Chapter 45
Forty-Five
Vaskel and Thrain crossed the courtyard and entered the archway that led to the dungeons, walking in silence through the shadowy corridors. When Vaskel’s neck prickled and his tail quivered, he flattened himself against the wall and pulled the dwarf with him.
The shadows hugging the stone walls kept them out of sight until the hellkin was almost on top of them. Vaskel kept his arm across Thrain until the last possible moment, and when the dwarf leapt out, the hellkin fumbled for his blade.
Vaskel used the distraction to slip behind him and fasten the crook of his arm around the fighter’s neck, jerking him off his feet before he could grasp his knife or turn.
“Sorry about this, laddie,” Thrain whispered as the hellkin’s feet danced across the top of the stone floor as he tried to find purchase.
Vaskel squeezed until he lost consciousness and was sure the hellkin would be out for a while. Then he let him slump to the floor.
That was two hellkins he’d taken out without drawing his dagger, but he still hadn’t found the important one. “You don’t know how many hellkins are in Marina’s crew, do you?”
“As far as I know, there are two.” Thrain produced a length of twine from one of his pockets. “I’ll tie up this one.”
“You carry rope?” Vaskel eyed the dwarf and the many layers of leather he wore.
Thrain’s teeth flashed white through his whiskers, and he patted his greatcoat. “I carry a lot of things.”
Once they tied up the hellkin and shoved him into a murky corner, they continued along the corridor until they found the stairs that coiled down into the earth.
Vaskel led the way, keeping his back to the cool, stone wall as he edged down the spiraling steps, his nose twitching with the loamy scent of earth, the fetid odor of mold, and the stink of something rotting.
At the bottom of the stairs, he hesitated long enough for Thrain to catch up and for his eyes to adjust to the dim light. A single undulating flame glowed at the tip of a torch that sagged in an iron sconce.
Vaskel snatched the torch, holding it in front of him to light the way as he walked along the dirt floor and stepped around bleak puddles with the dwarf echoing his path.
They passed empty cell after empty cell, the iron bars warped and rusted.
Then the back of his neck prickled, and he waved a hand behind him so Thrain would fall back.
Vaskel continued a few more steps until he reached the farthest cell and stopped.
His tail lashed behind him as he locked eyes with the mage.
His former friend was gaunt with sallow skin stretched tight over sharp bones.
Dark lines still crawled like hungry vines beneath his skin.
Lines that looked too similar to his own.
“Hello, Malek.”
“Vaskel.” Malek’s sharp features contorted into a malevolent smile. “My old friend. My old crew mate who had me locked away to die.”
Each word was like a blade, intended to cut and wound.
Vaskel merely returned the smile, although fury seethed beneath his own placid expression. “You killed Pirrin, and you tried to kill the rest of us. You abandoned your friends for dark magic. You brought this one yourself, old friend.”
Malek cringed at this, his smile faltering. “Pirrin was never supposed to die. That was a mistake.”
“A mistake?” Vaskel ground out each word, fighting off memories of his ranger friend.
Malek looked down at his hands as if they weren’t his own. “The dark magic was too much. I didn’t know how to control it. I didn’t…”
Vaskel steadied the slashing of his tail as the mage’s words died on his lips. He didn’t want Malek to know how hard it was to keep from lunging at him through the bars. He also knew he needed the mage for information, which meant he couldn’t strangle him. Not yet, at least.
He opened his arms wide. “But you welcomed the dark magic, and here we are.”
“Here we are,” Malek repeated woodenly, and for a beat he sounded like the old Malek, the one Vaskel had known before dark magic consumed him.
Vaskel reminded himself who he was talking to as he peered through the darkness. “We’ve all made our choices, haven’t we?”
Malek’s breathe a sigh that sounded more weary than anything. “You made the choice to come down here.”
“You said you know something about Marina and Cali.” Vaskel schooled his voice into something approaching civil. “Tell me know you know Marina.”
Malek took a step forward, and his chains jangled. Vaskel glanced at the metal that encased the mage’s ankles. The shackles were forged from nerillium, which absorbed magical powers, and were the only reason he could face the mage without fear of being hit with a spell.
“I know you never told us about your days running with another hellkin and…was it an orc and a one-eyed dwarf?” Malek fluttered a hand as if brushing away the details.
“I know that you did plenty of things for coin that you never would have admitted to when I knew you as the honorable and brave Vaskel.”
Heat burned Vaskel’s face, but he straightened. He was done hiding his past. Even if it was only Malek and Thrain listening, he wanted to own up to the mistakes he’d made. “All true, but I’m not that hellkin anymore. I left him behind long ago.”
“And you think you can do that?” Malek’s voice cracked. “Leave darkness behind you and step into light?”
The hellkin narrows his eyes. Was he imagining things again, or was his old friend asking because he wished to leave his own darkness in the past?
“Are you asking if I believe you can be forgiven for dark deeds?” Vaskel thought about the bounties he’d collected when he’d run with Marina, the treasure he’d stolen, the lives he’d hurt.
He swallowed a hot lump of shame. “I believe we all falter, we all make decisions out of fear and hurt. It’s what we do after we fall that defines us.
It’s what we do with the second chance that makes us who we are in the end. ”
Thrain cleared his throat. “You can’t take back the steps you walked, but you can always start a new path forward.”
Malek flicked his eyes to the dwarf, and then stared at Vaskel hard, his lips a white line. He dipped his head, finally raising it and meeting Vaskel’s gaze. “And you, Vaskel? What have you done with your second chance?”
Vaskel thought of Lira and the others at the tavern. He thought about the villagers in Wayside. He thought about Iris and the way she’d kissed him. Then he thought about Malek and Marina and how both were skilled at manipulation.
“I’ve made friends I refuse to abandon to a vengeful hellkin or the mage she’s convinced to help her.”
Malek’s black eyes glinted. “You think I’m in league with her?”
The tip of Vaskel’s tail vibrated, a sure sign that danger was near. “If you aren’t, tell me where she is and where she has Cali.”
Malek folded his hands in front of himself, lacing his bony fingers. “Our dear archer is unharmed and here of her own accord, from what I’ve seen.”
Vaskel found it hard to believe that Cali would have seen Malek and not been alarmed that he and Marina were connected. Unless the mage was lying. He still hadn’t told Vaskel anything to prove his claims held any truth.
“Then where is she?” Vaskel took a step closer.
Malek tilted his head. “You came here all alone to rescue Cali? You truly have changed. The Vaskel I knew would never do something so foolish.”
A shiver passed through Vaskel. It had been a mistake coming to see Malek. It had been a mistake to think he would be any help at all.
He spun on his heel, his cloak flapping around his legs as he turned to go. Strangely, he didn’t spot Thrain right away. The dwarf must have hidden in the shadows. “Goodbye, Malek.”
“Everyone is in the main hall,” Malek said, a note of desperation in his voice. “Marina arranged for a banquet. Everyone is there.”
“A banquet?” Vaskel turned. “There hasn’t been a banquet at Grayhelm in years. Why would she throw a banquet?”
“To celebrate your return, of course.”
The voice that emerged from the shadows near the stairwell was not Malek’s.
Marina stepped into view, dressed not in peasant attire but in her usual snug leather. Her inky hair spilled over her shoulders, and light danced across her crimson skin from the flailing torch fire.
“I knew you’d come,” she said with a sultry smile directed only to him. Until she slid it to Malek. “See? I told you he’d come.”
Malek stepped forward, shaking off the shackles that were not locked around his ankles and pushing open the cell door. “You were right.”