Fire of the Inquisitor

In hindsight, Lucia was almost glad she had lost her shield back in the caves because carrying any more weight on her climb up the rock pillar would have killed her by now. At least there were plenty of ledges and holes in the hard rock to lift herself up and more than once she was forced to rest on one of the ledges before continuing. It was during these rest times when she would stare out into the valley below, searching for any signs of her fellow soldiers or for the beast chasing her. She never caught a glimpse of either.

Unaware of how long she had been climbing, Lucia climbed until she was high enough that a fall would have surely been fatal until even the monster would have had to climb a while to get her. She was about to give up for the day, lie face up on one of the flat edges she found and fall asleep until she either rolled off the edge, wake up in the jaws of her pursuing beast, or be awaken from a week’s worth of hibernation, but before she could close her eyes and drift off to sleep something peculiar grabbed her attention. It was a piece of orange cloth with beads threaded at the end of it hanging from the ledge above her. She took a while debating herself whether she had the strength to pull herself up one more ledge, but her curiosity won out in the end.

It took longer than Lucia would have thought to get herself up and to climb the short distance above her, but when she did she was she had made the effort. The orange cloth was tied to a wooden post that seemed to wrap around the stone pillar on an inclined path that rose farther than she could see. Lucia followed the path upward, discovering that the builders of the elevated path were still very much present.

After every rise in elevation, Lucia came upon an arched opening carved into the rock. Inside each of these archways stood, or sat Lucia wasn’t quite sure, a dark figure cloaked in black robes that were embroidered with gold trimming that were made of strange characters like none she had ever seen. The creature’s faces were so obscured by their cloaks that their only distinguishable feature were their diamond shaped eyes that glowed with a brilliant sapphire light. Lucia froze when she came across the first cave dweller she encountered, but it just stared right through her without any kind of reaction, not even a sound. Each subsequent cave dweller behaved in the same manner, leaving Lucia with an eerie feeling as she continued her journey upward.

The strange coldness she had felt in the ice caves was present here as well and the breeze that brought it blew the orange streamers that were tied at every post of the railing. Lucia was almost forced to turn back when she finally came upon an archway that was different from any she had come across at this point. This cave had wooden bars covering its opening and the cave dweller inside wore a dark blue robe and was lying with his back to the world.

“You are quite slow,” the being in the cave prison said.

Lucia frowned. “Excuse me.”

“I expected you to arrive hours ago,” he said, without turning around.

“Who are you?” Lucia could feel her cheeks start to redden. “Why can you speak my language?”

“Why wouldn’t I know how to speak your language?”

Lucia stretched her arms out. “I might not have fought in the war, but I have heard stories about what the cold ones were like.” She shivered as an icy breeze blew past her. “You cave dwellers possess the same eyes as our enemy.”

“I am not a cave dweller.”

The man rolled over, revealing a striking bone mask with black feathers attached to the rounded back. She could see through the mask’s eyes holes and the eyes that stared back at her were not very different from her own.

“Who are you?” was the only thing Lucia could manage.

The masked prisoner struggled to sit up before speaking, “I am my lady’s inquisitor.”

Lucia had never heard of an inquisitor, but the reference to his lady could only mean one thing. He was an Umbragoth.

“Are you going to get me out of here?”

“What?” Lucia blinked. She put her hands on the wooden bars and pulled on them. “Of course, but I don’t …”

She was cut off by a clawed hand sweeping past her face. Lucia couldn’t help but scream as one of the cave dwellers attacked her, its eyes now a dark crimson. As quickly as her fatigued body would allow she retrieved her sword and swung it at the creature. The blade passed right through the creature’s body as if he was a ghost and for she knew it very well could have been. At that moment, her sword erupted in flames and the creature let out a horrific scream and descended the curved path from which it came.

“How did you …” Her mumbling was cut short.

“Could you please hurry and get me out of here?” the umbragoth said.

She nodded and started to hit axe away at the cage’s bars with her sword that had returned to normal. It was like striking rock more than wood. “But can’t you just burn down the bars?”

He shook his head. “They don’t burn, it’s why I was imprisoned here.”

“But my sword does burn?”

He sighed. “It was born of flame wasn’t it?”

“I suppose.”

“Well these bars were born of ice,” he said.

She started to break through the bars and he started to stand up very slowly. None of this was making sense to Lucia, but she knew that it was his flame that had saved her from the beast and she was glad to know that her rescuer was at least an ally to the legion. When she finally broke two of the bars he was able to slip out and she supported him as the started up the path. As they made their escape a loud screech came from below them, to loud to be one of the cave dwellers.

“He’s coming,” her ally said.

“That beast trapped you in that cage?” Lucia asked.

“He’s too stupid for something like that,” he said. “It was his mother.”

Lucia’s heart sunk. “There is another one of those things?”

The masked man looked at her for a moment before answering. “His mother is a witch, she created him because she wanted me to believe he was a dragon.” He lowered his head and did not speak for a moment. “For some reason she wants me alive, so when the beast had defeated me in combat she placed me somewhere she knew I couldn’t escape.”

“So, what do we do now?” Lucia said.

“We slay the beast.”

Lucia’s jaw dropped. “But you can hardly walk.”

“That is why you’re going to be the one who slays it,” he said.

Lucia froze in place and turned her head so she could look the stranger she was carrying in the eye. Nothing in his gaze told her that he wasn’t being anything but serious. In the distance, the beast screeched like a hundred eagles.

Lucia felt like she was going to be sick.