Spellscribed: Conviction (36 page)

The beam hit the queen in the mouth, lit her up from the inside, and came out the other side within an instant. Endrance raised his hand up, and the beam sliced up burning its way through the queen.

The queen exploded almost an instant later, as all of her fluids caught on fire. The beam of his blast shot out north, continuing on its journey even when Endrance cut the flow of power to the spell. Bits of flaming queen drifted down from above, but he had hit it with so much heat and power that the explosion had been almost all of the queen igniting at once, leaving very little behind to burn.

In the distance, one of the mountains flanking the east coast of Ironsoul caught the rest of his lightning spell on an obtuse angle, blowing a fifty foot radius part of the mountain face away and scattering sparks and debris for hundreds of feet across the mountainside.

The scent of burnt skin wafted into his nose. Endrance let his hand fall to the ground, not surprised he couldn’t feel it hit. He was drained of power, with only a few scraps left. Pain swelled up in his left shoulder; he thought it was probably broken from the fall. He’d had to take the hit, otherwise, Giselle would have been dashed across the glass. He sagged against the glass, trying to breathe steadily. His pant leg stuck to his skin and a small pool of blood was spreading underneath him.

Bridget knelt next to him, checking him over. “Yeah, broken shoulder.” She declared. She then prodded his left side. He winced, and temporarily forgot how to breathe. “And at least one broken rib.”

She took Giselle out of his hands, looking her over. “She got nicked by a stinger,” Bridget announced. “But, I think she’s been injected with some kind of venom.”

Endrance nodded. “I can’t use my spell to heal that.” He said. “It would just accelerate the venom’s spread through her body.”

“Use your staff then?” Bridget offered. “If it can put your blood back in your body, then maybe it can take poison out?”

“I can’t hold anything right now, Bridget.” Endrance said, wincing as he tried to draw a shallow breath. “My other hand is burnt out.”

Bridget stooped and reached for his limp right hand. Endrance closed his eyes, not wanting to see what had happened. Had it crumbled to ash?

Bridget lifted his arm up by the wrist, and felt down his hand, wiping away the soot and ash. His hand was intact, as far as she could tell.

“Yeah, it looks pretty bad.” She said. “All your tattoos are gone.”

“What?” Endrance snapped his eyes open. His hand was intact. In fact, the flesh of his hand was soot stained, but otherwise seemed unscathed. However, the black lines of his tattoos were gone, burnt out. All that remained were clear channels, grooves in his skin like carvings in stone, only, it was his flesh. They didn’t bleed, they didn’t hurt, and he flexed his hand experimentally. They didn’t behave like cuts in his skin, they bent like they were some kind of living carving, only a few hairs deep in his skin. The grooves filled with crumbling blackness near his wrist, where it turned back into the black lines of his tattoos.

“Holy…” Endrance muttered. “My meridians… they’re exposed?”

“Endrance. Endrance!” Bridget shouted. “We don’t have time. Can you heal your wounds?”

Endrance nodded. “Hand me the staff.” He said. Bridget yanked the staff free from where it was pinned behind them, unharmed by the incident. She put it in Endrance’s hand, and jerked back as electricity crackled across the grip and his fingers when he grasped it.

He reached out to touch the staff’s presence, and found it there, patiently waiting and massive in size. “I need you to help me.” He whispered, mentally entreating it to help fix him.

The staff turned its attention to him. Endrance felt his rib shift painfully, popping back into place. Then he sat up, just before the staff shoved the bones of his shoulder back into place. Endrance screamed in pain, but he didn’t dare move or make it worse. The staff waited.  Endrance nodded, casting a quick healing spell to set the bones to knit. “Thanks.” He whispered.

He looked himself over as his left arm and rib started to hurt less, and found a thick shard of glass embedded in his thigh. He exchanged his staff to his other hand, grit his teeth, and pulled out the shard. He started bleeding profusely, but he quickly chanted another healing spell. The wound scabbed over, as if he had been healing for a few hours, but otherwise it remained an injury.

The shard was a gorgeous twist of glass, purplish on one end and transitioning through red to bright orange on the other side. It looked almost like a flame, frozen in time. Endrance was going to throw it aside, when he saw how the glass had his blood soaked into the little grooves and tiny pockmarks in the unpolished surface. He couldn’t leave it laying around; someone who got a hold of his blood could target him with a spell much more easily than without, and they could bypass many of his defenses. He pocketed the shard for the moment.

He stood, steadying himself on his staff. The shoulder and ribs only ached dully, and the wound on his leg wasn’t bleeding anymore. He switched his staff to his right hand, and formed the one-handed symbol for his fire spell. He whispered “
Ignatius.
” Bathing the small portion of blood-stained glass he’d been lying in, with a weak jet of fire, burning away any useable blood.

“Endrance?” Joven asked, hobbling back. His left shoulder was sliced open.

“Bridget, put everyone together and start stitching that up.” Endrance directed. “I’ll see about the poison.”

Selene, Tanya, and Giselle were laid down in a row, and Endrance knelt near their heads. The suns were finally touching the horizon, and they needed to hurry. He laid the staff across their bodies so that it was touching each of them.

“All right.” Endrance whispered. “I know you helped me heal when I had been badly injured before, I need your help again. There’s venom in these people, and I need your help to draw it out.”

The staff’s presence seemed to hardly notice his request, but a stray thought hit Endrance like a boulder. He needed something to put the toxin into. He searched around. He needed something like a bowl or a cup or a jar…

He pulled out the large flame-like shard of glass. His blood still soaked into it, but it could possibly be honeycombed with pockets that could store the venom. “What about this?” he asked, looking over at  the staff. The Grandstaff’s head was carved bone in a crown like arrangement, detailing the different elements and polished to a shine, but in the center was a socket like depression. Endrance didn’t think any further; he set the purplish end of the shard into the head of the staff. It set in with a click, and the presence within noticed. It pulled, drawing up his blood into the core, while it turned its attention to his injured friends.

The venom, a clear liquid, started seeping out of their wounds, quite a large amount coming from Selene’s multiple stings. The liquid seeped up the staff, trickling towards the glass flame set in the head. The fiery glass absorbed the liquid.

The three opened their eyes almost immediately. Giselle started whining with pain, while Tanya and Selene groaned as they tried to move. Endrance snatched up the staff, setting it on the glass to stand while he tried to keep them still.

“Hold on!” he said. “Don’t move, you’re still injured.” He repeated the command in Ulfreau, just to be sure. Giselle remained complacently still, but Tanya struggled to rise. Endrance put a hand on her forehead and pushed her down, keeping her from getting up. “Stay still!” he ordered loudly.

Tanya stilled. Selene was watching him quietly, her breath rising and falling shallowly. She had been hit the hardest by both the stingers and their venom, so Endrance hoped that her supernatural durability would help her to survive.

Endrance cast the first healing spell, touching Giselle’s forehead. The sting injury she had suffered sealed closed, even regrowing lost fur in the process. Giselle hopped to her feet, looked down at her newly healed wound, and then proceeded to grumble about her damaged dress.

He cast the next healing spell on Tanya, getting her up and moving. She had taken the sting on the meat of her upper arm, and she flexed it gingerly as she stood up.

Endrance touched Selene’s shoulder, chanting the long form of the healing spell. He released the spell, and the healing light radiated from the sting wounds, sealing closed as her body healed the injuries at an alacritous rate. Selene sat up and hugged him, kissing his neck and whispering her thanks before standing.

“Okay, I got everyone else up.” Endrance said, standing. His ribs hurt a little, but were no longer broken. Joven’s cut was stitched, so Endrance placed a hand on it and slung a quick healing spell to set it on its way. The sewn wound edges quickly knit together and scabbed over, and Joven nodded his thanks.

“All right. That sucked.” Selene admitted, rotating her healed shoulder.

“So they ambushed us at the edge of the Sea of Glass, but we got their queen, right?” Endrance asked.

“You got their queen, Endrance.” Joven said. “I’m kind of depressed about that.”

“Well, you save my life what, once a week? So me saving your life every odd month or so isn’t really that bad.” Endrance reasoned.

“The suns are setting.” Tanya said. “We weren’t out that long, were we?”

“All in all, a few minutes.” Bridget reasoned.

“Wow… This place is beautiful.” Selene said. “How did it get made?”

“You know that brilliant beam of light in the horizon we’d see each day that got hotter and hotter the closer we got to it?” Endrance asked. He gestured to the environment around him. “This is it.”

“That’s impossible!” Selene said. “Do you know how hot it has to get to melt sand into glass?”

“Yeah. I got the idea.” Endrance said. “And a tan at the same time. Look the glass gets thicker near the center, which tells me that if we can cross in a single night then we need to do so, otherwise we head back to our camp and wait another day.”

The suns started dwindling, less than half of their light lanced across the sky.

“If we get caught anywhere near any part of this glass during the day, we’re in serious trouble even before it gets hot enough to melt.” Endrance continued. “So what’s the plan?”

Joven shook his head. “The remainder of the insects won’t follow us here, but we killed their queen. You can bet they will come after us if we head back.”

Endrance nodded, “I agree.” He stated. “We need to run.”

“Endrance, I know, but we’re in no shape to do that.” Bridget said, tired.

Endrance considered. “I have a little power stored up in the bracers, so I have enough to either cast a spell to increase your strength and endurance or protect you from the cold, but not both.”

Bridget looked at Selene. “Was that the spell that let you tie with me in a fist fight?” she asked.

“I distinctly remember winning that fight, but yes.” He said.

She and Selene nodded. “Yes.” They said in unison.

“You want that spell then?” Endrance asked.

“Yes, man.” Joven exclaimed. “It’s better to have the strength to run on, than to be comfortable before roasting.”

Endrance nodded. “Come close.” He said. “I’ve got more practice with this spell, so it should last the whole night.”

He cast his strength spell on them, magnifying their strength and endurance. It worked with what the user already had, so those in better shape got more out of it than those who were not as physically fit. When Endrance was new to Joven’s training regimen, the spell matched him to Bridget’s strength. Now that he had worked on his strength and stamina for over a year, it had markedly better results.

Of course, the barbarians blew any improvements he had out of the water. Joven scooped up Giselle, and immediately after the spell took effect they all set off at a run. Endrance grabbed his staff, adjusted his pack, and set off after them. They covered the Sea of Glass quickly, running down into and back up the sides of long trenches of beautiful sandy glass. They kept on the same level as much as possible, trying to conserve their energy.

The Sea of Glass was a huge expanse, and they had to pause halfway through the night to drink water and eat something. Endrance re-cast the spell on them and they set off again after the short break. Endrance was still slowly recovering power, but it was greatly reduced from what he could do while resting or sleeping.

Endrance also noted that the staff wasn’t causing grass to grow when he touched it down to the glass. Perhaps it was too hard to cause anything to grow, or maybe it was because it had been cooked so many times there was no life to nurture there.

They ran on into the night, using the clear night sky and the light of the moons to provide them a clear view of the surreal nightscape. Unsurprisingly, they were not accosted by anything during their run. The place was perfectly quiet, save for their steady breaths and even footfalls.

Their pace wasn’t an all-out sprint, but they ate up the distance as they moved, their amplified muscles pushing them along harder, and increased endurance minimizing the energy it cost them to move. The Sea of Glass sailed on by, eerily beautiful in its muted colors and slopes. Near the center, they found entire displays of swirling glass across the floor that looked like tidal whirlpools and eddies in the colors, like a true sea frozen in time.

They ran on, and the minutes turned to hours, and the hours marched on. The sea seemed infinite, almost impossible to cross in one night, and yet that was the instruction. If regular soldiers were able to do it, then they should be able to as well.