Chapter Six
More dust fell from the ceiling, although Durima noticed that the tremors seemed to be getting rarer and rarer. Either the mages were having success in stopping whatever was causing the tremors or the tremors had been a prelude for something worse.
Either way, Durima thought as she rested her chin in her oversized hands, Gujak and I are still stuck down here. Stuck like rats in a box.
When the Magical Superior, Yorak, and Junaz left, Durima had made another fresh attempt to break out. She had tried to bash in the bars with a fist made of rock she had summoned from the ground, but the bars must have been crafted by Grinf, the God of Metal, himself, because they withstood the blow quite easily. And like before, they had bent themselves back into shape. Durima wished she knew what kind of magic the mages used to make such sturdy bars because she believed that the gods should ban its use by the mortals.
That was why Durima had resorted to sitting in her cell, thinking about other escape methods she hadn't tried yet. Gujak had been strangely quiet the entire time, probably because he was convinced that this whole mission was a lost cause. Perhaps he was too busy thinking about what Master would do to them if he found out that they had failed their mission.
He's not going to be happy, Durima decided. Maybe we're actually safer in these cells than we would be outside, where Master can get us.
It was an absurd thought, but it had some merit to it, which made their imprisonment seem a little less grim. Still, it was almost impossible not to think about the ways in which Master would punish them for their failure once they escaped, although she did her best to avoid thinking about them anyway.
That was when Durima heard something slithering through the darkness. It sounded huge, much larger than the average snake, and for a moment Durima was worried that the mortal mages had a pet snake that would eat them.
Then she felt that presence. The temperature in the catacombs dropped like a rock. She shivered and heard Gujak do the same. The presence grew larger and larger the closer the slithering sound became. And she knew exactly who was slithering around nearby and that it was no pet of the mages, although it was definitely someone's pet.
It could only be one creature: Uron, the large teleporter snake that was the pet and servant of Master.
That thought should, perhaps, have made her happy, instead of terrified. After all, Uron was on their side. Although the snake had only been working for Master for two months, it had already proven itself a good ally, although not so much a good friend. No doubt Uron would save them from their cells. Still, the snake had always made Durima uneasy and she didn't look forward to seeing it again, no matter what it was here to do.
If Uron was indeed present—and he was, there was no mistaking that powerful, overwhelming presence that reminded Durima of the gods themselves—then he was probably here to save her and Gujak. Which meant that Master already knew about their failure, which most likely meant that Master was going to punish them dearly when they returned to his domain.
Actually, as Durima listened to Uron's slithering, she was surprised that Uron had come at all. The snake rarely left Master's side. Most of the time, Uron stayed curled up next to Master, like a grotesque dog. Why Master seemed so attached to the snake, and for that matter, where Uron had even come from in the first place, Durima didn't know. She just knew that Uron showed up one day about two months ago and Master had never bothered to explain where he had come from or why he was now Master's pet.
That's because Master would probably not be very happy if we asked, Durima thought. She distinctly remembered Master, on the first day he had Uron, making it clear that asking about Uron was off-limits, but again, he had not explained why, and probably never would.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the cell door's lock snapping. She heard the door swing open in the darkness and then heard Uron's huge body enter into her cell. With him came that oddly powerful presence, a presence which felt like a dozen gods put together.
That was another thing she didn't understand about the snake. The most that Master had offered by way of explanation about Uron was that the snake was an unusually large teleporter snake, but he had not explained why Uron's presence was so overwhelming. Animals, even magical animals, rarely gave off as powerful a presence as this.
As Uron slithered around her, hissing, Durima had at one point speculated that Uron was actually a god in disguise. But something about that theory seemed unlikely to her, probably because, while the gods were known to sometimes trick each other for revenge against some slight committed against them in the past, this seemed too elaborate for a god to try to pull off. Besides, with the banishment of Hollech, the God of Deception, Thieves, and Horses, thirty years ago, she couldn't think of any other god who would go to such great lengths to trick Master like this.
She heard Uron stop. Based on what her senses told her, the snake was right in front of her, staring at her. Most likely it was waiting for her to respond, to say something. It was probably magically-linked with Master, now that she thought about it, which would allow the Ghostly God to see and hear whatever Uron saw and heard.
So Durima said, “Thank you for rescuing me, Uron. Have you let Gujak out of his cell yet?”
It let out a low hissing sound that might have been a confirmation or a denial. It was hard to tell with snakes, but especially Uron, who due to its purplish-black skin was practically invisible in the darkness. Considering Gujak was not jumping around shouting in joy, she had to assume that he hadn't been freed yet.
“I suppose I should get up and go, then,” said Durima as she stood up as much as she could in her tiny cell, “before the mages stop whatever it is that distracted them in the first place and come back to interrogate us.”
Uron did not answer, mostly because it couldn't speak at all. She heard it slither out of her cell immediately and a second later, heard the sound of the lock on Gujak's door being snapped apart. After that, she heard the sound of Gujak's door opening and heard Gujak himself shriek in terror, as if he had been sleeping the entire time.
That explains why he didn't say anything when I was talking to Uron, Durima thought, shaking her head. What an idiot.
“Durima?” came Gujak's slightly trembling voice. “Did you know that Uron is here?”
“Yes,” said Durima as she stepped out of her cell and stretched her limbs. “He broke me out of my cell first, actually, so I knew about him before you did.”
“Oh,” said Gujak. “Did Uron give you a message from Master? Because he gave me a folded up paper before he left.”
Durima frowned. “A paper? And he left? I didn't even hear him go.”
“I know, but he's definitely gone,” said Gujak. “I don't know where he went, but I'm guessing he returned to Master. Maybe he only had two things to do and he did them.”
“I just don't know about that snake sometimes,” said Durima, shaking her head. “Anyway, what does that paper say?”
“I don't know,” said Gujak. “It's too dark. Let me shine some light on it.”
A moment later, a pale blue light began shining from inside Gujak's cell. The light was not very strong or bright; however, it was more than enough for Durima to notice that Uron was indeed missing. She did not know if that was a good thing, but she supposed Uron probably had orders from Master to return to him once it had freed them.
Would have been nice for Uron to stay and actually help us, Durima thought, frowning. But then again, he is Master's special pet and special pets can't be allowed to get themselves hurt doing Master's dirty work, now can they?
She walked over to Gujak's cage and saw that he was already reading the note. It was a small piece of paper, barely bigger than Gujak's hands. He was reading it by the light glowing from one of his hands, but he didn't seem at all happy about it. His eyes grew wider and wider the more he read, until he was practically trembling in fear, so much so that Durima wondered if he was actually still reading the note itself or if his
fear had temporarily shut down his ability to read.
“What does the letter say?” said Durima. “And be quick about it. I don't feel the tremors anymore, which means that the mages have probably dealt with whatever was causing them. Which means it won't be long before they send someone to check up on us.”
Gujak looked up at Durima and held out the note to her. “Read it. Now.”
“Read it?” said Durima. “I don't have time to read a note, even one from Master. Weren't you just listening? You can just tell me what it says.”
“You need to read it yourself,” said Gujak. “I don't want to repeat it aloud. Never know what kind of tricks those mages have that might enable them to listen to us.”
Durima let out a drawn-out sigh before cutting it short and grabbing the note. She held the paper under Gujak's light and squinted.
Written in an elegant, easy-to-read script that Durima recognized as Master's handwriting, the note, which was only a paragraph long, read thus:
Do not think that Uron's rescue of you is an indicator that I have forgiven you. When you return from your mission, even if it's successful, I will punish you dearly for your failure. Now burn this note to prevent it from falling into the hands of our enemies.
There was no signature, but there was no need. Durima closed her fist around the note and heated up her hand with some pyromancy she had learned a long time ago. When she felt the paper turn into ashes in her hand, she opened her fist and dropped the ashes onto the floor.
“So he gave us a note only to threaten us with punishment if we fail?” said Durima. “That seems like something he could have told us when we got back.”
“He's trying to motivate us,” said Gujak, who was trembling in fear. “He wants us to get the mission done now. We must have wasted a ton of time down here being captured.”
“Then what are we standing around here waiting for?” said Durima, throwing up her hands. “I certainly don't want to waste even more time down here talking about how Master is angry at us for wasting time.”
Durima turned and began walking down the catacombs in the direction that she had seen those three mages walk when they left earlier. Gujak followed, his hand still glowing and illuminating their path, but despite the fact that they were in a hurry, he still seemed to want to talk.
“This must be a very serious mission if Master sent Uron and a note threatening us to complete it,” said Gujak. “I thought for sure he was going to demand that we abort the mission and return to his island, but I guess not.”
“Why would he ever do that?” said Durima without looking over her shoulder at Gujak. “I can't even remember the last time he called me in from a mission that he wanted me to complete.”
“I wonder what's so important about this Braim Kotogs mortal that he threatened to punish us dearly if we failed,” said Gujak.
“No idea,” said Durima. “Don't really care. Don't have time to care.”
-
It took less time than Durima expected for her and Gujak to get out of the catacombs. She had thought that it would take them hours, but as it turned out, the path out of the catacombs was incredibly straight forward. There wasn't even a locked door to deal with at the end of the path. The catacombs simply opened onto the area behind some of the school's buildings, although as Durima was unfamiliar with North Academy's layout, she was unsure exactly where they were.
Thankfully, North Academy's general layout was easy to navigate. She remembered that the graveyard was just to the north of the Arcanium, and due to the Arcanium's large size, the main building was easy to spot even from their current position.
Yet despite seeing it, Durima and Gujak hesitated. They did not see any of the mages from the school; however, just because they couldn't see them didn't mean that they weren't around. If any of the mages saw Durima or Gujak walking around in broad daylight, that would undoubtedly end with Durima and Gujak back in the catacombs.
So Durima and Gujak moved toward the Arcanium bent double over and doing their best to remain quiet. Thankfully, they did not run into any mages on their way to the graveyard, although they did come across a couple of students behind the Arcanium who were doing things to each other that Durima had heard humans did to each other but which she had never actually seen before. Thankfully, the two students were too enamored with each other to notice Durima or Gujak, and based on the noises they were making, they were unlikely to be much of a threat to their mission for quite a while.
Besides that, the rest of the trip to the graveyard went smoothly, and in a few minutes, Durima and Gujak stood before the waist-high wall and gate that separated the graveyard from the rest of the school grounds. Dozens of large tombstones stood there, many of which were so old that the text carved into them had faded away completely, which made Durima wonder if she and Gujak would be able to identify Kotogs' grave at all.
“We're here,” said Gujak, who was talking in a whisper, probably because he didn't want to draw unnecessary attention to themselves (despite the fact that they were alone). “Look at this. They have giant ice Walls and an automaton, plus a crazy mortal wearing a fox mask, to defend their school, but they only have a waist-high stone wall to protect the remains of their dead. They must not value their deceased very highly.”
Durima stroked her chin. She did not sense any magical traps; in fact, in comparison to the other high magical levels that seemed to permeate the entire school, the graveyard felt quite ordinary. It was almost as if the mages had cut out a normal mortal graveyard from some town without any magic and plopped it right into their school without bothering to make it magical.
But it didn't make any sense to Durima. Why would these mages, who were clearly obsessed with making their school as ridiculously difficult to get into as possible, leave their graveyard undefended?
Gujak was reaching for the gate, which appeared to have nothing more than a simple metal lock to keep intruders out, but Durima did not have a good feeling about this graveyard at all. She grabbed his arm, causing Gujak to look at her in surprise.
“What's up?” said Gujak. “I was going to open the gate. Do you want us to get seen and captured by the mages again? You remember Master's note.”
“Precisely because I remember Master's note that I know that opening this gate now would be a very bad and very dumb idea,” said Durima. “Or has the potential to be. I don't sense any magical defenses protecting it, but that doesn't mean we're going to waltz in on an obvious trap.”
“What if it's not a trap?” said Gujak. “Durima, you can be kind of paranoid sometimes, you know? Sometimes, things in life are just easy.”
“Things in life are never easy,” said Durima. “Especially things in life created by mages from one of the most prestigious schools in the entire mortal world. Let me search the area with my geomancy before we so much as touch anything.”
Gujak sighed heavily. “Okay. Just be quick about it, all right?”
Durima nodded and crouched to the ground. She put her fists against the ground, which she thought was the most likely place for someone to place a nasty trap for anyone trying to get into the graveyard without the mages' permission.
Like she had done in the catacombs, Durima sent a burst of geomancy energy into the ground. At first, she sensed nothing except for rock and earth. Then it hit something thick and metal, something that clearly was not a natural part of the underground. She could not tell exactly what it was, but it was directly underneath the gate and it appeared likely to pop up out of the ground if Durima or Gujak tried to open the gate. She suspected that the ground under the gate was pressure sensitive and that if they walked on the ground beneath the gate, the trap would activate and do who-knows-what to them.
That by itself would have been enough to prove Durima's fears correct, but then she sensed something else, too. About a dozen long, thick metal columns or spears (it was hard to tell the shape and purpose of underground objects, even when she used her geomancy) were hidden within the walls of
the graveyard itself. Springs were hidden under the columns/spears. Which meant that if she and Gujak tried to climb over the walls instead of the gate, they would be skewered like pigs.
And none of these traps are magical in the slightest, Durima thought. Makes sense. No doubt most magical intruders wouldn't have even thought to check for non-magical traps and defenses when they failed to sense any magical ones. Clever little bastards.
She did not sense anything else, so she stood up and said, “The gate is booby-trapped. So are the walls.”
“What?” said Gujak. “But I didn't sense any magic.”
“They're non-magical,” said Durima. “Like Guardian. The mages are willing to use just about anything to keep their stuff safe, including non-magical traps and machines.”
“Definitely,” said Gujak. “So what do we do? Use our magic to destroy these traps?”
“Of course not,” said Durima. “I have a feeling that they are rigged to alert the mages if someone tries to destroy them. Remember, right now the mages don't even know we've escaped and hopefully will not know for a while. If we're going to complete this mission without anymore unnecessary problems, then that means we need to figure out how to get into the graveyard without announcing our presence to everyone in the school.”
Gujak's shoulders slumped. “Oh, come on.”
“Stop whining and start thinking,” said Durima. “Or do you want to be the one to explain to Master that the only reason we couldn't complete the mission was because we couldn't climb over a waist-high wall?”
“Good point,” said Gujak. He then straightened up and smiled. “Wait a minute. I've got an idea about how we can get over that gate without tripping the alarms.”
Durima groaned inwardly. Gujak's 'ideas' were often not very well thought out or even particularly clever, such as the time that he had tried to distract a raging herd of baba raga by throwing a stick at them. Nonetheless, every time they found themselves in a situation like this, Gujak was always ready to volunteer his ideas even if they were not wanted. As a matter of fact, Durima thought that sometimes Gujak volunteered his ideas precisely because they were unwanted, although she didn't think he was that stupid.
Then again, Nimiko always used to tell me not to underestimate the sheer stupidity of others, Durima thought. That is rather interesting, coming from a god who's not known for his intelligence or cleverness, but I digress.
She would have told Gujak off, but he looked so eager and confident that she decided it wouldn't hurt to let him at least share his idea. Besides, Durima had always found a perverse pleasure in shooting down dumb ideas, so she figured she would get something out of this no matter if the idea turned out to be smart or dumb.
“All right,” said Durima. “Shoot.”
“Okay,” said Gujak, putting his hands together excitedly. “But you know what? I think it would be better if I showed you what I plan to do. It's too complicated to explain and would waste too much time.”
“What if it's a dumb idea?” said Durima.
“It's not,” Gujak insisted. “I mean, when have I ever come up with a dumb idea?”
Durima gave him a hard look. “The Valley of Death.”
Gujak scratched the back of his head. “Well, how was I supposed to know that the volcano there was still active? It looked dormant, didn't it?”
Durima sighed. “Okay. Fine. If it fails and we get captured again, I am going to ask Master if I can personally punish you.”
“There will be no need to do that,” said Gujak as he walked up to the front gate. “Stand back and watch the magic. If this plan works, it will be amazing.”
Durima did indeed retreat, but not too far back because she wanted to be close enough to take advantage of Gujak's plan if it worked. She kept looking over her shoulder at the Arcanium, wondering when she would hear the mages discover that she and Gujak had escaped and what they would do about that.
As for Gujak, he stopped several feet from the gate; close enough to jump over it if he wanted, but not close enough to step on the pressure switch that would activate the trap. He then crouched down to the ground and began digging a hole in the dirt with his fingers.
“What are you doing?” said Durima. “Playing in the dirt? Is that your grand plan to get us into the graveyard without anyone noticing?”
“I'm not playing in the dirt,” said Gujak, without looking over his shoulder at her. “This is all part of the plan. Just be patient. It will make sense very soon, I promise.”
Durima was about to ask what he meant by 'very soon' when Gujak plucked off a twig from the side of his head. He dropped the twig into the hole and then covered it with dirt. After giving it one final pat, he stepped back several feet from the dirt and folded his arms behind his back. He stared at the spot that he had re-buried, looking at the patted down dirt as if he expected to learn the secrets of the gods just by staring at it.
“What are you doing now?” said Durima. “Is that your plan? Dig a hole, bury one of your twigs in it, and then stare at it for the gods-know-how-long? I know your ideas aren't exactly always the most brilliant, but this has to be the worst.”
“Don't be so quick to judge,” Gujak said. “Wait just another minute. It shouldn't be very long now.”
“What shouldn't be very long now?” said Durima. “Gujak, you remember that I can't read your mind, right? I've never been very good at telemancy.”
“I know,” said Gujak. “But you don't need to read my mind because my plan is about to become very obvious to anyone with working eyes.”
“That's still too vague for my tastes,” said Durima. “Let's try one of my ideas inste—”
She was cut off by a rumbling in the earth, which came from the spot that Gujak had buried his twig. At first, it sounded like a volcano was about to erupt, but Durima dismissed that idea right off the bat. There weren't any volcanoes in the Great Berg, not even dormant ones, and if there were any, Durima doubted they would be underneath the school's graveyard.
Yet that didn't explain what was causing that rumbling sound … at least, that didn't explain what was causing that rumbling sound until a tree popped out of the spot Gujak had dug up. It started off as a single, dirt-covered twig before rapidly growing until, in less than fifteen seconds, a full-grown tree—which towered over both Durima and Gujak—stood before them. And before Durima's startled eyes, the tree began bending over until it was leaning over the gate.
Durima could not help but stare at the tree, while Gujak walked over to it with a big smile on his face.
There's no way that can be an actual, life-sized tree, Durima thought. It must be an illusion. It doesn't make any sense.
“Like it?” said Gujak, turning around to look at Durima, the smile on his face growing wider. He gestured at the tree proudly. “If you're confused, all I did was pluck a twig off my body and force it to grow rapidly with a simple growth spell. I could have made it bigger, but I didn't want to attract unwanted attention from the mages, so I kept it as small as I could while making it big enough for both of us to climb.”
Durima closed her mouth and shook her head. She stomped up to Gujak and said, “Do you even understand what you did? All it takes is for one—just one—mage to look out the window of the Arcanium or to come visit a deceased one at the graveyard and they'll alert every single mage in the school about the tree that isn't even supposed to be there. Did you even think about your actions or did you just go with the first idea that popped into your wooden brain?”
Gujak cringed under her criticism, but he seemed to have some backbone after all because he said, “I didn't mean to mess everything up. And anyway, it's too late to get rid of it now. I can't just magically make it go away. Either we use it to get into the graveyard now, when the mages don't know about it yet, or we let the mages discover it and discover us. Which choice sounds better to you?”
Durima let out a low growl. “The first.”
“Then I don't see what you're so upset about,” said Gu
jak as he began climbing the tree. “We'll find Braim Kotogs's grave and be out of the graveyard in less than ten minutes, I bet.”
Durima waited until Gujak had reached the end of the topmost branches and jumped off. He landed on the ground on the other side of the gate, dusting his legs off as he turned to face Durima.
“Come on,” he said, gesturing at her to follow. “We don't have all day. There's no time to lose, especially not when Master is expecting us back as soon as possible.”
Durima shook her head and grumbled about the stupidity of Gujak's plans, but she nonetheless began climbing the tree anyway. She dug her thick claws into the base of the tree and in a few seconds reached the middle of the tree.
The leaves were itchy against her skin, although the itchiness was lessened by her fur. The uppermost branches did not seem as thick or strong as the lower ones; indeed, when Durima tried to put most of her weight on them, the branches shook a little bit more than she liked.
But Durima figured she could get on them and jump off very quickly if she had to. So she climbed onto the upper branches, steadying herself to keep herself from falling onto the gate below, and then stood up as much as she could. The branches swayed under her weight, but as they did not sway very much, she figured that she was going to be okay.
And then, without warning, the branches snapped under her feet. Taken by surprise, Durima fell straight down. She fell for only a brief period before landing on her back on the graveyard's gate with a loud crunch, the fall sending a burst of pain through her back that made her want to scream. The gate crumpled underneath her weight like paper, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt to fall on it like that.
Before she could stand up, however, she heard something moving underneath her, something large, and the next moment the earth exploded around her. Clods of dirt flew through the air, forcing her to cover her face with her hands to avoid getting the dirt in her eyes. The screeching hinges of something metal burst in her ears, followed by the sound of two metal things slamming together and locking in unison. Gujak was shouting in surprise.
All of this happened in perhaps ten seconds, if even that. In no time at all, everything went quiet again and no more earth went flying through the air, so Durima lowered her massive fists and looked around at her current situation.
The gate she had fallen on was broken. Her weight had somehow crushed it, even though the gate had looked solid before. She supposed that she was much heavier than she had thought, although at the moment that was the least of her problems.
The actual problem—aside from her aching back, which had taken the brunt of the fall—was the egg-shaped metal cage that had popped out of the dirt around her. It was covered in earth, making it looking as old and ancient as the underground ruins on World's End, although despite its appearance, Durima doubted it would be easy to break out of.
On the other side of the cage, Gujak was dancing around anxiously, looking at Durima's predicament with big worried eyes and an even more worried-looking frown.
“Oh no,” said Gujak. “Oh no, oh no, oh no. This is not good. This is not good at all.”
For once, Durima agreed with Gujak. And for once, she was pretty certain that their mission was going to be a complete and utter failure. And she did not like that at all.
***