Elenyr! I cannot wake Rune!
Elenyr flinched as the voice of the Unnamed echoed in her thoughts, and she heard the panic in her voice. Zenif’s greatest skill was a sleeping charm, and he kept Rune subdued, even as the Unnamed fought to wake her. Elenyr locked eyes with Zenif and the man’s lips curled into a sneer of triumph. Then Elenyr shook her head, and pressed the rune.
The chains holding Mimic’s cage snapped, and it dropped toward the lake of acid. Bartoth growled and leapt to a neighboring cell, just managing to catch the edge. Zenif bellowed his fury and released Rune, who dropped down the side of the cavern. Elenyr turned ethereal and plunged into the floor, speeding downward and reaching out of the stone wall. Her fingers turned corporeal just as they closed over Rune’s arm. She grunted as the girl’s weight pulled on her, but managed to retain her grip. The unconscious girl hung above the acid, and Elenyr forced them upward.
She rushed upward, her body ethereal inside the stone, her corporeal hand extended out, lifting Rune up the side of the cavern wall. She angled her path to go to the window of the control chamber, allowing her to pull the girl over the controls and lay her on the floor. Then she heard a strangled cry.
Leaving Rune where she lay, Elenyr leapt to the closed portcullis and passed through it, arriving in the courtyard to find a shocking scene. Zoric leaned against the wall, holding a cut across his stomach, while Sentara stood behind Zenif, her sword through his back.
“Father!” Zoric cried.
Zenif gasped for breath, but Sentara’s sword was through his lungs. She used the sword to push Zenif to the edge of the drop and leaned forward to speak in the mage’s ear, her voice so savage it made Elenyr cringe.
“You killed my only family.”
Zenif struggled to speak, to breath, to push his magic on Sentara, but the old woman’s fury kept him at bay. Sentara placed her boot on his back, and with a savage kick, pushed Zenif off her sword, and into the air. Still fighting to breath, Zenif fell down the inside of the cavern, the exact fall Rune had just taken, but without Elenyr to catch him. He bounced off the stone and splashed into the acid.
Weak from the gash in his back, he swam to the surface and uttered a final shriek of pain, the acid seeping into his body through the wound, eating his armor. Again he screamed before finally slipping beneath the surface.
“Father!” Zoric screamed.
He’d stumbled to the wall and watched in horror as his father died. Sentara turned on him, her features forbidding. Zoric’s eyes pulsed with rage and he raised a hand to point at Sentara, his arm trembling.
“You killed him.”
“He killed Rune,” Sentara snarled. “And she was worth far more than your wretched father.”
“Sentara,” Elenyr said. “Rune is alive.”
Sentara whirled and spotted Rune behind the portcullis. Without a word she jumped to the courtyard wall and climbed above the acid lake to reach the open window, where she leapt inside the control chamber and crouched at Rune’s side. Elenyr raised her sword to Zoric, who glared at her with unbridled hatred.
“You think yourself impervious?” he demanded, his chest heaving, his eyes glowing with hatred. “Sentara will pay for what she has done.”
“Not if you are dead,” Elenyr said coldly.
“Zoric!” Bartoth bellowed.
Elenyr risked glancing his way. To her dismay, the powerful rock troll had caught the chains of Mimic’s cell, preventing her from falling into the acid. He swung the chain and the cage, building up momentum, swinging the cage towards the cavern entrance. His intention was obvious, to throw the cage to the entrance, where Zoric could help Mimic escape the cell. But Zoric bared his teeth in a snarl and stepped closer to Elenyr.
“Zoric!” Bartoth barked, his voice full of command.
The mind mage scowled, torn between battling Elenyr and Sentara, or helping secure Mimic’s release. Elenyr too, was torn. She wanted to stop Mimic, but if she left, Zoric might overcome Sentara and kill her and Rune. And why was she sick to her stomach?
She clenched her waist as her last meal heaved. The prisoners that Bartoth had released were similarly struggling, with some kneeling in their cages to vomit. One lost consciousness and fell to his death. Another managed to wrap a chain around his body before he lost consciousness. Another leapt to the outer wall, an impossible leap.
He caught the stone with nimble fingers, and climbed like a crab along the surface. As everyone else suffered from the sudden illness, the man did not seem affected. Without a backward glance, he dropped onto the road and slipped away, his escape unnoticed by anyone in The Melting.
“You feel that?” Zoric asked. “That’s the birth of Plague, the final general. It cannot be stopped, and none of you will survive what she will do to you.”
Elenyr turned ethereal but the sickness continued. She dropped to one knee and fought to hold her sword upward. Zoric regarded her with distaste and knelt to her level. Pointing to the swinging cage, he lowered his voice.
“Mimic is a disease now,” he said. “And you cannot stop a disease with blade or magic. There’s nothing you can do to prevent your end.”
Elenyr cast about in desperation, but half the prisoners were dying, the other half retching and writhing. Lorica had managed to reach a further cage and Shadow had lashed her in position, but she was vomiting on the cage. Shadow alone seemed unaffected, but then again, Shadow could not get ill. His magic was weaker than every other type, but he was also immune to physical ailments.
“You forget your foe,” Elenyr said in grim satisfaction.
Zoric frowned and turned. On the cages. Shadow abandoned Lorica and sprinted to the next, leaping from one to another with the agility of a night panther. Zoric shouted a warning but Bartoth could not move. Braced as he was, he could not fight Shadow without releasing the cage. Shadow leapt to his position. Bartoth swung a meaty arm, but Shadow slashed the rock troll’s hand and then dropped down the chain toward Mimic’s cage.
It was swinging upward, toward the entrance, and Shadow danced along the chain, sprinting its length like it was a tree limb, and then dove for the end. Bartoth growled and heaved, intent on throwing the cage the remaining distance. But Shadow caught the pin where the cage connected to the chain, and yanked it free.
The chain parted, the cage flipping awkwardly. Mimic screamed her dismay as it tumbled towards the entrance of the cavern, and all eyes fixed on the spinning cage. With a great clang, the cage struck the side of the road . . . and fell into the lake of acid. Shadow managed to get his feet and jumped off the sinking cage, leaping into a flip that carried him to the road. He caught the edge and stumbled with a laugh of delight, before turning to watch Mimic sink beneath the surface.
The sickness vanished, the sound punctuated by Zoric’s bellow of disbelief. Bartoth too, seemed stunned, and hung on the top of the cage as he stared into the acid lake. Zoric rotated to face Elenyr.
“Your victory will be short lived,” he snarled.
“It’s still a victory,” Elenyr retorted.
Zoric didn’t speak again, and his body seemed to fade into nothingness. Bartoth too, seemed to disappear, both obscured by Zoric’s magic. Elenyr raised her sword, ready for an attack, but the rocking of the cages and the sounds of fading footsteps indicated Bartoth and Zoric had retreated. For now, at least, they had won a battle. Elenyr breathed a sigh of relief as Shadow sauntered into the courtyard.
“Looks like we win,” he said.
Elenyr engulfed Shadow in an embrace. “Well done my son,” she breathed.
But Shadow merely laughed. “I love The Melting.”
Elenyr leaned back and tousled his hair. “Of course you do.”
