Bound to the Abyss (19 page)

But Bran and Jaslen were out there …

“We’ll just have to be extra careful and hope we find them safe and sound. You said you knew where they ran off to, right? If you take me to them, we can try and get them back here to the inn without anyone noticing.”

At this point Zin was shifting back and forth, his eyes on the ground. "They were out kissing behind that large building, the one that was full of lights and noise last night. When the trouble started, they ran inside.”

Ean knew there was a lie in there somewhere. Either Zin was lying about where they were, or he was lying about knowing where they were. Heading towards that large building was as good a place to start either way. If they had gone out to find some privacy, as much as that thought made him cringe, they wouldn't have gone to the trade wagons.

"Fine, then we head to that building, and if they are safe there, we can join them. If not, we sneak them back here.” He placed a firm hand on the imp’s shoulder. Zin grimaced but didn't pull away. "Regardless of which ends up happening, the first thing is for you to show me how to get out of this basement.”
 

Zin gave a defeated sigh and nodded. “Fine, right over here.” Pulling away, he walked over behind a large shelf. Ean followed along although he didn’t see anything right away.

“Good job, Zin. A dead end. You know, we don’t have time for this. If you don’t know a way …”

“Sometimes I forget that your pathetic human eyes don’t see well without the sun blazing over your head. It’s right up here.” The imp climbed up the corner wall and seemed to disappear. A few moments later, his head peeked out from what Ean could only guess was a small hole in the wall.
 

“Well?” Zin waved him up. “Are you coming or not? If you’re going to get yourself killed, might as well be sooner rather than later.”

Zin’s head disappeared back into the hole before Ean could respond. The imp made a good point though. Better to get moving before he realized how stupid of an idea this was. An image of Jaslen sprang up in his head, and he quickly squashed it down. He was doing this for the group, not one person! Moving quickly, he climbed up the shelves and wall and into the hole.

As Ean crawled further into the hole, a foul stench like a sack of moldy meat smacked him in the face. Either this place hadn’t been used in a while or something had crawled in it and died. His gloved hand went to his nose as he repeatedly gagged. As he inched along, it felt like the stone walls were closing in on him. Deciding he would rather be out of the hole than keep his dinner, he stopped holding his nose and used both hands to pull him along faster.
 

“I think I’m going to be sick,” he moaned.

“Good,” the imp growled, although he did put more distance between himself and Ean’s mouth.

After what felt like an eternity of crawling in filth, Ean emerged on the other side behind a bale of hay. The air was stale and smelled like leather and grease. As his eyes adjusted to the dim light, he realized they had emerged in a small storage shed.

“This is your last chance to go back,” Zin said in hushed tones. “Once we leave this shed, the odds of running into a raider are almost a certainty. They’ll murder you sooner than you can say ‘Zin is the smartest imp in the world.’”

“I’m pretty sure you are the only imp in the world …”

“Then again, you look kind of girly, so maybe they won’t murder you right away,” Zin shot back. He was trying to be funny, but there wasn’t a drop of humor in his voice. Ean couldn’t help but wonder if the imp’s concern was for him or for the possibility of having to go back to the Abyss.

“Well, I guess you will just have to watch my back,” he said, ignoring the insult, “because we’re going out there.”

Ean moved towards the light coming from underneath the door. Peering underneath, he saw a row of stables. This must be the storage shed for the horses of travelers who stayed at the inn. No wonder the bandits had left it alone.

He had expected to see bodies lying everywhere, homes on fire, and bandits running around the street. Instead the streets were empty, the homes across from him untouched, and not a single wounded or dead man to be found. Zin and those in the inn must have been mistaken. With a great deal more confidence, Ean stood up, pushed the door open and stepped outside. That, of course, was when he heard the first scream.

He stopped dead in his tracks. It hadn’t come from close by. He squatted there for a few moments, and then he heard another scream followed by some shouting.

Staying low, he moved across the street and crouched in the shadows of a small house. He could hear a lot more shouting now; it seemed to be coming from every direction. Nothing he could do about that except hope the screams weren’t coming from Jaslen.

Turning his back on the street, he began to carefully make his way through the alleyways between the closely built homes. He could feel the imp only a few paces behind him. Ean still hadn’t gotten around to asking the imp about that, or how he had felt the troll as well. If he survived the night, Ean planned to press the issue with Zin.

The paths between the houses were dark, perfect for sneaking around. It reminded him of home -- all the years of slinking around the village, trying to avoid the bullies. He walked on his toes, as silent as Zin stalking a rat, careful to avoid stepping on or bumping into anything that might give him away. Although the shouts could still be heard from different directions, the screaming had stopped. Whether that was a good or bad sign, he had no idea.

He was about to cross the alleyway when a tearing sound, like someone ripping a cloth, made him stop short. Curiosity won out over fear — he had to take a closer look. The alleyway to the left was clear. One house down, a dark mound moved to his right. Ean tried to focus on the shape, but it was difficult in the little moonlight that reached the alley. It could be anything -- a hurt villager, an injured animal, or even one of the raiders. Better to just keep moving towards where Zin had said the two were hiding.

Continuing across the intersection, a frightened feminine whimper came from the mound, followed by a manly grunt. A dark thought crept across Ean’s mind. Was a raider forcing himself on some poor woman?

What was the man doing to her? No, it was none of his business. Besides, what could he do unarmed?
 

But what if it was Jaslen? Wouldn’t he want someone to step in and help?

Heart pounding, he found himself creeping toward the shrouded mound.

Chapter 14

TEST OF CHARACTER

Why did he keep making such horrible decisions? He had always been so careful at home. Shaking his head in annoyance, Ean snuck along until he was only a few paces away from the figures. This close he could make out two distinct figures. The man seemed to be on top of the woman, his arms doing things that Ean couldn’t see. It was clear though that the woman wasn’t enjoying it. She thrashed around beneath the man, trying to escape.

Ean’s breath caught in his throat, and he wished he had just walked on by and remained ignorant of what was happening in this dark alleyway.
 

But he hadn’t.

Now he couldn’t live with himself if he just walked away. But what could he do without a weapon? He could try to cast a rune, but which could he use? The wrong one could make things much worse. His mind raced as his eyes jerked around on to the rocks on the ground, to a loose shard of glass, to the stack of firewood against the building. That would have to do. He grabbed a piece of wood … causing the rest of the pile to spill down with a clatter.

The man immediately spun, drawing a dagger from his waist. He was an average-looking man, not much taller than Ean, with scraggly hair and a misshaped beard. Dressed in shabby brown clothes from top to bottom with an empty quiver at his waist, his face registered surprise at first. When he sized Ean up, a vile grin spread across his stubbly face.
 

“Come here, boy.” His voice was harsh and gravelly. “Best if you don’t make me chase you down like I did this little tart.”
 

The man’s free hand beckoned reassuringly while the one holding the dagger was held back a bit. The girl stayed where he had left her, either too scared or hurt to use the opportunity to flee.

It was all Ean could do not to bolt away. He believed the man could catch him; Ean certainly wasn’t a fast runner, but if he threw the log at his leg, maybe that could slow him down enough so that Ean could get away. Or his throw could miss, which was more likely to happen, and he would end up angering the man. And what about the girl? If the girl would just get up and run, she might have a chance.

“Come on, come on,” the man said impatiently. “I don’t need to kill you, boy. A quick knock on the head and you get to sleep through this little nightmare. You wake up, me and the rest of my mates are gone, and you’re none the worse for wear.”
 

His voice dropped low, his grip on the dagger tightening as he inched forward. “But if I have to waste the time to catch you, when the villagers find you in the morning, it will take days for them to even figure out if the pieces I’ve left are even human.”

Ean didn’t believe the man for a second that he would just knock him out. He glanced at the girl, thinking he could maybe give her some kind of signal to run and then blinked in surprise. It was Paige.

Her hair was disheveled, but he could see sad eyes behind a dirty and tear soaked face. She was still wearing the same clothes as earlier in the day, although now they were torn and muddy, revealing more than a sweet girl like Paige would want to show. His mouth opened slightly at the sight, and that was when the man decided to pounce.

He hit Ean full force, knocking him off his feet. Sharp pain ran up his left side just before he hit the ground. The piece of wood flew out of his hand just as fast as the breath left his body. The man leapt on top of him. Locked together, they rolled in the street until the man pulled away. As Ean fought for his breath, the man got to his feet. The assailant’s bloodied dagger glinted in the moonlight.
 

No time to think. The man kicked Ean in the side of the head. Stars exploded in his eyes from the pain. He brought up his hands to protect himself, but the repeated kicks sent him rolling along the ground until he splayed out on his back. Pushing himself up on his elbows, he struggled to focus. The man was walking towards him casually now, that wicked grin still on his face.

“This could have gone so much easier for you.” He twirled the dagger in his hand as he approached. The man was taking his time now, not worried at all about either Ean or Paige getting away. “I would have just slipped the dagger into the back of your neck and you barely would have felt a thing. Now I’m going to peel your hide before I return to my fun with the girl.”
 

He was standing over Ean now, that dagger spinning in his hand, flecks of Ean’s blood spraying off of it. Ean tried to push himself back and away, but the man laughed and planted a boot square on his chest.
 

“Nowhere to go, worm.” Kneeling down, he grabbed Ean by his shirt with his free hand and pulled him up so that they were face to face. “You should have minded your own business.”

Ean expected intense pain to come next, but instead he was suddenly let go. The man screamed and stumbled back, the dagger dropping from his hand. Blood was dripping from the arm that had held the dagger, and he was waving it about wildly. It only took Ean a few moments to see the slightly shimmering outline of Zin latched on to the man’s arm.
 

Ean rushed to his feet and snatched up the dagger. The man was still waving his arm around and beating at it with his other hand. To Zin’s credit he was holding his own. A few of those blows must be connecting. It was hard to tell with the imp being nearly invisible. Well, Zin had helped. Now it was time to return the favor.

Ean tried not to think too much about what he was about to do. Holding the dagger low, he relied on his knowledge as a healer to deliver the fatal thrust.
 

Before he could attack, the man slammed the arm Zin was riding into the wall. Zin fell motionless into the street. While Ean was trying to grasp what had happened, the man kept moving. Lashing out with a foot, he caught Ean in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him once again. Then, as Ean doubled over, the man kicked him again, this time in the face.

The blow almost made Ean black out. When he finally got his wits about him, he was on his back once again, the knife no longer in his hand. Before he could even shake the stars from his vision, the man was on top of him, both of his hands around Ean’s neck. The stars in Ean’s eyes changed to dark spots as he struggled to breathe.
 

“I don’t know what you did,” the man growled, spittle dripping off of his lips. “But I’m done playing around with you.”

Ean grabbed the man’s wrists and tried to pull them away, but they were like steel. Even if Ean was at his best, he wouldn’t have had a chance against the stronger man. Fear and panic set in as his body demanded more air. He yanked at the man’s wrists, but the bandit grunted and squeezed harder. Ean tried bucking around, but the man was too heavy. The black specks turned into a dark haze as he looked up at the man about to kill him.

Fear turned to anger, an inferno scorching away the unwanted emotion. He would not die at the hands of this peon, this thief and rapist. He was so much more than this man, this pathetic little bug that picked on women and children. He felt a power rush through his body and down his right arm. It seemed to explode out of him like a flood, leaving his hand and flowing into the hand of the man holding him.

This time the man screamed, but not the lower guttural yell of anger and pain, but the same screech of fear that Paige had made while the man had been trying to violate her. Throwing his head back, the man tried to pull away, but somehow Ean was the stronger one now.
 

Ean watched the man jerk to the sides and back, his vision coated by a dark blue light. This was real power; this was what he had wanted all along. He would destroy this man and any other that got in his way now. The glove on his right hand burst into a bluish flame and disintegrated just as quickly. The runes on his hands glowed bright, freed from the confines of the glove. He had thought that summoning strong creatures would make him powerful, but this … energy was so much better. It made him feel strong. It made him feel alive. It made him feel …