The monsters weren't simply killing the Minions. They were devouring them. All around her fallen warriors screamed as the dark beasts tore into their flesh, the powerful jaws driving those long teeth through the toughest Minion body armor as if it weren't there.
Nearby, one of the monsters was attempting to take a bite out of one of Duvessa's warriors. Duvessa rushed over and slashed her sword across the back of the thing's neck, then quickly backed away. Turning its head toward her, the beast cried out. But despite its bleeding wound, it eagerly went back to devouring its victim. Duvessa struck it once, twice, a third time, and finally severed its head.
Duvessa looked down into the eyes of the fallen warrior. The woman's body was torn wide, and she was moaning in pain and fear. When she saw her leader standing over her, she calmed a bit. With a trembling hand she reached out, grasped Duvessa's blade, and used her last bit of strength to place the dreggan's tip against her throat. Her gaze was beseeching.
Understanding, Duvessa nodded. Knowing it would be the quickest, surest way, she felt for the hidden button in her sword hilt and pushed it. With a clang the dreggan's blade launched its extra foot, ending the warrior's life.
It was all Duvessa could do to force down the vomit. Trying to collect herself, she turned back to the battle. Soon more of the awful things fell to her swinging sword.
From his litter in the air, Faegan did his best to destroy the beasts as they exited the dark holes in the earth. Given their great numbers, even he couldn't kill them all. He had lost sight of Traax and Ox, but he knew that the officers were doing all that they could. Those warriors who had managed to lift into the air before the beasts struck were having a better time of it. But the majority of the warriors had remained on the ground. Many of them were dead, the beasts hungrily tearing away chunks of their flesh.
Having landed, Traax suddenly found himself facing three of the snarling things at once. His back up against a building, he had nowhere to go. He knew that if he tried to concentrate all of his efforts on killing one of them, the other two would eventually find an opening and rush in.
He swung his dreggan in slashing arcs, trying as best he could to keep the things at bay. His hands covered with blood and his shoulders nearly ready to give out, he knew that if someone didn't come to his aid, the monsters would soon rip into him.
Suddenly a small group of warriors led by Ox descended behind the beasts. They raised their dreggans high and began to hack at the monsters. After what seemed like an eternity, the creatures' mangled bodies lay dead between them.
Traax nodded at Ox and his troops in thanks. His arms covered with blood, Ox grinned.
The fighting had by now all but ended. Exhausted warriors walked among the dying creatures, finishing them off with their quick, hard sword strokes. Smoke from Faegan's bolts lazily wafted into the air. The smell of fresh blood was everywhere. Looking up, Traax could see the wizard was safe in his litter.
Suddenly he thought of Duvessa. Sprinting through the square, he frantically called out her name.
He found her leaning against the side of a building. She was bloody and dazed, but she seemed unharmed. He ran to her and took her into his arms. In a rare public display of Minion affection, Traax unfolded his dark wings and he gently wrapped them around her, silently telling her that it would be all right.
Saying nothing, she laid her head upon his chest. As he brushed some of her hair from her face he whispered that she had earned her red feather several times over today, here in the bloody square that had taken so many of their comrades' lives.
Faegan's litter descended and he examined the scene. The indestructible stone bars were still firmly in place overhead. Everywhere he looked, dead warriors, beasts, and the body parts of both lay scattered across the killing field. So much blood had been spilled that it was hard to find a patch of ground that wasn't a muddy red. He lowered his head, overwhelmed by guilt.
When he looked up he saw Ox, Traax, and Duvessa slowly approaching. Taking a deep breath, he did his best to collect his thoughts.
"What were those things?" Traax asked. He lowered the tip of his dreggan to the bloody ground and leaned his weight upon its hilt.
"They were either some abomination that Reznik conjured to guard this place or the work of the Coven, left over from long ago," the wizard said. "We may never know which."
"What are your orders?" Duvessa asked.
Faegan thought for a moment.
"Duvessa, I want you to start organizing the treatment of the wounded," he ordered. "You have permission to follow Minion custom and grant a quick, merciful death to those you deem beyond help. Take a count of how many casualties we have sustained. Ox and Traax, loot the buildings of anything you can find, the heavier the better. Pile it all atop those earthen doorways. If more of those monsters wait below, I want to do everything I can to keep them from rising up. I will use the craft to help hold the doorways closed, but there are far too many of them for me to do the job without help. Go now. We have no time to lose."
Each of the Minions offered a tired salute and walked away to carry out the orders. Levitating his chair from the litter, Faegan settled it upon the blood-soaked ground.
He looked up at the stone bars. His powers had already proven useless against the latticework. Even if more warriors from the palace flew to their aid, he doubted it would help. If his gifts couldn't break the bars, no number of Minion warriors would be able to do so.
His mind turned to the members of the Conclave no longer in Eutracia. Trapped as he was so far away from Tammerland, the originating point of his portal would be very different. The formulas for its successful operation would need to be altered, but he had none of the necessary calculating tools with him. He could neither help the other Conclave members nor escape this place with his warriors. How foolish he had been to not anticipate such a crisis! He should have brought the tools with him. Angrily, he pounded the arms of his chair.
Tyranny and her group could, of course, sail home, but it would take far longer. He also knew about the Minion vessels anchored off the shore of Parthalon. That meant that Wigg, Tristan, and Celeste could do the same as Tyranny. But for them to sail home would take longer still, and the Sea of Whispers was a dangerous place.
Making matters worse, he had no clue about what other horrors Reznik might have arranged for them.
Seething at his own stupidity, he hardened his jaw.
When he had interrogated Uther, he had neglected to demand the safe route through the tunnel maze. His plan had been to simply fly into Valrenkium, and then out again. His trust in the abilities of the warriors, his own gifts in the craft, and his desire to see these wrongs ended quickly had led them here, to become trapped like rats. He would not underestimate Reznik again.
Looking into the distance, he could just make out the dark, square-cut exit in the bluffs. It was an all too tempting trap. Wherever Reznik had gone, he surely hoped that Faegan would be desperate enough to enter, followed by what was left of his ravaged Minions. Reznik's trap was perfect.
Turning away from the tunnels, the crippled wizard covered his face with his hands.
CHAPTER XLV
"And I say you're wrong!" Tyranny bellowed at the chagrined Minion warrior. Her chin stuck out like the prow of her flagship. "What you're telling me is impossible! No vessel ever built could do such a thing! When a ship goes down, she goes down for good, and that's the end of her!"
Tyranny stomped angrily across the floor of her stateroom and took a cigarillo from the box on her desk. She shoved it between her lips, struck a match, lit it, and then took a quick lungful of smoke. When she turned back to K'jarr, she gave him a look so cold that it could have frozen a bucket of seawater.