Fire Within: Book Two of Fire and Stone (Stories of Fire and Stone 2) (50 page)

“Esset here,” the summoner responded almost immediately.

“Esset, check with—” Toman began.

“Tseka and Erizen here,” Tseka’s voice interrupted.

“Oh good,” Toman continued. “Esset, you need to get your mages to check for totems right now. Erizen, please do the same. Three just showed up here.”

“
Three?
” Esset exclaimed.

“
Go,
” Toman insisted. Esset went silent, presumably to do as he’d been told.

“I just did a sweep. There’s nothing here,” Erizen drawled.

“Three totems—is it possible he can only erect three at a time?” Tseka asked.

“We’ll find out for sure when Esset gets back, but it’s possible. In which case… I’m going to need you guys here,” Toman said.

“Agreed,” Tseka immediately replied.

“It’s going to take a while to get there—” Erizen began.

“No totems,” Esset said upon his return.

“Good. Erizen and I will be there shortly to pick you up. We’ll meet Toman in Symria,” Tseka said.

“What? Transportation spells are expensive!” Erizen objected.

“And you have more than enough reserves to cast two without stopping for breath. Suck it up, princess,” Tseka hissed.

“This is—” Erizen began.

“Reasonable,” Tseka finished for him. She must have been physically threatening him on the other end, because there wasn’t an immediate response from the mage.

“We all want Moloch stopped, you included, Erizen. This is necessary, and a small price to pay at that,” Esset pointed out.

“Fine.” Erizen didn’t sound happy. “You’d better be ready when I get there.”

“I’d best just tell the captain I’m going, and I’m ready,” Esset said.

“We haven’t much to pack. We’ll be there soon,” Tseka replied.

“Innkeeper probably expects to be paid, too,” Erizen grumbled.

“Okay, I’ll see you all soon then,” Toman said.

“Soon.”

One by one, they all took off their ear-pieces. Toman headed back to the mages—he needed to organize them for the coming battle. Toman felt numb, distant from himself. Maybe it wasn’t Moloch, but his gut was telling him that this was it—this was the final battle. This would decide everything: who lived, who died, and what the world would look like after.

An hour later, the four of them and a dozen Symrian mages stood in the courtyard, ready to be teleported to the location of the three totems. Toman glanced around the group; Erizen looked irritated, while Tseka looked far too enthusiastic—Toman knew she was psyching herself up for the battle, but even so, the Symrian mages kept shooting her nervous looks. Still, even Tseka’s happy ferocity didn’t make them as nervous as Esset did; Toman was certain Esset was unaware that he emanated a gentle heat and that there was a faint glow coming from the gem in his chest. Toman himself was grim; he just prayed to Bright Hyrishal—and any other deity that cared to listen—that they’d all make it out of this alive. He wondered, did it make him a bad person that part of him only cared if he, Esset, and Tseka made it out alive? He hoped not—part of him didn’t care, but he hoped that any deity taking offense would strike him down instead of them.

“Okay, get your shields up the second we land,” Toman instructed. “For all we know, we’re landing right in the middle of them—in fact, we
probably
are. Our targets are the totems—if we destroy the totems, the creatures can’t come back until a new one is erected. If you see the mage Moloch, don’t engage him unless absolutely necessary—you don’t stand a chance. Tell one of the four of us—we’re your best chance at survival. We’ll be able to communicate with each other. Got it?” There were nods all around as Toman wondered how he’d ended up the leader.

“Troops are here,” Esset said, looking towards the courtyard entrance. Sure enough, a contingent of the army entered the courtyard—it was only a small portion of the full potential of the army, but it was all they'd been able to muster on such short notice. Even so, the courtyard was crowded with their arrival.

“Okay, Lord Erizen? Please proceed,” Toman requested, careful not to ruffle the mage’s feathers further. Erizen drew himself up, and with an unnecessary silver aura of power, he moved them to their battlefield.

It was immediate chaos; not all the mages were familiar with warfare, and they reacted with various degrees of readiness despite the warning. Shields went up and down and up again. The soldiers had their weapons drawn and ready to take down any creatures that got past the shields. Everyone immediately forgot what Toman had said about the totems before they’d been transported here. Toman couldn’t blame them.

As far as the eye could see, there was a sea of creatures—the plague beasts and blade-wielding skeletons obscured the earth and the swarm-creatures blotted out the sky. The gem on Tseka’s shoulder blazed, but the swarm-creatures seemed to have some protection against her provocation-magic this time, for they weren’t all turning on each other. Toman scanned the plains, trying to ignore his own fear as he searched for the totems.

Esset summoned creature after creature of his own to join the fray outside the shields. Toman knew his own animations were off somewhere, battling, although given the density of Moloch’s summons, he couldn’t actually see them. Esset’s summons were fighting in their direction now, but there was no saying how long it would take to reach them, if they could make it at all. They had to find the totems to win.

“There!” It was a sharp-eyed—and sharp-minded, to have kept his head in this situation—soldier who spotted the totems first.

“Where?” Toman asked, pushing his way to the soldier’s side.

“There’s a grove over there. They’re hidden in the trees!” the soldier shouted over the confusion. Toman looked where he pointed and saw them—they were difficult to see, but they were definitely there.

“Esset, destroy the grove!” Toman said, knowing the earpiece would pick up his voice and transmit it to his brother. Toman pointed at the grove, and Esset followed his finger and nodded. Toman could hear the incantations and watched the grove explode. Wood and fire flew in all directions, doing some collateral damage to the horde in the surrounding area. Toman guessed Esset and used two or three tortoises to pull that off—now Esset was landing more of the exploding summons further afield to destroy their numbers as efficiently as possible.

Toman surveyed the battle again—even though there were still hundreds—if not thousands—of creatures to fight, his gut was telling him that the totems had been too easy to destroy. Moloch would never settle for an attack this straightforward. Something more was going on. Toman patted the soldier who’d spotted the totems on the shoulder and headed over the Erizen’s side.

“Erizen, do another scan!” Toman bit his tongue against the look Erizen gave him.

“Lord Erizen, a scan please,” Toman requested more politely. Erizen smirked and nodded. A moment later the smile vanished.

“New totems—over that hill,” Erizen pointed.

“Work with Esset to continuously search and destroy. We should stick together. I’m sure Moloch’s here this time!” Toman didn’t like this one bit. He hated thinking like Moloch—it made his stomach twist—but they had to beat him. He knew this couldn’t be all Moloch was up to. He tried to think; would Moloch have any followers? Most of them were dead, but not necessarily all of them. Even so, it seemed unlikely Moloch would have any supporters, given his display of weakness when the Greymaker had snapped back on him. Maybe a few toadies might have stayed with him, but it was more likely that Moloch had killed them all. He saw followers as resources, and blood and death magic provided a great deal of power, power that he’d need without the Greymaker at his disposal.

So it was unlikely they’d run into any mages besides Moloch himself. That brought some relief, but it concerned Toman to think what else he might be up to. They had to find the mage to destroy him—it was really the only way to stop this—but Moloch was an expert at concealing himself magically. He wouldn’t even leave a “blank spot” like the totems did…at least not to conventional magics. Toman looked over at Esset; Tseka had her hands on his shoulders to steady him while his consciousness was away from his body.

Toman had a pretty good idea of how Esset’s magic worked; it responded to several factors, among them being need, knowledge, and Esset’s skill as a summoner. Toman was ready when Esset came back to himself.

“Esset, you have a summon to sense magic,” Toman said immediately, having placed himself nose-to-nose with his brother.

“I do? I do,” Esset said. Toman thanked Bright Hyrishal that his plan to trigger the knowledge of the summon had worked.

“We need it,” Toman said. Esset nodded and began summoning. Toman was surprised when the creature called appeared not on Esset’s shoulder, but his own. Toman’s head twitched to look at it sideways; it was a small owl, as best he could tell before the creature splayed a wing before his eyes.

The world transformed. Through the owl’s feathers he could see every bit of magic around him. There was a slight orange tint to everything, but his vision wasn’t as drastically altered as he remembered Esset telling him his was when he looked through the eyes of his summons. Seeing magic was the most drastic difference—it glowed with a brilliant halo. He could see the magic of both Moloch’s summons and Esset’s, as well as the shields and spells the mages around him worked. Now, Toman hoped, he could find Moloch—summoning magic was a far cry from most other types, so hopefully any spells of concealment wouldn’t work. It was a gamble, but it was the best plan he had. Now he just needed transportation.

His animations were scattered; he knew they fought the endless horde, but he couldn’t physically see them nearby, since the horde was too dense. He’d prioritized them destroying Moloch’s summons, but now he changed their priorities to herding the enemy into staying in a single group. His army wasn’t as vast as Moloch’s—even with every single one of his creations here—but it would give the army of any kingdom around a run for its money. There were enough of them to make a sizable difference and accomplish their task, and he didn’t want Moloch’s creatures running amok in the kingdom.

With that task in progress, Toman knelt and put his hand on the ground. He needed a vantage point, so he was going to make one. To go flying outside the shields was suicide, even for him, so he wasn’t going to get anywhere that way. The next best option was this.

Toman ignored the disquiet of the soldiers around him as the ground shifted slightly. He kept it as level as possible, but one slow inch by one slow inch, they were rising into the air. The battle raged around him—Esset and Erizen still worked in tandem to destroy the new totems every time they appeared with nary a sign of Moloch, while the mages kept the shields up and counterattacks flying. Soldiers stood ready in case the shields failed, and a sea of fiery beasts waged war beyond. It was a war of attrition, one Moloch was currently winning. Their mages tired while Moloch hid. Perhaps Moloch didn’t need a plan beyond this after all; all the evil mage needed to do was stay hidden and keep erecting totems to win this battle. If Moloch’s summoning worked in a similar fashion to Esset’s, he could keep it up indefinitely.

But Toman wasn’t going to let this battle—this war—end that way. Slowly his creature took shape—they stood on a flat, low back supported by six legs. Tseka and the mages shielded a dome over the creature’s back only, leaving the massive tail above to flail and knock swarm-beasts from the sky. Twin pinchers in front of the creature did equal damage to those on the ground before them. Toman had chosen his animation’s shape perfectly—the gargantuan scorpion could move them, albeit slowly, give them an improved vantage point, and deal out damage at the same time. The strangled expression Esset shot him was worth it too—Toman actually grinned; ever since they’d fought giant scorpions in the desert on a mission for Sergeant Warthog, Esset had hated the fierce arachnids. Well, too bad; it was effective.

Toman’s mirth didn’t last; a second later his attention was once again wholly on the battle and their strategy. Raising them up on the scorpion’s back had helped him see further, but not far enough. Really, Moloch could be almost anywhere—up in the mountains, for instance, using magical far-sight to aim his attacks. It was more likely he was closer than that, but almost anything was possible with Moloch. Still, the scorpion was helping them in the battle, so it was time and energy well spent. Unfortunately, Toman knew finding Moloch was still the key. Even if they beat Moloch’s forces here—unlikely, if they didn’t find Moloch himself—he would just come up with something else in the future.

Toman vowed it would end here.

“Esset, Erizen, is there any way for the two of you to combine your abilities and do a sweeping search for Moloch? Esset’s sight might be able to work around Moloch’s invisibility, but only if he can cover the kind of ground Erizen is capable with a full kingdom sweep,” Toman said.

“We can try,” Esset replied. Toman watched them. Two fiery, almost fuzzy-looking owls appeared on each of their shoulders and extended a wing before their eyes. From there it didn’t look like much was happening, but Toman knew Erizen would be trying to work his own magic from there. Then the owls were banished.

“Nothing,” Esset said.

“My magic won’t work with Esset’s like that,” Erizen confirmed. Toman cursed under his breath.