A Child of Two Worlds

by Mark Cole

  Battle horns sounded again. “Alone at last,” Alex said with mock sultriness. Terra snorted a laugh and rolled her eyes before facing the wall. A highland steppe occupied the valley between the mountains that funneled the enemy forces to the east gate. “Show them who they now face,” Alex said, his tone echoing her feelings of grim determination. She smirked as her wings spread out behind her.

  “It’s past time these demons learned to fear us,” she said. Terra lifted her arms slowly as if trying to move a great weight. Her muscles tensed, and her face tightened under the strain. The earth beyond the wall began to ripple. The charge slowed. Her open hands lined up with the mountains to either side of the steppe. She clenched her fists.

  The mountains collapsed in on themselves. The rippling ground stilled. The charge accelerated. They were only a few hundred feet from the walls. A barrage of arrows flew from the wall as archers and Caitlyn let fly. Magically thrown arrows and bolts passed through two or three undead before coming to a stop. Terra opened her hands and snapped them down.

  The mountains exploded in deafening gouts of rock, flame, and ash. Tremendous boulders rained down on the horde as lava poured from the ruined mountains. The ground collapsed beneath the attacking army and was filled with the fiery molten rock. Alex’s mouth hung open in shock as he regarded his wife. She sagged in sudden exhaustion but stubbornly held her feet.

  “That was just… wow,” he said.

  Terra panted. “I’ve never moved so much earth before.” She pointed to the destruction. “Remember when you asked me if all I could do was make three little balls of fire, water, and earth float around on a bed of air? And I said that was like a drop of water compared to an ocean?” He nodded numbly. “There’s the ocean,” she said with smug satisfaction.

  “Why didn’t you just do that in Adorac?” Alex asked.

  Terra stepped over to him and kissed him on the cheek. She slipped an arm around her husband and leaned on him. “The lines were too close together. I could have brought down the entire volcano on our heads.” She studied the eastern approach to the stronghold. “That should hold them off for at least a day. I’m tired. Can we find a place to rest?” she asked. He nodded again and led her slowly down the ramp. A roaring chant of “Nexus” filled the air as they walked down the keep.

  Her assessment of how long they had to rest was far from accurate. Only a few hours later, the blare of horns brought her awake. Alex stood over her. He was already dressed and slipping the baldric that held the Guardian’s Blade over his head. The two of them rushed from the little room in a house near the keep. They sprinted to the top.

  “They’re coming from the west and will be here in an hour.” Grey said. He peered in that direction with a spyglass. “It seems they can use portal magic. We’ve already begun pulling everyone in from that side. Our scouts that were out in that direction said there’s at least two hundred thousand on that side as well.”

  “We won’t be able to break this bloody siege. No’ with what we have here. Ye’ll get too tired to destroy attacks. An’ we’ll run out o’ mountains,” Brahm said, muttering the last part.

  Terra agreed with his assessment. “This will not be the Arcane City all over again,” she swore as she pulled out the last Eye. She had decided to not give it over to Chieftain Rageclaw, in part because she was going to be travelling with him and partly because she didn’t trust him. Caitlyn looked at her questioningly before nodding her agreement. “Silvia, Harbronn, we need you. Are you there?”

  A few seconds of silence passed before a response came. “Aye, this be Harbronn.”

  “I’m here as well,” Silvia said.

  “We are pinned down in the Gap of Druun. The fortress is under siege by almost half a million demons and undead. We need help.”

  King Harbronn swore. “I don’t know if there is much we can even do together against such a large force, Terra,” Silvia said softly.

  “I know,” the Nexus said. “But, they are split in half. Half to the east, and half to the west. If you left as soon as you could, how long would it take you to get here?”

  “We are surrounded here,” Silvia said, “but we have a bit of a surprise for them. King Harbronn has been having his miners dig a massive tunnel all the way from Adorac Mountain to the Forest of Souls. It will be done in a few days. Also, the Changelings of the Scale have been flying around and picking up any Daein they find. There were a surprising number not far south of the Adorac Mountains led by a man named Darren who claims he was in the Arcane City when it fell. Our forces have more than doubled. Just here in Starfall we have over seventy thousand men-at-arms.”

  Harbronn picked up where she left off. “We’ve over fifty thousand here in the mountain. The tunnel can be ready in three days. I’ve all o’ me people already moved as far down as is safe while it’s still bein’ dug. It’ll take another three days to get all o’ ‘em moved into Starfall.”

  Six days, Alex thought. He touched the Eye in Terra’s hand. It felt warm, just like the Celestial Eye in Starfall. “How long will it take you to get here after your forces are joined?” he asked.

  “A week,” Silvia told them the same time Harbronn said, “Ten days.”

  Alex took his hand from the Eye. “Two weeks is a long time under siege.”

  “We have no other options,” Terra told him. She addressed the two leaders. “Get here as soon as you can. We will hold.”

  Eleven days passed with hours of exhausted preparation and repairs interspersed with minutes of terror. Once, the walls were scaled and fighting fell back into the fortress. Alex and Brahm, each leading a large group of defenders, hunted down and killed the demons, but stores of food burned that night. Rations were reduced. Children did their best to remain strong for their younger siblings. The barbarians and Changelings of the Claw had no spellcasters among their ranks, leaving Terra and Caitlyn to deal with the enemy’s magical onslaught. They quickly stopped slinging attacks at the demonic and undead horde and focused on defense.

  The sun rose on the twelfth morning to good news. The rescuing army entered the Great Range and should reach them a couple of hours before sunset. The defenders readied themselves to wage a furious offensive. Their force of seventy thousand had dwindled to sixty, but the news of the impending rescue raised morale. The enemy forces were daunting with around two-hundred thousand to either side.

  “We only need to hold out for a while longer,” Caitlyn said as she went around trying to bolster spirits. She had taken to staying in her human form as much as possible so that she wouldn’t have to change before being able to defend against another magical attack. “A host of humans, elves, dwarves, and Changelings of the Fang and Scale are drawing near. We will be safe soon.” Eyes brightened and weak smiles followed in her wake.

  Alex put a hand on her shoulder. “They respect you,” he said.

  She smiled up at him. I can’t have these feelings for him. I should tell him how I feel. She shook her head. If I did, then Alex would ask me to leave. I don’t think he would want me around anymore.

  Caitlyn felt like she had grown closer to Alex since the siege began. He was with her when he wasn’t with Terra. But he viewed her as more of a little sister and joked with her about what it would have been like to have one. Nevertheless, she enjoyed his company and owed him her life. And she loved him. She didn’t know how to reconcile her sisterhood with Terra and her love for Alex.

  Battle horns sounded again, and they rushed off toward the keep. Terra and Brahm waited for them at the top. “Both sides are coming again,” Terra said, exhaustion plain in her voice. She looked as tired as Caitlyn felt.

  My heart is betraying my friend and my sister, Caitlyn thought. No, I haven’t acted on anything. I’m not hurting anyone with my feelings… Except myself.

  “I’ll get the east. You get the west,” Terra said. She nodded and faced west.

  Caitlyn looked over her shoulder at her friends. As usual, Terra had given herself the harder task. The
rising sun made it difficult for Terra to see what the enemy warlocks were doing, but she was determined to not fail. Caitlyn agreed with her assessment though. In addition to being the Nexus, Terra had more innate magical power than she did. She was also a much more experienced sorceress.

  The horns stopped as people finished moving into position. Each archer received the last of the arrows, four or five each.

  The attack opened with a blast of lightning from the enemy lines. Instead of just having the lightning crash against a shield of water and air, a taxing spell, Caitlyn threw some mist into the air in front of the wall as Terra had shown her. The lightning coursed along the droplets and harmlessly struck the ground.

  A flurry of snow met a fireball instead of ripping it apart from the inside. A gust of wind blew a cloud of poisonous gas back into the enemy lines. The magical battle continued as it had for some time.

  “At least they seem tired too,” Terra said. Caitlyn nodded. Both of the women had come close to their breaking points in the recent days, and they neared the limits of their magical abilities. Fortunately, the enemy’s magical attacks lacked the ferocity of the days prior.

  The enemy forces reached the western wall and began to scale it. “We are going to the west. Shout for us if you need us,” Alex said as he and Brahm ran down the ramp. The two men had been gone for a few minutes before Caitlyn decided she would tell Terra her feelings.

  “Terra, can we talk?” Caitlyn asked as she diverted a thrown boulder on a scoop of air.

  The woman grunted as she did something difficult. “Now?”

  Caitlyn shrugged. “Yeah, considering we all may die in the next few weeks, I would like to tell you now.”

  “What’s on your mind?” Terra asked through gritted teeth. The changeling glanced over her shoulder and saw several different bolts of lightning all blast into the clouds above. The thunder reverberated in her chest.

  “I…” she started to say. Both a boulder and fireball sailed toward the wall. She saw another warlock beginning to cast a lightning bolt. She tore the boulder from the grip of energy the demon had on it and hurled it at the fireball the same time she threw snow into the air. The exploding sphere made a large geyser of steam absorbing the blast of lightning.

  “You what?” Terra asked.

  “I don’t think this is the right time after all,” Caitlyn shouted over a rolling peal of thunder.

  “You can’t say you want to talk about something.” The Nexus stopped speaking as she dealt with a heavy volley on her side. “Then decide you don’t want to talk about it.”

  “But…” the changeling said. She lifted one of the large stones behind them and hurled it toward one of the demon warlocks.

  “Caitlyn, I love you like a sister. What’s wrong?”

  The demons had gotten used to them not fighting back, and the stone struck home. She let out a sigh of relief and took a deep breath. “I love Alex,” she said the same time some thunder covered her words.

  “What?” Terra shouted.

  “I love Alex,” she said again, this time her words were drowned out by the nearby explosion of a fireball.

  “You have to speak up! I can’t hear you!”

  “I’m in love with your husband!” Caitlyn shouted into absolute silence.

  Terra spun to face her. “You’re in love with Alex?” she asked in shocked tones.

  Caitlyn faced her. “I’m sorry, Terra. It’s not something I meant to happen.” A sudden blast of pure energy came flying in from behind her friend. The changeling countered by flinging it back into the enemy lines. Terra did the same with an attack from behind her. “I just… love... him.”

  Terra looked at her with sadness on her face. “You know he doesn’t feel that way about you, right? Alex is a good man, and he may not ever. He will always think of you like a sister, just like I do.” Again thunder pealed behind her as Terra countered a lightning bolt over her shoulder.

  “I know,” Caitlyn said meekly. A fireball fizzled when it collided with a ball of water from the clouds above. She looked back to her friend. “Alex is strong. He’s smart and speaks his mind. He’s dedicated and never backs down from doing what’s right. And he is absolutely, irrefutably in love with you. I love all of those things about him.”

  “Caitlyn…” Terra whispered.

  “I had to tell you. I’m sorry. I’ll leave as soon as this siege is over. I’ll return to my people and fight alongside them.”

  “You don’t have to do that, little sister. Just… If anything happens to me, you take care of him, do you understand?” Caitlyn’s half-angel, half-human adopted sister smiled at her, but her eyes were steel.

  “I understand. But nothing will happen to you,” Caitlyn said. It was that moment they both realized the enemy spellcasters had stopped bombarding them.

  A man’s laughter came from just out of sight on the ramp. Blood red hair came into view as he walked around the keep. “I beg to differ,” he said as he climbed to the top. Completely black eyes looked out from his pale-white face.

  “Azreal,” Terra gasped. Caitlyn felt the blood drain from her face. The two women threw everything they had at the Demon Lord, but they were too tired, and the siege had drained their energy, both mundane and magical. He batted aside their spells as if they were no more than bothersome insects. Terra began to gather her power as Nexus into a devastating beam of focused energy.

  The Paragon of Hell flew forward and stabbed a midnight black crystal into the Nexus’s arm. She screamed in pain as the spell she had been casting collapsed in on itself. “Oh,” Azreal mocked, “we can’t have any of that, Half-breed.” He hurled another one of the crystals at Caitlyn’s chest.

  The changeling barely managed to dodge enough for it not to pierce her heart. It caught her in the shoulder instead. The obsidian shard blocked Caitlyn’s waning magical power. Her bones began to snap as she changed into her primal form. She screamed as she was wrapped in a too-tight web of telekinetic force. She was trapped halfway between her human and animal forms.

  “And you must be the big cat. Pity there’s only room for one today. But, I am a merciful lord,” he said with a sneer. “I’ll leave you to tell your forbidden love that you were unable to protect his wife.”

  Azreal stepped up to a trembling Terra. She also struggled against an invisible web of force. He stepped behind her and put a hand over her stomach. He licked her cheek.

  “Oh, the fun we are going to have,” he whispered in Terra’s ear as his nightmare-black eyes bored into Caitlyn’s golden ones. He pulled out a small metallic sphere and hurled it onto the ground at their feet. In an explosion of light and electricity, they disappeared.

  The web of force trapping Caitlyn vanished as soon as they teleported. She quickly changed back into her human form and ripped the crystal from her shoulder. Blood pumped from the wound as she cast the spell for voice amplification. “Alex!” she screamed. Horns blared far to the east. The reinforcements must be arriving, she thought bitterly.

  The Guardian must have already been running toward the keep. He was there in seconds. The Wrathblade burned white hot in his hands.

  “Where’s Terra?” he demanded. “I can’t tell where she is. She’s hurt and scared.” Caitlyn couldn’t make her voice work. “Where is she?”

  “Azreal. He took her. They just disappeared.”

  The Guardian roared in baleful rage. The Wrathblade blazed like the sun. He looked down at her. She thought his eyes looked solid green in the radiant glare of his sword. He took a step to the east and vanished. Caitlyn leapt to her feet and ran to the crenellated edge of the keep.

  Alex stood beyond the wall. Impossible, she thought. There is no way he could have covered so much ground that quickly. He stood over a quarter mile away in the middle of a roiling horde of thousands. His sword shone like a supernova amidst the darkness. Everything seemed dimmer in the blade’s blinding brilliance.

  With a terrifying shout she could easily hear from so far away, he
struck. Flames leapt from the tip of the Wrathblade. Demons and undead vanished in wide swaths around him. The Guardian’s enemies simply ceased to exist in the wake of his fury. Black ash filled the air. In seconds, he killed thousands. The remaining forces fled into the blades and bows of the coming reinforcements. Alex didn’t give chase; he turned and walked toward the gates.

  Caitlyn ran to the gate as fast as she could. Buildings and faces blurred past as she sprinted to the east. She heard Brahm call after her, but she flew past him. His heavy footfalls picked up behind her as he followed. They met the Guardian as the portcullis rose. He watched the iron bars lift before him, the point of his wooden sword dragging on the ground behind him.

  “We’ll get ‘er back, Alex,” Brahm said sympathetically.

  A tear ran down the Guardian’s cheek, creating a clean track of skin through the black and gray ashes that covered his face. “She’s in pain,” Alex said. “She is getting weaker by the second. I don’t know if she can wait for us to get there.”

  “She’s strong,” Caitlyn said. “She’ll be all right.” He nodded. Alex teetered and started to collapse. She darted forward and caught him.

  “I think there’re things we do no’ know abou’ our friend,” Brahm said behind her. Caitlyn nodded.

  “This is madness,” Brahm said. The Dwarf eyed the tent where they gathered. The large command tent help a big table with folding legs. Ten chairs ringed it, and a map of Dae lay spread open on top. He’ll get ‘imself killed, Brahm thought. He said as much.

  “I don’t care,” Alex said. “I’m not going to wait for the army to get there. I could be there in three days if I ride hard. Sooner if I can get one of the dragons to take me.”

  Caitlyn stood before her friend, a hand on each of his shoulders. “And what will you do when you get there, Alex? Charge in and cleave your way through the hundreds of thousands he has there? My sister says Azreal has been pulling in reinforcements at a prodigious rate.”