Lorrek glanced at Caleth holding Anelm. She was fading the fastest. He couldn’t allow that to happen. He had given his own memories to free Anelm from Roskelem’s dungeon. He wasn’t about to let that be in vain.
Shifting his gaze back to the Anicocina, Lorrek remembered what it had felt like when Roskelem had bound his powers. He also remembered the weightlessness and disorientation he endured after falling into the Orb of Oblivion. He had survived that. All he needed to do was focus now.
Magic could always be countered by magic, and the Anicocina’s power—though different and completely unique—was exactly that, magic.
Lorrek willed every cell of his body to shield him from the power of the Anicocina, and he found his strength returning. Clenching his fist, he conjured a fiery blue orb.
Draben and Reven stepped back while Jethcal looked puzzled. Draben shot Jethcal a look. “He...he shouldn’t be able to do that...should he?”
Lorrek pushed away from the pillar and took one step toward the Anicocina, and then another, and another. With each one he took, the easier it became until he was running and came to a skidding halt in front of the Anicocina, shoved both hands toward it and blasted it with all his power.
The Anicocina never budged. It stared down at Lorrek past the fiery blue glow of his power.
Lorrek realized nothing was happening. His magic had no effect on the creature.
Suddenly, his blast of magic faltered and faded. Lorrek looked at his hands, feeling completely drained now, and he frowned. He looked up at the Anicocina, then widened his eyes and looked back down to see the creature’s hand in his chest. Through all the pain, Lorrek could feel its fingers around his heart. His heart skipped a beat.
And the Anicocina yanked Lorrek’s heart out of his chest.
Lorrek stared at the creature for a moment then felt himself falling backward.
When he hit the floor, his head turned to a side, and he locked eyes with Radella all the way across the room. She was the only one in his line of vision. With his eyes fixed on her, Lorrek let out a final sigh. His eyes never closed.
When Theran saw Lorrek fall, his entire world came to a screeching halt. That was his little brother and the most powerful sorcerer he had ever known. Theran was the eldest. He was supposed to protect his younger brothers. He had failed Honroth, and now Lorrek too? No. This couldn’t be happening. He had fought and searched too long for Lorrek to have him snatched away so easily.
Clenching his fist, he glared at the Anicocina and started to move toward it, yet Vixen’s words stopped him. “The handblade. The only thing that can defeat it is a handblade, and I have a lot of those.” She gestured to her vest. “You kill those thymords. I am going to kill that...thing.”
Theran nodded. Now with a target in mind, he set his glare upon Jethcal. He would deal with the other two later, but something about Jethcal told Theran he was responsible. With a roar, he charged toward him.
Draben backed up when he saw Theran charge, but Jethcal stood his ground. “You don’t want him to touch you!” Draben warned him. “If he touches you, he’ll literally break you.” Then he added under his breath. “Why am I warning you? I really don’t care.” He raised his hands as Theran came charging then pointed at Jethcal. “It was entirely his idea!”
Theran ignored Draben as he went straight for Jethcal.
Jethcal wasn’t sure what Draben meant by Theran breaking him with a touch. That sounded ridiculous. However, he sidestepped the charging prince of Cuskelom and unleashed his handblade, ready to face the attacks.
“Hey!” Vixen shouted at the Anicocina and unsheathed several of her blades from her vest. She saw it visibly flinch at the sight of the blades, and she grinned. “You know what these are. Wonderful.” She lunged for it.
37
Meanwhile, in the narrow corridor where they could walk only in single-file, Therth walked with his sword unsheathed and followed Gremina’s lead as she carried a torch and pointed which way they needed to go. Therth insisted being right behind Gremina because he couldn’t see around the corners and didn’t trust the shadows. This felt like a deathtrap, and he was ready to fight for his life—for all of their lives.
Behind them walked Kinnard, armed and alert. Behind him was Dustal and then Aradin. Neither of the thieves approved of their surroundings. “You do realize if there were any evil creatures in the shadows here, they’d just pick us off one-by-one, right?” Dustal asked.
Suddenly, Aradin screamed and fell back. “Dustal!”
His brother spun around. “Aradin!” Then he saw nothing had happened to Aradin, and his brother was just laughing, and Dustal glared at him. “That was not funny.”
Aradin smirked. “Your face was priceless.” Then he pushed Dustal on. “Get a’moving!”
Still displeased with the prank, Dustal turned back around and followed after the others who had paused at Aradin’s cry. All of them gave Aradin a glare but then returned to their trek.
“What is this place?” Kinnard’s voice echoed in the darkness.
Gremina’s voice responded, “We’re going deep underground. I followed him here once before. This was before he even had magic. He was obsessed with magic and spells, and he would spend hours here, reading over them, trying to memorize them. Once the guardians of the book caught me and took me to him.” She chuckled at the memory. “I thought he was going to be furious, but instead he invited me to come look at the book. He told me that the book possessed all the answers he needed to make everything right. All he needed was magic. Next thing I knew, he and Atheta went to Jechorm, and then...he had magic.”
Therth frowned when he heard all this, but he searched the shadows as they continued walking. “Do you know where he got this book?”
Gremina shook her head. “I have no idea. That was one of his many secrets he never shared with us. I just assumed someone in Athorim gave it to him.”
“Why did you think it is from Athorim?”
“Because.” Gremina shrugged. “They all have magic we never understood.”
Therth nodded, but he was beginning to gain a bit more understanding of their magic each time he encountered them. His contemplations halted as he saw a great darkness spread out before him. He took the torch from Gremina and moved it in front of him. The light from the torch revealed only a small part of what appeared to be a chamber, but it was so dark here, he couldn’t see the entire room. “We’ve reached the end.” He stepped forward.
“Therth, watch out!” Gremina’s voice warned just as something attacked him, knocking the torch out of his hand and body-slamming him to the ground.
He grunted and tried to struggle with whatever was attacking him, but he couldn’t see it, so he just punched as hard as he could wherever he could.
“The book’s guardians!” Gremina’s shout identified the threat, and she dove for the fallen torch and waved it back and forth, trying to find Therth as well as any other threats. Suddenly, something grabbed her from behind and yanked her back into the darkness. Gremina screeched and dropped the torch as she disappeared.
“Princess!” Kinnard shouted.
Dustal looked at Aradin and then at Kinnard. “What do we do?”
“Grab the torch.” Aradin pushed past Dustal to grab it, but Kinnard barred his arm across his chest and shook his head.
“No. Whoever holds the torch becomes their next target. It’s an easy target because it’s the only light source. We stay in the shadows and fight them.”
“How do we fight something we can’t see?”
Gremina’s scream pierced the darkness, and it sounded like she was putting up a fight. Somewhere in the blackness, Therth growled as well, and they could hear the sound of metal armor clanking as it made contact when he punched.
Kinnard smiled. “We listen.” With that, he stepped out of the corridor and stayed near the wall in the shadows.
“Kinnard!” Dustal hissed, forcing the prince of Talhon to look at him, but Dustal pointed to the cente
r of the room where the torch had toppled down a few steps and landed beside a small table. By the glow of the torch, they could see a closed book resting on top of the table. “The spellbook?”
It looked like it, but Kinnard wasn’t sure. He didn’t like it being in the center of the room. He suspected it was a trap, but he nodded to the thieves. “Go. Get it, but be careful!”
“What are you doing?” Aradin asked.
“Getting the princess!”
“What about Therth?”
“I think he can handle himself.” With that, Kinnard stalked the darkness, listening for the sounds of Gremina struggling. He wanted to call out to her, wanted to get his bearings, but he knew if he risked making a sound, these guardians would locate him easily and take him out as well.
The further from the light he moved, the more his eyes adjusted to the darkness, and Kinnard realized they were in a relatively small chamber with stairs in a circle that led down to the table. The shadows turned more to gray-scales as his eyes continued to adjust, but there were sections that remained deep black. He realized they were archways, and he had no idea what was hidden therein.
He looked and saw Therth striving with an armored guard, but he was handling it on his own. Looking to the other side of the room, Kinnard saw Gremina struggling against another guard, and Kinnard went to her. “Let. Her. Go!” He charged for the guardian, who released Gremina and stepped back to face this new threat.
Kinnard moved quickly to get between Gremina and the guardian, and he held his sword with both hands as he asked over his shoulder, “Are these things human?”
Gremina looked confused by the question but nodded, “Yes!”
“Good.” Kinnard fixed his gaze on the threat before him as determination came over him. “Get the book and get out.”
“There are more of them!” As soon as Gremina said this, a guardian came out of the shadows and tackled Kinnard, sending the two of them rolling down the steps, stopping only when they hit the table.
Dustal and Aradin, who stood at the table, looked over and saw Kinnard and the guardian on the floor. “Oh, hey there.” Dustal smiled.
Kinnard glared up at them and reached to grab his discarded sword. “We need light!” He charged the guardian.
“Right...light...” Dustal pondered with a frown as he looked around. “How can we do that?” He glanced at Aradin for ideas.
Gremina came up to them, looking a little disheveled but determined nonetheless. She caught her breath then pointed to a ring around the bottom of the steps. “There. Toss the torch in there.”
Aradin obeyed and tossed it in the ring only to wince and shield his eyes as fire suddenly encircled them, lightening the whole room.
Looking around, they saw multiple archways, and in each archway was a fully armored guardian. When one guardian appeared in distress, another would take his place, and they seemed never ending.
On one side of the room, Therth finally got the upper hand against a guardian, only for another one to come up behind him and choke him from behind. He gasped then ground his teeth and slammed his elbow into the guardian’s stomach before turning to hit him across the helmet with the hilt of his sword.
On the other side of the room, Kinnard fought with two swords, warding off a pair of guardians. Gremina was impressed, but she worried because a third guardian could easily come and stab him in the back.
“We need to help them!” she told the thieves.
Dustal looked at the ring of fire around them. “In case you haven’t noticed, we’re surrounded by fire. How do you propose we help them?”
“We need to get the book out of here,” Aradin pointed out.
“I’m up for any ideas!” Dustal spread his hands out.
“I know!” Gremina lifted her gaze to the ceiling, trying to think of a plan. “I’m thinking!”
“Well, hurry—!” Dustal shrieked as a guardian stepped through the fire and approached them. “Not good!” He wished he had his bow. He was a much better shot than swordsman, but he had left that back in Talhon when they were on the run from Mordora, so he unsheathed his sword with much reluctance. “Any ideas would be much appreciated now!” He lifted his sword to parry as the guardian brought down a powerful strike.
Therth struggled against a guardian who had him in a chokehold. He saw the fire, saw the thieves and Gremina with the book in the center, and he saw the guardian attack them and heard Dustal’s plea for a plan. Gathering all his strength, Therth threw his attacker over his shoulder and finished him off with a swift slice across the throat, and then he focused on the center of the room. “Gremina! Get the book! Aradin, get her out!”
“What about me!?” Dustal cried as he backed up, still parrying the attacks from the guardian.
Aradin ran up to his brother and pushed him out of the way, toward Gremina and the book. Now he stood to face the guardian. “Get the book and get the princess out of here.”
“I’m not entirely useless,” Gremina grumbled, but everyone ignored her as they focused on fending off their attackers. Dustal reached for the book, but Gremina cried out, “Stop! I don’t know if it’s protected by a spell!”
He hesitated, bit his lip, reached his hands toward the book more slowly, and he grabbed the book as carefully as he could while talking to himself. “Maybe if I do it r-e-al-l-y s-l-o-w-l-y, it won’t notice...” He picked the book up and held his breath.
Nothing happened.
He turned to Gremina with a triumphant smile. “No spell!” And then the room shook and dust rained down on them from the ceiling, causing everyone to halt and look up, concerned. “Trap...?” Dustal asked the question on everyone else’s mind.
But when nothing else happened, the guardians focused their attention on the intruders and renewed their attacks.
“Get. Her. Out of here!” Aradin commanded Dustal as he hit the guardian with strike, after strike, after strike.
Dustal looked at the fire around them then gestured for Gremina to lead the way. “Ladies first.”
She glared at him, snatched the book out of his hands, and turned with a deep breath to face the fire. Then she gasped when Dustal scooped her up and ran through the flames. “What are you doing?”
Suddenly they were on the other side of the fire. Dustal put her down then began patting out the fire on his clothes. He caught the bewildered look Gremina gave him, and he shrugged. “I may be a thief, but that doesn’t mean I’m not a gentleman. Now, shall we go?” Then he turned to where Aradin fought against the guardian. “If you die, I’m going to kill you.”
“If I die, I’ll be sure to haunt you!”
Dustal and Gremina rushed into the corridor. He hated the fact that he was leaving his brother behind. It didn’t sit right with him. He came to a halt in the corridor.
Gremina noticed him stop, and she turned back to him. “What are you doing? We need to go!”
Dustal shook his head. “We need to help them.”
“We need to get this book out of here.”
He glared at her. Didn’t she understand that his brother was back there? “You go. I have an idea.”
She watched him turn and run back, and she stared after him, dumbfounded. What was he thinking? But she didn’t stick around long enough to find out. She shook her head and ran through the darkened corridor.
38
In the main chamber above ground, while Theran and Vixen fought against the thymords and the Anicocina, Radella crawled across the floor to Lorrek’s body. The Anicocina’s presence still drained her of her own power, but she fought through that to reach Lorrek. He still stared—his eyes never blinking. She finally reached his side. “Lorrek?” She touched his cheek.
Nothing.
Of course, it was foolish to wish he still lived. She saw his heart on the floor across the way where the Anicocina had dropped it when Vixen attacked it.
Radella bowed her head. If she had the strength, she would unleash an unholy cry and a torrent of power that would lev
el this place, but she couldn’t. Instead, she lifted her gaze to see Vixen fighting the Anicocina, and she whispered, “Kill it.”
Vixen cried out in frustration as the Anicocina teleported away once more in a puff of black dust just as she threw a blade at it. She spun around as it reappeared. It grabbed her by the throat and tossed her aside like a rag doll. Vixen rolled into a crouched position and scowled up at the Anicocina.
The ground shook.
“Watch out!” Reven dove for Vixen, knocking her out of the way as a huge boulder came crashing down to where Vixen had been. Both women looked at it and then across the way to where Theran had placed his hand on a pillar, bringing the ceiling crumbling down with Jethcal as his intended target.
Vixen glared at Reven. She knew the thymord had saved her life, but that didn’t mean Vixen forgave her for what happened to Lorrek. “Stay out of my way,” she growled as she climbed back to her feet and raced for the Anicocina.
Reven watched her go. She had a healthy respect for the female warrior, but Reven wasn’t sure what to do. She hadn’t wanted Lorrek to die, but she was a thymord. Technically, Draben and she should be protecting Jethcal, but they had tried to warn him against this, and he didn’t listen. Reven pressed her lips together in frustration and looked at Jethcal.
He had been good at dodging Theran’s direct attacks, staying out of reach, but then Theran decided to broaden his range. He walked to the center of the wide corridor where Jethcal stood on the other end, crouched down, and touched the floor. The floor cracked and then splintered off into multiple cracks, all of which swiftly began snaking across the floor to different pillars. As soon as the cracks reached the pillars, they began to climb up them, wrapping around them until finally the pillars began crumbling. The archways and part of the ceiling also fell.
The Chronicles of Lorrek Box Set Page 106