Hell's Bane (COMPLETED)

Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Devil's Call

Hugo was already at the front hall of Gladwyn when Joss, Kazim, and a dozen other soldiers came up from the dungeons.

"I'm assuming that something dire has happened if you're freeing me," Kazim asked before Hugo handed him a sword. The leader blinked. "What happened? Other than that my brother has gone missing."

"The artifacts are gone too," Hugo said, before Joss muttered something about him already mentioning that. "And Brunlin's apprentice – I think it was her apprentice at least, was found dead in the medical ward. Apparently Davis was trying to get Brunlin to magically bring him to the location of the Devil's Crown, but then her apprentice came trying to stop Davis. So Davis used the apprentice instead to bring him to the Crown."

"We didn't even know that Brunlin had an apprentice," Joss said, rubbing his eyes.

Kazim nodded. "Brunlin has been training her for years now, but in the previous few days, refused to even let her touch magic. For the own girl's safety."

"It doesn't really matter anyway, does it?" Joss said, shrugging. "She's dead now. What matters right now is that Davis – Oswin – is on the loose going after the Crown." The hermit sighed. "I still don't trust you, Kazim, but I suppose I don't really have any other choice. The artifacts are gone, Davis is gone, certainly that has to add up to something."

Hugo nodded but still frowned. "This... this is all just so unexpected. I'm not sure what to believe."

"Believe the facts," Kazim said. "Believe what's already happened. My plan ever since I heard that Oswin was planning to take the Blade and Map was to take it before him and hide it somewhere safe that Oswin would never find."

Hugo sighed. "I can't argue with that, can I?"

Joss turned to stare at Kazim. "So what are we going to do, then?"

Kazim subtely gestured to the row of men behind him. "We're going to take a small number of soldiers to go with us. Hopefully if Brunlin is alive, she can bring us to exactly where Oswin went."

"But we don't even know where we're going," Joss pointed out. "Davis took the map with him, didn't he? And it's not like we know where he went. As far as I'm concerned, we're stuck here."

Kazim grinned, which Hugo found rather odd, and shook his head.

"That, my friend, is why you are here."

* * *

"Write."

Joss felt as if the others were pointing their guns at his head. Positioned inside Kazim's study, the hermit was trying to remember every tiny detail that he saw on the ancient artifact, but the truth was that it was all gibberish to him. Whatever code the Brimstone Faction put on the map must've been another language – or something that only members of the Faction knew.

At last, he scribbled the final bits of lines onto the piece of paper that Kazim provided him and slid it over to the Scavenger leader.

"So we go east... all the way east... and then off the map, where lies a grove and in the center, a cavern called the Spire of Blood." Kazim raised an eyebrow. "Fitting name."

"Off the map?" Hugo asked, continuing to feel as if he were stupid.

Kazim shrugged. "Can't be on the map, can it? Otherwise, everyone would know about it." Slamming his hands onto the table, Kazim said: "Now before we go, there are several things which I believe would be helpful to know if you wish to stay alive. Whoever steps into the Spire of Blood without the Blade will be instantly killed, so we must wait until Oswin clears that path for us, or intercept him before he can even reach the cavern." Noticing Hugo's glance, the leader added: "We knew that much, that the Devil's Crown was hidden in a cavern guarded by powerful magic. The original brothers decided there was no harm in providing us that bit of information, given that there are thousands of caverns in this world."