The Spell of Binding (Part One) (10 page)

Pramos stood besides Minika, like a mother hen, checking her every few minutes. He would wander off, check on the elf or dwarf then come striding back. The mag us just sat on a rock, looking completely exhausted and perplexed while staring at the defeated foe. Her hair was a tangled mess, her clothing all dusty and covered in melted fragments of stone. A few shards had struck her face, small cuts and lines of blood ran from the minute wounds. Her breathing came in gagged bursts, as if reliving her last few actions.

Around them lay twenty bodies, melted beyond recognition . The creatures had crawled from the very ground, others morphing from the cliff face they were passing, as if the very rock itself had c o me alive, seeking light and life. Huge lumbering bipeds made of stone and undulating sand. Weapons chiseled from rock in their vast, kno b bly hands.

Only one person seemed to keep their cool –Minika. As the others ran to group up, create a defense wall, Minika strode past them all, her staff raised above her head, words screaming from her mouth, to be heard above the sound of the attacking, stone warriors. Runes materialized, pouring from the end of her wooden staff; glowing like the very sun, momentarily surpassing the morning orb in intensity. The runes started to circle the four, creating a band of glowing fire, with the sand being blown in all directions, and melting a furrow around them. Then, in a split instant, as the mag us slammed her staff into the ground the wall of runes expanded, like a sonic explosion it engulf ed the charging stone figures.

It was over in seconds. The superheated runes battered against the charging assailants, melting them on contact. Whatever they were, and whatever they were made of, soon came ap art at the melted seams.

Now, in the aftermath, the confusion had died down, and the four had time to get their brains in gear. It had happened so fast, and with s uch ferocity.

Pramos stood over Minika for the umpteen time, but this time she looked up. Her face was smeared with dust and drips of blood, where grains of superheated stone and sand had s peckled her. Her face pulled in to a look of confusion that transformed her countenance completely, even though she still looked utterly exhausted.

“This is all wrong,” she said. “They can’t be real?”

“Wrong? Why?” Pramos head jerked up, to look around the area one more time. The devastation was on par with few things he had ever witnessed. The sand in all directions was blasted outwards, melted by Minika’s rune magic and had turned in to black glass. The towering walls of the ravine they were walking through was still cooling down; a magma like substance dripp ed in places, pooling on the ground, with steam billowing up into the air from scorched undergrowth.

The elf and dwarf lean ed on each other. The tw o long time agitators had put aside their differences w hen faced with a larger crisis.

Pramos gave the mag us a sideways glance. “We best keep moving. Your firework displ ay may have caught someone else ’s attention.”

Minika slowly stood, while brushing herself down, her garment w as stained and dirty. “I tell you it’s all wrong.” She seemed agitated that no one wanted to discuss the obvious. “They were Goylem’s, if anyone is interested?” She announced to no one in particula r. “Inanimate matter created in to anthropomorphic beings by powerful magic. That means they were created, an d then placed here by someone.”

Minika walked past them all and stood beside a head that had been melted from the body. She knelt and drew a rune over what would have been the cranium on a human. The skull was large and malformed. The whole body (before it had been blasted) looked like a huge clay toy figure, sculptured by a small child. A thin line appeared around the heads circumference, a nd it parted with a hiss of escaped air. Inside an empty cavity, where the brain should have been, rested a small sheaf of rolled up parchment.

“I’ve heard of them,” The elf said. “I thought the magic needed to bring them to life had been forgotten?”

Minika looked over towards the elf. “I’ve studied the an cient texts, back in the city of New Babel, and the magic to operate them hasn’t been around since before the sundering of the ancient world.” She stood and looked around at the scattered, melted bodies of the twenty creatures that shouldn’t exist.

Minika held the parchment up to the light. A faint series of words could be seen, but nothing she recognized. They definitely weren’t runes. Another mystery for her father to work out. She placed the parchment in her pocket for safe keeping.

“We need to keep moving,” Pramos announced again. No one had paid any heed the first time.

Minika picked up her small cloth bag and rehung it from the end of her staff, while still staring at the stone body at her feet.

The group picked its way through the bodies and over the slippery melted sand, and past th e steaming walls of the canyon.

“I thought you were a Second House mag us ?” Droncin asked from his position behind her , while helping the elf hobble along.

“Third House within a week.” She flicked hair behind her ear, an d turned to stare at the dwarf.

“Hmmph,” Dronc in replied. He left an unspoken question hanging in the air. What she had just accomplished was no Second Level magic. Dwarfs hated magic, b ut they did know about it.
This teenage human mag us girl is trying to pull my helmet over my eyes. So be it, we all have secrets , he thought .

Minika slowly started heading towards the city of Keep Safe, with Pramos at her side.

If she was this capable, and powerful in magic , Droncin continued thinking, then why are we needed?

Chapter Sixteen MORE
SECRETS

T
he six council member sat around the table. None spoke. All had their heads lowered. The cause for their silence stood at the head of the table.

Simeon was a complete mess. His tunic was dirty and burnt up to the knees. Blood stained one side. He also had cuts to his face and arms.

“Well?” he asked for the second time. It seems none of the other council members wanted to be the one to admit he was right.

“It was for your own protection,” Haroot stated, w hil e her head was still lowered.

“PROTECTION!” Spittle flecked from Simeon ’s lips. He slammed a hand down on the table.

All six council members jumped. It even looked like Mace Spindle, the Head of Food Supplies, was crying into his ridiculously big, drooping mustache.

Simeon seemed to deflate. He reali z ed his methods weren’t working. He took another approach.

“Brothers and sisters... Why? Why didn’t anyone ever tell me?” He retook his seat, tears flowing freely.
Maybe shame will loosen their lips.

“It was for your own protection,” Haroot stated again. “You needed to be protecte d. If the masses ever found out you would ’ve be en mobbed. Stripped of power and tossed out into the wilderness.” She reached across a hand and squeezed his arm.

“All these years. Almost two decades you knew and never said a word.”

“People wouldn’t understand. It took years to cover up the last problem. We had to ship Minika away. Hide her from view, so no questions would be asked,” Ann s a Flock , the Head of Water Supplies stated.

“How could Selene do this to me?” He had his head in his hands.

“She didn’t know,” Haroot said. “After Minika was born she passed away, as you sadly know. But we reali z ed another child was still inside her, when after she passed we noticed her stomach was still moving. We did a caesarian on her. We removed Minika ’s twin sister.”

“Twin.” Simeon stared straight ahead, his eyes glazed over.

When Selene gave birth he had been away protecting a village. Its barrier had crumbled during the night and the village had been overrun with demons. It had been a massacre. When he returned he found out his wife had died during a premature birth. It was all hushed up ; she was an angel after all. He had been slowly climbing his way up the ranks. Only a few knew about his secret. The small child looked human enough, but they could all feel something was different. A mixing of the two races had never occurred before.

Minika had been sent away to be raised in a small village, away from prying eyes. He visited as often as he could.

He came back to the moment at hand.

“I will ask you only one more time. Why wasn’t I told about my second daughter?” There was something about his voice. He hadn’t raised it, or lowered it in a threatening manner , b ut they knew th e y had to answer this time.

“B-because...” Haroot stuttered, “she was a hybrid mix of human and angel , and unlike Minika s he had wings!”

*

Hours passed after the council filed out around him. Simeon didn’t move.

Two hours later Haroot appeared at the door.

“We did what we though was best for all.” She came to sit next to him. She was his most trusted advisor. They had worked their way up together.

“She was sent away and left with her own kind. I owed you that much.”

His head slowly turned. “You mean you gave her back to her own kind?” He was now standing, his chair had tumbled back to the floor.

“Of course. We are not animals , we can not raise one of them!” Her voice was indignant.

“You fools! You bloody fools!” He spun around and started shouting at a guard posted by the council chambers door. “Rally the Order of Sanctum. Ready them to march at dawn !” He looked directly at Haroot. “She has the Book!”

Chapter Seventeen GOOD NEWS

V
orr threw his hands up in the air and kicked out at the chittering beetles that made up the chair ; not caring if he annoyed the supposed p rophetess anymore ; some went tumbling over the cliff edge and got incinerated in the magma .

He couldn’t believe he had fe d and protected this creature for over two thousand years, and for what , one measly line that sounded made up. It was so ambiguous that the sniveling Slis or Qwat could have come up with something more original.

Time to double our eff orts a nd locat e that Spell, he thought. But he already had quarter of his army out scouting locations, following anyone who left a village, town or city. His spy on the c ouncil had stated that Simeon had deciphered the Book, so it was only common sense that someone would be sent to retrieve it.

A small group would be less conspicuous than an army.

He rounded another corner, his wing tip s scrapped along the ceiling. On his way down he was mulling over raising the ceiling, but now he didn’t care if it collapsed and he never had to come down here again.

Hopefully it would bury her alive, it would serve the bitch right. Seven will heal the world indeed!

He punched at the wall, taking a huge chunk out of the stone , all the while muttering the prophesy over and over , trying to make sense of it .

Vorr hadn’t heard from his spy in days. She normal ly sent a message every other day, even if it was just boring drivel. It was so unlike her. She thought she wo uld be spared when he won and wiped them all away, and this was one of their leaders on the c ouncil that ran their world.
Human’s, how did they succeed in sending us all away ?

He had been just a young demon back then. Just one of millions fighting to survive. All the constant infighting; warring between themselves. There was no order, no one in charge. Everyone for themselves. All the different groups fought one another. Being sent away changed all that. Made them stronger. Mad e them realize who the real enemy was. And even though none of the original humans were still around, an example had to be made. Their ancestor s had to be punished. Vengeance had to be meted out.

Vorr was getting closer to his throne room. The temperature had drop ped noticeably.

The mêlée of sounds washed over him as he entered the vast chamber. There was still hundreds of creature filling the floor area around his throne.

A small skinny, wrinkled skinned creature with four arms and an oversize head scuttled over to match his momentum. It had rolls of parchment under each arm and more in its hands.

“I pray you have good news for me?” Vorr said .

“Master, things are in dire need of your attention,” Gob announced. Gob was the Keeper of Information. His vastly oversized brain bulged his head to abnormal proportions, making him top heavy. Down his knobberly spine ran pulsating blobs, each one connected to others like it, located throughout different parts of the demon kingdom, all connected by his large hive mind. Vorr could send out orders through Gob to all his army within minutes. The spy on the c ouncil had one of Gobs pulsatin g blobs in her personal keeping.

How she got it past the Sphere that protected the gate was anyone’s guess, he mused. Then again, she should know, wasn’t that part of her job?

The tunnel he exited from came out behind his massive throne. He slumped himself down into its cold grasp.

All the attention in the chamber centered round the throne dais. Demons started pushing forward, trying to get attention from their king. All the pitiful complaints and arguments had to be sorted out. Being the king wasn’t all glamour, he had hundreds of problems to sort out daily. He hadn’t even started today’s judging yet and already he had the start of a headache forming.

Every now and then even a Head of House would have a problem to put before the king, something even they couldn’t sort out with their own kind; something that would need his approval or judgment .

Vorr peered out between his fingers, as he rested his head on his hands. All he wanted to concentrate on was the damn Spell. But at the moment there was nothing else he could do. All the bases had been covered. Now it was simply a matter of waiting, and hoping. The army was poised ready to march at a moments notice. He had split the army into four divisions, each located at different points of the compass, so they could reach any location within a matter of days. Battalions of dragon, griffins, harpies, s imurgh s , chimeras and sphinxes were ready to fly; these could reach any location within hours, and all of them would be carrying other creatures on their backs.