The Foolhardies 146 Mystery Road

His proclamation was more or less the same report I received from Thor's kobolds and Thom's drow.

"Can we expect their number to thin by dawn?" Ashley asked.

"No such luck," I responded while I checked the map of the city laid out on the table. "Mostly fairies out there."

"Um, I know I'm new to this and all, but, now that you've taken off my collar… won't dawn take me back to Mudgard?" Ty spoke up from the chair furthest away from the window. He caressed his neck which was probably a response from remembering the collar that bound him to the Fayne. "That's how it works, right?"

I glanced over to my friend, freshly healed by Berrian less than an hour ago, and noticed he still had a scar on his left cheek. I had no doubt that a lot of his physical scars remained as not everything was healed by magic or potion.

Even worse, the emotional scarring caused by his tortures was definitely still there. Just seeing how he was desperately trying to smile confirmed this fact for me.

"True, you'd get to go back to Mudgard, but when you return at dusk, you'll arrive right where you vanished which would be here," Aura answered him.

She'd been sitting at his side, acting as a proxy for Arah and just made him feel like he was safe among friends. Her caring nature just made her seem more incredible to me.

"You don't have an anchor so they wouldn't be able to bring you along even if they left, and buying you one right now won't serve our purposes," I added. "Because even if they left the city your anchor could still be stolen and you and I wouldn't be around to help at all…"

"Oh, yeah, you're right… Stupid question," Ty said dejectedly.

I couldn't really help Ty now so I left Aura to console him while I returned my focus to the map.

"There's no other way out of this city, is there?" I asked for confirmation. "Just this one entrance that leads up to the oasis above?"

Zephyra pointed a finger toward the right side of the map which was opposite the entrance we'd entered. "There's a shaft here that leads to a cavern on the surface. But it's a perilous path filled with unseen dangers… which is why it was closed a few years ago."

"I know that shaft. Smugglers who couldn't get in by normal means used to use it to get into the city," Shanks added.

"Used to?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

Shanks scratched his head. "Well… I heard a lot of them never made it into the city… got done in by whatever lives there."

"Muddamit," Qwipps swore. "You just had to say it…"

"Sounds quite foolhardy, Commander," Varda piped in. "Which is probably why we're going that way."

It took me a few seconds to process, but after I realized this was the only path forward despite the obvious risk, I accepted the challenge and grinned broadly at Varda.

"You know me so well," I said. Then I turned to Ashley. "Are you up for another decoy mission?"

"Have I become your go-to sacrificial pawn?" she asked wryly.

Ashley noticed Ty staring at her with his jaw slightly hanging open.

"What?" she asked.

"Y-you're really ashley J-johnson?" he asked tongue-tied.

It was then that I remembered that Ty had a crush on Ashley back on Mudgard. This brought another smile to my face.

"You can ogle her later, Tiberius," I said in a very Arah like way.

I rose to my feet and tapped on the map.

"Alright, here's the plan," I began.

The plan I cooked up went like this. Ashley would lead most of our forces along with Shanks' caravan and Kallista's retinue out of the city with all haste and flare. It was their job to get noticed and followed. Zephyra's two children would join Ashley's band for quick communication. Zephyra herself would join me and a smaller group of hand-picked fighters on our journey through the perilous shaft. Shanks' would come along too in case we needed some heavy lifting.

"We have a few hours before dawn arrives so ideally, we'd all be out of the city and on our journey home by then," I answered.

"Once we're out of the shaft, we can take a little-known southern trail to cross the desert while the other group takes the eastern road caravans usually take," Shanks suggested. "It's a more roundabout way but there should be fewer encounters."

I nodded in agreement right before I turned to Ashley and gave her one final instruction.

"No fighting. Run if you can, but if you can't then surrender and let them inspect your cargo. Once they're sure Ty isn't there, they'll probably leave you alone and assume we stayed behind," I ordered.

"In case they don't leave us alone?" she asked.

"Then the message I sent Edo should come in handy," I chuckled.

"You do think of everything, don't you," she laughed.

"I try to," I answered.

With that bit of levity done, my instructions were quickly relayed to the rank and file and our exodus out of the city began to proceed.

Our first step was to return to the Merchants Guild and reclaim our caravan, and after bribing the gnome official with an extra twenty gold for quick processing, we were on our way through the packed city streets full of slaves and fairy oglers.

Of course, we were being followed by at least four groups of scouts, which I assumed were under orders from Ardeen Spellweaver, Lord Rah, Chancellor Kairon, and the Lord of Stars.

Yup, we were a popular bunch.

Halfway through the main thorough fare and our plan to split from the caravan ensued.

The lead wagon stopped as if there was a problem with one of its wheels. At the same time, the wagon we were stashed positioned itself right next to a narrow alleyway that led to the catacombs.

Quick as you please, my chosen party members jumped out of our wagon and dashed into the alleyway. We made sure we were undetected before we proceeded on to the grate at the end of this alleyway which was the entrance to the catacombs below.

Shanks pulled open the grate with brute strength, and then one by one and with a torch in hand, we filed into the passageway beyond.

Down at the catacombs, we made our way swiftly through the many turns with much more ease than the other night's visit. Mostly because Zephyra had taken the lead, and it was all we could do to follow her as she zipped through one corridor into the next like a ghost in the wind.

Eventually, we found ourselves taking an inclining path that ended in an opening that led to what was most definitely the side of the cliff similar to the one we'd used to escape the Wailing House.

Along the cliff's edge was a steep and narrow path. It was the kind of goat trail that skirted the mountainside.

"I'm kind of wishing we brought a few more drow with us," I said as I gazed down at the darkness below me.

"Don't worry, Dean," Qwipps said, patting my back unnecessarily hard like he was making me lose my balance. "I'll catch you if you fall."

"Wow… I feel so reassured," I whined.

We continued to take this path in a single file with Shanks at the rear as he had the most difficult time navigating the very narrow path.

It was a half hour later when we found ourselves standing at the opposite end of a stone bridge that led across the deep chasm below and into the other side of the cavern wall. At the far end, we could see narrow steps that led up into the cavern's ceiling.

There was one problem. This stone bridge had no railings nor did the foot space seem wide enough for anything less than a single person crossing one at a time. It reminded me so much of that Bridge of Kazad Dum where Gandalf faced off against the Balrog that I was imagining a scene where one of us, if not all of us, would fall down into the depths below.

Luckily, we were way more fortunate than the cast of the Lord of the Rings as we all made it safely through to the other side of the bridge.

"So… that wasn't nerve-wracking at all," Ty said in obvious jest as the dude was sweating buckets.

An equally anxious Luca glanced over to him and said, "You get used to it… I think."

"Man, I don't ever think I'll get used to that," Ty responded after a quick glance back at the bridge behind us.

"Let's keep moving," I said.

I shoved my torch forward to bring light into the passageway beyond the hole carved into the cavern wall.

"My visere senses are tingling," I whispered as I felt the hairs on the back of my arms stand on end.

"You and me both, Commander," Varda agreed.

"Don't worry," Aura said.

She raised her Hearthwood staff high so that the glowing orange orb at the top of it shed golden light in front of us.

"I'll light the way," she said confidently.

Then she stepped into the opening.

Strangely enough, her show of power didn't do anything to ease my apprehension.

"Yeah, I've got a bad feeling about this," I said right as I walked into the breach after her.

Chapter end