Chaos Raging (The Five Kingdoms Book 11)

by Toby Neighbors

“Alright,” Zollin said. “Time to go.”

  Chapter 10

  Levitating across the chasm was more difficult than Zollin had expected. He didn’t know how long he’d gone without sleep, but his physical body was beginning to ache all over. His magical reserve was still strong, but the magic was so hot it was getting harder to wield. Jute didn’t move as they flew over the great opening. The dwarf kept his eyes closed until he felt the ground beneath his feet again.

  “Can the Bollark leave that room?” Zollin asked.

  “I don’t know,” Jute replied. “I never saw it leave, but we were sent to a large chamber and told to dig up so that it could escape.”

  “So we have to assume it can come after us.” Zollin paused as he tried to come up with a plan. Fire didn’t affect the Bollark, and there was no water to fight it with. He could cool down the chamber, but it would take a long time and that was the one resource he didn’t have.

  “We’ll just have to take our chances,” Zollin said. “I’m going to levitate Brianna back to you. Stay here.”

  Jute nodded. They were just outside the portal that led into the Bollark’s chamber. Zollin could see the rocky ceiling of the cave above the Fire Giant. He hoped that perhaps he could break some of the rock loose and at least distract the flaming creature for a moment.

  Reaching out with his magic made even the smallest spells more difficult. The expanse across the chamber was so far that Zollin felt the exertion of his power through his whole body. It was as if he were hanging upside down and trying to lift a heavy weight at the same time. The blood pounded in his ears and his heart thundered in his chest, but he could sense his magic in the stone above the Bollark’s throne. It took a tremendous effort, but he ripped a section free. The stone cracked and crumbled, before a large chunk fell. From where Zollin was standing, just inside the portal to the enormous cavern, he saw the Fire Giant look up.

  The stone fell, bursting into flames as it reached the ruler of the underworld. Zollin couldn’t waste any more time waiting to see how the Bollark would react to the attack. He sent his magic shooting into the pool of molten rock in the center of the chamber. His heart seemed to leap into his throat as it touched Brianna, who floated motionless in the center of the pool. He lifted her out of the lava, suddenly filled with a new sense of strength. The thick globs of molten rock dripped from her body and left a trail from the pool to the portal.

  He sat her down gently and risked a moment to make sure she was alive. Her face seemed drawn and pale, there were dark circles around her eyes, and he could see the bones protruding from her shoulders, hips, and ribs. But despite her condition, which was obviously bad, she took a trembling breath, and moved her hands to cover her stomach. Zollin pulled off his shirt and threw it across Brianna’s body.

  “Get her out of here!” he shouted and then turned back to face the Bollark.

  The fiery creature was on its feet now, and it would only take a few steps to cross the enormous chamber, but Zollin had an idea. He didn’t know how to fight the Fire Giant, but he wondered if he really needed to. His first encounter with another magic user had been a simple illusionist who traveled to Tranaugh Shire for the harvest festival. Zollin had been disappointed to realize that the man only had the barest hint of magical power and used his gifts to entertain, but the encounter hadn’t been a total loss. Zollin closed his eyes and imagined a huge being made of stone. He sent his magic up into the chamber, and imagined the rock monster stepping out of the very walls.

  When Zollin opened his eyes his illusion was there, standing like a sentinel over him. The Bollark hesitated, and Zollin sent his rock monster forward a few steps. Then he ran out of the room, while continuing to keep the illusion in the enormous chamber behind him.

  “Where do we go?” Jute shouted.

  He had Brianna over one shoulder. She didn’t weigh much. Since her transformation into a Fire Spirit, her bones had become hollow and she could drift on strong currents of air, but it wasn’t her weight that was the problem. Carried on the dwarf’s shoulder, her feet and head nearly touched the ground and Jute had to be careful not to step on her hair.

  “There,” Zollin shouted, pointing to a corner of the chamber. They moved quickly as far away from the portal as they could, but with the bridge gone they had very little room to work with.

  “Shouldn’t you be flying us over the chasm?” Jute asked.

  “Not yet. The groslings are gathering there and we can’t be sure the Fire Giant won’t catch up to us there.”

  “So what? We just wait here to die?”

  “No,” Zollin said. “I have a plan.”

  “Wizards and their plans,” the dwarf grumbled.

  Zollin felt the fire giant attack his illusion. The rock giant stood like a statue, blocking the Bollark’s way, but when the creature came close, it only took a single blow to dissolve the illusion. Zollin felt the Fire Giant’s fist swing through his magic creation. He let the spell go, and his magic rushed back to him, hot enough to make him groan as he wrapped his inner reservoir in a magical containment to keep it from leaching out his strength.

  “Stay behind me,” Zollin told Jute.

  “I’ve heard that before,” the dwarf said.

  Brianna groaned and Zollin wanted to take her in his arms, but he knew he couldn’t. He had to find a way to get them out of the underworld. Then he could care for his wife and check on the health of their child. But if he got distracted too soon, they could all be killed.

  A massive roar seemed to shake the walls and floor. The groslings on the far side of the chamber fled. And for one terrifying moment everything was quiet. Zollin could hear himself breathing and he waited to see what would happen.

  From the portal fire spewed. It came rolling out of the small doorway, like a wave of flame, but quickly reformed. Zollin saw the flames grow into two separate pillars, then join together to form the body of the Bollark. Flames continued to gush through the opening until the Fire Giant was completely reformed in the chasm chamber.

  “What now, wizard?” Jute snarled.

  Zollin didn’t answer, instead he let his swirling magic burst forth. He screamed as the power rushed out of him like a raging river. It swirled around and around, forming a cyclone that whipped the air into a maelstrom in the chamber. Tucked into the corner of the vast chamber the wind didn’t affect them as strongly, but it still tugged at their clothes and whipped their hair around their faces.

  Near the portal, the fire giant turned as Zollin sent his magic out over the chasm. The wind in the chamber was howling and the flaming giant staggered. It turned and Zollin felt the Bollark looking at them. He wanted to raise a magical shield around himself, Jute, and Brianna, but he was using all his strength to feed the cyclone. The Bollark roared and tried to move toward them, but as soon as it lifted one foot the power of Zollin’s magical cyclone pulled it off balance. Fighting to regain control, the Bollark staggered to the side. For a moment it teetered on the edge of the great chasm, fighting to get its balance. It leaned toward the portal, throwing its weight toward safety, but in doing so the creature’s feet were sucked off the edge of the chasm.

  Slowly the magical storm pulled the Fire Giant toward the abyss. Zollin’s head felt light and he was sweating from the effort, but he didn’t give up. Inch by inch the Bollark was pulled off the ledge and toward the maelstrom. The Fire Giant roared in fury, its hands grasping for something to hang onto, but the only thing that might have saved it was the portal to its throne room, and the doorway was out of reach.

  When the Bollark’s body was halfway into the chasm it suddenly slipped away, pulled into the air over the great fissure, and then Zollin let go. The magic swirled for a moment longer, then disappeared and the Fire Giant fell down into the darkness.

  Zollin wanted to collapse but he had no idea how much time they had left. He knew they had to get out of the underworld as quickly as possible. He could rest later. He wrapped his arms around Jute and Brianna, then lifted th
em into the air with a levitation spell, whisking them across the chasm. Once they reached the far side he collapsed and all three of them fell hard onto the ledge. Jute was on his feet quickly, lifting Brianna once again. Zollin got to his feet more slowly, his head spinning so that he staggered like a drunk.

  “This way!” Jute said, taking the lead.

  He hurried back into the long tunnel they had arrived in. Zollin pulled the stopper from his canteen as they hurried back through the long corridor. The lukewarm water tasted sweeter than anything he’d ever drunk, but he forced himself to only take a few sips. He wanted more, desperately, but he knew that too much water would only slow him down and he wanted to save as much of his rations as possible for Brianna.

  They saw several groslings, but the wretched creatures seemed to have no interest in them. Every sentient being was running or hiding. Zollin could only guess at the Bollark’s rage or who it might take its wrath out on. He didn’t care how many of the demon creatures died, or what happened in the underworld, as long as he got Jute and Brianna to safety first.

  The tunnels seemed to stretch on and on. Zollin worried that they were lost, but Jute never hesitated. It was almost as if he had traveled through the tunnels all his life. Zollin’s legs were dragging and felt as if they had heavy weights tied to them. His breathing was labored, but he didn’t give up. He felt a sense of jubilation. They had escaped the Fire Giant and if he could keep going, they would be free of the underworld.

  Jute turned suddenly into a narrower tunnel. At first Zollin didn’t recognize it, but then the sloping walls sprang up in his memory. They were getting closer to the fissure that would lead them up and out of the underworld. Jute seemed unfazed by the long run, or the fact that he had carried Brianna the entire distance. Zollin felt as if he had been stabbed in the side with a red-hot poker, but he kept moving, trusting that the end of their flight was near.

  Finally Jute stopped and Zollin lumbered up behind the dwarf, expecting to see the rugged chamber and the narrow fissure that led to safety, but his hopes were dashed. They had found the chamber, but instead of finding the floor littered with stone chips and debris, they found the bodies of groslings. Most were burned completely up. The floor of the chamber was now covered in a thin layer molten rock and the heat from the chamber was overwhelming. One look was all it took to realize that they couldn’t escape the way they had come. The fissure had opened near the floor of the chamber that was now filling with lava.

  “This is a problem,” Jute said.

  “We have to find another way,” Zollin said.

  “There is no other way, Brianna sealed it behind the dwarves when we escaped.”

  “Then we’ll have to make this work.”

  “And how do you propose to do that?” Jute asked.

  “Magic.”

  He closed his eyes and let his magic flow into the molten rock. He was tired and his magic felt sluggish and hot, almost like the molten rock that was blocking their path. Still, he fed his power into the red-hot rock. He focused down, intensifying his magic until he could feel the spinning bits of matter. They spun so fast that the heat poured off of them, which was why the rock had melted in the first place. Zollin willed the tiny bits of matter to slow.

  It always seemed impossible that the world around him would bend to his will. Yet, with his magic, he could do nearly anything he could imagine. He had no idea how he’d gotten such an incredible gift, but he was once again reminded of how grand his power was. It made him want to do great things, to make the world a better place. He was more determined than ever to go back to Yelsia and make things right. He would lead the kingdom into peace and hopefully restore all five kingdoms to a balanced, cooperative state. But first he had to escape the underworld.

  The molten rock began to cool, turning from red to black and hardening. It might be hours or even days before they were able to crawl across the stone again and find the fissure that would lead them up and out of the underworld. Zollin knelt down by Brianna and dribbled water into her mouth. She swallowed it, her mouth working for more. He went slowly, letting her come around on her own. After a few minutes her eyes fluttered and then opened. It was dim in the chamber, with the molten rock cooling, there was very little natural light. Zollin conjured a small flame.

  “Zollin?” she said, her voice barely a whisper.

  “I’m here,” he said.

  “Couldn’t leave you down here without help,” Jute said, smiling down at Brianna.

  “Jute,” she said. “Did your people escape?”

  “We did,” he said, nodding as he spoke. “Thanks to you. They are on their way home.”

  “And you… you came back for me.”

  Zollin didn’t know if she was talking to Jute or to him, but he felt a heaviness inside, almost a sense of jealousy. He took a sip from his canteen, wanting more but refusing to give in to the desire, and then dribbled more between Brianna’s chapped lips.

  “We got away from the Bollark, but we’re stuck. The escape tunnel has been flooded with molten rock.”

  “What do you need?”

  “Right now, we don’t need anything. Just time,” Zollin said.

  “What if the Fire Giant comes for us again?” Jute asked.

  “It can’t reach us here,” Zollin explained. “Otherwise it would have escaped the underworld already.”

  “You’d bet your life on that?” Jute asked. “You’d bet all our lives?”

  “It will take time for the tunnel to cool enough for us to crawl on it. And when it does, we might not fit back through. There were some tight spaces as I recall.”

  “So how do we get out?” Jute asked.

  “I was hoping that Brianna might get strong enough to help.”

  Zollin turned to his wife, only to find that she had passed out again.

  “So what now, wizard?”

  “Now we wait.”

  Zollin took the first watch, letting Jute sleep for a few hours. The chamber floor was cooling, but it was still hot to the touch. Zollin didn’t relish the idea of crawling on his stomach across the hot floor since he’d given his shirt to Brianna. She was impervious to fire, but her clothes weren’t. His shirt hung down to her thighs, but he could still see how emaciated she had become.

  He dribbled more water into her mouth and woke Jute.

  “Let me sleep for an hour,” he said. “Then wake me up.”

  The dwarf nodded and got to his feet. Zollin’s head was spinning with exhaustion when he finally laid down on the floor of the tunnel. Not far away, in the chamber, the molten rock was cooling. If they could just survive another hour, they might be able to escape. Only time would tell, but the Bollark wouldn’t just let them leave. Wherever it was, the creature was coming for them. Zollin knew their time was running out.

  Chapter 11

  Mansel leaned against the railing watching a dolphin leap through the water beside the ship. The wind was cold and the spray from the waves stung as it was kicked up and blown against his exposed skin. He felt sick. A terrible, unending nausea sent the contents of his stomach rising up to linger just below his throat. The only thing holding him together was his hand on the handle of his sword. Death’s Eye had a magic that kept the young warrior sane, but he feared what would happen if he let go.

  The Sea Arrow was a small ship, light and fast. They had a cargo of wool, which Chiss, their captain, planned to sell in Selphon City. The wool did little to weigh down the ship, which seemed to Mansel to dance across the waves. He could appreciate the ship’s speed, but the constant motion was overwhelming.

  Mansel couldn’t help but think of his first time on a ship. He and Quinn had set out for Osla and both were violently ill for nearly a week. Mansel could only hope that he might overcome his latest bout of sea sickness more quickly. He was a warrior, not a sailor, but he wouldn’t be much use if they were attacked and he was too ill to fight.

  “You’ll get your sea legs,” Chiss had commented, seeing Mansel’s ashen
face and death clutch on the ship’s rail.

  The other sailors laughed at Mansel’s condition, but most also gave him advice, from drinking sea water to walking the deck barefoot. The young warrior preferred to stand in place, keep his hand on his sword, and wait the nausea out. He had gotten Danella on board. Vyctor had purchased supplies from the city market, which wasn’t as big or as grand as the market in Orrock, but it had practically everything a person could want. He bought wine, fruit, cheese, nuts, and two jars of jam. Mansel insisted that the big man also buy himself some weapons, a long curved sword with a thick blade that hung from his belt in a fine leather sheath, and daggers for himself and Danella. They were given a small cabin that was adjacent to the captain’s berth, and had windows that looked out of the stern of the ship.

  Mansel had ensured that Danella was settled, but didn’t join her in the cabin or make his relationship with the young woman obvious. Vyctor was the only man to go with her into the cabin. Mansel kept watch from a distance and acted like every other member of the ship’s crew whenever they came up onto the deck. Eventually, Mansel knew, he would have to go down into the confines of sailors’ quarters, which was a narrow deck between the main deck and the cargo hold. There were rows of hammocks for the crew, a common area, and a privy, but Mansel couldn’t stand up straight without bashing his head into the thick beams that supported the main deck. And despite the fact that Chiss ran a clean ship, the smell of unwashed bodies and the odor which inevitably wafted up from the privy only made Mansel’s misery worse.

  He had served as a carpenter's mate before, when he and Zollin had sailed south following the invading armies from Osla and Falxis that had marched against Orrock, but that had been on a much larger vessel. The carpenter had his own workshop in that ship, but on the Sea Arrow all the tools were kept in a thick chest on the main deck and the carpenter made repairs wherever he could. So far the crew hadn’t asked for much from Mansel, but the winds were good and despite his sea sickness the sea was relatively calm. If the sea grew rough he might have to lend a hand, and Mansel wanted to learn as much as he could, but he had to get used to the constant rolling motion of the ship first.