by Ben Wolf
But he still had his sword, and he raised it to protect himself, praying that it and his armor would be enough to save him from the thrashing he was about to take.
Chapter Twenty
It was bad enough that he’d been caught unaware, but it was worse that Axel had to be saved from the rose golem by Condor, of all people.
The Wisp collided with the rose golem at an incredible speed and then, inexplicably, went through the viny beast and landed on the other side. He held two daggers in his hands, both of them streaked with dark-green ooze of some sort, shiny and sticky like sap.
The rose golem staggered for a moment, either confused or stunned—Axel couldn’t tell because it didn’t have a face—until a dozen more Wisps attacked it from the sky. They knocked it to the street and plunged weapons of their own into its core, flinging more green ooze everywhere.
Only then did Axel see the tremendous hole Condor had carved in the rose golem’s chest.
“Apart from their vines and their roots, they’re actually quite fragile abominations,” Condor said from Axel’s side. How and when he’d moved there, Axel didn’t know. He hadn’t seen it happen.
Axel didn’t bother to reply. He forced himself up to his feet and frowned at Condor, then at the rose golem again, now lying motionless under the Wisps who’d taken it down. Several of them continued to stab it, even though it was clearly dead.
“Took some trial-and-error to figure it out, but we got there in the end,” Condor continued.
As if to reinforce the point, one of the Wisps brought down an axe near the rose at the top of the golem’s torso, chopping it off entirely. Then he donned it as if it were an oversized wide-brimmed hat, which got the other Wisps to stop their stabbing and start laughing and begging to try it on, too.
“Given how easy they are to take down, I’m rather surprised you couldn’t manage it on your own,” Condor continued, a wry smirk curling the corner of his mouth.
Axel bristled at the comment. Condor was trying to get under his skin… and it was working.
He tightened his grip on his sword and faced Condor with it at the ready, a snarl on his face.
“I’m ready to fight you right now,” Axel said, his voice level despite his fury.
Condor shook his head. “Not even close, Farm Boy. But when you are, I’ll come to you.”
With that, Condor left his feet and floated into the sky, leaving Axel on the ground, unable to follow, and just as angry as before. Perhaps angrier still.
But the battle still raged on around him, and now he knew how to kill the rose golems. Plus, Captain Anigo was still out there, riding around in the fray, wreaking havoc alongside his remaining soldiers and the rose golems.
Axel couldn’t fight Condor, but he could fight everyone else. He refocused his ire on the enemies ahead of him and rejoined the fracas.
With the power of the Calios in her hands, Lilly had no trouble cleaving through the rose golems or their vines. She hadn’t really gotten the chance to use it before this battle, but once the dome of vines collapsed onto the city, she’d started exploring the ancient sword’s capabilities and found them to be almost identical to what she’d been told.
She’d come to understand that the sword’s power wasn’t tied merely to her thoughts but rather to her emotions. When she wanted fire, she had to summon fiery anger within her, and then the sword would glow bright-orange like molten metal. When she wanted ice, she had to chill that anger into a cold, hardened resolve, one almost entirely devoid of emotion.
And that was just the beginning. She’d only used a few forms of attacks thus far—fiery anger and cold resolve were among the easier emotions to conjure in an already intense battle—and the sword had performed admirably.
She’d tinkered with trying to poison some of her foes as well, but she’d found that amid all the fighting, she couldn’t hold onto the surreptitious deceit needed to sustain the effect for very long, so it wasn’t practical for this kind of combat.
Water-type strikes came relatively easily as well, once she realized she needed to allow her emotion to flow like a river, but the attacks themselves didn’t do much against the rose golems or the enemy soldiers. A few times, she had to defend herself from attacks, and the reservation of pulling the sword back reinforced her defense with a literal wall of stone.
Amid all of her experimentation, though, the fire proved the most effective. Tapping into her anger was simple; after all she’d lost in recent months, channeling that fury into her fighting proved easy, and the Calios’s fiery attacks cut through all manner of foes just as easily.
With the combined strength of Lilly’s people, the Saurians, the Wolves, and Magnus’s cleansing emerald fire, the battle for Kanarah City drew to a swift close. The last of the rose golems perished thanks to a vicious slash from Axel, whose Blood Ore sword cleaved the beast in half, and then only the King’s soldiers remained.
Captain Anigo, somehow still atop his stallion, stood with his remaining men—a few dozen in total—encircled by hundreds from Lumen’s army. Then again, as Lumen had yet to actually take control of the force, perhaps it was more accurate to call it “Calum’s army” instead.
Lilly stole a look at him, but he remained focused on the task at hand—that being the negotiation of the surviving soldiers’ surrender.
“Lay down your weapons, and we will allow you to live,” he called from among the crowd of Saurians and Wolves surrounding the last remnant of the soldiers.
He approached them with his left hand up, glowing brightly even under the afternoon sun. Blood and dirt streaked across his armor and his face, but from the bounce in Calum’s step, Lilly could tell he was unharmed.
“I swear it with the authority of Lumen himself,” Calum added as he stepped into the clearing, standing before Captain Anigo and the last of his men.
“Lumen has no authority,” Captain Anigo countered, indignant. “Nor does any other ruler in Kanarah. Only the King sits on the throne. Anyone else is just a pretender.”
Lilly thought she saw Captain Anigo glance her direction, and he definitely looked at Magnus, whose huge form now filled a good chunk of the space where he’d melted the city wall, next. She understood better than anyone why he might’ve suggested she wasn’t a real ruler, but the audacity he’d shown toward Magnus baffled her.
It was like an ant shouting at a boot that it had no power.
“This offer isn’t indefinite,” Calum continued, unfazed. “Either accept it now and throw down your weapons, or I will allow my allies to finish you off.”
Several of the King’s soldiers exchanged uncertain looks, but every single one of them eventually tossed down their weapons.
Every one of them except Captain Anigo.
“Captain,” Calum said, “I don’t want to see any harm come to you. Please.”
The way he said it, it almost sounded like he was begging Captain Anigo to relinquish his weapons. It made little sense to Lilly; the King’s soldiers had killed Calum’s parents when he was just a child, yet now he was showing them mercy?
Extending that mercy to Captain Anigo, in particular, was even more confusing. The man had pursued Calum, Axel, and Magnus all the way from northern Kanarah down to Kanarah City. Then he’d followed them into the sewers and tunnels beneath the city, intending to capture them and bring them to whatever twisted form of “justice” the King would level upon them.
Lilly hadn’t shown that kind of mercy to the slave traders who’d captured her. Magnus hadn’t shown that kind of mercy to Kahn and Vandorian. So why was Calum being so generous now?
As much as it baffled Lilly, it also endeared Calum to her yet again. This was part of what made him unique, she knew, and it was part of what had attracted her to him from the moment they’d first met.
But she couldn’t think about any of that now. Or perhaps ever. It couldn’t happen, and so it wouldn’t. She had to focus on leading, not on anything else. So did Calum, for that matter. Best not to confuse anything in the
process.
Still, she couldn’t leave things as they were after their last real conversation. She’d shut him down without really even hearing him out, and they’d scarcely spoken to each other since. The resulting chasm in her chest and stomach had left Lilly miserable. Perhaps once this battle was truly over, she could talk to him again and sort it out.
“I swore an oath to my King—the King of all Kanarah,” Captain Anigo began. “I swore to defend his kingdom even at the cost of my life. And if it must cost me my life to stand for my King when no one else will, then I will do so knowing—”
A blur of familiar gray-and-brown fur appeared out of nowhere and knocked Captain Anigo from his horse. Benefits of being a Shadow Wolf, Lilly supposed. In the next motion, Riley tore Captain Anigo’s lance from his grasp and tossed it aside, all while keeping him pinned to the street with one powerful arm.
Though Captain Anigo struggled and protested and threatened, Riley didn’t let go. Instead, he looked up at Calum with indifference in his black eyes. It had been the easiest thing in the world for him to take Captain Anigo down, and it would be easier still to kill him then and there, but he wouldn’t do it without Calum’s order.
Instead of directing Riley to finish Captain Anigo off, Calum ordered two Sobeks to take hold of him and restrain him. They did, and Captain Anigo’s shouts and threats about the King’s coming judgment only stopped when they stuffed a wad of fabric in his mouth to shut him up.
“Find the soldiers’ barracks, and lock them all inside,” Calum ordered the Sobeks. “Post guards to make sure they don’t escape, and see to it that they have food and water and are not abused or harmed in any way.”
The Sobeks glanced at each other and then looked to Magnus, who gave a slow nod. They hauled Captain Anigo off, even though he still kicked and struggled, and the rest of the soldiers followed behind, escorted by dozens of Saurians and Sobeks.
Only once they were all out of sight did Calum turn to face Lilly and the others. For an instant, his eyes found hers, and her heart awakened with a flutter. She steeled herself and forced the emotion away, thankful her hand wasn’t on the Calios. She didn’t know what it might do when activated by that kind of emotion, and she didn’t want to figure it out, either.
“We’re not done here,” Calum said to everyone who still remained.
To Lilly’s surprise, it looked like most of the Wolves had stuck around. She’d expected them to spread throughout the city by now, eager to start looting whatever and robbing whoever they could find.
“Gather our dead and their dead and bury or burn them outside the city,” Calum ordered. “Then gather what food and supplies you can find, but do not take from anyone who can’t afford it. We’re here to liberate Kanarah, not to further oppress her people.”
Lilly admired his desire to preserve good relations with the people of Kanarah City. It would likely make the road to peace easier on the other side of this war.
She and the other leaders conveyed the orders to their respective groups, and they set out to fulfill Calum’s mandate. As their combined army got to work, Lilly hoped she’d get her chance to talk to Calum again, but the trio of General Balena, General Tolomus, and Condor swarmed her before she could get away.
They inundated her with reports and questions, all of which she half-listened to as she tried not to focus on Calum. She caught Condor giving her one of his piercing-yet-alluring stares, so she forced herself to look at General Balena instead.
But she quickly found that even that didn’t work. Her eyes sought out Calum again, just in time to watch him disappear into the city with Axel and Riley at his side.
The chasm in her gut widened.
Calum recognized a lot of Kanarah City from the last time he was there, but some of it only seemed vaguely familiar. The last time he’d been in the city itself—as opposed to below it—he’d narrowly escaped capture by the King’s soldiers.
At that point, he’d been fleeing through the streets along with Axel and Magnus, not really taking in the sights, and they’d eventually ended up running along the rooftops instead.
It didn’t help that dead brown vines now covered most of the city, but with a little help from Axel and Riley, Calum managed to find the city’s south gate. It was sealed shut, just like the last time he’d seen it.
“Tomorrow, we’ll head through that gate and meet up with Lumen and his army,” Calum said aloud, but not to either Axel or Riley in particular.
“I’ve never seen it open before,” Axel said with a huff. “I’m starting to think it doesn’t open.”
“It does.” Riley’s black eyes and blue irises flashed toward Axel. “I’ve been through it several times, back and forth.”
Axel met the Shadow Wolf’s frigid gaze with incredulity. “Why would you have been here?”
“Back when I was traveling alone, Kanarah City was the closest center of commerce in the area.” Riley’s mouth curled into a smirk. “I had to go somewhere to spend all the coin I stole from you.”
Calum grinned, but Axel’s face twisted into a scowl. He said, “You’re gonna pay us back for all of it, too.”
Here we go. Calum rolled his eyes.
Riley raised one eyebrow. “I think gathering the largest pack of Wolves ever assembled and joining them to this army more than covers the debt.”
“I can’t spend it, so it doesn’t count,” Axel countered.
“Then get used to disappointment.”
“That’s not acceptable.”
Riley sighed and turned to Calum. “I’ve got lupine concerns to attend to.” He motioned toward Axel. “Can you deal with this, like you always do?”
Calum took a turn sighing. The last thing he wanted was to have to broker peace between Axel and Riley—or anyone else in their group—yet again, but here he was, doing just that.
He nodded to Riley. “I’ve got it.”
“Thanks.” With that, Riley melted into the shadow of a building—literally, it looked like he dissipated into the darkness itself—and was gone.
For a blessed moment, both Calum and Axel were too stunned at seeing Riley vanish into thin air to talk to each other, but Axel quickly found his voice.
“So you’re gonna ‘deal with me,’ are you?” he challenged.
Calum bristled at his friend’s tone, even though he’d heard it a thousand times before. Or perhaps endured was a better word. But maybe there was a way to avoid the conversation. After all, a few gold coins didn’t really matter anymore in the grand scheme of things.
“I’m content to let sleeping Wolves lie if you are,” Calum said.
“He can sleep all he wants as soon as he give us back what he stole.” Axel folded his arms.
“Why do you do this?” The words tumbled out of Calum’s mouth like a rockslide. He felt like he should’ve regretted saying it, but the truth was he really didn’t. He’d needed to push back on Axel for far too long now, so this was going to be that moment.
“Do what?”
“Push everyone away. Constantly.”
Axel recoiled in confusion and shook his head. “What are you talking about?”
It took every last bit of Calum’s resolve not to explode at Axel right then and there. He forced his voice to remain level. “Your attitude. Your behavior. Your personality. It all pushes people away. You make near-enemies out of friends for no reason. You pick fights with anyone who has the audacity to breathe the same air as you. You always have to win everything.”
Axel blinked at him. “Yeah… and?”
Calum’s eyes widened, and the words erupted from his very soul. “You’re a jerk, Axel. That behavior is not normal. From the moment we teamed up with Magnus, you didn’t trust him. You called him ‘Scales.’ You argued with him about everything, even though he has way more life experience than both us and our parents combined.”
“He was a seven-foot tall lizard person who’d broken out of captivity at the quarry, and he’d swept you, my best friend, up in his l
ittle escape plot,” Axel countered. “What, exactly, should my reaction have been?”
Calum ignored his words and continued. “Then when Riley joined up, you treated him no better than a common dog. You put your interests and yourself first to the extent that you would’ve rather seen Riley die in order to inflict just a little more punishment on Condor for attacking Lilly.”
“That’s not fair,” Axel interjected again. “I apologized to Riley for that. We’re square now, and it wasn’t like I was—”
“Will you shut up?” Calum snapped.
Axel’s eyes widened with a familiar type of anger—the kind of fury he demonstrated whenever Calum and Magnus sided with each other against him, but more actively angry than mopey.
But he’d shut up, so Calum kept talking.
“And then there’s you and Lilly—”
“Watch yourself, Calum,” Axel warned with a point of his finger.
“You had her trust, then you completely broke it because of some misguided belief that she was in love with you.” Calum felt good saying it, even though he knew it was prickling Axel. Perhaps that was why he was enjoying it. “After all your overtures and demonstrations of affection toward her, you screwed it up in one afternoon. You betrayed her, and it almost got you killed, and you still didn’t learn from it.”
“I’m not gonna warn you again, Calum.” Axel’s voice took on a menacing tone, and he spoke through gritted teeth. “Tread carefully.”
“But that’s nothing compared to how you’ve treated me this whole time.” Calum yielded to the burning in his chest, to the words streaming from his core out into the open. “Even before we left, you always made me feel like I was less than dirt. Like I was nothing. No good. You’re supposed to be my friend, but all you do is pick on me.”
“You’re lying.” Axel was shaking his head.
“You fight me at every turn. I can’t make a decision without hearing your opinion on it. I can’t do anything without your royal seal of approval. I can’t fend for myself unless you’re there to clean up after me,” Calum almost shouted. “You claim to be my friend, but that’s not friendship. That’s abuse. That’s enslavement. That’s—”