《Black Boar Band》Chapter 23
Advertisement
“What?!” Devin whirled towards Daisy. His mind was reeling at what was happening. The orc he had taken a contract from, the contract that ended up helping him discover some of Bronn’s treachery, was now standing in front of him, clad in Argenti robes with two of his band mates. And now, his fellow prisoner was telling him she is her sister.
“We really don’t have time to explain everything. We have to get going now, or else we might not make it out of here at all,” Dahlia said.
Devin shook his head, trying to clear his mind and remain focused. Looking over, he saw Teryn and Shia, both worried and shifting from foot to foot. Shia kept glancing back toward the door they had come from.
“Wait,” he said, “Where are Murton and Griff?”
“Weren't they in the cells with you?” Teryn asked.
“No, it was only me and Daisy,” he gestured toward the orc next to him.
“Dammit, we really don’t have time for this,” Dahlia mumbled, her brow furrowed.
“I may know where they are,” Daisy said.
Everyone whirled toward her, nearly in unison. If it wasn't for their current predicament, Devin could have found it almost comical.
She shrugged, “Before they brought you in, they brought in a dwarf and a giant. The two put up a bit of a fight getting put into their cells and the head guard lost his temper. He told his staff to take them to the Cellar.”
“What in the world is the Cellar?” Shia asked.
“It’s where they bring the trouble makers to, ahem, bring them more into line.” Daisy said, fiddling with the blanket that acted as her clothing.
“So a torture chamber?” Devin asked.
She nodded.
“We have to go get them,” Devin turned back to the three other women who had come to his rescue. Teryn and Shia were both nodding in agreement, while Dahlia had a scowl on her face.
“I’m just not sure we have the time to rescue them as well,” Dahlia said, shaking her head. “The potential we have now to rescue you and get out outweighs the risk of going for them as well.”
“I’m not leaving without them,” Devin said, crossing his arms. “They wouldn’t leave without me.”
“I wont leave without them, either,” Teryn said.
“Same here,” Shia added.
“It looks like you’re outnumbered, sweet sister,” Daisy grinned up at Dahlia.
Dahlia glared at each of them in turn, and, seeing she could not win this fight, acquiesced. “Fine, we can go for them too. But if anything goes wrong, I will abandon anyone I need to complete my mission.”
“Mission?” Devin looked toward Teryn and Shia.
Teryn waved at him, “We will explain later.”
“Right,” Devin said. “I’m assuming the Cellar is this way?” He pointed down the hall, the opposite direction the three others had come from.
“Yes. You follow the hall to the end and there is a door on the right that opens into the Cellar.” Daisy said.
“And how do you know this?” Dahlia demanded.
“Because they took me there many times when I was first deposited here,” Daisy spat with venom in her voice. “Then they took me back many times after the week I was supposed to be here.”
“What in the hells is happening here?” Devin asked.
“No time!” Dahlia said, her voice rising. “I’ve been going along with this so far but I don’t think any of you understand what will happen if we are caught and don’t get out of here quickly. In case you forgot, we are in Bronn’s private dungeon. He has sole jurisdiction here and can do what he wants to us. Now, if we are going to save your other two friends we need to move now so we can get out.”
Advertisement
No one said anything after the outburst. Daisy continued to glare at her sister. Dahlia looked between them all, passing over Daisy.
“Ok, lets move into the torture chamber. I will go first since I'm best armed for short range confrontation at this moment.” Dahlia started down the hall, pushing past Devin and Daisy with no attempt to be gentle. They started to follow her, shuffling along as quietly as they could.
They reached the end of the torchlit stone hall, a much longer walk than Devin had anticipated, and Dahlia held her hand up, motioning for them to stop. She crept toward the door and peered through the small window with metal bars in it. After a second she crouched back down and came back to the group.
“They are both in there, each strapped to a table. There seems to be a single torturer in there. If we can get the door open I can sneak in and take out the torturer.”
“I’m on it,” Daisy held up her makeshift lockpick and crept toward the door. She slid it into the lock and started to work, her tongue sticking out of her mouth in concentration.
Devin heard the small clicks and rattling, same as the doors earlier. He wondered if the noises were small enough to be unnoticed by whoever was in the room, just like the guards had failed to notice them. His question was answered shortly afterward.
“Is someone trying to get in?” a soft voice called from within the room. “Jessop, did you forget your keys again, I swear, you are the worst assistant I’ve ever had.”
Daisy’s eyes went wide and she backed away from the door just as the handle turned and swung open slowly.
“Shit,” Dahlia whispered as she shot forward. A frail man with a slight hunch shuffled through the door. Blonde hair fell in stringy wisps from his head and he started to glance around the hall.
Dahlia stood up straight and billowed her robes out, trying to obscure the people behind her. Teryn darted in front of Devin, just behind Dahlia, and billowed her robe as well.
“What in the-” the man started. Devin peeked around Teryn’s robes to see him squinting at the orc woman in Argenti robes now standing before him.
“Who are you?” he asked, rheumy eyes darting between the two women.
“How dare you!” Dahlia hissed at the man. “You dare question a member of the Argenti?”
Surprisingly, the torturer started to chuckle. His chuckle built until he was laughing, tears starting to leak down his cheeks. He wiped at the tears as his laugh faded.
“No, you’re not Argenti. Not even close.”
Teryn took a small step back. Dahlia leaned in toward the man, “What?” she said lowly.
“The Argenti rarely take women, let alone an elf and an orc. I don’t know where you got the robes or how you managed to trick the guards, but you could never be Argenti. “ The man chuckled softly again as he reached toward his belt. With surprising speed belying his physical fitness he withdrew a dagger and lunged toward Dahlia. Teryn cried out as Devin saw ice beginning to form on her hands.
Dahlia jerked back and caught the man's wrist. He let out a grunt of surprise and she twisted his thrust down and inward. He thrashed to the side and tried to avoid the blow coming in. With a final twist and cry he dodged to the side as the dagger slashed through the air.
Advertisement
Dahlia brought down her own dagger with her free hand into the torturers exposed back. A small whooshing sound escaped his lips as the dagger sunk into its hilt. With a ferocious intensity, Dahlia withdrew the dagger and stuck him again, then again, in his back. Each time smaller breaths of air escaped as he started to fall.
The man landed on his knees as Dahlia stabbed him over and over. Blood began to spatter onto her face and robe with each consecutive stab. She kicked the man in his ribs and he flopped over. Lifeless eyes started up at the ceiling as Dahlia began to work at his chest, sinking her dagger in over and over.
“Dahlia. DAHLIA!” Devin cried out as the woman gored the dead man. He pushed past Teryn and reached out to the orc. As he touched her shoulder she whirled on him, her face a savage snarl. The dagger came up to his throat in a heartbeats span and he found himself shoved back against the wall opposite of the door to the torture chambers.
A fire blazed in her eyes as she held him there. After what felt like an eternity, the fire dimmed and she pulled the dagger away. She looked down at the dead man with an almost puzzled expression. Turning, she saw Teryn and Shia staring at her with open shock. Daisy was peeking around the corner of the open door with a wicked grin.
“Never could control that bloodlust, could you sister?” she taunted. Dahlia shot her a wicked look as she dropped the dagger onto the mess of a corpse.
“Let’s finish this up and get out of here,” she growled, stepping over the body and into the room. Devin glanced at Teryn and Shia, both of their eyes were still wide. He gave a small shrug and followed Dahlia. Daisy grinned at him as he walked in. Why did this whole endeavour have to keep getting more confusing and difficult? It wasn’t enough he was trying to break his friends from a torture chamber, the gods saw fit to add family issues into the mix?
As he stepped through the door his own worries were wiped away in an instant. The room was small, with a desk near the door and two tables just beyond that. The desk held a host of strange and wicked looking tools that he could not even fathom there use beyond supplying pain.
Lying on the two tables spaced apart just enough that two people could walk side by side between them lay Murton and Griff. They were both clad in only their undergarments, held down with manacles of iron that had rubbed their wrists and ankles raw. Griff also had a crude looking chain draped across his enormous chest, cutting into him and causing small rivulets of blood to run down him.
Devin inched toward Dahlia and whispered, “Are they alive?”
“Have ya finished yer little meeting and come back to tickle us some more? Be sure to tell your superiors you don't have it in ya to be a torturer!” Murton shouted from his table. He was strapped down so he could only start up at the ceiling.
“Good luck getting me to talk about anything, and this one,” he jerked in his straps toward Griff, “Can’t talk so might as well leave him alone. Won't get you anywhere ya cowards!”
Dahlia turned back toward Devin, “I suppose that answers your question for at least one of them.”
Griff let out a large groan as he strained against his chains, causing fresh blood to well up and run down his chest.
“And there is the other,” Dahlia said. Devin stepped past her toward his companions. He walked around the table and went in between the two tables. He looked down at Murton first and was horrified at what he saw.
Small lacerations criss crossed his face and his eyes were so swollen Devin doubted he could see anything beyond flashes of light and dark. Angry wounds covered his chest and shoulders as well, likely cut then aggravated with caustic chemicals and items. Worst of all though, at least Devin knew it would be for Murton, was his bare chin. The man torturing them had done a hack job, cutting off his beloved beard and leaving a scratched face behind.
“There you are, you weak ass coward. You couldn’t get a chuckle out of a gnome, and everyone knows how squeamish they are!”
“Murton.”
“You couldn't get yourself out of a river if you were already standing on the shore!”
“Murton, that doesn’t make sense,” Devin said.
“Of course it wouldn’t to you, you…. Devin?” The dwarfs' eyes tried to squeeze open more, eliciting tears to stream from the bruised corners.
“Oh, Devin, either they are tricking me real good or you got yourself out somehow. Please oh please let it be the latter.”
“I had help getting out. Teryn and Shia are here too. We are going to get you both out and escape.”
“The lasses came too? Oh bless them, I knew they had it in them. I knew they were too smart to get caught like we did. Hear that Griff? We are getting out of here, I told ya so.”
Griff snorted a little. Devin couldn't help but let a small smile out. Likely the dwarf had abandoned all hope of an escape and wanted to go down fighting. He turned toward the two orc women and his free companions.
“Quick, we need to find the key to get them both out. Check the desk and the dead torturer.”
“Who got to kill him? Tell me someone really did it to that wispy little shit stain of a person.” Murton called out into the room.
“I did, and he suffered greatly for what was done here.” Dahlia said as she went to the desk, rifling through its draws. Teryn turned back and started going through the clothes of the dead man while Shia helped Dahlia, checking in between all the tools on the mess of a desk.
“Who’s that? I don’t recognize that voice. She sounds like a very fair lass though. Once I get my eyes back I am taking you out for a drink of your choice. Hell, make it ten of your choice, as long as you promise to tell me in explicit detail what you did to him.” Murton said.
“Got it,” Dahlia called as she held aloft a single key. “And it would be my pleasure dwarf, but be warned, I am an expensive date when it comes to my stories.”
“I like the sound of ya already,” Murton grinned, a grotesque thing revealing a bloody mouth with several missing teeth.
“Oh Gods, what did they do to you two?” Shia asked as she came over, looking horrified at the two men still strapped to their tables. Dahlia worked the key in Murton’s manacles, freeing him quickly, and stepped over to Griff. Murton went to sit up and Devin reached for him, easing him into a sitting position.
“Oh, not much,” he groaned as he swung his legs off the table, wincing. “Just some cuts, some acid, a little teeth pulling here and there.” He held up his hands, revealing several missing fingernails. “Oh, and these.”
“But what about-” Shia started before she was stopped with a quick shush from Teryn, who was shaking her head, eyes wide.
“What about what?” he asked, looking around at the voices, trying to follow them through swollen eyes. “Is it my face?”
The members of the Black Boar Band held their collective breath as Murton’s hands went to his face, feeling around his forehead and eyes.
“Ah, it's the eyes isn't it?” he asked, dropping his hands back down. The sigh that left everyone sounded like wind whistling through the dungeon tunnels. “Those’ll go back to normal here soon. Us dwarves can heal at a much greater pace than you fragile humans.”
Daisy snorted at that as she looked around the room.
“Someone laughing at that? Figures a human would want to be best at everything and can't accept that they aren’t,” he challenged, looking around the torture chamber.
“I’m an orc, dwarf. I bet you I can heal even faster than you. I also spent a lot longer than you in here and came out looking better, even though I'm sure I took worse.”
“Fat chance little orc! If all that was true, how come dwarves drove you off the home continent? Answer that for me?”
Dahlia snarled at that as Daisy growled, “We can just as easily leave you here you sad excuse for a dwarf. Why don't you go look in a mirror at that pathetic excuse you call a chin.”
The room fell silent again as Murton's face grew concerned. His eyebrows knit above the purple bruises that constituted his eyes. “My chin? How can you see my chin?” He reached up and felt his chin with his hand. As soon as it touched his face blanched.
“Oh shit,” Teryn whispered.
Advertisement
- In Serial16 Chapters
Thalia Prince
For as long as Thalia can remember she's always felt alone and isolated. Her parents always kept her hidden from the outside world and would never let her do anything on her own. Now she's finally grown and has gotten a small taste of freedom. But when Thalia's Parents aren't who they said they were Thalia will have to forget about the world she's always known and learn how to live in a new one. Not only will she have to discover new creatures and beings, but she will also have to learn to live life like royalty. But what does her Mystery girl have to do with this?! ******** "Trust me, I understand the emotional dilemma you're going through. For the longest time, I wondered why all these people had to die and why I had to be a part of this battle. But now I realize that the best thing I can do for these people is help lay their souls to rest by ending this battle. So that their families and future generations won't have to go through this too." I look at her, noticing the downtrodden expression on her face before she looks up at me and smiles, trying to mask her pain. But she couldn't mask it. Because I had already seen it. And for the first time, I recognize how alike we truly are. Of course, I've noticed how guarded she was with her emotions but that could've been for a multitude of reasons. But now that I've seen this side of her I can't help but think that maybe she's just as lonely as I am. I reach out and silently link my pinky finger with hers trying to show comfort in a subtle way. I want her to know that if no one else will be, I'll always stand by her side. [Participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge]
8 210 - In Serial16 Chapters
Cries from the Dust (Working title)
A Science Fantasy thriller featuring a group of outsiders coming to earth for their first time. The hide among the humans, cleaning up their messes. As they do, they are fighting against a man that may be thousands of years old, and has been manipulating the time line his whole life. Each of our heroes is blessed with a specific supernatural abilility: Miranda can record anything around her through any of her senses, and upload those recordings from her mind to any inanimate object for others to experiance on touching the object. Peter Dixon can soul jump, allowing him to control others around him. Scott can take others talents. Allowing him to speak any language he comes across, mimic other's fighting paterns, and even temporarily give him the same powers Miranda and Dixon have. But their enemies have these abilities and more. There are a lot of scores to settle, and the stakes have never been higher. This is book three in the series. Really trying to nail the crucial third installment that so often goes wrong. For those just joining, here's what you missed in book one: When four children fall through a mysterious portal, top scientists try to figure out where they are from. As they grow older, they discover incredible abilities within them(Seen above). All while getting a visit from the other side of the portal. If you'd like to get caught up, a free copy is available here: Portals of the Grave Then there is book two: Mists of Affliction. This picks up after the devestating battle between Scott and his friends against his brother, Azurand. Our heroes are painted as the enemies in the battle they never started, but can't seem to get away from. Mists of affliction is currently available in the kindle store here Enjoy!
8 144 - In Serial51 Chapters
50 Facts About Brooke
"I don't really get along with my mom unless she's buying me stuff." ~Brooke Hyland «««»»»You all know and love Brooke Hyland, but let's face it, how much do you really know about the one and only Brooke Hyland? Brooke has been labeled as a brat, a miserable teenager, and "brooding Brooke," but she's actually a sweet, energetic, happy girl! Read now to uncover Brooke Hyland's true personality!
8 214 - In Serial16 Chapters
Ms.Thick & Mr.Sexy || 21+ || PJM x READER ||
"Sir you have a meeting with Mr. Kwon in the sixth meeting room in ten minutes then you are going to have Lunch with Mr. Kang in Cuisinerè at 2:45 PM to discuss over the deal and-""Shh...the last thing I want to know is what I've got to do....the thing I actually want to know is.......is if you're wearing a thong underneath this skirt of yours...." ×Slow Updates×Please read at your own risk.Started: 18/4/21Ended: Not yet
8 170 - In Serial39 Chapters
ဗီလိန်က ပက်ပက်စက်စက်ကို လှလွန်းတယ်! [Mmtranslation]
Zawgyi: ဗီလိန္က ပက္ပက္စက္စက္ကို လွလြန္းတယ္!ရွစ္သိေလးေတြ ေမြးစားတတ္တဲ့ holy fatherႀကီး ရွစ္ရႈန္း X အၿမဲJဝင္ေနေသာ obsessiveရွစ္သိ!!ရှစ်သိလေးတွေ မွေးစားတတ်တဲ့ holy fatherကြီး ရှစ်ရှုန်း X အမြဲJဝင်နေသော obsessiveရှစ်သိ!!name: The Villain is Outrageously Beautiful(反派他過分美麗)Author: 騎鯨南去Total Chapters: 145#All credit to author and eng translator.#
8 235 - In Serial39 Chapters
Mistake // Jonah Marais
in which Jonah Maraisaccidentally texts thewrong number and it turns into a spiralof cringe chapters𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐝 : 𝟎𝟐/𝟐𝟑/𝟏𝟗𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 : 𝟎𝟓/𝟎𝟗/𝟏𝟗
8 186