by Logan Jacobs
“Where did he find another Ghoul’s Bread?” I asked in shock. “I thought it only grew on the plains?”
Herm just shrugged. “It does,” he continued, “but I guess the dryad had some sitting around in his office. He said he found it under a stack of papers that were six months overdue on grading.”
“Yep,” Ariette chuckled. “That sounds like Limmer.”
The vial got to me last, and I popped a drop on my tongue without a second thought. After all, no one had keeled over yet.
The liquid was strangely sweet, as if I had poured syrup on my tongue. Instantly, I felt a strange zing spurt up and down my spine, and it was almost like I was even more awake.
And then, without warning, Ariette let forth the most enormous electric bolt I had ever seen. It spouted forth from her hands like a water fountain and jumped through the sky until it smacked down on a section of the wall about twenty feet away. The spell sent a whole piece of the wall crumbling to the ground with a huge cloud of gray dust.
“Safe to say that works, then!” Herm said excitedly.
“Milton Bailey, you need to get going,” Kajul rumbled as he glanced back toward the battle. “The Phobos will break through the Seelie barrier within a matter of minutes.”
“Do you know where Zolderon is?” I asked, but Kajul shook his head.
“I do not,” the dragon admitted, “but you will find him. You are the Racmoth, after all. Now, if you’ll excuse me, it’s been years since I’ve taken part in an actual battle.”
The dragon suddenly took to the air so he could join in on the fighting. He flew overhead and soared over the gray wall as a giant stream of fire belched out from his mouth. Screams erupted from the edge of the capital as the white hot fire found its target. The massive beast somersaulted through the air before he dropped from the sky momentarily. When he popped back up, he held two ogres in his massive claws. With a monstrous roar, Kajul flung them out over the ocean, where they landed a mile from shore.
“Holy fuck,” I gasped, even though the dragon was far out of earshot by that time. “So, team, how do we find this guy?”
“Actually, Milton, that’s why he brought me along,” Herm piped up, and I turned to look at the wizard as a proud gleam jumped into his blue eyes.
Chapter Eighteen
“I’ve got a spell I think you can use,” the wizard, Herm, explained as he dug in his pocket and pulled out a piece of scrap paper.
“Holy shit, I can see everything!” Kalista hollered out suddenly as she spun in a circle and stared through the wall. “The tide’s coming in, and there’s a boat about a mile off the shore! Guess that dryad’s not so damn crazy after all.”
“Kal, focus,” Ariette admonished quickly as we all watched Herm intently.
“I never thought the day would come when I would need to use this spell,” he said quietly. “It will detect the dark spirit and lead you to him. Kalista, since you have the Hand of Sight, I believe it will work best on you.”
Suddenly, there was a loud crash to our right that literally shook the very bones of the city. The buildings nearest to us rattled like there was an earthquake, and the stone underneath my feet shook back and forth so violently I nearly lost my balance. My eardrums rung with the echo of the crash, and I turned to see a giant cloud of gray dust rise above the capital.
“Did they just take down the wall?” Danira demanded. “I thought that dragon was going to join the fight. With his size and strength, this should all be over by now.”
“Kajul isn’t at full strength. He’ll have trouble avoiding any innocents if he just spouts out huge bursts of dragon fire,” I pointed out as I turned back to Herm. “And he might not be able to figure out who’s a friend and who’s a foe from that high up. We need to do this fast.”
“Alright, Hermie, tell me what we have to do here,” the dwarf announced as she stepped forward confidently. Her eyes were wide, and she glanced around a bit as she got used to the enhancement in her Hand.
I personally hadn’t felt any real difference yet, but I supposed I’d feel it the next time I connected with someone’s blood.
“Just stand still,” the wizard ordered as he took in a deep breath and shot a worried glance over at the tunnel, where we could hear the sounds of battle as they got closer.
The cries were louder now, more strangled, and it didn’t sound good at all. Everyone shifted nervously and threw their own worried looks at the tunnel as Herm took in a deep breath and placed his hands directly over Kalista’s eyes.
Ariette tightened her grip on her sword, and Maaren did the same with her axe. Edora took a step toward the tunnel, her red head tilted in concentration as she tried to pick up on the battle sounds.
“They sound like they’re coming fast,” she muttered and glanced at me with worried golden eyes.
“Begietan gaest,” Herm muttered with his hands still over Kalista’s eyes. They glowed a soft blue color for a moment before they returned to their normal pale shade, and he pulled them away.
Kal still looked exactly the same, just shocked. Very, very shocked.
I recognized the second word from my own spell, the one that would destroy Zolderon’s spirit, and wondered for a brief moment just what it meant.
“Aha! I can see the little devil!” the dwarf exclaimed as she marched toward the ajar wooden door at the front of the castle. “Herm, you’re a genius. Follow me, team!”
“Find somewhere to hide,” I ordered Herm as we all followed Kalista.
“Not this time, Milton,” he said softly, his pale blue eyes sincere. “I’m a trained member of the guild. I’ll hold them off if it gets to that.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t,” I muttered and put a hand softly on his shoulder in thanks before I turned to follow the rest of the team into the castle. “Good luck, my friend.”
“You need it more than I do!” the old wizard cackled as I began to walk out of earshot.
The door to the castle creaked eerily as we pushed it open a little bit further and entered into what would have been a grand foyer, complete with vases full of roses and a huge golden table in the center. The floor was a pristine marble with gold detailing etched into it, and gorgeous, classy red velvet curtains were draped from the high up windows. Brilliant golden beams of light passed through the windows and fell on the cream tile walls, and it gave the whole place a very expensive looking glow.
But right now, the foyer was completely empty and silent.
There didn’t even seem to be a fly to buzz around the place. It sort of reminded me of a desolate prairie in the Old West, right before a showdown. All we needed was for a tumbleweed to blow through, and the scene would be set.
My whole body was tense and on high alert as we walked through the foyer. My ears strained for any sign of life, and my eyes darted around the round space as I looked for any movement.
“Do you know where you’re going?” Edora hissed to Kalista as she circled the foyer with her golden eyes, weapon at the ready.
“It’s like I can see this path in front of me,” the dwarf whispered as she tried to explain. “Like I know where he went. This way.”
She led us through an archway toward the back of the foyer, where an enormous set of silver stairs spread out grandly and led to the upper floors of the castle, but the dwarf didn’t even bother with them. Instead, she walked around the side of the fancy stairs to a tiny door that was carved into the side of the staircase. It was the same cream color as the tile around it, and anybody else would have missed it.
“The path goes in here,” Kalista whispered as she reached a steady hand forward to push on the door gently, as there was no doorknob. “Cover me.”
Instantly, Ariette and I stepped up behind her as the door swung slowly forward. I drew my gun and Ariette raised her sword, but no evil spirit or Phobos member burst forth from the door. Instead, it opened to reveal a small, dimly lit hallway that led under the staircase.
“So can you see where he was?” M
aaren hissed as we entered the cramped hallway.
The temperature dropped significantly the moment we stepped through the doorway, and it reminded me of how I’d felt in the Valley of Light. That same strange drop in temperature was present here.
Zolderon was close.
“It’s kind of like I see his footsteps, like shadows in the sand, but on the tile,” Kalista whispered back as she crept forward, eyes squinted as she carefully observed the path we were on.
The tension was palpable in the air as we crept further and further down the hallway, and got closer and closer to our final target. The temperature dropped even more, until I was sure we were reaching subzero temperatures. But there was also this intense, and weird, sadness that hung in the air. I started to feel completely hopeless and lost in a very uncontrollable way. I knew in my head that whatever I felt was definitely due to the presence of a seriously evil dark spirit.
Kalista suddenly froze up in the dimly lit hallway as she stared at a moving figure, ahead of us. The figure groaned a little and moved such a small amount it would have gone totally unnoticed if all of us weren’t on such seriously high alert. We all pulled up to a fast stop behind the dwarf and stared at the figure momentarily, before the light caught his face and Edora gasped.
“That’s Patten,” she whispered.
The Unseelie growled, lifted her axe into the air, and charged. She closed the gap instantly, yanked the guy up by his shirt collar with her free hand, and placed the blade of her axe against his throat.
When the rest of us dashed after her and got up behind her, I could see the elf was a sickly blue that bordered on green, and his eyes lolled about in his head, half shut. I could hardly see his irises, they were rolled so far back in his head.
He didn’t look at all like someone who was possessed by a powerful dark spirit, that was for sure. My stomach backflipped multiple times as I wondered if that meant Zolderon had completed his mission.
“The footsteps don’t end here,” Kalista muttered as she tugged on Edora’s arm.
“Leave him, Edora,” I ordered the Unseelie. “He’s no threat to us. Not like this, anyway.”
The Unseelie seethed with rage as she held the halfway conscious man by his shirt collar, but Kal tugged more insistently on her arm, and Edora let him drop back to the floor.
The five of us followed the dwarf further down the dimly lit hallway. We were all pretty much at a run now, but we had to take little half steps so we didn’t outrun the dwarf on her small legs.
And then she pulled up next to a thin wooden door bordered with a crack of light. Our breath was heavy with anticipation and tension.
“He’s here,” Kal mouthed as she put her hand against the door.
Before she could say anything more, there was a loud crash and a scream that emanated from inside the room.
I thrust myself forward and yanked open the door with all my might. My ears rung for a split second as I took in the room, and time froze momentarily for me as I registered the sight in front of me.
The room was small, with only a single window on the right wall over fifteen feet up. It was designed so there was only one way in or out. The room was also rectangular and narrow, with a single wooden table and two chairs that had been thrown about and strewn across the room. One chair had been broken, like someone had tried to use it as a weapon and failed miserably.
There were three Phobos elves near the door. They all had on the same uniform as their brethren in the army. On top of that, each one had varying shades of blue skin and flowing white hair tied back in a single braid. In a word, they were absolutely terrifying. They all held what looked like giant machetes with a huge spike on the end, and they had the bulkiest muscles I’d ever seen.
In the corner, the Seelie Queen cowered against the wall with two other elderly elves. Six more Phobos members had their giant weapons drawn threateningly on the queen and her advisors. On the ground in front of them was a much younger elf, with his eyes blown wide open as blood seeped from his neck. The queen and her associates stared in the opposite corner with horrified expressions, and I followed their gaze to take in the most terrifying sight.
The king, with his royal blue tunic and braided white beard, was pushed up against the wall, on his knees, with his hands out in a gesture that clearly asked for surrender.
In front of him stood a young elf who wore the bright purple tunic of the palace security. However, the elf was strangely transparent. I blinked once, and finally figured out why the security elf looked so strange.
A shimmering, transparent ghost was halfway out of the young elf’s body. His figure was all white, but I could see the deep set lines in his pointed face, and the long, flowy beard that reached out in a thin strand from his chin, so long it nearly touched the floor. He had high, sharp cheekbones and a thick, hooked nose set over scarily thin lips.
But it was his eyes that got me.
They were coal black, without the normal shine of a living person’s eyes to them. His eyes reminded me of the darkness left behind when all the lights go out, and the night turns pitch black. The eyes were not much more than two pits in the center of his face.
And they were terrifying.
The ghost’s entire torso was split off the elf, and it reached toward the Seelie king, clearly intent on taking over the king’s body. There was a maniacally excited expression on his face, like he was completely titullated by the horrors he had inflicted on the king and his brethren. The lines in his ghostly face were deep, even for a spirit, and there was an inherent darkness that emanated from him, like a feeling of complete and total despair.
There was no doubt in my mind this was Zolderon.
Zolderon’s spirit had an extreme darkness around it. Unlike Verituck, the white glow didn’t surround him like rays of the sun. Instead, it was as if his entire body was outlined in thick black ink.
And then time sped up and everything moved so fast it took all I had not to lose myself in the speed.
Zolderon whipped around the moment I burst through the door, and a creepy smile lit up his face as two of his elven squad lunged toward me. These guys were quick, and they knocked me straight to the ground. A machete sliced a huge gash across my left side as my head hit the tile, hard, and then their hands and weapons were everywhere. I kicked wildly, as hard as I could, and made contact with one of the Phobos’ stomachs. His body was tossed backward as I scrambled to flip myself over and get up. The second elf had his hands twisted in the back of my shirt, and I struggled to yank myself free and call up my hand at the same time.
This time, I didn’t even need to search for his blood. There was a huge squelching sound behind me, and the hands loosened their grip as hot liquid splattered against the back of my neck.
“HC, stop him!” Edora ordered as she stood up, a Phobo’s decapitated head in her hands.
I didn’t spare another second as I scrambled to my feet and turned toward Zolderon.
The young elf’s body had dropped to the floor now, halfway between the conscious and unconscious world, and Zolderon floated creepily in the air above the king. He smiled down at the old elf and pushed back through the air just a bit as he got ready.
But I wasn’t about to give him the chance.
The gash in my side stung, and I was freezing cold and impossibly sad, but I called on my magic and felt the power of it course through my veins, more powerful than ever before.
I felt completely invincible.
The clang of metal on metal and the grunts of my team filled the room, and the scent of charred flesh and electricity spread out as Edora and Ariette used their newly grown powers.
I stared at the evil, dark spirit in front of me and stamped my foot forward as I opened my mouth to end it all.
“ACWELLAN GAEST!” I shouted across the room as I stared at those evil, deep pits.
I felt a rumble roll through my body, like every single cell vibrated violently with the outpour of the spell and the effort of all my m
agic. All the air left my lungs, and my Hand felt like it was on fire as I yelled out the spell, aware of the fight around me and the clank of metal on metal.
But absolutely nothing happened.
Zolderon smiled at me, a deeply twisted, maniacal smile that sent shivers to the deep, marrow filled centers of my bones. It was like he knew something I didn’t. I had completely expected for him to burst apart, to shatter into droplets of a ghost that disappeared, or for there to be some grand explosion that knocked us all on our asses as the evil spirit blew apart.
But none of those things happened after I shouted out the spell. The vibration in my cells ceased, and I was thrown back into the tumultuous fray.
A few of the Phobos members took a flying leap at me, machetes raised, and their bodies blocked Zolderon from my view for a split second.
As quickly as I could, I called on my Hand and connected with the first one’s blood. I caught his weapon wielding wrist with my free hand and yanked it sideways as I commanded his blood to explode out of him. His eyes went wide as his entire side was ripped from his body, and his innards splattered all over the beautiful carpet.
The second Phobo’s machete came down on me, and I just barely was able to sidestep the attack. At the same time, I aimed my Hand at my attacker’s head and forced all of his blood to rush to his brain. The Phobos member’s eyes rolled back in his head as he stroked out, and then he fell to the ground, twitching and writhing in pain. Before he could make another move, I exploded his head like a gore-filled balloon.
I was able to turn around just in time to see Zolderon’s spirit take a mad dive toward the king’s body.
Son of a bitch.
“ACWELLAN GAEST!” I tried again, frustrated to the point of absolute anger.
Again, nothing at all happened.
This esteemed spell that had taken us so long to get, had forced us to travel to an entirely different realm to get, that was prophesied to be for me, and only me, and had been made to seem like this big fucking deal, had done nothing.