The first time I’d put this formula together, I’d blown a big hole in my family’s barge and several smaller holes in myself. Iron snails were one of the native animals of Fogo, and it turns out when you enchant their shells with Red, they get extremely explosive. When one of these goes off, high velocity fragments spray everywhere. I didn’t like the idea of using this spell with innocent bystanders around, but this situation was getting dire.
“Try getting it in its mouth. If it blows up on the inside, we are less likely to be injured.”
“Great idea, Trax.” It was still chewing our flag, so that gave me a target. I focused on the magical element embedded in the shell until I felt the Red awaken. As soon the shell began to glow orange, I hurled it with all my might. As a Trapper on the lava wastes, I’d spent a lot of time throwing rocks at various pests, so my aim was rather good.
The snail grenade landed right in the monster’s big, weird mouth. By the time it disappeared into the churning dirt, the shell was bright as a light charm.
“Get down!” Then I took my own advice, threw myself face first onto the ground, and covered my head with my arms.
Normally, a snail grenade went off with aboom.Covered in dirt, this one was more of afwompf.
It raised quite a cloud of dust, but we didn’t get pelted with shrapnel. As the dust settled, the monster was still.
Rade lifted his head from where he was hiding behind a fence and shouted, “We’re victorious. Well done!”
Then the blob opened its mouth, let out a bunch of white smoke and a noise that sounded suspiciously like a belch, and went back to chewing our now burning flag.
“Oh, come on!” That had been the most destructive spell in our entire academy. I’d wounded a pirate barge with that one once! We had no one to call for help. The Core City Watch wouldn’t even come into the Under Slump. What were we supposed to do now? Just let it eat the place?
“Banish.”
That command word came somewhere behind me. The blob immediately froze, the life went right out of it, and it crumbled back into ordinary dead dirt.
There was a contingent of men walking purposefully our way. The locals seemed a lot more scared of them than they had the blob monster and hurried to get out of their way. As soon as I saw they were all wearing the same black arm band, I understood why they were afraid.
These were Latrocinium, the brutal gang who all the other gangs of the Under Slump paid their respects to. There were six in total, each geared up, and appeared eager for a fight. A couple of them must have been wizards, since they were armed with wands and staffs, and at least one was skilled enough to have just demolished an earth monster we could barely scratch.
All that suggested they’d probably best us easily.
“Predators approach,”Trax sent.
The silent warning was appreciated, but unnecessary, because the men who wore the black band were legendary in this district. Since the Upper and Lower Aventine had been abandoned by the city to decay into the Slump and Under Slump, the Latrocinium were basically the government here, and the mysterious figure, Carcalla, was their rarely seen, but often heard of, king.
The gangsters looked us over, before the one who was obviously in charge asked, “Which one of you speaks for this sad bunch?”
“I do,” Rade and I responded simultaneously. When I scowled at him, he told me, “I’m nobility, and I was here first.”
“Nobility, my ass. Gaul Haddar left me in charge.”
“Neither of you isin chargeof shit,” the gang leader said. “Carcalla alone is in charge of everything in the Slumps and slits the throats of anyone dumb enough to believe otherwise. I am his appointed representative. As such, I inquired which bum among this gaggle of bums speaks on behalf of the rest of the bums?”
Rade nodded thoughtfully at those words, especially the throat-slitting part. “Perhaps you should handle this one then, Carnavon.”
The gangster caught my name. “You’re the hotlander, Ozwald Carnavon?”
I stood up and brushed myself off, so I’d look at least half dignified before answering, “That’s me.”
“Excellent. I am Joran Vanderhelst. Master Carcalla has sent me to collect your rent.”
Three
We remained in a bit of an awkward standoff, lowly wizard student council on one side, incredibly lethal gang which was likely to beat and murder us on the other, until I asked real slowly, “What rent might that be?”
Their leader, Joran, was a short but fit fellow, wearing a black fur cape carved off some big animal, with short-cropped sandy hair and a scruff of beard. He was probably around forty, so about double my age. He grew puzzled by my question.
“Your rent for living in this here lovely section of tower, obviously.”
Maybe this really should have been Rade’s business to handle, as he’d been squatting in these ruins for months before our academy had formed. “These ruins have been abandoned for fifty years. Nobody wanted to live in it before us because it’s so haunted.”
