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I had been sitting in a corner of my straw-covered dungeon cell for quite a while, wondering if my nosebleed would ever stop, and if I would ever get out of there alive before I decided on 'yes' and 'no'. After all, a broken nose could only bleed so much before a person dropped dead, and then, my predecessor was still here... his (or her?) yellowish bones adorned the rocky ground in several places.

The cell was lighted by a torch in a sconce high up on the brick wall. Sloppy design! For a brief moment I considered to pile up the straw in front of the wooden cell door and set the heap afire with the torch... but then reason told me that I would probably suffocate in the resulting smoke before the heavy door was singed.

With a sigh, I sank back into my corner. Well, I had come to break Scorpio out of the dungeon, and now it looked like I was stuck here until the end of time myself. But I did not complain about it; for one thing, there was nobody to listen to my griping, anyway, and on the other hand it was my own fault. As it was, I could call myself lucky to be still alive.

They had taken my equipment, of course. To be true, I would not have thrown anyone in a cell together with weapons, magical runes and scrolls, either, but that was but cold comfort in my current situation. My eyes darted over to my precursor's dreary bones. Oh, how I longed to touch my precious summoning scrolls... just one of them...

In the flickering torch light I quickly lost all sense of time. I cannot tell you how long I had been sulking in my corner, dreaming of unleashing armies of darkness on Gomez and his ilk, before the heavy cell door suddenly opened to admit the man who had only recently smacked me over the head with the hilt of his big sword.

"It's up to you to make this short," Raven opened negotiations while the door was locked behind him. So there existed more than one set of keys... or His Bloated Highness the Highest Ore Baron had given his to the keepers. "Just answer my questions, and you're out of here," Gomez' right hand man continued.

I shrugged. "Go ahead, sir, and ask." For a brief moment I wondered why I had not addressed him as 'scoundrel', but then again, with this carefully cultivated look of concern that struck me as odd from the first moment on, Raven had always been the Ore Baron I respected the most.

"Good. First question: How did you manage to murder our troops at the New Mine?"

First a conspiracy, now murder of troops? This was getting better and better! The Ore Barons were quite obviously mistaking me for somebody else, so much was clear now. Besides, as long as I was imprisoned here, I could not do what I had come for... well, if I wanted to get out, I had to play along. "It looks as if you underrated the power of magic," I stated matter-of-factly. "And I take it you also wish to know who is behind the great conspiracy to bring down the barrier?"

"Exactly."

"Then listen well, sir," I said, while thinking feverishly of a reply that might satisfy him for now, "for I will only tell it once... behind all this is..." Think, Garland, think. Who, by all Gods, had not only an interest in destroying the barrier but also the means to bring it about... and was far enough away so Gomez could not ask him about it? "... the King."

Raven's face fell. "But - but-" It was the first time I saw the Ore Baron flounder, and it might have made me laugh out loud had it not been imperative to keep a straight face. He took a deep breath. "Yes, I see it now. This makes sense." And with that he turned on his heel to pound at the door. "Open up!"

"Pray, good sir," I asked, "will you let me out of the dungeons now as you promised?"

"Don't worry, you'll be out in no time," Raven sneered while keys rattled in the lock of the cell door. "Scar already asserted a claim on you. Unlike our estimated leader, he's not very particular... that you're a wench is enough for him."

Perhaps I should have been offended, you know... but then, I had not come to the castle to win a beauty contest. The knowledge that I would get out of this cell sooner or later was enough for me at the moment, so all I said was, "Oh. Now this is... outstanding."

*

As it turned out, 'sooner or later' actually meant 'sooner'. Despite the fact that the cell was seriously lacking in terms of windows I had the impression that not much time had passed between Raven's exit and the sudden tumult upstairs. And a tumult it was - even the brick walls and heavy door did not prevent the noise of trampling boots, hastily armed weapons and shouted orders from invading on my involuntary solitude. Then I heard a loud roar from somewhere outside...

"GOMEEZZ! COME OUT YOU COWARD!!!"

...and suddenly it dawned on me that here was the invasion the Ore Barons had expected all along... their troll mother, so to say. Whoever had slaughtered Gomez' troops and conspired with the King (heh!) to bring down the barrier had finally arrived at the Old Camp, and from the sound of his voice, he was mightily angry.

There was a loud creak, followed by an even louder metallic 'clank' that shook the rocky floor, suggesting that the castle gate had been lowered in a haste. This finally snapped me out of my lethargy. I sprang up and rushed over to the door; if something big was going on, I did not want to miss it!

"Help!" I yelled as loud as I could. "Prithee, help me, I am in here! Let me out! Let me out!" And indeed, I heard somebody gallop down the way to the dungeons in a great hurry. "Heeeeeelp!!!"

The hasty steps stopped right in front of my cell door; there was a tinkle as if somebody searched a key ring for the appropriate item. "Let me out!!!"

"Stop shouting," a strained voice said, and then the heavy cell door swung open to reveal... Skip, Gomez' rude quartermaster. In hindsight, I cannot tell you who exactly I had expected to come to my rescue, but the man definitely did not fit my concept of a paladin. He held a bloodied Krush UrRok 1) while fidgeting with the very same key ring I had tried to take from Gomez earlier that day, and his uneasiness was obvious.

"What is going on, good sir?" I wondered while stepping out into the corridor. The nervous quartermaster briefly shook his shorn head while leafing through the collection of keys.

"Too much to go into detail now. In short, I struck a deal with the guy who's butchering the Ore Barons up there. I closed the gate to shut out reinforcements while he's sweeping the yard."

I must have gawked at Skip as if he was a spectral apparition. "But... why that?"

"Ah, I'm fed up to the back teeth with the whole wank-fest. Gomez had Stone jailed just for talking to the wrong people... he's a total dickhead." He snuffled and spat on the ground. "The other guy is mad because Gomez had his mage buddies slaughtered. - Hey, this looks like the one." With that the quartermaster inserted a key into the lock of the door on the opposite side of the corridor. 'Click'. The door opened with a soft squeak, but apart from that, nothing happened.

"Hello?" Skip said, cautiously poking his head into the cell-

-there was a dull thud, the axe dropped to the straw-covered floor and the man went down with a clatter. In the next moment a howling, raging, disheveled, blood-spattered monster stormed out of the cell, wielding a big bone.

My jaw dropped. Mind you, I had never seen a cannibal before, but at that moment I came to the conclusion that the gruesome man-eaters did exist after all! The monster swiveled its tousled head to face me, obviously ready to pounce. Baring its teeth in a furious snarl, it looked very, very hungry...

I swallowed hard, then I weakly said, "Nice bone."

________________________

1) The big brother of my Krush Pach... some people possess a good taste in terms of weaponry.

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