Chapter 52 - Distractions
[Secret Dungeon of Gurthok]
[Prison Labor Camp]
[Warden Onem]
Warden Onem sat in his office, tapping his long boney finger on the desk as he scanned through the latest reports. The draugr pulled his long silver hair back into a tight braid, dead gray skin covered his muscular form. Pitch-black eyes scrawled across the reports, his frown deepening the more he read.
“Is this report accurate?”
“Our best estimate, sir.” Came the dry raspy voice of the draugr scout. “The enemy was working its way towards the barracks, but they stopped.”
“And where are they headed now?”
“We believe here, sir.” The draugr said matter of fact.
Onem crunched the brittle paper in his hand at the news. Why here, of all places? Why now? He thought to himself.
“How many?”
“We’re unable to get an accurate estimation, my lord. They keep finding the scouts and decimating all parties we send to intervene. Our best guess is several capable warriors, at least one skilled archer, and some sort of fire mage.” The draugr said flatly.
Onem stared down at the crumpled sheet of paper for a long moment. And then up at the scout. “You’re dismissed.”
“Warden.” He said, taking a deep bow and leaving the room.
“What do you think?” Onem said to a dark, shadowy corner.
“Let them come.” Came a strained voice. A woman stepped out from the shadows, long black hair flowing from her shoulders, dead grey skin hanging loose off her body. “We will show them the full might of the Creeping Shadows Clan.”
“How much longer until the spell is ready?”
“It will be… difficult if the interlopers show up. We must stop them at all costs.”
Onem nodded at this information. “Do whatever you can to speed up the process of the spell, Halldis. I’ll rally our troops and ensure nothing is able to interrupt you.”
“Should we send for aid?” Halldis asked.
“Absolutely not. No one understands our magic and if they find out what it is we are doing here, I’m afraid that will be a bridge too far. They will certainly turn on us.”
“And when we complete the spell? We can’t keep it a secret from them then.”
“By then, it will be far too late. I will kill Gurthok and his rotten queen, and then we may take our rightful place on the throne.” Onem spat, eyes going hard, a cruel smile on his face.
----------------------------------------
[Jack]
Jack sat next to a small campfire, staring into the tiny dancing flames. Hannah had been gone for hours now on a scouting mission, and he had been stuck here and told to stay out of trouble. Aside from the occasional wandering draugr, nothing of note happened.
Jack was bored.
Being bored was bad.
Thoughts raced through his head of the past few days. His momentum had been strong. Not once did he let up his rampage to stop and think. Now, though, there was nothing to do but sit and wait. To think. To remember. That was dangerous for him.
The urge to keep killing had slowed, and he even found himself slowly pushing the urge back down to the depths of his soul where he had kept it locked away for so long.
He knew he shouldn’t. He knew he needed to be at his best. But now that he was sitting here with nothing to do, and no one to kill, he couldn’t stop thinking that he was making some sort of mistake. Jack knew he was rapidly reaching the point of no return. It was fine since he was in the dungeon, and everything in here needed to die. But what would happen when he was back in the Tower?
The thoughts came unbidden, and they were hard to hold on to, like catching smoke. He could hold on to his sanity for the briefest of moments before it slipped through his fingers.
Jack took a steadying breath as he tried again to bring his thoughts under control.
You need to be a killer, Jack. Quit fighting it so much.
He had told Hannah he would go back to his old form, to the Jack that he used to be, and he was confident it would ruin him. That didn’t mean he would let that monster win without a fight. He just had to make it through this dungeon, make it out alive, and then he could re-bury the monster deep down inside of himself.
He just didn’t know how the hell he was going to hold on to his sanity. If there was a way, he would have liked to believe he’d have figured it out by now. It would have been insanely convenient if he could just flick his killer mode switch whenever he needed it. But it wasn’t that simple. Rodeo never taught him how to turn it off.
If he gave an inch, it took ten miles, and fought back tooth and nail when he tried to turn it off again.
Jack closed his eyes, letting his thoughts drift as he searched for an answer to his problem. His thoughts wandered to Sarah, and he felt his heart resonate throughout his soul with every beat. He thought of her smile. Her laugh. The way the sun caught her perfect hazel eyes.
Jack felt a smile on his face. Not the cruel, malevolent smile of a killer, but the warm smile of someone truly happy.
He wasn’t ready to give that up.
He wasn’t ready to give her up.
God, I miss her so-
Jack popped open one eye, a noise interrupting his train of thought. He stared in the direction of crunching footsteps. Hannah was walking towards the makeshift camp, a frown on her face.
Jack lost control of his thoughts. Memories of Sarah and happiness turned to smoke in an instant, escaping through his fingers. His eyes went hard. The smile slid off his face. The monster climbed its way back up from the pits of his soul.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
It was time to work.
“Who pissed in your bowl of Wheaties?” Jack asked the frowning Hannah as she plopped down next to him.
“Change of plans. We’re not going to the barracks.”
Jack’s frown deepened.
“Why not? That’s where all the action is, isn’t it?”
“If by action you mean encampment of roughly three hundred draugr thralls, then sure, that’s where the action is.” Hannah said, rolling her eyes.
“I mean. That’s not ideal. But it could be fun. And think of the stories if we succeed. We’ll become legends.”
“We’ve got to make if out of here in order to become legends. Charging an army of draugr when we are only two strong seems like a horrible way to make it out alive.”
“So, what’s the plan, then? If you tell me I’ve gotta sit around and wait some more, then I’m charging the barracks by myself.”
“No. I was gone so long because I went to go check out that other encampment we saw.”
“What was it?”
“Some sort of prison, or labor camp maybe.” Hannah grimaced. “Their mining into the side of a mountain. It’s odd, some of the thralls are chained up.”
“Whys that odd?”
“Because why the hell would they chain up their own? Are they also enemies? Is there some sort of infighting going on? If there are multiple factions in here – we can capitalize on that.”
“So, we’re going to go on a rescue mission? I don’t know If I’m in the… right state of mind for a rescue mission.” Jack mused.
“You can be impressively self-realized for an insane psychopath,” Hannah said, squinting at Jack.
“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but your words wound me to my very core.”
“It won’t really be a rescue mission, I don’t think. I’m not even sure how cognizant those enslaved draugr are.” Hannah said, rolling her eyes at Jack. “But that’s not the primary goal.”
“What is then?”
“They're guarding something,” Hannah said, an introspective look on her face.
“What are they guarding?”
“That’s what I’m hoping to find out. It’s somewhere deep in the mines, but they have an annoying number of guards on patrol. Likely on high alert because of us.”
“And you need a distraction.”
“I need a distraction.” Hannah agreed, sharing a small smile with Jack.
“I can do distractions” Jack nodded along. “I’m pretty good at that.”
“I know…” Hannah slowly said, “But listen. A distraction is all I need. We just need to get in there, figure out what they are guarding, take it if we can, and get the hell out. I don’t want you drawing us into some life-or-death battle, Jack. Just distract them and run away. That’s it.” She said matter of fact.
“I can do that-“ Jack started to say.
“Promise me.” She interrupted. “Promise me when push comes to shove, you’ll retain at least some shred of sanity and run away when the time calls. This isn’t the time or place for us to get pulled into a disadvantageous battle. I’ll let you cut loose soon, but the timing isn’t right. We still don’t have enough information to start our assault.”
Jack stared at Hannah for a long moment, grinding his teeth.
She was starting to annoy him.
Hannah was the one who asked Jack to become the killer, yet here she was, giving orders to hold back.
She’s your guide stone, Jack. Came a voice somewhere in the back of his mind. Promise her.
“I promise.” Jack said, the words coming almost unbidden. He wasn’t sure if he meant it or not. That feeling that he might have just lied to Hannah left a disgusting taste in his mouth. Then it just faded away, like everything else seemed to do.
Hannah stared him in the eyes for a long moment, deciding something, then she gave him a small nod.
“Let’s move then. We can make it by nightfall.”
----------------------------------------
Jack wandered through a large camp at the base of the valley, tucked near the side of the mountain. There were several tents that lined the large clearing, all focused around one excessively large tent in the middle.
The encampment was much like the outposts they had been raiding so far, except much more substantial and far busier.
Jack had been working his way through the wandering draugr guards, dispatching any who took notice with a ruthless efficiency as he made his way deeper into the encampment. His eyes wandered to the large mine entrance, and the chained up draugrs dragging stone out of the mine. Curiously, their eyes were a faded blue compared to the menacing red he was used to seeing.
Jack approached the largest tent. Distraction time.
“Hellloooo!” he shouted “UPS! I need someone to sign for a package!”
The draugrs stirred to life around him. A creepy, discordant scream rang out from the encampment as red eyes appeared all around him. They started moving towards Jack’s position. He stood in front of the tent. A smile on his face as he watched the approaching thralls.
They all came to a halt in a large circle around him, weapons leveled at his person.
A large menacing draugr stepped outside of the tent, a bulky clublike staff held in one hand. He had long silver hair pulled back into a tight braid. Jack wasn’t expecting him to have pitch-black eyes. Why weren’t they red like everyone else? Jack mused to himself.
“Hi” Jack smiled at the draugr. “I’m looking for a Mr. Cockbreath. He’s supposed to sign for a package. Are you him?”
The draugr stared at him for a long moment. Deep frown on his face.
“I suppose you must be the interloper. The one rampaging through our valleys. Foolish of you to come here and test my might.”
Holy shit, they speak, wasn’t expecting that.
Jack winced at the man, holding his nose. “I see where you got your name from, Mr. Cockbreath. Listen, I just need a signature and I’ll be out of your hair.”
The draugr slammed his weapon into the ground, a menacing black aura climbing up his staff and enveloping it completely.
“Enough. I, Onem, Warden of the damned, will slay you here.”
Dontfightjustdistractdontfightjustdistractdontfightjustdistract. Jack repeated to himself over and over in his head.
Jack heard the words, but his body didn’t listen. His daggers were in his hands in a flash. He launched himself forward at Onem, his blades slicing through his form.
The draugr disappeared in a shadowy haze, reappearing behind Jack and bringing his club down over the top of his head. Jack hurled himself out of the way, rolling across the ground and re-leveling himself at the silver-haired Onem. More frustrated, discordant screams rang out from the draugr guards that surrounded him as they stirred to life and moved into attack.
This is going to be fun. Jack thought, a menacing smile returning to his face.
----------------------------------------
[Hannah]
Hannah stayed glued to the shadows waiting for her moment. The draugrs let loose their screams that filled the night air and bodies scrambled to life, all moving towards what she hoped was Jack creating a distraction. She watched from the shadows of a tent as draugr after draugr filed out of the mines.
When it seemed like the flow of endless undead had come to a trickle, she pushed her way inside. Hannah moved past the chained-up draugr like a shadow, going unnoticed by those that remained to work the mines.
They seemed entirely uninterested in her, their faded blue eyes focused on swinging their pickaxes.
She pushed deeper inside the dark winding caves. There was little in the way of light but her focus was so high at this point she could practically see through the dark. That’s how she noticed a small offshoot from the main path.
The opening was small, little more than a crevice that forked off from the main path, but Hannah felt something radiating from there.
She squeezed through, taking shallow breaths and careful steps as the small crevice opened up into an enormous cavern. The walls were carved and polished smooth, a large desk with a smattering of potions and vials sprawled across it took up one of the walls. A large circle in the middle of the room bled violent dark energy that bit at the air around it, encased in a circle of unrecognizable runes.
Women were chained to the walls on the far side.
Hannah stilled her nerves and took slow creeping steps towards them.
“Help…” came a pleading, raspy, voice, looking up through long red hair. That’s when Hannah noticed the long feathery wings, pristine white feathers covered in blood and dirt hanging pathetically from their back.
“What… Angels?” Hannah found herself asking, eyes wide as she stared at the woman, trying to figure out what was going on.
“Valkyries.” Came a dark strained voice from behind.
Hannah turned around, bow leveled at the new guest.
A woman with long black hair and droopy skin that hung off her bones like a wet towel was standing there. Pitch black eyes that radiated evil stared her down.
“You’ll make a wonderful addition to the sacrifices.” She said, a cruel smile, voice dripping with ominous intent.