Slipping through the tunnels back toward the crystal chamber was almost stupidly easy. No patrols were out; no one was looking for us. That suggested that no alarm had been raised, and I kept sporadically tapping into the local communications net with Silent Communion to confirm that. The traffic on there was tense but quiet, containing more or less what I would have expected to hear. Even so, had I been in charge, I would have had teams roaming the more important tunnels, trying to root me out. After all, the heltharvis promised the Oikie patriarch that she could finish whatever she was doing within three days, and we were getting close to the end of one of those. Assuming she needed a day to set things up, she was cutting it awfully close. Either she was too busy upgrading the ritual to remove my high spirits to bother, or something else was going on. I was pretty sure it was the latter.
Still, whatever the case, her inattention was a good thing since neither Fifa nor Aeld were skilled at stealth. Aeld somehow managed to kick every pebble and skid in every patch of gravel he found, and Fifa kept up a low muttering under her breath as she flashed me dark looks. If guard patrols had been roaming the area, they probably would have heard us coming a mile away. I didn’t bother to shush the pair; there wasn’t much point, really, since no one was around, and besides, I doubted protesting would change much.
I led the letharvisa along a new route through the tunnels and came at the crystal chamber from a different direction than I had before. It was easy opening a hole in the wall near the floor and slipping through, and we wormed our way into the chamber without raising any alarms that I could sense. Again, had I been the heltharvis, I probably would have at least laid some sort of alarm over the chamber and reinforced the walls so my escaped captive couldn’t just flit inside once more, but none of that had happened. I felt certain I knew why it hadn’t, but it was nice to receive confirmation of something that had really been little more than an educated guess before.
Fifa gasped as she saw the crystal chamber, and I quickly reached out and clamped a hand over her mouth. I stared into her eyes, seeing amazement and curiosity both mingled with annoyance there. I touched a finger to my lips, then pointed at one ear. Her eyes widened as she heard the sound of low voices muttering unintelligibly, and understanding filled her face. I felt her jaw clench beneath my hand, and I slowly removed it before slipping forward once more until I could see the people speaking.
The room was much more crowded than it had been the last time I was here. A contingent of Oikie soldiers stood in a loose formation just outside the third ring of crystals, ten of them wearing bronze chain armor and carrying their musket-like weapons. They fortunately faced the door to the room, not the walls where they could spot us, no doubt guarding the other three people in the room.
The two ojaini moved together around the area near the first two circles, crouching low every so often and examining the bases of the crystals set into the floor or touching their polished tips gently. They spoke together softly, the source of the quiet speech filling the room, their words too low for me to really understand them. They looked uncertain and nervous as they spoke, and that anxiety seemed to only increase as they glanced at the last figure standing in the room.
The patriarch stood before the flawless crystal, staring down at it silently, his back to the others but his right side facing me. His unguarded expression showed nothing but naked greed as he gazed at the crystal, and his hands folded across his chest opened and closed spasmodically as if wishing they could grab it. Any trace of benevolence was gone, and his presence here suddenly made a great deal more sense, at least to me. I couldn’t help but doubt anyone who claimed to do things for purely altruistic reasons; the cynic in me simply wouldn’t accept that they didn’t have some hidden ulterior motive. If his plan in all this was to let the heltharvis perform her ritual, then take the priceless crystal from her—well, that made a lot more sense to me, and I could see how something like that would benefit him. From what Kadonsel said, that crystal was a treasure worth a kingdom’s ransom, and I could imagine that he could leverage that value into all sorts of political power, perhaps even a shot at the throne—assuming he wanted it.
He schooled his expression into a carefully neutral one, then glanced back over his shoulder at the pair of ojaini. He spoke quietly, his words clear and vaguely familiar but still incomprehensible to me—at least, for the few seconds it took Sara to break them down.
You have learned: Rantala Clan-Speak!
You can now speak and understand this language.
“…integrity of the crystals?” the patriarch spoke, his voice calm and obviously deliberately bland.
“I—I can’t say, Patriarch,” one of the ojaini replied nervously, his voice shaking slightly.
“You can’t say?” the noble echoed, his voice hardening. “We’re about to participate in a calling of unspeakable power, fueled by what may be the single most valuable crystal ever—and you can’t tell me if the crystals have been altered or moved?”
“They have, Patriarch,” the other ojain said quickly in a servile tone. “Been moved, that is. That much is certain. However, what the alterations mean—that, we simply can’t say.”
“Why not?”
“Crafting arrays isn’t either of our specialties, Patriarch,” the first one said. “And this is the most complex and complicated array either of us have ever seen. Parts of it are simply beyond our understanding.”
“The crystals are still intact,” the other said hurriedly. “That we can determine. The array will gather power as intended once it’s complete. The focus, though—I’m not sure about that. It looks like it’s still the central crystal, but it might be slightly off.”
“And if it is?”
“Then anyone standing near the central crystal when it goes active will probably die, Patriarch. That level of power density?” He made a face. “Nothing could live through that.”
“Hmm,” the noble replied, reaching up and rubbing the side of his face gently. “That could be useful.” He glanced back at the soldiers. “Komenta, is the outer circle intact?”
A more fancily dressed soldier stepped from the group, wearing armor chased with gold at the edges and carrying a saber in addition to her rifle. She walked crisply over to the patriarch and bowed her head, buckling her forward knees to lower her entire body.
“At last report, yes, Patriarch,” she declared. “The Admiralty reports full completion of the circle with no gaps. It has ships patrolling it to be certain there are no breaks, and the keraali has forces stationed along the line south of the mountains to ensure that nothing disrupts it.”
“Kadonsel, what’s a ‘keraali’?”
“The commander of a clan’s military forces,” she answered promptly. “Why?”
I blinked in slight surprise. “That soldier—the komenta, I think the patriarch called her—mentioned it. Didn’t you hear her?”
“You understand their clan tongue?” she asked in a surprised voice. “I certainly can’t!”
“I’m only translating for you, John,” Sara reminded me. “Kadonsel only understands any languages she normally speaks.”
“That—makes perfect sense,” I sighed. “That guy just said that the outer circle is totally complete and being guarded. Do you think that your Admiralty sent another ship up to replace yours?”
“I—I have no idea,” she replied. “It’s possible. I know there were other ships in the area. They could have finished the part of the circle we left incomplete.”
I didn’t bother to answer. She was right, but it could also be that no smart captain wanted to report failure to their superiors. I recalled how the kateen of Kadonsel’s ship had written his journal as if someone higher up would be reading it; that suggested that people were looking for reasons to punish officers, and that implied that they weren’t likely to admit mistakes.
I turned away from the ojaini and looked back at the letharvisa behind me, wanting to judge their reactions. Their faces reflected anger and confusion in equal measures, and I guessed that they couldn’t understand the Oikies any more than Kadonsel did.
“Excellent, Komenta.” The patriarch turned away from the soldier and looked back at the crystal. I could practically hear the greed and caution warring in his head. He obviously didn’t trust the heltharvis—he and his group had come here to inspect her work, no doubt suspecting treachery, and they’d brought some guards to make sure she couldn’t easily interfere. Their soldiers carried heavier weapons, the kind that I’d seen hurt and even kill Menskies, and they looked ready to use them. That suggested that there wasn’t a lot of faith between the two groups.
At the same time, there was a good chance that letting this calling happen would pay off handsomely for the man. I assumed that controlling the kind of power she intended to call would be hard and take a lot out of the heltharvis. More importantly, it would break her valskab and strip her bound high spirit from her, meaning she would be weak and vulnerable afterward. With the Menskies no doubt in chaos after losing their mental communication—and dealing with attacks from their own elder spirits—the heltharvis drastically weakened, and the Bargain that made the Haelendi deadly to Oikies gone, the patriarch could probably grab the crystal, kill or capture the heltharivs, escape the volcano, and make it back to Okie territory without too much difficulty. He probably had troops at the border waiting to take advantage of the chaos, ready to invade the Haelendi and come rescue him. I certainly would have in his shoes. Of course, she wouldn’t care since with the calling done, she’d probably leave the world the first time she passed through a door, but this guy didn’t know that.
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I had a feeling that greed would win out over caution, here. The patriarch really wanted that crystal, and I guessed that he was willing to gamble the safety of his people on it. Besides, he couldn’t really pull the plug on the calling anyway, even if he wanted to. The ojaini could probably try to change the crystals back to their original configuration, but I felt sure the heltharvis could fix it, and trying would probably get them all killed. His ten soldiers and two ojaini were no match for the heltharvis, at least not here in her seat of power with her high spirit at her side, and they certainly wouldn’t be able to fight their way out of Aldhyor and cross the Haelendi without whatever she’d done to shelter them from the Bargain. Their only play at this point was to let the calling run its course, hope for the best, and then work with what remained.
And honestly, I didn’t care if they did. The flawless crystal didn’t matter to me in the slightest, and neither did the patriarch’s ambitions. The heltharvis probably felt the same way; she no doubt assumed that she’d be leaving this world right after all this completed, after all. I didn’t give a shit about Oikie politics, and while the patriarch probably wasn’t a great guy, I’d never met anyone who’d reached the level of power he had who was. If that were all there was to it, I would have been happy to leave the Oikies in peace.
Sadly, it wasn’t. The Oikies were a wild card in all this, and I didn’t need more moving pieces screwing up the game board and forcing me to mix my metaphors. The patriarch would protect and defend the heltharvis, at least until the ceremony finished, meaning he was my enemy, too.
I glanced back at Aeld, caught his eye, and pointed at the soldiers. I made a gesture like I was holding a rifle, then pulled my hands apart like an explosion. He looked confused for a moment before his expression cleared. He held out his hands helplessly, and I swore silently. This all would have gone easier if he could have simply destroyed the soldiers’ weapons the way he had up at the Northern Ocean, obviously. I guessed that without his connection to the valskab, though, he simply lacked the power for it. I pointed to him and Fifa, brought my fingers together, then pointed at the soldiers. The woman made a face, but Aeld gave the thumb’s up signal that Bregg and I had worked out long ago to signal acceptance. I turned back to face the others and rose slowly to a knee, lifting my spear in a reversed grip. I took a deep breath, aimed, and threw.
The spear whistled as it sailed through the air, crackling with the power of a Channeled Strike. The blade slammed into the patriarch’s side with a flash, the extra power I’d fed it ripping through his undoubtedly armored coat and letting the weapon sink into him. He cried out in pain, shock, and fear, doubling over and grasping the weapon. The ojaini stumbled backward, their eyes wide and horrified.
The soldiers, though, responded instantly as their commander barked a sharp command. Half of them ran over and placed themselves between me and the patriarch, while the rest wheeled quickly to form a line facing us and lifted their weapons. Power flared in each, and I ducked behind the nearest crystal as metal barbs raced past me or pinged off the surface. Pain flared in my calf, and I looked down to see a barb protruding from the meat of my leg, but otherwise, I was fine.
The group before the patriarch also lowered their weapons, but before they could, a blast of fire exploded in their faces. The flames were too spread out to do much damage, but the soldiers cursed as the heat and light temporarily blinded them and seared their delicate lips and nostrils. At the same moment, a spray of icy crystals whipped out and coated the first group of soldiers, again doing little damage but forcing them to close their eyes and recoil from the bitter cold.
I pushed the pain in my leg aside with Pain is Gain and Adrenaline Surge as I rolled out from behind the crystal, my spear appearing in my hand again as I raced toward the soldiers near the patriarch. I reached them in seconds thanks to my stats and long legs, and I slammed into the first like a freight train. My spear plunged into their throat above their chain armor, and I yanked it out before stabbing at the next with Heartstrike. My blade ripped through their chain shirt and slipped into their heart, and I left it there as I grabbed their rifle and slammed it like a club into the skull of the next. His skull crunched beneath the blow, and I pulled my spear back out from where I’d left it and swept it low, cutting into the leg of a fourth Oikie. They stumbled slightly but remained erect on three legs, but as they recovered, my weapon darted up and plunged into their eye. The last managed to lift her rifle and fire at me, and my chest stung as the barb tore through my armor and sank into the muscle beneath. I ignored it as I whipped the butt of my spear around, cracking it into the side of her head before plunging it down and finishing her off.
The patriarch knelt on the floor, blood pouring from the wound in his side, while the two ojaini knelt beside him with crystals in hand, no doubt trying to heal him. One looked up at me in fear and reached into their jacket, pulling out a wand-shaped device that pulsed with power. I fell backward as an arc of electricity shot from it and slammed into my chest, snapping and popping. My muscles seized up, and I tumbled to the floor as the local equivalent of a stun gun put me down in a hurry. I reached for one of the high spirits, intending to empower my body with it and push through the pain, but before I could, the wand in the ojain’s hand burst into flame. The ojain cried out and dropped the weapon reflexively, and the power searing into me ceased, giving me control of my muscles once more. My limbs felt weak and shaky, but I managed to push myself back upright and swept my spear low, knocking the wand spinning across the floor. The spear butt whipped out again, cracking into the side of the ojain’s head, and his eyes rolled up as he dropped to the floor. The second ojain scrabbled at their belt with a hand, but I slammed the butt end of the spear into his forehead, and he crumpled, unconscious.
I spun to face the other soldiers, who were dealing with the letharvisa’s attacks. Blades of wind sliced at them; flashes of fire and blasts of ice exploded in their faces; stone spikes shot up beneath their feet. None of the attacks were dangerous, but they kept the soldiers’ focus on the two shamans and prevented the Oikies from attacking me. Well, most of them; as I spun, I saw the finely dressed komant leveling her rifle at me, and I dove sideways as the barb hissed past me and pinged off one of the crystals. I rolled to one knee and flung my spear, whipping it sideways at the woman. The weapon skittered and spun across the floor before cracking into her feet, knocking her front ones out from under her and forcing her to rear on her back ones to stay erect.
I charged her and slammed into her before she could come down, bowling her over backwards and landing atop her. She yanked a dagger out from somewhere and slashed at me, cutting a line across my shoulder and cheek before my hand lashed out and grabbed her wrist. I twisted, locking her arm across her chest, then slammed a fist down into her skull, activating Lunge as I did. The empowered blow slammed her head backward into the stone, and her chainmail hood did nothing to shield her brain from bouncing around inside her skull. She blacked out instantly, and I sprang to my feet, snatching up my spear.
It took me less than a minute to finish off the rest of the soldiers, distracted as they were by the two letharvisa. Their chain armor made things a little more difficult, but my high Prowess and use of abilities made the outcome essentially predetermined. Plus, their armor seemed to be designed to deal with the piercing attacks of spears, not blunt force trauma, so cracking the haft of my spear against a few skulls worked just fine to bring them down, and once they were either unconscious or stunned, stabbing them somewhere vital but not protected by mail wasn’t too difficult.
I walked back to the patriarch, who pushed back from me, one hand raised defensively while the other clutched the wound in his side. That no longer bled freely and merely oozed blood, which I guessed meant the ojaini had healed the man enough that he’d live. He scooted back until his back struck the flawless crystal, his eyes wide and panicked.
“W-wait!” he begged in badly accented Menskie. “I’m not your enemy! We can work together against the heltharvis…” He fell silent as I cracked him across the temple with my spear, and quiet settled over the room—a quiet quickly broken by the sound of joyful laughter.
“Well done!” a familiar voice spoke, and I spun to see the heltharvis suddenly shimmer into my vision as if stepping through an invisible curtain. I lifted my spear, pointing it at her, but she only gave the weapon a disdainful glance and then ignored it. “Thank you for disposing of those for me. Not that they mattered, but this will all certainly go easier without them around.”
“That’s a neat trick,” I replied. “Appearing like that. Mind teaching me how to do it?”
“Yes, I do.” She continued walking forward, and as she approached, Aeld and Fifa backed up, placing themselves behind me.
“Heltharvis,” Aeld began, but the woman just shot him a withering glance.
“Be silent, Letharvis,” she snapped before turning back to me. “I have no time for lessons, or for games. Put down that ridiculous weapon, allow yourself to be bound, and come with me. It will be easier on all of us.”
“What if I’d rather not?” I asked. “You can’t hold me with that spirit of yours, obviously.”
“Apparently, but it isn’t necessary.” She lifted a hand, and a half-dozen more shapes suddenly materialized, appearing the same way she had. Hulking, grim guards moved to take their places around the woman, flanking her with their weapons aimed at me. I eyed them with a slightly sinking feeling, but I didn’t let any trace of that show on my face.
“And?” I asked confidently. “You think I’m afraid of them? Besides, fights are dangerous. If something went wrong, you could lose that high spirit you want so badly.”
“True. That’s why there won’t be any fighting—will there, Letharvisa?”
I spun and whipped my weapon toward the pair of shamans as power surged behind me, ready to strike. As fast as I was, though, Fifa was faster, and a thick band of light blue power shot from her and slammed into me, wrapping me up in bands of frigid ice. I struggled to break free, and the ice groaned and crackled, but Fifa simply focused more power into her spell, and my shackles thickened until they held me tightly, unmoving despite my struggles.
“Forgive us, Freyd,” Aeld said softly, his eyes stricken and his voice soft. “You don’t understand the enormity of what’s happening here—and what this means for our people.”
“I kn-know m-more th-than…” I stammered, shivering as the cold sank into my body, but before I could speak, a ball of mud suddenly appeared in my mouth, hardening quickly to stone.
“There’s no time for explanations or recriminations,” the heltharvis snapped. She looked back at her guards. “Take him to the ritual chamber. I will be there shortly.” She looked back at the two letharvisa. “You’ve done well, both of you. As a reward, you will assist me, and when we succeed, I will name both of you as members of the rashi.”
“I do this for the people, Heltharvis,” Aeld said coldly. “Not for myself or for glory.”
“Which is why I will bring you into the rashi, Letharvis. Those who seek power are the worst ones to hold it.” She made a dismissive gesture toward the unconscious Oikies. “Like that filth over there. They claimed to care about their people and stopping the war, when really, all he wanted was my crystal to magnify his own position.” She turned and looked at me, and when she spoke, it was in that odd language she’d used before.
“This has been interesting, Inquisitor,” she said with a thin smile. “However, now it’s over. That high spirit will be mine, and the ritual will happen tonight—and you can do nothing to stop it.”
I couldn’t say a word as she dragged me off, but I had to conceal a smile. So far, everything was going according to plan.