The door wouldn’t budge.
Inoria looked at him questioningly.
Emerius scratched his head. What was happening? He prepared himself to try again. He got into a low, powerful stance, feet wide and flat on the ground, legs flexed. He grabbed the crossbar brace and lifted and heaved again.
Nothing.
Inoria, still scanning for guards, tapped him on his shoulder with her bow. When he looked over, she pointed to a section in the center between the two halves of the door. There was a heavy hook-and-eye latch there. The hook was firmly set within the loop attached to the other door.
He rolled his eyes as Inoria silently chuckled. Reaching to the latch, he lifted up on it and separated the hook from the eye. He once again lifted up on the gate and pulled inward. This time, the gate swung easily, and silently. He opened it only a few feet and waited.
Within seconds, the others came through, the monk and the Sapsyr making no noise, and Sam making about as much noise as a drunk squirrel rustling through dead leaves. He winced at the sound. Someone needed to teach that boy how to move silently.
The party, all together now, moved toward the main building.
Chapter 29
Emerius watched the others as they moved toward the central part of the fortress. The Zouy and the woman were really very good when it came to moving silently. He couldn’t hear Nalia at all and Rindu had only made one sound, so slight that he wasn’t even sure it was the older man. He was looking forward to seeing how they fought. There were lots of stories about the Zouyim and the Sapsyra. Their skill was legendary. But were the legends true? He’d soon see.
There was a blur of motion and before Emerius could even react, Rindu had crossed ten feet and struck a guard coming around the corner so precisely that the man fell into the monk’s arms, unconscious but not dead. How was it possible for someone to move that fast?
Rindu looked at him and whispered, “Only the fool, the madman, or one truly evil kills when it is unnecessary.” Emerius didn’t answer him.
They continued on with no further contact with guards and soon they were standing at one of the side doors to the main building. It was locked.
“This is the biggest building,” Emerius whispered. “They will have captives in here. We have to get in. Quietly.”
“I’ve been playing around with something,” Sam said. “ever since my first trip to Gythe. Let me try.”
Emerius just looked at him.
“Allow him to try,” Rindu said. “I believe he can do what is needed.”
Emerius stepped out of his way, doubtful.
Sam stepped up to the door and tugged on it. Emerius frowned and looked at Rindu, a question plain on his face. Rindu shrugged.
“Just checking,” Sam said. “You never know.”
The boy—he didn’t know why he called him that; he was at least a couple of years older than Emerius—stood in front of the door and closed his eyes. He took a few deep breaths and then held his hand out toward the door. He wiggled his fingers for a moment, as if feeling something and then he flexed them and turned his hand slightly. There was a click and the door came toward them just an inch. It was enough to show that the door was unlocked.
Sam smiled and Nalia patted his arm affectionately. Emerius didn’t really know what to say, so he said nothing and pushed past their celebration to open the door and peer inside.
The rest of the party followed him as he found his way through the corridor. If they were lucky, they wouldn’t see anyone until they got to where the captives were. He was assuming the cages and cells were in the lower floors, so the next order of business was to find stairs.
Emerius was beginning to worry. It was too quiet. He didn’t want to get into a pitched battle, but they should have encountered people by now, if not guards or soldiers then at least others who would be wandering the stronghold. What was going on here?
Just as he was finishing that thought, they came around a corner and ran into six soldiers who looked as if they had just finished their shift. In the split second it took everyone else to register what was happening, Rindu had incapacitated four of them and Nalia had knocked out the other two.
Their methods were different, Emerius noticed, Rindu striking precisely to make the soldiers lose consciousness and Nalia using strong strikes to knock them out conventionally, with hits to the jaw or solar plexus. What they had in common was that they were as fast as lightning. Emerius and Inoria were as fast as a striking viper with their bows, and close to that fast with their long knives, but they hadn’t even had time to unsheathe their blades. Maybe there was something to the legends after all.
Even Sam had reacted faster than them. He had his staff, somehow broken into two sticks, at a guard position and he was looking down the hall from where the soldiers came. He shook his head. No others. Emerius was shocked when he saw Sam put the sticks together, end to end, and they melted together to form the staff again.
The group moved on.
“I don’t feel comfortable with just knocking the guards out,” Emerius complained to Rindu. “What if they wake up and sound the alarm or attack us as we’re trying to leave?”
“They will not,” the Zouy said. “This infiltration is different than when we attacked the Gray Fortress. We will rescue the captives and leave quickly. When Sam, Nalia, and I went after the Gray Man, we did not know how long we would be in the fortress. Regrettably, our only option was to kill, or risk being trapped or killed ourselves. Here, we have the luxury of not ending lives. Yet. Do not worry, Emerius Dinn. If our skills are pressed, we will take lives rather than to be defeated. For now, though, we must follow a higher path.”
Emerius looked to Sam. “Does he always talk like that?”
“Always. Just wait until he wants to tell you a story.” Sam winked.
The party slunk through the corridors and went down several sets of stairs they had found. Soon, they were in a hall with doors spaced regularly on either side. They had smaller hatches built into them at about head level and at the floor.
“Cells,” Sam said.
“Yes,” Emerius said. “In?”
Inoria went to the first door and opened the cover on the hole at head height as the others moved ahead and watched for guards. She shook her head, went to the next, and looked into it as well. Nothing. So it went, the party watching in front of and behind Inoria as she peered into the cells. They were all empty.
When they got to the end of the hall, everyone stopped. There was one door left, the one directly in front of them.
They all looked at each other. Emerius saw his sister set her jaw and shift her eyes to the door. Whatever was behind it, he hoped it held the answers they were looking for.
“There is no one immediately on the other side of the door,” Rindu said. “I feel no vibrations of the living there, unless the room is very large and the occupants are at the far end.”
Swallowing hard, Emerius put his hand on the handle and opened the door slowly, ducking low in case the monk was wrong and someone was aiming an arrow at him. He looked for a long time, scanning the large chamber, taking in all the details as he slowly stood up, then pushed the door open and let the others see, not surprised at the shocked look on their faces. He knew he wore a similar expression.
The chamber had to be thirty feet on either side. There were braziers set regularly throughout the room, as well as torches on sconces mounted to the wall. There were six tables with restraints set in them, straps empty in all but one. Wooden cabinets lined two walls, doors closed tight. In between there were shorter tables, wicked-looking implements adorning their surfaces. There were jars of liquid, as well as tubing that had the appearance of the blood vessels of animals. Altogether, it was a gruesome and disturbing sight, but these paled in comparison to the others there, the things that acted like magnets, drawing the eyes.
The table that was not empty held what seemed once to have been a human. The figure was stripped bare and lying on its back. Whatev
er kind of creature it was now, it was male. The skin on the figure was off-colored, a sort of sickly gray-green. Emerius wasn’t sure if the hue was the result of death or not. It was almost completely bald, which he was sure was not the result of death. The right leg of the thing on the table, in contrast with the rest of the body, was covered with a thick tangle of hair. The hair started and ended abruptly, in a straight line, as if it had been painted on.
The limbs on the creature were abnormally long. They looked sinewy and strong, but the proportions were all wrong for a human. The spine seemed to be misshaped, also, curving with exaggerated lines that could be seen even in its horizontal position. The toes and fingers came to sharp points, like spikes. It didn’t move, not even to breathe.
Maybe even more disturbing was what was on the floor at regular intervals near the tables. There were small piles consisting of several bodies each. They seemed to be at various stages of some type of metamorphosis. They were not all human, or what could conceivably have come from humans. Some were smaller, most still with their fur even if their form was not as they were when the work on them had started. They were hapaki.
“What in the name of all that is good has happened here?” Sam said.
“This is what Baron Tingai does,” Emerius answered. “This is the work he does with the subjects he captures. I guess it doesn’t always come out like he plans it.”
Inoria, frozen up until that moment, came alive. She started searching frantically, inspecting each pile for something. Emerius knew what that something was.
“I don’t see Ancha here,” she said after making a full inspection. The rest of the party had moved little during the time. “That could be good news. Tingai hasn’t tried to work his evil on our brother yet. There is still time.”
Sam looked at Inoria with liquid eyes, but whether it was because of her dilemma or because of the hapaki lying there in piles, Emerius couldn’t be sure. He turned his gaze to Emerius and the hunter saw those steel gray eyes harden.
“I think I agree with you, Emerius,” he said in a way that made the man feel a chill. “I think a quick death may just be too good for Tingai. Let’s catch him and discuss it.”
“Sam,” Rindu said softly. “Do not think foul thoughts. It is true that Tingai must be stopped, but vengeance is not the proper attitude. As it is said, ‘The task must be done, but pleasure in dark deeds injures the soul.’”
“It is also said,” Sam said, “‘The piper deserves his pay.’”
“But, too, it is said that ‘He who seeks vengeance must dig two graves.’”
“What about ‘Revenge is an act of passion; vengeance of justice.’” Sam countered.
“Is that what you speak of, Sam?” Rindu asked. “Justice? Or are you in fact speaking of revenge?”
Sam glared at the floor for a moment. Then, he took two deep breaths. As he exhaled the second breath, his shoulders slumped and his body relaxed, tension leaving him. He bowed his head to Rindu.
“You’re right, Master Rindu. Still, he must be stopped. This can never be allowed to happen again.”
“We will stop him,” Rindu said. “but we must do so in harmony with the universal rohw or we will become as that with which we battle. We must follow the wireh in all things.”
“That’s great,” Emerius said. “However, all this talk doesn’t get us any closer to rescuing the remaining villagers and hapaki. We need to get moving.”
“Agreed,” Nalia said. “It is urgent that we catch Tingai before he has time to perform more of his torture and mutation on the remaining captives. Let us go quickly.”
They turned to leave and Emerius realized their error. They had been so shocked by what they found, they had not been aware that a force of what looked like two dozen soldiers had assembled at the end of the corridor, the front line of which had arrows pointed at them. Only the fact that they were still setting up their ranks had kept them from firing projectiles into the party’s backs.
Chapter 30
“Take cover!” Sam said and found himself not retreating into the room, but heading toward the soldiers. He had just enough time to wonder what had caused him to do that on instinct before it was too late. Eight of the archers loosed arrows.
Without thought, Sam broke Ahimiro into the two halves and twirled them quickly, deflecting arrows coming at him. He was able to evade two other arrows, noticing that Nalia and Rindu were on either side of him, dodging or deflecting arrows coming at them. Rindu snatched one of the arrows from the air, dropped his right shoulder, rolled under two more arrows, and came up launching his captured arrow back at one of the archers. The man dropped to the ground, out of the battle and the realm of the living, feathered shaft jutting out of one eye.
As one of the archers directly in front of Sam looked him in the eye and moved his bow to aim at Sam’s head, he wondered if he would be able to dodge the projectile from such a close range. The question didn’t need to be answered, though, because a blur streaked past Sam’s shoulder and impaled the man in the throat. Another arrow whizzed by on his other side and struck a different archer. The twins were providing backup.
Sam found himself just a few feet in front of the first row of soldiers. He saw in his peripheral vision that Nalia was to the left of him and Rindu to the right. All three struck at the same time. They were too close now for the archers to use their bows, but some were still falling from arrows shot by Inoria and Emerius.
Sam waded in, striking left, right, and center with his sticks. He deflected a sword strike so that the blade bit into the arm of one of the swordsman’s fellows. A strong jab to the eyes with the end of his stick and the sword was dropped in favor of covering the bloody eye socket. Sam moved on.
He turned to evade a thrust from another blade and saw Rindu parrying a hand holding a long knife, deflecting a mace with his right foot, and striking a third attacker with the other hand. The strike was with an open palm that glowed as the Zouy fortified it with a rohw burst, causing the unfortunate opponent to receive a shattered elbow for his trouble.
Nalia, too, was wreaking havoc. She was using her shrapezi, but with obvious restraint. Instead of the death-dealing he had seen in previous conflicts, she was inflicting cuts that, while serious, would not kill the assailant unless allowed to bleed freely for some time. She cut through weapons like they were made of paper, but the control with which she attacked incapacitated but did not kill.
Before Sam knew it, the last few soldiers were defeated. Rindu delivered a precise strike to the upper part of a man’s chest, causing him to fold up and drop. He was sure that the man had just been knocked out, not killed.
Sam stood there, scanning the corridor for more soldiers, but there were none.
“Are you out of your mind?” Emerius yelled as he strode toward them. “Going toward a line of archers? What in seven hells made you go toward them?”
Sam shrugged. “I don’t know. Before I knew what was happening, I was halfway there. It was too late to turn back.”
Emerius looked him over carefully, then raised his eyes to meet Sam’s. “You…you weren’t hit? You didn’t take an arrow anywhere? How is that possible?”
“Just lucky, I guess.”
Emerius shook his head and scowled. Then, abruptly, he burst out in raucous laughter. “Just lucky. Hmm. I guess.”
“Guys,” Inoria said, “I hate to break up a bonding moment, but we better get out of here. There are probably more where they came from.”
“Agreed,” said Rindu. “It is time to leave.”
They made their way up the stairs and toward the gate. As they were crossing the courtyard, Sam heard what sounded like many feet moving quickly across stone. He looked toward one of the smaller buildings just in time to see a large group of figures coming at them from a hundred feet away. Something about them didn’t look quite right, but in the darkness, he couldn’t see them well.
As they got closer, he realized why their silhouettes seemed to be awkward. These wer
en’t people, they were some of Tingai’s creatures. The successes. They must have been housed in one of the other buildings.
As he scanned them, he was appalled. There were a few that looked like the dead, mutated human strapped to the table in the lower level, but there were others, even more grotesque. Some were taller, some shorter, some bulky and some that were so thin he swore the bodies moved in ways contrary to how human joints and bones worked. There were even a few that were small like a human child or a hapaki. Sam guessed it was the latter because of the splotchy fur that adhered to them. Some of the creatures howled or hissed as they came at the party.
Rindu’s voice rang out. “These creatures are no longer our friends. They are something else entirely. Do not be taken in by the form that is close to human or hapaki. They are attainted and their energy is dark. I can see it. They must be destroyed.”
Sam looked at the creatures coming toward them. They seemed to have no fear, no caution. They were mindlessly charging, obviously wanting to rip the party to shreds. He held his sticks at the ready, saddened that it would come to this, doing battle to the death with those who should have been their friends. Some of whom were their friends.
Emerius and Inoria had already started firing arrows into individual attackers. For most, it didn’t seem as if the arrows did much damage. Some of the creatures reached over and pulled them out, or snapped the shafts, leaving the tips in their bodies. Others didn’t pay attention to them at all but kept running toward the party. One or two were struck in a vital area, such as through the eye, and they stumbled and fell, only to be trampled by the others. It made Sam sick to see it.
When the charging throng was almost to them, Sam, Nalia, and Rindu spread out. They needed room to fight. Sam was slightly behind the other two, so more attackers went for them, but four were rushing him, intent on ripping him apart. Three of them were humanoid and one was formerly hapaki.
Harmonic Magic Series Boxed Set Page 75