Michael Mathias - The Wizard and the Warlord

He told the Choska to feed on the Wedjakin. He’d waited for it to get where it was so that when the Choska knocked it from the wall, it wouldn’t plummet into the water. If that happened, the snappers would devour it before the Choska even had a chance. Now, though, it would land in the shallows, and the Master of Hell was excited to make him fall.

A sudden, jerking pain, so sharp that it nearly made Bzorch back off the ledge he was resting on, seared across his back. Instinctively, he clutched to the wall to keep from falling, but he craned his neck to see what had caused the horrible heat. What he saw was her.

Shaella’s short, spiky hair and her scar-free complexion couldn’t change her eyes, or the smug scowl of superiority.

Bzorch’s blood turned to ice as he realized his predicament. He was about to be killed, and he knew it without a doubt.

A crimson pulse shot forth from the Choska’s ember eyes and shattered an overhanging chunk of rock up above him. The hard, sharp pieces rained down on him like hammer blows, but he continued to hold tight. As soon as the debris stopped falling he shrugged the coil of line from his shoulder. The free end was tied to his wrist so that, in case it fell while he was climbing, he could pull it all back in.

The footing he was on was narrow, but he spun with animal grace so that his back was against the rock face. Then, as the Choska circled back around, he took the dragon gun from his other shoulder and aimed it. He knew to shoot high because of the weight of the line.

Neither the Choska, nor its beautiful rider, saw the weapon as they closed in for the kill. The demon was far bigger and stronger than a dactyl. It was too late for it to dodge the barbed spear when Bzorch fired. It screamed out a shrill, ear-piercing yell and dove sharply to the south as it was punctured. Shaella was nearly thrown from its back, but managed to hang on.

Moments later, Bzorch was yanked by his wrist from the rock face. He fell slowly at first, in a long, arcing swing, but as the speed of his descent increased, the Choska began to fall toward the ground, too. To his surprise, he suddenly rose, and quickly. He went up and over the southern edge of the shark-fin formation.

For a time the Choska carried him east, out over the open marsh. The beast was smart and swept low to the ground, forcing Bzorch to go dragging through the tangles of vegetation. The demon lifted back up, and the shaft eventually pulled free of it.

Bzorch went tumbling through the air. His big body crashed to a violent stop in the vast, predator-filled jungle, somewhere east of the Dragon’s Tooth.

With ten people in the party, the particular teleportation room they were about to use was overcrowded. It looked as if a herd of shaggy, two-legged creatures was trying to huddle together with a marble statue. There was no room for horses on this leg of the journey. Dostin and the two archers were forced to argue just to get included. The need for supply haulers won out, and they were issued cloaks made from the hide of some thickly furred beast, and then given shoulder packs full of food, oiled canvases, and chunks of a substance called everburn, which the giants favored for their fires.

Lieutenant Welch, Jicks, and Corva already had packs to carry. The group wouldn’t fail for want of supplies. Hyden Hawk was determined to make sure that there would be enough food and heat to sustain so many bodies if something went wrong.

According to the maps, horses wouldn’t have done them much good anyway. The day-and-a-half hike to the Leif Repline cavern was all rocky ledge and scree-littered ridgeway. It would be treacherous enough on foot. Horses would just slow them down.

Hyden wished the giants’ lore revealed more about what lay inside the cavern. Only a few human explorers had made it to the cave and into the first fountain chamber. All accounts agreed it was full of poison, probably to trick the greedy. A handful had ventured farther in and met the Gwag, but no one who made it beyond the creature bothered to tell his tale, save for an ancient wanderer called Olden. Olden lived for several hundred years, but in a time long before Pavreal, Dahg Mahn, and Shokin. He might have lived longer had he not openly predicted the fall of King Dar’Grav, thus earning him a trip to the Dakaneese ruler’s chopping block. Luckily the old man kept detailed journals. Phen had procured a copy for the quest. Hyden hoped that the reason there were no newer stories about the place was because people wanted to protect its integrity. By the way Oldin wrote about the explorers he filched, he never gave away all he knew about the fountain. Thirteen times, over the course of three centuries, he wrote entries about people finding him with questions about the Leif Repline. He said that they purchased maps and information from him for unbelievable prices, and then went off seeking immortality. Only one group had earned a second paragraph. They'd come back from the Giant Mountains telling of the ferocious Gwag, the poisoned entry fountain, and trolls so ornery that they had to be killed without hesitation.

Princess Telgra was clearly nervous. She seemed terrified about getting her memory back. Hyden didn’t worry too much about her. Dostin and Phen stayed close to her, and Corva was doing a good job of soothing her with words. Hyden could sense that the three beings who cared so much for her were all that was keeping her from drowning in anxiety.

Hyden wasn’t comfortable that they might have to kill the Gwag, but by all descriptions the creature was too dangerous to be tricked or trapped. An agile and exceptionally fast wolfish thing, it had survived the centuries. As recently as three years ago some guardians had used the outer part of the cavern for shelter and had seen it. According to Durge, a guardian assigned to aid them in their preparations, the infamous water that flowed warm from the depths of the earth had no effect on the giants. He said the water in the first fountain wasn’t poisonous to them either.

Hyden didn’t really care about the fountain’s power, beyond its ability to save Phen and Talon from the miserable condition in which they’d ended up. He was worried about the Gwag, though. If they killed the thing, the Leif Repline would sit unguarded from exploitation after they left. The powers contained in those waters were so great that, if the rumors were even half true, the place should be eternally protected from those with questionable intent. Hyden had spoken with King Aldar about it, but the king of the giants was still a groggy mess from the granite juice he’d drunk. Cade understood the predicament and promised to explain it to the king as soon as he was coherent. Cade told Hyden that the mountains themselves protected the Leif Repline. Giants could be posted if there was a real need for them. Cade's reasoning was hard to argue with, for he wouldn’t stay still to argue. It was all Cade could do to keep the queen from tossing Oarly in the dungeon under suspicion of poisoning her husband.

King Aldar’s chamberlain spent a whole afternoon teaching Hyden the commands of the teleportation rooms. Hyden would have to control the portal to get them where they were going and back. He hoped he had the inflections of the strange words remembered correctly. Since he’d retrieved the ring from Gerard in the Nethers, things like that were coming naturally to him. Spells he’d never heard of sometimes leapt to the forefront of his mind as if he’d known them forever. If he didn’t remember the words correctly, they would know shortly, and it would be too late to do anything about it.

Lieutenant Welch was flustered and scowling. They were already gathering in the teleportal. His men had a duty to protect the group, but with the heavy packs they were carrying, they could only grunt and groan.