01 - The Price of Talent (49 page)

“I don’t doubt it,” said Malvolio. “Though his methods tend to be more psychological than forceful. He’s been a long proponent of the idea that the mind is the best jailor. You two, however, seem to be a solid counter argument.”

“It’s not that our time in Caer Sud wasn’t enjoyable enough, it’s that we had friends that needed our help,” I said.

“Oh, like Meredith’s father, perchance?” He replied.

“Yes, actually, you haven’t seen him have you?” I asked.

“No, not since we interred his ashes in a pauper’s grave.” He replied with a smile, the torch light in the yard glinting off his teeth.

“His WHAT!?” I said.

              As I said this I heard a muffled noise from Meredith behind me. Also the sound of her dropping a couple of lock picks.

“Yes, the LATE Mr. Blythe wasn’t all that interested in answering my questions,” he said. “We were forced to… Get more aggressive with our questioning methods. It wasn’t until we revealed we had his daughter locked away that he was willing to talk to us. Unfortunately, the fool didn’t know much of anything useful. It’s a pity he had to endure so much only to reveal so little. In the end we did the merciful thing and put him out of his misery.”

              As he was saying this I could practically hear Meredith’s teeth grinding behind me. But I also heard the noise of a lock turning and a door unlocking. I was surprised Meredith was able to keep her focus while listening to Malvolio casually talk about murdering her father.

“Tyr, the door’s open, I need you to cause a distraction so we can get inside the tower,” she whispered. “My suggestion is you kill this bastard.”

              I tried not to flinch hearing Meredith suggest I kill this man. However, I couldn’t fault her reasoning. If we were going to get in the tower without getting shot full of crossbow bolts, we needed a distraction, and this man seemed eminently worthy of being it. I began to draw in as much power as I could as quickly as I could.

“Now, now, Tyr, are we really going to have to resort to violence?” asked Malvolio with a smile. “I can feel you drawing in power, even at this distance. My guards here are just itching for a reason to shoot you with their crossbows.”

              As if on cue, the guards aimed their crossbows at me from the various rest positions they had been holding them in. Fortunately for me, I had drawn in enough power to defend myself. But I decided to buy a little more time and started edging backwards towards to door.

“Backing down so quickly?” Said Malvolio. “I would have expected more from one with as dangerous a reputation as you have. Now drop your sword, release your magic, or learn to dodge crossbow bolts the hard way…”

“Well, if those are my options,” I said.

              Knowing that I had a second at most till the air was full of deadly projectiles, I released a large blast of telekinesis at the guards. Then I threw my sword at Malvolio, using another blast of telekinesis to speed its flight. On my first blast of magic, Meredith kicked open the door, on the second, she was through to the safety of the tower. I followed quickly behind her.

              The result of the first blast of magic was that the entire line of guards on both sides of Malvolio stumbled. The few bolts that were fired went off in random directions, none coming anywhere near Meredith and myself. Malvolio’s response was to huddle in his robes, but surprisingly little other reaction.

              My sword throw, was not nearly as effective. It streaked out towards Malvolio’s head. Unfortunately, he must have had power drawn already as he released a short blast of his own magic and the sword hit an invisible wall in front of him and clattered to the earth. Having seen all this in the brief moment before I quickly followed Meredith into the tower, I made sure to shut the door once I was inside. Meredith then relocked it quickly.

“Tyr, we need to get out of here…” She said.

“I agree, but we shouldn’t risk the wall,” I replied. “Too easy a shot for the guys with crossbows.”

“Do you have another plan?” She asked. “Because the door outside is barred shut.”

“I do, as a matter of fact,” I said.

              With that I re-summoned my sword, sheathed it, and drew in as much power as I could in a short time. The air grew frosty in the tower in seconds. I then walked to the barred door facing the city and released a huge blast of force, practically draining all the magic I had just drawn in.

              The door blasted off its hinges. It flew end over end across the street, smashing into the wall of the house across from it. Meredith and I quickly ran through the opening I had just made in the wall, and ran out into the street.

              The noise I had made was clearly enough to rouse the neighborhood’s denizens. The sounds of dozens of people waking up at the same time erupted around us. But Meredith and I didn’t wait around to see what else would happen. Instead we ran.

              Our flight through the residential neighborhood was fast, aided by the fact that it was mostly downhill. Once we had run about halfway between the castle wall and the town wall, we paused to catch out breaths.

“Tyr, we need to get back to the inn,” Meredith said, between gasps.

“I agree,” I said. “We’ve been found out and we don’t have much time before this whole city is teaming with guards.”

              All in agreement, we ran back to the Inn. Once outside though, we waited to catch our breaths again. Fortunately for us, this part of the city was far enough away from the castle that it was not yet on high alert. Still, we headed back up to our rooms with caution.

              The inside of the inn was fortunately empty of people. It was now late enough in the night that everyone had turned in. We quietly headed back to our rooms through the common room, and then packed our bags as quickly as possible.

              As much as we wanted to take the cart and horse in our flight, there was no way we were going to get that through the city at this hour of the night without being seen. Since haste still seemed like the best policy, we stuffed what provisions we could in our packs with some basic gear for rough winter camping, and we left the inn as quickly and quietly as we had arrived.

              The streets were still quiet, but in the distance we could hear the noise of patrols coming down from the castle. Meredith and I jogged down a small side street and tried heading for a side gate.

              Our aim was to escape through a small side gate that Meredith had seen previously during her surveillance of the city. It opened up onto a minor road leading off into the farms in the valley between the castle and the eastern forest. Our hope was to get through here and into the woods as quickly as possible. Because we were on foot, staying to the main road would have been a good way to ensure we got caught by a mounted patrol. At least in the dense eastern woods and underbrush, horses would not have all that great an advantage on us.

              The trip to this eastern side gate was fraught. Every noise made us huddle in the darkness expecting a patrol. Fortunately, most of the patrols were sticking to the main roads, heading to the gates as quickly as they could to lock down the city. When we finally did get to the eastern gate, there was already a group of guards there and they were in the process of lowering the portcullis.

              Meredith and I were crouched in an alley between two houses near the gate, hiding in the shadows so we wouldn’t be seen. The guards however, were quite intent on their efforts to close the gate. This allowed me to creep up on them, get close to them and draw in a large amount of power. When I was ready, I sprang out and ran at the guards. There were a couple standing outside the gate trying to keep an eye on the approach, while the others were inside lowering the portcullis, which must have been on some cranking mechanism.

              My sudden appearance out of a side street startled the two guards. One of them shouted something to the others inside. As I got close enough to the men at the gates, the other guards started exiting the guard tower on the side of the portcullis, where I assumed the lowering mechanism was. Not wanting to wait for them to shoot me with crossbows, or otherwise get their act together, I immediately threw my sword at the nearest guard. I quickly then lit the next one’s feet on fire. Leather doesn’t burn easily, but with enough power, it can be made to ignite. And this guy’s boots ignited quite well. I’m guessing he had oiled them recently, likely to waterproof them for the winter.

              The man I threw the sword at was so surprised I would throw my weapon that he caught it with his face. That was one down. The second guy was writhing on the ground, clawing at his shoes. Unfortunately, I still had the guards from the tower to deal with.

              As three more guards exited the tower, I summoned my sword back into my hand and then blasted the first one with lightning. He fell backwards in a twitching mass of writhing limbs. This tripped the guard following directly behind him. Unfortunately, the third guard avoided this pile up and came at me with his sword.

              I stepped out of the way and parried his first attack, which was a two handed chop at my head with an angled high block. This caused his blade to deflect off my sword and smash into the paving stones. Having exhausted my magic on the previous few guards, I kicked him in the knee directly following his attack and before he had recovered. This caused him to stumble, which was enough time for me to strike him in the back of the neck, between his helmet and body armor, with my sword.

              As he went down, I looked to the guard I had shot with lightning and the one he had tripped when he fell. They were both out cold with Meredith standing over them. I then quickly looked to the portcullis, which was fortunately only halfway down. In the confusion, they had apparently forgotten to leave one guard to finish closing the gate. Not surprising since I had been attacking their friends at the time. Still, I wasn’t going to take this for granted.

              Meredith and I quickly escaped under the only partially closed portcullis. Once through, I drew in a ton of power and melted the chain that was still holding it partially open. It came down with a crash, and with no obvious way for someone to raise it again without repairing the chain.

              Not wanting to waste any more time, Meredith and I jogged out into the farmland beyond. The forest was a ways off, but we were confident we would get there before Malvolio was able to organize mounted patrols from the other gates. After all, he probably wasn’t aware we had escaped the city yet.

              The road from the castle was not in the best repair, this being just a side gate to the town. We found ourselves having to jog on the shoulder of it as much as on it, given how rutted and potholed it was. We made for the forest as fast as we could, knowing that we had only a few more hours of darkness before the sun came up and we became obvious to any guards on the town wall. Fortunately, the road was otherwise unoccupied.

              As we got further from the town, the road started abutting on local farms. A city the size of Caer Nord likely needed a lot of food grown locally, so it made sense. Even if the growing season in the northern part of the holy empire was shorter than in the south, you didn’t want to rely too much on commerce to feed your citizens.

              Once we were well within farm country, Meredith and I slowed down to a walk. We were now near enough to houses that we didn’t want to look suspicious when the sun came up. It was only when we had a chance to catch our breath that we were fully able to digest what had happened, what we had found out.

              After my parents had died, I was devastated, but also strangely unable to deal with the information. It had been hard for me to accept the reality of it. As Meredith and I walked in silence, I wasn’t sure what to say to her. I felt like I should say something, but also that anything I said would be wholly inadequate given the situation. It was frustrating. She and her family had been there for me, despite my not really being anything to them, when I lost my family. Now that I had a chance to return the favor, I found myself at a loss.

              Meredith for her part was silent. She seemed to have drawn into herself. And while she was still paying attention to what she was doing, she was clearly lost in thought. It was only when the sun crested the horizon that I saw the tears in her eyes. Unfortunately, we did not have time to stop. We were sure that back at the castle Malvolio was organizing patrols to find us and capture us.