Cursed Bones sotsi-5

by David A. Wells

  The passage opened into a circular room. Two veins of softly glowing crystal rose from the floor to the ceiling. Within each was carved a chamber. A conduit of crystal running between both chambers held a panel with a single emerald set into it. Isabel heard whimpering before she saw the figure slumped to the floor in one of the chambers. She approached cautiously, her anger hot and ready. Seeing the form of Hazel in the chamber, she began speaking the words of her light-lance, forcefully and deliberately.

  She raised her hand toward Hazel and the old witch looked up, tears streaming down her face, confusion and fear in her eyes.

  “Isabel, please help me,” she said.

  Isabel frowned in momentary confusion until she remembered that the focus of Hazel’s magic was belief.

  Seeing Isabel’s resolve harden, Hazel sobbed and put her hands up in front of her face to ward against a spell that would kill her in a flash.

  “Stop!” Alexander said, materializing before Hazel.

  Isabel reined in her spell, letting go of the thought-form she was about to release into the firmament but holding on to her anger.

  “Why? You said it yourself; we’re at war with her.”

  “I don’t think this is Hazel,” Alexander said. “Her colors are all wrong.”

  “Please help me, Isabel. It’s me … Ayela. Hazel stole my body.”

  Isabel gasped, her eyes going wide. “Dear Maker, is such a thing even possible?”

  “I think that’s what these chambers do,” Alexander said. “Also, her colors say she’s telling the truth.”

  “How do we reverse it?” Isabel asked.

  “I’m not sure, but if I had to guess, I’d say you would have to put them both back into these chambers again. I’ll go consult with the sovereigns and then find Hector, Horace, and Hazel. Take care of Ayela and make your way back to the black-and-white room. Wait for me there.”

  Isabel nodded, going to Ayela. “I’m so sorry, Ayela. I didn’t know.”

  “How could you? This kind of thing isn’t supposed to be possible. I’m the one who should apologize. I took you right to her and she left you in the swamp to die. I can’t believe I trusted her.”

  “You believed what you wanted to believe,” Isabel said. “It happens to the best of us.”

  “What am I going to do? I feel like my life is suddenly over.”

  “I’m going to help you. I promise.”

  “Thank you, Isabel,” Ayela said, wiping tears from her old and wrinkled face and looking up sheepishly. “Do you have anything to eat? Hazel took all of my things when she left me here.”

  Isabel gave her a bag of dried apples and they started toward the black-and-white room.

  Alexander appeared just before they arrived.

  Chapter 38

  “Isabel, you have to hurry,” Alexander said. “They’re down that passage. I think Hazel is about to sacrifice Horace to the ghidora. She’s preparing a spell, and he’s laid out on a table in front of a hideous-looking statue.”

  Isabel raced across the black-and-white room, calling out to Ayela behind her, “Stick to the white squares only!”

  The passage was a hundred feet long, opening into a giant cavern filled with cages and lined with doorways leading out of the room in every direction. She caught glimpses of the remains of unspeakable and indescribable creatures as she raced past the cages, following Alexander’s bobbling light.

  Some of the cages contained magic circles cut into the stone just inside the bars, while others were ordinary iron cages that had long since rusted to the point of crumbling. Most contained long-dead corpses of unidentifiable creatures but a few were empty. Two still held live creatures, but fortunately both of those cages were still intact and the magic circles within were holding the unnatural creations of Siavrax Karth at bay. That didn’t stop those creatures from snapping and snarling at Isabel when she raced by.

  She reached the threshold of a large doorway that used to hold double doors, but was now open to the cavern. She stopped in horror at the scene playing out before her under the flickering light of two torches.

  Horace lay on a platform before the statue of a creature from out of a nightmare. Eight feet tall at the back with six-foot-wide shoulders, it stood on six powerful legs, each ending in seven clawed toes. It had four eyes, the lower two set closer together than the upper two, all of which looked like they moved independently, allowing for a very wide field of vision. Its mouth was almost two feet across and lined with razor-sharp teeth. Its long tail split into three, each ending in a blade a foot long.

  Hazel, in Ayela’s body, stood before the platform, chanting the words to an ancient invocation while streamers of light flowed from Horace to the statue. Hector lay unconscious on the floor, oblivious to his brother’s plight.

  “Stop!” Isabel cried, but she was too late. As the light stopped flowing from Horace, the creature came to life, its eyes glowing ember-red and each of the blades on its tail taking on the hue of flowing lava.

  Hazel looked back and smiled as the demon bounded down a long hall that ended with a point of daylight from an opening in the side of the mountain.

  “What have you done?!” Isabel demanded, drawing her dagger and advancing toward Hazel.

  “I’ve just killed the leader of the Sin’Rath Coven,” Hazel said.

  “By killing Horace?” Isabel glanced over at his withered and desiccated husk. His face was blackened, lips pulled away from his teeth, his eyes hollow and empty.

  “A necessary sacrifice,” Hazel said. “The Sin’Rath must be destroyed, no matter the cost.”

  The words hit Isabel like a slap in the face. She had uttered very similar words about Phane. And she’d meant them, yet looking at the cost Hazel had been willing to pay in order to deal a blow to the Sin’Rath, Isabel realized that some costs were too great, no matter the gain.

  Hazel began whispering words under her breath. Sensing the threat, Isabel fled the chamber, taking a position behind a nearby pillar and casting a shield spell. She wasn’t sure what magic Hazel could wield and didn’t want to find out the hard way. If Hazel was able to charm her or even blow a pinch of henbane into her face, Isabel might be the next one sacrificed to the ghidora.

  “You can’t hide from me,” Hazel said from inside the room. “And I fear you haven’t fully considered your tactical disadvantage. Do you really want to kill Ayela’s body? I’m sure you have plans to undo what I’ve done.” Her tone was taunting, filled with mirth.

  Alexander appeared next to Isabel. “Slip up next to the doorway and be ready with your force-push. I’ll distract her.”

  Isabel nodded and started to make her way around several cages so she could come up along the wall in the dark. Once in position, she saw herself step out from behind a pillar and advance toward the door as if she meant to murder Hazel … and Ayela with her.

  “Come, Child, be reasonable,” Hazel said, a thinly veiled attempt to stall for time while the illusion of Isabel drew closer, becoming more vulnerable to Hazel’s magic with each step.

  “There,” Hazel said with a triumphant smile as the illusion of Isabel entered the room. She clapped her hands once and the dust covering the section of the floor where the illusion stood rose up in a cloud surrounding her. When the illusion didn’t react, Hazel became alarmed. Isabel rolled around the edge of the door and unleashed her force-push. Hazel flew backward, tumbling to the floor and shaking her head before struggling to her feet.

  Isabel was moving the moment she cast her spell, but Hazel regained her feet and quaffed a potion before she could reach her, vanishing with derisive laughter.

  Ayela came into the room. Hearing her own laughter but not seeing her body, she backed up against the wall next to the door and shouted, “Give me my body back!” Laughter was the only response.

  “Duck!” Alexander’s disembodied voice said.

  Isabel saw a puff of powder appear before her; she immediately stopped breathing, closed her eyes, and rolled backward
away from the threat, coming up with another force-push that fell on empty air.

  “Your invisibility won’t last forever,” Isabel said, watching the dust on the ground for any hint of Hazel’s passage, straining to hear her footsteps or breathing.

  Alexander appeared as a ball of light. “Target me,” he said.

  Isabel didn’t hesitate, firing off a force-push that sent Hazel sprawling near the door, becoming visible a few moments after she hit the ground. Ayela lunged toward her, falling on top of her and trying to pin her to the ground, but her new body was no match for the youth and strength of her real body. Hazel easily overpowered her, tossing a pinch of powder into her face once she’d rolled to her feet.

  Isabel raised her hand to cast another force-push, but Hazel fled into the menagerie. Ayela tried to regain her feet but collapsed, falling into a deep sleep.

  “I’ll keep watch,” Alexander said. “See if you can wake Hector.”

  “What about Hazel?”

  “She can’t hide from me. Besides, you can’t leave them here like this. There’s no telling what’s lurking in the shadows just waiting for an easy meal.”

  Isabel looked from Hector to Ayela and nodded reluctantly, her anger draining away, only to be replaced with sorrow. She went to Horace, shaking her head and wiping a tear from her face. He looked like he’d been dead for years, his body drained of every vestige of life.

  Hector woke more easily than she’d expected, his eyes snapping open when she shook him by the shoulder. He looked up, confusion turning to alarm at the look on her face.

  “I’m so sorry, Hector.”

  He sat up, looking around, the haze of confusion fading slowly until he saw the form of his dead brother. He took a sharp breath and looked away, as if his unwillingness to believe the horrible reality of the situation could change it.

  “I don’t understand,” he said. “Who did this?”

  “Hazel,” Isabel whispered.

  “But … Hazel loves us.”

  “No, she doesn’t. She was using you.”

  “I don’t understand,” Hector said, stumbling to his feet and shambling over to his brother, staring at the desiccated corpse with disbelief, then breaking down and sobbing with his head resting on Horace’s breastplate.

  Isabel sat down and cried quietly while Hector mourned the loss of his brother. He sobbed for several minutes before he tipped his head back and howled, shattering the silence with his anguish, his death knell reverberating off the ancient stone walls.

  “Where is she?” he said, turning away from Horace.

  “She fled,” Isabel said, regaining her feet.

  “That’s not her?” Hector asked, pointing toward Ayela.

  Isabel shook her head sadly. “That’s Ayela … Hazel switched bodies with her.”

  He sniffed back his tears and looked at the ground. “Well then, it seems we both have a score to settle.”

  “We all do,” Isabel said, taking Hector by the shoulders, “but we have to give Ayela her body back first. Do you understand, Hector?”

  He looked at Ayela for a moment and nodded slowly. “Promise me one thing.”

  Isabel nodded, knowing what he wanted without him voicing his request.

  “Let me be the one to kill her,” Hector said.

  She nodded again. “You have my word.”

  Ayela didn’t wake quickly. After shaking her, gently slapping her face, and even splashing her with water, they decided they’d just have to wait, knowing full well that every minute widened the gap between them and Hazel.

  Hector stood stock-still before the platform where his dead brother lay, a mask of desolation and resolve contorting his face. Isabel left him to his grief.

  “You don’t have a sword,” he said, without looking away from his dead brother. “You should take Horace’s blades. They’ve served him well and I know he would want you to have them.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Hector nodded. “Did you see how she did this?”

  “I was just a few minutes too late,” Isabel said, new tears filling her eyes. “Hazel was chanting a series of words over and over again, but I don’t remember what they were.”

  “I think I know, I just don’t know how to read them,” he said, pointing to some writing engraved into the side of the platform. “Do you think Lord Reishi is watching?”

  Alexander appeared beside him. “I’ve been here the whole time. I’m sorry for your loss, Hector. Your brother was a good man.”

  “He was,” Hector said, running his hand along the words on the platform. “Can you read this?”

  “No, but I can ask the sovereigns.”

  “I would consider it a favor, Lord Reishi.”

  “What are you thinking?”

  “I’m thinking that I know exactly how I intend to kill that old witch.”

  “That’s dangerous business, Hector. I don’t know what it might do to you.”

  “I don’t care so long as it kills her.”

  “I do care, Hector.”

  “Will you tell me what these words say or not, Lord Reishi?”

  Alexander held his gaze for a moment, and, seeing the resolution in his eyes, nodded solemnly before vanishing.

  Ayela woke an hour later, groggy and disoriented. It took her a few more minutes before she was steady enough to walk.

  Hector gave her a knife that Horace had carried for years, then took a necklace and ring that his brother was never without before bidding him a last farewell and turning away.

  “I wish we had time to bury him,” Isabel said sadly.

  Hector shook his head. “He never liked enclosed spaces anyway.”

  They headed out into the cavern filled with cages, this time cautiously exploring, looking for any sign of Hazel. Her footsteps led from the room where she’d sacrificed Horace but stopped abruptly, vanishing without a trace.

  “She’s using concealment powder,” Isabel said. “Let’s head for the entrance and see if we can pick up her trail in the hallway.”

  As they rounded a large pillar, Hazel stepped out and blew a handful of dust into Isabel’s face, catching her by surprise. Isabel stumbled and went to her knees, struggling against the effects of the powder. Alexander appeared next to her and Hector drew his swords, anger flashing in his eyes.

  “I’ll have my vengeance, Witch.”

  “Not today,” Hazel said. The air blurred and five exact duplicates appeared around her. Then all six Hazels ran off in different directions.

  Hector started to give chase.

  “Stop,” Alexander said. “She wants you to go after her. She’s counting on it. She can’t face all of you at once, but she can pick you off one at a time.”

  “Horace deserves to be avenged!”

  “Yes, but not right now. Stay with Isabel. Protect her.”

  Hector looked at Alexander, then off into the darkness, then back at Isabel who lay unconscious with Ayela kneeling next to her. His inner turmoil was palpable but he reined it in, releasing the surge of anger that was demanding action.

  “By your command, Lord Reishi.”

  “She’s not going to get away, Hector,” Alexander said, lowering his voice to a whisper. “The way you came in is blocked by a cave-in. When she reaches that point, she’ll have to turn back. Then we’ll have her.”

  Hector clenched his jaw and nodded, accepting Alexander’s plan.

  Isabel was out for almost an hour. Ayela rested Isabel’s head on her lap and tried to wake her periodically while Hector paced.

  Chapter 39

  Alexander vanished from sight and found Hazel. As predicted, she was trying to flee the keep rather than face Isabel and Hector again. When she reached the cave-in and started cursing, Alexander projected just his voice, just his laughter into the room, moving it past her as if he were walking behind her.

  She spun, looking around frantically. “Show yourself!”

  “There’s no way out,” he whispered tauntingly, almost imperceptib
ly.

  She turned toward the voice and found nothing. Clearly agitated, she hastily returned to the staircase and started down, moving cautiously as if she expected the walls themselves to reach out and grab her.

  Satisfied with the fear in her colors, Alexander returned to Isabel, reappearing when she woke. She was groggy at first, taking a few minutes to fully recover from the sleeping powder.

  “Hazel’s coming back down the spiral staircase.”

  “We should set a trap in the black-and-white room,” Isabel said.

  “I can distract her when she enters, so you and Hector can subdue her,” Alexander said, “but you don’t have much time to get into position.”

  They moved quickly, carefully taking positions on either side of the door to the staircase in the black-and-white room. Isabel prepared a pinch of sleeping powder and they waited … and waited.

  “It’s been too long,” Isabel said.

  Alexander appeared, nodding. “I’ll go find her,” he said, vanishing again.

  Several moments later, he returned. “She went into the level above. Maybe she knows another way out.”

  “All right, let’s go find her,” Isabel said, heading up the staircase.

  She stopped at the threshold. They had bypassed this level on their way down into the heart of Siavrax Karth’s laboratory, but now there was a single set of footprints moving off into the dark hallway. Isabel motioned for Hector to take the lead. Alexander provided light, revealing a long straight passage almost twenty feet wide with ten foot ceilings. Thirty feet into the hallway, they came to two doorways, one on each side, both open with the remains of their doors long since rotted away.

  Isabel motioned to the one on the right and they slipped inside, Hector in the lead.

  “Looks like living quarters,” he said.

  “Alexander, can you tell us where Hazel went?”

  The ball of light bobbled and vanished, returning several moments later.

  “The corridor leads to a big room that was probably a dining hall,” Alexander’s disembodied voice said. “Past that is another corridor just like this one. She’s about halfway down that hall, heading for the stairs on the other end.”