Swallowing her misgivings, it was time to keep moving. The longer she delayed, the greater the chances were that the leviathan would become aware of the Kraidic warriors’ advance around the cavern’s ledge—the telltale scrape of armour rubbing against the cavern wall echoed above.
She gazed into Silurian’s tired eyes. “Are you ready? That’s the cavern where we faced the aquacats. We’ll need to be quick if we wish to avoid the giant fish.”
Silurian’s head lolled sideways but his peculiar gaze never left her own. “We should fry his sorry arse over a fire.”
As tired and afraid as she was, she couldn’t help but smile. “Speaking of sorry arses, it’s time to get yours moving.”
She braced her staff hand against the chute wall and helped push him over the cavern’s lip.
She cringed as he teetered at the top of the chute. If he fell backward, he’d take them both down, and if he fell forward, he’d surely alert the leviathan.
She scrambled up as fast as possible but by the time she reached him he had steadied himself.
At the edge of the light, Tygra and Keen shuffled along the splinter of rock lining the cavern wall, their progress highlighted by the glowing Serpent’s Eye talisman.
Melody examined the Kraidics’ movement closer. Keen now moved on his own, albeit with Tygra’s support. That was a good sign. She swallowed. Or was it?
On top of everything she and Silurian had endured the last few days in the Gimcrack’s burrow, they were ill-suited to face a confrontation from the Kraidic brutes. If they sensed her weakness, she and Silurian were in trouble.
Silurian didn’t need any coaxing to move around the lake’s edge. He shuffled across the ledge as quickly as his bad leg would allow, turning sideways on several occasions where the pathway narrowed to less than the length of his booted feet.
Twice he teetered on the verge of slipping into the frigid water. On both occasions Melody thrust her staff across him, giving him that little extra support.
The Kraidic warriors slipped beyond her light, the ring Keen carried around his neck no longer visible. The absence of metal scraping on rock told her they had entered the next chute.
An air bubble popped in the middle of the lake. Melody held her staff over the water’s edge and gazed into the murky depths. Just when she was about to dismiss the noise, a large air bubble rose to the surface halfway between the first one and the shore at their feet.
The staff! Of course. The fish was attracted to the light.
To her right, Silurian continued his progress toward the upper fissure, and it was a good thing, too. If the bubbles were the harbinger she feared, they needed to cover a lot of distance in a short time. She’d never get beyond Silurian without falling into the lake. Nor did she want to draw the attention her light attracted to him, but if he didn’t reach the chute soon, they were in trouble.
“Silurian, move faster!”
Silurian glanced back at her, the action almost toppling him into the lake.
She winced at her stupidity. She should’ve kept quiet.
“The fish is coming! Hurry!”
Silurian stared at the water, obviously trying to see into its depths.
“Move!” she screamed.
Quicker than she thought possible, she skirted the cavern’s perimeter. Two bubbles, one after another, showed the creature tracked her progress, closing the distance at an incredible speed.
Not knowing what else to do, she discharged her staff into the ledge behind her, the blast so great it thundered inside the cavern, shaking the ledge. Chunks of rock dislodged from the walls and ceiling to splash into the water.
“What the…?” Silurian exclaimed.
“Don’t worry about it, just run!” she called out, not daring to take her eyes off the span of water between the last air bubbles and the shoreline at her feet. If he didn’t reach the chute before she caught up to him, they were both lost.
Her staff flickered and the air turned ice-blue.
The water churned several feet away, a series of quick bubbles marking the creature’s approach. A large silhouette took shape, increasing in size as it rose to the surface.
She dipped the head of her staff into the water as she hustled sideways along a narrow stretch of ledge. Chanting a phrase, hopeful not to compromise the spell’s result in her haste, she finished with an emphatic, “Aleam glacius!”
Her staff wrenched out of her grasp as the water in front of her froze solid—the staff embedded within its unforgiving embrace.
She reached back, bracing herself against the resounding impact of the leviathan hitting the ice directly below her staff. The ice cracked and her staff flipped into the air, losing its glow as it spun.
Her left hand shot out, plucking it in midair before it could fall back to the bobbing floe of broken ice.
She illuminated the cavern around her in blue light, watching the leviathan recede into the depths but its shadowy form showed that it was preparing for another pass.
“Come on, Mel.” Silurian’s raspy voice reached through her wizard’s trance. “I’m at the hole.”
The hole? The chute! He was telling her he was at the fissure leading out of the cavern.
She moved sideways with purpose. Out of the corner of her eye she espied the shadow in the water, growing in size as it came for her. Whether it tracked the light source or detected the cause of the magic itself, it didn’t matter. Her time had run out.
She hung on to the length of dark wood with one hand, clasping it at its base and held it as far out to the side as she could, hoping that it was indeed the light that attracted its attention.
The leviathan, in all its whiskery detail, breached the surface and leapt at the staff’s head, its mouth revealing rows of jagged, dagger-sized teeth.
As the leviathan snapped at the staff, she pulled it clear of its path. The fish-like creature bounced off the wall with a wet slap and splashed back into the lake, showering her with icy water.
Melody wasted no time shuffling to where Silurian waited. He stood with his sword in his hands, searching the lake.
Below her, the fish prepared for another jump. She didn’t think they could get up the chute quick enough.
“Freeze the water again!” Silurian shouted.
She didn’t know if she had enough strength left in her. Pushing herself beyond any level of magical fortitude she’d drawn on before, she summoned a last surge of inner-strength.
The fish grew in size.
She held the staff out as far as possible. If she froze the water solid enough at the bottom of the chute, they might yet make it out of the cavern before the fish broke through.
Chanting the words faster than ever before, she was dismayed when the leviathan breached the surface quicker than she anticipated—its mouth engulfing the top of her staff.
“Aleam glacius!” The last words left her lips as the fish pulled the staff free of her hand.
She screamed at the significance.
The fish slammed into the wall close to Silurian but instead of a wet slap marking the collision, the sound of shattered glass filled the cavern.
Silurian bent sideways, covering his head to ward off great shards of frozen fish pelting the ledge and water around him.
Melody had unintentionally frozen the leviathan solid. It had exploded on impact with the wall, shattering into pieces.
“My staff!” The pole floated away from the ledge, embedded in a large chunk of shattered fish.
Silurian bent low to grab it and almost fell into the lake. The staff was too far away. He jabbed at it with his sword but only succeeded in pushing it farther away.
Melody scrambled over to him. “Oh no. Oh no.” She pulled her cloak over her head and threw it at Silurian.
“What are you doing?” he asked, catching the voluminous material.
She gave him an incredulous stare. “What do you think I’m doing? If we lose my staff, we’re dead.”
She gathered up the bulk o
f her robes and started to pull them up when Tygra slid back down the chute and grabbed onto Silurian to prevent him from being knocked into the water.
Tygra glanced at the chunks of frozen fish bobbing in the lake. “What’re you two doing down here?”
“What’s it look like we’re doing?” Silurian snapped and shrugged out of his grasp. “We’re fishing.”
Melody let her robes drop again. “Do you still have that rope?”
Tygra looked at her like she had lost her mind. “Yes, a small length. We used the longer one to come down the first shaft.”
“Get my staff. It’s floating away.”
Tygra frowned, gazing at the softly glowing staff. He shrugged off his cloak and pulled a rope from around his shoulder. Fashioning a slip knot faster than Melody could follow, he sized up his throw.
His first attempt missed.
The cavern dimmed appreciably. They didn’t have much time. Once the residual magic left the staff, they’d never be able to find it in the dark.
It felt like it took forever for the Kraidic warrior to pull the rope in and prepare for a second cast. As he swung the looped end back and forth, the staff winked and went out, dropping the cavern into absolute darkness.
Melody gasped.
The sound of something slapping the water met her ears.
“I think I got it.”
She edged her way to where she sensed the big man standing, following his musky odour and creaking leather armour.
Water gurgled and dripped along the ledge by her feet.
Tygra grunted. “It’s heavy. I can barely pull it out.”
Melody bumped against him and felt her way down his straining arms to the water. At first, all she felt was a mass of frozen fish, but then her fingers wrapped around the lower half of her staff.
The Kraidic warrior’s arms were around her neck at this point, the corded muscles hard against her temples. She fleetingly thought that if he wanted to, he could end her right then and Silurian would be none the wiser.
The staff felt reassuring in her hands—her bond with it, instantaneous. The runes lit up in soft orange shapes, unreadable by anyone but her. “Calaro celer!”
The staff head pulsed bright and the frozen meat encasing her staff sizzled as she pulled it free—the smell of cooked fish permeating her nostrils.
Tygra’s heady aroma fell away.
Silurian raised his sword, its runes glowing of their own accord. “Where’s Keen?”
“I left him two levels up. Come.”
Silurian wavered his sword at the man. “Why would we go with you? We’re fine on our own, thank you. Now begone.”
“Kar…Keen needs all of us if we’re to win free of this cursed place.”
Melody frowned. “All of us?”
“The aquacats have returned.”
Silurian’s incredulous stare matched her own.
She swallowed. “You left Keen alone up there with them?”
Tygra shook his black locks. “They await us on the mountain slope. I think they’re afraid to come back down here.”
“I don’t blame them,” Silurian muttered. “Between the man-eating fish and a rock-eating worm the size of the Wizard’s Spike, I can’t say I blame them.”
Melody ignored her brother’s rambling. That explained why Tygra hadn’t dispatched her when he had the chance. They needed her. She considered her options. With only one way into the shaft that they were aware of, she had little choice.
She nodded up the shaft. “Lead the way. We’ll see how those cats respond to fire.”
Watching Tygra disappear up the chute, she indicated for Silurian to go next. With a final glance at the still water, she half expected another leviathan to leap at her.
Staggering Revelation
Rook choked on Alhena’s words, almost falling into the fire. Until Helleden is dealt with, the woman’s children are in danger—at least the one still living.”
He shook his head and blinked rapidly several times. Surely, he misheard Alhena’s response to Sadyra’s question, and yet, Alhena’s reply reverberated through his mind, spinning his thoughts out of control.
Mase Storms End. Mase Storms End. Mase Storms End.
It couldn’t be. Mase only had two children. He was sure of it. Mase Storms End was Silurian and Melody’s mother. Could there be another? He doubted it. With Silurian dead, that only left…The ramifications riddled his skin with gooseflesh.
He swallowed hard, staring into Alhena’s milky white eyes, his vision clouding. Despite the lump in his throat, he blurted out, “Melody?”
Alhena patted the back of Rook’s hand, his voice full of compassion. “Yes, Rook. Melody Bowman.”
Thunderstruck, Rook leaned forward. “B-but how? How do you know her?”
Alhena’s eyes moistened. He lowered his gaze to the ground in front of his crossed legs, clearly overcome with emotion.
“She’s…she’s alive? Do you know where she is?”
Alhena’s lips formed a tight smile. Without a word, he nodded.
Rook’s eyes grew wild. He grasped Alhena’s cloak and shook him. “Where is she? Where’s Melody?” His shaking grew violent. Even if Alhena had tried to answer, Rook didn’t give him a chance. “How come you never told me? Why would you keep it to yourself? She’s my wife! Damn you, where is she?” His rising voice echoed throughout the Crypt.
Olmar spoke up as he and Pollard grasped Rook’s arms and pried his fingers from Alhena’s clothing, “Rook, let go. You’s gonna shake Pop’s ‘ead off.”
They pulled Rook to his feet. He shrugged free of their grasp and bent forward, glaring at Alhena who leaned backward as if he were about to be hit; his hands held out defensively in front of him.
Rook heaved a great breath, trying to take the edge out of his voice. “Where is she, Alhena? She’s my wife. I have a right to know.”
Alhena nodded several times and looked away. He rose to his feet, leaving his staff unattended and paced around the fire. All eyes tracked him until he came to a stop in front of Rook’s baleful glare. “Atop Dragon’s Tooth.”
Rook stopped breathing for a few heartbeats. Of all the places he could think of, Dragon’s Tooth was the last place he expected to hear.
“The only person who lives there is—”
Alhena inclined his head. “The Wizard of the North.”
Bewilderment replaced Rook’s angst. His eyes grew wide, darting about as the relevance sank in. “You mean, she’s the…the…” He couldn’t bring himself to say it.
“Aye. The Wizard of the North.”
“But, but how? We’re talking about Melody, right? My wife. She can’t be the Wizard of the North. Heck, she couldn’t start a fire if her life depended on it. I don’t believe you.”
Alhena shrugged. “I cannot help what you choose to believe but hear me when I tell you, your wife is alive and well, and holds the highest title in the arcane world.”
“But she’s a woman.” Rook spotted Sadyra and Larina staring hard at him and held up his hands. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounds. I just…Wizards are men. Women are witches, or sorceresses or something like that.”
“Aye, the word wizard does tend to invoke the thought of a man.” Alhena interceded before either of the women had a go at Rook. “As such, having Melody become the Wizard of the North is, if I do say so myself, a masterstroke of mine.”
Rook frowned. “Masterstroke? You’re the one responsible for her disappearance?” His eyes hardened at the thought.
“It was the only way to protect her.”
Rook clenched his fists. Alhena was brazenly admitting to taking Melody away. He had an insatiable urge to smash Alhena’s upturned nose. He cocked his right arm, but Alhena’s last words stayed him.
“What do you mean, protect her? From what?”
Alhena sighed. “It is a long story, and a hard one for me to tell. Please, sit back down. Now that you know the truth, you deserve to hear why.”
Rook see
thed. “Deserve to hear why? You’re damn right I deserve to know. If you’re responsible for her disappearance, I deserve the right to kill you, that’s what I deserve.”
Olmar and Pollard exchanged glances.
Rook sensed the giants’ unease. He didn’t care. If what Alhena told him was true, the old man had robbed him and Melody of their lives. He didn’t care why or how. Twenty-three years had been taken from them. Any dreams they may have had of raising a family and enjoying each other through their more vibrant years had been stolen. And for what?
His right hand fingered the handle of the old dagger protruding from its sheath along his belt. His eyes flicked to Alhena’s staff lying on the ground. The old man was defenseless.
A soft hand covered his. He turned to see Sadyra.
She gave him a subtle shake of her head. “Give Gramps a chance to explain himself.”
Rook’s breaths were ragged. He didn’t trust himself to respond to Sadyra in a decent way.
“Come on,” Sadyra whispered. “I’m not happy with what he said either, but wouldn’t you rather hear the why of his actions before you do something you might regret? If you aren’t satisfied after that…” She shrugged.
Rook stared into her storm-grey eyes. As cocky and hot-blooded as Sadyra tended to be, he knew she possessed a good soul. He regarded her through the tears clouding his vision and gave her a subtle nod.
Sadyra released his hand and moved away.
Through bleary eyes, Rook found Alhena. He tried hard to keep his lower lip from trembling. “Very well. I’ll give you a chance to explain before I kill you.”
Alhena straightened his posture and threw back his shoulders, clearly bristling at the threat. “If you still feel that way after you hear me out, I will not stand in your way.”
Alhena’s words knocked the stuffing out of the retort Rook prepared to throw at him. He swallowed the lump in his throat and waited.
“As I explained, Ignis foresaw Mase’s death. My duty was to protect her children. Yes, Silurian and Melody. It was imperative I hid them from Helleden’s minions. They had in their possession a means to detect magic users, especially strong ones like the Storms Ends.” Alhena looked straight at Rook. “Whether you believe it or not does not alter the fact your wife was…is adept in the use of magic. She is a diviner and a seer, though she has much to learn on both counts. I would be amiss not to say that in my estimation she has the potential to become more powerful than Thunor Carmichael if she learns to push aside her self-doubt and throw herself completely into her craft. Until then, she is vulnerable.”
Soul Forge Saga Box Set Page 85