Page 61 of Storms & Sacrifice
Please be okay. Please be okay. Please be okay.
I can’t even describe the wave of relief that comes over me when the station comes into view unharmed. No, the smoke is coming from a few blocks behind it—the arena. I rush into the station only to be told that Khazak and Ragnar both went to the arena after that last explosion. I’m torn between relief that they’re okay and worry that they headed straight into danger. I take off again, and as I come up on the large wooden doors of the arena, I find both men on this side of it, the two of them and a third ranger hacking away at them with large hatchets.The hell?
“Sir,” I call out as Iapproach.
“David.” He looks relieved to see me. He’s also wearing a new setof armor.
“What’s going on? Why can’t you get inside?” I watch the other rangers continue to attackthe door.
“All of the entrances have been sealed.” He doesnotsound happy. “The doors are enchanted with defenses against magical attacks, so destroying them is our only way of getting inside.”
“Captain,” Ragnar draws both of our attention. “I think we’re ready.”
As the orcs step away from the door, I can see that they’ve hacked a smaller door-shaped outline into it. The third ranger with them is a very burly looking orc. Firedrum is her name; I remember because she’s the other orc I fought along with Arik months ago in the temple, though I’m a little too preoccupied to worry about feeling bad about that again right now. When she steps the farthest away and takes a runner’s stance, I understand their plan. She barrels toward the door, slamming into it with her armor-covered shoulder. There’s a loudcrackas part of the door splits, and she finishes the job with a few well-placed kicks.
As soon as our new entrance is clear, all four of us enter the building. It’s dark, pitch black except for the very dim moonlight streaming down from the staircase leading to the audience seats as well as through the hole we just made. The first thing we do is climb the stairs, looking for the site of the last explosion. It’s not hard to find, dead center on the arena floor. The ground looks collapsed in on itself, smoke rising from the hole.Didn’t Khazak say something about a vault under there?
“Our first priority is locating the curators.” Khazak leads us back downstairs. “Rockfang, Firedrum, you search that direction. David, you arewith me.”
We split up, each duo taking one of the dark hallways that circles the arena. It’s dead quiet, which seems so strange knowing the absolute chaos that is going on outside. I can barely see a thing, but it’s not as bad as the forest. I’m not even sure what we’re looking for, but when I hear what sounds like a softmeow, I stop.
“Did you hear that?” Because if I did, there’s no wayhe didn’t.
“Yes, but where...” I see him scanning the dark hall. “There! One of the curators’ familiars.”
I look where Khazak points and start to follow but can’t see anything until a pair of eyes flash as the light hits them. It’s a black cat, the same one I saw here on the last night of the festival. Its fur makes the rest of it look invisible in the darkness, at least until we get closer, and the animal starts glowing. Undisturbed by the creature’s sudden light-up fur, Khazak pursues it down the hall. It leads us through another of the arena’s lobbies and down another hall before coming to a stop in front of a simple wooden door.
When we get close, I hear a knocking sound, and the soft glow emanating from the cat reveals the form of a small black bird sitting on the doorframe, pecking at the door below it.The other familiar.The witches must be inside. Khazak reaches for the door handle, grunting in frustration when it doesn’t give. Still gripping the handle in one hand, he puts one of his feet up against the wall outside the door frame. Then, with a powerful yank, he rips the door off its frame, destroyingthe lock.
“Captain?” Ragnar and Firedrum come around the opposite end of the hallway just in time to witness.
With the door open, the cat and bird both make their way inside, the cat’s light revealing the forms of the two curator witches on the ground, both bound and gagged. One of them stirs when we enter, muffled sounds coming from behind her gag. Khazak immediately kneels down, pulling a familiar-looking switchblade from his pocket to untie her while Firedrum does the same with her sister.
“What happened?” Khazak asks as the woman rubs feeling back into her wrists. She holds up a single finger as she slowly chants to herself, crossing her hands overher chest.
“I was not able to see much beyond their black robes.”That sounds familiar. “They tried to poison us with darts, but they only managed to nick me. Ralor’s poison,I think.”
That would explain why her fellow curator still isn’t moving, which is starting to worry me. She shuffles over and begins casting the same healing spell she did on herself. A second later, the other curator springs to life, unleashing a torrent of angry sounding words once she regains her ability to speak, including someverynasty curses I had Nylanteach me.
“I know, but we need to check on the vault first,” the woman tells her sister as she stands.
With both witches mobile, they lead us from the room and down the hall. Their familiars in tow, they light the torches we pass with their magic, coming to a stop in front of a fairly nondescript wall. Both women move to a separate section, and using both hands, trace symbols onto the different stones making up the wall. Their fingers leave a trail of light that fades after a second or two, but I don’t recognize any of thepatterns.
When they’re finished, the two witches step back, and a second later, the stones on the wall begin to shift and move, folding in on themselves to reveal a staircase and passageway behind it. The way down is dark, and there is a small amount of smoke rising up from the newentrance.
Covering our faces as best we can, the six of us quickly descend the stairs into a passageway that leads underneath the center of the arena. I can make out a set of double doors at the other end of the hall, illuminated from behind by what I’m guessing is the fire we saw from the arena’s seats. Both women begin casting spells to control the blaze as we get closer.
There’s no sign of the attackers once the fire is out, the vault in a complete state of disrepair. A number of objects have been burned and documents destroyed, but the witches tell us it’s impossible to tell what without doing a more complete inventory of what remains. They start to immediately get to work cleaning up what they can and tell us that as soon as they can determine what may have been taken, they will let us know.
The four of us search the rest of the arena afterward but find nothing else out of place nor any sign of the black-robed thieves. As we exit the Hall of Honor, thunder crackles above us, and the rains finally begin to fall.
There are no more explosions after the Hall of Honor, but that doesn’t mean the rest of the night is any easier. Counting the apartments and the arena, a total of six places were bombed: the eastern ranger station, the shipyard, the militia barracks, and the prison were all also hit. Khazak and I spend the rest of the night running all overthe city.
Each bombing caused its own set of injuries and casualties, and it gets harder to stay composed the longer the night goes on. The story at each location is almost exactly the same. No one seems to have witnessed anyone actually causing the explosions. The best we get are people whothinkthey may have seen someone in black robes in the area. We can’t even figure out what common thread links all of the places attacked. It all just feelsso random.
It’s four in the morning by the time Khazak and I finally make it home for the night. Normally, we would have returned to our post at the patrol camp to finish out the week, but given the events of the night, Khazak is needed in the city. We’re both exhausted, but neither of us can sleep, instead just sitting in the living room numbly, me on the couch and him in a chair in the kitchen.
We won’t know the full numbers until tomorrow, but at least a dozen people were killed tonight and more than twice that injured. I keep thinking back to how the night started after the wolf attack. The explosions, the fire at the apartment building, all the other scenes of destruction. Why would someone do this?
