"The Captives" - Chapter 14

The Captives of the Lost City of Alhassar

Chapter 14

By Dwayne MacInnes

"Hold your fire!" the skull screamed. I then looked closer and noticed the glowing red orbs of Mobius. I had totally forgotten that I had left him alone in the library! I lowered my bow and replaced the arrow into the quiver on my back.

"Why did the wizard enter the employee break room naked?" the skull queried. "Because the door said 'Staff Only'." Mobius began to laugh, "Get it? Staff only. So he couldn't take in the clothes."

"Yeah, I get it," I replied dryly.

"Looks like we really wiped this community out," Mobius said seriously, as he floated around the pyramid.

"Did you happen to see any survivors?" I asked.

"No, though I did escape a minor skirmish in the library by the skin of my teeth," Mobius began to laugh. "Get it? Skin of my teeth."

"Yeah, I get it," I replied dryly.

I then turned to Aly who was still quivering behind me. "Don't worry," I assured the gnome. "This is just Mobius, he's a friend."

Mobius dipped his floating skull in friendship.

Aly still had a hard time regaining his tongue so I made his introduction. "This is gnome Aly Eska."

"So whatever happened to that chap, Cadwey?" Mobius asked turning away from the gnome.

"I sent him over the side there on fire," I again indicated the back of the pyramid.

"Really?" probed Mobius. "Because I did not see any remains down there."

"Great," I growled. "We have a deadly lich on the loose."

I put my fingers to my lips and whistled shrilly across the cavern. The party of adventures below us looked up and noticed me waving them to join us on the pyramid. I watched as Mogutz gathered her party together. She did have to do some extra prodding with Quint. The novice thief was too busy looting the corpses to pay heed to my whistle.

Within five minutes, the entire group of adventurers assembled on top of the pyramid. Mogutz was making her way towards me while I watched Nanoc repeatedly tug on his sword as if it was wedged in the sheath.

"Come on," the barbarian moaned, "I just said the blade look to be of good quality."

I did not have time to inquire what was going on when Mogutz asked, "What is the problem?"

"We need to search this city for any remaining bad guys," I stated.

"Should we divide up?" Treena asked her brow wrinkled in concern.

"No, we need to stick together," I cautioned. "There may be a lich still at large and we will probably need every one of us to bring him down."

* * * * *

First, we scoured the base of the pyramid. Other than a burned cloak, there were no signs of Cadwey. I studied the ground looking for any spoor I could use to track him. Unfortunately, most liches prefer to hover when they can. Nonetheless, we continued our search around Alhassar.

I observed the party as we made our way over and through the debris and ruins of the dead city. I was not too surprised to see that many of the new adventurers would stumble now and again as they crossed the rough terrain. I was surprised however to see that Quint was having a particularly hard time of it. The small man constantly stumbled and would have to grab on to someone in order to check his fall.

I made my way up to Quint in order to be of service if he indeed needed it. I already knew what his game was and I suspected he would not mind me being near him. Sure enough, the poor clumsy oaf stepped upon some loose scrabble and swung his arms around me in support.

"Sorry," Quint mumbled. "I can't seem to get my balance."

"Well, it looks like we should be on some flat ground here soon enough," I consoled him.

I suppressed a laugh. I know there are many thieves out there who do not belong to the Guild and therefore do not follow any of its rules. Therefore, a long time ago I started carrying a large visible pouch containing a small heavy bag inside. If one were to lift it, it would have the heft of being full of gems. If one were to shake it, it would clink with the sound of coin.

In all actuality, it just contains some small river stones and a few steel discs. Plus, a note suggesting maybe it would be wise to join the Guild instead of robbing it. In this case, however, I used Quint's trick against him. As he relieved me of my bag of rocks and discs, I removed his pouch of ill-gotten goods.

I did my best in the search to return to everyone what was taken without their being the wiser. In some cases, I had to make a good guess because I did not know exactly who found the large red ruby and who had the onyx statuette. In addition, I had to distribute everything Quint found as a form of punishment. Of course, I kept a percentage to pay for the lesson I just imparted. I also made sure to keep and eye on Quint in case he wanted to continue his larceny.

* * * * *

We had been searching for hours before we found the ancient crypt that the vampires had made their lair. Fortunately, the sun was at its zenith in the sky so the poor undead were utterly helpless as we helped them move on to the netherworld. Unfortunately, we still did not find any signs of Cadwey.

After dispatching the last of the vampires, we made our way out of the crypt and began the search of Alhassar again. We soon had to light up our lamps and torches as the fires burning around the city were starting to die off. Not to mention that the torches the cabal scattered about had consumed themselves long ago.

We did not have much left to search anyway, just a last circuit to the ruined library where Mobius and I had parted ways earlier. We were surprised as we started up the cracked and broken stone steps of the library to see a small group of necromancers exiting the building. They quickly began to summon the undead.