They watched their target come into view thousands of feet below. Amelia looked back and nodded. Abigail swallowed hard and nodded back. At just the moment when they were directly above the command fortress, Amelia reined in her wyvern, his wings flaring, coming to a momentary stop in midair.
As one, Abigail and Magda slipped off the side of the wyvern and into the sky. The cold wind tore at Abigail’s face, stinging her eyes and sucking the breath out of her lungs. She held on to Magda’s wrist for dear life, struggling to breathe as the wind screamed by, drowning out nearly every other sensation with the sheer ferocity of its roar. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she’d always questioned the sanity of her plan. Objectively, she knew it could work, but now, in the midst of it, every instinct she had screamed out that she was about to die.
The ground approached at an alarming rate of speed, buildings becoming distinct beneath her, then elements of those buildings coming into view under the dim lighting of the lanterns carried by the sentries atop the walls and towers.
The world rushed up at her, the roof of a building inside the command fortress hurtling toward her. Only seconds remained and still it came closer. She looked to Magda with rising terror. Then they slowed so quickly that Abigail felt a bit lightheaded and they landed on the rooftop as easily as stepping off a stair.
Both crouched, scanning the wall for any hint of detection, regaining their composure after the intensity of free fall.
It had worked … so far. Abigail felt like laughing, even though she could hardly catch her breath and her heart was pounding in her throat.
Cassandra flashed into view like a blur, then slowed to land quietly between two buildings not far away. A few moments later, another witch dropped out of the dark sky into the heart of the command fortress, landing silently and unseen on a nearby rooftop. In scarcely more than a minute, a dozen witches had infiltrated the enemy position without detection.
Abigail oriented herself, aligning her mental map with the actual fortress layout, picking out the location where they were to meet their team. Magda nodded as she pointed, both of them carefully sliding toward the edge of the building on the shallowly pitched roof. They had landed on a two-story barracks building. Abigail hoped they hadn’t woken any of the soldiers sleeping within.
They peered over the edge, then sat down and dangled their feet for a moment before holding hands and slipping off into the alley running alongside the building, Magda’s spell slowing their descent and silencing their landing.
Abigail untied her weapons and unslung her bow, nodding for Magda to lead the way. They slipped through the shadows in the narrow spaces between the closely constructed buildings until they reached the appointed meeting place. Bree and Kat were already there, Cassandra and Dalia arrived a few seconds later.
Abigail listened for any hint of an alarm, but the camp was quiet, the soldiers apparently unaware of their presence. They moved toward the central building where Jalal believed Abel and Torin would be found with the Sin’Rath. While the outer wall was well guarded and warded by magic, the interior of the command fortress wasn’t patrolled. The dirt roads and paths between buildings were entirely empty at this hour of the night.
When they reached the back wall of the main building, Magda placed her hand on the logs and whispered under her breath. She nodded. Abigail drew the Thinblade and made three careful cuts, then waited for Magda to cast a spell before making the top cut. A wide square section of wall broke free and Magda gently and quietly lifted it out and leaned it against the wall with the aid of her magic.
Abigail peeked into a dimly lit corridor fashioned from rough-cut timber. Except for the five doors along the opposite wall, it was empty, but her heart still beat faster as she stepped inside. Jalal had provided an accurate map of the command fortress but his sight didn’t extend to the particulars of each building’s layout. Looking up and down the corridor, she chose a direction, pointing down the hall when Magda stepped through. So far, her plan had worked brilliantly … but they had yet to make contact with the enemy.
Cassandra was the last one in, carefully pulling the section of wall in behind her, holding it with one hand as if it weighed only a few ounces. Bree and Kat lashed it into place with several leather straps and Cassandra gently withdrew her magic, letting the straps hold it. The breach in the wall wouldn’t stand close scrutiny, but it was difficult to notice in the dim light.
Magda crept up to the nearest door, placing her hand on the wood, closing her eyes and whispering the words of her spell. Cassandra moved to the side of the door while Kat took up a position with her back to the wall directly opposite the door. Magda’s eyes opened and she held up two fingers. Cassandra and Kat nodded. Magda placed her hand on the door again and began casting another spell, this one more involved. When she nodded, Cassandra and Kat pushed through the door as if it had become less than solid.
Abigail strained to hear any sounds of commotion beyond the door, but all was quiet. Not long after they had entered the room, the door opened and they slipped back into the hall, silently closing the door behind them.
“Servants,” Cassandra whispered. “They won’t wake for hours.”
Room by room they repeated the process, entering each servants’ room silently with the aid of magic, then spelling the servants, all men, to ensure they would sleep soundly regardless of any commotion. It took time, but it also reduced the likelihood of an alarm being raised.
One end of the hallway ended in a door leading to the alley outside. Abigail checked the lock and bar on the door, signaling to Magda that it was secure before they went to the other end of the hall and cautiously rounded the corner. Two doors remained, the first a storeroom, the second the kitchen, which was cold and quiet when they slipped inside.
Two more doors led out of the kitchen, one leading to the storeroom, the other opening into the main dining hall. A trapdoor along one wall led to a cellar below.
“Abel’s quarters are probably upstairs,” Abigail whispered.
Magda opened the door to the dining hall just a crack, then closed it quietly, holding up one finger and pointing toward the back of the room.
“Wizard?” Cassandra whispered almost inaudibly.
Magda shook her head, providing instructions to Cassandra and Kat with hand signals. Magda and Cassandra started casting spells while Kat moved to the door, watching and waiting until just the right moment to pull it open.
Magda sent a sphere that looked like a mirage toward the suddenly surprised man. It hit him less than a second later and he screamed, tipping his head back and raising the alarm … but nothing happened. No sound came forth. Even a moment later when Cassandra’s spell hit him and he fell unconscious, there was no sound when he hit the floor. Kat and Bree hurriedly carried him into the kitchen and laid him carefully along the wall behind a preparation table.
Through the dining room they came to the main room, a large, rustic hall with a hearth on the near wall and several comfortable-looking pieces of furniture surrounding a low table in the center. A staircase occupied the far wall. They crept across the room to the base of the stairs and found them dimly lit by a single lamp hanging from a hook at the top.
Magda led the way, testing each step for any hint of noise before committing her weight. Three steps from the top, the stair pulsed with purple light the moment she touched it. A long wailing shriek filled the house, rousing all of the occupants.
The alarm had been raised.
This was the moment that Abigail had been waiting for and dreading, the moment her plan would stand or fall. Things would happen quickly. The remaining eight witches who had infiltrated the command fortress would attack the wizards on the towers while the witches still in the air would begin their attack runs, columns of three each targeting a tower. Each wizard would face five witches. Each would be hit with spells designed to silence, restrain, and subdue. The goal was to render them harmless and then carry them away from the encampment in the talons of the wyver
ns, to be delivered, safely if possible, to Mage Jalal, who was waiting with a series of magic circles spelled to contain his friends’ magic while the effects of the witches’ charms wore off.
At the same time, three groups of soldiers would launch diversionary attacks against the encampment to distract the soldiers from the commotion at the command fortress and draw them away from the real battle.
All of the events unfolding in the distance vanished into the background of Abigail’s mind as Magda surged forward, muttering the words of her shield spell along with the rest of the witches. Cassandra and Magda stood shoulder to shoulder at the top of the stairs waiting for their adversaries to present themselves in the long hall that ran the length of the house, ending in a door to the balcony. Bree and Kat took positions behind them, while Abigail peered around the corner from the staircase and Dalia guarded against attack from the first floor.
A wizard emerged from the single door in the middle of the hallway, holding a swirling ball of blue-black energy between his hands. He released it at Magda and Cassandra the moment he saw them. It accelerated toward them with crackling arcs of electrical energy reaching out to the walls, leaving charred black scars on the wood in erratic patterns. When it hit their shields, the energy of it spread out over the surface of their magical protective bubbles, draining the power from them and dispelling them in a matter of seconds, leaving the two triumvirs defenseless against the next wizard who came forth.
Fortunately, his spell wasn’t quite ready. Cassandra hurled a force-push at him, which only succeeded in shoving him back a few feet as the magic fell harmlessly against his shield. Kat and Bree each placed a hand on Magda’s shoulder, whispering the words of a joining spell to lend their magic to her as she raised a shield across the hallway. A moment later, lightning arced forth from the second wizard’s hand, striking the shield and testing its strength for several seconds before extinguishing, plunging the hall back into shadow.
Magda released her shield and placed her hand on Cassandra’s shoulder, feeding her with power. Cassandra opted for quickness, throwing another force-push, but this time it was powered by four witches. Magical energy swept down the hall, crashing into the shields of both wizards. While the force wasn’t enough to break their shields, it was enough to throw them both the length of the hallway and into the door at the end.
A third wizard stepped into the hallway and cast a force-push at them, blowing Magda and Cassandra into Bree and Kat, knocking them all to the ground. The first two wizards were back on their feet, while a fourth stepped into the hall, wearing a suit of armor made entirely of magical force, and wielding a sword of the same blue crackling energy.
Magda cast a shield wall again, barring the passage just ten feet away while Cassandra, Bree, and Kat lent her their magic to bolster the defense. The first two wizards each cast a blue orb into the shield, causing it to flare and then dim. Magda seemed to struggle to keep her spell from failing. The third and fourth wizards waited, one a few feet back, the one in magical force armor right next to the shield wall.
Things had gone from bad to worse.
Shouts of alarm began to rise outside. The front door to the house crashed open.
“Soldiers!” Dalia shouted.
Abigail drew the Thinblade and hastily cut a hole in the wall close to the top of the stairs. Sheathing her sword, she pushed the roughly circular chunk into the room and unslung her bow.
Two more blue spheres struck the shield Magda was struggling to keep in place. Dalia positioned herself on the stairs, her shield stopping several crossbow bolts fired by the first squad of soldiers. She shoved the men to the ground with a force-push.
Abigail looked through the hole in the wall and saw her target. It wasn’t Peti … she would remember that monster for the rest of her life … but it was unmistakably a Sin’Rath witch. Her hideous deformity and demonic features gave her away in a glance. Torin stood between her and the door, his sword drawn as if he meant to protect her with his life.
In the commotion, the Sin’Rath witch hadn’t noticed the breach in the wall. Abigail selected an arrow, one of the three with white feathers sent by Mage Gamaliel. Time seemed to slow as she nocked her arrow, pulling the feathers back to her cheek.
“I’ll protect you, Lady Agneza,” Torin said, over the din of battle.
Abigail loosed her arrow. It leapt at her target, glowing bright white as it flew, cutting through Agneza’s shield as if wasn’t even there and finding its mark in her black heart. Surprise and pain registered in her eyes. She looked directly at Abigail, then down at the still-glowing arrow running through the left side of her chest and out through her back. The light pulsed, brighter than any natural light, yet gentle to the eyes. Agneza screamed in wild desperate pain, then seized up, standing frozen for a moment before she toppled to the floor, dead.
Torin and the four wizards stood stock-still, stunned and confused as the demonic grip on their will began to fade.
“Now!” Abigail shouted.
Magda dropped her shield and all four Reishi witches cast force-push spells into the hallway.
In their confusion, the wizards lacked the concentration necessary to sustain their shield spells and were blown to the ground. Magda silenced the nearest wizard with a spell. Cassandra rushed him, laying her hands on him and rendering him unconscious before he could react.
Bree bound his hands and feet, while Kat gagged him, leaving him lying in the hall as Magda and Cassandra pressed forward, taking full advantage of the wizards’ disorientation.
Within a few minutes, the four wizards and Torin were all subdued, while Dalia held the staircase against the soldiers, her shield easily defeating their crossbow bolts and her force-push easily defeating them.
“What have you done?” Torin asked, weeping.
Abigail slapped him across the face, hard.
He blinked at her in silent shock.
“Torin, where’s Abel?”
“You killed her … why would you kill her?”
“Where’s Peti?”
He smiled with relief. “At least she’s still alive.”
“Where is she?” Abigail asked, slapping him again.
He seemed to come to his senses a bit, though still not fully.
“In the cellar. Will you take me to her?”
“Bree, Kat, take Torin and the wizards to the balcony and signal Amelia,” Abigail said.
Both witches went to work dragging the subdued men outside into the night.
“Dalia!” Abigail shouted.
Moments later, she came around the corner at the top of the stairs.
“They’re right behind me,” she said, racing down the hall.
Magda began casting a spell, tossing a green orb that looked like a ball of thorns past Dalia into the far end of the hall at the top of the stairs. It hit and began to grow a tangle of brambles, quickly filling a section of hallway from floor to ceiling.
Abigail took a moment to decapitate Agneza, even though she was relatively sure the witch was dead, then went to a spot in the room and cut a hole in the floor. She slipped through, hanging for a moment before dropping into the kitchen.
Magda, Cassandra, and Dalia followed. The cellar door creaked as Abigail lifted it, revealing a dark and dank room below.
Magda brought three glowing orbs into existence and sent them down the wooden stairs, casting dim illumination into the room. Several moments later, she descended cautiously.
The cellar was lined with crates and barrels but devoid of life. Behind a set of crates, they found a place where the wall and floor had been dug away, opening into a passage descending steeply into the earth. Crude stairs had been cut into the compacted dirt and the ceiling was shored up with rough-cut timbers at irregular intervals.
“It won’t take the soldiers long to find us,” Dalia said after casting a spell securing the trapdoor to the kitchen above.
“We’ll move with very dim light,” Magda said, dismissing two of her illuminat
ing orbs with a wave of her hand and bringing the third into a close orbit over her head.
“Mage Lennox is still unaccounted for,” Cassandra said. “If he’s with the witch, Magda and I should be in the lead.”
Abigail nodded, slinging her bow. The air was cold and still. Magda’s light was so dim that Abigail found herself feeling her way along the rough wall, testing each step before putting any weight on it. After fifty feet of steep stairs, the passage leveled out, meandering in seemingly aimless fashion through the bedrock. A few minutes of walking brought them to a fork, one passage larger than the other.
Cassandra cast a spell while Magda knelt to examine the floor. Both silently agreed that the larger path was the better choice. Another few minutes brought the first hint of life in the still, quiet darkness. Magda stopped and dismissed her glowing orb, plunging the tunnel into darkness.
Abigail froze, straining to hear the enemy. Distant echoes of some ancient and angry language reverberated softly off the earthen walls. Magda continued in the darkness, Abigail right behind her with one hand on her shoulder and the other on the wall. As they rounded a bend in the corridor, light reached Abigail’s eyes, flickering like fire in the distance. She unslung her bow.
The light grew as they moved closer, and the guttural chanting became more distinct and disturbing. Slowly and cautiously, the four of them crept up to the edge of an opening high on the wall of a large natural cave. Crude stairs were freshly cut into the wall allowing easy access to the floor twenty feet below.
The scene unfolding was something out of a nightmare. A magic circle had been cut into the floor. Three young women lay dead, their throats cut and their bodies positioned so that their life’s blood would flow into the circle, staining it red under the torchlight.
A rough stone altar occupied the center of the circle. Mage Lennox was lying prone and still atop it. Straddling him was a hideous demon-spawn witch. Her skin was ashen black. She was nearly bald save for a few wispy strands of hair. Two small bone protrusions occupied each side of her forehead. And her mouth was lined with sharp, fang-like teeth as black as night.
Sovereign of the Seven Isles 7: Reishi Adept Page 13