Legend (The Arinthian Line Book 5)

by Sever Bronny

  Bridget strode over and placed her hands over them. “Apreyo.” The lens repaired before their eyes. She picked them up and handed them back to him. “I understand, Mr. Goss,” she said softly. “We will not take him if you do not wish it so.”

  Mr. Goss swallowed as he stared at his spectacles in quiet silence. The trio allowed this man to make his choice, a man who was so obviously still suffering from the death of his beloved wife, a man who had to watch his son struggle as a blind and mute and badly burned boy.

  At last, Mr. Goss’ shoulders sagged. “No, you must take him. You must work together for the Resistance. Leland has an opportunity to contribute in a way that I do realize is important, even crucial. I do realize that.” He glanced over at his boy, who rocked from foot to foot, clutching the Agonex to his chest. Mr. Goss’ voice was barely audible. “But if anything should happen … I could not bear it, Bridget, do you understand me?”

  “We’ll take good care of him, Mr. Goss, you have our word.”

  “I know you will, dear Bridget. I know you will …”

  Leland felt his way to the door, where he moaned impatiently.

  “Little tyke wants to go,” Mr. Goss said, turning his back on them to hide a sniffle. “Good luck out there.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Goss,” Bridget said, taking Leland’s hand. “Good evening to you.”

  “Good evening, Mr. Goss,” Augum and Leera echoed quietly.

  If there was a man who deserved a real title and the honors that came with it, it was Albert Goss, Augum thought as the trio left the room, quietly closing the door behind them.

  “Prince and Princesses,” Devon with a bow as they passed him in the hall. “What are you up to, can I come?” he quickly asked, following. “Is it going to be fun? I’ve been working with Father all day he doesn’t feel well oh and I heard there’s going to be some kind of ceremony tomorrow I’m so excited I really love ceremonies are we getting all dressed up I heard we are oh and I really love this castle it’s all arcane and stuff the servants have been working through all the tricks but some of them say that it’s haunted because they’ve been seeing things but I told them it’s their imagination as it’s an old castle and—”

  “—please excuse us, Devon,” Bridget said politely.

  “Yes of course don’t let me hold you up I’ll see you later all right have fun!”

  The formal greetings, bows and curtsies continued all the way to the vestibule, where at last there was silence. But as Bridget reached for the main doors, she suddenly jumped with a fright after seeing something in a dark corner.

  Augum and Leera reflexively lit their arm stripes up and whirled about.

  But there was nothing in the corner.

  Bridget was breathing rapidly, a shaking hand covering her mouth.

  Leland moaned as he reached out for her, but she backed into the wall, still breathing rapidly, face ashen. Her teeth began to chatter as she glanced upward, as if seeing some great and horrifying demon.

  “Bridge, fill us in here,” Leera said in rapid and serious tones, eyes darting about, hands ready in attack posture.

  Bridget’s head swiveled slowly, following whatever it was she was seeing. Her gaze fell upon the great double inner doors leading into the castle. “It’s … it’s inside …”

  Augum felt bumps rise on his skin. “What is? Bridge—? What’s inside?”

  “I don’t know … a shadow … did you not … did you not see it?”

  Augum and Leera shook their heads.

  Leland gave a frightened moan as he hid behind Augum.

  Leera grabbed hold of his hand. “It’s all right, Little Lee, there’s nothing here.”

  Bridget flung open the inner doors.

  “Is anything the matter, Princess Bridget?” Captain Briggs asked, who happened to stroll into the foyer.

  “Did … did anything pass by, Captain?” Bridget asked in a shaky voice. “Just now?”

  “I do not believe so.” He studied her face. “How about I conduct a sweep of the castle to be sure, though, Princess.”

  “Yes, I think that would be wise, thank you,” Bridget said in a small voice, hand rubbing her forehead.

  Captain Briggs bowed. “Your Highnesses,” and dismissed himself to search the castle.

  Augum placed a hand on her arm. “Bridge?”

  “Thought I … thought I saw a shadow … can’t be sure though.”

  “You can’t be sure?” Leera asked.

  Bridget looked about as if realizing how silly it all sounded. “Sorry, I … I’ve been seeing things lately. Here in the castle and …”

  “Are you saying it’s haunted?” Leera whispered, eyes darting about.

  “I … I don’t know, I can’t be sure. Maybe I’m just tired and stressed from the move.” She gave a nervous chortle. “You know how these things can go. I’m just being silly.”

  Augum and Leera exchanged a dark look.

  “Uh, okay, Bridge, but if you see any more of that kind of thing let us know, all right?” Augum said.

  She nodded. “Sure. All right, enough nonsense. Let’s go.”

  * * *

  By the time they got behind the mill, the sky was a violent purple dusk. The grass here was waist high and the buildings in ruins. Nearby, the partially repaired perimeter wall sat forlorn, the Ravenwood behind dark and oppressive. Crickets sang and there was the faint scent of burning wood.

  “So, uh, how’s this going to work?” Leera asked Bridget, still holding onto Leland.

  Bridget had been watching the wall. “Huh?”

  Leera exchanged another look with Augum. “You sure you’re all right, Bridge?”

  “Sorry, yeah, fine.” Bridget crouched before Leland. “Mrs. Stone wants you to teleport and control one soldier. Think you can do that safely for us, Leland?”

  Leland’s dimpled cheek, the only one not burned by the Lord of the Legion’s lightning, lifted in a smile as he moaned in assent.

  Bridget stood and stepped back a couple paces. “All right, Little Lee, give it a try.”

  Leland held the Agonex before him like he was holding a plate at supper. After a few moments of concentration, he shook his head and moaned. He drew an oval in the air.

  “Oh, that’s right, the perimeter enchantment wall.” Bridget glanced beyond it. “I’ll have to tell Mrs. Stone to make Leland a permanent exception.”

  “Let’s just go beyond it,” Augum said with a shrug. “It’s not like before, we can handle ourselves now.”

  The girls looked at him, probably recalling how the one time they had transgressed the enchanted boundary they got attacked by a hellhound. It had been arcanely hidden in the guise of a small child, tricking Bridget into taking it in. But that had been last year, before they even received their 1st degree. Now they were seasoned young warlocks who could take down a wraith.

  “It’ll be fine, Bridge,” Leera said. “We’re not fledglings anymore.”

  She finally nodded. “All right, let’s just be careful.”

  “I don’t know, I was thinking we could make it super dangerous by calling for all undead in the kingdom to come at us—”

  “—not in the mood, Lee.” Bridget gave her a look before taking Leland by the hand and leading him to the wall.

  “She’s in a mood though,” Leera mouthed at Augum before the pair followed.

  Augum felt a small thrill as he stepped over the wall into the dark woods. “Shyneo,” he said, lighting up his palm, the girls quickly doing the same. For a moment the trio and Leland listened to the forest, but there was nothing.

  Bridget crouched before Leland. “All right, Little Lee, give it another try.” Then she took a few steps back.

  Leland again held the Agonex out. He made a series of low moans, as if having a conversation, or perhaps trying to cast a spell. Just as Augum began to think it wasn’t working, there was a THWOMP.

  But instead of one undead soldier wearing matte black Dreadnought armor, there appeared ten.
r />   Seeing Anew

  “Leland Goss, what have you done!” Bridget snapped. “You were supposed to teleport one soldier, not a whole squad!”

  Leland made a questioning, pitiful moan.

  “Relax, Bridge he’s just trying to impress us,” Leera said. “Besides, he’s obviously far more advanced at it than we all thought.”

  Leland made a sharp nod of his head accented by a grunt, then held out the Agonex again.

  Bridget reached out. “Leland, no—” but it was too late. There was another loud THWOMP followed by yet another one, until thirty soldiers crammed the area, standing motionless.

  Leera snorted a laugh. “All right, you’ve made your point, Little Lee, but you better stop before Bridget has a seizure.”

  “Or his father finds out,” Augum muttered. Mr. Goss has never resorted to violence, but Augum pictured the man chasing them around the bailey holding a bundle of candles, throwing one at each of them as they yelped apologies. Chandlers wouldn’t throw anything else, would they? Maybe a bucket of wax?

  “They look the same as before,” Leera said, peering into the visor of a soldier. “Creepy because they’re kind of alive, aren’t they? I mean, their eyes move and stuff. Neat weapons too—axes, spears, swords, the works.” She whirled to face Leland. “I’m impressed. We all are. Well done, Leland.”

  “Not bad, eh?” said a deeply guttural voice from within the thirty soldiers, startling the trio to attack stances.

  “Who said that? Who’s there?” Bridget called out, bushy like a cat.

  A particularly large guardsman with a massive physique stepped forward. His face was hidden within a sleek and sharp helm that had a crimson plume. The blade of his sword was the only one without a scabbard, and that was probably because its width was enormous, almost comically so. It swung heavily against the man’s plated thigh.

  “Who are you?” Augum asked, hands at the ready.

  “You get one guess,” that guttural voice said from within the helm.

  Leera crinkled her nose. “No way … Leland?”

  The soldier thrust both arms in triumph. Then, absurdly, he began dancing while singing, “I am so great. This is so great. Yeah, yeah, yeah, great, great, great—”

  “Stop that!” Bridget snapped, though Augum and Leera had already cracked up. Even hearing that guttural voice singing had been enough, but adding that stupid dance … they had to lean on each other while they roared with laughter.

  “What else can you make it do, Little Lee?” Leera asked, wiping tears away.

  The soldier attempted to do a cartwheel but ended up slamming into a tree. “Oops,” it said, clumsily standing. “Don’t quite got the hang of this yet. Hold on—”

  “Leland, stop it, we have to talk about this—” Bridget said just as the soldier attempted a second cartwheel, only to slip and fall on his back.

  “Should I say ‘Oof’?” it asked, slowly getting to its feet. “I mean, I don’t feel it, but does he? I mean, do I? I mean, oh, this is so confusing. And my voice!” The soldier felt his own throat.

  Meanwhile, Augum was glancing between the soldier and Leland, and noticed that Leland was sort of mouthing the words and feeling his own throat.

  “Wait a moment,” Augum said. “Leland, are you inside the soldier?”

  “Captain,” the soldier said. “I’m inside the captain. So you can call me Captain Leland.” The man’s chest puffed while he placed his armored hands on his hips. “So weird to hear myself talk.” Captain Leland felt around his own head. “And I actually kind of feel myself too. Like, I’m aware of my body and stuff and—” He strode over to his small, mangled self, then gasped and jumped back. “Gods, no!” The big soldier yelped gutturally. Both he and the boy were making mirrored horrified gestures. “Do I really look that bad? I’m horrible. I’m a monster, I’m—”

  “—just a normal boy,” Augum said. “Who was a victim of my murderous father.”

  “Now if this isn’t about the weirdest thing I’ve seen …” Leera muttered, looking on as the hulking undead soldier crept up to the boy, crouched and reached out to him, the boy mirroring the gesture but in reverse.

  “I’m so … I’m so ugly! No girl will ever love me!” and he shoved soldiers aside as he disappeared in their midst. Augum noticed Leland himself did not have to run. Except for basic gestures, he seemed to be doing it all in his mind.

  “Don’t be silly, Augum’s super ugly yet I love him very much.” Leera winked at Augum.

  “Yes, I’m troll ugly, I really am.”

  “Stop lying, I remember how you look.” There was a pause. “Is Father … is Father hurt like me too?”

  Augum’s throat tightened. “Just a scalp burn, nothing bad.”

  “He’s worried about you,” Bridget said. “About this. He’s worried you won’t be able to control the Agonex, or worse—”

  “—that it’ll control me?” the large soldier said, sheepishly emerging once more from the throng of soldiers. “I can see again, Bridget. I am someone again. I am not in pain. I can talk. I … I’ve been inside this body a lot, you know, ever since defeating the captain in a mind battle or whatever you want to call it. I’ve been walking the bottom of Bahbell. It’s in ruins down there, you know. Part of the ceiling’s collapsed and stuff.”

  “Wait, so you’ve been exploring the catacombs?” Bridget said. “The tunnels? How much of Bahbell have you seen?”

  “I have. It’s lonely though, and most of the time I can’t see. There’s no light down there really. It’s just me and these …” He gestured at his fellow soldiers. “I don’t know what you want to call them.”

  “A ten-year-old roving about in an undead captain’s body in Bahbell,” Leera said. “Now that’s something.”

  “Have they seen you?” Bridget pressed. “Leland, has the Legion seen you?”

  “Before, he used to come a lot. But I was always careful to return to my spot. He knew there was a captain, but he couldn’t get him—I mean me—to do what he wanted. He cursed a lot after casting his stupid spells because they didn’t work.”

  “You mean Sparkstone?” Augum asked softly.

  The captain flicked a wrist at Leland’s scalp. “Yes, the one that did that to me. So many times I wanted to reach out and strangle him. But he’s really, like, strong and stuff. He’d destroy me—or this body or whatever—easily, I think, I don’t know.”

  “Wait, what did you mean by ‘before’, Leland?” Bridget pressed.

  “Uh … something happened. We had a fight.”

  “You what?”

  The undead captain that was really Leland shrugged. “He started stealing my soldiers’ stuff.”

  The trio exchanged a look.

  “So what happened?” Augum asked.

  “I started practicing on his soldiers. There was a big fight. He killed a whole bunch of my soldiers though and stole their stuff, so I had to save ‘em.”

  “I don’t understand,” Bridget said, shaking her head. “Save them?”

  “Yeah, I teleported them away.”

  “Where to—” Bridget froze. “Sparrow’s Perch. It’s the only safe place you knew.”

  The captain nodded.

  Augum pictured Occulus’ old army just awkwardly standing around in the ashes of the village, and what that would look like to someone who happened to wander through.

  “And mommy’s there …”

  Bridget made a choking sound as she looked away while Leera abruptly rubbed her forehead, shielding her eyes. Augum remembered the graves of their parents, buried by poor Mr. Goss, who had to bury his own wife as well. And now Leland had to have seen that grave through the soldier’s eyes …

  “How many are left?” Bridget asked after comporting herself, turning back around, face tight. “Leland? How many?”

  “Four hundred and twenty-two.”

  The trio gasped. Bridget had to sit down, placing her head in her hands.

  “What?” the captain asked, raising a pal
m questioningly.

  “But there were tens of thousands,” Leera said.

  “What? No. There were seven hundred and fifteen.”

  “But … but we saw with our own eyes.”

  “No we didn’t,” Bridget interjected, glancing up at them. “We wanted there to be that many. We never actually saw that many, did we?”

  Augum thought back and realized she was right. They had severely overestimated the actual number of soldiers because it had been dark. Seeing rows and rows of soldiers going on into that darkness had simply fooled them.

  Bridget rubbed her forehead. “Great, just great … We’ll have to inform Mrs. Stone, then get those soldiers to a better hiding spot.”

  “Could bring them here,” Augum offered.

  Bridget gave a non-committal gesture. “Maybe.”

  Leera nodded at the throng of soldiers. “Can you control the rest of them too? Like you can the captain?”

  “Sure I can, I’m brilliant.”

  “Leland, take this very seriously.”

  “Just watch.” The captain stood motionless as every other soldier began a ridiculous hip-shaking dance. The soldiers moved in a synchronous fashion, hands flailing. It really did look like a ten-year-old was dancing, except multiplied thirty-fold, and each ten-year-old was dressed to look like a menacing undead soldier.

  “Think we just found tomorrow’s entertainment,” Leera said, hiding a grin behind her hand.

  Captain Leland raised a gloved finger. “And watch this—” Half the soldiers did an opposite-hip-wiggle while the other half continued on. “And this—” A quarter added in hands.

  Bridget was frowning and shaking her head. “Leland—”

  “Wait, it gets better!” Suddenly the soldiers seemed to flex all as one. Each drew their weapon. Those that had shields retrieved them from their backs. The soldiers now swayed unevenly and individually.

  “Takes a lot more concentration, but I can make them kind of be on their own and stuff, except it gets tiring because I ain’t practiced enough doing it yet—” The captain abruptly gasped before the real Leland collapsed.