Spellscribed: Conviction (6 page)

The ravine was large enough, and had steep enough walls, that it was easily defended on all sides. A large scattering of trees grew in the fertile soil, fed water by a near constant trickle of snow melt year round. Some woodland creatures had taken up residence in the pass, but it was only about a day's walk from one end to the other, so not many predators would fit inside it.

"We need to get to the campsite soon." Joven said, pushing everyone to get mounted up and move forward. "We're losing days light."

The group moved as quickly as they could risk in the dimming light, and made it to the campsite an hour after the suns disappeared under the horizon. Quickly, they set up camp with Endrance's light spell providing the illumination they needed, and soon they had food heating up over the fire.

"At least we can have fire, and food." Ezeilo said. "When we passed through here before it was raining."

"Ah." Endrance said. "You had a rough trip."

"Not nearly as rough as when I got to Balator." Ezeilo responded. The man had been trending on the overweight side when he had first arrived, but it looked like he'd lost quite a few pounds since. The man and only two of his escort squad had survived an invasion by undead wolfmen nearly a month prior. It had been a frantic week, to be sure, but the capitol and most of it's people had made it through.

Now was not the best time to leave the city, but Endrance had a warrant on his head, and if he properly remembered the laws he had been instructed on, he would only have a little while before they dispatched other mages to retrieve him. Idly, he wondered if they would adjust the time, considering how far Balator was from Ironsoul.

Joven wanted to take first watch, and Endrance planned on doing some fine tuning of the modified spell he had developed. Shortly after eating, everyone had settled down to sleep. Endrance wasn't sure how much time had passed before a deep, ululating sound echoed through the ravine; low in tone, and barely as loud as a man talking. Joven and Endrance snapped alert. They exchanged glances.

"Did you hear that?" Endrance asked.

Joven nodded. "Yes."

The mage felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickle. "Is that what I think it is?" he asked.

Joven stood, drawing his axe. "Yes." he answered. "Dammit."

Endrance made a quick gesture and pointed to the fire. "
Culare.
" he intoned, and encased the flames in ice, smothering them instantly.

Endrance quickly scrambled to the bedrolls and started quietly waking people up. He didn't want them to make too much noise and help draw the creature to them.

He got to Selene's bedroll and she reached out and caught his arm before he could touch her. Her eyes snapped open, and they were square-pupiled, glowing red with an inner light.

"What?" Selene's other half hissed.

Endrance steeled himself, leaned in and kissed her. Though her lips were soft parted slightly in surprise from his action, he could feel her grip on his arm tighten. She kissed him back a heartbeat later, and he was reluctant to pull away from her. Her scent, like fresh rain, filled his nose and his thoughts became slightly fuzzier than before. He had been prepared though, and pulled back.

"I need you to wake up." he replied to her question.

"She's finally asleep." Selene's other half replied. "Why?"

"There's a Hydra in the ravine." he said grimly. "It knows we're here."

* * *

The camp was pulled closer together and everyone, even Ezeilo, was armed. Only Giselle remained without a weapon, and instead clung to the saddle of Joven's horse, sniffing the air nervously. The ululating call repeated again, but this time it was closer and from a different direction.

"This is bad." Bridget said. "The hydra knows where we are."

"They can find us using sound, right?" Tanya asked. She had an arrow knocked, put not pulled.

Joven nodded. "That call bounces around, and they use their multiple heads to angle in on what they want to hunt."

"So shouldn't we shut the hell up then?" Bridget asked. She had her large chopping blade held by her wooden right arm, and her short blade in her human left. Endrance had watched her trying out a fighting style that used both, and she would never have been able to wield the bigger sword one-handed without the unnatural strength the wood prosthetic provided.

Joven shook his head. "No point anymore. It knew where we were the moment it sounded its first call."

Selene stood farther apart from the rest of the group, her chain dagger spinning in her hands with a few feet of play. She could hit anything within fifteen feet with her weapon, and had proven even more deadly with the weapon as she became more in tune with her demonic half. She scanned the darkness around, her eyes the only ones that could inherently pierce the shadows.

Ezeilo and his two men clustered in the center on their horses. If Endrance had to guess, they were going to bolt in the opposite direction when the beast attacked, letting them take care of it or die on their own. The mage couldn't hold it against them; the creature was a threat beyond the ken of most men.

Endrance himself had a disconcerting feeling. Instead of fear, the thing he knew he should rightly be feeling, he felt a faint tremble of curiosity and excitement. He mentally cataloged the spells he had at his disposal to fight it, and realized then the source of his strange feelings.

He had grown in experience so much since the first time he had encountered a hydra, that perhaps, he was at a point where he could finally accurately gauge just how much he had grown. What was next, another duel with his old master?

Selene suddenly focused on one spot in the darkness, tensing for a split second before leaping backwards. Their attacker exploded into the campsite with a great roar as it snapped at her. Three draconic heads lunged into view in the moonlight, snapping at Selene as she barely sailed out of their reach. The three heads, attached to sinuous, long muscular necks, all connected up to a large reptilian body that barreled into view.

The creature was at least thirty feet tall at the shoulder, and sixty long. Its four limbs ended in stubby but sharp claws, and each head moved independently as it charged into their camp. The messenger and his men, as predicted, bolted in the opposite direction on horseback. Giselle wisely yelped in fear and ran after them.

"Tanya! Keep them safe!" the mage ordered without looking back, trusting her to follow his directions.

Endrance had been waiting for it to show itself, and had a particular spell in mind. He quickly formed the final mudra with his hands, channeled his power, and gave it permanence with the last word of power for the spell. He threw his open palm into the air. "
Lumifractus!" 
He shouted, feeling the almost negligible drain of power on his aura.

From his palm exploded a brilliant flare of light that burst into thousands of gleaming specks, each about half as brilliant as the original. Those shot out into the night for several dozen yards, drifting to a stop. They blanketed the area in light, as if a sea of stars had sprung up around the hydra.

The sudden movement of countless tiny lights temporarily confused the creature, and two of its heads snapped at the lights, while the third shot forward to bite at Bridget.

The Draugnoa brought her large blade up, catching its lower jaw as it came close and knocking the whole head up, much to the hydra's surprise. While its neck was exposed, Bridget slashed at it with her shorter blade, scoring a hit into the softer underside scales. Blood poured from a cut that gashed into the scales, but not all the way through. The hydra’s head recoiled, suddenly silent.

Joven charged forward, and Selene joined Bridget in dismantling the one head. Endrance knew that meant he had the other head to handle on his own. He channeled power into the tattoo on his right hand, and the lightning spell entwined down his fore and middle fingers. As it was the oldest of his scribed spells, he’d had the most practice with it. He channeled as much power as he estimated he could handle, aimed, and let loose with a blast of lighting. The tattoos on his fingers crackled with brilliant white light, and the air boomed as lightning erupted from his fingertips. To his surprise, the lightning shot through empty air and off into the night as the entire hydra suddenly juked to the side, dodging his attack.

Joven shook his head as Endrance stared, stunned.

"What the hells was that!" Joven shouted, dodging a bite and chopping at the face of one head as he recovered from the shock faster than Endrance.

Endrance saw that the one head that wasn't fighting Selene, Bridget, or Joven, was doing nothing but watching him. Endrance looked over the rest of the hydra as he backpedaled. There was a strange, darkened splash mark on the side of the creature, on its right flank. It was easily the size of a man, but the damage looked similar to...

Similar to a lightning strike. "Oh crap!" Endrance shouted. "It's the same one!"

The hydra lashed its tail out, the whip-crack of its long since regenerated tail catching Selene on the back as she was maneuvering to strike. The back of her cloak shredded and blood sprayed the air as she screamed in pain and rolled past the mage. She popped back onto her feet before he could do anything, extended her wings, and leaped into the sky, her chain dagger left in the snow where it fell.

It was the same hydra that they had fought long ago. Somehow, it had survived the fight, where they thought they had killed it. Now, it had learned, gotten bigger, and was more than happy for a rematch.

Endrance pushed his sleeves up, letting the light of his spell glint off the silver bracers. "Joven!" Endrance called. "Keep it busy!"

"What -" Joven shouted between swings as he chopped at the incoming snout of one head. "Do you think. I'm doing!"

He had managed to bloody the creature’s farthest right head, but even the Axe of Daelen was having a hard time biting through the creature's scales. Still, he was doing admirably in keeping it from eating him, and he had managed to knock several of its teeth out.

Bridget and Selene worked in tandem on one of the other heads. Selene had dropped onto the head, clinging on with her grown claws biting into scales, as she gouged at the thing’s eyes; while Bridget came at it from below, slicing at the softer underside whenever Selene got it to lower its head far enough to reach.

The last head was strangely calm, peering at him through the specks of stars. Endrance stared back, wound up, and released another bolt of lightning at the head Joven was fighting. It aborted its attack mid-bite and ducked out of the way without looking, the blast missing completely.

"I see how it is." Endrance muttered. "Just you and me, huh?"

The hydra head tilted just slightly, as if it was acknowledging Endrance's acceptance of its challenge. The mage pushed that fact aside, knowing that he wouldn't have time to consider the believed intelligence of hydras if this one killed him.

He couldn't use his flame spell, since most of his friends were in the line of fire. He could try lightning again, but he'd just use up his power. He might have a better chance targeting the main body, but that would disrupt his teammates' efforts, too.

He thrust his other hand out, repeating the word and gesture he’d used only minutes before, but putting several times more power into it. "
Culare!
" he cried.

The head jerked to the side, but Endrance's spell had been fired off the moment he completed the word of power, and the ray of cold clipped its jaw. It shrieked as ice erupted into existence around its head, freezing even the saliva in its spiky mouth.

While the head flailed around, the other two seemed momentarily distracted. Endrance saw the fight starting to come out in his favor, and took a second to try to draw on knowledge he had gleaned from previous fights. He started a long casting of a spell he was sure would be able to finish the beast, when it changed its strategy. The ice encrusted head swung down, hammering at Bridget. The bloody and silent head reared up, flinging Selene free and into the air. Bridget grunted as she caught the ice encrusted chin on crossed blades, dropping to a knee as she sank several inches into the snow-ladened dirt. The ice cracked, but didn't break off. The bloodied hydra was prepared to counter his every move. Except it wasn't staying bloody for very long. Already, the first cut Bridget had inflicted on the middle head had sealed, and the lesser scrapes and slices were closing before his eyes.

Endrance aborted casting the spell, pulling back as much of the lost power as he could.

"Sure..." Endrance muttered to himself as he fired another bolt of lightning at the head, who dodged almost gracefully. "Don't need to cover much on dragons, apprentice. There hasn't been a true dragon in Ironsoul for centuries." The wizard was truly starting to regret his master's lackadaisical method of higher education. Because of that, he had never been taught important details about dragons, including one of the lesser breeds, hydras.

"Fine, you may know how to handle me." He proclaimed. Endrance looked up into the night sky. "Too bad for you that I've got more tricks up my sleeve now." he said. "Clear the area!" the mage shouted, empowering his wards.

He thrust his hand at the hydra's feet. "
Culare!
" he shouted, freezing the creature's feet into large clumps of ice.