Cursed Bones

chapter 19



By midafternoon they were gaining altitude as they reached the base of the glacier that blanketed the mountain range to the north of Zuhl’s capital city. The soldiers searching for them had fanned out throughout the city but it was such a large place that Anatoly and Magda had little difficulty evading them. Since there wasn’t a wall surrounding the city itself, it had been relatively easy to escape, especially after darkness fell.

From their vantage point in the foothills overlooking the city, they could see the true size of Zuhl’s army.

“I knew he had a lot of men, but I had no idea just how many,” Anatoly said. “We have to come up with a way to eliminate those ships.”

“Hopefully, the Elite Guard will have some luck on that front,” Magda said. “And perhaps Alexander was successful against Zuhl himself. I don’t know the contents of the book we gave him but I have my suspicions. If I’m right, Zuhl may well be dead already. If that’s the case, it’s only a matter of time before all those men down there start fighting amongst themselves.”

“Wouldn’t that be nice,” Anatoly said.

“In the meantime, we should probably proceed as planned,” Magda said, pointing to the base of the mountain range below them. “It looks like they’ve assembled a hunting party.”

“It was only a matter of time,” Anatoly said, “especially if that really was their commanding general.”

“Given his weapons and armor, I would say it’s highly likely,” Magda said.

“Shame we didn’t have more time with him,” Anatoly said.

“Before this is over you may get your wish,” Magda said. “It looks like his adjunct is leading the hunting party.”

“How can you see him from here?” Anatoly said.

“Magic.”

Anatoly grunted, turning toward the mountain slope leading up to the snowcapped peaks above.

Less than an hour later a shadow passed overhead. Anatoly spun his war axe into his hands as Magda began casting a spell. Flying overhead was one of the half-man, half-dragon creatures that had helped abduct Abigail from Fellenden. It roared but didn’t attack, instead taking up a wide orbit high overhead, marking their position for the hunting party.

Anatoly slung his axe and withdrew Abigail’s bow from its carrying case on his back. “I’ve never been very good with a bow, but I might be able to take that thing down with this.”

“Perhaps we can lure the others into an ambush,” Magda said.

“What did you have in mind?”

She pointed to a rocky outcropping overlooking the trail they were following. “From there I can eliminate most, if not all of the pursuing soldiers, provided I have a few minutes of uninterrupted time to cast my spell.”

“You’re sure?” Anatoly asked. “If your spell doesn’t work, we’ll be trapped.”

“I’m sure, except for that one,” she said, pointing to the creature flying overhead. “My spell will have no effect on it, so you may want to keep that bow handy.”

“All right then, we’d better get into position.”

They climbed to the top of the outcropping and cleared the area of debris so they could find firm footing, and then they waited, Magda watching the trail below, and Anatoly watching the creature floating above them, Abigail’s bow in hand, an arrow nocked and ready.

An hour passed before they heard the sounds of men drifting through the crisp air. A few minutes later, the first of the hunting party rounded the corner, coming into view. Magda began her spell. The creature above called out again, alerting the hunters to their presence.

Twenty men fanned out in the narrow confines of the mountain pass. Magda continued to focus on her spell.

The nearest man raised his bow and sent an arrow at them but it fell short. They began to approach the base of the outcropping, looking for a way to climb to the top, while the leader, armed with his dragon-scale shield and finely crafted long sword, stood back, watching his men approach their quarry.

Anatoly looked over at Magda, who was lost in the concentration needed for her spell. He shrugged to himself as he raised Abigail’s bow, taking aim at the creature floating overhead. The bow drew easily, he sighted down the length of the arrow, leading the creature as it glided on the cool mountain air … then he released. The arrow flew true but the creature saw it coming and rolled away from it with just inches to spare. Anatoly frowned, looking down at the men approaching the outcropping. Then he drew another arrow.

Magda stretched out both hands and continued her spell. A minute had passed since she began, maybe two, and still she chanted under her breath. Anatoly could almost feel the coiled rage building within her as she projected her vision of the moments to come into the firmament, demanding that it bend the rules of reality to her will.

A man below shouted to his companions, pointing to the path leading to the top of the outcropping. The men began to move toward the path, clustering together as they did.

Magda paused, closing her eyes for a moment, then opening them as she spoke a single forceful word. A tattered bolt of unnatural grey energy shot forth from her outstretched hands and struck the ground in the center of the cluster of men. From the point of impact, the ground took on the same unnatural grey tinge in an expanding circle. It was forty feet across when it stopped a moment later. All of the men looked down expectantly, but none were close enough to the edge of the circle to act, even if they’d had the presence of mind to try.

Every hair on Anatoly’s body stood on end as the laws of nature were violated in such extreme fashion that the ground itself seemed to cry out in distress.

Nineteen men and every loose stone and pebble within the unnatural grey circle fell up into the air as if gravity itself had been reversed. Thirty, forty, fifty feet they plummeted upward and then the spell’s effects faded. The men reached their apex at about sixty feet before the natural order was restored and gravity claimed them once again. They screamed as one and then were silenced as one when their bodies crashed to the ground, bouncing once and then coming to rest, still and dead.

The leader backed away from the outcropping, shield raised, until he rounded the corner. The creature overhead roared once and fled as well.

“Huh,” Anatoly said. “Not bad.”

Magda smiled while some of the rage necessary for casting such a powerful spell still danced in her eyes.

They traveled the rest of the day, leaving the sure footing of mountain stone and setting out onto the glacier in the early afternoon. By evening they came to the chasm, right where Alexander said it should be.

Anatoly looked down the chasm and whistled. “That’s going to take some doing.”

“I can get us to the bottom safely,” Magda said, “but if this isn’t the right place, we’ll be stuck.”

As if on cue, Alexander appeared before them, smiling.

“I’ve been watching your progress,” he said. “At the bottom of the chasm is a fissure that leads through the ice to a natural cave. Ixabrax is there.”

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Anatoly asked.

Alexander shrugged. “It’s the only way. I’ve looked around Whitehall and it’s a fortress in every sense of the word. Zuhl’s guards are alert and suspicious of everything, calling for reinforcements at the first sign of anything out of the ordinary. I appeared in front of one just to see what would happen. Within a minute, there were twenty men sealing off the area, and three minutes after that one of his blue-skinned guys showed up. He cast spells for half an hour looking for me.”

“What are those things anyway?” Anatoly asked.

“I did some more looking around to answer just that question,” Alexander said. “The men address them as Priest or Priestess and they seem to have some of the characteristics of dragons. I can only guess that they’re Zuhl’s creations.”

“The soldier with the dragon-scale shield called the one they were with Priestess,” Anatoly said, “and she had magic.”

“Perhaps Zuhl has devised a way to use his dragons to circumvent the need for the mana fast,” Magda said.

“How do you mean?” Anatoly asked.

“Dragons are creatures of magic,” Magda said. “Perhaps Zuhl is using their magic to imbue his minions with access to the firmament. Even if the magic they wield is limited and obviously produces side effects, it does give him an advantage in terms of numbers. He could have hundreds of these priests, maybe more.”

“I don’t like the sound of that,” Anatoly said.

“Me neither,” Alexander said, “but there’s nothing we can do about it right now.”

“It would be nice to know what we’re up against,” Anatoly said.

“I’ll do some more looking around,” Alexander said. “For now, I’ll go let Ixabrax know you’re coming so he won’t be startled by your arrival.”

“Good,” Anatoly said, “wouldn’t want to startle a wounded dragon that hasn’t eaten for days.”

“He wants to free his family more than he wants to eat you,” Alexander said.

“Just the same, I wish I’d brought him a mountain goat or something,” Anatoly said.

“Perhaps we could offer him a number of Zuhl’s soldiers,” Magda said.

Anatoly chuckled. “That’s kind of gruesome, but I like it. So how are we going to get down there?”

“Take my hand,” Magda said.

Anatoly frowned but did as he was told. She began casting her spell. A few moments later she looked at him and smiled mischievously.

“Now we jump,” she said. “Just don’t let go of my hand.”

He looked from her to Alexander and back to her again. “You know I don’t like heights and I like falling from high places even less.”

“It’ll be fine,” Magda said. “My spell will slow our descent.”

He took a deep breath and nodded to her.

“You don’t have to break my hand, just hold onto it,” she said, stepping from the edge of the chasm.

They fell quickly, but not as quickly as they would have left entirely to gravity’s influence. At a hundred feet they began to slow until they landed easily at the bottom of the chasm two hundred feet below the surface of the glacier. The air was still and terribly cold, but Anatoly was sweating.

“I don’t want to do that again,” he said.

“I hate to bring this up right now,” Magda said, “but I suspect that we’re going to leave here on the back of a dragon.”

“I was really trying not to think about that,” he said.

“This way,” Alexander said a moment after he appeared before them. “Ixabrax is expecting you.”

They followed Alexander’s illusion through a giant crack in the ice and finally into a cave that opened up into a wide-domed cavern. In the center, Ixabrax lay coiled tightly, one eye open, watching them as they entered.

“Ixabrax, these are my friends,” Alexander said. “They’ve brought magic to heal you and they know where you can get an easy meal.”

“Very well, Human,” Ixabrax said. “I did not expect you to return, but I will honor our arrangement.” He turned his eye toward Anatoly and Magda. “You may proceed.”

“I’ll be back when I’m needed,” Alexander said, fading from sight.

Anatoly nodded, removing a jug from his pack. “This is a healing draught,” he said, holding it up to the dragon. “Drink this and it will mend your wounds.”

Ixabrax reached out with his taloned hand and took the jug, looking at it suspiciously for a moment before popping it into his mouth and crunching it with a single bite, swallowing the broken clay jug along with its contents.

“How long?” he asked.

“A few hours,” Magda said. “You’ll probably go to sleep while it does its work.”

“Very well,” he said, curling up and closing his eyes.

“We might as well get some rest, too,” Anatoly said.

“Given the frigid temperature down here I suggest we share our warmth,” Magda said.

Anatoly grunted agreement.