Short Stories

The Summoner (Pt. 3)

The book Nyx was carrying felt heavier today. One page containing Quincy shouldn't have been a problem, but for some reason, it was weighing her down. With the extra money that Quincy had gotten her, she hired a small team of mercenaries, who had brought some equipment for their assault on the castle, but for some reason, Nyx felt uneasy. Something was wrong, the guards hadn't switched out in 7 hours as she was watching, and they looked almost like zombies. Typically the castle guard would swap out every three hours, but Nyx couldn't think of any way for the guard, the king, or anyone in the castle to know she was attacking today, so what could've possibly changed their routine?

"We're all ready to get paid, ma'am. If you're ready to attack, we're ready too."

Nyx shook her head and put her binoculars in her bag. "Something's up. Are you certain the guards are scheduled to shift out every three hours?"

"Positive. One of our informants is on the staff, they know everything that happens in the castle. They should've swapped out at least twice by now, maybe you just missed it?"

"No... something's up. We need to send a scout, give me a knife."

The merc looked a bit confused but handed her a knife anyway. Nyx opened her book and went to a page with an eyeball in the center. She cut into her hand and bled into a cylindrical vial, placing it on the pupil of the eye. Her blood began to boil in the tube and burst into a cloud of smoke, a floating eyeball with three rings around it moved out and she held her empty eyelid open, letting it move into the space and then pop back out.

"Fuck, that's nasty... how often do you do that?"

Nyx looked back at him, a triangle had appeared in front of her eye socket. "When it's necessary." The Holy Eye summon moved up above the shield, looking around the castle and moving through the holy field. It gave Nyx an image of the whole castle, and a view of the guards waiting for them on the inside. "Fuck..."

"What's the problem? What does it see?"

"He's looking at a full field of soldiers, waiting to kill anyone that goes in the castle our way. Someone snitched the plan."

"It wasn't on our end, I trust these men."

"No one else knew about our plan... unless a guard overheard you all when we were discussing the plan... we'll have to change it." Nyx tapped the triangle and the eye rushed back to her, falling back into the book and taking the blood with him. She wrapped up her hand and pulled her eyepatch back on. "We're going in from the back, we'll use the ropes to get up to the wall and then make our way to the underground tunnels."

The merc sighed and shook his head. "Those tunnels were built centuries ago... they're probably going to collapse and crush our group. Is there any hazard pay available?"

"Extra 15 gold a share for the backup plan. I can cover it."

The merc nodded and went back to his group. The others took a vote on wether the money was worth it. It was nearly unanimous, they all wanted to get their money, so they prepared their ropes and tools, rushing through some brush to get closer to the wall. Nyx was the first one up the rope and she waited for the others to come up, slowly moving along the wall and finding the tunnel entrance.

"Alright, team A is going to guard the entrance, while team B and C are going in. Team B will stay at the exit point of the tunnel, and C will assist with the target."

Nyx opened the door to the tunnel and jumped in, landing in the pit and lighting a lantern, looking around for the stairway down. The inside of the wall was built to be the entrance to the tunnels, but it hadn't been used for anything in generations. The royals realized a bit too late that an escape route up to the top of a wall was a bad idea for ensuring their survival. Basically all they could do up there was jump off, or run to the ladder down, which would mean getting killed by the invaders. The invading force was said to have been laughing as they watched the ancient royals jumping off the top of their wall. That was long before Nyx's time though, she was here for one reason, and it was to kill the king.