The Path of Destruction (Rune Breaker)

by Porter, Landon

An avaricious light came into her eyes when she saw the weapon and was soundly quashed by her better decency and inquisitive nature. “This is the sword you gave me...” She couldn't bear to say what happened, “That night. You were surprised by something about it.”

  Ru continued to hold out the sword to her. “Indeed. Part of its design is to use some of the wielder's personal energy to fuel a powerful spell of disruption. This is meant to happen over time, and yet it charged instantly in your hand.” That still concerned him. Taylin should have passed out from the amount of discarnate energy required to charge the weapon completely.

  Ignorant of the real issue, Taylin took up the sheathed blade and started to buckle it to her belt. “I was lucky, apparently. But thank you, Ru. I appreciate it.” She hesitated, then drew it out. The gem in the hilt glowed a soft blue, still charged from that night, its light dyeing her eyes and skin blue and her feathers brown. “What does it do?”

  Ru folded his arms and rocked back slightly to look up at her. His yellow eyes were green in the light. “You claim not to want to do harm, and yet always throw yourself into a fight. The sword is made to complement that twisted philosophy. It heals as it cuts, using the vitae already present in the target, draining them to exhaustion without slaying them."

  Surprise and careful delight filled the link as Taylin turned the blade over in her hands and tested its edge on her thumb. It sliced a thin line that faded the moment she pulled away from it. The pain remained, but there was no evidence of the injury. “Ru...” She said in a low voice, “This is perfect! Thank you!”

  Then came a wash of embarrassment. “I-I should give you something. Next time we reach a town, I promise!”

  Ru scoffed. “It isn't a gift. It’s to stop you from holding back. I can tell every time you check your swings, or hesitate because you feel compelled to consider if an enemy deserves to die or not. It grates at me. With that sword in your hand, no more. That is all I require.”

  Taylin frowned at him. The Rune Breaker was a confusing beast, and even with the link, it was hard to gauge his motivations. They weren't friends, but he was better off having her alive than being sent back into stasis to await a new master who would abuse his situation and power, wasn’t he? Why couldn't he just say that instead of formulating aggravating reasons? She masked the link to deny him the satisfaction of her annoyance.

  “Still, I'd like to pay you back for it.” She said stiffly.

  Ru didn't bother to argue and instead changed the subject, “There is one other thing you should know: the disruption spell, Habaense. When you feel the need to use it, ask and I shall walk you through it; there is little time and you've shown no knack for magic.”

  There was no arguing with that. She'd tried to learn while they were in Daire, but she couldn't even find her own well of power like Ru, Kaiel or Brin could, no matter how hard she tried.

  “Right.” She said and sheathed Novacula Kuponya. “Thank you again. I need to go and find Percival before the others reach the Homestead.”

  With that, she spread her wings and leapt into the air. Ru quietly returned to his scribing.

  ***

  Percival Cloudherd strode along the eastern edge of the camp, watching the fodder wagons being trundled into place under the prodigious muscle power of thoroughbred tri-horn ceratos; imports from Callen that King Solgrum brought in for the army at his urging. More powerful than the lighter mixed breeds preferred elsewhere in Novrom, the beasts also had another advantage desirable in military dray animals: they could go longer on less food, provided they were gorged before departure.

  He paused to watch a pair of minotaurs unfold iron legs tipped with spikes from the sides of one fodder wagon and begin to pound said spikes into the earth while a mixed human/half-elf team offloaded the bales of hay, bags of oats and the barrels of tripe and slurry they fed to the spiders and ornises, then turned to the minotaur Jaks Nullner, his second in command.

  “Have the battlemagi construct gathering and storage arrays for flaer. There's not much here, but I don't want to rely on torches for ignition. Thirty-five foot increments should be enough. And have the sergeants make sure everyone has javelins; I don't want to take this to close range if I don't have to.”

  Jaks huffed and tilted his head so the beads hanging from his horns jangled. “I would rather tear him open personally for Rumeddo and Flar's deaths, but I agree. Any idea what the thing is?”

  Percival flared his wings, flashing the blue tattoos on them and shrugged. “Divinity spark is my guess. Some poor wretch at the Murderyard got sparked and transformed into that thing. Though I've never seen a newly sparked spirit beast summon up things like those stone creatures. When I was selling my sword in Rizen, I would have said Kimeans, but we're too far inland and too far east for them.”

  A flick of his ear was Jaks's way of showing his uneasiness. “I would be more comfortable if we knew more about this thing. Spirit beasts new to their power can be tricky things to put to an end in the best of circumstances.”

  “I am in complete agreement.” said Percival, “But I trust Liytheed when she says that farmstead is a death sentence for any scout. She has good senses for magic; better than you or I by far.”

  “General!” a call came from above and Percival stiffened at the title. They'd found General Galvanner shortly before sunrise. His ribs had been crushed and one of his arms torn off at the shoulder. Confirmation of his passing and the deaths of all the Royal Guards sealed Percival's promotion to the position and that it required the death of such a man as Galvanner made him feel like a child dressed in his fathers' clothes, pretending at his work.

  But he fought the feeling down and turned his eyes skyward. One of the Air Guard, a hailene named Emmara, was coming in low from the perimeter, escorting a familiar looking hailene with orange-red plumage. The guard pulled up gracefully and fluttered once or twice to land with a salute in front of him. The visitor, who he knew as Taylin, came down like a barrel dropped from an airship, landing in a crouch with her wings fully extended for balance.

  “One of the ones that's been following us, sir.” Emmara said with the eagerness of a woman certain she's done something worthy of promotion—which was also how she announced that she was going on patrol, or taking tea. “She says she has information we might need.” Her tone and the sidelong glance she shot Taylin showed that she had no faith in any such information, but was gambling on it in hopes of a promotion.

  Emmara was a relative newcomer to Solgrum's army, raised in the Eastern hailene tribes. She'd only just recently been forced to swallow her attitudes about minotaurs and wasn't ready to let go of the same regarding ang'hailene.

  Percival recognized that she would be a determent to getting whatever knowledge Taylin possessed and saluted her sharply. “Very good, Air Guard. Back to perimeter post; I have a message I want you to pass along to the others up there: they are to shift the patrols eastward over this line and stand ready to form up. Off you go now.”

  The Air Guard returned the salute and hurled herself into the air, quickly becoming lost in the gathering darkness overhead.

  Once she was sure the other hailene was gone, Taylin frowned at Percival. “You already know then?”

  “I try not to assume I know anything well enough that I can't add to my knowledge.” Percival started walking the line again with Jaks at his side. He gestured for Taylin to come with. Once he was sure she was, he continued, “The situation as we know it is that a powerful creature, possibly a spirit beast, attacked King Solgrum's gathering at the Murderyard, ultimately assassinating the King, plus the entire military upper echelon save myself. It then led us here, taking great care to pace itself and leave plenty of signs for our scouts to discover.

  “That is, until we reached here: a place where the trail disappears, but the bridge is out; a place where my battlemagi tell me our mystical combat capabilities are severely blunted, and our freshly promoted Warden tells me it is adjacent to an abandoned homestead crawling with
dark anima.

  “It wants us to think it is a stupid, obvious beast, but it identified King Solgrum immediately and slew him and his defenders with maximum efficiency, then led us into a trap where a conventional army of Novrom would be almost defenseless. It has a military mind, but so do I. And my mind tells me that it intends to ambush us in the night.” He turned inquisitive eyes to Taylin. “Now. What can you add or disabuse me of?”

  Taylin gawked for a moment, shocked that they had already discerned so much.

  Jaks flicked an ear in her general direction. “We weren't always getting fat at a politician's trough. Up til a few years ago, we were mercs. Maybe the grunts that get their ranks handed to them can afford to be stupid, but a merc can't.”

  “Right...” Taylin said guiltily. “You know most of it then. But I can tell you it isn't a spirit beast. My friend the chronicler... well he came up with a lie I was to tell you as you won't believe me, but I won't insult your intelligence. Do you know the Church of the Threefold Moon?”

  “Kayda. Small god with a lot of city churches. There's few towns dedicated to his name, as I hear.” Jaks answered for Percival. Taylin marveled a moment at a hailene and a minotaur getting along and mentally elevated Percival's measure yet again in her book. “Nothing much to tell.”

  “They have demons.” Taylin ventured cautiously. The looks the two gave her told her more explanation was needed. “I'm not the person to give you the whole story, but their god... makes demons.”

  Percival shook his head. “A demon is a summoned spirit from the Seven Interlocking Hells. They don't have affiliations with gods of any type.”

  “Maybe it's just a name then.” Taylin said, her feathers starting to stand up while she wrung her hands. “But the long and short of it is that Kayda makes and is served by monsters. Powerful monsters like the one that killed your king.”

  Now she had their attention. Percival turned on his heel to face her fully. “Assuming they do have such creatures, why attack Solgrum? They have no church in Daire City; never approached him about it. As far as I know, King Solgrum was likely unaware of them.”

  “I...” Taylin trailed off as her mind kicked into gear. Why were the demons doing these things? Backing the King of Flame and Steel in Taunaun, assassinating Solgrum, and... kidnapping Motsey? How did any of it fit? Did they just like chaos? No, that couldn't be it, that was lunacy.

  She felt his arrival just as Percival, Jaks and all the soldiers in the immediate area put hand to weapon.

  Ru had teleported in directly behind her, such that his voice actually reverberated in her rib cage. He floated, as he was wont to do, just off the ground, framing himself inside the curve of his scythe.

  “It hardly matters, does it?” he said. Yellow eyes swept the assembled soldiers, daring them to come at him. “A creature of immense power lies in wait for you, intending to strike at you in a place where traditional battle magic is next to useless. Do you truly believe you have time for religious philosophizing?”

  He gave them no time to argue. “Because if you are, allow me tell you something: you have limited flaer, ere-a and vitae reserves in this place. He is under no such handicap thanks to his connection to his god. I'm sure you've seen battle-priests and paladins on the field, yes? Well every demon of Kayda is a priest, drawing their power from him, only their very forms have been honed and transfigured to his purposes. And this one: Bashurra the Crevasse, is one of the eldest of their number. You are not fighting a monster; you are fighting a demigod.”

  Murmurs rippled through the soldiers that had heard and was quickly relayed in whispers through the surrounding rank and file. Hardened though they were, none of them had come prepared to battle something like that.

  Taylin sent Ru her thanks and stepped up in the lull. “But!” She shouted the word, louder than she knew she even could shout and in doing so, shocked herself into temporary silence. She recovered with a nervous cough because now everyone was looking at her. Something in the hailene part of her blood made her straighten to her full height and open her wings, projecting confidence.

  “But my friends and I know how to cut him off from that power. And we have a plan to lure him out of the homestead and make him fight on open ground.” Now that she was going, the confidence became real and she started moving her hands, speaking with increased animation and vehemence. “I came here to rally you and ask for your aid. While we can cut him off from his source of power, he will notice us long before the seal is complete. We must give him something else to be concerned about long enough for it to be done.”

  Percival nodded subtly and then it was his turn. He turned a slow circle, looking to his troops. He quirked a wry, cocky eyebrow—a mercenary's eyebrow—at them. “Sounds about like what we were going to do to this trull-dung smelling beastie in the first place, wasn't it?”

  The disquieted murmurs stopped almost instantly, replaced by equally quiet mutterings of agreement. The army of Solgrum had been together longer than Solgrum's reign, and they all knew Percival; trusted him.

  The newly minted general raised a leather-encased finger toward Ru. “What he said right off is all you need to know: It hardly matters. It hardly matters if this thing is a demigod or a demon; a spirit beast, or a conjuring. It hardly matters how powerful it might be, or if we need to rely on someone else's plan to put it in the ground.”

  The agreement was louder now, punctuated by a few hearty 'yeah's'. Taylin watched with great interest as his words hit home, visibly bolstering the troops, and inwardly, she wondered if Percival knew about the Word and Song like Kaiel did.

  “But I'll tell you what does matter.” continued Percival, “Solgrum is dead. Galvanner is dead. Trudrick, Almaize, Coltannic, Earthhammer. All dead. And the one responsible for it drew us out here and thinks he's going to kill us like a bunch of ignorant lap-bears. Not even lap-bears; like helpless cubs.”

  Jeers came from the soldiers along with the banging of weapons on armor and shields.

  “Ashing right we're not.” Percival nodded. “He thinks we're helpless? He thinks we're like Nov's own men back in Kinos, or the Ocean Guard down Rivenport way; too fat and slow from more big dinners than weapon drills? He thinks that we don't know how to send him back to whatever made him in neatly butchered pieces without the perfect conditions for spellworking?”

  He popped his knuckles and raised a fist. “Let us show him how we bury an enemy. And tell him he can turn to ash!”

  The soldiers roared their approval, a noise added to by clanging weapons, jangling minotaur horn ornaments, and hunter's horns.

  A grim smile on his face at his army's loyalty, Percival turned back to Taylin and Ru. “We'll follow your plan then. But I will warn you: we're not as vulnerable as you believe.”

  “Heh.” said Ru, as Taylin fished out the clay icon Kaiel had given her to signal him with. She gave him a glare, but couldn't stop him from mouthing off. “Pray tell what you plan to do against him with almost no magic?”

  Percival met his eye with a smirk. “The best we can.” He tilted his head, already knowing his second would be there. “Jaks, have them raise and arm the hwachas.”

  The big minotaur grinned, displaying filed teeth and turned to the forming line. “Wagon crews to the fore! Raise and arm! Check the braces!”

  Other minotaurs, and to the man, they were all minotaurs that responded, leapt into action, fitting heavy cranks into hidden slots beneath the now empty fodder wagons and set their backs to turning them. Slowly, what had seemed to be the bottom of each cart began to rise up on gear-enabled arms, revealing that they were actually constructed of a thin tarp strung over a frame that held hundreds of wooden tubes.

  Ru regarded them carefully and with mounting intrigue. And at the same time, Taylin broke the clay disk.

  ***

  “I've seen wood walls like this before.” Rai said, settling into a comfortable spot where a thick branch met a tree's trunk at an angle. Once she was secure in her spot, she unslung he
r rifle and slotted a complex array of folding lenses and mirrors onto a notch on the barrel. “The trees never just all die like this.”

  Kaiel was standing on a branch just a bit further down, hugging the trunk carefully, but not fearfully. He'd switched clothes to simple leathers and a woodsman's cloak like scouts wore. He was watching Brin's progress toward the farmhouses through a small, folding telescope. “It's the nekras contamination. They're not actually dead, they just look that way because they're not natural trees, but ones quick-grown with vitae.

  “So the farm will come back once Brin puts up the seal?” She was flicking different lenses and mirrors into and out of her line of sight as she sighted it across the dark fields.

  “If people choose to come back.” he nodded, “Which they might not after hearing what happened to the people here. No one's ever going to believe the Church of the Threefold Moon had a hand in this; they'll think the area is haunted by spirit beasts or something. That's the depressing thing about being educated at the Bardic College: you know the truth, but to everyone else, Kayda's just another small god; nothing to take note of.”

  “We know.” Rai pointed out, locking in her chosen configuration with thumb screws.

  “The nir-lumos seem to know everything, I've noticed.” Kaiel smiled. Then his smile faltered as a sound reached his ear. No one else would have been able to pick it out amid the creaking of the trees or the night breeze, but Kaiel's connection to the Song, and sympathetic connection with the icon he made ensured that he couldn't miss it.

  “There it is.” he said seriously and put away the telescope, replacing it in his hand with his flute. “The army's agreed to the plan and Taylin's waiting for us. Ready for this?”

  Rai cocked the rifle and sighted it carefully. Through her lenses, Bashurra the Crevasse sprang into her vision. “I've been waiting to make a Kaydan bleed for days.”

  Chapter 6 – Titan

  'The order came down this morning: we will now be subject to inspection by and report to the Office of the Defense Chancellor in addition to our responsibilities to the Body of the House of Advancement. No one has said it aloud, but we all know it, deep inside: Today the Empire has unofficially declared war on the world beyond the shores of Illium. And our science will be the primary weapon.'