“So what’s the deal with this place again?” Taria rolled her eyes. For all of her power and intelligence, Lanala sure had trouble retaining simple information. It didn’t help that Taria was the most knowledgeable about Dasa Bun’Gaat temple out of the five of them that Artema had sent.
“Do you really need to hear this again, Lanala?” Taria asked.
“It helps to be prepared,” Lanala said.
“The ancients used to worship the Goddess of Ikaatan within this temple,” Taria began. “But it soon turned into a cult that kidnapped and sacrificed people in the name of the Goddess. When people started fighting back and trying to wipe out the cult, they turned into a maze of sorts and filled it with traps to protect the dungeon below.”
“And we’re here because some of the missing people Jhana kidnapped, including the Honour Guard, were spotted by a travelling merchant entering the temple. We’re here to rescue them!” Mirelle added enthusiastically.
“All of them?” Lanala asked.
“No trace of them has been found anywhere else,” Meryn said. “They weren’t in that prison we were all in and Artema sent me to look everywhere else. Trust me. There’s nowhere to hide these people except the temple.”
“Who was in that prison then?” Elyn asked.
“Political prisoners, mostly,” Meryn replied. “People that spoke out against her or betrayed her, like Fa’rah. That prison is too visible to hide people you want to keep hidden.”
They had long left the forest behind when they came upon the huge temple in the middle of the plains. It had been constructed of some dark brown stone and faded, runic symbols lined the rectangular entrance.
The temple itself loomed high above them. It was a ziggurat at least eight layers high and a long staircase led to the seventh and second-narrowest layer of stone. From the distance, Lanala noticed that statues stood on either side of the entrance. She suddenly had a very bad feeling about what they might find inside.
“Stay back a moment,” Lanala said when they approached the stairs. “I want a closer look at those statues.”
“You shouldn’t go alone,” Taria said. “I’ll go with you.”
“Something is off about them,” Lanala said. “Just stay back for now. I won’t be far.”
Taria reluctantly allowed Lanala to climb the staircase alone. Her long legs made the journey quick and it had been barely a minute when she reached the top. The statue she looked at stood to the right of the doorway and was slightly taller than her. It was shaped like a strong, muscular woman who had been bound by heavy chains around her legs and arms. Her wide-eyed expression and gagged mouth stared back at Lanala in utter silence and that was when she realized she recognized the face.
“Lila!”
The former mercenary captain had been chained, gagged, and turned to dark stone. It seemed Jhana was not happy with her failure. Lanala had always suspected that this was what Jhana meant by making people ‘compliant’ and turning them into ‘decorations’ but she never wanted to think about it. The worrying thought that this could be her had already crossed her mind. She had been lucky to escape Jhana even once, let alone three times. And the third time was very close. If she hadn’t summoned that dangerous dragon spell, well...
Lanala shook her head and put the thought out of her mind. She focussed on the statue to the left of the doorway and was horrified by the sight of it.
“Oh, by the Goddess! Celia!”
The statue was a woman who wore form fitting trousers and a light shirt like Jonas. She had been one of Jhana’s top spies and had been reported missing soon after Jhana had gone rogue. Jonas swore up and down that he’d find Celia. Lanala remembered Jonas telling her that he and Celia had grown up together and had been inseparable friends since they were children.
The woman wore a terrified expression and had her hands raised to her midsection. She looked as though she was about to shield her face. Whatever Jhana had hit her with worked fast. Jhana hadn’t even bothered to bind and gag her.
The other four down below heard Lanala exclaim something and quickly joined her at the top of the stairs.
“What is it, Lanala?” Taria asked.
“Oh no! Celia!” Mirelle said when she saw what Lanala was staring at.
“Is she still alive?” Elyn asked from behind them.
“I think so,” Meryn said. “When Jhana had me in that tent she mentioned something about the process not killing me. I think she may have planned to make me into one of these back then.”
“Oh, that’s awful!” Mirelle said. “Is there some way to free her, Lanala?”
“This is alchemy, not magic,” Lanala said. “I don’t really know anything about it.”
“I might,” Elyn said. “If we could make something that could counteract the solidifying process then we could free them from this hell.”
“How would we make that?” Lanala asked.
“You let me worry about that,” Elyn said with a smirk. “The rest of you get on with finding the poor people she still has imprisoned in here.”
“What are you going to do?” Mirelle asked.
“Gather a few ingredients,” she said. “Some moss, a few mushrooms, and then a touch of my own special brand of boiling water and I’ll have something that should work, in theory.”
“In theory doesn’t sound promising,” Meryn said.
“It’ll have to do,” Lanala said. “All right. Somebody really ought to stay with Elyn and watch her back.”
“I’ll stay,” Mirelle said.
“Thank you, Mirelle. Taria, Meryn, stay close to me. I don’t know what else we’ll find in there but we have to be careful,” Lanala said.
The three of them entered the temple together while Mirelle and Elyn headed back down the steps. Unknown to them, however, were a pair of tired, grey eyes watching them from a distance. He scowled and those tired eyes became ice cold when they laid upon the statues guarding the temple entrance.
“I’ll not let this stand, Jhana,” he said.
...
All she could hear around her were the muffled moaning and crying of scores of bound and gagged prisoners in the dungeon. She herself was perhaps one of the smallest among them, being a short but limber woman of speed and finesse.
The long-sleeved shirt she wore was a fine brown and was light to allow for mobility. It stopped short of her waist, leaving her midriff bare. She wore black, fingerless gloves on her hands with sturdy palms to help her grip weapons and climb. Her trousers were brown and hugged tight to her shapely legs and her light, black shoes would have given her both quickness and stealth were she able to actually walk right now.
Her long, brown hair shuffled as she struggled with her bonds and her fierce, blue eyes hardened with determination.
Celia had no idea how long she had been kept bound and gagged in this blasted temple. She was in a tiny cell on her own without even enough room to stretch out her legs in a sitting position. Thick, iron bars kept her from the dark room outside her cell and she couldn’t see much beyond the bars themselves. None of the other prisoners were visible to her but the sounds of their cries were enough to make their presence known. Celia didn’t know how many of them there were but the place had been getting louder with each passing day so there must have been at least twenty by now.
The spy had fought hard against her ropes at first when Jhana had captured her but, since she couldn’t escape, it proved to be a waste of energy. She’d still try to struggle a bit in some vain hope that the knots had loosened over time. But when those hopes were dashed, Celia would just rest and hope that something else might release her in that time.
Celia listened to the darkness and heard the voices of only women so whatever Jhana was planning, she only seemed to be keeping women alive. Any men caught in her crossfire were as good as dead. A nervous pang hit her when she realized that Jonas had been in the capital the day that she had been captured. Celia could only hope that her friend had not been seriously hurt in Jhana’s rampage.
She listened carefully as she heard someone being dragged off somewhere in the darkness. That happened periodically and, as far as Celia knew, none of those people returned. She had seen some of the horrid statues Jhana had created from people so Celia assumed that Jhana was taking those women and turning them into her decorations. She growled beneath her gag. If only she had reported Jhana’s strange alchemical experiments sooner then there was a chance all of this could have been avoided.
Celia strained against the strong ropes that held her. Her legs had been bound at the ankles and above the knees. Her arms were pinned to her sides by two ropes that wrapped around her torso above and below her breasts. Another rope wound around her waist and held her bound wrists behind her back in a crossed position. Something, a rag maybe, had been shoved inside her mouth and an extremely thick cloth had been pulled tight over her face and knotted behind her head. The gag was stifling and kept her very quiet. Celia had done very little screaming and shouting into her gag in recent days. It was all out of her system after the first few hours had made her throat dry. She would still grunt and groan into the gag but only while moving or struggling.
She shrunk back when someone suddenly appeared in front of her cell. Oh Goddess she thought. Am I next?
“Celia,” said a familiar voice.
A tall woman in purple robes stood before her.
“Jmmnmmph!” Celia growled.
“Such hostility is so unnecessary, my dear,” Jhana said. “I just have a message to deliver to you.”
“Hmmmph?”
Jhana smiled wide and knelt down to meet Celia’s eyes.
“Jonas is coming,” she said. “And you’ll be seeing him very soon.”
Celia’s eyes widened and she bucked and thrashed against her bonds.
“Nmmmmph! Dmmnnt ymmm dmmr tmmmph hmm!”
“Oh yes. It will be so heartwarming so see two old friends say goodbye to one another. It truly melts my heart.”
“Mmmph! NMMMMMPH!”
Jhana laughed when she stood up and left Celia alone again, who struggled and writhed in her bonds, screaming at Jhana.
“MMMMMMPPHH!”
...
“Did you hear that?” Lanala asked.
“Laughter,” Meryn said. “And I know that voice.”
“From somewhere below,” Taria said. “But I haven’t seen a ladder or stairs or anything yet.”
“One of these damn corridor’s must lead down there,” Lanala said. They came to a stop at a corridor that split four ways. Lanala furrowed her brow and turned to the others. “I think we should each pick a direction.”
“We really shouldn’t separate,” Meryn said.
“I agree,” Taria said. “This place is treacherous enough as it is.”
“We’ll cover so much more ground. And we can handle ourselves,” Lanala said.
“You remember what happened back in Matesi.” Taria said. “We can’t take her alone.”
“Oh, stop it. It’ll be fine.” Lanala started off into the corridor on the right. As she walked, Meryn’s eyes went straight to the floor and she noticed one small flagstone was slightly higher than the rest. The realization then hit her.
“Lanala, wait!”
Before she culd stop, there was a loud click and a heavy iron gate slammed down behind Lanala. The other two rushed over and tried to lift it.
“Damn thing,” Taria grunted. “Where’s Artema when you need her?”
The pair of them heaved and pulled on the gate but it refused to raise back off the floor.
“No use,” Meryn said.
“Damn it all. Why did you have to do that, Lanala?” Taria said.
“Well, at least we’ll cover more ground now. I’ll find my way out,” Lanala said.
“And suppose there isn’t a way out? What will we do then?” Taria asked.
“Get the others,” Lanala said. “Or Artema will come. Again.”
“Yeah, I’ll bet she isn’t sick of doing that yet,” Meryn said.
“All right. Stop it now, both of you. You two stick together and see what you can find. I’ve got no choice but to go off on my own now. I’ll be careful.”
“Just don’t go using any dragon spells,” Meryn said. “You scared us all to death with that thing.”
“Trust me, Meryn, I’m never using one of those dreadful spells again. Go now. We have to save these people.”
Lanala disappeared down the dark corridor and the remaining two looked at each other. Meryn shrugged and took the lead down another corridor right in front of them. In no time they, too, were shrouded in darkness.
While they walked, someone watched them from the top of the temple. Jhana stared into a small scrying mirror and smiled wide at the sight of them. In her mind, she saw the shadows around the two women of the order spring to life. She whispered a single word and raised one fist to be level with her face.
“Tumsa.”
When she opened her eyes she peered into the scrying mirror again and three burly, female figures emerged from the darkness that surrounded Meryn and Taria. With Meryn in the lead, they all crept up behind Taria and latched onto her without a sound. Before she could warn Meryn, they clamped strong hands around her mouth and dragged her off down the hallway. Part of the wall opened up and Meryn stopped in her tracks.
When she turned around she saw the things pulling Taria into an adjacent room.
“Damn it,” Meryn cursed.
She ran toward them and pulled the crossbow from her hip. Just as she managed to knock a bolt and draw back the string, Taria was dragged into the dark room and the wall slammed shut in Meryn’s face. She clawed at the wall in some attempt to find a switch or a crack to pry it open but she found nothing. With a frustrated sigh, Meryn continued onward down the corridor.
“Just one more thing to do in this cursed place,” Meryn said. “I should have known.”
With the Gold-Eyed Maiden alone, Jhana’s wicked smile widened and she allowed the scrying mirror to fade away and reveal her own reflection again. She then stalked off toward the stairs and headed straight down.
...
Jonas tripped a bit when he jumped down the trap door and wound up falling to the floor. His full weight then slammed down onto his injured shoulder and he grimaced with the pain. He managed to pick himself up and continue onward. He had to be close now. If his instincts were right then Jhana would be after the women of the order.
He had seen Meryn drifting away on her own. Jonas remembered that Jhana seemed to take a particular liking to the Gold-Eyed Maiden and knew that Jhana would target her personally. If he followed Meryn’s trail then he’d be able to get the drop on Jhana and... he didn’t know what.
When he saw that statue, what Jhana had done to Celia, terrible rage gripped his heart and an insatiable thirst for vengeance consumed his mind. But Jonas’ code of honour prevented him from wanting to kill Jhana. But the anger made him unsure if he’d be able to stop himself. If he did manage to gain the upper hand, would he be able to take a life? For the hell that Celia must be suffering within that statue... he didn’t want to think about. First he needed to find Jhana.
He kept his eyes and ears open and crouched low as he took careful, silent steps forward into the unending darkness. He heard someone’s footsteps in the distance and spotted the trace flutter of a yellow skirt fade away into the shadows. He kept well behind Meryn and followed her without a sound.
Just as he caught sight of her again, he felt himself pulled violently to his right and rushing toward an opening in the wall that hadn’t been there before. Some strange vortex of wind dragged him off his feet and into the waiting dark room. He crashed down onto the floor and heard the wall hammer shut behind him. Jonas groaned from the pain in his shoulder as he tried to climb back to his feet.
A furious wind knocked him back again and he slammed into the wall, shouting at the pain in his shoulder. Jonas crumpled to the floor in a heap and as soon as he sat up, someone was kneeling down in front of him. She peered into his eyes and a malicious smile curled across her lips.
“It’s been too long, my dear Jonas,” she said.
Jonas growled at the pain in his shoulder and pushed himself up slightly and rested his back against the wall.
“Jhana,” he said. “I came to propose a deal with you.”
In that moment, Jonas knew he was lost one way or another. It was Jhana herself that had taught him how to improvise so he was able to think quickly.
“No you didn’t,” Jhana said. “But I am intrigued nonetheless. What do you propose?”
“Free Celia,” he said. “Get her out of that hellish statue.”
“In exchange for what?”
Jonas gritted his teeth and sat up straighter. “Me,” he said.
Jhana laughed.
“You? Jonas, you are a mess. Celia, foolish though she may be, makes a far more attractive decoration than you.”
“That’s not what I meant,” he said. “I’ve been working against you since you first started this damn coup. I helped the order steal the relic from right under your nose. That has to bother you.”
“Well, it didn’t make me happy, Jonas.”
“So I’m proposing that you kill me in exchange for Celia’s freedom,” he said. “Then I’ll be out of your way.”
Jhana laughed. “My, you must be desperate, Jonas. I could just kill you anyway with barely a thought and keep Celia for myself. Why would I ever take a deal like that?”
Before he could speak, Jhana held up one finger, holding it up to his mouth and shushing him.
“Don’t bother,” she said. “To be honest, I find it touching that you’d be willing to sacrfice your life for your oldest friend. So I’ll make you a deal, Jonas. I’ll take you to see her, alive and well, before you die. Won’t that be nice?”
Jonas sat forward.
“What? What do you mean?”
“Let me show you.”
With a snap of Jhana’s fingers, the two of them were engulfed by a bright light and vanished from the dark room.
...
A dim light marked the end of a corridor from Lanala but it was pretty far off. She pressed on, squinting to try and make out what lay at the end. She stopped when she saw something skitter away into the shadows.
Lanala stiffened her muscles and cleared her mind. Ancient words came to the forefront of her mind’s eye and she found one. Before she could speak, however, something shot out of the darkness toward her and collided with the lower half of her face.
The thing stuck there and filled her mouth. It was sticky and soft but it prevented her from casting the spell she was about to use. The sticky substance wrapped itself fully around her head and kept her thoroughly gagged but she was still free to move.
She reached to her belt for her short staff but something once again shot out from the darkness and stuck itself to the staff. It was pulled right out of her hands into the surrounding shadows. That was when she saw the creature.
It looked like a spider but it lacked anything natural about it. It’s eight spindly legs looked to be made of a sort of carved stone. Glowing runes were etched into each leg in threes. Its body, also stone, was a teardrop shape and attached to an eyeless head. Two mandibles protruded from its mouth and some strange, rotating cylinder rested between them.. Lanala then realized that the cylindrical mechanism was producing some kind of glowing, white substance with each rotation and it was being made very quickly.
Lanala thought about running but, before she could move, a long, winding string of the substance shot from the creature’s mouth and wrapped itself around her ankles many times before coming to a stop. With it still attached to the creature’s mouth, the cylinder started winding very quickly in the opposite direction and the creature started backing down the hallway at speed.
Lanala was swept from her feet and pulled upward with the spider thing and found herself upside down on the ceiling in no time. Then she felt more of the sticky substance reach out and grab her wrists. They were bound quickly behind her back and held there as an endless amount of the strange webbing surrounded her body from the ankles to the shoulders. Endless layers of the stuff kept being wrapped around her whole body. After what felt like an eternity, the substance ceased coming from the creature’s mouth and it crept away silently into the darkness.
When Lanala looked at her feet, she saw a thick cord of the substance stuck to the ceiling that kept her hanging there was wrapped around her bound ankles.. She writhed in the tight webbing but the stuff felt unbreakable. Lanala strained every muscle and struggled hard but there were no knots to reach and no locks to open. The webbing held her firmly, though she supposed it wasn’t uncomfortable. But despite the lack of discomfort, now Lanala was alone and hanging from the ceiling, bound and gagged. All she knew as that she had to escape but it didn’t seem possible at the moment. The frustrating realization that she had been captured, again, dawned on her and she growled into her tight gag.
“Mmrrrggh!”
Lanala thrashed about and swung back and forth like a pendulum. She strained and struggled but at this point it was useless. She had no idea if anyone would find her down here and tried to scream into her gag.
“MMMMMPPHHH!”
She made barely a sound. Like it or not, Lanala would have to escape on her own. If only Artema’s training had covered this.
...
“MMMMPH! MMM MMMMPH! MMMMPH! LMMM MM GMMMPH!”
Taria screamed out her angry and muffled protests to the shadow beings that had captured her. She sat alone in a dark room and struggled hard against her tight restraints.
Thick straps had been lashed around her ankles, calves, knees and thighs. Two more kept her arms tightly restrained and tugged at her chest above and below her breasts. Another tightly wrapped up her forearms and her wrists were bound behind her and pinned to her waist by another strap. Taria swore there was vengeance in the strange shadow people’s eyes when they gagged her with three wadded up cloths that caused her cheeks to bulge. Tough bandages were then wrapped around her head and a leather panel gag had been tightly strapped on over top of that. A thick, leather blindfold had also been strapped on over her eyes and something soft had even been plugged in her ears. Taria had been deprived of all of her most important senses and tied up in straps.
She had managed to squirm her way up to a sitting position and was now resting up against a wall, completely blind and deaf. Taria had not stopped struggling since those shadow people had strapped her up so tightly but she had no idea if they were still in the room. All she could do was curse at them and writhe helplessly in her tight bondage.
“DMMM YMMMM! LMMT MMM GMMMMPH!”
Her furious screams were kept utterly silent by the extreme gag in her mouth and she angrily shuffled and strained against her unyielding bonds. But nobody answered her gagged protests and nobody made their presence known to her.
Taria tried to calm her mind and think of escape training. She still hadn’t passed level four and the awful hogtie frustrated her every time she was put in it. At least she wasn’t hogtied this time but these straps were even thicker than the ones they used back at headquarters. It felt just as inescapable as that infernal hogtie.
Sweat drenched her toned muscles and she was beginning to feel tired from all of the pointless struggling she was doing. But there was no way that Taria was going to let Jhana have her way. Artema wouldn’t be there to save her this time, either, so she was on her own.
Taria grew desperate in her frustration and shouted out angrily for help, struggling all the while.
“HLLLMMMPH! MMM MM HMMMPH! HLMMMPH! CMM MMYMMMN HMMPH MM!? MMM TMMMD MMMP MM HMMMPH! HLMMMMPH!”
Taria slumped forward and hung her head. She sighed in frustration and shook her head.
“Dmmm mmt mmmll,” she grumbled.
Taria could only hope that Meryn and Lanala were doing better than she was. The thought of them potentially being in trouble spurred her into action and she began furiously struggling again.
“Mmmph,” she grunted. “Mmmrgh mmm mmmph!”
...
Jhana threw the injured spy to the stone floor in front of a tiny cell. Jonas grunted with the effort of sitting up again. His vision had gone blurry and his ears were ringing. Jhana must have hit him in the head and dragged him down here, wherever here was. He noticed a figure behind bars but his vision wouldn’t clear. They shuffled and moved toward him but he still couldn’t see.
“Jmmnmmph?”
The muffled voice sounded familiar and his mind raced when he heard it. It couldn’t be true. He had seen the statue outside. There was no way that she-
“Jmmnmmph!”
His vision slowly cleared and Jonas was staring directly at the clear blue eyes of his best friend from childhood. She sat, bound and gagged, in a tiny cell just in front of him. He blinked a few times and gave his head a shake, though that simple act made him feel woozy.
“Celia...” he said. “What... how...”
“Would you like an explanation?” said a confident voice from behind him. Jhana knelt beside Jonas and met the eyes of Celia within the cell. “Your pretty friend here caused quite the stir back home. She tried to bar my way out of the city. Resisted me tooth and claw. She fought well, all things considered. But you escaped, Jonas,” Jhana said, turning her head to look at Jonas. “You left her behind.”
“I didn’t,” Jonas said. “I couldn’t find her. I hid from you so I could keep looking.”
“Yes. And you were rather successful, too. You even managed to escape me again, even with that bad shoulder. How is it, by the way?”
Jhana threw a heavy punch into Jonas’ left shoulder, causing him to collapse onto his stomach on the floor. He cried out in pain.
“Nmmm!” Celia shrieked.
Jonas pushed himself up again and dragged himself toward the cell.
“You’ve been persistent,” Jhana said. “And troublesome. I dislike a troublesome man more than anything in the world, Jonas.” She leaned closer to him and whispered in his ear. “But I know your weaknesses. If not for that cute spellcaster, those women of the order made perfect bait to lure you out. That would have been two birds with one stone, as they call it. But I’ve been having a hard time getting my way, lately.”
“Maybe you’ve gotten sloppy, Jhana,” Jonas said, through gritted teeth. Jhana chuckled.
“Bravado is worthless for you now, Jonas,” Jhana said. “You’re inches away from death. I think you hit your head and now it seems to me that another blow like that might just end your life.”
“Go on and do it, then,” Jonas said.
“And you would miss the chance to say goodbye to your friend and find out how it is she came into my possession?”
“You already told me.”
“Not about the fake statue,” Jhana said. “Such an artist to capture her fear in that expression. And what a pose! Frightened of the mighty spymaster about to turn her to stone. It was too perfect. You should have seen through it, Jonas. But I knew your anger would blind you. It always did. Seeing your oldest friend frozen in a statue would be just too much for poor little you to handle and you would come after me. Celia was always my ace in the hole. I knew you’d come after me for what I did to her. And here you are.”
“So it was a trap all along,” Jonas said.
“That it was,” Jhana said. “And now I’m going to give you the chance to say goodbye.”
Jhana produced a knife from her boot and pressed it to Jonas’ throat. His swimming head and his injuries made him too weak to fight back.
“Go on then, Jonas. Say goodbye to Celia.”
“NMMMM!” Celia screamed. She struggled against her ropes but they held firm.
“Celia...” Jonas began. “Close your eyes.”
“Jmmmnmmph!”
“Close your eyes. You don’t want to see this.”
Celia was on the verge of tears. Jonas could hear it in her voice.
“It’s all right, Celia. You’ll be safe. Everything will be all right.”
Jhana didn’t notice but Jonas heard very light footsteps creeping up behind them. He spoke up when he heard the subtle click of a crossbow being loaded.
“Shut your eyes, Celia. I’m sorry it has to end like this.”
“Celia,” Jhana said. “Say goodbye to Jonas.”
Celia couldn’t find the words and felt tears begin to stain her cheeks. But they stopped when she noticed a wry smirk cross Jonas’ face.
“Jhana,” Jonas said, lowering his voice. “I wanted to say one last thing before you kill me.”
“What’s that?”
“You remember stealth training? You never passed it, did you? I could always sneak up behind you.”
“What are you- agghh!”
Something stuck into the side of Jhana’s neck and she dropped the knife in her hand. She reached up and plucked out a small bolt. It was hollow and made from glass and once contained a sleeping agent. It had clearly been emptied into her blood stream.
When Jhana turned her head, the steely gold eyes of Meryn stared back at her with the crossbow still pointed at her head.
“Go to sleep now, Jhana,” Meryn said.
Jhana felt very light-headed all of a sudden and all of her muscles went limp. She collapsed to the floor and the world very quickly faded away to black.
Meryn stood over her triumphantly and stepped closer to Jonas. She remained expressionless and extended a hand down toward him. Jonas accepted it and unsteadily got to his feet.
“Great timing,” he said.
Meryn took a quick look around and noticed the bound and gagged women that filled most of the tiny cells. Her eyes passed down to the woman that Jonas had been speaking to and then she looked back up at Jonas.
“It was my turn,” she said.
“I owe you,” Jonas said. “Really.”
“We’re even,” Meryn replied. “As long as you help me free these people and restrain the witch.”
“With pleasure,” Jonas said.
...
It had taken some time but five people emerged from the temple where Elyn and Mirelle waited. Mirelle couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw them and the many women trailing behind them.
“Celia! You’re... not a statue?”
“Fortunately not,” she said. “It’s just a decoy.”
“Oh. It was for you wasn’t it, Jonas?”
Jonas nodded. “It was Jhana’s doing, I’m afraid.” He swayed a bit on his feet and Mirelle rushed forward to catch him. “Oh no! You’re hurt again!”
“Yes. Much worse this time,” he said. “Perhaps you and Artema could help me with that?”
“As long as you stay and get rested this time,” Mirelle scolded.
Taria, still tired from all her struggling, stretched her muscles and placed the person she was carrying over her shoulder on the ground.
“Blasted witch,” she said.
Jhana was, once again, bound, gagged and blindfolded just as Taria had been. It seemed the lithe warrior was fond of getting revenge on the former spymaster. Her eyes softened when she looked at Jonas.
“I don’t know how you found me,” she said. “But I owe you.”
“I know my way around,” he said. “And it’s my job. Besides, it was Celia and Meryn that freed you. All I did was point and try not to fall over.”
“And those two were amazing with that spider thing,” Lanala said. “What was that thing, anyway?”
“One of Jhana’s conjurations,” Celia said. “Designed to subdue and capture targets. It’s blind and deaf, though, so it couldn’t see when Meryn shot a bolt through its mouth. After that, it’s just a case of letting it follow the vibrations in the ground. Move around, get it confused, and it’ll get tangled in its own webbing. She used to train us with the things. I was top of the class.”
“Wish I’d done better,” Lanala said. “Still, thanks. I appreciate you helping me.”
Lanala then spotted Elyn and remembered her remedy.
“Elyn,” she said. “Did you make the potion?”
“I don’t have everything I need,” Elyn said. “But I’ve got it started. When we get back home I can make a bunch of the stuff and we can track down the rest of the statues she made and free them.”
“I hope so,” Lanala said. “I can’t imagine what it must be like. Even Lila doesn’t deserve that.”
They all went silent for a moment. That was quickly broken when one of the freed women shrieked.
“Goddess, no!”
They all turned to look and saw Jhana, still bound and gagged, floating above them and well out of reach. A dark cloud enveloped her. Taria shouted from down below.
“Damn it, not again!”
She drew her sword and threw it at the dark cloud but it went straight through. The cloud dissipated and Jhana had vanished, leaving Taria’s sword to fall back down and clatter on the ground.
“How does she keep doing this?” Lanala asked.
“Well she won’t do it again,” Taria said. “I’ll track the witch down myself. I’ve had enough of this.”
Lanala could only stare then at the sky above them. Jhana had to be out of tricks by now. There was no way they wouldn’t get her next time. They’d find out where she was hiding and strike out right at her front door. But, for now, they had people to save and freed captives to get home.
...
The spymaster found herself once again, bound, gagged and blind on top of her own bed. Her last and difficult teleport spell had succeeded but its incredibly limited use meant she couldn’t use it again.
Jhana struggled against the tight straps but nothing was coming loose. She’d have to wait for one of her servants again.
“Hmmmmph,” she sighed.
Remembering Elyn for a moment, Jhana had always found it peculiar how the fire mage liked to be tied up. But now that she had been herself, the spymaster could see the appeal. It was exciting. The uncertainty, the complete lack of movement, the bindings pulling tight and not letting go. It felt safe to be secured like this. But the thrill of the unknown was undeniable. Not knowing when she would be released, nor what else might happen to her in this state, it was a great thrill. Jhana knew that some daredevils liked to jump off high cliffs into the sea near the capital and wondered if they felt the same thrill and excitement.
“Mmmph,” she said, thoughtfully.
She struggled to sit up and when she did, a vision struck her mind with great power. Despite being blindfolded, Jhana could see something in her mind’s eye. All of that scrying seemed to be paying off. The powerful vision seemed to be showing her an onyx orb. It was locked in a dark, steel room with a heavy door sealing it shut. Jhana realized that it must be some sort of vault.
Just by staring at the object, Jhana could feel the tremendous power radiating from it. A thought hit her and it didn’t take much guessing to figure out just what the orb was. It was the relic of Ikaatan Labyrinth. The vision was showing her its location. Concentrating harder, Jhana saw the small, wooden cabin nestled deep within the Dasi Forest. She knew then what the order had done with the relic.
Shuffling a bit in her bonds, Jhana let the vision fade and she allowed a wide smile to cross her gagged lips. If she could break into that vault then she would be unstoppable. That relic would give her everything she ever wanted. Keeping this thought in mind, Jhana started to laugh behind her gag.
“Hmmmph hmm hmmm hmmm! HMMPH HMMM HMM HMM HMMMM! Mmm cmmmng fmm ymm pmmphmmph mmb, lmmdmmph!”