“Time’s up,” Anatoly said as he unslung his war axe.
Jataan and Boaberous flanked him as the enemy soldiers reached the base of the staircase. The first soldier into the room died quickly, cleaved nearly in two by Anatoly’s axe, leaving his crumpled corpse for the next soldier to trip over. Jataan neatly sliced his throat as he fell over his companion. The next to enter was hit square in the chest with the top of Boaberous’s war hammer in a powerful jabbing thrust that sent the man flying back into the soldiers behind him. Another man fell into him and the two of them tumbled into the antechamber at Anatoly’s feet. He unceremoniously killed them both.
The two remaining men of the squad stopped before entering the room and turned to flee. Jataan tossed his knife with precision, driving the blade into one man’s back and through his heart. He fell forward and slid down the stairs as the final man fled, running for his life and screaming for help.
The fight was over before Alexander could reach the room but he learned something in the process. As his friends fought the surprised enemy soldiers, Alexander knew what each of the soldiers was going to do before he did it. It was as if he could see into their minds as they formed their intentions and made their split-second decisions. He stood, mesmerized by the sensation. It was such a powerful advantage in a fight that he could hardly believe it was real.
Evelyn snapped him out of his trance. “What are we going to do now?” she complained. “We’re trapped down here and the only way out is through hundreds of soldiers.”
“The soldiers are of no concern,” Jataan said.
Alexander grinned as Evelyn looked at the battle mage with incredulity.
“The wizard might be a problem, though,” Anatoly said.
“True,” Alexander said. “We make for the central chamber and then into the one passage we haven’t tried yet. If I’m right, it’s a way out. If not, then we’re going to have to fight our way up that staircase. Use the confined quarters to our advantage and if you see the wizard, take a shot at him. Jataan, lead the way.”
The battle mage nodded and produced a knife from somewhere under his cloak. As they headed up the staircase, they heard a revenant scream. At least the soldiers had something else to deal with, Alexander thought to himself.
They reached the top of the stairs and the room that used to be Benesh Reishi’s workshop just as the one soldier who’d escaped returned with a platoon of reinforcements. Twenty soldiers flowed into the room with weapons drawn.
Jataan darted into the fray without hesitation, slipping past a soldier and slicing deeply into the inside of his arm on his way toward the only soldier wearing the insignia of an officer.
Boaberous let out a battle cry that reverberated throughout the room and literally stunned a few of the enemy soldiers before he crashed into the battle, flailing back and forth with his giant war hammer.
Anatoly entered the fight with his usual, measured deadliness, picking his target and dispatching him with deliberate precision and brute force before moving on to the next.
Alexander moved toward the nearest soldier and raised Mindbender. As the soldier charged, Alexander saw in his mind’s eye the enemy’s plan of attack. As the brief engagement unfolded, Alexander realized the profound power Mindbender gave him. The soldier did exactly as he expected him to do. The technique was executed competently but since Alexander knew exactly what was coming, he was able to calmly, almost routinely, place himself in precisely the right position to deliver a counter that slipped past the soldier’s guard. Mindbender was quick and sharp. It drove through the man’s armor and into his heart with relative ease—although nothing like the Thinblade.
With his all around sight, Alexander saw another man move to strike from behind. He ducked and whirled, slashing the man’s thigh to the bone and sending him to the ground screaming. A quick step over the injured man brought him into position to kill another soldier who was moving toward Conner, Evelyn, and Lucky.
The enemy’s thoughts came quickly and accurately as Alexander faced each one. In every case he knew exactly what they were thinking, what they intended to do even as they formed the idea. The sensation was slightly disorienting until he surrendered to it and allowed it to guide his hand in battle.
Within a minute the entire platoon lay dead or dying and Alexander and his friends were all unharmed, with the exception of a few nicks and bruises sustained by Boaberous and Anatoly.
Alexander nodded his satisfaction as he wiped the blood off Mindbender and strapped the scabbard to his back.
“Your new sword seems to work pretty well,” Jack said as he took his hood down and flickered back into view.
“It’s amazing,” Alexander marveled. “I know what the enemy is going to do. It’s like I’m inside their head, hearing their thoughts.”
Anatoly whistled. “That’s quite an advantage. I wondered why you didn’t draw the Thinblade.”
Alexander shrugged. “I didn’t really think about it.” He switched Mindbender to his left hand with the point down and drew the Thinblade. “Let’s keep moving, maybe we’ll get lucky and avoid that wizard.”
They reached the central chamber and found a squad of soldiers standing guard all around the room as another squad reached the entrance from the long spiral staircase. Jataan had three dead before Alexander even reached the room. He dispatched the other three with ease. Knowing what the enemy was thinking coupled with the impossible sharpness of the Thinblade made for an unstoppable combination.
Boaberous reached the base of the staircase as a man from the second squad entered the room. He crushed him with one heavy blow from his hammer and waited for the next man to round the corner, but the soldier saw trouble and withdrew back around the bend in the spiral stair.
“Stand back,” Lucky said as he tossed a shatter vial high into the staircase. The liquid turned to a thick green vapor when it made contact with the air and began to rise. Moments later, sounds of men choking and gagging drifted back down into the entry chamber.
“The cloud of vapor will rise up the staircase for several minutes before it dissipates,” Lucky said. “I’m afraid the soldiers who inhale it won’t survive.”
Alexander smiled at Lucky and gave Jataan a nod to continue down the one passage that they hadn’t yet explored. They heard the scream of a revenant from somewhere up ahead, but pressed on. The passage ran for a hundred feet or more before it opened into a natural cavern. There were several pillars of stone formed by the steady drip of water through the bedrock. Many surfaces were coated with luminescent green lichen that gave the place an eerie yet beautiful glow. A rivulet of water flowed down the far wall and fed a small underground lake that spilled over one edge and flowing into a natural passage leading into the bowels of the mountain at a slight downward angle. Under other circumstances, the place would have been beautiful . . . but not with the pitched battle taking place at the edge of the small lake.
A revenant stood its ground against a dozen soldiers backed up by the wizard. Two men were down with lurid red bite marks on their necks and another three were dead and broken on the floor of the cavern. The revenant screamed again and half of the men froze in place while several of the others managed to drop their weapons and cover their ears before the terrifying sound paralyzed them.
The wizard unleashed a bolt of lightning that struck the revenant squarely in the chest and blew it onto its back, but a moment later it sprang to its feet with inhuman quickness even as the burn on its chest healed over. It lashed out at the nearest soldier and raked deep gashes across his face and neck, sending him sprawling to the ground in a rapidly growing puddle of his own blood.
“Attack,” Alexander commanded as he moved toward the wizard.
Boaberous launched a javelin just as the wizard became aware of their presence. He brought up a shield that deflected it and then started casting another spell.
The soldiers decided that they would rather face mortal enemies instead of the revenant. Several of them turne
d and rushed toward Alexander. He killed the first in passing on his way toward the wizard. Anatoly followed behind, guarding his back as Boaberous charged into the crowd of advancing soldiers, crushing any who got close to his giant war hammer.
Jataan headed for the revenant. It saw him coming and launched itself into the air toward him to meet the challenge. An instant before it came down on him, he darted to the side and neatly cleaved the beast’s wing off. It wheeled and caught him squarely with a backhand, sending him sprawling. Before it could pounce, one of the enemy soldiers tried to stab it. The revenant batted his sword aside, grabbed the doomed man with both clawed hands by the shoulders, picked him up and sank his fangs into the man’s neck.
Alexander was nearly to the wizard when lightning arced from the wizard’s hand and struck Alexander square in the chest. He felt molten pain flow through his entire body from the middle of his chest to the ground where each foot met stone. He was held frozen for a second or more as the lightning tore through him. When the dazzling brilliance of the spell ended, he felt darkness claim him as he slumped to the ground.
A moment later, Jack drove his knife into the back of the wizard and through his heart. The wizard stiffened, then slumped forward and died.
Lucky raced to Alexander’s side as Boaberous faced off against the revenant. The beast lunged at him and bore him to the ground but the giant was strong enough to grapple with the unnatural creature. They fought for several moments before Jataan rejoined the battle and neatly cleaved one of its arms off. It shrieked in pain and recoiled but Boaberous was strong enough to hold on. He clambered on top of it and smashed the back of its head into the stone floor over and over again until the creature stopped thrashing and lay still. When Boaberous rolled to his feet, Anatoly casually decapitated the revenant . . . just to be sure.
***
Alexander woke some time later. He hurt everywhere. It felt like molten metal had flowed through his veins and burned him from the inside. Lucky had removed his armored shirt, which was so hot from the lightning that it had burned his chest. He groaned and Chloe buzzed up to hover over his face.
“You have to stop getting hurt like that, My Love. I don’t like it when you suffer.”
“Me neither,” he whispered through parched lips. “How long?”
“You’ve been out for a couple of hours,” Lucky said. “I put some healing salve on your chest and the bottoms of your feet to help with the burns, but I think you really need a healing draught and a few more hours of sleep.”
“Enemy?” he asked.
“They’re still coming, a squad at a time,” Jack said. “Jataan, Anatoly, and Boaberous are holding the entry hall and building quite a pile of bodies in the process.”
“Revenant?”
“Boaberous beat its brains in and then Anatoly cut its head off,” Jack said. “We’re safe for the moment.”
“Good. I hurt all over, especially on the inside,” he whispered as he motioned for Lucky to give him the healing draught. He quaffed it and lay back down carefully. The magic of it claimed him quickly. He was happy to surrender to the succor of deep, dreamless sleep.
He woke sometime later feeling better but still tender from his injuries. He sat up and found Evelyn sitting by his side and Chloe curled up on his pack.
“How are you feeling?” Evelyn asked.
“Sore, but better,” Alexander said as she handed him a waterskin. “What’s been happening while I’ve been out?”
“The soldiers have stopped coming down the staircase for now, but Anatoly says they’re probably just working on a new strategy. Aside from Conner and Anatoly who are watching the staircase, everyone else is resting.”
“Good,” Alexander said, easing himself back down on his bedroll. “You should get some sleep, too. Once we start moving again, it’ll be at least a week before we reach safety.”
“Thank you for rescuing me,” she whispered.
Alexander smiled. “You’re welcome.”
“I realize how much you risked coming here, even if it wasn’t just to get me, and how badly you were hurt. I feel bad that I sometimes don’t think about how things affect other people. I just wanted you to know that I’m grateful.”
“I do. All of this is a lot to endure for anyone. I don’t blame you for feeling a bit overwhelmed. Now, get some rest, we’ll be moving in a few hours.”
When Alexander woke several hours later, Lucky was busy preparing a cold breakfast and the others were packing their bedrolls.
“Ah, you’re awake,” Lucky said with a smile. “How are you feeling?”
Alexander took a quick inventory of his injuries and found that he was still a bit tender, but the feeling of burning inside was mostly gone. The burns on his chest and feet were almost completely healed.
“Good, considering. And hungry.”
Lucky chuckled and handed him a bowl of dried fruit and nuts.
After breakfast he went to see Anatoly and Conner in the entry hall. The scene was one of horror and carnage. There was a pile of corpses in front of the staircase taller than a man. Dozens of soldiers were dead. Alexander understood why they’d stopped to reconsider their approach.
“I thought we’d lost you for a minute there,” Anatoly said grimly. “If your sister were here, she’d tell you to be more careful.”
Alexander smiled and nodded. “I suspect she would. Who got to that wizard?”
“Jack stuck him in the back a moment after he zapped you,” Anatoly said. “He’s managed to bag two wizards on this trip. Not bad for a bard.”
“Not bad at all,” Alexander said. “We’re about ready to move. That passage leading out of the cavern back there has air flowing into it so I’m hoping we can find a way out. If not, we’re going to have to fight our way up these stairs.”
“I wasn’t even looking forward to walking up those stairs, never mind fighting my way to the top,” Anatoly said.
They returned to the cavern and made ready. Evelyn had taken a pair of pants from one of the dead soldiers and put them on under her dress. Alexander couldn’t help but smile at her. She had a sword strapped to her waist and wore a pair of heavy boots.
He adjusted his swords, putting the Thinblade on his back and Mindbender on his left hip so he could grasp the hilt with his left hand. He found that the magic of the sword didn’t require the blade to be drawn.
Jataan led the way into the natural passage that drained the excess water from the small underground lake. It was slow going. The tunnel was about six feet high with a rivulet of water flowing down the center. Slime had formed along the floor, making it slippery and treacherous. After an hour of walking through the gloomy underground, Alexander was exhausted and chilled to the bone. He’d hit his head on the low stone ceiling several times but not nearly as often as Boaberous had. The giant was having a particularly difficult time negotiating through the cramped space. Alexander slipped and fell several times. He was wet and sore but determined to find a way out that didn’t involve fighting through two hundred soldiers.
As they progressed deeper, the passage narrowed. In the distance they heard the sound of rushing water, and the air began to flow past them more quickly. They pressed on until they had to crawl through the constricted space with chilled water flowing through their clothes. Finally they reached a place where the water flowed over the edge and into another underground lake a dozen feet below.
Alexander peered over the edge and saw a pool of water with several inlets feeding it from a number of small underground streams. There was an opening on the far side with the faintest hint of light shining through. Alexander slipped over the edge and fell into the water.
The icy cold of the underground lake burned against his skin and his body temperature plunged even further. He was exhausted and his strength was failing, but he held onto the vial of night-wisp dust as he surfaced, looking desperately for a place out of the water. His light shimmered on wet stone and revealed a rock shelf a foot or so above running al
ong one wall. His boots pulled at him and his clothes weighed him down, but after a struggle he made it to the shelf and crawled out of the water. Jataan reached the shelf next. With an act of will, Alexander rolled to a sitting position and brought his knees to his chest as he held the light high to illuminate the way for his friends.
One by one, they plunged into the icy water and swam for the shelf. Anatoly struggled under the weight of his armor but Jack was there to help him. Boaberous was the last man through, squeezing and struggling to fit his enormous body through the narrow gap until he slipped free and crashed into the water. Jack helped him remain afloat as well until all of Alexander’s friends were huddled, soaking and freezing, on the wet stone shelf that ran alongside the little underground pool.
Jack crawled to the opening, looked out and swore. He returned, shivering and shaking his head.
“We’re about forty feet over a small lake,” he said through chattering teeth. “The water runs down the face of the cliff. The only way down is to risk sliding down the cliff into the lake, but there’s no telling how deep it is or if there are any rocks we might hit on the way.”
Alexander nodded and spoke to Chloe in his mind, “Can you scout the way ahead, Little One? We need a way out into the forest so we can make a fire and get warm.”
“Of course, My Love,” Chloe said.
She returned after only a minute. “The way is clear of stones but the water is very deep. You will need to swim to shore. Are you strong enough to make it, My Love?” she asked with worry.
“We don’t have any choice,” Alexander said.
He was shivering violently and wasn’t looking forward to getting into the water again but he knew they needed to get to dry ground and make a fire or they wouldn’t last the night.
Lucky started rummaging around in his bag. He pulled out six waterskins and a roll of cord. With shaking hands, he emptied the water from the skins and blew air into them, capping them quickly to keep them inflated. He tied two together with a length of cord and handed it to Anatoly. The next he gave to Boaberous and the final one he gave to Conner. Each of the three wore a breastplate that weighed him down enough to make the swim a struggle.
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