Spellscribed: Resurgence (21 page)

"Ugh." Bridget complained, rolling her eyes. "He's eating. Too much."

"Hey." Endrance replied. "I almost died!"

Tanya shook her head, having seen Bridget's good-natured smile. "However you got to that point." She said. "We're here to put the sand hornets away, then-"

"Ah," Wrach interrupted. "Those insects that made capturing the structure almost effortless." he answered. "And then you're here for your woman, too?"

Endrance glanced over to Bridget and then back to Wrach. "Excuse me?" Endrance asked. "I seem to have missed something."

"Your woman." Wrach said. "Selene?" the male wolf looked puzzled, one of his ears turning away. "She's been causing problems for the men occupying the tower. Kurgen's almost ordered me to deal with her in a more permanent fashion."

Endrance blinked several times, his heart and mind having set off at full speed in different directions. He had lost his link to the woman, and as much as he wanted to call out Wrach, and tell him that she was not 'his' woman, he couldn't.

Endrance never once had felt that he possessed Selene. He had fallen in love with her, cared for her, and had tried to help her grow into being both a stronger person, and become one with her other, demonic side. He had made much progress with her in both their romantic and spiritual endeavors. And then Endrance was the one who had screwed up. In the time he'd spent in Salthimere, he had started blocking out distractions as he tried to prepare to defeat Valeria. When he wasn't training his body sparring with Jalyin or the rare bout with Valzoa, he was studying life magic. When he wasn't doing either of those things, he was working to improve relations between the elves and the humans.

Now, not even a full year later, not only had all that time accomplished nothing, it had cost him the life of his friend Joven, and the love of Selene. He had neglected her needs and worse yet, her training to blend with her succubus half into one. Without his guidance, she had become unbalanced and the demon had led her astray. It was, in the essence of things, his fault.

"I am such a child." he muttered. Wrach tilted his head, wondering what Endrance meant.

"Wrach." Endrance said. "Thank you. I will take care of whatever it is Selene has done. I take full responsibility for her actions."

Wrach turned to Runa, shrugging. "Very well." he said. "Runa will lead you to the barricade once you're ready. I have to go report to General Kurgen. If you have the time, come tell him how his forces are doing against the capitol." The wolf's ear flicked. "I told him that General Balen would take charge, but he is impatient for a status update."

Endrance nodded. "Sure." he muttered, his mind preoccupied.

Runa was sniffing the air around Endrance discretely, but ceased when Wrach turned to her. She gave Endrance a wolfish grin. "You smell good." she said as Wrach trotted back the way he came.

Endrance sighed. "Yeah?" he said. "Delicious?"

Runa snorted, shaking her head. "No." she said. "You look chewy. But you smell like Bridget. That's good."

Bridget's face reddened. "Shut it!" the barbarian grumbled.

Runa chuckled to herself. "Very well." she replied. "Please come with me."

Endrance raised a hand. "Wait." he said. Endrance mentally checked with Gullin. "First let me finish what I came here for."

Endrance closed his eyes, using only his mental connection to the sand hornets to drive them towards the desert, but a long distance away from the Sunken Tower. More than a catapult's throw away, the thousands of surviving sand hornets began crossing into the sand. Endrance then reached out with his mind towards the desert, channeling the Queen's impression.

Tanya felt a strange buzzing in the back of her head, but ignored it as she stared at the trail of insects in the distance. However, the longer Endrance concentrated, the louder the noise in her head became.

He reached out, and after a few minutes of searching, managed to find two sand hornet queens deep within the sands. He knew now what kind of mental defenses they had, so he was able to slip past them with little resistance and 'add' the remaining sand hornets to the already existent hive. The drones would fall in line and begin obeying the queen's commands the moment he let go of his mental grip on them. Even more so, he would have to fight to take any of them back after he released control.

Endrance hesitated at the last moment, a moment of uncertainty keeping his mind focused on holding them. If he kept the sand hornets under his control, he would have an army he could use. He could even capture another queen and her swarm, adding them to his own. With another queen's impression, he could even possibly directly control more. Then he wouldn't have to be beholden to Ironsoul or Balator. He could strike out on his own, and even Valeria would-

Endrance shook his head, releasing his mental grip on the creatures before he changed his mind again. Having such an asset would be beneficial, but he was playing with an entire species at what accounted for his whim. A mage, as he grew more powerful, could change the world for the better or worse. Even more dangerously, the most powerful ones could do so with the slightest of effort. As Endrance considered his newfound power, he reasoned that he could control an army of nightmare creatures and swarm Valeria, but it would be as another villain.

Such an army would need food, places to nest. Valeria's supposed location was on the opposite side of the country from here. Even crossing the country on foot, Endrance would need to allow the creatures to feed in order to keep up their strength. They would be a blight upon the human lands.

No, it was better to leave them in the desert, where the harsh environment and other predation would keep them under control. He had already thrown their kind into turmoil enough as it was.

Endrance felt the last sand hornet's presence slip under the control of a different queen and sighed. "Done." he said. The sand hornets were burrowing into the sands, waiting until the twilight hour to finish their journey home. They would remain there, dormant unless provoked.

"Great." Runa said, having no idea what world-bending decision he had made before her. "This way."

Runa led them into the tower, where many barbarians saluted Endrance much to his surprise. Apparently he had not been forgotten despite his relatively short stay in their capital. One man ran up to them before the female wolf could take them all the way to the barricades.

"Spengur!" he called, trotting up. "Spengur!"

Endrance turned to him, not finding him familiar. "Yes?" he said. "Though I thought I had a replacement since I departed."

The man had a wicked scar carved from the point of his chin to his right eyebrow, the cut barely missing destroying his right eye. Though he looked somewhat familiar, Endrance couldn't place him. The barbarian shook his head, tossing his shoulders.

"That man is useless!" he cried out. "Not once has he seen to his business. By the time we left, do you want to know how many people he had seen? How many times he's aided the king?"

Endrance raised an eyebrow. "None?" he asked.

"Yes!" the man replied. "None! Even I can count that high."

"Can I help you?" Endrance asked, trying to cut to the matter at hand.

The barbarian nodded. "I was in the first bowl when you fought the Atastos. You saved my life that night."

Endrance blinked at the man, eventually nodding. "You don't need to thank me." he said. "I would have done the same even if I hadn't been hired to."

The man laughed, turning to yell at another barbarian standing nearby. "See!" he shouted. "I told you he was the right Spengur!"

Endrance turned to Runa and urged her to start moving faster. They took off at a jog.

Tanya shook her head, chuckling. "What's the matter?" she asked. "Can't handle a little praise?"

Endrance shook his head, his lips pressed together tightly. "That's it." he replied. "Right now, it just reminds me of what I've been doing wrong."

"Even if you were doing something wrong," Tanya said, hardly losing her breath. "You have the chance to fix it now."

"That's what I'm going to do here." Endrance replied, breathing considerably harder than the three around him. "But I need you two to wait out here while I deal with Selene."

"What?" Bridget exclaimed. "No!"

"Yes!" Endrance replied. They turned into a broad stairway that spiraled down and continued down with Runa in the lead. "This is my fault, and I will take care of it. I need to do this by myself."

Bridget slowed, grunting. "Fine." she said. "Do it your way."

"Where are you going?" Tanya called back as Bridget started ascending the stairs.

"Gonna get a drink." she shouted. "Endrance's got this."

Tanya looked apologetically at Endrance. "Sorry." she said.

The mage shook his head. "Don't worry about it." he said. "Go keep her company."

Tanya slowed to a stop, falling behind and leaving Endrance alone with Runa as they moved down the stairs. After only one more flight they came to the barricade.

"This is it?" Endrance asked. The barricade was made of several planks of wood braced against the ridge-like columns on the sides of the stairs with some engineering work.

Runa nodded. "Yes." she said. Her fur ruffled. "We've lost four more men since we took over the tower."

"Lost?" Endrance asked, looking at the female wolf. "What has she been doing?"

Runa's tail drooped. "She's been bewitching anyone who comes close enough." she said. "Making them do things for her. Steal food, mostly. But one got caught trying to steal from our supplies, and he nearly killed four men before we could subdue him."

Endrance frowned. That was a problem. He needed to prepare himself to encounter several mentally enslaved warriors who might try to stop him from reaching her.

"Wrach was able to see her when he first got here, but she's set up some defenses since then and put her men on alert. Wrach had us set up this barricade, but we've been just sitting on this hoping that we could leave her here when we move out." Runa explained. "But now that the Spengur's here you can take care of this, right?"

Endrance sighed. "Right." he grumbled. He grabbed part of the barricade and struggled to haul himself over. Runa grabbed the back of his pants with one hand and easily hefted him the rest of the way. Endrance landed on his feet and nodded his head to her from the other side. "Thanks." he said.

"Welcome." Runa said. "Hey, before you go."

Endrance had started walking down the stairs, but turned to look back at her. "What?" he asked.

Runa grinned mischievously. "How come you haven't mated with Bridget yet?" she asked. "She's your wife, right?"

Endrance stared at the wolf for several seconds before sighing and walking down the stairs without answering. Runa stared into the darkness after him.

"Was it something I said?" she asked, puzzled.

* * * *

Endrance walked through the darkness, reflexively touching his goblin impression and gaining the ability to see through it as if it were nonexistent. The stairs went down a ways, but the whole journey took only moments.

As Endrance descended, he activated the varied defenses he had come to count on. His wards were raised, and his speed spell was a new one, woven into his forearms and calves. Endrance didn't have any kind of mental defense, something that he was realizing he lacked. It made him chuckle on the inside. He had a weakness, much the same way that Kalenden had. Endrance had no defense against mind affecting magic, much like Kalenden had not been taught ways to protect against spiritual assault.

However, Endrance had both Kalenden's teachings and Kaelob's full understanding. He picked a spell from Kalenden's limited spell knowledge that would protect his mind from direct assault from demonic influence. From Kaelob, he took a spell that let him breathe the air around him safely, even if it had been laced with deadly poison… or willpower sapping pheromones.

He found the occupied lower floor when a door flung open, spilling blinding light into the stairway. He canceled the goblin's dark vision, but not before he felt two strong cuts across his wards. Endrance opened his eyes, and saw one barbarian with a long dagger swinging furiously at him, drool flinging from his lips as he wordlessly screamed.

Endrance had only his staff to defend himself physically, but it would do. The moment his power touched his speed spell scribing, the path of the barbarian's dagger slowed to a crawl. Endrance shifted his torso to the side, feeling the drag of the air around him as he fought to move fast enough. He noted that while the spell let him accelerate his mind and body, his body was only able to move about three times his normal speed, while his mind was perhaps five times faster.

Endrance sidestepped the barbarian's swing, and dodged several more strikes as he studied the man. Though he seemed competent, much of the man's training and battle experience was dulled by whatever effect was letting Selene enslave him. Endrance brought his staff up and spun it, sidestepping another lunge and bringing the butt of the staff to the side of the man's temple with precision that would have been impossible if he had not been moving so much faster.

To Endrance, it was like he had time to line up his strike and thrust. To the man, Endrance turned into a whirling blur that ended with Endrance having completed his attack like he had always been posed there. The man dropped to the stones, the knife rattling out of his hand.

Endrance plucked up the long knife, collected the sheath from the unconscious man, and walked into the lit room.

Seven more men were waiting inside. Endrance raised an eyebrow, surprised. "May I speak to Selene?" he asked.

"Protect the mistress!" one of them cried, and the seven charged him at once. Endrance noted that two of them were barbarians, while the other five were Ironsoul soldiers. The mage sighed, touching more power to his spells and raising his staff.

The Ironsoul soldiers had longswords and shields, while the Barbarians had axes and knives. Endrance didn't want to hurt them if he could avoid it, but with those numbers he might get hurt before he could knock them all out.

Endrance dashed forward, singling out a soldier who had pulled ahead of the others by a single pace. Endrance whipped his staff up and across his body. The tip caught the man on the ankle before his foot hit the floor and whipped it up to Endrance's shoulder level.

The mage ducked under the leg, twirling with the staff as the man lost his balance and flipped backwards. Endrance brought the staff up again and guided the sword of another soldier out of the way almost gently, turning it around and bringing the head of the staff into the throat of the closest barbarian. The blunt side of the Crystalphage set into the staff hit the Adam's apple of the man, making him stumble back holding his throat and choking.

Endrance threw himself into a horizontal spin, barely avoiding retaliation from the other men he hadn't struck. He landed on one foot, managing to land the jump upright and without falling over. Only the barbarian had been taken out of the fight, so six men remained. Endrance was just not skilled enough to fight this many men without getting hurt. Maybe Joven would have…

Endrance felt a red heat in his heart, and at that moment he felt a little bit of what it must feel like to be a barbarian. Endrance threw himself into the fight, instead of fighting defensively according to his nature.

In his accelerated state, he was able to plan the relatively simple spellscribing and tie the spell into his meridians. He would have to tie them to his time spell to make them most efficient, so he had to risk it. Endrance let the spell drop. His opponents suddenly became terrifyingly swift, slashing at him while he swung his staff in an arc. The crystal on the top flared brightly as he drew on its power, and his opponents jumped back in self-preservation. From his forearms and calves, the time spell that increased his speed sprouted more lines as he forcefully carved another spell into his flesh.

He didn't even care that he could be risking injury, or making the spell inefficient. He only cared for what the spell would do. His frustration and anger were pushing him to be dangerously reckless. Blood dribbled from his newly carved scribing as if they were wounds.

The defenders took the advantage to assail him. Endrance took several hits from their longswords and the barbarian's axe. To his surprise, the blows were not as strong as he was expecting. His wards were able to completely defeat their attacks. Endrance had to keep moving to prevent them from grabbing him or trying something he couldn't defend against, but their strikes were hardly depleting his reserves of power at all.

Endrance finished carving the spell into his flesh, and sent a pulse of power through it. His strength and speed surged as he tied his time spell with the strength enhancing one.

The tattoos glowed red-gold as power shone through the blood, but Endrance swung his staff again and the result was far different than before. The first target was a soldier who brought up his shield to block. The man caught the hit, which cracked the wood and sent him flying into the wall ten feet away. He crashed against the stones and fell to the floor, becoming still.

Endrance was moving too fast for the remaining five to stop, and with his enhanced strength he dealt similar fates to the remainder. Within seconds, he had knocked the last five unconscious.

Endrance searched around the room, finding another set of doors and moving deeper into the chamber. Almost immediately, he came across a large room with several more men standing around a luxurious looking chair piled with cushions. The floor was covered in fine rugs and two braziers burned coals, lighting the room.

Sitting on the chair, her legs crossed, was Selene. Endrance felt an ache in his heart when he saw her. He knew in an instant it was not mind control. Selene was about the same height as Endrance, but among the Draugnoa, she was the curviest, with ample breasts, hips, and buttocks. She wore a sleeveless crimson dress adorned with fine gems and jewelry. Normally black, her hair was a dark purple color and naturally curled into corkscrews. Two such corkscrew curls arched up, forming horns on her head. Red, square-pupiled eyes looked back at him. From the side of her crossed legs a black spade-tipped tail flicked lazily.

"Finally." the woman said, speaking in Selene's voice, but with an inflection that sounded like an entirely different person was in charge of her body. "My love has returned."

"Selene." Endrance said, his breathing deep but even. "I have come for you."

"You have?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "How lovely."

"You're here because of me." Endrance stated. "These men are not involved. Release them."

"I will not." she replied.

Endrance scowled. "Then at the least send them away." he growled. "I want to have some private words with you."

"Aww… only words?" Demon-Selene asked. "That's it?"

Endrance's eyes narrowed. "If you force me to," he started. "I will take them from you."

"Take them from me!" the woman replied, her tone suddenly mocking as she tilted her head side to side. "That's all you do is take from me! I gave and gave, and you never gave anything back!"

Endrance raised his staff. "Send them away." he pleaded, his voice cracking as he tried to reign in his emotions. How had she fallen so far?