Mordred
Shouts and screams filled the air as Mordred’s friends descended on the unaware guards. It didn’t take long for the guards in front of the prison building to charge off, leaving only one concerned-looking guard to protect the entrance. These weren’t Avalon agents, and they certainly weren’t blood elves. Mordred would have guessed they were human mercenaries, hired to keep people in one place. But that left the uneasy question of the location of those who took Elaine and the others. There was zero chance that any of them were going to be taken out by a group of human thugs, no matter how nice their guns were.
Mordred looked up at the cliff behind the prison building. The dense forest covered a large part of it, and the mountains could clearly be seen behind it. A winding path had been carved into the cliff. It sat behind the prison building, and Mordred figured it for the best place to take the prisoners in their attempt to escape the village. Certainly better than running back through the firefight going on behind him.
He removed his pistol and fired two rounds into the guard’s head, killing him, the gunfire muffled by Mordred’s air magic. After searching his immediate surroundings and finding no guards, he ran over to the prison door and tried the handle, finding it locked. He searched the dead guard at his feet for a key and eventually found one in a pocket on his vest.
Mordred unlocked the door and pushed it open, revealing a set of stairs leading down into a dimly lit corridor beneath the ground. He descended the stairs slowly and about halfway down felt his magic vanish. He paused and looked around, but it was too dim to see any runes that might have been drawn on his surroundings. Instead, he removed the pistol from its holster and continued.
He checked the corridor and found nothing of concern before stepping out into it. There were five shut doors along each side of the corridor, and he tried the first, finding it unlocked, so he pushed it open, revealing a small cell. The smell of blood and death hung around the cell, and the floor was wet where it had been cleaned. A drain sat in the center of the room, and Mordred remembered the werewolf nightclub and Elaine’s tortured guard he’d found there.
Mordred left the cell and tried the next door but found it locked. After the third locked door, be began to hear noises coming from one of the rooms at the far end of the corridor. He moved toward them, making sure to keep low and quiet, just in case the door suddenly opened and he had to react quickly.
It didn’t take long for him to reach the cell door, which like the others was made of thick metal. He placed his ear to the door but heard nothing apart from the muffled sound of someone being repeatedly hit. With his pistol ready, Mordred pushed on the door a little until it revealed two men standing with their backs to him. A third man sat tied to a chair, although Mordred couldn’t make out that man’s face. He was clearly male, though, seeing how he was naked.
“Where are they?” the guard questioning the prisoner asked.
“I don’t know,” the man said, his speech slurred. They’d clearly done a number on him.
“Lies,” the guard said, and punched the man in the face.
Mordred stood up and saw who was being tortured, and a cold rage filled him. With two steps he was behind the first guard. Mordred buried the dagger in the back of the guard’s neck, killing him instantly. He stepped around the falling guard, firing twice into the second guard’s head. Both men were dead, and Mordred ran to the prisoner.
“Mac,” he said, his voice soft. “Mac, you hear me in there?”
Mac mumbled something unintelligible. Mac was a water elemental, and without a supply of water, there was no way he was going to heal himself. The amount of cuts and bruises over his body suggested he’d been subjected to a prolonged beating.
Mordred looked around and found a pitcher of water on a nearby table. He picked it up and threw it over Mac, drenching the man before cutting the plastic ties that held his wrists together.
Mordred waited for a minute as the worst of the wounds on Mac’s body healed, until his eyes were no longer puffy and closed. Mac blinked. “Mordred?”
Mordred nodded. “You up for walking?”
“They removed my toenails. Fingernails too. Broke my knees and let me heal. Point is, I hurt, but not enough to stop me from removing their spines.”
Mordred helped Mac to his feet. “It’s been a long time, old friend.”
Mac smiled. “We’re friends now? I thought you wanted to kill everyone.”
“Yeah, we’ll say that’s a bad judgment call on my part.”
“I’m naked, Mordred.”
Mordred propped Mac up against the nearest wall and removed the clothes from the first guard, passing them to Mac. “You good to get dressed?” he asked.
“If I say no, will you hold it against me?” Mac asked after fumbling with a pair of trousers. “I think my hands haven’t quite healed yet.”
Mordred helped Mac into a pair of trousers, shoes, and a jacket. It wasn’t going to be the most comfortable of clothes for him, and they were a little larger than he was probably used to, but Mordred figured too large was better than too small.
“Anyone else in these cells?”
“They killed the whole lot of them,” Mac said. “Made us all watch as they killed them. Eight good people, dead.”
“Where’s Alan?” Mordred asked, feeling a ball of hurt inside him at the possibility of losing more people.
“He escaped into the mine. They took humans from some of the nearest villages and made them work in there.”
“Doing what?”
“Whatever they needed. I don’t really know. I don’t understand why they’d go to all this trouble to dig around in a mountain. They thought I’d know where Alan escaped. Thought we’d made a pact to escape and I got caught.”
“And?”
“We did make a pact, and I did get caught, but I don’t know where Alan is apart from in the mountain. Although I can’t say that for certain. He could be anywhere by now. Maybe he went for help. Is that why you’re here?”
Mordred shook his head. “No, we came to find you all. Elaine, too.”
“She’s closer to the mountain. There’s a camp up there. It was built by whoever these bastards are. I saw lorries driving up there on the road around the cliff. If Alan hasn’t gone for help, he’s up there.”
“How long ago did he escape?”
“Few hours.”
Mordred helped his friend up the stairs to be greeted by Diana and Wei, both in human form.
“Mac,” Diana said, picking him up and carrying him out of the prison building.
“Everyone okay?” Mordred asked as Diana helped Mac lie in some nearby snow.
Mordred didn’t bother asking Mac if his light magic would heal him; he already knew that it would have no effect on the water elemental.