Honor's Price

by Sever Bronny

“Centeratoraye xao xen.” Centarro blasted through his murky thoughts like a shard of crystal, sharpening his senses and turning his mind into a warrior poet.

  Vintus, back on his feet, began his onslaught with a twisting and gripping flick of the wrist. “Dreadus terrablus.” The Fear spell, cast at 18th degree strength, crashed through what remained of Augum’s severely dented Mind Armor like a battering ram piercing an already burning gate, turning his world into a living nightmare. The looming walls turned into giants ready to stomp and grind him into the clay earth. The ramp became a great coiling snake that reared up to strike; the siege engine became a throbbing black heart; his own arms turned into densely packed dung beetles squirming to eat him alive; and his broken knuckle and calf filled with feasting larvae.

  Augum, laced with the dichotomy of two opposing spells—the clarifying serenity of Centarro and the jagged horror of Fear—drew on his training and used acceptance, a principle he had learned from the art of meditation, allowing the nightmare to permeate his soul, much like light going through a prism. It terrified his inner being, but did not touch the rational part of him bolstered by Centarro. So while the rest of his soul curled up into a ball like a terrified babe, that rational warrior part of him drew a shape in the air.

  “Summano elementus minimus draco.” It was a remarkably quick and efficient casting, and the dragon ripped into existence between the opponents and over the girls’ heads. And while the girls dumped themselves onto the ground, the dragon shot at Vintus Von Edgeworth like a viper.

  “Armari elementus totalus,” Vintus countered, and pulsing bark swallowed him whole so he appeared like a mass of rotting and squirming bark, leaves, wood and vines. The dragon rabidly bit into the armor, clawing and snapping its jaws at it, but could not penetrate. The count simply ignored it and made a fluid circling motion with a finger and then yanked while snapping an unfamiliar phrase. Just as Augum readied to cast a follow-up spell, he choked, for his own necklaces began to strangle him

  While Augum struggled with the necklaces, Vintus, as if he had all the time in the world to deal with these pesky threats, languidly shoved at the air before him, incanting, “Baka,” and the dragon was blown into the wall, smashing into lightning smithereens.

  A gasping Augum finally tore the necklaces from his neck and smacked his wrists together, shouting, “Annihilo bato!” Two prongs of lightning blasted Vintus, searing the thick armor, but did little damage.

  Vintus ignored the strike, allowing it to smash into his summoned armor, and raised his arms skyward and uttered a phrase Augum could not make out past Leera’s shriek, which had morphed into something inhuman. Her form, and that of Bridget’s, had taken on a slug-like appearance that melded with the floor, with pulsing spikes coming out of squishy shells.

  A gleam caught his eye and he spotted his precious necklaces, which had turned into slithering silver snakes. Thinking they wanted to slither over the edge, he summoned them to his hand and shoved them into his pocket.

  Too late, he realized he had allowed himself to get distracted. Vintus cast a powerful high-degree spell that caused the ground to quake with such intensity that Augum had to jump and dance to stay on his feet, a task he could only do with the help of Centarro.

  Vintus swept his arms about him, controlling the massive earthquake and keeping everyone else off balance. The walls cracked and shattered, causing huge boulders to fall from up high and crash into the ground. A portion above them the size of a house sloughed off.

  “Roll!” Augum screamed over the rumbling. The manacled slug-like girls rolled away from him without looking up, and a huge dagger-like wall portion sliced through the ramp with a deep crumbling crash, creating a ten-foot gap, with Vintus and the girls on one side and Augum on the other.

  The earthquake increased in severity and the entire ramp fractured. Another massive shard broke off the wall, and Augum reached up with both hands and used all his telekinetic might to nudge it enough to miss the ramp, obliterating a guard below. On the very edge of his vision, he saw the space around him warp.

  While one hand controlled the earthquake, Vintus used the other to point over his own shoulder, stilling the ramp behind him. With the ramp safe, a white-robed figure emerged from the entrance to the siege engine and went straight for the girls.

  Augum, who was fighting to get closer to the gap, couldn’t tell who had stepped out of the siege engine, for their face was nothing short of horror—it was skeletal and speckled with thousands of teeth, so the entire face was a skeletal mask of molars with a particularly large forehead. Augum knew it was due to the effects of that 18th degree Fear spell, yet for the life of him he couldn’t shake it off.

  Molarface, whose white robe writhed with snakes, picked up the slug girls, throwing each over a shoulder, and stomped back toward the siege engine.

  A Centarro- and Fear-enhanced panic coiled within Augum.

  “We take him together, Stone,” said a deep voice beside him. “Move to the gap. I’m too weak to take him, but I can get you across.”

  Augum glanced over to see a huge bleeding grizzly bear, its snout mashed to a near pulp. He couldn’t believe it—The Grizzly had survived the fall.

  Augum pointed at Burden’s Edge, which looked like it was made from a thousand shards of glass, and it shot into his hand. Then he pressed on along the shaky ground beside the bear, who handed him a runic disk.

  “For Bridget and Leera,” the bear said in a guttural voice. “The activation phrase is enhana locka dargara quaffo. Memorize it, Stone.”

  Enhana locka dargara quaffo. “Done, sir.” His voice sounded damaged, like it had been burned by the fires of hell. If it hadn’t been for Centarro, he would be lost in the horror of that 18th degree Fear spell.

  A tentacle-erupting Vintus—an effect brought on by the Fear spell—extended both arms and brought them together, focusing the earthquake on the ramp, which failed portion by portion, collapsing in on itself

  “Going to fling you across, Stone,” the bleeding bear roared as they reached the precipice. “Gods be with you. Now jump—!”

  Augum pushed off his uninjured foot, and the bear incanted, “Baka!” Augum felt a massive shove and was hurtled toward Vintus, limbs flailing.

  His heartbeats counted the moment down. He paid attention to every nuance of the man’s movements, needing to read him accurately—despite the fact that Vintus’ head, contorted by the Fear spell, resembled that of an octopus’.

  Strategically, the easiest thing for Vintus to do was attack Augum physically, yet he now knew Augum could reflect it. Therefore, he would likely attack Augum’s mind. And that’s what Augum wanted, for he doubted the man knew he could reflect those as well.

  One of those tentacles made a soothing motion. “Senna dormo coma torpos!” Vintus snapped, abandoning the earthquake spell.

  Augum’s combat reflexes kicked in and he flash-summoned his shield, roaring, “Mimicus!”

  The spell rebounded to Vintus. His head snapped back and he fell, hitting the ground at the same moment as Augum, who rolled, wincing from the pain in his calf. He glanced behind him to see the ramp had collapsed, taking The Grizzly with it. He only hoped the man survived a second time.

  Augum removed a set of manacles from his belt and slapped them on the sleeping form of Vintus Von Edgeworth, whose elemental bark armor had disappeared but his skin writhed as if alive with thousands of octopi. As Katrina’s beloved uncle, he’d serve as a power hostage.

  Augum left the sleeping man behind and limped to the entrance of the siege engine, which moved and transformed into hideous teeth. But there was another problem—Centarro was waning, which meant a protracted fog of stupidity was coming. Augum pushed on, risking it all.

  The tunnel took on the shape of the throat of a giant beast, and Augum was walking on its steel tongue. Ahead, Molarface was stuffing a crying and shackled Arcanist Pedworth into a gaping black hole. The arcanist at last fell in, and light pulsed from the hole as the man screamed.
A slug-like Bridget, Leera and Elizabeth were lying on the ground, hands manacled, forms slowly returning to normal. They were moving weakly.

  “Yes, I can feel it working,” said a female voice that echoed throughout the engine. “Feed me degrees. Yes … yes … into the oven they go …”

  Gods, that is Katrina’s voice, Augum realized in cold horror. Katrina was in control of the siege engine! And it fed on warlocks! That’s what they’d been saving warlocks for, and allowing them to train would increase their degrees … all to feed the engine! The thing ran on warlock sacrifices!

  The Centarric fog descended more heavily and quickly upon Augum, making him fall to one knee.

  Molarface picked up a screaming Elizabeth and hurled her into the hole, using a foot to stomp her in deeper.

  “Yes, feed her to me,” Katrina boomed. “This is what you get for daring to question me, you disloyal pig. You wanted to spare their lives? Try begging for your own.”

  “I’m sorry, Kat!” Elizabeth screamed. “Unnameables help me I didn’t mean it! Oh, sweet gods, please let me live, Kat, please …”

  Augum was supposed to do something. Pass something along to the girls. It was a phrase. “Enhana locka dargara quaffo,” he blurted stupidly at them. “Enhana locka dargara quaffo!” But there was something else, wasn’t there? Something that completed whatever it was he was trying to do. He shouted it one more time. “Enhana lo—” only to stop, for voices—including his own—turned meaningless as concepts muddied in his mind. Shapes blurred and motivations evaporated. He was too late. He was too late.

  Yet one of the girls had seen him. The dark-haired one. The one who still meant something to him, something deep, beyond the reach of the fog. A reptilian part of his brain told him to give her a gift. He found himself clutching a round object and tossed it at her, then promptly forgot why he had done so. The shapes on the ground squirmed toward it.

  Augum slumped and turned into a child playing at the banks of the Gamber, enjoying the simple act of lapping water onto his feet. The sun pulsed and brightened ahead. A blonde bird sang a piercing, mournful cry. The ground trembled as clanking noises rumbled. Dizzy, he lay himself down, hand idly playing with a cold metal stick. Muted colors. Distant sounds. Vague concepts.

  He stretched, lost in myriad simplicities.

  * * *

  “No, no, no, please no—! Augum! Augum, help—! Gods, no—!”

  A girl was screaming. But who was Augum? Forms took shape once more. Clarity seeped in. A girl with cinnamon hair lay on the ground, writhing, clutching her side, from which something metal poked out. Another girl was playfully wrestling with a man. But there were three girls. So where did the third one go, the blonde?

  Augum focused on the man, amused by what he saw. It was like a play. Except something was wrong.

  Recognition engulfed him in a cold wave—the man wasn’t playfully wrestling with the girl, he was brawling with her, and she was fighting for her very life. He also recognized the man—Carp Fowler—and the girl—Leera Jones, the love of his life.

  Carp was stuffing Leera into the sacrificial oven!

  Augum jolted to life as if struck by lightning, summoned Burden’s Edge and buried the blade to the hilt in Carp’s back. Enraged beyond all reason, he smashed a fist into the side of Carp’s face, breaking his jaw. Carp tumbled aside, screaming in agony and letting go of Leera. Augum reached for her as she fell—only to miss her hand. Desperate, he telekinetically snatched her and pulled with everything he had, roaring as he strained his arcane might. Beyond her a wild white light hungrily throbbed. Slowly, one hand width at a time, he brought her over the edge and the pair rolled backward, panting. He held her like a precious flower, comforted that she was alive.

  Katrina’s voice boomed throughout the place. “Yes, it’s moving! Elizabeth’s degrees did it. Gods, the power, the power …”

  Leera jerked in his arms as if waking from a nightmare. “We have to run—” she blurted, scrambling for Bridget and hauling her up. Both girls were free from their manacles, though Augum hadn’t the faintest idea how they had done it. He looked for the key, which they’d need for the others, only to discover Carp white-knuckling it.

  “Looking for this?” he gurgled, the blade of Burden’s Edge protruding from his belly like a bloody tooth. “Fetch—” and he tossed it into the hole. But Augum was faster and telekinetically snatched it, zipping it to his hand. Then he curled his fist and smashed it into Carp’s surprised face once more, breaking his nose. Carp’s head snapped back, slamming against the wall, blood flowing freely. Augum then kicked Carp aside, grabbed the hilt of Burden’s Edge, planted a foot against his back, and yanked it out. Carp screamed.

  “May your soul find the peace together we could not reach,” Augum spat, then left the evil bastard to bleed out while he stumbled after Bridget and Leera.

  “You’re too late, Augum,” Katrina’s musical voice boomed. “You’re about to witness the birth of a legend …”

  The tunnel to the entrance began to close with a great mechanical whirring, and Augum noticed the teeth he had seen under the Fear delusion were in fact real, the tunnel a giant throat, the ground a great tongue. He limped as fast as he could toward that shutting mouth. To speed himself along, he telekinetically yanked on a giant tooth. It did the trick, and he narrowly avoided the entrance biting him in half as he flung himself out of the mouth, landing and rolling beside the girls.

  The ground rumbled and there were booming, cracking and grinding noises as the engine began to move. Augum and the girls shielded their heads with their arms as clay and rocky detritus sloughed off the engine in a rain of debris, but all they could do was hunker against the wall, for they were fifty feet up on a ledge, the rest of the ramp having crumbled away.

  “Gods, the power …” Katrina’s voice boomed through the cavern, sounding deeper and stronger outside the engine. “I’m a goddess … a goddess!”

  Augum noticed Bridget had a dagger sticking out from her side, which she had smartly left in, lest she bleed out. She urgently needed a healer’s attention.

  “Jump!” people shouted from below, the multitude of voices combining to penetrate through the chaos.

  Augum glanced over the ledge and saw two things—a group of friends, including the healer Arcanist Ordrid, and a frantic melee at the tunnel entrance, led by a bloody Grizzly.

  “Jump!” the friends called again, their faces splattered with blood. Many were injured, and Ordrid was still manacled. The key Augum had found earlier hadn’t worked, meaning—

  “This key will work!” Augum withdrew the runic disk from a pocket and chucked it at them. He touched his throat. “Amplifico,” and cupped his hands over his mouth, shouting, “That’s for Ordrid! Lord High Commander knows the phrase if Ordrid doesn’t!” The title came from reflex.

  “Gods, I hope they know how to catch us,” Leera said, herding a weak Bridget to the precipice.

  “Ready?” Augum asked their friends.

  “Yes, jump!” came the reply from below.

  Bridget bravely closed her eyes. “Do it.” Leera pushed her off, aiming for the group below. She and Augum lashed out telekinetically, slowing her fifty-foot fall, with friends soon taking over. When she reached the ground safely, a freshly freed Ordrid attended to her.

  Before Leera went, Augum brought her to him for a hug and kiss and an exchange of I love yous, with Augum forgetting that his voice was amplified and thus shouting it. She snorted with a laugh then stepped off the ledge and the Telekinesis procedure was repeated.

  Just as he was about to join her, he realized he was forgetting someone. He ran over to a groggy and manacled Vintus Von Edgeworth, grabbed him by his feet, and dragged him over the ledge. The man screamed as he fell. Seeing him safely lowered to the ground, Augum stepped off as well, latching himself telekinetically to the ledge and half lowering himself, half falling down. His friends caught him below.

  Debris continued to rain down from above as Katrina lea
rned how to operate the massive engine. The noise of its movement was incredible. It was metallic, hissing and clanking and grinding like only a giant mechanism could.

  Augum witnessed a huge clawed foot rip itself from the ground. “Gods help us,” he said as it dawned on him what the siege engine was.

  The behemoth stretched out and two enormous and jagged surfaces scratched the cavern’s edges. More and more black metal showed through the debris, and underneath that debris … were scales. A huge snaking head shook off more detritus as the entire metal creature flexed, discovering its strength, which had been dormant for thousands of years.

  At last the ancient Dreadnought- and Rivican-forged siege engine, named after the Rivican God of War, rose to its full height, and Augum saw its entire silhouette. The sight made his knees weak.

  Katrina was in charge of the Rivican siege engine known as Orion.

  And Orion was a dragon.

  A Rising Dragon

  “Ruuuuuuun!” Augum screamed in his still-amplified voice, herding his friends as Orion the dragon siege engine flexed its enormous wings. Bridget, healed by Ordrid, herded people along, as did Leera. Olaf and Jengo carried Vintus Von Edgeworth between them. The group ran toward the entrance where a frantic battle was taking place. The guards tried to join them in their escape, as if the whippings they had delivered meant nothing, but angry students slapped them down.

  “Heads up!” Alyssa called and the group split into two as a massive boulder slammed into the ground between them, smashing into smithereens. A sharp splinter pierced Augum’s other leg. He grunted and fell to the ground.

  Ordrid ran over. “Hold still, Augum,” he said and spread both hands over him, chanting a long and complex phrase. Augum, knowing the man was not only healing him but reinvigorating him, sat still, pointing at the occasional falling stone or chunk of debris and telekinetically flicking them aside. And throughout, he watched in disbelief as the great dragon siege engine lifted off the ground and began pounding and writhing through the cavernous hole, trying to free its massive bulk. He knew it was a sight he would never forget for as long as he lived, this beast destroying the cavern as if it were a sand castle; the ear-splitting ferocity; the deep mechanical noises … and the sheer scale of the thing.