Chapter Twenty-Two
I sat at the head of the conference room table. My monster girls were here. All my companions plus Smerta and Usiku. I also had asked Kassie, Fara, and Halia to attend. The ghosts had returned from their scouting of the halfling city of Sharithin.
The five ghosts floated around us, their green, translucent bodies hard to see in the brightly lit room. Their ethereal presence lent a strange weight to the proceedings. It was hard to believe this was anything but the direst stakes.
On the table was a map of the city that Kassie had brought with her and the refugees.
"Dark One," Duhot said, "we moved unseen through the city and saw that it is as Lady Kassie has reported. On the ground, the city is patrolled by werewolves that do terrorize the conquered halflings. The skies are full of phoenixes, thunderbirds, and hippogriffs."
"Level 3 monster girls," muttered Halia. She had a resolute expression to her face.
"That does sound bad," said Lana Fulmine. My movie starlet looked across the map.
"We found two monster girl companions in the central building that seemed to be in command," Duhot continued, her ghostly sisters nodding their heads in agreement. "A raiju and a treant."
"Dark One, the halflings are treated horribly," Grobi said. The ghost rubbed her ethereal hands together. "I saw one ripped apart by a werewolf for daring to defy an order."
Kassie blanched and swallowed. The halfling looked down at the table, her slender shoulders quivering.
"How many of each did you see?" I asked, my heart hammering. Level 3 monster girls scared me, but if there was a small enough amount...
"We saw no more than five of each variety," said Duhot. "Including the commanders, twenty-two monster girls are all that hold the city."
"Twenty-two," I said. That seemed doable. "Besides the werewolf ripping one halfling apart, how badly are the others being treated."
Duhot looked down at her floating feet. "Badly."
"There are many dead," Dusata added. "There was a... pile outside the city. Maybe a few thousand have already died."
Kassie squeezed her eyes shut. Fara, who sat on one side of her, put about a hesitant hand and placed it on the halfling. But then my mother hurried around the table and knelt beside Kassie, putting a comforting arm around the halfling and whispering in her ear. I swallowed. This was horrifying.
"Kassie," I said, staring at her trembling form. "Kassie."
She raised her head, her emerald eyes raw and bleeding pain. "Y-yes, Lord Leo."
"Do you have any idea where Sulanga's dungeon lies?"
"N-no." She trembled.
I swallowed. "I know this is terrible to hear, but we need your input if we're going to have a chance of saving the survivors."
She drew in a shuddering breath, my mother rubbing her hands up and down Kassie's arms and whispering more comforting words. The halfling gathered herself, holding her hand tight before her. She blinked back her tears.
"What do you need to know, Lord Leo?" she asked, her voice cracking.
"How is the teleportation circle coming?" I asked. We would need a way to move people around. An idea was forming in my mind, but we would need those circles to work.
"I am ready to test them," she said. She pushed back her chair and pulled out a piece of chalk, which was attached to a string, and a book. She opened it as she knelt on a section of the floor.
She began to draw the circle around her, using the string attached to the chalk as a compass to make the circles. As she worked, I thought about my plan. I worked on it. It was probably doable. The only way to save those halflings in Sharithin.
And I would save them. What this Sulanga bastard did to them was horrible. Cruel.
He was the sort of dungeon builder that caused the world to hate us. I wouldn't hesitate to put him down if I could. But for now, I would save the halflings he had conquered and brutalized. I would liberate them from his yoke.
"Lord Leo, which way is north in this room?" Kassie asked, looking up from her work.
I thought for a moment then pointed.
Nodding, the halfling drew in the symbols, glancing down at the book over and over again. She worked in a clockwise manner, scratching them down at around the perimeter of the circle. She moved slowly on her knees, the scratch of her chalk echoing through the room.
Everyone was quiet, as if they wanted her to have full concentration. Hagane studied what Kassie drew as did Fara, both of them peering down at the halfling's work. I was surprised this could be done in chalk. The one we had found had been carved into stone.
Maybe that just made them permanent. Chalk smudged. You wouldn't want the parts of it to be damaged.
"Okay," Kassie said. She stood up. "I need a volunteer. If I did this wrong, you'll die."
"Ooh, ooh, I'll do it!" Garnet gasped. She jumped out of her chair and leaped into the middle of the circle. "Me, me, me! I want to teleport."
"You teleport all the time when Leo moves you around the dungeon," Maya said, my undine girlfriend shaking her head at the succubus.
"Teleport!" Garnet shouted and thrust her arm up into the air.
"Asud Gu!"
Kassie cried.
The circle flared with white light. Then Garnet was gone. Just popped out of existence. My stomach lurched. Even prepared for it, I was shocked to see my little sister just vanish like that. I stood up.
"Ooh, I'm down in the dungeon,"
Garnet said through telepathy.
"Wait, I'm all alone down in Meskalamdug's dungeon!"
"We need to experiment," I said. "How do you determine where the circle goes."
"I think about the one I want it to connect to," she said. "The one in Meskalamdug's dungeon has lost its mate, so it was receptive to a new one." She brushed off her hands. "Once they're paired, they will remain so until one of the circles is damaged."
She wiped her foot over the chalk. "Meskalamdug's circle is open to be connected by another. I can make a more permanent one."
"How long does it take you to make a permanent one?" I asked her.
