Heir To The Nova (Book 3)

by T. Michael Ford

  “Possibly on your best day, if you weren’t already half dead and oozing your life’s blood into your boots, you might have a slim chance,” he conceded with a shrug. “But that day is not this one. And frankly, you won’t be around much longer to use it.”

  He leapt back into the fight with me, completely ignoring Maya and the crossbow bolts she was firing through him. Our duel carried on, much to the delight of the crowd of demons that were starting to cheer lustily for the Duke. For several minutes, we exchanged blow after blow with no real result. I was starting to get dreadful flashbacks to my encounter with the minotaur demon in hell; I was tiring and he wasn’t. At least my hammer had the advantage of longer range over his relatively short mace. The Duke noticed as well, and on the next flurry of strikes, his mace shimmered, elongated, and formed itself into a wicked-looking flamberge, or flame-bladed sword. Not that it was actually on fire, just the wavy undulating shape of the blade made it look so. This one still retained the foul acidic-looking poisonous goo of the mace. It absolutely radiated evil intent, and the cursed Lich was even better with a sword than a mace! Quickly, I found myself being forced strictly to the defensive, my injuries and fatigue taking a toll; and his attacks were starting to increasingly get past the shield.

  Maya was in little better shape than I was, but her fighting experience came up with a solution. She wasn’t able to hit him, but she could block his weapons just fine. We worked as a team; she countered his blows, which gave me the openings I needed to bring the hammer around to good effect. The demon horn ripped into the Duke’s side and powdered bone and sinew with every strike.

  “Enough foolishness!” the Lifebane screeched, as he backed away. Reaching into his robes, he grasped an amulet hanging around his neck and uttered a command word. I could see it was another of his demon Amulets of Tepestra, probably the master one. Instantly, there were ten copies of him surrounding us. But these weren’t mere illusions like the wind wizards cast; these were real, as I found out when I countered wicked slashes from those closest to me, and each of their blades had the power of the original.

  Suddenly, I heard Maya cry out in agony. There were five Lifebanes on her, and I watched in horror as one of them jerked back the undulating blade from where he had run it through her side. A pulsing fountain of lifeblood and foul sword ichor streamed down her white armor as she crumpled wordlessly to the ground.

  “Maya! No!” I screamed, running to her aid. I had almost reached her when I was struck hard in the back, knocking me to the ground beside her. Instantly, my hammer and shield were kicked out of reach by several of the laughing clones, and I heard Rosa scream in despair.

  “So this is all the resistance the champions of this world have to offer?” the Duke sneered.

  Maya was panting on her side, bright red blood flowing freely from the wound. I put my hand over it in an attempt to stop the bleeding and willed every bit of healing energy my body had left through my fingers. She coughed and ripped off her helmet to get more oxygen, blood running down her chin freely. Defeated, I removed my helm as well, tossing it aside.

  The real Lifebane stood directly over us in triumph. “You’re both pathetic; but fear not, I will raise you up for a second life and laugh as you kill your friends and families. That will be my gift to you.”

  Maya smiled softly and drew her failing body closer to me. As our eyes met and I fell into that emerald light one last time, she caressed my cheek and murmured something I didn’t catch. Out of the corner of my eye I saw eleven black swords rise and poise themselves above us. A blur of motion flew past my eyes and I clamped them down tight, my last image of my love would not be of her death!

  “What the…traitor!” Lifebane hissed.

  I wrenched open my eyes to see Belrothe standing over us face to face with the Lich, the sword strikes impacting her instead. The surprise was enough to take most of the power out of the blades. Instead of screaming in pain from the vicious cuts, the old vampire’s face took on the appearance of calm vindication even though her skin was already beginning to burn off from exposure to the fortress.

  “Not what you were expecting, eh Duke?” she said brightly, holding up and examining a hand that was smoldering. “I’ll admit I wasn’t expecting to last this long within these walls, but before I go, I have one last task to accomplish.” She reached into her cloak and pulled out the special amulet I had created for her. Snapping it off her own neck, she closed her fist around it. With a howl of triumph, she drove the fist deep into his rib cage, releasing the amulet to rattle around inside his empty chest. “I’ll see you in Hell!”

  “No! Do you know what you have done?” The Duke howled in pain and dropped his sword, but it didn’t matter. Bel’s body flared up into a full conflagration as she staggered away from us, collapsing heavily on her side on the torn up cobblestones. In her last moments, she smiled at us, a human smile without fangs; and then like a piece of ancient parchment, she dissolved away completely to ash.

  The Duke was franticly digging though his robes with both hands to reach the amulet, but the damage had already been done. With a scream of rage, each of the Lifebane clones was sucked violently into the Duke’s chest, knocking him back slightly and disorienting him with each hit.

  “Now’s our chance! Go, Maya!” Winya pleaded desperately, pumping energy into her mistress.

  With everything she had, Maya rolled to her feet and fell toward the dark one. She clamped onto his arm like a leech, and following her lead, I grabbed his other arm.

  “What? Inconceivable! You should be dead!” he shouted at Maya, angrily trying to twist away from her.

  “Immune to poison! And you’re the dead one now!” She released his arm and stood back shakily, revealing that Winya, in her bracelet form, was now around his wrist.

  “Burn you sick bastard! Alex, light him up! Glow like the sun itself!” Winya urged confidently.

  Our wings shot out of our backs, already glowing with as bright a light as we could manage. We shaped them so the Duke was surrounded by our light, our wing tips almost touching. The Duke cried out in mortal agony as Winya burned him from the inside out and we burned him from the outside in. The host of demons that were our audience drew back screeching, practically running over themselves to escape the holy light. Maya was almost unconscious on her feet, but her face was angelic as our glow intensified as we put everything we had into it. With a last puff of brimstone stench, the being that was Duke Pharmon, the Lifebane, ceased to exist on this or any other plane.

  It was over, we had won. But I didn’t feel victorious as Maya crumpled lifelessly to the ground, wings retracting, having used up all the energy that Winya and I had given her and much more. I screamed in my mind for Rosa to fetch Alera. I fell down next to my dark elf and cradled her head in my arms, tears running down my face.

  “Well, I’m glad that’s over,” she whispered weakly.

  “Yeah, undead really suck.”

  She smiled, but then frowned as a bloody coughing fit took her. “Don’t make me laugh. That sword got me real good, Alex...I don’t know…I’m so cold…”

  “Shhh,” I interrupted, “just rest for a bit. Healers are on their way.” I cursed myself for my own weakness, but I had no more energy to give her. I knew what she was thinking, that she might not make it. And I felt more terror at that point than I ever did with the Lich, because I wasn’t sure she would either.

  Minutes drag on for hours at times like this. I heard a buzzing sound and an exhausted pixie tumbled to the ground next to our heads. Not saying a word, but her big eyes filled with tears, Nia seemed to know what we needed. She walked over to the pile of rags that had been the Lich and dug around long enough to find Winya. Buzzing back erratically, she dropped the bracelet in my hand, and then solemnly hugged each of our faces before collapsing heavily on a nearby post. I slipped Winya on Maya’s wrist and immediately knew she was doing what she could to help.

  “Thank the stars, Alex; I was so worried!”

/>   Before I could answer, Alera and some of her healers arrived, escorted by Hons, Rosa, and Higs with a few of his less injured guards. Alera immediately went to work on Maya, prying my arms off of her and growling in frustration when the weight of my dark elf’s armor wouldn’t let her be hoisted onto a litter.

  “Alex, get her out of this filthy stuff!” she commanded. I rolled to my knees and did the best I could. Finally, Maya was stretched out on the litter in just her leather undersuit. Two guards carried her up to the infirmary, with Alera running frantically alongside and the healers racing on ahead to prepare the surgery. Dizzy myself, I just toppled weakly back down in the dirt.

  A few minutes later, a young first-year healer girl ran up carrying a small bottle. She looked ready to burst into tears as she looked around at all the blood. Instead, she managed a curtsy; and taking a deep breath, spoke, “Mr. Alex, King, Sir. Primus Alera says you are supposed to drink this.” As terrible as I felt, and with no way to get up the hill to my dark elf, I shrugged and drank it down. The scene around me spun for a few seconds and then went blissfully black.

  Chapter 17

  Alex

  When my vision cleared again, I saw Rosa looking down at me. She was crying, but in a relieved, drying-her-tears sort of way. I must have been moved up to the infirmary, because there was a ceiling above my head. I was stretched out on a stone countertop, still in my armor. I still had to wonder how they managed to move me at all.

  “Alex, I’m so glad you’re all right. You have no idea what it was like to watch you fight that thing.”

  “I’m sorry, Rosa, but where is Maya?”

  She finally smiled a little. “She’s right beside you.”

  I gingerly rolled over and saw a movable bed positioned next to the countertop. My ribs made it known that I definitely wasn’t healed all the way, but I felt vastly improved when I saw my lover’s chest rising and falling. She was sleeping and so very beautiful.

  “You both came in here close to death, you know; her especially,” Alera announced from somewhere behind me. “It’s a good thing you are both tougher than a regular human, or you wouldn’t have pulled it off. But you will both be ok…eventually. Maya will need a few days.”

  “Alera, you have my eternal thanks. Any news from your protector on the Kerr?”

  “Yes, he popped in here a few minutes before you woke up; a bloody mess as well. The nebulia seem to be holding their own and even making some gains in their battle. He said when the Lifebane died, the tide of battle swung in their favor. But he said to tell you, ‘the game isn’t over yet’.”

  “How did I get here? And how long was I out?” I asked, rolling up into a sitting position with my feet over the edge. I couldn’t shake the thought that I should be doing something more important than laying there like an invalid.

  “Whoa, easy there, Alex. You may feel marginally better, but you’re still weak as a kitten. You’ve been unconscious a few hours; the five Helios who survived carried you and Maya’s armor up here. It seems that stuff feels light to them, too.”

  My mind reeled, only five Helios made it? By the stars, what were our mortal casualties like? Do we even have control of the fortress anymore? “Give it to me straight, Alera, how bad is it?”

  “Casualties, you mean?” I nodded, my eyes cast down to the floor, expecting the worst. “Not as bad as it could have been.” She glanced at a small sketchpad she pulled out of her robes. “The number of wounded is very high. But in most battles, you don’t have an entire tower of healing wizards available for triage. If they didn’t die where they fell, there is a good chance we saved them. I have to admit the Wind and Water Towers really surprised me. Their people stepped up and were instrumental in easing burns and transporting the wounded.”

  “Deaths?”

  “About forty percent, excluding your Helios, that is. As I said, only five of them remain. It seems they chose to fight to the bitter end on the walls to buy you time to finish off the Lifebane; no one made it down from the high walls. The Helios who weren’t manning the walls fell defending the rest of us. I saw several incidents where they stepped in the way of a mortal blow to one of my healers. Honorable; but ultimately, self destructive.”

  “What about everyone else?”

  Rosa answered with a catch in her voice, “Dawn and Dusk are both exhausted but fine, I don’t think there’s a scratch on either of them. The demons never made it into the keep or the underground labyrinths; so Darroth, our human staff and Bel…Belrothe’s people are safe and sound. Nia is asleep on a pile of bandages in the infirmary storeroom, she overdid it again. Princess Elsa was wounded in more places than I can count, but she would only accept minimal patching. I believe she is currently carousing with the dwarves who survived at that place they call their tavern. Most of the older students and teachers overextended themselves also and are asleep.”

  “And the girls?”

  Rosa’s face changed to an ashen gray as she nodded to the far end of the infirmary building. My eyes followed, and I instantly spotted Julia and Ryliss kneeling next to a low cot sobbing. That could only mean one person was in that cot; I needed to get up now. Pain, and not all of it physical, surged through me as I stood up and stumbled toward them. Alera tried to stop me, but Rosa waved her off.

  I limped my way over to the girls; the sight was far worse than I imagined. Lin’s entire right arm was gone, and three large claws had scored deeply into her chest and stomach. Her normally cheerful dirty face was deathly pale and drawn, and her breaths were ragged and seemed to take special effort.

  Alera touched my arm in sympathy. “I am sorry, my King, truly I am. But whatever demon attacked her had venom that defies healing. Nothing we have been able to do for her has helped stem the wounds’ degeneration.” Then she lowered her voice to a faint whisper and shook her head sadly. “I don’t believe she will survive the night.”

  Unfortunately, it was so quiet at this end of the ward that the girls heard her just fine. I knelt down next to Julia to try and comfort her anyway I could. She threw herself into my arms, huge tears leaking down her streaked face. I was shocked when Lin’s eyes opened and she focused on me. I felt warm wet trails running down my own cheeks, but I didn’t care. She cracked a crooked grin. “Look at that. Now I’ve got Alex shedding tears for me. Surys is going to be so jealous, she’ll just die.” She chuckled, which led to some harsh wet-sounding coughs. Lin paused as if considering her words more carefully than she was used to. “Seriously, don’t cry for me, Alex. I had a better life with you, I’m happy that you were my brother.”

  “What happened?”

  Head on my chest, Julia answered, “She and Ry were protecting me as I was casting spells. There was a terrible battle going on farther down the wall, Lin took a peek and saw Tammy was surrounded. She ran to save her and was clawed by a big demon. Tammy gave her life so that we could get Lin away.”

  “Not quite,” someone said from behind me. I looked over my shoulder to see Tammy standing there in all her golden splendor, not a scratch on her. “There are a few advantages to being dead; one is you can’t die twice.”

  “Tammy! You’re alive!” shouted the girls, as much as their tattered voices could manage anyway.

  “We’re not alive, remember; but yes, we are back. Death has no hold on us; we just need time to repair ourselves.” She knelt down on the other side of the bed, gently stroking Lin’s hair softly. “Such a brave little girl.” Lin tried to speak, but the Helios put her finger over her lips. “Shhh, little one, the pain will be gone soon.”

  She started to quietly chant something that immediately dimmed every glow orb in the infirmary as if she were drawing upon the magic of the fortress directly. In a few seconds, every healer gathered in the hall was watching mutely. Even Alera was frantically trying to analyze what she was seeing, and failing badly. A soft golden glow radiated from Tammy’s outstretched hands and infused the wounds on Lin’s chest. There was a struggle of sorts between the gut wrenchin
g darkness that permeated the ragged cuts and the soothing ministrations of the Helios. Suddenly, as if a wall was breached or a dam failed, the golden radiance broke through and overwhelmed the darkness. Instantly, the deep gouges on her chest and stomach knit back together, healing without even a scar. The ragged joint of her shoulder sealed over, and her breathing started to become more regular and far less labored.

  “I can’t believe it,” said Alera, half stunned. “Where did you learn that powerful of a restoration spell?”

  Tammy smiled but her eyes never left Lin’s face. “I was the company’s combat healer before I died. As it turned out, the afterlife has a lot of resources if you know where to look, and I had all the time in the world. But I’m very sorry Lin, I have no arts to replace your lost arm.”

  Lin nodded in understanding. “I guess I’ll have to get used to being a three-legged cat.”

  “Probably not,” Rosa interjected. “Druid magic, specifically the change to animal form, involves a visualization of the creature you wish to copy. If that visualization were limited to four-footed creatures, a druid would never be able to become a snake or a fish. No, Lin, you will still be a whole animal when you change. But your true human form will forever be as you are now…I’m sorry.”

  Lin levered herself upright in the bed, excitement dripping off her. “It won’t be so bad if I can still be an eagle or a wolf whenever I want.” By this time, Jules had leaped onto the small bed behind Lin, wrapped both arms around her, and squeezed and kissed her with delighted girlish abandon. Finally their eyes met and Julia said quietly, “Now it will be up to me to keep YOU grounded in YOUR human form.”

  I would have loved to stay longer and visit, but Alera tapped me on the shoulder and motioned for me to follow. I could see Nydard, her dog-headed nebulia, waiting patiently in the doorway. As we walked outside, I was joined by a worried group of Helios; namely Ebony, Calimus, and their teams. Ebony spoke first.