The Sartious Mage (The Rhythm of Rivalry) (26 page)

Lisanda chimed in. “We won’t tell anyone that you spoke to us, but please sit and talk, if only to keep yourself entertained. It must be deathly boring in here.” I was pleased to see how fast Lisanda had caught on. That was the exact approach I was going to try.

Defeated, Kory’s face loosened. He nodded slowly. “Rather grim as well. You don’t get used to the smell, even after years.” He gave an eye to the door and took a deep breath.

He was silent for some time, but Lisanda and I waited patiently.

“We sleep in a big room closest to the bottom, the worst-smelling room. When we built this place, we thought it would be prudent to keep the storage rooms closest to the entrance. All this food and water is delivered to us.” He motioned to the shelves with his hand. “Then it’s a matter of carrying everything down the stairs. We didn’t want to carry it farther than needed, so we made the top rooms for storage and the bottom two for the commander and the rest of us. We didn’t anticipate the stench of desmarl excrement.”

“You do have desmarls?” Lisanda’s voice squeaked from shock.

“Keep your voice down, Princess,” Kory reminded her politely.

Lisanda apologized. He nodded.

“We do,” Kory said with a lower voice now. “Three of them down at the bottom. There’s a door for feeding, but that’s it. They’re caged-off from us, stuck in here until we choose to release them.”

His answers only produced more questions, the most important being what they were planning to do with three desmarls—three monsters that were the only thing more terrifying than my darkness.

As with Elves, hardly anyone ever saw a desmarl, but we all knew what they looked like from paintings. There were two parts to the carnivorous creature: their head and their tentacles. Their head alone, which some referred to as their body, was three times the height of most men with a width of twice that length, making it an oval. There wasn’t much to their head, just one eye above a gigantic mouth. Atop their head was spiked flesh that stuck up, folded over, and bent outward all at once, just like wild hair.

While their mouth was the place all animals and Humans within their grasp eventually ended up, most were crushed dead by the desmarl’s massive tentacles before being devoured. There’d been no official measurement of how long the tentacles could get, but we knew for a fact that they often were more than thirty yards long, about as tall as some of the trees in the forest just outside. And a tentacle could be as wide as the thickest tree trunk—truly a horrifying thought.

Killing one desmarl wouldn’t be too difficult for any skilled archer, if it weren’t for the Sartious clouds the desmarls emitted from their heads and tentacles. This emerald cloud covered more than one hundred yards in diameter, keeping even their tentacles hidden from view.

They kept their eight tentacles spread in every direction, waiting for some poor animal, or person, to step on one—that’s when the desmarl would strike. Though it couldn’t move quickly in its entirety, its tentacles could snatch up prey as fast as a bear trap snapping shut. They would wrap two, sometimes three tentacles around their prey, crushing and breaking bones as they brought their meal to their mouth to devour whole.

Desmarls had taken over the entire north half of the continent and much of the southern end as well, leaving only the middle for the rest of civilization. Each year, they progressed closer to us. We still had hundreds of years before they reached us, though, probably the reason there hadn’t been more of an effort to come together and fight them.

If ever there was an argument to end war, it was the desmarls. But each king had always been too worried about the other to come together against the monsters.

How these men had brought three desmarls into Goldram was a mystery, but
why
was an even greater one.

“Why keep them here?” I asked. “And how could you possibly have transported them?”

“
That
I really can’t tell you.” Kory was firm, yet his raised eyebrows made his face seem apologetic. “But I will let you know they were small when this began.”

“When what began—what is this you’re doing?”

He shook his head. “Sorry, not going to answer that, either.”

I tried another tack. “Can you at least tell us what we’re to be used for then?”

“I’m sure the commander intends to use you both however he can to speed things along. We were supposed to be out of here four months ago, but there were complications.” Kory’s eyes shifted to the steel chest between me and Lisanda. “And now we don’t know how long we’ll have to wait. The toll it takes on one’s mind…” His eyes lost focus with a subtle shake to his head. “Five slow years. And it could be five more for all we know.”

Kory turned to sit on the chest, giving a mix between a grunt and a sigh. He knocked his knuckles on it. “Can you guess what’s in here?” he asked with a regretful cadence.

“Weapons,” I stated, figuring it couldn’t have been anything else. I’d heard metal grinding against itself as they’d dragged it.

“Aren’t you a clever one? Aye, weapons.” Kory let out a breath. “Swords, shields, bows, arrows, maces, many of them stained with blood.” He kicked the chest with his heel. “That’s all that remains of half of us. Their bodies were fed to the desmarls.”

Lisanda gasped.

“Half of you?” I blurted in surprise. “How’d they die?”

Kory drew his wand, studying it like it was the first time he’d seen it. His shoulders slumped.

“They fought us…I mean we fought each other. We became divided over the years, right down the middle, eleven against eleven…” Kory squeezed his wand, his knuckles turning white. “It just erupted. Seven of them fell, three of us were killed, then the last four of them threw down their weapons and agreed to the proposed change in leadership. Barad is one of those four who fought against us. The other three have come around, but Barad still holds a grudge.”

“That’s terrible.” Lisanda spoke softly.

“Aye.” Kory matched her tone.

A pause in his story turned into a dense silence. Questions about their operation twirled in my mind the way bad dancers might, grabbing all my focus as much as I wanted to ignore them. Knowing what these men were doing wouldn’t get me out of here, but still I wondered.

Barad had mentioned something about the fall of Goldram. They must mean to use the desmarls, but three of them were far too few to stand up to the Takary army. Three desmarls would be a major distraction, though. Could it be a distraction was just what they wanted?

Barad also had mentioned an alliance of some kind. It wouldn’t be the first time the Kings of Waywen and Presoren had worked together against Goldram—it happened in the Bastial Steel War ten years ago.

Zav, the territory west of Goldram, had even joined the fight against Goldram then. Those three could be involved again, and certainly seemed to be the case with the recent movements of Zav’s army.

I could feel it coming together. Each piece of the puzzle was connecting with another, but the whole thing was nowhere near completed. The biggest question was why? Why attack Goldram?

Ten years ago it was clear—the explosion that caused the Bastial steel crater, giving Goldram the ability to mine the incredible metal and forge the lightest but toughest weapons in the world—weapons made from Bastial steel.

Rivalry had exploded with the discovery, pitting the three territories surrounding Goldram against us when our King refused to allow them access to the crater that happened to form in our territory by chance.

Half of the massive crater containing this Bastial steel was in Meritar territory as well, where the Elves lived secluded from the rest of the world. When Waywen, Zav, and Presoren aligned against Goldram, the Elves refused to help and also refused to allow us into their half of the crater so that we could mine the Bastial steel faster and create more weapons.

Our king’s argument to gain access to their crater was that there was no way into Meritar without going through Goldram, so the Elves didn’t need the steel like we did. And with Goldram being surrounded by Waywen, Zav, and Presoren, we needed all the help we could get. But still the Elves refused to fight with us and also refused to give us access to their side of the crater of Bastial steel.

There were two large-scale battles that followed, both of which Goldram won, and then the war came to a halt. Some people here in Goldram still held a grudge against the Elves, but others, like my family, believed the Elves had every right not to get involved. The territories surrounding Goldram—Waywen, Zav, and Presoren—just wanted access to the Bastial steel crater in Goldram, but King Danvell Takary denied it.

It wasn’t the Elves’ fault the war started. And Goldram owed them nothing.

The more I thought about it, the more it made sense this new war beginning with Zav probably was related to the Bastial Steel War. But what was it this time? Were they fighting for access to the Bastial crater again, or maybe they wanted complete control over Goldram? I had no idea. At least it was clear there was some sort of alliance against Goldram.

“Do you mean to take over Goldram?” I tried asking.

“I don’t mean to do anything anymore except get out of here,” Kory said with a light laugh. “But my king may command otherwise.”

It was progress. I tried another question. “He will command you to attack The Nest?”

“He wouldn’t command me to do anything. Instead, his orders would fall down the pyramid. I’d hear them from my commander, who would hear them from our messengers, and I can’t say who gives our messengers their commands. That information is kept from us.”

I was losing him in a different direction. I tried to think of something else to ask, but he continued before I could.

“You’ll meet these messengers tonight,” Kory said with a grim look. “They’re the ones who bring food and orders. A proud bunch of nobodies they are, always talking down to us.” He turned to watch the door vigilantly as he spoke. “If you’re going to be proud, you’d better have something to show for it. That’s what I think, at least. And a title doesn’t count. Neither does a name. If I’m going to be led, I want to know why I’m the one following and not the other way around. I need to see something from my leader that makes him deserve the respect. Then I’ll gladly give it.”

When he turned to Lisanda, the glow in his eyes dimmed. He let his balled fists rest. “I apologize, Princess. I don’t mean any disrespect to you or your family.”

“I’m not offended, Kory. In fact, I feel the same way.” Lisanda sounded genuine, but she’d put on a good performance for guards before. This could’ve been another one.

“That’s kind of you to say,” Kory said bashfully.

The room fell into silence. He started pacing again.

“Kory?” Lisanda asked sweetly.

“Yes?”

“I hate to bring this up.” She kept her voice low. “But I need to use the chamber pot.”

Kory went as stiff as a stick, his hand flying to his cheek. “Oh,” he nervously sputtered. “Let me think.” He went back to pacing, humming in thought. His hand shifted to his forehead. Suddenly, he stopped and flipped back to us. “I’ll be right back. Don’t move.” His mouth twisted into a wry smile. “That was a joke.” He pulled open the door and closed it after him.

The moment I realized Kory was leaving the room, a surge of panic shot through me to form a plan. Lisanda and I both immediately twisted around as far as we could to face each other. No words at first, just a shared look. Her giant brown eyes let me know she was with me—I could see it. I didn’t even need to ask.

“Can you break the ropes?” Lisanda asked, hope thick in her voice.

“I can create a blade from Sartious Energy. It’s very dense in here from the desmarls. Then I should be able to cut us free, but we should wait until we know we can make it out of here.”

I thought I heard something, footsteps maybe. I waited, straining my ears, but then I heard nothing else. I lowered my voice.

“If they find out what I can do before we escape, they’ll put us somewhere else that’ll be impossible to break out of.”

“So you don’t want to try for it now?”

“Not yet. I’ll make the blade of Sartious Energy and keep it hidden under my leg, but I imagine he’ll be back soon after that. We need more time to make sure we aren’t interrupted.”

“Right, do it.”

I breathed deeply and focused my mind.

In a minute I’d finished the short blade. It was about the length of my hand. As I turned it for a better look, its translucent emerald color caught the dancing torch light and glistened.

Beautiful, I thought to myself. I hid it under my thigh. It would mean I couldn’t stand anymore, but sitting was far more comfortable anyway.

“It’s done,” I said, taking big breaths from the physical strain.

“Good.”

For a while all was silent. I wondered if maybe I was wrong, maybe we should try to escape now. It didn’t feel right, though. Kory had made it seem like he would be back any moment, and we still knew nothing about what awaited up the stairs if we got the ropes off in time.

Lisanda surprised me with a question. “How do you do it?”

“Manipulate the Sartious Energy?”

“Right. I’ve never seen mages do some of the stuff you can do.”