“My word, highness.” A nearly-out-of-breath Isha stumbled over to her. “That was impressive.”
Beowyn, sweating but grinning like a boy having the time of his life, rested his blade across his shoulder. “That’s the last of them”—he stared at the wall—“what in the name of…”
“There’s gotta be a hundred or more out there.” Galfred pointed at the wall and collapsed to sit.
Oona finally stopped smashing the bones that had crawled after her. She stood straight, clutching the blade close and shivering, staring imperiously down as if she intended to resume swinging if so much as one bone chip twitched. The sight of Galfred clutching his bloody thigh erased her fear and she rushed to his side. “Here, let me see that.”
Galfred, as if only now feeling any pain from the wound, let out a groan.
Bertan and Frith patted him on the shoulders.
“Now you’re a true soldier.” Isha swatted him on the head. “Even if you did take the easy path with a leg wound.”
They all chuckled.
“What are we going to do about that?” Keal, nursing a bleeding arm, indicated the wall with a nod.
Kitlyn walked over to the barrier she’d made and placed her hand on it. “I have an idea.”
Her sense of the skeletons walking around on the other side revealed they had spread out across the entire thirty-foot width, pressing close. With an impish smile, she liquefied a strip of rock across the bottom on the opposite face as well as a few inches in from the edges where it met the canyon face. The remaining hard stone cracked, sending the barrier toppling over onto the skeletons with a deafening whud and a rush of air that blasted away fog behind it. The tremor from the enormous stone slab hitting the ground knocked everyone off their feet.
Except for Galfred who’d already been seated.
“Navissa’s neth—”
Oona covered his mouth.
“That is the first time I have ever seen a wall turned into an offensive weapon.” Beowyn laughed.
Kitlyn stooped to pick up a rusty sword, tilting it back and forth to examine the edge. “They came from the mass grave. That’s what spooked the wyverns.” She dropped it, dusted her hands off, and stood, squinting into the wind blowing down the ravine. “May Tenebrea guide these souls to where they belong.”
Isha held her hands to her mouth and made a loud, noise somewhat bird-like that echoed off along the canyon.
In response, a similar trill came from the distance.
The soldiers all seemed relieved.
“The captain’s okay.” Isha faced Kitlyn. “Not sure how, but that particular call means all clear.”
Golden light surrounded Oona’s hands. Galfred grunted.
“Orien has cleansed the wound as well. Rusty blades leave sickness.” Oona smiled and squeezed his shoulder. “I think it will be sore for some time, but not as much as Niron’s. The bear took quite a nip.”
“Go keep watch with Niron,” said Beowyn.
“I’m good.” Galfred groaned and forced himself upright. “Don’t need ta run off.”
Beowyn folded his arms. “Walk back and forth a couple times from wall ta wall.”
Galfred clenched his jaw and managed it, though with a noticeable limp. He did, at least, appear more agile than Niron.
The burly sergeant appeared about ready to order him back, but at the last minute, nodded. “We hit any nasty terrain, yer gonna stay parked and guard our backs.”
“Aye.” Galfred stopped walking and braced a hand on the bloody spot of armor.
Oona tended to Kael’s wounded arm, as well as multiple nicks, scratches, and punctures on the rest of the soldiers. Upon seeing Kitlyn free of injury, she spent a moment clinging to her and whispering thanks to Lucen.
“Well, this is off to an interesting start.” Beowyn kicked a few bones around.
“I never imagined such horrors as this possible. Moving dead…” Oona shivered.
Kitlyn rested her chin on Oona’s shoulder. “There is much, I suspect, we have not seen of the world. Take comfort in how brittle they were. Perhaps this lich is the same.”
“Let us hope.” Oona heaved a breath and released their embrace. “We should not delay here.”
“Lucen’s light…” Frith eyed the collapsed wall. “Wish we had ’er at the battle of Pembrook.”
Kitlyn touched foreheads with Oona for a second, then resumed walking deeper into the ravine. “Living soldiers would not have pressed so mindlessly against a wall like that. Nor do I think I would’ve been capable of crushing so many people. Those creatures weren’t alive.”
“A noble thought, highness.” Beowyn considered putting his sword away, but kept it out. “But havin’ a line of a couple hundred enemy comin’ at ya ready ta slice yer head off has a way of changin’ what a person’s capable of doin’.”
Oona glanced back. “The lich must know we are here and sent the skeletons after us, driving them to a specific place. Mindless. That is likely how Niron and the horses survived.”
If I had crushed living people like that, those who expected me to wipe them out to the last would have driven the rest to a fervor. She cringed inside, grateful for the course events had taken.
Kitlyn walked ahead, thigh-deep fog billowing around her legs with each stride, so thick she couldn’t even see her knees. Every rattle of armor or scuff of boots bounced off the black canyon walls. The quieter everyone tried to be, the more noise they seemed to make. Gradually, the walls narrowed to a width barely enough for a single rider on horseback, their massive height and squeezing proximity putting Kitlyn on edge. I feel like a grain between millstones. The soldiers rearranged themselves in single file, annoyingly with Beowyn right behind her in front of Oona.
Her earth sense revealed the ground hidden beneath the thick white vapor remained relatively flat and devoid of natural obstacles. The canyon bent left at a sharp turn, but zigzagged to the right after only a short distance. Another jagged S-curve came twelve paces later.
“Ach.” Beowyn’s voice practically fell on her back with physical weight. “This would’ve been murder on the horses.”
“I hope it doesn’t become any narrower.” Oona looked side to side. “It feels like the walls will crush us.”
“Ehh, don’t say that.” Galford chuckled.
Kitlyn relaxed somewhat a few minutes later when a widening of the passage revealed itself in the back of her thoughts, as well as a doorway-sized hole on the left. “We’re almost there.”
She hurried forward and stepped out from the claustrophobic canyon into a fog-filled chamber some sixty feet long by twenty wide. The wall at the end straight ahead continued well up into the clouds, part of the great mountain. Though the sides didn’t reach anywhere near the same height, no one would be climbing a few hundred feet of sheer black stone.
Midway along the left, a rectangular opening stood inside a frame of carved runic symbols, all infused with a faint light from glowing mist trapped in the grooves. A stone skull with ram horns adorned the top, its eyes also emitting baleful white light.
“Lucen preserve us.” Beowyn made a sacred hand motion in the air.
Kitlyn glanced back at everyone. Except for the burly sergeant whose expression said ‘perhaps this is unwise,’ the others all appeared to have decided they would not be going any further. Oona also seemed frightened, her eyes as wide as could be, though she walked closer to stand beside her.
“’Tis not a good idea ta go in there.” Frith pointed at the door. “Did everyone forget the creature in there can steal the minds of men?”
Oona took a step toward the opening, looking around at the carvings before glancing at Kitlyn “So it shall be only us then?”
Isha cleared her throat.
“Uhh. I mean not men. Anyone.” Frith cringed at Oona, gesturing at the air as if he wished to pull her back from the doorway.
“Then why say ‘men’ if you mean any person?” asked Oona.
Frith stared blankly at her.<
br />
“Lucen will protect us.” Oona turned to face everyone. “The magic he has given me will shield our thoughts.”
“You said it would spread thin the more people you protect.” Kitlyn eyed the glowing marks on the wall, not at all liking the energy they gave off. “How many can we bring with complete confidence?”
Oona looked down. “I admit it will be difficult to protect everyone. The more at once, the less everyone receives. Like sharing a cup of water. Perhaps… two besides us.”
“I’ll go.” Galfred stepped forward.
“Me as well.” Bertan nodded.
“No, lad.” Beowyn patted Galfred on the shoulder. “Your leg. You’ll not be running or jumping on that for a while. Bertan and I will escort the queen.”
Kitlyn looked up at Bertan. “I cannot ask you to do this. You have a wife and two children who have thought you dead. I fear if you are to tempt fate like this, their fears will become real.”
“I am not afraid.” He glanced at the door. “Well, perhaps there is fear but any living person would have it. We are soldiers because we do not surrender to our fears.”
“Do not think I am implying you are afraid. I am thinking of your wife and children. Please, the greatest service you can do for me now is to survive to return to them.” Kitlyn gripped his shoulder.
“You gotta get back to them.” Isha stepped up. “I’ll go.”
“To the Pit with that.” Keal shook his head. “You’re only twenty-three.”
She spun on him. “And you’re only twenty-five. The queen’s what, fifteen?”
“Sixteen,” muttered Kitlyn and Oona at the same time.
“That she may be, but you can’t raise giant walls out of the ground or throw shooting stars.” Kael took Isha’s hand.
“You lovebirds can stay here.” Frith laughed. “I’ll go.”
Isha and Keal glared at him, both with a little blush in their cheeks.
“Beowyn and Isha.” Oona looked up. “They have the strongest will.”
Everyone stood in silence for a moment.
Frith grumbled.
“I do not call you weak of mind.” Oona gestured at Bertan. “He is a large man with much strength, but can you not see Beowyn is twice his size? That does not make Bertan weak.”
“Not sure about twice my size.” Bertan chuckled, flexing his arm.
“All right then.” Kitlyn faced the doorway. “It is settled.”
Oona raised her hands as Isha and Beowyn moved up behind her. Scintillating blue light rings appeared like crowns, then faded to a barely noticeable azure glow in front of their foreheads. Kitlyn shifted her eyes up, but couldn’t see anything, nor did she feel any different.
“Lucen protects us.” Oona offered a solemn nod.
“Be aware.” Kitlyn took a deep breath, and strode into the dark passage.
31
The Depths of Fear
Oona
Focused on her magic, Oona entered the passage at the rear of the group. The faint glow from her mind-shielding spell revealed a smooth-walled corridor of black stone. Cold, humid air hung heavy with the smell of wetness and mossy earth. Scuffs from their boots filled in the silence, traveling deep into the mountain to warn whatever may lie in wait for them.
She beckoned her orb and sent it floating a few feet above them, the light enough to see for a good distance ahead.
Isha and Beowyn cringed at the sudden illumination, but said nothing.
Kitlyn moved like a spirit at the lead, her bare feet silent upon the stone floor. Of the four, only she had put her sword back in its scabbard. Content to follow the shapes of the soldiers in front of her, Oona continued to concentrate mostly on guarding their thoughts from demonic influence.
High Priest Balais, or at least the vision of him she had dreamed, didn’t know if all such creatures as Voldreth could steal minds or if this particular lich possessed that power due to his malefic magic.
“Beware,” whispered Kitlyn.
Oona lifted her head, back from her momentary daydream.
“Here.” Kitlyn crouched and thrust her fingers into the floor. “This is false. It only appears to be solid.”
“An illusion.” Beowyn poked his sword into the false stone. “Tis nothing solid about it.”
Kitlyn started to stand, but thought better of it and crouched again. Green light surrounded her hands. A soft, scraping rumble vibrated the corridor, and the suspicious patch rippled like a pot of boiling grey mud. “There. We may find ourselves running out of here. That should be thick enough to hold our weight.”
Isha’s expression hardened.
“Is something wrong?” Kitlyn peered up at her, then stood.
“Seeing magic like that reminds me of them.”
Kitlyn resumed walking. “Evermoor’s soldiers?”
“Yes. Forgive me for scowling at you. The sav—well, the enemy took both of my brothers and my father. I was only eleven when my father went to Tenebrea. One of their root mages hurled him into the Churning Deep while he tried to defend our side.”
Oona’s heart sank. “You have every right to be angry and hurt.”
“I grew up waiting for the day I could carry a sword over there and get revenge. Edden, my older brother, fell to an arrow not a month after I became a soldier. I fought for about a year before one of them murdered Cewyn.”
“I’m sorry,” whispered Kitlyn.
“He was your age, highness.” Isha glowered at the wall. “Standing guard at night. They came up behind him and slit his throat. I stopped caring if I survived the war, only wanted to take as many of them with me as I could. Then… one day, my unit rushed to reinforce a smaller garrison by a little village east of Pirolen. The fighting happened in a field so close most of the homes had arrows stuck in them. Another wave of sav—Evermoor soldiers hit us without warning after we thought it ended, bunch of villagers out looking for their dead got caught in it. I saw one of the demon-worshipping savages run into a rain of Lucernian arrows to shield a small boy who’d been caught out in the field.”
Oona gasped.
“That’s the moment I started to question. As evil as we’d been told they were, to see one do a thing like that…”
“Too much deception.” Kitlyn squatted to seal another illusion pit. “Too much death.”
“They were goin’ ta execute him, even after he saved that child.” Isha bowed her head. “For whatever silly reason, they let him recover from his arrow wounds before hanging him. I helped him escape the night before… and left with him.”
Beowyn glanced at her, both eyebrows up. “That is a little more than simple desertion.”
Kitlyn stood, patting at the ground over the pit with her foot. “I was not aware that execution is how we dealt with prisoners of war.”
“It shouldn’t be, but my commander was bloodthirsty. He knew the villagers had been out in that field. Some of us even saw the boy, but he wouldn’t order the archers to stop since he thought it would give the Evermoor forces an opportunity to charge us.”
“If we survive this, you will give me the name of this commander.” Oona narrowed her eyes. “I wish to speak with him.”
Isha nodded.
They walked for a few minutes more until the hallway came to an end at a square chamber. A deep chasm with a gap of about twenty feet separated them from the other side. The corridor continued past an archway flanked by unlit sconces decorated in fist-sized skulls. Kitlyn approached the edge and peered down.
Oona glanced left at a grid of nine runes on the wall, the one at the top left corner glowing. “It’s some manner of puzzle or code. Oh, this looks like it will be difficult.”
The ground rumbled.
With a gasp, Oona spun to face Kitlyn.
Two polyps of stone exuded from the ledges on either side of the pit, growing outward until they joined in the center and formed a solid stone bridge.
“No… not really difficult.” Kitlyn set out across the gently arched beam she’d
made.
Beowyn laughed. He went next, with Isha behind him.
Oona gingerly approached the edge and peered down into complete blackness. To split hairs, I am not so much afraid of heights as I am afraid of falling, or really… hitting the ground. If there isn’t a ground to hit… She swallowed dry. It’s only too deep to see. That means it’s a really long fall.
The others reached the opposite end, almost too far for her to shield their minds. Her fear of heights collapsed under the weight of her need to keep Kitlyn’s thoughts safe from the lich. Heedless of the danger of falling, she raced out over the bridge at a sprint, clearing it before rational thought could catch up and point out that she’d just traversed such a deadly obstacle.
Isha caught her panicky sprint, holding her steady until she calmed back to normal. Or at least relative normal. She couldn’t quite reach a state of complete calm in the lair of a demonic lich.
By Lucen’s hand am I here. He shall protect us.
“What are you thinkin’ we do?” whispered Beowyn.
“I rather doubt this creature is going to be in the mood to talk.” Oona rubbed her hands together, shivering at the cold.
“No, probably not.” Kitlyn slowed to a stop at a sharp right corner, and peered around. She paused only a few seconds before continuing.
They entered a long stretch of featureless corridor, four times as wide as tall. It offered plenty of room for a battle, which set Oona’s nerves on edge. For what felt like hours, they walked down a tunnel with black walls and ceiling, the floor covered in dark grey silt.
Every so often, Oona bowed her head and offered a brief prayer to Lucen for protection. Perhaps the tenth time she did so, Beowyn and Isha no longer existed when she opened her eyes, and Kitlyn had gone quite far ahead.
“Kit!” shouted Oona, moving up to a run. “What happened to the others?”
Kitlyn ignored her, having spotted a door, finally at the end of the passage. She reached out to touch a rune on its surface—and the ground below her opened up, swallowing her before sealing.
The Cursed Crown Page 32