Darkblade Guardian

by Andy Peloquin

  “We won’t let him,” the Hunter said, his voice firm. “But if we get ourselves killed fighting through the Blood Sentinels, the Abiarazi wins and Jaia dies.”

  His words seemed to strike home. The fury blazing in her eyes didn’t abate, but at least she no longer tried to push past him.

  “Listen,” the Hunter continued, “according to Garnos, the Sage had a hundred and twenty Blood Sentinels waiting for him in Enarium. We killed three on the streets and took down another ten or fifteen when we attacked him. How many do you think fell in the battle with the prisoners before the Sage sealed the Illumina?”

  The question seemed to penetrate her rage-driven recklessness. “Forty, maybe fifty. The Elivasti regulars took the worst of it, but when I pushed through the ranks, I could see the humans were about to shatter the lines.”

  “That’s nearly sixty Blood Sentinels we no longer need to worry about. With the ones we’ve taken down here and below, we’re facing less than fifty more before we reach the Sage.”

  “Good.” Taiana’s eyes flashed again, and she tightened her grip on the Scorchslayer. “That won’t be enough to—”

  “If there are ten on every landing and four between each level all the way to the top of the Illumina,” the Hunter cut her off, “that means there are far more than fifty. The tower is easily fifteen stories high.”

  “So what?” Taiana snapped. “There are hundreds of the purple-eyed bastards for us to kill. More to feed Kharna with!”

  The Hunter didn’t care how many men stood between them and the Sage—he would bring down as many as it took to stop the demon from letting loose the power of Enarium. But he needed Taiana to fight with a level head. In these close quarters, facing overwhelming odds, rage would get her killed. Get them both killed.

  “So either there are more than fifty,” he continued, “or the Sage has to spread them out to hold off any attackers. He’s smart enough to expect us to come for him, so he’s going to make sure his Blood Sentinels are stationed in the places where they’ve the best chance of bringing us down.”

  Relief surged within him as the fire in her eyes dimmed. He was getting through to her. The calculating, intelligent commander had returned, though he had no doubt the furious mother searching for her child simmered just beneath the surface.

  “They’ll be ready for us,” Taiana said, her expression pensive.

  “We got lucky with these three groups, but we can’t trust our luck to hold.” The Hunter hefted Soulhunger. “We need to fight smart to get through them.”

  Taiana’s eyes searched his. “What do you suggest?”

  “I’ll take the lead, use Soulhunger and a spikestaff to bring them down. You come behind, and keep that Scorchslayer ready to take down anyone who gets too close.”

  “Why do you lead?” Taiana snapped.

  “Because I have Thanal Eth’ Athaur,” the Hunter replied without hesitation. “If I get wounded, I can heal fast enough to keep fighting. “ He shot her a wry grin. “Besides, you’re the better shot with those Scorchslayers than I am.”

  Taiana looked like she wanted to argue, but seemed to think better of it. She swallowed whatever angry retort she was about to unleash and nodded. “So be it.”

  “Good.” Sheathing Soulhunger, the Hunter bent and retrieved two spikestaffs from the dead Blood Sentinels. He couldn’t fight two-handed and wield Soulhunger, but in these close quarters the longer staves would put him at a disadvantage. He snapped the ash shafts of the spikestaffs over his knee, then retrieved the halves. Though they’d prove about as effective as a spiked club, they’d serve him well enough.

  He tucked three of the snapped halves in his belt, passed the fourth to his right hand, and drew Soulhunger in his left. Though he found himself wishing for his long sword—still back in the room he’d shared with Taiana—he’d make do with what he had.

  He turned to Taiana. “Watch my back.”

  She nodded. “Always.”

  The Hunter went first, running up the stairs at a fast enough pace to climb the levels quickly yet not simply charging blindly around the winding staircase. As he ran, he listened for any sounds of enemies awaiting him ahead.

  His shoulders tightened as he heard the low hum of a Scorchslayer powering up on the second level above and ahead of him. Instead of rushing up the staircase and charging the Blood Sentinels that would be waiting, he threw himself into a low dive. Three lightning bolts crackled where his head and chest would have been and struck the wall, where they were absorbed into the transparent gemstone. He rolled to his feet and whipped his right hand forward, releasing the spiked end of the snapped staff.

  Even as it left his hand, he knew the cast was poor. The weapon whirled once in the air and the snapped shaft cracked against a Blood Sentinel’s forehead. Though the blow sent the man reeling backward, it had been meant to kill. The Hunter tensed in expectation of more lightning bolts.

  Yet instead of facing the ten Blood Sentinels he’d expected, only four stood between him and the next staircase. Taiana’s lightning bolt caught one in the head and sent blood and bone spraying across his blue-armored companions. The two men cried out and swiped at their eyes to clear away the gore. The Hunter crossed the distance in three steps and drove Soulhunger through blue armor, chest, ribs, and into a beating heart. The man shrieked in terror and agony as crimson light flooded the landing.

  The Hunter moved before the dying Elivasti fell. His right hand reached back to draw another halved spikestaff, and he brought the weapon whipping around to smash into the bald head of a second Elivasti. The man collapsed in a boneless heap beside the headless corpse Taiana had brought down.

  The loud humming echoed in the landing once more, accompanied by bright blue light. The Hunter looked up to see a Scorchslayer pointed directly at him. Only his inhuman reflexes saved him from losing a cheek, jaw, and ear as he threw himself to his right. Pain seared along the side of the Hunter’s face as the lightning bolt sizzled past. Taiana’s answering bolt tore the man’s legs to pieces a moment later. The Blood Sentinel collapsed, and the Hunter pulled Soulhunger free of the dead Elivasti’s chest to finish off the fallen man.

  “Drayvin!” Taiana darted toward him, worry flashing in her eyes. “How bad is it?”

  The Hunter ran a hand along the left side of his face and felt flesh gone numb from the searing heat of the lightning bolt. “Not too bad.” His mouth struggled to form the words and his cheek felt stiff. “I’ll heal.” Even as he said it, he willed his body to restore the damaged flesh. He had enough energy to spare—Soulhunger would sustain him just as it fed Kharna.

  He tried to ignore the pain as he strode toward the only door visible and pressed Soulhunger to the gemstone lock. The door slid open to reveal a pair of Chambers tethered to the blue-glowing pillar. Taiana pushed past him and strode into the room. After a moment of hesitant study, she turned to him with a slow shake of her head.

  “This…isn’t it.”

  The Hunter ground his teeth. “We’ll find her.” The words rang hollow, but he had to keep hoping. If he stopped believing Jaia still lived, he would crumble beneath the sorrow. Right now, he needed to be strong to put an end to the Sage.

  With Taiana at his back, he stalked up the stairs, Soulhunger and halved spikestaffs at the ready. When his keen ears warned him of enemies ahead, he paused only long enough to plan his attack. The four Elivasti died in seconds beneath the Hunter’s furious onslaught. At the next landing, again only four blue-armored figures faced him. They, too, fell before they could fire their Scorchslayers twice.

  The higher they climbed, the hotter the fires of the Hunter’s rage burned. The Elivasti had no scent, no smells to drown out the familiar fetid odor of rot and decay that marked the Sage as Abiarazi. Entwined with that scent was Hailen’s clean, innocent smell—like a grassy meadow after fresh rain. The two smells grew stronger with every step upward.

  At every level, they spared a minute for Taiana to check the rooms. She stepped over b
lue-armored corpses and splashed through puddles of blood to stare through the open doors, then turn to the Hunter with a sorrowful expression. Every new door brought a fresh hope surging in the Hunter’s chest, only to have it dashed a moment later.

  By the time they reached the fifteenth floor, the Hunter felt ready to give up. He couldn’t endure the heartbreak any longer. He couldn’t bear to feel the sorrow settle like a boulder in his gut, to see the grief twisting Taiana’s face. His wife’s grief grew as her memories failed her again and again.

  His own heart threatened to shatter. He had given up hope of seeing Jaia alive when the Keeps flared to life, only to discover that his daughter hadn’t been imprisoned within the Keeps, but here in the Illumina. Yet every empty Chamber drove a dagger of sorrow deeper into his gut. He had to be strong for Taiana, but he didn’t how much more he could endure.

  This is the last one. A weight settled onto his shoulders as he pressed Soulhunger to the locking mechanism and the door slid open. The last time I will face the suffering.

  He could open the rest of the doors and check the Chambers after they had dealt with the Sage—after he had time to recover from the emotional turbulence.

  “Drayvin!” Taiana’s cry stopped his heart. Joy mingled with relief in her voice. “I remember this place.”

  Chapter Forty-Two

  The Hunter dashed into the room beside her. “You do?”

  She turned to him, tears streaming. “This is the place where the Warmaster ripped her from my arms, carried our daughter to that Chamber of Sus…”

  Her words trailed off, and horror writhed through the Hunter’s gut as he followed her pointing finger. The Chamber of Sustenance she indicated was open.

  “No!” Taiana leapt across the room in a single bound. She fumbled at the coiled tubes, desperation burning in her eyes. “No, no, no!”

  The Hunter watched, horrified, as his wife frantically pawed at the Chamber. Her voice had taken on an insane, wild edge, and a tremor ran through her body. “No, no, no, no,” she muttered, shaking her head over and over.

  Horror writhed in the Hunter’s gut, and he felt the same sorrowful delirium threaten to overwhelm him. He’d come so far, endured so much, only to find the Chamber empty, his daughter gone.

  Wait! Realization dawned on the Hunter, and the truth flooded his body with warmth. She’s gone!

  “Taiana.” The Hunter sucked in a breath, and his voice rose in a shout as he leapt across the room to seize his wife’s arm. “Taiana!”

  She whirled on him, her eyes blazing. “Where is she, Drayvin?” she screamed. “Where is my child?” Her fingers curled into claws, and madness flashed in her gaze.

  “Taiana!” The Hunter shook the woman hard. “No, you don’t understand. She’s—”

  “My baby girl.” Taiana slumped, grabbing on to the Hunter’s armor for support. “My poor, poor baby girl. What have they done to you?” She sobbed into the Hunter’s chest.

  “Taiana, don’t you see?” The Hunter lifted his wife to her feet and cupped her face in his hands, laughter bubbling from his throat. “Don’t you get it? She’s alive!”

  It took a moment for the Hunter’s words to penetrate the muddle of emotions, but after a second Taiana’s tear-rimmed eyes went wide. “A-Alive?”

  “Yes!” The Hunter pointed to the Chamber of Sustenance, a broad smile on his face. “Look at it. It’s the only open one we’ve found in the entire city of Enarium. There’s only one thing it could mean.”

  “A-Alive.” The sorrow drained from her voice, replaced by understanding. “Sh-She’s alive!” Her spine went rigid as she pushed off the Hunter and turned to examine the Chamber. “But how? How is this possible?”

  “I don’t know,” the Hunter said, “but it’s the only explanation I can think of.” He came to stand beside her and stared down at the empty white stone base. “If this is the one where the Warmaster placed her—”

  Taiana nodded. “I’m certain of it!” Her fingers closed around the lip of the cradle with such force her knuckles went white. “This is the room. This is the Chamber of Sustenance.”

  “Then she got out. Somehow, sometime. She’s alive!” The Hunter he wanted it to be the truth—more than anything else, he wanted to find his child alive—but even if it wasn’t, it was what Taiana needed at that moment.

  “But that’s…impossible.” Her brow furrowed in disbelief. “The Chamber had to be opened from without.”

  “You said Kharna woke you from sleep,” the Hunter said. “How did you get out of your Chamber?”

  “I fought my way out.” Taiana shuddered as if at a painful memory. “I cut my hands nearly to ribbons, but I pounded at the gemstone lid until I broke it enough to get through.”

  The Hunter scanned the underside of the open lid. No blood, no claw marks. “So maybe someone opened the Chamber and let her out.”

  “Who?” Taiana whirled on him. “Who would do that?”

  The Hunter shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t know when it happened, either. It could have been yesterday or a thousand years ago.” He gripped her hand in hers. “But our child is alive, Taiana. She didn’t die in this Chamber like so many humans and Bucelarii before her. She got out.”

  “She got out,” Taiana repeated in a whisper. “She got out.”

  “Somewhere, out there in the great wide world of Einan, we have a daughter.” Laughter bubbled from the Hunter’s throat as he entwined his fingers with hers. “A beautiful daughter, with her mother’s smile…”

  “And her father’s eyes.” Taiana smiled, an expression of pure joy. “We have to find her, Drayvin.”

  “We will.” The Hunter whispered and squeezed her hands. “We’ll find her even if we have to search every corner of Einan. But first, we have to stop the Sage.”

  Mention of the Sage seemed to snap Taiana back to reality. She flinched, almost as if she’d forgotten their true purpose for being here.

  “Kharna is counting on us,” the Hunter told her. “All of Einan dies if he unleashes the power of Enarium.”

  Her expression grew hard as the stone beneath their feet. “Then let’s make sure that doesn’t happen.”

  Hand still gripping hers, the Hunter turned and strode from the room. It took all his effort to focus on the Sage when he wanted nothing more than to bask in the knowledge that Jaia still lived. She hadn’t died when the Sage activated the Keeps. Somewhere, he had a daughter.

  But Hailen was counting on him. Hailen, the boy that had become like a son to him. The innocent child, trusting to his own detriment, seeming incapable of understanding the world could mean him harm. If the Hunter didn’t save him, Hailen would suffer at the Sage’s hands. The demon would use him until he no longer served a purpose then discard him like refuse.

  His daughter still lived, but the boy needed him.

  I’m coming for you, Hailen.

  Everything ended here, now. The Sage’s shadowy reign of Einan, his machinations to free Kharna and destroy the world. The threat of the Devourer of Worlds, if he could find a way. He’d found his past—with Taiana, with the hope of one day seeing Jaia—now it was time to ensure he had a future.

  He released Taiana’s hand and drew Soulhunger. “It’s time to finish this.”

  She nodded, tightened her grip on the Scorchslayer, and dipped her fingers into the blood of a fallen Elivasti. “Together.”

  With his wife at his heels, the Hunter charged up the staircase.

  He crashed through the next group of Elivasti like a tornado, Soulhunger and his halved spikestaff carving destruction through their ranks. The discovery that his daughter still lived had filled him with renewed determination, and nothing could stop him. The next four Blood Sentinels died in seconds, and then he was racing up the stairs toward the next floor.

  Though he had no idea how high the Illumina went—the uppermost levels were above the clouds—he forced himself not to think about how much farther he had left to climb. His eyes were drawn toward th
e seething red pillar to the north. Already, the world had begun to take on a reddish hue as the edges of the cloud reached the fiery sun. The Withering would occur within a matter of minutes.

  “We have to hurry!” the Hunter shouted, and poured more speed into his steps. He leapt up the stairs two and three at a time, barely slowing as he reached the landing and plowed through the Blood Sentinels holding the floor. He bludgeoned one man to death with a single vicious blow to the forehead, drove Soulhunger into a second’s open mouth, and kicked the third’s knee hard enough to shatter bone. Taiana’s bolt punched into the fourth Elivasti’s chest, hurling him backward to clatter against the wall. The Hunter drove the spiked end of his spikestaff into the man’s eye until it struck the back of his skull, ripped it free, and raced onward.

  All around him, the Illumina began to hum louder. The ground seemed to tremble beneath his feet with such force that he feared he would lose his balance. He couldn’t afford to slow, yet the vibrations coursing through the spire made fast progress difficult. He had to cling to the wall to keep his feet as he pushed upward.

  He found the next group of Blood Sentinels staggering and trying to remain upright as the floor shook beneath them. The Hunter cut them down with quick, efficient strokes of Soulhunger’s blade before they could so much as raise their Scorchslayers or put up a fight.

  Once again, his eyes went to the north, where the crimson pillar reached thick fingers into the sky. All but a fraction of the sun was covered by the cloud. Red light filled the sky, bathing the mountains a deep crimson.

  The Hunter watched in horror as the red light drew closer to the blue-glowing Keeps. The moment the two met, the radiance emanating from the Keeps changed from a brilliant sapphire to a deep violet—the same color as the Elivasti’s eyes.

  As the cloud of red engulfed the sun completely, the glow of the Keeps changed one by one. From north to south, the light changed to the same purple.

  The Withering had come. The Blood Sun was upon them.