Into the Hells

by Christopher Johns

  The fight stilled, and I tugged one last time on the collar around Kayda’s neck. It crumbled to dust, dirtying her feathers slightly but falling away harmlessly.

  And then the brush of her consciousness against mine.

  I could see her memories. Tarron had told the truth. Kayda had come here first. It had been a week of her learning things from Silvanas, and she was an apt pupil. She learned that she could indeed control her abilities; she just needed to be smart about it. So Silvanas taught her things that would help her keep her wits even when instinct took over.

  She also learned to fuse her cold and lightning abilities to startling effect. It took a good deal of mana, but she could do it, and that was what was important. A little more teaching and she could return to me.

  But then the gnome had arrived to speak with her instructor. She had been forced to be hospitable when Silvanas offered him sanctuary to hear his plight.

  He lied. And she had been taken in. She had even arrested the nice Dwarven lady who had pet Kayda so nicely when I had been in Djurn Forge.

  Silvanas helped him collar her when she refused to help them in their fruitless fight against War and his Generals. The collar, a gift from a mysterious benefactor, Tarron had called them, had clouded her mind and stolen her intellect. Her will. But it was back, and she craved blood.

  Especially after what he had done to the Dwarven lady.

  The entire exchange between us took maybe three heartbeats, and I was as pissed as she was. More so because the little bastard actually thought he was in the right, and even Kayda didn’t know what the gnome had done to Shellica.

  He was standing now, right beside Silvanas’s throne, where he had fallen and then been silenced.

  The queens seemed to be done fighting for now, as the High Elf queen touched the tree and frowned, tears beginning to fall from her cheeks.

  “Queen Silvanas,” Tarron croaked, his voice seemed to be hoarse but returning. “Come, we must rid your lands of these violent interlopers. It is time to truly take the next step to freeing Brindolla!”

  Silvanas turned her head toward Tarron, and as the tears fell, her white hair began to gray. Her features, once pristine and beautiful, sagged slightly and wrinkled. Her age began to show.

  “I will not.” Silvanas looked hard at the little man. “You may believe what you do is right, but the higher powers know better.” She held a hand out to her people and then pointed at the gnome. “Arrest this charlatan. His crime is high treason against the gods and this plane. He has cost us everything.”

  Tarron Dillingsley spat on the floor in front of the throne, then turned his gaze toward us. “Then the high elves are as weak as the others. Do not worry. The true Children of Brindolla will see that your end is swift when we take our lives back for ourselves. This is not over.”

  He pulled out a bead from his pocket as guards, beaten and bloodied, began to close in closer to him and tossed it on to the ground. A wisp of white smoke rose and obscured him, and he was gone. No sound of footsteps scurrying away. Nothing to see with my True Sight. He was gone. Just gone.

  And that was more than enough to bring my rage about.

  “Fuck!” I roared. The guards nearest me leveled their weapons in my direction, fear on their faces.

  “Calm down, man. It’s over. They’re cool now, right?” James looked at the guards who slowly lowered their weapons. “Queen Silvanas has seen the truth.”

  “Truth be damned.” I stalked forward toward her slowly. My voice a guttural growl as I asked, “What did you let him do to Shellica?”

  When she didn’t answer right away, I howled, “Answer me!”

  “You do not order a queen, fox,” the closest guard to me barked with his astral blade bared and flashing toward me menacingly. “You will show proper respect to your betters!”

  I didn’t even so much as move as I funneled my mana through my hand and cast Lightning Bolt. The spell hit his chest, and he fell to his back, unconscious I hoped, but I would not appear cowed in this. Not right now. I continued forward, the guards taking up positions of protection in front of their now-frail-looking queen.

  “Zeke.” I felt Maebe’s sure grip on my shoulder, and I shrugged out of it.

  “Don’t try and stop me, Queen Maebe. This concerns family.”

  “I know,” her voice whispered next to my ear. “Please, let me help you before you start a war and she is lost to you possibly forever.”

  That reality splashed over me like cold ocean water, unnerving and leaving me feeling all kinds of salty.

  “We can speak on this later,” I promised her softly, “but thank you.”

  I blinked away the notification of my word given and stared at the queen across from me. She slowly made her way into her throne, collapsing into it. Kayda, ignoring the guards and me, hopped over to her side and looked her over quizzically.

  Despite my anger and outrage, I was touched that she readily forgave her teacher, though it would’ve been against her nature to include someone who was mildly blameless in this charade.

  Well, she could’ve been, but she just chose to hold all that anger and hatred for Tarron.

  “He experimented on her. To see if he could pull knowledge from her about Dwarven takes on enchanting, engraving, mana, and the like,” Silvanas’s voice crossed to us tiredly. “Then when he found out that she had trained you personally, he tortured her, from what my guards tell me.”

  I felt several hands on me, and instead of rage, I felt sorrow. Crushing and pathetic sorrow. Yet another person who had selflessly helped us, and this cause had been victimized. Wasn’t it enough that their very lives were at stake—all of them—if we didn’t stop War’s minions and Generals? Apparently, we needed to put some of the idiots here in their place as well. Fuck.

  “Where is she?” I asked, my voice hollow sounding, even to me.

  “I’m here, lad,” Shellica’s tired voice rang out to my left. I turned and saw a hallway of crystal of deep purple. She was beaten. Bruised. Her lip was cut, and she looked thinner than normal, but her manic grin seemed even more stuck in place than usual.

  She was immediately buffeted with healing spells from me, Bokaj, and Jaken. Hard to tell who put her up to full, but it was good to see her healthier. Yohsuke walked over to her and offered some kind of wrap and a flask to her, and she bit into it gratefully. Decorum was gone at a time like this.

  Who the fuck cared what anyone thought.

  “Are you okay?” Muu asked her softly. He reached out and tapped her shoulder, making her flinch once, but she nodded.

  “Aye.” She stared at us hard. “He couldn’t break me. He could pull a few things from me here and there, enchanting wise that is. Even managed to get me to cut a gem for him with his fell magic and persuasion. After a few days, I remembered his name from our conversations.”

  I sighed. I could only guess what she was going to say next. I was right.

  “And I let him have it!” She threw her head back and cackled before biting into her wrap again. She swallowed and continued, “‘Don’t matter how much you pull from me,’ I said to him. ‘You’re enchanting is shite anyway! And you’re a shite teacher!’ And I laughed in his face for hours.”

  “So you let him torture you?” Jaken asked in wonder.

  “Wasn’t goin’ anywhere, was I?” She shrugged. “I might be old, but I’m hardly daft. I learned a bit from him as he worked, and something wasn’t right with that one. Seemed almost a man unmade. More dangerous.”

  I turned to the others, but they didn’t seem to catch the turn of phrase. Was there a chance that this whole thing had been orchestrated by a General? This budding alliance against us and shift toward Brindollan righteousness?

  It was likely, and if that was the case, we would have to be careful everywhere we went.

  “Melthorn, gather the royals, we crown a new ruler,” Silvanas ordered, her voice was still weak. Rather than wait, she held her hand up for silence. “The Mother has taken o
ur blessing. Rescinded her touch on our lands. Our blessing will die out in three days’ time unless a new ruler is crowned. And my vitality will not return. I am dying.”

  Damn Nature—you scary.

  One of the archers fled the room swiftly.

  Silvanas looked to us. “You owe us nothing, but you helped us to see the truth, even if it was done in disrespect and desperation. You are welcome to stay and witness the coronation.”

  “Thank you, but no.” Bokaj stepped forward.

  “I will stay and witness on behalf of the Unseelie Fae of my kingdom and hope that this garners us a special thought in a future possible alliance.” Maebe stepped away from me and began to approach the throne, only to stop a few feet away. “This may be a time of great change, but you will not need to be alone in this. Our people can be united again.”

  Silvanas bowed her head, then raised it to see Bokaj beginning to speak once again.

  “We came here seeking a way into the Hells, and this,” he pulled out a drawn copy of the symbol the Celestial had drawn us, “is something that we had hoped to find here. I guess that it has something to do with an entryway to the Hells?”

  The queen chuckled once and shook her head. “No. That is a tattoo, a mark of those especially beloved by Mother Nature. The only person here other than myself who has that is my own Druid.”

  One of the casters that had been standing next to her throne before the battle, bloodied and limping, stepped forward and showed their wrist. There, against the pale skin of their wrist was a brilliant green and purple replica of the leaf symbol we had copied on the page.

  The figure pulled his cowl back, his vibrant, golden-honey eyes taking each of us in turn.

  “Tomorrow morning,” his soft voice sounded like a mix between a wheeze and a growl. “We will have our enchanters make a keystone, a waypoint for you to return to in our plane of existence. They are highly experienced in this. It is merely the material components that you pay for. Do you know where in the Hells you need to travel to?”

  I heard Yohsuke muttering something, then he looked up from inside the shadows of his hood, careful not to expose his features.

  “We need to go to the third outer circle,” he offered the answer cautiously. “The information we seek is there.”

  “Anything farther than the fourth would have been beyond my means, so this is good.” His hand pulled back into his sleeve. “Take the rest of your time today and early in the morning to prepare how you can or will. We have many shops and artisans that you are welcome to peruse, though people may treat you oddly. I will have my familiar guide you while I prepare things on my end.”

  He turned toward his queen. “We will not be charging them for this service, will we?”

  Silvanas’s head lifted, her eyes appeared more sunken in than before. “To? No. From? Yes. It will cost them one thousand gold. Plus the cost of the components you need.”

  “Done.” Bokaj didn’t hesitate in the slightest. The amount was worth it to him, it seemed, and honestly, we could afford ten times that and still be flush. Not to mention, we would have all paid it happily to get to Balmur.

  The Druid waved his hand, and a small, green and white spotted cat popped out from beneath his cloak. It looked up at us from next to his legs and meowed at us, seemingly friendly.

  “His name is Fern, and I am Questis. When you are finished, we will provide you shelter for the eve in my quarters and begin in the morning,” Questis turned his attention to his familiar. “Please, take them to some of the shops and wherever they need to go to obtain what is necessary. Also, Fern, please do not pester the vendors and merchants for food, you rotten kitty.”

  I cast Nature’s Voice, and the cat’s response was artful. “But they worship me, Questis. Who am I to keep my adoring public from pleasing me—their favorite.”

  Oh good, our guide had a god complex? This cat would’ve fit in well in old Egypt.

  Bokaj laughed, and my guess was that he had cast the same spell to listen in. Speaking of Bokaj, I hadn’t seen Tmont since we had come through the blizzard.

  I looked at the ice Elf a little closer and noticed that his hood, down on his back and shoulders, seemed to be full of something. As I watched, a black tail swished through the air and then flicked back down into the hood. Ah, the little asshole was sleeping and had slept through all that? That fucking cat was something, man.

  “Good day, and do not worry, Fern is a good cat. He will not lead you too far astray, but please, do not feed him overmuch.” Questis bowed his head before turning and wandering off.

  “Maebe?” Looking at her, she looked like she was going to be sick as she watched Silvanas quietly.

  Or like she wanted to put the slowly deteriorating queen out of her misery.

  I stepped toward her, watching the queen’s difficult to read, deep-green eyes tear themselves from Silvanas. “You okay?”

  “I must be, for now.” Her terse response was enough for right then, and we followed Fern from the place.

  The carnage—I felt a fight of this magnitude had earned that description—was surprisingly small. There had been no casualties, though the guard I had zapped looked mighty butthurt when I walked by him, which was fine by me.

  Was he being a good citizen to his queen? Sure. Had he been a dickbag about it? Fuck yeah.

  “Later, Sparky.” I waggled my fingers at him with a huge grin cemented to my face.

  While we followed Fern into the city, people stopping once more to ogle us, I turned my attention to Maebe.

  “Thank you for helping stop me from needlessly attacking Silvanas, but you looked… off. What’s wrong?”

  Her voice was soft, so soft that I had to bend closer to hear her.

  My perception and hearing thanks to the two simultaneous aspects I had cast had faded after combat, not nearly as long as normal, but it was two spells. And I hadn’t been trying to kill anyone.

  “When I was a girl, I watched my mother send Silvanas and her people, as well as various other sylvan creatures such as the Kitsune, through a portal to this realm. That has been millennia to this realm, and she had not been back since. We corresponded, but they had largely, and to our dismay, declared themselves free of us and our reign.” Maebe sighed wistfully. “To see someone who had been so brave as to tell my mother that she was free and so too were her people had always made me look up to her, in a way.

  “To see her in such a state because her powers have begun to wane thanks to an outside force has been… educational to me.” Her voice took on a note of pure anger. “That will never happen to me or mine unless I so will it.”

  “I won’t let it, if I can stop it,” I offered, and the anger contorting her features faded slightly.

  I could have felt bad. I could have let Mae’s sadness make me feel guilty for my small role in bringing down her former role model. Was I going to? No. Silvanas had picked the side that she had thought was right and had paid for being wrong. I could respect her choice in trying to take this matter into her own hands, but it wasn’t in me to feel bad for the choice she made and the consequences now.

  “Thank you.” She took my hand into her own cool palm and cradled it for a moment before she spoke again. “An illusion. That’s how we passed under the arch without them knowing our capabilities. I used the shadows to pull us under it, true to my words, and the illusions went through. That is how we kept our element of surprise.”

  “That was really badass then, Mae. Great work!” I pulled her into me and kissed her head as we walked.

  “And you as well, regaining your composure like that was both wise and took strength, I am certain.” Her voice was controlled, tight.

  “I may have wanted blood at that moment, but I don’t want your people to pay. Or the people of this realm.”

  “And that is part of why I chose you as a champion. Your potential is great, but you show wisdom and discerning judgment at times that surprises me.” I eyed her as she spoke and couldn’t help but
tease her.

  “You calling me a stupid hothead?”

  She whipped her head toward me with a startled expression, and her perfect lips turned down in a frown. “Are you just now learning this about yourself?”

  I clasped my heart in feigned hurt. “Oh, you wound me, my lady.”

  Maebe smiled briefly before the somberness of the situation returned, and we moved on to try and catch up to the others.

  “Fucking love birds, right?” I heard Muu grunt to Bokaj. The ice Elf made kissing noises, and the two of them laughed.

  “Talk shit all you like, lizard slayer,” I called and watched as Bokaj’s cheeks flared red. “That’s what I thought.”

  A large shadow passed over us, and I saw that it was Kayda; her mind touched mine, and I sighed.

  She was hungry.

  “Hope you can restock on food, Yoh.” I saw my friend turn a bit to listen. “Your favorite eater is quite hungry.”

  “She can wait until it’s all done later! I gotta shop and get her fat ass food.” He flipped her the bird playfully, and I passed along his message.

  She wasn’t happy about it, but she could always wait for his cooking. Greedy thing.

  The first place we stopped was to collect potions and something I had been hoping to find—holy oils.

  “These sorts of things are typically used when trying to commune with nature and the Gods, but I suppose if you were to be going to the Hells, they could be useful,” the shopkeeper, a studious-looking High Elf with the left side of her head shaved smooth and the right side long over her right eye, said. “I could part with the stock that I have blessed currently, about a liter in a small barrel, for about four gold and five silver?”

  “I’ll give you an extra two gold and five silver if you will divvy it out into vials for us,” Jaken offered.