Casek’s boots hit the stone floor and launched him straight into a run across the crystal path. He darted through the crystal-lined passage, his boots clacking against the translucent surface, the sound echoing through the now nearly deserted tunnel. Only the occasional straggling Shadowspawn lingered in the dark, Drau and Shades clever enough to stay out of harm's way now their Daemon master was absent.
They paid for their intelligence with their lives, Casek unwilling to allow any obstructions between his companions and the exit to be left behind.
There was a trade-off at play: how fast he could make it to his allies before the daemon returned, versus slowing down to make their path easier to traverse. He opted to concentrate on the latter, maintaining his pace but methodically clearing the tunnel of enemies.
Raelynn should be combat ready, provided she had not been hurt as part of her imprisonment, if a little weaker than usual. Idris was an unknown. He’d been imprisoned here for weeks, and Casek didn’t know the condition his body was left in after the battle he was captured in. He didn’t want to take the chance that Drau would cause problems if they had to carry him out.
Quickly, though, Casek ran into another dilemma. The prisoners he’d run past when he escaped–the ones lining the tunnel like twisted ornaments–remained, watching him pass, frozen in terror. He hesitated beside the first, worrying his bottom lip anxiously.
He could free them now, and perhaps some of them would make a good distraction for the Daemon if she returned early. It pained him to think of these people so callously, but considering the state of the others, he couldn’t imagine them achieving anything else. Freeing them was difficult to think of as anything more than a useful cruelty, yet it was also difficult to walk past them, leaving them trapped. At least if he freed them, there was a chance, regardless of how slim it was.
The thought made Casek’s decision for him. He couldn’t countenance just leaving them, so instead, he darted from one crystal pillar to the next, shattering them with a pulse of his power. He didn’t stop to speak to the freed warriors and townsfolk, leaving them to their fate. The thought that the Daemon might be able to tell when her prisoners were being freed from a distance didn’t come to him until he was halfway through the tunnel.
What’s done is done. Our course is set.
Split-second decisions made in the heat of battle could decide the course of entire wars–he just had to hope this one would somehow decide things in his favour.
Casek burst into the main chamber, panting and dripping with sweat, but unobstructed. The few Shadowspawn left behind shrunk away, scuttling out of reach up the walls to the ceiling, babbling and hissing, unwilling to stand in his path without their master to force them.
He ignored them. Raelynn’s entrapped form lay in the centre of the nest-structure in the centre of the chamber, and he made for it almost without conscious thought, running as fast as his exhausted legs could carry him. Casek reached it in moments, already reaching within for Tauph’s power, shepherding it outwards using his own whilst ignoring the muted whispers of the bound Bel’gor.
The crystal shattered, and Raelynn emerged from the salmon-pink cloud of dust on her feet, blinking owlishly at him.
“You came back—how?”
Her eyes darted around the room, seeking the Daemon that had entrapped her, and to her bewilderment, finding nothing.
“I…Created a distraction. Are you injured? We won’t have long.”
Raelynn shook her head slowly. “Besides magical depletion, no.” Her eyes widened then, and her head jerked toward the crystal pillar that had so caught her attention when they had first reached this place. “Idris?”
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Casek threw her a pleased, albeit tired, grin. “It’s why we came, isn’t it?”
Her mouth worked silently, trying to find the words, until landed finally on a firm nod, her own grin mirroring his.
They turned to the crystal pillar that held Raelynn’s companion, and Casek could see him clearly for the first time. He was a middle-aged man, a few years Casek’s senior, with thick, shoulder-length dark hair, and weathered, deep bronze skin. Casek placed his right palm across the crystal and shattered it, sending Idris staggering forward as he dropped to the floor.
Raelynn stepped forward, steadying him with a hand on his shoulder. Idris swayed for a moment, on the verge of his knees giving out, then breathed deep through the nose and planted his black boots, visibly forcing himself to stay upright.
He looked between Casek and Raelynn for a moment, before curious dark eyes found Casek and stayed there, measuring him. Casek shifted uncomfortably under the scrutiny, but held the older man’s gaze. The image of a resolute warrior he was trying to convey was, however, shattered, when Idris’ calloused hand shout out faster than he could track, taking his jaw between index finger and thumb with a surprisingly strong grip.
“Odd. Not Shadowspawn, that is beyond doubt—I’d have sensed it, even if Raelynn could not,” he said, turning Casek’s head as if he were some strange new creature. “But fully human? Less certain—not when you can interact with stasis matrices the way you do.”
He let go, and Casek opened his mouth to respond, only to find Idris was no longer in front of him, but behind, peering at him from narrowed eyes, stroking his beard. Casek felt suddenly what it must be like to be the beetles trapped in jars and excruciatingly examined by fascinated children.
“Do it again,” he demanded.
“Do what?” Casek asked, eyes darting from the intense newcomer—who somehow managed to look domineering as well as vaguely unsteady on their feet at the same time—to an immensely amused Raelynn.
“Free the rest of these people.”
“We don’t have a lot of time—the Daemon might—”
“Be coming back—yes, yes. I am correct in assuming you freed those above to create your distraction, yes?” Idris did not wait for Casek’s answer. “The Daemon will be longer than you think. She is quite possessive, and her prey will be desperate. The human survival instinct is strong, no matter how damaged the human in question is. Quite apart from that, I must see this ability in person again. For trust. For the satisfaction of my curiosity.”
He grinned, and adjusted his loose-fitting pale linen shirt. “Most importantly, however, I, like you, cannot countenance leaving here without giving these people a fair chance of escaping with us.”
That, Casek could not bring himself to argue with. He did not know what fate awaited those he’d freed, nor what state they were in mentally, but all he had to do to assuage his doubts now was think of that man and his little girl, and how she had clung to him as they ran. Some would be recaptured, and inevitably, some would be too broken by their imprisonment to cope. But at least they’d all been given a chance.
Casek set to work immediately, reducing the Daemon’s nest to glimmering dust, and depositing her prisoners roughly to the floor. Most sat motionless, eyes staring into a distance only they could see. A man in full plate heaved himself weakly to his feet, his soft moaning muffled by his closed steel helm, and leaned heavily on the sword he’d been captured holding.
With him, the woman he’d seen wearing a foci also stood, eyes fixated on them.
“My thanks,” she rasped through a thick accent, taking Casek’s hand and shaking it vigorously. “Tell me, I know not how long I’ve been imprisoned for. Does Saoirdin still stand?”
Raelynn stepped forward. “I’m sorry, no.”
The woman’s face tightened, jaw muscles tensing wildly as she fought to suppress the emotions Casek could see warring behind her eyes. “How long has it been since it fell?”
“It’s been at least fifty years since they overran it,” Raelynn said.
The woman’s head bowed, and she seemed to sink in on herself like a wilting flower. “I see.”
Idris stepped forward, seeming more steady than he had even a few moments ago. “Those of you whole enough to hear me, the Daemon will return soon. If you are still here when it does, you will be imprisoned again, with little hope of escape again. If you can, you must leave with us.”
Few of the men and women on the floor showed any sign of having heard him, but those that did started to drag themselves upright. There were a good dozen warriors, too many for them to help them all, even if they had enough time to carry folk out of here.
Idris’ hand on his shoulder made him jump, but the man wore a serene smile as he looked down at him. “You have already done more than could be reasonably asked. The rest is up to them. It is time for us to leave, lest yours and Raelynn’s efforts here be wasted.”
Casek nodded, and re-summoned his blade, only slightly perturbed at the intensity of Idris’ gaze at the sight of it. He ignored the fresh dryness of his throat, and started for the exit, leading those that could follow toward the exit.
He only prayed they would make it before the Daemon returned.
