Page 32 of Wizards & Weavers (Cozy Questing #1)

The frost giant roared, leaving a crater with its every stomping step. Braiden sprang to his feet, exhausted, yet determined to see the battle through. He rummaged through his backpack, more grateful than ever that he’d taken a few hours, if not days to write out his plan for the dungeon.

He fished out the coil of rope he’d purchased from the Noose. He didn’t think he could conjure something this long and sturdy, and he’d already expended so much of his arcane willpower saving himself from death by pancake.

“I need the two of you to help me,” he said, shaking out the coil. “Take one end of the rope each, then hurry toward opposite ends of the cavern. Secure it to something. I’ll do the rest.”

Warren stared at him like the fall had rattled his brains. Elyssandra’s face was etched with worry. But neither of them stopped to argue, grabbing their respective ends and running to stretch the rope far across the chamber.

High up in the air, Augustin pelted the elemental with spells to distract it.

Braiden licked his lips, tasting salt as he waited for the others to reach the walls.

Warren knotted his end of rope around a pillar.

Elyssandra secured her end of rope to her spear, then drove its enchanted tip deep into the ice, a needle and thread.

Now or never. All or nothing.

“Hey,” Braiden shouted, waving his arms, jumping up and down. “Hey, you great stupid brute! Yeah, that’s right. I’m talking to you. Come and get me, ugly.”

It felt awfully childish, taunting an elemental like that, but it worked. The ice giant roared as it turned to fully face him, the cavern rocking and trembling with each of its footfalls. Braiden ran away from the creature in a straight line even as Augustin harassed it with a fusillade of magic.

Perfect. It was much too distracted to notice the rope stretched tight across the cavern floor.

The giant’s foot snagged on the taut rope. It tripped forward. Sweat beaded on Braiden’s forehead even in this oppressive cold, but he couldn’t fight his curiosity, peering over his shoulder to see if his gambit had actually paid off.

It could have been Braiden’s imagination, but the elemental’s face appeared to have changed. It looked surprised and almost sheepish as it toppled from its great height, like a tree felled in a forest. “Oops,” the giant’s face seemed to say.

Warren whooped, Elyssandra cheered, and Augustin laughed victoriously. Braiden allowed himself a smile, but kept his legs pumping, suspecting that the elemental’s body wouldn’t hold once it made impact with the ground.

He was right. The cavern trembled with all the might of an earthquake as the elemental crashed against the stone floor. Braiden blocked his ears against the earth-shattering clamor as the giant’s body splintered into a thousand pieces.

He shielded himself from the spray of ice fragments and frost, his sweater and gear blocking him from the worst of it.

Something came skidding along the floor, then scraped to a stop by his feet.

A piece of the giant? When he looked again, it was one of its enormous fingers, crooked as if to point accusingly at Braiden’s face.

“We did it!” Elyssandra cried. “You did it, Braiden!”

Warren raised his staff, shaking it in the air. “Giant slayer. You’re a giant slayer now, Braiden.”

A thrill of laughter erupted from Braiden’s chest, the sheer relief of his body knowing it had survived to live another day.

“I don’t know about that,” he said, rubbing at the back of his neck, carefully negotiating the splinter-strewn floor to reunite with his friends.

“That was a brilliant plan,” Augustin said, the sound of his voice growing closer as he sped toward the ground, boots clicking on stone when he made his soft landing. “And brilliantly executed, too. See what we can accomplish together?”

Braiden nodded, grinning despite the cold and exhaustion sapping at his bones. “Together. We did this together.”

Like a real adventuring party , he thought. He held a hand to his head, giddy with disbelief, or maybe much more tired than he’d guessed.

Warren threw an arm across Braiden’s shoulders, squeezing him in half of a hug.

“My friend killed a giant. This guy, am I right? Giant slayer.”

Braiden shook his head and laughed again, somehow less tickled by the title and more warmed by the idea that Warren considered him a friend.

“A giant elemental ,” Augustin corrected, holding up one finger. “Which isn’t to diminish Braiden’s feat here, but that’s one feat too many for one day. There’s no chance another elemental of that size could possibly crystallize overnight. I propose we stop to rest.”

Warren blinked, then gazed around the cavern. “Is this some kind of human humor I’m not accustomed to yet? You want us to set up camp here in this freezing cold?” He thumbed the scarf that Braiden had conjured for him. “And this was very helpful, but it’s fraying fast. Maybe the magic is fading.”

“Not to worry,” Elyssandra said, slightly smug as she reached under her cowl to search for her cottage hairpin. “I happen to have a little trick that can help with our — oh, no. Braiden!”

He stumbled to the ground, his feet falling out from under him, a nasty spill only prevented by the strength of Augustin’s arms. The wizard caught him by the waist, hooked one arm under his elbow, and propped him up.

Braiden chuckled. “The scarf’s not the only thing that’s fraying fast. I think I expended too much of my magic.”

Elyssandra whipped her cowl off her head, extracted the correct hairpin, then stabbed its prongs into the ground. Warren watched and shook his head. She smiled up at him.

“Just trust me. And don’t worry, Braiden. We’ll get you in bed soon. Let me clear away some of this elemental stuff. No more tripping for you, clumsy.”

She kicked at the ground, scattering the icy debris. Warren shrugged and joined in, clearing a circle around the hairpin. And then Augustin exclaimed out loud.

“Stop. Wait. Don’t touch that thing.”

Braiden blinked hard, trying to focus on whatever ‘that thing’ was.

Surely they weren’t about to find jewels and gemstones secreted inside the fallen elemental.

Unliked the smaller ones from before, this one had been made almost entirely of ice.

They were far more likely to find other stuff in there, none of it very valuable — some frozen fish, maybe? A patch of algae?

Augustin strained forward, caught between the responsibility of helping Braiden stay upright and the desire to examine something on the ground. Braiden hobbled along with him, deeply tired, but just curious enough to observe.

“It can’t be,” Augustin breathed. “A whistle stone. It must have been embedded in the giant’s maw. As one of its teeth, perhaps?”

Behind them, Warren cooed in wonder as the hairpin flourished and grew into a full cottage. Braiden searched the ground, spotting the only thing of interest among the shattered debris.

“Is it that thing over there?” he asked, pointing at an odd porous lump of rock.

It looked like something used in the bath to smooth away tough skin. Granny Bethilda used to keep one by the tub. A pumice stone, only this was perfectly spherical. And was it whistling, too?

Augustin bent over to scoop up the stone. It was definitely whistling, emitting a low, pleasant tune as it blew endlessly out of a multitude of tiny openings.

“That’s it?” Braiden asked. “Why is that so remarkable?”

Augustin beamed. “You’ll see for yourself very soon. I can’t believe it. I knew we would find one of these down here. There must be more.” He gazed toward the far end of the cavern, a dreamy look misting his eyes. “More greater elementals. More whistle stones.”

Braiden frowned, a sudden flare of anger rejuvenating him. He peeled away from Augustin’s arms, finding the strength to stand on his own.

“Wait a minute. You knew we would find one? So you had your own reasons for coming down here? This wasn’t about sealing the dungeon at all!”

Augustin gathered himself up, regaining his composure as he slipped the whistle stone into one pocket. That muffled the sound of it, though the continuous outpouring of air did inflate one side of his trousers in an amusing way. But Braiden was in no mood to laugh.

“I meant what I said all along,” Augustin said. “It was just as I told you and Elder Orora. I intended to come here to see for myself whether this dungeon required sealing. And now I’ve seen for myself that it’s worth keeping open.”

“Because of your silly whistle stones,” Braiden said, jabbing his finger at Augustin’s chest. “Now that you actually stand to benefit, sealing the dungeon off is the last thing you want to do. Selfish. Greedy. Mean.”

Augustin raised his hands, defending himself from the barrage of Braiden’s poking finger. “No, no. You misunderstand. We can find a way to protect the burrowfolk, seal or no seal.”

“Stop it, you two,” Elyssandra called out. The cottage had already vanished, Warren along with it, only the jade flower remaining by her feet. “We can discuss this. Come inside and yell at each other where it’s nice and warm.”

“And another thing,” Braiden said, stepping forward, horribly misjudging the distance and tripping over yet again.

Augustin caught him again, strong fingers digging into his arms. It was very hard to get angry and stay angry at someone so helpful, and this was a worse fall, too. Braiden’s body swayed sideways as he gripped at Augustin’s arms. The contents of his backpack spilled onto the ground.

The tinkling of small, metallic objects filled his ears. His coin purse — the Il-venessi dragons. The ancient gold scattered along the ground, spinning and clinking amid the debris.

“Those are Il-venessi dragons,” Augustin said. “No one uses them these days. Only Il-venessi nobles. And pirates.”

“I can explain,” Braiden said.

A swell of anger overcame Augustin’s face, but the darkening of his eyes was quickly followed by a droop in his shoulders, a heavy sadness. Braiden could almost imagine the black cloud over the wizard’s head.

“Grandmother paid you, didn’t she?” Augustin breathed, his voice so small. “To watch over me. To make sure I didn’t disobey.”

Braiden shook his head, then shook his hands. “It’s not like that at all. Augustin, I swear it, I never meant to deceive you. I just — oh.”

His voice faltered, his words trailing off. His body was so heavy, and Augustin’s arms were so warm, so strong. And that look of disappointment, of betrayal — how could he have hurt the wizard so?

That was it, the last of his arcane willpower drained, and now the last of his will sapped from his body, too. Braiden collapsed into Augustin’s arms. The world went dark.