by Jaxon Reed
Kirt marveled at her ability to fly for a moment. The spell seemed . . . complex. Then he looked behind him and tried to peer beyond the tiny radius of light his little orb cast.
He recalled Veeroy’s tracking spell. That one was simple. Concentrating, he waved his hand and . . .
His footsteps appeared in the grass, glowing white and leading to the trees.
Smiling, Kirt followed them all the way back to the road.
-+-
The wizards rushed into the large cavern and pulled to an abrupt halt. Before them stood several nobles, backs to the entrance. Four dwarves moved on the thief, still holding the dagger. In the middle of it all stood the youngest wizard.
“Quartzstone, you old blighter!” Redstone said. “I knew you were on the wrong side!”
Stin was the only one facing them. Everybody else turned around in surprise.
Quartzstone flung out his hand, sending out a burst of light. Blue globes flared around each old wizard as the energy washed over them harmlessly.
Redstone said, “You’ve just drawn a death sentence for yourself, Quarty.”
Quartzstone snarled in rage. He looked back at Stin and the four guards and shouted, “Open that door! Now!”
He twirled with his fingers and said, “Multiply!”
Stin shielded his face from a magical blast. When he lowered his arm, sixteen dwarves now faced him with swords, instead of four. They approached him again, swords raised high.
The wizards at the entrance shot spells at Quartzstone as he battled back, his blue Globe of Protection glowing strong with each spell it absorbed. Loadstone pulled down fireballs from the cavern’s ceiling, and the nobles scrambled for cover. Stin watched in horror as Duke Windthorn ran off, fully engulfed in flames.
The dwarven guards came closer to him, their blades now pointed at his middle.
“Open it,” one of them said. Or Stin presumed one of them said it. His copies said it all at the same time, so that four dwarves told him, “Open it,” simultaneously.
Stin looked over his shoulder at the giant metal door, then back at the wizards battling it out with bursts of lightning and other deadly spells. Now whirling blades flew through the air between them, bouncing off blue globes.
Stin gauged the distance between himself and Quartzstone. He shouted, “Hey, Wizard! Here’s your dagger back!”
In the midst of fighting, Quartzstone either did not hear him or ignored him. Stin threw the knife. It sailed over the heads of the dwarven guards, who followed its arc with craning necks, and landed a few paces from the wizard. It slid forward, coming to rest near his feet. Stin ducked, diving to the floor to escape an errant bolt of lightning.
Quartzstone’s blue globe disappeared abruptly, just as Oldstone shot a Modified Globe of Expulsion. The force hit him unprotected, knocking him off his feet. He sailed backward, landing several paces from the dagger. He sat up quickly and his Globe of Protection reappeared. He quickly shot flames at the other wizards.
Dudge and two other dwarves emerged from the tunnel, screaming. A couple of noblemen who had survived the fireballs made some futile attempts to defend themselves before being sliced apart by dwarven battle axes.
Pudge saw them from behind a rock outcrop closer to the door and several paces away. He did not shout a greeting to his brother.
Four of Pudge’s guards turned from Stin and hurried over to the Forlorn Dagger lying on the floor. Pudge watched as they bent over and tried to pick it up. Three popped out of existence. The fourth dropped the knife in surprise and backed away from it.
“Fools!” Pudge said. “I’ kinna be handled wi’ magic.”
He rushed out and scooped up the dagger. He turned to face the door and hurried over to it. The magic field surrounding the tomb disappeared as he approached, although the prince could not sense it. He reached up and thrust the dagger into the keyhole. It fit perfectly. He twisted it to the left, then pulled it out again.
A loud Click! echoed through the cavern followed by the sound of mechanical movement as hidden wheels turned and pulleys engaged.
Fighting in the room stopped as everyone turned to watch the door crack open. Pudge dropped the dagger, clapped his hands and danced out of the way as the massive metal door swung slowly outward.
It opened wider and wider, the metal groaning on hinges unturned in centuries. Dim light from the glowstones stretched tentatively into the tomb. Gold bars stacked up carelessly along the sides sparkled in reflected yellow luster. Gems scattered on the floor seemed to wink at them as light from the cavern slowly filled the interior. Tons of gold, silver, and jewels stretched across the floor, some heaped in piles, some bagged and others simply scattered at random as if in a last ditch effort to throw them inside before the tomb had been sealed.
At last the door came to halt, fully open. Light from the cavern spilled inside. In the very back on a slab, in an eerie aura glowing dark purple, lay a tiny body, arms crossed on its chest.
Pudge danced in joy. He threw up his hands and said, “O great Lok! We, your servants have returned for you!”
A streak of bright white light shot out from the slab and struck Pudge in the chest. His body glowed with a pale glean as his feet left the floor.
Pudge screamed.
A white globe around him grew brighter and brighter until it shone bright as lightning. His body smoked, then charred and shrank as his clothes ignited. His flesh melted off and blood boiled away. A pile of ashes spilled to the floor, the last remnants of his bones.
The dwarf prince’s spirit hovered above the ashes, barely visible but clearly outlined in the bright white light stretching back to the slab in a thin beam. The look of horror in the ghost’s eyes froze everyone in the cavern as he slowly rotated to face the inside of the tomb.
The beam pulled him in, toward the slab, like a fish on a hook.
“Pudge!”
Dudge moved from the back of the cavern, his weapons forgotten. The two guards with him reached out and held him back.
“Leggo! Tha’s me brother!”
But the dwarves were resolute, holding their prince in place, refusing to let him move closer to the door.
The beam drew Pudge’s spirit all the way to the slab and a great flash of white light came from deep within the tomb. Then Pudge was gone.
For a moment, silence reigned inside and out. At last, the body on the slab stirred. Lok sat up and stared out at everyone in the cavern with purple glowing eyes.
He stretched out his arms and floated up into a standing position. Then he drifted toward the door, surrounded by a dark purple aura.
Time heals all wounds!
His voice reverberated through their heads. Everyone in the cavern took an involuntary step backward as Lok floated through the giant doorway.
Includin’ th’ wounds of a severed head.
The tiny figure, short even by dwarven standards, floated in the doorway like a spectral starfish, arms and legs spread wide.
His face glowed in pure hatred. A white beard flowed down to his feet, but it looked purple in the unholy light of his aura. From the front, the beard hid a horrible scar stretching all around his neck.
His eyes landed on Quartzstone and the rage in them softened a bit.
Ah, Snell. My mos’ faithful and talented servant. Ye cas’ Healing an’ then Spirit of Revival on my nearly dead corpse. I’ held well, an’ slowly knitted me back together over th’ years, though I sense ye tarried in returning.
Wha’ did y’ say before ye pu’ me in a healing sleep?
‘Firs’ t’ enter,
Firs’ t’ die,
Firs’ yer life reborn t’ buy.’
Well done. Thankee fer sendin’ in a dwarf an’ nay some filthy yuman.
Quartzstone’s face reddened and he looked down at his feet in embarrassment.
But a note of pride crept into his voice as he looked back up at Lok.
“Thank you, milord, I—”
Greystone chose that mom
ent to send a streak of lightning flashing across the room. It caught Quartzstone square in the back.
Without thinking, the other wizards shot out the same spell. Four streaks of brilliant white light slammed into the young wizard’s back.
POOM!
His blue Globe of Protection exploded and Quartzstone’s body absorbed the full force of the combined spells.
He collapsed on the floor, smoke drifting up from his lifeless body. Everyone stared at the dead wizard in shock.
Fools!
Lok’s eyes glowed brighter in rage as he stared down at Oldstone, Greystone, Redstone and Loadstone from across the cavern.
“Gentlemen,” Oldstone said, “you know what to do.”
“Just like old times!” Greystone said with a laugh.
All four winked out of sight.
Stin thought he heard a snort of contempt from the little wizard floating at the tomb’s door. But when he turned to look, Lok had disappeared too.
The air snapped and popped as waves of spells shot out. Magical explosions rocked the cavern. Lesser mortals crouched on the floor or curled up in balls as dust and stalactites fell.
Stin’s ears popped as pressure dropped in the cavern. Lok reappeared suddenly, in the middle of the room with his arms outstretched. He sent a huge expanding globe of energy crackling through the cavern, spreading outward until it vanished through the walls, floor and ceiling. Four blue globes popped in its wake and the other wizards became visible, too. They shot expulsion, lightning, and fireballs at the little wizard then everybody disappeared again.
Stin looked around and noted the guards had reverted back to just four again. He waved at Dudge near the entrance and pointed at the four. Dudge nodded and motioned for the two dwarves with him to follow.
The Ore Stad guards saw them coming across the floor and snarled. They raced to meet Dudge and the others in the middle of the room, the wizards battling above them.
Stin looked back through the open door and all the gold and gemstones piled inside. A few weapons were scattered about on the loot as well, and he guessed these were the artifacts Quartzstone mentioned. He saw a bow, a lance, and a sword. In front of the door, a small mound of ashes still smouldered, the remains of Pudge’s corpse. Stin mentally thanked the Creator they were not his.
Then his eye fell on the Forlorn Dagger lying on the floor nearby.
-+-
Three against four was usually not bad odds. This thought fleeted through Dudge’s mind briefly as he swung his axe, parrying a blow from an Ore Stad short sword.
To human eyes, the seven dwarves battling it out were a blur of motion, tiny bodies swinging steel incredibly fast.
“Hurk!”
The Osmo guard to Dudge’s left went down, a sword through his belly.
The odds were now two against four, and the four from Ore Stad were better trained.
“To me back, lad!”
His remaining guard caught the prince’s meaning in a flash, and turned at the same time Dudge turned. Now they had one another’s back and they each fought off two guards apiece. Swords and battle axes made silver circles, sparks flying whenever they connected.
“Haarrrrrr!”
Three more dwarves from Port Osmo ran into the cavern, then stopped in wonder at the open door at the far end and all the flashing lights exploding around the cavern’s ceiling.
As they watched, a wizard appeared in the air suddenly, his blue Globe of Protection popping away. He slammed into the wall ten paces up, and slid down to the floor in a slump.
They stared at the still body, their mouths open in astonishment.
“To me, lads!”
The dwarves turned and saw Dudge and the other guard under attack. They charged at the four from Ore Stad with a battle scream.
Fi’e t’ four, Dudge thought, with a smile.
-+-
One by one, the nobles of the Shadow Council were struck down by stray spells in the wizardly battle. Stin watched as a man dressed in the colors of Sapphire fell to an errant bolt of lightning. Another flew into the wall as a blast threw him backward. Stin watched as blood from the back of that one’s head streaked the wall red while he slid to the floor.
A wizard appeared suddenly, falling out of the air, and landed on another nobleman, crushing him. It was the wizard with almond skin, Stin noted. He looked like he was out cold, even though the noble had cushioned his fall.
Stin looked down and spied the Forlorn Dagger again, on the floor next to Prince Pudge’s ashes.
He ran to it, dodging magical blasts along the way. He reached down and scooped it up, then retreated inside the tomb.
The blasts that came near him fizzled. He smiled to himself and watched as the remaining wizards and dwarves continued to fight it out in the spacious cavern.
-+-
Oldstone and Greystone popped into visibility, floating in the air about 15 paces up. They struggled with unseen grips on their necks. Oldstone coughed fitfully. Greystone’s face turned red, then blue.
Lok appeared before them, floating at the same height. His held his fists out, gripping unseen bonds on the human wizards.
Tha’s th’ problem wi’ you stonekeepers. You ne’er learnt ’ow t’ fight. Not proper-like.
Slowly, life seemed to drain from the two human wizards. Lok smiled and squeezed harder.
A blur whooshed into the cavern as Darkstone flew in. She sent twin bursts of expulsion at the little dwarf, knocking him backward and disrupting his spell.
Oldstone and Greystone took deep gulps of air, and promptly disappeared again.
Darkstone pummeled Lok with spell after spell, sending him back several paces each time. Finally he dropped out of the air and landed in the tomb’s doorway on his butt, within striking distance of Stin.
Stin did not stop to think. He took the knife and swung down at the little dwarf.
In a flash Lok jumped up and grabbed his hand, arresting the motion. He kicked the larger man in the shin, twisting Stin’s hand as he went down and pulling the dagger away. With a quick thrust he stabbed Stin in the side and pushed him over. It happened so fast, Stin never saw it. His blood poured out on gold coins scattered on the floor.
Darkstone shot down a couple of spells, but they fizzled before reaching Lok.
He looked up at her floating near the stalactites and smiled.
His voice, when he finally spoke out loud, sounded raspy and hoarse.
He said, “Come doon an’ face me, lassie. Iffen yer nay skeered of a wee dwarf.”
She floated down, landing a few paces away. She held out her hand, summoning her staff. It appeared in a flash of black light. She gripped it in both hands and assumed a fighting stance.
Lok’s eyes widened.
“Th’ darkstone! Ha’ ye any idea th’ power tha’ one holds?”
They locked eyes for a moment and he nodded.
“Aye. Y’ do. We shoul’ be together, you an’ me. Nay fightin’ like this.”
They held each other’s eyes as she walked closer, finally standing before him. She held her staff high, ready to strike.
Lok said, “Th’ two of us . . . th’ mos’ powerful in th’ world. We coul’ have it all. Anythin’ y’ wanted. All th’ kingdoms. They would worship us. Join me, Darkstone. Together . . . none coul’ stan’ agin’ us!”
She held his eyes a moment longer, a storm of emotions brewing behind her mask.
Then she raised her staff higher and swung it down on his head.
“Yahhh!”
His reflexes were too fast for her. He brought up the Forlorn Dagger in a defensive pose to block the staff.
The darkstone and the Forlorn Dagger met as they struck each other with force.
WHOOOM!
The explosion blew them apart, throwing the little dwarf in an arc all the way to the back of his tomb. His head slammed into the edge of the slab.
Chapter 21
Bellasondra and the other humans tarried outside the drainage
tunnel in the quarry. Heeding the wizards’ advice, they remained outside.
The guards from Port Osmo arrived, led by Tun and followed by Princess Dally and Nippit.
The dwarves wanted to rush inside, but Tun insisted on sending a scouting party in first. He selected two trustworthy souls to venture in with orders to report back as soon as they learned something.
“We dinna ken wha’ be in there,” he said to the humans. They nodded and all agreed to wait for the scouts’ return before entering.
-+-
The last of Dudge’s guards from Port Osmo came rushing into the cavern and joined the fray. In short order, three of the four from Ore Stad were killed.
The fourth dropped his sword and begged for mercy. Two guards hovered over him with battle axes. They glanced at Dudge as he approached.
“Yer a traitor,” Dudge said. “Ye betrayed Council an’ Crown.”
“Nay, milord! I followed th’ Crown Prince!”
Dudge glanced toward the other end of the cavern, where a final wisp of smoke rose from Pudge’s ashes.
He spoke softly. Few could hear. But none mistook the sadness in his eyes.
“’E were a traitor, too.”
He nodded at the dwarves. One kicked the guard in the back of his head, knocking him down on the floor. The other reached up with his axe and brought it down on the guard’s neck with a solid Thunk!
-+-
Darkstone could not fly. She shifted her staff to one hand and stretched out the other, but no spell came forth. She looked around for the dagger, but could not find it.
She walked inside the tomb toward the thief, who lay clutching his side and staring up at her. She reached down and tried to perform a healing spell on his stab wound, but again nothing happened.
“Where is the dagger? We need to get away from it.”
He shook his head, grimacing in pain. He did not know.
She ripped open his tunic, then tore a strip from it and wrapped it around his middle.
“That will staunch the bleeding. Can you walk? Find the other wizards and get healed. You need to get away from the dagger’s influence.”
