Chapter 90: Sanctum XV

Chapter 90: Sanctum XV

Bell weighed heavy on my back. Her arms tightened to compensate for the jarring and jostling, restricting my airflow. I guess, I could count it as a blessing that this particular engagement had begun in the evening. The mild dark and fog likely worked as strongly against our enemies as it did against us.

A burgeoning night wind swept by my face. Sand occluded my sight. Vogrin forged ahead, a dark shadow in the night, moving forwards then back, acting as a sentry and a scout all in one.

I risked a glance behind me to ensure the others were keeping up. Maya had spread out and was keeping pace easily. Jorralikely due to the weight of his bagwas falling behind, head cocked to one side to try to keep everything balanced.

I was about to raise a hand to slow our pace when a black shape flitted towards me. Vogrins pale-white, desiccated face appeared from the void, directly in my eyeline.

Down, Vogrin snapped.

We dropped. Bell tumbled off my back and fell prone to the sand. Vogrin laid beside me, supine, his hands moving in a complex motion and glowing white. The knee-high fog began to thicken the white shroud around us. Several moments passed, the silence marred by the hammering of my heart in my ears.

Then, a foot stepped through the fog. And another. And another. There were ten people in all.

Holy shit. Look at that light show, One of them said. A low voice, deep and muffled.

Hes got started without us.

He better not be planning to take the credit. The third voice sounded familiar, somehow. The boots it belonged to were smaller than the rest. A younger infernal? Ive invested far too much into this.

Then lets pick up the pace. The first, low voice said. There was a general mutter of acquiescence and the group began to run. The sudden burst of movement parted the fog around us and left us exposed and in clear view.

I held my breath. They continued to run. I craned my head, so I could watch them go. There were, indeed, around twelve. They seemed to be in a typical protection formation, shielding a small one in the middle. All blue and violet. The large infernals maintaining the perimeter of the formation looked older, likely on their last year of the sanctum. They were followed by a few smaller, weaker looking stragglers. One of the stragglers in the back looked behind him. His gaze scanned over us, and then stopped on me.

My heart sank. There was no way he hadnt seen me.

Which was why I was equally surprised when he turned back to the others and continued to run as if nothing had happened.

We stood, silently, and continued our journey across the desert.

----

It took several hours to reach the next chamber, despite knowing the path. There was simply too much ground to cover. The tunnel between the two chambers was short with no branches, leaving little question as to where we had gone.

I walked through the entrance of the new chamber, and my ears popped. It took a minute for my eyes to adjust. In the desert, it had been twilight. Here, it was midday: The cloud cover was thinner, light radiating down through the crimson leaves of trees that looked vaguely tropical in nature. Wildlife called and crooned all around, invisible but ever-present, sounds all shrill and alien in nature.

I stepped inward and nearly jumped back as the surface beneath my foot shifted. A thick spongey moss covered the ground. Layers of it. There was some give under pressure, but it seemed sturdy enough.

A hand tapped me on the shoulder and I let Bell slide off my back, shifting her weight from side to side on the moss experimentally.

I settled onto my knees, then collapsed onto my back, breathing hard. Maya sat beside me, her legs pulled to her chest, light eyes staring into the landscape beyond.

Jorra had barely recovered before he threw his pack off, rounding on Vogrin. I could hear most of their conversation.

How? How did they know? Jorra gesticulated wildly.

Outside interference. The magician who engaged with Saladius is communicating with them somehow. Vogrin sounded irritated.

Somehow? I thought you just knew these things, Jorra shot back.

I can identify almost any magic if I see it used, but I am not omniscient.

Jorra almost said something more, but held himself back. How much time do we have?

Vogrin hesitated. Less than an hour.

Jorra swore and stalked back towards us. Maya held out a water-skin for him and he took it, drinking deeply. I didnt blame him. We were all on edge. I needed to think. We couldnt keep on like this, evading and running, only to run again. The fog had been a lucky break. There was little chance of another.

Bell? I asked. How are you feeling? If you had to give it a number.

Bell, still testing the moss, paused in the middle of bending down to jump. Between one and a hundred?

Thats fine. Zero being dead. A hundred being typical you.

She took a moment to consider it. Seventy-five and a half.

Specific. Maya leaned forward.

Feels a lot better right now, Bell said, Maybe its this place, or the adrenaline, but Im feeling better than I have in a while.

I watched her carefully, trying to ascertain if the estimation was true, or if she was just trying to tough it out. She was standing straighter, eyes alert. The shaking in her handsthough they still trembledhad stilled.

After giving it a moment, I stood. I think we need to make a stand.

They all looked at me. It was, in some ways, a retread of our conversation at the beginning of the runic desert, but things had changed since then.

Jorra was about to speak, but I held up a hand to stop him. Hear me out. Theyve been on us since the heart. They havent slowed down. Furthermore, theyre more experienced and better equipped than us.

Not really boosting morale, Jorra muttered.

Then lets move to the staging ground. Bell, Jorra, you good to keep going? I included Jorra in the statement, but the one I was anxious about was Bell.

Yep. Ill scout ahead, Jorra said.

Im coming too, Bell said. I watched her go. Her gait seemed slightly offset, like shed bruised her heel in the fall. I hoped it wouldnt slow her down too much.

Ready? Maya asked.

I paused above Nox. Give me a minute.

Maya gave me a knowing look. It was an expression that said much. Shed been there, at Kholis. Seen me in a situation not dissimilar to this. I wont tell you what to do, Cairn. But Jorra does not trust easily. If you violate his trust, you will not get it back so easily. With that, she turned and followed the others.

I stared down at Nox, idiot that he was. Only a fool led mercenaries from the front. It would be so easy to end his life, as he had intended to end mine. Some of the older infernals might still want me dead, but they would be less motivated, less organized.

Maya had said the paralysis could last up to twenty minutes, but might be far less. I sighed and put my faith in her. Wed just have to end this and sunder their party before it happened.

Still. No one had forbidden me from slowing him down. I pulled my broken dagger and pressed it against Noxs right kneecap. His face remained frozen, but thought I saw his eyes widen, ever so slightly. I plunged the knife home, ignoring the fluids that bubbled up around it. Then I left him there.

He could, inevitably, catch up. But someone would have to carry him.

----

Wed predicted, correctly, that when things started to go badly for the infernals they would attempt to retreat towards the exit. They wouldnt want to escalate things with their employer captured, potentially in the line of fire, and would defer to rescuing him when given a better opportunity. It was partly why I decided against ambushing them at the entrance initially. The tunnel was short enough that the act of using it as a chokepoint in our favor could easily be reversed, and if they retreated to wait for the cowled mage time would not be on our side.

I watched, with a tempered amusement, as the infernals backed away from Kastramoth, who guarded the entrance. He roared, and his awful howl vibrated the earth, shaking crimson leaves free from branches, where they floated to the mossy-ground below. One of them, a violet that looked much older than twenty, stepped forward. He didnt wear any visible weapon. A cloud of detritus and dirt floated up from the ground, covering his hands with oversized spiked gloves, rocks forming his knuckles.

Captain? I whispered to Vogrin.

They defer to him, yes, Vogrin confirmed.

I had preparations to finish. Id selected the trees beforehand, flash burning the surrounding moss, making sure they were spaced out properly and the fire couldnt jump and get out of control the way it had in the Everwood. I was better at controlling my mana, preventing it from directly affecting my soul, but I didnt want to push it trying to extinguish a forest fire.

The captain and half of the infernals turned away from the greater demon to face me.

I have your boss. I said. And I have a feeling he wont be paying you if hes dead.

The captain had long brown hair that was tied up in a tail that flowed out of his helmet. His face was littered with old scars.

He grinned. Thats too bad. The little snot-nosed shit was paying a premium. But you know what? The humans paying more.

The cowled mage. Of course.

Ill double it. I said.

Nah. He answered.

You know who I am. Im not gold poor.

Not really my style. Changing alliance. I took the humans gold because Im not a fool. Who would turn down higher pay and free supplies for the same thing. He steeled his expression, and I could tell there would be no changing his mind. His confidence unnerved me. We had them surrounded, and he didnt look the least bit bothered.

Without further comment or preamble, I dropped to the ground and set the moss on fire. It spread in seconds along a cross-pattern of lines Id poured oil, racing past the captain to where the group of his men were clustered up.

Scatter! He turned and shouted, and the men sprinted away from the entrance seconds before it became emblazoned in flame. I saw one of them drop, screaming as fire ate at his legs, and I breathed in the flame around him, leaving him whimpering on the floor.

The captain dove towards me, fist covered in rock jabbing directly towards my face. I moved my head out of the way and had to drop to the floor after the fist shifted horizontally, expanding to hit me. I breathed out the flame at his side and the earth was spread out into an aegis.

It surprised me. He was mixing elemental and weaving magic in a way Id never seen before, shifting from one smoothly into another.

There was a flash of pain as something stabbed into my foot and I leapt back, using air to keep myself light, the pain redoubled when I landed. There was a patch of small, cruel looking spikes where Id been standing.

I had a moment to take in the battle. Kastramoth was bowling into the mercenaries, trying to overwhelm them with momentum combined with his sheer mass. Maya rode on his back, staff held so the range was maximized, swinging down at the targets that had only just managed to get out of the way. Bell was entangled with a fire magician, using void to pick fireballs out of the air as he backpedaled away from her sword, each fireball. I used my fire to create small flare-ups, interrupting the mercenaries where I could, keeping them off-balance and unable to properly organize.

Jorra bumped into my back, pushed there by several water magicians that were overpowering him with sheer numbers. Little help?! He shouted.

Cover! I yelled back. Without taking my eyes from the captain, I called the air and reached in my satchel, sending a burst of flash-powder in a curving trajectory, timing it so it exploded at eye-level.

There was a collective of shrieks and groans that told me Id hit the target.

But the captain had capitalized on my distraction, and I felt the ground under me, moss severing as the ground split. I managed to avoid falling in the crevice, pushing myself to run faster as the gap widened. There was a blur of movement, and in an act of pure muscle memory I called an aegis, holding it up to my face just in time to watch a wicked looking stone spike crumple against it, inches away from my eye.

The captain had fine-tuned control, along with being strong. But he looked concerned. The battle wasnt going in their favor. It was close.

Then, it happened. In the background, I saw the infernal that had fallen firstthe one with the burns on his legsbegin to writhe, as if he was still on fire. The flesh of his legs and arms began to bubble, bulging.

He roared, and more than a few heads turned to face his way. His right arm split in two, bisected from the third and fourth finger downward, the remnants forming a strange asymmetrical claw.

His face changed, melted, until it was barely recognizable, eyes forming lines, mouth gaping open, teeth rearranged so they pointed outward.

What the fuck?