Shrieking, every spider cleared out, skittering away from the horrid sound as fast as they could. In a heartbeat, the cavern was empty of all spiders but those dead and dying. For a second, everybody stared at each other in shock.
“RUN!” Lanisa screamed.
Nobody needed to be told again. We tore out of the cavern running as fast as we could. The elves had the presence of mind to slow so they didn’t abandon the short legged dwarves, but that thought didn’t occur to me until I was almost 100 feet ahead of the group.
When I stopped, waiting for the others in the group to catch up, I made a sickening realization. Not only could I hear the sound of purring and skittering in the distance, my torch, our last torch, was flickering its last flame. Desperate to save my precious light, I rotated the torch, pointed it down, used every trick I knew to try and buy it life.
“Shit!” I hissed as the flame finally licked out.
I’d almost given up hope, my attention focused on the glowing orange embers on the torch’s head. But as my eyes swept through the thick gloom, I noticed the faintest glow coming from the far end of the cave. With the torch lit, that faint glow was drowned out, but now that the torch was spent the tiniest hint of light could be seen.
“Is that the way out?” I whispered as the other caught up.
“Yes,” Lanisa whispered, less than a foot from me and yet lost in shadow. “I can smell the outdoors.”
A scream cut the darkness. A spider sprang out of the shadows, driving itself hard into Kiinna. Her body crushed between the creature and stone, the young Ranger went limp. A nearby Invincible swung his war axe, sending spider goo spraying through out the room. He picked up the fallen woman as the other Invincibles formed a line of steel behind us as we raced for our lives.
I stumbled on with the rest, tripping often on the uneven ground as we chased toward that miraculous glow, a swarm of ravenous death hot on our heels. Minutes later, the mouth of the cave was in view, dawn’s scintillating colors spilling inside. Bursting into the soft morning sunshine, we staggered away from the cave mouth to fall to our knees.
“Shouldn’t we keep going?” I asked, chest heaving with tortured ribs. “Won’t the spiders come out after us?”
“No,” grunted Shieldwall. “Cave spiders won’t come into the sun.”
“Just as well,” Lanisa said quietly. “We couldn’t survive another bout of them.” Three of the Invincibles and four of the Rangers had been drug out and lay unconscious some still others shuddering. Each of them showed twin puncture wounds from a spider’s bite.
“Is there an antidote?” I asked as the other made them as comfortable as possible.
“We didn’t bring any,” Shieldwall said. Lanisa shook her head and Shieldwall had to shrug. “Then we’ll have to find Vetta Winters. Anyone living this close to cave spiders will have an antidote.” Her gauntleted hand pointed toward a barren mesa about a mile away. “That shouldn’t be too hard.” We followed her eyes to the north where a solitary tower reached into the morning sky from the top of the mesa.
“Is that Winters’s home?” I asked.
“It better be,” Lanisa said as she and Tallus climbed to their feet. She motioned at our poisoned companions as the pair started off. “They don’t have much time.”
The Tower
While Tallus and Lanisa scampered up the nearly vertical cliff of the mesa at a speed that would have challenged any speed climbers from home a run for their money, I checked the remaining ammunition of my pistol. I’d hoped for three or maybe even four bullets, but the clip was empty. The chamber had a single round in it. I’d have to save that for an emergency. After I holstered my pistol, I found Kiinna sitting a few feet away and working on constructing hasty stretchers.
“Any idea how long they have?” I asked nodding at our poisoned party members as I sat to help.
“No,” she said. “But it can’t be too long.”
I shook my head, responsibility squeezing my chest. “Maybe I should have tried sneaking past the giants.”
“Have you ever seen an angry giant?” she asked quietly. When I only raised an eyebrow at her, she continued with a smile. “We’d have lost the entire party, or close to it. Trust me, those caves were the right choice.”
“And you got the chance to pay off your life-debt,” I said matching her smile.
“You believe so?” she asked
I blinked at her in confusion. “Pretty sure that spider would have had me for lunch if it wasn’t for you.”
“I’ve saved your life twice,” she said simply. “You rescued me from months if not years of pain, disgrace, and violation. My life-debt to you just might outlive the both of us.”
I smiled at her attempt to lighten my mood, but I wasn’t in the mood to smile. Ever since I’d left home I’d been a loner, learning to rely only on me and avoiding the responsibility of leading others. Having the lives of others depend on my decisions was a burden I never wanted. I went silent as we worked and we’d made three complete, if somewhat rushed and uncomfortable, stretchers when an unfamiliar voice spoke behind me.
“I’ve never met anyone who’d tried to cross a cave spider nest to meet me,” said the feminine voice. “I suppose I should feel honored.”
We turned as one to see an olive-skinned beautiful woman with raven black hair, interspersed with strands of gray, marching toward us. Her robe of an almost iridescent royal blue was pressed against her surprisingly youthful body by a breeze, that same wind causing her matching cape to flap gently behind her. Her piercing brown eyes bore into us as we gaped.
“Well, come on,” she said motioning us to follow. “Your friends don’t have time for you to ogle me. And introductions can wait for later.”
We rushed to collect our wounded and humped along behind her. The three dwarf Invincibles were placed on my improvised stretchers, the four elves were carried by other Rangers. We followed her toward a small but thick copse of trees. With a wave of her hand, an almost indiscernible shimmering field appeared before her. She stepped aside and waved us forward.
“In you go,” she said. “Sharpish like.”
I looked around as our group disappeared into the portal, extremely uncomfortable with the thought of entering whatever that was. But the rest of my team didn’t have any qualms, and I didn’t have many choices. Trailing the rest, I was moments away from stepping into that shimmering field when the woman’s hand suddenly shot out and grabbed my arm.
“There’s something more here,” she said looking around. Her eyes scanned the rugged hills as she searched for whatever she sensed. Then her hard eyes turned to me. “An abomination is following you,” she said quietly.
I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t tell her about Gallinea, she might flip out. If I lied to her, I was setting myself up for future misery. While I was considering the Gallinea problem, the woman made the decision for me.
“Go on,” she said. “Best hurry away from here.” Gratefully, I rushed through the shimmer.
Instantly, I was in the center of a fantastic foyer. It was set in dark walnut and red mahogany, so perfectly smoothed and polished that every surface was slick to the touch. In the back, a wood staircase ascended at the center of the far wall, only to split both left and right to complete the ascension to the second floor. The staircase itself was mahogany and each step was walnut, a magnificent red carpet down its center. Opposite the staircase was a pair of walnut double doors with gold hinges and handles. The sidewalls had a pair of mahogany cabinets matched with a pair of mahogany book cases placed in feng shui locations, and a walnut door at their center. Small walnut tables and chairs with vibrant red satin cushioning lined the walls.
Golden vases full of brilliant red flowers (birds of paradise, roses, tulips, and crimson orchids) sat on most of the tables, and a plush pure yellow carpet lined the center of the entryway. A variety of books, some brightly colored others dull with age, were packed into the bookshelves.
Only one book was mis
sing; it was in the hands of Tallus who was sitting in one of the plush walnut chairs. He glanced over at me as I entered, a big smile on his face. Our wounded were on the floor, the Wild Mage chanting over them. Already their color was improving.
“Christ,” I gasped in wonder as my eyes took in the view. “This place is a fucking palace.” My eyes found Winters who was focused on one of the unconscious dwarves. “I’d thought you lived in the tower we saw on the cliff.”
“I do,” she said kneeling down and placing a hand on Kiinna’s chest. She waved her other hand dismissively toward the double doors behind me.
I stepped outside into the morning sun, beautiful but cold. Turning, I took in the tower we’d seen from the mouth of the cave of spiders. I circled the bland stone spire, looking off the cliff in the back to see the mouth of the cave we’d been just seconds before.
Finishing around the shabby tower where I’d started, I noted three things other than the meager rutted road that lead off to a small pass in the north. One, the double doors themselves were old, untreated and cracked oak wood on the outside where they appeared to be thick and rich walnut on the inside. And two, the building couldn’t be more than 40 by 40 feet on the outside while inside, the stairway was at least a hundred feet from the front doors. Finally, there were no side doors on the outside, just the front double door. Dumbfounded, I walked back in the impossible structure.
“Holy shit, the woman lives in a TARDIS,” I said in awe.
“A what?” Lanisa asked as she approached.
“It’s not important,” I said suddenly embarrassed my nerd was showing. “How are things going here?”
“Your friends won’t be doing too much complaining,” said Vetta Winters as she stood from the nearest unconscious party member, an elf. “At least not until they’re on their feet, which should be in a day or two. You’re lucky I was just about to hunt for cave spiders.”
“You hunt them?” I ask, eyebrows raised incredulously. “For what?”
“Told you they were good eating,” Sheildwall said joining us. Tallus was on her heals.
My eyes closed and body gave an involuntary shudder at the thought of eating any spider, much less those things. But I had to admit there was a poetic justice in sinking your teeth into one of those disgusting beasts. I tuned back into the conversation as Shieldwall spoke.
“Your healing skills are impressive,” the dwarf said. “Even with antitoxins, it would have taken our healers most of a week to get them on their feet. And I doubt we could have saved all the elves.”
“It was a combination of delicate magics used in conjunction with antitoxins at just the right time,” the tall woman said. “It was nothing a truly competent caster couldn’t manage.” When we didn’t appear sufficiently impressed, she suddenly added, “Not to sell myself short. What I did to heal your people truly was impressive.” After eyeing us to make sure we seemed properly awed, her gaze turned to a hard stare. “Which brings us back to why you’d take such an idiotic risk in the first place. What is so important that a party encompassing the elvin prince would try to cross a cave spider nest?”
“Speed was a necessity,” Tallus said. “My father believes a war is coming to the elves. He suspects that at least one of the three great empires will side against us, maybe more. We need to start collecting allies.”
“And the dwarves aren’t enough?” she asked motioning to Sheildwall.
“Unfortunately, both dwarf nations are disinclined…,” the dwarf diplomat started to say but Winters waved her off.
“Politics gives me a headache,” she said. “Let me sum it up: The elves are going to war against the empires and the dwarves don’t want to get involved, so you need powerful allies as quickly as possible. Your options are limited, so you have to find some of the more unconventional help. Yes?”
“Essentially,” I said.
Winters crossed her arms and looked down her nose at us appraisingly. Then she turned and motioned us to follow. “You four follow me,” she said over her shoulder. “The rest of you feel free to explore and make yourselves at home, but there are a few dangers here so be careful. I worked very hard to heal your injuries, please don’t insult me by getting yourselves eaten in my own home.” The Wild Mage glanced over her shoulder at the prince. “And you, princeling, feel free to bring your new treasure along with you.” Tallus looked to the book from her bookshelf that was still in his hands. The Collected works of Porin Elaan Edgewater.
We followed her through the left side door into a rich marble hallway. The hallway itself was Romanesque, its floor and ceiling an unbelievably complex pattern of blue and green marble. Thick green marble columns stood proudly every ten feet flanking the hallway. On either side of the hall were pools. Some large, some small, and yet others steaming, all set in a sky blue flat, unpolished quartzite. Tables of oak and birch were spotted around the pools, sporting the occasional green vase with blue flowers. A pile of green towels stood next to each pool.
I’d hoped this would be our meeting point; the thought of catching sight of the women in whatever passed here for bathing suits almost stole my breath. Like all dwarves, Sheildwall might have been small and as wide in the shoulders as a body builder, but she still had a face that would make any man do a double take, and could fill out a bathing suit better than anyone else here. I’ve been watching Lanisa’s athletic form almost from the beginning and had more than my fair share of fantasies about her. And in spite of the fact that Winters must be somewhere in her fifties, she looked like she was a hard thirty. I was far more than just curious to see what the woman looked like under that blue robe.
Unfortunately, we continued through that beautiful hall into a magnificent garden that vaguely reminded me of the kind I’d seen while sightseeing in Spain. A tall white granite fountain carved into the shape of a beautiful naked woman sat at the center of a walled courtyard. She poured from an unending jug of water into a long narrow pond that stretched out to either side of the fountain. Purple wisteria flowers hung from vined trellises that arched over pathways of crushed quartz leading to the long pond. Small green hedges lined the pathways creating verdant islands full of pink flowers.
“This place is amazing!” I said with a gaping grin. “You got to be a hell of a caster to be able to do all this.” When Winters looked confused by my comment, Lanisa explained my origin to her.
“You are correct in that I am exceedingly powerful,” Winters said looking supremely proud of herself, “but extradimensional convergence and manipulation is a relatively simple skill.”
“So any mage can do this?” I asked my jaw hanging open in surprise.
“This?” she scoffed with a smug smile. “Oh no. This level of intricacy can only be achieved by the truly epic. While other casters can create a few rooms or a small tower, it takes an artist of my caliber to form a palace like this.”
Winters led us to a set of benches that encircled a crushed quartz pathway that itself encircled the narrow pond. The heat was oppressive, and each of us took the time to remove any available layers we could. I tied the sleeves of my jacket around my waste. Tallus and Lanisa seemed to have little in the way of inhibitions and simply dropped most of their bark armor and leaf clothing next to the doorway we entered from. Their remaining coverings looked like something I might have seen from the exhibitionists at Malibu Beach. Winters waved a hand and her clothes melted into to a gossamer dress of various shades of warm red silk with a pink sarong. It was so sheer her curvy olive skin captivated my eyes. Shieldwall seemed completely unfazed by the heat. I later learned that dwarves, who adapted to living near magma flows, have a much greater tolerance to heat.
“Even though I’m my favorite topic…” Winters said as she sat at the edge of the pond while we sat on the granite bench facing her, “…perhaps it’s time to talk about something new. Like why I should join a war that has nothing to do with me. Would it have anything to do with the abomination that’s following you?”
“W
ell,” I said as I reached into my pocket. “I suppose I should start by giving you this. I was given the impression you might want it.” Out came that object that Vale had given me. Winters’s face showed curiosity until the paper wrapped object dropped into her hand. A flicker of shock passed over her face before a grin of conquest took its place. White hot fire erupted in her palm, eating away both paper and object. Seconds later, she poured pure white ash from her hand.
“Your gift is appreciated, but I suspect it raises more questions than you’d hoped,” Winters said. Then her eyes narrowed dangerously. “Namely, how did you get your hands on a lich’s phylactery?”
The Wild Mage
“I suppose I should start at the beginning,” I said.
“Perhaps that would be best,” Winters growled. She was looking at me like a famished hunting cat.
I started from the very beginning, from when Melina first haunted our home in Virginia. As the story unfolded Winters expression didn’t change much, although she did smile a little at my creative punishment of Salazar, the governor of the human compound. During the entire explanation I was very careful to explain the elf king’s reactions, decisions, and suspected motives behind everything he had me do.
When I reached the ‘quest for allies’ he sent me on, I was sure to mention my lack of knowledge, map, proper supplies, and the fact that Tallus was specifically forbidden to come. I listed our objectives in reverse order, being sure to relay as much detail about them as possible. Considering there were almost no details to relay, that job went rather quickly.
I finished on the beginning of our quest, our entry into Withermoor. Winters’s eyes narrowed dangerously as I continued but she didn’t interrupt. I told her about the ambush, the overly friendly Rasthamus Vale, and the summit where I’d first met the entirety of the Withermoor government. The woman raised an eyebrow at the king’s message I’d been required to pass on to Vale. Astonishment replaced distrust on Winters’s face when I showed her the insulting note and at the mention of the entire council being present for that summit. She nodded as I mentioned the package Vale gave to me, so I could uphold my end of his deal.
A New World Page 17
