Chapter 4

Malcolm Chandler, riding Derek’s horse and leading his old horse, approached the moat with caution. About ten yards from the bank, he halted his horse trying to figure out how Derek managed to cross it. There was movement in the water. He rode forward another couple of yards to look into the filthy moat. Black shapes wriggled in the murky water. It took him a minute to recognize what was moving in the water. The man had stocked it with giant leeches. If one or two of those latched onto a man, they’d drain his blood in minutes.

Across the moat, five dogs paced along the shore with nervous excitement while barking at him. The dogs were a problem that he had to take care of before figuring out how to cross the moat. He reached into his saddlebag and removed the cloth bag containing the opium-laced ham. He threw the chunks of meat across the moat and watched as the dogs fought over them. It only took a few minutes before all five dogs were stretched out on the ground. He hoped that he hadn’t used too much opium.

Dismounting, Malcolm searched the ground for a clue as to how Derek crossed the moat. A little path, difficult to spot, led off the main path. Since it was the only clue he had on a way to cross the moat, he followed it through the trees. He went carefully expecting traps and, consistent with his expectations, found a piece of twine connected to a crossbow. After removing the bolt from the crossbow, he cut the twine.

About twenty yards further along the path, he found a structure that held a number of levers. He checked out the structure with care before entering it. Rather than try them at random, he studied the mechanisms they controlled. One of them was booby-trapped. Another appeared to control a floodgate that would cause water to spill into the moat. A third controlled a gate that would drain the moat.

Tying a rope around the lever that appeared to drain the moat, he stepped outside the shack and pulled the rope. From a distance away, he could hear water being released. After a few minutes, the sound slowly died.

He walked back to his horse. The water level had lowered to a point where a small bridge connecting the two sides of the moat had been exposed. Mounting his horse, he rode across the bridge. In the first sign of spirit, the dun actually appeared nervous going over the bridge. The more spirited horse that he was riding took the crossing in stride. That fact let Malcolm know that the horse had done this before.

Riding over to where the dogs were stretched out on the grass, Malcolm was displeased to discover that one of them had died. Shaking his head, he rode up to the house. It was far larger than one would expect to find in the country. It was more like a country manor than a country house.

Alice’s warning that the place was filled with traps was foremost in his mind. Rather than walk up to the house, he tested each step using a branch. When he reached the front door, the doorstep spun out from under his probing stick. A man stepping on it would have fallen through. It wouldn’t have been much of a fall, but the poisonous snake inside the pit would have made short work of the man. It took Malcolm a minute of searching to locate a mechanism that held the board in place. Shaking his head, he said, “That was one sick man.”

Deciding that exploring the house would require even more care than he had thought, he studied the door for several long minutes before selecting a key. The key wasn’t a metal key like used in modern houses, but a wooden one that fit into a slot. The proper locations of cuts into the wood allowed specific mechanisms to move while preventing others from moving. The problem was that there were two slots and only one key. He examined the slots and inserted the key into the one that appeared to be the least used deciding that the one that was all marked up had far more damage than a wooden key could inflict.

Using the pole, he lifted the door handle and, after a second, the door swung open. He returned to the horse and removed the rope with the lead weight attached. Returning to the door, he threw the weight into the house and retrieved it by pulling it back with the rope. When the weight was about halfway to the door, a bolt from a crossbow flew across the opening. Staring at the bolt, he said, “That was a real sick man.”

A little closer to the door, another bolt from a crossbow flew across the room. Shaking his head, he decided that it there had to be some sort of mechanism to turn off all the traps. Without entering the house, he searched the panels next to the door. A hidden panel sprung open when he tapped it with his stick. He pulled the lever inside and repeated his experiment with the weight. No bolts flew across the room.

It took Malcolm almost three hours to make his way to the second floor. By that time, he was almost a nervous wreck. About the time he would start to assume there were no more traps, he’d find one. He had almost fallen into a pit when a trapdoor opened at his feet at the top of the stairs. The only thing that had saved him was that he had decided to test it with the lead weight before leaving the stairs.

He stopped in from of a room in which he assumed the Damsel in Distress was held. It was a reasonable guess since it was the only room along the hallway that was barred on the outside. He knocked on the door and called out, “Lilly? It’s Malcolm Chandler. I’m here to rescue you.”

“Don’t come in yet. He does something at the door before he removes the bar.”

Malcolm studied the door. It took him a minute, but he finally found the hidden panel and opened it. As always, he was careful in how he did it. He was fortunate because a blade slipped down and would have taken off his fingers if he’d been less cautious. In what had become a mantra, he said, “That was one sick man.”

“You can say that again,” said Lilly through the closed door.

After flipping the mechanism, Malcolm removed the bar and opened the door using his stick. Lilly stood in the center of room looking expectantly towards the door. She was a tall woman with long black hair that cascaded down below her ass. She had lush full lips and deep brown eyes. She was shapely with full breasts that strained the top of her gown.

Awed by the sight, Malcolm said, “You’re gorgeous.”

Lilly smiled at the amazing specimen of a man standing before her and said, “You’re definitely an Earth man.”

“Why do you say that?”

“A man from Chaos would have grabbed me by now and a man from Cassandra wouldn’t have noticed,” she said. She could hardly wait to get to Crossroads and claim her Damsel in Distress rights from her Hero.

“Oh. I guess I better get you out of here.”

She walked over to him and said, “Let’s go.”

“Follow behind me and be careful. He’s got traps placed all over the house,” Malcolm said.

It took them an hour to make their way through the house and out the front door. They had discovered two traps he had missed on the way to her room. Helping her onto his old horse, he said, “The sooner we are out of here, the better.”

“You’re so right.”

When he reached his horse, Malcolm looked back at the house and shook his head. Leaving it open like that was an invitation to a disaster. Someone, probably a kid out exploring, would enter the house and get killed. Returning to Lilly, he said, “I changed my mind. We can’t leave the house standing. Too many people could get hurt. Let me help you down from the horse.”

He helped her down before going off to collect some wood to start a fire. Lilly watched him struggle with the flint and, amused at his difficulties, said, “Get out of the way. Let me do that.”

Malcolm stepped back and handed her the flint and steel rod. In three minutes she had the fire started. Taking a brand from the fire, he went to the house and lit it on fire. Stepping back, he watched the flames slowly spread. Satisfied that it would burn to the ground, he said, “I’d like to wait until it burns down. Maybe he has some money hidden inside.”

“Maybe you should have looked before you started the fire.”

“As many traps as there were in that house, we were lucky to get out. There’s no way I’d go through there looking for something that might not exist. After all, I already got the most valuable treasure in the house.”

Lilly looked over at her hero thinking to herself that he was something else. Not only did he rescue her, he also complemented her every chance he had. Malcolm noticed her looking at him and said, “I’m sorry. I bet you’re hungry.”

“A little,” she answered thinking that the word horny better described her condition.

Malcolm retrieved his saddlebag and prepared a meal for the two of them. He handed her a ham sandwich and pointed to the ground. The pair sat down, watched the house burn from a safe distance, while eating their sandwiches. The flames had spread rapidly through the house. Thick black smoke billowed out as windows broke. Once he had finished his sandwich, Malcolm held an arm around Lilly.

They’d been watching the fire for more than an hour when Malcolm noticed the dogs were coming to their feet. Rather than attack, they headed unsteadily towards the bridge. One of the dogs staggered before it managed to cross the bridge. It fell into the water and disappeared with a yelp as giant leeches grabbed hold of it. The last three dogs ran off into the woods. Aloud, Malcolm said, “He was one sick man.”

“You’re talking about Derek?” asked Lilly.

“Yes. His guard dogs just took off into the woods. I imagine that folks around here will eventually have to kill them. There’s nothing worse than a pack of feral dogs. I probably should have killed them outright, but I just can’t do that.”

Lilly said, “That’s okay.”

“It’s going to be dark soon. I probably ought to take you to the inn for the night,” Malcolm said. He added, “We can always stop by here in the morning and go through the ashes.”

“I think we should set up camp and spend the night here. We’ve already got a huge campfire.”

They discussed the matter for thirty minutes before deciding to stay where they were. He had enough food to last until late the next day and the weather seemed clear enough. Having arrived at the decision to stay, Malcolm took care of the horses. Once they were settled, he set up camp using the tarp from his bedroll as a tent for Lilly.

They watched the fire burn until late into the evening. Most of the time was spent talking about life on Earth and on Cassandra. Lilly was excited about returning home, but was even more excited about getting to Crossroads. About half of the things she said were sexual innuendos. It reminded him of all the other conversations that he had with Damsels in Distress that he had rescued. By the time they’d reach Crossroads, he’d be horny enough to sleep with one of those giant leeches in the moat.

In the morning, Malcolm went over to the remains of the house. A few timbers were still hot, but most of it had burned down to ashes. He spotted a pile of fused glass with gold flakes and picked it up. There was no way for him to tell how much money it had been. He’d take it to a bank and see if they could figure it out. A few warped pinches, quids, and shells remained on the ground. He gathered them together and put them into his coin purse.

Carrying the pile of melted and fused glass, he went over to his saddlebags. He slipped it into one of them and looked around. It was getting late and he decided it was time to wake Lilly. They’d have a good ride ahead of them to make it to the next town with an inn. When he reached the side of the tent, he could hear Lilly moaning. There was a sexual element to the sounds she was making.

He turned around rather than look inside. There were no doubts in his mind that she was already wide-awake. Rather than interrupt her, he started to prepare breakfast. What he really wanted to do was climb in that tent and make her fantasies come true, but that was against the rules. He jumped when he heard her scream out.