“Look! I’m a wealthy man, okay? In Himnel,” he said, pointing upwards. “Give her the potion, free us, and take us back to the city, it’ll be worth it for you! What do you want? Weapons? Gold? Magical books? I’ve got them, and I can get more, I swear!”
I stopped and stared at him. I’d always planned on giving it to the girl, but fuck it, I did need help up there.
“I give this to the girl, instead of one of my team, and you’ll do what, exactly?”
“What do you want?!” He growled back at me. “She’s my only family, she’s all I have left! Tell me what you want, and it’s yours.”
“I have people I need to get out of Himnel, and I need supplies and manastones.” I said.
“I can arrange it! I can make it happen. I’ve been using the smuggler’s path for years. I can lead you out, I can get you anything. I swear it. Just please, help her!”
I nodded and stepped forward. My mana was nearly high enough for me to make a single Oath, and I felt Oracle’s unhappy approval as she sensed my intent.
“Then you’ll swear to it with an Oath?” I asked him, and he stiffened, before sagging against the bars of the cage.
“I can’t,” he said slowly, shaking his head. “I’m a smuggler, I already swore Oaths to the Guild. I can’t swear another; they’d know, and as soon as they see me, they’ll kill me…”
“Convenient.” I said, stepping away from him and moving to check on the girl strapped to the table.
“No, you don’t understand! You want help up there? You want me to get you gear, smuggle you out of the city? How would I do that if the Smugglers Guild are hunting me? All I’d do is draw a target on both our backs… the Guild will reward you for this anyway… wait… here!”
He got a faraway look on his face and his lips moved soundlessly for a few seconds before my notifications flashed again.
“There! Now you know you can trust me…” he said and gestured to the girl. “Please, whoever you are, she’s all I have left…” I could see the unshed tears standing in his eyes as he waited, and I shook my head, straightening up.
“Fucking hell, now I’ve got to work through these god-damn notific…”
I broke off, the first of the notifications just popping up into my vision, as I saw movement in the tunnel leading out of the cavern. I frantically swiped the notifications away, the resistance caused by there being so many resulting in a feeling like a porn popup in the late nineties. As soon as one began to close, another took its place, then another, as shouts and screams filled the air around me.
I finally managed to get rid of them, just in time to see the Drow aiming down his bow at me, and the arrow as it took flight, speeding at my unarmored heart.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
I twisted at the hip, with no time to move properly, and turned to take the arrow sideways on, making as small a target as possible. I had one chance, and that was down to my insanely increased Agility. I concentrated, the cavern shrinking down to the three of us: the Drow Archer, his arrow, and myself.
I saw the fletching shudder as the arrow flew towards me, as the silvery metal of the arrowhead glinted with reflected firelight. Time slowed to a crawl as my miniscule amount of mana was forced into my body instinctively, and I felt the time coming closer…
I saw in my peripheral vision as my mana ticked down from four points, to three, to two…and my left hand flashed forward, even as my right yanked the dagger on that hip free, and brought it up behind my back to head height.
The final point of mana vanished, and as time sped back up…my left hand slammed into the arrow, fingers closing tight, and I yanked backwards, the arrow’s tip slicing a thin line across my right pectoral muscle as I caught it.
I saw the look of shock on the Drow’s face as he saw what I’d just done, and I brought my right hand around, straightening my body and snapping my hips to give extra force to the throw as I’d been taught, oh so long ago.
I heard the phantom voice of West shouting at me from my memories…
“Twist and pop! Your hips ain’t just for the ladies, lad! Use them, use the power in them to surprise your target, and it’ll be the last fucking thing they see!”
The dagger blurred across the room, almost to quickly to see, flipping end over end, to hit the Drow in the eye…hilt first.
“Fuuuuuck!” I ground out, running forward, and dipping low to sweep up a silvery Drow sword from the floor on the way, and wincing as my mana migraine flared anew. The goddamn throw had been perfect; the aim, the force…but to land hilt first!
I closed the distance towards the door, glimpsing Jian running ahead of me to engage another Drow, and I blinked, forcing myself to take in the rest of the room.
The tunnel they’d come from was close to the corner of the room, hemmed in by boxes and stacks of gear from the caravans, which made it hard to surround.
There were four of them…one archer and three melee types. One had a short spear, the other two had swords, and the archer was just starting to straighten up, clutching his face, which was blotchy with fury.
Jian parried the first stab from his Drow, getting to him just ahead of me. The other two had stepped up next to the first, standing shoulder to shoulder and waiting for us to come to them.
Lydia and Barrett came up on my left, while Jian was on my right, and we filled the small space between them and the
