The Abyssal Key: A Harem Fantasy (Master Of Runes Book 2), page 14
It didn’t make much of a difference either way, though. Nearly everyone, captor or prisoner alike, was desperately trying to get out of the place. Doing so was easy enough, too. Despite the palisade, order had been kept through fear instead of impenetrable walls.
Leena and I found ourselves standing amidst the piles of wreckage and broken stone by ourselves in very short order. On one hand, I was glad I hadn’t had to fight. On the other hand, I was a little disappointed that I hadn’t had to fight. I was going to have to learn eventually, and this would have been a relatively easy time. Oh well.
With a huff, Leena turned and shrugged. “Nothing to be done. I would suggest we canvas the area and make sure no one’s hiding to ambush us, but that seems a little unlikely. You might as well report to the others.”
I nodded and turned, and what I saw made my blood run cold.
“Oh, shit.”
Sitting underneath the shadow of the Melodia was a massive cronker, the fat, hippo-frog animals whose tracks gave their name to Cerenis’s pancakes. On its back sat what was essentially a tiny house, made of wrought stone and wooden planks, complete with front door and small windows. Sitting on a saddle in front of this, holding the animal’s reins was the most terrifying person I’d ever known.
General Rilahn.
She casually stepped down from her mount, pulling her massive, black sword from where it had been packed away behind her before she sheathed it on her back. She sauntered towards us, in no hurry at all, surveying the damage we’d caused. She was wearing white and gold armor that looked oddly out of place in the ruined quarry. It was so embellished and decorated that it seemed almost certain to be ceremonial. Knowing Rilahn, it was anything but. Or perhaps she didn’t even need armor in the first place.
“Damnit,” Leena muttered under her breath. She strode forward in front of me and said, “Listen to me, Alex. I’m going to be able to buy you seconds, at most. Don’t squander them. Get back to the Melodia and get out of here if you can.”
I struggled to believe what I was seeing and hearing. Seconds ago, I was exalting in the ludicrously easy battle we’d engaged in. Now, I was staring down Rilahn, listening to Leena talk like she was about to die.
“Leena, I—”
“Save it. Do as I say and don’t look back. And…Alex?” She took her helm off and threw it on the ground. She looked at her shield, and with a shake of her head, did the same with it, knocking up little clouds of dust. “Tell Suli and Tivani that my last thoughts were of them.”
Fuckfuckfuck!
“General Rilahn!” she yelled as she drew her sword and held her hands out to the side.
Rilahn, who’d been engrossed in a burning pile of twisted machinery, looked up and, with an expressionless face, said, “Old soldier.”
Leena fell into a fighting stance, one she’d only shown me once. It was for nothing but assault and last stands.
No. This can’t be happening. I’m not going to lose Leena like this. But…what can I do?
“You would face me?” Rilahn asked, still devoid of emotion.
Okay. This is happening. Focus, damn it. I had to get this right. Just like the battle at Longspan, I only had one chance, and I couldn’t fuck it up. As soon as the fight started, I’d run around some flaming wreckage, putting as much stuff in between Rilahn and I as I could. I’d sing the Melodia’s elevator down as soon as I could, hop onto it, and be back inside before she cut me in half.
But then what!? Well, hopefully the fort’s defenses would keep her at bay. I had no illusions that they’d kill her, but maybe they’d hold her off and we could get moving. Then…we’d hide behind all the cannons we could just in case she came aboard somehow.
Yeah…I could do it.
One last thing, I thought to myself, look away when the fight starts. You don’t need Leena’s death in your memories. It would be awful enough anyway.
Rilahn’s mismatched eyes flicked over to me and back to Leena. “As you wish.”
I was ready to move.
I…had thought I was ready to move.
Rilahn leapt at Leena, covering the distance between them nearly instantly, and I numbly watched, unable to tear my eyes away, as her boots hit the dirt and her stone hand came down on Leena’s wrist.
I heard her armor shatter as she let out a curse and dropped her sword.
In the same movement, Rilahn reached down, swept her legs, picked her up, armor and all, and threw her away. She sailed through the air and came down hard on a pile of broken stone.
It had been about three seconds.
Shitshitshit!
My legs moved and I ran as hard as I could, the adrenaline spiking through my body. Pure animalistic terror ran through my mind as I struggled to think, to move my body purposely and not in clamoring horror.
I succeeded in putting a pile of detritus between us, and for a second, I thought it all might actually be doable.
Rilahn jumped over the pile and landed in front of me, the weight of the impact sending a small tremor through the ground.
Okay. New plan. I was gonna fight her.
I had no illusions that I was going to beat her with martial skill, so I sang wildly to all the broken wrought stone surrounding us.I managed to get a few bigger pieces in the air and sailing towards her.
She arched an eyebrow and stumbled to the side as a few pieces made contact. In that second, I sent a barrage of smaller, faster pieces into her from all sides, thinking I might be getting somewhere.
But then Rilahn rushed me and slammed me into a broken wall, her stone fingers around my throat.
Shit.
I grabbed her wrist, but her grip was iron. I struggled in vain, singing wildly, trying to crush her arm with more stone, but I had barely begun to sing again when she squeezed. I managed a choked gasp as the sides of my vision started to darken.
But then, a second later, the pressure was gone, and I found myself on my knees, gasping for breath. I saw stars, the second time in my life that I ever had. After a moment, I looked up to see her gazing down at me.
“...What? Why?” I managed to say. When she didn’t move or react, I stood slowly, the terror still coursing in my veins. “Why aren’t you killing me?”
With the tiniest but most malevolent smile I’d ever seen, she said, “An interesting idea just popped into my head. Hmmm… Are you really from another world?”
“...What?” I stepped back, completely flustered at this change in the situation. I looked her up and down, but she seemed to actually be waiting for a response. No particular reason to lie, I guess. “I…am.”
She brushed one of her long golden locks out of her face and put a hand on her hip.
If you could get past the fact that she was a horrific killing machine, she was quite beautiful, even with the half stone skin.
“How disorienting it must have been to arrive here. Tell me, is your world like this one?” Her blue eye reflected genuine curiosity. The other one, the one that was nothing but a point of light in a socket of pure darkness…who knew what to make of that?
Okay. We were having a conversation now. Was she a cat toying with her prey? I was still mentally reeling from the rapidly changing situation. But talking to her wasn’t getting killed by her. I made as much effort at it as I could. “It’s…well, some. We have…dirt and trees and things, but…no. It’s not very much like Cerenis at all, really.”
“Hmm,” she said, casually looking around.
I was not a threat, is what her demeanor said.
“And yet, here you are, playing at being a Lord. Sing for me,” she said as her eyes met mine. “Sing the highsong.”
As my thoughts finally started to coalesce, I wanted nothing more, in that moment, than to punch the calm detachment straight off her face. How dare she come in here, toss Leena aside and then make such casual demands of me. Even through the ocean of fear, I was getting pissed. I wanted to beat her down into the dirt and make her afraid.
But I couldn’t, so I sang, even though there were no runes to sing back to me. I hated it.
“Huh,” she said.
“You can hear it, can’t you?”
She just held my gaze and didn’t answer.
“You can hear it. What are you?”
This elicited the first real response. She grinned widely and started laughing. There was something in her eyes there, but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what. “Something… different,” she said.
Yeah, well, no shit.
As she gestured at the wreckage around us, she said, “You’ve managed to accomplish some things here, Runic Lord. Your little toy — I’m told it’s called the Caer Melodia? — is a sight for old eyes. I must say, I’m surprised at the things you and your little friends have done. Shooting me over the horizon among them.”
“Three times over, I was told.”
She smirked and said, “That might be somewhere close to the truth. It took me some time to follow your trail after that. But follow it I did, all the way through Bentbranch, where I heard the most amusing stories.”
“I’m sure Norin admitted exactly what happened,” I said with a healthy dose of sarcasm.
“Of course he did,” she said with a wide grin. “People tell me what I want to know. I know where to threaten to get results. What people value the most.” Her eyes flicked down to…my groin.
I reflexively took a step back and covered myself. “You did not!” Well, apparently, we were just having a normalish conversation now.
She laughed softly and shook her head. “I didn’t. I would have, but he talked. Answered all my questions and more. Corroborated by his people. They were all very forthcoming and cooperative.” Her grin turned feral as she added, “Most people are with me.”
“Did you…let him live?”
She barked a laugh and said, “No. Of course not. He betrayed Stonecore. Believe me when I say that our leadership would not care if he had done so under duress. I split him in two in the town square, crown to balls. I appointed one of his more reliable and less flamboyant administrators to his position.”
“I thought Stonecore wanted their involvement in the town hidden.”
She scoffed and said, “The people out here want it that way. We don’t care. Stonecore will eventually cover this entire world, subjugating all who resist.” This line was delivered without emotion, and it seemed to be a somewhat rehearsed sentence.
What did she really want? More to the immediate point, why wasn’t she killing me right now? I took a chance and just asked. “What do you want, Rilahn?”
Her gaze snapped back to mine. She reached out, lightning fast, grabbing the front of my armor and pulling me close. “I will come for you,” she said softly but menacingly, “one day. And when I do, you had better be a Lord in truth, or I will cut you down.” After this, she arched an eyebrow and said, “Don’t, Counselor, for your own sake.”
There was a strangled grunt from behind her. She turned, her hand still on me, to reveal Vsara, a dagger in the air and ready to stab into Rilahn’s back.
“It wouldn’t have worked anyway.” With a callous smile, she added, “You’re not as silent as you think.”
Yellow eyes full of fear, Vsara lowered the weapon and took a step back.
Rilahn released me and walked away, her back to us.
Vsara quickly blinked herself back to composure. Once it seemed like Rilahn was just…leaving, she called out,” Rilahn! Where’s the Abyssal Key?”
She didn’t stop walking. She just started laughing loudly on her way to her massive cronker, her massive sword which she’d not once drawn swaying on her back with her movements. She leaped onto her mount, gave us a wave, and yelled out, “You had better make haste to Seren’s archipelago, little lord, lest you find it completely blockaded.” Her fat mount turned and started plodding away, so much faster than such an animal should have been capable of.
We wordlessly watched her go, and when she was out of sight, I asked Vsara, “You didn’t think she was going to answer you, did you?”
“No,” she said while running her hands over her face, “but I thought she might slip up and say something that would lead us to the truth.”
A moment later, Leena walked out from behind the pile of garbage she’d been thrown into. The armor on her right arm and hand had been shattered almost completely, but it looked like it hadn’t broken her bones, although her skin sported some bloody gashes.
“So,” I said while looking at the two of them in turn, “What just happened?”
“She let us live,” Leena said.
“But…why?”
“Fucked if I know.”
“Vsara?”
“...Fucked if I know. What did she say to you? I couldn’t hear any of it.”
We all sat on the ground and crashed as the adrenaline worked its way out of our systems. “She…asked me some truly weird questions. About Earth. Then she wanted me to sing the highsong, which I did.”
“So she can hear it,” Vsara said.
“I guess so. I asked her about it, but she didn’t bother to reply. She…said she was impressed by the things we’d done. And that she’d come for me one day, and that I had ‘better be a Lord in truth.’”
“She wants you to be a Runic Lord?” Leena said. “Load of shit.”
“That…makes less than no sense,” Vsara said. “It goes against literally everything I know about her. The fact that she didn’t kill you, or any of us, is supremely baffling.”
“She also told me that she followed our trail to Bentbranch, and that she wrangled the truth of what happened there from Norin, before she publicly executed him.”
“So…she knows we have Oziin,” Vsara said, the confusion plain in her wide and unfocused eyes. “But she didn’t do anything about that, either. This is a complete and total departure from…literally everything I know about her. I just…I…fuck.”
It looked very much like Vsara didn’t enjoy not being able to read people’s motives. Honestly, I doubted that she had had a whole lot of experiences like this in her life. It was probably vexing her to no end.
“So,” she said, “what exactly did she say about ‘coming for you,’ again?”
“That she would, one day, and that I would ‘need to be a Lord in truth.’”
With a loud groan, Vsara’s head fell into her hands. She muttered, “I just don’t know. I have no idea. About what that really means or why she would even say it. On one hand, I believe she believes that we’ll never find the last Key, so perhaps it’s a non-issue if you exist? But…even then, we’d be loose ends, and she’s not known for letting those slip by, especially so purposefully.”
“You aren’t going to figure it out right now,” Leena said. “Let’s go home.”
With the danger apparently passed, we ascended into the Melodia, and before I could do anything at all, Tivani slammed into me, blurting out between choked sobs, “Ohshityou’reokayIcan’tbelieveitIthoughtthatwastheendsweetfuckingshit!” She reached out and pulled Leena into the hug as well, tears flowing down her face.
The others were standing by the door, looking at us in shock as well.
I hugged her back tightly. “You were watching?”
She shook her head. “We saw Rilahn coming, and we panicked. She was out of sight and underneath the view of the cannons before we could get a hold of ourselves. Afterwards, when she was riding away…” Tivani let out a completely mirthless laugh and said, “She turned, drew her sword, and pointed it right at us. ‘Just try it’ was clearly written on her face. We…didn’t try it. We thought…we thought…”
They thought Rilahn had already killed us.
“You don’t have to say it.” I hugged her again as tightly as I could.
“I can’t believe it,” she repeated. “How…how?”
“She just…let us live,” Vsara said.
Tivani stepped back and nearly screamed, “She fucking what!?”
Leena, Vsara, and I just shrugged.
“Fucked if we know,” I said.
Tivani’s face mirrored the confusion the rest of us felt, but there was nothing for it.
She and Suli were going to remain on the Melodia, manning the cannons and the sharpcaster in case they were needed, while the rest of us, excluding Tuniri, were going to start salvaging the place.
Chapter Seventeen
The elevator ride back down into the quarry was one of the most surreal experiences of my life as the wild roller coaster of emotions truly caught up with me. “Shit,” I said under my breath to no one, but Leena, Oziin, and Vsara all nodded in reply anyway.
There were a few stragglers, it turned out, but two of them were prisoners that begged for their lives. When we tried to make it clear we weren’t there to kill them, they just bolted off screaming loudly. We found one last guard hiding inside a mostly intact building.
He jumped out and tried to stab Leena in the back, despite the fact that she was wearing her plate still and was by far and away the stupidest one of us to choose to attack. I reflexively sang his weapon away, and with casual competence, Leena’s sword was out of her sheath, through the guy’s neck, and back in within a few seconds. “Asshole,” she muttered before she spit on him.
Oziin looked away and was rather pale again.
“You okay?”
“I…hope to not have to do this sort of thing often.”
I gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder and said, “Once we get the forge outfitted, you probably won’t have to leave to Melodia again unless you want to.”
She nodded and said, “Yes. Yes, I would like that.”
I caught Leena smiling behind her back.
We spent the rest of the day looting the absolute shit out of the place.
Despite being what it was, they had decent stores of food and a lot of mundane necessities. We made trip after trip loading things onto the Melodia, which I walked closer to whatever place we happened to be looting.
Oziin found a lot of good machinery that wasn’t broken beyond repair, and when she lamented about how awkward it was going to be to lug back upstairs, I got a wide, stupid grin on my face.
