by Deck Davis
He had followed the light trail up a gentle incline slope, certain that with each step, he was getting closer to Cason. The mud was wet from the previous two days of scattered rain, and the wind seemed to swirl when he reached the top. It was a tricky climb, but he was too on-edge to take it slowly. After two near falls, he made it to the top.
The blue follow line ran across the hill summit, before stopping just before the edge. That meant that Cason must have been beyond it.
The afternoon sun was just a memory now, and the evening had flown by just as fast. The darkness of the night brooded around him, as though there was something waiting in it. He couldn’t tell if that were really the case, or if it was just because he’d travelled further into the island than ever before, and that he was paranoid. Still, the feeling didn’t bother him. After years of urban exploration, a nocturnal hobby, he preferred a dark sky to a sunny one.
It was strange, but now that he’d finally reached the end of the trail, he was reluctant to take a step. He felt as though a shadow had followed him, one that he couldn’t see but that his body could sense. All the hairs on the back of his neck pricked up as sure as if an icy hand had gripped him. Something was wrong, his senses told him. Something at the end of the blue line.
Caution was the key. He set his leather bag down and took out his dagger. Then he crept across the hill summit. When he reached the edge, he dropped to his knees. The wet mud splattered his trousers, but it was better to be dirty than to make a noise.
He moved forward a little. Then a little more. And then he peered over the edge.
Woah. The drop on the other side of the hill was a lot steeper than he’d realized. It looked like some giant had scooped half the rocks and mud away to make it into a sharp fall. He hadn’t realized that he’d climbed so high while he’d walked up the other side.
A fire burned at the bottom of the hill, twenty feet below. It was a well-built fire, with the flames contained behind a circle of stones. The glare was so intense that for a minute, Jake couldn’t see anything else around it. As his vision adjusted, he was shocked to see Faei stretched out across the ground next to it.
Where was Cason?
Then he saw others on the other side of the fire, away from Faei. None of them were Cason.
Faei was led on the ground. At first, he thought he might have been sleeping, but then he saw that her arms were above her head and were tied at the wrists. She had something stuffed into her mouth.
To her right, across the fire, were the three men. One sat on a log and had a sword leaning next to him. The other two seemed weaponless, and wielded a bottle each instead. They were probably getting drunk.
One of the men elbowed his friend, and then nodded at the other man with the sword next to his log.
“Let’s do it,” said one of the drunk men.
Together, they stood up. One of them reached down and picked something up from near his own log. They approached the other man, creeping up on him.
“What do you two want? Finish your drinks, then get some sleep.”
“We…uh…got ya somethin’, boss,” said one of the men, in a throaty voice.
“Got me something? Why?” Then, he shook his head. “Damn it, it’s my birthday, isn’t it? I forgot.”
“Here,” said one of the drunks, and passed him a sheet of cloth. Something was bundled up inside it.
The man they called ‘boss’ unraveled the cloth to reveal a long, serrated knife. He grinned.
“Is this what I think it is?” he said.
The two men chortled. “Sure is,” said one of them. “A brand new skinning knife. Barely used.”
The boss reached forward and slapped the nearest man on the thigh. “Oh, you guys!” he said. “I’ll be sure to use it all the time. Maybe on the girl if we can’t sell her.”
Suddenly, Jake was all too aware of the sound of his breathing. He was worried that even so high above them, above their laughter and the crackle of the fire, they’d hear him.
Faei was in trouble. He would do something, no question, but it was three against one. In fact, given his combat ability, it was more like six against one. Physical force would get him nothing but a sword through his gut, so he’d have to use alchemy.
That left him two options; brittle bones, and potion of dissolve. From up high, he could toss down the dissolve potion and hopefully it’d splatter on the three bandits. If his aim was wrong, he’d have wasted a potion, and the bandits would be alert. Not only that, but he could end up hitting Faei with some of it by accident. He needed a better plan. One that wasn’t plain crazy.
The two men turned toward Faei now. The taller one had a slight limp, and he wore his hair in a pony tail that reached the middle of his back. His shorter friend has rhino-like stocky shoulders and slicked-back hair. They walked around the bonfire and toward Faei.
This wasn’t good. His chest tightened. An anxious energy flushed through him, one deep in his stomach like nerves before a driving test.
Jake gripped his dagger. He looked at the hill to plot a way down. Straight in front of him it was a sharp drop that would break his legs. To his right there was a gentler route to the bottom, though it still wasn’t safe. There were loose rocks and hazardous plant roots, so he couldn’t just bomb down there, but it was an option.
The pony-tail bandit stood above Faei, while his stocky friend kneeled down next to her. He ran his hand along her leg and over her ass, and then toward her breasts.
Jake gritted his teeth. With the swipe of the bandit’s hand across Faei’s body, Jake’s head filled with molten fury so intense he could almost feel the heat of it and taste it burning on his tongue.
He eyed the slope. If these guys went even an inch further, he’d sprint down it at fifty miles an hour, no matter how many bones he risked breaking.
The man reached for Faei’s breast. Even so high up, Jake saw the lecherous look on his face. He’d love to smash it off.
In fact, he was going to. He stood up.
Before he could move toward the slope, Faei twisted her legs. Although she was tied up, she swung her legs with such force that she hit the man in the gut. He fell on his back, then lay on the ground clutching his belly.
“The whore is loose!” shouted pony-tail.
The other raider stood up from his log. The rhino man struggled to sit up, still clutching his stomach.
The taller man smashed his bottle on the ground and held it by the neck, with the broken shards of glass facing out. With his other hand, he grabbed Faei’s foot and pulled her toward him. She flailed like a fish caught on dry land, but the raider was too strong.
Jake stood up. His dagger was hot in his hand. His chest was so tight that he thought it was going to implode.
This was going too far. Broken bones, uneven odds, it didn’t matter. He had to go down there.
And then the other bandit walked by the bonfire and to his friends. Judging by the cock-sure way he walked and how the other bandits turned to look at him, this man was the leader of the pack. He was taller than his friends, with a thin waist but wide shoulders. His skin looked tough, and with a tiny of green that reminded Jake of Eric’s Cratter’s half-orc blood.
The leader grabbed his sword and marched over to Faei, kicking a stray piece of wood into the fire as he passed. He grabbed the man with the broken bottle and tugged him away from Faei.
This gave Jake a little time. He crept over to the start of the slope. This side of the hill was mostly hidden from the glare of the bonfire. If he took it slow, it would take too long to get down. But if he ran, he was going to break his neck.
He cast one more glance at the men. This time, he saw that neither of them were near Faei, and had instead moved a few steps away from her. They were having heated words, though most of the talking seemed to be done by the man with the sword. When they were finished, the pony-tailed man threw his bottle to the ground. He stalked over to a log and sat down.
The leader walked over to Faei. The man
who’d taken a kick to the stomach got up. He took lumbering steps, clearly still in pain. The leader said something. Then, he held his sword to Faei’s neck, while the other one hoisted her into a sitting position.
Jake’s stomach sank. It was the same feeling as being in an elevator that plummeted faster than you expected. He should have gone down the hill sooner.
In a mere second, the leader grabbed a chunk of Faei’s flowing hair and cut it with his sword. Faei thrashed, and the leader hit her with the hilt of his sword. Then, he cut another chunk from her hair. Just two quick cuts were enough to cut half the length of her red hair away.
The leader and the smaller man moved away from Faei now. The leader threw her hair onto the bonfire, while the smaller man walked to a wooden box, and grabbed a couple of bottles. Then the leader joined them. The three men sat, clinked their bottles, and then drank.
Jake seethed with anger. Faei had told him that she grew her hair long in memory of her brother, who she hadn’t seen in years and who was now dead. She’d be distraught.
He wanted to beat the hell out of the men and then let Faei cut off something of theirs. He’d let her take her sweet time.
He held his dagger in his hand. He still had the element of surprise, though he would lose that as soon as he got within the reach of the fire light.
But no. Charging down there would get him killed. Jake didn’t have any hair for them to cut off, but he was sure that they’d think of something else. If he ran down the slope and made it down there with his bones intact, he’d still be outnumbered. It would be playing right into their hands.
Instead, he’d keep his cool. Rein his anger in, and store it for later use. The men seemed to be leaving Faei alone now, so at least he had a little time. Time to watch, to wait, and to plan.
And that was what he did. For the next two hours the men drank and shouted, which quickly turned into playfighting, smashed bottles, and then finally, sleep.
The leader of them was the last to take to his bed, which accomplished by sliding ass-first from his log and then falling into an instant drunken slumber, the kind of no-frills sleep only a couple quarts of whiskey could buy. His pony-tailed and rhino-shouldered friends soon followed.
Jake crept down the hill side. He took care to plot his route, since the whiskey had bought him enough time that he didn’t need to risk a bone-breaking sprint. He reached the bottom and headed west a little, until soon he was only a few feet away from the dying embers of the fire.
It was still hot enough that he could feel its warm touch on his cheeks. Every few second it cracked and spat, and red embers drifted off it, only to turn black as soon as they left the fire and hit the cold night air. To his right, the three men were asleep. The leader had his back against a log and was sleeping upright, while his two friends were lying on the ground, one of them with his face just inches from broken glass.
He glanced at Faei. Without the full glow of the bonfire, she just looked like a dark indeterminate shape stretched across the ground. He need to check that she was okay, but first, he had work to do.
As quietly as he could, he crept over to the sleeping bandits, but he abandoned any pretense at stealth just seconds later. These guys had drunk their asses off, and there was no way in hell they were going to wake. All he needed to do now was find their water supply.
There were plenty of smashed whiskey bottles littering the ground, and not much else. One of the men used his coat as a pillow, while the other used a leather pouch. In the middle of the men was a wooden crate half-filled with whiskey bottles, which they must have stolen from somewhere. These guys travelled light.
Hmm. Did they even drink water? Maybe they kept their bodies topped up with a never-ending infusion of alcohol. Once they ran out, they were going to have a hangover no amount of painkillers could touch.
There had to be something he could use, but what? He took a step toward the bandit leader.
The fire crackled. It was so loud that one of the men turned over so that he was on his back, and then opened his eyes.
Oh, hell.
The man stared straight at Jake. Their eyes met; Jake was sure his own eyes were wide in surprise, whereas the man squinted, and his whites were crisscrossed with red veins.
Neither of them broke their stare.
Jake gripped his dagger tighter and got ready to use it.
And then the man closed his eyes and rolled over, and his breathing grew heavy.
Jesus, the guy was so drunk that he hardly registered a stranger stood over him. Was this what he was like when he drank with Cason? Did he ever get so drunk that a man with a dagger could sneak up to him, and he wouldn’t even realize it?
Another crackle. He stared at the men, expecting to them to wake, but none did.
And then, he saw their drinking source. It was behind the leader’s log. It was a pigskin bigger than a football, tied closed at the top with string. It was two-thirds full, and when Jake picked it up, it had the consistency of a hot water bottle.
He unwound the string, careful not to let the pigskin come apart completely, and then with his other hand, he tipped a vial of potion into the water. He gave it a little shake, and for the briefest of seconds his thoughts flew back home, to nights behind the bar in the Rum Drum bar mixing cocktails.
When he was done, he tied the pigskin together, put it back where it was, and then quickly walked across to Faei.
She was lying on her stomach with her face against the ground. When he touched her shoulder, her whole body flinched in disgust. It was horrible to see her like this. He leaned close to her.
“It’s me,” he said, as quietly as he could. “Don’t speak, just look.”
He helped her shift her weight so that she could see him better. Her eyes widened in surprise.
“Don’t worry about those bastards,” he said. “I fixed their water. As soon as they wake up and drink some water, they won’t be bothering anyone again.”
Faei grunted, and Jake realized he hadn’t removed the gag from her mouth. He should have done it sooner, but he wasn’t used to helping women in kidnap situations, he reasoned to himself. There was a lot to remember with this kind of thing; cut the ropes, deal with the kidnappers. He was pretty new to the whole rescuing thing.
Then he remembered that back in Cason’s shack, he’d helped Faei out in precisely this situation. He’d thought she was the victim, when in fact Cason had tied her up to protect others from her.
He pulled the gag out of her mouth.
“Jake,” she said. It was part question, part declaration that he was really there, and that she wasn’t imagining it.
“Let’s get moving,” he said. “I’ll cut the ropes and then we should have plenty of time to get away.”
Faei took a long, deep breath. The gag that had been her mouth looked like it had been torn from a shirt. It couldn’t have tasted nice.
“I’m not going anywhere just yet,” she said. “Not without evening the scales with these lecherous bastards.”
Her glare was so strong that Jake was worried for his own safety. There was no stopping Faei when she set her mind to something. What’s more, he couldn’t argue with her. These men were scum.
“If they wake up and see me here, it’s going to be a damn sight harder,” he said.
“Don’t let them see you. There are some bushes over there. Go and hide in them. But I’m not going anywhere until these limp-dick drunks get what they deserve.”
She said this with venom, and it was understandable. In the brief time Jake had watched them on top of the hill, one of them had tried to assault her, and the other had cut off half her hair. It wasn’t the start of a beautiful friendship.
“What’s your plan?”
“They think I’m tied up, but you’re going to cut my ropes. I want to surprise them. I want to see the look on their faces when they realize that they’re completely and utterly knee deep in pig crap.”
“You want to wait for them to wake up?”
Faei grabbed her hair and ran her fingers along the strands.
“I’m not going anywhere until I’ve done this.”
He looked at the sky. It was a few hours until daybreak now. Could they wait that long?
Stupid question. He didn’t have a choice. Even when she was bound and tied, he’d do what Faei said.
“Fine, I’ll sit it out in the bushes where they can’t see. I’ll be close enough that I can run in if this goes wrong.”
“My hero. They’ll have stinking hangovers, and they aren’t all that tough to begin with. Only reason they caught me is…I’ll go over that later. My bow’s over near the small rat-faced guy. Grab it for me, will you?”