Balfor's Salvation

by Trombley, Susan

  “I am the Mother. You are not one of my children, but I have Chosen you. You will bear the burden with my prince. Only you can change the tide that has for so long threatened to sweep away all my children. You are not of the Father's blood, or my own, yet you can walk in both worlds without weakness. This will give you the strength you need, the strength to defeat the corruption that has infected the bright ones. You must destroy Anata.”

  There were millions of voices in her head. The voices of every umbrose who’d ever lived. She understood now. The shadows were those umbrose who had died and would be born again one day. They were the burden that Balfor carried, one that he was not meant to carry alone. One that she had agreed to share with him. The will of the umbrose spirits pulled at her, demanding. Their many voices growing into a cacophony of noise that threatened to swallow her.

  “Enough!” Balfor’s voice broke into the darkness and silence fell. A blissful silence broken only by the ringing in her ears. Then his mind touched hers, hesitant, hopeful. “Stacia?”

  “I’m here,” she whispered, though her lips didn’t move.

  “The shadows have healed your wounds, but you must awaken. Ranove has been captured, and my legion is hard-pressed. We can’t allow the adurians to regroup.”

  Stacia slowly opened her eyes. Balfor held her in his arms, cradled against his chest. To her surprise, she could see him very clearly. She could see everything in the tunnel clearly. She blinked. “Who turned on the lights?”

  He laughed and it was a sound filled with joy. “You now see like an umbrose. I did not know if it was possible to share my power with you, to make you my princess. It seems that the Mother has accepted my choice and made it her own.”

  “What just happened, exactly?”

  He lowered his head to claim her lips, kissing her for a long moment which left her breathless, before pulling away to answer her. “There’s much you will learn in time, but we don’t have that luxury now. We have to face the adurians, and it will be a battle hard fought for they remain with the Father’s Heart. The humans will fight with us, but we must face Uriale and Anata alone. No others have a chance against them.”

  “The Mother said that I needed to destroy Anata.” The idea still seemed so crazy to her. Had she really just received vivid visions from a true deity? Could she believe in such a thing, after a lifetime of denying the existence of any higher power? There had to be some explanation, but it was difficult to think with all the voices whispering at the back of her mind.

  Balfor frowned at the mention of the name as if she’d said something disgusting. “Yes. She’s the worst of them. Corrupted beyond redemption. She’s insane and her evil infects Uriale. They’re joined as we are and can share their thoughts. Hers have been driving him mad for a millennia. If we kill her, his power will be diminished. Then he can be contained. We must not kill Uriale or his power will only pass on to another adurian.”

  “How do we do that?” She clutched the breastplate of his armor. “The last time I went up against an adurian,” she touched her scarred cheek, “I didn’t fare too well.” She couldn’t keep the fear that she was feeling out of her voice. The adurians terrified her, and Balfor wanted her to face their leaders. She’d already met Uriale, and he scared her more than anything.

  He rested his forehead against hers. “I hate to take you anywhere near the battle, but there’s a range limit to our connection. If you get too far from me, the link diminishes until it is nothing but a thread. I need it to be wide open so I can amplify my power through you. Will you do this for me, Stacia? You won’t be fighting. I won’t allow it. I’ll set a guard around you and conceal you from the adurians.”

  “You know I’ll do this. I wouldn’t abandon you now.”

  “My brave princess.” The happiness in his tone was reflected by a wave of the emotion that touched her mind. “Then we go to battle. And after our victory,” he kissed her, “we will perform the proper ritual to join us together.”

  Chapter 27

  The shadows transported them to the battlefield. Stacia still wasn’t clear on how it happened, just that she felt it in her bones. The power was in her, flowing through her. The shadows, spirits of the umbrose, passed it to her. It was a strange feeling, unlike anything she’d ever known before. She wasn’t comfortable with it and wasn’t certain she could ever learn to like it.

  She didn’t have much time to grow assimilated to it either. As soon as they arrived on the battlefield, a squadron of umbrose surrounded her, walling her off from Balfor. But she could still feel him and a part of her could still “see” him, though not in any sense that she’d ever used before. She felt his movements as an extension of her own. It was bizarre, but there she was fighting her way through the glowing adurians to the blazing points of light at the head of the battle. Her sword, imbued with power from the shadows themselves, cut through the adurians like they were nothing but wisps. She dodged, leaped, kicked, and slashed with martial precision born from almost a millenia of practice. Nothing could stand in her way.

  Yet, she also still waited behind her wall of guards, watching the battle from a different point of view, which gave her vertigo. What her physical eyes saw was demoralizing, unvarnished by her connection with Balfor’s mind. Dead and dying umbrose surrounded her, the stench of their blood and loosened bowels thick in the air. There were too many of them, and too few of the adurians lying among the corpses. The adurians tried to swarm her guard.

  Unlike the umbrose, female adurians fought alongside their males, and they seemed to fight as fiercely—if not more so—than their larger counterparts. The females were as beautiful as the males, and, armed with the same type of sharpened teeth, they were just as terrifying as they snarled and shouted in a language that was different from the umbrose language.

  Her guard was able to fight off the attackers, which was good, because Stacia’s “sight” had shifted back to Balfor. He was close to Uriale and Anata. Stacia could feel a slight tug on her center, as if he was pulling power from her to help drive him forward. She concentrated on that feeling and tried to imagine pushing towards it. A rush of dark energy flowed out of her, and she heard Balfor’s triumphant battle cry in her mind as shadows boiled around him.

  Through his eyes, she saw Uriale and Anata. She well-remembered Uriale and would have recognized him without Balfor’s knowledge shared in her mind. The adurian prince and princess were as distinct from the other adurians as Balfor was from the other umbrose. Uriale moved through the battle, slashing through umbrose as easily as Balfor killed adurians. His wings were spread, the brilliant pearlescent feathers tainted with black umbrose blood. The adurian’s flawless golden skin was unmarked by a single wound. A scowl of rage twisted his handsome face as he attacked.

  Anata stood behind the front line, watching her mate plow through the umbrose legion. She rested one hand on a giant green cat. With her other hand, she stroked the horns of the umbrose who kneeled on the ground in front of her, his black blood pooling beneath him.

  Stacia recognized him as Ranove, because Balfor did. The umbrose prince bellowed in rage and changed his trajectory towards Ranove. Stacia closed her eyes and focused on feeding Balfor all the power she could. It seemed endless. Though the sun was still setting and full night had not fallen, the shadows were thick and deep and they passed through her to him.

  The Mother of Shadow’s glory filled Balfor and the shadows gathered, an invincible army beside him, their murky arms encircling and then extinguishing the adurians as they poured over them.

  He leapt into the air, flying towards Anata and Ranove as the last light of Father’s Eye speared from the edge of the distant mountains. He avoided its thrust, though at this point, he didn’t need to. Now that he had a princess, his power was amplified, his burden shared. She’d already proven that she’d been a good choice for him. Instinctively, she was drawing power from the surrounding shadows and channeling it to him, allowing him to focus his concentration on the battle. Still,
he could feel the power of the Father’s Heart nearby. He hoped that the human army would not fail in their promise to destroy the Heart while Anata and Uriale were occupied fighting him. Otherwise, even with Stacia at his side, he could not hope to defeat them.

  He could not kill Uriale, or he would free the adurian prince’s power to pass to another, but he could slay Anata, which would diminish Uriale and unbalance him. Anata was the key to winning this battle. She was also, unfortunately, a skilled warrior in her own right. To make matters worse, she had Ranove as her prisoner and would not hesitate to kill him if she believed it would affect Balfor. He must not let her know that it would. He also must not allow either the prince or the princess to realize that he’d chosen Stacia as his princess, or they would target her, just as he was targeting Anata.

  He hoped that their arrogance would be their downfall. This close to the Father’s Heart, they didn’t believe they could lose. What defenses they’d placed to protect the Heart, Balfor didn’t know, nor did he allow himself to be concerned about it. The humans had seemed pretty confident in their ability to deal with whatever they found there, as long as it wasn’t Uriale and Anata themselves. He disliked trusting in the humans, because that was what had weakened the adurians, but in this battle, he had little choice. Besides, he’d chosen a human as his princess and the Mother had embraced his choice, which meant that the humans were capable of becoming valuable allies.

  Balfor hovered in the air, floating with power that required no wings. Shadows flowed around him. He raised his ebony sword in one hand and lifted his free hand into the sky. Clenching his fist, he gathered the falling darkness and pulled it down on Anata.

  She shrieked in rage as the darkfall shattered down upon her and the adurians standing as her guard. They staggered under the crushing weight, falling to the ground with wings broken and silver blood spewing from eyes and ears. Anata stumbled a bit, but quickly recovered and began to glow with stronger light as she drew from the Father’s Heart.

  She raised her spear, bellowed something to the guards still standing, and then leapt in the air to meet Balfor in battle. Her guards surrounded Ranove, who was in no condition to fight them off.

  Balfor reached up and pulled down another darkfall. Anata screamed as the stinging shroud came down to press upon her. She shuddered under the force of its continual blows. Her wings were pushed down as it sought to blanket the earth until her bones cracked and split.

  Uriale turned from the umbrose legion he was systematically destroying when he heard his mate’s cry of pain and rage. He leapt into the air and flew towards Balfor, avoiding the curtain of darkness. Uriale reached Balfor first and they met in a clash of swords, a roiling shadow and a blazing light. Balfor was more skillful with his blade, which was the only thing that saved him, because Uriale blazed with light from the Father’s Heart.

  Anata broke free of the darkfall, and her shattered wings healed within moments, though she didn’t bother to use them. Instead she strode upon a ray of light to charge Balfor as their combined armies continued to struggle around and below them. She held her spear ready before her to impale him on its length.

  Uriale was already healing from the multiple wounds Balfor had managed to inflict when Balfor broke away from him to block Anata’s charge. He parried her thrusts.

  The adurian prince formed a ball of light and flung it towards Balfor who deflected it while dodging another of Anata’s thrusts. Knowing he was outnumbered, he summoned more shadows, drawing heavily upon his link with Stacia. She responded faster than he expected, and he was pleased as a wave of darkness rose up around him to swarm Uriale.

  Anata was ferocious, her insanity clear in her unfettered rage and hatred. Silver-flecked spittle flew from her lips as she screamed at him. They came together, blocked and broke apart. Balfor’s blade was coated with silver blood. Anata’s spear was now tainted with black blood.

  She taunted him, “You’ll never win. Here, we’re invincible. We have the Father’s Heart. You have nothing!”

  “We’ll see who claims victory today, Anata.” Balfor practically spat her name, the torments she’d visited upon him while he’d been her prisoner clear in his memory.

  Anata shrieked as she swung at him.

  Uriale beat back the shadow army, even as the increased fury of Anata’s attacks pressed Balfor to the point of breaking. He could feel Stacia’s fear as he fell back under Anata’s thrusts. No matter how much of the Mother’s power she channeled to him, they could not counteract the Father’s Heart. Their only hope lay in the humans now, and the time had already passed for the Commemoro to make their move. Balfor would soon fall and then every one of his people would die. He’d gambled on this battle, and he’d hoped that the Mother’s acceptance of a human as his princess had been a sign, but the odds were stacked too high against his people.

  Chapter 28

  It was only Stacia’s hope and faith in Balfor’s skill that kept him fighting long past the moment of despair. He found a well of strength and determination that he hadn't realized he possessed, and then he realized that it came from her. She bolstered him during his battle. She helped him have the energy to meet Uriale and Anata both once Uriale defeated his shadow soldiers. She remained steadfast, even as Balfor wavered.

  Then, the world exploded in a violent sonic boom followed by a deadly cloud of smoke and ash, and the ground collapsed. The sky was suddenly filled with human air vehicles, mounted with heavy weapons. Anata and Uriale both plummeted from the sky, the light buoying them disappearing as the ground shook and a gaping hole appeared, revealing sucking darkness.

  The humans had made good on their promise. They’d used their own style of weapons to destroy the Father’s Heart. Balfor had seen such weapons in the past, before the humans began worshipping the adurians. They’d once nearly destroyed their own city with them. The level of destruction was unmatched by anything that the umbrose possessed. If anything good had come of their worship of the adurians, it was that the humans no longer used such weapons often, or lightly.

  Uriale and Anata both recovered before they struck the ground, their wings snapping open to catch the air currents. They glided above the ground that was now collapsing under the two armies. Those umbrose and adurians who were still on the ground broke from battle long enough to get airborne. Balfor did not need to see it to know that the squadron protecting Stacia had lifted her up and were now carrying her above the craters appearing beneath them.

  Anata met him first, her movements wild, but strong. She was still glowing with power, but her light had diminished. Uriale was not far behind her and moved to flank him. They battled for long moments, Uriale’s sword and Anata’s spear clashing with Balfor’s blade. But now Balfor had the upper hand, and they both knew it.

  “His power is stronger than it should be!” Anata hissed. “He must have chosen a princess. Find her! Kill her, now!”

  Uriale roared and flapped his wings to break away from his battle with Balfor long enough to glance around the field.

  “You’ll die first, you adurian bitch!” Balfor used Uriale’s distraction to press his attack on Anata.

  With a shout of triumph, Uriale turned away from the struggle between Balfor and Anata. Balfor allowed just enough of his focus to shift to Stacia’s perspective. He saw Uriale heading towards her from her terrified vision, but he could not spend much time thinking about it since Anata increased her attack.

  *****

  Stacia watched the battle through both her own eyes and the vertigo-inducing perspective of Balfor’s point of view. She itched to join the fight, especially since the humans had arrived with cruisers and weapons that were familiar to her rather than this shadow power she was still learning. It had looked like they might finally have the upper hand when the bombs went off and destroyed the Father’s Heart. Apparently, Uriale and Anata were not so easily defeated.

  She saw Uriale heading towards her, but knew he was coming before he even started in her direction. She
’d felt his eyes fall upon her, knew the moment he understood what she was to Balfor. She’d experienced the scathing burn of his blazing eyes even from a distance.

  There was a limit to how far the umbrose guards could carry her from Balfor before their link no longer benefited him in this battle. That distance wasn’t enough to get her out of range of the adurian prince winging his way towards her at an awesome speed. Her guard was seven umbrose warriors strong, but compared to Uriale, they seemed like children standing against a giant. She’d seen him in battle; she knew what he was capable of.

  Balfor was trying to kill Anata so he could come to her aid, but even if he managed to slay the princess in the next few moments, he would not beat Uriale to her side.

  Stacia would have ordered her guards to fly her to a cruiser, but she didn’t think she would be any safer there. One of the armored cruisers had tried to intercept Uriale and he’d crashed into it, destroying it in a single glow of blazing light. It barely slowed him down, and the bodies of the soldiers within plummeted along with the wreckage of the vehicle. Heavy weapon rounds bounced off the shield of light surrounding him. Even without the Father’s Heart to aid him, he seemed impossible to kill, or even slow down.

  She closed her eyes, shutting out the sight of the adurian prince flying at them. “Please, someone, help me, help us,” she whispered. Terror infused her blood and bones. Trauma from her memories of her previous encounter with an adurian warrior threatened to paralyze her.