Victim of Fate Read online

  Garrick jumped back and slammed into the wall. He stumbled and fell, earning a laugh from Patrina and Namitus. Alto shook his head and glared at Mordrim. "Enough!" he snapped.

  Garrick rose up, his hands clenching his sword so tightly his knuckles were white.

  Mordrim grunted. "Best hurry up then. I know of a few routes said to lead through the mountains."

  Alto reached the jailer’s desk first. He gestured behind him without slowing. "Tristam, this is Mordrim. He says he can get us out."

  "What about your forges?" Tristam said as he turned.

  "One thing at a time," Alto called before stepping through the door back to the cavern. "Best hurry, we've run out of time."

  Another group of monsters had rallied against them, but it wasn’t the monsters that gave Alto pause. Behind the two ogres and half-dozen goblins, Beck strode forward with his reduced force of men-at-arms. He held his sword at hand and motioned forward with it, signaling a charge.

  "Beck!" Alto hissed as the others joined him outside the jail.

  "Friend of yours?" Tristam asked.

  "No! He’s a skilled fighter. Better than we are."

  "We’ll see about that!" Tristam scoffed.

  "His armor and sword are magical," Patrina warned. "Shrugged off a chop to his back from Garrick’s cleaver while smacking Alto around."

  Tristam turned to look at Garrick. His eyes went to the thick bladed hand and a half sword the man clutched easily in one hand. Alto glanced at Patrina and saw her holding her sword in her right hand and the torn neckline of her dress with her left. He glanced away when her eyes met his.

  "If you're wanting to get away, your best bet's across the river," Mordrim reminded them.

  "To the bridge!" Alto said when he looked at the stone ledge that crossed over the river at the downstream end of the cavern. "We can hold them there while someone crosses upstream and foils their forges."

  They ran back around the jail, hoping to confuse Beck's forces. Namitus darted to the wall and reached up for his rope, dozens of feet above him. He circled his finger and spoke a word. The rope fell to his feet, coiling up perfectly for him. He slipped it into his pack and then ran towards the bridge. He caught the others and passed them easily, taking the lead with Patrina.

  "You got any idea what it means to ruin a forge?" Garrick asked him as they ran beside each other.

  Alto slowed enough so the others would pass him by. He looked at the distant forges and smelting furnaces before he shrugged. "No, I guess not."

  "Any forge built to hold a fire is built to last," the barbarian said.

  "I’ll find a way," Alto vowed.

  "One more thing," Garrick said. "Don't ever put your hand on me again if you want to keep it."

  Alto glanced at the tall barbarian and nodded. "I respect that. If it turns out I'm wrong about the dwarf, you can tell me all about it."

  Garrick belted out a laugh and crossed the bridge in long, easy strides.

  Namitus and Patrina cried out in alarm and drew their weapons to crash against an advancing wall of trolls and goblins on the far side of the river. Tristam joined them, scattering goblins and taking care to stay out of the long-limbed reach of the mountain trolls. Kar pulled back his sleeves and chanted a spell that allowed him to blow a heavy green mist high into the air above the hard-skinned monsters. It sank onto them, clinging to their skin and causing them to roar in rage. The goblins scattered, crying out as it touched them and ate holes in their primitive clothing and skin.

  "I see the tunnel up ahead!" Namitus cried out after severing the muscles on the thigh of a troll that was swatting at the acidic fog that ate away at his back. The troll toppled off balance, giving the quick rogue a chance to dart in and drop his magical scimitar onto its head like an executioner’s axe.

  Garrick slid to a stop on the rock, his eyes widening as the green mist appeared and then faded. He turned to stare at Kar while a sneer forced his lip to curl up.

  "Alto!"

  Alto spun and stopped from where he stood halfway across the stone bridge. Beck was on the far side, leading his men behind him. He gestured with his sword and stepped onto the carved shelf of rock. "You’re surrounded again, this time without hope of rescue. Throw down your sword and I will let your friends live."

  Alto narrowed his eyes. "Why? If you can beat me so easily, why not do it? Why do you keep asking?"

  "You and your friends are not without risk," Beck said. "Killing off my men unnecessarily does me no good. I could summon archers, if you prefer?"

  Alto turned and stared at his friends. They had fallen back to the far edge of the bridge, save for Karthor who stood nearest to him. Patrina reached up and grabbed up the torn edges of her dress she’d let go of while fighting. "Half a moment," he called back to Beck.

  Beck laughed at him. "Take all the time you need; it only makes my position stronger."

  Alto glanced at the monsters rushing to reinforce Beck and frowned. The same was true of the far side of the river, though the gathered creatures had not grown insurmountable yet. He strode across the bridge, ignoring Karthor as he passed him.

  "You can’t give him what he wants!" the priest hissed in spite of Alto's fixed stare.

  Alto sheathed his blade and secured it in his scabbard. He yanked his chain shirt off, pulling his cotton undershirt with it. He thrust it out to Patrina, pushing it into her chest. "Here, use this," he said gruffly.

  "No! You can’t fight him without armor!" Patrina insisted.

  "I’m not going to," Alto said. He took a breath and looked at the others. They were watching him with curiosity and shock on their faces.

  "Don’t be daft, boy!" Tristam said.

  "I’m going to cause a distraction," Alto hissed. "Use it to fight through and get to that tunnel! I’ll be right behind you."

  "No!" Patrina stamped her foot. "You won’t leave me again!"

  "I'm thinking he's got a fine idea," Mordrim suggested. He was ignored.

  Alto stared down at the beautiful lady with her chin thrust up towards him. He saw a tremble in the corner of her eye and felt his stomach twist in response. He reached up to her favor that had slid to his wrist once he’d taken his armor off and he slid it off. "It was a stupid boy who agreed to be your champion, but my actions will keep you as safe as I can."

  "How will you getting killed keep me safe?" she spat.

  "I’m not going to get killed," Alto said. It wasn’t a lie; he knew Beck wanted him alive. What came after that he wasn’t so sure about. "I did lie to you, though."

  "What do you mean?

  "There is a girl in Portland. Her name is Aleena. She’s the daughter of an innkeeper and a good woman. I expect she’ll make a fine wife—"

  Alto was stopped from saying more by the whip-fast motion of Patrina’s hand striking against his cheek. She stared at him, her cheeks red and moisture brimming in her eyes.

  "Get home to your father and his castle, Princess," Alto roughed his voice up to hide the pressure in his throat and chest. "Grow up to be a fine woman, not a foolish girl who fancies what she can’t have."

  Patrina’s lips parted as she listened to his hurtful words. Namitus stepped up beside her and met Alto’s gaze. He nodded once, and then gently guided the stunned girl away from him. With the rogue’s guidance, she slipped the over-sized chain shirt about her neck and shoulders. The bottom links fell all the way to her knees.

  Alto glanced down at the favor he still held in his hand. He started to relax his fingers to drop it, and then changed his mind and clenched them tightly. He shoved it into the waist of his pants and then turned back to the bridge.

  "Alto, don’t be a fool!" Tristam demanded.

  "You’re here because of me," he said. "I’ve been fool enough."

  The farm boy turned warrior turned champion walked back up onto the rock bridge. At the far side, Beck stood with an arrogant tilt to his lips.

  "Quite the way with the ladies," Beck mused. "Why don’t you lay that sw
ord down now and come over here?"

  "You want it? Come and take it from me," Alto called out.

  "You know I can beat you," Beck reminded.

  "Aye, but I wasn’t offering a fight."

  "You impertinent peasant!" Beck growled. "I should gut you to show you your place!"

  "Kind of hard to take me back to Fizzulthorp if I’m dead," Alto said. "Is he one of your Silver Dragon knights, too?"

  Beck belted out a harsh laugh. "Only true men of steel can be knights! Wizards are no better than gelded horses."

  Alto heard Kar mutter something behind him. It was almost enough to crack a smile on his face. He looked past Beck instead and saw the tide of warriors rushing from the ramp to join the knight’s side. "Very well, let my friends go."

  "Surrender yourself first!"

  Alto took a deep breath and nodded. He started across the wide bridge and then after both he and Beck had taken a few steps, he leaned forward and jammed his foot into the rock. He burst into a run that caught the skilled knight by surprise. Beck drew his sword back to strike but was unable to land the blow before Alto slammed into his midsection and threw both of them off the edge of the bridge and into the deep waters of the underground river below them.

  Chapter 22

  "Alto!" Patrina stumbled and fell forward.

  "Grab her! You, northerner, pick her up if you must!" Kar shouted.

  Garrick stepped next to Patrina and scooped her up with one massive arm. "Got her."

  "The tunnel?" Mordrim prompted.

  "Yes, the tunnel. Let's go!" Tristam said as he recovered from the shock of Alto sacrificing himself to deal with the enemy leader. He turned and rushed into the milling goblins and ogres, scattering the smaller creatures and leaving gaping wounds on the larger ones.

  Namitus and Karthor hurried after, each striking out to widen the path so that Mordrim, Kar, and Garrick wouldn't be contested. The monsters rallied and fought back but not in time to stop them from reaching the tunnel the dwarf had promised as an escape route.

  "Hold them off!" Tristam ordered once they'd entered the tunnel.

  "Put me down!" Patrina snapped while slapping Garrick's leg and kicking her own feet.

  Garrick set her down and leered at her. She looked down and saw Alto's chain was hanging loose enough to gape and display the cleavage released by her torn dress. She straightened and pulled the armor into place on her shoulders. "Mind Tristam!"

  Garrick laughed and turned away so he could draw his sword and stand ready. He didn't have to wait long, and an ogre met him at the entrance wielding a large wooden club with a stone tied to the end of it.

  "Wizard, block that tunnel!" Tristam said.

  "Might as well pull the mountain down on top of us while I'm at it!" Kar grumbled.

  "Not us, just them," Namitus suggested.

  "Whatever you're doing, be quick about it; we've a long walk ahead of us," Mordrim said.

  "And this tunnel isn't lit," Karthor pointed out.

  Tristam swatted a goblin aside and stepped up to block Garrick's flank. He paused when he realized that the barbarian had blocked the ogre's club and they stood locked against each other, each trying to use brute strength to beat the other.

  "By the saints!" Tristam muttered. He spun in time to slap aside a crude spear thrust, and then split the goblin's head in two with his sword.

  Garrick drove a punch into the stomach of the ogre, and then did it again but the towering brute seemed unaffected. He moved his left hand to the hilt of his sword to take a two-handed grip and slowly forced the club up and away. The ogre tried to counter, using both of his hands, but the momentum was on Garrick's side already. As soon as the club slid away to the side, Garrick pulled his blade in reverse and opened up a deep gash along the ogre's belly that spilled blood and viscera onto the stone floor.

  Namitus snapped his fingers next to Kar. "What about those spectral flames from before?"

  "Those were goblins before; they won't slow an ogre or troll, nor the humans. We'd buy a minute at the most," Kar mused. "What was that thing you did with the rope out there?"

  "Just a simple trick." Namitus shrugged it away. "Something I picked up in the south."

  "It was a spell, though."

  "Not like your spells. I've never had any training nor been prepared to handle real magic. I don't have the patience for it."

  Kar grunted and looked back to study the tunnel entrance. The pile of corpses was growing, providing a natural barrier to the entrance. He frowned and scratched at his beard before saying, "I've got it. This was meant to help us in case we became trapped or encountered a door we could not open."

  "Whatever it is, do it!" Tristam snapped. He pulled his sword back from a strike against a troll and stared at it. The blade was bent by the impact. He threw the useless weapon at the creature, making it flinch, and fell back. "Barbarian! Garrick, right? Come on if you want to live!"

  Garrick and Tristam rushed past the others and stopped only when they were behind the chanting wizard. He sprinkled some pebbles across the floor of the tunnel between himself and the corpses and then nodded. "That should do it!"

  "Do what?" Tristam asked.

  "Do you want to stick around and find out or would you rather be on our way?"

  Tristam scowled and motioned with his head. "Let's be off! Kar and Karthor, use your lights. And does anybody have an extra sword?"

  Tristam’s request for a blade went unanswered as the wizard and his son both invoked their supernatural lights to aid them in their passage. Little more than a minute passed before they heard the first scream of a goblin travel down the hallway behind them.

  "They found my trap," Kar chuckled.

  "What did you do?" Namitus asked him.

  "The spell was intended to allow us to push through a rock wall in case we couldn’t get through a locked door or became trapped. I had to deconstruct the third metaphysical vertices in order to change the intent of it, but when you’ve had my experience and education, it’s a simple matter of turning theory into practice." Kar paused for a breath and to glance around. Garrick was scowling at him as he looked back, Tristam bore a look of impatience, Patrina was staring at the ground as she walked, and Karthor was shaking his head and keeping close to the dwarf. Of them all, only Namitus seemed to be paying any attention to him.

  "I don’t know what that means, but I suppose it’s impressive," the rogue offered.

  Kar sighed. "Yes, quite."

  "So what did it do?"

  "It made the floor of the tunnel semi-corporeal!" Kar snapped. When he saw the blank look on Namitus’s face, he took a deep breath and elaborated, "It acted like a dry quicksand. With any luck, several of them will fall in and when the spell wears off, they’ll be buried alive."

  "Ugh!"

  Kar smiled and took his pipe out, and then clamped it into his mouth without attempting to pack or light it.

  Namitus watched him for a moment longer and then stepped ahead to fall in beside his former friend. "Trina, are you okay?"

  She shook her head slowly but didn’t look up. "It doesn’t feel like he’s really gone," she whispered.

  "It just happened," Namitus said. "But I know what you mean. One minute he was here, risking all our necks for what he believed in, then splash, he was gone."

  "It’s what I believe in, too!" Patrina lifted her head and stared at him with her red-rimmed eyes. "He just knew what the right thing to do was and he did it! He wasn’t afraid to stand up for it. Wasn’t afraid of anybody challenging him. I always wanted to be like that. He was so strong."

  Namitus nodded and reached out to put his hand on her shoulder. She glanced at it and offered him a faint smile. "I’m sorry about how I treated you, too. You were like my brother and I was hurt knowing that you’d lied to us. I understand why you did it and I don’t think it was right, but I understand."

  Namitus shared a smile of his own with her. "Well, maybe some good can come of this after all."

  H
er smile faded and she shook her head. "What doesn’t make sense is that he could be so perfect in one way, then be so shallow and hurtful."

  "Aleena?" Namitus guessed.

  She sniffed and glanced away.

  "He cares for you, you know," Namitus offered.

  "But he thinks I’m a foolish girl!"

  "Well, you are," Namitus said. She spun on him, her mouth wide open in shock. "It’s part of what makes you irresistible. But Alto knew he wasn’t in your league. He couldn’t compete, so when Aleena showed interest…well, she was there for him when he needed her."

  "I couldn’t be there," Patrina whispered. "I was stuck in a castle leagues away."

  "He saved me, you know," Namitus said. "Saved me from an angry merchant and the royal guard. At the same time he saved the merchant’s family and a dear friend of mine."

  "Saved them from what?"

  "From the fire that burned the merchant’s house to the ground," the rogue said. He let out a soft laugh and shook his head. "Never seen anything like it. House was on fire but the merchant’s wife, son, and daughter were inside. Alto didn’t blink an eye; he ran straight in through the flames to go and get them."

  Patrina gasped. "What did you do?"

  "Only thing I could—I went in after him."

  "That was brave."

  "Brave would have been standing outside knowing I hadn’t gone in to help him. What if something would have happened? I’d have to face the merchant, the Blades, the Kingdom, Aleena, and eventually you. No, I took the easy route and followed him inside."

  "So what happened then?"

  "We got the people out, except the merchant’s wife collapsed inside, insisting Alto and I get her son and daughter out first. The house was fully ablaze by then; only thing keeping her from being burnt to a crisp was the barrel of water Alto had upended where she lay. But that fool ran back in through the flames, even though he was soon on fire because of it! He ran out with her, then collapsed in a heap at my feet."

  Patrina’s hand went to her mouth. She glanced down at the armor and shirt she wore, and then tucked her nose and lifted the shirt up to inhale deeply. "It smells like him," she whispered. A fresh tear ran down her cheek. "She was there to nurse him back to health, wasn’t she?"