Dusk Gate (Soul Bound Book 1)

by Benjamin Medrano

  “This was a terrible idea. Probably the worst I’ve ever had,” Xandra announced, then ducked as another spectral shriek split the air, and a hail of bone shards ripped by her, cutting thin grooves into her arms. Xandra hissed, then continued, “Alright, maybe not as bad as signing that contract, but this is definitely in the running for terrible ideas.”

  The grooves oozed blood, but Xandra ignored the pain, chanting another quiet spell, then lobbed a ball of fire into the middle of a cluster of skeletons that had crossbows. The fireball detonated with a dull whump, and as it did it launched four smaller balls in each direction around it which also detonated, shattering the skeletons across a broad section of the courtyard. She did like to chain together explosions.

  With that in mind, Xandra began to draw more heavily on her mana core, reasoning that if she leveled enough of the nearby city, it’d probably deal with the other undead as well. It’d deal with the problem. Probably.

  Almost as soon as she was halfway through the spell, she saw a flicker of light, then another group rounded the corner. Nef’s voice rang out faintly as Xandra peered into the gloom.

  “While I adore your enthusiasm, dear, please don’t bring the cavern down on our heads? It would be quite unpleasant,” Nef said, sounding amused despite how much she had to raise her voice. “Besides, you’d be destroying relics of history.”

  “The relics are infested with undead. I’d think eliminating them would be good,” Xandra called out in return, pain searing through her with how loudly she had to speak, but she started drawing the mana back in grudgingly. Besides, the others likely would’ve been in range of the spell she had planned. She couldn’t wait to have her regeneration kick in properly.

  “Yes, but we can deal with those and not destroy anything else!” Nef replied, accompanied by the ringing of steel as she methodically cut through the skeletons separating them. “Though the crossbows are obnoxious. I’ll certainly agree with you on that.”

  Xandra growled under her breath, already annoyed at Nef again. She’d only started dealing with the problem, and the woman was already protesting. This was a huge part of why she liked working alone.

  Peeking around the corner again, Xandra relaxed ever so slightly as she saw that Jasmine and Naomi were just behind Nef. The two women were casting occasional spells, their goddess-granted powers destroying the undead far more easily than Xandra would have been able to with similar magic. Still, Xandra could clear out more of the area, and she focused on another cluster of undead that were coming around a corner. She couldn’t tell if the ones carrying crossbows had ammunition, but she’d really rather they didn’t puncture the others. They couldn’t quickly heal on their own, after all.

  Just as she was drawing on her mana, the hairs on the back of Xandra’s neck stood on end, accompanied by the faint howls of the undead, and she reflexively dodged to the right.

  A stabbing sensation on the left side of her back proved that Xandra hadn’t moved quite fast enough, and it was accompanied by agonizing pain as she abruptly found it very difficult to breathe, at least compared to normal. Something ripped free of her back, and Xandra spun, gasping for breath even as she heard Jasmine in the distance.

  “Xandra!” the priestess exclaimed, horror in her voice, but Xandra was far more concerned about the creature behind her.

  The bones were still swirling in a sphere, but this time the internal area wasn’t undefined. It was a tall, gangly figure with long, stringy strands of black hair dangling down to mid-back, and with a pale face that had no eyes in the sockets, even as its fangs formed a horrifying smile. The figure was vaguely feminine, in a horrid sort of way, and in one arm it held a bundle of cloth, while in the other it had a long bone spear, its tip glistening with Xandra’s blood. The creature spoke in a venomous tone, licking its lips, but Xandra couldn’t understand its words.

  She thought about trying to reply for half an instant. Then, considering she’d just been stabbed, Xandra replied far more directly, snatching a wand off her belt and channeling her mana into it firmly.

  A bolt of lightning lashed out of the wand and through the figure, who looked somewhat startled as it arced through it, leaving blackened spots across its torso where the magic passed. Then the figure vanished, the bundle still visible, and whipped away into the air.

  “Shit,” Xandra gasped, trying to breathe deeply, but unable to do so. She felt something hot and sticky pulsing down her back, and that was bad. Normally she’d just cauterize the wound, but the location where she’d been hit… that made it tricky. It was just to the left of her spine, and far too close to her heart. While her regeneration could deal with many things, it was entirely based on the heart which had been implanted in her chest.

  Reaching down with trembling fingers, Xandra uncorked the flask of healing potion and lifted it to her lips, taking a swallow, and felt the warmth spread through her body, only to barely touch the injury on her back as it spread to all of the injuries, rather than just the most critical one. She swayed, blinking as she noticed that she wasn’t… focusing as well. It felt like the world was swaying around her, and she quickly corked her flask. If she dropped it, she didn’t want to lose all of the liquid.

  “Ah, hell. Poison,” Xandra muttered, her thoughts almost glacial at this point, and she shook her head… which was a mistake, as the entire world warped around her far more dramatically, wobbling like it was made of gelatin. She saw a skeleton marching closer and raised her hand, only to lose her balance, bounce off the stone pillar, then hit the ground painfully. The cool, solid, and surprisingly comfortable ground. At least once the pain passed.

  The sound of the skeleton approaching shook Xandra out of her daze quickly, though, and she forced herself to roll, hissing out the words of a spell. Even she was surprised that the words came out close to normal, and that her fingers obeyed her commands. It was probably the practice her Mistress had forced her through when healing her after the incident with the hellhounds, she supposed. That had been distracting.

  An orb of fire whipped out of her hand at the skeleton, and fortunately the monster was close, as otherwise the shaky path it took would have missed entirely. Instead, it struck the skeleton’s shoulder just as the creature raised its hammer, shattering the bone and sending the weapon clattering to the ground. Xandra hissed in annoyance, as she’d been aiming for its head, but… then she paused, realizing she wasn’t seeing just one head. That wasn’t a good sign. And both of its right legs were rising to stomp on her.

  Then the skeleton paused, and its head fell off. As it teetered, Nef appeared behind it, multiple copies of her side by side, and looked down at Xandra with a smile.

  “Lying down on the job? Really, that’s not like you at all, Xandra,” Nef said, clicking her tongue in a chiding tone.

  Xandra drew the deepest breath she could manage, which wasn’t terribly deep as pain radiated through her, and replied in the most succinct way she could manage. “Eat shit.”

  Chapter 42

  “Xandra!” Jasmine exclaimed, dropping to a knee next to the elf and looking her over in horror. “Are you alright?”

  Xandra’s glare was almost enough of an answer on its own, though her eyes were rather impressively dilated. There was blood pooling on the cavern floor beneath her, numerous grooves cut into her right forearm and a few in her face that had scabbed over, along with a large burn mark on her right side.

  “Idiot,” Xandra gasped. “Stabbed, lung…collapsed. Poisoned. Think!”

  Jasmine couldn’t help blushing at the response. She could tell that Xandra wanted to say more, but the woman was having a hard time breathing. Based on what she’d said… Jasmine rolled her over, and immediately paled as she saw the wound on Xandra’s back. If she remembered her anatomy classes correctly, elves weren’t that different from humans, and that meant that the injury was disconcertingly close to Xandra’s heart. Fortunately, blood wasn’t spurting, but that was a cold comfort.

  The memory of her less
ons also jarred Jasmine out of her shock, and she inhaled, and began to murmur a prayer, one which was joined by Naomi, as the younger woman knelt next to her, heedless of the blood.

  “Lady of the life-giving flames, grant us your succor to heal the injured,” Jasmine prayed, flinching as she heard another skeleton clatter to the ground behind her. Mana poured out of her hands and into a warm glow that settled over Xandra, assisted by Naomi’s identical prayer.

  As the light hit her, Xandra hissed, her fingernails dragging over the stones beneath her, and to Jasmine’s horror, thin wisps of smoke rose out of the injuries, like Xandra was being burned by the healing spells. Yet before she could stop, she saw that the wounds were beginning to shrink and the blood stopped welling up. Jasmine hesitated, still channeling mana into the spell, then asked hesitantly, “Are you alright, Xandra? There’s smoke coming off you.”

  “Just do it,” the elf replied, gasping for breath as one of her fingernails chipped against the stone, then she visibly forced herself to relax.

  “She has a demon’s heart. In particular, it reacts poorly to holy energy like yours,” Nef said, cutting down a couple of skeletons. “You’ll still heal her, it simply causes a great deal of—look out!”

  The Karakar whipped her sword around just as Jasmine heard howling, and a creature materialized, a bone spear raised to impale Naomi. The sight of it almost caused Jasmine to recoil, but something about its appearance, with the sphere of swirling bones around it, jogged her memory. It looked incredibly displeased as Nef knocked the spear aside, then lashed out at the creature, which vanished as quickly as it had appeared.

  “Well, that is annoying. It looked like a shadow fey, but there was something wrong with it,” Nef said, frowning as she gently swung her sword through the spot the creature had occupied. “Is it undead?”

  “It is,” Jasmine said, her gaze meeting Naomi’s as she added, dread rippling through her, “Ghostlich.”

  Naomi’s eyes went wide as she cringed, hesitating before she murmured, “Oh dear. That… that’s not good.”

  “If it was good… I wouldn’t be lying on the ground,” Xandra interjected, her breathing still labored, but not as bad as it had been. “I’m not bleeding anymore, so explain, damn it.”

  Jasmine jerked back a little, glancing toward the slowly approaching skeletons as she hesitated, then asked, “What about the poison?”

  “I see two of you. I’ll be fine, now that I’m not losing blood. I’ve had worse,” Xandra said, rolling over slowly, and thumped against the archway heavily. “What is a ghostlich? I’ve heard of each of them before, but not both in one word.”

  “It’s a combination of a lich and a ghost. Not as bad as a lich, admittedly, since it is bound to a location, but it hides the bone that forms its core in an adjacent plane,” Naomi said, quickly standing up and glancing at the skeletons nervously as they approached. “It also can travel back and forth between worlds, which is how it keeps disappearing.”

  “As long as the core is intact, it’ll also regenerate endlessly. Unlike a ghost, it doesn’t take time to reform, and unlike a lich, its bone is always part of it… just not in our plane of existence.” Jasmine continued the explanation, her thoughts racing as she dredged up what she knew about ghostliches. “At least they aren’t all spellcasters.”

  “While I do adore learning new things, under these circumstances—” Nef paused in mid-sentence, striking like lightning and nearly removing the head of the ghostlich when it began manifesting behind her, then continued in her customary cheerful tone as it vanished, “—the most relevant information we need are its weaknesses. Do the two of you know, or shall we run the gauntlet once more?”

  “For once I agree with the overly friendly psychopath,” Xandra said dryly, paused, then added, “Though if you need help with the skeletons just point me in their direction. Even if I’m not as precise as normal, I’m sure I can thin their numbers.”

  “Not a psychopath. The library checked,” Nef contradicted pleasantly, and a faint headache began to form between Jasmine’s temples.

  “Would you two just… stop for a moment?” Jasmine asked, paused, then looked at Naomi helplessly, frustration getting to her at last. “Do you remember? I seem to recall there was a way to make them vulnerable.”

  “Um, wasn’t it the dimensional locking spell?” Naomi suggested, frowning. “I think it forced the core into our plane, and kept them from disappearing? Or something like that.”

  Relief washed through Jasmine as Naomi’s suggestion jarred her memories loose. She turned toward the skeletons, speaking quickly.

  “That’s right! We’d have to do it as soon as it came into this plane, to keep from banishing it instead, but then we could destroy it! If we can destroy the core, anyway, since they’re supposed to be really—”

  At that moment Xandra murmured the words of a spell, rolling over so she could see around the archway, and flicked her fingers gently, launching a multi-pronged blast of lightning that lit up the entire cavern for an instant.

  “…tough,” Jasmine finished, watching dozens of skeletons collapse at the same time.

  “Hm. In that case, trap her, and I’ll deal with the irritating bitch,” Xandra replied, and smirked in a way that sent a chill down Jasmine’s spine. “I have just the spell for her.”

  “Are you sure? I thought you weren’t feeling well,” Naomi asked worriedly.

  “I’ve lost blood before, and poison isn’t anything new,” Xandra replied simply, and grimaced as she admitted, “It isn’t doing anything good, but I’ve been through worse… Besides, unless Nef is certain she can destroy the creature, what choice is there? Can you do it?”

  “Um, no, I don’t think so,” Naomi said, her cheeks flushing as she looked at Jasmine. “Can you cast the spell on your own? I doubt I can. I spent too much mana.”

  Nef lunged as the shadow fey appeared again, this time just around the corner, and it recoiled, throwing several bone shards at the elf before vanishing. Nef instantly shifted to defense as she blocked them, then slashed through the air where it’d been standing a moment before.

  “Whichever you choose, please decide with alacrity. There are more skeletons coming, and I haven’t heard the fair folk since their initial howls,” Nef interjected pleasantly. “I suspect I could deal with this ghostlich in Xandra’s place, but my attacks tend to be more… precise. Without knowing which bone is vital, I can’t guarantee that I can strike it.”

  “R-right. And no, I can’t cast it myself with the mana I have left. Naomi, if you would?” Jasmine asked, looking at the other priestess, who pressed her lips together and nodded nervously. Both of them had expended too much mana to cast such a potent spell on their own.

  “Good enough,” Xandra muttered, shifting herself upright, and Jasmine felt a subtle… shift in the mana around her as Xandra did so. It briefly distracted her, but she couldn’t afford that. They were in danger, and she needed to do her part to deal with the problem. Xandra and Nef were in danger because of her.

  Jasmine offered her hands to Naomi, and she spoke softly. “Sister of the faith, do you trust me?”

  “With my life and soul,” Naomi replied, taking her hands, and as she did, Jasmine felt the other woman… open to her.

  This was the reason that the ranking priests and priestesses were celibate, or at least avoided most forms of intercourse. To safely share their mana and work together properly required particularly pure mana, without the fragments of foreign mana a lover might add, which could have devastating consequences for others. The thought made Jasmine briefly wonder if the purity of Xandra’s mana might allow her to participate in this sort of ritual safely, but she firmly suppressed the thought, focusing on what she was doing.

  Mana flowed out of her right hand into Naomi, and back into her through her left hand, forming a circle. It wasn’t smooth at first, rushing and burbling as the mana clashed, but slowly, ever so slowly, it smoothed itself into a steady stream as their mana le
vels equalized. Even their breathing synchronized, as Jasmine felt Naomi’s mind against her own. They didn’t share thoughts, just emotions… but through it she could feel the other woman’s nervousness and worry. Worry which eased as she felt Jasmine’s own, and she met Naomi’s gaze with a gentle smile, one that Naomi returned.

  “Hm,” Xandra murmured, watching them with a gaze that looked like it could pierce right through them, but unlike Jasmine expected, the mage didn’t criticize them. On their other side, Nef had her sword out and ran a finger along the length of the blade, which began to glow with a soft silver light.

  “Lady of Flames, our beloved Goddess, hear our call,” Jasmine and Naomi chorused, speaking as one while their mana began to spiral faster and more urgently. Jasmine kept it carefully under control, as she didn’t want to overwhelm Naomi, whose tolerance was lower. More participants would have allowed her to share the strain between all of them, but she didn’t have more priestesses. Naomi’s cheeks were flushed, and they both paused before continuing, “Let Your flame seal off the barrier between worlds, that we may smite our foes!”

  The spell tried to erupt instantly, as a vortex of fire took form between them, swirling violently between their arms at the same speed as the mana moved through Jasmine and Naomi, but they gritted their teeth and held it back, waiting for the right moment as the strain grew greater and greater. Several seconds passed… then Jasmine heard one of the faint howls again, and released the magic as relief washed over her.