Wonder turned to horror as the goblin saw his companion’s chest burst with blood. He had only a moment to think of it as something hard and unseen crashed into his skull.
Another goblin tried to scream but no words came out of his throat.
Panic rained around the room. Two shadows had burst in. One with a flaming staff, the other with a shining knife. Goblins dropped dead before them, almost by touch. A few moments later and the room was clear.
Tiberius dropped his spell of silence then turned to the doorway. “Malfermegu!” he commanded and the door few open. There was a row of cells and one by one they opened. Sleepy children, all emaciated and dressed in rags, were roused out of the straw mats that passed for their beds. There were about a score of them.
“Where’s the baby?” Tiberius asked.
One little girl spoke up. “They just took her up for the ceremony,” she said.
“There’s only one passageway. We didn’t see her go past us,” Darras said.
“No, wait,” Tiberius said. He walked over to a solid looking wall and again spoke, “Malfermegu!” This time a portion of the wall opened and a secret doorway was revealed.
Darras organized the kids in the open chamber. “Everyone stay here. We’ll get the baby and come back. Then we all leave.”
They didn’t think any of the children believed them, but they were all very docile. Too docile, really. Too used to obeying orders like sheep. What horrors and abuses they’d been subject to, he could only imagine. But there would be time for healing later. They were not going to let that witch sacrifice another child to any dark demons.
Tiberius and Darras went down the secret passage. As they went down the winding corridor of natural stone, they could hear drums beating and chanting ahead. The air was moist and damp. The passageway came to the rear of a huge chamber deep underground. Ahead they could hear hundreds of goblins milling about. This had to be a service corridor designed to make it easier to bring sacrifices up to the altar.
There was a door shaped like stone at the end of the hall. It easily opened back into the chamber. Beyond it was a short set of crude steps leading up to open space.
Very cautiously and very carefully, Tiberius knelt down and advanced slowly up the steps. He peaked the tip of his head above the line of the floor so he could see out into the chamber.
The goblin queen was holding the little baby in her arms. One of her great goblin captains stood beside her.
“No more fooling around, Sligoth,” she said. “I’ve hesitated in the past for fear of making myself too big a target. But since the elves and the army already are breathing down my neck, what use is there in being subtle? Eh? Now you’re going to see some real dark magic. Get down there and build up those fires; we’ve got some children to roast tonight.”
She placed the child in a crude cradle in the center of the dais. Then she turned and stepped to the edge of the dais and up to the altar. The dais was an oval about the size of a small stage, with a steep set of steps leading down to the great chamber below. They were in fact the same steps where she had assembled her army of jack-o’-lanterns.
Tonight, though, the flames were built up extra high for the festival, with huge piles of wood burning on the sides of each of the steps. Spits, currently empty, were ready to go over the flames. At the base was a ring of spears, some of them topped with human skulls. Below this was the mass of goblins. Drummers and crude musicians were at the base of the ring, along with butchers sharpening their knives.
Then there was the crowd. A cavern filled with goblins of every shape and size. All danced and swayed to the drums, preparing for the wild and bloody festival to come.
The queen held her hands high above the altar. The crowd and musicians silenced to hear her.
“They sent thousands of our souls back to hell,” the queen proclaimed. “I will set hundreds of thousands of them free again! Tonight we have an orgy the likes of which you’ve never seen!”
That brought a huge cheer from the crowd. The queen smiled and continued. “We’ll slaughter every child we have and feed on their bodies.”
Just at that point, Tiberius stepped behind her onto the dais. Crouching low, the crowd couldn’t see him, and he saw the baby placed at the ready behind the altar. The queen was ignoring her for the moment.
“We’ll drink the butchered blood of an innocent child. We’ll follow that with dining on children. The deaths of these innocents means life for us. We’ll have litters of cubs. All warriors, all males! What could be better than that, eh? My magic will accelerate their growth. I’ll unleash a plague, a plague that will dry the wombs of these peasants around us, and slaughter their children before they are born. Each child aborted means victory for the dark master! And glory for us! That power will accelerate our growth. In no time at all we’ll have an army of a hundred thousand warriors to sweep away the local rubbish once and for all!”
While the queen was talking, Tiberius was moving. It was tempting to launch an attack, but it was unlikely she was entirely unprepared. With a bit of luck they could snatch the child away and get out before they realized which way they had gone. Ti didn’t have a clear view of the child though. He had to edge up a few steps into the chamber to gain sight of the little baby.
Signaling Darras to stay back, Tiberius edged forwards. He could see the queen now. The goblin witch was an ugly hag with a face like a frog. She had black tattoos all over her in mystic designs. She wore a feathered headdress and carried a short staff. This also was feathered and topped with a shrunken human skull. The staff rattled when she shook it. Tiberius could sense the power emanating from her. She would be a dangerous opponent. Long had she practiced dark arts, and they were woven into the fabric of her being.
She took a step forward, urging the crowd to build the fires higher.
“Ready the cauldron!”
The hour was almost the witching hour. The chants increased, the drums beat louder. The queen gestured to the withering hordes in front of her. She didn’t see the baby start to float towards the back of the stage. It was only at the very last instant she turned back and saw the baby about to float out of the room, into the waiting arms of arms of Captain Walker. Darras took the child and started back down the passage, confident that Tiberius would follow. Tiberius, once he’d floated the baby safely into the knight's arms, turned for a glance at the witch queen, who was now staring straight at him and casting a spell. He made a defensive move, but the wrong one, as no spell was aimed at him but the door behind him. He heard a loud click and looked back. The door was now solid rock behind him.
∴
There was a sudden terrible silence in the room. The queen looked at him and smiled. “No escape for you!”
Tiberius gestured and the tiers of fire behind her suddenly became a raging wall of flames, cutting her off from the army of goblins behind her.
“Nor for you,” he answered, taking a step up onto the dais with her.
Her smile faded as she felt a chill run down her spine. Tiberius and the queen slowly circled around each other for a moment on the dais.
“You were a fool to come here!” she said.
Tiberius calmly gave his staff a few casual twirls. “I’ve been looking forward to this; I’ve been wanting to meet you,” he said, gripping his staff.
“Now you have.” The goblin witch gave a shake of her staff. “Semalf fo Etaceh,” she cried in her screeching voice.
A blast of fire then leapt out from the staff towards Tiberius. He gestured in turn.
“Inversu!” he said, and the fire changed direction and flew back at her.
She blinked in surprise, but managed to duck out of the way. Shaking her staff, the witch then breathed towards him. A dark green poisonous cloud came from her breath. The tendrils of mist formed clouds shaped liked vipers as the poison gas flew towards Tiberius.
The vipers lunged towards him, but about three feet from him his vapor shield shredded the gas vipers. He pointed at her i
n turn. “Klingoj frapu!”
A spray of elemental metal blades flew at the queen. She held out her staff and blocked most of them. One of them grazed her shoulder slightly, leaving a faint red line on her dark green skin.
She shook her wand again. “President Yama of the Seven Thrones, I call upon you to honor our pact with your flames!” she pleaded.
Tiberius made his own chant in response. “Delokigas skemon kaj iri nevideblan,” he said, seeming to stand and watch her incantation. Then in response to her dark demonic prayer, a great hand of fire appeared and grabbed at the image of Tiberius. There was no reversal this time. The flames enveloped the figure, which vanished completely into the flames. The witch queen gave a quick short laugh of triumph. The very stones on which he’d been standing were glowing with heat. But out of the corner of her eye she saw the magus’ wall of flames hadn’t vanished. The true location of Tiberius was revealed when she felt his staff smash into her side and break a couple of ribs. He’d displaced his image somehow.
She went rolling across the stone floor but came up calling upon her demon gods. “Etaceh emoc!” she said. “Send your mists of darkness; reveal my foe!” Another shake of the staff and smoke wafted from the wall of fire, draping a veil of thin grey smoke across the floor. She was surprised to see two shadowy forms appear. She responded by flinging her necklace down on the floor. Five skeletons suddenly emerged from the mist.
A second later, first one, then another exploded back into bones.
“Flamoj frapu!” Ti’s voice called out from somewhere. A lightning bolt crackled out of the shadows, striking the goblin witch and arcing down her left side. Her shoe burst into flames as the electric arc traveled down her leg to the ground.
She cried out in pain, but her own magics were still protecting her from the worst of the injury. She waved her staff and sent a spray of deadly sharp thorns flying around the chamber to where she thought she saw one of the shadows moving. The other shadow smashed a skeleton, so she sent another spray in that direction next. The phantasmal clone of Tiberius was dispersed, but the real Tiberius teleported behind the skeletons, and quickly smashed two more of them, shattering them with blows of his staff. A third blew apart as Tiberius shouted “Kineta frapu!” and sent it crashing into the wall.
The witch sent her staff tapping hard against the ground, and managed to dispel the magus’ invisibility spell. The skeleton turned to face him, but just then an exceptionally brave or unlucky goblin came leaping though the wall of fire, hurled by his companions. The intense heat had set its clothes on fire and it came though screaming in pain and waving an axe around to no particular effect, save that it smashed the remaining skeleton. Tiberius sent a blast of fire into the unfortunate goblin, which gave a last cry of pain and dropped dead to the floor.
“Stay out of this!” the witch snarled angrily at her minions. She gestured to the body of the goblin with her staff, and the undead form rose up and lifted its axe, a blackened zombie now bent on doing her bidding.
“Kineta frapu!” Tiberius said, sending a telekinetic blow smashing the creature apart.
The witch was chanting now. Ti couldn’t quite make out the words, but he had an idea of what she was planning and he didn’t like it much.
“Ŝtaloj flugu kaj deturnu por frapu!” he cried, launching a wave of elemental metal disks in her direction. The first two she knocked aside with her staff. The third went past her head and she didn’t bother to deflect it. As planned by Tiberius, it ricocheted off the cave walls and struck her in the back.
The witch grimaced, but finished her spell. From the flames surrounding them came a fire elemental. It had a more wolf-like appearance than the ones Tiberius generally summoned, he noted, but he had no time for aesthetic appreciation of the creature as it had been summoned to kill him.
The flaming wolf breathed a blast of fire towards him. Tiberius felt a rush of wind as his convection shield kicked into high speed, dissipating the heat. It was a good thing he'd been preparing to fight a dragon. The heat was incredible. Even he could not withstand that forever. Had he been unprotected, that would have charred his skin black as coal.
With a twirling gesture and words of his own, Tiberius responded with an air elemental. It moved into the fire creature and the two of them extinguished one another.
Tiberius had a moment to study his opponent as the elementals extinguished each other. She could do a lot with fire, but she hadn’t put his fire wall out. Maybe she could just summon it. Fire didn’t bother him much as he’d been preparing for dragon fire for years. He could hurt her when he connected, but she had defenses. There seemed to be a combination of regeneration and general protection spells. He threw another lightning bolt at her. She blocked it with her staff this time. It glowed a bit and she didn’t seem hurt. That staff was the key to her power. He threw a telekinetic whip at the staff, trying to wrench it from her. She felt the tug, but the staff didn’t go anywhere. Well, he hadn’t expected that to work. That staff was the key though. If he could damage it, overload it, or break her connection with it, that should finish her.
“Enough!” she screamed, holding her staff aloft. “The withering curse be upon you! Eb desruca!”
The magus barely flinched. Had he even noticed her best curse? She’d heard rumors that the magi were somehow virtually immune to transformational spells, but she’d never believed it before.
“Gorf a eb!” she said, putting all of her dark will behind the blast.
He laughed at her. “I’m formed in the image of God and house the secret fire of the Trinity within me. You have no power to transform me,” he said.
“Maybe I can’t transform you but I can destroy you. Taste Yuma’s flaming fist!” she cried as she gestured with her staff.
A blazing fist of fire appeared and slammed against Tiberius. There was a bright flash that was not part of her spell and a bolt of flames hit the ceiling. She barely deflected a silver dart; then she drew back her staff and let loose with the whip of Yuma. A whip of fire lashed out and struck the magus, or should have struck him. Madly she flailed away at him, without much apparent effect. On the third lash, Tiberius blocked with his staff, wrapped the fire around the staff, gave a jerk and sent her staff flying across the room out of her hands. She ducked, made a mad gesture, and the staff flew back to her, but not before he’d teleported next to her and sent her sprawling with a blow from his staff.
She recovered her staff, though, and madly blocked Tiberius’ blows for a moment. Her one hand reached down to her poisoned dagger. Drawing it she made a mad lunge, but slashed only empty air as the wizard stepped back and gave her another tap on the shoulder in riposte. She made a few more wild slashes before the dagger hand was hit, and she saw her best poison dagger fly off through the flames into the crowd. She was nearly incinerated by the wall of fire lunging after the dagger. She turned and sent a force blast back at Tiberius, who at least gave ground before it.
She tried another direct attack. “Turn to stone! Enots ot nrut!”
Completely useless. Didn’t anything bother this damned kid?
Tiberius sent a spray of whistling silver around her. She moved to block with the staff, but the silver disks swirled around her, not striking directly. She batted a few of them away but one of them came from the side and gave her a bad cut across her left arm. That was deliberate! It hit her suddenly. The kid had guessed her power was from her staff and he was working on severing the connection. No wonder the dragon was afraid of him.
"Menso punado," Tiberius said. The witch felt a wrenching headache in return as Tiberius hit her with a psionic attack. That hurt! Damn him! She called on power from the staff to clear her mind. Tiberius tried another frost spray at her staff hand. She switched hands with the staff. The psi blast caught her off guard, but he didn’t think attacking the hands was really working.
Angered now beyond reason, the witch took a deep breath. “Yuma, I call upon all of your fiery power!” she screamed, letting a blast of pur
e white fire emanate from her staff. The blast hit him and ricocheted off wildly. Another blast hit and ricocheted off into the crowd below. Her staff was glowing white with the terrible power emanating from the gnarled wood. Seeing that the direct approach wasn’t working, she made one continuous spray, drenching the whole area around Tiberius in flames. The vaporshield whirled around Tiberius, cooling him and putting a wall of dead air between him and the flames.
It was getting uncomfortably warm, however. The rocks around him were glowing with heat. This might be his chance, though. He sent a small continuous lightning blast at her; as he hoped, she blocked it with the staff while continuing to spew flames wildly about the room. Now he could increase the power. The staff was working hard now, defending and attacking at once. If he could get the prismatic effect to kick in as well…
The witch waved the staff wildly, setting nearly the whole dais on fire. Flames poured out of her staff, slashing back and forth like a whip of fire.
“On your knees! Worm!” she cried. “I may yet make you a slave,” she laughed wildly. Then, unexpectedly, Tiberius jumped directly into her flameblast. There was a flash and some of her flames reflected back right at her. She’d been channeling her full power through the staff. It was protecting her from the flames, sending her most powerful flame bolts, absorbing Ti’s lightning, and now all of a sudden it had to absorb a backblast of her own powerful flames. It was too much. She done too much, too quickly, through the rod and now it burst apart into a million splinters.
The witch now looked down in utter shock. Her arm was bleeding in a dozen places from splinters, but she didn’t seem to notice that. She just looked on in shock as a couple of feathers from what used to be her staff floated down. A second later, Tiberius realized why. The staff had been keeping her alive. With that shattered, her magic was rapidly fading. A hand went up to her face, and she could already feel deep wrinkles starting. She was aging a dozen years in a minute.
Path of the Magi (Tales of Tiberius) Page 38
