Deathbringer

by Tamara Grantham

  “Get inside,” Kull shouted. “The Regaymor have broken free.”

  A few people did as he said, although some remained outside. I was sure they must have thought we were crazy. It wouldn’t take them long to realize we weren’t.

  When we’d made it halfway to the city’s wall, a wail came from behind us. Several more howls followed.

  And then the screams began.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chaos erupted on the streets of Slavom as the Regaymor descended out of Jeven’s tower. Screams echoed behind Kull and I as we raced from one street to the next. The howls of the Regaymor were getting closer, and we still hadn’t found the gates leading outside.

  People darted frantically in our path. Some were screaming. Others stood outside their homes, looking stoically up at Jeven’s tower, as if they’d known this day would come and accepted their fate.

  Kull and I scrambled around an overturned food stall, only to be blocked by a wall of flames. We had to backtrack to another street. The raging fires crackled around us, and heavy smoke filled the streets. The pungent scent of burning wood pervaded the air, making me cough and tears spring to my eyes.

  Kull held Dracon’s sword as we rushed from one lane to the next. Wrapped in magic, the blade glowed faintly, helping to penetrate through the haze. I’d lost track of where we were. None of the streets looked familiar, but Kull led us without hesitation.

  “Up ahead,” Kull called.

  I looked where he pointed and found the gate overshadowed by an ornate archway, but instead of running toward it, Kull glanced over his shoulder.

  Behind us, the city burned. Smoke billowed and embers rose into the sky, casting the single spire of Jeven’s tower in a glow of orange firelight. Wispy shapes glided through the smoke as screams echoed from below. I imagined hell couldn’t look much worse than this place.

  “Do you think my sister and Maveryck made it out?” Kull asked.

  “No way to know for sure, but if I know Heidel, she’ll have made it out before us, and she’ll give you endless amounts of grief about it.”

  “Yes, I hope you’re right.”

  Kull hesitated a second longer. I knew he must’ve been debating whether to return for his sister, but he knew there was little chance of finding her. Either she made it out on her own or she didn’t, and there was nothing he could do about it.

  Groups of people rushed past us and ran through the open gateway. We followed, but as we reached the opening, dark forms swooped down from above. The Regaymor took shape as they descended on the crowds. Terrified screams pierced the night. The Regaymor tore through the masses, their claws and fangs ripping through flesh, spraying a mist of blood into the air. Kull grabbed my arm and pulled me away from the gate.

  “We’ll find another way out,” he said, leading us away from the bloodbath.

  My heart pounded in my chest as we ran through the streets. Sweat slicked my forehead as fires burned the buildings surrounding us. I searched for another gate, but clouds of billowing smoke obscured everything. I had the thought that we would be trapped inside the city. Either we would burn to death or be slaughtered by the Regaymor. But finally, another gate appeared. Through the looming arch, I looked outside and found our salvation, the forest where we would meet up with the others… if we were lucky enough to make it out.

  Kull and I raced across the drawbridge, our footsteps echoing over the wooden planks. In the distance, the dark shape of the forest rose against the sky. We left the bridge and sprinted for the woods. Adrenaline fueled my movements as we ran, but as we reached the tree line, several shadowy shapes swooped down from the sky.

  The Regaymor formed before us, blocking our path. Their magic came to me, an overwhelming taint. After using all my magic in the fight against Jeven, I had nothing left. Our only hope was to kill them with the sword of Dracon.

  Kull held the blade aloft as one of the monsters rushed at him. He swung the sword and split the creature in two. With the power of the Madralorde weapon, the monster should have disintegrated into nothingness. Instead, the creature reformed, its cloak knitting back together, its eyes glowing once again, until it looked completely untouched.

  I stared, shocked, at the unharmed creature.

  It should’ve been dead. The sword should have severed it in half. Surviving an attack from a Madralorde weapon shouldn’t have been possible. Had it been a fluke?

  The three Regaymor gathered around Kull. My skin prickled as their dark magic gained strength.

  Kull didn’t give them a chance to attack. He struck out with a powerful attack, the blade passing through another monster, but just as before, the sword only sliced through the robes before the creature reformed.

  What was going on? That sword should have destroyed them.

  “Olive,” Kull called. “Isn’t the sword supposed to kill them?

  “Yes!” I called back.

  “Then why isn’t it working?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Kull slashed at another beast, but just as before, the sword failed to stop the attack. The Regaymor gained an inch on Kull, and then another. I knew I had to help him.

  Flexing my fingers, I drew on what little magic I had left, even tried drawing magic from the world around me, but I had nothing, not even enough to call the magic surrounding me.

  The Regaymor circled us. Tattered black cloth spun in my vision. One of the creatures reached for me, and Kull sliced the hand at the wrist. The monster hissed and drew back, only for the hand to reappear. As its limb reformed, the three Regaymor attacked us.

  Sharp nails scraped my skin along my shoulder, ripping my clothes, slicing open a cut in my flesh. Blood spilled out, bright red, and I knew the wound was deep, but the pain barely registered with the adrenaline pumping through my blood. Another hand wrapped my neck. Red eyes and a skeleton’s face loomed over me, filling me with terror, as the monster unhinged its mouth, revealing its carnivorous fangs. I grabbed the creature’s wrists, willing any magic left inside me to come to the surface, but the only thing I found was Theht’s presence, dangerously close, watching me as one of her own would soon tear me limb from limb.

  I screamed as the beast drew me to it, feeling the coldness of its presence overwhelm me with fear. Closing my eyes, I prayed death came quickly.

  A burst of bright light came from the forest. I opened my eyes to see half a dozen forms emerging from the trees, and the person in front carrying the staff of Zaladin. The magic filled the air and drove the Regaymor back.

  Their unnatural shrieks pierced the night as the staff’s magic made them burst into white flames and then consumed them completely. Nothing remained of the monsters by the time the others made it to us.

  In the light of the staff, I saw Heidel and Maveryck, as well as Grace, Lucretian, Rolf, and Brodnik coming to our side. I laid on my back, breathing heavily, as Kull laid beside me. He got to his knees and crawled toward me. Lifting my arm, he inspected the gash that ran from my shoulder to forearm. Kull’s face paled.

  “Olive,” he said, gasping.

  “How bad is it?”

  The others arrived. Lucretian stood over us as he held the staff.

  “Her arm,” Kull managed as the druid knelt beside us.

  Kull gently lifted my arm. Under the light of the staff, I finally got a good look at the wound. My stomach turned when I saw the flesh hanging from the bone. Muscle tissue and vessels were exposed to the open air. I could hardly believe I was still conscious.

  My vision blurred as the dizziness disoriented me. I didn’t remember much after that. Some yelling, a blinding blue light, the sensation of my magic finally returning, and feeling as if I could breathe again. And Kull, true warrior that he was, cradling me in his arms and singing a calming tune that quieted the fear within me. I’d never heard him sing before. His voice was a rich baritone that conjured images of dragons and kings, of tales long forgotten, brought to life by the tenor of his voice.

  As I lay listening to
him, he sang another song, this one different. For some reason, it made me sad. It reminded me of things that were never meant to be, people I was never meant to be with, but my mind drifted again, and I slept for a time.

  When I finally came to, I focused overhead and saw a star-speckled sky partially blocked out by leafless tree branches. The limbs creaked in the wind as I tried to make sense of what had happened. I felt a fragileness in the air, as if the world were breaking, crying out to me. I wished there was something I could do to fix it, but this had been a doomed world since its creation. My thoughts were fuzzy, and I tried to remember how Kull and I had escaped the city, but the memories came sluggishly. Pain shot down my arm, bringing me out of my thoughts, and I winced as I held it close to my body.

  “Still hurting?” Lucretian asked. I turned and saw him sitting beside me. Glancing down at my arm, I realized it was bandaged.

  “It hurts, but nothing like before. You healed me?”

  “Yes,” he answered, steepling his fingers. “Although, it was not easy. The wound was deep and filled with dark magic. By the time I reached you, you’d already lost a large amount of blood. You are fortunate we reached you when we did.”

  “I guess I’m lucky to be alive.”

  “Indeed,” he answered, looking at me in that grandfatherly way. “You have done well. You retrieved the sword and escaped the city alive.”

  “Yes,” I answered, still trying to recall everything that had happened. We’d escaped the city. The Regaymor had appeared… we’d fought them… but the memories were too jumbled to make sense of them. “We took the sword,” I said, “but we unleashed the Regaymor in the process.”

  “Indeed, but you couldn’t have known what removing the stone would do. No one knew, not even me, the precautions Jeven took to preserve his own people from becoming the monsters he feared above all others.”

  “You didn’t know?”

  “No. Jeven kept many things a secret from me. He didn’t want me in his city, and now I see why, although I suspected for some time that he must have been keeping the Regaymor imprisoned. It was a foolish act of desperation, and he must have known it would never end well.” Lucretian sighed. “And now you know the truth of my people. We do not die as you, but become creatures of darkness, forever doomed to wander our lands as cursed spirits.” He glanced away toward the city, where an orange glow lit the horizon. We could still hear their screams. “I suspect I will soon be the last of my kind,” Lucretian said quietly.

  Heidel and Maveryck approached us. Both sported scrapes and bruises, but it appeared they’d fared better than I had.

  “I am pleased to see you are well, Olive,” Heidel said, nodding.

  “Yeah, you and me both. You got the unicorn’s stone, I’m guessing?”

  “We claimed the stone,” Maveryck said, “with only a little trouble.”

  Heidel and Maveryck shared a look—one that suggested they’d had more than just a little trouble. But neither of them explained any more than that, so I let it pass.

  “Shall we let you rest?” Maveryck asked.

  “I think I’ll be all right,” I answered, my thoughts sluggishly returning, “but give me a few minutes.”

  “Of course,” he answered, and Heidel and Maveryck backed away. Lucretian also left me alone to speak quietly with the others.

  As I sat up, I searched for Kull. A lingering dizziness disoriented me, but it faded quickly. As the lightheadedness wore off, I focused and spotted Kull resting near me under a tree, his back propped against the trunk, his eyes closed. With his ashen face and pain etching his features, I was reminded of Jeven’s curse. He’d done something to Kull’s mind, and although I wasn’t sure of the specifics, it bothered me.

  As I looked at Kull, something else troubled me… but what was it?

  Dracon’s sword lay on the ground near Kull. As I studied the dull, tarnished blade glowing with a faint magical spell, everything came back to me. The Regaymor. The sword not working against them. The hopelessness I’d felt as I realized the sword wouldn’t kill them and Kull and I would both die…

  I reached for the sword, and Kull opened his eyes. He watched as I grabbed the pommel and carefully lifted it. This was my first chance to actually hold the sword and study its magic—and what I found disturbed me.

  There was no Faythander magic in the weapon. I only found a gray cloud, a magic meant to mimic Faythander magic, but it wasn’t the same.

  Hopelessness washed over me. We’d been tricked. Now I knew why Jeven hadn’t wanted me to touch it.

  Lucretian stood talking quietly with the others as I stood and approached him.

  “Did you know?” I asked when I reached his side.

  “Know what?”

  I stood and held the sword toward him, pommel first, and he took it from me.

  “It’s a fake,” I said.

  Lucretian narrowed his eyes in concentration. After scrutinizing it for a few minutes, turning it over in his hands and letting his own magic flow around the blade, he looked up at me. “How can this be?”

  “I’d hoped you would know.”

  “No. The sword Jeven took from me looked like this, but it was not this sword; it was the real one. They look the same, but the magic is wrong. Jeven must have gone to great lengths to mimic the real weapon. He got every detail right, except the magic.”

  “But if he had the real sword, where is it now?”

  Our conversation had attracted the attention of the others as they gathered around us. Rolf and Brodnik also trailed Heidel and Maveryck as they gathered around. Heidel narrowed her eyes as she scanned the sword.

  “I’ve seen that weapon before,” she said.

  We all turned to her.

  “You’ve seen this sword?” I asked.

  “Yes. Geth had it.”

  “Geth?” Jeven had mentioned Geth. Was it possible that Geth had taken the sword of Dracon? If so, then where was it now?

  “He kept it hidden,” Heidel said. “I’d never seen him go to such great lengths to keep a weapon hidden. But I saw it once, although I wasn’t supposed to.”

  “Where did you see it?” I asked.

  “In a cave in the northlands the goblins called The Hollows—a place of evil, of dark magic—but I’m not sure if it’s still there or not.”

  Kull wandered up behind his sister. He walked with a noticeable limp and his eyes were rimmed in red. Jeven’s curse was beginning to take its toll on him.

  “You are sure you saw this sword? Kull asked.

  “Yes, I am positive. Although I didn’t know its significance until now.”

  “Can you take us to this cave?” Kull asked.

  She hesitated. “It is not a place I wish to return to. There were events that happened… Geth, he was taken by the magic of The Hollows. It changed him. He was never the same again.” She shook her head and closed her eyes, as if willing the memories to disappear. “But yes, I could take you there.”

  Kull only nodded, his lips pursed as if he were in pain.

  Heidel narrowed her eyes as she took in her brother’s appearance. “Are you well, Brother?”

  “I am well enough.” He rubbed his forehead. “I am well enough,” he repeated, softer this time. He turned and limped back to the tree where he sat underneath it, his eyes unfocused, still rubbing his forehead.

  “Jeven placed some kind of curse on him,” I said quietly. “I’m not sure what exactly it was meant to do, but it can’t be anything good.”

  “A curse?” Lucretian said.

  “Yes.”

  “This is troubling. Jeven’s curses are not to be taken lightly.”

  “When my magic returns, I thought I would try to reverse it, but I’ve never been great at dealing with curses. Can you reverse it?” I asked.

  “I can try, but meddling with curses is a dangerous thing. Sometimes tampering with curses only makes them worse.”

  Behind us, a loud boom came from the city, shaking the ground so violently tha
t we were thrown off our feet. I landed on my back and watched as an enormous fireball roared from where the tower once stood.

  Shadowy forms flowed into the night sky. My mouth gaped as I watched the sheer number of Regaymor escape from the city. A horde of creatures flew from the destroyed remains of Jeven’s tower.

  We all got to our feet, even Kull, as we gathered and watched the millions of forms fleeing the city and out into the world.

  My heart raced as fear made my blood run cold. With one staff and a useless sword, what chance did we have of defending ourselves against that many creatures?

  “How long before they reach us?” Rolf asked.

  “Minutes, I would think,” Maveryck answered.

  The Regaymors’ insane shrieks filled the air, an overpowering wail that threatened to deafen us.

  Lucretian held the staff in a firm grasp. Standing tall, he turned to us all.

  “I can attempt to create a portal and transport you back to your own world,” Lucretian shouted over the shrieks, “but I will warn you, these conditions are not the best. There is a chance that the portal won’t form, or worse, that it will tear you apart!”

  “What do you mean by tear us apart?” Brodnik shouted back.

  “The portal could kill you,” Lucretian said, “or at the least, it could fail to bring you where it should. Portals in this world do not function like those in yours. They are unbalanced and highly unstable, and I would only open one under the direst of circumstances.”

  “We’ll have to take the chance,” I shouted, glancing at the Regaymor surging into the sky, their shrieks getting closer.

  “Very well,” Lucretian yelled, “but I cannot go with you. My place is in this world.”

  “But won’t you be killed if you stay here?” Heidel asked.

  “I have evaded the Regaymor for many years, and I will continue to do so. My time has not yet come. I will find safety, but first, I must make sure you have safe passage out of my world. Join hands!”

  We did as he said. Behind us, the wind picked up, scattering leaves and making the tree branches creak. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw the Regaymor riding the wind like a black wave. They would tear us apart, I had no doubt, and they would do it in a matter of seconds.