The fight was joined as soon as the two men met in the center of the field. There was none of the usual packing and measuring. This was not one of enjoyable matches of skill he had so far; this was a battle, and it was a battle to the death.
Thad brought up the staff and the force of Galavez’s blow from the two handed sword sliced through the head of the staff as cleanly as a knife through fruit. Seeing the power of the sword, Thad danced out of its reach and took stock of the blade once again. It wasn’t hard to find what he was looking for. The sword was enchanted, though without being able to touch it and explore it Thad had no way to know to what measure and effect it had been enchanted. If it had been enchanted like his own sword, even that would yield little. In the end, it mattered little, it was enchanted and that meant that it was a danger.
Thad tossed his staff to the ground. With a foot cut from the top of the staff it had become useless… worse than useless, it had become a liability. With the staff discarded, Thad took an offensive stance with both hands on the long hilt of his sword and then moved in to attack.
Thad kept his movements simple. He had been taught long ago how to move to the best effect with the simplest effort. There were ten positions one could take and to move from one to the next only took the slightest of movements and pivots. The first position was the deadliest, as it was directly in front of the opponent. The second was slightly to the right and the third was slightly to the left. All the positions had a use, but if you could ever get to the ninth position then you have the best chance to win, as that was right behind the person you were fighting.
Just as he had been taught, Thad attacked not with his sword, but his leg, kicking at the other warriors exposed left shin. The kicks held no real power, but served their purpose of drawing the other man’s attention from his upper body.
As Thad expected, after the fourth kick, Galavez struck out with his sword and Thad pivoted on his left foot, which was situated behind him, and moved into the second position and struck a glancing blow on the other man’s side. The wound wasn’t deep, but Thad didn’t let that bother him; the man’s armor, though thin looking, was enchanted to be strong enough to turn most, though not all, of his strike aside.
Galavez was a talented fighter and didn’t put too much strength in his first blow to overbalance himself and quickly adjusted but when he moved he found that once again, Thad had moved. Again and again, Thad anticipated the other man’s movements and struck scoring hit after hit though, none of them were deep enough to cause lasting damage. Though not deep, the wounds Thad inflicted made Galavez mad and the man moved with more predictability.
Had the man kept a cool head, he might have stood a good chance against Thad. His armor was strong and his sword sharp and Thad was starting to think that was the whole of his ability. That was until he moved into the ninth position and went to make a finishing blow at Galavez’s exposed neck.
Thad almost didn’t notice the subtle change in movement until it was too late, but his armor and reflexes saved him. Just as his strike was about to land, Galavez swung around with more speed than Thad would have thought possible of the muscle bound man. Thad’s sword came up and the larger weapon skidded off the blade forcing it aside from its intended path and scoring a small hit on Thad left arm, drawing a thin line of blood.
What happened next surprised Thad as much as Galavez. The sword nearly ripped from his hand as it moved his arm back in an awkward position and found its way into the other man’s chest. Thad was pulled in front of Galavez by the weight of the man’s body as he dropped to his knees, blood escaping in strangled coughs to run down his mouth. Then his eyes faded and death claimed him in full.
Thad placed his foot on the man’s chest and pushed him off his blade and the crowd rose to their feet in an ear shattering roar of screams and applause.
It had been ages since Thad had been forced to take a life and it rekindled feelings that he never wished to have again. Pity and remorse for the necessity of the deed rolled over him as he made his way off the field. He tried to push the feelings aside, but he knew that it was a futile gesture. When he saw the look in Jarrod’s eyes, he was glad to call the man a friend. Most people would be happy that he had won, but Thad found something different when he looked at his friend. What he saw was happiness and sadness at the same time. It was almost a mirror image of his own feelings, so he found it fitting that Jarrod held the same thoughts.
CHAPTER XXIII
Thad and Jarrod walked in silence back toward the main gate of the arena. Thad had accomplished his goal; he had risen to the rank of a champion, now all he had to do was prepare a fight that the scion mage would attend and find a way to get his friends there, so that they could end the beast’s danger and work to close the portal.
“My lord,” an older man, who Thad had seen a few times around the area, said grabbing his attention. “The great lord wishes to have a word with you alone.”
“Guess I will catch up with you later then,” Jarrod said with a weak smile. “Once everything has called down we will have a party to celebrate your new position.”
“Thank you,” Thad said, wishing he could convey his true sentiments to his friend. “We don’t want to keep the great lord waiting,” Thad said, turning back to the messenger.
Thad was led to a large sitting room and quickly took a seat. He had spent years in the court and knew that waiting was part of the game. Champions were considered high rank, but most likely the scion mage would keep him waiting for over an hour to show him how low he truly valued him. Thad had never liked the game, but it was one that held a purpose and that Thad could understand. He just wished that the others could be here so that they could put an end to this now. As it was, he would have to play his part. He doubted that he could win a battle against a scion mage alone, even with the aid of his magic.
Thad was only left to wait a scant few moments with his thoughts before someone entered the sitting room and announced that the great lord was ready to see him. Thad was surprised to be summoned so quickly and hoped that it didn’t hint at trouble brewing.
When Thad entered the scion mages throne room, he found a great pressure leaning on him. The magical pressure wasn’t as bad as it was out beyond the boundary of the city, but it was still extremely strong. Thad looked around the room through his mage sight and noticed the source of the power. A man shaped tower of crystal sat in the middle of the room radiating ethereal energy.
“That answers one question,” Thad said to himself as his eyes scanned the rest of the room. From the news he had heard, the scion mage went through the portal without trouble and he didn’t know before now how. If the scion who moved into his own world worked the same way, the magical energy of the other world would not be strong enough to support it. Thad didn’t know how the tower worked, but it mattered little. It did, and that meant it had to be destroyed just as the mage would have to be.
The mage himself was unimpressive. He looked like any other scion, with the exception that he wore stately clothes and a thin silver crown shaped to look like a laurel reef. The throne he sat upon through was anything but normal. It was made of crystal, but it did not have to normal multicolor of the crystals found outside the city; instead it glistened a light transparent golden color with small swirls of silver. It was beautiful and Thad found himself marveling at it until a small noise drew his attention away from it.
“I thought I would get a good look at the man that has roused such talk among the people,” the scion said thoughtfully. “A man out of his youth who had appeared as if by magic, fighting with the skill of a hardened warrior. At first, I thought you had just passed attention, but now I can see that assumption was wrong. I knew all the kinds of people who have been admitted into my realm and none such as you has been allowed to wander free.”
Thad grimaced at the scion mage’s words. He knew that his game was up, he didn’t know how, but he knew.
“I see surprise in your face,” the scion mage said,
almost chuckling. “I can see the magic running from your eye and foot brightly. I can also see a small stream of it going elsewhere. Did you not know that I am made of magic? I can see where it calls home and it defiantly runs through your veins. Now why don’t you tell me why you are here and I will see if I should have you killed or brought into my service.”
Knowing that there was little he could say, Thad did the only thing he thought he could. He attacked; not at the mage more than twenty yards away from him, but at the tower standing in the middle of the room. Thurman heeded his call and appeared in his hand, sending a strong stream of pure energy into the crystal tower. The pressure that he felt soon began to ebb, though he didn’t get much time to notice the difference as the room was filled with an ear splitting yell.
“What have you done?” the scion mage asked, jumping to his feet and ranking a line of energy at Thad that threw him from his feet and throwing him into the far wall.
The breath was knocked out of Thad, but his armor had saved him from any further damage. Thad quickly got to his feet and rushed the mage, putting the last of his already waning strength into his legs. Just as before, his sword seemed to move of its own thought and stuck the scion mage. Thad had doubted at first the blade would have much effect on the scion, but the second the blade touched the scion he burst apart into a fine dust.
Pulling himself from the floor, Thad looked at the blade as if it had betrayed him. Not even Bren’s sword had worked so well against the scions. Sure, it had cut through them easily, though it had not completely destroyed them. As he looked at the sword, he pulled himself up to sit exhausted in the only seat in the room, the throne.
“Magic find its own place within the weapons,” Crushers words echoed in his mind. He had said it long ago when he asked about the dwarven method of working metal. He had never truly understood what he had meant, though now he was starting to understand. His thoughts and the purpose of his working the metal helps to mold just how the magic will change the metal. When he had made this sword, he had thought of nothing but the scion mages, so it had found a way to aid him in that quest. It would take a lot of studying for him to figure out how it had worked, but once he did, he might be able to make more of the weapons or a least a semblance of them.
Seconds later the doors to the throne room were thrown open and four human guards rushed into the room. “Where is the lord?” one of the men asked with a stern look.
“Beneath your feet,” Thad said with a weak laugh. He could fight though he doubted that he could escape the palace unaided.
The guard shifted his foot in the crustal dust that scattered the ground and when his face raised he held a smile. “It would look like we have a new lord then.”
EPILOGUE
Thad was surprised to find that no one liked the scion lord and were more than willing to let him assume control of the city. The party that was held at the passing of the scion mage was larger than anything Thad had ever seen held before.
With the help of Humanius, it didn’t take him long to settle things down and get to work on sealing off the portal. The scions that had come with them found the portal different than they expected. It wasn’t a rip, it was more like a real door that could be open and closed with little effort once they figured out how it worked. Still, given time it would turn into a full rip and that meant that it had to be sealed.
The scions moved quickly, bringing in large amounts of glass to be used. Thanks to the artisans with the town it didn’t take long for Thad to start making the glass bricks. The hard part was figuring out how to enchant them, but he had been working on that for months. It would take only a scant few weeks to close the rift, the real question was what to do with the people who wished to follow him instead of returning to their homeland.
Crystal Throne (Book 1) Page 18