by Hooke, Isaac
The party continued forward. Ahead, the corridor banked hard to the right, and soon the dragon’s clawed forearm was lost from view.
Spirit approached the upper parapets of the keep. Before landing on the ledge of a broken upper window, the hawk spotted two more dragons. An orak war party kept pace on the ground below: they rode pale horses whose flanks and heads were protected by light bronze mail. The oraks wore similar armor, their chest plates lacquered with the symbol of a horseshoe overlaid with a pike.
That those steeds ran far faster than ordinary horses and were able to keep pace with the dragons told him they had to be enhanced by some dark magic.
Malem slowed and the others matched his speed.
“We have more dragons incoming,” he announced. “As well as a mounted orak war party. They’ll reach the keep momentarily.”
“Tell me again why we went underground rather than escaping through a side corridor back there?” Xaxia said.
“We had no choice,” he told her. “The side corridors, as you call them, were just as tall as the main hall. If we had stayed up there, one of us would be dead now. If not all of us.”
“At least it would be over with,” she muttered.
He reached out with his mind, searching for any animals or monsters, but other than the dragon, there was only a raccoon, and some rats, in the keep above. Otherwise, the place was empty.
Now that he had somewhat more time, he examined his surroundings more closely under the light of Abigail’s floating flame. The floor, walls and ceiling were made of stones and mortar polished to a smooth surface. Well, formerly smooth. There were indentations and protrusions that had appeared over the years as the surrounding ground shifted. The material wasn’t Duramite, he noted. That was good.
He studied the ceiling.
“What are you looking for?” Xaxia asked.
“The oraks will come this way in search of us…” he said. “I’m looking for a loose stone. Here!”
He began stabbing upward into a bulging series of stones above him. A brick dropped away after his second impact, landing on Bounder’s neck. The animal moaned in annoyance.
Felipe peeked out from inside his collar, curious as to what the racket was. When he saw what Malem was doing, he scrambled out of the jacket and robe combination entirely and took up residence on his shoulder. Malem half-expected the monkey to relieve itself, but remarkably, Felipe kept its bowels and bladder in check for once.
Felipe lost his balance with Malem’s next thrust, and repositioned onto his saddle instead. Another stone fell from the ceiling, hitting Bounder in the head. The iguanid shook its head as if to clear away the sudden pain and dizziness.
Felipe pointed at the iguanid and cackled with glee.
Bounder grunted in outrage.
“Sorry, boy.” Malem repositioned his mount so that any falling stones would miss the iguanid, and continued thrusting. The angle wasn’t as good, but he worked with it.
Xaxia joined him, and her blade glowed with each upward strike. Loose soil began to flow free from above now.
“All right, everyone move deeper inside,” he said. “It’s going to cave soon.”
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Gwen said, guiding Neeme deeper inside as she asked.
“No,” he admitted.
“You dummies are going to collapse it on yourselves,” Abigail said from beside Gwen. “Here, get behind me. I’ll finish the job.”
Malem glanced at Xaxia, and then shrugged. He turned Bounder around and squeezed past Abigail. Xaxia joined him with Balius, her mount.
Abigail unleashed several rapid fireballs in a row. Felipe promptly attempted to scramble underneath the saddlebags; the little monkey ran in place for a few moments, unable to get a grip on the smooth fabric because it was trying to move its legs so fast, but then a moment later it found purchase and disappeared.
The ceiling fell inward as the loosened dirt flowed free, smashing into the floor stones below and blasting a cloud of dust into the air. Malem shielded his eyes in time but couldn’t help breathing in some of the fine particles.
He and the others coughed; Abigail brightened her floating flame, and as the dust cleared, he saw that the dirt and debris had sealed the passageway completely.
“Nice job,” he commented.
Felipe peered out from the saddlebags, and a moment later the little monkey climbed out to resume its position on the saddle as if nothing had happened.
“That should hold the oraks for a while,” Malem said.
“What about the dragon itself?” Gwen said.
“You saw how the basement opening was lined with stones coated in Duramite, right?” he said.
“But even Abigail stated Duramite eventually fails...” Gwen insisted.
“In this case, I think it will take a long time for the dragon to break through,” Abigail said. “The oraks in the war party will dig us out far sooner.”
“How long do you think we have?” Xaxia asked her.
“I don’t know,” Abigail replied. “An hour. Maybe two. Enough time to prepare some sort of defense.”
“I don’t think we’ll need much preparing, other than getting a feel for the lay of the land,” Gwen said. “This passageway forms an excellent choke point. We could hold off an army here for days, if we had to.” Her eyes lit up wildly. “These corridors will flow with rivers of orak blood. Oceans of it!”
“I’m loving the eagerness,” Xaxia said. “We’ll make an assassin of you yet!”
“I’m afraid we won’t last for days if we stay here,” Malem said. “The Black Sword will continue to send reinforcements. An endless supply of oraks will pass through this tunnel. Meanwhile, we’ll have no respite: we’ll hold them off until we’re too weary to hold our swords. And then we’ll die.”
“There has to be another way out of here, then,” Abigail said, leading her mount deeper into the subterranean corridor.
Malem squeezed Bounder alongside her mount. The horses were so accustomed to the iguanid now, having fought at its side in so many battles, that they readily allowed such close quarters.
Even Neeme and Balius got along behind him.
Abigail reduced the flame as they proceeded deeper, as there wasn’t as much of the dust to contend with here, and the added brightness wasn’t necessary. It also probably needlessly taxed her.
Malem still had access to Spirit’s vision at this range—it wasn’t affected by how many stone walls or layers of bedrock separated him from the animal—and he watched the horseback oraks arrive, along with the two other black dragons. They seemed to be conferring with one another.
“The oraks and other dragons are here,” Malem said.
One particular orak, clad in orange robes, stepped forward. Presumably a mage of some sort. The others immediately gave it room. The mage entered the main hall of the keep with a small group of eight oraks.
“They’re coming inside,” he added. He considered sending Spirit down to keep a further eye on them, but decided he didn’t want to risk drawing attention to the hawk. The last thing he needed was a dragon chasing it away.
They continued deeper into the subterranean passage.
“With our luck, we’ll probably find a lich lord hiding in here,” Xaxia commented.
“I’ve checked, I sense nothing else down here but the dragon,” Malem told her. That wasn’t entirely true now, of course: he could sense the eight ordinary oraks behind him, located roughly at the site of the cave-in. He couldn’t detect the mage, however, which wasn’t all that surprising to him by now. He could vaguely sense the other oraks farther away, but not the two new dragons he hadn’t seen yet.
“Well, that’s good, I suppose,” Xaxia said. “But okay, let’s say we find an exit, what then? We fight our way out?”
“We ambush the dragon, and kill it,” Gwen said.
Xaxia giggled. “Once again, I’m loving the naive enthusiasm. It’s cute, it really is. But seriously, I doubt my sword will p
ierce those scales.”
“The blade is magic, is it not?” Abigail asked.
Malem glanced over his shoulder in time to catch Xaxia bobbing her head.
“And coated in Duramite?” the fire mage pressed.
“I believe so.”
“Then there’s a chance your sword can, in fact, penetrate,” Abigail told her.
“Not that I’m going to get close enough to try,” Xaxia said.
“My sword certainly won’t,” Malem said.
“How about your will?” Abigail asked.
He sighed. “I can’t get inside its mind. I’ve certainly tried. What about your fire… will it cause damage?”
“Not enough,” Abigail said. “At least not at my current strength. The scales of most dragons act like Duramite, and protect them from flames.”
“But I’ve heard dragons can slay each other with their own flames!” Gwen said.
“Only after biting a chunk out of their opponent’s scales,” Abigail said. “Exposing the tender flesh underneath.”
“You seem to know an awful lot about dragons,” Xaxia commented.
“I was on an errand taking me into the heart of dragon territory,” Abigail said. “Of course I was going to study them before leaving.”
Malem sensed two of the oraks at the cave-in moving away. Via Spirit, he saw the orange-robed mage appear at the keep entrance a moment later, escorted by the two he could sense. The other six remained inside, probably digging out the rubble.
The orak mage conferred with the dragons and then returned to the war party to shout what must have been instructions. A lone rider departed immediately and raced out of the keep, no doubt toward the army camped outside Fallow Gate. The other oraks meanwhile spread out: some entered the keep and took the basement passage, probably to help dig out the rubble. Others roamed the inner hallways and outer grounds, likely scouting for any potential passageways leading down.
He had Spirit edge outside the window a ways, with instructions to flee to the rooftop if oraks disturbed it.
“They’ve sent out a messenger of some kind,” he said. “No doubt calling for reinforcements. Maybe a sapper team. The other oraks are spreading out. Some are entering the basement, others roaming the keep and its grounds.”
“Searching for another way down...” Abigail said.
He nodded.
Different underground rooms began to open up along the route. There were no doors on many of them, and the remainder were broken inward. They seemed to be former storerooms, with anything of value looted long ago. There were mostly empty crates and kegs, and a wealth of spider webs. At least the spiders here were of the tiny variety, not the monster kind. Then again, the latter might have proved useful at the moment.
“If this tunnel system was supposed to serve as the baron’s bunker, these would have held non-perishable foods, mostly,” he commented.
He sent Felipe inside to explore a few of the larger rooms as he went, but the monkey always returned empty-handed. Well, it did bring back the occasional plank torn from a crate, or the shattered piece of a mug. None of the rooms had connecting passageways.
“What I’m wondering is, why didn’t the enemy use black dragons to hunt us from the start?” Gwen asked. “It would have been far more effective than sending dire wolves and oraks.”
“But also far more conspicuous,” Malem told her. “Dragons would be hunted by the knights of any city they passed over. The entire host probably worked its way here, maybe ravaging cities all the way from the front lines.”
“I don’t think so,” Abigail said. “That would slow them down, and open them up to potential flanking attacks if any aid came from the other cities. I think instead this orak host and its escorting dragons circumvented the cities, traveling through the northwestern mountain passes. That’s also the only way they could have sneaked past the front lines of the Alliance unnoticed. Traveling by night the whole way, of course.”
“To intercept us?” he pressed.
“The Black Sword’s spies reported our position,” Abigail said. “Probably via carrier pigeons in both Abe’s Wood and Redbridge. With my route revealed, the Black Sword knew that only Fallow Gate remained between us and the Metal Dragons. This was the only way we could pass without adding weeks to our schedule. After we escaped the ambushes of his minions outside Redbridge, the dark general decided to besiege Fallow Gate outright, and block all access to it, rather than risk losing us this close to Metal Dragon territory.”
“That’s kind of overkill,” Gwen said.
“You think?” Xaxia said. “They really, really don’t want the Metal Dragons involved in this war.”
“Vorgon planned to destroy Fallow Gate anyway at some point,” Abigail said. “As he has done to all other cities in the west before it. So why not destroy it now, if it allows him to stop us?”
“There will be other messengers after you,” Malem said. “One will get through, eventually.”
“No,” Abigail said. “There won’t be any others.” She closed her eyes, then looked at him again. “I haven’t told you, but the front lines of the Alliance are ready to buckle. The defenders might last a few more days, if that. This is truly our last chance. If we don’t reach the Metal Dragons, no one will.”
“Well, that doesn’t up the ante or anything,” he grumbled.
At last they reached a dead end. The corridor just ended in a wall made of the same stone and mortar as everywhere else.
“Now what?” Gwen asked.
“We backtrack,” he replied. “And find a defensible position.”
“The corridor makes a good choke point,” Xaxia said.
“Yes, but one of the rooms makes an even better one,” he told her. “And we’re not planning on sticking around, remember?”
He returned to a room with a door, choosing one with a decent amount of refuse. He had to dismount to fit through the doorway, as did the others. Once they were through, they shut the door, and piled empty crates and barrels against it. The horses lingered with the iguanid against the wall next to the entrance.
“There isn’t another way out,” Malem said. “So we’ll just have to make one.” He eyed the stone ceiling in the corner, where the ground had shifted, causing a bulge in the stones and mortar.
“You can sense the oraks, right?” Abigail said. “Are there any above?”
“Not at the moment,” Malem said. “Though there are a few roaming nearby. Using Spirit’s eyes and my sense of her as a guide, the best I can tell, we’re underneath the southern outskirts of the keep grounds, near the main outer wall. If we tunnel through to the surface here, we should end up behind one of the outbuildings, which used to serve as a farrier, judging from what I can see with Spirit. It’s just about the perfect spot.”
He went to the corner and began picking at the bulging stones in the ceiling with his sword. Felipe watched from Bounder’s saddle nearby.
Gwen and Xaxia joined in, and when they had cleared away the first layer of stones, they stepped back so Abigail could use her fireballs.
The room filled with dust as the roof finally caved. Malem coughed, Gwen sneezed.
Abigail brightened her flaming globe as the dust cleared, allowing them to see through the thick cloud.
The collapse wasn’t as extensive as the previous hallway cave-in, though still a substantial amount of soil and stone formed a pyramid in the corner.
Malem stepped into the dirt pile to examine the ceiling. His sandals sank into the loose earth on the outskirts. “We’re not through yet.”
He stepped back, and Abigail launched more fireballs.
“Hmm, I’m hitting stone,” she said. “We’re underneath the bedrock. I’m just wasting my energy.”
Malem mounted Bounder, and had the animal climb as high as it could onto the rubble. Then he stood up in the saddle, and rammed his sword into the tunnel they’d formed. He struck something solid, and felt the reverberations travel down into his arm.
“Definitely bedrock,” he said.
“Could it be the bottom of the outbuilding you mentioned?” Xaxia asked. “This farrier?”
“I don’t think so,” Malem said. “By my reckoning, the whole room should be at least several paces from the outbuilding. As well as the wall enclosing the grounds.”
“So we truly are trapped,” Abigail said.
24
Malem simply stared at the fire mage. He didn’t know what to tell her.
“I can cut through that rock with Biter,” Xaxia said.
“Biter?” Gwen asked.
In answer, Xaxia drew her sword.
“You’ll never dig through in time,” Abigail said.
“Maybe, maybe not,” Xaxia said. “But I have to do something. It’s better than sitting here and waiting to die.”
Malem dismounted, landing on the dirt pile, and helped Xaxia into the saddle. She had to sheath her sword to get into place, but promptly drew it once she was standing on the iguanid’s back. She began stabbing the blade into ceiling. The resounding thuds the weapon produced were definitely louder than anything Malem’s own sword had made. Biter glowed a bright purple as she worked.
“This Darkness of yours isn’t going to come while we’re trapped here in this room with you, is it?” Xaxia asked between upward thrusts.
“If it does, it will take me, not you,” he replied.
He sat on the floor next to Abigail and Gwen to watch her work. Behind him, by the wall, Felipe had climbed onto Ember’s saddle and fallen fast asleep.
“You think she’s going to get through?” Abigail asked softly.
“Doubt it,” he said. “But it’s worth trying.”
She nodded slowly.
“So we’re going to die here after all,” Gwen said after a moment. She sighed. “Maybe it’s for the best.” Her eyes defocused. “I’ll get to see the villagers again. Farrier James. And little Beth. Maybe it’s a good thing they died before me, so they wouldn’t have to feel this grief.”
“We’re not dead yet,” Malem said.
“No,” Gwen said, her features hardening. “We won’t sell our lives cheaply.” She smiled, baring her teeth. “I plan to charge full price. Many oraks will join me in the afterworld when I go. I will give them to the villagers so that they can kill the monsters again and again, for all eternity.”