And I did not take it, she said mournfully. At the last moment I changed my mind, and now it is too late.
That much was true. From our connection I could feel her insides begin to fail, in ways I couldn’t fix even if I was still stupid enough to trust her at this point.
I went for the older, more certain approach, she continued, her body now sagging against my own. But it would not have even worked. Drinking your blood would not have fixed me, and now I am going to die. Perhaps as the last of my kind.
As far as I know, you are, I answered calmly.
Perhaps that is best, I heard her physical mouth wheeze against my neck as she spoke. But, one last plea?
Speak, I granted. But do not ask for mercy on yourself. Or for any of your people currently battling my own.
I won’t, she sent desperately. But my eggs. Please. Spare them. Teach them to battle their urges, as your elders taught you, my lord. I swear they will be worth your effort.
I can grant you that, I told the dying woman. If they can learn, I will teach them. They will become my children instead.
“Thank… you,” she gasped slowly into my neck, and her struggles ceased completely. The shadowy limbs behind her crumbled into nothingness, and she sighed one more time as her glowing eyes closed and her human-like eyes rolled upward. The next moment, her body went completely limp against my own, and I felt her die.
I knelt and placed her corpse back on the ground and turned my attention to the remaining battle. The Gaelguard and the rest of my retinue had fought their way over to each other, and were retreating closer to me, letting their woad-fire and other magics force their enemies off of the trees. Everyone had formed a protective ring around me as they battled the Arachknights trying to force their way through the wooden shield wall and the dog-sized spiders that kept darting around my people’s legs to nip at their heels.
But on the other side of the battle, five healthy-looking Woadfathers were shifting their roots out of the ground and lumbering over toward us, forming a loose circle of their own.
“Wes,” Breena asked worriedly. “Are you alright?”
“More or less,” I sighed. “Or rather, more and less at the same time.”
My Battleform began to put a strain on my body. I needed to end its effects soon.
So I put the next fifteen seconds to brutal use.
Both my agility and my muscles were being enhanced by all six of my Ideals, so leaping fifteen feet straight up and into the air was easy. Right now I was almost as powerful as I had been during the battle against Raw-Maw. My current enemies might as well have been common house spiders. Once I was sufficiently high enough into the air, I began to unleash my signature Fire and Lightning spells. This time, the Battleform caused these spells to be enhanced as well. My normal lightning bolt blasted into a normal Arachman currently at the edge of combat. The six-colored bolt waved streamlike as it whistled through the air, clipping several other Keepers and spiders along the way, and when it struck the Arachman, the monster blew apart in an explosion of earth and fire. The shrapnel tore through the back ranks of my enemies while another bolt arced into existence from the smoking hole of the first. This bolt weaved, whistled, and ebbed its way through even more monsters before it finally slammed into an Arachknight with enough force to blow his head clean off.
The aftermath of that attack had killed most of the Keepers along that flank and had thrown the spider pets fighting there into a confused panic. And it had all happened before I even reached the apex of my jump. I whirled around to face the opposite flank and fired my stored Fireball spell, launching a blood-colored ball of heat that waved, whistled and arced toward another Arachknight lingering at the back of the combat. Once again, the spell’s descent clipped and killed a number of other Keepers before it blew apart my target.
The final results were even more spectacular than the previous spell. The Ideal of Lightning focuses on precision-based attacks. More ranks in the Ideal usually just result in better aim, flexible control of the bolt itself, and increased damage. More ranks in the Ideal of Fire also result in increased damage, but since Fire prefers to grow and spread, increased ranks in the Ideal control that aspect instead. My proficiency in five other magics meant that under the Battleform my Fireball was now five times as wide.
So that flank pretty much just blew up. A couple of the Gaelguard even flinched backwards as small shrapnel and embers struck their shields.
At this point most of the Keepers were dead, but we were still facing hundreds of spiders. My allies had expended most of their magic. Despite everything, we were guaranteed to be overwhelmed if we kept fighting.
For now though, the spiders were retreating toward the trees.
“Phase two!” I shouted. “Tighten the circle on me and do not leave!”
More cracking sounded out in the distance. The Woadfathers were now of sufficient number to awaken the dormant trees without help.
The Keepers and Spiders were starting to react to the noise, but they had all left our vicinity. It was time to use another special power. One I had gained back in the tunnels during the first Rite.
I activated my Profession’s power and determined the area near the dying Woadfather Monarch to be my place of residence.
The Challenger has successfully laid claim to an area as a Place of Residence, as no other nearby Leader has contested it. People in the designated area will be reasonably safe from environmental damage and will be hidden and avoided by hostile beings of animal-level intelligence. The duration of this effect is permanent or until the Challenger designates a new location as his place of residence. This ability can currently be used once per month.
The spiders all chittered and twitched in surprise as we suddenly vanished from their vision. It was an odd sight, as I’ve never actually seen a spider get surprised. I heard the remaining Keepers hiss commands to attack us again, but as I looked outward I saw one of the Woadfathers creak downward and sweep a giant limb into the closest Arachman, splattering the Keeper onto the floor. Then another nearby Woadfather suddenly stirred to life, wrapping its roots around the last two Arachmen alive. The spider pets fled at the sight of their masters’ death, skittering away in droves as trees shifted and smashed into them. The safest area for them was next to us, but thanks to my ability they just skirted around the edge of my designated territory, often getting smashed by another Woadfather as a result. I heard more creaking in the distance, and knew that more Woadfathers were awakening. A moment later, I saw another Woadfather wave its branches around, and a wide carpet of greenfire chased after the remaining clump of arachnids. There was crackling, high-pitched shrieks, and finally silence.
I deactivated my Battleform. Everyone else panted while we realized that the battle was actually over. Somehow we had done it. I had taken twenty people, used half of them to free another ten and some more trees, and then countered a surprise ambush of several hundred nightmare bugs with an ambush of my own. But as I looked down at the human-looking corpse of the woman at my feet, it still somehow felt like a waste.
“Is everyone alright?” I asked, looking around again.
There were about five bodies on the ground, but none of them were my personal team, and they were all still breathing. I saw Breena flutter over each of them, casting Water and Wood magic. Weylin stood behind another group of Gaelguard casting their own healing magic, and as I watched he began singing a song that helped people recover.
Two or three of them were poisoned really bad, but they should all pull through, Breena assured me. I’d give ‘em two weeks rest to make sure they’re good as new.
That’s great that everyone’s going to live, I sent back, and then couldn’t help adding everyone who became my people, that is.
I couldn’t help it. I took a second glance at the dead mother lying on the floor.
All of her eyes had closed again, and the six shadowy limbs had disappeared. Her body was still a mixture of different colors, red, black and white, but
other than that she looked just like a sleeping woman. I couldn’t figure out why, but she reminded of how Guineve looked on those rare times I caught her catching some sleep.
Maybe that was why killing her felt so raw. No, that wasn’t right. It was because I had drunk the life out of her, to keep her from doing the same to me.
“Um, Wes?” Val said, walking up. “Are you okay, brother?”
Brother. That word helped somehow.
“Yeah, Val,” I answered. “Or I will be. I just wished she hadn’t changed her mind at the end.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, tilting her head. “Wasn’t she supposed to betray us? Didn’t we kinda plan around that?”
“Yeah, but it got weird when you left,” I answered. I had to remind myself that Val had been part of the team gathering more Gaelguard. I figured they’d need her shadow vision to make sure everything went smoothly. “Good job, by the way. You guys came in at just the right time.”
“If you say so,” Val snorted. “Bitch tried to freaking drink you. I mean, witch. Sorry,” she corrected quickly. Because she remembered the old me, that tried not to curse. “I was going to go over and cut her for it, but then you started glowing and burning, and it looked like you had her under control.”
“Yeah, I did,” I admitted, remembering just how intense that murder-embrace had been. “We were inside each others’ heads right before she died. She almost didn’t betray us. If things had gone just a little differently, she would have surrendered, and stayed loyal.”
“So you’re saying she tried to eat you, because she… panicked?” my adopted sister asked, confused.
“Yeah, basically,” I admitted, looking up again. “She thought the sky was falling, and that my blood would help her children survive. Frightened spiders bite and all that.”
“Wes?” Val said hesitantly. “I’m…” She swallowed. “I’m sorry you got betrayed again.”
“Huh?” I asked, looking down at her. “Wait, are we talking about you, Val?” she turned her head away from me, and I wanted to growl. “Val, you don’t count. I saw the video. They were threatening to bash your head in with a hammer if you didn’t say what they wanted you to say. Betrayal implies choice, right? You didn’t have one. And as soon as you did have any kind of choice, you came back over to my side. That’s…” I looked back down at the body by my feet, seeing the dead woman in a different light. I felt my weird, irrational grief over her death begin to change, become something I could handle better. “That’s not what she did. She didn’t feel trapped, she just felt that she had a better option, so she took it. She regretted it in the end, but no one made her attack me. This isn’t on anyone but her.” I took another breath, feeling much lighter. “Thanks for helping me realize that, Val. I mean, sis.” I smiled at her. She looked up and smiled back.
Then another boom sounded from the ceiling high over our heads.
“Right,” I muttered. “The sky is falling.”
“Earthborn…” a deep, strained voice echoed out from the dead Keeper Queen’s lair. Gray, sickly light flared along the woad-glyph of the Woadfather Monarch in time “Lord… of Avalon.”
“I hear you,” I answered. “Is there anything we can do for you?” But the nearby woadfolk just shook their head sadly.
“My body…doomed,” the monolith of a tree strained. “Come… will save…you.” The open den I had seen Prodonti exit suddenly glowed. “Safe… here.”
“Everyone get inside,” I said, pointing to the opening in the massive trunk. “And don’t forget the people we haven’t cured yet.” I picked up one of the webbed statues. Then, after hesitating another moment, I picked up Prodonti’s body as well. “Will the other trees be okay?”
“They’ll be fine,” Alum nodded. “They’re strong enough to withstand the rubble.”
I had to take his word for it. We gathered the wounded and those still petrified and ran for the perceived safety of opening at the Woadfather’s base. More cracks sounded out above me as we ran.
But we got everyone in. A giant boom sounded behind me as a tree limb wide enough to crush a three-story building fell out of the black sky. I saw it break apart as it fell, and then the awakened Woadfathers moved toward it, striking the large pieces of it with their own massive limbs. The fragments of dead wood broke apart even further, until they were small enough to be caught on the branches of the sequoia-sized trees all around us, then crumbled to the ground.
“Lord Earthborn,” the deep voice sounded behind me, and as I turned around I took in the details of the wooden cavern we were hiding in. It was a large space, big enough to accommodate all of us easily. The wood looked far healthier here than it did outside, and the opening itself looked to have happened naturally for the tree. There were a few baubles and items to suggest that this had been a space where someone lived, but the main decorations were doubtless created by Prodonti herself. I saw red silk sheets draped all over the place, some dividing rooms like curtains, some laid down as carpet, and even one serving as a large hammock in a corner by the wall. The center of the room had a large pool of glowing water, but when I came closer to it I noticed it was the same glowing substance leaking out of the trees outside, the woad-sap.
“All I have… left,” the Monarch’s tired voice sounded out. Another large crack rumbled out from behind us. From the opening I saw more Woadfathers shift out of the ground, moving to prepare for the next incoming debris. “I am sorry… Lord Earthborn,” the tired voice intoned. “Tried… hold on.”
“It’s okay,” I answered, stepping towards the pool of woad-sap, where the voice was coming from. “And just call me Wes. Is there anything at all we can do for you?”
“No… Wes,” the ancient voice answered. “You… lord… must serve… you. Please… listen…”
“Okay,” I answered. “I’m listening.”
But, Breena, I sent quietly. Are you sure we can’t help him?
I don’t think we can, Wes, she answered sadly. Wait…maybe…
“Keepers… vanquished…” the deep old voice intoned. “Woad… free now… our gift… to Avalon…”
The voice kept struggling, and I saw Alum step forward.
“Great Monarch,” the tattooed Celt said formally. “Your guard is here. Use us to speak. Save your breath.”
“Offer… accepted,” the tired voice intoned. The Gaelguard moved to stand around us, and Alum moved to stand next to me.
“Vocal transfer successful.” The voice now came directly from Alum’s torso, and as it spoke the tattoos on all of the Woadfolk flared brightly. “I thank you for the assistance. Lord Earthborn, I am required to share our purpose with you. Please listen to me in what time I have left.
“My grove has been given to Avalon as tribute, given so that other worlds may benefit from the miracles found in the Woadlands. We hereby offer ourselves to Avalon, in return for aid rendered by Avalon in the past. We further offer the scriptcraft and shapecraft of the woad, so that Avalon’s greatest warriors, as well as its Earthborn allies, may benefit from its effects. We gave ourselves to you, so that we may be life to barren worlds, and shelter to unprotected peoples. Yet while we waited for the arrival of the next Lord of Avalon, Avalon was turned into a lifeless world itself, and we did not stop it. Our shame is great. I ask forgiveness from the Lord of the Avalon.”
“Granted,” I said quietly. “Granted without reservation.”
“My lord’s—” Another creak sounded out from the massive tree, and the light from every tattoo suddenly flickered. “My lord’s mercy is great,” the dying tree persisted. “I will persist in offering all aid possible. Know that the old warriors of the Woad have pledged themselves to the Lord of Avalon. They are yours to command in war. I only ask that your wars be just whenever possible, and that they guard our grove when your kingdom is at peace. Furthermore, I give the pool you see before you directly to the Lord Avalon. The last of my healthy woad sap. Use it as you wish, but there is enough to both augment the Lord direct
ly as well as be used for components for improving the Lord’s kingdom. I had hoped to save more. Forgive me, my Lord.”
“Forgiven,” I replied. “Again.”
“I would also ask that our lord remember the original purpose for this grove. To bring our worlds under the Universal Law discovered by the Earthborn: Greater things are yet to come.”
My body shuddered at the Monarch’s words. A heaviness fell over me, sunk into me, and merged with my body and soul until I was part of that same heaviness. I felt my new weight displace the air and essence of the world around me, and in that moment new words bounced in my mind like the inside of a giant bell.
Greater things are yet to come…
I will be more tomorrow, and not less…
I will be more and not less…
The words continued to bounce around my mind, colliding and building off of other words that insisted in certain victory, despite all my defeats. I tried to shake off the overwhelming sensations, failed, and then chose to rest in their heaviness until they ran their course. A gasp to the right of me told me Val was shuddering through the exact same experience.
You will be whole despite your harms, the quiet voice whispered into my mind.
Trust me. I rage.
#
The shuddering passed. Val sucked in another breath beside me.
“Wes?” she asked when she stopped shivering. “Does that happen often?”
“Yeah,” I decided. “It happens a lot more than people realize it does.”
The woad tattoos around us flared up again.
“The Monarch of the Grove bears witness to two new Earthborn encountering Universal Law,” the dying tree intoned formally. “Though dying, I rejoice to be honored in this fashion.”
Greater things are yet to come…
I will be more and not less.
Those words still bounded off of the walls of my mind.
I looked down at the dead mother at my feet.
I looked up at the dying tree over my head.
All is not lost. Greater things are meant to come.
Woad Children (Challenger's Call Book 3) Page 20