“I only saw four before the hood was put on me,” replies Miko.
“Let’s hope they didn’t invite any friends along and maybe we can get out of here,” he says as he slowly starts to climb the stairs. Turning back to Miko he says, “Stay down here for a second, I’m going up there and see if I can tell how many we have to deal with.”
Miko nods understandingly and remains by the foot of the steps.
James takes the steps slowly, trying to minimize their creaking by placing his feet as close to the edge of the wooden steps as possible. Cautiously, he makes it to the top where an old, cracked wooden door stands closed. Leaning close to the door, he hears several voices coming from the other side.
“Just how long are we supposed to wait?” one whiney voice asks impatiently.
“We were told to wait and wait is what we’re gonna do!” another voice commandingly tells the first.
“Yeah, stop yer whining Elz,” another adds derisively. “We’re making enough off of this.”
“Alright, alright,” Elz says, “I’ll wait.”
The sound of cards being shuffled comes from the other room. Listening for a while, he determines there are just the three of them playing cards. He then returns back down to where Miko waits and tells him what he overheard.
“I don’t like this James,” Miko says. “If there are three up there, then where’s the fourth and is he the one they’re waiting for?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t want to be here when whomever they are waiting for arrives,” he replies.
“I agree,” Miko says, “we better get out of here fast.”
James returns to the cellar where they had been dumped, and takes a quick inventory but finds little of use, just grains and seeds. The boxes however give him an idea and he pries three small boards off of one that’s broken. Using the trowel again, he sharpens one end of each. It’s not very effective for this sort of thing but it’s all he has. Once the boards are sharpened, he hands the trowel and the hood with the glowing orb still inside, to Miko. Then he carries the sharpened sticks with him as he again climbs to the door at the top of the steps.
He pauses a moment to listen at the door until he again hears the three men talking as they play cards. The door is being kept closed by a sliding bar. Fortunately, the sliding bar has a handle on this side of the door. Taking hold of the handle, he slides it very slowly until the end comes free from the door jamb.
Thinking about what he is about to attempt makes the throbbing in his head worsen. He takes a moment to calm himself, and the throbbing settles back down to a dull ache. Okay James, he says to himself, you can do this. Readying his sticks, he begins formulating the spell he plans to use. Once he has it, he nods to Miko who nods back that he’s ready. One final calming breath, then he kicks the door open.
The slamming of the door against the wall startles the three men, causing them to leap from their seats and turn in surprise to see him framed in the doorway. One begins to draw a sword, the other two, knives.
Not giving the men a chance to react, James takes the three sharpened boards, and as he throws them in their direction, the words of a version of his spear spell issue forth. Magic surges out of him and takes hold of the sticks. With incredible speed and accuracy, they impale each of the three men in the chest. James has a momentary satisfaction of seeing them fall before the pain in his head erupts to a point where it causes him to black out.
As James bursts through the door and casts his spell, Miko follows him into the room. He carries the trowel in one hand as a weapon and holds the hood containing the glowing orb in the other. Movement from across the room catches his eye as James launches the three sharpened sticks toward the men at the table. A man who had been resting upon a cot gets quickly to his feet. Wearing nothing but a shirt and pants, he draws a sword from the sword belt that had been looped around the back of a nearby chair and begins advancing toward them.
Before the man has the chance to take two steps, he comes to an abrupt halt when his partners are struck down by the sticks. Fearing to face one who can do such a thing, he turns for the door, ready to flee. But then he sees James succumb to the affects of casting the spell and collapse to the floor. Now with only Miko left to deal with, the man stops his flight and advances once again toward Miko, sword at the ready.
Miko holds the trowel out before him threateningly. In a voice filled with fear, he says to the man, “I…I am a great wizard too! A…and if you don’t throw down your weapon, I…I…I will cast the fires of hell at you.”
Smiling, the man continues advancing toward him and says, “Go ahead kid, burn me. I dare you.” When he takes another two steps and Miko has done nothing but stand there menacing him with the trowel, he says, “Thought not.”
As he comes close, Miko grabs the open end of the hood with his left hand, the one holding the trowel. With his other hand, he holds the other end and says with all his might, “Fires of hell, burn him!” He swings the hood toward the man and lets go with his left hand. Stopping the hood’s forward motion with a jerk of his right hand, the hood suddenly opens and the glowing orb sails out of the hood, straight toward the man’s head.
Holding his arms up and screaming as if the fires of hell truly were coming for him, the man stops and backpedals quickly, trying to avoid the orb.
Knowing he only has a few seconds, Miko advances with speed and strikes with the trowel, just as the orb hits the man in the head and bounces harmlessly off. With the strength of desperation, Miko thrusts the trowel into the man’s belly cutting through the shirt, and opening up a long gash from which the man’s intestines began spilling out. Tripping over his own guts the man falls to the floor. Not dead, but in a great deal of pain, he stares at Miko who is now approaching him after having appropriated a knife from one of the fallen men at the table.
“If you tell me who hired you I’ll make it quick,” he tells the man.
The man replies weakly, “I don’t know who it was.” He nods over to one of the dead men, “Carl over there made the arrangement. He said that someone wanted you captured alive. Once we had you, he went and made contact to find out what they wanted us to do with you. When he came back, he said that someone would be coming this evening to collect you and that we’d get paid when he arrived. That’s all I know, I swear!”
True to his word, Miko makes it quick and the man’s pain ended quickly. Wiping the knife on the dead man’s pants, he gets up and returns to where James lies on the floor. He checks to make sure he’s breathing and is relieved to find that James is still alive, if unconscious.
Shaking him gently, Miko says, “James, are you okay?”
Coming to, James gasps from the pain throbbing in his head. “What?” he asks dazedly.
“James, we need to get out of here,” Miko urges.
Realization of where he is and what’s been going on suddenly comes back to him. “Help me up,” he says, lifting an arm so Miko can assist him to his feet. The effort to stand leaves him with black spots circling in front of his eyes. But with Miko’s help, he makes it over to a chair and sits down.
“See if there’s something around here to drink, it may help my head,” he tells him. Pain rips through his head and he feels as if he’s about to black out again. Closing his eyes, he takes a few slow, deep breaths which seem to have an affect.
As Miko searches the room, James gets the pain in his head to subside a little then looks over at the three dead men with pieces of boards sticking out of them. Then he notices the other man, throat slit and entangled in his own intestines, lying on the floor.
“Found some ale by the looks of it,” Miko says as he returns. He holds out a bottle and James takes it, hesitantly sniffs it and then drinks some. It is ale, if a bit stale and it does help to further ease the headache.
“Thanks, that helped,” he says. “You do that?” he asks Miko, nodding toward the man on the floor.