(no subject)

[ultramega10]

And here is chapter four. Sorry it took so long to put this out. Enjoy.




 Chapter Four: Offers of Salvation

The satyrs dragged William away from his friend to a pit on the outskirts of the village. It was covered by a rusted iron gate. Doltier unlocked the gate with a key and hauled it to one side. Then he pulled up William and drew out a dagger. William almost screamed as the blade surged towards him. The ropes around his hands and legs were cut with two swift movements, and Doltier, smiling threw him in.

William fell into the darkness an hit the earthen floor hard. His every inch hurt and he groaned in pain as the gate slid shut above him. He could hear them being locked above him. He could see only a little light in this place through the grating above.

Slowly he pulled himself up. He had to get out of here. Had to save Felix. The satyrs were going to kill him if he didn’t do something. Getting to his feet, he paced, checking the mortar in the stone. Perhaps he could loosen one of the stones and would find…

Find what? A secret passage? The idea was laughable.

No, if there was going to be an escape from this place, it would be out the way he came in.

Gripping the stonework, William sought a handhold. After a few moments, he began to scale up the wall. His mouth was so dry, he was so hungry, but he had to remain focused. Climbing up the wall, he reached the bars and grasped them. He set his feet against the wall and began to push against the bars, trying to dislodge them. They would not budge, and finally, he dropped down to the floor, defeated.

He’d always been stronger than most boys his age. But that strength was not enough to bend metal or dislodge it from the rock. Returning to his idea of a secret passage, he checked the mortar to see if it was loose anywhere. It wasn’t, of course. Even if he’d found some, there was pure earth beyond. In time he could dig a tunnel, of course. But he did not have time.

William began to panic, walking back and forth while trying to think of some means by which he could escape.

He had to get free of this place, whatever the cost to himself! He had to rescue Felix! He wanted to scream, to demand they let him free, but that would do no good. He should not give the satyrs any satisfaction. After all his pacing, it left him exhausted and without progress. He sat down against the rough wall and slid into a sitting position.

Hours later food and water were lowered down. He dared not eat any of the meat. There was no telling what, or who, it was made of. He also felt he should not drink the water, for fear it was drugged. Yet he was too thirsty to listen to this feeling, and he drank it down. It hardly seemed to have touched his lips before it was gone.

It began to dawn on him that there was nothing he could do by his power to escape this place. It hurt to think of it. He needed a miracle, and none seemed likely to happen. He wanted to cry, but he reminded himself that he was the son of a Duke of Harlenor. He resolved to pray.

To which god? Laevian cared nothing for mortal affairs. Barden was a lord of trade and pleasant things. Coinfurth’s domain was mercantile. Mel’zayer belonged more in the study than in a crisis.

None of them would be of any help. Yet Elranor might. But would the Lord of Knights even care? Felix was a Calishan, a member of the race that served his archenemy, and William was a coward. He had failed to even try to fight on that ship. Why should so great and mighty concern himself with them?

Whether he would or not, William had to try.

Clasping his hands together, he focused on trying to connect with the divine. “Elranor, my Lord…” he said. “I have failed you. For that, I am sorry. But Felix needs your help.

“Send us aid and… and I will dedicate the rest of my life to your service. Just please don’t let Felix die!”

He waited for a response. For a moment, he thought he felt a presence. Something searching through his deepest thoughts, judging him silently. Then it was gone, and nothing was happening. He was stuck in this place, waiting for his friend to die horribly.

As time passed, it got gradually darker, and as the last light of the fading sun disappeared, he gave up entirely. Darkness came over the world, and not a beam of starlight reached him. He saw no sign of either Elranor or his captors.

He waited there in limbo, his cuts and bruises stinging him badly. He wondered what good his service was to anyone? He couldn’t even avoid being captured. Then he felt it. A presence within the cell with him. It was not Elranor.

A beam of moonlight shot down through the bars, and suddenly the blue light became red. He raised a hand to shield himself from something he did not know or understand. He felt the heat on his hands, and daring to look up, he saw his shadow lengthening. It cast itself on the wall. Then it shifted into the silhouette of a girl his age sitting or perhaps lounging, on the air. He felt a sensation of agony from her, and he knew of only one explanation. She was a demon, like Melchious whom Father had deceived long ago.

“Well, as inelegant blubbering goes yours is refreshingly concise.” the shadow said in a droll tone. “Let me return the favor. I am a being of no small power, and I’m here to strike a bargain with you.”

William stared at her. “Just how much of a fool do you take me for?”

“You don’t seem very intimidated.” said the shadow, sounding disappointed.

“Should I be?” asked William. “Rusara taught me of your kind. You are not here in your physical form. Which means you have only as much power as I give you. I need only command you to leave, and you will have to. I’m not interested, now go!”

Nothing happened. The shadow looked at herself as though surprised she didn’t disappear. “Oh, look at that. A human has underestimated the power of hell. What an unexpected development. You are aware that commanding me to leave is more than words, aren’t you? The words are merely symbolic of you closing your heart to me.

“The only thing that rejection symbolized was your belief that making a bargain with me would be a foolish idea. However, humans do silly things all the time. Knowing the consequences of an action does not stop you from taking it.”

“You’ll find me uninterested,” said William.

“That’s a lie, and you know it.” said the demoness. “If there were no possibility of you accepting my offer, I never would have been able to enter your heart, to begin with.

“Now perhaps we can get down to business?”

“I’m not listening,” said William, looking away.

“Very well,” said the demoness, “I can’t work with someone who won’t listen. And you can’t banish something you can’t understand. So I suppose I’ll just sit here until you are ransomed and Felix suffers a grisly and horrible death.”

Elranor had not come, and time was of the essence. This might be the only way to save Felix.

“Speak and be done with it,” William said at last,

He got the feeling she was smiling. “I knew you’d come around, dear.”

“Don’t use terms of affection with me, creature.” William hissed.

“You asked me before how foolish I thought you were.” said the demoness “A better question would be, “How desperate is your situation?”

Very desperate indeed. She made a fair point, though William would never admit it. ‘so you reason I should make a bad situation worse by striking a bargain with you?”

“Hardly,” said the demoness, “I think you should make a good situation worse for you to save your friend.”

“A good situation?” asked William.” Are you blind?”

“I hate to be the one to tell you this…” said the demoness, “actually that is a lie. I am pleased to tell you this; you are far better off than you think. Oh, I don’t doubt this little holiday thus far been very unpleasant, but you are almost certain to survive it. Your father will pay the ransom, and you will be sent home. Raynald and Rusara’s friendship with Duke Vanion will be strained, of course. But this is all their fault, to begin with.”

“Are you trying to convince me to sell my soul by telling me my situation is better than I think it is?” asked William, hardly believing his ears.

“No,” she said, “I’m telling you that selling your soul is the heroic thing to do. Your own strength is insufficient, you have appealed to Elranor, and he has not answered. And really, why should he?

“You aren’t exactly hero material, after all.”

William looked away in shame.

“You saw that satyr and froze up.” said the demoness. “You were terrified. You had to rely on your Calishan servant to bail you out. You don’t even feel bad about it, even though your cowardice was what got you and Felix into this mess.”

“Be quiet,” said William.

“Before you offered Elranor your service as payment for saving you.” continued the demoness. “Let me ask you this: What service could someone like you possibly render the Lord of Knights? You don’t want to be a hero. You certainly aren’t any good at it. A hero would have joined the battle and vanquished that satyr singlehanded.

“All you did was try to stay out of the way, and you didn’t even succeed at that.

“And as a result, everyone is going to have to go out of his or her way to save you just because of who you are. It’s pathetic!”

“I said be quiet!” said William, before rushing the shadow.

He scarcely avoided bashing his head on the wall. There was a dark bubbling which might have been laughter filled the cell. The shadow reformed on the opposite wall.

“I’m only telling the truth,” said the demoness, “if you don’t like it perhaps you should do something to fix the situation. There are other ways, other paths which are not quite so picky as to who may tread them. I realized that infernal bargains seem unattractive, but I’ll let you in on a secret.

“We get cheated a lot. The universe hates us because we refuse to play by its rules. So it goes out of its way to turn binding contracts into loose guidelines at best. It is criminal. Many demons have provided service after service, only to be denied their rightful payment at the last minute.”

“If all that is so,” said William, “then why are you telling me this?”

“Because we don’t always get cheated.” said the demoness. “I’m explaining this to you so you know that even if you make a pact with me, you may escape it. Now, are you interested in hearing my offer?”

William knew he should refuse. Yet he could see no other option. “Just say it.”

“I will free both you and Felix,” said the demoness, “and then I will pledge thirty years of service to you in exchange for your soul. During those thirty years, I will serve you while you try to cheat me. You’ll have better chances than most. We’ve done studies, you know. Those who give their souls for the sake of another are three times more likely to escape.”

The shadow’s hand emerged from the wall with long black claws. “Come on; it could be fun.”

She was right — everything she said made perfect sense. Elranor had not come to help him, and he was running out of time. Demons could not lie when making bargains, it was part of their nature. William stepped forward, feeling hopeless. He had to help Felix, had to fix the mess he’d created. Reaching for the hand, he felt a sudden inaudible cry within him. His hand stopped. Every fiber of his being was screaming at him that this was the wrong choice.

“Come on, a few more inches.” said the demoness, grasping for him.

He withdrew his hand and let it drop to his side. “Enough. Leave me be.”

The moonlight above waned, but the shadow held on. “Do you really think Elranor-”

“Leave!” roared William.

No more words were said. The demoness faded away, and his shadow returned to normal. William fell against the wall and sat down. The moonlight had been covered by clouds, and it was now dark. Leaning back against the stone, he cried himself to sleep.

William awoke the next morning to feel the sun’s rays on his face from above. Yet there was another light, coming from within the cell. A small pinprick of illumination. Before his eyes, it began to grow, and a shadow appeared within it.

The shadow became a figure and emerged from the light before it faded behind them. Standing before William, was an elven girl who looked the same age as him. Of course, that meant she was much older. Her hair was flowing blue like the oceans, and she was dressed in the strangest outfit he’d ever seen. It was a knee-length gray skirt with a white button-up shirt. Around her neck was a red bowtie. Her shoes were strange and looked impractical. How did she not get chills like that?

The girl looked around and noticed him. She sighed. Then she looked at a strange device on her wrist and sighed.

“Wonderful,” she said, “I’m sleeping in class. Well, this had better be good. Who are you, and why have you summoned me?”

William stared, unsure of what to make of her or this situation. “My name is William Gabriel. Did Elranor send you?”

“El-who?” asked Kiyora. “Unless he can make me fall asleep when I’m supposed to be doing schoolwork, I doubt it. So how do you need help?”

“What?” asked William, hardly believing his ears.

“You aren’t very bright, are you?” asked the girl. “If you called me here, you obviously need help. That’s how these things work. So what do you need?”

William strove to speak, and at last, managed it. “I’m standing before you in a cell not fit for dogs. I’m at the bottom of a pit, with no shoes. I’m hungry and thirsting to death, and you are seriously asking me that question?”

“Hey, no need to get snippy,” she replied, ‘most people who call me are far more polite. One moment.” Her form shone with an unworldly radiance, and she ascended upwards to phase through the grating above.

For a moment, William wondered if he’d gone insane from stress and begun to see phantoms. It would explain a great many things. Then there was a rumbling sound and looking up he saw the roots of a tree through the grating above. For a moment they strained, and then they fell to land on the floor in twisted and ruined pieces. Suddenly a tree loomed overhead, and roots began to reach down. They grew longer and longer until they were at the very bottom of the cell.

The girl appeared above, staring downwards. Her long hair was hanging down around her shoulders. “Can you climb up those roots?”

“I can try,” said William, wondering who this strange girl was and how she commanded the trees.

Rising, he set his hands to the roots and began to climb upwards towards the surface. It was hard work since he wasn’t in the best of states, but the roots were more comfortable to climb than rock. He was also glad to be getting out, and that drove him upward.

As he neared the top, the girl reached down and offered him a hand. William took it and nearly lost his grip from the power he felt in the hand. It was as if she was made of magic. Which she probably was, for how else could she command the trees themselves? Or materialize from nowhere for that matter. Even Rusara had never done that.

Finally, he was drawn out of the pit. He dusted himself off as best he could, forcing himself to remain standing. “My thanks to you milady. If ever in the future I may repay you, you need only ask.”

“Wait a minute,” she said, ‘did I miss something? Why are you acting all formal?”

“I am trying to maintain my family’s dignity,” admitted William, “for now, I must ask for your help again. A companion of mine has also been taken prisoner and will be-”

“That’s it!” she cried. “I knew I’d seen you somewhere before! What are you doing in the dream world? I thought I and… well never mind. I thought only I could enter it.”

William was at a complete loss. “I assure you, I have no idea what you are talking about.”

“Don’t play dumb with me!” she snapped. “I’ve seen you in class. Are you sleeping too?”

Powerful she may have been, but she was also quite mad. How exactly was he supposed to react to this? “Your delusions aside, my friend is in mortal peril and needs our-”

“I’m back,” said Felix.

William and the girl turned to see Felix standing before them, dirty and tired looking, but unhurt. The Calishan boy was holding a sack over one shoulder. His eyes were haggard he was wearing a new pair of boots which looked too big for him. He put down the sack, before drawing out a new pair of boots and pressing them into William’s hands.

“Felix,” said Willliam, “how did you-”

“I picked the lock on my cell,” said Felix, ‘most of the satyrs were drunk after the festival, so they got sloppy. I stole what essential supplies I could, then headed in this direction to see if I could help you.

“Oh, and I also set the satyr village on fire.”

William looked up and saw the beginnings of a smoke cloud rising over the treetops. Screams and cries of alarm could be heard. It was likely that a lot of people would die in the blaze. Then William remembered what the satyrs had done to the dwarves, and all sympathy fell away. “Good.”

“Put the boots on and let’s go,” said Felix. “That won’t distract them forever. We have to be far away from here before they finish putting out the blaze.”

William slipped the boots onto his feet. Felix handed him a waterskin he had stolen as well. Then William and Felix headed off into the woods. The girl followed them. She looked more interested than afraid at the prospect of being pursued by satyrs.

“Shouldn’t we be making for the river?” she asked. “You know, so you can fill your waterskins. There are dwarvish settlements on the other side.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask,” said Felix. “What are you?”

“This is… um…” began William.

“My name is Kiyora,” she said, “not that you bothered to ask. Also, shouldn’t you know this already?”

“I told you,” said William. “I’ve never met you before today.”

“Fine, play pretend if you want,” she said. “Now-” Kiyora stopped, and she began to waver and glow. “Oh, man, I’m waking up. And this dream was just getting interesting. The teacher is going to kill me…”

There was a flash, and they were left alone in the woods.

“…That was strange,” said Felix.