The Wizard of the North

by Richard Stephens

  She latched another bolt and advanced on the guardsmen descending the stage and fanning out through the benches to surround her and Olmar.

  Olmar in his typical non-thinking state, lumbered past her, the guard’s sword he had taken from the dungeon looking like a dagger in his hand.

  Earth Blood

  Silurian held his breath, tiptoeing around the side of the underground cavern, its centre dominated by a sleeping leviathan, half submerged within a pool of rank smelling water. The creature lay wrapped around a pillar of chiselled bedrock, the column terminating close to the cavern’s domed ceiling, high overhead. The pulsing white-blue light bathing the cavern in an eerie glow emanated from atop the pillar.

  He wasn’t sure whether to be relieved they had found the wellspring in a timely fashion or discouraged by the appearance of a second serpent—this one much larger than the first. Whatever the case, he was thankful they had found their goal at all. With any luck, they would be gone long before the tide returned.

  They stood just inside the large cavern, studying the pillar. At first glance, it didn’t appear they would be able to reach the glowing fount without climbing the column itself, and that meant climbing over the serpent.

  Melody suggested as much in a hushed voice.

  “Not on your life.” He put his lips against her ear. “Here, I’ll give you my sword and you can do it. You’re the wizard.”

  His sister shook her dirty face, her features lost in the shadow of her hood.

  On closer inspection of the dark walls, they discovered a ledge that spiralled up the inside of the domed cavern, presumably ending at what the Grimward had called the earth blood fount. Comprised of loose shale, the ledge began its ascent a few feet off the ground to the left of the opening.

  Silurian assisted Melody up to the ledge. She held a hand out to help him scrabble up after her. He almost made it without incident, but as he lifted his trailing foot over the ledge’s lip, his toe dislodged a dinnerplate-sized slab of rock. It fell to the cavern floor and shattered.

  They watched in horror as the beast lifted its gigantic head, its forked tongue sensing the cavern air. It didn’t take the creature long to ascertain the location of those responsible for disturbing its slumber. Filmy white eyes focused on them as the serpent uncoiled its body from the base of the pillar.

  The runes on Melody’s staff shone brightly.

  To Silurian, time seemed to slow. His sister’s eyes rolled back into her head. He had no idea what she had in mind but he feared it wouldn’t end well for any of them. A detonation inside the cavern might bring the roof down.

  The serpent’s thick coils undulated, slithering its head toward them. If Melody wasn’t quick, they were doomed. The memory of her attempt to deal with the black panther made Silurian’s blood run cold. He grabbed her elbow and yanked her up the sloping ledge.

  Melody lost her footing and stumbled toward the edge.

  “Hey!” She clutched his arms. “What’re you doing?”

  Silurian grasped her by the folds of her cloak and pulled her back from the brink.

  The serpent’s head lifted off the ground and rose higher than where they stood. Its great maw opened, revealing rows upon rows of jagged teeth, and let forth a deafening shriek.

  Silurian pushed his sister up the slope. “Run!”

  The serpent struck, its movement surprisingly fast for a creature of its size.

  The concussion from the serpent’s head hammering the spot where Silurian had stood a moment before, had him falling to his hands and knees, but he was up and running again before the serpent recovered.

  Silurian was impressed by how fast his sister scrambled up the unstable surface in her bulky robes. He hazarded a look at the serpent. Its head swung back, readying for another strike.

  Silurian ran as quickly as the loose shale crumbling beneath his feet allowed.

  Another shriek rattled the cavern and then a resounding concussion rocked the ledge as the creature slammed into the wall below. A cascade of loose slate shattered upon the cavern floor, now far below.

  Melody screamed as the ledge shook beneath them, fighting hard to remain on her feet.

  Silurian let the tremor pass before he bolted up to her and urged her upward.

  The ledge shook twice more before they reached its summit, pieces of the trail clattering into the bowels of the cavern around the enraged beast—its constant shrieks making them flinch.

  On the far side of a manmade, stone bridge, linking the cavern wall to a platform atop the pillar, lay what they believed was the earth blood fount the Grimward had referred to.

  Although the slender bridge appeared solid enough, with the caterwauling serpent shaking the stone beneath their feet, Silurian was reminded of his recent crossing at Treacher’s Gorge. Tumbling into the serpent’s clutches seemed like a worse fate than falling fourteen thousand feet into the gorge.

  As if on cue, the creature hammered the wall beneath them, rattling slivers of rock along the spiralling slope of the ledge. Chunks of dislodged rock rained down on the deranged serpent.

  Melody stood with her back against the wall, her staff pulsing orange. Silurian hoped she would restrain herself from using the unpredictable staff. A wrong spell at this height would prove catastrophic.

  He leaned in close to her and spoke over the noise. “There’s no need to cast any spells. We’re safe up here. I’m gonna cross the bridge. You stay here.”

  She shook her head. “I’m coming.”

  “I’ll only be a moment.”

  He almost laughed when she gave him a look that reminded him of their mother. Though he had loved his mother very much, the passage of time had blurred his image of her. Melody’s glower brought her back to life. As long as she lived, Mase Storms End would never die. “I’m coming.”

  “Okay. But we need to time it, or that turtle will knock us off the bridge.”

  Melody rolled her eyes.

  The ledge shook again.

  “Now,” Silurian said, running across the thin span. Before he reached the fluted brim of flat rock forming the base of the wellspring, the entire structure shook. He stumbled the last two steps, caught himself and whirled about in time to clutch Melody’s arm before she toppled off the edge of the bridge.

  They stood clutching each other on the platform, high above the floor below, beside an ornately carved, stone fount as tall as their waist. The wellspring of earth blood. The blue light that infused the cavern emanated from within the fount, the glare almost too bright to look at.

  Silurian released Melody and grasped the edge of the fount as a vibration rattled the pillar.

  Letting the tremors subside, Silurian put a hand up to shield his eyes from the light filtering through a layer of cloudy white vapour. He squinted. There was something substantial lodged in the centre of the urn, half submerged in a gelatinous blue substance—the size of a human head.

  The tremors in the cavern ceased, along with the constant shrieking. The sound of bubbling liquid came from the wellspring. Silurian waved a hand above the mist to clear it away enough to see what appeared to be an egg lying within.

  Melody’s complexion and loose strands of blonde hair were basked in the blue glow as she peered into the urn. She swallowed and returned his glance, a new fear written on her face as the relevance of what they were looking at washed over her.

  She backed away, her eyes darting around the cavern. “Wow. Do you know what that is?”

  Silurian shrugged, his mind whirling, trying to fathom the egg’s significance. What could have left an egg that size at the top of this pillar? It would have to be something huge.

  The silence in the cavern screamed at him as comprehension gripped his features. He searched the cavern. The serpent was nowhere to be seen.

  His wide eyes matched his sister’s. Together they leaned outward, stretching their necks to afford them a view of the column rising up from the cavern floor.

  Massive claws dug into the irregul
ar surface of the pillar as the serpent placed one massive paw over another, pulling itself up to the fount.

  Karvus and Tygra doused their torches, quietly laying them aside. Both men pulled their weapons from their back slings and crept into the cavern. Using hand gestures, Karvus directed Tygra to go back until he was out of sight and then to cross over to the right side of the tunnel.

  The great wyrm uncoiled itself from the pillar of rock, its eyes focused on something in the shadows along the left side of the cavern.

  Karvus held the tracking ring in his gloved hand, the talisman uncomfortable to hold onto. The Serpent’s Eye followed the serpent’s gaze to the dark wall.

  Tygra appeared moments later across from him. Karvus motioned him to proceed into the chamber, behind the serpent. As expected, his faithful servant did so without protest. Most men would have run the other way.

  Crouching low, Karvus edged deeper into the cavern, his eyes never leaving the head of the serpent.

  The serpent concentrated on a soft orange glow that had sprung to life against the wall. The wizard! Perhaps his job wouldn’t prove too difficult after all.

  The serpent lifted its head into the air, its tongue flicking between its teeth. It reminded Karvus of a snake poised to strike.

  The wizard’s longhaired companion grabbed the concentrating mage and pulled him out of harm’s way just before the serpent’s head lunged forward, smashing into the wall behind the ledge where the wizard had just stood.

  “Hey! What are you doing?” A female’s voice rose above the noise of the serpent.

  Karvus’ first thought was that the voice belonged to the wizard’s longhaired companion, but Helleden’s scout had reported that a man travelled with the wizard. The emperor searched the shadows for anyone else that may be in the cavern but didn’t see anyone. He frowned. There was no doubt the voice had been a woman’s.

  Halfway across the cavern, Tygra crouched against the far wall.

  Karvus made hand gestures, asking his aide whether he saw anyone else in the cavern. Tygra’s hand signals indicated that he either did not, or that he didn’t understand Karvus’ silent query.

  The creature let out a tooth-rattling, spine tingling screech and launched another attack, this time hitting the ledge directly below the wizard’s companion. The cavern floor rumbled beneath Karvus’ feet. He marvelled at the amount of damage the serpent affected on the wall as great volumes of loose rock fell to the cavern floor and splashed about the pillar.

  High above, the wizard and his companion scrambled to get out of the leviathan’s reach.

  The serpent rose higher and higher upon thick, undulating coils, moving about the rear of the cavern, tracking the wizard’s progress. It struck twice more in rapid succession, each time missing its mark by a growing distance.

  Karvus’ eyes followed the ledge’s ascending path. His quarry was getting away.

  The lower end of the ledge terminated close to where he stood. Not taking his eyes from the enraged beast, he inched his way to the beginning of the ledge. He placed his battle-axe on the ledge and prepared to pull his bulk onto the loose surface.

  The serpent’s sudden movement made him jump. For the briefest of moments, he thought it had turned its attention on him as its head swung around, but instead of coming for him, it made a wide sweep, untangling its massive body to face the pillar. Without another sound, the great creature began to climb.

  Karvus’ jaw dropped. The serpent’s body elongated and lifted off the ground as it began to scale the pillar.

  Tygra splashed across the middle of the floor to Karvus’ position, and whispered between rasping breaths, obviously more afraid than he let on, “What now, my emperor? Surely the wizard is done for. I need to get you out of here.”

  “We can’t let them get away.”

  “They aren’t going anywhere, my emperor. That ledge spirals around the top of the cavern. It ends at a bridge that crosses to the pillar. I could see them from over there.” Tygra pointed to where he had just come from. “I can’t tell what’s up there, but they are standing on a platform at the top of the pillar, looking at whatever casts that blue light.”

  Damn that finger-wagger, Karvus thought. Helleden wouldn’t be satisfied unless he had possession of the wizard’s staff. “We need to go up there.”

  If he expected an argument from Tygra, he didn’t get one. His faithful aide swallowed and bent down with cupped hands, awaiting his emperor’s boot so that he could hoist Karvus up to the ledge.

  Once on the ledge, Karvus offered Tygra a hand and pulled him up, the man having to hold his head to one side to avoid being touched by the dangling Serpent’s Eye ring.

  The serpent’s progress up the side of the column was slow but determined. Only its long tail still slid across the ground now.

  Karvus looked up the winding trail. Where the serpent had first bashed it, the ledge was almost non-existent. He took a deep breath and lumbered up the uncertain slope, leaping the damaged section with ease. Tygra’s scraping footsteps followed on his heels.

  Reaching the height of the climbing serpent’s head, Karvus and Tygra nearly tripped over each other as the creature stopped climbing the tower and turned its eyes on them.

  Silurian and Melody pulled back from the brink and stared at each other. The serpent climbed the pillar beneath them!

  “Quickly. Immerse your sword in the well,” Melody said, panic evident in her voice. She ran back across the bridge, almost losing her balance along the way. Her momentum carried her sideways, but she was close enough to the ledge that she was able to jump over thin air to avoid plummeting to her death.

  “What are you doing?” Silurian asked, his mind clouded with the knowledge of the creature climbing beneath him. He was afraid he already knew what her intentions were.

  The darkness around Melody lit was pushed aside by her glowing staff.

  “Mel, no!” Silurian shouted at her. “You’ll destroy the pillar!”

  She mustn’t have heard him. Her staff pulsed brighter and a fist-sized ball of fire shot from its tip.

  The deafening shriek of the serpent gave evidence that her attack had been accurate. As did the startling vibrations wracking the platform he stood on. Grabbing the edge of the urn, he thought for sure he was about to fall to his death.

  “Mel! Stop!”

  Illuminated by her staff, Silurian noted her eyes had rolled back into her head. Great. If she missed, she might very well bring the entire wellspring crashing down. He wanted to run to her and shake her out of her trance, but if she destroyed the pillar before he stopped her, his only chance at reclaiming his sword’s enchantment would be lost. Yet, if he tried to reclaim the power while she shot the pillar out from underneath him, all would be lost anyway. At least as far as he was concerned.

  He pulled St Carmichael’s blade free of the baldric and turned to face the urn. His shoulders slumped. He had forgotten about the egg.

  The egg! It all became clear to him. The egg belonged to the serpent. That explained why it went insane seeing them on the ledge.

  He gazed into the wellspring, remembering a day long ago when Saros instructed the Group of Five to immerse their bodies within a bog. At the time, they had no idea what was being asked of them, nor why they were doing so. They were impressionable young men lusting after adventure. Adventure that led three of them to an untimely death and destroyed the lives of the other two.

  The egg dominated the interior of the misty urn. He couldn’t see a way to immerse his sword without damaging it.

  An orange light flared up behind him. A thunderous detonation reverberated throughout the cavern—the wellspring platform bucked beneath his feet. The serpent screeched louder. Closer.

  “Mel! No!” Silurian yelled, not taking his eyes off the fount. When the concussion subsided, he laid his sword at the base of the well and reached into the urn-like structure. The gelatinous liquid was surprisingly warm, but not hot. He wrapped his fingers around the bottom of t
he egg and carefully hoisted the heavy object free of the bubbling fount.

  The column shook rhythmically, the serpent’s angered progress now perceptible beneath Silurian’s feet. He was afraid to look sideways in case the beast’s fanged maw appeared over the platform’s lip. He needed to focus on the task at hand.

  “Melody, stop! You’ll destroy the wellspring,” Silurian pleaded. As gently as he could in his panicked haste, he placed the egg between his feet and the urn’s base to keep it from rolling away. He didn’t know what would happen if the serpent’s egg fell from the platform, but he suspected that as enraged as the creature was now, its reaction would be catastrophic—to the point of tearing down the pillar itself.

  The air flashed orange. The pillar lurched and the beast screamed in pained fury, so loud that it had to be near the top.

  Silurian gasped as his sword rattled to the brink of the platform and tipped. Time slowed. St. Carmichael’s exquisitely wrought hilt slipped over the lip, ever so slowly. The shiny blade followed, ringing as it rubbed against the intricately carved platform and disappeared.

  Silurian’s eyes bulged. His skin went cold as he tried to come to terms with the ramification of that simple act. The rank smell in the cavern threatened to gag him. Every sensation flooded him at once. Disbelief, denial, despair. Doom.

  The unmistakable clank of his weapon striking the cavern floor jarred his brain like he’d been walloped with a warhammer. He had to retrieve it. There was no other choice. He turned to face the bridge. Melody stood across the span, her eyes rolled up, oblivious to what had just happened. Her staff pulsed, on the verge of releasing another fireball. He couldn’t see her pupils, but it seemed clear to Silurian that she concentrated on a spot near his feet.

  He swallowed. The creature must be right below him. He took a step toward the bridge, but the sight of a scale covered foot reaching up to clutch the middle of the span stopped him.