Invasion (17 page)

The orc made a hand signal and the others charged in at him. Jeff got in a few good punches but it didn’t take long for them to restrain him. One orc pinned his arms painfully behind his back while another held his legs firmly. Jeff continued to struggle but it proved to no avail. Eventually they shackled his hands and feet together and made him stand. They tried forcing him to walk but he resisted until one shoved him to the ground.

“We’re gonna have to drag him,” said one of the orcs.

An orc got on either side of him, picked him up under each arm and started dragging him. They took him up many flights of stairs and along a maze of corridors to a huge, elaborate Bathhouse.

The smell of bath salts almost overwhelmed him. It sure was a change from the stink of the dungeon and the Slaughterhouse. They took him over to an empty bath where two half-naked women stood by.

“He is to remain shackled,” said the orc on his left.

“That will make it very hard to undress him,” replied the oldest woman.

The orc stood in front of him, pulled out a large dagger and proceeded to cut all his clothes from him. The two women stared with mouths open.

“There, done.” The orc faced the women. “He’ll have no further need for them anyway.”

“He is to be prepared as fast as possible,” added another orc.

Those words brought a smile to Jeff’s face. It became apparent to him that something major had happened and Sylestra needed his sacrifice in order to deal with it.

The orcs dragged him and lowered him into the water. The warm water did feel good on his skin with the exception of a little stinging where all his cuts and abrasions were.

The women got into the bath with him and examined him.

“You will be holding him the entire time?” The older woman clenched her jaw.

“He is a trouble maker. We dare not let him go. Now begin.”

The two women set to him with a wet cloth and soap. They cleaned him all over thoroughly. Using a jug they rinsed and washed his hair. If he was to have a final wish this wouldn’t be far from it. Although he would have preferred just the one woman, his Adrianna, be the one washing him. Thinking of her now brought on a pang of guilt, but he forced it down quickly as he had often done since her death.

All too soon they were done and the orcs lifted him out. As one of the women wrapped a white robe around him another slave came into the Bathhouse kicking and screaming with an orc on either side of him.

Once again the orcs dragged Jeff as he refused to move his legs. They took him along a short hallway and into a room containing an open fire. After removing his robe they forced him to sit on a chair by the fire while a man and woman — humans dressed in black robes — dried him.

When they were finished they applied a salve to all his injuries and muttered words Jeff did not understand. One by one his injuries healed until they could barely be seen anymore. He felt renewed.

The man brushed his scraggly fair hair while the woman applied make-up to his face.

“Do not spend too much time on him. The Supreme Mistress is in a hurry,” said the orc on his right.

“Hurry or not she will still judge us on his appearance,” replied the man.

“It’s his strength she needs, not his beauty,” rebutted the orc.

“She always likes to get the most out of her sacrifices and that is achieved by timely preparation, now do be quiet or I’ll make you leave the room.” The man’s voice sounded firm and to Jeff’s surprise the orc did as instructed. Whatever rank this human held he had authority over the orc.

The orcs dragged him from the room some time later, feeling cleaner and more rejuvenated than he ever had. This proved somewhat dulled as they entered a large room.

A pale moon shone through a dome skylight highlighting the centre of a diamond-shaped guttering on the floor, where steel chains hung from pulleys overhead. Lit, inset braziers were positioned at each point of the diamond with a black clad figure standing one pace behind each.

“No audience today, ey?” Jeff looked around the empty amphitheatre.

The orcs didn’t respond. They dragged him over to the centre of the diamond. The black clad figures on each side operated a crank and lowered the chains. They unshackled him and re-shackled him to the hanging ones. Jeff tried to break free as they did so but it was pointless — they had too strong a hold of him. As the chains were raised his arms were forced out wide. They continued to rise until Jeff hung off the floor. The cranks were locked and the black robed men returned to their positions. The orcs who had brought him in smiled wickedly and took up their positions beside the door they had used to enter.

“I guess I’ll just wait here,” shouted Jeff. He thought he heard a chuckle from one of the robed men but he couldn’t be sure. Humour had always been his way of dealing with extreme situations but this was escalating into a hopeless state of affairs.

Anytime you’re ready, Gerry.

The door on the opposite side opened and rather than Gerard like he had hoped, it was Sylestra. She wore a curve-hugging black top with a V neck cut as low as her belly button which had been laced together up to just below her firm breasts. Her tight fitting, black leather pants were half hidden by knee-high boots. A wide leather belt was strapped around her shapely hips and a decorated dagger hung from it.

She walked over with her usual confident, seductive walk. She stood in front of him and looked him up and down longingly.

“Well it seems your good friend values his own life above yours. I gave him an opportunity to save your life and he spat it back in my face. I would have liked to spend some quality time with you first but I’m afraid I can’t spare the time.” She placed a hand on his chest and he struggled to steady his beating heart.

“My friend knows me well and he knows I’d rather die than to spend a lifetime serving an evil witch.”

“Witch? Ha, my dear boy I am far scarier than any witch.” She removed her hand from his chest, turned her back to him and walked a few paces away.

“I am no boy.” He closed his eyes and tried to calm himself.

“When you have lived as long as me, every man is a boy and every woman, a girl.” She turned back to face him. “Oh I could have shown you and Gerry wonderful things but you have both been too long blinded by a system you see as just. Now you will both die by my hands and how fitting it is that you will provide me with the strength I need to kill your friend.” She chuckled.

“And I thought I had a strange sense of humour.”

“Enough chatter, my dear Jeff, it is time to join your life essence to mine. You will forever become a part of me — such a romantic end don’t you think?” She approached him once more and softly placed both her hands on his stomach.

“No dinner or wine first?”

“A jester to the end is it, Jeff?” She stood up on her tiptoes and whispered words in his ear that he couldn’t understand.

Suddenly a great calmness overcame him. His hearing became muffled. He could tell Sylestra spoke as her arms were raised high and her lips were moving.

As his hearing returned, the sound of a low chant assaulted his ears.

“Nefari, great goddess of darkness,” he heard Sylestra say over the chanting, “show me favour this night. Through death, grant me life. Through death, grant me beauty. Through death, grant me strength. Through death, grant me wisdom.”

She lowered her arms and placed the tip of her finger against his lips. From there she slid it slowly to his chin and neck and continued down the centre of his body all the way to his pelvis.

A tingle of excitement ran through him and he became aroused.

She cupped his hips and crouched to kiss his pelvis.

His heart skipped a beat and the chanting grew louder.

She slid her hands up both sides of his body and kissed him below the belly button.

He grew erect and once again the chanting intensified.

Her hands moved further up and she gently kissed above his belly button.

The mantra continued to rise as he lost control.

Sylestra’s warm hands worked their way up his body and around behind his back as she pulled him against her and tenderly kissed his neck.

A soft moan escaped his lips.

Suddenly Sylestra stood back and produced a dagger. As she swung it towards him she jolted to the side and transformed into a black mist.

Chapter 17

Palace Fight

Gerard handed the crossbow back to Sarai to reload while he drew his sword and charged the nearest necrolyte. The black cladded man reached out to point in his direction so Gerard dived to the side. A stream of thick green gas shot out and formed a small cloud.

“Stay out of the green fog!” Gerard jumped back to his feet and plunged his sword into the Necrolyte’s side. The man stared at him with red bloodshot eyes. His lips moved so Gerard withdrew his sword and dived to the side.

The Necrolyte fell and his body vaporised, leaving behind a black cloak. Gerard looked at it confused — the cloak moved around on the floor.

“Oh I hate magic.” He huffed. “I like to know once something is dead, it’s dead.”

A nest of snakes slithered out from under the cloak. There must have been at least twenty of them and they all came after Gerard. He steadily walked backward while keeping an eye on them all. One got ahead of the rest and reared to strike him. With a mighty swing of his sword Gerard beheaded the snake and left its body writhing.

This spurred the others on as they came at him with even more ferocity, hissing and baring their fangs. Not wanting to run out of room, Gerard took a step toward them and started swinging his sword at any target within reach. He diced some of them to pieces and still the others headed his way.

Once again he was forced backward as snake after snake struck at him. It took every ounce of his concentration and skill to dodge each strike. He wasn’t sure how poisonous these snakes were but he didn’t want to find out. He chanced a quick glance behind him and wished that he hadn’t. Three more paces and he’d be wedged in the corner of the room. The snakes intensified their strikes.

Two more lost their heads when he came against the solid wall. Desperation forced him to start swinging wildly and this did manage to keep the snakes at bay for a bit, but then they came for him all at once — a perfect synchronised attack. He couldn’t defeat them all but he swung his sword nonetheless.

All of a sudden a lifeless corpse landed on top of them giving him the opportunity he needed to get past them.

“Will ye quit toyin’ with those snakes, laddie?” Jerzy stood erect, arms folded with a large smirk on his face. Two other dwarves, Nuri and Burr, stood beside him. They had thrown the large orc corpse on top of the snakes.

Gerard leapt atop the dead orc, narrowly missing a strike from a free snake, and took an even larger leap over the rest. The snakes not pinned under the weight of the orc pursued him but between him and the three dwarves they were soon cut down.

He took a quick scan of the room and realised that in the time it had taken him to deal with the snakes, the rest of the enemy had been slain. Captain Riyad and another soldier were lowering the chains holding Jeff. Gerard ran over to his friend and helped him to stand.

“Cutting that one a bit fine weren’t you, big fella?” Jeff’s legs shook and his eyes were glazed over, but still managed to come out with his light humoured comments.

“I like to keep it interesting.” Gerard smiled and turned to the rest of the group who milled around. “Can someone grab him one of those black cloaks? We can’t have him wandering around the Palace naked — and preferably not the one that had snakes coming out of it.”

“I thought I was a goner for sure this time. I knew you’d be comin’ for me but I figured you were finally gonna be too late.” Jeff put his arms in the armholes of the cloak as a soldier guided it up over him.

“I would have been earlier but we went to the dungeons first searching for you. We released the prisoners there and they told us you’d been taken to be sacrificed so we rushed up here. Without that crossbow I would have been too late — which reminds me, any sign of Sylestra?”

“She got away,” said Captain Riyad. “She reformed into her solid self, hobbled out that door and had it locked behind her before we could get there.”

“That’s a shame. Hopefully she is too weak to pursue us for a little while.” Gerard led the group back out the door and into the Palace corridor.

Decker brought Mistress Cali along with him this time so that she could replenish the invisibility spell at will, allowing them more time to spend with Master Pilk. He did take her up on her offer of using her levitation spell as she made as much noise as a dwarf walking through the grove.

Master Pilk was lying on the edge of the magical cage closest the trees. Great Shaman O’tukka reclined at ninety degrees to him, close enough to overhear their whispers but far enough away so as not to attract attention.

“So what have you decided?” Decker sat on the hard ground, leaning as close to the bars as he dared.

“We both agree that this cage is a very powerful spell and would not be easily overwhelmed and may even contain hidden traps within — far too little time to learn more about it and far too risky to blaze away at it. Great Shaman O’tukka will agree to form the second gate, but will delay in doing so for as long as possible. This will buy us time to fabricate a more feasible plan.”

“What if we can’t rescue you before the gate is created?” whispered Mistress Cali.

“Ah, I did not know you had come, Mistress Cali. It is good to hear your voice. To answer your question, we will need to hope and pray to every deity that Great Shaman O’tukka once again fails with his destination.”

“I’ll be trying my hardest to do so in fact.” Great Shaman O’tukka rolled over and repositioned himself a little closer.

“Sylestra will expect that of course, or if she doesn’t she will become wise to it soon enough so our time will still be very limited,” said Master Pilk.

“As soon as they bring you out of this cage we’ll have Master Tayer teleport in, grab hold of you both and teleport back out again.” Mistress Cali’s excited whisper was a little too loud and attracted the attention of a nearby orc.

“Who’s there?” said the orc.

Master Pilk rolled over and feigned a yawn while stretching.

“Excuse me?” asked Master Pilk.

“I heard a voice. What’s going on here?” The orc took a few paces toward the cage.

“Voices? I heard no voices. Then again I was enjoying a nice sleep.”

“He talks in his sleep,” said O’tukka. “I’m surprised that’s the first time you’ve heard him. He chatters that much while he’s awake that his voice box doesn’t know how to switch off.”

“If that’s so then you won’t mind me taking a look around.” The orc grabbed a burning torch and started walking around the cage, holding it up high and looking into the distance.

“Be my guest,” said Master Pilk.

The guard got to within a few paces of Decker until he realised the orc would trod on them both if they didn’t move. He gestured to Mistress Cali and she stood up and tiptoed further around the cage. Decker followed, being careful where he placed his feet and wishing Mistress Cali would do likewise.

Mistress Cali stood on a dry twig which cracked loudly under her foot. The orc immediately turned in that direction.

“What was that noise?” asked the orc.

“What noise? I merely shuffled around to get comfortable. It’s not overly pleasant having to sleep on the ground,” replied O’tukka.

“You’re a very skittish orc aren’t you?” Master Pilk’s comment was rewarded with a low growl from the unimpressed orc. The guard went back to searching the area, changing course and heading closer to the trees.

Decker became more and more worried about the invisibility spell wearing off so he gestured to Mistress Cali to renew it. Her cantrip was barely audible and the familiar sensation of magic flowed through him.

Eventually the orc grew tired of his search and returned to his post. Decker and Mistress Cali moved back into position.

“I’m sorry.” Mistress Cali’s eyes were downcast as she whispered her apology.

“It’s okay. We just need to keep our voices to a low whisper,” said Pilk. “Now what were we saying?”

“Getting Master Tayer to teleport in and out when they bring you outside of the cage,” Decker offered.

“Too risky, replied Pilk. “They’ll no doubt have physical contact with us the entire time and crossbows levelled.”

“I can deal with any brandishing crossbows,” said Decker.

“Perhaps. It may be an option and one we can explore as we examine their methods. For now I think we need to determine the properties of this cage. Are you confident in doing this Mistress Cali, or should we get Master Tayer or Grand Master Reibeck?”

“I’ll try it.” Mistress Cali sat and crossed her legs. Her face lost all expression as she closed her eyes. Her lips moved but Decker could hear no sound.

For five minutes no one spoke. Decker watched Mistress Cali’s face for any sign of what may be going on. Aside from the occasional twitch she could have been mistaken for a statue.

“How long should this take?” Decker asked Pilk.

“Depending on how strong the magic is and how many traps may be set within it. It could take minutes or hours.”

“Need I remind you about the duration of her invisibility spell?”

“I’m sure Mistress Cali is well aware of that and simply doing a cursory scan.”

Sure enough Mistress Cali came out of her trance moments later. Her eyes opened but took a little time to focus. Eventually she turned to Decker and then to Pilk.

“I don’t think we’re getting this cage opened,” she whispered. “I could not penetrate very far at all without risk of setting off traps even with a scan.”

“I was afraid of that. This cage is well designed.”

“I have strength enough left to cast one more spell of invisibility. That scan really took it out of me.” Mistress Cali turned to Decker and once again cast the spell.

“Yes, yes,” replied Pilk, “you and Decker must leave very soon. We will work on refining our one option in the days to come. In the meantime Decker, you have to go and visit the elves.”