The Broken Sword

"Look, we don't have time for a fancy plan. I know it's dangerous, but so is every part of this, not the least of which including our own! I did not come here to play it safe, I came here because it is expected of me. Because my people need this quest to succeed just as much as every other living and breathing thing on Viconia needs us to succeed! If I could do it I would, but I can not fly and I can not make my way past the wards your mother left in place if I were to do it."

Bobo looked to both of them, the heat of righteous anger flushing his face. "Now will you help me this? If I could think of something better I would give it a shot, and if you have anything better I would do the same. We do not, I can see from the looks on your faces, so let us do this and be done with it. For all of us, even those we don't like, it must be done and quickly."

Vanya looked to Regnar, sharing a long moment that seemed as though the two were communicating without words. Finally they both looked at Bobo at the same time, making a shiver run down his spine a the similar looks they both gave him.

Regnar nodded and Vanya said, "alright, we will do it. But let us be quick about it!"

Bobo nodded, smiling thankfully. "Regnar, you can see us from high above, right?"

The dragon nodded, closing one eye and peering at him through the other one playfully. Bob ignored the antic and studied the orc settlement. "The sand gives way to some hard packed hills and some rocks, right?" Regnar nodded again. "We will approach as close as we can, certainly through the outer circle of their guards. Do what you can to cause a ruckus then... remember, we want them to think you are a descendent of the dragon they worshipped, so attacking won't necessarily accomplish what we need."

"We," the Prince said, gesturing at himself and Vanya, "will use the diversion to sneak in further. If an alarm goes up there is no way out, we have to push in and recover what we need, do you both understand?"

"What good will it do us to get in there if we can't get back out?" Vanya asked, to which Regnar vigorously nodded his approval of the question.

"I can get us out," Bobo said somewhat mysteriously. Seeing their suspicious looks Bobo explained, "I have a magical item that, when used one time and one time only will succor us back to Thoragloorin. My mother crafted it for me ere I left."

What he did not tell them was that Alesha had intended for it to be used only by him, and the path back would be fraught with peril, especially for someone not possessing his unique nature. Bobo was not sure if it would work for Vanya and Regnar or not, but in one of his toughest moments he had decided that, if it came right down to it, he would be willing to sacrifice them for the good of the many. It bothered him more to think of doing it to them than it did to think of sacrificing himself for the same cause.

"Is something wrong?"

Bobo snapped out of his short reverie, startled by Vanya's concerned voice. He shook his head and offered a weak smile. "Sorry, I was trying to remember anything else of use my father might have told me about his fight here," Bobo lied.

"Come, let us get going! Regnar, to the sky with you, and I pray you fly swiftly and safely," Bobo said, hurrying to his feet to prevent any further discussion. He knew what had to be done, one way or another, there was no sense in brooding on it.

With a last shared look of unspoken communication, Regnar took the sky while Vanya turned and followed after Bobo. She readied her bow as they walked, moving quickly between sand dunes until they approached a patrol. Bobo looked around and made ready to move forward between sentries when Vanya's hand on his shoulder stopped him.

"Our tracks," she whispered.

Bobo looked down, frowning as he did so. He looked behind him and, with his special vision saw a rapidly fading trail behind them of the energy they imparted on the ground. It faded quickly enough into the faint glow that came from the desert life thriving in the sand that he considered it inconsequential. However, Bobo also knew that they would leave footprints in the sand, even though he realized he now had trouble seeing them. He had adapted to his new vision far more rapidly than he had realized until now.

"Not much choice," Bobo muttered, not seeing any easy way to eliminate their trail.

"Sure there is, take off your cloak," Vanya said with a smile. "Then drag it behind us. Let me lead."

Bobo thought about it a moment and then nodded. Untested as she was, in his eyes, she had a good idea. He readied his cloak, piling some sand in the hood to weigh it down more, then waited for Vanya to signal that they could move out.

She waited until another pair of orcs wandered by. They were sloppy in their behavior, but she had faced them before so she expected as much. Especially since they were in their home, a place no sane person would ever attack. Vanya grinned, this was fun!

She moved out, quietly slipping across the sand so effortlessly that she seemed to dance in mid-air across it. Bobo moved behind her, struggling to match her speed while dragging his clock behind him. The sand was obscured to a casual glance, though a skilled tracker could certainly decipher their trail. Orcs were not known for their skill at tracking, fortunately.

They were out of the sand then and moving amongst the low mounds that served as the outer defensive banks of the orc village. Bobo emptied the sand from his cloak and shrugged it back over his shoulders. Vanya kept watch, noting the location of several orcs.

"Don't they sleep?" Bobo muttered, never having done much in the way of studying orc social patterns.

"Few spend the desert days active. Most sleep during the day and move about at night. Orcs, in particular, are fond of the dark," Vanya said, feeling as though she were instructing a child. She grinned at the thought, then saw Bobo's concerned expression.

"How far we from the center?" He asked her.

Vanya shrugged, "I've never been here, how would I know?"

Bobo swore softly, then cast around them for some higher ground they could climb too. The only high ground was ahead, the hills and rocks that rose above the desert floor to make the base of the orc village. "Well, it's time to get our hands dirty," he said.

Vanya nodded, not paying attention to the sound of him drawing his cutlass. She had her bow at the ready, and if the need arose a hand and a half sword across her back and long daggers at her sides. They set out, moving with stealth possible only for elves. Even so, in a place outnumbered as they were, the inevitable was bound to happen.

An orc stepped around a cluster or rocks and was suddenly face to face with Bobo. They both reared back in surprise. The orc opened his mouth to shout out an alarm, already reaching for his a knife at his side. Vanya's bow hummed as she loosed her arrow, taking the orc in his upper lip. The arrow exited the back of the orc's head and imbedded itself into a nearby earthen berm.

Bobo grabbed the orc as he fell, pulling him towards him and swinging him around. Not so distantly they heard some rough chuckling and then one of the orcs calling out to his fallen comrade, asking if he needed any help relieving himself.

Bobo nearly jumped when he heard a reply coming from right behind him. He spun about, cutlass at the ready, and checked his swing when he realized that Vanya apparently knew orcish.

"What are you doing?" He hissed at her, turning back to see if any of the other orcs were coming. He heard renewed laughter from their direction, though they still could not see the orcs or what they were doing due to the turn in the path.

"I told them he had fallen and cracked his skull on a rock," Vanya said, smiling excitedly.

Bobo shook his head, the remaining orcs, however many there were, would no doubt be upon the in moments to investigate the fate of the dead one. He looked up to the sky, picking Regnar's distant form out, and began waving his hands in signal to the dragon.

After a few tense moments, only seconds really, Regnar banked to the right and then swooped down, heading directly for the orc camp. Bobo's eyes widened when he saw a bolt of lightning erupt from the dragon's mouth, jabbing out into the dark night sky and hitting a large rock in the middle of the village, at the mouth of the cave they sought to enter. The rock exploded, showering fragments dozens of feet away.

The village was deathly quiet for a long moment, then, all at once, it exploded with shouting and activity. The orcs burst out of tents, huts, and from their positions at campfires. Forgotten was the orc that Vanya had slain, its companions were already on their way headed towards the village center.

Regnar swooped around in a lazy circle, making sure he was seen by the orcs, then flew in and landed less than a hundred yards from the cave. The orcs gathered hastily, none approaching within a few dozen feet of him. He roared when a few came close, making them back up hastily. Even for a small dragon his roar was impressive.

Bobo and Vanya moved quickly, seizing the initiative and all but running through the camp. Many orcs remained behind, they soon discovered, manning posts and keeping watch for additional threats. They heard a cry come up from a disguised tower that had been built from an earthen mound. Vanya let fly another arrow, silencing the cry of alarm, but the orc on watch was not alone. A separate shout went up and, unable to find its source, they had no choice but to rush on. In moments the alarm was up and orcs began to look for them as they dodged in and out of the hastily abandoned dwellings.

They made it nearly to the top of the hills with only a few minor altercations. Every orc they encountered was dispatched by Bobo's cutlass or Vanya's bow, barely slowing their passage. It was at the top, their destination in sight, that things took a turn for the worse.

Moderately winded from the uphill sprint, Bobo slowed his pace and looked for a way through the crowd of orcs that had gathered. Most had their attention diverted by Regnar, but the orcs chasing them soon crested the hill to the sacred ground they were encroaching and began to shout and draw their attention.

"Follow me!" Vanya shouted, rushing ahead of him.

Bobo watched her, stunned for a moment at her energy. His legs were drained from the run, yet she ran as though she was fresh. He shook his head and was after her, ignoring the growing burn that was beginning to take its toll on him.

Vanya led him into the orcs, her bow secured around her back and her sword in hand. She cut a swath through them, catching them by surprise. The were five ranks deep into them before the orcs began to mount a defense, but the close proximity of one orc to another prevented them from being very effective. The orcs crowded them as well, limiting their strikes, and soon they were fighting off grasping and clawing hands.

"Almost there!" Vanya shouted to him above their cries of the orcs.

Bobo grunted, catching sight of the clearing on the other side of the orcs close by. He heard Regnar roar from close by, knowing he was clearly besieged as well. Something clamped on to his leg, biting in. He kicked but could not shake the orc that had fallen from him. Vanya was gone then, no longer in front of him when he turned to look back to her. Where she had gone he was not sure.

Bobo growled deep in his throat, feeling a primal rage he had seldom experienced growing in him. To be so close only to be denied was not fair. It was not acceptable. It would not happen!

He raised his left arm and aimed it the orc that stood between him and the lair he sought. He released a touch of his magic, enough to ignite the firepowder in one of the barrels. The resulting boom quieted the nearby orcs and made them retreat from the sorcery of it. Bobo stepped over the twitching orc with a canoe for a skull and felt his leg still being pulled. He looked down, glaring at the orc that held him, and lowered his gun to the orcs head. The orc bit deeper. Bobo fired his remaining barrel.

Vanya was there then, bursting free of the orcs that had pulled her down. Her leathers were torn in many places and she bleed from many scratches and cuts, but her sword was in her hand and a wild and fierce look gleamed in her blue eyes. Regnar roared anew and leapt from where he was encircled, beating his wings once to aid his leap. He landed near to them and faced the orcs with them.

Bobo glanced at Vanya, noting how strong and powerful she looked as she stood with her sword in hand. He smelled ozone, prompting him to turn and look at Regnar.

"They will be on us in a moment," Bobo said in elvish. "If we..."

"We will hold them," Vanya said, glancing at him long enough for Bobo to see something coiling within her aura that seemed almost reptilian and malevolent. "You must go and do what you came for. We will buy you the time you need."

Bobo wanted to deny what she said, but he knew he could not. He nodded, "Fight well and I'll see that you're remembered."

"Go!"

Bobo turned and ran, stopping only when he reached the mouth of the lair. He turned back when he realized that Regnar had spoken the last word. His flight had prompted the orcs to attack again, though this time there was room enough for proper weapons to be used. In moments Vanya and Regnar were surrounded, but they kept the orcs at bay.

Bobo clenched his jaw in frustration then turned back to the cave. He ran inside of it, seeing in the dark as others could not.

Chapter 18

Elvanshalee broke out of her trance as she felt the first of her wards being tripped. It had been a few years since someone or something had last trespassed, and this time she wondered how she truly felt about it. Bobo had beaten the odds she had given him, she admitted, if he had gotten that far. Still, the first of the wards was far from the most dangerous.

*****

Bobo paused, taking stock of the way the air carried through the immense cavern. It spiraled downwards at an alarming angle, and only now that he had reached a landing in it had he paused to consider the tunnel. He had good reason to pause, the desiccated corpses of several orcs and a few other beings lay on the ground.

Bobo reloaded the firepowder and the bullets before advancing forward cautiously. He looked about, seeing the strange currents of energy and life in the air beginning to coalesce into smaller shapes. Familiar shapes. Those that died here apparently remained behind, adding to the number of guardians.

Wraithlike and ephemeral, they approached him. Faintly glowing eyes came at him, shadowy arms outstretched intent to draw the very warmth of life from his bones. Bobo stood his ground and held out his right hand feeling the power that he had inherited from his mother coiling through him again. It left him drained and feeling rather dark inside, but she had shown him how to use it and how to keep it from using him.

He sent out a pulsing aura of non-light, disrupting the specters that approached him. "Make way for me, for I am greater than you," he warned them.

They slowed their ghostly movements, considering his command. Bobo drew his sword, dark flames of absolution erupting from the edges of the curved short sword.

"Come closer and you will know no more. Stay away and peace will find you, be slain by me and nothingness is your reward."

They all stopped, bowing their shifting heads in obedience to him. One approached after a moment but Bobo sense no harm in his intent. He let him close with him and endured the outstretched appendage that touched his shoulder.

The arm withdrew and Bobo felt shaken to the core. He had felt the chill from the creature, but it was a distant thing, not something the drove the breath from his lungs or the blood from his limbs. Instead he felt a strange sense of comfort with the communion. Bobo walked through them, sheathing his sword and trying to put the disturbing incident behind him.

The tunnel continued downwards, descending into the depths. Or the first of the Nine Hells, whichever he encountered first.

*****

Elvanshalee raised an eyebrow, again removed from her meditative state by another ward going off. She frowned, somewhat annoyed this time. She was studying some complicated elemental planar magic and was nearing an understanding of it. The second ward meant that Bobo had gotten past the first one, and a quick study of it in her mind left her gasping in surprise... he had not defeated it, he had simply moved through it and beyond.

The second one would prove more challenging, she was certain, though how he had been accepted by the spirits of the dead was unknown to her.

*****

Bobo slowed again, studying the scene before him. The passage had opened into a giant cavern mostly devoid of any stalactite of stalagmite growth. What it did possess was more bones. The shattered skeletal remains of a dragon lay spread across the floor. Bobo studied it carefully, wondering what had killed it. He sensed that the spirits of the dead he had already encountered were not permitted to travel any deeper than where they were at, yet something had clearly killed this dragon.

Bobo studied the walls and the floor, wondering if some mundane trap had been responsible. Nothing seemed evident, and he further suspected that Elvanshalee would not have done something so simple as that. She loved her power and craved more, to use some device that needed none was not her style.

Then again, neither was necromancy.

Bobo looked again and realized with a start what he had been missing. Or rather, what appeared to be missing. He studied the very air of the cavern intently, noticing that none of the swirling vortex of life's energies traveled beyond the mouth of the passage he stood in. It was as if the chamber was a vacuum.

Bobo shook his head, wondering why that did not make sense. He knelt down and picked up a pinch of sand that had gathered on the rocky floor. He held it up to his mouth and blew on it, watching it enter the cavern. The fine grains of sand behaved exactly as they should, in an atmosphere, save that the warmth of his breath and the tiny imprints of life his breath gave to them vanished as soon as they entered the room.

Bobo nodded thoughtfully, realizing that the living could go no further. He knelt down on the ground and, with the barrels on his left arm, traced the line where life stopped and death began. He lay down next to it and calmed his breathing. He closed his eyes and forced himself to relax. Dwelling upon what was about to happen would do him no good, instead he had to simply do it, as was expected of him.

Drawing the life energies up and around him, Bobo infused his body with it. When he felt fully protected he stood up, feeling strangely buoyant. He turned into the cavern and walked into it, seeing things even more brightly than he had before.

He passed through the immense room and saw a smaller chamber at the end, carved out of the rock with tools, not by nature as the rest of the cavern had been. He studied it carefully, knowing a third deadly trap must be in place, but could find nothing that might impede his progress. With a sense of fatalism, Bobo stepped forward to cross the threshold.

*****

Elvanshalee was paying attention this time. She suspected that trying any further study into the higher physics of magic would escape her anyhow. She felt nothing transpiring further with the second ward, wondering if perhaps the Prince had given up his quest. She chuckled, reckless and brash he might be, but he was also determined. He would not surrender so easily, she was certain.

She wondered as well about Vanya and Regnar. Had they gone with him to the orcs, or had he found a way through them alone? They had not returned, but that meant nothing, they might be watching from a distance. Elvanshalee had long ago fashioned powerful shields about them to protect them from the eyes of others that would use magic to scry upon them. It defeated her in this instance, but they were of such unique nature that it was worth the price. If others were to find out about them she could only imagine the horrors they might endure. Death would be better, even at her own hands if need be.