Then he was upside down and the creature was shaking him. He let his magical energy blast up the bone-like claw; the blue, electrical energy snapped and popped its way onto the strangely insectile arm. The creature shrieked and released him. He managed to turn in midair and land on his back. It was painful, but Zollin didn’t have time to recover. The creature swung its good claw and batted Zollin off the bridge. He had to fight back his panic as he fell into the darkness before he could think clearly enough to levitate himself back up. He didn’t know how well the creature could see in the darkness, so he hovered and let his light fade to nothing. Zollin couldn’t see, but he let his magical senses flow out and as he rose toward the bridge, he swung underneath it so that he came up on the opposite side from which he fell.
He could sense the creature looking over the edge of the bridge, searching for him in the darkness. Zollin thought that perhaps he could sneak past the creature. He moved himself forward slowly, still levitating in case his feet made a sound on the stone bridge. He was just moving past the creature, holding his breath as he floated between the thick coils and the ancient stone archway.
In a flash the creature turned and its good claw snagged Zollin’s foot. It quickly pulled him down, the fat coils snaking around him before he could act. The coils tightened and even with his magical barrier protecting him, Zollin knew he couldn’t hold back the powerful coils for long.
He let his magic blaze out of him again, but this time the creature hissed in anger and only squeezed harder. It was like a child squeezing a bug, Zollin thought. When the bug bites the child cries, from shock and pain, but then that pain and fear is replaced by anger. Zollin next tried to burn the creature with fire, but the thick, rough skin seemed impervious. He was totally enclosed in the coils now and panic was making it hard for the young wizard to breathe.
He closed his eyes and focused on what he could feel with his magical senses. The inside of the creature’s body was simple, there were no organs, no weakness for Zollin to exploit. He tried another tactic, using his magic he pushed against the stone tower. He couldn’t tell if the tower was made of stones or carved from the rock of the underworld, but he pushed hard, feeding his magical strength into the effort. The creature scooted across the bridge toward the edge. Zollin could feel the creature’s pincers scraping along the stone bridge, looking for something to hold on to. It was a tense moment, almost like a tug of war with both sides struggling for supremacy. Then, once the creature felt the edge of the bridge beneath one thick coil, it released Zollin, unwrapping from his body in one quick fluid movement to reestablish itself on the bridge.
Zollin fell on the hard bridge, one leg hanging off. The creature quickly filled the entryway into the tower and sat waiting, realizing its best strategy was to make Zollin come straight at it.
Zollin got quickly to his feet and let his light shine out. He wanted to see the creature, to anticipate its next move. But the creature didn’t venture forth, it stayed in the shadows of the entryway. Zollin looked around, but he couldn’t find anything he might use as a weapon to drive it away.
“You have no hope,” hissed the creature.
Zollin ignored it and peered over the edge of the bridge, hoping there might be another way into the tower further down. If there were, he thought, he might be able to jump off the bridge and levitate down to the opening and slip inside. Unfortunately there were no windows or openings that he could see. He was considering just levitating down to the bottom of the tower, but there was no guarantee that he could get inside from there, in fact, he didn’t even know if there was a bottom. For all he knew, the tower rose up out of molten rock and going down would wind up killing him.
“I will never let you pass,” the creature hissed again.
“I will pass,” Zollin said. “I will pass and I will find the witch and I will kill her.”
“Never!”
Zollin blasted the creature with blue, magical energy. The worm sizzled and smoked, but the beastly head hid behind the thick, serpentine body, which seemed much less susceptible to his magic. After a few moments he realized he would only exhaust himself pouring his power into the beast. He stepped back and considered his options again. He thought about levitating down and using his magic to separate the tiny, quivering bits of matter that made up the stone tower until he formed a hole big enough to climb through, but again he knew that it would take too much energy and he had no idea what was inside the tower. It could be open, like a cavern, or it could be walls dozens of feet thick. Then an idea struck him.
He used his magic to shave off a portion of the stone bridge. He had a long, thin section of stone and he used his magic to narrow the edge until it was as sharp as a sword. He sent the stone blade hurtling toward the worm. Its coils were thick and dense, but the stone shard sliced through the tough muscle. To Zollin it felt like his magic was pushing a spoon though leather, but the shard kept moving, passing through one thick coil and then another. Finally it reached the center of the monster. The shard punctured the hard body segment. Zollin thrust it in hard as the creature flipped and rolled trying to escape.
He waited and watched as the creature writhed in the shadows. He poked the shard in further, turning it and sawing with the stone splinter. Almost half of the rock shard was sticking out of the creature’s chest when it swatted at the stone blade and snapped it in half. Zollin quickly thrust what was left into the creature’s body, so that it could not clamp onto it and pull it out.
Then he levitated the broken half of the blade. He raised it up, happy that levitating the stone shard was so much simpler than lifting his own body. He had to pull the broken shard back to keep the creature from grabbing it out of the air. Then he slammed it down into the creature’s neck. The beastly head convulsed and the shrieks were loud enough to make the stone bridge vibrate under Zollin’s feet.
He moved closer as the creature’s writhing seemed to weaken. He watched carefully, keeping his shields up in case it was a trick, but the huge worm with crab pincers finally shuddered and lay still. The entire entryway flooded with a black, stinking ooze, almost as thick as tar, which was the creature’s blood. Zollin breathed a sigh of relief, but he had no idea how he was going to get past the huge, stinking corpse.
After examining the situation, both with his eyes and his magical senses, he realized that his best option was to move the creature. He took a deep breath and let his magic flow into the creature. Moving it was difficult, but he managed it. He pulled it out of the entryway and then scooted it to the edge of the bridge. At the end, all it took was a little push and the creature rolled off the side of the bridge, its thick coils flopping and then disappearing into the darkness below.
Zollin waited, listening to hear the impact of the body, but he heard nothing. After a few minutes he pulled his water skin from his pack. There was no more food, so he stood there, drinking the lukewarm water and wishing he had a bottle of wine. He remembered how at first wine had seemed so astringent. He had been used to cider and liked the sweetness of it, but eventually wine had filled him with warmth and energy like nothing else. And the taste had grown on him. He could taste the fruits over the sharp tang of the fermentation.
He chided himself for wasting time daydreaming. His father had scolded him for just such idleness over the years. They would be working on one of the many carpentry projects his father took on and Zollin, saddled with a repetitive, boring task would eventually fall into one of his many daydreams, forgetting the task at hand while he stared off into space.
“Keep moving,” he told himself, speaking out loud just to reassure himself in the darkness. “You can’t let everyone down.”
He walked slowly over the thick, black blood. Once he was inside the archway he could sense the evil inside. The tower was like a beacon of some dark energy. He could feel the magic all around him, it was like being in a river and trying to move against the current. He felt his own magic, pulling deep inside him. In almost every case of magic he had enco
untered in his life, his magic always churned inside him trying to connect with that magic. Now, his magic was quiet and still, buried deep in his inner reservoir. He felt fine physically, but his magical senses recoiled from the tower. Terror took root in him and he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was going into a place he didn’t want to be. Still, he couldn’t turn back now.
A short way into the tower he came to a wide, winding stair case and started down the smooth stone steps. He moved slowly, his guard up, trying to ignore the feelings of panic and fear that coursed through him. The darkness tried to push in against his light. He kindled a small flame and held it just above his palm. He focused first on the warmth of the little flame. It felt good in the unnatural cold of the tower. Then he watched the orange glow of the little fire, the way it danced on the walls of the stairway and filled him with comfort.
He thought of Brianna. It was impossible to see fire and not think of her now. She had been here, he realized; perhaps not in the tower, but she had dived deep into the earth, her fire so hot it turned the ground into molten rock and she swam down further and further, pulling the giant they had fought with her. Then she had come out into the open caverns of the underworld and had seen Gwendolyn building her army. Zollin remembered how shaken and afraid she had been after that. He understood now why the scene had affected her so deeply; it wasn’t just what she saw, but the darkness of the underworld had a power all its own. And it threatened to sweep Zollin away in a tidal wave of fear.
He let the comfort of the little flame give him courage as he climbed down the staircase. He thought of his father and how they had watched a candle burning when Zollin was just a child. Those were the sweet times in his memory, when his father had been reflective staring into the light of the small flame. Usually it was on cold winter nights when the snow fell deep and their cottage was snug and warm, when his father had enjoyed his ale a little too much, that he became reflective. He would talk of Zollin’s mother, the way she moved, her smile. He had forgotten much about the way his mother looked, but he remembered her bright smile and the way his heart ached at the memory of it.
Zollin thought of those stories his father told him as he climbed down the stairs of the tower. The darkness tried to snuff out the flame, but Zollin protected it. He did his best to remain vigilant as he descended and not merely lose himself gazing into the flame. It was difficult, but he pulled his mind back again and again, doing his best to remember his task.
Then, even before he saw the movement in the darkness just beyond his small ring of light, he felt the presence of yet another creature. This one was smaller, but the intent it harbored was just as heinous. Zollin took a deep breath and then plunged on, into the dark.
Chapter 22
The cavalry’s second attack was much like the first. They killed many of the enemy soldiers, but slowed their advance only by an hour. Brianna guessed that the cavalry would exhaust themselves and their horses for little more than half a day’s reprieve from the constant onslaught of the witch’s army.
“Take me down,” Brianna said to Selix once they had escaped the Leffers and the cavalry were in retreat once more.
Selix flew low over the hills, and slowly an idea began to form in Brianna’s mind. She slipped off the golden dragon just as it passed over the cluster of officers that were riding with Commander Erns. She flipped in the air and landed a short distance in front of the group.
“Lady Brianna,” Erns said. All the officers had seen Brianna with the pride of dragons and they all respected her.
“I have an idea,” she told them.
The next staging point for the cavalry was over an hour’s ride north. Brianna took the dragons and flew on ahead of the mounted soldiers. The landscape as they approached the Walheta mountains changed from vast, grassy plains, to gently rolling hills, and then finally to long slopping hills that would force the marching troops to either go around or struggle over. Brianna knew that a regular army would stretch out in a long line and follow the well worn trails between the larger hills. But the mindless army seemed to crawl over every obstacle in their path, including the dead bodies of their comrades.
She sent mental images of the dragons blasting the hills with fire. Her plan was to make the hills too difficult to climb. The dragons could each take a hill and lay down a wall of fire that would force the army to go through the valleys where the cavalry would be able to fight them to a standstill. It wasn’t a perfect plan, and it would’t lead to victory, but it might buy them some time.
Brianna picked the largest hills and assigned the dragons to each one. Of course they couldn’t cover the breadth of the land from the ocean to the Great Sea of Kings, but they could force the enemy army to stop its advance and deal with them. The biggest threat was the possibility that the army would flank the cavalry and surround them. They had to have a clear lane of escape. The dragons could take to the air, but the mounted soldiers needed to be able to retreat before they were trapped.
Brianna found a wide valley that ran north and south for several miles and she decided to use that passage for the cavalry’s escape route. Once the light horsemen arrived she met with Commander Erns and explained her plan fully. He and his officers went to work assigning their soldiers to the different areas and making sure they all understood the escape route and the signals the dragons would give them. Tig was assigned the duty of scouting the enemy on either flank. Arial maneuvres would be used to signal the cavalry.
Brianna watched as the soldiers hurried to their positions. The enemy were only half an hour behind them. It took all that time to get the soldiers into place. The dragons on their hilltops lay down flat, with only their long necks and heads on the crest of the hills to watch the enemy approaching.
At first everything went according to plan. The Leffers were still at the front of the army, and they were the first through the passes between the hills. The cavalry hit the wicked beasts hard. The Leffers were roughly the same size as a horse and rider, but their tails made them seem much larger. The calvary used their long lances to keep the Leffers at bay. There were mounted warriors with lances who rode into the wedges of land between the hills. Other mounted soldiers took positions on the sounding hillsides and used their bows to bring down the Leffers.
The bodies of the Leffers piled up and forced the mutated soldiers behind them to slow down as they sought to find a way over the corpses, many of which were still in their death throes, their large scorpion tails flailing dangerously. The dragons on the hilltops waited until the enemy were close, then rose up and enveloped the Leffers and mutated soldiers in waves of fire. The death toll was enormous, and the enemy soldiers began trying to go around the hill tops. It was chaos on every side, with many of the mindless soldiers pushing into each other and crowding into small gaps that became killing fields for the cavalry.
Brianna flew with Gyia to the hills that weren’t occupied by other dragons. She could pour her intense fire down on the hill from just above, turning it into a molten waste that was impassable. Several of the smaller dragons fought the Leffers that rose up into the air. The battle was fierce, with smoke and flames on every side. Bodies piled up, which slowed the enemy further. Only moments after the fight had begun in earnest, Tig came speeding through, flying in exaggerated loops that signalled the cavalry’s retreat.
Brianna saw, in the mental images Tig sent her, the left flank was closing fast. She guided Gyia to that side of the wide valley and they saw the Leffers leaving their positions at the front lines of the ambling, mutated soldiers to close in on the cavalry.
The horsemen wheeled away, and raced through the valleys toward her. Many had clear lines of escape, but others were still battling. Brianna sent Tig to check their other flank. The dragons would have to leave their positions on the hilltops to cover the cavalry. She began to call the dragons in. Then a huge group of Leffers flew up out of a valley in front of her. Gyia wasn’t as strong as Selix and flew much slower, but Brianna was able to keep the
Leffers from getting close enough to harm them. Tig darted in, billowing fire and flying right through the middle of the horde of Leffers so fast that none came close to striking him with their long tails. The bodies of the Leffers crashed to the ground and Brianna realized they couldn’t allow themselves to be pushed over the fleeing mounted soldiers. The other dragons flew in and engaged the Leffers, but more came. The escape this time would be much closer. The sun began to set and the cavalry would have to travel through the night to remain in front the enemy army.
Brianna cursed as she realized they hadn’t bought much more time for the king’s army to make their preparations. She could only hope they would be ready. Then her world was filled with Leffers. For the first time she detected a difference in their tactics. Before, the flying monstrosities only rose up to fight while she and the pride of dragons threatened the evil army. Now they seemed to be coming at her in greater numbers. Once the horde of Leffers from the right flank arrived, the air above the escaping calvary became a fiery battlefield.
Brianna slid off Gyia’s back, flipping dangerously close to one of the Leffers before landing safely on Selix’s back. Tig flew like a demon, darting in and around the horde of Leffers, belching flames and even using his talons to rip open any exposed flesh. The other dragons were moving together, almost like a flock of birds, holding the monsters at bay with waves of fire that engulfed some of them and ruined the wings of others. A few Leffers fell into the valley, their heavy bodies causing the fleeing horsemen to react quickly or be crushed. Brianna feared the cavalry was loosing more soldiers now than in their raids against the enemy.
Five Kingdoms: Book 07 - Wizard Falling Page 16