Read Online Critical Failures II (Caverns and Creatures Book 2) by Robert Bevan - Free Book Online Page A

They’ve been shooting through levels, getting more powerful every day. God help us when they figure out he’s gone.”
    “What are they doing?” asked Julian. “I mean, are they killing people?”
    “Who knows?” said Tony the Elf. “They started out just taking what they wanted wherever they went. Snatching a purse here and there. Starting bar brawls just so they could slip out during the chaos without paying the tab. That sort of thing. But it looks like they’re escalating. The two we met tonight were more than ready to just up and rape your friend’s dwarf girl. My guess is that they’re getting bored without Mordred around.”
    “So what do we do?” asked Julian.
    Tony the Elf shrugged. “Roll up a character.”
     

Chapter 8
     
     
     
    Chaz woke up to the sensation of being inside a rock tumbler. A dull pain in his head. The sounds of wheels turning and gravel crunching. Hooves? He opened his eyes. Wherever he was, he was moving very quickly. A sheer rocky wall was zipping past a dark window frame. He was in some sort of wagon.
    “Rise and shine, Chaz,” said Katherine. She smiled down at him from where she sat. He must be on the floor.
    He turned around to look at the window on the other side of the wagon. The view was as wide and open as the opposite side’s view was solid and unyielding. It was as if they were flying. A fat yellow moon sat bloated in the night sky, shining down on the city below. They must be several hundred feet up, traveling at crazy speeds up a path on a cliff face. He wrapped his arms around Katherine’s legs. She ran her fingers calmly through his hair.
    “It’s perfectly safe,” said an unfamiliar voice. Chaz didn’t know how he could have missed the guy with his purple suit and dazzling eyes. “You have nothing to fear. Enjoy the view.”
    “Who are you?” said Chaz. “Katherine, who is this guy? Where are we going? Where are the guys?”
    “Don’t worry,” said Katherine. “He’s nice.”
    “But who the fuck is he?”
    “Language,” said the purple-suited man. “I’ll have none of that in my coach or in my house, thank you.”
    “Katherine?”
    “He’s… um…”
    “My name,” said the man, “is Millard von Pleck, the fourteenth of my name, and lord of Castle Pleck.”
    “Jesus, Katherine!” said Chaz. “You got in this guy’s wagon without even learning his name? Didn’t you see any PSAs when you were a kid?”
    “He’s nice,” said Katherine. “Look at his eyes.” She tilted her head and stared at the man like a grade-schooler with a teacher crush.
    “Are you fucking high?” said Chaz, and almost immediately felt a smack on the top of his head. He looked up at the man called Millard von Pleck. “Ow, man! What the fuck?”
    Millard smacked him on the head again with a jockey whip. “Language.”
    “Knock it off, man!”
    Millard rested the whip on his lap. “You mind your tongue in my presence. And you should always mind your tongue in the presence of a lady.”
    “Katherine,” Chaz pleaded. “Why are we with this guy? He could be a murderer or a rapist.”
    Millard crossed one knee over the other and looked bitterly out of the window. “You can set aside your fear of being raped.”
    “I distinctly remember mentioning two fears.”
    Millard turned his gaze from the window and smiled down at Chaz. “You just mind your manners, son, and you’ll be quite safe. I assure you.”
    Chaz hugged Katherine’s legs more tightly. “It’s cold.”
    Millard poked his head out of the window and quickly back in again. “We’re nearly there.”
    A few minutes later, the swift pounding of hooves slowed to a canter, then a trot, then finally a walk before stopping altogether. Millard opened the coach door and stepped out. He assisted Katherine out next. Chaz was left to get out unassisted.
    Charcoal grey stone walls towered above him, maybe thirty or forty feet high. They were rough and crumbly, as if they hadn’t been maintained in a