After reconfirming our plan, Lumia led the elves back south to meet the council and others who survived the raid. Melinda and I followed the young man she spared.
"...and don't even get me started on 'The Beast.' That bastard is one of the scariest, most sadistic, maniacs I've ever seen," he said, shivering and shaking his head.
Melinda nodded her head as she followed along behind him. Her attention was fully on him. The boy seemed pretty innocent; he'd spent the last five minutes telling us about the circumstances that pulled him from a fairly ordinary life as a nobleman's bastard son and landed him smack in the middle of the criminal underworld.
"...I still don't know how I survived this long. Did you know Mr. Fisk an' his men punish folk just for being kind or sounding too smart." The boy glanced over his shoulder at us, pausing his story for the first time.
"Uh-huh...I mean, no. Really, they do that?" Melinda replied quickly, sounding a bit surprised.
The boy nodded, "Yea, they really do."
"That's just foolish. I had assumed intelligence would always be rewarded in any circumstance. What a terrible waste of talent," she said. On the surface Melinda appeared interested in the boy's story, but I could tell by her tone and the way her eyes kept shifting that was only half listening.
After a short distance we veered away from the beast migration lane. The area was more like a jungle than the woodlands I was used to. Thick vines hung from nearly every branch, large leafy plants covered the jungle floor and insects as big as my head populated the space between. Despite a lush canopy, thick enough to almost block the twin suns, a sweltering heat baked my skin. Humidity was high as well which didn’t help at all to cool my body.
At first things seemed normal, but didn't take long for me to realize that every tree had strange markings carved into their trunks. As soon as I noticed that, I also realized that I couldn't see a way back to the beast lane. The jungle was thick, but we hadn't gone far enough in that I should be unable to see a way back out. Melinda seemed to take notice as well because she summoned her spear from storage.
Enhancing my senses with mana, I became even more confused. The world felt strange-warped somehow-and sensing with mana I was only able to make sense of a small radius. Everything outside of the radius was just a mire of disorienting mana. I considered that this could be a trap, but the boy was still yapping on casually. He didn't show any signs of nervousness or hostility and based on his previous demeanor I didn't think he was the type to remain so calm under pressure. Since it was clear we were already trapped in an illusion, I decided to observe him more closely and search for a way out.
"...I've seen all kinds of terrible things in the last six months. The last week has been the worst though; have you ever seen a cursed mage? We had a visit from one recently—oh, this is it." The boy stopped talking and stared at an enormous tree trunk that seemed to appear out of nowhere.
Like all the others, there was a series of symbols carved in its trunk. The first of which was a triangle pointing right, it had several circles inside of it. There were lines all around the triangle, and some inside the circles, but I wasn't sure what they meant. The middle symbol was a large circle with a square inside it, but nothing else and no little lines around or in the shapes. The final symbol was just a big curved horn.
The boy lifted his hand to the symbol in the middle and started channeling mana. Immediately Melinda raised her spear to his neck. I drew Stylnyx and cut toward his outstretched arm in the same motion, but stopped short when I noticed the boy's expression. His eyes widened in shock, then squeezed shut before my blade met his flesh. Whatever spell he was casting dissipated harmlessly.
When the expected pain didn't come, he opened his eyes slowly. My sword hovered above the bend of his arm as his eyes met mine. Desperation and fear danced in his pupils like flames dancing over coals.
“What are you doing?” Melinda asked, pressing her blade against the boy’s skin.
“Ju…ju…just reading the map.” He stammered as his eyes shifted back and forth between me and the symbols on the trunk. “It’s the only way through the illusion.”
There was no reason to doubt him. We were already trapped and killing him wouldn't free us. Making eye contact with Melinda, I gave a shallow nod and sheathed my blade. She stowed her spear and we both stepped back from—I was sure he'd said his name at least once, but I couldn't recall it.
The boy didn't move. A nervous twitch animated his fingers as his mouth opened then closed again several times.
"Go on then," I said. "show us the way."
He hesitated, then nodded and began the spell again. Mana concentrated in his palm, then pressed out into the tree. When he removed his hand, the middle image was complete. Little lines appeared around the outside of the circle, some longer than others, and an assortment of small shapes materialized inside the square.
I didn't get it. Whatever code this was, it wasn't something I was familiar with. It didn't look like a map and if these lines and shapes represented words or letters, then this was the most complex writing system I'd encountered. After a few moments the new lines vanished again. Melinda seemed equally confused, but the boy smiled.
"It's this way," He said as he began walking. "Just three more of these then we'll be at the gate."
As he spoke, another similar tree appeared ahead of us. Another set of symbols lined the bark of the trunk; the first two were shapes while the third was a beasts face. Once again the boy channeled mana to complete one of the runes then told us which way to go.
"Considering what you said earlier about the bandits' handling of those with intelligence, it's a bit shocking that they'd have constructed such an elaborate illusion to safeguard their base." Melinda said as we followed the boy.
"Well, the commanders are all really sharp. Most of them are at least sixth stage mages as well."
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"Are you saying one of them created this?” I asked, gesturing toward the marked trees around us.
The boy shook his head. “I don’t know who made it, but considering their business is slave trafficking, I would guess this illusion has been here longer than most of the current commanders.”
We arrived at a third tree that appeared before us as suddenly as the previous two had. This tree followed the pattern of the previous two. Two symbols comprised of shapes and some random lines, then a third representing a part of a beast. This tree was marked with a tail.
Our guide completed one of the symbols then hurried around the tree. “It should be just up ahead now.” He said as we pushed forward.
The symbols on the trees became erratic and nonsensical, resembling claw marks more than anything else. When we reached another big tree the boy stopped. Turning to face Melinda and I, he said, “Once I activate this last array, we’ll be in front of Argenta. Please don’t make me go back there.”
“Like I promised earlier, once you get us to the gate you’re free to go,” Melinda said calmly.
A wave of relief washed across the boy's features. With a deep breath, tension flowed out of his body. “Thank you,” he nodded.
“Please activate the array,” I said, crossing my arms.
With a nod the boy completed his task. In a blink the marks on the trees faded away and a huge wall appeared before us. The gate of Argenta blended in well with the jungle despite being constructed of nonorganic materials. It looked similar to wood, but I couldn’t say what the material actually was.
“Be careful,” the boy said before he disappeared into the woods.
Melinda pushed me into the shadow of a tree as the large gate opened. Two men clad in spiked leather armor came out. They wore helmets with horns protruding outward from either side and carried spears taller than themselves. Their faces weren't visible behind heavy steel masks. Both bore swords strapped to their belts. One held the end of his weapon horizontally near his waist while the other did so vertically.
The men scanned around, apparently not noticing us in the shadow despite their being nothing to obstruct their vision. I held my breath until they retreated back inside. Neither men appeared particularly strong, but our goal was just to investigate the city and determine the best way to free the elves.
The illusion around the camp was going to be the biggest obstacle, especially since I still didn’t how to get through it. But we could worry about that later. For now, we needed to focus on getting past these guards without alerting anyone.
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Argenta was was far more impressive than I expected. There was no way it could be considered a camp; the place was a sprawling fortress surrounded by tall walls topped off with battlements. It lacked watch towers, but they would serve no purpose even if they were present. The jungle offered cover to both the city and those wandering through it.
The illusion that brought us to the city gate was the bandits solution. The spell was massive and covered a wide area around the city. From this side of the illusion I could easily sense its boundaries. I could even detect several other spells that would likely trigger if the tree trunk puzzles weren’t solved. Using this method it was all but certain that anyone coming close to the city would be trapped and maybe killed in the illusion, or find their way to the cities main gate.
The city’s security was impeccable and roving patrols returned every fifteen minutes as fresh parties went out at similar intervals.
“I don’t think the force we have can trajectory this place. Our best bet is to sneak in and rescue whoever we can on our own.” Melinda whispered. She was crouched beside me, hiding in the shadow of a few low palm branches.
“I agree, but leaving Silvia isn’t an option.”
“I know…” her voice trailed off and one side of her lip curved down and her eyes filled with uncertainty. then she looked back toward the gate, probably trying to hide her concern.
“What’s wrong, Mel?”
With a cute giggle, she said, “can’t you think of anything cuter? Mel is just so basic.”
I shot her a glare then rolled my eyes. “Now isn’t the time to be joking around.”
Her expression turned serious once more and she leaned closer to whisper in my ear, "If we're captured, this might be our last chance for jokes.” Running a finger along the low cut collar of her blouse, she added, “You may even die a virgin.”
I felt my cheeks burn as I pushed her away. “I’m not a—”
“Don’t lie,” she said as she shook her head and raised an eyebrow.
I might have pounced on her then and there under different circumstances. Instead I tried to keep myself under control as annoyance gave way to desire and my body responded to her provocation. “It…it doesn’t matter. Besides, Lumia would—”
Melinda clapped a hand over my mouth, pressed herself close to me and whispered, “It’s time.”
I barely processed the words as her breath against my ear brought my mind to a standstill. I knew she could hide us as long as we remained in a shadow, but even still I was hesitant. This really wasn’t the place or time, but if she was going to persist…
“Are you ready?” She asked, her lips brushing against my neck.
Absently, I nodded. Rationality escaped me completely, as two patrol groups greeted each other only short distance from the shrubbery that hid us. The commanders of each group said something to each other then continued on. One group went towards the forest and the other made their way inside the gate.
The shadows cast by the trees crept toward the wall and Melinda pulled away from me. “Stay close,” she said as she hurried toward the closing gate.
My mind snapped back to reality with realization I had misread the situation. My face burned red hot again. How stupid! Of course Melinda wasn’t actually planning to do anything out here in jungle. She was only teasing me for her own amusement.
Shaking myself free of unnecessary thoughts, I raced to catch up and we both slipped inside the gate just as it was closing. I sensed at least fifteen mages in the immediate area. There were roughly fifty people in all. The patrol squad numbered three men and a woman, the rest were either guarding or operating the gate.
I was confident we could crush everyone present, but we still didn’t know where Silvia or the other elves were being kept; it was too early to draw attention, so I stuck close to Melinda.
Her control over mana and shadow was magnificent, I couldn’t even detect a trace of her spell as we followed the patrol squad through a secondary gate onto the main road.
It was immediately clear that despite being controlled by slavers, Argenta really was a full fledged city. We passed by shops selling various goods ranging from food and drink to weapons and armor. Many buildings had huge signs boasting fine wares and services. Other structures seemed like homes to some of the wealthier residents and of course there were inns and taverns as well. Nearly every street corner had an eatery of some kind, but the one thing I didn’t see was anything resembling a slave market .
This was a far cry what I expected to find and it forced me to reevaluate my plans. I recalled the words spoken by the brutish bandit with the braid. “we're almost to the gates of Argenta and once we pass through that, there's no hope of anyone coming to rescue you." With his words in mind I was forced to consider the possibility that Slaves were being kept somewhere else entirely. That maybe they had a large scale teleporter somewhere in the city. If the slaves were held somewhere else, then it might already have been too late to rescue them.