by Logan Jacobs
“Maybe we could pull them up after us,” Aerin suggested. “We have a rope.”
“Let’s give that a try,” I said. If it didn’t work, there was always Sulla’s method.
Lavinia went first, and the ranger picked her way up the trellis to the ledge with perfect grace. Once at the top, she pushed the window the rest of the way open and slipped inside. A moment later, she stuck her head out the window again and nodded down to us.
“All clear up here.”
Aerin followed next, then Lena and Emeline, and then it was my turn. I shook the trellis lightly to test its hold, wary of the unpleasant fall that would await me if it gave out, but it didn’t budge, so I began to climb. The vines that grew along it tickled my arms and twisted around my toes as I hauled myself up onto the ledge and through the window.
The room it opened into looked like some sort of parlor. There were three other windows, closed and latched with heavy brocade drapes pulled back to let in the light. An ornate little desk was pushed against one wall and topped with a stack of parchment, a bottle of ink, and a set of writing quills, though all appeared to have been left untouched for some time and were coated in a fine layer of dust. A pair of plush couches stood on either side of a low coffee table. Like the writing desk, the table was dusty. Obviously, this room didn’t see much use, which was probably why the ogre hadn’t noticed the open window.
As Maruk pulled himself through the window, he turned back to help haul Urim up. There was a creak followed by a metallic groan as the orc put his full weight on the trellis, but it held beneath the weight of the smaller of the two pirates. Then Maruk and Urim tossed a rope down for Sulla. With most of his considerable weight supported by the rope, Sulla half-climbed and was half-pulled up by the other two orcs.
The floor shuddered as the huge orc warrior stumbled into the room, and for a moment, we all froze and listened. I was half-certain that after all of our efforts to be stealthy, we’d just given ourselves away, but as the seconds passed with no response, I relaxed again.
“We’re here for two books,” I reminded the group. “Corcan’s Treatise on the Arcane Arts, volumes one and two. We’ll deal with the ogre if we find him, but let’s do this quietly if we can.”
The others nodded, though the pirates were clearly reluctant about the last part, and I led the way out into the hall as quietly as I could.
Like the parlor, the hallway we entered was finely decorated but appeared as though it hadn’t been looked after in some time. Dust clouded the dark wood floor, and cobwebs drifted from the bottoms of the wall sconces.
“It doesn’t look like our ogre friend is home,” Lavinia whispered.
“What?” Emeline’s voice was strained and nervous. “Where else would he be?”
“It could be that he just doesn’t come through this part of the place much,” I said quietly. “Keep your guards up.”
Several closed doors led off the hallway, but I passed them by. I doubted the books we needed would be tucked away on some random shelf. If they were this important to the Mage Academy, I was sure the ogre wasn’t oblivious to their worth, and the creatures were known for their vanity. The ogre would want to show off a prize like those books, so they’d be in a more central location such as a library or a trophy room of some kind, and that would be in a part of the keep that the ogre spent more time in.
I led the guild down a few dim, dusty hallways before we reached a landing where the staircase from the first floor connected. At least here, the keep seemed a little more lived-in. The windows were clean and the banisters dusted, and the plush, wine-colored runner that covered the wooden steps was worn down in the center.
It was easy enough from here to see which parts of the keep the ogre frequented. The hall going forward to the western tower showed more signs of its owner’s passage, little things like the candelabra set on a table and the corner of the run which had been folded over as someone walked over it. The wooden floor beneath it still shone so it couldn’t have been moved long ago.
I put a finger to my lips to remind the others to stay quiet as I led them down the hall. The doors were all closed, but I didn’t stop to check in each of them. Their size and location made me suspect they would be bedrooms or sitting rooms like the one we’d come in. With any luck, the ogre was asleep behind one of these doors, and we could slip in and out without ever disturbing him.
The hall ended at a set of double doors with polished brass handles and floral designs etched into the wood, and I smiled. That was what I’d been looking for.
Briefly, I considered having the others wait while I scouted ahead with my invisibility cloak, but ultimately, I decided against it. If the ogre were inside, he’d probably hear me open the door, and we’d only end up delaying a fight that would be inevitable by a few seconds. It would be better, then, for us to stick together.
I waved to Emeline for her to come forward as I stopped just outside the doors.
“I think this is it,” I said, mostly to the panthera woman but in a loud enough whisper that the whole group would be able to hear. “Are you ready?”
Emeline’s brow was creased slightly as she met my eyes and drew a steadying breath before she nodded back.
“I’m ready,” she replied, quiet but determined.
I stepped back slightly so that the dark-haired mage could open the door, prepared to cast an illusion to buy us some time should an angry ogre be waiting on the other side. When the door swung open, however, there was no one in the room. The light of early afternoon streamed through windows that stood from floor to ceiling along the western wall, their rich curtains drawn back by heavy, tasseled ropes. The other three walls were covered in massive shelves filled with books and an assortment of other objects, organized by no apparent theme.
The shelf nearest to me was crowded with animal skulls as well as some more humanoid ones that I supposed had once belonged to goblins. Directly above a glass tank dominated the shelf on which it sat. It was filled with colorful sand, artfully poured so that it created a sort of pastoral design, and next to it was an arrangement of porcelain vases. The other shelves were similarly crowded with random curios from brass navigational instruments to what could only be the shed skin of some monstrous snake propped up on a stand.
As interesting as it would have been to look through a collection like this, I knew we didn’t have that kind of time.
“Spread out,” I ordered, still careful to keep my voice down. “Look for the books. Remember, Corcan’s Treatise on the Arcane Arts.”
I started for a shelf, and the others fanned out around me as we all began to scan the spines of the volumes for the Mage Academy’s texts. Much like the rest of the ogre’s curios, there was little apparent organization to the books. A vegetarian cookbook for centaurs was placed right next to a volume titled Mun-an’s Guide to Torture by the Orc Chieftain Mun-an Wyrm-Strangler which appeared to speckled with old bloodstains. I came across a few other fascinating titles, but I found neither the Mage Academy’s books nor any that could be of any value to me personally. Lena was already checking the next shelf over, so I turned to go to one across the room.
As I did, I passed the few plush armchairs situated by the windows around a painted coffee table where a little china tea set sat on a tray and stopped in my tracks as apprehension pricked up my spine. There was tea in the teacup, and it was hot enough to still be steaming.
I had just opened my mouth to alert the others that the ogre would be back very soon when the door opened again, and we all turned at once to the hulking figure in the doorway.
The ogre was tall enough to rival even Sulla with broad shoulders to match. Jutting fangs stuck out of his mouth, and twisted horns sprouted from his craggy brow like tree branches. His orange, cat-like eyes widened in shock for half a moment, and he dropped the little china sugar bowl that he’d held in one clawed hand.
The sugar bowl shattered against the wood floor, and the spell was broken. The ogre’s expression sh
ifted into a snarl of rage as he lunged at me.
Chapter 11
My first thought wasn’t even to attempt a spell. I just threw myself out of the way as the ogre reached for me, and he tripped over the coffee table behind me. He practically belly-flopped onto the table, and it shattered beneath his weight. That didn’t keep him down for long as the ogre howled in fury and picked himself up again. As he swept bloody shards of the teapot off of his face and hairy forearms, he rounded on me again with a snarl. Tea now stained his paisley jacket and the limp lace cravat at his throat.
This time, I actually had enough of my wits about me to counter. As I raised my hand, the familiar prickle of my mana coursed down the length of my arm, and a shimmering blue mana clone appeared between the ogre and me. Though he said nothing, the ogre’s snarl became something more like a derisive sneer, almost as though he was insulted that I thought I could distract him with this little puppet of mine, as though he wouldn’t know the difference. That was his mistake. While I found it interesting that the ogre was so intelligent, he wasn’t smart or knowledgeable enough to know that my clone was capable of doing more damage than I could alone.
Despite deeming himself too clever for my tricks, the ogre swatted lazily at the clone as he advanced past it, and the moment his hand connected with the clone’s body, I closed my hand into a fist, and the clone exploded in a shower of pure mana.
The ogre reeled back with a cry of pain as he clawed at his eyes and crashed into one of the armchairs. He managed not to topple over it, but he was thrown off balance so that he couldn’t avoid Lavinia’s arrow as it arced through the air and embedded itself in his thigh. As Maruk charged for him then, I was beginning to think this was going to be a relatively easy fight. With the shield-warrior blocking the ogre’s advance, I caught a flash of light as the mana in the ogre’s chest flared up, and I readied myself to counter whatever spell he was about to cast.
Then, without a trace or even a spark of the release of mana, the ogre abruptly vanished.
Maruk stumbled to a halt and blinked at the empty space where the ogre had been. Sulla and Urim were close on his heels, their weapons brandished.
“Ogres can... teleport?” Maruk asked though he didn’t seem to be addressing any of us in particular.
Merlin had his hackles raised as he prowled at my feet, and his cat-like teeth were bared.
“I haven’t read anything like that,” I answered, then turned to the others for any confirmation on the matter.
Before they could weigh in, a gnat buzzed past my face… a gnat that glowed like a lightning bug because its little insect body was trying to contain more mana than a creature its size was meant to have. I made the connection at once, but I’d only managed half a step away before the ogre shapeshifted back to its normal form and swung one of its massive fists at my head.
That half-step saved me from a blow that could very well have knocked me out as the ogre’s knuckles clipped the side of my jaw instead of slamming into my temple. Still, it hit me hard enough to knock me back against another of the armchairs. I lost my balance and fell sideways into the chair, but even as I did, I had the presence of mind to cast an illusion over the ogre to make him see me sprawled over the broken table instead.
He could shapeshift then. I gritted my teeth. Nothing in my reading had indicated that that was an ability that ogres had. Anyway, I knew now, and I wasn’t about to forget any time soon.
Aerin called my name, and I heard the sound of breaking glass as Lena threw a vial, but I had no time to address either as the ogre moved toward the table to try to hit me again, an arrow thudded into his shoulder, and he whirled with a blood-chilling growl.
The ranger already had another arrow knocked, and Maruk had moved to block the ogre on his left while Sulla and Urim approached from the right. Before the ranger could let the arrow fly, however, a sharp whistle sounded as a fireball shot through the air and hit the ogre square in the abdomen.
The ogre roared and moved to swat out the flames, and by the dumb luck of his wild flailing, Lavinia’s arrow sailed between his gnarled horns and stuck into the wall behind him instead of piercing the ogre’s temple. Even as he beat out the flames, I saw the light in the ogre’s chest begin to grow brighter again.
He wasn’t going to get away with the same trick twice. Instead of waiting for a gesture that wasn’t coming, I twisted to raise my hand toward him and clenched my fingers into a fist. The ogre’s body lurched as I quelled his mana and snuffed the shapeshift coming on. His eyes bulged in shock as he reached for his chest, and Urim took advantage of his moment of distraction to charge at the ogre with a war cry and both of his axes raised.
The ogre must have been tough as nails because he recovered faster than I imagined. Before Urim could split him in half, the ogre shouted out something in a language I didn’t recognize and turned to grab the pirate. With a combination of skill and raw power, the ogre hurled Urim roughly to the ground, much to the orc’s surprise.
Sulla was close on Urim’s heels and swung his gigantic sword in an arc over his head, the toothed blade on track to cleave the ogre in two, but the ogre shifted as soon as I dropped my hand and took to the air in the shape of an enormous golden eagle. Sulla’s blade hissed as it sliced through the air and embedded itself deep into the plush armchair that had been previously knocked over, and the ogre flapped out of reach, unharmed.
Sulla grunted as he pulled his blade free and shook stuffing and shredded fabric from the ridges while behind him, Aerin helped Urim back to his feet.
An arrow thudded into the crown molding that decorated the ceiling as Lavinia tried to shoot the ogre down, but he was surprisingly agile even in this bird form. Emeline was on Lavinia’s right, and I could see the glow of a ready spell in the mage’s palms, but her face was drawn in an anxious frown as she tried to track the ogre’s movements. Given that a crack shot like Lavinia was struggling to shoot her target, I couldn’t blame the panthera mage for her caution.
After all, if Lavinia missed, there was relatively little harm done, but if one of Emeline’s fire attacks missed, she risked setting the room on fire and even destroying the very books we’d come to get.
As Emeline hesitated with tongues of flame rippling over her hands, a dark shape swept over her shoulder and barreled into the ogre-hawk as he wheeled around. Merlin, in the form of a black eagle to rival the ogre’s new form, locked talons with the golden eagle, and the pair screeched as they twisted, beat their wings, and then began to drop. The birds slammed against one of the display tables and scattered the tiny crystal charms that had stood along it in a flurry of feathers. The ogre recovered first, and his mana flared up again.
I threw my hand up, but I hesitated at the last moment before I cast my spell. The ogre wasn’t going to let us trash his library, and despite his initial transformation, I figured that he would continue to favor more large and powerful creatures like this eagle form during the rest of the fight to counter our onslaught. He wouldn’t be able to kill us or drive us away as a mouse, anyway, and it was all the better for us that that was the case. The bigger the animal the ogre transformed into, the easier he’d be for us to hit.
I dropped my hand again as the ogre shifted into the form of a monstrous brown bear.
The bear’s lip jutted as it bellowed in anger and swatted at Merlin with an enormous paw. Merlin flapped frantically and got out of range just as Lena tossed a small glass jar at the bear’s feet that shattered on impact and released a cloud of pinkish smoke. The bear twitched, sneezed, then disappeared abruptly, but I knew it hadn’t shifted again, at least not of its own accord. Its mana would have glowed brighter if it had.
For a few heartbeats, everyone was still as the pink smoke cleared to reveal a rather panicked-looking trout flopping against the wooden floor.
Merlin was the first to act, and dove for the trout with his talons outstretched. He carried it high into the air, but as he neared the high ceiling of the library, the ogre apparent
ly recovered from his shock enough to try to shapeshift again. As the trout began to glow, I raised my hand to counter the shift, but the ogre’s mortal desperation lent him an edge, and he resisted my magic.
As the ogre morphed back into his true form, I saw the deep cuts Merlin’s talons had made across his body, as well as the innumerable other injuries he’d accumulated in the last few minutes. It was a wonder the creature had made it this far, and he wasn’t out of this fight yet.
Merlin dropped sharply at his captive’s sudden increase in weight and lost his grip on the ogre who plummeted to the floor and landed with a thud that shook the surrounding shelves.
I heard the soft sliding sound of Lavinia’s arrow scraping across her bow’s riser as she took aim, but the ogre lurched forward at the last second, and the shot meant for his heart instead pierced his hip. Our attacks and that fall had taken their toll, though, and the ogre’s roar now was more of a breathy groan as he broke off the arrow shaft where it stuck out from his flesh and began to pull himself to his feet.
Maruk moved forward quickly and bashed the ogre in the back with his shield, and Urim and Sulla were close on his heels with their own weapons raised. The ogre looked up from the floor with fire in his orange eyes, and I saw the spark of his mana begin to shine a little brighter. My head still pounded from the first effort to control his magic, but I reached out my hand again and curled it into a fist.
The ogre convulsed as his mana flickered down beneath my control like a candle flame being snuffed out, but I could already tell that I only had it in me to hold him for another second or two.
“Now!” I shouted. I didn’t care who finished the ogre off as long as someone did.
Then there was a whoosh, and the ogre’s entire body erupted in flame.
Maruk and the other two orcs staggered back as the flames burst forth, faster and wilder than any fire I’d ever seen. The ogre was barely visible through the inferno, but I could make out his silhouette as he writhed and howled and clawed at his body.
