by Stephen Wolf
Further inspecting the room, Gabrion saw that each transparent wall had another room on the other side, and except for a few notches in the glass, there was no passage between them. The jade in his hand was shaking so violently that it fell from his weakened grip and clattered to the stone floor. He set his sword aside and picked the jade up flat in his hand, as he had seen Dariak do before, and then he turned slowly around the room. But as he did so, he already knew which way to turn, because he remembered the image of Mira walking through a watery wall.
Not surprisingly, the jade practically bounced out of his hand when he oriented himself toward the northeastern panel of glass. He reached the jade outward and touched it to the smooth surface, but nothing happened. He wasn’t aware of the antimagic field that covered the wall, but he wasn’t going to let anything stop him anyway. He slid the jade into his pocket and took one of the wood chairs and whaled at the wall, cracking it slightly. But in the process, most of the chair itself shattered and fell to the floor in pieces.
He tried the sword next, but all he created were sparks on the glass, and he feared that he was deadening the blade. The jade still trembled, and he took it out again, focusing his thoughts upon it, wondering if even he could draw its energies out to work miracles.
But he didn’t have time to commune with the jade. Running footsteps echoed outside the wooden doorway, and although they didn’t yet know he was in that room, it wouldn’t be long before they figured it out. He looked back at the ding that had been made in the glass, and he knew suddenly what he had to do. Gabrion wielded the jade shard like a chisel and cracked it into the glass with all of his strength. As he did so, he bade the wall to tumble like water, to shatter into pieces, so that he might continue onward to follow Mira’s path.
Again he brought the jade down into the wall, and greater the damage grew. As he worked, the glass chimed with each hit, with each peal sounding less and less harmonious as his efforts ruined the flat surface. At last, with a cry of effort, Gabrion got the jade to break through; the glass turned instantly milky, then splattered to the ground like hailstones. Gabrion didn’t hesitate. He transferred the jade to his pocket and retrieved his sword before crossing the barrier into the next room.
Before him, Dariak stood aghast. They hadn’t seen each other for two months, and neither had truly known if the other was even alive. But everything the elder of Gerrish had told Gabrion was proving true. The jades were calling out to one another, hence the augmented vibrations of his shard. The jade could apparently feel its brethren at the top of the tower, and when the distance between them did not close, its radiant energies had started affecting the warrior’s dreams. Because the jades could not be broken into smaller pieces and the crystal in Gabrion’s possession had power over glass, he had been able to physically break the transparent surface, which interrupted the antimagic field in the room.
It took a moment for Dariak to register the warrior’s appearance through his workroom wall, but then he was filled with such relief he ran over and gave the big man a welcome embrace. He pulled back, looked around, and realized that they needed to get moving immediately.
Dariak started by scrounging up various materials, but then he saw Gabrion’s badly wounded shoulder and arm. “A moment!” he said proudly, reaching into his robe and pulling forth a sheaf of aloe. He placed pieces of it on the wounds and then wriggled his fingers quickly. “Ferrathorian mentilion faloshir brea!” He inspected his work, and the lacerations had closed. “It’ll have to do for now.”
Gabrion flexed his arm. “Still hurts, but at least I have some mobility again. Thanks. Let’s move out.”
“What of Kitalla?” Dariak asked, taking his journal and struggling to fit it within the confines of his robe.
“I think she’s next.” Gabrion shrugged, feeling the strength of the door leading out of Dariak’s sleeping quarters. “The jade is leading this charge.” He pulled the crystal forth and felt its strongest vibrations when he touched it to the doorway. “But how to get through here?” he muttered.
Dariak closed his eyes and moved his arms in a circle, drawing them wide around and closer in toward his heart. “No good, this wall still has the magic nullifier in place.”
But Gabrion’s shard was again jumping around in his hand. “Watch for guards through there,” he said, nodding his head toward the glass wall he had shattered. He then turned his attention to the shard. “Help me,” he pleaded.
The vibrations of the jade ceased for a moment, and in that time, strange visions swept into Gabrion’s head. He couldn’t make any sense of them, but he described them aloud in a tongue he had never before used. The words felt awkward and powerful. “Sharrasok kathzhak khalichoq,” he murmured, feeling the jade tremble again, but now there was something new. His sword was also resonating with the jade. He lifted it, knowing suddenly what he had seen. He pocketed the jade and held the sword out firmly before him, and then he cut down swiftly into the iron door, severing a deep gash within the metal. His sword was now sharper than ever before, and with a few more strikes, he cut an opening from which they could flee.
Dariak was on his heels, not even asking about the sudden magic the warrior had used. He didn’t need to, as he could feel the emanations from the sand jade. Gabrion raced down the stairs and plowed through one hallway after the next. Guards were scrambling along the lower levels of the tower, where the majority of the prisoners had escaped, and so their way was easy for a time. Each doorway they approached fell to the enhanced sword. Gabrion only feared when its power would run out.
Once they were two floors below the main dungeon where Gabrion had been kept, the guards became present. Gabrion’s sword flew wide, cutting through armor like parchment, which demoralized the contingent of fighters. But they were well trained, and they avoided the dangerous weapon for as long as they could—at least, until Dariak arrived a few moments later and added his spells to the fray.
The mage’s powers had, indeed, increased, and Gabrion recognized the effects of the Shield of Delminor as men and women fell to the ground under massive weight, though he had never seen the spell erupt from the mage’s fingers before. To that, Dariak added other binding spells, locking as many guards in place as possible while Gabrion hacked away at those who refused to succumb. Though Dariak would have thoroughly enjoyed unleashing more powerful spells, the halls were too narrow and Gabrion would likely have been struck down in error.
Eventually they erupted into the labyrinthine tunnels where one path led back to Grenthar’s complex. Dariak had been incapacitated then, but Gabrion had worked hard to memorize the way, which was fortified by the countless dreams of Mira floating about the crystalline hallways. He ran with purpose, slowing down only to give Dariak time to catch up. Left, then right, then left again, they hurried. There was very little light by which to see, and most of it from other hallways boasting torches, but Gabrion ran on as if he had lived there for years. His sword wasn’t vibrating as powerfully, but he needed its strength to cut through the final door into the compound. He pushed himself harder, hearing Dariak falling behind but pressing himself to run faster anyway.
With a hearty crash, Gabrion’s sword splintered the wood separating the tunnels from the master thief’s domain. He could sense that the enchantment was fading away, returning the metal to a basic, nondescript soldier’s blade once again. He focused on the jade while Dariak stumbled in and fought to catch his breath, but the jade would not cast the enchantment again, and he simply could not remember the arcane words he had spoken. It didn’t matter. He still had a task to do.
He had fallen down a chute, so Gabrion felt around in the darkness until he found the base of it, and then he started to climb. Dariak followed and kept pace with the warrior. At the top, Gabrion pushed open a trapdoor that led into a large chamber with torches lining the walls.
After heaving himself into the room, he turned and pulled Dariak alongside, and the
n he refocused on the jade and turned toward his left, taking a step. But Dariak jumped and knocked him over.
They were in Grenthar’s domain, and the traps were set. A large blade swept overhead, and once it hit the wall, it cut a rope that set off a series of three other blades across the room. Some of those oscillated back and forth, but one of them slashed another rope that started dropping sandbags from the ceiling, which broke floor tiles that fell to emptiness below. Gabrion eyed the contraptions quickly but realized that everything was happening too fast to ponder for long. He pounced over one set of fallen tiles and dodged under a swinging blade, and then inspiration struck as a sandbag plummeted onto a step in front of him. He slashed overhead to cut the bag, and then he thrust the jade into it, begging for it to freeze in the air.
The jade didn’t respond, but Dariak seemed to understand the intent, or at least came to a similar conclusion. He threw a handful of webbing forward and cast his web-binding spell to keep the sand aloft, which prevented most of the blades from cutting any other guide ropes. It wasn’t the best use of the spell, and he could feel the energies tearing quickly, so he nudged Gabrion in the back, and the two of them ran ahead into the next room.
But in Gabrion’s dream, he hadn’t gone through the whole gauntlet. He had detoured off to the side where Mira had claimed a piece of jewelry, a tiara in his last version of the dream. He looked around and saw a faint etching along one wall. He threw his body weight against it, crashing through a wood panel into a cold corridor beyond. Dariak was left in the trap room, where a flock of eaglons soared overhead and lava-like ooze poured in and bubbled up from the floor. He turned and jumped with all his might toward Gabrion, who reached out and clasped the mage’s hands to pull him inside.
The corridor was littered with doors, so Gabrion again trusted the jade for guidance. Several rows down, on the left, the shard rattled outside an iron door. This time, they were on the proper side of it and the bolts were easy to slide. They pulled the door open and found a figure that was at the same time both familiar and hideously different.
Kitalla was covered in bandages, from around her head and arm, down across her chest, to along one of her legs. Where she wasn’t bandaged, her clothing was badly ripped, revealing bloody welts and deep-purple-black bruises. Her eyes were closed and puffy, and her breathing was shallow and ragged. It was a marvel she was even alive.
Dariak used three healing spells on her in quick succession, just trying to get her conscious. He had practiced them during his imprisonment, but not deeply. Part of him hadn’t really thought he would need them, but they were spells that had earned him food and water. Now, he plied his trade as powerfully as he could, drawing power from the earth and water jades to help seal wounds and improve blood flow. But there wasn’t time to really fix her here.
Kitalla’s eyes opened, and she reacted first by hissing angrily and trying to claw at Gabrion, but she wasn’t strong enough to do any damage. He handed his sword to Dariak and then lifted Kitalla gently in his arms, knowing where to go next even without the jade. He continued down the hallway and burst into the chamber with the silver jade on the pillowed pedestal.
When she realized where she was, Kitalla awoke more fully, wriggling from Gabrion’s arms until he had to bend and place her on the floor so he wouldn’t drop her. She struggled to stand, grabbing the warrior blindly, her eyes focused solely on the jade. Staggering forward, Kitalla snarled at Gabrion when he tried to help. Instead, the warrior reclaimed his sword from the mage and looked around for the right-side exit that Mira had always used.
Turning to the door, Gabrion readied himself to run again, but he knew that Kitalla was in no condition to follow properly. Dariak was projecting other minor healing spells toward the thief, but they were barely effective at all.
Then, Kitalla’s hand reached down and clasped the jade she had coveted for so long, recalling all the pain and suffering she had endured to feel its embrace once more. She clutched it to her chest like a lost child, savoring its vibrations and wanting never to move again.
The door near Gabrion opened, and in rushed Grenthar with a contingent of fighters in his wake. The warrior swept his sword around, but Grenthar’s agility was impressive, and the older man dodged easily out of the way, launching daggers from his hands in a fashion that reminded Gabrion vaguely of their flight from Kaison, when Kitalla had done the same thing. He brought his sword around to block the daggers, but he could not focus on the thief anymore, as the rest of the fighters stormed in, desperate to stop them.
Dariak turned to the side and aimed a fireball spell at the wall so that its blast radius wouldn’t impact his companions. He roasted three of the fighters, one of whom took the blast in the face and was blinded. Five others turned toward the mage, swords and maces flailing about. He enacted the Shield of Delminor, as well as the pass-through-shield spell of the water jade. He then used the natural dust and dirt in the room, summoning them to rush forth as unstoppable spears, which lanced through several of the oncoming foes. His arms and hands gestured wildly as he drew back the used fragments of earth and sent them out again. It was difficult magic to reuse drained spell components in that fashion, but he had been practicing.
While the warrior and mage were busy, the thief faced off against her tormentor. Kitalla and Grenthar eyed each other viciously. “You’ll never keep that,” Grenthar taunted her.
“It’s mine,” she hissed, strengthened by both Dariak’s continuing healing spells and this moment of achieving her goal. No stone doors would crush her this time. No well-thrown dart would stun her. No paralyzing mist in the air would stop her. She held the jade tightly in one hand and reached for a dagger with the other.
Grenthar sprang upon her fiercely, and she tumbled over, hitting the ground hard, still weak. Grenthar simply laughed and kicked her in the ribs, then made to bring his dagger down into her heart. But Gabrion broke away from his opponent and attacked the man, whose speed protected him more than his skill. He weaved and bobbed, and nothing Gabrion could do would allow him to strike the man down. Dariak ended his torrent of healing spells while maintaining the binding spells he had used on some of the fighters, and turned his attention to sending stronger versions of his fire darts toward the master thief. But Grenthar pounced and somersaulted and cartwheeled out of the way each and every time. He was too nimble to be hit.
During this, Kitalla pulled herself to her feet and withdrew her dagger again, then had to catch her breath as pain lanced through her. Grenthar had stepped in and slashed across her back to stop her. Gabrion blocked him from doing more damage and then turned to finish off one of the other fighters in the room, of which not many were mobile any longer.
The agile older man bounded from one place to another until Kitalla whispered, “Stop,” and held her dagger out before her as if she were about to throw it. But instead of the dagger leaving her hand, the blade extended like a wild snake, growing and slithering through the air like molten metal. It lashed out and struck Grenthar down, killing him instantly. The dagger returned immediately to its original size and shape.
Dariak subdued the rest of the fighters with Gabrion’s help, then pulled the last of his healing herbs from his robe and used them to aid Kitalla the best he could.
“No time,” she rattled. “Must go.”
Gabrion hoisted her over his shoulder with a look to Dariak, who understood that he was now taking point. They fled through Grenthar’s door and raced through the safer areas of the complex. There weren’t many fighters left in the compound, and the healers simply cowered in terror when they saw the fleeing trio. Dariak launched a few fireball spells on his way out, drawing energy from the torches and using them to hopefully raze the entire place to the ground. They approached the main foyer, and he remembered that two guards would likely be stationed outside the main entrance. He prepared his dagger-chain spell and launched it out to both sides as he flew out the doorway, stri
king both guards deeply and sending rending pains through his own body from the spell.
“She’ll never make it at this pace,” Gabrion assessed. “We have to hide.”
Dariak agreed, and they sprinted through the streets of Pindington until Kitalla cried out in pain, begging them to stop. They didn’t have many options, so they hurried to an inn and demanded a room. The innkeeper understood from Dariak’s tone that it wasn’t a request, and though he didn’t want to comply, he valued his life too much to deny them.
Gabrion took the thief upstairs and set her to rest, still clutching the jade tightly in hand. He then returned to the main room and waited with Dariak, who was explaining to the innkeeper that no one was to know they were there, under any circumstance. The mage then wound up a spell, placing a vile curse upon the innkeeper that if they were discovered by any means, the innkeeper’s heart would explode in his chest, and all other members of his bloodline would suffer a similar fate within days.
“I beg of you, no!” the man whined, crying desperately.
Gabrion tried to stop Dariak from such a horrid incantation, but Dariak finished it in quick form as the man cried deeply, feeling his whole body throb under a painful and terrifying weight.
“I swear that I will do as you say. I beg of you, please release me.”
Dariak eyed the man. “Food for us upstairs. And we will leave here as soon as we are able. Before I go, I will cast the countercurse that will ease up on your heart and return you to your health. Do not betray us, or the worst will befall you.”
