by Sam Cheever
I watched the Mage’s rage-fueled magic attack Kanish, sending her to the ground on a terror-filled roar.
I experienced for a second time, the total annihilation of Diandra, smelling the acrid black smoke that was all that was left of the Seer who was trying to help.
The pain was like razor blades slicing through my gut.
Wicked flying through the air.
Kanish crashing to the ground.
Diandra being blown to pieces.
Wicked flying…
Kanish crashing…
Diandra…?
Diandra…?
Something wasn’t right.
Wicked flying…
Diandra…
Where was Diandra? Where was Walt? Where was Walt’s family? Where were the other Seers?
My brain hurt as images and questions and impossible outcomes spun through it. The questions dug sharp claws into my mind, unwilling to let go as I tried to shove them aside to clear my thoughts of the constantly shifting images.
I couldn’t form a solid thought. There was too much going on in my mind.
My world rolled beneath me.
Explosions ground against my hearing, leaving behind the stench of battle and death.
Voices screamed above the cacophony.
Agony…smoke…destruction…energy spearing upward…Kanish falling…Wicked flying…Diandra…
Diandra…
Diandra!
“Naida! Trolls trousers! Stop rolling around and screaming.” A cold hand slapped me across the cheek.
My eyes shot open and I looked up into judgmental green eyes. A bright red curtain of hair fell on either side of the Sprite’s long, narrow face, the color drawing the army of freckles out and making them look even more vibrant across her nose.
I sat upright, grasping Sebille’s wrists. “I know. Oh my goddess, I know!”
Sebille frowned. “Know what?”
“I know what was wrong with the pictures in my mind.”
“Oookayyy,” she looked past me at someone, giving whoever it was her patented, “Looney Tunes” look.
“Miss,” Hobs said, sounding worried.
I shook my head, shoving to my feet. “It’s not the Wizard. I mean, it kinda is. But not really. Nobody’s who they said they were and I’m so stupid. I just brought him here and handed him over.” I smacked myself on the forehead with my open palm, the pain ripping the last of the muzziness from my brain.
I grabbed Sebille’s arm. “Come on. We need to find Walt and his family. They’re in terrible danger.”
“That’s what we’re trying to do,” she told me, still looking like she was an eye-blink away from an eye-roll.
I nodded. “Yes.” I turned to Hobs. “How did you find us before? At the other caves?”
He frowned, his forehead compressing so that the little swatch of hair between his ears touched his raised brows. “We climbed the steps.”
“Show me where they are,” I told him, giving him a gentle nudge to get him moving.
“Naida, have you lost your mind? That wasn’t here. It was at the other place. By the gate.”
“I know. But haven’t you noticed the stark similarities between the two? I think they’re both magical concoctions, and I’m betting everybody’s lives right now that, whoever built them both, built them the same for a reason.” I turned to Hobs, lifting my brows in expectation.
“This way, Miss.”
20
My Little Band of Merry Incompetents
The steps had been chiseled into the rock at the very end of the cave, invisible unless you knew they were there or just happened to stumble across them. I wondered how the hobgoblin had found them the first time, tucking that question away for another time─after we’d saved Walt and his family from the evil pursuing them.
We climbed the steps quickly and emerged into a cold rain like we’d experienced the last time we’d been on that magicked ridge. The water made the rock slick and cloaked the sky in leaden clouds. If the night hadn’t already been uncomfortably dark, the storm with its thick bank of clouds would have finished the job.
As it was, Sebille and I had our magics to light our way.
Fire slashed through the darkness, superheating the air in front of us and drying the rain from the slippery rock. I turned to find Kanish draped over the rocky ground, a glow in her magical gaze. “Hey, girl. I’m glad to see you looking better.”
She lifted her wings and roared, making me wince. So much for sneaking up on the bad guy.
“Alrighty then. We’ll assume they know we’re coming.”
Sebille winced. “Sorry about that. She’s feeling better, and she’s more than a little ticked with whoever blew her out of the sky.”
“I can’t exactly say I blame her.”
We took off running along the ridge, the dragon stomping loudly behind us. Each time one of her giant feet landed on the rock, it sounded like thunder and sent small stones and rocks skittering down to the ground below.
I blamed all the noise Kanish was making for my not noticing sooner when the explosions stopped.
I threw a hand up to halt my little band of merry incompetents.
Except for the soft patter of rain on the rock, silence filled the night.
I sent Sebille a meaning-filled look. “Where’s Slimy?”
She frowned. “Don’t you think it’s a strange time to ask about the frog?”
I sighed. “Where is he, Sebille?”
“He’s fine. Why? Do you feel an overwhelming need to be peed on?”
“Sebille?” I asked again in a warning voice.
“Pooped on?”
“Sebille!” I growled.
“I’m here!” Slimy said, his voice disembodied and slightly muffled.
Hobs reached into his scarf and tugged the frog free, holding him up in front of my face. I took him from Hobs’ hands. “Look around,” I instructed the frog in a low voice. “Tell me what you see.”
Slimy blinked. He hopped a little in my palm and turned, then hopped again to turn some more. “Darkness. Rain. There’s a juicy looking cricket just over there near that rock.”
“Focus,” I snarled.
“I am focusing,” he said in a whiny tone. “I’m starving. Do you know how long it’s been since I ate something?”
Hobs shot away and back, holding a struggling cricket between two long fingers. With a snap of Slimy’s killer tongue, the cricket was no more.
Sebille and I grimaced.
“There’s a soft glow down there. Hidden magic.”
“Can you read the intent of the magic?” Sebille asked him.
The frog stared into the night with a blank look, his throat working over the unfortunate cricket. “Subterfuge,” he finally said. “I’m still hungry.”
I looked at Sebille. She chewed on her lip and then nodded. “Kanish and I will do a fly-by and see if we can tell what we’re dealing with. You guys wait here.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but she was running toward the dragon before I could get a word out. I watched as she leaped gracefully into the air and landed behind the dragon’s sleek head. The big creature took three running steps, flapped her enormous wings, and eased gracefully into the sky. Sebille held on as if she’d been riding dragons all her life.
Hobs stared at me. “We’re not going to wait here, are we, Miss?”
“Some of us are. You and Wicked and Slimy stay here, wait for Sebille to come back. I’m going to do a little scouting up ahead.”
Hobs gave me a little grin that made my stomach twist.
“You need to do as I say, Hobs.”
He tucked Slimy back into the scarf and nodded to a spot behind me.
I turned in time to see Wicked trotting along the ridge, heading toward the magical subterfuge. “Crunchy crickets!” I grumbled, taking off after him. Hobs was just a breeze blowing my hair away from my face as he shot past and ahead of me.
“Nobody listens anymore,” I groused. Of cours
e, I’d pointedly ignored Sebille’s perfectly good advice and forged ahead.
Stupid Naida. Stupid, stupid Naida.
The rain drove down onto my head, making it hard to see where I was going. A blustery breeze scoured across the wet surface of the rocks, turning it to ice. I fell hard once, then was forced to slow down or risk plunging over the side of the ridge.
I’d lost sight of Wicked, and Hobs never reappeared. I prayed they were safe. My only option was to keep moving forward.
Flames seared the darkness high above. I looked up to see Kanish’s massive form cutting through a dense blanket of clouds, which glowed with silver light to form a dramatic backdrop for the dragon’s flight.
No energy arrows shot upward to knock her out of the sky. I hoped that was a good sign.
I slowed as muffled sounds came to me through the rain.
Voices. Shrill with fear.
Nope. Apparently, not a good sign.
I closed my eyes, tugging my energy forward. It would be a poor weapon against an ancient and powerful Mage, and I couldn’t help wishing I had more. I sent my seeking energy into the night and felt a slight tug on it a beat later.
The soft snick of air warned me that I had incoming. To my shock, the sword I’d called to me earlier slipped easily into my hand, the hilt and weight adjusting to fit me. The burlap bag landed at my feet a second later, finally answering my earlier call.
That was a little better.
I arranged the straps of the bag across my body and gripped the sword. Taking a final, deep breath, I stepped forward and the rain stopped.
I was standing in a room with concrete walls and a concrete floor. Around me, eyes wide with fear, Walt’s family stood and crouched against the walls, wrists and ankles trapped inside brutal metal rings.
I glanced around and saw no Wizard.
Walt’s grandfather looked at the sword I held, his gaze dismissing it to focus on the energy spitting in my palm. “Can you release us with that?”
I hurried over and tugged the chain straight, sending my energy into the sword and hitting the chain with it. The metal bent but didn’t break. I hit it again and again. Finally, the chain gave way. He jerked a leg away from the wall. “This one too. Thank the goddess you came. I’m so afraid for Walt.”
I glanced quickly around. “Walt? Where is he?”
“Trying to buy us some time,” Walt’s mother said. Her face was sallow, cheeks sunken, and eyes filled with pain and worry. She held the infant in her arms and had pulled all the other children as close to her as the chains would allow.
“The Mage will kill him,” her husband said. “We’re the only ones who can save him.” He lifted his arm to show me the broken cuff. “I almost had this one off, but my magic won’t work until I get the ankle cuff off too.”
Spelled manacles. It made sense.
I redoubled my efforts with Grampa Mong’s ankle. It was thicker than the wrist manacle and I couldn’t break it. I sat back on my heels, thinking.
“The bag, Miss,” Hobs said.
I turned to the door, finding the hobgoblin and Wicked standing there. Hobs looked disheveled as if he’d been through a tornado.
But it hadn’t affected his thinking. He was right. Rolling my eyes at my own stupidity, I pulled the bag off my shoulder and reached inside, grasping a six-inch-long metal object. I withdrew it, looking down at the key resting across my palm. It consisted of two slender lengths of blackened metal welded to a circle within a circle within a circle, overlaid by a lightning bolt etched in green. Praying it was the right key, I handed it to Hobs. “Can you unlock their cuffs?” I asked.
Using his supernormal speed, he had everyone unlocked a beat later.
Then he sat down on the floor in front of the kids with the bag, pulling sweets and toys from the endless burlap depths.
I huddled with the parents. “Where’s Walt?”
Papa Mong jerked his head toward the nearest window. “He ran to pull the danger away from us. But we heard Demons. I fear the Mage is tracking him with them.”
Ugh! Not more Demons.
I looked each and every one of them in the eyes. “Can you fight?”
The adults shared a look, their gazes filled with rage. “We look forward to it,” Papa Mong finally said.
Holding his gaze, I asked, “Wicked, Hobs, can you get the children out of here?”
“I’ll take them,” a deep voice said from behind me. I whipped around, finding the Seer from the mountain peak. Without thinking, I’d raised the sword and tugged my magic forward.
Mama Mong reached out and stayed my hand. “He’s a friend.”
Papa Mong looked at the man. “Is everything in place?”
The Seer nodded. “I don’t know how you’re going to get the Mage inside the circle, though. There’s even more power this time than the last.”
Grampa Mong frowned. “We have more too, old friend. And this time, we know what we’re dealing with.”
Beyond the walls of the concrete prison room, a dragon called high and long. I knew that was my cue to leave. “If my friends and I deal with those Demons, can you save Walt and stop the Mage?”
The four elder Mongs shared a quick look, nodded, and then, in a flare of yellow-green light, disappeared from the room.
“Well,” I murmured to myself. “Somebody’s been practicing.”
I suddenly realized I had no idea how to get out of there. I turned to Hobs and my heart warmed, seeing him sitting cross-legged in the midst of the array of Mong kids. I turned and looked at the Seer, whose kindly gaze was green, rather than the terrifying black from before. Without a word, he walked over and touched my forehead with two fingers.
And the concrete prison room spun away.
I landed in a crouch, arms outstretched and clasping the sword artifact in one hand, my magic in the other.
The silvery energy spit and flared into the darkness. The blade of the sword glowed a soft red, the handle warm and reassuring in my fist. Red. The color of battle.
A battle sword.
Sweet!
I lifted my head and looked around, seeing the familiar peaks of the Seer’s lair that Walt had brought me to after he’d found me sleeping by the pond.
The air was icy, but the wind was gone. The rain had shifted away as the cold had grown. Down by my feet, a wintry fog swirled, chilling my legs and feet wherever it touched.
The soft, thump, thump thump of oversized wings had me lifting my head, pulse spiking as I held the sword in a defensive position.
The dragon landed gracefully a few yards away, and Sebille leaped off her back. She strode to me. “Five Demons surrounding Walt up there, beside a firepit with six-foot-high flames. There’s someone watching, but he’s in the shadows. The Demons are definitely working for him.”
I nodded. “I know the place. Walt took me there before we trekked to the border.” I glanced toward the dragon. “Can she fight Demons?”
Sebille nodded. “She’s ready.”
I started off toward Kanish, stopping and turning back when Sebille didn’t follow. “You coming?”
Her response was a flare of green light. She buzzed toward me, two inches tall with iridescent purple and green wings. In her Sprite form she was fast, hard to target, and deadly. “I have my own wings,” Sebille told me. “You take Kanish. Trust her. Now that she knows who the enemy is, she’s good at maneuvering around them.”
I turned away and ran toward the dragon. I’d like to say I leaped gracefully onto her back, movie style, like Sebille had, but it would be a lie.
I could have used a ladder.
And a boost.
I pretty much clawed, grunted, and scrambled onto her back. Then, when she took off like a shot, I almost fell right off again. It took me a few beats to yank myself upright as she climbed quickly toward the dense gray clouds. I nearly threw up when she spotted our prey and shot like a bullet toward the circle of red-eyed Demons surrounding the fire below.
Yeah,
Hollywierd wouldn’t be knocking on my door to offer me a stunt-double contract any time soon.
21
It Stinks in Here
Kanish gave a blood-curdling roar as we dove toward the fire-eyed monsters below. They looked up and growled at us, lifting off the ground and shooting in our direction. Before Kanish evened out her flight, her wings beating the air to send us off at speed, I saw the four Mongs pop into place around Walt, where the Demons had been.
I took a deep breath as the monsters charged closer, their eyes glowing evil intent into the night. Their mouths were open in a constant growl, showing us the jagged teeth they would use to tear us to pieces if we weren’t fast and smart.
The Demons were flying upward in formation, but when they came to within several yards of us, they suddenly spread out, taking up positions around and below us. It was only a matter of time before one of them managed to climb to a spot above the dragon. Then we’d be surrounded.
Hold on, a voice said in my mind.
Before I had time to decipher who’d spoken, Kanish slammed her wings backward, creating a hard braking effect that precipitated a violent downward plunge.
A scream escaped my lips and I started to fly off the dragon’s back. I grabbed for a slippery spike and tried to grip with my legs, but gravity and wind were not my friend. I slid from my precarious seat on her back, my stomach twisting in terror as the ground grew rapidly closer. Before I completely fell away, the dragon’s energy flickered, a smoky scent on the air, and a ring of sparkling magic reached for me and tugged me back down. The soft embrace of her magic locked me into place like a seatbelt.
We hurtled into the Demon who’d been flying beneath us, hitting him with a meaty thump. As the monster fell, Kanish slammed the spikes of her agile tail into him, sending him to the ground in a death spiral.
We didn’t wait for him to hit. The Demons we’d left behind when we’d dropped so precipitously, were diving in our direction.
And they looked mad.
Of course, they pretty much always looked mad.