Moth’s oversized hands opened and closed like the talons of a wild thing moments from tearing its prey to pieces. His lazy stare locked on Finster, passed through him, and scanned over the stone wall, which continued to shift and move. The barbarian squatted halfway. He suddenly thrust his shoulder into the wall and rammed into it over and over.
It was just like the time that Finster had been trapped in the dungeons beneath the Red Citadel. Moth reacted like a caged animal, fighting with ravenous madness to break himself out.
“You really don’t care for close quarters, do you?” Finster asked. On that remark, he moved a block beneath his feet and lifted himself higher above his wall. From the aerial view, he continued to move the walls in Moth’s way, trapping him everywhere he tried to turn. The wild man hit the wall harder and harder. Finster shouted down at him. “You aren’t going anywhere until you learn to communicate better.”
The blocks in the wall popped in and out and shifted up and down, moving like living things. Moth grabbed ahold of a two-foot-long block. He pulled it from the wall, lifted it overhead, and hurled it at Finster.
Finster stopped the block in midair then sent it back among the other blocks in the wall. “Listen to me, Moth. We need to discuss the rings of power. At some point, you will have to part with them. You’ve seen our enemies. You know they won’t stop until they have what you have and what I have. It would be in the world’s best interest if I had the rings, or at least some of them, until I can restore the world to order.”
With his jaws clenched, Moth shook his head. He started hammering the blocks with his meaty fists. A series of loud cracks and pops followed his punches. The blocks exploded beneath the power of his fists. They disintegrated into dust.
“Oh my.” Finster lifted himself higher in the air. With Moth twenty feet below him, he noticed the savage passing through the blocks into the flat rooftop’s open space.
Moth locked his glowering stare on Finster.
The magus asked, “Are you going to listen or not?”
Moth bunched his legs underneath him and leapt at Finster. The savage cleared every foot, arms outstretched and fingers clutching.
With widening eyes, Finster quickly drifted out of reach.
Moth landed back on the ground and jumped at Finster again. The savage’s second hop propelled him even higher.
Casually gliding through the air, Finster moved farther out of the way. Moth swam in the air the moment he started to descend. Finster half rolled his eyes. “If you could only see how ridiculous you look.”
Moth’s descent stopped ten feet from the roof of the tower. Somehow, he moved toward Finster again at an increasing rate of speed.
“Bloody rings! They aid you with telekinetic power.” Finster lifted his arms. A wall of stones built itself in front of Moth. The savage plowed into it. The stones became water and burst. The savage glided right at Finster with fingers outstretched once more. They were no longer above the tower. Only the open ground remained beneath them. Finster continued his retreat. “Get back, you fool! You’ll lose control and fall to your doom!”
Moth kept coming.
“So be it then.” Finster let his stone pedestal lift him higher and higher. The Black Tower shrank beneath them. Dizon and Rinny emerged from the lower level. Aghast, they shouted up at the men drifting farther away from them. Moth continued his swimming in a bizarre aerial climb. Fueled by a burning aggravation, the distance closed between them. Moth’s fingers charged up with brilliant light.
“Now what is happening?”
Strands of lightning erupted from Moth’s fingertips. Coils of light spread all over the sky. The lightning passed through Finster’s body. He shook like a struck sapling. The scarab clenched in his back. He teetered and then fell from his floating stone pedestal and plummeted toward the ground.
CHAPTER 82
Watching from the roof, Dizon witnessed the angry explosion of lightning from Moth’s hands. It lit the day. She shielded her eyes with her hands. The Black Tower quaked underneath her. Both she and Rinny fell to the ground. Worse yet, the tower began to spin. Keeping her eyes fixed on the sky-bound men, she saw Finster falling. His robes rippled around his body. She couldn’t get a clear look at his face. The robes had enveloped his limp form. She ran for the wall. The tower tilted, creating an upward slant. She rolled backward into Rinny and tumbled into the stairwell. They didn’t stop until they hit bottom. The Black Tower pitched back and forth. She locked her arms around her daughter and said, “Hang on to me. I think the tower is crashing!”
***
It was another one of those moments when time suddenly slowed down and life took on a new meaning. Thanks to the lightning that coursed through Finster’s fragile body, the pain he’d been experiencing reached a whole new level. If it were not for that and the rustling of his whipping robes, he would have thought himself dead. The free-falling experience was enlightening. The problem was, it didn’t last long. Fighting through the jarring pain in his extremities, he pulled the robes away from his face. He caught a glimpse of the Black Tower rushing right past him. He jerked his gaze toward the ground that rushed up to greet him.
Stop falling! Stop falling!
He stretched out his powers, reaching for anything his mind could latch onto. The ground closed in. Fifty feet. Forty feet. Thirty feet. Twenty feet.
Two blocks clamped onto the fluttering hem of his robes, stopping him in midair. His entire body jerked inside the fabric. His robes ripped. His halted body slipped out of the folds. He fell the last fifteen feet and hit the ground hard.
The jarring impact knocked the wind out of him. He lay facedown with a mouthful of grass. Fighting to catch his breath, he struggled to his side. A great shadow fell over of him. It was the Black Tower, dropping from the sky, right on top of him. He threw his hands outward, stopping the tower’s foundation stones less than two feet from his chest. He crawled out from beneath it and gently set the entire tower down.
His torn robes landed beside him. Wearing only a pair of knee-length cotton trousers, he realized that he was half-naked. Catching his breath, he bent over, snatched up his robes, and draped them over his shoulders. He studied the sky, looking for Moth. The savage was nowhere to be seen. He used his detection spell to home in on the rings of power.
“There you are,” he said to himself.
Moth, it seemed, had resumed his place on the top of the tower. So far as Finster could tell, the savage seemed content to stay put for the moment.
“I will have those rings, whether he agrees to it or not. Moth, today, we finish this!” He traipsed around the tower and noticed, several yards away, their horse lying dead on the ground. His thoughts raced to Dizon. Oh no.
The thought of her unfortunate death slapped his sensibilities back into him. He raced around the base of the tower, hoping not to see Dizon’s broken body dashed against the hard ground. His frantic search didn’t reveal any more corpses. Magically placing blocks underneath his feet again, he rose to the top level of the tower. There was no sign of Moth or the women. He raced down the stairs on his own two feet to the fifth level. His heart jumped at what he saw.
Sitting against the wall, Moth cradled Rinny in his big arms. Her hair was matted underneath a bloody bandage. Dizon was on her knees, holding her child’s hands and sobbing.
Finster half stumbled forward on numb legs. He gripped his robes at the chest and muttered, “I’m so sorry.”
Dizon gave him a sideways glance. Her face was wet with tears. In a shaky voice, she said, “You did this. Now my daughter isn’t moving.”
CHAPTER 83
“I did it?” Finster asked with a dejected look. “All I wanted to do was have a conversation with Moth. But the ignorant savage would have none of it. The brute attacked me. He is as much to blame as I am.”
Dizon gave Finster a look that could kill.
Finster swallowed. He looked at the girl cradled in Moth’s oversized arms. Rinny’s chest rose and fell ra
pidly. “She’s breathing.”
Gripping her daughter’s hand, Dizon said, “Her breath is raspy and shallow, and she is growing cold. This is my daughter. She is dying. And here we are, out in the middle of nowhere, with no means to save her.” Dizon choked out a sob. She kissed her daughter’s hand. “I don’t want to lose my daughter. Not like this. Rinny, come back to me.”
Finster wiped his watery eyes. Though he wasn’t fond of Rinny, he was fond of Dizon. The woman, who had been nothing but good to him, hurt, and his own heart ached as well. Still, he was not going to take the entire blame for it. Moth had played a part in it. The barbarian had a mind of his own, and he could see concern in the sullen-eyed savage. He locked his stare on the tremendous man. “I think there is indeed a way that we can save her.”
“What are you talking about, Finster?” Dizon asked.
Without taking his eyes off the savage, he said, “Moth can save her.”
Moth’s eyes slid over to Finster.
Dizon looked at Finster as if he was a madman. “What are you talking about? How can Moth save Rinny?”
“The same way he always saves himself,” Finster replied. “By using the rings of power.”
Dizon glanced at Moth’s face and then at his fingers. She looked up into Moth’s eyes. “Is this true? Moth, if you can save her, you must.”
Stroking his chin, Finster said, “He can. The ring that regenerates the wielder does not stop a person from aging, but it can heal any wound. Its former wielder was Snard the Savant, a high magus of the ninth order. A lover of white gold, he was a very private magus, obsessed with dabbling in modern alchemy. How Ingrid managed to take the ring from him I’ll never know. Perhaps the fool gave it to her in exchange for a kiss.” He shook his head. “Such foolish men. Very selfish. Like I used to be.”
Dizon ran her hands over Moth’s hands. “I don’t know if Finster’s words are true, but you are fond of Rinny, and she is fond of you. Will you help her?”
Moth turned his hands over. He gave them a long look.
The rings embedded underneath the skin of Moth’s fingers had slight differences in them. Bumps from the jewels in the rings rose underneath the skin in different patterns. Finster had seen all of the rings clearly on Ingrid’s fingers. Each of them comprised a different combination of precious stones and metals in different patterns. The ring of power that regenerated had a line of wavy rubies that snaked along a ring of black iron. He pointed to Moth’s left index finger. “If I had to guess, I would say that it was that one.”
“How is he supposed to remove the ring?” Dizon asked.
“A good question,” Finster said. “The only way I can think to do it is to cut the finger off. That is how we took out Ingrid in the end. It’s the savage’s choice, however.”
Gently, Moth placed Rinny in Dizon’s waiting arms. As he did so, he slid the dagger out of Dizon’s belt. Kneeling, he planted his left hand on the ground and spread his fingers. He raised the dagger with his right hand and slashed downward. The blade cleanly cut his left index finger off at the bottom knuckle.
Dizon blanched.
Finster reached over and picked up the bloody finger. “You might want to look away. This is going to be gross.” He squeezed the ring off of the bottom of the bone and into his waiting palm. Using his robes, he cleaned the fresh blood from the ring. It was gold with tiny pearls inlaid in the metal. With an arched eyebrow, Finster said, “It seems that I have erred. This is the protection ring once worn by—”
“I don’t care!” Dizon said.
“Er… Moth, I believe you’re going to have to cut off another finger,” Finster said. The skin around Moth’s fresh stump had already clotted and begun to regrow. Moth had a snarl on his face. “Don’t look at me like that. It was an honest mistake. The rings have the same pattern of stones in them. Ah, try that one next.” He pointed to Moth’s right ring finger.
Glowering at Finster, Moth finally looked away and cut off his ring finger. Blood flowed freely from the new wound, dripping into the stones on the floor. His heavy stare landed on Finster again.
Finster squeezed the ring off of the finger and wiped it clean. The ring was black iron with a wavy line of rubies in it. He held it up. “This is the one.” A strong part of him wished he’d had the savage chop off all the rings, but without the regenerating ring, his chances of getting them all increased dramatically. He handed Moth his finger. “I believe this is yours.”
“Hurry, Finster,” Dizon said. “My daughter is quaking in my arms.”
The black ring could have fit three of Rinny’s fingers inside it. Finster slid the ring over her thumb. The ring slowly shrank to the size of her thumb. He shrugged. “We’ll have to wait and see.”
The rapid rise and fall of Rinny’s chest started to steady. Her pale skin regained its rich sun-browned color. Dizon gasped when her daughter’s eyes fluttered open. “It works,” she said with elation. “It works.”
“My head hurts,” Rinny said, “and I’m thirsty. Why is Moth bleeding? Ew, and where is his finger?”
“Is my daughter whole again, Finster?” Dizon asked.
“I would give the ring time to fully repair the damage that has been done, but it seems to work quickly.” He couldn’t take his eyes off the black iron ring. His mouth watered. If it could heal her so quickly, what would it do for him? Could it take away his pain? Would its powers be amplified by the Founder’s Stone? In the meantime, he held the gold pearl ring between his fingers. What magic powers would be revealed if he put it on? I could have them all!
Moth balled his right hand. Blood dripped from between his fingers as he watched Rinny bounce back to full life. There was a hint of gladness lurking in the wild man’s eyes.
Just a foot away from having everything he wanted, Finster made an uncharacteristic decision. He handed the gold-and-pearl ring back to Moth. “I believe this is yours.”
Moth plucked the ring out of Finster’s fingers. He eyed it briefly then put it on Rinny’s other thumb.
“Mother, is he proposing to me?” Rinny asked with a distraught look in her eyes. “I like him, but I told you, I’m not marrying him.”
With tears of joy running down her cheeks, Dizon laughed. “No, I think he is only trying to protect you.”
“Thank goodness.” Rinny slipped out of her mother’s arms. Dizon tried to reel her back in. “I’m fine, and my headache is already gone.” She took the bandage from her head and started wrapping it around Moth’s bleeding hand. “Did you cut your fingers off for me?”
Moth didn’t say a word.
“Ew, that is really gross, but thank you.”
Moth’s huge hand palmed the girl’s face.
“I’m going to be fine now. And I need you to be fine too.” Rinny took the black ring from her thumb.
“No, child, wait,” Finster warned.
Rinny placed the ring over Moth’s left index finger. “This is yours, Moth. What you did for me, I repay.”
Finster’s heart sank. He wanted the ring for himself, but now he knew he would not get it. The savage had it again. The aching deep between his shoulder blades throbbed with new agony. He sighed. Rising to his feet with a groan, he said, “Well, everything seems to be in order. Dizon, I hope you will be able to forgive me. If not, I understand. But we can’t continue to let moments like this happen. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I think the time has come to see this all through.”
Wiping her pretty face, Dizon said, “What are you talking about now?”
“I almost killed all of you, well, aside from the mute. I don’t want to live like this. I have the stone. It has a purpose. It’s time to make things right.”
Dizon rose. “What are you proposing?”
“I’m going after King Rolem. I’m putting an end to this.”
As he finished his last word, a pair of ugly black crows with a purple sheen on their wings and hooked beaks landed inside the spade-shaped portal window. Behind them, more of the birds fle
w by. A steady squawking came from the rooftop.
Finster made his way up the stairs with the rest of the group trailing him. Carrion ravens were lined up all over the roof ledges and battlements. All of their beady eyes turned to glare at Finster.
“They’ve found us.”
CHAPTER 84
Alexandria sat in front of the campfire they had set up near the magi. Holger had roasted a rabbit on a stick. Osgald and Chet sat with them, chewing on hunks of hard meat and washing it down with water. The other knights and assassins were nearby, lingering by small tents and bed rolls, all on guard. All three magi remained within their circle. They sat quietly, and every hour or so, their gestures would shift the circle outward. They did so now, moving as one.
“Strange company that we have to keep,” Osgald said as he looked on. “I prefer the way of steel compared to the dark and twisted ways of magic. They say no matter how pure the sorcerer may be, those seedy resources eventually corrupt them.”
“All men are corrupt,” Alexandra replied.
“Let’s not leave out the women. After all, as I’ve been told, it was a woman that began all of this mess.” Osgald’s sword belt lay beside him. He pulled the blade from the sheath. The campfire’s glow glinted off the finely crafted steel of the longsword. “This is the only woman that I trust.”
Alexandria smirked. “You are no fool. I’ve never met a person that could be truly trusted. Everyone has a price.”
“The River Knights cannot be bought,” Osgald said as he ran a rag over his blade and eyed it with admiration. “We are faithful to the crown. To the mission. To the river. To the death. And if one is slack in his duties, his dishonor will undo him. To be a knight, you must be girded like this steel.”
Licking his fingers, Holger said, “It’s a very haughty statement.”
The Red Citadel and the Sorcerer's Power Page 27