Cloak & Dagger: Book II of The Dragon Mage Trilogy (38 page)

Frosty smirked. “The dwarves say it’s the cure for what ‘ales’ ya.”

Everyone but Adriana laughed.

* * * * *

“You never told us you could do that!” exclaimed Rebecca.

Cyril shrugged. “I guess it wasn’t important at the time.” He continued walking ahead of the others, leading the way.

“You could have led us deeper into the mountain without the aid of the magical portals,” said Rebecca.

“Perhaps,” said Cyril, “but that probably wouldn’t have gotten us closer to the lizardmen and the trapped water elemental. Now that our quest is completed, our task is to find our way out of the mountain. That is easy for me since I can sense the outside world. We’ll be out of here in no time. I just hope it’s somewhere we can descend the mountainside in safety.”

“Me too,” said Rebecca. “Without my rope, it will have to be a manageable climb.”

The ground shook and the companions paused to brace themselves. It was a common occurrence now, happening several times an hour, but the tremors were not as strong as the ones they had experienced earlier.

When the tremors faded, Rebecca looked back past the glowing elemental. “Is everyone O.K.?” The section of tunnel they were in was long and straight.

“Yes,” answered Alric in the back of the group. He saw that Vera was fine in front of him. “We’re fine.”

The cleric had rarely spoken since departing the cave where they had abandoned Kazin. She wept silently now, not wanting to dampen the spirits of the others. For the earlier part of their journey, either Cyril or Rebecca had walked with her, their arms around her shoulders. Murmurs of encouragement had done little to lift her spirits. After a time, they had all decided to give her some space. Only time would heal her sorrow.

A slight gust of wind from ahead of them wafted past them, causing Tyris to flare up briefly.

“We’re closer than I thought,” commented Cyril.

“Wait!” said Tyris suddenly in a hushed tone. “I sense magic wielders!”

Alric spun around to scan the tunnel behind them, his sword drawn and ready. “Are you sure?”

“Yes,” whispered Tyris nervously. He did not want to be summoned again.

Alric turned to the others. “Go on ahead as though nothing is wrong. I’ll investigate.” He hurriedly pulled his cloak from his pack and donned it, becoming invisible. He wasn’t worried about the others seeing him now that Kazin was no longer with them. Then he shrank his sword into a dagger and hid it behind his cloak, making it disappear as well. “I’ll catch up with you later.”

Rebecca stepped past Tyris and Vera and took up rear guard while Cyril led the way. The fire elemental’s light shone brightly and warmly behind him.

Alric waited silently at the last corner for less than a minute before a couple of cloaked figures came into view. One carried a dimly lit staff while the other carried a trident. Alric’s friends were not very far down the tunnel yet and Tyris’ light was still visible.

The two figures moved just past the invisible elf when they spotted the elemental ahead of them.

“There it is!” whispered one of the hooded figures excitedly. “Start the incantations!”

The other figure held up the trident and began to chant.

Alric could tell by the voices they were lizardmen. He immediately withdrew his knife, but made the mistake of changing his weapon into a sword while being too close to his adversaries. They heard his almost inaudible chant, and the first cloaked figure spun around to face this uninvited guest. A shield spell was in place before Alric could bring his sword down on them. It clanged harmlessly off the shield.

The other figure continued concentrating on his summoning spell. The fire elemental wailed as his essence was being drawn into the trident.

Alric growled and slashed at the shield in a futile effort to stop the lizardmen.

By now, Alric’s companions had concluded that things weren’t going as planned. They were running toward the lizardmen to aid the elf.

The cloaked figure casting the summoning spell was aware of the attacker behind them, but was more concerned by the ones coming toward him. One was a white magic wielder judging by the colour of her cloak. The reports of the ‘magic nullifying’ spell back at the water elemental cavern indicated that a white mage (cleric) was likely present to have cast that spell. It seemed extremely doubtful that a human white mage would be so deep within lizardman territory, but here was evidence to the contrary.

The fire elemental was now half absorbed into the trident, but the effort to summon it in its entirety was too intense. The white mage would be in range to nullify his spell before he could complete it.

Opting to save his life and that of his companion, he discontinued his summoning spell and hastily pulled a piece of parchment from his pocket. He read the words written on it and grabbed his companion who maintained the shield. As he did so, his hood fell back. He turned and leered at the disembodied sword. The lizardmen sprang through the solid rock at the side of the tunnel, disappearing from sight. The piece of parchment fluttered to the floor.

Alric slashed frantically at the wall but his sword would not penetrate it. By now Vera, Cyril and Rebecca were at Alric’s side. They stared at the blank wall, breathless from their run.

Alric bent down and picked up the parchment. The words were not in lizardmage dialect as he had expected. They were in elven! He read the words silently and looked up at the others in surprise. “It’s an elven spell scroll! It’s some sort of ‘pass through rock’ spell!” he cried excitedly.

His excitement waned when he looked back down at the parchment. The words were starting to fade. The spell scroll was intended to be used only once and then fade away. Alric tried to memorize it as best he could before it disappeared altogether. Luckily, he had some background in elven black magic. A normal elf wouldn’t have even had a chance to identify the spell, let alone understand it.

Meanwhile, Tyris had pulled himself together into human form again and awaited the outcome back down the tunnel. He had no intention to be so close to a couple of summoners.

“We’d better get out of here,” cautioned Cyril.

“Good idea,” said Rebecca.

The group hurried to rejoin Tyris, and Cyril led them away at a brisk pace.

Less than an hour had passed when Cyril finally led the companions out of the mountains. As luck would have it, they were already at the tree line, and the descent to the bottom of the mountains was a short trek.

It was drizzling and lightning could be seen arcing across the sky. The thunder rumbled ominously, drowning out all other sounds. Verbal communication was hampered, so hand signals were used to navigate down the mountainside.

At the bottom, a small path showed signs of recent heavy usage. They followed this for a time and came upon one of the Tower of Hope’s outposts. It was destroyed almost beyond recognition. The companions looked at one another in alarm. Signs of destruction were everywhere, but there were no signs of bodies or weapons. The battlefield was picked clean of anything valuable.

Vera bent over to examine something white on the ground and discovered it was a human finger bone. A sudden realization of horror crept over her, making the hair stand up on the back of her neck. The victims had been eaten! She hid behind a pile of nearby rocks and retched.

Alric instinctively knew this was the work of the lizardmage he was after. If the lizardmen were already at war with the humans, the lizardmage would undoubtedly be among them. The only way to find out was to follow the trail of destruction.

No one wanted to stay near the grizzly scene, so Cyril led them southeast toward the Tower of Hope. He wasn’t expecting to return to the tower again, and after what he had just witnessed, he might not see it again anyway. At least, not the way he remembered it …

* * * * *

The black smoke billowed up from the old farmhouse. There wasn’t much left of it other than one wall and a few scattered pieces of furniture. The rest of it had been consumed in the fire several hours before. Lynch and Lyrr approached cautiously. Being out of the mountains was a little disconcerting for them. It felt like they were exposed. From a distance, they had seen movement within the structure and were curious as to who might be hanging around in the ruins.

As they reached the remaining wall, the door suddenly squeaked open. They tensed but discovered there was no one there. It was merely the wind blowing the door on its rusty hinges.

“I guess there isn’t anyone here,” said Lynch.

“Let’s go in,” said Lyrr. He held the door open and peeked inside. The main floor of the house was a pile of wreckage, but to the left was a stairway going down into the basement. He led the way down with Lynch maintaining a safe distance.

“There’s nothing here, I tell you,” insisted Lynch.

“We’ll see,” said Lyrr. He got to the bottom, and in the smoldering darkness he saw a figure moving in the shadows. When it saw the intruders, is dodged behind a partial cupboard.

Lynch coughed. “I can’t breathe. There’s nothing here.”

“I saw something,” hissed Lyrr. He made his way to the cupboard and looked behind it. Cowering in a tight ball was a goblin.

“Get up!” ordered Lyrr.

The goblin got up, shaking fearfully. “Don’t hurt me! I’ll share!” It looked past the lizardman to a pile of torn clothing and bones.

Lyrr looked at the bones and saw the remains of a human. He wrinkled his nose. “You can keep it. We just want to ask you a few questions.”

“W-what?” asked the goblin.

“We’re looking for a fire elemental,” said Lynch. “Have you seen it?”

“I - I don’t think so,” stammered the goblin.

“Did you see anything or anyone unusual pass by here?” asked Lyrr. He looked at Lynch like he was a moron. The goblin probably didn’t know what a fire elemental even looked like.

“There was a group of people who went by but they were far away,” said the goblin. “There must have been lots of them because they had lots of torches.”

Lynch and Lyrr exchanged glances. That could mean the presence of a fire elemental.

“How long ago was this?” asked Lyrr.

“About an hour ago,” said the goblin, shrugging.

“We are closer than I thought,” said Lynch.

“We aren’t close enough,” said Lyrr. “They’re too close to the Tower of Hope now. We aren’t safe anymore.”

Lynch growled. “If I don’t bring back that elemental, I’ll never be able to show my face again. I’ll be ruined!”

“We can’t do anything more,” said Lyrr. “The elemental got away and there’s nothing we can do about it. We have to go back.”

Lynch kicked the cupboard with vengeance. “That dirty invisible guy! If it wasn’t for him, we would have the elemental in our custody.”

“It was something you couldn’t have foreseen,” said Lyrr. “Come on. Let’s go back and rethink what we’re going to do next. It’s not safe here. Human patrols could appear at any moment.”

Lynch looked crestfallen as he followed Lyrr out of the farmhouse.

* * * * *

Sawtooth left the meeting of the dark magic society of the elves in haste. She had a worried expression. The plan to infiltrate the Tower of Sorcery had been pushed ahead. Most of the other senior members of the society were happy with the plan, but she had reservations. Inferno had been acting strangely for some time now, and his insistence to get revenge on the human mages seemed out of place for his character. He was rarely vocal about issues that were beyond the realm of the elves, and he never used to be so eager to wage war before. Sure, the human mages were the first to be affected by the poison, but more study was needed to confirm that the humans were indeed responsible for it. Launching an all-out assault was a risky venture for all of them, especially since it could reveal many of their identities. But the plan seemed to be almost too good to fail, and Inferno’s input into the planned assault was devious and cunning.

Cleaver was another one to watch out for, but not for the same reason. He was putting his efforts into finding spies within their midst, and Sawtooth was commissioned to assist him. She used her special magical perfume to obtain confessions from spies during interrogations. Sawtooth had contacts within the existing government, and he was relying on her to locate the leaks in their organization. What Cleaver didn’t know yet was that Sawtooth was a spy herself, sent to keep the king of the elves informed of the goings on within the dark magic society. Sawtooth had to find the occasional scapegoat to keep Cleaver from suspecting her as a spy. The king knew her job was critical, being included in the upper ranks of the society, so he supplied a few scapegoats for her to turn in from time to time. So far it had worked.

But now there was an event planned that the king would have to know about. It wasn’t time for her appointed information briefing with the king, but she had to tell him what was going to happen right away. He needed to make a decision on whether or not to act.

If he acted in time, it would thwart a plan that was likely to create a rift between the humans and elves. It would involve a large number of the king’s secret forces, and expose some of the principal figures in the dark magic society. It would almost surely expose Sawtooth herself. She would be expelled from the society by the survivors of the failed conspiracy. They might even kill her. Worse still, the king’s secret forces would see her as just another black mage without her dark green ring. It was her insignia of her allegiance to the king, and without it she was indistinguishable from the other black mages. Someone had stolen it, she was sure, but she had no idea who the thief was. The ring also had the power to instantly summon a dozen of the king’s secret forces with the proper incantation.

On the other hand, if the king didn’t act, innocent people could get killed, and the elves would be blamed for the atrocities committed against the humans for no apparent reason. The peace the elves shared with the humans would disintegrate into enmity and war. The dwarves would remain neutral, but make huge profits supplying both sides with arms. With the present allies feuding, the creatures in the mountains would become bolder and begin to re-assimilate the outside lands bit by bit. True, the humans would suffer the worst of this, but sooner or later the elves would have to deal with the monsters, and no one would come to their aid. Humans could be negotiated with. Monsters could not.