Legends of Windemere: 02 - Prodigy of Rainbow Tower

by Charles E Yallowitz

  The woman turns to see her friends lying on the ground at the halfling’s feet. Two of them are barely breathing with severe stab wounds to their stomachs while the others have multiple wounds to their knees and chests. Her only remaining uninjured ally is the cowardly chaos elf who levitated away from Nyx. She looks behind her to see that he is hiding behind a crate, far away from the fighting.

  “It’s just me and the coward, huh? This will be a good trick,” the woman whispers, backing away from Nyx and sheathing her sword. As soon as the chaos elf reaches the fallen mourning star, she kicks it to the half-elf and escapes into the river.

  “Traitorous whore!” the cowardly chaos elf cries before levitating again. The ship starts moving away from him as Nimby throws a dagger. The chaos elf stops gaining height in order to catch the blade. He is too slow to get out of the way of Nyx who scoops up her mourning star and leaps off a crate to swing at him. The weapon strikes his right knee and the force is strong enough to splinter the bone. He cries out in pain as the bone shards puncture the skin and he quickly passes out from the pain.

  “Should we just leave him hanging there?” Nimby asks as the unconscious body hovers in the air and the ship continues on its way.

  “The spell will wear off and he will fall into the river. He will probably drown,” Nyx callously answers. She shrugs and turns to see how Luke is faring against the Hellfire Elf. “Now, how is . . . oh for the love of the gods! Do something!”

  Both warriors are still staring at each other. Luke’s left eye glances at Nyx when she yells, which prompts the Hellfire Elf to charge at him. The evil blade gouges a path along the deck as the demon charges and slashes at Luke. Cartwheeling to the side, Luke avoids the attack and spins into the demon for a strike that harmlessly runs across its armored stomach. The Hellfire Elf grins as it flips the blade in its hand to stab down at the forest tracker. Luke moves his sabers quickly to deflect the evil weapon into the demon’s leg. A howl of rage erupts from the demon as it pulls the Chaoswind out of its leg. Luke’s heart sinks as he notices the lack of blood from the closing wound.

  “Every time you dodge my attack, it gives me time to avoid your counterattack,” the demon says menacingly, making several feints to keep Luke on the defensive. “The fear you have for my blade will prevent you from making a killing strike. If you are going to fight me then release all of your fears, even the one you have of death.”

  Luke kicks at the demon and pushes off its chest to get more distance between them. He watches the Chaoswind and remembers how painful the blade was when it first struck him. It was a pain that he never wanted to feel again and he was sure that the second time would not be any better. It could possibly be worse considering Aedyn would not have the time to carefully heal him over the course of a few days like he did at the academy. One slash of that blade could take Luke out of action for the remainder of his voyage and that meant all of his friends would be at risk.

  “You’ve been toying with me this whole time,” Luke accuses the assassin once the thought dawns on him.

  “Ever since your second attack,” the demon reveals with a sneer. “You can continue this game if you want. You will soon tire and then I will kill you. After that, your friends will follow. It will be a pathetic end to your story.”

  Luke stares at the Chaoswind after the Hellfire Elf makes a slashing lunge, forcing the half-elf to leap away. The serrated steel sends a shiver through Luke’s stomach as he slides his left foot ahead of his right foot. Both of his sabers point toward the demon and Luke takes a deep breath. He charges the Hellfire Elf with a scream as the expected upward strike of the Chaoswind rises to meet him. Luke doesn’t bother to block the attack as the evil blade slices into his flesh. He can feel the Chaoswind cut deep and run along his scar until he locks the blade between his sabers. A splash of blood hits the demon in the eyes while the impact sends Luke flying over its head.

  “Luke!” Nimby screams.

  Battling through the familiar, nightmarish pain rippling through his body, Luke lands behind the demon and immediately launches himself at its back. He thrusts both blades into the shoulders of the Hellfire Elf and kicks out its knees. Luke braces both his feet against the back of the demon and pushes himself over its head again. The force of his momentum pulls the blades around and through the top of the demon’s shoulders, sending demon blood splattering across the deck.

  “My arms!” the demon hollers in disbelief. Its muscular arms hang uselessly by scraps of flesh and a few tendons.

  “This would be when you change shape and run away,” Luke growls. To the demon’s surprise, Luke drops his blades and shoves his hand in a pouch on his belt.

  “Arrogant youth,” laughs the Hellfire Elf. Its injured body slowly begins to shift and morph.

  “You dropped this!” Luke shouts as he draws the demon’s severed armor spike. Fighting against the pain in his body, Luke briefly flips it into the air and palm strikes it into the demon’s forehead. A curling scream erupts from the monster and streams of green magic punch through its armor. A final yell of fury knocks Luke off his feet and the small storm of magic drags the Hellfire Elf back to the Chaos Void.

  “Are you okay, Luke?” Nyx asks as she runs up to him.

  “I’m actually going to miss fighting that demon,” the forest tracker groans. His eyes roll back into his head before he collapses and spasms in pain.

  “We need Aedyn!” Nimby yells, moving Luke’s sabers away from him. “That sword nearly killed Luke the last time it cut him. I might be able to stop the bleeding and keep him from biting off his tongue, but we need Aedyn right way! Go!” He pulls out his whittling knife and wedges the thin handle into Luke’s mouth. It is just in time as his jaws clamp shout, his body convulses, and his eyes go wide with pain.

  “Hold on, Luke,” Nyx says. She gets up to run for Aedyn when a woman’s scream is heard from below decks. Nyx and Nimby are pale as they glance at each other. Nyx breaks out into a mad sprint and leaps to the bottom of the stairs.

  “Somebody get the ship doctor!” Nimby hollers, kneeling on the deck and trying to keep Luke alive.

  *****

  The blood-soaked man in rags cackles gleefully while he stands in the doorway of Kellia’s room. Aedyn stands his ground as the man lets blood drip from his fangs and takes a step toward the priest. The man tries to slap Aedyn’s charged staff out of his way, but it burns his hand to the bone. A furious snarl snakes from his mouth before he grows long claws and glares at Kellia with fiery eyes. She flips him off from her hiding place behind an overturned bed on the far side of the room. The monster ignores the cowering form of Tyler who is shivering behind a coat rack.

  “I do not know where you came from, vampire, but you are not getting any further,” Aedyn swears.

  “Threats from a meal. I thank you for entertaining me,” the grinning monster cackles.

  “I make good on my threats. Any monster that faces me must be prepared for the wrath of the sun,” Aedyn declares. He spins his staff in his hands and makes a quick jab at the vampire who leans away from the attack.

  “Such a foolish belief created from a lack of knowledge,” the vampire wickedly says, its tongue rubbing at its fangs. “The sun does nothing to me. I’m just as alive as you and that delicious sounding heart behind you.”

  “Would you stop talking to it and kill it, Aedyn!” Kellia demands.

  The vampire laughs heartily and turns to the heiress, blatantly ignoring the priest. “He can’t. I can see the fear and doubt in your veins, priest. You don’t know if you can defeat me.”

  “I am getting tired of your mocking,” Aedyn says.

  “Then, cast a holy spell and be rid of me,” the vampire retorts.

  Aedyn is about to begin casting when the vampire stretches its pale, dirt-covered arm across the room. The clawed hand grips Aedyn around the mouth. His muffled prayers are not enough to summon his spell and his staff slowly dims until it is nothing more than an ordinary piece of wood. Aedyn trie
s with all of his strength to break the solid grip around his mouth. His body stiffens as a hole in the vampire’s palm opens up and releases a sour liquid into his mouth. Every muscle locks in paralysis before the vampire releases its grip and admires its work.

  “I cannot wait to taste your blood, priest. Religious blood always tastes sweet with a tangy aftertaste. My employer won’t mind if I drain you,” the vampire sings in a happy, soprano voice. “I only have to kill the girl, which I can do on a full stomach. From the look of her, I would find her blood rather bland and unappetizing. It would sour my delicate stomach. Well, a job is a job and a meal is a meal.”

  A crossbow bolt hits the vampire in the shoulder as a loud voice commands, “Get off this ship and leave us alone!”

  The vampire turns with an amused smile to see Nyx in the doorway. His smile changes into a disturbing circle of fangs and the monster’s eyes light up. A torrent of crimson drool escapes his mouth and he licks his lips feverishly. Nyx is trying desperately to reload her crossbow and take another shot as the vampire ogles her up and down. He takes a small step forward and he smacks her weapon to the ground. A lustful, hungry look is in his eyes, which grows with every sniff of Nyx’s scent.

  “I know you,” the vampire whispers, its hunger suddenly surging. “I have already tasted you.”

  “I’ve never met a vampire before. Back away!” Nyx exclaims, an instinctual panic setting into her heart. She desperately punches him in the face, but it has no effect on the ecstatic monster.

  “I was the message for your sword-swinging friend when I tasted your blood. Your exquisite, empowering blood with such an intense and superb flavor that it made every cell of my being tingle,” the vampire says, blood-tinted drool oozing from his open mouth. “Only a god could be more intoxicating a meal than you. I thank my employer for giving me such a rare treat.”

  “You were the arrow that hit me during the battle,” Nyx says, backing away from the monster.

  “Cast a spell, Nyx!” Kellia yells. She scrambles out from behind the bed and viciously tackles the paralyzed priest against the same wall as the doorway.

  Nyx’s mouth goes dry as she holds out her hand and she tries to fight against the knot building in her stomach. The vampire’s breath reminds her of a slaughterhouse, which turns her nose and makes her want to vomit. Without another thought, Nyx flexes her hand and tries to cast a plume of fire. A small blip of flame pops out of her palm and the vampire begins to laugh again.

  “I tried, Kellia. I really tried, but I can’t use any of my magic,” Nyx says, her shaking body giving in to her growing fear.

  “It shouldn’t change your flavor,” the vampire happily declares. He pounces on Nyx, knocking her to the ground. She kicks at his stomach in desperation as his fangs inch closer to her throat. It takes all of her strength to push against the monster’s emaciated chest and put up some resistance.

  “I’ll save you, Nyx!” Luke shouts. The forest tracker runs in a low crouch to behead the amused creature. Nyx is excited to see him coming to her rescue until she watches Luke vanish the moment his blades harmlessly pass through the vampire.

  “An illusion? For what reason?” asks the vampire.

  “Because you look like a gullible neck-biter,” Luke’s disembodied voice taunts from down the hallway. Fritz steps out from a room on the other side of the vampire and waves at him. The vampire hisses at the gnome before a purple streak slams into his side. The monster tumbles toward Fritz who is already rushing toward the fight with a drawn dagger. The dagger sinks into the vampire’s chest, but Fritz loses his hold on the weapon as the monster crashes to the ground. The impact on the ground is strong enough to push the dagger completely through the vampire’s chest.

  “I will not be taken down by a gnome!” he hollers. He grabs Fritz’s leg while he stands and slams the gnome through the floor. Everyone can hear Bessaria scream as Fritz crashes into the storage hold. The vampire is about to go after Nyx again when the purple streak returns to strike him in the face.

  “Monster not hurt friends!” Fizzle announces loudly. The drite flies around the vampire and repeatedly rams into him. A claw swipe nearly hits Fizzle as he dives through the vampire’s legs and streaks up to hit him in the back of the head.

  “Annoying drite! Why wasn’t I told about you?” he snarls, savagely whipping his arms around at the air.

  “Get out of the way, Fizzle! I got it this time!” Nyx yells. The drite zips down the hallway before Nyx aims her palm at the vampire. He looks worried until nothing more than a two-inch belch of fire erupts from her hand again. Nyx shakes her hand violently and smacks herself in the head in a childish attempt to awaken her magic.

  The vampire laughs and licks his lips in anticipation. “You keep thinking you are a threat, but you are nothing more than a broken caster. I might as well drain you entirely and put you out of your misery.”

  The vampire charges down the hallway on all fours and leaps at Nyx. She trips over a sailor’s drained body and tries to scramble back into the room. The vampire is almost on her when she curls up and covers her eyes, but nothing happens. She looks up to see Aedyn with his fully charged staff jammed into the slavering mouth of the vampire. Fizzle is hovering behind the monster with an evil, but still eerily cute, smile across his face.

  “Your poison wore off,” the priest states, his expression cold and callous.

  “We hurt you now,” says the grinning drite.

  “Cwap,” coughs the vampire.

  A blast of light goes off in the vampire’s mouth and sends him stumbling into a small bolt of force from Fizzle. This sends him reeling back at Aedyn who slams the vampire in the face with his staff of light. The vampire spins into a minor explosion spell that covers his entire torso. Aedyn is about to hit the vampire again, but stops his staff just before impact. The badly injured vampire looks confused before Fizzle’s tail slices through his neck. Nyx and Kellia watch as the monster’s eyes continue to look around the room until Aedyn burns the vampire to ashes with a final blast of sunlight.

  “I thought he said that sunlight wouldn’t hurt him,” Kellia says, staring at the pile of ashes.

  “Depends on the vampire type,” Aedyn casually mentions, making a rapid sequence of hand motions over the ashes. A small whirlwind appears and carries the ashes out the open porthole. “This was an old world vampire, so he was bluffing. They are merely weakened in natural sunlight, but are destroyed by magical sunlight. They are a rare type since the new world vampires drove them to near extinction soon after the Great Cataclysm. Anyway, that monster is gone and there is no harm done.”

  “Speak for yourself. I couldn’t do anything. You said I was better, Aedyn,” says Nyx, who is still curled up on the floor. “Why couldn’t I cast a spell? I was trying to cast a spell and nothing happened. It wasn’t that I was scared. I just couldn’t do anything.”

  “I was not sure how to tell you this,” Aedyn admits, holding Nyx’s gaze with a kind expression. “I told you that your body was better and that your injuries were fully healed by my magic. The problem is not with your body, but with your aura. Your aura has become dormant, Nyx. I believe you are subconsciously locking it away due to a fear that you will hurt or kill the people around you. Apparently, self-defense is not a strong enough catalyst to awaken your aura.”

  “Then, find the right catalyst for me!” Nyx shouts.

  “There is very little that I can do to help you. I can talk with you about what is on your mind and try to help you get over your fears,” Aedyn offers with a friendly hand on her quivering shoulder. “In the end, this is a problem that only you can solve. I ask that you remember that you are not alone in this. You have the rest of us to help you along your path. It is important to realize this while trying to regain your power.”

  “I know, but I feel so useless,” she mutters.

  Kellia walks over to Nyx and gives her a hug, gingerly getting Nyx to uncurl her tense body. “Don’t feel useless. You saved us by kee
ping the vampire occupied. You gave Aedyn a chance to recover. Thank you.”

  “Fizzle check Fritz. He in hold. Look hurt,” the drite states before he flies out of the room.

  “I will probably have to heal that gnome. At least, the rest of us are-” starts Aedyn. He stops talking when Nyx jumps to her feet. She grabs him by the arm and breaks out into a run that drags the priest out of the room.

  “I’m sorry, Aedyn, but Luke needs your help,” Nyx apologizes profusely. “I’m so sorry that I didn’t tell you right after you killed the vampire.”

  “What happened to him?” he asks, trying to keep his footing.

  Nyx awkwardly yanks him up the stairs, nearly dislocating his shoulder. “He fought the Hellfire Elf and killed it. That demon is no longer a problem, but Luke took a slash from the Chaoswind across his torso. Nimby told me to get you to him as soon as possible.”

  “Not again. Take me to him immediately,” Aedyn demands, already preparing a powerful healing spell.

  “You think I’m dragging you for exercise?” Nyx snaps.

  Both of them skid to a stop once they get to the top of the stairs. Nimby waves at them with a triumphant smile on his face and fifteen empty potion bottles around him. Nyx stares open-mouthed at what she sees a few feet behind the halfling. Luke is on his feet and groggily swaying from side to side. The forest tracker’s wound is seeping blood as he weakly waves at his friends.

  “Hello,” Luke sings in a slurred voice.

  “I do not believe this. It took all of my power to heal him the last time and you did it with potions,” Aedyn says in bewilderment. He carefully watches Luke stumble forward like a drunkard while Nimby tries to keep him on his feet. “Maybe because the injury was in the same spot, it did not affect him as severely as before. The information my temple has on the Chaoswind weapons is rather vague, but I do not see how that would stop the evil infection of his aura. The doctor is not up here, so I cannot even begin to imagine what you did, Nimby. Although, the unhealthy amount of potion bottles at your feet have me worried. I do not think I have ever seen so many potions used on one patient. Not successfully anyway.” The priest slowly turns to Nimby with a suspicious stare. “How exactly did you cure him, Nimby?”