Iron Clash (Legend of the Iron Flower Book 7)

by Billy Wong

  "Really, Rose? After all I did?"

  "What did you do? Get me gutted and run Alicia through? That's nothing between sisters like us. I understand why you did it, and it's all in the past."

  "Alicia—is she dead?"

  "Of course not! What makes you think that monster would die from a little prick? No, we're both fine. Come on, let's make up. I'll apologize too if you want, for killing your prince."

  Loreen hugged her. "No need, I forgive you. That we survive makes everything all right."

  When they released their embrace, Rose asked, "What about Coblan? What do you think will happen to it now that Wilner's dead?"

  "I always thought he was our heart, but I suppose we'll have to adjust. Hopefully whoever takes control won't be so keen on invading other countries. Though I do plan on staying head of our armies, and I won't let us go down that dark path again."

  "I'm sure you'll do well. We never did fight, you and I."

  Her friend laughed. "You would have slaughtered me."

  The two women hugged again before Rose said, "Goodbye."

  "Take good care of your kids, okay?"

  "Are you telling me to be a better mother?"

  Loreen shook her head. "I'll miss you, Rose."

  "Hey, don't be sad. Goodbye's only for now."

  "I know. It's just too bad we had more bad than good between us this time."

  Rose smiled. "We're parting on a good note, right? I'll look forward to seeing you again."

  "Me too. Always."

  She left the tent with happy tears in her eyes, glad for the fact Loreen had survived. That alone was enough in her kind of life. Finn and Derrick waited for her outside. So did Alicia, somewhat to her surprise. "What are you doing here?"

  Her arms folded confidently over her great chest, the duchess casually replied, "We're all going east anyway. There's no reason I shouldn't get to know your little guy."

  Derrick frowned. "What do you mean, that I'm Rose's guy?"

  "No, I'm Rose's only guy," said Finn.

  Remembering Brandon, Rose blinked a sadder tear from her eye. But she knew her husband only meant the best through his assertion of love, and said, "I think by 'guy,' she just means 'friend.' Well, let's go then." She grinned. "One more kingdom saved."

  "You mean the same kingdom, for the trillionth time."

  She put him in a playful headlock and mussed his hair. "Don't you pretend you don't enjoy the fame."

  He escaped the hold, draped his great arm over her shoulders and pulled her into a mighty kiss, and they all laughed like they hadn't in a long time.

  Alternate Ending/Bonus Short Story, King of Heroes

  Non-canon story set in an alternate universe where... you'll see.

  Two huge warriors fought their way up the spiraling steps that encircled the tower, cutting down gremlin after drooling, bat-winged gremlin. Even their inhuman foes shrank back from the exuberant thunder of Finn's battle cries, while Rose did her bloody work mostly in silence. Their feet slipped on stone slick with multicolored gore, and still they could hardly see past the monstrous crowd which surrounded them. Above, a portal roared as a nightmare realm strove to connect with their world.

  "Hurry," Finn yelled over the howling winds and screaming monsters, "before the gateway fully opens!"

  An immense two-headed viper reared up around the tower's side, thick as a man's waist. It snapped at Rose, who took its massive fangs through her left forearm before chopping down between its necks to split its body. Prying the slack jaws from her arm, she shoved it aside and ran on. The poison would have killed a normal human within seconds, but her extraordinary constitution reduced its effect to mere agony. Her blood boiled within her, every heartbeat sending lances of flame through her veins, and sweat drenched the padding under her plate armor.

  She staggered with the pain, but recovered and spun into a slash which cut through three gremlins flying from the tower windows. "There are so many!" she gasped breathlessly. "How could old Bolloxo keep this many unnatural freaks up here?"

  Finn's mace came down on the misshapen skull of a frog-cat hybrid the size of a bull, smashing it to pulp. "What do you expect from an ancient mage?" he asked while he ran up its body and bashed in the head of the towering amphibian-like biped behind it. "Must've had plenty of spare time to breed these things."

  Dashing past him, Rose used her shield to smash a leaping man-sized spider to the ground. Her sword chopped down, cleaving its torso. Spraying acid stung her hand. She shook it off with a hiss and joined Finn to hack their way through a mass of gremlin flesh and claws. "Almost there," she said, jaw clenched with resolve as she glimpsed the roof's edge past the thinning mob.

  The last of the gremlins fell, crushed or slashed apart. "Easy work," Finn beamed with a smug grin.

  "Indulge your pride later," Rose said, dragging him after her. "We've got an otherworldly invasion to stop!"

  They darted for the opening in the wall around the roof, at the center of which swirled a cloud of unnameable colors from which issued an overwhelming salty, bitter stench. "We're too late," Rose breathed as the four-toed crimson claw of Vrilluos, king of the Entropic Land, stepped out of the maelstrom.

  Seemingly unperturbed, Finn readied his mace. "We'll fight him, then. We've taken his like before."

  It was true, but Rose felt her usual worry and fear against a powerful foe. Too, she grew distressingly conscious of the ache of her muscles and pain of her wounds. At least she was already practically made of scars; if she lived, a few more would hardly matter. She advanced with her husband, her face grim.

  A mighty wind blasted into her eyes, and she squinted. She looked up as a great scaled bird with a thick neck and heavy beak landed before them, blocking their way to the portal. Another one of Bolloxo's creatures? But then she saw the rider drop down behind it and walk towards Vrilluos, sword and shield in hand.

  Rose leaned out to the side, calling to the man in the bulky golden-brown armor covered in runes and beaked full-face helm. "Are you crazy? What do you think you're doing? Tell your mount to get out of the way!" Finn, of course, was already advancing.

  "Stay back!" the large man said, authority in his booming voice. "I'll handle it."

  Finn raised his mace to strike, only for the bird-thing to kick him in the chest and knock him to his back. "Kill it, Rose! Before Vrilluos comes through all the way."

  "I don't know if we should," she said, sword wavering in her hand. "It's not ours, and he seems to be here to help."

  The man strode calmly for the portal, where Vrilluos' body above the chest had already emerged. It was a ungainly behemoth, with an oversized, bull-horned elk's head and grotesquely muscled neck. Long, sinewy arms attached to shoulders with a breadth of ten feet supported it in a lizard's sprawl. "You really want to face all of that thing?" Finn asked.

  Rose feinted a dash to the left. "No, but we don't have to kill to get to it." The birdlike mount pecked down, its beak scraping the ground while she ducked between its legs. It turned to follow, and Finn tackled one of its legs from behind. It toppled backwards over his head, and he ran after her.

  Just then the stranger reached the portal, and Vrilluos lunged to bite him. Rose thought he would surely be overpowered, but without hesitation he raised a spiked shield like a metal wall above his head. Vrilluos roared when the spikes impaled it below the jaw, and Rose stared as the man held its weight back by strength alone.

  Then he brought up the immense curved sword in his other hand and slashed down. Her jaw dropped as the blade sheared straight through Vrilluos' skull, and the king of the Entropic Land slumped down dead. Without its will to hold it open, the portal fell in on itself and disappeared, severing Vrilluos' upper torso so that it dropped with a thump to the tower roof.

  Rose came to a halt, regarding the warrior before her in awe. She had never seen such a legendary monster defeated so casually before. Behind her and Finn, the birdlike mount scrambled back to its feet. "I appreciate your desire to he
lp," its master said, quickly looking each of them over. "But as you see, I did not need it."

  "Who are you?" Rose asked, her voice small.

  "I am Phanim, King of Heroes."

  "King of Heroes?" Finn asked in a contemptuous tone. "Isn't that a bit of a presumptuous title, especially for someone I've never even heard of before?"

  Phanim shrugged. "You've heard of me now." He walked past them, grasped the saddle on his mount, and pulled himself smoothly up. "And you can expect to hear more soon enough." The avian bunched its legs and leapt into flight, bearing itself away on powerful wings.

  "What a bastard," Finn said, "stealing our kill."

  Rose looked after Phanim and nodded weakly. She did not much care who had slain Vrilluos, only that it had been stopped, though the hard-fought battle to get up the tower felt a bit wasted. But in a decade as one of Kayland's foremost warriors, she had rarely been impressed the way she had today; and after all these years, she knew full well that any stranger of such power would have to be treated with caution. Still, she held on to her hope he might prove as benevolent as his moniker implied.

  #

  Three weeks later, Rose and Finn stood watching Phanim's messenger speak from the elevated stage. He was a thin, stringy man, with a shrill voice which carried through the air like a bell. All around him the square was packed with listeners, much to the delight of the street merchants who regarded them all as potential customers. "Phanim, King of Heroes has deposed the tyrant Count of Ludy!" he announced to the roaring approval of the crowd. "Another blow for justice and freedom!"

  "Why didn't we ever do that?" Finn asked at the back of the gathering.

  "Because he wasn't that evil or much of a tyrant," Rose said with a sigh, "even if something of a high taxer and slow to provide services. Deposing him has never been worth it."

  "No? The people look happy enough that he's gone."

  "Happy for now, sure, but this is sure to cause unneeded unrest. I'm sure the regent won't stand for this."

  Finn nodded. "That's true. Phanim can't be stupid enough not to realize that. What could he be planning?"

  "Rumor says the Regent Sierra is marshaling forces to exercise Phanim's arrest," said the man on stage. "People, what do you say to that?"

  Immediately, a chorus of boos filled the air. Then, someone shouted, "Down with Sierra! Down with the pretender!"

  Rose looked at Finn, an exasperated frown on her face. Not long ago, Lady Sierra had been one of Kayland's most popular nobles. But her reign as regent had been troubled, through no fault of her own, and the favor of the masses predictably faded. The civil war started by Prince Victor in his bid for the throne had played no small part in that.

  "Think this will cause another civil war?" Finn asked, echoing her worst fears.

  Rose bit her lip. "It won't come to that," she said, as much to reassure herself as anything else. "He doesn't have the clout to do it."

  "Seems like he already has plenty of support among the people, and will have a lot more if this keeps up." Sarcastically, he added, "And 'King of Heroes' does sound like a pretty big deal."

  "Why would he want a civil war? We shouldn't assume everyone is heartless and out to create conflict."

  "Maybe he just wants to take over Kayland. We've seen more than enough of those types."

  It was a real possibility, especially considering that the nation had not nearly recovered from the last war. The weakness of the government would indeed tempt ambitious would-be conquerers. "So what do you think we should do? I share your suspicion, but we don't know for sure. He might still have good intentions—I think we should find out more."

  Finn grunted. "We don't know his motives for sure, but deposing the Count is proof enough of his misplaced priorities. A educational talk with him is the least we'll have to do, if he doesn't smarten up."

  "We might not have to do anything, if Sierra takes care of it."

  "Since when does Sierra get anything done by herself?"

  Rose shoved him, smiling. "Oh, don't be like that. It's not her fault she's not a brute like you."

  A man walked onstage from the crowd and said something to the speaker. At once, his gaze swung to Rose and Finn. "You two!" he said, pointing at them. "I am told you disapprove of Phanim's actions. Why do you oppose the King of Heroes' quest for progress?"

  "Who do you think you're talking to?" Finn snapped right back. "Are you blind, or just an ignorant fool?"

  "I know you, Finn, and your mighty wife too. But after all you've done to fight against oppression, it surprises me that you would not be more supportive of our cause."

  "It wasn't worth it to get rid of Ludy," Rose said. "He had his faults, but they were small prices to pay for a stable government. People will only suffer more in the chaos with him gone." She heard little agreement from the crowd; it did not help that, even after many years as a public figure, she was still none too confident a speaker.

  "We must often suffer as we strive for good; you of all people must understand that. Should we sit around and stand for unfair treatment, just for fear of struggle and hardship?" Once again, the mob screamed its assent.

  Rose stood silent, gnashing her teeth in frustration. She had used the same argument many times before, and rarely had it turned around on her. She believed she was right, that the issue here was a matter of degree, but it seemed the man had backed her and her reason into a corner.

  "And does Phanim think his cause more important than the crown's authority, too?" At the sound of Finn's powerful voice, the crowd fell silent. "Would he tear our country apart to get his way?"

  "Finn!" Rose whispered. "Don't be so brazen."

  Ignoring her, he continued, "Your master wants to incite a rebellion? He's welcome to try, but we've learned since before. He won't get as far as Victor."

  At the mention of the polarizing prince, hated by many yet still loved by some, emotions flared. Shouting filled the square while the gathering disintegrated into mayhem. People screamed at each other, some threw punches, and many ran. Finn smiled as he led Rose from the volatile scene. "What did you do that for?" she asked. "Did you have to make it that clear where we stand?"

  "Why not? That ought to get his attention; hopefully, it'll be enough to make him a little more cautious."

  Understanding now, Rose nodded. "And slow him down some while we figure out what he's up to, right?"

  He draped a heavy arm over her shoulders and hugged her close. "You got it. I may be a brute, but I'm hardly stupid."

  #

  The couple returned to their stark tower home, where they found their good friend Derrick waiting. The scholar was helping them dig up information about Phanim; Rose had worried he might get in trouble, but Finn reassured her many people must be doing the same. The excitement in his eyes now could not be mistaken. "Guess what I found out," he said, his mouth twitching with anticipation.

  "That Phanim is out to start a civil war?" Finn asked. "It seems a likely conclusion, from our encounter today."

  "It does? Tell me what happened." They did, and he nodded. "Sounds like a dangerous situation. Anyway, I found his name in a history book!"

  At that, Rose snapped to attention. "Phanim's?"

  "Yes. Apparently, it used to be the name of a famous warrior king."

  Rose and Finn exchanged glances. "Probably just somebody who adopted the name," Finn said.

  Rose's brow furrowed with concern. "Maybe, but not necessarily; he was really powerful, and we've fought revived ancients before... Derrick, did the book say anything about how he fought?"

  "Not specifically—but it did mention that he was known for possessing incredible strength, and a suit of enchanted armor."

  Her eyes widened. "Enchanted armor? Was it golden brown and covered in runes?"

  "It wasn't described in detail." Derrick paused, thinking. "But it did say where he was buried."

  Finn touched Rose's hand. "Don't say it. You want to go check it out, don't you?"

  "We
ll, yes. Let's see if he's still buried or not. How far away is it?"

  Derrick smiled. "Not far. He ruled a kingdom which used to be where Jugeld is now, so at least you won't have to leave the country. Should I keep researching the current Phanim's intentions, whoever he is, while you two are gone?"

  "Yes, Derrick, but be careful. We might be targets now, and I don't want you getting killed for Finn here's recklessness!"

  #

  Rose and Finn headed south to the province of Jugeld, where they roamed lush valleys and rolling hills in search of Phanim's tomb. It took some time before they found the entrance hidden among the rocks behind a waterfall. Soaking wet, they entered into a square chamber carved into the cliffside.

  Huge statues of Phanim lined the flat walls, nearly filling the space and complete with reproductions of the armor his namesake had worn; but as his face had been covered, they could not know if it matched the wide, strong-boned one on the stone figures. Behind those, intricate relief sculptures detailed the king's life and battles.

  At the back of the tomb loomed a rectangular sarcophagus, iron-gray, unadorned if perfectly symmetrical, and nearly eight feet tall. Finn pried it open to reveal what at first glance appeared to be an empty interior. Then Rose looked down, to see the disordered pile of bones at its bottom.

  "That's some way to bury a king," Finn said.

  Rose nodded. "I think someone's been here."

  "Yeah, and I'm fairly certain they took his armor, considering all indications are he was buried in it." He looked up and to the left. "That carving even shows that."

  She skimmed over the stories carved into the walls. "Looks like he did fight with a curved sword and spiked shield, though. Wait, let me check something." She knelt and examined the collapsed skeleton. "Never mind, these are old bones. I was wondering if maybe someone actually awoke the dead king, and that poor soul got thrown in here. But I guess this is the king. His bones are really long, too; he was a giant, and the Phanim out there wouldn't have filled his coffin."

  "Then at least we're dealing with an impostor, and not an ancient undead." Finn spat. "How is he so damn strong, though?"