Still, I knew I could probably do about fifty percent without it really hurting me. That just left two questions. What would happen if I did it and would that be enough?
I wasn’t sure, but I knew I had to try. We’d already done everything we could. We’d crafted the statues. We’d drank the potions. There was no other way. Sure, we could try again, but we’d only had enough materials to try this one time. We’d be starting over, and that was assuming we could even get enough Etheric Flame.
No. This had to work.
I took a deep breath and pointed my sword at the vortex.
“Yes,” I whispered, and as I did, I felt blood trickle from my nose to be swept toward the vortex. Sheer, unadulterated agony stabbed into my brain, driving to my knees in the dirt. The sword in my hand glowed brighter. My heart hammered in my chest. An electric shock seemed to go through me then, causing my muscles to seize, and as Sam said something and Annabeth moved toward me, time seemed to slow down.
For one, glinting moment, I saw Gwen’s face in the vortex, saw her still chained there, and as I stared at her, I saw her nose began to bleed. I saw her skin lose some of its luster. The sigils emblazoned across Clarent flared even brighter, and as I felt darkness starting to encroach upon me, I forced myself to give more.
The sword brightened as Gwen’s face vanished into the dervish. Then I felt hands on my shoulders. Sam’s and Annabeth’s.
Crystal’s were on Sally’s shoulders, and as I watched the two girls, I realized Crystal was bleeding now. Her skin had gotten sallow.
I felt blood spatter across my back, and even though I barely had the strength to turn my head upward, I saw both Sam and Annabeth. Blood poured from their noses too.
That’s when I heard people rushing toward us. Maribelle was next to me a second later, her hand outstretched toward the dervish. Then Buffy and Elizabeth. In the span of a second, it felt like the whole town was there, hands outstretched toward the spell. The dervish flared again, growing in size and intensity.
The buildings around us began to shake, and the ground grew damned near molten. Lightning split the sky and thunder boomed like gunshots in my ears. My vision went blurry then as I came right up to the edge of passing out.
Then the three sets of crafting materials at the corners of the triangle began to glow with star fire. Red for the blood we spilled. Green for the sacrifice in time, energy and materials we gave. And Blue. Blue for the magic we gave. That was when I understood and as that realization hit me like a thousand tons of rock, the entire world went black and empty.
46
A roar that shook the foundations of the building jolted me from sleep. The last thing I remembered was trying to create the Nexus Gateway Conduit, yet somehow I was in bed wearing only a white T-shirt.
“What’s going on?” I cried, leaping from my bed and nearly falling on my face as I tripped over Clarent. The blade was still in its sheath attached to my pants which were themselves strewn on the floor. My hand went out, palming the wall for balance. My chest heaved as another roar nearly shattered my eardrums.
I wasn’t sure what was going on. Had Nadine come to attack us while I was asleep? I wasn’t sure, but I was going to find out. I pulled on my pants and sword belt on my way to the door before disappearing through it. I’d half expected to see people in the hallway, but it was deserted.
A trumpet blast of roars nearly made my heart leap into my throat, but I ignored them as I pulled Clarent free of its sheath and summoned my battle armor. I wasn’t sure what I’d find, but I wanted to be prepared for the worst. As I burst through the doorway, I found myself staring at a trio of dragons so immense they made the ravagers seem small by comparison. They were decked out in glinting armor, complete with massive spiked helmets that glinted in the light of the stormy sky.
As I stared up at the green, red, and blue creatures, I whipped my head around looking for my people. Only they weren’t here. Why was no one here?
I took a step forward as the dragons watched me. Their scales throwing sparkles of color across the ground as their eyes followed me. That’s when I noticed the glowing menu orbs above their heads. How was that possible? Still, seeing them was a relief. It meant they weren’t going to try to eat me. Probably anyway. Free will and all that.
Part of me wanted to flick through their Skills, but I wanted to find out where everyone was. Not that it mattered because a quick glance at the blue one’s menu let me know they were exactly like the ravagers we had captured. Their Stats could not be altered, and they had no Special Abilities.
Satisfied, I made my way around them, trying to find someone, anyone, and as I did, I saw Diana walking toward me flanked by two other women decked out in dragon scale armor.
“Did they wake you?” Diana called, waving a hand at me as she approached. “Sorry about that.”
“How, why?” I said, gesturing to the creatures, and as I did, I realized Diana and her two escorts had menu orbs over their heads too. When had that happened? Man, how long was I unconscious?
“Yeah, but it’s okay.” I took a deep breath as I sheathed Clarent. “I didn’t realize you were here” - I tried to smile - “or that you brought friends.”
“Buffy contacted me and asked if I could send soldiers for the siege.” Diana nodded to her two warriors. “I was going to refuse, but she made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.” Diana patted the big blue one on the flank. “She gave us a way to tame the dragons.” Diana smiled. “Flying on one is just incredible.”
“I’d like to find out sometime,” I said, trying to imagine what it’d be like. “How did Buffy let you tame dragons?”
“Your smith made something with all the Etheric Flame. Some kind of helmet.” She pointed at the dragons’ helmets, and I realized they looked awfully similar to the ones we had used to brain box the ravagers. Clever.
“I think I get it.” I nodded to her. “Thank you for coming.”
“You’re welcome,” Diana said, turning on her heel and gesturing to a new building I’d not seen before. “If you’re awake, you should come to the banquet hall.”
“Banquet hall?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at her.
“Yes,” Diana said, pausing to give me a quizzical look. Then she gestured toward the building. “That’s where everyone is right now. It’s dinner time.”
“Yeah, okay,” I said, rubbing my head as I followed her. I really needed to get a handle on things, but something told me Diana wasn’t the person to ask about it. Sure, she’d come to help save Gwen, and she’d brought dragons, but she wasn’t one of mine. Not really anyway. Not yet.
A few moments later, we stepped into the banquet hall, and the room went absolutely silent. All eyes turned to me. What’s more, there were more people than I remembered being in Lustnor. A huge contingent of them were dragon warriors, but there were more I didn’t recognize.
As I stood there slack jawed, Buffy came over to me. “Act like you knew they were supposed to be here,” Buffy hissed, voice low enough for only me to hear.
She grabbed my hand and led me toward a chair situated in the center of the massive table. Everyone was around it, and as I gave an unsteady beauty queen wave to the crowd, they went back to stuffing their faces. The noise level rose, and I saw Buffy give a little breath of relief.
“What in the blue hell is going on?” I asked as Buffy shoved me into the chair. The spot had been empty, but by the time we reached it, a meal had been laid out in front of it.
She slid into the empty one to my left. Elizabeth was seated in the chair on the right, but she was too busy chatting with Maribelle about cogs and boards to pay much attention to me beyond a relieved hello. It was weird because everyone looked at me, gave a polite wave, and then went back to what they were doing. It made me think they weren’t all that happy to see me, but I had no idea why.
Actually, that wasn’t true. They looked relieved to see me, but at the same time, I’d have expected more commotion. Maybe I hadn’t been asleep that lo
ng, after all.
“Don’t look so surprised. You’ve only been asleep for a day,” Buffy said, leaning toward me so her words were a warm breath in my ear. “During that time, we recruited people to come. Diana was easy enough, and once she came, we got some of the others. Most are mercenaries though. Expensive, but hopefully, they’ll help. All in all, we have about a hundred people, plus the two ravagers and Diana’s three dragons.”
“You got all that ready in a day?” I asked, partially shocked at how quickly it had been done, and with how long I was asleep. That was the thing though. It didn’t feel like I’d been asleep that long. For one, even as I stared at the food in front of me. Some kind of meaty stew and a side of vegetables, I didn’t feel hungry.
“Well, Elizabeth helped.” Buffy gestured toward her sister. “She’s got the connections.” She narrowed her eyes at me as I picked at the veggies with my fork. “You better eat up because now that you’re up, we’re going to head into battle. Who knows the next time you’ll be able to eat?”
“I just don’t feel hungry,” I said, shoving a piece of broccoli into my mouth and chewing it. As a kid, I’d always sort of liked broccoli because it was like being a dinosaur and eating mini trees, but admittedly, most of my adult life had been relatively broccoli free.
“That’s probably because of Sally’s magic. She was using it to keep you from dying while you recovered.” Buffy took a deep breath. “Everyone is okay by the way.”
I swallowed the piece of broccoli and looked around. Everyone was there. Sally, Crystal, Sheila. The whole gang. They were all laughing and having fun in an earnest, “last night before being shipped off” sort of way. I’d seen it before with my friends when they’d joined the military.
“I’m guessing we created the Nexus Gateway Conduit?” I asked, gesturing at the crowd. “Otherwise, I doubt everyone would be here.”
“Yes. Sorry, I should have started with that.” Buffy nodded to Sally across the table. “She has it. Once we’re inside, we’ll be able to activate it. The thing works really well. Gets us from here to Blade’s End or Royal Centre pretty much instantly. If we had more, we could sell them for the town’s weight in gold.” She sighed. “Makes me almost sad we owe the next one to Diana.”
“It is what it is,” I said, nodding to her before standing up. I grabbed my goblet although I wasn’t sure what was in it. I held it up, and the room got as silent as a tomb as all eyes focused on me. “Thanks everyone for coming.”
I took a deep breath. “I know I’m not the smartest or strongest guy, but I promise I’ll do everything I can to ensure victory over the Darkness.” I raised my goblet a little higher. “But I’ll be honest, victory won’t be because of me. It will because of all of you and what you all bring to the table. For that, I thank you.”
Applause broke out as I took a sip from my goblet. Razzleberry punch. Perfect.
47
As I stood at the border between the Darkness and Hell, I took a moment to look back at everyone who had come. While some of the noncombatants like Buffy and Maribelle had stayed behind in town, most everyone else was here. Sheila and Annabeth sat atop their ravagers. Diana’s dragon warriors stood clustered around her and her dragon riders while the rest of the guards and mercenaries stood back in two distinct shield wall lines.
Behind them were the archers, all loaded with explosive and signaling arrows. I knew Sally and the other healers we’d managed to recruit were there too. I’d done what I could to shore up everyone’s Stats and Abilities, but at the same time, I’d tried to leave them with enough Experience for contingencies.
I wasn’t sure it’d be enough to take on the Darkness, but we had to try. If we didn’t succeed, we’d lose Gwen, and what’s more, the Darkness would continue eating all of Hell until there was nothing left. While Gwen had felt much stronger today than she had even a few days ago, something about her capture didn’t feel right. It felt like we were walking into a trap. Last time we’d gone into the Darkness, Agatha had died, and that hadn’t felt like this. Sure, we had the Nexus Gate Conduit now and could open them at will, but at the same time, I was worried.
There was a good chance not all of us would be coming back alive, and everyone who fell would be on my head. Sure, they’d chosen to be here whether out of loyalty, greed, or honor, but their deaths were still on my head, and as commander, it was my responsibility to bear.
And I would do it. I would lead a siege into the Darkness, and I would push it back or die trying. That was my promise to my people.
“Come on you apes, you want to live forever?” I cried, calling forth my armor. Clarent flared to life in my hand. As sapphire light enveloped me before solidifying into armor, the assembled troops shouted and stomped their feet.
Turning back to the Darkness, I stepped into the breach. Just like last time, it felt like my body was being torn apart, but unlike last time, it didn’t feel like it took forever. I wasn’t sure if that was because I was getting used to it or not, but as the Graveyard of Statues appeared before me, I felt a surge of confidence rush through me.
Beholders meandered around the Graveyard like last time, but aside from them, there wasn’t anything much between us and the statue of the Empress at the top. While I couldn’t see Gwen near it, I could feel her stronger than ever.
As the runes on Clarent began to blaze with blue light, the rest of my army appeared behind me. To be honest, I felt a little stupid being out in front, but I felt like I had to lead this way, at least when stepping into the Darkness itself. This was where my compromise with Sheila ended.
As she and Annabeth took the lead with their ravagers, I pointed my sword at the closest beholder. Already the creatures were coming toward us like I’d just chummed shark infested waters. The only problem, at least for them, was that they weren’t the super predators anymore. We were.
“Archers, take out the beholders.” As arrows flew through the air, dousing the massive creatures with fire before blowing them to pieces, I turned back toward the statue. “Sheila, let’s take the Empress.”
“Your wish is my command,” Sheila replied, spurring her ravager forward. The big beasts began to move, each step sending a shockwave through the earth as they plodded forward. While I’d wanted them to avoid the statues as much as possible, after only a few moments, I knew that’d be impossible. The ravagers were so big, they crushed statues into piles of rubble with every step.
“Diana, take your dragons up and do a sweep of the area. I don’t know what’s on the other side of the hill, but I don’t want any surprises.”
She nodded to me from atop her massive red dragon before spurring it into the sky. As it soared upward, her two other riders followed suit, bursting into the darkening sky. Their scales glimmered even in the low light, and as they raced up toward the hill, all hell broke loose.
The ground beneath our feet fractured, spitting gobs of sulfuric smoke into the air. Winged black creatures descended from the sky while lizardmen pulled themselves from the shattered earth around us. Beholders came rumbling down the hill toward us, so numerous that I almost couldn’t see through the wave.
To our right and left, spider-like creatures clamored over the horizon and made a beeline for the ravagers. Sprays of silky webbing shot from their mouths, latching onto the massive creatures in an attempt to pull them to the earth. I wasn’t even sure what the spiders were exactly, but I knew that if they toppled the ravagers, we were screwed.
“Archers, engage the spiders. We can’t lose the ravagers,” I cried, and as arrows arced through the air like a wave of fire and brimstone, I turned my attention to Diana. I’d been about to ask her to lay down a wall of flame between the beholders and us, but as I saw her, I realized that was impossible.
She and her dragons were weaving through the air, engaged in aerial combat with the bat creatures. As they juked and dived in the air in some kind of prehistoric dogfight, I took a deep breath and focused. This was all a distraction, I knew it. We had to
reach the Empress. That was where Gwen’s power seemed to emanate from.
Annabeth’s ravager fell, its legs bound up in white silk, and as the spiders surged toward it, I pointed my sword at the incoming spiders. “Guards, free the ravager!” As the first line moved forward to help while the second stayed behind to guard the archers, I saw Annabeth leap from the creature. Her sculpting knife whipped out as she hit the ground, severing the strands of silk clinging to her beast of burden.
Then the guards slammed into the spiders, spearing them with javelins and driving them back. Again, another distraction. This was a war of attrition, and if we let the enemy keep forcing us to react to them, to defend from them, we were hosed. Our only chance at victory was to claim our prize and flee before their full forces could come down on us like a hammer.
“Dragon warriors to me,” I called, raising my sword into the air. Sapphire light blazed on it as the women moved to my side, encircling me with spear and shield. “We’re taking that hill!”
A battle cry rang from their lips as we pulled forward. Sheila moved forward, ignoring the spiders and everything else as she continued upward, smashing through everything in her way. We followed after her, the dragon warriors battering through whatever lived or got out of Sheila’s path of destruction.
Even still, it was slow going. Annabeth was back up, but she was too focused on assisting the guards and keeping the archers alive to reach us, not with how slow her ravager was.
That was also our problem. While Sheila was good at clearing a path, she was taking so long that more enemies were coming. For every lizardman she killed, two more seemed to take its place, and it wasn’t long before our movement upward turned into a hard slog through enemy lines.
The Builder's Sword (The Legendary Builder Book 1) Page 27