by K K Ness
Under the mage’s glare, a frenetic energy infused all of the soldiers as they set about digging a wide trench. A mound of dirt quickly grew beside the trench but no telling flash of kiandrite caught Danil’s eye.
Hafryn gave Danil’s boot a shake and motioned for him to back away.
Edging behind the platform, Danil followed the wolf as they quickly traipsed back the way they’d come. Elania’s tail twitched back and forth in agitation as she scampered ahead, while Blutark silently took up the rear.
After a safe distance, Danil hissed, “Why are we just leaving them to steal kiandrite?”
“Because we don’t know what the mage is capable of,” Hafryn muttered. “I thought we’d have only Ronan or Brianna to deal with.”
“Did you recognize the mage, Danil?” Blutark asked.
Now that he thought of it, Danil realized he didn’t. “He’s never been with Brianna during a farseeking.”
Hafryn cursed under his breath. “We need Katril to send warning to the other patrols. There may be more even mages in Altonas.”
17
They traced their way back via the stream as afternoon cast the trees into new shadows. The forest seemed to close in as they navigated through a maze of worn stone blocks and the wreckage of former buildings.
Danil worried about the new mage. Along with Magus Brianna and Ronan, it meant that at least four other magi were involved. He’d never heard of so many magi working together, except during the king’s Name Day festivals. It smacked of something far larger than a couple of mages gone rogue against their king.
Hafryn suddenly raised his hand.
Without looking behind, he motioned for everyone to back up into a heavily overgrown ditch beside what was once a cobbled road.
Danil sank onto his belly, damp soaking through his tunic. He nervously waited, feeling exposed despite the covering foliage.
Magus Brianna stepped into view at the far end of the road. Danil’s skin chilled. A magelight floated above her, casting her face in a sickly glow. No soldiers or other magi escorted her. Her cloak swept wide as mist gathered about her slippered feet. Pausing, she stood with her hands on her hips as she peered up at the remains of a collapsed wall.
Hafryn made a three-fingered signal at Blutark. The bear shifter quietly strung his crossbow with infinitesimal slowness.
Unaware, Magus Brianna uttered a series of exotic words. A strange seam of inky blackness formed beside her. Reaching within, Brianna pulled out a familiar silver bowl. She set it on a slab of stone and poured a glittering liquid from a waterskin on her pouch. Leaning over the bowl, she began to mutter an incantation.
Danil turned to Hafryn in alarm and braced for the icy bite of magic upon his skin. Blutark took aim.
“Wait,” Hafryn whispered.
The bear shifter stilled.
Heart loud in his ears, Danil realized the familiar, chilling sensation had yet to sweep over him. He waited as Magus Brianna stared into the bowl and smiled. She glanced about, seeming to take measure of her surroundings. Upending the bowl, she wiped it dry with the edge of her cloak before magicking it out of sight through the black portal. She stepped off the cobbled road and strode with purpose toward a grove of trees and broken columns. The glow of the magelight faded soon after she disappeared from view.
Blutark turned to Hafryn with a scowl. “What was that about?” he hissed. “She was easy pickings.”
“We should follow her,” Hafryn said as he climbed the ditch.
“What?” Blutark spat.
“She did a farseeking,” Danil said as the wolf loped ahead. “But it wasn’t for me.”
Muttering a curse, Blutark checked his crossbow. “I grow weary of not knowing the magi’s plans.” The bear shifter stalked after Hafryn.
Filled with foreboding, Danil and Elania hurried to stay apace.
A thick mist rolled in as they trailed after Magus Brianna. It cast a gloom over the trees, ferns and low-hanging vines. Condensation made moss-covered stones gleam wetly in the cloudy dark, and set red flowers to gleaming.
Hafryn strode a few paces ahead, hand on the hilt of his sword.
“Careful. This mist is unnatural,” Blutark muttered quietly in warning. He thumbed his crossbow. This close, Danil could see miniscule glyphs stir under his touch. “And we’ve lost our crow sentries.”
Danil checked the darkened canopy in alarm. The mist was too thick to see beyond the lowest branches.
A scant mile ahead, a faint glow marked Magus Brianna’s magelight.
They ducked into the underbrush when they caught sight of her. The mage crouched over the silver bowl once again, stirring its contents. Mist roiled about her, partially obscuring her work.
“She’s farseeking again,” Elania whispered, frowning as she peered through the foliage. “Danil?”
He sensed nothing and shook his head.
They watched as Magus Brianna finished the enchantment and continued deeper into the mist.
“Whoever it is, she has a solid bead on them,” Elania murmured. She clambered to her feet, looking about at the dripping trees. “How odd, though, that whoever she’s following seems to be walking along a leyline.”
Hafryn’s gaze snapped to her. “Are you certain?”
“It should be on your map,” she said. “There’s a weak leyline that runs through this area.”
The wolf quickly unrolled the parchment and spread it out on a bed of mist-dampened clover. He tapped a scrawled line, frowning. “Why would anyone want to draw a mage’s attention to a leyline?”
“Perhaps in the hopes of distracting the magus,” Blutark suggested.
Danil studied the map, noting the various dig sites marked throughout Altonas. The trenches had started off fairly spread out, but then gradually winnowed down to a small region. The party currently stood in the center of that area. “I know the soldiers have been trying to harvest kiandrite,” he began. “But this looks more like a search pattern. It could be that Magus Brianna is using leylines as a reference to find something else.”
Frowning, the wolf traced a finger over the map, starting from the leyline they currently straddled. His finger ended at an area that looked no different to the rest of Altonas.
Hafryn, however, leaned back with a curse. “Karalingra,” he murmured.
“Say what now?” Danil said, glancing down again at the parchment.
“It means ‘place of endings’,” Blutark said. A frown showed deep on his brow.
Hafryn nodded grimly. “It’s where Kaul lies buried.”
18
“This is it,” Blutark murmured.
Danil turned about in a slow circle. They stood in a small grove, no different to any other they’d come across since arriving in Altonas. Vine-covered columns lay toppled amidst a carpet of moss. Much of the remaining ground was covered in ivy.
“Over here,” Hafryn whispered. He pulled back a layer of ivy to reveal a set of stone stairs leading down into the earth.
Stepping close, Danil eyed the inky blackness with disquiet. Patches of dirt sat on the first couple of steps. The air felt unnaturally cold. “Gods,” he muttered under his breath. It was damned creepy.
Hafryn grinned humorlessly. “I’ll go first.” He touched a glyph engraved into the stone before stepping down.
The stairs descended into a tunnel overrun with tree roots and dead bracken. A faint light showed at the end of the tunnel. They padded towards it and peered into a stone chamber. Lit sconces filled the chamber with an orange glow.
Magus Ronan and four others stood in a wide circle at the center of the chamber, including the silver-haired mage they’d seen earlier in the afternoon. The strangers all wore pale cloaks with Brianna’s insignia dyed in the center. Together with Ronan, they chanted in an obscure language.
In the middle of the magi circle stood Magus Brianna, her hand outstretched over the stone floor. The ground swelled and heaved, then turned to water. Moments later, a white fragment of what looked like bone rose out
of the liquid. More rapidly followed, whirling about Magus Brianna’s raised hand before melding together to form a pale ivory staff.
“Holy pestilence and corruption,” Blutark whispered, face white.
The water rippled once again as a small round orb the color of congealed blood rose out of the ground. It floated onto the top of the staff and lodged into place with a loud ‘snick’.
Magus Brianna gripped the staff. Immediately, the flesh of her hand blackened and charred, then hardened like polished stone. She smiled.
“Sweet gods, what is that?” Danil whispered.
“Every evil remnant of Kaul,” Hafryn managed, green eyes horrified. “Made physical once more.”
“We have to stop her before she settles into her new power,” Blutark muttered. Hafryn and Elania nodded.
The air about Elania shimmered a heartbeat before a snow leopard launched into the air with an ear-piercing shriek. Without thinking, Danil burst into the chamber after her, catapulting for the ring of magi with Blutark and Hafryn at his heels.
They struck a solid wall of air. Danil flew across the chamber and crashed onto his back, winded. An invisible force pressed down on his limbs, pinning him. He stared helplessly up at the ceiling. Grunts close by indicated that his companions were similarly pinioned.
The shifting of fabric warned that the magi headed for him. From his periphery, he saw Magus Brianna step out of the circle, the orb atop her staff casting bloodied shadows about the chamber.
With a gasp, Danil attempted to roll away.
“Now, now, guide,” Magus Brianna tutted. Her voice had a strange whispery quality he’d never noticed before. “We have a bargain to fulfil.”
She raised her blackened hand, the flesh withered and hard. Icy tendrils formed along her skin. The tendrils licked out, sweeping over Danil to where Hafryn, Blutark and Elania lay.
The three were lifted off the ground and thrown against a wall with sickening thuds.
No!
Danil found himself suddenly freed. He rolled to his feet, teeth bared.
A sudden crack filled the chamber, and then Ronan’s firewhip wrapped around his throat. Danil’s skin burst aflame. He fell to his knees with a choked cry. Magus Ronan yanked on the firewhip and dragged Danil across the stone floor by his throat.
He came to a halt at Magus Brianna’s slippers. She crouched over him, charred fingers splayed like claws.
Vision blurred, Danil flinched his face away to avoid her touch. “Don’t—!”
She offered a watery chuckle. “Do you not see, Ronan, how easily our plans fall at our feet?”
“I do, Great Lady,” Ronan replied. He maintained tension on the firewhip as Danil struggled to breathe. Every gulp of air burned in his lungs.
Magus Brianna looked Danil over. For a moment, her eyes appeared milky before returning to pale blue. “You’re a traitorous creature,” she murmured. The staff at her side seemed to brighten, the orb a slow roiling of blood-red power. “But I find myself wanting to give you another chance. What do you say, my dear? Should I give you another chance?”
Her pale eyes turned fully opaque, like a snowstorm over the deadlands. Danil gripped the firewhip to loosen it, uncaring of how it scorched his hands. He couldn’t see where Hafryn and the others lay, but the silence from that area gave him a desperate energy.
“I’d be more than happy to convince him, Great Lady,” Ronan said with an oily smile.
“Not here,” Magus Brianna said, rising. She stepped over Danil as if he were of little consequence. The staff made a dull boom every time it struck the floor.
“You heard her, rat,” Ronan said.
Coils of red agony tightened Danil’s throat. He gasped, vision momentarily blackening as he was wrenched to his feet. The firewhip cut deeper into his throat as Ronan tugged him toward the tunnel. Wetness and a hot coppery tang flooded his awareness.
Danil turned desperately toward his companions. They lay in a tangled mess on the floor, mist writhing over them.
The firewhip constricted in warning. “Move,” Ronan ordered.
The magi ringed around him as they emerged on the surface. Mist sat even thicker about the trees and undergrowth.
Magus Brianna planted the bone staff into the ground and raised her charred hand. The mist in front of her condensed into a portal latticed with blood-red veins. The first of the magi stepped through and disappeared.
Danil dug in his feet as Ronan dragged him forward.
A terrible roar suddenly filled the grove.
Something massive and golden dropped down through the canopy, disturbing the mist in a whirling gust of wind. Expansive golden wings shot with bronze unfurled, the earth vibrating as the dragon landed in a billowing cloud of moss and leaves.
Dragon Prince Sonnen had arrived.
19
Sonnen roared with such ferocity it reverberated through Danil’s bones. Taloned claws raked down one mage’s torso. The woman flew lifelessly into the bracken.
Another mage dived for the portal, but the silver-haired mage planted his feet. He threw a bolt of flame up at Sonnen’s elongated snout. The dragon appeared wholly unaffected. Flames licked the side of his mouth.
The firewhip suddenly clenched about Danil’s throat. Ronan wrenched hard, sending him off his feet. Danil flailed, blindly reaching out for the nearest bush. His fingers gouged into the bark as Ronan took a step toward the portal.
Spears of ice whipped overhead from Magus Brianna, only to be met by a wall of flame. Danil’s back warmed as he scrambled for greater purchase.
Someone screamed, and from the edge of his vision Danil saw the grey-haired mage bolt for the portal, his clothing on fire.
A boot slammed down on Danil’s hand. He lost his grip on the bush with a cry. Ronan dragged him closer to the portal.
Magus Brianna thumped her bone staff into the ground. The dirt trembled as the orb spat out a torrent of red-tinged ice. The shards hissed as they swept over Sonnen and struck the surrounding leaves and branches. Sonnen’s golden scales deepened to bronze as he took a powerful breath and released an answering fireball.
Danil slid on his belly across the detritus as Ronan reeled in the firewhip. The portal loomed over him.
“Sonnen!” he choked out desperately.
A massive tail swept across and knocked Ronan off his feet.
The handle of the firewhip went flying, and suddenly Danil was released. He scurried back on his heels, gasping for breath as the firewhip slithered after its owner.
Sonnen raised powerful talons to strike Magus Brianna. She lifted her staff, lip curling. The dragon smashed the staff to the side, and it was only by some unknowable magic that the woman retained her grip. She sent glittering shards of ice at Sonnen, only for them to tinkle off his scales like glass.
Magus Ronan suddenly appeared at her side and grabbed her about the waist. The mage dived for the portal, taking Magus Brianna with him. Her outraged scream rang out before the portal closed behind them with a solid burst of red-tinged light.
Danil sank against the dirt. His throat hurt like fury. He didn’t want to touch it for fear of discovering how deep the burn went. Everything felt raw and scorched, his chest too tight for his thundering heart.
The dragon transformed into the familiar, tall man with black hair and large shoulders. Sonnen knelt beside him, golden eyes alarmed. “Danil—”
With an effort, Danil pushed his hand aside and staggered for the stairs leading down into the chamber. Against the far wall, Hafryn stirred, weakly lifting his head. Blutark remained as a bear, unconscious and breathing harshly. The snow leopard beside him pressed her nose into his ribs, making a distressed chuffing sound.
Sonnen swept past Danil.
“Let me see, Elania,” the dragon said gently. He pressed a hand to Blutark’s side. “Fear not. He will be well once the healers see to him.” His hand glowed for a few heartbeats.
The leopard licked the bear’s ear, smoothing the fur back. Blu
tark seemed to breathe easier.
Hafryn coughed weakly. Without thinking, Danil eased him to sitting, studying his face searchingly. “I’m well, fala,” the wolf said. His freckles stood out on his pale face as he touched Danil’s collarbone. “Your throat…”
Sonnen turned Danil about and placed a large palm on his neck. Danil winced at the faint hissing sound.
“As a prince of fire, I can undo the worst wrought by my element, but you will need salves to lessen the scarring,” Sonnen said.
Danil scarcely cared about that. They’d just experienced a resounding defeat.
The dragon lifted one of Danil’s hands, turning it palm-up. The skin appeared blistered and raw. Expression meditative, the dragon traced a whorled symbol in the air just inches above Danil’s skin. A golden glyph settled on his palm. The blisters and redness faded. The dragon repeated the glyph on Danil’s other hand.
Danil experimentally clenched his fists and opened them again. The skin was unmarked save for the whorled glyphs that glittered on both palms. “Thank you,” he managed, voice hoarse.
Sonnen sat back, golden eyes firm. “You were reckless in your fight, Danil of Farin. A firewhip can behead a man, if the wielder wishes it so.”
He resisted the urge to touch his throat. “I couldn’t let them take me through the portal.”
Hafryn rested his head against the wall, eyes closed. His throat bobbed as he swallowed. “One would think you’re irrelevant now.” He opened on eye. “Sorry, fala, but it’s true. Using Kaul’s bones for magic makes Magus Brianna an adversary few can beat.”
Sonnen’s eyes narrowed. “The magus has indeed fashioned herself a staff of corruption.” He swept a measuring gaze over Danil. “The fact the magi tried to take you indicates that the staff is only part of their goal.”
That’s what Danil feared. Magus Brianna still needed him to find something in the deadlands.
“I believe I know why, Danil of Farin.”
Both Danil and Hafryn turned to look at the dragon.