Shaping Magic (12 page)

Both Donovan and Aina just stared at Lindon; they had come to know the young man and just because he didn't argue with Kailid about going didn't mean that he wouldn't just do what he thought was right.

“Donovan, I won't ask you to go—we don't know what is happening—but after your experience in Kornas, you should stay here,” Lindon quietly said.

“Like hell I will. These are my people, and I will be damned if I will stay here while you risk your life for them,” he stated with anger. Donovan was terrified that he could be captured but there was no way he would let that stop him from going.

“That's about what I thought you were going to say,” Lindon said. He turned to Aina. “I don't suppose you're going to stay behind either.”

“Do you really have to ask?” she said tartly.

“No, but it was worth a shot.”

“So what is your plan?” she asked.

“No real plan; I was just going to follow them and see what happens.” Lindon had no idea where to go in the tunnels and knew that if he tried to strike out on his own, he would be lost in no time.

“I will catch up to you before you get to the city; I have to pick up a few things from my room,” Donovan said.

Lindon asked Aina, “Is there anything you need before we go?”

“No I have everything I need,” she answered.

They left the castle and started walking toward the city. When they were nearing it, they stopped and waited for Donovan to catch up. He approached minutes later carrying a large pack on his back, and a nasty looking hammer attached to his belt. The hammer was unlike any Lindon had seen. On one end it was a normal hammer, but the other looked more like a pick that tapered to a point about ten inches long and had carvings all over it. Lindon was curious, but didn’t bother Donovan to get a better look. Seeing the Dwarf with a weapon was different enough, and he didn't want to make the Dwarf uncomfortable mentioning his unusual one.

“Let’s go, we have to catch up to the search party. They're the ones with the dogs, and without them; we have no idea where to go,” Donovan stated.

As they were hurrying to catch up, a thought occurred to Lindon. “You do know that this could be a trap, don't you?” He said to Donovan.

“That thought has crossed my mind,” he said with a little shudder.

“And you still want to go?”

“It’s not really a matter of wanting to go; it's that I have to go. If I don't, then I let the people who captured me the first time win, and there is no way I will let them. Besides, I have something this time I didn't have then: both of you. Let's just hope that we find everyone still alive when we spring the trap.” 

When they caught up to Kailid and the search party, Lindon braced for the argument that he knew was coming. He could see Kailid was about to demand to know what he was doing here when Donovan stepped forward and stopped him. “Don’t bother, we are coming with you, and I am in no mood to listen to complaints about it.”

Lindon could tell that he wanted to argue but all he said was, “Yes, my lord.”

“Just go on with what you were doing and don't worry about us.”

Again, all he said was, “Yes, my lord.”

“Alright!” Kailid shouted over the noise of the dogs barking. “Let’s move out, handlers in the lead. Let’s go.”

The five dogs that were leading the search party took off with a rush, almost dragging their handlers along. For every dog, there were two Dwarfs holding the leashes. Lindon was amazed at the size of the animals. The dogs were chest height on the Dwarfs holding them; their massive heads were facing toward the ground, and their large noses were sniffing for the traces of the missing Dwarfs.

In total, there were twenty-five Dwarfs in the search party not including Donovan. They were all heavily armed with mostly hammers and picks; some of them carried small crossbows. Aina wore her usual weapons: a beautiful slim short sword with her throwing knives sticking out of her boots. He was also sure that she carried others hidden on her body.

Lindon, Donovan, and Aina had been trailing the group for almost four hours. Lindon's stomach started to rumble, so when Kailid finally called a halt for dinner, Lindon was more than happy to stop. When the Dwarfs started to pull out food from their packs, he realized that they were each getting food only for themselves.

Lindon was feeling stupid for not thinking about bringing his own food when Donovan handed him some dried meat and hard bread. Looking up at the Dwarf from his seated position, he said, “Thank you, I didn't even think of bringing food for the trip.”

“No worries; you're my guest here and as such, what’s mine is yours.” He smiled.

  Lindon turned a little red from embarrassment. As much as he wanted to be competent in the things he did, he was still new to traveling and was grateful that Donovan thought of the important things, such as food. Realizing he didn't even bring a skin of water and had nothing to drink, Aina on his other side handed him hers to drink from. “Thank you,” he said, accepting the offering. Lindon ate in silence, grateful for having friends who would think of his needs as well as their own.

Lindon finished eating and was sitting there lost in thought when Donovan's voice came to his mind. “
Lindon, something is wrong. I can't move
.”

“
Neither can I
,” said Aina.

Lindon looked up and noticed the Dwarfs and even the dogs were also not moving. He reached out to his friends to pull them back out of the dim light. When he grabbed them, his hands touched their skin, and he could feel power leave their bodies and flow into him, and they were able to move.

“
Stay here and don't move
.” He moved forward, not waiting for them to say anything. He moved quickly to the other Dwarfs. Before he freed them with his touch, he told each one, “Don't move when you’re free, just stay as you are.” He had just gotten the last one free of the paralysis when he could hear people coming. Leaving the dogs because they couldn't stay still or be quiet, he stood beside Kailid as whoever had done the spell came to them.

The magus who had cast the paralysis on the group was smiling when he entered the cavern where the Dwarfs had been stopped in. “See, these pathetic creatures are no match for me; I have no need of warriors. Steel is no match for magic.”

Lindon was closest to the magus when he entered; there were five others with him, ugly creatures with two tusks jutting out of their jawbones. They looked like boars that somehow could walk and talk. Lindon recalled the carving in the city and noted that they were the same ones the Dwarfs and the Elves battled.

“Tie them up; we will bring them back with us to the others, and we will see if our target is among them.” The magus walked up to Lindon. “This must be the Human that was seen with him; he should be here. It shouldn't be too hard to flush him out. We will just start peeling the skin from this one, and he should pop his ugly little head up.” He laughed evilly.

The magus, laughing at his own little joke, was not prepared in the slightest for Lindon's attack and in a blink of an eye was lying unconscious. The creatures that were moving to tie up the Dwarfs were caught completely unaware, as the Dwarfs who had been pretending to be frozen in place suddenly attacked. The fight was over almost as soon as it started.

They quickly tied up the magus so he wouldn't be able to cast any spells. They also gagged and blindfolded him. Once he was secured, Lindon went to the animals and released them from their paralysis.

Lindon took the lead and started down the tunnel the would-be attackers came from. They left the dogs behind with men to guard the prisoners, hoping to surprise anyone guarding the missing Dwarfs if they were still alive.

This time Kailid didn't argue that Lindon took the lead, knowing that if he hadn't been there, they would all have been captured or dead. As silently as they could, they made their way down the tunnel. They walked for ten minutes when they could see a light ahead. Lindon stopped; telling the others to wait here, he slowly crept toward the light.

Seeing the camp of the abductors, Lindon crouched low. The missing Dwarfs were all there, including the two that went missing from the entrance of the tunnels by Naphara. There were another fifteen guards and another man in robes. Lindon backtracked to where he had left the rescue party to tell them what he had seen. “I don't know how we can possibly get to the Dwarfs before they have a chance to kill them,” he whispered to Kailid.

They were trying to come up with a plan when Aina walked up with the robe of the unconscious magus. Handing the robe to Lindon, she said, “Put this on, you should be able to get close to the Dwarfs before they notice you're not their man. Protect them until we can get to you.”

Kailid stared at her, thinking,
She's crazy, how could this Human stand up to the attackers for more than a few seconds? He would be dead as well as the Dwarfs who were already bound.

Lindon took the robe from her, putting it on. It was such a simple plan but one that had the only chance of saving the captured Dwarfs. He could see the face of Kailid and knew that the surly Dwarf would love to argue about it, but he could think of no other way. None of the Dwarfs were tall enough for the ruse to work, and Lindon was the only choice.

“Are you sure of this? These are not your people, why would you risk your life for them?” he quietly asked Lindon.

Lindon looked him in the eye. “Because it’s right, and besides, do you have a better idea?”

Kailid just shook his head, not having an answer. He didn't think there was a Dwarf alive that would risk their life for one not of their own, and here was a Human about to do just that.

Lindon turned away. “When you hear them, come running, I don't know how long I can keep them from the Dwarfs.
”

Donovan walked past Kailid and whispered, “Don't worry about it too much; you may be surprised.”

Kailid just shrugged his shoulders. If the Human wanted to risk his life for them, who was he to try and stop him? Once everyone was ready, Lindon boldly strode out toward where the Dwarfs were being held.

Lindon was expecting someone to notice he wasn't the magus, but for the most part, he was ignored. When he was nearing the captive Dwarfs, one of the creatures moved to intercept him. “Hey, you not boss!” he shouted.

  “You are correct.” Flinging the robe off, Lindon pulled his swords and attacked.

Lindon showed no mercy to the creature; they had captured the Dwarfs and would kill them without a second thought. Before the creature knew what happened, he was holding his guts in his hands. Lindon, not wasting time, put himself in between the captives and the ones that were holding them prisoner.

As soon as the shout went out, the Dwarfs and Aina moved in. They came from the tunnel shouting to try and draw some of the creatures toward them and away from Lindon.

“Kill the prisoners!” the man in the robe shouted.

Lindon had his hands full. When the rescue party first attacked, he only had one opponent to fight, but after the robed man shouted, three more of the creatures moved back to try and get to the prisoners. If Lindon could have only fought them without worrying about protecting the captive Dwarfs, he would have had an easier time. When he would engage with them, one or more would try to get around Lindon to kill the helpless Dwarfs, and he would have to break contact with the one he was fighting and stop them from getting past him.

Lindon held them off, and was able to score numerous small hits, but he wasn't able to set up a killing blow. He could tell he wasn't the only one getting frustrated; the longer he could keep the attackers away from the Dwarfs, the closer his friends could get to him to help. The man in the robe was screaming at his men for them to get to the Dwarfs.

Out of the corner of his eye, Lindon could see the telltale red glow of magic start to surround the magus. He knew it was coming and tried to work the attackers between the robed man and the Dwarven prisoners. When Lindon saw the bolt, it was almost too late; it wasn't being directed his way. The magus was aiming toward Donovan and Aina, who were almost to Lindon.

Lindon didn’t have time to think of his actions and reached out with his mind, like he did when he was in the tunnels. He attempted to control the light of the magus, trying to draw the magical bolt to him. He didn’t know if he could or not, but he put all of his will into it.

He was almost as surprised as the magus when the magical bolt curved away from its targets and slammed into the backs of his own men trying to come to Lindon. Having gone through two of the creatures, only a small amount of energy made it to Lindon.