Water (The Six Elements Book 3)

by Rosie Scott

  “Why do so many slaves escape Hazarmaveth from the south, then, if the exit to Eteri is so close?” I questioned, trying to understand. Many of the Alderi who had lived in the wildlands came from Hazarmaveth, even though Thanati was closer.

  “Escaping to the north is close to impossible,” Calder said to my left.

  “Why?”

  “It's heavily guarded,” Azazel said, with a shrug. “All of the guilds pop up just inside the north entrance, since the tunnel to the surface is right there. Turn right instead of leaving the underground there, and you're immediately in the largest tunnel of the underground, which leads directly to the split of Quellden.”

  “The split of Quellden?” Jakan spoke up, confused. “I thought Quellden was all one city.”

  “It is,” Nyx replied. “But Quellden is huge. It stretches from underneath the northern Chairel coast all the way to south of T'ahal in its length. As such, it has five entrances. Otherwise the tunnels would be too congested, and that's a hard problem to fix underground.”

  “It's comparable in size to Hammerton,” Calder pointed out. “And Hammerton is an entire country. That should give you an idea of its size.”

  Nyx nodded. “I lived there for sixteen years, and I can't tell you how many times I got lost. One of my trainers at the guild was over seven hundred years old, and there were places of Quellden even she did not know.”

  I took all of this in, silent. Taking on Quellden suddenly felt like such an impossible task, and we weren't even to Hazarmaveth yet.

  “How tall are Quellden's ceilings?” Cerin asked beside me. “If they are as low as Thanati's—”

  Nyx laughed out loud at the necromancer's optimism. “You would think Quellden was a city on the surface in an endless night, bud. Quellden might as well not have ceilings. My mother stays hidden away at the top of her tower, where she can see most of her domain. Unless you are female, or one of the lucky men chosen for the Reaping, you wouldn't know what the ceilings looked like.”

  “So we're talking thousands upon thousands of people,” I said, speaking of Quellden.

  “Oh, we're talking hundreds of thousands,” Nyx corrected me. “Now, to be fair, many of those are men, but that won't matter until you get them to agree to fight on our side. The only good thing is that Quellden is so large, it's impossible to fight them all at once. It takes almost three moons just to go from the north side of the city to the south side. Even if news travels fast and they hear us battling it out on one side, the entire city can't attack us at once.”

  Three moons. Those particular words repeated in my head, over and over. Quellden was so large, it took almost a year just to cross it. Of course, that was from north to south, where Quellden was at its longest. Moving from west to east wouldn't be quite that intimidating.

  “I don't really see the big deal, then,” Cerin commented, sitting back in his seat to relax. He wasn't nearly as concerned about this as the rest of us seemed to be. “We have the dead. And now, we have a few dozen necromancers.” He waved a pale hand toward the center of Thanati, where hundreds of soldiers went about their business. “We were severely outnumbered even in Thanati. We will be outnumbered in Hazarmaveth, and no matter how many we recruit there, we will be outnumbered in Quellden. Our army grows with each corpse. There are only so many assassins they can send at a time in a city that large. They will be drip-feeding us our own soldiers, which we can call to attention any number of times.”

  “Uggh, I just love how passionate you get about the dead, Cerin,” Nyx jested with admiration. “It's almost creepy.” Looking to me, she asked, “Doesn't it just make you all shivery inside?”

  I chuckled. “Our love of necromancy must be rubbing off on you, Nyx.”

  “There's a reason this is called the War of Necromancers,” Cerin mused. “This war will belong to us. It is inevitable. We started the battle for Thanati with only one soldier per multiple foes, and we won the city with swarms of the undead. This is why death magic remains feared and illegal. It is an unstoppable force.”

  “Raise the dead, kill foes by absorbing their energy, raise more dead with new energy,” I murmured, circling a finger in the air to mimic a cycle.

  “Chairel's greatest fear has always been necromancers who desire power and prominence,” said Cerin. “They can raise armies in mere seconds and steamroll the living. Kai is the worst thing that could have happened to them, because she can do all that and more. With that in mind, Quellden is not an impossibility. It is an opportunity. When you have a city that is packed full of hundreds of thousands of people, it's just asking to be overrun with the dead.”

  “I love me an optimist!” Jayce exclaimed, from further down the fire, to which we all laughed.

  “Before we all get excited about taking on Quellden,” Vallen began, “We must first form a plan for Hazarmaveth.”

  Azazel held up one finger. “I have some ideas.”

  “Go on,” Vallen encouraged.

  “I've been studying the city's weaknesses for years,” Azazel said, throwing the rest of the rat's corpse into the fire when he'd eaten the last of its meat. “Because luckily, I am skilled. The women have allowed me freedoms not given to just anyone.”

  “Like?” Calder questioned curiously.

  “I have worked in the hunting parties for the past forty years,” Azazel started. “And that requires building immense trust, since male hunters are not shackled. I have also worked on the towers more often than most males.”

  “What are the towers?” Jakan questioned.

  “They are defensive points throughout the city. Literal towers made of stone, like everything else, which grow into the ceilings. Each tower has one to two archers on it at any given time keeping a watch over the city.”

  “They watch for escaped slaves?” Anto asked.

  Azazel nodded. “Escaped slaves and surface attackers. From time to time, surface dwellers who feel wronged by the assassins send parties of mercenaries down. Chairel mercenaries have proved the greatest threat to Quellden, but sometimes enemies come down to Hazarmaveth from Eteri.”

  “That is why Thanati has no towers,” Vallen mused. “Because the beastmen do not retaliate.”

  “We never had any problems with attackers here,” Ricco drawled.

  “Most beastmen in Silvi are Alderi,” Calder pointed out. “This is the last place they want to come back to.”

  Azazel raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.

  My gaze fell upon the archer. “What is it about these towers that you think will help us?”

  Azazel glanced down the row of us. “I think we should attack Hazarmaveth in two waves and with two groups. First group should be me, Kai, and a handful of your best stealth fighters or illusionists. Group two is everyone else, including the beastmen. Anyone who fights with lots of noise and chaos. Group one should insist on infiltrating the city in silence. As I said earlier, the southern half of the city is made of dwellings and apartments. We should focus on freeing slaves and wiping out as many of the women that will not join us before we make a noise. Move our way up.”

  “While we are...where?” Vallen asked.

  “Back in the tunnels, waiting for our signal to rush in.”

  “What'll the signal be?” Jayce questioned.

  “Well, as we are building up our army of freed slaves and sympathizers, assuming all goes well, we'll be making our way north. There's a tower near the center of the city that I think Kai and I should take over.”

  “I am not as well-trained in stealth,” I informed Azazel. The only time I'd ever tried to be stealthy was back during our quest to break Cerin out of the dungeons, and I was pretty sure I had been the reason that hadn't gone as well as we'd planned.

  “You don't have to be. I need your magic,” Azazel replied. “To the northwest of this tower is a stockpile of explosives my sisters intend to use to continue construction through the western city wall. They hope to connect Hazarmaveth to the budding settlement of Demiz beneath Hammerto
n.”

  “But that's all the way across the world,” Jakan said, confused.

  “If you're looking at a flat map, it is,” Anto replied. “The world is a globe, Jakan. It all connects. Keep going west, and you'll end up in the east on a map.”

  Jakan's cheeks darkened with embarrassment. “Ah. Yeah. That's true.”

  Nyx and I chuckled at the thief's confusion.

  “So, go on about the explosives?” Jayce requested jovially.

  “The stockpile is in a building normally used for storage,” Azazel went on. “Sometimes the door is kept open, sometimes it isn't. Either way, there's a slit of a window which will allow me access to reach the explosives with my arrow. I will need Kai's fire magic. The explosion will serve as both a distraction and as a signal.”

  “Why do you need my fire magic?” I questioned. “I have heard of archers lighting their arrows without it.”

  Azazel nodded. “Yes, and I am an alchemist, so I know the recipe. Unfortunately, I have no access to the right ingredients. The underground does not like to deal with fire if they can help it. It feeds on oxygen, which is harder to replenish down here, so many flame accelerant ingredients are rare here. Do you know the spell that imbues objects with fire?”

  I nodded. “I do.”

  “That will ensure a higher likelihood of it even working. Lighting arrows on fire and keeping them on fire is harder to do than it looks. With fire magic, the spell will keep the arrow burning as long as it has the energy, even if a normal flame would blow out on its path.” Azazel paused, and looked back down the line of people to see the reactions to his plan. “By the time I cause the explosion, the others should have freed enough slaves and sympathizers to reinforce us in the south. The explosion will be the signal for everyone—slaves and our Alderi magic users from Thanati and the beastmen—to attack en masse.”

  “Do you know any sympathizers in Hazarmaveth?” Nyx questioned. “I'm assuming I'll be part of this stealth group which infiltrates the south end. It'd be nice to know which women I can spare before I end up having to get into a situation with one.”

  Azazel replied, “Yes, I do, and I know where some live. There is a network of sorts. Women who contribute different things to the goal of freeing the males. They may help our fight, or they may even focus on freeing others while our fight serves as a distraction. They should be kept alive at all costs. They are our allies in this.”

  “The others from your hunting party said you were the best archer Hazarmaveth has,” Cerin commented, watching the archer carefully. “Do you think that's true? If you feel like you can accomplish all this, why haven't you tried to escape these past few decades?”

  “I don't mean to sing my own praises, but I'd guarantee I'm the best archer any of you will ever meet,” Azazel replied. “As for why I haven't escaped, my first attempt put a sour taste in my mouth.” He glanced toward Calder. “I've become increasingly against the idea of escape if it means leaving others I know behind, and I've never had access to an army like you guys do. It's not like this plan would have worked just a moon ago.”

  “Well, I need you to know for sure this plan is going to work now,” Cerin said. “If Kai and you will be going alone, you have to pick up the slack. Her spells are not silent, and she will be unable to defend herself if things go awry. Because I know she would rather risk her own life if it came down to it than to sabotage her army's plans.”

  I wrinkled up my nose in amusement, thankful Cerin loved me enough to continually deal with my stubbornness when it came to that. Even though he had attempted to keep me from making such decisions during our battle with Nirit, I'd still managed to nearly give him a heart attack. I understood his concern.

  “It will work,” Azazel insisted. “Trust me. I know the right paths. I know the schedules of many of my sisters. I kill silently. If anyone can get Kai to that tower safely, it is me. If things take a turn for the worse, she can always use her magic, and when the sounds of battle reach you, everyone can rush in.” The archer shrugged. “That's what I was trying to avoid, though. Rushing in too early. I am sure it was chaos trying to free slaves and battle all at once here in Thanati, which is how I heard you took it over.”

  I nodded. “It was. It was the only method available to us at the time. I like your plan, Azazel. It sounds like it will give us the advantage.” I glanced down toward the others. “What does everyone else think? Questions? Concerns? Ideas?”

  There were a few glances and shrugs, but Calder was the only one who spoke.

  “It will work,” he said, avoiding the other Alderi's gaze. “Azazel's plans are meticulous. They have worked before.”

  Twenty-seven

  24th of New Moon, 420

  The Thanati armory was full of beauty. A variety of sharp, glistening weapons of all shapes and sizes hung from racks and sat upon tables. Axes, hammers, swords, daggers, bows, claw blades, crossbows, throwing weapons, and now, even karambits based off of Azazel's pair waited to be picked up by eager soldiers.

  Anto sat in the midst of it all, hammering away at a scimitar to flatten and smooth out its blade. Sweat dripped from his greenish-gray brow, rolling into his thick black eyebrows and getting lost amongst the coarse hair. A few feet away and watching his lover from a chair was Jakan, in the midst of eating some dried meat.

  The orc stopped his work when he noticed me walk through the door. He reached up, wiping the sweat from his face with a forearm, while giving me a beaming smile. My heart ached with longing. Seeing Anto next to the forge, in all of his muscular and friendly glory, reminded me so much of Bjorn. In just half a year, what had been Bjorn's prospective end of service date to Sirius loomed. I knew that when the day came, I would be overcome with emotion. Had things gone differently, I would have been busy finding a way to reunite with him in his retirement. In just a little over a week, it would be three years to the day that my friends and I had left Sera for Whispermere. Bjorn had been alive, then. Oh, how times had changed.

  ...how far I'd come.

  “You okay?” The orc's rough voice somehow remained soothing. I blinked rapidly for a moment, clearing my thoughts before I answered him.

  “Yes, why?”

  “We both said hi. You just ignored us,” Jakan replied.

  I laughed softly. “Sorry. I have a lot on my mind.”

  “Liar,” Jakan jested, giving me a playful grin. I wasn't sure how I could consistently find someone who was older than me to be adorable, but the thief was always testing the limit. He was in his mid-thirties, and somehow still appeared eighteen. Little had changed since we'd first crossed paths two years ago.

  “You know,” I said, looking around at all of the weapons in the room, “I might reconsider being a mage. These weapons are gorgeous.” Glancing up to Anto, I added, “The least you could do is help Jakan out a little. Don't let him do all the work.”

  Anto laughed. “I apologize.”

  Jakan snorted a chuckle. “Somebody has to keep an eye on the eye candy, or else it'll grow too hot in here and the whole armory will explode. Then, we'd have no weapons at all.” He grinned around his next bite of food.

  Anto gave me an exasperated look. “This is what I have to deal with, Kai. Hour after hour. He calls out things like, 'put your back into it' and 'is the blacksmith for sale?' I feel utterly objectified.”

  I couldn't help but burst into a fit of chuckles. Jakan coughed around his food, trying to join me.

  “I'm trying to see how bad I can get before you come over here and strangle me,” Jakan admitted.

  “Yeah, well, I think I started ignoring you yesterday,” Anto retorted playfully.

  “I guess you did. You didn't answer me earlier when I asked if I could rent your sword for an hour or two.”

  Anto turned to his lover and glared. “Because I somehow missed that one. Thank you for repeating it in front of Kai.”

  Jakan threw a thumbs up at the orc, as I only shook my head. “I'd be careful if I were you. Nyx might come runnin
g to join the party.”

  Anto chuckled softly, before he took a seat in a nearby chair, deciding to take a short break. “Speaking of Nyx, where is she?”

  “She and Vallen went to welcome the group of beastmen from Silvi,” I replied.

  “Oh, Vallen's letter worked?” Jakan inquired. “I didn't figure any of them would return.”

  I shrugged lightly. “I wasn't so sure, myself. I wouldn't want to come back if I were Alderi. Then again, this is the prime time to snag the best real estate.” I threw my hand toward the door, where the rest of Thanati awaited. “This went from a city of thousands to having just two hundred people. Considering it stays under our control, now would be the best time to start a business, too.”

  “Did any Vhiri come along with the group?” Jakan asked. “Maybe some would want to start magic schools or book shops.”

  “Some of your people came, but they won't be able to stay forever. They will eventually need the sun,” I answered. “Besides, Cerin and I have already taught magic to many of the Alderi who are staying here. They can build schools in our absence.”

  “Did they have any predispositions?” Anto questioned. When I tilted my head in confusion, he clarified, “To the elements?”

  “Ah. Yes, actually.” Anto motioned for me to finally sit down, so I scooted a chair from the wall to be closer to my friends, before finally plopping into it. “It's funny to me,” I went on, after a moment. “The Naharans were mostly predisposed to air and earth magic, which made sense given their complexions, and here with the Alderi, there is an overwhelming amount of water and death mages. There are others, too, of course, but I suppose judging mages on their appearances is a bias for a reason.”