My Path to Magic 2: A Combat Alchemist (30 page)

A
cat - a gray long-legged beast - appeared in the house of the suicide along with my companions. No, they did not bring him; he came by himself from somewhere (the closest farm was five kilometers away) and didn't meet any objection from the zombie, which was supposed to be guarding my homestead. Max, usually indifferent to other animals, was about to commence a dog's favorite amusement - but Ron suddenly stood up for the cat.

"
Leave the cat alone! He'll hunt mice in the house," he said to Max and me.

"
What mice? I have a protective perimeter around the farm." And the perimeter successfully deflected mice, but not the fluffy beast.

"
A cat in the house brings good luck!"

In
my experience, cats were of no use in a house, just more hair and stench, but Quarters had a soft spot for them. Well, if I slightly modified my warding curse, the cat would be gone. On the first his day with us, he stole a hamburger from Polak's plate, earning him the nickname "Bandit." I thought Polak would take my side against the cat, but he just laughed. So Bandit became the sixth inhabitant of my house.

Johan did not react to
Bandit's appearance - the white was busy up to his ears setting up the lab. Under Johan's supervision, we erected a small hut inside the barn, with all amenities ranging from forced ventilation to a sealed vestibule. Outside, the new lab was wrapped in layers of safety spells and signs.

"
You should not treat white magic lightly, young man!" Johan used to tell me. "In the course of our work we bring beings to life, and they could be so dangerous that even the gray rot would look like flu by comparison. We must be fully aware of our responsibility for the fate of the world and strictly follow the rules!"

I
got it and added to his safety measures a dark warding perimeter around the lab against a very wide range of animals, including termites, rats and cats, so that they wouldn't gnaw through his precious possessions and shit everywhere.

S
pring began in Suesson. It down poured; the depth of the water reservoirs peaked, and all district offices, according to established tradition, took a month break in their work.
I welcomed such traditions!

My
vacation time promised to be exciting: Colonel Reich was set on making a rock climber of me. I was able to get onto the top of a training wall on my own, albeit slower than the rest of his subordinates, so I wasn't a total disgrace. On Reich's team there were about a half-dozen "cleaners" who specialized in speleology. It was clever of him, taking into account that the extent of underground tunnels in Suesson exceeded the length of public roads by many times.

"W
hy are you trying to make a rock climber of me, sir?"

"
Our team must not have a weak link! Everyone should know the specifics of the work. At least, the very basics of it."

That sounded reasonable
, but I was convinced that the colonel wanted to take me down a peg or two. Reich was lucky; a single scowling glance from him, and I would start a duel, and his pumped up muscles would not help him!

All sane inhabitants of Suesson
tried to stay at home, dry and warm; even most of the pubs were closed at this time of the season - there were no customers. After each trip to the polygon I had to wash all my clothes and take a bath; dirt on the training ground was so corrosive that my cleaning spells did not work well. I was not pleased with the day the colonel selected for our descent (Friday, the 13th). I did not like the team (a company of five unfamiliar dark mages would make me feel uncomfortable even in the pub, let alone in a nearly collapsed ancient mine). I abhorred Reich's frivolous comments addressed to me. Also, I requested that our support on the surface be presented by combat mages, but the colonel disagreed.

My
physical training finally ended, as well as the impassability of local roads.

"
We'll pretend we're going for a scheduled inspection; it's high time to check the tunnels. You'll be an intern," Reich told me on the eve of our descent.

Next morning
Quarters gave me a lift to the place where the last bone was found. "Relax!" the colonel gave me a patronizing smile, taking off the security seal from the mineshaft. "Our men on the surface will be safe during the day time, and 'cleaners' will replace them at night."

"Are
you planning to stay overnight down there?!"

"
Of course! There is no difference - night or day - deep underground."

T
he mouth of the mine was lit with blue lanterns and looked terrifying. But the "cleaners" were already climbing down, blithely bickering; I was last to step over the edge.

T
he shaft was about one thousand feet deep. It's a huge distance when you climb the rope-ladder into hell. Our descent took three hours; on the way the "cleaners" were chattering, checking the previously installed warding amulets, and generally enjoying life.  I sweated and tried not to think whether I could make a return trip.

"
Hey, rookie, scared?" Reich shouted out of his respiratory mask (we put them on as soon as we were halfway through). "This is nothing compared to what happened to my group when we went down a three-thousand-foot shaft…" this smartass boasted about the shittiest job in the entirety of NZAMIPS.

The mine
almost lost its man-made appearance: pit props had rusted and partially fallen off; here and there collapsed rock had gathered in high cones, which were probably hiding the corpses of ancient workers. I lifted my head and searched for the bright spot of the shaft opening, but I didn't see any light up top - the mouth of the mine was too far. Though the sunlight could not reach so deep down, it was dry here, at least.

"
Break for half an hour!" the colonel declared as my feet touched the rocks at the bottom; I was last, the first ones were already resting.

I walked around
our improvised camp looking for the traces of necromantic rituals. Tunnels going from the main shaft were blocked almost to the ceiling, except for one, where rocks were moved to the sides, opening a passage.

"
Follow my order," the colonel gently finished sucking in an energy drink through a straw, without taking his respiratory mask off. "Odd numbers will stay here, even - go with me. Two will shield me, Four will shield the necromancer. Is that clear? "His subordinates murmured affirmatively in response. On the surface, they called each other by name, but in underground darkness they wore uniforms and masks and differentiated themselves only by numbers on their overalls.

Against all my expectations,
the mine's tunnels appeared empty and quiet, without any trace of otherworldly creatures.

"There is nothin
g for them to eat. The echo of the shaft's warding spells keeps them deeper down," said Four.

I shivered.
Thanks, Four, for calming me down. Soon all local otherworldly, fainting from hunger, would rush here to feast on us. Hopefully, most of them wouldn't be mobile.

A little later
, Reich found traces of a pentagram on the floor: someone cast out the
phoma
, which apparently overshadowed that passage. "A dark mage was in here," the colonel concluded and became gloomy - this evidence wasn't what we hoped for - we searched for traces of white magicians' work.

I guessed that Giom
brought his bodyguard down here. The bony dark mage had a record of his aura in the NZAMIPS vault. Reich's subordinates pulled sampling cameras out of their bags and took imprints of the dark aura for future identification.

Luckily for us, at about
a fifty foot distance we found the place of the ritual. Two tiny mummified corpses with dissected faces, a human skull lacking its jaw, and crayons and candle-ends lay in the middle of a passageway. The "cleaners" took off their backpacks and started collecting evidence; as I understood, Two was the chief criminalist.

"
Done," Reich rubbed his gloves. "Now we have all the proof!"

He
sort of winked at me; behind the respiratory mask it was hard to understand his mimics. I shrugged.

"Who was the
dark in your family?" Reich asked.

"I am
an orphan." It would be foolish to expect compassion from the "cleaner", so I didn't elaborate on the topic.

"Have you heard a
bout the Salem Brotherhood? I believe Giom was trained by them. If artisans set a goal to get rid of dark magic, the Salem Brothers strive for the opposite - to learn and use it. White mages are fond of secret societies!" the colonel laughed contentedly.

The
kids' mummies were wrapped in clean cloth, packed in tarpaulin bags, and stuffed in backpacks. Tired but satisfied, we turned back.

The
"odd numbers," whom we left at the main shaft, intently searched for something.

"What
happened?" Reich became anxious.

"
Someone at the top cut the rope-ladder."

The w
hite cords of the ladder gleamed on the floor among the debris.

We stared
at the mouth of the shaft in silence. Then the colonel cussed out masterfully. "What's this shit mean?"

My tension
suddenly faded away, as if I had waited for something to happen, and it now occurred. I tossed up a few necromantic weavings trying to reach the surface - no, one thousand feet was too far. The "cleaners" frantically searched through their backpacks for spare crutches and carbines.

"
Don't climb there now," I advised them.

"Really
?" Five snarled.

"
Did you see blood over there?" I pointed to a few dark spots, hardly distinguishable on the rocks.

Reich
barked at his subordinates and approached the bloody patch. He fingered and tasted it.

"
You are right, it's fresh blood."

"
If you give me permission for a ritual, I will try to find out what happened to our people on the surface."

The colonel snorted,
"Go ahead, do it!"

I sat on the rocks
and dove into a shallow trance. "Someone, whose name was Nestor, brought our watchmen lunch. The man whom I am questioning knew Nestor. The visitor was accompanied by two more people. Then my guy experienced sharp pain. That's all."

The colonel
involuntarily looked up and suddenly yelled, "Beware!"

I barely had time to
dart aside. A human body fell down from the top; it was the corpse of our duty man - apparently, it had been held up by something in the shaft.

"
We will have to climb up, anyway," Reich said.

"
I am sure they have another surprise for us at the top," I cautioned.

Something banged loudly
, proving my point. "Get out!" yelled Reich, and we rushed into the cleared tunnel.

I
had attempted to set a shield across the shaft, but Reich unceremoniously dragged me into the passage, gesturing at the others to follow us. A second later, tons of disturbed rocks collapsed onto the bottom of the shaft. The floor noticeably shuddered; dust filled the air.

I am
a combat mage - nothing usually frightens me - but this was too much.

"Is everybody
alive?" Reich croaked. The "cleaners" responded with a little delay. "Your backpacks?"

Only one
"cleaner" managed to save his backpack (Two simply did not have time to take it off). By chance, the most significant evidence was carried by the chief criminalist, so we did not lose it, but the equipment required for climbing the one-thousand-foot shaft was buried under tons of rocks.

"W
hat's next? Wait until they dig us out?" I asked nervously.

They
looked at me as if I was an idiot.

"
We'll never be dug out. Our foes blew up the shaft, and half of the hill fell off! We are lucky the last passable tunnel hasn't collapsed yet."

I
t was debatable whether we were lucky being locked deep underground, short of food and water, together with hungry otherworldly, and having mining lamps as the only source of light.

"
What shall we do, chief?" We gathered around the colonel.

"
Come on, necromancer, tell us how things are set here," Reich seemed to rely on my help.

"
Sorry, no can do. Unless we return to the crime scene." Nobody stepped up with a better idea, and we went back to the place with the pentagram. The sounds of our footsteps and the grumbling of our empty stomachs echoed in the silence of the tunnel.

I meditated with the ancient skull for an hour but didn't learn anything particular
ly useful. The mine used to have three vents, one main shaft with a cargo elevator and an emergency exit with a sort of a hoist. The deceased and other trapped-underneath workers discussed these routes of escape among themselves, but I did not fish out images of their exact location. We got inside through the main shaft, which was blocked now.  Unlikely that the vents were more passable than the emergency exit, and after a brief meeting we decided to seek the emergency shaft, hoping it hadn't collapsed yet. It must be located at the opposite end of the mine, about a kilometer away from the main entrance. We cautiously moved forward in single file. I looked everywhere for a hammer or miner's hack, or any other tool that would help us to climb up. Apparently, they were stolen long ago (from a one-thousand-foot depth, what a skill!). We found a few vessels made from milky glass, some debris and scrap, broken tiles and gray dust; all the rest (even the decorations on the sides) was ripped off.