Beyond the Grave

Chapter 7

The bandits made the Jesse twins, Ivor, and Harper walk through the hallways of their fortress. They took the groups weapons and gave them to the one who ordered them to surrender. With their hands tied to their backs, the four friends followed the bandits to what looked like a meeting room in the bandits' fortress.

"Have a seat," the leader of the bandits told them, pointing his sword to a set of chairs.

"Some dinner party you invited us to..." Ivor said sarcastically.

"Shut up, Ivor!" Male Jesse hissed at him.

The leader only smirked at them. The four friends and the bandits heard the sound of a door opening, and someone else came into the room.

The person who walked in was a man with pale skin. He had dark skin and black eyes. He was dressed in the color grey, and he looked a little angry as he came into the room. As he walked, he was using some sort of fancy staff as a cane.

"What did you wake me up in the middle of the night for, Leslie?" the man growled at the bandit leader.

When they heard that the leader of the bandits had a girl's name, the Jesse twins, Ivor, and Harper did their best not to laugh. They didn't want to anger the bandits and end up with a sword in their backs.

Leslie sighed, knowing that the prisoners were going to hear his name eventually. Doing his best not to listen to their snickers, he said, "We caught some people sneaking in to help the prisoner escape. The one we told you that came from the portal."

The man formed a malicious smile and eyed the twins, Ivor, and Harper.

"So it seems. This must be the famous Jesse and her twin brother. I know that you're Ivor, the enchanter from the old order, and based on what I've heard, you're Harper, one of the Old Builders," said the man.

The group was quiet. How did this man know about them?

"I swear, I didn't say anything about you guys while I was imprisoned!" Ivor whispered to his friends.

"You're wondering how I know who you are. It's thanks to this..." said the man. He pulled out the portal atlas. "And I'm assuming you want it back, along with this as well..." he said, taking out the portal key.

Male Jesse, Ivor, and Harper eyed the man angrily. Female Jesse, on the other hand, wanted to negotiate. She didn't want the portal key and atlas in the hands of this man, but she also didn't want her friends' lives at risk.

"Who are you, and what do you want?" she asked with a sigh.

"The name's Calvin, and I'm a collector of rare valuables. I have my men bring me only the rarest, and this special flint and steel and little guide to other worlds are quite rare indeed..." said the man.

"Those are ours! You can't have them!" Male Jesse shouted at him.

"Bro, calm down. Please let me do the talking," said Female Jesse. She remembered what the lady back at the inn told her, and that it was to not anger the bandits and talk her way out of it.

"We really don't want things to get bloody over a book and flint and steel," she said.

"Oh, this coming from someone who killed two of my men, left one of them tied in a closet, and tricked two of them into fighting each other?" said Calvin.

"To shay..." Female Jesse muttered to herself.

"Just what do you want from us?" asked Harper, sounding annoyed.

"Personally, I was searching for something else, until my men found a portal that brought them to your... town called Crown Mesa. They found Ivor, who had the key to getting them back home to our world. I'm looking for something else, and you want your book and portal key back. Perhaps... we can come to a deal..." said Calvin.