by Ben Wolf
“He is my King no longer, Matthios.” Lumen folded his arms and straightened his back. He had Matthios by a few inches in height, but other than that, they appeared to be more or less equals in every way. “And he never will be.”
“Your time in the Hidden Abyss has not changed your mind?”
“It has reinforced my resolve. Any King who would banish one of his subjects to a thousand years of quiet nothingness deserves to be usurped.”
Matthios remained quiet for a long moment, studying Calum and the others with him with those burning molten eyes. “You chose your punishment when you rebelled against your King. It is only by his grace that you yet draw breath.”
“I rebelled against him because he is an unjust ruler and a tyrant.” Lumen’s arms lowered, and his hands clenched into fists. “A tyrant who is served by mindless drones and fools.”
“Your King is merciful and has granted you a second chance. That is the message I have been sent to convey to you.” Matthios’s molten eyes locked on Calum’s, and a rush of uneasiness spread through Calum’s gut. “This applies to your companions as well. Your King will wipe away your transgressions and give you the freedom to start over.”
“And how will the King continue to oppress them afterward? Will he demand backbreaking labor from them? Will he take what is rightfully theirs as he has for millennia?” Lumen scoffed. “No, Matthios. The King has corrupted the throne for long enough. It is time we had a new ruler, one who will love the people as a father loves his own children.”
Matthios shook his head, menacingly slow. His voice hardened. “You know he will never allow that to happen.”
“He might if you would add your strength to ours,” Lumen suggested. “A warrior of your power could—”
“I am loyal to my King,” Matthios interrupted. “And that will never change.”
When Matthios glanced at Calum again, the same pang crimped his stomach—was this the sorcery Lumen had referenced?
Calum wouldn’t succumb, though. The King’s men had slain his parents and thrown him into a life of slavery and misery with no purpose. He would never harbor anything but hatred for the King.
“Here are your King’s terms,” Matthios said. “You will appear before him at once and—”
“I will hear terms from neither the King nor his mindless followers, least of all from you,” Lumen snapped. “Here are my terms, which you will take back to the King. He will appear before me here, on the field of battle. He will lay down his crown and his sword at my feet, and he will bend his knee to me.
“I will grant him his life in exchange for his kingdom, of which I will be the better steward. He will publicly declare me the King of Kanarah and all its peoples, and he will renounce his claim to the throne for all eternity.
“On these terms I will not compromise; I will not bend. Most importantly, I will not fail to achieve that which I desire.” Lumen folded his arms again. “Be a loyal dog and tell your King what I have said. I will wait.”
In Calum’s periphery, Axel nodded with enthusiasm. Axel, who had questioned Lumen’s existence less than two hours earlier.
“Your King will reject these terms,” Matthios said. “He is not enthroned at the whims of his subjects but rather by divine right, which he cannot simply give up. You know this as well as I do, as does even the youngest child within Solace.”
“Then the King will perish by my hand, and I will pry Kanarah from his lifeless fingers.”
Matthios’s molten eyes narrowed. “You are hereby ordered to leave Eastern Kanarah, or you will face immediate destruction.”
When Lumen unsheathed his sword, Calum’s skin bristled as the air crackled with electric energy. He’d said they wouldn’t have to fight, but now… Calum’s hand went to his own sword.
“Stay back, Calum. Do not engage, any of you.” Lumen’s fiery gaze flitted between Calum and his companions, then he faced Matthios again. “You do not possess the power to defeat me. Not alone, not with hundreds of soldiers. Not even with the King’s own spear, which you now wield. Had you brought Gavridel with you, you might have stood a chance.”
“Even after 1,000 years, your arrogance knows no limits. I need neither an army nor Gavridel to defeat you, General of Light.” Matthios shifted his feet into a wider fighting stance, but he didn’t pull his dual-tipped spear from the ground.
“You never have before, Brazen General. Today will be no different.”
Then, in a blast of white light, Lumen raised his sword and streaked toward Matthios.
Chapter Two
Thunderclaps rocked Axel’s ears with every strike exchanged by these two warriors, and the ground beneath his feet seemed to tremble with every impact. Bronze clashed against light in a flurry of blows so fast that he could barely register them all.
Lumen’s sword flashed when it connected with Matthios’s double-bladed spear, but Matthios stood his ground, defending every strike with absolute confidence.
The prowess of both of these warriors exceeded anything Axel could ever dream of accomplishing on his own. For once, he was glad he didn’t have to fight—one blow from either of them would’ve reduced him to paste.
But they had somehow gotten to this level. And if they could do it, why not him, too? There had to be a way.
Lumen slashed straight down at Matthios’s head, but the center of the spear’s bronze shaft blocked the attack. Another flash of white light mingled with a burst of bronze sparks, and both dissipated into the air.
Matthios jerked his left arm forward and pushed Lumen’s blade away. In one insane motion, the spear somehow swiveled in his left hand, around the back of his neck, and he caught its shaft with his right hand and lashed it at Lumen’s face.
The tip of the bronze spearhead smacked into Lumen’s armored mask with a flash of bronze, and he staggered back. Had Lumen been anyone else, Axel supposed, the blow would have destroyed any trace of Matthios’s opponent.
“You are out of practice, General of Light.” Matthios’s eyebrow rose as he reset his grip on his spear.
“You are welcome to strike me as many times as you like, Matthios.” Lumen raised his sword. “We both know you cannot kill me with your two-headed Serpent.”
“Perhaps. But perhaps you believe that only because I have not yet done it.”
Lumen bolted forward before Matthios even finished his sentence. His first swing clanged against the spear in a blow that would have cut Matthios’s torso in half, then he whipped the blade in a lateral swipe at Matthios’s head.
Matthios ducked under the sword, but Lumen’s right boot jammed under his bronze-covered chin and sent him soaring backward. He landed on his feet and adjusted his mask, which Lumen’s kick had knocked askew. “Impressive.”
“Bear in mind, my last fight was against the King himself.” Lumen’s voice dripped with boastful confidence. It reminded Axel of himself at times.
“A fight in which you were defeated and your abhorrent army was reduced to ashes,” Matthios countered.
Lumen grunted and darted at Matthios in another streak of light. They traded thunderous hacks and cuts with neither of them landing any more hits on the other for minutes. Then Matthios jabbed at Lumen with his spear.
Lumen dodged the blow but clamped his left hand on the spear’s shaft and lashed his blade at Matthios. Light emanated from Lumen’s sword, and its blade crashed against Matthios’s armored left forearm, which he’d raised to block the attack.
The force of the blow sent Matthios careening through the air. He landed on his back and skidded along the ground toward his army. He sprang up to his feet almost immediately, but he no longer held his spear.
Lumen held both his sword and Matthios’s spear, one in each hand. “Missing something?”
Matthios extended his right hand, and the spear wrenched itself from Lumen’s grip. It spun through the air, pinwheeling end over end, and Matthios caught it. Upon impact, the spearheads began to burn like the molten bronze of Matthios’s
eyes. “Not anymore.”
Axel’s mouth hung open. Impossible.
Then again, he’d seen a lot of impossible things in the last hour. He decided he ought to get used to it.
Matthios charged forward, trailing a wave of bronze energy in his wake. Lumen met him in the field, and their weapons clashed in an explosion of sparks and light. Glowing bronze spearheads danced around Lumen’s head and shoulders in rapid succession, tracing streaks of power, but Lumen fended off each threat with clean alacrity.
Another jab almost skewered Lumen’s chest, but he arched his torso farther back than humanly possible, and the spearhead lashed just above his stomach. Matthios twisted the spear in his arms and brought the other spearhead down toward Lumen’s exposed torso, but the glowing sword intercepted the blow.
Lumen straightened his body and batted the spear away, only to absorb a blow intended for his head with his left forearm. Unfazed, Lumen lunged forward, and the tip of his sword slammed into Matthios’s breastplate.
Another blast of bright light and bronze sparks exploded between them, and Matthios launched backward again. His body carved a deep trench in the soft ground and flung large clods of dirt and stalks of wheat into the air, then he lay motionless before his army for a long while.
Axel smiled. Awesome.
“It is as I said, Matthios,” Lumen sheathed his sword and folded his arms, “you stood no chance of defeating me.”
In the distance, Matthios pushed himself up to his feet with apparent difficulty. Mud caked on his bronze armor, and a black star, its multiple points erratic in length, had seared onto the metal in the center of his breastplate.
Matthios looked down at the star for a moment, then he wiped it off his chest with one swipe of his left hand, revealing shining bronze once again. He raised his spear over his head with his right hand and extended it toward Lumen.
Behind him, King’s the army started to advance.
Axel’s eyes widened again, and he drew his sword. The instant he did, Lumen turned back toward him and the others.
“Do not engage them. Stay back. I will handle this.”
For a moment, Lumen’s blazing white eyes centered on Axel, and a rush of excitement swelled in his chest. He’d been a fool not to believe in Lumen sooner.
Lumen faced the approaching army and slowly raised his arms, fingers extended.
The army stormed forward, their steel weapons and armor clanking.
Axel stood there, debating whether or not to draw his sword anyway. He gripped the hilt just in case, but then something different began to happen.
Before Lumen, a white ball of energy materialized and hovered at his chest level. It grew larger and larger, and lightning swirled around it in wide arcs. The ball flickered with bursts of light until it grew to almost the same size as Lumen.
The army continued their advance nonetheless, trampling through the wheat.
When they came within twenty paces of Lumen, he lurched forward. The massive ball of energy launched toward them, and as it impacted the first of the soldiers, it shattered into hundreds of shards of electric light that ratcheted throughout the soldiers’ ranks.
The men screamed in pain until the entire army exploded in a dome of white light.
All Axel could see was Lumen’s hulking form silhouetted against the explosion which sheared deep into the ground and reached into the sky by at least twenty feet. It lingered for a solid five seconds before it disappeared entirely, and the light from the explosion left Axel’s vision temporarily scarred.
In place of the army and the field of wheat lay a steaming crater at least an eighth of the size of Kanarah City—and nothing else.
The entire army was gone. No weapons, no armor, no teeth, no bones.
Only a layer of wispy black ash remained, drifting along the crater floor in the breeze.
Axel marveled at the sight. Was there anything Lumen couldn’t do?
He got his answer when a lone form rose from among the ashes.
He wore bronze armor, now aglow with the same burning hue of his eyes, and he still held his spear. As he rose to his full height, the bronze armor gradually cooled back to its original shade, but his eyes remained just as molten as ever.
Matthios.
Chapter Three
When Lumen killed the Jyrak with a single brutal swing of his sword, it was the most incredible sight Calum had ever seen—until the total destruction of Matthios’s army. Calum had always believed in Lumen’s ability to liberate Kanarah, but now he’d seen it firsthand. What chance did the King have against such power?
“You were foolish to send them against me, Matthios.” Lumen folded his arms again and looked down at Matthios, who stood in the center of the crater, completely unscathed by Lumen’s blast. “Will you continue to fight me until your death, like your men, or will you deliver my message to the King?”
Matthios’s burning eyes fixed on Lumen, but he remained silent. He just stood there, down in the front of the crater, and glared at Lumen. Finally, he cast a menacing glance at Calum, which stirred that familiar emotion of uneasiness in Calum’s chest, then he turned, lifted off the ground, and flew back toward Kanarah City as if he were a Windgale.
They watched him fly away until he disappeared from sight, and then Lumen faced Calum and the others.
“You now know what kind of evil we face, the kind of heartless tyranny and self-preservation we must expel from Kanarah. Matthios knew full well that his soldiers could not withstand me, yet he sent them into battle nonetheless.” Lumen uttered, “Now all of them are dead.”
No kidding. Calum raised his eyebrows.
“This is merely the beginning. Matthios was right—the King will not accept my terms, nor did I expect him to. Instead, he will muster the full strength of his army to meet us in a final battle.” Lumen turned and stared at Kanarah City for a moment, then he refocused his blazing eyes on Calum. “But we will be ready for him.”
“Why can’t you just level his army like you did with Matthios’s?” Axel asked.
“The King is far more powerful than Matthios. His presence would negate my ability to obliterate swaths of his army like I did here.” Lumen’s eyes narrowed. “He is the only being in Kanarah capable of defeating me, and in turn, I am the only one who can defeat him. Amid the battle, I will face him in single combat, and I will kill him. That will free Kanarah.”
Calum tilted his head. “But in order to do that, you need us to fight everyone else?”
“I need far more than that from you.”
Axel nudged Calum. “Yeah. We get to be his generals, remember?”
“You cannot become generals until an army exists for you to lead,” Lumen said. “You must raise this army. You must travel throughout all of Kanarah and recruit those of your respective races to join our cause.”
Silence hovered between them.
Calum truly didn’t know what to think of Lumen’s commission. He’d already traveled across most of Kanarah once. The idea of doing it again excited him… but it also annoyed him. He’d nearly died several times trying to find free Lumen—more times than he could count.
“How, exactly, are we supposed to raise an army?” Axel asked. “We’ve never done anything like that before.”
“You have everything you need to convince your people to join us in liberating Kanarah. Lilly is the Windgale Princess. Magnus is an heir to the throne of Reptilius. Riley is—”
“I’m an outcast from the Wolf tribes, the weakest in my family, and I can’t return under penalty of death,” Riley said, his voice flat.
Lumen focused on him. “That may once have been true, but you have grown in strength, speed, and cunning since then. You now command a tribe of your own, small as it may be, and you are capable of influencing many to our cause. That aside, speed and stealth are not foolproof means to win a battle, even for the greatest Shadow Wolf.”
Riley muttered something indiscernible, folded his arms, and looked away.
&nb
sp; Axel’s eyebrows arched down. “Who’s gonna listen to us? We’re fugitives pretty much everywhere we go, including here. Captain Anigo warned us not to come back.”
Lumen’s focus shifted to Calum and Axel. “You are indeed fugitives, but you are not without friends, even on this side of Kanarah. Together, all of you will succeed in this task.”
Magnus shook his head. “If I return to the Crimson Keep, they will kill me on sight.”
“You underestimate your importance, Magnus. I do not ask you to enter Reptilius unprepared or underequipped.” Lumen placed his hand on Magnus’s shoulder, and Magnus jerked upright, his eyes wide open. Lumen retracted his hand. “Recover that artifact, and you will have little difficulty making your way to Kahn.”
Dazed, Magnus faltered and toppled toward Calum.
“Magnus?” Calum wrapped his arms around Magnus’s torso and tried to hold him up, but the Saurian’s sheer size threatened to overwhelm him. Calum gawked at Lumen, betrayed. “What did you do to him?”
“The same thing I have done with you. I showed him a vision.”
Calum’s eyebrows rose. “Of what?”
“The Dragon’s Breath.” Magnus’s strength and cognition returned. He straightened on his own and rubbed the spot between his golden eyes with his fingers.
“The what?” Axel asked.
“The Dragon’s Breath sword,” Condor said. “It’s a mythical artifact that was lost after Lumen’s first rebellion against the King. It supposedly wielded the power of dragonfire, and it is one of the only weapons in history known to penetrate Dragon scales.”
Lilly eyed him. “And how do you know this?”
Condor shrugged. “State secrets. It’s the same type of knowledge as the location of the Arcanum, but the Dragon’s Breath is believed to be lost forever.”
“It is no longer lost.” Magnus stared at Condor, then at Lumen. “He showed me exactly where it is.”
“Where?” Axel asked.