Chapter 14 - Wait, How Many Legs?
"The Great Library in Trevayn is known around the world as the largest, most comprehensive repository of knowledge in existence. Ever since Her Eternal Majesty first founded the Empire, it has steadily grown as her loyal subjects contribute their learnings to the glory of the Empire.”
Two Thousand Years of Empire by Jahangir Amini
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Ice spiked through Ester’s veins. Three different spells came straight to mind, but she couldn’t cast them without giving herself away.
“Dachaid!” Before Ester could decide what to do the witch barked out the spell. The green light of the Weiryd flared around her as she put a surprising amount of power behind it.
Indecision froze Ester. She nearly tried to counter the breaking spell. But not while she was already holding her illusion, it was too much. Instead she had a moment to try to resist while the witch’s magic ate into her spell and then it was gone. She saw the world flicker briefly around her and knew that everyone would be able to see her now.
One of the many profanities she’d heard from Watchmen sprang to mind, but Ester recoiled from it. She could deal with this. She was visiting criminals, what was wrong or odd with using an illusion.
“I see you’ve been concealing more than I thought.” The ganglord’s eyes roved over her. “Clever. Although I can’t say that I like being lied to.” The witch was still staring at Ester with uncomfortable intensity.
“My apologies my lord, but precautions are…”
“Master!” Now that she didn’t have to hold the illusion over herself Ester seriously considered burning the witch where she stood. “I…” The witch hesitated. “I think that’s the Watch’s new pet Mage.”
Ice speared through Ester’s veins. She’d been on the edge of fight or flight since she’d been escorted out of the tavern, but more adrenaline spiked in her.
“Now let’s not…” She was cut off again. Did no one here listen?!
“What the fuck were you thinking?!” The ganglord sprang to his feet, not even looking at her. No, that wasn’t right. He’d practically oozed to his feet. Her brain was telling her one, her eyes another. “You spirit-blinded idiot Larza! You’ve got your dick so far up your own arse you just waltzed a fucking Mage straight into my base. Fuck! When this is done I’m going to…”
“I am sure an arrangement can be reached!” Ester hurriedly interrupted his profanity laden rant. This was all going wrong far too quickly.
He spun, unnaturally fast, to face her. There was definitely something wrong with the way he moved. She just couldn’t quite work it out. “What, you’ll fucking pretend not to have seen anything if we let you walk out of here otherwise you’ll kill us all?”
That had been what she’d been going to offer, but there was no need for him to sound sarcastic about it. His voice, the oily flow of his movement was bothering her more and more.
Ester couldn’t resist. There was something wrong and she needed to know what.
“Dachaid.” She murmured the word, focusing her attention on the ganglord. The spell came together and flowed over him, but there was something… She focused properly, putting her will fully behind the magic, demanding that reality bent, that it broke to her desire.
For an infinitesimal moment nothing happened and then her spell broke through the resistance. The ganglord’s form wavered, runes of illusion and compulsion suddenly visible to her as they broke apart into flickering nothings. His shape wavered, reasserted itself and then changed.
Where there’d been a sallow, skinny man before now there was… Ester’s eyes slid over it, unwilling to focus properly. A black insectile body. The height of a man, but whip thin and articulated. Segmented legs, four, no six, no five of them, they changed every time she blinked, connected it to the ground. Where his head had been… She forced herself to look, despite the sheer wrongness of it. Blank white eyes, five of them, stared out, surrounded by writhing feelers and tentacles probing the air around them, all surrounding a mouth that… Her stomach lurched, but she didn’t have time to vomit. Her eyes refused to fully take in what was standing, oozing, on the platform, but she could see enough. Overwhelming revulsion carried away every other emotion. Without even thinking, Ester snapped the words for a spell.
“Saig ai’exbal!” With a roar, fire appeared around the… whatever it was. She could feel the magic sliding around it, over it, but not touching it.
“Do’aelt.” The witch’s spell slammed into Ester’s in a flurry of runes and light only visible to a magic user. Ester didn’t bother to fight it. That heat should have killed anything. The room had gone dead silent. Everyone seemed to be frozen in place. Unnaturally still. Some staring at her, others at the thing that stood there, smoking slightly but apparently unharmed. Great spirits! What was it?!
“That wasn’t very nice little mageling.” With the illusion dispelled its words bubbled out between the writhing feelers, there was no rich undertone, just revulsion. The silence was broken by its words. Chairs scraped back, weapons were drawn around her. With dawning horror Ester realised she was trapped. With that thing. She couldn’t even spare a thought for the men around her, all she cared about was smearing that abomination over the stone floor. She could have a breakdown about how stupid she’d been later. If she survived.
Ester’s eyes darted back to the men. How could they serve that monstrosity?! They didn’t even look surprised. They just stood there, staring at her with perverse intensity. The creature took a step forward. The movement didn’t quite make sense, it didn’t seem to move through the intervening space. She could smell it too, an acrid, magical tang in the air.
“You were foolish to come here. But now you have a choice,” its disgusting facsimile of a mouth stretched into a squirming smile, “you can serve me as they do, not a bad life all told. I treat my tools well. Or, you can die. After all, the flesh of the Talented has a particularly enjoyable taste.”Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Rather than strike immediately, Ester was frantically thinking. It clearly had some hold over the people here. It wasn’t natural. Even criminals wouldn’t serve something like this. They should have been trying to kill it, or running and screaming. If she could break its hold over them… It must be magical, she could feel faint strands coming out from it, but not enough to work out how it was doing it. Not in the brief moment she had. Fine, she’d gamble.
Disjunction and clarity. The spell came together in her head. She didn’t hesitate,
“Dachaid xabehr’ai’railati fjal bagraig.” Ester put the full weight of her will behind the words as they tumbled out of her lips. The magic flared around the room, cutting through unseen bonds. For a moment there was silence and then the sound of the creature’s mushy laughter.
“They didn’t teach you very well at your precious Academy, did they? It’s not magic that makes them loyal to me. I will enjoy your flesh mageling. Kill her, but leave the body intact.”
With a yell the closest man threw himself at Ester. She had only a moment to react. “Gan!” He was flung backwards by a wall of wind, hard enough to send him tumbling through several of his compatriots. She glanced towards the exit, no. She couldn’t let that creature live.
Green light flared around the witch as she spat out a spell. Ester dismissed it with a gesture.
She focused on the witch. If she could take her out of the fight maybe she could be helped. “Silmaxa dercgek…” Clang! Ester flinched at the blinding flash of light and her spell came apart as a crossbow bolt fell out of the air beside her.
She needed to be faster! Blinking stars out of her eyes she snapped the words of power. “Gränn dolox…” She was forced to backpedal, losing the spell again as a pair of large men threw themselves at her. She didn’t want to kill people who’d been trapped by that thing. They could be innocents. Either way they were slaves.
Another man leapt forward, dagger glinting. With a crack it broke against her protection in another flare of blinding light. Ester was close to panic, her heart trying to escape from her chest. With a thought she sent the man tumbling. Blinking frantically to clear her eyes as she did so.
She couldn’t rely on the Schema, it wouldn’t hold up forever. Not with her materials. “Dachaid.” Ester broke another spell from the witch. She needed to hit back. She…
Thick arms closed around her chest from behind and Ester let out a shriek. The Schema wouldn’t stop that. The air was being crushed out of her. Men were hefting their clubs and advancing. She didn’t want to die! She futilely tried to hit the man holding her.
She could feel the blood pounding in her head. She couldn’t breathe through the crushing force around her ribs. Echoing over the chaos was the wet, gurgling laughter of the monstrosity. No! Death would be better than that thing.
With a supreme effort of will Ester crushed her panic, yanking her mind back into the focus she needed to cast. She’d rather die than be turned into that thing’s slave, but she wasn’t just going to lie down and and let that happen.
She wrenched her hand up. Closed it over her attacker’s. The moment her skin came into contact with him it felt like the world froze. She could feel his entire being under her grasp. He was hers. “Do’aelt.” Her magic, driven by her terror, smashed through his body’s resistance.
Ester yanked herself free as the man’s arms went limp around her, his body falling away lifelessly. She was already casting again.
“Saig gan cuvlug.” Her will ground against reality, channeled into place by the words of power. Fire flashed into being in front of her, a sphere that shot away into the closest of the men and exploded with a roar.
As a wave of heat washed over her, Ester did her best to ignore the screams of burning men. Magic sprung up around her, the witch. Slow, too slow. In a split second she analysed it and visualised runes of disjunction, snuffing the witch’s spell out.
Clang! She winced as another crossbow bolt fell out of the air in a flare of light. Then another. She couldn’t just stand in the middle of the room like that. She’d already almost died and her Schema likely wouldn’t last much longer.
“Boruwak jel’mar.” Two of the tables lurched into the air, bowling a couple of men over, and hurtled towards her. A thought and they slammed to the ground on their sides, one in front of her, one behind. Even as they hit the floor she dived to the ground. Not a moment too soon. A couple more crossbow bolts thunked into them before she’d even had the chance to get back onto her hands and knees.
She was safe, for the next couple of seconds at least. It was a big hall and most of the men were at the far end. Safe, but trapped. Her mind felt like lightning, she was thinking as fast as she ever had, but there was no way out. Too many men between her and the exit and she couldn’t leave that thing alive. Magic flared again, something to break the wood of the table. Ester crushed the witch’s spell.
If she popped up to attack the monster, she’d be shot by the men with crossbows. If the men rushed her she couldn’t kill all of them in time. If she focused on the men then the witch might hit her. Or worse, that creature might decide to do more than just watch. She just wanted to curl into a ball, but that would get her killed even faster. She needed to do something. A Battle Mage could have killed them without breaking a sweat, why couldn’t she?!
Ester popped her head above the table. The men were advancing! She ducked back down immediately as bolts flew through the air where she’d been a moment before. They’d shot now though. Right?
She popped up again. “Saig gan cuvlug.” She was already ducking back, but the roar of an explosion and a scream were her rewards. She could taste smoke in the air and her eyes were stinging, but she had an idea.
The creature’s control couldn’t be absolute. She could hear voices arguing among the advancing men, they couldn’t be eager. If it had its way they’d have rushed her straight away. But if she could kill it…
Ester quickly crawled along the dirty floor, staying behind the table and pulled a small silver belt buckle out of her pouch. Runes covered it, carefully carved into it by her the day before. The table between her and the creature suddenly exploded in a spray of razor sharp wood, blasting against the Schema protecting her. She stifled a scream as light flared and the Schema failed. A slither of wood sliced a cut through her arm. She hadn’t even felt the witch’s spell. She needed to stay focused!
No time to think. “Ébair.” She ignored the pain and focused on the silver. One last rune flared into being on it. Go!
“Saig wërchell!” She practically screamed the words and fire ignited around the creature and its witch with a wet thump. As she finished the spell she threw the belt buckle at the two of them before diving flat on the floor.
“Dachaid.” The witch broke her spell. Ester risked looking up from the floor, forcing her eyes to focus on the creature. It had paused, staring down at the belt buckle in apparent confusion.
“Master…” The witch didn’t have time to finish her warning. With a thunderous boom the buckle exploded, blasting out burning hot shards of metal. The witch screamed and Ester heard the thumps of shards embedding themselves in the walls. Had she hurt the creature? It must have been hit! It had been standing right over the buckle. Was it oozing black liquid? She wasn’t sure. She could barely even look straight at it.
“Enough. I want her dead, finish this!” Its command was a furious hiss.
Ester frantically looked for a way out. She had no cover from the monster anymore. Her back was guarded by an upturned table, but she could hear the criminals advancing behind her.
The creature was getting down from its platform, heading for her. The witch started to sob out a spell between gasps of pain. Around them the room was awash with smoke. She could feel the temperature rising from the fires. She was going to die. There was nothing she could do about that now. Her own stupidity had brought her here. She didn’t want to die, but maybe, just maybe before she did she could kill the creature in front of her, send it back to whatever hell it had come from. Ester opened her mouth and focused her will.