Thralls of a Dread Lord (1.18T)
My little man, Ronan, had his first day of junior kindergarten today. I am very proud of him.
<>
Welcome to my weekly serial. This is a rough draft that I am working on, for your reading pleasure.
It is a grim tale, so be warned.
Here is the first post from this series.
<>
“She’s skilled, I’ll give her that,” said Uyage as Uyaashie demonstrated her talents on a locked chest, swiftly opening and closing the mechanism with a tiny metal device that she inserted into the keyhole and twisted. The device made no noise, and left no mark that any of them could see. It took the nimble fingered Hob woman less than a three count to open the lock, every time.
For her part, Uyaashie ignored the other two, turning up her nose at both Ashoktyaar and Uyage. Retaak did not think it was racial animosity, even though Hobs often looked down on Orcs and Trolls, but rather a more personal kind of arrogance. Uyaashie knew that she was highly skilled and looked down on the others as her inferiors. He judged that she would come to appreciate the others once she saw them in action.
Uyage turned to Retaak. “Who is next on your list?”
“We have both fighting and infiltration,” he answered. “Even a little magic, it seems. I can think of only one being who would truly perfect the team.”
<>
With Wechegak’s blessing, travel in the Lower warrens was now relatively safe for them. Retaak was still wary that The Bloody Axe or some other group of mercenaries might try to kill him, but he was confident in his ability to evade them down here, in the place where he had grown up. He knew the Lower Warrens well, and enough of the people here respected him that he would know if large groups of armed spawn sought him out.
Retaak led his little band past the Brownswamp and into a a honeycomb of tunnels called the Maze. The tunnels were cramped and he often had to stoop, making him feel unpleasantly closed in. There were many side passages, and of these over half Retaak would not fit in. The Maze gained its name for the difficulty of navigating here.
The Maze was not entirely unpleasant though, Retaak’s heard laughter and singing, and his nose caught the scent of delicious spiced meat. The cuisine in The Maze was the spiciest in all of the Fellspawn Warrens.
“Who are we looking for?” asked Uyaashie.
“A goblin friend of mine,” said Retaak. “Kuzat”
Uyage grunted disapprovingly, as was her way. She was not quick to trust at the best of times, and Kuzat was too strange for her liking.
<>
Kuazt lurked in a part of The Maze called the Wormspiral where the tunnels twested around leading to a wide open area that acted as a gathering place for the local spawn. Retaak smelled the place before he found his way to it; like most of the Lower Warrens, the rare public spaces in The Maze were dominated by gardens of carefully tended fungi and deepflowers that thrived in sunless areas.
Kuzat was easy enough to find. He was putting on a show for a small crowd, creating shadows that danced and cavorted on the wall.
“What good is he?” asked Uyaashie, raising a brow.
“You’ll see soon enough,” answered Retaak.
<>
