Of Song and Shadow

by Phillip Drayer Duncan

  The Revenant took a few steps toward Eva. My instinct was to protect her, but I stayed my hand and refrained from flying off at the mouth. Something told me this prick could end me with a snap of his fingers, but I didn’t think he intended to harm Eva.

  And I still didn’t know what he wanted with her.

  I hoped he might give me some kind of hint. Then all I had to do was try to not to get killed, then figure out a way to get her out safely, then figure out how to get everyone else out safely. It wasn’t much of a plan.

  Eva shrank away as he approached, pushing her back against the wall and dropping back to the floor. Anything to try to put some distance between herself and the creature in front of her.

  “You have nothing to fear from me,” he said, sounding almost kind. “I have come to help you.”

  Eva didn’t reply.

  “Why haven’t you taken my gift?” he asked.

  She looked like she was about to say something but didn’t. Tears streamed down her cheeks and her whole frame trembled. Yet she met his gaze and didn’t back down. Damn, I admired her defiance.

  “You’ve always been a fiery one,” he said, chuckling. “But you wouldn’t know that, would you? You don’t even know who you are.”

  She finally looked away.

  “Don’t you want to know?” he asked. “That’s what I offer you. The truth.”

  There was a long pause where Eva stared at the wall, the Revenant stared at her, and everyone in the cave stared at the Revenant. It was a bit awkward, really.

  Finally, Nicolo broke the silence. “It seems she cares for the Blade Mage. The younger one. I intend to leverage that to our advantage.”

  The Revenant’s stare shifted to Nicolo for a few seconds, and despite the fact his entire face was covered, I felt like he was wearing a look of disgust.

  Then his gaze fell on me and I found myself staring into those red eyes.

  The first thing I realized was that my sword wasn’t in my hand. I heard the clank as it hit the cave floor.

  The next thing that occurred to me was that I couldn’t breathe. Something was squeezing my throat.

  And I didn’t feel the ground beneath my feet.

  Then it occurred to me that those red eyes seemed a lot closer.

  A moment or so later, I realized the Revenant was holding me by the throat, his dark gauntlet squeezing off my air pipe. I’d never even seen him move. He’d covered the distance between us and picked me up in the time it took me to blink.

  “Blade Mage,” he said, almost laughing. It was like a curse coming out of his mouth. “An Arcane Guardian. What is it you protect, Wyatt Draven?”

  He turned back toward Eva, flinging my body around effortlessly. “You care for this man? This pathetic sack of flesh?”

  Eva stared at me, the tears still streaming. I tried to force a look of confidence for her sake, but it’s hard to do when your head looks like a blue lollipop.

  “Pathetic,” he said again, then tossed me aside like a piece of trash.

  I hit the ground rolling and tried to rise back to my feet. Unfortunately, there still wasn’t enough oxygen in my brain and I only managed to fall over again.

  Axel was to me in a second, standing over me with both drumsticks raised. Byron was there a moment later, his scimitar at the ready. Yet the Revenant seemed to have lost interest in me. His focus was on Nicolo once again.

  “The shadows are returning,” he said. “He’ll be here in person soon. I’ll go and hold him off for as long as I can, but once he’s here, he’ll take her. You won’t be able to stop him.”

  “I understand, my lord,” Nicolo said. “I won’t fail you.”

  The Revenant laughed. It was a harsh grating sound. “If you do, see to it that the shadows consume you. For if you lose her and somehow live, you’ll wish you were dead. Do you hear me, Nicolo?”

  “I won’t fail,” he repeated. “I know how important this is to you.”

  “We’ll see,” the Revenant replied.

  And then he was gone.

  Chapter 22

  As soon as his boss was gone, rage tore across Nicolo’s face.

  “The time for games is over,” he said as he glared at Eva. “You will take the coin as my master has commanded. You will take his gift and you will do it now!”

  Eva shook her head.

  “You stupid girl,” he spat. “Don’t you understand? The shadows will consume us all if you don’t do this. The time for hesitation is over.”

  “Leave her alone,” I said, slowly rising to my feet.

  He didn’t even acknowledge me. Instead, he marched toward the table where the coin lay. Reaching for it, he screamed, “You will take this fucking coin, if I have to—”

  He never finished his threat.

  As soon as his fingers touched the coin, there was an explosion. Or rather, he seemed to explode. There was a bright flash, followed by a boom, and then his body flew from the table. He hit the ground some several feet away.

  I glanced toward the smoking coin and then back to where he lay on the ground and blinked a few times, trying to ensure my eyes hadn’t deceived me.

  Nicolo’s whole upper half was charred black and his left arm was gone. Just gone. The stump where it should’ve been had been cauterized by the blast and his missing arm was nowhere to be found. It had just disintegrated.

  I glanced at the others to make sure they’d seen the same thing I had. When it appeared everyone else was equally as stunned, I asked, “What the hell just happened?”

  “Uh,” Axel said, raising his hand. “I think I might’ve done that.”

  I raised an eyebrow at him.

  “Pretty sure, actually,” he said, rubbing his chin. “I’d really like to say I planned it that way, but um, I didn’t know that would happen.”

  I glanced down at Nicolo again, who was twitching and groaning. His own people held back, also confused about what had just occurred.

  I turned back to Axel. “What did you do?”

  He reached into his pocket and produced a coin, which he then tossed to me. It was black and had strange symbols on it that were foreign to me. “What is this?”

  “That’s his master’s coin,” Axel said.

  Then it all made sense. While the rest of us had been engaged in battle, Axel had snuck back to the table and stole the coin. But what had he replaced it with?

  I walked over to the table and glanced down at the coin. On it was the image of an unfinished heart. It was my coin. The one Paeter had given to me, that I, in turn, had given to Axel in a bout of self-pity. I scooped it off the table and slipped it into my pocket.

  I turned and walked back to Nicolo. He was looking back at me with one good eye. The other was sealed shut and blackened to a crisp, along with that whole side of his face.

  “I believe this is yours,” I said, tossing the Revenant’s coin on his chest. It bounced once, landed on his abdomen, and slid down his side.

  Slowly, he turned and reached for his master’s token with his remaining hand. When he recovered it, he looked back up to see that I held the business end of Drynwyn inches from his face. His eye slid from the blade to me.

  “Can you still fight?” I asked.

  No sooner had I spoken the words than a shriek sounded from the other end of the cavern.

  Nicolo nodded.

  “Then get up,” I said, withdrawing my sword. “The shadows are coming.”

  I turned from him then and met Byron’s gaze. The old Blade Mage gave me an approving nod then turned to his troops. He pointed his sawed-off toward one side of the cavern and then to the other. “Form a line from here to here. Mage, warrior, mage, warrior.”

  Our new fighting line would be further back, leaving our injured and Eva a shorter distance behind us, but I couldn’t argue with Byron’s decision. He’d chosen the two tightest points. We still wouldn’t have enough people to hold it.

  “Hey, you, undead shit brains,” Byron said, motioning toward Nicolo’s
men. “That includes you. Get your asses over here! Now!”

  Nicolo’s remaining warriors and mages looked from Byron to Nicolo, unsure what to do.

  Rising slowly to his feet, Nicolo nodded at his minions. “You heard him. Form up!”

  The undead did as they were told, joining the human line and splitting up as Byron had commanded.

  I joined the fighting line as well, choosing a spot toward the center, a few paces from Byron.

  Glancing back, I saw Nicolo approach Eva. He stared at for a few seconds then tossed the Revenant’s coin down at her feet. “Take it, or we all die.”

  Then he turned and joined the rest of us on the fighting line.

  The shadows were coming.

  A great shriek sounded from the tunnel, unlike the others before it. This one was singular, loud, and bestial. I didn’t know what was approaching, but I suspected it would be as Nicolo had suggested. Each subsequent attack would be worse than the last. And this time we had less people to defend the line.

  Axel stood a few people down from me. When he noticed I was looking his direction he gave me a smirk and a little wave.

  Further down were Paeter and Mary Beth. Both looked wary but held their heads high. I hated myself for having dragged them into this mess, but I was damned glad for their company. Paeter still had his massive spear, and Mary Beth still had her staff and bow, though it appeared she was down to her last arrow.

  I wasn’t sure what the hell we were going to do, but I knew we couldn’t hold them for as long this round. This was it. There was nothing left to do but fight until we were all dead to the last of us. As terrifying as the thought should’ve been, I felt a sort of calm wash over me. The stress of it was gone.

  I was the Blade Mage, dammit. The Lantern Bearer. That was the one of the nicknames my Cabal used for the Blade Mage. I was to be the light in the darkness. Well, the darkness was on its way, and I was ready.

  I’d shove my lantern right up the Valravn’s ass.

  Chapter 23

  This time the shadows didn’t form before they entered the cavern. Instead, a river of blackness poured in. An oil spill crawled toward us like the living, breathing, wicked thing it was. As it approached the center of the room, I understood why.

  The flood rose up above our heads, nearly reaching to the ceiling. A head began to take shape. The center of the black mass writhed and began to form a giant body. Wings spread half the distance of the cavern as the shadow dragon came into existence.

  “Well, would you look at that?” Axel said, laughing so we all could hear. “We’re so fucked!”

  I couldn’t argue with the sentiment.

  Around the great being, smaller creatures took shape and still more poured from the back of the cave and attacked our defensive line. It was the dragon who had my attention, though.

  It raised its great head and let out a scream that was half shriek and half roar. The whole cave shook and a few of our defenders lost their footing. I’m proud to say I wasn’t one of them, but only because the trooper beside me stumbled into me as I began to fall.

  The shadow dragon struck out at Byron first. Its head moved as fast as a snake, but the other Blade Mage was ready and lashed out with his scimitar. The head zipped back with as much speed as it had attacked with, narrowly missing the magical blade.

  So, it’s a bit smarter than the others, I thought. It knew our blades were dangerous. It would try to avoid our direct strikes. That wasn’t the most pleasant of thoughts.

  While it still had its eyes on Byron, Nicolo broke from the line and charged. Without taking its eyes off Byron, the Shadow Dragon raised a single foot and punted Nicolo across the room.

  His body smashed into one of his own mages, as well as one of Byron’s guys, knocking them both down.

  The rest of our allies were focused on the horde rushing them, but if we didn’t take down the dragon it would be game over pretty quick. It was probably my turn to do something, but I wasn’t sure what. Compared to Byron and Nicolo, I was about as badass as a plush penguin doll. Fortunately, the dragon decided for me.

  The shadow creature’s massive white eyes turned toward me. I felt it assessing me. Studying me, trying to determine just how to take me out. Up until this point, I hadn’t credited the shadow creatures with much intelligence. I didn’t know if they had their own sentient thoughts, or if they were programmed like robots, or if the Valravn was somehow in the driver’s seat. Whatever the case, it was clear that this dragon was a bit smarter than the others. It was also clear that it wanted to eat me.

  Just before it tried to make its move, a black arrow flew overhead and pierced one of its white eyes. Mary Beth to the rescue. It might’ve been her last arrow, but what better use would she find than firing it into the eye of the dragon?

  The great beast jerked its head up, shrieking.

  So, it could feel pain.

  Good to know.

  The closer they were to shadow, the more light hurt them. Perhaps their intelligence worked the same way. Maybe the more intelligence they had, the more pain they could feel. It was an interesting thought, but not one I had a lot of time to invest in.

  With its head toward the ceiling, its massive chest was open to me. I didn’t waste the opportunity and darted forward. Apparently, my magical sword agreed with the idea because it began to grow as I ran. I’d seen Drynwyn appear as a big bastard sword before, but this was something different. The blade extended an extra arm’s length and widened to at least a foot. One second, I was holding a katana per usual, and the next second I was holding a ridiculous buster sword that looked like something straight out of Final Fantasy.

  I swung wide, hacking a swath of scales and muscle as Drynwyn sank through the black flesh and came out the other side. As soon as I struck, I turned and sprinted back to the defensive line. Drynwyn returned to its usual katana form.

  Back to the relative safety of my allies, I risked a glance back to see that the dragon had stumbled back from my blow and was shrieking in misery as globs of black fluid poured from the laceration.

  Score one for the good guys.

  Then a small monkey-like creature bounded forward and jumped onto the dragon’s front foot. It scrabbled up the creature’s knee, then leapt to its injured chest. The shadow monkey turned and looked directly at me. When our eyes met, it let out a single shriek, then its body began to meld with the dragon’s. A moment later, the damage I’d dealt was gone, and the dragon was whole again.

  Fuck.

  I glanced toward Byron, curious to see if he’d seen what I’d just seen. The look on his face told me he had. Not only were we up against a friggin’ dragon, but one who could repair itself. Bloody hell.

  Axel summoned a barrage of fireworks and pelted them directly into the side of the dragon’s head. It didn’t even blink.

  “Yup,” Axel shouted at me while cackling like a psycho. “We’re totally fucked!”

  The dragon moved toward me again, raising its head as though it intended to strike. I held Drynwyn out in front of me, keeping the tip of my blade between me and its maw. My sword changed again, extending the blade and straightening into a long claymore. If the dragon tried to strike, it would impale its head on my blade, which was comforting, since I was fairly confident it couldn’t spit fire at us. If it could’ve, it would’ve by now.

  The dragon took a step forward and moved like it intended to bite me. I braced myself, ready to turn the big bastard’s head into a shish kabob. At the last possible second, its head shot to the side and snatched the undead warrior beside me instead. One second, the undead warrior was standing beside me with a sword in each hand, and the next second he was just gone.

  There was a chomping sound as the undead man’s bones crunched in the dragon’s mouth. Its neck bulged as it swallowed the warrior.

  Nicolo charged in again.

  I had to give it to the guy. Despite having his arm disintegrated, half his body blackened to a crisp, and then getting punted across the
room by a dragon, he was still moving like he hadn’t sustained a single injury. I didn’t know what the hell he was, but I was pretty sure I didn’t actually want to have to fight him.

  The dragon whipped its head toward the white-haired man, but Nicolo was too quick and rolled clear as it snapped its massive jaws at him.

  Focused on Nicolo, the dragon wasn’t paying attention to Byron, who charged in and slashed his scimitar across its front foot, ripping clear a baby-sized chunk of flesh.

  He might’ve gotten another strike in, but a crab that looked disturbingly like a Volkswagen Beetle took a snap at him with one of its pinchers. Byron raised his sawed-off and blasted one of the pinchers off. The other pincher was cut clear with his sword.

  I lost sight of Byron then as I charged the dragon again myself. It whipped its head around at me and I halted, waving my sword at it with as much menace as I could muster.

  Its focus back on me, Nicolo transformed back into the razorback-wolf and pounced. Even in his other form, Nicolo was still missing an arm, but his back legs were intact and incredibly powerful. With a single bound, he leaped on the dragon’s neck and latched on with his clawed arm and feet. His own impressive jaws clamped down on the shadow creature’s neck and he held on as it tried to shake him free.

  I charged in then, thinking I might get another cheap shot. However, we’d already used this trick on the dragon and it was learning. Despite having Nicolo attached to his neck, the dragon spun on me anyway.

  I dropped into a slide as the giant jaws snapped at me, raising my sword over my head. I slid forward, Drnywyn cutting through the dragon’s lip and almost into its neck before it jerked its head back again.

  Byron appeared beside me and fired both barrels of his shotgun directly into the creature’s eye, then slammed his scimitar through its snout, hacking away another chunk of flesh.

  Raising its front foot, it tried to kick Byron, but blinded on that side, it missed and kicked a shadow bear who was rushing in to meld with it. The bear went end over end and disappeared among its fellows.