Brian Pratt - The unsuspecting mage

Twisting around again, he lies on his back and places his feet against one of the sacks trapping the trowel and pushes with all his strength. The sack topples over and spills grain as it hits the ground, causing several rats to scurry away. He leans upon one elbow and is relieved to find the trowel lying loosely upon the ground. Wriggling his way over to it, James tries using it to saw through his bonds. The thought of doing magic to break the ropes binding him makes his head ache.

“What’s going on?” asks Miko who is unable to see what James is doing because of the hood.

Groaning with the effort to apply proper pressure to saw through the rope binding his hands tied behind his back, he replies, “I found something that may cut the rope.”

“Can’t you use magic?” Miko asks.

In dire need of an aspirin, James says, “I’d rather not if I don’t have to.”

The trowel isn’t very sharp and having his hands tied behind his back doesn’t give him much leverage to be very effective. He works at it for several long minutes before managing to saw through the bindings.

“Got it!” he exclaims when the rope finally comes apart.

With his hands free it’s much easier to sever the rope binding his legs. Once his legs are free, he comes to his feet and goes over to remove Miko’s hood.

“Thank you,” he says to James once the hood comes off. “It was getting hard to breathe in there.”

“No problem,” James replies as he begins using the trowel to saw through Miko’s bindings. Once he frees Miko, he goes over to the door. He’s not surprised to find it locked. Using his orb of light, he examines the door closely. He can’t really tell anything about the locking mechanism as it is located on the other side, so he decides to try prying the lock up. Using the trowel which is fairly flat, he slides it between the door and the door jamb and very cautiously slides it up until he feels resistance. Giving it a little more pressure, he hears a faint click as the trowel pushes the latch up. He presses lightly on the door and it begins to swing open.

Opening the door a bare crack, he sees nothing but darkness on the other side. Pulling the door closed, but not far enough for the lock to secure itself again, he turns back to the room and Miko.

He takes Miko’s hood and puts the glowing orb in it, leaving only a small opening which will allow only a very dim light to escape. Signaling for Miko to remain quiet, he opens the door slowly and the light coming from the hood reveals a flight of wooden steps on the other side leading up to another door. The door at the top of the steps has light radiating through the cracks around it.

“Looks like they’re up there,” he says to Miko who nods. “How many of them were there?”

“I only saw four before the hood was put on me,” replies Miko.

“Let’s hope they didn’t invite any friends along and maybe we can get out of here,” he says as he slowly starts to climb the stairs. Turning back to Miko he says, “Stay down here for a second, I’m going up there and see if I can tell how many we have to deal with.”

Miko nods understandingly and remains by the foot of the steps.

James takes the steps slowly, trying to minimize their creaking by placing his feet as close to the edge of the wooden steps as possible. Cautiously, he makes it to the top where an old, cracked wooden door stands closed. Leaning close to the door, he hears several voices coming from the other side.

“Just how long are we supposed to wait?” one whiney voice asks impatiently.

“We were told to wait and wait is what we’re gonna do!” another voice commandingly tells the first.

“Yeah, stop yer whining Elz,” another adds derisively. “We’re making enough off of this.”

“Alright, alright,” Elz says, “I’ll wait.”

The sound of cards being shuffled comes from the other room. Listening for a while, he determines there are just the three of them playing cards. He then returns back down to where Miko waits and tells him what he overheard.

“I don’t like this James,” Miko says. “If there are three up there, then where’s the fourth and is he the one they’re waiting for?”

“I don’t know, but I don’t want to be here when whomever they are waiting for arrives,” he replies.

“I agree,” Miko says, “we better get out of here fast.”

James returns to the cellar where they had been dumped, and takes a quick inventory but finds little of use, just grains and seeds. The boxes however give him an idea and he pries three small boards off of one that’s broken. Using the trowel again, he sharpens one end of each. It’s not very effective for this sort of thing but it’s all he has. Once the boards are sharpened, he hands the trowel and the hood with the glowing orb still inside, to Miko. Then he carries the sharpened sticks with him as he again climbs to the door at the top of the steps.

He pauses a moment to listen at the door until he again hears the three men talking as they play cards. The door is being kept closed by a sliding bar. Fortunately, the sliding bar has a handle on this side of the door. Taking hold of the handle, he slides it very slowly until the end comes free from the door jamb.

Thinking about what he is about to attempt makes the throbbing in his head worsen. He takes a moment to calm himself, and the throbbing settles back down to a dull ache. Okay James, he says to himself, you can do this. Readying his sticks, he begins formulating the spell he plans to use. Once he has it, he nods to Miko who nods back that he’s ready. One final calming breath, then he kicks the door open.

The slamming of the door against the wall startles the three men, causing them to leap from their seats and turn in surprise to see him framed in the doorway. One begins to draw a sword, the other two, knives.

Not giving the men a chance to react, James takes the three sharpened boards, and as he throws them in their direction, the words of a version of his spear spell issue forth. Magic surges out of him and takes hold of the sticks. With incredible speed and accuracy, they impale each of the three men in the chest. James has a momentary satisfaction of seeing them fall before the pain in his head erupts to a point where it causes him to black out.

As James bursts through the door and casts his spell, Miko follows him into the room. He carries the trowel in one hand as a weapon and holds the hood containing the glowing orb in the other. Movement from across the room catches his eye as James launches the three sharpened sticks toward the men at the table. A man who had been resting upon a cot gets quickly to his feet. Wearing nothing but a shirt and pants, he draws a sword from the sword belt that had been looped around the back of a nearby chair and begins advancing toward them.

Before the man has the chance to take two steps, he comes to an abrupt halt when his partners are struck down by the sticks. Fearing to face one who can do such a thing, he turns for the door, ready to flee. But then he sees James succumb to the affects of casting the spell and collapse to the floor. Now with only Miko left to deal with, the man stops his flight and advances once again toward Miko, sword at the ready.

Miko holds the trowel out before him threateningly. In a voice filled with fear, he says to the man, “I…I am a great wizard too! A…and if you don’t throw down your weapon, I…I…I will cast the fires of hell at you.”

Smiling, the man continues advancing toward him and says, “Go ahead kid, burn me. I dare you.” When he takes another two steps and Miko has done nothing but stand there menacing him with the trowel, he says, “Thought not.”

As he comes close, Miko grabs the open end of the hood with his left hand, the one holding the trowel. With his other hand, he holds the other end and says with all his might, “Fires of hell, burn him!” He swings the hood toward the man and lets go with his left hand. Stopping the hood’s forward motion with a jerk of his right hand, the hood suddenly opens and the glowing orb sails out of the hood, straight toward the man’s head.