Days of High Adventure (7 page)

Amanda got to her feet and backed away with revulsion plain on her face. Yaol laughed at her. “Don’t worry. I will check the bodies of the wizards. No telling what treasures they may carry. You could blow yourself up, or turn yourself into a bug. Eh?” His laughter followed her as she fled to the staircase.

Amanda ran to the window in Yaol’s laboratory, collapsed by the windowsill and sobbed. She couldn’t get the slave-girl’s image out of her head. She looked so sad. So beaten down. What could she have done to deserve such a death? What of the other attendants? Amanda could presume that the guests themselves weren’t the most honorable people, but for all she knew even they weren’t all as awful as her captors.

Moments later, her sobbing stopped. Her anguish remained, but she had cried too many times already. Inevitably, she came to the conclusion that her tears changed nothing.

She’d only been in the laboratory for a minute, maybe more. Amanda looked around, taking the room in once again. She knew the laboratory well. She knew the enchantments, the artifacts, the curses. She was a fast learner
—scholarship student, science major, voracious reader. Between the books, the scrolls and the guidance of the nameless spirit in the rooftop bowl, she had learned a great deal.

Perhaps it would be wise to continue to lay low, to study in secret, to filch more power and knowledge. She was rapidly catching up to Yaol, at least, though his masters were clearly more powerful still. She didn’t know how she could handle them
. But at the moment, Bel-Danab and Randast were both gone, and wouldn’t be back for days if not weeks. Yaol was distracted. She might never have a better chance.

Amanda made her decision. She rose from the windowsill and wiped the tears from her eyes.

***

Yaol cackled with glee as he shuffled down the stairs. Clutched tightly in his hands was an impromptu sack
—really just a gathered-up cloak—containing the treasures looted from a half-dozen arcane masters, all now dead up in the dining hall. Enchanted jewelry, a couple of wands, a collection of rune stones and even a few ensorcelled coins lay tucked in the folds of the fabric. It was a pretty good haul.

Bel-Danab’s guests traveled with their defenses up. They had borne wards against steel and flame
and shielded themselves against all manner of magic. Bel-Danab swore to their safe passage, of course, and naturally his guests guarded against treachery just the same. As Yaol had guessed, though, they hadn’t expected something as simple and subtle as slow-acting poisons.

It was how the mighty fell, after all. They always underestimated someone. It would be the same someday for Bel-Danab and Randast, too. They would both underestimate Yaol eventually, and he would strike. He would claim their power for himself. It was, ultimately, the way of things. Everyone underestimated the little guy.

Yaol came to his laboratory door, nudging it open with his foot, and shuffled inside, still grinning from ear to ear. Then his gaze lifted up from the floor in front of him and he stopped.

Books were missing from the shelves. Chests
sat open and empty. His personal book of shadows—mostly just a copy of other works, but still invaluable—did not sit in its space on the oaken bookstand. Dangerous potions and alchemical agents were arrayed on shelves along the walls, even near the window, rather than in their safely warded storage containers. The bookstand that normally held his most priceless tome now held only severed links of its iron chain.

That stupid girl
wore one of his old enchanted cloaks. She stood in front of a shelf that should have been full of books with a sack at her feet. A cold fury filled her eyes. Yaol’s mouth opened to roar out a demand, but she pointed a wand at him with one hand; with the other, she had pointed three fingers at him, but now curled them back like talons.

Green mist burst from Yaol’s chest, streaming toward her wand. The mist seemed to carry away all of his strength. His bundle of loot clattered to the flo
or. He fought to stay on his feet. “What...what are you doing?” he blinked.

She had the drop on him. Before Yaol could react, the girl launched another attack, this time throwing out shimmering bolts of force that drove him to his knees. Yaol gasped in pain.

“You’re a monster,” she said flatly. “I’m gonna kick your ass and take all your stuff. That’s how this game is played.”

“Guards!” he shouted. “Guards!” Yaol raised his hands to cast a spell, but hesitated. Though his first instinct was to blast the girl to bits, he couldn’t risk setting off the potions around her.

Precision counted. Freezing blue light burst from his fingers, leaving a momentary trail of frost in their wake before striking the girl. He realized his mistake almost as soon as he’d made it. The girl’s first strike had left him weakened, and that old cloak was enchanted to protect from cold and heat. His magical rays hardly harmed her at all.

The sound of rushing footsteps from above and below filled the stairway behind him. He had to stall her
for just a moment more. “Wait! You don’t know what you’re tampering with, girl!” Yaol snarled. “These powers...they are more complicated than you realize!”

“I
could read at a college level when I was eleven, dickhead,” Amanda scowled. “You’re the one who needs to get schooled.”

Yaol grimaced. A heartbeat more, then another, and then he wouldn’t be alone...

Amanda reached out with her fingers fanned out wide, the wand deftly twirled between a couple of them as her thumbs touched. Yaol’s heart jumped as the guards burst into the entrance behind him. He recognized the spell as she cast it. Yaol couldn’t risk throwing wide, blasting spells into his laboratory, but Amanda stood where she didn’t have the same problem.

He realized then that she’d
planned it all out.

Flames blew from between her fingers as if carried on fierce winds. Yaol and the guards alike screamed under the terrible heat. Men died around him as he flung himself to the floor, crawling away as best he could from the raging blast.

He scrambled out of the laboratory, onto the stairway landing, and then flung himself down several steps. The awful smell of his own burning flesh filled his nostrils while the pain coursed through his entire body.

Yaol did his best to focus past it. He had but a moment to choose between fight or flight against
an unexpectedly terrifying opponent. Her tactics were fiendish. If escape were her plan, she could’ve done it before he came in. She clearly meant to kill him. He wanted to turn invisible again, but he didn’t carry spare pouches of the necessary powder for the spell.

He heard more footsteps rushing up from below, along with the clatter of mail and steel. More guards
approached. His spirit lifted, his panic abated...if he could just get one solid shot in on her to turn the tide…

Yaol fumbled for the wand tucked in his belt. He would have to fight. The scorched, bloodied wizard lay in wait on the stairs for the girl, ready to hurl a devastating spell at her the moment he saw her emerge.

Instead of the girl, though, Yaol saw a small ceramic ball fly from the doorway. It struck against the opposite wall with a blinding flash of light. Yaol screamed, recognizing his own work too late to shield his eyes. Brilliant, colorful spots haunted his gaze even with his eyes closed. He squinted and winced, trying to focus.

As soon as he saw her silhouette move through the doorway, he struck. A great snake of lightning flashed from his hands, leaping forward and striking at his foe.

All he caught with his spell was the cloak he’d carried from the dining room, which floated across the stairway landing under a simple cantrip. It suffered terribly under the wrath of Yaol’s electric snake, falling lifelessly to the floor as the lightning faded. Then more guards arrived at his side. One reached out to grab Yaol’s shoulder, helping him to his feet. Two others pressed forward, squeezing around him on the wide staircase.

Amanda stepped out from the doorway. Bright green liquid, conjured from thin air,
streamed from her hand at Yaol, striking him dead in the chest. The protective enchantment of his robes could not withstand the acid that drenched him. It splattered all around when it struck, catching his saviors in turn. All in the stairway shrieked in pain under the liquid assault.

He fought to strip off the remains of his robes, to get to his feet, to flee. Yaol’s ruined body moved with such torturous pain that it quickly gr
ew numb. Dying on his feet as acid ate away at what flesh hadn’t been burned by flame, Yaol saw his would-be saviors collapse around him. The girl he’d thought only a meek slave stepped through the bodies.

“You’re not an all-powerful wizard,” she said. “You’re not even a bully. You’re just
a sack of experience points.”

Yaol tried to ask her what that meant, but his ruined lips couldn’t manage it. The last thing he ever saw was her fist as it came straight at his nose.
He saw a flash of red, and felt a falling sensation, and then his pain and his dreams of power ended.

***

The door to Bel-Danab’s throne room flew from its hinges under a thunderous shockwave. The last of the guards tumbled through the air with it. Amanda strode in after them, not waiting for the dust to clear. The only two occupants within the room cowered behind the throne itself, wanting no part of any battle with her.

Amanda hardly even looked at Bel-Danab’s concubines as she passed. She spared them
a single film reference while crossing the chamber toward the other door: “Bitches,
leave
.”

They hastened for the demolished exit, looking ba
ck in fear at the girl they had discounted as a waste of space little more than a month ago. Amanda continued on her way, moving to the second staircase and then on up to the rooftop.

Warm summer winds blew all around the tower, whipping through her hair as she walked toward the great bowl. An ordinary-looking backpack
hung from one of her shoulders, while a hefty pouch sat on one hip. Both held far more treasures than any ordinary bag of similar volume could contain.

Amanda looked into the waters
of the bowl, seeing only the reflection of her own face and the stars above. “Are you there? Can you hear me?”

Silence
reigned. Amanda took in a deep breath, looking out at the night sky and then back to the bowl. “I don’t have the power to call to you like Bel-Danab did,” she said. “You know that. I don’t even know who you are. But if you can hear me, I’m going to end this. At least for you. As best I can. I don’t know if I’ll have another opportunity.”

The waters rippled.
“You have struck back,” observed the voice.

Amanda swallowed hard. She really didn’t know who or what she was talking to. From all she had read, though, chances were good that it wasn’t entirely benevolent. All along, she understood that
the entity only really helped her for the chance to harm Bel-Danab. Yet help her it had, and she could certainly sympathize with its stated goals.

“I have,” she said. Her voice wavered. Facing Yaol had been frightening, but in the end, he was only a man. They were all only men. This was something else.

“You have a plan beyond this?”

“I do,” she said. “I need to ask you something. A couple of things. Will you tell me?”

“That depends on your questions.”

“If the tower is destroyed...will that free you from Bel-Danab?”

The voice answered after a long pause. “The collected treasure and power of Bel-Danab’s unnaturally long life is held in this tower. If it is destroyed, Bel-Danab will not be able to call upon me...until he rebuilds. It will free me for a time, yes. To truly free me, Bel-Danab must die.”

“Yeah. Well. I’m gonna work on that,” Amanda said. “He left, though. He went away. I don’t think I’ll have another chance to do this, so I’m gonna take what I can get.”

“You haven’t the power to destroy a building such as this.”

“I have a plan
. Can you tell me who else is inside? Is it all still just guards? Are there slaves still in the tower?”

Again there was a silent pause. “The slaves and some of the guards have left the tower. They hide among the walls, near the gate. They have heard sounds of your battle and seek refuge.
None remain within.”

She nodded. “Can you tell me how to find Eric?”

“He remains in the mines. He is safe. Amanda,” the voice said deeply, “Eric has only just begun to find his strength. He is no longer alone. Worry not about him. Let him find you. Look to yourself. If your plan succeeds, I will have no further need of payment. I will, in fact, owe you, yet if you succeed I will have no way to balance the scales. Will you accept my last guidance?”

She started to shake. Warm winds blew all around her, yet Amanda felt herself shiver. “If I’ve already paid,” she said, “then yes.”

Wind blew over the tower again, from behind Amanda and across the water. “You are not yet ready to face Bel-Danab, Amanda. Nor is Eric. You both need time. You must hide from our enemy. You must study and grow.”

“How long?”