Chapter 83: Alcoves and Goblins and Books

Alcar cleared his throat, stepping back from the nearest alcove and focusing his attention on his own right hand. “Rac al manuhka!” he called out.

A ball of light obligingly appeared between his thumb and finger, and as it did so, it occurred to him that he didn’t know the further words that Master Maluhk had spoken when splitting the ball into smaller parts.

But he would have to manage.

Cradling his staff in the crook of his left arm, he tried his best to pull the ball of light apart. It felt strangely springy, like a wad of rubber. His fingernails dug in, and with a grunt, he broke it... into three parts. One flew away towards the center of the room and lay blazing on the floor, but he was quick enough to clasp the other two, one in each hand.

Slowly, wincing, he raised each one to his eyes, and spread his fingers, slapping himself firmly in the face.

“Ouch,” he murmured, but the slap was nothing compared to the jolt of pain which followed – he had almost forgotten how much it had stung the first time after Maluhk had cast it on him, and it was no better now.

He staggered a few paces back, his burning eyes clenched shut, now gripping his staff in both hands. Raising it to his mouth, he bit down onto the wood to stop himself from screaming; he was sure that doing so would be a bad idea here in the dungeon.

“Alcar? Are you all right?” said Olynka.

“Nhygh...” He stopped, blinking hard and rubbing at his face, then looked up at Olynka.

“By the gods!” she said, shock on her face. “Your eyes look like they’re on fire, man. And look at that.”

She pointed to where the third mote of magical light had landed on the floor. Rather than staying put, it was acting as if it had a life of its own – bouncing around unpredictably. And then, as Alcar watched on, it disolved into a thin silver stream, and began to trickle away towards the steps where they had first entered the room.

Just then, Brutus barked sharply several times at the far end of the room, and Alcar looked around. “It’s all right, boy,” he said. “I’m just using sorcery, you...”

But he stopped talking when he say what Brutus was barking at.

Somehow, his vision was much more enhanced than before – and the pain hadn’t settled nearly as much. And the enchantment not only highlighted every flaw and crack in their surroundings – including a chip in Leppie’s warhammer and a large, ugly crack above the archway where the goblins had been sitting. It also allowed him to see through the nearby walls.

Beyond the side door with the bloodstain, he could now see, a passageway led back towards the great cavern. But it was marked by multiple huge spiderwebs, and he was sure he could see the body of at least one enormous spider.

Alive?

Quite probably. But if they could get past that way, it would at least lead them away towards the cavern, and perhaps back to the surface.

Ahead towards the dais, more worrisomely, he could see multiple goblins approaching, as well as the outline of Etienne. The halfling was making haste back towards the room they were currently in.

“Etienne’s in trouble,” Alcar called out, still staring, and realizing how weird he must sound to his companions – as if he had suddenly been possessed by a god or a demon.

But Olynka was unperturbed. “I’ll go to help him,” she said firmly. “You keep looking for the codex.”

Blinking hard, his eyes still burning as if acid had been thrown in his face, Alcar forced himself to look at the next alcove, and then the next. He focused for a moment on a pair of small bottles that appeared to glow; magical? He grabbed them, thrusting them into his ragged robes.

There was no sign of a codex, though, and he moved on, as Olynka raced up onto the dais, and Leppie moved towards the wooden door across the room.

The next alcove was empty, so Alcar moved to the next again, the last one before the set of stone steps. It was crammed with papers, maps and books, though again, many had suffered water damage. He could see without picking them up that none were worth looking at. They would crumble to dust in his hands.

But then, just as he was about to step away and give up, he spied a loose stone at the top of the same alcove. And inside, he was able to see, was a rectangular object.

A book?

He was almost certain of it.

“So, this must be some kind of hidden panel,” he murmured, reaching up. It wasn’t immediately obvious how to move it, but he was sure that it did move. He leaned his staff against the wall so that he had both hands free, and began to wiggle at it.

It was moving.

There was the urgent sound of fighting off to his right now, however. He heard Olynka’s bow twang. Brutus growled and barked, and there was a clash of iron on iron. Was Etienne fighting the goblins hand to hand, he wondered? Or had Ubund reappeared?

Either way, he would have to hurry.

“Come on, you damn rock!” He pulled again, cursing, wary that it could fall on his head if it moved too quickly. He had to be patient. Finessing it, he eased the stone out little by little, and then lowered it to waist height. It was heavy. He carefully placed it on one of the shelves of the alcove, then reached into the gap above him.

And pulled out a book:

A idiot’s guide to sorcery: Begin unlocking your inner magic!

by Cosmo Chardonnay

“The fuck...?”

It was as if someone was trying to troll him...

Frowning, Alcar plunged the book into the deepest pocket of his robes, grabbed his staff, and spun around. And not a moment too soon, for a goblin was charging down the steps, a shortsword raised above its head as it attacked.

“Waaarrgg!” cried the goblin.

But faced with the blue-eyed sorcerer who had just turned towards it and raised his staff, the little monster hesitated on the steps. At that moment, Brutus charged down the steps, knocking the creature from its feet, and Alcar followed up by slamming his staff down onto its green knobbly forehead. The goblin slumped down unconscious.

He looked up. Five further goblins were in the room now, and many more were on their way, his enhanced vision allowed him to see. Indeed, as he stepped up the nearby stairs onto the platform, he could now make out what looked like a whole tribe of goblins in the nearby rooms. There was a very vast individual on what looked like a throne, and at least ten more of the creatures were approaching the archway, all armed with spears.

He glanced back to check on Etienne and Olynka, both of whom were near the archway, engaged in furious fighting against a pair of goblins each.

“Damn it. We need to get out of here!” he shouted to his friends, and began to run forward to help.

“Did you find it?” called out Olynka. She was holding her machete in one hand and her bow in the other, blocking one blow after another.

Leppie was near the middle of the platform just ahead of Alcar; she smashed her warhammer down on another goblin, and then kicked a further one from the stage. Etienne leaped after it, then thrust his dagger into its back.

Alcar now approached Olynka, and whacked his staff down onto the back of the nearer goblin that she was facing. It cannoned into the wall, and fell to the ground.

“Thanks man. The book?”

“Uh, well – I got a book,” he said.

“First things first,” called out Leppie. “Let’s get the hell out of this room, and regroup.”

“Yep,” agreed Alcar.

“And then we can look for Ubund.”

“Well... we can see about that,” he added, hurrying after her.