From above, Queen Willa surveyed the destruction. She slowly walked the circumference of the tower roof, trailing a hand idly along the tops of the crenels. To the south, the battle raged on. She could see the tiny glints of firelight reflected from the swords and armor in the streets, and along the alleyways, between the castle’s wall, and what was left of the secondary wall. Any minute, those men would get the order she had just given to retreat to the inner grounds. She hoped they lived long enough to find a way back in.
To the east, the devastation of Pael’s meteoric fireball stood out amid the otherwise unharmed section of mercantile shops and residences. At the eastern gates of the inner wall, an isolated scuffle between a hulking boar-like beast and a knot of men was raging under the gate tower’s bright lanterns.
To the north, and west, large groups of the undead were gathering in the shadows thrown by the burning structures, and reorganizing their numbers. Just inside the secondary wall, to the south, the ruin was empty, save for a lone figure, robed in dirty white. Willa could barely make it out as a person.
He was standing in the center, of what was nothing more than a huge circle of rubble. Upon seeing this, Talon leapt from Willa’s shoulder, and with widespread wings, glided down through the air, away from the tower. The sudden action from the long still bird, startled the troubled Queen.
King Jarrek “harrumphed” his presence from the top of the stair landing. He had been standing a few steps down, inside the boxy shelter, for a few long minutes, so that he could catch his breath before engaging Queen Willa. After fighting in the field all morning, and tending to Brady Culvert in the afternoon, the long journey up the stairs had taken its toll on him. He wasn’t a young man. When she turned, and greeted him, with a tired, and obviously forced smile, his exhaustion was forgotten, and he was taken aback by her plain, natural beauty.
She was the first pleasant sight his eyes had fallen upon, in what seemed like forever. The vision of his mother, and his betrothed mangled in the collapsed ruin of the Ladies’ Tower, back in Castlemont, quickly erased any mirth or admiration he might have started to feel. He moved his eyes from hers quickly, lest she see the sorrow, and lack of hope he was suddenly feeling. His gaze landed on the cloak covered body, lying dead in the middle of the roof. He started to comment, but thought better of it
She understood his silence, and walked back to the southern facing edge of the parapet. She was relieved to see the men there fighting their way back towards the inner wall. Her orders had been received, and relayed. Seeing that the retreat had been called, she turned to Jarrek.
“The word is that you saved a lot of our men.”
He shook his head, as if he didn’t want to speak on the matter, as if it had been nothing.
“You’re calling them in, then?” he asked tactfully.
“Something like that.” She met his gaze.
“The hawk boy flew off on the dragon. He said that when he does whatever it is that he’s going to do, Pael will lose some of his demonic strength.”
She made a strange, deliberate face, and forced back the feelings of hope that were brewing as she spoke the words.
“He said to hold off Pael as long as we can.” She indicated the castle grounds around, and below them, with a sweep of her hand.
“We can hold out strongest here, where I can access the Wardstone. Spread out about the city, the wizard is picking us apart.”
“You’re putting all of your eggs into a single basket,” Jarrek said, but not in any disapproving or judgmental way. “Does this ‘Hawk Boy’s’ word hold such merit?”
“I can only hope.” She turned to face away from him.
A sudden, blue radiance had caught her attention, out where the lone, white-robed figure had been standing.
“The power of the Wardstone is strong here, and I can…” Her voice cut off suddenly as she took in a sharp audible breath.
It was Mikahl. The sapphire glow was Ironspike’s blade, and the demon-wizard Pael had just appeared behind him.
“We were all destined to bow before that one,” said Willa absently, her attention held raptly on Mikahl.
“Aye,” Jarrek agreed.
He leaned out between two crenels, to get a better look, and cringed in horror, when he saw a swirling emerald column of wizard’s fire erupt, and consume Mikahl.
Pael fumed at the audacity of the idiot squire. How dare he call him out, as if he were just a drunkard at some piss poor tavern? Pael took his time, studied the situation, and the terrain, long and hard from afar, before he made his move.
He was too wise to be baited with mere insults. Was the boy even capable of setting a trap? he wondered. Was he using himself as bait? No. He was only an adolescent young man, driven by a need for vengeance, and blinded by youth, and inexperience. Pael let him sit, let him wonder, and wait. Pael let him relax and tire. He let the white-hot fire that had fueled Mikahl’s earlier rage die out. Then, and only then, did Pael attack.
With a crackling pop, Pael appeared a few paces behind Mikahl. He had the fool squire, and he knew it. He had the advantage of total surprise. He had the spell’s last word on the tip of his tongue, and Errion Spightre was still resting in its sheath on the boy’s back. He grinned, as he started to speak the final syllable that would cause wizard’s fire to consume the foolish bastard-born whelp, but suddenly, something he could never have accounted for, came tearing into his face.
The fluttering of wings, the screeching call of a bird of prey, and razor-sharp claws digging into his eyes, all combined to steal the word from Pael’s lips. The bright blue glow of Ironspike’s blade filled his other eye. He shrieked out in pain, and batted the hawkling from his face, with a brutal swipe of his hand. The pain was terrible, but through clenched teeth, he managed to get the word that released his spell, spoken. Warm liquid from his ruined eye ran down his face, as the squire was suddenly engulfed by his magical jade inferno.
The wizard’s fire erupted around Mikahl, hot and sticky, sizzling his robe, and his flesh, and through the sword, he called forth the melody of magical armor. Though it put a layer of protection between his skin, and the blaze, it didn’t keep the heat from affecting him.
Oh, how he was thankful for Talon’s intervention. Had the hawkling not bought him the time to draw the sword, he would have surely been charred to the bone by now. Hearing no obvious way to extinguish the fire in the symphony that raged in his mind, he simply stepped back, out of its confined radius. He was relieved that the bulk of the flames stayed where they were. Only small, dripping tendrils clung to his magical shell, and they were expiring as he moved around to meet the demon-wizard.
He was surprised to see the chunk of gore hanging from Pael’s eye socket. Talon had destroyed one eye, and several thick streaks of blood, trailed from the wizard cheeks, where they had been ripped open by Talon’s claws. Pael himself was seething. He blocked the sparkling swing of Ironspike’s blade, seemingly effortlessly, and then discharged a hot crimson pulse, directly into Mikahl’s chest.
Mikahl went stumbling backwards, his breath knocked out of his lungs, as if by a hammer blow. While he was reeling to catch his balance, he saw the wizard striding to kick at something. It was Talon. The bird was half stunned, and trying desperately to flap itself into the air, and unaware of the boot closing in on it. It sickened Mikahl to see it, and he called out a warning, but the gesture was futile. A clump of feathers swirling to the ground, where the bird had just been, was all he could see now. The look of satisfaction on Pael’s ruined face, confirmed that he hadn’t missed his target. As Mikahl regained his balance, another hot crimson blast came at him, then another. Once again, he was slammed full in the chest. It was all he could do, to keep a grip on his sword’s hilt as he was sent flailing backwards, by the powerful static pulses.
Hyden Hawk actually felt the swiping blow Pael had thrown to get Talon off of his face. It had stunned the bird’s vision, throwing Hyden back to his present situation on Claret’s sleek, un
dulating back. That glint of a vast body of water, reflecting the moonlight up from far beneath them, and the feel of the wind buffeting him caused a moment of panic, but he recovered. He had been so attuned to Talon’s senses while helping Mikahl that he had forgotten himself. He felt satisfied that Talon had done some real damage to the demon-wizard. He was also pleased, and relieved, that Mikahl was alive, and that his sword was alight with power.
What the foolish castle born goof had been doing, standing out there in the open, in nothing, but a filthy white robe, Hyden couldn’t understand. He shifted back into Talon’s vision, and saw nothing but flaring green rocks, and the wild shadows they cast. The hawkling’s mind was full of confusion. Then, he heard Mikahl’s voice calling out to him. Was it a warning? The impact of Pael’s hard leather boot, into Talon’s frail body, suddenly rocked Hyden so hard, that he nearly fell from the dragons back. Unconsciousness overtook him completely this time.
Through the link of the collars, Claret felt Hyden Hawk go limp. She pulled a wing stroke to keep him in his seat, and then put forth that much more effort to get them to her lair. She would do anything for Hyden, anything that she could, because, through the link of the collars, she had read his intentions, and she knew that as soon as this most important deed was finished, that he would take her collar off, and set her free. He hadn’t been lying to her. He would set her free, and once he did so, she could find a place far away from the reaches of man. There, she could make another nest, and finally hatch her remaining egg.
The castle’s protective walls, being not nearly as tall as the great outer walls had been, were quickly overtaken. The magi, even the novices and apprentices, cast spell after spell, creating barriers of thorn, or fire, to try and stop the undead soldiers, but it wasn’t enough. In a dozen, or more places, Pael’s rotting men were gaining the castle grounds in hordes. Even with the magnifying power of their proximity to the Wardstone to help fortify and intensify their spells, the dead came.
The soldiers of the Blacksword, fought tooth and nail to defend the castle though. They were relentless, and brave. Crowded in, and facing impossible numbers, they couldn’t win the advantage. For every undead that came over the wall, half a handful of Highwander men were killed, or injured.
Like maggots on the carcass of a rotting varmint, the dead army swarmed the breaches, and fought their way into the grounds. Queen Willa drew upon the power of the Wardstone, and sent silvery witch fire, and wicked blasts of static energy down upon them, but she could only do so much. Not only was she exhausted, but her own men were down there too, and she didn’t want to hurt them with her attacks. Through the trees of the forest park, from the roofs of the castle’s lower outbuildings, and around and even through the black blood stained waters of Whitten Loch, the undead came.
Eventually, they overtook the fierce Blacksword soldiers, and gained the castle’s entry. A sleek, black-scaled wyvern came soaring through the space where the depiction of Ironspike’s forging had once been. From the top of the Royal Tower, King Jarrek urged Queen Willa to come away, while she still could. She wouldn’t hear of it.
The screams of the people inside the castle were echoing up from below now. The wyvern was loose among them. It was all Willa could do to keep from collapsing in despair. She knew that if something didn’t happen soon, Xwarda was lost. And if Pael took Xwarda, it wouldn’t be long before he found a way to use the Wardstone. She was sworn to fight to protect the Wardstone to the end. She couldn’t leave, but she could at least send the thousands of people hiding in the tunnels below, on to Jenkanta, were they would at least have a chance to escape Pael’s wrath.
“Go,” she said to King Jarrek sternly. “The people who win free will need strong men to help them survive.”
“I cannot leave you here unguarded, lady,” he replied simply. “I will not.”
“You’re a chivalrous fool,” she told him. “Call down the order to evacuate the refugees then. Tell them to collapse the tunnels as they go.”
Chapter 58
Before Pael could hit him with another one of those bone jarring crimson pulses, Mikahl rolled, and twisted to his feet. He still had no breath in his lungs, and his head was spinning, but he knew that if he stood still, he was done for. Another hot red blast streaked toward him, and this time, he knocked it away with Ironspike’s blade, but he was still starting to panic. He knew he couldn’t keep this up for very long. His senses were already starting to fade into blackness. He needed air badly.
Pael sent another of his pulses. Mikahl tried to deflect this one with the sword, but his oxygen starved lack of coordination, made the attempt futile. The blast hit him, but it was only a searing graze, not a blunt impact. He was lucky. He would have taken the blow full on, had his body not involuntarily hiccupped, and sucked in a much needed gulp of air.
He couldn’t enjoy his body’s relief, because Pael was already blasting at him again. Twisting out of this missile’s way, Mikahl gulped in another breath, and charged the demon-wizard. Instead of relying on magic, he rode his instinct, and brought on a full-on physical assault with his sword. He slashed, spun, hacked, and thrust, leaving Pael no choice, but to forget his attack, and defend himself. The wizard could hardly keep the wicked steel from his flesh, much less mount an offense.
For several long moments, Pael thought that he might not survive the attack. The blade only had to touch him for his demon essence to be vanquished. Even worse, he could barely see out of his good eye, and it was next to impossible to tell where the bluish-lavender colored blade was coming from next. Only when Mikahl paused, to glance down at the sprawled form of the hawkling, lying limp, amid a pile of broken glass and splintered wood, did the wizard get the chance to make a move.
Pael leapt backwards into the air, and came to a hover just out of Ironspike’s range. He sent a crackling ray of viscous, prismatic energy down onto Mikahl, and showered him with the flesh melting stuff. As if he were standing inside a globe of translucent blue glass, the flow of Pael’s magic broke up into a purple swirl, around the Squire-King, leaving him unharmed.
Mikahl used the brief, unexpected shielding, to touch Talon with the tip of Ironspike’s blade. He listened for, then plucked out of the sword’s magical symphony, the melody of healing, and let it flow into the bird. The surge of the song quickly exhausted itself, but Talon still lay there unmoving. The hawkling was dead, and that simple fact, broke something inside Mikahl. Fighting back tears of rage, he clenched his teeth, and spun on the demon-wizard.
Mikahl sent his own, now white-hot, ray of energy up at Pael. His blast met Pael’s, in a concussive showering spray of sparks, and sizzling smoke. The point of contact between the two powerful channels of destructive force, ground, hissed, and popped, but slowly edged towards Pael, as Mikahl’s rage forced it back. Slowly, ever so slowly, the point of contact kept inching closer to the dark wizard. Pael’s ruined face, twisted into panic, as the radiance illuminated his shredded expression. The power of Shokin inside him so feared the magic of the blade, that the demon flared his might, surging back at Mikahl, like some cornered wildling, fighting for its life.
The energy of the demon’s fear began to pour from Pael, and the brilliant sizzling point of contact came racing back at Mikahl. Mikahl’s rage slowed the coming collision of raw power, but there was no way he could stop it. With gritted teeth, clenched muscles, and his whole body as taut and rigid as a steel bar, he prepared for the agony that Pael’s ray surely brought with it. It was all he could do.
Hyden Hawk opened his eyes in darkness. He was on rocky ground. He reached to his back to feel for the pack that held the Night Shard, and panic shot through him, like the crack of a whip. He didn’t feel it there. It was gone.
He staggered to his feet, and felt a humid, yet cool breeze on his skin. Above the heavy stench of old decay he smelled the earthy fragrance of dense vegetation. Instinctively, he sought out Talon’s vision, but found nothing there. Nothing but more blackness.
His pani
c multiplied tenfold. He began to search the darkness with outstretched hands. Where was he? What was happening? What had happened to Talon? Finding nothing, but the hard rocky surfaces of the boulders and scree that surrounded him, he began to give in to his suddenly frantic emotion.
Seeing that he was close to stumbling out of one end of her wormhole cavern, Claret spoke to Hyden.
“I am here,” she hissed.
Faint tendrils of flame briefly lit the area in front of the dragon’s great red plated head. A crystalline prism of deep, smoky blue had presented itself in that instant as well. The Night Shard was laying before the dragon’s hunkered down bulk, in a smooth section of floor, which was covered with circular etchings of runes.
“I wants you to trust me, Hyden Hawks,” the dragon hissed softly.
With her words, came the brief glow of the flames that emitted from her cavernous nostrils. Hyden made his way toward her, as she continued to speak.
“I haves no doubts that you intends to release me from the collars.” Her voice was gravelly and ashen. “Never-the-lessss, I will haves it off, before I finish what you have started. You needs my fire to dissolve yon crystal. Removes the collars, and I will do the deed.”
Hyden stopped in his tracks, and forced his fear, and worry for Talon aside. It took him a few minutes to gain his wits back. He cautiously checked his wrist, to make sure that the collar he’d stolen from Shaella was still there, before he spoke.
“I could will you to do it, through the collar.” His voice wasn’t threatening, just matter-of-fact.
“Yesss, Hyden Hawk, you could.” Her voice hissed, and flames licked the air before her. “But if you do, then you’ll never learns whether you cans trust me or not. You’ll never knows my nature. I would value that bond of – What’s the human words? – Friendships, with one such as you.”
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