by Mark Albany
They were too fine for the now-slightly-blunted piece of wood I was using, but the sparks flew out harder than with the knife or lightning strikes, which told me that I was onto something.
Unfortunately, I realized that I’d just successfully drawn its attention away from Aliana as the massive, glowing eyes turned to me, obsidian lips peeling back to show a long row of very sharp matching teeth.
It spun around faster than I would have believed, jaws violently snapping at me. I just barely avoided having my torso chomped on as I dropped backward, hitting the ground on my back. I struggled, scooting myself across the ground as quickly as I could as the creature turned fully. It was very easily distracted, I thought.
My breath was knocked out of me as teeth sank easily through the armor I was still wearing, biting into my leg.
“Fuck!” I screamed in pain, lashing out as quickly as I could, hammering the pointed piece of wood into the creature’s glowing eye. The roar was a lot louder this time, or seemed like it since it was now vibrating into my thighbone as the creature dropped to the ground with its jaw still clamped onto my leg.
I was really good at finding these weak spots, I thought, trying to keep my mind off the mind-numbing agony and the terrifying thought that the smell of seared flesh was actually coming from me. I screamed again, pushing the stake deeper and deeper into the creature’s eye. It seemed to be in immense pain but wouldn’t let my leg go.
“A little help, please?” I screamed at the other two, who seemed to have stopped in their tracks to watch what was happening. They snapped into action. I could see Norel building up another charge of lightning into her fingers as Aliana jumped forward.
“Hit the fucking runes!” I roared, trying to let the pain fuel the anger that was rushing like fire through my veins as I kept pushing the stick deeper into the creature’s eye. The heat coming from it started to make the piece of wood smoke, then catch fire.
Flames started licking at my fingers. Everything in me was begging me to let go but the knowledge that if I did, it would be back up to kill me and my friends in no time kept me pushing the wood deeper as I pinned its head to the ground, gritting my teeth and trying to ignore the agony licking at my fingers. I finally let go with one hand. It dropped and landed on the creature’s skin, which was hotter, it seemed, than the flames that were consuming my stake. I snapped my hand away, looking around to see what was taking Aliana and Norel so damn long to do something.
Aliana dropped in, screaming what sounded like a battle cry as she hammered her dagger into the hound’s chest. The dagger, much sharper than my piece of wood, dug easily into the runes and pushed deeper, all the way up to the hilt. Aliana jumped away.
“Now!” she called. I had no idea what she wanted me to do now, but then Norel stepped closer, her eyes glowing with the amount of power she’d taken into herself. She pushed her hands forward, releasing her most powerful lightning bolt yet, channeling it through Aliana’s dagger and into the hound.
For a moment, all the runes went dead, the fire in its eyes disappearing as the power of the bolt was absorbed into its body. And then it shattered into a thousand tiny obsidian pieces.
I let out a whining cry of pain, looking at my burned hands. The one that had settled on the creature’s skin had the runes seared into it. It would have been an interesting study if my mind was capable of thinking about anything other than the amount of pain I was in.
“Grant!” Aliana cried, jumping over the pile of obsidian shards and coming over to me. “Are you all right?”
“Peachy,” I gasped through gritted teeth, looking down at my leg. The ruined armor covered most of the damage, but from the amount of blood that was spilling through the tooth marks in the steel plates, it couldn’t be good.
“Lie down,” Norel said, her cool voice coming as more of a comfort than the terrified look on Aliana’s face, oddly enough. I did as she said as she quickly started tugging the pieces of ruined armor away from my leg. I had thought the pain couldn’t get any worse. I was wrong. I gritted my teeth again, masking the scream that came up from my gut with a growl as I writhed in agony.
“Lie still,” Norel commanded smoothly.
“I have an idea.” That pain-stealing anger rose in me again. “Why don’t you get wounded and I’ll start treating your wounds and telling you to lie fucking still?”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Norel pointed out calmly.
“I know!” I hissed, trying to do as she told me. I couldn’t stand to look at the damage, wondering if dying would be a relief from this. I’d read about people being in so much pain that they wanted to die—I had to be getting close to that threshold without quite reaching it. I wanted the pain to go away, but not enough to die and leave Aliana behind to deal with all this without me.
I was stubborn like that.
It took me a moment to realize the pain in my leg was starting to recede, pulling away, almost like it was being sucked out of the wounds. I pulled myself up, watching the damage on my leg start to disappear where Norel had her hands on it. There were arcs of white energy in her fingers that were pressing into me. I took a deep breath, trying to close my eyes, but at the same time very curious about the nature of the magic she was using.
I realized I was holding my breath and inhaled deeply, trying to understand what was happening. My mind was going wobbly, for lack of a better word, at the relief from the pain.
“He’s going into shock,” Norel said to Aliana.
“No, I’m not,” I gasped, blinking and trying to stay awake.
Huh, maybe I was. It certainly beat the hell out of having to wallow in misery.
I was brought back to the moment as Aliana leaned in, pressing her lips to mine. My eyes took a moment to focus, all my senses coming to full alert as I reached up to stroke her hair, my burned hands dropping as I shrieked in pain.
“Well, that works, I suppose,” Norel said with an icy tone. “His leg should be fine, if a little tender.”
“What about my hands?” I asked, displaying the angry red welts on them to her.
“Huh,” she grunted, leaning in closer to the hand that had runes seared into it. “That’s odd. I haven’t seen runes like that in years. We should probably study them when we have the time.”
“That’s not what I meant.” I looked down at the leg she’d just taken the time to heal. The wound was gone, though it was interesting to see just how the hound’s teeth had warped the metal armor she’d removed, like the heat coming from the beast’s mouth had been hot enough to melt steel.
That was a terrifying thought.
The wounds were gone, but the hair on my legs had been singed off. The whole of that part of my leg looked fresh and pink, and, as she had said, tender. I winced, moving the muscles. There was a phantom pain, like my leg was remembering what it felt like when a horse-sized hound had been gnawing on it, but I assumed it would pass soon.
I pushed myself to my feet, wincing as my hands throbbed in pain.
“Well, then,” Norel said with a smile. “I can’t say I’m impressed with your magical abilities, but I must commend you on your courage.”
“About that.” Aliana frowned. “Why didn’t you reach for your powers? I thought that was what we spent all that time practicing for.”
“We spent less than a month getting me to use powers that are as elusive to me as they are to those who wanted to use them,” I said. “The rest of my life was spent learning to live without those same powers. When the time came to put my life on the line, well, I still need more practice, and we have better things to worry about.”
“Right,” Norel said. “As if we needed any kind of indication, the hellhound’s presence is enough to tell us that Cyron is already advancing his plans.”
“Didn’t you say he needed an eclipse for that?” I asked.
“Well, yes,” Norel said, taking my hands in hers, the same healing energy starting to flow into the welts on them and my arms. “But he should know
the two of you broke in by now, since you took his book. He’s just stupid enough and in enough of a hurry to try it anyway.”
“Let him,” Aliana said with a snort. “Let the magic tear him apart.”
“Don’t be stupid, Ali,” Norel snapped. “Even if he fails, which wouldn’t be a given considering the amount of power he’s accumulated over the years, the failure of the spell could still send this whole city and much, much more into a fiery pit. While I am one to approve of the hunt for vengeance, I think that might be taking it a bit far, don’t you?”
“You haven’t changed at all,” Aliana noted, rolling her eyes, which told me that she knew her sister was right but didn’t quite like being talked down to like that.
In all honesty, I wasn’t too fond of it either, but that would have to be handled another time.
“I have to go to him,” Norel said, pulling away from my hands, leaving them similarly healed, if similarly tender to the touch. “Cyron, I mean. He still thinks I’m on his side and has no reason to think otherwise. I can get close enough to stop him.”
“Now who’s being stupid?” I asked, looking down at my hands. “How come you left the welts with the runes on them?”
“Like I said, I wish to study them,” Norel said, taking a step toward me. “And I beg your pardon?”
“That hound came to your house,” I said, still staring at the runes. “It attacked your house, which you were in. I mean, even if he just sent it to track Aliana and me down, he has to know where it was and make the connection. He might be stupid enough to try some world-ending spell, but I have to think he’s smart enough to realize that.”
It was amusing how Aliana and Norel both had the same look when they knew someone was right but still didn’t approve of their tone. I tried not to let my amusement reach my face, however.
“I suppose you’re right,” Norel said, grudgingly. “I still think we need to find Cyron, to stop him.”
“Where would he be?” Aliana asked.
“He wouldn’t want to conduct any spells in his home,” Norel said, looking around. “We have to go. We may be too late already.”
I didn’t want to point out that if we were already too late, it wouldn’t really matter if we hurried or not. It was better to keep our minds on the positive side, after all.
We picked our way through the rubble, climbing over the remains of Norel’s house. There was still a lot of it on its feet, but there was going to be a lot of work put into making it livable once more. I’d thought that the sight of a massive hound tearing a mansion down would have attracted a bit of a crowd, but as we reached the edge of Norel’s property and got out to the street again, the place was deserted. Well, that made sense too, I supposed. Nobody would want to stick around in case the massive hound decided to attack them instead. Without a word, we started heading toward Cyron’s mansion.
“On the off chance that Cyron has already started the spell, and considering the death toll expected whether he succeeds or fails,” Aliana said, as we moved through a suddenly and uncharacteristically abandoned marketplace. “Do you suppose we should start evacuating the city? Save as many lives as we can?”
I opened my mouth to reply when the earth started shaking. Just a gentle tremor at first, but it quickly built in intensity until it was all the three of us could do just to remain on our feet. There was an explosion, far enough away that we weren’t close enough to be caught in the blast, and yet close enough that it knocked the three of us to the ground. It knocked most of the rickety market stands down too, as well as a handful of walls and buildings.
I was the first to my feet, looking around to make sure everyone was all right. Aliana was up next, scowling and saying something in elfish that had to be a curse as she grabbed my hand. I didn’t even complain this time as we were pulled and twisted into the portal that spat us out on the lookout tower above the Lancers’ guardhouse we’d been on the day before. The city looked different now. I could see the smoke rising from fires all across it, and the sounds of screaming were easily heard from all points in the expansive city below us. The tromping of booted feet could also be heard below as the Lancers were quickly organizing, though what they were organizing for wasn’t quite clear.
“You’re right,” I said. “We need to help them.”
Aliana nodded, but I didn’t think she’d heard me. All her attention seemed to be focused on the source of the explosion. There were more than a few houses and mansions leveled in the blast, but there was one at the epicenter. The mansion itself was large enough that it wasn’t all knocked down, but a whole wing of it was just gone in favor of a massive crater.
There was something moving inside that crater—crawling out of it, in fact. It was massive, even from our removed standpoint. Vaguely humanoid, with arms, legs, and a head, but it was a brown color, with pieces of it dropping away with each movement. It was large enough to be able to maintain its form even so.
“That’s a—” Aliana started, and I nodded.
“I know what that is,” I cut her off. Unlike elves and djinn, golems were very much the stuff of reality, even if they should have been confined to nightmares. Mostly banned from use across the empire, they were creatures of rock and clay, following the commands of their summoner without question. Destruction and chaos followed in their wake, with the death toll of their use in battle being astonishing enough to make the Emperor himself, usually quite fond of large, dull creatures that followed orders without question, ban them personally.
I turned around, wondering if we were going to start helping the people closest to the creature to escape, when I saw a tiny little man standing near it. Even from here, I could see the distortions of reality and the glowing runes that came from the power needed to control the beast. I could see his mouth moving but couldn’t make out the words.
“Cyron,” I said. “That’s got to be him.”
“Agreed.” Aliana’s voice devoid of emotion. I turned to look at her, but she was only in my vision for a moment before disappearing into a portal.
“Gods… damn it.” I shook my head. “And just how the fuck does she think I’m going to get down from here?”
17
I found a way down from the tower, mostly because it seemed like the Lancers had more to worry about outside than someone who had managed to break into their precious building. Besides, I was still wearing what Lancer armor hadn’t been damaged by the massive hound so I wasn’t worth a single glance from the men rushing about, much less two.
I reached the courtyard and beyond in a few minutes. A good deal had changed while I’d been navigating the Lancers’ guardhouse. Back in the old days, I had always feared getting captured and locked up there, so I had the exits of the building committed to memory, just in case.
The old days were less than a month ago, I realized. How was that possible? It felt like decades.
I looked around, expecting the monster to be tearing his way through the city, proving the prohibitions of their use very well-founded. But my quick look over the city revealed no new leveled buildings, and while there was still pandemonium and chaos all around, there wasn’t a massive golem adding to it anywhere in sight.
That was, until I heard, or rather felt, the massive footfalls thudding on the ground. The problem of having something that large in your thrall was how easy it was to track it. I circled around, trying to see where it was going, and wasn’t sure why I was surprised when I saw it heading deeper and deeper into the forest. The same forest I’d run into when I stole the scroll from Pollock. The same one I’d found Aliana in.
I didn’t believe in coincidences.
Norel came running up to me, looking around. “Grantham. You’re Grantham, right?”
“Yes, yes, but Grant is better,” I replied, looking at her. “Didn’t you recognize me?”
“Oh please, Grant.” She smiled as she added, “All you humans look alike. I mistook a couple of the damned Lancers for you. Talk about an interesting conversatio
n. But never mind that, where is my sister?”
I looked out into the forest, where the golem was marching, pulling down trees in his wake.
“Where do you think?” I asked.
“No need to be snide,” she said. “Why didn’t you stop her? You know she can’t take one of those down on her own.”
“What in our admittedly short history together makes you think I could stop her?” I asked as we started running into the forest, following the wide path left by the creature.
“A valid point,” Norel conceded.
We made our way deeper inside, seeing the kind of destruction a golem could cause when destruction wasn’t even on its mind as we started sprinting toward where it had stopped. The ground was still shaking. As we got closer, seemed looked like the massive thing was digging into the earth. I had no idea where we were, but I could make an educated guess as to why it had picked that spot. It had to be somewhere near those old ruins.
A creature that large had to be hard to miss but as we started getting closer to where the thudding was coming from, there was no sign of it. Not at first anyways. As we got closer, a massive hole in the ground indicated where it had gone.
“Well then,” I said, trying to catch my breath. “I don’t suppose we should wait here and gather our forces, maybe look for Aliana before going down into the tunnels to fight a golem and, I assume, Cyron?”
“She’s already down there,” Norel said, shaking her head. “We have to help her.”
“Of course, she is,” I said, still trying to recover my breath. “I don’t suppose you know how to open a portal that can take us down there without having to fall?”
Norel sighed, nodding and taking my hand in hers. The twisting and pulling from her portal was oddly gentler than Aliana’s. Either way, we ended up at the bottom of the hole all the same. There was light from a handful of lit torches, I realized, illuminating what had to be a massive room. Aliana was there, dagger drawn, flitting around the room, using her legs and wings to good effect as she fought with Cyron, who had a sword in his hands. It was gleaming with runes, meant for the blade’s protection, I assumed. The runes were glowing hotly, showering the room with sparks each time the sword connected with something.