Chapter XLIII (48)- The Beacon's Guards

He gulped air as his body’s perception of the world shifted. Then warm water surrounded him from all angles, and he struggled to keep the air from leaking out from under his skin. He felt the clammy touch of Ione as she flailed around in the form of a treefrog, grasping at him.

Kizu clawed his way in the direction he thought was up, only to be corrected by Mort, who snatched them both out of the water and shoved them onto his back. Owl monkeys were not natural swimmers, unfortunately. With his fur weighing him down, he barely seemed any better off than the two frogs but Kizu had at least taught him how to stay afloat. Mort flailed around in the water and grabbed onto the grate, shaking as the water filled the last few centimeters of the room. Then he squirmed through the bars, Kizu and Ione clinging to his back.

A loud squeal pierced through the water behind them. Filled with pain and fear. The sonney that had been riding on Ione’s lizard, which had been dismissed when she transformed, now cried out as if something tore it to pieces behind them. Kizu couldn’t see what was happening to it, but it didn’t join them through the grate. Despite his inability to do anything about it, Kizu still felt immense guilt about the creature’s death. It would still be back safe in its mushroom cavern if not for them.

In a moment, that guilt was chased away by his own pain. Kizu’s bond with Mort flooded him with a sensation akin to someone peeling back his flesh to expose the muscle and blood beneath. Something had bit Mort in the back of the thigh. Mort held his course steadfast though, managing to finish pulling them through and swimming upwards, through the pipe system.

Their attackers continued their assault relentlessly. Kizu felt small teeth latch down on Mort’s left foot next. With his usual dark vision replaced with that of a treefrog, Kizu couldn’t make out what was attacking them through the murkiness of the water. Kizu’s mind spun, trying to think of some solution to dispose of their pursuers. He didn’t know how to use spells in his current form.

He gripped Mort’s fur tighter. Then a solution occurred suddenly. With one froggy arm, he reached out and felt the walls of the pipe Mort swam through, hoping. Then his hand snagged on something. A pebble. He yanked it up with all his froggy might. He couldn’t use spells. So, he passed it to Mort’s uninjured back foot. The monkey gripped it, sensing its importance through their bond. And Kizu cast a spell using his familiar as a conduit.

As their pursuer attempted to bite Mort again, a tiny pebble blasted through the water, the force of the spell actually accelerating them forward as Kizu heard the crack of the ammunition hitting its target.

But even with that small success, Mort still couldn’t hold his breath forever. Kizu desperately wished he knew how to manipulate water better to move them faster. Instead, he reached out and fumbled along the pipe until he found another tiny rock to propel them faster. This time though, he gripped something that felt different. It was long, almost the length of him, and curved. At first, he thought it a strange twig. But it was surprisingly sturdy, despite him finding it underwater. He pulled it closer and squinted through the water. It was white. Bone bleached white.

It vibrated slightly in his hand. Kizu immediately used his spell sense. Not only did the thing in his hand glow with magic, but dozens of other pieces behind them. With the inclusion of a fish skull. A species of fish he recognized in an instant. The skeleton of a piranha. It had fallen apart when he’d hit it with the pebble, but it actively reassembled itself.

Kizu deeply wished he could curse at that moment. He dropped the bone and let it fall into the bundle of others behind them.

He kept his spell sense active, watching as the piranha resumed pursuing them. And it gained on them. Mort’s swimming was degrading more and more into desperate thrashing around as his air supply dwindled.

Kizu looked ahead of them. He could see light. His excitement at spotting a hopeful exit was squashed as Most gasped and gulped in a lungful of water. The bone piranha was on them.

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

No other option left for them, Kizu grabbed hold of Ione while still gripping Mort. Visualizing Mort was easy, just an extension of himself. Ione was different though. He used his own current treefrog form as an example to try to capture her in his mind’s eye. He focused on the light ahead of them. Their destination. Then, channeling through his bond with Mort, he jumped.

It was a reckless jump that easily could have resulted in them being buried alive. While relatively certain he could get himself and Mort to the point, he had never tried while relying on his bond’s power. Let alone with a passenger. Instead, though, he felt his jump redirected away from where he aimed. He completely lost control of the spell as it went awry.

Water splashed on the stone floor. The pipe they had escaped from was nowhere to be seen. He and Ione were still frogs. Mort was shaking and coughing water up next to them, but still very much alive.

The stone room had no doors or obvious exits. A fist sized emerald hung in the air above their heads. When Kizu used his spell sense, the entire room lit up. But the emerald especially so. Kizu assumed it must be a beacon to pull in anyone who jumped nearby. But why trap them in this room?

After only a minute of them sprawled on the floor, attempting to recover from nearly drowning, the room began to shake. Dozens of stones in the wall shifted, flipping around to create a door sized arch. With the opening, came a wave of an icy chill from outside the room.

“Hello?” a person said, peering in. “If there’s someone in here, speak up now, or I’ll seal the room off again.”

Kizu croaked. A weak and pathetic noise, but all he could manage. Thankfully, the person still heard him and looked down. Regret instantly hit Kizu as the eyes of their savior met his own. Red eyes.

Kizu tried to hop away but the vampiric spawn was too fast. In an instant, it had Mort, Kizu, and Ione dangling by their legs in its cold grip. Ione glared at Kizu and croaked. Kizu interpreted it as her rightly calling him an idiot.

“Look what I found!” the spawn said as it carried them off. “Two frogs and a monkey!”

“A monkey?” another spawn said, coming into view. It looked female with greasy black hair that reached its waist. Its mouth was puckered, as if it had just swallowed something sour. “I haven’t seen a monkey in almost a millennium. Are you certain you know what you’re looking at?”

The three of them were thrust forward, dangling by their legs like dead pheasants being presented by a hunter.

“I know what a monkey looks like, I’m not a dullard, Zumu.”

“That remains to be seen. Are they intelligent?”

“One of the frogs made noise when I called out to them.”

“Could be a coincidence,” Zumu said, leaning in closer. “Their auras seem normal. Nothing magical about them. Unlikely to be Awakened.”

Kizu made no noise. If the monster’s spellsense couldn’t detect them, his necklace must still be actively working even while transformed into his frog form.

“Maybe a complex curse? I’ve heard some are untraceable.”

“There aren’t any traps like that in our part of the Labyrinth. You would know that if you ever went out.”

“There’s no point. Kekkon’s tasks for me are here.”

“Your tasks are sitting around doing nothing.”

“I resent that. I am a guard.”

“A guard protecting us from frogs and monkeys.”

“Hey, at least there’s blood in them.”

“Have you seriously fallen that low?” it said in disgust. “Just wait for your allotment from Kekkon.”

“And do what with these?” the spawn raised them higher. “Toss them?”

“Maybe give the monkey to the girl? Keep her happy. Who doesn’t like monkeys?”

“No way, monkeys can be dangerous. Have you ever seen one in the wild? I once saw one eat its own baby because it was hungry. And look at the teeth on this thing. Kekkon would flay me if something happened to her.”

Zumu sighed loudly. “Then give her one of the frogs. And toss the others. This was probably a mage testing out our security. After finding that slime in the farm and several traps triggered soon after, it's no surprise.”

The vampire spawn walked down a short hallway. The cold engulfed Kizu. It felt like they were perched on the peak of a mountain, not walking down a stone corridor. When the spawn reached a black metal box, about two meters across, it looked down at Kizu and Ione, eyeing them both. Then it separated him from Mort and Ione. It kicked the side of the box, causing the top to pop open.

“Anata!” the spawn called down into the hole. “We got a gift for you.”

Then it unceremoniously dumped Kizu into the box.