Greywolf - Rescue

I was such an idiot.

Balthazar's Daemo had banged on my door, insisting Little Paulus had been stricken with some strange illness, and I broke every rule Asena taught me about their race by letting him get behind me while I examined the boy. If Asena had been there, she would’ve told me that I deserved a sickly sweet smelling rag clamped over my mouth, while the four burly guards grabbed me. Never, ever, trust a Daemo until you know what she or it actually wants... and I totally ignored what she’d taught me. Shite!

Alright, stop beating yourself up and start thinking instead. I was inside a long wooden box... surely it couldn't be a coffin, could it? My arms were tied in front of me as it bounced along on the bed of the wagon, which I saw when I looked through the air holes drilled into the sides. Paulus had been in the box with me for a while, though I wasn’t totally sure. Whatever it was on that rag made me woozy even after I woke up. Regardless, he was gone now, and I was getting worried. Not that I could do anything about it... yet.

Hold on, we're definitely slowing down. The wagon creaked to a halt as the horses blew out their breath and rattled their harnesses. Scooting up a little, I could see through the air holes. The light was fading fast, meaning it was past sunset, but I could see a couple men in leather armor releasing the horses from their harness and taking them away. A man in merchant robes helped a smaller figure down off the bench seat... Balthazar and Paulus. The boy was staggering as if he was drunk... no, drugged from whatever that Daemo made us breathe in. Balthazar handed him off to the Daemo, who led Paulus away while Balthazar turned around and climbed onto the wagon.

There was a rattle as he pulled the lid off and set it down. "Ah, good; you are finally awake," he said as I scooted myself into a sitting position. "Apologies for keeping you in the box until now, but we needed to make haste before Prince Timur mounts any kind of a rescue attempt."

"Timur would let me rot with Hel in the Underworld before lifting a finger to help me."

Balthazar chuckled. "So I gathered. Yet, Little Paulus is another story. Now," Balthazar holding up his hand before I could speak, "I am going to untie you, because if you attempt an escape into the Shadowlands, you are going to find your friend waiting." He motioned with his hand and I looked to where his finger was pointing.

The wagon was at rest next to the ruins of an ancient temple. It had a few broken walls leaning at crazy angles beside a dead, grey tree...and a Night Hag standing in front of it. She saw me and began flitting like a silently shrieking hummingbird as Balthazar pulled out a knife and cut the leather binding my wrists. "I need to relieve myself."

"Yes, I imagine so. When you are finished, join me by the fire so we can discuss your situation, and Paulus', like civilized men. His life depends on what you decide to do."

Balthazar climbed down off the wagon as I got out of the box... it really does look like a coffin, and walked over to one of the broken walls. I knew it was petty, but as I finished, I made a rude gesture at the Night Hag, who went berserk. At this rate, I'll never get rid of her.

I took a moment to look around before the light disappeared. We were higher up than the road, whose outline I could barely make out, and the river beyond. The ground was mostly dry grass and scrub bushes, but there was an outcropping of rock that must have been a spring, because the horses were being watered beside a small stream leading towards the river.

Farther up was a circle of fire blackened stones where one of the guards was using a fire-stone to get the wood and dried grass alight, while others were taking out packets of dried meat and travel bread. The rest seemed to be keeping watch.

Balthazar was sitting on a blanket beside the fire, pouring out a clear, reddish liquid into two wooden cups. My mouth was dry as dust and I made a beeline towards him. As I got close, he lifted up one of the cups. "Water straight from the spring, with enough wine to dispel any bad humors the fountainhead might have." I stopped next to the blanket and he added, "I promise you that nothing else has been added."

I gave him a wary look as I took the cup. "I don't trust you, Balthazar... or should I say, Moloch."

"I answer to either one, depending on the circumstances. Sit and drink, then when I am finished explaining myself, I will have my Daemo, Ogg, bring Paulus over to join us."

I sat down as far away from him as I could, draining the cup and setting it down on the blanket before I looked at him. "How is it possible for you be two different people?"

"Because I am a Janus, a two-faced agent for the Emperor of the East. In my role as the merchant, Balthazar, I traded extensively with the Sasnayams and thus had many contacts within their empire, which I used to gather useful information for my emperor. So when Emperor Konstantine received word that Eurax desired an alliance with the Sasnayams, we concocted a plan to have me 'disgraced' by the emperor, then put me in Eurax's path so he could lure me over to his side. Moloch was the name we agreed he would call me by."

Huh. "You set Eurax up with the Sasnayam temples?"

He nodded. "And with Lady Jhadra, with whom I have had dealings in the past."

I scratched my head. "If this is true, why didn't you explain what was really going on when you were in Bukhara?"

Balthazar sighed. "When you live in, shall we say, the world of shadows, it is rarely beneficial to expose yourself to the light. When I see Eurax next, I will tell him how I pretended to be Balthazar, who had 'killed' Moloch, and thus wormed my way into Prince Timur's confidence. I will also tell him that the spirit of the sword is actually the White Horde outcast it was supposed to be, but that Amazonia is playing a long game, waiting until she has all the dead under her control and the entire White Horde in a position where she can turn her Shamblers against them and destroy the White Horde, once and for all."

Double huh. "But all of that's a lie."

Balthazar smiled. "You know that, and I know it as well. Eurax, however, only knows what I tell him." His expression became serious. "However, there are still agents of the Sasnayams in Bukhara, hiding in the shadows."

My eyes narrowed."How do you know that?"

"Because one of them contacted me, a fellow merchant. Now, do you understand why I could not tell any tale except the one I told?"

I slowly nodded as I worked it through, but then a tendril of fear wrapped itself around my guts. "Balthazar, if you're working for the emperor, why did you abduct me and Paulus?"

"You, I abducted to give Eurax a new distraction while his plot unravels. There are any number of Daemo females, including Lady Jhadra herself, who would be eager to help."

"I'm not anyone's distraction," I snarled at him.

"You will be Eurax's if you want to keep your lover, Wysper, alive." I went still as stone, and Balthazar's expression turned sardonic. "Yes, I thought that might grab your attention. I have a contact in Bukhara, loyal only to me, who has in his... or her, possession, a vial of poison that causes the victim's senses to slowly go numb, until they finally go to sleep and die. As has happened with the Nomads. It is a quite painless way to go, which is why I gave it to poor Paulus before I let you out of the box."

I leapt to my feet with my hands clenched into fists. "No!"

"Sadly, yes," Balthazar replied with another sigh. "Eurax was insistent in his instructions: little Paulus was to die by crucifixion, and you were to be brought to his estate. Greywolf, I am an evil man, yet not a heartless one. I do not want the boy to suffer as Eurax wants. Nor do I want your lover to suffer, or become degraded, as she would have if I had decided to bring her along as well."

I snarled at him, "What do you mean, degraded?"

Balthazar's expression turns grim. "Eurax delights in taking innocents, and subjecting them to humiliation and carnal tortures designed to break them down, especially one with the strong, yet gentle, spirit I understand Wysper possesses. I spared her that by instructing Ogg to leave her sleeping instead of taking her along."

"And I'm supposed to thank you for threatening her life instead?"

Balthazar shook his head. "I expect you to cooperate and not try to escape. My agent in Bukhara will actively work to keep the girl safe until she... or he, receives a coded message. Whereupon my agent will administer the poison. Should I be killed, Ogg will send the message, and if we both die by your hand, the agent will follow my instructions."

"What if I don't kill you? What if you die under a rock slide, or drown in the sea, and I had nothing to do with it?"

Balthazar shrugged. "My agent has ways of getting at the truth. However, for Wysper's sake I would advise you to protect me in every way you can, because once I am dead, I have no way to let my agent know it was all a tragic accident."

A thought crossed my mind and I raised my chin in defiance. "Lys knows poisons better than anyone, and she'd find a cure for Wysper."

"Given enough time, she might. However, the only known antidote is actually a Necromantic spell Tanit of Carthago came up with, that transforms any poison into a substance the body can then expel. Legend says that she wrote the spell down in her lore books... the ones the Etruscans burned when they took the city. So I would not put too much hope in the Shadow Fae." He opened his arms as a father might to a son. "I know you hate me for doing this, yet if I am to help the emperor bring Eurax and all of his cronies down, I need Eurax to continue believing that I am his trusted agent."

Glancing around, several guards were around me at the edge of the firelight, watching us. "What about them?" I asked, motioning behind me. "Any one of your guards could betray you."

Balthazar gave me a thin smile. "Did you think you were the only one with the threat of a loved one being poisoned hanging over your head? No, my guards are the most loyal and trusted men that anyone could ask for. As for Ogg, when Eurax is laid low, my Daemo has a position waiting for him in the Great Library of Konstanopolis"

I blinked. "Your Daemo wants to be a librarian?"

"I can think of no better reward," the Daemo said, walking out of the darkness with Paulus in his arms. "A position devoid of danger and thousands of books at my fingertips." The Daemo knelt and set the boy down. "My lord, the guards wish to know your instructions for this evening."

Thunder rumbled from the direction of Bukhara as the wind picked up. "The one disadvantage of having guards with the poisoned sword of Damocles hanging over their loved one's heads, is that they go in constant fear of displeasing you." Balthazar lumbered to his feet. "Ogg, keep an eye on our guests until I return."

"By your command, my lord." Balthazar went off into the darkness as I knelt down beside Paulus, shaking him to wake him up. Without opening his eyes, Paulus mumbled a few incoherent words as Ogg said in a low voice, "All is not lost. There is no poison I concoct that does not have an antidote."

Hope wrestled suspicion in my heart as he opened his hand long enough for me to see the vial made of green glass. I whispered, "You can save Paulus?"

The Daemo shook its head. "I am thinking of your betrothed. Once we reach Khor, I will secretly send a messenger to Titan with the vial and a note, written in Babylonian, explaining the danger Wysper is in and the need for her to keep the vial with her at all times. That way, if she ever begins to feel the loss of sensation in her hands and feet, she can place drops under her tongue until the poison is neutralized and the feeling returns. Here, I will show you."

The Daemo uncorked the vial and let a single drop fall in its little finger before corking it back up. Then it opened Paulus' mouth and smeared the drop under the boy's tongue, closing his mouth again. "Give it a moment... there. Go ahead and shake your friend once more."

I did so, and Paulus opened his eyes. "Greywolf," he said in a soft voice, "where are we? Where's Az?"

Ogg placed his bumpy hand on Paulus' shoulder. "Amazonia will be here soon. Go back to sleep." Paulus' eyes drifted shut again as the Daemo stared at me. "I know you wish to save him, but right now, any attempt will end in failure. You have to think of Wysper's safety first."

Is this Daemo being sincere, or is this all an act to get me to cooperate? "Why are you helping me at all?"

The Daemo's dark eyes glittered in the firelight. "I am playing the long game. I came across the Shadowlands to this world at the end of the Conquest War, and after the last of our princes died, established myself into human society. I fancy myself as something of a historian, and once I am established in the imperial library, plan to begin writing a history of that conflict from the Daemo perspective."

I stared at him wide-eyed for a moment, then shook my head as thunder rumbled again. "I never would've guessed... and you're afraid I'll return someday and kill you before you get to write it."

"Just so. Saving your betrothed means saving myself. I will return this vial to my travel chest, but when the time comes-"

Before he could go on, from behind us one of the guards called out, "Lord Balthazar, a rider's approaching."

Ogg slithered to its feet with the vial in hand and hurried away as Balthazar and several more guards came running up. "Get ready," Balthazar said, "but do not attack until we know who it is." The drumming sound of hoof beats grew louder as swords were drawn. The guards spread out in a semi-circle as Balthazar motioned for me to remain where I was.

From the darkness, a voice called out, "Greywolf?"

I leapt to my feet. "Wysper, run," I yelled as Balthazar clamped his hand on my shoulder. "Turn around before they catch you."

Instead of stopping, the pounding hoofs got louder. A moment later, my Daemo mount, Rocky, stopped at the edge of the firelight with Wysper on its back. She was dressed in the harem girl style of Bukhara, the gauzy cloth clinging to her slender body as she slid off Rocky's back and ran towards me. "I had to find you."

Shaking off Balthazar's hand, I raced towards her as the guards chuckled and slid their swords back into their sheathes. I caught Wysper and kissed her hard for a brief moment before pulling back. "You're crazy."

She smiled. "Crazy in love, maybe. Where's Paulus?"

I grimaced. "Next to the fire. He's been poisoned with the same stuff the Nomads were poisoned with."

Wysper gasped, but then her face became resolute. "Take me to him."

I nodded and took her hand, leading her over to the fire as Balthazar put his hands on his hips. "Mistress Wysper, how did you find us?"

"Greywolf's cat showed up in my room and led me here," she said as we reached Little Paulus. "And before you ask, I came alone."

Balthazar's eyes widened as I knelt down with her. "So the legends about Shadow creatures becoming ghosts in our world are true," he breathed as Paulus struggled to sit up. Balthazar frowned at her. "This was a noble act, yet I fear you shall live to regret it." Wysper put her arms around both me and Paulus as he added, "I cannot let you go now, which means you shall accompany us to Eurax's estates-"

A flaming arrow swooped out of the darkness and hit Balthazar squarely in the chest. It exploded, showering us with gobbets of bloody flesh as more arrows flew towards the guardsmen. Several hit, and the guards screamed as warriors with weapons in their hands charged.

Blades rang as desperate guardsmen ripped swords from their sheathes, Avitohol leading the attack with his Artifact battle-axe of two half-moon blades with a spear point between them.

Wysper let go of Paulus and wrapped her arms around me as Avitohol blocked a guard's wild swing with his axe haft. Then he stabbed the man in the face. The guard screamed, dropping his sword to clutch at his eye while Avitohol pulled his weapon back and sheared through the man's knee. He dropped like a stone onto the dry grass.

Looking around, every guard I could see was being mobbed by at least four or five warriors, but for some reason Troll was running towards the wagon with his Artifact sword in his hand. He reached underneath and pulled out the Daemo by his leg. "Looks like I've found me a rat."

"No!" I pulled out of Wysper's grasp and jumped to my feet. "Leave the Daemo alone."

"Spare me," Ogg gasped as Troll lifted his sword. "I know the recipe for the antidote-"

"I don't give a rat's arse what you know," Troll snarled back.

"Don't kill the Daemo," I yelled, sprinting towards the wagon as fast as I could. "We need him alive."

"Bugger off." Troll slammed the point of his blade into the Daemo's chest. Ogg gasped... then dissolved into yellow slime the earth drank in like rainwater into parched earth. As I got close, Troll laughed. "Other than Fox, the only good Daemo is a dead-"

I slammed into Troll's chest, knocking him backwards as he stumbled and almost fell. "You stupid piece of Warg shite," I screamed at him, "you just killed Paulus."

Troll raised his sword as he hunched his shoulders. "Looks like I've got another rat to kill, one I should've taken out the first time he touched Fox." I clenched my fists, ready to dodge as he took a step forward.

An arrow whizzed past his face. Troll leapt back as it embedded itself into the side of the wagon with a thunk. "Next one blows a hole in your chest, Troll," Hypam said from behind me.

She stalked up next to me with an arrow still nocked in her bow as Troll shook his fist. "Greywolf attacked me for no reason."

"I shoved you because of your stupidity," I snapped. "Paulus has been poisoned with the same stuff as the Nomads, and that Daemo knew how to make the antidote."

Both Troll and Hypam stared at me in shock as Avitohol came up beside us with Wysper. "Greywolf, what happened?"

I told the story as quickly as I could, Troll looking more and more unhappy, and as I finished, he turned and began attacking the side of the wagon with his sword. Chunks of wood flew as Hypam replaced her arrow back into its quiver. "Blood and stones, what do we do now?"

Think, idiot! "Ogg had a vial of the antidote he was going to put back in a travel chest. If we give Paulus enough to help him stay alive, maybe Lys can craft more antidote in case there isn't enough to fully cure him."

Hypam yelled a few words in their harsh language; at once, several voices replied and she grabbed me by the shoulder. "There's a wooden chest with a leather top beside several bags of travel rations. Come on." Together, we ran past the fire to where several warriors were dragging bodies away from a pile of heavy cloth bags and a chest with a leather top darkened by age. We slid to a stop and Hypam opened the lid as the others crowded around us.

The chest was filled with strange alchemical devices, a stone mortar and pestle, tiny knives, bandages, other equipment I didn't recognize... and at least two dozen vials, all made of green glass. Wysper reached in and picked one up, examining the label. "I do not recognize this script at all."

"It's Babylonian," I replied as despair threatened to overwhelm me, "and Titan's the only one who can read this."

"Then take the box and Paulus back to Bukhara through the Shadowlands," Troll snarled.

"Don't you think I would if I could?" I stabbed my finger towards the dead, grey tree. "That Night Hag's been following me, and the moment I enter the Grey, I'm dead. We need to take Paulus back the normal way, but I don't think he'll live long enough to make it there."

"Yes, he will," Wysper said in a firm voice. "I brought the Nomads back using blood magic, and the technique to push it into them that Asena taught me. I can do the same for Paulus." She hesitated. "I am just not sure if my mana will last until we reach Bukhara."

Hope rose inside me. "It will, because I'll keep pushing mana into you the same way I push it into Asena."

"Which my mana nodes will change into blood magic." Wysper took my hands. "Greywolf, we can do this."

"What about your mount?" Hypam said in a skeptical voice. "We've been chasing this raiding party for most of the day."

"Let me drink my fill from Greywolf," Rocky said as he ambled up, "and I can get us there. Daemo can outlast any human alive."

"Braggart," I muttered.

Rocky only snorted as Hypam snapped, "Maybe so, but the Warghorses cannot. We pushed them hard, and they need to eat and rest for at least a few hours before we head back."

"We'll take Paulus back ourselves, me and Wysper."

Hypam gave me the same look Asena always did. "And what are you going to do if something attacks you? Throw rocks at it?"

"I'll take a sword off one of the guards."

Hypam rolled her eyes. "Now you sound like Avitohol. Your Daemo mount is large, but can it support four riders?"

"Hello, I am standing right here," Rocky said before I could speak. "I can handle four," Rocky replied, the Daemo looking up as thunder rumbled, louder than before, "but it’s going to be a cold, wet ride."

"The dead guards no longer need their cloaks," Hypam said. "Avitohol, I'm leaving you in charge of my warriors. Move out when my Lance-leaders tell you the Warghorses are ready."

Avitohol thumped his fist to his chest. "I'll get them back safely... though I do wish we were riding with you. I keep getting the feeling that I've been away too long."

Thunder rumbled ominously as if in agreement.