The Stair Of Time (Book 2) (37 page)

Seeing his contempt, Hooknose grinned.  “Bet you wish you had your m
agic sword, don’t you, you self-righteous cur?”

Dread
rose in Andaris’ throat.  He came close to panicking before it occurred to him what was probably happening.  Hooknose was just fishing—casting out blindly, hoping to hook something of use. 
He can’t know,
he thought. 
How could he?  Provided, that is, I didn’t just give it away with my reaction.  Maybe that was his game all along.

“No doubt you could pierce clean through my personal shield with a sword like that, and succeed where so many have failed.  If only it weren’t locked away nice and secure in my vault.  You, Andaris Rocaren, could end my wretched existence once and for all.  Pity….”

He’s bluffing,
he thought. 
He has nothing.  He’s a criminal, a card player, and a cheat.  And now he’s trying to play me for the fool.
  Andaris decided then and there that he wouldn’t let him.  Knowing that he was being baited, he swallowed his rage, bitter pill that it was.  “Can we just get this over with,” he asked, sounding bored.  “I paid you a lot of gold to see my friend, not to listen to you prattle on until the guards return.”

To his surprise, Hooknose smiled, a genuine, full-faced beamer
crowded with rotting teeth.  “Seems you’re nearly as canny as your friend.  Oh well, so be it.  Not many catch me, much less call me on it.  I applaud you, sir.”  He dipped his head to Andaris, and then turned and opened the door.”

Live by the Sword

The cells that lined the hall to the left and right of them did not have bars, windows, or even feeding s
lots.  Consequently, there were no prisoners clamoring for release, shouting insults, or even clanging cups as they passed—no witnesses.  There was only the gray hall, their steady footfalls, and the iron doors.

When they reached cell number 612, Hooknose came to a halt and turned around.  “This is it,” he told Andaris, pulling a large chain of keys from inside his cloak.  After a moment
’s fumbling, he handed him one.  Hooknose gestured to the door.  “It turns to the left.  And remember, Gaven is expecting you.  Once you have the door open, you alone will go inside while I wait out here with
this!
”

In a display of great and, from what Andaris had witnessed thus far, uncharacteristic flourish, Hooknose pulled a
longsword from the sheath on his belt, a sword that had been, until now, concealed by his cloak.

Andaris gaped, for this was no ordinary sword.  Gaven’s captor had apparently not been bluffing, after all.  “Endollin?” he
asked in a choked whisper.

Hooknose smiled and ran his hand
along the length of the blade, defiling that which had become so precious to him.  “It’s very pretty, don’t you think?  I can see why you covet it so.”  Seeing Andaris’ look of astonishment, he gave a contemptuous chuckle.  “Just how stupid do you think me?  I know everything that goes on in this town.  Remember what I said about leverage?  I don’t go into any business deal with
anybody
without first knowing
everything
there is to know about them.  Little things like…magical swords that hold great and everlasting power, the kind which hale from…another place, a place far, far away from here.  Oh, don’t look so surprised!” he snapped.  “I abhor stupidity.  You were so intent on seeing your beloved Gaven that you let yourself be trapped!  Did you truly think that I would not check?  Did you truly think that a man in
my
position would not have mages in his employ?  They are soul-bound to me, which is how I know they do not lie when they tell me that this sword’s power can likely be harnessed, making me the most feared man in all of Endwood—and perhaps even beyond.”

His eyes shone with a sudden, fanatical light.  “
The chance for everlasting life they say!  Everlasting power!  It
will
be so, and
you
will show me how, and together we will travel to this
other
place from whence you came, and see what wonders it has to offer a visionary such as myself.”

“But it’s mine
!” Andaris sputtered, sounding like a petulant child.  “And it doesn’t hold great power.  It doesn’t do anything but babble.  And even if it did, this wasn’t the agreement.  You can’t do this!  A lot’s at stake here!  More than you can imagine!  You claim to be a man of your word, and yet—”

Hooknose sneered and slashed the sword through the air.  “Who are you to tell me what
I can and cannot do?  Hmm?  This sword has no bearing on the agreement we made.  You paid me to bring you to talk to your friend.  That is exactly what I have done.  The theft of your sword and subsequent theft of your person has nothing to do with it.  You probably stole it, anyway.  How else could a person such as yourself come to possess such a thing?”

Andaris fumed helplessly, mind racing for a solution. 
Trapped!
he thought. 
I came to rescue him, and now I’m a prisoner, too!  What a fool I’ve been. 

Time seemed to slow, the air around him becoming viscous and heavy.

What…a…fool….

“You’d better hurry,” Hooknose warned, his patronizing
voice now sounding far away.  “According to my calculations, we have only fifteen minutes before the guards return.” 

Andaris nodded solemnly, resigning himself to the situation with
disturbing ease, mind lost in fog. 
What’s he doing?
he thought.
  And…why?

“Insert the key,”
said Hooknose, his tone now strangely soothing.  “Everything will be all right.”

Moving as
if in a trance, Andaris did as instructed, a burgeoning warmth filling his breast. 
Gaven,
he thought. 
Good ol’ Gaven.  It will be so nice to see him….

“Now turn the key to the left,” came the voice.  “Just like I told you.”

To the left,
Andaris thought. 
Just like you told me….

“Hurry!” said the voice.

He
tried to obey, but found his hand unable or unwilling to do his bidding.

Not
my bidding,
warned a distant part of his mind. 
His bidding!

And just like that, the
enchantment broke, everything snapping back into focus like a rubber band that had been stretched too tight. 

Must
stop him!
he thought. 
Not just Gaven but Mandie and…the world, all the worlds, depend on it!
  In that moment, Andaris’ chest swelled with sudden, righteous might.  He would not allow this dreadful man, this rat of a man, to ruin everything.  He would stop him, or die trying!

“Turn the key,” cooed the voice. 
This time, however, Andaris thought he heard a hint of impatience and…perhaps something else.  Fear?

“For
Fairhaven!” he cried, whirling about and flinging himself at the man.

The look of surprise on Hooknose’s face w
as almost comical.  But his surprise did not prevent him from defending himself.  No, indeed.

Andaris should have been impaled upon the end of
his own sword, skewered as neatly as any hog at slaughter.  Mrs. Greenswich would have called it delicious irony.

Yet s
omehow—he would never comprehend the exact physics of it—this is not what happened.  He could only surmise that Endollin had managed to wrest control for a moment, just long enough to make Hooknose use the blade on himself, slicing from the top of his head to the bottom of his nose, eyes bright with astonishment.  Andaris stood over his dead body for what seemed a long time, attempting to come to terms with this bloody turn of events. 

After
taking a moment to collect his wits, he leaned down and pulled free his sword, the crunching of bone and suckling of flesh filling his ears.  He grimaced, guarding his mind against Endollin as he wiped the blade clean on Hooknose’s trousers and reunited sword with sheath.  Once the two were safely back on his hip, where they belonged, he turned and opened the door.

Gaven emerged from the dim confines of the cell and wrapped him in a great bear hug.  “I can’t believe you’re actually here! How did you find—”

“I’m glad to see you, too
.  But there’s no time to explain.  We have to get out!  The guards will be back any moment!”

Gaven nodded,
conflicting emotions blooming high on his cheeks.  “Yeah…I figured.  But there’s something I have to do first.  Alicia will die without me and...and I love her.”

Andaris nodded. 
“Okay.  I understand, but we need to hurry!”

“She’s in cell number 6
43.  That swine there should have the key.”  Gaven grimaced and spat on Hooknose’s twitching corpse. “Rodan knows he used it enough!”

A
hasty search of the body yielded not only the key, but also two other items of interest, mere trinkets really, but magical trinkets that might prove of later use—a pair of goggles with round, rose-colored lenses, and a dagger with a faintly glowing sapphire embedded into the base of its hilt.

“I don’t know how you managed it,” Gaven said as they dragged
the corpse into the cell.  “What with that damned personal shield of his.”  They closed and locked the door.  “However you did it, I’m in your debt.  That man needed killin’ more than anyone I ever met.  And as you know, that’s saying a lot.”

Alicia sat cringing in the far corner of her cell as the door began to open, as it scraped against the stone floor, producing a nails-on-chalkboard sound.  She knew who it was.  The guards always knocked before entering, so it could only be the ugly man with the hooked nose come to hurt her some more.

“
Alicia, honey, don’t be afraid.  It’s me and…Andaris.  The one I told you about.  We’re gettin’ out of here!”

Curly blonde hair, blue eyes, and a
freckled face, flushed momentarily scarlet, emerged from the filth of the cell, eager smile touching Andaris’ heart.  Alicia jumped to her feet, flung her thin arms about Gaven’s thick neck, and began to weep.  She was very beautiful.  Very young.  And very, very much in love.

Gaven untied her arms from behind his neck and set her bare feet to the floor, eyes shimmering with unshed tears.  “I kno
w,” he said, voice cracking.  “But we have to go.  You have to be brave.  Once we’re safe, we can be together.  Always.”

She nodded, set her jaw, and wiped
her face with the back of her hand.  “Lead the way, my love.  I shall follow wherever you go.”

“R
ight!” said Andaris.  “Now back the way we came!  There’s no time to waste!”

Apparently he was correct, for upon reaching the entrance to the thieves’ tunnel, they heard distant voices and fast approaching footsteps.  The guards had returned at last.

Hoping to make a clean
escape, they ducked into the tunnel and gently eased the door closed, wincing at the whine of rusted metal.

“
You hear that?” asked a voice. 

“Someone’s tryin’
to escape!” came the reply.  “Sound the alarm!” 

Knowing that the guards would soon be nipping at their heels, the three abandoned all stealth and took off down the tunnel as fast as their legs would carry them.  First came the sound of metal shod boots clanging against the flagstones.  Then the low, throaty call of the siren.

Andaris considered going back to, or rather
through,
the Blood Guard headquarters.  After all, that’s the way he knew.  But in the end decided against it and went straight instead.  By now, the town would be crawling with soldiers, which meant the thieves would be on high alert.  They’d have to fight their way first through the Blood Guard, and then out of town.  They’d never make it.  Hooknose had said these tunnels went just about everywhere.  He prayed he was telling the truth, and that they would find one that would take them beyond the wall.  Because if not….  Well, likely they were done for.

Allowing instinct to guide him
, Andaris went quickly from one passage to the next, ever heading, he hoped, towards the edge of town.  At times, they heard footsteps and voices, rats in the maze trying to catch their scent.  At one point, they were forced to kill a handsome young recruit no more than twenty years old who was simply at the wrong place at the wrong time, running him through with a hand clasped over his mouth, mumbling a blessing as they eased his now lifeless body to the ground.

After what seemed an eternity of playing hide and seek with the guards, they broke through the stinking sludge of a sewer drain into the bright sunlight and fresh air of a lovely spring morning.

The wall loomed only a few feet behind
them, atop which stood well-trained archers itching to fire.  In the distance, perhaps fifty or sixty yards away, stood a lush tree line—the edge of Eldorana Forest.

“Well,”
said Gaven in a hushed voice, “won’t do us any good sittin’ here starin’ at it.  They’re bound to spot us if we wait too long.  I say there’s nothing to do but make a run for it.  If we can make it to that tree line, I think we’ll be okay.  The townsfolk believe dark magic resides within.”  His eyebrows raised, seeming intent upon reaching his hairline.  “So, come on!  Let‘s go!”

Alicia
held up her hand.  “I agree,” she whispered, cupping her palm to the side of his cheek, “but first things first.”

Gaven cut his eyes to Andaris
and back again.  He cleared his throat, making ready to speak.

She stopped him, pressing
a finger to his lips.

The big man
frowned, indomitable mask beginning to slip.

T
rembling visibly, Alicia removed her finger and replaced it with her lips.  The moment stretched, fear, love, and hope swelling in turn. “Just remember,” she whispered as she pulled away, “if we
don’t
make it…I love you and…would much rather die out here with you—
free
—than live a thousand years within these walls.”

Gaven embraced her,
said something earnestly into her left ear, and then abruptly turned to Andaris.  “Ready?” he asked, wry smile at odds with his glistening red eyes.