138 Prison Break

Obviously, my head start ensured I got to climb up into the cellar before Luca could and being the competitive sibling that I was, I sent him a satisfied smirk that I knew would rile him up.

\"Cheater,\" he said.

\"Loser,\" I countered.

Ah, even in these trying times, I always managed to find moments that helped uplift my spirits. Often enough, there was nothing better to put a smile on my face than showing Luca once again that I was the big brother.

While the rest of my team made their way up the ropes, I spent that time surveying the room we'd arrived in.

We were in a wide earthen space with stone walls and an arched ceiling. But it wasn't the kind of cellar I knew about because instead of the row upon row of wine bottles I was expecting, I was treated to what was basically a torture chamber.

There were torture implements of every kind, from stretching beds and iron maidens to racks upon racks of torture tools like serrated knives. Thick chains hung down from the ceiling, and blood, pools of dried blood could be found all around us.

It was a small wonder that none of these torture devices had fallen into the hole Varda had created. Maybe then we would have been prepared and not looking wide-eyed at what we saw, our minds imagining all sorts of horrors.

\"Holy crap,\" Luca said as he strolled to my side. \"What kind of place is this…?\"

\"The kind we don't want Ty to be in one-second longer,\" I said, my voice hardening at the thought of Ty inside a room like this one.

I turned my gaze to each of my friends, all of them looking a bit uneasy at the décor around us.

\"Steel yourselves,\" I hissed. \"And show no mercy for the bastards living here…\"

Qwipps walked toward the lone door at the far end of the room.

\"Locked,\" he reported.

\"Can you pick it?\" I asked.

He pulled his lock picking tools out of his trousers. \"Give me a minute.\"

Qwipps took two minutes to get the job done, but once he was finished, he opened the door and it swung outward to reveal a set of stone steps that led up.

\"Lead the way, little brother,\" I said.

Luca nodded, and then proceeded up the steps with his broadsword in hand. I followed right after him. Then came Aura, Varda, Pike and Enna. Qwipps covered our rear.

At the top of the steps, Luca took a peek at the passageway beyond.

\"There's a hallway ahead of us that goes left and right. The right path's got two Doberman-type kobolds guarding it,\" he reported.

I glanced behind me. \"Enna, take out the guard on the right. Once he's down, Pike can slay the guard on the left.\"

\"I can do that,\" Luca protested.

I wasn't sure if it was because I didn't ask him to do it or because I was sending Pike out into danger.

\"You're noisy and you'll make a mess,\" I said, shaking my head. \"We require finesse now.\"

I recall giving those steel-grade serrated shadowblades to her as a reward for her promotion as a sergeant.

I moved up myself and peaked out into the hallway so I could watch the action happen.

Although she was certainly still solid, Enna blended very well with the shadows of the passageway, almost like they clung to her like some dark coat. Anyone who didn't know she was there would never see her, not until that final moment when her shadowblade flashed at their throats.

This is exactly what happened.

Enna drew her blade, and in a series of swift movements, jumped behind the kobold on the right and plunged her shadowblade into the back of its neck.

At the same time, Pike launched herself into the passageway, flying low enough that the other kobold — distracted by his partner gushing out blood from the wound that had suddenly appeared on his neck — didn't see her in time to react to Pike's serrated shadowblades cutting a cross pattern into his neck.

The kobold's severed head barely had time to fall quietly onto the sandy ground before me and the rest of my party raced forward into the passageway.

I passed my assassins and pushed at the iron gate the dead kobolds were guarding. It swung open at my touch.

\"Weapons ready,\" I said right before I crossed the threshold and stepped out into a familiar sandy courtyard whose left side was a cliffside overlooking a deep chasm. \"I've been here before…\"

Another flashback of the previous night appeared in my mind's eye.

\"This courtyard here leads into the slave pens here,\" Zephyra said, pointing toward to the large one-story outhouse that was separated from the main building by a wide-open space whose edges overlooked empty space.

Zephyra turned a kindly look my way.

\"I've heard your friend's voice before… Dean, will find me. Dean will save me,\" she revealed. \"Like a ward that keeps his mind safe amid the horrors surrounding him. He believes in you.\"

I could feel the tears pool at the bottom of my eyes and lowered my head so that the others couldn't see. As if they hadn't noticed it already.

\"You'll find him here. Zephyra pointed to the far room at the end of a long corridor. \"From what I understand of his worth, he will be heavily guarded.\"

I wiped at my eyes with my jacket sleeve. Then I raised my head and thanked Zephyra for the warning.

\"We'll be ready,\" I said.

Just as I spoke this, the sound of a faraway explosion reached my ears and sent my thoughts careening back into the now.

Immediately afterward, warning bells began to resound across the estate.

I glanced to my right and watched as a platoon of kobolds, about fifty of them, rushed past the courtyard and into another passage that led into the house.

They didn't even see me duck back into the passageway I'd come from.

\"Looks like Ashley's team have started,\" I explained.

At the exit on the opposite side of our passageway, the sound of barking and loud voices reached our ears.

\"I think it's time we moved on from here,\" Aura recommended.

\"I think you're right,\" I said, grinning.

The teenager in me who loved the old James bond movies couldn't help feeling excited at what we were attempting to do.

We charged back out into the courtyard about the same time as seven kobold guards charged out of the outhouse.

Both groups spared a second to look surprised at each other's arrival, and then, as if a flag had been raised, we all charged at each other.

Aura was the first to strike. The firebolt she'd launched struck the kobold to the right of the one I'd targeted.

An arrow lodged itself into the chest of that same kobold, killing it just as I'd reached its companion with my sword drawn.

It wasn't like I was underestimating my new opponent, but as I was riding high on last night's victory in the alleyway against drow assassins, the kobold before me really didn't stand a chance.

As proof of this recent boost in confidence, a single swipe of my falchion was all I needed to cut it from one side of the stomach to the other.

I didn't even stop to watch it fall dead at my feet. I'd already moved onto the kobold behind it.

At the corner of my left eye, I saw Luca overwhelm the kobold guard he squared off against. It wasn't as clean as my own attack, but he managed to sever the kobold's head clean off its shoulder in two to three strikes.

My own target launched itself into the air using its powerful hindquarters and sent its scimitar crashing down at my head.

I parried this attack, of course, but just as I managed to redirect him to my right, setting him up for a slash to his back, I was beaten to the punch by Pike dropping down from the air.

She landed with her legs mounting the kobold's shoulders, and in the next instant, Pike plunged her shortswords into the kobold's head through its eyes.

It was a really brutal attack that made me wonder about Luca's tastes in females. But then I saw a half-burnt kobold run past me — a failed encounter with Aura's Hearthwood staff, no doubt — and I guess my own preferences were just as weird.

Qwipps dealt with the kobold who'd run away with an arrow to the back of its head. Enna and Varda each took down a kobold of their own. Just like that, our battle was over.

\"Let's hurry… more enemies will be coming our way soon,\" I said.

The others followed me through the open door of the slave pens and into the hallway beyond.

It was another narrow stone hallway that was wide enough to fit two trolls walking side by side. Iron bars that served as doors for what must have been the slaves sleeping quarters ran along the walls at intervals.

At a quick glance, I counted twelve to each side.

At the far end of this hallway, the room at the end had been opened. And coming out of this room were two kobolds who were half-carrying, half-dragging a struggling Ty between them.

\"Ty!\" I yelled.

Id' finally found him, and it was like a weight had suddenly lifted off me.

Ty turned his in the direction of my voice.

\"Dean!\" he screamed my name. \"Dean, help me! Please!\"

I didn't wait for my team to follow. I jumped forward with all the speed that I could muster while in my head I thought of how quickly I was going to end the lives of those two kobolds manhandling my friend.

But just as I'd made it a quarter of the way along this long hallway, three gates with thick steel bars dropped at intervals between me and Ty, each one closing my path toward him with a miserable and resounding thud.

I stared up at the nearest gate, scrutinized the thick metal bars it was made of, and hacked at it with my falchion.

But my shadowblade barely made a scratch on it.

\"That's not going to work, Mr. Dapper,\" said a familiar voice in a familiar drawl that I absolutely hated.

I glanced up and saw him looking at me from the other side of the farthest gate. There was an annoying smile plastered on his face.

\"Mother f***er,\" I breathed.

But it was Luca who'd said the cursed name out loud. \"Are you kidding me? Is that our good-for-nothing former Commander Roselle?!\"