Taeben laughed aloud. “So come and take them off me, kind wizard, so that I can root you to the spot with my magic and jump out the window there, or better yet, magically transport myself to somewhere safe?” Her gaze narrowed, causing the wizard to laugh harder. “Figured you out did I?”
He moved out of the shadows into the moonlight, drawing himself up to his full height to tower over her. “I am not one of those creatures outside the door, my dear lady,” he said, nearly hissing the words. “It was a valiant yet insulting try.” He moved a bit closer to the bed to stare down at her. “Make yourself at home, my dear, it seems your Dorlagar would keep you here for quite some time...though with that temper I can say I have no idea why.”
Gin lunged at him as he turned his attention back to the fire. He winced slightly when she cried out as the shackles Dorlagar had put on her ankles cut into her flesh when she toppled over. “He’s not my anything,” she spat as she tried to right herself on the bed. She fell silent for a moment before she continued speaking. “So, what brings you to this horrible place?”
“What brings you?” Taeben did not turn around, his sharp response cutting through the cold night air. “Oh, I forgot, Dorlagar. What did you do to make him so angry, my dear? Did he catch you plotting to run away with someone else?” She was silent, and he found her non-responsiveness irritating. “Or worse, eh? Came home and found you with...”
“Shut up.” Her voice was cold and quiet. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.” When he turned to face her, he found her eyes on him. Her gaze cut through to his soul, and he steeled his resolve against it.
“Hmmm, touched a nerve, did I?” Taeben moved closer, smirking slightly, trying to diffuse the situation before she could figure out who he was. “Is that guilt I see boiling in your eyes, little one?”
“My name is Ginolwenye,” she said, her eyes not leaving his.
“I see. Touched a nerve, did I, Ginolwenye?” Taeben raised an eyebrow. "You seem to have an answer for everything else but not for that, so why don’t you tell me why I’m here?”
“How would I know that? You have not answered my question about why you are here. You have not even told me your name, though your voice is very familiar, and I think I already know who you are,” she said softly.
“My name is irrelevant,” he said, his expression blank. “I am sure you do not know me.” He pulled the robe closer around his face.
“And do you work for Dorlagar?” she asked. “Or for Lord Taanyth?”
“And do you always ask this many questions, Ginolwenye?”
She let out an exasperated sigh. “Call me Gin, please; you’ve never called me by my full name anyway, BEN.” Taeben turned away quickly to keep her from seeing the smile that spread across his face. She had recognized him. In all the long nights kept in the cells, he had not ever dreamed that he would see anyone from his home again.
“Apologies, Ginolwenye, I wondered if you had recognized me,” he said, chuckling. “I suppose you could say I work for your Dorlagar; it was he that brought me here to keep you from roasting everything in sight.”
“He brought you here, meaning you didn’t come of your own free will?” Gin said as Taeben cursed himself for letting that detail slip. “So you are a prisoner, like I am?” Taeben remained silent. “Are you? Please, it’s so good to see a familiar face, to hear a voice that isn’t a wyvern or worse…tell me what has happened to bring you to this awful place?”
“You do ask too many questions,” Taeben barked at her. “Yes, I am a prisoner here. I research magic for Lord Taanyth. I am here because I was adventuring here and my party was ambushed.” He paused a moment and took a deep breath. “Some of us made it out. It is my understanding that my female companion made it out. I did not and she never came back for me. Any more questions?” A vision of a female elf of his own race danced before his eyes as he turned back to the fire. He gripped the mantel above the fireplace as memories flooded his mind of her blue eyes and light blonde hair.
“You mean Nel, didn’t you? Is she alive?” Gin said, hopefully. Taeben did not answer her, but merely stared straight ahead, his gaze threatening to bore a hole in the wall opposite him. “Ben?”
“Yes, I do mean Nelenie and clearly I am not dead, so you may pass on the happy news,” he spat, unable to contain his anger, “and do be sure to give her my best when you…oh, wait, you’re not going back home, ever, are you?” He did not have to look at her to feel the shock and hurt in her expression, it rolled off her in waves. Taeben’s stomach churned slightly as he remained silent, marveling in horror as he thought of Dorlagar. Could he not see the bruises he had left on her? Was he deaf to her screams when the chains cut into her wrists?
Long forgotten feelings surfaced in the back of his mind as he finally looked over at her. He recalled her as a young girl, laughing at him and Nelenie; he remembered the times he had caught her staring up at him as he told stories. But the cruelest memory of all? Nelenie wrapping her long arms around him as they ported, and her trust in him that shown through her blue eyes as she looked at him from the cell next to his.
“I will make it worth your while if you help me escape, Ben,” Gin said, obviously trying to soften the wild look in her eyes as she clambered out of the bed, hindered by her chained wrists. Taeben shook off the memories and glared at her. “We could escape here together, and go back home…to the Forest…together.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Ginolwenye,” he said, ignoring her suggestion. How anyone could leave one with her spirit here to rot was beyond him. This was not the simpering child he had known when they were children. Taeben shook his head to clear it, and focused on her once more. It would do him no good to feel anything for her if he intended to get any work done for Lord Taanyth and possibly earn his freedom.
“You used to call me Ginny when we were kids,” she whispered. Taeben winced. Names were a hindrance. Names gave familiarity, bred sympathy. Names made you weak. The wyverns probably had names, but he did not know them. He did not want to know them. It was easier to hate them without names. “I can help us both get out of here if you will let me.”
“I know you can, for you are the price I pay for my freedom from this place, Ginolwenye,” Taeben said, pronouncing her name very carefully. “I am researching a spell for our host, Lord Taanyth. It just seems to have run into one snag, however.” Gin walked toward him, slowly due to the shackles on her ankles, and then stumbled and fell, tripping over her own feet. He helped her stand, holding her hands a little too tightly and looking her in the eyes. “Druids seem to have a nasty resistance to the spell, so I have to figure out why and fix it.” Her eyes widened, and Taeben bit the inside of his cheek to avoid letting the fear in her eyes sway him.
“What kind of spell?” she asked, her throat clearly dry.
“It’s wickedly beautiful, really,” Taeben said. “Something that no magic user has ever been able to do to a living creature, at least not on this scale. The spell commands its target to do the caster’s will, but has the capability to work on a massive scale. He could enthrall whole cities at once if all the inhabitants are within the area of effect. Should they resist…well, the effects are most unpleasant.”
“And druids are resistant?”
“Aye, as were other magic users with the ability to charm and bend lesser beings to their will. He solved the problem with most of them, however,” he said, his features darkening as he remembered the young high elf female that was housed with the other test subjects. Tairneanach was her name, another friend from childhood who had been a shining pupil of Alynatalos’s magic guild when Lord Taanyth captured her.
“But I digress. You will be the first druid to test the spell since I have taken over the research, and hopefully the last, once I figure out why you druids are so resistant.” Taeben paced over to the fireplace, his slender hands clasped behind his back as he spoke.
“What did you do to the others?”
“What?” Taeben turned around to face Gin. “
What do you mean by that?”
“Just what I have asked you. What did you do to the others? How did you test your theories on them?”
“I did nothing, I have only just begun my work, but I have Lord Taanyth’s records detailing the process. I do not suppose it would hurt to tell you. Tairneanach, for example, had a gift for...” Taeben stopped as he saw the color run from Gin’s face. “Are you ill?”
“Tairneanach. I know her...Tairn! Ben how could you? Nel’s little sister? An elf like you...”
Taeben bit his cheek again before speaking. “I am hoping for a bit more resilience from you, Ginolwenye.”
“You killed her?” Gin’s voice was barely a whisper.
“I DID NOTHING!” Taeben took a moment to regain his composure. “It is all for the cause, Ginolwenye,” he said, again turning his back to her. Curse that druid for affecting him this way! “All for the cause. As my sworn deity, Indarr, would tell us, it is in our death that we prove ourselves worthy.” He swallowed hard, silently asking for strength.
Gin fell silent and Taeben remained by the fireplace until Dorlagar returned with a wyvern guard that escorted the wizard back to his spell work. He settled back in and managed to keep his mind on the task at hand by making an effort to keep Gin’s image from lingering too long before his eyes. It did not matter that the druid he was to test was someone he knew. Names bred familiarity, and that was something Taeben could not afford.
Weeks went by and he finally had a rough outline to show to Lord Taanyth. He alerted one of the wyverns, and waited for a response. It came in the form of an escort back to Gin’s quarters and an order to bring her and the outline with him to an audience with the dragon.
The wyvern opened her door and stood there, silently, as Taeben planted his feet and crossed his arms across his chest. “Get her,” it said in the language of the dragons as it shoved him into the room. Taeben recovered himself, imagining how easy it would be to cast a freezing spell on the smelly creature and then tip it over so that it shattered into a million pieces. He was still smiling at that image when he made eye contact with Gin.
She smiled back at him. “So what are you planning to do with me?” she said, her voice regaining a bit of strength.
“I do nothing but deliver you and the revised spell to Lord Taanyth, then watch the results and make notes as we go. And speaking of,” he said as he patted his robe, underneath which was a bag containing several scrolls, “we’d best not keep him waiting.” Gin opened her mouth to protest, but then snapped it shut again and moved past him and out into the hallway. The wyvern that had brought him was joined by another and the second one took one of her arms in its scaly hand, dragging her down the hallway before slinging her up and over its shoulder. She bounced as it walked, and dirt rose in clouds out of the ragged tunic that the creature wore. Taeben noticed that she was not fighting them. Pity, he thought. I had not reckoned her that easily broken.
The wyvern that carried Gin over its shoulder led the procession through the winding passageways to the arena where Lord Taanyth would be waiting for them. As they passed the cells where prisoners languished in various states of despair and injury, Taeben forced himself to remember his own time in those cells, only mere weeks ago. His thoughts flew back to Nelenie in the cell next to him, beaten and bleeding but promising him she would help him escape. The wizard frowned. When it came to it, you made no attempt to save me, my oldest friend, he thought. Taeben felt his blood boil. Why had she not come back for him?
Looking to the wyvern in front of him, Taeben focused on the wood elf over its shoulder. Her hands were still bound and as he stared at her, he imagined her tangled brown hair turn a silvery blonde. Her dirty, oaken-tinged skin smoothed out to become the porcelain-like cream-colored skin of high elves. No longer did Taeben see Ginolwenye, wood elf, druid…but rather he saw only Nelenie who had left him there to rot. The wizard smiled.
They entered the arena and Lord Taanyth was in the back, levitating as he meditated. An ancient book was in his clawed hand, flipping the dark-stained pages in an annoyed manner. The ancient dragon’s head snapped upward as they neared him, and Taeben took a moment to take in the dragon. The creature was covered in dark green scales that caught the flickering light from the torches, causing some of them to shine like emeralds. As always, Taeben could not tear his gaze away from the dragon’s face, the massive snout that held those horrible teeth, and the amber eyes that seemed to glow from an inner light He swallowed hard and then cleared his throat, catching the dragon’s attention.
“Wizard,” he said. “Have you brought me another spell to test?” His voice filled the room, reverberating off the stone walls. The wyvern had stopped just outside the door, but still held Gin over its shoulder.
“Aye, my Lord Taanyth,” Taeben said, forcing the words out through his clenched teeth. No one had ever received that kind of submission from him without earning it before, and it pained him every time he had to refer to this monster in that way. “I must first thank you for allowing me space for my work, the cell was…not conducive to work. After reading your solutions to previous problems, I hit upon another snag, as you know. Druids seem to be also resistant to your thrall.” He nodded to the wyvern who entered the room and then dropped Gin onto the stone floor. “We have a druid here that is willing to help us test the spell as I have written it, to discover what causes the resistance so that we may overcome it.”
“Excellent!” Lord Taanyth held out a scaly claw to Taeben after studying Gin for a moment. He inhaled deeply and then seemed puzzled, but then recovered and grinned down at the wizard. “Quickly, I shall have it now, so that we may begin the testing.” Taeben held out the scroll and winced as one of the dragon’s deadly claws grazed his hand. Once he had finished reading, Lord Taanyth looked back at the wizard, smiling. “Shall I begin, wizard?” he asked, salivating a bit. Taeben bit the inside of his cheek, disgusted.
“On your call, my Lord,” he managed, then stepped clear of area where the wyverns had left Gin. “There are several spells there, meant to test her resistance to fire, cold, and magic. Today I think we shall start with fire.” He again tried to call up the image of Nelenie, but found that it was only Gin before him, screaming in pain when the dragon lord began his spell casting. “Stay down, you foolish elf,” he hissed under his breath. “He will stop if he thinks you are spent. Stay DOWN!”
Twenty
For weeks, Sath and the other Fabled Ones watched and waited for word from Gin about why she had not joined them when they left the Keep with Gaelin. They looked for her to appear in the grand hall but she was not there. No one had seen her. Teeand, Hackort, and Elysiam had set out in different directions to search for her on Ailreden’s command but had regrouped when their solo attempts produced no information. Sath had just about decided to brave a trip to the tree city when a mysterious messenger approached him on the street in front of the grand hall.
“Sathlir Clawsharp? Sathlir of the Fabled Ones?” a deep and raspy voice asked. The stranger was clad in a hooded cloak that obscured his features, but he was easily two heads taller than Sath, no small feat considering the considerable size of the Qatu.
“Aye, I am Sathlir,” Sath responded, eyeing the stranger dubiously.
“I have a message for you.” The stranger extended what looked like a clawed, winged arm that was clutching a sealed scroll. Sath took the scroll from him.
“You’ve delivered your message, be on your way,” Sath barked at him. Something about the stranger raised the hairs on the back of Sath’s neck, and he wanted rid of this hindrance so he could continue on his way. Thoughts of his reception in Aynamaede caused his stomach to lurch.
“I’m to stay for a response, Qatu,” the stranger said, his voice equally curt. Sath sighed loudly and unrolled the scroll to read.
“This is to inform you, Sathlir, and the Fabled Ones of the fate of the wood elf called Ginolwenye. I told you before, Qatu, that I would have my revenge for the mark you left on
my Blueberry's face, and I have done so...for I have delivered Ginolwenye to my master, Lord Taanyth. Do not return here, for she does not wish to see any of you, ever again.”
Sath gripped the scroll, nearly piercing it with his claws. “Filthy human,” he muttered, then continued reading. ”I would wish you all a long life and good hunting, but ones such as you deserve punishment for the torturous life to which you once doomed sweet Gin. Cross me not, Fabled Ones...for it will mean her death as well as yours...and while I would dispatch you quickly, I fear that her demise would be a bit more involved...”
Sath took a deep breath and then turned to face the messenger. “Remove your hood, sir, and let me see that you are not Dorlagar.”
The messenger chuckled. “Nay, I am not that stupid human. I am a bodyguard of the Warlord, Protector of Lord Taanyth and Bellesea Keep.”
“Ah, the Keep...so that’s where he’s holding her, eh?” Sath beamed an evil smile at the bodyguard. “Here is my response: Tell your master Dorlagar that if he harms one hair on Ginolwenye’s head he will regret it.” Sath paused a moment. “Never mind, I’ll tell him myself!” The giant cat broke into a run toward the gates of the outpost, with the bodyguard hot on his tail. Just keep following me, Sath thought as he ran, so that I may kill you when we are outside of the outpost. Sath spun around as he passed under the giant stone arch that served as the gate to the outpost to see the messenger close behind him. He charged at the still hooded figure and knocked him off his feet. The hood fell away and Sath’s suspicions confirmed. The dragonkind male made no sound, but launched himself at Sath, clawing frantically at the Qatu’s armor and fur. Sath managed to grab the weapon strapped to his breastplate and swung the large hammer, making contact with the dragonkind’s skull and splitting it in half. The bodyguard sunk to the ground in death.
Grimacing slightly, Sath set to work on his next task...a message to the human, Dorlagar. Placing his hammer on the ground, Sath retrieved his claw-weapon from his pack and slid the shining blades over his hand. He took a deep breath and plunged the claws into the dead male’s chest, ripping a large hole through its carcass. With the other hand he rummaged around inside and found the beast’s heart.
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