The Lost Runes Saga [Epic Fantasy]

FORTY-TWO

Vidar stepped over the unconscious rune scribe and looked up and down the corridor. It was empty. The thieves who had escaped the ambush were gone. That left him to get Alvarn out by himself. No matter, that'd been his plan from the start. The administrator's office was on a different floor and in a far corner of the rune scribe's guild. As Vidar hurried along the corridors and then down a flight of stairs, he heard shouting, the sounds of a scuffle. He ignored it.

Peeking down the stairs, he saw the dark-clad figures tying up a man in the robes of a rune scribe. After a short deliberation, Vidar called down, "What's going on?"

One of the dark-clad figures looked up, a cloth covering the lower part of his face. He grunted, "A distraction."

"What are you doing with that rune scribe?" Vidar asked.

"We won't kill him."

Vidar didn't have time for this. He left them to their own devices. He had his own goal, and it wasn't far. Guards were also posted outside the administrator's office when he got there. Vidar leveled his staff toward them. "Either you leave or you die."

They looked at each other, and then bolted in the opposite direction. Vidar walked up to the large wooden doors and threw them open. Kenaz runes shone from the ceiling, and the room was without shadows to hide in. He stuck his head in and looked around, not wanting to step into a second ambush. It was empty.

From his last visit to the administrator's office, he knew there was a door in there leading to the room the old scholar indicated. Rather than go through the door in the corridor, Vidar figured they were less likely to expect him coming through the secondary entrance.

Just as he was about to head to the door, an arm wrapped around Vidar's neck from behind. A blade glinted to his side.

In that split second, Vidar used a rune he hadn't found a use for until now. The stakra rune in the middle of his back. The thrust propelled him forward in that instant, and he stumbled, dropped the staff, crashed to the floor, and rolled before getting back up to his feet and turning.

Whoever it had been, very little to identify remained. The knife was on the floor next to what was left of the would-be assassin. Vidar drew in a sharp breath. That had been close. Too close. And now his coat had yet another hole in it. He hadn't heard a thing, and the attacker moved with slow intent to not trigger the algiz rune. Vidar did not like what that implied. The guild, if this was one of their assassins, was learning his tricks at a frightening pace. After all, Vidar had only shown them how to get around the protective barrier of an algiz rune hours ago, when he used styrka against one of Viktoria's henchmen. He didn't like this. Didn't like it one bit.

He closed the doors to the administrator's office to hide himself and the gore, walked up to the smaller door, and listened, hearing nothing. With care not to make his presence known, Vidar put his hand on the handle and turned, hoping to take whoever was in there by surprise.

It was locked.

"So much for surprises," Vidar whispered to himself as he readied a stakra rune.

He was about to break the door down when he noticed small symbols painted on top of the ornamental patterns, made to blend in. Algiz runes everywhere. He put a finger against one, drained its essence into the styrka rune, and repeated that process thirteen more times. Going through all of those, he caught an even smaller symbol and put his hand over it. Warmth rippled from the minuscule rune. Sowilo. If he had attempted to break through the door, those runes would explode, and he'd already seen what that would do to the wall.

Gritting his teeth in frustration, he drained every sowilo rune he could find, four in all, and hoped that was all of them. He leveled his palm at the door and angled his elbow just right to handle the counter thrust, then triggered both stakra runes. The thrust tore into the door, demolishing it and throwing the broken parts into the room beyond. No explosion. Vidar breathed a sigh of relief and stepped into what might once have been a storeroom. It was smaller than the administrator's office and bare, except for chains hanging from the ceiling with manacles around a man's wrists, pulled tight to force his arms over his head.

"Alvarn!" Vidar breathed.

Alvarn looked to have been beaten within an inch of his life. His head hung toward the floor, and it was obvious he wasn't standing by his own strength, by how strained his arms and shoulders looked, and by how he slumped forward, his knees bent. Alvarn's hair was wet with blood, and it trickled down his face and bare chest, which also bore marks of the interrogation. His body was shriveled in a way that Vidar recognized. They'd used a styrka rune on his poor friend.

Alvarn stirred at the sound of Vidar's voice.

"I didn't expect a visit from you today, Vidar."

Vidar whipped his head to the side and saw the administrator sitting in a chair, back stiff and face placid. She wore leather gloves, and on a small table next to her was an assortment of implements that Vidar saw no other use for than to bring pain.

Alvarn's body shuddered at hearing her voice, but Vidar felt no fear, only rage.

"You expected me to die in that ambush."

"I did," she confirmed, not a hint of emotion in her voice.

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"What is your name?" he asked.

"What use could you have of that information at this point?"

"I'd like to know the name of the woman I'm about to kill."

"Quite the flair for drama," she said. "But I'll give you my name. Astrid, like my mother and her mother before her."

"Astrid." Vidar tasted the name and found he disliked it. "Were you the one who hurt Siv as well?"

Astrid's mouth turned into a thin line. "It is not something I enjoy. Sometimes it is the only path forward. And when the guildmistress gives an order, the rune scribes obey."

Vidar walked up to his friend, never taking his eyes off the disgusting excuse for a woman who just sat there, like they were discussing over tea. He put his hand on Alvarn's chest and drew in a breath at the utter lack of essence in Alvarn's system. That wasn't all. Something pulled essence from him. He had been correct about the use of styrka runes. In the manacles, Vidar guessed.

He pulled the essence from the styrka rune that he'd drained from the door, and rejuvenated runes about his body, before drawing dragon's essence from his heartwell, channeling it into Alvarn's, hoping it would be enough.

"What are you doing?" Astrid asked.

"Shut up," Vidar said. "You are not long for this world. What use could you have of that information at this point?"

"Will you kill a defenseless woman who is not trying to harm you? I don't think you'll want me dead, Vidar. I have information you need, so I'm sure we can come to an understanding. You must see⁠—"

Vidar triggered the logiz rune and flames erupted, filling the chamber with orange light. A translucent shimmer met the flames right in front of Astrid. Algiz runes. Everyone carried algiz runes already. He knew they wouldn't last long, not against this. He kept up his assault, the roaring of the flames drowning out Astrid's words. She no longer sounded calm, and screamed even before the barrier broke. The administrator of the rune scribe's guild wailed as she burned.

When he was done and the flames had died down, only a husk remained, and a few splinters from Astrid's chair smoldering on the floor. Vidar looked upon his handiwork in disgust, not because he had taken yet another life, but because of what this woman had done. Death was too good a fate for her, but it was the only one Vidar had to offer.

Sounds of alarm drifted in from outside the door, people running past.

Vidar hurried up to Alvarn, then cursed as he was too short to reach the manacles above his friend's head. A moment later, he returned from Astrid's office with a chair, and he climbed it to reach and pull a locking pin from the manacles, which opened, and Alvarn slumped to the floor with a groan.

After a glance at the inside of the manacles to see styrka runes all around the inside, Vidar jumped off the chair, got down to his knees next to Alvarn, and put a hand on his chest. The dragon's essence was rejuvenating Alvarn at a good rate. They needed to get out and get away, and there was no way Vidar could carry his friend.

The wizened state of him improved by the second, and Alvarn's eyes fluttered open. His breathing picked up as he looked around.

"You're fine, I'm here," Vidar said.

Alvarn's gaze fixed on Vidar's face. "I didn't give them logiz."

Vidar patted his shoulder. "I know you didn't. Can you stand?" Vidar asked, pulling a small water skin from his satchel and handing it to Alvarn, who sat up.

Alvarn gulped the water down like a man dying of thirst and sighed in satisfaction as he put the stopper back in. "I think I can get up. Give me a moment."

The thump of stakra runes reached them through the closed door, and Alvarn frowned. "What's going on?"

"A diversion. I'm getting help from the thieves, but I think they've taken it a little too far."

"You and your thieves," Alvarn grunted. "You're friends again now?"

"I'll tell you on the way back," Vidar said, pulling Alvarn to his feet.

Alvarn looked at the charred corpse in the room's corner, and blinked, his mouth turning to a thin line, but he didn't comment. His clothes were in a pile by the door, and once Alvarn had struggled into them, they left, Vidar holding his friend's arm over his shoulders to give some support, while Alvarn held on to Vidar's staff in his other hand, eyeing it.

"This is interesting," Alvarn said, looking at the lines between the different runes.

"A weapon," Vidar grunted, unlocking the door into the corridor from the inside. "You should see the shields I made for the villagers outside the wall."

"Sounds like you've been busy. What of the dragons?" Alvarn asked as they made it down the corridor, heading for the stairs.

"They'll be back soon. There is much to do," Vidar said. "So much to do."

A thief came running up the stairs, his eyes wide with fright, but before he turned the corner into the corridor, a thrust took him from behind, and they watched as the thief's body broke apart and splattered against the opposite wall.

"Be ready with that staff," Vidar said. "Viktoria is still around here somewhere."

Vidar peeked around the corner as Alvarn did his best to ignore the gore on the floor. Another thrust from a stakra rune, accompanied by a scream. Vidar pulled back.

"We're not thieves!" he shouted.

"S-sorry," someone stammered from below, on the stairs.

Vidar peeked out again. It was a grey-haired fellow with a thin mustache who pressed himself into a corner, holding an algiz rune in one hand and a stakra one in his right, cowering.

"Will you let us through?" Vidar asked.

"I've never used a rune like this before," he said, his face pale and his eyes fixed on what remained of the thief. "I've never⁠—"

Vidar ignored him and entered the staircase with Alvarn. They walked down the stairs, and Alvarn leaned his weight on Vidar a little less with every step.

As they made it past the terrified rune scribe and down another flight of stairs, Alvarn was walking by himself, only using the staff for support.

"You can keep that," Vidar said. "It's too much hassle to carry it everywhere."

"Thank you," Alvarn said. His cheeks were flush, and his forehead shone with sweat, but the weakness was gone from him, and he stood tall, straight-backed. With so much of his own essence gone, the dragon's essence must've been flushing through his system, allowing for a quick recovery.

They saw several more rune scribes running this way and that, with most of them looking to be headed toward the tunnel shelter. Thieves still prowled the corridors as well, nodding to Vidar as they passed.

Vidar tried stopping a few to learn what in the fallen angels they were doing, but the thieves just kept going.

"We should head further down and exit near the library. You remember the place?" Alvarn asked. He was still turning the staff around, tracing the lines between runes with a finger as they walked, mouthing their names.

"I remember," Vidar said, "but I don't know where to find those stairs."

Alvarn nodded. "They're just up ahead."

Vidar expected to face resistance at every turn, but more and more he realized the rune scribes were terrified and didn't care about them at all, except to cower or flee in another direction. Even as they left the building through the small side door, Vidar hadn't spotted Viktoria. He couldn't help but wonder what had happened to her.