Questing Sucks! Book II (16 page)

There was only one thing to do. They needed to tell Patrick and pray to the Gods that he knew what course of action to take.

The sight of the approaching city stretching across the sky stunned Cah’lia; to call it something out of a dream would be an understatement. Rather than one connected mass of land, it was a series of floating, circular platforms, ranging from small to large enough to house several tall buildings.

They had flown through the night, the trip taking longer than expected. Now, Cah’lia gasped in astonishment as the beautiful land of Magia filled her vision. Lights shone from every window, street, and on the edges of the platforms. Just two days prior, Cah’lia had been amazed by the miracle of flight. Now, Wolly’s invention faded to the back of her mind, and the city of Magia became the thing most miraculous to her.

“Is this real?” she whispered. She had to speak directly into Sehn’s ear to be heard over the powerful flapping of the gryphon’s wings.

Tall spire towers were positioned in a ring around Magia in what Cah’lia assumed served as guard posts. She and Sehn flew just below the city’s lowest platform, low enough that the several gryphons patrolling the skies wouldn’t spot them. Cah’lia had no idea what the rulers of Magia would make of their presence, so she’d asked Sehn to keep the beast as low as possible. They needed to sneak in and assess the situation.

She could spot several smaller platforms that looked like landing pads for gryphons, and Cah’lia supposed that, had they been invited guests, those would be the places to land. For the time being, she searched for a place to set down while the cool night wind beat against them.

The colors were what most amazed Cah’lia. Aside from the mechanical lights that Wolly had created, she had only ever seen the typical orange of torchlight. Here, however, lights of various colors added to her growing sense of wonder: blue, green, red, and everything in the middle—all could be seen depending on where one looked. Cah’lia’s best guess was that the various colors served as a sort of guide during nighttime. She gathered that the landing areas had red lights, the residential ones blue, the spire towers orange, and Cah’lia wasn’t certain about the rest, but she did suspect that the verdant green indicated shopping areas.

“All right,” Cah’lia thought aloud, “we just need to find a way to sneak in, and then we can—”

“What!” Sehn shouted, cutting her off. Cah’lia could only see his back, but it didn’t take much to picture a snarl on his face. “What did you just say, Cah’lia?”

Cah’lia gulped. She hadn’t meant to vocalize her thoughts. Though at this point, she might as well tell the truth. “I said we need to find a way to sneak in.”

“Sneak in? Sneak in! You told me we were flying low because it would draw the most attention. We must turn around at once.”

Cah’lia flared in annoyance. Why was it that Sehn always had to make everything difficult? She kept her voice steady, but on the inside, she wanted to scream. It was bad enough she’d been flying on the animal so long that her butt had gone numb, but now she had to take more of Sehn’s idiocy? She knew what the right path to take was. She knew how to keep them safe. So why wouldn’t Sehn just listen to her for once?

“Look, we don’t know anything about this place. All we know is that we’re supposed to find some mage-boy here. Let’s just go in, get a feel for the land, ask a few questions, and plan things out carefully.”

Sehn barked an order at the gryphon, and to Cah’lia’s horror, the beast violently pulled up, flapping its wings faster and climbing into the sky. The creature soared above the platforms, until Cah’lia was certain that anyone who bothered to look would spot them.

“The Great Sehn does nothing carefully! All things must be done with haste and without thought!”

At this, Cah’lia did scream. “No, no, no! Stop, you idiot! They’ll see us!”

“Of course they will, Fool’lia. I planned on it. There is nothing to be afraid of.”

Cah’lia had to alternate between outrage, fear, and amazement, because as they gained altitude, an aerial view of Magia caught her attention. From above, the floating platforms seemed more connected and the distance between them shorter. She could now see patterns to their layout; no two were spaced too far apart from another. Homes—or what Cah’lia assumed to be homes—had landing pads instead of entryways, which meant citizens flew from place to place, a realization that fascinated her.

They gained more altitude, and now Cah’lia could see the true scope and size of Magia—it was larger than Hahl. There were at least fifty gryphons farther above both leaving and returning to the city at any given time, as well as several hundred below carrying passengers from place to place. At the sight of so much activity, Cah’lia’s mood brightened.

Maybe this won’t be so bad after all
.
There’s so many gryphons that we won’t be anything out of the ordinary
.
I guess for once
,
Sehn was right
.
There really is nothing to be afraid of
.
We’re just two riders among hundreds
.

Cah’lia brainstormed as she took in the city below her. For once, Sehn’s impulsiveness had come in handy. To any onlooker, they were just one more gryphon out of hundreds. Yet now, they could survey the area and form a plan. Things were looking up…

…and that was when Sehn reached down to grab the pack on the gryphon’s side, removing the horn Wolly had given him, the one he’d used back in Hahl. Cah’lia froze in panic. She watched in a trance as Sehn held the device to his lips.

He couldn’t
.
He wouldn’t
.

He did.

Sehn, in the single stupidest act committed by any elf in history, pressed the button on the bottom of the device and then shouted into what Wolly had called, “The dwarven Voice Amplifier.”

As Sehn’s booming voice thundered out of the amplifier and carried to the thousands of people below, Cah’lia thought of jumping off the gryphon and falling to her death; anything would be better than being seen with Sehn.

“ATTENTION, SKY PEOPLE!” he roared. All at once, spotlights left the tall spires around the city, focusing on the source of the noise. They reminded Cah’lia of lighthouses. She had to close her eyes to block out the overwhelming brightness. How could this have happened? Maybe if she jumped she’d land in a pond.

The spotlights didn’t seem to alarm Sehn. If anything, they added to his ego. But the citizens of Magia were visibly annoyed, if not bothered. Cah’lia could see hundreds of robed figures emerging onto the landing pads outside of their homes, as well as many—whom she assumed were mages—rushing out of various complexes around the city. All cupped their eyes and looked up at her and Sehn. She needed to apologize before Sehn got them slaughtered.

“Sehn!” Cah’lia screeched, and then covered her mouth as the device picked up her voice and broadcasted it to the thousands below. She lowered her voice. “Give me the horn, you buffoon. Hurry, while I still might have a chance of getting us out of this mess.

Sehn ignored her and addressed the city. “I AM THE GREAT SEHN! I HAVE COME TO DESTROY YOU, AND I DO NOT COME IN PEACE. I REPEAT, I DO
NOT
COME IN PEACE. I AM A THREAT TO EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU, INCLUDING YOUR CHILDREN. IF YOU SURRENDER NOW, I WILL ONLY REQUIRE HALF OF YOU TO DIE. CONSIDER YOURSELVES IN A STATE OF WAR.”

Cah’lia tried to snatch the voice amplifier, but Sehn pushed her away and deflected her grabs, all while he continued to threaten innocent lives.

“I KNOW HOW TO USE MAGIC, YOU FOOLISH SKY MORTALS! I WILL NOW FIRE OFF A WARNING SHOT.
REMMOS SALAS
!”

Still staving off Cah’lia with one hand, Sehn extended his other and launched a fireball down towards the city, bright against the dark sky. In total, it only traveled a short distance, no more than a few yards, before a purple protective barrier popped into existence, wrapping around the city like a cocoon. It reduced Sehn’s fireball to nothing more than a puff of smoke.

Sehn stared dumbly as his magic was undone before him. Did the idiot
actually
believe something like that would work? Here he was, hovering above the world’s center of magic, and he thought he could defeat the entire population of mages with a single spell? And one of the only two he knew, at that.

Unless we count the rainbow spell
,
Cah’lia thought with a moan.

An eerie calm settled over the city while her nerves caused a painful bubbling in her stomach. Then, things happened too fast for her eyes to follow. In an instant, a vibrant glow covered Magia, stretching as far as the eye could see. It was only as the light grew in luminosity that Cah’lia realized that what she saw wasn’t just a light—it was a thousand magical projectiles launched from likely the same number of mages.

“What have you done, Sehn? What have you done?”

“Calm yourself, woman. The Great Sehn has everything under control.”

There were so many multi-colored beams of light heading towards them that Cah’lia said her final prayers to Helena. Sehn barked another command at his gryphon, and the animal swerved midflight, miraculously evading one, two, and then three of the fast-moving projectiles launched from below. Yet it mattered little, because there were a thousand more just behind the evaded three and all were hurtling towards them.

The animal repeatedly dove and climbed, the violent rocking motion causing Cah’lia to tremble with nausea. Several of the magical bolts came dangerously close to hitting their mark. At one point, Cah’lia was certain they’d be hit, but the gryphon veered hard to the left, almost knocking her out of the saddle.

As impossible as it seemed, Sehn’s beast managed to avoid one attack after the next. Could the thing actually protect them from the angry mages? One by one, Sehn’s mount performed a series of quick maneuvers and narrowly evaded each of the mages’ projectiles.

Sehn laughed evilly. “Do you see now, Cah’lia? The Great Sehn has everything under con—”

“Watch out!” Cah’lia shouted.

It was too late. A soaring green beam of light struck the gryphon head on, enveloping Cah’lia with its bright green glow. Everything faded from her sight. Strangely, there was no pain: only the sensation of falling. The world didn’t darken—it greened. Nothing was visible other than a world filled with this bright green light. Cah’lia’s breathing slowed, and she became drowsy despite the sense of falling to her death. Was this it? Was this how she’d finally die?

“How the
fuck
did this happen!” Sehn roared, gripping the steel prison bars until his knuckles turned white. “This is…this is
your
fault, Cah’lia. Your constant bitching made me lose.”

Cah’lia had been on the verge of snapping for the past two hours. She’d been quiet, thoughtful, and by some miracle, calm. Now, she snapped. She leapt at Sehn like a starving animal pouncing on its soon-to-be dinner. It was only due to Shina and Orellia’s interference that she didn’t kill him then and there. They grabbed her and held her back.

“I made you…lose?” Cah’lia shouted. “Why, you—oh! I am so angry with you right now, Sehn. You don’t even know.”

Cah’lia took a deep breath and calmed herself. For whatever reason, the mages who attacked them had decided to use nonlethal magic. Cah’lia had blacked out after their gryphon had been struck. She’d awoken what she assumed to be several hours later. She recalled a burly guard had dragged her and Sehn into the cell that they were now locked inside.

“I’m never doing anything with you again,” Cah’lia said. “I swear it.”

Shina took up a position in the middle of the cell, keeping Cah’lia and Sehn separated. Of all present, she looked the most disgusted, while the mage-boy, Kellar, appeared nothing if not amused. He hadn’t been able to stop laughing since Sehn had been dragged in. Even now, he occasionally held a hand to his mouth and snorted laughter.

“It’s not funny, Kellar,” Shina said. “From what Cah’lia told us, my brother came here to rescue everyone, and now he’s right in here with us.”

At this, Kellar exploded with laughter. He placed a hand on a corner of the cell’s wall, steadying himself; he looked on the verge of falling down. Sehn spat on the floor and turned to face the other cellmates.

“Listen up, you fools. This was all part of my plan. I will destroy this place from the inside out.”

Shina sighed. “Sure you will.”

Cah’lia watched the exchange with tears close to forming in her eyes. They were in an overcrowded cell with fewer beds than there were people and only a single toilet. She recognized Orellia, Shina, and Kellar, but she didn’t know who the other three were: a middle-aged women and an elderly man. Her thoughts were frantic and sporadic. One minute, she attempted to plan a way to escape, and the next, she promised herself she’d murder Sehn in his sleep.

Shina tapped her brother on the shoulder.

“What do you want, Shina?” he asked.

“I want you to get some rest, because they’ll come for you soon to interrogate you. It’s how things work here. You’re new, so you’ll be picked on for sure. Listen, brother, you need to tell them whatever they want to know and be done with it. Otherwise, they’ll torture you.”

Sehn laughed. “The Great Sehn cannot be interrogated. I will embed fear in their hearts.” He crossed his arms and defiantly lifted his chin. “All shall come to learn the glorious name of the Great Sehn.”

It’s amazing
,
Cah’lia thought.
He still won’t admit he messed up
.

“Excuse me, Cah’lia,” Orellia said. “Why is it you’ve come here, anyway? And how did you know where to find us? It was that woman, Saerina, wasn't it?”

Cah’lia took a deep breath. “Yes, it was Princess Saerina." Cah'lia looked at the mage-boy. “Kellar, you might want to sit down for this.”

As if sensing the importance of what she needed to tell him, a frown crossed the boy’s face, but nevertheless, he nodded. Then he made his was across the cell towards Cah’lia and Orellia.

He may as well know the truth
.

Cah’lia inhaled and began telling him the news: that his brother had been captured and that his people were being used to fight a war against the Kingdom. But mostly, that his father had been murdered, and that a terrible darkness had descended over the lands of his birth.

As if struck, Kellar backed away from Cah’lia, almost stumbling over a bed behind him. Cah’lia watched as he adamantly shook his head. Shina attempted to comfort him, taking his hand into her own and whispering reassurances.

“My dad isn’t dead,” Kellar said, speaking as if it were an unquestionable fact. “I don’t think you’d lie to me—you seem like an honorable elf—so you’re probably just confused.”

Cah’lia ignored the others in the room, including Orellia, who pretended to look away, appearing disinterested. The other two mages followed in suit. Through casual conversation, Cah’lia had learned that the elderly man was called Benjamin, and the middle-aged woman was named Iona; both were mages.

Everyone aside form Cah’lia averted their eyes, looking at everything except for Kellar. The only one present who appeared to be genuinely bored was Sehn. Not only didn’t he seem to care, but judging by the way he sat in front by the cell door with his legs folded, he appeared to be in a world of his own.

“What I’ve told you is the truth,” Cah’lia said. “Look, I know this is hard to hear, but the army that attacked Hahl was made up of mostly Drashian soldiers. They told us themselves what’d happened, and why they had broken their oath of peace with the Kingdom of the Seven Pillars.”

“That’s a lie!” Kellar shouted—then looked taken aback. He exhaled and lowered his voice. “I’m sorry for shouting. Sometimes I let my temper get the better of me, but what you’re saying can’t be true. I killed a lot of men in that invading army, and I’ve seen their faces—they were Kingdom men, and if not Kingdom men, then they were humans from somewhere else, but they weren’t Drashian. Not to mention that no self-respecting Drashian soldier would ever set villages on fire and kill innocent people.”

Cah’lia nodded. “I know that, and you’re correct: the people you killed were all former Kingdom men.”

Kellar paused. He lowered his eyes as if in deep thought. After a moment, he looked up and said, “That makes no sense. In one breath, you’re telling me they were mostly Drashian men, and now in another, you’re telling me they weren’t?”

“No, that’s not what I’m saying. The men you fought were in fact former Kingdom men, but they were also the raiding and scouting parties, a separate force entirely from the men who led the assault on Hahl. While you and the farmers went off and took care of the raiding parties, the main force, composed of Drashian soldiers, fought honorably against the Kingdom soldiers, and they did so because your brother, Ren is his name, right? He’s been captured, and the Drashians are acting under a threat to his life. He needs you, Kellar.”

Under ordinary circumstances, Cah’lia would encourage the boy to take a walk, stretch his legs, and think things through while he vented off some of his rage, but they were locked inside an overcrowded cell that left little room for personal space.

Kellar paced back and forth, his agitation clear in each step. He was only able to take two small strides before turning around and heading in the opposite direction; it caused Cah’lia a degree of claustrophobia to be reminded of how cramped this place was.

For the next hour, no one spoke while Kellar continued his pacing, which began to unsettle Cah’lia. She wished she could offer the boy some kind of comfort, but she knew there was nothing that could be said; he’d just found out his father was dead. If anything, it was amazing he wasn’t in tears.

“I can’t do anything,” he said at last, breaking the hour-long silence. He ran a hand over his forehead and through his brown hair, wiping away a trickle of sweat. “We’re stuck in here with no way out, and I can’t do anything to help my people.”

Orellia and Shina exchanged a brief glance, and then Shina walked over to the window, peering out into the night stars.

“This is wrong,” she said. “All of it. Archmage Duncan shouldn’t be allowed to treat us this way. We haven’t been tried or convicted of any wrongdoing yet.”

“Who?” Cah’lia asked.

Shina sighed. “Archmage Duncan. He’s the one that ordered us imprisoned. Ah, to put it in terms you might understand, an Archmage is like…it’s like one of the Kingdom’s lords, and there are five of them who answer only to the Holy Magus, who would be like your king. Duncan is abusing his power by keeping us here, and the fact that we haven’t been released yet means that the Holy Magus—or the other Archmages—either don’t know we’re here or they don’t care. But that doesn’t make sense. None of this does.”

“You’re damn right it doesn’t,” Benjamin said. He sat on one of the beds across from Iona, who nodded at his words. The old mage sucked loudly on one of his chipped teeth while he spoke. “How can they not know? Hell, half of Magia saw us unlawfully kidnapped. You don’t just keep something like that a secret. No, I think something bigger is going on here; something bigger than any of us can understand.”

“But what?” Orellia asked. “You can’t mean to tell me that the other Archmages are going along with Duncan’s madness? After all, once Duncan has—”

“Fuck Duncan!” Sehn shouted, jumping to his feet and putting a direct end to their conversation. A grin covered his face. He lifted his chin and released a mighty laugh. “I don’t know who this ‘Duncan’ fool is, and I don’t care, either. The Great Sehn has just brainstormed a genius escape plan.”

Here we go again
,
Cah’lia thought, barely able to contain her frustration.
Looks like he finally decided to listen in on the conversation
.
Why couldn’t he just stay in his own head a little longer
?

What was odd was that Kellar’s eyes lit up with wonder, as if he were seriously considering Sehn’s words. Cah’lia didn’t take him for a fool, so why did he appear interested in what Sehn had to say?

Iona cleared her throat. “Pardon me, my good elf, but we were in the middle of a conversation here. It is quite rude of you to interrupt us. Please, kindly wait for your turn to speak.”

Cah’lia let out an exhausted breath as Sehn narrowed his eyes on the mage-woman. He hopped over two clumsily placed beds, which had been brought into the room to accommodate the two new ‘guests’, and stood close enough to Iona that their noses touched.

“How dare you ask Sehn to wait for something?” he barked at her, rage in his voice.

The woman let out a screech as Sehn bent down and hoisted her up. He raised his arms, reaching almost to the ceiling. The woman shrieked as she lay flat above his head. Sehn made as if to throw her, and she let out another startled cry.

“Sehn!” Orellia, Shina, and Cah’lia shouted in unison. “Put Iona down!”

“Yes, yes, put me down!” she pleaded.

Cah’lia knew that Sehn wouldn’t actually hurt the woman, but still, this was taking things too far. He waited until the woman cried out a few more times, and then he carefully lowered her back down. The moment her feet clicked against the cell floor, she rushed over to the other end of the room, hiding behind Orellia.

“I take it I have your attention now?” Sehn asked.

Cah’lia grunted in disgust. “There’s no way we’re going to listen to you after doing something like that, Sehn. You might as well—”

“Let him speak,” Kellar said. He took two steps forward until, occupying the spot where Iona had been, it was he who stood nose-to-nose with Sehn. Kellar appeared unafraid despite Sehn’s treatment of the poor mage-woman. He stood bravely before Sehn, lacking any bitterness or contempt in his eyes.

“You said you had an idea?”

Sehn nodded confidently. Cah’lia could tell when Sehn was bluffing or when he honestly believed he was on to something, and as he straightened his back and released another arrogant chuckle, Cah’lia wondered if he might actually have a legitimate idea, because at the very least, he wasn’t bluffing.

Sehn waved an arm around the room. “I’ve been thinking, and I’ve noticed something. This room, it is made up of stuff, yes? It has a floor and a window.”

“No, really?” Shina asked, rolling her eyes. “Brother, you’re very smart, you know that? Stop nodding! I’m insulting you, you idiot, not complimenting you! Yes, I’m sure we’ve all noticed that the room is made of ‘stuff.’ Like walls, a ceiling, and a door. You’re a genius.”

Sehn grinned. “Well then, are you ready for what my supreme Godly intellect has thought up? I’ve been thinking about this for the past hour, and I’ve figured a way out of here.”

Shina leaned just a little closer to Sehn, clearly wanting to hear more but struggling to appear disinterested. “What is it?”

“Okay, are you ready for this? So I was thinking: why can’t we leave? Because there’s ‘stuff’ everywhere, right? But wait a minute! What do we know about stuff? Well, we know that stuff can be destroyed, and mages can blow stuff up with magic. What’s our problem? There’s stuff in our way. Put two and two together, and the answer is clear; we just need to use magic and blow our way out of here. Hah! Problem solved. Now, bow before the Great Sehn’s creative thinking.”

Shina gripped her hands into fists, shaking with anger. Cah’lia worried that this time it would be
her
job to stop a fight from breaking out. Kellar, as if forgetting the horrible news Cah’lia had delivered, erupted with more laughter while Orellia shook her head and let out a defeated sigh.

“You
idiot
,” Shina said to him. “Do you actually believe we wouldn’t have thought to use magic to escape? That’s your big idea? Tell a bunch of mages to use their magic?” Shina clenched her teeth so tightly that Cah’lia could hear the sound of them grinding. “This place is warded against magic use. If it were so simple, we’d have done this many days ago!”