by PT Hylton
“Damn it!” Abbey considered charging at the man ringing the bell, but she wasn’t sure it would help at this point. Other bells up and down the dock were ringing now too as more took up the alarm.
The two rappelling archers touched down, and Elliot and the other archer started their descent.
The scene on the street was quickly devolving into madness. The Tall Grass Raiders pushed their way through the crowd, trying to get to the ship. Stone Shapers ran through the streets, futilely trying to identify the trouble that had caused the alarm to be raised.
The benefit of the chaos was that no one was fighting yet. Which was good, because the Tall Grass Raiders were greatly outnumbered.
One of the Stone Shapers pointed up at the building across from the ship. “Look!”
Dozens of eyes turned toward the building down which Elliot and the other archer were rappelling.
At that moment a wagon raced up the street and pulled to a halt, and ten Stone Shapers jumped out. These men were dressed in matching uniforms. The City Guard, Abbey thought.
A man with a slightly fancier uniform pointed at Elliot and the archer. “Enclose!”
Five Stone Shapers ran to the building and pressed their hands against it, and the building began to change. The wall shifted, reaching out and grabbing Elliot and the archer. It wrapped itself around their legs, and began to crawl upward.
Abbey decided she’d had enough of this. She stepped onto the dock. Luckily, every eye was on Elliot and the archer as the stone wall slowly enveloped them. Abbey pushed her way through to the street.
“Ekkja!” Elliot called. His voice sounded strained. The stone was up to his mid-thigh now. “Scatter!”
“Sink the ship!” one of the Stone Shapers called. “Don’t let them take it!”
A cry of delight went through the crowd, and people charged toward the hull and began punching holes in it with their stones.
Dustin jumped off the ship onto the dock.
Abbey reached the guards’ cart and grabbed the fancy Stone Shaper. Channeling magic, she reduced his weight and lifted him into the air with one hand. Her other hand held her sword, which she pressed against his stomach. “You’re dressed fancy and you’re shouting orders. Guess that makes you the boss.”
The Stone Shaper’s eyes were wide. “How are you doing that?”
“Tell your friends to stop crushing my friends. Now.”
His face hardened. “I am Captain of the Nuur City Guard. Unhand me or face—”
She pressed her sword into his thigh, and the blade sank in a half inch. “Seriously, tell them to stop.”’
“If you think—”
She sank the blade deeper and began to wiggle it.
The man grunted in pain. His face was beet-red.
“The next words out of your mouth better be ‘Release them,’” she commanded, “or I’m going to start cutting a bit higher.”
Beads of sweat stood on the man’s forehead. “Guards! Release them!”
The guards returned the wall to its original shape, then stepped back. Elliot and the archer dangled from their ropes, and after a moment they continued their descent.
Abbey suddenly realized that the street was quiet. Every eye was fixed on her. She glanced at Dustin, and he nodded. He began to stormcall.
Thick clouds began to darken the sky, and a heavy fog settled on the street.
Abbey spoke in a loud, confident voice. “We are the ekkja. Do not try to comprehend our power.”
Lightning crashed above them, punctuating her words, then the skies opened and rain began to pour down on them.
“Do not attempt to pursue us, or we will show you great and terrible things that will make this,” she shook the captain in the air, “look like a warmup. Seriously, we’re really bad.”
She looked at Dustin, Elliot, and the few Tall Grass Raiders who hadn’t heeded Elliot’s order to scatter.
“And now,” she said, “we go!”
On the word ‘Go,’ she threw the captain into the crowd, jumped off the wagon, and sprinted north.
She didn’t stop to see if her friends had done the same. She just hoped they all made it out alive.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Abbey made it to the pre-arranged rendezvous point south of town an hour after sunset.
The escape from the city had been difficult and nerve-wracking. Fleeing through a strange and confusing city knowing that stoneshaping guards were after you wasn’t fun. Every time she heard footsteps or when a door opened, she’d assumed her pursuers had caught up with her.
In truth, her biggest enemy had been her sense of direction. She’d gotten lost three times before she finally found her way out of the city.
When she reached the meeting place, she was relieved and delighted to find most of the group already gathered there. Most, but not all.
After exchanging greetings, she brought up the fact that some were missing. “Where’s everyone else?”
Hekla lowered her head. “They didn’t make it.”
They’d lost five people, all good, solid Tall Grass Raiders. People who’d once served a Barskall warlord and dreamed of conquest, but who had left that all behind so they could use their skills to help the villagers of Gren.
Thinking of what they’d given up for this ill-conceived plan broke Abbey’s heart.
Elliot’s voice was heavy with sorrow when he spoke. “I was arrogant. Because of our success in the villages, I assumed it would be just as easy in a larger city.”
Tragic as it was, it was also incredible they’d lost so few in what had been a complete debacle.
Abbey nudged Dustin. “Good work calling that storm. We wouldn’t have escaped without it.”
“I told you I knew how to do my job,” he said with a sad smile.
After they’d taken a few moments to think about their fallen friends, Syd spoke up. “I think our best option now is to head south across land.”
“To Ammaas?” Elliot asked.
“Of course. As soon as Gideon gets word to Magnus that we’re working with you, The Foggy Day is royally fucked. We have to beat him to the city.”
Abbey wrapped her fingers around the hilt of her sword. Just the thought of the trouble that Stone Shaper had caused them made her furious.
Syd continued. “We get down there as quickly as possible, then we have Dustin and Viktor call the biggest storm Gren has ever seen. Hopefully that will be enough to let us sail past those idiots on the pillars. We’ll head east, and never look toward Gren again.”
Elliot looked troubled.
“What is it?” Syd asked.
“I can’t do that. I can’t leave Gren, not in the state it’s in right now.”
Syd glared at her brother. “What are you talking about? That’s why I came all this way—to rescue you and bring you home!”
“I know, and I appreciate it. It means a lot to me, but that doesn’t change the facts. People are starving here in Gren, and it’s because of Magnus and his followers. I promised to help those people.”
“You did help them!” Syd’s voice was getting loud now. “You fed them for a year. You became an outlaw and lived in hiding. What more could anyone possibly expect of you?”
Elliot held up a hand. “I understand where you’re coming from, and believe me, I want to go home. For a long time, I dreamed of nothing else. But I have a responsibility. Some of my friends died for this today.”
Syd took a deep breath. “I know that. But if we don’t go to Ammaas right now, my friends will die.”
Something occurred to Abbey. She touched Elliot’s arm. “Maybe you’ve been thinking about this wrong.”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“You’ve been trying to get the attention of the inland Stone Shapers, right? So you can let them know what Magnus is up to? Well, maybe you should take a more direct route.”
Elliot looked skeptical. “Are you saying we go inland and talk to them? We tried that once. It did not go well.”
“So you’re just going to give up? Try again! Keep trying until they either listen to you or drop a stone on your head.”
“You’re talking like someone dropped a stone on your head,” Syd interjected. “Once we free The Foggy Day, we won’t have time to talk to this supposedly kind Stone Shaper tribe. We are going to have to get gone, or we’ll face some serious consequences from Magnus.”
Elliot turned to his sister. “That’s why you have to leave me here.”
“If only we could be two places at once,” Olaf mused.
Abbey snapped her fingers. “That’s it!”
Olaf’s eyes widened. “Wait, did you develop a new magic power? Can you be two places at once now?”
“Um, no, but we can split up. Think about it. We don’t need a giant group to visit the inland Stone Shapers. Elliot and a couple others can win them over while the rest of us go free The Foggy Day.”
Elliot nodded slowly. “You know, I think she might be onto something here. Last time we went with a huge group, and we didn’t get far.”
Syd shook her head. “I’m not leaving my brother again. If we do split up, I’ll go with him to the Stone Shapers.”
“No.” Clemens’ voice was firm, and every eye turned to him. He’d been quiet for most of the trip. “I’m sorry, Captain, but that’s just not right. You have a responsibility to your crew. Hell, leaving them for this long was practically dereliction of duty.” He looked embarrassed, realizing he’d gone too far. “If you’ll pardon the expression.”
Syd looked abashed, but she nodded after a moment. “You’re right. My place is with my ship.” She looked at Elliot. “You’ll have to do this one without me.”
“Then I want Abbey.”
Abbey looked up in surprise. “Why? I mean, wouldn’t I be of better use fighting for our ship?”
“You’ve got a quick mind,” he explained. “From what I know about the Stone Shapers, we’re going to need someone who can think fast. I’d also like to bring Hekla.” He paused a moment, then pointed at Clemens. “And you. You were bold enough to stand up to your captain.”
“Do you need any fire magic?” Olaf asked.
Abbey just rolled her eyes.
“It’s settled, then,” Syd said. “We free The Foggy Day from Ammaas, and you convince a tribe of reclusive magic users to enforce justice. How difficult could it be?”
****
“This is going to be very difficult,” Elliot grumbled.
The four of them were headed west on the smallest of the Tall Grass Raiders’ wagons. It still felt too large for their group, especially when they thought about how the other wagons must be jam-packed with people.
But speed was of the essence. They needed to reach the inland Stone Shapers as quickly as possible.
According to Elliot, the entrances to the realms of the inland Stone Shapers were no secret. There were multiple spots throughout the region, all of them roughly similar in appearance. Each was a cave mouth built into a hillside, guarded by a burly Stone Shaper.
Not many attempted to gain access to the underground kingdom. Magnus’ Stone Shapers were bad enough. Who wanted to hang out with their supposedly more hardened cousins?
On the rare occasion someone did try to get in, there were three possible outcomes. Most were turned away at the mouth of the cave by the guard. The lucky few who made it past him either came back out a few hours later looking perplexed, or were never seen again.
“Tell me about the last time you tried to get into the caves,” Abbey prompted Elliot.
He seemed a bit disturbed by the memory. “This was almost two years ago. We hadn’t started raiding yet, but we’d seen how bad things were in the villages and we’d heard tales of the tributes paid to the inland Stone Shapers. I took a group from the ekkja, a group of what would become the Tall Grass Raiders, and we went to the mouth of the cave.”
“Were you along?” Clemens asked Hekla.
“Yes, for all the good it did.”
Elliot continued. “The guard at the mouth of the cave asked why we wanted to see the Stone Shapers, so I told him. We needed their help. He allowed us to pass.”
“Lame guard,” Clemens said. “Why even have one if he’s going to let a group of warriors inside?”
“I don’t think he lets everyone in,” Elliot replied. “He checks to see if you have a valid reason, and apparently needing help was valid.”
“What happened in the cave?” Abbey asked.
Elliot frowned. “Frustration. Cold. Confusion.”
“And bats,” Hekla added.
“Yes. So many bats.”
Clemens shuddered.
“We wandered for hours. It was incredibly frustrating. The cave was a series of interconnected tunnels that split off and twisted around and led to dead ends. You can’t imagine.”
“We’ve seen the dumbass way they build their cities,” Abbey interjected.
Elliot smiled. “Yeah, this is like that, but ten times weirder. Every time we thought we were getting somewhere, we’d hit another dead end and have to backtrack. And every time our torches began to die, we’d find new ones. It was like they were purposely screwing with us.”
Hekla nodded her agreement. “I swear to the sea, that place was a maze with no solution.”
“Eventually we did find an exit; the same one we’d entered through. It seemed impossible, but after wandering for hours, we ended up right where we’d started. The guard told us we’d had our chance, and that it was time to move along. We pressed the point, demanding another chance, but a dozen more Stone Shapers stepped out of the cave. Where they’d come from, I had no idea. After all, we’d just been in there and we hadn’t seen anyone.”
Clemens shot Abbey a worried glance, but the story only made her more determined.
“We’ll find a way through. We have to.”
She’d given up the chance to join her friends in fighting for The Foggy Day. They had to make this work.
It was quiet in the wagon for a few minutes as each member of the party was lost in their own thoughts. Surprisingly, it was Clemens who broke the silence.
“I ever tell you about the time Thunderclap was attacked by a gull?”
Abbey raised an eyebrow. “I can’t say that you have.”
“It was the damnedest thing. It was springtime, when all manner of creatures feel the urge to continue the family line. Sexually. If you take my meaning.”
“I think we understand your subtle innuendo,” Hekla said drily.
“Right. So anyway, we were docked in Algon, preparing to head out toward the Lost Isles, when we saw a pair of gulls flapping around together. This guy Ross—a big, dumb sailor—started throwing rocks at them. One of the gulls started squawking, all angry-sounding.”
“And what’s an angry seagull sound like?” Elliot asked.
Clemens let forth an inhuman squeal that set the other three off in hysterical laughter. “I thought that was the end of it, but the bird kept circling the deck, squawking, shitting on us, and occasionally swooping at one of the crew. The ship set sail and it went with us, still circling and shitting. It kept on for the better part of two days.” He shook his head as if he still couldn’t believe it. “I’ve met men who could hold a grudge, but I’ve never seen one who could stay as angry for two straight days as that gull did.”
“I hope it shit on Dahlia at least once,” Abbey interjected.
“Not that I recall. The crew loved watching that bird. We took bets on how long it could keep up the noise. But the best part was how annoyed Captain Tor got at the gull. He was a man used to controlling every aspect of life aboard Thunderclap, but the gull was beyond his control and it drove him crazy. Maybe we gotta be like that with these Stone Shapers. Buzz around their heads so long they can’t ignore us.”
Elliot nodded. “Perhaps you’re right.”
“What happened with the gull?” Hekla asked. “Did it give up and fly away?”
Clemens shook his head.
“On the second day it settled on top of the crow’s nest and Captain Tor had his best archer shoot it. The crew cheered when it landed on the deck. Tor gutted the damn thing and had it stuffed.”
“Suddenly I like this analogy a lot less,” Abbey remarked.
An hour later, Elliot nodded toward a hill in the distance. “That’s it. We’re almost there.”
Abbey watched as they drew nearer to the hill. Before long, the figure of a man became visible. He stood in front of a dark opening in the rock. His arms were crossed, and his face bore no expression. He didn’t even look at them as they approached.
Elliot pulled the wagon to a stop and they climbed out. “Here goes,” he muttered. “Bring the torches, your weapons, and anything else you might need for a long walk through a dark cave. If all goes well, we won’t be seeing daylight for a while.”
“That doesn’t sound ominous at all,” Abbey joked.
The Stone Shaper finally looked at them as they stepped in front of him, but he didn’t speak.
Elliot cleared his throat and began in a confident voice, “Hello. We’ve come to ask for your help. The Stone Shaper Magnus has been lying to you and using stone magic to oppress the people of Gren.”
The Stone Shaper met Elliot’s gaze, but he didn’t respond.
After a moment, Abbey spoke. “Will you take us to the Stone Shapers inside?”
For a moment, it seemed he wasn’t going to reply. “No. Each must find his or her own path to the Heart of the Stone. I will allow you to find yours.”
He stepped aside and gestured toward the mouth of the cave.
Abbey and Elliot exchanged glances, then she turned to Clemens. “Light ‘em up.”
Clemens lit the torches and handed one to each of them.
They prepared to enter the cave.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“You have any advice for us?” Abbey asked the guard at the mouth of the cave.
“No.” His voice was deep, and it held a hint of annoyance.
He stared straight ahead, his hands behind his back, holding a stone in each of them. Abbey realized he was trying very hard to act nonchalant, but his frequent glances at them out of the corner of his eye told another story.