He’s trying to control my emotions. I should be emotionless by now, but when he learns about what has happened to Nath, he’ll fly into a rage.
That was the problem. Late yesterday she had been using the Pool of Eversight. She focused on Nath being in Slaver Town, but he wasn’t there. There was a great stir among the orcs there as well. It seemed Nath had escaped. Not only that, it seemed that he had disappeared into thin air, and she wasn’t sure where to start looking for him. She was rattled. Her concentration was lost. She couldn’t sleep and had spent half of the night on the top of the keep, pacing.
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught something flying over the tops of the trees, coming right for her. It felt like her heart tilted side to side in her chest. It was the two-headed vulture, Galtur. She could see a glint of its emerald eyes from where she stood.
Lord Darkken must be close.
Wringing her hands, she turned and found herself face-to-face with Lord Darkken. Her heart sank to her toes.
His expression was grim. There were strange patches of animal fur that looked to be growing on his cheeks. Dressed in the black leather armor of the Caligin, he tilted his head. “Is everything all right, Maefon? Aren’t you glad to see me?”
Without hesitation, she threw her arms around his waist and hugged him tight. “I’m sorry, my lord. I was in deep thought and you startled me. Of course, I missed you. The nights have been very cold without you.”
“I told you that you should sleep closer to the fire,” Lord Darkken said, pushing her away. “So, tell me, what have I missed since I’ve been gone?” He started picking the animal hairs out of his face a few at a time. “Drat this spell. It lingers.”
Galtur landed on the top of the battlement. One head let out a hideous squawk, followed by the other. It was a huge bird, gaunt and ugly, with heads twice the size of a man’s.
“Lord Darkken—”
He lifted his index finger. “Why so formal, Maefon? Is something wrong?”
“Sorry, Darkken, but I fear that I have some bad news to report.”
“Are you leaving me?” he said in a friendly voice, coupled with a dashing smile.
It put her at ease. Touching her chest, she said, “Of course not. Ever. I just have to report about Nath.”
“Oh, my little brother.” He picked more hairs from his face and flicked them away. Galtur made a crowing sound. “How is the little dragon doing? Miserable, I would hope.”
“He escaped from Slaver Town.”
Lord Darkken’s eyebrows buckled. He ripped more hair from his face. “You don’t say.”
CHAPTER 45
Maefon stopped breathing. All she could feel was the icy bits of rain on her face. She was certain that Darkken would hit her, if not pitch her over the wall at any moment. Then, without warning, Darkken said, “That’s delightful news!” He patted her shoulders. “I knew that he had it in him. It was just a matter of time.”
“So, you aren’t angry?”
“At you, no, of course not. It’s hardly your fault, Maefon.” He threw his arm over her shoulder. “If anyone is to blame, it is the failure of the orcen slavers. I paid them to break Nath, not bodily, but in spirit. It seems they failed in both cases. But you have to remember what you are working with. The orcs are quite stupid, but effective for what I had in mind.”
Maefon had understood all along the reason for Nath’s captivity. Darkken wanted him to suffer at the hands of others. He wanted Nath to see how despicable people could be. He wanted Nath to hate them all. “I’m glad you aren’t upset, but I have more news to report.”
“As long as Nath is not dead, I’ll be fine. I assure you.” He nodded toward the vulture as he turned Maefon toward the steps that led down into the keep. “Go, Galtur. Find some halflings to feast on or something. I’ll summon you when the time comes.”
Stretching its long skinny necks, it squawked. The bird turned away, spread its expansive wings, and launched itself off the wall.
“Let’s go inside, and talk over a bottle of wine by the fire,” he said, leading her down the steps by the hand. With his voice echoing in the damp and dreary stairwell, he added, “I’m thirsty. I’m rarely parched, but today, I feel my tongue needs to be drenched in the best elven wine from the finest vineyards.” They entered the dining room, where there were fifty seats surrounding the table. She sat while Lord Darkken grabbed a bottle of wine from the wooden wine racks. He popped the cork, filled two crystal goblets, and joined her at the head of the table. “And do you know what makes this wine extra savory?”
“It’s stolen.”
“Precisely!” He hefted the goblet. “There’s nothing more fulfilling than drinking the wine of conquered peoples. A toast?”
She lifted up her glass. “To the conquest of all enemies.”
“No!” he said cheerfully. “To the conquest of Nath and all of the dragons.”
They clinked glasses and drank.
“This is delicious.”
“Yes, well, the elven vineyards are the best, and these bottles date back over one thousand years. They are priceless. So, tell me, where is Nath now?”
“I tried to find him using the Pool of Eversight. He’s vanished without a trace.”
Darkken set his crystal goblet down and started drumming his fingers on the table. “You can’t locate him? That’s very troubling, Maefon. I need to know where he is, at all times.”
Her back straightened. “I will find him. I swear it!”
“No, that’s quite all right. I will just have to locate him myself. Besides, there is a young Guardian of the Crimson Hood that is quite adept in magic. Perhaps I’ll let her have a go at it. After all, I need to have someone that can assume your place in case anything happens to you. We can’t have a letdown in our progression toward world domination.”
“Darkken, I assure you, there is no need for that.” She scooted her chair back and got up. “I’ll go to the pool and find him now. No excuses.”
“You have not been dismissed, Maefon. You overstep your boundary. Sit down!”
She obeyed.
“Maefon, I need you to be confident for the next step in our journey. You are now giving me doubt. I don’t like that. You should have full mastery of the pool now.”
“I might have had an off moment, but I am confident that I can find Nath. I will make it happen. Just let me have another chance.”
“Your chance will be coming soon enough.” He drank. “Relax, Maefon, let’s just enjoy the wine. I need to unwind myself. Frankly, I’m relieved with all of this news. Nath proves to be formidable. I’ll need that at my side. A brother in arms. Together, we will be invincible.”
Maefon wanted to kick herself for being so weak. She should know better than to panic in his presence. The last thing she needed to do was cast doubt on herself. She took a chance and said, “You planned all of this, didn’t you?”
“Me?” Darkken tossed his head back and laughed. “Are you accusing me of being a puppet master?”
“You are the grand puppet master.” She shook her head. “I should have seen all of this. You orchestrated Nath’s escape, didn’t you?”
Checking his fingernails, he replied, “I might have had something to do with it. After all, he’d suffered enough. And I tired a little bit of waiting.”
“Why don’t you share these plans with me, Darkken?” She clasped her fist to her chest. “You wound me. I would like to see these events unfold, and not hear about them later.”
“In due time. It’s still early in the game, but the game is about to speed up, and you won’t be watching from my study. You’ll be watching with your own eye for a change.”
“I’m looking forward to it.” She leaned over the table with her hands clasped before him. “So, tell me, please, Darkken, and don’t tease me, how did you orchestrate Nath’s escape from Slaver Town?”
“The Caligin’s eyes and ears are everywhere. Are they not?”
She nodded.
“It seems a dryad has taken a shine to Nath. She wanted to free him.”
“A dryad?”
“Yes, these unsuspecting interventions are the things that you must watch out for. Faith, hope, and love can often get in the way of proper planning. It can be unpredictable, but it can serve to benefit us too.” Lord Darkken drained his goblet. “Let’s go for a walk. I’ll explain.”
CHAPTER 46
Back in Slaver Town, Calypsa sat on her knees surrounded by orc guards as she watched Rond. The four-armed bugbear had been locked in the stockades. Taking turns, the orcs whipped him. The bugbear had rivulets of sweat running down his back. His body shook with every crack of the lash.
“Stop it!” Calypsa tried to scream, but the cloth gag in her mouth made it inaudible. The slavers had come around in regards to what she was. They knew she was a dryad and had special powers. Now, her hands had been bound up in rags where she couldn’t move her fingers, and her wrists and ankles were in heavy, painful irons. The lash cracked against Rond’s back again. “Stop it!”
An orc leered down at her. He backhanded her in the face. She crumpled to the ground. Her face hit the dirt. It had been like this every day for four days. They locked her up in the barn in a cage made for a large dog. Several orcs kept watch on her day and night. They’d rise early in the morning and take her to the stockades where Rond was whipped. Then they locked her back in the cage.
Seeing Rond suffer was the worst of all of it. The muscular bugbear’s mighty frame now sagged in his bonds. His chin hung toward the ground. The vibrant brute was nothing but a shadow of his former powerful self. And it was Calypsa’s fault. All of it.
I’m so sorry, Rond.
She’d gotten hung up on Nath Dragon. Deeply. Calypsa tried to focus on her old way of life. She wanted to live off the land, and others, as she chose, the way she and Rond had done for years. But there was something about Nath that changed her heart. There was good in him, deeper than anything she’d ever encountered. She felt it the moment her lips touched his.
The orc that hit her lifted her back to her knees. “Quit falling. Heh-heh!”
Unable to get Nath out of her mind, she decided to entertain Rond’s idea to steal Nath’s items from the Black Hand. With those items, she could learn more about Nath, and keep Rond appeased. She infiltrated the Black Hand and worked with them for months, trying to become one of them. She learned about how they worked with the Men of Whispers and the slaver, Prawn. They bought and sold people for money. They deceived City Lord Janders. Every word they spun was a lie taken to be the truth. It sickened her, and she wasn’t one to care for normal people.
As for Nath’s items and his purse of treasure, it had all been locked up in a chest, secured in the backroom of the Whistler, the inn that was one of their hideouts. Using her charm on Tobias, she managed to seduce him enough that he showed her everything. Drunk, the braggart took her right back into their room in the Whistler and showed her the chest that was cleverly concealed behind a panel in the wall. It was a metal strongbox that would fill a man’s arms and be difficult to carry away. There were five different key locks. Each member had a key, but Tobias winked at her and said, “Yes, we all have a key, but who do you think designed this chest?” He held up a small ring of keys and smiled. “I did.”
Tobias opened the chest, revealing a hoard of treasure, including Nath’s items. It was all there in her grasp for the taking, but she waited. For weeks she kept close to Tobias, building their relationship, then when he was drunk one night, she took the keys and slipped into the Whistler. Entering the room in the back, where the Black Hand met, she opened up the secret panel. Then, the candles in the candelabra above flickered from orange to green. Calypsa glanced back. All of the members of the Black Hand were in the room: Virgo, Cullon, Nina, Worm, and even Tobias.
Tobias took the keys from her hand with a grand smile. “That was a very entertaining game we played.” He winked. “I enjoyed it.” Out of nowhere, he socked her in the gut. “No one fools the Black Hand, you rogue from the woodland. No one.”
The Black Hand took it to her after that, beating her savagely. They threw her in a cage and turned her over to the Men of Whispers.
“She’ll make a fine slave. Take her to Slaver Town,” Tobias said to a lean, bearded brigand named Andeen, who loaded her into a cage in a wagon. “Tell Prawl this one is on us.”
Calypsa took one long look at all of the Black Hand’s faces as Tobias handed them their separate keys. She spit through the bars of her cage just before Andeen covered her up and rode out of the city. But the half-dryad would have the last laugh. She never once revealed her powers to the Black Hand. A mile out of the city, she enacted her powers. With her hands and lips still free, she transformed into a chipmunk, slipped through the bars, and ran into the woodland.
The orc lifted her to her feet. “Time to go.”
Passing by Rond, she cast him a long-lasting glance. His head was down, and his eyes were closed. Sweat dripped from his forehead in steady drips. Her heart ached. She made a bad deal, and it cost them both dearly. She’d been fooled, not once, but twice.
The orcs put her back in her cage inside the barn. There were several of them keeping their eyes on her at the same time. She couldn’t use her powers, not gagged and bound. She could only transform with total freedom of her mouth and limbs. But even if she could, she wouldn’t leave without Rond.
Tears ran down her cheeks as she huddled in the cell.
Why did I do this for a man I don’t even know?
CHAPTER 47
At the ground floor of Stonewater Keep, Monfur, the ogre, lifted the portcullis. The ogre held it up with one hand, bracing it against his shoulder. Flies buzzed around the brute’s skin. He stank of the dead. Flesh hung out of his teeth. Maefon covered her nose, fanning the flies away as she hurried after Lord Darkken. She wasn’t two steps beyond the threshold when the portcullis slammed down behind her. She jumped forward, glaring back. Monfur waved at her and grinned. “Yum-yum.”
Lord Darkken threw an arm over her shoulder. “Oh, don’t let Monfur get under your skin. He leads a very boring life and relishes his moments of tormenting the Caligin when he can. Besides, he can’t talk with them when he’s eating them. They scream too much. I actually don’t like that, so I feed him after they are dead, most of the time.”
“Yes,” she said with a shiver. They started to cross the bridge that connected Stonewater Keep to the lands beyond. The surging rapids splashed against the rocks, spraying them with misty water. “I saw him snacking on some elves that did not make it to the river from the top of the keep. I hate the sound of him crunching on bones. It twists my stomach.”
“Hah! That is nothing, Maefon.” He tousled her hair. “Wait until you see an earth giant get ahold of the living. Their mouths are cave openings that open and close like steel traps. I’ve even seen them eat an ogre. Once, I witnessed two giants pull one ogre apart and eat it like a cow chewing grass.”
“The giants are that big?”
“Oh, certainly.” Lord Darkken continued down an overgrown road that led away from the keep toward the grasslands. It was another cloudy day filled with drizzling rain. “But let’s not talk about giants and ogres. They are so foul. Instead, let’s talk about something beautiful, like me.”
She leaned her head against his chest. “You are my favorite topic, but I’m curious to know about what happened in Slaver Town.”
“Again, we are going to talk about me, and my uncanny ability to manipulate my surroundings and bend them to my favor.” A box turtle with black and yellow scales was crossing the road. Lord Darkken picked it up and eyed it. “I’ve never understood the purpose of such a slow creature. Do you know?”
“Something has to be slowest,” she said.
“Hah! I like that answer.” He punted the turtle high in the air.
Out of nowhere, Galtur swooped in and snatched the turtle out of the sky with its talons. The two-headed vulture flew upward
in a large loop. At the top of the loop, it dropped the turtle. With its left mouth open wide, it caught the turtle in its mouth at the bottom of the loop. Galtur’s jaw clamped down.
“There’s that crunching sound you hate so much. Sorry for that,” Lord Darkken said.
“I suppose I shouldn’t be discomforted by it. I should be stronger by now,” she admitted.
“You are an elf, and it’s only natural that you have an aversion to such things. Don’t worry, Maefon, I won’t hold it as a strike against you.” He ran his hand down her backside and patted her on the rump. “But if I ever catch you crunching on chicken bones, I’ll make you Monfur’s bride.”
She giggled. “I’m certain that won’t ever happen. He’s too handsome for me.”
“Agreed. Anyway, about Slaver Town and Nath’s escape. As we both know, our eyes and ears are everywhere, and dealing with the slave lords is a large part of what I do. They do a fine job at ripping families apart. Having this relationship, I put the word out on Nath. I gave a description, and the Caligin spread the word through Riegelwood. It didn’t take long to send Nath to the deep southern land of Slaver Town. It was there that I purchased him, so to speak. My orders were to rough him up. Build his character. Make him hate everything that surrounded him. And I needed to make sure that he couldn’t be broken, which he wasn’t, and I admit, I’m proud of my little brother for that.”
Maefon nodded. She wiped the rain from her face and was relieved that it had stopped. She’d felt damp since she’d come to the keep and enjoyed the moment of the sun breaking through the clouds and warming her face.
As they strolled down the path arm in arm, Lord Darkken continued, “In disguise, I kept a close watched on Nath.”
She quickly looked up at him. “What were you disguised as?”
“Oh Maefon, I think you know by now that I can disguise myself as anyone. I could be one of the slaver guards, a buyer, trader, another prisoner. Whatever my needs require, it can be done,” he said with a devilish smile. “You did know that, didn’t you?”
Enslaved: The Odyssey of Nath Dragon - Book 2 (The Lost Dragon Chronicles) Page 14