The Lost Tower

by Eric Martinez

  But if the beastmen had been around since the First Mage’s time, she couldn’t understand why no one had ever heard of their existence. They weren’t extinct. She had seen one. So how could it be that none of the books in the Spire’s library mentioned them?

  She asked the Heretic. So far, he had been a useful source of information, despite his rotten personality. Have you ever seen anything like that goatman over there?

  No, although a woman once accused me of being half human and half horse because of the size of my—

  Don’t you dare finish that statement.

  Dick, he finished.

  I hate you.

  Fine. Now if you’re done gawking at shrubbery, might I suggest we keep moving?

  Sure, if you’ll tell me where to go.

  Beyond the topiary wall are some rose bushes. Find the well in their center.

  The Heretic sounded particularly excited about this well, although she wasn’t sure why. She imagined she would find out soon enough.

  “Come on, guys,” she called, pointing toward where the path led through an opening in the bushes ahead of them. “We’re going that way.”

  When she walked through the opening, she saw an endless field of blood-red roses. Her eyes widened and her mouth fell open. The field stretched for hundreds of yards into the distance, and the sheer magnitude of it stunned her like a kick to the chest.

  “Holy shit,” Echo said from beside her. “It’s beautiful.”

  “I’ve never seen anything like it,” Francisco said, his voice choked with emotion.

  “Ehh,” Magnus said, clearly unimpressed.

  Sephi sighed and shook her head. “You’re truly a romantic at heart. We’re looking for a well at the center of the field. Let’s get moving.”

  As they followed the path through the flowers, Sephi addressed the Heretic. Rose bushes, huh?

  He laughed. I wanted it to be a surprise.

  Great, and what happens when we get to the center?

  I want that to be a surprise too. He giggled excitedly like a little kid with a secret.

  Sephi wasn’t sure how to feel about that, but she had no choice but to keep heading forward. The Heretic didn’t seem eager to harm her. Not yet, anyway. So, she doubted she had anything to fear about their destination.

  After walking for what felt like forever, the path opened up into a gravelly clearing with a stone well in the middle of it.

  Well, well, well. The Heretic burst into a gale of laughter.

  Goddammit, is that why you were so excited? To tell that shitty joke?

  He laughed even louder, confirming her suspicions.

  Ugh, have you been waiting a thousand years to use that joke?

  He laughed madly. Almost.

  You’re hilarious. Can we fucking get on with it?

  Apparently, with no lips, lungs, or vocal cords, the Heretic was able to howl with laughter and speak at the same time. The effect disconcerted Sephi, but she couldn’t block out his giggle fit without blocking out his voice too.

  Go to the western edge of this clearing and find the single black rose. Prick your finger on its thorn, and the way to the tower will open.

  That’s how we find the entrance? That doesn’t seem like an efficient way to get inside.

  Power demands a sacrifice, even if it’s just a token offering.

  Sure, I get the symbolism, but just from a practical standpoint, it seems like a pain in the ass. Did Zekariah have to do this every time he went to the tower?

  Who knows how Zekariah got around? I imagine this was how his twelve disciples got inside. It’s probably also how the servants were brought to the tower, the ones who never came back out.

  She shook her head at the thought of so much death and darkness hidden behind the gorgeous veil of this garden. At least the servants who walked through here got to see something beautiful before they died, or whatever cruel fate had waited for them.

  As promised, on the western rim of the clearing, a lone black rose thrust up from the ground unnaturally. Its stem bristled with thorns. Sephi took a deep breath and pressed her fingertip to one of them. The thorn bit deep, and she gasped at the dull throbbing pain it awoke in her finger. A fat drop of blood welled up and then plummeted to the soil, which seemed to drink it up greedily. Immediately, the water in the stone well bubbled and turned to steam, disappearing into the air in a fine mist and revealing a set of stone stairs spiraling down into darkness.

  I take it we’re supposed to go down there.

  Might as well.

  She groaned. I swear to hell, one more fucking well joke, and I’ll leave you up here.

  Very well.

  Sephi grabbed the hilt of her dagger and started to unsheathe it. That stopped his laughter cold and seemed to sharpen his sanity. Fine. Fine. Yes, descend the steps, traverse the passage, and we’ll be at the lost tower.

  Sephi gazed down at the steps that would take them to the final leg of their journey. Then she glanced around at her three friends, suddenly wishing she’d brought an army with her like Magnus had suggested.

  “All right, folks, this is it,” she said. “Is everyone ready?”

  They all nodded, grim determination on their faces.

  She nodded back. “Then let’s go.”

  Chapter 17

  The staircase spiraled down into the heart of the mountains, finally ending in a massive cavern. Its dark depths were lit by clumps of bioluminescent mushrooms the size of haystacks, which glowed bright blue.

  Gorgeous mushrooms. I wonder what kind of effects they have on the human body.

  I’m not going to eat one, if that’s what you’re hinting at.

  I wouldn’t dream of it. Have the Green do it. She seems fairly useless. Or at least, easy to carry. Then again, the necromancer can always have her body walk out of here if need be. I should very much like to see that.

  Sephi shut his voice out. These caverns were spooky enough without him whispering madness into her ears, and she didn’t think she would need any information from him until they got to the tower.

  Sephi glanced at Echo, who stood beside her. “Don’t worry. I don’t think you’re useless.”

  Echo cocked her head in confusion. “What? Who said I was?” She looked down at the Heretic Blade on Sephi’s hip. “Did that son of a bitch say I was useless?”

  Sephi shrugged.

  Echo squatted down so she was face to face with the blade. “Listen here, you buru fucker. I’ll melt your ass into slag and make you into a bed pan so the whole world can shit in your mouth.”

  “Whoa.” Sephi put her hand on her friend’s shoulder. “Please stop yelling at my dagger. We don’t know what’s in these caverns, but it’s probably best if we stay quiet.”

  Echo scowled but stood up. “What’s he saying back?”

  “I don’t know. I’m blocking him out right now. We all need to focus, and he’s too distracting.” She planted her hands on her hips and looked around the cavern.

  Stalagmites and stalactites jutted from the ceiling and ground like a giant beast’s teeth, ready to grind them up before swallowing them. A twisting path led away from the staircase, for which Sephi was grateful. Getting lost in a place like this would be all too easy, and she had no interest in this cavern becoming her tomb.

  Echo looked at Sephi and tipped her head curiously. “What’s it like having that voice in your head?”

  Sephi let out a long breath. “Most of the time, he’s batshit crazy. The rest of the time, he talks about escaping his imprisonment and killing me. Not exactly the best choice for a traveling companion.”

  Echo nodded. “Sure, but I mean, how are you doing with it? Like, are you all right?”

  “I guess,” Sephi said, keeping her voice quiet so the others couldn’t hear. “It’s not easy. Cris called him the Black Soul, and that’s about right. He’s just this malevolent voice inside me, infecting my blood and clouding my mind. I’m supposed to be binding him, but it’s starting to feel like
he’s a part of me.”

  Echo squeezed her friend’s shoulder. “We’re almost done with all this bullshit. As soon as we are, we’ll find a way to get rid of him. I promise.”

  “Have I thanked you yet for coming with me on this fool’s errand?” Sephi asked.

  Echo raised an eyebrow. “Not yet.”

  “I don’t know how I would have gotten through this without you here,” Sephi said, looking down at her friend.

  Echo laughed. “You’d probably be dead by now.”

  “Probably,” Sephi said, smiling in the darkness. “How are you holding up?”

  She shrugged. “My soul isn’t bound to a thousand-year-old warlock, none of my weapons are cursed, and the Occutlum isn’t targeting me specifically for some nefarious reason. So all in all, I’m doing better than you.”

  Sephi laughed at that. “Fair enough, but that’s not saying much. My life is one clusterfuck after another. If it wasn’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have any luck at all.” She shook her head and met Echo’s gaze. “But seriously, I’ve been so wrapped up in my own pity party, I haven’t stopped to see if you’re all right.”

  The humor faded from Echo’s expression. “This isn’t exactly how I prefer to spend my week, trudging across half of Esper, hunting down legends, and fighting dark mages. Still, I’ve got plenty of fight left in me.”

  “Good,” Sephi said. “On that note, we should probably get moving.”

  Magnus walked up to them and placed a finger to his lips. “Keep your voices down. I hear footsteps on the stairs behind us.”

  Sephi’s snapped her mouth shut, and she strained her ears to hear what Magnus was talking about. The sound was soft but steady, amplified by the acoustics of the stone stairwell. If the noise was indeed footsteps, it didn’t sound like the pounding of boots or the slapping of bare feet. It was more like the tap of a rock striking stone, only deeper.

  Whoever or whatever was behind them, Sephi was pretty sure the newcomer was alone, which offered a tiny bit of relief. But only a little. Anything that followed them down from the Devil’s Garden couldn’t have good intentions.

  “We should run,” Echo whispered.

  Magnus shook his head. “We should fight.”

  “No,” Sephi said. “We should hide.”

  She silently grabbed Francisco, who had been studying a cluster of glowing blue mushrooms and sketching its likeness in a worn leather notebook. He looked up at her like he’d forgotten she was there.

  “Fascinating specimens,” he said. “Almost certainly crafted by magic, possibly for their illuminating qualities.”

  Sephi held her hand up. “Hush.”

  She led him back to their friends, and when they were all together, she quickly explained her plan. “I’m going to make us all invisible. I can keep all of us hidden for a few minutes. You’ll all be a bit shimmery because the illusion will be stretched thin, and if you move, the shimmer will be way more noticeable. But it should be fine if you hide behind some of the bigger stalagmites. Then we’ll wait for our new friend to walk past us, and we’ll capture them.”

  Magnus opened his mouth to speak, but she raised a hand to forestall him.

  “Or if it’s a horrible monster, we’ll kill it,” she said. “We good?”

  He nodded, seemingly satisfied.

  “All right,” she said. She weaved the spell with her hands and spoke the words. As one, her friends disappeared in front of her. Their shapes rippled in the air like clear water, but if they stayed still and mostly out of sight, they would easily avoid detection. “Go find a hiding spot, and follow my lead.”

  They scattered to either side of the path and hid. Sephi stayed by a clump of mushrooms. Her own invisibility was much more seamless with her surroundings as long as she remained motionless, so she didn’t need to hide behind anything.

  She forced her breathing to even out and hoped that the pounding of her heart wasn’t loud enough to give her away.

  The sound of footsteps grew louder, and when their follower emerged at the foot of the stairs, her eyes widened at the sight of the horned goatman she had seen in Duskwood. He took a few steps down the path, coming to a stop just feet from Sephi.

  She leaned in closer to get a better look at him. His face looked mostly human, aside from the golden eyes with horizontal slits for pupils. He was clearly a man, with a masculine face and a thin line of a beard meeting at his chin to jut out in a point.

  His hair was dark and coarse, and two curving horns thrust out of the curls near his temples. His long green tunic was belted at the waist, but he wore nothing else. Not that he needed to. From his waist, down to his cloven hooves, his legs were covered in thick fur like an animal.

  Sephi stepped forward, her curiosity getting the better of her, and the beastman looked directly at her, meeting her gaze.

  “You know, I can see you, right?” the goatman asked.

  Sephi stumbled back in surprise, landing hard on her ass in the cavern soil. She stifled a yelp, not yet sure if the goatman was bluffing.

  He rolled his eyes. “No need to play coy. You just fell on your butt, and you’re pressing your lips together like you’re trying not to vomit. I see you.”

  “How many fingers am I holding up?” she asked, raising a finger.

  He smiled. “Just the one.”

  “Which—”

  “The middle one,” he said quickly.

  She got to her feet, still keeping her illusion active. “How is that possible?”

  He shrugged. “Your magic doesn’t work on me. Look, I’m not here to hurt you. I’m a friend.”

  “Who are you?” she asked.

  He bent at the waist with a flourish of his hand. “I am Moros the Nyx.”

  “That’s not what I meant,” she said. “I mean what do you want? Why have you been following us? That was you in Duskwood, wasn’t it?”

  He spread his hands innocently. “Yes, I never meant for you to see me. I got too close. As to why I’m following you, it’s simple. I’m the one who hired you to retrieve the Zekarian Whispers.” He paused. “Well, technically, I hired Bobby Candles, and he recruited you, but you get the idea.”

  A million thoughts and questions raced through her head. One of the dumber ones fell from her lips. “You and Bobby are friends?”

  Moros shook his head. “No, we only met twice, once when I hired him and once after you accepted the job. And before you ask why he didn’t tell you about me, I never let him see these.” His furry legs broke into a jaunty little jig, his hooves clacking against the stone floor. “Or these.” He thunked a finger against one of his horns.

  She decided not to tell him she had lied to Bobby. She had no intention of giving him the Whispers, even before she met Moros. “Then why the hell have you been following us?”

  “I wanted to make sure your journey went smoothly,” he said. “You may not realize it, but I took care of a few Occultum search parties along the way. No need to thank me.”

  Sephi let her invisibility spell drop and crossed her arms over her chest. “Good. I wasn’t planning on it. How do I know you’re telling the truth? For all I know, an animal like you is working with the Occultum.”

  He pressed his palm flat against his chest. “That hurts. I’m not an animal.”

  She shrugged. “Well, you’re not a human being.”

  “I told you. I’m a Nyx.”

  Sephi narrowed her eyes and cocked her head to the side. “I’m sorry, did you say a mix?”

  “No, a Nyx. Although mix isn’t too far off, considering my people are hybrids of humans and beasts.”

  She grimaced. “How does that work? Like is your mom a goat? And your dad a man?”

  Moros’s nose wrinkled in disgust. “Eww, no. My parents were like me, as were their parents before them. Look, I’ll happily tell you all about it on the way to the tower, but we need to get moving.” He raised his voice. “So no more hiding please.”

  The others emerged from concealment. Echo�
��s footsteps dragged like she didn’t want to get too close to the Nyx. Magnus’s posture was rigid, and his hand gripped the hilt of his sword, ready to draw it out at the first sign of trouble. Francisco had his notebook out, and he sketched the beastman in its pages.

  Moros nodded at each of them. “Listen, I know you have no reason to trust me, which is why I’ve allowed this introduction to drag out a little. However, time is a bit of a factor right now.”

  “Why?” Sephi asked.

  “Because the Occultum is right on your tail,” he said. “I had no choice but to reveal my presence to warn you before they caught you by surprise.”

  Sephi snorted. “They won’t be able to get into the palace.” She paused. “Wait. How did you get into the palace?”

  Moros shook his head. “You idiots left the door open.”

  Sephi thought back to their entry into the garden. “Shit, you’re right. Well, why didn’t you close it?”

  “I tried,” he said. “I think it requires magic to reseal it, and I can’t use magic.”

  “Son of a bitch,” Sephi said, glancing at Echo. “We need to run back up there and close it somehow.”

  “It’s too late,” Moros said. “They’re already inside.”

  A sinking feeling gripped Sephi’s chest. “So we’re fucked.”

  Moros stepped toward her. “Not necessarily. It will take them some time to find the entrance to these caverns. If we hurry, we can get to the tower, grab the Whispers, and slip out before they find us.”

  “So we’re just supposed to trust you and bring you with us?” Echo asked. “I don’t like it, Sephi.”

  Moros straightened up to his full height, which made him about as tall as Magnus. “I don’t want to fight you, but I will if I have to.”

  Magnus took a menacing step toward the Nyx. “If that’s a threat, I’ll cut off your horns and feed them to you.”

  Moros raised his palms up in front of him. “It’s not a threat. Just understand that I’m not defenseless. But look, I’m here as a friend. Tell me how to prove that I’m trustworthy, and I’ll do it.”

  The others looked to Sephi, waiting for her to decide. She chewed her lip as she tried to think of how to proceed. She didn’t trust Moros at all, but she did believe him that the Occultum was here. The dark mages had been on their ass ever since leaving Duskwood. She had no reason to believe that unfortunate trend would stop now.