The Elf King by Sean McKenzie

“So
where are you going?” he tried again.
    A gruff voice barked back
instantly, “You carry a nice sword, half-breed. Was he dead when
you took it, or did you kill him to get it?”
    “ A souvenir?” laughed the
other man. The two men began laughing together, mumbling
unpleasantries under their breath.
    “ It was given to me,” Tane
explained, his posture stiffening. He stopped eating and waited for
the confrontation he expected to happen.
    The men laughed harder.
“Yeah, we’ve been given a lot of things too!”
    “ People are generous in
these parts, boy!” the other joined.
    Tane looked at Qenn, who
had also set his plate aside, and mouthed the word thieves. The
brothers were now feeling even more uncomfortable. Together they
rose to their feet.
    “ Thank you for the food,
but we should be going now.” Tane said, watching the other two
men’s faces turn for the worse.
    “ Why don’t you two stick
around for the night? We’ll give you a ride to Skadar Port in the
morning.”
    Qenn looked at his brother,
feeling a tension rise between the two groups. “Thanks, but we’re
in no hurry.”
    “ I didn’t say it was
negotiable,” the voice growled back. The two men’s faces twisted
into an expression that was anything but friendly. They began
forward, moving around the fire, heading for Tane and
Qenn.
    Suddenly from inside the
wagon, chains began thrashing against wood, diverting the thieves’
attention. Grunting between them, the taller man slipped around to
the back of the carriage out of sight. Heated words were exchanged,
then the chains stopped and the man reappeared.
    “ Did you hear that?” Qenn
whispered. His face couldn’t hide his feelings. He was scared.
“They have someone in there!”
    “ Boy, why don’t you two
come over here and help me with this wheel?” the short man snarled.
The two men stepped back away from the fire, easing into the
shadows.
    “ What’s in the wagon?” Qenn
asked quickly.
    “ Come on back and find
out,” the raspy voice teased.
    Tane had his sword sliding
free from its sheath when he noticed one of the men holding
something in the dark. Before he could draw his sword the rest of
the way, he heard a smack and Qenn and was dropping at his side. He
felt a sharp sting in his neck then, and he too was falling, his
eyes seeing nothing but darkness, his head spinning. His ears could
pick up the slight traces of movement next to him, gruff voices
speaking quickly, but everything was fading. He was out before the
first man grabbed his feet.
     
     

Chapter 5
     
     
     
    T ane awoke to the sunlight creeping in through a rip in the
overhead canopy. Groggy and disoriented, it took him a few seconds
to recognize that he had been drugged and was now in the back of a
moving wagon. His head was dizzy and the constant lurching of the
ride didn’t help to improve matters. His hands and feet were tied
by rope, and his mouth was gagged with musty cloths. Qenn lay next
to him in the same fashion. At the front of the wagon a large brown
sack with a bulk form inside it was tied down with chains. Besides
that, the wagon only carried a single chest, chained and locked.
The walls were of wood, smooth and not scalable, and the back door
showed no handle or lock, nothing to help them open it.
    He could hear a muffled
conversation at the front of the carriage; his captors were making
plans for their new prey, cursing and arguing all the while. Tane
could barely make out full sentences, but came to the conclusion
that it wasn’t going to be good for Qenn or himself. The name
Skadar Port was mentioned a few times, but he couldn’t be sure
that’s where they were heading. He began wondering how long he had
been out. There was no way of knowing for sure, he had hoped it had
been just for the night. He guessed it didn’t matter much at this
point.
    He tried to break the rope
binding his feet, then his hands. The rope twisted and slightly
loosened, but he only succeeded in cutting