Immortal

by T Nisbet

Chp. 40

  Guldan met me at the bottom of the stairs, a genuine smile lighting his pale, handsome face for the first time since we met.

  “It’s done?” he asked laying a hand on my shoulder.

  I still felt shaken, but did my best to smiled back as I nodded. Ivy joined us hugging me tightly, tears flowing down her cheeks. Peace and strength flowed into me with her embrace, slowly washing away my exhaustion and clearing some of the horror from my head.

  “Put the ruby away,” Guldan suggested. “Let us leave this place at once.”

  “Gladly,” was all I managed to say.

  We made our way back through the passage from the Chamber of Sacrifice to the dungeon in silence. The torture chamber still reeked of evil deeds, but it was as if the Demon’s departure had stolen the power of the room to cause fear. At first, I just enjoyed the feeling of impotence in the chamber, but a thought tickled my numbed mind.

  “I can’t feel it.”

  “Feel what?” Ivy asked, looking up at me in fear.

  “The presence of evil,” Guldan said looking around the room. “If the blood elves can feel it too, we might be hard pressed to get out of here.”

  “That’s… that’s what I was thinking.” I stammered. “They have to know something is wrong…”

  “We might need more than the diversion Grishna is about to deliver,” Guldan said rubbing a hand through his long black hair. “Ok, listen closely; nothing matters but getting that stone out of here, Jake! If Lady Ivy or I fall, you can’t stop, do you understand? The stone cannot fall into the hands of the dark elves no matter what happens!”

  I didn’t like what Guldan was saying. I was scared out of my mind, but he was asking the impossible.

  “I won’t leave either of you behind again,” I said folding my arms in front of me stubbornly.

  Guldan’s face grew angry.

  “You would doom this world, your own, and countless others for the two of us? Being one of the ten immortals doesn’t allow you such selfishness! You’d make the mage’s life and mine utterly meaningless as well as the lives of everyone who ever sacrificed themselves nobly for the greater good.”

  I shook my head knowing his harsh words were the truth. I had to get the Cardinal Ruby back to my world or creation would come to an end, at least as we knew it anyway.

  “Jake,” Ivy said, her eyes pleading.

  “I know Ivy… I know,” I said hanging my head.

  I didn’t have a choice.

  Guldan patted my shoulder.

  “It’s not over just yet. Let’s get Demolus’s son and get back to my manse if possible.”

  I followed Guldan up the stairway, my legs strong once more, wondering if I could leave them behind again. Could I leave Ivy to save the world? I prayed I wouldn’t have to as we ran into the passage guard’s relief on the stairway.

  Gwensorloth was in my hand as Guldan ran one of the two guards through. I slashed the second guard’s hand as he went for his weapon. Gwensorloth’s glowed brightly, lighting the stairwell far better than our combined auras or the torches did. The glowing blade and his partially severed arm shocked the second guard and he failed to call out. Guldan’s blade sliced through his windpipe and he fell down the stairs.

  “Quickly now!” Guldan said, sheathing his sword and sprinting up the remaining stairs.

  I sheathed my sword and hurried to catch up. The cell-lined hallway we had left Demolus’s son in earlier was crowded with dark elves yelling at each other in confused, angry voices.

  “He’s gone!”

  “I cannot feel him either!”

  “Thorni sa versi,” shouted one of the blood elves, pointing down the hallway towards the stairs leading to the upper levels.

  “Backwater Jinzi! Speak common! I can’t understand your dialect,” another growled, unsheathing his wicked blade.

  “The Immortal has come.”

  We were right. They were stationed close enough to the fallen angel that they could tell something was wrong when that evil presence had disappeared. Guldan walked up to the group looking down the hall the other way. I could feel Ivy drawing in magic and releasing it, over and over.

  “Back to your stations!” Guldan ordered loudly.

  He reached out and the spinning ball of fire he had left suspended above Demolus’s son’s cell flared brightly and then moved back into position over his head.

  The blood elves turned and looked at Guldan.

  “Lord Guldan!” one of the blood elves said fearfully recognizing Guldan. He bowed deeply. “I can’t feel our God!. Has the Immortal come?”

  “We have orders to seal off the level when the Immortal arrives,” said a dark-clad elf. His uniform had several dark red marks on the shoulder. “Would you have us do this?”

  “Indeed, who is in charge of sealing this level?”

  “I am my lord,” continued the dark elf.

  “Then you will seal it after I leave,” Guldan ordered. “I’ll inform the king and take responsibility for it. Now back to your posts!”

  The blood elf gestured at the others.

  “You heard the Lord Champion, move!”

  Most of the group ran back down the hallway to their posts outside individual cells.

  “Bring me the human!” Guldan ordered, pointing towards the cell.

  Two of the remaining blood elves opened the cell and ran inside. Moments later they returned bearing Demolus’s son between them. His face had been cleaned of blood, but it was badly bruised and one of his eyes was closed shut.

  “You two, bring him,” Guldan said, pointing at the dark elves holding the badly hurt young man . “I will find out what Zelnik needs from him back at my Manse after I’ve informed the king of what is happening. The rest of you guard those stairs. No one is to enter this hallway from the chamber below. Do you understand?”

  They hesitantly drew their weapons and moved towards the stairs behind us.

  “Let’s move!”

  As we walked down the cell-lined hallway the blood elf in charge of sealing the level walked purposefully beside Guldan. Behind Ivy and I two more dragged Demulos’s semi-conscious son. When we reached the stairs leading to the upper levels, the dark elf stopped and withdrew a glass ball filled with dark liquid from his tunic.

  “A moment my lord,” he said addressing Guldan as we started up the stairs. “King Zildian’s orders were specific about allowing anyone to leave. I would not lose my head for disobedience.”

  Guldan nodded.

  “I see. Are you implying that the King’s champion is anyone?” Guldan said resting his hand on the hilt of his quail blade.

  “No mi lord, you are not just anyone,” said the blood elf crushing the glass orb in his hand. I couldn’t help but wince as the jagged shards of glass cut deeply into his palm and fingers. The dark liquid mixed with his blood dripping onto the floor. “You are the traitor of which the prophecies foretold.”

  “No!” Ivy shouted.

  He stepped lightly backwards as Guldan drew his blade. A sickly translucent green light formed in front of him from the ceiling to the floor. Guldan was trapped on the other side of the barrier.

  “The shields are set and the hounds loosed,” the blood elf cackled insanely, drawing a wicked looking serrated sword from his belt. “The portals will open within minutes. You can run of course, Lord Guldan, but the hounds will come and take you to hell regardless.”

  Guldan looked down at the dark liquid pooled onto the floor, and at the barrier, then back at the blood elf with impotent fury. A slow smile spread across the dark elf’s triumphant face as he turned towards me.

  “We should retreat into a cell, Immortal. Anyone not protected by iron will die.”

  Not knowing what else to do I stepped in front of Ivy and drew Gwensorloth. Its light flared brightly in the ruddy light given off by the torches. The two elves supporting Demolus’s son dropped him and drew their swords as well. The young man crumpled to the floor with a groan and la
y there unmoving.

  A sudden high-pitched keening came from the hallway to the left where the putrid odor emanated from.

  “No?” The dark elf said looking beyond Ivy and I down the torch-lit hallway nervously. “It is no matter, I’ll leave you to the hounds then,” the dark elf said, smiling as he retreated slowly towards an open cell across the hallway. The other two dark elves turned and ran into the cell and slammed it closed before he could get inside. Their leader cursed loudly and sheathing his sword, ran down the hallway away from the horrible keening, towards the next cell.

  As the sound of the awful noise drew closer, I turned back towards Guldan who stood on the other side of the barrier enraged.

  Ivy wept.

  “I couldn’t get past his guard. I tried. I’m so sorry.”

  I put my arm around her and hugged her. My heart was pounding out of control again. I looked at the disgusting green barrier.

  “What do we do?”

  “Stand back!” Guldan yelled.

  I pulled Ivy away from the nauseating barrier on the stairwell back into the now empty, cell-lined hallway. The dark elf guards that had been posted outside the cells were nowhere to be seen. I glanced down the dim corridor past the iron gated cells in the direction of the awful, unearthly squealing in time to see several huge, flaming shapes round a corner at the far end of the corridor several hundred yards away.

  “They’re coming!” I shouted, pushing Ivy behind me, holding Gwensorloth ready.

  A bright crimson flash made me turn my head back towards the stairs. Guldan drew another ball of fire into his hand and threw it at the barrier. The barrier wavered for a moment then solidified.

  “Your sword boy!” Guldan shouted. “Stab it with your sword, right after I throw the next fireball. Magi, hit it with some magic at the same time, if you can.”

  I ran back to the barrier and readied my sword. Ivy ran over next to me. I could hear the hellhounds growling and the raking of their claws on the stone floor as they sprinted towards us, even as I felt Ivy drawing in magic. Guldan pulled forth a bright red ball of flame from the air into his hand.

  “Three, two, one!” Guldan shouted, and threw the fireball. I felt Ivy release her magic, and I stabbed forward with Gwensorloth.

  A blinding concussion knocked me head over heels back into the hallway. Ivy landed on top of me, knocking the wind from my lungs. I heard the elves behind the bars laughing.

  I looked to my right as my vision cleared. Four massive flame covered wolf-like creatures drooling molten spit were rushing down the hallway towards Ivy and I. I rolled Ivy off of me and lurched to my feet, struggling to breath and settled into my stance, ready to die, but determined to save Ivy. Gwensorloth shone like a miniature sun as I held it between the sprinting hellhounds and Ivy and me.

  “It’s down. The barrier is down!” Guldan shouted, pulling Ivy to her feet and pushing her towards the stairs. “GO!”

  The hellhounds were fifty yards away their insane growling sending shivers down my spine.

  “Move!”

  I ran across the hallway towards Ivy. Guldan sprinted past me and picked up Demolus’s son in a fireman’s carry. The barrier was still there, but it was light purple in hue now, gone was the sickening revulsion that had emanated from it. Guldan stepped through it followed by Ivy. I took a deep breath and walked through as well.

  For a moment it felt as though I was underwater, then I was on the other side feeling completely refreshed and invigorated.

  “What the…”

  “I don’t know what she did...” Guldan grinned, “ but I doubt a hellhound can pass through it… pray I’m right.

  Despite having his friend’s wounded son perched over his shoulder, Guldan drew his sword.

  Seconds later the first hound rounded the corner and ran straight into the purple barrier. There was a nasty explosion and the hellhound’s lifelessly burning corpse was thrown across the hallway, through the iron bars of the cell where it exploded into liquid fire. The cell became an inferno of flame. The screams of the two dark elves trapped inside faded as the next hound rounded the corner trying unsuccessfully to stop its forward movement before it reached the barrier on the third step. Another concussion rang out through the dungeon and it too was tossed lifelessly away, but this time to the ceiling where it too exploded into molten flame.

  “It holds!” Guldan said. “Lets go!”

  After we’d gone up a handful up steps, Guldan stopped and turned towards Ivy and me. The look on his handsome face frightened me.

  “By the child, this is their trap! That guard said ‘the portals would open in minutes’. If that means what I think it does, then this entire dungeon is about to be filled with hellhounds and their spawn. Run!”

  Guldan took off running, encumbered though he was; Ivy and I followed closely behind him.

  As we hurried up the spiral stairs, my mind raced. The entire dungeon was a trap! They had planned for someone to try and get from the dungeon to the Chamber of Sacrifices via the dungeon passage. All they had to do was seal the dungeon once the demon was trapped in the stone, and let the hounds kill us. But did they know about Guldan’s secret entrance? We had to get to it before the portals opened.

  The guards who had been stationed on the first landing were gone. Both of the cell-lined hallways branching out from it were empty as well. Guldan’s curses mixed in with the keening wails of the furious hellhounds trapped behind Ivy’s barrier as we hurried upwards. The second landing was just as the empty as the first. It hadn’t been empty for long, because steam still rose from a cup on the table next to where the guards had been stationed.

  Half way up the stairs towards the third landing all hell broke loose around us. The insane keening echoed throughout the entire dungeon no longer just behind us on the stairs. Guldan stopped, panting with exertion.

  “The portals must be open. They could come at us from any direction now.” Guldan said, adjusting Demolus’s son’s inert body on his shoulders. “Can you make another shield like the one down below?”

  Ivy barely managed a shrug. She was frightened to death.

  “When we past the next landing we’ll stop, so you can try. Be ready!”

  I looked down at Gwensorloth, it was glowing more brightly with each passing second as we continued up the stairs. The third landing was empty, but the horrible wailing was growing closer. I glanced down one of the corridors and saw multiple sets of flaming bodies rushing towards us.

  “They’re here!” I shouted, pointing with my glowing blade.

  “Quickly!” Guldan responded. “Get off the landing.”

  I could feel Ivy drawing in energy as we crossed the landing and started up the spiral stairwell. Guldan stopped and rolled the unconscious body off of his shoulders and onto the stairs.

  “Put it up right here lady Ivy!” he said, pointing behind us with his sword.

  Ivy held onto her necklace and extended a hand. I could feel the magic changing as she shaped and bent it to her will. Gwensorloth pulsed white hot in my hands. The horrid slavering and growling grew louder, and a flame covered hellhound skidded to a halt on the landing. Its burning eyes fastened on Ivy, and it bounded towards her faster than any dog or wolf I’d ever seen. I stepped in front of her despite my overwhelming fear and aimed my strike. The burning hound leapt, completely ignoring me, trying to get its massive jaws around Ivy.

  I swung Gwensorloth with all of my might. The blade connected with a hiss like a hot piece of metal makes when it is dunked in water and sliced through the beast’s chest cutting it in half. A molten shower sprayed my forearm as the beast liquefied. I heard Ivy scream behind me and forgot about the intense pain, turning to see what had happened. Sizzling debris slid slowly down a light purple shield that extended from the floor to the ceiling on the stairs. Behind the wall Ivy lay on the ground curled into the fetal position glowing dark purple.

  “Behind you!” Guldan yelled from where he knelt beside Ivy.

&
nbsp; I ducked and rolled painfully across the wide stairs. A large flaming shape passed through the air where I had been and collided with the shield. The concussion knocked me against the wall. I got to my feet and dove through the shield as two more hellhounds leapt towards me.

  The cool water-like feeling of the shield bathed my burnt arm as I passed through it falling to the stairs on the other side. Two more concussions sounded. Scrambling to my feet, I rushed over to Ivy.

  “Some of the liquid splashed her as the barrier went up.” Guldan groaned from Ivy’s side. “I tried to shield her Jake.”

  I knelt beside her. She had taken most of the burning fluid on the side of her face and shoulder. Her blackened flesh pulsed with purple magic.

  “It’s okay Ivy,” I cried, wanting to hold her, but afraid I’d cause her more pain.

  “She passed out,” Guldan said gripping my shoulder. “We have to get them out of here!”

  I nodded as tears rolled down my cheeks.

  “I’ll carry her,” I said, reaching out to gather her into my arms. It was then that I noticed my arm had been almost fully healed by the shield Ivy had created on the stairs. I stared at it in wonder.

  “Look!” I said, showing Guldan my arm. “It’s healed!”

  Demolus’s son groaned and got unsteadily to his feet. Guldan’s eyebrow rose as he regarded my arm, and then his friend’s son.

  I looked back towards the shield and the two hellhounds pacing back and forth on the other side. We had to get her through the shield, and if that meant attacking molten hounds from the bowels of hell then so be it. A plan formed in my mind.

  “Take her through the shield when it’s clear,” I said readying Gwensorloth.

  “No!” I heard Guldan shout as I leapt through the barrier and struck one of the hellhounds in the jaw with my sizzling blade.

  Gwensorloth sliced through the hellhound’s lower jaw taking it off completely. I let the momentum of my swing pull me back through the barrier as the second hound leapt for my throat. The shield pulsed behind me launching the hound’s lifeless corpse across the landing and into the far wall where it exploded in molten flame.

  I paused for only a moment and stepped back through the purple shield, Gwensorloth held low before me. A part of me wondered if Guldan enjoyed watching the defense he had made famous used against the underworld creature. The wounded hellhound gave ground staring at my glowing blade with unveiled hatred, its caustic blood burning pits into the stairs. It lifted it’s massive head to scream out but the sound failed because it had no lower jaw with which to form the sound. I pressed forward and the hellhound backed onto the landing.

  “Get her through!” I yelled hoping Guldan was listening.

  Another hellhound appeared from one of the corridors that emptied out into the landing before the stairs. I took a quick step back, fear coursing through that small part of me that had felt courage just moments earlier.

  “It’s done!” Guldan yelled. “Get back.”

  I didn’t need any encouragement and turned, sprinting up the stairs back through the barrier. A concussion sounded just behind me as the second hellhound hit the barrier. Guldan was holding Ivy. Her face and shoulder looked nearly healed, but she was still unconscious and surrounded by the dark purple glow.

  “How are you feeling Ivan?” Guldan asked Demolus’s son. The young man nodded but didn’t say anything.

  Guldan’s brow furrowed.

  “How did they capture you?”

  The young man opened his mouth and pointed. His tongue was gone. Guldan cursed.

  “Jake, get the dagger from my boot and give it to Ivan. Then lead us up the stairs,” the pale immortal said, his eyes darting to mine. “Draw in some magic as well, mine will be ineffective against the hounds. We share the same element, fire.”

  I gave Ivan the dagger and told him to watch the rear. He nodded and fell into position behind Guldan as I took the lead. The sound of the earsplitting keening of the hellhounds mixed with the occasional scream from someone unfortunate enough to have met one, echoed through the dungeon sending a constant wave of chills running down my spine. The dungeon’s acoustics made it next to impossible to tell where the hounds were based on sound alone, so I concentrated on my other senses, and of course, Gwensorloth.

  I jogged lightly upwards, Gwensorloth held before me outshining the torches and sconces that lit the stairwell. I told myself that if it wasn’t pulsing, the danger wasn’t imminent. My heart hammered in my chest and sweat threatened to drip into my eyes as I keep moving forward.

  I slowed down as we approached the next landing and tried to see if the tunnel we came through was clear. It looked like it was, and Gwensorloth’s light was consistent, so I continued forward onto the landing. The others joined me as my sword began to pulse, lightly at first, but with growing intensity.

  “Their coming!” I said

  “I can walk.” Ivy said struggling to get free of Guldan’s grasp. “Let me down please.”

  Guldan let her down gently and pointed towards the hallway.

  “That way, hurry!” he shouted drawing his quail blade in one hand and supporting Ivy with the other.

  The hallway looked deserted, but as I stepped towards it a huge shape stepped out of a doorway at the far end. I stopped, holding Gwensorloth out to meet the new threat.

  “It’s your giant friend, now go!” Guldan shouted.

  His vision was much better than mine, because I couldn’t tell it was Toby until he passed beneath one of the torches that lit the tunnel. I felt an extraordinary sense of relief seeing my best friend and guardian. I could see he held Bronn’s hammer in his hand.

  We were hurrying down the hallway towards him when I heard Guldan curse loudly and Ivy scream.

  I whirled around in time to see Ivan drawing the dagger out of Guldan’s back, behind him the landing at the head of the hallway was filling with hellhounds howling and keening with excitement. Ivan’s eyes glowed strangely, and his face was oddly impassive as he made to plunge the knife into Guldan again. Guldan managed to pivot, and Ivan’s thrust missed its mark. I moved forward and lunged with Gwensorloth, disarming Ivan as Guldan collapsed to the floor. The hellhounds cried out loudly and charged towards us their screams vibrating my eardrums.

  Ivan ignored Ivy and rushed forward to attack me with his bare hands. I sidestepped without thinking about it, and locked his wrist with my left hand turning in a half circle that used Ivan’s momentum against him and sent him flying. The simple kotegaeshi movement put my back to the hounds attacking from the landing.

  Beyond Ivan’s crumpled form I could see Toby dashing towards us, behind him ran two massive hounds bathed in fire. He was extremely fast for a big man and was fond of bragging to me about his four-point-seven second forty-yard dash, but he wasn’t fast enough. I turned back to compare the distance between the hounds rushing towards us from the landing and those pursuing Toby. It looked as though the hellhounds on the landing would reach us first.

  I cursed aloud, furious that I had to choose. I felt Ivy draw and release magic. I saw the shield appear in the corridor between the hounds from the landing and us, then pivoted and ran towards Toby. The furious hellhounds were closing rapidly on my friend.

  “Behind you!” I screamed as I sprinted, closing the distance between Toby and me.

  The noise in the hallway was deafening. I don’t know if Toby saw me looking past him or heard me, but he stopped and turned around. One of the huge beasts slammed into Toby’s massive chest knocking him off of his feet. I screamed in horror, but the horrible keening of the hellhounds drowned my voice out.

  Toby somehow shoved the massive creature off of him and got to his feet, both of his arms and part of his chest covered in flames as the second hellhound leapt for his back. I dove between him and the second hound, aiming a lunge at the base of the horrific animal’s throat. The collision was agonizing. It felt as though someone had pouring burning metal over my shoulder, side and hip. The
impact slammed me into the wall of the corridor and I felt Gwensorloth ripped from my grasp as I slumped to the floor.

  I looked around dazed by the collision in time to see Toby swing his massive war hammer at the enormous hound attacking him. The ancient weapon caught the flame-shrouded creature in the shoulder and drove through the beast and into the wall. The corridor shuttered with the impact as the hammer connected with stone. A huge section of the wall exploded into the corridor. I knew I needed to get to Toby before I was trapped away from the group, but I couldn’t move as the ceiling completely collapsed between Toby and me. I couldn’t scream, I couldn’t move, I couldn’t do anything but watch helplessly as the corridor filled with rock and debris.