Soul Gem Collector 6 Chapter 9

“What the fuck?” I muttered as I lunged for my jacket.

The sound of the shield as it splintered only grew louder, and I barely had time to grab my jacket for my soul gems before the magical barrier broke away entirely.

I summoned a limestone wall, as thick as a person, and watched as it arched upwards until it created a dome ceiling for us. As soon as the stone connected at the top, I jumped off the bed, and then stuffed myself into my pants.

“Wake up!” I shouted to the girls as I tugged on my shirt and then my jacket. “The Council of the Illuminated Ones are here.”

I stuffed my gems into my pocket so that my hands were free, grabbed Janel and Noura’s clothes, and then tossed them onto the bed. I searched for my boots, they were next to one of the couches, but I couldn’t find my socks. With a sigh, I stuffed my feet into the tough leather shoes, and then spun to make sure my girls were awake.

Janel and Noura had scooted to the edge of the bed, my wife already had her robes on, and my djinn girlfriend had just summoned herself another long, white Diaflorian dress that fell to the earth when she stood.

“How did they find us?” Aylara squeaked as the wall shuddered with the sound of another attack.

“They must’ve followed my magical signature somehow,” I said.

“I thought the shield protected us from that,” my vixen girlfriend said as she pushed her black hood back so she could braid her hair. She had puffy bags under her eyes, and a frown tugged on her petal pink lips as she stared at my quickly erected barricade.

“It should have,” Noura huffed. “I don’t know how they could have found us.” She glanced down at her hands with a worried expression. “Maybe my magic isn’t working.”

“I’m sure your magic is fine,” Janel reassured her before her jaw cracked with the force of a yawn.

“It’s gotta be me,” I said. “The Iron Dwarves must have tracked the soul gem with their comrade in it.”

“Still,” the djinn blinked back tears. “My shield wasn’t strong enough. What if they kill us?”

“They won’t,” I told her as I lifted her chin so she would look into my eyes. “I won’t let them.” I pressed a quick kiss to her lips. “Now… Can you summon another shield? The wall won’t last forever. And I know you can make another barrier.”

“I’ll make it as invincible as possible,” the flame-haired woman said, her coal dark eyes glittered with unshed tears and frustration, and when she snapped her fingers, I could feel the magic wash over me.

A golden shimmer spread from a ring just inside the limestone wall, and then slowly crawled upwards until it met above us to block out the noise of the breaking stone. Silence descended as the new barrier slid into place, the only sound was the crackle of the fire, and I could hear the beat of my heart as blood pounded in my ears.

The Council of the Illuminated Ones, the most powerful mages in the River Kingdoms, were on the other side of our barriers, and I would have to fight them to protect my girls.

“So what’s the plan?” Taslyn asked as she ran her hand over her black dress.

“The same thing as before,” I said while I ran my hands over my short hair. “I need to expose the Iron Dwarves on the Council.”

“They are definitely going to try to kill us first,” Aylara said. “How are we going to hold off the other five while you expose the two?”

The golden shield shook as the limestone wall behind it began to crack under the constant barrage of attacks from the council. Another hit from the other side sent a few stones to the ground, and I could see one of the Iron Dwarves as he looked through the whole with his beady black eyes.

“Okay,” I took a deep breath to steady my nerves, and then looked around at the strong, beautiful women who stood with me. “There are too many for me to control with willpower.”

“And they’d be able to break through the binds if your concentration wavers,” Janel added.

“Exactly,” I agreed. “I might be able to incapacitate them temporarily with Hawthorne. But they’ll get through those fast enough and I’ll need to concentrate on the Iron Dwarves.”

“So I’ll hex them,” Aylara said as she sat on the edge of a couch and tried to ignore the steady sound of the limestone wall being torn down. “If their spells keep misfiring they won’t be able to get out of the vines.”

“And I can focus on their auras,” Taslyn said. “I can see what Aylara’s hexes do to them and enhance that or suppress their magic.” Her tail swished behind her as her pupils dilated until the amber of her iris was barely visible.

“I’ll sing some battle songs,” my wife said with a nod of her head. “I’ve got the perfect one to strengthen your magic. And I can help you focus on the Iron Dwarves.”

“I will have shields around each of us,” Noura said.

“Whatever we do,” I warned. “We can’t hurt the five council members who are good. If we want the chance to convince them I’m not a threat we have to make sure they aren’t harmed more than what’s necessary to restrain them.”

“Got it,” the djinn pulled her shoulders back, and then turned her coal dark eyes towards the golden barrier that the council had started to break through.

Seven men stood on the other side of the glittering shield, their hands raised, and their robes pushed back so their sleeves wouldn’t get in the way of their spells. Most of them cast some form of fire or lightning, but the Iron Dwarves used battle axes with bright red rubies.

I couldn’t believe that the other members didn’t realize who stood next to them, they even had axes with iron laced throughout the metal, but when I pushed my dwarvish sight down, I could see that they were covered in a glamour that made them look like they were elvenborns with the glittering staves that many elvenborn mages seemed to favor.

“Are we ready?” I asked the girls.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Aylara said as she pushed her platinum blonde curls out of her face.

“We’ll only have one chance to hit them by surprise,” I muttered so they wouldn’t be able to read my lips. “Noura, on my say so… release the barrier. I’ll wrap the council in vines and the turn to the Iron Dwarves.”

“Just in case we don’t make it out of this,” Janel said as she squared her shoulders and readied herself to sing. “I love each of you.”

“I love you too,” I responded with a reassuring smile. “And we have many more years ahead of us.”

“I’m not ready to die just yet,” my fox-girl lover growled.

“We still have to open that shop,” Aylara said.

“And I want to watch the Korlems fall,” Noura added. “And watch as all of the other djinns under their control go free.”

“Then let’s get through this fight,” I said. “Drop the shield.”

I reached through the ground, the vines underneath the surface shot forward, and as soon as the glimmering barrier fell away in glittering dust, the shoots broke through the earth to wrap around the five council members who weren’t Iron Dwarves. They didn’t have time to react before the vines had their hands and feet bound, then snaked around their necks, and then around their heads to bind their mouths shut.

Janel’s sweet voice lifted into the night air to join the muffled shouts from the five elvenborn mages, and my muscles strengthened and my mind cleared the last bits of sleepiness away as I focused on the two free Iron Dwarves.

“We’ve got the council,” Aylara said as she stood next to Taslyn, the mouse-girl began to hex them, while the fox-girl manipulated their auras.

“Noura, can you use fire to bind the dwarves while I pull down their glamour?” I asked as I drew upon my dwarvish magic.

“Sure,” the djinn said.

“Thanks,” I said. “They shouldn’t catch fire easily. I need the others to see what they really are.”

Fiery chains wrapped around the wrists and feet of the Iron Dwarves as they rushed towards me, but they whipped their axes around and as soon as the iron of their weapons touched Noura’s magic, the binds turned into smoke that curled into the air and then disappeared.

“I’m going to have to wear them down first,” I grumbled as I switched to my lightning magic. I held my hands out in front of me, cupped together, and then summoned a ball of the blue electric energy that I shot towards the dwarf closest to me. “Noura… I need you to slow them down.”

“On it,” the beautiful, flame-haired woman said as she summoned pillars of fire that wound through the two dwarves. They had to refocus on the new threat, their iron laced axes cut through the flame tornadoes like it was butter, but my djinn girlfriend created more as soon as the others faded to smoke.

My mind raced through what I could use next, most of my powers would kill them, but I needed them alive until I could reveal what they were. Their glamours were still in place, though as more flames licked at their skin, they seemed to grow tired and I saw a crack in their facade.

“I think if I can touch them, then I can pull their illusions down easier,” I said. “I didn’t practice with an object in motion. I need to have them still… or maybe if I can touch them with the ice it’ll be enough distraction.”

“I’m not sure I can keep the flames away from you,” Noura said as she manipulated the fire to maneuver the beady eyed dwarves.

“I’ll be quick,” I said.

“You’ll need to hurry,” Taslyn said. Her brow was covered in sweat, and her petal pink lips were pursed together as she concentrated on the aura manipulation. “Their magic is starting to surge.”

“I can only hex them so many times,” Aylara said. “They’re starting to work around everything I throw at them.”

“We’ll end this soon,” I said before I sent another round of vines to strengthen the hold I had on the other council members. “Noura, I’m going in.”

“I’ll try to keep them away from you,” the djinn said as she watched me surge forward.

I went towards the dwarf on the right, he swung his axe towards me, and took out three of the fiery funnels in one swoop. I jumped back, but the sharpened edge of his weapon tore through the fabric of my shirt. I spun around, grabbed him by the wrist before he could regain his balance, and then ducked down to touch the ground under his feet.

Ice splintered outwards, and it encased his boots so that he couldn’t move, though he twisted enough that he almost hit me with his axe. The massive weapon breezed right past my head, and I watched in slow motion as a few strands of my already short hair drifted down into the grass.

“Zayre!” Taslyn shouted as I rolled away from one dwarf, and towards another. When I looked up at the sexy vixen, she had put her hand on the back of one of the couches, and her freckles stuck out more against her pale skin. “I can’t keep this up much longer.”

“Janel, can you use your songs to help Tas and Aylara?” I asked as I sprung up to my feet to avoid the axe of the other Iron Dwarf.

“That will leave you unprotected,” my beautiful elvenborn wife said as she looked between the vixen and me.

“I’ll be okay,” I reassured her.

“I’ve got his back,” my djinn girlfriend said as she wrapped me in a shield, and then used a fire whip to yank the dwarf’s hand back.

“They’re starting to break through the vines,” Aylara squeaked, and when I looked over, I saw that the vines around two of the council members had begun to flake and fall away.

“Shit, shit, shit,” I cussed.

The dwarf on the right had almost broken free of the ice on his feet, though I could see the cracks beginning in his glamour. His beady eyes were focused on his partner, like they could talk to each other in their minds, and I had to force myself to focus on the task ahead rather than the surge of panic that threatened to overwhelm me.

I stood and took a step back so that I was out of the reach of the axe nearest me, the other dwarf had almost made it through the ice, but the dwarf in front of me struggled against the binds that Noura had placed him in. He swung wildly, but the djinn yanked the fiery chains away from the tip of his axe, and his distraction gave me the perfect opening to grab hold of the handle of his war weapon. The metal became brittle as I turned it to ice, I forced the shards to spread up to his hands, and when it reached his wrists, I yanked downwards until the dwarf’s hands broke off.

A scream filled the clearing, it echoed off of the fallen limestone wall, and rang in my ears as I watched the glamour fade from the fake council member. He held up the nubs where his hands had been, his black, beady eyes pierced through me, and the firelight from our camp glimmered off of his shiny, flint-like skin. He shouted a curse in a language I didn’t know, but I could understand his meaning all the same.

“Zayre!” Janel shouted.

I turned to look at her just as the axe of the other dwarf slammed into the shield around me, I stared down at the golden glimmer to see that it thickened even as the iron cut through the magic, and barely had enough time to move out of the way before the axe made it through the barrier.

“You’ll pay for this,” the dwarf snarled as he readied himself for another blow, his glamour had disappeared as he focused his magic on his axe, and fire raced down to encompass the metal, though it avoided the spots where the iron had been welded.

“I guess I ruined your plan for world domination,” I countered with a glance over my shoulder to the other council members.

Two of them had broken free from the vines, the remnants of the thick living ropes laid at the feet of the council members, and they were nothing more than flakes of ash and dead cords. Still, the two council members didn’t move to attack me or to defend the two Iron Dwarves that now stood with no glamours.

The other three had managed to free themselves partially, but they had stopped their struggle, and their eyes were all focused on the enemy that was hidden in their midst. Their faces shifted between disbelief, anger, and hatred as they stared at the evil dwarves who had killed so many in previous wars.

Taslyn’s pupils had faded from their dilated state, her amber irises were bright with magic, and she watched the council members warily as she sat on the arm of a sofa. She looked exhausted, but I knew that if any of the men moved to strike, then she would spring up to help me.

Aylara stood next to the vixen, her hands raised, while her tail curled and uncurled nervously. Her bright red eyes had lost some of their focus, the lack of sleep and use of her magic had put a strain on her, and I knew I needed to end this soon so my girls could get some rest.

“You haven’t stopped us,” the dwarf with no hands laughed in his deep, scratchy voice as he brought my attention back to him. “And I don’t need hands to defeat you.”

He lifted the nubs of his hands and red magic flared around the icy stubs, the frost melted, and his skin became it’s usual flinty black. He started to form balls of fire, but I was more focused on the other dwarf as he started to swing his axe towards me.

“Even if you kill us,” the Iron Dwarf grunted. “There are many others that are ready to take our place.”

“I’ve already taken out one warband,” I sneered as I ducked under the blade of the axe, I twisted up to punch him in the stomach with my ice, and smirked as the frost splintered outwards. “In fact, I killed one of your buddies with that exact move.”

“Another human lie,” the other dwarf grunted as he tossed a fireball at his friend. The flames splashed against the ice, it stopped its spread, and soon the icicles had flaked away to leave only the point of impact frozen. “Nevertheless, you won’t survive two mages at the same time.”

The dwarf in front of me had dropped his axe when I hit him, and though the ice had stopped its spread, he seemed to have trouble with each breath. He glared down at me while he brought up his fists, his fire magic coated his skin like gauntlets, and he swung a meaty hand towards my face.

“Even if you beat me,” I huffed as I dodged the blow and then sent an uppercut into the jaw of the dwarf in front of me. “You can’t beat the real Council of Illuminated Ones.” I watched in satisfaction as my strike landed, and the ice consumed the dwarf’s face before his friend could try to help him.

The Iron Dwarf stared in shock as the icicles spread up into his eyes, his beard turned brittle and fell away, while his skin began to break off in large chunks. He started to choke as the ice spread down his throat and to the rest of his body, he stumbled like might try to strike me again, but I stepped easily to the side.

“You’re going to pay for that!” the dwarf with no hands screeched as his friend tumbled to the ground in cubes of ice. He rushed towards me, his flames licked all the way up to his elbows, and his beady black eyes glimmered with pain and rage.

“Maybe, but you won’t be the one to make me pay.” I reached deep into my wells of power, and drew on my river naiad to pierce through his heart with a powerful funnel of water that shot through the dwarf, and then cut through several of the trees behind him before it disappeared.

The last Iron Dwarf on the Council of the Illuminated Ones fell in slow motion, his shirt covered in water, and his mouth opened in shock that I could have killed him. I felt a wave of exhaustion as I walked forward to kick his boot, I needed to be sure that I had actually gotten his heart, and I couldn’t risk any last minute attacks from the dwarf.

“Is everyone okay?” I asked as I turned to look at Noura.

She had gotten too close for comfort, especially with the iron in the axes that could easily tear through her magical flesh, but she seemed okay. There weren’t any cuts in her dress, no black lines to show that the deadly metal had pierced her, and I let out a sigh of relief that my djinn lover had come out unscathed.

“I would like a nap,” Aylara muttered from beside Taslyn, her eyes were still focused on the remaining council members, and her curly platinum blonde hair was frizzy from the use of her magic.

“A good night’s rest does sound nice,” the vixen mused. “But something tells me we won’t have one of those for awhile.” Her eyes were slightly unfocused, but I had no doubt that she could spring into action if she needed to.

“I could use a nice tea,” Janel said as she ran her fingers down the length of her long, tanned neck. She had sung several songs, she had strengthened all of us, and she would need honey to soothe her sore vocal chords.

“I can summon some for you,” Noura said as she walked over with me to look at the other girls. They had been far enough away that they were safe from the axes, but they had been in a battle to keep the other council members away from me while I revealed the Iron Dwarves.

“It can wait,” my wife grinned. “But once we’re safe, I will definitely enjoy one. Before a very long night of sleep.”

“You need to release us,” said one of the three bound council members as he reminded us that they were there. He was a middle-aged elvenborn man with dark brown hair and eyes, and his brow was creased with irritation as he motioned to the vines.

“Not just yet,” Taslyn answered for me. “Zayre. You might want to bind them again. Just in case.” She flicked her fluffy red tail behind her as she crossed one muscular leg over the other.

“Good idea,” I agreed, and then pulled on Hawthorne’s vines to rewrap the others before they could defend themselves. “Just so we can talk without any more fighting.”

“You are an abomination,” one of the other council members said, an older man with gray hair around the crown of his head, but a bald spot on the top. He glowered at me with his sky blue eyes, his fists were clenched, and he almost shook with the rage that he held back.

“Why did you make them look like Iron Dwarves?” another said, he was also an older man though he had dark gray hair and a short beard.

“I didn’t,” I said. “They were Iron Dwarves.”

“Bullshit,” the middle-aged elvenborn with dark hair snapped. “You made them look like that. There’s no way that there were Iron Dwarves on the Council of the Illuminated Ones.”

“You saw it with your own eyes!” I huffed. I needed to calm down and try to convince them of what they saw, it made sense that they wouldn’t want to believe it, but irritation still laced my words. “You can’t really think--”

“Zayre,” Janel interrupted as she glanced towards the bodies of the two dwarves. The souls of the dwarves had begun to lift from their body and flow towards me in the brown swirls of their magic.

I watched the sparks go into my pocket, the gems warmed against my flesh as the souls were captured, and I had just enough time to register the snap of the vines before a spell threw me backwards.