Escape from Elusia

by Stephen Farmer

The heat of summer weaved its way through hazy smoke, and loud voices climbed over each other in the crowded inn. The city of Elusia was busy this time of year, with traders, romantics, and criminals alike making their way to the city in hopes of fulfillment.

All the more reason for Beau Landry to settle himself here for a little while longer. Elusia might not be the most forgiving city, but somehow things felt stable here. Odd jobs had easily found their way to him and Nabil, and they hadn’t been forced to engage in anything quite so illegal as to be dangerous.

It was dreadfully boring.

His counterpart sat opposite him on the long table. He let out a loud belch as they drained their tankards.

“That’s six!” Beau shouted in a laugh. “It’s only half noon! You going for a new record today, or what?”

Nabil shrugged, looking toward the bar counter. Over time Beau had learned to read his friend’s stone-cold expressions, and right now he was practically beaming. He hadn’t seen Nabil this content in months.

The large hands of Levar reached down to take their empty tankards, and the innkeeper gave a cautious look to Beau.

“Don’t you make him keep gettin’ up for the next round, then.” He said, hiding a smile. “I see the way you treat the poor lad, like an errand boy.” The older man had taken a liking to the two of them, as they had stayed in the inn the past few weeks.

Nabil shrugged again, standing. “It is okay. Like to stretch my legs. Look at pretty girls.”

Beau threw his hands toward Nabil in showmanship. “See? The perfect companion! That Gabrielle always keeps him coming back for more!”

They laughed, and Nabil sheepishly made his way up to the bar.

The common room was filled with jovial voices and people spinning wonderful tales, either exaggerated stories of their own lives or classic stories of the Old Age. Beau’s ears perked to the woman closest to him, who was recounting one of the stories of ancient Magi.

“That’s what I’m trying to say. They called him Scarous. Hundreds of years ago he made a pact with Mother Essence—“

 “How do ye make a deal with the feckin earth?” a man shouted, scattered chuckles following.

“He was a Mage, wasn’t he? The best there ever was at that!” The woman nodded her head and took a big swig of her tankard. “He asked her to make the Magi without death, and she did. But it came with a cost.” She held up a crooked finger. “It rots their brains. They’re miserable. Ever met a happy Mage? That’s why they’re so nasty and live such joyless lives, every last one of ‘em.”

A quick thud in front of him made Beau jump. Levar was behind him, and his huge hand was pressed on the table in front him.

“I can buy you five minutes. Maybe ten. Move quickly and cover your face.”

He walked away, and beneath his hand he had left a large piece of parchment, face down. Beau turned it over and his heart dropped. It was never easy to see one’s own face on a bounty poster.

WANTED, DEAD OR ALIVE

REWARD: 10,000 GOLD CROWNS

The sketches were unmistakably him and Nabil. Beau tried racking his brain for who would have done this, but that didn’t matter now. He shot up to the bar, where Nabil was engaging a beaming Gabrielle.

“Sorry to interrupt! I’ll bring him right back!” Beau grabbed Nabil, who was holding two full tankards, by the arm. Gabrielle’s eyes followed them, disappointed.

“What is this?” Nabil asked, as Beau ushered him up the stairs to the room they’d been renting.

“Get inside,” he said, plucking one of the tankards from Nabil’s hand. He locked the door and jammed it with a chair.

Nabil looked puzzled. “You said you would bring me back to Gabrielle.”

“Oh yeah, sorry,” Beau said. “You’ll probably never see her again.” He handed him the rolled-up parchment and started gulping his tankard. Nabil slowly unrolled the poster.

“We are wanted?” he asked. “What did you do?”

“You’re blaming me?” Beau exclaimed, spewing ale. “With a price that high? I may have nicked a purse or two, but Gods, that’s the bounty of a war criminal! What could I do to deserve that? You might want to chug that.”

Nabil inspected the parchment more as if it would change.

Beau looked out the window. “The city guards love to pin crimes on random innocents all the time, Nabil. Someone was happy to sell out two travelers passing through.”

“Then it is a mistake.”

“Tell that to every good-hearted citizen that will see us on the street! Or better yet, half the tavern that we’ve been socializing with. It’s only a matter of time until they storm up here for that amount of money. We have to move fast, Nabil.”

Nabil moved without further hesitation, and Beau with him. They gathered clothes strewn about the room, personal belongings, and leftover alcohol into their packs in minutes.

It wasn’t their first time on the run with short notice.

Beau cringed, lamenting a goodbye to a short period of comfort. Maybe they had become too comfortable, he tried to convince himself. It was time to move on anyway.

Sneaking out the window, Beau felt bad about the unpaid balance he’d left on his tab at Levar’s. He’d try to pay it back at some point, but who knows when that would be.

On the roof, Beau gestured east. “Let’s pay Brie a visit.”

* * *

The row houses of Elusia seemed to go on endlessly along the river. Beau and Nabil moved as quickly as they could without gaining suspicion. Dodging a few glances, they moved down the street to number 708, sliding around to the back door.

Beau rapped his hand on the door, quick and firm. After a moment it opened slightly, revealing a pair of eyes. In recognition, the door opened wider.

“Good day, gentlemen. To what do we owe the pleasure?”

The scraggly man looked expectantly at him, as if Beau’s presence inconvenienced him. It was something about Elusia he would not miss.

“Jace, we need to see Brie. It’s an . . . emergency,” Beau said, giving a pleading look.

The door opened fully, and the two of them rushed inside. Jace’s gaze seemed to linger over Nabil longer than usual.

“Hot items to sell?” Jace asked.

“No no, nothing of the sort,” Beau said, hesitantly. He wasn’t sure how much he should be sharing with Jace.

“Then what should I tell her you’re here for?”

Beau gave him a look. “I think she’ll know exactly why we’re here.”

Jace frowned at him and disappeared down the hall, replaced only moments later by Brie. Stepping out of the storefront, she removed her work apron, throwing it to a hook and dusting her hands off on her trousers.

“Why in the fuck are Elusia’s two most wanted here? Are you crazy, Beau?!”

Beau found it impressive, the way she was able to scream while whispering.

“You need to get out of here, now!”

“I’m well aware of that,” he said, “but I’m not sure how to do that without a rope tied around my neck.”

She looked between the two of them. Beau’s words hung in the air, and Nabil gave her a stare that even Brie would be able to decipher as pleading.

“Look I’m sorry, we wouldn’t put you in this position otherwise. It’s just . . . we don’t really know anyone else in the city.” Nabil nodded his head in agreement.

She sighed with irritation. With her eyes closed she began to walk through specifics out loud.

“Everyone will be looking for you. Everyone. Not just the main bounty hunters, all the lowlives too. You can’t show your face at the port, and you certainly can’t sneak through the main city gate.” Beau knew all this already.

“So . . .” he said, fearing he knew what came next.

“So,” she said, clearly picking up on his impatience. “You’ll have to take a ship out of Raider’s Cove.”

Nabil groaned and Beau’s hands met his face.

Raider’s Cove was the last place anyone in Elusia wanted to end up. Packed to the brim with pirates, criminals, and other degenerates, the lawlessness of the cove overtook any effort by the city to reclaim it.

It would be crawling with bounty hunters and countless others that would immediately recognize the faces of the two most wanted in the city. But it was the only way out.

“I know someone. But we have to get through the main drag.” She tapped her foot in irritation. “Do you have any bright ideas on how to do that?”

Beau sighed. “Unfortunately, yes.”

* * *

Beau and Nabil led the way down the crowded marketplace, past the cheap taverns and brothels of Raider’s Cove. Their hands were in shackles, though they remained barely unlatched. Brie ushered them down the road, acting as their captor.

People stared them down as they walked, hungry for the reward they no doubt knew about by now. The gags in their mouths and Brie’s drawn short sword kept anyone from acting on their urges. But it didn’t stop them from taunting them.

“Gods, Brie, didn’t think ya had it in ya.” A man barked over his bottle, and others jeered as well. A lot of them recognized her, seemingly surprised that she could manage a bounty on her own. As he was practically being drooled over, Beau hoped the upstanding gentlemen of Raider’s Cove would keep their hands to themselves.

Nabil must have been thinking something similar as he tried to speak to Beau from behind his gag, his voice only coming out as a muffled jumble.

Don’t. Keep walking. Beau hoped that his glare conveyed the message. Brie gave them a small shove on the flat of her blade.

“Keep moving you . . . miscreants.” She said, scanning her surroundings.

Beau rolled his eyes. She just wasn’t selling the performance.

A bald man appeared in front of them, holding up a red gloved hand that matched his iconic red tunic.

A Mage.

He hadn’t cast anything to stop them. He didn’t need to, not yet. His eyes scanned over their faces, across their bodies, and back to eye level. He smiled.

“Looks like you’ve found our friends, young lady,” the Mage spoke. “Quite an impressive feat. I’ll unburden you and escort them to the Order House myself.”

Brie cleared her throat. “A generous offer, Red Brother, but I have business to attend to beforehand, with strict orders not to let them leave my sight.” It was a flimsy excuse, but the best they had.

The Mage gave a confused look. “You’re running errands with captives? Valuable ones at that. They must be taken straight away.”

“It’s a time sensitive issue and I—“

“The Elder Magi issued this bounty. For you to deny me means you are considered to be harboring fugitives.”

Others had begun to surround them, and they all eyed each other warily. People were going to kill one another to get their hands on Beau and Nabil, or what was left of them after the inevitable bloodbath.

Like the poster said. Dead or alive.

The Mage’s hands became enveloped in dark spheres, and an aura of darkness surrounded him. Beau felt the magic rushing through the air towards him.

In a flash Nabil’s hammer met the Mage’s temple, sending him to the ground.

“Oh fuck!” Beau said, disgusted. The air went still again. The huge hammer was dripping blood, soaking into the dirt.

The Mage stumbled to his feet. Beau returned Nabil’s look. Running away would be more dangerous than staying to fight, giving the Mage enough time to annihilate them from afar.

So, they charged at him together.

Nabil pummeled into him, and as the Mage’s hands went black again, Beau slipped his shackles over his wrists, latching them behind his back. Before the Mage could realize what had happened, he released the casting he had conjured.

A burst of dark power erupted from his hands behind his back. It slammed him face down into the dirt.

Brie yanked them back. Now was a better time to run.

“You bloody morons,” she said as they sprinted. “You’re just pissing him off! It’s like you just tied his shoelaces together!”

Beau chanced a look back and saw she wasn’t wrong. The Mage was already free of the handcuffs and chasing after them.

And now he wasn’t alone.

As well as bystanders wanting to cash in on the action, four more Magi now approached, led by a familiar face. Jace stood a full head taller than anyone else, and he locked eyes with Beau.

“That weasel-shit asshole!” Beau yelled. Jace had sold them out, no doubt for a hefty commission.

A black cloud appeared in front of the three of them, and they ran right into it. It stopped them instantly, throwing them to the ground. Dark wisps of sticky shadow erupted around them as the cloud dispersed, and it seemed like everyone in the district was crowding them now. The highest bounty the city had seen in years, right here in Raider’s Cove.

If not for the presence of the Magi, they surely would have been swarmed by now. But the five red-clad figures approached, spreading out to circle around them.

“Gentlemen, I implore you,” Beau said, stretching one arm out defensively while jabbing a finger at Jace with the other. “That man has run a nasty grift on you.”

“You struck our brethren,” one Mage said, tossing his long hair over his shoulder. “For that the punishment is death.”

“Oh Gods, please have mercy!” Brie cried, shielding her face in her hands.

“Don’t beg,” Beau scorned her. “It’s uncouth.”

All the Magi flared their dark magic in synchronization. This would be the start of it.

Beau grabbed Nabil by the shoulders.

“Listen to me!” he shouted. “Whatever happens next just breathe deep, and think of home! Think of home!”

Nabil’s look of panic was only temporary. The Magi cast their dark magic spell, the five of them drumming up more power than anyone in this district had seen in decades. The air shattered under the vibrations, the dirt road puffing up in clouds.

Like a natural reaction, Nabil went completely white.

A pure silence followed, and Beau could feel the aura of peace and tranquility that was falling over everyone else as energy expelled from Nabil’s body. Time had been paused, and a breath brought in the feeling of fulfillment that seemed to hang just above the abdomen. A sudden burst erupted, and a pale wave shot out in all directions.

Then all five Magi dropped dead.

Blood flowed from their eyes and mouths as their bodies twitched. At this point, any remaining hopeful bystanders were now running for their lives. This was worse than any crime scene. Magi weren’t supposed to die.

“What in the . . . How . . .” Brie asked mindlessly as she scanned the bodies that surrounded them.

Nabil was out cold, and Beau knew from experience that no amount of slapping or kicking would wake him up.

“We have to go!” he said, shaking Brie from getting lost in her own head. She only nodded, too stunned to speak.

Beau hefted one of Nabil’s huge arms over his shoulder. “Help me lug this fool.”

* * *

Nabil awoke a few hours later. His groaning almost rang in harmony with the creaking of the ship as their small quarters bobbed slightly in the sea. He was reaching out, trying to get a sense of his surroundings.

Beau grabbed his hand. “Hey hey, it’s fine. We’re okay.”

Nabil sat up. His eyes were still milky white, blocking his vision. It would return after a good night’s sleep.

“It happened again?”

Beau clicked his tongue. “Yeah, it did. So, you remember now?”

He was silent for a moment. “Is that why we were wanted? Because of me?”

Beau cupped his shoulder. “Listen to me. This isn’t your fault. This is way beyond us, and I’ll be damned if I have to watch you take credit for the power to kill immortals.”

Nabil groaned again. “We made the ship, I suppose.”

Beau nodded. “Fast one, too. Bunch of crazy smugglers, totally not pirates. You’ll like them.”

Nabil tried to pry more information out of him, but there really was none to be had. Beau encouraged him to get some more rest and found himself on the dock of the ship under the setting sun. Brie was already there, leaning against the railing.

She peeked over her shoulder as he approached. “He alright?”

“Beat to shit, but lucid. A couple of days and he’ll be fine. It’s . . . happened before.”

“I gathered as much,” she said. “You didn’t seem all that surprised.”

He snorted. “Should’ve seen me the first time it happened. Nearly shat myself watching him crumble a Mage’s head like a handful of leaves.” He paused, thinking for a moment about his partner. “Sorry, it’s just . . . something’s got a hold of him and everywhere we go we disrupt more lives . . .” Beau paused, swallowing a breath in silence.

“It’s the Blinding White, then?” She asked. Beau nodded.

“Wow, it’s just . . . I assumed that was only a myth, like everyone else.”

“That’s what the Magi want people to believe. Ironically, it only happens when they group together like that. Like a visceral reaction to large-scale casting, an ancient defense mechanism.”

He knocked on the railing. “But it’s as real as this ship. And it’s going to tear my best friend apart from the inside out.”

There was silence for a moment, with only the sound of small waves splashing against the hull endlessly.

“I’m sorry, Brie,” he finally continued. “I didn’t mean to drag you down with us. I should have left you out of it.”

“You’d be dead on the docks by now if you had.” She kicked pebbles and leaves off the deck. “Besides . . . I’ve been looking for an excuse to leave. Elusia’s no home to me.”

Beau sighed a breath of relief. He hoped she would want to stay, if only to have someone else to help keep an eye on Nabil. Things would certainly be more complicated now that he was aware of the situation.

A thought occurred to him, and he realized that in the panic of boarding and fleeing he had yet to learn the ship’s destination. He looked towards what remained of the sun. “We’re heading north?”

She nodded. “Far as I know we’ll land in Port Arthane.”

“Good,” he said, pulling a flask from his pocket. “Let’s head straight for the gates when we get there. Hell, I’ve got half a mind to jump out early and start swimming.”

She laughed. “I may know of a place outside of town we can lay low at for a while. But won’t they have just about everyone out looking for us?”

“I think the Magi will want to contain the story to keep it from spreading. They certainly don’t want everyone knowing that Nabil is making them drop like flies. It may be a while before it catches up with us.”

“And when it does?”

Beau didn’t know. He never knew.

Suddenly the deck heaved starboard, and his feet flew out from under him. But instead of falling, he felt Brie’s hand grab his lapel and heave him upright.

When the deck returned to level she let go, and the ship hurdled through the waters in a comforting silence. Elusia was far behind them now, festering in their wake. He looked at Brie, and realized she was far fiercer than she let on. For once, he couldn’t help but feel hopeful for the future.

He smirked and passed her the flask.

“It’s nothing we can’t handle.”