Freelance Heroics (31 page)

They had prepared extensively, and selected a new route based on the information they had collected so far. After so much work, Gavi would have been disappointed if they weren’t able to get farther than they had before. Fortunately, they had.

She just wished it felt like a victory.

“More incoming!” Gavi bellowed.

“I got it.” Mazik spun around and planted his iron shield on the ground. Blue barriers rippled away from it in every direction, sealing the passage. He crouched and braced himself.

The rumble grew closer—and then, from around the corner, a careening tsunami of burning rocks appeared and crashed into Mazik. He grunted as his barriers buckled, but held.

There was a hollow
clang
on the ground behind Gavi. She turned and, as Raedren opened their arrow-proof water barrel, she reached in, snagged the bucket floating on top, and dragged it through the murky water. “Get back!”

Mazik scuttled out of the way as Gavi slung water over the smoldering pile. Steam boiled upward, but nothing else happened. She did it two more times anyway. Once the rocks were thoroughly soaked, they backed away and watched.

“No bomb in that one either?” asked Gavi.

“Don’t know, don’t care.” Mazik stood up, though he kept his shield oriented toward the dripping rocks. “Either that, or you doused it. Clear!”

“Move, move, move!” barked Shava. Arrows plinked off her armor from gang members ahead. The young archers scuttled out of sight, scattering down multiple pathways.

The corridors the adventurers had found this time were a maze. Gavi suspected this was at least partially the point. The tunnels looked like they had been excavated recently, and there was plenty of ore left in the walls. If the New Lyfe Gang was mining efficiently, they would have widened the area and taken everything, but it looked like they had designed this area with ambushing in mind.

But we have the defenses this time
, Gavi thought as they tromped after the retreating kids. The six adventurers stubbornly stuck together.
We can take it
.

They had been circling the area for at least thirty minutes now. At a familiar crossroads, they took the middle path this time—they had taken the right last time. They moved steadily, dutifully jamming a hidden floodgate as they passed.

“Are you all right?” asked Hectre.

“Huh?” said Gavi. That’s when she realized that she had overtaken Raedren and Uard—she had been too focused on where they were going, and trying to figure out which direction they should go next. “Oh. I’m fine.”

“Are you sure? If you need to slow down, I’ll protect you.”

“Huh?” Gavi snorted. “That’s not necessary. Besides, protecting is his job,” she said, jabbing a thumb at Raedren.

Hectre chuckled. “Of course. But that’s not what I was talking about.” He pointed at her forehead. “You’re bleeding.”

Gavi wiped her hand across her forehead. He was right—she had thought the moisture on her forehead was sweat, but it was blood. Once again, she wished she had been able to find a helmet that fit her. Her armor was bad enough—she was pretty sure it had been made for a man, what with how it pinched her in certain places. At least it was big enough so that she could still move and breathe, even if it was rubbing her neck raw.

“Don’t worry about it.” Gavi glanced down a corridor as they passed. “I—whoa!”

Hectre was already in motion, his body flying down the tunnel like his feet had wings. Ahead, two older boys—who looked as surprised to see the adventurers as they were to see them—raised their shields, but Hectre was too fast. He knocked one off balance with burst of force magick, and then lurched to the side, bringing him into the second gang member’s blindside. There was a clash of metal on metal as their shields collided, and then he grappled with the boy, tearing his weapon away with his free hand.

“We have a few questions we’d like to ask you,” said Hectre, through clenched teeth.

There was a rumble off to the side. The boy shoved at Hectre, shaking himself free—and then Hectre dove out of the way as a mining sled crashed into the wall where he had been standing a second prior. As the two children scuttled out of sight, yellow-tinged winds whirled around Hectre, knocking splinters away.

Gavi gaped as she reached Hectre. She knelt to help him up. “That was impressive.”
I need to learn how to do that
, she added to herself as she checked Hectre for injuries.

Hectre coughed at the ore dust that had filled the corridor. He smiled weakly. “Thank you. Kind words from a beautiful lady such as yourself mean the world to me.”

Gavi snorted and helped him stand. As Shava walked over and began speaking to Hectre, Gavi could hear Raedren’s water barrel clang to the ground beside her. She reached for the bucket and doused the sled, just in case.

Hectre coughed again, and pointed down the corridor the two gang members had fled down. “Good news. Doors up ahead. On the right side. Wooden.”

Gavi peeked around the corner. Sure enough, she could see four doors before the tunnel curved out of sight. She strained her hearing. She could hear voices ahead, as well as footsteps in all the tunnels nearby.

“Let’s see what’s inside,” said Shava. They all agreed.

The six adventurers crept up to the first door. Inside was mining equipment, wheelbarrows half-full of iron ore in the middle, picks and hammers leaning against the walls. The next had barrels of water and wine, mostly empty, and a few similarly empty boxes of food and other provisions. The next one had a small pile of ore, and the fourth—

Gavi held up a hand, opening her mouth to speak, but it was Uard who got there first, her voice barely a whisper. “The voices are coming from this one.”

They crept up to the fourth door. The doorway was larger than the other three, and easier for an adult to fit through. Shava positioned herself off to the side. She nodded to Hectre. He nodded in reply. He counted down from three on his fingers, and then yanked the door open. Shava, Hectre, and Gavi rushed inside.

Inside they found a child, a girl who looked about the size of an eight-year-old, though her features appeared older than that, marking her as at least partially halvelin. She carried no weapons, though she did have an empty quiver on her back, and she wore two bandanas, one across her forehead and the other over her nose and mouth. She was standing over a cot, shaking the person lying—

A thrill of realization went through Gavi. The person on the cot was an
adult
. She could only see the back of their head, but even under the thick blankets Gavi could tell that the sleeper was even taller than her. An adult for sure.

“Did we just find our target?” asked Hectre.

“Who the hell could sleep through all this?” asked Mazik.

Gavi reached for the little girl. “Hey. We’re not going to hurt you. Just—oof!” Gavi staggered as a heavy weight hit her from behind. She stumbled further into the room, lost her balance, and sprawled out over the sleeping bandit. Behind her, she could hear the door slamming shut, and a lock sliding into place.

“Not again!” Mazik turned to the little girl—and found her wiggling into a tiny escape hole underneath the cot. “Oh, no you don’t!” He lunged, trying to grab her legs, but the girl slipped away. A metal door slammed shut there as well, covering her escape.

Gavi scrambled to pick herself off the sleeping bandit, reaching for her sword—and then switched to swearing once she realized what was going on. “Dammit, dammit, dammit!” She whipped the sheets away, revealing the bandit for what it was—rolled-up blankets wearing a pair of boots, with a head carved out of wood underneath a nice wig. “It’s a decoy.”

“And Uard and your tall friend are still outside,” said Shava. Gavi looked around, and realized she was right—only she, Hectre, Shava, and Mazik were trapped this time.

Mazik patted Hectre on the shoulder. “Well, at least you’re trapped in here with us this time. Happy to have you.”

“Oh, yay,” said Hectre.

Mazik snorted, then spun and pounded on the door. “Hey, Rae! Are you okay out there?”

There was a pause, the sound of frantic combat, and then Raedren’s voice, strained and farther away than they would have expected. “Busy. Hurry up.”

While Gavi picked herself up, Mazik tried the handle. It had been locked from the other side. He kicked the door several times. It didn’t budge. He pointed at the door. “
Mazik Missile.
”

Mazik’s spell exploded, cracking and tearing into the wood—and revealing the layer of metal underneath. Mana sloughed off the gleaming metal like so much water. “Tempered steel. Lovely.”

“It’s a trap,” said Gavi. “Again.”

Mazik sighed and slumped against the wall. “Yes. Another trap. How stupid are we?”

Gavi was inclined to agree. She looked around the room. In addition to the cot with the decoy, there was a box of books in one corner—an odd thing to find in a mine, she felt. She walked over and picked up one.
Tactics
. She picked up another.
The Details of War
. Another.
Modern Economics
.

Gavi frowned, trying to wrap her mind around the idea of a well-read bandit.

“Look over here,” said Hectre. Gavi turned to find him pointing at a peephole-sized hole in the wall. He pointed to several other places on every wall except for the one with the door. “I count five.”

Mazik crouched beside Hectre. He cast barriers over his eyes as a precaution, and then peered through. “I don’t see anything.”

There was a sound like a metal pan striking rock, which made the four of them jump. It was coming from the wall with the cot. The gathered together in the middle of the room, their shields raised.

“Hey, adventurers!” came a high-pitched, though likely male, voice.

They looked between each other. Mazik said, “Hey, asshole! What do you want?”

“We want you to leave us alone!” replied the muffled voice.

“No can do, chump.” Mazik crossed his arms. “We’ve been hired to drag your bandit buddy back to town, and that’s what we’re going to do. If you want us to leave, convince him to give himself up.”

“Never going to happen, idiots!”

“Then we’re just going to keep doing this until we get him!” Mazik glared at the wall. “Your leader’s tactics might be pretty clever, but we’re not stupid, and we won’t give up.”

“That’s what they all say!” Gavi could almost hear the voice’s owner sticking his tongue out at them. “Just you wait.”

The four adventurers waited, but nothing happened. After a minute, Mazik, who was closest to the cot, cocked his head. “Hey. Do you hear that?”

Gavi listened. “Sounds like . . . a fire.”

That’s when Gavi realized what was going on. Before she could say anything, black smoke belched into the room, leaking through the holes in the walls. Gavi bent over, her throat burning as a cloud of smoke covered her. She coughed, trying to expel the suffocating fumes from her lungs.

“Godsdammit! Those little bastards are trying to suffocate us
again!
” said Mazik.

“Th-they’re doing a pretty good job of it,” Gavi sputtered. Her vision swam as the room began to fill. She dropped to the floor, sucking at the rapidly vanishing air.

“Oh, no you don’t!” snarled Mazik.

Gavi’s head snapped up. She watched as Mazik strode over to the wall. His silhouette shone clearly through the cloud of smoke, particularly his right arm, which was wreathed in blue flames. He pulled his arm back, getting ready to punch. Gavi leapt to her feet. “No, wait, don’t—!”

Cra-koom!
Smoke billowed into the room as Mazik forced his hand through the widened hole, shards of rock lacerating his arm. Gavi could hear fabric tearing on the other side. “Aha! I guess you were using this?” There was a clatter as Mazik threw something to the ground. The smoke lessened. He reached further, and Gavi could hear sounds of panic on the other side.

Mazik’s face twisted in a fierce grin. “Got you!” Gavi watched as he yanked a small arm back through the hole, its owner squealing in distress. Mazik pinned them against the other side of the wall.

Behind Gavi, the door rattled, and then the handle cracked and fell inward. The door swung open, revealing Raedren and Uard. Raedren pushed the door open as Uard dropped her upraised club and hurried inside.

Mazik nodded at the wall he was pressed against. “Someone knock a way into this place and—Oh,
no
you don’t!” His hand disappeared back through the hole, but he didn’t let go. “How many of you are—
hey!
No biting!” Mazik shook his arm, trying to dislodge his unseen assailant. “I’m serious, I’m going to—hey, is that oil? Wait, no—gah!”

Mazik’s empty hand jerked back into the room, causing him to stagger. Gavi could hear running on the other side of the wall. She coughed and rose to her knees. The smoke had already stopped seeping through the other holes, and was gradually dissipating through the open door.

Mazik at his empty hand. “Dammit. I almost had them.”

“I thought we decided we were going to
ignore
the children.” Shava stalked over to Mazik, and her was voice cold, like wind that presaged a blizzard. She dropped her shield at her feet and stared at Mazik, uncomfortably close. “We’re supposed to be trying
not
to hurt them, not the exact opposite.”

“Yeah, well, that hasn’t been working so well, has it?” Mazik returned her glare, unafraid. “And since when are you such a bleeding heart? You were the one who agreed with me the most that we should do this quest!” He folded his arms. “Not to mention, and I don’t mean to sound like the children who have been
kicking our asses
, but Hectre tried to capture one just a few minutes ago.”

Hectre raised his hand. “To be fair, she chewed me out for that. While you were dousing that sled.”

“Just because I have a sense of professional pride does
not
mean I want to beat up children to complete a job,” snarled Shava.

Mazik let out a sigh. “Look, neither do I. I’m just not going to keep letting these kids keep making fools of us.” He waved his hand, encompassing the entire group. “We’ve all faced worse than this. Hell, we’ve all faced worse in the
last month
. And now these kids are hanging us out to dry. Why?”