Prisoners of the Keep

by Susan Bianculli

  “Auraus? Auraus! Are you all right?!” I heard Arghen yell in a panicked voice off to my left.

  He appeared in front of me and dashed forward to reach her as fast as he could. Ragar and I were only steps behind him when we burst upon the scene. The light from the magical torches on the floor showed us a blue-haired, pearlescent green-skinned female Miscere Surface-elf kneeling on the carpeted floor area in front of the heavy desk. She was binding a semi-conscious Auraus, whose guard uniform had been cut from her body. From Dusk’s description that he’d given us before he left, this had to be the slaver, Morsca. She wore a flowing yellow translucent nightgown, and she had just pinned Auraus’s arms and wings to her sides with a piece cut off from the extravagant hem. Seeing us coming, Morsca pulled Auraus’s bound body around in front of her as a shield. She grasped the Wind-rider’s golden hair with one hand and caught up a large, black-bladed and bejeweled knife with a leather-wrapped handle from the floor with the other. The Miscere Surface-elf laid the knife’s sharp edge at the corner of Auraus’ eye, and the skin under the knife started reddening. The Wind-rider winced in pain but wisely didn’t move.

  “Come one step closer, and I will not only blind her with the cold iron of this blade, I will say the activation words for the Pain Collar and let her scream herself to death,” Morsca said calmly with a menacing undertone.

  Arghen stopped short, and we plowed into him from behind. Morsca smirked as we untangled ourselves, probably sure she had the upper hand now. I glanced around but saw neither Jason nor Thoronis, and I feared she must have gotten to them before getting Auraus. The mountain-cat-elf snarled and made to leap towards the slaver, but Arghen and I frantically restrained him together.

  Morsca’s smile grew superior. “Now, as I said before: throw your weapons away from you and get on your knees!”

  Auraus stirred under Morsca’s hand, trying to evade the burning, but stopped as Morsca applied enough pressure to the blade’s edge to dent the skin around her eye. The reddening worsened, and blisters started to appear. Auraus whimpered.

  Ragar shouted at us, “This is Morsca herself! She is evil, and we cannot let her live!”

  “We also cannot just let Auraus die! She is my quest!” snarled Arghen back at him.

  “O-ho! A quest, is it? Or should I say, ‘is she’?” purred Morsca. “Then you certainly do not want to fail your quest, now do you, Under-elf? I know of the penalties the rulers of your race impose on those who do not accomplish their designs. Throw your weapons away from you as you kneel if you want any chance of succeeding!”

  I couldn’t read the look that crossed Arghen’s face, so I was stunned when the Under-elf dropped to his knees and slid his sword away from him across the floor.

  “That is better. Now you two, also!” Morsca looked at Ragar and me.

  Hoping that the look I’d seen in Arghen’s eye meant he had some sort of plan, I dropped my weapons away from me and knelt, too. Ragar did neither, although he didn’t lunge at Morsca.

  “I see some encouragement is going to be needed,” said Morsca disapprovingly. She removed the knife from Auraus’s face, and I could see the second degree blisters it had left behind. “So I will now activate her collar just for you, Kitty: ‘You are not going anywhere, slave.’”

  The Wind-rider immediately shrieked and jerked about in her bonds while Morsca kept firm hold of her body. The green-haired Surface-elf looked Ragar in the eye. He glared back for about five seconds, but finally he threw his spear away in anger. Arghen strained forward from where he was kneeling, but from the frustrated look on his pale face I guessed he couldn’t hear the deactivation code over the sounds of Auraus’s agony. When the pain cut off, the Wind-rider slumped still further in Morsca’s arms, eyes now closed. I thought she might still be conscious, but probably not by much.

  “Kneel!” Morsca ordered Ragar.

  Furious defiance radiated from every line of the mountain-cat-elf’s body as he slowly knelt.

  “Now, what to do with you all?” Morsca mused out loud, changing her grip on Auraus’s limp body. “You have killed my bedroom guards, so I cannot call on them for help. And I am not going to ring for my household servants to take care of you, because I am not going to step away from my hostage to do so. And dragging her along to a bell pull to summon anyone would put me at possible risk.”

  She paused, a pleased expression coming over her pearlescent face. “Ah, I know what! You, girl!” She looked at me. “You will cut some of the tapestry pull ropes and bind these two louts, starting with my pretty Kitty. And you will do it properly. Then I will tie you up, and you will give me no trouble.”

  I looked at her in astonishment. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

  “I am perfectly serious.”

  “You want me to help you capture—no, I suppose ‘enslave’ is the correct word—us?”

  “If you want the Wind-rider to live, you will,” said Morsca flatly. “Else things are going to get messy. But do not worry; you all will fit in quite nicely with my ‘specials’ in the garden. You should feel honored.”

  Arghen tugged on my tunic, and pleaded, “Do it, Lise. Please. We will figure something out later.”

  I blinked, realizing that the Under-elf in fact did not have a plan other than that of surrender. Hardly believing I was doing it, I got up, retrieved my saber and went to the nearest pillar. I found a pull rope, cut off as high as I could reach, and came back with it in my hands. Ragar growled and bared his teeth, looking like he was ready to fight me. A loud throat clearing and a meaningful head jerk at Auraus from the Miscere Surface-elf made the Mountain-cat-elf allow me to bind his arms behind his back.

  I was going to do a poor job of tying him up, but Morsca warned, “Be careful, girl. It does not take much time to say the activation words for the Pain Collar, and I can do it while being attacked. So it is to the best interest of the Wind-rider’s life, and the quest of the Under-elf here, if you do a good job of it.”

  I complied as best I could. Ragar stopped struggling, though he was not able to stop growling. I thought there was something fishy about his sudden physical docility, and I sent up a silent prayer to Caelestis that any action he might take would not kill Auraus.

  “Now go get two more rope lengths. One for the Under-elf here, and one for yourself,” Morsca ordered me.

  Once again I unwillingly went to other tapestries and found more pull cords. I cut off two lengths and brought them back. But I hesitated in tying up Arghen. One ‘you are not going anywhere, slave’ from Morsca to the Wind-rider, followed by Auraus’s torturous pain a split-second later, and Arghen’s arms were bound as best as I could manage. Morsca murmured the deactivation code again, and I knew from the way the Wind-rider slumped bonelessly in response to the pain being cut off that this time she was completely unconscious.

  Morsca looked at me. “Now throw your sword away from you again, girl. It is your turn now.”

  CHAPTER 29

  I threw the sword away from me, my eyes following it with despair. Morsca moved towards me, hand held out for the rope I was to give her so she could tie me up.

  Out of the blue, I heard Jason’s voice as he yelled at me from somewhere nearby, “Fight her, Lise! Fight!”

  I was both shocked and relieved since I thought Jason had already been taken prisoner, or even killed, by the green-haired Surface-elf. I reacted by dropping the rope and punching her in the face. My closed fist landed on her jaw and Morsca stumbled backwards. It was amazing how much that hurt! I shook my hand in pain as Arghen threw his bound body lengthways behind the slaver so that she tripped and fell over him. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jason scramble out from under Morsca’s big desk, and I felt an indescribable relief to actually see him, even more than I’d felt on hearing his voice earlier.

  The Miscere Surface-elf snarled, “You are not going anywhere, slave!” She vaulted to her feet and waved the jeweled knife about.

  Auraus started shrieking again, and my face drained of
color. Morsca was carrying out her threat, and I couldn’t do anything about it. Hurt hand forgotten, I sprinted over to scoop up my saber up from where it had landed. Morsca jumped back over Arghen and tackled me away from it. We landed struggling on the floor with the pearlescent-skinned slaver on top and me holding her up off my chest. She said some words under her breath, and the jewels in the knife all of a sudden burned with an inner fire.

  I discovered then that the two previous times I had been god-touched, I really hadn’t been; it had been more like god-nudged. They were almost nothing compared to the god-touch that happened to me at the sight of the glowing jeweled knife above me. I quivered much like Arghen had upon seeing Auraus up close for the first time. I was wrong before about the prisoners—that knife was somehow my quest! The god-touch made me loosen my grip on Morsca, and she put all her strength into slamming that knife into my torso. The god-touch also saved me, though, by making me involuntarily jerk aside just in time. I felt the blade tear through my guard disguise and graze alongside the chain armor that covered my ribs. Morsca hissed angrily as the point of the knife scraped against the flexible metal and hit the stone floor instead of being buried in my left lung.

  Ragar stood up roaring and charged towards us with his claws extended. Somehow the mountain-cat-elf was free! Morsca didn’t hesitate; she leapt off me in one smooth motion and took the knife with her. She whirled back and pointed at Ragar with her right hand, yelling ‘kresht!’

  A golden metal rose that had been one of the decorations on her desk leapt off, thinned itself out, and flashed to Ragar’s ankles. It wound itself about them, pulling his ankles together tightly and making him lose his balance. He howled as he fell to his knees and only stopped himself from doing a face plant by straight-arming the floor. I rolled out of the way to avoid being crushed by him. I scrambled to my feet and saw the green-haired Surface-elf run for the door. I looked over to see Thoronis working on Arghen’s bonds, and realized that it had to have been Throronis who’d freed Ragar. Thank Caelestis he was safe, too!

  Arghen went after Morsca as soon as he was able. He jumped over Ragar and dodged around me to get to her before she made the stairs, but she was too fast. I couldn’t let Morsca go with that knife still in her possession; I needed to know why Caelestis had directed me to it. I jumped to follow the Under-elf when I was stopped short by the sudden sound of silence. Auraus wasn’t screaming anymore, and I feared the worst as I whipped back around to the desk area. I was thankful to see Jason untying Auraus’s unconscious body, and that her steel collar had been thrown across the room. Jason was all right, he’d found the rune key, and gotten the Pain Collar off! I threw him a victory sign and hurried after Arghen.

  I was only a few steps behind the Under-elf when we reached the bottom of the stairs. Arghen and I stopped short. Four burly grey-skinned Ogre guards stood waiting with weapons drawn with Morsca behind them. I didn’t like the look of that, because it probably meant she had more magical surprises to use.

  Arghen shouted, “Do not stop moving throughout the battle, Lise! And do not let Morsca get a clear sight of you!”

  He plunged towards the two left guards on the floor near the bottom of the stairs, which left the ones on the right for me. Great. Those Ogres charged me, and it was only because I was still on the staircase that I didn’t die in that first rush. The narrowness of the walls made their swords actually get in the way of each other, and I was able to block them. After that, things got messier. My new chain armor was quite a blessing, turning what would have been deep wounds into cuts, bruises and abrasions instead. But the chain didn’t cover me everywhere, and as I blocked one sword the other would get a slash in at some undefended part of me. I was glad the staircase didn’t allow them to get in full swings, but still I was soon bleeding all over.

  I knew I would not be able to keep this pace up for long against two Ogres, and I hoped Arghen would be able to help me soon. Thankfully, Jason’s knife flew down the stairs and buried itself halfway to the hilt in the forehead of one of my opponents. Jason himself showed up half a second later and jumped into the fight alongside of me, thankfully, because these guards were better than any we had encountered. Arghen did great holding off his two by himself, but I could see it was hard work for him and that he was bleeding a lot. I wished I could help him but it was struggle for Jason and me to hold off just one. We gained several more wounds apiece. I was startled at movement out of the corner of my eye and turned to slash at it, thinking it was a guard coming up from behind. I saw in time that it was Thoronis and re-directed my blade back to the fight. The brown-haired Surface-elf almost danced down the stairs between us and Arghen, ducking and dodging stray blows and clearly heading for Morsca.

  She saw that too and screamed something to the guards. One of the Ogres fighting Arghen managed to toss her a dagger from his belt. Morsca caught it and threw it at Thoronis on the rebound just as he nearly reached her. He couldn’t dodge it, and the knife ended up beaning him off his forehead. He wobbled forward in a circle, stunned, clearing the fights on the stairs. Morsca followed up her attack with a leap onto his back, the jeweled knife in her hand, and bore him to the ground.

  I screamed, “Thoronis! Watch out!”

  But things happened too quickly. As Jason and I fought the guard opposing us, the jewels of Morsca’s knife started to glow again. She plunged it in at an angle between Thoronis’ shoulder blades when they shone at their brightest. The Surface-elf’s back arched up from the floor as every drop of blood in his body exploded upward in a fountain around the blade, spattering over everything nearby. Morsca screamed in triumph and withdrew the no longer glowing knife. Thoronis slumped to the ground, ominously still.

  “No!” I shrieked, and fury gave me the sudden unexpected strength I needed to fight past my guard to get to them.

  I hardly felt the newest bloody slash I gained on my wrist as I rushed by. Morsca must have heard my shriek. With the wild look of glee still on her face, the slaver touched a ring on her hand to the wall beside her. It shot open, and she dashed inside. I had just enough time to see that the steps inside went up parallel to the stairs before the secret door slammed shut. I ran to the spot where she had touched the stones, but a frantic search didn’t reveal how it operated.

  “Crap!” I swore.

  Arghen finished off his opponents with a desperate flurry, and then he shoved his blade into the guard Jason still fought. The two ran towards Thoronis together.

  “Auraus! Where are you? We need you!” the Under-elf called out in a frantic voice as he fell to his knees by the body.

  He started applying pressure to the bloody wound. His face was confused when he saw that no blood leaked out around his fingers.

  I started to say, “Arghen, wait,” but stopped because I knew he wasn’t listening.

  The Wind-rider appeared at the top of the steps in response to the summons, leaning heavily against the wall. She looked at the scene below her, and I saw her shake her head as she focused on Thoronis’ body. Tears rolled down her face as she unsteadily made her way down towards the Surface-elf’s remains. Jason, surprisingly courteous, went up and helped her to walk down the steps.

  “Auraus!” Arghen yelled again, and glanced up over his shoulder at her slow descent with exasperation.

  But when she knelt down beside him and started arranging Thoronis’ body for the Rite of the Dead instead of casting healing spells, understanding dawned. He sat back on his heels, his shoulders sagging.

  Before beginning it, Auraus stood up and came over to me. “Before I assist Thoronis, may I aid you first?”

  I blinked. “Huh?”

  For an answer Auraus closed her eyes, placed her hands on my arm, and prayed. I watched in gratitude as a warm, airy tingle swept across my skin, making all the wounds that had been dripping blood slow to a stop, though the gashes did not close completely. It was both like, and unlike, what Oakalyn had done for me the first day I crossed over.

  “I am sorry I
cannot heal you all the way. I need to make sure that I can help Jason and Arghen as well, plus save some energy for what we might run into later,” she apologized.

  “That’s okay, Auraus, what you’ve done for me is just fine, thanks!” I said with a sigh of relief as my pains faded.

  Auraus did the same for Arghen and Jason more casually without really looking at them so she could get back quicker to the bodies of Thoronis and the guards. I saw Jason look disappointed after she was done with him, and I wondered about that. I decided I would ask about it later because helping Auraus so we could get after Morsca was more important. I took one of the dead guard’s cloaks and covered the Surface-elf’s body with it. Everyone bowed their heads in respect as Auraus and I lifted our voices in the shortened ritual for all the newly dead.

  But something went wrong.

  When the Rite ended, the guards’ souls appeared, turned into silver mist and arrowed away as their bodies collapsed into ash, but I didn’t see a representation of Thoronis’ soul appear. His body didn’t collapse under the cloak, either. I turned to Auraus.

  “What …?” I started to ask.

  I didn’t finish because she looked as perplexed as I felt.

  “I … I do not know,” she faltered. “It has never not worked before.”

  I looked at the others to see if any of them had any ideas to offer, and then realized somebody was missing.

  “Hey, where’s Ragar?” I asked nobody in particular.

  Before anyone could answer, an angry, growling voice came from behind us half way up the stairs to Morsca’s chamber. “Here. And as I see Thoronis’ body and do not see Morsca’s, it means you let her get away!”

  “Now, wait just a minute, Ragar,” started Jason.

  The mountain-cat-elf cut Jason off with an irritated wave. He stomped down the rest of the steps and rounded on Arghen where he still knelt.