Soul Gem Collector 6 Chapter 7

I stared at the Council of the Illuminated Ones as they stood near King Sweyn, one leaned over the king’s throne to whisper in his ear, but the two dwarves looked directly at me. They leaned over to talk to each other while I gaped at their beady black eyes and the flint-like skin that marked them as Iron Dwarves.

“We need to leave,” I whispered to Aylara as the line surged forward again. “Right now.”

“Definitely,” the mouse-girl said, her bright red eyes were glued to the mages at the front of the room, and her tail swished nervously. “That’s them right? The Council of Illuminated Ones.”

“Yes,” I answered, I forced a smile on my face as I leaned over to talk to her like we were sharing a fond memory rather than terrified that we were about to be discovered. “And two of them are Iron Dwarves?”

“What?” she squeaked, the sound was so loud that several people turned around to look at us, and she quickly swatted my arm like I had said something inappropriate.

“Shhh,” I whispered, but she was already talking.

“You’re a dirty old man,” she laughed. It was light and happy, even though her tail continued to flick.

“But I’m yours,” I teased before I gave her a kiss on her cheek.

The dwarves still watched me, but they had yet to make a move, and I hoped that they would wait until the other council members had left. The one that spoke to the king had apparently finished his conversation, he strolled over to the group with a frown on his face, and muttered something that seemed to make the others irritable and the Iron Dwarves nervous.

“Let’s go, dear,” I said. “I need to use the restroom and these old bones are too tired. We’ll try another day.” I tugged at Aylara’s hand as I stepped out of line, and then started towards the back of the ballroom so we could get out of the castle.

I was sure that the dwarves knew exactly who I was, or at the very least were suspicious. I suspected that they had sensed the dwarvish magic I had used to see through their glamour, and if they didn’t realize I was the one on the wanted posters, then they would definitely figure out that I had soul gems.

“But we’re almost to the front,” my petite companion whined in her old woman voice. “Can’t you wait another hour?” She kept up with me easily as I hobbled along to make it seem like I was older than I was, and to keep myself from breaking into a full run.

“I still have work to do,” I grumbled. “And I didn’t bring any medicine with me. If I stay any longer ain’t nothin’ gonna get done on the farm today.”

“You can take one day off, dear,” my partner laughed.

“And then the farm will fall right apart,” I retorted.

“Is something wrong?” a young human guard with stubble on his chin asked as we neared the door to the ballroom.

“Yeah, yeah,” I answered. “These old bones are just acting up.”

“You’re almost there,” the human laughed. “I’m sure they’ll let you back into line if you want.” He gestured to the spot we had just left, the couple we had been behind had moved forward again, and if we went back, then we would be halfway through the room.

“That’s what I told him,” Aylara said as she shook her head at me. “But you know how stubborn old men are.”

“We’ll try again next week,” I told her. “And we’ll leave the house earlier so we’ll be at the front of the line.”

I glanced back at the Council to see that they had stepped off to the side, and the Iron Dwarves waved their hands while they talked animatedly about something. When I saw one gesture in our direction, I realized that we needed to get out, so we needed to end the conversation with the guard.

“Let’s go, honey,” I said as I pulled at Aylara. “You have a nice day, young man. We’ll see you again next week.”

“If you’re sure,” the guard said with a rueful smile and a shake of his head.

“Once he’s made up his mind there’s no changing it,” my companion told the human with a roll of her eyes. “We’ll see you next week.”

I kept a steady pace, though once we were almost through the hallway and to the front steps I let my limp become less pronounced. I couldn’t seem too rushed or the other King’s Guardsman would become suspicious, and there had been plenty of soldiers in the courtyard that could come to their aid if I used my magic.

Taslyn, I called through my mental link as I nodded to the guards near the front door.

Is everything okay? She asked, and a surge of worry rushed through our link before she clamped down on it.

No, I answered. We didn’t get to the king. We’ll have to figure something else out. I’ll explain later but we need to get out of the castle.

Well you can’t teleport until you're off the castle grounds, my vixen girlfriend warned me.

We’re almost to the courtyard, I said.  No one has come after us yet so we might make it. Have the carriage ready. I’ll explain everything when I get back.

“You there!” someone called from behind us, from the direction of the ballroom, and I had to fight the urge to turn around. “Guards, don’t let that couple through. The Council wants to have a word with that old man.”

“Get ready to run,” I whispered to Aylara as the men under the open, arched doors stepped out to block our path.

“Zayre,” she squeaked. “We can’t find the King’s guard. We’ll be traitors.”

“I’m only going to knock them aside,” I told her. “I don’t want to hurt them either. But we can’t let them capture us.”

“Of course,” my business partner nodded her head with a sigh. “Let’s do this.”

“Please step aside,” I asked the men in front of us as I straightened my posture, and dropped Aylara’s hand as I readied myself for a fight.

“If the Council wants a word with you,” one of them said. “Then they’re going to have it.”

“Not today,” I responded as I flexed my hands and started to call Hawthorne’s vines.

“We don’t want to hurt you old man,” the bear beastborn I had seen earlier said. “But we can’t let you past.

“I don’t want to hurt you either,” I said. “But I can’t let them take me.”

I pulled up on the green, living ropes, and then directed them to wrap around the guards in front of us. I didn’t have the thorns extend, but they were still large enough to scratch them if they struggled too much.

“Run,” I said to the mouse-girl next to me as the nearby guards rushed over to aid their friends. “I’ll be right behind you.”

I switched to the power of the ice worm as I knelt down to put a hand on the tile floor. Immediately, a thick sheet of ice spread out from me to trap the feet and legs of the men inside all the way back to the ballroom.

Aylara had taken off, but she had stopped after the first few steps and whirled around to make sure I was coming. She cast a hex towards a soldier rushed over from the training area, and the man fell to his face as his knees gave out.

“Let’s go,” she called as she reached out a hand towards me.

I ran to her, entwined my fingers with hers, and then raced across the courtyard towards the outer wall. I could hear the soldiers yell from their barracks, but I summoned a limestone barricade that kept most of them in the training grounds.

“Stop them!” the bear-man shouted as he struggled against the vines I had left him in.

I risked a look back only to see that the guards I had trapped in ice were untying their boots, and the bear-man’s massive arms had almost broken all of the living binds. I almost ran into some of the people still in line, but most of them had already run towards the castle or back out into the town to get away from the fight.

“Close the portcullis,” a soldier at the outer gates yelled when we were halfway through the courtyard.

I was about to summon limestone pillars to hold up the portcullis, but Aylara sent a well-placed hex on the lowering mechanism and it jammed in the open position. I grinned over at her, and then summoned more vines to yank the soldiers at the gate backwards until they were tied to the stone wall.

“We just need to get off the castle grounds,” I told Aylara as we crossed the threshold of the outer wall.

“We should hide in the market,” the mouse-girl said in between gasps for air, she had managed to keep up with me so far, but her legs were shorter, and she wouldn’t make it much further.

The people who had escaped the courtyard had joined the crowds of shoppers, some of them glanced our way, though most seemed content to pretend we didn’t exist as they perused the stalls set up on the sides of the road.

I slowed us to a leisurely stroll, smiled at the few people who stared at us, and then led Aylara through two of the more permanent booths towards an alleyway. Even before we were at the mouth of the alley, I could hear some of the soldiers start to search for us in the throngs of people.

“Have you seen an elderly couple?” a gruff voice asked. “A human and a mouse beastborn.”

“Do you think we can teleport yet?” Aylara squeaked as she risked a look behind us.

“There they are!” someone shouted when we had reached the end of the long booths.

“I’ll try it,” I said before I pulled on Mama Skelk’s magic.

I pictured the entertainment room of the safehouse in hopes that I could bring us back to the safehouse, but the magic wouldn’t work. It was like there was a wall that blocked me from my powers. “I think we’re still too close to the castle.”

“Then we need to keep running,” my partner dragged me away from the alley to run along the backside of all the stalls. She jumped over discarded boxes like she did it every day, shimmied through crates of produce that I had to squeeze to get through, and navigated us away from the soldiers that had followed us.

“I think we’ve lost them,” I said when we cleared the last of the booths. I had a few cuts and splinters from the wooden crates, and I glanced back to make sure I hadn’t left any traces of blood.

“Stop right there,” the bear-man from the castle doors said as he stepped out in front of us. “Don’t move a muscle.” The fur on his arms was spotted with blood from where the thorns had dug into him when he broke out of the vines.

“You wouldn’t have been hurt if you had just stayed still,” I said with a sigh.

“As if a few vines would stop me,” he sneered. “Now turn yourself over… or I’ll have no choice but to use force on you.”

“I really hope that if we see each other again it’ll be under better circumstances,” I said as I felt the tingle of Mama Skelk’s power return to me.

“I doubt it,” the bear-man said as he took a step closer, and his eyes darted over to Aylara before he risked another step. “Just come along and I’m sure the Council will hear you out.”

“Not likely,” I muttered.

I gripped Aylara’s hand in mine as I imagined the safe house, the couches in different colors, and the rest of my girls. I felt the pull of magic before the ground shifted underneath me, and heard the guard growl a curse as he lunged forward to grab me, but all he caught was air.

“Zayre!” Janel shouted when we appeared in the middle of the entertainment room. “Tas said something happened. Are you okay?” The black haired elvenborn ran her emerald green eyes over me and then Aylara, her wine red lips tugged down into a frown as she saw all of the scratches we both had.

“We were chased from the castle,” Aylara said as she threw herself onto the pink couch with a sigh.

“Why?” Taslyn asked.

“The Council of the Illuminated Ones dropped by for a chat with King Sweyn while we were in line,” I told her. I ran a hand over my short hair, and it came away covered in ash and sweat.

“Oh no,” my wife gasped while her hand came up to cover her mouth.

“Did they realize who you are?” Noura asked as she summoned an ointment for our minor wounds.

“I’m not sure,” I said as I offered to put the salve on myself.

The beautiful djinn just held the bottle out of my reach and pointed to her dark red couch as she summoned some small bandages as well.

“They must have if they chased you,” Janel said.

“I don’t know if it was me or my magic that they recognized,” I said as I sat on the couch and let Noura address my scratches.

“Why did you use your magic in front of the king?” Taslyn asked as she turned a glare on me. “You should’ve known they’d be looking for any sign of you.”

“It wasn’t intentional,” I told her. “Not entirely. When they walked in I could feel the pull of the dwarvish sight so I let it out… and found out that two of the Council are actually Iron Dwarves in disguise.”

“What?” the sexy vixen said as her amber eyes bore into me like she hoped I had just lied.

“I don’t know how long they’ve been in there,” I said. “But there are Iron Dwarves on the council disguised as elvenborn.”

“That can’t be true,” Janel breathed as she plopped down next to Aylara on the sofa. She lifted her eyes to me, and her expression begged me to tell her it was all a joke, and that the River Kingdoms greatest enemy hadn’t infiltrated the most powerful group of mages in any of the kingdoms. “Maybe you saw it wrong?”

“I didn’t see anything but the elvenborn on the Council,” Aylara said. “But there were definitely two of them that were staring right at Zayre.”

“I think the dwarves could sense the dwarf’s power when I used it,” I muttered. “They didn’t act until we started to leave. I’m pretty sure that they told the other council members that they knew for a fact that I had soul gems. Though I’m not sure how they convinced them without proof. Especially since I didn’t use tangible magic.”

“Shit,” Taslyn swore as she began to pace.

Noura finished with me and stood to walk over to sit between Aylara and Janel. The mouse-girl waved her away, but before she could object, the djinn pinned her with the same stare she had given me, and then Aylara’s mouth snapped shut.

“Fine,” my business partner muttered. “But shouldn’t I take a bath first?”

“I can take care of that,” Noura grinned mischievously, and with a wink and a snap of her fingers, both Aylara and I were scrubbed clean of all the ash and dirt. She even replaced our clothes, I wondered where the other garments went, but decided that she would have disposed of them properly.

“Oh that feels much better,” my business partner smiled as she tugged on one of her platinum blonde curls.

“Okay,” Tas said to bring all of our attention back to the situation at hand. “So the Council of the Illuminated Ones know that you have soul gems and they sent the guards after you. I doubt they’ve told the king. That’s something they should have been aware of before you were in the same room with him.”

“Which buys us some time,” I added. “And hopefully I’ll still be able to get in to see the king. Though, I definitely think we should get out of the city first so we can regroup. We’ll need a new plan.”

“I have the carriage ready,” Noura said. “It’s a block away so that we won’t draw attention to ourselves until we’re ready to go.”

“And it’s more sturdy?” I asked. “We may need to escape again.”

“You didn’t hurt any of the guards, right?” Janel asked as she looked between Aylara and me. “If you did… King Sweyn won’t listen to you no matter what proof you have.”

“I was careful,” I said. “They may have gotten a little frostburn or a few cuts, but all of them were alive when we escaped.”

“Good,” the elvenborn nodded. “So, all you have to do is get back through to see the king, and hope that he won’t be surrounded by the Council.”

“Well I won’t be able to teleport in,” I said. “We had to get past the market before Mama Skelk was able to work.”

“This can all wait,” Taslyn said as she pulled her long red hair over her shoulder and began to braid it. “We need to find out how the Iron Dwarves even got on the Council of the Illuminated Ones to start with.”

“They probably killed two members and then posed as them,” I said as I ran my hand over my hair, and smiled when it came away free of ash and sweat.

“But then they would have had to know their entire lives,” the vixen responded. “It would have been easier for them to have one Council member die of natural causes and then one of the dwarves would take their place. And then a few years later another could go missing or die of another natural cause.”

“The cards did say our enemy was patient,” I agreed with her as I thought of the tarot reading she had done for me so long ago. “They’ve probably been working to put imposters in since they lost the war.”

I leaned back on the couch and closed my eyes as I tried to work out their game plan. If they already had two spies on the Council, then they probably had more in the castle, and throughout the army as a whole.

“Do you think the Korlems helped them?” I asked as I sat back up. “They’ve been selling war machines and weapons. It wouldn’t be that much more for them to help sneak in and hide in plain sight.”

“I don’t know if they would go that far,” Janel said with a frown on her wine red lips. “They may be greedy but I can’t imagine they would help put dwarves on the Council of Illuminated Ones.”

“Unless the dwarves paid the right price,” Tas countered. “Especially if they were promised more power when the Iron Dwarves take over the River Kingdoms.” She lounged on her black couch as she processed all of the new information. “They may even have plans to take over the throne.”

“I don’t think the Iron Dwarves plan on leaving a kingdom for the Korlems to take over,” I said as I ran my eyes over the delicious curves of the sexy fox-girl.

“Probably not,” she agreed. “But the Korlems have deluded themselves into allying with them so far. Who knows what they’ve convinced themself of.”

“I wouldn’t put it past the Korlems to plan to take over the throne,” Noura said as she finished with Aylara’s scrapes and cuts. “They used to talk about what they would do if they were in power when I worked for them.” The djinn waved her hand and five cups of a steaming eucalyptus tea appeared on the low table between the couches. “Everyone should have one. They will refresh you and encourage healing.”

“It smells fantastic,” my wife said as she began to hand them out to everyone. “Eucalyptus and… honey?”

“Yes,” Noura smiled. “It’s a personal favorite. The honey comes from my homeland and has healing properties far better than what can be found here.”

“It’s delicious,” I said as I took the first sip, the sweetened eucalyptus coated my tongue, and immediately the sting from my cuts began to fade while my mind cleared.

“I am glad you like it,” the djinn smiled.

“Okay,” I said after another, longer, drink of the tea. “So the Korlems are helping the Iron Dwarves plan a war and are probably hoping to get one of the thrones. That means there could be many more in the castle, even in the king’s inner circle, and we won’t know until we get close.” I finished tea, and then put it back on the table as the drink worked its way through my body to chase away all of my aches and pains.

“And you can’t teleport into the castle,” Taslyn added.

“Right,” I sighed. “I’m sure after our little spat… the castle guard and the soldiers we saw will be searching for any sign of a disguise so we won’t be able to get in the same way.”

“And they will be triple-checking anyone who works in the castle,” Aylara nodded before she took another drink.

I stood and started to pace around the room, the movement helped to loosen the tired cogs of my mind, and I filtered through the possibilities that lay ahead of us.

“I don’t think the king is going to come out of the castle,” I said. “I might be able to set off an explosion in the woods or around the wall so that the soldiers come out.”

“But then how would you sneak in?” Tas asked. “The Council of Illuminated Ones would immediately suspect that you’re coming for King Sweyn.”

“True,” I ran my hand over my stubble. “We need to expose the Iron Dwarves on the Council first. And then the king will be more willing to listen to us.”

“But how do we do that?” Janel asked.

“Well,” I said with a shrug. “They’re bound to come after me at some point.”

“We don’t have time to wait around for that,” my vixen girlfriend said. “Though we do need a plan for how we will actually beat them. If they’ve been posing on the Council of the Illuminated Ones then they must be powerful mages.”

“Fire worked on the others,” I said. “But they didn’t leave much behind.” I eased back down on the dark red couch. “What do you think about ice? It would preserve them… though I don’t know if they’re glamour will fade once they die.”

“We could test it out,” Janel said as she set her empty mug of tea down.

“How?” I asked. “The only other dwarves we’ve seen were that warband. And we only found them by accident.”

“We can go on a hunt,” my wife grinned. “I can look at maps of the kingdom and research towns that have been attacked or the reports of sightings. There are plenty of people who claim they’ve seen Iron Dwarves, but no one ever believes them.”

“How long will that take?” Tas asked as she shifted in her seat. “If we wait too long, it’ll give the Korlems and the Iron Dwarves a chance to make their move.”

“If we sneak into the library at the school, then I can find us a warband in a couple of days,” the dark-haired elvenborn said. “And with a sighting of us here, they won’t be looking too closely at the school for us anymore.”

“Three days,” I said. “If we don’t find another Iron Dwarf tharmatauge before then, we’ll have to figure something else out.”

“We should stay here,” Aylara spoke up. “We can go to the library on campus and get all of the information we need… but I think we should stay in the safe house.”

“They probably will be looking for us on the road,” I agreed. “Though they’ll probably scour the city for us anyways.”

“And they can track our magical signatures,” Tas added.

“Do you think they’ll be able to find us here even though we teleported?” the mouse-girl asked with a glance towards the front door.

“Probably,” the red-headed vixen replied. “We should just get out of the city to somewhere safe, and then we can decide what our next move is.”

“She’s right,” I said as I looked around at the strong, powerful women in my life, I needed to keep them safe, and the first part of that was getting them out of the city. “Noura, are all of our belongings in the carriage?”

“Yes,” the djinn replied. “And Taslyn helped me to scrub the magic from the room.”

“Even with the furniture still here?” I asked as I looked around with Tannow’s sight. There were traces of trails around the room, but every time I tried to single one out, it would blur and fade from my grasp. “That’s amazing.”

“Thank you,” the fire-haired woman said with a blush.

“Okay,” I said as I clapped my hands together. “Let’s get to the carriage and then we’ll regroup once we’re somewhere safe. I’m just going to teleport us into the carriage.” I imagined the interior cabin with its plush red seats and dark stained wood, but like when I was still on the castle grounds, Mama Skelk’s powers were unresponsive.

“Zayre?” Aylara asked when none of us moved.

“It’s not working,” I muttered as I tried again but to no avail. “It’s like when we were in the market. It’s like there’s a wall between me and the magic.”

“Shit,” Taslyn cursed as she jumped up from her couch and ran to the windows. “The guards are knocking on doors. They must have tracked us.”

“But don’t they have to set up wards or something to block my teleportation?” I asked as I joined her.

“Not if the Council is helping them,” Janel said as she came to join us.

The red light district was filled with soldiers, and more seemed to join them with every second. They pounded on doors, then pushed their way inside, and I could hear the screams of the people inside as they searched for us.

We would never make it to the carriage without Mama Skelk’s ability, there were too many of them, and if I used my magic to restrain all of them, then someone would end up seriously hurt. But we couldn’t just sit around and wait for them to get to us, we needed to hide or escape, and fast.

“We need to find a place to hide,” I said. “Or a way out that doesn’t involve hurting any of the king’s men.”

I looked at Taslyn and then Aylara, between the three of us I was sure that we could come up with something, but neither of them spoke up, and the guards were getting closer with every second that passed.

“We may need to accept we’ll have to injure a few of the soldiers,” my vixen girlfriend finally said. “As long as we don’t kill them… we might be able to convince the king to pardon us once we expose the Iron Dwarves in his court.”

“No,” I said as I shook my head. “They aren’t our enemy. They don’t know they’re being manipulated. There has to be another way.”

“I could make us a pocket dimension,” Noura suggested. “Like I do with my closets.”

“But they’ll definitely look in the closets,” Aylara said. “I hate to admit it, Zayre… but we might have to fight our way out.”

“I can hide us in a jewelry box,” my djinn girlfriend said. “Someone left one in one of the rooms. Even if the guards search the entire place… I doubt that they’ll think to look inside of a jewelry box for five, full-grown people.”

“She has a point,” I said. “They’ll be looking for us in places they’d expect us to fit.” I looked into Noura’s coal dark eyes and saw her confidence, though I wasn’t entirely convinced she could make a dimension big enough inside of a jewelry box, but even if it was a tight fit, the guards wouldn’t think to look inside.

“Let’s do it,” Janel said.

“Alright,” Tas agreed, and she looked about as excited as I did about being crammed into a tiny jewelry box.

“I’m in,” Aylara said. “But we need to hurry. They’re next door.”

“I am happy to protect my masters,” the djinn said as she summoned the jewelry box. It was smaller than I had expected, not big enough for more than a few rings, and it was covered in tarnished copper and silver.

“Open up in the name of the king!” someone shouted as a fist slammed repeatedly into the door.

“It’s now or never,” I said, and then watched as the djinn walked over to set the box on a shelf behind the bar.

She opened the lid, spoke some words in a language that I didn’t understand, and then motioned for us to come over. We all joined her as quietly as possible, the sound of the guard on the other sound grew louder as he knocked on the door again, and when I looked into our hiding spot all I could see was a swirl of red and black.

“It’ll shut behind us and look like it hasn’t been touched in years,” the djinn reassured us.

“Okay,” I nodded. “Let’s go.”

I stared at the tiny box dubiously as the door splintered under the heavy pounding of yet another knock, the guard had called reinforcements, and it was either stuff ourselves into the jewelry box or be run through by a blade.