Spellscribed: Resurgence (10 page)

King Adrian nodded. "Let me start by saying this. If you demand blood for our surrender, let it come from me. I will lay down my life, but my subjects have had no participation in battle with Balator."

Tanya shook her head. "I think that's noble of you, but we require no deaths if you accept that our forces are superior. We demand that you lay down arms and do not resist our presence." Tanya stated. "We declare that from here on in, your kingdom is no longer a separate kingdom, but a region of the Kingdom of Balator. We demand that you send representatives of your people north to our capitol, and that your kingdom doesn't resist our occupying force while we fold your people into ours."

The king looked puzzled. "That's it?" he asked. "You don't want slaves, or human sacrifices? All our women maybe?"

Tanya looked at him skeptically. "Only if your women are better fighters than ours are." she said flatly. "Which I find highly unlikely." She tilted her head quizzically. "Why? Do you need to get rid of them?

"No."

"Then don't worry about it."

"That's fair."

"We do want taxes to go to us, and if accepted, there will be people coming who can work out an amount that is fair."

The king leaned back in his seat and finished off his second glass, filling it again. The serving man swapped out the empty pitcher for the full one in time for Tanya to finish her drink and pour another. Her headache actually throbbed, but the alcohol was blunting the edge of the pain.

"I find this hard to believe." King Adrian said. "This is all you want? To change our name to Onyx of Balator and pay taxes?"

"Well, you can't be king anymore either." Tanya answered. "Unless you want to challenge our current king and win the throne by might of arms."

"And I could do that? Challenge the king?"

Tanya nodded. "Yep." she said, "As long as you are a part of Balator, anyone living here can challenge him."

Adrian chuckled. "I'm starting to understand why your people are so feared. The one in charge is the strongest and toughest of you all."

Tanya shrugged. "Well, either you accept these highly reasonable demands, or we wipe out your country to the last man, woman, and child." she said. "So, on one hand, we're perfectly willing to cooperate."

"But on the other, you have no tolerance for anything less than total cooperation." King Adrian replied. "I get that now."

"So, do we have a deal?" Tanya asked.

King Adrian held his hands out, palms up. "I only wish I had a paper to sign." he said. "How do we do this?"

"When I return to my camp, I'll come back with the General. We meet you halfway between our camps, and you two swear these terms in blood. Then, any failure to keep to the terms will be enforced with your lives." Tanya explained. Though her voice was slightly slurred, she had managed to explain everything clearly.

Adrian looked around. "Well, I think this is the shortest reign in Onyx history." he said with a laugh. "I think I've been king for all of a week."

"Well, I don't know how Ashia will take it, but I don't see why she can't stay with you." Tanya said, sniffling. "As long as she doesn't get a sense of vengeance from your surrender."

The king looked at Tanya, concerned. "You," he started, pulling a handkerchief from his pocket. "Your nose is bleeding."

Tanya touched her nose, and was surprised to see blood smeared on her fingertips. "Huh." she said.

"I didn't poison you." Adrian stated. Concern was visible on his face.

Tanya took the offered cloth and dabbed at her nose. "No, you didn't." she replied. "Just an old war injury that hasn't fully healed yet."

"Head injuries are difficult." Adrian said. "Maybe you can see one of my doctors before you go?"

Tanya shook her head and stood, though she regretted the sudden movement as her head spiked in pain. "No." she declined. "I'll be fine. It's just a headache and the wine mixed with the hot air gave me the nosebleed."

Adrian considered her carefully. "If you say so." he said. "I'd hate to be wiped out to the last man, woman, and child because you died of a wound you received before you got here."

Tanya almost laughed. "If you want, have Ashia send me back to my camp so I can talk to them sooner then." she offered.

Adrian nodded. "If you insist." he stood touching a hand to the star ruby on his crown. "Ashia?" he asked.

With a sudden spark of flames and smoke the drake appeared again, still in human form. "Yes, father?" she asked.

"We are surrendering to the armies of Balator." he said in response, he lifted the crown from his head and held it in his hands. Running his fingers over the settings, he scowled down at the golden crown. "Please retrieve the crown we recovered from the Iron King, and give it to Tanya, along with this one."

"But…" Ashia protested, looking at the ruby.

Adrian pried the ruby from the crown with some effort. "I trust you won't have a problem with this?" he asked Tanya, who nodded in reply. "There, take the crown along with the other one and give it to her. Then you should take her back to her camp right away."

Ashia smiled now that Adrian held the ruby in his hand. "All right!" she exclaimed.

"Oh, and Tanya." Adrian said. "I have an additional gift for you."

He snapped his fingers and the serving man rushed forward, holding out in both hands a small but heavy sack that could not have held more than a gallon of material. It clinked when she grabbed the neck, and it sagged heavily even for her arm strength.

"I get the idea that you would know what these are, since you worked for Endrance." he said. "Just know that each one was collected from a different subject."

"All right?" she answered, somewhat confused. "Can I open it now?"

"Wait until you get back to camp." he replied. "Then you will understand what I was going to offer in case your demands were too steep."

She frowned, confused but otherwise ready to go. "Fine."  she said. "I'll do that then."

"Ashia?" Adrian asked.

"Yep!" she said, holding up an iron crown. "Here we go!"

Tanya felt a sudden flash of heat and the next thing she knew, she was standing in front of General Balen's tent with two crowns hooked through her left arm and a somewhat placid horse standing next to her, chewing on the remains of a carrot. Barbarians scattered in every direction as she burst into existence, some of whom began crying out superstitious wards against magic and evil.

Tanya took a steadying breath and patted the contentedly munching horse on the nose, before walking into the general's tent. General Balen stood inside, just far enough in that a swing of the Inheritance could take an intruder's head off. His wound up swing relaxed a second after he saw her face, and he let out a pent up breath once he was sure it was her.

"Gods." he swore, putting the bipennis axe down with a thunk. "I think Endrance managed to infect you with that accursed ability to make a dramatic entrance." he said. "How'd it go?"

Tanya smiled. "Complete and total victory." she said, handing the crowns over and setting the bag on Balen's table. "They agreed to all terms, and they even gave us a gift."

"That bag?" Balen asked, looking it over. "There's blood." Balen observed.

Tanya undid the tie string for the bag and turned it over. Warped and bent black metal bits poured out of the bag, bouncing and clattering against each other as they piled up. Balen squinted at the bits of metal, pinching one between two fingers and holding it up to the light. "Wait." he said. "I've seen these before."

Tanya swatted it out of the general's hand, the metal bit hitting the table and bouncing to the floor. "Don’t touch that!" she exclaimed.

Balen turned to her, growling. "What are you-" he started to demand, but froze when he saw the look of terror on her face.

The twisted bit of metal was warped, but she recognized each piece. They had recovered similar parts from the mage that had attacked the mountain with thousands of undead wolfmen. Endrance had explained that they were domination spikes, used by Valeria to turn another mage into her completely bound slave.

"Those were magic." she explained. "Made by Valeria, Endrance's mother. They're evil."

Balen turned to the pile of spikes. He did a quick count in his head. "I count thirty five." he said.

"And the one on the ground makes thirty six." Tanya said. "And the king said they each came from a different subject."

"He killed other mages?" Balen asked. "Why?"

Tanya shook her head. "I don't know, but if they were mages they were working for Valeria. Maybe he was trying to get on Endrance's good side?"

"What do I do with them now?" Balen asked.

Tanya shrugged. "Same thing we do with any small things made of magic." she said. "Bury them." she directed.

"I should burn the table." Balen added. "And the tent. Just to be sure."

Tanya agreed. "It's for the best."

Endrance opened his eyes to the real world, looking down at his body and taking stock of the situation. He was starting to feel the hunger now, and he wanted to make sure he wasn't already out of time. His ribs were starting to show, but he hadn't gotten too far gone. He was glad that Mercanians apparently needed to drink water for the Bastille seemed capable of sustaining his thirst.

One thing he did notice was that, while the Bastille could not perfectly sustain his needs, it seemed aware that he was slowly starving to death. It had been allowing him to keep more power in his meridians in slight increments, increasing little by little as time passed. It wasn't enough to keep him alive, since he needed life energy as well as power to survive. The Bastille seemed incapable of knowing what that was though. It was an artifact of Mercanian design meant to hold a creature that never had life energy. The Mercanians, as a species, did not even care about things which possessed it either, so he was not surprised.

Still, it showed the Bastille itself had some form of intelligence, since it was able to recognize and adapt to his conditions. At least the extra power would be helpful for his escape.

He closed his eyes and sank back into the library of this mind. He descended immediately into his subconscious, eager to continue his work. He knew on some level that he might be able to and in fact, might be better off, just fighting through Valeria and Kaelob's impressions and taking back his volition and their memories and experiences; but the inherent risks of doing so were too great. He wouldn't ever lose the battle, but it could take too long. It could leave him mentally scarred. There was also the chance his mind wasn't ready for the amount of his volition that Valeria possessed; and taking it all at once could lead to him making mistakes.

The room had not changed much since Valeria had brought him into his subconscious. Now, whenever he entered to use his library, he could descend straight into that room from his reflecting pool. He slowly came into view sitting around the table where the four of them had been working. The spell matrix he had been working on was finished, and he had spent the last several days slowly casting the spell. The Bastille would only drain away any magic that was worked outside of his body, so they had built the spell to be entirely internal. Nodes of magic were formed in a sphere nestled up next to his heart, which was the anchor for a mage's aura.

Endrance had designed the spell himself and had reviewed every single change that either Valeria or Kaelob had proposed, weeding out anything that could make the spell matrix a danger to himself; or that would give her more control over his body. He had learned quite a bit from his time working with her, and distrusted everything that they offered. It slowed their process down a little, but he couldn't allow them any advantage; they would most certainly use it against him the moment they were no longer in danger of mutual extermination.

With the spell matrix in place, they were able to agree that the sand hornet was the best chance of effecting a break out. They had been arguing over how to amplify the sand hornet's ability when Endrance decided to check on his body. Now back, he saw that Anna had been more than able to continue the argument without him.

"No, we cannot use his hair as an amplifier!" Anna declared. "You said it yourself, it would cause severe damage to his head."

"Only temporarily." Kaelob protested. "And who needs hair, anyway?"

"I do." Endrance said. "Also, I just checked. We probably have about three months left. How long would it take for the sand hornets to get here, even if we could get the signal out?"

Valeria, who had dealt with the insects the most when she was alive, pondered. "Maybe a month." she said. "Less, if they eat on the run and don't stop to nest."

Anna frowned. "Can we do that?" she asked.

"Depends how strong a distress signal we make." Valeria replied. "But yes. We should be able to."

Endrance sighed. "Okay. So we need a stronger signal than what we have right now. I tried before with no power, but perhaps just using a little would make me able to at least make contact. Then we can see how much we'll need."

Valeria nodded. "That sounds like a plan. We can reconvene after you have made your initial exploration of the sand hornet hive mind, and then we can continue from there. If you are able to call for help right away, I suggest you do so."

"Yeah." He replied. "The less you see of me, the better, huh?"

Valeria's eyes were downcast. "Something like that." she said. "I have become fond of you, but that might be entirely because it's your mind that's hosting my thoughts. So I should be as far from you as possible as a precaution."

"You just don't want to give up your volition." Endrance replied. "But fine. Like I said, I won't worry about you or Kaelob's presence until we're safe."

Valeria nodded, while Kaelob rolled his eyes. "As agreed." she said.

"I didn't agree." Kaelob replied. "And why should you, Endrance? I mean, she's the one who manipulated your behavior. She made you fall for our stupidly simple trap."

Endrance glowered at him. "Don't remind me." he grumbled. "I am agreeing because we won't get anywhere as long as we have to spend forever trying to figure out if any given action can be trusted."

Valeria glared at him. "And you'll agree, or I'll no longer feel like hosting you in his subconscious and eject you." she snapped. "Then he'll be free to collect your volition and there will be no more problems from you."

Kaelob scowled at her, a tic forming on his left eye, but he finally nodded with a sigh. "Fine. I agree." he exhaled. "No hostilities or actions against the other until we are safe to sort this all out."

"I can't believe you two." Anna observed. "You are an echo of a picture of the people you pretend to be, but you think you have grounds to argue with the person upon whom you are entirely dependent for existence? You're parasites."

"True. I am a parasite." Valeria replied. "But that's not something he can do anything about on his own, here and now."

"Says another parasite." Kaelob snapped.

"Anna." Endrance exclaimed. "Leave them for now. We don't have time to do this."

Anna inclined her head towards him. "As you wish, dear husband." she said.

"Can you go back up and prepare the orb?" Endrance asked her. "I'll be along in just a moment."

Anna gave him an encouraging smile. "Sure." she said. She glared at the other two as she rose, and vanished as she escaped his subconscious.

"Look." Endrance said evenly. His tone was flat, his temper locked away. "I know you are here now. I know how you want to continue existing. You've been here as long as I have. But I want you to know this."

He placed his hand on the table and exerted his full will. The wood of the table rippled, incinerating into ashes from the point of contact outwards in a wave. Valeria's eyes widened as her meeting table disintegrated into nothing.

"You do not have perfect control over this place." he growled. "My mind is my domain, and you only have control so long as I am allowing it. Step out of line, try to subvert me, or even influence me a tiny bit and I will not just tear my volition away from you."

He looked her straight in the eyes. "I will forget you ever existed here, and wipe your impression from my head. You will be gone, forever."

Valeria stared at him, wide-eyed. "You would never." she said, her voice shaky. "I have a thousand years of-"

"I've survived so far on much less!" Endrance interrupted. "And you've been less than forthcoming with your knowledge, so it's not like I'm losing anything getting rid of you permanently. Remember this."

Endrance stood, exerted his will, and left the two of them in his subconscious. He turned to his reflecting pool and held his hands over the opening, willing it closed again. In seconds, the silver had returned to its normal smooth unmarred surface. He needed to keep them from affecting him again, so he focused, adjusting the mental construct he had already made in his head. Around the edges of the silver pool a gold band folded into existence, forming a ring an inch thick. Across the surface of that gold ring arcane sigils of locking and sealing were carved. The gold ring was anchored to the stone by five equidistant flanges, each set with a precious gem.

As his mental block set into place, he realized he felt different; like there had been a faint whispering in the background for years that had finally stopped. He glanced at Anna who was up on the second floor, an eyebrow raised.

"Do you hear that?" he asked. Anna tilted her head, listening.

"No." she replied.

"Good." He answered. "Very good. Let's get to work."

The orb was still up on the balcony, and Anna stood nearby.

"I'm here if you need anything." she said. Endrance smiled at her and embraced her before placing his hands on the orb one more time.

He shut down everything else he could, focusing solely on the spell matrix and the sand hornet impression. Once he was securely channeling the abilities of the hornet, he activated the spell contained within the spell matrix.

The spell detected the mental connection, latched onto it, and began amplifying the volume of his psychic 'voice' so he could reach farther than before. It began to drain on his miniscule reserves of power.

The booster spell would only last a few minutes before running out of the amount he had saved up, but it was longer than anticipated. The Bastille had been feeding him more power, and while the spell started drawing on his reserves, he felt the spells binding his power relax their grip ever so slightly more.

He cast his thoughts out and instead of a nebulous, tentative image of any other sand hornets nearby, he was presented with an incredible highly resolved image.

He was immediately aware that there were only two sand hornets inside Ironsoul. One was being kept as a pet in a noble's zoo, the other had been disoriented by a sandstorm and had flown a few miles north. He could see it was heading back and would cross the border soon.

He mentally reached out and grasped that hornet. He was met with a mind as alien as the one he had captured, but he was prepared for it.

After subduing the succubus, something with a will as weak as the hornet was almost deceptively flimsy. He overwhelmed the thing so suddenly and brutally that it almost crashed into the ground.

Now linked, Endrance could feel the entire hive the hornet was connected to. Time was passing, and he was halfway through his reserved power.

He searched through the connections, trying to find a centralized source. He almost burnt through the last of his reserves when he found it. The queen hornet was relatively new, since he had killed the old queen years before. He latched his connection to her, leapfrogging through the hive mind until he had reached her. He made contact as the last seconds of his power were used up, and he took a risk.

Feeding the spell with life energy, he managed to keep the spell going for a moment longer before the Bastille reacted zealously.

He had a split second to batter down the queen's will, so he hit it at full force, shattering what simple psyche she had. Endrance felt the Bastille's spell trigger. His psychic call exploded out from him, radiating outwards with nearly tidal force.

"Save me!" Endrance cried into the hornet's mind, pouring in a tidal wave of images and information just as he blacked out.

***

In the Sea of Glass, the desert separating Ironsoul and the elven land of Salthimere, a strange thing happened. Halfway between the Sunken Tower and the blazing pillars of fire that cut through the desert, the sand erupted into the sky with a screech that echoed across the desert for miles. The sand hornet drones were the size of large dogs, while the royal guard were the size of large horses, but the queen was a titan among their kind, easily the size of a heavy covered wagon. She had enough mass that she could fling such wagons with a swipe of her claws.

Sand hornets held much in common with their other hornet relatives, excepting that their stingers were barbed, and they had mantis-like bladed forelimbs. Their carapace was jagged, and their mouths were rings of shredding teeth. The creatures were omnivorous, and were known to swarm creatures many times their size.

This time, the queen rose into the daylight, screaming in pain and need. The intensity of the light coming from the pillars of flame started darkening even her carapace immediately, the surface peeling and crackling. She dropped to the ground, sending up a cloud of sand that temporarily obscured her from the light, continuing a long, droning screech.

The sands around her shifted as her swarm began to stir. Her scream dwindled as she dug into the sand, disappearing under the surface before the cloud of sand settled. From underground, her call could still be felt.

A circle ten yards across began to shift, roiling like water just about to boil. The circle of disturbance began to expand, rolling outward as the queen's swarm awakened to her beckoning. Yards increased to miles, to the point where those standing watch in the Sunken Tower could see it without aid. And at once, the rumbling beneath the sands reached its culmination and started to move. It moved towards Ironsoul. The queen, regardless of her condition, demanded it; and her drones had no choice but to follow.