by Tristan Vick
“Mistress Arianna,” a robust voice calls out.
I turn around and, still on my knees, come nose to nose with the red bearded dwarf, Gromelin.
“Gromelin!” I throw my arms across his neck and hug him tight.
He bellows with laughter and pats me on the back. “There, there, child. It will all be all right. Bethriel is as stubborn as her mother. If there’s one thing I know, it’s that if she sets her mind to it she’s capable of anything. You’d be too, you know, if only you believed in yourself more.”
“I’m trying,” I say, wiping the tears from my eyes. “Trust me, I’m trying.”
He laughs again and then says, “I’ve come to summon you to the main entrance. Queen Sabine needs your help.”
Rising to my feet, I follow Gromelin out of the sacred hall, trying to ignore all the eyes drilling into me with their mistrusts and suspicion.
We pass through the atrium and then back into another section of the temple. Entering a long corridor, we hook a right and then walk to an intersection where we take a left. We step out into an opening, a somewhat larger atrium, where all the remaining soldiers fit for battle await orders.
“I found the bonny lass you asked for,” Gromelin bellows as we approach Queen Sabine’s position. She stands behind a large wooden table, which they must have brought out into the atrium from some inner room somewhere. Upon it are maps and battle plans sprawled out.
Sabine looks over her shoulder and smiles at me. “Just in time,” she says.
Leif points down at the table and then asks, “What if we create diversion outside here, and move everyone out through the secret passageway that Arianna entered through?”
“That’s fine,” Sabine replies. “But we’ll need to collapse these columns behind us to ensure nothing follows us into the corridor.”
“That’s where we come in,” Lisette states as a matter of fact. She looks up at Guerriero and smiles.
“Wait a minute,” I say, searching Queen Sabine’s face for answers. “But that’s a suicide mission. Lisette is just a kid.”
“I’m afraid we don’t have the luxury of distinguishing who is of age or not. If any of us are going to get out of this alive, I’m afraid some of us are going to have to make the ultimate sacrifice.”
“What about Dathrium’s forces?” I ask. “Won’t they be able to help us?”
“If Dathrium’s forces made it into the temple in one piece, they’d have checked in by now. The fact that they haven’t doesn’t bode well. I’m afraid it’s up to us if we want to get out of here and get back to our homes and families.”
I suppose I’m lucky that my family is here with me, I think, stealing a glance at Alegra, who is busy addressing some elves.
“I’m staying with Lisette,” I say, after giving it some consideration. “She’s my student. My responsibility.”
“But Arianna—” she starts, but I cut her off before she can finish.
“It’s final,” I say. “I’ve made up my mind.”
“All right,” Queen Sabine responds. She reaches over and takes my forearm in hers, and holds my elbow in her hand. Looking at me with her steadfast gaze, she says, “Good luck. And may the Goddess Lunaria watch over you.”
“As with you, my queen.” I bow my head and then look up. Her face looks grim, as though she’s worried for me, even as she holds back her emotions. After all, a queen isn’t supposed to pick favorites. Especially not among her knights. Favoritism breed jealous rivalry. No, the queen must strive to love all of us equally, as a mother loves her children.
“As for the distraction,” Leif says, breaking up the moment of overly sentimental atmosphere and getting straight to business, “just leave that up to me.”
“And what exactly do you have in mind?” Alegra asks, coming over to the group.
“It’s better if I don’t tell you,” he says, winking at her. Alegra just ignores his flirtations.
Before Queen Sabine can give the orders, however, there is a loud crash and part of the wall, along with the door, comes toppling down. A small rockslide forms from the crumbling wall, and Lord Dathrium crashes down onto the rubble and slides down to the dirt. Pushing himself back up, the runes on his kettle-black armor glowing like the mid-day sun, he growls, “Sorry I’m late, but I’ve been busy dealing with this undead asshole.”
Appearing in the gaping hole is Ashram. He holds his black sword out with its strange dark halo radiating from it like the flames of the sun and gazes at us from behind his armored mask. Ram horns adorn his head. He looks at me and a shiver ripples down my spine.
Suddenly a throng of undead come rushing over the cusp of the shattered wall, like a deluge, and engage the soldiers.
“Now!” Sabine hollers above the din. And everyone rushes into action.
I turn toward Alegra and place my hands on the sides of her face. “I’ll see you soon.”
“You’d better,” she says. Then, without wasting another minute, we part ways.
“Lisette, fetch the big boy, we’ve got work to do.”
Just then Ashram lets out a terrible roar. It sounds like man and beast, part lion and part something else. Something other-worldly. Then he leaps up into the air, leaving the mound of rubble, and comes crashing down upon my position.
I jump out of the way as to avoid Ashram’s blade, which swipes down on me as his cape flares up all around. It reminds me of bat wings. I roll out of the way, but the moment I’m clear of his attack he bears down on me again.
Worried that this might just be the end, I hear an awful wrenching sound, as if metal is being peeled from metal, and I look up in time to find Lord Dathrium standing between me and Ashram. He holds onto Ashram’s blade with his gauntleted hand, the Dark Elf runes on his armor glowing hotter than a fiery poker. The places where his fingers are clamped down on the blade glow as the steel is heated to its melting point from the severity of the friction resulting from an immovable object meeting an unstoppable force. The yield expels a blast of hot air, which rushes over me in waves and messes up my hair.
“Go,” Dathrium growls, struggling to hold Ashram at bay. “Go, now!”
Lisette helps me up and we start to run. The large, clunky footsteps of Guerriero shamble about closely behind us.
“Where’s Leif?” I ask.
Lisette points up at the curtain wall which runs between two bastions of Sabolin’s main defensive barrier. Leif races toward the temple entrance with to large wine barrels situated over each shoulder.
“What on earth is he planning?” I ask aloud, but seeing as I’m only speaking to myself, nobody answers.
Once he’s in position he tosses the jugs over the ledge. They come crashing down in front of the main entrance and shatter. Clear liquid sprays out, splattering many of the undead, and saturating the ground in front of the gaping hole near the entrance. Raising his arm high, Leif waves at something, and I look over to find Alegra standing upon one of the guard turrets of the outer wall. She pulls back on her bowstring and launches a flaming arrow. Whizzing by our heads, it flies straight into the center of the army of the dead, igniting the spilled liquid.
Suddenly the army goes up in flames. They yowl like wounded animals and begin running aimlessly in every direction. In their fervor, they lose interest in the fight and become preoccupied with the flames that consume them.
Once Leif and Alegra have completed their task, they rejoin us in the atrium next to the basilica.
“You guys had better get out the back passageway while you still can,” I say, thumbing over my shoulder at the train of monks helping the wounded escape.
“Nonsense,” Leif says. “We’re right where we belong.”
“What are you talking about?” I ask.
“He’s right,” Alegra says. “We stand together, or we fall together. That’s all there is to it.”
Lisette smiles at me then looks up at Guerriero, who simply stands by, watching us. One of the flaming, wraithlike creatures ventures too cl
ose to us and Guerriero just swats him away with the back of his giant armored hand, as though it were nothing more than a pesky mosquito. The creature shrieks as it flies through the air, like a flaming fireball, only to topple down on two of its comrades, igniting them in turn.
“You can count me in,” a voice says. We turn to see Dinalagosseth stroll up to us.
Beaming, I turn toward my friends and say, “I don’t know where I’d be today without you. But I know that, come what may, I’m honored to count you all among my dearest friends.”
“Too bad you will have to watch all your friends die,” a demonic voice says.
I reel around. Ashram stands before us, holding an unconscious Lord Dathrium by the collar of his armor. Dropping Dathrium into the dirt, Ashram raises his sword high as he prepares to cut us all down where we stand.
15
Guerriero rushes Ashram, and slams into the giant black knight’s side. There’s a horrendous clangor. They rebound off one another, the force knocking them both staggering backward, but Ashram is quick to regain his balance while Guerriero tips over and crashes to the ground.
“No!” Lisette cries out, her fingers stretched out toward her friend. She rushes to her beloved Juggernaut and drops to her knees, placing a hand on his helmeted head she and peers into his eyes. Suddenly they spark to life with pink magic and the giant armored warrior sits up. “Thank goodness you’re all right,” Lisette says, letting out a nervous sigh.
「Did I win?」 Guerriero asks.
“I’m afraid not,” Lisette answers, looking at Ashram shaking off the hit.
Undaunted by the attack, Ashram comes at me again. Before he can reach me, however, Leif jumps in the way and lashes out with his double kukri blades. Ashram easily deflects the attack and counters, sending a spray of sparks into the air.
Ashram raises his blade high, ready to cut through anything that stands in his way, including Leif, but before he can cut Leif down, Alegra appears and blocks Ashram’s counter attack with her long, slender elf blade.
“Grah!” Ashram growls in frustration. More sparks fly, and before Ashram can catch his bearings, Dinalagosseth steps into the fray. Walking toward the black menace, she calmly unsheathes the Serpent Blade.
Upon seeing the jade-handled sword, Ashram takes a step back. “It can’t be,” he says. For the first time, he sounds genuinely off put by the turn of events.
“But it is,” Dina replies.
With her sword aimed at the menacing black knight, she waves the blade gently through the air and fires off a wave of invisible energy. The only reason anyone can detect it at all is that it causes ripples through the air, like a stone sending ripples throughout a pond, and the shimmer slams into Ashram.
Ashram leans into the energy wave, but even digging in his heels isn’t enough to prevent him from sliding backward. Trying to find a foothold, he roars in frustration, when suddenly the energy wave intensifies ten-fold and Ashram is launched backward through the air with the strength of a cannonball! He crashes through another portion of the rock wall, taking a large chunk of it with him as he hits the ground.
Dina spins around and swirls the sword in the air then rapidly whips it around herself, one hundred and eighty-degrees. A slow waver emanates and gently passes over us, but nothing happens. However, when the wave touches the undead they fly fifty feet into the air, as though they were being launched by a catapult. One after another they shoot into the air, screaming in confused shrieks but helpless to do anything against Dina’s powers.
“How come you can’t do that?” Leif asks me with a snicker.
“I can still kick your sorry ass any day, pretty boy” I respond. Knowing that I’m only kidding, he smiles at me. I touch his forearm and add, “Hey, thanks for having my back just now.”
“Anytime,” he says.
A shrill whistle cuts through the air. I turn to see Queen Sabine ushering the last of the wounded survivors, including Bethriel, through the secret back exit. She signals us that it’s time for them to seal up the door, and I nod in response. Then she disappears into the darkened corridor, and the rock wall slides back into place behind her.
“Lisette…now!” I shout.
Lisette points at the pillar. Guerriero walks over and begins swinging his gargantuan, gorilla-like arms. He knocks them down one by one until the entire roof of the basilica comes toppling down.
There is a terrible crash, and once the dust settles, we look at one another. The remaining undead regroup and stand between us and the exit. Ashram rises up behind them like an ominous specter, looking angrier than ever. His eyes are glowing red-orange and a steady billow of steam exits his faceplate.
“What now?” Leif asks, pointing his kukri blade at the throng of dead soldiers amassing before us.
“We hold the line,” Dinalagosseth answers.
A high-pitched whirring rises above the moaning of the dead army, and I see Guerriero with his rapid-fire Gatling crossbow light up with Dragon energy. Suddenly he lets several hundred bolts loose in rapid succession. Each one finds its way to an undead warrior faster than you can blink your eyes. Peppered with bolts, the undead, which are starting to look a lot like porcupines, begin dropping to the ground. The magic of the Dragon’s eye crystal sends them back to whence they came.
Even Ashram is pierced by the fiery bolts. But, unfettered, he breaks the shafts off. He tosses them to the ground and crushes them under his metal foot.
Lunging forward, Ashram strikes at Dina, who blocks his attack. Their blades scrape and hiss with sparks. Then she waves her sword slightly, and the gravity around Ashram increase three-fold. His metal boots sink into the ground as his knees begin to quiver. Suddenly his legs buckle, and he collapses to both knees.
“I’ll have your head, elf-witch!” Ashram growls.
“You can try,” she replies. “But you will fail. Just like you did during The Great War against my master.”
“Kel Oren was a true warrior,” Ashram says, his voice rumbling like an avalanche. “You are but a poor imitation.”
“I guess that makes me an even lesser imitation,” I say. Bending down, I pick up Lord Dathrium’s sword. The runes on his sword, just like his armor, glow as bright as the afternoon sun. I turn toward Ashram, who cannot break free of the energy field currently holding him. I lunge forward and thrust the massive blade straight into Ashram’s chest.
“Ahhhhrg!” Ashram roars, his voice filled with denial-fueled rage as I pierce his armor and slide in the mystic rune blade. Something about the magic runes makes Dathrium’s blade lethal to the undead and to Ashram also.
“I can’t be defeated,” Ashram grumbles. “My Master will call me from the Nether Realm once again, and I’ll hunt you all to the ends of the realms. I will kill you, Arianna De Amato. I’ll kill you and all your toilsome friends along with you.”
“You can try,” I say, borrowing Dina’s lines. “But you will fail.” Then I shove again on the blade and drive it in until the cross-guard clangs against Ashram’s chest plate.
“NOOO!” Ashram screams and, unexpectedly, he implodes and is transformed into a puff of black smoke. The smoke quickly dissipates on the breeze and fades away.
I look around and see the remaining bodies of the undead vanish in a similar puff of smoke as well, and I scan the faces of my friends to make sure that this is for real. That I’m not dreaming.
“Did we just win?” Lisette asks.
“I wouldn’t have believed it,” Alegra says, “But it appears the Goddess has favored us this day.”
“I for one am glad for it. I was beginning to get real sick and tired of those undead assholes. Now I can get back to good wine and fine women,” Leif wisecracks.
“We’re supposed to rejoin the others at the edge of the Dark Forest,” I say. “But now that the army of the dead has been defeated, I have an even better idea.”
“What idea would that be, young Arianna?” Dinalagosseth asks me. I know by the raised eyebrow and the exacti
ng gaze she wants to grill me further but she holds back and patiently waits for my reply.
“I have a sword to get back,” I say. “And I’m going after it. I just hope you’ll all come with me. After all, we make such a good team.”
“I’m in,” Lisette says without a moment’s hesitation.
“And me,” Alegra says.
“Well, hell,” Leif says, shooting me his debonair grin, “I can’t very well let you have all the fun without me.”
「I go where Lisette goes,」 Guerriero informs me. I smile at him and nod my head in thanks.
All of us turn toward Dinalagosseth.
“That just leaves you, Dina,” I say.
She gazes back at all of us with her golden eyes and then informs us, “I’m afraid I have other business that I must attend to. Queen Sabine has asked me to lead the offensive against Daeris Darkthorne. But perhaps we’ll meet again, young Arianna.”
I walk up to Dinalagosseth and give her a hug. “It was an honor fighting by your side,” I whisper.
“It was an honor getting to know you as the fine young woman you’ve become,” she replies.
She sheathes her sword and smiles at us, then walks over to Lord Dathrium and helps him get back onto his feet. “Come, old friend,” she says, throwing his arm across her shoulder. “Let’s get you back on your feet and get you home.”
She starts to usher him away, but he raises his hand. “Wait.” Raising his arm, he points a finger at his blade lying on the ground where Ashram fell. I pick it up and take it to him. But instead of accepting it from me, he slides off a gauntlet and then slices his thumb on its sharp edge. Raising his thumb to my forehead, he stamps his bloody thumbprint upon it, marking me, and says, “The Sword of Runes belongs to you now, Mistress Arianna. May it keep you safe.”
As I stand holding the sword in my hands, I do not know what to say, so I do the only thing I can think to do and bow my head in silent gratitude.
Hands on his hips, Leif whistles and says, “Well, you don’t see that every day. A king giving his sword to a young knight.”