by James Riley
“How do you know all of this?” Gabriel asked her.
“How do you not?” she said. “Isn’t it common knowledge?” She leaned over and pulled Jia’s hands back as the other girl started healing the dwarf. “Um, what are you doing?”
“Curing the disease I gave this one,” Jia said, looking confused. “We can’t just leave them here like this. What if they’re hurt?”
“They tried to kill us,” Rachel said.
“Only in self-defense,” Jia pointed out. “Fort, were they hurting you before we got here?”
Fort shook his head. “Not really. Threatening a little. But some of them wanted me to escape, before their masters heard I was here.” He shivered. “That’s what they called the Old Ones.”
Jia’s hands flew into the air, the healing energy disappearing. “Okay, maybe we do just leave them as is. No one said anything about Old Ones.”
Before Fort could respond, something below his shirt began to feel uncomfortably warm. He reached in and pulled out his amulet, which was getting hotter as he held it. “Look at this,” he started to say to his friends, only to watch as Jia, Rachel, and Gabriel all gasped in pain and doubled over. “Whoa, what’s going on?”
Rachel hissed in agony, looking up at him with terror in her eyes. “You can’t… hear it?”
“It’s… it’s filling my mind !” Jia shouted, holding her head in both hands.
“What is?!” Fort shouted, but his friends all fell to their knees, still moaning in pain.
Not knowing what else to do, he quickly touched his staff to Jia first, then Rachel, and finally Gabriel. Each time, cold, blue magic passed into their heads, and they relaxed, suddenly free of whatever had been attacking them. As they did, his amulet went cold again, like whatever had been pushing against it had ceased.
“That’s what those things feel like?” Gabriel said, sweating profusely.
“Now you see why I wanted to burn those books in the first place,” Rachel told him.
“Will someone tell me what just happened?” Fort asked, positive he didn’t really want to know the answer.
“It was just like the dwarf told you,” Jia said, shaking her head. “That was an Old One in our heads, the one that possessed Damian. It knows we’re here. And…”
“And they’re coming for us,” Rachel finished. “All of them.”
- TWENTY-NINE -
YOU STILL HAVE TIME TO escape,” a voice growled, and Fort turned to find the younger dwarf that Jia had just healed pushing himself up to a sitting position.
Gabriel was on him instantly, shield held ready to smash it against the dwarf’s face. “What do you know about it?”
“That thing was just in my mind too,” the dwarf said, wincing. “Didn’t realize you all were so delicate. My kind have to listen to Ketas all the time. Maybe we’re just used to the pain.”
“Ketas?” Fort said. “Is that what you call the Old One?”
“That’s his name,” the dwarf said. “Or maybe his title. I don’t know.”
“What did it tell you?” Jia asked.
The dwarf looked up at them for a moment, then sighed. “To capture the humans. They want you waiting for them in Dragon’s Teeth when they arrive.”
Gabriel nodded and pulled back the shield to strike.
“Wait!” Fort shouted, jumping between him and the dwarf. “He wouldn’t have just told us that if he planned on doing it.” He threw a look over his shoulder at the dwarf. “Um, right?”
“I told you to leave, didn’t I?” the dwarf grumbled. “You’ve got a little time before they get here, so I’d use it. Otherwise, Q’baos will take your will, just like she took the will of my people, and will soon have mine.”
Gabriel narrowed his eyes but slowly lowered the shield. “How long do we have?”
“Half a feeding cycle, maybe,” the dwarf said. “The elders say they used to travel instantly via flaming circles, but they must have forgotten how, because those haven’t been seen for as far back as anyone can remember.”
“How long is a feeding cycle?” Rachel asked. “Preferably in minutes or hours?”
Now it was the dwarf’s turn to look suspicious. “Those are measurements they use, the Old Ones. How do you know of them?”
“We’re from the same place they are,” Fort told him. “And they want us to take them back.”
The dwarf seemed to think about this for a moment. “I’d say you have three, maybe four of those hours then,” he said finally. “Why, did you plan on doing some sightseeing?”
“Nope, we’re leaving right now,” Rachel said, pulling on Fort’s uniform.
“You said you took the last human to Dragon’s Teeth,” Fort said, yanking his shirt out of her hand. “Could you take us there in that amount of time?”
The dwarf looked at him strangely. “You want me to take you where the Old Ones commanded?”
“Yeah, I’m with him!” Rachel shouted. “Are you joking?”
“That’s where they took my dad, too,” Fort told her. Turning back to the dwarf, he leaned down and extended a hand to him. The dwarf eyed it suspiciously for a moment, then reached up and took it, letting Fort help him to his feet.
“I’ll take you, if that’s your wish,” the dwarf said. “But I promise, you’ll wish you’d fled while you had the chance. I only just missed the Ritual when the last human arrived because I was a few cycles too young still. Now I have no choice but to attend, and Q’baos will destroy my will, and yours along with it.”
“She’s another Old One?” Jia asked. “What’s her specialty?”
“All I’ve seen her do is turn my people into servants, worshipping her with all their spirit,” the dwarf said, spitting on the ground. “If she has more power than that, she wouldn’t need it.”
“That’s the magic they used on us back at the old school,” Rachel whispered to Fort. “When that Old One with the screaming faces on it took over all the Healing students.”
Great. So not only did they have to worry about the Old One who used Mind magic, apparently named Ketas, but also one who knew… wait, the dwarf had said she took over his people’s spirits. Was that the sixth kind of magic? The power to not just take over a mind, but change them into willing slaves permanently?
“Fort, we can’t take the chance,” Jia said, coming up alongside Rachel. “Last time, one Old One nearly killed us all. The others never even made it fully through the portal. We won’t have a chance against all of them together.”
“She’s right, we have to go now,” Rachel said.
“No, we don’t,” Gabriel said, moving to stand next to Fort. “This dwarf will take us to Fort’s father, and then Fort can teleport us back to the portal. We can do this. And we’re not leaving without trying.”
“What do you keep calling me?” the dwarf asked. “A de-wharf?”
“No!” Rachel shouted, shaking her head. “How do you all not get this? It’s not just us in danger. If we leave the portal open, they might find it before we’re back! We’re not taking that chance, no matter what.” She turned to Fort, and her face softened a bit. “Look, I know how hard this is, but you can’t put the whole world at risk for… you know, for…”
“For my father?” Fort asked quietly. “Watch me.”
He turned toward the dwarf. “Which way to Dragon’s Teeth?”
The dwarf pointed toward one of the tunnels. “There. But what did you call me again? It sounded WHOA!”
Gabriel grabbed the dwarf in midsentence and threw him over his shoulder. “I’m with Fort,” he said to Rachel and Jia. “If it makes you feel better, go back to the portal and guard it. If the Old Ones show up before we do, then just collapse the cavern. We’ll find another way out.”
Rachel growled loudly in frustration, while Jia sighed and walked over to join Fort and Gabriel. “They’ll have a better chance if we go with them,” she said.
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Rachel shouted. She turned to walk away, then stopp
ed, started moving again, then slammed her foot against the ground a few times. Finally, she shot a fireball off toward the ceiling, watched it explode while shouting insults, then finally came back to the others. “Let’s get this done quickly,” she growled. “The moment we get even a hint that the Old Ones are close, we teleport back to the portal, Fort. Do you understand me?”
Fort nodded, unable to hide his smile. “I do. And thank—”
“NO,” she said. “Don’t you dare. Come, dwarf, lead the way.”
“My kind are called Dracsi-kin,” the dwarf said. “And I have a name.”
“What’s your name?” Jia asked.
“What’s a Dracsi?” Gabriel asked.
“Don’t answer either of them!” Rachel said. “Let’s go!”
“I am Sikurgurd,” the dwarf said as Gabriel carried him toward the tunnel he’d pointed out earlier. “And Dracsi are the large beasts you must have seen as you arrived. You know, big teeth, scales, that sort of thing. The Old Ones named us Dracsi-kin because we were made by D’hea to care for them. We haven’t been allowed any other life, and the Old Ones ensure we never rebel with the Ritual.”
“That’s when the Q one takes your spirit?” Jia asked.
“Q’baos,” the dwarf confirmed. “Dracsi-kin who have mastered their inner control of magic are forced to take the Ritual. I hadn’t yet finished my apprenticeship when the last human arrived, and—”
“Tell us about him,” Fort said. “The human you said was taken to the Dragon’s Teeth. Is he okay? What happened to him?”
Sikurgurd seemed to shrug, but it was hard to tell with him hanging upside down behind Gabriel. “I don’t know. Only those at the Ritual could have told you.”
“Was the human alone?” Gabriel asked.
“Strange that you should ask,” the dwarf said. “I’ve heard different stories. Some say it was just one, but others claim there was a human closer to our size—”
“Fort!” Jia shouted as Gabriel immediately came to a halt. “That could be Michael!”
Michael? He’d been a fourth student, back at the original school at the NSA. Damian, Sierra, Jia, and Michael, Colonel Charles’s son who’d been studying Destruction magic, and who was also… oh wow.
“Yeah, the monsters took him also,” Jia said, confirming what he was thinking. “If there’s a chance he’s still… we have to bring him back too, Fort!”
“Does anyone else remember that there are horrible tentacle monsters on their way as we speak?” Rachel asked. “Just me? No one else, then? That’s what I thought.”
“I agree with the excited human,” Sikurgurd said. “You are all doomed.”
“Thank you!” Rachel said. “Now are we at least getting close to this Teeth place?”
The dwarf nodded in the direction they were going. “We’ll pass through the city up ahead, and then hit the mines on the other side. There are carts leading down to Dragon’s Teeth. We don’t mine there anymore, so if we can get that far, you’ll be safe from my people. The city, on the other hand, won’t be easy to pass. Every elder Dracsi-kin is hoping to please Q’baos by finding you themselves.”
Rachel covered her mouth to scream relatively silently, while Fort just leaned toward the dwarf. “Sikurgurd, you know, if we get out of here, you could come with us,” he said. “We can’t just leave you here to… to have your spirit taken from you.”
For the first time, the dwarf’s eyes lit up as brightly as his goggles had. “I’d never leave my people,” Sikurgurd said, looking ready to strike Fort. “I’d sooner cut off an arm, or feed myself to a Dracsi!”
“Can’t you fight them?” Gabriel asked, resuming their forward motion.
“We have few Dracsi-kin young enough as it is,” Sikurgurd said. “And our elders would defend Q’baos and the other Old Ones to their deaths if need be. We’d be forced to fight our own families, and so are trapped.”
“Hey, I think I see lights up ahead,” Jia said, pointing past Gabriel.
“That is Dra, my city,” Sikurgurd said, sounding a bit proud. “It’s not the largest of our settlements, but it is the deepest.”
“How big are we talking?” Gabriel asked him. “You said it’d be hard to sneak by.”
“As I said, we have a smaller population than others,” the dwarf said. “Still, I would imagine we wouldn’t have to deal with more than ten or twenty million of my kin before we reach the mines.”
- THIRTY -
MILLION?!” RACHEL SAID.
“There are another one or two million young ones,” Sikurgurd said. “They won’t be a problem for us, so that’s something.”
“Not really!” she responded.
Fort wasn’t feeling much better than Rachel about the whole thing, but he pushed Gabriel to continue on. It didn’t matter if there were two hundred or twenty million dwarves waiting for them. Somehow, they’d find a way through any obstacle…
“Whoops,” Gabriel said, coming to a stop as he rounded the corner. “The way’s blocked.”
Fort looked past him to find a gate made of lightning, the same one he’d seen in his dreams. Ten or fifteen bolts of lightning arced across the exit from the tunnel, any one of which had enough power to stop their hearts dead.
“Oh, don’t worry about that,” Sikurgurd said. “I told you, I learned how to control magic. I can open it.”
Gabriel gently set him down on the tunnel floor, and for a moment, the dwarf looked a bit dizzy. “Head rush,” he said, leaning against the wall. “I’ll be all right.”
Rachel began tapping her foot impatiently.
Sikurgurd quickly recovered, then approached the gate of lightning, his hands held out before him like he was trying to calm a wild animal. As he neared it, he slowed to a stop and closed his eyes, moving his hands in elaborate gestures.
First one, then more of the lightning bolts began to flicker, then die as Sikurgurd moved his hands up and down the gate, until finally the way was clear.
“How did you do that?” Rachel asked him in amazement. “I can create lightning, but I’m nowhere near good enough to be able to control it like that.”
“Oh, I can’t create it,” the dwarf told her, waving them through. “None of my kind can. D’hea created us without the ability, and instead, made us fairly resistant to magic of all kinds.” He beat his hand against his chest. “Makes dealing with the Dracsi much easier, after all. But we still needed to control magic, for the lightning if nothing else.” He nodded back down the way they came. “It’s required to feed the Dracsi, so D’hea made sure we could still manipulate magic, even if we couldn’t cast it ourselves.”
Fort would have loved to have asked Sikurgurd a thousand follow-up questions, but now wasn’t the time. “Shouldn’t we be quiet?” he asked instead. “I thought we’d reached the city.”
“Oh, we should be safe while we’re in the tunnels,” Sikurgurd told him. “There’s not another group of feeders scheduled for a while.”
As they passed the gate, the dwarf released his hold on the lightning, letting it cascade back across the tunnel, closing off their exit. With no real choice, Fort led the others around a corner, then stopped abruptly, throwing out his arms to keep the others from falling as he almost had.
He and his father had once walked on a glass path that overhung the Grand Canyon, standing over a mile above the canyon floor. Nothing felt like it could possibly go deeper than that, at the time.
But now, Fort stood on the edge of a dimly lit cavern that had to extend for dozens, maybe hundreds of miles below him, with masses of Dracsi-kin milling about each and every level down as far as he could see.
Lightning tubes began at their height, and ran up, down, diagonally, and in every other direction, connecting both to the gate behind them, and continuing on from there. Elaborate crystal gondolas ran throughout the cavern along some of the tubes, zooming up or down along with the lightning, only to coast as the electricity passed, waiting for the next bolt to strike.
And everything was covered in gold, silver, and gems of all kinds. The city of Dra had to be one of the richest in existence, if you went by rare minerals. But the dwarves weren’t collecting or hoarding the gold and jewels; instead, they’d built with them, using gold for roofs and creating elaborate decorations with gemstones.
The biggest display of wealth lay in the middle of the cavern, rising all the way up to their level from potentially the bottom floor. From what Fort could tell from the random lightning blazing by, it looked like a sculpture. From here, he could make out the very top of a human or dwarf head, so enormous that Fort could barely see down to its forehead. That meant the sculpture could be an entire body or more, depending on how far down it extended.
The strangest, most wonderful part of it all was that the sculpture was made entirely of diamond.
“Welcome to Dra, humans,” Sikurgurd declared almost sadly. He gestured across the open cavern before them. “The tunnel to the mines is directly across from us, but there’s no way to get there without descending into the city first.”
Fort looked where he’d pointed, and slowly filled with despair. The cavern had to be at least a few miles across, and getting there while avoiding an entire city full of dwarves couldn’t be done, not in the time they had.
“I’m sure it’s not as fancy as human cities,” Sikurgurd was saying. “We’ve heard tales of you using something called ‘wod’ to build, making your homes out of living things.” He sighed. “I would love to see that. No Dracsi-kin has ever seen wod, alive or dead. It must be magnificent.”
“Yeah, wood’s pretty amazing,” Jia said. “What’s that statue in the middle?”
“That would be Q’baos,” Sikurgurd said, his face contorting in disgust. “The city of Dra was built on the site of the very first mine for the Dracsi, but the substance of the statue can’t be digested by them, so instead, the miners created a tribute to Q’baos as they dug, merging all the useless gems into it as they went.”
Fort had a similar reaction to Sikurgurd’s as he realized that what he thought was a forehead was actually a screaming human face, just like he’d seen on the Old One back at the previous Oppenheimer School. “How can you merge two diamonds?” he asked. That didn’t seem possible.