by James Wisher
It hissed and Damien blasted it. “You okay?”
Leah touched her face, but Damien’s shield had held. “How can I be okay when things like that exist in the world? I never imagined such a thing was possible.”
Damien decided not to mention the raccoons from the slaughterhouse. “If demon squirrels are the worst thing we run into we’ll be fine. How does the earth force look?”
“It’s still pure. The energy comes from the planet core. I can’t imagine how much power it would take to corrupt that source. Thanks for the shield.”
“Sure. If you’re ready we should move on.”
Leah took a steadying breath and set out at a determined march. She had guts, no doubt about it. He suspected she’d need all she had before this unnatural hike was over.
Chapter 35
Squirrels, raccoons, birds, a pair of wolves, and a nest of rabbits. Damien never thought he’d see monsters in so many shapes and sizes all in one place. He blasted and burned while Jen sliced and chopped. None ever came within ten feet of Leah though every one they cut down seemed to wound her just the same. They emerged from the corrupted forest near dark, exhausted and hungry.
Ahead of them stretched an expanse of bare stone and dirt in which nothing grew and no spark of animal life showed itself. In its own way the emptiness was as horrifying as the tainted life of the dark forest. Damien would have liked to find a place for them to rest, but the only cover was back in the woods and he doubted anyone wanted to camp surrounded by demonic animals. About a hundred yards across the dead zone the slope turned steep and at the top of a rough trail was a cave.
“Is that it?” Damien asked.
“Yes.” Leah sounded weak and he feared she hadn’t fully recovered from her long sleep. “It wasn’t like this before. The terrain was rough, but there was life. Interfering with the Green Path has damaged all the life in this area. I can’t believe he did this. Eleck once revered the wilderness.”
“You can discuss it with him after we set things right,” Jen said. “We need to find cover and scout their position.”
Leah pointed at a clump of boulders half again as tall as Damien partway up the slope and a little to their left. “Perhaps behind them?”
Jen frowned. “Not ideal, but we don’t have much to work with here. Let’s go.”
They trotted across the open ground and up the slope as quick as they could without raising a racket. If the enemy had any lookouts posted Damien couldn’t spot them. They sat behind the stones and Damien conjured a scout bug. When he had the construct connected to a viewing rectangle he sent it toward the cave.
Jen and Leah leaned in closer. He guided it through the opening and after a short flight the cave brightened. He tried to find the source of the glow, but it came from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. It didn’t have the same green tint as the light in the temple but Damien sensed no corruption.
“What’s that light?” he asked.
“The blood of the earth. It’s running through the walls close enough to the surface that the light oozes out fine crystals embedded throughout the tunnel. It isn’t a natural phenomenon. They’ve been working on this project for a long time, months at least. Even in the weeks since I first discovered this place it’s changed. We’ll need a lifetime to put right the damage they’ve done.”
The bug continued down the tunnel until it came to a fork. “Which way?” Damien asked.
“Left, I think.” Leah shook her head. “I roamed for hours in those passages. I can’t remember the exact path.”
Damien shrugged and guided the construct left. If it turned out to be wrong they’d just have to check the other direction.
It took almost an hour of staring at empty tunnels before the bug reached something interesting, a walkway that ran between two pools of lava. Blood of the earth, was she talking about lava? If the molten stone ran just beneath the walls of the whole complex they were essentially walking into a death trap. One wrong blast and they’d be burned to a crisp.
“Damien, what’s wrong?” Jen asked.
“Just thinking that we’re walking into a live volcano and how it might be better if I just blast the place and bury them all in a magma pool.”
“You can’t,” Leah said. “If you destroy the circle our ability to fix the ley line will be greatly diminished. The flow of the earth force will be disrupted for years if not decades.”
“Yeah, I was afraid you’d say something like that.”
He guided the bug across the walkway and into the tunnel beyond. After thirty feet it opened into a cavern suffused with a green glow. In the center was a rune circle surrounded by six men and women in green robes, their bodies throwing off the same light he’d come to associate with druid sorcery.
“They’re still moving it. After all the damage they’ve caused they’re still nudging the ley line further out of position.”
“Wait. I thought it required a full circle to move the line,” Damien said. “They’re two people short.”
“It takes a full circle to initiate the movement or to make a big change like the one that caused the quake, but once the ritual is underway a smaller group can keep it going. Though I’d say this is the minimum they’d need.”
“Anything else you neglected to mention?” Jen sounded as annoyed as he felt.
“No. I’m sorry, I didn’t think it would make any difference.”
“Never assume anything,” Jen said. “The smallest detail could be the one that saves our lives, or gets us killed.”
Damien let the bug vanish and turned to his companions. “I don’t think there’s anything else.”
Jen frowned. “It’s too easy. There should be guards for something this important. I can’t believe they’ll just let anyone walk through the front door.”
“Easy!” Leah stared at his sister, a slightly hysterical tone to her voice. “They set up in the middle of nowhere. The cave is surrounded by a demon-haunted forest that would daunt any normal person assuming they could even find it. That seems like pretty good protection to me.”
“Maybe.” Jen’s expression didn’t soften in the least. “I hope you’re right, but even if you aren’t the only thing we can do is move forward.”
Damien surrounded both women with shields strong enough to protect them even if they should fall into a pool of magma. It took a fair chunk of his power, but he wouldn’t let anything happen to either of them if he could prevent it.
The little group left the safety of their hiding place and scrambled up the steep slope, bits of loose stone crunching under their feet. Damien went in first, his shield almost crackling with power. If there were any surprises waiting he intended to be ready. Leah followed him and Jen brought up the rear.
The tunnel was wide enough to permit them to walk side by side, but that would have just presented a bigger target. Not that there seemed to be anyone around to attack them. No sound reached them. Nothing moved in the eerie reddish light.
Maybe Leah was right and the renegade druids had depended on their remote location for the bulk of their defenses. More likely that Eleck had stripped the cave of its defenders to attack him and Jen at the temple. The preemptive strike wouldn’t have been a bad idea if it had worked. Now that decision had left his base vulnerable.
Chapter 36
Damien would have expected a room with two open pools of lava to be hotter. Even with his shield he should have been sweating like a pig in a room like this. Instead it was no warmer than a midsummer day, probably not even a hundred degrees. Beyond the walkway the figures of the six druids stood in the dim green light. They seemed oblivious to the intruders’ presence.
“This isn’t right,” he said.
“I’ve been thinking the same thing since we set foot in the cave,” Jen said. “What do you want to do?”
Damien conjured a ball of energy. “I could kill them from here.”
“No.” Leah grabbed his wrist. “An explosion might damage the circle, plus they’
re not bad people, just weak-willed ones tricked by Eleck.”
“Besides, if there is a trap we’ll need to deal with it so our allies can get through to repair the damage,” Jen said. “I’ll go first.”
Damien stepped in front of her. “I don’t think so.”
“What?”
He winced. Maybe that had been a little forceful. “At least let me check it for anything obvious.”
He conjured a humanoid construct and gave it twice the weight of a regular person. If there were any pressure plates or hidden tripwires the construct would set them off. If the traps were sorcerous Damien figured he would have sensed them.
The construct clomped toward the walkway. The moment its golden foot crossed from the cave floor to the walkway the lava shifted and surged up, forming a ten-foot-tall giant of liquid stone on either side of the path. Both giants brought their fists down on the construct. The instant before they struck Damien absorbed the energy rather than have it dissipate.
Jen glanced at him, all traces of irritation vanished. “What are those things?”
Damien shook his head. “I have no idea. There’s no corruption in them, so they’re not demons. I’ve never seen or heard of anything like them.”
“I have,” Leah said.
Damien didn’t dare take his eyes off the giants. So far the monsters seemed content to hold their places. “Don’t keep us in suspense.”
“They’re earth guardians. Our oldest scrolls describe them being used to guard important ritual sites. They’re physical manifestations of the earth force, given purpose by a druid ritual. I never would have guessed Eleck possessed skill enough to accomplish such an advanced spell.”
“How do we kill them?” Jen asked. She’d drawn her sword, for all the good it would do against creatures made of molten rock.
“They’re not alive and therefore can’t be killed.”
Jen ground her teeth. “You know what I mean. How do we stop them?”
“The guardians are connected directly to the earth force. They can’t be stopped except by the will of the one that bound them or the destruction of the area to which they’re bound.”
“Why don’t they attack?” Jen asked.
“I can’t say for certain, but I’d guess the task Eleck gave them is to prevent access to the ritual chamber. So long as we don’t try and get in they won’t bother us.”
“Wait, how do the druids get past them?” Damien asked.
Leah shrugged. “A password or talisman most likely.”
Damien nodded. “I guess we’ll just have to ask one of the druids inside.”
Jen raised an eyebrow “How? We can’t get in there.”
“We’ll have to bring one of them to us.” Damien conjured a small sphere and sent it across the walkway.
The guardians swung at it, but it was too fast. Half a second later it was past and flying toward the circle of druids. They were fully engrossed with the ritual and didn’t even notice it approaching. Damien shifted its shape and formed a collar that he slipped around the neck of the closest druid. He crooked his finger and the collar dragged the unfortunate woman out of the circle and across the cave floor toward the walkway.
She dug in her heels and tried to hold herself back, but she would have had a better chance stopping a horse by pushing on its chest. Damien’s power was irresistible. She reached the edge of the walkway and he stopped pulling.
“Is there anything you’d like to say before I yank you across?” he asked.
Her jaw clenched and she remained silent. Either she was willing to die for her master or she had a talisman hidden in the folds of her green robe. Damien shrugged and pulled her across.
The guardians never flinched as she skidded across the walkway. When she was four feet away from the group he stopped the collar and inserted a mental block into her head to stop her from lying.
Damien smiled. Not the nice smile he used on people he liked, but the cold, humorless one that Lane said gave her chills. “So, let’s get right to it. How do we circumvent the guardians?”
The female druid just glared at him prompting Damien to sigh. “You’ve got guts, I’ll give you that. Do you guys think we should try torture first or should we strip her one piece at a time and keep running her past the guardians until they crush her?”
“I vote torture first and if that doesn’t work we try stripping her.” Jen turned her head and winked at him. She knew the game as well as he did.
Damien switched his attention to Leah. “What do you think?”
“I think if you give me a minute I can probably find the talisman without torturing or stripping her.”
“Works for me, though it doesn’t sound anywhere near as much fun.” Damien waved her over. “Have at it.”
When Leah approached, the prisoner raised her hands like she planned to fight. Damien added shackles around her wrists and ankles that held her rigid. “There. Now behave yourself and maybe I won’t make you test Leah’s guess by running past the guardians without your talisman.”
“Please, sister, don’t let him hurt me.” The woman had a pleasantly warm voice. He’d expected someone willing to betray her people to sound more shrill.
“Don’t call me sister. You betrayed your oath and the Green Path. The only reason I’ll argue for your life is because even someone as horrid as you is a child of the path. Now be silent.”
After two minutes of searching Leah pulled the prisoner’s robes open and slipped a pin out of the skin beneath her left breast. “This is it.”
“You’re certain?” Damien asked.
“As certain as I can be without walking across the path.”
Damien turned his gaze on the prisoner. “Is that your talisman?”
She remained silent.
He shrugged, lifted her off the ground and floated her toward the path. Five feet short of the walkway she screamed, “Yes! That’s the talisman. Please stop.”
He pulled her back to safety. “There. Wasn’t that easier?”
“What now?” Leah asked.
“Now I’ll fish the rest of them out of their hole and you can find five more talismans.”
“What about her?” Leah nodded toward the prisoner. “We didn’t bring any rope to tie her up.”
“No need.” Jen hammered the female druid in the back of the head with the pommel of her sword. The woman went limp in her restraints and Damien let her fall to the floor. One down five to go.
Chapter 37
The master had barely set the second urn on an empty shelf in his library when a green crystal bird landed on the arm of his black chair. Mikhail reached for it then caught himself. He’d crushed one of Connor’s messengers months ago and now he was no longer allowed to touch them with his clumsy, armored hands. His master sat and pulled the little note from the bird’s mouth, his expression darkening as he scanned the tiny words.
“Damn it! Useless, pathetic druid.”
“Master?” Mikhail leaned in to try and read the note. Whatever Eleck had said it was the wrong thing.
Connor disintegrated the slip of paper and rounded on Mikhail. “I warned him there would be a price for more failures. You remember, I said no more problems. Take care of your tasks or face the consequences. That’s what I told his messenger.”
“I remember, Master.”
“Now, not only has he not finished preparing the cavern, he’s also failed to deal with the runaway druid girl. She’s back with help from the kingdom. All the soul force eaters I gave him are dead along with most of the fire-scales. Do you know the final insult?”
Mikhail took a step back. He’d never seen his master in such a foul mood. “No, Master.”
“Eleck has the unmitigated gall to ask for more help!” Connor grabbed the front of Mikhail’s armor and yanked him down so their faces were even. Metal that had deflected some of the strongest soul force blasts Mikhail’s opponents could generate crumpled under the enraged warlock’s fingers. Mikhail tried to swallow and failed.
“And the worst part, Mikhail? I have to give it to him!”
Connor hurled Mikhail across the library to slam into the far wall where he clattered to the ground like a boulder tossed into a scrap metal heap. Connor stalked across the library after him. Mikhail stumbled to his knees and touched his head to the floor. He sent a silent prayer to the Horned One that his master would control himself before he destroyed Mikhail. He held his position, eyes squeezed shut, waiting to die.
Connor sighed and patted his arm. “It’s not your fault, Mikhail. I shouldn’t have taken my frustration out on you. It’s just you’re the only thing here I didn’t fear breaking.”
Mikhail risked looking up. Connor stared down at him with his glowing red eyes and a hint of a smile playing about his lips. “It’s okay, I’m over it now.”
He grabbed Mikhail by his shoulder armor and jerked him to his feet with one hand. Connor brushed his breastplate and the twisted metal straightened and smoothed out like nothing had happened.
Mikhail managed to work some spit into his dry mouth. “What will you do, Master?”
The great warlock sighed again. “I’ll send the idiot help. He has a job to finish after all. Once the ley lines are in the proper position, however, it will be necessary to punish him for his constant failures. Him and all his useless tribe. You understand, Mikhail?”
A slow smile spread under Mikhail’s helm. “I understand, Master. When the task is finished” —Mikhail dragged his thumb across his throat— “everybody dies.”
Chapter 38
Damien looked at the pile of unconscious rebel druids lying on the floor in the corner of the cave. They’d stripped the prisoners of their protective talismans and any weapons they carried. Damien had been surprised by just how few there were: three unimpressive daggers and a pair of eating knives, not exactly an arsenal.