by Frank Morin
"Hamish?" she asked, her expression confused.
"Aifric, what happened?" he asked, dropping to one knee beside her.
She shook her head slowly. "I. . .I don't remember."
"But where did Dougal go?"
Aifric frowned, thinking for several seconds. "I'm not sure. Everything is hazy."
"We need to get you to a Healer."
She chuckled. "I am a Healer."
"Are you?"
"Sure. I'm Aifric." She sat up with his help and said. "Get me back to the Carraig. I need to help Connor."
"I thought that's what we were doing."
"Not any more. Let's go."
As Hamish lifted into the air, cradling Aifric in his arms, he wondered what had happened. Dougal had been there, but where did he go? What had he done to her?
He stared when he caught sight of the plain, stripped of earth, and the new mountain in the center. Then he noticed the elfonnel fighting a rampager, and that drove worries about Dougal from his mind. He activated another speakstone in his helmet.
"Verena, what's going on?"
"Where did you go?" she exclaimed. "Hamish, Connor absorbed porphyry."
"Did you tell him what happened with Kilian?"
"No. I haven't had time to tell him anything. Get back here."
Hamish had been considering returning for the Swift and flying it back to Verena, but they'd have to go get it later. Holding Aifric tight, he headed for the Carraig as fast as he could fly.
Chapter 86
Connor raged across the elfonnel, tearing and ripping, a whirlwind of destruction, leaving a bloody trail in his wake.
The monster healed as quickly as he injured it.
He had already ripped out both sets of eyes four times, but couldn't hurt it enough to make a difference. The Petralists hammered it with their elemental powers, but it shook off the attacks and only seemed to grow angrier.
So did Connor.
He paused on the center of the elfonnel's forehead to throw his head back and howl with frustrated rage.
The newly-created mountain nearby erupted in a geyser of earth, and Evander's giant leaped from the crest, sliding down the flank of the mountain like he was on a sledding board over ice.
The elfonnel didn't wait for it, but lurched forward, its motion different than it had been for the last few minutes. It scattered the Striders who had been annoying it, and closed on the ranks of the Boulders, who had hung back from the fight. The monster's target became clear as the little humans scattered in every direction.
Verena.
Lacking her Swift and her power stones, she was just a girl who couldn't run fast in the mud. The elfonnel ignored closer targets and focused on her. Ivor noticed the danger and scooped her into his arms, racing out onto the plain with Strider speed, leading the elfonnel away from the others. He leaped off the boundary where the false ground ended, plunging twenty feet to the false ceiling of the hidden city, and raced away on the long stones that formed it.
The monster followed, but it crashed through the false ground, smashing a ruined palace underneath. Instead of lunging after Ivor, the ground underneath it surged upward into a rolling wave that burst through the false ceiling over the ruin and flowed after the Dawnus.
Shattered stone from the false ceiling rained down all around Ivor, who ran with nimble speed, dodging and weaving. Verena snatched one large chunk of stone out of the air and clutched it close.
It was targeting Verena. That truth blazed through Connor's mind like a forest fire. He tore at the monster's head, but accomplished nothing. While transformed into a rampager, every emotion was raw and powerful, and the love he felt for Verena eclipsed everything else.
He needed to try something different.
Thinking rationally was excruciating in his monster form but, driven by his concern for Verena, he managed one idea and seized upon it.
He jumped from the elfonnel's head.
It didn't even seem to notice him depart. That only angered him more. Didn't he deserve some kind of acknowledgment for all the pain he'd inflicted upon it?
Connor sped back toward the dispersed ranks of the army, vaulting out of the sunken ruin to solid ground. Humans scattered away from him like herds of eoin from a nuall. He caught a familiar scent and bounded over to Ailsa. To his rampager sight, she looked frail and vulnerable, but her heartbeat was even and she regarded him with a calm, if guarded expression.
She was holding the tiny bit of soapstone that was all that remained of the beautiful sculpture she had given him.
"Oh, Son," she said, her expression sad. "What have they done to you?"
Speaking was a waste of time, so he crouched over her and reached out a clawed hand for the soapstone.
"Are you sure?" she asked, but dropped it into his paw. "I've never heard of. . ." Her voice trailed off. "I've never heard of anything to do with unclaimed that wasn't terrifying. Perhaps you do need to do it this way."
Connor crushed the soapstone in his paw and flung the powder into his maw. It stuck to his long tongue and he growled. That's why he usually drank it in a mixture.
Water splashed into his mouth and he gulped the powder before it could wash out. He spun to find Ivor and Verena nearby. He glanced back at the plain where the elfonnel was battling Evander's giant again, wrecking more of the sunken ruin.
Ivor grinned. "It was distracted, so we came back around." He took a slow step forward, his expression amazed. "It really is you, isn't it?"
He tried to say, "Thanks for the water." All that came out was a growl that sounded like, "Thuffer wawa."
Ivor saluted. "Any time."
Then Verena stepped in front of him and her scent filled his nostrils. He smelled no fear on her.
She looked heartbroken, but still reached out and actually touched his hard purple hide. "I love you, Connor. Remember to come back to me."
"Imp mix," he growled, frustrated it didn't sound anything like "I promise."
She seemed to understand, tears in her eyes, and she drew his maw down to her shoulder, kissing his purplish cheek. That simple touch shivered through him and ignited a new fire in his heart.
Another familiar scent drew Connor's gaze to the right. Shona had approached, but she retreated from him and grimaced. "I'll kiss you when you change back."
"I hope you know what you're doing," Ivor said. "Because our powers are all just about spent."
He retreated, but Verena remained close, in his shadow, and squeezed his paw. "Will you kill this thing already?"
Connor leaped away from her to meet the giant monster. With Verena's kiss still warming his cheek, he penetrated the red haze of raw emotion and embraced the pulsing rush of soapstone coursing through him. For a second it resisted, but his need overwhelmed the hesitation and the waters surged in response. The unbreakable strength of water fused with his rampager fury, tempering it and reinforcing it at the same time.
Waters rushed in from every direction, sucked out of the earth and the secret lakes concealed under the plain. They frothed around Connor, forming a maelstrom that spun in time with his pounding pulse.
The elfonnel actually paused at the sight, but it was too close to escape and too dumb to know death had arrived. Evander's giant seized the distracted creature and threw it into the air with a mighty heave.
With a flicker of thought, the whirling waters exploded forward, throwing Connor onto the monster's head. He gripped with his claws and held on as a tidal wave tumbled the elfonnel over, forming a giant sphere and rolling them out onto the shattered, sunken ruin. Howling with the need to kill, Connor kept them rolling, preventing the elfonnel from connecting with the earth, its source of power.
The beast thrashed and Connor sensed its panic. As it rolled, he rushed down its long torso. As he reached each of its legs, he paused and concentrated. After ascending through the threshold, he was one with the water, even in his rampager state, and it obeyed with fierce loyalty. Drawing upon it with all his will, he
drove spears of ice into each shoulder blade, severing them and casting them out of the whirling sphere so the monster could not hope to reattach them.
After removing all its legs, leaving it little more than a howling log, Connor clawed his way back to its neck. The joint was so thick, he failed to drive enough water into it to break it. So he packed water all around it, forming a collar of ice, then drove half of the waters at his command down its gullet and froze them in the long tube of its throat.
Then he leaped straight up, using a pulse of water to throw himself two hundred feet into the air. Using streamers of water, he yanked himself back the other way. Hard. He descended like a living meteor, and with every ounce of strength, he drove into the ice ringing the monster's neck, becoming a living chisel striking the stone.
The stone shattered. So did his hands and his arms.
Ice and armored flesh erupted in every direction, shredding his watery sphere and spraying water half a mile across the plain. Connor flew from the monster's back, too stunned to even try to catch himself as he tumbled wildly through the ebbing tide.
So great was the shock that it burned through the last of his porphyry, and his body transformed back to human. The pain and disorientation shuddering through him severed his control over the waters.
Connor lay in a puddle, gasping. The transformation had reset his bones, but he ached all over, consumed by exhaustion so deep, he could barely blink his eyes open to look at the results of what he'd done.
For a moment, he felt a flash of panic. He was no longer unclaimed. Dougal could strike at his mind again. He didn't know how Dougal had managed it the first time, and his only known defense was exhausted.
When Dougal did not strike again, he forced himself to relax. He was too tired to panic over something he couldn't control.
The elfonnel lay in the distance, its head detached from the body, staring into the sky, mouth locked open in its final, ultimate surprise. The silver glow faded from its eyes, and its gigantic torso cracked and imploded, melting into the earth.
The head didn't melt away, and for a second, Connor worried it would somehow again regenerate.
Evander's giant didn't give it the chance. It leaped over the decomposing corpse and smashed all four mighty arms into the head with all its strength. This time the head imploded.
Instead of melting away like the body had, the head burst into a strange cloud of dust that rose into the air, obscuring both it and Evander's giant from view. Connor frowned. It was hard to think, but with the waters blanketing the area, that kind of dust should have been impossible.
He refused to believe the monster was again somehow regenerating. If it did, it deserved to kill them all. Such an indomitable will could not be quenched.
The elfonnel did not rise again. The dust settled slowly, and it was gone, as was Evander's giant. In their place stood a pyramid-shaped mound of hardened earth eighteen feet tall. On the narrow peak rose a rectangular cairn of perfectly round stones.
Connor just wanted to sleep for a year, but the sight filled him with a strange sense of awe, and he had to know what it meant. So with a groan, he staggered to his feet and stumbled toward the pyramid.
Chapter 87
Thankfully, Connor found stairs cut into the side of the pyramid. He didn't have the strength to climb it otherwise. Every step felt like an act of will, but he needed to know.
Halfway up, a powerful hand gripped his arm.
He blinked in surprise. Evander stood beside him.
"You look terrible," Connor said.
Evander looked like he'd tried stopping an avalanche with his face. His dark skin was bruised, his eyes drooped, and his shoulders sagged. Strength still radiated from his hand on Connor's arm, but he looked completely spent.
The giant Sentry offered a weary smile. "Even the ship that glides upon the waves is battered by the tempest."
"You can say that again."
As they neared the top of the strange pyramid, Connor looked out over the shattered plain. His army was approaching, and although he couldn't see their faces yet, he knew his friends would all be there. It was a comforting thought.
"Thanks for your help," he told the big man as they completed the climb. "Someday, you'll have to explain to me exactly what you did to raise that giant."
Evander said nothing, but stepped to the top of the pyramid. The round stones that he had thought a solid cairn, actually formed a box about seven feet long and four feet wide, filled with fine sand. The scene filled Connor with an odd sense of reverence.
Just as they approached, the sand began to shake. Connor retreated a step, unsure if it represented danger, but not quite believing it did. Evander stood his ground. The body of a middle-aged man with salt-and-pepper hair and scraggly beard shivered up through the sand until it lay unmoving on top.
"At last you find peace, my old friend."
Connor glanced from the corpse to Evander, who dropped to his knees beside the cairn and took the dead man's hand.
"Who is it?" Connor asked, his voice a hushed whisper. He'd seen far too much of bodies and death. That one showed no visible marks, and seemed sad.
"One who fell to an ancient evil long before you released his soul from torment."
"So he was responsible for raising the elfonnel?" It looked like Verena was right, and the elements needed a Petralist to allow them to rise to trample through the world.
"Reason is rarely anchored in the harbor of madness."
"But you know him?"
Evander nodded. "The storms of time obscure and conceal more than the snows of a winter tempest, and the days subsequent to war are turbulent and full of chaos."
Thinking hurt too much, but Connor considered Evander's words. "How can you lose track of a monster like that, even if you're distracted?"
Evander shrugged, "The wind that one day will rise into the mighty tempest is but a gentle breeze until that fateful day."
Connor wanted to shake him and scream at him to speak plainly, but Evander might just throw him off the pyramid and he didn't have the strength to handle another fall. Evander remained bowed over the dead man, but Connor turned away. That short conversation hinted at truths he needed to know, but he was too tired to figure them out.
To the west, his army had drawn close enough for Connor to recognize them. Rory and Anika walked in the front ranks, close together, hands clasped. Hamish walked hand in hand with Jean, and Verena trotted beside them.
When he turned, she rushed forward, shouting his name, her expression one of exultant joy. The rest of the crowd took up the cry. As the group stopped at the base of the pyramid, still cheering, Shona and Verena moved to the front, standing together, beaming. They'd probably start fighting any second, but he'd take one happy moment. Connor raised his fist in a silent tribute and everyone responded in kind.
That seemed to appease their worry and everyone began congratulating one another. Some soldiers laughed while others cried. Healers passed through the ranks and also descended on a number of unmoving forms at the base of the pyramid he had not noticed before. Aifric directed their work, but didn't leap into the healing process like she normally would. She looked exhausted and worn.
Connor couldn't make it down the stairs again, but didn't want to remain close to the fallen man who might have been insane, might have been the one responsible for so much destruction. So he slid down the back side of the pyramid, away from the crowds. He wanted to join the party, but in a minute. He just needed a quiet moment to enjoy being alive.
Ivor rushed around the pyramid and dropped to one knee beside him. Shona and Verena followed, but he leaned close before they arrived, his expression intent. "Connor, why did you turn unclaimed? How did you control it? How did you return?"
Connor gestured Ivor close and whispered the secret. "Patronage is a lie. The monster you saw is powered by another stone."
Ivor leaned back, looking stunned, slowly shaking his head.
"Believe it," Connor said,
gripping his wrist. "But share it with no one. That secret will get you killed. Trust me."
Then Verena dropped to the ground beside him and embraced him with jubilant enthusiasm. He tried to hug her back, but he had taxed himself beyond the limits of his strength. Despite his best effort, darkness settled over his eyes and dragged him into unconsciousness.
Chapter 88
Connor awakened slowly and enjoyed the feeling of soft comfort while the memories of that terrible day of struggle faded like shadows of a nightmare. He'd never be free of them, but for the moment they no longer held sway over him. He sighed and opened his eyes. He lay in Shona's own oversized bed in her apartment in Lord Nevan's palace.
That startled him fully awake and he jolted upright. Leave it to Shona to arrange such a not-so-subtle reminder of her plans for him. He glanced to his left and nearly leaped right out of bed.
Evander sat in a chair beside the bed, watching him with the long patience only Sentries could master. Well, other than gigantic vultures, but that was an unsettling thought.
Connor leaned back against the pillows. "Please don't ever do that again. I'm surprised you're not still sleeping after what you did today."
Evander raised an eyebrow, and Connor sensed a sudden tension to him. Evander seemed to loom over the bed, even though he was still seated, and Connor felt a trickle of icy fear. "Are the deeper secrets so easily laid bare to your mind, young one?"
Connor took a moment to consider his words. He sensed that if he said the wrong thing, Evander would rip his arms off. After all he'd done, the thought was infuriating, but still terrifying.
"I already told you, I have no idea how you managed to raise that giant." He wanted to ask about elfonnel and how they were formed, but didn't dare. That seemed to be another of those secrets Evander was willing to kill to protect.
Evander relaxed just a bit and Connor allowed himself to breathe again. Without any power stones, Evander could break him like a twig. Even if Connor had power stones to help, he might only live a few seconds longer.
"The circle of history repeats," Evander said softly, "and yet there is time to prevent the full reckoning."