by John Bierce
Sabae shuddered. Definitely not that way.
Another of the big imps rounded a turn straight ahead of her. The nasty thing began giggling as it braced itself to catch her.
She smiled, and picked up the pace. With every step she took, she detonated a fragment of her wind armor, until the tunnel walls were blurring past her.
She rammed her shield right into the imp’s stupid smiling face. She hit it so hard that the impact collapsed half her wind armor, but she could feel something crunch in the imp’s head, and it flew backward a limp tangle of limbs.
If she’d hit it in a full windjump, it probably would have broken her arm at the very least.
It also would have completely collapsed her wind armor, which would have ended badly for her, as one of the big thorned imps lunged out at her.
Sabae dropped to the ground as the imp swung a massive spiked fist at her. She caught the glancing blow on her shield as she did so, latching onto the imp’s fist.
Then she detonated the remainder of her wind armor, sending her flying straight between the imp’s legs, dragging its arm with her.
The imp’s head slammed into the tunnel floor with an audible crunch, and Sabae immediately let the shield unglue itself from the imp’s fist, promptly starting to respin her wind armor around herself.
Sabae twisted to her feet as a regular imp launched itself at her face. She lashed out with her arm, sending it flying against a wall, and then stomped on the spine of another imp.
A third big imp came running out of a side passage, reaching out towards her with foot long, razor-sharp claws.
Sabae detonated the wind armor she’d managed to spin up so far. It wasn’t enough to windjump far, but it was just enough to get her to the ceiling.
The clawed imp spun, obviously intending to disembowel her as she dropped.
It was too bad for it that she was still stuck to the ceiling by her shield.
The clawed imp stumbled, not meeting the expected resistance.
Sabae smirked, then dropped from the ceiling towards it.
She’d spent the precious few seconds on the ceiling spinning up water armor, but only around one leg.
She kicked the clawed imp, detonating her leg’s water armor as she did so, sending it hurtling into the corpse of the thorned imp.
It didn’t make for a soft landing for the clawed imp.
Sabae stretched and spun her water armor fully up as she waited for the others to catch up.
“This way,” she said through a gap in the water around her face, waving them down a tunnel in the direction her affinity senses were pointing her. “Godrick, drop the armor.”
“That doesn’t seem like a…” he started.
“Just trust me,” Sabae said.
Godrick gave her a doubtful look, but his armor dropped off him in chunks of stone onto the ground, though he snagged the faceplate Hugh had made him out of the air.
Sabae hauled them to a stop in a new tunnel that split off from this one, examining the walls carefully. She smiled grimly, then stuck her shield to Talia.
She ignored Talia’s loud protests as she stuck the shield to her own back. Talia weighed hardly anything, so she wasn’t too much of a burden.
Given how dangerous Talia was, that might actually make her the deadliest mage in Skyhold by weight.
Not that she’d say that out loud, Talia’s ego and love for bad jokes were already both far too swollen.
“Uh, Sabae?” Hugh said uncertainly. “The spellforms on the wall are flooding.”
The chittering of the swarms pursuing them were growing louder, but there was another noise that was starting to drown them out.
“Exactly,” Sabae said, and grabbed each of the boys by the hand, just before the flash flood hit.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Out of the Labyrinth
Hugh hacked up water as he hauled himself to his feet.
Sabae had somehow managed to guide them all the way through the floodwaters, getting them back to the entrance to the first floor. Hugh had lost half the contents of his belt pouch, his sling, and half the warded slingstones, but he supposed it was a small price to pay for traversing the floor so quickly.
Hugh frowned at his clothes and cast a drying cantrip on himself, then repeated the process for the others, except for Sabae— who was, of course, perfectly dry behind her water armor, as annoying as that was.
“Something’s wrong,” Sabae said.
“Yeah,” Talia said. “I’m missing my throwing daggers, half my hairpins, and a bunch of bone shards. I’m still amazed Godrick managed to hold onto that hammer.”
“Mah shoulder’s not happy about it,” Godrick said, rubbing the body part in question. “That flood did not want me ta keep it.”
“No,” Sabae said. “The shield between the floors is down.”
The four of them exchanged glances, then sprinted towards the stairs.
Well, jogged while hacking up water, at least.
The entrance to the second level was a battlefield. There were at least two dead students and a mage lying on the ground, surrounded by literal mounds of imps.
To their relief, the rest of the mages were all still alive, along with a crowd of students. They’d reformed the magical shield to one side of the room, packing everyone else into it.
One of the mages opened up a hole, and gestured for them to join them. “Quick, get in, before that thing comes back!” she called.
“What thing?” Sabae asked as they approached, but Hugh felt like he already knew what the answer was going to be.
“I think it was a demon,” the mage said, as though she didn’t believe her own words. “At least two or three times taller than a person, bat face, scorpion tail, and a gut like a translucent bag full of tadpoles?”
“Bakori,” Hugh muttered, rubbing his wounded shoulder.
“Where’d it go?” Sabae asked.
The mage replied, but Hugh didn’t hear what she said— his spellbook was sending him the image of a battered down labyrinth door.
“Sabae!” Hugh said, interrupting the mage. “The book’s telling me that Bakori’s already escaped the labyrinth!”
Everyone swiveled to look at him.
“Isn’t that the Stormward?” he heard a voice in the crowd under the shield whisper.
Hugh winced at the sudden attention.
“There’s no way even that thing could batter down the labyrinth doors by force,” another of the mages said. “And even if it could, invading an entire mountain of mages isn’t going to go well for it. Right now, you need to get under the shield. There’s nothing you can do about it.”
Sabae’s face turned abruptly thoughtful.
“I thought he was after you,” Talia hissed. “Why’s he leaving the labyrinth? He can’t survive out of it for long, right? Isn’t the aether too thin?”
“You need to quit ignoring me and get under the shield, NOW!” the same mage ordered. “You’re just apprentices. There’s nothing you can do.”
A nearby apprentice grabbed the mage’s sleeve. “They’re the ones who helped stop Ataerg’s attempt on Theras Tel this summer!”
Hugh winced again. He had to deal with this sort of attention now, of all times?
“I don’t care who they are, they’re apprentices, and they’re not going anywhere but under this shield.”
“Wait, what about my da?” Godrick asked suddenly, grasping Hugh by the shoulder.
The spellbook sent Hugh a mental image of an enormous suit of stone armor crushing an imp bigger than Godrick beneath its foot, an equally colossal hammer smashing down into a crowd of smaller imps.
Hugh blinked at that. “He’s about twenty feet tall right now and wrecking a small army of imps single-handedly.”
Godrick smiled. “He’s not even in enough trouble to go all-out, then.”
Hugh gave Godrick a startled look at that.
“You all need to quit ignoring me and get under the shield,” the irritated mage sai
d.
“What in winter’s frozen arsecrack is Bakori doing?” Talia demanded. “What could he be up to?”
“He’s heading to the council chamber!” Sabae blurted out.
Everyone turned to look at her.
“Why would he be heading towards the council chamber?” Talia said. “It’s guarded by a group of the most powerful mages alive. Most of them individually are powerful enough to be able to survive at least a while in battle against one of the great powers, and together…”
“Have you ever wondered why they need to be so powerful, though?” Sabae demanded.
“Because they’re the Council?” Godrick asked, as though that were obvious.
Sabae shook her head. “Magical might doesn’t make you an effective ruler or administrator. Do you know how many great powers’ territories have fallen not to outside threat, but due to mismanagement? There are countless archmages and great wryms out there that couldn’t govern if their lives depended on it. No, they’re all effective administrators as well, but the magical might bit would only make sense if…”
“They’re guarding something!” Hugh blurted out.
Sabae nodded at him. “And most of them, including Kanderon, are out of Skyhold. I’d guess that Midsummer and Midwinter are some sort of vulnerable time as well, given that the council is normally required to all be here then. Bakori must be trying to get at whatever the council is guarding.”
“You’re all going to stop him, though, right?” one of the other students called out.
“No, they’re not going to stop him,” the irate mage snapped. “They’re going to wait this out under this shield. Even a partial council is more than capable of taking on nearly any threat.”
“Except that at least one a’ them is a traitor,” Godrick snarled. “All they need ta do is wait fer just the right time, and…”
Hugh hadn’t seen Godrick look angry often before, and it was always terrifying.
“Weren’t we supposed to be keeping that a secret?” Hugh managed to ask him.
“It hardly matters now, does it?” Talia muttered, blasting a group of imps with dreamfire before they could fully exit the nearby tunnel.
One, Hugh noticed, was entirely sucked into its own mouth by the dreamfire. He really hadn’t needed to see that.
She wasn’t the only one muttering now. Most of the students were clustered around the entrance of the shield, eavesdropping on their conversation.
“Enough of this nonsense!” the mage bellowed, striding towards the four of them. Misty tendrils started forming in the air around the mage, and Hugh could feel the ice crystals comprising them growing.
He frowned, and visualized a pattern unlinking spellform. The ice crystal patterns collapsed immediately, drenching the mage in water.
None of the other adult mages under the shield made any move to help the spluttering man.
“Someone needs to warn them,” Sabae said, biting her lip.
Hugh sighed. “Why do I gain the impression that you have us in mind?”
Talia smiled at that.
Godrick put his shoulder forward and charged straight into the crowd of imps. These ones were pushing nine feet tall, but were skinnier than Talia. They had particularly nasty looking claws and fangs, and they had unpleasant looking slime dripping off them.
None of that helped them much when Godrick slammed into them.
With his armor at its current full size, Godrick weighed in at a solid third of a ton. While the terrorbird might have been able to knock him around, these imps went flying with satisfying crunches. Imp limbs shattered beneath Godrick’s feet, and his hammer crushed another of the tall imps against the labyrinth wall.
He didn’t bother slowing down to get any of the imps that survived or dodged his rush. The others were more than capable of handling them.
As he broke through the pack of tall imps and into another swarm of regular imps, Godrick checked on the spellforms running his armor, making sure the links to his body weren’t fraying.
Satisfied his work was holding up well, he drew another spellform in his mind’s eye. It was a particularly complex one that had taken him ages to master. It linked to his armor spellforms, drawing much of its energy from the mana that bled off his armor.
The next time his foot descended, the floor nearby rose up into a thin stalagmite, impaling a nearby imp. It happened again with his next step, and again with the one after.
The part of the stalagmite stride spellform that crafted the actual stalagmites was the easiest bit. The part that made sure none of the stalagmites would rise up in his path was tricky, but there was nothing more to it than memorizing a particularly complex spellform piece. The part that let the spell know what to target— now that was tricky. It basically amounted to spellform construction each time he used it, but his da had already done most of the footwork— Godrick had only needed to memorize a series of rules for how to redesign the targeting lines.
He’d always known his da was brilliant, but he hadn’t realized exactly how brilliant until he started seeing Hugh learn spellform construction. Artur’s spellforms were designed to be easy to combine and easy to scale up and down, and they were incredibly reliable. Armor spells were hardly unknown, but his da’s armor was leagues ahead of anything else Godrick had ever heard of.
Godrick burst through the imp swarm and found himself in the labyrinth entrance hall, the exit door ahead of him.
The remains of the door, at least. The massive quartzite door was lying in shards across the hall. Sparks of mana dripped from the door’s broken spellforms, and char marks radiated out from it.
In between the labyrinth entrance and Godrick was another armored imp, surrounded by a swarm of regular imps. It dwarfed the earlier armored imp, even towering over Godrick.
Godrick slowed his charge as he approached, but didn’t stop. He’d barely knocked down the previous armored imp, and this one had to weigh twice as much, not to mention being much more heavily armored.
As he slowed, less mana bled off his armor, and the stalagmites didn’t grow as large, but they still were quite effective at impaling the smaller imps. One rose up beneath the armored imp, but just broke against it.
He rolled his shoulders and grabbed his sledgehammer in both hands. The imp bared its teeth in a maniacal grin as it trotted forward.
Moments before they impacted, Godrick dropped the stalagmite stride spell and crafted another, much simpler one in his mind’s eye, also of his father’s invention, then linked it to his armor spellforms. This one just altered the stone he trod on, making it shift in response to his steps. It slowed him during a long-distance run, but when maneuvering during a fight, it made his turns, sidesteps, and shifting his center of gravity far more responsive.
Godrick leapt to his right as he approached the imp, swinging his hammer in a massive arc towards it. He drew a simple steel spellform in his mind’s eye that amplified the force of his strike.
Which only served to remind him again of his father’s brilliance— so long as his other active spells remained linked to the armor spell, they ran independently, without any conscious effort on his part. They still drained his mana reservoirs, of course.
His sledgehammer hit one of the imp’s armor plates with a boom— he wasn’t wasting mana on its silence function in the middle of all this. The armor plate shattered, but the impact vibrated the hammer so hard he almost dropped it, even through the stone armor.
At the same time, one of the imp’s fists slammed into his shoulder, cracking his armor in turn. Godrick could feel the armor on his left arm grow less responsive, as its link to the rest of the armor was weakened. If he hadn’t dodged, though, the blow probably would have taken him in the neck or head.
The two of them stumbled past each other, both reeling from the hits they’d taken.
Godrick recovered first, thanks to his ground-altering spell. He whirled around, delivering another blow to the armored imp, cracking a bone plate on its back. He
pulled back to hit it again, but the smaller imps around him swarmed up his armor before he could.
Godrick snarled as he tried to swat the little things off. He managed to crush a couple as the armored imp scrambled to its feet, but more piled onto him, until he started to worry they’d actually knock him over by sheer force of numbers.
So he changed tactics. He dropped his hammer entirely and quickly lunged forward towards the armored imp. He drew another spellform in his mind’s eye, but didn’t link it to his armor just yet.
The armored imp was taken entirely by surprise as he wrapped his arms around it and began to squeeze. One of its arms was trapped, but it battered at him with the other, and bit at his helmet with its fangs.
Godrick pumped his mana into his armor at a faster and faster rate— even as dense as the aether was down in the labyrinth, his stone reservoir was running out quickly. It could only refill itself so fast, after all. He amplified his strength through the armor as much as he safely could as he squeezed.
Several unlucky imps who hadn’t gotten out of the way simply popped between Godrick and the armored imp. Most were clawing at his back and shoulders, slowly clawing away the stone, but they wouldn’t get through in time.
Godrick felt the imp’s bone armor begin to crack in his grip. He continued to squeeze as more and more bone plates broke, and even as his own armor began to crack.
Finally, when the bone imp started hacking up ichor onto his faceplate, Godrick linked the new spellform to his armor.
It was a relative of the stalagmite stride spell, but it didn’t affect the ground— it affected his armor. Stalagmites erupted out of his armor, drawing their mass from it. They impaled nearly all of the imps clambering on him, and plunged deep into the broken armor plates of the big imp.
Only a single smaller imp survived, chewing on his faceplate. Godrick tried to reach up and grab it, but his arm was anchored to the big imp.
Godrick sighed, and head-butted the big imp, smashing the smaller imp between them. It whimpered and fell to the ground.
Godrick disconnected the spellform, and the stalagmites shattered off his armor. He disentangled himself from the armored imp and let it drop to the ground.
