Two Necromancers, a Dragon, and a Vampire (The Unconventional Heroes Series Book 3)

by L. G. Estrella

  Timmy smirked. “That’s where you and Spot come in, Avraniel. Spot is part corruption dragon – his black fire is naturally corrosive. If I can incorporate his fire into some of my seals and if you can amplify it, then it should help weaken the connection between the different layers of the seal system. When the surge of magic hits, the whole thing should come apart like a glass shattering. Boom.”

  “How big a boom?” Avraniel’s smile widened, and the rats and dragon beside her cackled evilly. It was thoroughly disturbing.

  “You know how far we are from Kargahd? Well, they’ll be able to see the explosion from there.”

  “Master.” Katie tugged on his sleeve and nodded firmly. “I know I don’t tell you this often, but you can be pretty awesome sometimes.”

  “Why, thank you.” Timmy sketched a bow. “Now, I’m going to need at least a day to prepare the seals. I’ve been working on them ever since James gave us this mission, but I’ll have to take a closer look at the barrier before I make my final adjustments. Gerald, I’ll need your help. I’ve got the beginnings of the seals carved onto some of the metal stakes I gave you before we left the castle. Old Man, can you help me finish inscribing the seals later? There are going to be a lot of intricate details, so I won’t be able to copy all of them myself since we won’t have long before they notice us out here.”

  Old Man smiled. “Don’t worry. I can handle it.”

  “Katie, you need to watch what I’m doing. I hope you never have to do something like this, and I know you aren’t exactly great at runes and seals – yet – but I’m not sure I’ll ever get a chance to demonstrate something like this again unless we have to break into our own castle.” The demolition rats raised their hands to get his attention. “Yes, you can all watch too.” He scowled. “But no using this on our castle or anything near it.” The rats grumbled amongst themselves and nodded. “Spot and Avraniel, I want you to stay out of sight until I need you. Actually, you can map the flow of magic in this area while I take a closer look at the barrier, but stay out of sight. They do run the occasional patrol out here, and you two are hard to miss. Just in case, I want everyone to bring at least one rat along at all times. They should be able to turn us invisible. It won’t be perfect. A patrol will see through it if they use a powerful enough scrying spell or if you start throwing your magic around, but it will help if you lay low and don’t use your magic. Remember, we need to be careful. We cannot afford to get caught now.”

  “Okay.” Katie pursed her lips. They had more than enough rats to go around, but her master was right. They wouldn’t stay invisible for long, even with the rats’ help, if they started using their magic. “When do we start?”

  “Right now.” Timmy grinned. “Come on. We need to get closer, and I spotted a ridge near the citadel that we can use for cover. Once the barrier goes down, we can’t waste any time. They’ll definitely have a backup of some kind, and the damage will only keep the barrier down for two, maybe three, hours at the most. The closer we are, the more time we’ll have to get Amanda out of there.”

  Once they were as close to the Nameless Citadel as they could get without being detected, Timmy and Katie circled the citadel with some rats to get a closer look without being spotted. It wasn’t as big as he remembered although he’d only been a boy then, not a man. Timmy was glad Rubens had come along for this mission. The rat was similar in size and age to Rembrandt, but he had matte black fur, which made him virtually impossible to see in the dark. However, what made him truly exceptional amongst the rats was the strength of his invisibility. Rubens was probably the best at invisibility in the entire clan of rats, and he specialised in using it for infiltration and assassination. With his help, Timmy and Katie could stand right next to the barrier without being detected unless they were struck by a powerful scrying spell cast by a mage who specialised in that area of magic. And even that might not fully reveal them since Rubens wasn’t the only rat they’d brought along.

  “Can you see it?” Timmy asked Katie.

  The girl nodded. Her eyes had already focused on the barrier between them and the citadel. One of the things that made Katie such an obnoxiously prodigious student was her ability to perceive magic. Sure, she was short sighted – those glasses of hers weren’t for show – but she could perceive magic with a level of detail few people could match. Whereas most mages would see Avraniel’s magic as a torrent of fire, Katie was able to make out the currents of magic that breathed life into the elf’s fire. It was one of his strong suits too, actually, and one of several reasons that he was good with runes and seals. He could see the way magic flowed through them more clearly than most mages. Between the two of them, they should have no problems seeing the intricately interwoven strands of magical power that made up the fabric of the barrier. With a sufficiently high knowledge of runes and seals, it should be possible to reverse engineer at least some of what had been done to create the barrier in the first place. Certainly, Timmy would have to if he wanted his plan to work.

  “It’s so complex,” Katie whispered. “I wonder how long it took them to make it.”

  “Breaking things is usually a lot easier than building them. I’d say it would have taken at least one human lifetime for someone to come up with this, and that’s assuming whoever was responsible was very good and had ample help.”

  “And you can bring this down with only a day or two’s work?” Katie gave a low whistle of approval. “How did you learn all of this? Was it your master?”

  Timmy winced. “Do you know what my master once did to test my knowledge of runes and seals? Once he felt I was good enough at deactivating and disarming runes and seals, he locked me in a room designed to burn me alive, along with a host of other truly unpleasant things. He gave me an hour to get out by disabling everything. Otherwise, he’d have to find a new apprentice.”

  “How long did it take you?” Katie gulped. The closest he’d ever come to doing something like that to her was locking her in a room with assorted zombie parts and giving her an hour to come up with a zombie capable of killing a hydra. His ingenious apprentice had been seven years old, and she’d only needed twenty minutes.

  “Fifty-seven minutes,” Timmy replied softly. “My master was kind enough to put a clock in the room, so I would know exactly how much time I had left. It ticked so loudly.” He shook himself. “Don’t worry. I do plan to step up your training in runes and seals, but I’m not going to do anything like that to you. I’ve invested far too much time and effort into training you, so the last thing I want to do is to go looking for a new apprentice.”

  “How kind of you, master.”

  “I do my best, Katie.” Timmy poked her in the cheek, and Katie twitched. He had to bite back a laugh. Normally, she would have swiped at him with her shadows, but they both knew she couldn’t risk it since they might be spotted. It was so fun to tease her. She was wonderfully adorable when she got murderous. “Rest assured, however, that when you have become better with runes and seals, I will put you to the test. Yes, I know what to do. I’ll put your lunch in a box and slap some runes and seals on it, which will blow it up unless you deactivate them. I’ll do that every day until you learn to either disable the runes and seals or learn to go without lunch.”

  “You’re crazy, master.” On her shoulder, Rembrandt gave him a baleful glare. Clearly, the rodent did not appreciate him threatening Katie’s lunch.

  “A little bit, yes.” Timmy pointed back at the barrier. “What you have to remember is that barriers are almost always created using seals, and seals are like arches. Look for the keystones – the pieces that hold everything together. If you can break or disable those, then everything will fall apart. If you remove the keystone of an arch, it doesn’t matter what you’ve made it out of. It will fall down. Brute force won’t be enough to break through a barrier this complex and well made, so I’m going to find its weak spots and turn its own strength against it.”

  “I can’t believe I’m only learning this now.” K
atie huffed. “You should teach me more about runes and seals. What if I end up in prison, and I have to bust my way out?”

  “Katie, unlike my master, you and I are both too sensible for that to be particularly likely. And if it did happen, I would, naturally, come get you because you happen to make my life a lot easier and I’ve already spent years moulding you into a suitably terrifying successor. But, yes, once we get back home, I will teach you more about runes and seals, especially the ones used in combat and for imprisonment. It’s not easy to learn, so most people stick to the basics. If you can learn that much – and you’re smart enough that you should be able to – then you should be able to handle most situations without a fuss.” Timmy nodded absentmindedly to himself. “I’ve seen enough. Let’s head back. I hope the others have managed to map the flow of magic around here. I would have done it myself, but I needed to see the barrier from up close.”

  “Avraniel should be able to do it. Elves are very sensitive to the flow of magic in the land.” Katie winced. “But she might be even worse at drawing than you although the demolition rats are good at drawing. They show me a lot of their designs for explosives.” She paused. “Some of those designs really worry me.”

  They returned to the camp they’d set up that was hidden in the shadow of a nearby ridge to find Avraniel and the demolition rats arguing over a piece of parchment. Old Man shot them an amused look as Gerald joined the discussion with another piece of parchment.

  “I’m afraid that theirs is, well, better than yours,” Gerald said.

  “Are you saying I can’t draw?” Avraniel growled.

  Gerald put both of his hands up in a placating gesture – and Avraniel put him in a headlock. “I’m not saying you can’t draw. I am simply saying that perhaps the rats have done a slightly better job although you still did a good job.”

  Timmy peered at Avraniel’s map. It made his drawing abilities – which were a constant source of amusement for Katie and Sam – look like the work of a master. Then he looked at the map the rats had drawn. It was a thing of beauty: perfectly to scale and highly detailed, showing all of the places where the flow of magic in the surrounding area was strongest and most likely to concentrate.

  “Avraniel, you can’t draw.” Timmy ducked under her fist. Yes, all of the dodging he’d done over the years because of Katie’s shadows had definitely improved his reflexes. “Rats, good work. This is perfect. I can get started now.” The rats cheered. Timmy glanced up at the sky. “Don’t forget that the goggles I gave you can also let you see in the dark if you channel magic through them although not all of you will need any help.” The rats had excellent night vision, as did Avraniel and Spot. Katie could sense things through her shadows, which meant that she had an almost perfect grasp of her surroundings in the dark. Only Timmy, Gerald, and Old Man didn’t have any natural advantages at night. If things went according to plan, Gerald wouldn’t have to fight, and Timmy and Old Man could rely on their goggles. Besides, Timmy had a feeling that Old Man had a trick or two up his sleeve. “I’m going to need all day tomorrow to get ready. Tomorrow night, once it gets dark, we go.”

  Timmy spent the rest of that day and much of that night working, and he was busy throughout the following day crafting the seals he needed. There were three sets: one set to block the flow of magic in the surrounding area, another set to help store and then release the build up of magic in one big surge, and a third set to attack the seals the Nameless Citadel used directly. They needed to be placed at a total of eight key points since the citadel was built on top of an intersection of several magical currents. He would need a total of ninety-six separate sealing instruments, which would have taken him more than a week to craft on his own. However, he’d already done a significant proportion of the work earlier, and Old Man more than lived up to his earlier words. Once he had seen the designs, the swordsman had asked Timmy to step aside before copying the seals onto the special stakes Timmy had decided to use with a speed and accuracy that was equal parts frightening and impressive.

  As night approached, Old Man finished, and Timmy called the others to the middle of their camp to explain what was going to happen. It would be tricky, and there were about a billion things that could go hideously wrong if they didn’t cooperate, so it was vital for all of them to be on the same page.

  “Okay, demolition rats,” Timmy began. “How good is your aim?” The various rats squeaked their replies. “Good. I need you lot to go up into the air on Spot. I’ll be relying on you guys to throw those stakes and get them into the correct positions. You should be able to keep Spot invisible while you’re flying around since he isn’t very big, but any sentries they have will get suspicious once you start. I’d have put up the stakes earlier, but they would have drawn too much attention during the day, and there aren’t enough of you to cloak all of them.”

  “Once the stakes are in place, get back to us. I’ll use my magic to activate the first two sets of seals.” Timmy nodded at Spot and Avraniel. “That’s where you two come in. Avraniel, I’ve incorporated some of Spot’s fire into the third set of seals. I’ve also worked some of your magic into those seals too. I need you to turn the embers of Spot’s fire that are in those seals into an inferno. You need to do it quickly because I can’t blow the barrier until you’ve weakened it enough. When the barrier blows, there’s no way you’ll be able to miss it. Once the barrier is down, we move in. I’ll create a sandstorm with my magic to cover our approach. They’ll know we’re coming, but they won’t know who we are or how many of us there are.” Timmy gestured at the map of the Nameless Citadel that Burag had drawn. “Avraniel, I want you and Old Man to hold this area here with Spot and some of the demolition rats. They have a small army inside the citadel, and I want you to get their attention and keep it.”

  “You want me to get their attention? Oh, I’ll get their attention, all right.” The elf’s lips curled. This was what she’d been waiting for. “Do I have to worry about property damage?”

  Timmy shook his head. “No. Go nuts. The only thing you have to be careful about is the building where Amanda is being kept. Try to avoid damaging it. Once we’ve got her, you need to cover our retreat. Feel free to blow up whatever you want on our way out.”

  “What about us, master?” Katie asked.

  “You and Gerald are coming with me,” Timmy said. “We’ll also be bringing Rembrandt, Rubens, and some of the other demolition rats. We’ll be breaking into the building where they are likely to be keeping Amanda. Based on what Burag told us, she should be in one of the cells in the ultra-high security building, probably somewhere underground.”

  Timmy’s brows furrowed. “Unless things have changed, which I doubt, the head warden of the Nameless Citadel is the guardian of the ultra-high security building. He is someone who specialises in summoning magical creatures. Let me handle him. I have a few tricks up my sleeve that Gerald will be looking after until it’s time to use them. Katie, you and Gerald need to break Amanda out of her cell. The cells in the citadel are connected to the same flows of magic as the barrier. If we bring down the barrier, the defences around the cells should be weakened as well. They should stay up – they’d have to be idiots to link everything so closely – but they should be weakened enough for you to break into a cell from the outside. Amanda is likely to be very weak from lack of blood and whatever else they’ve done to her. Find a guard – there should be plenty of them around – and hand them over to her. A bit of blood should have her back in fighting form in no time. Be careful when you’re freeing her. In fact, let Rembrandt cut her free. She might still be confused and attack you.”

  “Right.” Katie reached up to rub Rembrandt’s back in a gesture that was more about soothing herself than soothing him. Rembrandt was a warrior through and through. He would approach this battle like he did any other – by giving it his all. “The guy you mentioned earlier, the summoner, can you really handle him on your own, master?”

  “In a fair fight? Not likely. He was
able to overcome my master, and he was about the same age as I am now when he captured us. He could easily have gotten stronger since then. But you know me. It’s not going to be a fair fight. I’m going to cheat – a lot.”

  “That’s what you always say, isn’t it?” Katie grinned at him. “There are times when you play fair and times when you cheat with everything you’ve got.”

  “Exactly. This isn’t a sparring session or a training exercise. In this situation, fighting fair is a great way to end up dead.” The sun had begun to set. “Okay, it’s time. Let’s move.”

  It didn’t take long for the rats and Spot to get their part done. Spot might have been very young, but he got along well with the demolition rats, and he was much smarter than his stilted mental speech suggested. As they landed back with the others, Timmy put on a smile. It was time for him to get to work.

  “Brace yourselves.” He reached deep inside himself for his magic. He had to be careful now. He wasn’t at the castle, so he couldn’t simply draw off the virtually limitless power of the things that lived underneath the castle. He had to ration his magic as carefully as he could while still using enough of it to do what he needed to do. “You’re in for a show.”

  Timmy flared his magic in a specific pattern, and the first set of seals activated. The air around the Nameless Citadel thrummed to life as the eight major currents of magic that provided the citadel with power clogged and jammed. Instead of flowing freely through the land and into the citadel, magical energy began to back up. Timmy chuckled. Oh, this was going to be fun. It had only been several seconds, but there was already enough excess magical power in the air to make the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. Blowing apart the barrier would be like pushing over the most elaborate set of dominoes in the world.

  He waited until the seals damming up the flow of magic began to crack under the strain before he activated the second set of seals. The excess magical energy surged into them, and the metal stakes glowed like stars amidst the sand as they fought to contain all of the power. Once the second set of seals had absorbed as much power as they could, he activated the third set of seals. These were his pride and joy. He’d worked some of Spot’s black fire into them, and the seals launched his flame into the barrier. Alone, those embers would never have been enough – which was where Avraniel came in. He’d connected the elf to these seals too, and he gave her a sharp nod. Avraniel’s magic surged, and her power turned the embers of Spot’s fire into a conflagration, an inferno of corrupting flame that swathed the barrier in clouds of black fire.