Cloak & Dagger: Book II of The Dragon Mage Trilogy (36 page)

The elemental turned to look at the speaker, whose blue-green robe wavered in the light of the cavern. “I shall not!” she retorted, her voice shaky and exhausted.

“Continue to poison the water!” ordered Relg the lizardmage. He shook his gnarled staff as he spoke. The third row of lizardmages added their magic to the others. There was no effect.

“I am tired,” stated the elemental wearily. “I am going to rest. I am leaving you.”

“No!” cried Relg. “You cannot disobey! You are under our control!” More lizardmen pitched in with their magic.

“I am not under your control,” intoned the water elemental. This time her voice had an edge to it. She was getting angry.

“No! It cannot be!” shrieked Relg. He began chanting himself.

“Fools!” muttered the elemental. She began to sink into the river.

Unusual sounds and cries of pain at the edge of the gathered lizardmages drew their momentary attention. The elemental paused to see what was going on.

“Concentrate on the summoning magic!” cried Relg. He could not afford distractions. The elemental should be easy to summon within sight of them all.

By now, most of the lizardmages were trying with all their might to regain control of the elemental. The rest - the ones who were closer to the commotion, directed their attention that way.

Bashing through the ranks of lizardmages was an angry cyclops and a ferocious dwarf. Instinctively, some of the lizardmages tried to cast spells against the intruders. Their spells failed to materialize. They tried several different spells, all without success. The mace and dagger silenced their babbling faces.

Vera was overjoyed that her ‘silence’ spell had worked. Not only did it free the elemental, it prevented the lizardmages from counterattacking with their magic. The cleric ducked out of sight to let the fighters do the battling. The initial rush was successful, but the lizardmages had regrouped and started to gain the upper hand by surrounding the cyclops and dwarf, who had moved too far from the river’s exit.

The angry lizardmages were restricted to jabbing with their staves. Their weapons were cumbersome, but their strength in numbers was superior by far. They soon landed blows with their staves and pressed in from all sides. Vera wished she could help her friends, but knew her spells would also fail.

By now Relg knew what was happening. He saw the fighting and knew that was a diversion. He was too intelligent to miss the fact that someone had cast a silence spell on him and his helpers. He looked around for tell-tale signs of a spell caster and spotted Vera peeking around a large boulder. Her mostly white cloak had given her away. Relg’s pointed snout spread into a sinister grin. He pushed past the other lizardmages, some of whom were still trying to regain control of the elemental, and worked his way toward the undefended cleric.

Things were looking dire for the companions, when several fireballs blasted into the crowd from above. High up, at the top of the stairs that wound around the cavern, was Tyris!

“Tyris!” exclaimed Vera in a whisper. The fire elemental had come to their rescue! Her joy was cut short when she brought her gaze back down to the chaos below. Right in front of her stood Relg. His shimmering robe seemed to be blacker and more forbidding up close. He seemed even more fearsome since he wasn’t the least bit intimidated by the fire elemental’s fireballs.

“You are a fool!” snarled Relg. “You think you can just come here and stop us so easily? When you are dead, my minions will once again be able to cast spells. Your feeble attempt to hinder our plans will amount to nothing. I will enjoy killing you!” He raised his staff and swatted Vera with uncanny ease. She flew back and landed in the river. The strike, combined with the ice cold water, knocked the wind from her lungs. The cleric tried feebly to pull herself back to the river’s edge.

Relg took a step forward to finish the cleric, but froze when he heard a menacing voice behind him. “Pick on someone your own size, you slimy lizard!”

Relg spun on the speaker and swung his staff at the same instant. His staff flew through open air. The only thing he saw when he came to a stop was a sword pointed at his chest.

“Nice try,” said the voice venomously, “but not good enough.” The sword plunged into the lizardmage’s chest and twisted around. All Relg could do was gurgle as he dropped to the ground. He dropped his staff and his greenish blood flowed into the river, poisoning it further.

Invisible hands grabbed the cleric firmly by the arms and pulled her ashore. “Wait here.”

Vera knew the voice but was too winded to respond. She merely nodded. Alric had shown up just in time. She would thank him later.

Meanwhile, the tight quarters that Rebecca and Cyril had experienced had lessened off a bit. Many lizardmages were escaping down some nearby tunnels, while others were more interested in doing away with the intruders. By now most of the lizardmages had given up the summoning spell to help their friends or save their own skins. Fireballs continued to rain down on them from above, and some of them rolled into the water, making the water elemental hiss in agony. The clash between the elemental forces coming into contact with one another caused instant steam. Within minutes, the majority of the cavern became a dense fog. This made fighting difficult for both sides.

Alric moved stealthily among the lizardmages, killing as he went. Rebecca and Cyril continued to fend off attackers with their backs to each other.

Tyris stopped casting fireballs into the fray, sensing he was hurting the water elemental unintentionally. He did not notice the figure who had snuck up behind him from the portal. The summoning magic was so swift and methodical that Tyris barely had time to cry out. Before he knew it, he was trapped between the tines of a trident.

Brind chuckled. “This time you won’t escape, my fiery friend.”

Watching him from the shadows was a black-cloaked figure. Had Brind seen how weak and frail that figure was, he would have stayed and fought. A lightning bolt struck the trident from his hand with the same ease that he had used to capture the fire elemental. Brind was torn between fighting with the shadowy figure, retrieving his trident, or escaping.

Some more lightning bolts flew at him, but his hastily erected shield fended them off. Because Brind had to cast the shield spell, his summoning spell was negated and the elemental surged out of the trident and turned on his aggressor. Left with no other choice, Brind canceled his shield spell and opened the portal. He dove through the portal and vanished. One thought went through the lizardmage’s head. Shouldn’t the human mage be dead by now?

On the other side of the portal, Kazin was already unconscious.

Tyris hovered over him, painfully aware that he was unable to do anything to help. He was as helpless as the mage.

Back at the river, Vera caught her breath and got to her feet. The fog gave her an advantage with her white cloak. It wasn’t perfect, being wet and dirty, but it wasn’t bad either. Screams echoed eerily through the fog as the cleric crept toward the water elemental, making sure to avoid being seen by the lizardmages, most of who were on the other side of the river contending with her friends. At the river’s source, the cleric could just make out the decaying form of the water elemental. Unafraid, Vera jumped into the water with the elemental and waded out to her.

Suddenly, the elemental raised her head, ready to destroy the intruder in her space. She would have drowned Vera with a simple flick of her wrist, but stayed her hand, surprised to see a human cleric before her.

“Are - are you alright?” stammered Vera. The fierce blue eyes washed away her courage like a tidal wave. The elemental was fearsome to behold when angry.

The elemental sighed. “I have done a terrible thing,” she moaned.

“The lizardmages controlled you,” objected Vera. “You had no control over that.”

“I should have resisted,” countered the elemental.

“You can’t resist summoning magic,” said Vera. “That’s beyond your control.”

The elemental shook her head.

“You’re free now,” said Vera consolingly. “Can you fix what you were forced to do wrong?”

The elemental looked up at Vera with a sad expression. The expression was so intense that Vera’s eyes watered. “I cannot interfere with the goings on in the world unless I am summoned,” said the elemental. “That won’t be for some time, as I need to recover.” She spotted Vera’s staff. “But I can help you make a start if you wish it. I owe it to you for rescuing me.”

“I would like to help you any way I can,” said Vera. Tears rolled down her cheeks uncontrollably now. This gentle giant was so awe-inspiring that Vera’s emotions were in turmoil. She wanted to hold the elemental and weep endlessly.

The elemental took hold of Vera’s staff and her hand seemed to caress it and meld into it. The white colour washed out of the staff and swirled down the river, leaving it devoid of any colour whatsoever. “Simply touch the staff to any contaminated water and it will be cleansed,” said the elemental.

Vera raised her transparent staff out of the water and examined it with curiosity.

“I must go now,” said the elemental.

“Thank you,” whispered Vera as the giant water elemental sank into the water and became one with the river. A great sense of loss swept over the cleric and she wept.

Most of the commotion had finally subsided, and Alric located Rebecca and Cyril as they contended with the last few lizardmen. The elf stabbed the lizardmen in the back and called out to the others. “Are you O.K.?”

Rebecca’s heart leaped to her throat. “Alric, is that you?”

“Yes,” said the elf. He waved his sword around so they could see where he was.

“You found us!” exclaimed Rebecca joyfully. Then she winced. Her left arm was cut and bruised, and there was blood running down the side of her face.

Cyril lowered his mace. His right leg was ripped open and the blood ran down to his feet. His left elbow was gashed and bleeding as well. “You came just in the nick of time,” he panted. He looked around suddenly. “Where’s Vera?”

A splashing noise came from the water and the three companions bolted for the sound. Instead of lizardmen, they encountered Vera. Judging from her red eyes, she looked as though she had been crying.

“What’s wrong?” asked Cyril in concern. He stumbled forward to help her away from the water.

Vera looked up at the cyclops (who looked away) and was about to respond when she saw him wince in pain. “You’re hurt!” she exclaimed. She discovered his wounded leg and immediately began to use her healing magic. When it didn’t work, she sighed. “I can’t heal you here. My silence spell is still preventing magic from being cast here.” She looked up at the dwarf and the disembodied sword. “We have to get away from here.”

“Silence spell,” murmured Alric. “It’s no wonder the lizardmages weren’t casting spells.” Then he realized they were looking to him for an escape route. “Follow me.”

The others followed the sword as the elf led them to the stairs at the edge of the cavern. Lizardmage bodies were strewn about all over the place. Tyris’ fireballs had claimed most of the lives, the bodies burned almost beyond recognition. Many more were stabbed and lay in grotesque poses on the floor. Alric brought his sword down on one of the bodies that still moved. At least 30 lizardmages had been killed, and an equal number had fled into the many caverns.

As they wended their way through the carnage, Rebecca asked, “Where’s Kazin? I saw Tyris up in the alcove, but I didn’t see Kazin.”

“He’s up there with Tyris,” explained Alric. “Tyris had to stay up there so he wouldn’t get too close to the water elemental. Apparently, if elementals get too close, they could hurt one another. Kazin was too weak, so Tyris elected to guard him so I could come down and help you.”

“What’s wrong with Kazin?” asked Vera.

Alric realized the others didn’t know what had happened to the arch mage. “Kazin was poisoned by a lizardmage dart.”

“What?!” gasped Vera and Rebecca together.

“I got there just in time to scare off the lizardmage,” said Alric, “but the damage had already been done. The dart hit Kazin in the neck, so I think the poison had a stronger effect than if he had ingested the poisoned water. He’s in pretty bad shape.”

Vera gave Rebecca a fearful stare but said nothing.

They had reached the stairs and the sword bounced up them, matching the elf’s long strides. Cyril winced with each step and Vera held him on one side while Rebecca held him from the other. The going was slow, but as they neared the top on the far side of the cavern, they could see a light orange glow. It was Tyris.

“Who goes there?” demanded Tyris.

“It’s just us,” called Alric. “We’re all alive but some are wounded.”

At the alcove, Vera saw Kazin on the ground where he had fallen. She ran up to the mage and lifted his head off the floor. She looked up at the elemental. “What happened?” she demanded.

“I was captured by a summoner,” said Tyris, indicating the trident lying on the ground a short distance away. “Kazin used the last of his energy to rescue me before collapsing. I am in his debt.”

Alric was surprised. “You were summoned?!” He looked at Vera. “I thought you cast a silence spell that prevents spell casting?”

Vera looked confused. “Yes. Maybe my spell didn’t cover the entire cavern. It was the first time I had ever cast it.”

“That would explain why my magic to change my dagger into a sword was successful,” commented Alric. “I did that spell up here before I headed down to help you.”

An idea suddenly occurred to the cleric. She got up and tried to heal Cyril’s leg. The spell worked. “It works!” she exclaimed. Cyril’s wound began to close and heal. The cleric then went to work on the other injuries. With that completed, she used her magic to revive Kazin. Tyris leaned forward so the cleric could see what she was doing.

The arch mage stirred. He opened his eyes and winced, shutting them again. “Tyris, you’re awfully bright,” rasped Kazin.

Tyris stood back. “Sorry.”

“Kazin!” murmured Vera, hugging the mage.

Kazin tried to sit up and gently pushed the cleric away. “I think I’m dying,” he said with a hoarse voice.