Metal Mage 4

by Eric Vall

This was our chance.

  I motioned to my crew, who were tucked against the mountainside out of range of the onslaught, and we all bolted along the mountain’s base toward the gates. We leapt over the giant plates of ice that were scattered all throughout the entrance, and we managed to get inside the fortress before the three flailing giants could see us.

  Inside, the ceiling stretched as high as the mouth of the gate, and the blank emptiness of the place felt even colder than the weather outside had. The air was dry and frigid, but nothing moved or made a sound within the vast cave.

  Aurora nudged me and pointed ahead, and my eyes followed to find another tall and slender opening at the other end of the cave. We stuck to the edges and made our way around the empty entrance toward the opening in the rocks ahead, but then the ground began to shudder once more, and we flattened ourselves against the shadows of the walls just as four more giants stepped from the doorway.

  They didn’t see us while they lumbered on in a determined line with their great icy skulls only feet below the ceiling of the cave. As they stepped from the gates, we heard a diamond shatter against one, and several glittering shards rained into the cave and sent an echo like the tinkling of glass all around us. We looked at each other for a moment, then quickly continued before the next group of giants could emerge. As we disappeared into the slender opening of the cave wall, I heard another gurgling shriek from the ravine.

  The opening we’d seen led into a long and pitch black hallway, and the moment we were all inside, we froze where we stood in the cold and heavy silence.

  Haragh spoke first. “We come up against a giant in here, and we’re fucking flattened,” he growled.

  “Then we’d better run,” I said at once, and with my arm extended in front of me, I began to quickly make my way into the dark. I could feel the walls of the mountain alongside me as I went, and I could hear the others’ footsteps close behind. My heart pounded loudly in my ears as I walked, and I waited for the telltale shaking of the earth at every moment.

  But light began to glow off in the distance, and I broke into a sprint the moment it appeared. We were out of breath when we burst out of the blackened hallway and came to a quick stop at the sight in front of us.

  The entire mountain appeared to be hollowed out, and the ceiling reached endlessly into the darkness above us. The walls were caked in a deep blueish ice that reflected like glass, but there were no furnishings and no indications the cave was used for anything more than housing the ice giants in mass. Boulders protruded from the ground in several clusters, and I could see the remaining ice giants in the furthest corner of the cavernous room. They swayed gently there, with their backs to us, and appeared to be gathered around something.

  I led my crew into the shadows of the icy walls, and we crept carefully toward the gathering. We stepped as silently as we could on the rocky ground, but as we got closer, a voice broke through the cave, and we froze in our places.

  The voice was hollow and menacing, and it ordered a group of giants to the gates. We flattened ourselves in the shadows as four giants lumbered past and toward the black hallway, and then we peered around the edge of the icy wall toward the group of giants that remained.

  My gut had dropped at the voice I heard, but I wanted to be sure I hadn’t imagined it before I shared my concerns with the others. I craned my neck out far, but all I could see was the jagged limbs of the giants.

  Aurora didn’t wait to get a look, though, before she spoke up.

  “Was that … Deli?” the half-elf hissed at my side, and I heard the others move quickly to try and get a look as well.

  Pindor clutched his fingers into my shoulder to hoist himself higher, and I bit my tongue to keep from cursing at the kid’s talons now buried in my collar bone.

  I shook him off and moved the others back into the shadow with my arms held up. “Everyone just calm down,” I whispered. “We don’t know who’s over there, but whoever they are--”

  I didn’t get to finish.

  The same hollow voice split through the cave, and this time it let out a shrill laugh before it ordered another troop of giants to the gate.

  My eyes snapped to Aurora’s, and I could see by the look in her emerald eyes that there was no arguing anymore. Deli’s voice was unmistakable, although it didn’t sound like the sweet mage we’d taken into our crew only a week before. The voice was eerie and harsh, but it was definitely hers, and she had just ordered four giants to attack the mages outside of the gate.

  “Shit,” I cursed.

  Pindor’s eyes bulged out of his head, and his jaw wavered somewhere between terror and anger.

  “Wh-what the fuck is she doing?” he demanded, but Jovian motioned for him to be silent.

  “Something’s not right,” Aurora cut-in. “Deli’s not behind this. Something’s happened, something … ” but she was interrupted by Haragh.

  “The girl only joined up with us through Bagnera, we don’t know anything about her,” the half-ogre offered, and his eyes were stern.

  I didn’t like the direction the conversation was going, so I turned to get another look at the gathering. With the last batch of giants departed, a small break between them revealed a dim red glow, and in the strange light, I could just make out Deli.

  Her eyes were sharp and glowed in a way that reminded me of the demonic dwarven sculptures of the capital. She stared into the red glow, with her teeth slightly bared, and the sweetness of the mage we’d known was nowhere to be seen.

  I furrowed my brow and turned back to my crew. “Aurora’s right, something’s wrong. That’s not Deli. Well, it is,” I allowed, but I gestured for the others to look as well before I continued. “It’s obviously Deli, but don’t tell me that looks anything like her … ”

  The others crouched to carefully peer around the wall of ice, and after a long moment, they returned with blank faces. Pindor was the only one who looked rightfully terrified, but he didn’t have anything to say.

  “You don’t think … ” Aurora started, but she shifted uncomfortably at the notion. “You don’t think she’s been marked do you? That the Master’s somehow put a rune on her?”

  The half-elf had said exactly what I’d guessed, but avoided sharing. Now I held her sights and didn’t respond. I didn’t want to destroy Deli, whatever had happened. I didn’t want to kill a mage who’d come into this mess alongside me and given her all to help the dwarves and us from the very start.

  “Shit,” I breathed again and let my back rest against the icy walls while I tried to see a way out of this. I remembered Camus Dred, with his entire torso scribbled over in hellish runes, and the manic Ignis Mage who had stumbled from the train car just before Aurora and I destroyed him. I couldn’t imagine doing the same to Deli, but the look in her eyes was pure evil, and her voice split through the cave to send yet another troop of giants to attack our mages.

  “Mason,” Haragh growled, and I looked up from my dark musings.

  All of the others looked back at me, and each of them clearly didn’t want to murder Deli either.

  I took a deep breath and ignored their looks before I moved to get another look at the girl. I studied the scene carefully for several minutes, mostly to avoid making a decision, since I already knew if none of them would kill the girl, and it came down to it, I’d be the one who had to do it.

  Deli’s eyes were still glued to the glowing thing in front of her, and the giants around her swayed with their heads trained in the same direction.

  I tried to stand taller, but the thing that glowed was behind one of the clusters of boulders on the cave floor, so I couldn’t get a glimpse of what it was. Still, Deli hadn’t moved her eyes from it once, and as I watched a little longer, I realized she didn’t even blink.

  “Okay,” I sighed and turned back to the crew in the shadows. “Something fucking weird is going on over there. It’s like they’re mesmerized, all of them, even Deli. They’re looking at something, but I can’t get a view of it. Whatever i
t is is putting off that glow, and I think it’s controlling Deli.”

  I was ready to believe it, and I could tell the crew was, too. They nodded along, and I was grateful the plan they took up didn’t begin with “first we kill Deli.”

  Haragh took a look himself, and then gave a decisive nod. “We have to find out what that thing is they’re lookin’ at. There’s only ten giants over there, but there’s another opening in the wall at their back, so there’s no sayin’ if there’s more in there.”

  “We don’t have enough Ignis Mages to take on all of those giants,” I said, and Aurora and Mina exchanged nervous glances.

  “Well,” the half elf said, “we’ll let Deli send another troop off, then we’ll just have to risk it.”

  I knew it was our best chance, so we stood silently in the shadows for a while until a sudden and shrill giggle left Deli’s lips. We couldn’t help but shift uneasily at the sound, but no one met each other’s eyes.

  Deli sent another four giants to the gate, and as they disappeared into the black hallway, we quickly rounded the corner of the wall and made for the group of giants at the far end of the cave. Just as Aurora and Mina ignited their palms, another shrill giggle echoed around us, and Deli’s demonic eyes pierced us with mocking glee.

  “Leave them,” she sharply ordered, and I gaped as the giants that had turned their hollow eyes on us backed themselves against the walls.

  It made my blood burn to see my own mage at the helm of the ruthless ice army, but I swallowed the sensation and tried again to remember the sweet girl who’d shrugged and lit the tracks for me.

  It was pretty hard to do with the creepy smile she now wore on her face, though. Her teeth sparkled in the red light, and her eyes looked straight through us with a devilish glint.

  “I thought you’d find me out,” she giggled, and I could see Pindor blanch under the sneer that came with it. “I thought it just as soon as I woke up, that Aurora would find me out and ruin all the fun.” Deli’s eyes flashed at the half-elf, who remained unreadable. “I ran as fast as I could to make sure you couldn’t.”

  “When was that?” Aurora countered, and she slowly walked toward the young mage. “When did you wake up? I came to get you, but you were gone.”

  The giggle came again, and I felt my eye twitch at the sound. It was quickly becoming the creepiest fucking thing I’d ever heard, and to hear it come from Deli’s lips made me more nervous by the minute. I realized she hardly looked like herself in this light, and I began to worry one of the others might kill her if she tried anything. As evil as she looked and sounded, the idea still didn’t sit well with me.

  Deli sighed in irritation, but she answered the half-elf with a merry sort of spite. “In the night of course. I woke and felt the surge and knew just where to come. I left you all and came here to serve my purpose. To complete what has begun here.”

  I narrowed my eyes and stepped closer as well. “What surge?” I asked.

  Her eyes flashed to me, and I halted with my hands held up at my side.

  Deli sneered and rose to bring herself around the cluster of boulders she’d been behind. She walked mechanically, and as she left the light of the strange red glow, she looked much more like the Deli we knew, although her eyes remained cold and piercing.

  “Defender Flynt,” she said in an icy tone.

  My ears perked at the words. Deli had never addressed me as anything but Mason since she’d first joined our crew, and it was suddenly easier to see through the young woman in front of me.

  I nodded my head, but it wasn’t Deli I spoke to. “What did you think? That you’d turn a mage of mine and find a weak spot?”

  The mage giggled wildly and clapped her hands. “Oh but I have! I have found a weak spot. Because here you are,” she mused, and her eyes looked hungrily at the small crew around me. “Trapped with only a ragtag crew, and hundreds of giants waiting behind that wall to destroy you and all you stand for.”

  Haragh stepped quickly to my side, but I put my arm out and stopped him from going any further. Deli’s eyes flashed as if she really wanted the half-ogre to try and attack her, but I wouldn’t feed into it.

  “Alright,” I said to the devilish face in front of me. “Here I am, with just a ragtag crew. What’s your next move?”

  A sneer twisted at the corner of Deli’s mouth, and she said, “This,” as she raised her palms up.

  I felt the static in the air a split second before the girl moved, and I was ready to pull a wall from the earth, but I froze up at the sight of the ice that flew from the palms of the Ignis Mage. It was the same as the enchanted spears the giants produced, and my mind reeled to figure out how it came from Deli now.

  Aurora screamed, and her and Mina threw their flames across the path of the ice, but Deli shrieked with delight and sent the ice in their direction instead. Pindor pulled a wall up between the rest of the crew and the Ignis Mage, but just before he could tip it toward the girl, Jovian caught his arm and wrenched him backward.

  “It’s not Deli,” I heard the man growl in Pindor’s ear, and I was relieved the others had caught on as well.

  “Wh-what?” Pindor stammered, but there was no time to explain.

  Deli screeched in fury at the wall that separated her from us, and the sound pierced my ears and made the hair on my neck stand up once more.

  “We have to get to whatever that glowing thing is before she sets the giants on us,” I hollered to my crew.

  Enchanted ice flew at the other side of the wall, and I could hear it splinter as it began to climb.

  Aurora nodded and grabbed Mina by the arm. “We’ll keep her busy,” she assured me, just before they bolted from behind the wall and sent a series of fire orbs toward Deli, one after the other.

  I heard spears of ice pierce the rocky ground, and I peered around the other end of the wall to see the young mage smiling furiously as she attacked the two Ignis Mages with full force.

  Then Haragh grabbed my shoulder, and I looked up to see the half-ogre had his eyes closed in concentration with his arm outstretched.

  “What?” I asked.

  Haragh furrowed his brows for a moment before his eyes opened at last and looked to me. “It’s a gem,” he said. “Whatever’s over there, I can feel it with my magic. It’s a gem of some kind. Which means--”

  “We can move it,” I finished for him, and a plan finally seemed to take place.

  “Aye,” Haragh agreed, “but there’s ten giants standin’ about in here, and our only Ignis Mages are a bit preoccupied … ”

  We could hear the demonic giggle pierce the air, and Aurora let out a yelp as she dove behind the wall with Mina.

  “Are you ok?” I demanded.

  “O-oh yeah,” Mina panted through heavy breaths as Aurora nodded beside her. “This bitch is ruthless.”

  “Hey,” I cut-in with a frown, “that bitch is possessed. But it’s still Deli, and I meant what I said earlier. We’re not leaving here without her. We have to get that gem without hurting her.”

  Pindor had finally begun to catch on, and he leaned in close to my side. “You really think Deli’s still in there?” he asked uneasily.

  “Yes,” I told him, and I held his eyes steadily. “Deli’s a sweet girl, don’t forget it. She doesn’t call me Defender Flynt, though, and I recognize the stare of her eyes from Camus Dred. That’s the Master talking in there, and we have to keep her safe from him, even if she is trying to fucking kill us.”

  The kid considered this for a moment, then he furrowed his brow and looked around the edge of the wall. When he returned, he gave me a firm nod. “Okay. Mina and Aurora can take on the giants, Jovian and Zerla and me will lock Deli up, and you and Haragh destroy the gem.”

  “Lock her up?” I asked.

  “Of course,” Pindor said, and the terror was gone from his face. Now, he looked like the kid from the ridge last night, the kid who was ready to all out storm the castle to get Deli back. “She can’t hurt us if she can’t get t
o us, so we’ll build a dungeon around her and keep her locked up while we handle this. Hopefully, when it’s over … ” He trailed off.

  “When it’s over, she’ll be safe, just like we planned,” I finished for him, because I didn’t want to consider the alternative.

  Then Jovian and Zerla stood beside Pindor, and the three knelt to the ground.

  “Ready?” I asked, and everyone nodded. I took a deep breath before I drove the wall we hid behind straight into the rock beneath us, and the moment the Terra Mages had a view of Deli, a wall shot up like a rocky cage and closed in a dome around the young woman.

  She raged against the walls around her, and I could hear the fury in her voice as she cursed me and ordered the giants to attack.

  Aurora and Mina had already begun to melt the joints of the giants that lumbered away from the cave walls, but they began to close in around the two mages, and the ground shook heavily under us.

  “The other giants,” I hollered to Haragh just as I felt him join in a circuit with me.

  Without a word, we pulled the doorway behind Deli closed before the rest of the ice giants could enter the enormous cave. Then Haragh sent a wall up to pin two giants down as I dropped another into a gaping trench. The mountain groaned above us, and I quickly motioned for Haragh to stop as I realized we were about to bring the whole damn thing down.

  Jovian hollered behind us as he left his circuit. When I turned, he had his hands outstretched toward the blackened ceiling of the cave. “Get to the gem!” he said through gritted teeth, and I didn’t waste another minute.

  Haragh and I bolted to the other side of the boulders while three giants melted down in front of us. We’d been prepared to lift the gem and run, but what we saw distracted us from the plan completely.

  A ruby twice as big as our diamond bombs glittered in front of us, and it let off a blinding glow from within that caused me to stumble back a few feet. Somehow, the battle outside the gate was illuminated inside, and from the way the view shifted, it looked like it switched from one giant’s eyes to another.

  I thought back to the hollow eyes that seemed to survey everything around them and realized the giants were all connected through this gem. The gem could see what they saw.