David Wells - Linkershim

Alexander strapped on the Thinblade, checked Demonrend, and picked up Luminessence before opening the door of the Wizard’s Den. After everyone filed out into the cramped little office, he closed the door, willing his staff to produce a dim light, just faintly illuminating the room.

“There’s a hidden door on that wall,” Alexander said.

Jack had it open within a minute. “It’s been used recently.”

“Grant,” Alexander said. “He’s the only man I’ve ever met who doesn’t have colors and he can make you not see him.”

“What does that mean?” Anja asked.

“He has the ability to make one or two people at a time just not see him. They don’t even know he’s there, even if he’s standing right in front of them.”

“How’s that possible?”

“You’re a dragon that looks like a girl … you tell me.”

Anja frowned.

“My point is, don’t try to engage him. I can beat him with Chloe’s help, but he can kill any of you and you won’t even know he’s there until you’re dying.”

Jataan frowned.

“He can’t make me not see him if he doesn’t know I’m there,” Jack said.

“Let’s just try to avoid him,” Alexander said. “We don’t need anything from him.”

“Fair enough,” Jack said.

Alexander led the way down the narrow corridor. Not only had it been used recently, but it had been used by a lot of people, and judging from the irregularity of the boot prints, not soldiers. The door at the end of the corridor was closed. Alexander approached it cautiously, extinguishing his light and looking into the adjacent room with his magic. It still didn’t have the range of his normal vision, but indoors, his all around sight could look far enough ahead to let him explore an area with his mind very quickly.

Two men stood guard, one next to the door, the other near a bell set up next to the mineshaft. Alexander opened his Wizard’s Den, ushered everyone inside, closed the door and explained the situation. It took them all of two minutes to decide on a plan and step back out into the corridor.

Alexander verified that the men were still bored and unaware before he threw the door open, stepping forth and raising Luminessence. It erupted brilliantly, filling the cavern with light as bright as the sun, blinding the two men, yet leaving Alexander and his friends able to see clearly.

Jataan raced across the room, moving impossibly fast, closing the distance to the man near the bell in a fraction of a second and hitting him with the palm of his hand in the center of the torso, then tipping the man over onto this back and maneuvering him into a choke hold.

Anja stepped in next, leveling a vicious right-handed punch at the man next to the door, knocking him senseless, his head snapping back and forth before he hit the floor.

Alexander dimmed the light. Lita seemed a little taken aback by the sudden violence, unleashed so overwhelmingly, but she held her tongue. Jataan and Anja tied and gagged their captives.

Alexander knew better. The men guarding this shaft worked for Grant and he was a criminal of the highest order. His henchmen deserved little in the way of sympathy or mercy. There was also the issue of their colors. They were both brigands-probably cutthroats. If anything, Alexander felt like he might be shirking his responsibility by not killing them.

“Watch your step,” he said. “These stairs are old.”

“I’ll say,” Jack said, looking down the mineshaft at the wooden staircase winding into the darkness. “Are you sure they’re going to hold?”

“I’ve been down them once before. They’re mostly solid,” Alexander said, leading the way down the shaft. Aside from the few broken or missing boards, the stairs were rock-solid, no doubt because the bad boards had all been broken when Grant’s men passed this way. He was thankful that the room at the base of the stairs wasn’t guarded or his light would have given them away for sure.

He raised his staff, bringing up the light, illuminating five passages leading from this one hidden shaft. The new boot prints led into a tunnel opposite the one Alexander wanted. He dimmed his staff again, the top shod glowing just enough to light their way and entered the tunnel leading to the central mineshaft. He was relieved to find virtually no evidence of recent passage.

It took half an hour before they saw a flicker of light in the distance. Alexander doused his light and they walked on in total darkness, using the wall for guidance as they approached the opening into the central mineshaft room, which was really a series of equipment and supply rooms surrounding the main-shaft elevator. Several working tunnels ran away from this level in different directions. Ten overseers were guarding the tunnel that Alexander was interested in.

“Overseers” Alexander whispered. “They’re armored and carry weighted clubs that they can throw very well. They like to fight in groups, overwhelming an opponent with superior numbers and they’re absolutely the enemy.”

“Understood,” Jataan said, drawing a dagger.

“We’ll hit them hard and fast-hopefully prevent them from raising an alarm,” Alexander said. “There’ll be more down the tunnel and still more up the mineshaft.”

They crept out of the tunnel, using supply crates and ore bins for concealment until they got as close as they were going to get-about twenty feet to the side of the tunnel entrance, behind a row of rail carts. Alexander put Luminessence into his Wizard’s Den and drew the Thinblade. Jataan and Anja both nodded their readiness.

Alexander stretched his mind out into the coming moments and sprang from cover-racing silently without a battle cry or shout of warning, reaching the first completely surprised overseer within seconds, cleaving him in half with a stroke, following through into the next man, taking most of his head simply by allowing the Thinblade to follow its arc.

Jataan threw his knife into an overseer’s heart from about six feet, then grabbed the knife, pulling it free before the man fell, moving on to the next closest enemy with his customary efficiency, leaving a path of dead men, veins ruinously opened to the world with terrifying speed and precision.

Anja swept into the battle with her broadsword, swinging it in great swaths through one flank of the overseers, leaving them hacked and dying on the ground.

The entire battle took only seconds. The overseers didn’t have a chance. Surprise coupled with overwhelming force made for a decisive combination.

The tunnel that Alexander had helped dig not so long ago was lit every fifty feet by oil lamps, just enough light to keep people from wandering into the walls, but certainly not enough to see by. He kept up the pace, moving as quickly as he dared through the shadows, not wanting to shed any light of his own for fear of being detected by those guarding the other end of the tunnel. During his clairvoyant reconnaissance, he’d counted ten more overseers.

When they got close, a bell tolled, raising the alarm. The overseers sprang into action, breaking into two groups of five, one group pointing at Alexander with their clubs, the other group pointing at Jataan. They didn’t advance, instead holding position before the entrance to the underdark while an eleventh man took up a position on the stone slab at the center of the three overlapping magical circles and started casting a spell.

Alexander was easily a hundred feet away, not close enough to reach him in time and not far enough away to avoid his spell. He broke into a run, charging toward the overseers, but he slowed to a walk when the wizard called forth a shield wall that blocked the tunnel twenty feet in front of his men.

With a triumphant smile, the overseer went to the alarm bell and muttered the words of a spell. Then he struck the bell firmly with his club. Aided by magic, its peal reverberated throughout the entire city.