Liar King
Page 26
That pool of time ticked by both faster and slower than any period in Cayden’s life. His MP ticked down with exaggerated slowness, each sip from the pool an eternity, only for vast swaths of this to vanish in as long as it took his eyes to focus on the officer before them. Temujin was searching for them, of that much Cayden was fairly certain. Some sort of psychic connection with his troops. There was little sense to search for them on foot when he could order his troops to do it for him.
Ten seconds left. They wouldn’t make it.
The angry sound of metal biting into stone opened Temujin’s eyes, the Warden officer looking down in befuddlement at the slim dagger embedded in his shoulder. He stared just long enough to watch as a second, then a third dagger joined the first before turning their attention to the obvious source, a heavyset man clad in black leather, perched precariously on a rooftop only a few buildings down the street.
Temujin’s reply was not one of words, but of actions, the now dirt and gravel road grinding under his footsteps as he advanced, first at a brisk walk, then a run as he saw Shifty starting to retreat.
Cayden turned as the Warden passed, the barrier kept interposed between the two of them until well after the Warden had darted down an alleyway. Until well after Cayden was sure they were safe.
âCould you be any more irresponsib-â He started to say, his eyes growing wide as he looked down at Sarah’s limp body. At some point during their concealment, the smoke had finished the job, draining the last remnants of her HP and putting her into bleedout. Another minute and she’d be dead.
âYou know…â Cayden grumbled as he snapped his fingers and searched his bag for a set of bandages. âAt this point we are even for that whole ‘getting you kidnapped thing’.â He adjusted her body to lay flat so he could bandage her more easily, but not before making a show of nodding her head to what he’d been saying. âI’m glad you agree.â
“We destroyed the temple alter in the city, plus the whole building is kind of on fire, so you should respawn in Sunè, assuming everything goes well. If not, well, you’ve got my number, right?” He resisted the urge to bob her head again as he tightened the last of the bandages, watching as her HP slowly crept up towards full.
“When you get there, let me know you are safe. And, once you’re ready, I think you and I need to have a talk.” He smiled down at her as light began to pour from her body, the sign that she was about to return to her respawn point. “Wish me luck, Des.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
âShifty, you still alive?â Cayden asked.
âYeah.â The thief’s voice replied across Cayden’s headset, a bit more ragged and fearful than Cayden was used to. âTurns out that Stone Men can jump though.â
âWell, at least one of them can. Sure you lost him?â
âMust have, because my comms are back on. Thought the persistent bastard was going to camp my hiding spot until it burned down around me, but something else got his attention. â Shifty replied.
âI’m not even sure I want to know what that was. But thanks, I owe you.â
The other man’s mocking grin was almost palpable over the call. âWait, you were there? I was just trying to save the pretty girl.â
Cayden rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to his display. First, he sent Shifty a party invite. Once that was done, he reopened his party chat. âMichael, Asch. You two alright?â
Asch replied after a brief pause. “Barely. We’ve downed some potions, but the smoke is canceling out all of our health regen, and then some.â
“I’m about the same,” Cayden admitted with a wince. They didn’t have long before the smoke inhalation upgraded to major. “Did you-”
âYes Cayden.â Michael snapped.
âWe got the enemy caster, yeah.â Whether she knew the source of tension between the two men or not, Dinah wasn’t saying anything about it. âTurns out he could resurrect their soldiers, so it is good we got him when we did. Score one for the good guys.â
âI’ll take it.â He agreed. âHow far are you from the sewer entrance?â
“As the crow flies? Not far at all. But most of the paths that were setup earlier are collapsed by now, and the ones that don’t have Warden soldiers in the way. We might just have to burst through the back of a house somewhere.”
“Yeah, I see you on my map now,” Cayden replied. “We’ll come to you, then find a way through together.”
“Roger that,” Dinah replied.
It didn’t take long for Cayden to get to Shifty; he ran where he could, and abused his Flame Walk spell whenever an obstacle impeded his progress. Past that, however, things began to slow dramatically.
Just as Dinah had suggested, the Warden troops were everywhere, occupying nearly every intersection and crossing listed on Cayden’s map. The two of them managed to skirt a few patrols, by way of alley or an as of yet unburned rooftop, but at a certain point, it became clear that the Wardens were not going to let them simply waltz into the sewers.
He had to give the enemy officer credit; it was a decent enough plan. Most of the Warden troops they’d already come across were wounded to varying degrees, and Cayden knew that it would only get worse for them. The smoke was a killer for the players, but the heat would be what eventually did in the Wardens. By dawn, most of the soldiers in the city would be destroyed. So rather than cower them in the coolest locations, in an attempt to save them, Temujin had decided to dedicate hundreds of them to make sure that the Players who had killed his spellcaster, humans who had nearly killed him would have nowhere to run.
If the plan hadn’t been directed at killing him, Cayden might have given it a grudging thumbs up.
“Yeah, this isn’t happening,” Cayden said from deeper into an alleyway as Shifty kept guard from its mouth. “We’ve got Warden troops everywhere. Temujin knows we can’t wait him out.â
âWho?â Michael asked.
âTemujin,” Cayden repeated before he realized his mistake. “The enemy officer.”
âAh.â
âSo we try fighting our way out?â A small cough accompanied Dinah’s reply, a worrying side of what was to come.
âMix it up a little, yeah.â Cayden grinned in spite of himself. âGot a weak point in mind?â
âOnly about twenty of them between us and the sewer entrance if we go this way.â A glowing line appeared on Cayden’s display, drawn from Michael’s current position to the sewer entrance.
“We’ll cut through them and pile in behind you then,” Shifty said, throwing a glance back to Cayden for his approval.
âA better plan than I’ve got.â He shrugged. âYou all ready?â
“As we’re going to be,” Dinah replied.
Michael agreed. âNo sense wasting time.â
Cayden strolled to the edge of the alleyway, taking up a position alongside Shifty. His heart was pounding, and he desperately wanted to take just a few seconds, just long enough to calm his frayed nerves. But Michael was right. Every second they wasted here was a second closer to asphyxiation. âOn three.â
âThree.â Dinah shot back impatiently.
Just outside their alleyway, the Warden troops jerked in unison, as though a universal puppeteer had tugged their strings all at once. Their heads turned North, to where Dinah and Michael must have begun their assault. The behavior was markedly different from the haphazard warfare they’d encountered on their sortie from the Royal Quarter. No doubt Temujin had time to focus this time, without the distraction of Sarah trying to punch him repeatedly in the face.
“Go,” Cayden instructed. Shifty didn’t need the encouragement, his knives already flying at the foes guarding a nearby alleyway that was their initial destination.
On both ends of the street, the focus of the Warden troops shifted. Eyes focused on Shifty, and then on Cayden. Metal wea
pons gleamed in the firelight as soldiers brought them to a ready, and the mob charged.
âMove, move!â Cayden insisted, the back of his hand slapping at Shifty’s right shoulder until the man got the hint and let Cayden sprint past him. One of the three soldiers guarding the entrance to the alley was still alive when Cayden hit him, the flat side of his replacement kite shield striking with enough force to bare the soldier clear off his feet. That was one thing too many players forgot when it came to Babel. For all its mechanics, sometimes a simple shove could do more than the best skill usage.
âEarth Wall.â The words fell from Cayden’s mouth as Shifty ran past him. With so many on their heels, this wall wouldn’t last much longer than the ones he had cast earlier, but it didn’t have to. A minute, perhaps half a minute would be enough to keep them from getting mobbed down as they cleaned up the immediate opposition waiting on the far side of the alley.
Only two blocks had separated Cayden and Shifty from Michael and Dinah. During better times he could have run the whole of that distance in a matter of a minute, but with Warden soldiers blocking their path at every turn, it took them closer to three. Three minutes with the timer counting ever downward.
âAre you guys almost to the entrance?â Cayden demanded.
âJust about!â Came Asch’s reply, the words filed with exertion, the clang of swords audible in the background.
âGood, because we’re coming up on your tail now.â He said.
“Try not to be too close,” Asch replied. “We’ve got a lot of them right behin-”
“Right behind?” Cayden asked. When there was no immediate response his eyebrows knitted together in consternation. “Asch. Asch? Dinah? Michael?”
“Well, that can’t be good,” Shifty said with his usual mastery of understatement.
Cayden wasn’t sure whether to laugh or to glare. Instead, he turned his attention to the map in front of him. “She’s right; we probably don’t want to follow their exact path. This way.”
Even on the alternate route, they had to cut their way through a half dozen Warden soldiers, and barricade out over twice that number before they were firmly back on track. Only a few hundred feet, a single long alleyway, separated them from the sewer entrance. Only a few hundred feet, when Cayden’s map went blank, then vanished entirely.
“Stop. Stop!” He shouted, forced to physically grab Shifty as the other man tried to surge passed him.
“We’re almost-” Shifty started, before he too realized the danger. “An officer. Damnit. Is there another way?”
“Not back that way,” Cayden said, jerking his thumb in the direction they’d just come. The Warden troops that had been chasing them were chasing them no longer. Instead, they had closed ranks with one another, forming up in defensive posture along every possible route at their rear. They weren’t pursuing, merely cutting off retreat.
“A trap?”
“An invitation.” The voice echoed from every surface, unmistakable in its origin, even if Cayden could not yet lay eyes on its source.
“Well, how can we refuse that?” Shifty asked with a tone that spoke volumes about how much he wanted to.
As they advanced, so too did the Warden soldiers behind them, the stone men taking up a position at the mouth of the alley. There wasn’t much point in trying to run, Cayden knew. Temujin had guessed their exit strategy. Even if they tried for a different sewer grate, the officer would have his minions herd them around until he could get in front of them. Assuming they didn’t die of inhalation before they could reach their next destination.
The alley ahead of them opened to a public common area where overturned carts and other flaming debris had been pushed aside or stomped out to leave a wide open space. Nearly a hundred Warden soldiers occupied the plaza, with Temujin at its center, mere feet from the exposed sewer grate that should have been their salvation.
Asch and Michael were there as well, guarded but still armed despite the horde surrounding them just out of arms reach. Considering Temujin could probably kill the four of them from full health with ease, it somehow seemed more humiliating that he let them keep their weapons, despite having the upper hand. As if taunting them to make an attempt.
“Crawling from the madness you’ve wrought and the crimes you have committed, like the vermin you are. How fitting for a group of Bloodline descendants.”
“Technically it is a waterway.” Was Cayden’s only reply.
Temujin was not amused.
“You have done unspeakable things to bring us to this point, and further terrors to keep your crimes from being remedied, but no longer.” The Warden general paced as he spoke, his spear tapping the ground with every odd step as he snarled out his words. “I know you do not have it with you. But of you four, you three have touched it.” Temujin’s gaze swept over the three men of the group, excluding only Asch from his wrathful stare. “You will tell me where you have hidden it.”
“I don’t even know what it is.” Cayden replied with equal venom. “You killed the emissaries Duke Medeces sent to treat with you, so how the hell are we even supposed to-”
“You know what you did!” Temujin cried, the sheer power and weight of his voice enough to send an involuntary shiver down Cayden’s spine. “You can deny it all you will, but I sense it on the three of you, and the warrior woman I fought earlier as well. You’ve not long to live, why spend your last moments lying?” The warrior-general tipped his chin up, looming over Cayden and Shifty as the last two were forced into line. “Tell me where you have hidden the Liar King’s shackles, and I will allow it to be swift.”
For several long moments, no one spoke. Then, just as Temujin’s stone face twisted in fury, Shifty replied. “You know, shackles were never really my thing. If you’re into silk rope and blindfolds though, boy do I know the place for you.”
Anger turned to confusion as the Warden officer stalked down the line, his powerful physique dominating in the presence of the more squat and rotund father of two. “What are you blathering about? Rope? Blindfolds. I care not for these things.”
“Ah, my mistake, my mistake.” Shifty smiled with a sickening sweetness. “But if shackles are your thing, I might know a solution.”
“Go on,” Temujin said impatiently.
“Well, it just sounds to me like you’re over thinking things with all this focus on domination and command. Message Avaritia, she knows the place the shackles are hidden. Just down in the sewers in front of us, in fact. You can send your army to go check if you’d-”
“Enough with your nonsense and your lies!” Temujin growled. The back of one stone hand struck viciously across Shifty’s right cheek, a blow that took the Carnivalist off his feet, and drained nearly half his remaining HP.
“Okay, okay!” Shifty said, rolling onto his hands and knees. There was a long pause as the older man struggled for breath, then, at last, took to only a single knee as he looked into the stone face of Temujin “All I’m saying is that you don’t need chains to go fA sharp crack of air and a flash of light interrupted the last of what Shifty had to say, as a trio of figures appeared at rear or the line. Each was chanting as they materialized, and within moments more magical energy shaped the battlefield. Warden soldiers winked out of existence under the influence of Celia’s crowd control spells, while an enormous wall of wood and iron appeared out of nothing at Roberta’s command, separating the players from the Warden General.
Most importantly, were the words from Victoria, a benediction sweeter than any prayer Cayden had ever heard.
“…and return us home. Word of Recall!”
***
“Really Shifty?” That was the best way you could come up with to work it into conversation?”
“Hey, I’d like to see you do better.” The rogue shot back at Celia, his tongue sticking out of his mouth in a decidedly childlike fashion. “Besides, it could have been worse. My backup was a Viagra joke.”
“How do you function!?” C
elia cried, to the laughter of the assembled players.
It felt good to be able to laugh, Cayden decided, even at Shifty’s terrible jokes.
Despite Celia’s annoyance, Cayden thought the Carnivalist was rather clever. At the time, he’d thought Shifty was just venting his anger with his crude rebuttals, but in retrospect, he probably should have caught on the moment he’d used the name of Celia’s account. No one called her Avaritia.
He might have been a bit clumsy in his wording, but Shifty smart enough to think of Victoria, and unlike Cayden, he’d been able to come up with a plan to reach her while surrounded by the enemy.
As the laughter began to die down, Cayden paced slowly away from his companions, walking to the edge of the forested hill to look out over the city only a few miles away.
There was almost nothing left. In the hour since their retreat dusk had begun to settle over the city, but the sun was almost entirely obscured by the plumes of black smoke rising from the walled city. Some of the intense blaze had already managed to burn itself out, but other parts of the city, particularly the Royal Quarter, were fully ablaze. The Duke hadn’t been happy when they’d all but battered down the doors of his palace to demand the services of his sorcereress, and he imagined the young royal would be positively beside himself once he learned what had been done to his city under the guise of saving it.
Not for the first time, Cayden wondered if he’d made the right decision. They could have left the city to the Wardens, who probably would have passed through it without a care once it was no longer a threat. It wasn’t like the Wardens were going to loot the place.
How many homes had they lost? How many people, both Human and Elan were there? People like Sarah, who no longer had a place to call their own. It could be rebuilt, he knew, and by almost all military standards it was an outstanding victory. Thousands of Warden troops dead for a few hundred of their own, but even still, it felt bittersweet.
“You okay?” Cayden turned to find Silver on her approach, a wary smile upon her pursed lips.