Stories of Giladriis: The Paladin's Squire

Part Seven

    Olsyn pulled against the metal cuffs around his wrists, testing their strength. He looked over to Gunder, who was a foot or so to his left, and noticed that the dwarf had already somehow loosened one of the cuffs and removed it. Once Gunder turned more towards him be noticed that he was using a nail that he must have kept on him to pick the locks.

    Gunder looked to Olsyn and nodded just lightly enough for it to only be noticeable to the squire. He turned just enough to let Olsyn watch how he was working the lock, hoping that he was able to pick up the technique he was using. The locks were simple, so Gunder knew that his limited skill would be enough. After he had the second cuff totally unlocked he slid the nail over to Olsyn and slowly set the cuffs on the ground behind him.

    Olsyn picked up the mail slowly so that his movements would not pick up Kabel's attention. While he tried to work the cuffs free he stared his long lost uncle down. He was disgusted with what he saw. The Kabel he had been told stories about was honorable and worked hard to fight the evil of Mythos, whereas this man had joined it. Now he was trying to convince Razeem, a person he looked at like a father, to join the corruption and betray everything that he had once taught him to fight for. His anger distracted him, and he almost did not realize that both his hands were free now.

    Gunder held his hand out as if to tell Olsyn to hold on. They needed to wait for the perfect moment if they wanted to make a surprise attack work. He knew it would be hard for Olsyn to watch his own uncle torture his teacher, but he had hopes that he could wait just a little while.

    While they were freeing themselves Kabel had been mercilessly beating on Razeem. He tried at first to push him to use the corrupt magic by bringing out intense pain in him. When he saw that doing so would not work, he decided to try a different approach. He placed his open palm on Razeem's head and closed his eyes, Dark magic pushed into Razeem as Kabel began reading his mind. He smiled wide and pulled his hand away when he found something that he could use.

    "Oh, this is interesting." Kabel mumbled as he stepped away from Razeem and moved to stand in front of Cianna. "Don't you dare..." Razeem started to speak but stopped on shock when Kabel backhanded the elven woman. She fell to the ground and was barely able to bring her head back up before Kabel slapped her again. "Stop it you bastard!"

    Kabel smiled and landed another smack to the woman's face. "I'll stop if you manage to use the corrupted magic to free yourself. Embrace the corruption and I'll stop..." He struck her again, and then kicked her in the ribs. She tried to cough but was cut off by another kick. "... or you can keep holding back and I'll kill her, and then the dwarf. Then I'll turn your own squire against you."

    Razeem fought the urge to use the magic he felt filling him to pull the chains that held him down from the wall. He breathed deeply, his muscles flexing as he slowly lost control. "Stop it, damn you!" He yelled in full anger now, breathing heavily and sobbing. "Damn it all, she's pregnant!"

    Kabel brought his hand back as if to hit her again, but before he could Gunder tackled him to the ground. Though he had told Olsyn to wait, his anger flared once he knew she was to have a child, Razeem's child at that. Olsyn took the chance to sprint forward towards the opening door.

    The dark paladin guard rushed in when he heard Kabel yell out and hit the floor. He had not been expecting the squire to be ready to take him on. Olsyn tackled the dark paladin to the ground and pulled the enemy's sword out of his hands, stabbing him in the chest with it. After pulling the blade from the corpse's chest he ran to Razeem and knelt down beside him, grabbing his master's head.

    "Razeem, snap out of it. Cianna is safe for the moment, don't use that magic!" He pleased with his teacher, who shook his head to clear his thoughts.