Jonathan Moeller - The Ghosts 05 - Ghost in the Stone

by Jonathan Moeller

  “It should be safe to open your eyes,” said Sicarion.

  Caina took a deep breath and looked around.

  She stood in a corridor in the slaves’ quarters, not far from where Marzhod had spoken with Tiria. Corvalis stood nearby, hands on his weapons, his eyes fixed on Sicarion. The scarred man leaned against the wall, his deformed face calm, but his eyes were narrowed.

  “Will Nicasia come after us?” said Caina.

  “Unlikely,” murmured Sicarion. “Bound elementals do exactly as they are told, and no more. Unless Ranarius gave it specific instructions to chase us down, it will stay there until Ranarius fetches it.” He sneered at her. “Unless the slave girl decides of her own accord to come after us. Since you were so kind to her.”

  “We’ll need help,” said Caina. “The Ghost mercenaries in the Palace will aid us. And if we tell Lord Corbould what happened, we can get assistance from the Imperial Guard.”

  “We can’t,” said Sicarion, “since Lord Corbould and Lord Khosrau have abandoned the Palace for a more defensible location in the city, lest the assassins strike again. The slaves have no wish to be murdered in their beds, so they’ve all fled. The Palace is deserted.” Another jolt went through the floor, dust falling from the ceiling. Caina thought of all that stone balanced above her head and shuddered. “We’re on our own. More convenient that way. No witnesses to kill.”

  “Ranarius will be in the Gallery of the Well,” said Caina.

  Sicarion waved a hand through the air. “And he’s raised some kind of defensive spell around the Gallery.” He gave an irritated shake of his head. “I can’t tell what is it.”

  “We’ll find out when we get there,” said Corvalis. “Let’s go.”

  They ran through the corridors. By unspoken agreement, Caina and Corvalis let Sicarion take the lead. Caina would never turn her back on the scarred assassin. Sicarion flashed a mocking smile over his shoulder at her and kept running.

  They left the slaves’ quarters behind and ran through the rich corridors of the Palace. Elaborate hangings of Anshani silk covered the walls, while niches held statues in the Nighmarian style or gleaming Istarish weapons. Weapons and statues and silk all trembled as the floor vibrated. The vibrations grew stronger, and Caina wondered if the Palace of Splendors would collapse around them even before Ranarius woke the Stone.

  They ran into one of the lesser courtyards ringing the Gallery of the Well itself. A wide reflecting pool filled most of the courtyard to the left, though Caina thought it looked deep enough to serve as a cistern in the event of a siege. A single narrow bridge of stone stretched over the pool. An elaborate garden filled most of the courtyard to the right.

  The archway straight ahead led to the Gallery of the Well. Through the archway Caina saw flashes of golden light, and she felt a faint tingle, growing ever stronger, as Ranarius summoned mighty forces.

  Sicarion stopped.

  “What are you waiting for?” said Corvalis.

  “There’s a ward here,” said Sicarion. “It might blast us to ash if we blunder into it. If I can disarm it…”

  The floor heaved, and Caina stumbled. For a terrible moment she thought they were too late, that Ranarius had finished his spell and the great elemental was rising…

  Then she heard the grinding noise coming from the marble flagstones.

  The floor splintered, a dome of jagging stone rising up. It swelled higher and higher, five feet, ten feet, twenty. As it did, it unfolded into a rough human shape, a crude statue wrought of jagged, broken rock. Twin golden flames flickered in the rough craters of its eyes, and Caina felt the pressure of the strange thing’s gaze.

  “Oh,” said Sicarion, drawing his sword and dagger.

  “What is that?” said Corvalis, raising his own weapons.

  “A lesser earth elemental,” said Sicarion. “Ranarius must have summoned it to act as his guardian.

  “Why hasn’t it turned us to stone?” said Caina.

  “It isn’t strong enough,” said Sicarion. “But it’s a twenty-foot giant made of broken rock. It’s going to pound us into bloody paste.”

  The elemental loosed a rumbling roar and surged forward.

  It was like watching an avalanche.

  “Move!” said Sicarion, and the scarred man raced left, his cloak flapping out behind him. Caina ran right, hoping to avoid the elemental’s attention. Corvalis charged straight at the hulking stone figure. What was he doing? Did he have some clever plan for dealing with the elemental?

  The elemental raised a massive stone leg to crush him, and Corvalis darted to the side. His sword and dagger lashed in a vicious stroke, the blades raking across the back of the elemental’s leg in a hamstringing blow.

  The elemental did not even notice the strike. Its leg hammered down, and Corvalis only just dodged it. He backed away across the courtyard, his blades held out before him.

  “Idiot!” Sicarion circled the reflecting pool. “It’s made of rock! You can’t kill it with a sword!”

  “What do you suggest?” said Corvalis. “A hammer and a chisel?”

  “This,” said Sicarion, raising his hand, and Caina felt the tingle of Sicarion’s sorcery. A peculiar blue light flickered around his sword. A heartbeat after that, Corvalis’s sword and dagger glimmered with their own blue glow.

  Caina drew a dagger and saw the blade glow, her skin tingling with the presence of sorcery. She almost threw the weapon away in revulsion.

  “You cannot destroy its physical form!” said Sicarion. The elemental took a lumbering step towards Corvalis. “You can only break the spells binding the spirit. The spell on our weapons will do that. Hit the flames in its eyes – the spell is centered there.”

  Caina drew her ghostsilver dagger. No blue light glimmered around its blade. Ghostsilver was proof against sorcery. Did that mean it could disrupt the spell binding the elemental, even without Sicarion’s aid?

  Time to find out.

  Sicarion charged the elemental from the right, his sword trailing blue light, while Corvalis came from the left. Caina rushed towards it, hoping to draw the elemental’s attention. Yet the hulking shape ignored her, instead turning towards Corvalis, raising fists like massive boulders.

  Caina snatched a throwing knife from her belt and flung it, her arm snapping like a cracked whip. The blue-glowing blade shot through the air, struck the elemental’s forehead, and bounced away. Her next throw was more accurate, and the blade whirred into the elemental’s right eye. The elemental bellowed in rage, and for a moment the golden flames in its eyes flickered and dimmed.

  Sicarion had been right. If Caina could get close enough, she suspected a solid stab from her ghostsilver dagger could break the binding spell.

  Except, of course, the elemental’s eyes were twenty feet off the ground.

  Sicarion reached the elemental first, swinging his blade with heavy two-handed strokes. He struck the flat of his sword against the elemental’s leg, the weapon clanging with every strike. The blue light caused the elemental pain, or at least annoyance, and the creature flinched from the impacts. Corvalis attacked from the left, hammering at the elemental with the flats of his sword and dagger. The elemental bellowed in fury, swinging its massive fists, and Sicarion and Corvalis danced away. It took a few stumbling steps after them, and for a moment its legs lost cohesion.

  But only for a moment, and then the creature pursued Corvalis.

  Corvalis retreated, dodging around the creature’s hammer-like blows, lashing at its fists whenever they drew close enough. With every hit, the elemental growled in pain. But its rage had fixed upon Corvalis and it pursued him. Sicarion circled around the elemental, striking blow after blow, but the elemental only flinched a little from his hits. Sooner or later the elemental would wear them down, and then the creature would have them.

  Unless Caina did something clever.

  She sprinted in front of Corvalis and hurled a knife. A flash of blue light, and again the blade drove home in the elemental’s left
eye. A shudder went through the creature’s body of rubble and boulders. The knife fell free and the golden fires of its eyes blazed with new fury.

  And again the creature’s head turned to face Corvalis.

  “Run!” he shouted.

  Caina stood motionless.

  The elemental was ignoring her. Her throwing knives had caused it more injury than Corvalis’s blades, but still the creature lumbered after him. Why?

  The realization dawned on Caina.

  The elemental couldn’t see her. The shadow-cloak hid her from divinatory sorcery and protected her mind from sorcerous intrusion. Could it also hide her from the sight of spirits?

  Ridiculous. The Defender had been able to see her…

  But the Defender was inside Nicasia’s body. It had seen her through Nicasia’s eyes of flesh. The lesser earth elemental was only a spirit bound within an ambulatory pile of rubble.

  A plan came to Caina.

  She ran towards the elemental and threw back the cowl of her shadow-cloak. A ripple went through the creature’s body, and its misshapen head swiveled towards her. Caina drew another third throwing knife and flung it. The blade struck the elemental’s left eye with a flash of blue light, and the creature loosed an ear-splitting roar of outrage.

  It turned towards her, Corvalis forgotten, and Caina grinned in triumph.

  Then the elemental raced towards her, faster than it had moved in pursuit of Corvalis.

  Faster than she had expected, actually.

  Caina sprinted, leading the elemental across the courtyard. The creature thundered after her, every footstep sending another tremor through the earth. She risked a glance over her shoulder, saw the elemental drawing closer, racing after her with the speed of a galloping horse.

  That was bad.

  “Marina!” shouted Corvalis, and she saw Sicarion grinning. He thought the elemental was going to smash her and free the Moroaica.

  Well, in the next few heartbeats, she would find out if he was right or not.

  She sprinted onto the narrow bridge over the reflecting pool.

  The earth elemental followed her, still bellowing.

  And then the sound of shattering stone swallowed the elemental’s enraged roar.

  The bridge heaved and Caina toppled to her knees, grabbing at the railing for support. She turned to see a quarter of the bridge collapse into the pool, the elemental following it.

  At once the clear water grew cloudy as the dust in the elemental’s body turned into mud and silt. Golden light flashed and flared in the elemental’s eyes, distorted through the murky waters. The elemental took one step forward, and then another.

  And then its body fell apart. Chunks of stone settled to the bottom of the reflecting pool. The golden light in its eyes went dark as its head fell apart.

  Nothing remained of the creature but a pile of motionless, muddy rock.

  Caina let out a long breath and pulled herself back up.

  Sicarion and Corvalis stood at the edge of the pool, staring at her.

  “How did you do that?” demanded Sicarion.

  Caina shrugged. “I didn’t do anything. It was an elemental spirit of the earth. It could control earth, rock and stone…but I wagered it couldn’t control water.”

  Corvalis laughed. “Remind me not to bet against you. I don’t have the money to spare.”

  Caina nodded. “Get out of the way.”

  She sprinted forward and jumped over the broken stub of the bridge. Her boots slapped at the edge of the pool, and Corvalis caught her arm and pulled her the rest of the way over.

  “Thanks,” said Caina.

  Corvalis nodded. “That was…astonishing. I was sure that thing was going to kill us all. And then you tricked it…and that was that.”

  “It…yes,” said Caina. She was aware of his fingers against her arm. It was a ridiculous thing to notice. She had just escaped death from the elemental, and was going to almost certain death at the hands of Ranarius. And yet…

  The ground shook beneath them.

  “As touching as this scene is,” said Sicarion, “Ranarius is about to blow up Cyrioch.” He grinned. “Do you think watching all those children die is going to be heartwarming?”

  “The little devil is right,” said Corvalis. “Let’s go.”

  Caina nodded, retrieved her throwing knives from the courtyard, and headed for the Gallery of the Well, Sicarion and Corvalis following.

  Chapter 26 - The Stone of Cyrioch

  A flare of golden light illuminated the Gallery of the Well.

  Caina felt the crawling tingle of Ranarius’s sorcery grow stronger and stronger. The ground vibrated beneath her boots, a low rumbling filling her ears. From time to time the floor heaved, the walls groaning.

  The Stone was waking up.

  Caina ducked into the shadows of the archway and looked into the Gallery, Sicarion and Corvalis besides her.

  Ranarius stood a few feet from the Well, arms thrown back, robes rippling in a wind that rose from the Well itself. Pulse of golden light flickered from the depths of the Well. Ranarius shouted the words to his spell, sorcerous energy charging the air. Caina’s stomach clenched with nausea, her skin tingling, but she ignored the discomfort.

  “Can you shoot him from here?” murmured Caina.

  “Aye,” whispered Corvalis. He carried a shortbow beneath his cloak, along with a small quiver of arrows. “From this distance, I can put an arrow in his chest. Unless he’s bothered to ward himself against steel.”

  Sicarion whispered a spell under his breath and traced his hand before him. “He did.”

  “Damnation,” muttered Caina. She had hoped Ranarius would grow overconfident, but one did not survive as a disciple of the Moroaica by taking foolish risks. “Could you dispel the ward?”

  “Probably,” said Sicarion. “But if I try, he’ll sense it. Better for you to sneak up behind him and put that ghostsilver blade of yours into his back.”

  “Folly,” said Corvalis. “He would see her before she got within fifty paces.”

  “How fast can you take his ward down?” said Caina.

  “A few seconds,” said Sicarion.

  “Could you shoot him the moment Sicarion dispelled the ward?” Caina said, looking at Corvalis.

  Corvalis nodded, lifted his shortbow, and set an arrow to the string.

  “Do it,” said Caina.

  “As you command, mistress,” said Sicarion, voice heavy with mockery. He took a deep breath, lifted his free hand, and muttered a spell, blue light flaring around his fingertips.

  Ranarius lowered his arms and turned, frowning.

  His eyes widened in alarm as he saw them.

  “Oh, damn it,” said Caina. Ranarius began casting a spell, his hands moving in rapid motions. “Sicarion!”

  Sicarion pointed, blue light flashing around Ranarius. “Now! Shoot him!”

  Corvalis loosed his arrow as Ranarius cast his spell.

  A violent gust of wind blew through the Gallery, tugging at Caina’s cloak. It caught Corvalis’s arrow, throwing it off course.

  Apparently Ranarius had learned more than one spell from Andromache.

  “Go!” shouted Sicarion. “Fools! Take him before he casts another spell!”

  Caina sprinted into the Gallery, ghostsilver dagger in her right hand, throwing knife in her left. Corvalis dashed to her left, while Sicarion ran straight at the master magus. Ranarius flung out his hands, and Caina felt a sharp spike of potent sorcery. Blue light flashed around him, and Caina hurled the knife. It was a long throw, but her aim was true. Yet her blade rebounded from Ranarius’s throat as if it had struck a wall of stone.

  He had renewed his ward against steel.

  Corvalis and Sicarion charged Ranarius, and the master magus gestured at them. Invisible force hammered into the two men and flung them across the gleaming marble. Sicarion rolled a dozen feet and landed upon one knee, while Corvalis pushed himself up with a groan.

  Caina readied another throwin
g knife. Ranarius would not see the knife as a danger, but if she could get close enough to use her ghostsilver dagger…

  Ranarius lifted his hands, and Caina prepared to charge.

  “Sicarion!” spat Ranarius, his voice full of loathing. “I didn’t recognize you. You had a different face when last we met.”

  “You burned away most of the last one,” said Sicarion.

  The tingling against Caina’s skin grew stronger and sharper.

  “The Ghost and the Kindred,” said Ranarius, glancing from Caina to Corvalis and back to Sicarion. “I suppose you set them free?”

  “They wanted you dead,” said Sicarion, “as do I. A certain commonality of purpose makes for a convenient alliance.”

  “Why don’t you kill both of them and join me?” said Ranarius. “Your heart craves murder. Kill me, and when I awaken the elemental within the Stone, you’ll help me murder all of Cyrioch.”

  The tingling grew stronger. Caina looked at the Well, but the pulses of light had not grown any stronger, and as far as she could tell, Ranarius was not casting another spell.

  Sicarion laughed. “I have no wish to die myself. You’re like a child playing with a loaded crossbow, Ranarius. You’re going to shoot yourself in the face.” The master magus’s eyes narrowed. “You can’t control a greater elemental, and it will crush you when it awakes. Not on purpose, probably. Like a man stepping on an ant. It won’t even know that you’re there.” His hideous face stretched in a grin. “So I’ll just have to content myself with killing you.”

  “You could be free, Sicarion,” said Ranarius. Caina took a step towards him, and he gave no response. She took another step, and then his cold eyes fell upon her. “The Moroaica is trapped inside her. I can turn the Ghost to stone, and the Moroaica will be sealed away for centuries. You’ll be free to as you wish.”

  “What I wish to is kill,” said Sicarion. “And working for the mistress, I can kill far more people than I could on my own.” His smile widened. “She’ll kill the world.”

  “What a tedious vision,” said Ranarius. “It’s just as well that you won’t live to realize it.”

  He thrust out his hand, the tingling redoubling, and Caina realized that the entire conversation had been a ruse. Ranarius had been gathering power for another spell the entire time.