Feral Mage 3: Chapter 37

Bryce clenched his teeth as the searing hot metal touched his skin on his chest. Charlotte giggled, rolling the tip across his bare flesh, ensuring the red-hot side was always touching him. She had removed her Paralysis on him once she knew he was secured to the beam. He pulled against the chains, but they were thick enough to withstand his strength, same as the beam. He figured he’d bring the whole building down if he broke that.

“Tell me where the Princess is hiding, and we can end this,” Charlotte said, her voice sickly sweet.

She placed the iron rod back into the brazier and pulled out another one, the metal tip glowing. He could hear the shouts and screams from the battle that raged not far away in the harbor. Even without witnessing it, he knew the harbor had fallen and the defenders were falling back. He hoped the girls made it out of the city. He hoped Mark, Darren, and the rest of his guildmates had survived.

His Primal Troll Aspect finished healing the burns on his chest. Charlotte watched them as she waved the new iron rod in front of him. Ciarra was still singing her song, and he wondered what the Goddess would bring upon the city?

“If I burn out your eye, will it come back?” Charlotte asked, looking at the glowing point.

He heard the guards shout as Charlotte turned from him toward the door, her eyes widening before a fireball collided with her, knocking her back. He heard the Princess scream as she started shouting a healing spell and rolled on the ground in an attempt to extinguish the flames.

Janna?

The fireball appeared before him again, swinging wide to crash into a guard who was rushing toward the door. That time, Bryce noticed a chain was connected to the fireball. He recognized it was the lantern weapon used by the assassin he, Callie, and Isabelle had fought in the drow tunnels.

But that weapon is with…

He turned to see a sea elf woman with red hair and wearing leather armor under a white fur coat running toward him. The guards on the ground behind her were little more than burning corpses.

“Hold on, Darling,” Isabelle said as she worked to pick the lock holding him to the beam. “I’ll get you out of here.”

She gave him a faint smile.

“How did you find me?” he asked.

She bit her lip as she twisted the rake in the keyhole on the lock.

“I can hear her song too when she sings it. I figured it meant you were in trouble, so I geared up and followed it here,” she replied.

Movement caught Bryce’s eye, and he looked up to see a badly burned Charlotte holding a crossbow aimed at Isabelle.

“Behind you!” he shouted.

Isabelle reacted just as Charlotte released the bolt. She let out a cry of pain when the bolt slammed into her shoulder instead of her heart, and she quickly whirled to face Charlotte, drawing one of her swords as she did.

“A traitor to your people!” Charlotte bellowed as she pulled one of the glowing iron rods from the fire. “I am a Princess of the Saltland Kingdom!”

“Oh? You’re a sea elf? I couldn’t tell, you’re looking a little crispy,” Isabelle said, pointing her sword at the Princess.

Charlotte yelled as she charged forward, swinging the glowing iron rod. Isabelle sword batted away the makeshift weapon, but Charlotte raised her hand.

“In my God’s name, Blind!” she shouted.

Bryce quickly closed his eyes, still seeing the bright flash of light through his eyelids as Charlotte used her magic. He pulled on the chains still binding his legs, trying to break them. When the flash faded and he opened his eyes, he saw Isabelle had taken a defensive pose with her sword held out in front of her and her eyes closed in a grimace. Charlotte laughed as she jumped back by the brazier and hooked the metal rod under the container of burning coals. Bryce realized what she was about to do.

“Isabelle! Cover yourself now!” he shouted.

Charlotte flung the brazier at Isabelle, burning coals raining down on her. Isabelle dropped her sword and wrapped her coat around herself. The burning embers collided mostly with the coat, singeing the fur, but a few still struck Isabelle, leaving burns. Charlotte rushed forward, the iron rod held by both her hands in an overhead strike. Isabelle moved to try to avoid the attack, and Charlotte brought the iron rod down on Isabelle’s shoulder with the bolt in it instead of the gang boss's head.

Isabelle’s hand shot up and grabbed Charlotte’s head.

“In the name of my Goddess, Smite!” she growled.

Blood burst from Charlotte’s head as dark wisps encased Isabelle’s hand. The sea elf Princess dropped to her knees and finally to the floor. The wisps faded as blood pooled around her, the skin peeled away from her face revealing her skull. Isabelle stared down at Charlotte’s body, then kicked her. When the Princess didn’t move, Isabelle turned back to him and approached with a tired smile.

“Sorry, Darling,” Isabelle said, wincing as her injured arm joined her good one to continue picking the lock on the cuffs. A few seconds later, the heavy iron chains fell to the ground, and Bryce pulled the bolts piercing his legs free, finally healing the wounds. Just in time for him to move to help stabilize a weakening Isabelle.

“You need to heal yourself,” he said while supporting her. “You’ve lost too much blood.”

Isabelle let out a feeble laugh.

“I’m too low on magic,” she said.

Bryce carried her to a nearby crate, sitting her down on it.

“Your Smite spell used that much?” he asked.

He pulled her jacket away and examined the bolt sticking through her shoulder. He looked back at the door, nervous that more guards would come through soon. He needed to get back to the girls before Jasper found them.

“Not the first time I’ve used Smite today. It’s a real shit show out there, Bryce,” Isabelle said with a timid smile. “Go, I’ll be fine.”

Bryce took the rags that had been his shirt and started to tear them into bandages.

“Bullshit. I leave you now, and you’ll be just another corpse on the floor here,” he said as his hand closed around the bolt in her shoulder. “This is going to hurt.”

He snapped the bolt shaft down to something more manageable and started wrapping the cloth bandages around it to stifle the bleeding. He silently swore to himself as he did. The bolt was close to where a major artery was located. He needed to get Isabelle to a healer.

“Sorry, Darling. I couldn’t stay away from you,” Isabelle said with a grimace as he tied the bandages.

Bryce gave her a stern glare.

“You saving my ass doesn’t change what you did to me,” he said.

Isabelle gave a sad smile.

“I know, and I don’t blame you if you hate me, but I don’t regret it,” she said.

Bryce made a sour expression at her words before helping her off the crate she was sitting on. He looked toward the door and frowned.

“The fighting has spilled out from the harbor?” he asked.

Isabelle nodded.

“Skirmishes are happening throughout the port district. The harbor must have fallen in the first wave. There’s also some very creepy things wandering the streets I would recommend avoiding,” Isabelle said darkly.

Abominations.

He helped Isabelle toward the door, only stopping to peer inside the crate Jasper was placing ice into. What he saw didn’t surprise him, though Isabelle gasped.

“Please tell me that’s not the Duke’s corpse,” she said, leaning against him.

Bryce turned and started leading them to the door, pulling on his Quill Wyvern Aspect as he did. “It is. Witchbrook fell before the ships even arrived.”

When they stepped out of the warehouse, the chaos of the city was apparent. He could clearly hear screams and shouts in the distance, mixed with the occasional explosion from a spell. Outside the warehouse were the bodies of five men, dog-sized rats feasting on them. He was sure they were drawn here by Ciarra’s song from their nest in either the sewer or the drow tunnels. If she kept singing, there was no telling what would have eventually come to Witchbrook.

“Please! Help me!” a sea elf man shouted, wearing the insignia of the Saltland Kingdom.

He was in the middle of the road on his back, both legs broken and covered in burn marks, as two of the giant rats were dragging him toward an alleyway. Bryce spared the man a glance before pulling Isabelle against himself and launching them both into the air with his wings.

Given the state of the city, he was willing to risk flying in it to avoid the skirmishes and hopefully get to his girls before Jasper found them. He was reminded of how the Mage had brutally and efficiently destroyed the puppets on the Duke’s ship. He couldn’t let someone like that near his girls.

Isabelle clung tightly to him as he flew over buildings. He doubted he could carry her with just his Quill Wyvern Aspect, but combined with his Primal Troll Aspect, his wings were strong enough to keep them in the air, though he didn’t know for how long.

“Where are we going, Darling?” Isabelle asked meekly with a death grip on his arms.

He could tell she wasn’t a fan of flying. Truthfully, Bryce was still trying to piece together a plan. He needed to get Isabelle to a healer, find his girls, and get Thea and Alice out of the city.

“We’re going to the temple,” he answered.

He could reunite with Bellamy, Thea, and Baroness Julia there while Sister Harper treated Isabelle’s wounds.

If they’re still there.

He didn’t know how the masses would react to the alarm bells ringing. The temple could be the safest place in the city or a tempting target for the invading army. He just hoped the chaos hadn’t arrived there yet. Below them, he heard the clashes of battle and saw corpses scattered about. Trudging through the streets was a group of a dozen soldiers, accompanied by two of the centipede abominations and another kind of abomination. The new one looked like a torso with three legs and a dozen arms sprouting from its neck stump, like someone had tried to craft a tree from corpses.

He heard the men shouting as they spotted him, but he flew over a building toward the temple in the distance. He could see the structure stretching above the cityscape.

“Darling!” Isabelle shouted.

Bryce glanced behind them, seeing several orbs of magic closing in. Bryce rolled in the air, dodging three of the purplish orbs. The next two shifted their path toward his new position, forcing him to try to duck and angle around a building. The spell struck the building instead of him, shattering the brickwork. He, though, was unable to catch the wind and started to fall. His wings beat a few times in a desperate bid to gain lift, but he soon realized it was pointless and wrapped himself around Isabelle in an attempt to shield her as they fell to the ground.