by Tj Dixon
“You will be seen now.” She finally tells us and leads the way to the throne room. When we enter the throne room the first thing that strikes me is that the huge decorative throne has been replaced by a simple black stone chair. Grunti is sitting on it arguing loudly with Imogen, which doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence. There is a dwarven girl wearing a red bikini that reveals lots of her soft creamy skin. She has short red hair and bright blue eyes. We stand here waiting for a few moments before our escort says loudly. “The outsiders are here.”
Grunti and Imogen turn to face us. Grunti sighs and shakes his head. I wonder for a moment if we are about to lose ours. Then he laughs. “This cute little fairy you gave me is the most disagreeable, over opinionated, foul mouthed person I have ever met. At first I was sure I’d have you all executed, but she’s also the only person I have ever met who has been able to follow my thoughts perfectly. Actually most importantly she has the same taste as me in picture books. So I both hate and love her at the same time. So I will restore Lucy’s power, but I figured out a way to do it without changing her size.”
“I’d actually like to be my proper size again.” Lucy points out but Grunti shrugs.
“Sorry, but that’s not happening.” Grunti tells her firmly. Lucy looks unhappy but doesn’t say anything else. Getting her power back is a big start and will get us home. We can find a way to restore her body later. “Lucy, come with me.”
“Ok.” Lucy says a little reluctantly and follows Grunti and Imogen through a door behind the throne room. The dwarven girl in the bikini looks at us curiously but doesn’t say anything. I am rather curious about her. A bikini seems so out of place in the palace. I don’t say anything to her though. I don’t even look at our escort.
A few silent minutes later Lucy flies out of the room ahead of Grunti and Imogen. She has a big smile on her face and lands on my shoulder. She whispers in my ear. “Let’s get the faeries and leave the city. Once we’re far enough away I can open a gate to return us to Contractia.”
“I suspect I’ll see you again.” Grunti tells us. I don’t see how we would but I nod politely.
“Thank you for your help.” I tell him.
“It was for little Lucy and Imogen, not for you.” Grunti tells me with a shrug. “Now get out of here.”
“Thank you.” Lucy tells him with a huge smile.
“You’re most welcome.” Grunti says cheerfully. If anything his smile is larger than Lucy’s.
“If you try to peek on me again though, I’ll fry the part of your body most precious to you.” Lucy tells him still smiling happily. Grunti goes pale and Imogen has a fit of laughter. I notice the guard beside us reach for her sword.
“We should be going. Thank you again though.” I say and bow quickly to Grunti before hurriedly leading the way out of the throne room. I drag Lucy along with wind magic when she doesn’t follow straight away. I really don’t fancy getting executed after we finally got Lucy’s curse removed.
Leaving the palace and palace dome is much quicker than entering. The faeries are waiting outside the palace dome. Dairon must have contacted them as soon as Lucy mentioned them, or perhaps they even followed us here. I have no idea where they have been staying whilst we were at the barracks, but I doubt they were ever far from us. They seem to be very protective of Dairon, but as they have accepted him as their king it is understandable.
The elves that the dwarves captured seem happy to help the dwarves. Well perhaps not happy, because dwarves and elves really don’t get on, but they prefer that idea to leaving Nirvali and serving the Fallen Angels again. It didn’t really take any persuading from Dairon, but at least we confirmed that like the faeries they accept him as their true king. I doubt it will help us, but if they accepted him then others may too in the future.
The faeries have accepted that Dairon must serve me for now, but like me they wish to see him freed one day. I don’t know how I’ll do it, but I’ll find a way. Perhaps after the war his being an elf will no longer be an issue. Of course that partly depends how the war ends. If we lose then I suppose his being an elf may not be an issue but losing would be a big issue. For one thing we would probably be dead if Contractia lost the war.
Kai leads the way to the tunnel used for bounty hunts. The city is still in chaos so there are no official bounties, but there are still a few unofficial bounties. They don’t require registration so there is no need to ask what bounty we are doing. As a result nobody questions us as we leave the city. We probably should have asked Grunti for permission to leave but I was worried it might turn into an outright fight if we stayed any longer.
The faeries hide us as we walk and occasionally crawl through tunnels for about an hour. We can still see each other but we are blurred and anyone without the magic on them would be unable to see us without penetrating the illusionary magic of the faeries. It feels like we have gone far enough so we stop and make sure there are no monsters nearby. We can’t detect any. The faeries drop their magic so we can see each other easier. Lucy flies around in a circle a few times and then lands in the centre of the circle she was flying in.
“Ok. This spot should work.” Lucy says sounding a bit nervous now. “This is the first time I’ve summoned a portal between worlds in quite a few centuries. Actually a bit longer than that. Oh, and don’t try guessing my age or I’ll get angry.
“Anyway I’m going to start chanting and it will take about half an hour to finish the chant. The amount of magic that it uses will draw monsters from all around so you’d best be ready to defend me, because if I have to stop the chant I’ll have to start from the beginning again. You’ll need to stay outside the green circle until the gate opens.
“When the gate opens hurry through, because it will stay open only about half a minute. It will take me through first the moment it opens so there will be no second chance if you get left behind. You can enter from any direction and you just have to touch the gate to pass through it.”
“Might it draw more than just monsters?” I ask, worried we could soon have an enemy army on our hands.
“If they are nearby it could, but until it opens it doesn’t use any more magic than summoning a demon.” Lucy answers.
“What about after it opens? Might we end up leading the enemy through the gate to Contractia?” I ask.
“I can close the gate as soon as we are all through. Just make sure that the faeries all come through first. Now are you ready for me to begin?” Lucy asks and looks round.
“I should take power from Elucia first.” I say and Lucy frowns but then shrugs. Elucia steps towards me without complaint and kisses me. I take power and then pull away. As I pull away she seems slightly disappointed for some reason.
“Now are you ready?” Lucy asks.
We all nod and Lucy smiles. Then she begins chanting. I stand with Elucia just past Lucy. Ahead of us is a long stretch of tunnel before it turns to the right. The turning is just at the edge of my vision, though my senses extend much further. Kai and Dairon stand the other side of Lucy ready to fight anything approaching from that direction. I can’t see or sense the faeries but I know they are here. I stay alert but Lucy’s spell doesn’t seem to be generating much magical energy. I doubt any monsters would be attracted to it. The minutes pass slowly as we wait.
All of a sudden Lucy’s spell flares up. Now I can tell why she thinks it will draw attention, and sure enough moments later I sense something approaching from our direction. It feels attuned to the water element. Then I see the first few tentacles reach the corner of the tunnel. They drip slime as they quickly weave their way towards. In a mere moment they are just ten feet away and the tunnel is filled with tentacles, but then Elucia’s flames have filled the whole tunnel. The strength of her flames seems like overkill to me, but better overkill than underkill. Assuming we don’t attract worse foes that is.
“That’s enough.” I tell Elucia quickly before we really do attract any more unwanted attention.
“Ok.”
Elucia says dropping the flames. Then she says quite vehemently. “I can’t stand tentacles though. Anything with tentacles should just die.”
“Well, whatever that thing was, I think it safe to say it just did. Ah, we have more monsters approaching. I’ll deal with these.” I tell Elucia.
We can hear their low buzz in the distance and soon they fly into view. They basically look like oversized wasps. At about two foot long these thin yellow and black insects have a deadly metallic stinger. I’m not certain it is a stinger. It could be more of an impaler than a stinger but either way I’m not letting them near us.
I fill the tunnel where they are with a spinning crescent of lightning that I throw through the insects. As soon as they are hit they explode in a gooey mess and it only takes moments before enough have been hit that the rest retreat.
I hear explosions behind us and spare a moment to look. Dairon is sending wind slices at some sort of slow crawling bugs. They have black armour but each wind slice manages to pierce the armour and cuts the bugs in half with a loud crack. Not explosions then, but they sounded the same. My wind senses can’t be at their best though, because I should have realised Dairon was using wind slices without needing to look.
I hear an angry hiss followed by a loud howl ahead of us. I turn my attention back firmly on the tunnel ahead of us. It takes a moment to understand what is going on, but the insects we fought are now fighting a large furry creature. If they serve as a shield it means we don’t have to fight again yet.
As it happens we don’t have to fight again at all. Dairon easily deals with the advancing bugs attacking us from his direction and nothing else approaches us. The flying insects and furry creature are still fighting when the gate opens. I expected worse, but I’m relieved that nothing more powerful attacked us.
We can all tell the instant the gate opens. I sense the faeries as they touch the gate and after an instant I am sure they are all through. I wait for Elucia to pass through before reaching out and touching the gate.
It is very different to porting. I feel like I am being thrown through a black goo faster than I have ever flown. My breath is stolen from me and it seems to last forever. I feel like I’m going to pass out but then I feel something pulling at me and now gasping for breath I blink in the sudden light.
Chapter 17 (Ash Snow)
I look in the mirror and find myself wanting. Sure my appearance is more or less that of a typical Contractian, but my eyes are a dull blue and my short blonde hair lacks lustre. My skin at least shows my youth though, and at least I’m not fat, overly tall or short.
What concerns me more than my appearance though, is my health. My mother and grandmother both died before their twentieth birthday. Both the alchemists I spoke to confirmed that I have the same disease and that only a healer or a very rare and expensive potion can cure me. To afford one in time the only possibility is to join an elite company such as the Royal Guard or the Old Guard. To do that I must prove myself worthy. Winning the tournament and then summoning and binding a powerful demon should be enough to prove myself. I wish the prize was enough to pay for the potion, but it isn’t even close to enough.
I shake my head in frustration and look to my right. Ling is kneeling there awaiting orders. Unlike the others the only change to her uniform is the addition of the black chain round her neck. It is said to be of dwarven origin, but I doubt that is true. Just a lie at the market to drive its price up, but its enchantment is perfect regardless of its origin.
As long as she wears that chain Ling has no choice but to obey me. The magic is simply too strong to resist. The others I can scare into obedience now they are my slaves, but Ling is different. She knows what I am planning. Obviously I never told her, but she knows me well enough that I couldn’t hide it. It’s only a matter of time before she brings it up. Ironically she is the slave most likely to survive. We were friends for most of our lives so I really don’t want to kill her if I don’t have to. Of course I don’t want to kill anyone, but I also don’t want to die. If I must sacrifice my former classmates to survive, then that is what I will do.
“I’m hungry, Ling. Make us something.” I order Ling. It’s much cheaper to make our own food and Ling was always better at cooking than me.
“Just for the two of us?” Ling asks with a smile.
“Yes.” I nod. The others only get food once every other day. It saves money, but more importantly demons prefer unhappy people so they will make better sacrifices this way. They don’t dare complain. Well, one did once, but I made an example of her and nobody has dared complain since.
I look at the other girls. There are ten of them lining the wall by the door, opposite the mirror I was using. Five either side of the door. They each have an enchantment to take away their sense of sight and hearing, which also increases their other senses. Instead of a uniform they are each wearing a large white cloth wrapped tightly around them from just above their breasts to about halfway between their crotch and their knees. It is wrapped around them five times and then kept in place with magic. It is so tight that they have a little trouble breathing, but isn’t tight enough to threaten their lives. That is all they are wearing so their feet, legs and arms are bare.
The room is the same one I used with Ling before the tournament so it is small for twelve people, but I don’t feel cramped. It is better than staying in the single room I moved into when the tournament started. My slaves on the other hand must really feel it as they stand crammed together against that wall.
I don’t like to be cruel so I leave that to Ling who really enjoys it. She chose the slaves clothing after I refused her suggestion of nudity or having them just wear underwear. She also punishes them whenever she wants to or they need to be punished. Ling who enjoys both cooking and cruelty always used to joke about one day cooking someone alive. At least I assume it was a joke. I don’t think she’d ever do it, but I wouldn’t entirely put it past her. I wouldn’t entirely put anything past her.
When I first met Ling she made my life hell and I hated her. She protected me when I most needed it and comforted me when my mother died. She helped me study to enter the academy even though I used to be useless at magic. She even suggested that I learn demonology and helped me study that. I don’t know if I could kill her even if I needed to. I should have enough slaves by the end of the tournament and I could probably sell some for cheaper slaves. Mages make better sacrifices though, so I’d prefer to use my classmates.
Ling is making a simple root vegetable soup but her cooking can make even something as plain as this taste lovely. Even if she wasn’t my friend I wouldn’t want to kill her, because I like her cooking so much. I even joked once about marrying her. She turned bright red. I think that’s the only time I ever saw her embarrassed. I have wondered a few times whether perhaps she might be more interested in girls than in boys. I suppose there’s nothing wrong with that. I’ve known other girls who have dated each other and they were perfectly normal, but if her interest was in me I’d be a bit uncomfortable around her.
“It’s ready.” Ling says and hands me a dish of thick lovely smelling soup.
“Thank you.” I tell Ling and take the soup. I put it on the small table beside my bed. “Spoon.”
“Here you go.” Ling tells me as she passes a white china spoon. It’s from her precious set of dishes and cutlery. Those are her most prized possessions. I suppose they now belong to me but I still think of them as hers. She’d be really upset if they broke. They are her only connection now to the grandmother she loved.
Ling never cared for the rest of her family and I suspect she was involved in their deaths. They brutally murdered her grandmother though, so I can’t blame her. We are both without family now. That meant we were both completely free before our match, though they still said the usual rubbish about the rights of Ling’s family. Now of course I am the only one who is free, but once I have been cured I plan to free Ling. Perhaps even before then.
This soup tastes just as ni
ce as I expected. The smell will be stronger for my blind slaves and must be like torture to them but I’d rather torture them like this than with real torture. They need to suffer to be worthy sacrifices, but I really don’t enjoy their suffering. I wish there was another way, but there isn’t.
“Ready for your next battle?” Ling asks me before taking her first spoon of soup.
