I had many dreams that night, I woke at least twice to nightmares. I did have more good dreams than bad though, I dreamt of my parents before they were taken away and of the girl Danalise. I also vaguely remember something about the baker's daughter who lived down the street and used to bring Master Bertol fresh bread on occasion. I even had a dream about Iva straddling me again though this time it didn't end with a fist in my ribs.
After the wonderfully vivid dream of Iva I dreamt of fishing with my father and Master Bertol, there's a spot about an hour ride from town where the Rhys river flows into lake Irwen. Where river and lake meet there is a 100 foot waterfall, father had a special spot that we would fish at. He had proposed to mother on that spot so its always been his lucky fishing spot even if we never caught anything there. I was shaken awake mid cast by Iva, I was confused since I could still hear the roar of the waterfall from my dream and she wasn't in it.
“Remind me to take you to my father's lucky fishing spot when we get out of here.” I said smiling at her and rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.
“If you don't get your ass up we won’t be going anywhere!” she shouted over the roaring.
The sudden silence caught me off guard, I was so confused, was I still dreaming? My questions were answered when Iva activated the light stone and illuminated the room. Before us stood an enormous stone golem, all of the broken bits of statue had moved together and formed a new monstrosity. I could see the random unbroken body parts here and there. For fingers it had the unbroken legs with the thinner female torso statues for thumbs. It had absorbed not only the statues we had destroyed but also the ones that had already been broken when we entered.
It's head was a mass of broken stone, where it's eyes should have been, were two unbroken faces. Their mouths open in a silent scream with their eyes glowing an angry red. For a mouth the thing had a pair of unbroken arms on either side of it's face, hands clasped on either end of it's mouth. It was almost comical how all the pieces fit in, it was as if an artist had spent hours taking all the broken bits we had left and had rebuilt a giant statue with them.
“That shouldn’t be possible” was all I could get out.
“Well obviously it is possible since it's right there” Iva said sarcastically
“Someone has to be here now, controlling that thing! There’s no way they could be expending that much power remotely” I said, looking around in the hopes of seeing one of those horrible dungeon mages.
The monster seemed to be able to hear us because it smiled and after flexing it's fingers and forming fists several times it roared at us and charged. Though it was much larger and made from the same stone this statue moved far faster. It nearly caught me under it's clenched fist as I grabbed my pack and dashed away. Iva hurled a stone at it which exploded on impact, blasting chunks away from the golem. We stood there in stunned silence as the stones stopped in mid air and flew back to the golem patching up the hole.
“We have to find that mage” I shouted “He must be in here somewhere, he’s either invisible or peeking in thru a hole in the wall, it's the only way he could control that thing.
Handing Iva a few stones I sprint to the far end of the hall, Iva dodging the golems blow, dashing right between it's legs hurling a stone at the back of it's head. Holding up the small chunk of bone I watched to make sure Iva could see me and once she held up the same stone I nodded and closed my eyes for a second. Hoping she got the plan I loaded the stone and got my sling spinning.
Right as she threw the stone I let loose mine too, both stones impacted at nearly the same time releasing a blinding light. It was nearly blinding even thru my closed eyelids. I heard Iva scream on the far end of the hall, apparently she didn't see my blinking gesture. I also heard another scream behind me near the wall, turning in that direction I sprinted and abruptly crashed into someone.
I'll say it right now that wrestling with an invisible person is not fun. After colliding with the wall I began flailing at my opponent. Just as I found a hand full of hair I felt a sharp pain in my stomach followed by the hot burning sensation. I had been stabbed and looking down I could now see a hand holding a small knife covered in my blood. With the last of my strength I slammed my assailant's head into the wall before falling back and holding my side. Tearing into my bag I quickly found the cave worm tooth I had scribed healing onto earlier and pressed it to my bloody wound. It began to glow and I felt the burning pain turn cold and be replaced with an icy itching sensation before fading away completely.
With my wound healed I looked on my attacker for the first time, it was a young woman, only a couple years older than I was. I almost felt bad for her, almost, though it was her own fault for entering the dungeon. Digging in my less used sack I grabbed one of the collars I had collected and quickly fastened it to her neck before she could wake and fight again.
In a loud clear voice I declared “You will not attempt to harm, hurt, kill or hinder in any way myself or any of my slaves. You will follow any order given to you by Iva as if It were a direct order from me.
I felt a tingle in my arm from the masters bracelet, it was just like when I had given Iva her orders. I then placed the cave worms tooth to her head healing her as well before moving to check in Iva, she was still over in the opposite side of the room though sitting now she looked to be meditating or something.
“Are you ok?” I asked worried she may have been injured and I hadn't noticed.
“I'm blind” Iva replied sniffing. Covering her face with her hands she continued “you might as well just leave me here, I'm only useful now as a sex toy and that’s not even worth the food I'd eat. You have a new pet now just kill me and move on, if you're lucky you might even make it to your village.”
Laughing I patted her shoulder “You're a far better fighter even blind than I am, I wouldn't leave you here or use you as a sex toy, well unless you wanted to.” I said an unseen smile on my face.
A snort was all I got from her in reply. “Hold on I'll fix you right up!” I said fishing out the caveworm tooth once again. Placing the tooth to her forehead it glowed faintly before crumbling to dust. Iva blinked several times before her eyes focused on me.
“Idiot!” she said watching me wipe off the remaining dust from my hands. “That would have been far more useful to heal your next wound rather than wasting it on me.”
“Idiot!” I said in reply along with a flick in the forehead right between her eyes. “You are far more valuable to me than a broken piece of bone, I can always replace a healing item. You on the other hand I cannot replace. Come let us meet our newest companion, I have a feeling she can't come and go as she pleases now that I've collared her so she’s stuck with us.”
“You didn't kill her?” Iva asked me shock evident in her voice.
“Nope I don't particularly enjoy killing, remember I was a simple runesman. Before coming here the only thing I killed was a pie.” I said offering her my hand.
After pulling her up and collecting our remaining gear that was scattered around the room we marched over to confront the earth mage. She had a look of horror on her face, tears streaming down her cheeks, hands pulling uselessly at the collar around her neck.
“What’s your name?” I asked gently not wishing to agitate her anymore than I already had with that collar.
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“You're going to have to order her to answer if you want any straight answers from her” Iva said sitting down against the wall to watch the show.
With a sigh of resignation I gave yet another order to the poor girl. “You will always answer immediately, any question I ask honestly and to the best of your ability.”
With another tingle in my arm I see the girls eyes bulge as she tries to fight the command, she finally answers after loosing the internal struggle “My name is Gwyn” she gasps panting heavily.
“Why did you come here personally?” I asked “I've never heard of a mage entering the dungeon to assault prisoners.”
“I was contracted by duke Gervais to ensure you didn't make it to the safety of the dungeon village.” she answered “normally we don't enter the dungeon unless we're working on a specific room or puzzle. This room was my responsibility so I had access to it and when you defeated the rooms guardians I was ordered to finish you personally.”
“You must have really pissed off that duke guy if he’s sending people in here to kill you.” Iva said
“Yes” I agreed “I gave his daughter a necklace of minor protection and he walked into the room while she was hugging me in thanks for the gift. That earned me a mugging a week later and a one way trip to death row. Apparently now, my kindness has earned me assassins in the night as well” I said, sarcasm oozing as I looked down at Gwyn.
“I'm not an assassin!” Gwyn said angrily “I’m a student of the mages academy, currently mid way thru my advanced earth magics course.” she finished haughtily.
“You were an assassin” I corrected her “You were paid to kill someone that is the definition of an assassin is it not. Also you're no longer a student of anything, being my slave makes you a permanent resident of this dungeon. That collar will only come off if someone removes it or upon death. I doubt anyone is going to come in here to rescue you so you might as well get used to it!” I said in the most hurtful way I could.
I did feel bad for her, she was pretty much in the same boat I was, stuck in a dungeon for doing nothing other than coming in close proximity to a nobleman. I wasn't about to tell her that though since she had just attempted to kill us.
“I hate you!” Gwyn said quietly rage apparent in her eyes though she was unable to act on the feelings.
“You should be grateful!” I said in response “I could have just as easily ended you rather than collaring you.”
“I’d rather be dead!” Gwyn said with a huff covering her face once again with her hands and starting to cry once more.
“You most likely will be sooner than later.” Iva said dropping her sack laden with our loot at her feet “Carry that.” she ordered before heading off towards the door.
Pulling another collar out of my storage sack I placed it in my ammunition sack. I dropped my storage sack at her feet as well telling her she was now our pack mule before moving to catch up to Iva. She was standing at the now open second door scratching her head still holding the large metal key in her hands.
Looking over her shoulder she called out “hey pack mule are there any more traps or will this key open the door without further hassle?”
“There is a long hallway that slopes steeply downward” Gwyn said “it gets so steep that it becomes a slide half way down though if you are quick enough you can jump onto the stairs to the left.” after a moment's hesitation and another visible struggle she continues. “There is a spiked pit trap at the bottom of the slide and multiple spear traps on the stairs that will either impale you or knock you off into the slide.”
“Use your magic to shape a sled from the stone, one we can all ride down safely and cross the pit trap” I order Gwyn hoping she still has enough power in her to complete the task.
Still obviously struggling Gwyn stands, grabbing the two packs she walks up to stand beside me. I once again hear that rushing noise that sounds like a roaring waterfall. A large amount of the stones from the twice broken golems roll over to us. The stone begins to melt into one solid piece shaped like a long canoe with jagged saw blade looking teeth pointing out from it's bottom and sides. They were shaped in a way to slow us down as we rode down the slide.
“At least she’s useful” Iva said tossing her pack into the long sled before taking a seat in the back.
Hopping in right in front of Iva I laugh and order Gwyn to lead the way. With a sigh of defeat she gingerly steps into her creation just a little ways up in front of me placing both packs between us. Once Gwyn had settled in the sled began to move all on it's own, she was beginning to pant heavily by the time we made it thru the door and started down the slope she had mentioned.
It didn't seem like the sawtooth bottom slowed us at all as we rocketed down the tunnel, even Gwyn was screaming in terror. Apparently this wasn't how she had left it, someone must still be actively watching us if they are able to thwart Gwyn’s efforts to keep us safe. The jarring halt when we crashed into the wooden spikes at the bottom of the pit nearly ripped us from the sled. A groan of pain escaped me as I began to stand and step out of the sled, the river of red stopped me in my tracks. A steady stream of blood ran down the center of the sled towards the back where it began to pool around our gear.
Rushing forward I found Gwyn still sitting and only being held up by the 3 long wooden spikes speared through her body. One had caught her in the shoulder just missing her heart, the other two went thru her stomach at odd angles. All three had gone completely through her body, I was surprised I had missed it when we had first crashed.
“Iva!” I shouted, “Quick come cut these spikes but be gentle, we don't want to cause any extra damage.”
Grumbling about letting her die Iva obeyed my order and began hacking at the spikes near the wall. With each strike Gwyn groaned in pain as she sagged, the spikes the only thing holding her up. Lifting her face to look at me I had to smack her a few times before she was able to focus on me.
“I'm going to heal you but I need you to sit up as straight as you can once Iva cuts you free from the wall.” I said as I unsheathed my knife and began cutting her robes free from her body and the spikes.
“This is really going to hurt!” I warned Gwyn as I began to scribe the healing rune onto the first spike Iva had cut free.
I scribed the healing rune on each of the three spears right near where they pierced her leaving the activation section until I had completed all three core runes. Grabbing a broken piece of wood I forced her jaw open and placed it in her mouth.
“Bite down on this, when I activate the runes it's gonna hurt really bad….. I think” I quickly began finishing the activation, setting it so that once three runes were connected they would all go off and heal independently.
She screamed when I began scribing across her body, she bucked and I nearly stabbed her with the scribe. In the end I had to have Iva hold her down while I finished connecting the runes. The line across her stomach connecting the two spears was the easiest. The line up from each spear across her chest to the one in her shoulder was the worst. While one line went between her breasts the other ended up crossing near the center of her left breast. It was quite awkward and I had to have Iva hold it from both sides so I could carve the line as straight as possible to connect to the spear next to her heart.
Once complete light flashed across the runes and the spikes quickly turned to dust while the holes in her body began to close up. Once done all that was left was the scribe lines I had made and three small black circles where the wooden spikes had been. Apparently the ash from them hadn't left her body like I had hoped and was now stuck beneath her skin. I hoped that it wouldn't cause her any additional pain since I wasn't sure what the effects of leaving it in her body would be.
Gwyn had fallen into unconsciousness once the rune had began to heal her and she was breathing easy now lying in the bottom of the sled. I had covered her with what was left of her robes and began laughing once the adrenaline rush was finally over.
Iva looked at me quizzically while I laughed and finally I explained. “One of my friends once told me that he would see a beautiful woman naked if it killed him! I've seen more beautiful women naked in the last week than I ever have prior and its gonna kill me haha.” I had tears in my eyes by the time I finished.
Iva just snorted at me and went back to hacking at the spears though she did have a small smile on her face. Eventually I got up and assisted with the hacking, we needed to collect as much of the wooden spikes as we could carry and I took the smaller ones to build a fire tonight as we camped.
Once camp was set up I went back to check on Gwyn, she was still sleeping but her breathing was steady and I felt she would recover completely. I ended up stripping Gwyn while she slept, Iva helped once I explained what I was doing and we were able to get her robes off without waking her. Gwyn’s robes were made of some very nice fabric that would take to scribing very well.
It was large enough that I could make several chest wraps for both girls as well as actual undergarments for their lower halves. I also made a pair of shorts for me, I ended up using the rest of the blond hair I had cut from the first body I found. Once the clothing was made I put runes of protection on each of them. We even had enough that Iva would have 2 extra tops since I was sure she would burn thru them quickly being our only fighter.
Once we were both dressed in our new clothes, Iva and I lifted Gwyn out of the sled and dressed her before lying her down next to the fire. It was quite toasty with all three of us lying beneath the old blanket and I slept good even though our bed was the stone floor.