The woman looked at her boys, the beginning of panic spreading across her face. “And then what? Will you kill us? The soldiers will surely question us about your whereabouts. How can you afford to leave us unharmed knowing that we’ll go to the authorities the moment we can?”
“Hush, Kayla,” the old man said. “Why don’t you make us another pot of tea? My cup has grown cold.”
She looked from him to Anatoly, then back to the old man and nodded, getting up and going to a cabinet.
“You’re not from the Isle of Zuhl, are you?” the old man said. “No, I thought not. You are clearly a seasoned warrior and you carry a weapon of rank, yet you treat this woman as an equal. That is not our way, so I can only surmise that you have come from another isle. That makes you an enemy of Lord Zuhl.”
He fell silent and nodded to himself, smiling slightly. “There was a great explosion early this morning. Such a thing would make an excellent distraction, don’t you think?”
“Stop speculating about us,” Anatoly said. “You’re an old soldier and you’re trying to gather information.”
“I’m an old man who was once a soldier. Quite honestly, my only interest here is that you don’t harm my son’s wife or my grandchildren. As for my speculation, well, let’s just say I’m curious. I served Lord Zuhl for many years, my son serves him now. That service has provided this home for our family and guaranteed that we eat well while others go without, but I have no love for Lord Zuhl. He has kept the people of this island embroiled in war and petty disputes for centuries. I’ve often wondered at his motives … until now.”
“Go on,” Anatoly said.
“Now that the Reishi scourge has returned, Lord Zuhl is prepared to defend us against it. All of those centuries of border wars between countless tribes have bred a people uniquely suited to making war. We are battle-hardened and prepared for the enemy we face. While I don’t believe that Lord Zuhl is the god he claims to be, he is wise and prescient. I for one am glad that he’s gone to such great lengths to preserve us against the Reishi threat.”
Anatoly and Magda shared a look.
“As I suspected, you’re infiltrators sent by the Reishi,” the old man said. “You will fail. Lord Zuhl will find you and you will suffer greatly for your murderous ambitions.”
Anatoly snorted and shook his head. “The truth is, you wouldn’t believe the truth if I told you.”
“Why not tell me?” the old man said. “We both know you’re going to murder my family before this day is done. What do you have to lose by humoring an old man with your version of the truth?”
“I don’t like where this is going,” Magda said.
Kayla brought a tray of cups filled with steaming hot tea, timidly offering it to Anatoly first, the cups shaking from the trembling in her hands.
“I’ll pass,” he said.
“As will I,” Magda said.
“Suit yourself,” the old man said. “I want you boys to both drink your cups, all of it.”
“Stop!” Anatoly said.
Kayla froze in midstride.
“Can you detect poison?” he asked Magda.
She looked at him sharply when the realization of what he was suggesting sank in, then nodded curtly, muttering the words of a spell. The tea began to glow a soft, menacing reddish color.
Anatoly swatted the tray out of the woman’s hand, scattering cups of poisoned tea across the floor.
“You would kill your whole family?” he demanded.
“Better by my hand than by yours,” the old man said, drawing a knife from the folds of his tunic and casting it at Anatoly with remarkable accuracy. It struck his breastplate just left of center and clattered to the floor.
Anatoly spun his war axe into his hands and stepped forward, shoving Kayla to the floor with the haft of it.
“Remain seated, old man,” Anatoly said. Then turning to Magda, he said, “It’s time to go.”
Magda nodded, casting another spell. A pulse of soft white light shone from her outstretched hands, bathing the four in its power. A moment later they all slumped into a deep sleep.
“They’ll be out for several hours and then they’ll wake feeling refreshed and well,” she said.
“That’s quite a spell,” Anatoly said.
“I actually devised it to help people through sickness,” she said with a sad smile.
They banked the fire and left the family to their magically induced sleep.
“Do you think they’ll believe any differently about us when they wake, alive and well?” Anatoly asked.
“I suspect they’ll believe what they want to believe,” Magda said.
“You’re probably right.”
Chapter 19
By midafternoon they were gaining altitude as they reached the base of the glacier that blanketed the mountain range to the north of Zuhl’s capital city. The soldiers searching for them had fanned out throughout the city but it was such a large place that Anatoly and Magda had little difficulty evading them. Since there wasn’t a wall surrounding the city itself, it had been relatively easy to escape, especially after darkness fell.
From their vantage point in the foothills overlooking the city, they could see the true size of Zuhl’s army.
“I knew he had a lot of men, but I had no idea just how many,” Anatoly said. “We have to come up with a way to eliminate those ships.”
“Hopefully, the Elite Guard will have some luck on that front,” Magda said. “And perhaps Alexander was successful against Zuhl himself. I don’t know the contents of the book we gave him but I have my suspicions. If I’m right, Zuhl may well be dead already. If that’s the case, it’s only a matter of time before all those men down there start fighting amongst themselves.”
“Wouldn’t that be nice,” Anatoly said.
“In the meantime, we should probably proceed as planned,” Magda said, pointing to the base of the mountain range below them. “It looks like they’ve assembled a hunting party.”
“It was only a matter of time,” Anatoly said, “especially if that really was their commanding general.”
“Given his weapons and armor, I would say it’s highly likely,” Magda said.
“Shame we didn’t have more time with him,” Anatoly said.
“Before this is over you may get your wish,” Magda said. “It looks like his adjunct is leading the hunting party.”
“How can you see him from here?” Anatoly said.
“Magic.”
Anatoly grunted, turning toward the mountain slope leading up to the snowcapped peaks above.
Less than an hour later a shadow passed overhead. Anatoly spun his war axe into his hands as Magda began casting a spell. Flying overhead was one of the half-man, half-dragon creatures that had helped abduct Abigail from Fellenden. It roared but didn’t attack, instead taking up a wide orbit high overhead, marking their position for the hunting party.
Anatoly slung his axe and withdrew Abigail’s bow from its carrying case on his back. “I’ve never been very good with a bow, but I might be able to take that thing down with this.”
“Perhaps we can lure the others into an ambush,” Magda said.
“What did you have in mind?”
She pointed to a rocky outcropping overlooking the trail they were following. “From there I can eliminate most, if not all of the pursuing soldiers, provided I have a few minutes of uninterrupted time to cast my spell.”
“You’re sure?” Anatoly asked. “If your spell doesn’t work, we’ll be trapped.”
“I’m sure, except for that one,” she said, pointing to the creature flying overhead. “My spell will have no effect on it, so you may want to keep that bow handy.”
“All right then, we’d better get into position.”
They climbed to the top of the outcropping and cleared the area of debris so they could find firm footing, and then they waited, Magda watching the trail below, and Anatoly watching the creature floating above them, Abigail’s bow in hand, an arrow nocked and read
y.
An hour passed before they heard the sounds of men drifting through the crisp air. A few minutes later, the first of the hunting party rounded the corner, coming into view. Magda began her spell. The creature above called out again, alerting the hunters to their presence.
Twenty men fanned out in the narrow confines of the mountain pass. Magda continued to focus on her spell.
The nearest man raised his bow and sent an arrow at them but it fell short. They began to approach the base of the outcropping, looking for a way to climb to the top, while the leader, armed with his dragon-scale shield and finely crafted long sword, stood back, watching his men approach their quarry.
Anatoly looked over at Magda, who was lost in the concentration needed for her spell. He shrugged to himself as he raised Abigail’s bow, taking aim at the creature floating overhead. The bow drew easily, he sighted down the length of the arrow, leading the creature as it glided on the cool mountain air … then he released. The arrow flew true but the creature saw it coming and rolled away from it with just inches to spare. Anatoly frowned, looking down at the men approaching the outcropping. Then he drew another arrow.
Magda stretched out both hands and continued her spell. A minute had passed since she began, maybe two, and still she chanted under her breath. Anatoly could almost feel the coiled rage building within her as she projected her vision of the moments to come into the firmament, demanding that it bend the rules of reality to her will.
A man below shouted to his companions, pointing to the path leading to the top of the outcropping. The men began to move toward the path, clustering together as they did.
Magda paused, closing her eyes for a moment, then opening them as she spoke a single forceful word. A tattered bolt of unnatural grey energy shot forth from her outstretched hands and struck the ground in the center of the cluster of men. From the point of impact, the ground took on the same unnatural grey tinge in an expanding circle. It was forty feet across when it stopped a moment later. All of the men looked down expectantly, but none were close enough to the edge of the circle to act, even if they’d had the presence of mind to try.
Every hair on Anatoly’s body stood on end as the laws of nature were violated in such extreme fashion that the ground itself seemed to cry out in distress.
Nineteen men and every loose stone and pebble within the unnatural grey circle fell up into the air as if gravity itself had been reversed. Thirty, forty, fifty feet they plummeted upward and then the spell’s effects faded. The men reached their apex at about sixty feet before the natural order was restored and gravity claimed them once again. They screamed as one and then were silenced as one when their bodies crashed to the ground, bouncing once and then coming to rest, still and dead.
The leader backed away from the outcropping, shield raised, until he rounded the corner. The creature overhead roared once and fled as well.
“Huh,” Anatoly said. “Not bad.”
Magda smiled while some of the rage necessary for casting such a powerful spell still danced in her eyes.
They traveled the rest of the day, leaving the sure footing of mountain stone and setting out onto the glacier in the early afternoon. By evening they came to the chasm, right where Alexander said it should be.
Anatoly looked down the chasm and whistled. “That’s going to take some doing.”
“I can get us to the bottom safely,” Magda said, “but if this isn’t the right place, we’ll be stuck.”
As if on cue, Alexander appeared before them, smiling.
“I’ve been watching your progress,” he said. “At the bottom of the chasm is a fissure that leads through the ice to a natural cave. Ixabrax is there.”
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Anatoly asked.
Alexander shrugged. “It’s the only way. I’ve looked around Whitehall and it’s a fortress in every sense of the word. Zuhl’s guards are alert and suspicious of everything, calling for reinforcements at the first sign of anything out of the ordinary. I appeared in front of one just to see what would happen. Within a minute, there were twenty men sealing off the area, and three minutes after that one of his blue-skinned guys showed up. He cast spells for half an hour looking for me.”
“What are those things anyway?” Anatoly asked.
“I did some more looking around to answer just that question,” Alexander said. “The men address them as Priest or Priestess and they seem to have some of the characteristics of dragons. I can only guess that they’re Zuhl’s creations.”
“The soldier with the dragon-scale shield called the one they were with Priestess,” Anatoly said, “and she had magic.”
“Perhaps Zuhl has devised a way to use his dragons to circumvent the need for the mana fast,” Magda said.
“How do you mean?” Anatoly asked.
“Dragons are creatures of magic,” Magda said. “Perhaps Zuhl is using their magic to imbue his minions with access to the firmament. Even if the magic they wield is limited and obviously produces side effects, it does give him an advantage in terms of numbers. He could have hundreds of these priests, maybe more.”
“I don’t like the sound of that,” Anatoly said.
“Me neither,” Alexander said, “but there’s nothing we can do about it right now.”
“It would be nice to know what we’re up against,” Anatoly said.
“I’ll do some more looking around,” Alexander said. “For now, I’ll go let Ixabrax know you’re coming so he won’t be startled by your arrival.”
“Good,” Anatoly said, “wouldn’t want to startle a wounded dragon that hasn’t eaten for days.”
“He wants to free his family more than he wants to eat you,” Alexander said.
“Just the same, I wish I’d brought him a mountain goat or something,” Anatoly said.
“Perhaps we could offer him a number of Zuhl’s soldiers,” Magda said.
Anatoly chuckled. “That’s kind of gruesome, but I like it. So how are we going to get down there?”
“Take my hand,” Magda said.
Anatoly frowned but did as he was told. She began casting her spell. A few moments later she looked at him and smiled mischievously.
“Now we jump,” she said. “Just don’t let go of my hand.”
He looked from her to Alexander and back to her again. “You know I don’t like heights and I like falling from high places even less.”
“It’ll be fine,” Magda said. “My spell will slow our descent.”
He took a deep breath and nodded to her.
“You don’t have to break my hand, just hold onto it,” she said, stepping from the edge of the chasm.
They fell quickly, but not as quickly as they would have left entirely to gravity’s influence. At a hundred feet they began to slow until they landed easily at the bottom of the chasm two hundred feet below the surface of the glacier. The air was still and terribly cold, but Anatoly was sweating.
“I don’t want to do that again,” he said.
“I hate to bring this up right now,” Magda said, “but I suspect that we’re going to leave here on the back of a dragon.”
“I was really trying not to think about that,” he said.
“This way,” Alexander said a moment after he appeared before them. “Ixabrax is expecting you.”
They followed Alexander’s illusion through a giant crack in the ice and finally into a cave that opened up into a wide-domed cavern. In the center, Ixabrax lay coiled tightly, one eye open, watching them as they entered.
“Ixabrax, these are my friends,” Alexander said. “They’ve brought magic to heal you and they know where you can get an easy meal.”
“Very well, Human,” Ixabrax said. “I did not expect you to return, but I will honor our arrangement.” He turned his eye toward Anatoly and Magda. “You may proceed.”
“I’ll be back when I’m needed,” Alexander said, fading from sight.
Anatoly nodded, removing a jug from his pack. “This is a healing dr
aught,” he said, holding it up to the dragon. “Drink this and it will mend your wounds.”
Ixabrax reached out with his taloned hand and took the jug, looking at it suspiciously for a moment before popping it into his mouth and crunching it with a single bite, swallowing the broken clay jug along with its contents.
“How long?” he asked.
“A few hours,” Magda said. “You’ll probably go to sleep while it does its work.”
“Very well,” he said, curling up and closing his eyes.
“We might as well get some rest, too,” Anatoly said.
“Given the frigid temperature down here I suggest we share our warmth,” Magda said.
Anatoly grunted agreement.
Chapter 20
Anatoly smoothly rolled out of the furs wrapped around Magda and himself, bringing his war axe up, then freezing in place, listening for a threat. Magda woke and looked at him questioningly. He motioned to the entrance of the cave with his chin. She quietly stood up, muttering the words of a spell under her breath.
The sound of whooshing air followed by three distinct thuds filtered through the cave entrance. Magda’s shield formed around her and she began casting another spell. Anatoly slowly made his way to the cave wall on one side of the entrance. Magda moved to the other side of the entrance, still whispering the words of a spell.
As the first of the half-man, half-dragon creatures entered, Magda released her spell. A blade the length of a sword appeared in her hand, except this blade was formed of light-blue magical force, almost transparent yet substantial enough to be deadly.
The creature noticed the sudden appearance of Magda’s weapon and turned toward her, giving Anatoly the opportunity to attack from behind with his axe, cleaving its head free of its body with a single stroke.
The second and third creatures roared in anger at the sudden attack. One breathed a gout of frigid air at Anatoly, completely engulfing him. Ice formed on his armor and he toppled over, paralyzed with the chill.
The other breathed at Magda, coating her shield with frost that sloughed off a moment later. Its companion charged her from the side, crashing into her shield and knocking her off balance. As she struggled to regain her footing, the creature hit her from the front, knocking her flat on her back. It leapt up, assisted by its wings and landed in the middle of her shield, weakening the magical bubble of protection as it flailed and thrashed against the nearly invisible barrier.
Cursed Bones (Sovereign of the Seven Isles: Book Five) Page 17