Secrets of Arkana Fortress (45 page)

              Vicana waved her hands. ‘No, not at all. Maybe that head wound is worse than I thought.’

              Blaigen bit his lower lip. ‘Erm… must be.’ He allowed her to re-examine his injury, wincing when she prodded it lightly. ‘Have you ordered the search yet?’

              ‘Of course I have… that’s what I went to do. I must say you’re acting strangely, Blaigen.’

              ‘I’m just a bit stressed that’s all.’

              ‘Really? I didn’t think you got stressed; a man of your abilities?’

              ‘Everyone gets stressed, Vicana.’ He rubbed his face and breathed in heavily. ‘Go aid the mages in the search, please.’

              ‘And what do we do when we find…’

              ‘Just go!’ He arose from his seat, red faced and suddenly heaving with an angry resolve that had come out of nothing.

              Vicana stepped back timidly and walked out of the room, not wanting a confrontation under the circumstances. She cursed his name under her breath.

             
‘You sent her away? How could you? She’s an attractive lady. There was no need to bite her head off, you know.’
The voice had returned once more, this time with more volume and tangibility.

              ‘Don’t make me hurt you. Crawl back inside.’

             
‘Oh please, Blaigen. All I want to do is talk.’

              ‘You haven’t spoken in decades, so why now? Why this moment?’

             
‘Figure it out… you’re losing control at last. I will come back.’

              Blaigen paused his breathing to close his eyes for a brief moment. They opened again, this time glowing a bright red. ‘This will hurt you more than me.’ He fell to his knees and grunted from a sudden onset of sharp pains that surged through his entire body. ‘No… more… coming back,’ he gasped before screaming.

              The voice inside him screamed in a low, booming voice; one that only he could hear.

              ‘No…’ Blaigen blurted out from inside his head. ‘Get back, Rhios!’

***

Byde slowly poked his head out from behind a corner to look down the long carved hallway. There was nothing but a faint clicking and a slow, rhythmic drip from some water that penetrated the deep rock above their heads. He dared to step out into view, gazing onward as he picked out a couple of stone cut archways with no doors a bit further down.

              Mikos tapped him on the back of his shoulder, his voice a whisper. ‘How do you intend to find this spire?’

              ‘I’m sure we’ll come across it if we check all the rooms.’

              ‘Are you seriously kidding me, Byde?’

              ‘What other way do you suggest?’ asked Byde shortly.

              ‘Well we’re not just going to walk through an archway and find it, are we?’

              ‘You reckon they would have some sort of security detail guarding it?’

              Mikos hummed. ‘Wouldn’t you if you were in charge of this place?’

              ‘This place is highly unlikely to be found by anyone. It’s a secret and not on any kind of map.’ Byde felt along the wall. ‘A piece of equipment like a spire would be giving off such radiance that we might be able to feel it though.’ He rubbed the stone softly, his fingertips acting like magical sensors.

              ‘Feel it? In what way? Like… vibrations or something?’ asked Mikos as he adjusted his ponytail.

              ‘Something like that – it’s a thought, isn’t it? Better than looking in each room.’ Byde sighed as he placed his other hand against the wall.

              Mikos did the same and closed his eyes, curiously feeling for some kind of movement in the stonework – a hum, a gentle shake, anything. ‘I don’t feel a thing,’ he said after a few minutes of silent touching.

              Byde hung his head, shaking it. ‘Same here.’

              ‘Wait a minute.’ Mikos looked up at the ceiling and then down the hallway. ‘You hear that? The clicking sound?’

              ‘Yeah… I thought nothing of it. Sounded like a water leak so I ignored it.’ Byde cupped his hand behind his ear. ‘It could be a clue I suppose.’

              ‘Well… do you know what sound the spire would make?’

              ‘No one knows. Most people think them to be a myth from ages past.’

              ‘Then… anything’s possible.’

***

The clicking had grown nearer the further the two of them ventured through the complex maze of tunnels and rooms; going down winding staircases, and slipping through narrow passageways. What concerned them, however, was how easy it was – there were no guards, or anything like that, just an eerie silence.

              ‘This is worrying me,’ murmured Mikos as he looked into a small room filled with wooden crates. ‘Where is everyone?’

              Byde massaged his wrist as he stood rigid, thinking. ‘I expected some of resistance of some kind somewhere.’ He looked around the cavernous passage they were in and huffed. ‘This is a damn maze this place.’

              ‘That’s if we’re in the right place.’ Mikos looked understandably distressed.

              ‘Oh trust me, we are.’

              ‘You’re sure about that then?’ Mikos was unsure about things now considering how long they had been roaming around getting nowhere.

              ‘More or less,’ replied Byde.

              ‘Reassuring…’

              ‘That clicking is definitely getting nearer.’

              There was coolness, brought on by the stone, which rolled over both of their skins, making hairs stand on end and senses sharpen. There was a mutual feeling of closeness to something dark that was also distant; barely touchable, even by their souls.

              Mikos looked to the floor and then slowly upwards, hardly noticeable from under his scrunched up brow. ‘I have a… gut instinct to go down there.’ He pointed to a wide passageway at the end of the one they were in.

              ‘What makes you think that?’

              ‘I don’t know… I just do. Don’t you ever get gut instincts?’

              ‘Well, yeah I do, but…’ He sighed. ‘OK then.’

              Their footsteps were soft and nearly inaudible as they cautiously slinked toward the end of the hall. The passage Mikos had pointed to was a lot different to the ones they had been walking through – it was lit with torches down either side and had a warming draft running through it.

              ‘I stand corrected,’ Byde chuckled, a sliver of hope in his voice. He slowly crept forward, understandable hesitation in his step. Was this a break? Were they getting closer to the dark spire? How would they destroy it?

              ‘Shit… this isn’t good,’ Mikos blurted out. ‘Look.’ He pointed to where they had entered. A thick, spiralling smoke had formed an impenetrable wall behind them, the torches flickering from an unknown gust of evil.

              Byde stumbled back, his face contorted in horror. ‘Oh no…’

              A Faceless loomed up in front of them out of the darkness, its form a shroud of black and its face a ghostly white. Its hand held a gnarled sword, the blade tinged with rust and grey, stony growths. The walls on either side seemed to fluctuate and close in, trapping the three figures into an air of claustrophobic death.

              ‘We can’t have gotten this far to be stopped like this,’ Mikos cried frantically as the Faceless approached them, its shrouded form seemingly growing in size; the sword becoming much more menacingly sharp and deadly.

              It was more than just the walls that began to close in around them – they both felt their breath become sharper and quicker, the impending doom gripping them by the throat like Death’s own fist. Time seemed to slow down as the Faceless moved closer.

              Somehow Mikos had a gut feeling about what was going to happen next.

              The assassin from the other realm lifted its sword over his featureless head and brought it down toward Mikos, the tainted blade emitting a shrill whine.

              Mikos’s hand met the wrist of the Faceless, stopping the bladed arc dead in its tracks. For a split second the Faceless paused, angling its head at its opponent in what would have been disbelief if it had had a face.

              There was a lift in the air, the hallway expanding as whatever magic the hooded killer had employed was pushed back from its grasp.

              In a swift and deadly move, Mikos used his free palm to bat the sword from the Faceless’s hand, which proved to be easier than he had expected. With the evil blade in his possession, he thrust it through the black cloak, aiming for the chest. There was a shocking ease to push the sword through; however, some hidden energy tightened Mikos’s hold on the weapon’s hilt, making him grimace with pain.

              The Faceless steadily became rigid before its form deflated in a sea of smoke, everything about it disappearing except the sword it had had taken from it.

              The two casters stood there, both of them dumbfounded at what had just occurred; Mikos more so than Byde. What had he just done? Killed a Faceless? The things that Byde was petrified of? He had vanquished it with such ease and speed, somehow pre-empting his enemy’s moves, much to its surprise let alone his.

              Byde leaned against the wall, exhausted by the adrenaline rush. ‘How did you…?’ he gasped, clutching his chest.

              ‘I… don’t know,’ Mikos uttered sheepishly. He shook his head suddenly and dropped the sword, staring at it crazily. ‘Ah… fuck. What the fuck? What the fuck just happened?’ He fell against the rough wall and panted. ‘How’d I just do that? Byde? Tell me what the hell happened.’

              ‘I… there must be more to your magic than we both expected. I don’t know what it was, but you just knew what was going to happen… maybe your powers of perception are a lot more powerful than we thought.’ He looked up at Mikos after regaining his breath. ‘Have you done something like this before?’ he asked.

              There was a powerful silence. ‘I don’t know,’ Mikos replied sharply. ‘Maybe.’

              ‘Maybe? What’s maybe mean?’

              ‘Back in Donnol when I was ambushed by the city guard, I… I just seemed to know their every move. It was either that, or have them kill me.’ He closed his eyes and steadied his quivering breath. ‘I always thought it was a setup.’

              ‘A setup?’ Byde raised an eyebrow.

              ‘Yeah… I was helping someone as a repayment for getting his niece into trouble. I think he wanted me dead after doing the job and stitched me up with the city guard.’

              ‘You’ll have to tell me all about it after we’ve dealt with all this,’ said Byde, raising his arms to indicate their surroundings.

              Mikos nodded and looked back down at the Faceless’s sword. It lay there on the floor, notched and gnarled, waiting for a hand to pick it up. He found his fingers wrapping around its hilt and lifting it into the air, twisting it around to observe its shape. ‘This could prove useful I suppose.’

***

‘That was a good effort. Go on… let me have another go at it.’

              Blaigen rapped the side of his head with his knuckles, grunting as he walked through a long room adorned with tables and regal carpeting. ‘What is it now, Rhios? Why have you all of a sudden decided to surface?’

              Rhios let out a sly laugh that bounced around Blaigen’s head.
‘You grow… weak, my friend.’

              ‘I am not your friend.’

             
‘No, no that’s very true. I remember when you were, though, and how eager you were for tuition in the magical arts. What happened, eh?’

              Blaigen bit his tongue, continuing the argument inside his head, careful not to speak aloud and look like a madman. ‘Just go away.’

              ‘You must be joking, right? What claim do you have to all of this?’

              ‘More than you have anymore, Rhios.’ Blaigen smiled to himself, fighting back a wince of pain.

              ‘It isn’t yours and you know it. Why do you insist on claiming it for yourself?’

              ‘It is what they gave me.’

              ‘Took from me, you mean.’

              ‘You should be dead, but beyond all reasoning you still exist. Why?’

              Rhios fell silent before humming.
‘A power such as mine cannot be so easily vanquished, Blaigen. Did you learn nothing from my teachings?’

              ‘That was a long time ago.’

              ‘And that raises the value of the claim you have to something that isn’t yours, does it?’

              ‘They won’t let you come back – you’re too much of a threat. They never forget.’