Magpies and Magic II : The Great Escape

CHAPTER ONE Kolan looked at the sea captain and wondered. Can I trust this man? In the harbour at Abula there were only two ships going to Asperia. There was this ship and the other ship was run by Troglodytes. Given their smell and general habit of randomly eating people, he felt he had to trust Captain Yerro, despite the fact that something about him made Kolan feel deeply uneasy. The rest of the party were away trying to buy provisions and weapons for their mission to free Princess Candera. Roubar had discovered that she was most likely in Ultricon, the highest security prison in Asperia. Built by the Dwarves, but taken over by the Asperians centuries before, it was rumoured to be escape-proof, so getting her out of there was going to be difficult. The plan, which really was at best very vague, was to attempt to free Princess Candera when she was taken out of the prison for execution. Vifal had left the group and returned to Damolia, the day before. Trelio understood that their mission to free Princess Candera was fraught with danger so made no real effort to persuade him to stay. Assembling to board the Sparrow, the fine ship captained by Captain Yerro, the party were not in high spirits. Krolith had managed to offend Hilary with a joke about Asperian serving girls and everyone was fairly quiet. Malcolm was grumpy, as the possibility of freeing Stephanie, his partner, from the evil enchantment of the Dark Pool seemed even more hopeless than usual. If he had had any clue of how to free her he would have abandoned the group to take it. Madeleine was more distraught than she had ever been, though Kolan had barely noticed; he just thought she was acting more feminine than normal with his rather simplistic view of women coming to the fore once again. Madeleine tried desperately to cover up the maelstrom of feelings she felt after Princess Candera had been kidnapped but had failed. Hilary too was upset and on edge. She too loved Princess Candera in a parental way. She had watched her grow up and as her personal maid had always taken care of her. She felt that maybe she had protected her too much from the world; she worried how she would cope in Ultricon. Trelio was still getting over the shocking discovery that his own father had been part of the Pentagram Council. He knew that it had been clearly against his will, at least initially, but he did wonder whether he could have done more to help his father bring them down. Now they were more powerful than ever and the future looked bleak. He, too, would rather be fighting them than freeing Princess Candera, but due to the lack of a better plan, he was coming along for the ride. As the Sparrow set sail, the party were treated to a feast by Captain Yerro, in which everyone had an enormous amount of fun. The more observant might have noticed that neither Captain Yerro nor the crew were drinking the same wine as the party. They found themselves becoming increasingly drowsy, while the crew remained strangely sober. Waking up Kolan discovered to his dismay that his hands were bound behind his back. He sighed. He knew they should have waited for another ship. It was clear to him they had been drugged as he felt awful. Even with normal wine he had never felt this bad the day after. Captain Yerro appeared in front of him. “I am sorry my friend, but business is business. There is a bounty on your head. Me and my men will never need to work again!” he said with an unpleasant smile on his face. “I think… whatever I paid you… it wouldn’t be… enough!” shouted Kolan, barely able to talk due to the lingering effects of the drug. “You know us sailors too well. I am glad you guys enjoyed yourselves last night, as you won’t be having that much fun again!” laughed Captain Yerro. At that point, Captain Yerro beckoned two sailors to haul Kolan up and escorted him out of his cabin and onto the deck of the ship. Out in the light, Kolan could see that they had arrived in Asperios. Due to the nature of the welcome party of Asperian soldiers he could tell that they had been betrayed to the Asperian authorities. He saw Malcolm being led off the boat under a net by a large group of soldiers. Behind him the rest of the party was lined up and escorted one by one off the ship. Everyone had been taken prisoner. It looked like they might be reunited with Princess Candera sooner than they expected. Roubar was first off the ship after Malcolm and was taken away by two senior-looking Asperian guards in a different direction from the rest of the party. It was clear to him that he was going to the castle. The rest of the party were being boarded onto carts, and were taken off away from the city. It took some time to go up the hill from the port to the castle. He had walked this route many times when he was High Priest of Asperia, but this time every step felt like a mile. The normally short trip took an eternity. Once inside the castle, he found himself taken into a large chamber that he recognised as the main banquet hall, where Princess Candera had been transformed into a penguin at the start of their quest. He immediately recognised the tall figure of Toluk who was now wearing a much more ornate version of his Chief Minister’s garb. “Such a shame, Roubar. I always had such respect for you. If you had just stayed in Abula none of this would have been necessary. Why did you have to try to free Princess Candera?” said Toluk. “She has done nothing to you! We aren’t going to let you kill her!” said Roubar. “Kill her? She will be perfectly fine. I am going to marry her!” “What?” shouted Roubar. His confusion was because he didn’t think that Toluk liked women. “She is going to be my bride, and I will become the new king of Asperia!” “She will never agree to that!” “We have our methods,” said Toluk, who Roubar noticed subtly showing him a large blue ring on his finger. It was something Toluk had only started wearing just before Princess Candera was cursed. “I think she would rather die than marry you. You know she doesn’t like men, don’t you?” said Roubar. “She doesn’t need to do anything but give me legitimacy. The people grow tired of this revolution and seek a restoration of the throne,” said Toluk. “This makes no sense, you already run the country!” “Through a revolutionary council: a rabble of rag-tag revolutionaries all with different aims and needs. I seek the ultimate power of the crown!” shouted Toluk. “We will stop you!” declared Roubar, then realising how silly that sounded. “Only if you can escape Ultricon, which as you know is impossible,” said Toluk. Roubar stood there dumb-founded. Sadly he knew that Toluk had a point. No one had ever escaped from Ultricon. No magic worked there; it had legendary defences and no one had ever come out alive.