Reborn Raiders (The Weatherblight Saga Book 4)

by Edmund Hughes

  Diya didn’t attack him, which was almost more terrifying than the opposite. Ari slowly circled his opponent, taking the risk of turning his back to the other Sai simply because it seemed like all he could do. Emperor Diya seemed intent on making a point.

  Which was fine by Ari. He played his role with all the emotion and range of a stage actor. He feigned as though faking confidence. He forced reactions and made a show of reeling them back in. He did what he’d always thought he’d been good at: entertaining the crowd.

  The sky overhead was getting darker, and the wind had become indecisive and agitated. The storm would come, given enough time. He just needed to stall, let the seconds build into minutes, until finally…

  “Pathetic,” said Diya. The word had a hollow, metallic quality through his helm. He rushed forward as Ari came around in a complete circle, setting his back against the trees again. Ari managed to block Diya’s first overhead slash, though it almost knocked Azurelight from his hands and made his elbows screech with pain.

  The second slash would have, no, should have, cleaved through him. It was faster than Ari’s reflexes were capable of reacting to. Eva’s, however, were on another level.

  She shifted forms, pulling from Ari’s hand and twisting the Feathermace to block the strike as she appeared directly in front of Ari, her back pressed against his front. They moved as one from there, Eva passing the Feathermace into Ari’s grip and instantly shifting back into Azurelight. He caught the greatsword in his left hand and hurled it forth.

  To anyone looking on, it probably seemed like Ari had attempted a cheap, desperate sword throw and missed by a couple of inches. Ari was counting on that. He lifted the Feathermace, marveling slightly at his own handiwork as the mace moved instantly with a twist of his wrist, and swung it into an obvious attack.

  Diya lifted his greatsword into a lazy, disappointed block. Ari pulled his left hand back toward him, manipulating Azurelight from a distance. The sapphire sword spun to aim its point at the Saidican Emperor, and then surged forward with twice the speed of Ari’s original throw.

  He heard a gasp as the sword pierced armor and flesh. Ari had been forced to aim for one of the gaps in Diya’s platemail, and because of that Azurelight took Diya through the back of the shoulder, rather than his chest or anywhere vital. It was enough. It was more than he’d expected.

  “Destroy them!” bellowed Diya. His voice sounded confident, though there was an almost inaudible wave of pain. Ari leapt back, sweeping his left hand from side to side to twist Azurelight while it was still inside Diya’s body before summoning it back to him.

  He performed a full reset, handing Eva the Feathermace as she assumed her incarnate from and unsheathing his enchanted longsword. For an instant, it seemed like they might reverse the flow of the battle and push the Sai back for good.

  A volley of fireballs and lightning strikes dismissed his optimistic notion. None of the spells were aimed at Ari or his companions, but at the trees, which crackled as they burst into thick flames, beyond what any of them were capable of fighting.

  CHAPTER 47

  Ari and Eva were the only two defenders left outside the tree fence, which had shifted from being a protective asset to a blazing wall of inferno. He pulled her to him as Azurelight for simplicity’s sake before pulling the Feathercloak over his head and diving through the flames.

  The cloak’s defensive enchantment was strong enough to stand against a short exposure to even the most intense fire, but one of his pantlegs still ignited. Virgil hurriedly helped put it out by patting it down with his own cloak before helping Ari to his feet.

  “I can’t do anything with the trees anymore!” shouted Virgil. “I… I’m sorry.”

  “It’s alright,” said Ari.

  He could see the silhouettes of the invaders on the other side of the flames, patiently waiting for the fire to die down enough to press on the assault. There would be little stopping them from marching into Etheria once the trees were out of the way. They still had the numbers advantage by almost four to one. Etheria’s defenders had managed to kill more of the Sai, but not by enough of a margin to prevent the battle from being a war of attrition that they were currently losing.

  “Fall back,” said Ari. “Regroup in the main chamber.”

  Eva came to Ari’s side and gave his hand a squeeze. She looked into his eyes, still wearing that same coldly intense expression he’d seen on her before.

  “It is going better than we expected,” she said. “We shall see them fall, Lord Stoneblood. All of them.”

  He didn’t like her when she was like this, but at the same time, he needed her like this.

  “Stay focused,” he said. “They’ll charge as soon as the way is clear. We have to be ready for them.”

  He was the last down the tunnel. Rin and her warriors were already in position near the tunnel’s inner entrance. They would take flight within the main chamber once the Sai reached Etheria’s interior, though the dome overhead slightly limited their mobility.

  Ari, Eva, Skinner, and Leyehl stood as the front line, blocking off the tunnel. Virgil was a dozen feet or so behind them, though there was little he could do to contribute given how situational his mystica was.

  Slowly, the Sai began marching forward. Diya was no longer leading them, which was both a disappointment and a relief. The tunnel’s confines made it impossible for the mages to cast spells to their full capacity, which meant that the battle did not begin anew until Ari and the others in front collided with the point of the Saidican charge.

  They would lose the battle. It was inevitable. The main chamber was both too open and too limited for them to make a stand in a proper fight. Ari only put up a token defense before falling back and signaling for Eva and the others alongside him to do the same.

  The Ravarians covered their retreat, if it could be called that. Rin and her warriors swooped down to attack any of the Sai that attempted to press them at a direct, forward angle. The Sai noticed and began moving to encircle Ari and his companions.

  Ari let them. He watched and waited, letting as much of the attacking army into Etheria as he thought that his plan would allow him to handle, and then he gave the signal.

  “Push them back!” he screamed. “For Etheria!”

  Rin and what remained of her warriors immediately dropped to the ground, forming a dense clump along with Ari, Eva, and the rest of them. Ari let out a wordless charge as he hurled himself forward, forcing back the Sai in front of him more out of surprise than actual force.

  They’d been careful to lead the Sai along a set path as they retreated, staying close enough together in the center of the chamber to let the invaders think that they had plenty of room to maneuver through. They would have—if it weren’t for the rune wards Ari had activated earlier. Rune wards of a type that would have only ever been found in an arena meant for public entertainment.

  He’d wondered, upon first arriving at the dome, why the roof had been warded to open and close as it did. It seemed like a pointless waste of essence, a function for the purpose of vanity and not much else. There was one other reason why an ethereal roof would be useful, however. It provided ventilation.

  A dozen screams sounded out within seconds of one another as the Sai began to step upon the ward triggers. Flames burst forth, some from the outer edge of the main chamber’s wall, some from points on the floor where fire traps had been rigged at random. Ari had spent nearly an hour explaining to everyone where the traps were located and making sure they had a sense of where it was safe to step.

  It was like an echo of the burning tree fence, a final verse that tied the symmetry of a song together. The Sai didn’t scream; they panicked. A third of the invaders were incinerated within the first minute of the defenders corralling them into the fire traps. Another third retreated back into the tunnel. The remainder tried to fight while standing in place, not even daring to trod back across the path they’d taken into the chamber, lest there be more traps freshly activ
ated.

  Ari had enough space to make it over to where the ward controls were by the tunnel entrance and toggle the dome’s roof off, allowing the smoke to clear before it became as much of a threat to them as their enemies. The air was still thick with the nauseating smell of scorched flesh, and screams from the Sai who’d been burned into submission without being killed were loud enough to drown out thought.

  In accordance with the plan, Ari retreated back to the chamber’s center, fighting with Eva, Skinner, and Leyehl in a spot where they were safe from the traps. Rin and her warriors flew above, swooping in to force the few Sai left who dared to press on the attack toward the flames and their doom.

  There was an empty moment where the momentum of the battle truly did shift. Half a dozen Sai stopped as they reached the edge of the tunnel, staring into the mixture of death and inferno that awaited them, and decided to retreat.

  Ari lifted his sword into the air and pointed it down the tunnel. Everyone broke into a charge, ignoring the dead and dying within Etheria in lieu of the enemies fleeing outside. He couldn’t risk what was left of the Sai army, which still outnumbered them, regrouping and attempting another attack.

  The Ravarians handled most of the cleanup. The retreating Sai were disorganized and panicked even after escaping the deathtrap that was the dome, and Rin and her warriors swooped down on most of them, dispatching them with ruthlessly precise spear strikes.

  Ari stood next to Eva just outside Etheria’s tunnel, beyond the smoldering remains of the tree fence. He didn’t see Diya anywhere and was fairly certain that he’d escaped outside their range. Killing the Emperor of the Sai would have sent a strong message to any who remained to stand against him, but he was fairly sure that it would take a more coordinated assault than they were currently capable of, given that the invaders who did escape would surely have found their way back to him.

  “We did it,” said Ari.

  Eva reached her hand over to his and interlaced their fingers. She had a small smile on her face, and her expression had softened back into its normal state.

  “You did it, milord,” she whispered.

  He pulled her to him and kissed her, feeling a mixture of pride and relief. It hadn’t been just him, though her words were something he would cherish. Eva was his sword, his right hand, and his siren. He kissed her and held her, trembling slightly for no reason that he could easily discern.

  “They’ve scattered, chala,” said Rin, landing next to them. “Do I get a kiss for my hard work as well?”

  She grinned at Ari, wiping blood from Varnasaria’s tip. He chuckled and blew her a kiss, still half embraced by Eva at his side.

  “Reel your warriors in,” he said. “We’ll need a few scouts watching to make sure the Sai don’t do anything unexpected. The rest can help deal with the bodies.”

  “Will do,” said Rin.

  She took to the air again, spreading her black wings wide and soaring toward the other Ravarians aloft in the distance. Ari’s attention shifted from her toward the sky, which brought a single, comforting realization.

  “We don’t have to pursue Diya ourselves,” he said, patting the pocket of our tunic. “We can just wait for it to rain. Diya and what’s left of his army can’t escape the storm, not before it begins.”

  “The storm will catch us as well,” said Eva. “Should we not look toward reestablishing the security of Etheria in the meantime?”

  Ari nodded slowly, and he and Eva began walking back into the tunnel, pausing to examine what had once served as Etheria’s front line of defense. The tree fence was all but destroyed, but it would take more time than they likely had before the weather shifted to find suitable trees to transplant.

  “We’ll simply have to defend the dome like we used to,” said Ari, continuing down the tunnel. “I’ll close the roof as soon as we’ve finished disposing of the bodies, and then…”

  The remnants of the smoke made it hard to see what was going on as he entered the main chamber. So hard, in fact, that he was left in disbelief of what his eyes were showing him as he stared across the main chamber.

  The tower was gone.

  CHAPTER 48

  “Mud and blood!” shouted Ari. He rushed forward, sliding to a stop in front of the wide circle that represented the spot around where he’d once sunk the anchor crystal.

  “This was part of the plan,” said Eva. “If the battle began to turn against us…”

  “Kerys wouldn’t have panicked like that,” said Ari. “She knew the details of the plan. She would have waited until she actually saw us fall.”

  Eva folded her arms and joined Ari, staring at the empty space where the tower should have been. He knew what she wanted to say, and he also understood why she was so hesitant to say it.

  “It is possible that one of the Sai got past us,” she said. Barely contained frustration made her last word crack on the end.

  “The tower…” Virgil had wandered over to see what the fuss was and stared past them with wide eyes and a slackened jaw. “Trium blessed…”

  “Do you see anything, Virgil?” asked Ari. “You were the furthest back out of all of us for most of the battle. Did you see any of the Sai attacking the door?”

  “No!” he said. “Of course I didn’t. I wouldn’t have let them if I had. Just as I’m sure Lady Kerys would not have opened the door without a struggle, and without screaming for help.”

  “That is true,” said Eva. “I guess it is possible that the ward was triggered accidentally. If the tower is not here, it must be somewhere.”

  It only took Ari a moment to decide. He all but tore the Weathersense Potion from his pocket, hurrying toward his underchamber to lie down on his bedroll in case he had another seizure.

  “Lord Aristial!” said Eva. “Hold a moment. They may come back within the next few minutes. We should be patient.”

  “If they didn’t leave by their own will, then a few minutes could be more time than they have,” said Ari. “Given how overcast the sky is here, I’ve no doubt that it’s raining, or snowing, in at least a few of the other places they could be. I have to start looking for them.”

  “Aristial.” Eva took him by the arm and held him in place for a moment. “Please. You are still needed here, as a warrior and as a leader. The battle seems to be over, but we have not finished our enemy.”

  “I have to do this, Eva,” said Ari. “Watch over things while I’m gone.”

  A flash of worry passed over her expression, culminating in the concern he saw in those deep blue eyes. Ari was aware of how he, or rather, his body, got while he was under the effects of the potion. It was secondary to him now. Everything was secondary other than finding and protecting Kerys.

  Eva stayed with him, crouching by his side as he stretched out on his bedroll. Ari pulled the cork stopper out of the potion bottle, wrinkling his nose as the smell of the foul liquid hit his nostrils. He had to take a couple of calming breaths to quiet a few involuntary reflexes before bringing the lip of the glass to his mouth and taking a generous gulp.

  He was worried enough to ignore the burning, but mud and blood, the potion was the type of liquid that always did its best to convince him that it wasn’t meant to be drunk. It probably wasn’t, and he tried not to fixate on the fact that his body more than likely went into seizures when he imbibed it for a specific, unhealthy reason.

  The blackness swallowed his vision after only a couple of seconds. He hoped Eva had had the wherewithal to take the bottle from his hand and recork it, but he certainly hadn’t. Ari felt his body fading away like a bright afterimage from a candle in a darkened room.

  He was there, and he was everywhere. His existence was far-flung and spotty, a collection of eyes, mouths, and bodies scattered across the world. It hurt more this time than Ari could remember it hurting in the past, a deep, psychic pain, like a migraine in multiple minds.

  He tried to breathe, though that only induced the claustrophobic realization that many of the bodies he was jump
ing through had no need or apparatus for it. Ari focused on the visuals, what the currently spawned Weatherblight were seeing. It was a process of elimination, each monster scanning the area around them for the tower, and each one failing to find it.

  He’d never find it, searching like that. He needed to think, to reason, to guess. The tower wasn’t where it was supposed to be. It had disappeared during the battle against the Sai. If it hadn’t been an accident, the Sai were the most likely, the only suspect.

  He searched through the eyes of more Weatherblight until he found the place he was looking for. The capital of the reborn Saidican Empire, Central Dominion. It was an overcast, rainy morning, perfect for his purposes.

  The city itself looked far less grandiose in the light of day compared to how Ari had last seen it. The towers and domiciles were a uniform slate-grey in color, and they seemed lifeless without the presence of visible ward lights in windows and along streets.

  The rubble outside the city was more prominent in much the same way. It made the restored sections feel like a carefully constructed lie, like a half-finished stone carving with the shavings yet to be dusted off.

  Ari ignored the city in lieu of the area outside of it. The anchor point for the tower was only a short distance away from the edge of Central Dominion, which he suspected was a remnant of Mythril’s tenure as the tower’s master.

  He found the anchor point, and he found the tower. Ari kept the fisher he was controlling at a distance, forcing its limbs and tentacles still as he watched a procession of newly captured prisoners being let outside into the rain.

  He saw Kerys, Amber, and Durrien, each held at blade point by Sai guards dressed in tight silver uniforms. It took a force of will for Ari to keep from flinging his fisher forward and attacking in a blind rage.

  Doing so only would have gotten Kerys and the others killed. He needed to focus and keep thinking clearly. Diya had somehow stolen his tower and the people he cared about along with it. However, the weather was on Ari’s side, along with the things that lurked within it.