Castaway

After following the wizard to his brother's airship, will Arianelle be able to stop the Dragon of Sorrow spell from activating?

15.

Castaway

 

She reappeared in a large airship’s hold, her eyes quickly adjusting to the darkness of the place.    She had worried that she would pop into the midst of the Toi-Migg wizards and be immediately captured, but thankfully, it was empty except for stacks of lumber.

Arianelle crouched down behind the lumber, glancing around cautiously.     She had her mother’s drow eyesight, which gave her extremely good vision even in pitch blackness.     At one end of the room she could faintly hear two men speaking in the oriental tongue, though they were too far away to discern what they were saying.

She needed to get closer without them noticing her, and she had the means of doing that.      Taking out the new drow silence stone that her grandmother had given to her, she set it down on the floor.     Its radius of effect would not extend to the end of the room where the two men were talking, so they would not notice anything unusual.    But it would conceal the sounds of her movement within the radius of the silence stone’s magic.   

Arianelle moved slowly, creeping around the stacked wood, which kept her movement from the men’s eyes.    She was about three fourths the distance to the other end of the room when she exited the area of silence.     The Sylvan princess stopped and just listened.    The two men were nearer now, standing at the bottom of a ladder that ascended from the hold.     She could clearly hear that it was Gee speaking to his brother in their native language.    

"--- if they manage to get word here before you set your plan in motion, you may not be so smug, Yin-Mose!   They have airships here in King’s Reach that could encircle this ship.”

“That would be true, brother, if we were in King’s Reach.”

“What?   But you said yesterday that the ship was bound for-“

“Surely you don’t think I would tell you our destination when our whereabouts were so important, brother!   I never told you exactly where we actually were or the direction we were heading.    I would reverse it before I told you, so if you were ever questioned, you wouldn’t know.     We’re not over King’s Reach at all, Gee, but hovering low over the Forest of Witches, about halfway to Lu-Wadj.”

“It still worries me, Yin-Mose!    To enrage three kings…”

“They will be dead, within a month’s time.    We have it all arranged, brother.    Your confession to them will not stop what we have already set into motion.”

“But the Dragon of Sorrow needs the blood of one of the royals.”

“We have it - in fact we now have blood from the families of all three kings, if the Sylvan princess was indeed the same person as Captain Maelneth.    So the spell will activate, even if we do not assassinate any of the heirs.     The chanting of the spell has ended, brother!    The last of it was complete half an hour ago.   Our wizards can now rest until we receive word about the assassinations of each of the heirs, then they can cast the amplification spell.    Even if all of the assassinations failed, the spell would still activate, yet only in a weaker format.   But we have already poisoned Tutchin-Semer-rah, and he does not even realize it yet.”

“How is that possible?”

“A contact poison - on his drinking vessel at dinner.    He’ll have his cup bearer test it as always, but the poison is not activated until another poison is mixed with it.”

“Food?”

“No, for they test for poisons with magic.    Instead we mixed the poison into the perfume of his favorite concubine.     When he goes into her chamber and touches her, the two poisons will mix with his sweat and that will kill him quickly.”

“I have never heard of poison like that.”

“The dessert nomads of the southern wastelands use it to kill rivals.    If he was as paranoid as his father, this method would not have worked, but Tutchin is reckless and too consumed by his desire for flesh to suspect it.”

“What about Prince Gamel?”

“Alas, we cannot use poison on him - paladins are immune to it.    We are betting on our assassins for his death, though even if we do not achieve this, it will not matter.”

“Why not?”

“Don’t you see?   Can you not see the greater scheme, or is your mind so clouded with fear and age?     The Hutcaiah crown prince’s death will cause ripples throughout the empire.    We have left clues that will point toward Prince Lee-Anke-Shinn.    It would be logical for him to try to kill his older brother, and if his people think that he used the old Toi-Migg Dragon of Sorrow spell to further his ends, so much the better.”

“But Princess Arianelle and Prince Nolen know the truth.”

“Do they?    Would they not benefit from the deaths of their parents and King Eleazar and Queen Aurei?     We will claim that they conspired together to kill those standing in their way to claiming their thrones.”

“Those in Marksylvania won’t believe that Arianelle and Nolen would do that.”

“Perhaps not, but there will be some uncertainty that will help us go undetected, if we are careful.    Their claims of a band of Toi-Migg wizards will sound less sensible to most of the people than a coup attempt by three young royals, greedy for power.”

“What if they find a way to neutralize the spell?”

“That is very unlikely, but even if they were somehow able to do that, the rumors we’ve planted that the three were scheming together to kill their families will still taint their names.   The Hutcaiah will have a renewed hatred of the Tarmard and Marksylvania kingdoms for conspiring with Prince Lee--Anke-Shinn and perhaps the war between the kingdoms will be rekindled.”

“If the curse works and the three kings are killed or the land is blighted, that will only increase the unrest of the people.    Either way, our plan will cause trouble for the three elven kingdoms, which is our long-range goal, which hopefully will lead to their downfall and a restoration of the rightful human kingdoms.”

“Unless they find a way to stop it.”

“The curse is far too powerful to be neutralized.”

“Yet I’ve found that there usually is a way to neutralize any magic if one looks hard enough.”

“Perhaps, but there are only 28 days for them to find a way and not even the great Hutcaiah empire’s numerous wizards could find it.”

At that moment there came the sound of someone opening the trap door at the top of the ladder.

“Yes?   What is it?”  Yin-Mose called up to the opener of the door.

“Master, we have heard from Nie-Phenn in the capital.    Prince Tutchin-Semer-rah has died!  Nie-Phenn says that the Imperial court is in chaos and the Emperor is torturing Tutchin’s concubine, for they think that she is responsible.    Our people have fled the palace and will rendezvous with us in a few hours.  The wizards have already chanted the first of the amplification spells, and await news on the other two heirs.”

“Excellent!    There you go, Gee!   Now do you believe?    Already our plan is working.   The assassins in King’s Reach have orders to make an attempt on Prince Gamel’s life this night, so perhaps by daybreak the curse will be further amplified.”

“But it is rumored that the royals of Marksylvania have autocaster rings!    If your assassins stab them, they will activate.     They say that one of the spells that they favor is a teleportation spell.”

“Yes, we know of this - the entire royal family has a rendezvous location of the old Yeshian church in Westmark.   We have spies among their wizards.     Most of the rings have a healing spell and a teleportation spell that sends them away from the location where they are mortally wounded.”

“But if this is so, Yin-Mose, the assassination attempt against Gamel and his wife --- and even Princess Arianelle- won’t work, as they’ll be healed and teleported to the church in Westmark.”

Arianelle heard Yin-Mose chuckle, “Yes, that is true, but we have a little surprise waiting for them in that church.    It isn’t used for worship since the new cathedral was built, and even the royals don’t use it much.     Trust me, brother, if they do indeed wear autocasters, it won’t prevent our plan from working-  it will only involve another step.   Now, come, meet the others and rejoice with us in our first victory!”

Arianelle heard the rustle of robes and the sounds of sandals brushing on the rungs of the ladder as the men climbed to the deck above.

As soon as the trapdoor closed behind them, Arianelle remembered to breathe again.   She leaned against the side of the pile of lumber and groaned in dismay.    What could she do to stop it?   Her uncle and aunt in King’s Reach were in grave danger and she was over a thousand miles away - if the location of the airship was indeed where Yin-Mose claimed.

Of course Nolen may have warned his parents via scrying device by now, but it was the middle of the night and if no-one was monitoring the crystal balls, then the message would not get to them.

Apparently Prince Lee didn’t reach his parents in time.   Though she still distrusted the Hutcaiah man, she was horrified to think the panic that he was feeling.

But they all were in grave danger - especially her grandparents and parents.

What could she do?

Arianelle retraced her path back to where she had placed the silence stone, and scooped it up, returning it to its lead box.   She was all alone, how could she fend off thirty wizards and the airship crew?   

It was too late to disrupt the chanting of the spell, but maybe she could weaken or simply dilute the effectiveness of it by stopping the amplification spells.   Had it been activated already, by the death of the Hutcaiah heir?    She wasn’t sure, but she had to do something!

 

Her mind racing for ideas, she stared blankly at the lumber that the assassins had placed into the airship’s hold to make it appear that they were legitimate lumber merchants.  

The wood had been there for several months, by the cobwebs on the pieces of lumber.    It was poor quality wood -- it was roughly cut, dull grey in color, extremely dry and full of knots and small wormholes.   To her, it looked as if someone had gathered the lumber from a pile submerged for years underwater then left to dry in the hot sun for a longer period of time.   Surely they didn’t expect anyone inspecting their cargo to believe that it was freshly cut and intended to be used for building.

Then an insane idea occurred to her.     She began looking around the rest of the cargo hold and to her joy she found what she had hoped to locate.   

Against one wall in the hold was a large barrel filled with thick black oil that the Hutcaiah and Toi-Migg people used as fuel for their numerous oil lamps.     They lighted their rooms with lamps as well as cooking in ovens fueled by wood and the foul smelling oil (which gave much of their food a tainted taste).  

The oil was extremely flammable and produced a terrible, thick smoke in large concentrations.     Her grandfather had limited the use of the oil as a fuel by the refugees from the Hutcaiah Empire, as it was beginning to pollute the air of Westmark.  

Now it gave her an idea for a daring plan.

 

The Sylvan princess did not let the nagging fear of almost certain death distract her from acting, for she knew that life would not be worth living with her entire family dead.

It took her several minutes to pour the contents of the heavy barrel of oil liberally over the dry lumber.    The fumes from the oil made her head spin in the confined hold, but she continued to hurry.   She had no idea if it was too late or not, but at least she would strike at those who cast the curse.     

As soon as the lumber was coated, she took the wooden lid of the barrel, and then climbed the ladder toward the trapdoor.     Twice she nearly dropped the oil soaked lid, but somehow she managed to reach the top.     After first checking to make certain that the trapdoor was not locked, she wrapped her arm around a rung of the ladder and held the wooden lid away from her.   

She had been taught the fire cantrip by her Great Aunt Zeatt when she had helped her light the candles in the Church of Yesh.    It had been a great honor for her, to be trusted enough to be taught a little spell that produced a candle-sized flame.    Thoughts of her great aunt clouded her memory as she now chanted the cantrip, pointing a finger at the lid.

Immediately the lid blazed into flame and she almost instinctively dropped it, but she resisted the urge until after she had targeted the middle of the pile of lumber below her.

With a flick of her wrist, she sent the burning lid falling.   It fell with a flipping motion and landed squarely in the middle of the wood.

For an instant it just burned there, but abruptly the oil ignited and in the blink of an eye, the pile of lumber was engulfed in fire.

The air fouled quickly, but Arianelle was nearly finished with her plan.     Pulling the darkness stone’s lead box from her pocket, she quickly opened it and with a bit of reluctance flung it below her.

Immediately the room grew pitch black, which, mixed with the smoke and the heat from the blaze below, was quite frightening.    

 

She was rapidly running out of breathable air, so without further hesitation, she flung the trapdoor upward and rushed up the ladder.

The sound of an alarmed guard greeted her as soon as her feet found the deck.    She had hoped that it would not be guarded, but there was no time to change her plan now.   

She flung the door closed, as the guard, who was loudly shouting alarm for all to hear, rushed her with a sword drawn.

Suddenly all sound stopped and the guard froze in his tracks, unsure what had happened.    Arianelle flung the silence stone to the deck of the airship while pulling her sword free with her other hand.    She doubted that the area of effect of the stone would reach where the spell-chanting wizards were, but that wasn’t actually part of her plan anyway.

In complete silence she rushed the guard, who was shouting at the top of his lungs - without any sound escaping.   He was so rattled at the loss of hearing that she easily cut him down.   

Sickened by what she had to do, she turned from his crumpled body and looked around to get her bearings.     She was on the main deck of a large merchant airship and thankfully it was a traditional design.     

People were rushing out of cabins in response to the guard’s cry of alarm from before she had activated the silence stone.  

Smoke was curling up through the gaps of the trapdoor as Arianelle raced toward the nearest side railing.    The silence on deck seemed to make all those responding to the cry of the guard hesitate with uncertainty of what was going on.

As she neared the edge of the railing, she spotted what she had hoped to find - draglines dangling from the railing of the airship over the side of the vessel that disappeared in the darkness of the trees below.   

They were a standard feature of most airships hovering at rest at night as a safety measure in case the crew had to leave the airship quickly in an emergency.

Quickly the girl sheathed her sword and in complete silence she climbed over the railing of the airship, close to the dragrope.

The crewmen were advancing toward her now with weapons drawn, but they were still unsure about the arcane silence and proceeded cautiously enough to give her time to clear the ship’s railing.

An arrow silently ricocheted off of her chest plate, which told her that an archer was with their number.     Arianelle was very thankful that the plate armor was enchanted, which made it as lightweight as normal clothing.

She could see smoke pouring from the gaps in the trapdoor leading down into the cargo hold and one of the crew members was pulling the door open, surprised to find pitch blackness below him that was not caused by the smoke.

A second arrow hit her gorget, narrowly missing her jaw and she knew that she had to act immediately or the archers would put an arrow through one of her eyes.    Moments before the first of the crew advancing upon her could reach her, she simply jumped off the side of the airship as if she was jumping into a swimming hole.

The sound of air rushing past as she plummeted downward told her that she had left the area of effect of the silence stone, but she merely noted this, for she was focusing on grabbing the knotted dragrope.

Her right hand clawed at the rope and she held on, aided by her Gauntlets of Ogre Strength.     Even with the enhanced strength, the jolt of checking her fall nearly pulled her arm out of its socket.

She wound the rope around her left arm and wove the rope around her legs so she could stabilize herself.

Arianelle had anticipated arrows and crossbow bolts being fired at her as she descended the dragline, but one of the crew members had a much better solution.

She felt the rope jolt a few times and then realized that someone was simply cutting the rope above her.

Rebuffing herself for not thinking of that possibility, she tried to hurriedly lower herself, but she was still a few feet above the tree line when the rope snapped, sending her crashing through the tall trees.

For an instant there was a free-falling feeling, but that abruptly changed to a barrage of slapping, ripping, cutting branches as she tore through them.    Only a moment before she impacted the ground, a large lower branch sent all consciousness from her, sparing the Sylvan princess from the final explosion of pain.

Reviews

[Elina]

"Our wizards now can rest..." Perhaps, instead, "Our wizards can now rest..."
"...she almost instinctively dropped it..." For some reason this led me to believe that she had, in fact, dropped the lid. It wasn't until I read the next portion of the sentence that I realized what you intended to say. Perhaps reword this a little to ensure clarity.
"...pulled her arm out of socket." Perhaps insert "its" before "socket."