The king’s soldiers knew of only one way out of the city, and that was the way they had come in. The city gates were closed and reinforced, but their mad king had managed to bring the wall down somehow. Unfortunately that part of the wall was on the far side of the city, but they were determined to get there anyway.
Lexi wanted to warn them, but she dared not speak. Her main concern was surviving, and she was a master of going unnoticed. The first rule of survival on the streets was to never attract attention, and she followed that rule until she came to the narrow corridor where the earl’s war band was making their escape.
She waited, deciding it might not be a good idea to try and squeeze into the narrow alley with the armed and armored soldiers. They might hurt her without meaning to, and even though she didn’t want to stay in Avondale any longer than she had to, she didn’t want to get hurt being hasty either. She stood waiting, watching the soldiers and glancing back at the roiling black smoke spewing from the mountain.
“Lexi!” Rafe shouted at her.
He was leading Earl Ageus and a group of the earl’s guards. Most of the earl’s war band had stepped aside to let the earl go on in front of them. He, for one, looked distressed to be fleeing, but Lexi knew the city was lost. Even if she hadn’t felt the tremors and seen the smoke rising from what had once been the lake at the center of the city, she trusted Olyva. Her noble-born friend had said the mountain would erupt, and Lexi believed it would.
“Come on!” Rafe shouted to her.
She dashed forward, and he placed one arm around her shoulders in a protective gesture that she appreciated. They hurried through the alley and then across the hole that Tiberius had fashioned in the wall. The strangely shaped tunnel was still hot, and Lexi knew that if she reached out and touched the stone, it would probably burn her. Only the thick soles of her boots kept her from the heat of the stone. Then they were outside. The air seemed more clear than inside the city, even though one glance up revealed the spreading darkness of the volcanic smoke.
“Where’s Olyva?” Lexi asked.
“She’s leading everyone down the mountain,” Rafe said. “Where’s Ti?”
Lexi saw the earl look back at her, wanting to hear her reply, and she wished she could say more, but she honestly didn’t know what Tiberius was doing or where he was. He might have left the city after making the tunnel in the wall, but Lexi doubted that. She guessed he was going after his brother, hoping to end things before they got worse.
“I don’t know,” Lexi said.
“Did you find the stone?” Rafe asked.
Lexi nodded. “But it has no power.”
“Is Ti in the city?”
“I think so,” she said, trying to keep the worry out of her voice but failing. “I think he’s going to face Leonosis.”
Chapter 42
Tiberius
As soon as he stepped out of the alley, he saw soldiers. Most looked terrified and were running for their lives, but Ti decided it was better not to take unnecessary chances. He stepped back into the alley and cast a spell.
“Abdidi Incantatio,” he said.
The cloaking spell fell over him, like the most delicate fabric covering him from head to toe. He stepped back out into the wide street and began searching for Lexi and for Leonosis. He found a staircase leading down to the second level and made his way quickly down the steps. He knew instinctively that Lexi would take Leonosis to the lower levels, where she was most familiar and where she would be able to slip away from him and escape, so he made his way down as quickly as possible.
When he saw Lexi, she was coming up a set of worn stone steps, hurrying. She didn’t see him, and as much as he wanted to call out to her, he knew that if he did, she wouldn’t leave his side. He watched her go, hoping he wasn’t making a huge mistake.
He had to go down two more levels before he saw his brother. Leonosis looked horrible, and there was blood seeping from a wound in his side. Leo’s finger was still jammed in the wound, but he seemed oblivious to it, and the realization that he was facing something other than his brother made him shudder. He couldn’t tell if Leonosis was dead or alive. He might have been like Olyva’s father in Hamill Keep, merely a puppet of some horrible power that was controlling his body, but at least the blood staining his clothes was red and not black the way Earl Marcus’ had been.
Tiberius let the cloaking spell fall away, and he saw Leonosis’ eyes snap onto him. Then a grin crossed his brother’s nightmarish face.
“Tiberius,” he said, his voice almost unnaturally high. “At last we meet.”
“Leo, tell me you’re still in there somewhere,” Tiberius said.
Leonosis laughed. They were in a small space where the narrow road opened up a little so that there was room all around them. Leonosis began to circle Tiberius, forcing Ti to turn in order to keep facing his brother.
“Oh, he’s still around. I need a plaything to keep me entertained. I get bored so easily.”
“Who am I dealing with?” Tiberius said.
“You shall know my name soon enough, wizard. The entire realm will know my name and tremble at the thought of it. But it shall not cross your filthy lips, not if you want to live.”
“You have no place here.”
“I have only just begun to carve a place for myself in your world, boy.”
“Leo, you have to fight. Don’t give in to this creature.”
Draggah laughed again. “You cannot fight me, child. Oh, your ilk have tried. But my power far exceeds your own paltry skills.”
“Why then do you search so frantically for the Balestone?”
Tiberius saw the desire flash in his brother’s eyes. Something he said carried weight with whatever creature had control of Leonosis. Now, he only needed to carefully lay the trap, so that the creature fell into it and Tiberius could get safely off the mountain.
“Why don’t we dispense with the games?” Leonosis said. “Give me the stone, and I will let you live.”
“No,” Tiberius said. “You leave my brother, and I’ll tell you where the stone is hidden.”
“Ah, a trade. How novel. You know, I don’t think I trust you.”
“You don’t have to trust me,” Tiberius said. “The proof is all around you.”
Tiberius saw Leonosis glancing around but trying not to be obvious about it. He was curious, and Ti only needed to coax the creature a little more to defeat him.
“I’ll tell you where the stone is, once you release my brother,” Tiberius said. “If you don’t believe me, or if I’m trying to trick you, I’m sure you’ll know it. Besides, he doesn’t look as if he’s holding up to your presence very well. If I’m lying, you can take me instead.”
The thought of being possessed by some foul spirit was terrifying to Tiberius. He had studied the scriptures in his training to be a paladin to know that when spirit beings took root in a person, they were hard to remove. The scriptures recorded that people possessed by spirits often had fits or tried to harm themselves. Some had supernatural strength or knowledge they couldn’t have possessed normally, but never were the possessions beneficial to the host.
“You make an interesting bargain,” said Leonosis. “I’m tempted. Not by your words, but because I feel the stone’s power. It calls to me, even now. The voices of those beings trapped by your forebears and sealed in the stone. They call to me.”
“So answer them,” Tiberius said. “I won’t try to stop you.”
“You would fail if you did.”
“So what do you have to lose?”
Tiberius let the question hang in the air. His body was tense; his desire to run for his life was almost overwhelming. Just being near the creature in control of his brother made Tiberius’ skin crawl, but this was what he’d returned for Avondale for. To confront the evil that was pulling the kingdom down around them, threatening to engulf everything that Tiberius loved. He couldn’t run now, couldn’t back down. He was so close to his goal, and all he had to do was keep hi
s nerve.
“So be it,” Leonosis said.
Then he fell on the ground, his body shaking violently. Tiberius wanted to run to him, to help him somehow, but he didn’t dare. The demon was leaving the body, and Tiberius didn’t know if the exorcism might kill Leonosis, but it was a chance they had to take.
The afternoon sunlight was slowly being smothered by the smoke from the volcano, but Tiberius saw the spirit being when it finally released Leonosis. It was a dark and twisted creature, with what looked like flames clinging to various parts of what appeared to be a grotesquely deformed human body. Horns rose from the forehead and curved back over a scalp that looked blistered and scarred. The eyes were dark, just black holes in an otherwise featureless face, yet they seemed to stare into Tiberius’ soul. And when the demon spoke, his voice was so deep and powerful, it was almost like the sound of distant thunder.
“Where is the Balestone?” the demon demanded.
“I dropped it in the lake,” Tiberius said. “There.”
He pointed out across the terraced fields and the evergreen forest, toward the billowing smoke. The demon’s head tilted as it looked at Tiberius, as if it was trying to decide if Ti were telling the truth. He had revealed the bait; now he had to spring the trap and escape.
“I’ve heard the voices, too,” Tiberius said. “They hunger for power. Brutas found the stone and used it to bend the will of the earl’s war band to his own. He foolishly tried to harm me with it, but for some reason the stone was drawn to me. It took root in my flesh.”
Tiberius held up the back of his tunic and turned so that the demon could see the scar. Turning his back on the heinous creature was the most terrifying thing Tiberius had ever done. It made facing the pack of graypees to save Rafe seem like child’s play.
“It didn’t want to leave, so I had it cut out of me,” Tiberius said. “Then, I dropped it in the center of the lake. It seems the mountain doesn’t want it either.”
The demon looked doubtful, the eyes boring deep into Tiberius’. The urge to turn and flee was stronger in that moment than ever before, but he forced his body not to move. Keeping eye contact with the creature took all his strength and willpower, but Tiberius did it.
“You lie,” the demon hissed. “No one can give up such power.”
“The Balestone doesn’t give you power,” Ti replied. “Only madness. If you want it, go and get it … before it’s too late.”
The demon stared hard for another moment, then, with a swirl of ghostly smoke, it shot away, skimming above the ground and racing toward the volcano’s center. Tiberius felt weak and shaky, but he grabbed Leonosis, who was surprisingly light, and heaved him over one shoulder. Then, as fast as his legs could go, he hurried back toward the upper levels of the city.
The climb was difficult, and Tiberius was nearly at the end of his strength when he finally reached the top level of the city. Leonosis was still breathing, but his body was completely limp. Tiberius was pressing hard against the wound, which he could have healed easily if he wasn’t racing to escape the volcano. Tiberius had just found the alley and the tunnel through the wall he’d made, when the eruption occurred.
The sound of the explosion was like being pummeled by thunder. The ground shook hard, and Tiberius fell. Buildings all around the city collapsed, and one glance over his shoulder showed Tiberius that a huge wave of smoke and ash was racing out in every direction from the center of the volcano’s cone. It was shooting up the bowl-shaped mountaintop at such speed that Tiberius didn’t have time to think. He grabbed Leonosis and dragged him through the tunnel. As soon as Tiberius was out of the wall, he turned and moved as far away from the opening he’d made as possible. It only took the wave of ash and smoke a few seconds to reach the wall. The sound it made was like a raging winter storm. Tiberius dropped on top of Leonosis and shouted his spell.
“Scuti Incantatio!”
The magical shield covered him, sealing with the wall and the ground around his body. Then the ash fell. Tiberius could feel the heat, as if a blizzard of ashes had been dumped on him straight from the fire pit. The shielding spell kept them from being smothered by the ash, which was hot, but not enough to burn them. The entire mountaintop was engulfed in smoke. The ground shook hard, and Tiberius could hear the city buildings crashing as they fell. The wall beside them shook, and Tiberius was certain that it collapsed in places, but it held fast over him, protecting Ti and Leonosis from the worst of the eruption.
There was nothing to do but wait. So while the mountain shook and roared, spewing flames, smoke, and molten lava, Tiberius healed his brother’s wounds.
“Sano Sarcio Acies Deprimo Abscido,” Tiberius chanted.
The magic seemed unaffected by the volcano’s eruption and flowed freely around the young wizard. He focused his mind on his brother, pouring the healing power into the atrophied body. Soon, a hot pain flared into Tiberius’ side, mimicking the pain his brother was suffering. Tiberius’ breath caught in his lungs, and his body stiffened as he endured the Corporeus Adfectus, but the pain soon eased. There was no internal bleeding, no broken bones or burns, just severe malnourishment and dehydration.
Once the wound in Leonosis’ side was completely healed, Tiberius sat up. He pushed on the shield that was protecting them and expanded the bubble, but the weight of the hot ash was surprising. He couldn’t see anything through the thick gray powder that fell in large, fragile chunks. It was like being in a gray blizzard, and Tiberius knew that the only thing keeping them alive was the magical shield around them.
He sat down next to Leonosis, his back against the stone wall. The stone was warm, as if it had been sitting out in the summer sun all day. A wave of drowsiness came over Tiberius. He wanted to close his eyes and sleep, but he knew that if he did that, the shield spell would break, and the weight of the ash would smother them. He might be able to survive, but Leonosis was still unconscious; the chances that he could save his brother were slim if the shield failed. So Tiberius stayed awake, trying not to think about the fact that he didn’t have any food or water.
Instead, he thought about his friends. He was confident they made it out of the city, but he had no idea if they made it down the mountain or not. If the ash was falling on them the same way that it fell on the ruins of Avondale, they wouldn’t be able to keep moving. And if they stopped moving, they would die.
Chapter 43
Rafe
The line of soldiers, servants, and courtiers hurrying down the mountain reminded Rafe in some ways of a line of ants. He had watched the tiny insects as a child, marveling at the way they marched single file. And when an obstacle was placed in their path, they would go around it, find the trail the others had left behind, and follow along.
Luckily, there were no obstacles for the earl’s war band, just a hurried descent down into the blighted lands and hopefully to safety. Rafe and Lexi stopped where the mist met the mountain, hoping they would see Tiberius appear at the tunnel he had somehow managed to create in the wall. It looked to Rafe like Tiberius had burned a hole straight through solid rock. The power his friend wielded was simply mind-boggling to Rafe, but it also made him proud.
As the last of the refugees fled from the city, some of them wounded but moving as quickly as they could manage, Rafe felt hope slipping away. He wanted to go back in and hunt for his friend, but he knew it was a fool’s errand. He couldn’t imagine how Lexi felt, but he knew his responsibility was to make sure she made it down off the mountain safely.
A few of the king’s soldiers came wandering out of the tunnel; they looked lost and confused. Rafe waved for them to come and follow the earl’s war band. A look of grateful relief crossed their faces. In the distance Rafe saw the war ships from Sparlan Citadel rising into the air around the king’s magnificent sky ship. Rafe knew the soldiers inside the city hadn’t had time to circle back around and board the ships. He watched, wondering if the ships would sail into the city and rescue the soldiers. To his surprise, they turned and sailed
away from the erupting mountain, working to avoid the spreading cloud of dense smoke that was filling the sky.
“I can’t believe they’re abandoning their own,” Rafe said.
“You don’t think the soldiers made it out?”
“No,” Rafe replied grimly. “I don’t.”
Soon, the last of the soldiers reached them and went down into the misty barrier that separated Avondale from the blighted lands. The ground was shaking, reminding Rafe of a warrior barely able to control his anger. They waited a few more minutes, neither of them speaking but both hoping they would see Tiberius appear.
Finally, Rafe looked at Lexi. Tears were streaming down her face. He felt his heart breaking. He remembered the pain of seeing Tiberius captured in Hamill Keep and how helpless he had felt then. He had been sure Tiberius would be killed, but he escaped that city and the mob that wanted his blood, even though his head had been on the chopping block.
“He’ll make it,” Rafe said.
“I’m waiting for him,” Lexi said.
“We can’t,” Rafe said. “We have to go down with the others. If we get separated, we might not make it down at all.”
“I won’t leave him,” she said through clenched teeth.
Rafe put his arms around Lexi. She was small; her shoulders shook with sobs as he held her. She pressed her face into his chest, and even through the thick tunic, he could feel her tears.
“Come on,” he said. “We have to go.”
She went, but silent tears ran down her face. Rafe kept his arms around her. They walked quickly, moving to catch up with the long train of soldiers who had barely managed to escape the attack and subsequent eruption.
The entire group of refugees, including the earl and his guards, were gathered on the far side of the mist. Olyva was there, waiting for Rafe. When she saw the tears on Lexi’s face, she immediately embraced her friend.
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