Calling On Fire (Book 1)

by Stephanie Beavers

  The woman suddenly jumped and looked over her shoulder, and for a moment, Toman thought she’d sensed them there. But no, she wasn’t looking up; she shrank in on herself as a soldier walked up to her with a predatory smile on his face. They spoke, but they were too far away to hear.

  Toman felt sick as he watched the scene unfold, knowing that interfering would be a bad idea. The soldier moved in close, ignoring the woman’s fear and obvious desire to flee. When the soldier reached out to grope the woman, she shied away, eliciting an angry bark from the soldier. The soldier raised his hand to strike her when someone burst from the house. The man wasn’t large, and he didn’t try to fight the soldier, but he did put himself between the soldier and the woman and make placating gestures with his hands.

  Toman’s hands clenched into fists when the soldier struck the man to the ground. The man didn’t try to fight back, even when the soldier kicked him while he was down. The woman fled into the house, and the soldier yelled but didn’t pursue. He kicked the villager one last time, then stalked away. Toman forced his breathing into an even pattern to keep himself from going after the soldier. As they continued to hover, the woman crept back out of the house and helped the man to his feet and back inside.

  Toman finally tore his eyes away to look at his brother, realizing, belatedly, that he probably should have been paying more attention earlier. His brother’s impulsive streak could have gotten them in trouble there; sure enough, Esset was sitting stiff, his outrage displayed clearly on his face. Before he could decide to do something, Toman pulled the mounts up and left the village behind them; they’d seen all they needed to see. They knew what kind of ruler Atli was.

  They landed in a small copse of trees as the sky began to lighten with the first rays of morning.

  “You sure we can’t dethrone this guy?” Esset muttered as they dismounted.

  “I know the feeling,” Toman replied, but they both knew they were moving forward as planned. They each pulled out their sleeping rolls and began spreading them on the ground.

  “It does make Erizen look not so bad, though. At least his people had enough to eat. Both those villagers were thin,” Toman commented as he laid down in his bedroll.

  “Hm,” was Esset’s only response. After a silence, he added, “But what about him giving Moloch a Greymaker?”

  “That doesn’t rest easy,” Toman confessed. “But it does make sense.”

  “How so?” Esset asked, disbelief and contempt in his tone.

  “Erizen is playing a tricky game. He has to keep Moloch and the other dark lords convinced he’s on their side. Especially Moloch. Not giving him a Greymaker might have incited an attack.”

  “Hm,” was Esset’s response again.

  “Once Moloch is dead, let’s come back,” Toman said. “Then we can eradicate every single one of these monsters.”

  “That I can agree with.”

  “I thought you’d like that. So what are we up against here? Erizen gave you the information, not me,” Toman said.

  “Well, I’ve got a bit of the layout of the castle and the town, and an estimate of Atli’s manpower, but not a ton else.” Esset cast about for a twig and started sketching in the dirt. “If you animate some stuff here, I’ll do some scouting to verify our intelligence. Then we sneak in. I won’t summon anything unless we’re found out, since my summons are a little…obtrusive. With Atli’s resources, it’s best if we get in and out before he knows we’re there. If we raise the alarm, there’s a chance we won’t get out, not with the number of mages he has under him.”

  “Good to know,” Toman murmured, already considering what kinds of creatures he’d need to make.

  “It’ll be risky,” Esset said.

  Toman nodded.

  “But if the sergeant says we need these amulets, we need them. We need every edge possible to defeat Moloch. He’s clever, and we need to anticipate as much as possible, because it’ll be the thing we don’t think of that he’ll exploit.”

  Esset let out a huff of breath at Toman’s words.

  “You’re right. Once Moloch’s done with, we can fix the rest of this.”

  Their meeting place was a dingy little inn located in the city next to Atli’s castle. They reached it in the early morning and stayed sequestered in the tiny, dingy room all day, night, and day again, keeping a low profile.

  “There’s no way Erizen would ever stoop so low as to spend a night in a place like this himself,” Esset complained, squishing a bug that was meandering across the floor.

  “It is an unobtrusive kind of place to stay,” Toman said. “But I do imagine he’s getting a kick out of making us stay here.” Their confinement was wearing on them both as they waited for Erizen to arrive.

  “To say the least. Your creations are waiting. Even scouting through my bat’s eyes has gotten old,” Esset said.

  A tap sounded at the door. Esset rose to answer it, speaking as he walked. “You know, we could always go without him.” He opened the door, but no one was there.

  “That would be rather inconsiderate of you. Especially since I’ve come all this way.” That was Erizen, of course, but Esset was a little confused before he realized that the man must have a way of turning himself invisible.

  Not wanting to give Erizen any satisfaction for his ploy, Esset turned away from the empty doorway and grabbed his bag. “Fine, let’s go then. You’re just going to trail along behind us, invisible, then?” Esset asked. Something in his tone suggested that Erizen was a freeloader and a coward if he chose to do so. Toman, for his part, simply got up and headed for the open door.

  “I may or may not intervene as needed,” Erizen said in a smug voice.

  “That’s nice,” Esset said. He could tell Erizen’s general proximity from the sound of his voice and footsteps—apparently the spell only worked to obscure vision, not sound or the other senses. Which meant that any of his summons would easily be able to locate him, if necessary.

  Good to know.

  The two brothers seemed to wander as they headed towards the outskirts of the city. They lingered in the marketplace for a while, then moved on. They had been unable to detect anyone paying them any undue attention, so they figured they were safe from suspicion for the moment. It was full dark by the time they were outside the city.

  Toman’s creations, disguised as lumpy boulders strewn about the terrain, came to life at Toman’s command. Foremost were the stone griffons they would use to surpass the tall walls that surrounded Atli’s castle. There were seven of them, and they could carry passengers—including other, non-winged animations—and also be used to fight once they got there.

  It was a short flight to the castle. A small stone bird, a lookout and scout, flew up to greet them and then led them to a momentarily deserted location in the courtyard. They were working between the gaps in the guards’ patrols—Atli didn’t shirk on his own personal security, being smart enough to know that when someone ran a kingdom the way he did, many people would want him dead. As such, they had to move as swiftly as possible.

  Toman’s stone griffon landed only long enough for its rider to dismount before taking off again. Esset’s griffon landed a moment later, and Erizen’s the moment after that. Unlike the first two, Erizen’s griffon didn’t depart—it stayed with them, their backup for the time being. The others could be called upon for outside help, but they would be left waiting, circling the castle in the darkness in case they were needed. Toman and Esset hid in the shadow of the wall as a patrol of two soldiers went by. Only after it was past did the other griffons swoop down low enough to drop their burdens before winging away into the darkness. It was fortunate for them that there was only a sliver of the moon in the sky, not nearly enough for the enemy to see them by.

  “There, servants’ entrance,” Esset whispered. Toman snuck over to the sturdy door and crouched in front of it, releasing a thin but long chain onto the ground. It slithered like a snake into a tiny gap and a chunking sound came from the other side
a moment later. As Toman opened the door, Esset joined him swiftly, and after a few animations had followed them in, they closed the small but heavy door behind them. Fortunately, no one was waiting for them on the other side, although Toman knew their luck wouldn’t hold forever. They found themselves in the kitchen, and they had to be very careful navigating their way to the other door—there were bodies lying, asleep, by the hearth. Too cheap for beds for all the slaves and servants, many members of the kitchen staff simply slept on the kitchen floor.

  To Toman’s surprise, the door from the kitchen into the rest of the castle was locked as well. Not that such a thing would stop them; out came the chain snake again, but this time it slid its “head” into the lock and manipulated the links of its body until it matched the keyhole. Then Toman twisted the handle open and the snake withdrew so he could open the door to admit them.

  They nearly ran right into a patrol. Toman quickly pulled the door shut, but he was still careful to be silent. He kept his grip on the handle, which would click loudly as it closed. He held his breath as the patrol went by, praying they wouldn’t check the handle. Their mission would surely fail if they were discovered this early on.

  The patrol’s muffled voices came through the door, talking about…a card game? They carried straight past the door. Once their voices faded, Toman cracked the door slightly, letting an animated stone rat scurry past his feet into the hallway first to scout the way. A second one scurried out after it, but it split off in the opposite direction to check the other end of the hall. It only took a moment for both rats to reach the corners of the halls and give a little nod, signaling that the way was clear.

  “Okay, time for you to do your bit, Erizen,” Esset said from behind Toman.

  “That’s Lord Erizen,” the mage corrected him.

  “Get to work, Lord Erizen,” Esset replied, swallowing a nastier comment.

  “Go right,” came the smug little reply. Erizen clearly enjoyed pushing Esset’s buttons. Repeatedly. Toman found himself wishing they’d both forgo their respective attitudes and just get the job done as quietly and efficiently as possible. Or maybe that was anxiety making him irritable. He didn’t much care for stealth missions.

  The brothers followed Erizen’s directions and made their way downwards in the direction of the treasury. They’d accidentally managed to time their entrance so that they followed the first two guard patrols at a safe distance before having to split off in other directions. Really, it was the safest place to be; since they knew where the closest patrol was, and the patrols rarely overlapped, they didn’t have to worry much about being surprised by another. Erizen continued to give them quiet directions from behind Esset and just in front of the stone griffon that stalked after them.

  Toman couldn’t believe it when they made it to the safe without having to confront a single guard—quite honestly, once they’d descended, he had begun to think that it would be impossible to avoid them. The interior of the castle seemed maze-like, the route to their destination long and circuitous—and Toman suddenly realized something. Erizen had deliberately led them on that trail. If he’d somehow learned the routes that the guards took on their patrols and mapped out a long, circuitous path around the castle, they could get in without detection. It had taken longer than anything Toman and Esset would have done, but there was less risk his way.

  Toman just hoped that once Erizen had what he wanted from the treasury, he wouldn’t bolt and leave them to try to find their way out themselves. There was no way Toman would be able to remember the way to the exit, and even if he did, it wouldn’t be the direct route. Uneasily, he wondered if that were part of Erizen’s plan as well.

  “This one.”

  Toman raised an eyebrow at the nondescript door that they’d stopped in front of. It looked totally ordinary—not the kind of door one expected to protect a room full of treasure. In fact, if Erizen hadn’t pointed it out, he might not have noticed it at all.

  “No guards?” he asked suspiciously.

  “Shields, booby traps, wards…” They could practically hear the shrug in his voice. “Would a guard really help at all?”

  “Whatever,” Esset muttered. Toman just shrugged and stepped forward, extending the chain snake to pick the lock like he had before. The knob glowed red hot, melting the chain in an instant; the liquidized metal dripped from the keyhole until no more was left inside. Toman blinked at it.

  “Oh.” He thought for a moment, then walked several paces to the side. If the lock was enchanted, then the whole door probably was too. That meant that the strongest part of the entire treasury was probably the door, making it a foolish place for them to focus their attention. Therefore, the wall was his target. Toman placed a glove against the wall and concentrated. He wanted to make a golem—a large, clunky golem, with whole blocks as body parts. It was actually quite easy, since there was a minimum of shaping the material needed to accomplish that goal. With a few minutes, a grating sound, and a momentary struggle, a rough humanoid-shaped set of blocks drew out of the wall and stepped into the passageway, leaving a man-shaped hole in the wall. Toman and Esset grinned at each other. They called the griffon inside and then had the wall-golem step back into place; from the outside, there was no sign of a breach, just two small, stone rats keeping watch and ready to scuttle out of sight if necessary.

  Inside, it looked exactly like they’d imagined a treasure room to look when they were kids. Crowns, jewelry, gold-and-jewel encrusted armor, and enchanted weapons had been arrayed around the room, with chests of coins and great bars of precious metals arranged against the walls and on tables. They’d seen treasure before—heck, Arxus had come with a sizable inheritance—but this was so flashy. Erizen was already moving.

  “Ah, here we are,” they heard him say, and a nearby necklace suddenly seemed to levitate off its display place. A moment later, it swooped downwards and vanished. “Leave this part to me, gentlemen—I know what’s worth taking.”

  After looking around for a moment, Esset began to reach towards a jewel-encrusted sword that was nearby.

  “I also know what’s booby-trapped,” came Erizen’s droll voice. Esset glared in the voice’s general direction, but he withdrew his hand and didn’t try to touch anything else. The pair waited with their arms crossed, watching an astounding number of items vanish.

  “How exactly are you carrying all that?” Esset couldn’t help but ask. They hadn’t all been small items, either, nor light ones. Really, there was no way Erizen should have been able to move after picking up that many items. Magic. It had to be.

  “Some of us have useful magical abilities,” Erizen mocked condescendingly.

  Esset’s expression went from curious right back to extremely irritated. Huge fiery animals weren’t exactly great for stealth missions; Esset already knew that, but the comment vexed him anyways. He resisted the temptation to summon a wolf to bite Erizen on the rear.

  “Are you quite finished?” he snapped instead.

  “For the moment.” Esset could hear Erizen’s irritating smile in his voice.

  Esset tried not to let it get to him. “I mean are you finished collecting things? The longer we stay, the more likely we are to get caught.”

  “Quite.” Erizen’s voice was closer this time, right beside them. “Do lead the way.” Toman turned back to face the wall and had it step out to admit them back into the hallway. The stone rats darted out to check the halls for people, but it was already too late; a mage had stepped around the corner, and he saw the golem in the hall—not a patrol, just bad luck.

  “Hey!” he yelled, calling out an alarm as he saw Toman and Esset stepping out of the treasure room into the hall. “Intruders! Intruders in the treasury!”

  If the mage-robes hadn’t been hint enough, the blast of pure energy that shot from his hands was a pretty good hint that their discoverer was a mage. Esset threw himself forward on the ground, an incantation rolling off his tongue as he fell. A smoking crater was blasted into the wall
directly behind where he’d been standing the moment before. There was a muffled curse from Erizen as the stone griffon bounded from the treasury to run abreast of the fiery wolf that streaked towards the mage.

  “Come on!” Toman grabbed Esset’s arm and hauled him to his feet, momentarily safe in the knowledge that griffon and wolf would keep the mage occupied long enough for them to get a head start. The plan was theft, not warfare—normally they would have fought, but they’d already agreed that if fighting broke out, flight would be their priority. Fortunately, however, Toman and Esset’s skills made them good at doing both at the same time. Outside, on the opposite side of the castle, two stone griffons were suddenly attacking the guards, drawing some attention on that front—and keeping it away from their breakin.

  Not that the distraction meant no guards would be coming. The treasury was pretty important, after all. The clunky stone golem ran ahead of them, so when a guard patrol appeared ahead, it slammed through them like a battering ram. Esset uttered another incantation, and a fiery wolf was among them. Esset kept it from going for the kill, but it still did a great deal of damage to the guards. Even though the guards worked for a mage, that didn’t mean that they were used to fighting stone giants and beasts of fire; they quailed the same as any other mortal.

  The wolf bit a sword arm, then whirled and leapt at another guard, landing on his chest and rebounding off him to follow its master. The stone giant, Toman, Esset, and presumably Erizen just kept running.

  “Which way?” Esset called to Erizen as they skidded to a stop at the end of a branching corridor.

  “Right. Then up the first stairs we see,” Erizen’s voice replied. So he was still with them. Esset didn’t like that he couldn’t physically keep track of the man, but then again, Erizen had said not to worry about him, and Esset wasn’t quite sure he’d feel guilty if the arrogant mage were left behind. Then again, the directions helped, and he did have the treasure.