by Edward Brody
I couldn’t risk attracting attention to the room by shooting a spell in the corner to kill them, so I shrunk down on the floor and tried to relax. One of them was spinning a web, but for the most part none of the spiders seemed to notice me.
I didn’t need any more stress after what I had learned earlier in the day. Dryden not only had plans of taking the throne in Highcastle, but the entirety of Eden’s Gate. He was going to wipe out the dark elves, Edgewood, even had plans to take over the forests and the high elves. I’d probably think he was full of shit if I hadn’t seen him tear through the frog like a chef dicing a tomato or hadn’t seen the hundreds of stakes surrounding Bloodletter’s keep.
Or the dragon…
Dryden had a fucking dragon.
I hadn’t been in the Eden’s Gate long enough to see a what sort of power dragons there possessed, but I knew when I saw the beast that it was Dryden’s trump card. I could picture how that devilish creature could easily take down an entire army or wipe out an entire town. If Dryden managed to get it flying, then everyone and everything I knew in Eden’s Gate was in trouble.
More than ever, I needed to get back home. I needed to tell Queen Farrani what I knew, and I needed to speak with my guild, specifically with Jax. Something needed to be done.
While I waited for Rina to arrive, I checked a few of the items that were on the shelf. Most of the scrolls were blanks that had yet to be penned with anything useful, and a lot of the books just looked like history books or tales of battles in Eden’s Gate, but a few of them had alchemy recipes and crafting schematics. One scroll in particular caught my eye:
Schematic: Bloodthirsty Blade. [Steel Magic Sword, Min Damage Limit 30, Max Damage Limit 100. Heals wielder for a percentage of damage inflicted.] Requires 15 Intelligence. Requires Weaponsmithing Lvl 12. Requires: 10 Steel, 2 Leather, 1 Bloodmoss, 1 Heaven’s Shroom. Durability: 7/10. Quality: Average. Rarity: Epic. Weight: 0.1 kg
Below the schematic details was a drawing of a long, thin blade that brought back memories of Mythanthar’s Blade—Oh, how I missed fighting with that sword. None of the other swords I had used thus far had the same grip and smooth feel in battle. Below the drawing were diagrams and instructions on creation and assembly of the item.
I had been timid about stealing anything from the Bloodletter’s Keep for fear that someone might notice an item missing from my room or one of the other common areas that I was allowed in, but I wasn’t supposed to be in that closed space where I was waiting, so even if I got caught, I was going to have lots of problems either way. Plus, the schematic was covered in dust, so I didn’t think anyone would be looking for it in the immediate future.
I slid the schematic in my bag and hoped for the best. If I ever made it back to Edgewood, it would be a nice project to ask Aaron to work on.
It was another two hours of waiting, stressing over Dryden’s plans, and staring up at the freaky spiders before I heard movement outside. I had begun to think that Rina might not show up, but finally the door quietly pushed open, and Rina and another scantily clad woman slipped inside, gently closing the door behind them.
“I can’t see anything,” the woman with Rina said.
“Shh,” Rina scolded. “Lower your voice more or we’re toast.”
I raised my hand and cast Divine Sight on Rina, and then followed up by casting the same spell on her companion. The woman jumped backed a bit and grabbed Rina by the arm when she saw me crouched down in the corner.
“This must be Maleena?” I queried.
Rina nodded and place a comforting hand on the woman’s shoulder.
Maleena had long, brown hair that had been styled in curls and dark, tanned skin that contrasted nicely with the white harem outfit she was wearing—a duplicate of Rina’s.
“I’m Gunnar. Nice to meet you,” I said, holding out my hand. I didn’t get up from my crouched position. I figured it would be better if the two women moved towards the back of the room and crouched with me to keep our voices at a minimum.
Rina shoved Maleena in the back a bit, and Maleena seemed to get the picture by moving closer and leaning in for a shake. Rina stepped forward as well, crouched, and yanked Maleena down with her.
“We’ve got fifteen minutes or less, so make this quick,” Rina said.
“Okay,” I said with a nod.
“What do you want from me?” Maleena asked in a mousey voice.
I took a deep breath and exhaled through my nose. “I’m here because Satorin sent me here.”
Maleena’s eyes went wide, and then her face softened and turned to disappointment. “Why? Why did he send you here?”
“He wants me to free you from Dryden.”
Maleena lowered her eyes. “Is this a trick of some sort? Satorin left shortly after Dryden claimed me. He made no attempt at rescuing me himself.”
“He didn’t think he could,” I explained.
“And he thought you could?” Rina snickered. “You can be more than level 20.”
“17,” Rina confirmed.
I took another deep breath. “It’s a long story, and if we have just fifteen minutes, I can’t explain it all. But Satorin left so he could save you… He had this elaborate plot to kill Dryden, and some things that I did messed up that plot, while simultaneously convincing Satorin that I needed to come here to get you out.”
Rina and Maleena both threw questioning glances at each other.
“I don’t know if I believe this or not,” Maleena said.
“Why would you agree to help him?” Rina asked. “Tell me that.”
“Because I’m not from here,” I explained. “I’m from east of the Serpent Sea. I live near the Freelands, near Highcastle. Satorin forced me into coming here, and the only way I can get back is if I help you.”
“Sounds ridiculous,” Rina said.
I shrugged. “I know it’s ridiculous, but if I don’t free you, I’m screwed. And we’re all screwed I don’t get back home. Dryden wants to do terrible things after he claims the throne in Highcastle.”
“As if he’s not doing terrible things every day already,” Rina said contrarily. “Why would we care about Highcastle?”
I sighed. “Okay, forget about what he’s going to do. That’s my concern. What you need to be concerned about is getting out of here.”
“How?” Maleena asked. “There’s only one entrance and that’s through the front doors. I know at least one guard there is over level 30.”
“With Dryden’s soldiers out fighting a war, there’s only two soldiers guarding the entrance—one at the door and one of the entrance path. We can try to sneak by them, but we might have to fight.”
Rina moaned. “That proves you’re an idiot.”
“What?” I asked.
“It’s true that there’s only two guards at the entrance, but that’s Dryden’s way into tricking people that they might have a chance of getting away,” Rina explained. On the roof of the keep are five of Dryden’s best archers overlooking to front entrance. If anyone attacks the guards or gets caught sneaking away, the high-level archers will mow them down instantly.”
“There’s no way out for us, Gunnar,” Maleena said sadly. “I’m afraid you’ve wasted your time.”
Rina smiled slightly. “Like I told you earlier, pretend that you’re going out on a mission, and when you’re far enough from the Keep, run far away from here. Just be careful of slavers until you’re out of The Sands.”
I rubbed my fingers through my hair, trying to quickly come up with an alternate plan. I thought that if I could walk away from the keep freely, then maybe we could steal some armor for Maleena and Rina, and they could walk freely too. But then again, I hadn’t seen a stash of all-dark-grey armor like the Bloodletters usually wore. And even if we managed to kill a couple Bloodletters inside the keep, all the Bloodletters I had seen so far were men. They’d probably pick up that I was with two women just as soon as we exited the door.
“Damn…” I cursed. Maybe I was going to ha
ve to give up and start looking for an alternate way back home. “Or…” I said out loud as I suddenly had another idea. “There’s actually a hidden passage behind Dryden’s throne that leads to a giant room at the back of the keep.”
“A hidden passage?” Rina asked.
“I don’t know if it’s leading to some sort of Annex or it’s actually part of the main building, but there’s a hall and a large room with a dragon.”
“A dragon?!” both woman said simultaneously.
I nodded. “And there’s a door back there—a big one. I’m pretty sure we can exit from there.”
“Unguarded?” Maleena asked.
“No, there’s about four guards on the way and then some old man acting as caretaker for the dragon. We’ll have to at least fight the guards.”
“Four guards?” Rina said, shaking her head.
“And a dragon,” Maleena added. “I’m not sure if I believe there’s a dragon, but if there is one, I’d rather stay a slave than be eaten.”
“The dragon is chained,” I explained. “Its wings are broken. I’m pretty sure it can’t harm us. So long as we can get by the guards and the old man, it may be a safe way out. The five archers on the roof—you said they’re all pointed towards the entrance, right?”
Rina nodded and stood, grabbing Maleena by the arm. “As far as I know, yes. But even so, four guards are too much for us. Again, I have to remind you that you’re only level 17. I don’t know why you think we’d survive.”
Maleena looked at Rina and signaled that they should go.
I jumped to my feet and grabbed Maleena’s hand before they could open the door. “Wait,” I said, ready to play that card. “I’m a Reborn.”
The two stopped and turned back around.
“Can your stories get any more contrived?” Rina asked. “Dryden has a dragon, and you’re a Reborn? I suppose you have an eleven-inch cock as well?”
I was stunned into silence by her comment. I knew she was a mean, stubborn woman, but damn. Shots fired!
“I think I believe him,” Maleena said.
“You believe him?”
“Before Dryden claimed me for his harem, Satorin told me that he was worried that the prophecy was coming true and dragons would once again breath fire. When I questioned him about it, he never wanted to talk about it more. Something must have triggered him…. It was like he actually saw a dragon. And just look at this guy…”
“What about me?” I asked.
“You’re just too stupid to be a normal human. No normal person of your level would think about attacking the guards head-on like you’re suggesting. Only someone who doesn’t fear death would be that stupid… someone like a Reborn.”
“Believe me,” I said. “I do fear death. It hurts, a lot. But it’s true that I’ll come back if I happen to die.”
“I don’t believe it,” Rina said. “He’s stupid, but Reborns aren’t real.” She grabbed Maleena by the arm and tugged, only this time Maleena didn’t move.
Maleena sighed as Rina looked down and tugged again at her unmoving arm. “I’ll go with you...”
“What? Are you crazy? You’ll get yourself killed,” Rina whined.
“Better than being trapped in that room with the others, waiting around to please Dryden. What kind of life is that?”
“Maleena…” Rina muttered.
“You don’t have to go,” I said. “As much as I’d like to get out of here with both of you, Satorin was only worried about getting Maleena back in his company. He misses his wife.”
Maleena’s eyes lit up at my last comment.
Rina held out a hand and dipped her forehead into her palm. She shook her head and sighed. After a few seconds she said, “Fine. I’ll go, damnit. I’m not ready to die, but I don’t want to be here anymore either.”
I let out a huge sigh of relief. “We can go tonight.”
“No,” Rina said. “If we’re gone more than 15 minutes, the other guards come looking for us. If we tried to leave now, we’d have a whole lot more than four guards to deal with.”
“When?” I asked.
“Tomorrow,” Rina said. “Meet us here around the same time. If Dryden calls either of us, we can feign sickness, so he’ll choose another girl.”
I nodded. “Alright. I’ll be here tomorrow around the same time.”
Rina and Maleena glanced at each other, and then Rina looked back at me. “I hope you’re a whole lot stronger than you look, Gunnar,” she said. “I know you’ve seen what happens to people who betray the Bloodletters.”
I had… Indeed, I had.
I swallowed hard as the pair slipped out the door.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
1/24/0001
“Come out, Lord Tagul!” Dryden yelled as two of his men began setting torches around a small, isolated two-story wooden shack out in the middle of the sand dunes. The wood at the bottom of the shack immediately caught fire, and the two men rode back to join us.
We were all on horseback, and Dryden had brought us out on a quest to capture some mad Lord that the King of Scotia—which I had learned was the largest city in the area—had supposedly put a bounty on.
I had a lot on my mind—the desperation of getting back to the other side of the Serpent Sea and even moreso, the anxiety of the escape I had planned that night.
“What’s he wanted for?” I asked as the flames began to grow.
“He was the Scotian King’s advisor and one of the head mages,” Dryden explained. “Apparently, he conspired with a few other mages to hypnotize the king and council to change government policies in his favor. He’s been hiding out for many weeks.”
We waited and watched for several minutes.
“I suppose he’s going to allow himself to burn to death then,” Dryden said with a smirk.
Within a second of Dryden’s remarks, the side of the shack burst open as a man sitting atop a giant lizard—much like a komodo dragon—plowed through, causing shards of burning wood to fly everywhere. His hair had been shaved bald all around except for small, tightly pulled bundle that sprang from the top, and he wore a dark green robe with etchings of gold. He turned his lizard to us, and a long, thin tongue snaked in and out of the lizard’s mouth.
Three men, also in robes, jumped out of the shack behind the man and started running away as quickly as they could.
Dryden nodded, and his two soldiers grabbed the reigns of their horses. But no sooner than they were about to ride forward, the lizard rider held his palm out to us, and a sudden, invisible wave of energy struck us all. My horse along with the two soldiers’ horses were knocked down, and we were thrown into the sand. Dryden’s horse didn’t fall, but the force of the blow shifted him backwards in the sand, and the horse rose to its hind legs. Dryden managed to hold on, barely.
The man turned and sped off on the lizard at a pace way faster than I imagined the lizard would ever be able to run.
The other men and I groaned as we started picking ourselves off the sands, and our horses were trying to get back up on their feet.
“He’s level 45!” Dryden shouted desperately. “I’ll have to handle Tagul myself. Gunnar, check that the house is clear. You other two, go after the runners.”
The two men nodded when they were on their feet and immediately hopped on their startled horses. Dryden was already several feet away when they both started off.
I did a quick check of my horse to make sure it was okay, and then I pulled out my sword and headed towards the smoldering shack.
I stepped through the hole in the wall, and saw nothing but books on the floor and empty potion vials everywhere. Half of the books had already started burning. There were a few shelves against the wall, but nothing else worth noting.
It was sweltering hot in the building, and I knew that it wouldn’t be long before the whole thing went up in flames. I ran for the stairs at the far wall of the building, but as soon as I stepped on the third or fourth step, I notice the slightest bit of movement back on
the first floor; someone was hiding behind one of the bookshelves.
“You!” I shouted and started running towards the shelf.
Name: arcane apprentice
Race: human
Level: 17
Health/Mana/Stamina: 110/170/120
Status: aggressive
As I closed in on the green-robed man, he held his palm out to me while shimmying out from behind the shelf, and a blue bolt of energy shot towards me, striking me in the chest. I jerked back at the impact and almost dropped my sword. The energy was cold, then hot, and burned like hell without actually burning through my skin or armor. I immediately recognized the spell as the one I had been using so frequently—Arcane Missile.
He held out his hand to cast another Arcane Missile, but knowing how difficult the shots were to dodge, I jumped head first to the ground to make it harder for him to hit. The shot flew past me, landing exactly against the stairs where I had been standing.
I reached my hand up and shot back and Arcane Missile of my own, but in a surprising twist, the man followed the stream of energy with his eyes and held his palm out to catch the bolt as if he were a catcher catching a fastball. The energy glowed in his hands and formed a globe, and then it seemed to be absorbed in his body. His eyes turned a hue of blue as the final bit of energy fizzled away.
“Oh, fuck that!” I yelled.
I jumped to my feet and rushed towards the mage as fast as I could, and as he was about to shoot another spell at me, I swiped my sword down at him, severing his arm at the elbow. The mage screamed and grabbed at his severed limb as blood spewed out, and I used that opportunity to slam the tip of my sword into his stomach. His eyes started to go glossy and he released the grip of his injury. He managed to hold his uninjured hand out to me and shot a close range Arcane Missile at my shoulder, but it was much weaker than the first and barely caused me to flinch. A second later, he fell lifelessly to the ground.