When the man in robes saw that they had arrived, he spoke, somehow magnifying his voice with power. Rindu could not see the glow of rohw around the man, but he was so far away that he could barely be recognized as a person at all.
“Rindu!” the voice boomed. “Rindu Wroun. Or should I say Rindu Zose, the name you are now known by? I would speak with you, Rindu. Come down and perhaps we can discuss matters and come to a reasonable compromise.”
Rindu looked at Torim Jet. The old monk’s face had gone white. He recognized the voice as well as Rindu did. It did sound like Chetra Dal. Still, it could be trickery. He would not believe Master Dal turning evil until he saw it clearly for himself. Coming back from the dead was more believable by far.
“I believe I will accept his invitation,” Rindu said.
“Are you out of your flaming mind?” Emerius asked. “He’s got a hundred of those beasties with him. You go down there, and he’ll gladly watch them tear you apart.”
“If there is any chance of preventing him from using the artifacts’ power or to stop the siege, I must try. If it is a trap or if it is not, I must go and speak with this man. I must find out why he is using Master Dal’s name and what his plan is.”
“I will go with you,” Torim Jet said. “You will not stand alone.”
“I, too,” Palusa Filk said.
“Father,” Nalia said, “you will not go without me by your side as well.”
“Wait,” Sam said. “It’s obvious that you’ll go regardless of what anyone says, Master Rindu. Let’s just make this easy. Who wants to go with him? If you do, step over here.” He moved away from the rest of the group, over to where Rindu stood along the battlement.
Those who had spoken stepped over. Then Ix shrugged and joined them, Emerius close on her heels. Regi smiled and skipped a few steps to stand with them. Chisin Ling, Ru Wilkes, and even Nicole walked to stand with them as well.
“Oh no,” Sam said. “Mom, you are absolutely not going down there. If it devolves into a battle, you are not going to try to fight mutants with a pair of knives.”
His mother looked at him defiantly. “I have seven knives hidden in various locations on my body,” she said, “and I have become very good with them.”
“Mom,” Sam said, eyes flashing and hard as stone. “No. There will be no negotiations. I will have Danaba’s guards lock you in your room if I have to. I know you are brave and that you want to help, but no. It’s not gonna happen.”
Nicole looked to Danaba Kemp and he nodded. “Sorry, Nicole. If he gives that order, or even if he doesn’t, I’ll do it. You have to pick your battles, and this one isn’t one you should pick.”
She sighed and stepped back to join Dr. Walt and a few of the members of the Republic’s Guiding Council .
“Fine.” She crossed her arms and let out a sharp breath.
“Sam,” Dr. Walt said. “You do realize that if all of our finest combatants go down there at once, there is the chance that we could lose you all in the blink of an eye? It would cripple our effort.”
“I know, Dr. Walt, but we are not going to lose Rindu to treachery because he goes down alone. With all of us, even that force Chetra Dal has brought with him won’t be able to defeat us. And if something does happen, Ix will be able to teleport us back here before any of the main army can reach us. It’s a risk, but not as great as you portray it.”
Ix tipped her chin at that. She had to have expected she would be their escape plan.
“Thank you all,” Rindu said. “Doubly so. First for not trying to talk me out of going and second for supporting me.” He brought his hands up into a salute, one fist inside the other, and bowed to each of them. “It is my honor to have such good and loyal friends.”
Danaba Kemp still hadn’t moved. “If there’s to be fighting, I should be there with you. Turkin, you have the command until I return. You shouldn’t need to do anything, but just in case, you know your duty.”
The man snapped to attention and saluted, fist to heart. “I do, sir. Good luck, all you sirs and ma’ams. It is an honor to serve with you.”
Everyone knew what they needed to do. They all linked hands as Ix pulled her sleeves up on her tunic so they could all touch a piece of her skin.
“Ready?” she asked. Everyone spoke an affirmation or nodded. “Here we go. Be wary.”
They disappeared from the wall and in a blink were standing on flat ground in the buffer zone, less than a hundred yards in front of the man in robes and his escort force.
Rindu’s eyes focused on the robed man and his mouth dropped open. The enemy was older, his face more wrinkled, and he looked leaner than the last time Rindu had seen him, but there was no doubt. The man who stood before him was Chetra Dal, Zouyim master and the figure Rindu had patterned much of his life after. He felt as if he could not breathe.
Looking over to Torim Jet, Rindu knew he was not mistaken. The older monk’s face had gone ashen, and his eyes filled with tears.
“Why?” was all that Rindu could say, and it came out as a whisper that was caught by the wind whipping across the empty space, taking it far away.
“Rindu, my friend,” the man said, wearing a small smile. “It has been long since I have seen you. You look well. And Torim, I greet you as well.”
“Why?” Rindu said more loudly, still trying to force air into his lungs. “Why have you done this? Why did you fake your death? Why?”
The expression on Chetra Dal’s face flattened into an emotionless mask. “Yes, I suppose you would want to hear that first of all. For what it may be worth, I am sorry for the deception. I had important work to do and could no longer afford to carry on my subterfuge. My apologies that I could not tell you.
“Do you know, Rindu, that I almost confided in you, that I almost asked you to come with me. I decided against it, of course. You were already too set in your path, too loyal to the outdated ideals of the Zouyim. If I confided in you and then you refused me, I would have had to kill you. I did not desire that. Never that.”
Chetra Dal looked contemplative for a moment. “I have often wondered how things would have been if you had come with me. Would you have convinced me to help the Zouyim, to destroy the Gray Man and save the temple, as well as the Sapsyra?” He gestured to Nalia and Reginia, standing together, both in Sapsyra garb.
“But that does not matter now,” Chetra Dal said. “It is past and we are in the present, looking toward a better future. Let us speak of that.
“I have rediscovered and refined the use of a better source of energy than the rohw. It is called awkum, and it is the future of Gythe. You have seen its power. It took your combined strength in the rohw to defeat Ayim Rasaad, my apprentice. It is a power that can bring all the world together under one person. Think on that. Imagine what we could accomplish together. Is not that what you are really fighting for?”
“No,” Rindu said, shaking his head. “No! A Gythe united under the oppression of one man is worse than a divided Gythe. You are speaking of taking away the free will of every person in the world. You are speaking of being the ruler of all. Power such as this is dangerous and evil, and we will not allow it.”
The older man’s face twisted, and his mouth pinched as if he had eaten something rotten. “You will not allow it? Do you yet believe you can stop me in this, Rindu? Torim? Do you believe that because you are mighty, you can withstand my power? My awkum alone is enough to defeat you, but I also have the artifacts, and I have communed with them. I will use them if I must.”
He wiped his face clean of all emotion again, so quickly that it made Rindu uncomfortable. Only someone not quite sane could change their emotions so quickly.
“Rindu,” Chetra Dal continued more gently, “there is no reason to stand against me. We want the same thing. Would you be more pleased if I gave the ruling of Gythe over to you, with you beholden to no one except me? Would it serve better if you were king, or Torim Jet, or someone else, with me the ultimate power in the background?”
“And your new government, this Republic of yours, would do this?” Chetra Dal asked. “As long as men act according to imperfect knowledge, the world will be a sad, ineffective place. One with wisdom must have complete control so that men will not be able to make the mistakes they so often make. It must be as I say. Gythe must be ruled with wisdom, and that rule enforced with the power of the awkum. No other option is acceptable. I would ask one more time for you to join me. Come, my brother, help me to make Gythe a better world.”
“You are mistaken, Master Dal,” Rindu said. He felt a burning behind his eyes, the pressure of tears wanting release. “I have always respected you, always honored you and your memory. It saddens me to see that you are committed to such folly. I will oppose you. You will not become a tyrant, not while I and my friends still live.”
Torim Jet nodded, tears freely flowing from his eyes. “Please, Master Dal, do not do this. Do not make us take arms against you. Gythe cannot lose a great master again. Please.”
Chetra Dal’s mouth had gone into a hard, tight line. “You would oppose me, truly? Both of you, my disciples and friends? You would lift your weapons to defeat me rather than submit? If you do not agree with me, will you not simply allow me to carry out my plans without having to kill you? It would grieve me to have to destroy the last few Zouyim, no matter how confused or simple they may be.”
“We will not allow you to oppress Gythe,” Rindu said. “If you insist on this course, we will fight you as we would any enemy of the people. You shall not prevail.”
The awkum master shook his head sadly. “That is unfortunate. It saddens me, for I would have you, Rindu, as my disciple and heir. Ah, but such things cannot be, I see. I do not have any other choice than to eliminate you, then, as enemies of the future Gythe so richly deserves. I am sorry it must be so.”
He gestured to one of the humans standing next to him and closed his eyes. As he began to make soft sounds, chanting under his breath, the human lifted his sword and sliced it down toward Rindu and the others. The mass of bodies surged forward to attack.
Chapter 44
“We must interrupt him,” Rindu said. “He is preparing to use the artifacts. If he has truly communed to the extent he indicates, he could level the fortress walls. We must not allow him the opportunity.”
Emerius drew and shot three arrows before Rindu even finished speaking. Two were deflected off shields held in front of Dal by two human soldiers. The other seemed to bounce off the air itself. The awkum master must have set in place some type of shield of power.
“We’ll have to go through the army to get to him,” Sam yelled. “If we’re quick, we can do it before any more enemies get to us from the main camp.”
He didn’t say anything else. The first of the mutated creatures had reached him and he was fighting for his life, staff whirring as it cut the air. Rindu drew his swords, separated them, and set to work. Sam was right. They had to get to Chetra Dal before he could unleash the power of the artifacts and before the whole army was upon them.
Rindu whirled, swords lashing out and removing parts from any foes who came too close to him. He saw in snatches the others fighting alongside him. They maintained a loose rank, far enough apart so that they were not in danger of striking their comrades, but close enough to protect each other’s flanks.
Most of those coming against them were mutant creatures. Perhaps one in ten or one in fifteen was a human, the only foes with conventional weapons. The very few humans with bows or crossbows could not use their weapons without striking their own comrades, so after loosing a few missiles, they dropped their ranged weapons and drew their melee weapons.
Three enemies came at Rindu—a wolf creature, some kind of reptile creature, and a man with a long spear. He spun out of the way of the spear thrust, using his momentum to shear off the wolf’s claw as it came for him. Ducking his head under a lightning-fast strike from the reptile, he batted the spear and, without losing any momentum, landed a spin kick on the side of the reptile creature’s head, causing it to leave its feet and fly back until it ran into another creature.
Rindu dropped low and flicked his sword out, slicing the spear-wielder’s leg. The man cried out and went to one knee, his injured leg no longer able to hold him. The Zouy slashed twice, one sword following the other, and the man’s head rolled from his shoulders to the ground. Continuing in his spin, Rindu threw his swords out again and the wolf creature, just recovering enough to try another attack, lost its other hand. With the amount of blood loss, the creature would weaken and die soon on its own, so Rindu turned his attention to the reptile, which had regained its feet and was coming back toward the monk.
Two quick parries with his sword, and then Rindu unleashed a devastating front kick to the center of the monster’s chest, projecting rohw through the kick to crush its chest and destroy the heart within it. It dropped to the ground, dead, after flying back ten feet, but Rindu was already facing new combatants.
As four more enemies queued up, Rindu glanced around. Sam was doing well, having broken his staff into the fighting sticks, this time with the top sections formed into a blade, like two slender wooden swords. He was cutting down those who came against him.
Nalia, too, was wreaking havoc on her enemies, shrapezi flashing and pieces of her attackers flying. She and Reginia were close to each other, the latter laughing maniacally. The others were holding their own as well, Torim Jet and Palusa Filk fighting side by side, Emerius foregoing his bow for his long knives, Ix flitting around disappearing and materializing to cover his back. The soldiers of the new republic, Danaba Kemp, Chisin Ling, and Ru Wilkes were putting in a good showing as well. Enemies fell like wheat beneath a scythe.
But still they could not get closer to Chetra Dal.
The defenders were not wading through the battle unscathed. Several were bleeding from wounds, though Rindu did not see any that were life-threatening. Still, small wounds could add up and slow a combatant down. Would they tire before they ran out of enemies to fight? Would they be in any condition to clash with Chetra Dal?
The ex-Zouyim master was still standing there holding the artifacts. His eyes were still closed and he still chanted as before. He had chosen his troops well, for they did not let Rindu and his friends get close. In fact, they were pushing the Republic’s best hope back toward the cliffs, slowly but inexorably.
The enemy would fall, given time, but would there be time enough? When Chetra Dal finished weaving his magic, it would be too late. And there were still other forces rushing toward them from the main camp.
Rindu knew what he had to do. Even at the risk of his own life, he would make it to his ex-master.
Setting his jaw in grim determination, he cut his way through the four new attackers. The bird creature was most difficult because of its rock-hard arms that could easily block his sword. He whittled the number down to only the bird and some sort of furry creature with well-placed sword cuts and then waited for the remaining two to come at him.
When the two were near, and another three had just about reached him, he crossed both swords in front of him, closed his eyes for a split-second, and generated a powerful rohw pulse all around him. It threw the enemies from him and made Palusa Filk stagger ten feet away. With a look of apology—and her look of understanding—he leapt in the air over several combatants toward Chetra Dal.
He almost made it.
Rindu had seen the arrows bounce from a shield made from some invisible power—that other power, the awkum most likely—but he underestimated the strength of that force shield.
He did a flip, generating momentum to strike, and came down with both swords, ready to cut Chetra Dal down where he stood. A foot from making contact, he struck something he could not see and was forcefully repelled backward. It felt like he had run headlong into a stone wall.
The Zouy bounced and skidded across the dry
earth of the buffer zone, tangling the feet of three of Chetra Dal’s soldiers and causing them to fall. For a wonder, he was not attacked as it happened, probably because it all happened so fast.
Sam struck down another creature and put his hand out to Rindu to help him up.
“Thank you,” Rindu said, shaking his head to try to clear the ringing in his ears.
“It was a good try,” Sam said, turning back to the enemies arrayed against him. “We’ll have to all rush as a group, I think.”
“Yes.”
The others had seen what happened and were moving in closer to where Sam and Rindu were. They understood.
“Now!” Sam yelled, as he took the lead in rushing forward. All of the others fell in behind him, Rindu on Sam’s left and Nalia on the right. Together, they formed a wedge that drove on toward Chetra Dal, piercing through the lines of the forces in front of them.
It was a dangerous tactic, allowing the enemy to flank them and close in from the sides and back. It also compromised the Republic force’s ability to move freely. It had to be done, however. The additional attackers would reach them in a handful of seconds, and Chetra Dal could finish whatever he was doing at any time. It was a gamble, but a necessary one. If they could only get to the enemy leader in time.
But they couldn’t. Chetra Dal opened his eyes while Sam was still twenty feet from him. The ex-Zouy’s mouth twitched into a smile so faint it was hardly there, and then turned down into a look of distaste.
Chetra Dal didn’t even gesture, only glanced at his foes, and an inexorable wall of force pushed them back thirty feet while brushing his own forces to the sides.
“It is done,” Dal said. “It is a shame to destroy such promise, but I will do what I must do for the sake of all Gythe. I must take the world in my fist and usher it into a better age, without the squabbling and the incompetence that it has always displayed. If I must destroy you all to do so, then so be it. Your time is done.”
Harmonic Magic Series Boxed Set Page 135