by D. R. Rosier
Lisa snorted, “Nice try Ari, but the cat’s out of the bag. He knows our old first names, and he’s going to research who survived that incident as soon as we leave.”
Damn, she made a good point. Given that they have the same names in the report, and were a siren, female vampire, and a mage, it was beyond obvious it was the two of us.
“We’ll answer your questions later, for now just sit on it, and get with Scott. We’ll need backup fast, if we need it.”
Tony nodded reluctantly.
The two of us left the office, and loaded out with knives, swords, guns, and a whole lot of ammunition in preloaded magazines. Unfortunately, I’d been joking about the grenades, we weren’t authorized for that kind of ordinance. There was a chance this would turn out to be nothing, and all those circumstantial facts pointed us in the wrong direction, but I wasn’t going to hold my breath. It all fit too neatly to be completely wrong. Demon prison, demon summoning cult, and the timing? If Lisa wasn’t completely right, I was sure her guesses would at least be close. There had to be a connection, even if they weren’t still living in that hole.
Chapter Thirteen
The site was out in the middle of nowhere outside the city. I’d never expected to have gone back there, but the four of us approached slowly in one of the company’s sedans. Jeris had an active detect magic spell going, so I couldn’t even fart without being outed as a dragon just then.
When we got out, there were no songs nearby, but I knew that didn’t mean much, the prison went very deep into the ground, and they’d be beyond my range. Plus, all that stone would mute the songs below as well. Generally, I could feel inside a building, even better in Corpus Christie by the water, but not through hundreds of yards of stone and dirt.
We got out of the car, and slowly approached the door.
“Anything?”
Jeris frowned, “There’s no magic here by the door at all.”
That… wasn’t such a big surprise I supposed. With the inmates dead, there’d have been no one in there to power the ward system, which had been destroyed anyway. If I remembered right, Harold had to levitate the door so we could escape last time, but I’d been pretty beat up at the time.
Lisa grunted, “Maybe they didn’t want to giveaway someone was here, to anyone that might come into the state park and wander by here. Can you levitate the door?”
Jeris tilted his head, “Maybe, that’s a lot of stone.”
Jeris frowned, and then walked closer and started to examine the glyphs.
“This isn’t right,” he pointed at a few spots, “Those glyphs aren’t part of the original wards on this door. I think… they’re glyphs for a levitation spell.”
Cerise said, “So, open it.”
Jeris scowled at his partner, “There are four of them, which means four mages usually do the work. I could probably get it open, but I’ll be magically spent for a while if I do.”
It was a bit frustrating. I’d been on the other side, I’d been in the main chamber. I could answer all our questions with a simple scry, or simply reach out with a little magic to see if there was gulf water on the other side of the door. I couldn’t do any of that without outing myself of course.
I asked, “What do you think, we could take this as proof that someone has been mucking about in there. Call in the cavalry?”
Lisa shook her head, “It’s not enough. Open it Jeris, just a few inches. That will be enough to tell us if the place is still flooded by gulf water.”
She got down on her knees, and then pulled out a flashlight.
Jeris sighed, and he started to chant. The magic gathered and swirled around him as it focused, split, and was sent into the four runes. The rock rumbled and scraped loudly, as it raised a few inches.
Lisa cursed, “Drop it!”
Jeris cut off the spell, and the large stone door ground and banged back to the floor.
Lisa pulled out her phone, and she hit the screen a few times before holding it up to her ear.
“Scott, my guess was right. The area by the door is bone dry, and it had two summoning circles by the front door. We’re going to need support, we’ll do the best we can to hold them if they try to run, I have to assume they know we’re here. We have no idea how many mages or demons are down there, but something tells me four mages and ten demons is wishful thinking.”
Scott replied, “I’ll get a couple of SWAT teams, and I’ll also call Leo Davis, he’ll send Carol Martin and her teams too.”
Lisa nodded, “The demons are extremely fast. SWAT should be support only, and mostly there to blow things up at a distance with heavy ordinance. We could definitely use more mages though, thanks for that.”
I sighed. I really hated Carol, but Lisa had a point. Jeris wouldn’t be able to face four mages by himself. Especially not on their own ground laid with magical traps to further tilt the odds toward the enemy’s side, as if four on one wasn’t enough on its own. Then there was the fact opening the door alone would significantly weaken him further. Add to that, I had a bad feeling there were more than four. Perhaps a lot more. Jace had years to gather a following of sick twisted power-hungry mages. Most mages weren’t bad people, but there were enough out there that there could be many more below.
I wouldn’t know until I could hear their songs.
“You okay Jeris?”
Jeris nodded, “It wasn’t easy, but I only held it for a couple of seconds. I’ll be fine in a few minutes.”
Scott said, “Alright, I’ve sent out the word, that should set fire to a few asses. I imagine they’ll be there in an hour or less. Do your best to hold, but don’t sacrifice yourselves if they’re going to escape anyway.”
Lisa grunted, “They have home advantage down there, so they may just dig in and wait. I just wish I knew what their endgame was. It would make them easier to predict.”
Scott said, “Understood, good luck Hannah, and… good work finding them,” and then he hung up.
The tense wait started. Even if they tried to break out, it would take a good fifteen minutes or so to walk up the long spiral, plus time to organize. If I remembered right, it was at least a mile-long large spiraling corridor that went down a couple of hundred yards.
Cerise smirked, “Maybe they didn’t hear us?”
Well, it was a mile of corridor, but that door was extremely loud.
“I can say for sure those circles weren’t activated. Don’t know if they’re connected to the door somehow, maybe it wasn’t lifted high enough to trigger?”
I could say that for sure, because I’d have heard their discordant songs from this close, even through several feet of a huge multi-ton door.
Jeris shook his head, “I don’t think so, I’m not feeling any magic. They may have some way of triggering them and feeding them remotely?”
Lisa asked, “Could they be triggered from the glyphs in the door? Maybe you just didn’t power the runes long enough for it to bleed enough magic to activate the circles. The demons would appear and if the mages weren’t part of the cult, they attack.”
Jeris snorted, “Maybe. I guess we’ll find out when Carol gets here with her cadre of mages, and we open it up.”
We waited then, it was pointless to speculate further, we just needed to be ready for traps, ready for anything. The time passed extremely slowly, and I felt tense as the fifteen-minute mark came and went, but it wasn’t until the half hour mark that I felt it was likely they were digging in.
“Seems they want a confrontation, and are digging in.”
Cerise grinned, “Lucky us.”
Lisa sighed, “That makes it likely they aren’t just in it for power, otherwise they’d have fled. It doesn’t tell us what their endgame is, but we can assume it’s going to be bad.”
I chuckled, “No doubt. On the good side, we should be getting a hell of a hazard bonus for this.”
Jeris snickered.
Four black SUVs pulled up, followed by two large black SWAT vans.
Jeris grunted.
“What?”
Jeris shrugged, “She brought her three teams, each with a mage on it, but that fourth SUV has four more mages that aren’t combat mages. They’ll probably be the ones opening the door, and they’ll stay behind. It’s a good move, we’ll be fresh to face what’s in there.”
I sighed, this was going to suck.
Carol got out and walked over as her teams got organized, and the SWAT teams exited their vans.
“I hope you’re right about this.”
I bit my tongue, and I firmly reminded myself it was better not to talk.
Lisa replied, “We are. Of course, there’s a chance they’ve cleared out of here, but we can say for sure they were here at one time.”
Carol nodded, “It’s a lead,” she waved a hand, “This is Anthony Griggs, and Phil Jansen, SWAT commanders. They’ll be trailing us, and they can give us cover fire. They’ll also be setting charges if we have to retreat, enough to take down the ceiling. That won’t stop four or more mages for long, but it will give us breathing room. I don’t like going in blind, but it is what it is.”
I ignored the looks the two men gave me as they checked me out, but I saw Carol’s jaw twitch in annoyance. I wasn’t sure if it was jealousy, worry about me distracting the men when they should be focused on the job, or both.
Lisa said, “Good plan. Aria should be able to give us numbers before we reach the bottom, and before engagements. I know you instinctively don’t like her, but you need to listen to her. The mages can worry about the magical traps and any wards they might have laid down, let her feed information on ambushes.”
Carol frowned, “My mages can detect people.”
I said neutrally, “Yes, if they aren’t under spells of concealment. Mage magic can’t block the song of life, they can’t hide from me once we’re closer.”
Carol scowled, but nodded, “Very well. Phil, you have the four extra ear pieces?”
Phil nodded, and handed the four of us ear pieces for local comms. They weren’t as good as magical ones, limited range, but it would put all of us on the same system, including the SWAT folks. We put them in our left ear, so we’d still have our own comms as well.
Carol said, “I suggest our six warriors take the front, and myself and the other four mages are right behind them to lend support while being protected. Listen up for warnings on traps, and we’ll listen for Aria to tell us about ambushes. SWAT will be thirty to fifty feet behind us.”
Lisa replied, “I have no objections. Demons are ours, mages and magic are yours.”
Anthony said, “If things get hairy, and there are more demons than we expect, we’ll let you know before shooting any grenades over your heads.”
Lisa grinned, “I’d appreciate that. I move pretty fast, and I’d hate to run into friendly fire because I move to fast for your men to track.”
Carol said, “Alright, if we run into problems we can pause and adjust. If either I or Lisa calls for a retreat, we move fast. Anything else?”
Lisa shook her head.
Phil said, “Let’s get those bastards.”
Carol motioned for her four extra mages to open the door.
Her three team warriors joined me, Lisa, and Cerise in the front. Two were elves, the third was a shifter, all male. We measured each other with a quick gaze, and I didn’t like the dismissal in the elves eyes. The shifter on the other hand, was staring at my tits.
Jeris didn’t look all that happy dropping back to stand with Carol and her three mages, the other half of the teams. All the mages were human ones outside of Jeris, and they were split evenly, two females including Carol, and two males.
Things were a bit tense. But… bitch or not Carol was a professional, I didn’t think there’d be any petty problems. Oh, she’d love to run us out of business, but she wouldn’t betray us on a mission or in battle putting her own people in danger. No, if there were problems it would be from the enemy.
The four extra non-combat mages each took a glyph, and then started to cast.
I pulled my sword with my right hand, and a gun with my left. The others similarly armed themselves as the door rose. The circles came into view, and I mentally cursed as I felt the power flow between them and door which was encompassed in strong levitation magic.
I aimed my weapon at the circle on the right side, since I was standing on that side, and when the circles flashed, and the inky circle appeared, I paused my breath.
The beetle demon was double tapped in the head as soon as it appeared, and its body was peppered with several other bullets from the people around me. The second demon was taken out quickly as well.
Lisa stepped forward, and the rest of us followed. The large ante-chamber was lit up with tactical flashlights as the door closed behind us leaving nothing but inky blackness. The mages wouldn’t be able to hold the door the whole time, but they’d be rested and ready to open it when it was time for us to go.
The light runes on the walls remained unlit of course, the ward system and magical power had long been drained and destroyed. If the new tenants had any wards, they were below and beyond our detection.
The six of us moved forward into the spiraling corridor, with the mages on our heels.
I wasn’t all that eager for a crazy fight with a mage cult of demon summoning freaks, but I truly hoped they were still down there. They needed to be stopped before they did whatever it was they planned to do…
Chapter Fourteen
Carol said, “Stop.”
We all stopped walking. We’d made it down about halfway without a sign of more demons, a mage, or magic. I still couldn’t hear any songs, but it wouldn’t be too much longer I didn’t think. If I had to guess, they were probably all holed up in the main chamber.
Carol continued, “Trap ward, ball lightning spell. Give my people a minute.”
Magic took time. It wasn’t a few magic words. Or at least, it wasn’t if there wasn’t a predefined glyph spell like on the doors, or for combat magic. To defeat the ward, they had to hack it, then disassemble it, which took time. They cast several diagnostic spells to examine the wards, and then had to run calculations to come up with a perfect counter to it. If they got it wrong, even a little bit, the ward would trigger and fire off the spell. Even Harold, the smartest mage I knew when it came to wards, would have taken fifteen minutes or so to crack it.
Carol’s mages and Jeris would take longer, most likely.
I ignored her suspicious looks.
It was almost thirty minutes later when one of the mages cast the spell to take apart the ward, then we moved on. We must have gone down three more full spirals before I started to hear songs. I waited one more spiral to be sure I didn’t hear anymore.
I announced, “Alright, they’re in the main room. There are nine mages, five of them female. There are also thirty-two demons, but I imagine that number could change if they have summoning circles set up.”
Still, that was already over three demons per person, and from what we knew or guessed so far, there couldn’t be more. Thirty-two was enough though, especially with nine mages in support.
But… that was better than hundreds of the damn things, like the spider people.
Carol muttered, “Nine to six, and they hold home field advantage. Suggestions?”
Lisa said, “We can try and hold them at the door, and fire in ordinance. It would also be a good choke point for the demons. But… there’s a risk that it would re-flood the whole place. Who knows how well their repairs to the wall will hold up against the weight of the gulf water.”
Carol nodded, “Let’s move forward before we decide. We don’t know what kind of wards they have set up. We might not even be able to fight in the chamber.”
Lisa agreed, and then we moved further down the spiral. We were uncomfortably close to the doors to the main room when Carol stopped us.
Carol sighed, “Illegal wards. If we go into that room, we’ll be helpless and unable to attack.”
I could, if I was will
ing to out myself. But… I think I’d even have trouble with nine mages and thirty-two demons on my own, even if didn’t hold back.
Maybe. That maybe thought could be, probably was, hubris… but maybe.
Well, they say dragons are arrogant.
Lisa asked, “You can’t fight them?”
She shook her head, “They’re very strong. We’re outnumbered, and they’ve been feeding those wards for two months.”
Lisa nodded, “Then we’ll have to fight from the doorway.”
“Fuck.”
Everyone looked at me, the shifter even managed to look at my face this time.
“Umm, ten more mages, and forty demons. Behind us.”
Nineteen mages and seventy-two demons. Fuck me.
I heard laughter from down the hall, then a creepy female voice.
“I’d started to think you’d never figure it out and get here. I thought maybe I’d need to send you a map.”
Well… trap.
Carol demanded, “Why!”
She gloated, “To get you all out of the city of course, and into this trap. You were the best chance this city had at stopping us building an army.”
Carol shut her eyes tightly, “To what end?”
The creepy laugh made me shiver. I heard the same discordant notes in their songs that I’d heard in Jace’s, all of their songs, were they all insane?
“That would be telling. Though I suppose you’re all about to die. What we’re doing is… not telling!”
The woman cackled with laughter, “Let’s just say great power requires great sacrifice, and the demons want a bridgehead in this world.”
Lisa shook her head, “How?”
The woman snorted, “You still have outside comms, we won’t take that chance.”
Carol cursed, “Alright, we fight our way out, take down half their numbers. Quickly. Phil, Anthony, get this ceiling ready to blow so they can’t follow us.”
“We have two minutes at most.”
The woman laughed, “Good luck with that. It’s not just more than half our numbers you’ll be facing, it’s all the ward traps they’ve charged on the way down. Your people outside are already dead. Give up now, join us in the main chamber, and we’ll give you a merciful death. Hell, I’ll even tell you our diabolical plan before we slit your throats cleanly.”