“Should it have felt like that?” she asked, her brow furrowed.
“Maybe it only works when you’re in dragon form,” I said. “Either that, or the resistance is too great at first. When I tried it on Arieste the first time, it was a lot harder than it was now. It could get easier every time we do it. But we’ll have to put off testing until later. For now, we’ve got more important things to focus on.”
“More important than giving us new magical powers?” Irenya rumbled.
“Yes,” I said. “There are bigger things at stake.”
I told her and Arieste about the door beneath the king’s palace and the magic that held it closed.
“If we’re going to open it and find out about whatever this ‘key to ultimate power’ is,” I said, “we’re going to need more magic than what we’ve got.”
“And,” Rizzala put in, “we cannot let Curym’s attack on Whitespire go unpunished.”
“Definitely not!” I turned to the two dragons. “We need to find Curym’s lair and get her power. We’ll have more than enough time to test out this awesome new power-up once that’s done.”
“Very well,” Irenya rumbled.
I turned to Letharia. “Now’s the time for you to tell us everything you know about Curym, her minions, and her lair.” I fixed her with a hard look. “And I mean everything.”
“Of course!” Letharia said quickly with an eager nod. “Curym makes her home in the water beneath the sunken city of Emerald Deep, far to north on the eastern coast of Iriador.”
“Emerald Deep?” I asked. “I’ve never heard of the city.”
“From what I’ve read, it was once one of the greatest human cities on Iriador,” Letharia said. “But about five hundred years ago, a great cataclysm caused the earth beneath the city to crumble into the ocean, taking all of Emerald Deep with it. Only the tops of the tallest towers remain above the surface of the water.”
“And what about her lair?” I asked. “How can we get there?” If we could just get to the altar in her lair, the source of her magical power, we wouldn’t need to fight through hordes of her minions. With Irenya and Arieste back in flying shape, we could get to this sunken city, defeat Curym, and be back before nightfall.
Letharia’s next words dashed my momentary hope of an easy win.
“There is only one entrance to her lair, and it is deep beneath the surface of the water.” Letharia’s face creased into a frown. “She breathes water like a fish, and has no need to come up for air. Only her altar and her hoard of treasure are above the water’s surface, within an underwater cavern.”
“So we have to swim?” I asked. “How deep underwater is the entrance?”
“As Curym would measure it, half the length of a galleon.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“Eighty of what you humans call feet,” Letharia said after a moment.
“Eighty feet underwater,” I echoed. My Fire Academy curriculum hadn’t included any underwater rescue training, but I’d been lucky enough to go snorkeling with my parents off the coast of Mexico during my teen years. I’d only gone down fifteen feet, so I knew eighty feet was a deep dive, even for experts.
An idea flashed through my head. Firefighters carried tanks filled with compressed oxygen, and I had plenty of experience using them. I racked my brain as I tried to come up with a solution for how to bring oxygen down underwater with us.
“Arieste,” I said, turning to the white dragon, “do you feel well enough to give back your power? I have an idea I want to test, and it will be easier if I have a lot of ice magic to work with.”
Arieste shook herself and nodded. “Thanks to Rizzala’s magic, I feel better than I did the day I faced Zaddrith.” She dipped her dragon head to the warrior woman behind me.
I found Rizzala grinning, and she returned the white dragon’s nod.
“Take it,” Arieste said. “I would be interested to see what you have in mind.”
She lowered her head so I could place a hand on her gemstone, then I pulled the ice magic from within her. As always, there was a little shock as I felt the magic flowing through me, like plunging into a frozen lake on a cold winter’s day. However, after all these weeks, I’d gotten accustomed to the sensation and it no longer made me gasp. The tattoo on my left bicep flared to life as the ice magic seeped into my veins, swirled around the fire, acid, and darkness magic, then settled into harmony with the others.
I smiled at the sight of the beautiful, stately platinum-blonde woman who stood before me. As always, my eyes roamed over her supermodel body, with its long legs, toned shoulders, and lean waist that her gauzy dress did little to conceal. Her full red lips matched my smile, and a hint of excitement sparkled in her icy blue eyes.
“So what do you have in mind?” she asked.
“I’d better just show you,” I replied.
I tapped into the ice magic and summoned an ice shield around my body. However, instead of making it a rounded dome or a suit of armor, like I had done in the past, I forced it to create something that was a mix between an old-timey diver’s helmet and an upside down fish bowl on my head. Immediately, the world around me grew blurry through the wall of ice, and I could feel air leaking in through holes around my neck and head. I stretched the ice all the way to enclose my head completely, and made it as airtight as possible.
“This will protect us from the water and allow us to breathe,” I shouted through the ice at them.
“What is it?” Arieste asked, her voice muffled by the layer of ice.
“It’s a special type of helmet,” I replied.
I took a few experimental breaths, and I immediately realized the flaw in my design. Within a minute, I’d run out of fresh oxygen, and I’d start breathing in carbon monoxide. As every fireman knew, CO poisoning could lead to all kinds of problems, from headache and dizziness to seizures, arrhythmias, and death. Unless I found a way to get more oxygen into the helmet, I’d be in serious trouble.
I tapped into the ice magic again and used it to create another larger tank-shaped construction that I held in my hands. But again, the flaw in my plan was immediately clear. I’d have a few more breaths of oxygen, but I’d still run out.
Worse, there was no way I’d be able to haul enough oxygen to get eighty feet underwater, all while fighting Curym, her minions, and the ocean’s currents. Firefighter oxygen tanks were filled with compressed air, controlled via a pressure regulator. Even if I could figure out a way to compress air, I had no way to build a regulator. Without one, the force of the compressed air would destroy my lungs.
Another flaw in my plan became apparent within a few seconds. Drops of water began to run down the outside of the helmet as the heat of the morning sun melted the ice. Unless I wanted to expend a lot of magical energy keeping the ice from melting, there was no way to hold this magical scuba gear.
With a growl of frustration, I dismissed the shield of ice.
“That was amazing!” Letharia said.
“Yeah, but it won’t work,” I told them with a shake of my head. “We’d run out of air too quickly.”
“If only you had Curym’s magic,” Arieste said, “you could share it with us like you did with the Circlet of Darksight, and we could all breathe underwater.”
Her words brought a memory back to my mind. “But what if we could get Curym’s magic?” I asked, and I felt my heart begin to race.
“What do you mean?” Rizzala raised an eyebrow.
“What if we could get some of Curym’s magic before we actually face Curym herself?” Excited, I turned to Irenya and Arieste. “When we were traveling to Frosdar’s lair, we were attacked by fire goblins and rock trolls. I killed two of the creatures by absorbing their magical powers. It didn’t last for a long time, but it was enough for me to avoid freezing to death in Frosdar’s icy lair.”
Arieste’s blonde eyebrows shot up. “You intend to do the same with Curym’s minions!”
“Yes!” My voice rose to a triumphant shout.
“If we can track down some of her minions, I could siphon off enough magic for all of us to breathe underwater.”
“You’d need an awful lot of magic for that to work,” Letharia put in, and her expression had grown pensive. “You would need enough not only for you, but any other humans that went with you. And, if you intend to use them in their dragon forms, that will require even more magic. Their bodies would burn through the power far faster than any humans.”
She made a good point. I’d only defeated Emroth with Irenya and Arieste’s help, and that had been a battle on dry land. Underwater, in her own element, Curym would be a challenge even for all four dragons.
“Your dragon form makes its home in swamplands, correct?” I asked Letharia.
“It does,” she said, and her eyes narrowed if trying to anticipate where my line of questioning was headed.
“Can you breathe underwater in your dragon form?”
Her eyes flew wide. “No way!” She shook her head and folded her arms across her chest. “I’m not going to attack Curym in her own lair. That would be suicide!”
“Letharia, we need your h—“
“Listen, while I admire you for your cleverness and ingenuity, fighting isn’t really…my…thing.” Her voice trailed off and her face fell when I didn’t lower my hand. “Do I have to?”
“You’re our best source of information on Curym’s lair,” I told her with a grin. “Besides, didn’t you swear you’d do whatever I asked?”
“Yes, but surely you don’t mean for me to come along with you!” Letharia protested. “If you could point me to books on the history of Iriador, I might be able to find more information this ‘key to ultimate power’ beneath Whitespire. Give me a stack of books over a nasty sword any day.”
“Sorry,” I said and shook my head. “Like you said, Curym’s going to be a tough nut to crack. We’re going to need your help.”
“I’ll just tell you everything I know about Emerald Deep, and you can leave me here, out of harm’s way.”
“You’ll tell us what you know anyway,” Irenya growled.
Letharia shied away from the red dragon looming over her. “Of course!” she squeaked. “But in this weak form, I’ll be nothing more than a hindrance.”
“You’ve already proven you know more about Curym and this sunken city of Emerald Deep than anyone else on Iriador,” I told her. “Your knowledge could turn the tide of our quest and give us a shot at doing this before Curym hurts anyone else.”
“She could hurt me!” Letharia protested. “The moment she senses us coming, she’ll send all four clans of the nagia after us. Including the Mistresses!”
“Ooh, mistresses, right up your alley,” Nyvea purred in my mind. “More women to have fun with.”
“Who are the Mistresses?” Rizzala asked. Her fists tightened as if gripping a weapon, before she remembered she’d returned my fireman’s axe.
“The Mistresses are the chieftains of the nagia clans,” Letharia said, and fear sparkled in her eyes. “The fiercest, most ruthless of her minions, and the most cunning. If they had joined battle, I have no doubt Whitespire would have fallen.”
“Wait, they weren’t in the battle?” I asked. “I thought you and Curym brought all of your minions to attack.”
“I did,” Letharia said with a nod, “but it seems Curym left a force of nagia to guard her retreat. Plus, the Mistresses and their lieutenants holding Emerald Deep against any attack.”
My gut clenched. The four-armed nagia had done some serious damage to the city with their massive bows, and I hadn’t even seen them fight using the huge scimitars they carried. Getting the water magic could prove more difficult than I anticipated.
“How many of the nagia are there?” I asked.
“Including the four Mistresses?” Letharia pondered for a moment. “You destroyed most of them on the battlefield, but there have to be another twenty or thirty in the crypts of Emerald Deep.”
“They live in crypts? Like underground?” Irenya asked. Her dragon body gave a little shudder, and I was reminded of her claustrophobia-induced panic attack on our trip into the tunnels beneath Windwall.
“No.” Letharia shook her head. “The Mistresses make their homes in the four corners of Emerald Deep, per Curym’s orders, where they are too far away to make war with each other. They are underwater creatures like the merslayers, yet they make their nests above the water’s surface. The only way to reach their nests, other than swimming through the submerged city itself, is through the crypts.”
“I thought you said the whole city was underwater?” I asked.
“All but the crypts,” Letharia replied. “I have to consult my tablets, but I believe the people of Emerald Deep buried their dead on a hill overlooking the city and the ocean. When the city sank, so too the hill sank, but it remained just above the water’s surface. The crypts themselves were solidly built, and they suffered no damage when the city sank. According to my research, they remain intact, and thus the perfect way for the nagia to navigate the sunken city without having to swim. It comes in handy when they want to drag in prisoners for their torments and blood sports.”
My eyebrows rose at this.
Letharia shivered. “The Mistresses are as cruel as they are intelligent. You would not want to know half of what goes on beneath the city of Emerald Deep.”
“Seems like we’re going to find out,” I said with a grin.
“And you’re coming with us,” Irenya rumbled.
“But--” Letharia began.
“You’re the only one who knows the way,” Rizzala cut her off with a slash of her hand. “Your knowledge could guide us safely to the Mistresses. Without it, we would simply be stumbling in the dark, lost and vulnerable to the nagia.”
“But, I’m not a fighter!” Letharia protested. “I read books and tablets and find information.”
“That’s just what we need,” Arieste put in. “Between the four of us, we have all the power we need to handle Curym and her minions. But you’re the only one who has the information.”
“Perhaps we should try another means of convincing you,” Rizzala growled and raised a clenched fist.
“That won’t be necessary,” I said as Letharia cringed back from the tall, powerfully-built Rizzala. “You swore that you’d help us. Right now, we need your help to get through those crypts to find the Mistresses and the nagia to steal their power. Now’s the time for you to prove that you meant it when you swore that oath.”
Panic and fear flashed through Letharia’s eyes as she looked from me to the two women and the massive red dragon in front of her. Finally, with a little whimper, she relented. “So be it. I will take you where you need to go.”
I stepped closer and placed a hand gently on her shoulder. “We’ll watch your back and protect you, you have my word.”
She nodded, but I could see the fear still sparkling in her eyes. I had seen the same fear in the eyes of Arieste and Irenya, yet over time, they had come to learn that they could trust me to keep them safe. Now, they would be the ones to help me safeguard Letharia.
“Let’s do this.” I turned to Arieste and Rizzala. “Let’s grab some supplies and gear for the crypt, then meet back here in ten minutes.” I shot a glance up at Irenya. “Think you can carry the four of us all the way to Emerald Deep?”
“You know it,” she rumbled.
“Then we’ve got our plan.” Excitement coursed within me. “We’re going to hunt down the Mistresses, steal the water magic that brought them to life, and use it to put an end to Curym once and for all.”
Chapter Three
I left Letharia under the watchful eye of Irenya while Rizzala, Arieste, and I hurried toward the command tent. Adath and Sir Galfred were still busy working on the plans to clean up the city after the battle, but they were more than happy to furnish us with the supplies we needed.
Rizzala went the White Guards to make sure we got all the necessary gear, food, and equipment we’d need for the journ
ey into the crypts, leaving Arieste and me in the tent with the knight and Grey Hunter.
“We’re going to be riding on Irenya’s back as we head toward Curym’s lair,” I told the two. “We’d be happy to torch any of Zaddrith’s minions we find alive, if you just tell us which way they ran.”
Sir Galfred frowned down at the map of the kingdom of Elloriel spread out across the table.
“According to the reports I’ve received from the Blackguards,” he said as he stroked his bristling red moustache, “General Daxos and his men have been following them to the northeast, though he has yet to find more than a few dozen of the frogs.”
“Turns out finding green, spike-backed creatures in a forest isn’t as easy as you’d think,” Adath said with a grin. “Your magic finding skills could come in handy right now.”
“I’ll make sure to search for them as we fly in that direction,” I said.
“I’m sure the General will appreciate the hand,” Sir Galfred replied. “He and his men rode out even though they were exhausted.”
“Once Grendis and his men reach them,” Adath put in, “they’ll have time to slow down and rest. Now that Whitespire’s safe and the threat of the dragons is past, Elloriel can begin to heal and rebuild.”
“Good.” I smiled at the hopeful note in the Grey Hunter’s voice. “And, once we’re done with Curym, Iriador will be free of dragons.”
“Free of dragons,” Sir Galfred said, his voice incredulous. “Who’d have thought I’d ever live to hear those words.”
“Soon enough, Sir Galfred.” I rested a hand on the knight’s shoulders. “Iriador will belong to the humans again, and we’ll be able to live in peace. That’s something I’m glad to fight for.”
At that moment, Rizzala strode into the tent. She had a heavily-laden pack slung over one shoulder and her double-headed magical spear gripped in her right hand. Behind her, two more White Guards hauled four equally full packs.
“This ought to be enough,” Rizzala told me. “Torches for light, warm clothes, bedrolls, and plenty of food.”
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