The Turquoise Queen

by Pedro Urvi

  “At last,” he whispered. “My, how slow you are. And heavy.”

  “The next time you bring a mage and a panther up with you,” Lasgol replied. He gave Viggo a look which said ‘it’s not as if it’s that easy.’

  Viggo winked at him. “I don’t bring up creatures like that.”

  “This way,” Astrid said, and they went into the tower through a door they had forced open. Inside, Lasgol found the dead bodies of two other crab-men.

  Viggo led, with Astrid behind him, and they set off down the stairs of the tower with extreme care. Lasgol, Eicewald, Camu and Ona followed, trying to make as little noise as possible. They passed a half-open door with four more guards inside and went on down. Viggo called a halt when they reached ground-level.

  They let a patrol of a dozen conch-men pass in front of them, then ran down a long corridor, stopping at each door of each room to make sure they could go by without being seen. This particular fort was full of transformed men, who must have been getting ready for an assault, because some groups were sharpening their weapons and others carrying supplies to the front, probably to load them on to the ships. The fact that they were so busy made it easy for the team to reach the center of the fortress along the back wall.

  Viggo halted to observe the huge courtyard in the center with its four towers. There was certainly a lot of movement, but it was concentrated in the center and front of the fortress.

  “They’re getting ready to go to war,” he whispered.

  Astrid put her head out and looked too. “Not looking good …”

  “There’s a group coming,” Viggo warned them.

  They hid in the last room, which looked out on to the courtyard. Here they crouched and looked out through the narrow open gap they had left in the door. Outside was a group of prisoners in chains. Some of them were savages with turquoise skin, subjects of Queen Uragh, but there were also some Rogdonians, as well as others who looked Nocean because of their dark skin. These were slaves. The appearance of the guards who led them, left them staring, open-mouthed. They were octopus-men, with tentacles hanging down their torsos.

  “This gets weirder all the time,” Viggo said. “On the other hand, I love octopus, especially with a touch of paprika. I’m going to have a feast,” he added, and made a comic gesture.

  Lasgol rolled his eyes.

  “They’re capturing new slaves and bringing them to the fortress,” Astrid concluded.

  “Presumably to transform them,” added Eicewald.

  “Where are they taking them?” Lasgol wondered.

  The prisoners were led to an enormous, barred door, guarded by two men on the left of their position. They opened it to let the prisoners go down a flight of stairs behind the gate.

  “What kind of guards are those?” Viggo asked in surprise.

  “They’re covered with spines of some kind,” Lasgol said.

  “I think … they’re sea urchins …” said Astrid.

  Viggo shook his head. “This keeps getting better …”

  “Do you think Olagar’ll be down there?” Astrid wondered. “Or is it just a prison where they take these poor wretches?”

  “That’s a good question,” said Eicewald. “To carry out his transformations he’ll need a quiet, well-lit place where there are no obstacles in the way of his power … yes, it might well be down there …”

  “Or also in that other tower on the far side of the fortress,” Viggo complained, “and I don’t think we could get across there with so many transformed sea-creatures on the loose.”

  “I have an idea,” Lasgol said. “Camu can help.”

  “The little fiend?”

  “Yeah, give me a moment.”

  Camu, can you feel where Olagar is? He’s a powerful Sorcerer, and you might be able to pick up his magic.

  I try, Camu offered willingly. He stiffened and stretched his head and tail. There came a flash of the kind only those with the Gift could see. Lasgol guessed that the skill Camu was using was like his own Animal Presence skill, but instead of picking up living creatures, Camu was able to pick up beings or objects with Magic.

  Any luck? Lasgol asked after a while. He was worried, because it was taking more time than expected.

  Yes. Below.

  Below? You mean below where we are?

  Yes, below, deep.

  Are you sure? Not in some other part of the fortress?

  Sure. Below. I pick up magic, powerful.

  Is he using magic now?

  Yes. A lot.

  Lasgol turned to the others. “Camu says Olagar is below us now, and he’s using magic.”

  “Then he must be doing something to those prisoners we saw being taken below,” Astrid said.

  “Let’s get rid of him,” said Viggo.

  “Wait,” Astrid objected. “Those urchin-men are powerfully armored, and I don’t think the acid would work on them.”

  “Apart from the fact that they’d see us coming,” Lasgol pointed out.

  “I’ll deal with that,” Eicewald said.

  Viggo was less sure about this. “Without them raising the alarm?” he objected. “Don’t let’s have any loud conjuring, that’s going to attract half the army.”

  “Without them raising the alarm,” Eicewald reassured him.

  “Fine,” Viggo said with a shrug. Lasgol and Astrid nodded in agreement.

  The mage began to cast a spell, intoning words of power and making circular movements with his staff. His companions watched him, intrigued. They had no idea what he was going to conjure up.

  “Move away from the door and open it,” he told them, still making movements with his staff.

  Astrid opened the door carefully, as if some draft that had blown it open. The urchin-men did not see her, but when they looked toward the door two colossal snowballs came out and rolled toward them. Utterly taken aback and unable to understand what was happening, they tried to move to one side, but the snowballs followed them and crashed into them. When they did so, the urchin-men were trapped and frozen inside the snow.

  Eicewald lowered his staff, which he had been using to direct the snowballs.

  “Now the way through’s clear. And you see, they didn’t raise the alarm.”

  Viggo was smiling. “I liked that trick, you’ve got to teach it to me. And besides, it’ll keep the urchins fresh for dinner.”

  “Let’s move quickly,” Astrid said urgently. “We’ve got to get them out of the way before anybody sees them.” She was already running toward them, with Viggo following her. Using the combination of a picklock and her own natural talent, she opened the barred gate, and they dragged the urchin-men inside it.

  Lasgol, Eicewald, Camu and Ona arrived a moment later and shut the gate behind them. In front of them were the stairs which led down to what seemed to be an underground floor.

  “Now what?” Astrid asked.

  “Now we go down and take care of the Sorcerer,” said Viggo.

  “It’s not going to be easy,” Eicewald warned them.

  Viggo took out his three pairs of knives and cleaned them lovingly. “Easy as pie,” he said with his usual coolness and confidence. In his eyes was a lethal gleam.

  Chapter 31

  They went down the stairs with great caution, trying not to make a sound. On their way they passed a couple of halls where they saw weapons and stores of food, which was not unexpected. At the end of a torch-lit tunnel they came to another flight of stairs, which took them down to another level. Here, not unexpectedly, they found an area with cells. What was less expected was the fact that the cells were all empty.

  Two octopus-guards blocked their way, and Lasgol released the Summer Slumber arrow he had prepared. He was not sure how much effect it would have on these beings, since they were not wholly human by now. The effect was not complete, since though it stunned them, they stayed on their feet. They were more resilient to the numbing gas than a normal person would have been, which was bad news.

  Viggo and Astrid, w
ith exquisite speed and expertise, hurled themselves at them before they could recover and with precise knife-slashes took their lives. It was all over in the blink of an eye, and the two of them moved aside quickly to avoid being affected by the gas.

  A third flight of stairs took them down to another level. The damp was now visible on the walls, which were not properly finished and seemed to be exuding water. Lasgol touched the wall and put his finger to his lips. The water was salt. They must have reached sea level.

  “We’re very deep down,” he said in a whisper.

  “I can see light ahead,” Astrid whispered back.

  Lot of magic ahead, came Camu’s warning.

  “I think this must be it,” Lasgol said. “It’s a chamber.”

  “Keep pinned to the wall so they don’t see you,” Viggo said. “Astrid and I are going to take a look inside.”

  Keeping to the shadows, the two of them lay on the floor and like two snakes hiding in the shadows, peered inside. It was a sizeable chamber which seemed to run under the great courtyard two floors above their heads. It was more of a cave than a chamber, as if it had been excavated after the building of the fortress. The walls and floor were natural rock and the dampness was even greater, so that the walls seemed to weep sea water. There was very little light: no more than half a dozen torches hanging on the walls, with no apparent natural light.

  On the left, beside the wall, they saw the Sorcerer. Nobody had the least doubt that this was Olagar. Not only because of his clothes – a purple-and-black robe – or the staff he held in one hand, but because of something even more striking: he too was a transformed being, a squid-man. A tall, gaunt man with the head of a squid with huge eyes and tentacles his own length that fell to the floor. It was a horrible sight.

  In front of the Sorcerer was a round well full of blue, bubbling seawater. Over this the Sorcerer was conjuring, and as he did so the waters were turning magenta. At the same time, it was bubbling more and more intensely, as though the water were boiling. A little further away, the floor of much of the cave blended with sea, as if it had sunk. Beyond it they could see the quiet waters of the bay.

  To one side of the well were the prisoners, watched over by the group of guards they had seen before, who were waiting for instructions from the Sorcerer.

  Olagar signaled to one of his acolytes. This man was dressed similarly and was also a squid-man, although his tentacles were shorter. His eyes, on the other hand, were equally impressive. He showed him a book, and Olagar went on conjuring as he read from the arcane tome.

  Viggo turned to his friends at the sight of the guards, Olagar and his acolytes all gathered around the well. “This looks like a seafood restaurant in a busy port!”

  Astrid put her finger to her lips, then gestured to Lasgol and Eicewald to take a careful look into the chamber.

  Lot of power, Camu warned Lasgol.

  Transformation magic?

  Not know. Powerful.

  Understood. Listen carefully to my instructions, because the situation is about to get complicated. We’re going to have a fight on our hands very shortly.

  I ready.

  Ona gave a muffled growl, and Lasgol knew she too was ready.

  This place was more than gloomy, it sent shivers down their spines – and still more so with the sorcerers and acolytes and the spell they were preparing.

  A second acolyte approached, carrying a basket. He knelt and showed the contents respectfully to Olagar, which were good-sized crabs. The Sorcerer gave his approval with a nod. The acolyte picked a specimen and carefully deposited it in the well, which was boiling blackly.

  “They’re going to cook crab,” Viggo murmured. “Oh, how I love it!”

  Astrid rolled her eyes and gestured to him to concentrate and be ready to spring into action. He nodded and showed her his knives. Astrid did the same, then reached for her belt and took out a container, from which she poured a substance along the edges of both their knives.

  “Powerful poison,” she whispered. “Be careful.”

  “I will.”

  Olagar stopped conjuring and looked up, then gestured to one of the guards to bring him a prisoner. The unfortunate man chosen was a Rogdonian, dark-haired and white-skinned, although not as white as the Norghanians. An octopus-man pushed him over the edge of the well. A moment later Olagar was conjuring, moving his staff as he did so. A column of smoke rose, purple this time, and an enormous flash of magenta-black lit up half the chamber. The Sorcerer meanwhile went on chanting arcane words in a deep voice. Suddenly the prisoner emerged from the well, but he was no longer the same person. The transformation was complete, and now man and crab had blended to form a new being: a crab-man in Olagar’s service.

  “Right,” Viggo said, brandishing his knives. “I’ve seen enough. It’s time to do something about this wrong-headed cuttlefish-sorcerer.”

  “Wait,” Astrid said as she seized his arm. “Don’t forget the distraction!”

  Eicewald nodded.

  “Let’s follow the plan,” Lasgol said.

  Outside, opposite the quay and beside Olagar’s ships, the boat carrying Ingrid, Nilsa and Gerd had nearly reached the position they had decided was most ideal.

  “Now! Quick!” Ingrid said, and the three of them rose to one knee and nocked their bows.

  “Aim carefully. Remember what we decided.”

  For a moment they aimed, gauging the shot.

  “Ready,” said Gerd.

  “All set,” added Nilsa.

  “Release!”

  The arrows flew, each of them toward one of the three nearest ships. They struck the masts high up, and there came three small explosions of fire.

  “Again!”

  Three new arrows of fire hit the masts, which quickly caught fire.

  “Twice more! Volley! Now!”

  The arrows flew again and struck the center of the masts, and these too began to burn.

  There came shouts and the ringing of alarm bells, and the crews of the three ships hurried up on deck. Crab-men, octopus-men, and other fusions of men and marine creatures tried to put out the fire, but by now it was spreading down the masts and consuming the sails which were gathered against them.

  With one last volley, this time directed at the bases of the masts, Ingrid gave the order to disappear. They paddled hard, while the crews and half the fortress who had been stirred into action by the bells, tried to put the fire out in the three ships, amid much shouting.

  Lasgol could now hear the alarm bells, which were clanging throughout the fortress and audible underground.

  “The distraction,” Astrid confirmed.

  Olagar too heard the bells. He gave a signal and said something to his guards, a dozen of whom left at a run. The group prepared to confront them, since they were approaching their own hiding-place. There was only one exit.

  “I’ll deal with them,” Eicewald said. “Stay close to the wall.”

  He conjured under his breath, pointing with his staff at the opposite wall as he did so. A freezing bolt issued from the staff a moment before the octopus-men reached their position. The Mage went on conjuring, this time pointing his staff at the floor. When the guards came to the bolt and raced across it, twenty three-foot stakes of ice emerged from the ground beneath their feet, piercing them and bringing them an icy death. They fell dead without even realizing what had happened to them.

  “Remind me never to make this Ice Mage of ours angry,” Viggo muttered.

  “We’ve got to finish this,” Astrid said, and hurled herself into the attack. Viggo followed her like lightning.

  Lasgol called upon his Hawk’s Eye, Cat-Like Reflexes, and Improved Agility skills. Eicewald, beside him, was covering his body with an icy armor to withstand physical attacks of swords, spears and suchlike. After this he conjured an anti-spell protective sphere to repel enemy magic.

  The moment Olagar saw them appear, he conjured two spheres around his person. The first was a greyish color, which looked like
the skin of an octopus and protected him from physical attacks; the second was purple and protected him from spells.

  At his order, the octopus-guards left the prisoners and went to deal with Lasgol and the group. There were more than a dozen of them attacking with swords and knives in their hands, with their tentacles flailing in the air around them. Astrid dodged the first one’s sword-thrust with one of her knives and attacked with the other. The octopus-man blocked her attack and tried to grab her head with his tentacles, but she ducked swiftly. The guard tried to run her through with his sword, but she rolled to one side and in the same movement launched an accurate slash at her enemy’s leg. The octopus-man launched two more thrusts, which she dodged, and began to have difficulty moving. Astrid realized that though the poison did not kill them, it affected their wounded limbs. With great speed she attacked, managing to cut off two of her opponent’s tentacles, reach his throat and kill him.

  “The poison only slows them down!” she warned Viggo.

  “I love it when you bring me good news!” he called back as he defended himself from the attack of two guards by sliding from one side to the other with tremendous agility.

  Lasgol launched an arrow against another of the guards in an attempt to help Astrid, who was surrounded by three enemies. He got him in the head, but failed to kill him. His second arrow struck its target, but the octopus-man, far from falling, went on fighting with two arrows embedded in his head. He focused on one of its eyes. It would take him a moment to invoke his True Shot skill, but if he succeeded he had a chance. A guard jumped on him before he had finished his invocation, and he knew that if he defended himself he would not have time to finish and hence would be unable to help Astrid.

  Ona and Camu came to his aid, hurling themselves on the octopus-man and bringing him down by biting his arms. Ona managed to disarm him and began to claw at his tentacles, while Camu kept him pinned down on the ground by clamping his other arm tightly.