“Who are you? What race are you?” Kestrel asked. “What do you know of my friends?”
“I am Allgain. I am one of the original inhabitants of this land, the Albanuns. We have been killed and hunted into hiding in the hills, a few survivors of us at least. I heard rumors that a group of blue beings had come into our land, and fought battles with the Viathins and Parstoles. Then I was captured, and now I’m being held until the time of the great sacrifice. As you are too, I presume,” the small figure added.
“Do you have a plan to escape?” Kestrel asked.
“If I had a plan, I would have used it by now. I’ve been in here for over a month,” Allgain told Kestrel. “If I come up with a way to escape, I’ll be sure to let you know.”
Kestrel rubbed his temples vigorously as he tried to massage his headache away. He slowly stood, and found that his hair brushed against the ceiling of his small cage. He turned and walked to the side of his cell that faced the center of the prison he was in, then looked out.
His eyes had adjusted to the gloomy darkness, aided by the dim light from the jailer’s desk. Leaning against the far wall of the prison, twenty feet away, was a pile of items that he recognized – his own belongings. He saw his pack, his staff, his skin of healing water, and his knife, all dropped together on the floor.
“Hey you! Sit back down!” the guard called from his seat, looking towards Kestrel.
Kestrel shuffled back to his pad and took a seat.
“I think we can escape this place,” Kestrel said softly to Allgain. “Do you want to go with me?”
“Is it day or night outside?” Allgain asked. “If it’s night time, I’ll go with you; if it’s daylight, I’ll still go with you, but we won’t get far.”
“Does the jailer carry the keys to these cells with him when he comes over to see us?” Kestrel asked.
“He does if he plans to open the door and beat you,” Allgain winced at the memory of some past abuse.
Kestrel rose again. “Okay, get ready,” he spoke through the bars to his neighbor, then shuffled back over to the door to his cell.
“Is it daylight or night time outside?” he called loudly to the guard, his hand tugging his ear lobe.
“Be quiet down there!” the guard shouted back.
“I just asked if it’s day or night,” Kestrel answered. “Aren’t you smart enough to know the difference?”
“Your mouth is so smart, but your brain is so stupid,” the guard said, sitting up straight. He rose from his seat and walked towards Kestrel’s cell, then passed it and went to another wall, where he opened a door Kestrel hadn’t noticed.
“Hey!” the Parstole guard called up a staircase. “The big, ugly prisoner wants to be beaten. I need some help down here.”
After a brief hesitation, there was a pounding on the stairs, and two red guards carrying torches emerged from the doorway. “The ugly one over there,” the jailer pointed at Kestrel.
He stood up against the bars of his cell, clearly exposing himself as the target the guards needed to address. The enforcers advanced towards Kestrel; “Why are there only two of you?” Kestrel asked with a sneer.
The guards came directly towards him, and stood just inches away, face to face with him, separated only by the bars of his cell as they snarled. “You’ve got a big mouth and a small brain. We’ll see if we can knock some sense into you, and maybe punch that mouth into silence,” one of them said.
“What about him? What about the jailer? Why isn’t he over here? Bring him over so I can teach all three of you a lesson at once,” Kestrel said. He gestured towards the man who was still standing by the stairway door. “Come on over coward. Are you afraid still, even when you’ve got these muscle-bound, weak-minded, slabs of useless meat?”
The jailer came over towards the brewing confrontation, and reached for a set of keys that were hanging from his belt.
“That’s perfect,” Kestrel said, a comment that confused the guards as they watched him spread his hands apart and raise them as he extended them through the bars. “Mastrin, return!” he called.
There was a momentary clatter against the far wall, and as the guards turned to see the cause of the noise, Kestrel’s staff came flying towards his two hands, serving as a horizontal bar at the height he held his hands, level with the height of the necks of the guards. As the staff slammed against the red necks on its way to Kestrel’s hands, Kestrel grabbed tightly onto the staff and jerked it powerfully against the outside of his cell bars, trapping and crushing the throats of his captors.
One passed out immediately, while the other two attempted to claw at their throats, their hands feebly attempting to belatedly protect themselves from Kestrel’s extraordinary attack. The guard with the keys ceased struggling just seconds before the last guard also collapsed into unconsciousness.
“How did you do that? Are you a great magician?” Allgain shrieked his questions in shock.
Kestrel bent down and pulled on the body of the jailer, then grabbed his victim’s keys and ripped the chain off his belt. The other two guards had dropped their torches when hit by the staff, and the two lights lay on the floor, guttering and casting wild and lively shadows as Kestrel rose with the keys in his hands and started to test them against the lock on his cell door.
When he felt the lock click, he pulled the door inward, and stepped out of the cell. In the excitement of his brief battle his adrenaline had surged, wiping away the pain of the headache he felt from his injury, but as he left the cell his head started to throb once more. He stumbled over the pile of bodies by his cell, and reached the spot where his goods lay on the floor. Kestrel slowly bent and picked up the water skin of healing water from the spring in the Eastern Forest, uncorked the cap, and took a drink of the water, then cupped some in his hand and splashed it across his head.
“Can you set me free too?” he heard Allgain’s voice call.
He breathed a sigh of relief, then dropped the water skin, and opened Allgain’s cell door, letting the small creature leap out of the cage. I haven’t had more than four paces of space since they locked me in there; thank you great magician!” he told Kestrel, giving an extravagant bow. “Perhaps an escape in the daylight is possible if you can make us fly away or walk through walls.”
“I’m not a magician,” Kestrel answered. He bent and grabbed the arms of one of the guards, and pulled it into his empty former cell, then hauled in the other two Parstoles as well, and slammed the cell door shut.
“Well Allgain, what do you think our options are?” Kestrel asked. “I want to get out of here, and start heading north, up to set the captive sprites free.” He was careful not to mention the others who he wanted to meet: Gainue, Tableg, Reasion, Thorsee, and the rest. There was no reason to reveal their existence until he and the small captive were safely away from the clutches of the Viathins’ control; Kestrel knew the ability of torture to force a captive to reveal information, and he wasn’t going to put any information at risk if not needed.
“We can take the water tunnels,” the small creature answered.
“What? What are those?” Kestrel asked, uncertain of the phrase Allgain used.
“They are long empty places beneath the buildings,” Allgain spoke in slow, measured words, “where the filthy water goes away, and they lead to the river.”
“Sewers?” Kestrel asked, letting the ruby in Growelf’s enchanted ear stud translate the word.
“Yes!” Allgain agreed. “That’s a better word. We could go down in there, and as long as it doesn’t rain, we could go all the way to the river valley without being seen.”
“How big are the tunnels?” Kestrel asked cautiously. Allgain’s proposal sounded like a possibility, but Kestrel had no desire to become trapped in a sewer.
“I don’t know; I’ve never been in them before,” his new companion replied.
Kestrel sighed. “Can we get into them from this building?” he asked. He felt his elven breeding erupting within his psyche, expressi
ng a horror at the notion of being trapped in a tight spot underground. He had accepted the caves of the gnomes when he had lived in Amethysaquina, in part because the caverns were only extensions of the homes that fronted them, in part because they were large and roomy, in part because they provided relative warmth and protection in the harsh mountain wintertime, and in part because there was always a way out. But this situation promised none of those alleviating factors.
“Every building in the town is connected somehow,” Allgain replied. “So there must be a way from this building. Shall we go look?”
Kestrel looked at the three unconscious guards in the cell, then he walked over to the desk and picked up the lantern. He walked back to the guttering torches and snuffed them out. “Let me load up,” he said as he slowly began to strap his pack and bow and quiver over his shoulders, reluctant to actually have to go in search of the sewer tunnels, though they obviously represented the best means of escape. “Okay, I’m ready,” he said, and they walked over to the door and began to climb the stairs, their lantern providing a mobile pool of dim light in the staircase.
They reached a closed door at the top of the stairs, and both of them paused, Allgain a step higher than Kestrel. After a wordless look at each other, Kestrel cautious pressed the door open a fraction of an inch, then paused. There was no sound or reaction, so he pressed it open further, enough to see that the next room they would enter was also dark.
There was still no sound, so he pressed the door open wide enough to pass through, and both the escapees climbed up off the stairs, Allgain’s small legs stretching to climb the riser as Kestrel took the step without thinking about his action. They stood in a dark room; there was a window on one wall, a dark window that indicated night had fallen outside. On the same wall their doorway stood in was another door.
“This may be the way down to the sewer line opening,” Allgain suggested quietly.
Kestrel rolled his eyes, then placed his hand on the door latch. As he did, there was a sound at a third door, and a pair of unwary Parstoles entered the room, then stood in silent astonishment at the sight of the two startled prisoners bent on freedom.
After a moment’s pause, Kestrel threw his knife at the hindmost of the two guards. “Climb on, Allgain, and hold on tight,” he grunted as he unexpectedly reached down to grab his companion, then swung him up into the air and flung the small creature atop his own pack on his back.
“Hold on tight!” he repeated, then suddenly charged forward, into the chest of the shocked guard who still stood, fumbling with his sword until Kestrel shouldered him viciously to the ground and ran past him.
Outside the door was a step down to the ground, and suddenly they were outside. Kestrel paused for a moment to look up at the sky and check on the strange constellations overhead. There were no recognizable features, but the guard behind him suddenly yelled loudly, and Kestrel randomly chose to run to his right. “Lucretia, return,” he called, holding his palm open and facing backwards as he broke into an all-out sprint.
He seemed to be on the main road through the village where they had been held hostage, and he saw the end of the line of structures not far ahead, the open terrain beyond beckoning him forward to freedom. He let his legs run at their fullest speed, the pace one that was beyond any human, and he hoped beyond any of the residents of the world he was in, as he heard the guard behind him still shouting for help. He cleared the last building, and saw open fields on either side of him.
“Kestrel! Where are we going?” Allgain shouted in his ear. Kestrel was well aware of the small being’s presence; his companion held on very tightly, one hand pulling on his pack strap while the other hand’s fingers were painfully entangled in Kestrel’s hair.
“We’re going to freedom!” Kestrel flung the words backwards.
“I don’t understand you,” Allgain replied. “Can you speak my language?”
Kestrel reached his hand up to his ear to use his translator. “I said we’re going to freedom. Which way is it to the city where we have to save Dewberry?”
“That way, to the right,” Allgain immediately answered.
“We’re going to decoy first,” Kestrel informed him. He released his hold on his ear stud and began pumping his arms again to add to the speed of his stride, then cut to his left, leaving the road and entering an empty field as he heard the sounds of shouts behind him, an indication that the pursuit had already begun.
“You’re so fast!” Allgain squealed as Kestrel fled as fast as he could. He heard a spear hit the ground just a few feet behind him, which propelled him to find another, unknown, reserve of energy that allowed him to again increase his speed and enable him to escape his pursuers, unlike his last effort. He no longer tried to feint, dodge, or swerve to keep the attention of the guards that chased him, he simply ran with flat-out speed, as an elf was able to do, and flew across the ground, hurling over ditches and obstacles. He saw trees ahead, the goal he sought, and he flew into the forest, penetrated deep enough to be out of sight of the guards he had left behind, and then he finally swerved, turning sharply to his right as he dodged among tree trunks, then startled Allgain with a sudden leap, as he began to climb up the trunk of a large tree, one in which he could enjoy the traditional elven feeling of comfort among the branches high off the ground.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Allgain asked, as Kestrel reached a suitable height, then ran out along a wide, gnarly branch that extended far away from the central trunk of the tree.
“Kestrel!” the small passenger screamed in terror as the elf suddenly leapt from the branch, shooting forward and dropping to a branch on an adjoining tree.
“Ssshhhh!” Kestrel placed his finger to his lips as he lightly stepped along the tree branch and reached the central trunk. He climbed higher, then repeated the process of moving north, passing from tree to tree for several minutes, exhilarated to experience a reminder of his joyful, carefree days in the Eastern Forest. At last, he concluded they had traveled far enough in the air to be beyond the reach of their pursuers, and he stopped at the crook of multiple branches conjoining with the central trunk of a random tree, and he placed Allgain down on the widest branch.
“We’ll spend a few hours here,” Kestrel said softly as he placed his finger on Growelf’s ruby. “This will be safe,”
“Who defines what safe is?” Allgain asked in a shrill voice.
“Keep your voice down or the Parstoles will find us,” Kestrel scolded his small companion who clung to the tree trunk. “Here,” he re-arranged his pack and wrapped the straps around the branch to give Allgain someplace to sit. “Don’t your people ever climb trees?”
“Not like you did,” Allgain replied, sitting hastily down on the pack in relief.
“I love the trees,” Kestrel said, feeling a strong nostalgic longing for his elven heritage. “I grew up in a great forest, where the trees never seemed to end. We’ll be safe as long as we can travel through trees.”
“We’ll be able to travel through trees for most of the way to Gainsen,” Allgain replied. “But I hope you mean walking on the ground among the trees, not jumping through the air among the trees!”
“I do,” Kestrel said reassuringly. “We’ll have to go to the ground to find the rest of the rescue party anyway.”
“What rescue party?” Allgain asked sharply.
“The others I was with before; I didn’t tell you about them while we were captive in the prison. There are several others who I was traveling with who all were going towards your big city, Gainsen. We all came through from our other land on this mission, except for the Parstoles,” Kestrel explained.
“Parstoles? You were traveling with them? Are you a spy?” Allgain’s voice rose again.
“I was a spy,” Kestrel said, “but not in this land, not for the Parstoles or Viathins. No, I killed the Viathin that controlled these Parstoles, and now they’re traveling with us, trying to get back to the passage to their own land.
“We ma
y go there with them; they say there is a way there to defeat the Viathins. We want to try to find it and bring it back to our own land, where we need to use it,” Kestrel hastily explained.
“Is it a weapon? Could we use it here too?” Allgain asked excitedly. “I never heard there was a way to defeat them.”
“If we have to go to the land of the Parstoles to find out how they defeated the Viathins, you may come with us, and we can all hope to benefit from the knowledge we gain,” Kestrel agreed.
“That promise almost makes it worthwhile to sit up here in this tree,” Gainsen laughed, and Kestrel laughed with him, before they settled down and slept for several hours.
When Kestrel awoke it was still dark outside, and there was no indication that searchers were nearby in the forest.
“Let’s go, Allgain,” Kestrel roused the small dark being he was now traveling with. In the strange land with the strange double sun, Kestrel appreciated having any companion to travel with, to give a feeling of belonging in a place where he knew he didn’t belong. “Climb on my back, hold on tight, but don’t pull my hair this time,” he instructed, and moments later they began their descent and their journey north to find Kestrel’s companions, the city of Gainsen, and the way back to the land of the Parstoles.
Dawn did not break until after Kestrel had successfully carried his weapons, supplies, and Allgain across the open fields around the village where they had been held. They reached the forested valley hillside north of the village, and Kestrel set the small creature down on the ground. Allgain stayed behind Kestrel, relying on the elf’s superior night vision to pick a path through the forest.
They traipsed through the woods, for hours, until Kestrel decided to take a break, long after the sun had risen. “How long will it take us to get to Gainsen?” he asked Allgain.
“At the rate you travel, about two days,” Allgain replied. “For a regular Albanun, it would be four or five days.”
The Inner Seas Kingdoms: 03 - Road of Shadows Page 7