by D. R. Rosier
I yelled, “Tell us now, and we’ll consider it.”
The woman was silent for a moment, then she yelled back.
“I don’t believe you!”
Anthony said, “Charges are ready.”
We reversed our formation and charged up the spiral. We’d only gone maybe half a twist, when Anthony triggered the explosion behind us, and the loud sounds of cracking rock and a cave in reached our ears. It wouldn’t hold nine mages very long, especially overpowered mages thanks to their demons, but it would give us a little time.
We continued up, right into the forty demons.
Lisa, cerise, myself, and the other warriors opened fire, but the demons were extremely fast and with the spiraling tunnel curving it wasn’t but a second before they closed within melee range. We at most, took out seven or eight of them with our guns. The two elves and Lisa were the only ones fast enough to take down two, Cerise, the other shifter, and I only got one each.
I’d had trouble defending myself from two in the apartment, but fortunately the wide corridor wasn’t that wide. There was just enough space for the six of us to stand side by side without getting in each other’s way, but there sure as hell wasn’t room for twelve or more demons. Without being able to double team us, we held our own. Lisa was on my right, and Cerise on my left as we covered the right side of the hallway.
Yellow blood, and black chitin flew as we stabbed, shot, and sliced our enemies. If it was just the forty demons I think we’d have been good, but it wasn’t. The ten mages behind the demons started to chant, and we only had five who were also working on a spell. The SWAT team was firing over our heads into the crowd, their grenades would have been a bad idea. The corridor was too curvy, and the grenades would roll downhill, right back to us, once they ricocheted off the walls.
I reached out for two of the mage songs and sang a few notes. It was enough pain to spoil their spells, and I quickly moved on to the next two.
The six still chanting finished, and roaring fire rolled down the corridor toward us, which the demons seemed to be immune to, and I hoped like hell Tony’s enchantments held.
Carol, Jeris, and the three others finished their chant.
I was hit in the back by a powerful wind as their joint spell took effect, which fortunately sent the demon I was fighting flying backward as I fell on my face. Fucking hell. It wasn’t all bad though. I rolled to my feet and saw the rolling fire get blown back into the mages that had cast the spell. Their own protections ate their spelled fire.
I doubled tapped the demon in the head before it could reengage, but a moment later I was fighting another one that seamlessly took its place.
At the same time, a deep rumbling sound came from behind us, just a little more than a full rotation behind us. They were clearing the cave in, and we’d be attacked in the rear soon.
Anthony yelled, “Grenades to the back.”
I didn’t see them, I was too busy dodging and parrying a beetle demon with two swords and two spiked secondary legs that moved like a blur. Still, I could imagine the two SWAT teams sending a bunch of grenades down the corridor behind us. Hopefully that would slow them down.
In the meantime, both the ten mages and our five were casting again.
I didn’t have much concentration to spare, but I used what I had to sing a few notes, and to foul the enemies’ spells. It was why I could only target them two at a time, instead of all ten. Mixing the pain song into their own songs took a minimal amount of concentration, but I didn’t have enough to spare for more than two. This time I got six of them, two at a time, before the last four finished their spell.
A wave of magic left them, and our mages and fighters were okay as it passed through us all. The mages had personal protections, and we had our enchanted armor, but the SWAT teams didn’t have shit, and all froze as they were paralyzed.
We were holding our own, and almost half the forty demons in front of us were dead, but that still left the thirty-two behind us, not to mention the nineteen enemy mages who were all still alive. It was a delaying action at best, we were completely fucked.
Carol and the rest of the mages finished their spell a moment after the paralyzing wave, and the ground rumbled as there was a fresh cave-in behind us. It would buy us another minute or two at our rear, before the nine mages back there could cast another spell. We were… purely defensive, and I wasn’t sure how we could change that.
At least, not without outing myself. Except, if Carol could delay the rear attack long enough for the six of us to finish off the demons in front of us, we could attack the enemy mages directly, and my siren magic would make them helpless if I could focus on doing just that.
Another demon fell to my blade, but another took its place.
The mages started casting again, this time it was a short spell, and I only got two of them.
Eight simple balls of fire shot out. Cerise, myself, and Carol’s shifter took it on our armor, which mostly deflected the damage but seriously degraded our armor at the same time. As for Lisa and the two elven fighters, they all successfully dodged. Fast bastards. I might have been fast enough too, if I hadn’t been singing and desperately defending myself. The noise from the staccato blade strikes of six warriors and an equal amount of demons was loud, and almost sounded like one long drawn out noise.
It sounded like Carol and the rest of our mages was casting the same spell again, to lengthen the cave in. There was another rumble, as the nine mages behind us started to clear the rubble, and the ten mages in front of us were casting again.
Once more, I sang at two of them at a time. Six got off the short simple fire spells, that seemed to be their counter to my pain song. I maneuvered myself between the fireball and the demon, my nice clothes were gone, and I was down to wearing the skin tight black armored suit. Lisa and the elves dodged again, the two other shifters were hit, and damaged, but they healed almost immediately.
Carol finished the spell, and a fresh cave-in came down. That wouldn’t work again, anymore and she’d be taking the ceiling down above the paralyzed SWAT team.
Fortunately, the battle was about to turn as Lisa, myself, and an elf took down the last of the forty demons. We weren’t in great shape, but we were all alive.
I grinned, and then sang.
The five other fighters ran forward, and they started to attack the ten mages who were rolling around on the ground screaming in pain. Fuckers deserved it. Maybe I should have felt guilty at torturing them like that, but I really didn’t. It was the best and fastest way to take them out of the equation. It wasn’t about torturing them, it was about killing them.
They each took more than twenty sword strokes to kill, just like Jace had, but Lisa and the two elves swung so fast they killed them all in under five seconds.
I turned, and saw Carol looking at me with a horrified and frightened look on her face. Maybe she just realized just how easily I could take down a mage. My power as a siren couldn’t be blocked.
She snapped out of it quickly though.
Lisa asked, “Run, or fight?”
Carol said, “Fight, I can sense a ward trap right around the bend, and the SWAT team can’t move.”
That was a good point, we couldn’t move fast enough if we had to take fifteen plus minutes to disarm every ward trap that they’d set up on the way down, on our way up the spiral.
Lisa nodded, “Agreed.”
Carol frowned, “They should have already cleared this.”
Lisa tilted her head, “Maybe they know we beat the pincer in their trap, and they decided to retreat to their ward bastion in the main room.”
Carol nodded, “That makes this harder, but it also gives us time to regroup. Let’s cancel this spell.”
The five of them chanted a spell in perfect rhythm, and the paralyzing spell over the SWAT teams broke.
Lisa shook her head, “More than harder. We might win a fight in the corridor, but not in that room. At least we’ve got them bottled up, and we’ve spi
ked their plans, whatever they were.”
Carol sighed, “You’re assuming ten down nine to go. That the cult only had nineteen mages, for all we know there’s another twenty in the city getting ready to do god knows what.”
Well, wasn’t that a cheery thought.
Chapter Fifteen
We cleared the rubble and cave in, but we were also at an impasse. We had them trapped in the main chamber. They outnumbered us, but the six of us were clearly more skilled with our weapons than the thirty-two demons, and the hallway was wide but not wide enough to give them the opportunity to use those greater numbers as an advantage against us.
I said, “I know it’s ugly, but the door is an even better funnel than the hallway. I can keep their nine mages down with my song, while the five of you take down the demons from a distance. If they try to come through, no more than two of them could fit through the door at a time. With the mages down, our mages will be able to cast on them from a distance. Eventually, the spells will overcome the ward and their personal protections without them being able to shore it up.”
Carol said, “We need to take a few alive, just in case there are more of them out there, doing god knows what in the city.”
I shrugged, “Use non-deadly spells. Once they’re paralyzed, or whatever, I can stop singing. At that point the non-violence shouldn’t matter, we can walk in and carry them out.”
Carol shuddered, “It has possibilities, but only if they’re in view of the door.”
They should be, unless they were huddled in the adjacent corners, and we don’t have an angle on them, but then they wouldn’t have an angle on us either.
We moved forward, to the doors to the main room, but didn’t enter. Still, we could see them all the way across the large room.
Carol ordered, “Surrender now, no one else needs to die.”
The previously cackling women sounded pouty, “I don’t think so. Even if we die, Jace’s plan will succeed.”
Carol asked, “How many more of you are there?”
She smirked, “None. But the plan is already in motion, the great circle is primed. We will be avenged.”
I subvocalized, “Tony, anything going on in the city?”
Tony replied, “Nothing yet, I’m keeping an eye on it.”
I asked, “Any idea what a great circle is?”
Tony replied, “Not a clue.”
Carol asked, “Great circle?”
The woman hissed, “Kill them!”
So much for our chat.
The demons charged the doorway, and Lisa, Cerise, and the other three opened fire as they guarded the doorway.
I sang and took the nine mages down while our five mages started to cast.
As a plan it worked well enough. The thirty-two demons died fast and easy, as they rushed through the door in ones and twos, right into the range of five fast and powerful warriors. The scent of rot and chitin, and yellow blood was disgusting, but they all died.
I didn’t have the heart to constantly torture the mages, it took a lot of time for the five mages including Carol, to wear down the enemies’ protections in the heart of their power. Spell after spell was defeated or absorbed by the protections and wards enhanced by their demons or deals. Still, I couldn’t let them resist, or bolster their wards and protections further, so whenever one of them started to chant I took them down with torturous pain for a few seconds, and then let them go.
It was ugly, and while they were safe from us coming into the room, they’d have had a better chance resisting us and winning if they’d have kept on fighting in the hallway.
Of course, if I’d had the heart to torture them, what happened next might not have happened.
The woman in charge cackled when the writing was on the wall. Six of her mages were already paralyzed, the wards were in tatters, and I’d prevented them from casting even one spell in retaliation.
“It is a good death, the city will suffer, and I will have my own revenge.”
Before I knew what she was doing, she pulled a small device out of her pocket, flipped open a safety cap, and pressed the bright red button on top.
Boom!
A loud explosion preceded the sound of roaring water. It would have felt like Déjà vu, except the first time when the large statue had broken the wall, it had only broken a small hole of it instead of shattering the whole wall as the original builders planned. That had given us time to race up the spiral, and to escape a watery grave.
This time, it was an immediate and loud torrent, as the water rushed into the chamber in a gigantic wall of water, and then raced for the doorway we stood just outside of. There was no way we’d be able to outrace it, even if the ward traps weren’t there to slow us down, even if we were all as fast as elves, we wouldn’t have had a chance.
Of course, I was a water dragon, so I knew I’d have been fine, and I wouldn’t have let Lisa die either, or Jeris and Cerise for that matter. Except, there was no way I’d let two swat teams, three other warriors and five mages die. Not just to protect my secret. It wasn’t even a true choice or option for me, and I didn’t even think about letting them die.
Not even Carol Martin, the damned bitch.
My magic exploded, and I glowed blue like a damned night light. My magic raced away from me, and the water was mine. An extension of my will, my senses, and my power, it would obey me.
All it took was a simple thought. Stop.
The mages were already dead, or I’d have pulled them out of the room using the water. They hadn’t drowned, they’d been literally pulverized by the force of the water that had slammed into the chamber. Which sucked, because we still didn’t know what plans they’d set up in the city, and I wasn’t sure I believed the crazy mage’s comment when she said there were no more of them out there.
Everyone was staring at me, except Lisa who was hovering protectively next to me.
“Umm, I don’t suppose we could forget this happened?”
I sent out another blast of magic, and the water in the chamber froze solid. It would melt, and the jail would once again be filled with water, but we’d have plenty of time to back trace our steps. That much ice, deep below the ground, would take days to melt, maybe weeks.
If Carol had looked frightened before, now she looked absolutely terrified. I wish I could say that made me feel good, but it really didn’t. I hated her, but at the same time I knew it wasn’t her fault, all woman treated me like crap for the most part. My dislike of her was for getting all those people killed with her crappy plan last time we were down in the ancient jail, her attitude toward me only made that worse. Of course, add on to that the bitch had tried to hire away my people.
Jeris asked, “Boss?”
“Yes Jeris? Did you need something?” I asked in a mock confused voice.
Cerise choked on her shocked laughter.
Jeris asked, “What are you?”
One of Carol’s mages accused, “She’s a bloody dragon.”
Carol shook her head, “Half. Half water dragon. No one is to speak of this, that is an order. We’d all be dead if she wasn’t.”
That… really surprised me.
Lisa asked, “Are you alright?”
I shook my head, “I don’t want to move again.”
Lisa snickered.
Carol’s eyes narrowed, “You’re Melody… and Lisa.”
We both looked at Carol, and everyone else kept looking between us and Carol. Even Cerise and Jeris, which kind of hurt a little.
Carol said, “You’re voices. I only met you the once, but something had been nagging at me. I’d have figured it out sooner, if not for your siren side putting me off my game.”
I sighed, “Guilty.”
Carol shook her head, “Again, no one will speak of this, or put it in a report.”
“Why?” I asked.
Carol shrugged, “I know what you hide from, and I find the practice barbaric. Plus, you just saved our lives.”
Anthony asked, “Are you aski
ng me to falsify a report?”
Carol frowned, “Yes.”
Anthony smirked, “Just checking.”
The moment was a little surreal.
Tony interrupted, “Umm, boss, we have a problem.”
“What?” I subvocalized.
Tony said, “The convention center. Reports are… unreliable, but there’s a fair going on and a lot of people. There’s some kind of inky black gate spitting out Beetle demons. That great circle you were talking about?”
“Maybe,” I replied sub vocally, and then out loud I repeated the information Tony just gave me.
Carol shook her head, “It will be hours before we can get out of here and be in the city.”
I exchanged a questioning look with Lisa, who shrugged back at me, as if to say it was my decision.
“In for a penny, fuck it.”
I created a large sheet of ice against the wall, and several people stepped back. That part, the people being afraid of me thing, wasn’t all that great.
I started to scry the convention grounds where the fair was set up. There was a large inky circle, but it was vertical disk, floating inside the borders of a large scribed circle in the ground. At a guess, they’d needed all that extra power from the initial demons and sacrifices to power this version of a circle that could allow multiple demons through at once. More a gateway between worlds, than a summoning circle. I also watched in horror, as beetle demons were running people down, and tearing them apart. Perhaps the nearby people were the sacrifices? There were thousands of people there, and a new beetle demon was leaving the gate every second or two.
I dropped the scrying window to the ground, and I sent my magic through to build a sheet of ice on the other side, and then linked them.
Carol said, “This new view isn’t as good as the overhead one.”
I smirked, “No, but the old view would have been a hell of a first step, the mages need to concentrate on closing that portal, the rest of us kill demons,” and then I walked through. I wondered how mad the water dragons would be, if they learned I’d just spent one of their major secrets in front of a bunch of humans.