(Continued from Ch 28, The Touch of Darkness)
The Chronicles of Rapina
Chapter 29, Spies and Assassins
The next day the pirate camp buzzed with activity as the men erected a tent around the skeleton of their ship. When night fell ending the men's intense effort, the pirates were glad to finally rest.
Not long before the first light of dawn, a lithe figure stealthily moved through the shadows. The guard stationed outside of Red Jack's tent did not see it approach. And no one else was about to see the garrote slip around his neck. Neither did anyone see the shadow drag off the guard's body and slip into Jack's tent without a sound.
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Outside of the pirate camp another figure moved stealthily through the darkness. Deitrich had spent most of the previous day scouting the camp's perimeter and, after a shortened night's rest, was finally ready to report his findings. Unfortunately for him, some sort of interference was prohibiting him from using his magical pendant to contact his master. He moved silently away from the pirate camp trusting his master's words that the pendant would function if he got sufficiently far from the abode of the pirates. The interference had been less pronounced or widespread until the previous night when it its influence around the pirate camp had grown.
Unbeknownst to the spy Deitrich, someone had noticed his presence. Doanthalas' feral eyes seemed to glow in the darkness as he watched the figure move away. This man was good, but he was no elf. He was probably a human. Even the best humans could not sneak past an elf in the woods. Elves had a sort of magical affinity with nature that humans could never hope to understand or achieve ...at least most of them.
Deitrich finally found a spot where the magic seemed to work again. He pulled out the glowing pendant and shielded the magic stone with his body so he would not be spotted. He incanted the magic words and a swirling image began to appear in the stone set in the pendant. Suddenly it was struck by something hard that sent it spinning from his grasp. The man rolled to the side and came up with sword drawn and eyes searching. Most likely a lone sentry had spotted him, since he had not heard an alarm sound. If he could dispatch this sentry quickly and quietly then his lord's plan could still be carried out.
The elf watched the man's back for a few minutes as he looked around for his assailant. This human was certainly a warrior of great skill, but it was obvious that his eyes were not very helpful in these darkened conditions. The man seemed to finally sense the elf's presence behind him and slowly turned around. He almost jumped out of his boots when he heard Doanthalas' guttural growl and saw his emerald eyes reflecting the moonlight. Doanthalas had his own sword drawn as he leapt through the high grass straight at the man. Although the man was scared Doanthalas had to give him credit for holding his ground. In a flurry of motion man and elf were upon each other with swords flying. The clash of metal against metal rang through the night.
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Back at the camp Drake and Adriana were enjoying a private walk. They had made up their minds to leave everything behind and go to another place and start over. Their spirits were flying high with newfound hope as they meandered around the camp. Suddenly the sounds of fighting erupted from the stillness around them. Drake pulled Adriana close and drew his sword protectively.
"Drake! What is that? What's happening?" she asked as she strained to see through the darkness.
"I'm not sure my love, but I'm going to check it out." he turned to face her, "Find a sentry and warn him that there is trouble afoot." He saw the worried look on her face and pulled her close. "Don't worry Lady Adriana. I will be careful." That said he kissed her passionately on the lips. "Now go!" he said as he headed off towards the sounds. He had barely made it two steps when the sounds stopped. Drake looked back to see that Adriana had noticed it too.
Adriana was about to say something when a dark shape erupted from the darkness heading straight for Drake. A terrified scream escaped her lips as the shadow descended upon him.
Adriana's scream had scared the wits out of him, but had also alerted him to the presence of someone behind him. Drake swung his sword with all the strength and precision he could muster hoping to connect before the assailant ran him through. A familiar voice rang out mere moments before his sword connected with the assailant's. Metal against metal rang out through the darkness as Drake composed himself and said somewhat befuddled, "Doanthalas?"
"Yes." was the reply as the elf grabbed Drake and then Adriana by the arms. "Come. There is danger afoot. We must warn Red Jack."
Drake and Adriana looked at Doanthalas' blood soaked form and then to each other. They weren't sure what was going on, but the blood and serious look on the elf's face made them quicken their step.
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Inside the tent Red Jack slept soundly. It had been a long day of planning, and giving orders concerning the ship's tent, and he had retired early. That was just fine for the assassin who crept silently towards the pirate's sleeping form. Slowly the assassin drew a knife. A few more steps and Jack would be no more.
The elf stopped dead in his tracks as he rounded a cluster of tents and saw no guard in front of Jack's tent. He held up a finger to silence Drake and Adriana. They complied as Doanthalas indicated the dead guard's feet in some nearby bushes and motioned for them to get help. They quickly departed as the elf crept forward. He glanced at the guard to see if it was anyone he knew. It wasn't. Most likely it was one of the new recruits. The elf didn't give the body a second glance as he slipped into the tent. His eyes adjusted quickly to the darkness of the tent's interior. It was quick enough for him to see the figure standing above Jack ready to strike. Doanthalas let out a feral scream as he leapt for the assassin.
The assassin brought the knife down in its killing arc. She had been trained too well to be distracted by the elf's scream. However, this must not have been the first attempt on the captain's life, for he rolled frantically away from the assassin in spite of having been deeply asleep a second before Doanthalis' scream. The knife opened Jack's side rather than piercing the pirate's heart. Elizabetta did not have time to consider her options as Doanthalas was upon her. With a deft move she ducked under his attack and drove her foot into his back. He crashed to the ground, rolled, and came up in a fighting stance.
Jack was now awake. He had grabbed his blade and then rolled off the side of the bed opposite the assassin. As he rolled he bellowed, "Roger! Guards! Assasin!" Red light from the magelight pendant Roger had given the captain suddenly illumined the room.
Elizabetta took a gamble and jumped the bed to get behind the pirate. She held her knife against his neck. "Move and you die!" she hissed.
Doanthalas knew that Elizabetta might try something like this. He hadn't anticipated that it would be so soon though. But none of that mattered now. He had tried his best to talk her out of it, but as the days went by she never wavered in her decision. She had been given a choice of living the life of an assassin and killing Red Jack or living the life that she and Doanthalas could carve out together. She had made her choice and she was about to carry out her mission. If he did not think fast, Jack was surely dead. He only hoped that she would keep him alive as a hostage long enough for him to form a plan. "So it comes to this," he said as he moved to block the tent's entrance.
"It was always heading in this direction Doanthalas," she said with a bit of regret in her voice. "Perhaps in another life things could have been different... but not in this one. Don't think that I wasn't tempted by your offer." Elizabetta sighed as she pressed the knife firmly against Jack's neck. "I can think of nothing I would like more than a life with you, but you have to understand... it's not my life anymore. If I betray him he will send his best assassins after me. We would both be in danger."
"Then let us face that danger together. Neither of us are strangers to danger. We can fight them."
"Quite a romantic picture you paint...my love. But unfortunately the end result will be the same for me. Either way I die... with or without you." A tear rolled down her cheek as she glanced over Doanthalas' shoulder. My death is a given, but I could not bear to have your blood on my hands as well. Sure we could survive for a while, but sooner or later they would find us and kill us both." "Trust me. My way is better. I know the way he works and he would not stop until we were both dead. I do this because I have to...because I love you."
A dark shape rose behind Doanthalas.
Doanthalas felt cold steel across his throat as a boney hand grasped him from behind.
"Your way will have the same result as you believed his would," The Death of Mortaebius rasped. "The penalty for bringing an assassin into this camp is death. Elizabetta, you are correct, either way you die. In your foolishness you have brought death down upon Doanthalas. Pirates, some of whom are as lethal with a bow as the best assassins, will soon surround this tent. You will not escape this place alive, nor will your lover."
"Roger, get away from Doanthalas or the captain dies."
"Do you take me for a fool? In life I was a pirate. You will kill the captain regardless of whether or not I release Doanthalas. If you wish me to release him, you must move away from the captain so that there is a real chance that I can rescue him. You must make yourself a more attractive target than the elf. Right now, he is a sure thing. You make the mistake of believing that death will stop Red Jack. I assure you, his grave would hardly have a chance to grow cold before he rose from it as I have."
Elizabetta swallowed. Death was no fool. Slowly she moved back from the pirate captain. If she were just fast enough, she could still pull it off. She held her dagger to Jack's back, drew another and used it to slice an opening in the tent behind her. She did not like the way Roger moved Doanthalas to the side to allow him to get at her more quickly should the opportunity present itself. It was almost as though Roger had done this before.
Suddenly Jack dove forward and rolled.
Run! The assassin screamed to Doanthalas as Death left the elf behind and jumped towards her. Roger did not take the split second of extra time it would have taken to kill the elf, for Elizabetta was already sending a deadly blade Jack's way with a snap of her wrist.
The elf dove out the tent flap the way he had come in. He rolled between two approaching pirates and into the bushes near the dead guard's body before the men could catch him to gut him with their swords.
The sound of metal against metal rang briefly through the tent as death's scythe picked her thrown dagger from the air. Elizabetta would not have thought it possible to deflect one of her throws had she not seen it with her own eyes. It was too late to throw another. The shadow of death was upon her. She turned a back flip and was through the opening, outside and on her feet in an instant.
Roger removed a small, spike-bladed dagger with a large bone handle from within his robes. "kill," he said as he threw the blade through the breach Elizabetta had opened.
Once through the opening Elizabetta jumped to the side to avoid the knife death threw at her. She drew a small crossbow, already cocked and loaded with a poisoned bolt. Although she could not see him through the tent, She knew where Jack was; it didn't really matter where she hit him. The poison was most virulent.
Elizabetta took aim. Uh!? She dodged backwards as she fired. Death's knife had veered in mid flight!
"Poison!" Jack bellowed from within the tent.
Elizabetta allowed herself a half smile on a job well done. Now she must escape Death who, despite his robes and scythe, was out of the tent. Elizabetta sprinted and jumped. The flying bone-handled dagger buried itself in a pirate's chest as she narrowly got past his swinging sword and behind him. Would the dagger be satisfied with the death of another? Elizabetta did not plan to wait around to find out. Neither did she wish to wait around while archers arrived. That Death was right behind her was enough.
Elizabetta pushed deftly through some bushes knowing that the skeleton's lighter weight would make bushes more impenetrable to him than they were to her. She headed for an area of the forest near the camp where she knew the bushes, brush and undergrowth would slow death to a crawl. She heard pirates behind her, but she did not run straight. She put the darkness of the pre-dawn night and obstacles between herself and her pursuers and stuck to shadowy areas of the camp as she fled, not letting them get a clear shot at her back.
At last she made it into the forest. The darkness would hide her from all but death, and the thick foliage ought to hide her from the dangerous skeleton even if the darkness would not. If she could evade him long enough, she believed dawn's light would fight him for her.
Doanthalas heard Elizabetta making her way through the forest. She was far behind him. Humans were not fleet of foot in the undergrowth. For a human, her passage was quiet, but to him distinctive. Like him she had chosen the thickest woods to cover her escape. He was about to go to her...
The assassin broke through the bushes and jumped the narrow path. Elizabetta stopped abruptly on the far side of the path. She stared at the end of the handle of a scythe against her breast. She knew the blade must have passed through her, but it had been so fast, so fast she had hardly felt it. Already blood was soaking her shirt. Where had it come from? "How," she gasped.
Roger stepped from behind a tree. The darkness made all but the skull within his black hood invisible. "Your life force is as a beacon to me, assassin. It is true you pass through this foliage more easily than I, but did you honestly think it would hide you from death? I simply took the path and intercepted you. Even you are relatively blind in this darkness, but I am not. In life, I served an unscrupulous master with unswerving loyalty. You have done the same. Now you will join my master, Mortaebius. He will set a new task for you."
As if to punctuate Death's words, the blade he had thrown through the hole in the tent transfixed her from behind, but she was already dead.
A single tear rolled down the elf's cheek as he hastened away through the forest. He had caught the faint sound of the death skeleton's voice on the wind. He turned east and hurried towards the rosy glimmerings of dawn. He would miss her; he would miss them all.
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This ends, Spies and Assassins, chapter 29 of The Chronicles of Rapina.
The story continues in chapter 30, Seeping Toxins.
Copyright 2001 by Rapina