seize their treasury.”
Cyrus looked at him, surprised. “You didn't learn about goblin culture at the Society of Arms.”
Cass laughed. “Hell no. They don't teach you anything beyond what to do with a sword. I read a lot about the world after I left.” He slapped Cyrus on the shoulder. “You should try it.”
They crept down the hallways, which were wide enough for them to walk four at a time. Orion stopped them outside a large door. They had passed a great many doors as they went, but this was the most baroque and impressive thus far, with carvings that covered it from floor to ceiling. “Behind this door are the Emperor and Empress of Enterra. J'anda, prepare the enchanters.” Cyrus saw Narstron at the head of his group, eagerly anticipating the battle. Andren was assigned to his team, as was Vaste. “When the door opens, we storm the room. Everyone ready?” Orion held up three fingers and began to count down… three… two… one…
He threw open the door and the three warriors stormed past the ranger, picking their targets. Narstron was on the right flank and he engaged three guards on the right side of the room. Cass charged forward to the throne and caught the Emperor Y'rakh with a strike of his sword. It bounced off the Emperor’s thick skin, and Y'rakh flung out a hand, hitting Cass with a blow that propelled him backwards into a wall. He recovered quickly, but it put him out of the fight for precious seconds as his group moved to engage the Emperor.