Chapter 7

CHAPTER VII

When Jerrod awoke, it was to a scene of utter chaos. He and the others were bound and surrounded by trolls who impassively stared at them with blood-covered muzzles. They were in the inn's tap room. The room itself was a shambles. The tables and benches were shattered and scattered about the room like so much kindling. The kegs were broached and had been emptied and upended. The remains of the inn's staff were also scattered about the room in the apparent aftermath of a rather grisly feast. Had Jerrod been a trifle less battered and then mayhap a bit more coherent, he might have noticed that while all the night staff of the Laughing Cavalier had apparently been caught (if the pieces strewn about the room were any indication), one of his companions was missing. But then again perhaps he would have observed nothing of the sort.

One of the party was indeed missing. It seemed that there was some use to disappearing at the gate or at least in having the ability to slip into the shadows without a moment's notice. Neun Ja had once again disappeared and her absence seemed to have been overlooked by the trolls. And while it may be said that trolls are not the brightest of creatures, they seemed to have set an otherwise perfect trap, a trap that had caught even the woodswise Wolf and the warwise twins completely unaware.

While Jerrod and the others were being captured, Neun Ja had slipped out of the window of the room she shared with Enki and Derazha. The trio had fortuitously left the shutters open despite the night's chill. As she climbed down from her perch on the outside of the inn's second story, the young sorceress had an excellent view of a disturbing spectacle: the streets of Nova Ekirigilio were awash with the blood of literally thousands of dead and dying. The trolls had breached the city's gates and had routed its militia. While there were still pockets of resistance, particularly in the area around the inn and the docks which it bordered, for the most part the city had fallen!

Neun Ja was stunned. Was their quest to rebind Iskandar to fail before it had even fairly begun? Such a fate seemed likely right at that moment. The trolls had all of her companions in their clutches and controlled most of the city. Only the section which bordered the sea still eluded their grasp. That was the one bright spot in what had turned in to a truly disastrous set of circumstances. With the dockside areas still holding out against the beasts, their ship was still free from the trolls' dominion. If she could free her companions, they still might be able to set sail for the Islands of Despair.

That task was, however, somewhat daunting. Somehow, she had to overcome an unknown number of trolls without their slaying any of her bound comrades. Then, she had to free them from those bonds and help them get to the docks through a city full of either trolls slaughtering fleeing citizens or trolls fighting the remnant of the city militia and whatever private citizens had found the courage to organize resistance. On top of that, she had no idea what kind of conditions her captive friends were in. It couldn't be good. The trolls had not been gentle when they overwhelmed Enki and Derazha. Derazha, in particular, had suffered at the claws and clubs of the trolls. They seemed to have either a great fear of her or great anger toward her or both. Even so, it was doubtful that the others were much better off.

Whatever the condition of her companions, Neun Ja needed to conceive of some sort of a plan for their rescue. First, she had to think of a way to vanquish the trolls guarding the others. Next, she had to free her comrades. Then she had to envision a means to get them all to the docks despite whatever condition her friends might be in and whatever opposition they faced on the way. Finally, she had to hope that their ship was still there and that its crew would wait for them before fleeing the falling city.

Perhaps the latter was what she should look into first. After all, if the ship had been taken or it had fled, she must needs come up with another plan. Maintaining her energy flow, she stayed in the shadows as she stealthily climbed down from her perch. As soon as she reached the ground and some cover, she released the threads of shadow which she had bound, having decided to rely instead on her training to sneak from shadow to shadow without catching the notice of any who might wish her ill.

Slipping from hiding place to hiding place, from alley mouth to doorjamb, using whatever obstructions that were available to her, Neun Ja made it quickly to the docks. Her luck and skill were such that she not only made it there unchallenged, she did so without even the slightest hint that anyone had noticed her at all. Now to find the ship.\

"What was it called again," Neun Ja wondered to herself. "Oh yes, the Mermaid's Tit. Men and their obsessions!" She shook her head ruefully and summoned the shadows once more to cross the open spaces of the harborside. "Well, a ship with a name like that shouldn't be too hard to find."

As it happened, it was not. Docked in one of far quays, the Mermaid's Tit was still relatively unscathed by the battle which took place all around. Its captain and crew were undoubtedly lucky that trolls had not inherited their amphibious ancestor's ability to swim and generally had a deathly fear of water of any sort. From the hasty preparations for departure which were underway on board, it was apparent that the mariners were aware of their small measure of good fortune and were determined that it should not leave them before they left Nova Ekirigilio.

Neun Ja climbed up the gangplank which as yet bridged the gap between the ship and the pier. Still consumed by her need for haste and her concern for her comrades, she neglected to make the obligatory noises and extraneous motions that most people make that announce their coming. No one noticed her. She, in turn, had slipped past the sentries without even heeding their presence. As a result, she appeared at the captain's side as if she were an apparition.

"Bloody barnacles, girl! Ye nearly gave me apoplexy! What are ye doing there?" The captain bellowed.

"Greetings, respected captain. I am a member of the group that has booked passage to the Islands of Despair with you. I wished to ascertain if you were still in port. My friends have been captured by the trolls and I had to determine where to guide them once I have freed them from captivity."

The captain bit back a sardonic retort when he noticed the unyielding determination apparent in Neun Ja's mien and recalled how easily she had slipped past his watch onto his deck. Instead, he replied gently, "Lass, I'm sure ye have all the good intentions in the world. And I'm certain that ye are uncommonly valiant and formidable. However, ye would do well to stay right here and leave with us. We are almost ready to depart and as soon as we are, we will!"

Neun Ja replied, "No, captain. I will not abandon my companions. I will free them and return here with them. Will you wait for our reappearance?"

"Lass, I will not risk my ship nor my crew any more than I must. Almost as importantly, I must get our cargo to its destination and I must get word of what has happened here out to the rest of Seremoreh and the world. We have to leave as soon as we are able."

"Captain, I appreciate your loyalty to your employer. Indeed, I also admire your loyalty to your crew and your sense of duty to the rest of the world. However, you also have a duty to my companions and myself. We, too, paid for your services. You must wait until we return!"

"Lass, ye make a fair point. I do have a duty to ye and your friends for I did take yer coin. So I will wait for ye. I can and will not wait forever, though. Ye have half of an hour. No more. And perhaps less. For if the trolls start to attack my ship, I must withdraw from here. So be quick and may the gods walk, or rather run, at your side!"

With that, Neun Ja bowed and left disappearing almost as stealthily as she had arrived.

Having found the Mermaid's Tit and having convinced its captain to give her a chance to rescue her companions, Neun Ja's next task was to get back to the Laughing Cavalier and do so. Once again, she made the journey without incident, but the streets were getting more and more crowded with trollkin. Neun Ja was confident she could affect the rescue of the others from the Laughing Cavalier, but it was becoming abundantly clear to the young sorceress that they would have to fight their way back to the Mermaid's Tit once she had freed them.

As she had neared the inn, Neun Ja began to devise her plan. Deciding that a frontal assault probably wasn't the most effective way to overcome a dozen or two trollkin, Neun Ja decided that she might be better off trying to sneak into the inn through the back door. The rear entry opened onto the courtyard from the kitchen which was near the stables located at the rear of the inn proper. Getting around back went without a hitch. Neither the troll sentry in the front, nor the one which had been posted at the kitchen door saw Neun Ja as she crept to the stable where the horses surprisingly were not only still alive, but snorting restively.

Assessing the situation, Neun Ja realized that the guard at the back entry presented the first unavoidable obstacle for the sorceress. She either must kill him or render him incapable of giving the alarm through some other less drastic method in order to get through the door which he guarded. Although she was usually averse to killing, in this case it seemed like the wisest course. After all, while troll was only a single soldier in Iskandar's army, each warrior that she and her friends eliminated from the troll horde now meant one less that would be free to ravage Seremoreh.

So death it was. But it had to be a silent death. No sound could escape the troll's dying lips. The question was: how? Magic seemed the most expedient means of eliminating the troll without a sound. First, Neun Ja slipped into the shadows through the use of cha li just as she had earlier. Next, using a thaumaturgical transformation she surrounded herself with a field of mana that converted sound into heat. There was the off chance that she might make some slight misstep which would make a noise and alert the sentry.

Finally, having secreted herself magically as well as she was able, Neun Ja drew a long-bladed dagger. She slipped through the shadows until she was next to the unwitting troll. Gathering herself, Neun Ja thrust herself upward and plunged the dirk through the underside of the trolls muzzle at a slight angle. The keen edge of the blade slid through the troll's flesh as if it was so much water and buried itself deep within whatever passed for the monster's brain. The troll died silently as Neun Ja withdrew the dagger from the corpse.

Having disposed of the guard, Neun Ja slipped quickly and quietly into the inn. Speed was now even more of the essence for not only was the ship to sail soon, she did not know if or when the guard was to be relieved or report in. The kitchen was empty. Its shadowed doorway was the perfect spot from which Neun Ja could observe the common room.

Once she had reached the sheltering gloom of the doorjamb, Neun Ja saw that her companions were all being held there. She was pleased that they were all together, but the octet of trolls guarding them did present something of problem. They were too many for a quick surprise assault. Even if she could kill all of them without suffering too much damage herself, they would certainly have time for at least one or two of them to think to slay their captives and act upon that notion. And if by some miracle none of her comrades were slain, the noise involved in a nine participant brawl was sure to draw more trolls from the outside and eventually she would die or be forced to withdraw.

No, a frontal assault still wouldn't do. Something a little more subtle was called for. Neun Ja thought for a moment. "Perhaps an illusion could be used as a diversion. But an illusion of what? Something which will draw them out. An assault from outside? No, they might barricade themselves in instead of going out to meet their illusory attackers. Perhaps a fire? That might work... Trolls like fire even less than they like water if that is possible. Surely, they would flee if they believed themselves caught in a burgeoning conflagration. It really might work... But if they don't leave...." The sorceress shook her head. "I could plan all day and still not be completely satisfied that my scheme was foolproof. I don't have time to come up with anything better. The fire is as good a chance as any."

The course she had decided upon was a taxing one. It called not only for an onerous sorcerous transformation and a reshaping of the shadows to make them appear not only to be fire, but to behave like fire. At the same time as she was focusing her spirit and will upon her magic, she needed to be prepared to act physically to free her comrades. If she let her spell down even a little too quickly, they would realize that the fire was merely a ruse and return before she could free her comrades. If she waited too long, they might realize that nothing was being consumed by the flames and that there was no heat. Again, they would return and thwart her plan. No, she had time it just right or all was lost.

As long as Neun Ja took to understand the risks of her course was as long as it took her to act. Focusing her spirit, she began to shape the shadows in the common room. They took on the shape of the flames in the fireplace and began to do a little dance of their own. At the same time, they seemed to thicken and turn a ruddy orange as Neun whispered the words of her transformation. Using her cha, Neun Ja made her creations grow rapidly.

One of the trolls noticed the blaze's seeming almost immediately. He roared a warning to his fellows and pointed at the growing conflagration. The trolls, overcome by their inherent fear of fire as Neun Ja had hoped that they would be, fled headlong for the door. Or least most of them did. Two, braver or smarter than their comrades, made for their captives to drag them out of the inn with them. Apparently it had penetrated their tiny brains that live captives and their information were worth more than dead ones -- even if the fate of those presently live captives was eventual death.

Dismay briefly gripped Neun Ja's heart. Another unavoidable obstacle! The sorceress let out a sigh. More blood on her hands, but again, it was blood well spilled. She blurred into action. The first troll was down with a slit throat before it even realized it was being attacked. The second was more or less fortunate depending on one's point of view. It saw its demise coming. Somehow it had penetrated the magic of the sorceress and, as its comrade fell, the second troll roared a challenge at the dark form hurtling toward it. It lived no longer than the other. Despite its forewarning, the second troll, too, was dead before it hit the floor.

Despite the brevity of its resistance, however, the second troll could claim at least a moral victory. Its battle scream halted the others in midflight. Neun Ja realizing that there was little time and her companions were better off free, rapidly began to cut their bonds. Before the trolls could fully react to their ally's dying warning, the sorceress had freed Ordolf and Derazha. Now the odds were better than even. Derazha was equipped with her natural armament and the trolls' fear of her. Ordolf was even more formidably armed with his magic. The first troll, quicker and closer than its fellows, died with a wave of the necromancer's hand. Death was his purview and awake and alert and with unfettered hands and unstopped mouth, albeit a bit bruised and battered, the archmage was more than a match for a few trolls. He muttered a phrase that anguished the ears and tore at the spirit of those who merely heard it. With another complex wave of his hand, a seemingly solid, living cloud of brilliant black streamed toward the trolls. Whatever living thing the ebon fog touched disappeared without a trace. The remaining trolls didn't even have time to scream before they were consumed by the malevolent murk.

Neun Ja had the others free in as much time as it takes to tell of it. As she freed Jerrod, she called to the others, "We must hurry. The trolls have all but seized the city. Their patrols control the streets. The ship upon which we have booked passage is preparing to depart. We must return before it does so if we are to get to the Islands of Despair without an extensive delay!"