Part 21: Salvation
They attacked at the same time, slashing and cutting and casting. From one side of the room came Alistair's human battle shout. From the other side came Simon's. To their surprise, Pip flung powerful spells with great ease as if he'd grown up in the Mage Quarters.
More men poured into the room, dressed in the symbolic Gold of the Justice Guardians who were tasked with protecting Velistara and the Mages under Alistair's tutelage. They attacked immediately, except for one who turned, obviously intending to go get help.
Pip froze him into place and then Blake hit him with a psychic blast from her staff. He shattered, exploding into tiny shards of glass-hard ice.
The battle raged for long moments, but it wasn't hard for the group to prevail. There were close calls, saved by Blake's healing. When they were done, there were corpses all around, and nothing else but tired breathing and the hum of the spell over Senistraz.
"Blake comes. Blake helps. Simon and the Parents watch and protect."
Pip sat down right in front of Senistraz' nose. Blake sank down beside him.
They went into a deep meditative state while the others cleaned up, keeping to whispers or silence.
Blake felt Pip's mind take hers, and quailed at the invasion. She felt herself gentled and soothed, much as she had done to him during the flight when they'd saved Simon. Against her will and in spite of herself, she calmed and allowed him to take her over.
She was pulled along as he sank into the spell, and she watched in awe as he began to unravel it. She noticed nodes in the spell, and upon noticing them, felt him give her the understanding that these nodes were booby traps.
They were not very cleverly set, but he warned her against underestimation. In thinking the casters to be inexperienced or reckless, one could easily overlook more delicate, subtle traps.
After some time of gently unwrapping fragments here and there, they began to make real progress.
"Does Blake see it?" Pip's mind sounded distant, but she could hear him without difficulty.
"I don't think so. It looks like the rest to me."
"Look more closely," he commanded. "But do not touch."
She narrowed her focus to where the webbing of the spell looked almost like ropes, rather than nearly invisible threads. Then she heard a tinkling sound, like bells.
"An alert, as Pip thought. Clever and well disguised," Pip explained.
"How do we release it?"
"It is looking for noise. For the tiny bells to ring. So Pip will fill the space with silence." She felt him gathering powerful magic, far more powerful than any she had ever seen before. Then the tinkling of the bells stopped, and more threads were unwound.
"Wait!" It was her turn to see the threat.
"Blake is doing well. Does Blake think she can undo this one?"
Blake gave herself a mental shake. Then, she reached out and looked over the webbing. There were tiny blocks sitting on it, and she pondered a way to get the blocks off. Below the threads, she could see the 'floor' put down for the blocks to fall on. She assumed that if they fell, they would trigger.
"I can," she decided. She had a plan. The magic it would require was minuscule, and she felt she could do it without a problem.
"Try it," Pip told her.
"What if I screw it up?"
"Pip can protect Senistraz, though it will be taxing."
"Maybe we should do this some other time."
"Will Blake be able to live with herself if she lets Pip do all the work of saving her dearest friend?"
Blake froze. No. She would never be able to do that. Especially since it wasn't 100% necessary and Pip could salvage it if she botched it.
So she spun a net out below the strings. When the tiny blocks fell off, they wouldn't strike the 'floor', but rather her net. Then she unraveled it, mentally holding her breath. It was successful.
"That was excellent! Very efficient."
"What would you have done?"
"Pip would have made a magnet to draw all of the blocks up. But Blake's solution was more energy efficient."
Together, they finished unraveling the spell. When they were done, they came out of their trances to the sight of Senistraz still lying chained to the floor.
"It's safe now. But what are we to do with these chains?"
"I can break a few chains," Dugan said. "I know you brought me along to fight, but I don't go nowhere without mah tools on mah belt. I'll have her out of there."
The powerful dwarf pulled a heavy metal wedge out of his toolbelt and laid it in between two links of the first chain. Pounding with the hammer that he both fought and smithed with, he soon popped the first link of the chain.
When the chain released, it flared suddenly, and Pip barely managed to contain the magic in it from exploding on Senistraz.
"Why is it that every time I go on a mission like this, I end up sitting here chewing my nails while someone else does all the work?" Alistair sounded plaintive and unhappy.
"This is why Senistraz still hibernates," Pip said. "The magic in the chains."
He and Blake sat down again and worked on the chains, one by one. The strain showed on them both, and Simon's heart ached. He felt much like Alistair… helpless and useless. He did not relish the feeling anymore than the elder dragon did.
Finally, they broke from their trances again, both sweating despite the cold air. Neither of them stood; it was obvious that their work had exhausted them.
Slowly, as if coming out of a deep sleep, Senistraz lifted her head.
Blake cried out, a sound of desperate sorrow and hope. Senistraz dropped her head to nuzzle again her dear human friend. This time, Dugan was able to release the chains without incident.
"She can talk!" Blake cried.
"Is she a dragon, too?" Alistair said in awe.
"Of course." Pip answered the question for everyone. "Should Loyalty not always be balanced by Reason?"
"Reason picked a woman for a Rider?" Alistair asked. Then, at Velistara's punch on his arm, "Oww! I didn't mean it that way!" She gave him a disgusted, knowing look. "Okay, maybe a little bit." He spread his hands wide. "Come on, that was funny!" he looked to Simon for help.
Simon held up his hands defensively and backed away. The other men in the cave made a point to look away, one of the dwarves going so far as to whistle in fake innocence.
"Oh fine, turn on me now. I see how it is."
There were chuckles, tempered by the concern of the moment.
"So what do we do now? Can she shift?"
"She is too weak," Pip said. "But Pip has a plan."
"Am I the only one who really, really doesn't like the sound of that?" Alistair asked rhetorically.