Chương 17: Night Bait

After dinner, followed by pudding and then surprise cupcakes, Havlo excused himself and left for his party. Amberlin waited a couple of minutes and then also left. There was no need to be sneaky about it when her apprentice wasn't around. She remembered the suggestion Jenny had made about offering herself up as bait. If only she'd thought of this last night, maybe she'd have found the kidnappers and saved Evelyn's friend Amy by now. She hoped it wasn't too late.

It was easy for her to pretend to be helpless because she didn't have any of the trappings of a normal adventurer. What need had she for weapons and armor when her fists were lethal weapons? Though she'd been thinking of replacing the bow that broke when she saved Liana from that troll. She might not be very good at archery, but it was fun. After several hours of wandering the streets without getting attacked, she wondered what she was doing wrong. That's when she heard the whispered voices.

"Why did she stop?"

"I don't know, but it's very sus." It was two men, and they were watching her from the shadows of a nearby alleyway. She pretended not to notice and started walking again.

"We should just nab her and get this job done quick."

"I don't know. This feels like a trap." Now that she knew they were there, it was easy to pick up on the sound of them creeping after her.

"That's what you said about the last girl."

"The one with the pink hair? I swear, I saw her walking around with a band of adventurers the other day. She's definitely bait. We would've gotten jumped if we tried to take her."

"Well, we've been following this girl for ages, and I ain't seen anyone waiting around to jump for her. She's also been walking all over the place."

"No, she's been walking around in big circles, haven't you noticed? Also very sus."

"Could just mean she's lost." She wasn't lost. She just hadn't been paying attention to where she'd been wandering. It seemed that she wasn't very good at playing the vulnerable damsel, and that was making the kidnappers hesitate. It was hard to erase the confidence that came from knowing one was immortal, and their unconscious must have picked up on that and realized that something didn't add up. Time for a change of plans.

She turned on her heels and dashed toward the alcove that the whispers had been coming from. This threw the two sinister hooded men into a panic, and they scrambled to get away. She followed close behind, a lone twenty-year-old city girl chasing after the men who were meant to kidnap her. Down three separate streets, the only sound being their boots pounding on the pavement and the men gasping for breath as they felt her gaining on them.

"Split up!" one of them cried. It was the one who'd called her sus. Or as she thought of him, the paranoid one. They both turned down a side street together, and Amberlin continued her pursuit.

"What are you doing!" the paranoid one cried in between gasps.

"You're the one who followed me!" the other one replied. Amberlin almost didn't want this chase to end. Just as when she was fake-fleeing the sewer gators, she loved the way her entire body was abuzz with energy, it felt so good, she wanted to keep this up for as long as possible. At the next intersection, the two kidnappers split up—successfully this time. She chose to follow the paranoid one because she thought it would be easier to scare him into taking her to their hideout.

He was already tiring, and when she got close, she tackled him to the ground. The two of them tumbled across the packed dirt, and when they stopped, he pulled a dagger. She activated her light spell, temporarily dazzling him. She caught his wrist, twisting it around behind his back while carefully avoiding the dagger, and within moments had him pinned helplessly beneath her.

"Take me to your boss," she said after disarming him of his weapon.

"Okay! Okay! I will!" He gave in sooner than she thought.

"No funny business," she warned and let him up. He dusted himself off and then glanced over at the dagger. She expected him to make a dive for it, but he just shook his head.

"Come on, let's go," he said. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. He led her toward what looked like a cellar door, but when he opened it, she recognized from the smell that it was a fancy sewer access. She followed him down to the main sewer path and then branched off into some side tunnels. He seemed to know his way around very well.

"Watch out for sewer gators," she warned.

"There might be a couple loose."

"There are gators down here?" he asked anxiously.

"I saw two roaming around this morning." She didn't want to admit that she might be to blame for that. At some point the side tunnels transitioned into a cave system, with the uniform, constructed passages giving way to naturally weathered rock. The smell didn't improve, but it became more pure, like matchsticks. The rock around her became more ashen and gray. At first she thought it was leading her back up toward the surface, but then it began to slope downward again.

"Tell me what you've done with the people you kidnap," she commanded as they made their way deeper into the caves.

"They're all here," he replied.

"For now."

"For now?"

"It's a new moon tonight. Have you noticed?"

"What of it?" The paranoid hood snickered.

"You don't know much about magic, do you?"

"I suppose I don't." It was safe to admit this when Havlo wasn't around, and she didn't think her apprentice would believe the word of this criminal anyway. The kidnapper seemed to grow more confident after her response.

"Then I suppose it won't hurt to tell you. Tonight is when the moon is at its darkest. Certain types of magic are at their most potent."

"What are you saying? You're a cabal of necromancers and you plan to turn your victims into undead thralls?"

"All will become clear when you get there." He made it sound like she was about to walk into a trap. But in a way, wasn't that what this entire exercise was all about?

"Just tell me now," she said.

"We're almost there," he replied.

When Jacob was finally done reading the latest installment of The Secret Apprenticeship of Amy-Lynn, he looked up at Amy.

"This ends on a cliffhanger," he complained. She nodded sagely.

"They all do. It's rather annoying." He wanted to say more, but a familiar feeling roused in his chest. It was the same feeling he got when he was losing at poker. The one that nudged him and whispered, just one more hand.

"When is the next chapter coming out?" he asked.

"Don't think it matters." She nodded toward the dais, which had undergone an incredible transformation in the past hour. All the candles had been lit, and a variety of witchy tokens had been set up around the ritual circle, casting disorienting shadows about the entire cavern. While he was watching, the mage waved his hand over the tiny orb positioned at the very center, and its light dimmed. Until now, Jacob thought he'd been holding on pretty well.

But it was at this moment that he finally felt the full weight of what was about to happen. He was going to die, and a demon lord was going to be summoned to Lorelark. His mouth felt dry, but he forced himself to shout.

"Why are you doing this? What are you trying to achieve?" The other prisoners looked at him, and the mage turned to face him.

"Why should you care what happens after you die?" The words had come without emotion. But he hadn't expected an answer from the cultists. Since the man was willing to engage with him, he replied, "I want to understand what's meant to come from our deaths." The mage approached his cage. With the orb dimmed, there was only darkness under the hood. Yet he could feel the man's eyes boring into him.

"Would knowing the truth allow you to pass in comfort? Or would it only cast you into despair?" the mage said.

"You don't have to do this," he pleaded.

"We haven't seen your face. Any of your faces."

"You will soon enough." The mage walked away.

"No! Wait! Just tell me why you're doing this!" But the mage ignored him. Instead he said to one of the other cultists, "The last two are late. Head out and find them."

"Yes, sir." It was a woman's voice. At that moment a fourth hooded cultist came running into the cavern. He came to a stop just inside the entrance, panting heavily.

"Sir," he said between gasps.

"We've got a problem."

"Catch your breath and calmly tell me what's going on," the mage commanded. After about a minute the man was ready to continue.

"We were trying to get the fifth sacrifice, sir. Only, something went wrong. I think Dusty's been captured." The mage went stiff.

"What do you mean the fifth sacrifice?"

"Don't we need five sacrifices for tonight's ritual, sir? The one under the new moon." The mage pointed at the cages.

"We already have the five sacrifices." The newcomer looked over at them and then back at his boss.

"Nobody told us, sir."

"What do we do, sir?" the robed woman asked.

"We continue with the ritual," the mage decided.

"We don't need Dusty for it, and it'll all be over long before the watch gets anything out of him." What happened next made Jacob's heart stop. The mage turned and pointed at him.

"Prepare the first sacrifice." The other three cultists approached his cage.

"Wait, wait, wait," he pleaded.

"Why me? Why am I first? I got captured last!" No one bothered to answer his pleas. The woman unlocked his cage while the other two went inside. He tried to resist, but it was futile, and soon they had his hands and feet bound with the rope. As they carried him out, he caught Amy's eye. She was looking on in helpless horror. If the cultists were working backward, then she was going to be next. They lay him down on his back by one of the obsidian bowls.

The three cultists held him down while the mage approached, carrying his ceremonial dagger. When the man straddled his waist and held the dagger to his chest, right at the center where his heart was, Jacob realized that it didn't matter if the blade was dull. What mattered was the tip, and that part was plenty sharp and pointy. Having marked the target, the dagger was raised into the air and then brought down with great force. Jacob screamed, and he felt a great pain in his chest.

There were cries all around him, and at first he thought that the cultists were laughing. Laughing at his demise. But then the mage lifted up the dagger and Jacob saw that the blade had shattered. The mage tossed the weapon aside and angrily tore into his cloak. Jacob tried to squirm away despite his bonds, but the mage found the object hidden away in the chest pocket and lifted it up for all to see. Even in the dim light of the cavern, it shone in the most brilliant, pure red. The dragon scale.

The mage turned his eyes back down on him. Even under the darkness of the hood, he got a glimpse of the man's eyes. They appeared to glow red in the reflected light of the dragon scale. And they looked absolutely murderous. At that moment an unexpected voice broke through the silence.

"Boss! I brought the fifth sacrifice!"