by Eric Vall
“Now,” the leader said, “before I have you all killed, I feel it’s only fair I in turn ask you a few questions, Mason Flynt. I, however, will be quite direct about them.”
I’d begun scanning the metal of the room to take stock of the weaponry we were up against, and amongst the blades and swords, I suddenly recognized a very small piece of metal lurking behind the large stone slab that mounted the table.
I honestly wasn’t too surprised to find the pendant there, but the fact that there was a dagger poised about six inches above the slip of silver changed things a bit.
Not to mention, my own revolver was stowed several inches south.
My pulse surged while Luir studied me for a long, unsettling moment, and as his copper eyes bore into mine, I carefully brushed my arm against my side to find the holster on my belt was fucking empty.
Then the leader spoke, and his voice was low and commanding.
“What did you discover at House Syru that you are concealing from me?” Luir asked. “Answer quickly enough, and we can spare my guards the effort of applying any leverage.”
I took a steadying breath, and the entire flock of identical guards took a single step forward.
I nodded to myself. “You know what? That won’t even be necessary,” I assured the leader. “The answer wouldn’t matter at this point.”
Luir sneered. “Why is that?”
“Because you’ve already taken Deya,” I told him.
Cayla snapped her eyes to mine, and the leader raised his brows.
“Well done,” he finally said, but his tone was strictly pissed. “If you were a student of mine, I might be proud of you. You are correct, of course. I have already retrieved Deya.”
Luir glanced over his shoulder and motioned for her to join us, and four guards escorted Deya from behind the sturdy slab that mounted the stone table above us.
She was gagged with her hands tied together in rope, and the four elves brought her to a stop at the base of the few stairs below the leader’s boots.
The one who held the dagger poised at her throat sent me a familiar grin as he tightened his hold, and as infuriating as the gesture was, I reminded myself Deya was nothing but bait to the head of House Orrel.
Knowing the guard himself would likely be executed if that dagger accidentally slipped, I kept my expression unreadable as Luir let out a tired sigh.
“It would probably be much more fun to toy with the two of you a bit more,” the leader mused, “but I’ve run out of patience I’m afraid. Dragir will simply have to join me here if he wishes to see the little sprite again. I would ask you to tell him for me, Mason Flynt, but you’ll obviously be dead.”
The leader sent me a sympathetic shrug before he tilted his head to address Deya.
“By the way, my little sprite, these are my sons,” Luir said as he gestured to the several elves surrounding us. “You may have your pick of the litter if you learn to behave.”
Then Luir beckoned for the guards to attack, but I raised my palm at the same moment and wrenched the dagger from the elf who held it at Deya’s throat. In the same movement, the other three guards were disarmed, and as their weapons clanged against the back wall, Deya lunged forward.
Luir raised his own palm, though, and before she’d made it to us, Deya screeched and was lifted off her feet. She soared back to slam into Luir’s arms, and he quickly pinned her against him as he placed two fingers at her throat.
Every guard awaited his order, but the leader kept his serpentine eyes on me.
“Would you like to give a guess as to what this weapon does?” Luir growled as he kept Deya from wriggling free. “Here. I’ll give you a hint.”
The leader shifted just slightly, and as his sleeve slid down, I saw the runes branded all along his inner arm. There were six that I could see from where I stood, but I couldn’t tell how many more he might have.
Deya’s violet eyes slowly flared, and she struggled more desperately in Luir’s hold as she began to gasp for air from behind the gag.
It was more elaborate of him than I’d expected, but now that the leader had laid out all his cards and had a bit of fun, I decided it was a good time to turn the tables.
“It really is a shame we couldn’t work together,” I told the leader calmly, and I flicked my eyes to the pendant buried in Deya’s cleavage as she looked at me with mounting terror.
Then I slid my hand into my back pocket and pulled a pile of folded parchments out to hold them up.
“I kind of liked you, too,” I told Luir as his eyes sparked with a fiendish greed, and I could tell he instantly recognized the elven scrolls. “I’ll hang on to these, though. Maybe someone else will find them … informative.”
Everything happened at once the moment the leader gave the order in Elvish, but Deya was quicker than he was as she channeled her own runes against him.
With his arms locked around the beautiful elf, the man gave a violent jolt of pain and was thrown clear across the table at his back to crumple on the floor.
Aurora sent a stream of flames out to eat away at the tethering around Deya’s wrists, and by the time she had the gag off, four of Shoshanne’s shuriken impaled the necks of the guards who had closed in around us.
I ducked and dodged the talons that swiped for my face, and as my fist hit the ground, I buried the scrolls far beneath the stonework of the chamber.
Luir’s sons drove at us from every direction, and Aurora sent a spiral of flames out as she flipped to plant her boot in the gut of a guard.
The burning elves’ screams echoed around the tower above, and I loosed four arrows in quick succession to take down four more. Then I summoned my metal magic to tear the blades from the fist of an oncoming guard and sent them straight into his own chest.
Cayla spent her magazine on ten elves in less than ten seconds, and she swiftly shouldered her bow to whip the rifle around her back and finish off another two.
Shoshanne managed to take down three elves headed for Deya by embedding her barbed shuriken into their necks, and with another three arrows loosed shortly after, she took down the next line that jumped to grab the beautiful elf.
I could see Deya’s chest heaving in panic from across the room, and my nerves just about gave out when she reached into her boot and pulled my revolver out.
Deya held a shaky aim and cocked the revolver as her eyes flashed around the room in panic, and I tasted the metal on my tongue a split second before I targeted my gaze on the elf in front of her.
Deya stared at her hands in shock as the gun fired and moved on to the next for her, and I couldn’t help but send her a wink as she looked out across the guards at me.
I directed her aim toward another elf as I swiftly loosed another two arrows, and Deya was grinning by the time she’d finished sending bullets into three elves’ heads.
Then four blades struck me across my back, and as pain coursed through me, I whipped around to wrench them from their mounts on the guard’s fist. They impaled his neck before he could even react, and I ducked another blow as I loosed my last arrow.
Aurora had hurled her axe into a carcass at my feet, though, and I pulled it free to send it into one of three guards surrounding Shoshanne. Then I summoned it back and sent it into another skull.
The healer flung her shuriken into her attackers’ hearts, and as they lurched in shock, she swiftly caught one of their swords and spun around to help Cayla fend off another four guards.
The princess had spent her bullets, but she didn’t miss a beat before she flipped the gun around and bashed in the face of the next elf with the butt of the rifle.
Everywhere I looked, the silver-haired elves dove and drove their blades out in practiced form, and I noticed there was something almost graceful about the way they moved that reminded me of the owls swarming above us before they’d morphed into their true forms.
Luir had trained his stealthy spawn well, but I still felt some enjoyment in catching them off guard while I disarmed t
hem and used their own weapons to slit their throats or stop their hearts.
Their copper eyes flashed with cold-blooded determination, and each one I came up against was nearly identical to the last with Luir’s same chiseled jawline.
Aurora’s sword clanged loudly and echoed through the hall as she sparred with any elf near her, and she wore a devilish grin on her face as she worked to lure more in. Once the Ignis Mage was surrounded with seven flashing swords, she shot her free arm out and engulfed every one of them in flames with a merciless chuckle.
I smirked as I hurled the axe once more, and this time, both axes came to me when I summoned my magic again.
I whipped around to block the onslaught of another horde of guards, and as soon as I found my opening, their talons flew from their fists and into their chests.
The guards began to pile up on the blood slicked stone, and when I looked up, Deya was in hand to hand combat with a guard. Her runes were sending shockwaves of pain with every blow, and she actually had an incredibly decent side kick.
But Luir caught my eye as he finally pulled himself up on the edge of the long stone table, and he looked straight past Deya to me.
Before I could blink, I was thrown twenty feet into the air, and when I came crashing down, I softened the stone just in time. My head still smashed against the floor with a dizzying blow, though, and as I stumbled to my feet, I was immediately hurled backward to crash against the stout wooden doors.
This time, the breath was knocked completely out of me, and I fought to fill my lungs as three guards cornered me where I landed.
I summoned an axe to bury it into one of their spines, and Cayla’s rifle cracked another’s skull open on impact.
I was about to wrench the last elf’s talons loose when Luir’s power yanked me from my place again, and I grappled to catch hold of anything as I was dragged over bodies and blades.
My thighs were shredded by a couple of them along the way, and just before Luir threw me into the wall, I managed to soften my landing enough to spare my bones once more.
Blood dripped down both of my legs when I finally stood again, and as Luir rose as well, Cayla let out a furious shriek.
Aurora swiftly scalded the arms of the elf who’d managed to grab Cayla from behind, but the princess had lost her rifle and was finally out of weapons.
Aurora had only her sword left as she sparred with three seething elves and tried to help Cayla, and Shoshanne sent the very last of her shuriken out.
I immediately scanned the bodies for anything I could send to the women, but Luir started chuckling once more, and when I looked back to him, his serpentine eyes weren’t on me anymore.
Then all three of the women in the center of the chamber were knocked from their feet and slammed together with unbelievable force, and when the leader raised his palm to throw them, my vision clouded a vibrant red with my rage.
Everything around me seemed to slow as the hollow crack echoed loudly throughout the tower above, and the three women were poised to drop in midair as Luir looked up in terror.
The crack in the ancient stonework sprawled out and began to spread around the entire tower, and as I held a deathly glare on the head of House Orrel, the elf barked a command for everything to end.
I ceased the breakage, but the only thing keeping the tower from falling into ruin now was my own powers, and I waited with the whole place on the brink of collapse as the leader released his hold on my women.
They clutched at their limbs where they’d crashed into one another, and I could tell Cayla was having trouble standing even though she kept her jaw set firm. She finally stooped and retrieved her rifle from the bloody floor, and Aurora stumbled to help her as she propped her weight on the gun.
My fury had only mounted as I took stock of the damage, and I didn’t shift by an inch when the last guards started to back away in surrender.
I held my arms in place with the weight of the ancient stones pressing down and urging me to let them collapse, and Luir looked around the place like he really couldn’t decide whether to run or cry.
“Enough!” he bellowed desperately, and a cruel smirk curled at the corner of my mouth as I slowly stepped across the bodies of Luir’s sons to come to the center of the towering chamber.
The stone above me creaked ominously as I went, and Luir clutched the edge of the stone table as his golden youth seemed to pale completely.
“Enough,” he growled once more.
“You gonna ask nicely?” I said with a smirk. “I was fine with just killing your sons off for you, but after the way you’ve treated my women, I think I’d rather bring the whole damn place down instead.”
Luir’s fury began to twitch somewhere near his left eye, and the dozen or so remaining guards fought for their breath while they continued to back away toward the doors.
“Please,” the leader managed to spit through gritted teeth.
The three women nodded when I looked over to check on them, and I called for Deya as I strained against the weight of the tower.
The beautiful elf quickly descended the steps and joined the other women, and another ominous creak echoed while I slowly stooped to my knee.
I retrieved the elven scrolls from beneath the stones of the floor, and Luir began to tremble with rage as his eyes darted to the parchments.
“Hand them over,” he ordered through gritted teeth.
I grinned maliciously. “You sure?” I asked.
As I spoke, a hefty slab of stone broke free from the peak of the tower, and Luir stumbled and tripped back in panic as his jaw went slack.
Just before the slab hit the ground, I caught it with a turn of my hand, and the leader let out a harried breath and braced himself on the stone table.
I recognized the defeat in Luir’s eyes, and I nodded.
“Like I said, I think I’ll hold on to these,” I told him, and I slowly raised the massive slab to return it to its place some hundred feet above us.
As the stone fused into place, Luir gave a frantic nod, and his shaky hand motioned for the guards to step aside.
Once the women made it to the doors, I looked up, and as I focused on carefully directing my powers, the ancient stonework gradually began to mend itself.
Every angry crack sealed as the stones groaned and shifted back into their places, and when the final blemish of the towering chamber was undone, I finally lowered my arm.
Luir looked like his legs were about to give out, but I couldn’t tell if it was the state of his sacred tower, or the bodies of his many sons littering the floor that hurt more.
Then I slipped the parchment back into my pocket, and Luir’s gaze narrowed menacingly.
“You have no use for them,” he growled. “You don’t need them. Leave them with me at least. They belong here.”
“I’d love to discuss this with you,” I told the leader. “I’d hoped we might have time to actually, but my women seem to be pretty badly injured at the moment. I’ll tell you what. Why don’t you take some time to figure out how you’re gonna make this up to me? Considering you’re running out of sons, I’d say it’s your best option at this point.”
I turned my back and headed for the entrance, and Aurora smirked as she shoved the doors open with her good arm.
“Three years, my little sprite,” Luir warned from across the chamber. “I think I’ll keep you for myself, though. My sons haven’t taken much of a liking to you.”
I heard Deya let out a sigh at my back, and I turned just as the beautiful elf flipped around and raised the revolver.
From behind her shoulder, I could see her aim was directed straight at Luir’s heart, and before I could move, Deya pulled the trigger.
“No!” I ordered, and my arm shot out as my veins surged.
Chapter 14
The bullet skirted just beneath the stone table and struck Luir’s kneecap as I attempted to redirect it, and he dropped hard to the floor as he yelled out in pain.
Half of the guards r
an to his aid while the other half barred their teeth, and as they clamored over the bodies to get to us, I grabbed the gun from Deya.
Then I quickly hoisted Cayla over my shoulder, and we all bolted down the aged steps toward the entrance of House Orrel.
The students in the halls stared at the blood all over us as we pushed past, and several of them immediately changed course to seek out their leader. They sent us accusing looks as they went, and I quickened my pace as cries of alarm began to echo at our backs.
“Get to the dock,” I ordered before I glanced at Deya. “What the fuck were you doing with my gun?”
“I’m sorry,” she groaned. “I didn’t know what else to do. I disappeared, and the Baroness was there. She could see me.”
We’d just made it to the copper dome, and all of us stopped dead as the doors shut behind us.
“What?” Aurora demanded of the elf.
“The Baroness,” Deya said once more. “She could see me, and when you guys followed the guards, she told me to take the gun. She insisted I needed it.”
Aurora’s emerald eyes flared. “And you listened to her?” she groaned.
“I didn’t know what to do,” Deya said as she blushed. “She said they would find me, and to take the gun. To be fair, it did end up being useful.”
I furrowed my brow as I tried yet again to find any sense in the ways of the Baroness, but I could at least acknowledge the gun had served Deya well.
But Deya’s thieving had also left me without it, and I couldn’t see a whole lot of logic in handing a revolver to a woman who didn’t know a thing about firing one.
The voices on the other side of the door began to draw nearer, though, and we quickly descended the last of the stairs as we ran for the dock.
“The next time a random woman tells you to disarm me, don’t listen,” I muttered over my shoulder. “Let’s just make that a rule.”
“Okay,” Deya immediately agreed, and she sent me such a sweet smile I could hardly stay irritated.
I sighed. “You need to know how to use a weapon before you start pointing it all over the place,” I told her. Then I shook my head. “Dragir would fucking kill me if he knew I let you use that gun without knowing how.”