The Foolhardies 126 Prisoner

As the Foolhardies increased our pace over the dirt road, I glance behind me one final time for one last glimpse of the unfriendly city we'd just left behind, its towering walls and gates and those spires that reach high into the sky. I also saw the encampment of five thousand warriors under Great General Grimthorn's command. This far away, I could imagine them as some small army besieging Jester's Court.

It was a fitting a.n.a.logy, I think. Grimthorn had been sent by the council not just to a.s.sist Garm but also to keep him in check, possibly until proof was found that he really was in cahoots with the enemy.

Weirdly enough, I think I already found circ.u.mstantial evidence. Not that anyone would believe my previous out-of-body experience or that fact that I'd seen a ma.s.sive hand grasp at me in my vision, a hand that looked remarkably similar to the one that held that great sword in my last duel. Not that it was enough. Maybe if I could figure out who he was talking to, maybe then I could bring this information to the council. Sadly, I had other concerns to deal with.

"You're not under Darah's s.h.i.+eld anymore, laddie. So keep your wits about you and your blades sharp," Grimthorn said to me before we parted.

With that final reminder, I turned my back on Jester's Court and led my forces home.

The journey back to Hoodwink Tower would take us only the better part of two nights as the unit was ordered to march even during the day.

In that time, I'd sent Fila off to send word to Kallista that our gambit had failed and that we would be needing her help after all. I'd also instructed Fila to introduce Kallista to Shanks. Perhaps the two of them together could help speed us on our way faster.

On that first night, Aura and I finally got to exchange notes and finally learned why she went to Mudgard to have a chat with Arah.

Apparently, Arah had contacted her through the sprite orb Aura gave her to ask if she could a.s.sist Arah in reaching the Fayne. This stung as it kind of meant Arah didn't think I could handle finding Ty on my own.

"She went so far as to say she would summon a different fairy if I refused to meet her," Aura admitted, looking back at me with big doe eyes that made it difficult to feel angry with her. "So you see, I really had to go."

"You really went to Mudgard just to convince her not to come here?" I asked while we rode at the front of our column.

Aura nodded. "It warranted a face to face… and I did manage to convince her to trust us. I also promised her we'd find Ty."

"We will…" I said, looking down. Now I felt bad for accusing Aura of betraying me in my head. "You could have just said all this to me before you'd gone then I wouldn't have had to lose my mind over what was happening in your… talk."

"I made a promise not to tell you until she and I had talked," Aura insisted. "As you very well know, I keep my promises."

I rolled my eyes at her.

"Let's hope you get to keep that promise about finding Ty too…" I glanced sideways at her. "Speaking of… I've got an idea."

"No one ever likes hearing that when it comes out of your mouth, you know," Luca b.u.t.ted in from my other side.

That brilliant idea of mine was implemented the next night as soon as I'd returned to the Fayne from another day of Arah not talking to me. At least she'd gone back to school and sat next to me in cla.s.ses. But there was a barrier between us that just wouldn't go down, at least not until Ty was back.

Luca, Aura, Donar, and Berrian had all joined me in one of our covered wagons so they could witness my second out-of-body experience first-hand. Donar and Aura would see if the could glean anything from my trip, perhaps information or arcane knowledge. But Berrian was there to make sure I came back.

Berrian checked my wrist for the third time.

"Your pulse is stable, but I'm not sure about this, Commander." He said. "We don't know what side effects the drug has on you."

He picked up the yellow marble from the leafy packet on the wooden floor and raised it to his eye level.

"Idunn's Tear is a mysterious medical remedy that dates back to the days before the empty throne… Sadly, information on its usage and effects are scarce anywhere outside Potion City," Berrian explained.

"Potion City," I repeated. "That's in Soma Tribe's territory, yeah?"

"Yes, all the way in the southern region," Aura answered.

"The Hub for all healing arts including pill making," Berrian added. "That's where I learned my trade."

I asked because I was curious about the place where all sorts of potions were born.

"Remind me to ask you to bring me there, Berrian," I said while plucking the yellow marble from him. "And don't sweat this. I've already done it before. Right, Luca?"

"Yup, but you also went poltergeist on me, kicking and screaming and speaking in audible verses before waking up screaming," he shrugged. "So… relatively safe… I think."

"That's the spirit," I said right before putting the medicine in my mouth and swallowing. "Now shush, people… have to concentrate."

I had a theory which I'd taken from my first experience. Two things were necessary in order to steer this crazy astral rollercoaster, willpower and a target. A person I was connected to or felt strongly about, which was the case with Garm, plus the willpower not to get distracted by other thoughts, which is probably why I kept jumping around the last time.

So, like Dorothy clicking on her red shoes, I clicked on the imaginary boots in my brain and activated Fool's Insight while saying out loud, "I want to see Ty… I want to see Ty… I want to see…"

The effect was immediate and I found myself exploding out of my body, my consciousness swirling in a thousand little pieces, each one vying to maintain control.

Ty, I thought. Take me to Ty.

It was a thought echoed a thousand times, forcing my will to keep control, steering me in the direction I needed to go. West.

A thousand glowing lights zoomed past familiar roads and beyond it, to a line of wooden barricades that stretched from north to south, past this blockade to the great desert in the west. Finally, the shattered pieces of my consciousness floated down into a place deep within the desert, to a city hewn to life from the ma.s.sive cavern underneath a dry oasis.

Ty, I thought again.

My consciousness st.i.tched itself back together above a stately house whose courtyard overlooked a very deep chasm. In this courtyard, dark-furred creatures with long snouts were messing around with a human teenager about the size and height of my friend.

I pushed myself to travel down and as close as I could get.

No, it was definitely Ty. It wasn't just the buzz-cut but the same goofy face I'd stared at since we were kids.

"I-I can't do it…" Ty whispered in a voice that was about to crack.

"Hooman is weak…" one of the Doberman pincher type kobolds said as it bared its fangs on Ty.

Yeah, they were kobolds alright, but a different kind from Thor's breed.

"But hooman is chosen," a second kobold continued.

"So hooman must learn to be strong," a third kobold added. "They must see that you can do it."

"Th-they?" Ty glanced up at the kobolds looking down at him. "Wh-who're they?"

Without prompting, the first kobold lashed out at Ty and kicked him in the shoulder with one of its monstrous feet.

Ty crashed onto the dirt, kicking up dust as he fell.

He coughed. Then coughed some more. "Please… I really can't."

The second kobold threw a bucket's worth of water on him.

"The water is on your skin now. It's in your clothes. It's in your hair. You can wield it better now," the second kobold barked in an accent that was like the natives from those old Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

The third kobold struck Ty too, kicking him right in the gut.

Ty coughed again.

I screamed, "Stop hurting him!"

No one heard me. At least, I thought no one heard me, but at the sound of my voice, Ty actually raised his head in my direction.

He didn't say it out loud. It was a whisper that only I could hear. "D-dean?"

"Ty!" I yelled. "It's me, man!"

"D-dean… help me," Ty cried.

"Who is this Dean?" the first kobold asked, raising its eyes to the same spot Ty was looking at.

Thankfully, it couldn't see me.

It turned its attention on Ty again and said, "Perhaps we have hit you too much and your weak hooman mind cannot take the pain."

Despite saying that, it hit Ty again.

"Perhaps you need a further lesson in pain," the second one added.

And he joined the first in kicking the h.e.l.l out of Ty.

"St-stop it!" I yelled, the anger flowing through me.

But no one heard me except Ty who screamed my name again and again while all three kobolds kicked at him. "Dean, save me!"

"We're coming, man! We're coming!" I yelled.

"No one will save you but yourself, hooman," the third kobold said. "Show us you are truly chosen."

"Show us," the other two repeated like a chant they timed with each kick.

I couldn't bear to watch what was happening to Ty, but watching was all I could do for not my voice was reaching him now.

"St-stop!" Ty said again and again until finally, he screamed in a voice filled with something I'd only heard come out from Aura when she'd summoned a djinn. "Stop it!"

An explosion of icicles erupted out of Ty, born from the parts of him that had been blasted earlier by water. It spread out in a circle around him like an icy barricade.

But none of the kobolds were hit as they'd jumped away in time.

"Holy s.h.i.+t…" I whispered. "Ty, you are a chosen one…"

The last thing I saw before the dream vanished was Ty looking up at the icy spikes jutting out of his arm and clothes with a bewildered face.

The last thing I heard was the resounding clap of someone who had been hiding somewhere behind me and out of my line of sight.

"Well done, Tyberius. Well done."