Hellion Mage

by James Green

  With a sharp gesture Amber dismissed her flame. The orange faded from her eyes and she sagged a bit. That had obviously been a bit tiring.

  The stone floor where the guards had been standing was blackened and cracked, still radiating heat. High above the ceiling was also scorched. I was thankful they hadn’t built this palace with any wood.

  “Wow, that was impressive,” I said.

  “Thank you, William,” she replied. “I hate traitors.”

  “Should we stick around and tell your staff what happened here?”

  “No, let’s get Jancier,” she replied without hesitation. “I’m the Duchess, I don’t have to explain myself.”

  We left the dead guards behind and entered the Catacombs. It was unlike the last time, the passages here twisting and forking constantly.

  “I don’t know this part of the Catacombs at all,” Amber admitted. “How were you following Jancier, anyway? Some kind of spell?”

  “I have Snatcher, my lizard, trailing him. I can sense Snatcher’s location.”

  After the third fork it seemed clear Snatcher’s location wasn’t enough.

  “Mithra, can you track Jancier?” I asked. In the palace there would have been no chance, the scents of dozens of servants and Jancier himself would have been too muddled.

  Mithra whuffed and went back the way we came. At the second fork we had made the wrong turn, going left when Jancier had gone right. I drew my dagger and marked the wall. If we had to find our way out I could do it from here, and the marks would help us make it back.

  Mithra led us unerringly down the twisting passages. I felt Snatcher stop moving and a few minutes later we emerged into a natural cave. At one point it had been full of hanging stalactites, but they had been cut off, and the ground cleared and flattened as well. On one side a wide passage was carved from the rock, leading down. On the other side were large, steel-reinforced double doors. They were open a crack and light spilled out. I could see Snatcher on the ceiling above them, blending into the rock. We had found Jancier.

  I pulled my shield from my back and readied my spear. I strode forward and kicked open one of the doors.

  The door cannoned into Jancier, throwing him onto his back and bloodying his nose. A ring of keys he had been carrying flew out of his hands and into the head-high grasses behind him. The smell of this place washed over us, verdant greenery and moisture and something else, a powerful musk. On the ceiling above sunlight globes shone, feeding the lush grasses that were nearly all we could see of the cavern beyond.

  “Your grace, William, what are you doing here?” Jancier asked.

  “We know that you’ve been up to no good, Jancier,” Amber said. “It’s time to confess.”

  “I have no idea what you mean, your grace,” he said and scrambled to his feet. “Let us discuss this somewhere else, shall we?”

  “What did you do with Lord Mercer, Jancier?” I pressed. “Is this where you’ve stashed Grimjaw?”

  “I understand your concerns and I will address them. Right now, however, we must leave. It is not safe here. He has overcome the pacification spell. We must leave now!”

  Jancier turned and bent over to reach into the grasses. I heard the jingle of keys as he found his misplaced ring and he began to straighten up.

  A wall of grey-white flesh pushed through the grasses, filling the opening. An enormous Frost Tortoise, its hide scarred with many battles. It loomed over us, the top of its shell eight feet high—Grimjaw. Jancier stumbled backward, screaming in panic.

  With deceptive speed Grimjaw’s head darted forward and swallowed Jancier’s head and upper torso. There was a horrendous crunch of snapping bones and a final clack as the mandibles met. Jancier’s body and arms fell in three separate pieces. Grimjaw chewed and swallowed the rest, blood staining the impure white of his flesh.

  Grimjaw, Frost Tortoise Hellion, Rank: D

  I backed away, setting my shield. There was no way we could fight in this narrow corridor. I needed room to move. I ordered Mithra back. The cavern outside wasn’t large, but it would have to do.

  “Grimmy, no!” Amber scolded. “Bad Tortoise! No eating people!”

  Grimjaw stopped chewing for a moment, looking at Amber.

  “That’s right, it’s me, Amber,” she said in a friendly voice. “You remember me, don’t you?”

  Grimjaw swallowed his mouthful of Jancier and hissed at her. He pushed forward, his wide bulk barely scraping through.

  “I think he’s gone feral, William,” Amber said and backed away. “Can you tame him?”

  I didn’t have time to reply. Grimjaw shot out of the passage toward us, claws digging into the stone as he propelled himself forward in a charge. I pushed Amber to my right and dove left, rolling. He rumbled past us, the air around us grew cold as the Frost Tortoise’s power came to the surface. Thick ice began to form on his shell and under his claws.

  Amber stood up on the other side of the cavern, her eyes glowing orange and her hands aflame.

  I pushed Gale’s power into Mithra and felt his transformation begin. I didn’t have a direct counter to Grimjaw’s power, but as a Tempest Wolf he would be able to avoid being frozen in place. I could only hope I could do the same. Snatcher was far too vulnerable to cold for this fight, so I instructed him to stay out of it entirely. I’d grown fond of the little lizard and didn’t want to lose him.

  Grimjaw rotated, turning to face the incandescent Amber. His vast mouth yawned open and a vortex of cold and ice shot out, howling toward her. She raised her hands and thick jets of fire met Grimjaw’s attack and neutralized it.

  I needed to try to dominate Grimjaw while he was distracted. He was still a rank higher than me, but I knew that theoretically it should be possible for me to do it. I just needed to get close enough.

  I bolted in, leaping at the last minute. I landed hard on the side of his shell, grasping an icy knob of bone with my shield hand. My grip was slipping, and I scrabbled with my feet for a foothold. I felt for a connection to Grimjaw and it was there, but weak. There was too much ice and bone between my flesh and his.

  The mighty Tortoise felt my intrusion and turned its head toward me. The deep cold of his aura was sinking into my bones, slowing my reactions. Grimjaw opened his mouth and the Frost Vortex enveloped me. I dropped off the mighty Tortoise’s shell, huddling futilely behind my shield as my flesh began to freeze.

  In desperation I pulled Mortis’s power into myself, the dark aura springing up around me. A thick tentacle of darkness reached out and touched Grimjaw, sipping at his immense pool of life. The Frost Tortoise bellowed in rage and side-stepped into me. It was like if a building had decided that I needed to get away from it and had bulled into me. I tumbled away, all my breath gone. The life Mortis had stolen from Grimjaw helped, but only a little.

  Mithra flowed in, his Tempest form airy and swift as the winds of a storm. He nipped at Grimjaw’s ice-armored legs and prevented the Tortoise from following up its attack and crushing me like a bug against the cavern wall.

  “William!” yelled Amber. “I don’t have enough control over my fire, I can’t hit him while you’re nearby.”

  I rolled to my feet. Mortis’s black aura pulsed hungrily around me. It was dangerous to use with Amber and Mithra nearby. I thought briefly of giving Mithra his Spectral Wolf form, but I knew that Grimjaw’s magical Frost attacks would affect the wolf even in that incorporeal form. His best defense was not getting hit at all.

  “Try to melt the ice around his head and neck,” I yelled as I charged back in. “I need to touch him as directly as possible. Don’t get too close to me!”

  A thick torrent of bright orange flame erupted from Amber’s hands, washing over Grimjaw’s shell. Steam rose and water ran as the ice began to melt, the intense heat overwhelming Grimjaw’s cold aura momentarily. With a hiss Grimjaw turned back to her, opening his mouth.

  The cold aura exploded outward from the enraged Frost Tortoise, icing the ground all around him. With a yelp, M
ithra flowed backward out of the area, the cold biting even his airy flesh. Amber’s flames faltered, Grimjaw’s sheer power reversing the melt. Grimjaw exhaled, and a howling blizzard of pure Frost slammed into Amber, pushing her roaring flames back. She drew deeply on her power, a blazing-orange star in the depths of the earth. Even still, Grimjaw’s deadly cold pushed closer.

  “William, help!” she cried.

  I didn’t know what I could do. Maybe I could distract the Tortoise if I got up close and started stabbing, but that cold aura would be deadly, even with Mortis’s power aiding me. I had one option and I hoped it would work.

  I set my shield and pointed the face of it at Amber and her flames. I called on Gale’s power and an intense blast of wind struck Amber’s faltering flames. The flames roared as the oxygen made them hotter and brighter. They began to push Grimjaw’s vortex back.

  I bore down with my will on Gale. The power it granted was for a limited blast of wind, a gust really. A weak power meant to deflect arrows or unbalance an opponent. I needed more than that from the orb, and I demanded that. The wind continued to roar, my brand burned like it was on fire. I poured my own personal essence into the connection and sustained the effect for one heartbeat, and then another.

  Amber’s flames hungrily consumed every breath of air Gale fed them, the white-hot flames overcoming Grimjaw’s Frost Vortex and washing over his head and upper shell. The biting cold of Grimjaw’s aura held for a moment and then snapped. His jaws closed as flames washed over his unprotected flesh and the protective ice rapidly melted. The big Tortoise twisted away and bellowed in pain, a deep honking sound issuing from within the immense shell.

  My link to Gale failed and I fell over, Mortis’s power fleeing at the same time. I felt near death.

  Amber’s flames sputtered and failed at the same moment and she sat down heavily. The three of us, Pyromancer Duchess, Beast Mage and Frost Tortoise, each of his had hit our limits at the same time. For a too-brief moment the cavern was peaceful.

  Steam rose from Grimjaw’s scalded flesh and he looked at me as I rose to my feet unsteadily. I needed to end this before he could get his power back.

  I could feel Mithra nearby, ready to assist. He was in his Tempest Wolf form still, although I could feel it beginning to pain him. This fight would come to an end very soon, one way or another. Finding the last of my strength, I dashed in.

  Grimjaw wasn’t ready to surrender yet, either. His head darted forward, snapping. I slid under the attack, bashing his jaws away with my shield. Dropping Rime, I flung my right arm around his neck, a cylinder of muscle as thick as an ancient tree. Strangely, Grimjaw’s thick wrinkled flesh felt warm.

  The old Tortoise wasn’t happy with where I was and turned his head to bite my leg off. Mithra shot in, his teeth clamping down on Grimjaw’s lower mandible. He pulled with all his weight and strength, keeping those grim jaws away from me.

  I felt for my connection with Grimjaw. It was there, strong and bright. I reached for him, asserting my dominance. He pushed back, an immovable iceberg of will. I could feel his grief and madness. He had lost his previous master and didn’t want another. He was angry at being imprisoned under a hill. His skin was burnt, and he was tired. All these things fed his anger and his will to resist me.

  Drawing on reserves of will I had been sure were fully depleted, I fought. I tried to assure him we’d leave the mountain, that his wounds would be healed, and he’d see real sunshine again. More, I tried to make him believe that I was destined to be his new master. It was an inevitability, and he should stop resisting. It was futile. I felt my energy depleting. If he resisted much longer, I’d lose this contest.

  Then Amber was there. She placed a gentle hand on his beak, her eyes green and shining with emotion. “Grimmy, let William be your new master. He’s a good man.”

  I felt Grimjaw’s will waver for a moment at Amber’s touch. The madness receded for a moment as affection for the little girl he’d watched grow up welled up from a deep place in his mind. With the last of my strength I pushed and finally felt some give in the Tortoise’s indomitable will. Some part of Grimjaw wanted a master again, wanted to be sane again. I exploited that and bore down mercilessly.

  Grimjaw’s resistance collapsed and he yielded. The bond formed between us, deep and powerful. Mithra released his hold on the Tortoise, and I pulled Gale’s power from him. Every one of us sagged in relief as the fight as finally over.

  Grimjaw lumbered slowly back into his cavern, pushing through the wall of grass. We followed him, entering another version of the enclosure that Amber’s father had made for Grimjaw. This one was slightly smaller, with less water and more plants. Grimjaw bedded down on a trampled section of tall grass and began to slowly rip up the grass around him and chew it.

  I sat down beside him, using his immense shell as a backrest. It was surprisingly comfortable.

  Amber sat beside me, her shoulder touching mine. I put my arm around her, and she leaned in.

  “I need a nap,” I said. Amber laughed.

  “Sleep, then,” she said.

  I closed my eyes, the events of the day swimming through my head. We’d found Grimjaw and I’d bound him. Jancier had been a traitor, along with at least two of Amber’s guard, probably more. Myca and the Saprophytes were unknown quantities. There were still too many missing pieces.

  In the clarity of thought just before sleep a revelation struck me like lightning. My eyes shot open and I sat bolt upright, my bone weariness forgotten.

  “What is it?” Amber asked sleepily.

  “Keyris.”

  End of Book 1