by Eric Vall
“We can discuss your rules for my mortality later,” I panted, “but I’m glad you’re all coming to your senses about this. Honestly, I don’t want to go around almost dying, either. That shit is painful.”
“Well, we’re sorry for behaving so irrationally,” Deya replied. “Our virgin souls are still processing, and carrying your precious super babies has influenced so much all at once.”
“I get it,” I assured the elf. “There’s a lot to consider.”
“Like why the hell I’m boiling!” Cayla growled. “Is anyone else unbearably hot right now? Is this a pregnancy thing?”
“It’s the forges,” I said. “You can smell the molten iron. We must be nearly to the top, but we’re not heading toward the heat from there. At least, I don’t think we are.”
“You said the portal you found was on the bridge?” Shoshanne asked.
“Beyond it,” I clarified. “In a large chamber.”
“Shit,” Aurora muttered. “Mason, if the Master had his own portal, he could have left at any time.”
“I know. Let’s just hope if he did leave, he was alone.”
My women fell silent at the idea, and we spent the next five minutes gasping our way into the heights of the Master’s extensive headquarters. The heat became scorching the higher we climbed, and while our armor didn’t make the work any easier, we managed to keep up the pace. I listened to the progress our other troops were making as I let my powers scan small portions of the path ahead of us, and when I found three figures crossing the bridge, I abruptly signaled for my women to keep their guns ready.
Kurna and Pindor had already finished clearing the upper levels of the fortress, so I didn’t know where the three sets of footsteps had come from, but when we reached the top of the spiral stairs, we took a moment to rein in our grating breaths before we crept into the next passageway.
A few torches were burning up here, and there were no dead bodies or claw marks to be seen anywhere. It actually reminded me a lot of the pristine homes of the Elite elves with intricate facades engraved on obsidian walls, and despite how rugged the ironwork of the sconces were, it was elaborately designed so six prongs spiraled up around the torches’ flames.
Without my enhanced hearing, I wouldn’t have been able to hear any of the voracious snarling taking place in the base of the fortress, and I could tell the Master gave no thought to how his disciples fared from up here. The idea of him living like a king was irritating enough, but knowing the mages he stole from me had been locked below trying not to get eaten ignited a fury in my chest.
There must have been thousands of creatures down in the caverns that he’d hoarded and let waste away, but up here, it was silent, clean, and deserted. Nothing but sleek obsidian halls with iron sconces.
Except for the three figures still making their way over the lengthy bridge.
Nulena caught my arm before I pursued them, though, and once she raised her palm, she sent a soft veil of her powers ahead of us. Then the ebony woman nodded, and we headed over the iron-covered bridge without making a sound.
If the Master was still here, then between the six of us, we had every means of incapacitating him just long enough for me to make sure he really paid for the shit he’d caused in this realm. And I’d finally get the pleasure of killing the asshole who’d abducted my mages, terrorized my allies, and let thousands of wild beasts rot in damp pits for no reason.
The only problem was, I had a sinking feeling with every step I took that it wouldn’t be the Master we came up against at the end of this bridge. Two of the figures were staggering as they walked like they were badly injured, and the other could barely lift its feet while it moved at an erratic pace.
The ornate setup in this area made it pretty clear the Master wasn’t the type to end up in the heat of the fight, let alone injured, and when we finally saw the shapes of three figures in the torchlight ahead, I knew none of them were who we were looking for.
Their elven garb was only rags now, and I could see the bones of their arms and back sticking out like they hadn’t eaten in a month. They were clawing at the iron door at the end of the bridge while blood dripped at their feet, and I didn’t doubt no one would be letting them in.
Cayla must’ve realized this, too, because as we came to a slow and silent stop behind the mangy elves, the princess passed me up and leveled the barrel of her rifle.
Then Cayla delivered three swift bullets with marked precision to end them quick and clean, and I raised my palms toward the iron door.
Seven locks sealed the Master’s quarters off from the rest of the fortress, and when I broke through each of them, we found ourselves in a vaulted, obsidian chamber as deserted as I expected.
Red glass lanterns lined the walls to illuminate crudely drawn maps, and there were dozens of lists written in a ragged elven script scattered all over the only three tables in the place. My women spread out with their pistols cocked while Nulena scanned the shadows of the dim room, and I continued into the next few chambers to scout out the rest of his quarters.
Each black and vaulted room was unoccupied and unfurnished, and it looked like they were used for virtually nothing except storing piles of branding irons and a single bed a third the size of mine. How anyone lived more than a day in this place without spiraling into insanity, I had no idea, but then again, there was nothing saying the Master hadn’t.
Once I was sure no one was in here, I studied the runes on the branding irons first thing, and I recognized the Master’s rune among them, but there were several runes I’d never seen before with elements I couldn’t identify. A handful had a single stroke for the portals, though, and I’d only dug through half the piles when Aurora called me into the first chamber.
My women were eyeing the maps and lists on the walls more closely when I joined them, and the half-elf pointed to some strange markings on one of them as she sent me a pointed look.
“These are just north of the border of Falmount,” Aurora told me.
“What are they?” I asked.
“No idea,” the half-elf muttered. “Deya said these symbols are runes, not elven words, but they’re all different.”
“They’re written in a different color ink than all these other markings,” I pointed out while I scanned the map of Illaria. “I’ll go north of town and check it out once we handle our troops. It looks like he had more plans for most of Illaria, though. The tunnel we ambushed was set to be expanded in four directions, and that would’ve given him access to the rest of the nation and Jagruel.”
“Cedis as well,” Cayla said from the other side of the room, and when I came over, the princess had her brow deeply furrowed. “The Master wanted to build a tunnel directly from the smoke lands into Eyton.”
“I’ll send Pindor and Markus to make sure he never got that far,” I assured her. “We’ll take the maps with us and organize crews to scout all these points. Any of them could give us a clue of where he’s gone, or what he’s going to try next. His army’s destroyed, but there’s no saying when he left or if he took anyone with him. Or anything. There’s about eighty branding irons in the next room.”
“Gods,” Shoshanne muttered beside a table. “He must have learned a lot from the head of House Syru. Look at these books.”
“That handwriting doesn’t match the work on the maps,” Nulena murmured as the two of us looked over the healer’s shoulder. “The ink is badly faded as well, and the parchment must be decades old.”
“Most of these markings look like runes, though,” I agreed. “I recognize maybe half the elements. The rune on the corner of the page has three elements related to stone. I saw the same symbol on a branding iron in the next room. If he’s used it for anything, it’s probably to pick up where Hulsan left off.”
“We’ll check for those expansions this week, then,” Aurora decided, and I nodded in agreement.
“Deya, do you know what those lists say?” I asked.
“This one is about us,” Deya sa
id with a frown, and I immediately came to her side. “Shoshanne, does the name Merida mean anything to you?”
The healer dropped the book she was reading. “Th-That’s my mother’s name.”
All of my women came over now, and while Deya read through the Master’s notes, my pulse beat more heavily with every word. He had the names of all their living relatives, their whereabouts, and even my women’s advancements in skill over the last few months, and he’d listed the people who Aurora considered her family beside her name. Nulena’s name had been scratched in at the bottom so hard, the pen had torn through the paper, but nothing was noted beside it.
“What a creep,” I growled.
Shoshanne turned a quivering lip toward me. “Mason, what if--”
“I’ll take care of it,” I assured her. “Deya, let’s bring all these notes with us, and check the shelves near the window, too. Any information he’s been gathering needs to be known if we’re gonna make sure he can’t get far with his plans.”
“Yes, Mason,” Deya agreed while she stroked Shoshanne’s arm, but when Aurora crossed over to the deep red window, she pushed the arced pane of glass open easily.
“Mason, this isn’t a window, it’s a balcony,” the half-elf told me.
I swiftly pulled my pistol out as I closed the gap between us, but Aurora shook her head.
“No one’s out there,” the half-elf murmured before she stepped out, and I followed her onto the granite balcony.
“This isn’t supposed to be here,” I said as I furrowed my brow. “This part of the fortress is clearly visible from where I’ve scouted, and I would’ve seen a balcony this size.”
“Unless these runes conceal it,” Aurora mused, and I turned to see her trailing her fingers across a line of six runes engraved into the granite.
They were barely larger than my thumbnail, but they were all identical except for one line that was altered on each, and I knew this one variance coincided with dimensional degrees. Two other lines were elements pertaining to sight, but the last few were unknown to me.
“He’s used six alterations to conceal this spot from all six viewpoints,” I muttered. “The cohesion line must balance the space in between, but I don’t know what some of these other lines do.”
Then the two of us looked out toward the foothills, and from up here, the Master could see clear across his grounds to the west, as well as out toward the jungle and the ridges in the far east. Which meant he had every ability to watch us steal the dragons back that night I rode Deya over the foothills, but I couldn’t help smirking at the idea.
It had to have been a hell of a show from this vantage point, and if I were the Master, I probably would’ve been gunning to get a guy like me on my side, too.
I stopped smirking the second I heard someone coming up the spiral steps within the peak, though, and I’d just returned inside to head them off at the bridge when Deya recognized the sound.
“It’s Dragir,” she told me.
“Is he seriously whistling?” I scoffed. “This is a siege… there are so many corpses in this place. How is he whistling?”
“Dragir has always wanted to march on a fortress,” Deya said while she tried not to smile. “He used to plan his own sieges against the Elite when he was a boy. My father hated it, but I’m sure Dragir is in quite a good mood about the day’s events.”
I snorted before I gestured for her to start removing the maps from the walls, and when Dragir strolled in with a self-assured grin and fresh guts smeared on his armor, the elf let out a happy sigh.
“This was exceptional, no?” Dragir said while he clapped a bloody hand on my shoulder. “The rockets, the dragons, the rotting beasts… Did you know, I saw a cannibal out there with breasts that are larger than my head? I watched her remove a creature’s tail with her teeth, and when she noticed me staring, she dragged her tongue from the severed end to the tip. Consider the imagery there.”
“You don’t want that mess,” I quickly assured him, and the elf shrugged.
“Yes, I know,” he admitted. “She had her men on leashes even in battle. That is not quite fair. Still, all of your siege has been precisely what I’ve been wanting lately. This place up here, though? This is not as nice.”
“How’s it going in the caverns?” I chuckled while the elf furrowed a disapproving brow at the obsidian chamber.
“Over too quickly, I’m afraid,” Dragir replied. “Your army is too effective. When I found there was no more slaughtering to be done, I asked Kurna where you were in case you found more enjoyable employment. Then he spent a few minutes informing me he is having incredible sex with the spice lady, but I finally got him to point me in the right direction.”
“I should get down there,” I muttered. “The Master escaped, but--”
“What is that?” Dragir interrupted as he pointed to the other side of the room, and he kept pointing as he crossed the chamber and jutted his finger into a map. “Why are these runes placed beside House Quyn? I do not recognize half of these elements.”
“Yeah, he’s got similar markings in several of the regions,” I replied. “Jagruel’s over there, Illaria and Cedis on the wall by the door. Orebane’s map takes up half of that other wall, but it looks like Nalnora has the most markings. He clearly knows that area better than the others, so you must have been right in assuming he’s an elf. Do you know what all these smaller points correspond to?”
“No.” Dragir shrugged. “They are not elven Houses, though. Perhaps the rogue tribes. I know those who choose to live outside the hierarchy of the Houses reside deeper within the jungle to remain independent of the tensions between us.”
“Hmm,” I mused. “Maybe that’s where he’s been getting his soldiers from.”
“I recognized the attire of several of the elves he sent out,” Dragir told me. “Some from Elite houses, even. Rhys is quite pleased about it.”
“I’m sure he is,” I snorted. “How did your warriors fare in the fight?”
“They will recover,” the elf assured me. “I have sent some of them along with your soldiers, though. A few severed limbs here and there, if Miss Shoshanne does not object to helping them heal properly.”
“Not at all,” Shoshanne said while she helped Deya with the maps. “I’ll go straight to the train when we’ve finished here.”
“We should hurry,” I told my women. “The Master won’t be showing up again, and we have to make sure our armies are taken care of. I need to alert Temin to the developments as well.”
My women nodded in agreement, and I turned back to Dragir while the elf narrowed his eyes at the map of Nalnora.
“There are a few books over on the tables and piles of branding irons here,” I told the silver-haired elf. “Do you mind looking over all this while I handle the troops? I’ll be back as soon as I can, but anything you can make of all this would help me figure out what to do next.”
“Gladly,” Dragir said as a greedy glint came to his eyes. “I will have my warriors scour the remains of this filthy fortress as well. Perhaps there is something more to work with.”
“I appreciate it,” I assured him, but both of us flinched as a flash of silver jetted through the window beside us, and when it landed on the table near Shoshanne’s stack of maps, I almost plowed Dragir over to get there.
“Stan!” I yelped. “Stan, you fantastic little metal bandit!”
Shoshanne huffed when I snatched the little guy before she could, and I let out a sigh so rejuvenating, I could feel my relief even in the tiniest bones of my feet. Stan buried his face against my armor as he splayed his arms across my chest for the biggest hug he was capable of, and Solana made a huge fuss on the desk to draw all my women’s attention to her.
“You two fucking did it,” I sighed. “You have no idea how proud I am. Look at this place! You did this! We’re standing in this nasty ass fortress, and none of this would’ve been possible without you.”
“This is impressive,” Dragir allowed.
“You’re so brave,” Shoshanne fawned. “I can’t imagine how you managed to keep going with all these rotting bodies around.”
Cayla gave a decisive nod. “Nerves of steel.”
“And so stealthy,” Deya admired while she scratched Solana’s chin. “I bet you were an even stealthier battle dragon than I am!”
“When Mason said he couldn’t find you two in here, I didn’t know what to think,” Aurora mumbled, and I raised my eyebrows when I saw her trying to dab at her eyes without anyone noticing.
Then Stan abruptly stopped hugging me, and he wrenched his helmet off to sign several things at once that none of us could keep up with.
“You have so much to share, don’t you?” I realized.
Stan nodded vigorously, and he pointed to the next room. So, we all hurried through the doorway with Stan held aloft, and the little metal man led us to the same wall Pindor removed the portal from.
My heart almost stopped beating. “You went through that portal? You just… on purpose?”
Stan gave a firm nod before he ordered us back into the front room, and once we all hurried to do his bidding, he jumped down onto the table. Then the little metal man rifled his imaginary hair and started pacing exactly like me, and I could tell he didn’t even know where to begin.
“Tell me everything,” I said as I dropped down onto my knees.
Chapter 22
I’d probably been staring at the same marble column for the last forty minutes, and even the raucous scene taking place over in the great hall of Temin’s castle didn’t distract me. The music and dancing hadn’t stopped in hours, and by this point, the nobility were too drunk to remember their usual decorum. Lords and ladies snorted wine from their noses and laughed until they had to hold onto marble statues for support, and it didn’t sound like the celebration in the streets of Serin would end anytime soon, either.