Free The Companions of Tartiël by Jeff Wilcox

are—”
    “I’ll take care of that,” the nymph replied as she pressed her hand to the wall between Kaiyr’s cell and Caineye’s. “Be seeing you.” She stepped through the wall, melding seamlessly into the stone.
    On the other side of the wall, Caineye looked up at Astra as she stepped through the wall. “Just checking to make sure you’re alive and well,” Astra greeted Caineye as he stood and dusted himself off.
    “Oh, thank Alduros Hol you’re here to get us out of here,” he replied.
    “Just leave everything to me. You follow the elf in the bathrobe and put your legs to good use. I’ll meet you once we all get out of Viel.” She waved at him, and Caineye nodded his accord as she slipped back into the wall of his cell.
    The trio did not have long to wait. Wild stood by the door in the back of the building, ready to burst out of it in a moment’s notice. Kaiyr and Caineye stood before their cells’ respective doors, also ready to shove hard.
    Surprised shouts and the ringing of steel on steel echoed down the hallway as Astra engaged the unsuspecting prison guards. The others tensed, even more ready to spring as soon as the moment arrived.
    The locking bars slid back into the walls, and before the now-loose doors could swing open on their own, Kaiyr and Caineye charged through them and into the hall. Wild kicked open the back door with his foot, but before he could do anything else, a hand grabbed the edge of the door and wrenched it open.
    With a surprised shout, the halfling sprang back and drew one of his daggers. Kaiyr hissed at the halfling and motioned for the short rogue to retreat toward him. As the halfling complied, Kaiyr ducked back into his cell after motioning for Caineye to stay back.
    Two soldiers rushed in after Wild, their swords drawn. With a battle cry, they came at the little man. But as they passed Kaiyr’s cell, a blade seemingly made of glass slashed out, gashing one of the soldiers’ arms. At the same moment, Caineye cast a spell and launched a bolt of fire right into the face of the other soldier. Neither one went down, but they both realized their doom as Kaiyr jumped into the hall, joining the fray.
    Together, the trio made short work of the two prison guards, and as soon as the second one went down under a flurry of strikes between Kaiyr and Wild, the blademaster’s soulblade winked out of existence. “Let us flee this place,” he intoned, turning for the door.
    Caineye and Vinto followed, but Wild spun and ran the other way. “I’m going to check on Astra,” he said, “I’ll meet up with you later.”
    Kaiyr opened his mouth to argue but then clamped it shut. “Let’s go,” Caineye said, and the two of them dashed out of the prison and down the dark, nighttime alleys.
    Back in the prison, Wild met up with Astra just as she was easing the constable’s corpse to the ground. No less than seven bodies littered the floor, and the tiny spatter of blood on the nymph’s cheek, the only blood on her, was not her own and could have been mistaken for decoration.
    As Wild entered, she slid her rapier, crackling with magical energy, back into its sheath. Scowling at Wild, she growled, “I thought I told you to get the hell out.”
    Wild shrugged. “Just wanted to see if there was anything to steal.” He looked down. The constable lay dead on the floor, his hands grasping at a precise wound in his ribs. Reaching down, the halfling divested one of those fingers of a gold ring, and he took a moment to inspect the inscription on its face. “Ooh, a ring of station,” he said, sliding it onto his own finger, next to the ring he’d taken from Cobain the other day. “Now I’m a priest and a constable!”
     
    *
     
    “You have got to be kidding me,” I groaned. Xavier rolled his eyes with me. Matt just grinned.
    “The worst part is,” Dingo said, “it’s really going to help him with Bluff checks to the point where he’ll barely need to make any, unless he meets with