by Rosie Scott
A few of the others in the group began to use their illusion spells, going invisible and muffling their sounds. I did the same. Azazel had once told me during further planning the week before that he could see those who were so-called invisible, so I wouldn't need to worry about him being unable to find me. His eyesight truly was going to be beneficial to us, and not only because it helped him shoot his bow accurately.
When the magic spread out over my limbs and armor, leaving me the image of only the ground below, I found it disorienting and a little hard to get used to. I'd been taught about things such as phantom limbs during healer's training at the Seran University, and that was what this reminded me of. I knew my body was there, but my eyes deceived me.
Because invisibility was an illusion spell, it could not alter its subject. I would be harder to detect, but there were still the dangers of being caught because someone had unwittingly bumped into me. I could still cause problems with clumsiness of running into something myself and making a ruckus. And now that I knew Azazel's eyes were good enough to detect me quite easily, there were bound to be others with eyesight just as exacting. I would still need to stick to shadows as much as possible.
Azazel led our group, lowering himself to a squat as we neared the opening of the tunnel, his bow before him, a quiver of arrows hanging by his right hip. We were all sticking to the left side of the tunnel, for the right side turned straight into the eastern wall of the city, and most of the city was tucked away to our left. Azazel was one of only a couple of us who did not have invisibility. While it was technically possible for one of us to use the spell on him, he didn't want it. Our first goal was to seek out the female sympathizers, and he wanted them to know who he was and approach them honestly. Nyx and Jakan and the others would be focusing on freeing slaves, and Azazel had spoken to them about which buildings to leave for us. The others were told to kill freely and gather support from their brothers. Hopefully, by splitting up, we could cover most of the south end of this city quickly.
I came to a stop just behind Azazel, my steps as silent as they could be from the muffle spell. Azazel waited at the edge of the tunnel, in a small pocket of shadow that fell between two clusters of fungi. Though his bow was in one hand while he held an arrow with the other, he didn't yet shoot. He didn't move at all. I trusted his judgment, and waited silently behind him. The rest of the group waited with me, but I couldn't tell they were there.
Then, an Alderi woman walked into view, and Azazel began to raise his bow. A moment later, I could see that the woman led a slave by a set of chains, tugging the man down the street to the north. Azazel dropped his bow, letting them go. He knew that to kill the woman would be to cause chaos, either by the slave's reaction to surprise, or by the chains she held falling audibly to the ground.
I could tell Azazel's plan had taken everything into consideration, because from here, the city seemed almost quiet. Most of its activity was in the north. Our plan of stealth would only work from here, and we only had one shot of doing everything right.
The woman and her slave walked out of sight, and I nearly wondered what Azazel was waiting for. But he had better senses than I, so I stayed behind him, though a little impatiently. Then, I heard voices, muted and mumbling from through the stone to my left, where most of the city lay in wait.
“...don't really fucking care,” one woman's voice said.
“Me either. I don't get the big deal, anyway. The guy's not a mate, but who cares? He's hot. I told her I'd pay her.”
“Just for a night?”
“Yeah. Not much to ask, is it? I just want to borrow him. I'd give him back to her in one piece.”
“But nooo, because Corvina's always been a stuck-up bitch.”
“Ha! Sure is.”
Two women walked past the sight of the tunnel wall, giving us a visual to place with the voices. Azazel once again raised his bow, preparing the arrow. His grip was still and solid, the muscles in his arms bulging with strength and pressure, before the arrow was loosed.
Shik! The woman on the right fell, face forward, to the ground. I couldn't tell where she'd been hit until I saw the shadow of the arrow sticking out of the back of her skull.
Her friend spun toward the tunnel. Azazel had somehow already prepared another arrow while I'd been busy watching his kill. The arrow flew a moment later, and the archer did not bother preparing another. He was confident in his aim.
A squirt of blood spurted out from the woman's right eye, before her body fell beside her friend's. Azazel hurried out of the tunnel, toward the bodies before more passersby could come out and find them. I followed, hurrying to the corner of the building, and waiting against the wall, watching as Azazel pulled the bodies out of the center of the street, moving them into pockets of shadows alongside stone walls.
I glanced back to the tunnel. Just the slightest glimmer of bioluminescent light off of magic energy a few feet away told me the others were infiltrating the city, just as planned. My heart picked up its pace. Their actions were out of my hands, now. I hoped that all of our training and planning over the past weeks would be enough to aid them.
Azazel finished pulling his arrows from flesh, and he glanced in my general direction, making a 'come here' move with two fingers. I hurried through the shadows beside the wall toward him. He turned, leading me further into the city.
A street opened up to our left, but Azazel was passing it. I glanced down anyway, catching a glimpse of an Alderi commuter jerk in mid-air as she walked, before her body was lowered quietly to the ground. Her attacker was invisible, so it was impossible to tell who it was. A few structures down from her, I saw a door open into a building, seemingly by its own will, as one of our unseen soldiers successfully unlocked it.
Azazel hung back at the next intersection, holding up one hand to inform me to stop. I did so, taking the time to use the muffle spell again. I'd started to hear my own footsteps, so I knew the spell had quit working. A pair of footsteps echoed against the stone walls to our left.
Two women, again. Azazel pulled his bow up, letting an arrow break free of its prison, flying happily through one of the women's throats. The arrowhead must have punctured deep enough to hit her spine, because she immediately fell, dead. The other woman built emerald energy in her palm, and threw the paralyze spell at her attacker. Azazel couldn't risk the noise of dodging it, so he threw up one hand, letting his next arrow fall to the ground beside him as he absorbed the energy of her spell with an alteration shield. The assassin curled her lip, before deciding against the magic and grabbing a blade at her belt. She took one step toward us before Azazel's next arrow split her eye, puncturing the brain.
Any doubts I'd ever had of Azazel's ability during our invasion started to dissipate. He was immensely skilled. Of course, as a hunter, he'd had to be. I hadn't yet had the chance to ask him for stories of his hunts, but I'd heard from others that the creatures down here grew larger and deadlier the deeper one went into the underground. Thankfully, we hadn't had to deal with them in our time beneath the surface thus far, though the deeper we went, the more likely it was we would have to in the future.
Azazel finished retrieving the ammo from his victims, and their bodies were hidden in blackness a moment later. He moved down the side street next, encouraging me to follow with a jerk of two fingers. I turned down the street, sticking to shadows in his path. He passed building after building, not bothering to glance between them. His superior hearing must have enabled him to know the alleys were clear without his needing to see them. I tried to ignore my instinct to look everywhere myself, because I didn't want to lose sight of him.
The building we finally stopped at was three stories high, and stretched for a while yet down the street, until the end of it sat at the corner of the next intersection over. Azazel put his bow on his back, before pulling out a set of lock-picking tools, and squatting just before the front door. I wondered if he had known how to pick locks long ago, or if he was one of the soldiers Nyx and Jakan
had taught. It didn't matter, because a few moments later, a click sounded from the locking mechanism. Azazel turned the handle, but let the natural draft of the air open the door on its own, his blue hands ready to grab the karambits at his belt.
The steel door swung slowly inward. I braced myself for the presence of foes, because though I couldn't hear them, I knew there were some nearby if Azazel wasn't moving inside yet. After a few seconds, the archer readjusted, grabbing his bow instead. Finally, he moved carefully into the building. I closed the door slowly behind us. We were in an entryway of a communal apartment building, and from what I could tell, a hallway spread out to our left and right, leading to various dwellings. But it was much darker in here than it had been outside, for the fungi was absent.
Enhaun visua. The illusion magic transferred to my forehead from my right hand, and now, I could see through the shadows. Azazel had his bow lifted past the corner wall of the entryway, aiming down the left hallway. I heard the arrow's release, and then the clunk of a body collapsing to stone.
The women in the apartments to either side of us heard the noise. Doors began to open, and occupants started to search. My head throbbed with rushing blood as I watched Azazel loose arrows quickly, one right after the other, into the confused pursuers. Some of the women cursed with surprise at the sudden attack, and I heard rushing footsteps coming from down the right hall, since Azazel had been busy shooting down the left.
A woman rushed into view, two daggers in her hands, swiping at Azazel. He bashed his bow forward, blocking her first hits and pushing her back a step. Azazel had insisted on handling all of this himself, but I was desperate to help him, my ears clouded with an onslaught of approaching attackers. I thrust my paralyze spell at the woman, taking advantage of the fact she didn't even know I was there to dodge it. She fell into the wall, before her body slid to the ground.
Azazel dropped the bow in the entryway and grabbed his karambits, his grip on the weapons firm with two fingers through the safety rings of the handles. He took little time in leaning down to the paralyzed woman, puncturing the underside of her neck with the point of the blade, before slicing up toward the ceiling through her throat, emptying it of its blood. Then, he stood, immediately clashing with the next woman in line to meet him, dodging dagger swipes as the foe eluded his own attempted hits, the two dancing with death.
There were more women after that, and there was only one of him. I thrust a physical shield to Azazel, watching as the life energy bubbled around him with a glow of white.
“There are two of them!” I heard one woman exclaim, pointing to the entryway.
I didn't let it bother me. I wasn't going to let Azazel fight through them alone, and I wanted him safe. Next, I built death energy in my palms. I couldn't use leech, because it wasn't silent. But the plague was.
As Azazel fought with the women in melee, I shot death magic in the crowd of them down the hallway, letting the spells hit wherever they wished. They were all our enemies. Cursing led to gurgles and coughs as one woman after the next sickened, before bodies fell with exhaustion and premature decay. The sickly sweet stench of it began to fill the air, so I switched to breathing through my mouth.
Shing! A throwing dagger broke through the shield I'd given Azazel, piercing his gut. I dispelled the plague from one hand, before giving him another shield. His breaths became pained, but he wasn't letting it faze him. His karambits sought unguarded flesh, puncturing through soft spots before tearing and disemboweling with the hook of the blade. He was a magnificent fighter, moving swiftly and only striking when he had a good chance to hit.
I could not heal him yet. Two more women were coming toward us from their apartments, stepping over the corpses of the others. One shot a spell at Azazel, which he absorbed with a last minute shield despite being distracted by his current foe. The other pulled up a small crossbow, and her aim would have been true if it hadn't been for my shield, which flickered with the hit.
Enflic le plague del agua. A combination spell of death and water swirled above both palms, and I forced the energy to the two women. I hadn't used the spell before, so I watched with morbid curiosity as it worked. Both of the women stilled, and one dropped her weapon to the floor, the crossbow clattering over rock. Their breaths became wheezy, before they kept their mouths agape, pulling in no oxygen at all, gasping fruitlessly at the air around them.
I winced, because I knew how it felt to begin to drown. The spell was one I'd taught myself from the Comercio necromancy book, before it had been ruined in the shipwreck. Water poisoning. Right now, the magic was poisoning their bodies by causing their cells to fill to the brim with excess water, depleting them of oxygen. Two bodies hit the floor seconds later, as they lost consciousness from a lack of air. With a little bit more time, they would be dead from drowning.
Azazel lowered the last body to the floor, waiting and listening for more activity. When he was satisfied we'd cleared most of the building, he grabbed his bow from where he'd left it in the entryway, before hurrying to the right, favoring the dagger in his side as he moved over bodies and to the staircase at the end of the hall. I followed him up to the second floor, and then to the third. When we were on the top floor, he hurried with an injured gait to the third door on the right, and knocked on it, knuckles rattling off of steel.
“Corvina,” he hissed through the door, after a pained breath.
I only had to think about the name for a few moments before I remembered the two women out in the streets talking about her. It was of little wonder the women had little luck using one of her men, if she was a sympathizer.
The steel door opened a moment later, and an Alderi woman appeared. She had to have been hundreds of years old, since she looked to be in her late thirties in human years. Her black hair was pulled back from her face in dozens of thin braids, which were combined at the back of her head in a knot of a bun. Her dark eyes fell upon Azazel, and then to the dagger in his gut.
“What have you done?” Corvina asked carefully, putting two and two together between his appearance and the ruckus.
“I'm attacking the city, Corvina. I need your help.”
“You're what? This is suicide, Azazel. How many sisters have you killed?”
“I have an army backing me up,” Azazel replied, breathing heavily with the pain of his wound. He turned to me. “Dispel your illusion, Kai.”
I did as he asked, showing myself to Corvina. She stared at me a moment, connecting my human appearance to my name. “Kai Sera?”
I nodded. “I have an army waiting for attack in the southern tunnel. Many of our men are infiltrating buildings around us as we speak.”
“Gods,” she breathed, before backing into her apartment, and ushering us in. Once inside, I saw a handful of Alderi males, all in a small cell in the corner of her room. I tried to pay little attention to them for the moment, and walked up to Azazel, pulling the throwing dagger from his gut as he hissed through his teeth. Life energy sunk into the wound seconds later as I started to heal him.
“You guys can come out,” Corvina said, behind me. The slaves piled in the cell came out of the door of their own accord, proving they were not held there at all, but stayed there as a protection against suspicion.
“We have the order to kill you,” the woman said, a moment later. With a glance to her, I realized she was speaking to me.
“Given to you by Sirius, I would wager,” I murmured, watching Azazel's skin fuse back together through the break in his armor.
“Yes. Many believe you are dead. All intel pointed my sisters in the direction of Eteri, which is why Hazarmaveth has received the special order. It took you so long to get here that we thought your journey had taken you.” After a pause, she added, “But here you are.”
“If you want the gold, go ahead and try to kill me,” I said, turning to her when Azazel's wound was healed. “But I am allying with the Alderi who desire equality between the sexes. It's a goal you and I seem to share.”
Co
rvina nodded slowly. “Do not fret, I am not an assassin myself. I masquerade as a trainer of sorts.” She flicked her eyes to the slaves. She then frowned, looking to me for honesty. “You say you have an army here? Where could you have gotten one? There has been no news of you here since you left Nahara by ship.”
“The wildlands, friend. I have hundreds of shapeshifter berserkers waiting for my signal, and hundreds more freed slaves from Thanati.”
“You have been to Thanati?” She questioned.
“Correction,” Azazel spoke up. “She has taken Thanati.”
Corvina stared at me in disbelief. “Then perhaps we have a chance. How many soldiers do you have?”
“Sixteen hundred, give or take. But I have trained many Alderi to wield death magic. We will have hundreds more.” I motioned to the outside streets. “Thousands, as we claim more victims. But first, we are freeing slaves here and asking them to join us.”
“You can help us,” Azazel added, desperately.
Corvina nodded, her eyes glistening with ideas and energy. “Yes,” she said, softly. She glanced to the slaves in her room, and spoke her next words with greater gusto. “Yes I can.”
Twenty-nine
Azazel and I moved from building to building, checking off each woman on his list of sympathizers, and garnering support. There was only one woman who wasn't in her apartment. I hoped that wherever she was, she was safe. I didn't want the others to come across potential allies just to kill them, but Azazel was the only one of us who knew who these women were. It was entirely possible one of them had fallen victim to our own unwitting soldiers.