Kings, Queens, Heroes, & Fools

by M. R. Mathias

  “I still have the ring, but you are in peril. It’s a trap. They’ve used Rosa as bait.”

  “I’ll worry about that.” He shook Ironspike in his hand, as if its presence could foil any trap that existed. “Hyden is down in the dungeon. Do you know how to get down there? He needs help badly.”

  “Aye,” Phen nodded, thinking about the creatures he knew to be down there too, including his familiar. “I can find the way.” He helped Rosa out onto the bright horse. He could feel the urgency of Hyden’s situation radiating off of Mikahl, and as soon as Rosa was on the fiery magical creature he yanked the ring from his necklace.

  Rosa hugged herself so tightly to Mikahl that he could barely breathe. “Hurry away before they come,” she said to Mikahl. Then she turned back to the gaping hole in the tower. “Thank you, Pin...” She was going to say more, but the space was empty and she didn’t know if he was still there or not.

  Mikahl heeled the bright horse away from the tower. After the magical stallion put it a few dozen powerful wing strokes behind them, Mikahl began to think that the trap had failed. Already he and the Princess were hundreds of feet away.

  “Oh, King Mikahl,” Rosa sobbed between his shoulder blades. “I’m so glad to see you.”

  “I couldn’t resist the chance to save the most beautiful girl in the realm,” Mikahl replied, oddly thinking of Lord Gregory’s smoothness with his wife. It was the last thought he had before a wave of thick blackness came over him. It was like he had flown into a glob of honey. Princess Rosa, the bright horse, and even Ironspike faded from his world. There was nothing but himself, the blackness, and the sensation of falling.

  At first he waited for the bone-crushing impact, but eventually he realized that he wasn’t falling at all. He was lying in a garden. He couldn’t move, not even his eyeballs. The woman looking down at him seemed blurry. The pink teardrop scar on her cheek, and the bald patch on one side of her head were alarmingly familiar, though. She smiled a wicked, sinister grin. He’d never seen Shaella up close before, and he had to admit that she was beautiful in her own dark sort of way. He tried to speak, tried to lash out at her, but he could do nothing. He felt as if he had been turned to stone.

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Shaella woke to Fslandra’s gentle touch. Sunlight was streaming through the half open shutters. The golden rays that cut across the open space of her bedchamber were alive with sparkling motes. By the angle of the beams she could tell it was midday.

  “What is it?” Shaella snapped rather harshly. The young zardess recoiled with a hiss. Not conversing, or even communicating with Gerard for the last few tortuous days had taken its toll on Shaella.

  “The priests are calling for you, Mastress,” the zard girl hissed. “They have caught something in their trap.”

  Shaella sat up quickly. “The priests have caught the High King?” she asked to make sure she had heard correctly.

  “Yesss,” Fslandra hissed. “The priests are calling for you.”

  “This is wonderful news, Fslandra.” Shaella stood and strode to the wash basin. “Get me my armor,” she commanded as she began to cleanse her naked body with a soft cloth.

  A few, short moments later, she was looking like the imposingly powerful Dragon Queen that she was. Under a studded leather girdle, blackened Harthgarian mail shimmered like scales, as she made her way down to the gazebo where the red priests had erected their temple.

  To Shaella’s delight, Ironspike was lying unsheathed on the altar to her lover. The High King was lying on the wooden floor beside Princess Rosa.

  “How long will they stay like that?” Shaella asked.

  “Indefinitely Your Highness,” one of the priests said.

  “Unless we lift the stasis,” added another.

  “No, don’t do that,” Shaella told them. She leaned down and looked into Mikahl’s eyes. She gave him a big gloating smile. “Does he see me?” she asked as she stood back up.

  “Were not sure,” one of them answered. “He’s still able to blink, so it’s likely.”

  “Would you like us to kill them now?” the third priest asked. He was hovering over Princess Rosa. The girl’s raggedy clothes were torn and one of her breasts was exposed. Shaella gave him a disapproving look that caused him to back away from her.

  “The Princess is to remain unmolested,” Shaella barked. The look on her face made clear that she was serious. “I may have need of her in Dakahn.”

  She dismissed the priest by smiling broadly past him at the person who was approaching across the lawn. It was Flick. He was grinning and nodding as if he were impressed with the sight before him. “He really isn’t much is he?” the wizard said as he came to stand over Mikahl.

  “Not without that,” she pointed at the sword lying on the altar. “I was just debating over what I should do with him.”

  “Take your time,” Flick suggested. “Ra’Gren has need of us once more. It seems he is about to try a run into Wildermont through the Seareach Passage again. His men will be decimated if you or I don’t lend our assistance. I would have gone already myself, but I thought that you might enjoy a chance to unleash Vrot on Jarrek’s troops.

  “It seems that you’ve become a mind reader as well as a great wizard,” she told him. “I think a ride on my dragon is exactly what I need. You’re coming on the Choska?”

  “Of course, Mastress,” Flick said with a flourishing bow. “With both of us there to harry Jarrek’s archers, the Dakaneese troops should be able to retake the passage with ease.”

  “Ra’Gren’s fools will find a way to muck it up,” Shaella said, showing her distaste for the King of Dakahn with her expression. “They are so dependent on their slaves that they’ve grown lazy and weak. It makes me almost ashamed to be half Dakaneese.”

  “What are we to do with the High King?” one of the red priests ventured.

  “Leave them where they lay, both of them. I will post a potent guard around the altar before I go. Make a prayer to my lover telling him what you’ve done here, but do not disturb him otherwise.”

  ***

  Commander Escott gave Master Wizard Amill a dubious look. “Do you really think it will work?”

  “That demon can’t be in two places at once,” said Amill. “I think that, with what Queen Willa and General Spyra are doing to aid King Jarrek, it will all work out in the end.” He turned to the tattoo covered commander. “At least as long as it still looks like all our troops are stalled over here when the sun comes up.”

  “Making five thousand men looked like ten thousand isn’t so hard at a distance,” said Escott. “It’s making them look like twenty thousand men that’s the trick.”

  “My spells will hold as long as your men don’t go scattering about.”

  “After the last debacle I think that they’ll do anything you say, Master Wizard. You saved a few thousand of them from getting roasted.”

  The night after the first crossing attempt failed, they’d tried again. They stormed the bridge in a great snaking line of soldiers, six abreast. Once across, they went in three separate directions, forcing the demon beasts to go to extreme measures trying to stop them all. It seemed to be working until the monstrous thing began using its magic. Demon fire, in hot emerald gouts, clung to flesh and earth alike. Only a powerful wall of force that Master Amill cast into existence between the demon and the retreating troops saved them.

  Hopefully, sending fifteen thousand men north to the bridge at Oktin under the cover of night would allow them to get past the demon so that they could attack O’Dakahn as planned. The new tactic would work if Commander Escott’s men, and Master Amill’s spells, could convince the demon that the Seaward force was still across the river from them waiting.

  “We’ll learn in the morning if they suspect anything,” Master Amill finally said.

  “The light of day will surely tell the tale,” Commander Escott had to agree.

  ***

  Gerard saw them—pairs of eyes in the blackness. T
here were thousands of them, and they were everywhere. Some were brighter than others, some bigger, or farther away, but all of them were looking at him. They backed away as he passed, giving him ample room. Some of them did this out of respect, but most of them backed away out of fear.

  From all over the hells, the demons and devils, as well as other things, had come to witness the impending battle. They gazed in awe at the only creature that ever grew bold enough to try Deezlxar a second time.

  Gerard was tense. By all rights Deezlxar could set these things on him. So many attackers at once would be impossible to overcome. The Master of Hell was vain, though; the Abbadon chose not to destroy Gerard that way. He would make an example of the thing that had challenged him. Deezlxar knew that if a creature like Gerard could come maul him and get away with it, soon, other power hungry entities would try him. Such was the way of things in the Nethers.

  Deezlxar wasn’t ready to hand his domain over to the likes of Kraw or Shokin just yet. He was ready to destroy Gerard, though, and he planned on doing it in fantastic fashion.

  The shape of the archway that led into Deezlxar’s chamber could be seen by the deep crimson glow of all those eyes. As Gerard strode cockily up to the arch, a hissing murmur echoed through those gathered around. The buzz of anticipation was intense. The time was at hand.

  Gerard learned a lesson last time. Deezlxar wouldn’t just fold under his dominant will like the other malignant creatures of this place had. Gerard’s quickness and savagery weren’t going to be enough. He had to be not only faster, but smarter. It was with that thought that he darted into Deezlxar’s chamber.

  As expected, the Dark One was ready too. There were no threatening words spoken this time. The snapping teeth of one of the Abbadon’s heads, and a powerful sweep of his long spidery limbs and the battle began. After dodging the severe fangs that clacked closed just in front of him, Gerard would have been batted away by the club like appendage coming at him, but he expected such an attack this time. He flashed away in a flurry of rose and lavender sparkles, reappearing behind the Dark One. Then, with a vicious series of hacking slices, he tore into the great devil’s tail stalk. He couldn’t get all the way through the heavy member before the creature spun, but he did manage to sever the bony central core where the tail’s nerves and tendons were.

  Deezlxar whipped around, but without his tail to stabilize his momentum, he spun too far. Gerard, like before, leapt and charged up one of the Dark One’s two remaining necks. He saw that the Abbadon had chewed his headless trunk down to a grisly nub. Before the thing could respond, Gerard leapt from its neck to its bulbous spider-crab body. Gerard figured that if its weak spot wasn’t on the underside, then it most likely was on the top. He landed with his dagger-like toes puncturing fleshy hide for traction, and then he tore into the thing like a badger digging a hole in the earth to escape a hungry wolf.

  Skin, blood, and thick slimy matter flew out from behind him. He ripped, and thrashed, and dug a hole the size of a water well into the Dark One’s back.

  The chorused roar of both of Deezlxar’s remaining heads was earsplitting. By hacking its tail, Gerard had thrown its whole equilibrium off kilter. There was little Deezlxar could do, and he had to do something quickly. His heads couldn’t reach back and over to snap at Gerard.

  Gerard was digging deeper into the Abbadon’s body one moment, the next, he felt an icy wave pass through him. It was so bitterly frigid that his fiery dragon’s blood had to fight to move through his veins. Stiff and rigid he teetered and rolled from Deezlxar’s back. In a crash that nearly shattered him to pieces, he hit the flat featureless floor of the chamber. The only thing that saved him was the fiery nature of his body’s core. Had it not worked to thaw him from the solid block of ice that he had momentarily become, he would have shattered into a thousand pieces.

  While he was still sluggish and groggy, and trying to regain himself, one of Deezlxar’s dragon-like heads came down on him. Huge jaws snapped shut over his body. He nearly choked on the hot fetid breath. Teeth bore down on his middle, digging sharply into his armored skin. He found that his head and shoulders were inside one of the mouths. He could feel the immense pressure of the Dark One’s jaws smashing at his middle, but the teeth couldn’t penetrate his plated body. It was no comfort, because he knew the other head would soon snap closed on his legs and tear him in two. The protective nature of his hide wouldn’t be able to save him from that. He felt his lower half being shaken violently and fought down his panic. He tried to tune out the pain and focus on his magic.

  Blast after blast of crackling purple energy shot forth from his clawed hands. The first and second of them seemed to do little, but the rest of the blasts caused his world to still. After that, he felt air from outside the mouth flowing past him. A jarring crash told him what he wanted to know. The jaws slackened on his body and he crawled forward into the head through the thick soupy the mixture of blood and tissue left by his spells. He came out of the gaping hole his blasts had caused in the, now limp, dragon’s head. He was met with a heavy blow that sent him spinning head over tail through the air. Before he landed, another blow rocked him, causing the blackness to fill with explosions of white light. Just before he smashed into the floor, he snapped himself away in a crackling pop of lavender sparkles. He brought himself back into the chamber high overhead, and with the sudden extension of his torn leathery wings, he righted his fall.

  He landed on Deezlxar’s back and instantly started tearing another hole into the Dark One’s flesh. This time he stopped after penetrating into the mucky yellowish goo. Before the Abbadon could throw him, he cast a spell, and dove away to avoid the blast of the energy he’d loosed inside the beast. The shower of gel-like matter that exploded up out of the hole splashed across him like mud. A moment later he leapt back onto Deezlxar and skittered to its back and blasted again.

  The agony the second concussion sent through the Lord of Hell kept Deezlxar from being able to use his magic. He could do little more than buck and twirl. For a long while, Gerard continued assaulting the Abbadon by blasting and leaping away as fast as he could manage. Long after the Dark One’s form had stilled, Gerard was still clawing and blasting. He didn’t stop until he was exhausted. By then the Abbadon was a mushy ruin.

  The last thing Gerard did before he let out his brutal victory roar was to call out to Kraw’s priests and tell them he was ready to come into the world. Then, after the echoes of his savage roar subsided, he told all the terrified skulking creatures of hell to be ready. Soon they would be able to celebrate his victory with a feast of man flesh.

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  As if caught between a fantastic dream, and some horrible nightmare, Hyden spiraled in and out of consciousness. One moment he was with Talon flying over lush green tree tops. The next, he was convulsing in the dungeon cell next to a starved giant’s corpse. Somewhere, not too far away, he could feel the vibrations of kinetic explosions. A fleeting thought of his friend Mikahl came and went. Hope and fear, in a vivid flash. He couldn’t remember where Talon was going, but he could tell that the hawkling was moving with great speed and purpose. There was no circling or lingering on this flight.

  Pain in his abdomen gripped him again, stealing his breath. Then the relieving magic of the dragon’s tear medallion surged through him. His mind went back to Talon’s and he watched the world pass below. At least until the hot pile of coals in his guts began to flare, pulling him back into the helpless pain-filled reality of the dungeon cell he was lying in. The tear pulsed again and he was flying over a river. Over and again the pain consumed him, and the magic of the dragon’s tear eased it away, but eventually his thoughts found a daze of semi-reality where both sensations collided into confusion.

  Talon flew round and round the cell, and Hyden fell from the sky into a swirling cloud. Wait, his subconscious screamed, I’m still in the cell. Talon is in the air. The hawkling screeched out in protest as Hyden started to slip away. Like a hot needle, Talon for
ced his vision into Hyden’s spinning brain. A sea of green swaying leaves leapt up, and when it seemed the emerald mass was about to slam into them, they went right through. Branches, streams of mote-filled sunlight, and then the sound of other birds filled Hyden’s head. The dizzying flight carried him through the undergrowth to a place where a gurgling stream had pooled. Talon landed on a large moss covered boulder at the edge of the water and screeched out again. A thundering cloud of smaller birds, and a few of the smaller four-legged creatures, exploded away from the fierce sound. Gliding from his perch down to the stream’s edge, Talon began splashing the cool liquid over him. Hyden felt the chill of it. It helped him focus. Using all of the strength of will he could muster, he stared deeply into the rippling pool. Just then, a white, pillowy cloud passed overhead. Its reflection made the surface of the water appear milky-white, chased with silver. A particular swirling of ripples spun and wavered, and slowly, as if she were the sky herself, the White Goddess formed into being. Her arms opened wide in welcome, but the beautiful smile Hyden expected to see wasn’t on her face. Her look of sadness as she took him in filled him with dread.

  “I think that I’ve failed you, m’lady,” Hyden said. “I’m at the door of death and our enemies are ushering me in.”

  “You must go into the darkness, Hyden Hawk,” she said gently. “Only there can you find the light.”

  “Aye,” Hyden responded. He had no idea what she meant. “I need not go anywhere. The darkness is coming to me.”

  “You must suffer the pain Hyden,” she commanded. “You are not dead yet. Pull yourself to your feet and seek the darkness. Only there will you find the light. The light can save you, but you must hurry.”

  “I don’t understand,” he rasped as her image started to fade.

  “Find the light in the darkness, and the balance will be restored, Hyden.” She was fading from view. “Get up Hyden,” she urged, but then she was gone.