“As expected, there was a fierce battle with the soldiers guarding the gate on the Citadel side as the forward clan arrived, yet it was over sooner than anticipated. The clan won almost effortlessly.” Shifting, he gestured toward a dark intersection left of the great hall. “Our only losses have derived from a small band of Dark Users making a stand there; the clan’s archers are nearly in place to remove this threat.”
A bolt of radiant blue flashed high in the great hall. Spreading out and downward, the lightning flashed, like an upside-down tree flickering within a mirage. The smell of burning flesh grew unbearable. Crystalyn’s stomach lurched.
“Something is askew in this foul place, Do’brieni. The smell of rotting flesh is strong.”
Broth was right. The scent came nearer to that of decay. Crystalyn took a closer look at the body she lay behind. A sickly white, the gate corpse’s pallor was devoid of pigment, more so than the skin tone of the cadaver of the clan member stacked underneath the former gate guard. Granted, the clan had darker skin tones having lived a life in the sun, but the sentry’s pallor was gray, as one dead for hours not minutes. The smell emanated from the top body.
Crystalyn crawled back from the corpse pile. “Long Sand! How long has that one been dead?” she blurted, pointing.
The nomad leader looked where she pointed and then glanced at the intersection.
Crystalyn followed his gaze. Several dark-robed Users lay about. Nomad warriors moved cautiously toward the opening. The short skirmish for the gateway was over.
Rising to his feet, Long Sand came over. “A half bell, perhaps less. Why have you asked?” He offered her his hand.
The sand reader easily pulled her to her feet. Crystalyn bent and patted the dust from her knees, nodding toward the makeshift barrier. “Please do something for me. Pull the deceased guard off to one side.”
His face blank, as if he thought she’d lost her mind, Long Sand complied, wrinkling his nose.
“I take it you smell it?” Crystalyn asked.
“The scent of death is very potent,” Lore Rayna said, coming over from the gateway. The big woman escorted Sabella, gripping her by one arm. Railee held the other.
“Your wisdom shames me,” Long Sand said, bowing slightly. The sand reader’s quiet voice was reverent. “Something as blatant as this I should not have missed. There is something happening inside this dark place we have no knowledge about. Please, accept this long knife as added protection,” he said, offering a sheathed weapon in his outstretched hand.
Crystalyn took the weapon without protest and strapped it to her side. “You had a distraction, such as securing the area, remember? Don’t let it concern you. How many do we have on this side now?” Crystalyn asked, shunting the matter of smelly corpses to the back of her mind.
Railee answered. “With our arrival, we have thirty-two. Four additional have come through by now.”
“Already?” Crystalyn asked.
Railee glanced at the woman whose arm she held. “This one commanded the sentries on the Gray Dust side to stand aside, which they did without question. Our captains file our soldiers through with timed pauses.”
Crystalyn regarded the tavern mistress.
Sabella stared back, her chin tilted slightly upward.
“Thank you,” Crystalyn said simply.
A flicker of annoyance crossed Sabella’s gray eyes. “There was little point to them dying. The Gray Dust militia would have arrived long ago if they were coming.”
Crystalyn’s ire with the woman rose, but she quashed it. “Agreed. Needless deaths expend resources,” she said, keeping the tone of her voice even. “We make for the courtyard behind the Dark Gate, and from there, underground. Are there any hazards I should know about?”
“No.”
Keeping her eyes on Sabella, Crystalyn spoke to the others. “When we have five hundred strong with half of them Users and archers, we go on. I will lead us. Should we encounter unexpected resistance, kill her.”
Sabella blinked. “The Dark Gate will have soldiers, above and below,” she said quickly.
Crystalyn kept her face smooth. “Yes, that is a standard for the Citadel, the same as it was when I was here last. Is there anything else?”
“With the hooded one’s rule, the guard and confinement barracks are upheld,” Sabella said, the tone of her voice getting small at the end.
Now it was Crystalyn’s turn to blink. Such information imparted a lot about the Alchemist. The current great lord was far less secure than the previous one. “You’ve given me a little, bordello mistress. I’ll do better. Help me destroy the one we came after, and you’ll be freed to return to your… tavern.”
Sabella’s brow scrunched, as if in pain. “I shall not aid you with harming him, I cannot.”
With blurring speed, Railee’s dagger pressed against the tavern woman’s throat.
By the Great Father, that one can move fast when she wants, Crystalyn thought.
Broth growled his unhappiness with the situation.
“Why do you help when he has betrayed you? He has, has he not?” Railee asked, her voice a deadly hiss. “Darkwind betrays all who come within contact of him,” she added, muttering.
“Darkwind, Darwin Darkwind? I have no care for him,” Sabella said.
Crystalyn expected her frown matched the tavern woman’s furrowed brow. “Then who do you protect?”
Sabella’s frown deepened, marring her lovely face. “Is it not obvious? We stand in his domain. You should all leave, before it is too late.”
Railee lowered her arm to her side though she kept the blade from the sheath.
Crystalyn at last understood. “Your hooded one is safe as long as he allows us to handle the filth we came for.”
Sabella’s blonde hair flung back and forth as her gray-eyed glare shifted to include all, the white lock at the front of her head of hair hanging prominently. She fell silent.
Lore Rayna fixed her glowing eyes on Crystalyn. “One-arm Darwin chose the Stair of Despair. He may already be lost.”
Crystalyn shook her head. “He would’ve had a way to make it past whatever lurks there planned beforehand. A coward like him would never make the attempt if he wasn’t certain of success.”
“You overestimate Darkwind,” Sabella said. “No one can survive the Stair. Those who are so foolish to try have vanished from society. Even so, I will help you search for him. Command your people to release me, if you wish my help.”
Crystalyn hesitated, letting her delay at giving the order sink in. “There is one question I want answered,” she finally said. “What is your relationship with the Alchemist? Speak truthfully, or I’ll have you locked up, and we go on our way.”
Sabella hung her head, the white lock shining bright against the backdrop of the Dark Citadel. “He is my father,” she said nearly too soft to hear.
From behind, Atoi’s dark laughter rang out.
Crystalyn almost wished she hadn’t asked the woman. Crystalyn knew well what it was to be a daughter, what she would do to protect her dad.
DARK FLOW
With the Shimmer Spear wedged firmly under his mangled arm, Darwin Darkwind, the Great Shadow, strolled through the courtyard behind the Dark Gate, killing soldiers and civilians with abandon. He reveled in the feeling of power snuffing out the puny lives of men and women with the simple flick of his hand from the power within. All ran before him. Even veteran warriors backed away with care.
The bows and crossbows had ceased when he had blown apart most of the weapons masters from wherever they had fired, hidden or not. They had believed they were safe from view, and he could imagine the look of horror when the Great Shadow had located the energy traces their projectiles created when piercing air. The Great Shadow, the dark stain within him, laughed with glee at the thought of it.
Once located, the master, no he—he was the Master of the Great Shadow now—had burned the bolts and arrows to cinders by fol
lowing the released energy back to the source. Darwin did not have to do anything. After commanding the raging blackness in him to take out the first steel missile, the shadow had handled the rest automatically. The raspy voice in his mind laughed malevolently. “A command to destroy is my desire, worm,” the voice said. Maniacal laughter boomed inside his skull.
Darwin closed his mind to the sound, his own glee drowning it out. Everything he so desperately sought, the hardship and pain endured, the atrocities committed, had culminated at this point with nearly limitless power at his disposal. For the power gained, it had all been worth it.
Lifting a dark-armored soldier with a captain’s insignia marked on the right shoulder, Darwin sent him crashing into the back side of the Dark Gate with a wave of his hand. He barely noticed the drain of Flow as it flowed through the Spear.
The blackness within surged with every use, seeking control. Again, Darwin fought it back, pushing it into the Shimmer Spear where it belonged. The task took longer this time, even though he had expected another such attempt. The crowned shadow with the great axe laughed, a dry ancient laugh.
“Master?” Malkor asked hesitantly, his raspy voice hoarse. “After we have destroyed this rabble, may we stop for water at the guardhouse? You should drink your fill, perhaps some wine?”
A band of soldiers and red robes charged out of an interrogation room. The crowned shadow, Darwin, wrapped them in a tube of darkness, glaring at his servant. “You need nourishment. I no longer have such base requirements; I feed on the nectar of power. Why do you not do as I do? The great knowledge I have provided you should sustain you for eternity,” Darwin said.
Reveling in the way his voice boomed when he spoke, Darwin pulled the tube tight. The screams of agony ended with gurgling that quieted with a satisfying abruptness.
The darkness within him exulted.
A man wearing a gray robe stumbled from the room the red robes had come from. Blood ran from a cut lip. Both his eye sockets had the dark purple and red tint of heavy bruising. “I do not know who you are, but I thank you for my release,” he said.
Drawn to the front pocket underneath his robe, the Great Shadow responded to a power emanating from the man. Reveling within the grasp of the Dark Flow enhancing his strength, Darwin gripped the man’s robe and yanked.
Twisting violently around, the man spun to the flooring minus the robe Darwin now held in his hand. Sliding partway across the room on his back, he lay still. An odd pattern glowed softly red on the armor suit he had worn under his robe.
Darwin ignored the man and the suit. Reaching inside the pocket with his free hand, his power hand, he closed upon a thing of great power. Drawing it out, he let the robe fall away.
Pulsating in his palm, a red crystal orb gleamed darkly. He smiled. With it and the catalyst for the Flow stowed in the Spear, the Great Shadow’s power would increase tenfold, his power.
The Great Shadow surged strong within, immensely pleased.
Malkor’s nasal whining voice cut his satisfaction short. “As you say, Master, you likely do not need such a mundane thing as water. I do, however. Without it, I shall die. Also, if you want followers, we should leave some alive,” his manservant said.
“Silence!” Darwin boomed. He would punish his servant along with all in the fortress if it served him. Growing annoyed with losing his fulfillment, he looked for those living to regain it. He found none, only his cowering manservant clinging upon his lustrous black robes.
Though his head bowed slightly, Malkor looked up at him, his arms held at his chest in a ridiculous defensive posture as if he meant to block blows from a brawl. Did such a puny human roach think it could stop the Great Shadow?
How much did he truly need his servant? Once he had the Citadel contained, he would go forth and conquer the land, beginning with the lore masters. The wind door would no longer be a deterrent to one such as him.
Darwin drew more of the Dark Flow into the Spear though it was near capacity and thrummed with power. Malkor cowered lower before him, which pleased him.
“Please, Master, do not look at me so,” his servant said. Abruptly, Malkor straightened and pointed, a malevolent smile fixed upon his ragged lips. “There, Master, is someone for the great one to play with.”
Darwin spun. A large group had gathered at the north courtyard as dozens more streamed through the great hall’s double doors in orderly rows. He barely noticed. The betrayer stood at the forefront.
Darwin smiled. The confrontation he knew would come since leaving the Valley of Forgotten Kings had arrived. Finally, the final battle had come. The end game would happen here in the courtyard behind the Dark Gate. And now, he had the strength to destroy her and suckle upon her latent power.
The power within, the Great Shadow, surged with anticipation.
Beside the betrayer stood one he had used and left to die, yet the sand woman lived. No longer had he such base instincts of desire. Darwin, the Great Shadow, would slaughter her and the plant woman with the eyes of white radiance towering behind.
A motion beside the gate caught at the Great Shadow. A figure cloaked under a dark cowl strode with a familiar boldness through the guard door—someone he recognized, another betrayer.
The Alchemist had brought only a mere three warriors. Such a puny fool, a minor distraction, though the hooded man carried some supremacy. The Great Shadow would terminate him first and eliminate his threat.
Screaming, the sand woman suddenly charged, racing toward him as if such a puny mortal with her little sword had the power to hurt one such as him. Wrapping the insolent woman in Dark flows of air, he hurled her across the courtyard, slamming her into the Dark Gate near its peak with a wet-sounding, satisfying splotch.
Slowly, then with speed, the woman fell.
The betrayer screamed with gratifying anger. Perhaps, he would destroy all those around the symbolic User in like manner.
From the top of the great gate stairs, a voice rang loud and clear. “Use your strongest, Crystalyn! His is stronger than you know!”
The Great Shadow sent a dark spear hurtling at the disrupting voice as the betrayer shouted something. Annoyingly, the tall warrior easily deflected the spear, though the man’s movements gave a view behind him.
The anomaly waited there.
Darwin, the Great Shadow, smiled. The power gathered beyond the Dark Gate had grown from fortuitous to fortunate. No longer would the crowned shadow have to send creatures after the girl and subvert her to its will from afar. The Great Shadow would envelope her now, firsthand. Then, its power would expand exponentially. The anomaly’s innate ability with reading auras, to know the possible futures rotating around every single soul, was here for the taking.
The shadow would take.
With all the power the Great Shadow had collected over the eras, the Shimmer Spear, and the red orb, it would not only see the future, it would control it. Resistance from anyone or anything would be ineffectual. The power within would dominate them all.
Darwin, the Great Shadow, was greatly pleased.
The betrayer and her substantial strength could wait. The target had changed. The Great Shadow hurled much of what it had at the one blocking the way to the anomaly where ultimate power awaited.
SARRA’ESIAH
Crystalyn thrust open one side of the great double doors of the Dark Citadel interior. Railee kicked the other. The black-iron-banded wooden doors hit the gray limestone wall with a thunderous bang. Lore Rayna’s tree-branch arms slid past. Slamming both doors to the wall, the versatile limbs kept the heavy wood and iron from bouncing back into them and then withdrew. With Railee slightly behind and Lore Rayna following, Crystalyn brought out her golden cyclone symbol and advanced into the courtyard.
Robed and armored bodies lay strewn about the long, wide area behind the massive gate and dark stone wall constructed to hold it. Crystalyn tried not to look at them too close. Someone had been particularly violent with some of
them, the heads twisted at unnatural angles.
The courtyard had changed. Carved columns of beautiful women dressed in sheer robes were interspersed with large statues of powerful men wearing naught but loin coverings. Made from stark white marble and placed with an eye toward complementing the austere dark granite of the flooring and walls, the marble lined the perimeter, the largest and most intricate carvings surrounded the fountain. Left alone in the center, the deep gray dais stood out, seeming higher than when she’d last seen it.
A memory flowed through her mind as she viewed the Dark Dais where challenge for lordship occurred with a duel to the death. Stained with dried blood, blackened by combat both magical and physical, the raised circular area in the courtyard’s center dredged feelings of disgust and revulsion from the depths of her mind.
A motion beyond the dais caught her attention where the one person she’d seen battle upon it strode. Darwin blasted Darkwind.
Sword in hand, Railee dashed toward the black robe. “You shall go no farther, Dark King! I see you for what you are!”
“Railee, stop!” Crystalyn screamed.
Something unseen, unrelenting, and unforgiving wrenched the nomad woman from her feet midstride, lifting her high into the air. Blood streamed from her clenched lips, and her sword clanged to the stone floor. Soaring at a high speed across the courtyard, Railee slammed into the Dark Gate. Hanging in stasis for a double heartbeat, Red Rock woman dropped many stories to the floor.
“Blast you, you bloody murderer!” Crystalyn screamed. Boiling with rage, she failed to hold onto her cyclone symbol and it dissolved.
At the top of the grand stairway leading to the top of the gate wall, a voice rang out. One Crystalyn knew and loved. “Use your strongest, Crystalyn! His is stronger than you know!” Her dad’s voice was easily recognizable but not the person he was now. Trim and fit, he looked capable of taking on anyone, even Hastel or Long Sand. Someone stood behind him. Jade! “Are you two all right?” she shouted.
Beyond the Dark Gate Page 43