Loyalty Oath

by Edmund Hughes

  The water surged forward with enough speed to make a distinctive, whitewater rushing noise. It struck the stone golem full-on in the face and basically did nothing beyond getting it wet. The stone golem didn’t even break stride, continuing forward in the direction of their group without slowing down.

  “Okay,” said Jack. “That’s not unexpected, given that it’s, uh, made of stone. Katie? Do you have anything that might help?”

  Katie shrugged. “I can try, I guess.”

  She pulled her wand out, which seemed like a better option than her crossbow, and aimed it in the monster’s direction. The tip glowed purple, slowly building in brightness and intensity, and then there was a loud bang as invisible force erupted forth.

  Jack saw the spell impact with the stone golem’s face, and to its credit, a few chips of dust and rock were knocked into the air on the point of impact. The monster, however, continued forward. It was only a dozen or so steps away from them now, given its massive stride.

  “Right,” said Jack. “Mira? Any ideas?”

  “We could attempt to trip it using Spectral Hand,” she said. “Otherwise, I would wager that your sword is our best bet.”

  “I’ll distract it,” said Jack. “You try to get your tendrils around its ankles.”

  “I should help with this, too,” said Ryoko. “I can fade into liquid form if it comes close to hitting me.”

  “Right,” said Jack. “Katie, you watch and see if there’s a chance for you to do something with one of your spells.”

  All of the girls nodded, and the four of them put the plan into action. Jack cast Shadow Levitation and used the inky darkness to boost himself up even with the stone golem’s head. It lifted an arm as he came into range, attempting to swat him to the side.

  It was slow, and Jack was able to dodge the strike easily. At least the first one. The second came as a vicious backhand, and the stone golem executed it quickly enough to make the movement a blur to Jack’s eyes in the instant before the blow landed.

  He went flying through the air, and he was too stunned to do anything to cushion his fall as he landed in an uncoordinated heap in the shallows of the shore. Katie and Ryoko let out concerned cries. Jack lifted a hand in the air, waving to reassure them that he was mostly okay.

  He was in pain, but he could still move, and the darkness of night let his vampiric regeneration start mending his cracked ribs almost immediately. He’d lost his sword on impact, but he reached his hand to the side and re-summoned it as he took off toward the monster at a sprint.

  Ryoko had taken to distracting the golem in his place, using her water blasts to draw its attention, if nothing else. Mira had wrapped her Spectral Hand tendrils around one of its ankles, but the golem had already come to a stop, and it seemed unlikely that she’d even be able to leverage herself with enough strength to do anything.

  Katie was letting loose with spell after spell, and her blasts of invisible force were slowly chipping away at the golem’s head. Whether or not injuring its head would have any effect on its ability to continue fighting was anyone’s guess.

  Jack approached from behind this time, speeding himself forward with his levitation and drawing his blade back. He cleaved at the golem’s neck with a vicious, two-handed strike, putting all of his strength into the attack.

  His ethereal blade didn’t clip through the stone as easily as it would have with most materials, which implied that the golem had some sort of magical barrier across its rocky exterior. Luckily for Jack, his Spectral Sword was stronger than it had once been. The wisps of smoke which emanated from the blade also contributed to its innate damage as a magical weapon.

  The golem’s neck shattered at the point of contact, as though Jack had taken a sledgehammer to a crumbling brick wall. He reversed the direction of his swing, trying to cut into the other side and effectively sever the monster’s head from its body.

  The stone golem shifted back a pace with surprising speed, whipping its head in Jack’s direction for a perfectly aimed, reverse headbutt. Jack didn’t move in time, but there wasn’t as much strength in the attack as there’d been in its earlier swat. He dropped to the ground, opting to fight at a level that would make it more awkward for his massive opponent to hit him.

  The golem shifted targets. It took two quick, grinding steps forward, closing the distance toward Katie, the only one of them who didn’t have a means of evading or defending. Katie blasted off another spell, but it only managed to knock loose a small plume of dust from the golem’s torso.

  “No!” shouted Jack.

  He launched forward with his levitation, shifting his sword back into two hands. The stone golem tried to swat its hand down in a strike that would crunch through Katie like a hydraulic piston through a tin can. Jack was there first, and he swung his blade with all the strength he had.

  His strike hit the golem at the elbow and carried enough force to sever the arm, though it felt more like breaking off a piece of a rock with a hammer than cutting with a supernaturally sharp weapon.

  He followed up with more attacks, hitting the stone golem with a flurry of swings and cuts. He broke loose another arm, and then finally, its head, which caused it to stop mid-motion, still standing on the sand. He took a slow breath and wiped the sweat and rock dust off his face with one hand.

  “Well,” he said. “If I had to guess, I would say that we aren’t wanted here.”

  Katie, Ryoko, and Mira came over to him, all of them looking as worried as he felt.

  “I don’t know,” said Katie. “This thing was clearly interested in causing us harm, but stone golems aren’t usually used for combat.”

  “Do you think it’s here to protect the island?” asked Ryoko.

  Katie shrugged. “It’s possible, but the Order of Chaldea used them mainly for construction. Leveling ground, digging tunnels, that sort of thing. They’re insanely strong and have an affinity for the earth, but they aren’t that effective in a fight.”

  “It was effective enough to pose a threat to us,” said Jack.

  “That says more about us than it does about this monster, my sweet,” said Mira.

  Jack scowled a little at that, but he couldn’t disagree with her. The four of them all had their fair share of magical abilities and fighting power, but they weren’t used to working together as a team. He made a mental note to work on that when they got the chance.

  CHAPTER 31

  After talking it over some more, they opted to pack up their camp site and set out early. Jack wasn’t sure if he’d gotten even a full hour of sleep, but he wasn’t willing to take the chance of having another monster sneak up on them in the middle of the night.

  They left some of the heavier things behind, primarily the tent and their food. The island was small enough that they could come back easily if they ended up searching for more than a day. He kept Peter’s staff with him, using it for its secondary purpose as a walking stick.

  With Jack and Mira leading due to their enhanced night vision, the group made a slow circuit for the island, following the shore.

  It didn’t take them long to find what they were looking for. A large, craggy cave opening lay against the hulking mound of rock on the island’s far side. The interior of the cave was pitch black, and wind whistled as it blew across the entrance. Cool, stale air emanated from within, and Jack glanced at his companions as he peered through the darkness.

  “What do you think?” he asked.

  “Given that we haven’t found anything else on the island so far, it seems quite likely that this warlock has made his abode underground,” said Mira. “Which is a tad foreboding, I must admit.”

  Katie pulled out her wand and muttered an incantation. A glowing white light flickered to life on the wand’s tip, and she pushed it forward, illuminating the inside of the cave.

  There was a door set into its far wall, made of heavy steel and carved with intricate runes. It had a circular handle as its opening mechanism, and it reminded Jack a little of t
he wheel on a ship. It also had an obvious keyhole at its center.

  “Bingo,” he said. “We can get in through here.”

  “Do you think Xepher would have left his door unlocked?” asked Ryoko.

  “Not a problem,” said Jack. “I have just the spell.”

  He reached a hand out and cast Spectral Lockpick. It was a simple spell, reminiscent of his Spectral Hand tendrils, but on a much smaller and more precise level. The thin, pliable pick it created for him fit into the lock easily, and he started shifting it around to engage the tumblers.

  And then the door exploded. Jack didn’t feel himself being launched out of the cave. He was just there, all of the sudden, in copious amounts of pain and with severely singed clothing. His companions were calling out to them, but the sound of their voices was distant and hazy. He winced as he considered the possible potential of hearing loss and forced himself to focus.

  “He will survive,” said Mira. “He’s just dazed. The blast would have had to be many times stronger to cause sufficient damage to a vampire’s physique.”

  “It was a fucking anti-tampering rune,” muttered Katie. “I’m an idiot for not having checked for one.”

  “You couldn’t have known,” said Ryoko.

  Jack let a rumbling groan and tried to sit up. He felt like he did on the mornings when it was particularly hard to pull himself out of bed.

  “I’m… fine,” he said. “Just a little shaken up.”

  The girls looked skeptical, which was a little worrying. Jack rose to standing on shaky legs and took a step back toward the cave. The door hadn’t actually exploded, at least not in a way that caused any damage to it, but it was open a crack.

  “You should rest, first,” said Ryoko. “Sir. We don’t know what else might be waiting for us.”

  “We don’t have time for that,” said Jack. “There could still be more golems on the beach, and I’m not all that interested in fighting another one.”

  Ryoko frowned at him. Katie let out a shrug and a sigh. Mira set her hands on his shoulders and gave them a small squeeze.

  “We will follow you, dearest Jack,” said Mira.

  He had Katie double check the surface of the door for any secondary traps before pulling it further open. The room on the other side was bathed in a green light emanating from tiny, hanging lanterns filled with colonies of glowing bugs. It was a medium-sized chamber, and as far as Jack could tell, it was filled with junk.

  Chunks of stone similar to the variety that the golem had been composed of littered the floor at random, along with various bits of metal armor and a few ancient weapons. A large number of lengths of driftwood leaned against one of the corners, which Jack would have ignored if not for the fact that they were so close in size to Peter’s staff, though irregular in form. A single door, identical to the one they’d just passed through, was set into the wall on the opposite side.

  “Huh,” said Jack. “What do you make of this?”

  “It is a prison!” came a tiny, high-pitched voice. “I have been waiting… so long! New arrivals, new arrivals, yasssssss!”

  Jack took a quick step back, shifting Peter’s staff into his left hand in case he needed to summon his Spectral Sword. The origin of the voice became apparent as a tiny creature emerged from underneath a discarded metal helmet.

  It looked humanoid, but only just. It had the body of a premature baby, the head of an overweight bald man, and a set of miniature wings which could have been plucked from a gargoyle. Its skin had a distinctive green tinge to it, though that may have just been because of the lighting.

  “It’s an imp,” said Mira. “A common magical familiar. They aren’t usually threats in any sense of the—”

  The imp let out a cackling laugh and burst into movement. It flapped its wings and shot up into the air and then forward, slamming face-first into Mira. Or, more precisely, Mira’s breasts.

  It clung to the pair of them, sniffing like a dog in the middle of tracking down a scent. Mira made a face and swatted it away. The imp flapped its wings and flew sideways, this time heading for Ryoko’s legs and what was in between them.

  “Hey!” Ryoko’s face turned bright red as she pushed the imp away. “That’s—why would you even do that?”

  “Smells good,” said the imp. “Smells nice! Smells sexy!”

  “Could you refrain from molesting my friends?” asked Jack. “I’d really appreciate it.”

  The imp laughed and made a beeline for Katie. She whipped her wand out before it could close the distance, and the imp seemed to respect the threat of violence.

  “Hey,” said Jack. “Can you tell us anything about this room? We’re trying to get past that door over there.”

  “Yes, yes, yes!” said the imp. “I could help you with that. I know the answer!”

  “Okay,” said Jack. “What is it?”

  “I… It’s…” The imp landed on top of a piece of rock and twitched from side to side. “I am hungry.”

  Jack sighed.

  “This is a waste of time,” said Katie. “It might know something, or it might not. We should just take our chances with the door. Maybe I can disable the rune, this time, so it doesn’t explode when you try your magic lockpick.”

  “Hold on.” Ryoko pulled an apple out of her bag and walked over to the imp. She offered the fruit to it while keeping herself as far outside of its effective harassment range as she possibly could.

  “Ooh…” said the imp. “Yes…”

  The imp opened its mouth impressively wide, for a creature of its size, and a long, oozing tongue sprung forth. It briefly ran over Ryoko’s fingers and wrist before wrapping around the apple and snapping it back into its mouth.

  The imp ate the entire apple in a series of chomps and swallows, then let out a satisfied sigh.

  “You’ve been fed,” said Jack. “Now tell us. Do you know a safe way to open this door?”

  “Promise me!” shouted the imp. “You must promise!”

  “Promise what?” asked Jack.

  “Promise you will ask master to set me free,” said the imp. “I have been trapped here for… so long. Longer than I can remember. I must have freedom!”

  “Okay, we’ll ask your master to let you free.” Jack’s patience was starting to wear thin. “Now out with it. How do we open the door?”

  The imp reached underneath its wing and pulled out a key. The creature was so tiny that it had been carrying the key like a short sword at its waist. It held it up in the air with one hand and passed it to Jack as he reached for it.

  “Don’t forget!” shouted the imp. It disappeared into another corner of the room in a rush of wings and cackling.

  CHAPTER 32

  Jack held the key in between two fingers, examining it and the door in turn. Nothing seemed off about either, aside from the now obvious anti-tampering runes etched into the door’s surface.

  “Does somebody else want to take a turn opening the door?” he asked. “Anybody?”

  Mira flashed a wicked smile, while Ryoko glanced away from him. Katie folded her arms and raised an eyebrow.

  “Would you really put one of us at risk in your place?” she asked. “Besides, you’ve already proven that your body is capable of withstanding one of those traps. Seems like a good bet this one will be of the same type, assuming it even goes off.”

  “Fine,” said Jack. He sighed and moved to stand in front of the second door. The key fit into the lock perfectly, but then again, so had his Spectral Lockpick.

  This time, however, there was no explosion. He opened the door without issue and let out a breath that he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.

  There was a long, narrow hallway on the other side. The only objects of note were the two suits of armor at the end—swordsmen who stood on either side of the far door, swords crossed overhead in salute. Jack let the girls take in the scene from behind him.

  “Thoughts?” he asked. “It just looks like a hallway to me. It has to be more than that, though
, right?”

  “I don’t see anything,” said Katie. “This door doesn’t have any runes on it, as far as I can tell. The statues look normal.”

  “You might be overthinking this,” said Mira. “Sometimes a hallway is just a hallway.”

  Jack shrugged, unsure of whether he agreed with the logic but lacking any evidence to the contrary, he started walking forward.

  About a third of the way down the hall, one of the stone tiles depressed into the floor as Jack stepped on it. He leapt back on reflex, and not a moment too soon. A metal spear shot forth from a hidden indentation in the wall, spearing through the space he’d been standing in a second earlier.

  “Damn it!” shouted Jack. “We jinxed it.”

  The tile he’d triggered stayed sunken into the floor, and several other spears began shooting out of the walls of the hallway ahead of them. There was a regular, rhythmic timing to their movements, and it only took Jack a couple of seconds to realize that if he timed it right, he could dodge past them and to the other side of the hall. It only took him a couple of seconds more after that to remember that he could just cast Shadow Form and bypass the trap entirely.

  “Okay,” he said. “We have to talk about what we’re going to do here. I can make it past the traps, easily enough.”

  “So can I,” said Mira. “In much the same way.”

  “I don’t think it should be much of a problem for me, either,” said Ryoko.

  All eyes turned toward Katie. Despite her prowess with alchemy and magic, she was still just a regular human, when push came to shove. She scowled and chewed her lip as she looked at the shifting spear trap.

  “I… can probably make it,” she said. “I’m fast. The timing will be a little tricky, but it’s not like I’m just going to wait back here.”

  “I could try cutting through the spears with my sword,” said Jack.

  “No, that won’t work,” said Katie. “It looks like they have runes carved into them. And we definitely don’t want to trigger another fucking explosion, especially in a hallway this narrow.”