Nath approached the prisoner.
The prisoner alternated between swinging two sledgehammers at a time using four arms. Its powerful arms rotated between swings, busting the rocks to bits.
Nath’s jaw hung open. It was the bugbear, the beast of a man who had once robbed him. He was the one teamed up with Calypsa, the half-dryad Nath had first run into when he left Dragon Home. “You!” Nath said.
Rond stopped hammering and turned. The bugbear’s eyes ignited. He charged.
CHAPTER 17
Biceps pumping, Rond chopped downward with two overhand hammer swings. Nath crouched down, slipped inside of Rond’s overextended swings, and punched the head of his sledgehammer into Rond’s groin.
“Oooooof!” the bugbear gushed out in pain.
Nath snuck underneath the bugbear’s legs. He popped up behind the seven-foot-tall bugbear and hooked the hammer around Rond’s neck. He pulled back on the handle, choking the life out of Rond. “What are you doing here, thief?”
Somehow, Rond choked out raspy words. “I’m going to kill you…”
“Not if I kill you first!” Nath pulled back hard. Rond’s neck muscles were cords of iron. The beast of a man didn’t give easily. Rond thrashed back and forth, slinging Nath side to side. Nath held on for his life. “Go down, monster!”
Rond went down all right, but it wasn’t what Nath had in mind. The bugbear hopped up and pancaked Nath underneath his broad back.
Nath’s breath came out in a gust. His healed-up ribs cracked again. The hard gravel and debris cut into his back. He held on. He wasn’t sure what it was about Rond that sent a fire through him, but he only saw red now.
Rond rolled over the ground, taking Nath with him.
The prisoners and guards cheered.
Scraped up from head to toe, the two warriors went at it with all of their might. Rond dropped one of his hammers. With his two top hands, he grabbed the handle of Nath’s sledgehammer and pulled it away. “You are not stronger than Rond! Redheaded weakling!”
“Hurk!” Nath yanked back on the handle. His strength seeped out of his trembling limbs. He didn’t eat enough or rest enough to keep going on like this. His entire body had been exerted to its limit. He pulled back one last time. His fingers lost grip on the handle. “I hate you,” he said in Rond’s ear as his hammer slipped from his grasp.
Rond flung Nath onto the ground. Looming over Nath, he brought the hammer up high overhead.
The ground quaked.
Crack-Thoom!
Arms flailing, Rond fell backward. A seam split through the rock bottom between the two. All of the prisoners scattered, leaving Nath and Rond lying in the dust.
Nath rolled to his side. Foster stood several feet away, feet spread over the crack he’d just created in the bedrock. The mystic sledgehammer, Stone Smiter, rested on his shoulder. The arcane runes in the hammer’s head coursed with red light. The gemstones on top of the hammer glowed brightly. Eyebrows buckled, in a threatening tone he said, “If either one of you move a muscle, I will turn your bones into dust.”
Nath had already felt a kiss from Stone Smiter before. That was just a shock. He had no idea the hammer had even more power. He swallowed and dipped his chin twice.
“I said not a muscle, prisoner!” Foster walked over to Nath. His hands squeezed the hammer’s handle and twisted. “Just give me a reason.”
Nath knew that Foster would not hurt him, but there was murder in the half-orc’s eyes. He looked at him for moment then looked at Rond.
“Bugbear, do you know this man?” Foster took the hammer off his shoulder and walked up to Rond. “It seems as if you know each other.”
Sitting on his backside, leaning on all four hands behind him, Rond scowled. “I robbed him, long ago.”
“Ah.” Foster rested the sledgehammer back on his shoulder. “That is an interesting story. A bugbear that is a thief, whose past has caught up with him, not once but twice.” Foster slung his three ponytails over his back. “The best way to stop a thief from stealing is to cut off his hands. And you have four of them. Listen to me, bugbear. Settle yourself, or I will take my hammer and smash those greedy paws of yours into gravy. Do you understand?”
Rond nodded.
Foster turned back on Nath. “As for you. I can only imagine how precious something must have been to you for you to act out like this. It gives me a chuckle. What was stolen? I know it wasn’t your ego. No, you still have plenty of fire in you. And I’d begun to suspect it had died. Too bad for you. So, what was it, prisoner?”
“My gold,” Nath said, keeping his eyes averted.
“Hah! Good! The bugbear probably spent it on all of the cattle and ale he could eat and drink. Guards, put them both in the stocks!”
One of the guards said to Foster, “But, the bugbear has four arms.”
“Then chain the other two hands down, idiot!”
CHAPTER 18
Clamped in the stockades, Nath glared at Rond. The bugbear was in the stockade across from his, staring right back at him. The brute’s neck and wrists were tight in the stocks. His fingers were swollen and red and his ugly face flushed. Nath had no sympathy for the bugbear’s discomfort. His bonds pinched all the same. Even the drenching rain didn’t bring him comfort. The hard drops needled on his back. Finally, Nath broke the silence. “This is your fault.”
Rond snarled at him.
Normally, the guards would be right on top of Nath for speaking, but now, they took shelter from the rain, on a porch not so far away. There were two guards sitting in chairs. One reached his hand out, filling a bucket full of rain water. He set it down off the porch and resumed talking to the other.
At the moment, Nath would rather be busting rocks. Instead, he was back in the stocks again, suffering as much as ever. In truth, he couldn’t blame Rond for it. When he saw the bugbear, he just snapped. The bugbear and the dryad were his first encounter out of Dragon Home, and they tricked him and stole from him. He got back what he’d lost, but there had been nothing but trouble ever since.
Water dripped from his face. Puddles formed on the muddy ground. He pulled against his stocks. The effort bit into his wrists. “Gads!”
To make matters worse, he revealed to Foster the fire that still burned in him. He’d been docile, and it allowed him to get into a routine. Now, he’d blown that. “I’m such a fool,” he said out loud. The heavy rain drowned his words so that even he could barely hear them. “Such a fool.”
“You are a fool, for certain.” Rond’s large, pointed ears were flared out and wiggling. Metal hoop earrings were pinned in his ears. His face was more like a dog than a man. Hair covered his chin and face like a pelt of fur. His beady eyes were bright as a night demon’s. “A fool indeed,” he said in a gravelly voice.
“Excuse me. You dare call me a fool, Rond!”
“You said it yourself, and I agree, fool.”
“I wasn’t talking to you. I was talking to myself. But with you having ears the size of paddles, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that you heard me. And I’m not a fool, just… never mind.”
Rond’s neck twisted in the stock. He let out a hollow laugh. “You are a fool and you know it. You are here, aren’t you? Only fools wind up in a place like this.”
“Then you are as big a fool as I am.”
“No, I wasn’t made to come here, unlike you. You were captured by Prawn. I allowed myself to be captured by the slavers.”
“How did you know about Prawn?” Nath demanded. “Is this more trickery? More lies? You must have overheard that.”
“No, I was there outside of Riegelwood when the Black Hand released you to Prawn. We saw the exchange.” Rond managed a quick shake of his face. “Bloody rain. I hate rain.”
For the moment, all of Nath’s irritating agonies faded. His mouth hung open. He was stupefied. Once again, it seemed as if everyone knew what was going on but him. He wondered if perhaps Rond was a part of the Black Hand, or something else. After sorting his thoughts in the soaking
rain, his temper ignited again. “Why didn’t you help me?”
“Hah! We don’t care about you. We want those items you stole from us.”
“Stole from you? You stole them from me! You thief! Robber! Liar!”
The guards on the porch were leaned in their chairs with two legs on the planks. They leaned forward, putting all four legs on the deck. The one that had the bucket stood, peering at Nath through the rain. The stare lasted several seconds. The orc guard picked up the bucket, sat down, and the guards shared a drink.
“Those items belong to whoever has them, the way I see it,” Rond said. “Either way, they are the Black Hand’s now.”
“For all I know, you and that little trickster, Calypsa, are members of the Black Hand. How else would you know about it?”
Rond didn’t reply.
“Where is your little partner in crime? Is she taking up quarters somewhere with the slavers? Perhaps, she is a Black Hand member, or one of their mistresses.”
Rond thrust his frame against the stock. The boards groaned but held fast. His two free arms strained against the chains that tethered them down. The fingers on his hands flexed. “Don’t you talk about her like that. I will tear your head off for it.”
The angry expression on Rond’s face said it all. He’d found a soft spot in the bugbear. Nath considered drilling down on the bugbear’s emotions, but if he did, he’d never find out why Rond would get caught on purpose. He remembered a saying Balzurth said.
Words can be used for weapons, but that is never wise. Soothing words can gain the favor of even the most troublesome man.
Leveling off his tone, Nath said, “Rond, I grudgingly apologize. Calypsa is your friend, I respect that.”
The bugbear’s hard stare could crack a mirror, but the wrinkles in his clenched face softened.
“Why are you here, Rond? And where is Calypsa?”
“She was captured with me, for a stupid reason.”
“You really allowed yourself to be captured?” Nath managed to shake his head a little. “Why in Nalzambor would you do that?”
Rond looked right at Nath and said with disdain, “We are here to rescue you.”
CHAPTER 19
“That’s the biggest lie I’ve ever heard,” Nath said. “It’s insulting that you would expect me to believe it.”
“You are a self-admitted fool, but what I say is truth,” Rond replied. “And I’m a fool for going along with it. She’s a crazy dryad. She doesn’t think the way that she should.”
“Most likely, the both of you were captured for stealing, and now you want me to get you out of this. Well, it’s not happening. You are on your own, and when I escape it will be without you. I’ll do it on my own.” Nath stretched his fingers out absentmindedly. He wanted to wipe the water from his eyes. His hand was fastened down over a foot from his head. “I hate the stockades! Great Guzan, I’ve had enough of this!” He rocked against the contraption. “Blast!”
“You won’t make it out of here without us. Not with those irons. You would have made it out by now if you could have.”
Nath didn’t have a hard time not believing a word Rond said. He’d been lied to by everyone he’d met thus far, and bugbears certainly didn’t have any credibility. They were an evil brood that Nath had studied about in Dragon Home, though Rond seemed different. Still, Rond’s words did have a ring of truth about them that he couldn’t shake. “What do you mean that she is a crazy dryad?”
“She wants to rescue you, doesn’t she? We are in Slaver Town, aren’t we? Who does that?”
“I think why is the question,” Nath said. “Why would she want to rescue me? She must need something, right? And why now? I’ve been here two years.”
Rond mumbled something.
“What?” Nath said.
The bugbear sighed. “Calypsa fancies you.”
“Fancies me?” Nath perked up. “You mean to tell me that she is going to all of this trouble because she likes me?” He belted out a laugh. “Hahahaha.”
Rond shrugged his arms that were chained to the ground. “It is laughable, and it stinks. She’s not been the same since she met you. She says you are special. That we need to help you.”
“Special?” Homer had been telling Nath that the other prisoners were calling him that. They seemed to see something in him that he didn’t see in himself. He didn’t understand it. He knew he was different, but what was it that other people saw? “So, I’m so special that she wants to save me for nothing in return?”
“It’s lovesickness. A madness that must overcome dryads. That’s what I tell her. I’ve been trying to move on, but she won’t stop speaking of you. After we failed to retrieve our items from the Black Hand, she became even more convinced that we needed to find you.”
“You went up against the Black Hand? To steal my items that were stolen from me?”
“Aye.” Rond’s ears tilted forward and back. “Caly spent months planning it. She tried to infiltrate their ranks. They became wise to her, and she almost died before she finally escaped. That’s a wicked brood. Thieves and killers. She said if she was going to die, she’d die doing the right thing for a change. She said she wanted to try and save you.” Rond’s ears sagged. “And I’d die to save her, even if it meant trying to save you.”
“That’s quite a change in disposition,” Nath said as his heart softened. As crazy as it all sounded, he believed Rond. “Where is Calypsa now?”
“She’s slated for the slaver’s blocks, I’m certain. A woman as radiant as her will fetch the highest of prices, but no one can keep her. She has her way of escaping anything. You’ll see.”
“Do you really think that she’ll be able to get us all out of here? Even if we overtake the wall, they’ll give chase. They have hundreds of soldiers, and let’s not forget the hounds. We’ll need a long head start, at least you will. I’m pretty sure none of them can catch up with me.”
“She’s working on it. She’s been in here for a month now. When everything is in order, be ready to go.”
“A month? But you just came here.”
“That was the plan.”
“But certainly they would have sold her by now. Perhaps she’s gone. How do you even know she is here?”
The rain subsided.
“I know. I’ve seen her. She’s here.” Rond’s gravelly voice carried.
The orcs came out from under the porch with scourges in hand. They gave Nath and Rond both a couple of licks on the back of their legs. Nath still had a hundred questions for Rond, but eyeing the lashes, he bit his tongue.
CHAPTER 20
Nath stayed in the stocks until the evening of the next day, when he was taken back to his cell. He hadn’t been able to say another word to Rond either. The bugbear only spent one full day in the stocks before he was taken away. It was late when his cell door was opened. Homer lay fast asleep but stirred when the door slammed shut. Once the guard cleared the room, he slowly sat up.
“How are you, Nath?”
Lying back on his cot, Nath said, “Other than feeling like my back is on fire, I couldn’t be much better. You?”
“Just worried about you. Sorry to hear that you were put in the stockade. I heard you put up quite a fight with that four-armed bugbear. He’s quite a sight.”
Nath closed his eyes. “You saw him?”
“I saw both of you buttoned up in the wood when I crossed through to my duties. It was just a long peek.” Homer sat with his fingers locked together, rolling his thumbs over top of one another. “I felt for you.”
“Well, better me than you, I suppose.” Nath yawned. All of his life he’d never been tired. He rested some, yes, but always felt as spry as a woodland deer. Now, he was exhausted, always. “You have to forgive me if I pass out on you again. I’m bushwhacked. It’s so bad, I fear to fall asleep because I know I’ll be woken the moment I close my eyes. Do you feel as tired as I am?”
“Doing the laundry isn’t as backbreaking as busting stones, but th
ese bags under my eyes aren’t signs of good rest. At least your eyes aren’t tired. You are young. I suppose it keeps you together.”
Nath wanted to mention he was one hundred years old, but held his tongue. He was actually one hundred and two years old, but who was counting? Every day had become an eternity of agony. The nights were like winks between the days. Life in Slaver Town was truly miserable. Now, after his talk with Rond, he was too exhausted to even think about all the bugbear had said. He summoned a little more energy and asked Homer something anyway.
“Homer, have you seen any suspicious women when you are out and about executing your charges?”
“I see a few women being taken to the blocks sometimes.” Homer scratched the scruff on his chin. “Others work in the homes of the slave lords, doing chores, like I do. They cook, clean, and gather for the slave lords. They run the shops and stores. You know, this would be a suitable city if not for these foul lords. With the natural spring it could be a sanctuary. It’s a shame that these orcs and slavers run it. Nath?”
Nath barely caught the man’s soft words. He snuggled down a little more in his cot and pulled a blanket over him. “You talk too much, Homer. Listen, there is a woman named Calypsa. You would know her if you saw her. Her face is beautiful, and her chestnut hair flows down in piles on her shoulders. She has a rich tan, with wine-colored lips as soft as rose petals. A true natural beauty as if she was birthed by nature.” He smiled. “Unforgettable.”
“I can’t say I’ve ever seen a woman such as that.” Homer looked up at the top corner of the cell, squinting. “Why would she be here?”
“She’s going to help me escape,” Nath said as he dozed off.
Homer shook his head and covered up under his blanket and lay back down. He said, “Poor Nath. Now he’s delirious from a lack of rest. Now, he’s dream talking.”
***
Nath dreamed. He fell through the sky, passing through portal after portal, seeing different parts of the world as he passed. He screamed the entire time. It was the fear of falling and hitting the ground; it was the fiery flying beast that pursued him. He’d lose the flaming dragon-shaped monster in one portal, only to see it chase him down again in the next. There was no way for Nath to run or change direction. All he could do was fall and scream as the beast bore down on him, getting closer and closer.
Enslaved: The Odyssey of Nath Dragon - Book 2 (The Lost Dragon Chronicles) Page 6