LSRO: Chapter 303 - Right or Wrong (Patreon)

And here's another. About to try and draft another one.

CAN I DO IT? I sure hope so.

Okay - so we're moving along nicely. Almost there...

BWAH HAH HAH

Hand is still screwed. I give up. Lol.

Enjoy!

~~

Chapter 39

Right or Wrong

By the time they’d trussed up the rest of their makeshift prisoners, and Milaro had ensured all their attackers were all slumbering peacefully for several hours, the room was heavy with sweat, blood, with a faint scent of death that lingered on the perimeter. Quinn closed her eyes and swallowed, trying not to taste the smells in the room. When she opened them again, Eric was motioning them all into the passage.

She stepped forward, unsure how to navigate, and realized that the door opened in such a way that it made the entry seem invisible. Being a hidden door, this made complete and utter sense. As they moved, Quinn reinforced her own shielding, as well as that which she extended to those around her. Her mana and health-regen continued to utilize the ambient mana around them and top everyone up.

Lynx followed practically next to her. He whispered into her mind, You all seemed to have that perfectly under control.

Quinn shrugged and turned to him as they made their way slowly through the passage. Maybe. It’s just, there’s another few groups of this size, and then we have to make it to Kajaro and make sure that nobody has already interfered with him. Even though my mana regeneration sincerely helps with everything, I don’t want us to be so low on magic and health by the time we get there that it’s dangerous for us to do anything, or for us to be confronted by something.

Lynx watched her and nodded. They continued through the path, slowly, silently, their footfalls making no sound at all. This made Quinn wonder who’d cast a silencing spell on their steps. Aradie perched on her shoulder, surveying everything. She was grateful the night-owl could help her execute the silencing shielding.

Eric’s voice rang through her head, skimming over the top of her thoughts. We need to work methodically, he said, more serious than she’d ever heard him before. She guessed he’d probably performed this type of reconnaissance previously for Hal’s armies. 

Anyway, he continued, there are groups of them working their way down. We can overtake them and snipe out each of them.

Malakai piped up, But don’t you think they’ll be making their way straight toward Kajaro?

Well, that’s just it, Eric said. I’m not entirely sure they know where Kajaro is from the way they’re spreading out. It seems like they’re searching for the location of him.

Quinn frowned. What about hostages? What about everybody who lives and works in the palace?

Eric shook his head, moving ever slowly down the corridor. That’s just it. I haven’t seen anybody yet, nobody. Not even any bodies. So they’ve either evacuated them, moved them to somewhere else, or disintegrated them.

Quinn shuddered at the thought. Disintegration? Doesn’t sound like the best way to go. So we don’t have any hostages to worry about, and Hal probably won’t hate us if we do some not-permanent damage to the palace?

Milaro chuckled. Well, he won’t hate you. I don’t think he could ever hate you, but he will probably ask you to pay for the repairs.

Quinn shrugged. I’m sure the Library’s coffers are deep.

Milaro’s sigh echoed through Quinn’s mind. What we need to take care of is making sure that none of them can alert each other to our presence. They need to think that we’re still clueless as to their presence here, and that nobody has come in and, well, done what we’ve done. What if they’re waiting on communication from the group we just put out of commission?

Can we intercept their communication? Quinn asked.

Not exactly, Milaro said. We just have to be aware and make sure we’re blocking any communications.

Well, you can do that, right? Quinn said.

You’re already doing that with your shielding, which should show up as interference and not just a block, so... But Milaro didn’t continue. Eric and he paused, listening for several seconds, and Lynx ended up sort of standing next to Quinn in the overly narrow passageway.

Quinn didn’t understand how creatures like the satyrs and some of the other inhabitants of Halschius would ever fit in these spaces. Then again, she didn’t think the satyrs were the type of species that served the king of Halschius. She might have to talk to him about that. The path seemed inordinately narrow, but it definitely served its purpose. Seemlessly moving from place to place within the building as if they were ghosts.

After several seconds, Eric’s voice clung in her head again. Once they find Kajaro, I believe they’ll send out an alert to each other that he’s there, and make their way down. We simply have to make sure that they’re unaware that we’ve wiped the rest of them out. Yeah, that’s what we have to do. And he fell silent again.

Quinn wasn’t entirely sure why he’d reiterated their point, except that it sounded as if he was trying to convince himself. 

It was several seconds of waiting before Eric motioned with his hand. Everybody gather around. Okay, they’re approaching. Once they pass us, we’ll go out behind them. It’s the best way for us to file out and appear instead of appearing gradually in front of them. It gives us a slight advantage; I believe.

Quinn nodded. This wasn’t exactly her area of expertise, this whole strategizing thing.

Milaro spoke softly. We don’t want to pull them anywhere near the passage. We can’t risk them knowing about it and somehow getting a message out. There could be a way that they do, but I am fairly certain that the barrier Aradie is assisting you in creating blocks any type of telepathic speech beyond it as well. It should be enough to prevent any type of outside communication.

Quinn nodded. She didn’t feel ready for this. She didn’t like fighting other people, but she knew she could. And she knew if she let herself go, that she could be very good at it. She could hear their feet shuffling if she concentrated truly hard, sending out her senses to double check. There were ten of them this time, as opposed to the dozen they’d had before. Five of them were imps. Five of them were spinoboli. She frowned. They should be enough to neutralize them. Aradie and Lynx could easily work together to take two down. Quinn reinforced her mana and health regeneration and waited for the signal.

Now Milaro uttered, his words echoing through Quinn’s brain, ringing like an alarm. They tumbled out of the passageway, though Quinn thought it was probably closer to stepping out less than gracefully. Quinn slammed up the shielding around them and the group that was several meters past them now. Their footfalls were still silent, and they managed to creep out of the passageway without alerting the group that had just passed them. It probably helped that the group was talking in hushed whispers with each other, and thus any noise Quinn’s group made wasn’t heard.

It was tricky timing, and she wasn’t sure how they managed it, but it did seem that Aradie had filled the spaces in Quinn’s shielding walls with the right soundproofing. Quinn’s group glanced at each other. Milaro countdown in their heads. 

Three...

Two...

One...

It was really amazing what the element of surprise could do. It was the safer option, the better option, and in this case, appeared to be the quicker option. It served them well.

Two imps went down immediately. They were bound by Eric’s glowing chains, dragging them into the floor with a clink that set Quinn’s nerves on fire, making her shudder as if she’d had snow poured down her back, despite the fact that the chains themselves were red-hot. Those imps dropped effectively, becoming useless, thrashing in the chains, which only made them pull tighter.

At the same time, Milaro dropped two of the spinoboli immediately. They clutched at their heads with both pairs of hands, falling to their knees, to the ground, completely rolling on it as their eyes and ears and noses bled profusely. If Quinn wasn’t mistaken, she was sure some blood even exited the pores of their skin. She shuddered, not entirely sure she should let Milaro show her this little trick. They needed to get that capitulation device book back as well, because this, this wasn’t a skill Quinn wanted in the hands of her enemies.

In that same moment, Quinn also used her ability to command the stone under the feet of the spinoboli. Just like before, it caught them unawares. The one that she took out on the left managed to trip and face-plant badly enough that she was fairly sure he’d knocked himself out. This time, however, there didn’t appear to be any broken bones poking through perfectly good skin, and the lack of a crunch made Quinn feel slightly less queasy. That first one had a sword which fell out of their hand as they tumbled over without control. It was amazing what happened when you couldn’t right yourself because your calves were locked into the ground.

But her second attacker, the one on the right, had a bow and arrow. Luckily, because they’d attacked them from behind, it was very difficult to activate whatever spell or skill they were using to aim the arrows behind them. After a couple of misfired shots, Malakai took out that opponent of the same weapon with an arrow through his wrist, and Quinn whisked the bow out of their hands with a particularly harsh gust of wind. It left only four more opponents needing to be dispatched who were still grasping around trying to understand the situation because everything had happened so fast.

A voice in the back of Quinn’s mind kept whispering that this was far too easy, that she couldn’t take this for granted because, obviously, something else was lurking. She couldn’t help but agree. As the rest of them were trussed up, Milaro went from body to body, double-checking, making sure that they didn’t have any information.

“Nothing,” he said, throwing his hands up. “Again, they know nothing.”

“Well, they’re all just henchmen, right?” Malakai asked, running his hand through his hair. He glanced at his grandfather. “I mean, surely you can’t be that naïve.”

Milaro raised an eyebrow. “I’m not naïve. What I am is frustrated that they haven’t even sent a competent person to any of these groups so far.”

“Well, that could be,” Eric ventured. “I mean, it could be because they didn’t expect these groups to find Kajaro. Maybe the next ones will be more challenging.”

The idea had occurred to Quinn that perhaps these groups were more of a decoy. Maybe they were meant to keep any potential rescuers occupied. She was fairly certain everyone else wondered the same thing. They just couldn’t risk not taking care of the outliers.

After Eric and Malakai moved their bound prisoners into a room not too far off and Milaro made sure they’d all sleep for hours on end, they went back in the passageway to make it to the next group. This time the passageway cut over and it took them a few minutes to round on the next ones.

Eric frowned while they waited for them to pass. These guys are completely out of the way.

The third group they subdued took about the same time as the second, and Quinn was left feeling like there was something she’d missed.

Do you think, Lynx interjects, that this is all a trap and they’re just wanting to lull us into a false sense of security and are triangulating to ambush us?

They turn and blink at him. Lynx shrugs. Quinn knew he was a manifestation and thus probably had a different perspective on a lot of stuff. The thing was, Quinn really thought it was too easy because the second group fell so easily.

She put her hands on her hips as they bound them up, had Milaro put them into a slumber for the next half day or so, and began to move them toward another room. “You know, Lynx might be right,” Quinn said, hands on her hips, as she surveyed the area. There was no sign of life from anywhere else in the castle. Nothing at all. Just an eerie heat that permeated the entire building, and being in Halschius, of course, it permeated the entire building. She frowned. “I don’t understand. This shouldn’t be that easy.”

“To be fair,” Eric said, “they’re sending groups of ten to find one man.”

Quinn shook her head. “One man guarded by, what, ten people? One on one wouldn’t even phase them.”

“I don’t think,” Malakai said, “that they’re worried about one on one. I get the feeling there’s something much bigger at play.”

Quinn shrugged. “Maybe.” She still felt uneasy, perhaps even more so now.

They made their way back into the passageways, silently moving through to find the next group.

Lynx nudged Quinn, and she looked at him as he spoke into only her mind. You know, you didn’t really need me, right?

No, we did. We’d probably be much worse on the mana front otherwise.

You thought all the fights would be the same as the first one, didn’t you?

Quinn nodded, I feel like they’re baiting us right now. 

I think you’re right.

Luckily, they were almost at the next group. Quinn wasn’t sure if she wanted to find out just how right or wrong she was.

~~

Okay and there you have it! Tune in next time. Same bat channel!

Much love

KT