by Dante King
Fire seemed like a solid way to deal with all this ice. Sure, ice dampened the flames, but enough heat would render the usefulness of frozen spears and armor useless. I cast blasts of Untamed Torch at my nearest opponents and melted holes in their defences for my companions to exploit.
“This way!” Kegohr pointed along a corridor.
The sounds of footsteps and shouting behind us told me that more Augmenters and guards were on their way. I turned around and called forth the chaotic power of the Burning Wheel. Fire flared from my hand, grew swiftly into a ball, and turned into a raging whirlwind of flames. I tossed it away into the passage behind us, into the path of our pursuers. It bounced off the walls, its path erratic, as it traveled toward our enemies. I heard yells of panic, frantic footsteps, and collisions as the blistering heat and sudden slipperiness of their environment tangled the initiates into knots of confused limbs.
I’d bought us some time, and I used it to sprint after the Kumi, Vesma, and Kegohr. We emerged out of the corridor into a small courtyard complete with a well and a smithy to our left. For a moment, I thought that we were nearly at the exit, but then I realized that the courtyard was walled in by pale buildings of stone and ice.
The weather had worsened as the storm took hold of the the guild house. It was just as Labu had predicted. Rain poured from a menacing sky as fierce gusts of wind hurtled around the courtyard.
We dashed through the battering wind and through a double doorway on the far side of the courtyard. I vaulted over a sawhorse as we entered a workshop full of half-made boats laid out left and right. Piles of planks lay against the walls, along with boxes full of nails and buckets of freshly mixed paint. The floor was littered with wood shavings.
Three servants in leather aprons jolted away from their work as we sprinted past them. Two had been hammering in nails to fix planks into place, while the third had dropped a boat-shaping lathe.
“Just passing through,” I said.
We dodged boats and tools as we ran across the workshop, but more Augmenters in guild robes appeared through a side entrance.
“Get out of the way!” I shouted to the carpenters.
It was all the warning I had time to give. I called forth my fire power and launched an Untamed Torch at the wood shavings on the ground in front of them. The shavings burst into flames, and I encouraged it with some Flame Empowerment. Fire raced across the floor, ignited more wood shavings, a pile of planks, and a bucket of tar.
In seconds, the workshop was awash with a fierce, orange light. The Augmenters stopped in their tracks at the sudden wall of heat. I launched another Untamed Torch into the piles of wood behind them and left them surrounded by fire. Our pursuers desperately summoned any form of water they could to dampen the flames and keep themselves unburned.
A fresh knot of initiates clad in Frozen Armor pushed through the doors. They ran straight through the flames with a hiss of melting ice and appeared through an evaporating gout of steam. It was enough to protect them and carry them through to us as we ducked under a suspended boat and moved toward the exit.
Kegohr let out a low growl and turned as a wave of Spirit of the Wildfire swept through him. He swung his mace like a batter at the plate as the fastest enemy closed in. The blow caught her in the chest and hurled her across the room. She hit the wall at the far side and slid to the ground.
Kegohr knocked the next two back into the fire with great swings of his mace. Their armor melted, and chunks of ice started to fall away, leaving them exposed to the flaming workshop. They scrambled back through the flames, heading for safety.
“Come on!” I said to my friends. “We have to keep moving.”
Smoke billowed as we pushed to the other side of the workshop. Kegohr charged ahead, consumed by a berserker rage, and the rest of us had to run to keep up. Guards and Augmenters blocked our path, but Kegohr barrelled straight through them. The half-ogre smashed some to pulp and left others standing stunned. Vesma came in close behind, picked off the ones Kegohr had missed, and cleared a path for me and Kumi.
Kumi called upon her powers as we burst out of the workshop and into the yard. Her voice sounded harsh and garbled as her Song of the Sea filtered from her mouth. I figured all this running had left her out of breath. Even though her song was weaker, ribbons of water spiraled from the rain around us and raced from her hands to the rest of us. My aches slipped away as minor cuts and burns healed over. A deep wound in Vesma’s side stitched together, as did a string of vicious cuts across Kegohr’s back.
A group of Augmenters stormed the yard to our right and shouted as they saw us.
I stopped, raised my arms, pulled on the power of fire and wood, and combined them into ash. A black, choking cloud appeared around the Augmenters. They stumbled and gagged for air as they inhaled the gray particles.
We sprinted across the yard and into a dojo where rows of initiates practiced the moves of a combat routine. They started in surprise and raised their weapons. They carried that look of malevolence we had seen on the faces of so many in the Resplendent Tears Guild. An expression of hatred for Wilds and everything they represented.
“That way!” Kegohr gestured to an exit at the far side of the dojo.
It was a single, narrow doorway. Easy enough to block off once we got through this new wave of students.
The initiates rushed to meet us. Some carried wooden training weapons, but others wielded real blades. Their charge was uncoordinated but enthusiastic, and their determination was clear. They wanted us dead.
Kegohr led our charge, and his mace whirled like a propeller blade. Vesma and I followed to either side of him and opened up weaknesses in their defences with Untamed Torch. Kumi trailed behind us and sliced at any who drew closer.
A large initiate rushed at me with a long-bladed spear. I knocked the blow aside and swung at him with the Sundered Heart as fire licked at the blade. The blow struck his armor and failed to pierce the frozen plating. He thrust his spear to stab at my side, but I parried the blow, chopped through the shaft of the spear, and left him holding a blunt stick. I fired a point-blank Untamed Torch at his chest and melted away his armor. Before he could strike with his blunt weapon, I skewered him on the end of my sword.
I kicked the corpse from the end of my blade as my companions continued to brawl.
We didn’t have time to fight every student of the Resplendent Tears Guild, so I called on the powers of water and of ash and laced the air of the dojo with Ash Clouds and Smothering Mists.
“Let’s go!” I yelled.
My companions and I sprinted through the confused masses as they stumbled around in the gray clouds and tried to catch us but only found each other. An Ice Spear hurtled out of the chaos, missed Kegohr by three feet, and hit an initiate just as he emerged from the cloud.
Kegohr rushed through the doorway, closely followed by Kumi and Vesma. I raced after them, slammed the door shut, and slapped a bar into place to block the door.
We stood in a storage room surrounded by gymnastics equipment, wooden weapons, and punch bags. Three doors led out from the room, and they all looked the same.
“Are we nearly there?” Vesma asked through ragged breaths.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Kegohr said, jabbing his mace to the third door on the left. “Out there’s the central courtyard, and past it are the main gates. Only question now is, who’s left to stop us?”
I squared my shoulders and readied myself for yet another fight. “Let’s hope they didn’t save the best for last.”
Chapter Fifteen
We emerged into the guild’s main courtyard. Walls of ice and pale stone towered over us, stretching up to a sky that was almost black with storm clouds. Blinding lightning flashed across the clouds and added to the orange glow of oil lanterns that hung around the yard. Rain plummeted down to darken the walls, puddle the floor, and pelt the mass of guild members who stood in our way.
A contingent of guards stood among them, recognizable by their layered l
eather armor and matching tabards. They held spears or bows, which almost made me laugh. Bows would be far less effective in this wind and rain.
Initiates wore the simple robes fitting their rank and carried a variety of weapons, just as we had done back at the Radiant Dragon. They used whatever suited their tastes. Some looked cocky, some uncertain, but none backed away as we strode firmly across the yard.
I faced the assembled mass and held out my hands.
“There’s no need for violence,” I called out through the rain running down my face. “We’re not here to cause trouble. All we want to do is leave.”
No one moved. No one stepped forward to answer me.
“We only came because someone in your guild kidnapped our friend,” I continued. “That’s not something you’re responsible for or that you have to be part of. Show that you’re not our enemy and step out of the way.”
There was no movement except the tumble of raindrops and the shuffling of feet. Lightning flashed once more.
“Listen up!” Kegohr bellowed. “Get out of the way, or we’ll smash through you, yeah?”
A bow creaked and then, thrummed as it was released. A lone arrow hurtled through the air, but it was blown off course by the howling wind and clattered uselessly against the wall.
“So, it’s like that.” Vesma raised her spear.
I swallowed. We’d done well so far, but even with Kumi to bolster us, our energy and ability to fight weren’t endless. And there had to be almost 50 enemies between us and the exit.
There was a white blur as something dropped from one of the high towers onto the battlements beside the gatehouse. Faryn stood as her robes and hair fluttered in the wind. She spread her arms wide as she looked down at the warriors of the Resplendent Tears.
“It’s time for bed, young ones!” she shouted.
The ground rippled beneath their feet as the guards and initiates turned to look at her. Roots burst forth and grabbed them by the legs before dragging some to the ground and binding others in place. Guards and initiates alike cried out in alarm and struggled to break free. They heaved their legs up or hacked at the roots with swords and blades of ice. Some managed to free themselves only to be caught by fresh roots. The roots rose higher on others, trapping arms and hands.
Faryn raised her arms higher. Spirals of leaves blew in from the sides of the courtyard, carried not by the raging storm but by the power of Faryn’s wood technique. They smothered the warriors and initiates and battered them with swirling cyclones of wind and leaves. Blood seeped from their faces as the leaves lacerated their skin.
I started to run as Faryn unleashed the full power of wood against our foes. The suffocating greenery grew in volume as more leaves flew in from around the courtyard. A cloud of leaves formed around the armed mob, beat them back and forth, and blocked their view of the world around them.
“We need a way through this mess!” I shouted over the rain and screams. “While they’re distracted.”
“But which way?” Kumi asked.
She had a point. The only visible way out was still through the enemy throng. And going through them now meant fighting a mass of whirling and slicing leaves along with the guards and initiates.
“I’ve got this,” Vesma said.
She raised her arms and cupped her hands together. Fire formed between them as she summoned the power of the Untamed Torch. She held onto it as long as she could, until it was a large, fiercely glowing ball of flames. Then she projected it straight toward the gates.
There was a whoosh as the leaves Faryn had summoned ignited from Vesma’s fireball. Fire flashed back through the chaos of fighters. Guardsmen yelled in panic as their clothes ignited, while initiates cast whatever water techniques they knew to quench the flames. Heaps of ash fluttered down, mingling with the rain and forming a black mud.
“Go!” Vesma gestured down the leafless corridor that she had blown through the middle of the maelstrom. Enemies lingered, but they were scorched, tangled, and too busy trying to survive to fight back.
“Get Kumi to safety,” Kegohr said. “We’ll follow.”
Kumi and I ran for the gate. The wind buffeted us, and stray leaves blew into our faces, but we mercifully avoided the deadly chaos engulfing the people around us.
I opened the wicket gate within the larger gate that we’d entered when we’d first arrived at the guild house. Vesma and Kegohr fought off a few stragglers who’d managed to break clear of the Smothering Leaves and tried to follow us.
I wanted to go back and help my friends, but the same logic still held that we’d followed from the start. We needed to keep Kumi from the hands of the guild. Otherwise, the guild would use her against her father. I trusted my friends to look after themselves.
“The trident!” Kumi cried as she pulled me to a stop.
“We can’t get it now. Later. We need to leave here.”
“Do you promise to retrieve it?” she asked.
“As soon as you’re safe.”
Kumi stared at me for a full second before she nodded.
We ran toward the docks. The storm had whipped up the sea, and great waves crashed against the quays. Boats were tossed back and forth, and one smashed into planks as it slammed into a dock.
Two figures stood out on the docks ahead of us. They hauled at the ropes of one of the boats and tried to bring it in close enough to get in.
The rain made it almost impossible to make them out, but I saw them clearly as I drew closer.
Labu and Cadrin.
“Where the fuck do you two think you’re going?” I yelled.
The wind snatched my words and carried them away, but some fragment must have got through because Labu turned to gaze at us across the dock. He tugged on his companion’s sleeve, and Cadrin also turned.
“The outsider and the dirty Wild,” Cadrin shouted as he walked slowly toward us, his efforts to retrieve the boat forgotten. “Just like cockroaches, you keep coming back.”
Cadrin’s hair still had the perfect side-parting of a backup dancer in a boy band despite how the rain had plastered it across his forehead. His sword hung by his side, and two glowing cages were thrust through his belt—beast lures that had not yet been activated.
“We’re not going to rest until we’ve stopped you,” I said. “Whatever your plan is, we’ll find a way to thwart it. Give me the lures and surrender.”
“Oh, no.” Cadrin slapped his hands to his cheeks in mock horror. “How will I cope with the might of you two turned against me? All is surely lost.”
“Why are you wasting words?” Labu said to Cadrin as he came to stand by him. “We should fight or go.”
I was surprised to see that Labu had recovered from a thorn through his stomach. His tunic had a hole through it, but the skin beneath was barely scared from the wound I’d given him.
“You’re right, Labu,” Cadrin said. “Destiny awaits, and it’s our job to make sure that it’s the right one. You see, things have turned against you, outsider. With Guildmaster Horix wielding the Depthless Dream, our guild will be more powerful than anything ever seen. We’ll bring the locals into line, end the blight of Wild magic, and turn this into a place where real people can live. Under the supervision of their betters, of course.”
He placed a hand on his chest and smiled mockingly.
“Why’d you even come after me if all you wanted was the trident?” Kumi demanded.
“You were prying. And it was a useful smokescreen,” Cadrin laughed. “You’re nothing to us. You should know when you’re outclassed, lo Pashat. You really should.”
“If you’re my better, then I really must be slumming it,” I said. “All I’ve seen you do so far is thieve, kidnap, and run away. It even looks like you’re repeating that last trick.”
“Oh, I’m not running away.” Cadrin patted the lures in his belt. “I’m on a mission. I’m going to go back into your beloved Qihin City, all the way to the palace, and drop these into the lap of King Beqai. He won’t e
ven notice what I’m doing, he’s so lost to the world. The monsters will come rushing in and finish off the senile old bastard, like they were meant to do last time.”
Labu looked away for a moment but didn’t say anything. Did he truly care so little for his father? It seemed he was conflicted.
“Though, this time,” Cadrin continued, “Labu won’t need to make a show of defending the king. I can’t risk him succeeding and ruining all my plans.”
I raised the Sundered Heart Sword. Fire flared along the blade, and raindrops hissed as they evaporated against it.
“Oh, yes,” Nydarth said, her voice filling my head. “Let’s finish off this prissy little boy, my sweet man. Make the world a safer place for you and yours.”
I took a step forward and ensured that Kumi was safely behind me.
“I’m not going to let you do this,” I said to Cadrin.
“Oh, really?” Cadrin smiled smugly. “If you’re so powerful, why haven’t you struck me down with all of your power, oh, mighty one? You really think you can stop me?”
“I’m damn sure I can. Only reason you’re not ash in the wind is Labu.” I strengthened my battered Frozen Armor and took another step forward. “He’s a man of torn loyalty. Which is miles above you. So prove your worth, Cadrin. Fight me yourself.”
“Tempting, but I’ve got a better plan.”
Cadrin grabbed Labu by the arm and shoved him forward. Labu frowned but didn’t resist. He unstrapped the spear from his back and held it out in a fighting stance.
“Why do you think I keep this one around?” Cadrin asked. “He’s going to do the gritty work like the filthy Wild he is. I think he might even enjoy it; he really seems to have taken against you.”
Cadrin turned and leaped into the boat he had been trying to haul in. He planted his hands on the seahorse icon, and the boat raced into the sea.
