Miko appears with sword in hand and closes with the soldier. Metal clashes as the two blades meet. Both men move with incredible speed, yet Miko is the faster of the two. The time he had the Fire in his possession having given him great skill and speed.
Then Brother Willim is there beside him, his staff smashing into the soldier’s armor. “Help the others Jiron,” the priest yells. “We’ll deal with this.”
Jiron gets up off the ground and motions for Aleya to follow him as they leave the combatants behind. Passing through the door Korgan had used, they enter a smaller corridor. Moving down it quickly, Jiron begins to smell the mustiness of an enclosed area. “We’re close,” he tells her. The clash of swords from the battle they just left follows them as they hurry down the corridor.
Another dozen yards brings them to the top of a narrow spiral stairway descending into darkness. The odor of mustiness is strongest from that direction. “This way,” he says. “Stay close to me.” He sees Aleya nod then begins taking the stairs down.
Whack!
Brother Willim’s staff takes the soldier again in the side of the head. Twice the soldier tried to send the noxious black cloud toward them, and twice Brother Willim countered it with magic of his own. Now, three orchids lie on the floor, all but crushed by the combatants’ feet.
The soldier has been on the defensive since shortly after Miko and Brother Willim engaged him. His armor shows tears and dents from where sword and staff have left their mark.
Miko’s sword is moving almost faster than the eye can see. For every two of his blows that the soldier manages to block, one makes it through his defenses.
Whack!
The soldier’s sword hand is dealt a heavy blow by Brother Willim’s staff which causes him to lose his grip. As his sword flies out of his hand, Miko comes in with a thrust and sinks his sword to the hilt in the man’s breastbone. With a cry, the soldier staggers back and crashes into one of the tables. Smashing though its top, he dies before his body even reaches the floor.
Just then, the door opens up and the two civilians enter the room. They come to an abrupt halt when they see Miko and Brother Willim standing there over the dead body of the soldier. They immediately do an about face and race from the room hollering for help.
“That tears it,” Miko says. He puts his foot on the soldier’s chest as he grips his sword and pulls it from the man’s body. He’s had this sword a very long time. In fact, it’s the one James had improved with magic just before his fateful fight with the warrior priest at the foot of the Dragon’s Pass. And it has served him well since. Using a strip of cloth torn from the dead man’s clothes, he cleans off the blood.
“Let’s go,” he says and takes the lead as they head for the door through which Jiron and Aleya had gone. Before they make it that far, the sound of feet running toward the room comes to them. Glancing back at the door the two civilians ran through, Miko sees the door burst open and guards begin pouring into the room.
“Go tell the others!” he hollers as he pushes Brother Willim through the doorway.
“What about you?” Brother Willim asks.
“I’ll hold them off,” he asserts. Drawing his sword again, he says, “Go!” Turning back, he sets himself to meet the assault.
“Good luck,” Brother Willim says then runs through the door.
The stairs spiral around three times before ending at the mouth of a corridor. It extends away from stairs and in the distance they can see where it opens up onto a dimly lit room.
“Hope that’s where we’ll find them,” Jiron says to Aleya as he enters the corridor.
“Should be,” she replies.
Moving forward at a run, they soon are approaching the room with the light. Movement is seen on the other side. From the amount of light coming through the partially opened door, there can’t be more than a single candle burning on the other side.
Jiron glances back to Aleya and finds her with arrow set to bow, ready. Reaching for the door, he pulls it back and races into the room. A single guard is sitting at the table, and before Jiron can cross over to him, an arrow flies past his ear and takes the man through the neck.
“No!” cries out Jiron as the guard falls to the ground dead.
“What?” asks Aleya.
“He could have told us where they were being held,” he tells her.
“Sorry,” she said.
He sighs. “Don’t be,” he says. “You did the right thing considering the circumstances. Just hold off a second next time.” Looking around the room, they find three doors which lead deeper into the dungeon, all of which are closed.
“Which one?” she asks.
“I don’t know,” he replies.
Moving past him into the room, Aleya begins examining the floor before each of the doors.
“Now what are you doing?” he asks.
“Seeing if the floor may tell us which way to go,” she says. Then she kneels down before the door on the right and says, “This way.”
“How can you tell?” he asks coming to kneel beside her.
She points to a scuff mark on the floor. “This is more recent than anything else before the other two.”
Nodding, he gives her a quick hug and kiss. “I knew I brought you along for some reason,” he says with a grin.
She returns his grin and reaches for the door handle. Opening it up, they find a corridor lined with doors on both sides. Each of the doors is very stout, with a small window about two thirds of the way up, and a sturdy deadbolt lock.
The corridor grows dark at about the fifth set of doors and then remains so until coming to another light far in the distance. Jiron takes the lead and is about to enter when Aleya stops him. “How are Miko and Brother Willim to know which way we went?” she asks.
“It’s the only door that’s open,” he tells her with the expression that she should have known that.
Giving him a weird look, she takes the dead guard and drags him by the hand until he’s halfway in the doorway. Removing her arrow from the guard’s body she says, “Now there won’t be any confusion.”
Jiron rolls his eyes as she cleans her arrow on the dead man’s shirt. Muttering to himself, he sets off at a quick run toward the light at the other end of the corridor with Aleya right behind. As they pass through the dark area, a voice calls to them from behind a door on their right.
Jiron pauses and turns his attention toward the voice. A hand reaches out toward him as the voice again calls to him pleadingly in the Empire’s tongue. “Sorry,” Jiron says to whomever the hand belonged to then resumes his run toward the light at the end of the corridor.
“Shouldn’t we have done something for that man?” Aleya asks in a hushed tone.
“Don’t have time for everyone,” he tells her. “Got to save the ones we came for.”
She remains quiet as they reach the area of the corridor where the light from the end begins to illuminate.
Jiron slows down and starts walking on the balls of his feet in order to reduce the chance of his boots making a scraping noise. If there is anyone ahead, he doesn’t want to alert them that they are there. Moving closer to what is beginning to look like a room that the corridor opens out onto, they strain to hear if someone is there. Silence is all that comes from the room ahead of them.
When Jiron is no more than five feet from the end of the corridor, he motions for Aleya to wait while he moves forward to check it out. Leaving her behind, he keeps close along the corridor’s right side as he edges forward. The room is an interrogation room, or at least he thinks so. Within are several torture devices used in extracting information. One, a cage not tall enough for a man to stand erect has a decomposing corpse within it. Four torches held in wall sconces are the source of the light.
Jiron waves Aleya forward and she enters the room. Two other corridors extend from the room, one straight across from the one they just left, and another to their right. He moves to check the one across the room and gestures to Aleya that she sh
ould check the other.
The one down which Jiron checks is dark and quiet. Aleya moves to the entrance of the one to the right. Stepping a few feet into the corridor, she hears voices coming from further down. Returning to the room, she says, “There’s someone down this way. I can hear voices.”
Jiron crosses over to the entrance to the corridor just as someone bursts into the room from the direction they came. Startled, he pulls his knives as Brother Willim comes to a stop before him. “Miko needs help!” he exclaims.
“What?” he asks as he puts his knives back into their sheathes.
“Guards showed up,” he explains. “Lots of them. He’s holding them off.”
“Damn!” he says. Making his mind up quickly, he says, “He’ll have to hold out a few minutes longer. Follow me.” With there being no longer any time for skulking about, he sprints down the corridor toward the voices. Even before he reaches the end of the corridor he recognizes Korgan’s voice.
“…been too long,” Korgan says.
Whack!
“Tell me what I want to know and I’ll be merciful,” he says.
“You’ll get nothing from me,” Perrilin’s voice replies.
Perrilin? He would have thought for sure that Korgan would have been interrogating James first. No time to figure it out, he doubles his speed when he hears the sound of someone being struck again. As he draws close, he sees a guard standing with his back to the mouth of the corridor. Jiron pulls his knives, and when he emerges from the corridor, sinks one of them into the guard’s back. He strikes the man with such force his knife sinks to the hilt and wedges in between two vertebrae. As the man lurches forward from the blow, his knife is pulled from his hand.
“Jiron!” he hears Stig shout happily.
In a flash he scans the room. Sees Korgan standing startled before Perrilin who’s tied to a chair, three other guards in the room beside the one he just killed, and his friends shackled to the wall.
Reaching down, he pulls the dead guard’s sword from its sheath and turns to face Korgan. One of the guards pulls his sword and rushes Jiron, but is thrown backward onto a table by the force of Aleya’s arrow striking him in the chest.
“Stay where you are!” cries Korgan. Moving closer to Perrilin, he lays the edge of a knife menacingly alongside the bard’s throat.
Jiron stands there and contemplates his next course of action.
Thwock!
Another arrow flies from the corridor and takes Korgan in the shoulder above the arm that’s holding the knife. Perrilin cries out as the knife rakes across his throat when his captor is struck.
“Kill them all!” Korgan cries as he staggers back from the blow.
At his command, the two remaining guards rush Jiron.
“See to Perrilin!” Jiron hollers as Brother Willim enters the room. As his knife blocks the blow from one guard, he yells to Aleya, “Find the keys!” Bringing the sword in from the side, he causes the second guard to dart backward.
Brother Willim rushes past where Jiron is battling with the two guards and comes to Perrilin. Blood gushes from the severed jugular and he knows the bard has little time left.
“No you don’t!” cries Korgan. Right hand hanging limp at his side, blood flowing from where the arrow is sticking out of his shoulder, he brings up his sword in his left hand. Moving forward, he attacks Brother Willim to keep him from saving Perrilin’s life.
“Don’t kill him!” James cries out to Brother Willim.
Aleya searches the body of the first man Jiron killed upon entering the room for the keys. Not finding them, she moves to the guard she killed with the arrow. There on his belt is a ring of keys. Taking them, she moves to where James and the others are chained to the wall and begins releasing them.
Brother Willim takes his staff in hand and is suddenly surrounded by a green glow. With speed augmented by the power of his god, he strikes out with his staff. One blow to knock aside the sword coming toward him. A second blow to the hand holding the sword, a crack can be heard as bones break. As Korgan’s sword falls to the floor, a third blow takes him alongside the head.
The blow to the head leaves Korgan dazed. Staggering backward, his legs give out and he falls to the ground.
Dropping his staff to the ground, Brother Willim returns his attention to Perrilin. The glow surrounding him suddenly intensifies as he works to stop the flow of blood. The death cry of the last guard Jiron is fighting fails to interrupt his concentration. In short order, the blood stops flowing as his magic heals the severed artery and the skin begins to heal over.
“Is he okay?” asks James as he comes to stand beside him.
Nodding, Brother Willim tells him, “Yes.” The glow surrounding him has disappeared and he turns his attention to James. “We have to hurry and get out of here. Miko is upstairs holding off the guards.”
“What?” exclaims James. Then he puts a hand on Brother Willim’s shoulder as he loses his equilibrium for a moment.
“Are you okay?” Brother Willim asks.
“They drugged us,” he explains.
“What are we going to do with him?” Jiron asks as he comes to stand over Korgan. Coming back to his senses, the man tries to get up but Jiron kicks him in the face to keep him on the floor.
Brother Willim turns his attention to James and moves his hand to James’ eye. “Let me take a look,” he says.
Standing still while Brother Willim examines him, James says to Jiron, “I’ve got some questions for him. Leave him here with me, Brother Willim and Aleya. The rest of you get up there and help Miko.”
“Can you handle him?” Jiron asks James.
“He won’t go anywhere,” Aleya says.
Jiron turns to her and sees her standing there with arrow to string and aimed directly at Korgan. “Alright then.” Then to the pit fighters and Reilin he says, “Let’s go.”
“Just a second,” Brother Willim says to them as he reaches into his cloak. Removing a small pouch, he reaches in and hands each of those who was drugged two small leaves.
“What’s this?” Scar asks as he takes his.
“They will alleviate the effects of the drug in you body,” he says.
Scar puts them in his mouth and starts to chew. “Yuck,” he says and almost spits them back out.
“Don’t,” cautions Brother Willim. “You must swallow them. They will work fairly fast once in your system to counteract the drug.”
“Thanks,” he says with a bitter look on his face. Then he and the others move to the table with their belongings and retrieve their weapons and other equipment.
“Come on,” urges Jiron once the others have their things in place. Then leading the others out, he races back into the corridor and hopes they will be in time to help Miko.
“Here,” says Brother Willim as he hands James three of the tiny leaves.
“Why do I get three?” he asks, taking them.
“The third will help to restore your magical ability,” he says. “Just two will make you okay, three should remove all traces of the drug.”
Putting them in his mouth, James can see why Scar reacted the way he had. They taste awful. He then glances over to where Korgan sits on the ground. Blood still oozes from where the arrow protrudes from his shoulder. “Remember me?” James asks him. “It’s been awhile.”
“Yeah, it has,” he agrees. “Should have killed you when I had the chance.”
“True,” nods James.
“I won’t make the same mistake a second time,” Korgan vows.
“If there is one,” states James. Walking over to the table with their belongings, he removes his pouches and begins securing them once more to the belt around his waist.
“What are you going to do now?” Korgan asks. “There’s no way you’ll be allowed to leave here.”
“We’ll see,” comments James. Once the pouches are properly secured, he glances back to see Brother Willim helping Perrilin from the chair. A bit groggy and weak in the knees, he at least
can stand on his own. Satisfied that he’s not going to die on them, he turns his attention back to Korgan.
“I’ve got a couple questions for you,” he tells him.
Korgan laughs. “What makes you think I’ll tell you anything?”
Ignoring his statement, he reaches into one of his pouches and pulls out the medallion bearing the sign of the warrior priest. He holds it up before him and asks, “What makes this so special?”
Other than looking to see what he holds in his hand, Korgan fails to react in any other way.
James stares into Korgan’s eyes as he says, “I know it has something to do with the way Dmon-Li’s temples are interconnected.” When he sees his eyes widen ever so slightly at that, he knows that Korgan understands what he’s talking about.
“I’d like to know how?” he asks.
“How what?” Korgan replies.
Indicating the medallion, he says, “How this figures into it.”
Korgan grins. “Is that what you wish to know?” he asks.
James nods. “Yes it is,” he affirms.
He breaks into a laughter which is cut short by the pain in his shoulder. Finally ending in a coughing fit, he brings it under control. “Sorry,” he tells him. “No matter how much you torture me, there’s nothing I can tell you about that.”
James turns and looks questioningly to Brother Willim who has been watching. When he receives a nod telling him that Korgan is most likely telling the truth, he turns back to Korgan. “Then why were you so interested in it that time you had us in the City of Light?” he asks.
“No harm in telling you that,” he says. “It’s common knowledge that anyone other than a priest of Dmon-Li who is caught in possession of an item bearing their mark, is to be held and handed over to them as soon as possible.”
James nods. That would make sense seeing as to the nature of the medallion and how it activates their transportation daises.
“We need to get going,” Brother Willim says. “They may need our help up there.”
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