The Defender of the Light: Book 9 of The Sylvan Chronicles

by Wacht, Peter

  “Find a wife.”

  Gregory’s response left Sarelle speechless. Though she had made her intentions clear, she worried that Gregory would never marry again. Unfortunately, she didn’t have time to probe Gregory’s response more deeply.

  The battle horns of the Dark Horde once more blasted across the Northern Steppes. Gregory gazed down at the chaotic mass of dark creatures, watching Malachias, this time Rodric trailing after him reluctantly, issuing orders as several Ogren war parties approached the Breaker, all wearing the spiked armor that would allow them to climb to the top. Kael had already started bellowing orders as soldiers scrambled to their positions, ensuring that the boiling pitch was in place in an effort to reduce the number of beasts that made it to the top of the parapet.

  Grasping Sarelle’s hand gently, then giving it a squeeze, he left her, seeking the place that he thought would have the hottest fighting. High King he may be, but he was a fighter at his core, and he would do everything that he could to give Thomas the time he needed to save his daughter.

  59

  A Brave Girl

  “Thomas!”

  Thomas turned at the sound of his grandmother’s voice, which came from the far end of the square. He held Kaylie carefully in his arms. She had gone in and out of consciousness when he had walked out into the light on unsteady feet. She was exhausted, having given him every bit of strength that she had to help defend against and then defeat the Shadow Lord.

  He moved as quickly as he safely could across the courtyard. Surveying the ruins that stretched out before him, Thomas realized that the battle had almost reached its conclusion. The Shadow Lord had left behind a small force of several thousand Ogren led by a cadre of Shades. He had sent all his other dark creatures to the Breaker. Thomas’ enemy had never expected the Sylvan Warriors to try to make it past Blackstone’s defenses, not understanding the real power of the Key that Thomas still wore around his neck. That lack of knowledge had contributed to the undoing of an evil that had plagued the Kingdoms for thousands of years.

  The Sylvana had made quick work of the Ogren and Shades charged with protecting Blackstone. A few Sylvan Warriors continued to ride their unicorns around the wide perimeter of the dead city and then through its deteriorating streets, searching for any dark creatures that may have survived the onslaught of steel and lightning. But it appeared that the legendary warriors were wasting their time after having been exceedingly thorough with their attack. The only movement in Blackstone that the Sylvan Warriors now saw came from the gentle breeze swirling the burnt ash that covered the city. A city that began to resemble, if only just a very faint reflection after more than ten centuries of neglected corruption, what it had looked like in the past, before the arrival of the Shadow Lord, as the ever-present grey clouds vanished, and the sun blazed gloriously in the sky.

  Thomas stepped around the bodies of a few dead Ogren and one Shade, which was still twitching as it completed its death throes, a sword stroke having taken off almost all of its head with only a few strands of sinew and flesh keeping it attached at the neck.

  “I’ll take her.”

  Rynlin appeared at Thomas’ side, recognizing his grandson’s own fatigue and gently taking Kaylie from him, then bringing them both over to Rya. Rynlin carefully lay Kaylie down on a makeshift litter of cloaks. Rya hovered over the Princess of Fal Carrach for several minutes, her hand resting gently on Kaylie’s head. Using the Talent she scanned for any injuries, thankfully finding none. Satisfied with her examination, she was pleased that her student would suffer no lasting harm. When she looked down again, Kaylie’s eyes were open.

  “You did a dangerous thing, girl,” said Rya sharply, her fear at the risk taken by the young woman she had begun viewing as a daughter getting the better of her. “You almost gave too much of yourself.”

  “It was necessary,” said Kaylie. She reached out and found Thomas’ hand, squeezing tightly. The Lord of the Highlands had found a seat next to her. He passed her a flask of water, and she drank deeply.

  “Maybe so,” said Rya, not yet finished with her upbraiding. “But you could have gotten yourself killed. You almost did. I have not spent all this time instructing you in the Talent simply so you could burn yourself out.”

  “If she hadn’t done as she did, we wouldn’t be here,” said Thomas. “Without Kaylie’s strength, we wouldn’t have survived. The Shadow Lord would have destroyed us.”

  “A brave girl,” said Rynlin with a smile, understanding his wife’s concern but suggesting with a glance that she leave off for now. “Stubborn as well. I expect that she’ll be joining us at the Pinnacle shortly.”

  “Did we lose anyone?” asked Thomas.

  “No,” replied Rya. “The Shadow Lord never expected us to be here. He thought that he would catch us at the Breaker. Maden Grenis and Catal Huyuk are conducting a final search, just to make sure that there are no more dark creatures lurking about. But the city is ours.”

  “And what of Gregory and the armies at the Breaker?”

  “Likely engaged at this point,” said Catal Huyuk, who trotted forward on a unicorn name Brutus, a massive grey whose horn extended almost nine feet in length. When Catal Huyuk leapt to the ground, he barely came up to the unicorn’s shoulder, so great was the animal’s size. “Although I expect that the battle has probably just begun. The Dark Horde would not have made it to the Breaker until mid-morning at the earliest, and noon is still an hour off.”

  Thomas nodded. That was good news. If Gregory could hold for just a few hours more, they had the opportunity to end the threat presented by the Dark Horde for good. He stood as Acero and Beluil approached. The pony-sized wolf trotted forward, rubbing his large head against Thomas’ chest. Thomas dug his hands into his friend’s fur, glad that the large wolf had made it through the battle unharmed.

  Acero took his place, allowing Thomas to rub his nose. The massive unicorn stepped back and bent his head. Thomas reached out a hand. As soon as he touched the sharp point of the horn, images of what had occurred during the last few hours passed between them; Acero learning of Thomas’ exploits, Thomas of Acero’s role in the fight for Blackstone. Both were impressed with the other’s efforts.

  “There’s more to do,” said Thomas. “The Shadow Lord is gone, but he can still return. His Dark Magic still survives.” The Shadow Lord’s words prior to their final combat played through his mind: “As you weaken, I only grow stronger here. Here my power cannot be challenged.” His thoughts turned to his conversation with Kincaid, the leader of the Sentinels charged with protecting the Key and an uncle that he had never known until just recently. He pulled the Key from beneath his shirt and read the inscription: “When the darkness surrounds, the light will prevail.”

  “The Well of the Souls,” said Rynlin, noticing the glint in his grandson’s hard eyes. “You can feel it.”

  “I can. The Key is pulling me toward it, just as it did when I first entered Blackstone and it guided me to the Shadow Lord. It seems to be suggesting that there is some unfinished business that needs to be completed.”

  Rynlin stared at the Key that Thomas now held in his hand, the steel appearing to glow because of the brightly shining diamonds embedded along its length, the rocks pulsing with an insistent, white light.

  “Do what you need to do. We’ll wait for you here.”

  Kaylie watched the exchange with some confusion. The water helped to revive her, though she still felt incredibly weak. Rya had whispered to her to just give it some time. Her strength would return, but slowly. Nevertheless, she could still barely push herself up to a sitting position without Rya’s help. After everything that they had been through, she could tell by the expression on his face that Thomas clearly meant to do something dangerous. This despite the fact that he couldn’t be feeling much stronger than she was, his exhaustion plain as well.

  “Thomas, what are you …”

  Thomas gripped her hand tightly, smiling down at her. “I’ll be back shortly. There�
��s one last thing that I need to do.”

  Nodding to those around him, Thomas jogged back the way they had come, entering the gloomy doorway that led into the Shadow Lord’s chamber.

  “Thomas!” Kaylie yelled weakly. “You can’t …”

  Rya knelt down by the Fal Carrachian princess. “There’s nothing you can do, child. This is something that he must do alone.”

  “What must he do? He just killed the Shadow Lord.”

  “I know, child. If Thomas hadn’t succeeded, with your help of course, we wouldn’t be here now. The Shadow Lord would have had his final revenge on the Sylvana.”

  “But where is Thomas going?” she asked, the worry clear in her voice.

  “The Shadow Lord is dead, but given enough time he can return to the world if the Well of the Souls -- his source of power -- isn’t destroyed,” answered Rynlin. “It’s not something that we can ignore, not if there’s any chance that the Shadow Lord could rise once more. This is something that only Thomas can do. Only the bearer of the Key has the power to combat the Shadow Lord’s Dark Magic and extinguish the evil that it harnesses.”

  “What is the Well of the Souls?”

  “A repository, some say source, of the Shadow Lord’s Dark Magic. Destroy the Well and the Shadow Lord cannot return. He won’t be able to use the foul power of the Dark Magic residing there to reconstitute himself. Leave it intact …” Rya didn’t feel the need to complete her thought, the implication obvious. Her worried eyes were fixed on the doorway Thomas had just entered.

  Turning away from Rya, Kaylie peered through the smoke to where Thomas had run back into the keep, trying to send what little of her strength remained to aid him.

  60

  Descending Disc

  As Thomas ran back into the now crumbling chamber in which he had fought and defeated the Shadow Lord, the words on the Key ran through his mind on a continuous loop: “When the darkness surrounds, the light will prevail.”

  When the Shadow Lord had first come to Shadow’s Reach, making the capital of what had been called the Northern Peaks his lair, the once beautiful city had begun to change. Previously a place of bright colors, the grey clouds and fog had taken up permanent residence over the metropolis. The flowers and trees stopped blossoming, their withered remains replaced by weeds, and the soft earth that had once been perfect for farming became a dusty, black ash that enveloped the city and became a plaything of the wind. Within a century the once thriving capital was no longer recognizable. The people who had populated the mountains had either left or become prey for the Ogren and other dark creatures that had quickly swarmed among the peaks, preferring the dark crevices and caves that surrounded the city to the houses and pavilions that fell into decay and disrepair as the centuries passed. What had once been known as Shadow’s Reach, taking into account the shadows that played across the city when the sun set in the mountains, had been renamed Blackstone.

  Some had said that the change that had caused the transformation of this mountain city was the arrival of the Shadow Lord. Thomas didn’t doubt that his former adversary’s appearance in these northern mountains had been part of the cause. But he believed that there was more to it than that. It wasn’t just the Shadow Lord that had initiated the change.

  The myths that his grandfather had taught him, in which there was always a kernel of truth, referenced the Well of the Souls. It was said to be the cause of all the Dark Magic in the world -- whether there was just one well or many no one really knew since stories from other lands told of similar receptacles -- and the source of the Shadow Lord’s power. The Shadow Lord did cause the change to Shadow’s Reach, setting it on a path to become Blackstone. But the Shadow Lord also had ensconced the Well of the Souls somewhere within the labyrinth of caves and hidden tunnels that lay beneath the city. And it was the Well of the Souls that gave the Shadow Lord the power that he needed to move forward with his plans to gain control of the Kingdoms and, in the process, destroy the world around him. Moreover, the Well of the Souls gave the Lord of the Shadow the opportunity for rebirth if ever there was need.

  Based on those myths, Thomas believed that though he had defeated the Shadow Lord, he could not destroy him completely as long as the Well of the Souls continued to exist within Blackstone. That belief had only been confirmed by Kincaid, the Sentinel commander. Therefore, with his final task clear in his mind, Thomas scanned the circular chamber, looking for some hint of how to find the Well of the Souls. The Shadow Lord had spent a great deal of time in this room, making it his base of operations, so Thomas guessed that there was a reason for that, beyond just looking out over the square and watching his Ogren parade in front of him. The only distinct aspect of the chamber that caught his attention was the disc in the center of the chamber, the image of the Defender of the Light fighting the Lord of the Shadow etched into the large, circular stone.

  He walked over to the disc, examining it closely. The pull of the Key became more demanding, the diamonds glowing more intensely, when he stepped onto the very center of the stone. Thomas studied the carving for quite some time until his sharp eyes identified something that might be of use. Where the blades of the two combatants met, there was a scarcely visible indentation. Pushing down with his foot, the small stone collapsed into the disc. All was quiet for a moment, and then a grating sound of stone on stone rasped throughout the chamber.

  Thomas pulled his sword from its scabbard on his back as the circular carving sank into the floor, taking him into darkness as it dropped into the earth.

  61

  Attack From Above

  The flight of Dragas, a dozen in all, flew across the Northern Steppes, the peaks of the Highlands rapidly approaching to their west. The dark creatures, their leathery wings extended as they glided through the air toward the Breaker, scanned the skies with an arrogance born of their dominance as a predator. Few creatures had the courage or wherewithal to fight a Dragas, the scaled, winged beasts having few weaknesses thanks to their needle-sharp teeth, poisonous saliva and armored hide.

  Thus it was with some surprise that the lead Dragas felt a wrenching, searing pain as a razor-sharp claw sliced into its leathery wing, followed by another, and then another. The monstrous beast had little time to react as another talon tore through its soft underbelly, the wound so deep and so long that the dark creatures’ guts began to gush out as the beast dropped toward the plains far below, its tattered wings unable to keep it aloft.

  Many of the other Dragas faced a similar end, knocked from the sky as dozens of kestrels shot down from the thin air above, claws outstretched, ripping into the most vulnerable parts of the dark creatures. The Dragas that survived the initial assault attempted to fight back, but had little chance of success, as the raptors swarmed the beasts, four or five working together to attack from multiple directions at once and eliminate their blood enemies with their overwhelming numbers.

  The kestrels had waited for these dark creatures in the colder air well above the Highlands, knowing that they would come. Knowing that the Dragas would seek to invade their homeland once they were done with their work at the Breaker. And they understood as well that their coloring made them virtually invisible when they attacked from above. Something that they did with great effect against the Dragas, decimating the dark creatures in a matter of minutes and ensuring that the defenders on the Breaker had one less threat to worry about.

  62

  Well of the Souls

  As the circular stone descended beneath Blackstone, Thomas used the Talent to extend his senses, searching for any danger, but finding nothing but a weak taint of corruption as he dropped through the pitch black. Thomas’ eyes glowed a bright green as he sought to pick out anything around him that could give him a hint of what he might face, but even with his excellent vision this darkness gave him nothing but a faint, barely discernible view of the chiseled rock that passed by as he traveled deeper beneath the Shadow Lord’s city.

  The disc continued its slow descent, the
fresh air gradually giving way to a dry, musty smell. A cold breeze that wafted up through the vertical tunnel chilled him. After several minutes, the stone finally came to a stop, settling noiselessly into a large circular chamber.

  A soft green glow beckoned from the open doorway that stood before him. But Thomas remained where he was, feeling the need to be cautious. He extended his senses once more. Still no sign of an immediate threat, but something tickled at the edge of his awareness. It was familiar, but he couldn’t place it. A warning, though faint.

  Having no other path to take, he stepped through the doorway, his path lit by a green moss that covered the stone and glowed brightly in the dark. The luminescence gave everything a sickly greenish tinge, though he welcomed the change from complete darkness.

  As he walked down the short passageway, Thomas saw another open doorway carved from the rock that led to a smaller chamber lit even more brightly than the hallway. Yet with each step what had bothered him at the very edge of his consciousness became even more persistent, a prickle of warning running down his spine. His senses revealed to him that danger lay straight ahead, but the Key also told him that he needed to keep moving in that direction if he hoped to achieve his objective. With each step, the pull grew stronger.

  When he reached the doorway, he stopped. He detected the danger now. An ancient evil lurked inside the room ahead, but what it was he didn’t know. He could see nothing from the threshold. Steeling himself for what was to come and trying to be cautious, Thomas had stepped halfway through the entrance when the hair on the back of his neck bristled. He dove and rolled forward, the blade that would have removed his head missing by only a hair.