Darkmask (Pharim War Book 5)

by Gama Ray Martinez

  They were in a narrow cavern with jagged edges. It was six feet wide at the base though thinned as it went up, the walls meeting to form a ceiling. It stretched nearly ten feet and had just enough room to fit everyone.

  Rogiff, an adjutant of protection, had his hands raised and was breathing heavily. A sheen of sweat covered the face of the heavy set man. Jez could sense the power inside of him as he directed it into the earth. He met Jez’s eyes, and his shoulders slumped. He released his power, obviously exhausted from the effort of opening the ground beneath them.

  “Quick thinking,” Jez said.

  Rogiff smiled, though a trail of blood trickling from a wound on his forehead gave him a grim look. “I’m just glad it worked. I’ve never done anything like that. I didn’t think I’d be able to close it in time.”

  Jez laughed. “It was better than my idea.” He turned to Osmund. “Can you keep the air breathable? It’ll probably be an oven up there for at least half an hour.”

  Osmund grimaced and shook his head. “That takes a finer control than I have.”

  “I can,” Grenmar, one of the full mages, said. “For a little while, at least.”

  Lina smirked. “Remember when you and Osmund wanted to take on the army by yourselves?”

  Jez glared at her, but he could only maintain the expression for a second before smiling and shaking his head. She was right. He might be one of the strongest mages at the Academy, and Osmund was practically a force of nature, but they still had a lot to learn.

  Jez and his friends sat down next to a wall and talked idly for the next half hour. The others were obviously nervous and seemed unable to believe how Jez and his friends handled this situation with casual ease. Even the full mages were uneasy. Lina had been right about that too. They didn’t know how to deal with danger on this level.

  Finally, when Jez could sense no extraordinary heat through the stone, they opened a way up and climbed out. The nearby vegetation hadn’t just burned. It had been incinerated, not leaving so much as a pile of ash. Large swaths of stone had melted, and there was no indication that anything had ever lived on this mountainside. Where Hiranta had been, there was now only an empty crater in the blackened earth. Jez had seen landscapes in the abyss that hadn’t seemed so ravaged. He allowed himself to hope, but then he saw movement along the edges of the crater.

  “That’s not possible,” he said. “They couldn’t have survived that.”

  Osmund walked up next to him and stared. The demons seemed to be gathering on the edge of the crater. The working had obviously disrupted them, and they would take time to regroup, but too many of the creatures had survived. Osmund let out a breath and shook his head.

  “We should get going, Jez. The masters probably already know about this, but we should still get to Tarcai as quickly as we can.”

  Jez nodded, and they moved up the mountain in near complete silence. The explosion had rendered the nearby trails all but impassable, but they had enough mages proficient in terra and venta magic to bend the earth and winds to their will. The combined power of the mages made the climb much faster than it would have been, even had the trails not been ruined. In a few hours, they had caught up with the rest of the army, which couldn’t move nearly as fast. The main trail up the mountain was only wide enough for a couple of people, so the army had spread out to side trails that were much steeper and harder to traverse. Word of their arrival spread quickly, and soon Balud came to speak to them.

  “Thank the seven. I had feared you were all lost when you didn’t contact us after the working went off.”

  “We almost were,” Jez said. “The explosion was bigger than we expected.”

  Balud sighed. “We’ve never done anything on that scale. It caught us all by surprise. Even so, it didn’t do as much good as we would’ve hoped. We estimate it only took out a third of their army.”

  “Sharim?”

  Balud shook his head. “We should be so lucky. Horgar did a flyover and spotted him.”

  A chill ran down Jez’s spine. “What do we do now? We can’t fight that many.”

  Balud started to answer but then eyed the crowd that had started gathering around them. He grunted and motioned for them to follow. The chancellor led them to the other masters who were walking in a cluster near the front of the army. After a brief exchange, Master Rael waved a hand and nodded.

  “We’re private.”

  “You’re right, Jezreel. We can’t fight so many, not directly, and there is too much at the Academy that we can’t allow them to take.”

  “The library.”

  Balud nodded. “Among other things. Beast mages have already started taking the most important volumes, but there’s more there than we can carry.”

  Osmund’s eyes went wide. “You’re going to destroy the library.”

  Balud’s eyes wandered up the trail. They could just see the lip of the caldera that housed the city of Tarcai. He looked back at Osmund for a second before sighing. “Not just the library. There are dangerous artifacts hidden beneath the central spire. We can’t let those fall into Sharim’s hands. Not under any circumstances.”

  “By the seven.” Jez’s voice was barely above a whisper. He could hardly believe what he was going to say. Marrowit had nearly done the same thing, though Jez himself had prevented it. The look in the chancellor’s eyes told Jez he was right, but he voiced his thought anyway. “You’re going to lure his army into the city and destroy it. You’re going to set off Mount Carcer itself.”

  CHAPTER 14

  “There are hundreds of people in Tarcai,” Lina said. “You can’t just blow it up.”

  “Not nearly so many,” Balud said. “I sent the word to start evacuating the moment we knew where the army was heading. Horgar’s students helped tremendously, and now there’s only a fraction of the normal population.”

  “But you’re still going to kill them. You’re a healer.”

  Balud stiffened. “We will save as many as we can, adept.” He emphasized the title. “You can’t imagine the kind of destruction someone like Sharim can wreak with the power in the Academy.” He balled his fist in a gesture that looked very much unlike the Academy’s healing master. “I won’t allow it.”

  Lina clenched her jaw but didn’t relent. Jez cleared his throat and stepped forward. She glared at him. He avoided meeting her gaze and addressed the chancellor. “How are you going to set off a fire mountain?”

  “There are a number of permanent wards set into the foundations of the city itself to keep the mountain dormant. The first thing we need to do is disable them.”

  “It can’t be that easy,” Jez said.

  “No, that’s only the first step. We need to churn the magma beneath the surface until the pressure increases to the breaking point. It helps that it almost went off a few years ago. The magma is still very close to the surface.”

  “How long would that take?” Jez asked.

  Balud glanced at Besis and Fina. Besis stepped forward. “We can’t do it directly. There’s a reason people say ‘as unmovable as the mountain.’ Even if we used every mage to form full contingents, we wouldn’t have enough power to just set it off. Not by a longshot. It will take us the better part of a day to set everything in motion. After that, it will be perhaps two or three days before the mountain erupts.”

  “Three or four days total,” Jez said. “How are you going to stop Sharim from redirecting the energy of the eruption like we’ve always done?” Besis pursed his lips and exchanged glances with Balud. A chill ran down Jez’s spine. “You’re going to stay here so you can counter him.”

  Besis motioned down the mountain. The demons were already scrambling up. They were like a disease spreading across the land. Mount Carcer was a bastion against the tide of evil, but there were so many. It was only a matter of time before it fell.

  “He did this in six months.” The protection master kept his voice low so that no one farther than a few feet from him would be able to hear, even had Rael’
s working not been there. “What could he do if he had a year? What could he do with the resources of the Academy?”

  Lina suddenly didn’t seem so sure about her objections. She looked down the mountain. “We won’t be able to hold them for three days.”

  Almost on cue, a cloud of dust rose from near the bottom of the mountain, right in the middle of the invading hoard. When the cloud faded, a hole had formed in the middle of the army. It had to be at least fifty feet across. Other, similar eruptions occurred nearby. Besis let out a breath. “Hiranta was our big trap, but it wasn’t our only one. We have others scattered throughout the mountain.”

  “Will it be enough?” Jez asked.

  Besis sighed and shook his head. “Not by itself. Hiranta’s destruction didn’t do nearly enough damage. We’ll need to send people to try to hold them off.”

  “Hold off that?”

  “Even for demons, there are a limited number of paths up the mountain. The right person might be able to slow them down.”

  Jez blinked at him. “That’s a suicide mission.”

  “Are you ready to go?” Osmund asked.

  Jez blinked at him. “What?”

  He half expected to see the wide grin the other boy always wore when he made that kind of joke, but Osmund’s face was deadly serious. His weight rested on the balls of his feet, and he gripped the hilt of his undrawn sword in his right hand, almost as if he were expecting a battle.

  “Jez, you know there’s no one more capable than us in this kind of battle. We’ll use some of those broken cages if we have to. At least that way, they’ll do some good.”

  “I’ll go too,” Lina said.

  Jez shook his head. “Lina, you’re an illusionist.”

  She glared at him. “We’re not trying to fight them. We’re trying to slow them down. Illusions are perfect for that.”

  “No.” Balud narrowed his eyes at Besis and moved to stand between Jez and the protection master. “This has gone on quite long enough.”

  “Chancellor?” Jez asked.

  “I won’t allow Besis to manipulate you in this.”

  “He’s not manipulating us,” Jez said. “He’s laying out the situation.”

  “I know it seems that way to you, Jezreel, but he gave you that information knowing how you would react. You can’t send him into danger, Besis. He’s a student, no matter what he’s done.”

  For a second, Jez was struck silent at the vehemence of the objection. Then, he took a deep breath. A part of him had always known this day would come. He’d been afraid of what it would mean. The Academy was the only home he had left, and he didn’t know if he could bear it for the masters to see him as something other than human, but there was no time. Balud had to be convinced, not just for this decision, but for the countless others that would doubtlessly follow. The chancellor and the rest of the masters needed to know who and what he was.

  Jez drew on Luntayary’s power, and his robes transformed to shimmering blue. Brilliant white wings emerged from his back, and a crystal sword appeared at his side. Balud looked like he wanted to back up, but he held his ground. From beyond Rael’s field of silence, soldiers and mages stared at him.

  “No,” Jez said. “I’m not.”

  Balud sputtered but stood his ground. “I know you’re a limaph, but that doesn’t change anything.”

  “I’m not a limaph,” Jez said. “I never was.” Lina touched his sleeve, and he spared her a glance before returning his attention to Balud. “I never told you what Dusan did to me during the first sleeping sickness.”

  “Jez...” Lina said.

  “It’s past time.”

  The chancellor looked from him to Lina and back again. “Were you even born during the first sleeping sickness?”

  “No, but I was there.” He hesitated but forced himself to speak. “I was the Shadowguard set to guard over Marrowit.”

  Six of the masters looked at him with stunned silence. Disbelief painted more than one face, though Horgar nodded with understanding. As quickly as he could, Jez related the story. All the masters aside from Besis, who had learned of this years ago, looked at him with wide-eyed shock. Once he was done, they just stared at him.

  “Well, this certainly explains some things,” Linala said. “I knew you were hiding something, but I never suspected this.”

  “Besis?” Balud said.

  The protection master nodded. “You all know he has a great deal of raw power. His skill at binding surpasses most full mages, and given time, he’ll far outstrip me in all areas of protection. I was not manipulating him, Chancellor.” Besis smiled. “I was asking for his help.”

  “And them?” Balud indicated Lina and Osmund.

  Jez gave him a deadpan stare. “They went with me into the abyss.”

  That brought Balud up short. He pursed his lips but nodded. “It goes against my better judgment, but all right. I’ll show you where the passes are. Be careful.”

  Jez nodded, but Fina put a hand on Jez’s shoulder. Jez looked at the destruction master. Fina sighed.

  “Jezreel, are you sure about this?”

  “No one can do this as well as I can,” Jez said.

  Lina snorted, but Fina ignored her. “That’s not what I meant.” He looked at Jez’s friends. “Are you sure you want to take them with you? Remember what I said about losing people and being able to sleep at night.”

  Jez stared into Fina’s eyes for a long time before responding. “They’ll help keep me alive. I won’t sleep at all if I’m dead.”

  CHAPTER 15

  In his transformed state, Jez was more than strong enough to carry Lina in one arm while leaving the other free to craft his workings. The major passes had been collapsed, leaving the vast majority of the slopes of Mount Carcer steep to the point of being impassable, even for demons. Only the smaller trails remained, but there were dozens of them. Osmund took the form of Ziary, and together, he and Jez flew over the mountainside. They had too much power for Lina’s illusion to hide them completely, but she was able to make them appear to be flying demons, which allowed them to collapse pathways while being largely ignored. They weren’t in time to completely stop the demons, but they did manage to slow the vast majority of the army.

  “It’s a bit easier than assaulting a library in the middle of the abyss, isn’t it?” Lina asked as Jez threw a burst of power downward. A dozen boulders thundered down into a narrow passage, crushing a pack of dog demons.

  “We’re lucky they haven’t noticed us,” Jez said.

  “You had to say it, didn’t you?” Ziary said. He looked like a cross between a hawk and a spider. One of his hands carried his flaming sword while another was shrouded in scarlet energy. He was looking at the sky. Jez looked up to see a pair of bat-like demons streaking toward them. He glanced at Ziary. The demons were catoz, scout demons. It would be a simple matter to deal with them, but doing so would undoubtedly reveal their presence to every demon in the area. Jez had seen more than one that he’d hesitate to face in combat, and he wanted to avoid that if he could.

  Before the scouts reached them, there was an explosion off to one side. Jez and Ziary exchanged glances. “It would make sense for us to go investigate,” Osmund said. “Do you think Balud sent other teams?”

  “Who knows? It might be one of the traps. Let’s go.”

  Surprisingly, the catoz didn’t follow them, and Jez supposed they must have been on some other errand and had only been crossing their path by chance. He focused on his destination. Black smoke rose from the sight of the explosion, and once they neared, Jez could make out the pit inside a small crater, though this went far deeper than any trap Jez knew how to craft. A red glow welled from inside. The area around it was devoid of any demon activity, and Jez led Osmund to the lip of the crater. They landed on the edge and looked down. The tunnel was almost completely smooth, and it went down at least a hundred feet. What was visible of the floor seemed to be made of molten rock. Jez glanced up. The bat demons were circling.
He looked back at Ziary who shrugged.

  “We may as well.”

  “It’s hot in there,” Jez said. “It smells pretty bad, like sulfur. We may not want to breathe it. Can you do anything about that?”

  Osmund nodded. He swirled his fingers and the air around Jez stirred, forming a barely perceptible bubble around him. “That should shield us from the heat and allow us to carry about ten minutes of breathable air.”

  Jez nodded, and they glided down into the hole. It took them a few minutes to make it all the way down. Eventually, they found themselves in a wide chamber. There was nowhere to land. The floor was completely molten. Jez and Osmund exchanged glances.

  “This wasn’t done by one of us,” Jez said.

  “You think it was a demon?” Lina asked.

  “Maybe.”

  “Why would a demon do that? We’re nowhere close to the main body of troops.”

  Jez took a deep breath and stared into the magma. “I wish your air shield blocked the sulfur. I smell it, but I can’t tell if it’s natural or if it comes from demons.”

  When neither Lina nor Osmund responded, he looked up. Osmund was staring at him, and some of the color had drained from Lina’s face.

  “Jez, it does stop the smell.”

  Jez took a deep breath. Not only did he smell sulfur. The odor was strong. Before he could relate his findings, the magma beneath them churned. “Oh. We should get ready to fight, then.”

  As if waiting for those words, the magma exploded upward. Jez and Osmund reacted simultaneously. A wall of blue energy appeared in front of them, a few inches behind the red wall that Osmund had created. The molten rock splashed against Osmund’s shield. It buckled inward and cracked, but the drops of magma that broke through were rebuffed by Jez’s shield. He grunted as something heavy thunked against the barrier. It was small, no more than two feet across, but he couldn’t see any other details before it dove back into the magma. His shield weakened, its strength drained by the overwhelming pyro magic in the chamber, and Jez let it fall.