Derrick moaned. Someone was shaking him. His head thumped, and his eyelids felt like they weighed a ton. He wasn’t drunk, so why did it feel like he had a hangover? And who the heck kept bothering him like all hell had broken loose?
He forced his eyes open and winced. All he saw was a pair of brown eyes staring down at him, and it scared the living daylights out of him. The guy, the one he saw back in the eternal darkness, hit the scribbled walls and groaned as he unwittingly yanked him away.
As if struck by lightning, a sudden, agonizing pain jolted him, and he reflexively reached for the side of his head. He was bleeding. It took a while to get used to the dimness. What was this place? For how long had he been here? What about the—he glanced to his left.
“Hey, what was that for!?”
It was that guy again. What was his name? He didn’t feel like chatting, though. His eyes wandered from the scrabbled walls to the grille. Then he remembered how he got here.
The giant—his eyes widened as he recalled the hideous creature that snatched him at the bottom of the underground passage. Something was wrong. First, it was the betrayal of the tree, and now this.
“Are you even listening to me?” The stranger obscured his view over the stonework lit up by torches in the passageway and cocked his head. “I’m talking to you, aren’t I?”
“What do you want?”
“Do you even remember my name?”
“What—?” Of course, he didn’t remember! His head played up, and it felt like he was on the verge of puking every two seconds. The last thing he needed was to occupy his brain with mundane matters!
“Seriously?” the guy said.
“I’m sorry, okay? What’d you say your name was, again?”
“You’re really—never mind, it’s Kiano.”
Derrick stared the guy down. ”I see.” He hoped the guy could take a hint at this point and leave him alone.
“Is your head okay, by the way? You passed out back there, and it looks like you’re bleeding, too.”
“I don’t know; I hope it is,” he said and looked around the grotty cell, which was scribbled all over as if someone or something had cast a great curse over it. “Is this place Hezakhal?”
“I think so; it’s full to the brim with prisoners,” Kiano said.
Derrick followed his gaze to the passageway. This place was like an endless hallway – a grim den full of wailing spirits. He was so immersed in his own bleak predicament that he failed to hear the prisoners’ blood-curdling bawls until then.
They were trapped in the dungeon. But how? They were doomed to die just hours ago, he had not a doubt, so how come the giant had caught and brought them to Hezakhal? The living had no business here…
“Hey, look over there,” Kiano whispered, nodding to the far end of the passageway as a great shadow fell upon them.
Hybrids, the offspring of giants and trolls. They were patrolling the dungeon in pairs. His heart skipped a beat at the sight of them. There was no known record of their existence in the Ancient Scrolls, yet he knew they were another species created by the Queen.
But it was impossible! The wizards of Mahgrad tethered the Queen to the fortress and a great spell rendered her powers useless – unless the seal had been broken, that is.
He gulped and dropped his head in the twinkling of an eye. One hybrid closed in on their cell and grinned from ear to ear. There was not an ounce of goodness in that hideous sneer. This was real. This was madness at its finest, too real to be a hallucination or a wicked product of his dire mind.
“Hey, is everything—”
His eyes landed on Kiano as the boy’s concerned voice pierced through the silence left in the wake of the patrolling creatures. He turned his face away momentarily as a strange thought crossed his mind. He had not seen Kiano before, he was sure. They were roughly the same age, yet he couldn’t recall seeing him back at the grove.
“How’d you get here?” Kiano blinked. The confusion in his brown eyes was easy to spot. Derrick pressed on. “I didn’t see you at the grove. I would’ve remembered if you were, so don’t beat ‘round the bush and tell me how you got here.”
Kiano scratched his neck. He is hesitating, Derrick thought to himself, this guy obviously didn’t want to tell him how he got here but eventually gave in to his persistent stare.
“The truth is, I was at the glade the night before the contest. I know, a stupid idea, but I didn’t think the tree would bring me to this place. I- I wouldn’t have come near it had I known, I swear!”
“What were you even doing there?”
“There was this—” Kiano paused. “It’s a long story; in any case, we need to get out of this place as soon as possible.”
He bit his lower lip. Kiano was right. They were stuck in the Hezakhal Dungeon, of all places, and they knew not what awaited them. They had to find a way out of this place before it was too late. But how? Magic didn’t work here, and it wasn’t like they could use sorcery to—he frowned.
Kiano crouched on four legs and stretched his arm out of the grille as if he were looking for something in the dimly lit passageway. He was rambling something too. It sounded like he was… like he was enchanting?
“What- what are you doing?”
Kiano cast him a glimpse. “I’m trying to get that blanket over there. I don’t know about you, but I’m freezing to death here!”
“So, what exactly are you doing right now?”
“Casting a spell, duh, can’t you see?”
He blinked repeatedly, and it took a while for him to digest what he had just heard Kiano say so nonchalantly. His eyes widened at the realisation that the other was using sorcery. Before he could stop it, he hauled the stranger up by the collar and pushed him up against the grille.
“What the heck are you!?”
“Hey- hey, what’s wrong with you? I’m just trying to help us out here! Do you want to freeze to death or something?”
They jolted in unison as the patrolling hybrids hit the grille and shouted at them to shut up. Derrick let go and backed away. The other adjusted his attire and was mumbling something about him being out of his mind.
Derrick, still baffled and out of it, watched as Kiano got down on four legs again and continued whatever he was trying to do. Then he heard it. He glanced at the cell across theirs as the patched-up blanket subtly moved towards the passageway. This guy, he… he really was a sorcerer?
Kiano beamed as the blanket snaked its way to their cell and wrapped it tightly around his shoulders. But it didn’t last too long.
“You’re a sorcerer.”
Kiano heaved a sigh. “So, what if I am?”
“You can get us out of here, can’t you?”
“Listen, I can’t. I tried to raise the grille several times while you were busy having sweet dreams, mate. It doesn’t work.”
“It doesn’t? Are you sure? Maybe you didn’t try hard enough? Maybe if you try—”
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“Nope, it’s not working, okay? I know what you’re thinking, but this place is under the spell of something much more powerful than what someone of my calibre can deal with.”
Derrick dropped his head and glided down the scribbled walls. He buried his head in his palms. He was doomed. There was no way out of Hezakhal. He was bound to die in this grimy place and never see the light of day again! What was going to happen to his sisters without him?
They were probably worried sick by now and thought something terrible had happened to him. He grunted and swore under his breath out of frustration. He was stuck in this darned place, and there was nothing he could do about it! It was at these miserable moments that he raised his head and shifted his eyes to the stranger he shared the cell with.
What in the world was a sorcerer doing here, he wondered; the Queen was no fool. She should’ve sensed him from miles away, so why—his expression hardened. What if the giant saved them because the Queen told it to? And seeing how it rescued them both, it didn’t know which of them was the sorcerer.
But the Queen knew – yeah, he was sure of that. So why did she keep them both captured? Torturing the living, a human at that, was unheard of, and their creator, the Almighty, wouldn’t stay idle and let her scorch him alive unless she tried to provoke him on purpose. But why would she do such a thing, and for what purpose and reasoning?
Chaos broke out. All the inmates clutched to the grille and shrieked at the top of their lungs. Kiano was the first to look out into the passageway. His expression was riddled with terror.
Derrick followed suit and studied the dimly lit dungeon as the torches flickered and the hybrids marched from one end to the other as if all hell had broken loose. The inmate across their cell woke up from the calamity too.
Derrick’s eyes wandered from the chaos to the prisoner just as the torches went out and everything became pitch-black. But only their cell and the cell opposite theirs were lit up in an azure shade. He gulped and nudged Kiano, who was already staring blankly at the godly creature across them.
The pointy ears, long, silky locks, and godly, pale face gave the inmate away. It was an elf. But it wasn’t just any elf, but a dark elf from Freyskul at that! And perhaps what startled them the most was the insight that the elf was alive – just like them – yet stuck here, where only humans were fated to come in the hereafter.
They watched in awe as the elf casually looked through the grille and yawned. His mesmerising eyes shifted from the commotion to the blanket Kiano had wrapped around himself and raised an eyebrow. Kiano, upon realising what had arrested the beautiful creature, plonked the blanket onto the filthy ground and glanced at him out of the corner of his eyes, as if to ask for help.
But it wasn’t like he was the one who had stolen the blanket, was it? Besides, things were not looking too good down here, so he couldn’t be bothered by this. Still, he felt kind of bad for Kiano, so he decided to come to his defence when something flung open at the end of the passageway and broke him off.
Then they all heard it. The inmates fell silent. Drums…
The strange beat pervaded the entire dungeon and shook the ground beneath them. His heart was about to jump out of his chest. For some odd reason, his flickering eyes shifted from the stonework to the elf, whose face hardened.
This was not what startled him, though. He followed the elf’s gaze. Kiano had collapsed on his knees and was covering his ears. The sorcerer groaned beside himself and writhed as if he were being stabbed all over his body.
Derrick snapped out of his trance and tried to shake the boy back to the present. Why was he in such pain? Kiano shoved him to the side as he reached out for him and rocked back and forth in place like a toddler. His veins had popped out, and he was shaking out of control. He grabbed his shoulders.
“Snap out of it! Kiano, can you hear me? We don’t have time for this!”
“It’s no use. Just let him be.” He looked out from the grille as the elf spoke up and was about to ask what it meant when the elf continued in the same detached way. “It won’t last too long, anyway.”
“W- what’s happening to him?”
“I have no idea. Do I look like a sorcerer to you, kid?”
“But you just—”
“Looks like it’s begun, take a look.”
He followed the elf’s gaze to the passageway, where the grilles suddenly lifted, and the prisoners streamed out of their cells towards the spiked door. In their hurry, they crashed into each other with such intensity that they ended up in a jumbled heap on the frigid dungeon floor.
Seconds later, their grille lifted, too. He stared down to find the sorcerer digging his nails into his ankles, struggling to rise to his feet. But the pain was the last thing Derrick felt. Kiano gasped for air, his chest heaving as he strained to remain upright.
He looked as if he had sprinted several miles, his breath ragged and his body drained of energy. He wouldn’t make it out of here on his own. His eyes shifted to the elf, who was preparing to exit his cell as stealthily as a mouse and make his escape from the dungeon.
They locked eyes right then. He didn’t even say a word, he didn’t have to, the elf understood him as soon as their eyes met.
“What? You want me to like, carry him or something?”
“The stairs… I don’t think I can make it past them.”
The elf rolled his luminous eyes. “So, what you’re saying is…?”
“Please, if you could just give me a hand with the passage, I’ll handle the rest.”
The elf let out a weary sigh, his shoulders slumping. The frustration in his captivating eyes was unmistakable, but he agreed nonetheless, taking the lead through the passageway and motioning for them to follow. They limped to the other side of the dungeon, Kiano’s grip on his neck tightening with each step.
The elf, just as he promised, waited for them at the bottom of the stairs and helped them ascend the underground passage. As they reached the top of the stairs, he could feel the sweat pouring down his face and his breath coming in ragged gasps. The drums were overwhelming, the chilly air numbing, and the darkness spine tingling.
Right then, as they were scanning the bailey, the thunderous sound of drums suddenly ceased, leaving an eerie silence hanging over the gloomy fortress.
They all stopped breathing. Kiano regained some strength and could stand up on his own now. He was the first to pierce the silence and speak up, but the elf didn’t let him finish his question.
“What’s going—” The elf covered his mouth and hushed him. He watched the shadows as if something wicked was coming to get them any second. Derrick followed the godly creature’s eyes and observed the black fortress.
Where were all the trolls on the parapet walls? The entire fortress looked… abandoned, except it wasn’t. The inmates lay in a pool of blood, their ripped body parts several feet from one another all around the bailey. The elf took a step forward right then, then another in no time.
Not long after, he gestured for them to follow, and they all hurried to the gatehouse, the chilly wind biting at their faces. But not for long. Something passed by them in the pitch-black darkness, and they all stopped dead. The elf followed the shadows, his shallow breath evaporating into the chilly air. Derrick met his darting eyes in the middle of it all.
That was when the elf broke the silence with a gut-wrenching cry. “RUN!”
They kept their gaze fixed ahead, never glancing back, and sprinted. The sound of their footfalls reverberated through the air, drowning out the pounding of their hearts and the uneven rhythm of their shallow breaths.
The air grew heavy with the musky scent of the humanlike creatures. The sound of their menacing growls and snarls sent shivers down their spines. And it wasn’t just one that was right on their heels; they were being pursued by a pack of them!
As they neared the gatehouse, Kiano tripped. The elf was a few hundred steps ahead of them and didn’t notice. For the briefest of moments, he hesitated, but he couldn’t abandon the guy to whom he owed his life.
He turned back. Salivating, the wicked creatures shrieked out of hunger upon approaching them. He pulled Kiano up just in time as one of the fahltyrs opened its mouth wide and snapped at the crisp air. With a sense of urgency, they raced towards the gatehouse, their hearts pounding in their chests.
He grunted in frustration as he peered beyond the gatehouse, his teeth grinding together and his jaw tightly clenched. There was no sign of the elf anywhere. It had abandoned them!
Just as he thought nothing could be worse than this, the blare of a horn pierced the air from the machicolations. He looked up. The trolls had returned, their dark, beady eyes narrowing as their thin lips twisted into a sinister grin.
“Derrick, the gatehouse, look, it’s closing!”
He groaned. Those pesky trolls were trying to trap them in here with the fahltyrs! They had to get out of here! Now! But anyone could see that this was easier said than done. He was at a crossroads, torn between leaving Kiano behind to save himself or accepting their grim fate and giving up. Right as these thoughts crossed his mind, a surge of clarity washed over him.
The Queen would protect what was hers, but Derrick was a dead man walking. Even if he made it out of the fortress, the hissing serpents in the moat wouldn’t let him cross the Salkire. The moment the tree lured him here, his fate was sealed. He was never meant to make it out of Hezakhal.
With the gate nearly shut, he used all his strength to push Kiano forward, who toppled over and landed heavily on the ground at the other side of the fortress.
He turned around and faced his fears head-on, his heart pounding in his chest. Wasting no time, the humanlike creatures lunged at him, their claw-like hands slashing through the air with ferocious speed. As one creature lurched forward, hungry for flesh, he sprinted frantically to the opposite side of the bailey and back to the main entrance, only to be tackled to the ground by another.
Determined not to go down without a struggle, he relentlessly punched the hideous creature until it finally released its grip. In a panic, he scrambled back up and sprinted towards the main gate, the rush of adrenaline overpowering the sound of the arrows that barely missed him. Those darned trolls, they just wouldn’t back down, huh?
Right then, a creature took hold of his leg and caused them both to lose balance and roll across the cool ground for several feet. It dug its sharp, filthy teeth into his leg and was, relentlessly, trying to chew it off. No matter how hard he kicked, it refused to release its grip.
He grimaced as the pain grew and reached another height. His lips contorted, and a deafening cry escaped as the excruciating pain overwhelmed him. What a way to die, he thought and shut his eyes, what a freaking—the fahltyr whimpered and let go.
Drenched in sweat and dead tired from the loss of blood, he struggled to keep his eyes open and caught a glimpse of something moving towards him. He blinked, trying to clear his blurry vision, but everything remained out of focus.
This thing didn’t walk on all fours. A… a human?
His heavy eyelids succumbed to his injuries.
Just before everything went dark, he thought he saw a massive shadow hovering above him.