Ululating screams echoed across the cavern. Enemy soldiers were probing ahead, spears out. Arrows fell on the wall near us and svartalf officers were pulling on their helmets. The jotun was braiding together a spell. The spell became apparent, as bright light shone in the doorway.
They saw us.
I pulled Thak, and Kiera with me, and we rushed into the darkness. Ittisana pulled Cosia along, the bitch laughing as she was pulled, and I wanted to kill her in some dank, cold corner, or leave her for orc feed. We rushed down the nasty, dark tunnel, and despite the spell of seeing, I had a hard time trying to make out the way ahead.
Worse, the way grew very tight. Perhaps the jotun would not be able to follow.
We pushed forward, our gear grating on the walls. Behind us, there were guttural calls, a horn was blowing brutally, calling the enemy to hunt. We came to a small chamber, and Kiera pointed out a way. Thak turned in alarm. A large lizard was rushing at us. It jumped at us with uncanny silence and speed.
Then it changed midair.
The jotun crashed in the midst of us, ten feet tall. Its shield glinted as it turned to slay us, but Thak was fast, and he grew to match its size. His black fist crashed into the jotun’s face so hard teeth flew across the floor. The jotun fell on its back. Thak’s sword flashed, but a spell of fire spun past us as a svartalf surged into the room. Thak kicked the jotun, his sword swung and the svartalf died in a mangled heap of bloody armor. Thak pushed us out. We rushed on and on along the tight corridor. The windy, tight channel went further and further down, and I felt dizzy with terror, my hand brushing the wall’s sides.
The tunnel ended abruptly.
We were panting in a circular chamber, where some creatures had died a long time ago. What was left were bits of skeletons, some dusty armor, and a feeling of dread. There was a distant slapping of feet. The alarming sound was coming closer and closer, echoing in the tunnels, and I heard the scraping of armor on stone. Ittisana turned around, and around, lost. There were many ways in and out. Kiera was fumbling with the map, trying to figure out a way. Cosia laughed at us pointed at one, near disdainfully. “There!”
“Why there?” Thak growled and pulled her chain. “Why, you demon witch? Answer, or you’ll end up like your tattooed pal Bilac. She tasted like shit, but it will be my pleasure to join you two again.”
“Easy,” Ittisana said, clutching the chain back.
Cosia glowered at him, and probably took the threat seriously since she spoke softly and with respect. “It leads the right way. It leads to where we are going. I know some of these tunnels. No time for maps!”
Thak growled. Ittisana pulled Cosia to her. “I command you to speak the truth. Is that the right way?”
Cosia opened her fangless mouth and struggled. She nodded her head towards the same tunnel. “Yes. You can trust me. You know why.”
“What is she talking about?” I demanded Ittisana, but had no time to get an answer.
“Ware!” Kiara said. She moved fast, shot past me and from her hands bright fire stabbed up the tunnel we had just travelled. A line of fire shot up the incline, and something screamed up there, dying horribly. Arrows fell amongst us, one hanging from Ittisana’s chain armor.
“This way, then,” Cosia said, and we rushed to the tunnel with no further argument.
Kiera and her secrets. The whole plan stank. So did the reason why she had stabbed me. There had to be a reason for it. Ittisana and Thak were mysterious, and Cosia couldn’t lie? Cosia was a key part of the plan. I was sure of it.
They had a pact of some sort?
We moved fast now. The tunnel was larger, easier to travel, and we huffed our way forward. I felt sick and vomited as I ran. We had lost sense of time and of place, but kept moving. There was another chamber, red as blood, ancient and painted with white hands. Here Cosia hesitated, just a bit, but Ittisana pointed at a sharply fanged opening, and in we went. We rushed again, and then Thak was in the lead, and we reached yet another chamber, one filled with a dozen openings.
The sounds of the orcs grew distant. There were horns blowing, an occasional high-pitched shout, but nothing more, and I began to hope we might escape after all. Then, suddenly, a scream nearby. They had spotted or smelled us.
Thak cursed and pulled Cosia down a hole, leading to what I thought was the same direction we had been running. Cosia hissed and yelled a warning, but it was useless, as Thak was already making his way down steps and many of the enemy were fast approaching.
We followed them down the steps and burst into a round, bone-white chamber.
There was no door.
No way out.
Horns howled behind us.
CHAPTER 8
“You dumb ball of grease,” Cosia hissed in the corner. Thak didn’t react.
“Shut your face,” Ittisana said. The usually good-natured gorgon had a look of fury, and Cosia sat down, silent.
She had changed, they both had, I thought again. We’d all change into corpses in a bit.
“What should we do?” I whispered.
“We wait,” Thak rumbled. “We can do nothing else.”
Kiera blew hair out of her face. Up the tunnel, there were shadows flickering, orcs running about, calling out.
Kiera nodded. “They’ll come to pay us a visit in a bit. Best get ready.”
Thak took position on one side of the doorway, his dark face taut with tension. He grew to eight feet and his sword grew with him. Ittisana pulled her sabre and grabbed the shield off her back. She pulled Cosia’s chain and seated the gorgon near her. Kiera was walking near the end of the hall, running her fingers across the oddly pristine walls, looking desperately for a way out that might be hidden.
Cosia hissed, the black snakes of her hair weaving wildly. She tugged at her chain. “There is no way out of here, fool. None. Let me fight!”
Kiera fingered the ring that controlled her Bone Fetter. She shook her head at her. “Not yet.”
“Not yet?” Cosia spat, and went quiet as Ittisana scowled at her. A commanding, deep voice thrummed through the tunnels. It rose, demanding attention, and everything went quiet on top. I felt the cold claws of terror on my back. “They are coming,” Cosia whispered and moved behind Thak. “Hear them? Sneaking down?”
“Shut your mouth, you useless creep,” Thak whispered, and we all heard steps coming down, indeed.
I drew my sword and stepped next to Ittisana. “Which one?” I asked softly, “Which is the right hole?”
“There were six,” Cosia answered bitterly. “Six, and all to the left side of this one would have sufficed, and the idiot picked the one that leads to a dead end.”
“Doesn’t matter now,” I said. “You could have led, since you know the way, eh?”
“He pulled—”
“Shut it,” I growled. “Do you think they are all up there?”
Kiera sneaked next to us, and gazed up the tunnel. “There were thousands in the chamber when we were hiding. I think they must have kept most there to guard it, and they will have lost some on the way, checking the branching ways. I hear a hundred, more? Something else. Perhaps the jotun? A svartalf or two. I heard at least one speaking to the orcs.”
A stone skipped down the tunnel.
Ittisana crouched behind her shield. Thak raised his sword. It glinted in the murky dark.
Guttural voices could be heard whispering. There was a scrape of armor on rock, very near. I felt like pissing my pants.
Shadow appeared.
“Fight,” Kiera snarled, and pulled her sword.
Ha-Tooon!
A horn rang. A slap of feet and clattering arrows struck the floor around us. Thak roared and swung his blade, and an orc shrieked, his white plate mail shredded as the savage creature died, still clutching a shield and a sword. More poured in, jumping over the dead one, at least a dozen, and some got past us where Kiera appeared and laughed in their faces. They were snarling, hacking left and right, sneering, clawing. I hacked down, again, and again, sparks flying,
flesh opening. Ittisana did as well, roaring her battle screech. Her blade stabbed, her shield rang with hits, and orc bodies were soon heaped in the doorway. Long spears came in stabbing. An orc fell near my back, a victim of Kiera’s magical blade. Thak stabbed his sword at the orcs with spears, killed two, and howled, as arrows rained on his face and chest. Kiera stepped to the doorway, took four arrows without flinching, and released a spell, braided from deep, simmering spells only the dead might see. From her hands a spell made of fumes and the noxious fogs of Muspelheim’s fiery rivers sneaked forth. The spell billowed up the tunnel, and Thak and I gagged with the stench. Not so Ittisana, Cosia, or Kiera, who kept looking up, controlling the spell. The spell moved like a living green mist and now, the spear orcs screamed. They whimpered briefly, and fell into a mass of dead meat. Up the tunnel, warning shouts rang out. Kiera took another arrow in her shoulder, and she ripped it away. She braided together another spell, a spell of wind, and the deadly mist picked up speed. There were guttural screams, clattering of shields and weapons and the rattle of armor as orcs died. Arrows flew in again, and Kiera fell to the side, pulling at the shafts in her body. Up the tunnel and in the chamber, the screams faded, though obviously orcs still fell, but most had probably fled.
A crested svartalf helmet rolled down the tunnel and stopped at the pile of corpses.
Far, we could hear a harsh voice challenging the goblins, and it was not a voice of a svartalf, but something more sinister.
Thak nodded. “The Jotun is up there as well. And soon there’ll be others. Ban’s troops will come back.”
Kiera nodded. “My spell is spent.”
But they didn’t come. There was silence on top.
We sat there, exhausted. We remained alert for hours. There was only the drip of water, somewhere up the tunnel, and then the miserable voice of some wounded being, which went silent after a while. After a long wait, Ittisana finally spoke up. Her voice alerted all of us. “We have to try to get up there.”
I nodded, knowing we’d die. I spoke bravely, nonetheless. “We’ll have some spells to aid us.” I placed a hand on my mask. “I could use it, maybe. Though—”
“Don’t use your mask,” she said softly. “Not now. Save it for later. And you are hurt.”
“I’ll be hurt in Scardark, if I get that far,” I growled.
“No,” Cosia answered quickly. “Don’t wear it now.”
“Why do you have an opinion—” I began.
“We fight our way up, but no mask,” Ittisana whispered resolutely. “You might kill us as well.”
“That’s right,” Cosia added.
“Silence?” Thak growled and pushed her. “Shut your ugly mouth. You’ve been told a dozen times.”
Cosia did, glowering. I stared at her, trying to figure out the mystery that was Cosia. She was a prisoner, chained and fettered, and yet she spoke with authority and purpose. Kiera sighed as she saw me staring at Cosia, and nodded. “All will be made clear soon, Ulrich. We must brave the tunnel. We go up, and see what is happening. Perhaps that queen of Scardark, Kallista came by, and they had to pull back. After all, we don’t appear important. We go up with spells, swords. I have some useful ones.” She turned to Ittisana, who sighed and nodded at her. Kiera pointed up the incline. “We will make it. Now, I’ll lead them off, and you fight your way to the right. Take the first tunnel? Cosia?”
“First,” she answered thinly.
“Draw them off? You’ll die,” I hissed and shook my head at the irony. “For good, I mean.”
“I might not,” she answered with a smile. Indeed, she might not, even if they caught her. She could even fake being dead. “Itax knows the plan if I fall. Ittisana will get you where you must go.”
“Fine, let’s try,” I said reluctantly. “Let’s see what they’re doing up there. Kiera can probably sneak up without any issue.”
“I can,” Kiera said. She crouched before me and put a hand on my cheek. “Don’t give up. To the end. And when you must, use the mask. Not before.” She poked her finger on my chest. “And for that, I am sorry. And in a way, not so sorry.”
“Why would you not be sorry?” I whispered as she looked at me. Then she glanced over my shoulder at Ittisana, and I knew she’d not tell me. “In the end, we’ll be together.”
“In the end, I’ll be dead,” I smiled.
“Yes,” she agreed, poked my chest painfully. “You will be.” She got up and surged for the dark hole.
“Wait—” I said, but she was gone.
Thak looked at me sheepishly. “We follow her. And good luck.”
I shook my head at him. “I’m unhappy with all the secrets, Thak. Very unhappy.”
“So am I,” he said. “Come now.”
“Finally,” Cosia whispered. “Release me—”
“Shut it, again!” Thak growled at her and bowed to Ittisana. “Carefully, and keep this bitch quiet.”
“I will,” Ittisana said, and entered the tunnel. I followed, picking my way across the corpses of the orcs, which had died a horrid death. Their ugly faces were burnt, and some had clawed their own throats out. A svartalf lay amongst the dead.
Kiera was ahead. She moved fast, smoothly up the tunnel. She blended with the dead and the shadows. I could see her making her way up the incline, lifting her feet to avoid stepping on the dead and then she stopped in her tracks. Her hand was up, and we stopped as well. Cosia’s leg brushed a helmet.
One of the orcs near Kiera was not dead. It scrambled to its feet and squinted and took an uncertain step forward.
Kiera disappeared, and reappeared behind it. Heartbreaker flashed and the blade exited the orc’s mouth. She gently put the creature down on its belly. It was dying fast. Then she stayed like that for a long while.
Nothing. The murderous dead elf had escaped notice.
We might make it out yet, I thought. Kiera was priceless. Terrible, but priceless. She went up again and blended with the doorway’s shadows.
We followed.
If there was a guard in the chamber, the beast was asleep. I began to gather the weaves for the fiery elemental in my head. I had used it in the battle against House Coinar down south, and it had killed dozens of elves, especially since they had been packed in a shieldwall. Now I held the mighty spell easily, and I felt Ittisana was braiding something together as well, her shield up as she came after me. Kiera tensed. A shadow came into view on top, then another, and we froze.
The shadows walked past, in the other direction, and I could hear them whispering.
Kiera waved us up, and we reached her, and saw what was out there.
There were a hundred orcs hunched and sleeping, some sitting and speaking softly, cursing and eyeing the officer, a sleeping svartalf, with malice. There was a hulking shadow in one of the tunnels, clearly moving, and I guessed that was the jotun.
Kiera nodded at me. She mouthed ‘good luck’ and I prayed to the gods, the one I knew in the Tenth, and the ones they had lost in the Nine Worlds, and let go of the spell, uncertain I was doing it right.
It was a draining spell, one that left me dizzy, but it worked. I felt the weaves doing my bidding, I concentrated on a spot on the floor and something happened in the midst of the orcs. A fiery hand appeared, glowing in the dark, and then a head. The orcs shrieked, scattering, and Ittisana and Kiera released their spells.
Darkness shot across the chamber from Kiera’s hands, thick as torrential rain. Kiera lunged into it, screaming challenges. Ittisana’s spell pierced the murk, and spikes of ice grew out of the floor. It was a powerful spell, a terrible one, the ice thick and strong as iron and very similar to what Shannon had summoned previously. Icy spikes rose quickly and shattered against the ceiling, and many ripped orcs into shreds.
The fire elemental stood up amidst the ice.
Thak was pushing me, and while I moved, I gave the creature an order, the spell still in my grasp, and the ten-foot thing charged the cowering orcs. A vicious fiery hand set dozens of them alight
, the beasts shrieking. Some ran to Kiera’s sword, not seeing a thing in the murk. Others fought back, bravely, but ended up immolated or killed by ice. The air grew thin, as the fiery elemental ate the precious air, and dozens of orcs, gasping, pointed at the darkness, preferring to fight something else, and they charged into the murk, where Kiera killed two of them with her sword. The jotun didn’t move, its eyes glittering, but a dozen orc archers, having fired ineffectually at the fire elemental, pulled their strings and shot at Kiera instead. She screamed with pain and I saw her figure plunging into a force of confused orcs. Ten arrows flew after her, many hit her as well as some of the stumbling orcs. Bodies fell. She howled, blurred, appeared at the back of three orcs, stabbed them lighting fast, and retreated with dozens of orcs in tow, who were hacking at her brutally and spearing the air as she barely kept ahead of them.
She could die, I thought. She took a wound, then another, killed, spun away and disappeared into a side tunnel. Gods, let it not be a dead end.
Dozens of orcs took after her. The rest retreated from the fire elemental, and there, at the edge of the chamber dozens of the orcs saw us as Kiera’s spell dissipated. A few more caught an icy spear, and were lifted to the roof, howling or dead, but the svartalf commander saw us inching to the next tunnel. “Forget the fire creature! Get them! Get them for the King!” he yelled, and a fiery whip grew out of his hand as he charged.
An ice spear killed one of the orcs that turned to follow him, but it looked like the whole wall moved together as all the remaining orcs surged forward, spears glinting. Thak cursed, pushed Cosia downhill to the new tunnel, and spun his sword at the svartalf. The svartalf dodged under the sword that killed three orcs instead. The svartalf regained his footing and his whip came down at me.
I called the same spell and it coiled out of my gauntleted hand. His weapon was still coming, and should it hit, I’d be cut in half.
I reacted automatically.
I grasped the deadly whip from the air, and it curled around my gauntlet, heating it, but not penetrating the artifact. The svartalf’s handsome face froze into a shocked mask and I didn’t waste time. My whip sliced him in two cauterized bits.
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