The Howling Delve - Jaleigh Johnson [34]
With a hissing cry of pain, the creature released her and thrust back, churning water in its wake.
Meisha realized her hand was smoking. She'd burned the creature with her touch.
Varan stepped in front of her when the creature came around to attack again. Filmy eyes dominated the ripples of flesh that made up the creature's head. Below them, the mouth gaped from a nest of four tentacles. The creature's body tapered from a humanoid trunk to that of a serpent or an eel. Meisha couldn't tell from above the water.
Varan's hands traced the air in a scythe-cut. Slashes of light streaked across the chamber, cutting into the monster's flesh. Black ichor shed into the still-boiling pool.
Meisha crawled to a safe corner to watch the grim spectacle play out. She had no doubt Varan would win the battle. He stood so confidently; Meisha wondered if he'd ever lost a duel, with a creature or anothet wizatd. The power he expended seemed immense. Her own spell had drained her completely. The heat she'd created in the chamber, blending with the flashing light, mesmerized Meisha. Her last sight of the mysterious creature was bathed in that light, sharp against the black blood. Her vision dimmed, and she passed out.
When she awoke, Varan knelt beside her, supporting her head. His hard expression softened when he saw her eyes open and aware.
"I feared you would not wake," he said.
"And you would have wasted an apprentice after all," Meisha said faintly.
Vatan did not smile at her jest. Gently, he helped her sit up and gave her a long draught from his watetskin.
"You passed every test but one," he said, after she'd collected hetself.
Meisha waited expectantly, and Vatan nodded towatd the pool, which still gave off clouds of steam. The black blood and the creature were gone.
"You tapped too deeply into the fire," he said, "The power overwhelmed you, yes?"
Meisha nodded, for once listening without comment ot judgment. Varan was right. She'd felt a depth to the magic, a power just out of reach. She thought if she'd stretched a little bit farther, she might have brushed its source.
'When you're ready, we'll explore how deep the fire goes," Varan promised. "Be patient a few years. If you act too soon, the power may burn you from within, or deteriorate your health, as it has mine."
Meisha looked at hinj in surprise. She hadn't expected Varan to admit any weaknesses to het. Was it a gesture of ttust?
"What was the creature?" she asked, glancing at the water. "Will thete be more?"
"I think not," Varan said. "It was a kopru, a sea creature, adapted somehow to the fresh water. He was aged, else he would have been more difficult to kill, I think."
Difficult enough, Meisha thought, as weakness gripped her again. She swayed; Varan steadied her and squeezed her shoulder.
"Are you all right?" he asked.
He was concerned, Meisha thought, and marveled at the notion. No one had ever expressed concern for her before, and now it had happened twice in one night.
"I'm tired," she said, admitting her own weakness.
Varan nodded. "You'll sleep deeply tonight," he said, "and tomorrow."
"But our lesson-"
"Will keep," he said firmly. "I'm spending the next few days in another part of the Delve. You can use that time to recover."
"What part?" Meisha asked, curious. She had only a vague pictute in her mind of the layout of the Delve. The upper chambers were laid out roughly in the shape of a spider, with the apptentices living and studying in the main body, protected by Varan's wards from the tunnels branching out on all sides.
Far below them, the testing chambets were arranged and connected like star points. Vatan had designed them personally as training grounds for his apprentices. Meisha knew of no other large cavern systems within the Delve.
"Is the way hidden?" she asked.
"Quite well hidden," Vatan said, "and magically sealed. I managed to unravel the spells and for my efforts discovered a set of caverns adjoining the testing chambeis. In all my years here, I never knew of their existence. They will take several tendays, perhaps longer, to explore