Anger and frustration gave me power, and my kick sent it reeling back into the others. I swung my sword and cleaved through its rib cage to its spine. It lost its grip on my hair and I sprang free, then whirled and ran again. If I could reach that chamber up there, maybe there was something I could use to block the tunnel. I imagined a giant dwarven statue that I could shove in front of it.
But the skeletons ran as fast as I did and were right behind me. Even if there was a conveniently placed statue, I would never have time to push it into place.
Hoping for a miracle, I sprinted out into the orange light, almost tripping as movement to the side made me spring out of the way. I hefted the sword, bracing for another attack.
Li stood by the wall, and she flipped a lever. A huge stone slab of a door swung shut an instant before the first skeletons would have poured into the room. Thuds sounded as they ran into it.
“Took you long enough,” she said.
“They grabbed my hair.”
“That’s what you get for having long hair.” Li rushed into the room, another chamber ringed with statues of dwarves marking tombs. Something like sarcophagi rested at the feet of the statues.
In the back of the chamber stood racks of weapons, shields, and suits of armor all oozing magic. Li sprinted toward a rack of swords, the orange light showing her clothing torn in a dozen places, one of her shoes missing, and blood staining everything she wore.
With that many injuries, she shouldn’t have been able to run. Pure adrenaline.
“My boss calls it my vanity braid.” I spun, looking for an exit as the thuds grew louder at the door. But there weren’t any other exits, not in plain sight. Maybe not at all. I groaned amid even more thuds. I didn’t need my magical senses to know the skeletal warriors were battering at the door with their axes. “Will that hold?”
“I doubt it.” Li grabbed a sword from the rack, not a random sword but Chopper.
I thought she might give it to me, but she rushed to the door and hefted it, clearly intending to use it herself.
“I’ll hold them off. Find your artifact.” Li glanced upward, no doubt sensing the dragons.
More had come through the portal. There had to be a dozen up there by now. If that poison worked, Zav might lose his whole clan.
Zondia hadn’t responded to me. I thought about reaching out to her again, but Zav flew into my range, with the lich right behind him.
I swore and ran around the room, scouring the artifacts with my eyes. “You have any idea what it looks like?”
“A dragon.”
“Is that a joke?”
“No. I don’t know where she stuck it, but I saw it. A gray stone dragon. It’s magic.”
“Everything in here is magic.”
“No shit. Find it.”
The door shuddered under the assault from the skeletons. How many were out there in the tunnel now? It sounded like all of them.
At least the winged creatures shouldn’t have fit into the tunnel. Not that it mattered. One on one, I was sure I could handle the skeletons, but forty on one? No way.
I rushed around, hunting for anything that looked like a dragon. Li, bloody but determined, faced the door. With my sword. If we both survived the next fifteen minutes, we would discuss that.
A rumble of power came from one of the side walls, followed by a faint hissing sound. My heart almost stopped. Was that it? The artifact releasing its poison into the air?
Zav, get out of here. I think I’m too late. Get your family out of here.
I followed the noise toward a wall full of sarcophagi, statues, urns, and piles of magical junk I couldn’t identify. There was even a wood stove. Did the lich get chilly on winter nights?
My ears led me closer to the wall. The hissing was coming from…
The door flew open, slamming against the wall. Noise assailed the room as the skeletal warriors tried to storm the chamber. Li lunged forward, Chopper’s blue blade flaring, and blocked the way. The noise of their battle rang out, drowning out the hiss.
“Damn it.” I ran along the junk piles and clambered over the sarcophagi. She’d said it looked like a dragon. I couldn’t possibly miss a dragon.
“I can’t—” Li ducked a swipe toward her head, then kicked a skeleton before following up with Chopper “—hold them long,” she finished. “Hurry!”
“Trying!”
If I couldn’t find the artifact, I would have to run and fight with Li. But if I stopped searching now, every dragon up there, including Zav, might be killed.
Li summoned magic from within herself and said a word I hadn’t heard before. Flames burst from Chopper, and an inferno roared, driving the skeletons back into the tunnel. At least for a moment.
“Make sure you teach me that one,” I yelled across the room as I climbed over another sarcophagus, patting things, trying to sense magic beyond the dormant energy levels of all the artifacts. I almost tripped over the stupid wood stove. “Why is that in here?”
I almost rushed past it, but it was as magical as everything else, and that made me pause. My gaze snagged on the vent pipe running up the wall and disappearing into the ceiling.
“Shit.” There weren’t any other vents in the place. That had to be how the air would be pushed out of the mountain.
I grabbed the firebox door to tug it open, but a blast of electricity ran up my arms and knocked me back, almost to my ass. I flailed, recovered, and ran back in, lifting the dwarven sword. It crossed my mind to bash at the hinges to break the door, but first, I slid the blade under the handle, hoping its magic would protect me from the stove’s defenses.
It buzzed faintly as it touched the metal, but I didn’t get zapped again. The door squeaked as I levered it open.
Behind me, Li gasped in pain.
“Hold on,” I called without looking away from my task. “I’ll get this and then join you.”
We are battling, my mate, came Zav’s telepathic voice as I hacked at the second hinge. The lich has flown to a cave in the mountainside and is throwing her power at us. My kin and I must kill her and avenge Braytokinor. They are frenzied and not worried about poisonous air. Can you look for that artifact? I fear she will activate it.
Working on it. And I think she already has, so have everyone hold their breath. Pale red light came out of the firebox, the open door revealing a dragon-shaped artifact that looked like a giant tea kettle. It rested on the bottom, pulsing with intense energy and probably poisoning the air and my lungs right now. A faint red mist trickled from its spout and wafted up the vent pipe in the back.
I fumbled for the leather thong around my neck and rubbed the charm that Zoltan had made for me that summer. It had protected me before against toxic stuff in the air. Whether it would do so here, I had no idea, but just in case…
After activating the charm, I tapped the artifact with my borrowed sword. Images of breaking it filled my mind, but raw power jolted me backward again. Cursing, I stumbled away. That time, the sword hadn’t insulated me.
“Can’t touch it, so how do I turn it off?” That urge to break the artifact came over me again, but all that would do was release all the poison at once. Li and I would be dead. “Gotta cut it off.”
Using the sword, I shut the firebox door again, then eyed the pipe. If I could tie it in a knot… Or melt it closed.
I almost ran back to Li to grab Chopper, since one of its commands was krundark—heat. But the elf who’d told me about those commands had said they were commonly used when enchanting dwarven swords. Maybe my borrowed blade had the ability too.
Careful not to touch the stove again, I leaned the flat of the sword against the pipe. “Krundark!”
The blade turned cherry red. Palpable heat radiated from it, but nothing happened to the pipe. The stove was magical too. Maybe heat wouldn’t melt the metal.
Li grunted as she continued to fight, Chopper slamming into skeletons and breaking bones. Several foes had fallen to the floor around her, but she’d been inju
red before she started, and I doubted she could hold out much longer. I was about to try something else—maybe I could cut the pipe in half and shove a sock in it—but then the metal gave way, sagging inward.
“Yes,” I breathed and shifted to another spot, hoping to melt the sides together and seal the pipe without letting any poison out into our air. “C’mon, sword.”
More metal melted. Then a gap appeared.
“Hold your breath!” I yelled.
I swung the sword hard, hoping to slice through the pipe above the melt spot. It cleaved through, the blade clanging off the wall behind it. I forced the crumpling sides of the pipe inward, then laid the hot blade on top, shaping the sagging metal to form a cap. Just in case my own magic helped, I willed the warped pipe to create a hard seal.
The hissing disappeared. I hoped that meant I’d done enough, especially since the artifact was still pulsing inside.
As I drew back, my elbow brushed the stove. White light flashed, and it blasted me with angry energy far stronger than before. It was as if it knew I’d destroyed its pipe, and it was pissed.
The power knocked me back twenty feet, the sword flying from my hand. I struck the ground hard, painful energy buzzing my nerves like a chainsaw.
On my hands and knees, I scrambled farther away, terrified the magic of the stove would allow it to destroy my seal, that the toxic air would spew into the chamber, and that I’d condemned Li and myself to death. But when I glanced back, the pipe was still melted closed.
A scream came from across the chamber. The skeletons rushed in, trampling Li, who had fallen to the ground.
“No!” I yelled, lunging to my feet.
A dozen skeletal warriors rushed at me, running over Li. She wasn’t moving and didn’t react.
I’d lost the dwarven sword, but I yanked out Fezzik and fired. The bullets broke through skulls and ribs, shattering bone on the warriors, but they pressed on toward me. Even more of them flowed in from the tunnel. I backed away, but there was nowhere for me to run.
Fezzik clicked, empty. And I had no more ammo.
I scrambled back, glancing left and right. Where had that sword gone?
My back struck the wall, and the skeletons advanced, far too many to fight. I lifted my arm to throw Fezzik, but that would be pointless. I gripped it like a club to defend myself as they hefted their axes.
And then they froze.
I stared at them, my back to the wall, my heart pounding in my chest.
Val! Zav’s voice rang in my mind, startling me.
I’d been too afraid for my life to pay attention to what the dragons were doing outside of the mountain.
I hope you’re on the way to help, I replied.
We have slain the lich. His telepathic voice turned smug. I got in the killing blow.
Good for you. I could still use—
One of the skeletons toppled over backward. The magic of their auras faded, and the others pitched to the floor, one by one, axes clattering atop their lifeless bones.
Never mind. I dropped to my hands and knees and pressed my forehead to the cool floor.
Hopefully, I’d destroyed the pipe in time. Hopefully, Zav would come find me and take me home. I’d had far more of this place than I’d ever wanted.
30
After I found the strength to pick myself up off the floor and navigate around the inactivated—hopefully permanently inactivated—skeletal warriors, I checked to see if Li had survived and might yet be helped. But she was dead, her sightless eyes staring up at the black ceiling.
A tangle of emotions twisted inside of me. She’d lied to me, tricked me, and stolen my sword, but she hadn’t killed me when she’d had the opportunity, and in the end, she’d bought me the time I needed to find the artifact. Maybe she had come here to steal ancient dwarven goodies, but nobody deserved to cross paths with a lich. And I believed what she’d said—that she hadn’t had any choice but to do the lich's bidding. Having been the victim of magical compulsions before, I had no trouble imagining the scenario.
Gently, I pried Chopper’s hilt out of Li’s dead fingers and saluted her with the blade, a silent thank-you for the help. I tried not to feel like I’d failed her, but it was hard.
Worried for Sindari, I pulled his charm out from under my shirt. I wasn’t positive that he had made it back to his realm, and I needed to know. The thought of his mangled body lying dead in a tunnel made me sick.
My trepidation increased after I rubbed the charm and called for him and nothing happened. A long minute passed before the silver mist formed.
Sindari formed even more slowly, his silver fur matted with blood, huge gashes in his flanks and back.
“I’m sorry,” I blurted, falling to my knees beside him. “I shouldn’t have called you until Zav got here. I just had to make sure you weren’t dead.”
You may be assured that I will always return to my realm before my enemies deliver a death blow. As you know, I am wise as well as regal.
I snorted, glad he could muster the energy for humor, and wrapped my arms around his neck, being careful to avoid his wounds. “What I know is that you like to battle things, and you’re noble enough to sacrifice yourself for someone else’s sake.”
I am noble, he agreed, but if I sacrificed myself, I would never again be able to enjoy the invigoration of the hunt or feast on the flesh of the sleek and delicious yavarra of my home realm.
“And you’d never get petted by Dimitri again.” I patted his head, even though he’d insinuated that my hands weren’t as good for petting as Dimitri’s. What could I say? Nobody had accused me of having a gentle touch.
That would also be unfortunate. Sindari looked around without pulling away from my ministrations. Maybe my hands weren’t that bad, after all. You defeated all of those skeletons? Your skills as a warrior and sorceress have improved vastly in the time I’ve known you.
“Actually, I ran out of bullets, lost the dwarven sword, and was about to get my ass kicked by those guys. Fortunately, Zav and his dragon army killed the lich at an extremely timely moment, and the skeletons collapsed.”
You at least slew the thief who’s plagued you so and retrieved your sword.
For a second, I was tempted to let him believe that, so he wouldn’t think less of my warrior skills, but Li didn’t deserve to have her sacrifice hidden. “The skeletons got her. She helped keep them off my back while I was dealing with the artifact.” I brushed the sleeve of my jacket, grunting at a hole the stove had zapped in it. “I’m afraid I didn’t defeat much of anyone.”
I thought about explaining my mixed feelings on Li, and how I regretted not being able to save her, but it would be too much effort to articulate now. Maybe I would tell Zav later. He understood honor and trying to do the right thing and all that jazz.
“You’re stuck working with a mediocre warrior and sorceress,” I added.
You are not mediocre. Sindari sat down and started licking his wounds.
“Thanks.” I released him and stood up. “Can you hang out here for a while? Zav has a potion now that can cure those tainted wounds. We just need to wait for him to get done dancing on the body of the lich, or whatever dragons do to celebrate after they slay enemies. And I’m hoping he has a more permanent solution to that artifact too.” I eyed the stove, wary that the red mist would find a way to escape into the chamber.
Yes. I will wait and stand guard until he arrives. There may be other dangers here.
“True.” I would be careful looking around in case there were booby traps. I held Chopper out, the hilt comfortable and familiar in my hand. “I guess I should do what I originally came here for and try to find out all about you.”
It and the three others here, Sindari said.
“Three other… swords?”
Yes. I sense them over here. He rose stiffly and padded past tombs, amphoras, weapons racks, and artifacts of all kinds to a wall where scroll cases rested in rows of circular niches hollowed out forty or fifty high.
/> More weapons racks stood in front of the wall of scrolls. The entire area radiated magic, so I didn’t know how Sindari could pick out anything in particular, but he stopped in front of an ornate rack of swords with the golden bust of a bearded dwarf looking down upon them. The blacksmith or enchanter—or both—who had crafted them long ago?
Chopper flared a brighter blue in my hand as I approached the rack. More than that, a humming sensation ran up my arm from the hilt. It didn’t seem to hint of danger. If anything, my sword seemed… pleased.
Sindari sat in front of the rack. There were slots for four swords, but only three were in use. To my senses, they are similar to your Chopper.
I also sensed strong magic emanating from them, magic that was similar to that of my blade, but I didn’t know if that meant they were all dragon blades. They could be some other kind of magical sword. But…
“Li did say that the lich sent her to get Chopper because she wanted to get rid of all the blades capable of hurting her. Maybe she also dug up these and put them here for safe keeping.”
That is possible, Sindari said. Or they may have always been here. There is a great deal of powerful and rare magic in here. It is not surprising that a thief would be drawn to this place, though it is surprising that she could get in. Maybe the lich destroyed whatever traps and deterrents were in place.
“Probably. Anyone who can beat up Zav is badass.” I eyed all the relics. “The dwarves should be happy to get the place back… whenever they come out of their underground cities and realize it’s theirs again.”
Perhaps someone should inform them that the lich is gone. They may be grateful to those who did the deed.
“I’ll let Zav or one of the other dragons chat them up. I don’t need credit for helping.”
They may be more inclined to assist you in your quest to better understand your sword if they feel grateful to you.
Or they might demand Chopper back if they knew I had it.
Secrets of the Sword 2 (Death Before Dragons Book 8) Page 25
