Chapter 2: Two

A hundred questions rushed through Sarah’s mind as she stared at the orc’s lifeless form. Were they the ones behind this? Weren’t they the pariahs of the Four Kingdoms after losing the war? How did they get here unnoticed?

Stanley touched her on the shoulder, snapping her out of her reverie. The corridor was scarcely wide enough for a person to walk down comfortably, and impossible for them to get past one another. It looked to be an escape tunnel and she wondered if any of the villagers managed to flee.

Up ahead, she could tell that John was impatient to carry on. Even she knew they were sitting ducks down here. Stanley examined the orc’s body briefly before gesturing for John to continue.

The tunnel angled down and turned to the right like a spiral staircase. Candles placed every twenty paces lit the way, casting long shadows that danced eerily as the flames flickered. The air was tense and stifling as they plunged deeper into the tunnel. Sarah half expected a horde of orcs to leap out of the darkness. Soon, a door appeared on their left. John came to a stop in front of it and shot Grimald a quizzical look. The dwarf nodded and planted himself in front of the door while John stood to the side, ready to pull it open.

John cocked his head at Sarah and shot Grimald a look. The dwarf stared back and indicated that Sarah should stay where she was. Sarah could tell that John was going to object vocally and shook her head firmly. John bit his lip but said nothing. Fuming, he stood by the door as the dwarf took his position with his axe at the ready. Sarah swallowed as John held up a hand. He took a deep breath and counted down with his fingers before pulling the door open. The dwarf’s chainmail jingled as he entered the room with Sarah hot on his heels.

On the other side of the door, Sarah was astonished to find a massive library. The ceiling was at least thirty feet high, dug out of earth and well-lit by lanterns. Bookshelves ran from the floor to the ceiling, but almost every book had been pulled off and was now stacked in piles on the hardwood floor. Sitting at desks scattered around the library were four pale men wearing simple robes and lounging around them were a dozen orcs. Each stood over six feet tall and was intimidatingly built. They all wore battered steel breastplates and had well-used weapons close at hand.

Grimald turned around, wide-eyed. His expression told Sarah that they should flee at once, and she agreed wholeheartedly. Before they could back away, one of the orcs cried out in alarm.

“Intruders!” he roared.

“Keep them at bay!” one of the robed men cried as he leapt to his feet with a book in his hand. Without hesitating, he ran for a door on the far side of the room.

“What do we do?” John cried without taking his eyes from the advancing orcs.

 “Withdraw!” Grimald roared, “back to the church!”

“Agni, lord of fire, hear my prayer,” Sarah chanted as they backed away towards the door, “grant me your strength to turn my enemies into ash.”

Feeling power surge through her body, she looked up and pointed her finger at the onrushing orcs before breathing, “fireball.”

A blue ball of fire materialised into existence at the tip of her finger. It spun in place for a moment before whizzing towards the closest orc, exploding with such violence that it blew the orc in half. The explosion sent gouts of blue fire in every direction. The flames swiftly consumed all that they touched. Orcs screamed as the fire clung to them, spreading it to the bookshelves and the books as they thrashed around in agony before being reduced to ash. Within seconds, five orcs had turned into piles of ash and the library was well ablaze, engulfed in blue flame. The party stood still, watching in horror at the destruction Sarah’s one spell had wrought.

Grimald was the first to snap out of his trance-like state. “We need to leave!” he roared.

John snapped out of it next and dragged Sarah out of the room where they joined Stanley in the corridor. Tom was the last one out. They ran as quickly as they could in single file back up the tunnel. Sarah’s foot caught on an exposed root as they ran and stumbled. She would have fallen if John had not been alert enough to catch her by the arm.

“Perhaps we should slow down,” he suggested as he looked over his shoulder, “they’re not pursuing us.”

“No, that library was a tinderbox,” Tom panted, “by my reckoning, it’s right under the church.”

Sarah went white. The halfling’s sense of direction was uncanny.

“What does that mean?” John demanded.

“It means that the fire could bring the entire church crashing down on our heads!” Tom exclaimed.

They picked up the pace and soon arrived at the ladder. Stanley scampered up first followed by Grimald.

“Hurry it up,” John urged as the dwarf struggled to haul himself up.

“You try climbing wearing forty pounds of armour and an axe,” he huffed through gritted teeth.

Sarah climbed next followed by John and then Tom. As she climbed back up into the church, the ground began to shake underneath them.

“Run!” Stanley shouted from the doorway of the church before taking to his heels.

Sarah waited a moment for John and together, they sprinted out of the church, overtaking the huffing and puffing dwarf easily. Once they reached the door, there was a sickening crack, and they heard Grimald cry out.

Sarah turned around to see that a hole had appeared behind them which had swallowed up most of the church. Grimald was clinging onto the edge for dear life and the halfling was nowhere to be seen.

Without hesitating, Sarah dove to the ground and grabbed Grimald by the wrist. “Hold on!” she cried. She pulled with all her might, but it was no use. The dwarf seemed to weigh a tonne. In the corner of her eye, she saw John pause before grabbing the dwarf’s other wrist.

“Let go of your axe, you buffoon,” John said through gritted teeth as he and Sarah lay on the ground, each with both hands around one of the dwarf’s thick wrists.

Reluctantly, the dwarf released his axe. However, even without his weapon, he weighed more than the two humans combined. Try as they might, they could not haul him up.

“Perhaps we should leave him,” John suggested, worried that the fire would cause a larger collapse.

“No!” Sarah and Grimald cried in unison.

“What are you three idiots doing?” they heard Stanley demand. Moments later, he appeared between Sarah and John and grabbed Grimald by the collar. Together, they hauled the dwarf out of the pit.

“Where’s Tom?” Sarah asked as she looked around frantically. Blue flames became visible at the bottom of the pit, through the library’s collapsed ceiling.

“Never mind him, we need to get clear,” John cried as he grabbed her firmly by the arm. Sarah tried to pull herself free but was unable to break John’s grip as he dragged her all the way to the outskirts of the village.

It was dark out, and the village was bathed in a blue hue as the flames climbed out of the pit and consumed what remained of the church. There was another loud crack and the remains of the church collapsed into the pit.

“We need to go back to look for Tom,” Sarah breathed, horrified at what had just happened.

“Tom’s dead,” Stanley said quietly. There was an undertone of fury in his voice as he whirled around to face Sarah, “you killed him with that overcooked spell of yours.”

“I’m sorry,” Sarah said, ashen-faced, “I just poured as much power into it as I could into it when I saw those orcs rushing towards us.”

“And because of that, Tom is dead!” Stanley bellowed.

John quickly placed himself between the pair and pushed Stanley with both hands. The lanky man stumbled but caught himself quickly. He glared at the younger man with murder in his eyes.

“Back off,” John shouted, “we would all be dead if it weren’t for her.”

“I’ll knock all your teeth out if you lay hands on me again, boy,” Stanley warned.

“Both of stop that nonsense,” Grimald growled, “we need to go. Now.”

They looked up to see their leader standing five paces away with a hatchet in his hand. It was loose in his hands, but the look in his eye told them that he wouldn’t hesitate to use it on them if need be. “There’s another exit to that library and we don’t know how many of them made it out. They could be coming back to get their revenge as we speak.”

“Besides,” he added as he watched the blue fire with concern, “everyone within ten miles is going to see that fire and come running to see what’s going on.”

“Don’t think this is over, boy,” Stanley warned as he backed away from John.

He then turned to Grimald and spat on the ground, “the girl’s a menace. If you won’t tell Roldo about what happened, I will.”

“The boy’s right,” Grimald said evenly. The dwarf’s grip tightened around the hatchet as he glared up at the man who towered over him, “we’d all be dead if it weren’t for her.”

Stanley fumed as he turned his gaze from Grimald to Sarah and then to John. He muttered a curse as he stomped off down the road. Sarah watched the lanky man walk away and tasted bile in her mouth. She had no doubt that they had been a hair's breadth from spilling one another’s blood.

“Is it safe to take the road?” Sarah ventured.

Satisfied that the trouble had passed, Grimald returned the hatchet to his belt and stroked his beard. “I’d say it is,” he allowed, “there will be a whole mess of people arriving soon to find out what that blue fire is about. That could be its own heap of trouble.”

“Sounds like we should find somewhere to lay low until all that blows over then,” John remarked.

“You’re welcome to try and convince him of that,” Stanley said as he gestured toward Grimald, who was walking away at a brisk pace, “he’s spoiling for a fight, as I’m sure you’ve gathered. He and Tom were close.”

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“He might still be alive,” Sarah remarked softly.

“He fell down that hole,” Grimald pointed out bluntly, “even if he survived the fall… you know how your fire is better than anyone.”

Sarah fell silent as guilt wracked her. She felt a hot tear roll down her cheek.

Grimald’s face softened as John put an arm around her shoulder. “But as I said, what you did there saved us all.”

They hurried after the older man in silence, guided by the light of the moon as they walked down the quiet road that wound through an empty field. Stanley maintained a brisk pace and the others let him walk well in front of them. It wasn’t long before pinpricks of light appeared on the road up ahead.

Sarah heard Grimald sigh. “The gawkers have arrived. We’d best get off the road.”

“They got here quickly,” Sarah remarked as they came to a halt, “it’s scarcely been two hours since we left the village.”

“What’s your point?” Grimald asked impatiently.

“Why didn’t they investigate the village when contact was lost?”

“These are insular communities,” Grimald pointed out, “nothing unusual for you humans to lose contact with a neighbouring village for a few days. Blue lights though, that’s going to raise bring people running.”

“Then how did Roldo find out something was amiss so quickly?” Sarah pressed.

Grimald shrugged. “You can ask him when we see him.”

He paused and frowned as he watched the lights approach. “Come on, we need to get off the road, or we’ll have some uncomfortable questions to answer.”

John and Sarah walked to the side of the road and prepared to walk into a freshly ploughed field. “There isn’t any cover,” John remarked sourly, “we’ll have to hide in the dirt.”

“Hey,” Grimald called out to Stanley.

Sarah looked up to see Stanley still walking in the middle of the road.

“We need to hide or we’re going to cop the blame for all the deaths back there,” Grimald said.

Stanley muttered something under his breath before stalking off the road. Grimald exchanged looks with Sarah and John before doing the same.

“Get down,” Grimald hissed as the lights drew nearer.

They laid themselves down in the dirt as a group of fifteen men approached. They were soon close enough that Sarah could see the fear in their faces as they walked towards the village in silence, and she couldn’t help but wonder how they would react to what they found there. As the people walked by, she noticed one of them stop and look at them. He tapped one of his friends on the shoulder and whispered into his ear.

“Hey,” the man called to the others, and Grimald muttered a curse.

Sarah looked over to see that their leader had his hatchet in her hand again. Sweat poured down her face. The last thing she wanted to do was to murder innocent people who were merely investigating what happened to their neighbours.

To their surprise, the man continued, “Freddy’s come down with a cramp. Carry on without us, eh? We’ll catch up.”

“Don’t take too long,” one of the others replied, “there’s something right unnatural about those lights. There’s trouble out here, make no mistake.”

Sarah watched in surprise as the group continued up the road, leaving the two men behind. Once the main group had disappeared around a bend, one of the men turned to the field.

“Hey, you can come out now,” he whispered, “it’s alright, we won’t rat you out.”

John and Sarah looked at Grimald who hesitantly got to his feet. “Why didn’t you tell them we were here?” he asked.

“Were you responsible for that fire?” one of the men asked as they approached. Their faces were illuminated by their torch, and Sarah could see an excited gleam in their eyes.

“No,” Grimald lied without batting an eye.

“Blue fire is a sign of Agni’s Chosen,” one of them said as he pulled back his sleeve to reveal a tattoo of four arms wielding swords on his wrist, “we are His devotees and wish to bring you to meet our priests.”

“Listen, thank you for not bringing attention to us, but that fire had nothing to do with us,” Grimald said.

One of the men frowned. “we do not wish to report you to the others. Our only desire is to bring Agni’s Chosen to one of our temples so that our elders can decide how such an illustrious person can be properly venerated.”

Stanley sighed loudly and jerked his thumb at Sarah. “It was her.”

Grimald and John both glared at the lanky man while Sarah could only gape in shock as the two men fell to their knees and touched their foreheads to the dirt.

“What?” Stanley asked with his arms outstretched, “there’s no good excuse you can think up for us being on the road in the middle of the night. Besides, look, they’re worshipping her.”

“You honour us with your presence,” one of the men said, “please, come with us. You will be well looked after.”

Sarah was so stunned by their adoration that she could barely process their words.

“We’re going nowhere with you,” John said hotly.

“We thank you for your help, but we really must be on our way,” Grimald added.

Sarah jumped as John elbowed her in the ribs. “Tell them, they’ll listen to you,” he whispered.

“Yes… er…” Sarah began, forcing a smile, “thank you for your kind words, but I am no Chosen… and we really must be on our way.”

“Then let us accompany you!” the men cried, “we know these lands well.”

Sarah glanced at Grimald who shook his head.

“No, er… that won’t be necessary,” she said, “please, go home. Your families must be worried.”

The two men looked at one another and at length, one asked, “could you at least tell us where we’re going?”

“No, and if she is as important as you say, you’ll do as she says, won’t you?” Grimald said as he glanced nervously up the road.

“Of course,” the men chorused.

“Go on then, go home,” Sarah urged.

The two men bowed their heads in the dirt and chatted excitedly to one another as they made their way back to the road.

“How strange,” Sarah breathed as she mopped the sweat from her brow.

“I can’t help but feel an arrow in their backs would save us a lot of trouble down the road,” John muttered darkly.

“You can’t mean that!” Sarah cried, aghast.

“The boy’s right,” Grimald said tiredly, “but there’s been enough killing tonight. Let’s get back and report to Roldo.”

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