Fire Within: Book Two of Fire and Stone (Stories of Fire and Stone 2) (33 page)

“What can you tell us?” Toman asked.

“Brace yourselves,” was all Erizen said. All four of them suddenly felt like they had been grabbed by a giant hand of magic and slingshotted to their new destination. There were hundreds of different kinds of transportation spells; that had felt like one of the less stable variety. They all staggered forward a step—well, for Tseka it was more just a lurch forward—and found themselves in a rough-hewn room. In fact, it looked more like a cave than a room, and it concerned Esset that there didn’t appear to be a way in and out of the cave-room.

He needn’t have worried.

Erizen strode forward and then gestured for them to get up against the one wall. They all glanced at each other, but did as he beckoned; they could only assume they were in hostile territory now. Erizen pushed hard against a spot in the wall and a section slid smoothly back with only the slightest scraping sound. It was ingenious, since it didn’t appear to require magic to work—not that anyone would say as much to Erizen, with his already oversized ego.

Tseka and Erizen took the lead, each peering out the new entryway, which opened into what looked like an empty workroom. They kept their heads low and took up positions on either side of the next door, and Esset noted the hidden door behind them roll shut again to conceal the room behind a rough wall again. Esset concluded that this place had, at one point, been a natural cave, but Erizen—or someone—had shaped it to his use.

Erizen caught their attention with a motion of his hand and then gestured that they would be going right out the door and around a bend. Tseka nodded and led the way, keeping her torso much lower than usual as she carefully peered around corners and hugged the walls. The others kept their steps light and pressed against the walls as they followed her, with Esset bringing up the rear and watching their backs.

They snuck through the winding hall, passing rooms that looked like they’d been recently trashed. Faint sounds came from ahead—it was too indistinct to make out words, but there were male voices that sounded angry and others that laughed, while women wept or screamed.

Esset glanced up at Erizen and was surprised to catch a glimpse of genuine emotion on his face, a flash of empathic pain, quickly covered by anger. Esset found himself thinking that maybe—just maybe—Erizen wasn’t quite as shallow as he seemed to be. Then again, he’d already known that; Sergeant Warthog would never have worked with him otherwise. Still, it was nice to have some kind of evidence that he
did
care for someone other than himself.

Finally Erizen signaled for them to stop and gestured them close so he could speak to them quietly.

“There’s no good way to sneak in here or gain any more by stealth. It would be best if we rush in and attack before they have a chance to prepare,” the mage said.

“I don’t like not giving them a chance to surrender or flee,” Esset objected.

“They wouldn’t give you the same courtesy,” Erizen replied.

“I agree with Erizen,” Toman said, to Esset’s surprise. “It’s not like he’s telling you to kill them,” Toman continued. “But we need to get the upper hand as soon as possible. Negotiations are only possible from a position of power in a situation like this, and right now, as they see it, they have all the power.”

“Correct,” Erizen confirmed. Esset looked to Tseka for support, but she shook her head ever so slightly at him.

“It seems I’m outvoted. We’d best do this as soon as possible then,” Esset said. They could all hear the sounds coming from the next room, sounds of pain and fear from Erizen’s captured people. With curt nods all around, they sprinted around the corner.

Tseka was by far the fastest of them over that short of a distance—the sentry in the doorway only saw a flash of red before her spearbutt connected with his chin and sent him flying back into the room. He wouldn’t be getting up again any time soon, and the flying body startled the occupants of the room, buying them a few more seconds of surprise.

Tseka darted into the room, launching herself at the nearest mage, who was straddling a member of Erizen’s harem. Esset and Erizen were right behind her; Esset sent a fireball at the next nearest mage, blasting him against a wall. A breath later, he summoned twin fiery wolves. Erizen ignored every other person in the room and sent an arc of lightning towards the mage at the far end of the hall—Semrus. The wily mage blocked with a shield in the time it took for the energy to flash across the room.

Toman brought up the rear, less useful without any of his animations with him. He followed in Tseka’s wake, helping a woman of Erizen’s harem by animating her chains so they willingly released her. Then he whispered quietly to her, learning that all of Semrus’s men were here in the room. Then he sent her out of the room and back the way they’d come—she’d be safer further away.

Tseka and Esset fought the remaining three mages; Tseka blocked everything the mage threw at her easily, but the mage wasn’t letting her get close enough to attack. She begun antagonizing him, insulting everything from his clothes to his pedigree, and with her magical ability to augment that barrage, Esset knew it wouldn’t be long before she’d have him at her mercy. Esset was hard pressed to keep ahead of his own adversaries—he had no real way to shield himself, powerful though his distance attacks were. He was forced to keep moving, dodging spells and bolts of pure energy or blocking them with creatures hastily summoned in front of him to absorb the hits. Meanwhile, the fiery wolves harried the mages’ shields relentlessly.

Erizen and Semrus were locked in a magical struggle. Twin arcs of mage-energy twisted and jerked in the air between the two. Slowly but steadily, Erizen’s stream of magic was overpowering Semrus’s, and Semrus knew it; clearly Semrus had underestimated Erizen, in both his allies and his personal stock of power. Either that or he’d overestimated his own abilities and resources. Seeing that he was losing, Semrus switched tactics. He grabbed the woman cowering at his feet and drew his knife to hold against her throat, holding her in front of him like a shield. Erizen abandoned his attack.

“Really?” Erizen asked disdainfully when he saw the move. Semrus’s remaining mages found hostages of their own and the fighting came to a standstill.

“You’re threatening to further vandalize my property? This is sad, Semrus,” Erizen said. Esset reminded himself that Erizen was simply playing a part. It didn’t help much.

“You stopped, didn’t you?” Semrus retorted triumphantly.

“Only because I pity you. You’re hiding behind a
woman
, Semrus,” Erizen said. He laughed a cruel, scornful laugh. Semrus practically snarled back at him. Erizen just stood there smirking at him for a while, to Semrus’s deepening displeasure, before finally waving a hand airily.

“Okay, joke’s over,” Erizen announced. “Now come, let’s settle this like the Mage Lords we are. Either we settle this in a contest of magic, or we negotiate.”

“You are no longer one of us,” Semrus spat. “You are no longer a Mage Lord.”

“And yet you know I could easily beat you in a fight. I was offering you a way out, you fool,” Erizen replied, once again displaying disdain. “Let me lay this out for you. Kill my bed-slave, and your life is forfeit. I will destroy you, easily. I will simply have to train a new slave; a nuisance, but nothing more. Or you can surrender, and I might decide to let you live.”

“I would rather kill your slave to spite you than surrender,” Semrus growled. Erizen shrugged.

“Your choice,” Erizen said, as if it mattered not at all to him. Esset didn’t like this game he was playing. The summoner knew he could summon something beside, behind, or around Semrus’s shields, but anything he summoned would still have to get through the shield before getting to Semrus, giving the mage plenty of time to kill his hostage. And he’d have to get the other two mages with hostages at the same time. But maybe there was another way.

“Great master you’ve got there,” Esset remarked, drawing the attention of Semrus’s mages. “He’s perfectly willing to sacrifice you to spite someone else.” The mages exchanged nervous glances.

“Don’t listen to him,” Semrus snapped.

“Yeah, don’t think,” Tseka goaded the other mages. “Then he can sacrifice you as he pleases.”

“Fools, don’t listen!” Semrus snarled as the mages glanced suspiciously at their master.

A slight movement caught Esset’s eye—there was something on the ground behind one of the mages, a slowly growing mound. At least, it looked like a mound. On a hunch, Esset glanced at the other mages and saw similar formations rising behind each of them. After that, he was careful to keep his eyes on the mages themselves, so as not to give away his brother’s work, for that was what it had to be.

A glance back confirmed that Toman was crouched with one hand on the ground, the posture made inconspicuous by his position beside one of Erizen’s ladies, who was stretched on the ground beside him. Apparently these mages had been foolish enough to use dome shields and not full spheres, assuming that nothing would be able to attack them through the stone floor. They would learn differently.

Tseka laughed mockingly at Semrus’s order to his men, and Esset knew she had to be using her new ability to goad them as well. Dark lords and their underlings typically had a hierarchy based on greed and fear. Once a particular balance was established and maintained, the only thing that could upset it was anger. Esset just hoped she knew what she was doing—anger could easily tip them into killing their hostages, too. On the other hand, this was buying them time, and it looked like Toman was enacting a plan that needed just a bit more time.

The mages were looking at their master with deepening suspicion. Esset didn’t doubt that they knew that Semrus had, at the very least, miscalculated here. Maybe there had been other occasions where things had been less than desirable for these mages, for them to hesitate so.

“You have always come out ahead in the end,” Semrus hissed. His tone didn’t plead with them, but the words did—a sign of desperation. The lack of change in his underlings’ expressions signaled his failure, so he turned to making threats.

“If you turn on me, I swear I will eviscerate you. I will torture you until you beg for death.” Semrus’s hiss was more venomous this time, but the threat just served to make them angrier, judging by their expressions. The mages tensed, but not in a way that put the women in more danger—in fact, they almost seemed to forget the hostages they held, their poise distracted and attention diverted towards Semrus.

“What must he think of you?” Tseka asked. “Are you tools? Servants?
Pets?
”

At least one of the mages began to snarl, but before rebellion could erupt, Toman struck. A giant tentacle snaked up behind each mage to seize each of them by the throat. Esset knew that the body of the stone creature had to be inside the floor of the cave, for Toman couldn’t animate just a limb. Esset was impressed.

The captive women collectively took the opportunity to escape; the shock of the physical attack caused the mages’ shields to collapse and allow the women out. They fled out of the room as Toman straightened. The mages clawed at the unforgiving stone tentacles around their necks, unable to still their thoughts enough to work magic with enough precision to remove the tentacles without hurting themselves as well. Toman let them struggle; Esset looked back at him, concerned, and just before Esset was about to say something, Toman released them. The stone limbs wrapped around their torsos, restraining them but no longer hurting them.

“And now you’re at my mercy,” Erizen said smugly, striding up to Semrus and ignoring his underlings. At the same time, Toman walked up behind Esset.

“You and Tseka should go see to the women,” he murmured to his brother. Esset looked at Toman, his expression pained—he suspected why Toman wanted him to leave, but feared to ask. His brother was much more himself since visiting the Ashiier, but no man could go through what he had without a change in perspective and values…and while Toman and Esset’s morals had always aligned fairly closely, Toman had always been a little more comfortable in the grey areas than Esset. For now, not knowing was better.

“Come on, Tseka,” Esset called, turning and gesturing to her. Time to focus on finding wherever Erizen’s women had fled to.

Tseka used her heat-sensing pits to track the women.

“This way,” she said, leading Esset deeper into the caves.

Tseka kept her expression carefully neutral, but her gut squirmed—probably as much as Esset’s, she realized—when she thought about what Toman and Erizen might do to Semrus. She trusted Toman, but she worried because Esset worried. She had no baseline of her own to worry from; all this violence violated the values she’d been taught in Nadran society. She had only her own moral intuition, which seemed to mostly line up with Esset’s moral code. She had never realized, before setting out with the brothers, how often morality and practicality could conflict, nor how nebulous morality itself could be.