For the first time in several years, Alex let go, just a bit.
He let the arrow loose.
† † †
Gaby tried to remain calm, even if Alex’s reluctance was getting the best of her nerves. But the exercise had always been about patience and calm. She saw Alex letting loose the electrified arrow. She knew he had aimed for her left shoulder, but the shakiness of his tired arms sent it towards her heart. Not his fault really, and she relished the challenge.
She called upon the Gift while trying to use the basic tenets of the Ice State. And time slowed, at least for her. The arrow moved in slow motion towards her. Its movement left behind a trail of faint sound, a note imperceptible to the others. She had once read a philosophy book that said the universe moved in musical harmony. The Music of the Celestial Spheres was the title, and she had found it inspiring. Time and music were one for her and she even wondered if she could mix them with the help of the Gift. But right now, she had to focus on the arrow.
The only thing she had to do was sidestep it, which she did. And catch the arrow, which she did. She smiled at Alex.
“Told you.”
Her irises were shifting from an unnatural icy electric blue to golden, and a wider grin illuminated her face. Easy peasy.
“You still overthink too much,” Gaby said to Alex, walking towards the fountain.
“I don’t know why I can’t stop overthinking,” Alex replied, scratching the back of his head.
“You are doing fine,” Fionn replied. “Both of you have advanced so much in only a few sessions. I don’t know if it will be enough, but it will have to do.”
“Just fight smart. More than half a battle is winning with smarts, not with sheer power,” Gaby told him. “Something I did listen to in school.”
“I need a break,” Alex replied, tired. He drank water as if he had been wandering the northern desert of the Straits for years.
“I think the test is over,” Fionn said out of the blue, while Alex and Gaby were drinking water from the clear water of the fountain.
“Why do you say that?” Gaby asked, raising up her head and looking at Fionn.
“Because that door wasn’t there a moment ago.” Fionn pointed to the same door that had let them in. It was already open. Above its frame, engraved in stone that glowed green, there was a sign in the older version of the freefolk tongue, which roughly translated to ‘exit.’
“Real subtle,” Gaby said. “Ok, let’s pick up our stuff. I doubt Mekiri, or the goddess herself, would appreciate this mess being left behind.”
“Aww man! I was this close to finishing that arcade game a second time. I wanted to beat my record,” Alex complained, while Fionn and Gaby started to pick up their belongings. Alex followed them and picked up his sword and bow.
“Let’s go, Alex, there are people who need our help,” Gaby told him, patting him on the shoulder, offering him a sympathetic smile. As stupid as the idea of being attached to an old arcade game was, she couldn’t avoid finding it endearing. Even Fionn had warmed up to the idea of spending their free time watching Alex playing.
“But Gaby! Can I at least try to take the arcade game with me?” Alex pleaded fervently.
“No, but I promise you that if we survive this, I will help you get one. There must be some leftovers in a company warehouse. Now, let’s go.” Gaby dragged him along, following Fionn towards the door.
“So close,” Alex replied with resignation, looking towards the old arcade game, which turned off by itself with a beep resembling a sad goodbye. “At least I will bring this with me.” Alex stared at the black cube in his hand.
† † †
By the time they came out and into the Maze, the sun was high in the sky, shining through rain clouds. A ray of light landed on the Figaro, which seemed to be fixed already. The dents on the hull were still there, but all the breaches were sealed. The three of them walked toward the ship and noticed two figures sitting on rocks, hunched over and covered by thick blankets, playing a game of sagewar. As they got closer, they realized that the figures were Sid and Harland, with their hair grayed and sporting long, thick beards. They looked aged and infirm.
“What the hell? How long has it been?” Alex exclaimed, surprised, going over his calculations again.
“You have been away for a long time, the world has changed now. We grew old here waiting for you, almost losing hope,” Sid replied with a tired voice. “Even Samantha left with an errant freefolk tribe years ago.”
Gaby looked at him with suspicion. She got closer to him and ruffled his mohawk, raising a cloud of dust. She did the same with Harland’s hair. Their hair was now its regular color.
“These are fake beards,” Gaby pulled down Sid’s fake beard. “But I’m glad you are becoming friends.”
“How did you know?” Harland asked, cleaning his beard.
“Sid always says that samoharos don’t go gray. And he is so vain that if he did, he would use hair dye.”
“Hey, I resent that. I would never use an off-the-shelf dye. I would use magick,” Sid complained. “Besides, it was a good joke. And you were away for five hours. We got bored.”
“Where are Sam and the others?” Fionn asked, not amused.
“They left,” Sam tried to contain her laugh, coming out from behind a crate. “Mekiri took Master Reynara with her to cure her wounds. Stealth went to call for help from the remaining tribes, in case we need them.”
“Good, can you contact them?”
“Yes, why?”
“Tell them to go to Saint Lucy to alert Queen Sophia.”
“Again, why?”
“We kinda have a plan. I will need those explosive mining charges that came with the ship for it to work, though,” Alex said.
“You and explosive charges worry me like you have no idea,” Sid mumbled.
“And one potential target is Saint Lucy,” Gaby added. “We just need to find Byron first.”
“Well, you are in luck, because we have a location,” Sam said with a smile. “Your idea worked, geek.”
“The ship started responding a few minutes ago,” Harland added, activating his damaged datapad and projecting the image on the canyon wall. A map of a town on a small island located between the Emerald Island and Ionis was displayed. “If the map is correct, the Queen’s holiday chalet is in Sandtown.”
“That’s bad,” Fionn said.
“Why?” Gaby asked, turning to Fionn.
“The Queen’s holiday home is where the Free Alliance charter was signed,” Fionn explained.
“I think it is worse than that, Dad,” Sam opened her green eyes wide. “That’s where the old Ulmo capital was. Where the Bestial was defeated the first time it was here on Theia.”
“Damn,” Fionn replied, clenching his fists around Black Fang’s pommel.
Time was running out.
Chapter 16
Late to the Party
“Why is that place so important?” Sid asked, flying the Figaro at top speed. The dragon core had reenergized the original cores to the point that the ship could now easily break the sound barrier.
“Ulmo was the last great kingdom of the freefolk. They got into a war with the Asurian empire, from which Meteora is the last remaining city state,” Fionn explained.
“Meteora is in the center of the desert wasteland west of the Kuni Empire. Half a planet away. How could that be?” Harland asked.
“Intercontinental weapons and dimensional portals, like the punchers,” Alex said. “People back home said that Meteora had been an advanced civilization that only feared the samoharo, who protected us, and the Kuni.”
“And back then, the Kingdom of Ulmo stretched from Ionis to the northern lands of Auris through the Scar,” Fionn added. “Anyways, the conflict soon became kinda three-sided when the last Montoc Dragons razed Meteor
a’s weapon facility in the city of Carpadocci, in an attempt to get rid of such powerful weapons. In turn, the Asurians summoned the Bestial as their last-ditch attempt at victory, sending it to destroy Ulmo. However, the Bestial went rogue and destroyed the Asurians first. When it arrived at Ulmo, the Bestial levelled the place and killed both freefolk and dragons. It was a massacre. Only the last surviving Montoc Dragon, Black Fang, managed to take the Bestial down, at the cost of his own life. It was a total mess that sank half the planet in chaos for centuries to come. From there, everything split into the several kingdoms and republics we know, while the freefolk went on to become mostly nomads again. They never rebuilt their kingdoms. And the dragons disappeared from Theia.”
“And all of that relates to our destiny how?” Sid asked once more.
“King Castlemartell decided to build Sandtown as the place where the Free Alliance charter was signed. It even has a famous stained-glass window gallery. Each window depicts scenes from the Great War,” Fionn replied.
“And it is the same place where Ulmo’s old capital was, the first freefolk city,” Sam added. “Which makes it the best place to summon the Bestial once more.”
“I bet the King regrets building it there now,” Sid remarked.
“Well, he did it on Sophia’s advice. Of all his children and the Twelve Swords, she had the best spiritual attunement to the Gift. She knew that the place would attract good omens,” Fionn explained. “She did the same when she ordered the rebuilding of Saint Lucy and made it her royal seat. There is a reason she is one of the most beloved leaders of the Alliance.”
“I thought it was because she was a nice, really old lady that liked tea,” Sid said.
“She may be old, but I can assure you, she is not nice when she is riled up. Compared to her siblings, she is the true heir of the old King.”
“You speak of her fondly,” Gaby said to Fionn. “How old is she, by the way?”
“She is a great friend. And she must be around my age. Except that she looks older than me. A perk of her Gift is that she ages slowly.”
“Good thing for a monarch,” Alex mumbled.
“What do you mean by that?” Fionn said, looking at him.
“I don’t want to get political,” Alex replied.
“Good, because we are here,” Sid interrupted. “And you are not gonna like it one bit.”
† † †
They left the Figaro on the outskirts of the remains of Sandtown. A sphere of roiling mist and clouds hung over the ruined town. And from the mass, translucent bodies and spectral forms emerged.
“Is that a portal?” Harland asked. “I thought it would be, you know…”
“A hole in the sky?” Alex asked.
“Yes, like the one in the napkins.”
“Yeah… well, we live in a tridimensional world. The 3D form of a hole is actually a sphere. The ghosts, though, those are an interesting touch. I never expected that a tear in reality would release ghosts.”
“That’s not from the tear. The Tempest doesn’t like to be disturbed,” Sam said with a somber tone. “It’s something that happens with massacres. That’s why battlefields and murder scenes end up being haunted. It’s the residual psychic energy. And if I recall the legend correctly, the initial spell to summon the Bestial needs several sacrifices...”
Fionn’s blood boiled with anger. His fists clenched and released rhythmically, while he walked amidst the ruins of the previously beautiful and peaceful town and castle. They were surrounded by the corpses of the villagers and smoke from still smoldering buildings filled the air with a thick, acrimonious smoke. He knelt to pick up a charred cloth doll and his mind screamed, clamoring for vengeance. The townspeople had offered resistance but it had been for nothing. Byron’s forces had proved to be overwhelming. A few yards away, Sam was using her pendant to track the energy used in the spell and was sending the information to the Figaro, while Harland and Sid were hacking into the video feed of the security cameras. Alex and Gaby only stared at the gathering of ghosts that peppered the ruins of the place.
“Is that normal?” Gaby pointed at one ghost, which for the most part was, like the rest, ignoring them.
“I guess, as long as the portal remains open, damaging the napkin of reality,” Alex said. Parts of the sphere were clear though enough to reflect what was on the other side. It didn’t look like the spiritual plane, not according to the books he had been reading. Stars could be seen through the portal, their faint lights signaling dying worlds. Alex looked at the curious constellations that could be seen through it. They weren’t the constellations that one could see in a regular sky, but resembled the ones he had seen depicted at Ravenhall. There was floating debris from a dead planet and its moon, with a dimming star not unlike the sun. Wherever that place was, it was clear that something bad had happened.
“I have to admit that the ghosts look cool,” Alex murmured, earning a disapproving glare from Gaby. “You know I like haunted houses.”
“Not now, Alex.”
Gaby got closer to Fionn, who was staring at the ruins of the chalet. The stained-glass windows had been viciously destroyed.
“Are you ok?” Gaby asked him. Fionn looked at her and hugged her.
“I will be.” Fionn and Gaby stood there, embracing each other. Fionn inhaled the sweet smell of her hair. For a brief second, everything stopped and felt right in the universe. Alas, these moments were scarce and often interrupted.
“We got it!” Harland exclaimed, downloading the information to his datapad and then projecting it as a hologram. “It recorded everything. The attack, the summoning… No sound but…”
“There is no need to see the whole attack. Let’s jump to the summoning,” Fionn said. He had seen firsthand what Byron could do to a place once he let his bloodlust win. It wasn’t pretty.
In the images, the flying dreadnought occupied the whole area above the chalet’s front yard. Underneath it, there was a circlet, similar to the smaller one used to summon the incursion, glowing thanks to the influx of magick energy empowering the spell. A few troopers surrounded the ship. The small number was odd, considering the reported number of followers of the cult. Connected to the circlet were the five kidnapped students and professors from Ravenstone. The circlet activated and opened the portal.
“I see the Queen, shackled and bruised. Seems that she gave them quite a fight even at her old age. Hunt is next to her, badly hurt,” Sam pointed out. “And my students are there, connected to the machine. That bastard! He is using them as conductors for the energy needed for the spell!”
“This is bad,” Alex said, but then he realized something. “He is using an improved version of the circlet. A bigger one.”
Alex pointed at the circlet, which projected a column of light into the sky. It engulfed the dreadnought and slowly opened a portal above the massive ship. From the opening, a giant pulsating mass emerged. Whatever it was, the strange matter that composed it resembled resin. It poured over the dreadnought, merging with the flying fortress. The resulting creature was an aberration of metal and something that looked like living, pulsating flesh. It had doubled in size compared to the original dreadnought, had three mouths, and there were eyes in places where there should not have been. And tentacles. Lots and lots of tentacles along with its heavy weaponry. Just by watching it, Alex’s head started to hurt and Sid had to go behind some bushes to throw up. From the portal, green and lilac light flowed into several corpses, putting Byron in control of their bodies.
“Aww crap,” Alex muttered, visibly nervous, shaking and fidgeting with his hands. “That thing is bigger than we thought.”
The flying fortress had the look of a humongous, deformed, blind, grey goblin shark. “Maybe this is way over our heads.”
“The size doesn’t matter, we stick to the plan: board the ship, blow up the core that is its heart and cut off its head, Byr
on, as a team,” Fionn stood up tall. “Being afraid is fine, it keeps you alert. But don’t let that stop you, Alex.”
But the looks on their faces told him that they weren’t feeling confident. Even Fionn had to admit that while the plan was simple, the risk for the six of them, not to mention the hostages, was very high and the chances of success too slim. Whatever doubts he had would have to be buried deep as it was his job to reassure his new team. Like he had done with the original Twelve Swords when they had faced overwhelming odds. He just hoped that he wasn’t asking too much of them.
“According to the video, they are taking the hostages inside the ship,” Sam pointed out.
“Without wanting to sound too grim, why?” Sid asked, clearing his throat. “It would have been easier to kill them here. They just erased a whole town with ease. Not even the stained-glass windows were left intact.”
“He might need the students to open a second portal over its next target,” Alex said. “He might be planning to increase his army. More deaths, more bodies to control.”
“He doesn’t need them anymore. The Bestial can do that once it touches the crystal obelisks,” Sam said ruefully, looking down with sadness.
Everybody remained silent, shuffling their feet, looking for an answer. Fionn’s eyes meet with Harland’s and something dawned on them. Both looked at the remains of the stained-glass windows and got closer to examine them.
“The windows, weren’t they created as a homage to the Twelve Swords and the end of the war?” Harland mused. “The damage here, it is not random…”
“It’s personal,” Fionn concluded. “That window represented something to us, something that he could break.”
“He is sending a message.” Harland pounded his open palm with his fist.
“Byron has a penchant for theatrics and hates the freefolk. Good leader, poor tactical thinker,” Fionn said while he returned to the hologram. He clenched his fist. “See those cameras floating around? He is planning a public execution when he gets in range of the next target city’s antennas. He plans to send a message that the Alliance is nothing without the Queen, and the freefolk are filth to be disposed of.”
The Withered King Page 24