Linkershim sotsi-6

by David A. Wells

  The Babachenko knew he was coming.

  It made perfect sense. He was a divination mage. Acquiring knowledge with magic was his stock in trade.

  “Enemy,” Alexander shouted into Kiera’s ear. “Drop me quickly, then fall away and come back around.”

  She nodded, smiling into the wind and guiding her wyvern with a combination of leg pressure and delicate tugging on the reins, bringing the beast into a flaring landing on the balcony, terrifying two men who were trying to hide behind the balcony railing, sending them scrambling for the stables.

  The wyvern leaned forward, her snapping jaws just outside the stable doors, her bladed tail hovering over the side path leading toward the house along the balcony. Alexander pulled his lacing free and slid to the ground, linking his mind with Chloe before he hit. Several overseers seemed to appear out of the shadows. He ignored them, calculating the distance to his target. Chloe came into existence, spinning into view in a ball of light, bringing the Thinblade with her into the world of time and substance just moments before he reached it. His sword in hand, he assessed the situation and chose to flee.

  But before he could, a club hit him in the back, knocking him to one knee, pain radiating from the point of impact. Men rushed in from all sides. He set the pain aside, drew the Thinblade and focused on the moment. Three men were closing in on him, all of them raising clubs that could put him out with a hit.

  He slipped to the right, sweeping up with the Thinblade, taking one of the overseer’s hands, moving past him, putting the screaming man between himself and the other two overseers, giving him just enough time to sheathe the Thinblade and swing up behind Kiera.

  “Hang on!” she shouted.

  He was glad he obeyed. The wyvern bounded backward to avoid an all-out assault by ten men rushing toward them, then tipped sideways, falling into a steep dive with the cliff face at her belly before leveling out and gaining altitude, turning gradually back toward Mithel Dour. As they floated over the city streets, Alexander pointed out his target. Kiera nodded, taking the reins of her wyvern and guiding her into a gentle landing on the roof of the mining barracks.

  “Thank you, Kiera,” Alexander said.

  “I can still come with you.”

  “I know, but I suspect that Talia is depending on you to help him carry out his plans against the shipyards.”

  “Perhaps.”

  “If I have need, I will call,” Alexander said, letting himself slide to the edge of the roof and then drop to the ground, orienting himself briefly before heading across the courtyard and into an office, listening for the wing beats of Kiera’s wyvern as he ran.

  He was grateful that the place was vacant. Grant’s betrayal had caused an interruption in the mining business, but it wouldn’t last. The Babachenko probably already had people working on the problem.

  Alexander opened the door to his Wizard’s Den and stepped inside, leaving it open and gesturing for everyone waiting inside to sit at the table. He went to his magic circle and sat down, meditating for several minutes while he scouted the way ahead. His reconnaissance complete, he closed the door to his Wizard’s Den and took his seat at the table.

  “We have an opportunity. One that could turn the tide of this entire war …” he paused, looking down at the table.

  “But …” Jack said.

  “I have to keep certain details from you,” Alexander said.

  “If that’s necessary, then so be it,” Jataan said.

  “No … not so be it,” Anja said. “I want to know what’s going on.”

  “I can’t tell you. I know it’s not fair, but it is necessary. I need you to trust me.”

  “I don’t like this,” Anja said. “I’m willing to fight right beside you, but I want to know what I’m fighting for.”

  “You’re fighting for the Old Law.”

  “Not good enough,” Anja said.

  “It’s the only thing that is good enough to fight for,” Alexander said.

  Anja harrumphed.

  “What can you tell us, Alexander?” Jack asked.

  “I can tell you that the beings that built this city are still here … they’re dormant, and I know how to wake them up.”

  “Beings? What beings?” Anja asked.

  “They’re called Linkershim,” Alexander said. “And I think they can help us with the Andalians.”

  “So it’s how you plan to revive them that you can’t tell us then,” Jack said.

  “Stop guessing, Jack. I can’t tell you and you can’t write about it. If the wrong people discovered this, they could destroy everything … literally. The sovereigns were very insistent.”

  Jack nodded, grudgingly accepting Alexander’s explanation. Anja’s frown deepened.

  “I expect heavy fighting in the coming hours,” Alexander said. “We’ll be descending into a mine owned by Titus Grant, who just recently escaped from palace custody. He has a number of men in the tunnels we’ll be traveling through, and it’s possible that he’s taken refuge in the mines himself.

  “Once we’re through the mines, we’ll enter a vast underground city that was built many millennia ago. The path will be treacherous and there’s no telling what lives down there.

  “The Babachenko is aware of our presence in the city, so he’ll be sending soldiers. Our enemies are dangerous. We should avoid them if we can or kill them quickly if we can’t … our objective really has nothing to do with them, except that they’re in our way.”

  Alexander strapped on the Thinblade, checked Demonrend, and picked up Luminessence before opening the door of the Wizard’s Den. After everyone filed out into the cramped little office, he closed the door, willing his staff to produce a dim light, just faintly illuminating the room.

  “There’s a hidden door on that wall,” Alexander said.

  Jack had it open within a minute. “It’s been used recently.”

  “Grant,” Alexander said. “He’s the only man I’ve ever met who doesn’t have colors and he can make you not see him.”

  “What does that mean?” Anja asked.

  “He has the ability to make one or two people at a time just not see him. They don’t even know he’s there, even if he’s standing right in front of them.”

  “How’s that possible?”

  “You’re a dragon that looks like a girl … you tell me.”

  Anja frowned.

  “My point is, don’t try to engage him. I can beat him with Chloe’s help, but he can kill any of you and you won’t even know he’s there until you’re dying.”

  Jataan frowned.

  “He can’t make me not see him if he doesn’t know I’m there,” Jack said.

  “Let’s just try to avoid him,” Alexander said. “We don’t need anything from him.”

  “Fair enough,” Jack said.

  Alexander led the way down the narrow corridor. Not only had it been used recently, but it had been used by a lot of people, and judging from the irregularity of the boot prints, not soldiers. The door at the end of the corridor was closed. Alexander approached it cautiously, extinguishing his light and looking into the adjacent room with his magic. It still didn’t have the range of his normal vision, but indoors, his all around sight could look far enough ahead to let him explore an area with his mind very quickly.

  Two men stood guard, one next to the door, the other near a bell set up next to the mineshaft. Alexander opened his Wizard’s Den, ushered everyone inside, closed the door and explained the situation. It took them all of two minutes to decide on a plan and step back out into the corridor.

  Alexander verified that the men were still bored and unaware before he threw the door open, stepping forth and raising Luminessence. It erupted brilliantly, filling the cavern with light as bright as the sun, blinding the two men, yet leaving Alexander and his friends able to see clearly.

  Jataan raced across the room, moving impossibly fast, closing the distance to the man near the bell in a fraction of a second and hitting him with the palm
of his hand in the center of the torso, then tipping the man over onto this back and maneuvering him into a choke hold.

  Anja stepped in next, leveling a vicious right-handed punch at the man next to the door, knocking him senseless, his head snapping back and forth before he hit the floor.

  Alexander dimmed the light. Lita seemed a little taken aback by the sudden violence, unleashed so overwhelmingly, but she held her tongue. Jataan and Anja tied and gagged their captives.

  Alexander knew better. The men guarding this shaft worked for Grant and he was a criminal of the highest order. His henchmen deserved little in the way of sympathy or mercy. There was also the issue of their colors. They were both brigands-probably cutthroats. If anything, Alexander felt like he might be shirking his responsibility by not killing them.

  “Watch your step,” he said. “These stairs are old.”

  “I’ll say,” Jack said, looking down the mineshaft at the wooden staircase winding into the darkness. “Are you sure they’re going to hold?”

  “I’ve been down them once before. They’re mostly solid,” Alexander said, leading the way down the shaft. Aside from the few broken or missing boards, the stairs were rock-solid, no doubt because the bad boards had all been broken when Grant’s men passed this way. He was thankful that the room at the base of the stairs wasn’t guarded or his light would have given them away for sure.

  He raised his staff, bringing up the light, illuminating five passages leading from this one hidden shaft. The new boot prints led into a tunnel opposite the one Alexander wanted. He dimmed his staff again, the top shod glowing just enough to light their way and entered the tunnel leading to the central mineshaft. He was relieved to find virtually no evidence of recent passage.

  It took half an hour before they saw a flicker of light in the distance. Alexander doused his light and they walked on in total darkness, using the wall for guidance as they approached the opening into the central mineshaft room, which was really a series of equipment and supply rooms surrounding the main-shaft elevator. Several working tunnels ran away from this level in different directions. Ten overseers were guarding the tunnel that Alexander was interested in.

  “Overseers” Alexander whispered. “They’re armored and carry weighted clubs that they can throw very well. They like to fight in groups, overwhelming an opponent with superior numbers and they’re absolutely the enemy.”

  “Understood,” Jataan said, drawing a dagger.

  “We’ll hit them hard and fast-hopefully prevent them from raising an alarm,” Alexander said. “There’ll be more down the tunnel and still more up the mineshaft.”

  They crept out of the tunnel, using supply crates and ore bins for concealment until they got as close as they were going to get-about twenty feet to the side of the tunnel entrance, behind a row of rail carts. Alexander put Luminessence into his Wizard’s Den and drew the Thinblade. Jataan and Anja both nodded their readiness.

  Alexander stretched his mind out into the coming moments and sprang from cover-racing silently without a battle cry or shout of warning, reaching the first completely surprised overseer within seconds, cleaving him in half with a stroke, following through into the next man, taking most of his head simply by allowing the Thinblade to follow its arc.

  Jataan threw his knife into an overseer’s heart from about six feet, then grabbed the knife, pulling it free before the man fell, moving on to the next closest enemy with his customary efficiency, leaving a path of dead men, veins ruinously opened to the world with terrifying speed and precision.

  Anja swept into the battle with her broadsword, swinging it in great swaths through one flank of the overseers, leaving them hacked and dying on the ground.

  The entire battle took only seconds. The overseers didn’t have a chance. Surprise coupled with overwhelming force made for a decisive combination.

  The tunnel that Alexander had helped dig not so long ago was lit every fifty feet by oil lamps, just enough light to keep people from wandering into the walls, but certainly not enough to see by. He kept up the pace, moving as quickly as he dared through the shadows, not wanting to shed any light of his own for fear of being detected by those guarding the other end of the tunnel. During his clairvoyant reconnaissance, he’d counted ten more overseers.

  When they got close, a bell tolled, raising the alarm. The overseers sprang into action, breaking into two groups of five, one group pointing at Alexander with their clubs, the other group pointing at Jataan. They didn’t advance, instead holding position before the entrance to the underdark while an eleventh man took up a position on the stone slab at the center of the three overlapping magical circles and started casting a spell.

  Alexander was easily a hundred feet away, not close enough to reach him in time and not far enough away to avoid his spell. He broke into a run, charging toward the overseers, but he slowed to a walk when the wizard called forth a shield wall that blocked the tunnel twenty feet in front of his men.

  With a triumphant smile, the overseer went to the alarm bell and muttered the words of a spell. Then he struck the bell firmly with his club. Aided by magic, its peal reverberated throughout the entire city.

  “More overseers will be coming … soon,” Alexander said, trying to penetrate the shield wall with the Thinblade. When he pushed the magic sword through the red, glowing barrier, the scar it left closed almost instantly.

  He cut into the wall beside the shield, removing large chunks with a few swipes.

  “We have company,” Jack said.

  “Anja, watch my back. Jataan, hold this ground,” Alexander said as he pulled a chunk of dirt out of the hole he was cutting to circumvent the shield.

  “Understood,” Jataan said.

  “The overseers can see what you’re doing,” Anja said. “They’re moving troops close to the wall.”

  “I count ten men approaching,” Jataan said. “Not overseers, though … maybe Grant’s people.”

  Alexander came out of the hole and sent his sight down the tunnel. Grant wasn’t among the approaching men, and none of them had magic. He breathed a sigh of relief, estimating how long it would take to break through beyond the shield and frowning at the work he’d done already before turning toward the approaching people.

  “Hello,” Alexander said, his voice echoing down the tunnel.

  “Who are you? Why are you trespassing?” their leader asked, approaching cautiously, eyeing the overseers beyond the shield. He turned to a much younger man behind him and said, “Run, tell Lord Grant.” The young man nodded and raced off into the dimly lit tunnel.

  “My name is Alexander and I have no interest in your mines.”

  “No, just the real valuables beyond the overseer’s shield.”

  “Who do you represent?” Alexander asked.

  “Lord Titus Grant.”

  “Grant is a fugitive. He’s been stripped of his title, his charter, and his accounts. In fact, I’d be surprised if he could even pay you.”

  “Oh, don’t you worry about that. Lord Grant pays us on time and he pays us well. Now, these are his mines and you don’t have his leave to be down here, so surrender your weapons and come with us. Wouldn’t want things to get messy. Two men, a woman, and a girl … against the ten of us. Odds aren’t exactly in your favor.”

  “You heard the bell, right?” Alexander asked.

  The lead man nodded.

  “So did the Babachenko. More overseers are on their way right now. If you’re quick about it, you might escape the tunnel before they close it off.”

  The man looked back quickly, then inspected the shield wall again, counting the number of overseers lined up beyond. “This isn’t over,” he said. “Lord Grant will decide how to deal with you.” He and his people withdrew quickly.

  “Huh,” Alexander said, turning back to the hole he was digging. When he got in deeper, Anja helped him clear chunks of dirt and rock from the rough passage he was cutting. The overseers behind the shield seemed to be getting nervous, movi
ng the entire unit to face the spot in the wall where Alexander was most likely going to come through.

  Muffled echoes of fighting reverberated down the length of the tunnel-Grant’s men probably hadn’t gotten out in time to avoid the overseers. Alexander kept digging, cutting away a pyramid-shaped chunk of stone and opening a small hole into the section of tunnel beyond the shield.

  An overseer jabbed his club through the hole. Alexander cut it in half with a flick of the Thinblade.

  He turned to Jataan and Anja and said, “Be ready.” He drove the Thinblade into the wall and cut a doorframe in the stone, ensuring that each cut was slightly angled so the stone slab would fall outward. He saved the top cut for last.

  “Line up behind me,” he said.

  He cut the top section of the stone, then put his foot in the middle of it and pushed, stepping out onto it as it fell. While the overseers scrambled to get out of the way, Alexander launched off of the stone slab into their midst before it hit the ground and shattered into hundreds of pieces.

  Jataan and Anja were through moments later, each moving left and right to attack the overseers on their flanks.

  Flicking the Thinblade out backhanded, Alexander snapped the tip of the blade through the nearest overseer’s throat, then stepped back in the other direction and brought the blade across in a broad sweep, killing two more.

  From several feet away, an overseer threw a club at him, scoring a direct hit on the back of his left shoulder. While his armor blunted the damage, the hit was still numbingly painful and knocked him to one knee, staining his trousers with the blood of the men he’d just killed. Another overseer started to bring his club down on Alexander’s head, but was blown off his feet by Lita’s force-push spell.

  Jataan worked his way through the overseers quickly but methodically, cutting here, stabbing there, killing each man he engaged with seemingly causal ease.

  Anja howled like a banshee, wading into the startled men with her broadsword, cutting three down before the rest could respond.