for them to come to his side. ‘The citadel must be destroyed,’ he gasped, with wet and laboured breaths. ‘If the Paatin have it, they will control the passage to the east. Cast Ghant into the chasm and their path will be blocked. Their host cannotbe allowed topass this way or they will have free reign of inner Turia.’
‘But how?’ Samuel asked of the dying man.
‘It was Tudor’s plan. Bring down the walls and towers of Ghant and half the mountain will follow. He was supposed to be here to see us through, but it seems he, too, has fallen. He should have been here long ago.’ The muscles in the gruff general’s jaw bunched up and he stiffened in pain. There was no way to plug up the ruin that had been done to the man.
With that, General Mar perished,his scintillating aura of energy swallowed up by the darkness of death. Captain Yarn bent down and closed the dead man’s staring eyes with the palm of his hand.
The three young men looked at each other with concern.
‘How can we do it?’ Eric asked. ‘I can’t imagine that even Grand Master Tudor was capable of bringing down this place. What could he have had planned?’
‘A Moving spell of some kind,’ Samuel suggested. ‘Perhaps if we could damage Ghant’s foundations, the main tower would follow.’
Eric shook his head. ‘I don’t think any of usiscapable of such a feat. And where do the foundations begin? This place is spread over half the mountainside. Samuel?’
But Samuel only shook his head.
‘Do you thinkthe Grand Masteris really dead?’ Goodfellow asked.
‘I don’t know,’ Eric replied, ‘but in his absence, his responsibilities fall to us.’
Samuel considered the ring. It had enough power for a single,staggering blow before it overwhelmed him, but he was not even certain that such a spell would be enough. ‘I can’t think of any sure way that we can destroy this place,’ he had to admit.
‘With a Manyspell,’ Goodfellow then said with sudden enthusiasm. ‘Together we can do it.’
Samuel was not convinced. ‘Do you think that even our combined power would be enough? We need to obliterate the place, not just let it slide into the chasm and form a bridge from the rubble, and anything so powerful would be dangerous for anyone nearby-namely us.’
Goodfellow seemed confident. ‘I have a plan. If we make a spell and turn it in upon itself, then we can intensify the power manyfold. We can let it build until it has enough power to obliterate this place and Eric can Journey us away at the last moment.’
‘Can you do it?’ Samuel asked the dark-haired magician. ‘Can you take us all?’
Eric dwelled on the thought only momentarily. ‘I think so, but it won’t be easy. Up ’til now, I’ve onlyusedthe spell on myself and anything within about arm’s length. I’ve never tried taking people with me, but I don’t see why not. I can take other things so you two should be no different.’
‘Captain,’ Samuel said and the portly Captain Yarn, now commander of Ghant, stepped to attention. ‘Sound the retreat-a full evacuation of the citadel. We will give you as much time as we can, then we will destroy Ghant.’
‘So be it,’ the man said and alerted his staff. They immediately began blowing their shrill horns and the alarm was taken up and repeated from stations all over the citadel.
‘I will stay and help you however I can,’ the gruff captain declared.
‘No, you can’t help,’ Samuel told him. ‘Do your best to clear the fortress. All you need to do is shut the door on the way out. We will do the rest. Ghant shall be decimated and the Paatin shall not pass, as required.’
‘What a sad day, but our defeat is a not total loss as long as Ghant does not fall into the hands of the Paatin. We should be able to escape if we can just make the next floor. This place is filled with hidden rooms and passages that I’m sure the Paatin have yet to discover. But what about you? How will you escape?’
‘Don’t worry. We don’t intend to die,’ Eric told him. ‘Now hurry. We will prepare the spell now. It will take some time, but once it’s ready, we will not be able to delay.’
Captain Yarn began barking orders and his men gathered what they needed and burst from the room with a roar and a clatter of swords upon the desert-men lurking there. One of Yarn’s men carried a short bugle and he blurted out a series of rasping notes as they went, repeating it over as they fought their way free.
Once they had gone, it was eerily quiet in the room. Eric crafted a spell of Bonding upon the shattered door to keep it held tightly shut, and ensured the task by using his spells to wedge the tables and benches into place.
‘There,’ he declared. ‘The door is sealed. Let us begin.’
Samuel took one last look out of the high window. Below he could hear shouts and see Turian men in the act of abandoning the fortress. Whatever kind of signal Yarn’s man had played, it was potent, for the soldiers literally turned and fled as the sound was propagated all around, leaving the Paatin cutting the air behind them.
‘We should start,’ Goodfellow stated, and the three of them stood together in the centre of the room. ‘I will charge the spell. Samuel, you shield and contain it. Eric, you help me mould the magic and keep it stable. At the end, you will need to prepare our escape-and quickly. Samuel? Can you do it?’
Samuel already had the ring from his pocket and was turning it over in his fingers. Goodfellow was looking at him intensely and Samuel was sure from his looks that he somehow knew about his dependency on the thing. Eric was looking between them both, but his eye had not yet fallen onto the relic in Samuel’s fingers.
‘Are you going to help us or not?’ Goodfellow asked him again. ‘We need you, now. This is not the time to hesitate.’
‘Of course,’ Samuel told him. ‘I can help.’
With that, he put his finger into the Argum Stone and fell into its depths. The power took hold of him and shook him, but he seemed to be growing more accustomed to the shock of being submersed in such boundless magic. After barely a heartbeat had passed, he calmed the power raging within him and looked at his friends with clarity. ‘I am ready.’
Goodfellow formed a cradle with his hands and began to fill the space between them with power. He began slowly, letting it build up from a trickle while he came to terms with its foundations, then he let more and more energy fill the space, as fast as he could manage. A banging sounded at the door, followed by a solid thumping and the barricade began to shudder. The stone around the door jumped and mortar cracked.
‘They are coming,’ Eric said, eyeing the cluttered doorway, but Goodfellow only hushed him with an urgent look.
The spell was growing and Samuel now set about crafting a barrier to hold the spell within. He called to the ring and seized hold of the power that came stampeding out of it. Luckily, in summoning a shield, the more power the better and Samuel locked his attention onto Goodfellow’s spell, and his spell shuddered to life around it-a tremendous barrier of solid energy. It held Goodfellow’s magic in place firmly and the bespectacled magician nodded at the result and then continued to pour his magic inside as quickly as he could.
‘Eric!’ Goodfellow called, now sweating and it was Eric’s turn to assist, for the spell was now growing chaotic, churning and struggling inside its prison.
‘Reduce the shield,’ Goodfellow said and Samuel did so, squeezing the energy into a tighter space. The magic within began screeching and squawking as it struggled against him.
The spell was sparking and fitting wildly, but Goodfellow continued to intensify it, folding it upon itself again and again, reducing it down and building it in intensity each time.
‘It’s getting hot, Samuel,’ Goodfellow stated and Samuel altered his shield, suddenly cutting off the rising heat that had been building inside. The power of the ring had begun burning through him and his bones began to resonate with its power. The nerves in his teeth began to feel as if they were lanced with fire.
‘Is it enough?’ Eric asked with concern, as a bench shuddered and fell away from the doorway.
Goodfellow only shook his head. ‘I think we need much more.’
Eric then began to pour his own power into the spell. Great volumes of energy spilled forth from the man and joined with Goodfellow’s.
‘Save enough to get us free!’ Samuel hissed to him. The two Erics were both potent magicians and when this magic was released, even if it did not damage the citadel, it would certainly not be good for anyone still in the room.
Eric was not concerned. ‘Don’t worry. I can get us out of here in a heartbeat.’ And he continued adding his magic into the pool.
