It only took 15 minutes from the end of the Council meeting for everything to be prepared. There were a half dozen covered stone wagons already waiting at the ground floor of the castle, and it only took a few minutes to bring the drow from the dungeons. The part that took the longest was getting the Royal Guards to don their disguises. Since they had all been in armor until that point, taking off the armor and changing into normal clothes took almost a full ten minutes.
None of the three guards assigned to the wagon were ones that Elise knew. She would have felt more comfortable if Baldur or Jonas was there, but she knew that neither of them were among the best, and Hallbjorn wanted the best on this mission.
The dwarf in charge was a seasoned veteran named Snorri with a beard with more gray than brown. His fighting prowess was second only to Sindri’s. The other two were younger ones who seemed like the strong silent types. Their names were Runar and Karl, and they both wielded heavy greataxes. Elise thought the disguises could have used some work, since underneath the ordinary clothes, it was still very obvious how well-muscled they were, and their weapons still stood out quite a bit, but given how little time they had, it was good enough.
The back of the wagon was loaded with empty stone crates and barrels, strewn about seemingly randomly. Most of them smelled strongly of mushrooms, a scent that Elise was starting to grow weary of, after spending so much time with the dwarves. When it came time to enter, Elise chose a barrel to hide in, while each of the drow picked one of the crates. Elise regretted her choice almost immediately when she got inside and realized that the barrel had previously been used for some kind of alcohol.
Runar and Karl got in last, sitting on opposite sides of the back of the wagon, doing their best to look like weary laborers. It struck Elise that their disguise would probably not work at all, since all the real weary laborers were locked in their homes, or in safe rooms in the castle, but the goal was not to fool the people. Just to hide the truth until it was safe for the truth to be revealed. The people might have questioned it, but no one would dare stop them.
They made it out of the castle without any issues, but Elise twitched and flinched at every sound she heard outside. None of it sounded suspicious on its own, but that in and of itself was suspicious. Josef probably would have leaked information about the mission, right? Or maybe not. Would he really be willing to sabotage such an important mission just because the king disagreed with him? She wasn’t sure, but the lack of complications was making her restless.
She was almost relieved when the wagon ground to an unplanned halt. It was not at all a good thing, but at least the manifestation of Murphy’s law would not be a mystery anymore.
“Halt!” said a voice from in front of the wagon.
The one who spoke was one of six blocking the road in front of them, if Elise counted the breathing sounds correctly. He had a deep, gravelly voice that carried well, even though he wasn’t speaking that loudly.
“Snorri?” said the voice. “When the hell did you become a cart-driver?”
“Olvir?” replied Snorri. “When the hell did the City Watch start accepting volunteers?”
“When the ghouls broke into the castle,” replied Olvir.
“No, I don’t believe they ever did,” said Snorri. “I am pretty sure that anyone who wasn’t directly involved with the city protection efforts is supposed to be inside their homes, keeping safe.”
“I’m not going to sit on my arse when there are ghouls running around in the city.”
“Then you’re disobeying a direct royal decree.”
“A royal decree from a fey-lover.”
Between the tension and the fumes, Elise was almost having trouble breathing. Whoever this Olvir person was didn’t sound like good news. If he was on a first name basis with one of the higher-ranked Royal Guards, he probably was someone relatively important. And based on the sounds of armor scraping whenever the six on the road shifted, they were all heavily armed.
“So, you wanna tell me what you’ve got in that wagon?” said Olvir finally.
“I’m on a mission from the king,” said Snorri. “Step aside.”
“Tell me what’s in the wagon first.”
“You’ll find out soon enough. Step aside.”
“No. You’re being controlled, aren’t you? That thing got the king, and now it’s got you too. It’s probably using you to escape with its ghoul friends.”
“Olvir, you are directly defying an order from the king himself,” said Snorri. “You’ll be arrested.”
“Or maybe I’ll be hailed as a hero when I kill that thing,” countered Olvir. “Now, are you going to let me see what’s in that wagon, or are you going to keep making things difficult. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You couldn’t hurt me if you tried.”
“Maybe 20 years ago,” said Olvir. “Now? Things are different. Let me see what’s in the cart.”
For a few seconds, no one spoke or moved.
“Fine,” said Snorri. “Have a look. It’s a decoy cart. There’s nothing in there.”
“A likely story,” said Olvir. “Elias! Einar! Check it out!”
What is he doing? thought Elise, panicking.
At the same moment, she heard another voice in her head. It was Claudia’s.
“Elise! Come to me! Quickly!”
It took Elise a moment to register what she was hearing. When she finally did, she hopped out of her barrel and onto the edge of Claudia’s crate. It was empty. She was about to turn and look to Marie’s when suddenly, Claudia appeared below her, still in the crate where Elise had last seen her. The drow woman made a hurried gesture toward herself, and Elise jumped into the box with her. Claudia held her tight to her body and a wave of mana passed over them and they both vanished.
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And not a moment too soon. At that point, the vigilantes’ heavy footsteps reached the back of the wagon and the cloth cover was thrown open. Fortunately, while Elise was no master of stealth, no one seemed to have heard anything. Runar and Karl were getting out of the wagon at the same time Elise was changing her location, so any sounds she made were covered up.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then, two dwarves jumped inside, and the whole wagon shook as they made their way to the front, checking each and every crate. When they reached Claudia and Elise’s crate, Elise held her breath.
The two dwarves peered down together. One was a young man. Very young, by the length of his beard, which barely hid his neck. The other was much older, and there were only a few traces of brown left in his mostly gray beard. Neither of them reacted when they looked inside, meaning Claudia’s stealth ability held.
They moved on, checking the last few crates and barrels, including Marie’s but it seemed that Marie had a similar, if not identical ability, and they did not see her either.
“Nothing in here,” called one of the dwarves inside.
Elise didn’t let out her breath yet, but she did release the tension in her body, as did Claudia. With all the talk amongst the dwarves about drow being able to vanish in plain sight, she had fully expected them to be better at checking for invisible people, but either they were incompetent or lazy, and had done a very poor job.
“Nothing?” asked Olvir. “I’m going to have a look.”
“Like I said, there’s nothing there,” said Snorri. “This wagon’s a decoy.”
Olvir ignored him and marched around to the back, and jumped in the wagon.
Why aren’t you stopping him? Elise wanted to shout, but that would only guarantee they would be found. As Olvir entered the wagon, she heard Snorri dismount and slip around to the back himself, but Elise already knew he would be too late to do anything.
Olvir proceeded to make his way through the wagon, kicking every empty crate and barrel he passed by. Elise felt both her own heartrate, and Claudia’s heartrate below her climb to dangerous levels. They would be found if he continued like this.
Claudia stood up and hopped nimbly out of the crate, not making a sound. She held Elise at her side and crept over to an empty space on the wagon’s floor. Elise hoped Marie was doing the same.
Now out of the crate, Elise was able to get a good look at the man who had stopped them. He looked about the same age as Snorri, which somewhat explained how they knew each other. He was also the most intimidating person she had ever seen. He had a long scar running down his face, passing right between his eyes, and he was dressed head to toe in armor that was so over-the-top it would have been funny if he wasn’t trying to kill them. It was thicker and heavier than any other armor she had ever seen, and had spikes jutting out at seemingly random intervals on every segment. He had a huge ax in one hand, and a spiked shield in the other, and the look in his eyes was manic and obsessive.
Their strategy of getting out of the crate worked at first. When the older dwarf kicked the crate they had been in a few seconds prior, it moved just as an empty crate would, and he frowned and moved on. Elise held her breath again as he made it to the front of the wagon, and went to kick the final crate, the one where Marie had been hiding. It rang hollow as well.
But something was wrong. The crate was clearly empty, but it didn’t move right. It got caught on something that wasn’t there, and the dwarf noticed that. For a moment, he did nothing. Then, all of a sudden, he swung his axe, and a spurt of blood appeared alongside Marie with the axe embedded in her collarbone.
“Ghoul!” roared the man, pulling his axe from the bleeding Drow.
Claudia wasted no time, and wove between all the disorderly wooden containers toward the exit. Unfortunately, the other two dwarves were still there, and though she almost managed to slip by, her shoulder brushed against the younger dwarf’s shoulder, and that was enough to break the invisibility.
“Another!” shouted the young dwarf’s father. “And she’s holding the fey!”
Most of the time, Elise was very glad for her near 360 degree field of view. It let her see danger coming from all angles, no matter which way she was directing her attention. However, sometimes, she felt it was almost a curse, because she also couldn’t look away from things she didn’t want to see. She felt very cursed indeed when she saw the old dwarf in the wagon relieve Marie of her head.
Now visible, and without any weapons, Claudia didn’t even bother to fight, and dashed away down the street. She was far faster than any of their pursuers, and after a few random twists and turns, they had completely lost the dwarves. When they came to a particularly narrow abandoned alley, Claudia slowed to a stop, and set Elise on the ground.
“We must separate,” she said.
“No, we can still make it!” protested Elise. “You’re fast! We can get around them.”
“I am sorry, Great Fey, but I may be able to, but not with you.”
Elise wanted to argue more, but she knew the Drow was right. Elise had no stealth skills, and was slower than Claudia by a significant margin. And she stood out too much. If Elise was with her, she would not only slow her down, she might even give them away.
“I will tell our queen of what ‘appened. I will not forget you. I promise, I will do my utmost to return ‘ome and convince my people of peace. You should return to ze invader- ze dwarf king and inform him of what ‘appened. We can still make zis work.”
“Got it,” said Elise. “D-don’t die.”
“As you command, Great Fey.”
And with that she turned and ran. Elise turned to leave as well, though in her case, she flew instead. She had already been spotted by the vigilante dwarves, so what she needed now was speed, not stealth.
She made it back to the castle before the alarm bells went off again, entering through the window of her tower bedchamber. She immediately made for the king’s office, where she knew he would be.
“Elise?” he said. “What’s going-”
It was at that moment that the alarm bells started to ring again, and the king’s face turned grim.
“It failed,” he said.
“Mostly,” said Elise. “Marie- one of the drow is dead. The other is on the run. She says she thinks she can make it, and she will try to convince her queen when she does, but with the alarms going off… I don’t know.”
“Let’s hope she makes it. And without killing any of my men.”
“She doesn’t have a weapon. Her hands are cuffed.”
“The ghouls don’t need weapons to kill.”
“I don’t think she would. She knows what’s at stake.”
“She’d better.”
“Also…” started Elise. “I was spotted. I know it was an official mission, but the rumors won’t be good. Claudia– the drow that’s still alive– was holding me and we escaped together.”
“What exactly happened?”
“There were some vigilantes. They stopped the carriage. And there were no city guards around to stop them, since they’re all patrolling the perimeter of the city right now.”
“Dammit,” said the king. “Wait here for now. We’ll see if your ghoul makes it out. If not, we’ll need a new plan.”
The Council was called again, but the king chose not to attend, instead staying in his office with Elise. News kept coming in about the situation, ranging from direct testimony from Snorri and the vigilantes from a rumor from the wrong side of the city that the Drow were leading an army inside. The chaos slowly died down, and Elise was beginning to think that Claudia might have actually made it out, until one final message came in. It was only a few words long, but it made Elise’s heart sink.
“Ghoul found,” read the king aloud. “Exterminated.”