The Inconvenient Alliance

Chapter 9

Drake POV:
I see three people standing near the entrance, one is scooting forward along the far wall opposite from me and Grayson. It seems he was trying to sneak around us to the diamond for some reason, but he failed miserably. He has tan skin and some straight dark blonde shade of hair that goes down to his shoulders. A look of shock and embarrassment lines his face as we lock eyes for a moment, his eyes are a noticeable green with light streaks of yellow. As for the other two, one already has a sword out with darker skin than the first one and has crazy, short, dark brown hair that matches his dark brown eyes, he has a wild crazed look as he eyes us, ready to strike. The last one is short with a lighter tone of skin and has smooth, short, light brown hair and hazel eyes with a hint of blue in them, he seems a bit uneasy about this situation. They all have light, leather type armor for stealth purposes probably. I take out my dagger quickly, and Grayson his sword, getting ready for the one that seems is going to strike at any moment. Without hesitation the one trying to sneak past us originally suddenly bolts to the far end of the room to the diamond, I call out to him, to try to warn him, "Hey! Wait! Don't touch that!" but it was too late, he reaches out to the diamond and grabs hold of it, expecting to run off with it but it doesn't move. The diamond lights up brightly suddenly, and there's an inhuman spiritual shriek of rage that rings out around the room. I have a feeling "he" definitely knows someone is around his diamond at this point, and he isn't happy about it. I hear a scream from more than one of them I think, it all happens so fast, the power that came out of the diamond was overwhelming and I backed away from it. I could feel "his" dark aura in the room during that time the diamond lit up and I saw a slight shadowy silhouette of "him" by the one near his diamond, and "he" seemed furious. I couldn't save him, my head was killing me again, and when the light from the diamond had finally calmed down there was a fine pile of dust on the ground in front of it. I look away from it, feeling sick to my stomach, the diamond was so powerful it could turn someone to dust!? I held my head and leaned against the nearby wall again, I couldn't unsee what I just saw and I had this horrible feeling that if Grayson wasn't there to stop me earlier, that unfortunate fate may have just happened to me as well. I'm just glad that "he" seemed to leave after that and did not target the rest of us in here, at least not yet. I hear the clash of blades near me, Grayson must be fighting the other, or both of them, I'm not sure. I squeeze the handle of my dagger and take a few deep breaths, I just need to clear my mind for a moment to help him, these headaches always seem to come at the worst times! Still, I try to focus and without warning charge into the one fighting Grayson, the one originally with the sword ready to strike us, I hit him in the back of the head with the blunt end of my dagger, and I push him with such unexpected force, it even surprises me a bit, he crashes into the stone wall and bounces off of it, falling stunned onto the floor. He didn't seem to be expecting that I would be any threat to him during the time so I managed to catch him off guard. Grayson quickly takes his weapon away and binds his hands behind his back, and gags him before he comes to and attacks us again, I'm fairly sure he's going to pass out from that blow though if he is not unconscious already. I finally put away my dagger after using it, noticing that my head isn't killing me anymore, "Nice hit" Grayson would finally say to me, there's a pause before he continues, "you kind of saved me back there, he was putting up quite a good fight." "Do you know where they came from?" I ask him, "well, this one from his markings on his armor appears to be from the empire, I'm assuming all of them were from this, they still seem to be hunting after me." He tells me this and then I ask him, already knowing the answer but surprised, "they are still hunting you, or even us, after all these years?" "Yeah, it seems so, we should probably go before they bring in reinforcements seeing one of, what I'm assuming to be scouts, managed to get away." "What about this one?" I motion a bit to the one we had defeated, and tied up, passed out on the cold stone floor. "We should take him with us for now, find a spot we can hide and question him some about the empire." Grayson says to me and I nod, "alright, and let's get out of this room, I don't feel comfortable being here anymore after witnessing what just happened with the diamond and one of those scouts" I feel a bit sick to my stomach again, remembering the overwhelming power that surged out of the diamond for a moment and seeing the scout disintegrated from it. Grayson completely agrees having seen what happened, "yeah, it's late, let's find another location in these caverns to hide out in for the rest of the night, we can question this scout later and then leave early in the morning." "Aren't you worried they will send reinforcements before then and find us?" I ask him and he responds, "yeah, but we have some time, and this is a big cavern we can hide in. To be honest, I'm exhausted right now, but I think "he" will handle the rest of them that come around here, let's just try to find a place to set camp for the rest of the night." "Alright" I respond to him and I almost run out of the room, eager to be far away from the diamond at this point. He follows behind me dragging the unconscious scout and we find a small alcove nearby in the stone. It's not too far from the room with the diamond which isn't good but at least it's not in the same room as the diamond, I enter the alcove and look around, a part of it curves around the entrance that is completely hidden from someone looking into it from the outside. I go to the area that curves around the entrance, it's small but well hidden, it will do. "This seems good," I say to Grayson who has come in behind me, still bringing our captive along, and lays him against the wall that I'm near. "Yeah, it does." I glance down at our captive, "should someone stay up to watch him?" Grayson doesn't hesitate to volunteer me, "you can do the first watch, I'll stay up for the next one, just wake me in a few hours." He's already setting down his lantern and laying out his sleeping bag, then plops down on it exhausted. "Alright, good night," I say to him, before setting down my lantern next to his as well, making sure the light isn't noticeable from the outside of the alcove, putting a dampener cloth around a part of the lanterns to dim the light, and I finally lay out my sleeping bag next to him. I sit down on my sleeping bag, staying up to watch in our dimly lit camp to watch our captive, to watch the dim flickering flame of the lantern that seeps through the dampener cloth at times, and the darkness beyond which the lantern's light does not entirely reach. I have a feeling this cavern is haunted by "him", at least in this section of the cavern, it's going to be a long restless night for me.