[A picture of two dwarves dancing, with ribbons of stone flowing around them.]
E is for Earth primals, the dwarves call them Stoneweavers. These primals are made of Torc’s most devout believers.
-Sally Rider’s ABCs of Magic
—
Rakin and Zale burst out of the cave, Kole and Doug following further behind. As Kole rounded the corner, the cave opened into a vast cavern at least a hundred feet around and extending far beyond what the light of the flames could reveal. The fire they had set loose now spread up the walls, burning their way upward in a ring, but hundreds of small spiders were at work battling the encroaching flames—small being a relative term, for these spiders had bodies ranging from fist-sized to the size of a large cat. Larger spiders labored above, grabbing man-shaped cocoons, and shuffling them to safety up above.
As soon as they entered, spiders broke off from the task of fighting back the flames and ran to intercept Rakin and Zale. Individually the spiders were of no threat to the two, but in a swarm, it was impossible to keep them all at bay. Kole and Doug shot at the mass as it came, while the cousins made low-sweeping attacks to fight back the encroaching horde. As spiders made it past their guard and began to climb, they ripped them off.
Rakin faired better than Zale, splitting his stone staff in two and using it as small clubs, before eventually abandoning them entirely. Zale’s bastard sword was great for killing the swarmed spiders in droves, but useless once they climbed on her. Doug and Kole diverted their efforts to attack the larger spiders that began to enter the frame of their smaller brethren, and Kole scanned the walls above for their target and signs of further assaults. Dimly he saw chaotic movement up above, disrupting the orderly transfer of cacoons he’d noticed on entering.
Zale and Rakin began to retreat back to the cover of the cave mouth, Rakin now slapping the spiders on his body against his ki-reinforced skill. The spiders on Zale had, failing to pierce her armor, begun to wrap her in webs.
Kole watched in horror as Zale stumbled, falling back against a wall of web that had somehow remained unburned. As soon as her back touched the webs, they turned black, fading into the black motes Zale herself vanished into, taking the webs that surrounded Zale with them. The destruction traveled up the wall a dozen feet before stopping, and something up above let out a blood-curdling screech.
Everyone froze, even the spiders, and Zale looked back to her friends with an almost apologetic look.
“Voidyess,” Kole whispered for her.
As if the words broke the trance, the spiders broke into movement again, only this time they all went for Zale. Even the ones on Rakin leaping off of him to get at her. Spiders began to dive from above towards her, descending on lines of silk-like archeologists descending on a rope into caverns.
They swarmed her, spiders as large as dogs joining in, but Doug managed to pick up move of these on their descent. Kole thought he heard a man’s shout from somewhere, but discounted it as Rakin moved to help her.
“Wait!” Kole called, stopping him. “Silence!”
Rakin halted, jumping out of the wait. Trusting that she’d been able to do it, Kole cast Thunderwave, and stepped into the swarm. While spiders have the ability to cling to nearly any surface, that ability apparently doesn’t help when their internals are turned to a liquid paste. All of the spiders before Kole were blown off of Zale, crashing into the cavern wall behind her. The spell in echoed off the walls, deafening everyone, Kole included. The few spiders that survived the blast died upon crashing on the impact at the end of their flights.
Once clear of the spiders, Zale jumped back to the safety of her friends, and Kole saw the extent of her wounds. She was completely covered in blood from hundreds of small wounds, and Kole was shocked the Dahn had yet to whisk her away.
“Above!” Doug shouted, losing another arrow.
Kole followed the flight of the arrow and saw it strike a spider with a body the size of a boar. The arrow struck with little effect, but vines quickly sprouted from the wooden shaft and began to twine around it. While Doug’s shot had taken out one, more followed.
“Rahhh!”
A deep echoing shout of battle came from high above and rapidly approached. A man, naked save for the scraps of spider silk that still wrapped him in areas descended out of the darkness above, using the webs to arrest his fall. The man was covered in tattoos of a familiar pattern, the symbol for the Font of Bonds clear on his chest, and the magical tattoos of the Iron Vein tribes snaking out from there.
“Hawk Talon?!” Zale asked in bewildered recognition.
Safe behind Rakin and Zale, Kole directed his rod blasts at the descending spiders. As the Iron Vein tribesman—Hawk Talon—descended, he began to pummel spiders as he passed them in a rage. The tattoos on his body with an orange light, and despite his gaunt emaciated appearance, Kole heard the carapaces crack under his bare-handed blows.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
“Gah!” Doug shouted from behind Kole.
All three turned to see a spider perched on the demonkin’s antlers, blood dripping from its fangs as Doug clutched the bloody wound on his shoulder.
Kole reacted first, flicking his rod up and sending a blast of force into the spider, but to Kole’s shock, the spider vanished, reappearing on the cavern wall above them His shot struck Doug’s antlers taking a few tine’s with it. Doug shouted in pain and fell even with the spider removed.
“Sorry!” Kole shouted, pointing his rod up at the spider and shooting it again, this time obliterating it.
“They teleport!” Kole shouted. “Are they supposed to teleport?”
Doug didn’t reply, passing out instead. Passing out but not vanishing.
“Guys! We have a problem!” Kole called to Zale and Rakin who held the line, Hawk Talon having finally reached the.
“Doug’s not vanishing!” Kole yelled. “The Dahn’s not taking him!”
“Retreat!” Zale called, and Rakin and the giant man complied, falling back and keeping the spiders at bay. While Zale’s presence had driven the spider’s into a fervor, the arrival—or apparent escape—of the Bond primal had driven the spiders mad and they completely abandoned their efforts to halt the progress of the flames to get at them.
Kole ran to Doug and began staunching the wound in his shoulder. When the three others reached him. Hawk Talon assessed Doug briefly before kneeling down, and throwing him over his shoulder as Kole would a child.
Well, a really small child, Kole thought, reflecting on his own strength. Maybe a baby.
“Go!” Zale urged them on.
Kole cast around, looking for his torch, finding it mercifully still ablaze on the ground. Even with his burden, Hawk Talon beat Kole to it, snatching it up and leading the way out of the cave.
Kole fell in behind him, blasting the mass of spiders through any openings he saw through Zale and Rakin, who had fallen back to the cavern mouth.
“Thunderwave!” Zale shouted to Kole.
Kole reached for his potion of clarity even as he saw Rakin touching the stone of the wall beside him, eyes closed in focus.
Kole downed his potion, and Rakin dove behind Kole, finished with whatever stoneweaving he’d employed. Kole moved to cast his spell, only to find the rejuvenated Will he’d been expecting missing.
Only then did he realize that the potion he’d just taken had only been water.
Then it all came together. The loss of the train, the arrival of the unexpected mountain, Zale’s and Doug’s not being saved from their Dahn, the presence of a classmate, the potion returning to water.
“We’re not in the dungeon!” Kole shouted, even as he reached for the extra clarity potion he always kept with him for emergencies.
He downed the potion in a practiced gesture, savoring the distinct—if still terrible—flavor of the potion he’d brought from home.
“Now!” Kole shouted to Zale, who instead of using her silence aura, vanished into black motes.
The swarm she’d kept at bay surged at her disappearance, and Kole unleashed his spell.
The spell roared out from Kole’s palm, sending the spider back, only for the growing mass behind them to halt their flight and keep them close. But, the roar of the spell wasn’t the last of the sounds. Over the alien screeching of the giant spiders, the sound of cracking stone rang out, followed by the rolling rumble as the cavern collapsed before Kole, sealing the spiders away from them.
“Let’s get the Fauell out of here!” Rakin shouted, pulling Kole along and into the darkness.
They ran, but no spiders pursued them. Kole followed after, using the remainder of his recently refilled Will capacity to cast the cantrip for the Font of Light. A glowing orb of light appeared in Kole’s palm, providing a weak illumination, but more than enough for him to navigate the small cavern.
“Flood,” Kole cursed, rubbing his head at the headache with his free hand.
The cantrip, which would have cost next to nothing for any other wizard had cost Kole 30 Will. Kole, who had neglected his cantrips, having long assigned them to the role of ‘slightly useful but way too expensive,’ realized he’d need to rethink that in light of recent events.
I just cast Thunderwave for 15 Will… why should a Light cantrip cost me 30?
He mentally noted to look into that once his life wasn’t in peril.
Finally, they exited the caves and Kole was brought from his poorly timed reflection the sight of the stars, and the two roughly shaped moons shining brilliantly in the sky.
“Two moons?!” he said aloud. “I know I grew up underwater, but that doesn’t seem right.”
Zale and Hawk Talon, who were tending to Doug both looked up noticing as well. They stood up, Doug seemingly stabilized by their calmer demeanor.
“We should get away from this case, the rocks,” Hawk Talon suggested, exhaustion clear in his tone.
The glow of his tattoos had ceased, and he now had an exhausted posture to match his appearance. Despite his state, he helped Zale lift Doug, and they carried him down the boulder-strewn mountainside. No spiders attacked them in their descent, but they continued in silence, despite their burning curiosity at Hawk Talon’s presence. Kole had pieced together that he must have been the missing primal student from Tigereye’s homeland, but how that was possible was beyond him.
At some point, Kole noticed that the sky had lost its strange moons, and the one that remained looked familiar. He turned around to find the mountain that they’d just descended had vanished as suddenly as it had appeared, the lone mountain on the horizon from their caravan journey returning to its original location.
“Guys,” Kole said, getting everyone’s attention.
They all stopped, looking at him, and then past him to the missing mountain.
“What in the realm,” Zale said in wonder, everyone else looking equally confused.
And then, behind Zale, a familiar black stone door appeared out of nowhere, free-standing in the prairie they now found themselves in.
Kole, having just gotten everyone to look at him, now pointed behind them all.;
“I think we should go through that before anything else happens,” Kole said, running to the door before he finished speaking.
“Good idea,” Hawk Talon said, and they all ran through the door, into the ready room of the Dahn.
Kole didn’t wait to gather their belonging, and as soon as the door was closed behind them, he opened the outer door the Dahn and stepped out into a different sort of chaos.