Chapter 24

  Titus was amazed the whole tavern didn’t come crashing down on their heads. The earth that crashed into the front wall had turned into a thick spray of dirt and splinters. It covered Axl and Kern as they lay on the floor with their heads covered against any falling timbers. Somehow the ceiling resisted collapsing fully, but it looked ready to go any minute.

  Above, Titus could hear a woman calling for help and he found his feet carrying him to the stairs and then up into the rooms that now stood on a steep angle tipping towards the main street. Deep towards the front, a woman called out in a shaken voice. Titus gingerly stepped on the tilted hallway with boards creaking like cracking ice beneath his feet. He tested it briefly before calling back.

  “I’m coming,” he said to her as he made his way with both hands on the walls, clinging firmly to the doorframes as he passed them.

  “Please,” she begged weakly with tears in her voice.

  Titus’s foot went through a weak patch in the floor and he risked shifting from one side of the hallway to the other.

  “Can you make it to the doorway?” he asked as he slowly got closer to what would have been the front room.

  When he was within a few feet, an aching voice and pair of worn feminine hands came to the cracked doorframe.

  “Please help me,” she begged again. Titus heard the floor groan before something snapped and everything dropped a few more inches. The woman screamed.

  “Reach for me,” he ordered as he held tight to wall and side stepped closer, hearing more creaks with each step.

  She was an elderly woman, probably the maid or barkeeps wife. Tears were streaking her face, and her eyes were wide with fear as she reached for Titus. The floor beneath them groaned again and Titus risked the weight to slide even closer and grasp her hand. With a powerful yank, he pulled her out of the room. She yelped at the tug, but didn’t protest as he brought her close and pushed her back towards the stairs.

  “Go. Keep hold of the wall. I’ll be right behind you,” he said nudging her forward as the floor groaned again. There was a loud crack in the room she had just been in and then a crash. Titus was sure the floor had finally fallen through, but he didn’t know if it would stop there.

  The woman whimpered at the sounds, but Titus urged her forward. After a long tense climb, the two made it back to the top of the stairs where the woman collapsed into the arms of the barkeep who had been waiting there in silent shock and fear.

  “Thank you,” he managed as Titus came up behind her. All three then came down the still stable stairs into what was left of the bar.

  Titus found Axl putting out the fire in the now damaged hearth as Kern sat and tried to pull a few frozen splinters of ale out of his upper arm.

  “We should get out before this whole place comes down,” Axl said more towards Kern than Titus and the shaken couple. Kern pulled himself out of the chair with a vile curse before they all made their way out through a back door. The few patrons who were sitting there before the struggle were long gone – likely left when the drama started.

  Outside in the back alleyway, the saviors waited for the couple to seek help from their neighbors before turning to Titus.

  “What happened back there?” Axl asked, but it was Kern who replied.

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  “He fucking froze!”

  Titus looked between the two of them before opening his mouth to protest. “I …,” he then took in a breath and let it out before continuing, “I did.” He nodded solemnly as he spoke. “I froze.” It was the truth. He had told Snow he wouldn’t let them hurt him, that he would use his sword if need be, but when the time came… he froze.

  “He’s a fucking traitor!” Kern drew his sword. The sight of the bare steel made Titus step back and reach for his pommel.

  “Stop it!” Axl ordered as he stepped between them.

  “You saw it! He let him go! He’s in league with him!”

  Axl scowled at Kern. “Titus led us here to find him, remember? It’s because of him that we had this chance at all.”

  “And he blew it!” Kern snarled. He had yet to put his sword away and Titus was hesitant to release his pommel. He didn’t like this Kern fellow, and he wouldn’t trust him as far as he could throw him.

  “Titus gave us good information. Just because he knew what the man was capable of doesn’t make him a traitor.” Axl then turned to Titus. “The necromancer could have done far worse, couldn’t he? Cornered animals are always the most fierce.”

  Titus nodded.

  “We’ll track him again,” Axl said before turning back to Kern. “And we’ll be better prepared.”

  Titus didn’t like the sound of that.

  “Now put that away,” Axl ordered Kern. The scowling savior reluctantly sheathed his sword but kept a sharp, gray-eyed scowl on Titus.

  “We need to take care of that arm,” Axl said as he gestured for Kern to turn his left shoulder towards him so he could see the wounds.

  “What about your arms?” Titus asked. Axl’s sleeves were a burnt mess and red, puffy skin could be seen beneath the gaping holes.

  “They hurt… but they still work,” he said with a grimace. “I guess it could have been worse.”

  Titus wanted to explain just how bad it could have gone.

  Ever since he had seen Snow work his magic, his imagination had been running wild with all the feats Snow could be capable of. Did they truly understand the quarry they hunted? Did they have something to combat magic that seemed without bounds? Axl appeared to look on this as a momentary setback and it made Titus wonder what secrets the council hid; what weapons they had in their ancient stores.

  ???

  When the trio made it back out to the front of the bar, they found crowds buzzing with fearful voices. Axl took a moment to inquire what happened after and many told him they saw the magician jog over the stone bridge and out of sight towards the south. Titus found himself staring in that direction for a long time before the three turned towards another inn down the road in which to recover. All the while, Kern did not relent with his suspicious glare.

  It was late in the evening by the time they were settled with their wounds dressed, and it took a few more hours for Titus to finally find a moment alone with Axl as the captain sat drinking something strong to numb the pain in his arms.

  “I’ve been meaning to ask… what did you say to him?” Titus asked as he eased himself down at the man’s table with a pint in hand.

  Axl looked over at Titus with lazy dark eyes.

  “I told him that we need him. He wasn’t interested though. I suppose I can’t blame him. We’ve been hunting him a long time,” Axl replied.

  “What did he say? You both seemed to carry on for a bit.”

  Axl took in a deep breath and let it out slowly as he turned his eyes towards the bottle on the table. “He reminded me just how dangerous he is. Told me he could have conquered these lands ten times over by now,” Axl said with a chuckle.

  Titus tried to share in the chuckle. “And why’d he say that?”

  “He was trying to make a point that he’s not that type of villain. That all he wants to do is his little service.” Axl scoffed. “He expected me to believe that.” The captain’s smirk then slowly sobered as he seemed to recall the whole conversation. “He doesn’t understand though.”

  “Doesn’t understand what?” Titus asked. Axl looked back at him and for a moment, his eyes betraying a touch of something that almost resembled remorse.

  “Would you trust a naked blade walking through a crowd of children even if it swore it would never harm a soul?”

  Titus fell silent.