by Layton Green
Sapphire blue rods and panels supported the wooden exoskeleton, two enormous sails caught the wind and propelled the ships forward, and battalions of men in armor lined the sides. Standing on the raised front deck of each ship, behind the metal railing, was a group of men and women dressed in high-collared shirts and cloaks, staring down at the city with what Will knew were haughty expressions.
Congregation wizards.
The crowd of people pointed and shouted in confusion at the approaching ships, unsure what to make of them. Will knew exactly what they were, because he had seen them being assembled in the tilectium mines beneath Fellengard.
“Disperse!” Tamás screamed at the crowd, as Will and the others picked up the cry. “DISPERSE!”
The crowd started to comprehend the danger just as the ships settled a hundred feet above the square, under a clump of grey clouds, and twin bolts of lightning shot from the fingertips of one of the men standing at the prow of the middle ship. As storm winds billowed his cloak, lightning lanced into the nearest wizard’s tower, shattering it in a spray of wood and glass. At the same time, two pyromancers cast a rapid succession of Fire Spheres the size of boulders. The missiles slammed into buildings and canvas tents, igniting them and spreading flames through the city. From one of the other ships, an aeromancer whipped up a tornado and whisked it into the central square, making Will and his companions dive for cover as the funnel cloud tossed people and stalls like matchsticks.
Terrified, the citizens of Freetown scattered in all directions, unsure whether to seek shelter or flee the city. Lightning scoured the streets, hail the size of melons rained from the sky, fires raged throughout the town. Will unsheathed his sword and turned first one way, then another, unsure what to do.
Armando snarled and soared into the sky, coming to rest on top of one of the wizard towers. He whipped his hands as if conducting a symphony, and a wall of water rose from the direction of the ocean, funneling into a battering ram high above the city, shooting straight towards the underside of one of the ships. Just before impact, three wizards rushed to the side of the ship and linked their powers to burst the massive stream of water. It exploded and rained down on the town.
Screaming his rage, Armando channeled a giant water elemental that burst out of the ocean and attacked one of the ships with beating fists of water. The elemental scooped up a line of armed men and tossed them off the ship, the fighters’ blows sinking harmlessly into the creature’s watery form. Just as Will got a surge of hope, a tall woman in a blue-white cloak turned towards the water creature, extended her arms, and unleashed a bolt of crackling black energy that disintegrated the water elemental upon impact.
What in the hell, Will thought, was that?
The same woman made a motion with her hand like opening a sliding door, then stepped forward and disappeared. She reappeared next to Armando on top of the tower. He reared, but before he could cast a spell, more black fire shot out of her fingertips and encased the aquamancer in a shell of black lightning, turning him to dust. When it was finished, the woman stepped through another invisible doorway, returned to the ship, and continued observing the massacre with crossed arms.
Will thought he might vomit. They couldn’t fight that. He swallowed in rapid succession and took a step backwards. Caleb and Dalen were crouched behind a fountain, and Yasmina was helping Tamás and Marek pull the wounded to safety. Will looked around for someone in need of help, and saw a little boy trapped beneath an overturned wagon. Will raced towards him.
The boy was yelling in pain and clutching a pinned leg. Will set down his sword so he could tug on the wagon with both hands.
“Someone help me!” he screamed.
Caleb and Dalen dashed over to help. Before they arrived, a hulk of a man appeared next to Will, huge muscles popping out of the man’s jerkin. The two of them were able to lift the cart. Not until the boy crawled to safety did Will realize the man who had helped him was Mala’s boyfriend.
“Will! Look out!”
Caleb’s voice. Will whirled in confusion, expecting to see a wizard casting more black lightning, or a ball of spinning fire. Instead he saw a coagulated shadow drifting towards him, reaching for him with outstretched arms. Streaks of silver light pulsated up and down the body of the shadow creature, yet it had clearly defined features, as if a human being had been molded into shadowy bas-relief.
The thing was inches away. Will had the sudden intuition that a touch would mean his death. He dove beneath the creature’s arms, forced to drop his sword and scraping his chest and face on the cobblestones. The thing whirled and drifted towards him, its movements deceptively fast as Will scrabbled backwards, against the edge of the fountain. Golden flames roared atop the water, preventing his escape.
To his left was the overturned wagon. Will reached for his sword, but the shadow thing lunged forward on an angle, cutting off his escape routes and closing too fast for him to retrieve his weapon. Will knew it wasn’t going to fall for another dive, and his options were to plunge through the liquid fire or fight the thing with his fists. Both seemed like certain death.
The shadow creature closed to within inches, and Will invented a third choice. He stepped backward onto the lip of the fountain and leapt as high as he could, just avoiding the outstretched fingertips of the shadow creature. In one smooth motion, Will rolled and landed by the wagon, picked up his sword, and turned to swipe the shadow creature full in the chest.
Instead of slicing through the ephemeral being, the sword stopped halfway, as if cutting through flesh. The shadow thing screeched, a terrible and prolonged human cry, and then it started flowing into the sword, first its torso and then limb-by-limb, until Will’s sword had absorbed the entire essence of whatever the shadow thing had been.
“By the Queen,” someone murmured behind him. He turned to find Mala staring at his sword with an awed expression.
Smoke filled the sky. A bolt of lightning struck the ground next to Dalen, shattering a section of mosaic tile. High above the square, a gypsy wizard was trapped inside a prison of white light, screaming for help as his magical cell carried him towards one of the flying ships. The golden fire inside the fountain next to Will coalesced into the form of a dragon, which leapt onto the square and swished its tail into the overturned wagon, sending it flying into a group of people. The monster turned towards Caleb. Without thinking, Will dashed forward and swung his sword through the elemental, causing the enchanted creature to turn to gaseous form and seep away.
“Spiritscourge?” Tamás said behind him, in a stunned voice. “Could it be?”
Ignoring the comment, Will looked skyward for the next threat. Instead he saw the airships heading back the way they had come, sails distended from the mage-summoned winds. Unused foot soldiers lined the rails of the warships, an afterthought next to the awesome power of the wizards.
The smell of smoke and death filled Will’s nostrils, corpses littered the shattered courtyard, the screams of the injured pierced the sudden silence. His eyes moved first to his brother, standing safe a few yards away, and then to the rest of his companions scattered about the square. Their shocked gazes turned from the retreating ships and latched onto the sword in Will’s clenched fist, thrust skyward in defiance as the city burned around him.
* * *
TO BE CONTINUED IN
THE LAST CLERIC
COMING MARCH 2018
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Acknowledgments
An immense thanks to Michael Rowley, Rusty Dalferes, John Strout, and Mab Morris for helping shape this book. Sammy Yuen again applied his creative genius to the cover design. As always, my wife and family had my back during the writing process. While I will always dream of other realms, they have ensured this world is the only one I will ever need.
About the Author
LAYTON GREEN writes in multiple genres and is the
author of The Blackwood Saga, the Dominic Grey series, and other works of fiction. His novels have been nominated for multiple awards (including a finalist for an International Thriller Writers award), optioned for film, and have reached #1 on numerous genre lists in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany.
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