Legend of Ecta Mastrino Box Set 2

by BJ Hanlon

  She reached out and suddenly, the demons and giants and the one snake that were coming at him were hit by a gust of wind.

  At least four dematians flew violently into the wall. They dropped a moment later like they’d been struck dead.

  Edin quickly lowered the others to the ground. Dorset landed by him panting like a hound after a hunt.

  “I don’t have the energy to heal…” Dorset said.

  “Take her, get to the castle.”

  “It’s no use…” Dorset moaned.

  Edin smacked Dorset across the face. “I thought you wanted to be a warrior. Do not give me that.”

  Dorset’s eyes were a second from becoming red and teary but then he nodded. A single, affirmative nod. “What about you?”

  Edin gripped his sword and wished he had a quarterstaff. “I’ve got these guys,” he said.

  Up top, Edin saw Melian still fighting dematians in that point between darkness and light.

  Edin took a step between Arianne, Dorset, and the monsters. He released the ethereal light and spun the sword in his hand.

  Then he remembered the ethereal axe he’d made while walking through the forest. If he could do that…

  “Do not try fighting them without me,” Berka said running up.

  Edin held out his hand and summoned an ethereal quarterstaff. He nodded at Berka and they advanced on the stunned attackers. Edin took two steps and started to run.

  Then he leapt. He used the gusoria talent to launch himself up further than he should’ve been able to leap. It kept the beasts’ gaze on him.

  Below. Berka hacked with his greatsword. He cleaved a dematian in two and then spilled the guts of an awestruck giant. The great snake wheeled back and tried to strike but Edin was coming down. He landed and slammed the ethereal staff into the thing’s head.

  It sliced through like it was a soft cheese. Edin dropped on top of it, landed awkwardly and fell to the side. He hit the stone hard but continued forward into a roll.

  The ethereal staff disappeared as he pushed up to his feet in the middle of a half dozen demons, beasts, and monsters.

  Edin then noticed it, there suddenly was a large suppression of the talent around him.

  Above, the sky cracked with lightning, squawks, screeches, and cries.

  The lightning showed dozens of beasts up there, cliff raptors, primevals, and one wyrm.

  Only one of them left, Edin thought. Then a chattering cry came from nearer to him and he was brought back to reality.

  A reality where he was without the talent. A place Grent had told him never to be.

  “Blast,” Edin muttered under his breath.

  They began to converge. Two, then three dematians, they had better vision at night but Edin could feel their energy. The wicked energy in them and the suppression.

  Just then, a home erupted in a flame and the dematians reared back.

  Then people began streaming out of towers and homes that weren’t collapsed. Then a horn played a retreat tune.

  Edin knew what it meant. Retreat to the castle. A reprieve for a very short time.

  There was a grunt and a chattering cry of pain and Berka leapt into the center with him. “Could use a bit of help.”

  “I got the snake.”

  “I took out the giant.”

  “Back to back, like the ravine,” Edin said.

  “I don’t want your sweaty back touching mine.”

  Edin rolled his eyes and turned.

  The dematian up front held a horsehead knife. One that looked about the right size. “I’ll take that,” Edin said and leapt forward.

  “Hey!” Berka screamed behind, but Edin was already on the attack.

  He slashed quickly at the dematian who seemed just as surprised as Berka. Edin caught the haft, brought the sword up and around and came in from a slash on the other side, then as the dematian tried to block that, Edin kicked.

  While the talent was partially smothered, he put as much strength into the kick as he could.

  It caught the beast in the solar plexus, if it had one, and the thing doubled over and dropped to the ground like he’d been caught in the groin. The horsehead knife fell and Edin caught it in his off hand and spun. Then he parried another demon’s attack and continued to spin, Edin cut the downed dematian’s head off and spun again until he took out another’s guts.

  Swords and shields clashed around them. People hollered in pain, in rage, and in fear. The dematians and their allies didn’t seem to have that amount of vocalization abilities as they all pretty much sounded the same.

  Edin fought on with the grunts, skittering pained cries, and Berka yelling guttural words that were reminiscent of him racing to the outhouse.

  A beast flew low a few feet from him, and its wings beat loudly. Above, he heard the cry of the wyrm and saw a ball of flame erupt from the firewyrm’s mouth.

  It crashed down in the city with devastating force.

  While spinning the horsehead knife he turned too fast. His arm wrenched around him and he let go of the weapon. It flew off in the direction of Berka.

  “Down!” Edin yelled.

  Berka ducked, but the two dematians that were approaching from the rear didn’t. It struck them flat and in the head. Their feet flew out from under them and they flew to their backs.

  Suddenly, there were fewer beasts around. Edin hadn’t seen any crillios or any other giants besides the one.

  Berka took the greatsword and sliced through both of the downed beasts. “Did you plan that?” Berka yelled.

  “Yes,” Edin lied.

  Berka just frowned.

  “Catch me!” Melian yelled from above and she just leapt.

  She didn’t ask. He felt the suppression of the talent. It was like wearing a great tunic covered in iron ingots.

  She screamed and just before she broke her legs, Edin let out a quick hand and a small burst of air. It arrested her descent for just long enough.

  Edin grunted and fell to his knees.

  “Come on,” Berka said and started to haul Edin to his feet.

  His arm was wrenched. His shoulder was hurting again but he pulled himself up and saw a swooping of a primeval.

  Edin swung his blade in front of them, Mirage must’ve made him into two or three images. The primeval tried grabbing with its claws but Edin caught it.

  He twisted as the beast dropped just behind him and skidded across the cobblestone leaving a bloody streak.

  Coming up from behind was Melian. She stabbed the struggling beast.

  “To the castle,” Berka yelled a few feet away as he cut a dematian in two. Edin couldn’t see Arianne or Dorset, but he’d held the street for enough time that they could get away.

  Or so he hoped.

  Heat from the burning home tickled the sweat from his forehead. They stumbled down the alley, the three of them, and turned here and there heading in a zig zag direction to the castle. They passed bodies, none were Arianne or Dorset or anyone else they knew. There were beasts and men and remnants of houses.

  It had to happen that way as suddenly gaggles, almost patrols, of enemies seemed to appear at every few intersections.

  More buildings were on fire. Ahead, a tall Vestion church stood, not the cathedral, was aflame. He thought it was close to the castle and tried heading toward it.

  Berka turned a corner and suddenly stopped and said, “Back.”

  Edin was too slow and turned the corner to see a dark shape. Then he pulled himself back out of the line of sight and they ducked into a deep entryway.

  Edin glanced in a window and saw it was for a bakery and there was a woodcut of a cake hanging in the window. Above it was another woodcut with the words, ‘Celebrate Life!’

  Edin looked away as a giant snake slithered down the road past them. It was immediately followed by a handful of dematians.

  The extra beasts seemed to be dwindling in number. Maybe the dematians were as well but there was no way humanity would be able to fight off this attack
.

  Not alone… but they were alone. None of it mattered for Calerrat now. The city will be just like Galara. Wiped off the face of the earth.

  “Now,” Berka said and they left the nook and turned back toward the tower. They kept to the shadows on the right side of the street slipping quickly into other entryways when a beast approached.

  His thighs were burning and the muscles inside them felt almost nonexistent. As they reached a small cross street barely two yards wide, a whistling sound came from above them.

  Edin stopped and looked up just in time to see something huge whip directly over their heads in the direction they were going.

  The speed was great and he was barely able to keep track of it until it stopped.

  Or more accurate, it ran into the great steeple of the Vestion church that was now on the street beyond the alleyway.

  It hit nearly halfway up the tower. For the briefest of moments, it looked to have gone through. Then the stone began to trickle, drop like the first few raindrops of a giant storm.

  Then it started to slide. The top of the stone tower started to tumble forward. It was massive, much bigger up close than he’d previously thought. It tilted then there was a crunching and a cracking that was louder than the most massive lightning strike or thunder boom he’d ever heard. The cone shaped top started coming toward them as if it’d been knocked over by a god flicking his finger.

  Which in a way, it was, Edin thought.

  “Out of the road!” Berka yelled and yanked Edin to the right down another small alley. When his view of the thing was cut off, the trance was broken and he was able to think again.

  Looking over his shoulder, he saw the first few stones dropping and then more and more and they were moving faster than he’d thought possible as they dropped.

  The cone, a fully formed and completely intact cone, fell from the pinnacle of the tower as if it’d been simply set on top with no bonding agent at all.

  The three-story building that had been in its and the tower’s way was simply crushed like a fallen leaf under a foot.

  For a moment, he stopped and looked back, watching it like a child gawking at a passing knight.

  Then the dust began to fly. A cloud of it puffed up as if there were someone sweeping a room that hadn’t seen a broom in years.

  The cloud rose up taller than the buildings surrounding them and was funneled through the alley. Edin turned away and saw Berka already running again with Melian a few feet behind. Edin started after.

  After a dozen steps or so, the cloud began to roll over him. It dimmed the little firelight then soon darkened the entire world in a brown haze. It was barely backlit by the unending torches and the burning buildings around the city.

  The dust began to congregate in his mouth and his chest and he started to cough. Edin’s head drooped forward and he stumbled. Instinct told him to put his tunic up over his mouth and breathed through that.

  It helped but did little as the coughing fit continued to pour through him and his mouth tasted as sere as a desert basin. Edin fell against the stone wall of some building and then dropped to his knees. His head pounded and he felt as if he were already buried alive.

  That thought shook him as he stumbled along the stone wall away from the collapsed building. The crashing of the structure stopped with the clinking of hewn bricks and the moans and groans of pain from human lips that were back there.

  They were buried alive, Edin thought, and he couldn’t help them, heck he couldn’t see and he couldn’t help himself.

  He coughed as a giant globule of spittle or phlegm came up and tried to eradicate the invasive dust and particles. Snot began to pour down his throat. His feet got caught on something and he barely stopped himself from falling.

  Then Edin’s knee cracked into something wood and he fell forward. He landed on a crate and knocked whatever was on it, off. Glass shattered and he laid upon the wooden crate half standing and half kneeling. He began to slip down the side of it. His eyes closing as the fog of dust and debris began to fall upon him. He thought of the people being buried alive and his heart began to race.

  He was then completely on his knees with his forehead pressing into the wooden crate as if it were an altar that he was praying to.

  Somewhere in the back of his mind, he heard his voice being called out and then a clashing of steel.

  He felt hands on his arm, human hands, and heard a voice. One that gave him hope.

  14

  The Citadel

  It was a sort of fog that was over him as they dragged him from his seated position to somewhere where there was less debris. The fog was better than the yellow cloud. Edin coughed and heard a voice say, “in here.”

  Edin knew that voice but his mind was rambling. A door creaked and his heels clipped the small lip of the entrance as they went into a building.

  The door slammed shut and Edin was lowered down. He heard Berka and Melian collapse next to him on a wooden floor.

  Then warm water splashed on his lips and started to dribble onto his tongue and down his throat. Edin tried to open his eyes but they felt as if they’d been glued shut.

  Edin groaned and reached up and rubbed at his eyes. Colors began to form. He could see geometrical shapes like diamonds and stars and shapes with more sides than he could count.

  There was always that single source of light right below the center so as he tried to follow it, the shapes and the light would dance just out of direct sight.

  More water was poured onto his lips and down his throat. It caught something and Edin sputtered and coughed. Edin turned to the side and let it spill to the ground.

  Then he blinked and let the darkness that wanted to destroy the geometry in his vision take over.

  Somewhere in that blackness, a light appeared. It was faint and far away, but he felt like he could get to it. Like he had to get to it.

  There was a peacefulness over there. One that would help him relax and be at ease. Slowly, Edin started toward it on legs that were no longer hurting and no longer exhausted.

  There was a call from someone over his shoulder but he didn’t need to heed it. The words were just there like a small puff of pipe smoke. He continued forward like steel shavings to a magnet.

  Soon, he began to see shapes in the light. Edin had heard about this, it clicked in his mind somewhere and he was okay with it. This was death and those shapes were his mother and Master Horston and Kesona. Maybe Kesona. Maybe Mersett and Elva and Vistach.

  The light was so enthralling that he didn’t ever want to turn away from it. The voice behind him was more frantic but Edin didn’t care.

  Then the shapes became clearer. Edin slowed for a brief moment and then slid to a stop as he looked up at the things that were in front of him.

  Edin blinked and caught a view of the slim figures. There were dozens of them. Hundreds maybe but he couldn’t see them all clearly. Only the ones up front as they approached to meet him.

  There was a large man with a great mustache and the baring of the mightiest warrior of his age. A thin woman with two blades, the figure of a goddess yet the gait of a monster slayer. In between the two was an old man. One with a dark robe that looked to have been sewn together with leaves and branches and vines, but it still seemed seamless somehow and it shimmered.

  Edin slowed and then stopped as the trio came toward him and the figures behind faded into the light.

  “Young Edin de Yaultan, I knew you lived. I even told my grumpy husband.”

  “Dephina,” Edin said, “where are you? What is this? Is this the afterlife? Why do you look like you’re in a world of light?”

  The man between them chuckled.

  “We live,” said Grent. “This is Hyle Coroju. Clan leader of the elves.”

  Edin looked at the man and cocked his head slightly. “I thought that the volumar was the leader?”

  “She is one,” the elf said. “But that is not your concern at the moment now is it?”

  “My c
oncern?” Edin asked for he didn’t know what the man was talking about. Then his brain started tripping over itself like it was drunk. Edin looked around at the dark ground, or actually dark space below as there was no ground. He felt dizzier and the thought that he was completely gone became all the more real.

  “You’re covered in dust,” Dephina said, “What happened? Where are you?”

  Edin looked at her and then down at his hands. The tops were covered in a thin layer of dust. There were scratches on them too. Cuts from raining debris.

  Then it sort of came back to him. Just a bit. He remembered being in the cloud but thought, that was before. Before he was in this place.

  Edin took a moment to think. To work out what had happened.

  “You’re in the space between spaces,” said Hyle Coroju. “The world beyond the veil of our world.”

  Edin looked around at the darkness and the single source of light. Then when he looked back behind himself, he saw another source of light. A small flame and three dark shapes in it. One with a swatch of bright red hair.

  “Am I alive?”

  “Yes of course,” said Hyle. “We all are. It is impossible to commune with the dead unless you’re a necromancer. And those have been gone on this land for a very long time.”

  Edin ignored that. There’d been legends that told of those men.

  But recently, legends and myths seemed to be cropping up all over the place like weeds in a garden.

  “So we all are alive,” Edin said, his memory of the last few— however long it’d been— coming back to him. “Yio Volor has risen to our world and is attacking Calerrat.”

  “I know,” Hyle said.

  “Then you know that we do not stand a chance. We’ll be slaughtered sooner rather than later.”

  “That has yet to be seen,” he said elongating the last word as if it had more of a meaning than just seen. “But we are right now not far from the city. In fact, we can see parts of it now. We just watched a tower collapse.”

  Edin nodded. “It nearly crushed me. This,” he waved a hand in front of his clothes. “Is its remnants.” Edin paused. “So why do you not help? Why are you just sitting there?”