Chapter 440: The Cost of Passage

"I know little," he admitted. "I am a soldier, not a scholar. What I know comes from campfire tales and warnings passed down through the ranks."

"Tell me what you know."

He shifted his grip on the glaive, the golden light of the weapon reflecting in his eye. "The sons of the Naga are always bad news. That much every soldier knows. They are worshipped by cults, dark ones that practice blood sacrifice. Every son is tied to death in some form, but the aspects differ. Some are gods of murder. Some are gods of disease. Some are gods of the slow decay that takes a man from within. A place like this... would feed this god."

I arched a brow at that statement but I did not interrupt Ruggah.

He paused, glancing at the field of bodies stretching into the darkness. "The old veterans used to say that if you ever saw a son of the Naga, you were already dead. You just did not know it yet. I am not surprised that a place like this is related to them."

"What about their weaknesses? Is there any known weakness of a god like this?"

Ruggah shook his head. "I do not know of any. I told you, they cannot be killed by mortal means. That is all I know. But..." he glanced at the weapon in his hand, and I frowned... Why do soldiers always want to run towards death even when they know that nothing may change?

I could not let that happen, this warband had barely had the time to stretch out their legs, and allowing them to die now was not on my list.

"Here is the plan," I said. "We turn back and move through the field of bodies toward the tunnel. We can wait to see if they leave and then we emerge, or we wait until there is a gap, a moment when the tunnel is clear."

"I think we should wait for them to leave," Ruggah said. "We have food and water that would last us for weeks."

That could have been a great idea, since it was always a good thing to avoid a fight, but with a Minor God inside this cavern with us, the risk of discovery only grew the longer we stayed.

"No, we cannot stay here for long, a few hours at most, and then we cut our way through the tunnel."

Ruggah nodded slowly, and then he frowned. "And the Minor God? If we break through the tunnels, there is no way that he does not find us."

I scratched my head. "I will hold his attention."

I saw the ripple of reaction pass through the warband, and there was shock and disbelief, but I had not expected anger.

A soft growl came from Ruggah and he put his hand flat on my chest, pushed me one step backwards, and put his face close to mine, and his voice did not go above a whisper the entire time.

"No."

"Ruggah..."

"You do not get to do this." His teeth were showing. "I have had nine hundred men do this for me. Nine hundred... every single one of them thought they were being clever and brave, but I have buried every single one of them, and I am tired of being the man who gets carried out."

I paused, and slowly pushed his hand away from my chest. "That is not what this is."

"It is exactly what this is."

"It is not," I said, "because none of those nine hundred could have survived it... but I can."

Saying this I allowed some of the radiance that lived under my skin to appear on the surface, and Ruggah stumbled backwards, and the rest of the warband drew their weapons, and the way they were looking at me had changed.

I let the radiance sit on my skin before I drew it back inside. My Lightning Resonance had reached the Sovereign Tier, so despite not being able to wield spells due to the seal on my soul, I could control lightning as if I was breathing, but there was never a need to show off this side of me.

"You have all been watching me for a while now and you have not asked me one direct question about what I am, and I have been grateful for it. So I will give you this much."

I stretched out my right hand, and it glowed blue with the lightning that filled my channels. I did not need to unleash this power for everyone here to know that I could fry them to ash.

"I am not being noble, Ruggah, I am being efficient. I have been in much worse situations, and you will not be leaving me behind," I said. "I will follow. But someone needs to draw his eye while the rest of you slip past."

"You cannot fight a god," Thurrim said. "Even with all your power, even with whatever you are, you cannot fight a god."

"I am not going to fight him," I said. "I am going to distract him. There is a difference."

Ruggah stepped closer, his voice dropping to a whisper that only I could hear. "You are asking us to run while you stay behind. You are asking us to abandon you."

"I am asking you to trust me," I replied. "I have survived worse than this. I will survive this too."

"How can you be sure?"

I met his gaze. "Because I have to be."

∞

I am sure that if given the chance the warband would have argued to remain behind with me, but Ruggah had a firm hand over all of them and they followed his will.

He gathered them in a huddle among the dead, and convinced them to follow my plan. I was a bit shocked that they were so fiercely against the thought of leaving me behind, even after I showed them a glimpse of my powers.

Thurrim swore, at length, and was told to be quiet by three people at once. Ogg said nothing at all and looked at me for a long moment. Tam looked almost disappointed, which told me something I did not enjoy knowing, and Ines took her brother’s arm.

Coin turned her hood towards me and said, quite clearly, in that soft distant voice: "You are going to enjoy this."

I cocked my head to the side, but I did not reply to her. Perhaps a part of me was looking forward to this fight, for the opportunity to test myself against the gods of the ancient era. Okay, that was a lie, a large part of me was looking forward to this, but that did not mean I had forgotten what I was here to do.

I urged them for the last time, "Go towards the tunnel, wait for my signal. And when the moment comes, cut through whatever is in front of you."

Ruggah stared at me for a long moment. Then he nodded, once, and turned away.

"Warband," he called. "We move."

∞

We started back.

It took a long while, since we went the way we had come and we went slower, keeping low among the rows with the Drakespawn crouched down and the Shades gone entirely. The altar stayed where it was, a stone’s throw ahead of us the whole way, which by then I had stopped finding remarkable.

When we were close enough that I could hear the men working again as they stacked bodies, Ruggah put his hand on my shoulder and left it there for a moment.

"Elric."

"Yes."

"After we leave this tunnel, if you are not out of this hole in three hours, the warband is returning."

I knew I could not argue with him on this so I nodded, and watched them move ahead of me.