Crown of Steel (Chaos Awakens) (34 page)

Xandrith spoke up quickly. "I won't fail. I can't afford to make a mistake."

The Drayid responded as well. "If he fails us, we will break both of you apart and make use of your bodies to free more of our kind. You might try to resist, but there are far too many of us, and Xandrith Dalt will be unable to fight back after attempting to open the Great Vault. In fact, it is unlikely that Dalt will be able to ever contact the conduits of his magic again whether he succeeds or not. The amount of power he will need to draw will strip his magical channels as effectively as running molten lead through a living thing’s veins would destroy their ability to pump blood through their body. If the surge doesn't rip him apart from the inside out, we will be surprised."

"That's not going to happen." Xandrith began to say, but Kassa cut him off.

"You knew that was a risk and you still came here to do this?" Her voice was angry, but distant. There was concern, but it seemed somehow empty.

Xandrith looked at Kassa but she wouldn't meet his eyes. He shrugged. "Allegedly, when the Drayid were first entrapped the mage who performed the magic, a sanguine, was killed immediately after the ceremony was performed because the mages were terrified of the power she possessed. How could those mages have possibly killed a woman that powerful? That question bothered me for a long time, but I've built more experience with using and controlling magic since then. I believe that they were able to kill her because she'd either completely burned out her ability to cast magic, or she'd at least seriously damaged it and was vulnerable. A sanguine mage who could draw unlimited power without any kind of backlash would be a god. Any time I form magic and use it I can feel the surge of magic through my body, and I imagine with the amount of power I plan on channeling to end the Vault I'm probably going to do serious damage to myself. It can't be helped, though. There isn't any way to share the burden."

"Then why would you come here, Xan? I don't understand why you'd come here knowing that you could rip yourself apart just attempting this." Kassa voice was sad, but still distant. Something was very off. Was it her fear? Was she that concerned about him?

Xandrith forced a cocky grin. "I'm just arrogant enough to believe I can do this and come out of it fine." He held up his hands to show off the patch-worked of healed flesh that he had pieced together on his own. "Nothing has been able to stop me yet."

"If Haley and I hadn't come for you just in time you ..." Kassa began, but it was Xan's turn to interrupt.

"... would have escaped on my own within hours. Everything was perfectly under control." Xan insisted reassuringly.

Xan looked over in time to see a small smile cross Kassa's features. "You're a very stupid man."

"I think you meant to say, 'incredible,' but I'll forgive you this time."  Xan let the punch he received in reply land on his shoulder. It hurt considerably less than the pain of forcing the smile onto his face. In his gut he felt certain that the situation was about to slip out of his grasp. Disaster was coming. 

Chapter 5

Will it Hurt?

Xandrith found the silence of his mechanna guards unsettling. They led the way through the deserted streets with nary a second glance at the two humans in their midst. The only sound accompanying their travel at all was the varied footfalls of their haphazardly constructed bodies. A metal clink or the dull thud of mangled flesh slapping the ground made for macabre travel music. Xan would have given a good sum of money to have a talented bard along for the trek. Of course he would have stolen the money back later, but he'd have let the musician enjoy the promise of the money for a while first.

"Have you considered what is going to happen if you can't do this?" Kassa broke the silence in the only way Xan could have imagined he would have preferred it not be broken.

"It doesn't do a lot of good to dwell on failure." Xan quipped, though in fact the nagging concern of failure had been exceedingly prominent in his mind for days.

The Drayid creature that had been acting as their main conduit of conversation spoke up, startling Xan. "If you fail to do what you have promised, we will break both of you down into components and use you to free more of our people."

Xan frowned. "That isn't the sort of encouragement I like to work with." The Drayid didn't respond.

Kassa looked even more worried than she had before. "I don't think you're taking this situation as seriously as you should, Xandrith." Her dark eyes flitted about, landing anywhere but on Xan.

The assassin shrugged and sighed. "You know me well enough, Kassa. I am taking this situation very seriously, but if I can't make light of it a bit, I'm not sure if I can get through this. We've worked very hard to get to this point, and now everything is resting on me doing something that has never been attempted. All so I can attempt to communicate with a being that has been imprisoned for thousands of years in a box, that may or may not be sympathetic to our plight. I am taking this very seriously." He tried to meet Kassa's eyes, but she looked away. That sent a shock of sadness through Xan's heart. For some reason, at that moment, he'd really hoped to meet her eyes and find support there. "I will do this." He insisted. Kassa's recent hesitance to meet his eyes was becoming a matter of concern for the assassin. She seemed so distant.

"You spoke of communicating with a being within the box?" The Drayid spoke, its curiosity apparently piqued. "There is nothing else living within the box beyond our people. Further in is only silence."

Xandrith shook his head, just happy to have the subject changed away from his own competence. "That's not true. Long, long before the mages betrayed your people, the Great Vault was built by a creature akin to a god. He wanted to use it to seal away a rival of his, but the rival discovered what was happening and sealed him away instead. The mages had no idea that's what the Vault was for when they … did what they did."

"We know the history of the Vault, human, but we also know the nature of its insides far better than you do. Beyond the darkness in which my people are trapped there is indeed another place, but nothing lives within it. We would know if there were a being within that realm. Beyond the darkness is only silence and emptiness. If you hope to find something more than that you will be disappointed." He spoke plainly, like a teacher reciting facts.

"What does that mean?" Kassa asked.

Xan just shook his head. It was obvious that the Drayid didn't understand the nature of their prison as clearly as they thought they did. "We will open the Vault, and when we do all will be clear." Xandrith didn't need to start an argument with the Drayid just then. They already posed a distinct threat. "How much further to the Vault?" Xan asked, though he didn't really need to. He could sense that they were very close.

"It lies just ahead." The Drayid pointed to a seemingly innocuous house along the side of the road. "We moved it after we took it from the mages’ tower. We thought it better to keep it within our control."

"I'm going to need as many of your mechanna bodies as you can get here. I don't know how much energy this is going to take, but I can't afford to not have enough once the process is started. The energy must be used for something once I take it because it will be too great for me to return." Xandrith explained, trying to sound calmer than he felt. The moment of truth was approaching.

"We are already assembling." The Drayid answered. "I warn you, assassin, if this turns into some sort of betrayal, we will not treat you mercifully. We have had thousands of years to think of ways to make your kind pay for what has been done to us, and we will employ as many of them as possible on you and the female if you have deceived us in any way."

"And I warn you, Drayid. If you interfere with this process, or do anything to hurt Kassa before I am finished, I will cut a rift in reality and shove the Vault so far into emptiness that your people will never, ever see the mortal world again. I will do what I have said I will, so don't get in my way." Xan's voice was as cold as the steel he'd regularly passed through the hearts of men and women.

He met the Drayid's glass eyes and they stood locked in silent measure for a moment. The Drayid nodded. "So be it. Let us be done with this business." With that, the Drayid led them the rest of the way to the small home and pushed the door open. There were at least ten more Drayid inside all standing around a seemingly ordinary kitchen table. It looked a bit like the worst family meal Xan could imagine having to attend. "I hope uncle Wilclith didn't eat all the cream pie." Xan said softly. He chuckled dryly, though no one else seemed to be paying him any mind.

Atop the table stood a nondescript wood box that appeared to be made of ancient drift wood. It had a rusted steel lock fastened to the front, but there was no indication the box could be opened anyway. There were no apparent seems or hinges anywhere in the wood. To Xan the entire box seemed to thrum with a magical pulse, like the heart of some great beast. This was the Great Vault. Xandrith found himself caught somewhere between awe and disappointment. This box had existed longer than humanity, and yet at the same time it was so unimpressive in appearance as to be almost boring. He took a step forward into the room, and then another, until he was standing just before the box. All eyes were heavily upon his back.

With a single cautious hand he reached out and touched the surface of the box. As his fingers passed over the smooth wood surface a strange symbol formed on the top. It looked as though it had been burned there. Xan didn't know what it meant or if it was simply some form of decoration, but the unusual shape resonated in his mind.
This is where it begins.
He thought to himself. The thought was his own, but it still seemed foreign.

"Are your people gathered?" Xandrith asked the Drayid, his eyes still locked on the symbol on top of the wooden box. He traced it with his finger.

"You may begin when you are ready." Came the reply.

Xandrith took a deep breath and let it out slowly, removing his hands from the box for a moment. The symbol atop the box faded as he did so. He glanced over to Kassa, but she wasn't looking his way. Her eyes were scanning the growing number of Drayid that were filling the room. He wished he could have a moment to talk to her, to reassure her, but it was too late for that. The time had come for him to do what he'd come to do, if he could. He dropped his gaze to the simple box in front of him again and reached for it. As his fingers touched the surface the symbol reappeared. He let his thoughts spiral backwards into his mind.

It wasn't difficult to find what he was looking for. The spells related to the box were the oldest magic his mind possessed. He needed merely to look as far inward as he could, and there it was. Glyphs coursed through his mind, strange, alien symbols that were so different from most of the magical symbols he'd ever used that he could barely tell they were magic. The glyphs he was about to tap were far beyond the skill of any human mage. Xandrith would be relying entirely on instinct to do what he must do.

"Here we go." He whispered quietly. He reached out for the sources of magic around him, making very sure to avoid grabbing Kassa. Usually when he grabbed for magic it was like filling a reservoir. He pulled until he felt himself filled up, but this time he knew he needed more than that. He grabbed for as much magic as he could take onto himself, and then he pulled even harder. Beyond him some of the Drayid begin to slump as they felt the drain of their life force, but Xan didn't have time to think on that. The power burned through him and he began to form it into the symbols that he knew must open the Great Vault. In his hands the box had gone cold. Holding it was like reaching into a frozen lake. Xan's fingers were stinging from the chill, but he couldn't let go.

The flow of power through his body was becoming painful. The magic that coursed around him and through him felt like it was full of razors that ripped away at his flesh and tore its way through his veins. Part of his mind screamed at him to stop, but he knew he wasn't even close to finished. He hadn't even breached the lock yet. He tightened his numbing fingers on the box and pushed even harder. Around him even more of the Drayid begin to slump to the ground, some few of them laying still and motionless in death. Each life drained in its entirety was like a dagger being plunged into his back. Draining so much life from one person was a foul and dangerous practice. Rage began to rise up inside the assassin, dark and hungry. His troll ancestry was awake and responding to the death being dealt by the magic. Xandrith knew he couldn't afford to let that come to the surface.

He pulled with all of his strength at the Drayid around him, forcing their power into himself. The flood of magic burned through him and surrounded him in an agony that washed away the rage of his troll blood for the time being. The symbols in his head began to spin faster and faster, the glyphs formed together into a massive display of complex magic that Xandrith couldn't begin to understand. From beneath his hands black smoke began to rise from the box, slowly at first, but then exploding outward as though under pressure. There was no smell to it, and it didn't seem to have any substance, but it flew from the box and began to fill the room in darkness. Xan couldn't see it, but the few Drayid that had remained standing were collapsing with their mouths agape as the same blackness began to pour from inside them to join the bleak haze in the room. He'd broken the first seal.

The life force around him began to ebb but Xan knew he hadn't drawn in enough power to finish the task at hand. He reached even further and tore the remaining scraps of life from the Drayid around himself. His body was on fire. He felt as though his arms and legs would rip from their joints and his flesh would slip from his body, peeled off by the terrible rush of power running through his veins. There was nothing left for him to see. The room had gone entirely dark, filled up with the black issuing of the box, and yet to Xandrith a cacophony of color exploded across his vision as pieces of magic assembled into an order so confusing that the chaos of it all thrummed and tore at Xan's mind.