Cadoc agreed to the idea with little convincing. The robbery was, in his eyes, justified, and only natural, now that we were inside the walls. It would be a shame to be lucky enough to make it inside the city, and not take advantage of it. He still couldn't believe we had made it inside, and by accident, no less.
“The strong rule the weak,” Cadoc said. “And if he cannot protect his belongings, they are not truly his. We will conquer.” He held his sword in one hand, and made as if to slice at an invisible enemy.
While righteous fury coursed through my veins, that didn’t make our situation any easier. It didn’t seem safe to just wander the streets, looking for our kidnappers, or asking for a man named Berenguer. They were clearly more experienced than we were, likely outnumbered us, and would be searching for us at that very moment.
In other words, we were trapped, and could do little more than peek out an upstairs window and pray that we saw them walking the streets before they looked up. They always say in movies that nobody ever looks up, so I reassured myself and Cadoc with that. Well, I was vague when it came to the movie part. He wouldn’t have understood, of course.
Still, it was little more than a waiting game, and there was nowhere to run if we were caught.
We shared a small meal together in the upstairs room. We had packed enough sausage for a lunch, but not much more. We hadn’t seen this turn of events coming, and had more provisions stashed at the inn.
“If we don’t get back to the inn soon,” I asked. “Will they take our stuff?”
“Certainly.”
I was happy again to have kept my weapons on hand, even if the mace and backpack weighed me down. I had gained some more muscle since arriving in that world, but it was still very tiring.
We decided, again, to sleep in shifts. While it would be hard to see out at night, that was the most likely time to spot our pursuers. During the day, the street was crowded with people - many of whom were comically muscular men carrying bags of grain or salted meat - so while we would look, we didn’t expect to pick them out of the crowd. Either way, we wanted one of us watching at all times.
Cadoc slept first, and this time, he actually fell asleep. I didn’t mind volunteering for watch duty that night, as I didn’t feel much like sleeping anyway.
I spent the time stewing in my indignation. I pictured the robbery in my mind - we would sneak in the back of some opulent mansion - maybe steal the key from one of the kidnappers, somehow, or learn their secret passcode to gain entry. We would make our way inside, and find ourselves surrounded by valuables, gold and silver and weapons and rare potions. The gold would be enough to pay my debts for awhile, and if there were potions that could make me stronger, or some sort of magic manual… well, then I wouldn’t have to worry about being kidnapped again.
And then, why not burn the whole damn place down? It would make me feel better.
I wasn’t sure if it had some connection with my magic or not, but I daydreamed a lot about burning things down. Perhaps it’s like what they say about a man with a hammer seeing nothing but nails. Arson seemed more appealing than ever. If I burned down the right buildings, could I even get rid of my debt back on earth? A bank here, a data center there, and voila, no record of any debt.
An unrealistic dream. RENA wouldn’t let me home until I paid it all, and it was unlikely magic worked on Earth.
Movement caught my attention in the darkness.
Half-illuminated by the street lights, I could just barely see… something. Someone. They were leaving an alley further up the street. Then there were two of them - I hadn’t seen where the other had come from. The first shook his head to the other.
I shook Cadoc awake, putting my hand over his mouth before he said anything. His eyes were wide.
“Look,” I whispered, and pointed out the window.
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The two figures continued down the street, towards our direction. The streets weren’t empty, even at this time of night. Here and there stood clusters of women. If the men in the daylight had been comically muscular, these women who appeared at night were comically - well, proportioned. It was hard to see them at a distance, under the street lights, but even from our hiding place I could see that they were beautiful. Almost unnaturally beautiful, like a pinup made by an unskilled AI. I couldn’t count how many fingers they had, but I almost expected extras.
Actually, the more I looked, the more they looked like one of those women back on Earth who covered herself in so much makeup that it sculpted her face into that of an unblemished stranger. The same kind of woman who wouldn’t decompose when she died because she was more silicone than flesh.
The women ran the gamut of looks, and even seemed to me like they shifted whenever I blinked. Just in the time I had turned to wake up Cadoc, I could have sworn one woman had a larger bust than before, and another had gone from black hair to blond. I never caught a change, but it was also hard to focus.
Occasionally a man - muscular or otherwise - would approach one, and they would walk off out of sight.
The two men we watched did no such thing, though they did often glance at the women. The women called to them, but they didn’t respond. Instead, they stopped and walked through every alley they came across, disappearing from our view only to reappear empty handed.
“It has to be our men,” Cadoc said.
I nodded. That was obvious enough. I didn’t know much about Eraztun, but I doubted shadowy figures like these scoured the streets every night. Then again, why not? The women looked pretty shady, too, I supposed.
“So,” Cadoc said. “What now? Ambush them? Follow them?”
I had been thinking about that for awhile - in between arson dreams - and I couldn’t say I had come up with a particularly good answer.
“What do you think?” I asked.
“I think those cowards snuck up on us because they couldn’t handle a real battle. If we cornered them and forced them to fight, they would fall like the Tower of Chandrao when the sun hides its face. The survivor will lead us to his employer.”
I had no idea what the Tower of Chandrao was, but I understood perfectly what the other part meant. I asked anyway.
“The survivor? Are you planning to murder someone?”
“They lost my sympathy the moment they attacked us. And they forfeited their lives the moment they failed to finish us off. Will I have mercy when the time comes? I cannot say for certain.”
I must have been particularly angry at the kidnappers just then, because my response wasn’t “we’re not going to kill anyone, you psychopath! These aren’t monsters, these are people!” Instead, I stroked my chin, and thought about it. Clearly moral norms were different here. I couldn’t dismiss the idea so quickly.
Finally, I shook my head. “No,” I said. “We can’t kill them. Not unless we have to in self-defense.”
Cadoc shrugged. “If you have a better plan, I eagerly await hearing it.”
“I’m just saying I’m not exactly confident in our abilities of lighting fingernails on fire and summoning sticks. You say they’re probably weak, but that’s just a guess. But we ARE weak, that is a fact.”
Cadoc drew his sword again. He had been doing that at intervals, ever since he had bought the sword. He was like a child with a new toy.
He raised it aloft. “I will never-“ he yelled, before I shushed him, hurriedly checking that no one outside had heard him. “I” he continued, whispering, “Will never shy away from a battle of revenge. The monsters that swarmed my homeland will one day taste my blade, and these degenerates who attacked my friend will likewise not be spared. If we do not fight them now, then when?”
I mused to myself internally. If Cadoc continued to talk like that - nearly guaranteed - I would have no choice but to keep him around until his untimely demise, at the hands of a stronger enemy who he sacrifices himself fighting against. That is a very useful tool to have in your toolbelt - a loyal companion who will die at the drop of a hat. An army of such men could conquer the world.
An army of such men without a leader, however, would do what Cadoc proposed then - rush headlong into the abyss. I had no such desire to die. I would be making it out of that strange land, rich, and with Tom.
I peered out the window, lost in thought. Cadoc said nothing more, but stood there like a statue of a man. Perhaps he was lost in his own daydream. Perhaps I would never be able to figure out if he was special or not, I thought. Special, but dumb, maybe.
I watched the women outside.
“I think I have a plan,” I said, finally. “It should be safer. Much safer. Do you have any money left? Oh, or the watches. I have a few of those on hand. Yes, that’ll work.”
-
The plan was a disaster.
The eastern wing of the mansion was ablaze, and the black smoke snaked between rooms. Gold leaf melted, wallpaper warped and caught alight, and priceless furniture waited to be consumed. The smell was overwhelming, like sticking your face in a bag of charcoal. Although the fire wasn’t directly around us yet, the smoke was too thick to risk standing and suffocating, so Cadoc and I crawled on our bellies like serpents on the warm hardwood floors, as fast as we could manage. I could hear our stolen goods rattling in our packs as we moved, though the noise was more and more drowned out by the sound of fire. I never knew, back on Earth, how loud a real fire could be. The noise filled me with a mix of fear, excitement, dread, and a feeling of power. Power more than anything. I had visions of the fire spreading forever, burning that entire world, burning the very fabric the world was woven from, burning through space, through the divide that separated dimensions, and swallowing my own world, too, in a righteous flame.
“I do not mean to question your methods, friend,” Cadoc said, clearly about to question my methods, “But why do your plans always end in razing buildings to the ground?”
His voice brought me back to the present.
“Less talking, more escaping!” I yelled over the inferno. It was growing closer every second. If we weren’t fast, there would be nothing left of us but ashes and scorched bones.
It took a lot of self-control not to reach into my bag and drink a potion at random. Among them, there had to be one that would make me stronger, or faster, or perhaps even immune to fire altogether. But they were unlabeled, and it was just as likely the bottles contained poisons. Cadoc had said there were ways we could identify them, but not in the mansion, not that we found. Not without drinking them, that is, and risking an embarrassing and painful death. Still, burning alive from a fire I had started didn’t seem much more appealing.
We occasionally passed windows as we crawled, and it was maddening not to burst through them and run. Or maybe it was just mad. But I knew we would be quickly caught if we tried to escape in that direction. These were the windows that faced the front of the house, where the guards were. We needed to be at the opposite side of the mansion.
I saw through them that it was nearly daylight by then, but the meager morning rays were outshone by my fire.
A few nights before, we had approached a prostitute.