The Shrine of Kallen (The Tales of Zanoth Book 3)

by Aaron J. Ethridge

  “There is,” Myra nodded. “At least, I've heard that same rumor.”

  “I guess the thing to do,” Joey said thoughtfully, “would be to have Paul turn them, and then run in and try to play the chimes and bells while Myra keeps any survivors at bay.”

  “No,” the paladin said, shaking his head, “that's not the thing to do.”

  “I don't know that I'd say we have to play them,” the general mused aloud. “The prophecy said that we had to sound and ring them, respectively.”

  “I can see that” the wizard nodded. “In any event, what is the thing to do, then?”

  “Cal Morrin said that we should make sure we're as prepared as we can be before we face Kallen,” the paladin replied. “That being the case, I'm going to sanctify the area around the shrine – including the shrine itself – before we do anything else.”

  “Yep,” Joey nodded, “that is the thing to do, alright.”

  Immediately, Paul began to go through the form, channeling divine power through his flesh. As he did this, both the inside of the building and the darkness beyond the reach of the fairy's spell were filled with throat-less cries. Just before he finished, they heard a distant roar echo through the hills.

  “Get inside the shrine!” Paul cried, flying toward its doors and beginning to sing the song that Cal Morrin had taught him.

  Just before they reached the entrance, their enemy arrived. A truly massive dragon composed of rotting flesh and borne aloft by tattered wings burst from the darkness. With a cry of fury, he dove toward the party. One bolt of golden fire after another flew in the direction of the monstrosity while Myra lashed out at it with the dark power. Nyssa applauded the beast's appearance, anticipating a truly thrilling battle, as Joey stood momentarily stunned by the sight of the creature.

  Kallen swooped down, breathing black flames at the band. Instantly, a wall of golden fire erupted from the earth, shielding the party from the wrath of the undead horror. The beast bellowed in rage as it shot over the shrine before circling back to make another attempt.

  Once again, the monster was struck with burning bolts and black energy. For a second time, he released flames of death from his putrid lungs and, for a second time, this assault was driven back by a wall of holy fire. This time, the creature wheeled; disappearing back into the darkness.

  “This isn't so bad,” Joey said with a nervous laugh, wiping the sweat from his brow before clearing his throat. “I'd have thought he'd have had more tricks up his sleeve than just...”

  The wizard's observation was interrupted by the sound of a powerful reptilian voice chanting out words of power. Suddenly, the band was wrapped in complete and total darkness. Almost instantly, waves of golden light rose from the ground, keeping the legion of incorporeal undead that surrounded the shrine at bay.

  Deep booming laughter momentarily filled the air before the party once again heard Kallen begin to chant.

  “We’d better ring them bells!” Joey cried, momentarily forgetting to watch his grammar.

  “And sound them chimes!” Paul agreed, rushing into the building.

  Fortunately, the party had a general idea of where the instruments they were so desperately in search of stood. Unfortunately, they couldn't see a thing. Joey managed to run full-tilt into the shrine; discovering it with his knee and coming to such a sudden stop that Nyssa flew right into the back of his head. Alena and Myra successfully made their way to the chimes and began sounding them with everything they had. Both Darek and Paul headed straight for the bells, which was why they tripped over one another before knocking down the stand that held them, managing to ring them all over the floor. In spite of the confusion this caused, the pair managed – with the aid of the ogre – to get the stand back up and give the bells a more proper ringing.

  This didn't seem to do much. In point of fact, it didn't appear to do anything at all. For a moment, Paul began to wonder if it had been a waste of their time. A moment after that, he didn't wonder at all if Kallen's time had been well spent.

  A crack of thunder ripped through the air as the ground on which they stood was suddenly defiled. Almost immediately, a sea of undead began pouring into the structure. Paul turned with all his strength, burning numerous specters to glittering ash and causing countless more to flee from the power of the gods.

  All this had taken place in a matter of seconds. After several seconds more, the party could see. At first, it was only the pale glow of Joey's humble spell, but the radiance of the sun glowing beyond the door was soon added to this.

  “Get out of the shrine!” Paul cried, as specters began once again to approach the party.

  The paladin renewed his song as the party fled the darkness of the shrine for the safety of the sun. The young man thanked providence that he had done so the moment they emerged from the structure.

  As soon as they appeared, Kallen dove toward them, once again attempting to envelop them with his fiery breath. For a third time, this attack was defeated.

  “I'm not sure how long I can keep that up,” Paul said, nearly stumbling down the stairs. “It takes a bit out of me.”

  “That's it!” the fairy said. “We have to bring him to the ground!”

  Having made this assertion, she shot into the air and vanished.

  “Not this time!” Joey cried, quickly chanting out words of power and slamming his staff on the stone steps.

  As they had the night before, green flames shot from his back, this time forming a perfectly scaled pair of eagle's wings. With these, he very quickly – and extremely awkwardly – followed the fairy into the sky.

  “Well,” Darek said, staring at his wing-borne companion, “that's something.”

  “It is,” Alena nodded in wonder.

  “We need to try to find more conventional cover!” General Halfar asserted. “If Paul can't stop him, Kallen will be able to burn us all to death.”

  “He can't keep that up forever,” Myra pointed out as they flew down the steps. “He has his limitations just like Paul does.”

  “Gods willing,” Sarrac said, “he'll run out of strength before we do.”

  “Amen!” Darek added.

  The massive creature turned, once again heading straight for his foes. Five of the companions fired their bows at the beast as quickly as they could, while Myra attempted to dominate the monster's mind. The maiden screamed in agony as Kallen's will overcame her own; the air filled with the monster's laughter.

  Paul renewed his song as the abomination approached. Just as their enemy was drawing breath, flames suddenly engulfed his head. At almost the same moment, Joey – who was flying close to a hundred feet above the creature – shot a bolt of lightning from his staff; striking the monster in one of his wings. He bellowed in rage and agony, rolling over in the sky and releasing his flames of death at his air-borne adversaries.

  Both Nyssa and Joey managed to avoid this attack as one golden bolt after another seared the undead horror's rotting flesh. In less than a minute, Kallen seemed to conclude that he couldn't perpetually endure these attacks. He dove for the ground, chanting out words of power as he did so. The moment his clawed-feet touched the earth, a wind of hurricane force ripped through the air.

  This almost knocked Paul from his feet. It also caused Nyssa – who looked like nothing more than a glowing green dot from where the paladin was standing – to completely vanish from the sky. Joey was blown toward the patch of persistent night surrounding the battlefield at alarming speed. If there was one thing the wizard was certain of, it was that he didn't want to end up in the land of countless incorporeal undead.

  He did the only thing he could think of, and folded his wings up completely. This allowed him to fall safely to the earth like a stone. Even doing this, however, he was blown frightening close to the wall of darkness. At the last moment, he managed to spread his wings and crash into a lifeless tree on the very border between day and night; deftly breaking his limbs and probably saving his life.

  At first, Pau
l felt that driving the monstrosity to the ground was a clear victory for he and his allies. After a moment's consideration, however, he wasn't so sure. Whereas his song seemed able to protect them from the creature's breath, he was almost positive it wouldn't work against its teeth and talons. As the beast charged in their direction, this seemed like an important consideration.

  Myra drew herself up, focused her thoughts, and released another bolt of death at the horror. This attack – which struck him squarely in the chest – combined with the holy darts his enemies were incessantly pelting him with, caused him to stumble. In a sincere rage, he regained his footing, paused in his charge, and began chanting in his reptilian voice. As he brought his spell to an end, shards of ice shot from the heavens just above the former lich's head. In spite of her best efforts to avoid them, several of these tore through her flesh. With a cry of pain, she collapsed.

  Rage filled the paladin's soul as he threw down his crossbow and flew to the maiden's side. Her eyes rolled in her head as he lifted her profusely-bleeding body from the ground. He bowed his head in prayer, begging for the strength to save her, as the undead dragon rushed toward the pair.

  Sarrac dropped his bow, drew his sword, and flew in the direction of the monster, the general following at his heels; his ax in his hands. Darek and Alena did their best to use the few moments they had left before the creature reached them, and continued to send bolts of golden flame into the flesh of their foe.

  As soon as he was within striking distance, Kallen lashed out at Sarrac with one of his foreclaws. The ogre blocked this attack, but was nearly knocked from his feet by its force. As the beast struck out at him a second time, the general managed to slash it across its outstretched limb. Instantly, the creature counter-attacked, driving the old man into the ground.

  Divine power poured through the paladin's body, sealing the wounds of his love, and keeping her soul safely within her body. There was a good chance that she wouldn't be feeling very well for the next few minutes – at the very least – but, she was alive, as well as conscious.

  “Get to cover,” Paul said, pulling her up into a sitting position, “we'll finish him off.”

  He then leapt to his feet, slipped the shield from his back, and ripped Telseir from its scabbard before flying to the aid of his allies; once again beginning to sing. The general had managed to crawl out of the creature's reach, while Sarrac was doing his very best to slow the monster's inevitable advance toward the rest of the party.

  In mere moments, the paladin had joined his companion, striking one of their enemy's claw-covered feet with his burning blade. As golden flames climbed up one of his limbs, the undead dragon decided that Paul had to be his primary target. It lowered its shoulder before instantly throwing out one of its wings, knocking the ogre into the air. With this opponent momentarily out of the way, Kallen lashed out at his foe with a seemingly countless number of attacks.

  Paul blocked one after another of these with sword and shield, but at last, three of the monster's claws found their way to his face. The young man couldn't be sure, of course, because he couldn't see himself, but he felt confident that Kallen had just cut him pretty nearly to the bone. Although he was fairly sure he could heal himself without any scarring, he was absolutely sure that he'd better not let that thing hit him again.

  As soon as Sarrac got to his feet, he charged at the monster; slashing it down its side. The magical two-handed blade that the ogre wielded managed to make its way through the abomination's scale covered hide and into its rancid flesh. Sarrac couldn't help but smile as dark red blood poured from the creature's body. This smile was quickly wiped from his face, however.

  With almost unimaginable speed, the monster struck him with its back foot. Talons the length of short swords tore through the ogre's armor, flesh, and bones alike. Without a sound, he collapsed, staining the ground with his life's blood.

  “Sarrac!” Alena cried, releasing a bolt that struck the creature in the face, before dropping her bow and charging the monster with sword and shield; death itself burning in her eyes.

  For a moment, the dragon shifted his attention to this new arrival, as she lashed out at him time and time again with all the strength she had. This flurry of blows even managed to drive him back a short distance as he looked for an opportunity to strike without risking a counter-attack from either of his foes. At last, Kallen saw what he thought was an opportunity.

  Alena had worked herself into such a frenzy that she seemed to be attacking the undead dragon in the same way one might attack a tree that had somehow managed to make one angry – however a tree might go about that. There was no rhythm or reason to her assault; no particular pattern or obvious strategy; her entire plan seemed to be hack, hack, hack, hack.

  As anyone who knows anything of melee combat can tell you, opponents that have a complete disregard for their own safety can often be the most dangerous kind. It seemed very clear that Alena didn't care if Kallen killed her, so long as she managed to chop bits off of him while he was doing it. Considering the fact that her other allies would still be alive to chop even more bits off of him, this made him cautious. The ancient lich hadn't managed to stay alive this long by getting himself killed.

  His apparent opportunity came when she missed him completely and almost threw herself to the ground with the force of her attack. As she stumbled, the dragon lashed out at her. Unfortunately for him, as he had been waiting for his opportunity, Paul had been waiting for one of his own. In order to reach the ogress, the dragon had to completely extend its left foreclaw. As he did this, Paul cut it neatly off at the wrist. As it fell to the earth, wrapped in golden flames, the dragon lost his own temper.

  The monster struck the paladin with the back of its burning stump; knocking him to the ground and pinning him there with the same partial-limb. With a roar of rage, it drew back to bite his head off. At this moment, several things happened simultaneously.

  “Die!” Myra cried, sending a bolt of black energy into Kallen's gaping maw.

  Darek shot him in the chest near where he assumed his heart had to be, as Alena stabbed him in the right eye. Paul managed to get his arm free just in time to jam Telseir through the bottom of his jaw, catching his face on fire. Fortunately, the golden flames that continually burned along Cal Morrin's former blade while in the presence of undead couldn't harm the living. Paul had never realized this before, but as the massive head fell on top of him, having been cut from the neck that held it up by the general's two-handed ax, he figured it out almost instantly. With a sigh of relief, the paladin lowered his head to the ground.

  Chapter 18: Home Is Where the Heart Is

  “There's no time for you to lay around, Paul,” Alena said, grabbing the paladin under the arms and dragging him out from under the undead dragon's massive, still burning head. “Sarrac needs you.”

  As soon as the paladin was on his feet, the ogress rushed to the side of the unconscious ogre. She rolled him over to find his body torn wide open in a number of places. Tears formed in her eyes as she gently placed his head in her lap and lowered her face to his mouth.

  “I think he's still alive,” she asserted, her breathing quick and shallow.

  In reply, Paul fell to his knees and begged for the strength to save the life of his friend. Instantly, power began to flow through him.

  “Okay,” he said, breathing deeply through his nose as the last of Sarrac's wounds closed themselves, “I've done about as much as I can do for the next few minutes.”

  “I have to admit,” Nyssa observed, fluttering down from the sky above and immediately attending to Paul's face, “that was a little too thrilling. In fact, it was so exciting that it had me hallucinating.”

  “Did it?” Alena asked, quickly wiping her eyes.

  “It did!” Nyssa exclaimed, turning her attention to the ogress. “Are you alright?”

  “I'm fine,” she replied, carefully lowering the unconscious ogre's head to the ground. “I just got something in my eyes. W
hat did you hallucinate?”

  “Believe it or not,” she laughed, as she turned her attention to the still-slightly-injured ogre, “I thought I saw Joey flying around with a pair of hideously gigantic wings on his back.”

  “You did,” the ogress asserted.

  “He was,” Darek pointed out, having stepped over to join his companions.

  “Well, where is he now?” Nyssa asked, glancing over the party in apparent search of him.

  No one knew. They awakened Sarrac and helped him to his feet before quickly searching the area. Joey was discovered hanging upside down from a relatively nearby tree, doing his best not to move; his limbs – and wings – not exactly at their natural angles.

  “Are you alright, bro?” Paul asked.

  “As much as I'd love to answer stupid questions,” Joey said, grimacing in pain, “I'm doing my best not to move at all. I'm in agony. Heal me now.”

  “I don't have the strength,” the paladin pointed out.

  “Nah, you didn't say that,” the wizard replied, starting to shake his head before coming to an immediate halt and groaning rather loudly. “I don't care if it kills you, you heal me right now.”

  “Don't be such a baby,” Nyssa giggled, flying over to attend to his wounds. “It looks like you only broke your arms... and legs... and wings... in several places, I guess...”

  “That's just how it felt,” he replied with a sigh of relief.

  “Let me get you down,” Sarrac said, reaching up toward him.

  “No!” Joey cried before continuing in a calmer tone of voice. “No, just let me hang here for a second to catch my breath. I feel like I've been waiting for years for you guys to find me. Pain like that seems to slow down time. I kept praying that I would pass out. Sadly, I didn't. I've got to find a way to brew healing potions in the future. Next time, I don't want to have to wait.”

  “It's a good plan,” Paul nodded. “When did you figure out the wing thing, by the way?”