Amulet of Souls (The Sentinels of Wizgrad Book 1) (6 page)

Dakho, the Dwarf Commander, gave out a small chuckle.

"Don't try me!" Mr Pannett barked and with a strange spell, Dakho flew through the room, slammed through the doors and landed on the floor outside.

"That being said, let me show you all around and to where you will stay for now," Mr Pannett said.

He limped through the middle of the group and out where the large magical tree stood. He took the group through the archway Iris noticed earlier. Through the archway were rows and rows of stalls that had bizarrely shaped fruits and vegetables.

He led them past the stalls and to a long hallway. Iris peered into one of the rooms down the hall to see various races attack each other with wooden swords and weapons.

"Many people here are veterans of wars and battles, and they asked for somewhere to retain their battle prowess. When we found these empty rooms in the ruins it seemed the perfect place" Mr Pannett explained.

The group carried on down the hall into what looked like an even older part of the ruins.

"This is my proudest work here in all of Haven itself," Mr Pannett said. Inside was a room filled entirely with books on several different floors. The books rose up impossibly high, and bookshelves filled almost every space.

"This is the largest library ever to exist in the known world, you are all welcome to explore, just please be careful."

"You really are THE Sir Beckton Pannett aren't you?" Mireylon said astonished. He picked up a book and looked at the spine "I love your work, is this all yours?" Mireylon asked.

Mr Pannett let out a small chuckle "No my friend it is not. The books on this lower level are mostly mine, everything higher is collections from all around the world. Many are the only copies, but it is getting late, and I'm sure you are all tired. I shall show you to where you will stay."

Mr Pannett led the group to various empty acorn rooms. Many had to share with two or three people. Mireylon, Iris and Zelkith shared a room together. They were surprised at how spacious the inside was, enough space for a soft bed and somewhere to eat. The three of them talked late into the night before they slept.

Iris woke up a few hours later, she was restless and decided to get up and walk around. She stepped outside the Acorn room, Zelkith and Mireylon were still fast asleep. She closed the door quietly behind her and hoped that she did not wake them.

The leaves on the tree were now a darker blue, but still bright enough to see.

Iris descended the winding walkways when she noticed the door to the large acorn house open below her. She stopped and hid behind the handrail. Iris watched curiously as a figure emerged from the door.

Mr Pannett slowly walked over to the base of the magical tree and sat next to it.He sat calmly for a minute before he let out a soft, quiet howl. Iris got closer to see a tear roll down his cheek, and he whimpered softly.

Iris walked up to Mr Pannett, knelt down and stroked his back. The sorrow in his face was unhidden, a face that yelled out for relief. Iris attempted to give him a comforting smile, but he turned away.

"No matter how hard I try, even with all the people I have helped. Without her, I truly am lonely" Mr Pannett sobbed. He did not hold back the sadness in his voice.

"Who was she?" Iris asked softly.

"We buried her here after we were cursed."

"Cursed?"

"We were Elves once, the two foxes you saw and me. We were cursed to live like this for eternity."

"That doesn't sound like much of a curse."

"We had our loved ones tortured and killed in front of our eyes, we had our homes destroyed. Just living to us is a curse, but she kept us strong and warm even after her death" Mr Pannett explained. He placed his paw on the trunk of the tree. Iris did not say anything but gave a curious look.

"To escape our enemy we hid down in these ruins, we discovered an enormous hollow tree and found this area of dirt. We decided to bury my wife here and in her place this magical tree grew, which provided us with warmth and light."

"She sounds exceptional," Iris said.

Mr Pannett paused for a few moments "May I show you something?" he asked and Iris just nodded.

Mr Pannett wiped the tear with his paw and limped off back into the large acorn house. He showed Iris his private study and waited for Iris to step inside. He pushed the door closed with his nose and leant onto the bookcase the other side of the room.

He pushed one of the books from the bookcase and with a small rumble it split in two and moved out across the wall. The hidden door revealed a small room, with nothing but a desk at the back. On the desk sat a single black leather bound book and a little pot with soil inside. Iris glanced at the book to see the word 'Amateru' on the front.

"It means shining in heaven, I guess it was not just a name" Mr Pannett said.

Mr Pannett walked over to Iris with the small pot of soil in his paws. He asked Iris to place her hands inside. Iris did what Mr Pannett asked and she put her hand upon the soil gently. She felt a surge of warmth shoot up her. She released her hand to see a plant sprout with incredible speed.

The plant was a few inches tall and had two stems, one stem bloomed a single bright yellow flower, which illuminated the small room. The other stem had an abundance of dull yellow leaves.

"I never thought this day would come," Mr Pannett said in amazement. He cut off the stem with the dull leaves. The flower withered into a black ball and the rest of the plant died. The cutting that he held in his paw was still as colourful as before. He took the cutting and placed it into Iris's hands.

"Will you take this and protect it with your life?" Mr Pannett asked.

"I don't understand, what is this? Why give it to me?" Iris asked utterly confused.

Mr Pannett said nothing, and let out a small sigh. "You won't understand unless I tell you a few things, but these words must not leave this room," Mr Pannett asked.

"Your secrets are safe with me," Iris replied.

"When we buried my wife Amateru, the tree outside sprouted in her place and gave us warmth and light. What everyone else did not know is that she was pregnant before she died, and when the tree sprouted, it gave just one single seed. I took the seed and placed it into this pot we see here." Mr Pannett had tendered and watered the pot for so many years, yet nothing at all happened, until this day when Iris turned up.

"But why give it to me?" Iris asked.

"From the moment you walked into Haven, I felt the same warmth as I did from my wife. I always believed that the child would be reincarnated in some way" Mr Pannett insisted.

"Mr Pannett I can't take something like this," Iris said. She held out her hand for him to take it back.

"And why not?" he argued. "There is so much in this world which I still do not understand. I do however know that these events do not just happen by chance. One way or another, you and you alone were destined to have that" he said. Mr Pannett pushed Iris's hands back toward her.

"But..."

"There shall be no argument," Mr Pannett said firmly.

"Thank you, Mr Pannett, so much," Iris said with a smile on her face.

"Please, just call me Stilts."

Iris just smiled again and looked down at the cutting in her hands. She placed it in a pouch that she had hidden under her shirt.

"I heard your King tell you all to meet up in the morning, you should get some rest" Stilts suggested.

Iris walked back to the acorn room and crept back inside. Iris laid down next to Zelkith and fell to sleep.

Iris woke the next morning, alone in the room. In no rush to get up, she waited a few minutes. She hid
Limbo
and the cutting around her waist and fastened the amulet around her neck before she covered them with her dark black cotton shirt.

She opened the door and glanced down to the bottom of Haven. She noticed The King faced the remaining troops from the Legion, Zelkith and Mireylon among them. Iris watched until the meeting had finished.

Everyone left and dispersed in several different directions. The King approached Mireylon and Zelkith and after a short talk, the three of them approached Iris.  Mireylon stepped in front of Iris and took hold of her hand.

"It seems we must part, I have some things I must see too, we will speak again soon" Mireylon spoke gently.

He stepped away and walked off with a smile on his face. The King and Zelkith approached Iris after.

"I have a mission for you, and it is of the utmost importance" The King requested. Iris and Zelkith nodded but did not say anything.

"With the events of the recent battle, I now have a task that needs doing urgently. The two responsible for the attack have been spotted nearby and need to be dealt with accordingly,” The King said.

"You mean to kill them?" Zelkith said.

"Yes. If the Legion is to survive, we must stop the corruption from its source. Are you both willing to do this for the Legion?" The King asked.

"Why us? I'm hardly assassin material" Iris argued.

"You have two advantages over the others in the Legion. The targets won't know that you are one of us and you are Dark Elf like our targets. They won't suspect you as much."

As much as Iris hated to admit it, The King did have a good point, but she did not think that she could kill someone in cold blood.

"The balance of the Legion is counting on the success of this mission. We must put a stop to this once and for all" The King pleaded. With a sigh, Iris reluctantly agreed.

"Thank you, both of you." The King said sincerely. He handed Iris a small satchel and a small pouch of money. "Inside there is a map, and some food to last the journey. The targets were recently seen in Alphaport, north of here, you'll need that money to get a boat across."

Once they arrived, they were to scout out for two Dark Elves. They were spotted at an auction, the only information they had obtained was the taller Elf had a golden earring in his upper ear.

Mr Pannett personally led them out of Haven and left them with a saying that he lived by.

Never judge a book by its cover or a person by their face. There's no knowing what it could behold.

Iris and Zelkith walked off into the distance, map in hand both eager to get this mission over and done with.

Iris and Zelkith made their way down the road and towards the small port town that would take them to Alphaport. It took three days to walk, but it was an easy route along the cobbled road and they made good progress.

They arrived at the small port town at dawn on the third day. It had no more than thirty small houses and a single tavern. The small port had around seven small fishermen’s boats moored up. They approached the first boat, which was the largest boat there. Iris walked up to a large burly man who stood beside the vessel. Iris guessed he was the captain.

"Good day Captain. My companion and I are seeking a voyage to Alphaport. We have coin and will not disturb your crew" Iris asked in as polite a manner as she could muster.

The large burly man looked down at Iris with a look of disgust "I wunt ave sumin like you on my ship ever! Shove off!" the man said with a growled expression.

Iris was taken aback by the blunt rudeness, but she did not respond and instead turned around and left. They went along the harbour and asked each captain, in turn, only to get the same response. Iris kept up hope, and she approached the last boat on the dock.

"I wunt be takin you anywhere lass, be gone!" the captain had said before Iris had a chance to open her mouth.

"But this is the last...."

"No one wants your kind ere lassy," the captain said. Disheartened, Iris and Zelkith returned along the harbour.

"Well, that's the last one, how are we supposed to get to Alphaport now?" Iris said to Zelkith.

"Alphaport did you say?" said a stranger from behind them. Iris and Zelkith turned to see a bearded man, he wore a ragged shirt and trousers, with a strong aroma of alcohol.

"I be going to Alphaport matey, ye can come eboard if ye wishes," the man said with a slur. He had several silver teeth in place of missing ones. He seemed very untrustworthy, but they had no one else that would take them.

"What’s the catch?" Iris said bluntly, fed up with the way people had treated her here.

"Nothing at all me beautiful lady," he said, he continued to mumble under his breath.

"What do you mean, more or less?" Zelkith snarled at the man. Zelkith could hear much more than most others, and heard what the man said clearly. He pushed the drunken pirate against the wall with his front paws.

"I... I..." the drunken pirate stuttered, the fear was clear in his eyes.

"Zelkith what are you doing?" Iris questioned.

"I don't trust him!" Zelkith snarled.

"We have no choice, get down off him." Zelkith reluctantly got down.

"Now what do you mean, more or less?" Iris asked sternly.

"I err...Lost most of me crew ya see..." the drunken pirate said ashamed of himself.

"...lost?" Iris asked.

"All but one of me crew abandoned me for another captain, more promise of treasure ya see."

"I get it now..." Zelkith said, "you want us to man the ship?"

"I guess ye could say that...An eye for an eye as they say."

They agreed to help on the deck of the ship for a one way trip to Alphaport. The drunken pirate led them away from the harbour and onto a rickety mooring on a nearby beach.

Tied to the mooring was a single wooden ship, most likely a fishing boat and it was small enough for just a few people to maintain over the little portion of the sea. The three of them stepped into the tiny boat which swayed unevenly on the water.

The boat was worn and was hardly seaworthy, it had a small private cabin under the decks. The door to the cabin swung open, and a small thin Gnome stepped out. He looked wealthy and was well groomed, a cutlass to his side held in a golden plated scabbard.

"I got a crew me lad!" the drunken pirate said excitedly.

"A girl and a dog. This is not a crew, go and find someone useful" the Gnome said arrogantly.

"They shall see us to Alphaport me lad, they are more than capable."

"For the last time, I'm not
me lad
!" the Gnome argued frustrated. Everyone stood there silent for a few moments.

"Well off you go, get to work! I want this wreck in Alphaport sometime this year!" the Gnome ordered. The Gnome then went back into his cabin and slammed the door.

The drunken pirate got to work, he started to pull a series of ropes and winches. Iris and Zelkith just watched, as they did not know what to do. The drunken pirate instructed Iris and Zelkith on tasks they could do and after a short while the boat started to sail.

Iris let go of one of the ropes suddenly and ran to the edge of the boat. She leant her head over the boat and was violently sick.

"Would seem she be sea sick," the drunken pirate said. Iris groaned and held her stomach, slumped over the edge.

It took just over a day in the slow, rickety boat to reach Alphaport. For Iris, it felt like a fortnight as she was sick the entire way. The Gnome did not leave the cabin until they got to land.

It was early morning when they docked at a small mooring beside the main docks. The drunken pirate threw a rope around a stump on the mooring. Iris was so eager to get off the boat she jumped off onto the wooden mooring. She slumped on all fours, she still felt awful, but she was glad to be on land.

She looked up to see several bandits quickly approach. They all had a sword in hand and a bandana to cover their faces.

"Zelkith!" Iris croaked urgently. She still felt weak and was unable to move. One of the bandits grabbed Iris and put a sword to her throat. Iris felt her stomach lurch as the sickness rose up her body. Zelkith barked, leapt off the boat and snarled at the bandits.

"One step closer and she will get it!" the bandit said. The bandana muffled his voice. "You, off the boat," the bandit said, he pointed his cutlass at the drunken pirate. The drunken pirate climbed off the boat with caution, he turned his head to see the Gnome also had his cutlass pointed at his back. They had been set up, all this time it was a trap.

"Dunno about the old man, but the dog and lovely young Elf will fetch some money," said the bandit who held Iris.

Iris stomped her foot down on the bandit’s foot, who hissed in pain and released his grip. Iris pushed the sword away with the little energy she had left and slumped to the floor.

"You wench!" yelled the bandit. The bandit swung a punch at Iris when another one of the bandits grabbed his arm and stopped him.

"You know they won't sell for as much damaged," the other bandit said. He shrugged his arm away and huffed. Zelkith was ready to pounce and make an escape with Iris when the drunken pirate touched Zelkith’s back. Somehow the drunken pirate’s voice sounded in Zelkith’s head. "Don't do anything reckless, so long as we don't cause a fuss we won't get hurt," the voice said.

'Why the hell should we trust you, for all we know you set this up' Zelkith thought to himself.

"You have no choice, we have a better chance to escape as a sold slave than as captives by bandits," the voice said in return to Zelkith. He reluctantly did as the drunken pirate suggested. The three of them got chained up and were made to walk up onto the beach, into a small cabin on the outskirts of the city.

They were pushed into the tiny cabin forcefully. There was a man sat at a desk inside a small room with no windows. There was a small lamp that illuminated piles of paperwork both sides of him and on the floor.

"Yes?" the man at the desk said, he did not even lift his head to look. He had a pair of glasses sitting at the end of his nose with his head slightly raised to read the papers at his desk.

"We caught these ones stealing," the Gnome from the boat said.

"Liar! You set us up!" Iris shouted. The man at the desk ignored Iris’s outburst.

"Seventy, thirty," the man at the desk said, he still looked down at the paperwork and made no eye contact.

"Oh come on, you know how long it took us to get these three?" the Gnome argued.

The man from the desk put down his pen and looked straight at the thin man. "Seventy, thirty or nothing. Your choice" he said. There was no clear expression on his face or tone of voice.

"Alright alright, call them in" the Gnome accepted.

The person on the desk pulled a cord that hung beside the desk, which rang a bell on the wall behind him. An instant after the door behind him opened and two huge Ogres walked in.

"Get them ready," the man at the desk said, again with no expression. One of the two giant Ogres took hold of the chains and led Iris, Zelkith and the drunken pirate through the door. The other Ogre stood behind them and followed. They walked into what looked like a hallway of cells. A slight murmur could be heard from the previous room, the man at the desk and Gnome no doubt still argued over the deal.

The other Ogre started to search the drunken pirate, they took what looked like a small pouch of coin and a mostly empty hip flask. The pirate made a fuss as they took the flask, but was quickly silenced with a grunt. They did not even bother searching Zelkith and skipped straight onto Iris. Iris struggled and moved around in as much protest as she could muster. The Ogre looked in the small pouch with the cutting and ignored it, he then noticed
Limbo
and took them. The Ogre then attempted to take off the amulet from Iris' neck, but in the effort to take it, the chain burnt through one of the Ogres' fingers, which took it, clean off.

The Ogre roughly threw the three of them into a cell with so much force it almost crushed them into the wall on the other side. The Ogre locked the cell door and left Iris still in possession of the amulet.

The Ogre walked through to the room with the man at the desk and spoke briefly. The Ogre walked back inside, the man followed behind. The man from the desk walked in and looked at Iris, his eyes fixed on the amulet.

"It looks cheap, we will sell it with her," he said and then walked back through to the small room.

It was dark and damp inside the small confined cell. There were roughly another twelve cells, each with three to five people inside, all of mixed races. Inside each cell was a minuscule barred hole in the wall, quite often spray from the sea would trickle through. The Ogres stayed inside, one guarded the door and the other walked to and from each cell.

"You bastard you set us up!" Iris hissed under her breath at the drunken pirate.

"Do ya really think I'd be in ere too?" he argued.

"Do you have any idea what you're jeopardising!"

"Calm down Iris, we are all in the same boat here, give it a rest" Zelkith hushed his voice.

They soon learn from some of those inside the cells that they will be sold tomorrow, along with all their possession.

They hear the drunken pirates story, whether they wanted to or not. He used to be a captain of a famous cargo ship. He used to take many valuables from place to place until one fateful night his ship got overrun by real pirates. The pirates took everything from the vessel and killed his entire crew. They took the captain on board and sunk the ship, to later throw the captain overboard, stranding him on a desert island close to Ogre territory.

"So how did you escape?" Iris asked.

"Unknown to the pirates, I had just earlier that year delivered an urgent shipment to the Ogres of the village nearby. I did a lot of shipments for many different races, and was lucky enough to be able to swim ashore, and find myself a journey back."

With his failed delivery there was no way he would be able to carry on his job, so he withered away on drink until the Gnome came along and offered him a deal. He could captain a new boat on the agreement he could get a crew.

"I shoulda known it would be a trap!" he said.

"What were you called, back then?" Iris asked.

"Captain Thorley was me name when I was captain that is!" Thorley said.

"Well Thorley, looks like we're together in this now," Zelkith said.

<<          >>

They slept for the night and woke up early the next morning, uncomfortable and hungry.

"It's started, the auction" Zelkith said, his ears raised high as he listened through the tiny window. Iris could only just hear a murmur and chatter.

It was mostly rubbish, but Zelkith repeated what he could hear for everyone to listen, including the Ogre guards. It was good entertainment for some who had been held in there almost a week. A few hours later, an item had started on the auction which was of interest to Iris,
Limbo
.

Auction number One hundred and Seven. Two broken sword handles, each with a diamond embedment and a fashionable belt holder
the auctioneer called.

We begin this auction at...one hundred tado, do we have one-fifty
Zelkith copied the auctioneer word for word. The price steadily increased as two bidders battled between each other.

Five hundred and fifty tado to the Human at the back, anymore?...Going once...'Seven hundred'... seven hundred to the new bidder at the back, eight hundred, nine hundred, one thousand! One thousand tado to the one at the back...going once...going twice...Sold!