The Shadow Age (The Age of Dawn Book 7)

by Everet Martins

  Silence gripped the air, Senka nodding. “Your deaths won’t be enough to deliver justice to all the lives you’ve ruined. But perhaps for you and your survivors, redemption can be found.”

  “No,” Crugen said, clearing his throat. “We are beyond redemption.” One of his ears twitched, whiskers fluttering on his feline lips. “We will be the first wave to crash against the Shadow.” A broad grin crawled up his lips, carnivorous teeth pinked with blood.

  “Good. That’s good.” Senka sniffed, voice cracking and betraying her anger. Nyset released her hold on her and gave her a nod of warning. Senka nodded back in understanding.

  “Can’t have you making a mess on my ramparts.” Nyset sent a bluish-white tendril of the Phoenix to Crugen’s face. He let out a gasp. His wound briefly glowed before the skin started to self-stitch. Crugen let out a long sigh, then raised his head to the horizon. “She comes!” he screamed, pointing into the distance.

  “What?” Nyset’s heart fluttered in her throat, eyes searching for what his keen eyes saw. She saw it then. A razor-thin band of black on the horizon where the winding eastern road fanned out from the Plains of Dressna. The line seemed to be growing thicker. She instinctively seized the Dragon, tempering its burgeoning rage with the cool ocean of the Phoenix.

  King Ezra staggered over to the edge of the ramparts, hands gripping a pair of spikes. “Oh.” He breathed. “Oh, no.”

  They all drew up to the edge, staring out in bewilderment. Time melted. It felt to Nyset that this moment could last forever. Above the black line was a mass of roiling gray clouds. It wasn’t there before, she absently noted. The clouds parted for a moment, revealing pillars of light that cut down to reveal amethyst spots among the mass of dark shapes. “Is that…” Nyset’s voice trailed off, blood thrumming in her head, trying to comprehend the spectacle.

  “Shadow snakes,” Senka answered. “Those are Shadow snakes.” She drew a dagger with a rasp in a white-knuckled grip.

  “Shit,” Isa hissed. He placed his hand over Senka’s free hand and gave it a squeeze.

  “Death comes, swift and severe,” Crugen murmured, then his language switched to Tigerian, maybe cursing by the sound of it. A wolfish growl sang from Claw’s mouth, fingernails clawing at the stonework. The Black Guards watched with stoic poise, eyes narrowed at the sight.

  “Don’t forget the plan, everything we discussed should this day arrive.” Nyset grimaced. “Remember your place in this.”

  “I… I’ll sound the alarm.” Grimbald walked backward, turned, and ran along the ramparts, the clink of his armor fading.

  “I’m going to prepare the Eaters for combat,” Juzo said, jerking his hand through his hair and turning into a sprint. Nyset heard him traversing the stairs into the courtyard in a series of mighty leaps.

  “Did you ever think you’d see this day again, Arch Wizard?” King Ezra leaned back to look her up and down with a wizened grimace. “I hardly believed my eyes when I first saw it. I do hope you’re more cunning than I.”

  “Get to my spire,” she barked. “You’ll be safe there.”

  “Right.” The king nodded, shuffling away in a withered posture.

  She wove the spell she hoped to never have to use. She pointed at the sky with an index finger, and a broad cone of Dragon fire scorched fifty feet across the air, materializing into a flaming symbol of an enormous Dragon and Phoenix intertwining. Her symbol would hang in the air for the next ten minutes. It was a warning that all the denizens of New Breden were trained to know well.

  “What is that?” the king asked with a stammer.

  “The sign for arms. The sign that the Tower is under attack,” she said through gritted teeth.

  EIGHTEEN

  Wretched Arrows

  “Wizards are born with efficacious weapons. Blades work well enough, but it’s hard to get the blood out of robes.” - The Diaries of Nyset Camfield

  The first wave seemed to last days, but it couldn’t have been more than thirty minutes. The wails of agony and stink of roasting flesh were new additions to Nyset’s nightmares. She tried to ignore the smell, but it only magnified as it blended with the foul tang of spilled bladders and soiled underclothes. Battle was always glorious in the stories, the dark parts polished away, leaving a mirrored surface.

  The earth quaked when the great mass of Shadow snakes, disfigured beasts, and shifting shadows drew near to a mile away. Some were part Death Spawn and others macabre renditions of men. There were lumbering creatures of disparate body parts, some part men, part Tigerian, part steel, and discarded debris.

  Destruction rained as Shadow snakes were hurled from the ground like spears, their bodies going rigid. They were aimless arrows. Some tore holes through rooftops and others crashed into the sides of houses in a splash of violet blood. Nyset wasn’t sure if they were suicidal or directed by the Shadow Princess. Those that struck true tore gaping holes through limb and torso in a horrific yet beautiful mingling of scarlet and violet blood. A few of them traversed vast distances and liquefied against the Tower’s walls. Some soared down around the bridge and faded into the mist of the falls.

  Nyset had joined the front line at the back of the trenches, dug where the road out of the Plains of Dressna met New Breden. Claw tried to dissuade her, but she couldn’t let them die without providing support. He left to take Gaidal to her spire as ordered, as much as it pained him to comply. Joining her in the trench was Isa and Senka, while everyone else appeared to be at their appropriate stations.

  Grimbald manned the ramparts with archers, swordsmen, and spearmen. Juzo and his Blood Eaters waited in lower rooms of the towers emplaced at the mouth of the bridge. They gibbered and squawked far too much like Death Spawn for her liking, eying her like she was their next meal.

  Waiting deep in the nearly empty streets of New Breden were Crugen’s Tigerian warriors. They were a fearsome bunch when mounted on their Tougere’s. Their fat tails impatiently whipped at the earth as if waiting for the order to charge. The riders wore burnished overlapping plate armor with smooth and beautifully ornamented edges. Nyset had noted the broad-faced short swords they all wore at their hips and saddles, seemingly designed to withstand the force of chopping through bones without breaking.

  Then the Shadow snakes changed. When they landed, they exploded in a hail of violet fire. The fire splashed like liquid and clung to those standing near the afflicted with a heavy sap quality. Nyset watched as some covered half of a man’s face, turning it into nothing in seconds. A trio of snakes were headed in their direction by her estimation, but were hastily turned to dust in a cone of her Dragon fire.

  The light dimmed. She felt as if she wasn’t here, watching the scene unfold like it was someone else’s story. She heard the sounds of the dying, but they didn’t reach her heart. The crackling flames and flesh called out from the hearth in someone else’s house.

  The depth of the trenches protected them from much of the shrapnel born of the explosions, but not from the plumes of dirt and unearthed boulders. An explosion ripped through the air at her side, throwing her onto her back and snapping the world back to life. She sprang up with Senka’s helping hand, gazing over at the nearby trench to a see man clutching a leg that had been crushed by a stone big enough to be used in a catapult. Dirt rained down her back and speckled in her once shimmering hair. Men and women winced from harsh bruises and pawed dirt from their eyes.

  A wiry wizard scrambled out of his trench, eyes glowing with the Phoenix, and stood much too tall. “No!” Nyset shouted and reached for him, but an airborne Shadow snake passed through his chest like he was made of paper. Bone shards and blood misted the air at his back. The Phoenix faded from his eyes.

  Nyset made to crawl over and heal him, but Senka’s hand was iron around her collar, dragging her back. “Let me go!” she snapped, but Senka spoke over her, “We need you alive!”

  “Can’t save ‘em all. Besides, there’s another wizard on him now,” Isa added. “Damn them. Too far for arch
ers. Not close enough for blades.” Nyset peered back to confirm the presence of the healer.

  Worse than the burning, bruising, and soiled eyes was the uncertainty that was brewing into abject fear. Men and women muttered curses and prayers alike to the Dragon and Phoenix. Fear became terror as the barrage continued, shrieks once stifled now openly calling out from the trenches.

  Everyone knew it was only a passing respite when a group of Shadow snakes landed directly into a neighboring trench. Limbs were thrown into the air among the dirt and gouts of flame. Burning halves of men thumped to the ground. The scene was terrible enough to send a band of apprentice Armsmen from a trench at the rear screaming and sprinting for the towers at the bridge. They cast off their weapons and stripped armor from their bodies as they ran in a mad fury.

  Nyset watched as others were tempted to follow their lead, exchanging pained glances as they waited for something they could fight. A bulky man rose up from the middle area of the trenches and was swiftly impaled by a Shadow snake. Another man followed after him and had his head sheared clean off, body slumping down in a spray of blood, his brethren screaming in horror. That was enough to keep the others in their trenches.

  When it looked like the assault would never end, Senka reached out and gripped her hand, startling her out of a strange reverie. Senka sat deep against the back wall with her knees drawn up to her chest, Isa beside her with one arm draped over her back. Her hood was pulled up, eyes narrowed as pebbles pelted them from a roaring explosion.

  “Mistress,” Senka mouthed. Senka’s hand trembled in hers. Or maybe it was her hand trembling in Senka’s. Isa met her eyes for a moment, his expression unreadable, then set his gaze to scanning the surface. His face was covered in soot, a cut weeping blood down his cheek.

  “What do we do?” Senka asked her, slightly shaking her head.

  “I don’t—” An explosion crescendoed behind her, hurling dismembered bodies from a trench. Nyset instinctively wove a dome of a Phoenix shield around them as a snake ricocheted from its surface, skittering across the pocked earth, and leaving a streak of violet fire in its path. Isa gave her an appreciative nod.

  A wall of silence fell over them as the roar of explosions dissipated. No Shadow snakes rained from the skies. Someone wretched. Wails started stabbing at her ears.

  “Never thought I’d see the day when snakes fell from the skies,” Isa said with a grim smile.

  Nyset could only swallow, shake her head, and bite her inner cheeks. She dared to stand, caution compelling her to summon a Phoenix shield at her front. She freed herself from Senka’s attempt at again restraining her movement.

  The surface was a wasteland of burning flesh, everything pitted and dotted with craters. She opened her hands, unaware of how hard she’d been clenching them until now. Dozens upon dozens of bodies flickered with tongues of violet fire and curls of black smoke. There were a few spots where the trenches had been widened to three times their initial width. A pair of trenches dug close together had become one. The front had borne the majority of the attack, a few survivors milling about in confusion. She saw rivulets of blood running from a man’s ears, helmet clutched in his hand. A harried general dragged the dazed man back into a trench, shrieking orders for everyone to get down.

  “We didn’t prepare for this,” she breathed. “I should’ve had more wizards here to shield them.”

  “You couldn’t have known she’d attack like this. Better for them to be in the upper reaches anyway,” Isa grunted.

  “Right.” She nodded. “Safer for them and a better vantage.” It was a reminder of why she and the council had organized the defenses.

  A pall of smoke drifted across her view, casting grim shadows over the ground. Then came a piercing wail that could only be born of unnatural creatures. Thankfully, a gust came to tear away the clouding smoke, revealing a roiling mass of Shadow snakes charging what remained of the lines.

  “Brace yourselves!” she screamed, her sword of fire flashing to life in her grip. “The enemy comes and seeks your vengeance!”

  “By the Dragon, so many,” Isa said through gritted teeth. Senka rose up, twirling her daggers, energetically shifting her stance from side to side. It seemed whatever cowering fear had been instilled in her before had vanished.

  They moved at a predictable speed, mouths snapping at the air in anticipation, amethyst eyes glimmering with a horrible brightness. Beyond that midnight line of rolling beasts, Nyset spotted her. The Shadow Princess stood still as a corpse with her wings draped over her body like a protective cloak. There were only dozens of humanoids, and she was so distinctively different from the abominations that she was impossible to miss. Could it be this easy to end it all?

  Nyset welcomed more of the Dragon’s rage, like inhaling a huge breath. Her eyes brightened, and a thin aura of flames flickered around her shape. Her robes flapped in a hot wind born of her power. “Die, bitch!” she screamed.

  The boiling clouds above the Shadow Princess yawned open with a lance of sunlight, drawing her gaze, wings spreading. A violet portal cut the air, and she leaped through as a dozen of Nyset’s lightning bolts ripped into the earth where the Shadow Princess once stood. The ground was torn asunder, throwing rocks and earth into an amber cloud. The Shadow snakes shuddered, momentarily halting in their charge. The other side of the portal appeared some fifty yards away from where she materialized at the flank of her armies, once again trampling onward.

  “Did the Arch Wizard kill it?” a nearby soldier shouted.

  “Doesn’t look it,” came a reply.

  “Snakes. By the Dragon, I hate snakes,” Senka growled.

  “Nice try,” Isa muttered.

  Nyset’s suspicions were confirmed by the snake’s reaction. “She controls them. If we kill her, maybe they’ll die.”

  “I don’t know. They seemed to act of their own accord in Tigeria,” Senka said.

  “I hope you’re wrong.” Nyset gripped both of the powers, the Dragon and Phoenix coalescing into a torrent that pleaded for murder, something to unleash their fury upon. “Archers!” she screamed, and men rose on her command with arrows drawn. “Loose!” A ragged volley hissed, and bowstrings snapped, almost every arrow finding a home in the violet mass.

  “Wizards! Light them up!” she roared. Armored women, Dragon wielders, appeared from the bottom of the trenches, filling the air with a score of fireballs. They slammed into the wall of snakes, throwing bodies in every direction but doing nothing to slow their progress. The ground had a slight downward slope that showed the true picture of their endless numbers.

  “They’re coming. Close, so close,” Senka hissed.

  It was time to act. She’d conserved her strength for long enough. Nyset gritted her teeth and dragged clawed hands up as if lifting a great weight. A pillar of flame erupted from the earth, spanning up to fifty feet and vaporizing a gaggle of snakes. The pillar widened into a wall of Dragon fire, spreading out to hem in the majority of the charging mass. They charged on unhindered, squealing as their brothers shoved them into her inferno. Cheers and whoops rang out from the defenders, many praising her name.

  “No…” she hissed as countless of their forms made it through her fire. It shouldn’t have been possible. They were burning and collapsing a few feet after her firewall, but they had indeed made it through the Dragon’s conflagration. Perhaps some were imbued with a protective spell. A pile of the burning dead was forming just beyond her wall of flame, the mound growing taller by the second.

  Sweat beaded on her brow and streamed down her temples at the exertion. Drawing on too much of the Dragon at once could hurt her. Then it started to burn through every cell while the Phoenix simultaneously worked to keep her body from turning into a blistered shell. Her veins felt as if they were carrying the very fire that burned her enemies, drawing a scream of agony from her throat. Her forearms trembled. The shaking carried onto the rest of her body. She had to let go. She could bear no more.

  “There’s too
many, like pissing into the fucking wind!” someone shouted.

  “Fight or die!” the man beside him screamed.

  Nyset let all the power she held go, collapsing under the weight of exhaustion. She fell backward, uncaring of where she’d land and found strong arms scooping under her armpits and gently lowering her. “You’re incredible,” Senka said into her ear. “Rest now.”

  “No,” she groaned, pushing herself back up. The colors of the world momentarily blurred out of focus. She reached for the edge of the trench for support, fingers closing around crumbling dirt. “There’s still much to be done. Now is not the time…” She sought the Dragon again, instilling her muscles with new vigor. She breathed deep on the acrid air, intentionally filling her nostrils with the stink of the dead. It steeled her resolve.

  Nyset hurled tens of fireballs at a time, tearing rents into the charging snakes pouring over the mound of growing corpses. They charged mindlessly onward through a rain of arrows and fire, crawling over their burning brothers. As they approached the outer trenches, spear men rose from the ground on the general’s command, skewering them by the hundreds. They weren’t enough. The worst part was she knew they wouldn’t nor could be.

  The first line of the bravest men and women were torn down like a scythe through wheat, the squirming mass filling into the trenches and boiling over. She could hear the roar of her own screams over the screams of the dying. Phoenix portals, both hers and others, winked opened and closed among the snakes, severing them into squelching halves. Those that made it through the center of their portals were deposited into spike pits built behind the ramparts. A snake whizzed overhead in an impressive leap from the foremost of the trenches. Isa sliced it up the belly with his sword as it passed over them, showering them in blood. Nyset blinked it from her eyes, burning like the juice of a lemon.