Chapter Two: Maggot
"The gentleman from the South had a question about the dining arrangements. He and his comrades are discussing place settings now." – Major Reisman, explaining the brawl in the mess hall
The dull ache in his feet refused to fade as Carlos trudged on, his boots kicking up small wisps of dust as he walked down the rough dirt road. Though at first he had welcomed the opportunity to stretch his legs after being confined to a ten foot by ten foot cage, the novelty had worn off days ago. They had been walking for nearly a week along one of the many dirt roads that crisscrossed the open fields of rural Halcyon, and the beating sun had not made the journey a pleasant one. But The Major, as he preferred to be addressed, was adamant that they needed to reach the Duskfang Mountains to the west with haste. Why, he would not say, and Carlos knew better than to press the matter further, especially after the demonstration on the first day.
The warrior glanced down at the metal band that had melded into the flesh just above his right wrist. For such a small trinket, it presented a daunting challenge. If all that The Major had said was true, then the tiny gray band made escape next to impossible while it still encircled his lower arm. Ideas on how to remove it had wound their way through his head at various times during the past few days, though – short of slicing off the hand entirely – none of them seemed particularly feasible given his current situation.
His brow furrowed at the thought. While he would very much like to get out from under the armored thumb of the stuck up paladin, he was also not about to part with his right hand unless he had no other options.
The voice of the woman who walked beside him jarred him from his thoughts. "So Carlos, how did you end up here anyway?"
He smiled. Aleera's attempts at small talk had been nervous ones, though he found it a welcome break from Sarah's snide remarks or Tobias' disturbingly cold rants.
"I worked as a caravan guard for our resident alchemist and drug runner without the slightest clue what she was dealing in. A Royal Vandian Crusader crashed the party and mopped the floor with the lot of us. I got arrested along with her." He glared down the dirt path at where Sarah walked ahead of them, bickering with Tobias about something that he suspected was not particularly important in the first place. "Sometimes I just want to wring her lying little neck." He held up and clenched his fists to emphasize the words, his toughened hide gloves making a satisfying crinkling sound as he did.
Aleera's eyes followed his gaze and settled on Sarah. "She doesn't seem that bad to me."
Her kind words regarding the decidedly unkind alchemist startled Carlos. He turned to face the elf, his confusion written prominently on his face. "Are you kidding? She's done nothing but bad mouth everyone, you included, since we all met."
Slowly and pensively she nodded, acknowledging his words but still disagreeing. "She has a mean tongue to be sure, but she doesn't strike me as malicious." She paused for a moment, as if considering something. "Then again, he didn't either." The elf jerked her head to indicate Tobias and then shivered before continuing. "Dear Ehlenestra, thirty-eight people? I did not think anyone capable of such a thing, and he almost seemed proud of it."
As Carlos' gaze shifted back toward the murderer and drug runner ahead of them he saw something that made his eyes widen. "Oh no."
"What?" Aleera looked at him, her eyes darting to glance at where he was staring, then back toward him. Confusion and concern clashed on her face.
"Sarah's smiling." Indeed, the young wizard was grinning from ear to ear. It was a smile that could mean only one thing: Trouble.
The perplexed expression that Aleera wore, however, mad it clear that she wasn't making the connection. "So?"
"That can't be a good sign." He became even more concerned when he saw Sarah laugh and Tobias suddenly stiffen, his hands balling into fists. It seemed obvious to Carlos that angering a proud murderer was a stupid move, though he was somehow entirely unsurprised that Sarah would try it. "As much as I dislike her, I hope she doesn't–"
He didn't manage to finish the sentence, because at that moment Tobias raised one of his hands, palm facing toward the chuckling alchemist. A bolt of pure darkness shot from the hand and crashed into her, sending the woman tumbling to the side. She hit the ground and, not missing a beat, immediately rolled to face her attacker. She held out both of her slender hands and a blinding white cloud of snow and sleet leapt from her palms. The older man was, however, surprisingly spry and managed to dive to the side, evading the wave of biting cold. He lunged toward Sarah and pinned her to the ground with one hand gripping her neck.
Carlos turned toward The Major, who sat astride his mount watching the scuffle. "Major, can't you stop them?"
The paladin smiled and shrugged, though when he spoke his eyes did not drift from the furious combatants. "I could." Could? A mere thought on his part would cause both of them to drop to the ground, writhing in agony, and easily end the fight then and there. The former farmer found himself wondering what The Major was playing at.
As they spoke, Tobias drew a short sword with his free hand and wreathed it in black flame, preparing to strike his pinned enemy. Before he could though, a booted foot shot up and struck him squarely in the stomach. A flash of sparkling blue light suddenly burst from where the foot contacted him and the man was sent flying back, tiny arcs of crackling electricity running across his body. He hit the dirt and skidded to a halt.
The warrior on the sidelines waited anxiously for more of an answer, but when none came he put forth another question. "Then why don't you?"
"I want to see how this plays out." The Major motioned to the fight. "It will give me a chance to see those two in action."
Sarah was first to her feet but Tobias muttered something unintelligible and promptly vanished in a plume of dark fire and brimstone. The young wizard swore under her breath and raised her hands. After a number of intricate movements from her slender fingers, her opponent reappeared, though by this time he had managed to stand and move slightly. The murderer, taking a mere moment to realize that he was visible again, held out his palm and shot another blast at Sarah. The black bolt caught her in the shoulder and sent her stumbling backward, though this time she managed to remain on her feet.
She broke into a run toward Ladimor. As she did, her body shimmered and split into two, identical versions of herself that pealed off, each circling the murderer in opposite directions. His eyes darted from one Sarah to the other, but could not find any differences to hint at which was the real one. Carlos could not help but smile at the ingenuity shown by his former employer as he watched the battle unfold. Tobias raised an arm, sending a ray of darkness speeding toward one of the alchemists, whose very skin and clothing seemed to ripple and distort as the beam lanced harmlessly through her.
The murderer spun to face the real Sarah, whose hands had just finished a series of elaborate motions. A small sphere of frost condensed in the air, suspended above one of her outstretched palms and a sharp flick of the wrist sent the orb hurtling into the sky above Tobias. With a brittle sounding snap it burst into thousands of hailstones that rained down on his head. The ice battered the older man, though it didn't seem to slow him down. If anything, the pounding only served to anger him further, and he lunged forward through the storm of ice.
The frost, which now coated the dirt, normally would have been treacherous even if the person walking across it took their time. Tobias, however, sailed across the white sheet with ease, his feet never even skimming the ground below him. With a maniacal grin on his face he brought his short sword around in a sweeping arc toward Sarah, the blade bursting into black flame as he did. The woman let out a startled yelp and barely ducked the swing, the burning blade slicing through the air where her neck had been moments ago. She quickly backed off, dodging a second, hurried swing as she went. While she backpedaled, arcane words escaped her mouth in a low hiss and she faded from sight.
Tobias stood blinking in shock for a moment before a disturbing calm elbowed his surprise aside and a smile slowly crept across his face. The fingers on his free hand twitched and drummed against thin air in eager anticipation. The murderer suddenly whirled about and brought up his left hand. A bolt of darkness leapt from his palm and shot out across the empty field, lancing toward a grand total of nothing. The ray was brought to an abrupt halt by seemingly open air roughly half a dozen yards from Tobias and was greeted by a shriek of pain. A small plume of steam wafted up through the air where the beam had stopped, though the wisps appeared to materialize out of nothingness.
He casually strolled over toward the rising steam and his smile broadened into a malevolent grin as he heard the sound of something being dragged across the ground. The movement kicked up a small, swirling cloud of dirt that highlighted a body sized empty space that was frantically backing away from the approaching murderer. Tobias eventually reached the eye of the dust cloud and lifted one of his booted feet, pressing it down on the center of the open air. His foot met with a solid object and Sarah gradually phased into existence beneath his heel. Her hands clutched at a smoldering black burn on her neck that belched forth tendrils of steam from the bubbling and hissing skin.
The murderer took his foot off the alchemist's stomach and stooped down. His free hand grabbed her by the collar, dragging her terrified face to within inches of his. Tobias tilted his head to one side and flashed an expression of bemusement.
"Have you forgotten who I am?" He let out a laugh when he received no response from the wounded woman. "I am the Mist Hunter! Your petty tricks cannot hide you from me."
Tobias raised his short sword above his head, a feral gleam in his eyes. Black flame wrapped itself around the blade and crackled with unholy glee, as delighted by the chance to taste fresh blood as its master.
"Now die."
Before he could bring the burning blade down on Sarah, however, his eyes widened and he screamed in pain. The sword slipped from his grasp and clattered to the ground, the dark fire subsiding before it even hit the dirt. He released his grip on the woman's collar and staggered backward, clutching his head as he howled. Spasms shot through his body and his legs crumpled beneath his weight. Even after the immediate agony subsided, the he remained where he collapsed for some time.
The Major brought his horse up at a slow cantor and came to a stop beside the trembling man, who was struggling – and failing – to get to his feet. He glared down at Tobias not bothering to mask his contempt. "That's enough Ladimor. You've had your fun, now get moving." A nudge from one of his heels spurned the mount onward down the road.
The impenitent murderer eventually managed to prop himself up on his buckling legs. His entire body quivered as he stumbled forward, partially from the intense pain that had assaulted him only moments ago, and partially from only half-suppressed rage. His eyes burned with unholy fury and he raised one of his shaking arms to point at The Major. A ravenous black inferno burst to life in the palm his outstretched hand, tendrils trying desperately to claw their way out of his grasp so that they might devour the paladin's flesh before being yanked back into his palm. The flame and Tobias both simmered for a moment before he clenched his hand into a fist, extinguishing the dark embers. He took a few heavy breaths, calming himself before ultimately trudging off after his jailor.
Only Carlos saw just how close the murderer's temper had brought him to lashing out again. When he had seen Tobias stumble and struggle even to stand the warrior had lurched forward, instinctively moving to aid the wounded man. He had barely taken a single step when the more sensible part of his mind harshly berated him for his foolishness. This was not some everyday man who would appreciate his assistance. The older man before him was a cold-blooded killer, a monster who shamelessly slaughtered men, women, and children for a delusion. And hadn't he been the one to start the entire fight? Hadn't he been the one to take what was probably a simple jest so seriously? This, Carlos reasoned, was nothing more than Tobias deserved. He turned away from the murderer, his gaze settling instead on the woman who had almost been the Mist Hunter's latest victim.
Aleera had rushed to Sarah's side, a look of concern prominently displayed on her sharp, elven face. She knelt beside the alchemist and tenderly lifted away the hands that clutched at the smoldering burn. "Hold on, don't touch it." The nervousness that had characterized the druidess in days past had vanished, replaced by quiet composure and an unspoken urgency. The sudden, inexplicable change momentarily stunned Carlos, and he suspect that Sarah would have been equally surprised if it were not for the fact that she had much greater concerns at the moment. "Here, let me."
She placed one her slender hands gingerly on the charred skin, causing the wounded woman to cringe and stiffen, her hands balling into tight fists. The elf's free hand quickly grasped one of Sarah's and rubbed it soothingly with her thumb. Slowly, the alchemist relaxed and Aleera closed her eyes, softly chanting elven words that flowed off her tongue like crystal clear water. The hand that covered the burn pulsed with vibrant green energy and gentle warmth. The healthy skin on Sarah's neck gradually crept inward, closing in on and swallowing up the unholy wound.
Her eyes slid open and looked down at the now healed wizard. "Better?"
The drug runner blinked absently and one of her hands slid up to rub her neck. Not a single blemish remained to testify of the horrendous burn that had marked it. "I think so." She met Aleera's gaze with more than a little confusion at the surprise show of compassion evident on her face. "Thank you."
As the motley group continued on their journey, the rolling fields and dirt road slowly morphed into rocky hills and eventually dull gray mountains strewn with patches of heavy timberland in the low areas were the cool mist pooled in thick blankets. After more than a week on the road, the weary band finally stumbled into a small town nestled in the depths of the Duskfang Mountains. It was a quiet place, far removed from other signs of civilization, where hunters and trappers came to rest between excursions into the mountains.
From horseback The Major motioned to the village. "Well, here we are. Warren's Fall, a quaint little hole in the ground if ever there was one." The disdain in his voice was almost palpable.
Sarah wrinkled her nose at the comment. "Then why did you drag us up here?"
The paladin pointed down the main road, which eventually led west out of town. "Supply convoys running through these mountains have been coming under attack lately from an unusually well organized group of bandits." He scoffed at the last word, as if not even believing it himself.
One of Carlos' eyebrows rose. He turned toward The Major, his curiosity piqued by the skepticism in his jailor's voice. "Bellicosians?"
He gave the warrior a curt nod. "Vandian Command thinks so." He dismounted and patted the side of his warhorse's head. The entire horse, armor and all, abruptly winked out of existence. "We will begin our search of the area in the morning. In the mean time, get some rest. You'll need it."
The town's inn was by no means an up scale establishment, though it was also not nearly as run down as the other buildings. Carlos was a bit startled by how quick The Major was to bully the innkeeper with threats of official scrutiny, but the paladin did manage to secure three rooms for them, so he didn't complain at first. The Major took one of the rooms for himself and Sarah and Aleera took the second, leaving Carlos to share the last with Tobias. This last fact was disconcerting for the warrior to say the least, he certainly wasn't looking forward to having to stay up all night to ensure that he didn't get his throat slit or his face melted.
He wandered down the stairs of the inn. Like most of the establishments of its kind, the ground floor doubled as a bar so that those staying in the rooms above never had to go very far if they were in the mood for a strong drink. It also made dragging passed out friends back to their rooms that much easier.
The former farmer made his way through a crowd of other patrons toward the bar. He was a little surprised by how much freedom The Major was granting them, allowing them to openly walk about and fraternize with the townsfolk. The paladin had no reason to trust them, why would he leave them to their own devices? A glance down at his wrist banished the confusion from his mind. The dull gray band that had sunk into his wrist ensured his subservience and, while it remained, any sense of freedom he felt was nothing more than an illusion.
Such solemn thoughts drained from his mind as he spotted a familiar face at the bar. Of all the people he expected to see sitting alone in a rowdy bar, Aleera was possibly the last on the list. Though he wasn't all that surprised that the thin-skinned druidess would need something to calm her nerves he suspected that, given her slight build, the elf was one of the lightest of the lightweights where alcohol was concerned. He was also a little amazed that none of the other men in the bar had tried to make a pass at her.
The warrior shrugged. Might as well keep her company before some drunken idiot tries to.
He sat down on the stool next to her, though she didn't seem to notice him at first. "Aleera?"
She turned, slightly startled, though her expression softened when she saw him. "Oh, hello Carlos."
The bartender, a slightly overweight man probably in his early forties, walked over to them. "What can I do you for?" He didn't even look at them. Instead his gaze remained locked on the glass that he was cleaning. Carlos recognized the act as a standard way that the bartenders he had always come across made themselves look busy when in reality they were trying to eavesdrop on the conversations of their patrons.
"Just some of the house ale." He placed a few coins down on the bar.
"And anything for your friend?"
He glanced over at Aleera, then back at the bartender. "The weakest thing you have." The older man gave him another nod, only this one was slower and betrayed the slightest bit of hesitation, then took the coins and left the two to themselves.
As the bartender departed to see to their drinks, Aleera turned toward Carlos, one of her eyebrows raised. The beginnings of an amused smile tugged at the corners of her lips. "I sense an alarming lack of faith in my fortitude on your part."
The warrior shrugged, though he was secretly glad that she had taken what might have been seen as an insult in good humor. He pressed his luck, trying to maintain the jovial mood. "It might have something to do with the fact that you're a head shorter than me and probably weigh what, half as much as me?" He motioned idly toward her. "Less?"
Aleera opened her mouth, about to shoot back a retort, when the bartender returned and set a pair of mugs down on the bar in front of them.
Carlos scooped up his mug and held it up in a toast. "Well, this is it. Here's to our first, and hopefully not our last, mission." He took a swig of the ale. While it was not the worst thing that he had ever tasted, it was pretty far down the list. It was, however, still ale and he desperately needed something to put him at ease.
A smile slowly slid across his face as he saw Aleera take a tentative sip of her drink. The appalled expression that flickered across her face hinted that the drink was vastly different than what she was used to. Letting out a weak cough, she quickly set the mug down. The warrior barely managed to suppress a laugh and quickly took another sip of ale to stay his tongue before his resolve could falter. In the silence that followed, what mirth there was slowly faded as somber realization swept their other thoughts aside. They each knew that, despite their hopes to the contrary, there was a very good chance that this night would be their last.
Aleera's shoulders sagged and she slowly shook her head. "I don't know if I can do this." Her voice, though not nearly as shaky as when they had first met, was anything but confident. Carlos found himself wondering what had happened the composure that the druidess had displayed when healing Sarah. Surely it could not have simply vanished, something like that cannot just up and abandon someone. Could it?
He calmly lowered his mug and set it on the bar, then turned to face her. "It's only for the next two years. To an elf that must seem like the blink of an eye."
"Normally, yes." She smiled at the observation though there was no joy or warmth behind it. "But I doubt the knowledge that each new day could be my last will help."
"Each day could always be your last." Carlos picked up his mug again and held it up in a toast as he had before. "As soon as you're born you start dying, so you might as well have a good time." He brought the drink to his lips and took another long swig and took the moment to focus on the liquid as it burned it's way down his throat, grateful to have something other than his imminent demise to think on.
He heard Aleera lightly chuckle and glanced up from his drink, slightly confused. She was looking off into bar, to where a number of other patrons sat around a circular table. "Well, it looks like Sarah took that advice to heart."
Carlos' gaze followed hers and quickly spotted a familiar face at the table. Sarah and four others, heavily built men mostly, each sat around the table with a pile of copper pieces in front of them. Judging by the sheer number that sat in front of the drug runner, it was obvious that she was cleaning house. As he watched, Carlos saw them gather up a number of dice into cups, one for each of them, and shake them. With a resounding clatter, the cups were slammed down onto the table, trapping the dice within them. The players quickly glanced under their own cups at their dice before turning their gaze to each other. Coins were cast into the center and each began bidding in turn.
The sides of his mouth turned upward as he saw that the only player at the table who was apparently having any fun was Sarah, which might have had something to with the aforementioned pile of coins. "Hmph, liar's dice." He took another sip of ale as he watched the game unfold. "Somehow I'm not surprised she's a natural."
Bidding progressed quickly until it was the turn of a burly man, probably a trapper if the large number of animal hides he wore were any indication, who sat to Sarah's right. He glanced down at the dice under his cup then back at the other players. "Three sixes."
"Liar." Four sets of startled eyes turned toward Sarah, who wore an ominously confident smile on her face.
The man to her right gave the alchemist a perplexed look. "Really?"
She nodded. "Yes, you're a liar." She sounded strangely sure of herself for someone who was challenging a reasonably safe bid.
Sure enough, when the dice cups were lifted away, there were only two sixes and no ones among them with the first six under the trapper's cup and the second under Sarah's. The eyes of the four doubters all widened, though Sarah merely smiled. She reached out to scoop up the money in the center of the table but one of the trapper's massive hands shot forward and snatched the woman's outstretched hand.
"Now hold on a second."
"Why should I?" She looked back at him with a disgustingly sweet smile on her face. "I won fair and square."
The trapper's eyes narrowed and his voice dropped to a low, threatening tone. "I'm not so sure about that."
Her smile vanished. "What are you suggesting?"
"I'm not suggesting anything." His words sounded more like the snarl of a beast than the voice of a man. "I'm saying you're a cheat, now hands off the money."
"I don't think so."
The alchemist placed her free hand on the center of the man's chest. A noise that began as a low whine quickly built into a loud rumble and broke with a resounding bang. The air around the man rippled and the trapper was sent hurtling backward into another table, where a number of men sat playing cards. The wooden table splintered and cracked under the heavily built man's weight, sending drinks and coins flying through the air.
To simply say that 'a fight broke out' would not come anywhere close to properly describing the chaos that claimed the inn. The drinks that were lobed by the smashed table drenched several patrons in stale ale and, not bothering to discern where the offending ale had come from, they promptly punched the nearest living thing. Friends and the friends of friends were dragged into the brawl, which quickly spiraled out of control. On top of all of that, the crash flung the mound of copper pieces that the card players were using as stakes into the air. Many of the countless drunkards that packed the bar dived to grab as many of the coins as the could, only adding to the number of bodies that were already sailing through the air.
In the confusion, Sarah slipped out of a side door and into an alleyway that ran alongside the inn. She chuckled lightly and slipped the coins she had managed to make off with into a pouch on her belt. The young alchemist turned to leave the alley and nearly ran headlong into two of her fellow convicts.
"What?" She tried to inject as much innocence as she could into her voice, though at this point it was a futile effort.
Aleera glared at her, not buying into her act for an instant. "Were you cheating?"
"No." The drug runner tried to smile amiably, but when the accusing gazes of neither the warrior nor druidess relented, her facade slowly cracked and failed. "Okay, maybe just a little bit." Sarah tried to laugh it off, but it quickly became apparent that her accusers were not at all amused by the situation. Her friendly tone morphed into a more defensive one. "Those buffoons were so weak willed that it would have been tough to not read their surface thoughts. They were practically shouting out what they had."
Carlos slapped his forehead with the palm of his hand while Aleera merely shook her head in frustration. Sarah's attitude was already making the prospect of working with her unbearable and he silently dreaded what the coming days let alone the next two years would hold if she kept it up. That mouth of hers nearly got her kill on the road by–
His thoughts ground to a halt and the expression on his face mirrored the sudden concern that welled up in his mind. "Wait a minute, where's Tobias?" He hadn't seen the murderer in the bar and while the rest of them might be sane enough not to do anything to extreme, he couldn't, with confidence, say the same for a man who had spoken casually about slaughtering women and children.
Sarah shrugged. "Hells if I know, or care for that matter. Hopefully the psycho has gone and gotten himself killed."
Worry crept into his voice as he mumbled to himself. "Were it so easy." He began backing up and pointed to the two women before him. "Find The Major, I'll try to find Tobias." With that, he turned and strode out onto the streets of Warren's Fall.
Night had long since thrown its veil over Halcyon and the town was, for the most part, asleep. Those who were still awake were currently beating the tar out of each other in the bar fight inside, leaving the streets deserted. Carlos slowly walked down road deeper into town, the packed dirt muffling his footsteps. The first thing that struck the warrior as odd was not the sight, locked up shops and darkened windows, nor the sound, nothing accept for the occasional insect and the faint noise from the brawl back at the inn. It was the smell, a slightly acidic stench that hung in the air and stung his nose when he breathed. With it as his only lead, he followed the scent and soon stumbled upon a puzzling sight. A fine black mist rolled along the ground ahead of him, and he could see in the distance a thick cloud of the substance wafting out of an alleyway down the street.
It took Carlos a moment to realize what he was seeing. He remembered what Sarah had called Tobias.
'The Mist Hunter.'
The former farmer dashed toward the alleyway, plunging headlong into the dark mist. The fumes sapped at his strength as he inhaled them, but he managed to wave off the effects and press onward. He turned the corner into the alley and jerked to a halt. As he had suspected, Tobias stood farther down the alley, which dead ended a ways after that. What took Carlos by surprise was what he held in his hand. Pressed against wall, kept on his feet by Tobias' hand gripping his collar, was a badly bruised man. Blood trickled down from his obviously broken nose and his eyes were wide with terror. The eyes of the confessed murderer shone in the night with a feral gleam that showed no sign of pity, mercy, or sanity. He leisurely lifted his free hand and held it, palm forward, in front of wounded man's face. Black flame sprang to life around it and simmered eagerly, ready and willing to feast upon its latest victim.