Calling On Fire (Book 1) (30 page)

“But—” Esset began.

Tseka suddenly rounded on him, raising her torso up and looming down upon him menacingly, momentarily forcing the group to stop. “Don’t argue with me right now, summoner,” she warned.

Esset bit his tongue and nodded, and she moved away from him, as far as she could get without breaking formation.

There was no more conversation before they reached the city.

The next two days were spent combing the tunnels for Reshkin. Toman guessed they’d destroyed over half their numbers in the first day, not counting the larvae. Over the course of the second, he estimated the deaths of half of the remainder. By the third, the Reshkin were far less aggressive and more interested in hiding, which meant Esset spent most of his time looking through the eyes of a wolf or a panther to track the creatures down. They were far less thickly distributed, and most of the ones they found were individuals, not groups.

“How much longer do you think it’s going to take to get them all?” Esset asked as they slogged their way back through the tunnels towards the city. The real question was one they were all wondering: whether it was
possible
to get them all. All it took was for a few to escape, and within a year they could easily be back up to their old numbers.

“Not less than a week,” Toman replied with a shake of his head. He was thinking about the real question, but not responding to it. No one wanted to ask that question out loud—the thought was too bleak, and hunting in the tunnels every day was tough enough as it was.

“We’ll just have to look forward to the celebration,” Nassata said instead. “Once we reopen the entire underground city, we have a celebration planned, and you will both be invited.”

“Well then... We’ll just have to finish this all up as quick as we can,” Toman said, rubbing his hands together with a wolfish grin, evoking smiles from those looking at him. Esset shook his head at his brother, needing the laugh, however brief.

“I gotta admit, I’m most looking forward to having open sky above me again and seeing the sunshine,” Esset confessed.

“Oh come on, everyone knows you spend all your time inside anyways, with your nose stuck in a book,” Toman teased. Everyone smirked—Esset had asked on a number of occasions about the Nadran library and when they might be able to visit it, but so far they’d decided to leave it sealed to protect it from the Reshkin.

“I like reading outside too,” Esset said, raising his nose in a mock-superior fashion. “I am—look out!” He was the first one to notice the movement above them, but he wasn’t fast enough. Part of the ceiling collapsed, and they all raised their arms to protect their heads from debris.

Toman felt something that wasn’t a rock hit his shoulder and start to slide down his arm. His belts started unwinding from under his coat to defend him, but the thing snagged on his coat sleeve, and then he felt something cut into his arm underneath. It felt like a couple of knives stabbing into his arm. A second later, his belts were wrapping around the Reshkin, forcing its deadly mandibles away from him.

Toman stood and swayed for a second—the tunnel was chaos around him. Something glowing red narrowly brushed past him, and he felt the heat of its passing at the same time as he felt his blood run cold. Stone soldiers were making quick work of the few Reshkin that had attacked them, as were the warriors. Esset’s wolf darted in and out between the fighters, catching those that were being driven back or trying to flee. Toman took in everything as a cold wave washed over him, then became distantly aware that he was falling. He didn’t hear Esset yell his name, but he returned to himself when he hit the ground.

Suddenly the immediacy of the situation rushed back to him—every cell in his body screamed at him and it felt like his skin was on fire. His head throbbed, and he didn’t know if it was from striking the ground or from the venom poisoning his body. One thing was for sure: the Reskin had bitten him, and now he would suffer the consequences.

“Toman!
Toman
!” Esset had seen his brother start to fall, but he hadn’t gotten there in time to catch him. Now he was kneeling beside the animator, screaming his name. The Nadran warriors stood back, knowing he was already as good as dead. The ambushing Reshkin were all vanquished already, but the damage had been done. Esset briefly considered having his summon bite Toman’s arm to cauterize the wound, but it wasn’t really bleeding, and the poison was already in his system, so there was no point in making his injury worse. They needed an antidote now—they needed to move Toman, get him to help. He turned towards the warriors, only to see Tseka right there beside him with her spear point leveled at Toman.

“Hey!” the summoner yanked the spear aside and imposed himself between the red warrior and his best friend. “What do you think you’re doing?” he raged, stepping forward and forcing her to put up her spear or stab him with it—she opted to pull it up.

“Summoner, he’s as good as dead already. Don’t make him suffer before the end,” Tseka responded levelly, physically moving back but not shifting her position on Toman’s condition.

“No! We do not stop fighting for him,” Esset raged—his ire was impressive, but in the eyes of the Nadra, futile.

“We have not been able to make a cure, Esset,” Nassata said quietly from the side. Her words only gave Esset pause for a scant second.

“What about the human healer you gave the venom to? Anything she makes will be useless to you, but it could save Toman. We’re taking him there.” His eyes were too bright, and he twitched when he heard Toman groan and writhe in pain behind him.

“Esset, he won’t make it that far—” Nassata said, trying to reason with him.

“We do not stop fighting!” Esset roared. There was no arguing with him, but he calmed enough to add, “You owe it to us to try.” Nassata looked at him for only a moment longer.

“Tseka, Eska, get the animator, we’re making time back to the surface,” Nassata ordered them. Tseka shook her head at the foolishness but did as she was ordered.

“I just need help getting him onto horseback,” Esset clarified. “I can travel fastest that way.” He chanted an incantation and a fire horse materialized next to them. He mounted himself easily enough, but it took the help of two warriors to get Toman up in front of him. They passed the belts up too, using them to strap the animator to his brother so he wouldn’t fall off. Esset didn’t say another word and didn’t waste another second—the moment Toman was secure, he set his summon into motion, leaving Toman’s floppy hat on the ground behind him. Nassata picked it up and brushed it off sadly, and by the time she looked up again, they were gone.

The fire horse was a blur, streaking down the passages and leaving only ashy hoof prints and the faint smell of smoke where it passed. They had to pause briefly at the seal and wait for the snake to get out of the way, but there was nothing to stop them after that. They breezed past sentries like they weren’t there until they reached the last set at the surface. At that point, Esset banished the horse, dropping the two young men to the ground, still strapped together. The sentries came up to them, looking very concerned as Esset undid the belts.

“The closest town, which way?” Esset demanded.

The next syllables off his tongue were an incantation. The sentries just pointed and Esset nodded his thanks. A massive, fiery bird of prey had materialized next to him, its massive wings fanning tendrils of flame in the air. Esset climbed onto its back, leaving Toman on the ground this time. The bird sidled over to the stricken man on the ground and delicately took him up in its talons before launching itself into the air. It circled once, high above, then turned in the direction of the town.

The fiery bird cut through the gusty night wind, but that didn’t stop Toman’s cries from reaching Esset. He couldn’t close his ears to his brother’s pain. Toman thrashed, unaware of the world around him, but the summon held him fast as Esset gritted his teeth and willed the bird to go faster. He told himself repeatedly that they had to fight—there was no giving up, they’d sworn it. The healer would have a cure, an anti-venom of some sort. They would make it in time. The things he told himself became like a mantra as he repeated them, an attempt to convince himself that he was doing the right thing. Tseka’s way was never right; they had to fight for life. Toman wouldn’t die. He couldn’t die.

The cold night air whipped around him, but the heat emanating from the summoned bird was enough to keep him warm. The crescent moon didn’t give off much light, but it was easy enough to see the village anyways. There were a few windows with candles, and the smoke from home fires betrayed it from a distance. Esset had feared that Nassata was right, that it would take too long to reach the town, but Toman’s cries reassured him in a sickening fashion that at least he was still alive. Toman was human, not one of the Nadra; they only knew for certain that Reshkin venom was lethal to Nadra. Maybe Toman would live, even without an anti-venom.

Thanks to the bright, fiery wings of Esset’s summon, everyone knew he was coming. They didn’t know who or what was coming, however, so they hid. To them, it looked like a beast born of the Darkfires was coming to their town; a fiery demon swooped down below rooftop level and then back-winged to land lightly in the middle of the street. It stood upon a man crying out in pain—clearly a tortured victim of the winged beast. Those watching from behind curtains were bewildered when the fiery predator suddenly vanished, and another young man was visible for the first time.

“
Healer
!” he yelled at the cowering village. “Someone fetch a healer!” He knelt next to the body of the man crying out in pain, clearly very concerned.

Esset put his hands on either side of Toman’s face and spoke, hoping his brother would be able to hear him through the fire of his agony.

“Toman, we’re here, hold on, help is coming.” He looked up again.

“
Healer
!” he yelled again before leaning back over his brother. This time, however, he stripped the gloves from Toman’s hands. It was a promise he’d made a long time ago, one he had never wanted to make good on. If anything happened to Toman, Esset had promised that he would take the gloves and keep them safe, at least until Toman was able to look after them again. The gloves were too powerful to chance having them stolen when Toman was unable to understand what was going on. Fortunately, all of his animations would continue on as they had, unless a new animator donned the gloves and countermanded past orders. In the meantime, the gloves were safe in Esset’s bag until the healer cured him. Esset forced himself to think in those terms—the healer would come, and the healer would help Toman. He would get better, and he’d get his gloves back. That was how things would go.

“
Where is the healer
?” Esset screamed again. Finally there was movement, with the nearest front door opening and a man rushing out. He was a common enough looking fellow with overalls and a scruffy beard.

“We’ll have to take him to her,” the man said, kneeling down to help. Together they ducked their heads under Toman’s arms and carried him towards another house at the villager’s directions. The door was already open for them, but they were a few steps inside before anyone greeted them.