Cloak of Fury (Veil Knights Book 3), page 15
Maleagant scooped me up from the floor and held me up to the opening. I stood on the precipice that led inside and gazed into the light.
Maleagant nudged me. “Now go inside and get me what I want.”
“Am I still as strong as I was at my normal size?”
He cocked his head. “An odd question.”
“That jacket might weigh a lot,” I said. “It could prove too heavy for me.”
“If that happens,” said Maleagant, “just drag it as close to the opening as possible and I will take it from there.”
And no doubt leave me behind in the inner chamber. I had visions of The Cask of Amontilado by Poe running through my head. I sure as hell didn’t want to be walled up in the catacombs like this.
“Fair enough.” I moved into the inner chamber and hopped down to the floor. I wasn’t sure what I expected to see. The light seemed to come from every corner of the room and it took me precious seconds to realize that it was actually emanating from a small chest sitting in the center of the chamber.
I moved closer and saw that the chest was carved out of wood with metal brackets and facing. It appeared to be silver and as I bent closer, I could see ancient script running all over the outside of the chest.
Part of me wondered if it was protected by magic spells. I’d been on enough adventures in my role playing years to know that relics weren’t simply left unguarded in chests like this.
And perhaps that was why Maleagant had shrunk me down instead of himself. Maybe he couldn’t actually open the chest and needed me to do so.
Interesting.
I bent closer and saw that the latch seemed simple enough. I flipped it up and then heard a soft hiss as air escaped around the edges of the chest top.
This was it.
I took the edge of the top in both hands and lifted it.
An explosion of light nearly rocked me off of my feet. At only two feet in height, it didn’t take much to make an impact with me.
The light faded to a decent level where I could actually see inside the chest. And what I saw did not disappoint me. The leather bomber jacket sat folded neatly inside.
It struck me as an odd juxtaposition that such an ancient chest held something that looked as relatively new as the bomber jacket. I saw the faded patches that had been sewn onto it and they looked legitimate, as if one of the crew of a B-29 might slide into it before a predawn raid on Nazi Germany during World War II.
I ran my hands over the weathered leather. It felt incredibly soft to the touch.
A vague twinge in my gut reminded me that Maleagant was no doubt watching my every move. And even though I had my back to him, obscuring his view, I felt certain he could see around my diminutive size.
Before I knew what I was doing, I grabbed the jacket up and slid it on.
“Take that off immediately,” said Maleagant.
I turned and faced him. “What do you think?”
“You’re swimming in that,” said Maleagant. “Now give it over through the opening and I’ll bring you back out here.”
I frowned. Like I was going to trust a guy who tried to kill me. “Give me a second and I’ll give it to you.”
He fell silent and I turned around again. I felt warmth stirring in my belly. The jacket, as large as it was on my tiny frame, felt like a comfortable blanket. I felt safe wearing it, as if all of my troubles were being kept at bay by the jacket.
And then I felt myself growing.
Maleagant gasped. “Quickly, hand the jacket through the opening.”
I felt incredibly peculiar as my limbs returned to their normal size and my clothing with them. The jacket felt a bit tighter now obviously, but the fit was remarkable, almost as if the thing had been made for me to wear.
“Give me the jacket!”
I turned. The fury on Maleagant’s face was tangible. His hands reached in through the opening, and if there had been much more room, he would surely have clawed at me to get his hands on the jacket.
But I was just out of reach.
“I like it,” I said. “I think I’ll keep it.”
Maleagant shook his head. “We had a deal.”
I smiled. “We had no such thing. Plus, you tried to kill me.”
“Well, of course I did,” said the sorcerer. “But that was before I knew you. Now hurry up and give it to me.”
I frowned. Maleagant was obviously used to dealing with people who didn’t use their brains, which accounted for about eighty percent of the current world population by my guess.
“And what happens if I don’t give it back to you?” I asked.
“I’ll kill you where you stand.”
I eyed him. “And risk harming the jacket? I don’t think so.”
Maleagant brought his hands together. “You’re right, of course. I don’t want to harm the jacket. I need it. But if you don’t give it to me, then I can’t help you escape from that room.”
“And how are you going to do that? I saw how hard it was on you just moving that first slab of stone.”
“I have ways to demolish the wall before me. I chose not to earlier because it was easier to shrink you down and send you into the chamber to fetch the jacket. But trust me, I can get you out of there.”
I didn’t know about that. Maleagant’s lies were easily spied. “Show me,” I said. “I want to see what you can do.”
Maleagant’s face twisted. “You don’t need a demonstration.”
“But I do,” I said. “It will help me trust you.”
“Very well.”
Maleagant moved back away from the opening until I could see him no longer. I could hear his voice though, and as he started to chant, I moved to the rear of the chamber, pressing into the wall.
A bolt of red energy hit the wall where the opening was and the entire chamber rocked as the impact reverberated around the catacombs.
But the wall itself stayed perfectly intact.
Another bolt of energy slammed into it.
And it still had no effect.
“This doesn’t seem to be going well,” I said.
“Shut up,” I heard Maleagant retort. And within seconds, a series of energy bolts shook the entire chamber so much that the ceiling above started to rattle and bits of dirt and small stone came down. But each piece seemed to miss me.
After a pause, Maleagant’s face appeared back at the opening. “The chamber must be protected by magic,” he said curtly. “I cannot bring the wall down.”
“You don’t say,” I said.
“Give me the jacket.”
I shook my head. “I don’t think so. I like how it looks on me and frankly, I don’t think you deserve it.”
Maleagant shook his head. “I cannot destroy the chamber walls, but do not think I can’t hurt you.”
And that instant, a bolt of red energy shot through the opening and straight at my chest. I braced for the impact, but even as I watched the bolt shoot toward me, it seemed to simply bounce off an area about six inches in front of my body.
“You’re not exactly convincing me here,” I said. I knew it was stupid to rile him up, but part of me found it hilarious at the same time.
Maleagant shot another three bolts at me, but each one failed to make so much as a bruise on me. I looked down at the jacket and felt its warmth. I knew instinctively that it was protecting me from the magic Maleagant was using against me. Its shielding powers were certainly coming in handy.
“I’ll give you just one more chance,” said Maleagant. “Hand over what is rightfully mine.”
“How is this rightfully yours?” I asked. “If it was, wouldn’t you already possess it?”
He frowned and ducked away from the chamber opening. I wanted to stick my head out and see what he was up to, but I didn’t know if the jacket would be able to protect me outside or not.
I heard some sort of commotion and then saw someone I didn’t expect to see at the opening: Charade.
“Rick,” she said then before Maleagant jerked her away from the opening. His face then appeared.
“She’s quite lovely, you know.”
“I thought you killed her,” I said.
He smiled. “You’ll find that I’m more calculating than people have ever given give me credit for. Why kill someone when they might yet have a usefulness? I simply took her out of the equation for a while. But now, she’s back in the mix. Aren’t you glad to see her?”
“I’m glad she’s alive,” I said.
Maleagant nodded. “Yes indeed. She is alive. For the time being.” He glowered at me. “But don’t think for one moment that I won’t kill her if I don’t get what I want from you. And what I want is that jacket.”
“Come on in and get it yourself,” I said. “Leave Charade out of this.”
Maleagant shook his head. “You’re an intelligent man, Fury, so I won’t insult you by giving you some excuse. I’ve no doubt that you have sussed that I cannot enter that chamber without subjecting myself to the effects of the guardian spells that protect the jacket.”
“I figured that.”
“Then you know that since I cannot enter, you must exit the chamber. Or hand out the jacket and then we will be done. Our business shall be complete.”
“And you’ll kill us.”
Maleagant smiled. “Unfortunately, I find myself unable to come up with another use for either of you, so yes, that will be the eventuality.”
“Wow, what a tempting offer.”
“And one I wouldn’t expect you to even consider, but for the fact that I have your associate in my possession. And I can make her suffer for years if I want. While you are safe within that chamber, she is not. And her screams of pain will be the soundtrack you listen to while you hide within.”
I smirked. “You’re going to have to do better than that. Charade knew the risks when we started this gambit. I didn’t even want her along.”
“You’re a good liar,” said Maleagant. “But I don’t think you’re telling the truth. She means more to you than you wish she did.”
He was right and I hated him for it.
“Would you die for her, Fury? Would you?”
I’d never met a woman I would give my life for. As obsessed as I’d allowed myself to become with women throughout the years, and more recently with a certain suburban housewife, there was nothing about any of them that would make me sacrifice myself.
But Charade…
She was different.
She was so much more. And I barely even knew her.
But I knew somewhere deep down inside, she was special.
Before I could even think about removing the jacket, I heard Charade’s voice casting a spell.
And then the entire chamber started to tear itself apart.
22
I could hear Maleagant swearing at the top of his voice, shouting at Charade to stop, but it was too late. Whatever containment Maleagant had tried to use on her, Charade had found a way around it in order to cast the spell.
And its effects were instantaneous.
The walls of the chamber shuddered apart and the ceiling started caving in. I was showered in rock and stone and dirt. All I could do was use the jacket to try to ward off the tons of stone coming down at me. Rock fell all around me, piling up on my sides and I squatted, using their natural buttressing to try to save my life.
What the hell was Charade doing? She was burying me alive in the chamber.
“You’ll ruin everything!” shouted Maleagant. I caught sight of bolts of energy blasting across the opening, but no detail. And I had far too much on my mind at that moment to even care what was happening outside of the chamber.
Just then, it was all I could to simply survive.
I had a small area that I now squatted in as more of the stones came down around me. Using the jacket, I shielded my head from the onslaught of stone and dirt. And then one giant rock slammed down and if it hadn’t been for the magical properties of the jacket, it would have surely crushed me.
Instead, it formed a perfect top to my stone prison.
The remainder of the chamber fell around me, burying me within a stone sarcophagus. Who knew how much oxygen I had inside? Things went completely dark and I could hear very little.
What was going on outside? Had Charade brought the entire catacombs down upon us all? Had she crushed Maleagant to death? Was she safe?
I thought about how cruel it was that Maleagant had teased me by showing me that she’d survived only to then jerk her out of my grasp.
It grew warm first within my prison and then it started getting much hotter.
A sweat broke out along my hairline. And then I really started perspiring.
I fell forward and my lungs heaved like a bellows. The heat that had been centered in my belly was now coursing through my veins with such ferocity that it felt like I’d touched a live wire. I could feel the crackles of energy pulsing along my neural network, into my muscles and arteries and every atom of my body felt energized and alive.
From somewhere deep within myself, I saw a volcanic eruption of sound bubbling up from my very core.
Primal.
Neanderthal.
From a place before words or even syllables or any sort of conscious attempt at communication, the sound vomited out of me as I looked skyward and opened my mouth to project it outward.
The stone slab ceiling blasted off of my tomb and I sucked in fresh air.
Outside.
Somehow, the catacombs had been transposed to the outside by the ruins of Fort George.
My lungs grabbed at the fresh air like a crack addict pining for a needle. The cool oxygen rushed into my chest and only served to reinvigorate me all the more.
I hauled myself out of the rock prison and stood on the grass in the night air. A cool breeze blew in from Penobscot Bay and chilled me, but only for a brief second. My gut twinged and I felt the radiating pulse waves of heat streaming forth.
Danger.
I pivoted and saw three men rushing at me with wicked looking knives, slashing and cutting as they came.
I don’t know how I moved, but I did.
I sidestepped the first slash from left-to-right, checking the attacker’s elbow, then going down low and up under the exposed elbow joint, cracking the arm up at an obscene angle. The attacker screamed as the bone broke through his skin and blood erupted into the night. He dropped the knife which I scooped up and then plunged into his neck.
He fell gurgling to the ground.
Holding the knife before me, the other two attackers seemed to pause momentarily. I thought reason might prevail, but then they rushed in at me at the same time.
I stepped between them, turning and cutting from one side to the other as I did so. The move defied logic and they were completely unprepared for it. They’d hoped to box me in, but I’d simply rushed right through the middle and cut them both as their momentum carried them past me.
Blood stained the grass as they crumpled to the ground.
A searing bolt of red energy blasted the ground in front of me, showering my face with dirt and stone.
But it didn’t do any real damage. The jacket saw to that.
Maleagant stood fifty meters away from me, perched on a giant slab of granite. His hands formed a triangle and he kept shooting more magic at me. Each time, each bolt simply bounced off the protection afforded me by the jacket.
As much as I appreciated it, I wondered if it could last forever.
And where was Charade?
“I want that jacket, Fury!” shouted Maleagant.
“Come and get it then,” I said hefting the knife. “Your magic isn’t working against the jacket. So you’ll have to settle this like a real man.” I waved him on. “Come and take it from me.”
He chuckled and his laughter made me ill. “I’ll do no such thing. You might be right that I cannot seem to harm you with magic while you wear that jacket, but I can harm something far more special to you.” He waved his hand and I saw four more henchmen drag Charade to the boulder.
Maleagant positioned her so her head lay against the stone. Then he lifted one of his feet and held it above her head before looking at me again. “Now, bring me the jacket or else I will shatter her skull and spill her brains across this rock. And I can assure you that she is quite unable to resist. She used the last of her magical energy destroying the catacombs.”
Charade looked as though she was asleep. Was she already dead?
“I want proof of life,” I said, more to play for time than anything else. Still if she was already dead, then I wasn’t about to give the jacket up.
Maleagant sighed and waved his hand again. Instantly, Charade stirred. She tried to move, but Maleagant kept his foot on her head, exerting enough pressure to keep her there.
But she saw me anyway. “Rick! Don’t give him the jacket!”
“Shut up bitch!” snapped Maleagant. He snapped his fingers and Charade dropped back into the magical slumber he’d put her into.
“Now, let us conclude this business arrangement and be done with it once and for all. I have other things to do this night.”
He eyed me then, his wicked smile slithering across his face once more. “I won’t ask for it again, Fury. Bring me the jacket.”
I nodded. There wasn’t much else I could do. I knew myself well enough to know that I wasn’t going to sacrifice Charade for the jacket. Unconcerned with the opinions of others, she was simply her own being. She did what she loved, what she wanted, and gave no thought or worry if anyone accepted it or not. I admired her for that.
And more, I respected her for it.
So I walked toward Maleagant and his henchmen, intent on delivering to him what he sought so desperately.
The jacket.
As I approached, his henchmen fanned out to either side of me. Two on my right and two on my left.
I gripped the knife I’d fleeced off the first attacker I’d killed and smiled at them all. “Whether you believe this or not, you are all going to die.” I didn’t actually know where the words came from, they just sort of spilled out of me.
