Everything looked the same as it had last time: the long tables which had been made to fit the curve of the room were still scattered against the bare stone walls; the iron rings anchored to the walls between the tables were still there, and the far-apart magical torches lit the room only dimly since there were still no windows to add any extra light. The only spot of comfort in the room remained the little seating area of one rich-looking, comfortably padded red upholstered chair across on one side of a table with four hard wooden chairs opposite, set against the side of the banister-less stairwell that climbed to the next level.
Expecting that something had to have been added since we were here last—after all, the back door pit was new—we climbed onto the furniture and used them to avoid the floor to get to the stairs. It was kind of like playing the game ‘the floor is lava’ back home, except that there might very well be lava under our feet if we stepped on the floor—you couldn’t be too careful with a mad mage. Once we reached the bottom of the stairs, we stacked the wooden chairs on their table again to avoid the trap switch that would have blocked our way up, and we wormed our way successfully onto the stone steps.
“Round One goes to the good guys,” Jason said softly with a grin as he kissed me in victory.
I elbowed him in the ribs. “Don’t get cocky just yet, good guy,” I cautioned him. “Round Two is about to begin.”
We climbed on our hands and knees carefully up the stairs, again test-tapping our way with our hands. And it turned out it was a good thing we did, because at one point a stair released a greenish cloud from the walls at face height, and Ragar froze.
“Poison?” I guessed.
He nodded. Auraus stood up well away from the gas cloud and used her wings to disperse the poisonous fog, thinning and fading the greenish color away. She didn’t stop flapping them until Ragar indicated to her that the smell was gone enough for us to continue. Avoiding that step, we made it to the second landing.
“Should we check in here to see if there are any poor unfortunates who have been captured since you were here last?” The Wind-rider asked softly, indicating the door in the wall beside the stairs.
I nodded and replied just as quietly, “But if anyone’s in the cages in there, they’ll have to stay put until we come back. I don’t want to be babysitting people through the fight we’re going to have with Bascom.”
It may have sounded mean, but I couldn’t worry about possible hurt feelings right now. Fortunately the prison room was empty of living beings, which made me feel relieved.
“Okay, the next landing is his experimentation lab,” I whispered, “which is probably where we’ll find Heather—and likely Bascom, too.”
Ragar started growling as he said, “I know it well.”
I smacked him on his furry shoulder. “Hush! You want the mage to hear us before he has to?”
The mountain-cat-elf bared his teeth at me but obediently shut up. Then a clap of thunder shook the tower, followed closely by a wild scream of joy, definitely male, that reverberated down the stairs to us.
CHAPTER 32
“Oh, that can’t be good,” Jason said, looking at all of us.
“Run!” Ragar growled and flashed up the stairs.
Auraus, Jason, and I were right behind him. We saw the mountain-cat-elf run right up to the closed door of the experimentation room and, without stopping, throw his considerable weight against it. The door burst open into the room, and Ragar fell to all fours just inside the doorway. Either the door hadn’t been locked, or he’d powered through it. Although considering Arghen, Heather, and me had broken the door the last time we were here, I would have put money on Bascom having just had the door and not the lock repaired.
The smell that wafted out from the room this time was heavily laden with incense, which made Ragar sneeze a couple of times. The room still looked pretty much like the mad scientist lair it had last time: the six foot tall shelves lining the room were still filled with boxes and bottles of weird and disgusting-looking stuff; the ever-present iron rings and magical torches that gave off a bright light were still anchored on the walls; and the trays of assorted cutting tools were still displayed about on stands, though this time they looked like they had been used. The creepy decorations of painted wooden body parts and ceramic things were still scattered in no particular order all over the walls above the shelving. I was thankful to note, however, that the iron birds were missing this time.
In their place, four tall golden braziers were spread equidistant around the room; multi-colored flames rising from the wood inside their shallow bowls which burned thick, sickly-sweet incense powder. The huge, true-to-life full body picture of Morsca was still on the ceiling, but for some reason it was no longer outlined in glowing lines of light. For some reason that disturbed me. But what drew my attention was a complex double circle filled with what had to be mystical runes done in black and blue surrounding two tables with straps bearing bodies. One was Heather’s. The other was Morsca’s. And between them stood the imposing grey-green form of Bascom, glaring at us.
Well, there goes the idea of using the ventriloquist pin to mimic Morsca’s voice and confuse him, I thought.
“Heather!” Ragar roared angrily from where he crouched.
He then screamed in pain as a force bolt from Bascom blew him sideways to smash into one of the sets of shelving by the door. The mountain-cat-elf fell to the floor, groaning.
“No! You cannot be here! How did you get here?” the mage bellowed back at him. “You are supposed to be webbed to that underground rock pillar awaiting my pleasure!”
He raised his hands in a casting position at Ragar.
“Oh, Bascom?” I yelled out to divert him away from the mountain-cat-elf. “Remember me?”
The mage’s eyes widened at the sight of me standing in the doorway slapping my iron bar into my free hand, and a little fear crept into his face.
“You!” he shouted at me, and then he looked in disbelief as he saw Auraus behind me. “What will it take to kill you all?!”
Auraus cast an air shield on Ragar to protect him as he recovered. Bascom came out from between the tables, touched his sleeve hem while saying a couple of harsh sounding syllables, and unleashed a force blast at us as the rune under his fingers flashed. I managed to block it by jamming my iron bar in its path while Auraus finished up her spell. I braced myself for the after-effect, but the blast hit the metal and exploded in a harmless display of white light without anything more happening. I smiled a hard smile, and I could almost feel the Wind-rider’s relief pouring off of her. Bascom, who’d probably been counting on it stunning me a little like the lightning bolt had in the dungeon of the keep, faltered in his rush across the room towards the door.
“Well, all right!” Jason said eagerly behind me. “So that’s how it works!”
He did a forward roll past my hip into the room and came up to one knee right beside Ragar, brandishing his own iron bar. That brought the mage to a dead stop as Bascom became aware that there were now two pieces of iron facing him.
“Lise! I believe he is worried about casting destructive spells in here. There must be things in here even he does not want to have explode,” Auraus cried out behind me. “Do not hold back!”
The mage screamed at her and, saying a couple of syllables that made a light flash on his robe’s hem, shot a blast of light that parted itself—one half towards us at the door, and the other half towards Jason and Ragar. Once again I brought up the bar and blocked the one directed at Auraus and me, and Jason screwed his eyes closed while copying me. Just like before, the spells burst harmlessly into flashes of white light at the kiss of iron. Jason, finding himself unhurt, grinned a nasty-looking smile at the mage. Bascom, scowling, said another harsh couple of syllables. The air coalesced right in front of Auraus and me, and right in front of Ragar and Jason, into two swirling masses of grey air that looked like mini cyclones.
“Air elementals!” yelled Auraus.
Having tang
led with other elementals before, I wanted to put some space in between it and myself while I figured out the best way to attack it in concert with Auraus. I ducked back out the door as the Wind-rider cast some sort of spell that looked like green colored air at the one in front of us. It howled with a sound like a moaning wind, drifted forward and lashed out with a whip crack of air that both slashed at and shoved the Wind-rider out of the doorway and down the stairs.
“Auraus!” I screamed, scared for her because those stone steps were long and had no bannister. What if she fell all the way to the next landing below?
But I couldn’t go and investigate if she’d been hurt because the hurricane whip curved backwards towards me, blowing my blonde hair into my eyes and blinding me. I swung my iron bar in the direction the wind was the strongest, and my strike puffed the air whip into nothingness. The Air elemental did its wind-moan thing again, telling me I had successfully hurt it.
I shook my hair out of my eyes long enough for a quick glance into the room. I saw Jason fending off the mini-cyclone attacking him and Ragar with baseball-like swings of his iron bar while the mountain-cat-elf tried to get around it. The Air elemental, however, was moving around to prevent the mountain-cat-elf from getting to Bascom, whom I could not see but could hear laughing wickedly from somewhere else in the room even over the wind sounds. Ragar roared his frustration because his claws were not doing any hurt to it, but the Air elemental was unable to hurt Ragar, either, thanks to Auraus’ spell. Because the summoned creature seemed preoccupied with Ragar, Jason had more latitude to use his iron on it. I saw that Jason’s mini cyclone looked more ragged than the one attacking me, so I switched to his tactics and started swinging for the fences like I was a MVP baseball player on the one attacking me.
A whoosh of colored air shot past me into the Air elemental and made it wind-moan even louder than it already was doing. A quick peep over my shoulder showed me Auraus, a little bruised and bleeding more than before, kneeling at the top of the stairs with her hands raised to cast more spells. Between her and me we got rid of our Air elemental pretty quick, and then we rushed into the room to help Ragar and Jason, my iron bar leading the way. Two identical swings, one from Jason and one from me so that our bars clanged together in a crossed sword position in the middle of his Air elemental, extinguished it. It also snuffed out Bascom’s laughter.
“You think you are impervious to my magic, do you?!” Bascom snarled. “Let us see how well you cope with this!”
All around the room some of the nasty-looking, sharp medical-looking instruments slowly rose from their assorted trays. Ragar snatched at the back of Jason’s shirt and slid Jason forward partway under the nearest table. Auraus shrieked and yanked me backwards out of the doorway as several dozen sharpened pieces of metal flung themselves towards us. The mountain-cat-elf, though, dove forward through the rain of metal. The knives shredded his air shield in the process, but he got out through the other side unharmed and almost within arm’s reach of Bascom. The mage scrambled away from Ragar’s murderously swiping claws and dodged back into the space between the two tables as the Wind-rider and I charged back into the room. Auraus this time had her weapon drawn. Bascom grabbed one of the metal knives from a nearby tray that had not gotten up and flown in his previous spell and held it pressed against Heather’s unconscious throat. Ragar screeched to a halt. So did Auraus and I.
“One more step and the Human dies!” Bascom threatened in a suave, evil tone.
“You’re bluffing!” I replied loudly from where I’d stopped with Auraus, halfway across the room. “You wouldn’t have done all of this to get her here just to kill her in front of us.”
“Try me,” he warned.
Ragar backed away slowly, growling.
“Good kitty,” Bascom sneered at Ragar, “Now, you should ….”
But that was as far as he got because his feet were yanked out from underneath him. Jason, who had been thrown behind the shelter of the tables to avoid the flying knives, had quietly slid all the way under them, grabbed the mage by the ankles, and pulled. Bascom was flung forward, his scalpel nicking Heather’s neck but doing no more than that as he banged off the edge of Heather’s table before crashing to the ground.
Quick as a flash Ragar leapt on him, a feral light in his eyes, and started slashing at the mage with his hand-paw claws. Ragar’s first strike was to the mage’s mouth, and the second was to Bascom’s throat, probably to stop the mage from being able to cast spells. Bascom made a horrible gurgling sound in his throat as Ragar slashed a third time across his eyes, sending blood spattering across the floor between the tables. That last strike was all that had been needed though. We saw the light in the Miscere Ogre’s eyes go out.
Bascom Bloodknife was no more.
CHAPTER 33
But ending Bascom’s life was only the beginning for Ragar. It was like he couldn’t stop himself from tearing at the body in a frenzy of hate. I stared briefly in shock as he went to town on Bascom with his claws and then looked away, sickened. I couldn’t stomach what I’d seen and threw up in my mouth a little bit. The mountain-cat-elf had a lot of rage pent up inside him, I knew, but I hadn’t realized how much he’d had against the Miscere Ogre mage until now. Jason scrambled away to his feet on the other side of the table that held Morsca’s body, not looking at Ragar, either.
“Ragar, STOP!” Auraus commanded sternly in a magically enhanced voice.
It echoed around the room. Ragar froze, his claws dripping with Bascom’s blood as he straddled the dead mage’s chest. Even Jason and I stopped moving, and we weren’t doing anything. The feral light left Ragar’s cat-pupiled eyes. Looking down, he seemed almost astonished at where he found himself, and he jumped up and off the body. Looking at the corpse, and the blood on his hand-paws and at what had spattered to his chest fur, Ragar shuddered. Dismay clearly on his face, he went to go find something to clean himself off. But Auraus’ enhanced voice seemed to have one other effect: it served to waken Heather.
Heather feebly tried to move in the straps that were holding her down, thrashed her head about, and murmured, “Bascom. Bascom. What. What.”
“Heather! You’re okay! You’re okay!” I said happily as Auraus and I rushed over to her. “I’m so relieved!”
Jason came around the table at the same time Ragar leapt over to join us from the shelving where he’d been wiping himself off with some towel-like fabric pieces. He had a weird mixture of elation and embarrassment on his face as he landed beside Heather.
“Heather!” Ragar exclaimed with real joy in his voice. His fur was still gory, but at least he was no longer dripping. “You do not need to worry! I am here, and Bascom is dead, and we will get out of this place!”
“Bascom–is dead?” Heather asked breathily.
I could have sworn for a moment that I heard disappointment in her voice, but since I knew that was crazy, I had to have imagined it.
“Yes, Heather! The nightmare is over! Bascom is dead, Morsca is dead, and we can go back to our lives now!” he growled happily.
Ragar started unstrapping the bindings that kept Heather secured to the table. With Jason helping, she was freed in almost no time. The mountain-cat-elf gave her a hand to sit up on the table, which she refused with a delicate shudder.
“Ragar, step back a moment,” said Auraus, her voice normal again. “I wish to examine her to make sure she is all right.”
“Oh, no, that is all right,” Heather said, holding one hand palm out towards the Wind-rider. “There is no need for you to trouble yourself. I feel well.”
I frowned. Heather was speaking awfully weird.
“Heather? Are you sure you’re oaky?” I asked.
“Why would I not be?” she asked, glancing at me.
Why was Heather speaking the way they did over here and not like a regular New York teen anymore? I sent up a short prayer to Caelestis about it, and before I had even finished, an alarmed feeling was sent down with the mental pat I associated with m
y goddess. I opened my eyes and saw Auraus looking intently at Heather, who squirmed uncomfortably. I would have sworn for a moment that the Wind-rider’s grey eyes glowed for just a moment. Then I remembered I’d seen that glow when waking up in the Sub-realm cavern after I’d nearly died.
“Ragar! Grab Heather!” Auraus said all of a sudden.
“What? Why?” he asked, confusion making him slow to respond.
Auraus and I grabbed for her, but Heather was much quicker off the mark than we. She slid off the table and hit the ground running, heading for the broken door. Jason charged after her and football-tackled her to the floor before she’d crossed the room.
“Get your hands off her!” yelled Ragar, the feral light coming back into his eyes as he gathered himself for a huge leap.
I jumped up onto the empty examination table and threw myself onto Ragar’s back, shouting in his ear, “Ragar! Wait! I’m sure Auraus must have a reason. Let her explain before you go off the rails!”
The Wind-rider said loudly over the shouts of indignation from Heather as Jason kept her pinned to the floor, “That may be Heather’s body, but Heather’s spirit is not in there!”
Jason looked up in amazement, and Ragar faltered, the feral light receding in his eyes.
“What are you talking about?” the two males both demanded.
By this time Auraus had joined Jason in keeping Heather—or whoever it was—secured.
“That is not Heather’s soul in this body, Ragar, Jason. A Priestess can always tell when a soul belongs because the fit inside matches the fit outside. The fit does not match here. It is more like an arm being put inside a legging.”
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