Undermind Book 5, Chapter 8: Unfettered (Rough)

Rising high above the town of Vintonjorg, Saskia watched as several Blightguards tied makeshift tourniquets around the severed stumps of their comrade’s wrists. His hands lay in a pool of crimson, sliced so cleanly it could have been a surgeon’s work. But a surgeon hadn’t done this. She had—with a lot of help from Padhra.

“What just happened?” asked Saskia. “The urumi’s whip-blades went nowhere near him.”

“Magic, Old One,” said Padhra helpfully.

“Now you sound like Ruhildi. Obviously it was magic, but I was trying to cut that magic rope thing he had around me. I wasn’t trying to cut his wrists.”

“Was he not wielding his magic with his hands?” said Padhra. Your magic appears to have severed his—at its source.”

“Maybe,” said Saskia. “I would have thought the source of his magic would be his mind—his head.”

“As you say,” said Padhra. “I know little of magic, beyond that which you bestowed on me.”

“I’m pretty sure you bestowed this particular magic on me, Padhra. Care to explain how you did that? How you knew what to do?”

“It just came to me, Old One,” said Padhra.

And that, it seemed, was the only explanation she was going to get. As she flew over the town walls, Saskia experimentally flicked her summoned urumi. There was a crack from below, and a section of wall fell away.

“What the hell?” breathed Saskia. “That’s like twenty metres away, and not even close to where I was aiming.”

“The magic urumi is not an easy weapon to master,” said Padhra dryly.

Saskia tried again on some of the trees surrounding the town. Sometimes nothing happened. Other times, she sliced through branches and trunks as if they were made of paper. At no point did she cut any of the targets she wanted to cut. The effect seemed completely random.

“So was it pure luck that I cut that guy’s hands off, or was that your input?” she asked.

“I do not know,” said Padhra. “Perhaps you should wait until you are out of danger before you slice your own wings off.”

Saskia flinched, and let go of the urumi, whereupon it promptly vanished. She sighed. “Now look what you made me do.”

“It may be for the best,” said Padhra.

Sighing, Saskia dipped under the cover of the tree canopy. This may or may not conceal her position from prying eyes. If the leader of those Blightguards really was a seer, such cover might not be of any use, but she didn’t know the extent of the woman’s power. No need to make it too easy for her.

Suddenly, Ruhildi shot out of the ground like a leaping fish. Saskia squeaked in surprise—even though she’d seen her friend’s approach on her minimap. Notably absent were the woman and child Ruhildi had just rescued.

“You left them behind,” said Saskia.

“’Tis safer for them to remain underground until we’ve dealt with the Shiteguards.” Ruhildi gave Saskia a grim smile. “They were none too happy to be left alone in the dark. We’d best not forget them.”

“We won’t. Ooh shiny!” Saskia darted around a tree, and returned a moment later scratching her head in mock confusion. “Uh…what were we talking about?”

“Sashki!” growled Ruhildi, reaching up to swat her.

Saskia nimbly fluttered out of reach, before settling on a nearby branch. “You made the right call keeping them safely away from the surface. Look who’s coming for us.”

She pinged the spot on their shared minimap where a swarm of angry orange dots was rushing out the east gate and circling around towards their position. Half of their pursuers were Blightguards; the rest were just regular town guards, temporarily conscripted into their service. Those guards were local-born; some of them might know the woman and child. Maybe she and Ruhildi could reason with them—if she removed their evil overlords from the equation.

“They have trackers,” guessed Ruhildi.

“Worse,” said Saskia. “Their leader is some kind of oracle—well not really an oracle, but a soulbinder who can do similar things. Let’s call her a seer.”

“Alright,” said Ruhildi, taking the inconvenient fact in her stride. “So we can’t hide from her. We can run—and come back for Tildin and Rafe after the Shiteguards leave—or we can fight.”

Tildin and Rafe must be the mother and child she rescued, thought Saskia after a moment’s confusion. Aloud, she said, “But those aren’t the only Blightguards we have to worry about.”

This time, she shared her view through the eyes of several people back in the town square. She and Ruhildi watched as the main group of Blightguards herded them into the town hall.

“I’m liking these Shiteguards less and less with each passing day,” muttered Ruhildi.

“You and me both.”

“We could go back,” suggested Ruhildi. “Teach those shite-eaters to leave the people alone.”

“Not yet,” said Saskia. “I think we need to take out their leader, and she’s with the group chasing us. Without her, the rest of them will be easier to deal with.”

After a momentary pause, Ruhildi nodded up at her. “Let’s wait for them in gully yonder.” She pinged the map and gestured with her eyes.

It was a narrow, steep, but not particularly deep trench about a kilometre beyond the town walls. A dried-up streambed ran through the middle of the gully. The terrain would indeed be a suitable spot to make a stand.

Arriving at the lip of the gully, she and Ruhildi set to work loosening the rocks with their stoneshaping magic. Not enough to cause a landslide, but when their pursuers caught up with them, all it would take was a light nudge, and they’d bring tonnes of rock down on the enemy’s head or sweep away the ground beneath their feet.

“How can I help, Old One?” asked Padhra while they worked.

“I don’t know,” said Saskia. “Can you help me hit the broad side of a barn with that summoned urumi?”

“How big of a barn are you talking about?” said Padhra.

Saskia gasped. “Was that a joke? You never joke!”

“That you know of,” retorted Padhra.

“Seriously though, is there anything we can do to make that magic more accurate? Other than that, all I’ve got is a watered down version of Ruhildi’s stoneshaping. And tentacles.”

She could have sworn Padhra raised her eyebrows, even though Padhra was essentially a disembodied voice inside her head.

“Forget the tentacles,” said Saskia. “They’re no more reliable than the urumi. Probably on cooldown anyhow.”

“As you say, Old One,” said Padhra. “I do have one suggestion. Aim for something closer than before.”

“Oh?” said Saskia.

“It is just a thought, but it occurred to me that if you limit the range of effect to that of a real urumi, it might behave more like a real urumi.”

“You know, that’s not a bad idea. Although I’d strip the flesh from my own back if I ever tried to wield a real urumi.”

“Probably,” said Padhra.

“What? You’re not supposed to agree with me!”

“I would never lie to you, Old One.”

“That’s…not very comforting when you’re telling me how much I suck,” said Saskia.

“When it comes to the Kalaripayattu”—the name of the ancient martial art Padhra practised with the urumi—“there is no shame in…as you say, sucking. But I will be here to guide your hand as much as I am able.”

Preparations complete, they waited at the base of the gully. As expected, the Blightguards had changed course, sweeping through the trees towards her new position. Whether they came at her through the gully or tried to rain arrows down on her from above, they’d be in for an unpleasant surprise. The ground along the lip of the gully was just a magical twitch away from collapse.

So it was with some annoyance that she watched the seer woman throw up her hand as she drew near, bringing her retinue to a lurching halt. They stood just shy of the strip of weakened rocks, while the seer explained in no uncertain terms that if they were to go anyfurther, they’d be swept down to their deaths.

Saskia mouthed a bad word. “She must have seen what we were doing. Or she can see the trap itself. So much for that idea.”

The Blightguards skirted the edge of the cliff, past the area she and Ruhildi had sabotaged. Were they looking for a safe route down? If the seer knew about that, surely she’d also know that the route along the gully was just as much of a deathtrap.

A sudden breeze whipped through Saskia’s hair, and her wings struggledto keep her from being dashed against the rock walls. Shewas getting a bad feeling about this…

Looking through the Blightguards’eyes, she drew in a sharp breath at the sight of two men standing atop the near-vertical bank, arms raised, as a massive globe of water coalesced in the air before them. With a final gesture, they released their hold on the water, and it plunged into the gully, landing with a cacophonous splash that shook the earth—triggering a landslide just downstream from where the menstood. A ten metre tall wall of water swept up the tumbling rocks and falling debris, carrying them towards her and Ruhildi at frightening speed.

“Move!” shouted Saskia, already rising into the air as fast as her wings could carry her.

Her friend looked up at her quizzically for a moment. Then the rumble of falling rocks and rushing water reached her ears, and she turned—

And vanished beneath a maelstrom of mud and churning debris.

“Ruhildi!” she shouted, but her voice was lost in the din.

As she rose out of the gully, her oracle interface abruptly lit up like a Christmas tree, marking out the trajectories of several incoming threats. She didn’t need to see the projectiles to know what they were. Arrows. Always arrows.

Saskia spun in the air, feeling the wake of their passage as they whistled past her. All except one. Before she knew what she was doing, she’d caught the arrows between her fingers.

“Huh,” she said, tossing the arrow aside. “I’ve still got some of my troll moves.”

But she had some moves troll-Saskia had never possessed. Importantly, she could move freely through three dimensions, thanks to these wings—and at a speed her landbound self would have envied. She could also tilt her wings and body to minimise the surface area she presented to her enemies.

Taking in the sight of thearchers arrayed below her, Saskia hurriedly weighed her options. Fight now, or flee and come back with Ruhildi? Assuming Ruhildi’s body was still functional after being swept away by the floodwater. There were four archers within shooting range right now. More were on their way—accompanied by men with javelins and others with nets. Best to take those archers out now before help arrived.

Mind made up, she dropped into a steep dive, trailing the spectral steel blades of her urumi. “Now how am I gonna get close enough to hit them with this?” she wondered aloud.

“Carefully,” said Padhra.

An arrow from their second volley came within a hair’s breadth of her wing. The closer she got, the harder it would be to dodge them. Fortunately for her, there was no third volley, because she was already in one of their faces, screeching like a banshee, and flicking her urumi in a frenzied, yet somehow graceful flurry of death.

Her target cried out and threw up his hands to shield his face from her assault—then stopped and stared as the man behind him slid silently into two pieces. A moment later, a second archer lost the side of his head. Behind him, a tree crashed to the ground with a thud, pinning a third man beneath it.

“Dogramit,” muttered Saskia as she spun away from a thrust dagger, before returning to the man’s head and gouging his eyes with her talons. “So much for improved accuracy at close range.”

“I have a suggestion,” said Padhra. “Aim for anyone except the one you wish to slay.”

“Yeah yeah, laugh it up, Miss Guiding Hand,” grumbled Saskia.

Then the next wave of attackers was upon her, and she was too busy dodging nets and scratching faces and severing limbs to appreciate the ludicrousness of what had just happened. She set her sights on the ones wearing Blightguard colours, rather than the regular town guards. But her magic had other ideas. It didn’t seem to care where she aimed. When she lashed out with her urumi, it maimed and killed indiscriminately.

Despite—or maybe because of—the randomness of her magic, she was sewing chaos in the formerly orderly enemy formation. Her mad magpie impression unnerved even the most hardened fighters, and when the blood started flowing, it only added to the confusion. Some glanced around wildly, unsure if it was her doing or someone else. Someone unseen.

They were kinda right on both counts. It was her doing, and there was someone else.

The ground began to shudder, and a line of cracks snaked beneath their feet. With an ear-splitting crack, out burst Ruhildi, her skin transformed to gleaming obsidian—

And her legs fell off.

Ruhildi landed face down in the midst of the shocked Blightguards, rolled over, spat out a mouthful of dirt, and growled, “Sashki…”

Saskia looked at the stubs of her friend’s legs, sliced clean through by an errant thread of urumi magic.

“Oh crap, sorry sorry sorry!” said Saskia. She dropped her summoned weapon like a hot potato. Once again, it vanished. Too late. The damage was done.

Recovering their wits, men lunged at Ruhildi’s prone form with spears and blades. Another loud crack split the air, and they fell back, clutching their faces. Blood streamed from their eyes. Shrapnel, thought Saskia.

The battlefield had grown strangely quiet in the last few seconds. And now she saw why. The dead had risen up and in a matter of moments had silently dispatched the living. The blind men soon joined them.

Saskia surveyed the carnage, feeling more than a little queasy. So much for not harming the conscripted guards. But where was the seer woman, and the other Blightguard soulbinders—the ones with the water magic? There was no sign of them among the dead. Nor could she see their telltale markers on her map. Had they teleported away somehow?

She looked at Ruhildi, still lying in the dirt. Legless. In her obsidian form, there was no blood. And the body was already dead, so the injury wouldn’t kill her. But was she now trapped in a crippled body, unable to move? Saskia felt bile rise in her throat. This was all her fault. What had she been thinking, waving her magic around like a kid with a knife?

“Does it…does it hurt?” she asked in a small voice.

“No, Sashki,” said Ruhildi. “Bring me my legs and I’ll be good as new afore you finish apologising.”

Saskia suspected she’d be apologising for a long time to come. Nevertheless, she felt a surge of relief, and rushed to fetch the obsidian legs. It took all her strength to drag them to her friend’s side. When they were in position, Ruhildi pressed her stumps against the stone appendages, and Saskia felt a strong pull on her essence.

Several minutes later, Ruhildi rose to her feet and took a tentative step. Several minutes after that, she reverted to flesh and bone. A thin red line across her upper thighs were all that remained of the wounds.

“We should get back to Tildin and Rafe,” said Ruhildi. “I promised them I wouldn’t forget.”

Would the pair truly be safe now? What about the Blightguards that remained behind in Vintonjorg? And what about the other townsfolk?

Returning her attention to what was going on inside the town walls, Saskia gasped. “Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”

“Aye,” said Ruhildi grimly. “’Tis too late. We won’t get back in time to save them.”

The Blightguards were laying torches against the walls of the town hall, within which huddled…everyone. Almost every man, woman and child of Vintonjorg was about to be burnt alive. Why? Because a few of them had dared stand up to the people stealing away their children.

And Ruhildi was right. Even with her wings, there was no way she could reach the building in time to put the fire out, or force the doors open before the people inside succumbed to the flames.

“I’m glad we killed these fuckers,” hissed Saskia. Her voice sounded oddly distant, as if it didn’t belong to her. “And as for the ones committing this atrocity…I’m coming for them. They won’t live to see the sunset.”

“Your bloodlust is admirable,” said a familiar voice. “But we have…proposition.”

“Lilene?” said Saskia. “Do you even know what’s going on out here? I haven’t given you access to my eyes.”

“No time,” said Lilene. “We can get to townspeople in just a few beats of heart. We can rescue the people. All you have to do is…let us out.”

Saskia barely hesitated. She relaxed her grip on the four demon souls. “Go!” she said. “And don’t make me regret this!”

Four lights drifted out of her, and weaved and bobbed in the air. Saskia could have sworn she head laughter. Then they were off, streaking across the sky and over the town walls.

Through distant eyes, she watched the demons enter the bodies of four hapless Blightguards. In the blink of an eye, they had their weapons out, and turned them on their fellows. Some of the possessed fell, but the demons simply claimed the bodies of the victors and resumed their rampage. It was over in minutes, by which time two walls of the town hall were fully aflame.

“What are you waiting for?” she said. “Get them out of there!”

Lilene—and somehow Saskia could tell it was her, despite the human body she wore—regarded the burning building for a long moment. She spat on the ground, turned, and strolled away. Wordlessly, the other demons followed her out the town gates.

Inside the inferno, people shouted and pleaded and prayed. Screams rose to a frantic pitch. And one by one, they slowly fell silent.