Fight fire with fire, as humans say?
Yes, until the inferno overtakes them.
And we take what is left, which will be next to nothing?
We take what remains, true. But now even the earth is not our own.
I am in agreement.
I, too.
And I.
So say we all, then. Heap magic on their heads until it burns them.
Where do we start?
Chapter 18
"Sunbright!"
The barbarian whirled to peer at the darkness and aimed Harvester at the voice. This was no cave, but an old mine, cut square and pillared, but with a very low ceiling, scarcely the height of a dwarf. Sunbright didn't like the looming confinement, but he'd endured worse. The gray-square exit was no more than thirty feet behind him.
And before him…
"Greenwillow!"
The half-elf stood farther on in the darkness, her pale skin almost glowing in the dim, reflected light. She stood tall and proud, but with her arms held before her enticingly. Sunbright could see every feature plainly: her peaked eyebrows, slanted green eyes, pointed ears, slim neck. She wore only a thin sheath made of some clinging fabric the color of spring leaves. Her statuesque beauty and slim, curved body set the warrior's heart racing.
"Greenwillow!" He trotted forward a dozen steps, almost doubled under the low ceiling. One beam had slipped off its post and hung at an angle blocking the way, so he had to scoot underneath it. "How did you escape from the Nine Hells?"
Oddly, the elf didn't advance. She stood still, arms outstretched, hands reaching for him. "I yearned for you, Sunbright! I wanted you so badly, and I finally found you. Come to me, darling!"
Half under the obstructing beam, the barbarian paused. Something was wrong. Greenwillow had never called him "darling." But she'd been missing for several months now.
She took another step, her small bare feet sinking into the dust and clinkers scattered on the mine floor. Her movements were slinky, powerful but controlled. Her slim arms were inviting, and Sunbright longed to feel them around his neck.
Sliding under the beam, he crept toward her, now only a dozen feet away. Every step deeper into the mine meant less daylight, and his own huge shadow eclipsed Greenwillow's white form as she cried, "Come to me!"
The barbarian halted. What was wrong? A year or two ago, when he was younger and less experienced, he would gladly have run to the arms of any beautiful woman who beckoned him. But he'd learned to be wary in many things, and warning bells were sounding in his mind. "Come out here, Willow. Out into the light. We can't stay in this cave."
The elf suddenly wrapped her arms around herself. "I can't; you have to come in."
Almost alive in his fist, Harvester's wide tip bobbed in the air like a hound sensing danger. "Why can't you come out? Are you enspelled? Under a geas?"
Still hugging herself, the half-elf looked at the ground as though ashamed. "Yes, my love. They said I couldn't leave until rescued by a worthy man."
"Oh?" That sounded like a vague sort of curse. Slowly, Sunbright hunkered on his heels and scooched to one side to let more dim light fall on Greenwillow. Squatting helped him resist the pull, too. What exactly the pull was he couldn't say: lust, the scent of a woman, a lonely aching in his heart, the need for another's touch. His heart warred with his head to go on, go on.
But his head had powerful arguments that kept him rooted. Now that he had a moment to think, Greenwillow's state of undress disturbed him. He always pictured her dressed as she had been when he first met her, in a long green shirt and boiled black armor. In the court of the lich king, she'd worn a shimmery mackerel-scale gown, and later he'd seen her naked for a brief moment while she donned her traveling clothes and armor again.
So if she wore only a filmy sheath, whence had it come?
And why wouldn't she come closer to the light?
"Darling." The word rang foreign on his tongue, but then he hadn't used it much. "Tell me how I might free you."
"Oh, I'm so cold!" Hugging herself, she shivered, and Sunbright saw real gooseflesh. "Won't you just hold me while we talk?"
Sunbright shook his head, but found his thoughts growing increasingly murky. The smell of the mine seemed normal enough: cool earth, stale water somewhere, a tang of bat guano. Why then was he muzzy-headed? He'd heard some mines gave off poison air that was invisible and felled a man unawares. Perhaps that was the problem. He couldn't even see Greenwillow clearly anymore. But if he were to rush forward and just grab her and run, then outside they could…
That's what was wrong.
Blinking, he peered at her, really sized her up for the first time. She stood erect, with her arms seductively wrapped around breasts and loins. A small smile showed under glowing green eyes. Sunbright found his own loins aching to join her, wanted to hold her tight and never let go.
Except… How could she stand upright when the cave was only dwarf-high? Greenwillow was nearly as tall as he was, but he couldn't straighten to more than a crouch. Either the cave opened up farther down, or this was some kind of illusion.
If it was an illusion, then it had a purpose.
A trap.
And if a trap, his first step backward would spring it.
Still, he hesitated, with his sword held out before him. He couldn't be sure this was a trap, or that this was or wasn't Greenwillow. The one truism he'd learned in his travels was that nothing was certain.
"Greenwillow." He talked quietly, thinking madly. "How did you get out of the Nine Hells?"
"I walked, darling." Her voice was assured, calming. "The caverns of hell are convoluted, true, but they have exits. You've seen them."
Had he? the barbarian wondered. For months now, he'd tracked rumors of openings into the Nine Hells, seeking a way in for himself or a passage out for Greenwillow. His heart thumped at the thought he'd finally found her. But she acted so queerly.
Breath tight in his lungs, stomach clenched hard, he asked, "The fire?"
"I fell through. The chasm opened below, and though the flames spanned it, they were not deep. I passed through them, incurring only minor burns, and landed in a deep lake in another cavern. You know how the corridors twist. But I was lost and alone, and called your name for hours. You didn't come." Her voice turned pitiful, and tears spilled down her cheeks.
Now Sunbright's fingers clenched so hard on the tilted beam they dug splinters. It was possible that she'd fallen into yet another corner of hell. Anything was possible in that mad maelstrom. Yet he stayed put.
It might truly be Greenwillow, under some mind-clouding spell. How else could she know she'd fallen into fire? Yet…
"Take my hand." The warrior would compromise. He extended his left hand, Harvester clenched in his right. "Meet me halfway, and we'll leave together."
"I told you, I'm under a spell! If you won't rescue me, it means you don't love me."
Clinging to the beam like a drowning man, Sunbright extended his left hand until his shoulder creaked. "I do… love you. I think I always did. But we have to work together. Help me help you. You were a warrior!" Strangely he found himself speaking of her as part of the past.
"No! You're cruel and hateful. I'm going!" She spun around, showing a straight back and long legs.