Samuel turned to Lomar and nodded,and the two of them raced away, leaving the Emperor behind.
These floors were populated only by the occasional quivering servants, but they met several wizards and scores of armed Paatin soldiers as they rushed towards the catacombs. Lomar felled most of them without hesitation, his magic strikingout furiously.
Before the gaping main entrance, Lomar paused. ‘As soon as we break the barrier, they will know we are here,’ he said. ‘However, they will not know if we are breaking in or out, so we should still be able to avoid them for a time. I would guess few would ever have the desire to steal their way into such a place. It will only mean that we must make our escape quickly, before the tunnels are overrun with guards. There is no point in wizards coming in to find us as they would have no power while under the mountain. Unfortunately, we will also be powerless if we are found.’
‘Then let us be quick,’ Samuel responded.
Lomar threw some spells of concealment over the two of them and they ventured in, sneaking behind the dozen guards who stood before the great entrance at the ready. Samuel tiptoed across the threshold first but,as soon as Lomar attempted to follow, a great wailing sound began from high above.
The guards looked about in confusion as tothecause of the alarm, but no one came bounding out of the tunnel mouth towards them and they could not spy the two magicianspressedagainst the wall.
As more guards came streaming out of the dungeons to see what had caused the commotion, Samuel and Lomar slipped in behind them and beganto movehurriedly along the main tunnel. They stepped into the first side tunnel they met, just as another group of spear-bearing soldiers came running by.
Samuel moved confidently in the dark,andLomar trailed as best he could with his fingerstrailing alongthe wall. Occasionally, they caught sight of a guard station, where two or three of the brutish thugs stood waiting in the lamplight, alert for escaping prisoners. They could not move directly through these spaces and,instead,had to rush around to find alternative routes.
They seemed to walk for a long time, deeper and deeper into the mountain, following Lomar’s directions, but Samuel knew it was the way of the stone to make time seem to pass so slowly.
‘Wait!’ Samuel said as they passed a familiar branch in the passage. ‘We need to free Eric.’
‘Of course,’ Lomar agreed and they started along the way that Samuel had directed.
Luckily, they did not need to go far and they soon found the passage that held their friend. Eric stepped joyfully out of his cell, thankful he had finally been set free. They grabbed a lamp that hungnearbyand took it with them to guide their way. Samuel explained everything to Eric as they went, hurrying along as quickly as they dared.
They had passed many doors and passages of varying types, diving deeper and deeper into the labyrinth, when they arrived at a sloping passage at the core of the mountain. The tunnel was long and straight, so tight in places that they had to squeeze through, and they continued on until it seemed to come to a dead end. Stooping, Lomar prised open a trapdoor on the floor, first unlatching the multiple iron bars that had kept it sealed shut. At once, Samuel felt the spark of magic lingering inside. An awful stench of rot and filth also issued from the hole and it made the threeof themstep back to get their breaths.
‘We will be needing this,’ Lomar said, pulling a length of study rope from beneath his Paatin clothes.
A narrow shaft led down from the surface and Lomar attached one end of the rope to the trapdoor and dropped the other into the darkness.
‘Balten!’ Samuel called into the hole, but no one answered his call.
‘We will go down. Guard our escape,’ Lomar instructed Eric.
‘How?’ Eric said, looking around himself for some form of weapon, but the others had no answer for him.
Samuel started first and slid carefully down the rope, using his
As they hopped onto the stone floor, the lantern light illuminated the crumpled figure of Balten leaning against the wall as if mummified. He was alive, but barely.
‘Balten!’ Samuel hissed, squatting down and holding the man firmly by the shoulders. ‘Wake up! We’re here.’
They almost thought he was truly dead, when Balten’s eyes flickered open and he looked at Samuel serenely, as if waking from a pleasant dream.
‘Samuel?’ the withered magician asked. ‘It’s been quite a while. I was beginning to wonder about you.’ He moved one trembling hand, while the rest of his body remainedmotionless,as if pinned to the stone, and he dug into his shredded rags of clothes and drew out the Argum Stone. ‘I believe you have come for this.’
Samuel took the ring and tucked it safely away. ‘By the gods! What have they done to you?’ he asked.
‘Nothing. Nothing at all,’ Balten responded coughing. It seemed as if his life was slowly coming back to him, pulsing out from his core towards his extremities. ‘They left me here, perhaps hoping I would get bored and perish, but I really found it quite peaceful. Some more water would have been nice, but it turned out the stones were moist enough for my needs. I find it quite ironic that the mountain they sought to finish me with ended up sustaining me. I sometimes felt as if the stone itself had thought me worthy of survival and had granted me the blessing of its juices. It’s strange, what passes through one’s mind in times of such solitude.’
‘What have you been doing all this time?’ Lomar asked him.
‘I calmed myself and entered a deep state. It was the only way to survive. I knew you would come eventually and I supposed you would only want the ring, but I thought it would be better if you didn’t have to rummage around through my corpse to get it.’
‘Eric!’ Lomar called up and Eric’s face appeared way up at the top of the hole. ‘Fetch food and water. Go back to the last guard post, but be careful.’
Eric’s face disappeared.
‘You look terrible,’ Samuel stated to the man, who had now started rubbing his arms and moving his head as his blood begancirculatingwith more vigour.
‘It is not so bad. Discomfort can be enlightening. Suffering opens the window to discovery, Samuel. It is not something that can be enjoyed at the time, but the feeling afterwards is nothing short of rewarding. You should try it some time.’
‘I don’t think it sounds very enjoyable,’ was Samuel’s reply.
‘That’s the problem with you Order lot. Old Anthem has filled everyone’s heads with his vision of a perfect world, but it doesn’t exist, Samuel. Without anguish, people get bored. Without stimulation, people’s minds stagnate. A world without some form of chaos would only create a world of blandness. That’s what Anthem could never understand. A society without hardship is like a herd of sheep. They would be very easy to control. Do you think that’s what your teacher had in mind? Perhaps I wouldn’t dislike him so much if it were so.’
‘There’s no time for talk such as this,’ Samuel replied. ‘Come. If you are ready, we must hurry. Om-rah has gone to kill the Empress. We must stop him.’
‘Om-rah?’ Balten said, and the name seemed to rouse him fully. He rose to his feet and cracked his neck slowly from side to side. ‘Then I will come with you. I just need a moment to gather my strength. What else has happened? How long have I been down here?’
‘Quite some time,’ Lomar said. ‘We have had some delays in our plans, but the time is now right to forge ahead.’
Balten took a moment to digest the words. ‘Well,then. It’s good timing that you came and found me. I was thinking of breaking out of here eventually.’
‘Could you have done it?’ Samuel asked. ‘Magic cannot work in here.’
‘Magic works everywhere, Samuel. It is everywhere andineverything. It is a fire that cannot be quelled. This mountain merely seeks to quench our will and stop us from calling our magic to action. As a blacksmith’s forge harbours the air and fire, so too can we create a haven for our will and magic within ourselves. As with any fire, with too little air the flames will suffocate. With too much air, the fire will burn out of control, blundering about in the wind. Just the right balance will result in that sweet spot that all magicsmiths seek. In this state, the fire within us will shudder and roar. It will accelerate and begin to draw strength from within itself, burning white-hot while it consumes little of its fuel.’
‘You
