Moments later a lizardmage appeared, followed by a string of goblins, and a few zombie-like humans. The zombies wore ragged clothes and walked as though in a daze. They appeared to be undead soldiers; their bodies were too decomposed to be alive.
The lizardmage who first appeared stopped and instructed a goblin carrying a torch to lead the way down a moonlit path extending down the mountainside. The goblin complied and the other goblins followed. The lizardmage turned and gave an unintelligible command to the zombies. Slowly, raggedly, they followed the mage down the path. Another mage, a human one this time, appeared and took up the rear. A zombie in front of him fell and the mage cursed. He bent over, helped the zombie to his feet, and pushed him roughly after the others. Miraculously, the zombie never fell down again. The mage in the rear raised his staff and chanted a spell. A small, white skull at the top of his staff flared with blood-red light, its eyes appearing menacing in the dark.
Kazin recalled it as being similar to the one in Harran’s story of when he encountered a lizardmage.
The light in the clearing vanished suddenly, leaving the ledge once again in the shadowy light of the torches.
“Where did they all come from?” whispered Della. “There was not enough room for all of them on the small ledge.”
“There’s either a cave or a magical portal in the mountain’s face,” whispered Kazin in return. “My guess is it’s a magical portal.”
“You are right,” said Frosty, his voice loud in their thoughts. “I sensed strong magic when the bright light appeared, and now it’s gone.”
“I think I know what kind of portal it is,” said Kazin. “I’ve encountered it before north of the Tower of Hope.”
“Can you open it?” asked Della.
“Possibly,” said Kazin.
“Can you seal or destroy it?” asked Frosty.
Kazin looked at the mountain goat in surprise. “I’ve never tried.”
“That is what we must do or our mission is in vain,” said Frosty solemnly. “We must stop these evil creatures from entering this area via the mountain if we are to help the centaurs and elves to defeat them. This is where the evil enters the land. If it is not stopped, the elves and centaurs will be fighting endless swarms of these creatures. They could end up fighting for years. That will not help our cause in the north.”
Kazin shuddered. What was being asked of him was not something he knew he could do. He had successfully opened such a magical door once, but sealing it or destroying it was an entirely different matter. A fire began to burn inside him.
Suddenly he had an idea. What if he transformed into a dragon? Couldn’t he do enough damage to the door to seal it in rock? Couldn’t he—?
“No!” came the answer in his mind sharply. It rang loud and clear. At first Kazin didn’t know if it was the voice associated with the transformation or Frosty’s voice.
“No!” repeated the voice again. It was Frosty. “As a dragon, you will attract the attention of numerous mages and other enemies. They will come back up the mountain and work to undo any damage you may have done to the door. There may even be enough mages in the area to strike at you magically, and a dragon, especially an inexperienced one, can come to great harm. You are formidable as a dragon, but not invincible. Remember that!”
“O.K.,” said Kazin meekly. “But what do you suggest we do?”
“We will wait,” said Frosty. “When the next group of creatures comes, we will try to determine the time gap before the following ones arrive. With this in mind, we will take out the guards and the three mages approximately halfway through the next time frame. This will allow the ones who were here most recently to travel a good way down the mountain before we strike, yet allow us time to seal the door before the next ones arrive via the gate.”
“Shouldn’t we get the others?” asked Della.
Frosty shook his head, his goat beard wagging comically. “No. It would only complicate matters. You can shoot the enemies before they know what hit them, I can block the mages’ magic, and Kazin can seal the door. No one else is required. Besides, the sooner we act, the fewer enemies we’ll have to deal with later.”
“There’s only one problem with your plan,” said Kazin. “What if I can’t seal the door?”
“You will know what to do,” said Frosty. “You did it in the Plains of Grief. You will do just fine here.”
“But I simply opened the door there,” objected Kazin. “I didn’t seal it. It must require much more magical—.”
“It will come to you,” assured Frosty. “You never knew what to do in the Plains of Grief but it came to you there. This situation is no different.”
Kazin gave a dejected sigh. “I hope so.”
Some ten minutes later another group of goblins, accompanied by zombies and two more mages, appeared the same way as the first. When they disappeared in the darkness below and the gate light vanished, Frosty nudged Kazin.
“We will wait for about five minutes. Move back down the way we came and wait just outside the circle of torchlight. When I give the signal, Della must fire precisely aimed arrows. Once her first shot is fired, I want you to climb up to the ledge and locate the position of the magical portal. When you find it, aim your staff at it. The rest should come to you. You will have approximately five minutes to seal the portal. If you fail and the portal begins to shimmer, pull back and we’ll escape while we can.”
Kazin nodded. “What about you? Can’t you go down there and help me?”
“I cannot,” said Frosty. “My vantage here is superior. Anything I have to do is done best from this location. Now, hurry! Time is wasting!”
Kazin scrambled to his spot as fast as he dared. Should the mercenaries or mages hear him, all was lost before it began.
He waited silently behind some shrubbery, a guard standing only a stone’s throw away. Suddenly the man gurgled and fell.
Kazin sprang from hiding and climbed onto the ledge. He was just out of range of the torchlight and the mercenary lay on the ground before him. Slipping Sherman’s ring out of his pocket, he put it on, hoping it would work despite Frosty’s ‘negate magic’ spell.
Summoning a reserve of courage, he stepped into the light.
A mage had now fallen and the other two stared at their comrade in surprise. The remaining guard was more interested in the absence of his counterpart. Already he was running over to where he had seen him last. Kazin’s heart leaped. The man was headed directly toward him!
“Kazin! Where are you?” called Frosty.
“I’m here!” answered Kazin mentally. Deftly he sidestepped the mercenary and struck him across the chest with his staff. The man fell backward to the ground in a daze. His expression was one of surprise.
“I can’t see you!” exclaimed Frosty. A second mage fell to the ground and the last one bolted for cover. He never made it. An arrow in his back sent him sprawling into a nearby bush. He lay still.
“I’m wearing the invisibility ring!” said Kazin.
The guard began to rise.
“Take it off!” ordered Frosty. “I don’t want Della to hit you by accident!”
Kazin complied but realized his mistake too late. The mercenary saw him and lunged with his sword. Kazin didn’t jump out of the way in time and was knocked off his feet, the mercenary’s sword going wide. An arrow whizzed past overhead and missed both combatants.
The guard raised his sword and was about to bring it down on the helpless mage when he was distracted by a shimmering light from the magical gate indented in the rock face behind him.
Kazin took advantage of the pause to bring his staff up and jab the mercenary hard in the midriff.
The man gasped and collapsed, groaning and gasping for air.
“Kazin, get out of there!” cried Frosty.
Kazin ignored his
familiar. He was angered by the setback and the fire in his stomach had returned. He moved closer to the portal, pointed his staff, and concentrated. The shimmering was getting brighter, the mercenary was slowly returning to his feet, and Frosty was calling out to him incessantly, but he pushed it all from his mind. Another arrow whizzed past him but he took no notice. He even ignored the fire inside himself. Sweat beaded his forehead.
The shimmering became a dazzling white light. Within the light, he could make out the forms of people approaching. Still he concentrated.
“Good!” said the voice inside his head. It wasn’t Frosty. “Very good!”
A figure began to take on more solid shape within the gate. It was a lizardmage.
“Now!” screamed the voice in his head. “Let the fire out now!”
Suddenly the fire within Kazin surged into his pointing staff and shot into the dazzlingly bright portal. The lizardmage mage in the lead of his procession gave a brief scream and disappeared in a puff of smoke. The goblins and zombies behind him followed the same path of extinction. When the mage bringing up the rear was destroyed, the portal began to radiate with intense blue heat. With a blast like a distant explosion, the portal began to collapse in on itself, starting at the other end and burning toward the exit. The portal on the ledge exploded outward, its force sending Kazin a step or two backward. The mountain rumbled menacingly and the ground shuddered violently beneath his feet. Then, just as suddenly as it began, all was still.
Kazin stared at the mountain’s face in numb disbelief. The portal was gone. Not a trace of it remained. Where the portal had been was now only solid rock.
Chapter 45
You did it!” exclaimed Della at his side. She squeezed his hand.
Kazin weakly squeezed back. He noticed the second mercenary on the ground close by. He had three arrows in his chest. If it wasn’t for Della, he might very well have failed.
“We must go!” warned Frosty. “The explosion will draw the last ones who recently left this area!”
Voices could already be heard on the trail below.
“This way!” cried Della, drawing Kazin after her.
“I will find a different hiding place!” said Frosty. “When all is clear, return to our camp!” He bounded out of the torchlight.
Kazin nodded absently. He was too exhausted to talk. He allowed the elf to lead him, half walking, and half running. The resourceful elf found a narrow cleft in the rock that was concealed from many angles, including the moon-shaped ledge where the portal had been. She shoved the mage inside and followed, pushing him as far in as there was room.
They sat down and waited.
Della looked sternly at the mage and berated him for not telling Frosty and herself about the ring.
“How could you do such a thing?” she demanded. “One of my arrows might have struck you!”
“I’m sorry,” said Kazin. “I thought that it would give me an edge. I guess I miscalculated.”
“You certainly did,” she said. Then her voice softened. “At least you made up for it by destroying the portal. The elves and centaurs have you to thank for that. I’m proud of you. I think Frosty thought you couldn’t do it while it was opening. You proved him wrong.”
“I’m just glad it’s over,” said Kazin wearily. He laid his staff on the floor against the wall and suddenly it lit the narrow cavern with a dull orange glow. Alarmed, he quickly snatched it up again. The light faded.
“What are you doing?” asked Della. “You could have given our location away!”
“It does that automatically if there’s a secret door nearby,” explained Kazin. He held the staff against the wall beside him and it flared with an orange glow again. “There’s a secret door here!” exclaimed Kazin excitedly.
He pointed the staff in the now familiar manner and an outline of a door appeared in the rock face. He concentrated and the door swung inward.
Centuries of dust flew up into the air and temporarily blinded the two as they waited for it to settle. When it cleared, they saw a low-ceilinged cavern ahead of them. They entered cautiously. It was cool and damp in the cavern. The orange light glinted off a pile of shiny objects in one corner. It was a huge pile of coins.
“Gold!” cried the elf softly. She bent to pick up some of the coins but drew back in revulsion. “Uggh!”
“What is it?” asked Kazin.
“There’s a skeleton hand in the pile,” explained Della.
Kazin bent down to examine it. He looked around at the pile in the orange light and saw several more bones protruding at various intervals. “I think—just a minute.” He fished in his cloak for some spell components and chanted lightly. The entire pile of gold coins glowed with a dull pinkish colour.
“Just as I thought,” he said. “This pile of coins is cursed. It looks like whoever hid this gold here couldn’t part with it. They died here because they were so greedy for their gold that they wouldn’t even part from it for food.”
“That’s disgusting,” remarked Della distastefully.
Kazin pointed at some corpses nearby. “These other corpses are probably those of some people who came across this place and intended to take the gold as their own. They met with the same fate.”
“There’s some armour over there,” said Della. “Is it cursed?”
Kazin approached the pile of armour and cast his spell. Everything glowed pink.
“Wow! It’s all cursed!” said the mage. “Maybe being in the same confined space with the cursed gold rubbed off on the armour! We’d better not spend too much time in here.”
“A quiver of arrows” exclaimed Della from another corner of the cavern. She un-shouldered her now empty quiver and was about to restock her arrows with the ones in the quiver on the ground.
“Wait!” cried Kazin. He sprang to stop her and grabbed her arm. “The arrows might be cursed!” he said sternly. “Don’t touch anything until I check it out first, O.K.?”
“O.K.,” said Della softly.
Kazin chanted his spell but this time, instead of turning pink, the quiver of arrows turned green.
“It’s magical!” exclaimed Kazin.
Della rose. “It’s good that you stopped me, then.”
“No!” said Kazin excitedly. He picked up the quiver. “It’s good magic! The quiver is magical, not cursed!” He handed it to Della.
“What does it do?” asked Della.
“I don’t know,” said Kazin. “You’ll find out soon enough.”
Della took it and began to fill her own quiver with its arrows. When she was finished, she scratched her head. “Kazin, something’s wrong.”
Kazin turned from his visual examination of some cursed swords nearby. “What is it?”
“Well,” began Della slowly, “I’ve filled my quiver with arrows, see?”
“Yes, and?”
“Well, this quiver is still full, as though I haven’t pulled any arrows out at all.”
Kazin examined the quiver. It was still as full as it could possibly be. He grabbed some arrows and pulled them out. The quiver was still full. “A quiver of many arrows!” he exclaimed. He turned to the elf. “Discard your old quiver, Della. This quiver will never run out! It’s magically enhanced so it will produce as many arrows as you’ll need!”
Della looked at Kazin for a moment in stunned silence. Then she grinned and slung the quiver of many arrows over her shoulder.
Kazin was temporarily entranced by the elf’s beauty in that moment. She was reflected in the orange light of the staff and her golden hair hung down over her shoulders. The fletching of the arrows in the quiver extended slightly above her left shoulder and gave her a hunter look, while her golden hair and hazel eyes were soft and enticing. Her elven forest cloak enhanced her supple form, and her sheepskin moccasins encased her dainty feet,
allowing stealthy movement over a variety of terrain.
Della noticed Kazin’s stare and craftily gave the appearance of being embarrassed.
Kazin reacted the same way and was about to apologize but the elf placed a slender finger over his mouth. She said nothing and smiled enchantingly. Then she turned and exited the chamber.
A couple of hours later they were back in camp with the others. According to Frosty, the mages and goblins returned and scanned the ledge and came up empty handed. They retreated back down the mountain muttering about the situation, but did nothing to indicate they would be returning.
“That means the rest of them will soon know the portal was destroyed,” said Harran.
“Precisely,” said Frosty. “I suggest we get some sleep and hurry down the mountain and rendezvous with Perenia and the horses. We have to find out where the last bunch of goblins and zombies are headed, and that means we have to track the ones that came out of the gate tonight. If we lose them, there won’t be any more.”
“I still think you should have called on us before you acted,” said Sherman. He was displeased about the fact that Kazin had gone and done something without him. He still didn’t know about Kazin’s close call and Kazin planned to keep it that way. He returned Sherman’s ring and assured him that he had used it, but gave no further details.
The following morning they rose weary-eyed but determined. The sun had not yet risen and the reddish glow in the east was hindered by the morning clouds. To the west the sky was clear, indicating nicer weather later on.
“Let’s hurry,” prodded Frosty. “Perenia will have rounded the mountain’s base and is moving toward a potentially dangerous area. If my guess is correct, the groups from last night’s exodus from the gate are probably gathered at the southern base of the mountain by now. If Perenia goes too far before we reach her, she may encounter more trouble than she can handle.”
“Are you sure it was wise to trust her?” said Harran.
“Yes,” said Frosty. “I sensed her thoughts when she accidentally entered our camp the other day. She was genuinely afraid and concerned for her people.”
Kazin's Quest: Book I of The Dragon Mage Trilogy Page 46