Honor's Price

by Sever Bronny

  When Katrina finished her spiel, her face went cold and she nodded at her betrothed. Darby extended a bejeweled pinky finger at Augum. “Kill—”

  Augum reacted before Darby got a second word out, arcanely yanking on the dagger while snapping, “Disablo!” He cast the basic 1st degree Disarm spell so quickly it caught the Black Eagle by surprise, tearing the dagger from his hand and spiraling it away. Seven lightning rings flared around Augum’s arm. With his war-honed and newly enhanced combat reflex, he followed up his attack by twisting his extended hand at the man’s head, spitting, “Flustrato!” Ethios’ head snapped back as if struck by a hammer, and his eyes crossed, indicating the Confusion spell had taken root, albeit only briefly, for the man was an advanced caster.

  Ethios let go of Jez, and she swept her leg out, tripping an overseer, then plowed into a second one with her shoulder. They both crashed to the ground.

  Bridget and Leera reacted simultaneously, the former slicing her arm horizontally, incanting, “Summano valla minimus girata barricada,” and the latter, “Summano elementus minimus draco.” A thick wall made of bark, leaves and thorns crunched to life in the middle of the arena floor, cutting off five of the twelve overseers. At the same time, a watery dragon the size of a mule thwacked into existence above the area that had been cut off.

  “Draco, attack!” Leera spat, and her dragon dove beyond the wall, causing total havoc—sounds of rabid tussling, screeching and screaming came from beyond the wall as the dragon tore into the unprepared enemy with unrestrained viciousness. The thing about Birth of the Dragon was that the summoned elemental was faster and tougher and far more vicious than an ordinary minor elemental. The arcanery had been crafted by arcane warriors who bathed in the idea of warlocks being locked in war, and was thus more refined and advanced.

  The pace quickened as a lot happened at once. Darby, being the coward Augum knew him to be, scrambled for the exit, desperately clawing at two nearby overseers to shield his escape, and foiling their initial attack spells.

  “Voidus occa!” Katrina snapped, hooking two fingers at Augum’s eyes and pulling. But Augum’s combat reflexes took over and he sprang aside while hardening his Mind Armor, a process that involved turning his thoughts into steel. The hair on his neck rose as he felt the invisible tendrils of the spell gallop by his head, barely nicking his armored mind.

  “Summano elementus marjorus!” an overseer shouted while drawing a large shape. An elephant-sized major elemental made of pure ice hissed into existence between the trio and their adversaries, steaming with ice vapors. It was a 14th degree spell, indicating the man was an immediate threat. The elemental roared gutturally before charging, its iceberg feet cracking and the sandy ground trembling with each step.

  The two remaining overseers Darby had run by slapped their wrists together, one shouting, “Annihilo!” and the other, “Annihilo ito!” The first one’s First Offensive was a sharp vine punch that snapped at Bridget, while the second one’s Third Offensive was a triple lightning strike aimed at Leera. But both girls were as quick as wasps, summoning their shields into existence while snapping, “Mimicus,” and easily reflecting both spells back at the casters, resulting in multiple thwacks and surprised grunts, followed by two bodies falling to the sand.

  The eyes of the enemies who had witnessed the feat enlarged, for they had likely never seen anything like it in their lives. A younger overseer whimpered at the sight and forgot what to do.

  Jez, still cuffed with arcane irons, tussled with an overseer she’d latched onto like a stubborn burr. Although she was holding her own, it was only a matter of time until he overwhelmed her as she was weak and unable to cast spells.

  But with a giant ice elemental bearing down on him, Augum could not help her. He resorted to an age-old trick and rolled through its legs as it swung at him, emerging on the other side on his knees in the sand. Battle instincts taking over, he summoned his shield while applying the concept of arcane perpendicularity and shouting, “Mimicus!” just as a ripping Third Offensive triple lightning bolt slammed into his Mirror of the Dragon shield, ricocheting with a high-pitched twang back at the originating overseer. The triple bolts blew through his head, throwing up a bloody mist. The headless body slumped to the sand, remaining in a kneeling position. Augum could feel through the ground that the hulking elemental was turning around. He was glad, for it freed up the girls to continue their crucial offensive attacks.

  “Summano arma flustrato!” Bridget cried from behind, rapidly twanging out a volley of three Bluster of the Dragon arrows. One sailed at Katrina, forcing her to abandon her spell to summon her shield. One slapped into Ethios Kamagant, who was already mentally slowed by Augum’s Confusion casting; the arrow thudded into his upper left chest to the fletching before disappearing, leaving behind a bloody wound and the trailing of a 7th degree Confusion casting by a war-honed Bridget. A third arrow zipped between the rising arms of the elemental, lodging into the neck of an overseer who had been gesticulating in a complicated manner to cast a spell, felling him instantly.

  And while those arrows flew, Leera kept pressure on The Butcher by casting two rapid battle-honed Slow castings against him, wearing him down, though the man had the coherence to flare seventeen rings of fire around his arm.

  Augum nonetheless felt a flash of pride at their teamwork, for they were deftly keeping the enemy off balance, preventing them from casting their more dangerous spells.

  On the other side of Bridget’s immense wall, a female overseer gurgle-screamed in agony. Horrified shouts of alarm promptly followed. There were five enemies back there taking on the summoned dragon, yet two pale-faced overseers appeared from around the wall on Bridget’s end, scrambling to get away only to suffer a double-tap of Confusion spells from a prepared Bridget.

  “Flustrato!” Katrina hissed, but Bridget was in the battle flow and reflected the spell back with ease. Katrina’s head snapped back, eyes wet with surprise, though it was hard to say if the spell had penetrated.

  But Augum sensed something looming over him and made a quick battlefield calculation. “Armari elementus totalus,” he spat while flexing all his muscles, and a thick black lightning crust enhanced mightily by his golden Dreadnought breastplate, Augum’s Defender, instantly enveloped his body. That crust took a crunching hit from the ice elemental’s fist, which came down hard on Augum’s shoulder. He simultaneously took a twisting air strike from one overseer and a sharp water blast from another. He grunted from the impact of all three, his knees digging into the sand as he retreated, slamming into the ice elemental’s leg. If it hadn’t been for the elemental armor, he’d have been full of holes.

  Instead of getting back in the fight, Katrina bolted for the bleachers, no doubt to fetch the Orb of Orion. But Augum had no time to worry about her for a mighty fireball smacked into his torso, searing off a layer of his enhanced elemental armor—courtesy of Ethios Kamagant. He pushed off the ground and rolled aside just as the ice elemental’s fists smashed into the sand where he had been.

  After coming to a rolling stop in the sand, he witnessed Leera engage the ice elemental with potent Second Offensives. And while Bridget backtracked with her bow, raining chaos on the enemy, and Leera’s dragon tore away at frantic overseers behind the wall, Augum, seeing The Butcher readying for a deadly assault, launched himself at him and two flanking overseers, trusting the girls to take care of the elemental and any remaining overseers.

  He summoned his shield and unsheathed Burden’s Edge from his hip while incanting, “Summano arma grau.” The short sword exploded into a vibrant lightning longsword, primed with seven hits of the Roar of the Dragon. Both overseers and The Butcher summoned their own weapons—a watery short sword, an earthen longsword, and a huge fiery cleaver, respectively, along with matching elemental shields.

  Augum blocked a double strike from the blades and spun aside to evade the cleaver, slicing at Ethios. But the man, although behind in the attack, raised his fiery ember shield in time. Augum
’s blade smashed into it, releasing an epic crash of thunder that startled all three opponents enough for Augum to slip his blade past the earth element overseer’s shield, piercing his heart. As the man fell, Augum kicked Ethios in the gut and smacked the water warlock in the chin with his shield, before twirling and chopping at both opponents with his enhanced blade, thunder resounding with each vicious strike. Ethios blearily blocked, dodged or parried, but the thunder distracted the other warlock, and he missed blocking one of Augum’s sword slashes. He gasped as Burden’s Edge buried itself in his ribs—and stuck there.

  Augum abandoned the blade too late—Ethios, being a highly experienced warlock, slashed at Augum’s left shoulder with his fiery cleaver, slicing through the elemental armor. Searing pain shot from the spot and his arm went limp. Ethios disappeared his cleaver and shield before spitting an arcane phrase unfamiliar to Augum. The man exploded with fire. Augum staggered back and covered his face with his good arm just as a mighty crash sounded behind him—the ice elemental had fallen.

  “Duck!” Bridget shouted. Augum did so just as two successive arrows flew overhead, each thudding into the flame-engulfed Black Eagle. The man stumbled back, grunting with each strike. Another arrow flew up the bleachers, catching Darby just as he reached the door. He yelped in pain and slammed into the wall, reaching for his leg. Katrina, who was much quicker and had caught up with him, said something along the lines of, “I’ll come back for you!” before blowing by.

  Augum refocused and telekinetically yanked the man Jez had been struggling with—and who was choking her. He twirled aside and she gasped for breath. Augum shoved at the air with his uninjured arm, shouting, “Baka!” The half-strength shove was still strong enough to send the man into the stone bleachers headfirst, breaking his neck with a sickly crack.

  The last overseer to have survived Leera’s dragon stumbled around the wall just beyond Jez, drenched in blood, only to have a sharp jet of water from Leera pierce his leg. He fell to the ground, wailing in agony while clutching the gushing wound.

  “Watch out—!” Jez shouted and Augum rolled aside in time to avoid a monstrous fireball from Ethios. The girls also jumped from its path and it smashed into the bleachers, engulfing several rows. Then Augum and Bridget simultaneously drew a precise shape in the air, incanting, “Summano elementus minimus draco!” Except both spells fizzled out, for neither of them had practiced the spell enough under pitch-battle conditions, and Leera had cast hers at the beginning, prior to all the chaos. Augum cursed under his breath and considered casting the most powerful spell in his inventory—Centarro—but judged the side effects too risky under the circumstances.

  Ethios was the last enemy warlock standing—and he was gaining the upper hand by spitting a flurry of spells. “Flustrato! Flustrato! Arcan rosso!” The first two of these 17th degree successive attacks slapped into Bridget, knocking her into a puddle of gibbering confusion, while the last hooked into Augum’s soul. He felt an immense cold pull as Ethios drew upon Augum’s precious arcane stamina as if pulling on a rope, even making the hand-over-hand motion. It was an 11th degree spell Augum was familiar with but had little experience combating. The Black Eagle ceased and Augum gasped. The Butcher then smacked his fiery wrists together. “Annihilo ito!”

  “Roll!” Jez called between coughs.

  Augum rolled aside to avoid a vicious Third Offensive triple fire strike, but one caught his foot, burning right through his left turnshoe and scalding the flesh. He cried out in agony and fell to the ground with a thud, left shoulder bleeding through his robe, left foot and left arm limp and bloody. Half of him was now useless.

  “Summano arma dreadus terrablus!” Leera shouted, bravely charging The Butcher. A short sword of shimmering water appeared in her fist while a watery pond leaf shield appeared on her left forearm.

  “Summano arma,” Ethios spat, re-summoning his massive burning cleaver and fiery shield.

  The pair went toe to toe, blades singing. However, with each strike—including parries—Ethios’ eyes widened. By her seventh hit, he was apoplectic with terror. For the first time, Augum witnessed the strength of Awe of the Dragon—a powerful communion of Summon Weapon and Fear, the effects of which were cumulative.

  “Dragon, dragon, dragon—!” Leera frantically shouted as she slashed at the terrified man. He was barely holding her at bay with sheer combat experience, though he was screaming at the top of his lungs throughout, “Ahh! Ahh! Ahhhh—!”

  Augum, motivated by a fierce desire to protect his beloved, ignored the pain in the left side of his body and once more drew the outline of the dragon with his good arm, putting all his focus into the effort, slowing the casting for sake of precision. “Summano elementus minimus draco.” A dense lightning dragon sizzled into existence. Augum pointed at Ethios. “Draco, attack—”

  As the dragon shot forth with a whip of its barbed tail, the Black Eagle disappeared his cleaver and shield and made a prying motion that tore Leera’s golden breastplate off her as if it were nothing more than an orange peel, ripping the straps apart. “Summano arma!” he spat mid-swing, the cleaver appearing at the last moment in his fist and slicing Leera’s stomach. She gasped and buckled, her sword and shield disappearing before she hit the ground.

  “No—!” Augum cried as the dragon slammed into Ethios, sending him tumbling, its lightning jaw and claws snapping and raking at his burning flesh. But the elemental dragon felt no pain and was not seared. Rather, it was Ethios who took repeated painful shocks from the dragon’s lightning body.

  Augum staggered onto his uninjured right foot and hopped forward. Aware he could not cast his First or Second Offensives without his left arm, and aware he was dangerously low on his arcane stamina reserves, he opted to focus all his arcane might on wearing the man down with successive and simple Confusion castings.

  “Flustrato!” he shouted, snapping his wrist and adding a twisting gesture as he hobbled toward him. “Flustrato! Flustrato! Flustrato—!” But the last casting fizzled, for Augum had drained the remainder of his arcane stamina. Instead of overdrawing, which would only make things worse, he spotted Ethios’ dagger and reflexively pointed at it to summon it to his hand—forgetting he was out of energy. He hopped over to it, picked it up, and hopped toward the madly flailing Black Eagle. The man was fighting the dragon with his bare hands and screaming, desperately protecting his neck. Blood and guts and bits of flesh flew from the dragon’s thrashing mouth. The beast was vicious, merciless and pitiless, a fitting opponent for The Butcher.

  Augum stumbled over to the man, dagger braced firmly in his fist, and, watching the dragon, timed a jump onto him. The man gasped as the blade penetrated his chest. Augum used his weight to bury the dagger in deeper.

  The man ceased protecting his neck in a last-ditch attempt to grab Augum’s head and gouge out his eyes, but the dragon clamped down on his neck and with a crocodile back and forth jerking tore it to pieces. The man wheezed and went still.

  Augum rolled off him as the dragon ceased its attack though remained on top of the body, tail thrashing around like a happy dog.

  Augum pulled himself over to Leera. She was taking quick and shallow breaths. He ignored Jez, who appeared injured as well, and Bridget, who was sitting in the sand, playing with it as if she were a child. Her wall disappeared with a whoosh, revealing torn-up overseer bodies where Leera’s elemental dragon had attacked.

  “My love …”

  “Aug … help …”

  “Can you walk?”

  She shook her head, face pale—and paling further with each breath.

  Augum, heart threatening to slam through his chest, glanced at the empty dragon desk. “Dragoon Pelagia!”

  The woman appeared. “Yes, Squire Stone?”

  “Dragoon Pelagia, I need a portal to a healing fountain.” Unnameables, please let this work!

  “As Squire Stone wishes.” The woman strolled over to an empty spot in the bloody sand and drew an oval shape. “Portus ea ire itum.” A
windy portal flared to life, billowing their robes.

  Augum, arcanely spent, had to plant both feet in the sand to haul Leera up, and even then he could only use his good arm, which he hooked underneath her armpits. He was forced to do a mild overdraw and use Telekinesis to help lift her. He screamed from the searing, pricking pain in his foot and took one throbbing step after another, until he plowed through the portal.

  A cool, windy spring meadow awaited them on the other side, with a single oak tree standing over a round marble fountain. Augum, tears of pain rolling down his cheeks, dragged Leera.

  “Aug … I … love … you …”

  Hang in there, love! he thought while he roared with each tug, but her head lolled as she fell unconscious. Yes, unconscious—he refused to believe anything else.

  At last, with a final mighty groan, he hauled her over the side of the fountain. She splashed into the water, sinking below the surface. He fell in after her and lifted her head above the water. The tingling ants-nibbling-at-his-flesh sensation began repairing his wounds. But the last thing he cared about was himself.

  “Come on, love, don’t you leave me,” Augum said, holding her head above the water with his good arm and willing her stomach wound to close. The water reddened like a fiery sunset with their combined blood. “Come on, please, don’t you leave me—” He kissed her blue and cold lips, whispering, “Come back to me, my brave love, my future wife, my everything … come back to me … come back …” He rocked her gently while kissing her. Unnameables, please, if you can hear me, keep her alive. Don’t take her from me. She’s my everything. Please, please, please …

  He kept gently kissing and rocking her and whispering and praying and hoping the fountain would do its work, all while lapping the sacred waters onto her belly wound, which steadily closed.