The caravan came to a stop. Outside, I heard the muffled voices of the guards that had led the horses to the stables. The sounds the horses nearby hid what they were saying, but I heard them leave a few moments later, leaving me alone with the horses.

I waited a few extra moments, then opened the door of the caravan, and slipped out.

The stable was filled with light from a lightwell in the ceiling. The stench of the stables assaulted my senses as I let my eyes adjust to the dim light. I scratched Dawn on the nose, then made my way to the door.

The stables were at the end of a small area that was once grassy, but had been beaten down by the constant drumming of horse hooves. At the far end of the plot was an open gate, guarded by two guards who had their backs turned to me.

I slipped back into the stables and took Night by the reigns. I quietly let him out the door of the stables and climbed on his bare back.

“HEY!”

I had been focused on Night, but looked up to see the guards, walking towards me, their spears held upright.

Good, they didn't know if I was their enemy yet.

I clutched Night's mane and urged him forward, kicking his sides. Night reared up on his hind legs and charged. I drew my dagger as we raced towards the armored guards.

The guards ran out of the way as we charged almost right into them. I pulled on Night's mane. making him rear up again. I slammed the hilt of my dagger into the helmet of one of the guards and leapt off Night as he raced around, knocking the other guard off his feet.

The guard that was still up tuned to me, spear outward. He jabbed at me, but I grabbed the spear and wielded it in one hand, slicing a deep line into the guard's face. He screamed, and clutched at his now wounded and blinded eye. He screamed out for help. but I knocked off his helmet and knocked him in the head with the hilt of my dagger.

I turned and threw the broken spear at the guard who was standing up. The crack in the wood threw off my aim, and it hit the guard in the exposed flesh of his arm. I ran over to him and leapt upon his back. I pulled his helmet off and reached down under the armor and around his neck, squeezing until he lost consciousness.

Night stood off to the side of the plot, calmed down after his encounter with the guards. I took the armor off the one I had strangled, because he was closer to my size, and put it on. Then I took the guards to the stables, pulling them one at a time. Inside, I tied them, gagged them, and hid them in a stall with an old horse that seemed to be going blind in one eye. Most likely it was waiting to be killed and fed to the dogs.

After leading Night back into the stables and feeding him some hay I happened to find, I slipped out and marched across the plot, trying to get a good feel for marching. It wasn't something I was used to, but if I was lucky I wouldn't have to march around it in much anyway.

I walked through the opened gates and walked down the long stone hallway. Somewhere there had to be a staircase descending into the dungeons. And of course, where else would there be a stone prison to keep Rico in?

***

Many hours passed. I was sweating all over because of the armor, and I was decidedly lost. The halls of the castle seemed to wrap around and around.

“Hey, you!”

I froze and clutched the spear in my armored hands tightly. I turned as well as I could dressed in all that heavy armor. I didn't know how guards could move around as well as they generally did, and planned to get rid of the armor as soon as possible.

“Where do you think you're going?” Snapped a guard, dressed similarly to me. I didn't think he was supposed to be my superior.

“Dungeons,” I said. “Guard duty.”

The guard looked at me for a few moments. “I thought Marc had his troops down there?”

“...Extra guards.” I said.

The guard walked over to me and took a good look at me through the helmet. My head was sweating under the metal.

“I've not seen you before.”

“... I don't generally work down.. in these areas-” I said. I searched my mind for an excuse as why he wouldn't recognize me.

“... Oh, I see what this is..” He hissed.

I clutched my spear. I didn't really like where this was going. I didn't think I could fight well in this armor.

“You're one of those no-account guards from the slums.” He snorted, “going around, beating on whoever gets in your way.”

“... Y-yes, thats it.. This is my first tim-”

The guard snorted, “I guess you don't know how to get to the dungeons, do you? Or how to bow to the nobles around here, or how to eat without offending half the upper-class.”

What was this? The guards weren't' all in league with each other? Well, I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised. It would have been the same if someone thought all thieves got along and worked well together.

“What of it?” I snapped. I had something to work with now. “So I work in the city, the slums. Are you better than me because you get to walks about the clean halls of the castle?”

The guard wrapped his fingers tightly around the spear, as though he wanted to throw it at me. “Know your place.” he finally said, “You and your kind, you're nothing more than peasants given spears and armour. City guards, feh.” He walked past me, “Peasants in armour. It's a bad idea to me. The rest of us, us military soldiers, us castle guards come from the great nobility. That's why we have been chosen to defend the castle and the rights and mores of the kingdom...And you have been chosen to stop bar-fights.”

“Be that as it may,” I said to his turned back, “I have been ordered here to help guard the new prisoner. The very least you could do is show me to the dungeons.”

“Are you ordering me around, commoner?”

“I am not. But if the prisoner gets away because you refused to tell me where he was, I'm sure King Rawlin will be very... upset.”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

The guard stood silently before me for a few long moments. “Come along then.” He snapped, “I'm sure you can't be trusted either way to wander these halls without stealing anything that shines.”

Silently, I followed him. Of course, he was right, I would have stolen anything that took my interest.

***

The guard led me down a few stairways, passing only stark, dark stone walls with occasional torches embedded in them. Down further into the depths of the castles he led me. The walls stank of mold, and rats scurried around in the shadows in the corners.

The guard led me to a wooden door. He pulled a torch off the side of the wall and pushed it into my hands

“The mage should be at the bottom of the stairs.” he said. He sneered at me before turning around, “Don't trip down the stairs. As amusing as it would be, I would hate to have to send someone down here to clean up your blackened innards off the floor.

I snorted and let him leave without commenting. I really didn't need more trouble.

I let the guard get out of sight, the light from his own torch receding as he went down the hall and up the stairs at the end. Then I opened the door before me. Visible to me were only a few steps, the rest plunging down into darkness. I sighed and reached out my hand to touch the slimy, wall, and walked down the steep, narrow stairway. It was so treacherous and so steep that I had to be very careful, and even though I was using a torch, I felt the step before me first with my foot before I continued on.

At the end of the stairs, there was a small opening into a circular room. A great stone door was at one end of the room. From scratches on the floor, I could tell that it had been pushed into place. Chiseled into the wall were two stone hooks on either side of the door, and long, narrow stone slab hung lay across , blocking the door.

Leaning against the walls, chatting aimlessly were two young guards, dressed only in their tunics and breastplates. They carried small maces, not spears. Likely they were trainees, rather then soldiers.

“Leave.” I said, “Go get something to eat. I'll take over here.”

The two young guards looked at one another. Once had shaggy brown hair, and the other had very short hair, cut almost to his scalp.

“Capt'n told us not to leave the room,” said the boy with the shaggy hair, “Not without his say-so”

“And I'm giving you his say-so. What, did you think he would let you starve?”

The guard with the short black hair looked at his friend and shrugged, “I'm hungry.” he said.

“Go.” I said, “Before you pass out.”

The shaggy-hair boy shook his head. “No, not until we have say-so from the capt'n hims-”

“Oh yes.” I leaned against the wall, “Like the captain's going to come all the way down here to this filthy slimy place just to tell the two of you to go off and eat. He won't like that, not at all.”

The boy with the black hair nodded, “Makes sense to me.” he said. He pulled on his friends arm, who tried to free himself. However, perhaps his hunger kept him from really fighting as well as he could.

Once I heard the door close at the top of the stairs, I went up the stone door and tried to pull up the stone slab that kept it from opening. However, it was far to heavy for just myself to lift. There must have been a few guards who came to put Rico into the stone cell.

I glanced around to see if one of the young guards had left their maces here. There was no such luck. There was nothing in the room save for myself and the torches on the wall.

I ignored the stone slab and looked instead at the hooks, chiseled out of the wall. They were smaller, and seemed weaker than the stone slab. I took off my helmet, which was making my head sweat anyway, and held it tightly in both hands. I held the helmet over my head and brought it down on the stone hook. A great clang rang out through the room and up the stairs. I hoped no one could hear me. The stone hook didn't move, but it did leave a nice dent in the helmet. I tried again, with mostly the same result. However, this time I saw a small chip in the hook, and a small, tiny little crack formed.

I threw the helmet to the side, and took out my dagger, I dug the tip of the dagger in the crack, and tried to pry it open. The very tip of the dagger stuck into the crack, but nothing happened. I tried to pound the dagger into the crack with my hand, but hurt my hand more than I did the damned stone hook.

I looked around and saw the dented helmet. I picked it up again and held it tightly in one hand. I took another great swing and slammed on the butt of the dagger's hilt with the helmet. Another dent sank into the metal, and the dagger was driven a fraction deeper int the crack. I took another swing, and missed, almost knocking the dagger out of place. I stopped, fixed the dagger back to that it would stay where it was. I took one more careful swing. The helmet connected to the butt of the dagger, the dagger was driven into the crack, and the stone hook came loose. The weight of the stone slab did the rest then, its weight being to much for the damaged hook. The hook was smashed under the end of the piller, and the sudden weight on the other hook pulled it down also.

I reached for the leather strap hanging off the door so that I could pull it open, However, the heavy stone slab was still in my way. I grabbed the ends with my gloved hands and pulled and pushed until there was just a little bit of space between the door and the slab. Panting and sweating, I pulled the strap and the door opened a few inches, then stopped against the stone slab.

“Rico?” I called out into the dark cell. There was movement in the darkness, then Rico's face appeared in the crack in the door.

“Stiri!” He cried, “You came to free me!”

“Help me get the door open.” I snapped, “I need you to push as hard as you can, while I pull on the leather strap. there's a great stone slab behind the door that's so heavy I can't move it myself. If we pull enough on the door, you might be able to slide out.

“Alright.” Rico's face disappeared from the crack of light. I went behind the door and grabbed the leather strap.

“Ready?”

“Ready.”

“Alright.. Push!” I pulled as hard as I could, my leather shoes digging into the stone floor. For a moment, Nothing happened and I worried that my strength, and Rico's wasn't enough. However, the door finally began to push the slab away from it. Inch by inch the door opened, scraping against the floor until it was big enough for Rico to slide through the barely opened door.

I fell against the wall, panting. “I hate armor.” I said.

“Mic and I didn't like it much either.”

I nodded and picked up the now useless helmet. I threw it against the wall with a great clatter.

“Accursed door.” I snarled. Rico nodded.

“It's worse inside. It leaks all the time, and the walls are covered in slime.”

I nodded and pulled myself up to my feet. “Come on,” I said, “I'll have to figure out a way to hide you while I try to find Christen and the others.”

“What? No, I'm coming with you.”

“Don't be stupid. I need to stay as low as-”

“I am coming with you.” Rico said. “Have you forgotten my powers?”

I sighed, “Fine. You can go and find Christen and the others. That will at least be one less thing I need to worry about while I find the moonshard and try to kill Kos.”

“I'm helping you do that too!” Rico said.

“Why?” I threw my hands up in the air, “I think I can do it, and it would be better if you went to find Christen and got her out of her.”

“I want to ensure success.” Rico said. “I want to make sure that Kos is dead; I want to burn his bones to ashes, and take his skull to Justin myself, with the moonshard laying on top.”

I looked at Rico for a long moment. “This is still about- Oh by the gods!” I stormed over to the staircase. “This is still about Justin. He abandoned you, Rico. He left you in a dungeon to rot and die, he refused to have sympathy for Christen... With a word, he could have saved her life, and he refused! He doesn't even see you as human! Why do you want to-”

“He's my family.” Rico said, “He's the only family I have. Were it not for him, I would have been all alone years ago, and I would still be all alone today and I....” He turned away from me and looked into the torchlight. “I don't want to be alone.”

“You're a fool.” I said. “It's better sometimes to be alone than to deal with people, and their problems. You're brother's dangerous to you, he doesn't even like you.”

“But if I do this,” he clenched his fist, which was shaking, “If I do this, if I make his goals come true... If I can stop the chaos that grabbed me and changed me from what I was to this... This mage, then he will have to see I put no worth in my powers, and he will have to treat me like his brother.”

There was a long moment of silence. Rico stood, staring into the flames, while I had my back to him, looking up into the darkened stairwell.

“You're a fool.” I said again, “And a stubborn one too. You can come with me, on the condition that you do as I say. That means you use your power when I say to use it, and to the extent I say for you to use it, no matter what. Also, if it gets too dangerous, and I say to retreat, you retreat. Do you understand.”

“Yes.”

I sighed and started to walk back up the staircase, “You're a fool” I said once more. Silently, Rico followed me up the stairs.