Jackal Among Snakes

Argrave tossed aside the newly acquired knife. It clattered against the floor. Some of the knives could be good loot, but he had nothing to evaluate them with.

“Give warning before you do something like that,” Anneliese rebuked Argrave, placing her hand to her heart and sighing to dispel her tension. Galamon put away his sword.

Argrave shrugged without a response, watching Durran walk past the golem while giving it a wide berth. He bent over, leaning on his glaive, and retrieved the discarded knife.

“Good gods. If I’d known your little fellas could muster warriors that could cut steel, I might’ve thrown them a snack or two, won their favor.” Durran flipped the spearhead knife through his fingers, running his fingers opposite the edge to test its sharpness.

“They eat souls,” Argrave turned to him. “Might be you have fed them, but not deliberately.”

Durran gazed at the four small creatures scamper back to Argrave, seeking refuge in his clothes once again now that their task was done. “Got a miracle pet lined up for me?”

Argrave blanked. It was a good point, certainly, but he’d been too distracted to plan for what to assign to Durran. He mulled for a moment, then recalled, “You’ll have to get to C-rank if you want any permanence in bonds. Most of the D-rank druidic spells aren’t the type that’ll keep your druidic links lingering by your side for longer than a few hours. Anneliese has the C-rank [Bond], while I use [Pack Leader].”

“And in time, I plan on learning the B-rank spell [Progenitor], to bind us in a druidic network,” Anneliese butted in.

“That spell Tirros used back at the druidic camp in Mateth?” Argrave pointed, but then realized she probably wouldn’t know as she hadn’t been there. “Never mind, I know what it is. That… will be useful,” Argrave nodded. “At that point, you’ll be able to notice what my Brumesingers notice. Between the Starsparrow and them, ambushing us is going to be impossible. And that’s a damn great thing, because we can win most fights we’re aware are coming.”

“C-rank spells, huh?” Durran clenched his fist. “Alright. Got something to focus on. Might be I come to you two for pointers.”

Argrave walked to Anneliese and placed his hand on her shoulder. “Sure. Anneliese is the best teacher you could ask for.” He took his hand off, glancing around the square. “But we’ve idled enough. It’s time to head to Essenza, the Skyburnt Fortress.”

With those words, his gaze rested on the only road remaining that headed upwards. It went along the top of the peak, heading steadily upwards. A giant drum tower was visible in the far distance, like a capstone atop the mountains. Unlike the roads before, this was one adorned with mostly fully functioning golems, their spears still intact. Few of the subterranean people cared to test themselves on golems of that sort…

And barring two, Argrave didn’t plan on it, either.

#####

Galamon raised his hands to his ears, startled by the deafeningly loud thunder booming out across the peaks. Everyone else was a step slower in reacting, but they all turned to the sky where stormy clouds whirled far above.

“Lightning on mountaintops? Forget this,” Durran shouted out. “We should call it a day, wait for conditions to improve. I like living.”

loudly.

peaks built wholly by the subterranean mountain people. It was octagonal in shape, built around a cone mountain peak. Eight towers marked eight corners, each with a jade pavilion atop them similar to the one they’d seen within the wildlife sanctuary. The cone peak had a great drum tower built

The metal spike and jade pavilion both sparked, glowing brilliantly even amidst the shade of the clouds. Despite the size of the

to go in there?” Durran asked incredulously. “Even the youngest in the tribes know not to fly a wyvern in

isn’t natural. We’ll be fine. Just don’t step on the jade,” Argrave warned, stepping forward. “If you don’t step

the first step forward, and his two elven companions followed without second-guessing him. Durran hung back, turning in the road as though deliberating between waiting outside and following. Eventually, he let out a low laugh, and rushed to catch up with

those on the road stood guard. Their spearheads were fashioned of greatswords. Frankly, those two gate golems were nightmarish when compared to the weapon they dropped, and Argrave was quite glad that he didn’t need to

pattern running across the floor. The place was a maze of simple, gray stone and beautifully polished jade. Whenever the clap of thunder deafened them, the jade

of Balein…” Galamon

“What?” Argrave turned back.

watching the jade writhe with sparks at random intervals. Then, he knelt down, staring a bit closer. “The Ice of

a brow, thinking on the matter. If he prowled his memory, the term was vaguely familiar. “You’ll have to tell me more of it later,” Argrave concluded,

rising to

me some space,” Argrave held a hand out. “I’ll lead—I know the way. We have to walk across this. If we’re closely bunched, someone might bump into someone,

gave him ample space, watching him closely. He set his foot

towards where he knew the stairs would be. He was ever mindful of how large his feet were in this moment, and

and the sound of it. Between focusing on the path and avoiding being distracted by the myriad distractions, it was very fitting to call this place

and saw an opening in the drum tower. He let out a light sigh of relief. Like this, he took measured steps towards it, refusing to allow his caution to

steps one was made of jade, the other of stone. Considering Argrave took stairs two steps at a time normally, it

called

not the time,” Durran called

content everyone was well. Despite the ease it offered, he moved very cautiously. The stairs were smaller than his feet, as it turned out, and so he needed to awkwardly maneuver with his feet held sideways

most tiring set of stairs Argrave had ever endured, he saw the storm hovering above. He didn’t dare drop his caution at that point, very carefully making his way up to the top of the central drum

was flat, marked by a large jade spiral starting from the center and moving outwards. Each branch of the spiral was thin, and easy to step over. The parapets were tall enough that even Argrave could not

they had come from, two golems stood. They were a fair bit larger than most of the ones that had decorated the walkway. They were more complete, somehow—their figures were more

that was safe. He held his arms out and smiled in triumph, eyes darting around. He spotted the

bloody bastard,” he looked at

“Yep,” Argrave nodded.