by Logan Byrne
“How long does it last again?” I asked.
“There’s no telling, perhaps indefinitely until you either request to be released or you’re knocked out of the state. Be careful with this, its power is truly unknown to us. The surge you felt, even in the precinct, is nothing compared to what this can do to you,” he said.
“I’ll use it wisely,” I said.
I looked down at the sapphire as Mirian walked away, watching the glistening blue glow shimmer in the sun, before I felt a hand touch my shoulder. “Hey,” Charlie said.
“Getting nervous?” I asked.
“I guess you could say that. Come on, we’re all together and we want you with us,” he said, putting his arm around my shoulders.
“Do you ever wish we could still be in the precinct? Being auditors and fighting the worst the realm had to throw our way?” I asked.
“Yeah, sometimes, though I don’t miss all the field work,” he said.
“I thought you’d think that was the best part,” I said.
“Some missions were fine, but others, like Morocco and Africa, were horrible. I almost died, twice, once in the desert and then at that forsaken lake. Duskhowlers a plenty attacked us, and it seems like it was more stress than it was worth,” he said.
“Yeah, we did have some really crazy times,” I said, laughing.
“But you know what’s funny? When I was in the office, I wanted nothing more than to be in the field. I’d forget the horrible times and near-death experiences. It was like they vanished. Then, when I was dying of thirst in the desert and dying on the shore of that toxic lake, I missed being in the office and wanted nothing more than to do paperwork. Weird, isn’t it?” he asked.
“Well, pretty soon you’ll have your wish. We’re going to defeat this megalomaniac and then take over M.A.G.I.C. again. We’ll weed out the duskhowlers and get back to where things should’ve stayed all along,” I said.
“If we survive this,” he said, in a weirdly serious way, which wasn’t like him at all.
“Don’t talk like that, of course we’re going to get through it,” I said.
“That’s not what you told Blake last night,” he said.
“Wait,” I said, grabbing his arm and stopping him in his tracks. “He told you?”
“No, I have cat ears, remember? I could hear your conversation, especially when you started crying. You’re like my sister, I’m connected to you like family. When you were upset, I could feel and sense it throughout my body,” he said.
“Sometimes I forget you have those abilities,” I said, shaking my head gently.
“I’ve never thought I would live a long life, Lexa, and that’s okay. I came to terms with it a long time ago, long before all this happened. At the end of the day, as long as my friends, and especially Britta, are okay, then I’m okay,” he said.
“You really love her, don’t you?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he said, lowering his head a little.
I put my hand on his chest, before standing on my tippy toes and kissing his cheek. “I love you, Charlie. You are my brother, even if we aren’t related by blood. I promise we’ll all survive this. I’ll stop at nothing to make sure you guys are safe.”
“I love you too, Lexa. Thank you for talking to that creepy man in your motel room that night. Without that, we wouldn’t be here right now. But let’s cut the sappy crap and get with our friends before we have to kick some teeth in,” he said, wrapping his arm tightly around me and swaying back and forth with me funnily as we walked away.
17
The sky began to blacken as Kiren and his forces drew near. Mirian and the other mages cast a spell on the inside of the wall so we could see through it like with the x-ray vision spell he’d shown me before. It allowed us all to look out while not affecting the integrity of the wall or the magic already guarding it.
I watched in shock and awe as his army approached. The ground shook as they marched in unison, their rhythm over the past week syncing fully together, before they came to a unanimous halt a few hundred feet away from us. The sea of people parted and Kiren walked forward.
We were above them, just barely, with enough of a view to see him below and witness the vastness of his forces. I wasn’t sure if it were two thousand strong, and I honestly started to wonder if his army were actually larger than what the gryphons saw. It was hard to estimate something like this. I hadn’t seen anything like it before.
“King Rafael, where art thou?” Kiren asked, laughing maniacally. “I just want to talk and use your facilities.”
“Leave this place at once, Kiren. You and your perverted army are not welcome within these walls,” Mirian said, holding his wand to his throat as he projected his voice outwards.
“Ah, Mirian, so good to hear your voice. You didn’t think I’d forgotten about you, did you? I take it the girl is in there as well? All the easier for me when it comes time to slaughter her. I can end her once and for all,” Kiren said.
“You won’t be touching her, and you won’t be getting inside these walls,” Mirian said.
“Your people can be saved, Mirian. The resistance, the high elves, all of you! All you have to do is bow down to me and pledge allegiance to my cause. Magical supremacy and mages, people like you and me, at the top of the food chain. It is our birthright, Mirian. I beg you, don’t be a fool and tarnish the magical gifts that were bestowed upon us at birth.”
“The mortal and magical realms are meant to remain separate, Kiren. You know that as well as I. We are at peace in our realm, as they are in theirs. Don’t make this like how it used to be, when the mortals feared us all those eons ago and we were sent away,” Mirian said.
“That’s exactly why I’m doing this, Mirian,” he snarled. “I will no longer live in this pathetic realm while they get to enjoy theirs. Their realm is far larger than ours could ever hope to be. You still have a chance to surrender and keep your dignity. The high elves can keep Alornia, all I want to do is come inside for a few hours. I will leave their kingdom in one piece just the way it is now.”
I looked over at Caspian, who I could tell was on the fence. He didn’t like Kiren, nobody did, but I could see he wanted to keep his people and kingdom safe at the same time. “Hold strong,” I said to him.
“I just want this to be over,” Caspian replied, shaking his head.
“Leave this place before it’s too late. Sha’rari isn’t going to be summoned today,” Mirian said.
“So you know my little plan, eh? I guess it’s for the best, considering it’s the best plan anybody in this forsaken realm has ever come up with. I hold the power to summon the destroyer, and do that I will. Enough talking, it’s time to come in. I only have a few precious hours before the comet arrives and I know Alornia is fortified. Mages, attack!”
His mages took out their wands before casting a barrage of spells, which the kingdom’s magical enchantments dissolved as they hit the walls. Loud booms shook the air, and it looked like fireworks were exploding in the sky.
“How long will it hold?” Mirian asked Caspian.
“I wish I could say. Maybe two hours,” Caspian said.
“That’s when the blood moon will be ascending,” Mirian said.
“He knew,” I said, crossing my arms. “That’s why he planned everything so meticulously. He wanted to ensure that he got in just when he needed to. He knew there was a chance he’d be stopped if he got in well before, and he’s planning on sneaking in and getting up there right when the comet passes.”
“He won’t get that far. Our best warriors, as well as your best mages, are guarding the palace entrance,” Caspian said.
“I think they’ll be more of a delay for him than a full stop,” I said.
A soft ringing had begun in my ears an hour and a half after the attack started. It didn’t let up, as an entire swarm of mages outside constantly cast a variety of curses and spells that were meant to open the wall’s protection with brute force, like a battering ram against a steel
door. Eventually, after thousands of hits, it would break no matter how strong it was originally.
We all paced around, some people holding it together better than others. Britta and Charlie held hands as Rosie rested her head on Faus’s shoulder. The citizens had all been evacuated, getting back to the resistance camp safely, and Caspian sat alone in the corner stoically sharpening his blade.
The first cracks in the shield appeared soon after, hairline fractures, though they began to grow over time. The weight of the attacks wasn’t kind to it, as the stress of each pounding spell sent the lines further and further back around the kingdom.
“It’s falling!” a guard said, as I watched the cracks become more and more pronounced by the second, and then it happened. The shield shattered.
Evaporating into the air, the magical protections and enchantments that circled the entire kingdom went up in a puff of smoke as if they’d never been there to begin with. Uproarious cheers could be heard outside, before spells were cast against the gilded walls surrounding us.
“They still can’t teleport in, no matter what,” Caspian said, walking forward with his sword in his hand.
“They’ll get through the walls, just wait. We need to try to keep their passage to a minimum. The smaller the break, the better,” Mirian said.
“I love you,” Charlie said to Britta.
“And I love you, Charlie,” she replied, her hand cupped on his cheek, before kissing him.
“Lexa,” Blake said, grabbing my hand.
“You don’t need to say it. I already know,” I said, a very soft smile gracing my face.
“But I want to say it. I love you, more than you’ll ever know,” he said.
“I love you, too,” I said, before getting on my tippy toes and kissing him. I breathed in heavily through my nose, trying to keep my composure. The thought of this being the end was almost too much to bear.
I pulled away, wiping my eyes, before getting my head in the game and keeping it together. This wasn’t the time to break down, Lexa. I could cry after it was all over.
The sun started to set behind the mountain as the sky remained smoky, the sun’s orange and pink glow fighting to shine through the smoke. The wall began to crumble as mages kept using the Eruptico spell over and over, the strain from hundreds and hundreds of them casting at once proving to be too much for even the high elves’ magic to endure.
“Get ready,” Mirian shouted as the wall began to crumble.
Charlie shifted, hissing, as the wall broke down, opening a twenty-foot-wide rift in the side of the once impenetrable kingdom. Their forces cheered, before Kiren roared his command.
“Attack!” he bellowed as he conveniently stayed in the back, unwilling to charge in with his warriors.
They yelled as they ran forward, an army of mages, shifters, and various other magical creatures armed with swords, knives, and clubs.
The sky lit up brilliantly as flashes of spells flew in every direction. The Minotaurs roared, swinging their battle axes and hammers at the duskhowlers, as high elves jumped around, doing flips in the air as they swiped their swords and stabbed through the first of Kiren’s army.
They were valiant, the duskhowlers, but our intelligence was correct. They weren’t the most skilled warriors, and their lack of training and experience was showing.
“Arma Maximus!” ten mages, including Mirian, incanted on the front lines. A screen connected to the golden walls, providing a much-needed break from the onslaught as the thirty or so duskhowlers who were behind our gate tried anything they could do to escape.
“Help us!” they screamed, looking back at Kiren as he sat there watching, his face expressionless.
One of our lion shifters swiped a duskhowler down before clamping onto his neck and snapping it. A high elf thrust his sword through another mage’s torso, and our mages struck down the duskhowlers like they were killing flies. It wasn’t even a battle.
Dozens of Kiren’s men lay dead on the once pristine streets of Alornia, their blood spilling through the cracks in the cobblestones, before Kiren stood up from his throne, smiling profusely.
“You didn’t think that would stop me, did you?” he asked, reaching into his pocket.
He pulled it out, the Malum, before breathing in slowly and gripping it tighter. The dark magic began to course through him, his eyes turning jet black as his skin became pasty and dark veins began to form beneath it.
“Surrecturus Sit Mortuus Est,” he incanted, his incredibly deep voice rumbling.
“No!” I heard Mirian mutter.
Dark shots flew of Kiren’s wand, hitting the fallen soldiers, before their bodies began to contort, the life going back into them as if they hadn’t died. Their eyes blackened like Kiren’s when they arose, standing on their own feet as they stumbled around, becoming undead.
Their skin turned light green, a demonic snarl in their throats, before they picked up their weapons of choice and attacked once more.
The high elves stabbed them, but it was no use. Black blood, if you could call it that, spilled out of them instead of red, and their energy didn’t seem to deplete, no matter how hard they were hit.
I looked up to see Kiren incanting, whispering to himself, before flicking his wand forward and shattering the shield. More of his men began to rush the gate.
“There!” Kiren shouted, commanding his army. “The girl is there! Get her!”
“Lexa! Run!” Mirian shouted as an orc hit him with a club and threw him backwards.
Blake shifted, roaring at those who came near, before looking over at me. “Run!”
“We’ll hold them off,” Charlie said, the two of them attacking the duskhowlers who ran towards me.
“Come on,” Britta said, grabbing my hand, and we began to run away.
“Why didn’t anybody give me blueprints of this place beforehand?” Faus asked, huffing for breath, as he held tightly onto Rosie’s hand.
I could hear screams and explosions in the distance. I stopped, looking back to see black lightning emanate from Kiren’s location. It began to move in the darkening sky, where the sun had almost fully set, and I knew he was going to start moving towards the palace.
“We need to stop him,” I said.
“Mirian said to run, so we are. It isn’t time yet, Lexa,” Britta said.
“Here, we can hide in here,” Faus said, opening the door to a shop off to the side of the street.
We ran inside, closing the door behind us, before crouching down and walking to the only side that didn’t have windows.
“God, I hope Blake and Charlie are okay,” Britta said, panicking.
“They will be, they’re strong. The better question is will we be okay?” Faus asked.
“How long until he reaches the palace? It isn’t that far away, you know,” Rosie said.
“He’s making progress, but there’s still time,” I said, peeking out of the window.
A duskhowler walked past, and I gasped, quickly moving to the wall where he couldn’t see me. “They couldn’t have gotten far,” I heard him say to a few others outside.
“What about in here?” one asked, pointing to our building.
“Go on and check. We’re going to take the next one,” the first man said.
The knob to our building turned, before two duskhowlers walked inside, raising their wands. “Candelae,” they said, as a small amount of light came from the tip of their wands.
I looked over at Britta, who nodded back at me, before I heard a noise. It was Faus. Angered, aggravated, and likely extremely scared, he was shifting, the beast taking over as he began to roar in the back.
“What was that?” one duskhowler asked, his wand shaking with nervousness as the two of them slowly moved forward.
“What do you see? Anything?” the other asked.
Steam began to shoot from Faus’s nostrils as he breathed through his nose, his body obscured by the darkness.
“Candelae Maximus,” the man said, the room gettin
g extremely bright.
“It’s a Minotaur!” the other man said, before Faus roared and charged forward.
He head-butted them both, slamming his harder-than-steel skull into them, before the other duskhowlers came in through a side door, their wands drawn.
“Rigormorio!” Britta and I both shouted, hitting the same man.
“Rigor—” the second said, before Rosie charged into him, hitting his wand upwards, “—Viberum.”
His spell hit the ceiling, blasting it open, and he and Rosie began to struggle. “I can’t get a clear shot,” Britta said, moving her wand around where the duskhowler went.
“Rosie!” Faus roared, turning his attention towards her. He began charging, letting out a bone-rattling scream, before Rosie let go of the man and jumped to the side, Faus’s head slamming into his sternum, the force so strong that he slammed back into the wall, completely knocked out.
“Rigormorio,” Britta said, pointing to each duskhowler at the front. She then cast restraints on each man, including the one Faus just attacked, to make sure they wouldn’t be able to hurt anybody after they came to.
“My hero,” Rosie said, putting her arms around Faus’s hairy beast body before he began to shrink back into human form.
“We need to work our way towards the castle,” I said, looking out the window. It was futile, trying to stop Kiren and his newly created undead army.
“They’re being pushed back,” Britta said, walking up beside me, as the guards and mages on the palace door began to look antsy and ready to fight.
“Come on, we need to help,” I said.
“You two go, I don’t think Rosie and I will be much help to you,” Faus said.
“Are you sure you’re okay here?” Britta asked.
“Stay with them,” I said, looking at her.
“No way, I’m not letting you go out there alone,” she said.
“She’s not alone,” Blake said, huffing and puffing as he and Charlie walked through the door in human form.