image [https://i.imgur.com/DGxd16Z.jpeg]
Minos and Lira walked out of the servant’s quarters and stepped onto a narrow corridor. One end led to a staircase going up while the side had a closed door. Knowing that the cistern was located below the ground, the young nobleman pointed at the latter.
Not wanting to be careless, Lira tried to listen first before touching the door handle. Once she confirmed that it was quiet on the other side, she turned the knob and pushed the door open, only up to a tiny slit, enough for Scout to squeeze through.
Lira let her furry companion inside and waited for a few seconds. She trained him to identify if a room had people in it, and if it did, Scout would return through the same door back to her. Only when Scout doesn’t return would she sneak into the room.
The pair stepped onto a hall and found the adorable ferret on top of a long dining table. Surrounded by twelve upholstered wooden chairs, it stood elegantly in the center of the luxurious room, basking under the dim light of the afternoon sun penetrating through the frosted glass windows.
Lira went to check the glazed panels, trying to take a peek at what was outside, but she couldn’t perceive anything. Meanwhile, Minos moved closer towards the table and realized that it was set for dinner, with four plates faced down on embroidered mats, each with their own set of utensils and glasses.
“Somebody’s late for dinner…” Minos reacted.
“What?” Lira whispered.
The young nobleman pointed at the table. He pressed his finger on its surface, swiping away a thin layer of dust. “This was set up last night. They were supposed to eat, but they didn’t get a chance.”
Lira shook her head, dismissing his observations. She slinked towards one of the doors to check if it was locked while Minos continued his conjecture.
“The Baron, the horny guy…” he started counting with his fingers.
Lira glanced at him, judging him vehemently for his wording.
“Fine, the guy with the horns. And then our fetch, that makes three.”
Lira sighed, “Then there’s the guy that Cassana and Ashvell fought,” she added, humoring Minos.
“That makes four,” he concluded, gesturing his palms over the four sets of plates on the table.”
Lira rolled his eyes, a reaction Minos welcomed with longing. “You read one mystery novel, and now you’re a detective?” she commented.
“You know me, I’m multi-talented!” Minos bragged. “Like, I even know that that door leads to the kitchen.” He pointed towards the door that Lira was about to check.
“Obviously,” Lira said, “there are two doors and one of them leads to the kitchen because we are in the dining hall. That is a fifty-fifty choice.”
“Or, because this door uses a swing hinge,” Minos pointed to the visible iron hinges on the door. “Swing hinges are commonly used on kitchen doors, so you can easily get in or out while holding a bunch of kitchen stuff.”
“I am guessing you read that from an architecture book?”
“More like I studied it. After you left me, remember that?”
“Oh, come on! That was not my choice, you know it.”
“Sure, it’s not,” Minos snarked.
“Do not tell me that you are still bitter about it?”
“I wasn’t happy about it,” Minos shrugged.
“Having a drow…” Lira started explaining.
“Fae-folk,” Minos corrected her.
“You are starting to sound like Cassana,” Lira sneered.
“Eew,” Minos cringed.
“Look, having someone like me, that close to your family… It is unprecedented. Your father… was having a tough time justifying it to those around him. So, I took the initiative to ease his burden.”
“You’re saying that you left me to spare my father from being humiliated? You abandoned a fucking child, on his own, so that my father...”
“Abandoned? You have a whole family. You have a mother, a father, and siblings. I love you, kid, you know that. But your family, they love you more than I ever will, most of all your father. Why can you not see that?”
“Even my Mom?”
“Your mother is a complicated woman. But I know that deep down, she cares for you.”
“You really believe that, huh?” Minos chuckled.
“They supported you in everything. They gave you everything you asked for, what more do you want?”
Minos rested his hips over the dining table. Waves of memories rippled across his mind, each one contradicting Lira’s claims. He tried to pick one that would prove Lira wrong, but he gave up halfway through. Lira was right, she always was.
“They even let you bring a charlatan into their house,” remarked Lira after seeing Minos remain quiet.
“Minos was not a charlatan,” the young Minos objected.
“He was a fraud. A grifter. I have seen dozens of men like him back when I was at The Guild. I warned your father that he would not be a good influence for you, but apparently you insisted,” Lira explained.
“Minos was a dreamer. A fortune-seeker. He was the one who showed me my potential. Who taught me how to reach for my ambition,” defended Minos.
“And what is your ambition?” prodded Lira.
Minos took a pause as he considered truthfully answering his former mentor’s question. He took a deep breath and then cracked an obnoxious grin before speaking, “To find the Sword of the Godslayer.”
Lira wanted to groan but all she could do was sigh. She was used to Minos’ buffoonery after all. Meanwhile, her eyes wandered off to find Scout acting agitated by the table, so she quickly pushed her finger on her lips and Minos sealed his mouth shut.
The drow huntress could hear footsteps coming from the door to her left. She sidestepped and pressed her back against the adjacent wall, waiting for somebody to step through.
Minos, on the other hand, stepped back and bent down behind the table. The bright light coming from the window behind him should be enough to give him cover under the shadows.
A few tense heartbeats later, the door opened and a man in leather armor stepped in. He had a rapier hanging from his belt and walked in without paying much attention to the room. He didn’t notice Lira standing motionless by the door and went straight to the next one. The drow huntress waited if he was passing by with somebody.
Once she confirmed that he wasn’t, she sneaked up behind him and pressed the point of his crossbow bolt at the man’s back.
“I have a crossbow aimed at your lung, any unwanted movement and you will be dead,” Lira whispered calmly.
The man froze on his feet. It took a few seconds before Lira’s threat registered in his head. His eyes fluttered and his lips trembled trying to think of something to say. He tried to turn around to look at Lira, but the drow huntress prompted him to stay still. She then cued for Minos to take step up.
“Hey bud,” greeted the young nobleman. “Just answer our questions and we won’t hurt you. You’re not who we want, and we’re not here to steal anything.”
The two trespassers could hear the man taking in deep breaths. They looked at each other confidently as Minos continued to speak.
“Nod if you understand me,” he spurred.
The man nodded.
“How many guards are inside? Where are they?”
The man started touching his thumb to each of his fingers, trying to count, “there’s four of us inside. Three outside. My partner is in the grand hall, while the other two are upstairs.”
“Aside from you guards, who else is here?”
“My wife works in the kitchen…” the man motioned his head towards the door in front of him, a gesture that alarmed Lira, due to their proximity to the next room and the loudness of their voices.
“Don’t worry, my wife won’t hear us. She’s deaf,” pleaded the guard. “And my daughter is probably in the garden playing. Please don’t hurt them.”
A pang of pity struck Minos in the chest. He unclenched his palms from his short sword and urged Lira to take it easy.
“Look, I’m going to remove my sword from my belt, you can have it. I’m not gonna fight.”
Lira stepped back and pulled his crossbow away. The man raised his left arm while his right arm carefully reached for the sword on his belt. He unclasped the sheath and slowly passed it towards Minos.
The young nobleman gently grabbed the sheathed sword from the guard and placed it on the table.
“Where is your boss? Where’s the rest of the people who live here?” Minos inquired.
“I haven’t seen them since last night. My wife prepared them dinner but they didn’t go up. The house is quiet the entire day, Ms. Deniece didn’t come home either.”
“You know about the cistern below?” Minos noted the guard’s choice of words, so he asked him to elaborate.
“Cistern? All I know is the basement. They have a secret entrance at the guest room beside the grand hall. It's under the regalle. We never use it, we’re not even supposed to know about it, but, well… we work here.”
Minos could see that the man had been dying to turn around and look at their faces, but Lira kept prodding him not to. The young nobleman finally convinced her to let him be after an exchange of ugly facial expressions.
Stolen novel; please report.
The guard turned to face the two, his eyes juggling back and forth between them. He was just a man who was only doing his job, but now his fate rests on the hands of two strangers. The seed of pity inside Minos’ chest sprouted into a thorn of guilt, eating away his confidence.
“Look, don’t be scared,” Minos soothed, “we just want to save our friend. Your boss had him trapped below, that’s all we’re here to do.
“Can I just get my family and leave?” asked the man.
“No,” Lira answered. “We cannot risk you going to the authorities and messing this up.”
Minos looked at Lira trying to object but her face made it clear that she wouldn’t nudge. The young nobleman motioned for the guard to step into the kitchen, and he followed behind. As they all walked in, the woman sitting by one of the kitchen tables quickly stood up, and the guard motioned his hand to calm her down.
The guard continued signing, and the woman nodded in acknowledgement.
“Your wife?” Minos asked the man.
“Yes,” answered the man.
“What’s your name?”
“Noah,” said the guard after a little hesitation. He glanced at his wife who paused what she was doing to step outside the kitchen. Minos’ eyes followed her until she disappeared at the door that leads to the back patio.
“That leads to the garden?” asked the young nobleman.
“Yeah,” replied Noah.
“There’s a well there, right? Boarded up.”
“Yeah.” Noah’s eyebrows curled, surprised by what Minos knew.
“And I’m guessing this is the pantry,” stated the young nobleman as he opened the third door in that kitchen. He smiled to himself after seeing what was behind it. His assumption was correct again.
Meanwhile, Lira walked across the kitchen to take a peek at the garden, during which Scout was clambering back up to her shoulder. Like her former protege, she also smiled to herself after seeing what was outside. It had been a while since she had seen greenery like that. She nudged her animal companion to climb down and rove.
Minos found an hourglass by the kitchen oven and picked it up. “Here’s what’s gonna happen,” he began explaining. “You and your family are going to hide inside the pantry until the sand on the top runs out.”
As he finished talking, Noah’s wife and daughter had come in, and the guard passed along Minos’ instructions using sign language. His daughter, on the other hand, was playing with Scout. She was a small girl, around five years old, with brown hair and a freckled face. She waved at Lira as she passed by the entrance.
“Hi there!” Lira waved back.
“Hello!” replied the child.
Lira sat on her haunches trying to level with the little girl.
“Is she your pet?” she asked the drow huntress.
“No, Scout is my best friend,” answered Lira.
“Your friends with a rat?” continued the little girl.
“Yes, why not? I am friends with all kinds of animals,”
“Can I play with her?”
“Of course! In fact, I want you to look after him, while me and my other friend here are taking care of something important. Is that okay?” Lira explained.
“Okay!” answered the child.
Noah motioned for his family to head into the pantry, and they all followed, including Scout, and Minos closed the door. Lira then stepped out into the garden and called for him.
“Well, well, well…” she sighed after seeing something.
He stepped out to see what it was, “What?”
Lira gestured to the middle of the garden. The sky above was already painted purple, but no star assented to shine. The moon, however, was showing half of its face enough to light up the back patio. Minos beheld and found the abandoned well sitting in the middle of the green grass, boarded up and covered in vines. It was near a stoney walkway connecting the back of the house to the stables.
Minos tutted his tongue as he placed his hands over his waist, “You know Lira, sometimes I forget you have a sense of humor…” he commented.
----------------------------------------
“When Rei and I were together, he had this potion that allows seeing in the dark,” Minos whispered, as he was climbing down the narrow well. It was the same iron ladder he climbed onto when he was trying to escape the other night.
“Cat’s Eye,” Lira whispered back.
“Nice, what an apt name! Do you happen to have something like that in your pocket?”
“No,” replied Lira as she reached the end of the ladder. She hopped down and gently landed on the floor below, without so much as a crunch or a thud.
“Why not?” asked Minos as he stepped on the last rung.
“Because I have no need for it,” Lira hissed. She stepped up by the entrance to look at what was on the other side.
“Ah, to be a drow…” Minos grumbled. It was his turn to hop off to the floor. “Sometimes I wish I were born a drow. Longer lifespan, can see in the dark, flawless--”
Lira interrupted him with a hush, “I see something moving.”
“Is it the Baron? Are they all here?”
“I could not tell, I need to move closer,” Lira shuffled quietly towards the center of the underground hall, while Minos stayed behind. The place was darker than when he left it, with the chandelier on the ceiling bereft of lit candles.
The drow moved behind one of the columns, prowling on the moist concrete like a fox stalking its prey. With her dim vision, she managed to visualize a lump of heaving flesh sprawled on the floor, covered with tattered rags. It reminded her of Minos’ description of what he found here when he was imprisoned.
Lira gently placed her crossbow by her feet, a single bolt still loaded on its barrel. She grabbed the scimitar hanging on her belt and quietly pulled it off its leather scabbard. With sword in hand, she sidled towards the thing while furtively looking around her surroundings. As she came closer, she could hear its breath bellowing rhythmically. It was asleep.
She was able to discern its body parts now that she was near. It was lying face down on the floor and she could see what appeared to be a pair of legs and feet, disfigured, and contorted. Both legs appeared to have a scar running vertically from its knee to its heels.
She inched further forward, and she found the body of a young girl sitting along the heaving flesh. Its eyes were closed, back lolling against the other body, and legs slumped on the floor. Lira took a step closer to check if the girl was breathing, and she was sure she noticed its chest moving. She touched its skin, but it was cold as ice.
Bewildered, she noticed a torch hanging on a sconce on a nearby column. She approached it, still looking after her surroundings, but she was sure there was nobody else in this chamber other than her, her former protege, and whatever monstrosity she beheld. So, she took out her tinderbox to provide a light source for Minos.
The young nobleman stood up as soon as he saw the torch and started walking towards it. The place was as he left it, with the exception of the aberrant creature in the center. He was sure the thing they were looking at now wasn’t the one he saw the other night.
Lira paused for a second as she was walking back to meet Minos. She turned to her left, where the young girl was sitting, deciding if she did see it twitch or her mind was just playing tricks on her. She leaned closer, studying the corpse while trying to recall one of the victims of the recent abductions.
The drow’s head lingered longer than she was comfortable with. She could feel the hairs on her skin crawl, but there was something with the grotesque sight that she couldn’t take her eyes off. However, soon as she felt well-indulged with her perusal, the corpse’s eyes opened abruptly.
Lira jumped back as a pair of dead foggy eyes stared back at her. She didn’t notice the rest of its body, shifting its weight around, with its hips unbending in an inhuman manner. The drow huntress pulled her sword up mechanically as her jaw hung open. Minos stepped up beside her and raised his weapon as well.
“What the hell?” he shuddered.
The pair continued stepping back as the dead body continued rising up, while the heaving lump of meat behind it began moving as well. Suddenly, the dead girl was lifted off her feet as if it were yanked by a rope upwards. The meat lump also rose up, and what Lira thought were its legs were actually two human bodies fused at the lower lump of the heaving flesh.
They both appeared like children, at least from the parts Minos could recognize, and they supported the meat lump up, extending its actual legs, bringing the creature to more than ten feet tall. Various collections of body parts complete the heap, including varied sizes of arms, legs, and torso. The dead girl that Lira saw made up its right arm, while its left arm dangled longer, consisting of a different dead person altogether.
As the flesh golem moved around to face them, Minos recognized to whom the other body belonged. It was the guard he killed. His head, down to his arms and shoulders, were fused to the creature's shoulder. The giant creature did not have a head of its own. Instead, its face was buried in its chest, amidst a mass of bones and veins that jut around and across like a peacock’s tail.
The creature roared a hushed and guttural scream, before charging at the two. It slammed its fist down at Lira, who braced herself and met it with her scimitar instead of dodging away. She felt its impact reverberate across her body, but her blade managed to cut deep into the monster’s flesh.
Meanwhile, Minos darted across and aimed at the golem’s right leg. As he struck, the face that was melted into the monster’s thigh screamed and bellowed in pain. It had the voice of a little boy, and sounded as if it was crying for his mommy. Are these people still alive? He wondered to himself.
He tried to ignore the scream and pulled back his short sword. With a flourish, he stepped back and spun trying to hit the back of the monster’s leg, fully intent on chopping it off fully. But the golem caught his sword using its left arm. The legs of the dead little girl functioned like claws.
It tried to wrestle away Minos’ sword, but the young nobleman held firm. Lira, on the other hand, pushed back on the monster’s right arm before sliding away. She wasn’t able to maim it, but the creature lost its balance and landed its fist on the concrete. It gave Minos enough momentum to break free. With the golem’s defenses fully open, he thrusted his short sword on its leg, and it knelt down in pain.
The creature screamed again, but this time, it came from the face on its chest. Minos felt his skin crawl after recognizing the voice.
“WHY??” the creature moaned, and the young nobleman was sure it was in Rikhart’s voice.
“It’s him!” Minos pointed out.
“What?” questioned Lira.
The young nobleman took a step back to get a clearer look at the face on its chest. It was only then that he recognized it. “Robb’s father, Rikhart.”
“What?” Lira asked again, “You never mentioned he turned into a monster?”
“No, he wasn’t like this when we escaped!” Minos said as he tried to dodge away from another attack. The creature limped forward trying to grab the young nobleman.
“So, this is what they were making? With their ritual and the kidnapped children?” Lira asked as she jumped and started hacking the monster’s other leg.
“I don’t think so!” Minos screamed. “It doesn’t look like that thing I saw. Actually, this looks more like the result of a spell that backfired!”
“Backfired?” asked Lira who went across to the other side from Minos.
“You know why wizards always carry around a spell book with them, and why they have to memorize all these gestures and incantations? Because one small mistake could lead to an unpredictable mess. Like this one!” the young nobleman tried his best explaining despite the chaos.
“Blood of Zuzen, calling this a mistake is the understatement of the year!” Lira commented.
“Well, New Year’s coming up, at least we’re ending this year with a blast!” Minos chuckled. He also noticed that the creature was more intent on grabbing him than smashing Lira to bits, so he devised a plan.
He grabbed the torch from its sconce and ran across the dark chamber. He glanced back to see the monster’s attention turn to him.
“MEE NOSS, HELPPP MEE!!” It bellowed as it started scurrying towards Minos’ direction.
“Did it just call your name?” questioned Lira.
“Yeah, I think he’s still alive in there,” answered Minos. He stepped back and continued running away.
“What are you doing?” Lira shouted from afar.
“We can’t kill it! It’s Robb’s father!”
“You think the wizards can fix him?”
“That’s what I’m counting on!” Minos declared. “I’ll get it distracted and you find something we can use to tie it down!”
The young nobleman ran to the area where he was kept imprisoned. He hid behind one of the walls, while listening to the golem’s footsteps. It stopped right outside the room, seemingly unable to fit through the narrow entrance. But as Minos turned to peek, the concrete beside him crashed and collapsed as the golem bore a hole in it with his claws. The impact peeled away the muscle and flesh of the little girl’s leg, leaving only sharpened bones.
Minos scampered away across the hallway back to the prison cells, while the golem continued breaking down the walls that separated these halls from the rest of the cistern.
“WHERREE ISS MMY ROBBBEEENNNN?!?” the golem kept bellowing, again and again.
“Look, Rikhart, I promise I’ll bring you to him. But we're gonna have to fix you first!” Minos wasn’t sure if Rikhart could even understand, or even hear him, but he had to try. As he crawled out of a collapsed wall, he noticed Lira holding a length of chain. She twirled it up above her head like a lasso and tossed it on one of the golem’s legs.
It landed and wrapped around the limb. Minos then quickly grabbed a piece of iron rebar and sprinted towards the end of the chain and used it to lock the shackles in place. Lira pulled back and the young nobleman stepped beside to help her, and they both managed to yank the leg away, bringing the monster flat on its back.
The golem struggled to get up as the pair pulled it closer and closer towards a column. Lira ran around the pillar to wrap the other end of the chain but as she made it to the other side, the monster caught her with its claws.
“Lira, lookout!” Minos’ warning arrived too late. The sharpened tibia of the dead girl pierced through Lira’s armor and body and onto the concrete column. The drow’s blood splattered across the floor, along with her innards and guts.
“NO! RIKHART STOP!” Minos screamed.
“ROOOBBBEEEENNNN!! NEEESAAAAA!! MUSSST GGGET TTTO FAAAMMMIIILLLYYYY!!” the monster howled as he dragged Lira’s mangled body from the column to the floor.
The drow huntress struggled to escape the golem’s hold, tearing herself away from its claws. Time slipped to a halt as Minos decided on what to do. The unrelenting monster lifted its other arm and slammed it at Lira’s hips, pressing him harder against the concrete. He could hear her bones crack and break under the intense weight.
He looked up, and he could clearly see Rikhart’s face protruding from the golem’s chest. It was screaming in agony, as if it were in more pain than Lira. Its eyes, however, looked down at him and he recognized the crazed look it bore. Robb’s father was still there, inside, and he was staring right at Minos, begging for him to let him see his son.
It would take several slashes with his short sword before he could hack away the monster’s arms. By that point, Lira’s body would already be shredded into pieces. So, the young nobleman held his sword firm, as he braced himself.
Minos took a few steps back before running forward and jumping, using the column to propel himself upwards until he was the monster’s level. He raised his blade up and landed it on one of Rikhart’s eyes. It planted deep, piercing through his skull and brain.
Minos let out a dreadful scream as the dead golem slid down and dropped on the floor.