Read Online The Companions of Tartiël by Jeff Wilcox - Free Book Online

building and shoved them unceremoniously into separate cells. Vinto snapped at their captors when they kicked him hard enough to knock him into Caineye’s cell. “You’ll be paying the price, too, mutt,” growled the guard, slamming the barred door shut. Somewhere toward the front of the hallway, the sound of a lever being pulled echoed throughout the building, and locking bars snapped into place over the doors. Kaiyr recognized the dark material to be an adamantine alloy, thus dashing any hopes of forcing his way out. The only light in the cell came in from a high window that told Kaiyr these cells were partially underground.
    “Brilliant,” Caineye grumbled in Sylvan. Kaiyr could hear him struggling to sit up, hands still bound behind his back. “Well, this is just great.”
    “Peace, Master Caineye,” Kaiyr replied calmly in a whisper just loud enough to carry it through his open-barred door and around the corner to his comrade’s cell. His eyes scanned the room, analyzing every crack in an attempt to find any weaknesses to exploit.
    He heard Vinto’s snarl from Caineye’s direction, followed by the sound of ropes creaking and snapping. “Thanks, friend,” the druid murmured.
    Kaiyr followed suit, concentrating for a moment before manifesting his soulblade. The weapon, his spirit, formed with its blade already slicing through the tough hemp rope, and with a subtle shrug of his shoulders, Kaiyr was free and on his feet, inspecting the room even more closely.
    “How can you be so calm right now?” Caineye asked, though his voice was under control.
    Kaiyr tapped his finger against the adamantine bars. “Our smaller comrade placed his trust in me. It is my turn to have faith in him.” Tugging slightly at the other bars, ones made of common steel, he grimaced. “Alas, were I but as spiritually powerful as my father. We would be out of this predicament in but a moment.”
    “What do you mean?”
    A smile graced the blademaster’s face. “I have seen blademasters carve through trees and rocks with single strokes of their spirits. My father told me stories, as well. He once cut through a collapsed tunnel in a matter of moments to save his friends. Walls have little meaning to a true blademaster whose spirit burns with righteous wrath.”
    “True blademaster?”
    “I am but a child among my people, Master Caineye. I may be several times your age, but I am still a child in the eyes of the elves. My… journey is one that, should I complete it, will mean I will truly be a blademaster.”
    The clanking of a soldier’s armor heralded the approach of a guard. He leered through the bars into both cells. “You two’d better stop gibbering in your language and shut the hell up, or me and Oswald’re going to come and make you shut up. Got it?”
    Kaiyr fell silent and stared into the other man’s eyes, fixing him with his severe gaze. He said nothing, and the guard, seeming unsettled, harrumphed and returned whence he came.
    Squatting down and drawing his robes up about him to keep them out of the refuse on the floor, Kaiyr closed his eyes and let his thoughts fall into the well of his own mind. He could hear Caineye trying to continue their conversation in a whisper, but, not wanting to arouse the ire of the guards, Kaiyr did not respond. The druid, frustrated with Kaiyr’s silence, finally gave up and let out a sigh that Vinto echoed.
     
    *
     
    “Well, shit,” Xavier muttered. “Guess we’re staying here until Dingo lets us out.”
    “Or until someone kills us,” I added helpfully, earning a glare from Xaiver’s side of the room.
    “So,” Dingo said, grabbing our attention again, “that leaves us with one person left available to act.” He turned to Matt. “Wild, you see Kaiyr and Caineye get dragged to prison. Nobody seems to notice you watching, so you’re free to act.”
    A wicked gleam lit Matt’s eye, eager as he was to show off his rogue’s skills. “Okay, first,