Catalyst (Book 1) (21 page)

“Master, what about the one you were talking about?”

“He's just a boy. He hasn’t the knowledge or power to undo the webs.” Premier paused. “However, in case you're right…” He flicked his hand, sending Baal off to investigate.

I scurried from my hiding place, trying to make it back up the stairs before the ogre saw me. I had to pray that the ogre wouldn’t track my scent or pursue me any further. Just in case, instead of going back up to the door that had held the crimson web, I went to the door I had been about to explore earlier, which I had left ajar. I closed it just as I heard the ogre get to the top of the stairs.

I didn't summon my magic, in case Premier sensed it, but I was ready to use it if the ogre or Premier came through the door. I felt the massive ogre walking around on the other side. He sounded like an earthquake. He came closer and stopped outside the door. I clenched my fists. I saw his shadow through the crack between the door and floor, and I stopped breathing.

He didn't open the door. The shadow disappeared and I heard him go through one of the outer doors. It slammed shut.

I wiped the sweat from my brow. I prepared to open the door and escape, half-expecting a trap.

“Hey!” a ragged, coarse voice called from behind me.

I spun around. There was another door with a small barred window set into it. The handle was chained and padlocked. I crept cautiously up to the door, despite my better judgment screaming at me to leave. If Premier kept an ogre, perhaps he kept some other kind of dangerous creature in this room that he planned to unleash upon the land. I peeked inside the room.

“You must help me!” the voice said. A hairy face popped up from nowhere, in front of the little window.

I stumbled backwards. My feet became tangled, and I fell to the floor. I mumbled a curse, hoping Premier or Baal hadn’t heard me fall. I got up, composed myself, and held my fire mana ready.

I moved closer and looked in the window. The prisoner was small, about the size of an elf, yet broad and muscular. His bushy, gray beard hung down to his waist. Through the rents in his ragged clothing, I saw his skin was scarred and bruised. He smelt like Marlese and the others, though not as bad as the ogre. Astonished, I finally realized what he was—a dwarf.

“Quickly!” he said. “You must get me out of here! We’re in grave danger and we haven’t much time!”

I wasn't sure whether to trust him. Then I realized that any prisoner of Premier was probably a friend of mine.

“I will set you free, but you must stand back,” I said, looking over my shoulder. The spell I had ready was going to be fast, but crude. It was also going to hurt.

I grabbed the lock and heated it, forcing it to pop open. I had to bite my tongue; the lock scorched my hand when I yanked it off the chain. The dwarf shot from the room and grabbed me with iron strength.

“Thank the gods you rescued me, lad,” he said. “I’m grateful you did while there’s still time.”

“Time for what?”

“I'll explain later. We must make haste and flee the city.”

I nodded. I didn't want to stay down here longer than I had to.

I took the lead. When we got to the door, I put a finger to my lips. The dwarf nodded in understanding. I opened the door and peered out. No one was there. We walked quietly but quickly.

As we passed through the door that held the crimson web, I heard a slight sound behind me. I whirled, mana at the ready, and saw Premier at the top of the stairs, the ogre right behind him. Premier’s dark eyes met mine, and he smiled.

CHAPTER 16

As soon as I met Premier’s gaze, I reacted without thinking. I performed a quick spell, releasing my fire mana at Premier in a funnel of flame. He caught the fire with his hand and absorbed it. He moved closer. Confident. Not hurrying. I had to think of something to distract him. I looked at the door and came up with an idea.

I pushed the dwarf through the opening, and used wind mana to yank the door off its hinges and send it across the room, smacking into the ogre and Premier. The pair staggered.

“Run!” I yelled to the dwarf.

We ran up the stairs and through the second door. I paused, hearing heavy footsteps behind us. I summoned more mana to shatter the door, and the pieces spiraled at the approaching ogre. He crossed his arms in front of his head as the wooden shards struck like arrows, embedding themselves deep in his flesh. He roared with anger and pain. I didn't wait for Premier to catch up. I ran up the remaining stairs. The dwarf waited for me at the top.

“I'll lead,” he said.

I followed him through the castle. He didn't go straight for the main entrance like I would have done. He seemed to know the castle well, and took a route that avoided most of the guards. I kept listening behind us for the ogre and Premier, but we seemed to have lost them. However, we couldn't avoid the people starting to rise for their daily business. We didn't give them time to ask questions as we ran by.

I thought we would have to contend with the guards at the keep’s entrance, but there weren't any. Their unconscious bodies were off to the side. The elves must have taken care of them. We dashed out of the keep into the dim morning light. We slowed to a fast walk as we headed down the hill, so as not to attract too much attention.

We just had to pass the portcullis, and we would be out of the castle grounds where I could breathe easier. I prayed that Prastian and the others had taken care of the guards, because I had no idea what we were going to do if they hadn’t. I didn’t want to hurt anyone. Unfortunately, when we got near the entrance, we could see the guards were on full alert. They lined the entrance, weapons at the ready, and unconscious and possibly dead guards were being carried away on stretchers.

“Do you know of another exit?” I asked the dwarf, glancing at the walls.

The dwarf stroked his beard. “I’m sure there’s another one, but we not only would have to find it, but the guard there will probably be just as heavy.”

“The front it is.”

We strolled towards the guards with confidence. My plan was to walk right past them, praying they wouldn’t ask any questions and that I wouldn’t have to use my power on them. As we approached, the guards readied their weapons.

“What do you think you’re doing, Wizard?” a guard asked, gripping his sword’s hilt tightly.

“Leaving.”

“You’re not leaving. You’re under investigation for what’s happened here.”

The men atop the walls aimed their crossbows at me. The guards on the ground stayed out of their line of fire, but drew their swords. I summoned the wind around me, ready to use it to disperse the crossbow bolts.

“I didn’t do anything,” I said.

“No, but your elven friends did.” One guard looked up from bandaging a wounded man. It was Jerrel.

I raised my right eyebrow. “I can’t believe my friends would harm anyone. Sharald and King Furlong are allies.”

“Most of my men suffer arrow wounds, and only elves could loose their bows so quickly and accurately.”

“Accurately?” I asked.

“Yes. Prastian made sure he didn’t kill any of them.”

“That’s good.”

Jerrel glared at me. “Some suffered broken bones from falling off the wall, and one will never lift a weapon again.”

“I’m sorry about that, but we need to leave.”

“You’re not going anywhere,” the other guard said, eyeing me.

“Please,” I said, ignoring him and focusing on Jerrel. He was the only guard who hadn’t drawn his weapon. Maybe he could be reasoned with. “I don’t want to hurt you or your men.”

Jerrel’s hard eyes stared at me, then moved to my companion. He saw the wounds on the dwarf’s body. Jerrel’s eyes settled on me. His gaze never wavered, and neither did mine. I was leaving one way or another. I couldn’t be caught. If I was, not even the princess could help.

Finally, Jerrel said, “You may go.” The guards around us lowered their weapons. “You obviously weren’t responsible for the attack, and we have no orders to detain you.”

“Premier won’t be pleased about this,” the glaring guard next to him said.

“We serve King Furlong and Princess Krystal. No one else. Understood?”

“Yes, sir,” the man said, sheathing his sword.

“I suggest you hurry, Wizard Hellsfire,” Jerrel said.

I nodded. As we passed him, I said, “Thank you, and—you’re not the only one who serves Princess Krystal.”

“I know.”

The dwarf and I hurried out of the castle, disappearing into the marketplace, doing our best to blend in with the people there.

----

“Nice work, lad,” the dwarf said when we were well away from the castle. “I was afraid we were going to have to fight our way out. And thanks for rescuing me.”

“No problem, although we're not safe yet.” I glanced over my shoulder, expecting to see Premier come bursting of the castle, or at least see riders chasing us down. “We've got to leave the city. I’m not sure if Jerrel’s given us enough time.”

“I agree.” He fiddled with his beard. “We're going to need horses.”

“I have my own. I can buy you one and new clothes, and then we can go our separate ways.”

“You're not coming with me, lad?”

I raised an eyebrow. “To where?”

“Erlam. I could use your help.”

I shook my head. I had to get to the elves, and stop Premier. “Can't. I've got important things to do.”

“This concerns all of Northern Shala.”

I paused and looked down at him. “What do you mean?”

“There's an army of Wasteland creatures coming to Alexandria. They must be stopped!”

I saw a contingent of guards running up the street. I pulled the dwarf around the corner of a building and readied my magic. However, they went past us.

“I agree with you,” I said. “I was just going to go to Sharald to get help from the elves.”

The dwarf's bushy eyebrows went up. “Very wise of you, lad, but Alexandria's going to need more help than that. I've seen the creatures. There’s far too many for either Alexandria or Sharald.”

“And you can vouch that Erlam will send its army here?”

He nodded. “Aye.”

I glanced back at the castle, worrying about Krystal. “I'll go with you, but first I need to warn the princess. Now that we’re past the castle walls, if I have any problems, you can and should escape.”

“You can't. The guards will arrest you, and Premier will have you executed.”

“I'll use my magic to get by them.”

“What about Premier?”

“I don't care!” I clenched my fists, doing my best to control the wildfire storming inside. I couldn't get the picture of Premier’s mocking smile out of my head. “She needs to be warned. Things are far more dangerous than I thought they'd be—than she thought they’d be.”

He placed a strong hand on my shoulder and said in a calm voice, “I wish we could warn her, lad. I tried to tell the king, but it was Premier who imprisoned me before I could do so. Do you honestly believe you could get to her and then get away?”

The fire inside me subsided as I realized the truth. “I suppose not.” I sighed, and my shoulders slumped. “I don't even know who you are.”

“Jastillian of the Rammalong House.” He grasped my forearm.

“Hellsfire.”

 
“Good. Now's let get out of here, lad.”

I took one last look at the castle and prayed to the gods that Krystal would be all right and that I'd see her again. If anything were to happen to her…

“I'll be back.” I promised to Krystal.

I retrieved my horse and bought one for Jastillian, as well as some clothes that were far too big for him. We trotted out of Alexandria, but as soon as we were past the city walls we broke our horses into a full gallop. We didn’t slow down until we were out of sight of the city. After that we alternated between trotting and walking the horses.

I kept glancing over my shoulder, expecting to see a cloud of dust as a horde of guards galloped after us. Luckily, there wasn’t. Either Jerrel or Krystal had bought us time, or Premier didn’t want word of the dwarf and our escape to get out to anyone. Either way, I was thankful.

As tough and strong as Jastillian looked, he couldn’t keep up the pace we were going. His body finally gave out on him, until he could barely hang onto the horse’s reins or sit up straight when we rode. I couldn’t either. I rubbed my eyes, remembering I had been up half the night. We decided to stop for a rest. Our bellies needed to be filled, and the horses needed to graze.

“I’ll try to scrounge up some kindling and firewood,” Jastillian said.

“And I’ll go and try to get something to eat.”

I walked around for a bit, looking for anything edible on the barren plains. It took me awhile to find something to eat, and when I did, the roots I pulled weren’t exactly the tastiest. Thank the gods I had some dates and dried fruit in my purse. I was about to walk back to camp, but then I thought of Jastillian. He must be terribly hungry, and I knew dwarves loved meat.

I had hunted years ago in Sedah, and finally I flushed a brown hare out of the scrub. He stared at me with his liquid brown eyes, unmoving. I created a quick fireball and flung it at him. By the time he decided to run, it was too late. He died with a shriek. I slung the dead animal over my shoulder and went back to camp. I plopped down near the roaring fire and gave Jastillian the hare.

“Good job, lad,” Jastillian said. “You wouldn’t happen to have a knife on you, would you?”

I nodded and gave him my dagger. Jastillian skinned and cooked the rabbit. What would have smelled delicious to me a couple of years ago now made my stomach churn. It rumbled, and I had to force my tongue to remain still. Jastillian tore into the rabbit, leaving nothing but bones. I ate the food I had gathered along with what was in my purse. I was more tired than hungry anyway.

“That was delicious!” Jastillian said and licked his fingers. “Thank the gods for good food! It has been weeks since I last had anything more than bread and water. I would have offered you some, since you were the one who caught it, but I know wizards don’t eat any meat.”

I sighed and rubbed my furrowed brow. “Are you going to tell me how you ended up in Premier’s dungeon, or do I have to guess?”

“I’m sorry, lad. I suppose I’ve kept you in the dark long enough.” Jastillian stroked his beard. “I guess I should start from the beginning. I’ve never seen or heard about you before, Wizard Hellsfire—”

I blushed at the title. “Please, just Hellsfire.”

He tilted his head. “Hellsfire, and I do
a lot
of traveling. But I can say for certain, you’re a true friend if I ever met one.”

“I’ve never met a dwarf before.”

Jastillian chuckled. “You know about dwarves, lad?”