CASSIAN AND THE INFINITE THRONE

CASSIAN AND THE INFINITE THRONE

Volume 2: The Road to the Academy

Chapter 46: Where Mercy Became a Trap

Rain-dark pines concealed Brightroad while the final patrol disappeared around Blackroot Hill. Oren waited through twenty measured breaths, then lowered his bow without relaxing the string.

“Three patrol routes,” he whispered. “None overlap by accident. The heavier prints keep ordinary goblins inside their formation, and broad-footed guards watch the eastern supply path.”

Tavi returned through wet fern with another bone charm.

“Someone renewed this after the rain began,” he said. “Whoever made it understands ritual boundaries and expects patrols to report through them.”

Pella’s mouth tightened. “Then we have shamans, hobgoblins, captives, and an investigator who counted whatever the goblins permitted him to count.”

“We have probable shamans and probable hobgoblins,” Renn corrected. “Certainty matters before we stake six lives upon it.”

Mira looked toward the cave. “Four girls were taken, and the oldest disappearance happened nearly two weeks ago. Waiting several more days may give the Guild bodies instead of captives.”

Oren answered without turning. “Entering may give them six adventurers as well. The warren controls every tunnel, every firing angle, and every route we cannot see.”

“The captives do not possess our option to retreat,” Pella said. “We came because nobody else can reach them before reinforcements.”

“We came to assess a High Steel commission,” Renn replied. “Everything outside says the classification may be catastrophically wrong.”

Tavi wiped mud from his cheek. “The goblins changed their behavior after the investigator left. They may move the prisoners once the relay reaches Caeldor.”

“They may also be waiting for compassionate adventurers to reach that conclusion,” Oren said.

Every cautious answer feels cruel while those girls remain inside. That is exactly why I cannot let urgency choose for me.

“We can enter without accepting the extermination,” Cassian said. “We search only while retreat remains defensible, then withdraw once the warren controls more choices than we do.”

Renn studied him. “You believe a rescue remains possible?”

“I believe the possibility deserves examination,” Cassian replied. “I do not believe six deaths become noble merely because our intention was generous.”

Mira answered with a single nod. “A limited search gives the captives one chance before help arrives too late.”

Oren’s expression remained hard. “Then we establish rules before mercy starts rewriting them.”

Renn looked across the company. “Nobody pursues fleeing goblins, and nobody separates from formation. We mark every turn and withdraw upon confirmed shamans, hobgoblins, or numbers beyond our ability. You follow my order even when you hate it.”

Tavi released a theatrical sigh. “Responsible leadership keeps ruining otherwise excellent heroic stories.”

Oren finally glanced at him. “Responsible leadership also keeps people available for the second chapter.”

Renn drew his sword. “Brightroad enters for reconnaissance and possible rescue. The warren does not become our war merely because it insults us.”

◆ ◆ ◆

Polished scratches crossed the stone near the floor, worn smooth by constant traffic despite the empty entrance.

This is too quiet. They know we entered, and they are choosing not to react.

Tavi crouched beside an innocent pebble. “That is a pressure stone. Its line runs forward, which means touching it probably triggers something behind us.”

Renn kept his shield toward the dark passage. “Can you disarm it without triggering anything?”

“I can disarm the part asking to be found.” Tavi traced the wall with two gloved fingers. “The clever part waits for me to feel successful.”

Pella whispered, “Your confidence inspires several varieties of terror.”

“That confirms my professional growth,” Tavi answered.

Renn and Oren led while Cassian and Pella held the center. Mira remained protected behind them, and Tavi watched the retreat.

Pella voiced a Light incantation. A white-gold fan spread across hidden slits and hair-thin wires, exposing each prepared firing line.

“Those openings are too narrow for ordinary bows,” she said. “Darts, perhaps, or goblin bows firing from crawlspaces.”

Cassian voiced a compact Druidic incantation and pressed one palm to the wall. Pale sensing light exposed cracks, voids, and unstable ledges.

Natural fractures carried Cassian’s sensing field throughout Blackroot Hill. Distant tunnels, chambers, crawlways, and moving bodies gradually resolved within his awareness.

I can sense much farther than they realize. I need to be careful how much I admit.

“Several hollow spaces surround us,” Cassian said. “The fractures are producing too many overlapping signals. I can confirm the openings, but not which ones are occupied.”

Renn pointed ahead. “Then we assume every wall contains an audience.”

Tavi studied the ground beyond the visible pressure stone. He pressed a narrow probe against the safest-looking patch, but the stone did not shift beneath the tool’s limited weight.

“The landing point looks natural,” he said. “That usually means someone worked very hard to make it look natural.”

He stepped across the obvious plate and placed one boot upon what appeared to be unbroken bedrock. The concealed slab held while only part of his weight rested upon it.

When Tavi committed his balance and lifted his rear foot, the broader stone sank beneath him. Mud-packed seams split around its edges, exposing a pressure plate disguised with crushed rock.

A muffled click traveled through the walls.

Tavi’s expression hardened. “The first plate was bait. Drop beneath Renn’s shield!”

Stone shutters snapped open along the passage, releasing black-headed arrows from the slits Pella had revealed.

“Astra vel seir.” Layered Aegis unfolded around Cassian as three translucent planes.

Cassian redirected the first volleys toward the floor. One ceiling slit opened as his outer plane rotated toward the side passages.

Pella cried out when a black-headed arrow pierced the upper flesh of her left arm. Firelight burst from her fingers and died against the ceiling.

I watched the walls and forgot the ceiling. She is bleeding because I missed one angle.

“Hold formation,” Renn ordered. “Nobody follows the shooters, regardless of what they leave visible.”

Sealing all the crawlways would expose far more than Brightroad has seen. I have to protect Pella without tearing apart the disguise around me.

Mira guided Pella against the wall. “Do not pull it yourself. The head may be barbed, and your hand is already trembling.”

“It is trembling because I am furious,” Pella said through clenched teeth. “The poison may submit its own complaint later.”

Mira voiced a Healing incantation. Silver-blue radiance gathered around her fingers and entered the wound in narrow threads. The light slowed the bleeding, steadied the torn tissue, and restrained the poison near the puncture while she carefully removed the barbed head.

Renn watched her fingers. “Can you continue moving despite the numbness?”

Pella flexed her fingers twice. “My arm feels borrowed from an elderly corpse, but my legs remain personally committed.”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“The numbness is spreading,” Mira said. “I slowed it, but I do not recognize the mixture.”

Cassian knelt outside Pella’s reach. “May I examine the circulation around the wound?”

Pella stared at him. “You raised three barriers before I could blink, yet you still ask permission. That feels unfairly civilized.”

Cassian voiced a shortened Healing incantation. Healing Current entered Pella’s shoulder as white-blue threads, tracing vessels and swollen muscle without sealing contamination inside.

“The poison clings near damaged tissue,” he said. “Mira prevented most of it from reaching deeper circulation. Keep the arm lowered and avoid Fire Magic through that side.”

Pella looked personally offended. “You identified the one instruction most likely to injure me emotionally.”

Mira studied Cassian’s radiance. “That is not ordinary wound closure.”

What did I just witness? That was Healing Magic, but no healer I know treats blood vessels, muscle, nerves, and poison separately. He did not simply close her wound. He understood everything beneath it.

“It is also incomplete,” Cassian replied. “We should discuss the method after the cave stops shooting at us.”

Renn looked into the darkness. “We continue only while Pella remains stable. Another serious exposure ends the search.”

◆ ◆ ◆

Pella is bleeding while I keep answering with only the power Brightroad expects. Each moment I preserve the lie makes that choice harder to defend.

“Opening along the left wall,” Oren warned.

Pella spoke another Light incantation. White-gold brilliance swept the wall and exposed three goblins crouched behind a stone-painted screen.

Oren’s arrows struck two before they moved. The third fled through a slit while Tavi severed a rope connected to a collapsing ledge.

“Tell your carpenter that subtlety requires fewer obvious knots,” Tavi called after it. “Professional courtesy would also be appreciated.”

A clay vessel shattered near Renn, releasing bitter smoke.

Mira spoke a short Water incantation quickly. A transparent sheet caught the powder in midair and dragged it down as greasy rain.

Renn advanced beneath the falling water, split a goblin spear, and drove its owner against the wall without breaking formation.

Cassian felt movement beneath his boots. “Everyone remain still. Something is crossing below us.”

A trapdoor burst open behind Mira. Two goblins thrust hooked spears upward toward her legs.

“Doran vael esh.” Stonehold Cradle erupted around the hatch. Curved ridges trapped both spearheads, folded the door shut, and compressed the surrounding stone into a sealed brace.

Dust descended while muffled snarls continued beneath their feet.

Tavi glanced at Cassian. “Your definition of restraint remains unnecessarily permanent.”

“They retain breathing space,” Cassian said. “Their future comfort depends upon staying below us.”

Oren stopped beside the third mark. “This symbol is wrong. They copied my line and dragged footprints toward descending air.”

Tavi checked the floor. “Our true route remains dry. The false passage is bait.”

“They are editing our route,” Cassian said. “The false passage is not merely a detour. It is an invitation.”

Pella swallowed against the darkness. “I have begun disliking hospitality as an institution.”

A girl screamed from the descending tunnel.

The cry broke into choking sobs, followed by a desperate plea for someone not to leave her below.

That terror is real, even if the path is false. They are hurting her because they know compassion will pull us forward.

Pella stepped into the passage. “That girl is still alive.”

“Return to formation before the tunnel separates us,” Renn ordered.

Tavi followed before stopping himself, while Mira moved after the scream repeated.

“We move as one company,” Renn said sharply. “Nobody outruns the shield, and nobody answers the voice alone.”

They descended around a widening bend toward a barred opening. The floor cracked without warning and collapsed beneath Mira.

She dropped toward sharpened stakes coated with filth and wet green poison.

“Doran vael esh.” Stonehold Cradle surged from the pit walls. Pale ridges curved beneath Mira, caught her waist and thighs, and stopped her inches above the stakes.

The spell bent the stakes aside and raised a shelf beneath her boots.

“I am unharmed,” Mira gasped. “I would prefer future rescues with less educational detail.”

Arrows erupted overhead as thirty goblins poured from three tunnels.

“Brightroad, circle formation!” Renn planted his shield beside the pit. “Cassian protects Mira. Oren clears the ledges. Tavi watches the rear.”

“Astra vel seir.” Layered Aegis unfolded above Mira. Three transparent planes rotated across the pit while darts splintered against their surfaces.

Oren’s bowstring became a continuous note, forcing elevated shooters away from their holes.

Tavi slipped beneath a spear sweep and severed one attacker’s knee. “Your formation had an opening. I corrected it without charge.”

Pella voiced a Fire incantation. Orange-white flame compressed above her good palm until the surrounding shadows recoiled from its heat.

The spell burned through three shields and burst across the rear rank.

Pella staggered when poison seized her shoulder. Mira reached solid ground, voiced a sharp Water incantation, and released a snapping stream that swept burning goblins aside and extinguished Pella’s sleeve.

Renn met the central rush. Vital Force brightened beneath his armor as Shielding Drive reinforced his legs, shoulder, and shield into one advancing line.

His charge lifted three goblins and broke the momentum behind them.

Cassian’s compressed Earth incantation raised smooth walls along both flanks, narrowing three attack routes into one.

“Forward pressure only,” Renn commanded. “Do not chase anyone beyond Cassian’s walls.”

Oren shot a goblin reaching for a hidden lever. “The right wall contains another collapse line.”

“Tavi, cut it,” Renn said. “Pella, hold your fire until he clears.”

Tavi cut through the pulley. “The cave may file a complaint with my family.”

Pella released a shorter burst after Tavi returned. Mira’s water filled the corridor with steam while Renn advanced beneath Oren’s covering arrows.

Seven surviving goblins withdrew together, two limping while the others dragged them into the crawlways.

Twenty-three goblins lay dead across the corridor, yet the surviving seven had withdrawn together on a single signal.

Tavi reached the barred opening and found an empty shaft carrying the girl’s crying from somewhere deeper.

“They built a voice channel,” he said, his humor gone. “We were never close to her.”

Renn surveyed the blood, broken traps, and Cassian’s walls. “We withdraw immediately. This is no longer reconnaissance with a possible rescue.”

Pella turned on him. “She remains alive somewhere below us.”

“So do five people standing beside you,” Renn replied. “I will not trade them for a direction the enemy selected.”

Tavi wiped blood from one short blade. “We cannot leave after hearing her.”

“We can return with enough force to reach her,” Renn said. “Dying here only teaches the goblins that the next rescue party should bring more prisoners.”

Mira checked Pella’s pupils before facing Renn. “I hate the order, but our reserves are falling faster than theirs. We cannot survive another exchange like this.”

Cassian nodded despite the pressure behind his ribs. “Withdrawal preserves the information and our chance to return. Continuing now would surrender every advantage except intention.”

Let them withdraw. Once Brightroad is safe, I will make an excuse, return alone, rescue every captive, and destroy this warren without holding back. They never need to learn what I can truly do.

Pella looked at him as though the agreement wounded more than poison. “You wanted to rescue them.”

“I still want that,” Cassian said. “Wanting something does not make the next tunnel survivable.”

◆ ◆ ◆

This is where hiding becomes difficult. If I treat them poorly, secrecy survives and their injuries worsen. If I treat them properly, every careful lie becomes thinner.

Cassian voiced another shortened Healing incantation. Healing Current sealed leaking vessels, removed splinters, and eased swelling without trapping contamination.

He guided the poison toward the wound while Mira poured clean water across Pella’s arm, carrying the darkened blood into a folded cloth beneath it.

“You performed vascular repair,” Mira said. “You separated damaged muscle, nerves, and contamination without confusing any of them.”

“I studied healing for several years,” Cassian replied.

“You are ten,” Pella said. “Your several years are stealing territory from infancy.”

Tavi leaned closer. “Perhaps Frostwood assigns medical training immediately after walking.”

“Ours begins after surviving winter,” Cassian said. “Walking is considered an advanced elective.”

Pella laughed despite the pain. Mira allowed one breath of amusement before her expression hardened again.

“Your technique exceeds many licensed healers,” Mira said. “Why did you register as a provisional combat specialist?”

“The Guild examination did not offer a category for inconveniently broad interests.”

Renn flexed his repaired arm. “This discussion continues outside. We have spent enough time proving the cave can listen.”

They retraced the marked path while Oren corrected altered signs and Tavi avoided redirected pressure plates.

The entrance appeared buried beneath interlocked boulders.

Renn pressed his shield against the nearest mass, but the stone refused to shift. “Can controlled heat open a channel without weakening the ceiling?”

“Not while poisoned, and probably not while healthy,” Pella answered. “The rock above us already wants an excuse.”

Oren examined the breaks. “Moving the central stones without bracing the slope would bring half the entrance down behind them.”

Cassian sensed through the collapse, and the answer returned with terrible clarity.

Opening the entrance safely would require me to hold the fractured slope, brace every crack, and lift the central mass as one structure.

One display like that would tear every careful lie apart. The questions would reach my family—and perhaps Tomas—before I could control them. Not while another route remains.

“The central mass can be shifted,” Cassian said carefully. “Ordinary Earth Magic cannot stabilize the full collapse and create an opening at the same time.”

Renn held his gaze. “Could stronger magic accomplish both?”

“It would require controlling the entire hillside as one structure,” Cassian replied. “Which is beyond me or anyone I know.”

Tavi looked toward the descending passages. “Then our retreat has acquired a terrible sense of direction.”

Renn drew a slow breath. “We move deeper until we find another exit or defensible chamber. Necessity does not grant permission for recklessness.”

◆ ◆ ◆

Warm air carried smoke, old grease, wet hide, and the odor of too many bodies. The passage widened beyond torchlight, and every drum stopped together.

Red braziers burned along the bridges and marked platforms, illuminating the waiting army while leaving the abyss beneath them completely black.

The passage opened onto a broad shelf of solid black stone. Nearly forty paces of level ground separated Brightroad from the abyss, while narrow bridges and raised galleries crossed the darkness beyond it.

Ten rows of eight ordinary goblins occupied the stone approaches, surrounding terraces, and elevated galleries. Sixteen armored hobgoblins guarded the routes leading toward the abyss, while four shamans waited upon marked platforms above them.

“Four shamans, sixteen hobgoblins, and around eighty ordinary in sight,” Oren said. “The commission is Low Ruin at minimum.”

“Ten groups of eight,” Cassian replied. “At least five more are suggested by the patrol tracks and side routes.”

Pella stared across the chamber. “You counted them before I finished regretting every decision that brought us here.”

“At the chamber’s center,” Renn said, “we have the reason they learned discipline.”

A massive goblin waited upon a throne of roots and stolen shields, scavenged steel covering his scarred body.

He was waiting for us. None of this was improvised. I could have opened the entrance and ended this before we reached him, but I chose secrecy. Now everyone is standing inside his trap.

Pella’s voice barely carried. “That is not a warren chief.”

“Goblin King,” Renn said. “Close formation and retreat toward the passage before he closes it.”

This was supposed to be one difficult commission, one more step toward Mithral. I only wanted to build something with them and bring everyone home alive.

Now a Goblin King stands between us and the only path back. If I could return to the commission board and walk away, I would. Regret does not reopen sealed roads.

End of Chapter 46