by Steve McHugh
We opened the doors to several rooms, and gave them a cursory search, but most contained nothing more than skeletons, old pottery, tools long past useful condition, and dirt.
“Do you know the way or not?” Irkalla asked Mordred, irritated after we’d opened the door to the fifth empty room.
“Yes, I just thought that you’d like to see some of your people again. You probably know a few of them. Any relations?”
Irkalla balled her hands into fists. “Get on with it.”
Mordred nodded and we resumed our search. Eventually, the sounds of voices grew louder, and we began to see the flickering of lights, probably torches.
We had to stay far back in the darkness, around a corner, so that the vampires patrolling the area couldn’t see us.
“They can’t be very old,” I said. “Those vampires can’t smell us.”
“How do we remove them before they alert whoever is down there?”
I peered around the corner. “I count five.” They were patrolling the mouth of the corridor, and after a slight drop, a large open area beyond. I continued watching for a few more seconds until I saw Asag walk across the middle of the large room.
“Asag is in there,” I reported.
“Then we need to go kill him,” Mordred said. “Now.”
Before anyone could stop him, Mordred sprinted down the tunnel, screaming something that I was certain to him sounded like a war cry. He collided with the first vampire, using a blade of air to remove its head, before blasting a second in the chest with enough force to almost tear the creature apart. The rest of the group ran after him, and soon the knights and remaining vampires were engaged in battle, while Mordred killed whatever was in front of him in his quest to get to Asag.
I dropped down from the tunnel into the large area and found that the gold and silver brick and stone looked a lot more dwarven than the rest of the catacombs. The area sat on two levels, with pillars—most two or three times higher than a man—at regular intervals on both levels.
“The dwarves made this,” Siris told me as she walked out of a nearby door, closing it behind her just as I caught a glimpse of a small stone tablet on the floor, but I saw no realm gate. She held a spear in one hand. “I could see you were curious.”
Mordred, who was almost at Asag, saw Siris and changed direction, diving toward her. Forced back, Siris retreated into the shadows, vanished into the soil, and reappeared behind Asag a few seconds later.
“Did you really think I didn’t know why you were here, Mordred?”
“I don’t really care,” Mordred almost snarled.
“You have no idea what we’re going to achieve here, but you will. Kill them all.”
Vampires flooded the cavern from the floor above, dozens and dozens of them, while Siris ran into a nearby room, slamming the door shut behind her.
“Time for you and me to go again,” Asag said to me, as the vampires and knights continued to fight. The undead now vastly outnumbered the knights, but Irkalla joined in, helping the odds.
“Mordred, Asag first, then Siris. Do you understand?” I really hoped he did.
Mordred repeatedly stabbed a vampire in the face, decapitated it then kicked the body aside. He shrugged. “I’ll kill what I have to. Try not to get too close to me. I’m not exactly sure I’ll be able to judge foe from different foe.”
“Two sorcerers at once?” Asag laughed. “This will be fun.”
Mordred darted forward first, trying to cut through the rocky exterior with his blade of air, but it was never going to work, and he narrowly avoided a blow to the head, which instead destroyed part of one of the pillars.
I took Asag’s diverted attention to try a similar trick, but with a blade of fire, hoping to cut through the gaps in the rock like I’d done last time, but he shifted his weight and lashed out at me.
“No more fire magic like last time,” he said to me.
“You don’t have your little friends to help,” I replied, after rolling aside to put plenty of distance between us.
Mordred attacked once again, this time wrapping a tendril of blood magic around Asag’s chest. The large rock monster began to yell, and I rushed to join the attack, wrapping my fist in dense air and striking Asag in the face. It sent him reeling, but he kicked me in the chest and I soared into the far wall.
I scrambled back to my feet in time to watch Asag take hold of Mordred and head-butt him. Mordred’s face turned into a geyser of blood, and he, too, was tossed aside as if we were both nothing more than a minor inconvenience.
“This isn’t working too well,” Mordred said after landing beside me, spitting blood onto the dirt.
“I have a plan,” I said, “but I’m not sure how much you’ll like it.”
“If it lets me bathe in his tears, I’ll be pretty happy, thanks.”
Asag slowly walked toward us. He didn’t appear to be all that concerned.
“How cold can you make your water magic?” I asked.
“Pretty damn cold.”
I stared at Mordred for a heartbeat. It had been a long time since we’d fought side by side. It was an odd but familiar feeling. “When I’m ready, pour everything you have into the bastard, and let’s see if we can’t crack him open.”
I began using my air magic to swirl the dirt around Asag’s feet.
“That’s it?” He laughed. “A light breeze?”
He looked over at the fighting between the vampires and knights, which had moved back into the tunnel, their shouts and screams occasionally echoing around. I couldn’t see Irkalla, but I was certain she was in no more danger than Mordred and I were.
I moved around to the side of the room, keeping the air swirling around Asag’s feet. When he got too close to Mordred, I blasted his side with air, forcing him to step back, regaining his attention, and allowing Mordred enough time to get away.
“You’re not dying over there, are you?” I asked.
“I’m good,” Mordred snapped. “I only had the sorcerer’s band removed a short time ago, and getting head-butted by that sack of rocks hurts like the blazes.”
I increased the ferocity of the wind, picking up loose pieces of brick and debris, and flung them at Asag, angering him. As the winds increased in speed, Asag slowed down, so I continued to pour on the pressure. He took another step, and I changed my attack, creating tornadoes all around him, not just around his legs.
“Now!” I yelled. Mordred blasted water from his hands into my maelstrom encircling Asag. I cooled the air, lower and lower, almost to the point of freezing.
“Do you have a plan after this?” Mordred asked as Asag stopped walking.
Not even slightly. “Of course.”
“You feel like sharing? Because I’m not sure that making rocks colder makes them easier to break.”
“Good thing that was never the plan, then,” I told him. “I need you to freeze him in place.”
“You’re going to remove your air magic?” Mordred asked, his voice rising as the sound of the magic being poured out of us became louder and louder.
“Yes, the air and water were to keep him in one place. The water magic should be stretched all over him. Hopefully it’ll freeze those cracks between the rocks. His skin has to feel that.”
“And then what are you going to do?”
“You’ll see.”
Mordred took over the magic duties as I removed my air magic and began concentrating. Orange glyphs burned across my skin as I created the power of my fire magic, but the second I heard the ice cracking as Asag took a step, I knew I didn’t have time.
Mordred grabbed hold of my hand, wiping his blood onto it.
“Use that. I’ll keep him off you.”
I immediately used the blood to access my blood magic, pouring the excess power into the fire glyphs, and created a small ball of flame. It grew in size again and again, becoming hotter and hotter until it was so bright I could barely stand to look at it.
Mordred flew over my head, bloody and be
aten, and crashed into the wall behind me as Asag laughed. I looked up and our eyes met only for a second, but he paused.
I shot up from the floor, increasing the size of the ball of flame and releasing it. The fire hit Asag, a blinding inferno that momentarily engulfed him. I stepped into the flame, turning my hands white-hot, and planted them on Asag’s chest. The rock around my hands turned to magma, oozing to the side and exposing a bit of the flesh beneath. I gathered the fire roaring around us, and in one motion smashed it into his exposed torso.
Asag’s screams were horrific. He clawed at himself trying to get to the fire that I’d put under the layer of rock armor, against his skin, melting it like a candle. I dropped to my knees, stopping my magic for a moment before Mordred threw more air magic at the monster, making it trip into a column which collapsed onto its head.
Asag roared with pain and anger, tossing aside pieces of brick as he clawed his way along the ground, toward the door that Siris had run through. I’d forgotten about Siris, and sighed while getting back to my feet, ready for another fight—one I probably couldn’t win, even with Mordred’s help. We needed Irkalla, and I was thankful to see her drop down from the mouth of the tunnel, her clothes covered in blood.
“It’s not mine,” she said by way of explanation. “The vampires are dead. They were newly turned, not very powerful. We lost most of the knights, though. Where is Asag?” She followed the noise of him hammering against the door, trying to get Siris to open it.
“Why is he still alive?” she asked.
“We were getting to that.” I got back to my feet. “He’s not exactly a pushover.”
“Nor is he going anywhere,” Mordred said as he staggered past us. “He’s mine.”
Mordred had made it halfway to Asag when the door exploded open, and a giant snake’s head, easily the height of my entire body, grabbed hold of Asag, dragging him back into the room. A second snake’s head crashed through the wall. It hissed at us before slithering up toward the ceiling.
“Not Tiamat!” I shouted. “What is that?”
“That is an exceptionally bad time for everyone in the city,” Irkalla told me. “Keep it busy. We’ll need help.”
She ran toward the tunnel, leaving Mordred and me alone as the first snake re-appeared. I ignited hooks of air as the serpent moved past me up toward the hole his friend was making. I hooked the snake and held on with all I had as it smashed through everything between us and the city above, finally exploding out of the ground and shrieking its arrival for all to hear.
I looked down at Mordred, who, with his air magic, had anchored himself to the black and white scales of the huge beast.
“Do you have a plan?” Mordred shouted as the snake fell onto a nearby building, flattening it without so much as a concern as it continued to slither out of the hole it had made.
“Kill the snakes! Don’t die!” I shouted back, finally able to see the whole snake. It was huge, longer than a galley ship, and could probably eat one in only a few bites.
“I like the second bit more,” Mordred said, and he dropped from the snake onto the ground, fleeing into the darkness. He would have to wait.
I removed the air magic in one hand and created a blade of fire, plunging it into the snake, which it did not appreciate. It turned to me and opened its mouth, striking forward with incredible speed. Its fangs, almost my equal in height, were inches from me as I jumped off the snake and sprinted toward the marina, hoping to find somewhere I might get an advantage, or at least find it Mordred to eat.
I turned onto a cobbled street along the water’s edge, running past boats that bobbed up and down in the waves. The snake destroyed a building, the screams of the occupants silenced as quickly as they’d started.
I vaulted over overturned barrels and tables, dodging people as they scrambled away for their lives, many risking the rough, cold water and diving straight in. But the snake only had eyes for me, and occasionally I would annoy it further by throwing balls of fire at it.
After several minutes of avoiding being eaten, I was beginning to run out of street, but as I looked toward the water, I noticed one of several war galleys anchored at the far end of the marina. Then the reappearance of the snake took all of my attention.
Several pots hit the snake, and it took me a few seconds to realize they were filled with oil. They covered the head and ground surrounding the snake. A ball of flame came in soon after, hitting the snake, and the whole area went up like kindling.
I stopped running and watched the snake thrash about, bringing down more buildings as it fought to extinguish the flames. The snake’s screams made my skin crawl, but they were silenced as it threw itself across a small fishing boat and into the water.
“That should keep her busy,” Mordred said as he ran over to me. “You got my plan then, to bring the snake to the ship?”
“You never mentioned any kind of plan or a ship,” I snapped. “I thought you were running away.”
“Not while Siris still lives.”
He ran off without another word, and I followed a moment later, wondering how long we had before the burned one returned, looking for revenge.
CHAPTER 23
September 1195. City of Acre.
After managing to at least subdue the first giant snake, Mordred and I ran through the city streets toward the noise of the second.
“Do you have a plan?” he shouted to me.
I shook my head in response. I had no idea how to kill a giant snake. I’d never even seen one, but apparently setting one on fire does little more than really annoy it and make it go for a swim.
By the time we reached the second snake, rubble surrounded it. It had crashed through several buildings, tearing them apart and scattering the contents over a wide area. Every time a new building got hit, tremors went through the ground, as if from an earthquake. The smell of dust and blood mixed in the air, and the closer we got to the snake, the more dead we saw littering the ground. The people who’d been in those buildings when the snake had attacked had no chance of escaping.
Nanshe and Irkalla were fighting the snake, trying to get close enough to hurt it. Nanshe tore a chunk of rock from the ground and threw it at the creature’s head, but the rock disintegrated on impact. The snake acted mildly irritated. It swayed from side to side, before shooting forward at Nanshe, but she was too fast and ducked under its chin, stabbing her sword up into the snake’s mouth. Several vampires had dropped from the battlements to try to stop Nanshe, but Irkalla was killing them before they could get close enough to do damage.
When half a dozen of the vampires were dead, Irkalla shuddered, then turned toward the snake and unleashed the souls she’d absorbed as pure energy. The snake’s head vanished in a plume of blood and gore. Its body fell to the ground and, after a brief twitch, remained still.
Nanshe, covered head to toe in snake blood, picked her sword off the floor. “That could have gone easier. A lot of people lost their lives to this insanity.”
“Any ideas where she’s gone?”
She shook her head, and the first snake, which I’d mentally nicknamed Cinder, took that moment to make its presence known once again by crashing through several buildings closer to the water. Its massive bulk was easy to see, even from the distance we were from it.
“Stay here, and help stop anyone from coming through,” I said. “Mordred and I will go after the snake.”
“First, Isabel,” he said as he ran off in the direction of her cell.
“Damn it, Mordred!” I shouted as I followed. “We don’t have time for this!”
“We need help; she’s a vampire. She can help.”
It was obvious something was very wrong the moment we reached the building where Isabel was being held. Mordred destroyed the door with a blast of air and descended the steps without pause. I followed close behind and found Isabel kneeling in front of Siris, facing us, Siris’s blade held to her throat.
“Oh, you’re early,” Siris said. “I was going t
o leave this one here for you to find. If you managed to live long enough that is. You killed Mušhuššu, but you won’t kill Bašmu.”
“Ah, I called him Cinder,” I told her. “That’s because we set him on fire. So, I’m thinking that Cinder, or Bašmu, or whatever you want to call him, can die just like Mušhuššu. It’s a shame. You went through all that effort to bring Tiamat’s creations here just to have them die.”
“She didn’t create them outright, but she certainly helped. They have dragon blood in their veins. Did you know that combining dragon blood with various dark magics will create monstrous versions of beasts?”
“I do now.”
“If you harm her, I will tear you apart,” Mordred said.
“Ah, yes, your favorite. Did you really think I didn’t know why you agreed to help, Mordred? I’ve known you for so long, even before you became the man you were.”
“I know you visited me, hurt me.”
I had no idea what either of them were talking about, but that giant snake wasn’t about to kill itself. “There’s nowhere for you to run, Siris.”
“There’s always somewhere, Hellequin. Always.”
“Too late now,” I told her. “Put the blade down and leave here quietly.”
“Or I can do this,” she said, and she slit Isabel’s throat, before plunging the weapon into her heart. Blood poured from the wound in her neck and Mordred rushed to her, trying to stop the bleeding. Siris used her earth-elemental ability to run toward the wall beside her, vanishing into the soil a moment later.
“Help me!” Mordred pleaded.
I looked down at Isabel and knew she was dead. “No one can help her now.”
“Liar!” Mordred screamed at me. “You could have stopped Siris! You could have made sure this didn’t happen!”
I removed the blade from Isabel’s chest; it was made of silver, so there really was no hope. A silver blade in the heart of a vampire meant death.
“Mordred—” I started, but a blast of air threw me against the wall. Mordred picked up the blade and ran up the stairs.
