The fanatics started into motion, but Ladon was faster. He clapped his hands toward the skeletons to his right, creating a thunderous sound that shattered two dozen of them. Audacio moved next, taking advantage of the noisy confusion. He swung his sword down against the lines of grout that held him, shattering it. Then he jumped toward the fanatics, beheading a Brevis and a Mediet with two successive swings.
Flagro and Impes both shot ice bolts, hitting Ladon and Audacio in the feet and freezing them to the ground. Ladon clapped again, taking out another two dozen skeletons and cutting their original number down roughly by half, but Flagro hit him with another ice blast, restraining his arms. The force of it knocked him to the ground, shattering the ice at his feet. With his arms frozen to his sides, Ladon was stuck and unable to cast any more spells.
The rest of the fanatics engaged the rest of the team. The two who were free of grout bindings held their own, but Promitto and the other two were hindered. Promitto and one of his fellow captives tried to imitate Audacio by striking his bonds with his sword but to no avail. They didn’t have Audacio’s strength. The cultists easily disarmed them. The other captive managed to land a hit on one cultist’s thigh, incapacitating him. But that left fifteen standing. The two free recruits only managed to take out one each before they were completely overwhelmed.
And just like that, it was over. The cultists had defeated them. Skeletons moved in to pull the captives into a line, freeing them from the grout bonds and replacing them with their bony and absurdly strong grips. The exceptions were Ladon and Audacio. The skeletons left them to their freezing shackles of magical ice. Instead, they added the three injured fanatics to the lineup. Audacio swung his sword at the skeletons, but he was too far away, and the remaining fanatics laughed at him.
Elrick strolled down the line. “As amusing as this has been, I have work to do, and as galling as it is to admit, the fact is that I don’t have quite enough energy to do it. I’ve been working much too inefficiently. Fortunately for me, your interference is a more than adequate solution to that problem.” He stopped at Promitto, looking him up and down. “It’s a shame living muscle is so unpleasant to work with. It’s tense and twitchy, and the flavor is nowhere near as good as it should be.”
Promitto paled. “What? I thought you’d have us drawn and quartered.”
Elrick smiled and shook his head. “You only wish. I need energy now, and the fastest way to get it is by consuming your flesh while you’re still alive. It’s much more painful. You should be honored. Very few people have had this privilege before.” He turned to Stella. “I suppose you won’t be helping me?”
“Never again.”
Elrick sighed. “We’ll see about that in time. Later.” He drew a hunger potion out of his cloak and took a swig.
Audacio slammed his sword against the ice at his feet, freeing himself. As Elrick paused in surprise, the huge warrior bounded forward and swiped his blade through Elrick’s neck. The head fell to the ground with an exasperated expression, but Audacio didn’t stop. He kept hacking until two skeletons grabbed his arms. He struggled against them, giving them such resistance that two more had to come help pull him into line and force him to his knees.
Elrick picked up his head and put it back on, the glow in his staff diminishing slightly as his wounds glowed and healed. He frowned at the ruby. “That’s more energy I’ll have to collect. Did you want me to have to use up the whole lot of you?” He shook his head and approached Audacio. “I suppose you’re first, then.”
He pulled aside his cloak, revealing the crystal dagger. Stella cast the summoning spell, and the dagger flew out of its sheath, through the grout cage, and into Stella’s waiting hand. She brought its point down hard on the chest’s lock, breaking it off.
Elrick spoke, and the dagger was ripped out of her hand and back to his. His expression grew stormy. He repeated the incantation, and Stella was slammed against the grout bars, pulled by her chiton. Skeletons grabbed her arms and legs, pinning her there.
“Why do you defy me so, girl?” Elrick came up to the bars to glower down at her. “You showed such promise. Do you know how rare it is to discover someone with magical capacity so early in life? You tripled my savings in over a week. I would have had to put up with the cult for another century without your help.”
She spat at him.
He sighed. “I’d really hate to kill you, Stella. You’ve been so useful. But now you’re starting to be more of a bother than you’re worth.”
“Good.”
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“This is the last deal I’ll offer: help me collect enough energy for the volcano, and I’ll let you keep a few of your friends. As long as you keep them where they don’t bother me—” Elrick froze, his face a sudden mask of pain. “Stop it,” he grunted, doubling over. Then the skeletons throughout the room fell apart, Stella fell to the ground, and the evil sorcerer fell dead. Stella swiveled and found Tarant, his fist curled around a heart, crushed and black.
“Sorry he didn’t get to finish laying out the deal,” Tarant said.
Stella smiled, relief washing over her. “I wouldn’t have taken it.”
Tarant regarded her, then returned the smile. “I believe you.”
The fanatics surrendered. Audacio broke a hole in the grout cage and the door, and Lucinus and Claude stuffed their hearts back into their places. The hearts would remain magically separate, but this seemed the best way to protect them.
Stella freed Ladon by melting the ice with a little fireball. “You were right,” she said.
He smiled. “I knew it was a good idea to give you some magic. You made good use of it.”
She smiled back. The magic wasn’t what she’d been referring to, but there was no reason for her to point that out.
“What do we do with these?” Claude asked, nudging one of the bowing fanatics with his foot.
“Let’s put them in that prison for now,” Lucinus said. “We can figure out the rest later.”
That was agreed on. They bound up the injured ones’ wounds and marched them all downstairs and out the front door.
The crowd confronted them, demanding to know where Elrick was and when the disaster would start.
Tarant stepped forward, still holding Elrick’s heart. He lifted it high above his head. “There will be no eruption!” he shouted. “There will be no more murder and death! The cult is disbanded! The sorcerer is gone!”
Confusion spread through the crowd. Without Elrick, who would hear and fulfill their petitions? Who would save them from an afterlife of nothingness?
“Lies,” Tarant said. “All lies.” He told them of Elrick’s evils, how it was the cultists who fulfilled the petitions in secret rather than Elrick’s magic, and how the cultists offered unwilling people to Elrick in secret and drowned and cannibalized the ones he didn’t incinerate. Stella stood by him, confirming what he said and telling the people what she’d seen of the evil sorcerer. The rest of the team kept marching the fanatics to prison, led by Lucinus, who knew the way from his days as a hunter.
The people were stubborn. It took Tarant and Stella an hour and all of their darkest and sincerest confessions to convince them to celebrate their freedom from the evil sorcerer and his death cult.
At that point, a small party approached from the prison: Lucinus and Promitto on either side, supporting a ragged, emaciated woman with two burn scars on her cheek. Stella stared. “Mother!” She ran down to meet her, and Laurel held out her arms. They embraced. Stella’s tears ran freely, drenching Laurel’s hair. “I’m sorry,” Stella said. “I’m so sorry. So sorry.” She kept repeating it, finding no other words.
Her mother held her tight. “I know, Stella. But I saw it in your eyes this morning. I knew you’d see the light. I knew you’d come back to me.”
“But—” Stella pulled back to look at her. “But Elrick. He killed all of the prisoners.”
Laurel shook her head. “Not all of us. He left when Vatran started shouting.”
They hugged again and stayed like that for a long time.
A month later, just before sunrise, Stella stood at the top of the viewing tower. It was newly refurbished. The well was filled with rocks and dirt, and flowers sprouted from it, displaying tender petals of blue and purple. Stella smiled, gazing down at the village. It bubbled with life, nestled snugly between the greenest fields in all of Dracon.
The newly appointed King Tarant of Vulcan Valley had inherited both the cult’s treasury and Elrick’s hoard of magical energy. His first order was for the magic to be used for the people. Every day, Stella and Ladon listened to the people’s petitions and used the magic to grant reasonable ones. They healed the sick and injured, but refrained from solving problems with actionable solutions, giving instruction instead of magic. Magister Flagro and Ortu Impes assisted them. King Tarant had spared their lives on the condition that they serve in that role indefinitely, and he kept them under close watch.
Most of the businesses in town had been under the cult’s control, run by retired hunters and sending profits to the cult’s treasury. That included all three inns, the entire food market, and the farms. King Tarant put an end to that. He let the businesses set their own prices and keep their earnings, with the only condition being that they help fund the training and maintenance of a militia to defend the town and its economy. With all his studies, King Tarant knew the time would come when he’d need to defend his town from antagonistic outside forces.
For the latter half of every day, Tarant hung up his title and went into the village, choosing a different villager every day, helping them with their work, joining them for dinner, and talking with them at length about whatever subject came up. At Stella’s request, Claude usually joined him, acting as a sort of secret bodyguard. They’d brought his mother to town and healed her. He was still much more taciturn than Tarant, but he was happy.
Stella was happy, too. The view from the tower was divine, and the feelings that had prevented her from seeing that the first time — the anger, the resentment, the schemes — were all gone.
The sun peaked over the opposite mountain ridge, casting hues of yellow and orange over the valley. Stella sighed at the wondrous sight, satisfied. Then she descended the stairs and went to work.
THE END