“Yes, three infantrymen, one of whom has a standard-issue shortbow, and a scroll-mage who sits there in the dark with you chattering like a chorus of yammering clams. Unless whatever he’s muttering strikes me down soon—which seems unlikely given that the boys went through and pulled his offensive spells—I think the odds are grossly in my favor.”
To punctuate that statement, a chunk of the wall where the passage narrowed exploded into bits of gravel, once more sandblasting Ilbei’s face. The arrow ricocheted off the rock and hit the back wall with a dull wooden
thunk
. Ilbei scowled at it as it splashed into the pool.
He turned toward Mags and the muttering of the mage, but Jasper had just finished. He saw Ilbei looking at him and shrugged. “That’s the best I can do for now. I don’t even know exactly what it does. It just says ‘Growth Heal – One.’”
“How in the nine hells do ya not know what it does? Don’t ya have to know that stuff?”
“I do know them if I am the one who writes the enchantment. This is obviously a standard-issue spell down here in Hast because they gave me tons of them before we left. I have no idea who penned them.” He held up the parchment, but it was blank, the words gone after the reading of the spell. “It’s the same version as the one I read for Kaige’s head. They gave me some other healing spells that are surely better, but they’ll take several hours to read properly.” He glanced around them, then down at his shaking hands. Ilbei could see the parchment corners vibrating in the light, and the tightness in Jasper’s jaw suggested that he was trying very hard not to chatter.
Ilbei would have cussed, but there was nothing to be had for it just then. “Then dig a little deeper in that there sack and tell us what ya got that we can use.” Ilbei kept his voice low, loud enough to be heard over the splashing waterfall but not beyond, or so he hoped. It was hard to say how far off Verity was. It was pitch black down the tunnel as far as he could see.
He glanced to Meggins and Kaige, the two of them having pulled Mags’ body off of Jasper. They were in the process of getting her out of the water, up onto the shelf of stone. There was barely enough room to stuff her onto it, and even with that, her legs were going to stay wet. Not that it was going to matter much to her now, Ilbei thought.
He noticed the black wooden arrow bobbing in the pond, floating lightly on the surface, its green fletching glowing slightly bluer in the ambient light. “Kaige, get that fancy arrow he just shot. Use yer sword. Stay out of his line of sight.” Ilbei hoped maybe there was some kind of magic in those black shafts that they could turn back on Verity.
Another arrow broke flecks of stone away.
Jasper leaned against the stone, head down, shoulders drooping. Ilbei took the wilting wizard by the shoulders. “Listen here, soldier. I understand you’re cold and wet, and Mags lyin there like that done yer spirit an awful turn. But givin up ain’t gonna get us out of here, I can tell ya that. Now straighten up, take a breath, and wake the man in ya. Think of Her Majesty’s glory if’n ya need, or of that mum ya got back home, waitin on yer return, but find a way to snap to. We need yer brain workin fer somethin other than rattlin yer teeth. Now come on, son, think, what have ya got?” When Jasper merely looked up at him, his eyes blank, fear and cold smothering him, Ilbei slapped him hard across the face. “I said snap out of it, boy. We need ya with us.”
Laughter echoed up the cave at them.
“A fine troop of men you’ve got there, Sergeant. Her Majesty’s finest no less.”
“You’ll see it true when we get done pullin our steel out of ya.”
Another spray of rocks peppered the side of Ilbei’s face, the arrow splashing somewhere beyond the waterfall.
Jasper was at least blinking when Ilbei looked at him again.
“Come on, Jasper. Ya got to have somethin in that damned bag. Think, son.”
Jasper’s wits seemed to be returning.
“I can’t get it, Sarge,” Kaige said.
Ilbei turned to look, and saw the big man bent over, both hands wrapped around the black length of one of Verity’s arrows as it floated in the blue glow of the pool. Kaige’s broad back was bent and his tree-trunk thighs flexed as he strove to lift the arrow out of the water, straining and grunting as if it were an enormous thing and bolted in place.
“Won’t budge,” Kaige said after another try. “Like it’s stuck on the water. Might as well be ten tons of stone.”
Ilbei didn’t risk trying to climb over Meggins and Jasper for fear of exposing the protuberance of his belly to Verity’s brutal bow. And to what end, anyway? If the great strength of young Kaige couldn’t lift that arrow from the surface of the pond, floating and bobbing as it was, as easily as a bit of cork might, well, then there wasn’t likely much more Ilbei could do. Clearly, Verity’s arrows were cursed. Or at least, cursed as far as Ilbei and his men were concerned.
Another arrow hit the wall, and more bits of stone stung him, biting into his skin like insects. “Gods damn ya, Verity!” he called.
He glanced at the line of the crack from which the voices and the huffing air came. They were close to somewhere else, even if there wasn’t a crawl space. If he tried to make one with his pickaxe, he’d expose himself like a damned gopher jumping out of its hole into the haymaker’s blade. But there might be something Jasper could do, even though Ilbei hated the very thought of what he was about to ask.
“Jasper,” he hissed low. “What about teleports? Have ya got one of those in that bag of yers?” He shuddered as he asked it. Few things made him shudder like the thought of teleporting did. For some it was spiders, others heights. For Ilbei, teleporting was everything unnatural in the world. But, short of blind, headlong assault, it was the only way out of here.
“I do have teleport scrolls,” Jasper replied. “But they won’t get us out of here.”
“Why not? What the hell are they fer if’n not fer that?”
“They only gave me teleports with a fifty-pace range.”
“They what? Fifty paces? What kinda— Well, that makes as much sense as sendin ya out joustin on a three-legged horse. Why on Prosperion would they give ya a gimped spell like that?”
“Too many first-year wizards would rather not be in combat,” Jasper said. He sighed and looked as if something had struck him funny. “They told me that when I—” He paused, as did Ilbei, as another crushing arrow struck, blasting them with stone chips and bits of grit.
“I can chip away at that all day,” Verity called. “I’m not going to run out of these.”
Jasper continued where he’d left off. “They told me these spells were for getting up onto castle walls, or through them if I knew where to go on the other side.”
“Well, can’t ya do one of those seein spells them sight wizards always do? We’re right above a place where some fellers is talkin down below, the ones I heard through that crack. Sure there weren’t more’n fifty paces between here and there.”
“If I had a seeing spell, I would have told you that I did.” Jasper turned back toward Kaige for a moment and sighed again, the big man still trying to deadlift the bobbing arrow out of the pool. Jasper rolled his head back to face Ilbei again. “If
he
hadn’t lost half my spells, I would have three seeing spells with me rather than five useless teleports.”
“Verity said it was them what was at yer stores,” Ilbei said. “And Kaige done what he could, so let off that like I already told ya.” Ilbei watched Kaige still unable to budge the enchanted arrow. He was damned sure he didn’t want anyone else getting hit with one of those.
“So what else ya got? I don’t know how far off Verity is down there, so I can’t say how much use fifty paces would be fer goin after him—not with the dark and him and that damned bow—but it might be our only shot.”
“Besides the teleports, I have two oil spells,” Jasper said, pushing the chunk of fungus around inside the satchel and keeping his voice low as he confirmed what he had in memory. “And there is the lightning bolt spell and two fireballs—obviously Verity’s men didn’t know what they were looking at—four healing spells, two like the one I just cast and two of the longer ones … oh, wait, no, this one is just for headaches, and, well, here’s another mend, but it’s for armor and shields. The rest are food, water or laundry spells. That’s it.”
“Well, why don’t ya hit him with that lightnin and let’s be done with it? Sweet Mercy’s smilin lips, ya could have done that five minutes ago.”
“Well, if I had, we’d all be floating downstream, steaming like baked fish,” Jasper said. “This one is M-ranked and not to be trifled with. And that pretends I knew where he was, which I do not, and therefore I couldn’t have hit him anyway.”
“Fire, then. Just send one of them big burnin bastards right down the pipe. That’ll do fer him. Fill the whole thing up with fire, and ya won’t need to know where he is.”
Jasper rummaged through the satchel again, reading ribbons wrapped around scrolls. They both flinched when another arrow pounded into the wall. “I should tell you boys, I waited seven days for a chimera to come out of her cave once,” Verity called in its wake.
“No,” said Jasper, ignoring Verity’s comment. “These are fast to read, but small. The big ones, like what you’re asking for—and they only gave me three to start, of which only one remained after the … looting—are in the chest back where we came in.”
“Ya mean ya had em?” Ilbei looked as if he wanted to hit something. “Why in Hestra’s name would ya not bring somethin like that when ya had a choice? Ya might as well choose a cabbage over a cutlass fer yer next duel.”
Jasper looked at Ilbei and ticked his tongue against his teeth. It was apparent that he thought both the question and the comment ridiculous. “First of all, I have no intention of dueling anyone. But, to answer your question, it is because those are for castle gates and leviathans, not cave explorations where space is limited and where heat and distance have an essential and necessary relationship for the caster … and his allies.”
“What if we’d found a dragon in here?”
“I’m not even going to dignify that with a response.”
Ilbei’s eyes narrowed, but he let it go. “How fast, then? And how big? And how far?”
“Fast. One is seven words, the other nineteen.” He looked at the scrolls again and frowned. “The small one is the longer of the two, sadly—a poorly written E-class fireball, probably well under two hands in diameter. The other is K-class; the script is neat, so likely a full span. I didn’t write that one either, but whoever did made a much better job of it.”
“Well that’s big enough,” Ilbei said, ignoring the useless parts of Jasper’s statement. “Go ahead and put that one down the hole.”
“But I still don’t know where he is.”
“Can’t ya shoot it straight down the middle and just let it go as far as it will? Ya said it’s a full span. That’s a boatload of fire.”
“Yes, but he’ll shoot me as soon as I step out there to cast.”
“No, he won’t. When ya get to that sixth word, I’ll jump across, make him shoot at me. Ya can jump out behind me and let it go while he reloads. Jump back before he’s got time to stick ya.”
Jasper didn’t look especially enthusiastic about that plan. His teeth were chattering again.
“You’re too fat, Sarge,” Meggins said, leaning in close. “That pregnant gut of yours will get you killed. I’ll jump across.”
“Fat enough to dot yer eyes closed, soldier,” Ilbei said. “Besides, I got us into this mess. I’ll be the one what jumps across.”
“Sarge, you’re also the one who can get us out of this,” Meggins said. “I heard the stories about you when they transferred you to Hast. If even half of them are true, we need you. But you’re no good to us with one of those black shafts through your head. You know I’m quicker, at least for something like this. I’ll do it.”
Ilbei would have snarled something back, but Meggins pointed at the black arrow that was floating past Ilbei’s foot. Ilbei watched the current carry it out of the little chamber and down into the darkness. No wonder Verity knew he’d never run out of arrows: they were going to drift right back to him, and there was nothing Ilbei could do about it. Ilbei grunted, knowing Meggins was right. He looked back to Jasper. “Ya realize what we’re goin to do, right?”
Jasper nodded.
“Ya can’t hesitate. Ya got to get out there, say what ya got to say, and get back.” Jasper’s teeth had stopped chattering again, which Ilbei took as a hopeful sign.
“I will,” Jasper promised.
Ilbei made a face and started to change his mind.
“He’ll do it,” Meggins said. “He’ll be fine.” He fixed Jasper with a long, steady look, smiling just a little bit. “I know he will.”
What other choice did they have? So Ilbei agreed.
Jasper got out his scroll, and Ilbei held the piece of fungus so the wizard could read. They all counted six words, every one of them mouthing the numbers as Jasper spoke the unfamiliar sounds. On the sixth, Meggins threw himself across the chamber, and in that instant, the dark line of a green-tailed arrow streaked across the chamber like death’s black rope. It had barely spit through the waterfall and blasted out a chunk of the back wall when Jasper stepped out and shouted the last word of his spell. The fireball erupted into existence and shot down the passage at meteoric speed. Jasper stood in its light and watched as if hypnotized by the need to see it fly.