by Dante King
“No hard feelings, right?” I asked, before punching him square in the face.
He fell back with a dull groan. I leaned over and wasted no more time, cutting his throat with the dagger I kept in my boot. I didn’t even bother wiping his blood off the blade. I got to my feet and scanned the battle one more time. Winnie and a city guardsman were fighting two greater summons, but I had lost Kalazar once more.
“Damn it,” I muttered.
I tried to let my hunter senses lead me to his exact location, but the air was so thick with dark magic it was a challenge to pick out Kalazar’s scent from all the others. I decided to cut through the throng until I saw him again.
I had just taken down yet another dark mage with an axe hit to the side of his face, when a series of explosions caught my attention. I jumped onto a small ledge that afforded me a little extra height and saw that a new group of mages had arrived. These were not soldiers, nor were they civilians wishing to do their part to protect the city. These new mages were stoic professorial types, and for a moment I didn’t quite believe it, until I saw Headmaster Darwin Bathos was commanding them. It appeared the academics that ran the Institute had finally decided to grow some balls and join the fight.
They joined the fray with flair, spells catapulting from their fingertips, and taking on great summons and dark mages alike. Despite the fact that they weren’t great physical fighters, their magic was competent and sophisticated.
I saw Yarina jump onto a heap of roof rubble. She brandished her rapier and caught my eye for a moment.
“City guard,” she commanded. “Shield wall.”
The city guard formed a long line right in front of the Institute mages, and I understood immediately what Yarina was trying to do. The professors could easily be taken down if it came to hand-to-hand combat, but if they were afforded some coverage, they could easily take down the dark mages they were up against.
The city guard formed an impressive barrier that was fortified by their magic. From behind them, the Institute mages sent spells hurtling between the shields, striking one minion after the other. The majority of Kalazar’s minions were forced into taking on the city guard and the Institute mages.
Beside that, there were ragtag groups embroiled in their own skirmishes. Winnie was in one of them. She was now alone and battling it out with a dark mage, while several other civilian mages from the city were attempting to destroy the last remaining greater summons. The tide of battle was turning slowly. The dark magic that had threatened to choke me when I first set foot on the destroyed Waygate Center floor was now being pushed back by the stream of good magic. My senses could pick out the different flavors of aura and magical skill.
The good mages were encased in silver and gold, little sparks of color flitting around them like fireworks. The dark mages were surrounded by grey and black shadows that choked out any color they found. That was when his scent caught my attention again. It was the darkest, most pungent scent of them all.
I turned and saw Kalazar skulking off toward the large, speckled stone steps that led directly up to the Waygate. He was doing what he did best: abandoning the fight when it looked like the odds had turned against him. Except, this time, I wouldn’t let him get away so easily.
I ran after him, punching down two greater undead creatures that blocked my path. I didn’t bother sticking around to finish them off for good; the city guard would take care of them. My only focus now was Kalazar.
I heard someone call out my name, but I didn’t slow my pace, nor did I turn back to see who it was. I followed the possessed Barlin’s path, taking the steps two at a time. I could feel the all-encompassing power of the Waygate only a short distance up from me. As I climbed the last step, I found myself staring at a massive spherical hole that cavorted with shadows, colors, and the intense magic that had brought it to life.
Images flitted across the hole. There were the pearly pink waters of the Brine Sea, the snowy mountain caps of the Radar Tribe, the sprawling boulders of Monolith Castle in the Obelisk Kingdom. None of the images stayed stationary long enough to allow me a proper look. They flitted away like leaves carried off by the wind, and left flashing pinpricks of magical energy that lapped around the Waygate’s black edges.
I understood now why Kalazar had wanted to bring the seal here. Lillian had powered the seal for him, but activating it would also require a huge amount of power. He was hoping to use the Waygate’s energy along with his own to take control of the seal. But where was the necromancer?
He was done with mystery, apparently. He walked out from behind a black marble pillar, calm now, his eyes glowing a sinister red, the smile on his face more than a little alarming. The Terminus Seal dangled from his neck. But its magical energy was unstable; Kalazar’s was not strong enough to wield it, which was why he had brought it here to the Waygate.
“Are you scared now, human?” Kalazar asked.
“No. But you should be. You’re not strong enough to command the seal.”
“You’re right about that. But I’m smart enough to ensure that I will be.”
I felt a flood of death energy swirl around Kalazar. I sensed the volatile bent of his aura, and I knew that, if he succeeded in fulfilling his plan, he truly would be invincible, and it would all be over. Not just my life, but that of the girls and of Qilzid, all the forces of good would be forced into submission or eradicated. A horrifying prospect, a black world.
Kalazar stretched his hand out toward the Waygate. Thin threads of black magic flowed choppily between his fingers. I grabbed my axe and launched; the blade hit his right arm, and the connection broke. Kalazar turned to me with Barlin’s face.
“Did you really think I was just going to stand here and watch?” I asked.
Kalazar licked his lips and sent a beam of agony in my direction. I threw up my gauntlet and blocked it. I sensed another spell coming my way, so I kept my shield up as I moved closer.
He sent another beam of agony my way, but when my shield blocked it again, he changed tack. He summoned a great ball of mage fire into the palm of his hand, and I braced myself for the attack. Mage fire was strong, and the seal around his neck was boosting his power.
The gem glowed ever more brightly every time the necromancer shot a spell at me, but it’s instability grew too. Kalazar’s body would not be able to control the seal’s power for much longer. He either had to reinforce his strength by stealing the life force of the Waygate, or he had to remove the seal before it destroyed him.
There was a manic gleam in his eyes as his mage fire screamed at my shield, trying desperately to break it. The flames turned black as they made contact with my silver safeguard, and I felt my gauntleted arm be forced down slightly. I gritted my teeth and dug my boots into the stone ground. Then I pushed off with my legs, forcing Kalazar to take a step backward.
He was tiring under the weight and pressure of the seal. With a sudden shock, the mage fire stopped coming, and he fell to his knees. I sighed with relief and clasped my gauntleted wrist. It wouldn’t have held out much longer.
As I moved closer, I saw that the seal was burning a hole in the possessed Barlin’s chest. The fabric of his tunic had all but wasted away, and I could see the pink softness of his stolen skin glow with fresh blood. I stood over the kneeling Kalazar and raised my axe.
“Do you know what it takes to activate the seal?” Kalazar bit. His eyes were wild with black loathing. “If you kill me, my soul’s energy discharge will activate the seal and take out half of Trysca with it. Is that what you want?”
I saw the seal spin within its bronze encasing, and I knew he was telling the truth. In any case, it wasn’t a risk I was willing to take. I lowered my axe, and Kalazar rose slowly to his feet.
“You can’t kill me,” he hissed, “but I can kill you. One more spell—that’s all it will take.”
I sensed the magnetic pull of his magic as he called it forth, and I saw the seal spin and flash with different colors. Acting on instinct, I th
rew up my gauntlet, but instead of throwing it out in front of me, I held it high and made a circular movement, so the shield encircled both Kalazar and myself. Kalazar looked down at his hands and the seal in disbelief. The nullifying force of the bubble we were standing in would not allow him to use his magic. It had worked.
I pulled out my stoneheart crossbow, and within seconds I’d fired a quarrel through his right arm. He screamed in fury and hit the ground again.
“Kurt!”
I turned to see Lillian forcing her way up the stairs. Her hair was flying backward in wild swings; she was walking against the current of a powerful wind, shielding her eyes from the frenzied gust. I realized the disparate energies of the seal, the Waygate, and all the spells Kalazar and I had been using were combining to cook up a savage storm.
“Lillian, stay away!” I yelled, dropping my gauntlet shield.
The winds lapped around my body in funneled vortexes, creating throbbing, pulsating, uncontrollable magic that threatened to activate the seal independently of my or Kalazar’s will.
I turned my attention to the necromancer at my feet, reached down, and yanked the seal from his neck. It did nothing to stop the wild spinning of the stone in its center. Kalazar laughed with triumph.
“It is too late,” he said. “The seal is going to blow. You will die, she will die—but I will go on. I will steal another skin and be reborn again, stronger than before.”
I gritted my teeth and pulled out the soul seal ring that Qilzid had enchanted for me. “Think again,” I said, feeling a surge of satisfaction as I saw his eyes go wide with shock and panic. I put on the ring and held it out for him to admire.
“No,” Kalazar screamed. “No!”
I felt the ring’s awesome power as it started to suck out Kalazar’s soul. Barlin’s body started shaking uncontrollably, as though a sudden fit had taken hold of him.
“It’s no use fighting,” I said softly. “It’s over.”
Kalazar looked at me with wide-open eyes. “Who are you?” he whispered.
“I am a guardian of Trysca. I hunt down those who have surrendered to chaos and corruption. I…am a mage slayer.”
Dark tendrils of the corrupt aura that was Kalazar were sucked out of Barlin’s eyes, nose, and mouth, in the form of black plumes. The strips of soul were slowly sucked into the glowing stone of the soul seal ring, until nothing came out of Barlin’s body anymore, and it fell back against the stone floor, lifeless now and free from possession.
The stone on my finger glowed brightly for an instant, before it dulled to a non-threatening sheen.
I had done it. Kalazar was no longer a threat—but the Terminus Seal in my hand had not calmed down. It still spun violently, and I had no idea what to do to make it stop.
Lillian finally fought her way up to me; her eyes were wide with panic, and she put her hands into mine.
“Kurt,” she said, panting heavily, her eyes darting to her father’s dead body and then back to me again. “What’s happening?”
“The seal is about to activate, Lillian. I’m not strong enough to contain it. The only person who can…is you.”
Lillian shook her head, her face stretching taut with terror. “No… Kurt, no, I don’t know how.”
“Yes you do. It’s instinct—magic is instinct. You need to trust yourself.”
I could feel the seal’s energy sear through my body. My soul was on fire, a pain more potent than any I’d felt before. It felt like I was being ripped apart from the inside.
“Kurt…”
There were tears streaming down Lillian’s face, and it seemed the only thing she was capable of doing was to say was my name over and over and caress my hands.
Fighting past the pain, I kissed her softly on the cheek. “You can do this, Lillian. I believe in you…argh!”
I dropped to the floor as the seal’s power streaked through my body. It was going to destroy me, this ripping sensation could mean nothing else. I tried to drop the seal, but it felt like it was sewn onto my skin.
Through barely seeing eyes I saw Lillian trembling all over, calling and calling my name, her face contorted and wet with the tears freely streaming over it, her hands wringing together with powerlessness.
It’s only pain, I told myself. Don’t give it power over you. Don’t give it mastery over you. You’re stronger than the pain. I repeated the words to myself on a loop. I managed to bite through the pain, my mind just barely reaching the surface above a sea of excruciating torment for a moment of clarity fuelled by willpower, long enough to form the words I knew Lillian needed to hear.
“You are your father’s daughter,” I said, and took a couple of moments to suck deep inhales through my constricted throat. “He died to save you, Lillian. Now you have to save us all. It’s the hardest thing I’m asking of you, the hardest thing anyone I know has ever been fated to do—but I know you’re strong enough to do it.”
My blurred vision caught her movement as she approached me and reached for the seal.
The moment she removed it from my grasp, I felt the pain recede. I became aware of my limbs again, I became aware of other sensations apart from pain. My vision melted back into focus, and there she was, beautiful, powerful Lillian, holding the seal in front of me. I could have sworn there were diamond-encrusted tears engraved on her face, sublimating her terror and pain into even more power and beauty. Her hair danced freely around her as the seal’s power lifted her off her feet and up into the air. The glowing orb of the stone throbbed against her palm. Her eyes closed and her back arched, as lightning rods of purple light streaked across the skies above us.
Then everything changed.
I watched helplessly as the skies turned black and the winds turned wild around Lillian. She remained floating in the midst of the chaos, with her eyes closed, her hands outstretched, and her toes pointed straight at the ground. She looked like an angel floating in the deep, dark heart of hell.
My hunter senses piqued before I felt a whirlwind of magic emanate from Lillian. It was so overwhelming that I came close to blacking out more than once. There was one final burst of purple lightning before the black clouds around Lillian faded to gold and silver and the skies above her cleared. The seal floated from her hand and hovered in the air in front of her for a moment. Then it glowed brightly, and there was a flash of such blinding light that it forced me to avert my eyes.
When I glanced up again, the seal was gone, and Lillian’s body was encased in plumes of gold. Her aura had changed, I could sense that immediately. The powerful purple aura that I had come to recognize as Lillian’s was gone. An eerily familiar scent had taken its place.
Suddenly, Lillian dropped from the air, and I leaped and caught her before she hit the ground.
Cradling her in my arms, I sunk to the floor and gazed down at her beautiful face. She blinked before opening her eyes, showing me the clear blue of her irises, flecked with spots of violet.
“Lillian,” I said, stupefied, and desperately running my fingers across her face.
She gazed up at me with longing. Understanding took the place of confusion, and she reached up to cup the side of my face with trembling fingers. She was about to smile, when her expression contorted into one of pain, and she bolted upright in my arms.
“What is it?
“My back,” Lillian yelled out, reaching behind her wildly as though she wanted to claw her skin off. “My back, it’s on fire. It’s on fire!”
I turned her around in my arms and ripped the back of her bodice to bare her spine. What a sight. It was the Terminus Seal—but not as I knew it. Its likeness was tattooed on Lillian’s back, like a hieroglyphic from the tribes of the Mayamun people of the West. It covered half her back, starting at the nape of her neck and travelling down to the small of her back. It glowed slightly, thrumming with subtle energy that belied its true power. It had fused with Lillian. It had found a home within the only person in Trysca powerful enough to wield it.
“Kurt, what i
s it?”
“Is there still pain?”
“It’s fading slowly. But it felt like—it felt like fire.”
I moved around to face her, taking her hand in mine and holding it close to my chest. “You did it, Lillian. You saved the city. You saved us all.”
“Kurt, stop it. Tell me. Why are you looking at me like that?”
I took a breath. “The seal fused with your magic. The power of the seal is—it’s inside you now.”
Lillian’s eyes went wide, and flicked back and forth between mine, looking for answers. “I—what does that mean?”
“I think it means that you are the Terminus Seal.”
21
Lillian and I made our way down the stone steps together. She leaned against my shoulder, and we walked slowly, surveying the scene.
The fighting had stopped. Now there was only the wreckage of the aftermath to deal with. Waygate Center Station was in shambles. Dozens of bodies lay scattered among the rubble. I felt Lillian turn her face into my chest to avoid seeing their faces.
From across the station, I caught sight of Yarina. I could tell at a glance that she was injured, but she was still on her feet, giving commands to the city guard as they started sorting through the bodies. There were two separate areas that had been cordoned off. The first one was for the bodies of the tainted mages and greater undead creatures that had fallen in the fight. The second area was devoted to all those soldiers and good mages who had sacrificed their lives to help us protect Trysca.
Lillian and I walked over to Yarina, and my eyes darted around the space looking for Winnie. I had seen her only in the vast haze of battle. It could have been hours ago, it could have been only minutes ago. It was hard to tell now the fighting was done. Anything could have happened to her between then and now.
I led Lillian to Yarina first. Maybe she knew where Winnie was.