Malediction (Scars of the Sundering Book 1) (30 page)

"You
didn't tell us you needed a whole clan spirited away!" Delilah tapped the
butt of her staff against the ground for emphasis.

"Someone's
coming." One of the other draks in the room rasped and pointed at the
hallway. From the heavy footsteps and rattling of metal, Kale guessed it was
one of the guards. He, Delilah, and Kali ducked back to their hiding place
behind a boulder as the other draks scrambled to look busy.

"What's
all this then?" A corpulent human waddled into the room, a whip draped
over his shoulder. "I hear talking when I should hear digging!" He
lashed out with his whip, striking Kali's father across his shoulders. Blood
welled in the welt it drew across his back, and he fell to the ground.

Kali's
breath quickened, and she drew her daggers. Kale grabbed her around the arms to
keep her from leaping out and onto the human. He cracked his whip again, and
Kali strained against Kale. He flapped his wings to keep his balance,
dislodging a rock. The stone clattered across the floor.

The fat
human smiled and turned. "What have we here? Layabouts?"

Kali elbowed
Kale in the rib. With a grunt he fell back, losing his grip on the female drak.
She sailed through the air, howling in rage. The human's expression turned from
bloodthirsty amusement to one of shock. Landing on the human's ample chest, she
plunged her daggers into either side of his neck.

Gagging and
gasping, he clutched at his throat as blood spurted from the wounds. Kali held
tight, snapping at his face, tearing chunks off his nose and ears as he
staggered backward. She yanked one blade out of his neck, sending another spray
of blood to paint the white walls of the antechamber. She plunged it down
again, into his face, piercing his skull as she pushed back with her feet and
launched herself off his chest. He fell back into the wall, sliding down as
blood pulsed from his ruined neck and face.

Kali landed
in a crouch near Kale, licking the blood from her lips. He glanced over at his
sister. Delilah squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head.

"Bloody
hell."

* * *

For a
moment, Delilah sympathized with Kali. She felt a pang for the father that cast
her and Kale out.
If it were my father lying there, what would I have done?
As the fat guard slid down the wall, unconscious, his lifeblood spilling onto
the floor, Delilah realized what would likely happen next: they would have to
fight their way out of the mine with a clan of malnourished, sickly, exhausted
draks in tow.

Staying in
bed the rest of the winter sounded like an excellent plan.

Kali clapped
her hands, proceeding around to the other draks in the antechamber and helping
them to their feet. "Up you get! This ends now. We're getting out of here,
and these draks, these Children of Destiny are going to lead us."

The draks
moved with renewed vigor, even as Delilah cringed, hearing Kali put her and
Kale on a pedestal. They never believed they were special because of the
circumstances of their hatching. They were just draks with stripes, who tried
to live their lives and look out for each other.

"Kale!
Talk!" Delilah waved her brother over and pulled him close, lowing her
voice so they wouldn't be overheard. "What are we going to do? This is
already out of hand."

Kale glanced
over his shoulder at the assembled draks. "I guess we lead them out,
Deli." He grinned and clapped her shoulder. "Today we get to be
heroes!"

The
sentiment made Delilah want to gag. She was all for doing the right thing, but
in this instance, it felt as if they were duped into helping. She promised
herself a nice, long chat with Kali when this was all over.
Oh yes, there
will be a reckoning.

"All
right, fine." Delilah tapped the butt of her staff on the ground to get
everyone's attention. "We're going to do this quickly and efficiently. No
vendetta killings. I don't suppose anyone can tell me how many guards there are
and where they're located?"

Kali's
father raised a shaky hand. His daughter dabbed at the wound on his back with a
piece of torn cloth. "Four, maybe five guards. They're lazy and cruel.
Mighty Slayers such as you will have no trouble with them."

Four or
five? How do they control a whole clan of draks?

"It's
the crystal golems we'll need to watch out for."

Delilah's
head snapped around as the words Kali's father uttered hit her. "Crystal
what?" She knew what a golem was, of course, an arcane construct, an
automaton. She'd never seen one in person but knew they were strong and tough.

"The
crystal golems. The creations of Volos."

Kale checked
the corridor to see if any other guards approached. "Who's Volos?"

The
assembled draks muttered and made warding gestures. Kali threw the bloody rag
she used on her father's wounds to the floor. "Volos runs the mine. He's
not the owner, but he's in charge. They say he's a fiendling, an evil sorcerer
that drinks blood and keeps fertile drak females in cages so he can eat their
eggs."

Kale gulped
as the color drained from his face. Delilah growled deep in her throat. She
checked the corridor with her brother.

"I
don't think that's true, Kali. Just stories made up to frighten children."
Kali's father groaned and stood. He waved her away. "I'm all right for
now."

Delilah
double-checked the corridor again before motioning for the draks to follow her.
Kali helped her father, and Kale brought up the rear. She kept her staff
readied as she moved forward. Another antechamber lay ahead to the right. Just
before she reached the doorway, she signaled for everyone behind to stop, and
she peeked around the corner.

The
antechamber appeared to be someone's living quarters. A footlocker sat at the
end of a wooden bed that was lashed together with rope. It was unoccupied at
the moment. Delilah also noticed the corner of a desk, just to the side of the
doorway. She waved everyone on and then ducked around the corner to search the
desk.

She found
various documents she couldn’t read, but from the careful way the writing was
arranged in columns, she figured they were important. She grabbed them and
returned to the group. Kali’s father perked up when he saw what Delilah
carried.

“Did you
find their records? May I?” He held out his hand. The drak sorceress passed the
papers to him. “These are mining manifests documenting shipments of rock salt
to the surface, import records of mining tools, and this one looks like payment
records.”

“We might be
able to use these to prove how we were enslaved.” Kali looked at the documents
and then handed them back to Delilah. She put the documents in her pouch and
then checked the corridor again. The way was clear to continue, so she led the
draks onward. The corridor seemed to run along the perimeter of the mine,
sloping downward toward the bottom level. Delilah didn't have a particularly
great desire to see how deep the mine went, even though she wanted to ensure
they freed every drak slave. She did not plan to return to the mine after she
left and tried not to worry about the repercussions of their actions.

Several
minutes passed before Delilah saw another room ahead. She slowed their pace
again and crept toward the room. The sounds from within indicated it was an
occupied sleeping chamber. She spared a moment to glance within.

Rows of
stacked cages contained two to three draks each huddling together. Most were
sleeping, but some were awake, eyes darting this way and that, like trapped
animals watching for predators. She motioned for Kali.

The female
approached Delilah and looked around the corner.

"Have
someone go in there and tell them we're coming in. I don't want them getting
all excited and making a lot of noise."

"Understood."
Kali returned to the group of drak miners and selected one of the
stronger-looking draks to precede them into the slave quarters. After a moment,
he came back out and gave the all-clear.

Delilah
looked around the room at the more than three dozen caged draks. Some were on
their deathbeds, dehydration and the near-starvation conditions in the mine
having taken the ultimate toll. The sight made her reconsider her decision not
to kill every slaver and overseer they came across, but she knew that would be
a hollow victory.

"This
is worse than anything the oroqs ever did to us or the goblins back home,
Deli." Kale's cheeks were stained with tears. Delilah pulled him into a
hug.

"Unlock
the cages, Kale. We're getting them all out. Kali, keep them calm. Save the
grandiose speeches about our stripes for after we get out."

Kali and
Kale went to work waking and freeing the draks while Delilah monitored the
corridor. Some of the draks were weak enough they needed help to even exit
their cages. While the process dragged on, Delilah heard a clicking, clacking
sound approaching.

"Something's
coming, hurry up!"

Kali's father
cocked his head. "It's a crystal golem. They patrol the corridors when the
guards sleep. We must flee!"

"Nuts
to that!" Delilah unfastened her cloak, dropping it to the floor.
"Kale!"

Her brother
jogged over to her, drawing two daggers from his bandoleer. Delilah looked over
her shoulder at Kali. "Get them out, get them ready to move. Kale and I
will handle this golem."

I hope.

* * *

"Do you
know how to fight one of these things, Deli? I've never seen a golem
before." Kale outstretched his wings and rolled his neck. The clacking
from the corridor grew louder by the second. Sound echoed in the salt tunnels,
making it difficult to determine distances.

"No
idea. We'll improvise."

Kale was
used to ad-libbing in battle with his sister. That was, in fact, their primary
strategy. They always employed it against known enemies, however. He didn't
like not knowing what to expect.

He didn't
have to wait long. The crystal golem skittered into view. Eight legs propelled
a blocky body topped with a small head that stared them down with beady, red
eyes. It was made of sharp angles and jagged protrusions, like a giant spider
birthed from a geode. The golem reared up on its four hind legs and slashed at
them with the front two. Kale dove forward, tucking his wings and rolling,
slashing at the legs as he passed. His daggers glanced off the hard,
crystalline body.

Delilah
skipped backward, smacking its legs away with her staff as blue tendrils
swirled around her head and staff. The golem stomped with its hind legs, trying
to impale Kale as he scrambled beneath it. He came up behind it and jumped,
flapping his wings to gain altitude. He landed on its back and grabbed one of
its legs for balance as it skittered forward and attempted to stab his sister.

Flames
poured from Delilah's staff, washing over the golem's head. Kale held fast to
the leg and swung out of the way of the flames. The lack of reaction from the
golem unnerved Kale. It seemed unnatural for something to be bathed in flame
and not cry out. He grunted and used his wings to keep hold of the golem as it
lunged toward Delilah, its head glowing red from the heat.

From his
perch on top of the golem, Kale saw Kali holding back some of the draks. The
rest shouted encouragement. Another blast from Delilah highlighted a dark spot
where the golem's head met its body, a chink in its crystalline structure. He
jumped forward and drove one of his daggers into the gap.

The golem
bucked, throwing Kale from its back. He used his wings to remain airborne and
landed upright, yanking his dagger from the crevice and stabbing again.

"Kale,
get clear!"

Heeding his
sister's command, Kale allowed the golem to throw him clear. He twisted around
and glided down the corridor away from the golem as a shockwave from a fiery
explosion rocked the golem and flung it up against the ceiling. He turned to
see Delilah hurl another ball of fire at the crystalline golem, and it fell to
the ground, snapping off three of its legs.

It thrashed
where it lay, but Delilah, unrelenting, hosed it down with magical fire. Kale
followed suit, running up behind it and breathing dragonfire on it. He felt
Delilah's flames wash over him as the golem glowed red and then began to melt,
but aside from it burning his harness, he felt nothing from the fire.

They didn't
let up until the golem was a glowing, quivering puddle on the corridor floor.
It cooled and hardened, becoming little more than a discolored lump.

Kale brushed
off the charred remains of his bandoleer and harness. His daggers were scorched
and were little more than misshapen lumps of the metal from which they were
forged. He picked one up off the ground and held it in two fingers. "Well,
can't use these anymore. Your fire burned the hilts off, Deli."

"I got
you with fire?" Delilah rushed over to her brother. "Are you
hurt?"

Kale patted
himself down. "No! I didn't feel a thing. Looks like I'm immune to fire
now!"