Eight 5.34: The Plan in Action II

The mountain roared as hundreds of thousands of tons of rock tumbled past the fortress, burying some of the Maltrans gathered in the mining compound and sweeping away others. Credit to the original builders, even though the fortress shook and my stomach floated as the first three floors collapsed as intended, the walls remained intact. The only signs of damage were dust falling from the ceiling and a cracked stone here and there; that was all.

Landis had faced away from me and toward the still-groaning mountain. I couldn’t see his face, but his posture was of being horrified. He’d landed on his feet after the building dropped and knew what it had signaled.

Landis of Haskawuta (Human, Silvered)

Talents: Strong Arms Supple Hands, Meant for Bashing, Man of the Hour, Penchant for Trouble, Selected for Glory

Nascent Talents: Critical Eye

My knife came up under his armor to stab him in the kidney. My other hand clamped over his mouth. The bastard bit me, then his elbow swung back to break my nose. I ducked, and before he could yell for help, I filled his mouth with water. I tried for his lungs, too, but Landis was wily and shut his mouth against me. His whole body radiated a resistance to being violated by foreign elements.

The Maltrans on the other side of the door were yelling, until Hall’s Glory brought them into order. They also knew what it meant for the mountain to fall. I’d have company very soon.

But it wasn’t Hall’s Glory like I’d expected. The corridor swam with ghosts, like a river flowing from the outside toward the egg chamber. The dead, too many to count, flowed past, raising the hackles on the back of my neck as they moved through me—drawn inexorably to Baxta. The landslide had killed many, and now they belonged to him.

That was within expectations, but we had to keep going. Hall’s Glory couldn’t be allowed to delay us.

My water covered Landis’s eyes, and a Cold Snap flash froze his eyes, blinding him. His mace struck the wall, intentionally so, and suddenly the voices in the next room went silent. I shot away from the door and avoided it slamming into me.

In my place I left ice on the ground. None of my enemies slipped, but it paused them a beat. That was enough for me to pull Bearbane from the pocket and cast a Thousand Spears. In a tight space like that—it was murder plain and simple. Sparks flew from where the enchanted spear struck stone; blood flowed as it pierced bodies. The corridor echoed with the sound of a multitude of firecrackers going off.

Landis took one of the strikes to the neck, spraying blood across a comrade’s face. His ghost came loose and was immediately sucked down the corridor, joining the mass exodus toward the egg chamber.

As the spell’s phantom spears faded, the Deer God appeared in the room with Baxta’s body, now left unattended. His antlers gored the corpse, and he tossed it against the wall, the neck snapping from the force of the impact.

Dickless and broken—there was no way Baxta would want it now.

The Maltrans lost another beat to the shock of seeing the body crumpled on the floor. The Deer God used the pause to disappear into the herd, while I cast Thousand Spears once again. More wounds appeared on the bodies of my enemies.

As one, the Maltrans locked onto me, especially their leader, and a radiant light shone from him that filled the corridor.

Buruswa the Hall’s Glory (Human, Silvered)

Talents: Hall’s Glory, Radiance Befitting Valor, Empowered Allies, Sapped Enemies

Nascent: Heaven’s Reach

He only had four talents, but they were all potent. Buruswa drained my mana—I felt it streaming toward him—and the wounds on his allies and him healed. The punctures closed; the bleeding stopped. Even Landis’s body, lifeless on the ground, was affected.

A thrill of alarm went through me. Not because of Landis, he remained dead and his ghost gone, but the radiance from Buruswa threatened to put Baxta’s body back together.

Fala left her necklace as a thin stream of water and merged with the obsidian knife, suddenly appearing in my offhand. I tossed it into the fray, yet Buruswa knocked it aside, the knife clattering against the wall behind him.

As if a sign of the battle’s momentum changing, his allies charged me and ran right into a fresh Thousand Spears. A man with Hardened Aspect barreled through the phantom weapons, taking wounds to the shoulders, thighs, and hands. The other two jumped for the walls and ceiling to avoid the worst of the thorny bramble of spearpoints created by the spell.

By the time, each of them reached me, their wounds were already healed. That took a couple of beats, though, and while the Maltrans were focused on me, none of them noticed Baxta’s body disappearing into the Hoarder’s Pocket. We couldn’t trust that it’d remain damaged with Hall’s Glory around.

That mischief complete, Fala sped her knife low to the ground and then shot up it into the unarmored section between Buruswa’s groin and ass. The telltale crack of Spiral Pierce echoed. Just one of many, but it was immediately followed by a distressed yelp, then a scream of pain as the knife dug and burrowed deeper into his body.

My beloved cast Cat’s Claw to slice her way through Buruswa’s inner organs. She cut him apart from the inside, whirring through his lungs and heart until blood bubbled from his mouth with his last breath.

The impossible had happened. Or at least, that was what these people must’ve thought. There’d been such an unyielding belief in the indomitability of Hall’s Glory—a belief now shaken. As his ghost was drawn into the river flowing toward Baxta, the radiant light that had filled the corridor faded. Leaving what? A toxic brew of despair and rage in the eyes of my enemies?

They’d reached me and were only a hair’s breadth away when Yuki blinked me aside. The Deer God matched my timing, and we skewered the two soldiers who’d taken to the walls and ceiling. Silvered bodies were resilient; the world favored them. But we were also silvered, with all the same benefits.

The surprise won us two more dead bodies. And the last? He survived for a short time longer before he fell. Four on one wasn’t exactly fair.

The whole fight had lasted only about a minute. I didn’t hear anyone attempting to breach the blockages Fala had created to isolate us from the rest of the fortress. We’d made a lot of noise, but there were also lots of distractions, including the creaking and groaning of thousands of tons of rock settling around the fortress.

I cut the light from the Maltrans, and then ran for the observation deck. As expected, the way was clear and the deck unstaffed. A hazy red light poured from the windows overlooking the egg chamber, though. An electric current permeated the air that smelled like spirit magic being invoked. Approaching, I saw ghosts disappearing into the egg at a frantic pace, and the runes on the walls flickered with their passing.

‘An emergency protocol?’ Yuki wondered. ‘Activated alongside with the failsafe or taking advantage of a mass death event?’

‘None of the staff mentioned anything about it,’ the Deer God sent. ‘And yet the boundary between life and death is thinning rapidly.’

‘What happens if there’s no body, though?’ Fala asked.

In answer to her question, the corpse intended for Baxta fell out of the Hoarder’s Pocket. Neither of us had taken it out, it’d come out on its own. A stylized jaguar glowed on its forehead as if recently branded there.

“Oh no you don’t,” I said and speared the corpse through the chest, levering the body up so that its legs didn’t touch the floor.

A moment later, the Deer God took the weight with his antlers, essentially pinning the body to the ceiling. Even so, the body reached for the egg chamber as if it could will itself there.

I heard Fala scoff, and she sent the obsidian knife whirring, casting Cat’s Claw after Cat’s Claw to cut the body. It was like she was using deli slicer on it. Meat and bone fell to the ground in a heap.

Just in case, I cast Spark on the remains to scorch them. “Should I start a fire, too?” I asked. “There’s firewood in the pocket.”

‘We don’t have time for that,’ the Deer God said.

A moment later, I heard the wailing of dozens of ghosts. Moving back to the window, I saw Baxta looking back at me, his hands pressed right up against the egg’s inner wall. The boundary had thinned that much.

“Well, damn. One more step and he’s across.” I went to take over for the Deer God, holding the corpse’s remains in place so that it couldn’t crawl away. “You’d best get in there and start eating.” The body vibrated in my hands as Fala’s knife tore through it.

The Deer God headed for the door leading into the chamber, smashed it open with a hoof, and bounded down the short set of stairs leading to the chamber floor. At that point, he was out of sight, but I knew he intended to start at the altar.

When in doubt, always start at the altar. The things acted like hinges, opening doors and windows to the domains on the other side. Or at least, that had been the Deer God’s rationale during our discussions. Personally, I would’ve started with the egg, but had been outvoted.

When Fala’s knife got to the corpse’s hips, the life suddenly went out of it, and I was left holding a pair of inanimate legs. I eyed them to make sure they wouldn’t start again, but Baxta had apparently given up on them.

I heard footsteps behind me. I dropped the legs, and Princess Lily leapt to my hand. An arrow was nocked and cast down the corridor in the time my heart beat a single time. It pierced through the neck of Buruswa’s corpse. The outline of a jaguar’s face blazed on his forehead.

From within her knife, I felt my beloved sigh. Then she shot off to start cutting this next body apart, starting with his ankles to slow him down. I put arrow through his eye, and then gave him a matching pair.

No powers or spells retaliated against me. The body was animated, but it wasn’t undead. That was confirmed by my spirit eyes.

Error

Not a valid spirit vessel.

What the body was, was resilient. It’d been silvered once, so it’d take my beloved time to whittle it down to uselessness. So, while she did that, I dropped blocks of granite from the pocket to obstruct the corridor. Fala would’ve been faster, but she was already at Buruswa, and she needed to make him and the others uninhabitable first, just in case.

Suddenly, the fortress shuddered as if struck by a titan’s fist. The faint echoes of a boom from outside managed to penetrate the many layers of stone. I started counting beats.

At seven, another boom sounded, this time fainter.

Eleven beats later, the fortress shuddered again, and now the floor tilted. The little blood remaining inside Buruswa’s corpse began to flow down the corridor toward me and the wall I was building.

The knife paused to look back.

“Keep going,” I said. “Until we know what it is, destroying all the bodies is the priority.”

The knife dipped in acknowledgement. ‘A truth for now,’ Fala sent. ‘Just leave the stone, I’ll build the wall, while I do this.’

The granite I’d been pulling from the pocket left my control and arranged itself into position. All the blocks straightened, cleaning up the lines I’d haphazardly created. So, I dropped the last of our granite and added a pile of gneiss to the heap. Fala would be able to create a three-foot-deep wall with it.

Behind me, the wailing grew louder. I padded that way and saw that the number of ghosts around the egg had thickened.  The Deer God had his head bent over the altar. A stickler for ceremony, he came it at from the side, so that he wasn’t bowing toward Baxta.

The ghost in the egg was exclaiming something, his eyes and posture righteous, but all I heard were the wails of the dead. Baxta was still far enough away for Tenna’s Gift to block his message. The boundary hadn’t failed completely—not yet.

Girding myself, I entered the chamber. Immediately, I felt like I was being bathed in a toxic sludge; it prickled and raised red welts all over my spirit. The hazy light flickered as if unseen things moved through it, and I heard whispers under the wails.

This was clearly not a simple place. Under my Conditions, I saw an Influenced (7). Not as bad as Heleitia, but pretty damned close.

So, the first thing I tried was to stick the egg in the Hoarder’s Pocket. That didn’t work, which either indicated it was enchanted to resist space-time magic or the egg was sapient.

‘Or contains sapience,’ Yuki pointed out.

 I nodded, and switched gears, moving to one of the walls to pull a section of rune-covered stone into the pocket. It resisted, too, like it was glued in place.

We’re going to need you here, love.

‘All right, hold on,’ Fala replied. ‘Let me at least take all the heads and feet.’ She intently focused on sawing off our enemies’ limbs.

Turning my attention back to the chamber, I walked around so that all the runes were visible, including the ones we’d never been able to see from the observation deck.

Anything? I asked Yuki.

‘Yes, this is making more sense now. Give us a minute.’

We need a weak spot, I reminded them.

Their qi bobbed in acknowledgement.

Just a place to start, so that we can pick away at the rest. Undermining the whole from a small section.

Their qi stilled and I felt a wave of reassurance. ‘Let us work. We know the plan.’

It was my turn to nod, and I danced from foot to foot to let loose the pressure building inside me. My hands clenched. My authority wanted to leap out, to destroy this place so that not even the foundation remained.

Already taken care of, I thought, but my authority remained unassuaged.

I shook my head, ignored the desire to throttle Baxta, and flooded the chamber with water. We’d carefully examined the walls from the outside, but the water might find a weak spot we’d missed. There was a lot of area to cover, so I intended a thin film to cover every inch of stone.

A mist arose as soon as the water left the pocket. It clung to me, and my spirit felt immediately soothed, the red welts lightening.

‘Well done,’ the Deer God sent.

But I didn’t do anything, I replied.

Instead of replying, his antlers glowed green, and the air freshened as if we stood among the tress of a virgin forest, out in the deepest wilds.

A few of the ghosts disappeared before they could get to Baxta. The number wasn’t many, but the loss of even one seemed to piss him off. His eyes turned cold as he gazed down at us. At least, he’d stopped talking. Instead, he reached for the egg’s boundary, and I felt his intent like it was a physical blow.

Fala’s knife flew down from the chamber’s entrance and into my hand. ‘The wall’s been reinforced,’ she sent. ‘Status?’

Plan’s rolling, I replied. Scenario 1, branch 3.

Surprise fluttered through my beloved. ‘We’re doing that well?’

We’ll see, I thought.

‘There’s a set of runes that serves two purposes: the first is to empower Baxta, and the second is to contain him to this chamber,’ Yuki said. ‘The problem is, the section meant to contain him appears to be melting.’

My attention snapped back to the walls. Where? I asked, yet realized that I hadn’t need to. The sensed the disturbance through the water filming the stone—a feeling of the toxic sludge focused on a spot about a yard in diameter, right under the observation window. That small?

‘Think of it like a keystone,’ Yuki said.

I nodded and immediately sent my influence into the water, infusing it with the power to banish ghosts from the world. That seemed to halt his progress.

And yet, I felt Yuki frown. ‘The pattern’s wrong. He’s not even here yet; why is focusing on breaking free of the chamber?’

I glanced back toward Baxta, and there was something about his face. His eyes were narrowed at me, but there was also a hint of… smugness. He’d been a conqueror, after all, and a brilliant strategist, at least according to Amleila’s memories.

My started to sink, yet it didn’t. My authority held me steady as I thought, It’s a trap. The attempt to break the chamber’s binding is a ruse. Baxta’s true focus is elsewhere.