Substitution

Tolthe plans to carry out his master's plan.

14.

Substitution

 

“Do you realize what time it is?   Why in the world would the king want to interrogate this assassin in the middle of the night?”

Tolthe shrugged as if he were as perplexed as the other guards, “I don’t ask questions, I just follow orders, and I was told to bring the killer into the king’s presence.” 

He awaited more resistance from them, but to the Faesidhe’s surprise, the guards shook their heads and one of them unlocked the cell door, gesturing him inside.

The Faesidhe girl was shackled to the far wall by her hands and her neck and she looked up in fear as they approached, for a silence spell was upon the room and she could not ask them what they wanted.

A guard unlocked her chains and roughly pulled her to her feet, then took the chains on her wrists and locked them into a ring behind her back.   He gave the end of the chain to Tolthe and he pushed the Faesidhe woman forward as if she was a dog forced out on a leash.

The girl hesitated, but the other guards drew their swords and so she relented and allowed them to escort her out of the room.

Just before they left the cell, one guard remembered to put a gag around her mouth, so she couldn’t chant a spell as soon as she exited the zone of the silence spell.

“Do you need us to accompany you?”   One of the guards asked after they had entered the hallway.

“No; with her hands chained behind her back and the gag, she should be harmless.    I’ll return her as soon as His Majesty releases her.”

“Alright… crazy time for interrogating her again,” The guard murmured, joining his companions at a table near the cell door, “I guess we have some time to relax.”

Tolthe didn’t respond, but simply pushed the girl forward, down the hallway.

She was very pretty and clearly was of noble Faesidhe stock, but an order was an order.    He didn’t want Gelden mad.

He led her up two flights of stairs, having planned out the place of her execution - the supply closet in the very middle part of the dungeon complex.   

The Faesidhe spy was relieved that she didn’t resist him or try to ask any questions with the gag in her mouth.    She clearly didn’t know what he was about to do.  

“Get inside,”   He told her as they reached the closet, and he unlocked the supply room door and held it open for her.

She turned and looked questioningly at him, but he couldn’t meet her gaze, knowing that he was about to kill her.

“I hate to have to do this to you, girl, but orders are orders,”  He said, pushing her hard into the room.   She stumbled inside, crashing into a shelf with blankets on them.

Tolthe quickly swung the door shut and was drawing out his sword as he turned back around, when she struck.

One of her daggers stabbed him in the hand while the other one pressed up against his neck.     She threw him back against the door, her dagger firm against his jugular vein, but not pricking it.

“Good try, Faesidhe, but not tonight,”   Ant whispered, holding the position until the strong drug coating the blade of the dagger that she had pricked him with, rendered him unconscious.

Tolthe grew bleary eyed, then suddenly slumped against her.   By then she had completed her reading of his mind and she knew enough to fake his identity.

Closing her eyes, she slowly took his facial features.   It wasn’t a perfect match, but close enough that she hoped to fool the wizard.

When her change was finished, she stripped Tolthe of his guard uniform and then donned it.    She could not entirely take his form, but thankfully his chainmail tunic, boots, bracers and helmet would conceal enough of her to let her pass as him.

The Queen’s plan was working flawlessly so far, but the most dangerous part was about to begin.  

Taking out the miniature crystal ball that the spy had carried in his pouch, she left the storeroom and hurried up the stairs, as if quickly leaving the scene of a murder.   She knew he probably couldn’t see her by just using his scrying ball, but he could have spies in the guard.

She went up two flights of stairs and paused in the stairwell on the ground floor.    Ant spoke the activation words and rubbed her hands over the crystal ball.

“Well?”  Gelden’s face appeared.

“It is done, master, but I was unable to destroy her body due to guards all around.    I left her corpse in a storeroom.”

“I wanted her destroyed, you idiot!”

“There is no chance of that now, master.”

“Then return to me at once!   They’ll soon find who did this and piece everything together.    We’re leaving Westmark in an hour, and if you aren’t here when I’m ready to go, we’ll leave without you.”

“I’ll be there, master.”

“You had better, Tolthe!   I am very disappointed in your performance.    Very disappointed…”   The wizard waved his hand over the crystal and his image disappeared from Tolthe’s scrying ball.

“You’ll be more than disappointed soon enough,”   Ant mumbled to herself, going over in her mind the memories from Tolthe of the wizard’s hideout.

Fortunately, she got directions during her scanning of the mind of the spy, so she knew she could find it.

Forcing herself to walk like a man, she pushed the door open to the first floor and slipped out, hurrying to the main entrance.

The guards had been instructed to let her, or someone who resembled Tolthe, to leave the palace.   Usually all the palace doors were locked at night and no one was allowed admittance without a good reason.   But Queen Aurei and Sophia had set everything up so it would look convincing.

As she made a shallow excuse to the guards at the front door and they allowed her to leave, she wondered how the others were doing with their tasks.

 

***

 

“Being dead sucks,”  Rick grumbled as he paced back and forth in the cell.

“Patience, young man, patience,”  Sophia answered from her seat on the cell’s bunk.    To Rick’s dismay, she brought out her case and lit yet another Dart’loxinchu cigarette.   The smoke, while pleasant smelling, gave him a headache in the non-ventilated dungeon cell, especially after he had watched her smoke ten of them in the two hours that they all were secluded there.

Rick sighed in frustration and glanced at his companions, most of whom were as weary of breathing the pregnant Drow’s smoke as he was.

“It won’t harm you,”  Sophia said as she exhaled a long plume of smoke.   It was as if she had read his mind, “Dart’loxinchu was rendered harmless by Yesh, you know.   It isn’t even addictive any more.”

“Then why are you smoking so much?”   Rick growled.

“Habit and nerves, I guess.     I enjoy it, and since it is inert to all of you - and now to the babies that I carry as well- there is no reason not to.”

“It gives me a headache,”   Rick snapped and some of the others in the cell murmured in agreement.

Sophia sighed, put the cigarette between her lips and chanted a quick spell.   A moment later the air in the cell was crisp and fresh as a late autumn morning.

“There - that will pacify you for a while.”

Rick was about to protest further when the cell door clicked open, causing all of them to jump at the sudden sound.

Into the cell slipped a tall Drow man, who closed the door behind him and after nodding at everyone, went up to Sophia, who seemed very pleased to see him.

“I thought you’d never get here,”   She told her husband.

“Ant is very cautious, so took her time,”  Khord told her, “I followed her to a dyer in the cloth merchant district.   At least the building was once a dyer’s establishment.    I think it is just a front now, but it still has the sign out front.    She gave me the Drow hand symbol for destination before she knocked on the door, so I just turned and came back.   I’d say this was Gelden’s hideout.”

“Good!”  Sophia said while exhaling a long plume of smoke, “Now we just wait and see what she finds.”

“Um… excuse me Lady Sophia, but how will we know what she finds?    By the time she thinks up an excuse and sneaks back to report on her findings, the wizard may disappear.”   Tadd asked from across the cell.

Sophia smiled sweetly at the Halfling, “Gelden is certainly ready to leave Westmark, so your concern is warranted, Tadd.   But I gave Antheeya one of my most treasured magic items - a Brooch of Seeing.”

“How does that work, ma’am?”   Jevon asked.

“It is not your usual magic brooch; it is shaped like a human eye and it is placed onto the surface of one eye.   The magic of the brooch causes the brooch to disappear from site, but while wearing it, the brooch will send back to its owner -which is me- an image of what the wearer is seeing, complete with sound, when I choose to activate it.”

“Like a crystal ball?”   Mutt said.

“Yes, but the images and sound can only be seen by me.”

“So can you see anything now?”

“I can when I desire to look.   Now all of you sit and rest for now; this may take a while, but I will keep all of you updated.    When - and if- we see the Losasidhe king and queen, we’ll have to spring into action quickly.    All of you are going to be part of the rescue team.”

“Even me, ma’am?”   Shelyah asked from where she sat next to Rick, “I’m just a cook.”

“From what I hear, Shel, you were quite effective swinging a skillet, so I think you probably have had some training with weapons, haven’t you?”

The Orc girl blushed, “A bit… when I was a girl, but not much really as Orcs don’t think their women should be warriors.”

Sophia snorted, “I’ve known some very fierce Orc women, Shel, so that is one stereotype that should be discarded.”

The Drow lady turned to her husband, “Do you think you can loan Shel one of your short swords?”

Khord grinned, “I certainly can - I’ll have to go get one; I’ll be right back.”

As he started out the cell door, Sophia called to him, “Go ask Aurei if she can spare a shirt of elven mail for her …and a tunic, pants and boots as well.   A serving girl’s dress is not appropriate garb for a rescue mission.”

“Can do,” Khord called back and disappeared out the door.   Sophia sat back, her head resting against the wall.   She rubbed her swollen belly with her eyes closed, smoking the Dart’loxinchu cigarette as she began receiving sights and sounds from Ant’s brooch.   

Shel gave Rick an uneasy look.   “Well, I guess I’m a warrior, now,”  She whispered to him.

“Shel, this is not at all fair to you.   I’ll go talk to Lady Sophia and tell her to let you go.”    Rick was halfway to his feet when she grabbed his arm and gently pulled him back down.

“No, no, hon, it’s alright.   Really, it is,”  Again she whispered, “I’m too curious now anyway.”

“But do you know how to fight?”

Shel smiled knowingly, “Yes, I think I can handle myself.   Lady Sophia is right about fierce Orc women.    The philosophy is that if an Orc village is attacked when the men are away, the women should be able to adequately defend it.”

“Well, that’s good, but it isn’t fair to put your life in danger over this.”

“Your life and your friend’s lives are in danger, hon.    I think of it more as a civic duty to my city, nation and king.”

“That’s very noble, Shel, but what if you’re injured or killed.”

Shel shrugged, “You can die anytime, hon.    Even at work.”

Rick smirked, “At Flapjacks?”

The Orc lady arched her eyebrows, “You’d be surprised - hungry patrons can get really nasty.”

“Well, I want you to stay behind the rest of us, okay?   Out of danger.   Hopefully, things will turn out where none of us will have to go in there.     Wizards tend to have powerful magic.”

“Don’t forget, hon, we have a powerful sorceress on our side.”   She gestured at Sophia, who seemed almost in a trance, apparently watching what Ant was seeing.

Rick smirked, “She looks like she could go into labor any moment and all she can do is smoke those nasty white tubes-“

“Cigarettes,”  Shel provided the name.

“Whatever they’re called - she doesn’t seem too powerful to me right now.”

“Don’t underestimate her, hon.   Drow are powerful magic-users.”

“Yeah, I guess.    I just hope Queen Aurei sends a squad of guardsmen with us.”

“Oh, I’m sure she will, Rick.    Don’t worry about it.    We ought to get some sleep.   It looks like most of your friends are already there.”   As if verifying her words, Mutt began snoring nearby.

“I don’t know if I can, but you’re right.”

“Just close your eyes and maybe you’ll nod off.”

Rick leaned back until his head rested against the cold stone of the cell and he tried what she suggested.    Sophia’s Dart’loxinchu smoke hung heavy in the air, though it no longer smelled strongly, and he knew she wouldn’t stop if he complained, so he just laid there.    A few moments passed and then he felt Shel slide down next to him.    She took his right arm and put it around her shoulder and then nestled down against his chest.

He opened his eyes in surprise and glanced down at her, but she had her eyes closed and a peaceful expression was on her face.    With a perplexed sigh, he just closed his eyes again, finding her warmth oddly reassuring.    He softly hugged her and she made a soft sound, clearly almost asleep.

With a slight smile on his face, he found himself nodding off.