"A cave in the hills," Alys groused. "The mad techmaster lurks in a cave in the hills. Could there be anything more cliched?"
"Cliches get started because they're commonly true," Rune pointed out, unconsciously echoing Alys's own thoughts from way back in Zema.
"Mad wizards in caves? Do you Espers have some kind of liking for holes in the ground?"
Rune sighed.
"Actually, I once did live in a cave. Come to think of it, so did my mentor."
Alys chortled.
"Stop laughing! A cave makes perfect sense."
They trudged on. Allegedly, the cave in question was only a day's travel out of town. It would probably be less for the hunters, who were better fit for wilderness travel than an urban resident like Derek. Of course, having to lead the way with hands bound behind him, a rope lead in Galf's hand, also tended to slow up the thief. Rune seemed to have no trouble keeping up, which a small part of Alys found annoying. Anything to shake that supremely arrogant confidence of his!
"Okay, then, enlighten me. What makes a dank pit in the ground so attractive to Espers?"
"First off, there's solitude. If you're involved in magic or techniques research you don't want to be bothered, so you need a private facility. If you're a sane and reasonable person, you also want to stay well away from population, in case of accidents. If, instead, you have paranoid delusions, you also want to stay away from population because you think they're out to get you or whatever. Then there's stability--nice, solid stone construction, not a pile of sticks that falls apart or catches fire."
"That would serve anyone right who wastes wood building a whole house," Alys noted, which drew an odd look from Rune. She couldn't figure why; trees simply were too rare to use in place of stone or brick, and wood too useful for other purposes.
"Anyway," he said, "the third reason is cost. There's no need to buy the land and no need to build the structure since it's been pre-built by nature. When you have chemicals and other reagents to buy, wasting your available capital on your research facility isn't productive."
"All right, then, I admit it. A cave makes perfect sense...for technique-throwing lunatics."
"Why, thank you. I'm glad you've learned something," Rune replied with perfect aplomb.
"Argh!"
Rune broke into a smile and laughed.
"Kids, don't make me come back there," Galf called from up ahead. "Especially since we're here."
The track, barely more than an animal trail, rounded to a corner in the hillside and there it was, a cave mouth seven feet high and four wide.
"Well, it's just as he said, right down to those two scrubby pines to the left of the entrance," Alys remarked. "At least he didn't lead us off chasing the wind."
From the coastal valley below a sharp bang like a particularly close thunderbolt could be heard. It was the fourth time since they'd begun the walk, the fourth technique gone spectacularly wrong in Valhalla.
"How long are things going to be like that around here?" she asked, subdued by the thought of what might have happened, how many people could have been hurt.
"I can't be sure," Rune replied. "If we can stop the techmaster from using any further Nei techniques and making the situation any worse...a decade, maybe? Perhaps two?"
"Valhalla is dead, then," Alys said glumly. "You can't have a town in a place where technique use could result in a catastrophic disaster. As soon as they realize what's happening, they'll leave." She shook her head. "Sometimes it seems like we're losing ground instead of expanding civilization and knowledge."
"You don't know how right you are."
"Are all Espers this enigmatic?"
"It's a special talent."
"All right, then, let's head on in," Galf cut short the debate. He tugged on the rope, pulling Derek stumbling forward. "I'd like to make you lead the way in case there's a nasty surprise waiting inside, but it'd take too much work to keep you under control, especially in a fight."
He pushed the thief against one of the pines and used the lead rope to tie him to the tree.
"Let's go."
Galf led the way, sword drawn. Alys followed with a lit dark-lantern, shining its beam past her mentor to illuminate the way. A slasher was in her other hand, blades unfolded and ready. Rune brought up the rear of the group.
"I don't suppose there's a spell to disarm traps," Alys murmured softly. She didn't whisper, as Galf had taught her that would carry further than a low voice.
"Actually, there is, but I don't know it. We'll just have to be careful."
Their care, it seemed, wasn't necessary. As they proceeded deeper within, they encountered no dug pits, no tripwires or man-traps, no snares of any kind. If this really was the techmaster's lair, Alys thought, he had apparently not bothered to install any mechanical defenses. There seemed to only be one main passage, with short dead-end alcoves and fissures too small for even a child to fit through. The cave was dry, thankfully; a dead cave without sources of moisture was unlikely to be inhabited by monsters, so at least they didn't have to worry about Zol slugs oozing out of a fissure to attack or something equally loathsome.
The human monster was likely to be loathsome enough.
Although unbranching, the passage wasn't straight, and so it wasn't until they came through a pair of S-curves that a glimmer of light could be seen from ahead. Alys immediately shuttered the dark-lantern so its beam wouldn't announce their presence. The result was that she nearly stumbled over the dead man lying in the shadows.
She was a hunter. She'd seen dead bodies before. Not twenty-four hours past, she'd killed people, if only by an accident of the twisted techniques. Nonetheless, falling over a decaying corpse in a dark cave brought a scream to her lips, one she choked off only because Galf's hand clapped over her mouth as he kept her from falling.
"You okay now?" he said after a moment. She nodded, and he let her go.
"Spiky green hair, goatee," he said, assessing the body, which looked--and smelled--about a week dead. Galf didn't mention her sudden fright, which made her profoundly grateful. Nothing made Alys more uncomfortable than talking about her feelings. "Looks like this might be the guy Argus told us about."
"I guess he wasn't the techmaster."
"Just another flunky. Wonder if he got the boss mad or just wound up on the wrong end of one of those accidents?"
They moved on slowly, and after another twenty feet the passage curved gently left into the first large chamber they'd encountered. The peripheral details were basically generic–large wooden tables against the walls with vials of bubbling fluids, scraps of paper, lights of glowing moss so as not to compete with the living for oxygen, walls and floor gouged with ruts no doubt caused by new techniques in development. Alys quickly took in these details and focused on the cave's only occupant.
He...well, actually, he was pretty generic as well. He had bright yellow hair sticking out in all directions. He wore a tattered and stained robe that had once been red, with a broad collar over it bearing three jewels in metal settings, his face had the emaciated look of someone who forgets to eat if not prodded, and his eyes didn't focus all too well. Unfortunately, she could see the eyes all too well because he'd been facing them when they came in, quashing any hope of a sneak attack. To complete the stepped-off-a-children's-book-cover picture, he had a scrubby little chin patch, which this season was apparently the official facial hair of insane evil.
"Intruders!" he screeched. "You won't stop my work!" He thrust his hands towards them, curled like claws, but the hunters were already in motion, Galf breaking to the left and Alys to the right. Alys dropped the lantern and flung her slasher at the same time. Meanwhile, Rune was pointing the tip of his cane at the techmaster.
"NEIDEBAN!" keened the wild-eyed man.
"Flaeli!" cried Rune.
One of the gems on the man's collar pulsed with light, and Alys realized that it must be a Cormar Stone. A pulsing blue haze filled the air around him and Alys's slasher bounced off the cloud. Rune's firebolt punched right through it, though, slamming the techmaster to the floor.
Okay, this follows. Deban is a physical-defense technique, so Neideban just works better, Alys thought.
In the next moment, Rune grunted with pain. Alys glanced back and saw him slump to the cave floor. Behind him tottered the green-haired corpse, its fingers still laced together from the clubbing blow it had just delivered.
"Tee-hee-hee-hee," giggled the madman as he struggled to his feet. "Poor Karl was standing too close to a Neiwat. I tried to save his life, but to no avail. Still, he does seem to appreciate the effort I went to, as he still obeys me. I should try my Neires again, once I've killed you, and see if it works
the same! NEIZONDE!"
The electrical blast arced to the point of Galf's sword, the ceramic blade shivering to pieces. Had it been metal, he'd have been dead; as it was, he was blown off his feet and into a wall. Pulsing, crackling sparks crawled all over everything; more than one rack of vials shattered and Alys and the ghoul both were sent to their knees, just from this apparent side effect of the casting.
The madman giggled again.
"That nice boy Derek just brought me this new stone. I wonder--ah!" He yelped as he touched it. "Oh, yes, fire magic! Hot; mustn't touch!"
Alys had to do something while the techmaster was still lost in his wandering thoughts, but what? Physical attacks would just bounce off uselessly, and a technique would probably take them all out together since this was ground zero for the testing. They'd probably already set off another wave of earthquakes in Valhalla just from the two Nei techs already used in the battle. Rune was down, so spells were out.
No, wait, remember--airslash! Rune had said that would work too, like his spells did. Only Galf was worse off than the Esper. There wasn't time to use a monomate on either one...
Alys grabbed her second slasher and popped the blades open.
"That won't work, little girl. Didn't you pay attention the first time?" the lunatic asked, genuine curiosity in his voice.
How did this work? Pull in power, but not from outside me... Her gut flip-flopped and she wobbled as dizziness washed through her as she tried to comply. It was absurd; she was barely competent with one technique! She was no Esper; she didn't understand how this sort of thing worked!
Sometimes, though, will (or sheer, bullheaded stubbornness) was enough when skill and training were lacking. Alys grabbed that dizziness and nausea with her mind, shoved it into her slasher, and flung the throwing blade. Instead of following its usual arc, it skimmed along the surface of the ground until it reached the techmaster's feet. Then, the slasher burst into crackling orange light and erupted upwards, spinning around and around the madman like corkscrew in reverse until it reached his head, then snapped off its pattern and sailed back to Alys's hand.
Shaking, she dropped to her knees and retched. Shivers rocked her body; her hands were numb and she couldn't seem to make her fingers work. The slasher clanked off the cave floor as she dropped. Pull it together, Alys! she thought desperately, trying to regain her senses. There's still the zombie!
Her head swam, and the edges of her vision began to blur. Even turning her head to see where the walking corpse was, if it was attacking her, was too much. And what about the techmaster? Was he alive? Dead? Conscious or unconscious? Damn it! She couldn't see, couldn't move. She had to get up.
But she couldn't.
Her vision narrowed to a blurry pinpoint.
Then, darkness claimed her.