NOVEL WEB Chapter 4: The Low Road
Cove yanked the handle off of the steel door and cocked an eye at Pipster as he said, “This way?”
Pipster sniffed and nodded.
For the last hour, they had followed Pipster’s nose. Through endless tunnels, some man-made, most ancient lava tubes, holding Azure lanterns and their noses as they passed burned and rotting Riddere corpses, scorched walls, and melted scraps of what might have been weapons. Yet this battered and singed door was the worst of the lot. Irregular gouges and grooves marred the concave bulge in the center of the sheet of steel. The gap between the door and the frame was filled with metal as if a novice seamstress had used molten iron glue and sewn the sides with heavy wire. The Riddere had fought to get through the door, and an earth mage had worked feverishly to keep them out.
Cove closed his eyes, rested his palm on the door, and sent his mind inside. The molecular structure reminded him of a sailcloth patched on the mast while escaping a hurricane. He recognized Keekee's touch, but this was too sloppy to be hers. Kee was a thermomancer, and an Elementalist had done this work. It could have been one of the Temple's acolytes, one of the young men flirting with his girls. Still, the Temple of Amekia recruited older teens with an affinity for water and aquatic life. Cove shook his head. So, this was a blend of Keeva and Essie.
"Someone is coming," whispered Dax, pulling Cove from the door.
Cove strained, trying to hear past their soft footsteps.
*****
A man said, "Sir, I swear I felt something, sir."
"Private, If this is another ghost—"
"This is real, sir."
"It damn well better be; if not, they're looking for externals to replenish the herd."
"A mage was checking this door, sir. It's still hot with brown energy."
"I don't care about this blasted door, private. We can twitch our sleeper when we're ready. The fugitives are all but caught, but our agent said the Stoneshaper didn't escape with the others."
Gath**
Cove glanced between Dax and Sera. Dax hissed through grinding teeth. His fists clenched, and his glorifier tattoos glowed, pulsing an ominous blood red. Sera gaped. Rage and betrayal burned in her eyes, and her single glorifier mark fluoresced a brilliant white. Both looked seconds from charging the soldiers and torturing the name of the spy from their lips.
Cove stabbed a finger at their tattoos while waving his hand in a cutting motion across his neck, anxiousness and panic in his eyes as he whispered, “Turn it off!”
*****
“That way! There’s a healer and a physical mage down there!”
“Move! Move! Move! I’ve got Five thousand grains for the one who brings me the Stoneshaper alive! Kill everyone else if they resist.”
Disciplined footsteps double-timed towards their group.
*****
“Sera,” hissed Cove, “get over here, now! Dax, stand in the middle and growl, be intimidating, or whatever you do.”
Sera huffed as she paced to his side and said, “What do you want, Cove?”
Cove knelt, placed one hand on the floor, and motioned for Sera to kneel beside him. "We need to link our powers."
"To become invisible?"
"No, our blended gifts hide our use of Elystria."
"Like Hanna?”
“No, she shuts down equal or lesser talented. We conceal all usage of Elystria within a meter or two. Now, I must put my hand on your abdomen, and you have to hold it in place.”
“Pervert! You want to rub my belly?!?”
“Keep your claws off of my woman,” hissed Dax.
Sera growled at Dax as she said, "My body, my choice!" She seized Cove’s hand, slammed it against her womanhood, and glared at Dax.
Cove drew their hands up until his palm covered her navel. “Push your Elystria into my hand.”
“What? How?”
“Send a stream of healing from your hand, through my hand, and into your… um…”
“Hurry, Cove,” said Dax.
“Your womb.”
“Why?”
Both men whispered, “Sera!”
Sera huffed, but her Elystria flowed into Cove.
Sera’s Azure underwear and Cove’s luminaegis armor pulsed like Name Day festival lights as he pulled their blended power across his shoulders and out of his other hand. Their merged powers hid their energy signatures as Cove wove it into the rock floor of the cavern. He broke up the solid hallway stone one centimeter at a time until he had a two-meter-deep box filled with fine sand.
The light show finished as the soldiers double-timed around the corner.
“Stop whatever you are doing,” said a gruff voice.
“Sir, none of them are using Elystria, Sir.”
“Leave my woman and her brother alone. Go, and I will grant you life.”
“Foreigner, I don’t know if your shamans teach basic math in your hide tents, but even you should see we outnumber you twenty to one.”
Dax sighed, “My brother, save this one for me.”
“Are you sure he is worth your time?”
“This latrine scum is not worthy to breathe my air.”
“Hey,” said Cove to the lieutenant, “can you move to one side?”
The soldier's brow wrinkled over clenched teeth. “You do not command us. Surrender Stoneshaper.”
Cove glared at the lieutenant. His mind filled with thoughts of Kee and his girls lying naked on operating room tables, teams ready to steal their Azure and the talents they held. A tremble of rage and regret suffused his voice as he said, “Johnathan the Betrayer told me that in his day, it was considered a war crime to bring a Stoneshaper into battle. I did not understand why at the time, but now I do. You seem like nice, obedient, if rather ignorant, people. You might have families and friends who expect to see you soon. I do not want to ruin their lives, even if you deserve it. You have ten seconds to run. Ten, nine…”
“Leashes forward!”
“Not going to happen,” said Cove as his luminaegis armor flashed, blinding everyone in the cave. He collapsed as energy rushed from his body, and his muscles, bones, and his droui glands stabbed with acute pain. The ground shook, liquifying the rock and sending dust and sand into the air. Fifty-nine Riddere soldiers screamed, choked, coughed, and fell silent.
The commander howled, blasting curses and oaths as his vision returned. He turned and tripped. Horror and panic filled his face as he searched for and found his squads. He stammered, “What did you do?”
Around him were sixty heads, except one sticking out of the floor in rows any cabbage farmer would admire.
“Dax,” said Cove, bile rising, his voice trembling, seconds from howling with remorse, “if this thing is still here after I vomit, you may kill him.”
Sera held Cove and petted his hair as he heaved and sobbed, alternating vomiting and wailing with soul-deep agony. “I… oh, gods… I did not want to… they killed mom… they… Sera, they were going to send you back to Bordelwald, murder Keekee and my girls, and… oh, gods, what have I done!”
“Let me have him,” said Dax.
“He’s my brother and my friend,” said Sera as she drew Cove into her bosom.
“Woman,” whispered Dax, “his sorrow grows as he counts the fallen. Carry him if you can, but we must leave this field of the dead.”
“I can’t lift him.”
“Draw your control runes on this fool,” said Dax as he suspended the struggling Riddere Lieutenant by the belt of his pants like a reluctant evening bag. “Make him faun over you like the guys in the bars.”
Sera sighed, motioned at the ground, looked into the man’s eyes, and began drawing lines of power over their captive’s neck and back.
Cove’s howls of grief became sobs as Dax lifted him and cradled him against his chest.
“Grieve, my friend,” Dax whispered. “Tears cleanse the soul. Men cry. They grieve the fallen and the lost. They pray for the spirits of their enemies and mourn the loss of an honorable foe. Let the river of tears purge your heart as it proves your manhood.
“Monsters restrain their pain and force their cheeks to be dry. They boil their tears into scalding rage and burn away all that is good within them. Monsters do not cry. You are not a monster.”