Wolf in the fold, p.20
Wolf in the Fold, page 20
“I thought ...” Caleb lifted his lips and kissed her. “I thought ...”
Frieda cleared her throat. “I thought we were supposed to be looking for the other two.”
Emily drew back, reluctantly. Caleb was far too close to Aurelius for her peace of mind. Even a tiny touch would be enough to do him real harm, even if it didn’t kill him. She looked around, scanning the rest of the statues. There was no sign of Cat. Or Serigala. Emily cursed under her breath. There were too many scents in the room for Aurelius to pick out either of the missing people.
“Emily,” a voice called, echoing down a corridor. It was Cat. “Emily!”
“Careful,” Emily snapped. She had no idea if it really was Cat. “I’ll take the lead. The rest of you come up behind me.”
She balanced Aurelius on her palm as she walked down the corridor, keeping her eyes half-closed. There might be more than one Gorgon in the ruins ... they were a very communal species, save for those who lived apart from their own kind, which meant the Gorgon she’d petrified might not be alone. She gritted her teeth as she held the snake out, looking through its eyes as she turned the corner. Cat and Serigala were chained to the wall, instead of being turned to stone. They looked very relieved to see her.
“Cat,” she said. She hesitated, unsure if they were bait in a trap. “What ...”
She took a breath. “What did I tell you, when I was depressed after losing my magic?”
Cat frowned, glancing past her. “I did something to knock you out of your funk,” he said, finally. “And you told me that if I ever did it again you’d kill me.”
Emily felt herself flush. “Sorry.”
She stepped up to the chains, inspecting them. She’d thought them metal, but instead they were stone ... the stone appeared to have flowed over their hands, binding them in place, then frozen solid. There were no locks to pick, just a handful of runic charms designed to make it impossible for the captives to cast magic. She promised herself she’d return after the current affair was over, in hopes of figuring out the lost arts of the stonecutters. It would be interesting to see how they did it.
“Hold still,” she ordered. The stone itself was unmovable. Her first attempt to transfigure it away failed miserably. “I think ...”
The stone shattered. Emily blinked as Cat and Serigala fell off the wall and landed in a heap. She hadn’t done that, had she? The spells she’d used should have worked at once or not at all. Perhaps she’d weakened the magic running through the stone or ... she rubbed her forehead, puzzled, as the two prisoners clambered to their feet. They didn’t seem too put out by their imprisonment.
“I think you two were bait,” Penny said, dryly. “Or food.”
Cat shot her a sharp look, but said nothing. Emily suspected Penny was right. She had no idea if a Gorgon could and would eat human flesh, but the two prisoners did make very good bait. Or perhaps the Gorgon had intended to interrogate them ... she wondered, sourly, just how much magical education the Gorgon had. There were few magicians who wouldn’t take advantage of the chance to get more education, even if it had to come from prisoners. The Gorgon might think he could force Cat to teach him by threatening the rest of his team. It might work.
She sucked in her breath as she looked around. “We have to get out of here,” she said. It wasn’t going to be easy. The catacombs felt endless. “And then we ...”
Her spell sounded the alarm. “And he’s free,” she added. “We have to move.”
She forced herself to think. There didn’t seem to be a labyrinth spell on the catacombs, as far as she could tell, but the Gorgon didn’t need such a spell to keep them trapped. The only way out she knew involved walking right past the Gorgon, which probably meant he was waiting for them. He could run, except that would mean letting them go to alert the rest of the world. Emily had no idea of his backstory, or why he’d fled so far into the Blighted Lands, but it was clear he was trying to hide. There was no way in hell he’d let them go.
“Keep your magic at the ready,” she ordered. If there was one advantage to the whole affair, it was that she no longer needed to be careful. Her friends were behind her and the rest of the petrified victims had died long ago. “Don’t let him get the drop on you again.”
She kept walking forward, the snake coiling around her neck as he sniffed the air. The scents were growing sharper, a suggestion there might be more than one Gorgon in the catacombs after all. Emily sucked in her breath as they neared the statue chamber, wondering just what the Gorgon had had in mind. A sadistic display of his victims or ... or what? Emily darted from statue to statue, keeping a spell at the ready. She made a mental note to develop spells to chart underground structures, rather than merely scanning for specific people and objects. There were some, but they weren’t very reliable. Perhaps she could work out a way to use magitech to make up for their shortfalls ...
Something moved, up ahead. Emily darted back as a blast of magic swept down the corridor, closing her eyes as the spell passed over her. It made her skin prickle ... she caught a glimpse of the Gorgon, snakes growing out of his eyes and mouth as it readied another blast, and closed her eyes again as it shot another burst of magic at her.
“Come on, into the light,” the Gorgon said. The compulsion in his voice was so strong Emily felt her feet twitch, trying to move. “Come into the light ...”
Emily gritted her teeth, then shaped a pair of transfiguration spells and aimed them up the corridor. The Gorgon had no problem dispelling the first spell; the second, a little more subtle, was aimed at the air surrounding the creature, turning the atmosphere into pure oxygen. Emily cast a fireball a moment later and hurled it at the Gorgon, gritting her teeth as the spell exploded into an all-consuming fire. The Gorgon screamed and staggered ... Emily darted forward, feeling sick as she scented burning flesh. The oxygen had exploded right in the Gorgon’s face, burning him so badly survival was unlikely. Emily shuddered, helplessly, as Cat drew a knife and cut the Gorgon’s throat. Emily told herself it was a mercy. She didn’t believe it.
Move, she told herself.
They ran, keeping their eyes open as they reached the top of the passageway and into the open air. The sky was darkening, a grim reminder they weren’t out of the woods yet. Emily cursed under her breath, realising it was too late to continue their march through the mountains. They would have to make camp, ensuring they’d be vulnerable to any other dangers that might be lurking here. She cast a blasting spell behind her as they left the temple behind, hoping the shockwaves would trap any other Gorgons or dissuade them from giving chase. Either way ...
Cat glowered at Serigala as they returned to the campsite. “The professor and I need to have a word,” he said, catching hold of Serigala before the professor could object. “The rest of you, set up the tents. Make sure the wardlines are strong. We don’t know what else might be watching us.”
“Sir, yes, sir,” Frieda muttered.
Emily felt a twinge of sympathy for Serigala as she unpacked the tents, leaving Penny and Frieda to check on the horses. She could understand the professor’s desire to examine the ruins, but ... he’d nearly led them all into a trap. They could have all been turned to stone, petrified until their thoughts faded, leaving nothing behind but statues. Cat had every right to be mad. Caleb helped Emily set up the tents, one by one, then started to draw out the wardlines as Cat and Serigala returned. The professor looked a little subdued. Emily wasn’t surprised. Cat had learnt how to chew people out from Sergeant Miles and the sergeant been a past master at the art of telling someone off without raising his voice. He’d never needed to shout to make his point.
“We learnt something useful,” Serigala said. “Their magic ...”
“Worry about it later,” Cat snapped. His face twisted as he glanced at Penny. He was responsible for her and she’d nearly died on his watch. “We’re going to be spending the night here.”
His face darkened. “You could have gotten us all killed,” he added. “What would have happened then?”
Serigala had no answer.
Chapter Twenty-One
The night passed slowly, as Emily took first watch.
She kicked herself for volunteering, as the rest of the party slept. The city had been eerie in broad daylight, but it was a great deal worse at night. She thought she saw things moving in the shadows, faint lights within the darkness that flickered at the corner of her eye and vanished whenever she turned to look. The night was silent and yet she was sure she heard something, right at the edge of her awareness. She was sure they were being watched. The thought bothered her as she stood and paced around the wardlines, peering into the shadows and seeing nothing, then returned to the campfire to warm herself as time slowed to a crawl. It was a relief to wake Penny up and let Penny take over, then scramble into her sleeping bag for a few short hours of rest. Caleb woke her in what felt like seconds later. If it hadn’t been for the bright sunlight, she would have thought she hadn’t slept at all.
“No sign of anything, last night,” Penny reported cheerfully, as she passed Emily a mug of steaming Kava. “If there are any other Gorgons out there, I didn’t see them.”
Cat seemed unimpressed. “Get ready to go,” he ordered, curtly. “We need to be on our way before something decides to have a go at us.”
Emily nodded, cramming a ration bar into her mouth before hurrying to assist Caleb to dismantle the tents and pack them away. Frieda joined them, looking grim as she rolled up her bedding. She didn’t look to have slept very well ... Emily wanted to give Frieda a hug as she finished packing up the bags and loading them onto the horse. The beast eyed her sourly as he munched from his nosebag, as if he thought Emily was about to ride him to death. Emily tried not to roll her eyes. She would rather have nothing to do with the horse either.
The city looked still, utterly unmoving, in the bright sunlight. Emily cast her eyes over the ruined buildings, spotting nothing ... and yet feeling, again, as if they were being watched. It wasn’t impossible. There could be anything hiding in the shadows, or under an obscurification spell, or ... something alien, something she didn’t understand. She took a sip of water as they scrambled onto the horses, checking their compasses before starting to ride south once again. The city remained unmoving, the watching eyes clearly glad to see the back of them. Emily hoped it would stay that way.
Frieda pulled her horse up beside Emily. “Do you think it was a coincidence?”
Emily blinked. “What do you mean?”
“Two days ago, we get attacked by orcs,” Frieda said. “They clearly had a master, even though the necromancers are gone. Yesterday, we get attacked and nearly killed by a Gorgon. Do you think that’s a coincidence or ... do you think something is trying to stop us?”
“Or at least slow us down,” Emily added. The Hierarchy didn’t need to resort to such tricks, unless she was vastly overestimating its power. It was just possible the two attacks were a coincidence, but ... Lady Barb or Sergeant Miles would have scolded her for even considering the possibility. The more convenient something turned out to be, for the enemy, the less likely it was to be a coincidence. “I just don’t know.”
She scowled, wondering – again – what was happening behind them. They could contact their allies and ask, through chat parchments, but ... she shook her head. Better to remain off the grid as long as possible, at least until they reached their destination, And yet ...
The city fell behind them, the rocky walls closing in once again as they picked their way south. Emily kept her eyes open, noting how some of the valleys and gorges had clearly been shaped by magic ... a handful of ruined bridges, seemingly grown out of sheer rocky walls, bearing mute testament to the power of the stonecutters. The long-lost kingdom must have been something to behold, back in the day; she wondered, idly, if it would ever flourish again. Perhaps they could find the secret behind the magic, either through examining the ruins for clues or simply figuring out how the trick was done. But that was something for another day.
They passed a handful of shattered fortresses, so badly eroded they looked like sandcastles on the verge of being washed away by the waves, then back out onto the open plain. The land on the far side of the mountains looked surprisingly mundane from a distance, though the vegetation was as warped and twisted as the plants they’d seen in the north. A handful of things glided through the undergrowth, creatures that looked like crosses between snakes and foxes ... Emily shuddered, helplessly, as one popped up to take a look at them before vanishing back into the undergrowth. The trees looked as if they were covered with seaweed, the sight sending a chill down her spine. It felt as if they were walking through an utterly alien landscape.
The temperature changed rapidly, seemingly at random. Gusts of hot air were intermingled with blasts of arctic ice, the air so cold the wind felt like sleet. Rain splashed down, some droplets so warm she felt them burning her ... others so cold she was surprised they hadn’t turned to ice. The sky was cloudy, the clouds shifting too ... sometimes normal, sometimes deeply eerie, almost alien. They crossed a field of rocks and sand, leaving her to wonder if they were traversing a giant flood plain. Perhaps they were. She could see puddles of stagnant water everywhere, rock pools large enough to pass for swimming pools. They gave them a wide berth. She didn’t want to know what might be lurking under the darkened water.
Professor Serigala seemed unbothered. “There was a story about a nexus point being near here,” he said. “Can you sense it?”
Emily shook her head. The southern nexus points had been snuffed out over the last two hundred years, but they had all been reignited when she’d restarted the nexus point under Kuching. A handful of necromancers who had been too close to the dead nexus points had been killed before they realised what was happening, the surge of raw power enough to swat them like bugs; the remainder had been hunted down and killed by magicians intent on seizing the reborn nexus points for themselves. She suspected it was going to turn into a problem she’d have to tackle one day – not all the magicians who’d claimed a nexus point for themselves were as decent as Cat or Caleb – but right now it was nothing more than a minor issue. They’d wiped out the remaining necromancers in the process, ensuring they no longer posed a threat to the Allied Lands.
“If there was a nexus point nearby, it would have been found by now,” she said, as she closed her eyes and reached out with her senses. There was no concentrated knot of raw magic within range, just the tainted magic pervading the Blighted Lands. “Someone would have come south to lay claim to it.”
“Unless it was shielded by Kuching,” Serigala pointed out. “Is that possible?”
Emily had no idea, but it didn’t matter. “There’s maps of the old nexus points,” she countered. “If someone knew there was once a nexus point out here, they would have come to check it out.”
The air shifted a moment later, a gust of cold air blowing into her face. She looked up into the rapidly darkening sky and cursed under her breath. The clouds were an eerie purplish colour, pregnant with rain ... the water started to fall a moment later, growing heavier and heavier with every passing second. She muttered a spell to shield herself, a simple umbrella charm, and cursed again as she realised the tainted magic was slowly wearing it down, water slipping through to soak her hair and tunic ... ice prickled down her spine, old horror stories about radioactive gunk in the upper atmosphere echoing through her mind. If the rain was poisoning them ...
“Get moving,” Cat snapped. The ground was shifting under their feet ... Emily’s earlier thoughts returned to haunt her. They were in the middle of a flood plain ... “Gallop!”
Emily dug in her spurs, the horse neighing in protest as he picked up speed. The rest of the party galloped faster, trying to get to higher ground before it was too late. The puddles of water were spreading rapidly, the sandy ground becoming unstable as the storm grew worse. They were too far from safety ... she blinked as she saw something squirming under the mud, a faint hint of tentacles coming and going too quickly for her to get a good look at it. They were ... she shuddered, helplessly, and pushed the horse to go faster. They couldn’t gallop forever; even an enhanced horse couldn’t gallop for more than a few miles before having to slow down. They were caught in a trap. They had to get out before it was too late ...
The ground heaved, a horrendous creature bursting out of the sand and reaching for her. Emily had an impression of teeth and claws and tentacles, moving so quickly she couldn’t get a good look at it. She shaped a spell with her mind, blasting the creature with an overpowered fireball; it howled, the sound making her eardrums hurt, and then fell backwards, vanishing in the puddle. More were coming, tentacles reaching out of the ground to grab them. Emily felt something cold and slimy land on her back and cast a spell, lightning crackling along the tentacle and striking the creature with lethal force. The rest of the magicians were casting spells too, trying to cover each other as the horses galloped faster. The rain made it hard to see clearly ...
“Keep moving,” Cat shouted. Lightning crashed overhead, the thunder rumbling so loudly it almost deafened her. “Keep moving ...”
Emily felt the horse jolt, an instant before it skidded to a halt and started to sink. The movement nearly threw her from the saddle ... she realised, in horror, that something had caught the horse and was dragging it under. A giant tentacle reached for her, another wrapping itself around the house and squeezing tightly ... she felt, more than heard, the beast’s neck break. She acted on instinct, grabbing the saddlebags and yanking them free, then levitated herself into the air and floated towards Caleb’s horse. The tainted magic grew stronger, threatening to poison her as she landed behind him. The horse kept galloping as she put her arms around him. There was no end in sight.
More tentacles reached up, grasping for them. Emily cast fireballs, knowing they weren’t enough to slow the attackers down. Their bodies were largely under the sand ... out of reach.
