Malediction (Scars of the Sundering Book 1) (2 page)

"
Ypoloipo,
nekrees psychees. Peegainete sto aionio yeapno sas
!"

A burst of
emerald flame cascaded across the ranks of ghouls. They screeched and clawed at
their skin as it burst it flames, consuming the horde in brilliant green fire.
Edric stood at the edge of the bloodmaw pit. Kale noticed the dwarf's legs
trembling, but he held his ground, as did Pancras.

The
minotaur's horns continued to glow. "
Aspida tou ravematos
."
The shadow slammed to a stop inches from Pancras's face. Kale noticed a thin
shell surrounding his friend. Colors played across its surface, like a bubble
of soap in a wash basin, and then vanished as through the bubble popped.

Stepping
back, the shadow shook itself and growled. It swiped at Edric, as one might
swat a fly, but the dwarf dove to the side, rolling into a crouch, the tip of
his sword pointing at the shadow.

"You
are a worthy opponent, Necromancer. You speak with the voice of Aita. A pity.
You could be so much more than you are." The shadow beast's sugary tone crawled
under Kale's skin. He shivered, feeling the desperate need for a bath.

"What I
am is enough for me."

Kale poised
his daggers for another throw.
For all the good it will do.
The shadow
beast lunged forward attempting to drive Pancras backward over the edge.

"
Skia
veema
." The minotaur vanished just as the beast reached him. Unable to
stop its momentum, it tumbled over the edge of the pit. Pancras reappeared next
to Kale and listened as the beast howled in rage at the ruse.

"Fooled
by a childhood trick." Pancras tugged at Kale's bandoleer and gestured at
Edric. "Come, we must find a way to seal the rift before it climbs out.
The bloodmaw won't devour that thing. They're probably working together."

* * *

Pancras
willed his legs to carry him forward. Destroying the undead was easy. He simply
recalled the energy used to create them. It gave him the boost he needed to
erect the shield in time, but the shadow demon was strong, and the impact
leeched away much of that energy. It was lucky he could use the demon's own
shadow to step through and avoid its next charge.

His
cleverness did not come without cost, though. Pancras, tired and hungry, felt
as if his last sleep and meal were weeks ago; yet, in reality, they were but a
few hours past. Magic taxed the wielder, particularly when fighting such a
strong foe and using different effects so quickly and close together.

A shadow
demon, a chaos rift, a bloodmaw. I hope those hairy little cretins appreciate
this. No wonder the Seer-King didn't send his own dwarves down here. I'll bet
the old bastard suspected something like this and asked for Sarvesh's help
because he views us as expendable.

"How in
the name of Pacha's blue bollocks are we going to destroy those things?"
Edric jogged to keep up with Pancras. The minotaur slowed his pace.

"That
is a very good question."
One for which I do not have an answer. I can
seal the rift… if we can find it.

The three
skirted the edge of the bloodmaw's pit. Pancras heard the shadow demon
scrambling against the sides, howling and roaring. He hoped the
downward-pointing teeth hindered its progress long enough for them to find
something, anything useful.

He stumbled
over a boulder, sending a cave rat scurrying for cover. Pancras saw a glint of
metal up ahead. He surged forward. The metal was part of a digging apparatus,
unattended, yet churning away at the rock. Locked into place the digging bit
spun fruitlessly above dirt just out of reach as it had for ages. It appeared
to be dwarven in make but was a style he had never seen.

Edric ran up
to it. "Wow, this thing is old. There are a few of these back in the city,
but we don't use them anymore." He ran his hands along the machine.
"These date back to before The Sundering."

"Wow."
Kale's wide eyes gleamed like a child experiencing the wonder of the first
snowfall. "How does it work?"

Edric
climbed up on it. "I'm not sure. These are from before my time. The
controls don't look that different than some of the machines we have now. Well,
except it feels different, if that makes sense? Can you feel it?"

Pancras
reached out and placed his hand on the machine. He felt arcane energy running
through it. "The magic is old. How do the ones you have currently
work?"

"There's
a bunch of springs, clockwork gears, that sort of thing. I think they draw
power from the Soul Forge, but I don't really know much about that." Edric
pulled a lever. The machine lurched forward, spewing bits of rock and dirt. It
left a gouge in the ground. Edric pulled another lever and the machine turned
toward the bloodmaw pit. It chewed its way forward.

Edric jumped
off the top of the machine. "Seems a shame to waste such fine
craftsmanship, but I suppose it might do some damage if we let that beastie
chew on it a bit, eh?"

Pancras
nodded. "I'm sure it will buy us some time. I'm sure that shadow demon
won't be pleased when a giant dwarven machine falls on its head."

Kale tugged
at Pancras's sleeve. "I don't know. My daggers went right through it like
it wasn't even there. Look! There's another tunnel behind the machine!"

The
phosphorescent fungus covering the cavern walls and ceiling seemed to lead
toward the tunnel Kale found. They spiraled into the tunnel, making it appear
like a whirlpool dragged them deeper underground.

Pancras led
Edric and Kale down the tunnel as it curved and descended. The weight of the
earth above them pressed in all around them. The ground shook, and they heard
high-pitched wailing.

Edric looked
up at Pancras and grinned. "I'm guessing that bloodmaw beast didn't like
the meal I gave it."

Dirt fell
from the ceiling and smacked Pancras in the head. He shook it off and continued
forward. The ground beneath his hooves became harder. He tapped his hoof
against the ground. The surface felt like metal.

"Eww!
Pancras, the wall is furry!" Kale recoiled from the wall, bumping into his
friend. The minotaur stumbled into the opposite wall with a squish.

He pulled
away, bits of the wall sticking to his robes. "We're close to the rift.
See its effect on the environment?"

The tunnel
grew brighter, and they followed it until they found themselves standing in
small chamber, which at its center stood a glowing slash. Closer inspection
revealed it was a pulsing, writhing river of light, swirling, coruscating, and
hovering about a drak's height from the floor.

The floor
beneath the rift bubbled and churned, as if the metal were boiling, but Pancras
did not feel heat from the seemingly molten metal. He found it difficult to
look directly at it, though he felt it tugging and pulling at his eyes. Dozens
of shadowy tendrils rose like smoke out of the fissure and pierced the ceiling
of the chamber. A thick fleshy column descended from the ceiling into the heart
of the pulsing light.

"There!
The bloodmaw is still connected to the rift." Pancras stood before the
swirling miasma and gathered threads of magical energy. He spread his arms,
looking over his shoulder at Kale and Edric. "I'm going to close it.
Whatever happens, you must make sure nothing interrupts me."

Kale drew
two daggers. "What happens to the bloodmaw if you close the rift while
it's still in it?"

"It
might be cut in half. It might be ejected all together."

"Ejected?"
Edric stood next to Kale and adjusted his grip on his sword. "On our side
or the other?"

"Yes."
Pancras moved his hands in the complex patterns of the ritual required.
Sealing
the rift should be like sealing any other magical portal… I just hope I have
strength enough left to do it.
He chanted under his breath, allowing the
volume of his voice to rise with the power of the magic. "
Stenee
pyealee
,
stenee pyealee
…"

* * *

As Kale
listened to the minotaur's chanting, he wished his sister could be with them.
Deli
would burninate anything that attacked us right now!
He flipped one of his
daggers in the air, catching it by the handle.

Edric
gripped the hilt of his sword with nervous energy. The dwarf muttered to
himself. "Should've stayed at the pub. Never deal with this stuff at the
bottom of a bottle. Warm beds, happy whores, maybe get a job, pay off my debts,
but not this. Never this."

The air
crackled with energy. Kale surveyed the room. The walls seemed to undulate and
pulse, but he wasn't sure if that was an effect of the energy in the air or if
the walls actually moved. What little he understood about raw chaos made him
wish Pancras would hurry.

Gelatinous
sludge squished between his toes. Kale looked down to see the floor oozing up
around his feet. Yelping, he danced around, shaking the goo off them. One of
the walls erupted in a shower of blood and ichor, swirling toward the rift like
a tornado.

"You
have to stop him, Kale."

Kale stopped
and gasped when he saw who spoke. It was his twin sister, Delilah. Her crimson
and ebony scales appeared dull and ashen in the sickly light of the rift. She
leaned on her skull-topped staff and flashed her eyes at him, smiling.

"Come,
Kale," Delilah held her arm out for him. "Let's leave this nasty
place. Come away with me."

Kale looked
back at Pancras. The necromancer gave no indication he saw or heard her.
It
sounds like Deli… but it doesn't
. He stepped toward her. She put her arm
around him and hugged him close, her muzzle tickling his ear.

"It
ain't real!"

Deli jerked
back as Edric pulled on her arm, hacking at it with his sword. She squealed as
the dwarf sliced through skin and bone, black ichor spewing from the ragged
stump.

"Deli!"
Kale lunged toward Edric.

The dwarf
caught Kale's arm just as the drak stabbed at him with a dagger. "I told
you, it ain't real. Look!"

Kale's
attention wavered just enough for him to see Delilah dissolve into a tentacle
that retracted into the wall. He shuddered and pushed Edric away. Two more
tentacles shot out of the wall headed for Pancras. With a shout, Kale leapt
toward them, slashing with his daggers.

Tentacles
from the ceiling snagged Edric. The dwarf cursed and slashed at them with his
sword. Each slash met with a splash of ichor, like grease bursting from plump
sausages. One of the tentacles wrapped around Kale's ankle, hoisting him into
the air.

Slashing at
the tentacle which held him, Kale felt his dagger draw a line of burning fire
across his leg. He cursed at his clumsiness and then screamed when the tentacle
flicked him like a bit of mud on a shoe. He sailed through the air into the
rift.

Kale's world
burst into flashes of green, yellow, and silver. He spun, wheeling through
eternity in a realm where up and down were the same as left and right. He could
see the flavor of ripe apples and roasted meat. Opening his mouth to cry out,
Kale found he could only smell the sound of Pancras's chanting.

Through to
the other side of the rift he sailed, and as he crashed into a metallic wall,
Kale's world went dark.

* * *

Pancras
realized Kale was in trouble when he caught a glimpse of the little drak dangling
by his ankle but knew if he helped his friend, the magic he manipulated to seal
the rift would be ruined and he would have to start over.

He repeated
the words, continuously, pouring every bit of arcane energy he could gather
into the rift. "
Stenee pyealee
,
stenee pyealee
." He was
uncertain the ritual would work. His experience with magical portals was
limited to his knowledge of the one in Drak-Anor. With the help of Delilah, he
spent the last several years studying it off and on, and although he never tried
to close it, he was confident he understood the theory behind the process, a
theory he had, until now, not tested.

Kale sailed
past him through the air and into the rift. Pancras's heart skipped a beat, and
willed himself to concentrate on the task at hand. If Kale was inside the rift
when he sealed it, he would be trapped in the elemental chaos for eternity. He
realized, however, leaving the rift open was far more dangerous to more than
just one drak. It pained him to admit it, but closing the rift was worth the
life of one drak or even all three of them.

The air
crackled as lighting arced across the room. The kaleidoscopic colors caused
Pancras's head to ache. He saw no sign of Kale but noticed Edric struggling
with a veritable forest of toothed, suckered tentacles. Pancras felt the portal
weaken. Its connection with the Mortal Realm was tenuous, at best, and with the
magic he wove around it, that connection diminished further.

As the wispy
tendrils of shadowy smoke coalesced into a familiar, frightening demonic form,
Pancras redoubled his efforts and ended the ritual. "
STENEE PYEALEE
!"