Hell to Pay (Ascend Online Book 2)

by Luke Chmilenko

  “The trees are bare,” Molly whispered softly. “All of them. Look at all the leaves on the ground.”

  “Hmm?” I let a faint grunt pass through my lips as I scanned the area and found that all the trees planted along the inside of the wall and along the street below us were completely barren of any foliage. “That’s weird, it’s early summer…”

  Frowning, I shifted my glance from the bare branches of the trees and inspected the wall itself, the light from the mage lamps and my racial vision more than enough to cut through the gloom. Withered grey vines covered the entirety of the wall that divided the two communities, and after a moment of careful watching, I noticed countless leaves blowing in the wind as they tumbled across the street below us.

  “Vines on the wall are dead,” I told Molly softly. “I remember there being leaves back in the alley, too.”

  “It all looks…fresh,” she replied as her eyes absorbed the sight. “Like all the trees and plants here dropped their leaves at once.”

  I couldn’t help but glance over at Molly in worry, having come to the same conclusion myself. Meeting my eye for a few seconds, Molly shook her head at me silently before glancing further down the rooftop.

  “Let’s move further down,” Molly whispered as she lowered herself from her crouching stance into a prone position. “We should be able to get a better angle to see what’s behind the wall.”

  “Alright,” I hissed back as quietly as I could manage while laying myself flat on the rooftop.

  Moving slowly, the two of us then crawled the length of the apartment rooftops, paying a careful mind to the light that was being cast by the mage lamps below. The last thing we needed was for someone to catch sight of us and raise the alarm.

  Waiting for Molly to crawl ahead of me, I paused to look over the edge of the building and spotted the familiar shapes of guards standing along the wall overlooking the wooden gate, their metallic helmets glinting in the night as they slowly shuffled from side to side. Counting, I made four guards standing on the wall, a number I considered to be rather small given everything that had happened in the city today.

  Shouldn’t they be on a higher alert? I thought suspiciously. They have to have heard about what happened to the other noble heirs and be even the slightest bit concerned. Four guards hardly seem like they’re taking the threat seriously.

  Pulling my eyes away from the gate, I noted that Molly had crept far enough ahead of me to resume my progress and slowly began pushing myself against the rooftop, taking extra care not to make any noise. Keeping an eye on Molly as I crept forward, I couldn’t help but feel a spike of fear shoot through my heart when she suddenly flinched in surprise, pressing herself flat against the rooftop a short distance from the edge of the building that overlooked the wall.

  Freezing instantly, adrenaline surged through my body as I waited for a shout of surprise or alarm to fill the air, possibly then followed by a volley of magic or arrows as the guards began to rain death upon us. Keeping as still as possible, I fought through the impending sense of doom and focused my attention on Molly’s prone figure before me, watching for any sort of signal of what to do next. Waiting on pins and needles with nothing but silence greeting my ears for over a minute, I almost breathed an audible sigh of relief when Molly’s right foot pointed itself towards the inside of the rooftop, before beckoning me forward.

  What did she see? I asked myself as I slowly crawled sideways, away from the edge of the rooftop that overlooked the main street below, before starting to move forward again. Shuffling with the utmost care, I patiently worked my way up to Molly’s side, mindful of the fact that she hadn’t moved a hair since signaling me. Reaching her side, I carefully peered over the edge of the building and towards my left, the extreme angle working in our favor as we practically overlooked the stone wall.

  Giving me a picture-perfect view of what had to be nearly a hundred cutthroats and thieves working feverishly as they built barricades in the middle of the street.

  My blood turned to ice as I absorbed the sight below us, the realization that we were too late causing my heart to momentarily skip a beat. Taking in the full sight before me, I spotted signs of recent combat, my eyes flitting from magic-scarred cobblestones, to a handful of broken windows, to a shattered wagon that was on its side with half a dozen crates spilled all over the ground.

  To a pile of bodies, stacked on top of one another haphazardly in the middle of the street.

  We’re too late. I realied as my roaming gaze finally returned to the small army of thieves that were urgently fortifying the place. The Damned have completely overrun the estate, and judging from the preparations, they knew that it was only a matter of time before we found them.

  Moving slowly, Molly gradually turned her head to look towards me, her eyes completely wide with panic, echoing the same emotion that I felt running through me. We stared at one another in complete disbelief for what seemed like an eternity before she silently moved her hand to tap her ear, then pointed towards the gate.

  We can’t hear them, I clued in, realizing that all I could hear at the moment was the distant ocean and the faint whisper of the wind that sent all the loose leaves rustling. Glancing back at the thieves, I focused my attention on their actions, silently thankful that we weren’t so far away that we wouldn’t be able to make out detail.

  Watching carefully, I could see several of the thugs talking amongst one another as they dragged tables, chairs, and shattered furniture across the ground, one of them pausing in his work to wave his hands towards the sky. No doubt referring to the strange moon still concealed by the clouds above.

  Seeing a movement catch my eye, I then noticed another pair of thugs emerge from one of the buildings, dragging a hooded person into view. Crossing the length of the inner plaza, the two thugs carried the thrashing hostage towards a large group of similarly masked prisoners sitting on the ground, before unceremoniously shoving them forward into the mass and causing the figure to fall to the ground.

  But despite all the action and motion that was happening below us, no sounds greeted our ears.

  Did they enchant the wall to block sounds? I asked myself, silently wondering if the nobility would have been vain enough to do that, then immediately realizing how naïve that thought was. Of course they would, rich neighborhoods do the same thing in reality, if with sound barriers and not magic.

  Looking back towards Molly, I saw her expectant eyes on me and nodded back in agreement. Motioning with her free hand that faced me, she pointed back towards the way that we came and slowly began crawling away from the edge.

  Following her lead, I glanced one more time at the army of thieves below us, a sinking suspicion in my stomach. If they really wanted to get away, they could have easily left the city by now and hid out in the wild for a few days, then filtered back in piecemeal. Why are they digging in to meet us head on? They have to know that they can’t stand up to all four guilds. Even if they’re hiding behind these walls.

  As I lay watching the thieves working below, a cool breeze picked up in the air at the same moment that the clouds high above parted, revealing the crimson moon’s burning gaze. No sooner did Eris appear in the sky than did a single tendril of crimson light reach up from behind the buildings before me to touch the fiery orb, strengthening in intensity the higher it went.

  He—I had barely begun forming the thought when a wave of indescribable wrongness swept over me and caused my body to shudder in shock. For the faintest of moments, it felt like all warmth had left me and that something vile had brushed my very soul, somehow leaving me feeling dirtier than I had after swimming in the massive waste-filled basin back at the sewer hub.

  What was that?! I shouted internally as I recovered from the strange event, seeing all of The Damned below me stagger under the same influence that had affected me. Some shuddered visibly as they then turned to look towards the burning moon, while others shrugged it off and continued working.

  The artifact has
to be causing this, I thought to myself, looking at the beam of light that reached towards Eris. The moment that the moon appeared, that light shot up from where the Phineas mansion is…which means Dorian and Edith won’t be that far away from it.

  If we want to stop them, we’re going to have to fight our way through all of them down there. I cast one final look down towards the army of thieves fortifying the inner compound below us as I pushed myself away from the edge.

  Moving with urgency, I crawled backwards until I could stand up without alerting anyone to my presence. Turning around, I looked across the roof for Molly, spotting her far ahead of me as she greeted Smiling Jade and Isabella, who had just arrived on the scene. Closing the distance quickly now that I was on my feet, I made my way over towards them, catching the last bits of the conversation as Molly filled the two Thief Lords in on what we had seen.

  “—then some sort of…energy hit all of us as soon as Eris appeared in the sky. I’m not sure if you felt it on the way here,” Molly whispered softly, turning her head towards me as I arrived.

  “We did,” Isabella replied, her face looking pale as she glanced towards Smiling Jade, the masked Thief Lord taking a few steps away from us. “I’ve never felt anything like it before.”

  “I have once, during the early days of The War,” Smiling Jade said in a small voice as she looked up towards the sky, then looked back towards us. “It belongs to a branch of dark magic that was discarded after we realized its side effects.”

  “It kills plant life,” I said, realization dawning upon me as I waved at the barren trees on the street below.

  “Among other things,” Smiling Jade whispered, shaking her head in disbelief. “What have you done, Dorian? You are working magics that you cannot even begin to understand.”

  “Do you know what he’s doing?” I asked, sensing that the magically gifted Thief Lord had a better understanding of how magic worked in the world.

  “He’s using a ritual to draw power from Eris,” Smiling Jade explained. “And storing that energy in something, likely in preparation to activate the artifact.”

  “Is that what that strange feeling was?” Molly queried, her voice barely loud enough to hear. “The ritual?”

  “Yes,” Smiling Jade stated simply, refusing to elaborate further as she turned her gaze back up towards the sky. “It is imperative that we stop it as soon as possible. If this street has already been blighted, then there is no telling how far it may yet reach as the ritual progresses.”

  “Wait, it can keep spreading?” Molly asked in an alarmed voice. “What if it gets to the farmland?”

  “Then all the crops will wither and Eberia will slowly begin to starve,” Smiling Jade stated as she tore herself away from the burning moon and fully turned around to face us. “And we will be forced to abandon the city.”

  The three of us stared at Smiling Jade in shock, her faceless mask reflecting each of our expressions.

  “Fuck that!” I said as my shock slowly kindled into anger. “We aren’t going to let Dorian go through with whatever he has planned, and we’re far from beaten.”

  Everyone’s glance shifted to focus on me as I continued speaking, “We caught Dorian with his pants down once already, and from the looks of what’s going on down there, his followers are scrambling to fortify the place. If we hit them hard, they’ll shatter. They don’t have the numbers to stand up to all four guilds.”

  “Lazarus is right,” Molly added with a nod, motioning towards the distant walls where The Damned were busily digging in. “They’re all off balance and on unfamiliar ground. We still have a chance to end this before it’s too late.”

  “It may already be too late,” Isabella replied sadly as she shook her head. “Dorian’s attacked another House, maybe even destroyed it completely. Even if we somehow manage to stop him…we’ll never escape the wrath of the other Houses.”

  “We can deal with that problem when we get to it,” I told Isabella. “Unless we stop him here and now, we’re going to have much bigger problems than worrying about the nobles’ vengeance.”

  Blowing out a deep sigh, Isabella looked up at me and nodded. “You’re right, Lazarus, right now we need to worry about ensuring that Eberia lives to see the morning. Everything else that comes after that…we can deal with as it comes.”

  “Good,” I said with a strained smile. “We need to attack them as soon as possible. Where are Stroud and Sable?”

  “Collecting whomever they can find and sending them this way,” Isabella answered. “They were only a few minutes behind us, they should be here soon enough.”

  “What are we going to do about the gate?” Molly asked as she waved a hand in the direction of the Phineas Estate. “We’re not going to get anywhere unless we can open it or knock it down, and I don’t think we’re going to get the time to assemble siege gear.”

  “The other mages and I will take care of the gate,” Smiling Jade said confidently. “It will not be a challenge.”

  “You really think you can knock it down so easily?” I looked at the brightly dressed Thief Lord with surprise.

  “Child, I fought in The War for thirty years.” Smiling Jade made a clucking sound underneath her mask as she chided me. “I have shattered defenses far greater than a flimsy wooden gate made to deter a horde of angry civilians. It will not be a problem.”

  “Uh…” I felt a little embarrassment pass through me at the mage’s chastisement. “Okay, then.”

  Pausing for a moment to collect my thoughts, I glanced up towards Eris, just in time to see it vanish behind the heavy clouds once more, the crimson gloom filling the night fading along with the strange beam of light.

  “Looks like we caught a break and the weather is buying us some time,” I said, breathing a sigh of relief. “Let’s get back down to the others and plan our attack.

  “It’s time we finished this.”

  Chapter 23

  Stepping out into the middle of the street, I felt my heart flutter in my chest as the sounds of countless feet shook the ground behind me. Gripping my sword tightly, I tried to steady my nerves by focusing on the distant gate ahead of me, seeing the shiny reflections of the helmeted guards that stood watch. By the time enough people had arrived, we had run out of time to plan any sort of detailed strategy, at least beyond getting everyone to move in the same direction. Not that a few minutes or even an hour more would have helped in getting rough cutthroats and thieves to behave like common soldiers.

  No, this wasn’t going to be a battle that would be won by a cunning strategy or careful planning. This was going to be a battle of sheer brute force and violence, one without mercy or quarter. A battle that we all knew we had to win at any cost.

  Leading the vanguard of our army of thieves was Smiling Jade, flanked by her equally attired double, Quinn, and four other mages whose names I had promptly forgotten after being introduced. In each of their hands, except for Smiling Jade, they all held a roiling ball of fire as they carefully poured mana into their spells, holding them at the ready for the Thief Lord’s command.

  Contrary to the rest of the casters, Smiling Jade channeled her mana into a swirling orb of wind that struggled to escape from her grasp with every step that she took. Maintaining the spell with no visible effort, the Thief Lord stoically led us down the street as we slowly inched towards the gate with no pretense of stealth.

  I saw the guards behind the gate visibly panic at our approach, three of the shiny helmets vanishing from behind the wall as they rushed to alert their comrades.

  For the little good it would do them.

  “On my mark,” Smiling Jade announced in a commanding voice as she stopped her advance halfway to the gate and looked down the line of mages. “Get ready!”

  Pausing for a heartbeat to ensure that everyone was ready, the Thief Lord then released the maelstrom of wind that she now held and sent it screaming towards the Phineas gate with blinding speed. Before I could even make sense of what was happening, the g
ate vanished in an explosion of dust as the orb unleashed its pent-up magic in a screaming howl of wind.

  “Fire!” Smiling Jade shouted over the noise, her voice now carrying a tone of fatigue that hadn’t been present a moment earlier.

  Wasting no time in obeying the order, Quinn and the other five mages let go of their spells, sending the six overcharged fireballs screaming towards the temporarily obscured gate where they detonated simultaneously in a fiery inferno.

  Wincing from the blast, I covered my face with my arm, spotting Sawyer and Molly doing the same beside me as chips of wood flew through the air and pelted all of us. Billowing smoke and dust rose from the gate as burning pieces of wood flew through the air, before crashing into the ground. Within seconds, the cloud began to thin, revealing the shattered remains of the Phineas gate that had been flung inwards and partially torn off its hinges.

  Staring in disbelief from within the Phineas compound, I saw the stunned faces of countless Damned guild members look out towards us from behind their half-finished barricades while others slowly picked themselves up off the ground, shaken by the blast. Feeling a flare of rage pulse from the sigil on my chest, I felt adrenaline shoot through my body as I took the first step forward, my voice breaking the deathly silence.

  “FOR FAIRFAX!” I screamed, taking my second step towards the gate, finding myself at the head of the army as it began to surge forward.

  “FOR KIERA!” a second cry rang out into the night as we all gained speed, our feet thundering across the cobblestone like a vengeful avalanche.

  “FOR EBERIA!” The deafening shout tore itself from the throats of over a hundred thieves as we closed the final distance between us and the terrified defenders who scrambled to meet our assault.

  Refusing to slow down even one iota, I put on a burst of speed, feeling Sawyer, Molly, and Quinn barely keeping pace behind me as I charged through the shattered Phineas gate and bore down on a cluster of thieves caught out in the open, away from any of the barricades. Seeing our rapid approach, the thieves scrambled in panic, some seeing no escape and standing firm and raising their weapons, while others broke ranks in sheer desperation as they tried to run for cover behind one of the distant barricades.