Brice said, “But I thought you couldn’t arrest a Grand Vicar.”
“That is true, but the circumstances have changed. No, Andolis Drakar has seen his last sunrise as Tristan the Fourth. I will assemble my men, and we will go to the palace and capture him.” Greathis gave Laedron a grin. “I would appreciate your help if you would give it.”
“You have it,” Laedron said, and Marac and Brice nodded in affirmation.
“And you have my sincerest apologies.”
“What for, Master Greathis?”
“For the fact that you’ve come here despite all odds and in the face of great danger, that you’ve been falsely condemned by the church, and that you’ve proven to be my best ally even though you have every reason to be my worst enemy.”
“We only mean to end this war and return things to the way they were. Nothing more.”
“Nothing will be the same after this. It cannot be.”
12
Storming the Palace
Greathis, at the front of fifty militiamen, led the way toward the Vicariate Palace at the heart of the Ancient Quarter. The column passed the consulship building first, then marched parallel to the platform connecting the palace to the consul chamber.
“That walkway was designed to give the Grand Vicar greater security when going between the palace and the consulship,” Greathis said, seeming to notice Laedron’s awe of the massive structure. “Early in the morning, you could catch a glimpse of His Holiness on his way to the assembly.”
At the end of the platform stood a tower, which Laedron estimated to be ten stories or more above the walkway. Probably another five stories below that. Andolis could be anywhere in there or the palace beyond, and he may have any number of mages guarding him.
Close to the steps fronting the complex, Greathis increased his pace, and the militia matched him. They stopped halfway up when the huge double doors at the top opened and Andolis emerged.
“What draws you to my door at this late hour, Dalton Greathis?” Andolis asked. Laedron thought it was strange for him to still be wearing ceremonial robes around the palace that late at night. “To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?”
“Genevieve Forane, and you shall meet her soon enough. You are under arrest for conspiring against the peace.” Greathis unsheathed his weapon, and the militiamen readied theirs.
“Do you forget the law, Guardsman? A reigning Grand Vicar cannot be removed by the likes of you, regardless of your charges. I can only be dethroned by the will of the consuls.”
“I shall not suffer you to remain in that office, Charlatan. Your lies and plots have brought nothing but misery and sorrow, and we shall abide you no longer.” Greathis inched up the stone steps, his men following.
“Then, you leave me no choice,” Andolis said as black-cloaked men joined him on either side. Even from a distance, Laedron recognized the garments and the runic symbols embroidered on the men’s garments.
Andolis retreated into the palace, and Greathis raised his sword. “For Azura!”
The militia guards rushed up the stairs amidst a storm of spells from the black mages. The night sky was illuminated by a deluge of colorful light, with the red of flame and the white of frost joining the light blue sparkles of electricity. Laedron focused on the nearest mage, trying to keep his mind and eyes off the guards falling at either side.
Almost there, Laedron thought, then a blast of energy sent him to the ground, dust and fragments of stone flying through the air. His ears rang and his vision blurred from the sudden explosion at his feet, and his legs burned like hellfire. It can’t end this way. He ran his fingers past his knees to see if the rest of his legs were still attached to his body.
He felt holes in his pants and the wetness of blood, but surmised his body was still intact. Then he saw Master Greathis lying beside him. The mangled guard captain was gasping his last breaths. A hand came through the haze to wave in front of his face, and Laedron grabbed it.
“Are you all right?” Marac shouted over the roar of the battle.
“I’ll make it,” Laedron said with a grunt, struggling to stand. “We must get to Andolis.”
“Brice!” Marac shouted. “You help Lae up the steps, and I’ll lead. Stay behind me.”
With his arm wrapped around Brice’s shoulders, Laedron limped up the stairs. Marac held his shield at the ready. Fragments of wood and iron splintered off the hauberk as they went, and Marac dropped the bent, broken remains of the shield on the ground once they had reached the top.
A mage turned toward them, his wand outstretched, and Marac rushed him before a spell could be cast. Marac plunged his sword into the belly of the man, the dark crimson of the blood indicating a deep, vital strike. Withdrawing the blade, Marac spun around with a slash, severing the mage’s head. He moved on to cleave another sorcerer in the chest and kicked the dying man down the steps.
“Inside,” Marac said, pointing at the door. “They can handle the rest. Andolis is ours.”
Brice helped Laedron through the door and pointed to the left. “There he is!”
Marac turned and ran down the corridor, but Andolis escaped into a passage behind a thick oaken door. Twisting the knob, Marac said, “Hells, it’s locked!”
Laedron staggered down the hall, then produced his scepter. “Stand back. I’ll burn it down.”
Brice shook his head. “No, we have no idea what may be behind the door. Something flammable? Andolis waiting for us? Let me. I’ll do it nice and quiet.”
Nodding, Laedron leaned against a table, while Brice knelt at the keyhole. The circular room had three exits-the one Laedron had entered through, the locked door, and an open arch leading to a raised walkway, presumably the one normally traversed by the Grand Vicar on his way to the consulship. We must be at the base of the tower, Laedron mused.
Brice inspected the lock for a few seconds, then reached into his belt to retrieve a thin bit of metal. Laedron took the opportunity to mend his wounds with a healing spell, and though he couldn’t close them completely, he was able to stop the bleeding and ease the pain into a dull ache.
Laedron heard a click, and Brice turned around with a proud smile.
“Let’s get him,” Laedron said.
“Wait.” Marac approached the open archway.
Laedron moved to Marac’s side, and before he could ask, he saw what had captivated Marac. The night sky had a sheen of yellow which brightened to an orange glow, and the clouds were moving. Observing the heavens, Laedron noticed that the clouds were swirling around a focal point-the tower itself. He took a step backward when a stream of red lightning struck the platform beyond the arch, cracking the stone and sending bricks flying through the air.
“We must hurry.” Laedron pulled Marac back inside and opened the door.
Immediately inside the door, a stone staircase spiraled upward, and Laedron began a hasty ascent. He became winded the farther they climbed and was out of breath by the time they reached a ladder leading up to a wooden trap door. “Only a bit more now.”
Marac climbed the rungs of the shoddy ladder, then pushed open the trap door. Past him, Laedron could see that the sky seemed to be burning. Flames swirled about the heavens, and thicker bands of searing red lightning mixed with them. He could hear faint chanting beneath the thunderous roar of magic, and he rushed up the ladder behind Marac.
Once on the roof, Laedron took in his surroundings. The city of Azura was aglow from the blinding light of Andolis’s spell. What in the hells is he doing? Trying to burn the entire city? Like the finger of Syril, red flashes of lightning indiscriminately struck straw roofs, setting them aflame. At that height and with all the commotion, Laedron couldn’t tell for certain if people were escaping the burning buildings.
Andolis stood on the opposite end of the tower’s roof, his left hand raised to the sky and his right holding a long staff. The wooden staff was carved into a wicked shape with thorns and spines fashioned into the shaft. The pole had a bend throughou
t its length, suggesting a subtle crescent or the look of a longbow. Along its exterior, soulstones were set into the wood, and each of them glowed and sparkled with red light. Laedron likened their appearance to a flame burning behind glass, but rays of energy seemed to be emitted from the sigils carved in the onyx.
“Andolis Drakar, we come for you,” Marac said, his sword high as he neared the mage. “Put down the staff and end this madness.”
“End this madness? What a wonderful thought.” Andolis lowered the staff, his eyes meeting Marac’s. “Perhaps I shall end the three of you. Yes, I think that would be more fitting.”
Marac lunged at Andolis. The mage knocked Marac’s sword away with the end of the staff, then smacked Marac across the face with it. Brice let out a growl, rolled beneath the staff as it swung overhead, and slashed at the mage’s arm.
Andolis hissed, a cut beneath his elbow dripping blood. Brice’s proud smile transformed to a look of fear when the mage flicked his staff and shouted a phrase. The spell sent Brice flying across the roof with a blast of white energy. Laedron glanced over at his friend’s body, then yelled his spell and aimed his rod at Andolis.
A shockwave pulsed from the tip of Laedron’s scepter, and Andolis was thrown toward the edge of the roof, his momentum only stopped by one of the merlons at the edge of the battlement. Marac raised his sword high and ran toward the sorcerer. Andolis twirled his staff, blocking Marac’s attacks. The clang of steel against the hardened wood of the staff echoed louder than the storm of flames churning above their heads.
Unable to get a clear aim for a spell, Laedron watched in horror as Marac slashed at Andolis, his sword deflected after each swing. Andolis struck hard enough to spin Marac around, creating time to cast a spell, an incantation which sent Marac flying backward and over the side of the tower.
“No!” Laedron shouted. “You’ve killed countless innocents, and you’ve killed my friends.” Laedron raised his scepter and leveled it at Andolis. “Now, you die.”
“I think not,” Andolis said. “I shall be the only one leaving this place alive.” Andolis waved his staff and uttered an incantation.
Laedron was quick to cast a spell to counter the lightning bolt flying at him. Striking Laedron’s magic shield, the lightning splintered, arcing like the bolts he’d seen shooting across the sky. Once it dissipated, Laedron flicked his rod and shouted the words, sending a stream of flames at Andolis.
Countering, Andolis cast a spell, and the air swirled violently around him, the flames joining the air like a tornado. Then, Andolis shifted and hurled the column of air and fire back toward Laedron.
After a tumble across the roof, Laedron stood several feet away, his clothes steaming from the superheated perspiration all over his body. Andolis had missed, but just barely. Through the whirlwind of spells which followed, Laedron and Andolis shouted phrases and waved their weapons, while bobbing and weaving to dodge the other’s attacks. Laedron felt as locked in an improvised dance, and the final measure of the music would draw silent with one of their deaths. The fear he felt in his heart weighed greater than any he had come to know prior to that day, and he knew that one misstep, one false move, would finish him.
He felt the sting of Andolis’s icebolt from the center of his body to the tips of his extremities, and the feelings of anguish and defeat that followed were no easier to accept. Glancing down, Laedron saw that a solid shard of ice had pierced him just above his sternum, and judging by the fact that he was still alive, he figured the spell had missed anything vital. He could still feel his heart beating in his chest, but with every pulse of blood, a chill surged through his body. Laedron saw doubled, blurry outlines of Andolis, then his face hit the ground as hard as Andolis’s spell had struck him in the chest.
He had been bested by the enemy, and the world as he knew it would cease to be, instead becoming a place shrouded in darkness, pain, and torment for all who inhabited it. Lying on the ground, Laedron let his thoughts drift, flashes of visions of his life and the lives of his friends. Then, he saw people huddled in misery in distant, foreign places, people he had never met, but who shared in his defeat.
Tears welled in his eyes for Ismerelda, who had died by the hands of another Drakar, for Master Greathis, who had been killed on the steps of the palace, and for Marac and Brice, who had followed him only to lose their lives so close to victory. Laedron cried for Valyrie, who would never see her father again, and for her father, whose death would go unavenged. Then, his emotions changed into anger, an insurmountable, insatiable hate for the man who approached to gloat over him while he lay dying.
The pain lessened as the ice bolt faded from existence, Andolis having obviously released the spell. A perfect hole-an inch or two in width-remained in his chest, but it didn’t hurt; the freezing cold had numbed the area, though it wouldn’t be long until the effect wore off.
“Are you crying? For what do you shed tears? For my men whom you killed? No. For your own shortcomings and lack of training? For the defeat itself? Why do you weep?” Andolis asked, inching closer with each word.
Laedron’s entire body trembled, a cocktail of fear, anger, and adrenaline coursing through his veins. “You… mustn’t…”
“Mustn’t I? What? I mustn’t finish you off? After all the trouble you’ve caused?” Andolis glanced at the scepter sitting a few feet from Laedron’s hand, then he smiled. “No, I think I shall be done with you, boy. Then I shall continue my plan to rid the world of your kind, your impure and reckless brethren who should never have been taught the secrets of magic in the first place.”
Laedron considered Andolis’s words, feeling as though he was only a pawn in a much greater, far older game about which he knew nothing. A war between the Zyvdredi and Uxidi over control of magic? They used the church to hasten the demise of all mages except those born in Zyvdred? Laedron had only a passing thought of the possibility. Given that he had seen neither the Creator, nor Syril as of yet, he considered his options.
Laedron lifted himself an inch or two off the ground. “You’ve done well-”
“Where do you think you’re going?” Andolis asked, kicking Laedron in the face.
The popping noise and the flow of blood from his nostrils let him know his nose had been broken. Doing his best to set his nose straight despite the insufferable pain, Laedron said, “You’ve done well thus far, Andolis. Turned the church on its head, even using it as a tool to rid the world of us. You’ve made one mistake, though, don’t you see?”
Andolis put his left hand on his hip, the other tightly grasping the staff. “What mistake is that, whelp?”
“You’ve taught others, priests, the secrets of magic. You have yourself done that which you hate.”
“You think I don’t have a plan for that? With the rest of you gone, it would be easy to do away with the priests I’ve taught. A necessary evil, my little friend, much like the one I shall serve you with now. Once I’m done with you, I’ll finish my spell and be away from this place. Imagine it, boy, a firestorm, a torrent of fire to last at least the next hundred years.”
Laedron was confused for a moment, then he realized how Andolis planned to accomplish the feat-the soulstones. Laedron saw the full use-the terrible use-of the soulstones to their maximal effect: making magic permanent by the use of a proxy, a fresh soul depleted in the casting of a spell.
Andolis raised his staff high.
Laedron braced himself for the finality of his death. The time had come for the Zyvdredi to claim his prize. Andolis spoke his chant slowly, as if savoring each dark word as it crossed his lips. In his other hand, Andolis presented a black stone, and his plan quickly became apparent.
Laedron writhed in agony at the thought of being trapped forever inside an onyx gem, his soul used to power the spells that would lay waste to men and nations. Laedron reached for the dagger at his belt, but then remembered that Brice had taken it. Not even a chance to end my own life before he can draw out my soul.
Laedron closed hi
s eyes, unwilling to look at the dark violet light swirling around his body. Much to his surprise, the chanting stopped with a grunt from Andolis. Opening his eyes, Laedron saw a sword protruding through the mage’s chest with blood squirting around the edges of the blade. Andolis’s face told of his shock and dismay, apparently aware of his impending death, reminding Laedron of the time he had practiced captivation magic with Ismerelda. Laedron almost pitied Andolis and would have given in to the emotion had he not known Andolis’s true personality.
He should have felt relief at watching Andolis’s limp body fall and Marac standing-alive-a few feet away, blood-drenched and wearing a look of deep satisfaction, but he didn’t. The mage’s words riddled his mind, and all the miles traveled thus far notwithstanding, Laedron felt as if they had only begun the journey.
Laedron’s arms and legs grew numb, and his breathing became shallow. His vision cloudy, he lay still on the ground until he could see only darkness. The last thing he heard was Marac’s voice shouting his name, and then he heard nothing.
13
Toying with the Fates
Marac reached down, grabbing Laedron’s hand tight in his own. “Stay with me, Lae! Can you hear me?”
Laedron didn’t respond, but Marac noticed movement across the roof. Won’t you stay dead, bastard? He took a firm grip on his sword and rose to his feet. Then, he realized Andolis lay dead and still where he had fallen. The movement came from further away.
“Oh, my head,” Brice said, sitting up.
Crouching at Laedron’s side again, Marac shouted to Brice, “Laedron’s hurt badly. We have to get him out of here.”
Brice took the staff from Andolis’s dead hands and the ring from the corpse’s finger, then returned to Laedron’s side. “You get that arm, and I’ll take this one.” He pulled Laedron’s limp body forward.
Marac eyed the staff and the ring. “What, we’re looters now, Brice?”
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