27. WORKING THE PROBLEM

  I woke up in the tunnel and found Ehren still lying on the earthen floor next to me.

  I tried to sit up but stopped short, groaning as pain racked my body. I slowly moved into a sitting position, which brought both dizziness and a vice to my head. My whole body ached. Still, I knew this was better than waking up in a prison or being tortured in a Factory by Uof, the man who strangely, was also a machine. I still hadn't had time to process this new reality.

  I looked back toward the tunnel entrance, where a little light peeked through a crack in the hidden door. No one had discovered us yet, and I wasn't sure how long it'd been, but I was alive and free. For now.

  My head pounded with an ache I’d never felt before. My whole body felt as though it’d been pounded by hammers, up and down my arms, legs, and torso. Pain coursed through me, layering upon the deep exhaustion of too much magic use in too short an amount of time. Could this be The Weakness? Too much magic use for a prolonged period of time equaled pain throughout the body?

  While I pondered this in the darkness of this small tunnel I heard Ehren’s labored breathing—which meant he was alive. Somehow, I needed to get him to Lissa so she could treat his wounds. I hadn’t even had the time to look him over myself.

  I lit a small match where I sat, casting light over the tunnel, and looked closely at Ehren. I felt for his heartbeat, which felt slow but steady. His face appeared swollen and bruised, caked with blood. I couldn’t see any other major wounds on his body, but this wouldn't be the place to treat them anyway. As much as I wanted to help, I didn't have another spell in me right at that moment.

  So, I turned around and looked down the tunnel. I could either go and try to find help, or I could try to take him with me.

  In navigating a variety of resistance tunnels within Vale these past weeks, I recalled that this particular one led to small chamber ahead, which split off in multiple directions. If I took the tunnel on the right, it would lead me to a thoroughfare that would take me to the large underground space where the resistance spent most of its time. The fact that no one had found us yet meant others from the resistance found a different route down, some had been captured, or worse.

  Few other options presented themselves to me, so I scraped my way to my knees, and slowly, carefully began to drag Ehren along with me, as gently as I could, for both our sakes. He was breathing but otherwise, he did not respond or stir at all.

  Haltingly, while shuffling on my knees, I managed to get him into the small chamber at the end of the tunnel where a small table and a pair of chairs adorned the space. The room also opened up so that I could stand up completely.

  I took a deep breath, getting to my feet slowly, sensing my own loose hold on consciousness. For a moment, darkness clouded the edges of my vision again, and I steadied myself on by grasping the edge of the table. I breathed in and out slowly for a couple minutes, as my vision came back into focus. Then, it came back enough that I could grab Ehren’s armpits and walk backward, dragging him deeper into the larger network of tunnels.

  Perhaps half an hour later, I dragged Ehren into the large cavernous space where we’d held all our meetings and where even a portion of the mage’s training had taken place. I heard Dirk's voice behind me, sounding like he was in discussion with a small group of men and women, handing out instructions.

  I gently laid Ehren down on the earthen floor, and turned to face the group. Dirk looked up as I did so, a palpable relief showing on his face when he saw me.

  “Mage!” he said, rushing to my side. “Thank the rivers you’re alive. Is Ehren alright?”

  “He needs treatment,” I said, breathing heavily, steadying myself on a nearby chair. “He has been unconscious since they knocked him out in the square. I don’t know what’s wrong.”

  Then, I sat down on the chair, and took a long, deep breath.

  “How did you even get to him?” he asked, his eyes wide. “We'd heard rumors, but we’d left the rooftop before we saw what happened to you. How did you reach him in the middle of the square?”

  While he spoke, a few of the men came over and lifted up Ehren, taking him into the next room where he could be treated. I saw Lissa follow them inside. Meanwhile, sweat beaded on my face as I sat as still as I could manage. I felt hot and feverish, again. Was this the same fever I’d had before, or a new one?

  “I got to him and moved him to safety, but I only barely got out of there,” I replied between breaths. “What happened to you? Is everyone alive and safe?”

  “It’s been four or five hours, and not everyone is back yet,” Dirk said. As he spoke, I noticed a large gash on his forehead, and blood covered his shirt. “We split up and were chased. The city is in absolute chaos tonight. People roam all over Vale looking for mages and resistance fighters. Regular citizens drag suspects through the streets on vague suspicions. Some of those who would have joined us have turned on us. I fear that some of our trusted resistance members have been captured or killed.”

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  I looked at him, leveling my gaze. “Is it even safe to be here, Dirk?”

  “I don’t think so," he hung his head, obviously exhausted too. "We were just discussing when we should leave the city.”

  “Bend, Greer, Willow, Briar, and Shade?” I asked, starting to feel heat creep up my body from the wound in my side, as well as small pains elsewhere, probably from the various close explosions I'd faced earlier.

  He took a deep breath, “Greer and Shade are alive, they’re still helping others get to safety. But Briar has not made it back yet and Willow is being treated and recovering. Bend was overconfident, and Uof’s goons wounded him in a battle on the streets outside the market square—some of them heavily armed. Bend wanted to stand and fight even though I kept telling him that we needed to run. Greer and I brought him in after an explosion knocked him down.”

  “Is he conscious?”

  “Yes,” he replied. “He was knocked out for some hours, but he woke up and should be fine to move soon.”

  I winced, my own pain growing so severe that the darkness threatened to take over again as it clouded my vision.

  Ehren, Willow, and Bend were all wounded. More resistance fighters had been killed or kidnapped. Uof had the resistance on the run. This was retaliation for our excursion to his Factory—amongst other things. He was angry that we'd freed some mages, and penetrated his secrets for the first time. But what did we actually learn? How was all of this worth it if we were losing people to his thugs and the mob of citizens he had strategically turned to his cause? Even though I could barely stand, I knew exactly what I had to do.

  “Are you okay Mage?”

  I nodded slowly, nausea threatening to assert itself and overthrow my handle on reality. The pain in my body ran throughout now, but I forced myself to keep my eyes open and awake.

  “We need to try to figure out the workings of the spell I saw the mages using inside The Factory,” I said carefully, remembering the mages we'd freed, who were still at our desert outpost. “When we get to the desert outpost, we can talk to the mages we freed about what these spells do. But until then, I can try it here. Uof is scared, which means we’re close… to something. If we can figure out how they create their hybrid weapons, perhaps that will give us an edge to take him down for good.”

  Dirk nodded. “What do you need?”

  “First, I just need to sit here for a moment,” I said. It was difficult to find a position that didn't hurt. “Bring Greer and Shade to me. I might need them to help me figure this out.”

  Dirk looked at me, concern on his face. “Should I have Lissa check on you? You’re sweating and your face is whiter than a bleached bone in the desert.”

  I shook my head. “No, I think I’ll be alright.”

  “Okay, I will find them.” Dirk left the room. I watched him go, and then slowly, got to my feet. I had to try this spell before I could no longer stand and cast anything at all.

  I drew a unique piece of limestone from my pockets. I drained the rock of its inconsiderable matter, and it whisked away into nothing. Then I carefully wove the spell that I’d seen the mages in Uof’s warehouse casting into their machines, and over each of their weapons. I wasn’t sure I had everything right in the casting.

  I triggered the spell and waited. Nothing happened.

  I closed my eyes and thought through once again what I had seen in The Factory only a few days before. It almost felt like I’d seen it years before. Still, I recalled the mage’s movements, his hands, his legs, and even his face. Had he said anything? He had not. But he had been seated during the casting, which changed the movements.

  So, I sat down and tried the spell again. The matter from the limestone rock remained available to me in the air, so I used it as I drew on the Source. Then I performed the spell again just as I’d seen it, and triggered it.

  Again, nothing happened.

  I thought about it again, went over the mage’s movements methodically in my mind. I had all the movements correct. However, as I thought through each step, I realized that he had cast the spell onto a long rifle — and the spell embedded itself into the piece of equipment. The spell would power the device, I realized then.

  I went searching. We had a small cache of motorized weapons in the corner, but those wouldn’t do any good. They were already embedded with this spell. So, instead I drew a regular non-motorized crossbow into my hands and wondered what would happen with this simple, wooden weapon. Would the spell work?

  Now, however, the matter from the piece of limestone dissipated, so I drained a clear crystal, a clear polygonal shaped mineral, drew on the source, and the spark coming from me, and moved carefully through the motions again, one simple movement after another. Then, I triggered the spell and cast it onto the crossbow itself.

  A steaming discharge lit up into the air, and I felt a thrill as the spell worked—giving me a needed rush of adrenaline to help me stay awake and upright.

  I picked up the crossbow and pointed it toward a burlap target in the corner of the room. When I depressed the trigger, the crossbow whirred, and cranked, and launched an arrow toward the wall with more force than was normal for a crossbow—and immediately following that the weapon discharged dribbles of dirty, oily liquid down my arm.

  Where had that discharge come from?

  In that instant I sensed the purpose of the spell and I understood for the very first time how the hybrid machines worked. I sat with the realization for a few seconds, letting it settle into me. As I did, the hairs on my arms stood straight up.

  I felt shock, but even more, horror when I realized the greater implications of the spell. Sitting there in the cave below the city of Vale, I understood that the world was in deep trouble.