Though Duvessa's female fighters had not yet passed their rites of ascension, Faegan had asked for volunteers from her group to participate in this urgent mission. He had told them that now, in actual combat, they would earn their red feathers. Duvessa was proud of her women: There had been no shortage of volunteers.
Ox raised one hand, and the entire war party slowed to hover in the air. When Faegan's litter caught up, Ox pointed toward the southwest. "Valrenkium be just beyond border to Hartwick Wood," he said.
Faegan nodded. "Well done," he said. He looked at Traax and Duvessa.
"Remember your orders," he said sternly. "I want everyone to land swiftly, ready to fight. This Reznik must surely have assumed that we would return in strength, and he has had ample time to make plans of his own. There is no telling what awaits us down there." He paused for a moment. "May the Afterlife look over us all."
Faegan cast his gaze into the distance and used the craft to make out the sheer sandstone bluffs. Closing his eyes, he hoped against hope that he was doing the right thing. Then he nodded, and the twin phalanxes regrouped and began to pick up speed.
As they approached Valrenkium, they saw no archers atop the bluffs. The dark entrance to the tunnels Uther had described lay open, but Faegan knew better than to enter.
Soaring over the bluffs, he ordered the phalanxes to descend into the heart of Valrenkium. Dreggans drawn, four thousand anxious warriors landed quietly in the village square. Faegan's litter came to rest near Duvessa, Traax, and Ox. As the wizard levitated his chair out and onto the ground, the Minions fanned out.
Valrenkium seemed deserted. The wind whistled hauntingly through the streets, whirling up little maelstroms of debris. Many of the buildings' doors banged open and closed in the wind, adding to the nerve-racking tension.
Down the single road that led out of town, the gibbets were empty. Blood still dripped slowly from many of them as they creaked to and fro. Scowling, Faegan looked over at Duvessa and Traax.
"Start kicking in doors," he ordered sternly. "Before we leave, we must be sure that no one was left behind. If you find any evidence of the craft-no matter how small-send for me at once."
Feet and fists flying, the Minions began barging through doors and windows. As time went by, the groups returned one by one to say that the buildings were all deserted, barren of people, even of food and drink. All of the tools of the Valrenkians' craft-the herbs, roots and precious oils-were also missing. After more than an hour of searching, Traax, Duvessa, and Ox walked back over to the litter.
"We're too late," Traax said angrily, sheathing his dreggan.
"What are your orders?" Duvessa asked the wizard.
Looking around, Faegan took a moment to think. He was angry with himself. Perhaps the only opportunity he would ever have to crush the Corporeals had slipped right through his fingers. He hated to admit it, but it was unlikely that such a chance would ever come again.
Trying to decide what to do, he looked to the sky. Darkness was falling quickly.
"There's nothing more we can do here," he concluded. "Make ready to leave for Tammerland. I want to have as many warriors guarding the palace as we-"
The first explosion was loud and grating-like stone grinding against stone. Then came another, and another. Dust-colored smoke filled the night air. The crashes came so quickly that they became an earsplitting wall of continuous noise. Faegan looked up and his mouth fell open.
From the tops of the bluffs surrounding the village, huge fingers of living stone shot into the air. Like tentacles, they grew out from one side of the bluffs, bridged the space above the village, narrowly missing the roofs of the buildings, and stopped at the other side, where they fused with the living rock of the far bluffs. They were numerous and spaced less than a foot apart.
When the noise finally stopped, the warriors and the wizard stared up through the smoke. From bluff to bluff, a latticelike arrangement of stone columns crisscrossed the entire area above them. Faegan was stunned. The dense smoke and the amazing speed with which the things had formed had given him no real opportunity to act. He was forced to admit that Reznik had easily tempted them all into a trap.
Suddenly, there was a scratching, grinding noise. Although softer, it was no less nerve-racking.
The sides of the bluffs began to move, sections of the walls morphing into cones. A blazing torch appeared within each one; the many flames easily illuminated the entire square. While the captives stood there in wonder, silence reclaimed the village.
"How is this possible?" Traax asked. "I thought partial adepts couldn't summon such immense power."
"Impressive," Faegan answered quietly as he continued to examine the structure that imprisoned them. "Partial adepts are the undisputed masters of the organic realm of the craft," he added. "Stone and fire are certainly a part of that world. Partial adepts may possess only partial blood signatures, but that does not necessarily mean the quality of their blood cannot be high. Now the question before us is one of escape."
Traax snapped open his wings and flew the short distance up to the stone grid. He slid his dreggan from its scabbard and hacked his blade several times against one of the newly formed bars. The sword had no effect. Faegan motioned to Traax to move aside.
The azure bolts that streamed from the wizard's hands were perhaps the brightest the warriors had ever seen. While Faegan strained to hold the bolts securely against one of the stone bars, dense smoke rose. Finally tiring, he lowered his hands. When the smoke cleared they could see that aside from black singe marks, the stone hadn't been affected at all.
"There must be another way out of here," Traax protested. "No cage in the world can hold this many Minion warriors against their will."
Faegan pursed his lips. "I fear this one can," he replied. Looking back toward the tunnel exit, he shook his head. "Uther told us that the only other way out of here was the tunnel," he added. "He said that it is full of danger. 'One wrong move and you're dead,' was how he described it."
"Still, there seems no other choice," Duvessa countered. "The food and water are all gone. Forced to stay here long enough, we'll all starve to death."
"I'm aware of that," Faegan said ruefully. "I'm also beginning to acquire a better sense of this Reznik fellow. I don't believe he meant for us to simply starve to death. No, I fear that the worst of our troubles are yet to come."
No sooner had the wizard finished his sentence than the ground began to tremble. Stunned and confused, the warriors anxiously looked around and many drew their swords. Soon the ground shook so violently that they all found it difficult to remain standing. Some of them took to the air, to hovering just above the quaking earth. The warriors responsible for Faegan's litter quickly bore it aloft.
Then, with great heaving motions, the earth began to open. Dust flew high as the square-shaped sections of ground slowly levered themselves upward like trapdoors. The openings revealed darkness below. All went quiet again, but Faegan knew the silence was not to last.
When the rumbling began, Faegan tried to shout to Traax, but the noise drowned out his voice. More of the warriors left the ground, but more than half of them were still earthbound when the first of the beasts came charging up out of their lairs. Furious, the screaming, grunting monsters ripped into the warriors.
Faegan raised his arms and shot bolts squarely into the back of the first creature, tearing it to bits.
Urgently looking around, he gasped as dozens more of the earthen doors released hundreds of the terrifying beasts.