Spells of Old (Ancient Dreams Book 2)

by Benjamin Medrano

  “This is Guildmaster Kettle Black,” another voice spoke from mid-air.

  The third voice was deep, and Albert’s grin vanished as he sat up at the gravelly tone of the guildmaster of the Second Gate guild house. “Guildmaster Ironguard here.”

  “Guildmaster Windspeaker,” a last voice spoke quietly, the only female guildmaster in the Western Adventurer’s Guild making her presence known.

  “So, this is a report about your odd dungeon’s mana levels, yes?” Pot asked quickly.

  “That’s correct, Guildmaster Pot,” Albert agreed, nodding unconsciously as he continued. “I’ve already sent dispatches about the other oddities, but I can confirm the reports that came from Guildmaster Kettle’s exploration group. This dungeon is unusually rife with plants and ingredients, and the difficulty of the creatures definitely increases as one goes deeper into the dungeon.”

  “Interesting,” Ironguard rumbled. “And the mana levels? Why has the dungeon not been found before growing to its current size?”

  “There are several reasons for that. First, I must point out that the ambient mana levels in this region are twenty percent higher than normal, and aetheric turbulence is thirty percent higher than normal,” Albert explained calmly. “Worse, the mountains are riddled with disrupted ley line nodes, which cause aetheric ripples that have effectively halved the range of aetheric sensors. It’s no wonder we haven’t gotten any readings from out this direction, or that our more delicate devices can’t handle it. But that’s not why this dungeon was missed. It’s on the edge of the mountains, and thus should have been easily spotted decades ago.”

  “Then you have found the reason?” Windspeaker asked quietly, and Albert smiled at her polite, pointed question.

  “I have. Externally, the Dungeon of Everium, as it calls itself, emits only the mana levels of a minor wolf-grade dungeon. I knew that had to be wrong, so I took my sensor just inside the dungeon, then hired one of the dungeon servants to gather readings from the center of the dungeon,” Albert told them quickly. “My sensor managed to gather the data, but it exploded in the process. Ambient mana levels at the edge of the dungeon are three times normal, and at the center, they’re twenty-one times standard.”

  “That is… I would say impossible, but obviously not.” Kettle spoke for the first time since his introduction, obviously musing. “That entire dungeon is unique to my knowledge. Do you know how we missed it?”

  “Somehow, I’m not entirely certain what the method is; mind you, the dungeon is negating aetheric ripples within the dungeon. Much like mortals cause mana to flow through our bodies without it bleeding off, the dungeon has done much the same.” Albert grew serious as he spoke, sitting up even straighter. “This dungeon appears to have even greater control over its mana levels than the Great Labyrinth. And that isn’t the only oddity. While I was taking initial readings, I noticed several ley lines in the area. The readings inside are clear as well. The dungeon contains an earth, fire, and water node, and is using all three in harmony. As if that wasn’t enough, I’m detecting an air node drifting in this direction from the north. I believe that the dungeon is attracting the node deliberately.”

  “Dangerous,” Ironguard spoke, obviously on the alert. “That is a very dangerous thing to even consider.”

  “Indeed. Is your dungeon a threat, Guildmaster Windgale?” Windspeaker’s voice was much less serene as she spoke her poisonous question. “Do we have another potential Road to Hell on our hands?”

  “I do not believe so.” Albert swallowed hard as he realized that they were seriously considering destroying the dungeon outright. While the dungeon had dealt with simple soldiers easily enough, and would likely even destroy most adventuring parties, if the guildmasters dispatched a group of Dungeon Slayers… well, those individuals were the most powerful members of all four Adventuring Guilds. He couldn’t imagine anything surviving that. So he tried to allay their fears. “The dungeon has deliberately given directives as to what will avoid its ire, and also started producing consistent rewards as well for milestones. As I said, it has servants which, from what I understand, are largely slaves escaped from our host nation that it rescued. It seems largely benevolent to such individuals, and has put up a sign board that mentions it will occasionally spare a life in exchange for a period of service by the one spared. I think that is far different from the Road to Hell.”

  “Guildmasters? Your judgement?” Ironguard asked quietly.

  “Albert’s the one on the spot. I say we let him keep an eye on the dungeon,” Pot spoke almost instantly.

  “As much as I want to disagree with Pot for the disagreement’s sake… I agree with him. If the dungeon isn’t being actively hostile, there’s no reason to destroy it before it gets any bigger,” Kettle added, and Albert could almost see the old man nodding.

  “I concur with my fellow Guildmasters,” Windspeaker agreed. “While I find the news of the ley line nodes worrying, dungeons are not known for duplicity, save when regarding traps. They cannot hide their true natures for long.”

  “It’s unanimous, then,” Ironguard concluded, and relief flooded through Albert. He just barely was put in charge of the dungeon, after all. The dwarf continued. “Guildmaster Windgale, please keep an eye on the dungeon and inform the other guildmasters of any unusual developments.”

  “I promise to keep you informed,” Albert agreed, smiling slightly. “Thank you for listening.”

  “Good day,” Ironguard replied, and signed off.

  With murmured farewells, all of them save Pot. The old man spoke when it was just the two of them. “I’m glad to see that went well. Are you sure on the dungeon, Albert? Most dungeons with multiple nodes grow deranged if two are opposing, like the fire and water nodes of yours.”

  “I’m sure, Guildmaster. Penelope is here, and I wouldn’t risk my sister without a damned good reason,” Albert assured him, then paused before adding, “Besides… the dungeon let me take the readings of the central areas. That has to be worth something.”

  “True enough, I suppose. Be safe, Albert.” Pot chuckled, then broke the connection.

  “That went well,” Albert mused, shaking his head slightly. “Now to see if I can figure out how in the hells the dungeon manages to keep its mana flowing inside itself.”

  “I have to admit that the coins are a nice touch,” Joseph commented, taking his small pile of coins from the pedestal sitting next to the exit of the fifth floor.

  “Heh. It’s a lot easier than trying to sell off ingredients.” Darak chuckled, examining one of his own silver coins. “Though I do wonder what the images are supposed to represent.”

  Penelope simply rolled her eyes as she spoke up. “Come on, you two. We’ve got a ways to go yet. We’ve only cleared a couple of rooms of the sixth floor before, remember? This could be dangerous.”

  Nirath nodded, but didn’t say anything as Joseph smiled and nodded. “Very true. But it still is nice to see that the dungeon wasn’t lying about the rewards.”

  “I suppose that’s true,” Penelope admitted, then shivered as she added, “But I can wish it wasn’t so fond of ants.”

  “Personally, I’m curious to see the foundry that was mentioned,” Darak countered. “But that’ll wait until we find it, I’m sure.”

  “Of course it will. I’m just afraid of what we’ll find in the foundry,” Penelope muttered.

  Joseph’s smile faded somewhat at the thought, and he nodded soberly. “You might have a point.”

  “Hey, we’re adventurers, aren’t we? Adventure awaits!” Darak spoke cheerfully, grinning as he hefted his axe. “Let’s go!”

  Emerging from the mountainside into the forest, Hunter took a deep breath of the fresh air, almost surprised by the crisp breeze against her face. After the even temperatures from inside the mountain, the chill was somewhat shocking, reminding her that it was getting into the beginning of fall this far up into the mountains. And the Godsrage Mountains were well known for just how bad their winters
were.

  Still, almost all of them had emerged from the tunnel, and Hunter looked back in time to see the exit silently vanish, hiding the elven guards who’d escorted them out with cold, angry eyes. Shivering slightly, she looked at the others and asked quietly, “Now what?”

  “There probably will be a patrol around here. We just have to find them,” Derek offered as he looked around. “I can’t imagine that Lord Evansly would stop keeping an eye out back here.”

  “A good point,” one of the others agreed, rubbing his stubble with a grimace. “Let’s go, then. At least we know the town is nearby.”

  So they headed out, stepping gingerly in spite of their returned equipment, as there was no way to know whether or not traps had been set around the mountainside since they’d gone missing. But in relatively short order, they found a patrol, and relief overtook the group as they finally started back to their nation.

  Yet Hunter couldn’t help but wonder if maybe she should have made the same decision as Earl had.

  “So you can’t cook, and no skill at farming… what about laundry? Are you any good at that?” Lily asked Earl, seemingly at her wit’s end.

  “That I can do. I’m only as good as the army trained me to do, though,” Earl replied, relieved that she’d finally listed something he was decent at. He’d started to get worried, but he added quickly. “I’m also decent with carpentry. My father worked on building houses, so I know enough to get by there as well.”

  “Well, that’s something at least. I have no idea why Sistina put me in charge of giving people jobs,” Lily groused, frowning at him.

  The soldier was the only one who’d taken the offer to stay. In part, Earl admitted privately, it was because he felt guilty about what had happened to Farris right after she’d helped him. An even more carefully hidden part of him also loved the idea of staying in a cavern full of pretty elven women, but there was no way in all the hells he’d admit that part aloud.

  That he’d been moved to a proper room was encouraging, even if Earl occasionally rubbed the vine-like marking around his wrist, startled at how painless it had seemed to be. He hadn’t even felt any commands, though he wasn’t certain what to expect, either.

  “We all end up doing things we didn’t expect to,” Earl spoke philosophically, shrugging slightly. “I didn’t expect to get sent up here to found a town, I thought we were just going to scout some caves. Instead I ended up helping build stuff, then getting nearly squashed by a golem. Things change, you just roll with them if you can.”

  “Huh. You don’t seem to act much like I imagined a soldier from Kelvanis would,” Lily replied after a moment of staring at him, looking slightly surprised. “I’m not sure, I just… I expected you to be meaner.”

  “Some of us are. Mostly those on the front lines, if I’m being honest, since they get along with the orcs better,” Earl admitted. “A lot of us are just in it for the job, though. None of us wants to end up deep in debt, when we could end up enslaved. And what happens to you elves is really shitty, but when the choice is our families or foreigners… well, most citizens have never met foreigners. I hate to tell you, but that’s probably why the country as a whole doesn’t mind that you elves get enslaved.”

  “Shut up.” Lily’s tone was incisive as she stood up straight, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. At her words, Earl did as she said, wondering for a moment if he’d blabbered too much. A few moments later she spoke, her voice precise and anger carefully restrained. “I don’t care why your people decide they can get away with letting other people be enslaved like that. I don’t care at all. You aren’t the ones being torn from your homes and families, being forced to serve sadistic, evil people who see no problem with using us and then throwing us away like trash. I… I’m going to forget we had this conversation, Earl. Don’t bring it up again.”

  “Right. Umm… thanks, Lily. I didn’t mean to offend you,” Earl ventured, swallowing slightly. “When do I need to start helping out?”

  “Considering your injury, not until the end of the week. We’ve managed this long, we can manage a few more days,” Lily told him, her anger seeming to fade slightly, but not vanishing. “Rest well. You’ll need it.”

  Watching the elf leave the room, Earl sighed and settled back into his bed, mumbling to himself. “Well, that was a screw-up. Nice job.”

  Considering what Earl had said, Sistina suddenly found herself pensive. At first, she’d thought that everyone from Kelvanis deserved whatever she could do to them, yet now she found herself somewhat conflicted. If people were innocent, should she really just kill them outright?

  It was a conundrum that worried her. With soldiers, it wouldn’t be an issue from her perspective, but anyone else suddenly grew much more difficult to justify. Unless they were acting as adventurers, but that was a slightly different problem, especially with her current plans.

  After a few moments, she shook off the issue and continued to excavate a route to each of the two ancient temples she’d found a few weeks back. She was fairly certain that one of them might have something she could use to help Farris.

  Besides, Phynis would be the one to make the final decision on intruders. Not that her princess knew that, as she was back to practicing with Desa. Casually checking on Phynis, Sistina winced. Fire was not her favorite element, but at least Desa was skilled at putting it out.

  “Die, you stupid, damned… argh!” Darak spat angrily as he was knocked backward by the six-foot-tall stone statue. The strength of the impact was immense, making him feel like the blow had nearly dislocated his arm. It definitely left a bruise.

  The statue was made of granite in the shape of a human wearing full plate. It wasn’t detailed, and it wasn’t holding a weapon, but Darak’s initial assumption that it’d be an easy fight had proven very, very wrong.

  Penelope was hanging back, cursing as she tried to regain feeling in an arm, her speed-based attacks far less useful against a creature made of stone. Joseph’s blunt mace at least broke off bits and pieces, but the cleric winced with every hit. Even Darak’s axe had a hard time with the statue, and he felt like swearing a blue streak every time that the blade glanced off with only a few cracks.

  Chanting from behind him came as Nirath tried another spell, her previous bolt of flame having bounced off, and Darak braced himself for a bolt of lightning or such. Of course, when a spray of water hit the statue, soaking it and covering it in a swirl of water, he swore again. “Dammit, Nirath, what’s the big idea, giving the damned thing a bath?”

  “Has a dwarf learned nothing of quarries?” Nirath asked calmly, and quickly chanted another spell, even as the statue turned to swing at Joseph.

  The cleric dodged as a chill surged through the air in the wake of a wave of blue light. At the touch of the light, the water soaking the statue suddenly froze solid, and the statue creaked to a halt, the sound of cracking stone and ice echoing in the room.

  “Strike quickly, it will not hold the statue for long,” Nirath warned.

  “Right, sorry Nirath,” Darak apologized, flushing as he rushed forward to use all his strength on the immobile statue.

  Beating the frozen statue to pieces took only a minute, since the expanding ice had widened several of the cracks that they’d opened in its surface, but even so, Darak finally stopped, panting as he shook his head.

  “Honestly… I think that’s as far as we can get in the dungeon right now.” Joseph finally spoke up, warm golden light shining to tend to Penelope’s arm. He looked tired and glanced over at the exit from the chamber. It was the fifty-fourth chamber, and the statue had been guarding a door into an area where the stone looked worked. They could all smell the stench of sulfur in the air, and Darak sighed.

  “I think you’re right. That thing was… well, it was nasty. Slow, so if we wanted to run we could’ve, but really strong,” the dwarf admitted unwillingly. “Must be the gatekeeper into the foundry. What if there’re more of them?”

  “While the strategy I
used worked, conjuring the water in that manner was somewhat mana intensive,” Nirath added. “I could not do that many more times.”

  “I think that settles it. We’ve reached our limit in the dungeon for the moment,” Joseph announced, looking at Penelope as he asked. “Do you agree, Penny?”

  “Yes, damn it. I do not want this happening again.” The woman scowled at the pile of rubble. “Did we at least get anything out of it?”

  “Uhh… let me check,” Darak replied, feeling very, very stupid for a moment. He went through the room slowly, looking everything over as he muttered under his breath. Just as he was about to declare the room a loss, though, he spotted a slight light in the statue’s body. Approaching, he raised his eyebrows, reaching in to remove a small gemstone the size of the joint of his thumb, the blue gem glowing with a soft light. “Huh. A mana stone.”

  “At least something came of it,” the woman muttered crossly. “Now let’s get out of here.”

  Chapter 22

  “How in the name of all the gods did they get past the front lines?” Queen Diane Yisara demanded, her voice harsh as she stared at the map, her hands trembling.

  “We’re not certain, Your Majesty. Very little information has reached us so far, and a large number of nobles are unaccounted for,” General Skyreach replied, an ugly look in his eyes as he examined the map as well. “Aside from news of the Crown Princess’ escape, we’ve received word from about half of the other nobility, but we haven’t heard anything about how many escaped in total.”

  “Did they break through anywhere? Never mind, General, you would’ve told me if we’d lost contact with any of the border garrisons.” Diane shook her head, taking a deep breath as she tried to calm herself.

  “Has there been any word from Jaine?” Torkal asked, and Diane’s eyes clenched shut as her husband asked the question she’d been too afraid to speak.

  “No, Your Grace,” the general replied with a heavy sigh, shaking his head. “We’ve not heard from any of her guards, either.”