The Crimson Cobra Read online

  The slavers started their well-practiced routine. Like in a perfectly trained dance, they approached the three closest prisoners, removed their shackles and hastily searched them for anything that could be used as a weapon. Afterward, they took the searched prisoners to a cell and repeated the process on the next three prisoners. Evelyn ended up in the cell with Matt and another boy.

  “There’s nothing useful out there,” Evelyn said. The new boy stood glued to the bars, peering outside.

  He did not turn to her. “I’m not going to become a slave.”

  Evelyn shook her head. “And not talking to us is going to help, because hey, you can handle this alone, why bother with making friends.”

  He sighed. “I’m Tobias.”

  “Evelyn.”

  “Matt.”

  Tobias turned back to the bars.

  Matt walked to him. “Do you have any idea what to search for?”

  “No, it’s my first time doing this,” Tobias admitted.

  “Mine too… most I’ve ever done is hunt a boar,” Matt said.

  Tobias smiled. “Makes you ten times the fighter I am. What I’m trying to figure out is how they do the patrols. I counted steps on the way into the cell. It’s about five hundred feet to the exit we came through, which is under a minute of sprinting, even with the turnings.”

  “That’s not so much. We need to get past the guards at the exit afterward.”

  “And the guards around the mountain and whoever they will send to catch you,” Evelyn added.

  Tobias glanced at her over his shoulder. “They have over a hundred captives, so they won’t chase a couple of boys and a girl.”

  “Not you or me,” Evelyn said and motioned to Matt, “but they will chase him.”

  “Why would they chase me and not you two?”

  “Tobias is small and has narrow shoulders, not worth much. I have a too lean figure, so not worth that much either. But Matt, on the other hand, he’s got the right build for a courtesan. One the ladies of Xona will pay a fortune to bed. The slavers will chase after him without question since he’s worth his weight in gold.”

  Matt's eyes turned wide. “How would you know that?”

  “I’m a spice peddler, I travel a lot.”

  “When? I mean, I don’t want to sound rude, but I don't think you are twenty.”

  Not even close. Evelyn grinned. “Keep thinking that. But really, running is a bad idea. They know the area, we don’t, so they will catch us.”

  “On the other hand, they need us alive to sell us. The worst that can happen if we escape is that we are caught and brought back into the cell,” Tobias said.

  Evelyn smirked. “I think they have this loophole covered.”

  “Worth trying.”

  Evelyn rolled her eyes. “What makes you so motivated? Hmm?”

  Tobias’ expression hardened. “I don’t want Laura to become a slave.”

  “Laura?”

  “My… friend. She’s from Yellmare. If they raided our village, Yellmare is next and someone needs to warn them. I will warn them.”

  “And in her gratefulness, she will fall into your arms, overwhelmed by love and you will live happily ever after,” Evelyn replied.

  Tobias turned red. “Maybe.”

  “Anyway, if we run, we need to figure out how to take my sister with us,” Matt interrupted them;.

  Tobias nodded. “Right, Anna, where is she?”

  “Eight cells behind us.”

  Evelyn laughed. “Why stop at your sister? Why don’t you kick open the door, kill all the slavers, bring everyone home and revive the dead in your village?”

  In silence, both Matt and Tobias looked at the ground.

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake, don’t act like I murdered your parents.”

  Matt pierced her with a tear-filled glare. “Not funny, since we watched our parents die barely two days ago.”

  “I’m sorry,” Tobias said. “Mine were on a trading trip though.”

  “Sucks to be you, Matt,” Evelyn said, poison dripping from her voice.

  Tobias stepped between them and gave Evelyn a sharp look. “Who are you, anyway? I’ve never seen you around the village.”

  “Am I so noticeable?”

  “You give a different feeling from anyone I’ve ever met.”

  “I told you. I’m not from around here and I peddle spice. I stopped at the village to sleep, apparently at the wrong time,” Evelyn said.

  “You don’t seem to be too bothered though.” Tobias narrowed his eyes. “You don’t fit. I wouldn’t be surprised if you weren’t a human at all.”

  Evelyn laughed. “What do you mean?”

  “I don’t know… there’s something off about you. We should be careful around her, Matt. She might be part of the slavers.”

  “I saw her get beaten up pretty badly,” Matt said.

  Tobias shook his head and returned to the bars.

  Chapter 3

  “Sorry to disturb, sweetlings, but you have a new roommate,” the voice of Rik woke them up.

  They raised their heads and saw him open the bars, shove in a black-haired girl and lock them behind her.

  Evelyn measured her with a glance. “Welcome to our cell, I would offer you wine, but the boys drank all of it.”

  The girl stared at them with wide eyes.

  Matt stood up and smiled. “I’m Matt, he’s Tobias, and she’s Evelyn. We arrived yesterday before sunset.”

  She smiled awkwardly. “I’m Lisa, hi.”

  “Where are you from? We are from Tenby.”

  Lisa sat down by the wall. “Wandermere. I was traveling with a merchant convoy and, well, we got caught.”

  Matt raised an eyebrow. “Merchant convoy?”

  “Cloth merchants, I was the scout and, well, they got us off my shift,” Lisa said. “And you guys don’t look like you were sleeping, I mean, aside from Evelyn.”

  Tobias motioned her to come closer.

  She did.

  Tobias revealed the carving he and Matt had been etching into the ground. It depicted the bird’s-eye view of the prison, including the guard rotations.

  Lisa looked around. “Why are we in the same cell? There’s no way this is random.”

  “What do you mean?” Matt asked.

  “Out of the captured people, we some of the few capable of escaping since we have combat practice and aren’t collapsed into tears,” Tobias said before Lisa opened her mouth. “My theory is that Evelyn is a slaver agent and we are in the cell with her so she can keep an eye on us.”

  “With which I disagree,” Matt added.

  “I admit it sounds unlikely.” Lisa ducked over the carving. “But looking at the guard rotations, we are in the worst spot for an escape. We have a guard watching our cell door almost all the time, are almost exactly between the top and bottom of the path, and there is no nearby cover. They might be putting the potentially troublesome people into cells that are the easiest to guard.”

  Tobias grunted. “I still don’t like her.”

  Matt sighed. “We’ve been through this, Tobias, if she is with the slavers, we have no hope of escaping. Let’s assume she isn’t.”

  “Anyway, what do you have?” Lisa asked.

  Tobias motioned with his hand over the map. “A guard change will happen in about an hour. They change fast, but not without a window of opportunity. Once we get past the door, we need to climb up the wall. There is a small cavern above us. Once we get there, we will need to figure out how to get out, but I guess it will involve a lot of climbing by the walls since the upper areas aren’t lit.”

  “Not bad, do you have a way past the bars?”

  Tobias twitched uncomfortably.

  “They barely bothered with searching us, so we made a lock pick out of my belt buckle,” Matt said. “But none of us have ever picked a lock before.”

  Lisa smiled and pulled a key from behind her belt. “You won’t have to.”

  Matt and Tobias stared at her with the
ir mouths wide open.

  She hid the key. “The boss of the slavers who got our convoy was a big brute named Lars. I snatched the key off him before they shackled me. What do we do once we get out of here?”

  “Who searched you before putting you to the cell?” Evelyn interrupted them.

  “Rik, he was too busy grabbing my ass to find anything. Why?”

  As I expected. Evelyn forced back her smile. “No reason.”

  Tobias cleared his throat. “We plan to run and try to find an outpost of the local army of Grimdawn or Nurnfell, if there are any. There have been no soldiers visiting our village in past year, but we have no better idea.”

  Lisa gave him an appreciative stare. “There aren’t. The army outposts of nearby city-states have been abandoned for the past half a year. There’s a reason why this area is called no-man's-land. The only chance we have is the old Palai temple north. We should reach it within a day of walking. Our convoy planned to stop there to resupply. With a bit of luck, the Order will have enough soldiers to help us.”

  “Sounds good.”

  They spread around the cell to pretend they were resting. The change of guards was coming up. Lisa, Matt and Tobias were covered by sweat and trembling.

  Evelyn shook her head. “Before you go, wipe the sweat off your hands. Your fingers will slip if you don’t.”

  Tobias and Matt looked at each other, but did as she bid.

  The lowing call produced by a cow’s horn announced the change of guards. The slaver watching their cell from the upper level of the opposite side disappeared without immediate replacement. The second he did, Lisa slid the key into the lock and turned it breathlessly. It worked. She opened the door, Matt walked out, put his hands so Lisa could step on them to help her leap up and latch onto the wall above their cell. Then he helped Tobias do the same and motioned to Evelyn.

  “I’m not going.”

  Matt’s eyes widened. “Why?”

  Evelyn kept his gaze. “Someone needs to stay behind to make the cell appear populated. Leave the key behind and go.”

  Matt shook his head, but closed the bars. He leaped up and disappeared on the wall above. Evelyn approached, locked the bars, hid the key behind her belt and lay down by the bars. She couldn’t see the others. The guard exchange finished, the new guard, a tall woman, scanned the cells with her gaze. Evelyn turned her eyes to the ground. When she felt the eyes of the guard on her, she stood up and walked to the far wall of the cell.

  This should be enough for her to remember seeing me inside the cell.

  Evelyn counted seconds within her mind. … 56, 57, 58, 59, 60.

  She slid to the side of the cell and peered through the bars. Evelyn focused and formed an image of two marks surrounded by numbers. She remembered the numbers, imagined one mark down at the floor of her cell, the second mark high up on the ceiling of the mountain cone and dug into her strength. Evelyn disappeared from the cell and instantly reappeared at the mark on the ceiling. Her fingers caught into the cracks of the stone while she tensed her body to lean onto the cold stone.

  Below her, she saw Matt, Tobias and Lisa climbing the wall sideways. They clambered as high as they could get and vanished into a naturally occurring shadow while beyond stood a guard illuminated by a wood-burning brazier.

  They’ve been climbing for almost two minutes now, they will soon run out of strength. Evelyn loosened a rock from the wall, aimed and threw. The impact of rock on metal echoed through the mountain as her rock toppled the brazier.

  “Fucking bullshit, fuck!” the man shouted. He dropped onto the ground and started rolling around to douse the flames eating pants. Laughter exploded through the mountain.

  Evelyn smirked as she saw Matt, Tobias and Lisa climb through the shadows all the way to the wall above the entrance of the mountain. They dropped from the wall, rolled as they fell onto the ground and dashed out of the mountain.

  The guards stared in disbelief, then started shouting and running after them.

  Evelyn scaled down the wall like a spider. She got to a spot where she could see outside. A mark surrounded by numbers appeared in front of her eyes and she focused near a brushy cover within line of sight. She teleported to her target and instantly slid to the side, beneath a bush. She saw Matt, Tobias and Lisa dashing through the cleft.

  The horn sounding the alarm back in the mountain echoed down the cleft leading to the outpost that guarded the entry into the slaver’s hideout. The surprised guards drew their blades. Matt rammed his shoulder into the closest man. The slaver stumbled and fell to the side. Matt, Tobias and Lisa ran past them and vanished in the darkness of the mountain path below.

  “Motherfuckers… OI! Fetch the beasts, they will have a feast tonight,” Lars, a scar-faced brute with a shaved head, who walked out of the outpost, shouted. “The rest of you, with me!”

  Evelyn shook her head, made a mark far on the mountain and teleported to it. She scaled down the mountain. Despite the darkness of the moonless night, she soon found Matt and the company. They were hiding by the bushes further down the mountain path.

  Evelyn heard bestial growling echo carried by the wind, coming from beyond the cleft. Direwolves… if the slavers don’t catch them soon, they will send out the direwolves and that would be the end. She picked up a rock, waited for a bit and then tossed the stone into the air. The rock flew high, curved its flight and fell, hitting Tobias between his shoulderblades.

  “Aaarrggghh!” Tobias shouted in pain.

  “There they are!” Lars shouted. His men dashed forward. Matt tried to tackle the first man, but the slaver dodged and hit Matt with the hilt of the sword to the back of his head. Tobias tried to run. A slaver threw a net, it caught on Tobias’ legs and knocked him to the ground. Lisa raised her hands in the air, giving up. The slavers tied their hands, splashed water onto Matt to wake him up.

  Evelyn remained crouched in the bushes as the slavers led the recaptured prisoners back to the mountain. She cleaned the fresh dirt off her clothes and shoes. Once done, Evelyn looked back at the mark by the entrance, teleported to it, up at the mark at the ceiling of the cavern, teleported there and then back into her cell.

  The slavers brought back Matt, Tobias and Lisa, throwing them back in. Evelyn gave them a pitying glance.

  Lars checked the door. “Unlocked… some idiot lost his keys.” He looked inside the cell. “Guess I will need to search you myself.”

  “Oi, Lars! Allara’s dealing already, are you playing or should we get someone else?” Rik shouted from across the mountain.

  “I will be right there!” Lars shook his head and turned to the slavers standing around him. “You two, lock the cell and guard them until told otherwise.”

  The two men nodded and did as he commanded. Lars left.

  Nobody inside the cell said anything.

  Chapter 4

  As the light of dawn shone into the mountain, clanging of chains echoed through the air. Evelyn woke up and looked outside. The chains in the middle of the mountain were slowly moving up. She walked to the bars and saw a massive cage, easily forty feet wide, rising up on the chains. The cage reached the middle of the cavern and stopped rising.

  The slaver leaders, Allara, Rik, and Lars, leaped onto the cage and looked around. Rik took the word. “We apologize for the rude awakening, sweetlings, but it’s going to be a busy morning. You see, some of you didn’t appreciate our hospitality and tried to escape. Selfish, I know, but it happened. Now, we can’t have that, can we? To make our point, we are going to hold a little game. In particular, we will give some of the escapees another shot at showing off their bravery. Don’t worry, we won’t punish anyone who didn’t try to escape, so stay calm and enjoy the show.”

  “We are going to die… aren’t we?” Matt asked, his voice shaking.

  Evelyn smirked. “Probably.”

  “What the hell is wrong with you?”

  “Everything.”

  Four slavers with Lars at their head arrived at their cell
. They opened the door, went in and grabbed all of them. Nobody tried to resist. They pushed all four of them up by the path until they were above the cage.

  Allara stood before them. “So, which one of you wants to go first?”

  Matt gritted his teeth and stepped forward. “I will. The escape was my idea, my plan. I convinced the other, so I am the one who should be punished, not them.”

  Allara smiled. “Nice try, but your pretty face is gonna fetch us a good price. Who else do we have here… the girls can entertain the audience by screaming, at least from the start, so I guess we start with the skinny guy.”

  The slaver holding Tobias jerked him forward. Rik opened a hole at the top of the cage and tossed in a sword. The slaver threw Tobias into it. Tobias rolled to the side and grabbed the sword while Rik closed the cage above him.

  “This looks like it will be fun, bring three,” Allara said.

  Evelyn looked around and saw what the slavers were bringing up the road. Three massive beasts, hybrids of wolves and dogs were dragged up on chains. Their fur was dark and thick, the mouths long and full of vicious teeth, their eyes hungry. The slavers led the direwolves up above the cages, but from the other side. Tobias gripped the sword with both hands and took a stance inside the hanging cage.

  Allara walked over the cage, smiling at the terrified prisoners. “Watch carefully, this is how any escapee shall end.”

  Rik opened the cage, and the slavers motioned the beasts to leap inside. The cage shook as their massive bodies fell onto its ground. They growled and spread out.

  Matt and Lisa started screaming. Most of the captives joined them. Allara observed them with a vicious smile.