The Blackwyrm Chronicles #1: A Misadventure like no other...

Chapter 63

Thaleous' stronghold was hidden somewhere in these mountain ranges.

And we were going to find it.

Soren had an idea as to where it was, but he still had his doubts.

"Damn, I hate all of this guess work." I grumbled to myself. "We don't have time for this."

"Luckily for you, I can be of assistance." Kybris chimed in. (Apparently she too could telepathically communicate with other people.) "If you don't want to stumble around in this wasteland of snow and ice, allow me to enlighten you."

Oh, thank the gods Kybris is on our side. I don't know how, but I knew exactly where Thaleous' stronghold was.

"Soren, follow my lead," I told him.

He looked at me in confusion, "Oh, okay."

I chuckled, "Kybris gave me a nice little tip."

He sighed in relief, "Thank the gods she's on our side."

"I know right?" I replied.

It took us a few hours to even see the stronghold on the horizon. Even if it took us a while to see it, we saw it nonetheless, and boy was it ginormous. It made the outpost Soren destroyed look insignificant.

I heard deep laughter as we continued to approach the stronghold.

"So you broke Kybris out of her prison? Most impressive, but still a move in vain. You know not what you are dealing with."

I laughed harshly, "Really now? Show your face then if you're so sure of victory, you saucy bastard."

"Saucy bastard? That's a new one," Thaleous mused, "No matter. You'll be in for quite the surprise."

I chose to ignore him (bad move) and chose instead to turn my attention toward my team: "I have a feeling we'll be met with heavy opposition when we get closer to the stronghold, so be ready for a fight."

Everyone nodded, only to hear Thaleous open his cancer-spewing mouth again: "Heavy opposition? You wound my pride."

I rolled my eyes, "Do you ever shut the fuck up?"

He didn't answer my question. Bitch.

As we drew closer, Stefan steered us away from various traps he caught sight of while Gwyneth described the wards surrounding the stronghold to me. She then told me how to disable them in the event they come back online.

"How do you even know the traps are there?" Dorrian asked the dark firewalker.

Stefan rumbled out a dark laugh: "I crippled my left leg stepping on one of these traps, so I know what to look for when traversing these paths. More often than not, Thaleous' minions set fire bombs, so stepping on one is a death sentence. It's taken several years of practice, but I've still been able to learn how to spot, avoid, and disarm fire bombs."

"But you're a firewalker," Nova pointed out, interest piqued by the conversation at hand: "I thought fire couldn't harm you."

"Normal fire, yes," he continued, "But Thaleous does not use regular fire. No, he uses hellfire in his bombs."

I cringed. I haven't read much about hellfire, but I at least know that it's nasty stuff. While regular fire burns items that are flammable, hellfire burns anything it touches: stone, wood, swords,  firewalkers, anything you could imagine. I've even heard some speculation that the greenish-orange flames of hellfire alone could drive people mad.

"Let's...Just be glad we're not setting them off," I added in with a high-pitched, nerve-wracked voice.

Stefan chuckled, "Indeed."