Avondale V

by Toby Neighbors

  “Where is Tiberius?” the earl asked in a pained voice.

  “We didn’t see him leave the city.”

  “We should wait here for him,” the earl said. “Surely he will come down this way.”

  “He will,” Rafe said. “I will stay and wait—you go down with the men.”

  Then, before the earl could reply, the mountain exploded. The ground shook so hard Rafe actually saw waves of earth rolling down the mountainside. Large stones came tumbling down, and the bright amber sunlight that filtered through the mist so perfectly dimmed.

  “None of us should wait,” Olyva said. “We need to get off the mountain, as quickly as possible.”

  Rafe looked back into the mist, his heart aching for his friend but knowing that Olyva was right. He couldn’t imagine what had just happened, but it was bad enough that it had knocked the entire group of soldiers off their feet.

  “Let’s move then,” Rafe said, then looking at Lexi. “All of us.”

  She nodded, and they pushed on down the mountain. An hour passed before Dancer was seen. The little animal was having trouble flying, and Lexi thought she was hurt, but when Dancer landed in Lexi’s outstretched arms, the little wind glider was covered in gray, powdery ash.

  “What is that?” Rafe asked.

  “From the eruption,” Olyva said. “It’s ash.”

  “Like ash from a fire?” Lexi asked, her voice shaking.

  Olyva nodded, and Rafe looked up at the misty barrier. “Why isn’t it falling on us?” he wondered out loud.

  “The mist must be blocking it,” Olyva said.

  “But the mist is just … mist,” Rafe said.

  “There is magic in the mist, Rafe,” Olyva said. “Whatever happened during the cataclysm, the mist was created to protect the lowlands.”

  “God, I hope Tiberius is okay,” he said.

  When night fell, they were over halfway down to the camp below. In the darkness, they couldn’t see to continue their descent, so they huddled together, Rafe and the other soldiers taking turns keeping watch in the darkness.

  When the sun broke the next morning, the world was gray. The normally golden sunlight had lost all color, and the mountain seemed colder. Rafe had no idea what had happened to the city, but he promised himself once everyone was safe below, he would find a way back up the mountain. He had to know what had become of Tiberius. He wouldn’t rest until he knew for certain there was nothing more he could do to help.

  They moved on, but Rafe chafed at the slow pace the refugees set. They were tired, with no supplies or even water, and many of the courtiers were unaccustomed to physical hardship. The journey down to the Avondale camp took over half the day, and when they finally got there, they were all exhausted. Rafe got food and water for Olyva and Lexi. The earl was made comfortable in the large tent at the center of camp, and Rafe took charge of the camp’s defenses. Once everyone was settled, Rafe finally ate some food. He found Lexi and Olyva sleeping. The gray sunlight was taxing on Olyva, and the stress of the journey, coupled with their fear for Tiberius, only made the situation worse.

  After he had eaten, all Rafe wanted to do was sleep, but instead he checked the condition of his weapons, then went to see the earl. Ageus was in a camp chair, surrounded by his daughters, but looking as tired and downcast as anyone in the camp.

  “My lord,” Rafe said, coming into the tent. “May I speak with you?”

  “Of course, Commander,” the earl said, sitting up a little straighter in the flimsy chair.

  “I’m going back to search for Tiberius,” Rafe said. “I’ve seen to it that guards are posted all around the camp. The men will take watch in shifts. There is food and water for everyone, as you know. I have to go back.”

  “I won’t stop you,” the earl said. “But you can’t go now. You should rest.”

  “I can’t,” Rafe said, a sob choking in his throat.

  “Then take the sky ship from Hamill Keep. If you find Tiberius or anyone else, help them, then come back to us.”

  “Of course, my lord,” Rafe said. “And thank you.”

  The earl nodded but looked away. Rafe couldn’t be sure, but he thought he saw tears in the gruff old nobleman’s eyes. Earl Ageus had probably never shed a tear for Tiberius. And Rafe had not seen him weeping over Brutas or Leonosis, but now the magnitude of his loss was too great to ignore. Rafe left him to his grief and went to gather supplies.

  He filled a large pack with food and water, then went to the sky ship. The captain of the vessel wasn’t too keen to take his ship up into whatever was happening above the mists, but the look on Rafe’s face told him that he wouldn’t take no for an answer. The sailors were from Hamill Keep, but the countess and her children were dead now, and only Olyva was left from the earl’s family. So he ordered his men to prepare the ship to set sail.

  They were almost ready to cast off when Olyva and Lexi appeared on the deck. Rafe wasn’t surprised. They had been sleeping when he left them, but Olyva was smart, and Lexi was always aware of her surroundings. Both women were formidable in their own way.

  “We’re coming with you,” Olyva said.

  “Happy to have you,” Rafe said.

  Olyva was carrying a spear and shield; Lexi wore her wangorian dagger and had a shield over one shoulder and her pack of supplies on the other. They looked like warrior goddesses to Rafe’s eyes, and he was more than happy to have them with him.

  The ship rose up slowly at first, moving away from the mountain and toward the brighter mists, which lightened considerably the further they moved from Avondale. The ship passed through the barrier with no trouble, and when they rose up on the other side, what they saw made them all stare in horror.

  Gray ash floated through the air like snowflakes. Smoke still rose from the volcano, but the sight of it wavered from the incredible heat rising up. Rafe ordered the sky ship toward the city, and they sailed closer. Most of the city wall was destroyed, with only a few scraggly looking towers remaining. Everything was colored a dirty gray from the ash, and inside the walls nothing remained.

  The sailors brushed the deck of the ship constantly. The sails were soon covered, and controlling the huge vessel was difficult. They were only a few miles from the city when Olyva’s body went rigid. At first Rafe thought she was getting sick from the lack of sunlight. The entire sky was full of smoke and ash, and the sunlight that shone through was a dull, weak glow that did nothing to warm the ship. He moved to Olyva’s side and put an arm around her.

  “Are you okay?”

  “I think I see something.”

  The smoke in the air made everything hazy, and little could be seen in detail until it was close. Rafe couldn’t believe she could see anything, but he trusted her enhanced vision. He loved her so much, and Tiberius’ loss made him want to hold Olyva close and make sure nothing ever happened to her.

  “What?” he asked. “What do you see?”

  “Movement,” Olyva said, turning to Lexi, who stood nearby, straining to see through the haze. “Over there, on that section of wall that is still standing.”

  Rafe looked but couldn’t see anything. Still, he trusted Olyva and had the captain adjust his course. Whatever it was that Olyva could see, they would all be able to see soon enough.

  Chapter 44

  Tiberius

  At some point he’d fallen asleep, but the ash was so tightly packed together that the open space remained around Tiberius and Leonosis, like a cave made from the ash of the volcano. When Ti woke up, he was in complete darkness and for a moment he had trouble remembering where he was.

  “Fulsi,” he said.

  Light appeared, and Tiberius thought the ash all around him looked like stone. It was possible that molten rock had hardened around the ash, but Tiberius doubted that. He reasoned that it didn’t get hot enough inside the pocket he’d created for lava from the volcano to have settled around them.

  He touched the ash wall and found it hardened, but with a little effort, he could dig
through it. Leonosis was still breathing, but Tiberius decided to try and wake up his brother. Ti had no idea what kind of trauma Leonosis had been through with the demon, but physically there was no injury that would keep him unconscious.

  “Leonosis,” Tiberius said, shaking his brother’s shoulder. “Leo, wake up!”

  The emaciated king didn’t even stir. His breathing was steady, but Tiberius knew that if he didn’t get help for his brother soon, no amount of magic would save him. Leonosis needed food, water, and constant care until he was out of danger. Even if he woke up, he might be insane. Tiberius had no idea what having another entity inside his head would do to him. And Leonosis had lived with the monster for at least several weeks, perhaps even longer.

  “Scuti Incantatio,” Tiberius said, forming a smaller shield just around himself and Leonosis. Then he drew his dagger and began hacking and digging at the ash.

  Sometimes the ash fell in hardened clumps, and sometimes as flaking powder. It took Tiberius nearly an hour of digging to reach the surface, which was several feet above them. The ash was still warm in the middle layers, and heavy. Had it not been for Ti’s magical shield and the sturdy block of the city wall behind them, both Tiberius and his brother would have been smothered by the weight of the ash.

  The air outside of the pocket was cold and hazy with smoke. Tiberius looked around and saw that the city walls had fallen—only small sections remained upright. He had been lucky that none of the stone around him had fallen. Tiberius knew from experience that while his shield could block practically any blow, he still felt the force of that blow. It was like holding a wooden shield while someone hit it with a heavy axe. If a stone had fallen and hit Ti’s magic bubble, it would have knocked him senseless. If one of the massive blocks that made up the wall had fallen on them, it would have killed him instantly.

  He shook that thought out of his head and climbed up through the ash and out of the little cave he’d created. Avondale was a wasteland. There was nothing left but ruins. The buildings had been destroyed almost throughout the city. The forest was gone, and the fields, too. Most of the fertile land at the center of the cone had been covered by lava, which had cooled and now looked like a flat, black field of barren rock. Ash covered everything.

  Tiberius tried to get to his feet on top of the ash, but his feet sank down into the loose powder on top. There was no way he could simply walk down the mountain, especially not with an unconscious Leonosis to carry. He considered the possibility of casting his wind spell and blowing the ash out of his way, but he had no idea how thick the ash had fallen around the mountain. If he moved large swaths of ash with his wind spell, he could trigger an avalanche of the powder that could wipe out any survivors struggling to get to the bottom of the mountain.

  It was impossible to tell how long he’d been in the pocket of ash. He felt as if he’d slept for hours. His stomach was rumbling, and he was thirsty. He needed to do something, but he couldn’t see much from where he was. The wall was a jagged, angling remnant that was close by, so he decided to climb the wall and see if there was any other way down the mountain.

  The ash had formed domes of powder on the flat surfaces, but most of the ash had slid down the sides, building up on top of Tiberius and Leonosis like snowdrifts after a winter storm. He had to brush away a place to stand on each block, and when he was forced to climb, every hand hold had to be tested several times to ensure that his hand didn’t slip or that crumbing rock and masonry would hold his weight.

  He was sweating and shivering by the time he reached the top of the ragged top section of wall. All he could see was a ruined wasteland. In fact, Avondale now looked the way he’d always imagined the blighted lands below the mists would look. Tears stung his eyes. Perhaps if he’d gotten back sooner, he could have saved Avondale. His father’s city was gone, along with thousands of lives.

  He was just about to climb back down the wall and attempt to drag Leonosis down the mountain when he felt something strange. It was a tremor, just a slight vibration in the stone beneath his feet, but it made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. If the eruption wasn’t over or even if just another hard tremor hit, the wall he was standing on could collapse.

  A crack, almost like thunder but without the deep resonating roll of sound, rang out across the empty lava field. Tiberius looked toward the center of Avondale and saw the hardened layer of cooled lava breaking open like an egg. Something deep inside Tiberius told him to run, to get as far away from whatever was happening as he could go. But instead, Tiberius watched to see what was taking place.

  “Ultimus Conspectus,” Tiberius chanted.

  His sight zoomed in. The smoke in the air made everything hazy, but Tiberius could see that something was rising out of the center of the mountain. Molten rock, glowing in the gloom, rose up slowly, and then it became clear that the superheated rock was dripping away from something round and rising from the depths below.

  Tiberius felt his whole body tense. The object was perfectly round, and after rising completely from the molten depths below, it drifted back over the hardened shell of rock. Then it touched down, and the traces of lava shot away from the object as the sphere popped like a soap bubble. Now, Tiberius could see what had been inside the floating sphere—it was the demon. He recognized the ghostly form of the mysterious creature, only now it seemed more substantial. The legs looked strong, but they were twisted into odd, painful-looking angles. The body was emaciated, much like Leonosis, and the being had long, spindly arms. In one hand the creature held an object that Tiberius instantly recognized—the Balestone.

  To his horror, Tiberius saw the demon begin chanting an intricate spell. He was much too far away to hear the words, and the being’s face was still a featureless shadow, but the Balestone began to glow. Tiberius felt the swirl of magic as it rushed past him; everything magical on the mountaintop was being drawn into the power of the spell being cast by the demon, and Tiberius felt certain the wretched creature was attempting to open a bridge to the place where it had come from.

  He had to stop it, but he didn’t know how. He didn’t have the Emerystone, and he was all alone. Then, even more wondrous than the most powerful magic, Tiberius heard something from behind him. It sounded like his name.

  He turned and saw the massive sky ship from Hamill Keep drifting toward him. His still-enhanced vision saw the most beautiful sight he’d ever seen. On the the deck, waving and calling his name, were Rafe, Olyva, and Lexi. They had come back for him, and he suddenly felt a renewed sense of strength and purpose. He was a wizard of the Fourth Order. He had found the Emerystone; he had passed the tests set by the masters who came before him. Now, he would use the magic he had to stop the demon below from destroying Valana.

  Tiberius waved back to his friends. The huge ship moved gracefully into place above him, and a rope was lowered. The massive vessel couldn’t just stop in mid-air, and Tiberius was grateful that they didn’t slow down.

  “Take me down there!” he shouted as he took hold of the rope and swung off the wall below the sky ship.

  He had the rope wrapped around his arm; it was tight, biting into his skin, his shoulder straining in its socket from the weight of his body. Rafe leaned far out over the side of the ship.

  “What?” he shouted.

  “Take me down there!” Tiberius repeated, pointing to center of the volcano. “Hurry!”

  Rafe disappeared, and Tiberius was worried that his friends wouldn’t understand. He felt the rope being raised, and his frustration grew with every heave, so he almost didn’t notice that the ship was descending at the same time. Rafe reached down and grabbed Tiberius’ free hand when he was almost to the ship’s railing. The strong warrior pulled Tiberius up onto the deck.

  “I can’t believe it,” he said. “You are the luckiest person I’ve ever known, Tiberius.”

  “You’re alive!” Lexi said, throwing her arms around his neck. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine,” Tiberius said.
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  “What is that?” Olyva asked.

  She alone of the three was still looking out at the barren plain that had once been Avondale. She pointed, and Rafe looked, straining to see through the haze of smoke.

  “It’s the demon,” Tiberius said, not bothering to look. “He’s found the Balestone.”

  “What? How?” Lexi asked.

  “I told him where it was,” Tiberius said. “I had hoped the volcano would erupt and kill it.”

  “Damn, it survived the eruption, too?” Rafe said.

  “Survived in the heart of it,” Tiberius explained. “I saw him rise up out of the lava a few minutes ago.”

  “What’s it doing now?”

  “Opening a portal to a world of monsters,” Tiberius said. “We have to stop it.”

  “How?” Rafe said.

  “I’m going to cast the destruction spell and destroy the Balestone.”

  “What?” Rafe asked.

  “Is it safe, Tiberius?” Olyva asked.

  “No,” Tiberius admitted. “I don’t know what will happen and I don’t know if I can control it, but I do know that if we don’t stop that thing, it will destroy Valana.”

  “You can do it,” Lexi said. “I’ll be right beside you.”

  “Me too,” Rafe said. “You have my sword.”

  “And I’ll lend you all the strength I can,” Olyva said.

  “Then let’s move,” Tiberius said. “I need to be closer to ensure that I completely destroy the stone.”

  Once the ship was only a few feet off the ground, they dashed off the massive vessel, which rose quickly back into the air. The ground was hot beneath them, and the air was cold. Ti’s chest was aching as they ran toward the demon. The smoky air was difficult to breathe, but they kept moving. Rafe had drawn his sword, and Lexi and Olyva were armed as well, but Tiberius knew their weapons wouldn’t be useful against the demon as long as it had the Balestone. The beast was looking more tangible with each passing minute, his twisted flesh taking shape in the physical world, but Tiberius still didn’t think traditional weapons would harm the wretched creature. It was a magical being, and only magic could stop its evil plans.