A Deadly Game
the Lady Leila, securely beached in the morning fog. Orin groaned. Everything hurt. His ribs ached as he rolled over on the hard planks of the wooden boat and pulled himself upright. With a groan, he remembered he had not fully healed before embarking on the journey home. Not only was he not in Whitestone, but he had important information to bring to his commanding officers in the Griffin Guard. At that point, though, he had no idea where he was.
The fog rolled off the sea in thick blots, but not so thick he couldn’t see his friends’ silhouettes where they conversed on the beach nearby.
“Orin!” Ellaria started. She dashed to him. She helped him stand and get out of the boat. “Hey you, how’s your head?”
“My head’s a little fuzzy ... but my whole body hurts.”
“Can’t imagine why,” Ellaria said, dripping with sarcasm.
Her face was covered in drying tear streaks. They had discussed Merrick and how he’d helped them escape the orcs at Macintroh’s farm. For all she knew, he was dead, having sacrificed himself for them. Though she knew she must bury her feelings and get on task. Their new mission was vital and required her to focus. She would have time to grieve later. And if she was honest with herself, Ellaria still held hope that Merrick had also escaped.
“Come here. We’re trying to figure out where we’ve landed.”
They joined Coal and Ezel a few paces away. The mighty black-bearded dwarf and the scrawny hairless gnome were signing feverishly in their usual manner. Orin could only watch helplessly until Coal said, “Bah!” waving a dismissive hand at the little gnome.
“He says we ran into a gantendril in Blackmar Forest at the Whispering Lake. Which ... come to think of it, makes a lot of sense ...” Coal tugged at the braid in his long beard as he trailed off. “But now he thinks we’re on an island somewhere in the Tandal Sea, which, of course, is a long way from the Whispering Lake. I’m not saying he’s wrong. I’m just wondering how he’s supposed to be knowing this with all the fog.”
Ezel placed a hand in the sand and raised one high above his head. Blue fire burned in his eyes, and several of his rune tattoos glowed. Coal rolled his eyes, and his whole body shrugged. “Yes, yes. But we won’t know where we are until the morning fog rolls out and we can check the island.”
Ezel’s magic diffused, and the two fell back into a signing argument.
“They’ve been at this since I woke,” Ellaria muttered to Orin.
“How long?”
“A couple hours mayb ...” Ellaria stopped, realizing they had been arguing about the fog for much longer than they should have. “Hey, you two! How long should the morning fog last in these parts?”
Coal half-turned to her, not wanting to concede the argument he and Ezel were engaged in. “Maybe an hour or s ...”
The dwarf comprehended her point, and Ezel’s face shifted as he recognized the same. The dwarf signaled to the gnome, who readied his stance. Then, Coal signaled to Ellaria and Orin to fall in with them, taking his mighty battle hammer into his tense hands.
They slowly moved through the sand of the beach, up and away from the water. As if they walked through some magical barrier, the fog peeled back behind them as the interior of the island came into view. The island was covered by a beautiful jungle. Butterflies flitted to and fro, and in the distance, they saw what looked like an ancient palace, gleaming in the sunlight. A butterfly floated near Ellaria, stopping for a short rest on her necklace, only to pop up and fly away again a moment later.
“What is this place?” she asked.
“I do not know ...” Coal answered slowly.
Ezel’s hands flowed, signing a thought to the suspicious dwarf. Orin wasn’t sure what he’d signed, but the gnome’s face was a mix of fear and intrigue.
Coal only replied with a low, “Maybe ...,” his hammer firmly at the ready.
“What kind of dream is this?” Orin asked.
“There is some sort of magic about this place. Powerful magic, if Ezel didn’t see it. My guess is it’s some sort of illusion spell to protect this place from fishermen or other vessels.”
The dwarf did not look pleased about what that might mean about the place. A dozen more butterflies floated about, a few of them flitting around Ellaria, who looked at them with awe. Their colors were unlike any she had seen in Tamaria at Lady Bird Hill. They were quite the spectacle.
Ezel prodded a hand through the fog barrier, trying to feel the magic and get the sense of it. Suddenly, a thought struck the tattooed gnome, and he bolted back into the fog.
The other three followed him through the barrier, the dwarf never looking away from the interior, in case something followed them. The others had suddenly stopped, and Coal’s backpedaling had to halt. He turned to see what his companions gawked at, and his hammer slipped into one hand, the head falling heavily, landing a crater in the soft sand.
“Boehlen’s beard ...”
The Lady Leila was gone.
Coal’s dwarven feet stomped through the sand of the beach as the crew followed the edge of the island, hoping to find any sign of their boat. The heated dwarf was furious at the predicament. Ezel had used his magic in an attempt to spot the Lady Leila adrift somewhere in the fog but was unable to see the small vessel.
The two were experienced with their boat and had left it secured. It seemed unlikely it had been taken away by the waves in the brief moments the crew had gone through the veil of fog to the interior of the island.
Ellaria and Orin trudged through the sand helplessly, several paces behind the brisk dwarf. A blue butterfly floated near Ellaria as they walked.
“What’ll we do if we can’t find the boat?” Ellaria asked.
“Oh, we’ll find her!” came a yell from Coal, who never looked back.
“We have to trust that Coal and Ezel will find a way. We have to. I’m no seafarer, but I must get back to Whitestone to report to High Commander Kane. Drelek has a dragon ...” Orin said the words, hardly believing them himself.
“Aye,” Ellaria nodded. “I’ll admit, I wasn’t expecting that. Do you think they might have more? Where did it come from? I thought dragons went extinct during the Second Great Black War.”
“As far as I have known, that was the case. A dragon hasn’t been seen in Tarrine since then.”
Orin bit at the inside of his lip, pondering the new development. Finlestia was bigger than just Tarrine, he knew, but little was known about the other places beyond the seas. It was not impossible that the dragon had come from elsewhere. He’d never seen a dragon in real life, only in the annals of the Grand Corral. How would Drelek have gotten hold of such a creature? Ellaria’s question about them possibly having more of the beasts fueled his desire to get back to Whitestone. The surprising boldness of the wyvern squadrons of recent months made more sense. As far as Orin knew, he was the only guardian who knew about the dragon they had run into at the Palori Ruins.
As the guardian walked beside the young woman, her red hair waving in the sea breeze, another question sparked in his mind. “Ellaria, how long have you been able to wield magic?”
“I hadn’t!” she confessed. “It was a surprise to me as well. I don’t understand everything Ezel was trying to say to me on the beach, but we were trying to figure out why ...”
“Ah, no, no, no, no, no!” Coal pumped his short dwarven legs and sprinted ahead in the fog. His battle hammer waved wildly as he high-stepped through the sand.
Ezel’s magic lights dimmed, the seeing rune on his forehead returning to its normal tattoo state as he ran to catch up to the dwarf. Orin and Ellaria ran up behind them, only to find them standing at an edge of the island that appeared to be an outlet for some kind of river.
“It’s two islands,” Coal grumbled.
“Two?” Ellaria asked, the blue butterfly landing on her shoulder for a momentary respite.
“Aye, two. The island is split. See there?” He pointed a little way ahead of them, and through the thick fog, the crew could just make out more beach on the other side of the waterway. “It’s not a river like we know it. Not like the Rolling River or the Palori. This is a seaway. It seems like a river, but it’s really just the sea running between two close islands.”
“What does that mean?” Orin asked, hoping there was something he could do to help.
“It means ...” The dwarf flicked his hands in a quick sign to Ezel. “Someone’s stolen our vessel!”
Ezel whirled around, eyes ablaze, runes on his hands lighting in a burst of magic. He lifted the blue butterfly and held it in the air between the companions. Following Coal’s lead, Orin drew his sword and held it at the ready. A low squealing noise came from the writhing butterfly as it mutated and transformed. The squeaking twisted to a reverberating howl, as the creature gave into its new form before their eyes.
A faery!
“T-that j-just hurts!” the faery cried out. His voice vibrated when he spoke. “N-not fair. N-not fair at all!”
“Where’s my boat?” Coal growled, gripping his war hammer tighter, shoving his face closer to the little creature.
“N-not fair. Y-you cheated!” the faery cried with a chime in his voice.
“I cheated?”
Coal grabbed the faery by the leg and gave him a good shake. Hanging upside down, the faery had been released from Ezel’s telekinetic hold but found himself in a less fortunate situation in the angry dwarf’s grasp. His little brain rattled as he blinked crazily, trying to regain his faculties.
“Let’s try this a little slower. Where-is-my-boat?” Coal asked, again.
“Glintz doesn’t c-cheat. N-no, no!”
“What? This isn’t a game, you little pixie!” Coal growled, shaking the faery more for good measure.
His wings fluttered wildly, and he grabbed at the dwarf’s linen hand wrappings, trying to gain some stability.
Glintz’s eyes lolled in his head.
“L-life is a g-game,” he said defiantly.
“Listen!” Orin cut in. “Many lives are at stake! We’re on an important mission for the Griffin Guard of Whitestone. There’s a war coming!”
“W-war is a g-good game,” the little faery grinned evilly.
“His people would know nothing of that here,” Coal said to Orin. He understood the man’s thought but also knew the futility of the attempt.
“B-but we play h-hide and s-seek.”
“Ah!” Coal shook the faery by the leg again.
“Wait, wait,” Ellaria stopped him. “Glintz, was it?”
Suddenly, as Ellaria leaned in, the little faery’s focus sharpened.
“Y-yes,” he replied, nodding his head. He stared, transfixed, at the green stone that hung from her neck.
Ellaria grabbed the necklace and waved it back and forth ever so slightly, watching the faery’s gaze follow its movement.
“Do you like me necklace?”
“Y-yes. Y-yes!” his voice vibrated excitedly, his wings fluttering like crazy.
She covered up the stone with her hand, jolting the faery’s attention, bringing a sad look to his tiny facial features.
“I like to play games, too. Used to play them with me brothers when we were young,” she continued. “But you see, these guys don’t know the rules. They don’t want to cheat; they just don’t know how to play.”
Glintz’s mouth gaped as he looked around at the others, as if suddenly he understood why they were cheating. Certainly, it was by accident.
“Y-yes. C-cheating is for l-losers.”
“Right,” she said. “And no one wants to lose. Winning is much more fun.”
“Y-yes!”
“But it’s not a fair game if me friends don’t know the rules. Maybe a clue would be helpful.”
Glintz opened his mouth wide, ready to teach these silly folks how to play. But he stopped suddenly, thinking perhaps maybe he shouldn’t. Ellaria revealed the stone on the end of her leather necklace, again drawing a mystified gaze from the faery. His face contorted as he tried to decide what to do.
“You know, if you don’t give them a clue, then really, you’re not playing fair,” she pushed him harder. “That sounds like cheating to me. And I don’t think Glintz is a loser, is he?”
“N-no, no!” He straightened his upside-down posture and crossed his arms proudly. “Glintz wins a-all the t-time.”
“So, a clue then?”
Glintz hesitated, not having a great argument to defeat Ellaria’s logic. He was no cheater. Well, at least he wasn’t when he didn’t think he could get away with it. As an idea revealed itself in his mind, a wicked grin scrawled across his tiny face.
“A c-clue!”
He reached for a pouch on his belt with both his hands, and as swift as his rapid wings, he pulled out a tiny dagger, jabbing it into the dwarf’s massive thumb. In the split second of confusion, the faery smashed the tiny pouch on his own chest, which exploded into a small cloud of dust. Ezel’s tattoos blazed as everyone glanced around, feverishly searching for the tiny faery. From a distance, they heard his vibrating voice.
“Oh, there’s s-so many b-boats. Our g-great king loves how they f-float. But w-where does he k-keep his m-moat? The d-dwarf and his t-team should follow the s-stream, but n-nothing is as it s-seems!”
Glintz’s vibrating voice sang out hauntingly as he flew away in the fog.
Coal grumbled as he sucked on the side of his thumb where the faery had stabbed him. He did not like it, not one bit. It had taken him time to get used to Ezel’s magic, and he did not care for the magics of such deceitful little creatures as the faery.
The blood on his thumb was a stark reminder of the danger they faced, and Coal did not take lightly the mission with which Merrick had charged him. Orin and Ellaria depended on him to get them to Whitestone safely. More than that, all of Tarrine was in danger, with Drelek in possession of a dragon. His and all the other people’s lives as they knew them could soon be over if they failed.
He looked up to the two man-kin in his care and then over to Ezel, who nodded, suggesting he also recognized the weight of their mission.
Onward then.
Coal’s heavy boots trudged through the sand as the crew fell in behind him. They headed upstream through the fog, toward the interior of the island. Toward what, exactly, they could not guess.
Along the way, the illusion fog had dissolved to reveal the reality within. The vibrant colors of the jungle-covered islands mixed with the array of brilliant butterflies was almost too much for their senses to take in. This time, they were not fooled by its beauty. Ellaria did not marvel at the variety of butterflies. Instead, she felt the weight of thousands of eyes watching her every movement. As some floated near, she waved them away.
Ezel’s head turned right and left, eyes darting around, trying to be prepared for anything. The hairless gnome had taken personally his inability to recognize the magic that had landed them in their situation. He desired to protect his friends at all costs and felt he had failed them. He looked ahead to the dwarf, stomping onward, following the waterway, face set like flint. He and Coal had traveled together for a long time, and the gnome had seen this side of the dwarf before. Coal’s singular focus on getting the Lady Leila back was a strength that could certainly help the team find the boat, but such bullheadedness also posed the risk he might miss a trap or an ambush. Ezel tried to keep a cool head, knowing his constant vigilance coupled with the dwarf’s heat may lead them right.
Orin took note of the sky while they were inside the fictitious barrier. The sun was already on its descent, and he realized they had lost nearly a full day to the faery island already. Anger rose within him as he saw dozens more butterflies floating on pace with them across the waterway, observing their progress. But their progress was suddenly halted by a curve of the waterway and an outstretched signal from Coal.
The dwarf slid his grip to the end of the long handle on his hammer and poked the weapon out ahead of him. He sniffed the air, trying to smell something the others could not identify. His hands flicked a quick comment to Ezel, and a couple of the grey gnome’s tattoos roared to blue flame.
As if it were coming alive, the waterway snaked itself into a new position that ran in the opposite direction. Apparently, the crew had lost the waterway a while back and had been walking far from it since. A resounding chorus of vibrating snickers rolled through the jungle around them.
“I’m tired of these games!” Coal growled, his eyes seeming to blaze like those of his gnome companion, but the dwarf’s smoldered with the fires of rage instead of magic. “The waterway is over there. Ezel, have you figured out how to keep these tricks at bay?”
Ezel signed to his friend that he was working on it. That time, when he revealed the truth of their surroundings, he had used a combination of his rune tattoos he had not attempted to use before. Faery magic was quite different from his own. The bald gnome was still experimenting to figure it out.
“I don’t much care for these faery tricks myself,” Coal grumbled aloud.
He led them back to the waterway. Ezel revealed what he could, so they were able to pick through the jungle and get back on course. They managed to follow it only a short way before Ezel stopped the crew in their tracks. Coal poked around with his hammer again, while Orin peered through the trees and brush, trying to see anything that might pose them a threat.
Ezel’s hands flashed to Coal that he wasn’t sure what the danger was, but he could sense it. He felt the tingling in his small frame but couldn’t figure out how to reveal it.
“Ahhh! Enough with the games!” Coal yelled through the jungle. He lifted his hammer into a ready position with both hands clenched tightly around the handle. “Come out and show yourselves! I’ve got a game for you!”
Several butterflies had begun to hover a little too closely for Ellaria’s liking. She wafted her hands to shoo them away, but the swarm only grew.
An idea struck the little gnome as he remembered Whispering Lake. With Orin swatting at the butterflies too, Ezel ran up to Ellaria, reached up high to grab her hand, and shot the other hand out wide. A combination of runes sparked to life. Realizing what the gnome was doing, Ellaria closed her eyes and set her will with his.
Emerald whisps of magic rolled off the woman, her red hair flowing with the winding force. Her magic twisted and turned, seeming to intertwine with and energize the gnome’s magic. Orin and Coal could only watch the spectacle, neither understanding what was happening.
Around them, the veil faded. Trees and bushes dissolved into nothing. Butterflies twisted and contorted as they mutated into their faery forms. A massive pit trap covered in gnarly spikes at odd angles opened a few steps ahead of where they had been walking. Small stone huts emerged, covering the hill leading up to the ancient palace, which was visible. The palace’s luster lessened as the hallucination gave way to authenticity.
To Coal’s great relief, the Lady Leila appeared, in fine condition. The boat looked to the dwarf as beautiful as the woman she was named after, safely nestled in a tiny offshoot of the seaway that split the islands. She was flanked by several larger vessels, and for a brief second, Coal wondered what had happened to those crews. He turned to face the ambushers. His eyes no longer raged with embers of anger but rather had a giddy sparkle at the newly even playing field.
“Coal ...” Orin started cautiously, recognizing the shift in the dwarf’s stance and settling into his own ready posture.
As the magic simmered, the world appeared as it truly was. A pair of faeries caught in the dwarf’s wild gaze glanced nervously to one another. A menacing grin rolled in behind the dwarf’s great black beard.
“Game on,” he said, laughing as his mighty hammer swung right through the pair of nervous faeries, connecting hard and blasting them into dust.
The battle broke out in a frenzy. Some faeries dashed about, wings flitting. Others exploded magic dust on themselves to disappear and reappear out of harm’s way. Faeries dipped and darted, jabbing with their tiny knives.
“W-war! W-war! They want to p-play war!” reverberated from all around as the tiny monsters swarmed.
Orin’s training superseded his body’s aches and the faeries’ speed. He sliced and hacked, his sword ringing with a ting here and a thuk there, as it landed its marks. The nuanced display would have been dazzling to see, were his companions not occupied with their own attackers.
Coal laughed crazily as he swung his war hammer out, obliterating the tiny creatures. He took no notice of their stings when some got through to poke at him. The mighty head of his hammer met the minuscule monsters as though they were bugs, swatting them easily.
Ezel produced a large, glowing blue orb above himself, capturing many of the faeries. They furiously stabbed at it, trying to break free. Others came to help but found themselves sucked into the orb.
Ellaria pulled back the drawstring on her bow. Her sleek muscles, as taut as the string, didn’t waver as she focused her energy into the release. Green magic swirled around the arrow as it took flight and burned through the air, catching up more faeries in its whirlwind before colliding with the blue orb and exploding.
The shock stopped Orin and Coal mid-attack and sent the rest of the faeries skittering in all directions. None of them had seen such power before, and they weren’t quite sure they could win the game without cheating.
Ezel saw the opportunity and didn’t hesitate to lead the charge to the Lady Leila. They ran to the left through the brush, palm leaves whipping against their fresh nicks and cuts. They were nearly there when a sudden chorus of vibrating laughter rippled through the surrounding trees. The companions formed ranks, back-to-back, preparing for another swarm. Instead, little cheers popped up in waves from the direction of the palace. And then Ellaria saw him.
The faery king had come.
“Guys ...” Ellaria said nervously over her shoulder.
The others joined her gaze to take in the sight. The faery king was much larger than the others. He was taller than Coal but shorter than Orin. He was slender, and his wings held him in a regal pose above the ground. He was decked out in flamboyant colors, and the fabrics changed hue as the sunbeams bounced off him through the swaying trees. His hand gripped down on a pouch tied to his belt, and an arrogant, almost knowing, pride etched his face.
“Time to go,” Coal said to the others, spinning on his heel and bolting for the Lady Leila.
The others wasted no time. Orin and Ellaria’s longer legs carried them past the dwarf at a full sprint. Curdling squeals welled behind them as the faeries gave chase. The crew jumped into their boat at full speed, Ezel pausing to throw up a small magical barrier to block an incoming pouch that exploded into glittering dust.
Orin grabbed another bow from inside the boat, joining Ellaria’s barrage of arrows hurtling at their pursuers and slowing them down. Coal’s dwarven banded muscles tensed and contracted furiously at the controls of the vessel. Ezel swirled his arms around, building up magic for a massive discharge.
“Any time now! Any time now!” Coal yelled through gritted teeth.
As though time had stopped, everything went silent, like the calm before a storm. Ezel’s little gnome body trembled with built-up energy, then he shot both hands out in front of him, aiming out the back of the boat. The magic exploded through the water, launching the Lady Leila forward, slicing down the seaway. Ezel quickly shifted what energy he had left to help Coal maneuver the levers, building on their momentum. Ellaria and Orin held their bows ready for pursuing faeries but saw only a few glittering creatures through the trees on either side.
They picked up even more speed as their boat caught the current where the waterway met the sea once again. They didn’t change course as they slipped into the open sea and back into the fog surrounding the island. The farther they got from the island, the more the fog dissipated. Before they were clear, they heard a familiar vibrating voice call in the distance.
“C-cheaters!”
Ellaria shook her head to the others, not quite believing what they had experienced. As the fog dissolved with distance and the clarity of the cool evening fell upon them, Orin took a turn at the levers so Coal could rest and prepare to navigate them through the night. They still had no idea where they were.