by Ben Wolf
On the second day, with the aid of Jake’s spyglass, Gill had picked out tiny dots of various colors hanging from some of the branches. If he squinted, he could just barely make them out as flowers. Then again, he hadn’t seen flowers in more than a decade, so he had Jake take a look to confirm, which he did.
By the third day, some of the flowers remained, but most of those from the day before now yielded fruit—all sorts of fruit. Gill recognized bananas first, because of their color and shape. Then he picked out oranges and apples, then he noticed some more exotic fruits that looked like pineapples and mangoes.
Vines curled around several of the branches, and clusters of red and green grapes hung from them alongside tomatoes, olives, and even some melons. Strawberries—at least, Jake thought they were strawberries—sprouted from other branches, intermingled with raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, and cherries.
It made no sense to Gill that one single tree, even despite its enormous size, could yield different types of fruit, but his eyes weren’t deceiving him. Stranger still, the tree was also producing numerous different types of vegetables—peppers, heads of cauliflower, and even big orange pumpkins.
The whole time, Gill had paid close attention to the water level, but even if he hadn’t, he would’ve easily noticed how far down it had gone. The tree must’ve been sucking all the water in through its roots, because the lake was virtually nonexistent at this point. It was more of a chasm with some water down in the bottom of it.
Gill guessed there was maybe fifty feet of water down there in terms of depth, which left several hundred feet to go before it had any chance of reaching the surface again. And that meant no boats or ships had any chance of doing any fishing any time soon.
Try as he might, Gill couldn’t fathom what was going on. He had no idea where the tree had come from, no concept of why it was there, and he didn’t even want to think about what this would mean for the fishing trade in Kanarah.
Probably less scurvy, he decided.
Apart from that, what would his life become? Would he start selling fruit-picking excursions instead of fishing excursions? And if he were going to do that, how would they even reach the tree without falling to their deaths in the chasm that had once been the Central Lake?
It was all too much. For now, all he could do was watch. Maybe the thing would die, and the lake would come back. He hoped so.
Solace loomed on the horizon like a cemetery of white gravestones. The sun still shone upon it, and its walls still glimmered in the light, but something about it churned Calum’s stomach.
He approached it from the air now, accompanied by Magnus, Lilly, Condor, General Balena, General Tolomus, and the remaining Windgale soldiers. Matthios also flew alongside them, but Gavridel marched with the rest of their troops far below, along with Riley, Windsor, and General Anigo.
Their army still consisted of members of each of Kanarah’s four races. A smattering of Wolves and Saurians had survived the first battle and managed to escape, many of them thanks to the aid of Matthios and Gavridel.
But, to Calum’s dismay, there weren’t many of them. For the most part, he anticipated that Magnus, Matthios, and Gavridel would do the majority of the fighting, especially when it came to Lumen, Kahn, and Rhaza.
That left Calum, Lilly, Condor, and perhaps Riley and Windsor to deal with Axel. With the King’s power inside of him, and with the Aerostone secured inside his armor, Calum might even be able to face off against Axel alone if he had to, but he didn’t know for sure.
It was nearly midday by the time they reached the city’s gates, which had been repaired but now inexplicably hung open. Condor offered to fly reconnaissance around the city to assess their defenses, and when he returned, his report wasn’t at all what Calum had expected.
“There’s no one there,” he shouted over the heavy flapping of Magnus’s wings. “The streets are empty. There are no soldiers on the walls. Valkendell is silent. It is as if they have all just vanished.”
“They’re there,” General Balena said. “Of that, I have no doubt.”
Calum was inclined to agree with him. “What about the people?”
“The houses and buildings are deserted, just as our scouts reported yesterday,” Condor said. “The people seem to have fled. I checked several homes myself just to confirm, and short of an army consisting solely of Werewolves and Shadow Wolves, there was no one hiding inside.”
Prior to Gavridel’s return, Valerie had arranged to send scouts out to investigate the condition of Solace in light of the King’s death. Two days later, as Calum’s army—if it could be called that—was making their final camp for the night, the scouts returned with news.
The city was broken. There was no food, no water, and no hope of either returning any time soon. The people were leaving in droves, hoping to find food and water somewhere else.
On the surface, Calum would never have believed it had he not shared his crucial encounters with the King. In the absence of the heart of Kanarah, the land was dying.
And it was happening far faster than Calum had imagined.
By contrast, wherever Calum and his army went, their food stayed fresh and edible, and their water supply never seemed to run out. Whatever power the King had bequeathed to Calum, it was sustaining them. It gave him hope that they could somehow save Kanarah.
But first, they had to get through Lumen.
“So what do we do?” Calum asked. “Do we draw Lumen out? Along with Axel, Kahn, and Rhaza? Or do we bring the fight to them?”
“They possess the strongest defensible position in all of Kanarah,” Magnus said. “I do not believe anything could possibly draw them out.”
“I agree with the Dragon King’s assessment,” Matthios said. “We cannot hope to win this fight unless we retake what was lost by force.”
Calum looked to Lilly, who looked to General Balena.
“Their reasoning is sound. I agree as well,” he said.
“So those of us who can attack from the sky will do so, and then our ground forces will enter the city through the main gate, led by Gavridel?” Calum proposed.
“We must be wary of traps,” Magnus said. “Their army is there, somewhere, and so is Lumen. They know we are coming and have chosen to conceal themselves for a reason.”
“Surprise,” Matthios said. “They mean to ambush us.”
Calum nodded. “We’re already anticipating that, so we’ll be ready when it happens.”
He got nods all around.
“Alright, then,” Calum said. “Let’s take back the city and save Kanarah.”
Lumen could see them approaching. He could feel them.
They were much closer now.
But he was ready. His plans were set. As soon as they all entered the city, the war would end.
He watched as Gavridel clomped through the open city gates first, holding that familiar amethyst axe in one hand and the diamond axe in the other. The Gemstone Imperator’s heavily armored head swiveled back and forth, scanning for threats.
Noble of Gavridel to enter first, but one soldier—even an Imperator—wouldn’t spring Lumen’s trap so easily. Only Lumen could do that, and only when the time was right.
Hundreds of soldiers filed in after Gavridel, and they divided into robust groups to begin sweeping the streets of Solace. They checked houses and searched buildings, all to no avail.
Meanwhile, hundreds more Windgales accompanied the Brazen General Matthios, the Dragon King Magnus, the Premieress Lilly, and Calum the “Unifier” in the air. They, too, searched the city, again finding nothing at every turn.
But when all of them had actually entered inside the city’s walls, Lumen knew the time had come.
First, he would eradicate these insects. Once he finished with them, he would kill Calum himself and summon the last remnant of the King’s power from his corpse.
Then, and only then, could Lumen truly rule Kanarah.
Then, and only then, would it be done.
Chapter Forty-Six
When the ground began to shake under Calum’s feet, he knew something bad was about to happen. But he hadn’t guessed exactly how bad it would be until the cobblestone streets tore open and spilled all manner of horrors into the city.
All around him, huge rocky spikes ripped through the streets, flinging dirt and stones in every direction. The rocky spikes, Calum quickly realized, were connected to a legion of Gronyxes carving their way up from the sewers below the city streets. Their glowing red eyes fixed on Calum’s soldiers, and they lashed their green tentacles at their new targets.
Along with the Gronyxes emerged hundreds of Dactyls and even some Wargs, all of which also attacked anything and everything they saw. Calum launched into the air to avoid the first wave of attacks, and he hurled several flaming arcs from the Dragon’s Breath sword to take out approaching monsters as he did so.
Calum and his army had prepared for an ambush, but not of this sort. Now his soldiers and friends battled abominations on the land and in the air, clashing their blades against talons, teeth, beaks, and tentacles.
A Dactyl screeched toward Calum, and he reduced it to nothing but ash with the help of the Dragon’s Breath sword, all while maintaining his own flight. The familiar stink of these wretched creatures filled the air once again.
Even so, Calum lamented each Dactyl he killed. Knowing that Lumen had corrupted Windgales to create them was sobering, and the only comfort Calum took in killing them was the opportunity to end their suffering.
Lilly fought nearby, setting Dactyls ablaze with fire from the Calios or occasionally freezing them so they plummeted from the sky and shattered into messy chunks on the buildings and streets below. She zipped to and fro, untouchable in the storm of threats, deftly slaying the monsters that had once been her people.
Condor took the strategy of evading attacks and slashing at the Dactyls’ wings as they screamed past him. They, too, careened down to the city below and crashed into the houses and streets. A few survived the impact but were hobbled from broken limbs and severed wings.
General Balena, General Tolomus, and their Windgale warriors battled the Dactyls with a ferocity as yet unmatched, so much that Calum had to wonder if they weren’t still venting their anger over the Saurians’ invasion. Or perhaps it was just the sheer overwhelming desperation of the situation.
Thanks to Magnus’s Dragon scales, Dactyls couldn’t harm him, but that didn’t stop them from harassing him anyway. While still airborne, he peeled them off his body, crushed them in his powerful hands, and flung them aside. A follow-up blast of dragonfire from his mouth destroyed a formation of them flying through the air.
Down below, Calum’s soldiers battled alongside Matthios and Gavridel, each of whom deftly took out Gronyxes in a single blow. General Anigo also fought alongside them, admirably and effectively thanks to his powerful golden spear.
But with so many Gronyxes swarming the streets, now accompanied by Wargs who’d climbed atop nearby buildings only to leap off their roofs and pounce on unsuspecting soldiers, even the Imperators couldn’t keep up.
“I’m going down there!” Calum shouted to Lilly over the ruckus. “The soldiers need help!”
“Be careful!” Lilly shouted back as Condor skewered a Dactyl next to her and held it in place so she could lop off its head.
“You too!” Calum dropped from the sky and zoomed toward the nearest cluster of soldiers fighting for their lives, surrounded in a small town square by four Gronyxes and half a dozen Wargs.
One of the Gronyxes noticed his approach and lashed its tentacles at him, but Calum didn’t resist. He barreled forward, still flying, as the tentacles coiled around his arms and legs. His momentum kept him racing toward the Gronyx’s mouth, which yawned open and revealed its jagged teeth.
Calum had no fear this time. He’d done this before. He knew exactly what to do.
With one powerful strike from the Dragon’s Breath sword, the left side of the Gronyx severed from its base. Rather than an eruption of glowing green blood, the flames from the sword cauterized the wound. The tentacles wrapped around Calum’s body went slack, and in a follow-up swing, he severed the other half of the Gronyx’s body from its base, stopping its shrieking.
The Gronyx’s two humanlike forms smacked onto the cobblestones below, fully separated from its rocky base, which shuddered and collapsed.
A pair of Wargs launched at Calum next. He loosed an arc of emerald fire from the Dragon’s Breath sword at one of them, charring it black and killing it, and the other went down with another swing of the sword, headless and smoking.
“Attack the Gronyxes’ bases!” he shouted to the soldiers. “Cut off their bodies like I did, low near their mouths, but don’t get bit!”
Even as he said it he noticed one soldier lying on the ground, clutching at his left leg and wailing. Everything below his knee was gone, and the rest was already turning to colorful gemstones and breaking off.
Calum winced and thought of Nicolai, who’d died saving him. If the King were here, he might’ve been able to save the soldier, but it was already too late.
Or was it? Calum darted over to the soldier, who gasped as more and more of his leg crystallized from the Gronyx’s corruption pulsing through his body.
“Stay still!” Calum ordered. Then he placed his hands on the soldier’s wounded leg and summoned the King’s power.
Green light glowed from his hands and filtered into the soldier’s body. Calum realized he could actually sense the corruption itself, but it was more than that—he could feel every vein and artery in the soldier’s body, and he could feel the corruption attacking every single cell.
Calum put a stop to it immediately.
The corruption died and disappeared, and then Calum started to reverse the process. As he watched, the man’s leg reverted from crystals back into flesh, and then it actually grew back until his entire leg and foot were restored.
It was simultaneously horrifying and incredible to watch, but when the man flexed his leg and moved his now-bare foot around, Calum had to grin.
The soldier looked up at him in total shock. He managed to say, “Th-thank you!”
“You’re welcome,” Calum replied. He hadn’t known he was capable of doing such a thing, so he was nearly as surprised as the soldier was. Were it not for the King healing him first, he never would’ve even thought to try it. “Be safe.”
Then Calum rose and rejoined the battle. He felt like he’d lost some power, but it was already recovering quickly. What did that mean? And what else could he do?
If he got injured while fighting, could he heal himself? Could he use the King’s power to attack as well?
And what about the rest of Lumen’s power lingering within him? He already knew how to use that to some extent, but was there more that he could do with it?
Another Warg bolted at him, its blue eyes aglow and its mouth hanging open. This time, Calum extended his hand and summoned the light. A spear of pure white energy skewered the beast in midair, and with a yelp, it crashed to the ground in a heap.
Glowing pink blood pooled beneath it, and Calum got a clear look at its mangy hide. It was larger than a normal Wolf, had larger yellow teeth that barely allowed its mouth to close, and glowing blue eyes. Unlike the Dactyls high above, these things didn’t smell like anything, despite being just as ugly and warped.
Calum launched toward the next nearest foe—one of the other Gronyxes—and summoned the King’s power this time. He pointed his hand at the Gronyx and loosed a blast of green energy that seized the corruption coursing through the monster’s body. As he did with the soldier, he tried to heal the corruption.
It didn’t work—not in the same way it had with the soldier, anyway. Instead, the Gronyx went rigid and loosed a shriek that split Calum’s ears, but only at first. Then its entire body withered and dissolved into dust.
The soldiers who’
d been fighting the Gronyx glanced back at him, stunned.
Calum was stunned too. The King really had blessed him with unbelievable power.
Now he had to decide how best to use it to save his people.
From high above the battle in Valkendell, Axel watched as the streets of Solace erupted with hundreds of monsters. The sight both thrilled and horrified him.
His gut twisted at the knowledge that the Gronyxes and the Dactyls were soldiers who’d refused to join Lumen’s army—it explained the red glow he’d seen in the human soldiers’ eyes and the green pallor of their skin after Lumen hit them with his light spike.
But even though the idea revolted him, Axel couldn’t deny the tactic’s effectiveness. These monsters, mindless as they were, just kept coming. They attacked relentlessly, carving through swaths of the King’s soldiers and tearing them apart.
And if they were going to win this final battle, this was a surefire way to do it.
If nothing else, everyone would see Lumen’s power on display, and no one would dare oppose him ever again.
Finally, Axel had chosen the winning side.
At least he’d thought so, until he started seeing the tide of the battle turning against them. The King’s soldiers below had rallied, and they’d managed to survive—and even thrive—against the abominations.
He’d hoped he wouldn’t have to order the rest of Lumen’s army, hungry and parched as they were, to attack, but the time had come. They couldn’t lose this fight.
Axel opened a black void in front of himself and stepped into it.
Despite the horrors of everything happening around them, Riley felt good about being near Melly—Windsor—again. It had cost him everything when he’d left her behind, and it had cost her everything, too, but fate had seen fit to reunite them once again.
And this time, neither of them were helpless.