Chapter 119

Nym looked down the chimney and yelled into it, “You can come out now. The undead are all, um, dead.”

He’d dug a narrow pit about five feet straight down with elemental earth magic and tossed all the chopped up ghouls into it. They weren’t burning very well and he suspected if he didn’t take a more active role in their disposal, they’d eventually work their way free one way or another, but he didn’t plan on sticking around to wait for it to happen.

The earth rumbled near the chimney and the sound of a few voices arguing came up to him. Ophelia’s voice rose over the other ones and bullied them into silence. A few seconds later, the rumbling ended and a section of the ground collapsed to reveal about twenty people in a sort of artificial cave. Nym’s face went blank when he saw them.

His plan hadn’t accounted for the idea that there might be other survivors, but in hindsight, it was obvious that the workers would band together to survive. This was going to make everything much more complicated. He couldn’t reveal his teleportation spell to the entire group, and he doubted he’d be able to leave the extras behind.

The not-cold voice in the back of his mind told him that those other earth mages had just as much of a right to be saved, but Nym ignored that. The goal was to extract four trustworthy earth mages, not twenty unknown mages that he needed to hide his capabilities from. Worse, as he got a better look, he realized that the underground shelter was bigger than he’d thought. It wasn’t just twenty healthy mages. There were at least another seven or eight spread out on the ground nearby.

“Nym?” Ophelia called up to him. “A little help getting out?”

He wrapped her in air and lifted her up to float next to him. “This is more people than I was expecting,” he said.

“Maybe a third of the camp survived, and only because we managed to combine specialties to build this bunker. Most of them don’t want to leave. They’re just going to wait for the army to pacify the area again.”

“That’s not going to happen before they starve to death,” Nym said. “There are thousands of ghouls attacking right now, backed by wights. I saw a whole section of the wall overrun. Geists got the soldiers.”

Ophelia paled. “God,” she whispered. “How did this happen?”

The question wasn’t directed at Nym, and he didn’t have an answer for her anyway. “My plan was for getting the four of you out of here,” he told her. “I have no idea how we’re going to move almost thirty people, especially with the wounded.”

“That’s why we were waiting for the army to get back in. We’ve got enough water to last a few days. Someone tunneled to a storage building and got supplies for us before the ghouls finished tearing through here.”

“Were there any plans besides waiting and hoping?”

Ophelia shook her head. “Nothing with a prayer of working. No one here can fly, and tunneling fifty or more miles to the edge of the woods is a fool’s errand. It would take weeks with healthy and well-rested crews rotating every few hours. For this group… months at minimum. If we abandoned the wounded, it would still take days to walk that far, assuming no undead found us.”

Nym was annoyed. This was supposed to be a simple task. The presence of two dozen other earth mages messed everything up, and leaving them behind would no doubt strain his relationship with the Earth Shapers.

“What was your plan?” Ophelia asked. “There’s no way you could fly four extra people out.”

Nym hesitated. There was nothing to gain by telling her about his breakthrough to third circle now, but Analia already knew, so it would come out to the Earth Shapers anyway. They’d trust him less if he lied about it now. “I learned how to teleport,” he admitted. “But it needs to be kept secret, and I definitely can’t do this many people.”

“Telep- what? You’ve got to be kidding me! You’re already into the third layer?”

“Keep it to yourself. Just trust me when I say I’ve got reasons for not advertising it. And like I said, this is too many people. So… new plan?”

“You’re not going to convince them to leave. The bunker was the plan.”

Nym shrugged. “As long as I get you four, that’s what I’m here for. I guess let’s talk to the whole group and see who wants to stay? We can figure out what we’re going to do once we know who’s willing to leave?”

Ophelia sighed, but nodded in agreement. They descended into the bunker and a trio of earth mages repaired the roof. Nym got his first good look around and spotted the twins nearby. Bildar was not in the crowd however. Instead, Nym found him lying near the back of the bunker, hidden in the darkness. He was breathing lightly and his robes were covered with blood.

There was no need to ask what had happened. A ghoul had gotten hold of him and, from the looks of it, taken at least one bite out of the man. It was another complication to what should have been a simple plan.

“Listen up,” Ophelia said, raising her voice. “We’ve got a potential avenue to escape. I’m not going to say it’s risk-free, but my friend here is a veteran at fighting undead. He’s been killing ghouls for months. How many are willing to try to walk out of here with us?”

There was a lot of grumbling from a few vocal mages, and a lot of hollow stares from most of the rest. A few went to sit near the wounded and whisper to them. Nym himself walked away, leaving Ophelia to argue with the other mages. He moved over to where Bildar was resting and sat down next to the man. “How are you feeling?” he asked.

Bildar groaned and said, “How’s it look like I’m feeling?”

“Like a ghoul used you for a chew toy,” Nym told him. “You know that I can cast a pain blocking spell, right?”

“The only thing I would want more than that right now is one of those custards, and it’s real close.”

With a quiet laugh, Nym cast the spell on Bildar, who relaxed immediately. “That’s good stuff right there,” he said. “It’s been real hard to keep my thoughts organized for the last few hours. I don’t suppose your fancy new set of spells could get me back on my feet?”

“Scrapes and bruises, mostly. I could encourage a bone to heal that’s been properly set, speed up natural regeneration. I don’t have anything for this level of damage yet.”

“Bah. What kind of a healer are you?”

“I’m a lot better at killing than healing.”

“I suppose that’s true. Remember that giant bird that attacked us? You fried that thing like it was nothing.”

“Speaking of, did you know that apparently using lightning magic gets you arrested here?”

“What are you talking about?” Bildar asked.

“Two army mages tried to take me in for hitting an enemy wight with a lightning bolt. We were in the middle of a huge battle and everything.”

“Something funny was happening there,” Bildar told him bluntly. “Lightning magic isn’t illegal. I would have warned you about using it near the town if it was.”

“Oh. That’s great, just what I needed.”

He’d deal with that problem later, if ever. Whoever those mages were, if they had indeed been part of the army, they were loyal to someone else as well, someone who wanted to imprison him, or at least get him off the field. He was just lucky that abrasive lieutenant had foiled that plot for him. Of course, with everything going on, there might not be a government presence by tomorrow. It was entirely possible that both those mages were already dead.

“Do you think you can walk under your own power?” Nym asked.

“I can. It’s probably not good for me. It hurt to breathe before, you know. Feels fine now though, at least for an hour or two.”

“You can cast a pain blocking spell?” a new voice asked.

The woman on the other side of Nym had been sleeping when he first got there, but his conversation with Bildar had woken her up. She looked haggard and had dried blood all over her face from a scalp wound that was still oozing. “I can,” Nym said slowly. He saw where this was going, and he already didn’t like it. “I can’t heal you though.”

“Please… please help me,” she begged.

Nym grimaced internally, but it was his own fault. Quickly, he cast pain blocking spells on all of the wounded mages. The woman next to him let out a sigh of relief and sank back down. “Thank you,” she said. “Maybe now… now I can get some sleep.”

He decided it wasn’t worth his time to point out that she’d already been asleep when he’d first arrived. Instead, he turned back to Bilder and said, “You’re going to need to see a real healer. Sooner is better. I’m going to go see what the group has decided on, but one way or another, I’m getting the four of you clear.”

Even if he had to kidnap them, he’d at least accomplish that much. Anything else was a complete and total waste of his time coming out here. The whole plan should have taken less than ten minutes, and almost all of that travel time. Nym hoped that the rest of the earth mages were too stubborn to leave and that he could depart with just the people he actually wanted to save.

The not-cold voice in his head didn’t like that idea, but he ruthlessly quashed it. It was survival time now. He could have empathy and morals later. Salvaging as many of his assets as he could from the situation was his sole priority, and if this wasn’t resolved soon, he was on the edge of writing the Earth Shapers off completely.

“Well?” he asked Ophelia.

She shook her head. “They’re all afraid to go out.”

“Can’t really blame them,” Monick said. “I’m afraid to go out too. You’re tough, Nym, but you can’t fly us all. How were you planning on doing this? Ferrying us out one at a time?”

“Something like that.”

“It’s time to leave,” he said. He turned to the rest of the bunker and raised his voice. “We’re leaving now. Anyone who wants to come can come. The rest of you… I hope you survive and that the army comes to rescue you, but I have seen how bad they’ve been beaten back by the undead. This wasn’t isolated to your camp. Ghouls are getting over the walls by the hundreds or even thousands. The army is being pushed out.”

This sparked another round of arguments, but Nym didn’t stop to listen to it. He just turned to Ophelia and said, “Ready?”

She glanced around once and then gave him a decisive nod. Nomick walked up to them with Bildar, helping the older mage stay upright. Even with the pain blocking spell, his body was still so weak from blood loss that he was having trouble moving on his own.

“Open up the ceiling,” Nym said. He grabbed all four of them and lifted them up into the air. A portion of the dirt overhead started to collapse and reveal the night sky overhead. The ceiling peeled back, and as it retracted, a leg fell from the ground overhead to the bunker floor.

The rest of the ghoul came tumbling in right after it, along with two more of its kin.