“Hold on,” Xerxes said. “Your dad got you a Concentrated Melam Pill? That’s got to be worth, what, forty or fifty shekels?”

Gandash grinned. “Dad said that this mission is a chance to make a big impression, so he went all out to help me prepare. Come on, guys, the three of us are a team, right? And we have everything we need to make this happen. So why not do it?”

Xerxes looked at Bel and could see that she was just as surprised as he was. As the two of them sat there with Gandash virtually hopping up and down in his chair waiting for them to respond, Xerxes realized that there was no reason to object.

If things went well, maybe they could have a chance to impress Captain Ishki, and beyond her, the Mage Parliament. If things went poorly, then Gandash wasted some expensive spell components and some melam. There wasn’t exactly any huge downside.

He grinned. “Okay, let’s do it. Bel? You in?”

She hesitated. “Shouldn’t we at least tell Captain Ishki first?”

“And lose our chance at impressing her? No way!”

A moment later, a smile spread across her face as well. “Alright, sure. Right now?”

Gandash stood. “Right now!

With weapons at their sides and lamps in hand, they headed out. The castle was as eerie as Xerxes expected it to be. Even after stepping outside into the cool night, the moldy aroma of the place lingered in his nostrils.

They didn’t see a single person as they crept to the side courtyard with the boulder.

“It really is big,” Gandash said.

“You’re sure the spawn you can summon will be able to move it?” Xerxes asked.

“I’m sure. Even with a simple Spawn Duo, I can summon two Abhorrent spawn, each of which is probably three times as strong as even a Seer. And definitely twice as strong as a High Seer.”

“What do you need us to do?” Bel asked.

“Nothing. Just stand guard, I guess. If there’s really a secret cave behind here with illegal machinery inside, Ligish might have someone watching.”

Xerxes loosened the string on his spell component pouch and looked around.

The battlements above were empty from what he could tell.

A moment later, a soft clink could be heard as Gandash opened his pouch and pulled out a glass vial. When he popped the cork and poured the contents into his palm, an acrid odor filled the air that caused Xerxes to wrinkle his nose.

“Yuck,” Bel said.

Gandash chuckled. “Abhorrent blood stinks, just like they do. Can’t get around that.”

Putting the empty vial back in his pouch, he began to trace the Buhhu Isten rune. He went slowly, exercising care to make sure every aspect of the rune was perfect. A moment later, Xerxes saw the melam flowing into two whirlpools in front of Gandash.

Then the summoning portals opened, dark holes within which nothing could be seen but endless emptiness.

Xerxes’ heart started to pound a bit as he realized that he was about to see an Abhorrent for the first time. After all, the other occasions on which Gandash had cast this spell had all been in testing situations attended only by senior mages.

For about a second, nothing happened. Then Xerxes saw something reaching out of the dark portal. It looked like a sleek, whitish stick narrowed into a point. It was followed by a second stick, then a third, a fourth and a fifth. More followed.

Similar appendages then appeared, coming out of the other portal.

As they stretched out further, knobby portions appeared, which proved to be joints. Xerxes realized he was looking at long legs like that of a spider or other insect. The legs curved as they emerged, so many of them that they couldn’t be counted easily, although Xerxes was sure there were probably about twenty of them protruding from each portal.

A body emerged from the first portal, pale, with reticulated scales, all of them as pale as a corpse.

The thing seemed to have a head, a round, reddish section up front that lacked eyes, mandibles, or any other sensory organs.

As it gained footing outside of the portal, and the second emerged from the other portal, Xerxes gauged their bodies to be roughly the size of a large dog, with a legspan much larger than that. The things pulsed, presumably as they breathed, but given Xerxes couldn’t see any mouth or nostrils, he wasn’t sure. Both things were covered with a sheen of slime that turned his stomach. The acrid odor that had filled the air when Gandash poured out the blood became many times stronger, such that Xerxes felt the urge to plug his nose shut.

He glanced over and saw a sickened expression on Bel’s face.

This was an Abhorrent spawn.

The Abhorrent, vile creatures who lurked in the depths of the Nightmare Cove plotting the demise of humanity. At least, that’s what most people believed. According to the common teaching, it was the ancient war with the Abhorrent that had prompted the Pontifarch to destroy or disable all Gateways leading into the Nightmare Cove. Since that ancient time, the Abhorrent had been stranded in that corner of the starsea, and were seen only when Buhhu mages summoned them by force.

The mere presence of this vile creature filled Xerxes with a sense of disgust, but he suppressed the feeling and forced himself to focus on the task at hand.

As the black portals continued to spin, Gandash raised his hand. Tendrils of melam extended from his fingers into the summoned Abhorrents. His fingers twitched slightly, and the two spider-like monstrosities began to crawl forward on their spindly legs.

“They don’t look very strong to me,” Xerxes whispered.

“Just watch,” Gandash said.

When the first of the creatures reached the boulder, it raised six of its many legs up, then smashed them down. Chips of rock flew everywhere as the pointed ends of the legs pierced into the boulder, at least a foot deep. The second creature crawled to the other side of the boulder and similarly punctured the stone.

Then both Abhorrent began to pull. At first, nothing happened. They strained, their other legs digging into the soil beneath them, in some cases slipping and sliding before finding purchase.

The creatures scrambled as they pulled, until the boulder actually shifted.

“It’s working,” Bel breathed.

The boulder shifted more. It tipped slowly away from the earth upon which it lay, gradually, slowly, until a small space became visible behind it.

It leaned up, up, up, until… it tipped over, forcing the Abhorrents to scramble out of the way as it thumped to the ground loudly, sending up a small shower of pebbles, dirt, and dislodged grass. It was loud, but not loud enough that they worried anyone outside of the courtyard would hear. In fact, Gandash let loose a faint whoop as he took a few steps to the side to get a better look at what lay beyond.

Xerxes followed, keeping one hand on his component pouch, and one eye on the disgusting Abhorrent.

“Bingo,” Gandash said.

Taking one final step to the side, Xerxes looked past his friend to see a gaping cave mouth leading into darkness.

“I knew it,” Bel said.

Gandash started walking forward slowly. “Let’s get inside while I still have these monsters on a leash.”