Legend of the Sword Bearer: Tempest Chronicles Book 1

by Jeremy Fabiano

  “Morning,” said Morogan. “Storm gone. Still windy but not bad.”

  “Where’s Garstil and Sai?” I asked.

  Thasgrin finished packing up his bedroll. “They’re out scouting the area, tryin’ to find that pillar.”

  “All right, let’s start breaking camp and catch up to them,” I said.

  Outside, the sun was just beginning to rise. The wind blew pretty strong, and the air had a chill to it. Sand rode along the wind like trails of leaves in the air. A little ways away, Garstil and Sai were examining a large pillar protruding from the sand. Nothing else could be seen for miles in any given direction except the mound with the cave from which we’d just come.

  “You guys learn anything?” I asked.

  “Not really,” said Garstil.

  “There is some sort of writing here, which I do not recognize,” said Sai.

  I examined the text on the side of the pillar. “This looks Dwarvish,” I said. “Thasgrin, what do you make of it?”

  Thasgrin brushed sand off some of the writing. “Those who would think themselves worthy, enter the dungeon and prove your valor. But if ye fall in battle, ye will guard the temple, eternally.” As Thasgrin read the words aloud, the ground began to shake. Sand fell away from the pillar, and steps descended into the side of the sand dune. Apparently, we were standing on the dungeon.

  “Shall we?” I asked.

  “Looks kind of creepy,” said Garstil.

  We proceeded down the sandy staircase and into the depths of the dungeon as sand rained down from the sides. When we reached the bottom, a stone door loomed before us.

  “How open?” asked Morogan. He put a hand on it and pushed. “Door solid. Morogan not move.”

  “Oi, look here,” said Thasgrin. “There’s some kind of interface.” He put his hand on a hand-shaped pad. Nothing happened. “Maybe it’s keyed to somethin’ else?”

  I examined the panel. “There are indicators next to the pad. Power maybe?”

  Garstil put his hand on the pad and started feeding lightning into it. At first, nothing happened, but after a minute, one of the indicators lit up green. “Huh, guess I’ll turn it up a bit.”

  The hair on my arms stood up as Garstil pumped more power into the interface. Slowly, the indicators filled up. Once at maximum, a low hum could be felt in the ground. Slowly, the massive stone door slid aside, and a cold breeze hit us in the face. A chilling contrast to the cool morning desert air outside by quite a degree. Out of the fridge and into the freezer.

  Torches lit on their own accord all along a massive hallway. It ran for fifty feet with a heavy wooden door at the end. Suits of armor, spaced every five feet, stood guard at the sides of the hallway. There were ten in total, right at the entrance. They gleamed and reflected the torchlight. The armors also had weapons, held casually but nonetheless quite threatening. I could make out swords, daggers, maces, whips, and glaives. Even a few I couldn’t put a name to. And they were very well maintained.

  “Wow,” I said. “I’ve played enough games to see where this is going. Don’t touch or even get too close to the armors. They’ll probably attack us.”

  “Oops,” said Sai behind me.

  Eyes flared orange all around us. “Fuck,” I breathed. Behind me, I heard that same expletive several more times from behind me. I drew my swords and slashed upward on the right and to the side on the left, parrying two separate attacks, both which were aimed to decapitate me. I could hear the sounds of weapons clashing all around. The doors slammed shut hard enough to knock dust loose from the ceiling. So, we couldn’t leave even if we wanted to.

  Sai and I ended up back to back. “Oops, huh?” I asked, over the sounds of battle.

  “Yes, sorry,” replied Sai while he parried three armors at once with lightning-fast reflexes. “It had a shiny weapon I was admiring. I could not resist.” A massive clang caught our attention, and I looked over to see a pile of armor in pieces on the stone floor. Morogan loomed over it and retrieved his shield from the pile. And then the pieces came back together, and the armor stood back up.

  “Uh…” said Morogan as he backed away.

  That’s when I saw Garstil, pinned to the wall by his throat. His feet dangled inches off the floor, and his hands were at his side. He was unconscious. “Thasgrin! Get Garstil!” I yelled.

  Three hundred and seventy-five pounds of solid metal Dwarven muscle slammed into the armor holding Garstil. Thasgrin’s massive shoulder flattened the chest piece against the wall, and Garstil fell to the ground. Green energy flowed into him as Thasgrin began to heal him. The suit that Thasgrin flattened picked itself back up, and metal screamed as it popped its chest back out, looking as good as new.

  “Morogan, protect Thasgrin. We’ll hold them off,” I said. I willed heat into my blades, and the runes flared bright red. I slashed at the midsection of the armor suit in front of me. Metal parted with a screech. The edges of the cut glowed red and turned to orange as the metal cooled. I’d expected to cut it clean in two, but they seemed a lot stronger than I’d thought. I barely scratched them. And then I noticed the metal melting back together to a shiny, mirror polish. “That just isn’t fair,” I said, breathing hard.

  I switched the heat out for lightning and stabbed the rune sword into an armored warrior. As soon as the blade was inside, lightning arced all around, and the orange eyes went white and then black, and the armor collapsed to pieces. All around us, the armors all wailed some demonic cry, echoing in their armored helms. Then they got stronger. And faster.

  “Thasgrin, I need Garstil, now!” Morogan, Sai, and I now stood between the onslaught of metal and the downed arcane mage. I took out another suit of armor. The rest enraged even more. “Can’t kill any more of them. If we do, we won’t be able to hold off the rest of them.”

  Lightning exploded upward from the ground and into every set of armor in the room. Wails of anguish filled the chamber and made our heads swim in pain. All of the armors collapsed into heaps.

  “Did I miss anything?” asked Garstil. Thasgrin helped him to his feet.

  “No. Garstil just in time,” said Morogan. “Garstil save everyone.”

  We all sat down, out of breath. “Yeah, I think this calls for a break,” I said. Murmurs of agreement met my ears.

  While taking a breather, we inspected the weapons the suits of armor had been wielding and were sorely disappointed.

  “They have all tarnished and rusted,” said Sai.

  “What a shame,” said Thasgrin.

  “Magic weapons,” said Morogan.

  “The magic must have kept everything like new,” I said.

  Morogan stood. “Should go. Not get tired sitting.”

  We all nodded in agreement and made our way to the end of the hallway. Another door like the first greeted us, and Garstil made quick work of it, and we pushed forward.

  Statues, gargoyles, and suits of armor cluttered most of the available workspace in the room we had just entered. Looking around, we noticed a large wooden door on the far end of the room.

  “What is this place?” I asked.

  “If I had to guess, I'd say this is where they made those armor suits we jus’ fought,” said Thasgrin. “We should split up, see if we find anythin’ useful.” I nodded and we went our separate ways.

  I didn't find anything of use. However, something did catch my attention. Upon a pedestal rested a bleached human skull with glowing yellow runes engraved into bone. As I neared it, I could feel power thrumming around it. Pouring out of it.

  I reached for the skull and stopped half an inch from it. Not this time. I lowered my arm, and the thrumming power seemed to grow more persistent. More agitated. As if it was annoyed that I hadn’t pick it up. I ignored it for the time being. Next to the pedestal was the huge door I had seen earlier. Holding it shut tightly was a wooden beam across it. I tried the beam, but it didn't budge.

  “Hey, guys,” I called. “Check this out.” As they approached, the skull’s eyes began to gl
ow a faint orange.

  A ghost of a gorgeous woman appeared before us, smiling. “I will unlock it for you. If…you help me.”

  “What would you ask of us?” asked Sai.

  “It is a simple matter, really. Just return my skull to my body in the next chamber.” She pointed to a side room we hadn't noticed. “Then, I will finally be able to rest.”

  “Room of bones,” said Morogan, pointing to where the ghost had hinted. “Not happy bones. Angry. Sad. Tortured.” We all looked at each other with some trepidation.

  “I don’ know how else that door is gettin’ opened,” said Thasgrin. “Not only is that beam more than we can all lift, something magical is holdin’ it down. I've felt mountains less solid than that.”

  We took her skull to the next room, and the ghost followed us. The next room looked like a tomb. Skeletons lay arranged in groups, and at the head of the room on a stone chair, not a throne, sat a decayed and headless corpse.

  "Simply put the skull atop my body, and I shall do the rest," she said. I did so, and then she faded into the corpse. Her eyes flared orange and she stood, shambling a little bit.

  "Fools," she said. "I am free at last. Here is your reward." She cackled menacingly as she waved her hands in a complicated pattern.

  "We apparently have company," said Sai as he jumped backward and landed in a defensive crouch, daggers drawn.

  Around us, skeletons rose from the ground, brandishing weapons. We were outnumbered three to one and were completely surrounded. "Take the skellies," said Thasgrin. "I can bind her for a few minutes." He reached out his hands toward her decrepit body and latched onto her with vines of green energy. She howled in anger but couldn't move an inch.

  We drew weapons and laid into the skeletons with as much speed as we could. There was no telling how long Thasgrin could hold her. I'd managed to take out two before Garstil unleashed a wave of chain lightning that put us and the skeletons on the ground. Thasgrin included.

  "A little warnin' next time," said Thasgrin.

  "Sorry, didn't have time to pick targets," said Garstil.

  Morogan shrugged. "Skeletons dead. Again?"

  "Yes, but apparently, she seems quite upset," said Sai pointing at the decaying body of the not-ghost.

  She glared daggers at Garstil. "You dare destroy my creations and touch my beautiful body with your filthy magic. Insolent Humans. You will make fine minions to replace those that you've destroyed."

  I nodded toward the door. Everyone noticed. "Now, you die," she said. And we ran for the door. "Fools! I'll rend the flesh from your bodies!" she screamed as we passed through the door, slamming it shut behind us. We could hear muffled screams from the other side but couldn't make out the words.

  "Thasgrin," I said. "What exactly was that?"

  "Some sort of Lich, I would guess. Never met one before."

  A massive impact hit the other side of the door, and the stone framework around it cracked and spidered from the center.

  "Whoa, a few more hits like that, and that door is going to open," said Garstil.

  "I'm open to ideas," I said.

  Sai shrugged. "The only thing that had any effect on her seemed to be Thasgrin's magic. However, it only seemed to bind, not damage."

  "Morogan have idea," he said. "Thasgrin hold. Then cut head off. Then Garstil zap ghost."

  The wall exploded into the workshop. "Filthy beasts!" screamed the Lich. "I'll have your souls for dinner."

  Thasgrin bound her, and she began screaming and cursing.

  Sai walked up calmly, daggers drawn. "My friends may have an issue with killing someone without hesitation, but I do not. And you were already dead." He slashed twice across her throat, and her head and body crumpled to the ground with an anguished wail.

  The ghost reappeared before us, crying. "How could you..."

  "Well, if you weren't such a bitch and trying to kill us," I said.

  "I would never harm anyone," she said.

  "Bullshit," said Garstil. "You just spent the last five minutes trying to rip us to shreds with your skeleton army."

  She looked shocked. "What?" she asked. "What skeletons? I swear on my "—she looked down at the jumble of bones on the floor—"life." She floated away toward the broken wall, and we could hear an audible gasp. "Perhaps this is why my spirit is bound to my skull..." She began to weep in earnest. We all looked at each other, both confused and worried.

  "What can we do to help?" I asked.

  She looked up at me, tears streaming down her cheeks. "You would still help me? After I did all this?" she asked, waving at the wall. I nodded. "Would you..." she hesitated and then nodded. "Would you put my spirit to rest?"

  I looked at Thasgrin. "Can we?" I asked.

  "Aye, ’twould be simple enough, as long as she wants it and doesn't fight against the magic."

  "What do you say?" I asked her.

  "Yes," she said, fresh tears threatening to fall from her eyes. "A thousand times yes..."

  "How long have you been trapped here?" I asked.

  "I'm not sure. I stopped counting around seven hundred years. After a while, time loses its meaning."

  Thasgrin picked up her skull. "Are ye ready, lass?"

  She smiled and nodded. "Yes, very much so. To be able to rest...it's a dream come true."

  With the Lich's skull back on the pedestal, Thasgrin began casting his spell. A few moments later, the skull began to float in midair and slowly turn. The runes, one by one, flared yellow, then blue, and then faded out entirely. He hesitated on the last one.

  "Yer sure of this? There's no goin' back," he said.

  She smiled. "Oh, yes, I can think of nothing more I'd like." She reached out toward Thasgrin, who flinched for a second. She recoiled and then slowly reached out and ran her hand down his cheek and beard. "Thank you. You're such a kind and warm soul. It's a shame we couldn't have met under different circumstances. You're rather dashing even if a little short." He blushed, making her smile again. "Do it," she whispered, closing her eyes.

  The last rune flared and went out. Then the skull turned to dust and covered the pedestal. She smiled one last time as she began to fade. "Thank you," she whispered. She raised her hand toward the large beam on the door, and it faded from existence, and then she was gone. Thasgrin fell on his ass, shaking with fatigue. And a little bit of heartbreak, if I'm not mistaken.

  "Break time," I said. "Get some food going while I take care of this corpse." I left Thasgrin to deal with his emotions and took the corpse back into the other room.

  As I touched the massive door before me, it opened on silent hinges. The room was pitch-black. In the darkness, the sound of a heavy battle greeted our ears. Swords clashed, magic detonated, and people screamed.

  “What the hell?” I asked.

  “It sounds like an army is doing battle. In the dark. Somehow,” said Sai.

  “My night vision isn’t pushing away the dark. It’s gotta be enchanted,” I said.

  “Aye, shadow magic,” said Thasgrin. “I’ve only seen this once before, long ago.”

  We pushed into the darkness, and our sight pierced the shadows, and the room exploded into light and colors. Before us was a massive room with tall ceilings. The walls and floor were ornate sandstone. And in the middle of the room were about thirty people, locked in mortal combat.

  Bodies were strewn about haphazardly, very much dead. Something struck me as odd; however, in the commotion of combat, I couldn’t put my finger on it.

  “Morogan confused. Why all mans same man?” he asked. That’s when I got it. I was looking at copies of the same person, fighting themselves. That was a new one for me.

  Thasgrin stood silent, mouth hanging agape. I waved my hands in front of his eyes. He didn’t move.

  “This is a new experience for me. Would you call this ‘playing with one's self’?” asked Sai. Garstil and I both chuckled.

  Thasgrin stepped toward them. “Alfonse?” asked Thasgrin. His call, however, fell on deaf ears.
“Alfonse VanDerry!” he bellowed. Everyone stopped mid-action, and the room grew deathly still.

  “Thasgrin,” said Alfonse. “You dare show your face? After abandoning me?”

  “Abandon ye? I would never do such a thing,” said Thasgrin. “What are ye talking about? Have ye gone daft?”

  “Daft?” asked Alfonse. “You think me daft? Of course, I’m daft!” he bellowed. The entire room shook with his power. “I’ve given my life to protect this bloody staff. I’ve been alone with only these shadows to keep me company. You’d be daft too, you smug, self-righteous bastard.” Alfonse suddenly spun away from us. “And you! You go to hell! Do not think to speak to me. Condescending bastard. Always judging, always criticizing.” There was no one behind him.

  Thasgrin grimaced. “What’s happened to ye, Alfonse?”

  He turned back to Thasgrin. “What happened? I’ll tell you what happened. I’ve guarded the Staff of Severus for two hundred years while the magic of this place kept me alive. And for what?” he sneered. “To keep it away from the cultists? To hold it until another mage could take my place?” He stared daggers at Garstil. “As if this weakling would be chosen by the staff…” Then he looked directly at me. “And you,” he said. “You’re no Sword Bearer. You may have the title and gear, but you’re nothing compared to that bastard Noslen.”

  The dead clones began to move and stand. Fresh clones also appeared all around us. We were completely surrounded.

  Shit. SADA, are you there?

  “Always,” he responded. “It seems as though you will have to fight Alfonse to get the staff. I would advise extreme caution; he was quite formidable when last I saw him. And…it seems he may have gone mad.”

  Great. How do we beat him?

  “You will have to overpower him, I fear. I suggest shielding yourself.”

  I set my shielding module to internal projection and willed lightning into my swords. Thasgrin had already changed to his Steel Form. Sai was fuzzy around the edges, as if the shadows were trying to hide him but failing. And Morogan, well he just looked downright terrifying. Muscles and veins bulged everywhere, and he held his mace and shield at the ready. I drew my glowing swords very slowly.