The Orb of Wrath (The Merchant's Destiny Book 1) (29 page)

“Listen to me. I can get you out of here in one piece. But it will be difficult,” he said.

“How are you going to do it?” Samar asked directly.

“With magic, of course,” clarified Mithir. “But you're going to have to entrust your life to me. If anyone doubts and stays behind, I can’t do anything for that person.”

The young magician paused and looked all of the group members as if trying to assess what was the degree of confidence that he had managed to establish with each of them.

“We need to jump out the south window; jump high and out. And we must do it very close together, almost simultaneously. While we fall we must cover our flanks Thost and Ithelas' shields. It is possible that during the first moments the soldiers may shoot at us,” he explained.

“But what are you saying? Have you gone mad?” Ithelas said.

“No, not at all. He knows his stuff. He can take us to the valley below, in one piece. But you're going to have to blindly trust him,” Erion said.

After a brief but intense debate and the fear of losing more time in that place finished convincing everyone to follow Mithir's plan. They had taken too long to find the box. If they took longer the vampires would return, and with almost their entire magical potential exhausted and their strongest warrior in poor condition, they would have no chance of survival.

They stood close together, just as the magician asked. Erion was in the front, with the girl on his shoulders. The huge glassless window let them feel the cold breeze coming from the valley. He could see, about twelve steps below, the base of the cliff where several soldiers were waiting for them with their weapons ready. The ledge between the castle wall and emptiness was particularly narrow at that point; it was no more than two or three steps wide. They also saw their destination far below, the valley. Between the height of the ridge and the height of the tower where they were, there could be fifty to sixty steps. This was far more than any human being could survive under normal conditions. Erion instantly turned and looked at his brother's eyes. Then he smiled, ran to the window and jumped into the void.

CHAPTER 10: LEAP INTO THE VOID

After Erion's jump, Mithir followed almost immediately, with Ithelas and Thost on each side, raising their shields and trying to protect the group. Samar then jumped. When the moment of crossing the threshold of the window came, she hesitated only for an instant, and then jumped after them; therefore, as they fell, Samar was a little delayed from the group.

Several arrows began to rain on them from different directions. Thost managed to stop two with his shield. The others, although they passed close by, did not reach them. They passed very close to the soldiers at the base of the cliff as they fell, but the trajectory of their jump took them away, directly into the valley. The speed of their fall began to accelerate significantly, and that was when, suddenly, the pace of the decline slowed. They continued to fall into the void, but did now at a steady pace and not an excessive one. It was very strange. Mithir was certainly responsible.

They no longer felt arrows around them; the angle of their position had been left outside the scope of the archers guarding the castle. After a while, which seemed eternal to them, they saw the valley floor nearby. Erion landed deftly placing his feet first, slightly apart. While he landed, he finished braking with a brief run of four or five steps. This way he avoided any harm to the young woman he was carrying. Thost then fell and couldn't stand as he did, so he ended up prowling without serious consequences. Ithelas fell, however, in an unfavorable position to land without difficulty, his body slightly shifted toward the cliff. He hit himself. He got up shortly after and complaining of a sore hip. Mithir then landed without problems. He had the most appropriate position for landing. It was obvious that he had practiced the maneuver before. Despite his soft landing, the impact with the ground was about to reopen the wound in his side, which, fortunately, did not happen. Samar arrived a moment later, falling to the ground and giving a double somersault. She stood below, shaking dirt from her clothes.

“Are you okay, Ithelas?” Mithir asked, seeing the grimace on the cleric's face.

“I'm hurt, but it's nothing serious,” said the young man. “It was incredible. How...”

“Take cover behind that bush,” urged Erion. “We are not safe here.”

His friends responded immediately, following the young man and entering a group of large shrubs. Ithelas walked, but was visibly limping. Erion had thought to ask the young cleric to carry the young woman for a while, since his neck was starting to hurt. But he thought it would probably be asking too much, after the rugged fall he had had.

“How are you? I see that you're limping. Can you get to the clearing?” Erion asked Ithelas.

“Yes. But I can't go very fast. The place where we left our backpacks is not far, fortunately.”

“Let's go; no time to lose,” said Thost while starting the march.

This time, Thost and Samar led the way. They followed a slightly less direct route, to search all the protection they could, hiding in the vegetation. They tried to avoid offering a clear shot at the soldiers of the castle. At the same time, it was possible that a party of guards was descending into the valley to hunt them down. So they should leave immediately. They arrived a little later to the formation of trees where they had left their equipment. Although the place was, indeed, more or less close, Ithelas, Erion and Thost arrived almost exhausted. Thost still felt extremely weak, so getting there with a loaded pouch had been a great effort.

At the back they saw the clearing where their backpacks waited for them. It really was not a matter of life or death to recover them, but they preferred not to leave any trace of their visit there. They wouldn't leave any chance of the soldiers discovering the equipment as this would give them clues on where and how to find them. Besides, that small clearing among a group of trees was the closest place where they could open the portal without raising any suspicion and escape from that cursed valley.

They moved to the clearing. Erion was the first one to see their equipment against a tree. They had made it. They could almost smell Dreshpho's roast back in the mansion when Samar asked them to stop with an almost violent gesture. She made the sign for them to keep silence and then pointed to the opposite side of the clearing. Two tugrims rested peacefully near a tree. They felt the blood run cold. The whole group, under normal conditions, could have faced and overcome those two monsters. Surely they would have had some difficulty, but without any fatal injuries. However, the condition of the group was quite bad; they had exhausted virtually all their magical energy, they had no special ammunition, they were starving and thirsty, and several were wounded; they wouldn't stand a chance against the tugrims. They didn't even have the advantage of surprise. Samar could shoot and surprise the monsters, but her peculiar system of concealment made impossible to know the exact place where they were, let alone hit them with an arrow from a distance. Moreover, the tugrims were too close to their equipment, so they couldn't reach it without alerting the beasts.

“Let's go back. Let's leave the equipment. It's very risky,” Samar said in a whisper.

“Wait. Let me try something,” Mithir said with gestures.

The young magician prepared the last spell of the day. It was a simple cantrip, one of the first spells he had learned long ago. Some dim lights, like several dragonflies of good size, appeared floating across the clearing, above the tugrims. The beasts were still asleep, resting. Mithir began to move the lights in ever-widening concentric circles around the image they saw of the beasts. Probably he'd have to put the lights above the animals to awaken them. So they'd have to reach the exact point where they were resting. Soon they saw like the images of the tugrims opened their eyes and looked up. It was strange, because over the two images of the beasts there was nothing, but at this point everyone understood what was happening. Mithir then began to move the lights slowly northward toward the castle. The beasts began to follow the lights and, after a while, there was no sign of them. Mithir, still guiding the lights further and further away, opened his eyes and smiled. He had exhausted all his magical energy. He wouldn't be able to even do the simplest spell until the following day.

“It's our opportunity. Hurry!” pleaded Erion.

They walked quickly to the backpacks, while the magician was pulling the carefully folded scroll that was stored in one of the inside pockets of his robe. He started making gestures as he was muttering what was in the scroll. The murmur was unintelligible to everyone and it was very dim, too; hard to hear. But the magic seemed to work anyway. Moments later, a portal had opened before them, similar to the one they had used two days earlier. They all picked up their backpacks and entered the portal one by one.

*******

Erion was surprised that the impression of vertigo this time was even greater than on the previous occasion. He didn't know if fatigue had to do with it, or perhaps the weight of the young girl on his shoulders. He knew that the effect would not last, and he closed his eyes, was patient and waited. Soon after, he could feel the reassuring sensation of ground beneath his feet. He opened his eyes. They were in a forest next to a large river. He felt cold. They had left that hot and humid tropical climate behind. The vegetation and the landscape made him feel at home. Although he was a bit puzzled. Undoubtedly, they were not in the same forest from where they had left, close to the mansion on the hill.

The rest of the group was there and looked at each other wondering where they were. It was late in the afternoon. Everyone started to pick up some clothes from their bags for warmth. Ithelas was visibly shivering.

“I see you're back. All of you,” said a voice behind them.

They turned and saw Phoroz, the dark elf, their client, with his distinctive red eyes. He was accompanied by a strange gnome fully dressed in hunting clothes, which would enable him to camouflage well in the field. Samar noticed that he also wore a cloak woven by her people.

“Yes. Where are we if I may ask?” asked Thost.

“In the Mositus mark. That is the Calen River. Across it lays Fugor, the kingdom of the orcs,” Phoroz said.

The group was too exhausted to digest news like those. After all their efforts they were now just steps away from the most dangerous country in the world of Oris.

“Do you have the box?” asked the dark elf directly.

“Here it is,” Ithelas said, after grabbing the object from his bag.

A big smile lit up the face of the sinister character. Erion was sure that this was the first time he saw him smile. He didn't remember seeing even a grimace of a smile in any of the previous occasions when they had met.

“You've succeeded! Fantastic!” Phoroz said as he handed the box to the gnome.

He bent down to give some instructions, almost in whispers. The gnome saved the box in a bag on his back and ran toward the river. They saw a small canoe he had hidden on the shore. It was so small it couldn't even carry a man. With large strokes the gnome began to paddle toward the opposite shore.

“He's going to the kingdom of Fugor!” Mithir exclaimed surprised.

“Right. But you don't have to worry about it. You have already done your part beyond all my expectations. Now we can only cross our fingers,” said the elf with a slightly more friendly tone than they remembered having heard before”. Who is that girl?” he asked.

“She was captive in the vampire's castle,” said Samar.

“She's lucky. You saved her from the horror. Well, we're not fine here. Follow me,” Phoroz said.

They walked a few steps behind him. Finally the elf stopped and asked them to stand close together forming a circle, shoulder to shoulder. Then, the dark elf introduced himself in the middle of the circle and, after saying a few words, saw how a ring that he was wearing begun to shine. After a while they were elsewhere. It had happened without the vertigo they had felt after going through the portal; simply, suddenly, they were in a different place. It was the outdoor patio of the mansion on the hill.

“Here are your fees,” Phoroz said, giving Thost a bag. “I have included a little extra because I need you to do me a favor. I want to buy one of your horses. I must go immediately to the capital. I have to be there before dawn.”

Thost went to the barn, grabbed a brown horse with white spots and handed the reins to the elf.

“Here you go. It is a docile and fast horse. It will serve you well. Anyway, I think you'd get there faster using your ring,” said the knight.

“Yes, but I can use it only once a day. So, I have to ride,” said the elf.

“Ok, but the capital is far away. Even with a fast horse you won't get there until tomorrow afternoon,” estimated Thost.

“Not when you feed it this sugar,” he said, putting his hand closer to the horse's mouth. “Don't worry, it will not suffer. I know how much you appreciate your horses.”

Phoroz mounted the horse and said goodbye with a wave of his hand. Then he rode at high speed down the hill.