The End of All Things (The Counterfeit Sorcerer Book 5) by Robert Kroese

Author:Robert Kroese [Kroese, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Culain Press
Published: 2020-02-29T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

I felt the warmth of a stone floor beneath me. A hot sun burned over my left shoulder. The air was hot, dry and still. I smelled the faint odor of decayed meat. I heard and (of course) saw nothing. I fought the urge to tear off the blindfold or get to my feet and run. If Timea had been telling the truth about the basilisks, I could not outrun them and removing the blindfold would be suicide. If she’d been lying, I would probably be dead very soon no matter what I did.

Timea had told me the basilisks would not attack as long as I remained completely still. They would simply watch me with their deadly gaze and wait for me to try to leave the irasjel. Reaching out with my mind, I felt four creatures around me radiating tvari. They were about ten paces away—one to my left, one to my right, one in front of me and one behind. I could not determine their exact size or appearance, but they seemed to be nearly as large as I was. They did not move.

So far, the scene comported with what Timea had described. She had also told me that each basilisk had a weakness. One’s was fire. One’s was cold. One’s was lightning. But I did not know which was which—and I did not know the weakness of the fourth basilisk. Any spell I used would work on only one of the four. I could, for instance, rain down fire on all of them, but three of the four would be unscathed. It would take a second or two for those three to reach me, which might give me enough time for one more attack. But again any spell I tried would eliminate only one of them. No matter what spells I employed, two of them would reach me and tear me to pieces. Somehow I had to alter the situation to my advantage.

Heat and cold were opposites. The symmetry of the arrangement led me to suspect that basilisks with opposing weaknesses would be situated facing each other. I had no idea what might be considered the opposite of lightning, but I tabled that question for the moment. If I could eliminate two of the basilisks that faced each other, I could conceivably get out of the way of the other two. That would give me a chance to take out the third basilisk. Then it was just a matter of staying alive long enough to find the weakness of the fourth.

So: rain down fire on all four. One of the basilisks would die and the other three would advance toward me. Move toward the dead one while eliminating its opposing number with a blast of cold. Hit the remaining two with lightning. Then throw everything you have at the one still breathing.

I took a deep breath and brought to mind the series of glyphs that would cast the needed spells in the correct order, as quickly as possible.

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