Kings Game

Chapter 16 - The troll's gambit (4)

"Uh..."

"Please, I'm begging you. I don't want to die here."

Pushing the person off him, Roran sat up, the weight of the medallions making it difficult.

The person curled up on the ground, clutching his face. He was younger than Roran. "Please don't kill me. I don't...I don't."

"I'm not going to hurt you," said Roran. He approached the kid and knelt next to them. "Let me see."

The kid lowered his hands and Roran winced. Their eye was beyond repair and Roran could see bone where skin had been pulled away.

"Let me help," Roran said, and began tearing strips off his shirt. He didn't bother trying to clean the wounds, he just wrapped the makeshift bandages around the kid's head until the bleeding slowed.

"What's your name?" Roran asked.

"I'm Perth, what's yours."

"I'm Roran."

Perth flinched away from Roran. "You're the murderer from Millgrove!"

Roran winced, the name cutting him deep. "Yeah, I guess I am. Do you still want my help?"

Perth hesitated, then nodded. "Please, I don't want to die here. I have to get money for my village, my people are sick and starving. We need favors for food and medicine."

Roran nodded. "I know what that's like. Come on, stand up. I know the way out of here."

Pulling Perth to his feet, Roran gestured for him to collect a medallion from the basin. Perth struggled to pick one up, the weight too much for his small frame. Grabbing it with both hands, and clutching it to his chest, Perth hobbled back to Roran with a medallion.

"Did you drop your weapon?" Roran asked.

Perth nodded. "I lost it when I ran into the spikes."

"That's fine. Come on, let's go."

Roran led Perth back into the maze. Perth kept close to Roran, almost walking into him. After a few turns, Perth asked, "Do you know where you're going?"

"Yes."

"How?"

"I got a good look at the maze from above. We're just back tracking my steps. Mind this corner, there's a trap here. Duck low and we can walk under it. Yeah, just like that."

"You're really good at this. Have you done mazes before?"

"Paper ones. My mother and I would take turns drawing them and then try to solve each other's maze. She navigated a few mazes when she was out exploring and taught me how to work through them. This is my first time doing a real one though."

"Why do you think it's called the Troll's Gambit?"

"Because of the bridge," Roran said, hopping over a pitfall.

Perth hesitated at the edge, looking at the body impaled on the spikes at the bottom of the hole.

"Don't look, just jump, I'll catch you."

Perth jumped and Roran grabbed him as he landed, helping to steady him. Clutching on to Roran, Perth looked back again, staring at the body once more.

"That would have been me," he said.

"The bridges," Roran said again, hoping to distract Perth. "That's why it's called the Troll's Gambit."

"What do you mean?"

"Trolls live under bridges and demand gold from anyone that tries to cross them. When we get out of this maze, I'll have to deal with the trolls guarding the bridge. They'll want my medallion and I have to figure out how to get past them, otherwise I'll have to do the maze all over again."