Chapter 6 Sunshard
Sunshard
Darcassan felt a trickle of sweat run down the line of his spine. All that separated him from two Australs was a four-foot high wall. If the damned monsters happened to look over the wall or around the edge of it–which ended just a foot from his head–they’d see him.
And it would all be over.
His sister crowded against his back. Though she said nothing out loud–the Australs had very good hearing–he knew she was likely praying.
She did that whenever they went into battle.
Darcassan never prayed, because the gods never answered.
He was certain they existed. But they did not care. Not even about the Aravae. Not anymore.
After all, their mother had been the most devoted of worshipers and she had been cut down on a hunt for a sacred feather to lay at the altar of Merketh.
After she had died, things had gone… badly.
Her loss had been like the Sun dimming. Their father had changed.
Become darker too. And like a rock rolling downhill, so many things had fallen after that.
No, he would never pray again. Like Vex he would damn the gods and rely only upon himself.
He glanced over at the other half wall where Helgrom, Snaglak and Glom hunkered.
The dwarf’s amber eyes met his for a moment.
They glowed in the half-light of the barrel-vaulted hallway.
Like jewels. He’d heard that the Kindreth’s eyes glowed, but not the Draesiwen’s.
But here was proof they did. At least in the Under Dark. It was eerie, but beautiful.
The door to the armory was just across this T-intersection of hallway.
Just fifty feet down away. He could see it if he poked his head above the wall, but again the Australs would see him.
Part of him just wanted to send three concentrated missiles of magic towards the Australs.
Right at their heads. They’d die quick enough then, but Helgrom had said “no” to killing any Australs, even ones in their way, when they’d first entered the waterway that led them into Xrdatha.
“You kill one of them and the others will know and come for us. There is a hive-mind connection among them. It also means if even one of them sees us the rest of the group will know,” Helgrom had explained, keeping his voice incredibly low even though the murky water rushed by their feet.
“So we need to get in and out with the weapons without being seen?” Elasha had asked.
A nod and grunt.
“Australs fly,” Snaglak nodded sagely.
“Ah, yes, we do see that,” Darcassan frowned at the orc. “Not that it matters–”
“He means that few of them will be inside the palace,” Helgrom glared at him. “Especially in the lower levels where the armory is. That is why it matters.”
“Oh… well, why didn’t he just say that then?” Darcassan scowled and flushed.
For a moment, he thought he heard his mother’s voice in his head, chiding him, “Keep making that expression, Darcassan, and your face might just stay that way. Let them see your kindness. Your intelligence. Not your impatience.”
“Did say,” Snaglak answered haughtily and poked the naki in its butt, which had the beast wheeling around with a hiss.
Darcassan rather felt like that naki with that answer.
“But what if there are some inside?” Elasha asked anxiously.
His sister was always anxious these days.
Ever since their mother… It was like she could never relax.
She constantly found something to worry about and it was often him.
The less their father cared, the more his sister did.
But it was not comforting. It was annoying, frustrating, and a reminder of what they’d lost.
Helgrom stroked his beard. “Rhalyf was able to make me invisible once–”
“Oh, that’s easy!” Darcassan laughed. “I can do that–”
“So invisible that I have no scent and make no sound?” Helgrom lifted an eyebrow.
Elasha sighed.
Darcassan grimaced. Of course, Rhalyf had done something nearly impossible. Like usual. The other Aravae never seemed to practice his magic, but he was always able to push spells to do things that no one else could make them do.
He cleared his throat noisily and said, “Well, that is a bit harder… but not impossible! I could do it.”
Elasha’s head snapped towards him. “Darcassan, are you sure?”
“Austral smell everything,” Snaglak pointed out, which likely meant that they had a keen sense of smell if he was translating orc to… well, to how everyone else expressed things correctly.
“Meaning that even if they don’t see us passing by they might smell us?” Elasha clarified.
“Only if we get close enough,” Helgrom admitted.
“If smell then fight!” Snaglak looked pleased at the idea.
“We don’t want to fight, Snaglak,” Elasha reminded him. “Not a whole city full of Australs. They’ll all be after us, right, Helgrom?”
Another nod and grunt.
“Awwwww.” Snaglak scuffed a foot against the stony ground.
“Well, if we fail and get seen, maybe you’ll get your fight. But our only chance to survive is if that happens after we have the weapons,” Helgrom explained.
“But where do we go then? You’re assuming that a rift will magically open for us to take us away from here once we do this,” Elasha pointed out. “But if it doesn’t we still have a five day walk minimally to Illithor.”
“That’s true.” Helgrom nodded. “So best not to get caught. If you really can cast such a spell on all of us, Darcassan, that would be best. If you cannot, then you must say so now.”
“I can do it,” he answered, not even hesitating.
Elasha’s blue eyes cut towards him and her mouth flattened into a thin line, but she didn’t contradict him.
He could do it! Or he’d figure it out! Rhalyf had pushed him against a wall.
Shaken him. Choked him. Insulted him! Rhalyf was of some inconsequential bloodline from the outer reaches of the Lieren Plane.
He was a Fairlynn! Nephew to the Sun King! Of course, he could do it.
As they had crept their way through secret passages and snuck down hallways and climbed through windows and not met any Australs inside, he’d begun to think that he wouldn’t have to attempt this spell.
He was certain he could do it. Of course!
But maybe it was best if he didn’t attempt it for the first time in Xrdatha.
Under pressure. On five of them. At once.
Helgrom looked at him again. Meaningfully.
They’d been crouched here for nearly half an hour, hoping the Australs would move, but they never left the T-intersection.
Darcassan had hoped that the Australs weren’t that intelligent, namely, that they wouldn’t be guarding an ancient armory that no one had managed to break into in millennia, but evidently they either really were intelligent or had no sense of time or…
regardless, they were not moving on. And the longer they stayed here, the greater the chance that they were seen or smelled.
He had to attempt the spell.
He swallowed.
If I succeed then I can tell Rhalyf about it. Casually. Let him know he isn’t the only prodigy with magic. Show him that I don’t rely upon my family name! Not alone…
He nodded at Helgrom to indicate he would do the spell. He felt his sister tense behind him. She knew what he was about to do. And she had no faith he could do it.
No, she’s just worrying. Like always! It’s not that she doesn’t have faith specifically in me, but in anyone.
He’d been thinking on the problem of how to make a normal invisibility spell also eliminate smell and sound.
Eliminating smell really wasn’t possible.
The compounds that made up any odor… Well, even if he changed a few of them so that the Australs didn’t immediately identify what they were, it would still attract the bird-like things because they would be unusual and might alarm them.
No, he needed to make them smell like something the Australs already knew and expected to be there.
Muffling footfalls was much easier. There were spells that captured sound and kept it from moving outwards.
While Rhalyf likely could have woven all three spells together–damn him–Darcassan wasn’t going to attempt it. He would weave each individually. One after the other. It was already going to exhaust him to weave so many spells on this many people and keep them for however long they needed them up.
He closed his eyes, blocking out where they were and the Australs that were so nearby.
He envisioned water dripping into a still pool.
At first, the water was dripping quickly and the vibrations were spreading out rapidly, but as he calmed himself down the drops slowed until they finally nearly stopped.
When the water droplet hung–pregnant and luminous–above the pool, he began to weave the first spell.
He envisioned the invisibility spell as a sheet that each person was throwing over themselves.
One over Glom. He imagined the damned naki shaking its head in annoyance at the invisibility sheet.
One over Snaglak. The orc would stand there idiotically and swish about.
One over Helgrom. He would draw the sheet tight around himself.
One over Elasha. She would remain still and let the sheet settle.
And finally, one over himself. He swore he could almost feel the coolness of the sheet fluttering over his head and settling around him.
The scent spell was both harder and easier.
He drew in a deep breath. What scents were the most present?
Stone. Minerality. Water. Heat. Bitter. He pulled those scents and tweaked their unique scents of leather, lotion, soap, or in the case of Glom, ham and other unmentionables, to mimic those usually existing smells of the palace.
The Australs would smell them, but they would smell of the palace.