“This is because you killed that demon!” Vile shouts as he clings to the sticky threads. The figurine sees another wall hurtling toward them, the new threat shedding the portrait and hedges to reveal solid stone. “Its energy must have been connected to the maze, so now this place is unstable. We’re going to get crushed and impaled thanks to your incompetence.”
“Tygog has nothing to do with this,” the Lich insists, his hands weaving spells to slow the advancing wall. Rotting hands burst from the earth, but they are immediately smashed beneath the heavy stone. “Somebody has to destroy that thing. At least with that out of the way, we can start climbing away from the spikes.”
“Blowing that up will get us killed by the debris,” Altia points out while crawling onto Trinity’s back. With a kiss to her necklace, the elf readies her whip and waits for the wall to get closer. “I was affected enough by the Earthquaker magic to absorb it and I believe it might be able to help. I think I can put a crack through the middle that we can fit through. Sorry, Trinity, but we all have to get on your back. Once the hole is made, you can launch us to safety. Is that okay?”
All she receives is a grunt of approval as the chaos elf grips Quail and reinforces her body to hold everyone else. Holding the earthquake spell in her mind, Altia swings her whip at the ground and sends a widening crack at the sliding wall. Dirt and stones fall on their heads as the attack heads for its target, which is building up speed. Instead of punching a hole in the barrier, the spell shatters the center to create a shadowy tunnel. Dots of red are within the darkness and the lights flicker as if they are the flames of a distant campsite. Altia tries again, but nothing changes beyond the wall moving faster and a few tiny cracks appearing around the gaping entrance. Desperate to escape, she tries to break the hedges to their sides, but the spell races along the leafy surface and heads back to the sliding stone where it has no effect.
“No wonder these crests have never been found. There are far too many portals and gateways needed to reach them,” Vile mutters to himself. The figurine grins at the pulse of power that hits them before they are engulfed by the tunnel.
15
As if their senses are snapped away by a whip, the travelers abruptly find themselves standing in the middle of a columned building. Cobweb-covered furniture has been set up in the middle of the structure, but there are no signs of spiders or any other type of vermin. The domed ceiling is broken and crumbling, but the jagged chunks remain floating in place. Light from the four moons slips through the cracks and creates a colorful display on the dusty floor, which has been dented by powerful fists. Walls of cloth surround the outside of the building and billow out enough to show brief glimpses of a ruined city far below. Glints of metal can be seen along the chamber edges, the golden hooks magically merged with the rough stone to keep the thin barriers in place. Distant creaks carry on the groaning wind to send shivers down the travelers’ spines. A locked door is set into the dark blue fabric behind them, the sounds of Ashkeep’s marketplace slipping through the breathing keyhole.
Eeriest of all, three tunnels connect to the building even though it appears that none of them lead to other rooms. Sticking out of the passages are reptilian snouts that are mottled black and as large as elephants. One of their mouths is open enough to reveal ivory teeth that are covered in fine cracks. The lower half of a skeleton sticks out of the central head, which is out enough to reveal the corner of its large eyes. When hit by the blue light of Tavon, the tear ducts glisten as if moist and ready to shed water. Circles of broken scales litter the floor around the statues, the piles covered in thick layers of dust, which remain unmoved by a constant breeze that wafts through the chamber. Even though they are motionless, the statues look too lifelike for the travelers to ignore them completely.
“I don’t sense any magic,” Trinity whispers as they head down a short flight of stairs. A gentle shake of the building causes the group to stop, their eyes darting from one statue to another. “Still, I don’t like the look of those dragons. Not sure if something that large can survive with no food for centuries, but I don’t want to find out. You picking up on anything dead, Tyler?”
“Thousands of spirits and bodies, but that’s to be expected,” the Lich replies, his voice bouncing off the walls. Hearing a chorus of distant voices, he takes over Nimby’s eyes to search for invisible enemies. “Nothing in the chamber. I’m hearing the death echoes of those who once lived in this city. Some spirits might still be in the ruins, but I feel that the majority of them have moved on after a tortuous death.”
“The crests are somewhere in this city,” Quail says, holding out the map. The document shows nothing more than six detailed drawings that spin in a slow circle. “The magic of this place is stopping me from finding their exact location. I wouldn’t recommend casting any spells to find them either. My gut is telling me that there are defenses to punish those who make the attempt.”
“Hey, guys. Vile’s gone,” Altia announces before holding up the lifeless figurine. She shakes the toy and turns it in her hands, but there is no reaction. “I thought he was asleep when we came through the entrance, but this feels different. There was a coldness to the waterstone when he was inside and now it’s oddly warm. Strange that he was booted out of this while the Lich is still in Nimby.”
The necrocaster reaches out to float Vile’s vessel to his hand, the toy slightly crumbling at his touch. “I was saved by being inside a living creature. He was not so lucky since this is an inanimate object. A defensive barrier must have mistaken him for an attack and sent him back to the other side. That’s the best case scenario. More than likely, he was torn to shreds and cast adrift for eternity.”
“I’m still in this body, but weak, you insignificant morons,” the warrior growls in a faint voice. He rolls off the Lich’s palm and hits the steps, his arms snapping off instead of cushioning the fall. “Leave me here and finish this. I’ve always been useless in this body, so this doesn’t change anything. All I ask is that you come back for me. The last thing I want is to be trapped in this state forever.”
“We’ll take care of you, dad,” Nimby promises with a smile. The halfling skips ahead and jumps off the stairs, which causes the building to shudder. “Before anybody gets mad, I didn’t see any sign of a trap. There was no reason for me to believe that stepping here would set anything off. Sure, one could say it’s obvious now that we think about it. Yet, we would have had to come down here at some point. Let’s just take the next challenge as a team and skip over the assigning of blame.”
The room shakes and groans as the travelers gather at the bottom of the stairs. A powerful gale pushes through the cloth walls and whips at the three dragon statues that are slowly emerging from the shadows. Their vibrant scales are revived as the wind rips the layers of stone from their flesh and casts the dust onto the ground. With their long necks plugging the tunnels completely, the yawning beasts rise above the intruders. Wanting to be free of their ancient cocoons, the crested dragons knock their necks together to send tremors along their bodies, which remain outside of the chamber. After two more collisions, the sound of falling rocks can be heard and is followed by the flapping of enormous wings. Blue hair sprouts from the ivory dragon’s chin while its dark red companion grows a horn from its nose. As the pair chuckle and clack their teeth, the golden beast leans down to place its head a few inches away from the mortals. With a snort of balmy air, the creature knocks everyone over and returns to towering over them.
“They aren’t Nature Dragons, so what are they?” Altia asks after a minute of silence. All three beasts turn to her, their gaze making the easily devoured elf freeze in place. “These things are terrifying and we can’t even see all of them. Feels like my blood is turning to ice. What should we do?”
“Hello, great guardians!” Trinity shouts while waving her hand. Walking toward the middle of the room, she relaxes at the sound of deep chuckling. “I apologize for waking you from what must have been a nice nap. I’m sure t
hat you would love to eat and go back to bed, so we’ll get out of your way as quickly as we can. We’re looking for six crests that were left here by Baron Arthuru Kernaghan. If not by him then one of his agents. Perhaps his son whose name was Stephen Kernaghan. Do you know where we should go?”
“I like this brave morsel,” the ivory dragon gleefully hisses. Leaning down, it takes a long sniff of the chaos elf and drools down its knotted beard. “She’s a channeler too, which is a delicacy I thought was extinct. As hungry as we are, my kind has learned to tread carefully around the aura workers. Perhaps the other woman could be mine since only one of you is needed for our challenge.”
The golden dragon roars in the ear of its companion, who cowers against the floor. “Have you forgotten our pledge? It is not our place to eat guests. All of them have come for the crests, so all of them must enter the city. My apologies, but it has been far too long since any of us have had a decent meal. Our hunger may overtake our manners since you are the first to come here in at least five hundred years.”
“At least willingly,” the horned creature interjects with a lazy yawn. A forked tongue slides out and picks at its teeth in search of scraps. “Our keepers send people here from time to time. I think they call us executioners or something. We know they aren’t like you because they appear through another door. You earned an audience with us, which means all of you are special. Even the ones who hide within false forms.”
“Thank you,” Trinity says with a low bow. Snapping her fingers, she waits for the others to follow her example before standing. “As I already said, we don’t want to take too much of your time. Please tell us what the challenge is and we’ll complete it quickly. To be honest, time is not on our side when it comes to claiming those crests.”
The dragons retract their heads and crawl down the tower, revealing that the cloth walls are their hook-edged wings. With the beasts no longer in the way, the travelers can see the large abandoned city that surrounds the central tower. Only a few structures are crumbling while the rest are as sturdy as when they were originally built. A frozen river runs along the south, cutting off the area from blackened mountains that occasionally blink like they are being struck by lightning. When an angry gale billows out of a narrow valley in the east, the travelers can hear a symphony of wind chimes coming from every direction. The travelers can see the musical decorations on the city’s porches and rooftops, the dangling pieces spinning in the white moonlight. Dancing forms can be seen whenever the stronger beams bounce off the chimes and touch the barren streets. As if sensing their exposure, the phantoms always disappear back into the gloom within seconds.
“The challenge is simple,” the golden dragon declares, its wide chin digging into the stone floor. Releasing a puff of smoke across the room, the creature moves its wings as if gesturing at the entire city. “Somewhere in these ruins are the crests. Find them before the apparition claims all of your souls and they are yours. Anyone who is devoured will be restored upon victory, but everyone will stay dead if you fail. There are no second chances and your bodies will be left for us to eat at our leisure. Do you wish to continue or be returned to Ashkeep?”
Walking to the edge of the room, Trinity rolls her shoulders and cracks her knuckles. “I’m not leaving empty-handed. Let’s get this challenge started.”
A patch of fog clears on the far side of the city to reveal another tower with a single window near the top. Its shadow stretches across the smaller building and leaves a layer of frost on the shingled roofs. The edge of the darkness touches Trinity’s foot and stops, its presence making her teeth ache. A piercing light appears in the tower’s window and flows to the rooftop until it is a familiar silhouette standing against the starry night. The female apparition stretches her arms and waves to the channeler, whose stomach twists in anticipation. Blowing a kiss to the challengers, the woman of light steps off its perch and drops into the city where she disappears from sight.
“You stay here, Vile. We’ll be back for you in a few minutes,” Trinity announces with a grin. Gathering her companions on a whirling disc of emerald energy, the channeler leaps off the tower and hurtles toward the city. “I’m ready for another taste, guardian. Give me your best shot!”
*****
The two-story house smashes against a blacksmith shop as Trinity continues to blindly hurl whatever is in their path. Risking a glance over her shoulder, the chaos elf spies the guardian leaping into the air and flipping to land on another building. A hand materializes out of the swirling dust to slap the structure away, giving the retreating travelers a minute to get further away from their enemy. Lightning peppers the pile of wreckage, one of the bolts striking the apparition hard enough to drive her into a narrow crater. Stopping to focus and aim her next spell, Trinity unleashes a wave of boiling water from her mouth that washes the spectral figure down the street and into a sewer drain. Plunging her hand into the ground, she freezes as much of the underground tunnels as she can until her fingers threaten to break. Not bothering to see if her attacks were successful, the chaos elf casts a speed spell on herself and retreats.
Gasping for air and nursing a dull ache in her side, Trinity sprints down the nearest alley to find her friends. Passing a door, the channeler is grabbed by the arm and yanked through the illusion. She is about to attack when she recognizes Quail in the darkness and spots the outline of Altia watching the street through a camouflaged window. Sitting in the middle of the barren room, Nimby’s eyes glow red and he constantly chants in a guttural voice to maintain the protective spells. The rot of his arm has reached his neck, which is a horrifying mass of exposed bone and muscle. Whenever his voice rises in pitch, the flickering image of the Lich appears around him and a little more of his flesh flakes off.
“I’m sorry about this,” Trinity says, accepting a waterskin. Feeling tired and dehydrated, she drains the bag and refills it by taking moisture from the air. “Thought I could absorb it like I did last time. Didn’t think this apparition would come back and be immune to that attack. I can’t even tear it apart for some reason. Does anybody have any ideas?”
“All we can do is avoid the apparition until we find the crests,” Quail answers in a low voice. He holds out a map that glows in the dark, its surface showing their location and where their enemy is lurking. “This isn’t perfect, but I can track the apparition. I should warn you that there’s a delay in the spell by about three or five seconds. It’s hard to tell since it could be moving slowly as well. No sign of the crests either.”
“They have to be in that tower,” Altia sternly declares, her white-knuckled hands gripping her whip. Moving to the other side of the window, she squints and strains her eyes in an effort to spot their glowing pursuer. “We’re about halfway there, but things will get tough once we’re inside. You can’t go blasting away without bringing the whole thing down. Not to mention we would have limited mobility while that thing can pass through walls.”
“What about splitting up and drawing it away?” Quail suggests while he watches the apparition walk away from them. Grabbing four rough stones, he places them at the mouths of several nearby alleys. “It’s very risky, but we can have it chase one person, which would allow the others to run for the tower. Another idea is that Trinity keeps it busy while the rest of us find the crests. My apologies, your highness, for making you bait. It’s only that the rest of us don’t have the power to stand up to that monster.”
Nodding her head, Trinity takes a look at the map and taps at the center. “Well, it’s the truth even though I haven’t figured out how to make a dent in it yet. Given enough time, I can find a way to win, but it’s supposedly able to take our souls. That’s a new ability that I don’t want to test and it makes me nervous about any of us working alone. Maybe we should only travel in pairs? Can’t stop thinking that I could have made this easier by killing the apparition in the labyrinth.”
“That’s ridiculous. It was the portal, so it was going to be here no matter what,” the Lich s
ays from his ring. Having taken over all of Nimby, the necrocaster is forced to gasp for air while continuing his hand casting. “Even if you did destroy this guardian, something else would be standing in our way. Possibly one or all of those dragons, which I have even less faith in us defeating than this phantom. I agree with the plan where you fight that thing and turn this city into rubble. Not like anybody would miss it.”
Opening her mouth to argue, Trinity notices that the apparition has disappeared from Quail’s map. She gestures for everyone to remain quiet and move away from the street-side wall, a knot growing in her stomach. Staring at the open scroll, she watches as their enemy reappears five blocks away, vanishes, and returns in another location. A mournful howl drifts across the city, the sound gradually transforming into a gleeful laugh. The sound echoes off the walls until it is deafening and masks all other noises, including any attempts to cast spells using words. With an abrupt pop, the apparition’s cackling voice cuts off and the ruins are plunged into a ringing silence. Sensing danger, Trinity waves for Altia to get closer, but the elf is too busy watching the window.
The attack comes from the ceiling as the spectral guardian dives through the building and lands on Nimby. Still in his trance, the halfling is unable to fight back as the apparition yanks his soul out of his body. The creature stuffs the energy into her stomach before jamming her hands back into the cooling flesh. Digging around for the elusive Lich, the apparition coos and sings while Nimby’s face appears on the back of her head. A pulse of lightning ripples off the bronze ring, but the weak spell has no effect on the creature. With a whoop of victory, she claims the necrocaster and wrestles the defiant spirit into her body. Belching and rubbing her belly, the apparition looks at her remaining targets and grows a toothy smile. For a brief moment, a skeletal hand can be seen pressing on the guardian’s cheek until she swallows the stubborn soul. The mortals can tell that their enemy is still having trouble with at least one of their friends as she slumps forward and groans.
Path of the Traitors Page 30
