Book 10 - The Shattered Axe - Chapter 19: Gambit of Revelations

Edit: I forgot two things
I reference specific locations on The Iron Conclave, so here is the map I made of the island to refresh your mind of where things are:

Also, I finally re-found the picture I had found a long time ago at the beginning of writing this book that shows what a typical Khaos Viking looks like.  Excluding the cape (and crow) mind you, this is a Defender of Khaos:

A Realm of Khaos viking is the same but without the ponytail (and cape as well, even crow too)

Though maybe some of them can have crows.

Here is the music mix for this chapter:

KINGS GAMBIT | Epic Dramatic Violin Epic Music Mix | Best Dramatic Strings by @Brand X Music

The Shattered Axe

Chapter 19

Gambit of Revelations

Jarl's Point of View

         I am leaning towards the former, but there is no one on this island I trust right now.

         Remember what we were just talking about, I ask out of curiosity, “So, does this mean that something is wrong, so they want to pan all the responsibility on you?”

         Dot gulps, struggling to find the words, “Yes, but…  But…”

         Annabeth finishes the thought, “You have your freedom.  You are no longer a servant.  Take your time.”

         Dot tries to open her mouth, but words are still hard to come by, “I…  I- uh…  Don’t know what to do.  I…  I don’t know what to say.  Why me?  Why make me, a bondservant, the leader of the island?”

         Annabeth counters, “Don’t underestimate yourself.  You have been Gladstone’s right hand viking – for better or worse – so you know all the important things he does.  If a chief for the Iron Conclave merely manages the export of iron, then you would do a much better job than Gladstone.  You have the people’s interests as your own because of where you came from.”

         That made Dot brighten up a bit, although I believe she is overwhelmed with this development.  In the back of my mind, I am wary of this being an act.  If it is, Dotta is extremely good at making her face pale and naturally looking like she jumped from the frying pan into the fire.

         BOOM!  Something just hit the Meeting Hall, causing the building to shake and dirt to fall from the ceiling.

         Dot exclaims as we catch our balance, “Another attack!  We have to stop my sister!”

         All four of us run out of the hall to access the situation, Dagur and Heather also ran out with us.  Looking up at the skies, a group of rogue dragon riders are flying around on Monstrous Nightmares firing with reckless abandon terrorizing the island.

         On quick glance, they are fully dressed in black armor with full incasing masked helmets.

         They are Khaos!

         All of my crew hops on their dragons to join the defense of the island.  The island does not seem to have any dragon riders, though they may be in the stables.  In the time it is taking the island to respond, my crew is already poised to engage the assailants.

         The Khaos Vikings are laying down hit and runs on random places; looks like they have no real target in mind.  Upon interrupting their bombing runs, the Khaos Vikings are all too eager to fight us.  I do not think they expect my crew to be here, but they instantly start to shoot at us when we fly through their line of sight.  I mean, it makes sense to get their attention away from the island and on us, yet all of the riders dug deep into their saddles to prepare for a dogfight.

         Six Nightmares verses two Razorwhips, a Stormcutter, a Skrill, and a Triple Stryke.

         The way in which these vikings are fighting, they are not trying to win nor escape.  I instantly go to distraction.  What could they possibly want to keep our attention away from?

         Better yet…  Who?

         Receiving a moment to look down at the ground, I see a separate Khaos Viking dive down to the Meeting Hall.

         Flying next to Annabeth for a moment, I say, “Keep them occupied.  I’m going after the straggler.”

         As I peel off, a fire blast was shot at me yet missed.  Fredrick fires a stream of soundwaves allowing Star Scream to rain his own stream of fire.  The sonic ripples cause Star Scream’s fire to spread erratically towards the Monstrous Nightmare that was on my tail.  Annabeth took the opportunity to harass the Nightmare to get its attention on her Stormcutter allowing me the window to dive bomb down to the ground.

         Landing back at the Meeting Hall, I dismount and rush inside.  I hear a door to the far right close in a hurry.  Once I am at the door, a hesitate before going in as I have a hunch.  I want to hear what the Masked Viking will say to Dot.

         Putting my ear to the door, I hear Dot, “What are you doing here?”

         Sounds like the Masked Viking takes their helmet off, a different girl’s voice is heard, “I’ve come to get you.”

         Dot adamantly turns them down, “No, I cannot go with you.”

         “Look, I know you have said that before, but this time is different.  You’ve got to come with me now.”

         There is a moment of silence followed by a ruffle of clothing before it abruptly stops.

         Dot again repeats, “I can’t go with you.  I may have wanted to do so, before but not now.  Not now.”

         The girl will not take no for an answer, “You don’t understand.  Things are much different now.”  She sighs in disgust, “What is so important to you on this crummy island?”

         Dot reveals in a quiet, almost ashamed tone, “I am the chief now.  The mine owners just appointed me.”

         There is silence again.  The new girl is speechless, all the wind in her sails is completely gone.  So, I take the opportunity to barge in.  The new girl throws her helmet on, to hide her identity, and proceeds to grab Dot and bring a dagger to Dot’s throat.  Both girls are startled by my entrance.

         “Don’t come any closer!”  The new girl threatens.  “Or-.”

         “Or what?” I interrupt, giving a chuckle.  “You’ll slice your sister’s throat?”

         My comment causes the Masked viking to double clutch her dagger, so my hunch pays off.  This Masked Viking is Rebecca!

         I go on, while slowly easing towards them, “Why else would a random Masked Viking, Rebecca, risk capture to run in through the front door of the Meeting Hall of the Iron Conclave if it was not urgent and run straight for the chief’s quarters knowing that Dot is most likely here?  Seeing someone go to such risky length, that person in these rooms means a great deal to the Masked Viking.  So, since Dot is here, obviously you, Masked Viking, would be the one and only Rebecca.  Besides, Dot’s face gave it away.  She didn’t look scared when you grabbed her, merely surprised at my entrance, not the blade pointing at her throat.”

         “You think you’re so smart.  You got it all figured out,” Rebecca tries to hang onto her cover until the very end.

         I add, “It isn’t like the murder of Gladstone has any connection that you would risk capture only to get someone out of danger you really cared about if you knew they might be implicated.”

         Rebecca becomes fidgety.  I struck a nerve!  Dot is not fazed by my statement, so I suspect Rebecca knows something that Dot does not.

         Rebecca’s eyes are shooting back and forth.  She must be thinking what she can do now.  While I do not believe she would injure her own sister, I have fought my own wife when I had to.  Another thing, you never know how far someone is willing to go when they are cornered.  I am only a few feet away from them and about to tell her to give up.  But instead…

         Rebecca shoves Dot at me and runs off.  Dot does her best to quickly get off so I can scramble to my feet to chase Rebecca.  There is a side door to the left she runs through.

         By following, I find myself in a narrow hallway, about ten feet wide.  It is made up of both wooden and rock walls and ceiling.  In this hallway lined on the right wall are crates, barrels, and various supplies and tools for a mine.

         I think, “Must be close to a mine tunnel.”

         Rebecca has a few seconds head start on me, so I have some ground to make up.

         Although Rebecca is in all her gear with her full, incasing helmet – no ponytail – I am matching her speed.  Even in her heeled boots, she is still running at full speed with no problem.

         She looks back and sees she is not putting more space between us, so she starts to hurl obstacles in my path at every chance she gets.  Obviously, I must avoid them, but to do that I have to hurdle the crates.  By putting my hand on a crate in front of me to vault, flinging my legs over from the left or right, or slide under a large stack of crates toppling over, either way I maneuver through the mayhem Rebecca is creating.  She knocks over so much in one area, I cannot run through it.  In this case, I time my steps to launch off a crate to the right and wall run past the now debris on the floor.

         The hallway narrows even more that I now have to jump up to the wall again but spring back and forth between each wall a few times before needing to dive forward over a large group of wooden cases.  Landing, I summersault roll to recover.  The gab to Rebecca increased slightly, however, she is still in my sights.  She looks back and grunts in frustration seeing that none of what she did slowed me down.

         The hallway opens up into a mining tunnel with miners actively working.  I was about to start throwing a Crackle Bomb at Rebecca to stun her, but I was too busy trying to not get tackled by her debris.  As I run, I see wooden beams which make up a honeycomb of squares to support the larger tunnel structure.  One vertical post supporting a horizontal beam attached to both tunnel walls.  The tunnel looks to arc down but as we approach the decline, Rebecca throws something ahead of her.

         A smoke bomb!

         She runs through it, so I assume it is harmless to vikings, but just to be on the safe side, I time my steps and jump up some crates like stairs to reach the honeycomb beams.  There are horizontal beams running parallel to the tunnel, so I skip the smoke bombs she is throwing so I do not run into a miner and slow my progress.  But because the tunnel starts to arc, I slide down the beams to control my decent.  Seeing puffs of smoke, I know Rebecca is still in front of me.  Light is now coming from the area in front of us.  Looking up, I see the tunnel jaggedly gets taller.  Rebecca continues to run forward into the next level area where the honeycombs stop, therefore I fire my grappling hook up into the cave to then jump off the beam and swing down to the sloping ground.  Right before the line catches behind one of the last wall support beams, I slice my line with my hidden blade while sliding into a run to continue the chase.

         Rebecca has about a ten-yard lead now.

         The light in the area is a large opening to the right.  This is the main throughfare to transport iron ore from the mines to the refineries.  Instead of escaping out the front door of the mines, she continues to run forward.  We span the width of the twenty-yard area.  She jumps up to a ladder which leads to a smaller tunnel twenty feet above us.  Seeing her climb, I reach down to my grappling hook and reload a new hook into the thread.  Once I reach the ladder, she is halfway up.  I aim the grappling hook to the out hang of the tunnel.  It pings into place and then I tighten the slack and start to reel myself up, running up the side of the wall in the process.

         I just miss tackling Rebecca by inches.  Cutting the line as I persist, I see now I am right on her tail.  This tunnel is small but seems more on the natural side of things as there are stalagmites and stalactites all over the tunnel, which we have to maneuver around.  I am not close enough to risk a diving tackle, but a lot closer than I was.  She is in throwing range.  I reach around to the back of my belt and pull out a small bola.  Not enough for two legs, but enough to trip someone up.  When I prepare to wind up for the shot, I see light coming from up ahead, less than ten yards away.  Knowing there is housing districts on this mountain with various levels and outlets mines and claims, I wonder if this was Rebecca’s intended path all along.  Maybe she has a dragon waiting for her to fly away.  That being thought of, I knew it is now or never for me to throw it.

         Heaving it towards Rebecca, the bola wraps around her right leg, causing her to stumble forward and tumbling towards the ground.  She does not try to scramble away in escape, merely lies there.  With the thought of a dragon waiting, I come to a complete stop still inside the tunnel.  Though Rebecca is breathing hard from the running, she is getting up slower than someone should with a pursuer even if I did stop.

         A very awkward silence begins with an ever-increasing unknown tension making me very alert to my surroundings.  There is a group of stalagmites in front of me to the left, another twenty yards in front of me looks to be the edge of the mountain, and off in the distance I can see the tops of the Dragon Trapper fort.  Preemptively, I throw a Crackle Bomb out to the side of Rebecca.

         The chorus snaps and pops from the bomb sound out and daze Rebecca, she shouts, “Don’t just stand there, shoot!”

         Upon hearing her final word, I dive behind the last group of stalagmites as an arrow wizzes over my head, actually grazing my helmet.  The moment I am behind cover, I am not looking forward.  I hear in front of me another body hitting the floor.  When I whirl around to look ahead, two women figures are standing in front of me.  With the black Khaos gear, they look identical!

         A bow and a quiver are thrown to the side, so I do not know which one shot me.  The bola is in front of them both, so I do not know who I tripped.  Because both got up from the ground, their gear is dusty.  Both are the same height, same figure, and same body build.  Nothing is distinguishable.

         I speak to try and get one to say something, “Twins.  Just like your sister, hey, Rebecca?”

         Neither reacts.

         “So, this is what you plan was, to get your sister out and if it failed make me choose which one to chase.”

         On that note, the girl to my right runs to my left and the girl on my left runs to my right.  I have to make a split decision.  Who do I follow?

         To not lose any more time, I run to the right only to find the Khaos viking who went this way is skipping across the roof tops of the level below.

         I hesitate for just a moment, looking back, thinking, “Maybe Rebecca wanted me to go this way thinking I would have thought she had taken the quicker but harder way to get back to the front of the Meeting Hall.  But that might be just the point she wanted me to think.”

         Knowing I am going to lose both if I do not act now, I resume the chase after the Khaos Viking to the right.  This one proceeded to jump up to some rope which was attached to a house and the level above and shimmy up the rope.  Seeing how I could catch up to this one faster, I committed to this viking.

         I follow skipping across the pointed roof tops to the rope.  Instead of following, I grab onto the rope but cut it.  The girl yelps for she was not expecting that and swings down hitting the side of the cliff face and sliding down the roof of a house.  But because I did the same, we are right next to each other.  We both roll to break our fall and keep our momentum.  Being close enough, I dive for the girl’s legs, tackling her.

         Though I have her for a moment, she gets one leg free and tries to kick me in the face.  I roll on my side to dodge.  As the girl runs away, I load my mini bowcaster with a Knockout Dart and fire at the back of her neck even if it is covered.  It just bounces off.  Though the tip could pierce leather, it cannot pierce armor.  Again, I run after her.

         The gear Khaos wears is nearly impenetrable, so other means are going to be needed to stop her.  This girl runs towards the side of the cliff.  There is one more level of housing below us and she is bold enough to jump off the cliff to a building about five feet away.  But the building is bigger this time, so she aims for the top window about five feet below the edge of the cliff.  She tucks her arms and legs in so she can fit through the opening.  I follow suit and land on my feet but dive down into a roll to help my feet not take the brunt of the landing.

         At the far end of the building about thirty feet away, she heads for some stairs.  I follow her down the flight.  When we reach the next story, she continues down the next flight of stairs.  Instead, I look out the window and see the front door below.  This story is a thin balcony with empty area on each side of it to see the rest of the building below.  Seeing a support beam to my left, I vault off the railing on the balcony slide down the beam and turn my head.  Upon noticing a horizontal bar in front of me, I leap off the beam, grab the bar, and swing myself forward.  Landing on my feet this time, I sprint to the door right behind the girl this time and dive for her.  I tackle her into the front door, and we bust through the doors into the outside, tumbling over each other.

         The girl tries to escape again, but I sweep my leg and trip her up.  Because of all her gear, I cannot fist fight her as I would hurt my hands, wish I had my Dragon Armor gloves.  I will not be able to knock her out.  The girl does not turn to fight me but attempts another escape.  Throwing my second bola at her, she staggers for a moment before I jump on her, forcing her to the ground.

         She tries to whirl around but I extend my hidden blade, “Don’t move.”

         “Hey, it’s me, Samantha.”

         Shocked, I hesitate as she reaches for her helmet and takes it off.  It is indeed Samantha.

         “What are you doing dressed as a Khaos Viking?”

         “It’s a long story.”

         I retract my blade and get off of Samantha, helping her up.

         “I’ve got time,” I state.

         Samantha starts to pace, beginning with a deep sigh, “I know what you might be thinking, but I did not kill Gladstone.  I’m still unsure what exactly happened the, but what I do know is that this is the final chance I am going to get to find my family.”

         I counter, “Everyone from the Iron Conclave and Berk is looking for you.  Running from the scene of the crime is not a good look and we have an eyewitness that places you inside the house where Gladstone was murdered.”

         “I know the witness is Ali, but I don’t think she will be able to tell you much.  Hearing vikings in the house is one thing-.”

         I interrupt, “Ali saw you, Samantha.”

         “Oh,” Samantha is shocked with a momentary glimpse of happiness for Ali.  She shakes her head, “No, this is my final chance to find my family.  I cannot be caught yet.”

         “I can’t just let you run.  Your only shot is to give up now.”

         “Dressed like this?  No one will understand why I am helping Khaos.”

         I cannot believe what I am hearing, “Do you not know what Khaos did to Berk?  Do you not know they are related to the same Masked Vikings who aligned with Einar?”

         “And they are the same ones who know something about who has been sending my axe back to me after I trade it to someone.  When I talked to that armorer on Wengo, he told me that the Realm of Khaos knew who had been specifically looking for an axe like mine.”

         Because she deflected my point, I push harder, “You are blinded by your pursuit to find your family.  You are allying yourself with criminals who want to bring their own order to this archipelago.  If the attack on Berk isn’t enough, me and some of our crew went to a dragon auction and the Realm of Khaos was there.  If not for some outside interference, they were poised for a fight just like what happened on Draython Cove.  Who knows, maybe they had a hand it that too.  If you align yourself with these vikings, I cannot help you.  I will have to treat you like the rest of them.  Is this what you want?  You go from fighting these Masked Vikings when we first met you to now working with them?  Do you realize the path you are going down?”

         The words I said causes Samantha to close her eyes as if it hurt her to hear them, she replies, “If it means I will find my family…  Yes.  I don’t care what happens to me.  I have to know if I have family.  No one is going to stop me.”

         “You know I can’t let you go.  Just give yourself up and stand trial.  Our crew can help you.  Why won’t you trust me like you always have?  We had a common enemy when Annabeth and I first met you.  You helped our crew take down Einar’s plan to use the Gale Heart against the people of Izar.  You are ignoring their evil intentions just because you want to find your family?”

         “Yes.  If can find my family and prove to you that I didn’t murder Gladstone, then I’ll come back.  But until then,” Samantha declares with a stern resolve, putting her helmet back on.  “Stay out of my way, Jarl.”

         “The last viking who told me that is missing in action, but that wasn’t until he was stabbed,” I remind Samantha.

         “This is different.  If I go with you now, I will never know who my parents were.”

         “Samantha, why are you cutting me out, our crew out?  The crew over the years has solved several mysteries.  We can help you.  We can help you find your parents.  Why are you keeping us out?  If you continue down this road, we cannot help you.”

         “You just don’t understand, Jarl.  I’ve been on this mission long before I met you and Annabeth.  In fact, I was chasing a lead which led me to the mercenaries.”

         I still cannot believe what I am hearing, “So, everything that we have ever done for you, giving you a home, a purpose, and a family…  You are going to throw all of that away?”

         Samantha became silent.  She reaches into her armor, near her belt, pulling out something.

         A locket…  Which she throws on the ground at my feet.

         Samantha looks at me and says with little emotion, “I think that will be sufficient for an answer.”

         I pick up the locket and pocket it, “Indeed it is.”

         Samantha and I clash for a duel of daggers.

         But for as fast as it had started it ended…

         I see the shadow of something fly overhead and then hear the launch of Deadly Nadder spikes!

         Rolling out of the way, I whip around to see Samantha mounting her Nadder, Stormstar.

         Samantha announces, “Stay down, Jarl, if you know what is good for you.”

         She finally has the drop on me and is able to escape.  Remember that Rebecca also escaped, I hightail it to the front of the island to see what is going on.

         After about five minutes of running, I make my way to the place right above the Meeting Hall.  No dragons are in the skies, so I turn my attention to the Market Square and see the dragons down there including the Khaos Nightmares.

         But what I do not like is that my crew is on their knees, hands on their heads, in front of an array of Khaos Vikings!

         Noticing that the Meeting Hall has fort like catwalk around the edges of the building that is not very far from the edge of the housing level on the mountain I am on.  With a sense of urgency, I run to the edge, sliding at the last moment to ease myself down the ten-foot drop onto the catwalk, rolling to absorb the impact.  Sprinting to the front of the building directly above the main entrance, I observe there is a network of ropes connecting to the buildings of the Market Square which have some of the decorations from the Dragon Race on them.  My gut is telling me I need to act fast.

         Once I pick the rope which leads to the Food Market and only has ribbon on it, I use my last bola as a way to straddle the rope.  Climbing up over the short catwalk wall, I stretch the bola over the rope and push off the Meeting Hall.  To speed up the decent, I pull myself up slightly to force the rope to drop me faster.  Zipping down in the matter of seconds, I pull myself up again right before running into the edge of the building and transfer over to a rope, discarding the bola.  I grasp the rope with my left hand while I reach to my belt and take out two bombs:  One Smoke and one Zippleback Gas.  When I swing down, I throw the bombs in the center of the gathering and create the needed distraction for my crew to get to their dragons.

         Everyone is coughing because of the Zippleback gas, but me and my crew are pretty much used to it, however, it is still hard to breathe.

         In one last ditch effort to save Dot, I grab her arm, but jerks her hand out of it, “No, don’t worry about me.  You’ve got to get out of here.  I’ll be fine.”

         If she wants to stay, that is her problem.  I must get Annabeth and the crew out of here.

         Anora finds me before I could find her and practically flips me up on her saddle and gets me out of there.

         Knowing I would be the last to leave because of my attempt to help Dot, right as Anora and I leave, I flip her around and exclaim, “Anora, fire!”

         The Zippleback Gas explodes creating an even greater opportunity to escape.

         All of my crew I see about fifty yards in front of me, I sigh in relief that we all made it out of there.

         What exactly happened?  I do not know, but what I do know is Samantha is in trouble.  Not because of the obvious but because of her locket.

         Why?  All of vikings in my crew have a signal to the rest of us to say they are in trouble without needing to verbally say so if it is that dire of a problem.  For if they are being watched or forced into doing something, I can back off.  Ever since Annabeth once did it to me years ago, Annabeth made us all come up with something we can tell our crew we are in trouble.

         And now with Samantha, who is watching her?