"So kaminyte has a smell," Rey stated.
"I can smell kaminyte from miles away, I hate it so," Caim said.
"Well, there are no guards around so lead the way," Auron suggested.
Caim flew out of the cluster of trees. Rey, Akielas and Auron followed him running next to the castle walls. They sprinted all the way to the back of the castle and Rey could already see it. The building looked much like a prison house. Smoke was rising from above it and there were many windows in each floor. It was made of bricks and the roof was flat, unlike the warped triangular roofs of Xaianians. Trees surrounded the building as if it were built to be hidden.
"I knew she was hiding something," Rey said.
When the three men reached the back of the castle they stopped before a long slope where the building resided.
"This is one advanced country," Auron commented, blocking the sun from view with his hand. "Here I thought Ironside city was the only one."
"There is a reason for that, now follow me." Rey beckoned and jumped down the slope, hopping from rock to rock.
Akielas and Auron used terramancy and slid down the slope on top of a boulder. They surfed to the bottom then left the rocks behind. When they met Rey Ling below he noticed that Caim refused to go.
"Aren't you joining us?" Rey called.
"I told you, I hate kaminyte," the demigod said from atop the slope. "I will wait here and watch in case the Specters appear again. Do not worry about me."
The three men looked at one another and shrugged. "He made up his mind," Rey said.
"So even demigods have a weakness," Auron murmured.
"Luckily he is on our side," Akielas added.
They gazed at the building and saw that there were more guards with bows. However, the guards soon fell from the roof as Caim struck them with his white beams. The men fell, no screams or groans, only a thumping sound when their bodies hit the ground.
Rey and his friends proceeded to the hidden building of the queen and, without any obstacles, they entered with ease. Slowly pushing the door open, a breeze spilled out and they stepped in peering left and right. The light was dim, torches hung from the walls and the ceiling was high enough for oaks to grow. The windows were cloaked to prevent light from entering. There was so much emptiness and only one thing filled the space.
"Is that...a train?" Auron asked and his voice echoed.
The silhouette of the large object looked much like Rey Ling's trains. It had the height of a train but it was not long enough. Akielas used his pyromancy to turn his hand into a torch, creating large flames to illuminate the room. The flames painted the large object in orange and reds, but there was no doubt that it was a train. Its long body was made to carry many people and large loads. It seemed that it was unfinished. The wheels still had not been attached and it only had two carriages. The walls of the carriage were made of wood instead of metal. Rey Ling was furious and he finally concluded, "This bitch queen is really after my company."
"She is imitating the design of your train," Akielas said. He sauntered around the train and tapped the body of the carriages. "It's made of wood. Isn't that a bad idea?"
"It is a bad idea," Rey replied. "She will never be able to copy my creation, never. The Golden Gear company will not fall. She is seriously mistaken if she thinks that she can replace the trains that are already running."
"Better you than her," Auron commented and laughed.
Rey Ling caught the sound of something sweeping the air. Akielas jumped in front of him and blocked two arrows with a wheel of fire. Rey jumped and drew his gun, quickly loading its cylinders with bullets. He pointed back to the entrance and saw three guards; one of them had a gun with a long barrel.
"No one is allowed in this building," the guard with the gun said.
"My name is Rey Ling, owner of the Golden Gear factory," he stated. "I demand to know what the queen is doing with my inventions."
"We are not allowed to tell you," the guard said and pointed his gun at Rey. "The queen has plans for this country and she does not want the Ling Cho family involved."
Just before the guard pulled the trigger, Akielas yelled, "Illumnos tega!" A crystal shield protected them but was cracked by the bullet. "A bullet is strong enough to break through a magic shield."
"Only theirs," Rey said and before he used his gun, he saw Auron hurling his falchion.
The falchion flew across the room like a disk and it plunged through the guard's chest. Rey shot at the two remaining guards but they spread out and he missed. Rey went after the guard on the left. The guard launched a jet of fire shouting "pikan fahiah!" Rey pushed through the fire deflecting it with aeromancy. When he reached the guard they fought using Xaianian martial arts. The queen's guards were strong, having been trained in magic and martial arts. Rey struck the guard with a punch then found himself in a joint lock. He spun around with his leg, delivered a kick and hit his foe in the chest. The guard took out a knife from his vambrace and swung at Rey. It was hard to perform any spells while in close combat. Rey caught the knife, twisted the wrist, kneed his foe then sunk the knife into the throat of the guard.
"Pitiful," he said and spat.
When he looked back at Akielas and Auron they had already defeated the final guard. The guard was bleeding from his mouth and had a wound in his chest. Rey Ling wondered what they had done to him so quickly.
"You were right, these guards are no pushovers," Auron commented. "Let's use this one to get answers."
"My thoughts exactly," Rey agreed. He walked over to his friends, grabbed the guard by the collar and lifted him up against the wall. "Why is the queen building trains? What is she planning on doing?"
"I don't know!" the man yelled, shivering.
"I think he does know," Akielas said and smirked. "Perhaps we can shock it out of you." Akielas's fingers released sparks and the guard's eyes widened with fear.
"She wants to create her own train line," the fearful Xaianian said.
"And what else." Rey frightened the man, pressing him against the wall.
"She wants to take over Golden Gear factory and prevent everyone from using gadgets," the guard answered, his voice shaking.
"One more question before I let you go. What is the queen really doing with all the kaminyte?" Rey asked. He wanted to know now more than ever.
"She is creating some type of black monsters," the guard said and pointed behind the train.
They all turned their heads and gazed down the room. There was a round hole in the ground flickering with red light. Rey wondered how he did not notice it before.
"What is down there?" Rey asked.
"I just told you. Monsters. Go see for yourself. The queen has gone crazy," the guard said. "You might as well kill me. Death is better than being a slave to this bitch.
"You are not here by your own will?" Rey was perplexed.
"No, we were forced to work for the queen but we were once free men," the guard said. "She said that she would decapitate our families if we did not do her bidding. We have become slaves to the queen. I know my family is already dead, so just let me die."
Rey Ling looked at Akielas and shook his head. He felt sad for these guards. The queen was as he had expected, an odansuh, a fiend herself. Rey felt it was his duty to save his country from her madness.
"You are free to go," Akielas told the guard. "You have suffered enough. Escape and find a new home."
As soon as Rey let go of the guard, the man ran out of the building. With that done, they turned their attention to that round hole in the ground behind the unfinished train. They strode to the hole at the end of the room. Red light danced by the edges and a stairway coiled down to a fiery domain. All three men looked down then looked at each other to see who was willing to go first.
"Want to flip a coin?" Auron joked, rubbing his red mustache.
"I will go first." Rey volunteered. "I am the most curious after all."
"Lead the way my good friend," Akielas said.
> Slowly and cautiously, Rey Ling descended the stairs with his gun. Rey thought it led to some kind of dungeon or subterranean work area. Why go through all this trouble? Rey wondered. Akielas and Auron followed behind, their steps echoing around them. It felt like a long way down the spiral stairs but, when they reached the bottom...it was like looking directly at the underworld itself.
"Great Omungi Gallou, it is like the odanami down here," Rey whispered.
When Akielas and Auron reached him, they too halted in awe. They knelt low and hid behind the wall of the stairway while looking at the inferno ahead. Fiends as black as night forged others like themselves. They pounded steel to build armor made of kaminyte then attached the metal to their flesh. The larger fiends, up to thirty feet tall, hammered the steel at a temperature that would melt the flesh off a normal person in seconds. There were ponds of lava and flames dancing everywhere. Fiends lined up to acquire their unbreakable armor. Mantis humanoid fiends replaced their scythes with blades of kaminyte. Troll fiends were covering their bodies with sharp-edged armor and spikes. They forged weapons, clubs, hammers, maces, horns and claws.
Rey's heart pounded his chest while his breathing rapidly increased in fear. Sweat drenched his forehead and it was not just because of the massive heat. He looked at Akielas and Auron, their faces were just as fearful. Rey heard one fiend sniffing and grunting. He looked down at a tall fiend shaped like a human with its feet inside the pond of lava. It was sniffing and then it looked his way. Although it had no eyes he felt like it was looking at him so he panicked and ran back up the spiral stairs.
"Don't leave us behind," Akielas whispered and ran after him.
Rey scampered up the stairs as fast as he could. When he made it to the train room he fell on his knees and panted. He had never been so scared in his life. It was as though he used the Omnistar to look into the underworld. A realm of fire and fiends. Auron and Akielas stood by his side and patted him on the back.
"So that is what she has been using it for," Rey said and took a deep breath.
"She is definitely working with the Specters," Akielas added. "Only they can control fiends."
"They will be tougher to defeat," Auron said. "Their bodies clad in kaminyte. The Specters are creating an army of darkness. They are not holding anything back. Soon these fiends are going to spread all over the world."
"I won't let them," Rey rasped and stood up. "She is a fiend herself. I can't allow her to rule this country. Millions will die. Darkness will spread."
"First we speak to the queen," Akielas suggested.
"I should blow this place up before they come to the surface," Auron insisted.
Rey Ling paused and pondered for a moment. Usually he would think of his father or grandfather for advice. He would think of what they would do in certain situations, but this was different. Rey now thought of saving millions of people from the madness of the queen. This danger was soon to spread. I will now have to become something greater than an engineer and an innovator, he thought.
"I want to see the queen first," he said.
His two allies nodded and followed him outside. They exited the brick building and saw Caim hovering a dozen feet above, waiting in a lotus position. The demigod descended and met with his allies.
"There is something I need you to do," Rey said to the demigod.
"I am here to help," Caim replied.
****
Moments later, Rey Ling, Akielas and Auron stormed into the castle and fought their way through the security. They cut through guards with sword and magic. Akielas and Auron launched their lightning spells. Rey used a compound of wind and fire, setting the wide halls aflame. Guards hurled their spears at them and shot arrows. Their enemies threw water from mandaraks in the shape of snakes and fire from flaming salamanders.
Auron bashed through them with terramancy, his body cloaked in rocks. Akielas released a frosty breath that froze their aquatic spells and ceased their fires. All the guards and minions of the queen fell to their weapons and skills.
They continued down the grand hall until they reached the double doors of the queen's throne room. Akielas launched a ray of blue flames shouting, "Pikan azue!" The beam pierced through the guard's chest and collapsed.
They burst through the double doors and when the queen saw them she jumped up and ran. Rey used his gun and shot at her. He did not hit her but she froze when splinters flew from the walls.
"Get down!" Rey commanded.
The queen's maids had run away and only two of her guards remained. "You want to die too?" Rey said and pointing his gun at them. They shook their heads and dropped their spears in surrender then ran away.
The queen tried to scurry away but Rey shot at the ground and she squealed like a pig being slaughtered. She was on her knees with both hands on her head, her forehead touching the wooden floor.
"Don't hurt me," she begged. The jeweled strings of her crown clattered as she shook her head.
"I have always dreamed of the day when you would bow to me, Queen Gemzeh," Rey said with pleasure in his voice. "Pray the Omungi Gallou forgives you because I won't. Not after what you have done. Previous kings and queens have never done what you are doing. How dare you enslave people and force them to work for you."
Rey Ling and the queen spoke in Xaianese, therefore Auron could not understand them.
"Slaves, much like the ones that work in your factory," Gemzeh remarked, still kissing the floor.
"The people who work for me do it by their own will and I respect them and treat them like family," Rey Ling snarled. "One of your workers told me your secret. You threatened to kill their families if they don't work for you without compensation. You have an underground domain of fiends and cover them with kaminyte. And finally, you plotted the destruction of my factory with those white masked ghouls called the Specters. Trying to take over my company seemed tolerable but why use fiends? What are you planning on doing with those black monsters?"
Queen Gemzeh chuckled and Rey was eager to pull the trigger. Then the queen laughed boisterously and it annoyed him. Rey shot at the floor again to scare her but this time she was fearless.
"Go ahead, shoot me with your new weapon," she provoked him.
"Not yet, at least, not until you answer my question," he replied. She looked up at him with that masculine face of hers. She had no eyebrows, almost no lips and her jaw was square like a man.
"What is she saying?" Auron asked.
"She is provoking him," Akielas translated. "I understand a few words of their language."
"This might take a while," Rey Ling said, looking back at Akielas.
"Take your time. None of her guards will protect her now," Akielas replied.
"You are nothing but a lonely bastard, Rey Ling," the queen insulted. "You are just a lonely young man trying to continue your father's legacy but you are terrible at it. You are not as smart as Wan Ling Cho." She laughed again and this time Rey stomped on her head, pressing it against the floor.
"Don't change the subject. You have not answered my question yet," Rey said. "What are you planning on doing with those fiends that you keep underground?"
"Fine then, I will tell you." Gemzeh finally surrendered. "Those white masked foreigners made a deal with me. They told me that if I help them find more kaminyte they promised to help me take over your company. That is why they took your kaminyte by force, so that you could no longer pay the debt that your father left behind. That way you would have to relinquish all you had and work for me. It must be difficult trying to maintain daddy's mess."
Rey could not resist anymore and pulled the trigger. He shot a hole into her right hand. The queen screamed and her hand sprayed the floor as a puddle of blood spread.
"Was that necessary?" Akielas asked.
"Yes," Rey answered, knowing that his friend could not understand his language clearly. "What else were you planning on doing?"
The queen groaned and moaned, her hand shivering. "I...wanted...to wage war on
northern countries and spread the empire that my dynasty started. Especially the Yama country, our long time enemy. Would you prefer if the Yamajins struck first? You want to live beneath their heel?"
"Please, spare me the lecture," Rey responded. "Your father, King Gemzeh, won the war with the Yamajins decades ago and he didn't bother with conquest. You are just using that as an excuse. You probably murdered your own father and stole the throne, didn't you."
After that cold reading the queen could not make eye contact with Rey and bared her teeth.
"What did she say?" Akielas asked impatiently.
"She planned to use fiends to conquer northern countries," Rey answered.
"Did she say anything about Ember?" Akielas asked.
"Amber, who?" Rey was not familiar with the name.
"Ember, you know, one of the masked ghouls that we fought on the train," Akielas explained. "She was the one with the crown of horns on her mask."
"Ah, yes, I remember," Rey recalled then turned to the queen again. "What about those white masked mages, what were they planning on doing? I am sure they must have told you of their plans."
The queen still moaned from the pain of her destroyed hand. "I don't know," she spoke high pitched in pain. "I just wanted to use the power of fiends and they were the only ones that knew how. I have been planning on doing this for a long time, since your grandfather began supplying me with kaminyte. I knew that steel was of great use for dark magic but I was not sure how. The Specters helped me but they never told me what they wanted to do with it and I didn't want to know either."
"She used the word 'Specter,'" Akielas said as he listened. "I understood a little but what else did she say?"
"She said she does not know," Rey answered. "She supplied the Specters with kaminyte, but they never revealed what they were going to do with it."
"Then that means we should get out of here," Auron said. "Let's destroy the underground den of fiends and continue on our mission. If she knows nothing else about the Specters then we are wasting time."
Spirit of Mages (Rift of Chaos Book 2) Page 20
