Beastress Inferno

by Mark Albany

  I nodded. That fury was still inside me, but unlike the anger I felt whenever I thought of Cyron or Vis, it was something new. It helped me focus, instead of clouding it, making me a better thinker and a better fighter.

  “Cyron is controlling Abarat,” I said. “That, plus the undead army, means he has to be stretched thin. If his power is being used to that extent, he has to be using familiars in the droves. If we can find those familiars, it will be the weakest link in Cyron’s chain. If we kill them, he and Abarat will both be weakened.”

  Aliana, Norel, and Braire all shared a glance as they thought about what I was saying.

  “It’s not like we can just portal all over the damned Empire looking for them,” Braire said. “I’m guessing you have a plan in mind to help us find them quicker than it would take us to travel all across the countryside?”

  “I do,” I said with a nod. “Cyron can’t be far from them, and he can’t be too far away from his familiars either, since that would weaken their link to him. Which means they have to be somewhere close, and since they’re using all their power to fuel Cyron’s, they need to be somewhere protected, where they can’t be found and killed by happenstance. There are only a handful of places close enough in this area to do that.”

  Aliana nodded. “What did you have in mind, Grant?”

  16

  I closed my eyes, gripping Aliana’s hand with my right and Norel’s with my left. They both connected with Braire to complete the circle. This was my first time doing anything like this, and I was well aware of the kinds of problems that could arise. Considering my time spent training to be a familiar, I had more than enough knowledge of what could go wrong. What was I lacking in experience could be made up for by the three I had bound myself to.

  I was still surprised that they had agreed to fill in as my familiars in this situation. I had expected some kind of annoyance and resistance to the plan itself since it might be best if someone who was more familiar with the techniques were to take charge, but there was a genuine feeling of trust coming through my bond with the three of them. They trusted me to get the job done and not lead them astray, all while giving me full command of their power for the moment.

  I closed my eyes, letting my consciousness spread out in that black wave I remembered from my training sessions with Aliana. I wasn’t looking to grow any trees, of course, not this time, but I did feel like I could reach out and touch everything that was happening around us. My mind brushed over the men that were fighting for their lives and those of the helpless and vulnerable civilians behind them, all of whom had been moved into the central fortress where they would be less vulnerable to attack. As I touched on them, I could feel despair starting to fill their ranks as they watched wave after wave of enemies rushing at the walls. The way the streets had been made, they were isolating the attackers, nullifying their numbers to the point where they were all funneled toward the gate, making them easy targets for the men atop the walls.

  But there were just so many of them. I took a moment to reach into their minds, draining the despair and fear from them, pulling away at the exhaustion that was starting to form. They were fighting with renewed strength and vigor, their minds clearer, bodies sharper.

  It wasn’t much, I realized, and only a temporary measure, but it was at least something.

  I reached through the air, my consciousness soaring over the battlefield, watching it unfold, watching the undead still swarming out from the mist in even greater numbers now. They looked like ants in the way that they were rushing over everything in their path. There wasn’t much time. I pushed forward.

  My first stop wasn’t that far away from the city, I thought. It was a place that had nagged at the back of my mind ever since we had come back there after visiting the underworld. Something about it had seemed familiar, in a way. Not quite that, though, I mused. The way that Aliana and Norel had both seemed to block their feelings away when arriving in that place, not wanting me to feel them as they stepped inside. I hadn’t been sure what it was, but if they felt that way about it, maybe Cyron and Abarat did as well?

  I pushed my mind into the place, looking around. It looked different when I was like this, floating free from my body. There was an old glow, a radiation coming from the walls that I’d never felt, much less seen before. There were the illuminated pools I remembered from my first time with Aliana, the way that the cave seemed almost like a second home.

  There were no familiars here, I noted, taking a deep breath. I was about to pull away to try and find the ruins when something moved out of the corner of my eyes. My head whipped around, and there it was again, just a flicker of motion, a gentle light that was drawing my attention. I pushed myself deeper into the cave, hunting the light down as it finally came to a stop at the back of it.

  The light turned around. It was in the form of a man, no, an elf. The tendrils of light exposed a hint of those long, pointed ears I’d come to associate with the species.

  “I have felt your presence here before, mortal,” the light said, taking on a deep, melodic tone. “But never seen your face. Your mind has wandered and I have called to you, trying to bring you here. It’s about damned time, if you ask me.”

  I tilted my head, reaching instinctively for my sword but finding nothing. I didn’t have a body, not really, which meant that my sword had been similarly left behind.

  “My name is Grant,” I finally forced myself to reply. “Who are you?”

  “A remnant of an old species, decaying and almost gone from the world,” the light said.

  “Well, I know you’re an elf, anyway,” I said.

  “Yes, good!” the light replied, coming in closer. “I am pleased to know there are more of my kind still in the world.”

  “Three of them,” I said with a nod. “Well, four, but that last one has been enslaved to do the bidding of an evil mage who is looking to destroy my people. Can you help with that?”

  The light moved closer to me, to the point where I could see little pricks of light that were brighter than the rest, looking like eyes. “You fight to save humans?”

  I opened my mouth, then sudden remembered the state of diplomacy between the two races back when this one was still around. Humans and elves had never gotten along well, and I had to guess this one was a remnant of those who had been fighting for their survival.

  “Yes,” I finally said. “Saving humans is my goal. But there are three of your kind who fight alongside me and have been fighting for a while now. They want to save the humans as well.”

  I couldn’t help feeling that I was wasting my time here. There wasn’t much I could do to explain away the centuries and generations of hatred and bloodshed that had been shared between the two species, and yet there was a spark of hope.

  I quickly found that my fears had been misplaced as the figure took a step back, a smile touching his face. “It would be an honor to fight alongside humans once again.”

  The light leaned forward, and I felt the touch. It was a cool presence in my mind but it wasn’t exploring. It seemed to realize that there was little time for an exchange of information, and instead, was giving it freely. Images flooded my mind as thoughts, dreams and emotions filled me, all guiding me down the path of what needed to be done.

  “Do you understand?” the elf asked once it was finally finished.

  “I do,” I said, softly. I felt my consciousness spread, letting it fill the cave and then out into the forest, searching quickly and desperately for what I had been trying to find before. Once I did, I rushed back to my body.

  I gasped for air, realizing that I might have forgotten to breathe while I was gone. I blinked, my eyes adjusting to the changes in the world. It had been darker, somehow, like something out there had been draining the world of light, but as I returned, the sun was out again, gleaming in a field of light blue.

  It was still midmorning, I realized, taking in a deep breath. That didn’t seem possible, and yet…

  I turned to Alian
a, pushing the fatigue that was filling my body aside as I gripped her arm.

  “We need to go,” I said.

  “Where?” Aliana asked, looking back at me. “Did you find where Cyron’s familiars are holed up?”

  “Yes, but that’s not where we are going,” I said. “We need to go back to the cave. We need to undo what the five of you did there.”

  Aliana’s lips parted as a horde of questions seemed to rush to her mind. How had I found out? Who had told me and from what perspective had it been shared? She wanted to explain, I realized, show that what had been done was with the best of intentions, as most acts of that magnitude were, but now was not the time. The elf knew it had been for the best, and there was no time to really get into it. The battle was still raging and we needed help.

  “To the cave, then,” Aliana finally said, her voice soft and full of emotion as she closed her eyes and, with a firm and painful twist through the portal, we were back at the cave, still seated in a circle.

  “What are we doing here?” Norel asked, looking around.

  I didn’t answer her, pushing myself up from the ground, struggling to gain my balance.

  “This is the cave where you all performed that ritual,” I said, my voice distant since I was trying to focus my mind on the spell the elf had shared with me. “You three, Abarat and Cyron all worked to save your kind from the destruction the elves were facing at the hands of my people. Cyron was the one to develop the spell, and he betrayed you. Abarat realized it almost too late but managed to alter it, keeping it from enslaving your people the way he is now enslaved and instead isolating them, saving them.”

  I moved to the back of the cave as the three sisters followed me, my hands searching through the rocks until I found a crack.

  “The action broke Abarat in a fundamental way,” I continued, trying to show the three of them that I understood. “His mind was lost in the spell, and all he could think about when he returned from it was vengeance on the man who had forced his hand that way. Spiraling out of control, he eventually was drawn to the darker arts, which was when you, Braire, saw that he needed to be bound to the underworld before he caused irreparable damage.”

  “What are you talking about?” Aliana asked, watching as I found the crack in the back of the cave and drew my sword.

  “The same spell that turned you into a djinn, Aliana,” I said softly, looking over at her. “You were the source for most of the power involved, so it touched you deeper than your sisters, binding you to a ring and turning you into a djinn. The rest of your people were similarly bound, although not turned into djinn, I don’t think.”

  I felt the power trickling from my body and into my blade as I watched the runes carved into the back of the wall start to glow when I pushed the blade into the crack. Against all odds, the weapon sunk into it, deeper than it should have, and the cave wall parted in half.

  “You always thought it was your fault that your people disappeared, all of you,” I said, my voice soft as I turned to the three sisters. “But in the end, your people were saved from destruction—just not how you originally intended. They were all of them bound into a magical artifact that saved their lives from the war but kept them bound similar to how Aliana was bound to that ring until I finally released her from it.”

  “Why didn’t Abarat want to use a weapon like that?” Norel asked as we started moving through the cave that had opened in front of us. “If he was desperate enough to use necromancy to defeat humans, you would think he wouldn’t mind taking up an artifact that was powered by the bodies and souls of the rest of elfkind, right?”

  “I guess there are some lines that even he would not cross,” I said softly as we started working our way deeper and deeper into the mountain. The darkness I had expected was put aside as I saw tiny blue lights illuminating our path into the tunnel. After what felt like forever and yet could not have been more than a few minutes, we finally reached the end of the tunnel. It opened up into a massive chamber, illuminated by something yellow and red that was flowing like a river around what looked like a small island. The island had a small pedestal on it, where I could see a small lamp being held away from the heat.

  I gritted my teeth, remembering the elf’s words and memories. The chamber looked mostly abandoned but as we started to approach the tiny island, I could feel the ground starting to shake. After a few moments, Aliana, Norel, and Braire started to feel it too. I guessed that the reason why I was the first to notice it was that I had been expecting it. I growled, pulling my sword from its sheath.

  The rumbling became a deep yet ear-splitting roar as a massive monster pulled itself up from the glowing yellow river, chunks of earth peeling away from it. It looked, in many ways, like the hellhounds we’d had to deal with when we fought Cyron in the underworld, with one crucial difference.

  This one was larger than the average house, with massive shoulders bunched up as it looked down at us, a low, rumbling roar tearing from its huge jaws.

  Aliana, Norel, and Braire prepared for a fight, but I raised my hand.

  “It’s a guardian,” I explained, gripping my sword tighter in my hand. “If we can break the bond of your people with the artifact, we won’t need to kill it, only distract it. For the most part, anyway.”

  The three paused, looking around. I could feel hints of doubt creeping into their minds. They were starting to wonder if I was a sound choice to lead them into this fight.

  “Trust me,” I said in a soft voice. “Please.”

  Finally, they nodded.

  “What do we do?” Aliana asked.

  “We need to draw the creature away from the center of the chamber,” I said, pointing over to the side of it that was larger, a place that would give the three of them room to evade the creature should they be successful. “One of us needs to be able to reach that little island in there and break the lamp. Once that’s done, the creature will have nothing to defend anymore and will leave us alone.”

  The three of them nodded, feeling a sense of urgency as the creature started to charge at us.

  “Ali, you’re the one who needs to do it,” I said. “You’re the only one who can withstand the heat of that river well enough to reach the other side, and… Well, it’s a long jump. I assume you can use your wings to help?”

  Aliana nodded. Opening a portal in a place like this would be too dangerous. One miscalculation and she would find herself dropping into the river.

  I took a step back, flooding as much power into my blade as I could as I watched the creature trying to pick out which of the targets it would attack first. As I took a step forward, launching a blast of light at its face, it roared in anger, finding its target and rushing forward.

  I waited until the last second before diving to the . Norel and Braire had already gone in that direction, with Aliana subtly drifting away to the right. Tactics never needed to be worked on again, I realized as I jumped to my feet, watching the massive creature. Unable to break from its charge in time, it crashed into the wall of the cavern behind me. I gripped my blade tighter, watching as Norel and Braire started firing magic spells at it, trying to draw its attention, but it seemed to have focused on me.

  On the bright side, Aliana had an open path toward the island and took her chance, starting to sprint toward the heated river of lava.

  I gritted my teeth, watching as the monster’s attention was drawn away from me toward her.

  “I’m still right here, asshole!” I roared, waving my sword, trying to draw its attention. When that failed, I pushed more power into the blade and launched another ranged attack at it. It struck the massive hound right in the eye, drawing its attention back to me. It roared, and a flicker of movement in its throat and mde me realize I was in danger.

  Something heated rushed forward, a bright red that was almost painful to look at directly. I had no time to dive away, so instead I raised my sword to block it.

  A moment of searing heat rushed across my arms, drawing a roar of pain from
me as I quickly backed away. The sword had done its job in deflecting the attack, but the heat still washed over me. I could feel it singeing my skin to the point where I saw blackened spots where the heat had scorched my clothes.

  I wasn’t going to survive another hit like that, I realized, quickly backing away and sprinting off toward where Norel and Braire were already waiting for me. I watched another ball of fire launch at me and quickly changed directions, diving away from the searing heat I could feel at my back then rushing toward the edge of the room, unsure of what I was going to do once I reached it.

  Once I did, I turned around. Norel and Braire were able to mostly distract the creature to give me enough time to see what Aliana was doing.

  She had reached the edge but even with her natural resistance to the heat, there was still something holding her back. I took a deep breath, watching as she took a couple steps back and made sure that the beast was thoroughly distracted before rushing toward, taking a running leap toward the river in front of her.

  I could see her wings spreading out further than I’d ever seen them as she made an honest attempt to reach the tiny little island in the middle of the river. Even with her wings giving her a bit more distance over the air, I couldn’t help feeling that she was dropping just a little too quickly.

  “No,” I whispered, reaching into myself, trying to find a spell, any spell that could help her reach the other side—or failing that, drag her back. We would find another way. We had to. She couldn’t die. Not now, not from this.

  Something moved, dropping from the top of the cave. It was truly massive, coming down faster than anything I had ever seen before, as a low roar indicated that it was another monster, not human. And yet, a hint of recognition filled me. It had been moving since Aliana had started her jump—and it was going to reach her, just in time.

  What hint of doubt I felt that the creature might be there to defend the lamp was smashed to pieces as I recognized the wings, the skin, and the way the dragon tilted its head to look at Aliana, a massive talon reaching down to catch her just as its huge wings flapped, giving them enough space to reach the island.