by Jae Vogel
“Can you have your sisters come down here,” he told her. “We all need to get out of this place. The tower could collapse on all of us at any minute.”
“I thought your elementals had the situation under control up there,” she said to him in disbelief.
“They are part of the problem. I need to get them to retreat too, but I’ll wait until your sisters are down here.”
Susan’s helm nodded and she clanged back upstairs, shield in hand.
Dion and Miles went to the cranks which controlled the door and draw bridge. While the women of the writing club looked on with curiosity, they turned the cranks that opened the doors to the tower. It was a slow process, designed to prevent sudden attacks, but there was no way to accelerate it. Once the doors were open, Dion, his head a little more clearly, stepped out into the cool night air and looked at the landscape.
The stars shone over the hills of the valley and the moon illuminated the pass, which the tower protected. He could see the small pavilions and huts the other Azuroth had place on the opposite side of the moat. It was time to get the drawbridge down so they could reach the bus. Hopefully, the tower mechanic could get it to work while he had the sphinx elementals keep the Azuroth at bay.
“Get the draw bridge down!” Dion yelled. “We need to get to the other side of the moat.” He watched as the bridge descended to the fill the gap. It was still in poor shape and they would have to leave in groups.
The servants and guards streamed out of the tower as the bridge went down. Dion stood in place and made sure everyone was safely outside. His parents came out with his uncle, a foul look on his face. When the three Mahen sisters were outside the tower, the bridge made its final descent over the moat and rested to close the gap.
It stood there for a few minutes. Dion went over and place one foot on the bridge. It felt solid enough. He looked across the moat at the Azuroth pavilions on the other side. One or two heads emerged from them and starred in his direction. Time to put the next part of his plan into action.
Dion closed his eyes and ordered the elementals to cease the attack. They were to join him outside the tower to defend the tower refugees against the Azuroth on the other side of the moat. As they were aether elementals, he could use them repeatedly.
Dion watched as the sphinxes flew out of the open doors and circled around the tower. Perhaps it would all work out now that everyone was outside the tower. He did a quick head count and made sure everyone he’d seen inside the tower was safely on the outside.
“Is that everyone?” Dion called to Kaylie Mahen, who stood on the edge of the gathering of her servants and retainers.
“They’re all here,” she yelled back. “We can start to cross at any time.”
Which they would have done had the bridge not collapsed and fell into the moat, busting into sections as it hit the spikes on the bottom.
“I hope you have another idea,” Kiley Mahen called to Dion. “Because that one won’t work.”
Chapter 20
The Azuroth on the other side of the moat emerged from their hovels to see what caused the noise. As Dion stood there and watched, they began to fill up the space on the other side. Even if he could find something to bridge the gap between the embankments, they would have to contend with the other clan of furry demoniods. Dion noticed this bunch carried spears, unlike the ones, which accompanied Queen Lilith.
As he stood and tried to come up with another plan, Dion heard a sound from the front of the tower. Both massive wooden doors burst outward and were flung across the moat from the force directed against them. Masonry exploded into the front of the ramp and for a few seconds he worried the tower was at risk of collapse. The ground was still wet from the non-stop storms and the dust from the stone blocks was absorbed onto the ground. Nerveless, Dion could smell the mortar in the air, which was pulverized by the impact from the other side of the doors.
All the tower people backed away from the entrance. The ten women from the writing club did likewise; although they hung back to see what caused the blast. There were no fires or smoke, so it wasn’t a chemical explosion that took the doors off the entrance. Dion suspected the cause, but it was what he saw next that confirmed it.
Out of the entrance to the tower, lumbered the form of Queen Lilith. She was sixteen feet in height and had to leave the tower since it could no longer contain her mass. Dion’s fears came to life as the huge woman walked down the ramp and looked around, followed by her own horde of Azuroth, who looked up to their leader with a sense of fear and wonder. The flying sphinxes swooped lower and swept around the creature from the abyss, not sure what to do.
And then it all made sense.
Dion looked at the group of women writers who faced the enormous woman and it occurred to him that the Aether Elemental Grandmaster told him he needed to summon “Decemius”. Wasn’t “Decem” the Latin word for “ten”? Ten women who had appeared out of nowhere in the storm. It was so obvious! This entire trip to the tower was part of a plan, even though he couldn’t figure it out. Even the Draco the pet lion allowed them to stroke its mane.
Dion faced the ten women, who were in a circle next to the huge form of Queen Lilith, and said the words the elemental grandmaster had whispered to him. Then he stood back and watched. It shouldn’t take long.
The ten women began to shimmer in the darkness, illuminated by the moonlight. He was right; the words were a code to activate the only thing that could stop Queen Lilith. The shimmering changed to a ring of light, which spun around them as they stayed in place. Even the lion was included in the spinning light. As he stayed in place and watched the light condense, Dion was forced to turn away because of the brilliance. Then the light faded and he turned to see what remained.
Now there were two giants in front of the tower.
The new giant was also female and wore a set of plate armor on her. Dion looked to the crowd revering what was in front of them. The three Mahen sisters, still in their armor, were carrying their weapons, but they realized it wouldn’t have any effect on the two huge creatures before them. The crowd began to move back, more for safety than to give the giants some room. Even the Azuroth on the other side of the moat began to back up.
I’ve been waiting for you, Lilith, the new giant said to her opposite number. Dion didn’t hear the challenge in the usual way, but felt it through his very soul. What she thought was transmitted to everyone. He could see the same reaction on everyone’s face.
You think you can take me? Dion heard Queen Lilith send back to the new giant. Why don’t you try?
Dion inched his way over the assembled crowd who watched the giants face off. He needed to be with them, just in case they needed his help. It was a simple order he gave to the flying aether elementals, which circled the two enormous figures. Dion told them not to get involved in what was about to take place, but to protect the residents of the tower from any injury. The sphinxes flew away from the giants and swept down in front of the crowd. They were now a defensive barrier in front of the crowd against what was about to take place. Dino prayed the two didn’t cause the tower to topple over.
He made his way through the horde of Azuroth who were too amazed by what their queen had transformed into to pay attention to him. He could see the countless wounds from the damage the sphinxes had inflicted on them, but they didn’t seem to care about the injuries. They continued to stare up at the two huge women who were faced off at each other.
“What the hell is that?” Kiley Mahen said to him as Dion slid up to her.
Both giant figures began to move into position against each other. Although they were enormous, neither one of them were of mythic proportions. It was just possible a creature of humanoid status could grow to be sixteen feet high. And, as Dion noted from the way they moved, they would not function the same way a normal person might. Both of them were slow. If they were playing by the physical rules of this world, the reaction time of each would be much slower since the nerve impulses would tak
e longer to reach their destination.
Dion once saw an elephant move slowly through a pen at the zoo and understood why it needed so much time to move. The elephant was huge and the cube- square rule applied to it. When the size of an organism doubled, its volume tripled. Therefore, the giants might be twice the size as the largest normal human, but their overall mass was nine times as much. This meant more power had to go into moving around than the most obese person on earth had ever contended with. However, they were built for the task.
The tower was constructed on an island. The moat, which surrounded it, only went so far as the river and was supplied by it during the wet season. In the dry ones, the water in the moat had to be pumped from the river. The island was rock and on a higher level than the surrounding landscape, but it occupied only enough land to place the tower and some out buildings. The giants didn’t have much room to fight.
There was a loud retort as Decemius clashed with the huge form of Queen Lilith. The other giant nearly went down in the river as her opponent collided with her. Instead, she grabbed her attacker and pushed her down to the bank. Decemius angled her body and returned the pull, which sent Lilith into the river water. A ten-foot wave rose up from the river when she struck it.
“Did you know this would happen?” Kiley asked her as the two of them watched the battle rage.
“I didn’t have a clue,” Dion told her. “I was here to rescue my parents, free the elemental grandmaster and obtain the fifth elemental power. But not in that order. Or something. The grandmaster gave me some words to use, but didn’t tell me what they were specifically for. She told me they were to activate ‘Decemius’, but I didn’t figure it out until Queen Lilith burst through the doors and I saw the ten women from the writing group standing in a circle.”
“Where is Draco?” she asked him. By now, Kiley had removed her helmet, as she wanted to see as much of this fight as she could.
“I think he was sucked into it too. Something to do with the right combination of forces creating an opponent to the abyss.”
“What kind of outcome?” Susan Mahen asked him. “And how did the queen get so big so fast?”
“Energy absorption, like I said earlier,” Dion replied. “Whatever you through at her, she absorbs it and uses the energy to gain mass.” He watched the two giants struggling in the water. “But an attack from Decemius doesn’t seem to affect her. I guess that’s the point in her activation.”
“So this was all planned from the beginning,” Loris said as she removed her helm. “Your uncle was manipulated into bringing her across the gate. He thought he could use her to control the tower. We thought we could use your uncle to fill up our depleted bank account. Now, both of us were used. The only question remaining is, ‘who used us?’”
Dion turned and saw his uncle standing by himself. He didn’t appear to be interested in the outcome of the fight between the two giants. Why should he be? No matter how it went, his uncle would end up losing everything he’d invested in this venture. The only way he could possibly escape with minimal losses would be to use the sigil he possessed and escape across the gate in the rocks.
Dion realized his uncle was starring across the muddy plains. He looked directly at the rock wall where the door opened to admit Dion to this world. Which meant only one thing; he wanted to figure out a way to get back to the world where they came from. Right now.
Dion walked up to his uncle and starred at him until he turned around. “Don’t you even think about it,” Dion warned him and walked away.
Both figures were collapsed in the river. Dion couldn’t tell who had the advantage. The river wasn’t that deep, but it was little more than a creek to the both of them. He couldn’t tell if it was swollen from the constant storm, but the water was over the banks from what he could tell. It didn’t matter how deep the water might be, it was still possible to drown in it if you went down. From what he could tell, this was the ultimate plan for both sides.
He turned and saw something, which gave him a little hope. The giants collapsed the moat in their fight just enough to create a ramp over it. They had engaged each other close enough to the crumbled drawbridge and sent down a cascade of rock and soil. Most of it was mud, but enough was down there to make the passage over the moat less of a problem.
He turned just in time to see Decemius push her opponent down into the river in a magnified wrestling move. She slammed Queen Lilith down into the water and held her there. Her opponent began thrashing around, but was held underwater by the other giant. Dion couldn’t bear to watch it and turned away. But the time he’d turned back, Decemius was standing in the river watching the form of Queen Lilith float down the river. She began to shrink in size as her body was carried away by the currents.
Decemius stopped and watched her float away. Dion stood and watched the remaining giant slowly move through the river water and emerge on the shore. She was easier to see now in the moonlight and turned her face to him. The visage was indescribable and Dion felt a chill go through him. Whatever this creature was, she had no relation to the ten women who compromised her. They had merged to create something very deadly. The only relief he felt was in the knowledge the giant had served her purpose and was no longer needed.
Decemius towered on the shore and leaned back, her matted hair sticking to the body armor she wore. The Azuroth on the other side of the moat began to pack up their pavilions. This was something they’d done many times before, Dion could tell by the level of organization they displayed. The furry creatures were soon moving in a single column away from the tower. Minutes later, the horde of Queen Lilith joined them as they swarmed over the muddy dirt bridge created by the fight between the two giants. Dion stood in place and watched them move away though the mountain pass. He speculated on the relationship between the two different forms of Azuroth, but it didn’t seem to matter any longer. Both groups were defeated and were soon gone from visual range.
Satisfied, Decemius began to break down into her component parts. Dion watched as the light around her arose from the ground, blinding him once again. He covered his eyes with his hand until the light faded. When he lifted his hand, the giant was gone.
She was replaced by the form of the ten women from the writers’ club. They seemed a little dazed, but not much different than the women who entered the tower earlier it the night. What time was it? Dion looked across the horizon to see the first rays of sunlight. According to the people in the tower, this was the first daybreak in months.
Kristen Malar, holding Draco the lion on a leash, walked up to Dion and shook his hand. “Thank you,” she told him. “We didn’t know what word would be used this time or who would give it. You provided the trigger.”
“How long has this operation been planned?” he asked her. “I don’t like to assume things, but I get the feeling you’re not really a writer’s club.”
“I can’t imagine where you would get that idea,” she laughed. “We work for the sovereign. We’re a ten-woman unit she sends out to deal with threats to the kingdom. The whole operation was planned out the moment we learned your uncle had let something into this world from the abyss. It took a long time to figure out what it was that he’d let inside the tower. You were not expected, so we contacted the elemental grandmaster when we learned you’d came through. She provided you with the control words needed to activate the unit and you saw the rest.”
“The lion? You needed a lion too?”
“Not always, but it helps to have one when needed. Today it made all the difference.”
The rest of the tower inhabitants came over to make sure the ten women were alright. They too watched the giant transformation, but they didn’t seem as aghast at what happened as Dion. He’d just watched two giants fight it out in the middle of a river. This world was much different than he expected.
“You created the storm too?” he asked her.
“No, that was a by-product of Queen Lilith,” she told him. “When she began to engorge hersel
f on the energy around here, the storm and lightning was the first source for her. It’s the problem with these abyss creatures. They thrive on the energy of any world they enter. You can’t let them inside for very long.”
“What about my parents and uncle?” he asked her. His uncle Seth still looked at the ground and scowled.
“You all need to leave as soon as you can,” she continued. “Take the door back; it will be sealed on the other side. No one from your time circle will ever be allowed back inside this one. Too much damage took place. Those men he brought over, the guards have to leave as well.”
“And the sisters? They were involved in this too.” He turned and saw them standing with the guards and their retainers.
“They fought well when the need arose. Still, they knew it was illegal to manipulate abyss forces because of what you just saw. And they tried to conceal what took place when everything went wrong. If we hadn’t been informed by someone in the tower, it might’ve been too late before the sovereign could do anything.”
Dion had the sphinxes finish the earthen bridge across the moat. It wasn’t very long before they had one assembled and everyone who needed to leave was able to cross it. Finished with his elementals, he returned them to their natural form. The last he saw of them were small black spheres rolling across the landscape. Of course, no one else could see them.
Kiley Mahen, still in armor, traveled with the small crowd who were headed back to the door in the rock walls. Bernice from the ten women unit traveled with them too. Bernice held the key that would open the gate to their home world. It turned out the one Uncle Seth held turned to dust the moment Queen Lilith was defeated.
“It could have worked,” Seth Back finally spoke up as they watched Bernice attach the sigil disc to the rock facing. “I was close. You still need cheap electricity in this place.”
“If it means cutting deals with fiends like Queen Lilith,” Bernice responded, “then no thank you very much.”