“No way,” I said, my jaw hitting the floor.
There was more treasure than I could carry. It was organized into piles, some dedicated to art, some to jewellery, others were full of chests overflowing with equipment. Holding them all up was a mountain of coins. Coins made of copper, bronze, tin, silver, and even gold. There were coins from empires I never even heard of were here, and I felt my body’s desires change like the tides. Greed was what drove me now.
I stopped just as I slid through the door, my common sense taking over. This place could have magical traps, or more guards. I saw a chair beside the door on its side and shoved it under the door handle behind me to slow anyone down. I carefully made my way around the large hall and found the other side of the treasure hoard was set up as some kind of office. There were torn apart chairs, thrown desks and a few scales for measuring littering the ground. There was a tall mirror set against the wall and from the ornate frame, the shining glass and aura of dread I had looking at it, I had a feeling it was where the dark voice came from.
Set into the wall to the right of the mirror was another strange thing. A stone tablet set into the wall with the relief of a cat boy, lute in hand. I looked at the face and saw it looked startlingly familiar.
“Bazz?” I asked, taking a step forward.
I stopped before my sock hit the ground and looked around me. My sharp senses didn’t detect any traps and I crouched down to focus on the magic in the air. There was frankly little magic in the ground to indicate traps, but there was a ton of it around me. I cracked one eye towards a bright source and was dumb founded.
“How many magic items did this bitch have?” I whispered.
Ahead of me was a pile of unsorted treasures next to a torn up parlour chair. Magical wands, a staff and a metallic bow with a glowing string of silver were just a few I caught at a glance. On top of all that was my equipment which made me rush for the pile.
I looked over the top of it, checking for more doors. There was one towards the main hall and garden, which was closed tight. With only myself in the room I grabbed my equipment and went to put it on, hesitating when I saw how sticky my body was.
“Towel maybe?” I muttered looking around. I saw a cloak with white stars stitched onto it nearby on the unsorted pile and I grabbed it, wrapping it around my bust to make myself decent.
There were so many items to choose from I didn’t know where to begin, and I went for what I knew would be worth quick cash, gemstones. I shoved fistfuls of the ones I knew were worth a dozen gold coins each and packed them tightly into the pouches of my backpack. I saw buried among them were a handful of the strange rocks Sergi the blacksmith had shown me. I counted five of them and shoved them next to my family sword.
I was running out of critical space in my bag and I heard a distant bell. Unsure if it was an alarm or a dinner bell I hurriedly grabbed three wands, two glowing daggers, a spearhead made of gold with an amber gem in its base and the bow of silver.
“Intruder!” came a distant cry.
“Fuck, fuck…” I looked around in a panic, backing up until I hit a wall.
My head bumped the stone relief of the cat bard and the whole thing shattered like glass. Something heavy fell on me, driving me down onto the ground and my life flashed before my eyes. My early years of happy youth, the lost years of my young woman hood lost in the world of the fairies and the dreary decade I had been stuck in this damned city.
“Terribly sorry, Miss, let me help you to your feet,” said a soothing tenor voice. When his hand touched mine and I was helped up to my feet I saw the cat boy stare at my chest and I noticed the cloak had fallen down. “Nice. I say those fine melons are gifts to behold my lady. Sculpted by the goddess of love herself!”
The soothing tenor voice was gone in a flash and the same upbeat bardic tone from the enchanted gate was back. I rolled my eyes and pulled the starry cloak backup to cover myself. I had half a mind to beat Bazz senselessly, but we were stuck in enemy lines and I wanted to get as much loot out as possible.
“Grab whatever you can, guards are on the way,” I said, slapping the bard in the face. “Move!”
Bazz rubbed his cheek and bowed. “My apologizes my saviour, I would be more than happy to assist-”
“LESS TALKING, MORE LOOTING,” I screamed.
“I heard them this way!” an angry voice said, coming from the side hall.
“Fuck,” I hissed. I looked around wildly and saw Bazz was struggling to unroll a carpet. “What are you doing?”
“Flying carpet, quickly help me get these ropes off,” Bazz said struggling with the moving carpet. “It belonged to the wizard in my team.”
That was good enough for me. I took out one of the magic daggers and slashed the ropes, cutting them with ease. The carpet came to life circling around us and shaking my hand vividly. Bazz coaxed it down onto the ground and we hopped on.
“Make it move!” I said kicking Bazz in the back.
“I’m trying to remember the magic words!” Bazz said, shaking. “Uh, uh… fly please?”
The door I came from shook violently as whoever was behind it was trying to break in. The chair I had put in place was doing its job slowing them down for the moment, but we needed to get a move on now, even on foot.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
The tassels on the long ends of the carpet wiggled and tied themselves into knots. It crawled forward until it found a gem encrusted ink pen and an ancient tome. The carpet wrote out a list of words and threw it at Bazz, bouncing the book off his head.
Bazz snatched it and tore it open looking at the drying ink. “Uh, Varrossa monaic velos!”
The weird nonsense words did the trick and the carpet hovered above the floor. A magical ball of light appeared in front of Bazz and he grabbed onto it, turning the orb. The carpet slid to the left and Bazz moved the other way causing it to dip right and almost drop us onto the floor.
“Get us out of here!” I said, shaking his back.
“Trying, I swear I’m trying my best here,” Bazz said.
The door burst open and flames shot into the room knocking piles of loot around. The imp girls from the kitchen flew in, clutching butcher knives, rolling pins, frying pans and more kitchen implements for weapons.
“Get them!” the lead one said, licking her lips. “I call the elf!”
Bazz pushed the orb forward and we shot off like an arrow being let loose. We plowed into a treasure pile and a mound of gold was added to the carpet. The added weight dragged the flying carpet down and I started throwing things off to lighten us up.
A bolt of fire flew over my shoulder and set a rich tapestry up into flames. The Imp’s were closing in and threw their kitchen based weaponry without any regards to what was around us. I stuck my hands into the pile of bronze and copper coins and took out a golden bust of a nude dwarf woman. I threw it behind me and struck an imp out of the air, knocking her out.
Bazz twisted the orb left and right dodging the attacks and avoiding any impacts from the scattered treasures in the room. As we headed to the main doors he had to bank left, turning us back into danger.
“The doors are closed!” Bazz said.
“Get me near that staff,” I said pointing over his shoulder. “The one with the brass orb on the top.”
I had seen one before wielded by a sorcerer blessed by wild magic. It had proved as detrimental as it was helpful, but the one thing I remembered was that it could shoot out a classic spell any wizard or sorcerer had, fireball.
The overloaded carpet struggled to keep ahead of the imps and keep us above ground. Bazz called for my aid and I started to shove coins, trinkets and small statues to the ground. Each load of valuables that fell to the ground hurt my very soul, but it had to be done.
We swooped down to the stacked piles of weapons atop a mountain of scrolls, books and coins. I reached out and plucked the staff out feeling it vibrate with power in my hands. I pointed it over Bazz’s shoulder and slapped him on the back.
“Get us to the doors,” I said grimly.
Bazz was sweating and his cat ears were pinned back as he put all his focus into keeping us in the air. With the lightened load the carpet sped up and we shot past the imps, ducking down to avoid losing our heads. I clutched the staff as we came in line with the doors and I flipped the switch that was hidden in the warped handle.
“Wizard’s and their tricks,” I grinned.
The brass orb shone and a glob of fire sped towards the doors impacting it with titanic force. The doors were obliterated and flaming fragments shot down the long hall. The force of the fireball coming out of the end pushed the staff back and it slid out of my grasp, shooting behind us. An imp was struck square in the chest knocking the wind out of her and sending her to the ground.
“Eh, that works,” I said, glancing behind, peering at the damage done at the other end.
We sped out of the hall into the garden and all around us I saw magical suits of armour gathering. They were automatons, constructs made by mages. These ones had bone masks in the likeness of a dragon on their heads, and they were shouting at us. Their crossbows were levelled at us and Bazz pushed the carpet, navigating us out of the courtyard and towards the gatehouse.
Two of the automatons were inspecting it with the gate raised, scratching their heads. They looked back at the commotion and saw us speeding towards them like a runaway horse. They threw themselves to the ground and we flew over their heads, barely skimming over them.
The side of the carpet dipped down as we went over the chasm and my heart did a flip. Bazz managed to correct it, but we lost another year's worth of drinking money down into the black depths.
“Before you say anything Miss, this is harder than it looks,” Bazz wheezed. It sounded like he had forgotten how to breathe.
“Don’t worry about it, just head that way,” I said, patting him on the shoulder.
I kept my tone nice and sweet as I looked down to the deadly fall below us. Now was not the time to voice my concern at the bard’s handling skills. The carpet sped down the trapped corridor I had come down, and with us in the air we didn’t trigger any traps, if they had even been reset.
We coasted into the huge cavern with the waterfall and I almost allowed myself to relax. Then Bazz pointed ahead at the different carved corridors and I pointed him towards the exit. That was until we were about to enter it and I saw what was coming towards us.
“Slimes!” I said, pushing Bazz to the side.
“Miss, please settle down,” Bazz said between his teeth, getting the carpet back under control.
My quick action had forced him to bank back into the cavern and lose us some more money. We circled around the air and I saw spilling in from the corridor were a half dozen slimes, some picking up the lost treasure while one blocked the way out.
I wanted to try the rocky passage I hadn’t gone down, but a quick look back revealed the automatons were coming in. How they had gotten across I didn’t know or care about, we needed a way out now.
The sun touched my skin and my head snapped towards it. Over where the waterfall came in was natural sunlight, and I remembered the emergency exit I had seen. I pointed it out and Bazz banked towards it just as the crossbows were fired.
Bazz twisted the carpet to bank us out the exit and I heard bolts strike the walls around us, kicking up dust. We shot out into the sun filled sky and both of us screamed for joy. Our victory was short lived as the carpet trembled below us. I looked down to see several bolts were poking through it and cutting apart the fine silk fabric.
The orb fizzled out of Bazz’s hands and the bard spun around to face me. He clapped his hands thrice and bowed at the waist. “It has been an honour to try and escape with you. However I wish to inform you of a problem.”
“No shit,” I said, rubbing my temples.
The carpet dipped down and shot towards the river at an angle. Bazz and I clutched each other for dear life as we hurtled towards the ground at blinding speed, the rocky rapids in the water growing closer.
The cloak around my waist came to life and wiggled its end where two metal clips were. They tugged at one of the stars on its body, tearing it off and on the back of the star I saw words and symbols, one being a cluster of feathers.
I closed my eyes and felt the cat boy dive between my breasts rubbing his face in to block out our demise. I had half a mind to push him away, but instead I pulled his face in to give him one last happy memory before we were turned into paste.