Chapter 266: The Prisoner

The creature ground her teeth so hard, that one of her fangs nearly broke.

It had gone so wrong, so quickly!

In past times, taking someone from travellers worked as good leverage to get what she wanted; her beautiful Crich-Tulaghs would take screaming humans to store away in her lair or in one of her many hiding places throughout the moors. Their companions were always caught unawares and were left surprised and screaming.

Then the begging, the demanding, the threatening would come. Most times, the begging and anger would either turn to bargaining with her to release the one she had taken, or abandoning them to their fate, which suited her just fine. Grown humans were tough on the teeth, but they could make good eating if prepared right. Their skin made good boots when she dried and treated it, too.

But sometimes, there were travellers like these, ones who chose violence instead of cooperation. She would always put them in their place with her Crich-Tulaghs and prey-bodies infected with murteidheann vines, and even her own magics if it came to that, which it rarely did.

But for so few travellers to destroy her servants and guardians?

It was too terrifying to contemplate.

Watching them from safety let her grasp what they could do to her guardians, so she understood that retaliating against them would be a very unwise decision, probably a fatal one. And so here she was, reduced to watching them enter and defile her lair while she could do nothing. She had set surprises inside for interlopers, hopefully, they would take care of some of them but—unless she was very lucky and they were all killed—too many would live for her to challenge safely.

Shaking with anger, she decided that the only thing to do would be to abandon the lair: it wouldn’t be the first time she was forced to make such a choice. Her eyes narrowed as she watched the interlopers step into her home.

She committed each of their forms to memory. Once they were deep inside, she would swim away through the bog and into the hills. Her sisters were somewhere in the forests to the north, scattered about. They should know of this new threat.

Perhaps it was time for the coven to meet as in older times and join together.

Screeech!

Alex’s summoned monster gave a short screech from ahead, alerting him that something was stirring in the cave.

He looked back to his group. “My Aervespertillo found something moving around up there.”

The team had been making their way deeper into the cavern, splashing through water covering much of the floor. Around them, the walls looked like they’d been…smoothed out, like someone had made the tunnels using magic; there was no sign of tool or claw-marks anywhere on the stone. The ceilings were high—tall enough for a group of giants to pass through. Thundar and Theresa had whispered that there was a stinking odour of rotting vegetation and old meat in the air.

It wasn’t a pleasant place by any stretch of the imagination, and being as dark as midnight except for the occasional beam of light filtering through holes in the ceiling, wasn’t helping.

The wizards had been sweeping their forceballs over the stone around them, illuminating it, making sure no side-tunnels for monsters to slip out of and ambush them were hidden in shadow. So far, they’d only encountered a few beast-goblins hiding beneath murky water where it was deep enough, and a few crude traps which they’d quickly dismantled, then moved on.

Alex’s forceball had found a pitfall they’d stepped around, and Theresa had spied a trip cord attached to a trap made to trigger a volley of spears buried in the water. But they hadn’t found anything moving yet…up until the Aervespertillo screamed from deep in the cavern.

“We should-” Khalik started saying, then he stiffened. “Is that a child’s voice screaming alongside your creature’s?” He reached out to Najyah.

Everyone went quiet.

“It sounds so,” Theresa said, her jaw hardening.

“Najyah sees a small form in the dark and that is what we hear screaming.” Khalik confirmed.

Thundar snorted. “It could be a trap. Maybe an illusion.”

Alex listened closely, trying to determine if he could hear anything ‘wrong’ with the screaming voice: the only thing he got was that the voice sounded panicked.

“Well, there’s only one way to find out what it is,” he said, taking out another booby-trapped slumber potion. “Claygon, you take the lead. We’ll be right behind you.”

“Brutus and I’ll be right behind him,” Theresa said, raising her swords.

The rest of them spread out behind her and the cerberus, ready for anything.

Boom-splsh. Boom-splsh.

Claygon thundered ahead as the path wound its way down into the hill.

The water at their feet was deeper and the tunnel’s decline sharper as they moved down into the earth—they were likely under the bog for a while—until the path levelled out, then began sloping upward again. The more the path sloped upward, the drier it became and a foul odour like a cesspit grew. Alex’s aervespertillo’s screeching and the screams from the unknown creature increased in volume—echoing through the stone—until the team reached a massive chamber and stopped at the entrance. The noise was coming from inside. They sent in some forceballs for light.

“By the old spells of Nicodemus,” Meikara swore as she gaped at the size of the cavern.

It was enormous—large enough to hold a couple of Generasi’s larger mansions—with multiple tunnels honeycombed into the walls; each passage could house a giant comfortably. Beams of light shone from small scattered holes in the ceiling, but much of the cavern lay in darkness, broken only by the light of their forceballs.

The chamber reminded Alex of the tunnels in the outer parts of the Cave of the Traveller, bare, cold stone.

Sitting in the centre of the massive chamber was what looked to be crude living quarters being used by someone used to roughing it, and not being overly concerned about cleanliness. A low burning bonfire stood in the centre of the camp beneath one of the ceiling holes. Skins—some animal and some that Alex didn’t really want to examine too carefully—were draped across the floor like piled carpets, while skinless chunks of meat hung from a drying rack near the fire. A few tools were on the ground—and what looked like a collection of wild herbs, animal parts and other things—scattered on a rough table on the other side of the space.

The place had an unsavoury feel to it.

There were two things that quickly drew everyone’s eyes: one was a collection of rough weapons lying against a wall. Most were spears and axes crafted from monster parts, and a half-finished bow.

The other was alive.

Najyah and Alex’s aervespertillo circled above a wooden cage lashed together with vines and what Meikara said looked like blackened tendons. A small trembling figure cowered inside. It was no more than three feet tall and resembled an elf or a swiftling covered in green scales. Long, wet-looking black hair—despite the dryness of the air—was matted all over its head, neck, and shoulders. The creature was dressed in a filthy, tattered smock.

It was calling out in a language that none of the team understood.

Alex looked at Thundar.

“Do you think that’s an illusion?” he asked.

“No idea. I’ll have to get closer to tell.”

“Well, better safe than sorry, then.”

Alex and Khalik called the summoned monster and Najyah back then Alex cast Call Through Ice, teleporting a slumber potion above the cage. It appeared through the portal and dropped.

Fwoooosh!

Mist exploded within seconds, turning panicked screams to coughing, then groaning, then snoring. Claygon entered the massive chamber first, soon followed by Theresa and Brutus, then everyone else. They quickly fanned out over the cavern and adjoining passageways, hunting for traps and gathering information. There were tunnels honeycombing through the earth in a dozen directions, leading to empty chamber after empty chamber.

A small army of giants could comfortably set up in any of them.

Each tunnel had led to the surface before the Thameish army had collapsed the openings to the outside, so now, there seemed to be only one way in or out.

“It looks like whatever’s been living in here dug out the entrance to the bog,” Alex said as the group gathered back in the main chamber. “Then they left the rest closed off. Probably didn’t want to be surprised, from the looks of it. But they’d also be cornered in here if someone got past their traps.” He shook his head. “Anyone find anything interesting?”

“Yeah.” Theresa made a face, jerking her thumb back over her shoulder. “I think I found its toilet. They’re some pretty big poops in there. ”

“Ugh, I did not need to know that.” Isolde grimaced.

“If I had to see it, you had to hear about it,” Theresa countered. “They’re definitely too big to be from this little guy, so I’m thinking that this wasn’t his cave before he got shoved in that cage.”

“Well, the mist is gone now so let’s see what his story is.” Khalik said.

The team stood around the wooden cage, looking down at the sleeping creature.

It was tiny, with delicate limbs and a lean body. Like a selachar, his fingers and toes were webbed. Now that they were so close, Alex could hear a sound like water moving, gurgling and trickling with frogs croaking when he looked at its scaled body…and there was something about the sleeping creature that felt like it didn’t belong.

It was like someone had taken the Rainbow tower and dropped it into the bog. The creature…almost seemed too vivid for the world around it.

“An asrai,” Thundar said. “One of the local faerie races. I read about them in Magic Lore.”

“As did I. Is it not possible that he is the one who attacked us?” Isolde asked. “It could be that the creature put itself in this cage to trick us when it heard us approaching.”

“Maybe…but asrai tend to be shy creatures, they’re not known for picking a fight unprovoked.”

Alex looked at the ceiling. “Look how far the cage is from the hole in the ceiling.”

“Ah yes, the asrai aversion to sunlight,” Isolde said.

“What happens if they get hit by sunlight?” Theresa asked.

“They melt under direct sunlight and turn into nothing more than water, which it seems, would make it impossible for him to have attacked us outside. Though, he could have used magic to make it seem that his voice was coming from outside to scare us away. With the right magics, he could have attacked us from in here.”

“That’s true,” Alex said. “And fae are known for using tricks. Well, maybe we should wake him up and see if we can get some answers. But be ready to hit him from all sides if he makes any threatening moves.”

“Yes, that might be best,” Khalik said. “Let’s get him out of that cage first.”

The little creature groaned as Alex held alchemical salts under his nose. Suddenly, his eyelids flew open and he looked around frantically. He gasped; his large eyes blinked at everyone standing in a circle around him, then grew wide when they flicked from Grimloch to Claygon to Thundar and Brutus, then back again.

It began screaming, saying something no one could understand.

“Can you understand me?” Alex asked in the Common tongue.

“Don’t hurt me!” The small creature begged.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Alex said, crouching in front of him. “We wouldn’t hurt you unless you’re a foe. Are you friend or foe?”

The creature startled and looked back at him, his lips trembling.

“F-friend, human,” he said, his voice shaking. “I-I have no quarrel with you and no wish to cause you trouble.”

“Was it you that attacked us in the bog?” Alex asked, watching the creature’s body language carefully to see if he could pick up any common tics or tells.

“Attack?” The little fae shook his head rapidly. “Not me! There’s a blue annis that lives here: she went out earlier and hasn’t been back.”

The group looked at each other.

“Blue annis? As in a blue annis hag?” Thundar asked.

“Yes! One of those!” the asrai yelped. “She captured me, and meant to eat me…then she said she liked the sound of my screams. So I kept screaming so that she wouldn’t kill me. Did you slay her?”

“We found some Crich-Tulaghs and strange beast-goblins,” Khalik said. “We did not see any blue annis hags…she might be still waiting for us in the bog.”

The asrai gulped, looking past the group toward the tunnel that led to the cave entrance.

“We’ll just take care of her when she comes,” Alex said. “Now…my name’s Alex. What’s your name?”

The asrai froze, and watched Alex. “…Gwyllain,” he finally said.

‘He’s only giving us his first name, eh? That makes sense,’ Alex thought.

The power of names was something that was prized by fae folk, and they wouldn’t give up their full names easily. Still, by offering his own given name first, he’d shown goodwill…and the fact that Gwyllain had offered his in return, showed it was reciprocated.

“Well, Gwyllain,” Alex said. “I don’t think you were the one that attacked us. The table and tools aren’t really built for someone your size. So, it looks to me like you’ve been this blue hag’s prisoner. Anyone disagree?”

The group looked at one another, but no one voiced a different opinion.

“But…I was thinking,” he continued. “Maybe we could help each other.”

The fae gulped.

“I-I can’t grant any wishes,” Gwyllain said. “I’m not tasty and I don’t have any gold hidden anywhere!”

“Not tasty?” Grimloch growled. “That’s-”

“Please, man, this is probably not the best time,” Alex raised a hand imploringly to the sharkman before turning back to the frightened fae. “Our group and other folks are planning to set up in the moors near here. We’ll be neighbours, if your home is around here: and we’ll be searching for information about The Ravener and generally taking on its monsters.”

“O-okay,” the small fae said. “What’s that got to do with me?”

“Look, I know what you’re thinking,” Alex said. “That we might be bandits or something worse. You might also be thinking that—if we did just rescue you—then you owe us a life-debt, and I know that fae take those very seriously.”

Gwyllain froze.

“Ah-ah, don’t panic,” Alex said. “I’m not going to be asking you for anything dangerous: we’re surveying the lands and you live here. We’re not going to tell you to get the hell out, either. So, what say we just have a little chat: we can share some…water-logged food, and you can tell us more about the area. Not a bad way to pay off a life-debt, eh?”

The fae froze. “You’re letting a life-debt be paid off just like that?”

“Of course,” Alex looked up at his friends. “None of us want you to sacrifice for us or be a slave or anything. So let’s just say you can wipe that debt clean and we can start off as neighbours…properly. Neighbours that look out for each other. And hey, if you have a good experience with us, maybe you tell your friends then we can all help each other out. What d’you say to that, eh, Gwyllain?”

Alex made sure to use his name. Folk tended to like others more when they used their name.

“Well…if it’s all true, then I’d be grateful,” Gwyllain said. “I honour gratitude greatly.”

“Fantastic. So…why don’t we grab something to eat. I’m sure that hag wasn’t feeding you real well, then we can start off with the big, black ball in the room. I know fae are ancient…so maybe you can tell us what you know about The Ravener? And while you’re at it, I’d love to know if you’ve ever heard anything about a human called ‘The Traveller’.”