by Jim Galford
Leaning around the corner of the intersection, she saw that Arturis was standing in the doorway between the crypt and the tunnel where Oria was. Ahead of him, she could see her mother and father, with more than a dozen soldiers, including Lyra and Sirella, flanking them. Both Estin and Feanne’s faces were twisted in rage, their natural reactions made far more hideous by the transformations they had gone through.
“You are not leaving this place,” Estin growled at the man. “Stand aside.”
“This is not a negotiation, slave. You will move and I will leave, or she will be dead by the time you can reach her. I would think you’d try to keep at least one of your children alive, but perhaps I overestimate the family instincts of vermin.”
As Oria watched, Feanne and Estin backed slowly away, much to the amazement of the soldiers around them. Soon, the entire group had parted, giving Arturis a clear path out of the room.
Oria felt herself slipping and caught herself before she fell. Looking up, she realized that the mists were in view, drifting quickly up the connecting hall toward her. She only had a minute or two before she would be trapped in the dead-ended tunnel. Worse yet, she might black out before then, if she did not keep moving.
Turning back the other way, Oria saw that Arturis was walking into the main room, grinning at the assembled soldiers and her parents. In seconds, he would be free and they would have to try again another day, when they might not have the forces they did now.
Slipping a little ways into the hall, Oria tried to position herself to avoid the mists, without letting Arturis see her. As she staggered out into view of the assembly, she saw Phaesys staring past Arturis at her, his eyes filled with worry.
Anger replacing her concern, Oria suddenly wanted to live, if only to claw that male’s face off. He had no right to worry anymore, after all he had done. She would show him that she was not so weak that she needed someone else’s pity.
Oria summoned what little strength she had left and charged, somehow managing to stay on her feet. Leaping, she tackled Arturis, knocking him off his, if only by sheer surprise.
As soon as she hit the floor beside the Turessian, Oria was grabbed by many hands and pulled away. At first, she thought that Arturis was attacking her again, but soon saw that Lyra’s elven thieves were shielding her from Arturis, trying to get her away as battle erupted.
“Let me help them!” Oria cried, pushing at the men and women that were pulling her from the violence. “Let go!”
“Your parents have a plan,” one of the men told her. Oria recognized him as the one who had used magic to help her back at the hideout. “We need you to stay out of the way. Their strength is needed right now, or he’ll kill us all.”
Once she stopped struggling, the elves moved, allowing Oria to see the battle in the middle of the room. As soon as she saw it, she was thankful they had dragged her away.
To one side of Arturis, Feanne was battering the man with her long arms, tearing away entire sections of his body with her incredible strength. As fast as she hit him, he appeared to be healing, but Arturis was reeling with each impact, trying unsuccessfully to raise his hands to form a spell. If nothing else, the wounds Feanne inflicted kept him from completing his spells.
On the far side, Estin was nearly as destructive. Whereas Feanne was striking with brute force, every swing of Estin’s claws erupted into flares of magical light that seemed to burn and batter Arturis. Every few strikes with his claws, Estin would step back and unleash torrents of white flame against Arturis, knocking the man back as he shielded his face.
Between her parents, and in spite of his rapid healing, Arturis collapsed as they beat him to the floor.
“Enchanter, now!” Feanne roared, looking toward Oria and the elves.
“That’s my cue,” the man near Oria said, grinning.
As the elven man stood up, Arturis looked up from the floor. Twisting abruptly, Arturis slammed Feanne into the wall of the room and kicked Estin back several feet. With his arms free, Arturis raised a hand toward the elven man.
In the next second or two, Oria watched in horror as her parents tried to reach for Arturis, but got hold of him too late. With a choke, the elven man stumbled and collapsed, blood running out of his ears as he hit the floor, his body still trembling from the dark magic that had hit him.
“I may not be able to kill you,” Arturis yelled, laughing even as Feanne kicked him into the far wall. “But I can kill your enchanter!”
Oria pulled free and dove to the elven man, checking for a pulse. In those few seconds, his body had already gone cold, as though the magic had taken not just his life but his very warmth. Dragging him back to the others that had been near her at the wall, Oria stared in disbelief at the man’s blood-streaked face hopelessly.
“What now?” asked Oria weakly of the elves. “What’s the next plan?”
“That was all we had,” one of the women answered, drawing her sword. “Now, we all die trying to stop him. Everyone, use any trick you have left!”
Oria watched in dismay as Arturis struggled back onto his feet, even with Estin delivering one blazing attack after another. When Feanne joined her mate, Arturis backed himself to the wall, using it to keep his balance against both of their blows.
“This is all you can do?” laughed the man, reaching past Feanne to grab one of the soldiers, when the man swung a sword into the fray.
While Feanne knocked Arturis to his knees, the Turessian still managed to snap the neck of the soldier.
“One at a time, everyone here will die,” Arturis warned, catching Feanne’s fist and holding it, though just barely. As he held his position, Oria watched a section of his face that had been smashed slowly recover, as though nothing had happened. “None of you are strong enough to kill me. Get that through your heads and stop trying!”
Feanne quickly shifted her stance and grabbed Arturis’ arm, freeing her own. With effort, she slammed him into the ground and then swung him backward, shattering the stones of the crypt with his body.
Oria stood slowly, taking a sword from the fallen elf. She would join the other soldiers, stabbing into the melee, in hopes that eventually it would be enough. It was all she could do and all she could make herself do, though even that seemed pointless beside the occasional explosions of magic hitting Arturis or the incredible powers of Oria’s parents.
Stepping between her and a soldier whose head exploded in a burst of flame, Phaesys leapt into the fray. In one of his more dramatic attacks, he slashed across Arturis’ midsection with his sword and spun, using his momentum to nearly sever the Turessian’s head.
Oria thought she would be sick as Arturis nodded his head forward, reattaching it. The whole bloody wound closed in seconds, even with a half dozen soldiers and Feanne and Estin still hitting him. Through the whole ordeal, Arturis never stopped grinning, though his laughter was briefly interrupted by the loss of his throat.
Approaching the combat, Oria hacked at the Turessian with her weapon, accomplishing little more than the half dozen others who were doing the same. Meanwhile, Feanne and Estin were working to keep Arturis down. They had resorted to grappling Arturis, using sheer strength to pin him to the floor, while the soldiers, Oria, and Phaesys did what they could to help.
As one-sided as the fight had been to that point, Arturis abruptly changed the battlefield. Swinging his fist into the rock floor of the chamber, Arturis sent a shower of stone at the same time a magical burst of light and fire threw Oria backward.
All around Oria, she could hear screams of pain and men yelling that they could not see. Like them, all she saw were spots in her vision and her fur was definitely on fire. Patting out the parts she could feel, she struggled back to her feet, unwilling to yield and unaware of whether her parents were still fighting.
“Just one of us has undone all you brought against me,” Arturis was saying, humor in his tone. “Think what I can do with a hundred more. That is how many I marched out of Turessi with. Once we find what we
are looking for, there will be a thousand. Your frail mortal bodies are a curse. We will change this world in our image and make it better for all.”
With the hand not holding her sword, Oria rubbed at her eyes, hoping desperately that she could get her vision back in time to be some help. Slowly, shapes began to form, but they still swam in a sea of white light.
A man’s voice near her started to say something, but then choked. Almost immediately afterward, she heard a snap and the sound of a body dropping to the floor.
“I told you that you would all die, one at a time,” Arturis said, far closer than Oria felt comfortable with.
A woman off to Oria’s left whimpered for a moment and a second later Oria heard the sickening sound of a sword slashing across flesh.
“Now, let’s dispose of some trash,” said Arturis, somewhere just in front of Oria. “I think I’ll start with the mother. A were-fox…quite interesting. I’ve heard of lycanthropes, but you are the first I met and certainly the first fox. I hear all such creatures take a long time to die. Only one of us will find this entertaining.”
Oria concentrated, listening for where exactly Arturis was. She closed her eyes, trying to drown out all the distractions. The cries of the wounded, the movement of soldiers stumbling around, and even the hoarse breathing of the dying were all ignored.
Ahead and just to her left, Oria heard something large get dragged. She hesitated a second longer, until she heard her mother growl as she woke up.
Lunging with her sword, Oria attacked blindly, knowing if she missed and hit the wrong target, her mother could heal quickly enough that it would not matter. The sword hit flesh almost immediately and Oria pushed forward as her free hand hit heavy fabric. She drove the sword deep into Arturis, knowing it would have killed a human, but likely would only annoy him.
Feanne grunted as she hit the floor again.
“Little child,” purred Arturis, as rock-hard hands closed over Oria’s wrists. “Thank you very much for volunteering. I have no idea what I was thinking. Your parents should get to watch me rip your limbs off, like they got to watch your brother die. Hold still, this won’t take long.”
Oria could just barely make out the man looming over her. The others in the room all looked like blobs of indistinct color. The flickering torchlight on either wall created starbursts in Oria’s vision, dizzying her.
“Right arm first, I think.”
Yelping in pain as she was hoisted off the floor yet again, Oria dangled helplessly, blinking rapidly in an effort to at least see what was coming. With each second, her sight was recovering, but it was still a muddled mess of shapes.
Arturis’ other hand grabbed Oria’s shoulder and he began pulling her arm out of its socket. Screaming, she kicked and fought to free herself, but he was far too strong.
“Now, now, don’t tire yourself out,” he told her, giving another tug. Pain lanced through her shoulder as the muscles and tendons fought to keep everything where it belonged. “So much screaming and we aren’t even done with the first one. I may have to heal you to keep you alive to the end at this rate.”
On the floor nearby, Oria was finally able to make out her mother, who was struggling to stand. A gaping wound in her side spilled blood everywhere, and though it was closing quickly, Feanne would need a few seconds before she could fight again. In that time, Oria would have lost at least one arm, if not both.
Oria shrieked as Arturis tugged again and fumbled along her belt for anything of use. She found and drew her remaining knife—once Atall’s—but anything else she had brought was long gone or patently useless.
“A knife?” asked Arturis, easing his pull on her arm slightly. “You can’t kill me like that and you know it.”
Behind Arturis, Oria spotted her father back on his feet, shaking his head dizzily.
“I don’t have to kill you,” Oria told him.
Fumbling with Atall’s ring, she half-heartedly punched Arturis across the jaw. As she did, she invoked the magic of the ring—the ability to heal a dying body—funneling the healing energy through the impact. It was a long-shot, but given that her father’s magic seemed to at least hurt Arturis, she prayed it would be enough.
Snarling and seemingly more shocked than injured, Arturis dropped her and grabbed at his jaw. Almost immediately, he tried to reach for her again, just a little too slow.
Hitting the ground harder than she had intended, Oria clutched her arm to her body, practically crawling away as soldiers began to take positions around her. She slid past Estin, who lunged at Arturis again, and headed to her mother, who was on her knees, gasping as she held her ravaged side.
“Mom!” Oria cried, but Feanne waved at her to get out of the way.
Standing up unsteadily, Feanne checked her side, which had partially closed. Roaring again, she leapt over Oria and practically tackled Arturis, her claws tearing away a chunk of his upper body in one hit.
Oria could not bring herself to stand. She lay there near the room’s exit, watching as Norum’s surviving soldiers rushed into the battle, then came flying back out, slamming into the walls nearby, where they then would lay still. The constant gore soon seemed commonplace, and Oria just shook her head, wondering at the sense of it all.
A chill began to creep over Oria’s back and tail, and at first she thought that her blood loss had finally begun to take its toll. Then, realizing which end of the room she was on, she turned and saw the mists flowing in from the hallway, nearly on top of her.
For a moment, Oria thought to let the mists take her. She would likely die, but she thought maybe this way would be painless. It would at least be quick. Aside from a few lucky souls, the mists destroyed pretty much anything.
Anything.
Oria blinked and stared at the cloud of destructive energy that poured into the room and then began to smile. If they were all going to die anyway, she could see no reason not to use Atall’s original plan. It had, after all, been a good one, other than him having no way to push Arturis into the mists.
It was a way to deal with Arturis once and for all. Excitement stirred newfound strength, and Oria pushed herself back to her feet. Then she hurried to the edge of the battle between her parents and Arturis.
Somewhere along the way, Sirella had joined the fight, her flaming sword burning a trail around the room as she and Phaesys danced opposite one another, carving into Arturis with each agile turn. Feanne continued to grapple with Arturis, as the only person strong enough to match him. Estin worked with her, hurling the strange white flames into the man every time Feanne managed to hold him still.
Between them, Feanne and Estin mostly kept Arturis from getting at the others, though there were few others left beyond Sirella, Phaesys, and Oria.
“The mists!” Oria called out and everyone—Arturis included—turned and looked toward the creeping wall of glowing light. “Throw him in the mists!”
The look on Arturis’ face was priceless. All of the pain and death Oria had witnessed over the years was somehow justified in that moment. The stunned surprise in Arturis’ eyes reassured Oria.
The man was afraid.
With a strength born in desperation, Arturis picked Estin up and threw him across the room and then tried to run. He made it no more than three steps before Feanne was back on him, arms wrapped around his midsection, dragging him toward the mists.
No more than a tail’s length from the mists themselves, Feanne tried to heave Arturis over her shoulder, but the man threw himself to the ground, driving his fingers into the gap between the stones that made up the floor. Try as she might, Feanne could not move him. The mists began to close around both of them.
“I will…hold…him,” Feanne growled, still straining against the smaller human. “Get everyone out!”
Oria’s heart began to race as she realized that Feanne might be caught in the mists as well. Her fears grew more concrete as Arturis tugged and nearly pulled himself free of her grip.
“Knock him in!” Feanne
bellowed, her immense arms shaking with the effort. “Someone! Hurry!”
Swallowing the lump in her throat, Oria took a step forward. She could do this. All she had to do was run as hard as she could into Arturis, make him lose his grip for just a second. The slightest change in his hold on the stones would be all her mother needed to throw him into the glowing cloud and be done with this.
Oria knew full well what it meant. She and her mother were probably going to die with the Turessian. Still, there was no other way. Two deaths to save everyone else…Oria could accept that.
Running hard, Oria crossed the room. Halfway there, Phaesys tried to grab her, but she slipped past him.
Ten feet. Five…
Oria dove toward Arturis, her good shoulder leading as she aimed for his head and hands. Just before reaching him, she saw a blur of white and black, then Estin was between her and Arturis.
Whipping his tail around like a whip, Estin cracked Oria in the face and upper body, flinging her away from the mists.
Oria tumbled back onto her feet, intending to try again, despite blood in her mouth from her father’s blow. By the time she got her bearings, she saw Estin and Feanne, working together to physically drag Arturis into the mists. Between the two of them, they had pulled him off of the stone floor and driven him backward into the wall of light.
The glowing lights closed quickly over them and all three were abruptly gone. Then, even the loose stones on the floor were pulled into the mists, some of them bursting into flame before they too vanished.
As if given new motivation, the mists roiled and rushed forward, taking with them large portions of the chamber, as well as the bodies of those at that end of the room. Tendrils of mist reached out greedily, yanking several of the wounded in screaming as well.
Oria could feel nothing as she stared at the wall rushing in on her. The pain in her back and head, the ache of her shoulder—all of it was gone. All she could see was that brilliantly warm light where her parents had just gone. She had followed them everywhere they had gone since the day she was born. Why would this change anything?