by KM Merritt
“Yes,” Lillie said with a grimace as she tried to put weight on her leg. “It’s over. Run home. If you can.”
They walked into the manor, and the hall ahead of them twisted like a twig in a flame. What had been a very normal looking hallway the last time they’d been here split into three branching passageways as they watched wide-eyed.
“Uh, I’m not drunk, am I?” Sorrel said. “Did Becky slip me something stronger.”
“You’re not drunk,” Vola said. “Hallways don’t normally do that.”
“It didn’t do that the last time we were here,” Talon said.
“No, but Lord Arthorel is an illusionist. He was the one cloaking the assassins and disguising the golems. I’ll bet this whole place is full of things that look real but aren’t.”
Lillie smacked her forehead. “The magic in the parlor. He said it was protection spells, and I believed him. Ugh, I can’t believe I fell for it.”
“Bleh, it’s making me nauseous,” Sorrel said. “How do we stop it?”
“Lillie, can you dispel it somehow?” Vola glanced at the wizard.
Lillie looked stricken and leafed through her newest spell book. “Um, no? You have to learn spells, you know. They don’t just happen.”
Without a word, Talon and Gruff strode forward. As they walked, the hallway shivered and stretched straight again. Although the three new branchings remained.
“Good call, Talon,” Sorrel said and trotted after them. She stopped at the corner and glanced down one passage, then another. “This way.”
“How do you know?” Vola asked, following. Lillie limped behind her.
“I don’t. I just like to go clockwise.”
“I suppose that’s as good of a reason as any.”
Lillie muttered under her breath.
“What are you doing?” Vola asked.
“I’m casting that spell that lets me know when magic is around.”
“Oh. Is it working?”
“Um, yes…It’s definitely magic.”
Vola planted her face in her palm. “Very helpful.”
Sorrel came to a door. “Shall we try it?”
Vola glanced up and down the empty hall. So far no one had come to attack them. Maybe all the guards had been in the courtyard. “Henri’s probably locked up somewhere. I can’t imagine he’s sitting nicely in one of these rooms.”
“Yes, but we’ll never find him if we don’t look,” Lillie said
“All right, good point.”
Vola placed herself on one side of the door, Talon behind her while Lillie and Sorrel stood at the other. Sorrel turned the knob and flung the door open.
Vola darted around the door frame, yelling, and stopped short when her feet sank into deep loam. Trees surrounded her and moonlight filtered down through thick leaves and branches.
“Uh, what?” Vola turned toward the door. Which had disappeared. Of course. “Crap. Sorrel? Talon? Is anyone there?”
“Vola?” Sorrel’s voice came through the tree trunks as if she stood just out of sight.
Vola sprinted for the sound of her companions.
But she found no one. “Where are you?” she called.
“We’re still in the hallway,” Sorrel said, now behind her. “’Cause we didn’t go rushing into a strange room in a castle of illusion.”
She heard Lillie snort. “This is hardly a castle,” the wizard said.
“We can argue about what it’s called later,” Talon said, in their gravelly voice.
“Yeah, how do I get out of here?” Vola said. At least they could all hear each other.
“Just walk out the door?” Sorrel said.
Vola tipped her head back to sigh at the sky. “There is no door back here. Just endless forest.”
“Oh, that’s weird. From here it looks like a pit of black. We just figured you were looking for the lights.”
“Not helping.”
“Well, it’s an illusion, right?” Lillie said. “So it’s not real. Try…challenging its realness.”
“What the hell does that mean? Speak common, not magic, Lillie.”
Lillie blew out her breath in exasperation. “Hit something. Is that common enough?”
Vola gladly spun and swung her unsheathed weapon at the nearest tree. It made a satisfying “thunk” when it got stuck.
“These trees might be more real than me,” Vola said. “That didn’t work.”
“Okay, okay,” Sorrel said, obviously thinking. “So let’s think real things, then. How do you get rid of a forest you don’t want?”
“Fire,” Talon said.
“Great, Lillie?”
“Wait,” Vola called. “Not that—”
There was a whoosh, and Vola ducked to cover her head as a blast of heat seared through the trees. Light flickered behind her eyelids.
“Hey, it worked,” Sorrel said.
Vola looked up to see her companions standing in the doorway. The room around her was scorched but looked like a normal library now with blackened books on the shelves and old worn furniture standing on a threadbare carpet. Her sword hung two feet off the ground, lodged in a thick desk.
“Anyone else think this looks a little…I don’t know, worn in?” Sorrel asked as Vola planted her foot against the desk and yanked her sword free.
“I wasn’t going to say anything,” Talon said as Gruff sniffed at a hole in the carpet.
Lillie studied the room, head tilted. “Well, if you’re a master illusionist, I guess there isn’t a reason to keep things really looking nice. You can just cover it all up with magic when company comes over.”
“At least until the company bashes through your illusions,” Sorrel said.
Vola stalked from the room into the hallway and turned to continue through the manor.
“Wait,” Sorrel said. “We should see if there’s anything useful in there.”
“No time,” Vola said. “We have to find Henri before Lord Arthorel carries out his threat.”
“But there are drawers to open. What if there’s a chest?” Sorrel said as Talon dragged her down the hall.
“I thought you said monks had no need of worldly goods?” Lillie asked.
“That doesn’t mean I don’t want to see what’s inside. That’s the fun part.”
“We’ll come back after all this is over,” Vola said.
“Promise?”
Vola started to promise, but that was when her feet went out from under her.
She had just enough time to suck in a surprised breath and then twist in midair and fling as much of herself backward as she could. Her torso hit the floor, and she caught the edge of a pit under her arms. Her legs kicked in the open air.
“Miss Vola!” Lillie tried to bend and help her climb back up, but her leg collapsed, nearly pitching her into the pit beside Vola.
“Just let Talon and Sorrel do it,” Vola gasped.
Although Vola outweighed both of them put together, the ranger and the monk managed to haul her back onto firm ground. She shivered against the floorboards, trying to hide her reaction.
“So, I take it the rug was an illusion.”
Lillie put her hands to her cheeks. “I don’t know. I told you, everything in here is magic. I can’t see individual spells if everything’s lit up like a holiday bazaar.”
Vola forced herself to breathe and not growl at the wizard. It wasn’t her fault Lord Arthorel had turned his manor into a not-so-fun circus.
“I’ll go first,” Talon said. “To test the terrain.”
“We just need to get rid of the illusions,” Sorrel said. “Then we could sweep through this place as fast as possible.”
“Yeah, except the easiest way to get rid of the illusions is to get rid of the caster. Who is currently hidden by the illusions.” Vola’s fingers clenched against the floor, her nails leaving gouges in the wood. She stood with a huff. “Lillie, is there any other way to get past the magic?”
Lillie used the wall to climb unsteadily to her feet.
“I don’t really know. I’d have to study it. Maybe there’s some sort of focal point or trigger.”
“You work on that while we walk,” Vola said. “We’ll go room by room for now. I don’t want to miss Henri in case he’s tucked away somewhere unexpected, but I don’t want to trigger any more traps.”
Talon took the lead, testing the ground in front of them very carefully before stepping forward. It was slow going, but they didn’t find any more traps in the hallway.
The next room Vola opened carefully, and she didn’t rush inside this time.
In the middle, stood a large man with bulging muscles and a tiny loincloth. Vola made a face.
He caught sight of them at the doorway and bashed a plain iron sword against his shield with a clang. “Ha, come fight me.”
Sorrel shrugged. “Okay.” She started forward.
Vola caught her by the arm. “Wait. It’s probably just another illusion.”
“So? Doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be a good fight.”
“They’re just here to slow us down,” Vola said. “There’s nothing that says we have to fight everything we see. Look, he’s not even coming after us.”
“Come fight me!” the man roared. But Vola was right, he stood with his feet planted on the carpet.
“The room is probably trapped,” Talon said, glancing at the blank walls and bare floorboards. “We go in to fight, then it locks us inside.”
“I don’t think it’s even covering anything interesting,” Lillie said, squinting over their shoulders. “Just a storeroom.”
“Oh, fine, if you want to be boring about it,” Sorrel said.
They started to close the door, and the illusory man’s face fell. “Come fiiiiight!”
“I’m sorry,” Sorrel called to him as she closed the door.
The next door they came to they opened slowly as well. A wave of humid air hit them in the face, smelling like moss and mold, and Lillie immediately started sneezing. Past the doorframe were a bunch of familiar-looking drooping trees, separated by murky puddles covered with green pond scum. Between a couple of trunks, Vola could make out the vibrant crimson of the swamp flowers which tried to eat them a few days ago.
The party looked at each other.
“Nope,” Sorrel said for all of them and closed the door.
The next room was almost as dark as the first had been, except for one shaft of light in the center, illuminating a figure in a chair.
“Henri,” Vola breathed.
Talon reached out a hand to stop her, but Vola wasn’t stupid enough to think it would be this easy.
“I think he’s another illusion,” Lillie said, her hands combing through the air and her eyes focused on something distant.
“So what?” Sorrel said. “You just want to leave this one, too?”
Vola’s heart clenched. She clamped her teeth shut on useless arguments.
“We’ll never get through all this if we don’t find a way to unravel Lord Arthorel’s magic. I need a chance to study it.”
The illusory Henri’s hands were bound to the arms of the chair, and he looked up at Vola with blood running down his face. His lips moved in the shape of her name.
She spun to Lillie, who studied the room with a delicate frown on her brow.
“Well?” she said.
“I don’t have enough to go on, yet. Give me a second.”
A deafening roar from the corner of the room made them all jump. Vola drew her sword.
Another roar, and out of the darkness stepped an enormous lion with ridged horns sprouting from its head. Its tail whipped back and forth, a snake’s head hissing from the end.
“We don’t have another second,” Vola said.
Lillie glanced at Sorrel. “You wanted to fight something, right?”
Sorrel’s slow grin spread across her face, and she pulled her quarterstaff from her back. “Yes, I did. Haaaaaa!” Sorrel sprang for the horned lion with a yell.
“I thought we weren’t fighting the illusions,” Vola called, but she followed Sorrel, anyway.
“I need to see it in action,” Lillie said. “Just keep it busy.”
Vola couldn’t roll her eyes while fighting, but she tried really hard. She sprang at the beast with a yell while Sorrel dealt a solid blow to its face, then ducked between its front legs. The beast was tall enough the halfling could run underneath and pop out the other side.
It swung its head around and caught Vola with one of its horns. Clearly, it wanted to fling her across the room, but Vola grabbed hold and held on as the thing tossed its head.
An arrow whizzed by and lodged in the beast’s side. It roared again, this time in pain. Vola glanced over to see Talon covering Lillie while she brushed and stroked the air, causing ripples of light to eddy around her.
The beast tried to knock her loose against the wall, but Vola tightened her grip. She let go with her sword hand and slashed across its head, her blade cutting deep.
It reared, and its tail lashed toward her, the snake’s head hissing, teeth gleaming.
She leaped out of the way and tumbled from its back. Sorrel sprang in front of her, twisted to avoid the teeth, and brought her staff down on the serpent’s head.
There was a sharp crack, and the serpent fell limp.
A whizz and a pop. Then an arrow shaft sprouted from the beast’s remaining eye.
It moaned, clawed at its face, then fell with a thud.
“There!” Lillie cried. “Perfect. I know where we’re going.”
Vola stood on shaking feet and brushed herself off. She deliberately ignored the image of Henri calling to her from the chair.
“All the magic is concentrated at a single point and it gets weaker as it travels out. We’re still skirting the edges of the affected area.”
“Great,” Vola said. “So where is Henri? Where’s Arthorel?”
“In the basement.” Lillie pointed down and to the left. “At least something is being guarded down there. It’s either Henri or the key to the illusions, which should lead us to Henri if we can get rid of them.”
“Then what are we waiting for?” Vola said.
Twenty-Four
It took a few minutes, but they finally found a way down through all the illusions, and they crept down the staircase to the manor’s dungeon. Actually, it was a cellar, but Vola didn’t really want to think of herself as a noble hero storming a cellar.
With Talon scouting the way, they didn’t trigger any more traps, at least not in the hallways. The cellars were a lot darker than the hallways upstairs had been, but Lillie pointed them unerringly to a room lined with casks.
“Why am I not surprised the noble loves his wine?” Vola said.
Lillie cast her a sharp look before turning to examine the room.
“Is this the place?” Sorrel said.
The room itself stood open beside the casks lining the walls and two support columns in the middle. A couple of flickering torches revealed stone walls, stone floors, and a very boring dead end.
Vola glanced at Lillie.
“This is where the magic is most concentrated,” she said, with a frown.
“Do you suppose it’s all an illusion?” Sorrel said. She glared at the wall. “Reveal your secrets, fiend,” she said. And then punched the stone with a shout.
The other three stared at her.
“How’d that feel?” Vola asked.
Sorrel winced and shook her hand. “Not great.”
Something shifted in the shadows at the back of the cellar. Vola braced her feet and raised her sword as Sorrel and Talon drew their weapons. Lillie squinted, then she threw up her hands, casting light into the air to hang above their heads, illuminating all the dark corners of the cellar. From the back wall, four figures shuffled forward.
Vola’s eyes widened as the first figure stepped into the light and raised its head.
A half-orc, complete with green-gray skin, gold eyes, and a black braid down her back. She wore battered chain mail and a swo
rd sheathed at her hip. She grinned when she saw Vola.
Behind her strode a halfling with curly red-brown hair, dressed in a gray wrap-around tunic with a lovely, blonde wizard beside her. Behind them lurked an androgynous figure in a hood carrying a bow.
“Is there a mirror in here?” Sorrel said.
“It’s just an illusion,” Lillie whispered. “We know that.”
“Yeah, but he stole our images. Is he allowed to do that?”
“He’s also stolen people,” Talon said. “Do you think he cares about rules?”
“This might actually be the most innocuous thing he’s done,” Vola said.
The mirror copy of Vola drew her sword, and the other Sorrel followed suit.
“Still creepy,” Sorrel said with an involuntary step back.
“This room is the key to all of the illusions on the manor,” Lillie said. “If we dispel these illusions, we dispel them all.”
“Could one of these be Arthorel?” Vola said as the opposite party shifted into fighting stances.
Lillie hesitated. “Maybe.”
Vola grinned and turned her foot to better launch herself and called, “Charge!”
She lunged for the false paladin, who met her blow with a bone jarring parry.
They each took their mirror image, Sorrel closing with the other halfling while Lillie flung spells at the other wizard.
Vola swung again and the other paladin blocked her. She spun and finally managed a hit, but at the exact same time, her enemy’s blade scored a strike across her arm. Every blow was blocked or matched, and Vola glanced desperately at the others.
They weren’t faring any better. The two Sorrels were locked in furious combat, staffs whirling and cracking together. Talon ducked behind a column and popped their head out long enough to shoot, then had to jerk back again to avoid the other ranger’s arrow. The false Talon crouched atop the barrels while Gruff circled underneath, trying to find a way to drag them down.
Lillie was the only one unevenly matched. Her counterpart wasn’t limping and could leap out of the way, while the real Lillie looked a bit singed. Vola hadn’t even known the illusions could cast spells. Arthorel must have gotten better at them.
This had been a really bad idea.
