Page: << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >>

"Thanks," the monster automatically replied, and only then did I perceive that it was not a monster at all but a quite naked man who was covered in cuts and bruises from the grizzled head down to his toes. From the look of it he seemed to be just as confused about the whole situation as I was.

"You need not knock me down with this pet bone of yours, dear sir," I affirmed, just as I would have tried to calm down a mad dog. "We freed you. Or rather, Mr. Skip did." I pointed at the still form of the quartermaster. "Let us just hope that you did not kill him."

The cannibal - as I will call him for now - sighed, then he went down to check his victim for signs of life. "Nope. Just knocked him out cold." He looked up at me with a frown. "What's going on here?"

"I would say that the camp is being invaded and this gentleman jumped at the chance to free us prisoners. May I ask you, sir, who you are and what you did to deserve to be locked up in this dungeon?"

The cannibal sent me a wry, if pained, smile. "I'm Aaron. Do the words 'Old Mine' trigger a memory?"

"Yes, of course. It caved in, did it not?"

A grave nod. "All my handiwork."

"What?" I take it that my eyes bugged out, so surprised was I by his confession. I had without doubt credited this wild-looking man with eating those of his own species, but he did not make the impression of being a skilled saboteur. "How did you bring that about?"

"Don't ask me, kid. It's this idiot Gomez' theory, not mine. I probably pissed a hole through a supporting beam."

Despite the gravity of the situation I felt an urge to laugh, and thus bit my lip. "According to Gomez, I murdered his troops and conspired with the King himself to bring the barrier down. As it is, I did neither." I heaved a deep sigh. The sounds of battle still could be heard down in the dungeons. "And my name is Garland. - Pray, good sir, you might help me to get Mr. Skip back up on his feet again. I may be a magician, but without my equipment I cannot heal him... or you." Aaron the cannibal definitely did look as if he was in dire need of such a treatment, as he was bleeding from several nasty-looking wounds. "We might also open the other cells."

"Oh, there's more company down here?" he asked, arching a split brow.

I nodded. "At least Scorpio the instructor and Stone the armorer."

"Scorpio and Stone, wow. Some real badass felons, I'm sure. What are these two responsible for, banging Gomez' mom and starting the orc wars, or was it banging orcs and starting a war against Gomez' mom?" With that, Aaron gave the unconscious quartermaster a hearty slap in the face.

*

Freeing the last two prisoners proved to be a comparatively simple task as none of them was lurking behind his respective cell door with a make-shift weapon. As it was, both Stone and Scorpio were overjoyed to see us; the armorer had indeed been imprisoned for chatting with Scorpio before the latter had left the premises, which made Stone - in Gomez' eyes - a Fire Mage supporter himself.

I was so happy that (despite my summoning goof) Scorpio was still among the living that I jumped and hugged him. This turned out to be a grave error, as it not only earned me a demure "Good gracious!" by the instructor himself, but also weird looks from the rest of the escapees. Red-faced and with a mumbled excuse I stepped back into the ranks, vowing to myself to keep eventual emotional releases in check from now on.

Skip 1) started to explain 'the plan' to us, quite obviously to paper over the awkward cracks I had just created. It was quite simple: we would rendezvous with the 'troll mother' who had come for Gomez, get us some decent weaponry upstairs, and then devise a way of getting out of the camp.

Especially the latter part sounded a bit vague to me, but racking our brains over this would have been a needless effort in the current situation. As it was, we did not know what expected us in the courtyard. Perhaps the Ore Barons had finished off the hitherto nameless avenger for practice and were now impatiently waiting for us to present our hides...

On the way up Scorpio and Stone stopped by the two guards Skip had been forced to dispatch to get the dungeon keys. While they took the guards' weapons, our cannibal checked them for reusable clothes. The quartermaster had made a good job of hacking his opponents to pieces, though, so it looked like Aaron would have to wait a little longer for a set of decent garments. He was not too happy about it, but it could not be helped, and we hurried on.

"Wait." Scorpio raised a hand and peered around the final corner into the barracks' hallway; the angry shouts and grunts of the ongoing battle were pretty close now. He ought to have an adequate view on a part of the yard from there, and we others waited patiently for his report.

"Hah, they're chasing each other across the court," Scorpio said after a moment. "There are four... no, make that five guards, plus Raven, and they have their backs to us. Okay." He ducked back behind the corner, facing us others (that is, everybody but me, much to my regret). "Ladies, we'll take them by surprise. - Chaaaarge!"

It was truly astonishing how a simple order could turn a handful of jumpy escapees into a raging mob. Before I could do so much as blink, my whooping, weapon-wielding companions had rushed out to attack the guards - and Ore Baron - from behind. Those obviously had just been in the process of ganging up on the unnamed avenger, but their formation was broken when they were forced to react to the new threat, and within seconds, skirmishes had erupted all over the yard.

Now what to do? I had no weapon and no rune or scroll to channel my magical powers through, so helping my co-escapees fight the guards was out of the question; the only way to make myself useful would be by finding (and using) my equipment. With this in mind, I left the safety of the empty barracks to jog out into the courtyard myself, staying well out of the combatants' reach while trying not to trip over one of the dead guards who were strewn across the sandy ground like broken dolls.

To my right there was the gate to the castle, the one Skip had lowered to cut off reinforcements, and it looked like he had been well-advised in doing so. Several guards from the outer ring railed against the locked gate in a futile attempt to enter; they were led by a banged-up looking Thorus, and I meant to see the hairy-legged guy there as well, the one who had nearly stomped me into the ground during my 'invasion'. This could only mean that they had opened the main gate to let the other guard detail in to help...

The quartermaster store was in the other direction; I lifted the hem of my frazzled robe and sprinted over there as fast as I could. In passing, I saw Aaron the cannibal turn the face of his opponent to mush with his pet bone, and I also caught a good glimpse of the 'troll mother', the unnamed avenger who was slugging it out with a bovine-looking Heavy Guard who had introduced himself as Cutter during my first visit of the castle grounds.

Once again, the angry stranger was not exactly the heroic paladin type I had expected... he turned out to be a nondescript young man with a mousy ponytail. But he, at least, wore a mightily impressive suit of antique armor, and his fighting skills belied his meek looks; well, the 'troll mother' seemed to be giving the exasperated Cutter quite a run for his ore!

I dove into the store, taking cover behind the counter before taking in my surroundings. There were several weapon racks and a battery of shelves - and so many packs sat prominently on the shelf boards that I at first didn't believe my eyes. Obviously, the possessions of all those poor wretches whose dead bodies were displayed on the yard had been brought here for registration purposes... I would have to search for hours if I wanted to find my belongings...

________________________

1) ...who now sported an impressive black eye in addition to his blue ones

Page: << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >>