by Rosie Scott
HUUURRRNNNNN!
I stopped. Turned. My army halted behind me in waves. A couple soldiers at the rear pointed toward the wall, directing me as best as they could.
“It's Uriel's call,” Azazel informed me after ascertaining its direction.
I couldn't see Uriel's army behind the clusters of buildings between us, but I remembered how well he and Calder worked together at overwhelming foes and collecting those who surrendered. There was only one reason Uriel would use his war horn now.
The deep reverberation of another horn sounded out as Zephyr appeared at the bottom of the street. Catching my eye from our distance, she motioned with gusto to the east. The Sentinels were working together to direct me to a specific location.
“Do you want me to transform and check it out?” Holter asked.
“No. I want you with the rest of us,” I replied, before catching Cerin's anxious gaze. “I know why they're calling. We'll all go together.”
A relieved exhale blew through Cerin's nostrils. As worried as I was about bringing my friends within the danger zone of a personal vendetta, I wanted to respect their request to be close to me. As long as I kept my magic restrained, I wouldn't be a risk to them. Without godly allies, Terran was barely a threat.
I led my army right at the next intersection to circle back to the wall by utilizing side streets. Curious civilian faces of all races popped up in window panes before abruptly disappearing. Just two roads ahead sat a distantly familiar three-story inn built out of whole tree trunks with a hanging sign that read, The Hung HorsemINN.
I pointed at the inn, overcome with nostalgia. “That is the inn we stayed in the last time we were here. The inn from which Sirius summoned me and Cerin fled.”
Azazel read the sign and its slogan and concluded, “Nyx picked it.”
Nyx laughed. “Yep! I wonder how ol' Linden is doing. I miss the pervy bastard.”
“Was Linden a Celd or an Alderi?” Azazel questioned.
“Celd,” Nyx replied. “Why?”
“His name is botanical in nature like the Celds but the boastful name of his business suggests Alderi,” Azazel explained.
“Ah. Well, I guess you could say parts of Linden were Alderi,” Nyx joked.
Maggie sighed with faux exasperation. “I guess ya found that out firsthand.”
“There are few men left in Sera that Nyx doesn't know intimately,” I replied, to which Nyx nodded enthusiastically and Maggie chuckled.
At the next intersection, my army turned right to head back to the wall. The longer detour ensured we could skip most of the cluttered exterior street. Terran's exact location was unknown to me, of course, but I hoped that we could flank him and kill him easily. As we neared the area, my brother's hoarse and panicking voice echoed harshly off structures and over the heads of our men.
“Cowards! All of you!”
As my army passed the last building before the wall, the situation revealed itself. The armies of Calder and Uriel had almost completely captured the eastern Seran Army. Patches of Seran soldiers dotted the wall's outer curve as it ascended the mountain toward the Seran University. Although they were free, they avoided the lowest tier of Sera, for it would only lead to their arrest after being overwhelmed. Terran and a small army of loyalists fought desperately for ground with the beastmen as my brother screamed at the surrendering forces.
“Pick up your fucking weapons and fight!” Terran shouted, his voice breaking with panic. Blood splattered his magical protections as a fervent bear-kin mauled and gutted a comrade. Terran retaliated with an onslaught of metal blades, and the beast slumped over the Seran soldier, injured but still grasping on to life.
Uriel pushed his way through allied soldiers, hoping to heal the bear-kin. The healer's gray eyes were bright with a high, and Hakan stayed by his lover's side, his shield protectively before his torso.
“You are defeated, Terran!” Uriel shouted, only hesitating on his path to give an injured beastman a shield. “Your men would rather live than fight a losing battle!”
“We have not lost yet, you traitors!” Terran screamed. “Fight for Sera! Fight for your king!”
“Why die for a king who keeps magic from the masses when they could surrender to a queen who offers them magic and immortality?” My scream traveled over my allies and to my brother's ears. Terran's green eyes were bright with a mix of negative emotions as he found me. His nostrils flared with indecision as he noted the soldiers who piled out onto the street behind me. My allies already outnumbered Terran, and most of his men were surrendering. The hope left my brother's eyes and floated out into the shadow of a passing cloud, never to return. Deep down, Terran knew I defeated him. Every action he'd ever taken against me was for naught. My brother decided his love for his children was stronger than his pride, for he spun and fled to the nearest guard tower, looking to rush back to the Seran University via the wall.
“Are you fucking serious?!” Nyx exclaimed, her voice shaking with anger and frustration.
“Pursue!” I screamed at my men, taking off after my brother. “We do not stop until Terran is dead!”
Uriel called his men back to make way as my army made haste to the tower Terran and his remaining men slipped into. Just as we reached its lowest door, another that led out onto the wall above us banged open as my brother and his men rushed through. Azazel fired arrows off expeditiously into their ranks, and Cerin and Holter threw death bombs. Someone locked the keep's bottom door, so I used earth magic to degrade its center until I could unlock it by reaching through. I threw the dissolving door open and rushed ahead.
“Terran and most of his men have alteration and life shields,” Azazel informed me, his voice labored as he hurried up the steps behind me. “We may have to corner them to make any leeway. They keep refreshing their protections.”
“I don't care how many times they regenerate their protective bullshit,” Nyx began irritably, “we'll break through it and kill the asshole once and for all!”
“Don't worry,” Cerin assured her. “We'll kill him. It's only a matter of when.”
“Yeah, well, that when is soon,” Nyx retorted.
“Ya'll can go on ahead,” Maggie called after us, hobbling slowly up the stairs one at a time. “I don't want to hold ya back.”
“Follow the wall to the upper city!” I yelled down to her. “We will leave the door to the university open for you!”
I busted through the door and out onto Sera's eastern wall. The barrier continued curving toward the peak of the city in the northwest. As the mountainside rose, so did the wall. At various intervals the barrier met the side of a guard tower. To progress, one had to go into the structure, up some staircases, and leave out the other side to a higher section of the wall. We would have to chase Terran through a few of these to get to the Seran University, and my heart was already racing.
A handful of Seran soldiers came to clash with us as my men piled out of the tower. I threw a death bomb into their ranks, and many collapsed, releasing life force in puffs of smoke. Others absorbed the energy through alteration shields just to die by arrows to the eyes or quick melee clashes with Nyx and Cerin. Holter summoned boulders that he threw into the center of an oncoming group, and the heavy force of the element pushed back some soldiers so hard they flew over the battlement to their deaths below.
The slam of a door echoed out from the next guard tower down as Terran entered it. Less than a minute later, I jerked at the knob, dissolving the door when I found it locked. My heart pounded so hard I could feel it vibrating my head, massaging the brain already in pain from a high. Every muscle in my body ached with my pursuit, but I would not let Terran get away again. I dulled my senses with illusion magic, and the achy protests of my legs and lungs ceased.
Seran soldiers clashed with us on the stone steps of the keep, stalling us as best they could. I shot ice shards up the steps into the group, and while one man absorbed the magic, two others were hit. Blood erupted over the staircase, splatter
ing across my magical shield and falling over my men like rain. Nyx pounced the survivor with her daggers, and his intestines hit the steps before his body.
We relentlessly pursued Terran until the Seran University was within yelling distance. My brother could not rely on anyone to refresh his energy, so the farther we chased him, the slower he became. I busted through the last keep on the eastern wall just as my brother crashed heavily into the door ahead leading into the upper floors of the university.
To our right, there was nothing but beautiful mountainside. This high in Sera, I could see the glistening of the snowfall in the skies above even though the temperature was warmer here. We were amid High Star, but it felt like Red Moon; the sun had passed over us throughout the battle and hid behind the looming Seran Peaks, allowing shadow to claim the city before I could.
The Seran University sprawled over the mountainside many stories below us and to the left. Its stone was mismatched from the major repairs Sirius had overseen as if waving away my massacre and its consequences. New broader towers stood like guardians over various wings of the massive building, spotted with windows and topped with parapets. The courtyard where they'd held Bjorn's execution fifteen years earlier was an attractive mix of rebuilt cobblestone and lush colorful gardens. The barracks that comforted me to visit as a child looked so tiny from above. Bjorn's pedal whetstone was in the same place it had always been below the smithy's overhang. Nostalgia bombarded me like a punch to the gut as all these things came back to me, but I couldn't allow it to distract me now.
Terran breathed so hard with his labors that wheezes and croaks echoed off the university wall and reached our ears easily. While leaning on the door, he tried to unlock it with the key ring in his hand. After a moment, he jiggled the key and slammed his hand into the door with frustration.
“...the wrong key, my prince!” one of his soldiers exclaimed. Some of his words were lost as my own heaving breaths took precedent to my ears. “That one...for...towers!”
Terran frantically messed with the key ring, desperately searching for the right key. When he found it, he quickly jammed it into the keyhole, shaking as he attempted to unlock the door.
“Oh, no, he doesn't!” Nyx exclaimed, pushing between Azazel and me to dash forward. I refreshed her double-shield as she passed me and then summoned stone. Terran had alteration and life magic protections, and if Nyx wanted to hurt him with her daggers, I needed to whittle down his guards before she reached him.
I stepped to the right so my magic wouldn't hit Nyx and shot the spells forward. Boulders hurtled through the air at my brother's shielded back. One of his soldiers yelped in protest, and Terran jerked to the side and spun in anticipation of being hit. The rocks peppered into the metal door and the edge of my brother's shields, breaking the alteration protection and leaving the life guard flickering as he crumpled to the ground. Dents left unsightly shadows over the entryway, and the keys dangled from the lock.
Terran's soldiers ran toward Nyx as she neared. Purple magic flew out from her palms, causing two to screech in fear and leap over the nearby battlement to their deaths. Others fell from arrows as Azazel and Holter stopped to target unguarded eyes. Cerin and I kept running to catch up with Nyx, withholding our magic until we could be sure it wouldn't hit her.
Nyx dispelled her magic and quickly unsheathed her daggers. Recognition and distaste flashed through Terran's eyes as he saw her approach, and he struggled to stand up against the university wall.
“If you had only done your job!” Terran yelled at Nyx, his voice hoarse with turmoil and regret.
“Fuck you, coward!” Nyx spat. “Stop fucking running!”
Terran threw his hands forward. With Nyx between us, I hadn't even seen him summon a spell. The harsh clink of stone against robust life protections rattled out as a boulder hit Nyx. She yelped with a mixture of fear and surprise as it violently threw her back.
It all happened so fast. I barely had time to register something hit her before the flickering of weakened life magic flew past the peripheral vision of my left eye and over the inside parapet. I skidded to a stop, my heart jumping into my throat and inhibiting my breathing. I dispelled the elements and summoned two telekinesis spells, rushing to the battlement and desperately reaching out to Nyx as she fell from the wall.
Multiple noises echoed in my ears as I tried to pull her back. The clattering of Azazel's bow as he dropped it so he could help me. Holter's screams of horror and the subsequent cries of agony as he transformed right behind us, desperate to prevent a tragedy. Cerin's anxious grunts as he clashed with Terran's soldiers with magic and steel, doing his best to protect us since he could do nothing to help.
Time slowed to a crawl. Nyx fell backwards, her arms reaching toward us like we were close enough to grab them. Her dark eyes filled with fear as she realized the telekinesis wasn't working. Only when I saw her double-shield fade further did I understand why; by protecting Nyx with the strongest guard I could, it not only lasted through Terran's boulder, but it also rejected spells meant to save her.
Even if telekinesis worked, there was nothing to catch Nyx or break her fall. With my heart roaring in my ears, I dispelled my magic and screamed at Azazel to dispel his, hoping her remaining shield could protect against the fatal damage of gravity. My own words were lost to me.
Holter continued transforming, but it was futile. It took minutes to change, and though it felt like a lifetime, Nyx's fall only took seconds. My fingers grasped the stone of the battlement, slipping in their own sweat as her body rushed toward the cobblestone of the university courtyard. Nyx's eyes were on mine the whole time, the hope fading from them with every second she fell. In the back of my mind, Nyx's words to me from Comercio were on repeat.
I always thought that city was going to be the death of me. I had such misfortune there.
Nausea rose in my throat as Nyx crashed into the cobblestone far below. Her remaining shield shattered to nothing, and her head bounced off the stone with a crack like it was made of rubber. My heart pounded in my head like war drums leading us to hell as I waited. Her eyes were still open, but her eyelids flinched with severe neurological damage as the cracks of cobblestone surrounding her filled with blood that drained from the back of her skull.
The chattering of my teeth was all that alerted me to my sudden shaking of horror, mourning, and the onset of rage. I watched the life leave Nyx's eyes until they dulled, feeling like I was wading through yet another nightmare.
...halfway through that life, someone like me steps in and stops it all in minutes. Seconds, even. A whole life, Kai. Cut short in a matter of seconds.
That was the day I started to believe in curses.
Forty-four
The sounds of Holter's transformation crackled off the battlement. Azazel grabbed his bow from the wall with the scraping of wood on stone. Cerin's battle cries became thick with sobs he couldn't hold back. Somewhere far to the south, Maggie loudly mourned after having seen Nyx's death from a distance.
My sudden scream of agonized rage overrode them all, shattering off the university's walls like a demonic gust of wind skidding over broken glass. The wail hit the surrounding mountainside and echoed off, traveling over the lowering tiers of Sera until my voice was everywhere at once. Every ally and foe in Sera stopped with alarm as they came to understand that someone close to me had died, and everyone was in danger.
My vision was so filled with red it was as if I'd already spilled my brother's blood and broke his body over my head. I turned from looking over the battlement. Terran shook so badly in fear against the door it rattled as he unlocked it. He didn't wait for his closest entourage to follow him, for they were still in battle with Cerin and Azazel. Terran rushed through the door and into the university, and the click of the lock immediately followed. I pushed past Terran's remaining soldiers, shooting earth magic from my palms as my screams continued to sow fear.
The door dissolved in multiple places, leaving whole sections of metal to
fall unsupported. Still, it weakened too slowly for me, so I summoned a boulder and thrust it at the door. Degrading metal shrapnel burst violently into the university, the spell so powerful that the stone wall surrounding the door frame crumbled. I paid no mind as one block fell on my shield as I stalked through the rubble.
The first room was meant to outfit the tower guards before they left for their shifts. Cabinets and chests of supplies lined either side, but I walked past them, busting through the loose door and into a hallway leading to the center of the Seran University. Terran's green cloak rippled up ahead before defenders protected by magical shields surrounded me.
BOOM! Sh-sh-sh! BOOM! Sh-sh-sh! BOOM! Sh-sh-sh!
I summoned three powerful metal bombs in a row and slammed them to my feet relentlessly, overwhelming even the most protected defenders with shards of metal. After the third spell was complete, dozens of soldiers fell to the stone in slivers of shredded meat. Blood pooled to the edges of the hall, so thick that my boots audibly splashed through it as I continued forward. I regenerated my shields, for my onslaught had broken through them. One shard of metal shone red and silver as it stuck happily out of my lowest rib. I jerked the shard out with my bare hands and healed the wound as I pursued Terran, my eyes on his retreating back.
“BROTHER!” I screamed, throwing enervat to the side as my peripheral vision alerted me to more soldiers. A handful fell, but the others pursued. I unleashed tendrils of death magic through the university halls. The corpses from my metal onslaught pulled back together with the sounds of moist flesh sliding over polished stone. As the dead hobbled to battle, they audibly leaked all their fluids, and the stench of death fogged the air.
Terran turned right and rushed down another hallway. I pursued, leaving a trail of broken bodies and elemental debris. Far behind me, two sets of footsteps rushed to catch up. I internally yelled reminders at myself to be careful with my magic, for the last thing I needed was to unintentionally hurt Azazel or Cerin.