Even though Charlie’s eyes were closed, he could sense the dungeon around him. Vetica and the scalers watched patiently while he worked. Orb sat in the dirt next to him, pretending to meditate as well. This room had to be perfect. This was where the final fight would take place. He carefully pressed its walls outward until the room was wide and large enough to fulfill its purpose. The room looked like the inside of a fishbowl. The curved walls were perfect for the ambush he had in mind.
Before today, Charlie had only ever worked on one room inside his dungeon. The throne room, which served as the dungeon’s final room and also the place where Koi Levi lived. Since Charlie and his friends spent so much time traveling, he’d never really had the time to work on it more. There was also the fact the constant fighting left him with low dungeon integrity, which affected the stability of the dungeon and sometimes led to its collapse. He’d always known he would need to spend more time here, eventually. But he never anticipated doing it in order to get ready for an imminent invasion.
He wasn’t the only one working hard to ensure they were prepared. The meditation practice with Themis had made Charlie more in tune with his dungeon. It was a practice he’d continued on his own during their travels and before bed to further strengthen his control. Now he tapped into his sphere of influence to visualize what was going on in the dungeons various rooms and hallways.
Scalers scurried all throughout the dungeon. Some worked to make the sticky netting they could make from their saliva; others diligently transported the netting throughout the dungeon. Charlie had seen firsthand how effective the netting could be. Back in Sange, when the scalers had kidnapped the children from the daycare, they had used the netting to keep them trapped. Now they’d be using it for a much better purpose.
Vetica had spent a long time showing Charlie how to create various traps. Her experience as an assassin was certainly coming in handy for this project. Charlie had already gone through the dungeon and set a good amount of them, and now the scalers were using the netting to create the finishing touches. When the cultists fell victim to the traps he’d made, they wouldn’t be leaving without his express permission. The sticky netting would ensure that.
Charlie paused. He noticed Merlin talking with Mousifer and Bleedy somewhere in the dungeon. Merlin was inspecting an odd pile of leaves haphazardly piled on top of a rather obvious looking hole.
“Oh, come guys, this is an obvious trap! Do you really think anyone is going to fall for this?” Merlin asked them.
“Squeak!”
“Bleedy!”
Both of Charlie’s furry friends were adamant it would work. Merlin stepped closer to inspect the trap and his foot caught on a small pebble embedded in the ground. The momentum threw him headfirst into the pit trap Bleedy and Mousifer had made. Their eyes lit up, and they hurried toward the hole’s edge to check on him.
Merlin groaned. “Did you put that rock there on purpose?” he asked.
“Squeak!” Mousifer nodded.
“Then great job. Genius really. Ten out of ten. Also, I think my back is broken.”
“Devil?” Bleedy asked, using the nickname he’d assigned to Mousifer. He was asking Mousifer if he’d really put the rock there on purpose.
Mousifer shook his head and held a finger up to his face to shush his racooneever friend.
Charlie giggled. He opened his eyes and returned to his senses. Vetica sat cross-legged beside him, sharpening a knife. “What’s funny?” she asked, slightly amused.
“Merlin fell in a hole. Do you think this will work?” he asked her, changing the subject.
Vetica shrugged. “That part will be up to Merlin. He can be convincing when he wants to be, so I imagine he’ll get the job done. Are you nervous?” she asked him.
Charlie thought about it for a moment. “No, not really. I just want to make sure none of our friends get hurt. Especially the scalers. They’ll be on the frontlines for the first part of our plan. I’d feel bad if any of them got hurt.”
“Do remember that scalers excel in dungeon environments. They can also survive just about any injury as long as they escape the danger itself. I am sure they’ll more than live up to the task we’ve assigned them,” Parent said.
Charlie knew Parent was right, but still couldn’t help but worry. Both Hosuyo and Vedic had given them information that said the cult was looking for info on dungeons. This had given Charlie and his friends a very obvious plan. First, they needed to actually set up the dungeon, and then they needed to set the trap. The first part of their plan was almost complete. The second part was going to require a bit of travel.
“So, what’s capital road like?” Charlie asked.
Vetica started to respond. But movement caught her attention. She looked up and saw two scalers dragging Merlin behind them. They left him lying on his back in front of Charlie and Vetica and then scurried back down the tunnel they’d came from. “He really does look like he fell in a hole. What happened?” she asked.
Merlin turned his head to the side to look at them. “Those troublemaking minions of Charlie happened! I was thinking we could have racooneever and mouse soup tonight. Who's with me?” he asked.
Charlie frowned. Vetica rolled her eyes.
“You guys are no fun. Did I hear you mention the capital road? It’s fantastic!” Merlin slowly rose to his feet and dusted himself off. When he was finished and satisfied that he’d gotten as much dirt out of his cloak as he was going to, he stretched his arms wide. “It’s a magnificent thing. Traders use it to take goods all over Aysela. Lucer, Arcadeya, the capital city Karze, you name it. A lot of goods go to Port Carrus as well. From there, shipments come and go all over the world. I’ve always wanted to visit Port Carrus. Never have though,” Merlin said.
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Charlie smiled. Next to him, Orb finally perked up. He’d clearly been waiting for someone to comment on his ‘meditation’ but had given up on it. “You sounded so excited I almost mistook you for an actual trader and not a conman. Good for you.”
Merlin glared at Orb. “I bet we could find a ship captain in Port Carrus if we stopped by. It wouldn’t be expensive to ship Orb somewhere far across the planet. He doesn’t take up much space after all.”
Charlie ignored the jest. He was curious about their next steps. “So, once we get to the capital road, how will we find the cult? We can’t just plop a dungeon entrance down somewhere and wait, can we?” he asked.
Merlin smiled. “Of course not! Hosuyo told us they were taking contracts with guilds. We’ll just find a guild and go from there. Like I said earlier, I’ve got this,” he said.
Charlie nodded. “Okay.” He sighed. Before long, their plan would be put into motion. Before long, he’d be facing outsiders within his dungeon for the first time since Lusafeen. It was going to be interesting.
The Knight
The tavern was bustling and filled with pleasant aromas. Tables were littered with half eaten plates of sweetmeats. Ale splashed against the ground as people held toast and men competed to see who could down their drink the fastest. It wasn’t his scene, but a place like this had its uses.
Information, for instance. Information was rife in a place like this.
And so, he listened.
He heard whispers of noble scandals, bastard children, and vile beasts. But none were of any importance to him. That was until a particularly wild looking man stumbled in after two other men who seemed to want nothing to do with him. “I’m telling you! I was saved by the gods of the forests! Nothing else makes sense!”
The knight turned. His visibility was limited within the confines of his helmet. A necessary price for privacy. The armor might garner attention, but nowhere near as much as his identity would. His eyes tracked the three men as they sat at a table and ordered drinks.
“Aye, we hear ya, lad. Bit hard to believe though, innit?” One of the men asked. His belly proved him no stranger to alcohol. His beard, however, was the beard of a man who didn’t own a razor. Or perhaps he did but was too lazy to use it.
“Okay, okay,” the wild-looking man said. “Maybe they weren’t gods. But they saved me! I’m telling you!” His clothes were partially torn, and he looked like he hadn’t bathed in days.
The third man was tall and lanky. He raised a brow at his bearded companion. “Alright, I’ll bite. What’s he talking about?”
The barmaid brought over their drinks and sat them down. The bearded man chuckled and took a deep swig of his drink. “Tell em the story, lad.”
That seemed like exactly what the wild-looking man was hoping to hear. “I was delivering goods to a small town in the mountains. Good people that way, but not many traders go that far out. It’s reliable business so I’ve been able to eke a living out that way for me and my family. I’ve traded with them for going on two years, never a problem. But this time, I ran into bandits.”
The lanky man perked up at this. “Bandits?” he asked.
The bearded man chuckled. “My guess is they clocked him o’er the head. Listen to the rest.”
The wild-looking man frowned. “It’s not like that. They never got the chance. Get this, there I was thinking I was about to lose everything, maybe even my life. But then…a group of boars showed out of nowhere. They ran the bandits right off! I thought maybe they’d smelled the food in my wagon. But when they were sure the bandits were gone, this big one, their leader, turns to look at me. He was massive. It was like he was staring into my soul. I was afraid. Thought I’d meet my end on a pointed boar tusk. But then I realized it felt more like the beast was making sure I was okay.”
The bearded man cackled. “You hearing this?”
The lanky man leaned back into laughter as well, so much that he almost fell over in his chair. “The boar was concerned for you, was he?” he asked between laughs.
“I swear it’s true! My horse was a whinnying, and I thought maybe it was all in my head. But I shook my reins, and we took off and the boars followed us. They walked beside us the whole way until we reached the outskirts of the mountain town. They walked beside us like some kind of guard. It wasn’t normal. When we got there, I tried to give them some food from my wagon as thanks. But they just hurried off back into the woods before the mountain folk saw them. The gods, I tell you.”
The knight sighed. It was possible it was nothing. But there was also a real possibility that it was a lead. He had a rough idea of the target’s location, but if the boars were connected…the child was developing far faster than he anticipated.
He stood and approached the table. The wild-looking man looked dismayed at their disbelief and downright ridicule. But all three of them went silent when he joined them. “These boars, where about did you find them?” he asked them.
The wild-looking man exchanged a look with the other two. “You a hunter or something? I can’t tell you if you’re a hunter. Those boars saved me. I won’t tell you.”
The knight stepped closer. He didn’t say a word. He didn’t need to.
The wild man swallowed. “I’ll be the first to admit I’m terrified right now, but if I have to die over something like this, I will. I would’ve probably died that day if not for the boars. So, if I have to die to repay the favor, so be it!”
The bearded man punched him in the shoulder. “You idiot! Tell em already!”
The knight sighed. “I’m not interested in the boars. I’ve heard similar accounts of beasts working alongside humans. I’m searching for the one responsible. If you tell me where about this happened, I’ll know if the events are related. That’s all.”
“You promise?” the man asked him.
The knight didn’t move. He waited. It would only be a moment longer before he got an answer.
“It was North of Sirra! In the forests there,” the man told him. Just as expected.
“Thank you. Take this for your trouble.” The knight handed the wild man a pouch full of coins. “You could use a change of clothes and a bath as well. This should be more than enough for that and your drinks. Enjoy the rest of your night.”
All three of the men sat there with wide-opened mouths at the amount of money he’d just given out. The wild-looking man looked up at him. “I…you’re right. Haven’t stopped to take care of myself since it all happened. Thank you, sir! If you don’t mind me asking, who exactly is this person you’re looking for?”
The knight turned to exit the tavern. He answered only because he found it amusing. They wouldn’t believe him, anyway.
“A baby.”