Chapter 71 – How to Make Friends and Influence Monsters

The two of storms buzzed, still shaky but eager to let me know it was ready to go again. I pulled it from the deck and held it ready for Cel’s next spell while I gasped for air. He saw it, recognized it, and I locked eyes with the devilborn. He was panting with effort as well, having cast so many spells in rapid succession. It’s not just Soul Seekers limited by will-debt, after all. No mage can pull infinite power without suffering repercussions. I’m honestly surprised he could swing as much arcane energy as he did. I would bet good silver one of the necklaces dangling on his chest enhanced ice magic in some way. Thrice damned magic items. That advantage was going to win this fight.

The devilborn knew it, too. He decided to risk it, conjuring a dozen tendrils of freezing fog that snaked through the air. I cursed. It was a slow, powerful spell that Annalisa could probably dodge. He was trying to bait out the counterspell. Well, there was more than one way to affect a fight. I pulled a handful of bonded cards out of my deck, and then willed the rest over the devilborn’s head, angling them like the blades of a windmill and spinning them with as much force as I could muster. If air could move the blades, then the opposite must be true. Sure enough, the wind began to mount, and, though Cel tried to fight the motion with his will, his spell was sucked through my improvised air trap.

Celithia ducked what he thought was an attack, and then glanced back at the arcane contraption. “Very clever!” he shouted over the rush of air as he scooped up his battle wand. “But you must know you’re outmatched.”

I glanced to the side. Annalisa and Volian had each backed off. The spearman had a black eye and bruises along the left of his face, but Anna was bleeding from a half-dozen cuts on her arms and legs. Thank the gods (or Alondalis) for the constitution booster. I looked back to Cel. If he was inclined to talk, maybe he was inclined to gloat.

“Just for my own edification,” I shouted, “How were you planning to get us topside? You have to know we wouldn’t just go quietly.”

Celithia waggled a finger at me. “I’m not a fool, friend. I know we can’t drag you both against your will. After we dropped off our Drakkyn friends, I strolled over to the scroll dealers and found a genuine spell of vertical translocation.”

I grunted. “That must have cost you a pretty clipping.”

“Hense the need to recoup such an investment,” said Celithia. He shrugged. “I’m sure you understand.”

“Oh, I know all about investment,” I said, struggling to maintain the spinning array of cards.”

Volian caught his breath enough to yell at us. “Quit yammerin, Cel! He’s stallin’.”

“I agree with the weird spear guy,” said Annalisa. She raised her fists. “Let’s finish this.”

I primed the four of knaves and sent Annalisa a mental image through her deviltongue.

“On second thought, let’s talk this out,” she said.

Now it was Cel’s turn to scowl. “Now I know you’re full of shit. She’s not the talking type. What are you scheming at?”

Volian was apparently done with questions, because he hurled his spear at Annalisa. It sliced across her thigh, and she fell to one knee. Volian held out his hand, but Anna opened a tunnel in front of the speeding spear and sent it shooting off in the opposite direction.

Way to stall! I thought.

Cel leveled his battle wand, likely thinking it immune to the dispelling effects of the two of storms. I reeducated him, holding the face outward as the runes along the shaft of the wand began to illuminate. They flared, and the devilborn stared at the wand in his hands. Unlike Brokier, though, he had the sense to fling the thing as hard as he could—right at me. It detonated halfway between us, scattering filth and refuse over all parties. I covered my face from the worst of it, and when I looked up, the now scat-covered Devilborn was no longer smiling or joking. The walls echoed with the deafening blast, shaking the walls of the gallery.

“This armor was brand new!” he roared. Unlucky for me, he produced a spare wand from under his cloak.

I heard Alondalis in the back of my mind. Typically, I recommend carrying two wands.

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Well, shit.

Volian abandoned his attempts to recall his spear and pulled a pair of hand axes from his back. He didn’t exactly look eager to close the distance with Annalisa, but he didn’t look concerned, either. He stalked forward in a guarded stance, one axe in front and the other behind his ear. Anna changed her own stance to meet him, switching to a new form with one knee raised, ready to step in or kick forward. It must have hurt her to lift that wounded leg, but Annalisa was the toughest fighter I’ve ever met.

“Alright,” I said. “We’re done fighting.”

Annalisa shot a startled look at me.

“Too late for that,” said Cel. He began weaving his hands through a new gesture. “You’re too dangerous, conscious.”

“No, really,” I said. “You don’t need to worry about us anymore.” I held out both hands and called all my cards back. I made a show of stacking them and returning them to my pocket.

Cel narrowed his eyes. “What are you playing at, seeker?”

I looked over his shoulder at the mouth of the tunnel through which I’d spent the last few minutes blasting not only the ice fog spell, but as much of our scent as I could. In the gloom, I could make out a thick, chitinous form and a pair of diaphanous wings started to buzz.

The primal, survival-oriented part of Cel’s brain triggered at that awful noise. He stook stock-still, rigid as a pole, and slowly twisted to regard the insectile monster scraping its way back into the tunnel. Its mouthparts clicked, and its head tilted to fix faceted eyes on the devilborn.

“Ohh,” I called. “Who could have seen this coming?”

Volian looked between his partner and me. It was my turn to shrug. “Seer,” I said. The spearman cursed and called his weapon back to his hand. Annalisa let him do it, this time.

The creature charged.

“Run!” I shouted to Annalisa. She made to go for the bags, which were between us and the adventurers, but I pushed her in the opposite direction.

“Leave them!” I patted my pocket. “We have what we came for.”

Reluctantly, she glanced at our kit, then at the giant bug, before making up her mind and dashing back toward the ledge we’d used to climb down. Behind us, the monster screamed, and a burst of light and a deafening crack suggested that the devilborn had used his second wand. And since we weren’t dead, he’d picked the right target to use it on. Not that a beastie like that would be stopped by a simple wand. I tossed a look over my shoulder to see the monstrous scything talons swinging at the pair of adventurers, in its territory. Volian fended it off with his spear while Cel did his best to support.

Cel looked over his shoulder and locked eyes with me again. His face twisted into a snarl. “You fucking coward bastards!”

He was going to like us even less once they got away from the monster. I repeated Annalisa’s vulgar gesture. My own devilborn partner put her back to the base of the ledge and cupper her hands. I used her to boost myself up to the edge, then helped her scale it as well.

“Hold on,” I said, looking around.

“Darcent, we gotta go!” Annalisa insisted.

“Come on...” I muttered. I pulled the greed of dragons from my deck and poured my will into it. Sure enough, I spotted a shimmer against the wall of the tunnel. I pointed. “There!”

Celithia and Volian hadn’t been wearing their packs when they’d attacked us. That meant they’d stashed them somewhere. I plunged my hands into the simple invisibility enchantment Cel had used to conceal them and pulled out a pair of canvas bags. I could still hear the insect shrieking behind us, but I didn’t fancy stopping to search the bags for the scroll of translocation. I shouldered both bags and headed back the way we’d come.

We reached the elven-craft stone wall, and Annalisa made to turn right, toward the surface. I stopped her.

“Chances are, they’ve got someone watching,” I said. I rapped my knuckles against the wall. “no one knows what’s on the other side of this?”

Annalisa shook her head. “It’s blank on the map,” she said. “But we couldn’t get through!”

“Necessity is the mother of improvisation,” I said. I pulled out the three of dragons and the two of storms and showed them to her. “Then it’d be a pretty great hiding spot, yeah? Ready to chart new territory?”

Weary and wounded as she was, Annalisa grinned. “See you on the other side,” she said, as she drew her hands together and started to make a portal. I poured everything I had into the cards, and therefor, into Anna. The magic-neutralizing effect of the two of storms bound itself around the dragon siphon, and I could feel Annalisa’s tunnel come in contact with whatever enchantment protected the elven wall. The pressure blasted outward, staggering me, but Annalisa concentrated harder and kept the tiny portal forming between her hands.

A roar behind me drew my attention, and the insectile creature pulled itself into view from around the corner of the tunnel. Cel and Volian were either dead or they’d managed to get away.

“Anna...” I said.

“Not. Helping.” she growled. The portal grew. The insect was bleeding from several wounds, and one of its eyes had been pierced. But the other worked just fine. It caught sight of me and shrieked, mandibles opening wide to reveal rows of thorn-like teeth. It used those scything talons to drag itself toward us at an alarming clip.

“Anna!”

“Almost got it,” she said. Frigid air poured from the expanding portal. The creature came close enough that its acrid stench began to sting my abused nostrils, even tangible over the stink already clinging to us. It raised its talons and surged forward.

We were out of time.

I tackled Annalisa through the partly formed portal as those rending claws slashed down.

My last thought before hurling us bodily through the portal was that I’d completely forgotten about the scroll of turn monster.