Shortly after, the sounds of many booted feet were heard approaching. The three did their best to conceal themselves, and they went unnoticed as Davik and his family approached.
First was Davik, followed by his eldest son, Torvus. After him was Korvos, two of Davik's daughters, and Davik's wife, Ophelia. All were exceptionally well armed and ready for a fight.
Davik looked behind him. "Talen, get your ass in here." he demanded.
Talen slowly walked in, the light of the brazier deepening the lines of his face. He was obviously nervous. "I did all I needed to, why are you still dragging me around?"
Davik scowled. "Do it." he commanded. "Or people will find out your little secret."
Talen grimaced, but walked up to Davik. "I don't think it's going to matter any more after this is over." he muttered.
The two guards, prepared for a fight but trying to keep their cool, took a step forward. "Stop." one of them said. "What brings you here?"
"The throne." Davik replied. "It looks so empty without anyone sitting on it. I think I'd like to have a seat, see how comfortable it is."
The guards then gripped their weapons. "The king is not available to challenge today." The other guard added, "Come back when he returns."
Davik smiled, his grin looking disturbing when under lit by the brazier. "Oh, I don't think that Gurn will be coming back." he said. "So get out of our way, and I promise you can keep your position when I'm in charge.
"Davik, you'd break the tradition of rulership?" The guard replied. "Gurn would take your challenge, if you’d only but made it."
Davik shook his head. "Why would I want to have a fair fight?" he asked. "You know you can lose those?"
"Then we have to stop you." The first guard replied.
Joven and Balen stepped into the light, on either side of the group. Leona pulled the lever, and the portcullis dropped into place behind them with a crash. Joven held his bastard sword with one hand and a throwing knife concealed in the palm of the other.
"A trap!?" Torvus shouted. Each of the Rathe family readied weapons.
"Talen!" Balen exclaimed. For some reason, Leona had remained hidden. "You've this one chance to surrender. Do so, and you might just be able to walk away from this alive."
Talen turned to his brother. Joven noticed that Talen had no weapons, and wore only clothing to protect against the cold. "I'm sorry brothers." Talen replied, his expression sorrowful, but his eyes burned with anger. "I can't. You wouldn't understand."
"You can't beat me, Talen." Balen replied. "You know that."
Talen held up a hand and looked at it in the firelight. Joven wasn't able to determine what it was, but something felt wrong.
"You're right." Talen replied. "I couldn't beat you before. But now, I can beat you both. So just-"
Leona flew across the stone floor in a horizontal leaping charge from behind Talen. She thrust out her right elbow, using her left arm to stabilize and reinforce the strike as she hit him squarely in the back with enough force that his feet left the ground and he crashed face first to the stones twelve feet away. He bounced once, sliding across the floor another couple of feet, as she was suddenly in the place he had a moment before been occupying.
"I've been beating your ass since you were a babe." Leona replied, her voice cold. "Now, accept your punishment, son."
Davik and Torvus took a step towards her, but then the two guards raised their greatswords and charged in past her. Joven raised his bastard sword to his shoulder with his one hand, squaring off with one of Korvos' sisters. He felt no hesitation to fight, and possibly kill them; all warriors were equals in steel, regardless of gender. With a flick, he threw the knife he had palmed. Caught off guard, the woman fell with his knife in her throat.
With a shout, Balen swung his greatsword in an arc in front of him. Korvos and Ophelia blocked the strike with their weapons, but were forced back from the strength of the blow. Joven went to work fighting the other sister while the two guards kept Torvus and Davik busy.
Leona stalked towards her son Talen who, to her surprise, was getting back up to his feet. "That was a low blow, mother." he said, wiping blood from his lips.
"You deserve such a beating." she replied. "After what you've done to our family."
"You don't understand!" he exclaimed, raising his arms in a guarded stance. "Gurn is evil, we need to be rid of him!"
"And his son?" Leona asked. "Is he evil, too?"
Talen's face was flushed red, the veins in his neck standing out as he clenched his jaw. "Yes." he muttered.
"Stop this." Leona said, a hint of softness in her voice. "I don't want to do this to you."
Talen laughed, but there was an aggressive tone in his voice. "Stop? You can't do anything to me now." Talen replied. "I guess it was stupid to try to hide it."
Her eyes narrowed, Leona adjusted her defensive stance. "What?"
Talen's eyes were bloodshot. "You have no idea how angry I am." He managed to get out, before his voice turned into a wordless growl.
From him, a wave of some unseen feeling washed over Leona and everyone within the courtyard, temporarily halting the battle.
"Oh shit." Korvos exclaimed. "Open the gates. Open the gates!"
Rage. It boiled and bubbled in the air around Talen. Everyone could feel it coming off of him like the heat of a fire. His coat bulged as his muscles swelled with power, the seams straining to remain intact. His hands clenched into fists, a singular purpose danced in his eyes. Destruction.
"Oh gods." Leona murmured. "My son... you've been taken by the Furie!"
One of the guards panicked. "Berserker!" he screamed, backing away from the fight.
The mistake drew Talen's attention. The stone floor cracked as he pushed off, shooting past Leona in a blur that knocked her into a spin.
Talen's fist hit the man square in the breastplate and caved it in, the man's rib cage shattering under the blow as he was knocked straight backwards. He was dead well before his corpse hit the wall on the far side of the courtyard and left an impact crater in its surface.
A scream of rage resonated from Talen's chest, unnaturally loud and powerful, and only pausing when he took a breath. Saliva spewed from his lips as he rounded on the rest of the men, no longer able to identify friend from foe.
"By the gods." Balen muttered. "Talen..."
"I thought you said he had it under control." Davik asked Korvos.
Terrified, Korvos backed away slowly. "He wasn't in the refuge, so I thought he was." He said with a trembling voice.
"Change in priority." Davik said aloud. "Focus on that guy."
The remaining fighters able to stand, turned towards Talen. Talen rounded on Davik and leapt in. Though Talen had power and rage fueling his every movement, Davik had decades of combat experience. He juked out of the way of a wild swing, but could only move fast enough to hit Talen in the side with the pommel of his sword.
"Take his head!" He shouted. "They ignore fatal wounds!"
Torvus jumped in, swinging with a longsword. Talen reached out and caught the blade, the edge biting into the flesh of his palm, but not penetrating. He caught Torvus' wrist with the other hand and with a scream of effort. swung him around, knocking fighters down like pins. He kept up the spin, and threw him straight up into the air. Sailing dozens of yards into the air, Torvus screamed all the way down to crash into the roof of the castle somewhere in the darkness.
Joven and Balen stood back as Talen devastated his own allies. Leona had picked herself up, but was staying out away from him as he fought more obvious targets. "Mother?"
"We are in trouble." Leona replied. "He's not going to go down without a fight."
"What if we stop fighting?" Joven asked.
"We're in sight." she replied. "And breathing. That's enough. He has no control."
"Okay, then we come at him from three sides." Balen said. "Split his attention."
"Great." Joven replied. "Then while he's splattering one of us the other two c
an get him. Best odds I've seen so far."
"Or," Leona said. "We can jump in now while Davik and Korvos are still alive."
Joven looked. The two were the only ones left standing, and they were barely keeping Talen from smashing them with the body of the other guard. He'd swing, they’d leap back, but couldn't close in fast enough before Talen recovered to swing again.
"Oh." Balen said. "That's a much better plan. Circle out."
They split, Leona circling around behind her berserking son. Joven moved to come in a third of the way out from there, and Balen the other third, making as close to a circle as possible. Joven and Balen readied their swords, and Leona picked up a mace dropped by one of Korvos' sisters.
Talen swung again, this time letting go of the body. Two hundred fifty pounds of armor plated body slammed into the two Rathes and knocked them down. The body sprawling across them.
"Now!" Balen cried. The three lunged in and swung.
With unnatural speed, Talen lashed out with his hands, knocking Joven and Balen’s weapons away. But he wasn't fast enough to turn and stop Leona from bringing the mace down on the back of his head hard. There was a sickening crack as metal met flesh and bone, and Talen staggered. His eyes rolled back in his head, but somehow he kept his footing as he struggled to remain standing.
Leona, terrified, wound up and swung again. The mace struck again, blood spraying from his scalp as he finally tumbled forward. He sank to his knees, the screams of rage drifting off as his muscles twitched, still trying to fight. She wound up a third time, and with a scream that resounded with terror as well as remorse, swung a third time. That time, Talen dropped to the ground.
The rage that could be felt pouring off him dissipated, but not instantly. Joven could feel it curl around him, almost as if it were a living thing, trying to find a way inside. He felt it probing at his will for just a split second, but then it was gone.
"The Furie," Balen muttered. "I could feel it."
Leona dropped to her knees, the mace clattering from numb fingers. She tentatively reached out and touched her fallen son. Tears glimmered in her eyes as she grieved.
Talen's body twitched. He groaned, but remained down.
"By the gods." Leona murmured. "He's still alive?"
"You must have held back." Balen replied. "There's no gods in that."
Leona shook her head, wiping the tears from her eyes. "No, I swung as hard as I could. The first blow should have painlessly killed him." she whispered.
"It's impossible for him to have survived three hits." Balen declared. "It's-"
Leona's eyes widened as she looked up at him. "Balen!" She shouted. "Watch out!"
Balen turned, sidestepping, but Davik had managed to line up the shot well enough that he hit even with the warning. The longsword punched through the leather armor of his lower back and pierced out the front, impaling Balen in the gut.
Joven leapt to the side on a knee-jerk reaction, and as he hit the ground and rolled, he saw he had narrowly avoided a similar fate as Korvos lunged in at him. They had recovered from being knocked senseless, and like idiots, Joven's family had forgotten them in the aftermath.
Balen swung his sword behind him, but was at a nearly impossible angle. Davik skipped back out of the way, letting go of the sword and drawing a long dagger. Balen's wound spurted blood as he swung, and he sank to his knees, grimacing in pain.
Joven rose, lifting his sword. Leona started to rise, but Korvos came at her from the side, a solid kick connecting with her head. She dropped to the ground silently and was still.
The only one left standing was Joven; against the man who had fought him to a standstill in a duel, and that man's father who had trained him. Balen fell to his side, trying to keep from bleeding out.
"If there ever was a time to need the Inheritance," Joven muttered under his breath. "It'd be now."
There was one difference from the last time he fought Korvos. It was no longer a duel.
Joven knew if he failed now, Daelen would come home to find his entire family dead and what had once been a comrade, the new ruler. He couldn't let that happen.
"Give up." Davik urged. "You couldn't beat my boy, what makes you think you can beat both of us?"
Joven smiled. "You want to know what?" he asked. "Now, I just don't give a damn."
He lunged towards Davik, swinging with his sword. While he moved, he pulled the battle axe from his belt. Davik juked back, avoiding the long reach of the sword. Joven let the momentum carry his swing in a circle and swung out with the battle axe as his back was momentarily exposed to Davik. Korvos still had a sword and was able to deflect his swing; however, it disrupted his own attack. Davik, seeing his back exposed, lunged in to stab at him.
Joven's axe caught him in the side of his face, the instant after the man saw it coming. Joven felt a satisfying thunk as the weapon hit home and dug deep. Blood sprayed across his hand and forearm as he let go of the weapon, leaving it in the man's corpse.
Korvos skipped back, his eyes wide with surprise. "You..." he started.
"Why would you want to have a fair fight?" Joven repeated. "You know you can lose those?"
His opponent's face reddened in rage.
"This is your only chance, Korvos." Joven said, taking a defensive stance. "You are the last one left. Give it up."
"For what?" Korvos retorted. "Execution? No, I think I'll take my chances killing you."
"You're never going to beat Kalenden." Joven replied. "With your family at your back, you might have stood a chance."
Korvos shook his head slightly. "No!" he exclaimed. "You should be helping me! Why are you helping him?"
Joven's face was set in stone. "You have betrayed our people and our ways! Gurn could be a harsh king, but we have our duty! You could have been king if you just fought him openly! You could have changed everything that way!"
"You can't beat him that way!" Korvos replied. "He's a monster! A beast!" He raised his sword, taking a step forward.
Joven readied his weapon. "We are barbarians!" he screamed in response. "We kill monsters! We slay beasts! That's what we do!"
They swung at the same time. Joven put every ounce of his remaining strength into the swing. The blade sang as it sheared the air towards Korvos' neck. Korvos swung in the same arc, their blades colliding at the midpoint. Sparks flew, and for a split second, the blades seemed to hang in the air, time suspended. Joven and Korvos exchanged one last look, and Joven saw a fleeting moment of acceptance in his opponent's eyes.
This time, Korvos' sword shattered under the force of the colliding blades; bits of shattered steel biting into Joven's face and pinging off the chest plate of his armor. Joven's sword continued its arc coming to a stop on the other side, the last eight inches of the blade streaked with blood.
Korvos, headless, fell to the ground. Joven slowly turned around the courtyard. The only other person in the yard that was both alive and conscious was Balen. He looked up at his brother, his face ashen.
"It's over?" he asked.
Joven took one more look, and then nodded. "Yes."
Balen sighed, wincing. "Great." he replied. "Do you think I could get... I don't know, some first aid here?" he asked.
Joven dropped the sword and tended to his brother. The fight was over, and the enemy was gone. It was time to try to patch things up. Once he stabilized Balen enough that he would survive to get real treatment, he would have to give the all clear. For now, though, the fight was over.
* * * *
It hadn't been over. Joven survived without severe injury, but almost everything else had gone horribly wrong. Daelen never returned home, nor did King Gurn.
An investigative group was dispatched, and they found the battle site within a week. King Gurn, his twelve elite guard, and Daelen, had been ambushed by a pack of wolfmen that must have been over seventy members large. Gurn had been the last to die, his body still protruding over a dozen spears that had struck him. Joven was told they had to dig Daelen'
s body out from under twenty wolfmen corpses; having slain most of the enemy despite his numerous wounds. He had still been clutching the Inheritance in one fist when he was found, the other locked firmly around the broken neck of a wolfman.
Leona had suffered a severe concussion from the kick to her head, and they refrained from telling her the news of Daelen’s death for several weeks until she had recovered enough to handle it. She had mourned for months.
Balen survived, though by all accounts, most men died from stomach wounds as severe as he had suffered. He really was a mountain of a man, but he was bedridden for a long time. Holly stuck with him for a time, but left before he fully recovered.
Talen survived as well. By Balatoran law and custom, he should have been executed. But. Kalenden, in a rare streak of kindness, instead had him banished to the Berserker's Refuge, where he would remain for the rest of his life and cause no further trouble. Whether or not he could survive inside the refuge, Joven didn't want to know.
The only thing that turned out right from the whole event was that the new king, Kalenden, had the Rathe family struck from the mountain. Any remaining members of the family were from that point on, non-existent, and no one would interact with them. They drifted away from the mountain shortly after, taking what meager supplies they could gather with them.
The Guardian position was then, obviously, offered to Joven. He had no real choice in the matter anymore; there was no one else. He was the last Guardian of the Spengur alive, and it would be up to him to protect a man of magic against the rest of his people. Now, all that remained was to find the Spengur before the eclipse.
Chapter 05: Two Years Ago
Joven climbed the steps up to the eighth bowl. It had been months since he had last been called to meet with the king, and he was hopeful that finally, he would be called to action.
Over the eight years since his father's death, his family had grown apart. Leona remained at home, forever honing her smithing skills, and only selling her crafts to negate her costs. Balen moved permanently upon his promotion to General, and owned a fine house in the sixth bowl and had a wife with two young children. He had gotten very good at leading people, and in the few times they had sparred since, Joven still could never beat the man in a fair fight.
Spellscribed Tales: First Refrain Page 8