Chapter 182 - Ambush

“Do you think it’s weird that there are no horses in the Radiant Isles?” asked Abby, walking beside Zeke. “Like, we have other animals from Earth, but for some reason, the line was drawn at horses?”

Zeke glanced at her. He was wearing his full armor, save for the horned helmet, which he’d left off because he claimed it was hot. Abby knew he could don it in a matter of seconds, though. “Does it really matter?” he asked. “I’ve never ridden a horse in my life, and I’m pretty sure I can move a lot faster than one anyway.”

“I don’t know how to ride a horse, either,” she admitted. “But it would be cool, right?”

“I scare most animals,” interjected Talia, who was following behind them. “They sense that I am a predator.”

“Not creepy at all,” muttered Carlos, though it was hopefully too low for Talia to hear.

To change the subject, Abby said, “I could probably ride Pudge. We could get a saddle made.”

Zeke snorted, and Abby eyed him. “What?” she asked.

“Nothing,” Zeke said, grinning. “He just said that if you put a saddle on him that he’s going to burn it to a crisp. His words.”

“That little…”

Abby turned to glare at the bear, who pointedly looked the other way, like thought that if he couldn’t see her, she couldn’t see him. It reminded her of her old dog back on Earth, and she couldn’t help but smile. “Fine,” she said. “So, we walk.” Then, in her airiest voice, she added, “Like a bunch of peasants.”

Truly, Abby felt better than she had in months. Perhaps even years. Zeke was healed, they didn’t have any great enemy bearing down on them, and it felt like they were choosing their own path as opposed to simply bouncing from one crisis to another. On top of that, Tucker was gone. It felt a bit morbid to admit, even if she would never voice it aloud, but not having the alchemist with them felt like a weight had lifted from her shoulders. Sure, he’d saved a lot of people by staying behind in the demon realm, but that wasn’t enough to make Abby like him. Nothing would ever do that, she felt certain. But now, she didn’t have to worry about it anymore. They were free of the man’s influence.

Now, if only they could do something about Carlos, everything would be perfect.

It wasn’t that Abby disliked the young man. In fact, the few times she’d had a conversation with him, he had proven to be a perfectly congenial person. In addition, he had a history of going out of his way to help people. An admirable trait, as far as Abby was concerned.

But he was also a skilled assassin who’d probably killed more people than the rest of the group combined. Certainly, Zeke had never shied away from a battle, but most of his enemies had been monsters or demons. So, he’d only been forced to kill a handful of people. Carlos couldn’t claim that. Nor did he make any bones about his past.

That wasn’t the most troubling thing about him, though. Rather, what threatened to keep Abby up at night was the fact that his guild, the Crystal Spiders, had ordered him to kill Zeke. Did it matter that he had no intention of seeing that order through? No. He was still a threat, and Abby had resolved to watch him like a hawk. One wrong move, and she’d come down on him like a furious thunderbird.

Or she would try. As much as her power had progressed – and it had by leaps and bounds – she still needed preparation to bring out the best in her skills. Meanwhile, she’d seen Carlos rip apart a battalion of demons with only seconds as warning. Luckily, she wasn’t alone. Pudge was watching him, too. So was Talia, though her help was a little more suspect, given the torch she was carrying for the handsome young man.

And then there was Zeke himself. Abby questioned whether or not Carlos’s skills could even penetrate the man’s new armor; they’d tested some things already, and nothing had left so much as a scratch. Could Carlos’s shadow spears succeed where everything else had failed? Maybe. The man did pack quite a punch, so to speak. But Abby had to believe that, if push came to shove, the group could neutralize the threat.

And Carlos had to know that, which made him that much more dangerous if he truly intended to follow his guild’s orders. He wouldn’t attack Zeke from the front, where he stood almost no chance of success. Instead, he’d come at him sideways, from the shadows, as was his wont. She would be ready.

But for now, Abby was content to walk beside Zeke as they left Jariq far behind. They’d left the city the day before, and the terrain had already started to change. Gone were the towering dunes that made up most of the desert, replaced by hard-packed earth, scrubby bushes, and islands of rocks and boulders. They had been attacked a few times, but nothing truly threatened them.

After a couple more hours, during which the group shared lighthearted banter culminating with Zeke trying to explain the merits of baseball to a skeptical Talia, they approached a particularly dense outcropping of boulders. They were little different from similar areas they’d passed a dozen times that day, but for some reason, the hair on the back of Abby’s neck stood up in alarm.

She reached out, grabbing Zeke’s shoulder. “Stop,” she said. “Something’s up ahead.”

“What makes you think that?” he asked, turning to her. “I don’t –”

Just then, a pillar of stone erupted from the earth, swatting Zeke like an errant bug. He went flying away, cartwheeling through the air like a metal-clad gymnast. The moment he skidded to a stop, a cage of stone pillars grew around him, the rocks so close that he could scarcely move. In seconds, Zeke was imprisoned.

That’s when their attacker made himself known.

With a laugh, a man swaggered out from behind one of the boulders. Clad in a thigh-length leather coat, a billowing white shirt, and knee-high boots, he wore a tri-corn hat and sported a truly impressive beard.

“Ha!” he crowed. “I expected the warrior to be a bit harder to trap. Be so kind as to divest yourself of your valuables, and I will release him. Otherwise…”

At his threat, the ground trembled, and a second later, a dozen figures emerged from the dirt. Covered in dust, they were all dressed similarly to the leader. Some even held cutlasses, completing the piratical image. She couldn’t help it. She let out a long, chortling laugh.

“You dare?!” the leader spat, stomping forward. The closer he got, the more Abby struggled to contain her laughter. Soon, Carlos had joined her. Talia, like always, just stood there, still as a statue.

“Sorry, sorry,” Abby said, bending down to catch her breath. “It’s just that you remind me of those pirate movies. You know, the ones with the guy in the eyeliner who stumbles around like he’s drunk all the time? I know you’re going for intimidating, but…seriously – eye makeup is not doing you any favors here.”

“I thought my look was a little derivative,” Carlos said, grinning broadly. Given that he was dressed all in black and wearing an honest-to-God cape, it was a valid concern. He went on, “But this guy…”

“I know, right? He’s –”

“Silence! I am the Dread Sand Pirate Cornelius the Dreaded!” the man declared.

“You said ‘dread’ twice,” Carlos pointed out.

“He did,” said Zeke, who’d finally decided to join the conversation. Before, he’d just stood there, completely unperturbed. “And Cornelius? That’s not your real name, is it?”

“It is,” Abby said. “I inspected him. I thought you were going to try to get better about that.”

“It’s a work in progress,” Zeke said.

“Would you people shut up?!” the sand pirate screamed, clearly having had enough of the back and forth. “Give me your valuables, and I will let you live. Resist, and my friends here will –”

“Counter-offer,” Zeke said, cutting the man off. “Let your skill lapse, leave this area, and I’ll forget about this little misunderstanding. Don’t, and the bear will roast your insides while you’re still alive.”

“Bear? What bear?” asked Cornelius.

“I have a question,” Talia said, finally joining the conversation.

“Ask it,” prompted Zeke.

“If he is a pirate, where is his ship?” she asked. “Pirates are supposed to have ships. Without one, he is just a bandit.”

Zeke scratched his chin, then said, “You know, she’s kind of right. No ship, no pirate. But Dread Bandit Cornelius the Dreaded doesn’t have the same ring to it, does it?”

“What is happening here?” asked one of the other nameless sand pirates.

“Attack!” screamed the leader.

As soon as the man gave the order, Abby sprang into motion, whipping her sword out and slashing at the closest pirate. It made contact, but it was little more than a grazing wound. However, even that small cut was enough to activate the weapon’s enchantment, sending an arc of blue lightning coursing through his body. He seized up, which allowed Abby to charge past him. The moment she was in the clear, she sheathed her sword and let her bow unfold. A moment later, she had a silvery arrow nocked and was looking for a likely target.

It was wholly unnecessary.

With a growl, Zeke punched one of the rocky pillars that had imprisoned him, eliciting a loud crack. Meanwhile, Carlos disappeared into one of his assailants’ shadows, reappearing near the outcropping of boulders. Suddenly, a pale blur passed one of the pirates, and in Talia’s wake, a bandit’s throat erupted into a gout of blood. Finally, Pudge opened his mouth, bathing another one of the attackers in a pillar of black-laced flames, burning them down to ashes in only a second.

That’s when Zeke broke through his rocky cage and charged into the battle. A few of the pirates reacted in time, sending various skills and projectiles his way, but he ignored them all on his way to Cornelius, the so-called dread pirate. With death bearing down on him, the man was quick to recognize his fate, and so, he turned and ran. A second later, the earth rippled, and a wave of rock carried him away even faster.

“That’s my cue, then,” Abby muttered, pulling her bow and loosing three times in quick succession. The man never knew what was coming before the first arrow hit. Then the second. And finally, the third. The moment it did, Abby released the skill she’d been holding at bay, and a huge bolt of lightning lanced down from the clear sky. It hit the pirate dead-on, destroying him just as easily as Pudge’s flames had eradicated the weaker pirate.

When Abby looked back to the main battle, the fight was already over. One pirate had been turned into a pincushion for Carlos’s shadow spears, two had been pulverized into so much bloody meat, and the rest had fallen to a combination of Talia’s and Pudge’s efforts. Only fifteen seconds had passed, and the threat had been thoroughly subverted.

Abby’s heartrate had barely even increased.

“Well, that was disappointing,” she muttered, jogging back to join her companions.

“It kind of was,” agreed Carlos, stepping from one of the shadows. “I was expecting more.”

“At least from the leader,” Zeke said, shaking his head as he bent down to use his looting skill on one of the barely recognizable piles of flesh; his mace, powered by his ridiculous strength, was not a pretty killer. “He was over twenty.”

“What? Really?” Abby asked.

“Seriously? You didn’t identify him?” he asked. “After constantly getting on my case about it, you forget, too?”

“Uh…maybe?” she said sheepishly. “What level was he?”

“Twenty-two. He probably thought Zeke was the only warrior in the group,” Carlos said. “Lots of tradesmen use this route west, and most people can’t afford more than one elite as a bodyguard. That pirate’s probably been out here for years doing this.”

“Did we settle on whether he was a pirate or a bandit?” asked Zeke, looting another one of the bodies. “Because I say bandit. Pirates require water. And boats. Maybe a parrot.”

“What does a bird have to do with it? And why was that man wearing makeup?” asked Talia, clearly confused. Of the members of the group, she was the only one who hadn’t been born on Earth, so she often had difficulty understanding their references.

“You tell her,” Zeke said to Abby.

“You started it,” Abby replied, grinning.

“Yeah, but…” Zeke sighed. “Fine. Okay, Talia – remember how we talked about movies? Well, there was this really famous movie with a pirate who…”

Abby quit listening. Instead, she jogged toward the man she’d killed, resolving to search him for valuables. Zeke’s looting ability was great, but she wasn’t above doing things the old-fashioned way. As she knelt beside the man’s charred remains, she felt Carlos step out of a nearby shadow.

“Anything worthwhile?” he asked.

Abby shook her head and held up a ring. “Just this,” she said. “Not even sure what it does, but it doesn’t look like it’s high quality. Probably just sell it when we get back to civilization.”

“Yeah.”

Abby glanced up at the young man. “Something on your mind?” she asked. “Or did you just come over here to get away from Talia?”

“Uh…both?” he said. “I don’t know. She’s great, but…”

“But she’s undead and that freaks you out,” Abby said, searching the body for other valuables.

He sighed. “It’s not even that, honestly,” Carlos stated. “It’s more that she’s so intense. The way she looks at me sometimes…”

“I’ll talk to her if you want me to,” Abby suggested, standing up. She stretched a little. “I probably can’t get her to back off. Not completely. But I can maybe convince her to be a little more circumspect.”

“I…yeah. Thanks,” he said. “But just to be clear, I’m not saying I don’t like her. I’m just saying that I don’t know. Does that make sense?”

“If you were a pair of teenagers, yeah,” Abby muttered.

“What was that?”

“Nothing,” was her quick response. “I’ll talk to her. Is that it?”

“Um…well, there’s the other thing,” Carlos said. “The more important one. About my orders, I mean. I want you to know that I don’t intend to act on them. I just told them I would so they wouldn’t send anyone else.”

“I’m aware of what you told Zeke,” she said. “The problem is that I don’t trust you, Carlos. Not completely. So, I’m watching you. So is Talia. And Pudge. Zeke, too. But he’s not very good at it, if we’re honest. He’s too straightforward of a person to watch for betrayal.”

“I’m not going to betray anyone,” Carlos stated, running his hand through his silky, black hair.

“No, you’re not,” Abby agreed. “Not successfully, at least. Remember that, and everything’s going to be fine.”

Then, without another word, she started back toward where Zeke was still trying to explain movie pirates to Talia.