NOVEL NEXT BECMI Chapter 152 – Gold and Glory
I'd ended up a good half-mile away after the explosion, nearly dead, and certainly couldn't be responsible for a blow powerful enough to obliterate an Immortal like that in my condition.
On the other hand, this was the second time this had happened to an Immortal creature, and I'd been in the area of that, too. The watching Immortals had to appreciate my maneuver of literally making the mountain above my hammer, popping a Force Field of that size with a touch of Immortal Power allowing the Disintegration effect to do what it normally did to Force Fields.
That, and the announcer for the duels had to have been immensely entertaining to them, and a cool distraction.
The Markspace was completely quiet. I could feel Immortal presences all around, and had absolutely no confidence that they couldn't sense and listen in on any telepathic communications. In the Markspace, my image was wrapped in black rose vines, which was the silent command to shut up and don't talk, even by touch, black roses on every Markdoor in their heads indicating that they needed to Be Silent and just talk about normal mortal things.
The Company ended up having to withdraw all the way back to the initial ingress point to the cavern before the dimensional interference along the Veil cleared up enough to allow Belle to put up the Teleportation Circle and allow everyone to vacate the premises. Item spells shrank down the bigger machines so they could use the Circle, and in good order, a thousand elite troopers, champions, war machines, and the like were absolutely gone from the cavern within ten minutes of reaching the appropriate place.
Exactly as instructed. There was no ground to hold here, and I'd sealed every normal entry and egress point before we'd come onto the final attack. Vivus had taken the dead, sent the souls on their way, and there'd be no undead coming out of this place, either, despite a quarter-million Beastials, the last of their kind, having died there.
Well, almost the last of them.
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I looked down the tunnel that plunged down into the fiery mantle, passing into it while not conducting any of the lava up the free entry point to areas with less pressure.
It had not been there a week ago.
An occluding force had turned a blindspot of stone in the Commune into a small cavern clearly settled by the Beastials. I'd spotted it instantly in my follow-up to the main cavern, hissing in irritation, knowing that Nifl had been hiding it directly with Her power, and that killing Her Avatar had disrupted that power enough to make it fail… or perhaps She didn't know She was supposed to maintain it.
Someone else had interfered, then. The tunnel led downwards, downwards… and I could see signs of dimensional compression along it, Immortal Power speeding those along who traversed it, turning the gravity so it was neither up nor down, but merely a long tunnel to a new place of safety.
A place on the other side of that layer of fire, to whatever lay below.
For a moment, I debated following them down that twisting tunnel, but prickles on my fingers indicated lingering Immortal Power in that tube, patient and ready, waiting for someone to follow.
I was pretty sure that if I tried to follow, the whole thing was going to collapse on me in a happy accident, and the survivors were going to get away regardless.
That didn't mean I couldn't eventually get them on the other side. I stared down into that tunnel, and turned away, marking the coordinates relative to the polar opening.
It was time to go back and rest a bit. Not that I rested easily…
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A cheer went up when I stepped off the Great Seal, two full days after the rest of the army had clicked their heels and been whisked far away.
My Free Company naturally knew I was still alive and were completely unworried about anything having happened to me. Silence on my end was normal when Immortals were fucking around with everything, and nobody wanted any part of that action.
Also, there were a lot of Glory Awards to process, and the Tapestry with all that gold had found its way to Belle, who shuffled it over to Prince Ukker, and the dwarves and elves had happily begun the process of smelting down all that goldweight on the side.
Word had gone out on formal and very informal channels, too. The regular disappearances of the King and his Regents had long been noticed, and it was known that I was leading a purge of the Beast-men across the lands in places far from those held by Iberon or its neighbors.
And now it was done.
Hanvol flickered into view on a neighboring Seal, immediately Teleporting in to meet me. "Lady Edge," he bowed deeply in immaculate attire from four thousand years in the future, the very picture of a Federyn ambassador.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
"Hanvol," I nodded back, giving all the cheering troopers there a wave of acknowledgment they could feel like rose petals across the face, not incidentally opening up a path for me to walk out of there. "I trust Darkmoor has not fallen apart in my absence?"
He chuckled as he fell in beside me. "The bards are competing for who can speak the more grandiose tale, but Buck and Guy have the edge, what with them writing the official tale of the Crusade, after all." Typing it all out on a computer pad and then auto-printing the words was also much easier than quill and ink, too. "Buck's been organizing the big feast they're setting up to welcome you back, no ducking out of it."
"Of course. As long as there shall be dancing."
"The musicians were stumbling over themselves for the right to play for it, indeed," he nodded gravely. "They were raging over the song list, last I heard."
"I trust they'll have it worked out shortly. Halfhand?"
"Belle sent him and his men off with a few dozen barrels of provisions and good wine. He was oddly subdued for such a belligerent man. Something he saw, possibly?"
"I couldn't possibly pontificate on such matters." The extermination of two threats to Darkmoor, perhaps pointedly its elven population, had definitely raised alarms among Darkmoor's neighbors. "The Iron Graf?"
"His emperor wants him to invade and kill himself by throwing himself against Darkmoor's walls. Strangely enough, he has a remarkably strong desire not to commit suicide by madman." He even withdrew a letter from his sleeve. "A member of the Cabal of the Arcane dropped this off hastily after we returned, and was allowed to leave."
I accepted the beribboned thing, glittering with verification magic and the seal of the Iron Graf upon it. "Addressed directly to me. I trust King Antius was not discomfited."
"You dropped a hammer the size of a mountain on a city and killed ten thousand beast-folk elites in an instant. Nobody is saying anything ill of you, Lady Edge," he replied smoothly.
"Ah, diplomacy. Antius does know I still have no desire to rule here, correct?" I asked as we stepped outside.
It was late winter, cold and clear, a little breezy, none of which dared to approach me. Snow swirled away from the sidewalk in front of me as I drifted just over the stones, and Hanvol paced me calmly.
"He didn't even ask about it, just grumbled about paperwork getting in the way of his studies. The Council is, of course, cautiously skeptical, but those who know you remain optimistic about the situation. The aggressive are even saying they want to start advancing to the south…"
"Without my help?" I clucked my tongue at their foolishness.
"They are clever and feel that even if you won't support resumption of the civil war, at least you would defend the current lands of Darkmoor, giving them an unassailable position to retreat to," he sniffed dismissively.
"I see. Make it known that any who vote for such aggression will be serving in the front lines of such a conflict, along with their strongest supporters. That other matter?"
"The Ei of Hazz has indeed been sending out more agents, and reports are that it is a bit more crazed than usual at the idea of a stronger spellcaster being around. Why, there's a dozen of its agents in Darkmoor right now, waiting for you to return."
"Indeed. And they are going to confront me in the plaza just ahead, are they? Must've moved quickly to stake it out once I came back. Very organized and motivated of them. Do you think they even considered why only one member of my Company is accompanying me?" I asked calmly.
"Please, my Lady," Hanvol protested, hand upon his chest. "Do you believe I suddenly came across a way to give those who follow the Ei of Hazz some creativity and true intelligence? They've been trying to follow us and learn things of us for months, you know."
"It's not one of the more promising avenues of study, I'll admit," I had to agree as we closed in on the opening to the circle, not far from the gates to the Old City.
The dozen cloaked figures raced into the street ahead of us, kicking up snow before pausing twenty yards away from us as Hanvol and I stopped politely.
"Lady Edge!" The leader of the band, a good seven feet tall, threw off his cloak, revealing a body gone all blue, with numerous silvery technorganic runes slapped across him. His hair was black, his eyes pools of quicksilver, and his expression more than a little crazed as he leveled a mercurial blade not-so-obviously coated in poison at me. "The Ei of Hazz sends his regards and congratulations on your butchery of the primitive beast-folk! Obviously you have forgotten that there is a far greater danger closer to home!"
"Did I forget that, Hanvol?" I asked, tapping crimson lips with black nails and cutting off the sot's tirade smoothly.
"No, my Lady, I don't believe you did," he answered politely.
"Then clearly this one forgot something important." I turned my eyes on him, and then I smiled at him as he was about to utter a war cry and charge.
Both caught in his throat. Seeing me smile wasn't for just anyone, and not in an awe-inspiring sense. I'd been told that when I smiled, it looked like death coming to collect them, and nothing was going to stop it.
"It's that I don't need to take care of little problems. My people get very, very pissed if I have to bestir myself for chaff."
There was crunch as two dwarven shields met right in front of me and heavy plated boots planted themselves as Prince Ukker and Revered Cruxin and their whole crew somehow popped out of nowhere, without even leaving a trail in the snow. Suddenly I had a whole dwarven battle-line in front of me, all with glowing Hammers or Axes in hand, Shields all agleam and polished and yet somehow conveying the fact that they'd handled countless blows.
The dozen agents of the Ei of Hazz nearly jumped out of their boots, and jerked backwards involuntarily.
Dread's Spear flicked out, and I lowered it precisely over those joined Shields.
With a crash, a dozen more Spears locked into position around me as the Skifnersons and their personal squads locked into position to my right and left.
With grunts and gurgles, two cloaked figures in alleyways to the flanks stumbled out. One was ridden down by a familiar hyn, the other impaled through by a gleaming Rapier in a grinning rake's hand.
The agents of the Ei of Hazz looked about as all around them, more dwarves appeared with Shields and Axes ready, braced by more Spears in grim human hands… and so did elves with drawn Bows, elemental fires writhing on those arrows.