“It was still a success,” Kalam proudly declares. “I killed that forest tracker all of you were worried about and I weakened my brother. Isaiah will leave the area when he wakes up to regain his strength, so I must strike soon. I will take care of that intriguing caster too.”
“Luke Callindor is dead. That is good and unexpected news,” Vile declares, his face a stoic mask. “Although, I wish to see a body before we believe that he is no longer a threat. Retrieve the body at your earliest convenience.”
“I agree. We can’t risk making a mistake,” the Lich claims with a nod.
“So, what is your next plan of attack?” Vile asks, sitting into a small, cushioned chair.
“We are still . . . debating on who will enter the battle,” Trinity replies, her piercing gaze locked on the Lich. “I want to be there to handle Nyx, but the Lich argues that my being there would reveal too much to the enemy. He plans on hiding here like a mewing kitten.”
“We told you that it is best if you stayed out of it, but you are entitled to make your own decision,” Vile says. He moves the mirror so that he can clearly see the chaos elf. “Personally, I recommend ignoring your pride and staying with the Lich. Kalam could be put in danger if you get Nyx riled up or get in his way.”
Kalam chuckles softly. “I prefer to work with controllable allies. An ally with free will in battle can lead to my downfall. Besides, from what I was told, you already lost multiple times to this half-elf.”
“I was unaware of her power and she was not alone the first time. The second defeat was an intelligent retreat,” argues Trinity with an evil glare at the vampire.
“Can we please have this discussion another time?” the Lich interrupts.
“Very well, I will be making a smaller undead army, but I will be adding a few unique soldiers. I have already sent my servants to collect new corpses for me,” Kalam explains, a hungry gleam in his eyes. “All that I ask of you, Sir Vile, is to assist us with the Sword Dragon that your allies have promised me. I assume that you will give me control of the beast once it arrives.”
“I am afraid not,” Vile politely says. He ignores the sound of Kalam’s claws scraping against his chair’s arms. “The dragon is unable to be teleported, so I will fly it to the battlefield. I will not be able to transfer control due to the time it will take to reach your location. I hope you understand that it is not that we don’t trust you, but a matter of timing.”
“I understand. We are all on the same team after all,” Kalam agrees with a cautious glare toward the mirror.
Vile casually pulls out a long pipe from his satchel and begins puffing out smoke rings. “The dragon will be there within three days unless I run into some problems. I have to pass close to griffin territory and there is no way to predict if a Nature Dragon will be along the route I choose. Now, I will prepare everything that is needed for the dragon. Congratulations on killing the young Callindor.”
“I look forward to seeing your mighty construct in battle. It is time for me to make my own preparations,” Kalam announces, bowing his head.
Without another word, Kalam fades from view and the mirror sinks into the stone floor. Trinity is about to speak when an ear-splitting shriek erupts from the walls. She feels her eardrums pop and some blood drips down the sides of her head. The Lich cackles gleefully while the chaos elf fights the urge to throw up. Seconds feel like minutes until the noise abruptly stops and the room goes deathly silent. Trinity can barely hear anything over the painful ringing in her ears. She drags herself to the wall and uses it to pull herself to her feet.
“That was the alarm,” the Lich informs her. “It means that someone took the wrong key and came in the back door.”
“What was that?” Trinity asks over the dull drone in her head.
“I said that someone set off the alarm! It was probably you know who!” the Lich shouts, releasing a cloud of dust from his lungs. He extends a skeletal hand toward Trinity and snaps his fingers. A stream of sparks flies from his fingertips to the chaos elf’s bleeding ears. She can feel her blown eardrums knit back together, sending a large shiver up her spine.
“That’s great news! I was getting bored!” Trinity yells. She realizes her ears are fixed, so she clears her throat and returns to her normal volume. “I’m assuming that Kalam will handle it before I can have fun. On the plus side, this could end our plan early and I can go home. I worry that my people are getting abused without me watching over them, especially with Yola being unsupervised.”
The Lich grins at the chaos elf. “Kalam was still teleporting to his bedroom when the alarm went off. He’s blissfully unaware of the situation. We might be able to have some fun here.”
“You plan on joining me?” Trinity asks with a wicked smile.
“There is something about this intrusion that interests me,” the Lich answers, his eyes ablaze with excitement and curiosity. “It is strange that it would be a subtle break-in unless they are after one of Kalam’s artifacts. If it was a simple retaliation for the attack then they would have tried to tear down the barriers and come in swinging. We’d be up to our necks in warriors, priests, and casters by now.”
“You have a point. There is something strange here,” Trinity agrees, tightening her stilettos’ sheaths.
“We should be careful and take some precautions,” the Lich advises her, pausing to let his words sink in. “One of us should get Kalam involved since he would be blamed for things going wrong within his own lair. If we were to do this alone and without his knowledge then we would have to take all of the blame.”
“As much as I want to have some fun, it wouldn’t be worth the wrath of our master,” Trinity admits, a shiver of fear running through her body. “Our deal with Kalam would be wasted if the two of us were to mess everything up out of boredom. It might be best for us to take the intruders captive instead of killing them outright. They might be useful when it comes time to dispose of your old teacher.” She stretches and feels her muscles quiver in anticipation. “In any case, I should meet with our guests. I hope they include Nyx because I want to have fun at her expense.”
“I will inform Kalam of the intruders before I join you. Leave some of them for me if I’m late,” the Lich requests.
Trinity is already stepping out of the guest room. “I make no such promises!”
*****
“Did you hear something?” Luke asks while Nyx sits on the leaf-covered stairs next to him. He can see her reaching behind her back to loosen her corset. She immediately begins breathing easier.
“I thought I heard a scream. We must be coming close to the dungeon,” Nyx whispers, her voice tense. “Just give me a few more minutes. My eyes are almost adjusted to this dim light.”
Luke looks around at the polished stairs and walls that surround them. It takes him a few seconds to realize that the steps are made out of mottled gray marble instead granite like the walls. He can hear Nyx stand up while he continues to slowly piece together what is strange about the stairwell.
“There’s not a single cobweb or a scrap of garbage down here,” Luke mentions in amazement.
“There’s moisture on the wall, but there are no molds or mushrooms down here. I have never heard of a necrocaster’s lair being so clean,” Nyx cautiously says. “Especially in a rarely used entrance.”
“I don’t remember being told that it was rarely used.”
“Well, they implied that it was.”
“For your sake, I hope you’re right and my hunch is wrong.”
“What’s your hunch?” Nyx asks. She takes a slow step down the stairs and cautiously waits for any signs of movement in the shadows below.
“Keep in mind that I’m guessing here. Kalam is a vampire, so he needs a steady source of blood. I’m betting that the room we are heading into is where he feeds,” Luke explains, walking ahead of Nyx. “He would want to keep this place clean to minimize the panicking of his new victims. By the time his victims reach the bottom, it is too late to escap
e.”
Nyx runs her finger along the wall and flicks off the dirty water that collects on her nail. “I’m going to disagree with you, Luke. We were told that this entrance leads to the dungeon. The room is probably for guards or interrogation. It could even be a storage room for deliveries. Maybe even a torture chamber. The only way to find out is by going down there.”
“Let me scout ahead,” Luke suggests, gliding down the stairs and disappearing into the gloom.
The eerie silence is unnerving as Nyx strains her hearing for signs of trouble. She is about to follow Luke when the darkness at the bottom of the stairs turns bright red. The air fills with the faint smell of smoke and burning fur. Nyx briefly sees a plume of fire lick at the bottom of the stairs. A guttural growl, which is occasionally cut off by a furious yelp, wafts up the stairs. Nyx starts to walk down the stairs and sees another jet of fire hit the ceiling ahead of her.
Nyx cautiously reaches the last step and sticks her head into the room, which is nothing more than a large storeroom. Shattered bones and scraps of maggot-covered flesh are strewn along the smooth floor. Nyx can see several finely-crafted manacles attached to the walls and she turns away when her eyes settle on half of a body hanging in the corner. Two brightly lit torches frame the entrance to another set of stairs sitting directly across from Nyx. She would gladly cross the room and hurry to wherever the stairs lead her if it was not for the drooling beast chasing Luke from one corner of the room to another.
At Nyx’s first glance, the swift-moving monster looks to be nothing more than a large dog with ashy, bristling fur. The fur-covered muscles of the dog fluidly ripple with every movement. Once the beast turns in her direction, Nyx notices a second head coming out of the dog’s wide neck. Both heads let loose with streams of fire that merge into a thick, rolling plume. The powerful inferno collides with the wall a few inches above Luke’s head.
“Wow. A hellhound,” Nyx whistles. She watches the enormous dog gracefully bound after the translucent warrior.
“Great. You know what it is. Now, blast it!” Luke shouts, leaping over another blast of flame.
“Fire spells won’t work on it. Ice and water are the best, but I’ve never been very good at those. I always manage to screw them up,” Nyx admits, eyeing the dangerous beast. “Why are you running? It can’t hurt you.” She quickly ducks back into the stairwell and watches the flame pass her.
“I thought so too, but I can feel the heat from the fire,” Luke says. He runs at the hellhound and leaps over it, feeling its warm breath on his heels. “It’s bad enough that I’m a spirit. Adding burned beyond recognition would feel excessive.”
Nyx peeks around the corner. “I’ll see what I can do.”
She steps into the room and is immediately rushed by the crazed hellhound. She creates a shield around her when the beast is almost on top of her. The sudden barrier sends the dog bouncing into the far wall. The hellhound wastes no time getting to its feet and snarling at Nyx, circling her cautiously. The beast stops for an instant when she nervously pulls out her magic crossbow. The monster regains its courage and takes in a deep breath. With an eerie howl, the hellhound releases a huge rush of fire that splits around Nyx’s magic shield.
With her eyes clamped shut in fear, Nyx blindly shoots an emerald bolt at the incoming inferno. Her heart stutters when she hears her shield shatter. She cracks her eyes open enough to see the shimmering shards of her protective spell fade into thin air. It isn’t until she notices Luke staring at the hellhound that she sees the crossbow bolt pushing against the fire blast. Nyx watches in awe as the magical bolt pierces the inferno, which implodes upon itself with a loud pop.
“What was that?” Luke asks.
“Kill the demon puppy! Those swords have to do something useful,” Nyx snaps without looking away from the jittery hellhound.
The hellhound refuses to turn away from Nyx while it leaps away from Luke’s attack. It continues to blindly dodge Luke causing the forest tracker to get frustrated. The hellhound finally turns its left-side head toward a blur of motion to its side. It leaps into the air to avoid the saber sailing for its chest before it notices Luke jumping off Nyx’s shoulder with his other saber held over his head. The beast twists in mid-air, but it is unable to avoid the downward chop that clearly passes through both heads. The hellhound crashes to the ground where foam flows from its mouth and its body twitches weakly.
“What did I do to it?” Luke asks, pleasantly surprised by his victory.
“If I had to guess, I would say that you disrupted its brain,” Nyx replies, inching toward the crippled monster. “I should put it out of its misery and send it back to Hell. I think they come from Hell. Maybe they’re from the Chaos Void.”
“I don’t know,” Luke admits with a shrug. “I’d go with Hell. It is the fire plane, so this puppy would feel at home. Chaos Void is for demons.”
“Give me a minute,” the caster requests, concentrating her magic on the twitching beast on the floor. A pillar of fire slowly rises around the hellhound while she mutters words that chill her blood. Luke hears a small hiss before the pillar is sucked into the floor and the hellhound is gone.
“He’s out of our hair if we have to come back this way,” Nyx gasps, trying to catch her breath.
“Are you going to be okay?” Luke asks, almost reaching out to touch Nyx. “You look tired.”
“I’m fine,” Nyx whispers. She stands straight and looks at Luke with raw determination. “It was too soon after your possession for me to cast magic, but I can already feel my energies returning. I think the area’s rich aura is feeding me.”
“Great. You should lead the way this time,” Luke suggests, unable to hide his disappointment. “You have the better chance of destroying things. Looks like I can’t do more than turn brains into runny eggs.”
Nyx smiles warmly at the moping spirit. “That could be very useful against casters and psychics. You should look into keeping those swords.”
“No thanks. I want my original blades when I get back to my body,” Luke proudly claims.
“I was joking. This whole lair invasion has me giddy and excited. It’s much more fun that all of our previous adventures,” Nyx says. She flexes her fingers and lets a shiver run through her body. “In our last adventure, we were going to a town, dealing with a trap, and getting back on the boat. This time we never know what lies ahead or if we will make it back to safety. It’s so . . . invigorating.”
“Whatever you say, city rat,” Luke teases her. “You mind leading the way and telling me what that crossbow did?”
“Oh, it’s nothing more than a spell negation weapon,” Nyx answers, trying to hide her child-like excitement. “The bolts have the ability to eliminate any spells in their path. It looks like they pass through barriers, but they disappear once they make contact with an attack spell. I should test it out on illusions when we get out of here.” She cautiously approaches the stairs to the lower level of the dungeon. “Unfortunately, I think my own magic gets sealed for a minute after firing this thing. It must be using my magic to make the bolt.”
“You shouldn’t use it very often,” the forest tracker recommends.
Nyx gets halfway down the stairs before she wrinkles her nose and nearly gags from the horrible stench. “I agree. It will only be used for emergencies or when I’m too weak to cast anything worthwhile. Ugh, it smells like damp . . . I don’t even know what that smell is.”
Luke is surprised that he can smell the foul odor. “I think we found the dungeon.”
“How can you tell?” Nyx asks, secretly scared to hear the answer.
Luke grimaces in nervous disgust. “The smell is living, rotting flesh. There are people down here who are still alive and suffering from flesh decay. It’s usually on the limbs and extremities. In the wild, we have herbs to stop the infection and save the limb. In a dungeon, from what my grandfather told me, they have to cut the dead part off to prevent the rest of the body from rotting. That’s only if the peo
ple running the dungeon care enough about the prisoners to save them. It isn’t pretty if the gangrene progresses to the whole body. Uh, are you okay?”
“I think I’m going to throw up,” groans Nyx, who is doubled over on the stairs and holding her hair behind her head.
*****
Sari guesses that it has been a day and a half since the other girls returned from Kalam’s room. She shudders as she remembers their ghastly appearance. Only two girls were conscious as the zombies carelessly tossed them into their cells. The rest were bleached white from Kalam slating his thirst with their blood. Decay had quickly set in among the other girls. Sari resorted to using magic on herself to fall asleep, desperate to get away from the horrid reality surrounding her
Today, a faint sound has ripped the gypsy from the safety of her dreams. It is a sound that is oddly familiar to her, but it seems out of place in the dank dungeon. A minute passes until she recognizes the intrusive noise as angry muttering. Sari waits in silence as the voice slowly gets closer and clearer.
“I take back what I said about this being exciting. This is a disgusting and horrible experience, which I hope to forget by the time we get back to Haven,” grumbles a female voice. “Stop making fun of me, Luke. We wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t jumped into trouble as usual.”
Sari peers through the dim light and sees a single, shadowy form walking through the dungeon. The faint sound of dragging cloth makes Sari think that the whispering intruder is wearing a cloak or a robe. The gypsy is about to call out for help until she notices that this woman is talking to the air around her. The possibility that her potential savior might be crazier than Kalam stops her from making any noise. After some thought, Sari realizes that she can still use the crazy woman to her advantage. The battle between Kalam and this lunatic could be the distraction that Sari has been praying for since she first arrived. All she has to do is pretend to help this crazy woman and run away once the battle begins.
Legends of Windemere: 03 - Allure of the Gypsies Page 28