Chapter Five

They were riding their horses at a slow trot out of the town for the last ten minutes and Xorvos was fidgeting the entire way. Shuka had no idea why but they were out of earshot of the villagers now, so she decided to ask him.

“Hey Xorvos, what’s wrong?”

“Oh, uh well you know how that man said he would arrest us like the last traveller that came through here.”

“Yeah”

“Well I think we passed their jail on the way out and I saw an elf in it. He asked me to help but the entire village was watching me, so I had to leave without helping him. I want to go back and get him out of there”

Now that I think about it, I think we did pass by a building like that. I didn’t manage to see if it was occupied though.

“That sounds pretty bad, but we’re not exactly in a position to take big risks. And besides I’m not even sure how we would start without getting caught immediately.”

“So, then what am I supposed to do? Nothing? This is an injustice I simply can’t ignore.”

Ralisdor, who was walking ahead of them, slowed down and turned to face them with a frown on his face.

“How do you even know it’s an injustice? He could be an actual criminal who was arrested for very just reasons and does not deserve to be released. You know nothing about the situation and yet you want to charge in there with no plan and no preparation.”

Xorvos looked away in embarrassment.

I can tell he still believes the man is innocent, but I am not so sure. Still, from what little I saw of that town it certainly seems possible.

“Look, I wish I could help but how much can we risk helping someone who is only probably innocent. If we knew for sure he didn’t do anything or if we had a foolproof plan to get him out I would be fine with helping you with this but as of right now I think we need to prioritise our own safety first.”

“Ralisdor, can’t you just use invisibility to get us to the jail without getting caught? With your help it should be easy to get him out of there.”

“I could but there is still a risk I might get caught and seeing as I do not wish to even get involved it is not something I am willing to do. If you are truly set on this path, then I will lend my assistance, but I will not put myself in danger for a cause I don’t believe in.”

Ralisdor’s words did nothing to calm Xorvos down. Instead, it merely infuriated the young Quanso leaving him even more determined to help the man.

Oh shit, Xorvos looks mad. I can’t remember the last time I saw him this pissed but I doubt it’s going to make him think more rationally. I better stop him before he does something dumb

“Xorvos, we need to think this through. How are we going to free him and what will we do if he is not actually innocent? Please, before we do anything, figure out the answer to those two questions.”

Shuka’s plea was answered by a stare of anger and frustration. She thought she had failed at first but then her friends gaze slowly softened. If she was more practiced in the arcane Shuka might have noticed the subtle casting of a spell from a certain illusionist. Instead, all she heard was Xorvos’ answer.

“Fine. I promise not to go without a plan.”

*

Deep into the night two figures stalked towards a stone building in a wooden village. They moved quietly but in the open, trusting the invisibility spell placed on them to keep them from sight. Ralisdor may not have agreed with their decision but he gave his assistance when he saw his companions would not back down. When they reached their target, they stayed close to the wall and found a window to look through. Shuka carefully peered through the bars of the window on the side of the jailhouse and took in what she saw. There were about five jail cells in the building and one guard sitting causally in a chair next to a lantern that was the only source of light in the relatively small building. Only one of the five cells had an occupant in the form of a thin and malnourished elf sitting in a corner with a threadbare blanket draped over him. Xorvos kept an eye out for passerby’s who might cause problems when things went down. Luckily, the singular road that went through the village was empty this late at night. No one was around to take notice of their soon to be jailbreak and it’s two soon to be jailbreakers. Once they were both confidant that there weren’t any complications in their plan they hid behind the jail and waited for the signal from Ralisdor. Around ten minutes later they heard a load roar and could barely see some large shape moving around in the darkness on the other side of the town. Confidant that the apparent monster attack was coming from Ralisdor and that was the signal they were waiting for. The two companions bolted into action, taking their places by the door to the jailhouse and waited for the jailer to leave. Sure enough the man was soon outside looking for the source of the commotion. Once he saw the shadow of the great beast, he unsheathed his sword and went to help his fellow villagers. With him out of the way, Shuka and Xorvos snuck into the jail and started searching for the keys to the cell. After a few minutes of fruitless searching they decided to give up and Shuka went to inspect the jailcell door instead while Xorvos kept an eye out for the guard. The elf hadn’t moved at all during all of this and with a closer look Shuka saw that he was asleep. She decided to wake him up later, no point in getting his hopes up if she can’t get this door open. The young woman placed her knife into the keyhole and turned it remembering the advice that Ralisdor had given her. She then filled the lock with raw mana and used it to move the tumblers inside. Shuka carefully concentrated as she slowly moved each tumbler up and down until they slid into place. A few tense minutes later, all of the tumblers fell into place and the lock opened. Xorvos saw that the door was open and moved into the jailcell and picked up the prisoner inside, causing him to appear as if he was floating in the air. With their objective complete they retreated back into the night. The entire operation took less than half an hour and there wasn’t a single word spoken during the entire thing. Partway into the journey to the meetup point the elf woke up and found himself suspended in the air moving through the plains surrounding the small village he was imprisoned in. Shuka and Xorvos could see an outline of each other due to them both being under the effects of the same spell, but the elf had no such help and understandably freaked out.

“What the hell?! What’s going on?”

“Shhh! We’re trying to save you. We broke you out of jail, but we are still close to the village. If you don’t quite down, they are going to hear you.”

Shuka’s explanation didn’t seem to calm him down and he only seemed to panic more.

“We? How many of you kidnappers are there? Unhand me you villains!”

“Okay fine. If I let you go will you quite down a bit?”

“If that’s what you want then yes.”

With a sigh of relief Xorvos gently placed the elf down on his feet. Luckily, they were far enough away that it was unlikely he would be seen in the dark. Unluckily he immediately started running away from his ‘captors’ as fast as he could screaming at the top of his lungs.

“HELP! HELP! I’M BEING KIDNAPPED!”

Xorvos was so shocked that the elf got a good twenty feet away before he started chasing him while Shuka worriedly looked towards the town to see if they had noticed. They had. By the time Xorvos caught up the elf had already run halfway back to the town. At this point the villagers had formed a mob screams and were making their way towards them with torches and crude weapons. When the elf finally noticed them coming towards him his face paled in fear and he stopped in his tracks. He was about to turn and run away from both of his pursuers when Xorvos tackled him from behind. The elf struggled but stood no chance of getting away from Xorvos who was over a foot taller than him and wasn’t terribly malnourished. Once Xorvos got the elf into a proper grapple, he started carrying him back towards Shuka who was approaching him rapidly. When they got close enough to speak Shuka addressed Xorvos in hushed but urgent tones.

“What do we do? The elf’s going to get us caught and it looks like he doesn’t even want to get rescued.”

Xorvos nervously looked back at the approaching mob and then back to Shuka with worry on his face.

“We can’t just leave him alone can we? With how malnourished he won’t be able to outrun the mob and he is not invisible like us so he wont be able to hide either. Without us he will die.”

“If we do help him it’s a death sentence for all of us. We need to get out of here now and that’s not going to be possible with him struggling and making noise the entire time. The best we can do is let him go and hope for the best.”

While Xorvos was struggling to make a decision, the elf made one of his own. He bit down as hard as he could onto his captors’ arm, his teeth going deep enough to draw blood. Xorvos did not expect the sudden savagery and loosened his grasp in shock. The elf took full advantage of this and quickly managed to break free and started running, this time away from the mob. Xorvos moved to pursue but was stopped when Shuka grabbed his wrist.

“The mob is almost on us, we need to leave. Every second we spend on him is another second they use to catch up to us and when they do we will die. Please, lets just go Xorvos.”

There was enough fear and desperation in Shuka’s voice to give Xorvos pause even through the curse and it dawned on him just how scared she was. Finally he relented and began to run, not towards the fleeing elf, but instead to their rendezvous point that they had decided upon beforehand. Shuka was close behind him but they didn’t get very far before they heard the rhythmic thumping of hooves against dirt quickly approach them from behind

Shit, do they have horses?

When she turned to look, what she saw was not a wrathful villager but instead Ralisdor riding his spectral horse. He was keeping his distance from the villagers but was still moving directly towards them. Soon enough he passed them both and came to a stop a little ways ahead of them and dismissed his horse. Ralisdor then planted his feet firmly in the ground and started the casting of, from what Shuka could tell, a very large and complex spell. A few seconds later the spell was complete and it’s effects were immediately obvious. A colossal wall of flame erupted from between her and the mob. The entire area was lit up and she could feel the heat emanating off of it warm her skin. Even the crackling of the fire was magnified to such a degree that she could not help but take a moment to take it all in.

“Hurry up and move! I’m running low on mana and I don’t know how long I can keep that wall up for. The longer we spend staring at it the more likely I will make a mistake and they will find out its fake. I will catch up with my horse later so just run. Don’t worry about our meet up point just get as far away from here as possible.”

The seriousness of Ralisdor’s tone brought Shuka back to reality and she started running after Xorvos who had not stopped when the spell had appeared. She focused all her energy into making it as far away from the mob as possible while the illusion still held. Although she could hardly believe the wall was an illusion in the first place.

It had felt so real but what else could it be? Ralisdor had said they might find out its fake and he isn’t a fan of the kind of magic that can produce actual walls of fire so it must be an illusion. Definitely a far cry the petty tricks I am capable of.

Rather belatedly Shuka noticed that her invisibility had disappeared, and a quick glance in front of her told her that Xorvos’ had too.

Ralisdor told me that he could focus on two spells at once, but I guess that doesn’t apply to spells as big as that wall. Well hopefully it will buy us enough time that we won’t need to be invisible.

She ran for what felt like forever with the bright flames shining in the distance behind her. Eventually that light went out and Shuka was left running in the dark with nothing to guide her but the sound of Xorvos running in front of her. Soon after Ralisdor caught up on his horse as he said he would and started to lead the two tired friends to a good hiding spot. The dark didn’t hinder his magic aided sight and they were soon nestled on the other side of a small hill.

“I will keep watch but you two look exhausted. Get some rest and I will wake you if we need to run.”

It had been a long night so Shuka didn’t have the strength to argue with Ralisdor’s suggestion. Xorvos didn’t complain either and he just too out a blanket from his travel bag and slept on the grass. Shuka did the same and soon they were both fast asleep. They slept so deeply they didn’t even stir at the sound of an elf screaming in pain as he died in the distance. The cheering of the villagers went equally unheard as two friends slept, with a hope that maybe they did the right thing. Ralisdor knew better.