As Nik, Isabell, and George looked around for the source of the voice, a huge person covered in a faint glow stepped from behind a large boulder, surprisingly near. He was at least two paces high, blond, bearded and extremely muscular, wearing a mixture of leather and plate armor. From what they’d heard, this was a perfect example of what a Horde warrior would look like. Unexpectedly, he was also handsome, in a big barbarian sort of way. He stood, casually grinning at them with very nice teeth.
He spoke trade. “So, what do we have we here? Different kinds of older armor, but decent quality.”
“And a girl, if I’m not mistaken. That makes this interesting. And two… boys, maybe? Not men, yet. Some amulets and other vehicles for spells. No need to use them, they will not work on me. A gift from the Mentor, this magic suppression field,” he said while waving an arm about, obviously referring to the glow.
Mentor was the name the Horde had for their Dreamer. This giant was most likely a scout. By all accounts, a formidable foe.
Everyone fell into position. Isabell and Nik in front, George behind. Isabell wielded her swords, Nik his large one, and George, a short sword paired with a rope that he let run between the other two.
With no warning, the scout threw a knife at Isabell, who twisted out of its way, which turned out to be unnecessary since George intercepted it with the small shield he’d made with the rope.
“Hmm, interesting,” the scout mused. “This might be more fun than I expected. You have some ability. I thought the City nearly always depended on magic alone. Good to know. I’ll have to report this.”
With this comment, he drew an immense sword from the scabbard on his back, brandishing it from side to side as if it weighed nothing. If he was trying to intimidate them, it was working.
This was bad! Without their spells, they only had their weapons, and the scout outweighed all of them put together. Heck, his sword likely did all by itself!
Seemingly coming from nowhere, Tenthé stepped to the front, shocking the trio. Until this second, they hadn’t realized he’d gone missing.
“Ha-ha-ha! Another one. What are you? A little boy or a girl?” the scout laughed, and with no warning, struck down, twisted, then swung across, recovering to a ready position. Everyone gasped, but by then the action was over; it had been that fast.
Tenthé was untouched, standing a bit to the left of where he’d been, somehow dodging both strokes.
“He’s bleeding!” Isabell exclaimed.
Not Tenthé, but the scout! A knife was stuck to the hilt in the meat of his upper thigh, and he had a deep cut over one eye.
The scout lifted his leg to look at it. “Ha! This? It’s nothing!”
He shifted to a new position, but in spite of his bravado, did appear to be favoring his injured side.
The warrior shuffled forward, which gave him the ability to change direction quickly. As he advanced, he showed off his mastery by swinging the sword in a tight pattern, not allowing Tenthé any room to move ahead or to the side. Tenthé backed up, barely avoiding the flurry of strokes.
George’s rope suddenly wrapped around the scout’s leg and snapped back. The massive figure didn’t shift much, but it was enough, and a knife blossomed from his eye and another in his throat. The scout looked astonished as he crumpled. There was a shocked silence. Fights weren’t supposed to be like this! Everything had happened so fast!
No-one relaxed. No telling if the scout was faking it or not.
Isabell glanced over the prone form and tentatively reached for the knife in his leg. Suddenly, she stopped. Looking closely, she saw that the skin around the blade was turning black!
“Tenthé, are your knives poisoned?”
“Yeah. Some of them.”
The black seemed to be creeping out of the blades, making jagged lines that branched away from the wound. Even the slice over the scout’s eye was festering rapidly. The glow surrounding the body was fading, and when it went out, the weight of the suppression field vanished.
“Man. You’re one scary little dude.” Nik stated baldly.
Tenthé ignored the comment and looked at George.
“Thanks. You made that a lot easier.”
Quite shaken, George mumbled, “I, I didn’t have time to think…”
“That was good! Really good!” Nik reassured him. “Isabell and me, we couldn’t come up with anything. You did. We’re a team!”
Coldly, Tenthé stated, “Keep quiet! We have to get out of here before someone misses this guy. Move! Now!”
George appeared to be stuck, staring at the body.
Coming up to him, Nik put his hand on his shoulder.
“Between you and me,” he said, “I’m pretty sure the kid doesn’t have any idea what we’re going through. But he’s right. We don’t have the time to talk it over. Let’s go. We’ll deal with, uh, everything, later.”
Isabell wasn’t much better, and, to be honest, neither was Nik, but everyone agreed that they couldn’t stay here.
“Frigging god’s poo!” Isabell swore. “All of us have gone through combat training, but until Tenthé dragged us down here, what they told us battles were like… didn’t mean anything. Like they said: don’t debate, follow orders and do what you have to.
“And, you know? I really thought the instructors were just trying to scare us into doing what they wanted.”
That squeezed a chuckle out of the three of them; they’d all thought the same thing. It didn’t make what happened here right, but they were good enough to do what they had to. For now.
Nik turned to Tenthé. “I think we’re ready. What do you want from us?”
“Let’s find out where the others went and see what’s going on. But we have to be quiet. Do the best you can. I’ll cast a stealth spell, but the less noise, the better. There’s nothing else down here to make a sound, except us. And, no lights.”
With that, Tenthé started out. After a moments hesitation, the rest followed. They were willing to follow Tenthé’s lead, at least, for the moment.
In spite of trying to be quiet, they made more noise than they would like. Nothing they’d been taught prepared them to be sneaking through a boulder strewn cavern in armor with barely enough light from the moss to stop them from running into the rocks and each other. Most of the time. Should have been funny, but it wasn’t.
As they crept from rock to rock, their eyes adapted somewhat, but at the same time, their muscles began to complain from being crouched down for so long.
Finally, they reached the area where the lights had been. Tenthé motioned the others to join him at the side of an opening, out of the direct view of anything inside.
“We have to be very careful now,” he cautioned. “We should expect traps, sentries, and who knows what. I’m going to release some rats to scout ahead, but remember; they aren’t people. They can get past stuff we can’t. Before that, though, we should take a quick break.”
They all grabbed some food and water and sat against the cavern wall while they ate. When they were done. Tenthé told everyone to pee; they might not have another chance for a while. Not something the others would have thought of.
Too quickly, it was time to go. Tenthé walked to the opening, released some little shapes that scurried away, then crawled up the wall until he was upside down. He wasn’t hanging. It was as if he didn’t weigh anything. The three just stared.
“You’ll have to be careful,” Tenthé said to them. “If we were still training, I’d stay on the ground too, but we have to succeed, so I’ll use every trick I can.”
That was sobering. They were beginning to realize how much danger they were really in.
Tenthé continued, “If any of you don’t want to do this, that’s okay. But, I think it’s best if you come with me. The trip back won’t be easy. The dangers from the skeletons and wraiths in the tunnels are real, and there could be more scouts. You need a lot more practice, but if you stay, I’ll have more options. I’m not going to lie, though; it’ll be risky.”
This hammered home that although Tenthé seemed to be a little kid, he wasn’t. It was dawning on them that the College they were so intimidated by may not mean so much to him, when compared to everything else he’d been through.
Even so, there was no way any of them were going to turn back. They might be having second thoughts about following Tenthé, but each of them knew their families would be very unhappy if they ran away without finding out more.
Tenthé lead them, after a fashion, since he was on the ceiling and they were on the floor. He told George to go first because his armor was the strongest. And, after only a few steps, George was pushed to the side by a strong force. Looking down, he saw a number of darts littering the ground. Obviously, they’d set off a trap the rats had missed, but fortunately, his armor had handled it.
“How the hells do we avoid these?” George asked. “I didn’t see a trigger or anything!”
Noticing the delay, Tenthé had come back and was on the ceiling above them. “Here,” he said, handing Isabell a light that glowed a faint purple. “This should help show where the others walked. I should have thought of it before.”
Then he crawled away.
“Wonder what else he has that we might need that he’s forgotten to give us?” George mused, voicing the thoughts everyone was having.
Isabell moved the light around, illuminating their footprints, and, along the side of the cave, a much denser trail.
“I guess that’s where we should be,” she said. “I hope there're no traps between here and there.”
Slowly, George went first, and the others followed, stepping in his footprints. Nothing was triggered, and after a few long seconds, they were on the trail. Carefully, keeping well within the edges of the footprints, they started moving. After a few minutes, they caught up with Tenthé.
He spoke quietly. “It’ll be okay. I can scout the trail, so we’ll know if there’s anyone else around. All you have to do is not die… or be crushed, gassed, or sliced. Maybe bitten, stabbed, burned, sent to a demon plane…”
“Good pep talk,” Nik whispered loudly to cut him off. Tenthé shrugged and moved ahead. The others followed.
The trail snaked back and forth.
“My gods! There are probably traps everywhere!” Isabell exclaimed quietly.
“Yeah,” Nik agreed. “We’d never have made it without this light. Oh, what now?”
In front of them, there was a gap in the trail. They could see it start up again, about five paces ahead, but with no indication of how to get there. Also, surrounding them were the remains of a few rats. It was hard to make out how many, since they were all chopped into tiny pieces.
After a moment of looking around, Nik directed, “Hey! Point the light over there, beside us. Against the wall.”
She did so, finding numerous footprints. “Yeah, you’re right,” she replied. “I bet that’s how the others got through. It looks like we’ll have to jump. Or, rather, George should. I mean, because he has the best armor.”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“Thanks,” George answered. “It’s too far, though. Not a problem for a warrior. They’re huge… But, if I managed to get over there somehow, I could use the rope things to help Isabell make it, then the two of us’ll do the same for Nik.”
“Not a bad idea, but I should be the first,” Nik stated. “It’ll be a lot easier for me to pull you, than the other way around. And, my armor’s pretty good, but if we do this right, I shouldn’t need it. Although, I can’t jump that far, either.”
There was a little more debate, and they finally decided that Isabell would go first, then George, with Nik last. She was light enough that Nik could easily boost her across, and strong enough to pull and catch George. With the two of them working together, they should have enough force to assist Nik with the jump.
In preparation, Nik interlaced his fingers and Isabell put her foot in his hands.
“Okay,” she said. “On, three. One, two, Three!”
With that, she jumped and Nik heaved. The idea was that she would twist in the air and land facing down the trail. Instead, adrenaline may have been a factor, and she splatted face first into the wall, then slid down onto the trail where she teetered for a moment or two before recovering.
“Well. That wasn’t pretty, but I made it. Forget the rope. You’re strong enough to toss George, and his armor will save him from getting hurt. I’ll do my best to catch him,” she directed.
They did so, which resulted in George and Isabell crashing into the wall. Not much of a surprise. As for Nik, they tied two ropes around his waist and heaved when he jumped.
It worked. Sort of. Nik was looking down at the heel of his armor, or rather, where part of the heel used to be. It had been sliced clean off.
There was nothing to say. They continued on.
Occasionally, Tenthé would give them information about traps that he or the rats had discovered. They only missed one, which splashed George in acid. Luck was with him; it was something his suit could handle.
After about half an hour of slow going, they heard noises ahead. Tenthé was waiting on the ground and motioned for them to crawl the rest of the way and be as quiet as they could. After creeping around a bend, everyone hid behind a few large rocks at edge of the tunnel, right before it opened into a large, well-lit cavern.
On the other side of the cavern, several people were etching glyphs and lines on the floor, with a few of the Horde patrolling nearby. Past the workers, a short flight of stairs lead up to a set of double doors mounted in the cavern wall, and standing near the stairs was a writhing black pile of ick. Likely the old god that Tenthé had mentioned.
After watching for a while, they pulled back, re-grouping out of sight of the cavern.
“Any idea what they’re doing?” asked Isabell. Nobody had any suggestions, so she guessed, “Possibly a portal? Or a spell that goes boom? Or something that’ll shut down the magic all over the City?”
At the lack of response, she continued, “Well, whatever it does, I would guess that it’s about half done. And there are stairs on the other side. I wonder what’s up there?”
Nik added, “I didn’t feel any magic dampening. Should we attack? They won’t expect it. We could wreck what they’re doing.”
Tenthé replied, “Let’s wait until it’s nearly complete. That way, they’ll lose a lot more work. And, unless we’re lucky, we’ll take casualties if we fight. I think we should sneak past them. Without a dampening field, I have spells that will let us walk right past them.”
“Those would have to be some very good spells,” George whispered.
“Assassins need the best.” Tenthé replied.
Deciding that it wasn’t the place or time to have that discussion, George brought up a more practical point. “Yeah, but we might not have the chance to do anything later. What if we can’t get back here?”
“I’ve got just the thing,” Tenthé answered. “I can put it on a part of the floor they’ve already finished. Nobody’ll have any idea it’s there until they power up the spell, and by then it’ll be too late.”
“Why do you have something like that?” Nik asked, reasonably.
“I just do. And, I have lots of other things, too.”
“Okaaaay…” Isabell said, “Back to the other problem. Not that I don’t believe you, but, is there a way to find out if our stealth’s working without getting caught?”
“Uh, maybe? Never thought about it.”
“Got any rats left?” George asked.
At Tenthé’s nod, George continued, “Well then… Can you stealth the rats and see if it works?”
“I guess so.”
“Let’s do that, then. You send your rats in and we’ll find out what happens. No sense putting our lives on the line if we don’t have to.”
Seeing that Tenthé was about to argue, he went on, “I know that you think that you know it’ll work, but I’m not sure if I know, and I’d really like to think that I know what I know I know.”
Tenthé gave up trying to figure out what George just said. “Okay, whatever. It’s easy enough to do.”
The trio followed Tenthé as he crawled to the tunnel opening and hauled out a few rats. After a few seconds, the rats took on a greasy sheen, then Tenthé let them loose.
No-one in the cavern noticed, not even the old god.
Tenthé recalled the rats, removed their stealth, then sent them back into the room.
They were detected almost immediately. A lot of the people started yelling, with the god being the loudest. It was holding up its skirt of tentacles and dancing around, shrieking. On the other hand, the warriors found it all quite amusing and began hunting the rats down.
At that point, Tenthé turned greasy, got to his feet and moved forward. The others followed, somewhat tentatively. There was no outcry.
With the people in the cavern doing their jobs, or chasing rats, the four of them strolled toward the stairs. Partway along, Tenthé made a detour to a finished section on the floor and poured something on the etched stone. He’d been right; nothing appeared different when he was done.
Quietly, they climbed the stairs to the double doors, one of which was ajar. Tenthé teased it open just enough that each of them could get through. They found themselves in a small room facing a second door, with shelves to each side holding a few boxes stamped with the glyph for floor cleaner.
Tenthé stared at the other door, then said, “On the other side, there’s a dining room. Kinda fancy. I don’t see any wards. There are some other rooms off of the dining room. We can hide there and figure out what we should do.
The others looked at each other. Could he see through walls, somehow?
Before anyone could ask, Tenthé opened the inner door and lead the group into the dining room, and from there into one of the smaller rooms. It held extra chairs, serving tables, and shelves of linens.
Nik asked, “Any of you recognize this place?”
George spoke up, somewhat sarcastically, “Well, I’ve never made a big study of linen closets. Maybe we should look around some more. Find a window, you know, something that might actually help us figure out where we are.”
“Yeah,” Isabell added. “But what about the Horde and those people? If someone spots us, we’ll be in trouble. And, what about the other defenses?”
“It’s a bit far away, but, as best I can tell, the wards on the outside walls are strong,” Tenthé stated. “And there isn’t anybody inside. I think they’re all in the cavern working on that spell. We should be able to look around if we’re careful.”
“Yeah!” Isabell exclaimed. “And, we need to let somebody know what we’ve found!”
“Uh, who?” George replied.
That was a good question. The City didn’t have a centralized military. The best bet was with the families that maintained some level of standing army, or the Guardians. Plus, they had to find to someone who would actually listen.
Nik ventured, “Well, my family has a small guard, but I’m not that important. It would take a while to get my older brother or dad to talk to me, and they might not do anything, anyway.”
They looked at Isabell. She grudgingly admitted, “I guess my family’s probably the best choice. With my new abilities, I’m the sweetheart of the moment, and we’re strong enough to convince a few other families to send their forces to help. It’ll take a bit of time; maybe an hour or two. But we still have to get out of this place, and I could use some real evidence.”
The others looked at Tenthé.
“What?”
“What do you think?” Nik clarified.
“About what?”
At this point, Bear poked his head out of Tenthé’s cloak.
“Is it safe?” he asked, in a too loud voice.
“Shhhh!” from everyone.
“No, really. Is it safe?” Bear repeated, not much quieter. At a lack of an answer, he continued, “Guess it must be, or close enough. No sense asking doofus here. With him, we either fight, run, hide, or wreck stuff. Even in the Pools, it was the same, except with those floaty trees. They were weird.”
“Wait,” George blurted, “How can you see us? We’re in stealth!”
“Tenthé and me are linked; what he sees, I see too. Sort of.”
Isabell ignored the toy. “We all agree that we have to let someone know what’s going on. To be sure, it’s best if we get out of here without anybody knowing. Even if the house is empty, there are the wards. If we set them off, we’re screwed. Anyone have any ideas?”
“Should we all go? You know, to help convince your family?” George asked.
“Probably not, but at least you’d be out of the mess here.”
“Yeah, but if we’re needed here, what then?”
“Yeah, right. What can we do? Altogether, we couldn’t handle even one warrior.” George pointed out.
“Not us. Him.” Nik indicated Tenthé. “I don’t think we will be able to do anything on our own, but we might be able to help him.”
“That’s very brave,” Isabell commented. Shockingly, she seemed to mean it.
“More likely stupid. You two going to make out?” Bear’s comment wafted over from where Tenthé was looking at another wall.
No-one made the effort to come up with a response.
At that moment, Tenthé pulled on something and a panel opened out, revealing a narrow passage. Tenthé entered, turned right, and moved out of sight. The trio looked at each other and followed. George came last and closed the panel behind him.
“How did he know this was here?” Isabell whispered.
Nobody had an answer. Looking through a few conveniently placed peepholes verified the passage ran alongside the main hallway that connected the front of the house to the back. Continuing on, they discovered a ladder affixed to the wall. As they peered up, Tenthé pushed past, retracing the way they’d just come.
“I guess we’re going back,” George whispered before everyone reversed direction, following Tenthé. They went past where they had entered and continued on until the passage ended in a brick wall with a sliding panel to one side. Tenthé opened it and stepped into a broom closet. Easy to figure out because of the broom. He looked around at the walls again, then pushed open the closet door and entered the kitchen.
Where, apparently, an explosion had occurred. Containers, pots and pans, and garbage were strewn everywhere. The hot box had been set on fire at least once, and the cold box’s door was ajar. The smell of rotting food permeated the room.
“Oh now, isn’t this nice,” Isabell stated dryly.
“From what I was taught,” George added, “the Horde is fastidious. Somebody else must be doing the cooking.
“Hey, Tenthé, any idea how much time it’ll take to finish what they’re doing downstairs?” Nik asked.
“A few hours, I guess. Maybe less if they work hard.”
That was a good answer for someone who couldn’t count.
Nik chuckled. “You know, I wouldn’t be surprised to find it’s behind schedule. Like most projects.”
“What if what we saw isn’t the only one?” Isabell gasped. “What if they’re making more?”
“Oh, crap! You could be right! We really have to warn everybody!” George yelled, louder than he should have.
“Quiet! I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s true, but it’d make my job easier if we had some solid evidence,” Isabell countered.
“Do we even have time?” George responded.
“A quick look,” Nik decided. “Send Tenthé first. If he runs into anything… uh, I guess he’ll have to take care of it.”
Everyone looked at Tenthé. He shrugged and ran out of the kitchen. The others followed, quickly looking into the rooms along the hallway. Tenthé had left all the doors open as he’d gone past. In some cases, that meant they were in pieces on the floor.
“You know, I think this is an extra house,” Nik stated. “Everything here’s packed away. I wonder who owns it?”
Extra houses were houses that the families owned, sometimes used for guests, but mainly as an investment.
“Oh, I so want this to be a LePoiterice house,” Isabell grouched.
“Yeah, but that doesn’t make sense. They’re already rich and at the top of the heap. Helping the Horde wouldn’t be in their best interest.”
“I suppose. But, it would be nice,” Isabell rejoined.
They followed Tenthé as quickly as they could, out to the main entrance and up the stairs. There, they found an open foyer hosting a few doors and more hallways. Tenthé was coming toward them.
“I didn’t find anyone. We should be okay. All the wards are on the outside walls. Look in there,” he directed, pointing to a set of double doors.
The trio exchanged glances, then Nik went over and peered in. “Ah, you should see this,” he said.
The rest trooped over and entered the room. It was a ballroom packed full of Horde warrior sized armor and racks of weapons.
“Well, this is good proof,” Isabell stated. “I doubt they’ll be able to move this stuff before I return. I guess that’s the best we can do.”
“What now?” George asked.
“I’m going back down to see what they’re doing,” Tenthé replied.
“What about me?” Isabell questioned. “Do I just walk out of here?”
“Kind of,” Tenthé stated. “The wards are powerful if you’re trying to get in, but if you move really slowly, it should be easy enough to make it to the street without setting them off.”
He led them down the stairs to a window next to the main door, where everyone crammed together to peer out. Between the house and a large stone wall was a flower garden. A wide walkway ran from the front steps to a formidable iron gate.
“Hey! I see a floating orange line; it meanders around and heads over to the corner of the yard,” said Isabell.
“Yeah, I sent that to you,” Tenthé replied. “If you follow it, you’ll be able to get out. It’ll take a while, and only one person can do it at a time. You need to go really slow.”
“Are you sure?” asked Isabell.
“Yeah, probably,” Tenthé replied. He reached over and opened the door just enough to let her out, then closed it after her. Everyone pressed their faces against the glass to watch as she walked across the front porch. When she got to the first step and went to step down, she flinched, like she was in pain, and froze in place. After a long pause, she completed the step, but this time, moving much more carefully.
“How long is this going to take?” Nik asked. After Tenthé just looked at him, he rephrased, “Ah, right, yeah, um… how about Bear? Does he know?”
A voice piped up, coming from somewhere in Tenthé’s cloak, “About an hour. If she’s discovered, she’ll have to make a break for it and things could get iffy. She’ll be okay, though.”
Tenthé started back down the hallway. The other two glanced at each other, then out at Isabell, who hadn’t even finished the second step yet. They turned and followed Tenthé to the dining room.
“Oh, oh!” Nik exclaimed. “I feel heaviness!”
“Yeah. That’s a problem,” Tenthé stated. “You guys will have to stay here. I have a spell, but only works on me.”
Tenthé completely disappeared, then the door swung open a little more, all by itself. After a moment, they heard his voice. “There’s a lot more people down here. It looks like they’re close to being done. Bet they found the scout.”
“I think it’s something to bring more Horde here, if the armor upstairs is any clue,” Nik reasoned.
“Makes sense,” George agreed. “What should we do now?”
A good question.