The labyrinth of caves and ledges seemed to have led to up to the top of the mesa, where it appeared there was another village. The cornfields were just the beginning. She could see apple trees, rows of vegetable gardens, penned in animals and many rounded structures. These she assumed were houses, made of clay and stone into dome-shapes, as though mimicking caves, with small windows and arching doorways. There was a well in the middle of the village with a large blue stone perched on the tip of the roof above it. Katya could feel the spell that drove it, like the one that she had used out on the Plains to gather water to her. It must be performing a similar task, pulling water up from the streams below into the well for the village.
A couple walked by and Katya slunk further into the shadows of the corn. They were talking and laughing happily, and as the woman flung her hair over her shoulder Katya was surprised to see that she had the mark on her neck! Katya watched carefully, sure that she must have seen it wrong, but as she sneaked around the village, she saw that more of them bore the mark and there was no doubt that is what it definitely was.
What were they doing with a village of marked people? Were there experiments going on up here on them? She didn’t have too much time to ponder this as she soon spied what she had come here for. At the far end of the village, there was a large stone, suspended in midair by five strands of power, undulating in electric waves. They all attached to a large circle of metal standing vertically on the ground, with the five power points coming out from the stone to small spheres attached to the circle.
The whole thing was ringed by a bunch of posts which were connected by a rope in a roughly square shape. She crept into the area around this and examined the stone. It shimmered and turned colors in the light – a moonstone as Kali said it would be. It appeared that she would somehow have to disable each of the five sources of power before she would be able to take the stone.
Probably another puzzle.
She ducked underneath the rope, and caught sight of someone behind her. A woman had spied her and opened her mouth in a silent ‘oh’ and her eyes grew wide.
“Don’t-” she began, but that was as far as Katya heard as a wall of bright light sprang up from the ground like blue fire and created an opaque barrier between her and the village.
Katya raised an eyebrow and reached out towards it. Her hand encountered a hard surface, impenetrable to the touch. Then a deep rumbling started slowly, building up speed and volume until the pebbles on the ground began to shake.
She eyed the ground warily.
Suddenly something burst through the section directly in front of the stone, tearing out of the earth violently. Dirt and rocks sprayed everywhere and Katya shielded her face from it. A loud roaring broke through the air, and she peeked out from under her arm. A gigantic worm wriggled half-out of the hole, its blind head searching for its prey.
Unlike the normal worms Katya was used to, this one had one large mouth with very un-worm-like teeth and several smaller copies of the same. It also had sprouted tons of tentacles coming out from around these mouths, pawing at the air to draw things into them.
“That’s more like it,” Katya murmured softly, sick of the frustration of the mazes and more than ready to take on something a bit more tangible. Marak wound her arm in anticipation, ready for action as well.
Unfortunately, the beast apparently had amazing hearing to make up for its blind state, and it immediately rounded on her, zeroing in with alarming accuracy.
Katya quickly bounded out of the way, bringing her knives to the ready and feeling Marak slither down her arm in preparation. She slashed at a few of the tentacles which came a bit too close for comfort, and danced away.
She tiptoed around the worm, keeping one eye on it while examining the mechanism that held the stone. It appeared that the spheres themselves focused the energy into the beam that held the stone, and were not simply physical anchors for a spell. The power was probably fed through the metal circle around it, and would just continue around if a sphere was damaged and break the connection to the center stone.
She cart-wheeled over the worm’s wriggling body as it glided over the ground, leaving behind a trail of slime, and took aim at the first sphere. She leapt forward with her knife outstretched, pulling her arm back at the last second and jamming the butt of the knife into the sphere.
It cracked and the beam of power crackled, but still it held. A wet tentacle slapped her in the back and another wrapped around her ankle. She slashed at the one holding her leg and scored. The worm made a hideous screeching noise and pulled its wounded appendage close to it while whipping several others in her direction.
More than one of these hit their marks and she was rebuffed by blow after blow. She felt welts raising up where they had connected. One hit her hard against her temple and she grew dizzy momentarily; long enough for another to get a grip around her waist.
The thing pulled her in towards its many mouths tantalizingly slowly. The gaping maws opening and closing with globs of spit dangling from the pointed teeth. She cleared her head quickly and stabbed away at the tentacles snaking around her body, tighter and tighter.
Marak was frantically biting each, but his poison seemed to have no effect. Seeing as how they were only tiny portions of a much larger creature, Katya did not find this surprising. It was unfortunate, however, as his help would have been greatly appreciated right about now.
She finally got enough of them to at least loosen their grip that she was able to squirm free, just before being stuffed into the worm’s largest mouth. The smaller ones snapped at her on the way down, one of them grabbing a mouthful of her tunic which ripped free.
As soon as her feet hit the ground she sprinted to the metal circle and picked up a rock from the ground below. She pounded it against the already cracked sphere until the object finally gave way, the crack enlarging into a long gash running along the length of it. The power beam from it to the stone wavered and died, the magic continuing to flow around the circle, as Katya had guessed, harmlessly.
The giant night-crawler had reoriented itself towards her and was wiggling its body in her direction, the huge pink blobs flopping over one another. Katya vaulted over one and rammed her knife into another, then dodged the resulting blows as she gave away her position.
She led the worm away from the stone circle and then sped away from it back towards it, using the time it would take it to realize where she was to break another of the spheres. The second beam died just as the tentacles slapped at her feet and she once again danced away.
In a trial of patience, she repeated this process; drawing the beast away and closing in to finish off another of the focus points until all five of them had been destroyed. As the last beam was reabsorbed into the circle, the stone in the middle fell to the ground, ready for the taking. Now all she had to do was finish off the monster…
She turned her full attention to it now, and watched for her opening. It turned its massive head and opened it mouth to let out a fearsome roar and Katya let loose her knife, embedding it in the soft flesh of the creature’s throat.
But that wasn’t enough to kill it apparently. It gurgled and grunted a few times, then swallowed hard, her knife disappearing into its belly. She drew the sword she’d fortuitously swiped from one of the guards below, and avoided a questing tentacle. She lunged forward and slashed across the brute’s midsection, creating a large gash. She hopped backwards out of its reach as it reacted to this blow, then dove in again to hack away at the same section. With similar patience as breaking the stone free had just required, she slowly but surely hacked away straight through the creature’s slimy exterior.
The two halves writhed around and lay still. She sheathed her blade and turned to retrieve her prize. Searching the ground, she soon spotted it amongst a patch of taller grass off to the side. She moved to picked it up.
A wet slurping sound filled the air behind her and Katya stopped mid-step. Turning slowly, she was appalled to see that the two hal
ves had drawn themselves up and now both were coming for her. The shorter section hobbled along, using the tentacles to pull it forward, while the longer, headless section wobbled about, its grotesque gory stump spattering insides as it flung itself from side to side, searching.
Abandoning the stone again for now, she looked around for another means to dispose of the giant worm. Rather than immediately rush forward to attack, she observed it for a few moments, noting that it seemed not to want to stray too far from the dirt from whence it came and the head section was shying away from the flaming wall that separated them from the village.
Katya spared a thought for what she was going to do when that barrier was released, if it was released. The townspeople could just send in one monster after another until she was finished off, creating some morbid entertainment for their day. But the worms were getting closer, there was no time to ponder that fate quite yet.
As the creature moved, it left behind the disgusting slime trail, but she also noticed that it lost part of its slimy texture as it did so. It was growing drier. And just as an earthworm may die if trying to cross a rock that was too long in the hot sun, perhaps this worm too might die if it was dehydrated enough.
Katya reached for the power and directed the heat of the flaming wall towards the beast. This left her somewhat vulnerable as she needed to concentrate on the spell rather than watch for the waving tentacles, but she was done playing with the monster. She needed to be on her way.
The heat started to dry up the beast’s slimy hide, but it wasn’t enough. Katya suddenly had an idea. She tapped into the spell that fed the well in the town and diverted its questing to finding water from the worm rather than from the surrounding area. It was tricky to keep the probes directed at the thing. They kept trying to slip through her magical ‘fingers’ and back to where the original spell had sent them, but she persevered. It was working! Redoubling her efforts, she focused all the tendrils of the spell that she could on it, until it had dried up into a cracking husk.
Katya dropped her control over the other spell with a sigh. The wall of fire around the square sputtered and died, and she walked quickly over to where the stone had fallen.
“Katya,” said a voice behind her, and she was surprised into pausing her motion. She turned to the man who spoke, ready to defend herself, but he was simply standing behind her serenely. “Please,” he beseeched her, “take the stone if you must, but hear what I have to say…”
CHAPTER 12
Back at the palace, Layna set to work feverishly to act upon the information that Alina had provided about Lord Telvani and Lord Farthen’s activities. The fact that there were items somehow connected to the spell that was affecting the Council members could potentially be the break that they needed. If they could find these items, there was a chance that the Council would go back to normal.
Alina had reported that their handlers had destroyed the items of the test subjects once they had discovered the fate of those performing the spells. She said that, to the best of her knowledge, this had freed those under compulsion. And while it hadn’t stopped the progression of the Bricrui transformation completely in those who had done the spell, it did slow it down.
It stood to reason that if Telvani had known that he could halt the process by destroying these items that he would have, especially after having been ousted. His estates had all been thoroughly searched, though the hidden compartment in his desk here in the palace suggested he was extremely cunning with his hiding spots. They had also belatedly found several secret passageways running throughout his house, so if he had hidden the items there, why would he not have already destroyed them?
Charles had found him wandering close to the palace’s extended grounds, and though he did have one small apartment within the city, it was largely unused and unlikely to be chosen as a safe-house for something so important. Therefore, she and Gryffon had come to the conclusion that the items were somewhere in the palace. He had been spending much of his time here and would want to keep them close.
They had ordered a sweep of the entire palace, concentrating on those areas which Telvani spent the majority of his time. She and Gryffon combined their considerable magic force to search, but had so far come up empty. Layna was doubling eager to find the items, both to have her Council members restored, and to buy Alina more time.
They took a moment to sit and think, bringing Phoenix into the throne room to let her climb on the massive chairs. She kept trying to pick at one of the jewels encrusting the throne, specifically a giant ruby on the bottom. Gryffon was half-heartedly batting her hand away, though it was unlikely she’d be able to dislodge it anyway. This throne had been made centuries ago. It would be pretty impressive if their little girl could break it after so long.
There was a sudden *pop* and Layna’s eyes widened. She’d apparently jinxed it. Baby Phoenix was sitting back, laughing, holding up the giant ruby in front of her happily. Gryffon took it from her as she lifted it to her mouth.
“Our baby, the destroyer,” he commented affectionately.
“Indeed,” Layna said, a small smile playing on her lips. Hopefully none of the aides had noticed and they could simply stuff it back into place before they noticed the blasphemy.
“It’s hollow inside…” Gryffon’s muffled voice came over the edge of the throne from where he was crouched down in front of it.
Layna got down on her hands and knees with him in front of the thrones. The casing where Phoenix had pried loose the jewel was not a solid backing as would be expected, but rather a dark opening into the center of the chair. She glanced at Gryffon and raised an eyebrow.
He stuck his pointer finger into the hole and tried to feel around, but it would only fit in up to his first knuckle. He tried to pull it out, but it stuck.
“Curses,” he swore, biting his tongue on any other words he may have been thinking after a glance at their daughter. He yanked on his hand a bit harder, and a metallic click sounded. As he drew his finger backwards, an entire section of the throne moved forward with it, revealing a small drawer.
Inside was a carved wooden box. Gryffon reached in a lifted it out carefully, replacing the drawer and the gem knob.
“This must be it,” Gryffon exclaimed excitedly.
“Careful,” Layna warned, feeling the power within it and cautious of enchantments that may be placed upon it to stop anyone from getting to his precious items. She should have guessed that they’d be hidden underneath the throne, where he had decided it was his place to be. “He may have trapped it.”
Gryffon nodded, and they hastily returned Phoenix to the nursery to bring the box to the practice room. Once there, the two of them huddled over it. They had brought several of the royal mages as well, just in case. They sat there staring at it for several long minutes.
“Can anyone tell if it is enchanted?” Layna asked finally.
She was met with many uncertain gazes and a few shrugs. No one could positively identify a trap on it. That didn’t mean there wasn’t one.
“Well, here goes,” Gryffon stated with a quick puff of air and put his hand over the lid. He held it there a moment, readying himself, and everyone in the room tensed. Then he flipped it open quickly, withdrawing his hand.
Reddish smoke snaked out of the box and all eyes watched it warily. Then suddenly it shot outwards in many different tendrils, one for each person in the room, which wrapped themselves quite solidly around everyone’s necks.
Layna’s hands flew to her throat where the smoky rope was tightening around her windpipe and crushing the air out of her. The mages all were throwing spells at the offending tendrils, or clawing at their throats in an attempt to gain some hold on the vaporous weapons.
Stars danced in Layna’s eyes and she caught Gryffon’s glance. He nodded towards the box meaningfully, and she quickly realized that he meant for them to jointly attack the box rather than the tendrils. It was the source of the murderous spell, so they would need to somehow cut the tendrils o
ff from the power of the box that was keeping them going.
Layna ignored the burning in her lungs, as they begged for oxygen, and closed her eyes to combine her power with Gryffon. The two of them dove into the material of the box and quickly found the stone that was embedded under its lid, from which the spell was drawing power. They balled up a burst of energy aimed directly for this ball and set it loose, exploding the stone into a thousand tiny pieces.
Layna gasped for breath as the magical rope around her neck disappeared. Gryffon and the mages around the room did the same and looked around to make sure everyone was alright. Other than all being slightly short of breath and all no doubt in for some serious bruising the next day, they were all fine.
“Yet another lovely surprise from Lord Telvani,” Layna commented lightly.
Gryffon reached into the box and drew out several objects – six of them to be exact – and smiled. “I think we’ve found what we’ve been searching for.”
They had gathered all of the Council members into the royal infirmary in order to keep an eye on them and she and Gryffon hurried inside with the objects. They did not want to simply destroy all of the objects at once in case something went wrong, but deciding which to start with would be a difficult decision.
They had not been able to determine the exact mechanism of the spell even with Alina’s description and the notes that they had discovered among Farthen’s belongings. They were hopeful, however, that if they incinerated the object with a magical flame that it would sever the connection from Telvani to the Council members. Lord Telvani was worsening, and there was no telling what would happen to them if they were still connected upon his death. They had to act now.
They chose one of the items at random, not bothering to try and guess which it belonged to in order to avoid making any kind of choice between them. Holding hands, they focused on creating a flame and incinerating the item. It was slow to catch fire, resisting the flame, but once it caught it burned rapidly.
Bricrui (The Forgotten: Book 2) Page 16
