Cloak & Dagger: Book II of The Dragon Mage Trilogy (31 page)

Longspike passed it to Sparky for inspection.

Sparky studied it for a moment before exclaiming, “It’s an ancient elven spell! I’ve only ever heard of this spell being used in the time of the dragons! The spell was thought to have been forgotten shortly afterward when the dragon wars ended! A spell like this could prove useful indeed! This is a rare find!”

“How long have you had this, Inferno?” asked Longspike.

Inferno shrugged again. “It’s only one of hundreds of scrolls I inherited a while back. Most of them are self-explanatory, but this one in particular looked intriguing. I figured it was interesting magic, so I put it aside to study later. It must have fallen behind some books on my shelf, because I forgot about it until just now when I was reorganizing my library.”

“I’ll have to study it and see if we can cast this spell ourselves,” said Sparky.

“Help yourself,” offered Inferno.

“That’s settled then,” said Longspike. “Is there anything else to report?”

“Support for our magic continues to increase,” said Ropeburn in a feminine voice. “Especially once word spreads of the poisoned water caused by the human black mages and their foolish experiments. We tell people that black magic is the only way to defend ourselves against them. Recruitment is steady, with the majority being younger and eager to learn.”

“Many of those apprentices are defying the laws and openly casting their magic,” added Multibolt. “Several have even been arrested.”

“As long as they aren’t traced back to the guild,” said Longspike sternly.

“They’re only being detained overnight with stern warnings, or fines if damages were incurred,” stated Sawtooth. “So far there is no indication that the authorities are interrogating them.”

“That will change soon,” said Cleaver. “I have it on good authority that a priority will be placed on infiltrating the guild.” Sawtooth gave Cleaver a sharp glance but said nothing.

“Then we have to increase the screening and limit new members with a questionable background,” said Longspike.

“Consider it done,” said Ropeburn. “We will keep apprentices away from confirmed mages until they have proven themselves.”

“Very good,” said Longspike. “Is there anything else to report?”

“More wells have become contaminated,” said Ice Blade. “Several communities in the northern part of the realm have been affected.”

“Is there any progress being made in counteracting the poison?” asked Longspike.

Ice Blade shook his head. “No. Some of our mages are experimenting with black magic to see if anything may have been missed by our ordinary magic, but so far we have come up empty.”

“I still think the key lies with the humans’ magic,” put in Inferno. “The fact that the disease started within the Tower of Sorcery proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the human black mages unleashed this plague upon the world. They are the ones who should be held accountable for this gruesome act.”

There were murmurs of agreement among the others.

“Furthermore,” continued Inferno, “if we plan to do something about it, now is the time to act. The black mages are presently in a seriously weakened state.”

“I’ve taken that into consideration,” said Longspike. He spread his papers out on the table. “Here is the plan…”

* * * * *

“I can’t believe I didn’t see it coming,” lamented Rebecca. “I should have been more alert.”

“Don’t blame yourself,” said Vera consolingly. “We were all caught off guard.” She looked over at the cyclops, whose head was covered with a sack. His hands were bound behind his back via shackles attached to the wall. His head hung down, an indication that he was unconscious.

“I don’t even know where we are,” complained Rebecca.

“At least we’re together,” said Vera. She knew she didn’t sound very reassuring so she stopped talking. Instead, she recounted in her mind their swift capture.

Crossing under an overhang, they hadn’t been aware of their captors until they had been jumped from above by a number of lizardmen guards. A sack had been thrown over Cyril’s head just before he was knocked unconscious. Rebecca had gotten swarmed before she could draw a weapon. She had also been hampered by a slow spell. Meanwhile, Vera had been too surprised to cast a spell to help her friends. Her staff had been yanked from her hands and several spears had been aimed at her throat. From there, the ladies had their packs taken away and were led away from the area with bags over their heads, while some of their captors had the delightful task of carrying the unconscious cyclops on a stretcher.

They had walked for what seemed like hours, and Vera’s head swam with all the twists and turns they had made en route. But even had she kept track of where they were going, the magical portals they had passed through would be difficult, if not impossible to find without Kazin’s help.

They had finally been shoved into a cell, and Cyril had been tied up in an adjacent cell. The heavy iron doors had been slammed shut, and Vera and Rebecca were then free to remove the sacks. It had made little difference.

The cells were almost as dark as the sacks were. The only light came from a distant torch in the hallway outside the cells. It shone eerily through the grate in the cell door. Heavy iron bars separated the dwarf and cleric from Cyril’s cell. They were unable to aid him from where they were.

Vera discovered enough spell components in her pocket to be able to cast a spell for Cyril. Her staff would have made the spell stronger and more accurate, but it was not at her disposal this time, so she chanted the spell and waved her hand in Cyril’s general direction.

“Hopefully that takes care of his headache when he wakes up,” explained the cleric when the dwarf gave her a questioning glance.

Rebecca nodded.

“Do you need any healing?” asked Vera.

The dwarf shook her head. “I didn’t even have a chance to fight.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t undo the spell they cast on you in time,” said Vera sadly. “I wasn’t prepared.”

“None of us were,” said Rebecca flatly. “We walked right into that one. I should have been wearing my talisman. It tells me when magic is nearby.”

“Wouldn’t my staff interfere with it?” asked Vera.

Rebecca nodded. “Probably, but it would vibrate even more with more magic present. At least I could tell if we were getting close to another magic source.”

“I see,” said Vera. She felt for her pendant and discovered it was still around her neck. Somehow the lizardmen had failed to discover it. She sighed. Unfortunately, it wasn’t particularly useful right now.

A moan from the other cell alerted them that the cyclops was regaining consciousness.

“Cyril? Are you O.K.?” asked Vera anxiously.

“Vera?”

“I’m here,” said Vera. “I’m in an adjoining cell.”

Cyril yanked at his chains and winced. “I can’t move!”

“Don’t struggle,” said Vera. “Rebecca and I are O.K. We’re working on a way out of here.” She looked at the dwarf.

“Maybe we can jump them when they come to check on us,” said the dwarf. “They didn’t tie us up.”

“Maybe there’s a way out of these cells,” commented Vera. She got up and pushed on the cell door, making it rattle noisily.

“That’s dwarven workmanship,” said Rebecca. “It won’t be easy to break out.”

“How would lizardmen have access to dwarven iron?” asked Vera. “Could they have stolen it?”

“It looks pretty old,” said Rebecca. “I’d guess these cells predate the lizardmen. These cells probably belonged to the dwarves when they still resided in these mountains before the dragon wars.”

“So the lizardmen moved in when the dwarves moved out?” asked the cleric.

“Not right away,” said Rebecca. “A few decades probably passed before the lizardmen called this home. I’m sure it was occupied by goblins and orcs in the meantime.”

Vera shuddered. “I don’t know how you dwarves manage to live in the mountains with all these evil creatures running around.”

“In the outside world you have bears and boars and the like,” countered Rebecca. “And thieves and bandits are commonplace. What’s the difference?”

“I suppose,” said Vera.

“In many ways, the mountain is peaceful,” added Cyril in a muffled voice.

“I prefer the sun on my face and the breeze flitting through the green grass,” said Vera defiantly. “This darkness is too forbidding. Even this gold engraving the dwarves put in this cell door doesn’t shine as brilliantly as it would in the outside world.”

Rebecca was about to respond when her eyes, now accustomed to the faint light, spotted something familiar within the engraving that Vera had pointed out. She got up and went nearer to examine it more closely. It was an ancient dwarven emblem. She had seen this emblem before. Where? Then it occurred to her. It was the same as the one on the key that she had used to open her cell in the orc’s realm! The dwarf frantically felt in her pockets and a shiver went down her spine. It was still there! She had kept it!

“What is it?” asked Vera, watching the dwarf’s movements curiously.

Rebecca withdrew the key and held it aloft. “This key matches the emblem on the door!” whispered the dwarf excitedly. She carefully slid her arm through the cell doors’ grate and reached for where the keyhole should be. Then she groaned in dismay and pulled her arm back. “I can’t reach that far.”

“Let me try,” offered Vera. “My arms are longer.”

Rebecca handed her the key. “Don’t drop it,” she cautioned.

Vera nodded and slid her arm slowly through the grate. Consternation marked her features as she tried to plug the key into the key hole. “I - I think it’s in the hole,” said the cleric finally.

“Turn it and see!” whispered Rebecca excitedly.

“Just a minute,” said Vera. “I need to get the circulation back into my arm.” She pulled her arm back and shook it to restore blood flow. “O.K. now,” she said, returning her arm through the grate. She felt for the key. “Oh, no!” moaned the cleric.

“What is it?” whispered Rebecca, her eyes wide.

“I can’t find - Oh! Here it is!” There was a loud click and the cell door opened.

“You did it!” cried Rebecca, embracing the cleric even while she was still trying to disentangle her arm from the grate.

Then the dwarf slapped the cleric’s arm. “Next time don’t scare me like that!”

“Sorry,” said Vera sheepishly.

The escapees quickly opened Cyril’s cell. They removed the sack from his head, but discovered that Rebecca’s key would not unlock the chains binding the cyclops’ arms.

“What do we do now?” asked Vera.

“We’ll have to go and find the shackle keys,” stated the dwarf.

“Don’t worry about me,” said Cyril. “Save yourselves.”

“We’re not leaving you,” said Vera flatly.

“We’ll come back for you as soon as we can,” added Rebecca. “We have to find the keys first.” She looked at Vera, who nodded.

“Sit tight, Cyril,” ordered the cleric.

“Do I have a choice?” said Cyril.

Vera giggled.

The dwarf led the cleric from the cell area and together they slunk along the torch-lit hallways. Before long they found the guardroom where three guards sat at a table. Peeking around the corner, beyond the guards on the floor, lay the companions’ packs and weapons.

“Did you hear the air elemental has been contained?” asked one guard.

“Yes,” said the second guard. “I heard they used the earth elemental to create a wall of solid rock to imprison it.”

“Ingenious!” declared the third guard, a female with bluish lips and an ugly wide grin. “That way the magic needed to control it is minimal.”

“My cousin is part of that group,” said the first guard. “She told me there is a mysterious force pulling at the air elemental. They can’t seem to get it to do what they want because it keeps phasing in and out of our realm. She thinks someone else may be trying to summon it.”

“Who could possibly be capable of such magic?” asked the second guard.

“I think the black mages may be trying to summon it,” said the female guard. “The humans claim they aren’t capable of such magic, but I wouldn’t put it past them. Remember the human necromancer a few years back? Humans weren’t supposed to have an understanding of necromancy either.”

“You’re probably right,” admitted the first guard.

“I wonder how Brind is doing with the fire elemental?” asked the second guard, changing the subject.

“If anyone can catch it, it’s Brind,” said the female guard dreamily.

“You’re just in love with him, aren’t you?” nagged the first guard.

The female guard spun on him. “He’s the best fire mage there is! I wish I was his apprentice!” Then she calmed down a bit. “Besides, that klutz Lynch couldn’t cast a spell if his life depended on it.”

The guards laughed.

The dwarf and cleric withdrew from the scene to converse.

“What now?” whispered Vera. “How do we get our packs without the guards noticing?”

“We need to create a diversion,” whispered Rebecca. “You have to get them to chase you while I sneak in and grab my weapons.”

“Why me?” asked the cleric. “Why don’t you get them to chase you? Once I have my staff and components, I can stop them with magic.”

Rebecca considered. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe you will have a better chance of stopping them than I will. It’s difficult to get close enough to lizardmen to fight them in close combat.”

Vera nodded.

The plan started out as expected. Upon seeing the dwarf, the lizardmen sprang to their feet and ran after the escaped prisoner. On cue, Vera virtually flew into the guard room and grabbed her spell components and staff. Then she was off to aid her companion. She followed the noise of the pursuit and quickly caught up, thanks to the slow, awkward gait of the lizardmen. When all three guards were in sight ahead of her, she cast her spell. It had the desired effect. All three guards stopped in their tracks.

Vera was jubilant at her success, but it was short-lived. One of the lizardmen suddenly turned around and cast a spell in her direction!

There was no time to react as a fireball struck Vera full in the chest. Miraculously, it fizzled out as though it wasn’t even there, thanks to the pendant that had saved her life a number of times now.