by Ben Hale
Patches of aquaglass fused across the walls in curls of white and blue, the splashes frozen in perfect detail. As hard as steel, they held a couch off the floor and sealed the door to the hall. The secret corridor was filled with glittering shards of magically hardened water, blocking Elsin from reaching Tidal.
Alydian stumbled through the sodden and broken furniture to reach Grogith, dropping to her knees to lift his head. The impact had broken his bones and shards of glass were in his flesh. Alydian’s throat tightened when she saw the extent of the damage. His eyes fluttered and he looked up to her.
“You must flee,” he said, his voice distant and weak.
“Why did you hide your talent?” she demanded, her throat tight with emotion.
“I owed a debt to a friend,” he said. “She asked me to fulfill it . . . by protecting you.”
“Who?” Alydian asked.
“Elenyr,” he said, his smile suddenly soft.
“My mother?” Alydian asked. “What does she have to do with this?”
“She foresaw it all,” he said. “She saw you becoming an acolyte and wanted to keep you safe.”
The life was fading from the gnome’s eyes, and Alydian growled in helpless rage. How had she not known? How had he kept himself hidden? Then she realized how many times he’d hovered nearby, always ready to protect her. Even sick and dying, her mother had ensured Alydian would be safe.
“But you didn’t like me,” Alydian protested, wiping hot tears from her cheeks.
The gnome issued a coughing laugh. “You proved yourself to be a worthy successor to your mother. Do not forget that other races besides human, dwarf, and elf need your guidance . . .”
The gnome’s body relaxed and Alydian stared at him. Dimly she was aware that Devkin was at her side, his hand on her shoulder.
“Alydian,” he said urgently. “We must flee.”
“Not yet,” Alydian said, rising to her feet and turning to the guardian still struggling on the spear. Even with an anti-magic spear piercing his body he remained powerful, and tore at the spear, fighting to reach her like a rabid animal.
“We only have a few seconds—” Devkin said, trying to drag her toward the window.
Alydian yanked her arm free. “That’s all I need.”
“Alydian—”
Alydian threw him a look that caused the grizzled warrior to recoil. Then she turned to the struggling guardian and poured her emotion into magic, sparking fire in her palms. She stabbed a finger to the open window and the waterfall beyond. The current slowed to a crawl, the water barely moving as it fell past the window.
“Go,” she said. “It will take you to the city below.”
“Have you forgotten what it is?” Devkin stepped into her path. “It’s a destroyer.”
“So am I.”
Alydian gathered fire in her hand and began to suck the heat from the room. The aquaglass began to harden and crack, the fissures spreading across the frozen walls of the room. Devkin’s breath turned white as she passed him.
“Go,” she said.
Her voice was deathly quiet, and finally Devkin nodded. He stepped to the window and leapt out, diving into the waterfall. It gradually carried him from view. Alydian only had eyes on the guardian with the anti-magic spear through his body. His chest heaved against it, each breath a raspy cough.
Alydian drew every ounce of heat in the room. Ice appeared on the soaked carpet and furniture, spreading across the floor and up the guardian’s legs. He finally looked up, but the ice reached all the way to his fingers, freezing his contorted features halfway between human and magic. With all the heat in her hands, the ball of fire had turned the supreme blue, and she plunged it into the guardian’s chest.
Steam exploded from the contact, wreathing his frozen features as they shifted to agony and horror. Then Alydian turned and strode away, stepping to the window and diving free. As the waterfall carried her gently to the ground the compression charm detonated.
The entire room exploded in blue and yellow flames, the inferno expanding through the waterfall, sending a burst of steam outward. The blast rent the walls and sent stones soaring into the city. Fragments of the guardian’s body were just visible before the raging flames consumed them, leaving boiling water to rain down on the square below.
Alydian accelerated the stream until she caught up to Devkin and they plunged into the pond at the base. Instead of swimming, she carried them up and out of the water, depositing them on the stones of the square. Then she turned and looked up to see Elsin standing in the gaping hole of the keep. With flames still raging about her, she stood untouched by fire.
“You did not possess fire magic.”
The words were laced with accusation and Alydian flashed a grim smile. Then she strode away, hurrying into a sprint. Verinai converged on all sides but she drew on the water coursing down the street and lifted them up. Devkin grunted in surprise when his feet came off the street and they were swept away.
Alydian focused the current, carrying them down a side street and under a bridge, banking away from a group of battlemages who appeared in their path. For several moments the river carried them through the city, their flight too swift for the Verinai to stop. Passing a stream, she gathered up the extra water and cast it behind them, forming a wall of ice to slow their pursuers. Then she curved them around a final bend—sending them careening into a pitched battle.
Raiden and Jester fought with Red and an unknown companion. All four were wounded but still on their feet. Surrounded by Verinai and pummeled by magic, they fought with a valor that took Alydian’s breath.
Alydian split the remainder of their water and sent it to either side, slamming the river into the ranks of Verinai and knocking them sprawling. She stumbled to a stop beside Raiden as the water pulled away from them, and their eyes met.
“You were supposed to be gone,” she said in a rush, and wearily called on her magic once more.
“They knew I would come,” Raiden said, and used his sword to point to the figure standing behind the ranks of Verinai. “It was a trap.”
Alydian followed his gesture to see Teriah, whose mouth was agape in astonishment. Alydian’s anger surged as she saw her sister oracle and recalled what Raiden had said. Then Teriah recovered and took a step forward.
“Who are you?”
In the midst of foes Alydian spoke with a fury that made them all retreat. “Do you not recognize me?” she asked, reaching up to the necklace to remove it. The magic faded from her face, revealing her true identity. Teriah’s eyes widened with shock and fear.
“Hello, Sister,” Alydian said.
Chapter 44: Alydian’s Fury
Alydian’s sudden appearance brought the entire battle to a grinding halt. Verinai on all sides stood agape, craning to see if it was true. Some were so astonished their magic disintegrated, leaving them to stand in mute shock.
“Alydian?” Teriah breathed. “Why?”
“My mother helped me start my training early,” Alydian said. “And I became an acolyte for the Runeguard. It was there I endured the Verinai’s brutality.”
“But if they had known it was you . . .”
“My birthright may excuse me from their condescension,” Alydian said, her voice hard. “But it is everyone’s birthright to be free.”
“Sister,” Teriah said. “You don’t understand. The Verinai will bring peace to Lumineia.”
“Peace through bloodshed?” Alydian demanded. “Are you truly willing to pay the price?”
Teriah winced. “If man will not be honorable out of duty, I will make them honorable out of fear.”
As they argued the Verinai shifted uncertainly, clearly unprepared to fight an oracle. Most had been taught to revere the oracles, and harming one went against everything they believed in. Alydian saw their hesitation but doubted it would last.
“Robbing them of freedom does not give them honor,” Alydian called, her voice rising. “It merely makes them slaves.”
“When would have been the right time?” Alydian shouted. “A year from now? Ten? When the Accord was revealed and the people subjected to a Verinai army? When the Mage Empire rules the races?”
“Please,” Teriah said, stepping out and raising a hand to her, “give me the chance to explain. You owe me that much.”
“Will you explain why you’re killing my mother?”
Alydian did not shout, but her question echoed like a roar. Teriah stared at the hatred in Alydian’s eyes, and she slowly lowered her hand. The silence stretched between them for several agonizing seconds until Teriah sighed.
“If you ally yourself with him,” Teriah said, gesturing to Raiden. “You will fracture the Eldress Council forever. Do not forget that if you die, your bloodline dies with you.”
“Better dead than united with a betrayer,” Alydian shot back.
Teriah flinched, and then her features tightened. Calling out for the Verinai, she barked orders for them to close ranks. Alydian retreated to her companions, for the first time aware of the volume rising from Verisith.
The city was in an uproar, with the echo of booted soldiers converging upon them. Alydian guessed it was only a matter of minutes before they were surrounded and taken down, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. She forced herself into her farsight but the next several minutes was a cloud of uncertainty, the only visible branches showing her holding her dead friends in her arms.
Instead of regret and fear, it was anger that pooled in her gut. She faced Teriah and reached skyward, where the dark clouds threatened a storm. Teriah’s expression turned mocking when she saw what Alydian was attempting.
“Lightning?” she asked with a laugh. “Even your mother could not harness it.”
A bolt of lightning streaked from the sky, slamming into the ground at Teriah’s feet and sending her tumbling into the wall. Her head cracked on the stone and she slumped to the street. With blood on her face she struggled to rise, her features frozen in shock when she realized the bolt of lightning remained on the ground.
Where the lightning had struck, a man crawled from the hole. His body built of crackling power, the entity of lightning flexed its arms, sending bolts arcing above the ranks of Verinai. The powerful mages surged back as the entity turned on them.
Trembling from the effort to hold the entity together, Alydian called down a second bolt of lightning. She aimed to cut off the path of the reinforcements but hit the soldiers instead. Soldiers were blasted skyward, one even landing on a nearby roof. Others were sent through the windows of a shop, the glass shattering as they hurtled into the interior. Another entity climbed from the crater.
Hundreds of Verinai surrounded the courtyard but they recoiled from the threat. Rank upon rank of battlemages shifted uneasily as the two lightning entities barred their path. Then Teriah got to her feet.
“An impressive feat,” she said, her bloody features twisted in anger. “But you cannot hold them for long.”
“Long enough,” Alydian said through clenched teeth. “All I have to do is get the truth to the Eldress Council, and the guild of Verinai will see its end.”
Alydian edged backward, retreating toward the gate. Raiden and the shadowmage drifted toward the guardhouse. The Verinai within called on their magic, the tension spiking until Raiden leapt in, deflecting a strike with his sword and slashing the guard’s chest. The killing drew a cry from the Verinai, and the ranks of battlemages flooded down the road.
The lightning entities reacted with blinding speed, arcing twenty paces with every step. The first struck a Verinai in the chest. The blast of lightning sent him hurtling into the men behind him, his armor charred, his body shaking. Another blow and another soldier slammed into a tavern wall, narrowly missing Teriah. Screaming, she flinched out of harm’s way and retreated.
Blasts of every type of magic were unleashed upon the two entities but few landed, the entities moving so fast that the attacks struck the street, cracking the stones all the way to Alydian.
Alydian’s breath came in ragged gasps as she fought to keep the volatile entities under control. She was distantly aware of Raiden and his companions cutting down the remaining Verinai around them, and then the gate began to open.
“Alydian!” Devkin shouted.
If she turned she would lose her tenuous hold, and the lightning entities were the only things keeping the horde of Verinai at bay. Their power burned into the ranks of battlemages, tearing through entities of fire and light with explosive power, sending bits of fire to die on the stones. Still Alydian retreated, each step uncertain as her fatigue mounted.
Teriah ducked a flying body and then rotated, her fury spilling into her own magic. She conjured her own entity from a stream nearby, turning the water into a hulking golem. The entity charged through the broken ranks of battlemages and caught a lightning entity. The water entity absorbed the lightning and exploded, sending shards of charged water into the soldiers. A captain screamed in dismay as a third of his men died in an instant, torn apart by the blast.
“You cannot cast another!” Teriah shrieked at Alydian, ignoring the captain’s fury.
Alydian fought to control the remaining entity, using it to strike at the sudden surge of water entities aiming for it. The Verinai had learned from Teriah’s attack, and kept their distance as they attacked the remaining soldier of lightning. Despite the entity’s speed, the sheer volume of water golems drew closer, until finally one caught it.
The explosion shredded the swarm of water beasts and golems, leaving the street with a giant crater. Releasing a howl of victory the Verinai charged, sprinting for the open gate and the intruders.
Devkin caught Alydian’s arm and spun her about, all but throwing her through the opening. Then he leapt into the guardhouse and yanked on the gate controls. Alydian screamed as she saw them begin to close, with Devkin still inside.
The man drew his sword up and swung, sheering the controls in two before whirling and leaping into the open. Dodging blasts of fire, he reached the rising gate of aquaglass and leapt through for the narrowing gap.
The aquaglass slammed shut, catching Devkin’s leg as he passed through the opening. He cried out as it sliced across his shin, taking his foot in an instant. He landed hard and rolled, his foot gone.
Alydian stepped to him but the shadowmage was faster. He stooped, and sealed the stump with a burst of fire. Devkin screamed as the flames closed off the wound. Then Jester stooped and helped him to his remaining foot. His face white beneath his beard, Devkin managed to hold onto Jester as they hurried across the bridge.
“I feared you were going to stay behind,” Alydian said.
“I’d rather lose my foot than my head,” he hissed.
Alydian blinked away the tears. Then she saw what awaited them and came to a halt. On the opposite end of the bridge another army was arrayed against them, with a pair of bear guardians at their head. She recognized them as the giants that had protected the third gate in the canyon of mages, but here they were all flesh, their bodies swollen to unnatural proportions.
“You cannot escape!”
Alydian turned and spotted Elsin standing beside Teriah on the city wall. Soldiers lined the battlements, their magic spun into giant crossbows and ballistae. Alydian’s heart sank when she saw that they were trapped on the bridge, with the only escape an endless abyss beneath them.
“Surrender now and I won’t make you watch your friends die,” Teriah called.
“Or you can witness them torn apart,” Elsin snarled.
Alydian looked to her friends. Devkin still had his sword but without his foot he could not stand. Jester, Raiden, and Red were wounded, the blood staining their guard uniforms and trickling onto the bridge. The shadowmage had suffered a blow to his shoulder, his arm saved by the scorched and broken armor. Blood lined his face from another wound on his forehead. Yet all wer
e defiant.
Alydian met their eyes and then turned to Elsin. “I choose victory.”
Her words drew a round of laughter from both sides of the bridge, the humor swelling as the two bear guardians snapped their jaws and roared. Their laughter turned to dismay when Alydian leaned down and punched the bridge with all her strength. The bridge cracked . . . and then crumbled into the abyss.
Taking Alydian and her friends with it.
Chapter 45: The Soldier’s Tale
Alydian plummeted into the abyss and watched the bear guardians roar their frustration at being thwarted. Fear gripped her as the wind snatched her breath, tearing it from her lungs. With difficulty, she shouted to the shadowmage.
“I hope you’re as strong as I think!”
“I am!”
The light from above shrank and the shadows enveloped them, the absolute darkness giving Toron enormous power. Alydian couldn’t see it, but felt him catch the shadows and spread them into a massive net that hooked the walls of the canyon. She struck something soft and began to slow, the sensation like falling onto a massive pile of cotton.
She hoped the abyss was deep enough and cringed, imagining striking the bottom before Toron could bring them to a halt. The man grunted from the effort as he maintained the shadow net, the magic stretching with the weight.
From plummeting to their deaths, they began to slow, but Alydian’s fear mounted with each passing second. They’d already fallen a thousand feet and still they fell. The shriek of the wind diminished as they continued to slow, and Alydian’s back crawled as she imagined smashing into the unforgiving stone at the base of the chasm.
Red crowed with delight as they finally came to a stop. “A pleasantly terrifying fall.”
“Not my only trick,” Toron said, his voice strained.
“How far are we from the bottom?” Jester asked.