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Shaine would never admit this to anyone, would never let Anton or the Kelland girl know, but he was worried.
Not afraid, but worried.
While Heather was collecting weapons and equipment from the now deserted base, Anton was still trying to get through telepathically to his superiors in the Holy Order. From the look of frustration on his face, it wasn't working.
Shaine had given up a while earlier. The Revenant had not only blocked their telepathy, but it had also blocked what Heather referred to as "radio transmissions" and "wireless signals". That wasn't what truly had Shaine worried, though.
Even without telepathy, Shaine had decided that they would all three teleport back to Il'Doran. He would report to Sister Nayala and Anton could report to his superiors in person.
The Revenant had somehow managed to block even that.
No matter what he or Anton did, no matter the configuration of the teleportation spell, or where they tried to go, they always ended up back here. In the empty, underground bunker of the Kelland Regulatory Agency.
That sort of power should be far beyond a simple Revenant. The way it warped and corrupted their spells. He wasn't sure how it was possible, and he wasn't sure how to counter it.
Anton snorted in disgust. "It's no use! I can't contact anyone! How does it do this? How?!"
Shaine shook his head. "I have no idea. It shouldn't be possible. We can't contact anyone and as far as I can tell there is only one way we can teleport out of here..."
"...and that's where the Revenant wants us to go." Anton seemed deflated.
Heather walked back into view. The girl was carrying a small arsenal of Kelland weaponry.
"I've got everything I need. Let's go get my people back!"
Shaine and Anton looked at each other. Shaine decided he should speak.
"Heather, it may be best if you stay behind. This creature is obviously full of surprises, and I don't know if we can protect you."
Heather snapped back at him immediately. "I don't need your protection! Do you see all the weaponry I've got?"
Anton cut in. "You already know that Kelland weaponry is useless, or else you would not have called us in the first place. Now we need to be able to work without having to worry about you. We'll bring your people home safe."
The girl was having none of it. "I'm not listening to this! If you two knew everything then my friends and colleagues wouldn't have been taken. I'm going with you!"
Again, the two boys shared a look.
Shaine spoke. "Fine, you'll come with us, but be careful. We have some hope, though. Even though Soryans are afforded a great deal of autonomy, we still must report our activities. When I don't report, Sister Nayala will come looking."
"The same here, Soryan." Anton looked somewhat more hopeful now.
Heather shook her head. "I don't know why the rest of the base hasn't realized there's no one here yet, but eventually they must discover what happened."
"Unless they were all taken, too." Anton sounded very grim when he said it.
Shaine brandished his sword. "Well, there's nothing to do but go forward now. Prepare yourselves, with the amount of time this Revenant has had, we may find legions of undead waiting for us.
Anton waved his hand. "Let's just get this over with! Can you follow the creature's trail?"
Shaine closed his eyes. "Yes." Then he began to sing. An uptempo tune that Anton found to be inappropriately cheery, given the circumstances.
Between one moment and the next, the trio found themselves taken from the underground bunker to the edge of a windy, grassy field.
Where the field ended were some rocky hills, jutting up out of the ground as if they erupted. Cut into the side of the hill was the mouth of a cave.
Heather did not take kindly to teleporting.
"One of you could have warned me! That was very jarring! Next time let me prepare myself, would you!"
Anton had no patience for it. "Are you finished? I'm sorry we couldn't get to one of your flying boxes, no doubt it would have gotten us here quicker, right?"
Shaine looked around. "No, it would have take us most of the day to travel from Kelland to wherever this is. Look at the sky."
Anton and Heather both looked. "It's dusk. It was morning or at least midday in Kelland."
"I can't divine our exact location," Anton said after a moment. "More of the Revenant's magical tempering, I'd guess.
Heather drew her weapon and pointed to the cave. "It seems pretty obvious where we're supposed to go."
Shaine started walking toward the cave. "This is odd. Why not just bring us directly to it?"
Anton followed him. "It probably wants us afraid, wants to keep the fear increasing. Knowing Revenants, it's probably deep, deep underground."
Just before they crossed into the mouth of the cave, Shaine's sword runes began glowing red.
"I suspect we'll be set upon once we get far enough into the cave. Heather, there are things you need to know."
Heather's face was scrunched up in concentration. "Such as..?"
Shaine didn't look at her as he spoke, but peered into the dark cave.
"There are three basic type of undead to worry about in this situation. Hellwights, Vampires and Litches."
Heather repeated after Shaine. "Hellwights..?"
Anton continued. "Yes. Hellwights are mindless beasts, incredibly strong and resilient. Even if you cut the head off the body will still attack you. They can really only be destroyed by total incineration. They literally eat the flesh of human beings to survive."
Shaine nodded in agreement. "And those are the least of them." He looked back at Heather and her face was now completely blank. He suspected she was trying to keep the fear from showing.
"Next in power are vampires. Extremely fast and powerful, though they have some glaring weaknesses that make them ironically the easiest to kill. Direct sunlight will destroy them, wooden stakes through the heart will kill them. Fire will also kill them but it's difficult to get one to stand still long enough to burn to death. They feed on human blood to survive."
Heather swallowed. "I almost hate to ask about the last ones..Litches, was it?"
Anton and Shaine caught each other's eye. Then Shaine continued. "Litches are the most powerful of all. They can wield extremely potent magic and they have none of the weaknesses of the other undead. They survive by feeding on human life-energy."
"So how do you stop one?", Heather asked.
"Normally, no single Litch, however powerful, is a match for a Soryan -or a brother of the Holy Order." Shaine threw in the last because he could see that Anton was about to object.
"This Revenant may have far more than one. It seems remarkably sane and well prepared."
Heather closed her eyes, then opened them again. "Well, let's get this over with."
With that, the trio stepped forward as one into the cave. Once they got inside, Shaine's sword was providing most of the light.
The cave rapidly thinned to a long, winding, descending tunnel. They kept moving downward in spirals as far as Shaine could tell. He saw that the walls and floor of the tunnel were completely smooth.
"They must have used their magic to make this. It isn't natural." Anton remarked, running his hand along the wall.
The group was walking very slowly, with Shaine in the lead, sword held out in front of him. He slowed even more, then stopped.
The tunnel was opening up into a large cavern, the distance and depth of which was unknowable without more light.
Shaine held up his hand. "There's something there."
Anton began to hear soft noises. "What is that noise?"
Heather cocked her head to the side. "I hear it too! What is that?"
Shaine brandished his sword in a defensive stance. "It's growling! It's them!"
Then the noises got louder and Anton could tell that it was indeed growling. It had been coming from the far side of the cavern and it was growing louder, and closer, every moment!
Shaine could see movement coming out of the darkness. It was a swarm of snarling, misshapen barely human things.
"Here they come!", he yelled. "HELLWIGHTS!!"
As the creatures bore down on them, Shaine hoped he could sing over the sound of Heather's screaming. |
