by C. K. Rieke
Xelex groaned as he swatted away the stones, bricks, and metal that flew at him. A door bashed him on the side and shattered, but he didn’t budge. “That’s it Zaan, keep it up,” Palanzal said, as he walked from the shadows of the alley into the firelight. A strong gust of hot wind blew the hood from his head. “Concentrate, believe.”
Beads of sweat fell from Zaan’s head, his hands glowed, and his teeth were tightly clenched. This demon has come too far, I’m sick of this cat-and-mouse game. I can’t let him hurt another soul, I can’t let him get to Tilda. Focus, remember your lessons with Zelestiana, think of Gildur. Tilda continued her barrage of strikes with her sword, dodging quickly and attacking even quicker.
“That’s it,” Palanzal said, “concentrate.” As he said this, the headmaster’s eyes began to glow themselves, and suddenly Xelex grabbed at his helmet in sudden pain, and he yelled out an earth-shattering yell and dropped to a knee. Pebbles began to fall to the side, and Zaan hurled a massive outcrop of stones at Xelex. They pummeled him, and as much as he fought them off, more went at him. Zaan yelled as he threw everything he could at him, more and more stones from the surrounding buildings he sent flying down on the Crooked Knight. Eventually, Xelex’s yelling diminished and faded, as he’d been buried under great heap of rock.
Tilda stood back and calmed her breathing. Palanzal and Zaan approached slowly. Before them was a high mound of large boulders, behind them the flames danced in the background. “Is it over?” Tilda said.
Zaan grabbed his shoulder in pain and fell to the ground. Clutching it, he writhed in pain. Palanzal knelt down and looked into Zaan’s eyes, he could feel his hot breath on his face. “Give it to me, I can use it. You don’t know the power of the stone, Zaan. You’re fading, but I can use it to save all, and defend our people.”
Zaan ached as the pain in his arm, and looked into the headmaster’s eyes, they yearned for the stone, it was all he wanted. He looks like a different person. This isn’t the same Palanzal that welcomed me to Barrier Cliff. The stone has turned him into something focused on power, on strength, regardless of the cost. “Headmaster, the stone may grant immorality, but it creates something sinister in the mind, a sickness of greed.”
“Zaan,” Palanzal said, with wild eyes. “This is all so much bigger than just you and me. This is the game of the gods, you are just a boy. I’m the one who deserves the Adÿthyst. I will take it, if you don’t offer it.”
Tilda was silent as she watched them, and she wept for the new Palanzal she didn’t recognize, and for Zaan crippled from pain. Zaan looked over and saw a slight stir underneath the pile of rubble. “Look out!” he said, but an eruption of strength leapt from the rubble, sharp rocks shot in all directions, and one struck Palanzal who went flying back to the side of the alley.
“Mäezer!” Tilda yelled. She tried to run over to him, but was held back. Zaan looked to see that Xelex had emerged from the rubble and grabbed Tilda by the arm. She looked down in terror as he squeezed her wrist tightly.
“Not so fast now, are you?” Xelex growled.
Zaan looked over to Palanzal and at Tilda. Not knowing what to do, and how to help his friends, he desperately looked around for something, anything to stop the demon, it seemed as though he was impervious to physical attacks. He looked over at the headmaster, who lay on his side. Blood began to pool around him, a spattering of blood left his lips. “The . . . the . . . Adÿthyst . . .” More blood left his mouth. “Give it to me . . .” he struggled to say.
Zaan’s eyes darted around, trying to figure out what to do. Without realizing it, he dipped his hand into his pocket, and slowly brought out the small red stone. He opened his fingers, and stared into the perfectly cut Adÿthyst stone, which glowed white in the firelight.
“I can defeat him . . .” Palanzal said, “give it to me . . .”
Xelex’s sight quickly shot over to the stone. “Yes,” he hissed. “There it is.” His eyes glowed with fire.
“Zaan. You have to use the stone,” Tilda said worriedly. “Zaan, you can’t let Xelex have it. You have to use it yourself.”
“Don’t listen to her.” Palanzal sat up slightly, his voice was stronger, and raspy. “Don’t be foolish. Give it to me. I’ll save her.”
Xelex lifted his legs from the rubble, staring at the stone.
“I can’t take it, Tilda. I’ll turn into one of them.”
“You have to, if only so he won’t have it,” she said.
If I take the stone, I’ll become cursed with the burden of long life. I’ll watch all those die around me as my mind would rot away. But Xelex can’t have it, he’ll be so powerful he’ll never be stopped.
Xelex yanked on her arm, pulling her as he began to walk towards him and the stone, with his ax ready in his other hand. “The stone will be mine. I will be the most powerful being in all of existence. Give it to me,” he said in an unholy voice, as he strode towards Zaan.
“Take it, eat it, do something, Zaan,” Tilda said as her eyes welled up with water.
Palanzal’s voice grew louder, irritated, and more desperate, “No, give me the stone Zaan. I will save us all. Don’t be foolish.”
“No!” Zaan yelled out.
All of the commotion began to diminish as time itself began to stop. Zaan closed his eyes, and felt with extreme clarity every event in motion. He saw every part of reality in the blue shapes behind his eyelids. He felt every beating heart as it raced behind stone walls, the feeling of Palanzal’s organs beginning to fail, the salt in Tilda’s tears. And he felt something inside of Xelex, something faint, but it was definitely there. Zaan felt a small fire in Xelex’s heart.
“There,” Zaan said as softly as a feather on the breeze. He opened his eyes, and with the Crooked Knight of Armoz almost within arm’s reach . . . Xelex halted mid step. “I found what keeps you strong, demon.” He dropped his ax to his side, and released Tilda’s wrist. “You have a fire inside of you, a fire Armoz hid there.” Xelex fell to his hands, and fire began to creep out of the folds in his silver armor. “What he made, I will undo!”
Zaan walked over and stood above him. His eyes burned with gold and blue electricity. He stared at Xelex as he cringed on the ground and shook uncontrollably. The fire from within burned brighter and hotter. Smoke and flames began to engulf the Crooked Knight as he shook at Zaan and Tilda’s feet.
“. . . No . . . It’s not going to end . . . like this . . . Give me . . . the . . . stone . . .” Xelex said, as his last bit of breath left his body, his convulsing stopped, and the harsh, violent fire turned to small flames as his body burned. Smoke poured out of his eyes and mouth.
Tilda and Zaan stood over the smoldering corpse of Xelex, who had come from the land of Armoz. He had tortured their friends, killed many, and taken their home away from them.
“It’s over,” Tilda said, looking down at the charred armor. “It’s finally over.” Her head turned quickly back to the alley. Zaan and her ran over to Palanzal’s side. The lights had all but left his eyes, as he blankly looked up at Zaan and Tilda. He clutched Zaan’s hand, and lightly he began to claw at his pocket.
Zaan looked over at Tilda. “I can’t.” If I don’t give him the stone, he’ll die. But if I give it to him, he’ll become this new, greed and power hungry person forever.
“That stone isn’t meant for anyone. It’s a curse,” she said, she hung her head down onto the Palanzal’s shoulder, and she wept.
Palanzal had very little strength, but loosely clawed at Zaan’s pocket. “I’m sorry, Mäezer,” Zaan said. Tears formed in his eyes. “I want to help you, but I can’t give it to you. I believe it came to me, so I could protect it. I’m sorry.”
“B— But . . . I . . .” The headmaster coughed up blood, and laid his head back. His foggy eyes looked up to the sky. “But- I want to be a god . . .” Were his last words with his last breath.
Tilda remained sobbing on his shoulder, and Zaan lowered his head. There the three of them
remained, in the fire-stained street in their corner of the city of Dillengrad. The charred body of a devil lay next to them. As the fires died down, scores of people emerged for the other streets, and buildings. They gathered in a large circle around them, and watched silently.
A large roar was overhead, and the single, large red dragon Xelex had ridden, flew overhead into the northern sky.
CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX
THROUGHOUT the scores of citizens that surrounded the two bodies by Zaan and Tilda, no one spoke. Zaan watched the corpse of the demon smoke and smolder. Then he stared at the pool of blood under the old man, as the blond-haired woman, covered in blood, wept over his corpse.
Zaan stood tall and looked out into the eyes of the people around. They were ordinary men and women, shock lit in their eyes. “Thank you,” the young girl who had the young pup said to him in a sweet voice.
“Yes, thank you,” said the mother of the girl after. Then there was an outpour of praise being yelled towards him. People wept and went up to Zaan, and shook his hand, or bowed at him. Even some of the soldiers went up and thanked him. As they shook his hand, he realized the pain in his shoulder was gone. He pulled his shirt down, and saw the black injury had disappeared from his shoulder.
“It’s gone, Tilda, I’m cured,” he said, looking at her.
She looked over at him, and laid down the corpse of Palanzal on the spattered stone. Walking over to him, she put a hand on where the black mark had been on his shoulder. “Zaan, I can’t believe it. It must’ve been with your killing of Xelex.” She leaned forward and pressed her lips to his. “You did it, we’re safe. We’re alive.”
They were surrounded by a group of dozens of people wanting to thank him. They spit on the corpse of Xelex, but gave Tilda her room to grieve. The dozens of people began to part, as a small group of people walked towards them. Zaan and Tilda looked up to see the shapes of some familiar faces.
Slowly they approached Zaan and Tilda. At the lead was the large, tall form of his friend from the Arr, Gogenanth, who walked up to Zaan, and held out a hand. Zaan took his hand, and shook it in a strong grasp. Gogenanth smiled.
“You’ve lost weight,” Zaan said with a smile. I can’t believe he’s alive. He’s come all this way to return to us. My friend Gogenanth is alive! Gogenanth smiled back and grabbed Zaan in a warm embrace.
“I’m glad you are okay. I’m sorry we’re late,” Gogenanth said.
“You’ve saved us enough times,” Zaan said.
Gogenanth stood back and looked at the more mature Zaan standing before him, “You saved us all this time. You’ve killed one who would’ve destroyed everything. You’re the hero who ended the tyranny of the Knight of Armoz.”
Tilda walked over to Gogenanth, and she hugged him, “We’ve lost another one of us,” she said somberly.
Gogenanth didn’t reply immediately. Wollen walked up from the sides of Ezmerelda and Yule, still standing behind Gogenanth, with the large swath of people still watching.
“Zaan,” Wollen said. “How? How did you defeat Xelex? None of us could even touch him?”
Zaan had to think back to the moment it happened. Gogenanth and Tilda listened intently. “There was a flash inside of me, where I could feel everything around me, I could see everything in the dark, as though it were all illuminated in a blue-colored sunlight. Then I found it. Xelex had a tiny fire in the pit of his heart, like the furnace that operates the forge.”
“And . . .” Tilda said.
“I . . . just made the fire grow,” he said.
“That’s . . . not your Azulūz though,” she said.
“I know.”
“I’ll be damned,” Gogenanth said with a smile.
“That’s never been done, Zaan. You control two powers of the Azulūz? How?” Tilda said.
“I don’t know, it just happened.”
Gogenanth and Tilda were speechless after that.
“What now?” Ezmerelda asked as she came up from the group.
“Zaan, these are friends, Ezmerelda and Yule,” Gogenanth said.
“Yes, I recognize them from the fight back home,” Zaan said, “I thank you for your help.”
Ezmerelda bowed, and Yule did the same.
“Well, Ezmerelda, I’m getting sick of running and hiding. I’m tired of watching the ones we love being hunted, and taken and tortured.” He looked over at Palanzal. “I’m sick of burying the ones who looked over me. I’m done running and hiding.”
“What are you saying, Zaan?” Tilda asked.
“I think it’s time to take the fight to the one behind all of this destruction. I’m talking about killing Armoz.”
Gogenanth couldn’t help but smile, as Tilda’s mouth opened agape. She searched for the right words in her shock, but none came out.
“I am going to find the Devil King and I am going to kill him,” Zaan Talabard said on the streets of Dillengrad, next to the body of the broken, dead Crooked Knight, Xelex.
CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN
RUNNING as fast as their legs could carry them, Astor, Zelestiana and the Major leaped through the tall grass, southbound, towards the Black Cave. They left Lily and Gar behind with the remaining soldiers. Not only to keep the city safe, but because they would slow down the three.
They didn’t speak a word to each other as they ran, they only breathed heavily. Knowing there was no way they could outrun the slender, black dragon flying through the night sky, Riverend would no doubt beat them there. It was unlikely the children, along with Elindrill, Stave, and a handful of soldiers had made it into the cave.
The children were probably camped out in an open field, being warmed by fires, and nestling into soft grass to rest their weary bodies and legs. Riverend and his cat of nine tails was on his way to kill every soul that came out of Barrier Cliff alive. He wanted blood.
So they ran, as fast as their legs could travel, knowing they couldn’t make it there in time, they ran.
***
“What do you know of the others?” Tilda asked Gogenanth, as they were still standing in the middle of a massive ring of people, putting out fires and talking amongst themselves about what had just happened in their small corner of the city.
Gogenanth looked over at Wollen, and back to Tilda. “Riverend took the dragons south, to where they thought all of the survivors were.”
Tilda gave a worried look to Zaan.
“We could leave at once, but mind you, this was days ago,” Wollen said.
“Yes, we should go,” Zaan said.
Then a small squadron of soldiers ran up and encircled the group. One soldier with a yellow plume took a single step forward and announced, “King Manice Mordoth requires your attendance immediately in the capitol.”
“I assume this isn’t a request,” Ezmerelda said.
“You will come with us now. We will use force if necessary,” the solder said.
Gogenanth grumbled, “You think you can . . .”
Zaan cut him off with a hand on his shoulder. “Give us a moment.”
“What should we do?” Tilda said.
Just then, Zaan’s head began to swirl with thick blue wisps of smoke and bright gold sparkles of light.
“Zaan, what’s wrong?” he heard Tilda ask vaguely in his mind.
He could feel a presence in his mind, not faint like that of Palanzal’s, but a strong presence at the forefront of his mind. “Zaan,” it said.
“Who, who are you?” Zaan asked.
“You know who I am,” the voice said.
“Can it really be . . .? Ojiin, the Great God, is that you?”
“You cannot go to the king,” it said.
“I understand. Tell me what I must do,” Zaan replied.
“You must come to us.”
“Zaan, are you okay? What’s wrong?” Zaan heard Tilda’s voice faintly in the background.
“Where can I find you?” Zaan asked in his mind.
“Peo
ple think Armoz is in a hell below ground, this is not true. He is in the north, the Isle of Fyre, you must go there,” the voice said.
“The Isle of Fyre,” Zaan said.
“That is where you will find us. That is where you will find me.”
“Yes, we will find you,” Zaan said. If Armoz, the Devil King, lives in this world, and there’s a chance to stop him, and end this war once and for all, I couldn’t live with myself for not trying.
“Come to us, and set us free,” the voice of Ojiin said.
“Yes, Great Ojiin, I will find you, and we will set you free,” Zaan promised.
The End
Hi all, I’m thrilled you’ve made it this far through our journey together in this new world. After writing the words ‘The End’ for the first time in my life with The Road to Light, I didn’t quite know where to go next. The first book took me more than one year to write, and another to publish. In between all that I slowly started writing this book, and found great fun in returning to the characters. I don’t know if the editor will let me keep the chapter about Gildur’s past, but that was a blast to write. *She did*
My pace eventually picked up when I attended a local writer’s group, where I was introduced to NaNoWriMo, (National Novel Writing Month) in November 2015. As I love a challenge, I beat the minimum 50K words, and almost finished the entire book that month.
While writing The Crooked Knight, I listened to a lot of Gregory Alan Isakov and The Milk Carton Kids. Of course, at the end I always switch to LORT soundtrack or some old Metallica even.
This time I really tried to instill some more basic human emotions in Zaan; I.E. temptation, vulnerability, and insecurity. That’s all mixed in with the big decision he’s faced with when the time arises. I really liked introducing more Palanzal, and his decline to greed and obsession. Lily was a struggle to write, as I felt her and Zaan’s connection lessening, I just wanted to tell him, “She’s alive!” But I do think him and Tilda make a great team, when they’re together . . .