bladder of oil each. Then, the onslaught began.
Three riders with bladders rode fast for the farmhouse and threw the oil filled bladders at the windows. Tinok and the others tried desperately to prevent the bladders from coming through, but when they did, a flight of bolts flew through the windows at them. One of his men cried out as a bolt struck him in the neck. Two of the three bladders successfully made it through and smashed open on the floor of the farmhouse.
Right behind the riders with the oil came the riders with the torches. Just as the ones before them did, they threw their burning brands through the window. Two of the torches were successfully blocked, but one made it through and landed onto the oil covered floor.
Whoosh!
The oil on the floor ignited and fire spread across the floor just as another set of riders came with more bladders of oil. Distracted by the burning oil within the farmhouse, they were unable to prevent the others from coming through. Two of the bladders broke open on impact, increasing the already fierce fire burning across the floor. The third remained intact upon impact. Sitting in the fire as it was, it didn’t take long before it exploded.
The oil contained within the exploding bladder flew in all directions. One of the men with Tinok was unfortunate enough to be in close proximity to it. He screamed in agony as the burning oil hit him and began to burn.
Coughing and rasping, he and the two remaining men decided to go out fighting. Kicking open the door, Tinok raced out with knives in hand. Behind him the other two had their swords drawn as they charged the soldiers to sell their lives as best they could.
No sooner did the door slam open than six crossbows released their deadly projectiles at the escaping men. One went down with two bolts in him, the other gets hit in the leg and continued on. None of the bolts hit Tinok and he saw the crossbowmen twenty feet before him. With a cry, he sprinted for them.
Regular soldiers quickly moved to protect the crossbowmen and he was soon surrounded with armored men. He managed to drop one of them with a lucky strike before he was struck on the back of his head and knocked unconscious.
He and his man that was struck in the leg with one of the crossbow bolts were tied and thrown across the backs of two horses. For a week they were taken across the desert until they arrived at what they learnt was the city of Cyst. All of their belongings but their clothes were taken, including the necklace he had given Cassie shortly before she was killed. That more than anything else took the fight from him. His mind burned for revenge, but his heart just felt like ashes.
He was sure slavery would not be his fate, rather the hangman’s noose. After what he and his men did, there could be no other fate for them. The first day he and Esix, the sole remaining member of his band, waited in apprehension for someone to come and tell them what was going to happen to them. But no one did.
They remained in one of the slave pens in Cyst for a week, maybe two. Time lost meaning after the first several days as one merged into the next. Each day they waited for the hammer to drop, yet their waiting was in vain for no one came to them. Until one day a man in armor came and took them. No word was given as they were escorted from the pen.
Neither one of them understood the significance of the man in armor at the time, simply that everyone including the slavers treated him with utmost respect. Tinok thought that some of them held back barely controlled fear while in his presence. He too could feel something about the man, whether from the man himself or due to the reaction of the others, he wasn’t sure.
As he waited for other slaves and prisoners to be gathered, Tinok noticed an insignia on the man’s armor. Three dots with lines running between them yet not touching them. Later he was to come to know that the insignia marked the man as one of the dreaded warrior priest’s of Dmon-Li. Terrible fighters who wield the power of their god with terrible strength.
He, Esix, and fourteen others were loaded onto two wagons and taken west. Before the end of the first day, a wall of fog appeared from out of the distance ahead of them. It grew larger the nearer they came to it and it didn’t take Tinok long to realize the fog was to be their destination.
The other slaves in the wagon with him grew nervous and fearful when they came to the realization as had Tinok that they were heading for the fog. He heard one of them call the fog the Mists of Sorrow, and from others he learned that it held a fell reputation.
Tinok watched the fog grow ever closer. Then all of a sudden it was all around them. One minute it was over a hundred yards away, and the next it was encompassing them. A man sitting next to him began having hysterics and was struck on the back of the head. Knocked out, the man’s screams and pleas were silenced as he fell against Tinok who was on the verge or losing it himself. Not wanting to be struck like the man next to him had been, Tinok kept a tight reign on the fear fighting to take control.
The fog now surrounding them dampened all sound. Even that of their horses’ hooves upon the ground was barely heard. Cold and clammy, it felt like it was trying to suck the warmth from you. It didn’t take long before the cold seeped its way to his very core. Teeth chattering, he wrapped his arms around himself in an attempt to keep warm. The others in the wagon with him did the same.
He’s not sure when it happened, but at one point the shadow of some beast passed through the mist not too far away. It was the size of a horse yet ran along the ground like a dog. There for a moment before disappearing back into the fog.
“What was that?” Esix asked him.
“I don’t know,” he replied. Glancing to the warrior priest leading them, he’s at least somewhat comforted by the knowledge that their captor isn’t reacting to the beast’s presence. Which meant there was no immediate threat from it. “Could be something like a watchdog,” he guessed.
“Maybe,” agreed Esix.
If it was a guard dog of some kind, the possibility of escape from wherever they are going began to seem unlikely. Tinok kept scanning the fog surrounding them while they continued to roll through and saw the beast several more times. At least he hoped it was the same beast. One they may be able to deal with should they get away. More than that and it’s a fool’s hope of ever getting out of here.
They rolled on through the night without more than minimal breaks to feed and water the horses. Tinok dozed on and off until he and the others in the wagons were taken out to answer the call of nature. None strayed too far from the wagons, the thought of facing what is out there kept them from even thinking of trying to escape. Once done, they were reloaded back onto the wagons and they resumed their progress through the fog.
Through the night and most of the next morning they were taken further into the fog. Finally, a dark shadow began to form ahead of them in the fog until they drew close enough and discovered the dark shadow was in actuality a large stone building.
How large the building may be couldn’t be seen due to the denseness of the fog. A large black wall was all they saw before it disappeared into the fog. Made of massive stone blocks, it looked very strong and impregnable. To the surprise of Tinok and the others, the warrior priest led them directly to the imposing stone wall.
The warrior priest stopped and dismounted when he reached the wall. Coming forward, he stopped and stood motionless before the black wall. With neither movement nor speech, he stood there like a statue until a grinding noise came from within the wall. Suddenly, a section began receding backward into the wall and then slid to the side. It revealed an opening wide enough for a wagon to pass comfortably and tall enough for a mounted rider.
Returning to his horse, the warrior priest mounted then began leading them into the dark edifice. One man in the wagon behind Tinok’s began screaming incoherently and tried to break free from his bonds. Yanking at the chain connecting his manacles to the eye ring in the bed of the wagon, he tugged at it furiously.
One of the riders escorting the wagons rode to the side of the wagon and struck the man on the back of the head with a club. The impact knocked him into the bed of the wagon and stilled his cries. Tinok continued glancing to the wagon but didn’t see the man get up. Fearing he may be dead, he looked to the other prisoners. Fear was in the eyes of every man in the wagon.
“What is this place?” Esix asked.
Tinok just shook his head.
Then their wagon rolled into the opening. If they thought it was cold out in the mist, within the opening it was absolutely frigid. Dark and cold, the tunnel extended into blackness. As they moved further away from the opening, the light from outside began to fade. When the last rider was within the tunnel, Tinok again heard the grinding noise of the block returning to its place within the wall. The light completely faded away as it moved once
