“I should be apologizing to you,” I said, returning the sentiment. “I used you badly.”
“What do you mean?” Walter asked, but I couldn’t answer immediately, for that was when Karenth realized that the God-Stone wasn’t within the Ironheart Chamber.
“What trickery is this?” came his booming voice, clearly audible, even through the massive iron walls. It was followed shortly after, by a deep note, as if someone had struck a giant bell. My guess, was that he had just attempted to exit after discovering that the magical stone within, was merely a decoy.
“So it was a trap all along?” asked Walter with some confusion, as his mind hurried to fit the pieces together, “Then where is the God-Stone?”
I tested my muscles to see if I could lever myself up to a sitting position. Karenth’s torture spell had left me feeling as though I had been thoroughly beaten and bruised, though I didn’t have a mark on me. Successful, I leaned against the wall and replied to Walter’s question, “That’s one secret I’m keeping under my hat. I’m sure you understand after what we’ve been through today.” A louder noise issued from the Ironheart Chamber… Karenth was probably beginning to test the strength of his new prison.
The sound made Walter visibly nervous, “Can he get out of there? Should we be attempting to escape now?”
I laughed, “There is a possibility. After all, I’ve never tested it before. I’ll wait ‘till I’m sure, before I tell you what I think might work for him.”
“Why?” questioned the other wizard, as he began to bite his lip nervously.
I lowered my voice conspiratorially, “Because I’m not sure how good his hearing is… let’s wait until it’s too late, before we give away the secret.” The noises from within were becoming louder and more consistent and they were joined by a scream of pure rage. “Can your magesight see anything?” I added curiously.
“No, the concealing enchantment hides everything from my view,” he answered.
I nodded, “I forgot about that. Well, if that wasn’t in the way, you’d probably be noticing the interior enchantment beginning to glow as it warms up. As the process continues, it will get more and more intense, until…” I let my words trail off.
“Until what?!”
I shrugged, “Well until Karenth runs out of aythar, or his power overloads the capacity of the iron vessel.”
“Overloads…,” repeated my friend as his eyebrows went up.
“Boom,” I said with an evil grin.
“Let me help you up,” Walter answered, with newfound urgency.
It hurt to laugh but I did anyway. “Don’t worry, there’s enough iron there to hold everything he’s got to give and then some. I did a lot of quantifying to see how much power Celior had. Assuming Karenth isn’t more than twice as powerful as his brother, that chamber should be able to manage him.” The ground shook faintly, and a roar came from within. The noises from the chamber had settled into a regular rhythm, as the shining god struggled to batter his way free.
Walter started to ask me another question, but I shushed him as the sounds from inside grew louder still. Keeping a finger to my lips to signify silence, we waited long minutes as the power and volume of the god’s attempts to escape increased. After what might have been a quarter of an hour, possibly more, the volume and frequency of the sounds began to decrease. “I think we’re past the breakpoint now,” I said, restarting our conversation. “Now the easy part of our job is done. The difficult part comes next.”
“Breakpoint? Difficult?” said Walter, with an expression that clearly said, ‘I want to go home now’. Unfortunately for him, we were already home.
“Breakpoint… the chamber is absorbing the power he uses. The more he throws against, it the more powerful the enchantment becomes. The dangerous part was at the beginning, when the enchantment was relatively weak. If he had used all of his strength then, he might have cracked it before it could hold him,” I explained, before adding in a much louder voice, “but the so-called God of Justice was far too cautious for that!” The last part was meant for Karenth’s ears, and he responded with an inchoate scream. The pounding however only grew weaker.
“So what is the difficult part?”
I grimaced. “His brother Doron is still up there. We have one more god to deal with.”
“Please, Mordecai!” came the voice of Karenth through the iron wall. “We can negotiate. I can see now that I was wrong to want to punish you.”
“Negotiating is generally done before invading someone’s castle and attempting to murder everyone within,” I answered loudly.
The god’s voice was desperate, “I can help you. There is an antidote for the poison. It could save your life.”
I had been afraid he would say something like that. It was the most tempting thing he could possibly offer; a new hope of life for a dying man. If he was telling the truth, he held my life in his hands, just as I did his, trapped within the Ironheart chamber. It was effectively a stalemate. Even worse, without my power, I had no hope of controlling him or forcing compliance if I agreed to release him. If I let him out, he would undoubtedly renege on the deal, and all of my work would be for naught. Even if he kept his word, he would still be free to return at a later date. If my goal was to rid mankind of its spiritual parasites, I would be throwing it away for the sake of my own life.
In the end, it really wasn’t a choice. “You can go straight to hell.”
The god’s voice sounded tired now, “There is no hell mortal, but your life could be spent in paradise if you release me.”
I could feel my anger rising again as I answered, “There’s a hell alright. You’re staring at it, an iron prison and nothing but your own conversation for eternity… or however long you last; and the best part, is that you put yourself in there.”
“There must be something you want.”
I ignored his plea and leaned on Walter, indicating it was time to start back up the hall toward the stairway. “Have fun,” I said, over my shoulder. I won’t bother to relate his response. It was ugly enough to make even me blush. It did put a smile on my face though.
Chapter 27
We climbed the stairs slowly. My nausea had almost completely passed, but either the poison or Karenth’s attack had left me feeling shaky, so my footing was unsure. Walter let me keep a hand on his shoulder, and as we neared the top he opened the conversation again, “So… about the ‘difficult’ part, I’m hoping you have a plan for this part as well, preferably one that doesn’t require using me as bait.”
“Don’t worry,” I replied brightly, “I don’t have any plans involving you at all.”
He stared at me suspiciously, “Somehow that doesn’t reassure me.”
“Actually, I didn’t expect to live this long. I figured Karenth would kill one or both of us before he finally entered the chamber,” I elaborated with a shrug of my shoulders. I probably wouldn’t have been so flippant if I had been alone, but since I had an audience in Walter, I felt I should make the most of my limited time before the poison finished me off.
Walter stopped, forcing me to come to a halt as well. “Earlier you said you had a plan.”
I gave him an apologetic look, “Well, originally the Ironheart Chamber was the backup plan, in case two of them came at the same time. I figured I had a good chance of handling, one if I could just trap the other one. Obviously that isn’t possible now.”
The other wizard gave me a serious stare for a moment before taking my arm firmly over his shoulder and changing direction. He didn’t bother uttering a word of explanation.
“Where are you going?” I asked.