Vicious Magick (23 page)

Madra, Zanther, and Varello see Novanostrum’s
fireworks display.

“Cocky bugger, isn’t he?” Zanther says.

“I still hear screaming, I don’t think he was
doing that to show off,” Madra says she darts off toward the
house.

“I’m not convinced there’s a problem,”
Zanther says to Varello, “think I might just hang out here for a
while.”

Varello shoots him a look of contempt and
follows Madra. With a sigh, Zanther follows along, too.

Subterranean River under Castle Claustria

All great castles are riddled with hidden
doors leading to secret passages, and Claustria Castle is no
exception. Kings, as a rule, need ways to smuggle in their
mistresses, smuggle out the bodies of their enemies, and places to
hide from assassins, and Claustrian kings, at one point or another,
had a need for all of these.

Toward this end, it could be said that the
most industrious Claustrian monarch was Faberer IV. Facing a money
crisis, he outlawed the production (but not the sale) of liquor in
Claustria, then distilled it in hidden rooms in the castle. In
order to smuggle it out, he had his engineers widen and fix a small
river running underneath the castle so small boats could sail
through, transporting his liquor to his intermediaries waiting
downstream, who would in turn sell said liquor to Claustrian
pubs.

Aside from the river, there are half a dozen
other secret exits from the castle, known today by only the Queen
and her High Butler. There’s a big, empty pipe which connects with
a library, a large painting concealing a passage leading to the
cellar of a nearby pub, a statue covering a hole leading down to a
mineshaft with a cart on tracks ever-ready to spirit the monarch to
the mouth of a cave concealed by a waterfall…

And on and on and on.

Zanther walks into the room to find his three
companions surrounded by four daemons, Novanostrum’s staff and
Varello’s lute both in splinters. Upon seeing him, they shift their
angry stances from each other and toward him.

“Four of us, four of them. We each get one,
we all stay,” one of them says.

The next minute is a blur of wind and steel
and cursed axes and hooves and fire, but it ends with the four of
them bruised, bloody, and surrounded. Out of desperation, almost
unconsciously, Varello starts whistling a slow, sad melody.

Novanostrum, Zanther, and Madra drop their
respective jaws as the daemons drop like sacks of potatoes, asleep.
Still whistling, Varello motions at the girl and the door. The
woman has stopped screaming, and Novanostrum unties her and slings
her over his shoulder as they make their way out of the room.
Zanther motions for Varello to follow, but he shakes his head.

“If he stops, they’ll wake up,” Madra
whispers.

They file out of the house, making it halfway
down the plankway before the burning stack of boards finally
creaks, cracks, and crumbles. The whole smoldering mess is
extinguished as it sinks into the bubbling water.

They stand and watch for a few moments, then
quickly start putting distance between themselves and that accursed
place, but they don’t get very far.

A giant crab skitters out of the muck,
clicking its enormous pincers together, frothing bubbles out of its
mouth.

“Oh, High Hell no,” Novanostrum says, with
the girl still slung over his shoulder. He raises both of his hands
and summons a huge lightning bolt, which strikes the crab,
instantly boiling it and blasting it to pieces.

Zanther runs over and scoops up one of the
claws, reaching inside and taking a big handful of the tender meat
and eating it. The others stare at him.

“What’re you lookin’ at? I’m
hungry
.”