“Don’t keep us in suspense, boy,” Glen snapped. “What’s down there?”
“The lake,” the boy answered smugly, but, after seeing Ramukhan’s warning gaze, added, “There is no bottom.”
“What do you mean? How can it not have a bottom?”
“Well,” the boy shrugged. “It has a bottom, but it’s unusual. It’s something like a gap. There’s a desert under that gap. I think I even spotted mountains, but I’m not sure. The bottom was rippling.”
“There’s a desert,” Ramukhan repeated, “under the water. Instead of a bottom?”
The boy just nodded.
“Well, that means we’ve at least found the entrance.”
Hadjar didn’t ask why the sorcerer was so confident, but remembered his words.
“Now we need to figure out a way to get past the anomaly.”
The other squad members didn’t argue, and everyone was silent as they tried to come up with an idea. The solution came from an unexpected source.
“What’s the problem?” The boy asked. “If you could make me a mortal, then it’s surely possible to make all of you mortals as well.”
Karissa pulled out the snake’s head from her bag, looked at it pensively, and said:
“Perhaps I can make the poison I need with this.”
“Are you planning to poison us?” Glen nearly turned pale when he heard that.
“It’ll just be a small dose,” Karissa replied, “and for half an hour, we’ll lose contact with our sources and the World River.”
“In other words,” Hadjar sat down on the ground, “we’ll become mortal.”
Chapter 381
Three hours later, Karissa’s potion was ready. In a small, faded pot, a sandy, greenish brew bubbled. Its smell was very familiar to Hadjar. He even jerked back when he felt the familiar scent floating through the air. Einen grimaced as well. Only Glen looked from one practitioner to another confusedly.
“This is the poison they cover the thorns on a slave collar with,” Hadjar explained.
“You’re mostly right,” Karissa nodded. “I used completely different proportions and a different composition.”
“But the essence is the same?” Glen asked. “Are we going to have to drink slave swill?”
“You can stay behind,” Ramukhan cut him off angrily and was the first to scoop up the contents of the pot with a bowl. Before the first drops could fall on his lips, a thin female palm stopped his hand.
“Wait, Ramukhan.” Tilis squinted and looked around. “I suggest we all swear an oath first.”
Crickets and crackling firewood filled the air of the warm evening with noise. The squad members looked at the witch in surprise.
“What kind of oath?” Karissa tilted her head to one side slightly, and her hand slowly inched toward her book.
Tilis glanced at her compatriot and turned away. Underworld City seemed to have its fair share of problems. As in any other country, they also had their own factions, and these often resorted to betrayal, intrigue, and bribery. Maybe the fairy had been right when he’d said that justice didn’t exist in any of the worlds where people lived...
“You said drinking this potion will seal off all our abilities.” Tilis’ voice sounded calm and didn’t waver, but her eyes flashed. “We’re going to Mage City and we’ll clearly encounter not only dangers along the way, but also various temptations. I don’t want to end up with one of your spells hitting me in the back, Karissa, just because we both might end up liking the same scrolls.”
“Well, we won’t participate in your squabbles,” Glen grunted, pointing at himself, Hadjar, and Einen.
“Can you really trust the barbarian and islander?” Tilis arched her left eyebrow. “Aren’t you afraid that you’ll find rare resources for cultivation in there, or even valuable weapons and artifacts?”
Glen was about to reply, but then just closed his mouth with a frown.
“That’s what I thought” Tilis nodded. “So, I propose that we all take an oath of blood that none of us will harm the others until our mission ends.”
The witch’s words sounded very reasonable. Up to this point, they’d been a single group, but not overly dependent on each other. They hadn’t encountered a situation where everyone had been in danger.
“I didn’t expect this from you, Tilis.” Karissa, showing her respect, saluted the witch in the desert manner. “I think we really should make such an oath.”
Hadjar and Einen looked at each other. The islander’s look screamed ‘Trap!’
“I don’t really like having to do this,” Tilis’ eyes narrowed, and she turned pointedly away from Hadjar, “but we have no other choice.”
She had no other choice... Even without Einen’s suspicions, Hadjar would’ve known that there must be some sort of ‘hidden layer’ to the suggestion. Nevertheless, this was one of those situations where, even if one knew it was a trap, they had to step right into it because there was simply no other choice.
Karissa took the dagger first. She ran her hand over it and said:
“I swear that, until we complete our mission, I won’t harm anyone here.”
It was a simple and not very lengthy oath, which actually limited one’s ability to set a trap. Judging by how Karissa passed the blade to Tilis, she also didn’t trust her. Tilis, snorting, grabbed the weapon and slashed her palm. She uttered the same words and handed the dagger over to Hadjar. Hesitating for a moment, he took the oath as well, using the exact same wording.
Soon, everyone except Salif and the boy had taken their oaths. They decided to leave the two servants behind in the camp. Karissa gave them a special talisman that controlled the veil and a report for Paris. If the squad didn’t return in five days, they would need to activate it and send a message to Underworld City.
“Well, I hope for success with the gods’ help,” Glen uttered a popular Baliumian saying and was the first to walk out from beneath the veil. He wasn’t brave, he’d just drawn the short straw.
When the Baliumian came to the edge of the lake, the sand cloud appeared above the surface. Glen, squinting in apprehension, dived into the water. No sand tendrils followed him.
“It’s your turn,” Tilis said maliciously, holding out the bowl of poison.
Hadjar silently took the poison and drank it in one gulp. He felt as if a red-hot branding iron had been shoved down his throat and the molten iron was now leaking into his body, causing such a storm of unpleasant sensations that it was difficult to stop himself from vomiting. After a moment, Hadjar felt his meridians and nodes become clogged. He instinctively tried to break these seals, but immediately realized that he couldn’t. The energy simply wasn’t moving through his body.
“Your Inheritance can help,” Einen whispered as he walked toward the lake.
Hadjar didn’t understand what the islander meant at first, but then he mentally reached for the little black dragon. It woke up and displayed its full readiness for battle. At the same time, the frozen energy in his meridians stirred. It struck the seals on the nodes and they cracked. Hadjar immediately halted his Call. The little dragon snorted in displeasure at the absence of battle and fell asleep again.