Stealing Sorcery (38 page)

Work, legs, work. If I can stand, I can fight.

Her legs just trembled with her effort. As the knight raised a gauntleted hand to strike, the best she could do was to move her left arm in the way in an effort to block.

The knight’s sword ripped out of its scabbard. Taelien had grabbed it from behind.

The knight turned just in time for the sword to slam into its weakened breastplate. He staggered backward, nearly falling into Velas, which put him in a convenient position.

Velas slapped her burned left hand on the front of the breastplate.

Pulse.

The breastplate exploded, shards of blackened material scattering throughout the cell. Taelien struck in the next instant, slamming the sword into a green crystal that had been housed within the armor. The knight shuddered for a few moments and collapsed. Velas fell to the floor beside him.

“Gods fucking goats, that really hurt.” She curled up on the floor, cradling her numb right arm, which somehow felt even worse than her burned hand.

Taelien knelt down, which looked like a sympathetic gesture at first, until she realized he was inspecting the fallen knight instead of her. She glanced at what he was looking at – there was no body inside the armor, just the gemstone that Taelien had damaged, which was lodged inside a metal frame.

He frowned, turning to her next. “Nice move, there. That light thing was pretty incredible. Saved my skin.”

Okay, your momentary lapse is almost forgiven. Almost.

“Mmmhm,” she managed to reply.

“You look about as bad as I feel. Any critical injuries that need immediate attention?”

All of them. All of my injuries require your complete and immediate attention, resh it.

“No, get the others out of the cells.”

Taelien nodded. “I’ll be back for you in a moment.” He stumbled away, dragging the sword across the floor with him.

Velas got a better look at the weapon this time – it was black-bladed, resembling the armor, with blue runes on the surface. The sound of the stone grinding against stone was one more source of pain, but there were so many she could barely keep track.

She heard the sound of keys turning in a lock, and Landen was at her side a moment later.

“Hey, hang in there.” He sat down next to her, setting her head on his lap. “It’s going to be okay.”

Normally, she would have complained about Landen’s coddling, but she was hurting enough that a little human contact was more of a comfort than the minor injury to her pride.

Besides, that light thing had been pretty reshing amazing.

“We need to move.” Asphodel’s voice, coming from her cell. Always killing her brief moments of happiness. “There are more coming.”

Taelien came back, but instead of moving to her, he knelt by the knight again.

Fine, I see how it is. He can be your new sparring partner.

Landen patted her head and she closed her eyes appreciatively. The sounds of clanking a few moments later jarred her eyes back open.

Taelien was hitting the knight’s wrist with the sword for some unfathomable reason.

“That guy was a jerk, but I really don’t think this is the time for venting your frustrations,” Velas muttered.

“Asphodel is still in a ritual circle. I think the gauntlets can shut them down.” Taelien continued tapping away, but he didn’t seem to make much progress.

Oh. That makes a kind of sense, I guess.

Landen sighed. “Let me.”

Velas felt her head moving and realized that Landen had set her head back down on the ground.
Bah, I was comfortable.

Landen was warding Taelien away, and the swordsman moved to take up a guarding position in the hall. Meanwhile, her former Queensguard companion began twisting the knight’s wrist – which, after a few moments, she realized was turning in a complete circle.

After nearly a minute of hideous scraping noises, the gauntlet came free.

“The gauntlet was screwed on? Seriously?” Velas let out a sigh. She was starting to regain some of the feeling in her legs, at least, but her right arm still felt like lead.

I really shouldn’t let that, of all the things that have been happening, be the one that surprises me.

“Catch, Sal.” Landen tossed Taelien the gauntlet, and Taelien nodded and moved to Asphodel’s cell. A flash of light and a few moments later, Asphodel and Taelien were standing nearby.

“We must go quickly. I will carry her.” The Delaren girl knelt down and slipped her arms under Velas before she could object, lifting her with no apparent difficulty. Still barely capable of movement, Velas just slipped her left arm around Asphodel’s neck and tried to hold herself in place as best she could.

The group stepped into the hallway between the cells, Taelien still carrying the sword in his right hand and the gauntlet in his left.

Unable to take physical action, Velas let her mind contribute to the problem. “Sal, try the gauntlet on your amulet.”

Taelien turned to her. “If this activates it again, you’re the one who has to carry me.”

“Deal.” She managed a smile.

Taelien tapped the gauntlet against his amulet. Nothing visibly happened. He frowned.

Velas remembered the power source. “Try it on the back.”

Taelien reached around behind his neck with the gauntlet, which looked pretty ridiculous, and scratched the fingers against the back of the amulet. Velas heard a “click” and the amulet fell right off him, landing on the floor. The blue runes on the surface continued to glow.

“Huh,” Taelien muttered, kicking the fallen amulet.

Landen leaned down and picked it up. “This might actually be useful later, if we can figure out how it works. Also, that gem in the armor was pretty interesting. Asphodel, can you carry this?”

Asphodel tensed, but accepted the amulet. “We have no time. This is the way to go.” Asphodel turned to the right, taking a step forward.

Asphodel wasn’t wearing an amulet of her own, which was interesting – Velas had simply assumed she’d be shackled with one as well, given that she was clearly a sorcerer with some kind of divination ability. Either that or she just liked bossing people around and letting on that she knew everything, but in this case the former seemed more likely, as amusing as the latter would be.

Why the discrepancy? Well, it’s not important at the moment.

“Landen, get the gem and catch up to us. We’re going to start moving. You hear any noise, you run right after us.” Velas instructed.

“Got it.” Landen went back to the cell and began tinkering with the breastplate. Taelien took the front, raising the stone blade in a high stance, and Asphodel carried Velas right behind him.

The hallway led on for an implausibly long time, mostly stone walls on each side with occasional empty cells every few hundred yards. Taelien paused in his step, resting the sword on the ground. “We’ve gone far enough. We need to wait for Landen to catch up.”

“That would be unwise.” Asphodel closed her eyes. “Very unwise.”

Velas fidgeted in Asphodel’s arms. Her legs were feeling more or less functional at this point, but her right arm was in similar shape to before. Catching the cue, Asphodel set her down.

“Thanks for the ride. Mind filling us in on what you know?”

“The Overseer is coming. If we push on now, we can reach the exit before she comes across our path. If we wait for Landen, we will encounter her.”

Velas stretched her legs, feeling tiny pinpricks of pain in her muscles. “That doesn’t sound so bad, now that we’re out of the cells. I think we could handle another one of those guys. Sal?”

“I could take maybe ten.” He nodded magnanimously.

“Twenty for me,” Velas grinned. “We got a minute before this Overseer gets to us?”

“Yes, but I would not advise—”

“Sal, can you make me a weapon from the bars on one of these cells?”

Taelien nodded, setting the gauntlet down. “Yeah, I think I can. My head is still feeling pretty swimmy, though, and any kind of use of sorcery is going to slow me down for a fight if we get into one.”

“Aww, I won’t hold it against you if I have to pull all the weight again.”

Taelien rolled his eyes. “Fine, you get a dagger. I’ll make Landen a pair of swords.”

Velas folded her arms. “Don’t be such a poor sport. Just pull off a bar and make me a spear, it’ll probably be the easiest thing to make, anyway.”

“Not a bad idea, actually.” Taelien moved to a nearby cell, putting a hand on a bar, and closed his eyes. The bar separated from the remainder of the cage. He set the sword down, repeating the process with another bar, and then brought the two bars together. After another moment of concentration, the bars merged together, and then reshaped into a spear.

The swordsman set the spear down, putting a hand over his abdomen. “That hit me even harder than I expected. I must not have eaten in a while.”

“You have not.”

“Thanks, Asphodel, you’re always a font of useful information.” Velas picked up the spear with her burned hand, which fortunately wasn’t burned too badly to grip the weapon.

Taelien wobbled slightly on his feet, leaning against the wall. “I think I need a moment.”

“You can rest easy now – I’m here.” Landen’s voice came from down the hall, and he came into sight a few moments later. He held the cracked green crystal in his left hand. “A spear. Nice! Can I get one?”

“I don’t think my stomach can handle another spear. I could offer you a metal bar, maybe.”

“Hey, I’ll take what I can get.”

Taelien pulled another bar out of the nearest cell, offering it to Landen and nearly falling over in the process.

“Maybe you should hold onto that, actually. You’re looking a little wobbly there.”

Taelien frowned. “But I want the sword. I like swords.”

“I know you do, big guy. You can have it back later.” Landen picked up the sword. “Asphodel, can you get the gauntlet?”

“Yes.” Asphodel picked the gauntlet up. “She is coming.”

Scraping noises, not unlike those made by the knight, but more in number. Velas counted six, seven, eight…nine. They were not footsteps.

They were the sounds of chains, dragging along the stone floor as the Overseer floated down the hall toward them. Her plate armor lacked the spines and ridges of the knight, but only his gauntlets and neck had been marked with runes, she had them written across every surface on her body.

Her hands, neck, and helmet glowed with scarlet glyphs, but the runes on her chest, legs, and shoulders were blue.

Asphodel threw the gauntlet at the Overseer immediately.

The nine chains rose from the floor, and it was only at that moment that Velas realized that each of the chains ended in a dagger-like blade.

Oh, that’s not good at all.

The chains slapped the gauntlet out of the air and it tumbled to the floor.

Taelien took a step back, moving into a defensive position with his metal bar. “When I said ten, just to clarify, I meant ten of the normal ones.”

“No need to be modest, Sal.” Velas nudged him in the ribs. “It’s not like you.”

“You will abandon your weapons and surrender immediately,” The Overseer demanded. Unlike the knight, the voice sounded like an ordinary human woman. It might have even been familiar, but a itching at the back of her mind seemed to prevent that thought from fully forming.

“Well, that’s clearly not going to happen. How about we trade places and you surrender?” Taelien made a swishing gesture with his makeshift staff to help elucidate the proposal.

“Yeah, that’s more like the usual Sal.” Velas grinned.

“Prisoners have refused to surrender. They will be executed.”

Velas had expected the chains to be fast, but she hadn’t expected them to tear the air apart. She barely managed to parry the two that came her way, and it looked like one of them managed to slice a gash in Sal’s side.

The other six went for Landen.

Landen deflected the first two before charging forward, dancing to the side of the hall as two more flew past him, and then jumping onto the wall and kicking himself off of it to dodge another, and finally swinging the blade back downward to smash the last chain out of his way. He landed in a tumble, rolling behind the Overseer and swinging at her back.

The chains repositioned immediately, blocking his strike.

Landen cursed, backing away, now on the opposite side of the Overseer from the rest of the group. Her attention seemed focused on him for the moment – and Velas suddenly realized why, along with processing why Asphodel had thrown the gauntlet.

Asphodel picked the gauntlet back up, advancing. Velas glanced at Taelien, who was holding the pole in one hand and holding the other to his side to stem the blood from his wound.

“Let me see that.” Velas walked over to him. “Can’t tell how hard you were hit if you’re covering it.”

“Never mind me, fight happening. Go get her, I’ll be right behind you.”

Velas nodded. Landen was doing admirably to deflect the chains, but he only had a single weapon and fighting while backing up was never easy. Velas managed to close in just before Landen took a hit to the ribs from a chain, knocking him backward. She jammed her spear into the Overseer’s back, but it barely reacted to the strike.