I looked at Dusk. “What is he talking about?”
Dusk closed his eyes to avoid looking at Auraus lying helpless at the Under-elf’s feet. “Magic. He is referring to magic. These Under-elves are apparently much closer followers of the Under-elven practices of shunning magic, like in the origin story of Caelestis and Her mate Alatis that I told to you. And that we use it apparently makes us abominable.”
I remembered Dusk telling us the story of how Caelestis had come to be a goddess, and remembered that in that story the Under-elves had gone underground to get away from everything Surfacer—including magic.
“But she is a Priestess of Caelestis, not a Mageling or a full mage! She only uses her magic for the benefit of others as our Goddess’ directives say to do!” I said, indignant, as I turned towards the Under-elven Sub-leader.
“Silence!” Quorik said commandingly, and I closed my mouth almost automatically in response. “You!” he said to Jason. “Drop that-that thing,” he indicated with his sword the iron bar, “and kick it away down the tunnel.”
Jason looked me, and I nodded that he should do it. Jason dropped it with disgust in his black eyes and kicked it away from everybody down the tunnel where the Cave Bear had disappeared. Then at a signal from the Sub-leader, one of the other scouts shot Jason.
I screamed, “No!” and tried to leap for him despite the swords, but one scout stuck out a foot and tripped me, then held me down with a foot between my shoulder blades and a kiss of steel at my neck. “What did you do that to him for?” I said a little more quietly, not wanting to antagonize whoever it was that held me.
“He wields iron. Only a powerful Abomination can do that,” Quorik replied in a tone that sounded as if he was barely suppressing anger and revulsion. “Know this: he but sleeps, like the other Abomination does. No longer will you be taken straight to the Conductivus, as I had first thought to do. You all will instead be taken to the councilors of Kelsavax, who will be convened for a Grand Council for charges of being Abominations and consorting with Abominations.”
“But the Conductivus ….” I started to say.
Quorik glared at me, and I shut up.
“The Conductivus will be called for, but it will be done in full Council session and not privately as I had first thought to do. The charge of Abomination is too strong to ignore and must be dealt with. In fact, I do not want to take the chance that any other of you have the ability to cast abomination, so either you all will submit to being bound, or end up like your comrades,” he said as he toed the Wind-rider’s body and glanced meaningfully at Jason where he lay crumpled on the tunnel floor.
I sweated. Both Heather and I, being human, could handle that iron, and if that were found out we’d be shot too, most likely. Ragar dropped into a crouch and gave a loud growl as his tail lashed angrily, making the scouts twitch their swords towards him in reaction.
“Everybody, stop!” Dusk said with authority.
Ragar checked himself, and the scouts relaxed fractionally. Thanking the Miscere Surface-elf with a glance, I turned to Quorik.
“Are you sure that you want to bind us, Sub-leader, seeing as how we helped you defeat that Cave Bear thing?” I asked. “We could be helpful in other fights.”
Quorik said nothing, but the impassive look on his face told me he wasn’t going to bend.
“Fine,” I said, sighing. “But only if we can check our companion out to make sure that she is not hurt too much. Head blows can be dangerous.”
“What?!” exploded Ragar. “Lise, we can take them! They have no more poison! They used it all against the Cave Bear!”
“Kill the Surfacers!” shouted Traxis again. “Finish them off as I first commanded you all!”
The three scouts leapt towards us, and we dropped into defensive mode.
“Halt!” was the quicker and louder shout of Quorik, making the trio of Under-elves falter to a stop. We held our stance, however.
“Traxis, I have had it with you,” Quorik said to the female scout in disgust. “I am going to see you demoted from the dranth quads. Too long have you tried to take over being leader in the various quads you where you were assigned. Oh yes,” he said, apparently relishing the look of shock that appeared on her face, “I have been speaking to other Duty Patrol leaders about you. This, though you knew it not, was your last chance. I was the only Subleader left willing to take you on. When we return to Kelsavax, expect a summons to our Tertius. She will be hearing my report immediately upon our return, even before dealing with our unexpected problems.”
Dismissing Traxis as of no further concern, he turned back to me. “Now, which do you choose?’ he asked in an almost conversational tone. “To be rendered unconscious, or be rebound?” He made no mention of my condition.
“Either way, you would be putting us at that female scout’s mercy,” Dusk interjected. “She,” he nodded in Traxis’ direction, “could slit our throats before you could stop her if we are bound or unconscious. I think I can speak for all us Surfacers when I say that we would rather have neither.”
“Then I will do to her whatever is done to you,” Quorik replied with irritation over the outraged gasp of Traxis.
“Please, can I check on Auraus first?” I pleaded.
Once again, I was given no reply, and that confirmed to me he was not going to permit it. I grimaced. While having Traxis knocked out would be safest, I didn’t particularly relish the idea of being smashed in the head myself. Silently I sheathed my blade and held out crossed wrists towards the Duty Patrol leader.
Chapter 15
Quickly and efficiently the Under-elven scouts had the four of us still conscious tied up. Adding the disgraced Traxis made five in total who were going to walk to Kelsavax. Auraus was already starting to come around by the time she and Jason were tied face down side-by-side across the saddle of Traxis’ dranth. Seeing the Wind-rider wake up and lift her head, however groggily, made me feel very happy and relieved. I knew that serious brain damage could result if you went unconscious after getting your head bashed, but that it was probably going to be okay if you weren’t unconscious for too long. I wasn’t too happy that Jason was still out of it, but I figured that a sleep poison would last a lot longer than being conked on the head.
Traxis also wasn’t happy with her lot. She started cursing and complaining and threatening until Sub-leader Quorik told her that if she didn’t cease talking that he’d also gag her until they got to the city-state gates. She looked him defiantly in the eyes, but she shut up. Thankfully.
“Auraus,” Dusk called to the Wind-rider. “Do not be alarmed. We are all safe. Just bear with us until we get to Kelsavax, all right?”
Auraus’ eyes searched him out, and Dusk smiled at her as reassuringly as he could manage when she saw him. His smile slipped when she gave him a look of utter hopelessness before letting her head hang back down the dranth’s side.
“She has been bound this way once before,” Dusk explained in a quiet voice to me. “When we were captured by Goblins at the behest of Bascom. I do not doubt she is reliving some of that unpleasant time right now.”
I remembered the story that Auraus had told me of her and Dusk being captured by Bascom the first time and pitied her. But I avoided looking at her because I couldn’t reassure her about what was probably going to happen when we got to Kelsavax.
“Do you think we’re going to go on criminal trial or something?” Heather asked with a worried frown.
“Quiet!” commanded the Under-elven Sub-leader as he moved us out.
I felt it was a small mercy that Auraus was unaware that we were going to go before a whole council session of Under-elves councilors to be accused of what the Under-elves called Abomination. No point in worrying her until her head was at least a little better.
“What about the iron bar you had Ja–uh, my companion-kick away?” I called daringly out to Quorik. I didn’t think it was such a good idea to leave it behind.
Quorik gestured to the bar, and one o
f the male scouts went to retrieve it gingerly, using the hem of his chainmail to pick it up.
“What do I do with it?” he asked.
Quorik sighed. “Wrap it up in something. What did you think to do with it?”
With Heather’s iron bar secured separately from our packs, the Under-elves took time to deal with their various superficial wounds before we all started forward to Kelsavax. I hadn’t taken a couple of steps forward before the tiredness I’d felt before slammed back into me, making my steps falter. I caught myself before I fell. Grimly I gritted my teeth. Staring at the rocky grey-brown floor and putting one foot in front of the other for some unknown period of time, I’d taken a couple of steps in before I realized that we’d come to another soaring Cavern of Convergence. Wearily, I thought I detected an expression of eagerness in Quorik’ face as he hurried our group to one specific tunnel mouth that looked a little different than all the others. I couldn’t put my finger on what made it different at first, and then putting two and two together, I realized that this was likely one of the Shifting tunnels that Under-elves protected their city-state with. My spirits rose—or at least, a second wind kicked in then. We had to be relatively close.
My hunch was confirmed when we entered the first killing field some walking time later, which was a decent sized cave cleared of stalactites and stalagmites in the middle but had them on the sides of the stone pocket. The air moss and cave lichen had been encouraged to grow more thickly here, raising the light levels quite a bit. I exchanged glances with Heather, who nodded back in recognition of where we were. We passed through two more killing fields looking something like the first we’d passed through differing only in size, and eventually our party came to the two-story tall bronze gates that guarded the entrance to Kelsavax. Quorik held up his hand to order his scouts to a stop us a good distance away as he rode up to the gates alone. One of the scouts had to restrain Traxis from charging after him to the gate guards to demand release from her restraints. I was relieved to see Jason finally starting to stir and gave him a thumbs-up when I caught his eye.
The Under-elven leader, when he returned, commanded us to enter the gates in an orderly fashion behind him. He took malicious pleasure in telling Traxis that report of her behavior was already underway to the Tertius and that whatever she did now would flavor that report further.
“What is the Tertius?” Heather asked in a whisper.
“Not what, but who. One of their higher up commanders,” I replied as quietly.
The Under-elves gave us a concerted glare to remind us that speaking softly was not always an option, and we closed our mouths again and moved forward when ordered. Sullenly Traxis followed us in, and we entered the Kelsavaxian military training grounds for the first time. It reminded me a lot of the Chirasnivian training grounds, which made me wonder if all the Under-elven city-states were set up alike. The huge cavern beyond the gates had the thick, almost decorative patches of air moss and lichen light growing on the walls up to the cavern ceiling I’d seen in Chirasniv, and once again there were no stalactites or stalagmites that I could see. As soon as we passed the gates one of the gate guards took Traxis off the leader’s hands. She sent Quorik such a look of pure hate that I would not have been surprised to learn sometime in the future that the Duty Patrol leader had died of poisoned food or something. Quorik ignored Traxis as if she were beneath his notice, and he had the rest of us marched across the training grounds. Once again pockets of illumination spread out from towering columns wrapped about with glowing lichen standing in precise lines on the nearly smooth rock floor, providing an even, if dim, light throughout. Heather looked at them in recognition.
Heather started to say, “Hey, they have the … ow!”
She was interrupted by a kick from Jason, who glared meaningfully at her. She glared back at him but didn’t finish her sentence. I shot him a look of gratitude from stopping her from saying what I was sure was going to be “they have the lampposts just like in Chirasniv.” We passed large corrals where dranth were being put through battle training, and plain, open areas where rows of grimly concentrating Under-elves performed military drills. It was just as eerie as last time to hear the Under-elves practicing before we could see them. Beyond them, we saw groups of open air stalls with cots in them where riders slept with their dranths. Quorik led us over to a corral right beside one of them. A pair of Troglodytes appeared from seemingly nowhere and stood waiting silently, eyes fixed on the floor of the cave.
“Get the Abominations down,” the Under-elven leader said to his remaining scouts, “And make sure they cannot do any further abominations, either.”
The two scouts, who had been very quiet since Traxis had been made a prisoner alongside of us, hurriedly dismounted and released Auraus and Jason from the dranth. The Troglodytes then took control of all the dranth and led them into adjacent stalls and removed the burden of our equipment while Quorik’s scouts pulled Auraus and Jason to their feet. The two subordinate Under-elves bound them not only with their arms behind their backs, trapping Auraus’ wings in doing so, but also stuffed each one’s hands into a soft leather pouch drawn tight around fingers and wrists. The confused look Auraus had on her face as they tied her and Jason up more stringently than the rest of us morphed into confused horror as the golden-haired Wind-rider realized that she was one of the abomination to which the Sub-leader referred.
“What-what’s going on?” she cried, her knees beginning to tremble.
“Gag her,” Quorik said dispassionately.
Auraus, eyes wide, started screaming denials and trying to violently twist herself out of the grip of our captors at the leader’s words. She was overpowered and gagged in just a couple of moments. But the Wind-rider’s screams had still attracted attention. An officer strode from around the back of one of the open air stalls and came towards our group. Auraus stilled at his approach. Since I’d been a fake Sub-leader in Chirasniv thanks to Jamaj the Kobold’s aid from the supplies division there, I recognized that the Under-elf who approached us was a Captain and so was above Quorik’s rank. Each member of the Duty Patrol that had captured us came to attention and saluted the new arrival, though the other two did not step away from Auraus to do so.
“What is going on?” he said to Quorik, ignoring everybody else.
“I have just returned from Duty patrol, Captain Cragan, and I have brought in six Surfacers,” Quorik replied, saluting him. “They are to go before the Council.”
The officer said in surprise, “Six? That is an unheard of number!” He immediately swept a suspicious eye over us all. “Could this be the prelude to an invasion? And where is Traxis? Are these the cause of her not being present?”
Unthinkingly, I shook my head “no.” That slight movement made the Captain focus on me. I went utterly still, like a mouse before a snake.
Quorik replied, drawing the Captain’s attention again, “Warrior Traxis has had other issues which have already been reported to our Tertius, Captain. It was the Tertius’ direct order before I left,” he hurried to add, aware of the anger abruptly glittering in his officer’s eyes, probably for being out of the loop.
The Captain raised his eyebrows but chose not to remark on Traxis. “The Council, is it, for these Surfacers, you say?”
Quorik looked uncomfortable. “Yes, Captain. As you know, the Founding Charter of Kelsavax states that anyone discovered with the ability to commit abomination is to be brought to the next available full session of Council to be dealt with,” he replied. “I am fulfilling that directive. At the very least two of these Surfacers can commit abomination, and it is possible that some or all of others may also have that ability.” The Sub-leader waved a hand in our direction.
I startled at his words. Did the ability to send souls to their appropriate afterlife, like I could do as a Champion of Caelestis, count as magic here? If so, then I was in trouble right along with Auraus, over and above the fact that I could handle iron like Jason!
Chapter 16
Quorik pointed to Auraus and Jason. Jason stood stock still, but Auraus tried to back up away from his accusing finger. She didn’t get far because she was still pinioned between the two scouts.
The Captain frowned at them and then addressed Quorik. “I trust that report has been made of these things?”
Heather and Ragar both scowled at being called a “thing” but thankfully kept their mouths shut.
“Yes, Captain,” Quorik replied. “Report has been sent to Tertius Jactatus about them, and I suspect that these Abominations will be interviewed at length. So with your permission, may we withdraw so I can settle them in the isolation cells?”
“You and what’s left of your quad have my permission to be detached from your training long enough to take these to the isolation cells, process them, and return for whatever your following darkening’s training is,” the Captain said.
Quorik and the others saluted him as the officer spun on his heel and left. They remained at expressionless attention until the Captain was out of sight.
“Release,” Quorik said, and his two scouts relaxed. “We must take them to the isolation cells before we are stopped again,” he grumbled.
“Why aren’t we going straight to wherever it is the Council meets?” I asked, not able to suppress a quiver in my voice. “Are you committing some sort of breach of protocol or something before taking us there? Is this something I will have to relate to the Conductivus?” I wasn’t too sure if I should be saying anything, but I really didn’t want to see the inside of an Under-elf jail cell if I could avoid it.
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