“REVEL!”
Yellowhat flinched at El Sha La’s high scream. The sorceress shrieked into the dark canal, and her voice seemed to fill the whole grotto.
Her arcane sphere flickered and failed; the silver tiles strobed around them. El spoke a furious word, and daylight flared up from the dark river below. Her fingers stabbed and wove, she invoked strange words, and an emerald light flashed in the channel.
Hat was struck by the change. The spells she’d worked before were mere rehearsal. Here was the real show. In a moment, it was over. The green light was gone, and the grotto turned blue. El Sha La sank to her knees and wept into the rift.
Revel was gone, and Rigel, too. It had all happened so fast. Yellowhat had wished a thousand deaths on Revel V Ramos, but the realization was sour in his mouth. For Rigel, he felt a pang of real regret.
Rigel always listened to Hat’s songs and sometimes snuck him a bowl of stew when Herkimer was too drunk to notice. The boy who plundered the Tower of the Unraveller! Stumbled across half of Lhaz with a dagger in his arm, suffered the silver dust and survived. All to drown in the dark like a rat. What a waste!
Thoughts of loss turned his attention back to the young woman at the brink.
“El!” Yellowhat called, afraid she was about to fling herself into the river with all his cane. He crept to her side. Sters stood on the strand, hook in hand. Still smoldering, Fish rose to his feet. Sters made no move to approach. Fish looked from Sters, down to the rift. Sters nodded.
“Damn,” the mariner lamented. He held the gate orb high, and the grotto danced with shadows. He held his sword in the other, the blade painted blue with orblight. At his back, the bronze seal ground open slowly, inch by inch.
“You!” El Sha La shouted and pointed a damning finger at Fish. The mariner watched her, silent. She rose to her feet.
“You killed him!” El accused, an unhinged note in her voice.
Fish shook his head. He gestured to the bridge with the point of his sword.
“That was no fault of mine. Your idiot paramour killed himself and took my boy with him. All for nothing. Now, leave me be, my patience is thin. You were fools to follow me.”
“You stole the orb!”
“And I have it still. The deal is sealed. I’m going in. That boy was worth ten of you, Sters! I ought to come over there and cut you down!”
“Rather you didn’t,” Sters replied. He glanced back at the tunnel, ready to bolt.
“Sters!” El shouted, red-faced with emotion.
“Nope,” Sters refused. “He’ll gut me.”
Yellowhat held up his empty hands. His fingers trembled. Bad things happened when wizards lost their tempers.
“Turn back,” Fish ordered. “Don’t follow me any farther. There’s no way out when this door shuts. You will all die.”
Fish turned his back on them and headed for the gate. El Sha La drew a sharp breath through her nose and rose to her feet.
“STOP! One more step, and I’ll blast you in half.”
El Sha La raised her hands. The air around them warbled and roiled. Fish stopped and looked to Hat.
“Can she do that, Hat?” Fish called over.
“I think so,” Hat called over. “That’s Arath’s daughter. She did all sorts of sorcery on the river. I’d give it up, Fish. No one else needs to die.”
Fish sighed.
“I’ve come too far for that.” Fish raised the Gate Orb high overhead. “Look, witch, if you zap me, you’ll break the orb. What happens then?”
“Everyone dies,” El Sha La spit back.
“Is that what you want?”
El glared back across the rift. Hat and Sters shook their heads.
“El, maybe we should—” Hat began, but El Sha La’s cold eyes never left Fish.
“Wake up, fisherman! Some devil has you in his palm!"
“You’re wrong. I’m not here to free a demon.”
“You are in thrall!” El shouted back.
“El, I don’t-” Hat urged. He took a step closer to El. His skin tingled, and the hair on his arms stood on end. She ignored him.
“Leave the orb at your feet and step away. I’ll kill us all if I have to.”
“You’re bluffing,” Fish said.
“She isn’t!” Hat insisted.
Fish took a long stare at the sorceress.
“Fuck it.” Fish shrugged. “I refuse.”
El Sha La invoked a sigil, and three balls of light crackled to life before her. Strands of her long hair stood straight as reeds. She spoke another sigil, and the sparks spun into a whining ring of lightning. The grotto blazed with angry rays.
“Last chance,” El Sha La warned. Her face was a pale mask of strain, swept by the harsh light of the racing orbs. Yellowhat backed away, stung by the air around the sorceress.
“Fish!” Hat pleaded, but the mariner was adamant.
“Kill me if you can, witch. I won’t surrender.”
“STOP!” Hat howled.
El Sha La spoke the third sigil. A lance of light roared across the room, and Fish was just a black outline in a wash of white. Hat closed his eyes, ready to die. Then, he heard El Sha La gasp. She lurched as if she’d been punched in the gut. She crumpled to the ground and fell still.
“Ah! Ah! Ah! Fuck!”
Across the channel, Fish hissed and howled. His sword hit the tiles with a clang. Fish danced from foot to foot and shook the molten beads of snake lead out of his shirt. He held the orb still.
“Ah! That burns!”
Sters and Yellowhat stared open-mouthed in the blue shadows.
“Fish! What’d you do to her?” Hat called across the canal.
“Magebane.”
With a grimace, Fish bent and picked up his sword. Blue light swept the grotto as he moved.
“They think they’re better than us, with their high words and grand schemes. Well, here I stand, boys. There she lays. When that witch wakes up, tell her I’ll cut out her tongue if she ever crosses me again.”
Hat nodded, though he’d have to be caned out of his mind to say that to a sorceress.
“I told the boy no one would be stupid enough to follow us up the Rakkar. Guess I forgot about you two. What were you thinking?”
“We only agreed to row. Was only supposed to be a couple days! We catch you, get the orb, and go back. She promised to pay our debts, Fish.”
“Well, she tricked you good. There’s no pay in this pit, only death. Turn back. Kick that lying witch into the river and get as far from here as you can. Arath will show up looking for her, eventually.”
Sters blenched blue at the mention of Arath. He looked to the motionless sorceress, then to Hat. Hat shook his head.
“Two drowned today already. El was straight with us, Fish. She said you’re here to free a demon,” Yellowhat said, sharper than was wise.
“Mark my words. I am not here to free a demon.”
“Then, why are you in here, toting that stolen orb? Parlaying with this eight-eyed monster? Why was Arath’s daughter ready to die to stop you from going inside? What am I supposed to think, Fish?”
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Stop thinking. Start running. This is too big for you two. The witch doesn’t know my mind. I have bigger plans.”
“Like what?”
“They don’t involve you. You wouldn’t understand, and you can’t stop me. So why waste wind? Heed me, Hat. Turn back.”
“Can’t go back. Our boat’s busted,” Sters piped up.
“Take mine. My canoe’s hid in the bush, south of the standing stone. Do me a favor and take that meddling cunt with you. The door will close soon.”
“She won’t go, Fish. She’s crazy ‘bout that orb. Says Arath will skull us all if he finds out.”
“Drag her ass. She’ll be out for a while. Magebane’s a bitch. You’ll both wish you threw her in soon enough, mark my words.”
“Probably so. Sorry about the boy,” Sters said in a rare moment of regret.
“It’s a shame what you’ve done. Boy had potential. So it goes. As above, so below.”
“Wait. How are you gonna get back if we take your boat?” Sters asked.
Fish shook his head.
“So long, lads.”
The mariner walked through the gate and left them in darkness. For a while, Hat and Sters were still, hoping he would come back. A deep gurgling rumble filled the grotto, and Hat was sure he was about to be devoured. It was only the gargoyle mouths, belching back to life. Water roared, cold mist rose. Hat shivered in the damp and wished he’d never left the docks.
* * *
“El. El. El!”
Hat worked up the nerve to nudge her. Terrible things happened to men who laid hands on magicians. As he lurked beside El Sha La, Yellowhat recalled the sad story of Getty Setz.
It went like this: five days into a cane bender, Getty tried to lift a purse off a red-robed, almond-eyed Yarlee warlock. The Yarlee was dead drunk, slumped face-down against the bar at a winesink called The Salted Wound.
Others within the Wound were wise enough to steer clear, but Getty's needs far exceeded his means. With feather-light fingers, he dipped into that rich red robe, seeking a fat purse.
But when Getty pulled his hand back, it wasn't his hand anymore. His palm smarted like he'd been stung by a jellyfish. His fingers glistened and stuck together. When he tried to open them, they wouldn't go.
Instead, his skin was puckered as a drowned man. His fingers fused together, pink as a healed burn. His joints popped, his bones ground, and he screamed in pain. Just then, the Yarlee popped back up in his chair, dead sober.
The warlock laughed to the rafters, for Getty’s hand had become an ugly rat-tail of a tentacle, with squid suckers puckering along the underside. The bar cleared out, quick as if it’d been raided by the guard.
Getty the newly made mutant ran off and languished on the unkind docks. For two weeks, he wandered and wailed and begged for help. The goodly folk of Tinkerton answered his pleas with stones and spit.
As the wretch wandered, the taint spread to his shoulder. At last, a butcher took pity on Getty and agreed to amputate his abominated arm. The chop festered, Getty died, and everyone agreed it was for the best.
With all of this in mind, Hat still dared to tug on the toe of El Sha La's boot. The ruin of Getty the Mutant and Yellowhat the Bard was one and the same. Cane.
"EL!" Hat shook so hard he nearly yanked her boot off. A moment later, that same boot kicked him in the jaw.
“Aaah!” El cried.
"El! It's me! Wake up!" Hat hissed.
"What happened?"
"We lost. Fish got away. The door’s closing. El I need cane."
"In a moment, let me-”
“Now.”
El Sha La tried to call up an orb of light, but a speck no bigger than a firefly appeared. All the silver tiles in the world couldn’t boost her feeble spark.
"Is that all?" Sters asked, frowning at the little light.
"Snake lead. I should have known. Hat! Just a second, I’m getting it!”
Hat rocked back and forth, twitching all over.
"I can't hold it," Hat cried like a child. His fingers were trembling blurs.
Sters had to pack the pipe for him and hold it while El Sha La produced a flicker of flame from her fingertip. It took her three tries. Yellowhat sucked the black threads down to nothing and held onto the smoke for a seeming eternity. Blissful ice ran through his veins, the lines of fire turning to cool paths of peace.
Hat laid flat on his back and surrendered, exhaling all his hurts in a bitter yellow plume. He stared up into the pitch blackness. At last he could see. His mind boiled with fever dreams of stairs made of song and mandalas made of stars. With a sweep of his left hand, he could split it all apart, and with a touch of his right, he could set it to right.
The peak was all-too brief. With regret, Yellowhat returned to the mortal realm. Sters and El Sha La eyed him with equal measures of pity and envy. Hat shrugged, high enough to forgive anyone anything. They saw the cracked vessel not the splendor it contained.
"Is your magic gone now?” Sters ventured.
El Sha La shook her head.
“No. It just hurts. I could still turn you inside out if the need arose.”
Hat believed it was a bluff, born from well-founded fear of Sters the Hook. Luckily for her, Sters seemed convinced.
“Snake lead,” El Sha La hissed. “If not for that vile shit, we’d rule the Arc entire.”
“A true tragedy,” Hat gamboled. “Though it occurs to me, if not for that loathsome lead, we’d all be dead. You were awful swift to sacrifice us, Ellie.”
“Don’t call me Ellie. That was a ruse. All my power couldn’t even scuff the Gate Orb. It’s old magic.”
Sters lifted his eyes to the feeble light and raised his brows.
"It's like getting kicked in the balls, Sters. It goes away."
"How would you know?" Sters jabbed.
"I'm extrapolating."
"I don't know what that means."
“Guessing,” Hat chimed.
"Fish says you fucked us,” Sters said.
"Fish is in thrall. You both saw him. Am I wrong?”
Sters stopped to think about it.
"Yeah, something's got a hold on him. He was always a little off. Even deep in his cups, you could tell. Forever looking for something he could never find. Thought it was just whatever he lost in the lake."
"You really can't take him on?”
“Not even close. And I'm just uh, extrapolating, but I don't think Revel could have taken him, either. Even in armor. We're not in his league.”
“I could take him,” Hat boasted and raised his skinny fists. They almost laughed.
“You won’t have to. His bane is burned. The next time I see him, he’s a dead man.”
"Well, good luck with that. I’m getting the fuck out of here.”
“I can’t pay you if I’m dead,” the sorceress said.
“You can’t pay me if I’m dead, either.”
“Sters, all of Lhaz could fall. There are things inside the Rapaxoris no one can ever put back.”
"All the more reason for us to get the hell out of here. Fish was right, this is too big for us. Look at Revel. Fancy armor, shiny sword, trained all his life. Didn't even make it over the bridge. Now, he's gone."
“Revel lives. My spell will preserve him.”
"I haven't heard anything down there."
“The current carried him off. We’ll find him.”
“El, I don’t think—”
“He’s alive.”
“Whatever you say. What about Rigel?” Hat asked.
El Sha La shook her head.
“I could only save one. He wasn’t armored. Maybe he can swim for it.”
“Where does this river even go?”
“I don’t know.”
El Sha La took a deep breath, and her face went rigid with concentration. The little light grew into a plum-sized sphere. It was enough to see by.
“I am going inside. If you two want to leave, I won’t stop you.”
“I’d kind of like to see what’s in there,” Hat angled. “I bet there’s all kinds of treasure.”
“You’re caned out of your mind,” Sters shot back. Hat couldn't argue.
“We’re going back. Split up the food,” Sters demanded.
El Sha La shook her head.
“I’ll need it. You’ll be outside. Forage.”
A look crossed Sters’ face. El’s brows knit and, suddenly, the sphere was blinding white. Sters took a step back, the message clear. El Sha La left them and climbed the narrow bridge.
“Hey! At least give us a torch!” Sters called.
“Why would I carry a torch?” El called back, pointing at her orb. The sphere followed her like an obedient dog. Sters and Hat were left in the dwindling light as she circled Thenanthen and headed for the gate.
Suddenly, Hat’s head jerked upright.
“Oh, shit!”
He scrambled up onto the bridge and ran after her.
“Hat! Come back!”
“She’s got my cane!” Hat cried as she stepped into the gate. The light was almost gone. Sters looked back into the black and down into the rift.
“Fuck me,” Sters groaned. “WAIT FOR ME!” he shouted after them.
They waited at the gate and snickered as Sters crawled over the slender span on his hands and knees. When his blood wasn’t up, he was terrified of heights.
“Wait a goddamn second,” Sters spat once he found his feet. “Me and Hat quoted a rate for rowing. Not delving into a dungeon full of devils. The price just went up.”
“To what?”
“Land and titles.”
“Titles? For you two? Sters, do you have any idea how ridiculous you sound?”
“Land and titles,” Sters repeated.
“I can’t grant you titles! And I am not marrying you. I’ll take my chances with the demons.”
“You don’t, but your father does. What’s it worth to Arath to have his little girl and his magic ball in one piece, huh?”
“The King in Yellow and Sters V Hook,” Hat grinned. “I want my own island on the salt coast. A whole plantation of cane and a bevy of plump Ibexian ladies to keep me company.”
“A bevy?”
“A bard needs an audience.”
“I want to be the Duke of Tinkerton,” Sters said.
“Duke? Stars, Sters, the whole reason I’m here is so my father doesn’t find out I lost the Gate Orb. What the hell am I going to tell him?”
“That ship has sailed. You’re smart. You’ll think of something.” Sters thrust out a big, scarred hand.
El Sha La sighed with all her might.
“The Duke of Tinkerton,” she agreed and shook Sters’ hand. “And Lord Hat the Yellow, of Isla Undetermined.”
“The deal is sealed!” Hat shouted and clapped his hands with delight.
By El Sha La’s silver light, they followed Fish’s footprints down the long hall. A hundred paces in, they heard a rumble at their backs and the thunder of Thenanthen’s laughter. The stone doors ground shut.
They were trapped inside the Rapaxoris.
END OF BOOK I