Chapter 21: Magus

"There it is," Val said, pointing at the structure ahead of us. "The Fortress of Shadows. Dred rules the Domain from inside those walls."

We all looked at the castle grimly. It was an oppressive and ominous sight, a tall castle surrounded on almost all sides by jagged, rocky mountains, that looked like the teeth of some enormous creature. The castle itself had been made of black stones. Towers rose above the fortress here and there, reaching up to the dark cloudy sky above it. A thick wall made of more of the black stones surrounded the fortress, and we could see inhuman guards walking about the tops of the walls. A large gate was the only entrance into the castle, and that was also guarded by more of Dred's creatures.

We had broke into the Dark Domain two days ago. The good dragons and the armies of the southlands had provided a distraction, attacking the invading monsters of Dred with a ferocity that had distracted them long enough for us to slip through not far from where they had breeched the wall. A pair of metallic dragons had lifted us over the gigantic wall that separated the Dark Domain from the southlands and had dropped us off on the other side, then quickly flew back over so that they would not risk being spotted. The rest of the journey to Dred's castle, we had to make on foot.

The weather here was as dark and gloomy as the name of the land suggested. It was cold and damp, and there always seemed to be ominous storm clouds in the sky above us. We had surprisingly encountered little opposition in our travel to the fortress. A party of orcs, a duo of ogres, and that was all. I had thought about what Val had said, about how it seemed that Dred was not even trying to kill us. I thought of that, and I wondered.

"So how do we get in?" Tasmine asked, her eyes watching the guards at the only gate in the wall surrounding the fortress.

Atheria looked back to Val, who was smiling one of the wicked smiles that she did when she was planning on doing something risky.

"Go on! Move faster, you slime!" Val yelled at us, cracking her whip over our heads for effect.

The rest of us, keeping our heads bowed, picked up the pace as we walked up the road that led to the gate of the fortress. Our hands were tied behind our backs, and Val kept Atheria's swords at her own side, instead of their customary position on Atheria.

The guards, a handful of hobgoblins, looked up at us as we approached, their eyes glaring at us. A couple of them went to stand in the middle of the road that passed through the gate.

"Valandaria?" one of them asked. I assumed he was the leader. "We heard you was dead."

"Well, you obviously heard wrong," the dark elf shot back at him. "Now get out of my way, Zugzug!"

The hobgoblin called Zugzug looked at her hesitantly, then his eyes looked over us. "What you bringing these humans here for?"

"For Dred's pleasure, of course," Val replied, her voice showing her displeasure at him for not stepping aside. "They are to serve and please Dred for as long as he wants them. Except for this one," she added, pulling Atheria back to her. "This one is mine!"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Val grab Atheria by the chin and kiss her long and passionately. Atheria responded at first, but then she started fighting Val, trying to pull away. I secretly wondered if that was an act, since I had seen subtle signs of affection passing between the two elven women before.

A couple of the hobgoblins snickered as the women kissed, then Val pushed Atheria away, glaring at the hobgoblins.

"What are you looking at?" she demanded. "Get out of our way, before I flay the smelly skin off of each of you!"

Zugzug and the other hobgoblin moved out of the way, though Zugzug kept looking at Val with suspicion. Val pushed us through the gate, cracking her whip over our heads one more time.

"What did you do that for?" Atheria whispered to her once we had moved out of earshot of the hobgoblin guards.

"Because I wanted to, sexy," Val told her with a wink

Atheria did not reply, and I could have sworn I saw her cheeks were redder. Val pushed us through the courtyard in front of the fortress. Around us, the evil minions of Dred worked on weapon practice and training. Some pulled weapons of siege towards the front of the castle. I saw a few tents here and there, and inside one of them, I saw an elven woman being raped by an orc.

Some of the creatures glared at us as we passed them. A large, furry creature I didn't know the name of spat on Tasmine with a sneer. At one point, a large ogre stepped in front of us, looking at me with a distasteful look that made my skin crawl.

"You pretty girl," he told me, his voice a low rumble. "Me fuck you."

His large hands came at me, and I started to back away, trying to stay out of his reach. Val's whip flashed through the air with a loud crack, slicing into the ogre's forehead. A line of blood appeared there, marring his pale white skin.

"Stay away from her, Ugbuk!" Val warned the ogre. "Unless you want to lose an eye and some other body parts!"

Ugbuk glared at her but did as he was told, stepping away from me. Val ordered us to get moving again, and I looked back at her in secret appreciation. She clearly must have been feared around here, since she was making hobgoblins and ogres back off without any arguements. I just hoped that we wouldn't run into any of the creatures that knew that Val had run off after she was supposed to be sent on some suicide mission, because Dred wanted her dead.

We were coming near the main entrance of the fortress itself, but Val seemed to be steering us away from it, taking us instead to the side of the enormous building. She led us along the side of the castle, to one of the side doors where there were no guards, just a handful of creatures doing some weapons practice.

"Where are you taking us?" Atheria asked her.

"To the bedchamber that used to be mine," Val replied. "Hopefully no one else is using it."

We were led into a wide hallway, torches lighting the way here and there. She took us down the hall, passing several doors along the way. Some more of Dred's minions passed us by, but they hardly gave us a glance. Val led us up a spiral staircase that went past a few floors, then we came into a smaller hallway, this one lit with fewer torches and had fewer doors lining the sides.

Val went to the first door and listened at it for a moment. She looked back at us and nodded, then opened the door, letting us in. The bedchamber was bare, except for a bed that had no blankets on it. A window looked out over the courtyard, and below us we could hear the sounds of the creatures as they toiled.

"The bastard destroyed all my belongings," Val muttered, walking around the room. She gave the empty room a scowl, then turned to us and started untying our hands.

"Where will Dred be keeping Lucas?" Atheria asked her as Val freed her hands.

"Possibly in the cells," the dark elf replied. "We should try there first. After that, we can try a couple of other places he might be."

Once our hands were untied and Atheria's swords had been returned to her, we moved for the door. Val stopped at the door and turned to face us.