Greywolf - Rescue

I'm such an idiot.

Balthazar's Daemo bangs on my door, insisting Little Paulus had been stricken with some strange illness, and I break every rule Asena taught me about their race by letting him get behind me while I examine the boy? If Asena were here, she'd tell me I deserved to have that 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 taught me. Shite!

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

Hold on, we're definitely slowing down. The wagon's creaking to a halt as the horses blow out their breath and rattle their harnesses. If I scoot up a little, I can see through the air holes... okay, the light's fading, so it's past sunset, but I can see a couple men in leather armor releasing the horses from their harness and taking them away. A man in merchant robes is helping a smaller figure down off the bench seat... it's Balthazar and Paulus. The boy's staggering as if he's drunk... no, drugged from whatever that Daemo made us breathe in. Balthazar hands him off to the Daemo, who leads Paulus away while Balthazar turns around and climbs onto the wagon.

There's a rattle as he pulls the lid off and sets it down. "Ah, good; you are finally awake," he says as I scoot 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 chuckles. "So I gathered. Yet, Little Paulus is another story. Now," Balthazar holding up his hand before I can 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 motions with his hand and I look to where his finger's pointing.

The wagon's at rest next to the ruins of an ancient temple: a few broken walls leaning at crazy angles beside a dead, grey tree... Oh, shite. There's a Night Hag standing in front of it. She sees me and begins flitting like a silently shrieking hummingbird as Balthazar pulls out a knife and cuts 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 like civilized men. Lives may depend on what you decide to do."

Balthazar climbs down off the wagon as I get out of the box... it really does look like a coffin, and walk over to one of the broken walls. I know it's petty, but as I finish, I make a rude gesture at the Night Hag, who goes berserk as I walk away. At this rate I'll never get rid of her.

Take a moment to look around before the light disappears. We're higher up than the road, whose outline I can barely make out, and the river beyond. The ground is mostly dry grass and scrub bushes, but there's an outcropping of rock that must have a spring, because the horses are being watered beside a small stream leading towards the river. Farther up is a circle of fire blackened stones where one of the guards is using a fire-stone to get some wood and dried grass alight, while others are taking out packets of dried meat and travel bread. The rest seem to be keeping an eye out for anyone coming.

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

I give him a wary look as I take 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 sit down as far away from him as I can, draining the cup and setting it down on the blanket before I look 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 up Eurax with the Sasnayam temples?"

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

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

Balthazar sighs. "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, to destroy the White Horde once and for all."

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

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

My eyes narrow."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 nod as I work it through, but then a tendril of fear wraps 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 snarl at him.

"You will be Eurax's if you want to keep Wysper alive." I go still as stone and Balthazar's expression turns sardonic. "Yes, I thought that might grab your attention. I have a contact in Bukhara, loyal only to me, who has in his... or in her, possession, a vial of poison which causes the victim's senses to slowly go numb, until they finally go to sleep and die. 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 leap to my feet with my hands clenched into fists. "No!"

"Sadly, yes," Balthazar replies, looking up at me 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 be had I decided to bring her along as well."

I snarl 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."

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

Balthazar shakes 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 the instructions I gave him or her before we left."

"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 shrugs. "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 crosses my mind and I raise 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 one of 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 opens 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 are around me at the edge of the firelight, watching us. "What about them?" I ask, motioning behind me. "Any one of your guards could betray you."

Balthazar gives 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 blink. "Your Daemo wants to be a librarian?"

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

Thunder rumbles from the direction of Bukhara as the wind picks 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 lumbers to his feet. "Ogg, keep an eye on our guests until I return."

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

Hope wrestles suspicion in my heart as he opens his fingers long enough for me to see that he's holding a vial made of green glass. I whisper, "You can save Paulus?"

The Daemo shakes 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 uncorks the vial and lets a single drop fall in his little finger before corking it back up. Then it opens Paulus' mouth and smears 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 do so, and Paulus opens his eyes. "Greywolf," he says in a soft voice, "where are we? Where's Az?"

Ogg places his bumpy yellow hand on Paulus' shoulder. "Amazonia will be here soon. Go back to sleep." Paulus' eyes drift shut as the Daemo stares 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 glitter 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, avoided the Celestials as I established myself into human society. I fancy myself as something of a historian now, and once I am employed by the imperial library, plan to begin writing a history of that conflict from the Daemo perspective."

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

"The long game, as I said. Saving your betrothed means saving myself. I will return this vial to my travel chest, but when the time comes-"

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

Ogg slithers to its feet with the vial in hand and hurries away as Balthazar and several more guards come running up. "Get ready," Balthazar says, "but do not attack until we know who it is." The drumming sound of hoof beats grows louder as swords are drawn. The guards spread out in a semi-circle as Balthazar motions for me to remain where I am.

Then from the darkness, a voice calls out, "Greywolf?"

I leap to my feet. "Wysper, run," I yell as Balthazar clamps his hand on my shoulder. "Turn around and flee before they catch you."

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

Shaking off Balthazar's hand, I race towards her as the guards chuckle and slide their swords back into their sheathes. I catch Wysper and kiss her hard for a brief moment, before pulling back. "You're crazy."

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

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

Wysper gasps, but then her face becomes resolute. "Take me to him."

I nod and take her hand, leading her over to the fire as Balthazar puts 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 says as we reach Little Paulus. "And before you ask, I came alone."

Balthazar's eyes widen as I kneel down with her. "So the legends about Shadow creatures becoming ghosts in our world are true," he breathes as Paulus struggles to sit up. Balthazar frowns. "This was a noble act, yet I fear you shall live to regret it." Wysper puts her arms around both me and Paulus as he adds, "I cannot let you go now, which means you shall accompany us to Eurax's estates-"

A flaming arrow swoops out of the darkness and hits Balthazar squarely in the chest. It explodes, showering us with gobbets of bloody flesh as more arrows fly towards the guardsmen. Several hit, and the men scream as warriors with weapons in their hands charge them.

Swords ring as desperate guardsmen rip them from their sheathes, Avitohol leading the attack wielding his Artifact battle-axe of two half-moon blades with a spear point between them. Wysper lets go of Paulus and wraps her arms around me as Avitohol blocks a guard's wild swing with his axe haft. Then he stabs the man in the face. The guard screams, dropping his sword to clutch at his eye while Avitohol pulls his weapon back and shears through the man's knee. He drops like a stone onto the dry grass.

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

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

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

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

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

"Bugger off." Troll slams the point of his blade into the Daemo's chest. Ogg gasps... then dissolves into yellow slime the earth drinks in like rainwater to parched earth. As I get close, Troll laughs. "Other than Fox, the only good Daemo is a dead-"

I slam my hands into Troll's chest, knocking him backwards as he stumbles and almost falls. "You stupid piece of Warg shite," I scream at him, "you just killed Paulus."

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

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

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

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

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

I tell the story as quickly as I can, Troll looking more and more unhappy, and as I finish, he turns and begins attacking the side of the wagon with his sword. Chunks of wood fly as Hypam replaces 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 yells a few words in their harsh language; at once, several voices reply and she grabs me by the shoulder. "There's a wooden chest with a leather top beside several bags of travel rations. Come on." Together, we run past the fire to where several warriors are dragging bodies away from a pile of heavy cloth bags and a chest with a leather top darkened by age. We slide to a stop and Hypam opens the lid as the others crowd around us.

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

"It's Babylonian," I reply as despair threatens 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 snarls.

"Don't you think I would if I could?" I stab my finger towards the dead, grey tree. "A 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 says 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 hesitates. "I am just not sure if my mana will last until we reach Bukhara."

Hope rises 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 takes my hands. "Greywolf, we can do this."

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

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

"Braggart," I mutter.

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

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

Hypam gives me the same look Asena does. "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 rolls 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 says before I can speak. "I can handle four," Rocky replies, the Daemo looking up as thunder rumbles, louder than before, "but it will be a cold, wet ride."

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

Avitohol thumps 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 rumbles ominously as if in agreement.