Ilbei Spadebreaker and the Harpy's Wild

by John Daulton

  “I can chip away at that all day,” Verity called. “I’m not going to run out of these.”

  Jasper continued where he’d left off. “They told me these spells were for getting up onto castle walls, or through them if I knew where to go on the other side.”

  “Well, can’t ya do one of those seein spells them sight wizards always do? We’re right above a place where some fellers is talkin down below, the ones I heard through that crack. Sure there weren’t more’n fifty paces between here and there.”

  “If I had a seeing spell, I would have told you that I did.” Jasper turned back toward Kaige for a moment and sighed again, the big man still trying to deadlift the bobbing arrow out of the pool. Jasper rolled his head back to face Ilbei again. “If he hadn’t lost half my spells, I would have three seeing spells with me rather than five useless teleports.”

  “Verity said it was them what was at yer stores,” Ilbei said. “And Kaige done what he could, so let off that like I already told ya.” Ilbei watched Kaige still unable to budge the enchanted arrow. He was damned sure he didn’t want anyone else getting hit with one of those.

  “So what else ya got? I don’t know how far off Verity is down there, so I can’t say how much use fifty paces would be fer goin after him—not with the dark and him and that damned bow—but it might be our only shot.”

  “Besides the teleports, I have two oil spells,” Jasper said, pushing the chunk of fungus around inside the satchel and keeping his voice low as he confirmed what he had in memory. “And there is the lightning bolt spell and two fireballs—obviously Verity’s men didn’t know what they were looking at—four healing spells, two like the one I just cast and two of the longer ones … oh, wait, no, this one is just for headaches, and, well, here’s another mend, but it’s for armor and shields. The rest are food, water or laundry spells. That’s it.”

  “Well, why don’t ya hit him with that lightnin and let’s be done with it? Sweet Mercy’s smilin lips, ya could have done that five minutes ago.”

  “Well, if I had, we’d all be floating downstream, steaming like baked fish,” Jasper said. “This one is M-ranked and not to be trifled with. And that pretends I knew where he was, which I do not, and therefore I couldn’t have hit him anyway.”

  “Fire, then. Just send one of them big burnin bastards right down the pipe. That’ll do fer him. Fill the whole thing up with fire, and ya won’t need to know where he is.”

  Jasper rummaged through the satchel again, reading ribbons wrapped around scrolls. They both flinched when another arrow pounded into the wall. “I should tell you boys, I waited seven days for a chimera to come out of her cave once,” Verity called in its wake.

  “No,” said Jasper, ignoring Verity’s comment. “These are fast to read, but small. The big ones, like what you’re asking for—and they only gave me three to start, of which only one remained after the … looting—are in the chest back where we came in.”

  “Ya mean ya had em?” Ilbei looked as if he wanted to hit something. “Why in Hestra’s name would ya not bring somethin like that when ya had a choice? Ya might as well choose a cabbage over a cutlass fer yer next duel.”

  Jasper looked at Ilbei and ticked his tongue against his teeth. It was apparent that he thought both the question and the comment ridiculous. “First of all, I have no intention of dueling anyone. But, to answer your question, it is because those are for castle gates and leviathans, not cave explorations where space is limited and where heat and distance have an essential and necessary relationship for the caster … and his allies.”

  “What if we’d found a dragon in here?”

  “I’m not even going to dignify that with a response.”

  Ilbei’s eyes narrowed, but he let it go. “How fast, then? And how big? And how far?”

  “Fast. One is seven words, the other nineteen.” He looked at the scrolls again and frowned. “The small one is the longer of the two, sadly—a poorly written E-class fireball, probably well under two hands in diameter. The other is K-class; the script is neat, so likely a full span. I didn’t write that one either, but whoever did made a much better job of it.”

  “Well that’s big enough,” Ilbei said, ignoring the useless parts of Jasper’s statement. “Go ahead and put that one down the hole.”

  “But I still don’t know where he is.”

  “Can’t ya shoot it straight down the middle and just let it go as far as it will? Ya said it’s a full span. That’s a boatload of fire.”

  “Yes, but he’ll shoot me as soon as I step out there to cast.”

  “No, he won’t. When ya get to that sixth word, I’ll jump across, make him shoot at me. Ya can jump out behind me and let it go while he reloads. Jump back before he’s got time to stick ya.”

  Jasper didn’t look especially enthusiastic about that plan. His teeth were chattering again.

  “You’re too fat, Sarge,” Meggins said, leaning in close. “That pregnant gut of yours will get you killed. I’ll jump across.”

  “Fat enough to dot yer eyes closed, soldier,” Ilbei said. “Besides, I got us into this mess. I’ll be the one what jumps across.”

  “Sarge, you’re also the one who can get us out of this,” Meggins said. “I heard the stories about you when they transferred you to Hast. If even half of them are true, we need you. But you’re no good to us with one of those black shafts through your head. You know I’m quicker, at least for something like this. I’ll do it.”

  Ilbei would have snarled something back, but Meggins pointed at the black arrow that was floating past Ilbei’s foot. Ilbei watched the current carry it out of the little chamber and down into the darkness. No wonder Verity knew he’d never run out of arrows: they were going to drift right back to him, and there was nothing Ilbei could do about it. Ilbei grunted, knowing Meggins was right. He looked back to Jasper. “Ya realize what we’re goin to do, right?”

  Jasper nodded.

  “Ya can’t hesitate. Ya got to get out there, say what ya got to say, and get back.” Jasper’s teeth had stopped chattering again, which Ilbei took as a hopeful sign.

  “I will,” Jasper promised.

  Ilbei made a face and started to change his mind.

  “He’ll do it,” Meggins said. “He’ll be fine.” He fixed Jasper with a long, steady look, smiling just a little bit. “I know he will.”

  What other choice did they have? So Ilbei agreed.

  Jasper got out his scroll, and Ilbei held the piece of fungus so the wizard could read. They all counted six words, every one of them mouthing the numbers as Jasper spoke the unfamiliar sounds. On the sixth, Meggins threw himself across the chamber, and in that instant, the dark line of a green-tailed arrow streaked across the chamber like death’s black rope. It had barely spit through the waterfall and blasted out a chunk of the back wall when Jasper stepped out and shouted the last word of his spell. The fireball erupted into existence and shot down the passage at meteoric speed. Jasper stood in its light and watched as if hypnotized by the need to see it fly.

  Realizing Jasper wasn’t moving, Ilbei tackled him and drove him across the space, the two of them crashing against the wall near Meggins. Something burned along the back of Ilbei’s thighs as they slammed into the cold rock. Bits of gravel rained down into the pool right after. When he righted himself, he reached back and felt the line of the cuts that ran across the back of his legs, deep enough to bleed, but no worse than that.

  The cave down which the fireball roared glowed orange for a short time, dimming with each passing heartbeat, and then it was gone. Darkness followed the glare for a moment as their eyes adjusted once more to the faint blue glow.

  “Did you get him?” Kaige had to ask, anxiousness giving volume to his voice.

  Verity’s laughter was his answer.

  Chapter 24

  “Gorgon’s stone,” Ilbei swore as Verity taunted them from the darkness downstream. Ilbei stared across the scant distance of the pool, Kaige staring back hopefully and Mag
s lying there with her legs dangling in the pool, stirred some by the movement of water. If she wasn’t dead yet, she would be from hypothermia soon enough. They needed to get clear and to a dry place where Jasper could read the longer healing spell on her. She couldn’t afford for them to let Verity keep them under siege.

  “I saw him,” Jasper whispered. “He’s eighty spans down, against the right side, where the cave bends.”

  “I don’t remember it bendin much,” Ilbei said. “Not enough fer cover anyway. How’d the fireball miss?”

  “I shot it down the middle, like you said. We should have done it along the floor. He dropped down and pressed against the wall. It went right over him.”

  “Well, can ya get him with the other one?”

  “Not without targeting him directly, which means I need to get out there and actually see him before I cast. There’s no other way. Anything else is guessing at last known location.”

  “Well, we can’t do that. Might as well throw ya in a direwolf den wearin a pair of bacon underpants,” Ilbei said.

  “Why would I be wearing underclothing made from bacon? That’s hardly likely. I can’t imagine anyone making such a thing, much less wearing it.”

  “It’s just a saying, Jasper,” Meggins said.

  “Oh,” Jasper replied. “Yes, I keep forgetting. The underclothing made from bacon is the humorous element because no one would do that, and therefore it would excite the direwolves terribly.” He actually grinned.

  “Ya picked a strange time to find a sense of humor,” Ilbei observed. “Now both of ya, help me think.”

  “Come on, Spadebreaker,” Verity called. “If that was the best you’ve got, then we all know how this is going to end. I really see no point in prolonging it. I’m not even in the water and my feet are cold. You all ought to be getting pretty uncomfortable in there.”

  Ilbei ignored him. He looked to Kaige, who sat watching him think, the big man’s expression suggesting he had absolute confidence that Ilbei would think of something. Mags lying beside him troubled Ilbei, though. A trickle of blood had begun to run off the shelf, the droplets falling into the water and turning purple in the blue light. That was both promising and not.

  That’s when Ilbei realized the fungus was giving Verity the advantage over them. He cursed himself for being so slow to realize it. He reached down into the water, where his own wounds were dripping purplish whorls that stretched and flowed away, and pulled off a chunk of fungus. He broke it up into smaller pieces like crumbling bread and threw them into the water, where they bobbed and turned and slowly floated away. Ilbei grinned.

  “Kaige, get yer cloak,” he ordered, whispering. Kaige didn’t hesitate or ask why. He was only a moment in getting it out of his pack, then held it up for Ilbei to see. Ilbei made a motion with his hands, indicating that Kaige should wad it up and throw it to him, which he did.

  “Toss me that,” Ilbei said then, pointing to Mags’ staff. Kaige scooted around the water’s edge and retrieved it, then threw it to Ilbei as well. He did appear curious as to what Ilbei was about, but he had sense enough not to ask.

  Ilbei turned to Meggins and Jasper, whispering as low as he could to still be heard over the water splashing down. “I’m goin to make a curtain with these,” he said. “It will be nearly wide enough to cover the entrance there. Meggins and Kaige can hold it up from either side, safe as can be. Then Jasper, you and me is gonna knock all this fungus loose and send it downstream. He can’t shoot what he can’t see.”

  Meggins’ head bobbed up and down, realizing what Ilbei had planned. But Jasper didn’t look pleased. “He can still shoot through it. And he’ll see our feet in the water until it’s all gone.”

  “We’ll stay up along the edge here, and we’ll use Kaige’s sword to get the stuff at the bottom.”

  “Then what?”

  “Then we wait fer it to float down there where he is. You watch it till it gets to him, and then ya blow his gods-be-damned head off with that last fireball of yers.”

  Meggins’ teeth reflected blue light from the curve of his smile. “Genius, Sarge. The ruddy bastard will never know what hit him.”

  “I don’t think we’ll be able to scrape the whole pool clean, clinging to the edge and working it with the point of a sword,” Jasper said. “He’s still going to have something to shoot at. And I can’t read the spell without seeing him the entire time to target him. And I also can’t do it stooped over peeking through the crack in your curtain either. Targeting fireballs isn’t like lobbing snowballs or dirt clods at your friends, you know?”

  “When was the last time you were in a snowball fight?” Meggins asked.

  Both Jasper and Ilbei glared at him. “That’s a right pointless thing to ask,” Ilbei said.

  “I just never saw Jasper as the snowball-fighting kind. And dirt clods, well, that’s a whole different level of commitment. That’s all I’m saying.”

  Ilbei was going to rebuke Meggins for it, but surprisingly, Jasper agreed. “You’re correct. But I have observed both orders of conflict from afar, and often enough the children would glance out from behind trees or over snow fortifications, then duck back. Then, when they felt the timing was adequate, they’d expose themselves long enough to throw toward where their enemies were when last they looked. It’s a well-established strategy for both types of combat, and I hardly think one needs to have participated in either to recognize the analogous suitability for our predicament.”

  Meggins, for once, appeared at a loss for words. Ilbei, however, stayed on point. “Fine,” he said. “So if’n ya can’t cast a fireball without watchin him the whole while, what can ya cast snowball like?”

  “Nothing,” Jasper said. “I already told you what spells I have. The lightning works just like the fireball for targeting, and we’re lucky to even have it as an option, because most lightning works by touch, and only the very advanced sorts have range like this one has, albeit not a great range. And, excepting the teleports, which I’ve already said are also minimum range, I simply have nothing else that counts for ranged combat at all.”

  Ilbei stared into the water. He pushed a chunk of fungus off the wall with his boot heel and watched it float downstream. He knew the floating fungus idea was a good one, despite Jasper’s objections, but it was worthless if they couldn’t target Verity properly. He thought about having Jasper cast the fireball as an opening move to give Meggins a shot with his bow, but a shortbow wasn’t much use at eighty spans, especially in a low-ceilinged cave. They needed a finishing move. Mags needed a finishing move. Soon.

  “How far ya say that teleport will get me?” Ilbei asked, leaning in close and nearly whispering in his ear.

  “Fifty spans,” Jasper replied.

  “Can ya cast that like throwin snowballs?”

  “I suppose. But I have to know where you want to go.”

  “I want to go right there where I can put a pick blade in Verity’s head.”

  “He’s too far away. And he may have moved.”

  Ilbei stared into the water again.

  “Well, we can float the fungus like I said, and ya can peek round after it till ya see where he is. Once it gets close, ya send me over there near as ya can, and I’ll let him have it.”

  “What if he sees you first?”

  “Wait till the fungus gets right up to him, then.”

  “I think that’s a reckless plan,” Jasper said. Meggins agreed with the mage.

  “Have ya got a better one?” Ilbei asked. “Any of ya?”

  Nobody did.

  “Then let’s get to it. That young lady there don’t have all day fer us to be gassin on. Jasper, get that spell out, and if’n ya teleport me into the wall or lose me somehow in the demon realms, I swear to Mercy, my ghost will come back and haunt ya to fartin fer all yer days. Won’t be a soul will sit with ya till you’re dead and gone. Ya hear me?”

  Jasper recoiled from Ilbei’s threat, and he spent a moment working through all of its content, extra
cting what Ilbei meant from what was “just a saying.”

  Finally the grizzled old veteran put a hand on Jasper’s forearm, sparing him having to parse it all. “Just don’t botch the job, son. I’m not keen fer teleportin is all.”

  “Oh,” Jasper said, obviously relieved. “Yes, of course. Many people are uncomfortable with it, actually. It’s perfectly normal. Transportation Guild Services call what you are suffering Place Shift Anxiety. In the southern duchies, the TGS offices actually allow travelers to imbibe large quantities of intoxicants before teleporting; in South Mark, they use spiced rum in conjunction with a poppy-seed extract from the eastern isle of—”

  “I take it back,” Ilbei cut in. “I’m fine. Just do what ya got to do. I’d rather die bein vaporized or put in a wall than suffocate from ya suckin all the air out of the cave. Find the spell. Have it ready and be quick when time comes.” He turned to Meggins. “Squeeze on over past us, and get this here curtain made up so we can break out the fungus and get underway.”

  They switched places as carefully as they could, and Meggins went to work. He cut slits along one edge of Kaige’s massive cloak and then threaded Mags’ quarterstaff through them. When he was done, he turned to Ilbei and waited for the go-ahead.

  Ilbei in turn looked to Jasper. “Soon as he drops that down, get to clearin off all these along this edge. Work quick, and start from the back. Stay out of the center. I’ll cross and work on that side, then get the middle with Kaige’s sword. Ya ready?”

  Jasper looked as if he might throw up, but he nodded that he would do as he was told.

  Ilbei gave Meggins the signal to drop the curtain across the opening to Kaige, who was ready to catch the other end. “Keep yer hands out of arrow shot as ya hold it,” he told them. “Includin what he can shoot through the stone.”

  Meggins spread the cloak out along the length of the quarterstaff and swung it out to Kaige. Kaige caught it, and the two of them lifted it up. The cloak was long enough that the bottom lay in the water, and the current pulled it downstream a little, which created long, angular openings on either side.