Forge of Ashes Read online

  The shaman wailed at the snap of bone, and its spear rolled away. Ondorum dropped one knee and drove a punch into the xulgath's throat, which crackled under his knuckles. The shaman's tail flapped, slapping the ground as it died.

  Ondorum stepped around the body and went to the door at the far end of the chamber, dragging his chains along. Shoving it wide, he discovered another room to match the one above. The four main chains fed down into here, and then went through a series of pulleys to large wheels that could be turned, allowing a single person to operate each gate.

  Every wheel and gear and chain and pulley in the room had been smashed and broken. He raced from one to the next, trying to turn each wheel or work any lever. They squealed and ground, but whatever physical or magical force the xulgaths used to accomplish this had been thorough in ruining the mechanisms. He leaped up and grabbed at the chains dangling from the ceiling, but his weight couldn't compare to the gates on the other end.

  He dropped to his knees, mind swirling. The distant screams of the dying tore through to him. He trembled. Even opening the gates only provided a slim hope of escape, but at least it would be true hope, rather than a fool's hope. True hope could ignite the strength of the smallest army in the face of the most desperate odds. A fool's hope would merely blow away in the wind, like ashes and smoke.

  Ashes and smoke...

  Ondorum's chains rattled as he raced out and back up the stairs.

  ∗ ∗ ∗

  Akina realized the caravan stood doomed. While the wizards struck down several enemy shamans, enough xulgaths remained to harry the caravan survivors from all sides. A last motley assortment of Darklanders had been corralled into a thinning line of resistance, backing toward the wall. A few oversized duergar still lumbered about, chopping down xulgaths like dead grass, but even they slowed.

  Akina felt a last flash of regret as the old familiar fire crept into her bones. This was how it ended? Death while disguised as a duergar, fighting to defend duergar against a bunch of scale-tailed savages who wouldn't know a good brew if it knocked them upside the head in a mithral tankard?

  A rock pinged off her helm, and she spun to see which xulgath had flung it, ready to fling her maulaxe up at it.

  A figure appeared on one of the lower wall ledges, near a pair of xulgath shamans. Her breath caught as she recognized Ondorum, still with broken chains clasped to him. The xulgaths had no chance to see him coming before his kicks sent them tumbling. One was impaled on a lower spike, while the other fell out of sight further down.

  The monk held two bundles, one under either arm. Steadying these, he leaped from the ledge and caught himself on a lower spike shaft, then hurled himself from this to another tiny ledge, nimble as a mountain goat. A final jump from atop a gate, and he dropped out of sight.

  Akina whacked aside a xulgath to clear her way. She pushed past a pair of dark-skinned elves and several tattered ones, at last reaching the gate. There, Ondorum crouched by the portcullis. She yelled his name. He glanced up, and a relieved smile flickered across his lips before he looked back down.

  That was all the greeting she got?"Shattered stone! I thought you were dead!"

  Ondorum remained bent over his work. He'd shoved two bundles of several dozen silver tubes through the gaps in the portcullis so they jammed up against the gate itself. Cords stuck out the ends of every tube, and each cord trailed down to a single thicker line. One of these already had a flame burning at the tip. As she watched, Ondorum struck a piece of scrap metal off what looked like a large chain link. Sparks flew, and several landed on the... the fuse. That's what it was.

  The fuse he'd just caught fizzed, and the flames ate up toward both bundles of tubes with alarming speed.

  Akina gaped. She'd seen enough mine blockage clearances to know what these were.

  "Oh, hell." She reeled back at the same time Ondorum stood and caught her arm, hauling her away with him. Turning to get her feet under her, she saw Izthuri emerging from the ongoing chaos, and shouted,"Run!"

  To her credit, Izthuri didn't question or hesitate, but fell in step as they sprinted for the next gate up. The trio pressed themselves under the archway there, up against the steel grate. A band of xulgaths raced for them, eager for cornered prey.

  And then the earth screamed in agony.

  The explosion ripped through the field of death, flinging duergar and xulgath alike through the air. A fireball blasted like dragon's breath down the Long Walk, roasting any creatures in its path and plowing up waves of rock before it. The eruption painted the walls in hellish hues, sending giant bats fleeing from their roosts in the heights, yet catching their wings on fire so they fell tumbling to the ground. The wall trembled as if an army of giants slammed against it, and the stones cracked all around them.

  A blast of wind slapped the world and sent it spinning, scattering boulders and plates of iron like grains of sand before a wave. It knocked the three down even in their sheltered position. A screech of tortured metal and stone clawed across Akina's ears, and then the whole world went silent, but for a ringing in her head.

  She realized she was roaring against the raging destruction around her, but couldn't hear herself. Fires guttered somewhere in the distance, and all had become a chaotic mingle of flames and shadow and blood and ruined earth. A hand grabbed hers. Ondorum dragged her upright, and Izthuri beside her. Even he looked stunned, and he stumbled at his first steps. With shaking hands, Akina secured her maulaxe in its sheathe and then staggered behind him. Izthuri kept wobbling back and forth as if she might collapse at any moment. As they came into the clear, Akina tried to make sense of what she saw.

  The whole middle of the wall had vanished, leaving a V-shaped gap that cut up from where the gate once stood to the cavernous ceiling far above. Great rents in the tunnel roof showed where the duergar outpost had been connected with reinforcing beams and drilled into the stone before being torn away.

  Wreckage and bodies were strewn about on both sides of the gap. Some of the fallen moved slowly, recovering their wits. Most did not. Akina and her companions picked their way toward the opening, leaning on one another for support. Sounds faded back into existence—mostly moans and screams and the clatter of rubble. As they crossed over, Izthuri extended a whip-thin arm and pointed at a tunnel entrance off to the right, not fifty strides away. Her voice sounded even thinner than usual to Akina's battered ears.

  "There. Is there."

  Akina plodded forward, eager to be off and gone, but something made her look up.

  "Ondorum." Her voice ground inside her own head. She tugged at his arm again."Ondorum."

  The others stopped to see what she stared at. Cracks shot through the tunnel ceiling, all along the newly opened path and back the way they'd come. Crooked rents speared out from where the explosions had shattered the stone, where the duergar wall had connected to the upper regions.

  And the cracks widened with every second.

  Akina shoved the other two into motion."Go!"

  They dashed ahead as fast as their shaken senses allowed. As they ran, she dared to look back—and up.

  Countless stalactites trembled and plummeted with a spray of broken earth. Ahead and behind, dozens of other formations, from stumpy blocks to long, dagger-like growths, tore from the ceiling.

  Five steps later, the ground bucked and tried to throw her off. She planted a hand to catch herself and pushed on, just as a falling stone hit ahead. Tall as a tower, it shattered against the road, dissolving into columns that toppled in all directions. She veered toward the tunnel, following Izthuri's lead. With each second, the earth shuddered as if it might tear apart beneath them. The air filled further with dust and flying debris.

  One stalactite drove into the road behind her with such force that it sent Akina soaring past Izthuri. The caligni somehow maintained her balance and grabbed her up, setting her running again. Ondorum labored beside them, chains rattling, blood oozing from under his barbed collar.

  Spears and sword
s of stone rained down around them, while blocks and boulders sailed about. Existence shook to its roots. Another twenty steps and the tunnel entrance offered itself like a portal into another world.

  Akina glanced up and saw the most massive formation yet loosen from the ravaged ceiling and fall straight for where the tunnel stood. The others must've seen it too, for the group sped up as one, racing to outdo gravity. She kept her eyes locked on the entrance, legs churning, lungs heaving, eyes tearing from the grit whipping through the air.

  Then a last, desperate plant of the feet and leap. Passing over the threshold while a giant's fist of stone descended on her head. Striking a floor of rough rock. Rolling and skidding on her armor. Someone landing beside her.

  A final quake. A spew of rock. A slide of crumbling, cold earth that buried her, and Akina wondered if a mountain had just become her tomb.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Parted Paths

  A distant voice called Ondorum's name. He shifted on the monastery slab, vainly seeking comfort in its unforgiving surface. Though raw earth and stone often soothed him with its touch, the monastery beds had been fashioned with uneven surfaces in order to purge sleepers of requiring earthly comforts in order to rest.

  His name again. The masters must have sent an apprentice to rouse him, which meant he'd missed the first or second meditation bells, calling all to rise and assemble. They would no doubt task him with extra labor in the kitchens or clearing the exterior walls of creeping vines to preserve the sanctity of the foundation stones. He grimaced at this, though he knew it was his fault for not being attentive to the hour. His body already ached in every joint from yesterday's work and martial practice. When would his body finally be able to bear the loads they placed on it?

  He kept his eyes closed as he started to sit up, trying to set his thoughts aright before viewing the day, otherwise the hours that followed might be distorted by his shameful, flawed thinking. As he moved, metal rattled, and cold links slithered over his bare skin. He paused.

  Chains?

  "Ondorum? Where are you?"

  He opened his eyes to a narrow tunnel, which ended near where he lay in a pile of granite and limestone rubble. Thick chains draped him, while barbs pricked his neck. The events in the Long Walk and the deadly ambush at the duergar checkpoint crashed over his mind like a wave. When he surfaced from the memories, he scrambled to his feet. Had Akina just called to him, or did that too remain in the realm of dreams? He peered down the tunnel, searching for his companions. Had they gone on ahead, unaware he lay behind them?

  Something thudded faintly against the nearby wall. A muffled voice rose.

  "Shattered stones and bones. Don't tell me he's dead. I'd know if he was. Don't ask me how I'd know. Shut it."

  A low hissing noise formed words Ondorum couldn't catch. Izthuri. Both alive, then. But where? He went to the wall and rapped on it once. Then twice. Then pounded three times with a fist. He listened.

  Scrabbling, and then Akina's voice came a little louder."Ondorum? That you?"

  He knocked in reply.

  "You can hear me?"

  Knock.

  "Must be a crack in the wall somewhere." More hammering from the other side."Where's the blasted thing? I'll pry it open."

  Ondorum placed his palm on the wall. While her blows were audible, the stone didn't so much as tremble on this side. Far too solid and thick. A miracle they even heard one another. Akina could go at it all day with her maulaxe and might crack a few inches. And from the sound of it, she might attempt it anyway. However, after a few minutes of her hammering, a clang sounded, and frustration turned her words raw.

  "No use." A pause."Is it really you?"

  Knock.

  "If so, how many hobgoblins did we slay when we first met at the temple?"

  Ondorum didn't hesitate. Eight knocks.

  "Thank Torag." Another stretch."You all right?"

  Knock.

  A rattle and curse, as if she'd just punched the wall."Say something, damn you."

  Ondorum stared at the stone. His lungs clenched and his heart pulsed in an unseen grip. His throat tightened as all the words he'd held back tried to rush up it at once. His chains hung as heavy as his thoughts as he lowered his eyes. Which should he feel more ashamed for? Getting so close to breaking his vow, or leaving her feeling that much more abandoned on the other side? The dilemma jeered at him no matter how many cleansing breaths he took or mantras he tried to cycle through to quiet the riot in his mind and heart.

  "Oh for... Even now, Ondorum?" Another pounding."Even now?"

  He laid his forehead and palms against the wall, trying to stop her blows by force of will. They continued nonetheless, a distant thunder, until they cut off suddenly. He imagined her ragged breathing and mouthed, I'm sorry. Edging close to breaking his vow, but since she couldn't actually see anything, it might as well have remained his thoughts alone. Let Irori judge his actions and intents later.

  "What good has it done? What harm would a single word do?" A scuffle and her voice tilted away."Shush me once more and I'll turn those rags red. I don't care what might be down here."

  The quiet felt worse than the maddening cacophony of the recent battle. Ondorum took a shuddering breath, feeling his refusal to speak hurt her more than any wound she might've taken from the xulgaths. The silence no longer felt pure, and he had to fill it with something. But the only compromise he could conjure was a questioning knock to ensure she hadn't tromped off in fury.

  "Still here, you fool. Guess you'll get as much silence as you want now." She grumbled incoherently."Fine. Fine. We're wasting time arguing." More mumbles."With the ceiling falling on our heads, Izthuri forgot to mention the tunnel split off at the entrance. Funny thing is, you're in the one we needed. She says this one will get us there too, but it might take a little longer. Figure the plan is to try to meet up at the ruins. She's got directions. Hang on."

  After a minute, her voice resumed.

  "So. Go down. No tunnels that go up. Helpful. Take all left turns until you reach... the waterfall? Yes, a waterfall. Follow the current downstream a ways, but don't actually get in the water. Don't drink from it, don't even dip a toe, she says. Plus, if you see any green-glowing crystals, don't figure them for emeralds or another elemental for you to cuddle. Something called blightburn. Actually, she says it's best just to stay far away from any spot with green glows. When the river pours into a bottomless abyss, then head along the rightmost tunnel and stick with it. Don't take any side branches. None. Eventually you'll come to a few magma flows that have natural bridges across them..."

  The instructions went on a little more, and Akina repeated them twice over, even though he caught the major landmarks and directions the first time. He thought she might be repeating them more for her sake, as if the more times she defined the proper route, the higher the chance of him making it through. She wrapped up the final talk-through.

  "Got it?"

  Knock.

  "See you there then? Promise?"

  Knock.

  "Wait, are you knocking yes or—never mind. I'm getting waggled at to hurry. I guess... guess we're off."

  Ondorum strained to hear sounds of her departing, but if any footsteps echoed on her side, they didn't make it across. He reviewed the instructions once more, ensuring they'd been engrained in the bedrock of his mind. Just before he turned from the wall, a murmur slipped through, so low he almost didn't catch it.

  "Ondorum? Just... don't die, hm? I don't figure I'd handle it well."

  He waited, but nothing more. He tried to loosen the barbed collar, but pulling it in one direction only cinched it from the other. At last, he clasped his hands before him and strode down, chains jangling, into the darkness and whatever waited for him there.

  ∗ ∗ ∗

  Akina plowed forward so fast she kept getting ahead of Izthuri, and the caligni kept hissing at her to avoid making a wrong turn or to stop making so much noise. If Ondorum's path got him to the ruins
before them, who knew what he'd face there? Best if she double-marched and increased the odds of arriving as soon after he did as possible.

  In time, though, even her steps slowed and her flustered thoughts settled like dust in the aftermath of the gate explosion. Different ideas started plinking into place, adding to the rattle inside her skull. She let Izthuri take the lead and followed without thought. As the two of them plumbed the darkest dens of stone she'd ever known, so she wandered into darker caverns of thought and started poking around to see if anything stirred. While she bellyached at Ondorum's refusal to budge on his vow, to admit she meant more to him than some self-imposed pledge, a harsh voice whispered, Maybe he doesn't really care.

  Maybe they didn't mean as much to each other as she'd thought. While they'd increasingly relied on each other over the years, perhaps it'd been a relationship of convenience instead of devotion. And if his self-flagellation over past mistakes proved more important than their relationship—if he spurned a possibly final plea to give her a single word in such dire circumstances—did he deserve to be such a priority in her life?

  Izthuri paused at a fork and sniffed the air down either passage. She slipped into the right. At the next junction of three passages, she sniffed two and recoiled so hard from the third she nearly toppled. They went down the middle, which proved narrow enough that Akina had to take most of it sideways, scraping her nose and armor as she went.

  She continued to mull as they pushed on. If she and Ondorum remained bound together, would it do either of them any good in the long run? Or would they just find themselves following increasingly divided paths? Yet if she bound herself back to her kin and the Five Kings Mountains, what could she offer them? Her people were known for building lasting marvels, bringing great beauty and function to the world. They revered their ancestors and stuck beside their kin. Her? She reduced life to rubble and danced in the ashes. She abandoned her family for her own bloodthirsty wanderings. Some dwarf, her.