“We have already found one of them,” the mage said as he controlled his spell. “But Mel tells me that there are at least two others watching the guild, so we are trying to find them as well.”
“I might be able to help with that,” Ursilla said.
She pushed herself to her feet with a grunt of effort and walked over to join Larin.
“Let us see if this will work,” she told the mage. “Combining our powers may cancel them out, but it is worth the risk, I think. If you are willing?”
Larin looked at her and smiled.
“Go ahead,” he said. “I'm rather curious to see if it will work. History says it should not, but then again, those old tomes were from a much different time. Things have changed considerably since then.”
The cleric put a hand on his shoulder and both of them stared intently into the mirror.
“Oh, this is interesting,” Larin exclaimed as the view shifted quickly and began moving in the opposite direction. “The spell is being directed by you now, Ursilla.”
“Not by me,” the cleric corrected him. “The Light guides my way, Larin. I am simply a conduit. Now let us see if that Light can find our foes.”
Mel and Annia both stood up and moved around to watch the mirror from behind Ursilla and Larin. The rogues glanced at each other and Annia leaned close to Mel.
“This is a first,” she whispered. “I know some of the old stories. Mages and clerics have never joined forces before. Ever. Perhaps this is a new day for our people.”
“Let's hope so,” Mel murmured in reply. “If Cindra is as powerful as Larin says she is, we'll need all the help that we can get.”
All four dwarves watched as the mirror's surface shifted and jerked around, as if it was trying to lock on to a target that was resisting its power.
Suddenly the image blurred and buildings zipped by. And then it stopped abruptly and those watching saw another hulking black shape hunched over the eaves of a house, its attention on the people passing below.
“Daemon!” Ursilla hissed, her voice thick with loathing. “You were right, old friend,” she added, giving Larin a contrite look. “Forgive me for doubting you. To think that I would see one of those disgusting creatures in my lifetime. Servants of the dark lords come back to our world to wreak havoc.”
“Is that what they are?” Mel asked her. “I've been wondering where those things came from.”
“Oh yes. Just as the evil dragons were created by the lords of Chaos, so were daemons. Back in ancient times, dwarven kind battled legions of those things. We were always allies of the Light. But it seems now that Corbin and this Cindra person have succumbed to evil. It is so easy for the weak-willed to be tempted by promises of power from the Darkness.” She glanced at Larin. “Your former mage must indeed be twisted to consort with daemons.”
Larin nodded, tight-lipped.
“Yes, she is definitely lost to us now. And she has drawn the idiot prince into her web as well. I wonder if he even realizes that he is now aligned with evil. Probably not.”
“Regardless, we must cleanse this infection from the face of Cindercore,” Ursilla stated resolutely. “Annia, mark that spot in your mind and we shall search for other creatures.”
“I know where it is,” Annia assured her. “Go on with your scan, please.”
In the end, Larin and Ursilla found the three daemons that had chased Mel through the city. They were each stationed strategically within sight of the street that led to the entrance of the guild-house. They were so still and immobile that they could have been malevolent statues set in place to scare away evil spirits. But they were the evil ones.
“Now that we have located the daemons, what will you do?”
Ursilla was sitting down with the others again after finishing her work. They had all been served hot tea and fresh pastries thanks to Stade and were discussing the next steps they would take.
“I think we should wait until nightfall before striking,” Annia replied as she looked down at a map of the city.
The locations of the three daemons were marked in red and the master was staring down at them thoughtfully.
“We don't want any innocent civilians getting hurt when we move against those things,” she added.
Ursilla smiled in approval.
“I agree,” she said. “Larin, when the rogues move against the daemons, can you keep the monsters in solid form? If they can simply vanish, this will all be for naught.”
“I can, yes,” the mage told her. “But as I explained to Mel and Annia earlier, it will only be for ten minutes at the most. They must strike quickly and destroy the daemons within that time or the creatures will escape. And the spell is a one-off,” he added. “If the targets get away, I will not be able to cast it on them again. So be swift.”
“We will be,” Mel told him confidently. “Annia, how many of your people can you enlist to help us? We should have at least two rogues assigned per daemon, just to be sure.”
Annia smiled.
“I know just who to ask. One of them will have to be summoned to the guild, though. She lives on the outskirts of the city. The other three are here now.”
She stood up and walked to the door.
“I'll be back after I've sent a runner to get her,” she said over her shoulder.
“What about the daemons, Annia?” Ursilla asked anxiously. “If they should follow your messenger...”
“Trust me to be more discreet than that,” the master told her with a grin. “Runners come and go all day long from the guild. One more won't raise any suspicions, I'm sure. And the lad I'll send out is the most nondescript member that we have. He could be standing in this very room right now and you probably wouldn't notice him.”
She chuckled as she left the room and the cleric looked over at Mel curiously.
“Don't ask me who she's talking about,” the rogue told her with a shrug. “But I trust Annia's expertise. Now, we will need to have our weapons blessed before the battle. A little divine power couldn't hurt against those things, eh?”
Ursilla looked pleased with the comment.
“I would be happy to do that for you all. Before you leave for the encounters, I will bless all of the weapons at once. It will save time.”
The rest of the day passed slowly. Ursilla went back to her temple to attend to some matters, but she promised to return before nightfall. When Mel asked if the cleric wanted an escort, the dwarf patted her hand reassuringly.
“No, thank you,” Ursilla said before she left. “I doubt that any servant of the Darkness would have the nerve to attack a representative of the Light. I will be fine.”
After she had left, Mel, Larin and Annia spent the next few hours discussing many different things with each other. They spoke about the upcoming fight, talked about the traitor Corbin and both rogues asked Larin about Cindra.
“What was she like, before she delved into forbidden knowledge?” Mel asked him at one point. “Was she always so twisted?”
The mirror's surface was dark as it stood in the center of the office. Larin had canceled his spell until it was needed again and he now sat comfortably on the sofa, drinking tea.
Annia sat at the opposite end of the couch, while Mel was seated on her chair across from the both of them. The three were quite relaxed with each other now and the conversation was flowing freely between them.
Larin stared into his tea cup, perhaps looking back into the past.
“Oh no, she was never like that as a child,” he said in reply. “Far from it. But she was bold. Daring. Unafraid to take risks that the other children would not.”
The ghost of a smile flickered across his lips and was gone again.
“She would climb on to rooftops, delve beneath the foundations of buildings, explore areas of the city that had been forbidden to her. An insatiable curiosity, that is what Cindra had.”
“Sounds like she might have made a decent rogue,” Annia commented.
When the mage glanced at he
r, she gave him a sympathetic look and he nodded.
“Yes. That thought did cross my mind back then. Perhaps, if the magic hadn't returned to the world, she might have. Certainly she was too restless to have spent her life as a mere scholar. But the power did seep back into the realm, gradually making its way down here, and then everything changed. Cindra went wild with excitement, you know. Many of us did. I was able to preach caution to the others, telling them that we must proceed gradually, carefully. We had to relearn the most basic of spells and practice using them safely. It was only common sense. But Cindra, well... Her innate skills allowed her to leap ahead of almost everyone, absorbing knowledge the way that someone dying of thirst would gulp down water. It was never enough for her, you see. And when she was done with ordinary spells, she dared to sneak into my home and steal a book of forbidden knowledge; one that I had kept away from my people because of how dangerous it was. And it was a spell from that book that turned her into whatever she has become today.”
Mel stared at him in surprise.
“You never mentioned that she had stolen that spell from you,” she said to Larin. “Does she still have that book? If it contains more dangerous and twisted knowledge, she might have even more weapons to use against us.”
The mage frowned, staring into his cup again.
“I do not know how many of those spells she might have copied out. A handful at the most, I believe. But no, she no longer has the tome. No one does. When one of my people came running to me to tell me that Cindra had had a terrible accident, I went to her home to try to help. What I saw there, before she wrapped her form up in layers of cloth to hide herself from my sight, has haunted my nightmares ever since.”
He shuddered and set down his cup with trembling fingers.
“I believe it was only her strength of will that kept Cindra alive after the magic rebounded on her and changed her into a twisted thing. But even though she was in agony when I reached her, she would not allow anyone to help her. She drove out the others that were there and then attacked me when I attempted to take back that dark tome.”
“She attacked you? And you survived?” Annia asked, startled. “Forgive me, Larin, but you must be far stronger than you appear to be.”
That comment forced a chuckle from the mage.
“Perhaps. But Cindra was badly wounded at the time from her own foolishness and her powers were not nearly as formidable as they have become since. I was able to shield myself from her spells and retreat to safety. I had the house cordoned off and, a few hours later when I went back in with some of the strongest of my people, she had completely covered up her deformity. She appeared chastened and apologetic and was so injured that I forgave her for her attack on me and the others. But it was just a ruse. Soon after, she began to try to spread sedition amongst my people, preaching hate and stating that the mages should be in control of the empire, not a simple-minded warrior like Shandon Ironhand. We banished her soon afterwards. And that was the last we saw of her until word came that she was seen with the rebellious prince.”
He shook his head slowly, an expression of regret on his face.
“So now you know the whole story.”
“And that tome of forbidden knowledge?” Mel asked again.
“I destroyed it,” Larin replied. “It wasn't easy. Books like that have their own protections; spells, curses, call them what you like. It took a great many days and a lot of effort to get rid of it, but I did succeed in the end.”
Annia looked relieved. She stood up and crossed the room to the door.
“I'll check to see if everyone is here yet,” she told the others. “We are getting close to nightfall and I don't want us to wait any longer than we have to.”
She left the room and Mel turned to watch Larin lift his cup and finish his tea.
“And did you learn any of the spells from that book before you destroyed it?” she asked him softly.
The mage set down his empty cup and sat back. Their eyes locked and he raised an eyebrow.
“Did I not tell you how dangerous that thing was?” he asked her. “Look what it did to Cindra. She wasn't evil before the dark magics in that tome twisted her very soul. It would have been foolish for anyone else to delve into that knowledge.”
They continued to stare at each other and Mel narrowed her eyes.
“That's not what I asked you,” she said. “Larin, I trust you. More than you realize, I think. And I do not trust others easily. Not even Annia, and she is a fellow rogue. But I trust you. Can you not extend that same trust to me?”
The mage remained silent for a moment. He stroked his short red beard as he seemed to weigh his answer.
“As a leader of my people, I must always remain cautious when dealing with others, even allies,” he replied slowly. “Especially when discussing matters having to do with magic. But I do trust you, young lady, and your father too. And so I will answer you. But I would prefer that you not share my confidences with others.”
“You have my word,” Mel told him solemnly. “No one will hear of anything that is said between us, including my father.”
“Very well. Then yes, I read through that horrible tome before I destroyed it. It was like wading through a river of vomit, but I did it to protect my people.”
“And how many spells did you learn from it?”
Larin sighed and closed his eyes wearily.
“All of them,” he murmured.
Mel nodded, her suspicions confirmed.
“I thought as much,” she said.
The mage opened his eyes and she smiled at him.
“Thank you for your trust,” she said. “I swear that I will not betray it.”
“I know you won't,” Larin replied.
He stretched and looked around the room.
“It will be time to move soon. I should check to make sure that those daemons are still in the same places that they were earlier.”
He was about to stand up when Mel leaned forward and caught his eye again.
“Larin, are you a wizard?” she asked, her voice almost too low to hear.
He gazed back at her for a moment and then stood up.
“I should really get back to work,” he said.
He walked over to the mirror and began chanting an incantation. Mel watched him, a secret smile playing across her lips.
That wasn't a no, she thought.
Chapter 16
It was well into the dwarven night cycle when everything was ready for the assault on the daemons. Six rogues were gathered in Annia's quarters, including herself and Mel. Larin had asked whether the master of Cindercore's guild-house should be involved in the attack and Annia's answer had been rather frosty.
“If I do not have the nerve and skill to defend my own house,” she had told him. “Then I do not deserve to be its leader.”
And that was the end of the discussion.
Now the rogues were just waiting for Ursilla to bless their weapons before heading out to confront their enemies.
“You don't think that she was assaulted on her way back, do you?” Mel asked Larin and Annia.
The cleric was late and the three of them were staring into the mirror, checking on the daemons' positions again.
Annia shook her head.
“No. Ursilla was right when she said that those things would not attack her. Just being in her presence would probably be incredibly painful for them. They would avoid her if at all possible.”
Larin nodded as he controlled the mirror's view.
“I agree. I'm sure that she's fine. As the senior cleric of this city, she must be a very busy person.”
The four other rogues were standing several steps behind Annia and the others, watching the picture in the mirror and speaking in whispers. All of them seemed to be taking the obvious display of magic in stride. They were evenly split, with two male and two female rogues waiting to head out. All were wearing black leather garments and their heads and faces were covered with hoods and mas
ks.
The door opened and Ursilla bounced into the room with an embarrassed smile on her face.
“So sorry, everyone,” she exclaimed loudly. “But I had to deal with some temple business that just couldn't wait.”
“That's fine,” Annia told her. “We weren't waiting very long. Larin, are those monsters still in place?”
“They are,” the mage replied. “You can assign your people to their targets now, Annia.”
“Good.”
The master looked back at the waiting rogues.
“Come forward,” she told them. “Larin, show us the first daemon please.”
The mage nodded and made a gesture. The image moved swiftly and then hovered above a rooftop.
“Dhara, Fosk, you recognize this location?” Annia asked two of the rogues.
One of the rogues pushed back her hood and pulled down her mask. She stared narrowly at the mirror.
“Of course,” she said confidently. “It is less than a block away, to the north. So those things are that close? Brazen, aren't they?”
Dhara had been the one that Annia had summoned from her home. She was middle-aged, with a shaved head and a large, hooked nose. She was so gaunt that her cheekbones stuck out sharply from her face, giving her the look of a bird of prey.
“They are indeed,” Annia replied. “Now as for you, Tukk and Jassim, this is your target.”
Larin adjusted the mirror's image again and the view jumped to focus on a second daemon. It sat as still as the first one had, as if carved from granite.
Dhara and her partner stepped aside to allow the second pair to get a good look in the mirror.
“You know the spot?” Annia asked them.
Neither rogue lowered their hoods, but they both nodded.
“We do, master,” one of them, a male, assured her.
“Excellent. Mel and I shall take out the third one. Now, Ursilla, if you would be kind enough to bless our weapons, we can get on with this.”
The cleric smiled and gestured for all of the rogues to gather around her.
“Draw whatever weapons you intend to use on your foes, please,” she told them. “And I mean all of them. I know your love of hidden blades, but if you don't have them blessed, I doubt that they will be of much use to you in the coming battle.”
The Dwarven Rebellion Page 20
