God Mage (21 page)

Before strapping on his sword, Bren inspected
it. Crusher had made it out of a rare black glass that was stronger
than steel. It was made out of a single piece of the glass and was
razor sharp. The hilt of the sword was made of glass as well, but
had been pitted so that it didn’t slip in his grasp.

Slipping the sword back into its sheath, Bren
picked up his staff, slung his pack over his shoulder, and walked
out of the room. He found Lillian in the kitchen along with two
women from the village cooking. There had been times in his life
that Bren wondered if the elf ever slept. In the past year, Bren
had never know the elf to be asleep when he was awake; she was
always up and busy doing something.

“Master Torin, would you care for something
light to eat?” Lillian asked as soon as he entered, even though she
never turned around to look at him. “We don’t have much ready yet,
but we do have some bread, cheese, and cold ham if you wish.”

“That will work fine,” Bren replied, sitting
down in a small chair in the corner of the kitchen. Lillian quickly
gathered up what she had promised and placed the plate on the small
table along with a small cup of water.

Bren picked at his food, his stomach too
twisted to really allow much to go down. After he finished eating,
Bren waited in the sitting room for the others to stir. Bren
watched as they came through one by one, and after they had all
eaten and gathered their gear, the group of five left the small
building and their other friends behind and walked toward the
eastern edge of the village where the door awaited.

There was no large fanfare for their leaving
just a large stone door and two guards who stood beside it.

Though Bren hadn’t mentioned his name Hayao
escorted them to the door, while constantly asking to go with them.
Bren explained to Hayao that he wanted to keep the numbers low, but
Hayao was not convinced that Bren was making the right choice.
Though he honestly didn’t like it, Hayao let the subject drop once
they had reached the doors. “We have come seeking entrance,” was
the last thing Hayao said before stepping to the back to the
group.

After Hayao had spoken, the two guards looked
to each other than to Bren and the other four. After a few moments
the men each grabbed ahold of the large door handles and tugged
hard. Large clouds of dust and rock flew into the air as the doors
opened. The smell of must and mold assaulted Bren’s nose as the
stale air from the tunnel struck him.

Bren struck Thuraman against the ground and
the diamond on its top lit up. He looked to the others, then took
his first step toward the door and into the darkness. As soon as he
crossed the threshold of the door, the light on the end of the
staff visibly dimmed. Once all five of them were through the door
it closed heavily behind them. As soon as the door was completely
closed, everything went cold and the light on the end of the staff
went out like a candle snuffed out by a strong wind.

“Thuraman we need light,” Bren told his staff
as he struck it against the ground again.

I can’t…Trying…No magic.

Thuraman’s words were halting and broken, but
he started to understand as he searched around for any magical
energy, but quickly found that the whole area was completely void
of any magical energy. “Faye can you use your power?” Bren asked
the young girl.

She looked at him oddly then closed her eyes
but nothing happened. “No…Something is wrong…I can’t explain but
it’s like something is blocking it.”

“That was unexpected,” Bren said as the area
around them was lit up as Cass used a flint to light a torch that
he had kept in his pack. “Magic of any kind won’t work in
here.”

“That might bother you lot, but I am well
enough with just my sword,” Cass said lifting the torch into the
air. “Speaking of that, can someone hold the torch? In case I need
to use my sword.”

Phena gave a short laugh and took the torch
from Cass. “I can live without my magic, but I will miss it just
like you do your other arm.”

Cass gave Phena a sharp look but the smile
she flashed him stole any words that might have come to his mind
before they reached his tongue. Before anything else could be said,
Cass took the lead with Brenda, with Phena and the torch following
closely behind, and Bren and Faye bring up the rear.

The longer they proceeded through the tunnel,
the better Bren started to feel. Without any magical energy he
could no longer feel its call but on the other hand, it felt as if
part of him was missing. At the moment, he was torn between
happiness and distress.

The path in the tunnels didn’t twist or turn
and there seemed to be no offshoots from the main path, but it was
a seemingly endless path. When they had walked for more than two
hours, they took a small break so that Cass could prepare a second
torch.

“How long is this blasted tunnel?” Cass asked
as he pulled the second torch out of his pack. “I only carry three
of these and I doubt they will last us for more than a day.”

“I think we might find ourselves walking in
the dark before long then,” Bren said sighing.

“That doesn’t sound too pleasing,” Faye said
in a shaky voice. “The mountain didn’t look that big. Maybe we
won’t have to stay in the dark for too long.”

“We can only hope,” Cass said as he slung his
pack over his shoulder and strapped it down so it wouldn’t
shift.

Once the new torch was lit, they continued
walking down the dark path. Before long, the tunnel started to open
up until they could no longer see the edges. Cass had them spread
out with Phena in the middle.

“There is an exit here,” Faye yelled after a
little while.

“There is one here as well,” Cass hollered a
few moments later.

In all, they found seven different tunnels
besides the one through which they had entered. Using a white stick
made of a mix of fat and oil, Cass made marks outside each tunnel
so they could keep track of where they had been in case they needed
to backtrack later on.

I think we should make our camp here for
now,” Cass said while they were trying to decide which way to go.
“I know we have only been walking for at most half a day, but we
need to decide the best route as well as to what we are going to do
once we run out of light. I would suggest that we save the last
torch until we need it.”

“I agree,” Bren said. “I think we should look
for any wood or plants that might burn.”

“That sounds good,” Cass said. “But we should
work in pairs so that we don’t risk getting lost. No taking
offshoots; just stick to the main tunnels, and then turn back after
no more than fifteen minutes of walking.”

Four of them paired up into two groups with
Brenda waiting in the center to call to them as a guide if
needed.

With no light, Bren and Faye tied themselves
with a thin piece of rope so that they couldn’t get separated. As
they moved off down the tunnel, Faye took a firm grasp of Bren’s
hand. It was hard to walk in total darkness and slow going. Bren
and Faye found nothing that might be of use. Nothing; not even a
stray stone on the ground.

When time was up, Bren heard Brenda give a
loud call. Turning around, Bren and Faye started heading back, but
only a few short steps later, Faye stopped dead in her tracks. “Did
you hear that?” she whispered.

Bren didn’t answer as he listened. A faint
scraping noise was coming from somewhere, but Bren couldn’t tell
from where. Sliding over to the wall, Bren placed his ear against
it and listened closely. The scratching grew louder and louder, and
Bren was sure that it was coming from somewhere above them. Pulling
his sword from its sheath, Bren pulled Faye behind him so that
anything coming would have to go through him to get to her.

Bren didn’t have to wait long to find out
what had made the noise as something heavy landed on his shoulders,
dragging him to the ground.

Even though he couldn’t see what it was, Bren
could feel the creature’s teeth trying to dig into his skin. It
quickly learned that his skin was far thicker than just his leather
armor. Pulling his sword from where it was pinned by his side, Bren
tried to get it under the beast, but there was too small of a gap,
so he started banging the hilt of the sword against what he
believed was the creatures head as he tried to get his feet under
it.

After wiggling around for a few seconds, Bren
got his right leg positioned and kicked up. As soon as the pressure
was off his chest, he pulled his sword underneath the beast, and as
it fell back down, it impaled itself on the sword’s blade.

The creature continued to fight for a few
moments, but its movement began to slow until it no longer moved at
all. “Faye can you hear me?” Bren asked as he tried to get out from
beneath the dead creature.

“Is it…?” Faye asked in a weeping voice.

“It’s dead, but I could use a hand getting it
off of me,” Bren replied.

Faye tried to push from the side, but
whatever was on him was too heavy for her to even budge. Bren knew
that he could push it off if he could get a grip on the creature,
but whatever it was had a slippery body that offered no real hold.
After four tries, they gave up and were forced to call down the
tunnel for help.

It didn’t take long for Cass and Phena to
arrive, and with their help, the creature was dislodged from Bren’s
chest.

“Cass took a piece of cloth from his pack and
lit it so that they could see the creature he had felled. It looked
like a crab though made completely of rock. Bren had expected to
see jewels for its eyes much like Avalanche, but instead he found
two large dark orbs.

“Bren help me open this thing up,” Cass said
after he had finished examining the creature. “My sword will cut
it, but I don’t want to risk breaking my blade.”

Bren laughed as he pulled his blade from its
sheath and drove it into the creatures back. It only took a few
seconds for Bren to open the thing up, and inside they found much
what they would find in any creature, though the blood was a dark
blue. When one of the burning pieces of cloth fell off the rag Cass
was using and fell into the blood, the whole creature caught fire
as if it were doused in oil.

“Put it out,” Cass yelled as he tried to
throw his cloak over the burning creature.

Everyone quickly followed suit, and the fire
was soon out though not without a few singed eyebrows.

“Anything you have that will hold liquid, use
it to collect the beast’s blood,” Cass said as he bent down and
started to collect the creature’s blood in a large glass cylinder.
Bren laid down his pack and started pulling out many different
things that had been collecting in it. He had bought many things,
most of them things he didn’t need, but plenty of those could be
used to hold liquids. Bren passed them around, and they all started
filling them.

Using old clothes as wicks, Cass made a lamp
using the creature’s blood as oil. It burned a light blue and put
off a lot of light—more than enough to see by. That night, they
slept knowing that they wouldn’t have to traverse the tunnels in
the dark, but they had also learned that they were not alone.

T
hey only had a
small rest before returning to the tunnels. They decided that the
best choice would be to take the first tunnel on the left of where
they had entered from, and should they have to come back, to take
the next one along the path.

Just like the other paths, the floor was
smooth and clean. It was like walking down a hallway, yet it would
have taken a host of people cleaning nonstop to keep this place as
clean as it was. It was eerie and left Bren feeling on edge.

Bren tried to listen for any sounds that
might tell him if anything other than them were in the tunnel, but
it was so quiet that even though they were trying to walk quietly,
each step was like a strike on a drum. At least they had the
makeshift lantern to light up their surroundings. Bren kept finding
himself looking to the ceiling that was more than ten feet
high.

The underground path twisted and turned,
making it hard to know what direction they were going. Cass tried
to use his instruments but the little needle spun restlessly in
circles making them useless. It wasn’t long before Bren started
hearing small voices in his head. They were barely whispers at
first, but the longer they walked, the louder they became until it
felt like they were almost screaming in his mind. When he reached
up and held his head, Phena looked to him. “The voices getting to
you too?”

“That’s good,” Bren said feeling somewhat
better. “At least I’m not the only one hearing them. Anyone else
hear the voices?” Bren asked loudly. Everyone raised their hand
except Cass and Brenda, who looked at them as if they had grown a
second head.

“It seems this place only affects mages,”
Phena said more intrigued than bothered. “Reminds me of home. They
always liked to play with us mages—doing everything they could to
test our mind. Master Sae-Thae always said it was to make sure that
a mage never lost his state of mind during a battle. Nothing worse
than a mage who has lost control of his own powers.”

Bren had heard stories of the Vathari and
their training. Sae-Thae used to tell him stories, though they
sounded more like nightmares, but unlike dreams, they were true;
however, given his current situation, Bren was starting to wish he
had been given the same training.

They made camp without seeing anymore of the
horrors they had encountered the day before. One would think that
would set everyone at ease, but they still sat nervously around the
makeshift lantern huddled together as if that would stave off the
unknown dangers lurking in the darkness.

They slept in rotation, with two of them up
at any time. Having only five of them, meant a restless night with
only broken moments of sleep. Even when he got to sleep, the voices
in his head did not quiet, instead they seemed to grow in number
making it impossible to enjoy a moment’s peace. Needless to say, he
was not shaken when Faye kicked him lightly to wake him. “Something
is out there,” Faye said as his eyes shot open.