The climb down into the crater of Godsgrave was exhausting – not only because of the physical effort involved in descending the alternating stretches of scree and rock face, where unstable footing threatened to turn an ankle or send someone tumbling – but also due to the constant attention to their surroundings which was required. The best information they had was a dream based on decades old memories, and Liv knew they couldn’t trust that to lead where they needed to go.
She’d been tempted to fly down, or at least to join Wren and Soaring Eagle in the air. Already, less than halfway down the slope of the crater, Liv’s ankles and knees ached. Sharp rocks dug at the soles of her feet, and her Dakruiman boots weren’t thick enough to keep it from hurting.
Unfortunately, unless she wanted to cram everyone onto a single mana disc and send it skimming downslope just above the rocks, it would have been exorbitantly expensive to fly ten people. She hesitated to use that tactic for a few reasons. For one, she still remembered how badly it had gone when the flying Antrian had attacked her and her friends during their descent at the Tomb of Celris. Liv had managed to catch everyone with ice chutes, but that had been with a much smaller team. She didn’t trust herself to be able to split her attention between this many chutes, if something like that happened again.
But more important was this: they needed to actually search the crater. There could have been any number of collapses or landslides that might either reveal an entrance into the subterranean ruins of the ancient city, or have collapsed the very opening Jurian and his team had found so long ago. The place was so enormous that, eventually, Liv intended to have multiple teams criss-crossing the shoals of the rift. But she wouldn’t trust people to do that without her until they had a better idea of just what the dangers were, and where those dangers were concentrated.
“Those shadows are just like at Duskvale,” Sidonie warned, pointing her empty hand at a series of crevices in the rock about twenty feet ahead of them and to their left. It looked almost, Liv thought, like the cracks which appeared in mud after it had dried from baking in the summer sun. “Darker than they should be, and sort of soaking outward. And when you don’t look directly at them, it’s like you can just catch something moving.”
“Keri,” Liv said, skidding to a half and grabbing onto a chest-high ledge of rock with her empty hand. “Can you try throwing some light on it, and see what happens?”
She watched as he planted the butt of his spear into the ground to steady himself. “Savelet Orvis.”
They’d been able to make it this far in the ambient light that seemed to leak in from the sky at the edges of the rift; while the clouds directly above them were dark as a thunderstorm, a few miles out there was clear blue sky again. The effect was unnatural and disorienting.
Only once a globe of sunlight burst into existence over their heads did it even begin to feel, once again, like the jungle they’d spent days hacking a trail through. Liv’s armor kept her warm, for the most part, but there was nothing quite like the heat of a summer afternoon to lift her spirits. At a motion from Keri’s spear, the orb floated over to the cracks Sidonie had pointed out, causing all of their shadows to shift and lengthen as it moved away.
When the conjured sunlight fell into the cracks, Liv caught a brief glimpse of dozens of insects, with an amber carapace and head, six golden legs, and two immense antennae which were nearly as long, skittering deeper. Each one was the size of a full-grown horse, and what should have seemed common was made grotesque by the rift-induced size.
“The shadows!” Ghveris shouted, his voice echoing off the bare stone which surrounded them on all sides.
Liv spun just in time to see the war-machine slashing his arm-mounted enchanted blade down into her own shadow, where one of the insects was just emerging from the ground. One of the two foremost limbs stabbed out at her, and with a thought trained by hundreds upon hundreds of repetitions, Liv formed a blade of adamant ice in her offhand, which she swept upward in a parry. The frozen edge, as dense as steel, sliced through the mana-beast’s leg cleanly, sending a segment as long as Liv’s arm flying.
There were no further attacks from that quarter, because Ghveris’s blade took it through the center of its body, pinning it down to the ground in an eruption of goo. The stuff, which splashed up onto the Antrian’s vambraces, quite clearly had neither the color nor the consistency of blood. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of things, because there were nine more shadows between the entire party.
Sidonie and Arjun conjured mana shields, which the massive insects bounced off of, scrambling with all six legs along the stone as they sought to arrest their tumble down the slope, and sending pebbles cascading downward. Kaija, with two quick slices of her halberd, first severed two legs from the body of the insect that had come out of her shadow, and then took the head from its body. Three paces away and on Liv’s other side, Lina knocked hers back with a butt to its body, then spun her halberd around to catch it with a thrust that sent more goop splashing down the shaft of her weapon.
Miina, who’d been with Liv nearly every step of the way since her injury fighting at the pass, rolled around the insect which came out of her shadow, thrusting her blade in to open up whatever sort of belly it had. Karina, on the other hand, summoned a floating orb of venom, throwing herself out of the way just in time to let the insect she was facing throw itself right through the toxin, at which point it reared back in pain, slipped, and tumbled down the slope sizzling, smoking, and chittering in pain.
It was Sakari, who’d spent so many years as an ambassador to Lucania, who was caught completely off guard. He got his sword up, but it was knocked out of his hand and stent tumbling end over end down the rocks when one of the insects bowled him over. Before it could do more than set a single foot on his chest to hold him down, however, Wren dropped out of the sky, hit it in cougar form, and broke its back.
While Keri disposed of his mana beast easily enough, with a single swipe from his spear, the edge shining bright as dawn and searing the insect’s body black at the edges of its wound, he was clearly only half-paying attention. Liv caught him muttering under his breath, and then two more orbs leapt into existence over their heads. The original light shot back, joining the latest pair, and they arranged themselves in a triangle that spun overhead. With sunlight coming from three different sources, washing them all in brightness, no appreciable shadow remained.
The surviving insects skittered away, the wounded dragging their bodies down into whatever crevice or fissure in the stone they could find. The one that had attacked Arjun even ducked behind a boulder fifteen feet to Liv’s side, disappearing into the shadow cast by the stone.
For a moment, they all looked around, weapons and wands raised, catching their breath, but nothing stirred.
Liv swallowed. “Keri, how many of the soldiers from Mountain Home can keep three orbs spinning like that?”
“We didn’t have many who stayed in the first place,” he admitted. “Linnea and Olavi can both manage it. Maybe three more.”
“That’s going to set our limit for how many groups can be out at a time, then,” Liv reasoned. “The mana beasts at Duskvale did this, Sidonie?”
Her friend nodded, and allowed her mana shield to dissolve into motes of blue light. “The monsters there could slip in and out of shadows. It’s a fairly well studied phenomenon, actually. The Duskvale Black Squirrel can go the farthest, with a maximum recorded distance of thirty yards, while -”
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Liv held up her hand. “Anything else from that rift we could expect here, now that we know these animals share some of the same characteristics?”
“Nightwolves can actually turn into shadows completely,” Sidonie explained. “No physical substance whatsoever. You have to burn them with fire or catch them during the moment they attack.”
“I don’t like that,” Miina grumbled. “It’s like fighting Wren.”
The cougar stretched, a smug grin on her face.
“Alright. This fairly well confirms the influence of Asuris on the mana beasts of this rift, if the clouds overhead didn’t do it already,” Liv said. “Presumably the wyrms Jurian encountered are here because of Iravata’s influence. I doubt we’ll see much of Antris’s touch until we get underground, into the surviving sections of the city. And if Ractia’s body was here long enough, we might expect some of the same tricks her worshippers use.”
“On top of the tendency of all mana beasts to grow to exceptional size,” Keri pointed out. “Do we keep going, or turn back with what we’ve learned?”
“Is there anyone who can’t handle the mana density? Did anyone take a wound?” Liv asked, scanning the party. She had no intention of losing anyone on their first trip into the rift.
“Not to anything but my pride,” Sakari grumbled. “You’re all making it quite obvious that I’m not as young as I used to be.”
“You’re just here for wyrm-taming,” Liv reminded him. “Miina, Karina, could you keep an eye on the old man? Make sure he doesn’t get hurt?” She flashed Sakari a grin, to soften her teasing, and only afterward realized that he wouldn’t be able to see it because of her silk scarf.
Miina laughed. “We’ll keep him in one piece, no worries.”
“Alright, then. I’d like to actually find a wyrm and make a trial of whether we can get them under control,” Liv said. “If we can do that, we’ll have a pretty good idea of who we need to have in each party we send out.” Someone with Savel to banish shadows, an Iravatan to tame wyrms, and fighters skilled enough to keep them both alive while they did their work.
“We caught sight of one downslope,” Wren said, shifting to her human form so that she could speak. “Down among the steam vents. I’ll show you the way.”
Liv looked up, and could just make out Soaring Eagle circling above, the dark wings of his bat form hardly visible against the clouds.
Wren led them, cutting a path diagonally across the slope, to a place where the grey rock of the crater seemed to be almost stained brown, orange, and yellow. Liv wondered if it was because of the steam which billowed up from the ground. It almost seemed to come from nowhere at all, for she could see no obvious hole or crevice in the stone.
The air among the vents made her eyes tear up, so that Liv was constantly blinking wetness away, and her vision became blurry. She suspected that if they hadn’t worn their enchanted scarves, they might not have been able to breathe at all; but the magic did it’s job well enough, and she couldn’t even catch the smell of rotten eggs. Still, this section of the slope was hotter than anywhere else they’d been, and it had Liv sweating in moments. Though the new steel plates on her armor were better protection, she missed the original enchantments Kaija had put on her first set, which would have kept her cool.
Soaring Eagle swooped low, veered in a tight circle, and then rose again, and Wren nodded. “That’s where we saw a wyrm before,” she whispered. “He’s telling us it's still there.”
Sakari exchanged a glance with Karina, and then the former ambassador nodded to the young woman.
“What did it look to be doing?” the new apprentice asked Wren, while the group all gathered round. “Nesting? Hunting? Sleeping?”
“It wasn’t moving when I saw it,” Wren explained. “It was right up on one of those vents, letting the steam billow up around it.”
“That’s because they want to stay warm,” Karina explained. “Usually, that means sunning themselves on a rock.”
“But there doesn’t appear to be any sun here,” Sidonie broke in. “So they use the heat of the vents. Fascinating.”
“Shh.” Liv raised her finger to her lips – or, at least, to her scarf. “We’re going to try to take it by surprise. Everyone stay close and stay quiet.” She looked back at Ghveris. “Actually, I’d like you to hang back,” she told the ancient war-machine.
“I am no longer particularly stealthy,” he admitted, with a rumble. “I will bring up the rear.”
Keri seemed to know what Liv wanted without being told, and with a flick of his head, he sent the orbiting spheres of sunlight back to circle over Ghveris. Then, Wren led the rest of them through the field of steam vents.
None of them were willing to actually go through the steam. Liv had gotten a face full of the stuff often enough when she helped her mother cook in the kitchen of Castle Whitehill, and she knew that it could be very hot indeed – hot enough to burn or scald. As a result, their path was winding, and if Soaring Eagle hadn’t been just overhead to show the way, Liv suspected that they might have gotten lost. With steam billowing up to every side, she could no longer make out the rim of the crater, the sky above, nor even a glimpse of what was below them at the base. Only the slope of the rock field gave her any sense of direction.
It was hard to even tell how close they’d gotten until a gust of wind pushed the cloud of steam just in front of Liv to one side. For a brief moment, she could see it: an enormous shape, lounging directly on top of one of the vents, with scalding-hot steam boiling up around its languid coils. Then, the wind shifted again, and the view was once again blocked.
Wren – and Soaring Eagle, from above, though the Red Shield chief was now flying quite low – led them around the last vent, to where they could get a better view. Liv crouched down, and the rest of the party came to a halt around her.
The wyrm was enormous, even among such creatures. It looked to have swollen up from the mana density of the rift, so that now it looked like nothing so much as a black river, winding through the rocks. Its scales were utterly dark, almost blacker than black, as if a hole had been cut out of the world, leaving only a sinuous shape behind.
“We will move forward alone,” Sakari hissed, his hand on Karina’s shoulder. “Though if a few of you have those mana shields ready, in the event this goes wrong, that would ease my worries a great deal.”
Liv nodded, and lifted her wand to show them that she had it ready. Then, she hunkered down to wait, while the two Iravatan Eld cautiously made their way forward. Fortunately, they did not need to get so close as to touch the monster; unfortunately, so far as she understood it, the thing was going to need to be able to hear their orders for best effect. With the constant hissing of the steam vents, that meant they were moving up closer than she would have preferred.
When the wyrm opened its eyes, at first Liv wasn’t certain whether they’d failed, or succeeded. She kept her wand raised, caught between casting or not: if they had control of the beast, she didn’t want to do anything to ruin that. Its gaze, eyes a burning red-gold, was fixed firmly on Sakari and Karina, and while it raised its head, for a moment, the wyrm did nothing more.
Sakari took a step forward, raising his hand just like Liv might to calm a skittish horse, and for just a moment she thought the plan was going to work. Then, the wyrm shivered, shook its head, and opened its jaws. Liv couldn’t hear the hiss over the steam that surrounded them, but she could see the jet of venom shoot out toward Sakari and Karina.
She thrust her wand toward them, conjuring a pane of blue-gold mana into existence, and it caught the venom, which dripped to the ground, where it set the bare rock to smoking. Liv let the frozen hilt of her blade loose, uncurling the fingers of her left hand, while the two Eld scrambled away from the creature. Three more mana-shields coalesced, penning in the wyrm and preventing it from pursuing.
Liv caught the ice-blade in her Authority, and sent it shooting forward, swerving around mana-shields and gouts of steam on its way to the wyrm. It wasn’t a cloud of swords, but it would do in a pinch, and she’d rather put the spells she’d already cast to use than tear through her mana reservoir.
The sword plunged into the wyrm’s neck, drawing blood, but it wasn’t an immediately fatal blow. The wyrm reared back, swinging its enormous head around, and those burning eyes fastened on Liv. A gust of wind sent a column of steam between them for a moment, but the monster never once looked away.
They can see through the steam, Liv realized, at that moment. That was going to make the fighter harder, but by no means impossible. With a thought, she yanked her blade free of its scales, sent it spinning off to one side, and prepared to line up a stab at the thing’s eye.
Before she could, the enormous serpent dove into the shadow of the rocks, its body vanishing coil by coil until, with a final lash of its tail, the entire wyrm was gone.
For a moment, they were all silent.
“What just happened?” Miina asked.
volume nine is off and running!
here. I am more available there than I am here.
mostly better; no more fever, just a bit of lingering cough. That was just in time for a library event saturday, where we spent an hour and a half talking with a small but wonderful audience - very engaged, lots of questions. Looking forward to getting back into writing book nine this morning :)
Dramatis Personae
Livara T?r Valtteri Kaen Syv? - Archmage, former scullery maid at Castle Whitehill, the bastard daughter of Maggie Brodbeck and Valtteri Ka Auris. Mountain Queen, and Lady of Winter. Diving rifts again! It's what she's good at. One thing, at least [36+ Rings of Mana, not counting mana stored in items.]
Ghveris, the Beast of Iuronnath - Formerly a Great Bat in service to Ractia, now the remains of his body form the heart of an Antrian juggernaut. Paying more attention to Liv's shadow then his own. [Mana Battery: 10 Rings]
Inkeris "Keri" ka Ilmari k?n B?lris - A young warrior of the Unconquered House of B?lris, father to Rei. Walking flashlight. [20 Rings of Mana.]
Karina of House Iravata - First year student at Bald Peak. Is 100% being tested by her elder. [16 Rings of Mana]
Miina t?r Eilis, of House D?ivi - Daughter of Eilis, niece of Eila, cousin of Liv, Lady in Waiting. Not a fan of this shadow BS. [21 Rings of Mana]
Sakari, Elder of House Iravata — Really not a fighter. [21 Rings of Mana]
Sidonie Corbett - Guildmage. Has had the misfortune of dealing with shadow-magic rifts twice in her life, now! [19 Rings of Mana]
Wren Wind Dancer - Daughter of Nighthawk, cousin of Calm Waters. Enjoying that cougar form.
