Magic & Mayhem

by Susan Conley

  Mona rose from the stump, her legs protesting the movement. She’d ignored the discomfort while running, determined to get away from the bear. Cart stood next to Nic, looking at a contraption resembling a radar gun. Tania had her back to them, her hands sweeping the air in front of the wall. Likely checking for the feel of spells.

  “I can’t believe you have that,” Cart said as Mona caught up to him. “We’ve tried to get some, but they’re too new and aren’t on the black market yet.”

  “They’re also highly restricted—at least, this type is. Of course, officially, I don’t have this one.” Nic flashed a grin at them before going back to touch the screen. “Okay, let’s look.”

  Nic walked to the left and squared himself to the still intact section of the wall. He braced the unit with both hands and pointed at the stonework. All of them, even Tania, crowded around him and stared at the blank screen.

  Nic did something and green lines raced down the screen from top to bottom, crisscrossing and multiplying to create the illusion of depth and dimension. The room was pretty much square except for a series of lumps at the bottom.

  “That’s the first room, the one on the left?” Tania asked.

  “Yeah, wait just a sec, it should fill in, yeah there it goes.”

  The green grid had been overlaid with tones of gray, adding a layer of detail missing from lines. They all stared at the images, particularly the human like shapes at the bottom.

  “The lumps on the bottom, those look like two mummies,” Tania said.

  “There could be bodies there, I don’t know,” Nic said.

  “Not alive?” Cart asked.

  “Unlikely. They’d have to be holding pretty darned still for their breathing movement to not register.”

  They all looked at each other.

  “Smythe and his ward.” Mona was the first to say it. Had to be—who else would be in the complex?

  “Are you going to be okay?” Cart asked Mona.

  “You don’t have to go in, you can stay out,” Nic said.

  “Nonsense,” Tania decisive slash of her hand let everyone know what she thought of Nic’s offer. “She knows they are just empty husks, their souls with the goddess. She’ll be fine. Right?”

  Mona looked at Cart. This wasn’t the first time she’d seen deceased elves, but for it to be Smythe. The Maven was right, though, she new they were empty husks, Abner’s soul had left its shell behind when he’d sent the spell to transfer knowledge to her. She could do it.

  “I’ll be fine.” She shrugged. “And if I’m not I’ll let you know.”

  Nic clapped her on the shoulder. “Don’t be a martyr. If you need to step back, step back.” He raised the scanner and the room came back into view. His finger traced a slightly darker area. “This looks like a room, not the hall, although there is a door there. It could be the way in. Let’s see the next space.”

  He took several steps to his right and repeated the procedure. This time the image was of a hall. Although a couple of the vertical lines seemed to be wavering.

  “Ah, that’s movement, isn’t it?” Cart said. “Those lines that keep changing.”

  “Yep.” The image again turned gray and a hall with no apparent end appeared. “Look here.” Nic pointed to a spot to the side. “There seems to be niches built into the walls.”

  Cart and Mona uh-huh’ed in agreement; Tania remained silent.

  “The first set appears to be empty, but there could be something there that the radar isn’t picking up. The second set definitely has movement,” Nic said as his finger traced the places on the screen.

  “Likely something that doesn’t need daylight and can do without food for a while,” Mona said, trying to figure what might be able to do that.

  Tania and Cart looked at each other.

  “Or something that uses the stones for food,” Cart added. “How regular do the niches seem, are they the same height? No,” he answered his own question, “the one in the front on the right seems to be a bit lower.”

  “It could be a stone golem, although it’d be larger than any one I’ve ever heard of,” Tania said.

  “Maybe a small mountain ogre?” Cart said.

  “Or a quarry Wyrm,” Tania said, “although I haven’t heard of one this far from an actual quarry before. It could be any number of things. The only way to find out is to go in. Shall we?”

  She stepped up, and started to place her hand on wall.

  “No, wait! Go through the other side first,” Mona said.

  “A much better plan,” said Nic.

  “Why?” Tania asked.

  “It’s easier to open it now, before we see who is in the hall, than to have to come back later if there’s problems,” Nic explained.

  “Okay, then, I’ll do this one.” She stepped to her left.

  “Wait until Cart and Mona get back behind the tree, could you?” Nic said.

  Cart stayed where he was, clearly more reluctant than Mona was to move away from the action. Mona grabbed his hand and dragged him back to the trees. Once there they both immediately peeked around the trunk.

  “You really okay?”

  “Yeah.”

  Nic nodded at Tania. She placed her hand on the wall; spiral tentacles of distortion spread out, pushing aside the stone until a jagged star opening was left.

  “Cool,” Mona said.

  “Yeah, but not so safe to go through with those edges,” Cart said. He stood on tiptoe trying to see around the two at the wall. “Where are the bodies?”

  “What?”

  “I can’t see any bodies, wait—”

  They watched as Nic reached out and tore down a piece of fabric scrim, which had been painted to look like the inside.

  “Now that was cool.” Cart was nodding to himself. “A bit scary that someone went to all that trouble, but cool.”

  “And there are the bodies.” Mona could see the residual of magic around them.

  Tania leaned over the edge and then stepped in.

  “NIC!” Tania’s scream echoed across the clearing as her head slid from view.

  He lunged, landing flat on his stomach on the sharp stones.

  Mona and Cart scrambled over each other to get around the tree. She felt magic build up in Cart.

  “No! Don’t jump!” she hissed at him as she grabbed his arm.

  They watched as Nic slid a little further, then his body jerked. Tania gave a short shrill scream. They arrived in time to hear the soft thud of her landing.

  “Tania!” Nic leaned over the edge and yelled.

  Cart very carefully leaned over the edge of the wall and looked too. He pulled a small flashlight out and shined the beam down.

  “It’s muddy, I think she’s okay, although she probably got the wind knocked out of her,” Cart said. He shone the beam quickly around the room before turning it back to the pit.

  For it was a pit. Mona peered over the edge of the wall and could see the ragged edge of the hole. Two elves in death shrouds were on either side of the hole. Which made her think the shaft was probably thirty feet or so down, as that would be the correct depth for burial.

  She didn’t think she’d mention that to Nic, he might flip.

  Nic, in the meantime, was counting to ten under his breath.

  “Tania!”

  Another count.

  Another yell.

  “I’m going down no matter what. Even if she’s fine, I’ll need to do it so we can get her back up. It’s still not safe to do magic here.”

  Mona didn’t ask how he knew, but he was quite right, there was something off. She looked at the walls, trying to figure out what it was. The thick, planked door to the hall was closed. Whatever was on the other side, they still needed to deal with it.

  “Here.” Nic unclipped something from his belt, then unwound the rope he had coiled on his hip. “Make a winch so I can repel down.”

  “Right.” Cart stepped back and looked at the crenellated edge of the wall.

  �
��Tania!” Nic called again.

  Nothing. Cart set the unit up and helped Nic rig some type of harness.

  “Here.” The soft call echoed up the hole.

  Nic scrambled back to the edge and looked down.

  “You okay?”

  “I’m okay. Got my breath knocked out. Give me a minute.”

  Nic stood and finished tying up the knots. “I’m going down before she can say I shouldn’t,” he said in a low voice.

  “Easier to just not ask sometimes,” Cart agreed.

  Nic climbed over the edge and nodded at Cart. He began to slowly go down while Cart fed him rope at a steady rate.

  Mona kept an eye on the door and examined the room again. There was something to the side of one of the bodies, a book and some runes in the corner. Part of a containment spell, but not the main portion. That was through the door and on the other side.

  And there was a scraping against they heavy wood of the door from the beings in the hall. She looked over at Cart. He shook his head at her.

  The rope had stopped moving.

  “Wait,” Cart said in a low voice. “It’ll take them a little while to get through. And Nic and Tania are more likely to get hurt if we make them rush.”

  Slowly, although it probably wasn’t as long as the anticipation made it seem, more scraping sounds came from the door.

  “Yo,” Cart called down after a particularly violent push made the door shudder. Mona could tell he was worried—his New York accent was strong again. “You okay down there?”

  “Almost ready to come up,” Nic replied.

  “Good,” came Cart’s voice again, “‘cause we’re starting to have a situation here.”

  Fairly quickly, Nic called up that they were ready.

  The voices seemed to spur the beings into action because the beating at the door became furious. With a tremendous screech the wood splintered and a small gap appeared between the boards.

  Briefly a blue-gray, scale covered hand along with a short, reptilian snout appeared before slipping back out of sight.

  “Damn,” Cart muttered. “I haven’t seen that type of Wyrm before. Nic, I need you to hurry up!” Cart’s voice was calm, but the urgency was clear. His head swiveled back and forth between the rope he was bracing and the door. With the next pass, the splintering hole got larger. He jerked his head at Mona, indicating he wanted her to leave. “Go back to the trees. If I need to I can jump to you.”

  She ignored him and stayed. He called “Hold on!” down to Nic, whose head was barely visible from where they stood outside the room. Stepping back, he secured the rope around the outcropping. He started to scale the wall, heading up to where the rope was over a crenellation.

  “Go!” he yelled at her.

  Mona ran to the trees, fairly certain that Nic and Tania were close enough to the top that they’d be okay. Nic was beyond resourceful.

  She had to think that, or she’d be turning back.

  Steps from the tree, a wave of magic washed over her, making her skin itch. Instinctively she threw herself flat on the ground and covered her head. Small projectiles staccatoed against the bark of the trees. When she looked up, thin quills were embedded deep in the wood.

  Another surge, different this time. She started to scamper to the relative safety of the pines, backwards so she could see what it was and defend herself.

  Mona’s ears popped and Nic and Tania appeared, then collapsed onto the ground where she had just been. Nic immediately rolled off Tania and pulled out a knife.

  “You could have warned me,” Mona hissed. Okay, she knew it was an asinine thing to say, but if she hadn’t moved, she’d have been under the pair as they landed. Like that was the biggest of their problems. Mona looked back at the complex. The faint outlines of a beacon spell hung by the opening, like a faded pennant. Except in this case Mona knew each act of magic would strengthen the spell until the beacon would go off and the mage’s creatures would come.

  “Nic, get down!” Tania yelled as she crawled to join Mona behind the tree.

  He complied, managing to keep the knife out as he elbowed his way over.

  “Did Cart say what they were?” Tania asked.

  “‘Damn, I haven’t seen that type of Wyrm before’ were his words.” Mona shrugged.

  “What’s a Wyrm?” Nic asked.

  “In this case,” Tania said as she worked to free herself of the harness Nic had rigged up, “a reptile-like creature that can eat through rock. I want to get closer. Nic, I’ll put a shield up but you’d have to stay behind me or you won’t be covered.”

  “Let’s go,” Nic said.

  Tania stepped out from behind the tree, and Mona saw her build a shield of magic in front of her. It was a beautiful spell, a single rune, wall, modified by a sigil controlling the size.

  A surge of magic pressed against her again.

  “Watch out!” Mona said as she ducked.

  She heard the projectiles hit the shield with an angry ping of energy.

  “Damn, those things came fast,” Nic muttered.

  Nic and Tania began to walk forward. Mona peered at them from between the two trunks, only able to see a small patch of the ground between her and the Wyrms. After seeing the deep holes left by the second set of quills she was happy to live with the limited view.

  Nic and Tania stopped about ten feet out and scanned the wall. Cart had a large pile of slush set between two crenellations, the edge of which dripped onto the ground in front of the opening. How he’d managed to pile it up she didn’t know and her hindered view didn’t help.

  Another brush of magic against her skin pulled her attention away from Cart. Tania knelt. In her hand was a knife and Mona saw the runes that would merge stone with the metal form. The flare of magic as the working took hold was strong enough that Mona shut her eyes. When she opened them again Nick sat crouched next to Tania, sucking and spitting from her finger, as if she had venom in it.

  Tania jerked her hand away and he took a swig from his water bottle, which he spit out as well.

  Mona looked back at the wall, wondering why the creatures were doing nothing during this time.

  Tania looked over too, said something to Nic and they started forward, hunched over. The closer they got, the smaller they made themselves.

  “Hey, there, rock munchers, come and pick on someone who can fight you, why don’t ya?” Cart yelled suddenly, startling them all.

  A slight shifting sound from inside the cave, but neither came out.

  Tania and Nic were having a whispered conference slightly to the side of the hole.

  Suddenly Nic stood and shouted. “Hurry up! We’ve got to get the goods out of here by dark. We’ll get a great price for them only if we don’t miss the deadline.”

  Tania scrambled to get the shield up and in front of Mona’s foolish brother. Cart was braced to send the slush down.

  Nothing happened.

  “Wait!” Tania yelled at them both.

  There was a tense silence before she spoke again.

  “Wyrms, I am Maven Titania Greymantle, ruler of the Folk in this area. I promise to help you get back to where you belong, if you promise to help us discover who ruined this complex.”

  No answer.

  “Tap twice if you both are willing to work with us,” she said.

  The dripping of the melting snow sounded like a gong in the silence that followed.

  Two taps.

  “Okay . . . um . . . thank you for your cooperation,” Tania said. “For the safety of both sides I need to put a cooperative binding on you and on us. If you disagree at any point with what I say, tap three times and I’ll stop. Again, tap twice if this is suitable for you.”

  Two taps came rapidly. Mona wondered at the intelligence of the creatures.

  “If you’ll allow me, I’d like to come close enough to see if I can heal you. Would that be acceptable?”

  The creatures were hurt? She wasn’t sure how Tania had come to that conclusion, but then,
Tania was a lot closer.

  No taps this time. They waited and finally a claw feebly reached up, grasped the rocks on the bottom edge. The elbow kept dipping up and down in a futile effort to raise the Wyrm’s body.

  “Oh, for Pete’s sake. . .” Tania dropped the shield and strode up to the wall. Nic followed her more closely than a shadow.

  She leaned in and started talking to the Wyrms; Mona could almost see the calm she was projecting at them. Cart swung down and leaned in to have a whispered conversation with Nic. He looked back at Mona at one point, then continued on.

  Mona didn’t mind being out of it. It was one thing to be immune to a spell directed at her, missiles, rocks, and bullets were another matter and, despite Cart’s assertion that she put herself in danger without thought, she liked her skin too much to risk it.

  Tania asked for the rope, breaking up the guys’ conversation. She wrapped an end around her waist and climbed back into the room. Good precaution in case she fell again.

  Once Tania was in, Mona crept forward. The now familiar feeling of a warm breeze brushing against her body as Tania worked magic strengthened the closer she got to the working. She was not close enough yet to tell exactly what Tania did.

  Cart met her not too far from the doorway. “Glad to see you can listen well.”

  “Only when I agree it’s the best choice. What’s Tania doing?”

  “Apparently they have some kind slow acting poison in them. Obsidian? And she’s getting it out before they die from it.”

  Mona edged closer in time to hear the one talk.

  “Do it,” a voice croaked, high and raspy, like a lounge singer whose voice had stayed soprano. “I’ll make sure he is taken care of.”

  Tania created a wire thin lasso of magic and removed the foul piece from the scaly skin of the male one the floor. Or at least Mona thought it was male, given what the other had said.

  With beautiful economy, Tania used the line to slide healing magic in the puncture wound. Nic’s hand was on her shoulder, and a strong line of energy passed from him to her. Mona wondered if Tania realized he was augmenting her. The thread was so faint, she might not have picked it up, had she not been so close.

  A loud flatulation rent the air and Nic was sprayed with a thick, stinking mess. Oh dear, the Wyrm had lost control of its bowels. Tania’s lap somehow only got a trickle, which she ignored.