Malediction (Scars of the Sundering Book 1) (31 page)

"It
makes sense. If you can breathe it, why would it harm you?" Kali
approached the twins, whistling and nodding upon viewing the remains of the
golem. "Ready for an encore performance? Father says there's at least
three more of those things. Plus guards, and Volos."

Delilah
slumped and leaned on her staff. "If we must. Just once, can't the bad
guys turn tail and run?"

Kale
gathered his sister in a hug, lifting her off her feet. "Come on, Deli!
They're going to sing songs about us when we're done!" Kale heard the
whispers among the sickly draks they rescued. They wondered who these striped
draks were, why one of them had wings and breathed fire like the dragons of
legends. Where did Kali Firescale find them? Were they sent by the gods?

Chuckling to
himself, Kale led the group onward, giving his sister a rest.
In a sense,
the gods did send us. Terrakaptis, the child of a god encouraged us to come on
this journey with Pancras. Maybe he knew!

* * *

Delilah felt
it was unwise for Kale to encourage hero-worship among the former drak miners.
They weren't out of danger yet. She couldn't deny his grandstanding seemed
energize and encourage the sickly and frail draks to follow behind them. Many
grabbed picks and hammers as they found them, preparing to fight for their
freedom and that of their comrades if necessary.

She glanced
back at the draks. If they encountered serious resistance, or another golem,
and they tried to fight, it would be a slaughter. That was something she didn't
need on her conscience. A hiss from Kale startled her. She looked up and
realized she almost bumped into him while he attempted to tell her and the rest
of the draks to stop.

Kale pointed
at a room up ahead. "I checked it out. There's guards in there. Four of
them, sleeping."

For a
moment, Delilah thought about throwing a couple of fireballs in there.
Burn
'em all.
She resisted the urge to indulge her dark side and relayed the
news to Kali. The other drak nodded and drew her daggers.

"Wait
here, I'll deal with it."

She
scampered past the drak twins before Delilah could protest. After a few
moments, she returned, blades dripping with blood. She bared her teeth in a
feral grin. "They won't be bothering anyone." She looked past Delilah
to the other draks. "If you want something pointier than a hammer or pick,
go on in and take what you want. The guards won't be needing them."

A handful of
the more healthy-looking draks moved ahead into the room. They returned with
swords. One carried a pair of bone-handled, leaf-bladed daggers. He stopped and
knelt before Kale. He held the daggers up as an offering.

"To
replace the ones you lost in battle."

Kale took
the daggers, transferring them to one hand. He pulled the drak to his feet.
"Thank you, I'll put them to good use."

"Slay
your enemies with their own weapons. We'll make them bleed."

"Let's
go." Delilah didn't want the bravado to continue on too long. The fight
with the golem took more out of her than she was prepared to admit to anyone,
and she suspected they wouldn't be able to just waltz out of the mine without
further confrontations.

"That
should be all the guards save the one who is on duty." Kali joined the
drak twins at the front of the group. "Father says there should be one
more group of miners. They're digging the lower level tonight. Across the main
hall." She pointed ahead and to the right. "Maybe we'll get out
without finding Volos."

Delilah
squeezed her eyes shut as she shook her head. If she squeezed any harder, she
was sure her eyes would pop out of her skull.
Now we're sure to run into
him.

Chapter 16

Kale knew
his sister was tired. The battle with the golem taxed her arcane power; she
needed rest. He hoped if they ran into more trouble, it would be the final
guard or even the fiendling. Either was sure to require less effort than
another one of those crystal golems.

He worried
about crossing the main hall, even though most of the guards were now dead,
according to Kali's father. They would be in the open, exposed, and most of the
draks moved slower than he liked. They tried to keep up, tried to act like they
were ready for a fight, but he recognized some of them were on the verge of
collapse from exhaustion. His own lungs burned, not from the dragonfire, but
from the salty, dry air. It affected his scales and especially, the bottoms of
his feet itched and felt chafed.

Kali
motioned for everyone to stop. Delilah leaned on her staff, her breathing
labored.

"All
right, we're here. According to my father, the corridor to the lower level is
straight across the main hall. I didn't see any patrols, no golems, no guards,
nothing, but I think we should cross as fast as we can."

"I'm
ready." Kale glanced back at his sister and the other draks. "I think
we should rest a minute though." He worried about the other golems. An
enemy unseen was more dangerous than the ones seen. He hoped Volos was far, far
away from the mine.
Maybe he was out at a tavern when that last storm hit.
He's probably still there, getting drunk off warm ale in his belly.
Warm
ale sounds good.

"Let's
go, Kale." Delilah dismissed his look of concern with a wave of her hand.
"When I pass out after we're back at the palace, just leave me alone for a
few days, and don't draw funny faces on me like you did last time."

Kale was
more concerned about his sister falling unconscious from exhaustion before they
returned to the palace.

"Pass
out?" Kali looked from twin to twin. "Why is she going to pass
out?"

"I'm
not!"

"If she
pushes herself too hard, uses too much magic at once, it exhausts her. Wizards
can burn themselves out completely." He tapped his temple. "Messes
them up in here, too."

Delilah
shoved her brother. "I'm not going to overdo it that much. Let's get
going. If we run into this Volos guy, just hit him with your bad breath."

Kali knotted
her brow and then stretched. "All right, I'll go first. Delilah, bring the
rest. Kale, bring up the rear." She didn't wait for a response before
running out into the main hall. After a few moments, Delilah led the rest of
the draks. They loped along behind her, much more slowly than Kale would have
liked. He bounced from foot to foot waiting for the last to pass him and then
followed at the end of the line.

From the
bottom, the main cavern was even more impressive than from the catwalk at the
top. He had to strain to see the wooden walkway from which they first entered,
and it seemed the clouds were thicker than on the night they first scouted the
mine. Not even Deep Road was large enough to have clouds, at least not the
parts Kale knew about. In the distance, he heard the click-clack of one of the
crystal golems on its patrol.

As he ran,
his eyes searched the walls of the cavern for signs of the golem. Kali and
Delilah were already across, safe in the corridor that led to the lower level.
Half of the other draks were safely across. Kale finally spotted the golem as
he dove for the corridor's entrance. It was high on the wall, halfway across
the cavern. When he stuck his head back out to look, he saw that it moved away.

He turned
and stopped in his tracks. Several of the draks cradled a loved one in their
arms, weeping. Kali was on her knees in front of her father. The old drak was
on the ground, wheezing and gasping. She shook her head, pleading with him.

"No,
we've come so far! I promised I'd get you out. I promised!" She leaned
over and pulled his head into her lap. He reached up with a shaky claw to
stroke her cheek.

"You
must… leave me, Kali. I tried to… be strong. I won't make it now."

"We'll
rest here for a moment. Catch your breath. I promised you I would get you out
of here!"

"You…
did." His arm dropped away from her face. With one last shuddering breath,
he lay still.

The drak who
gave Kale the daggers knelt next to her. He stroked her arm. "The run was
too taxing for many of them."

She looked
up at him, her red-rimmed eyes flashing in the light. "It was the only
way. If we'd lingered, a golem would've spotted us."

"No one
is contesting that. They're old. The mines are harsh. Many of these draks were
waiting in those cages to die. Because of you, they died free."

Delilah
stepped over to Kale and put her arms around him. They watched in silence as
the draks laid their loved ones side-by-side, spending one final moment with
them. Kali nuzzled her father and crossed his arms over his chest and then
stood. A line of blood stained a slash across her legs where her father had
lain.

"Let's
finish this."

Kale
squeezed his sister. "Right."

The stairs
leading to the lower level were not far. Carved into the rock they surrounded a
central shaft containing a lift and pulley system similar to the one they saw
the first time they tried to enter the mines. Kali explained the lift was for
the ores they mined and stated using it would be too noisy.

The stairs
were just wide enough for the draks to proceed and feel secure. Kale couldn't
imagine how a human or minotaur could navigate them without falling to their
death. As they approached the bottom, Kale heard the sounds of picks on rocks.

"Come
on, lizards! I want to see those scales bleed!" The guttural voice
punctuated his words with the crack of a whip. Kale darted forward, running
into the chamber from which he heard the sound. Five draks hammered away at the
rock on various ledges while a tall human paced, cracking his whip for
emphasis. He wiped his glistening bald head with a dirty rag before turning on
his heel to pace the other direction.

He saw Kale
and cracked his whip as a gap-toothed grin spread across his face. "Well,
well. Here's a new one. Come to make troub—"

The human's
grin fell as the other draks turned the corner. The tide of draks cut him off
mid-scream as they fell upon him in a rush of picks, shovels, teeth, and claws.
The draks on the wall turned their picks and hammers on their shackles and
chains when they saw the drak mob beat down their tormentor.

Kali helped
free the chained draks from their restraints. She climbed up on one of the
ledges. "Behold the Firescale clan. Free at last!"

Cheers and
applause rose from the assembled draks. Kale felt a swell of pride in his
chest. He felt that for the first time in his life, he did something important.
Something good. Their revelry was cut short by mocking laughter and slow,
deliberate clapping from high above them.

On a
platform overlooking the room stood a red-skinned man in gleaming, golden
armor. His black hair, pulled back, revealed a pair of twisted horns which rose
from his temples.

"Very
good. Very good. Be proud. You've disrupted my mine." He leaned forward,
placing his hands on the railing of his platform. "Where will the people
get their salt? You probably don't even know all the things it's used
for."

"How
dare you act the victim!" Kali balled her fists, glaring up at Volos.
"You've enslaved the Firescale—"

"Oh
please. These draks are paying their debt to me. Elantan the Grim made a
legally-binding contract with me—"

"Three
hundred years ago!"

Volos
laughed, wagging his finger at her. "The debt is not repaid. I pay every
worker here."

A drak
stepped forward from the crowd. "You pay us pennies and then charge us
talons for food and equipment!"

Cries of
"Robber!" "Slavers!" "Gods-cursed fiendling!"
rose from the crowd. Volos's jovial facade fell away.

"Get
back to work, or I will have you all killed!"

Delilah
climbed up on the ledge with her brother. "We're taking these draks away
from you. We owe you no debt, and from what we've seen and heard, none of these
draks do, either. Anyone who did died long ago."

"The
terms of the repayment were clear: all generations will be indebted to me until
the debt is paid. No matter. You had your chance." Volos pulled a thick rod
from his belt. Kale heard the familiar click-clack of approaching golems.

The draks
near the stairs shouted in alarm. They pushed into the room, scrambling to get
away from the approaching crystal golems. Kale jumped and flapped his wings,
but still lacked the strength to truly fly. He landed on the ledge where Kali
stood.

She grabbed
his hand. "Thanks… for trying."

* * *

Delilah
swore under her breath as Kale leaped into the air and failed to fly. She
observed the smug fiendling directing his crystal golems from on high as they
butchered the draks nearest the stairs. Both Kale and Kali leapt into the fray
with their daggers, pulling weaker draks away from the spindly legs of the
golems, and slashing at the crystalline monsters in an attempt to hold them at
bay.

She tapped
the butt of her staff against the ground and pulled strands of magic together.
They swirled around her like an azure tornado. "
Synnefotone shifone!
"

Delilah
willed the cloud of whirling blades into existence right behind Volos. The
fiendling jumped in alarm as he realized his escape route was blocked. Delilah
continued drawing on her magic. The room shifted out of focus, and blackness
crept in at the edges of her vision. She shook her head, attempting to clear
her sight and pointed her staff at Volos's platform.

"
Ophayra!"

A ball of
fire streaked forth from her staff, impacting the bottom of the platform. The
explosion shook the room, cracking the stone supports that held the platform in
place. Fire danced along the bottom, burning the wood and filling the top of
the chamber with smoke. Salt dust rained down from the ceiling, stinging her
eyes.

Through the
haze, Delilah saw draks hacking and chipping away at the golems with their
mining tools. They were made for digging through stone, and the taste of
freedom so close lent the miners strength enough to damage the golems. She
squeezed her eyes shut as a wave of blackness passed over her, threatening to steal
her consciousness. She gritted her teeth, opened her eyes, and focused on the
platform again.

"
Ophayra!"

Delilah sent
another fireball rocketing toward the platform. The impact and explosion
shattered the wooden flooring, sending flaming splinters flying. Volos screamed
and plummeted. He smashed into the back of the golem occupying Kale and Kali
before bouncing off to the ground, where he lay unmoving. Delilah allowed
herself a smile and staggered toward him, leaning on her staff for support.
Several of the older draks saw their opportunity and surrounded the
still-twitching form of Volos. They blocked him from Delilah's sight, but she
didn't need to see him to know what half-a-dozen draks with picks and hammers
flailing away would do to him.

Kale and Kali
maneuvered the golem they fought into a corner. Kale unleashed dragonfire in
its face, while draks clung to its legs, holding them in place to keep it from
impaling her brother. The rest of the draks continued to attack the other golem
as if it were a rich vein of ore and freedom was the wealth they sought to
acquire.

Delilah
slipped, tumbling off the ledge. Her staff skittered across the floor, kicked
along the way by the dozens of draks dodging golem attacks. She crawled in a
feeble attempt to reach it, but stopped when her hand closed on a hard,
cylindrical object: Volos's focus.

She felt the
power coursing through the rod. Holding it in her hand, she pushed herself
upright, sitting back against the wall. When she closed her eyes, she saw
through the eyes of the golems as they skittered here and there, attempting to
stab and kick the scampering draks. Her view shifted, and she saw another golem
advancing down the stairs, scurrying to join its brethren against the draks.

Her vision
clouded. The draks fighting in front of her were vague shapes fighting in the
mist. Squeezing her eyes, she poured all her thoughts, all her remaining
strength into the rod.
Stop. Sleep.

* * *

Kale grunted
as the golem's leg caught him across the midsection. He snapped his mouth shut
to keep his dragonfire from burning the draks clinging to the leg as it shoved
him across the room. He tumbled and rolled into Kali's legs, knocking the
female over on top of him. Flaming debris showered down on them from above, and
Kale spread his wings as a canopy to protect them.

The golem
raised its leg, intent on driving it through the two draks, then shuddered, and
stopped. It stepped back and lowered itself, folding up its legs alongside it.