Azure bonds - Kate Novak [105]
Alias shrieked and began squirming furiously. Akabar had never heard Alias make such a noise before. The sound completely broke his concentration. Fortunately, he had not yet begun his spell, so it was not ruined and wasted.
"What's wrong?" he shouted crossly.
"There's something," Alias cried, her features distorted with terror. She gulped air far too quickly, "Something on the other side. It's got my arm."
What could terrorize a woman who's stood up to dragons, earthly titans, and man-eating kalmari? Akabar wondered as he peered at the wall. The blue light had dimmed considerably. All the mage could make out beyond the translucent bricks was a vast shadow.
As he watched, the warrior woman's body lurched forward, dragged deeper into the wall by her arm. Now she was embedded to her right shoulder plate.
"Oh, gods," Alias whined. "Gods, gods, gods, gods," she moaned over and over, as though she were pleading with heaven.
"Hold her tight, Dragonbait," Akabar barked. "I'm going to try to dispel now."
Akabar resumed his stance and began to intone his spell. The rise and fall of his voice became an eerie melody superimposed over the warrior's panicked, repetitious rhythm.
Dragonbait strained between the trapped warrior and the wall. Even if his restored strength proved sufficient to counter the slow, steady force that sucked her through the barrier, Alias feared they might only end up tearing her in half. Equally bad was the possibility she would end up the instrument that crushed the life from the lizard before he was willing to sacrifice her.
Akabar finished his disenchantment spell by unlacing his fingers with a flourish to scatter the magical energies across the surface of the wall. Sun-yellow motes sparkled toward the wall, which was now the dark blue shade of a sky about to rain.
The motes struck the wall and hissed like sparks falling into water. The blue light grew even dimmer as the bricks grew opaque. Alias managed to pull her leg completely free and her arm came out up to her elbow. The half with sigils still remained buried.
Dragonbait, unprepared for the success of Akabar's spell, was dislodged from his position between Alias's trapped foot and arm, and he stumbled to the floor. He scrambled to his feet, grabbing her about the knees, but the entity on the other side gained the advantage with a sudden tug.
Alias gave one last inhuman scream before her boots slid from the lizard's grasp and she fell through the wall like sand in an hourglass.
The wall went completely opaque, and the sigils on Dragonbait's chest ceased radiating light. The lizard and mage were left alone, bathed in the now-feeble, yellow glow of the finder's stone.
Dragonbait picked up the glowing crystal and struggled to his feet. Tears streamed down the lizard's cheeks.
Akabar stared at the wall in disbelief. He ran up to it and pounded on it with his fists. "Give her back!" he screamed. The string of curses he began issuing rang down the corridors and echoed back, drowning out the ones he finished with. The wall remained smooth and hard. If Dragonbait's sword had only managed to scratch its surface, Akabar's bare hands weren't going to bring it down.
"You!" the mage growled, turning to the lizard. "This is your fault." He hurled his words like a mad monk throwing shurikens. They spun with poisonous, deadly precision, unconcerned whether or not they caused harm. "She came here after you. You should have held on to her. You lost her. We could have saved her, and you lost her. What kind of accursed beast are you? Who pulls your strings?"
With each accusation, the mage took a step toward the exhausted, grieving lizard until he had backed him against the wall and was standing over him nose to muzzle. Akabar screeched at the top of his lungs, "Answer me or, I swear, I'll wear your hide as sandals!" He reached down to grab the creature by the shoulders.
He never got the chance. Dragonbait used the finder's stone to smack the mage on the side of the head. The Turmishman staggered