Fear Among The Shadows

Chapter XX - Run Aground

They all followed Davian outside the room and down the endless, twisting labyrinth of corridors. Adilah was stunned at the whole turn of events. She didn't understand what Jonathan was trying to do. Was he going to lead him to a wrong ingredient? Or was he truly going to give up the Elixir?

Let me tell you, dear reader, that Jonathan also didn't understand what he was trying to do. He couldn't think of a place he could trick Davian into going without the other figuring it out. And he definitely wasn't going to just hand over an Elixir of Invulnerability. He schooled his features into a calm expression; the others needed to believe that he was going to get them out of this and not have all their work and Eric's sacrifice be in vain. He also didn't need Davian knowing that he was at his complete mercy. Sure, the man didn't know the word 'dishonor', but that didn't mean he would just let him go easily. Finally, his thoughts swerved to the last ingredient; it had been unexpected, not only what they'd be looking for, but where it had chosen to reside. It could not have been a coincidence.

Dear friend, there is no such thing as coincidence; chance has nothing to do with the way these events have unfolded; it was, and has always been, outside your choices, outside your realm of understanding. Yes, Jonathan, it was not a coincidence. The creature meant to be there, so that you could find yourself drawn back to the place you kept trying to escape from. For as much as it is pointless for one to dwell on their past, it is equally pointless to pretend it didn't exist.

Too many thoughts, just too many thoughts were jumbled in Jonathan's head. He needed a good long night to just sit down and sift through them, categorizing them as important, extremely important, and if-not-thought-through-now-you-could-die-along-with-everyone-you-care-about. Funnily enough, most of them seemed to belong to that last category. Apparently, he hadn't hidden his true thoughts as well as he'd hoped, as Joah came up behind him and whispered in his ear,

"What are you doing? You're not going to take him to the third ingredient."

"Oh, well, as long as you say so, I have to follow your orders, I suppose. No, wait, that's right! You have to follow my orders!"

"If I had followed your orders-"

"If you had followed my orders, you wouldn't have gotten captured in the first place. And we would've figured out a way to break them out together. But, now, we don't have any other options."

Joah sighed, "You're impossible. Of course, we have options. The venom is in his pocket. He's all alone and there are four of us – five if you count the mortal. Eddie will knock him to the ground. You quickly untie me and Letitia and we hold him down while you scramble his brains."

Jonathan gave him a dry look. He was beginning to get really tired of Joah.

"Since when are you this impractical, Joah? He'd sense Eddie coming and even if he didn't, he'd have his sword out and be slicing through our necks before we could blink."

"Or, he could be listening to your entire conversation."

Davian hadn't turned around but Jonathan had known he was listening. He wanted him to, so that he could believe that Jonathan wasn't about to break this truce. Jonathan flashed Joah a firm look, but Joah only shook his head and stayed quiet. Jonathan didn't understand why Joah was being so rash and unsensible; this has never been the case, and it was worrying Jonathan.

The others were following behind and hadn't heard this exchange. Adilah glanced at Eddie,

"What do you think Lord Jonathan is planning?"

"I don't know," his face looked grim, "just be cautious and ready. For whatever comes."

And on that reassuring note, they made it out of the endless expanse of stone corridors and into a different courtyard than the one they had arrived in. This one was square like the other but the farther wall consisted of an enormous gate, built with a complicated system of levers and pulleys, manned by at least a dozen men. On either corner rose a watchtower mounted with crossbows and another four men manning each. Along the wall stood almost ten more men at attention and around five archers, their bows aimed at their little group below.