Silver Peak, page 30
part #2 of Sky Realms Online Series
Hall ignored her question and ran back to the hatch. He pulled it open, letting it crash to the floor. The sound was loud, startling everyone. He heard the two women jump and cry out, saw his companions at the bottom of the shaft squinting against the sudden light.
“Leigh,” he called down. “There are two hurt women up here. Ulysses, get up here.” He stepped away from the hatch and stopped, turning back. “Rox, I need you to stay down there with your Dark Vision. Caryn, you come up to stand guard at the door.”
He walked back to the woman, stopping a foot or so away from the opening. He leaned his spear against the wall, arms held out away from his side. He could hear the others coming up the ladder. The young woman had taken a couple steps toward the door, the older forcing herself to stand up. Leigh got to the top of the ladder and gasped. She ran past him and into the small room.
Ulysses came to a stop next to Hall, looking at the women.
“Bastards,” he growled.
“They came a couple weeks ago, I think,” the young woman, she had said her name was Hitchly, told them.
She sat on the ground, arms around her knees, looking up at Hall and Ulysses. Next to her, the older woman lay on the ground sleeping. Leigh had done all she could with her Nature’s Touch spell. The magic was more for physical wounds than sickness, but it had managed to restore some of the woman’s Health and Vitality. Leigh was busy mashing down some of their Greenroot supply and mixing it with water in hopes that would help. The older woman’s name was Dinah and she was Hitchly’s mother. Dinah appeared to be in her late forties, her black hair mostly gray and with dark eyes. Hitchly was mid-twenties.
“That’s our land,” Hitchly continued and waved her hand out the barn door. Caryn stood there now, looking out into the fields and making sure no Silver Blades appeared. “The tunnel had been right under us, and we never knew. Not until they wanted that built.” She pointed at the open hatch. “Took our lands. Locked up Ma and me. Killed...” she started and stopped. She roughly wiped tears away from her eyes with the sleeve of her filthy shirt. “He put up a good fight. Da used to be a guard before he met Ma and settled down on the farm. Killed one of them, he did,” Hitchly said, looking up at Hall with fierce pride burning in her eyes. “Took two of ‘em to put him down.” Her eyes dropped again and she fell silent, head against her arms.
Hall didn’t push her to continue. The young woman had been through a lot. He couldn’t imagine what the Blades had done to her or why. She probably didn’t know either. He thought to say something but wasn’t sure what. To his surprise, it was Ulysses that spoke up.
“This shouldn’a happened ta ya,” he said, his rough voice gentle. “Ya gots caught up in a war. Not ya fault. But ta ones that did this ta ya, that took ya Da, they will pay, believe me.”
Hitchly looked up at him and nodded, her face dropping again.
Hall motioned for Ulysses to step away. The thief followed him to the doors.
“Why did the Silver Blades...” Hall started to ask and stopped, not able to put it to words.
“Keep ’em alive?” Ulysses supplied and Hall nodded. “Not sure. I can’t think o’ ta value in it,” he finished with a shrug. His eyes kept darting to the two women, sympathetic.
“You seem especially angry about it,” Hall said.
“Anyone would,” Ulysses growled. “I may be a thief but there be some lines even I won’t cross. Just tells me how depraved these Blades are.”
Hall bit back a laugh. Ulysses and the Door Knockers were thieves. They killed and stole for their own profit. He found it odd that Ulysses was upset about the Blades kidnapping the two women.
“The Door Knockers have never kidnapped anyone?” he asked.
Ulysses turned to look up at him, angry.
“O’ course we have,” the thief snapped. “But ya don’t keep ‘em locked up like that,” he growled and pointed at the room in the back of the barn. “Ya treat ‘em well. Ya want ‘em ta survive. Ya don’t treat ‘em like animals.”
Hall nodded, understanding. He was surprised he understood what the difference was. Even thieves, it appeared, had somewhat of a moral code.
“Hall,” Leigh yelled from the rear of the barn, motioning for him to come over there.
He walked quickly over, Ulysses behind him. He thought that Dinah, or Hitchly, had gotten worse but he found Dinah still asleep. It was Hitchly, though; she was still sitting with her arms around her legs, but she was talking again.
“Tell them what you told me,” Leigh prompted her.
Hitchly started talking. Quiet, hard to hear.
“We don’t own the land,” she said. “Da rented it so when the Silver Blades first appeared, we thought them to be from the landlord. We weren’t behind on rent, the land had been producing the quota, so didn’t know why they had come. Thugs, the lot of them. Big and strong. No reason for them to be here. ‘He said the land is ours now,’ one of them said. The landlord. He gave the land to the Blades. Da protested and that’s when it happened.”
Hitchly fell silent again.
Ulysses crouched down in front of the young woman, just looking at her until she lifted her head to look at him with haunted eyes.
“Who owns ta land?” he asked.
“Lord Cronet,” Hitchly said. “The thugs told us that Lord Cronet said the lands were theirs.”
Ulysses watched her for a couple more seconds before standing up. He glanced out the open barn doors and then at the open hatch. Then he cursed, loudly and long. Curse after curse strung together. He finally stopped with a sigh.
“What?” Hall asked, knowing the thief had learned something important.
“We know who ta Cudgel be now,” Ulysses replied and he sounded worried.
THE BLADE’S CUDGEL I
Learn the identity of The Cudgel 1/1
Learn the location of The Cudgel 0/1
Reward: +100 Door Knocker Reputation
+75 PeakGuard Experience
+50 Experience
“What are you talking about?” Hall asked.
Ulysses had taken a couple steps back, turning to face the open doors.
“We need ta leave,” he said. “Now. Pack up ‘n leave ta city.”
He was almost at the door when Hall reached him, grabbing the smaller man by the shoulder. Hall spun him around, and Ulysses looked like he would have stabbed Hall if he had a blade in hand.
“Who is this Cronet?” Hall asked, not backing down.
Ulysses glared but settled down, sighing.
“The next ruler o’ Silver Peak Keep,” the thief said. “That be what this is about. Cronet is staging a bloodless takeover.” He shrugged out of Hall’s grasp but did not move closer to the door. The small thief looked defeated.
“But the fighting between the Door Knockers and Silver Blades will be bloody,” Roxhard said from near the room in the back. “Won’t it?” he asked and looked to the others.
“O’ course it will,” Ulysses replied. “Too damn bloody but the folk won’t care. That be just thief ‘gainst thief. And Cronet will be there ta pick up ta pieces. Controlling who wins from ta shadows ‘n putting ‘em down in ta light. He cares nuthing for running ta crime. It’s just a means ta an end. A distraction.”
Hall thought about it for a moment, putting the pieces together.
By using the Silver Blades, this Cronet would have a way to undermine the current ruling authority of the city. The war between the Door Knockers, who had an uneasy but long-standing truce with the Guard, and the Silver Blades would spill out into the streets. They would make sure of that and the Blades wouldn’t care. It seemed they were recruited from elsewhere, so what did they care about the citizens of Silver Peak Keep? And once the Blades had control, they could wreck whatever chaos they wanted. And the ledgers. The faked ledgers would undermine the Councilor of Coin and what the city actually had for funds.
First, the people would feel threatened by the Blades and that the PeakGuard would not be able to protect them. Then, they would lose all belief in the rulership of the city as the records were shown to be falsified or wrong. The final step would be to lose faith in the ruler of Silver Peak Keep, Chancellor Valorem. The leader of the Keep was voted in by the Council, and Cronet would have things lined up so he would be next in line.
“Which seat does Cronet hold?” Hall asked.
Ulysses nodded, realizing that Hall was seeing the bigger picture now. The thief stared at Hall, waiting for him to put the last pieces together.
Hall worked through what he knew about Silver Peak Keep. The lore from the original game had not been extensive. There had never been a need for it. There was the Chancellor that was the final say in all matters, the ruler of the city, both the Keep and the Dock. He was assisted by the Council, each ruling over a different aspect of life in the city. Arms controlled the PeakGuard. Coin was in charge of the coffers and taxes.
“Not Coin or Arms,” Hall said. Cronet was working to undermine both of those so it would not be the position he sat.
That left only one Council seat.
Trade.
“Yep,” Ulysses said. “Cronet be ta Councilor o’ Trade.”
Hall looked back at the others. They had heard it all. Hitchly and her mother, Dinah, were both standing. They looked fearful, confused. He turned back to Ulysses.
“Cronet be a rough one from what I hear,” the small thief explained. “Ruthless ‘n cruel. Not well-liked by anyone. But he be a good merchant. That be how he gots ta be Councilor.”
“He is a cruel man,” Dinah said, coughing. Hitchly helped hold her mother up as the older woman continued to cough. She straightened a bit once the fit stopped. “The first month we were here, Cronet had a thug beat Hitchly’s Da bloody because he was a day late on the rent. As long as the rent was paid and the quotas were met, things were okay, but be off a day or a pound...” Dinah trailed off, coughing again.
“Sounds ‘bout right,” Ulysses muttered. “Guy like that in charge o‘ ta city and no one will be happy.”
“How does a man like that get elected?” Jackoby asked. Hall realized this must all be new to the Firbolg. Where he came from, politics like this did not happen.
“No other choice,” Hall replied. “There will be no faith in Coin and Arms. And with Valorem failing in his duties, there will be no choice but to elect Cronet.”
Ulysses nodded.
Hall thought about all that he had learned. It was a lot to take in but did it change anything? He had already committed to stopping the Cudgel, no matter who it was. Knowing that it was a powerful ruler of the city didn’t affect that. And now he had another goal. Silver Peak Keep was Skara Brae’s neighbor. He didn’t want a man like Cronet in charge. How soon would it be before Cronet decided he wanted to expand his holdings beyond the Keep?
A man like Cronet would not stop with just a city. He would build a kingdom and in such a way that no one would dare to stand in his way or stop him. The worst kind of expansion, the kind that made sense. The kind that you would welcome until it was too late.
“Knowing who the Cudgel is doesn’t change anything,” Hall said. “He needs to be stopped.”
Ulysses just nodded, over his initial bout of fear
“Just be making it harder,” the thief said.
Hall was about to nod in agreement but stopped. Did it make it harder? Or was it easier now that they knew who the Cudgel was?
“No,” he said after some thought. “It makes it easier. We now know where he lives.”
QUEST COMPLETE!
You have discovered the identity and the location of the Silver Blade’s leader, the man called The Cudgel.
THE BLADE’S CUDGEL I
Learn the identity of The Cudgel 1/1
Learn the location of The Cudgel 1/1
Reward: +100 Door Knocker Reputation
+75 PeakGuard Experience
+50 Experience
Knowing the identity of the Cudgel, you now have to defeat him to prevent the takeover of Silver Peak Keep. This will be easier said than done.
THE BLADE’S CUDGEL II
Defeat The Cudgel 0/1
Reward: +50 Door Knocker Reputation
+50 PeakGuard Experience
+50 Experience
ACCEPT QUEST?
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Hall watched as Hitchly and Dinah walked away from the farm and to the road that would lead them to Peakdock. He had sent them to see Sergeant Brient, the only person he knew they could trust. Everything that Hall and the others knew, Hitchly now knew and would tell Brient. Hall hoped the guardsmen would know what to do with the information.
Hall wasn’t sure that he did. All he knew was that Cronet, the Cudgel, had to be put down.
He wanted to do more for the two women, the least of which was to escort them back to the Constable’s office. But time was important now. Soon the Cudgel would wonder what was going on with the botched shipment from earlier and why none of his people at the Durnpoole Farm were reporting back. At that point, Hall was afraid the man would go into hiding.
The time to strike was now.
Which was why Hall and his companions had abandoned the tunnel and were making their way to the road, only north not south. They were heading back to Silver Peak Keep, the city on the plateau. He didn’t have a plan, not yet, but hoped one would come to him once they were in the city.
“Why are we doing this?” Sabine asked.
She had been asking a variation of that question the whole time they had been in Silver Peak Keep. Hall understood that she wasn’t happy with how they had gotten involved. She had essentially been kidnapped and they had been blackmailed into fighting the Guild war. And at the beginning, he had wondered the same thing. This wasn’t their fight. He could have gotten the resources he needed elsewhere. That had just been an excuse.
He realized that he was treating the whole thing like he had before. A quest had appeared, he had accepted, and he had run the chain. As much as he had convinced himself that this new life was not a game, that it was real, he was still falling back to old gaming routines.
That had been at first. But as they had advanced through the quests, fought the battles and gotten more involved; Hall had come to realize that the reason why he was doing it was beyond the quests and their rewards. It was something that needed to be done. The Door Knockers were thieves, but they had lines they would not cross. They did not want the death of innocents. The Blades did not care who they hurt.
Seeing Hitchly and Dinah had sealed it for him.
What had been done to them was needlessly cruel. There was no reason for it. In either the act or keeping them alive. It was cruelty for cruelty’s sake and done at the command of Cronet. That was not a man that should be in charge of a city the size of Silver Peak Keep. Hall did not want him as a neighbor and would be forever fearful of seeing Cronet’s army on the ridge overlooking Skara Brae.
He didn’t bother answering Sabine, just kept walking through the fields.
They left Hitchly’s farm at an angle, making a straight line for the plateau that became jagged as they passed over the fields, working their way through crops and plowed land, climbing over rock walls. It was hard going, as darkness had settled in while they had been in the tunnel. Dark shapes appeared everywhere, lacking in detail.
Hall could feel the push of the corn stalks against him as he made his way through them. He could remember traveling through other fields in the game where the crops had been spaced out to allow passage, the physical weight barely registering. That was no longer the case. Those fields had been replaced with ones that were truer to reality.
Like the forest outside of Grayhold after the Glitch. It had started out like the original game, space between the trees, but quickly changed to a real forest with only a few feet between the trunks. Just one of the many things that had changed. But when had it occurred?
He couldn’t remember seeing it happen; it just did. Everything seemed natural, the way it should be, and it was only when he forced himself to concentrate, to remember, that he noticed the difference.
Pike circled overhead, a dark spot in the dark and cloud-filled sky. Hall could see darker shadows further up, passing behind the gray clouds. Other islands blocking the stars. Between the islands and the clouds, barely any star or moonlight was reaching Edin and the fields around Silver Peak Keep. While it made travel harder, Hall was glad that it was night. There wouldn’t be any farmers in the fields, fewer people to come across. Any of the people they encountered could be Silver Blades.
The Cudgel, Lord Cronet, had already shown he had no problem replacing the actual farmers with his hired thugs. And that was what they were. Thugs. Mercenaries.
They walked in silence, a long line with Hall leading and Roxhard once again in the rear. Firbolgs had a Limited Night Vision, similar to the Half-Elves, so Jackoby had been sent to the middle of the line to provide aid and watch. Hall would have liked one of the Wardens closer in case he ran into any trouble, but they were the only ones besides him that could see in the dark at all. They needed to be in a position to help guide the others. With Pike flying overhead for a broader view, Hall kept them marching.
It was a couple hours later when they hit the road that led into Silver Peak Keep. They could see the gates at the top of the plateau, two great doors set in the stone wall. Closed, with guards posted on the sides. No way in.
But they hadn’t planned on entering the city that way.
Ulysses led them around the plateau’s edge, keeping the slope to their right. Thirty minutes later, at a section of the plateau that was straight up and down, a sheer cliff, Ulysses stopped.
“Now ya will be forgettin’ ya saw this, right?” the thief grumbled.
He walked over to the cliff and a collection of boulders. There was nothing special about them, looking like the dozens they had already passed, but Ulysses seemed to find what he was looking for as he started pushing them out of the way to reveal a small cave. Only a couple feet high and wide, they would need to crawl to enter.
