by Devon Vesper
As the enemy tightened their ranks, it only helped Valis’s men and women take them down at a faster rate.
“We’re outside the gates,” Valis heard a team say, recognizing Shyvus’s voice.
“As are we,” another called. Brogan added, “More are coming. I see them.”
That meant they all had their shields set to allow them to see through other invisibility shields. That fact made Valis marginally relax.
By the time they made it to the south gate, Valis had more than enough men and women for his mission. He counted out their numbers. Once he had twenty reliquary guards, eight mercenary assassins, twelve Kalutakeni warriors, forty Aesriphos, and Tavros, Seza, Zhasina, Cassavin, and Nevesar separated from the others, he had his team move aside.
“The rest of you head back inside.” Valis added the parameter for his entire army to hear him again and said, “Those of you left in the stronghold, you are our diversion. Keep up the assault. They should thin out when we start attacking within the monastery.”
“SIR!” echoed back at him, and Valis motioned for everyone in his new team to follow him.
It didn’t take long to find the magically hidden path. Valis took the lead, and they headed off at an easy jog so they wouldn’t wear themselves out before they got back to fighting. By the time they made it to the tunnel entrance, Valis called for them to take a moment’s rest to recuperate from their run. Everyone took a squat, and Valis motioned for one of those with the translocation trait to approach.
“Phase back to camp and bring some water skins so we can refresh ourselves before continuing.”
She nodded. “Sir!” Then she disappeared, and Valis squatted to rest. Tavros squatted next to him and nudged him with an elbow, their armor clanking together, loud in the stillness.
“You okay?”
Valis smiled at him. “I’m fine. Just taking a moment to rest.”
“What’s the plan?” Shyvus and Phalin squatted in front of them, and soon all the reliquary guards surrounded them.
“This boulder behind me is false. It’s a magical gate. We’re going through, and the tunnel beyond will dump us out into the labyrinth.”
“I’ll phase for paper and pencil,” Shyvus said. “We need to orient ourselves in that labyrinth in case something happens and you can’t lead.”
He disappeared without another word and returned with the labyrinth map and pencils as well as a couple sheets of paper. The woman came in behind him, almost phasing on top of Phalin. She regained her balance quickly and started passing out water skins.
Valis took a long draught and passed it to Tavros before pulling the labyrinth map to himself. “He pointed to a spot close to the monastery, about five hundred yards away, and tapped the outer wall. “We’ll land here.” He followed the maze around until it exited at what appeared to be a dead-end near the right-most wall of the monastery.
“Here’s where we’ll come out if we take the right way. You all will follow me around the entire maze.”
“Why?” Seza asked.
Valis pointed at the traps. “I need to disable these in case we need backup.”
“Noted,” Zhasina said. Others echoed her.
“Once we disable the traps in the entire maze, we’ll phase back to this tunnel to regroup from the fighting.” He looked around. “Any other questions?”
No one spoke up, and Valis rolled up the map and phased it back to Aryn’s side. He stood to stretch his legs and took another deep swallow of water when the water skin came back around. And when Valis saw everyone had perked up a bit, Valis stretched as much as he was able. “Everyone ready?”
A chorus of “Sir!” echoed within the soundproofed shields, and Valis handed the water skin back to the woman collecting them. “We’ll head in soon. Relieve your bladders and anything else you need to do, and we’ll be off.”
Five minutes later, Valis touched the boulder. It felt real, but with a bit of magic, he put his hand through the spell and changed it to look real but allow his men and women to pass through.
As in his vision, the tunnel looked rough-hewn. Writing lined the walls at odd intervals. Roba translated for him. They are names of those who died while creating this. Apparently, those from nearby villages and cities came here undercover. This tunnel was never found, but some of those who ventured here died along the way from Qos adherent traps. Each block of writing lists where they were killed, when, and their names. This tunnel is their collective tombstone.
Valis’s heart ached at that. They will be remembered.
“What brought on that look?” Tavros asked. His face glowed softly from the mage lights that floated with them within their shields. “You look like you’re about to cry.”
Valis shook his head and motioned to the next block of text. “This entire tunnel is a tombstone for those who lost their lives trying to excavate it. These blocks of writing are their names and the locations of where they died and the dates of their deaths.”
Everyone grew somber at that, and all Valis could do was keep walking.
By the time they made it to the opposite end of the tunnel, an hour and a half had gone by. Valis prayed their army could continue to withstand the rush of enemies. He touched the shimmering wall of rock and turned it translucent to those within his shields with the parameter to allow them to pass through.
Several Qos adherents patrolled the area, their faces grim and their bearing straight speaking of army training. Valis blasted them all with a stasis spell. It felled the entire group before anyone could raise the alarm. He siphoned their magic dry before sending a spell to stop their hearts.
With them gone, Valis waved his men and women to follow him. “We’ll head to the entrance first and clear a path, then head back the way we came and deal with those on their way to fight. That will at least give our army a bit of a respite. Keep an eye on our rear.”
Valis made it to the first floor trap and bent to touch it, pushing black magic into his fingers so it wouldn’t trigger. He drew the magic within the trap into his personal reserves, and once the floor was clean, Valis jogged down the labyrinth toward the next one.
“I hear more. Get ready,” Valis called.
“SIR!”
Valis blasted the group with a concussive blast that knocked most of them into each other, the back getting pummeled into the wall. Several recovered faster than Valis liked and sent a concussive blast in return that Valis failed to brace against.
He flew into Shyvus, who caught him, grunting with the impact. “Oops.”
Valis cackled madly. “No kidding.” He magically stuck his feet to the floor as the Qos adherents re-shielded themselves and sent a volley of concussive blasts in a panic.
“Where are they?” someone shouted.
Valis cast a shield over them, absorbing their attacks. He siphoned as much magic as he could until someone else called, “My magic—”
Valis clenched his fist as he willed the shield to shrink. In the next moment, the enemy turned into a bloody pulp. Bones shattered. Their screams echoed, and Valis tightened it even further, faster. When he let it drop, blood, body parts, and viscera exploded everywhere, body fluids dripping off Valis’s team’s shield, parts falling off in chunks.
Tavros sighed next to him and gave Valis a look that made him snort. “Sorry.”
“That was disgusting, Valis.”
“But entertaining,” Shyvus said from behind them.
“Can you get this off our shields without dropping nastiness on us?” Cassavin asked.
Valis cast another shield within the shield already active. Then he peeled the first shield back until it reached the ground, leaving piles of gross on the ground all around them. Cassavin gagged. “Valis…”
He shrugged and stepped over half a torso and a ragged thigh. “Deal with it.”
After he slipped and almost fell on his face, Valis waited until his entire team cleared the carnage and cast the pyre spell on the corpse parts so the way would be clear when t
hey returned.
“How far do you think we are?” Tavros asked.
“There are five more traps along our way. On the way back, we’ll be taking the dead-end detours to disable those traps in case any of our people get turned around.”
Nodding, Tavros looked ahead and sighed. “Remember to conserve your magic. None of us are as powerful as you.”
“I remember,” Valis said. And at that reminder, Valis broke the pyre spell off from himself so it would continue burning without his direct input, and put itself out when everything was gone.
They came upon another trap about eight hundred yards away. Once Valis took it down, they continued on their path. When they made it another hundred yards, Valis heard a commotion at their back.
“What’s going on back there?”
Brogan called ahead. “Enemy group found the pyre. It’s stalled them.”
Valis took out his pocket watch and scried the area. There were only twelve people there, and the pyre spell stopped them. With a deep breath, Valis shielded them and cast the pyre spell in the shield. The moment he did, shrieks echoed and then faded as they succumbed to the deadly heat.
Valis snapped his pocket watch closed and led the advance. “Problem solved.”
“That’s gross, Valis,” his husband muttered. “At least kill them first. Why must you keep burning people alive?”
“Saves time,” Valis said with a shrug.
Nevesar cackled. “That’s actually a fair answer. Good thinking, Valis.”
“More will probably encounter that pyre,” Shyvus warned. “Brogan, keep an ear out for more shouts.”
“Will do.”
A sudden pitting of Valis’s stomach almost doubled him over. Tavros grabbed his arm to steady him. Valis called back, “Incoming!”
As they rounded the bend, a wall of men and women ran toward them. “That shout was somewhere up ahead,” the leader shouted. “Find them!”
Valis broke their shields up and molded them to his army’s bodies. “They can’t see us. Get rid of them.”
As Valis and Tavros cut through the leaders, panicked screams arose. “Aesriphos! Where are they?”
“I can’t see them, sir! I—” That woman’s call ended in a choked scream that got cut off as her head left her shoulders.
“Fuck! Fall back!”
Valis called to those behind him. “Grab on. Ten of you.”
As Valis felt them link with him, he grabbed Tavros’s forearm, phased behind the group, and killed the leader of their retreat.
“Cut them down!” Valis shouted above the din of panicked voices. “Brogan, Rylas, keep an eye on our tail.”
“SIR!”
Chapter Sixteen
“What’s wrong?” Tavros gave Valis a nudge, their armor clanking softly at the impact. “You look a bit off.”
Valis shook his head. “I’ve been draining them as much as I can. I’ll need the extra magic pool when we find the Sovereign Priest of Qos.”
They led the way through the labyrinth, taking the path that would lead them to the official exit. Valis had absorbed the magic of the floor traps and erased them throughout the maze up until the hidden side entrance that would take them to the monastery unseen. But there were still two in their way, and Valis wanted to be sure they were dealt with in case his army needed to take that path.
“Keep an eye out,” Valis said. “I’m going to scry after Aryn.”
At Valis’s word, Tavros visibly relaxed, and Valis fought against a smile as he pulled his pocket watch out and flipped down the mirror-like golden cover. Within moments, Valis had a link. “Aryn, did you get the map I sent you?”
Aryn inhaled sharply but seemed to recover fast. “I did.”
“I want you to find a way to scry into everyone’s shields and show them that map, and the hidden entrances. Can you do that?”
The boy took a moment, then said, “I can.” He didn’t sound absolutely certain, but Valis knew Aryn could do it.
“You can,” Valis said with certainty. “I know you can. Make sure they know that the entrance I marked in is hidden with magic. They just have to walk through the false wall, and it will take them to a side entrance in the monastery.”
“It will be done, Grand Master,” Aryn said solemnly. “I’ll find a way. You have my word.”
“I know you will,” Valis said with confidence. “Take care of that now. Hopefully, we’ll see you soon.”
“Be careful,” Aryn said, sounding younger. “All of you. Be careful.”
“Promise,” Valis said. Then he ended the scry and glanced over at Tavros.
“He’s fine.”
Tavros nodded. “For now. I can only pray that he’ll be okay through this entire mess.”
Taking a deep breath, Valis nodded then squared his shoulders. It was time to get this done.
“Everyone link up,” Valis called, their soundproofed shields keeping them silent to their enemy. “We’re going to phase to the hidden exit. It’s closer than we are now to the next floor trap.”
After another thirty or so minutes, Valis had all the traps absorbed. Valis looked up in time to see a huge contingent of Qos adherents advancing to their location from the monastery. At a glance, he guessed there to be over one hundred men and women marching toward the mouth of the maze. Valis called for his team to link up again, and once he felt their presence as one, he translocated them to another part of the maze.
“Why did we retreat?” Cassavin asked. “We could have taken them!”
Valis shook his head. “I don’t want our position to be compromised,” Valis said. “We deal with them inside the maze, not in their courtyard.”
She nodded, acquiescing with grace. Once she stood down, Valis took out his pocket watch and scried after that grouping of the enemy and waited until they were well into the maze before calling Shyvus up and showing him the scry.
“I need you to translocate to this spot. Can you do that?”
“Easy,” Shyvus said. “How many?”
“Half.” Valis rolled his shoulders. “I want them surrounded so they can’t retreat for backup. With the narrow corridors of this maze, it should be easy to create enough chaos that they make serious mistakes.”
“Done,” Shyvus said. He immediately turned around and started gathering his forces. After a few moments, they phased out, and Valis heard shouts ahead. He called to his others, “Advance!”
They ran the short distance through the maze and joined the fight. Valis made sure Shyvus and his team were shielded, but the moment his mind focused on them instead of the fight ahead, Valis lost his concentration, and both shields winked out of existence.
“Aesriphos!” The call went up, and the sea of black armor and blood-red tabards surged. “Kill them! Attack the back! Send for reinforcements!”
Valis snapped up their shields as soon as he regained his wits. He left off the invisibility parameter, molded it to his team, and advanced, threading himself through the throng, killing any who stood in his way. When he met up with Shyvus, they looked around, and Valis motioned back toward the false wall segment.
“Fall back!”
And once everyone was safely away, Valis lit the bodies aflame, keeping them hidden by an invisibility shield that filtered out the smoke. He turned up the heat, intent on burning the bodies at a fraction of the normal rate.
When he finished adding the parameters, he raced back toward his men and women. He skidded to a stop when he reached them and rolled his shoulders. “Take a moment and heal your wounds. We should be fine for a few minutes.”
“Sir!”
Valis took his time to refresh their shields, adding the soundproofing and invisibility parameters. He was almost positive the Sovereign Priest of Qos would find a way to break his shields down, but hopefully, that wouldn’t happen until they were deep into the enemy monastery.
As they waited for their team to mend themselves for the coming battles ahead, Valis pulled Tavros close and rested their fore
heads together. “You okay?”
Tavros smiled and tilted his head for a kiss.
Valis didn’t deny him.
“I’m fine, love. You?”
Valis nodded and let out a breath. “I’m getting precognitive pitting. We may be walking into a trap.”
“We’ll deal with it,” Tavros murmured. “Let’s get in there before we start adding to our problems.”
Nodding, Valis nudged his nose to Tavros’s and breathed him in, stink and all. They’d be able to bathe once they made it back to the nearest village. He just hoped and prayed that their forces would hold up long enough to get there. How many had fallen? Valis had seen shields flickering. He’d tried to shield them all, but with Valis and his army inside the maze, they were left with their own personal shields, and Valis worried.
But they were hardened Aesriphos. They had taken care of themselves for centuries. Each one of them had seen war before Valis was even conceived. They had spent centuries each honing their abilities, learning how to ration their magic, how to hone it down so they could do more with less and still keep the strength at peak levels. He had to believe in their ability to keep themselves safe. And he had to do the same with those who stood with him now. Valis had to remember that Thyran had only unlocked his magic just over a year ago. He had to trust that they were smarter with their magic than he was and that the reliquary guards he’d left behind would look out for those below their rank, as they had done for centuries.
Pulling back, Valis gave Tavros one last kiss and turned toward his team. “Is everyone ready?”
As the chorus of “Yes, sir!” echoed within their shields, Valis nodded toward the false wall. “Remember, as you go in, do not be surprised. The layout and look of the enemy monastery exactly resemble Avristin down to the last white block. The only differences are the people inhabiting it, decorations, and the Light of Phaerith is missing, replaced by a black blob.”
He looked around. “Once we clear the dungeons and retrieve Darolen, we will get him to safety before heading up. I want every corridor cleared, so we aren’t surprised from behind. Is that clear?”
