David Wells - Cursed Bones

The passage opened into a circular room. Two veins of softly glowing crystal rose from the floor to the ceiling. Within each was carved a chamber. A conduit of crystal running between both chambers held a panel with a single emerald set into it. Isabel heard whimpering before she saw the figure slumped to the floor in one of the chambers. She approached cautiously, her anger hot and ready. Seeing the form of Hazel in the chamber, she began speaking the words of her light-lance, forcefully and deliberately.

She raised her hand toward Hazel and the old witch looked up, tears streaming down her face, confusion and fear in her eyes.

“Isabel, please help me,” she said.

Isabel frowned in momentary confusion until she remembered that the focus of Hazel’s magic was belief.

Seeing Isabel’s resolve harden, Hazel sobbed and put her hands up in front of her face to ward against a spell that would kill her in a flash.

“Stop!” Alexander said, materializing before Hazel.

Isabel reined in her spell, letting go of the thought-form she was about to release into the firmament but holding on to her anger.

“Why? You said it yourself; we’re at war with her.”

“I don’t think this is Hazel,” Alexander said. “Her colors are all wrong.”

“Please help me, Isabel. It’s me … Ayela. Hazel stole my body.”

Isabel gasped, her eyes going wide. “Dear Maker, is such a thing even possible?”

“I think that’s what these chambers do,” Alexander said. “Also, her colors say she’s telling the truth.”

“How do we reverse it?” Isabel asked.

“I’m not sure, but if I had to guess, I’d say you would have to put them both back into these chambers again. I’ll go consult with the sovereigns and then find Hector, Horace, and Hazel. Take care of Ayela and make your way back to the black-and-white room. Wait for me there.”

Isabel nodded, going to Ayela. “I’m so sorry, Ayela. I didn’t know.”

“How could you? This kind of thing isn’t supposed to be possible. I’m the one who should apologize. I took you right to her and she left you in the swamp to die. I can’t believe I trusted her.”

“You believed what you wanted to believe,” Isabel said. “It happens to the best of us.”

“What am I going to do? I feel like my life is suddenly over.”

“I’m going to help you. I promise.”

“Thank you, Isabel,” Ayela said, wiping tears from her old and wrinkled face and looking up sheepishly. “Do you have anything to eat? Hazel took all of my things when she left me here.”

Isabel gave her a bag of dried apples and they started toward the black-and-white room.

Alexander appeared just before they arrived.

“Isabel, you have to hurry,” Alexander said. “They’re down that passage. I think Hazel is about to sacrifice Horace to the ghidora. She’s preparing a spell, and he’s laid out on a table in front of a hideous-looking statue.”

Isabel raced across the black-and-white room, calling out to Ayela behind her, “Stick to the white squares only!”

The passage was a hundred feet long, opening into a giant cavern filled with cages and lined with doorways leading out of the room in every direction. She caught glimpses of the remains of unspeakable and indescribable creatures as she raced past the cages, following Alexander’s bobbling light.

Some of the cages contained magic circles cut into the stone just inside the bars, while others were ordinary iron cages that had long since rusted to the point of crumbling. Most contained long-dead corpses of unidentifiable creatures but a few were empty. Two still held live creatures, but fortunately both of those cages were still intact and the magic circles within were holding the unnatural creations of Siavrax Karth at bay. That didn’t stop those creatures from snapping and snarling at Isabel when she raced by.

She reached the threshold of a large doorway that used to hold double doors, but was now open to the cavern. She stopped in horror at the scene playing out before her under the flickering light of two torches.

Horace lay on a platform before the statue of a creature from out of a nightmare. Eight feet tall at the back with six-foot-wide shoulders, it stood on six powerful legs, each ending in seven clawed toes. It had four eyes, the lower two set closer together than the upper two, all of which looked like they moved independently, allowing for a very wide field of vision. Its mouth was almost two feet across and lined with razor-sharp teeth. Its long tail split into three, each ending in a blade a foot long.

Hazel, in Ayela’s body, stood before the platform, chanting the words to an ancient invocation while streamers of light flowed from Horace to the statue. Hector lay unconscious on the floor, oblivious to his brother’s plight.

“Stop!” Isabel cried, but she was too late. As the light stopped flowing from Horace, the creature came to life, its eyes glowing ember-red and each of the blades on its tail taking on the hue of flowing lava.

Hazel looked back and smiled as the demon bounded down a long hall that ended with a point of daylight from an opening in the side of the mountain.

“What have you done?!” Isabel demanded, drawing her dagger and advancing toward Hazel.

“I’ve just killed the leader of the Sin’Rath Coven,” Hazel said.

“By killing Horace?” Isabel glanced over at his withered and desiccated husk. His face was blackened, lips pulled away from his teeth, his eyes hollow and empty.

“A necessary sacrifice,” Hazel said. “The Sin’Rath must be destroyed, no matter the cost.”

The words hit Isabel like a slap in the face. She had uttered very similar words about Phane. And she’d meant them, yet looking at the cost Hazel had been willing to pay in order to deal a blow to the Sin’Rath, Isabel realized that some costs were too great, no matter the gain.

Hazel began whispering words under her breath. Sensing the threat, Isabel fled the chamber, taking a position behind a nearby pillar and casting a shield spell. She wasn’t sure what magic Hazel could wield and didn’t want to find out the hard way. If Hazel was able to charm her or even blow a pinch of henbane into her face, Isabel might be the next one sacrificed to the ghidora.

“You can’t hide from me,” Hazel said from inside the room. “And I fear you haven’t fully considered your tactical disadvantage. Do you really want to kill Ayela’s body? I’m sure you have plans to undo what I’ve done.” Her tone was taunting, filled with mirth.

Alexander appeared next to Isabel. “Slip up next to the doorway and be ready with your force-push. I’ll distract her.”

Isabel nodded and started to make her way around several cages so she could come up along the wall in the dark. Once in position, she saw herself step out from behind a pillar and advance toward the door as if she meant to murder Hazel … and Ayela with her.

“Come, Child, be reasonable,” Hazel said, a thinly veiled attempt to stall for time while the illusion of Isabel drew closer, becoming more vulnerable to Hazel’s magic with each step.

“There,” Hazel said with a triumphant smile as the illusion of Isabel entered the room. She clapped her hands once and the dust covering the section of the floor where the illusion stood rose up in a cloud surrounding her. When the illusion didn’t react, Hazel became alarmed. Isabel rolled around the edge of the door and unleashed her force-push. Hazel flew backward, tumbling to the floor and shaking her head before struggling to her feet.

Isabel was moving the moment she cast her spell, but Hazel regained her feet and quaffed a potion before she could reach her, vanishing with derisive laughter.