Promise of Wrath (The Hellequin Chronicles Book 6) (22 page)

I dropped down from the tunnel into the large area and found that the gold and silver brick and stone looked a lot more dwarven than the rest of the catacombs. The area sat on two levels, with pillars—most two or three times higher than a man—at regular intervals on both levels.

“The dwarves made this,” Siris told me as she walked out of a nearby door, closing it behind her just as I caught a glimpse of a small stone tablet on the floor, but I saw no realm gate. She held a spear in one hand. “I could see you were curious.”

Mordred, who was almost at Asag, saw Siris and changed direction, diving toward her. Forced back, Siris retreated into the shadows, vanished into the soil, and reappeared behind Asag a few seconds later.

“Did you really think I didn’t know why you were here, Mordred?”

“I don’t really care,” Mordred almost snarled.

“You have no idea what we’re going to achieve here, but you will. Kill them all.”

Vampires flooded the cavern from the floor above, dozens and dozens of them, while Siris ran into a nearby room, slamming the door shut behind her.

“Time for you and me to go again,” Asag said to me, as the vampires and knights continued to fight. The undead now vastly outnumbered the knights, but Irkalla joined in, helping the odds.

“Mordred, Asag first, then Siris. Do you understand?” I really hoped he did.

Mordred repeatedly stabbed a vampire in the face, decapitated it then kicked the body aside. He shrugged. “I’ll kill what I have to. Try not to get too close to me. I’m not exactly sure I’ll be able to judge foe from different foe.”

“Two sorcerers at once?” Asag laughed. “This will be fun.”

Mordred darted forward first, trying to cut through the rocky exterior with his blade of air, but it was never going to work, and he narrowly avoided a blow to the head, which instead destroyed part of one of the pillars.

I took Asag’s diverted attention to try a similar trick, but with a blade of fire, hoping to cut through the gaps in the rock like I’d done last time, but he shifted his weight and lashed out at me.

“No more fire magic like last time,” he said to me.

“You don’t have your little friends to help,” I replied, after rolling aside to put plenty of distance between us.

Mordred attacked once again, this time wrapping a tendril of blood magic around Asag’s chest. The large rock monster began to yell, and I rushed to join the attack, wrapping my fist in dense air and striking Asag in the face. It sent him reeling, but he kicked me in the chest and I soared into the far wall.

I scrambled back to my feet in time to watch Asag take hold of Mordred and head-butt him. Mordred’s face turned into a geyser of blood, and he, too, was tossed aside as if we were both nothing more than a minor inconvenience.

“This isn’t working too well,” Mordred said after landing beside me, spitting blood onto the dirt.

“I have a plan,” I said, “but I’m not sure how much you’ll like it.”

“If it lets me bathe in his tears, I’ll be pretty happy, thanks.”

Asag slowly walked toward us. He didn’t appear to be all that concerned.

“How cold can you make your water magic?” I asked.

“Pretty damn cold.”

I stared at Mordred for a heartbeat. It had been a long time since we’d fought side by side. It was an odd but familiar feeling. “When I’m ready, pour everything you have into the bastard, and let’s see if we can’t crack him open.”

I began using my air magic to swirl the dirt around Asag’s feet.

“That’s it?” He laughed. “A light breeze?”

He looked over at the fighting between the vampires and knights, which had moved back into the tunnel, their shouts and screams occasionally echoing around. I couldn’t see Irkalla, but I was certain she was in no more danger than Mordred and I were.

I moved around to the side of the room, keeping the air swirling around Asag’s feet. When he got too close to Mordred, I blasted his side with air, forcing him to step back, regaining his attention, and allowing Mordred enough time to get away.

“You’re not dying over there, are you?” I asked.

“I’m good,” Mordred snapped. “I only had the sorcerer’s band removed a short time ago, and getting head-butted by that sack of rocks hurts like the blazes.”

I increased the ferocity of the wind, picking up loose pieces of brick and debris, and flung them at Asag, angering him. As the winds increased in speed, Asag slowed down, so I continued to pour on the pressure. He took another step, and I changed my attack, creating tornadoes all around him, not just around his legs.

“Now!” I yelled. Mordred blasted water from his hands into my maelstrom encircling Asag. I cooled the air, lower and lower, almost to the point of freezing.

“Do you have a plan after this?” Mordred asked as Asag stopped walking.

Not even slightly.
“Of course.”

“You feel like sharing? Because I’m not sure that making rocks colder makes them easier to break.”

“Good thing that was never the plan, then,” I told him. “I need you to freeze him in place.”

“You’re going to remove your air magic?” Mordred asked, his voice rising as the sound of the magic being poured out of us became louder and louder.

“Yes, the air and water were to keep him in one place. The water magic should be stretched all over him. Hopefully it’ll freeze those cracks between the rocks. His skin has to feel that.”

“And then what are you going to do?”

“You’ll see.”

Mordred took over the magic duties as I removed my air magic and began concentrating. Orange glyphs burned across my skin as I created the power of my fire magic, but the second I heard the ice cracking as Asag took a step, I knew I didn’t have time.

Mordred grabbed hold of my hand, wiping his blood onto it.

“Use that. I’ll keep him off you.”

I immediately used the blood to access my blood magic, pouring the excess power into the fire glyphs, and created a small ball of flame. It grew in size again and again, becoming hotter and hotter until it was so bright I could barely stand to look at it.

Mordred flew over my head, bloody and beaten, and crashed into the wall behind me as Asag laughed. I looked up and our eyes met only for a second, but he paused.

I shot up from the floor, increasing the size of the ball of flame and releasing it. The fire hit Asag, a blinding inferno that momentarily engulfed him. I stepped into the flame, turning my hands white-hot, and planted them on Asag’s chest. The rock around my hands turned to magma, oozing to the side and exposing a bit of the flesh beneath. I gathered the fire roaring around us, and in one motion smashed it into his exposed torso.

Asag’s screams were horrific. He clawed at himself trying to get to the fire that I’d put under the layer of rock armor, against his skin, melting it like a candle. I dropped to my knees, stopping my magic for a moment before Mordred threw more air magic at the monster, making it trip into a column which collapsed onto its head.

Asag roared with pain and anger, tossing aside pieces of brick as he clawed his way along the ground, toward the door that Siris had run through. I’d forgotten about Siris, and sighed while getting back to my feet, ready for another fight—one I probably couldn’t win, even with Mordred’s help. We needed Irkalla, and I was thankful to see her drop down from the mouth of the tunnel, her clothes covered in blood.

“It’s not mine,” she said by way of explanation. “The vampires are dead. They were newly turned, not very powerful. We lost most of the knights, though. Where is Asag?” She followed the noise of him hammering against the door, trying to get Siris to open it.

“Why is he still alive?” she asked.

“We were getting to that.” I got back to my feet. “He’s not exactly a pushover.”

“Nor is he going anywhere,” Mordred said as he staggered past us. “He’s mine.”

Mordred had made it halfway to Asag when the door exploded open, and a giant snake’s head, easily the height of my entire body, grabbed hold of Asag, dragging him back into the room. A second snake’s head crashed through the wall. It hissed at us before slithering up toward the ceiling.

“Not Tiamat!” I shouted. “What is that?”

“That is an exceptionally bad time for everyone in the city,” Irkalla told me. “Keep it busy. We’ll need help.”

She ran toward the tunnel, leaving Mordred and me alone as the first snake re-appeared. I ignited hooks of air as the serpent moved past me up toward the hole his friend was making. I hooked the snake and held on with all I had as it smashed through everything between us and the city above, finally exploding out of the ground and shrieking its arrival for all to hear.

I looked down at Mordred, who, with his air magic, had anchored himself to the black and white scales of the huge beast.

“Do you have a plan?” Mordred shouted as the snake fell onto a nearby building, flattening it without so much as a concern as it continued to slither out of the hole it had made.

“Kill the snakes! Don’t die!” I shouted back, finally able to see the whole snake. It was huge, longer than a galley ship, and could probably eat one in only a few bites.

“I like the second bit more,” Mordred said, and he dropped from the snake onto the ground, fleeing into the darkness. He would have to wait.

I removed the air magic in one hand and created a blade of fire, plunging it into the snake, which it did not appreciate. It turned to me and opened its mouth, striking forward with incredible speed. Its fangs, almost my equal in height, were inches from me as I jumped off the snake and sprinted toward the marina, hoping to find somewhere I might get an advantage, or at least find it Mordred to eat.

I turned onto a cobbled street along the water’s edge, running past boats that bobbed up and down in the waves. The snake destroyed a building, the screams of the occupants silenced as quickly as they’d started.

I vaulted over overturned barrels and tables, dodging people as they scrambled away for their lives, many risking the rough, cold water and diving straight in. But the snake only had eyes for me, and occasionally I would annoy it further by throwing balls of fire at it.

After several minutes of avoiding being eaten, I was beginning to run out of street, but as I looked toward the water, I noticed one of several war galleys anchored at the far end of the marina. Then the reappearance of the snake took all of my attention.

Several pots hit the snake, and it took me a few seconds to realize they were filled with oil. They covered the head and ground surrounding the snake. A ball of flame came in soon after, hitting the snake, and the whole area went up like kindling.

I stopped running and watched the snake thrash about, bringing down more buildings as it fought to extinguish the flames. The snake’s screams made my skin crawl, but they were silenced as it threw itself across a small fishing boat and into the water.

“That should keep her busy,” Mordred said as he ran over to me. “You got my plan then, to bring the snake to the ship?”

“You never mentioned any kind of plan or a ship,” I snapped. “I thought you were running away.”

“Not while Siris still lives.”

He ran off without another word, and I followed a moment later, wondering how long we had before the burned one returned, looking for revenge.

CHAPTER
23

September 1195. City of Acre.

A
fter managing to at least subdue the first giant snake, Mordred and I ran through the city streets toward the noise of the second.

“Do you have a plan?” he shouted to me.

I shook my head in response. I had no idea how to kill a giant snake. I’d never even seen one, but apparently setting one on fire does little more than really annoy it and make it go for a swim.

By the time we reached the second snake, rubble surrounded it. It had crashed through several buildings, tearing them apart and scattering the contents over a wide area. Every time a new building got hit, tremors went through the ground, as if from an earthquake. The smell of dust and blood mixed in the air, and the closer we got to the snake, the more dead we saw littering the ground. The people who’d been in those buildings when the snake had attacked had no chance of escaping.

Nanshe and Irkalla were fighting the snake, trying to get close enough to hurt it. Nanshe tore a chunk of rock from the ground and threw it at the creature’s head, but the rock disintegrated on impact. The snake acted mildly irritated. It swayed from side to side, before shooting forward at Nanshe, but she was too fast and ducked under its chin, stabbing her sword up into the snake’s mouth. Several vampires had dropped from the battlements to try to stop Nanshe, but Irkalla was killing them before they could get close enough to do damage.

When half a dozen of the vampires were dead, Irkalla shuddered, then turned toward the snake and unleashed the souls she’d absorbed as pure energy. The snake’s head vanished in a plume of blood and gore. Its body fell to the ground and, after a brief twitch, remained still.

Nanshe, covered head to toe in snake blood, picked her sword off the floor. “That could have gone easier. A lot of people lost their lives to this insanity.”

“Any ideas where she’s gone?”

She shook her head, and the first snake, which I’d mentally nicknamed Cinder, took that moment to make its presence known once again by crashing through several buildings closer to the water. Its massive bulk was easy to see, even from the distance we were from it.

“Stay here, and help stop anyone from coming through,” I said. “Mordred and I will go after the snake.”

“First, Isabel,” he said as he ran off in the direction of her cell.

“Damn it, Mordred!” I shouted as I followed. “We don’t have time for this!”

“We need help; she’s a vampire. She can help.”

It was obvious something was very wrong the moment we reached the building where Isabel was being held. Mordred destroyed the door with a blast of air and descended the steps without pause. I followed close behind and found Isabel kneeling in front of Siris, facing us, Siris’s blade held to her throat.

“Oh, you’re early,” Siris said. “I was going to leave this one here for you to find. If you managed to live long enough that is. You killed
Muš
h
uššu
, but you won’t kill Bašmu.”

“Ah, I called him Cinder,” I told her. “That’s because we set him on fire. So, I’m thinking that Cinder, or Bašmu, or whatever you want to call him, can die just like
Muš
h
uššu. It’s a shame. You went through all that effort to bring Tiamat’s creations here just to have them die.”

“She didn’t create them outright, but she certainly helped. They have dragon blood in their veins. Did you know that combining dragon blood with various dark magics will create monstrous versions of beasts?”

“I do now.”

“If you harm her, I will tear you apart,” Mordred said.

“Ah, yes, your favorite. Did you really think I didn’t know why you agreed to help, Mordred? I’ve known you for so long, even before you became the man you were.”

“I know you visited me, hurt me.”

I had no idea what either of them were talking about, but that giant snake wasn’t about to kill itself. “There’s nowhere for you to run, Siris.”

“There’s always somewhere, Hellequin. Always.”

“Too late now,” I told her. “Put the blade down and leave here quietly.”

“Or I can do this,” she said, and she slit Isabel’s throat, before plunging the weapon into her heart. Blood poured from the wound in her neck and Mordred rushed to her, trying to stop the bleeding. Siris used her earth-elemental ability to run toward the wall beside her, vanishing into the soil a moment later.

“Help me!” Mordred pleaded.

I looked down at Isabel and knew she was dead. “No one can help her now.”

“
Liar!
” Mordred screamed at me. “You could have stopped Siris! You could have made sure this didn’t happen!”

I removed the blade from Isabel’s chest; it was made of silver, so there really was no hope. A silver blade in the heart of a vampire meant death.

“Mordred—” I started, but a blast of air threw me against the wall. Mordred picked up the blade and ran up the stairs.

I ran after him, and watched him run into the city, away from Bašmu, who was tearing apart several buildings. I left Mordred; the snake was the more immediate problem. I ran toward the monster, using my blood magic to power the fire inside of me. When I was close enough, I entered the nearest building and ascended to the roof.

I aimed a ball of flame at the snake and threw it, hoping it would notice. The second the flame hit, the snake looked my way. I got the impression that it recognized me, because it barreled toward me, knocking dozens of soldiers aside as they tried to slow it down.

“That’s right, you big scaly bastard: come fight me!”

The snake reared up taller than the three-story building I was on. I was forced to look up at its opening mouth, its long tongue tasting the air. It struck with incredible speed, and I used my air magic to propel me up above its head. The snake was smart, and tried to move out of the way, but I adjusted my trajectory and landed on top of its head. I ignited a blade of fire, and using the power I’d built up with the blood magic, plunged it down into the brain of the snake. I released the fire blade and did it again, pouring more and more white-hot flame into the wound as the snake bucked and twisted, before collapsing onto the rooftop, crushing the building beneath its weight.

I lay on top of the snake for some time, before finally sliding off onto the rubble just as Irkalla arrived.

“You cooked it,” she said, tapping the snake’s mouth. “It’s warm.”

“It’s dead, too,” I said. “So is Isabel.”

“Yes, I heard. I’m not entirely sure this worked out the way Siris wanted.”

“She wanted you all dead, so I’m guessing not so much.”

“We have the lead vampire under our control: the one who turned so many of those who attacked us. He’s nothing special, not even a master. We’ll interrogate him and find out what he knows. Siris isn’t going to give up; she’ll come back at some point. But we annoyed her today, and today is what counts.”

She offered me her hand, and I took it as I got back to my feet. We walked back to Nanshe and Nabu, who were busy helping the injured.

I spent the next few hours helping those who needed it, which meant first and foremost making sure those who were hurt but alive didn’t succumb to their wounds. After watching more people die, it didn’t really feel like much of a victory, and when I finally got to my bed that night, I mourned for those who had lost their lives. Siris would be found and she would be punished, but it was something Nanshe and her people needed to do, not Avalon. It was something I was certain they’d want to handle themselves.

“The snakes weren’t as powerful as I’d expected,” I said to Nanshe the next morning when I entered her home.

“Good morning to you too,” she said with a smile. Nabu and Irkalla were already seated at the table, each of them eating a plate of fruit and meat.

Nanshe offered me a plate and I gratefully accepted. I was famished, and quickly made my way through a vast amount of food.

“The snakes were fresh out of their prison realm,” Nabu said. “I honestly thought they were dead. Apparently, merely hibernating.”

There was a small stone tablet inside his robe, and he caught me looking at it, pushing it into an inside pocket.

“Could they have used something other than a realm gate?” I asked.

“No such thing exists,” Nabu said. “From what I can gather, the gate was destroyed by the snakes’ emergence. There’s nothing left of it.”

I got the feeling there was something he wasn’t telling me, but it had been a long few days for everyone, and maybe it was just that everyone was exhausted.

“How many casualties?” I asked Nanshe.

“No idea at the moment. Lots. Hundreds, if not thousands, dead.”

“I’m sorry about what happened here. And now Mordred has escaped. This is not the finest job I’ve ever undertaken.”

“More survived than died,” Nabu said. “Gilgamesh has taken it upon himself to hunt down Siris. She will be caught and punished.”

“Not by Avalon,” I said, giving voice to my previous thoughts. “It’s too early in the alliance. It needs to be seen that Avalon will allow you all to continue with your own governance. If Avalon came in and killed her, it will look like you can’t take care of your own problems, and that Avalon will interfere the second we disagree with an ally’s method of dealing with their issues.”

Irkalla placed a hand on my arm. “There are no traces of Mordred. He’s lost to the wind.”

“He’ll turn up; he always does. Sooner or later, he’ll want to come after me, or someone else. Right now, Isabel’s murder has given him a new purpose: killing Siris and those backing her.”

“People like Nergal?” Nabu asked. “We know he was involved, but he was never here. We wouldn’t have won if he had been.”

“No one gets this far in a plot like this without help—a lot more help than one person can offer. Too many things could have gone wrong. There’s another realm, a lot of people willing to die for her cause, training, money, and above all, power. Someone helped her: someone with influence. I don’t know their motives, but I expect they’ll turn up again, so be on the lookout.”

“Are you going to stay in the city?” Irkalla asked.

I shook my head. “I’m going back to Avalon. I want to make sure no one tries to disrupt anything when you arrive.”

“I’ll be going myself in the next few days,” Irkalla said. “I would appreciate the company.”

“It would be my pleasure. First, I wish to pay my respects to those who died.”

“The burial will be tonight,” Nabu told me. “You’re welcome to come.”

I stood. “Thank you. Until then, I’ll take my leave.”

I left the three of them to their breakfast and went out into the city. Those responsible for what had happened were still out there. Mordred was still out there, and I wasn’t sure exactly why Isabel had been killed, other than to piss him off. Siris had a lot to answer for, and I really hoped I’d never lay eyes on her again. But if I did, I’d make sure she didn’t get away; some people don’t deserve a second chance. Some people deserve to be removed as a blight on this world, and Siris had nailed herself to the top of that list.

I hoped Gilgamesh was up to the task of finding her. I doubted she’d make it easy, but more than that, I doubted she would quit.