The Inner Seas Kingdoms: 03 - Road of Shadows

by Jeffrey Quyle

  “Thank you,” she said, and immediately climbed on his back, her arms wrapping around his shoulder and chest, as her legs circled his waist. Kestrel stood up, and was astonished at how energetic he felt, and how happy to have her with him.

  “Which way?” he asked.

  “Go there first,” her hand pointed to a passage. Kestrel immediately began to move as she directed.

  “So you were raised as a human among the elves?” Moorin asked as he walked along. “If your mother was an elf, why don’t you look for like an elf?”

  Kestrel felt a sudden sense of how lonely the girl must have been, held in prison at Uniontown, treated as a tradable slave and shipped off to this strange land. He wanted to comfort her and answer her questions, to make her feel she could trust him. “I usually look mostly like an elf, except to other elves,” he explained. “When I started traveling to human lands, I wanted to look like the humans, so I had a surgeon cut my ears back and reposition my eyebrows. I passed as a human in Estone and Graylee,” he explained.

  He suddenly tripped over a stone, and lost his balance. Moorin shrieked as he went flying forward, and he extended a hand to brace himself. His hand hit the wall, and he bounced forward, then regained his footing and stood upright. He instinctively placed his hand behind him to lift Moorin up, then stammered in embarrassment as he felt the soft flesh his fingers touched.

  “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” he immediately said. “I didn’t think.”

  Moorin laughed. “Don’t be so silly. I know you didn’t try to get fresh, and no harm was done. Thank you for your intentions. I know you’re just trying to help me,” she said softly in his ear. “It did help prevent me from falling.”

  “How far do you think we need to go if we’re going to find them?” Kestrel leaned his head back to ask her as he resumed a steady pace. “They couldn’t have been too far along if you could hear them.”

  “They probably aren’t much farther,” she agreed, leaning her head against his to answer, so that he not only heard her voice, but felt the gentle movement of her jaw as she spoke. “Sometimes the echoes in caves like this can make sounds travel in funny ways though. Don’t give up.”

  Kestrel continued to walk on, as he felt Moorin’s head lay against his. The girl was remarkable, he thought, to be able to recover so quickly from the horrors she had faced.

  “There’s some water,” he suddenly exclaimed, as he saw a small stream flowing along the side of their passageway. “Let me stop and give you some of this to drink,” he said, stepping towards the water, as he remembered her earlier request for water.

  He felt her move her head to one side, and she looked over his shoulder as he bent down to the water and cupped his hands to raise a drink to her lips. As he looked down at the water beneath him a sudden surge of light seemed to blaze from the glowing mineral in the ceiling, and he saw everything around him clearly. He saw the walls of the cave, and he saw that only a few yards away it suddenly opened out into wider space, another large room within the stony hill. There was a group of people lying on the ground on the far side.

  And looking down in the water, he saw his own reflection, his face still bruised from where one of the hailstones had struck his forehead in the storm outside. But over his shoulder he saw another face, a reptilian face, a snout and wide mouth, set below beady, staring eyes that looked down in the water at him, then deliberately winked at him.

  Kestrel shouted in horror and stood up abruptly, twisting his torso around rapidly and swinging his left arm around behind him to grasp Moorin’s body and wrench it away from him. He shrugged wildly as he felt her tighten her grasp on his throat, then he snapped his body forward and flung her over his head, so that she landed in the water in front of him, her body twisting in midair with extraordinary agility, so that she landed on her feet. As he watched fearfully, her whole being sloughed off its elven-human appearance, and he faced a creature that was part reptile, part feline, a being that snarled, then seemed to purr, as a long, sinuous tongue darted from its mouth.

  “This could have been much more pleasant if you hadn’t done that,” the creature sibilantly murmured. “You would have enjoyed the final treatment I gave you. You’re such a delectable, unusual creature, so unlike anything else I’ve ever had.

  “Instead, we’re going to make this a little rougher,” the former Moorin spat as it leapt forward and swung a clawed hand at him, swiping towards him with a move that he only avoided by moving instinctively with his elven reflexes.

  “You’re a bit of a challenge, aren’t you?” the creature looked at him from the corner of its eye as it spoke.

  Kestrel reached to his hip, and as the creature began to jump towards him again, he flung his knife at the animal while he threw his body backwards with a torqueing twist that let him land on his hands and then bounce and twist further away from the monster in a position that allowed him to land on his feet.

  There was a flash of bright light, an explosion, and Kestrel saw that it was caused by the contact between his knife and the monster. There were flames erupting from the creature’s chest where his knife had landed and stuck, and the monster was reeling backwards, before it fell backwards and landed on the floor of the cavern, dead.

  “Lucretia, return,” Kestrel called. There was another eruption of sparks and his knife disengaged itself from the monster’s still smoldering body and flew back to his hand.

  He was trembling with shock. His hand gripped the knife tightly, and he stood looking at the dead monster, watching it, and thinking about what it had done, what it had been. Somehow it had known something, a memory buried deeply in his mind. It had exploited that memory, and it had shifted its shape in a pleasing manner that had made him trust it.

  “Kestrel? Was that you?” he heard a voice call. “Are you alright?”

  Chapter 7 – Reunion and Movement

  He held his knife in front of him at the sound of the voice, and noted how his hand quivered. He had seen something in the open space, a number of bodies, seen too hurriedly to have revealed any details. And he had just seen a vivid demonstration of how things in the cavern were not necessarily what they appeared to be.

  Cautiously, with his eyes focused on the dead monster on the floor, Kestrel advanced around the body and forward to the chamber, where he approached the bodies he had seen.

  They appeared to be his companions, Tableg, the imps, the Parstoles, all tied thoroughly with stout cords, lying on their backs watching him approach. “Kestrel, is that really you?” one of the imps, Thorsee, he thought, called out.

  “I’m really me,” he replied to several sounds of relief, coming over to the group and kneeling next to Reasion, who smiled angelically at him. “But I don’t know if all of you are really you.”

  “That monster took on a different appearance; it looked like someone else,” Kestrel began to explain.

  “What are you saying?” Gainue asked.

  Kestrel raised his finger to his earlobe to touch Growelf’s ruby, and repeated his words.

  “But Kestrel, who could possibly look like so many of us?” Tableg asked.

  “When my knife touched that monster, it caused an explosion,” Kestrel explained, still holding his ear. “I don’t know why, but it did.

  “So I’m going to prick each of you with my knife, to find out if you are real, or a monstrous impostor,” he said. “Reasion, I’ll start with you, my friend. I’m sorry if this hurts,” he said as he gently pressed the point of his knife against the sprite’s upper arm, and waited momentarily.

  There was no reaction until Reasion noisily let out a long sigh of relief. The two of them grinned at each other, and Kestrel sliced through the ropes that bound the sprite.

  He proceeded to work around the group of captives, pressing the enchanted blade against each of them, then setting them all free. When they all had been cut from their bonds, he urged them to stand up, to help one another stand up. “We need to go,” he told them. “I want
to get out of this cave as fast as possible, and I’m sure you do too. It’s not far – just a few minutes away to the exit, so let’s all get going.

  “I’m glad to see you all again,” he added, glancing around the group with a grin.

  Most of the others were squinting in the dim light, unable to see as well as Kestrel could with his elven eyesight, and so he slowly led them out of the chamber and down the corridor he had used to reach the captives. When they arrived at the next large chamber, the one where he had found the fake Moorin, he stopped and looked around at the multiple exits from the space. He had no clear recollection of which way was the correct way out to return to Allgain, and he hesitated as he looked around.

  “Gainue, go stand by that exit and watch it,” he point to his right. “Thorsee and Reasion, go stand by that cave,” he directed the pair of sprites. “Tableg, you go to that one, and watch,” he finally gave the gnome directions.

  “What are we watching for?” Gainue asked.

  “All of you are watching for my staff; when I call it, it will come from where I left it outside. Watch to see if it comes past you, and if it does, then your cave is the way out of here,” he explained. “Mastrin,” he called, “I need you.”

  He backed against the wall of the chamber and tried to look in all directions. After a few seconds he heard a bumping noise, and turned towards Tableg’s direction in time to see his staff come flying towards him. “That way to freedom!” he pointed the staff as soon as he held it, and the group promptly began to troop along the passageway out.

  “I have a friend out there,” Kestrel cautioned them. “Let me go first and prepare him to see all of you come out,” he said as the light from the cave entrance began to become evident. Moments later he dropped down from the cave into the shallow grotto where Allgain sat huddled beside the pile of items Kestrel had left behind.

  “Kestrel?” the native of the land stood up. “Your staff just exploded out of here minutes ago,” Allgain gestured to the staff that Kestrel held. “I hoped that was a good sign. Did you find anything in there?”

  “I found my friends,” Kestrel answered. “I found them and I found a monster in there too. I fought the monster, and I set my friends free. They’ll start coming down here to join us.

  “I see you made the storm stop,” Kestrel gestured towards the open space beyond the grotto, where damaged vegetation lay strewn across the floor of the forest.

  “You did your share, and I did mine,” Allgain grinned. “Get your friends down here and let’s get going away from this place.”

  The first traveler to drop down into Kestrel’s arms was Reasion. Kestrel caught his small blue friend in a hug that was warmly returned, and then as Kestrel turned to place Reasion on the ground behind him, Allgain and Reasion saw one another. They each froze in place, their expressions showing amazement, while Kestrel felt Reasion’s body shiver.

  The clouds overhead cleared away at that moment, and beams of sunlight fell down through the tree leaves above; to Kestrel it seemed as though rosy beams illuminated the two small beings in particular, making them glow and stand out from everything around them.

  “Do you two know each other?” Kestrel asked, puzzled.

  “We do and we don’t,” Allgain answered cryptically. “We’ve never seen each other, but I know – the land and the air and all the living things tell me – that my destiny depends on this creature.”

  Reasion nodded in agreement, and left Kestrel in a slow, seemingly majestic walk forward. The two each held a hand out towards the other, and when their palms touched one another, Kestrel imagined he heard a sound of ethereal pleasure resonate within his soul.

  “Are the rest of us allowed down?” Thorsee asked impatiently.

  Kestrel turned away from the inexplicable meeting in the grotto and stretched his arms up, then began to receive the imps one by one.

  “How many imps have you brought?” Allgain asked as Pumpkin became the fourth and final blue figure to enter the grotto.

  “That’s all of them. Now come the Parstoles, who are our allies,” Kestrel reminded Allgain, and he stepped aside as the taller members of the red race dropped down to the grotto floor and dusted themselves off.

  Finally Tableg tumbled down to the ground as well, and the new group of travelers was all present together for the first time.

  “We shouldn’t stay up here any longer than we have to,” Allgain said.

  Kestrel looked out at the long shadows that stretched away, indicating how low the suns were setting in the west, behind the hills above them.

  “Will there be another storm after this one, or are we safe to go out?” he asked, holding onto his ear stud to speak to all the group, thinking that the partial shelter of the grotto might be preferable to spending the night in the open forest.

  “Storms don’t follow one another,” Gainue answered. “And we never liked to patrol this area; these hills were rumored to be haunted. Now we know it was more than a rumor.”

  Just then an unearthly wail came echoing out of the cavern opening, sending chills up Kestrel’s spine.

  “I agree,” Kestrel easily capitulated upon hearing the cry, and they began to filter down the steep hillside, leaving the grotto and the caves and the fears of ghosts and unknown monsters behind. When they reached the relatively flat terrain of the forest that fronted along the road and the fields in the river valley bottom, Kestrel began leading them north again, and they kept walking until after sunset, when the eyesight of the others was unable to discern the pathway that Kestrel picked out for them.

  “I think we should build a fire tonight,” Gainue told Kestrel as they halted. “The Viathins and Parstoles don’t like to travel along this road because of the reputation of these hills, so we’re not likely to be spotted or disturbed. And the fire will make all of us feel better after spending time in the darkness in that cave.”

  Kestrel immediately appreciated the value of the red-skinned being’s suggestion. “Would all of you like to have a fire tonight in camp?” he asked the group, his ear stud providing translation.

  Every head nodded enthusiastically, and Kestrel assigned tasks to the members of group, as he sat down and opened his pack to look at his supplies. The rescued group from the cave had emerged without any supplies or weapons; they had escaped with only the clothes on their backs, literally, and Kestrel recognized that the next challenge they faced was supplying and arming them all.

  “How much longer will it be until we reach Gainsen?” he asked Allgain several minutes later as they sat in front of the fire and each ate their scanty share of the supplies Kestrel handed out.

  “Tomorrow,” Allgain answered.

  “Do you agree that we can reach Gainsen tomorrow?” Kestrel asked Gainue.

  “Yes, easily,” the Parstole guard agreed.

  “Do either of you know where our friends, Dewberry and Jonson, and all the other sprite captives, would be held in the city if they’re being held to await being sacrificed?” Kestrel asked.

  “There’s only one place – the amphitheater cells,” Gainue replied. “There’s a great stadium on the outskirts of the city, and the prisoners are probably being held there, especially since the cells are so small and the sprites are the right size to be kept in them.”

  Kestrel translated the answer for Allgain. “That seems logical,” the Albanun agreed.

  “How far outside the city is the amphitheater?” Kestrel asked Allgain.

  “I do not know; this was not my kingdom when our race ruled the land, so I never came here,” he answered in some embarrassment.

  “It’s on the side of the city nearest to us; this road we’re shadowing leads right to it,” Gainue explained.

  “Can the Viathins tell if you are under the control of one of them or not?” Kestrel asked Gainue, the germ of an idea floating in his head.

  No,” the Parstole answered. “They know that all of us who are here came because we were controlled by them. When one of them dies
or leaves to go to the new world they’re consuming next – your world – their servants are picked up by other Viathin masters.”

  “But if there’s no alternative master around when a Viathin dies, as your controller did,” Kestrel followed the logical trail, “then there’s no one to know that an uncontrolled Parstole is roaming around.”

  “That’s true,” Gainue agreed. He looked at Kestrel with an expression that Kestrel couldn’t decipher; his small horns seemed to wiggle, and his nose looked more keenly sharp than before. “So what do you have in mind?”

  “Could a Parstole take someone who looks like a prisoner into the stadium as a ruse, so that the pretend-prisoner could set other prisoners free?” Kestrel asked bluntly.

  “I think it would work to get into the amphitheater; I’d like to hear how they’d get out of there with the prisoners they set free,” Gainue answered.

  “I haven’t figured that out yet,” Kestrel admitted.

  “When you come up with a plan, let me know,” Gainue replied, disappointment evident in his voice. His horns no longer communicated any excitement, as they stopped shivering.

  “What if they didn’t get away?” Fasmet, one of the other Parstoles joined the conversation.

  “That doesn’t sound like a happy ending to the story,” Gainue turned to look at him.

  “What if they didn’t get away right away? What if they just hid inside the amphitheater until after the sacrifices were over? I’ve been in the amphitheater; there are whole sections that are abandoned and unexplored,” Fasmet explained.

  Together, Kestrel and the two Parstole guards were quickly joined by the other Parstole members of their group as they discussed options and tried to develop a plan that satisfied them all. Late in to the evening they plotted, then shared the plan with the others in the group, Kestrel translating as various ideas and objections were raised and discussed.

  Finally, when all were satisfied that they had devised their best opportunity to exploit the situation, Kestrel set up a guard rotation, and then went to sleep, watching the embers of the campfire slowly dwindle. The fire and the group’s talk about plans for the following day had done much to help cast the memories of the terrible experience in the cave back into everyone’s past, as they focused on the future instead.