章 63: Shadow and Fire
Off to the side of our camp were two mounds of earth. Peaceful and well done. As a necromancer I have to respect the dead. Else I'm no better than the evil beings that we are rumored to be. The tomb stones read " We lay in peace but were not guarded against the hazards of the roads. Be more careful than we." It was better than they deserved. But I thought it was more fitting than people being confused by " We tried killing people and got killed ourselves.....".
I had taken a finger from each of the dead as compensation in secret. (Hey my skills need to grow and I do have rights to eating them right?! No judging! ) My skills increased slightly but I'll go through them later as there are more pressing matters. The four were still buried up to their necks and were hardly moving. The elf started to talk once she saw the graves were done and I was sitting in front of her again.
" Our mercenary company was contracted to hunt down and capture " alive or dead " a human woman and her travel companion. We only had a picture and very little info to go off of. But we were paid handsomely in advance to keep our mouths shut and just do our job."
She sighed rather dejectedly before she continued. "Unfortunately we still need to be alive in order to spend our cash so there's no reason for us to die and keep things hidden. We had to practically torture some dwarf guard of an abandoned village to find out where you had gone. When we got there we just had to ask a couple adventurers and they pointed us in the right direction. Turns out you have made enemies of most of the adventurers on this rock. "
I huffed at her indignantly. " They started it and they couldn't handle what came out of it."
She rolled her eyes and kept going. "They said you were headed for the capital. concluding that you aren't stupid and would take a complicated route you would still have to reach the main city. We figured if we got to the main road leading to it first we'd meet you at some point." She had stopped talking as though that was the conclusion.
I leaned a little closer so she could smell the sulfur in my breath. " You still haven't told me who hired you." I hissed out. She shook her head and looked me in the eye.
" Our boss said the person wore a hood and had a mask. Normally our customers are dressed strangly but this one was easier to guess than others. He used platinum coins for a down payment. Only Royalty has access to platinum level coins. You guys did a hell of a thing for the fat princely king to set a price on your heads." I smiled a little and let some smoke wisp out between my teeth.
"If you call refusing a blackmailing marriage proposal insulting then yes." Sam said with a disgusted look. The elf and female fox had shocked expressions before looking at each other and started laughing hysterically. They roared with laughter as tears began falling down the elf's face. "How did we end up taking this ridiculous task? We got caught up in some stupid lovers quarrel!" The fox belted out in laughter as the bear just hung his head shook it with a disappointed look on his face. " And here we thought you were somebody worth taking." The bearman rumbled out.
" We were thinking of making a name for our group by fetching you, but it seems that this is too big a task for us and far too stupid a thing to pay a mercenary group for."
My eyebrow twitched at the mention of a group name. "What name would that be?" The laughter suddenly died down as a serious look crossed the human mans face. " Twilight Shadow. That was the name the seven of us came up with. Now we've been reduced to 4..." His gaze was level and unafraid. "A good name. Unfortunate though. If I let you go we will keep being hunted. If I kill you though we will be hunted more so. Hmmmm." My head started hurting as I thought about it. I sat thought more. " Sam." She turned to me with a questioning expression. "Considering they attacked you first... How would you treat them?" Her face turned contemplative as she considered what to do. " I would put them into the slave market. It's not illegal and normally criminals are forced under the slave contracts outside of beasts. Considering the king sent them. If he found out they were sold to slavery he wouldn't think it was us who did it really. Considering attacking another person is never legal neither is it endorsed by any guild besides assassins and bandits."
I slowly turned to Legion and they nodded. Within a moment the ground had turned into a massive cage that held the people within. I thought about it thoroughly as I sat watching the fire that night. I didn't release my dragon form as I was afraid of the people escaping. I could kill them and get it over with. But in the end it would only silence them and I might need their voices to end the price that was put on our heads. I sat there the entire night. When I felt tired the earth fed energy to me waking my tired mind and energizing my body. The shadows that formed slightly under my eyes faded every time. When dawn came It was slow. The shadows fled the dawn like cold floes from fire. It say beneath the trees like beasts hiding from a stronger predator. Everything I had thought of came to one sound conclusion. We needed them alive.
Sam came out of her tent and stretched in a feline fashion. I laid there poking and shifting the coals. " What did you get for a conclusion?" She asked.
" Conclusion.... We are taking them with us. At least to the capital. We need something to hold over the royals that are chasing us. Anything that can record their voices or even a way for another noble of this country to stand with us." I sighed out in frustration.
"There's nothing else we can do." I pouted slightly as I mulled over it. I slowly moved to my bag that held the books from Hargo and the others and slowly pulled out one of the smithing ones. The book was one based on runes and described many different effects and types. Introduction to Runology Part 1 was what its worn leather cover read. I flipped through the pages till I found one suitable to what I was thinking. I ventured to the cage and with a wave of my hand toward the captives. The cage rose as a platform of erarh separated itself from the ground.
Eight spidery legs formed around the disk and positioned themselves much like a daddy long legs. I continued to walk around the disk and I used a claw to engrave different runes into monster cores before I pressed them into the rocky exterior of the cage. They sank in like a drop of water in the sea. Slowly and with growing energy the cage began to glow. Runes spread from one part to the other till I had used 20 monster cores. I still had 10 for Legion to eat later.
I looked at Sam and Legion who had perplexed faces and shifted back to my dragonman form. The captives in the cage shifted about and shimmied closer together. The cage started getting a little thicker and became more basket like. I crawled on top and crossed my legs, sitting on top of the thing. I started circulating magic through me and into the spider doll. Slowly but surely it started moving. As the magic passed through the earth the cores glowed slightly beneath the earthen exterior giving it an other worldly glow. Sam's jaw dropped while Legion just shrugged and finished packing. Sam and Legion climbed the doll and sat with me as it began the rest of the journey to the city.
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