Questing Sucks! Book II (31 page)

A brilliant streak of red, orange, green, yellow, and blue illuminated the night sky, drowning out the moonlight. Even Sehn was amazed at the spectacular sight, enough so that it almost took his breath away and stopped his chanting. Now, a rainbow filled the night sky.

Then a second and third appeared, and the beautiful array of colors grew in intensity and luminosity. One after another, rainbow upon rainbow brightened the nighttime sky, the brunt of its glow cast on the immediate area around Sehn. It became so blinding that after the seventh rainbow he was forced to avert his eyes.

“What is this magic?” one of the assassins asked. Sehn couldn’t tell which of them spoke. The voice was quiet.

“I do not know,” said another, or possibly the same; Sehn couldn’t tell.

“How does one create rainbows at night? What kind of divine…what has the elf done? How can this be so?”

Sehn seized the opportunity while he still had it. “Now!” he hissed at his minion.

While the assassins were distracted and unable to see, Sehn charged at the three in front of him, while the Champion threw himself at the fourth. Sehn sheathed his sword as he ran. With the blinding light, none of the assassins saw him approach.

He jumped on top of the first, knocking the man down. Sehn grabbed the assassin’s head, picked it up, and then slammed it on the ground, knocking the man out cold. The other two, now fully illuminated under the blinding, multi-colored light, didn’t appear to notice that Sehn had taken out one of their comrades. Grinning, Sehn leapt on top of the second one, bringing his arms around the assassin’s neck and squeezing until he too had lost consciousness. Finally, Sehn tapped the last one still standing on the shoulder.

The assassin, as if snapping out of a trance, attempted to raise his blade. Sehn didn’t give him the chance. With a swift kick, Sehn’s foot crashed into his groin area, and the assassin howled in agony. Sehn followed up the kick with a jab between the assassin’s eyes, and then he too was out cold.

Sehn hoped the Champion had subdued Ghell and the remaining assassin. The ridiculous, artificial rainbow light was rendering everything impossible to see. Sehn cupped his hands in front of his narrowed eyes and slowly made his way over to where he believed the Champion to be.

He almost tripped over something—a body. Kneeling down, Sehn breathed a sigh of relief when he touched the—thankfully still breathing—form of one of the assassins.

“My minion!” Sehn called. “Where are you? Are you okay?”

“I am…fine, master,” the Champion whispered from somewhere nearby. “But I believe Commander Ghell has escaped.”

Sehn paused a moment, thinking. “Then…then if he ran away…then that means we won. We won!
YES
!” Sehn threw his arms up in the air and cheered. “He ran away! As do all intelligent beings when facing the Great Sehn! Champion, my minion! Did you see what I did?”

“I saw, master.”

“If anyone asks, what will you say?”

Sehn must have been hearing things, because it almost sounded as if his minion let out a disobedient sigh.

“I will say that…master singlehandedly summoned…?”

“Death Rainbows,” Sehn said.

“…yes, Death Rainbows. And that master used them to…?”

“To send out death beams and smite his enemies into crumb-sized specks of nothing.”

“…yes, death beams,” the Champion finished.

“See to it that you do not forget the bit about the crumbs. It is equally important. Failure to remember will result in a fine of no less than five hundred elvens and four months in prison.”

Sehn felt around him, effectively blind. Eventually his hand wrapped around the steel-like shoulder of the Champion. A powerful sense of victory rushed into him. He had to stop himself from hugging his powerful ally. Gods help him if word ever got out of that!

“Let’s get out of here,” Sehn said. “I can’t make these deathbows go away, and the bright light is making my eyes hurt—ah, I mean, it’s making my eyes see
better
.”

Sehn snickered at the thought of all the confused citizens of Hahl, who were undoubtedly woken up and startled by the fantastic array of light, regardless of where they lived in the city. The light in this area was now so intense that Sehn feared if he looked directly at it he’d go blind.

“We did it!” Sehn roared. “You have done well, my minion. When the historians tell the story of how the Great Sehn defeated the shadow bitches, there shall be an annotation on the bottom of page six-hundred-and-four that mentions how his fierce, loyal minion
almost
helped!”

“I am…honored, master. Please do forgive my eyes, for if they…appear to be rolling, it is due to such painful light.”

“You are forgiven. Now, come, let us find Nero!”

“Let us indeed, master.”

Sehn let out a menacing laugh and began walking with his minion—his friend.

“And while we search, let me tell you about the time I defeated the fifty great shadow lords in the city of Hahl.”

“They’re shadow lords now?”

“Foolish minion! They were always shadow lords.”

Cah’lia ran as fast as her legs would carry her. The only thing holding her together was concern for her little brother. But without any clue of where to look for him, she knew her immediate priority was ensuring Rina’s safety. Though Patrick had assured her that the little human girl was safe and under guard, Cah’lia wouldn’t rest until she saw Rina with her own eyes.

She heard a great deal of panting from behind as she sprinted through Hahl’s dark streets; Patrick, Orellia, and Shina were having difficulty keeping up, and they were beginning to fall behind. Only Kellar seemed apt to match her speed, running right beside her. Not that Cah’lia minded. Although the boy was young, she was sure of one thing: of all present, Kellar was the one she’d most like to have by her side if she ran into trouble.

Eventually, the sound of heavy breathing dulled, and Cah’lia looked over her shoulder. Aside from Shina, who grabbed her stomach and slowed to barely a jog, Patrick and Orellia had completely stopped moving and were bent over, breathing heavily.

It’ll be okay
,
Cah’lia thought.
I know where Rina’s being kept
,
and I’ve got the mage-boy with me
.

Kellar showed no sign of fatigue. He kept pace alongside her. If anything, the moment Patrick and the others had fallen behind, the boy offered her a determined grin that seemed to suggest they run a little faster.

Fine by me
.

“Come on,” Cah’lia said to the boy. She glanced over her shoulder to where Patrick and Orellia had faded from view; she could just make out Shina, who also faded from sight as they rounded a corner at the end of a widening street. “They can catch up.”

He grunted in agreement and darted ahead so fast that Cah’lia became momentarily stunned. She wondered how much energy the boy had held back on their trek through the valley.
Nero could learn a thing or two from Kellar
.

Cah’lia winced at the thought of her brother’s name, then winced a second time for wincing at the first. Shame and disgust took over her. Why was she acting as if her brother was long since dead and his name was now but a painful memory? They
would
find him, and whoever kidnapped her brother would pay. But this wasn’t the time or place to let worry overcome her, so she took a deep breath and prepared to hurry after the mage-boy.

She stopped as a powerful burst of light streaked across the night sky, making such an unexpected, explosive appearance that Cah’lia lost her footing and barely recovered in time to stop herself from falling on her face. Kellar seemed taken aback as well, because a dozen or so feet in front of Cah’lia, he came to a halt and stared up at the sky.

“Is that a…?” he began.

“A rainbow,” Cah’lia finished in a whisper.

“At night?” Kellar asked. He laughed. “But that’s impossible, and beautiful, and…wow! Look”—he pointed—“there’s another one joining the first. And now a third one! And now a fourth. Okay, my eyes are starting to hurt.” He looked away. “Cah’lia, what’s going on here?”

“I wish I could tell you I didn’t know, but unfortunately I do.” Cah’lia rolled her eyes. “I don’t know the how or even why behind it, but I know the
what
.” She snapped her fingers. “No doubt about it, that’s Sehn’s doing.”

“Sehn? But why would he summon rainbows? And how is he even doing it? There’s no spell in the books for making a…a nighttime rainbow. Umm, I mean, I guess if ten great mages all conjured really powerful beams of multicolored light, held them in place, then gave them a faded look this would be possible. But
this
? This doesn’t make any sense.”

“Nothing with Sehn ever does,” Cah’lia said with a sigh. “The best thing that we can hope for—at least from my experience in dealing with that loveable idiot—is that, whatever he’s doing, he’s doing it on purpose. When it comes to Sehn, whether he’s doing something intentionally or not often becomes more important than
why
he’s doing it. Someday I’ll tell you about his ‘thousand-year war’ against the sun.”

“Shina already told me,” Kellar said.

Cah’lia shook her head. “We may as well keep going. There’s nothing we can do to help either way.”

Kellar nodded. “I agree.” With that, he resumed his dash through Hahl’s streets, and Cah’lia followed. Thanks to the commotion Sehn’s magic had drummed up, people were now waking up and peering through their windows, casting suspicious glares down on her and the mage-boy as they fled through the night towards Mayor Pumpus’s mansion where Rina was being kept.

Cah’lia was sure everything would be fine. But it was better to be safe than sorry.

One would think that dying at the hands of an attractive elven woman, getting sent to hell, and then finally being reborn in some rotting carcass would be all ills and nothing to write home about. Yet as Ghell crept through the shadows, unseen thanks to the powerful magic his God had imparted onto him, he realized that there were still things left in the world for which to be thankful.

He waltzed through the mayor’s mansion as if it belonged to him, heading straight past a line of well-armed guards who sniffed the air as if detecting a hint of his rotting stench as he neared them. Then the armored men glared at one another a moment before breaking out into childish snickers like a pack of blistering idiots. If Ghell had more time, he’d have killed them. For now, he was simply grateful he could remain hidden in shadow.

No matter where he looked, the result was the same: a violent pang of envy caused him to tremble at the priceless rugs, the golden chandeliers, and especially at the numerous beautiful servant women who wrinkled their noses whenever he passed by. It reminded him of how far he’d fallen—how this should have,
would
have
all been his had he just succeeded in conquering Hahl with the men the Hawk had given him. But no, he’d failed, and now all of this wealth remained firmly in the hands of others, while Ghell’s body rotted to nothing. Now, even the most undignified, diseased of whores turned him away due to his stench, regardless of how much gold he offered them. Rage had driven him to kill more than just a few of the wenches; oh, how he wanted his old life back.

Perhaps things are in fact just as gloomy as I thought
.

Archmage Duncan had given him the duty of apprehending the young human girl, Rina. As true to his word, Duncan had supplied him with information in the form of a nervous-looking guard who had been paid off to provide the location where the girl was being kept.

Ghell didn’t appreciate turning over the elven boy, but he was in little position to argue. After all, it had been his responsibility to kidnap the child in the first place, and though he’d succeeded at nabbing the elven boy, he’d failed to take the girl. Hopefully the Hawk wouldn’t punish him for his failure in light of his partial success.

Using his anger to press him onwards, Ghell made his way through the mayor’s fancy home. Although he hadn’t been given a clue of where to look, it didn’t take much in the way of guesswork to locate the human girl. All he needed to do was head from the areas with a lesser concentration of guards to the areas with higher. Undoubtedly, he would find his prey wherever there were the most soldiers standing guard. This, of course, was how Prince Patrick operated. He was a simple-minded fool, who Ghell was sure lacked the ability to think outside the box and place the girl where someone would be the least likely to search for her; he’d rely on superior numbers and basic, by-the-book tactics. It was yet another reason that Ghell cursed whichever God or Goddess had rigged fate to bring Alan Marshall back to Hahl just before his invasion.

If only it had been Patrick, not Marshall, who’d been in command of Hahl’s defenses, Ghell would be the one now residing inside the mayor’s home.
He
would be the one being waited on day and night by a host of beautiful women with luscious thighs and round, mouth-watering arses.

But no. Fate had conspired against him, and now he had been reduced to nothing more than an expired, human-shaped slab of meat. Even
he
could no longer bear the stench of himself.

But all that will change if my master is pleased
.
I must find the girl
.

Ghell navigated the mansion’s halls, resisting the tremendous urge to grab one of the serving women and have his way with her. It almost seemed as though the mayor had dressed them in such revealing clothing just to tease him. Only his fear of the Hawk kept him in line, kept him from grabbing the throat of one of the women and squeezing the life out of her while he used her flesh to satiate his appetite.

Besides, he was saving himself for another:
Cah’lia
.

The elven woman’s name brought him to the verge of tears, overpowering his senses with both rage and lust. He had never craved a woman as badly as he craved the one who had killed him and set him down this doomed path. Over the past few weeks, his lust for her had grown to be toxic. Ghell couldn’t think of a single living woman who wanted him
less
than Cah’lia, which made him want her even more. Once his master had done away with her younger brother, the moronic elf, Sehn, and the small human girl, Cah’lia would hate Ghell more than she’d ever hated any other man.
That
would be when he’d take her.

I will find you
,
my love
.
And I will have you
.

Ghell knew he was getting closer to where the human girl was being held; security became tighter as he climbed to the mansion’s fourth floor. There was a sentry stationed at every door. The hallway was narrow—just big enough in width to fit two men walking side by side. Yet a dozen soldiers leaned against the wall leading to the farthest door down the hall, six to a side, and all at attention with swords crossed over their chests. That was, without a doubt, where they were keeping his prey.

Getting inside would be simple. Ghell slowly crept down the hallway. Male and female soldiers pinched their noses within seconds of his arrival. He ignored them and continued down the narrow pathway until he stood just in front of the two soldiers standing guard outside the last door farthest down the hall.

He removed his dagger and turned to the solider on his right; she was an older woman whose hair had gone entirely grey but for a few remnants of brown. Ghell grinned. He found it quite amusing how he could stand directly in front of this woman, practically eye to eye with her, and yet she couldn’t see him. What a wonderful gift his master had given him!

Ghell raised his dagger. Then, very quickly, he slashed the girl across the neck, fast enough that by the time she would feel the pain it would already be too late. Rather than scream, she released a gurgled cry and fell forward as a river of dark red blood oozed out of her neck.

“Hilda, what’s wrong?” a male voice asked. “Hilda! What happened? Gods, she’s bleeding out! Somebody help!”

“What has happened?” shouted another voice. “Who attacked her? Is she coughing the blood or has she been cut? Be on guard!”

Now’s my chance
.

Ghell knew he only had a few seconds to take advantage of the commotion. These were trained
Seven-Pillars
soldiers, and their surprise would not put them off guard for long. Ghell brushed aside the soldier standing in front of him. Then he opened the door at the end of the hall, just enough to slip inside, before letting it close on its own behind him. He could hear shouting from the hall.

“Make sure no one gets inside! Patrick’s orders! And someone, anyone, find a healer!”

Ghell ignored the confused soldiers and took in his surroundings. As expected, he’d come to the right place. The room was large, with three desks, several couches, and a private bathroom. An entire row of cabinets and dressers lined the west side of the wall, and in a separate room, there was a bed large enough to make Ghell’s eyes widen. He could have a lot of fun in one of those. Perhaps if the elven whore, Cah’lia, were to only be in his possession, he could chain her there and turn it into her permanent home.

It took him a moment to spot the human girl. She sat on the floor with a tiny little man, who, despite also being human, was short enough to be a member of the dwarven race. It was the mayor himself: Rumpus, if Ghell’s memory served him.