Blood of the Earth

by David A. Wells

  “That’s unsettling,” Abigail said, suddenly thinking of Jack as the phrase passed her lips, hoping he was safe, but mostly just wishing she could see him. “So Zuhl is alive,” she said. “He has seven ships capable of carrying a thousand men each and he probably has six dragons under his control. Prince Torin, is the sea passable between Zuhl and Fellenden in the winter?”

  “Generally no,” Torin said. “Some years the ice floes are worse than others but nearly every year Crescent Bay in Zuhl freezes solid. By the time he gets his ships home to load his troops, he’ll be frozen in.”

  “So we can expect at least another seven thousand men come spring,” Abigail said. “Assuming he takes Irondale, can he operate another shipyard there during the winter?”

  “Maybe,” Torin said, “but cutting Iron Oak timber in the winter is a difficult and dangerous job.”

  “General Kern, see to it that his men have a harder time than they expect,” Abigail said. “General Markos, prepare the army to move to Fellenden City and coordinate with Prince Torin to provide whatever assistance we can to the refugees that will be moving with us. Admiral Tybalt, take your navy back to Ithilian, we may have need of you during the winter and I don’t want you to get iced in up here.”

  “What should we do with the shipyard?” Conner asked.

  “Burn it,” Abigail said. “With the enemy headed for Irondale, we can’t spare the men to work it and we can’t leave it for Zuhl.”

  Chapter 39

  Alexander staggered back a step. Siduri stood before him like a man awaiting judgment.

  “Don’t you see, Alexander,” Siduri said. “I have called on powers beyond my understanding and doomed the world. I created the shades because I would not accept reality as it is.”

  Alexander’s mind raced, trying to comprehend the nature of the man standing before him, trying to fathom the power he had unleashed on the world, yet understanding all too well the desperation that had driven him to such a tragic and fateful decision.

  “I am trying to spare you and the world from the horror of making a similar mistake,” Siduri continued. “After I made my bargain with the Taker, I went to the river bank to find my children, but they were gone. I followed their footprints back to our home and opened the door with triumphant joy. My family was whole again.

  “My sons were there … but they were not really alive. Their bodies were still cold and dead, yet they walked and spoke. All three turned from the table where they had placed my wife and smiled at me, blood smeared across their faces like war paint.”

  Siduri swallowed a sob.

  “They killed her, their own mother, my wife. My sons murdered her in a most gruesome way. Her entrails were pulled out of her belly and arranged around her dead body in a horrific display.

  “Realizing my mistake, I sought to undo the damage.” He paused, staring off into the distance. “I tried to kill them … my own sons … but they did not die. I watched as they rose from their corpses and floated off into the forest. I buried my wife in despair. My wonderful little life was shattered, contorted into something unbearable. I was contemplating suicide when I saw the fire.

  “My sons had taken possession of three hunters. Through their hosts, they lit one of the vitalwood trees on fire. Such a thing was beyond imagining. The vitalwood were revered by all. Many of the beings that walked the world during that time worshiped the trees.

  “What followed was a war that lasted nearly twenty years. The shades, as my children came to be called, destroyed the vitalwood forest despite our best efforts to stop them. I led the fight against them, and failed. Only at the end, when nearly all of the vitalwood trees were gone, did the Lords of Light heed my plea for help. Selaphiel came forth and confronted the shades, tearing a rift in the fabric of the world of time and substance and banishing them to the netherworld.

  “I allowed myself to be drawn into that rift as well, thinking that the time had finally come for me to face the consequences of my hubris, but I did not die. I was a spiritwalker and so the aether did not destroy me as it would have any other.

  “After a time, I returned to the world of time and substance, thinking that I would take my own life, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it, more out of fear of paying the Taker’s price than anything else. Then an idea occurred to me. My power had grown. My understanding of the nature of the firmament had grown as well. I didn’t know if what I imagined was possible but I was willing to attempt it if it meant I could escape the Taker.

  “I had ridden the wave of creation many times within my mind. This time I sought to transfer myself physically into source, to unmake myself and become one with source, to cease to exist without actually dying.

  “I was successful, yet I did not cease to be. Instead, for the first time, I found that I was truly one with the source of all things. I had no form, no location, yet I was everywhere at once. I have been there ever since, watching the world, listening to the song of creation, content to simply observe.

  “I watched the Reishi Empire rise and fall. I nearly intervened when Malachi Reishi discovered my children and summoned them into the world, but he always bound them to his will and sent them back when they were finished with the tasks he had assigned them.

  “I took notice when you were born and I’ve watched you very closely since you freed the shades, but still I chose to simply observe. Only now, when you stand at the precipice of disaster, have I chosen to take physical form again. I wasn’t even sure it was possible, but the course you have chosen compelled me to act.”

  Alexander was reeling from the magnitude of everything he’d just learned, but even in the face of it all, he couldn’t let go of his desperate need to help Isabel. It felt a little like madness scratching at the edges of his sanity, urging him on. Even though he knew he was taking a terrible risk, even though his reason begged him to reconsider, he couldn’t let go of the thread of hope that the blood of the earth represented. With it, he had a chance to save Isabel, without it, she was doomed.

  “I’m sorry, Siduri,” Alexander said. “I have to do this.”

  He could see the disappointment mingled with fear ripple through Siduri’s colors.

  “I know,” Siduri said. “I only hope you will not come to regret your actions as I have come to regret mine.”

  Before Alexander could say another word, Siduri vanished, as if he’d never really been there at all. In a daze, Alexander turned back to the blood of the earth. Slowly, methodically, he took out a vial and a small spoon from his pouch. Very carefully, he scooped up a tiny amount of the black, iridescent liquid the consistency of quicksilver, and poured it into the vial. He placed the sealed glass vial inside a metal tube and screwed the cap on tightly before returning everything to his pouch.

  All the while he struggled with the doubt building in the back of his mind. What if Siduri was right? How could he place even Isabel’s life before the fate of the world? She would never accept such a thing, yet he had to try. The alternative was too much to bear. He couldn’t imagine leaving the chamber without the blood of the earth, walking back to his wife with the knowledge that he had accepted her fate.

  Hector was standing guard when Alexander returned to the Wizard’s Den. He took care to cover his return, checking with Chloe in his mind to ensure that no one was aware of his absence. Satisfied, he projected an illusion of himself getting up and took the place of the illusion as he dispelled it.

  He went to the water barrel, then to Hector.

  “Any sign of the dragons?”

  “No,” Hector said, shaking his head. “It’s been quiet.”

  Alexander nodded and went back to his bunk.

  ***

  It took the better part of two days to navigate through the meandering maze of passages that led through the mountain to the cave where the pirates were hiding Bragador’s egg.

  Alexander sent his all around sight into the cavern, assessing the strength of the enemy he was about to attack. There were nearly a do
zen men sitting around a fire, bickering over a jug of brandy. The egg rested on a nearby bed of hot coals with a single wraithkin standing watch over it and one wizard sitting nearby, intently studying a book.

  The other wizard and the other two wraithkin that Alexander had seen before were gone. He also didn’t see the pirate leader who carried the Tyr Thinblade. He liked the odds better than he had before, but he couldn’t help wondering where the others had gone.

  “Isabel, you take the wraithkin, I’ll take the wizard,” Alexander said. “If we get both of them, the men shouldn’t be a problem. Watch the ship, they may have more men aboard. Little One, I need you to go to Bragador and lead her here.”

  “Are you sure about that?” Jack asked.

  “She has every right to protect her young,” Alexander said. “And I’d rather we tell her where to find her egg … might buy us some goodwill.”

  Chloe flitted up and kissed him on the cheek. “Be careful, My Love,” she said, before she buzzed into a ball of light and vanished into the aether.

  Alexander nocked an arrow and looked at each of his friends in turn.

  “Hit them hard and fast,” he said.

  Jack tossed the hood of his cloak up, vanishing from sight.

  From the shadows Alexander and Isabel picked their respective targets. The enemy was oblivious to their presence in the dim light of the passage.

  “I’ll release when your spell fires,” Alexander whispered.

  Isabel nodded as she started muttering under her breath. He saw her colors flare with anger and power as she prepared her light-lance spell.

  A flash of brilliance lit up the cave, and light streaking from Isabel’s outstretched hand burned a hole through the wraithkin’s head, dropping him like a sack of beans. Alexander loosed his arrow an instant later, driving it hard into the chest of the surprised wizard. He didn’t even have time to look up before his heart was pierced.

  Alexander dropped his bow and drew Mindbender, stepping out into the firelight flanked by Horace and Hector, each drawing their twin short swords. The dozen men around the fire scrambled to their feet, shouting an alarm as they drew weapons.

  As Alexander was closing the distance to the first man, two wraithkin appeared in their midst while the second wizard and the man with the Tyr Thinblade stepped out of a passage on the far side of the cavern. Alexander cursed under his breath as he met the first man, slipping inside past his clumsy thrust and driving the point of Mindbender into his ribs.

  A wraithkin appeared next to him but before he could bring his sword around, Isabel unleashed a force-push spell, blowing the wraithkin across the cavern. The second wraithkin appeared behind her, raising his dagger to stab her in the back, but then checked his strike and vanished again.

  Hector and Horace engaged half a moment after Alexander. Horace parried the sword stroke of one of the pirates, trapped the blade with his second sword, and brought the point of his right-handed blade up into the surprised pirate’s throat. Another of the pirates tried to charge him from the flank but tripped over Horace’s invisible magical servant, sprawling on the ground in front of him. Horace stabbed him in the back and stepped up to meet the next attack.

  Hector faced two men at once, slipping to the side and fighting a furious sword exchange, hacking, thrusting, and parrying until he gained the advantage and stabbed the first man in the thigh, dropping him to a knee screaming. His next thrust drove into the man’s eye and out the back of his skull. The second man leveled a kill stroke at him, but Hector turned to vapor a moment before it struck, allowing the momentum of the man’s swing to pull him off balance, then Hector solidified again and drove his sword into the man’s gut.

  A surprised pirate fell with a sliced throat as Jack flickered into view and then vanished just as quickly.

  “Destroy the egg,” shouted the man with the Thinblade. “Prepare to cast off.”

  A few men from the ship started racing to the battle while others scrambled to prepare the ship as the cavern lit up from another light-lance cast by Isabel, this time at the wizard. It hit a shield surrounding him and didn’t even distract him enough to disrupt his spell. He unleashed a bubble of liquid fire at Isabel. Alexander watched it streak across the room even as he dispatched another pirate in his path to the egg.

  Angry orange flame splashed over her shield spell, illuminating the bubble of magical force protecting her from harm.

  Alexander reached the egg just as one of the wraithkin appeared before it, poised to strike the defenseless unborn dragon. He stabbed him in the back of the skull, killing him in a stroke, just as the last of the three wraithkin appeared behind him and stabbed him through the upper leg.

  He felt white-hot, breathtaking pain shoot through him, radiating from the wound. The wraithkin jerked his tainted dagger free, sending another jolt of violent agony coursing through him, but Alexander detached from his feelings, almost instinctually, and listened to his enemy’s thoughts. His blade whistled through the air, arcing toward the spot where the wraithkin would appear, catching him an instant before he could stab into the egg, cleaving his head in half at ear level. Alexander toppled to the ground as the momentum of the swing put weight on his freshly wounded leg.

  Hector and Horace fought their way toward him but another pirate reached him first. Alexander just barely avoided his downward thrust and hacked at his ankle, toppling the man in a screaming mass.

  Alexander staggered to his feet as the egg behind him cracked open and the head of an infant dragon peered out into the world for the first time. He met the beast’s eyes, and she croaked at him. He was so captivated by the baby dragon that he nearly failed to block an attack that would have killed him. He swung his sword wildly, deflecting the downward stroke from himself and the hatching dragon just as Jack appeared behind the attacking pirate and cut his throat.

  Another pirate swung a mace at Jack, catching him on the shoulder and sending him to the ground, vanishing as he fell.

  Hector and Horace fought furiously, back to back, against five pirates surrounding them, all of them trying to find an opening past their deadly twin short swords. Alexander stood his ground in front of the baby dragon that had now broken almost completely through her shell.

  The man with the Thinblade strode toward Alexander. Alexander held his ground, putting nearly all his weight on his good leg while warm blood coated his injured leg.

  Isabel cast a force-push against the wizard but his shield deflected it. He cast a lightning bolt back at her, arcing brilliantly across the cavern and striking her shield. She staggered back as her magical protective barrier failed.

  Another dozen men from the ship were nearly upon them when the man with the Thinblade reached Alexander. As he reached out with Mindbender, listening for the heir of Tyr’s thoughts, a crossbow bolt struck him on the outside of the left arm, slicing deeply and painfully, distracting him for just a moment. Alexander gritted his teeth against the sudden pain as he met the enemy. Had he been listening to the man’s thoughts, he would have shielded Mindbender, but he was too focused on the new and sudden pain in that one crucial moment.

  The Thinblade came quick, cutting Mindbender off just above the hilt. Scintillating white light expanded from the broken sword, filling the cave with sparkling, dancing brilliance before it contracted back toward Alexander, surrounding him entirely and then fading away as if the light was soaking into him.

  The wielder of the Tyr Thinblade frowned for a moment, then shrugged and casually flicked the blade at Alexander’s head. He caught the Thinblade with his bare hand and punched the man in the jaw with the hilt of Mindbender, nearly falling again as he struggled to gain his balance but yanking the Thinblade out of the pirate’s hand in the process.

  “I’ve been looking for this,” Alexander said, dropping the ruined hilt of Mindbender and flipping the Thinblade to his right hand. It felt good, like it was made for his hand. The man stared in surprise.

  “How’s this possible?” he said, mo
re dumbfounded than afraid.

  “It’s my sword,” Alexander said.

  Another crossbow bolt hit him in the chest.

  Chloe buzzed into existence. “Bragador comes,” she said.

  “Thank you, Little One,” Alexander said silently.

  “I’ll take that scabbard now,” he said.

  “Not a chance,” the man said. “That sword belongs to my line. You shouldn’t be able to wield it.”

  Chloe flitted over to the man and grabbed his belt, vanishing with it into the aether. His scabbard, belt knife, and pouch fell clattering to the floor.

  Isabel fired a light-lance spell at the wizard. He leaned into his shield as it failed under the heat of her spell. Hector and Horace fought the five men surrounding them to a stalemate. Jack was down and unconscious.

  Everyone froze in place at the sound of a deafening roar. A moment later, two dragons flanking a woman with the colors of a dragon, her eyes glowing with fury and power, entered from another passage.

  “Kill him!” the former wielder of the Thinblade bellowed, pointing at Alexander. The dozen pirates charged.

  Alexander met the first man with the Thinblade. It felt familiar in his hand as he cut the man in half. The rest of the charging men faltered and began to surround him and the baby dragon cowering behind him.

  He lopped the blade off a sword before it could come down on the dragon, exposing his back to a mace attack. It hit his armor, the force of it driving him to one knee.

  One dragon roared, the second breathed fire on the pirate ship, engulfing it in flames in an instant and filling the room with bright orange light and heat. The woman who’d entered with the two dragons pointed her hands at the two men nearest Alexander and unleashed a stream of fire at each, igniting both and burning them alive in moments. Alexander could feel the heat wash off them as he struggled to gain his feet.