“I can understand your displeasure with the king’s decision, but I don’t know if this is a good decision…” said Bollus.
“Let it. I can’t sleep anyway, after all.” said Gary.
“Why would you not be able to sleep, my prince…?” sighed Bollus heavily.
With almost all of the kingdom’s army busy with defending the city from the invading patients, caused by the mysterious purple smoke, and the castle’s residents sleeping soundly, the corridor he was walking in was empty, filled only with the sounds of his footsteps, along with Bollus’ next to him. Gary kept his sight aimed straight forward, while walking quite fast, but also as quietly as he could, trying not to cause any loud ruckus. He could still hear the shouts and the groans from aside, but he ignored them, and kept his own head from turning to take a look through the castle’s windows. His mind was focused on where he was going and what he was going to say, although at the same time, he had to put aside his discomfort with Bollus’ presence behind him, knowing that he didn’t really agree with his sudden decision.
“And do you know what to do when you meet them face-to-face?” said Bollus, asking him the question he somewhat dreaded.
“Just let me get on it.” said Gary, dismissing him completely.
Bollus said nothing anymore and simply followed behind him.
The dungeon smelled dampened, like the smell of sweat and piss, as he suspected, and it grew stronger they went on. He casted a spell onto his mask, to repel the smells. Instead of windows, the whole walls were of thick bricks, all arranged and stuck with each other, forming the impenetrable cage. The lighting by the lanterns on the walls was minimal as well, he had to use his own lantern to illuminate their path forward. The path toward the dungeon headed downward, he thought that they already went below the ground, and he couldn’t tell if they were about to reach the bottom of it.
So they’ve been held here for a few hours… can’t be pleasant even for just an hour… Gary couldn’t help but think of it.
No matter how quietly he went, the footsteps, no matter how tiny, echoed around the dungeon, certainly alarming everyone who was held captive in it. He had to set a muting spell on his own to not alert any of them, and so did Bollus.
Eventually, they reached the bottom of it. The spiralling staircase led them to a thick iron door. Gary produced a thick card, also made of iron, from his pocket, and put it on the door to unlock it.
“Are you sure you’re willing to go by yourself?” said Bollus, worried, as Gary handed him the card.
“I can take care of myself and you know it.” said Gary short.
“True, but, still… it’s not just the danger of ambush I refer to…”
Gary paused for a while, before saying, “I’ll be fine… signal me if someone’s coming.” and going in, before the door shut.
“Remember the passing words, my prince.” added Bollus quickly.
BAMM!
He was now left alone, inside the dark and damp dungeon. The smell was even stronger by the time he stepped in, he nearly puked. He stepped forward, holding his mouth shut tight with his right hand, while his left hand moved to illuminate the surroundings.
As far as he could see, it was simply a long corridor, with doors of cells on the left and the right. Each door had its own number etched in big size, and it had a small window to peer at. From a single glance, he could tell that the doors were made of purasot wood, which was incredibly hard and stiff, even for normal wood types. Number eight, if I’m not mistaken… thought Gary, as he recalled the dungeon logbook he peeked before getting in. But it seems that they’re all here anyway…
“Who’s there…!?” said someone from one of the cells. It sounded somewhat weak and frail, he thought that they probably hadn’t had any food or drink.
“A visitor.” started Gary. “You hungry?”
“You… you have food with you…?” said someone else, from another cell.
“No. But I can bring you some right now.” said Gary, knocking on the door of the dungeon.
The door immediately opened, showing Bollus in front of the door, as he said, “Done already?”
“I think there is a kitchen before we get underground. We can start by feeding them.”
Bollus said nothing and hesitated for a second, before going upstairs. Gary said to them, “Give us a minute for the food and drink,” before he closed the door.
Each door of the cell had a small lid to slide trays into the cell. Gary levitated each tray, opened the lid, and slid each of them in. He could hear the sounds of chains jingling inside, telling him that they were all chained while being held inside a cell. Must be chains to render their energy and abilities useless, Gary thought to himself.
“That’s the last of them.” said Bollus, sliding a tray of slices of bread and glasses of water into cell number 13.
“Who are you people? You’re not the guards… they wouldn’t bother giving us food this soon…”
“Like I said, we’re visitors.” repeated Gary.
“And what do you want, coming down here?! There‘s no way you would intentionally come down here just to feed us.”
He noticed that Bollus stared at him in the eyes, obviously looking forward to Gary’s answers. “Checking on you would be one of the reasons.”
“I don’t believe that. You must be sent by King Brice, to see if we would tell you about the rebels’ whereabouts.”
Ah… of course… that’d be his question of the day…
“We’ve been telling you that we don’t know, but even if we did, we’d tell you to kiss your own ass instead.”
“I see…” said Gary, feeling somewhat slightly indifferent. He looked at Bollus, who offered his hand to Gary. Knowing what he intended to do, he tapped on Bollus’ hand.
I didn’t know about that, my prince…
And I honestly don’t care that much about the rebels. It’s just actually somewhat interesting that King Brice thinks — or believes — that they would know where the rebels are. Either tell him and die, or don’t tell him and die anyway…
“Have I… have we met before…?”
Oh, that’s fast!
They paid attention. You hardly showed yourself back in Eltrix, no?
Yes… just a quick visit to the castle, and then to that person’s house, before that chaos… nothing back then would let them know how I sounded…
“I don’t think we did.” said Gary, as calm as he could, although he felt that they weren’t fully convinced. Nevertheless, he continued, “Now, would you like to tell me what you did to warrant a cell in this dungeon?”
This feels like you’re interrogating them…
“What are you doing here…? What game are you playing…?!”
“Depends… on how you want to play it.” said Gary, a bit hesitant. “Maybe you can even play in a way that you can escape from this dungeon.”
Do you actually intend to do that?
Not really, but… maybe I can do it in a way where they break out, instead of clearly being aided to escape…
My prince, I really need you to understand the ramification of what you think to do — it’s not even about actually doing it — baiting them to break out of the dungeon…!
Can come back to bite me. King Brice would be furious to see the dungeon being empty, even more so if he learned that I’m the very person that made it happen. And there’s no telling if these people would decide to use me as a hostage, if they knew whom they’re talking to — that particularly opens a whole can of worms, because everything can go wrong anytime, anything. I know your concerns, Bollus. I do.
His words started mumbles of disbelief and surprise. “Wait… what did you say…? Will you really…?”
“No, there’s telling that he would do it…”
“But, then, why…?”
Not that I will really do it, probably, but…
Gary sighed.
I think that if I do nothing, I’ll be crazy.
“If you answer my questions. As truthful as you will.” said Gary.
“Ha! You just want to extract information from us! Why should we answer you?!”
“I’m not with King Brice, or the knights, or anyone else that you know,” said Gary, as he took the card from Bollus’ hand. “Would any of them do this?”
My prince…
By simply tapping on the wooden door, with a big “8” etched on the surface, with the card, it swung wide open, revealing a man inside the cell. The smell of damp piss and sweat burst out of the door, filling the narrow corridor, he had to cover his nose and casted a smell-resisting spell. Although it was dark, he could see chains on his wrists, ankles, and neck, but the one thing that nailed his attention was the face of the man.
The age was, to his guess, about fifty years old. But it was quite hard for him to tell, because his face was all wounded with bruises and lumps, the result of being beaten repeatedly. With his swollen eyes, he couldn’t even see the colour of his eyes. His clothes, although still intact, were partly ripped, showing bruises and wounds of whips on his body. He sat on the corner of the room, leaning his back to the wall. The bread was nowhere to be seen, leaving only a few breadcrumbs, while the plastic cup was squished, dried of water. Because the cell itself was dark, when Gary walked in and pointed the lantern toward the man, he had to cover his eyes.
They were busy. “Even if you don’t want to spill out what you know, don’t you think that you need to grab any chance to get out of here…?” asked Gary with a sigh.
Well, it was a great offence against King Brice, after all.
The man stared at Gary, saying nothing for a few seconds. He could tell that he was shocked to see what he was doing. Despite his wounds, he spoke relatively smoothly enough, “You… you would…?”
“It could still be a trap… otherwise, he wouldn’t come here with a kingdom knight…”
“How would you know?” asked Bollus, while saying, I shouldn’t have come along…
“I would have known a knight when I saw them… so this is indeed a trap…”
“Sharp eyes, I’ll give you that…” said Bollus. This is not good…
Stay with me. “But this is not a trap.” continued Gary. “You heard it’s loud outside. Everyone’s currently busy, they have no time to set up a trap for you. Frankly, right now, I’m not in the mood for fooling you like that.”
One of them said, “I don’t believe you…”
But there was someone else who said, “Wait… let’s just listen to him for a while…”
“You really think that he’s telling the truth…?!”
“But what if he does…?”
The man in front of Gary eventually shouted, “QUIET!”
With a single order, everyone else stopped talking. The only voice he could hear at the moment, as Gary just noticed, was the heavy breaths of the man in charge. There’s no mistaking it. He’s the one in charge of all these people. Thought Gary, as he and the man looked each other in the eyes.
He didn’t say a thing for quite a significantly long time, they simply stared at each other. Gary thought that it was nearly a minute of silence. Amazingly, no one else spoke a word, not Bollus and not the other prisoners. Although he thought that the man was thinking of his next move, he started to feel annoyed. “What is it? Let’s not waste more time; we’re not exactly at leisure, you know?”
“Release the chains, and then we can talk,” said the man.
“As if you would gladly talk to us, instead of running away or attacking us,” said Bollus.
“I can’t attack or run away, not in this condition. And not with you, a knight, here, and you know that.” said the man.
Gary looked at the Bollus. Supposedly he’s not skilled enough to go against the two of us, right…?
Two of us? You’re going to fight as well if it comes to that…? Lady Haley would not like that if you end up wounded…
I’ll be fine. Don’t underestimate me.
True, but you shouldn’t underestimate them, too…
Gary walked forward, and slapped the chains with the card. His eyes, along with his senses, focused on the man, in case he attempted to attack him in any way; he even thought that the man would take his mask off by force. As far as he could see, there was no indication of hostility from the chained man at all.
“I’ll appreciate it if you can give me a healing vial or something…”
“We don’t have that with us,” said Gary, as he slapped the last cuff on his neck. The cuffs opened as he slapped them with the card — that was when he thought that he probably just needed to brush the cuffs with the card.
The man sighed, and then rose from the floor, slowly, as he rubbed on his wrists and ankles. Gary did hear grunts of pain from the man’s mouth as he tried to stand, he had to lean himself against the wall to stand up. Gary simply took a single step back, and let the man rise by himself. He appeared to be in pain, but not too painful for him to bear.
He then leaned on the wall, sighed, and then spoke, “I don’t know what you expect from what I know… we’ve been hating him. We’ve been rebelling against that man. It just happened that he visited this city and he was personally coming for the girl and the man — his uncle, from what I know — for some reason. The ones who are responsible for rescuing people in Briton, of all people… we didn’t spare second thoughts for that, we just charged and saved them along the way…”
“By yourselves? Or the rebels ordered you?”
The man snorted. “The rebels would never ask people to fight for them. That’s the problem with those people — they think they can, and will protect us, but right now, they’re out there — who knows where they are right now, doing who-knows-what? A girl nearly died, or worse, got captured and tortured to death, and sent a message to the rebels. We’re the ones who had to intervene in the end.”
“Sent a message…?” Gary lifted his eyebrows.
“Ah, of course you didn’t know. As soon as you arrived, she went upstairs, and sent a message to the rebels. I imagine that she alerted the rebels that Brice was in their house, and asked them to do something about it. Coincidentally, the rebels were busy with something else.”
Must be when she was going to get us tea and cookies…
“Busy? What were the rebels busy with?” asked Bollus.
“No idea. And I wouldn’t tell you even if I knew.” said the man.
“Come to think of it, at least you’d tell me your name, wouldn’t you?” said Gary. “I didn’t really know your name…”
The man snorted, again. “There’s no way you don’t know my name. You don’t come here without knowing what we all did. You’re not an idiot. There’s a logbook for prisoners being held here at the entrance of this dungeon; you would have read the book already.”
For a fifty-years-old guy, he’s sharp. Said Bollus.
“After all, you haven’t told me your name yet either… although I have a pretty good feeling about who you truly are. It’s the only way it makes sense.”
Too sharp. We need to leave right now…!
But Gary said nothing.
My prince…!
Hang on…
They’re not supposed to know your identity…!
But… leaving right now won’t change a thing…
Then we have to make them quiet…!
No. Anything but that. Absolutely not.
Now they have something to hold against you…! Either silence them or…!
Take them out of this dungeon.
Exactly! This is already a bad decision, but that’s too tall of an order, even if it’s the two of us…!
No… it doesn’t have to be only the two of us, if we’re all working together to bust them all out.
You… you really consider doing it…? Even when you said that you wouldn’t really do it…?!
I didn’t say that — no, I didn’t mean that literally. Just…
“You’re a hell of a person. A leader of these people…” grimaced Gary.
“Oh, I wouldn’t put myself that high. I’m just a man who looks around, uses logic a bit too much, and finds an opportunity. And I’m already old, on top of that.” said the man. “If there’s a hell of a person, that would be a young man who’s trying to change the whole world, opposing both him and it, but…”
He paused for a while, before going, “but he’s probably unsure about what to actually do… seems like that to me…”
The man then grinned, as if he could tell that Gary frowned.
“A young man who’s determined, but also irresolute at the same time. Not doubtful, because he’s actually here doing what he wants to do, but he doesn’t know what he needs to do either. That’s quite interest — ”
“Enough of that.” Said Gary firmly and coldly. “I’m the one in charge here.”
He gathered his energy onto his hands, powerful enough to cut and smash walls to bits. He didn’t like to lift his hand to actually harm the man, thinking that he wouldn’t use it at all, but he started to feel annoyed, seeing the man acting know-it-all.
“Not anymore, I’m afraid. Well, not fully, at least.” said the man. “We all know who you are now. I imagine that it’s the one thing you dread the most in this situation…”
Oh, no… this isn’t good… said Bollus. We shouldn’t…
“But I have no interest in using you. My only interest is getting all of us out.” said the man. “It still depends on how you want to play it. Maybe you can even play in a way that it’s as if you were never here in the first place.”
Everyone around started to mumbles in excitement and surprise. Bollus himself stayed still and did nothing, but he could tell that he was getting slightly more tense, as a sign of nervousness. Gary himself started to feel a bit guilty; he didn’t imagine that it would turn out to be a fragile situation on his end. I’m sorry…
We’ll talk about this later. Right now, we need to…
No, don’t silence them. It’s still not worth it…
Bollus said nothing.
“What do you think? Do we have a deal, Prince Gary Stomund?” said the man eventually, offering him his hand to be shaken.
As he thought, the mumbles of excitement and surprise turned into gasps and grunts of displeasure. He even thought that he actually heard cusses aimed at him. Bollus stood still, not reacting to the unpleasant sounds. He could only hope that Bollus would still be willing to side with him, in case they decided to turn and attempt to hurt him. In a way, a thought of actually killing them all did pass his mind, even though he didn’t want to do it at all.
Damn it… it shouldn’t have gone to this… he told himself. I just want to know the whole story…
I just want to know how to judge…
“For the sake of your distant relative, at least…?”
The man’s voice was quite loud, audible to everyone in the dungeon. The gasps and grunts turned into complete silence, in a way that they held their breaths. Bollus, on the other hand, still stood still.
He even knows that too…
He’s not to be underestimated at all…
“Why…?”
“I feel like… we’ve started this the wrong way. This way, perhaps we can build trust between each other. Just enough trust to work together for now,” said the man. “Besides, I’ve known about it all along, after all. No point in hiding a small deal, if you ask me. So, what do you say? We’re not in a hurry, like you said, but I think it’s best to not waste more time.”
What do you think…? Asked Gary. I know that you said we’re going to talk about this later, but —
We don’t think we have a lot of choices here… Answered Bollus.
I see… Gary sighed, before shaking the man’s hand and saying, “Fine. We have a deal, Lordeus Montgu.”
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