Both guard turned their attention back to him while I scrambled towards the big doors. Freeing my wrists, I pulled the massive doors shut and slammed the locking beam across before the rest of the guard could assist their comrades. That left Zimri only four soldiers to deal with.
Three, I corrected as I turned to see one lying in a pool of blood at the Alkite’s feet. While he preferred a sword, he used the fallen soldier’s spear to great effect. Meanwhile, the two carrying our weapons and gear dropped their load, rushing to assist their clearly overmatched compatriot. I was closer and faster. Rushing behind him, I yanked his dagger from its sheath and drove it into his spine behind his neck, dropping him like a rock.
Zimri turned and flung his spear at one of the oncoming soldiers, striking him in the face. The other faltered for a step at seeing his comrade die but it was too late. Zimri had already picked up the other spear and soon impaled the final soldier.
“ENOUGH!” thundered Katrina, rising from her throne, face contorted with rage. “Enough tricks and games. I admit, you have fought far better than I expected. But it is time for this to end.” Raising her hands, she shouted. “LEBE!”
The earth rumbled around us and emerging from recess of the throne room were four enormous stone gargoyles, at least four meters high and armed with stone maces the size of pillars.
“Bring ihn am Leben. Töte sie,” Katrina commanded her golems, reclining back down on her throne.
“Uh, any ideas?” Zimri asked as we stared up in horror at the beasts converging on us.
“Uhhhh,” I stammered, desperately trying to think. Golems were basically puppets controlled with magic. I had made them as part of my training; small ones to do house chores and the like. Even those had taken a tremendous amount of…
PUPPETS!
“Cut their strings!” I yelled to Zimri as I dove to my right, narrowly avoiding a mace crushing my being.
“Cut their…what?” Zimri shouted back, sliding under a grasping hand.
“Their strings!” I repeated. “She is controlling them like puppets! There is some sort of gem or stone that tethers them to her will, allowing her to feed them life force! Find and rip it out!”
“Like diamonds?” Zimri offered.
“Ya, like…oh.”
I looked up at the nearest golem and it looked back at me with its diamond eyes, a mere two meters over my head.
Part of me wanted to give up. I was exhausted and painfully sore. I had no idea how I was going to get up to the thing’s head without getting turned into paste. But then I turned to see Katrina coldly and smugly watching us battle for our lives and fresh anger surged through me. I could not give up now, not when we were this close. I thought of Helga and her sacrifice. How many children had Katrina murdered for this battle? A dozen? A hundred? Was there a child left in Masala?
My resolve turned to steel as I charged the nearest golem. The mace came whistling down at me but at the last moment, I danced aside. Before the creature could raise back up, I leapt on top and clung on for dear life.
I was swung up over its head. At the apex, I let go, dropping a meter and a half on to the stone head, bruising my ribs in the process and knocking the wind out of me. Out of sheer desperation, I hung, grabbing the stone ears. A hand came up to swat me away but I slid off the head on to the shoulder. Drawing the dagger, I stabbed the point into the eye socket, just behind the diamond eye.
For a terrifying moment, I thought the blade would break first but the diamond shot out. The golem shuddered as its magical strings began to be cut. Again, dodging the hand, I slung myself around the back of its neck to the other side, popping out that gem.
The beast froze, becoming a statue once more. Then it began to fall, tipping forward into another golem coming over to finish me off. That golem swung its mace down at me, forcing me to dive off the shoulder. The first golem crashed into the second’s knees, causing that one to stumble to the ground.
Ignoring the pain pretty much everywhere, I sprinted towards this golem. As it tried to get up, I slammed my dagger into its eye, ripping out the diamond. It faltered and fell and then struggled to rise again. Before it could get out of reach, I removed the final eye and this one too fell lifelessly to the floor.
A thundering crash behind me declared Zimri had taken down a third golem leaving one left. The Alkite emerged from the wreckage with a nasty cut across his brow but otherwise seemed to be okay.
We turned our attention to the final creature, who seemed torn between his directive to kill me and capture Zimri.
“Any ideas?” Zimri asked.
“Just one,” I said breathlessly. “Keep it busy.”
“That shouldn’t be too hard,” Zimri said with a grin and charged the creature.
I dashed to where our gear bag had been dropped. Thankfully the golem seemed to have made up its mind to focus on Zimri. Probably because the Alkite was whacking at its shins with his sword.
I grabbed our rope and to my relief found one final grenade. Quickly I tied the ceramic ball in the rope and rushed back to where Zimri was desperately trying to dodge the hand of the giant stone monster.
“Any time today would be fantastic!” he called.
I struck a piece of flint on some rubble, lighting the fuse. I had only a few seconds to get this off. Zimri screamed as the golem finally wrapped his stone hands around the Alkite. Whipping the contraption around my head like a sling in an ever-widening arc, I let out a war cry and charged the golem.
Surprised, the creature turned to face me. I swung the rope as wide as I could, trying to wrap it around its neck and slam the bomb into its face. But out of the corner of my eye I saw I was too late.
The fuse had gone out.
The rope caught the beast’s neck and instantly tightened as it whipped around. The ceramic grenade came around and smashed right on the golem’s nose.
BOOM!
The explosion nearly blinded me and set my ears ringing. Apparently the force of the impact was enough to ignite the powder. When I was finally able to see again, I saw the golem pitch forward, half of its face gone.
Zimri managed to wriggle his way free, tried to stand and then stumbled to the ground, holding his ears.
“Are you okay!” I shouted at him, rushing to his side.
“What?” he yelled back.
“Why do you never cover your ears?” I chided, half-joking.
“What?”
“You miserable little wretch!” Katrina suddenly shrieked.
She had risen from her throne and strode toward us, face a thunderhead. Somehow, she seemed older as if our fight with the golems had aged her. But the mask of pure fury she wore told me we weren’t close to done yet.
“I have had enough of you and your pathetic tricks!” she roared.
“My pathetic tricks just took down four of your greatest golems,” I taunted through the exhaustion and pain. “You think your magic is stronger than my science now?”
Suddenly I heard Zimri scream. Turning, I saw sliding across the floor towards Katrina. Desperately, I grabbed his hand with one hand while the other wrapped around the finger of a fallen golem, the weight of the arm counteracting Katrina’s pull. Barely.
As much as I had been hurting, it was nothing like this. I could feel my muscles and bones being pulled apart by the unbelievable strain. There was no way I could outlast Katrina’s power, not before my arms gave out or I was ripped in two.
“Let me go,” Zimri said.
“No,” I answered through gritted teeth. “Never.”
“Kill her for me, okay?” he said, releasing my hand while I maintained my death grip.
“No way,” I said. “I am not losing you now, not when we are this close.”
“Athala,” he said quietly, brown eyes peacefully imploring me. “Let go.”
I did.
Of the golem’s finger.
For a moment we hurtled towards the Sorceress. I pulled myself on top of Zimri in a last, desperate attempt
to save him. The superheated air around him burned me and for a moment we slowed. Then, my plan worked. I felt the hot, invisible hand latch on to me, instead of Zimri, and I was yanked free of him.
“ATHALA!” he cried as I was dragged across the broken stone floor. The next thing I knew, I was on my knees at her feet, Katrina’s hand around my throat.
“Where are your tricks now, apprentice?” she snarled.
I struggled against the wall of air holding me down, trying to break free of Katrina’s iron grip but it was pointless. This time, it was truly over. I had no tricks, no plans left. I couldn’t escape.
“Zimri will avenge me,” I told her defiantly.
“No, he will not,” she answered. “He will bow down and serve me like everyone else. A pity you will not live to see me break his will to mine.”
“He will never break.”
“They always break,” Katrina retorted. “Now I will do what I should have done at Black Falls.”
I closed my eyes and waited. I wondered if it would hurt. I had told Helga it didn’t, but I didn’t really know. I was so tired, so sore. I hoped it wouldn’t.
“Tod!”
Chapter 45-Zimri
I sat frozen, unable to comprehend what I was seeing. The helplessness I had felt at Ariadne’s abduction was magnified tenfold as I watched Athala’s lifeless body drop to the ground.
“MOVE!” I heard Olympia’s voice sound in my head yet I couldn’t move. “Move, you fool, before she can grab you!”
I was still in shock, but my body responded to the goddess’s command and sprinted to our gear bag, instinctively dropping to a slide. Behind me, a piece of rubble was flung towards the Sorceress. Grabbing Athala’s shield, I stood back up and faced Katrina with my scimitar pointed towards her.
“Pull me, I dare you,” I challenged.
Katrina’s face twisted into a snarl. “As you wish, Alkite.” She flicked her wrist and I felt a sudden pressure squeeze my sword hand and the weapon was wrenched free, flying across the hall and clanging against the wall.
Something about the sound of my sword ringing snapped me back to reality. Rage like I’d never felt before filled me, exploding out. I was horribly overmatched and had no clue how to counter her power, but I was going to kill Katrina.
“Olympia, help me,” I spoke.
“Get down.”
Unquestionably, I dropped to the ground and another piece of rubble was tossed aside.
“Get behind the nearest golem,” she instructed.
Obediently, I got and scrambled behind the fallen behemoth. “What do I do?” I asked. “How do I kill her?”
“Now you want my help?”
“Now you want to have this discussion?” I retorted. “That monster just killed Athala and I’m going to tear her apart! Just tell me how!”
“Very well,” the goddess’s voice answered. “You do not have the tools to neutralize her telekinesis but you can use it to get close to her. Then you can kill her.”
“She’ll disarm me first,” I pointed out.
“Not if she does not see your weapon,” Olympia answered. “Get one of the spears and break off the head.”
I nodded, following her logic. Scanning the hall, I spotted one of the guards I’d killed half buried under one of the golems. Getting up from my hiding place, I took off running again, angling towards the soldier. Suddenly the thought of zig-zagging and staggering my pace struck me and I began to run erratically. Around me, stones zipped as Katrina futilely tried to latch on to me.
Reaching the soldier, I found that the golem’s body had smashed the spear shaft, which was perfect. Not as perfect was the golem burying the soldier’s upper body, where the spearhead was.
“SCHAF!” I yelled Athala’s favorite curse loud enough for Katrina to hear as I engaged in the macabre work of dislodging the soldier from his half-finished tomb. Grabbing the spearhead, I tucked it under my shield and stood.
“SCHAF!” I yelled again, angrily tossing the useless shaft aside.
“Do you really think you could try that trick on me, Alkite?” Katrina taunted.
I ignored her and took two slower steps towards the next soldier, his spear lying a meter from him in the open.
“Too slow!” Katrina triumphantly declared as I felt the familiar pressure build up around me, pulling me towards her.
I fought and struggled against it as she dragged me across the floor towards her. Despite being exactly what I wanted from her, the helplessness was terrifying. If this didn’t work, I was worse than dead.
Three meters from her, I switched the spearhead to my free hand and spun around, leaping towards her. The sudden shift in force launched me towards the Sorceress like an arrow. Her red eyes went wide with sudden realization as I drove the spearpoint home.
Instead of being too slow, I was too fast.
Katrina reacted enough to push the weapon away from her heart. Instead, the point slashed through the side of her ribs on her left side, eliciting a howl of pain and anger from the Sorceress. Suddenly I felt myself being thrown back with even greater velocity until I slammed into one of the downed golems, cracking at least three ribs.
When I managed to look up, I saw the Sorceress looking at bloody fingers as red stained her robe. My heart dropped. While certainly painful, I knew the wound wasn’t lethal.
“You wish to join Athala so badly, gebraten?” she said in a quiet voice, looking up at me with eyes that literally sparked. “So be it.”
The earth shook beneath me. The temperature dropped suddenly. Wind began whipping through the hall, strong enough to pick up stones and send them flying about. Thunder rumbled in the ceiling as clouds formed. Katrina began to rise off the ground.
It was like Wiese when Athala had leveled an entire city in her rage. I vividly recalled the awe and terror I felt at seeing her unleash such immense power. Katrina had at least as much power and unlike Athala, I couldn’t count on talking her down.
Desperately, I tried to stand but between my broken ribs and the shaking ground, I tumbled forward.
“Foolish gebraten,” Katrina mocked. “Did you really think you could destroy me? Did you really think you could stand against the powers of a god?”
Lightning crackled and struck, exploding the head of one of the golems. Again, the earth shook, cracking the stone floor and shaking the columns.
“Are you trying to kill us both?” I shouted, getting to my knees. “You’ll bring down the palace on both of us!”
“You think this will harm me?” she retorted, her voice dissonant, almost as if two people were speaking at once.
“My little blade did,” I shot back.
“Die, gebraten,” she snarled.
I felt a boulder crash into me, sending me spinning. My left arm was probably broken and I dropped the shield. It was pretty apparent I was totally helpless against her power but for some reason, I wasn’t scared: I was angry. I didn’t know how, but I was going to rip that arrogant psychopath from the sky and tear her limb from limb.
“Athala’s sword,” Olympia whispered.
“What?” I asked, unable to comprehend.
“Get Athala’s sword,” the goddess repeated.
Stumbling, hobbling, then finally crawling I reached our gear bag and grabbed the glass sword. My body and soul were on fire from pain and rage. I had no idea how this useless weapon would help but I had no choice but to trust the goddess now.
Painfully I tried to stand, keeping my eyes locked on Katrina. She smirked and the ground ripped apart again and I collapsed.
“It will not end like this!” I shouted, forcing myself to ignore the pain and get back up.
Katrina laughed a dissonant laugh and another rock struck me in the side of the head. Again I fell and again I willed myself back up, woozily raising the weapon against her.
“What will you do with that?” she mocked. “Are you so determined to die?”
“I’m determined to kill you,” I shot back through the ha
ze.
“So be it.”
Lightning flashed down and whether on instinct or Olympia’s subconscious prompting, I raised the sword high. My whole body vibrated from the impact of the lighting and the sword hummed violently in my hands. The hair on my arms raised and my muscles screeched in agony from trying to hold the weapon still. With my last shred of strength, I turned tip towards the Sorceress.
Lightning shot out from the end in bright white arc that blinded me. It caught Katrina on her iron crown and drove against a column. Howls of rage and agony echoed across the throne room for what felt like an eternity as I blasted her with bolt after bolt of her own lightning.
Then, silence.
The storm ceased and the earth stood still. Katrina’s iron crown clanged to the floor, all that was left of the Sorceress.
“This is not over, gebraten,” a harsh, masculine voice spoke. Through my weary and hazy vision, I saw the apparition of a man about Titan’s height but glowing red standing over Katrina’s crown.
Natas.
I wanted to cry. I was utterly spent and my body broken. There was no way I could possibly fight a god now.
“It is over, Natas,” Olympia thundered, materializing in front of me. “Your vessel is destroyed and we will not let you touch him.”
Suddenly, the priest from Shama’im’s temple was standing beside me. Beside him was a woman with skin like very best of freshly tilled earth, hair like wheat stalks and beside her was a man like a tree. To Olympia’s right was a man made of water and beyond him was a woman with fur like a wolf.
“You will not touch him,” the mountain goddess declared. “Begone to your realm of darkness.”
The evil god snarled at his arrayed foes. “It took you long enough,” he finally said and then was gone.
I slumped to the floor, all the strength drained out of me. Now that it was over, my anger left me, leaving me only with crushing grief and agony, sapping my will to live.
“We won, Athala,” I whispered to her body some five meters away. I couldn’t make to her but I felt close enough. After all we’d been through, it was fitting we’d die together.
The Sorceress's Apprentice Page 31