Fallen Ambitions

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Fallen Ambitions Page 44

by Vann, Eric J.


  Then someone dropped down from a height to land beside her, and Emily slashed out automatically with her dagger, but was stopped by a hand gripping hers, twisting it, disarming her in an instant.

  “Ness?” Emily rasped, when she finally recognized the cloak.

  Ness pulled back his hood. “Come,” he said, his warm breath washing over her face. “We need to escape.” He handed her back her dagger and took her hand, but Emily felt numb now. Her body was a mass of pain.

  “Emily, we have to move,” Ness said urgently, and gripped her face. The shock of his freezing hands against her cheeks finally breaking her out of her daze.

  She didn’t argue when he pulled her by the wrist—how could she, with such an expression on his face? Whatever it was that was happening, Ness was terrified, and if something terrified Ness, she didn’t want to be anywhere close to it.

  She stumbled behind him as he guided her through the anarchy of the camp, ducking and hiding from the Gold Serpents who ran all over the place—some to pick up weapons, others helping their fellow soldiers into their armor. Emily shivered; even standing still for a moment brought the biting chill of the cold back.

  “Where are the others?” Emily asked through chattering teeth as they hid behind a stack of barrels.

  “Dead or escaped to the west, which is where we’re going.”

  “What’s happened?” Emily asked as a group of a few dozen soldiers ran past them. “They don’t even seem to care we’re here.”

  “I know,” Ness replied as he pulled her to one side, narrowly avoiding another group of soldiers running east. “I am not sure what’s happening, but there are thousands of undead swarming down the valley from the east. We need to get away before they reach us.”

  Undead? Why would there be undead here? Emily allowed herself to be pulled forward again, her gaze following yet another wave of Magitech cannon shots as they arched above. Whatever was going on, the Gold Serpents were taking it seriously.

  “Every person who dies is getting reanimated,” Ness said as he quickly pulled her along to the next pile of crates. “I noticed it when I left the third tent I cleared.”

  “Who could do this?” Emily asked, dazed.

  Ness chewed on his lip. “I have a feeling we’re going to soon find out, but I would much rather we don’t. Anyone or any group able to do something at this scale is beyond us.”

  “How many were you?” a voice said as they snuck past another group of men and found themselves unexpectedly close to the command tent. It was a voice Emily knew. She pulled her hand away from Ness, and he sucked on his teeth in frustration.

  “Emi, there is no time! It’s bad and going to get worse,” he said as he tried to grip her again, but Emily moved closer to the voice, peering around tent at the three men standing in front of the cage of vampires.

  One man was on his knees, his face bloody, as the other continued to smash his face with a gauntleted hand. Beside him was a line of beheaded corpses. Emily recognized some of them; they were from the other strike groups. The third man stood silent as he witnessed the beating. Then he raised a hand and it stopped. Emily gritted her teeth as she took in his dark brown skin, and green eyes, and the golden cape attached to his armor. “Mehrazeen,” she hissed. This was the man who had captured her when she had tried to flee Arna.

  “Leave him,” Ness pleaded in a whisper, one hand on her shoulder, holding her back.

  “He just executed them! And he helped lead the attack on Arna! He may as well have killed Jaz himself,” she whispered back furiously, looking Ness directly in the eye.

  Ness inhaled deeply. “My father is dead,” he said, his expression hardening. “If you die here, your revolution dies with you. Do you think he would want that?”

  “Division leader,” a robed man called as he approached the group at a jog.

  “What is it?” Mehrazeen replied calmly.

  “The undead! They are coming from the mass graves in the east.”

  Mehrazeen’s lips twisted. “Really? Are you going to tell me it’s cold next?” he spat. “I don’t need you to tell me things I already know; I want to know who is behind it.”

  “We don’t know, they just appeared,” the robed man stammered as another series of explosions rang out from the distance.

  Mehrazeen shook his head, then pulled out his sword and decapitated the last of the prisoners. “We can hunt these rebels later. We have more important things to worry about,” he said as he wiped his blade clean before re-sheathing it. “I want those undead back in the ground before dawn.”

  “By His Brightness’s light,” the robed man said with a salute, before turning to give the order.

  “By His Light,” Mehrazeen replied as he tracked the red streak of a Magitech shot across the sky. “Also,” he added, causing the robed man to stop in his tracks. “Send a Wind Speak message to the Imperial Capital. Tell them the Imperial Army might need to intervene in Fermont and the rest of the eastern provinces.”

  The robed man cleared his throat before taking a tentative step closer to Mehrazeen. “Sir, the Imperial Capital is over a thousand miles from here… sending a Wind Speak message—”

  “You will find a sufficient air crystal in my tent, now. Don’t waste any more time,” Mehrazeen interrupted.

  The robed man saluted again before dashing into the command tent.

  “You can come out now,” Mehrazeen said, causing the closest soldier to him to glance over questioningly.

  “Sir?” he asked.

  “Not you,” Mehrazeen said, “the rats scurrying about.” Calmly, he turned to face the tent Emily and Ness crouched behind.

  Ness clicked his tongue. “Well this is going to be great,” he muttered as he pulled Emily back. “Stay,” he said, his expression becoming one Emily knew all too well: that of a killer.

  Emily frowned as Ness jumped out of their cover and ran straight at Mehrazeen. The more than three dozen guards around the commander charged back. Knives flew out in all directions, finding the tiny gaps between the thick armor plating of the guards as Ness jumped, his daggers drawn.

  He ducked and flipped around the guards as they swung their blades and thrust their spears. They couldn’t touch him. She saw Ness toss a vial on the ground, which shattered and released a cloud of smoke. Emily couldn’t see what was happening now, but she could hear the pained yelps and frustrated growls of the Gold Serpents as they tried and failed to find their target.

  Ness must have dispatched more than a dozen already. Emily took a deep breath; with her help, they could take the rest. She knew they could. Just as she braced herself to lunge forward, a pillar of light smashed into the smoke. Men screamed as they were cooked alive while Ness flipped back, his cloak steaming, half his torso and face burnt—but even then, he did not scream.

  The cloud dissipated, and the light retreated, revealing Mehrazeen, standing with his hand extended. “I’m surprised you survived that,” he said as he stepped closer. The burnt remains of his own men lay before him. The more than a dozen survivors exchanged worried glances, but did not flee.

  “I’ll take care of him,” Mehrazeen said to them as he pulled his blade out again. “You take care of the one still hiding back there.”

  Emily’s heart skipped a beat as the soldiers advanced on her position, keeping an eye on Ness as they moved in a wide circle around him.

  She checked her belt and cursed. She was out of knives and vials. She gripped her dagger tighter.

  “Don’t you dare,” Ness snapped as he stood his ground before the man in the gold cape. “You run, I’ll hold them off. I swear Emi, if you don’t do as I say I’ll make you regret it.”

  Emily watched him: his shaking hands, his slightly hunched back, and his heavy breathing. He was barely standing with such injuries.

  She stood and strode forward. Mehrazeen’s eyes tracked her, an inquisitive look crossing his features. “You must be Cyclops,” he said. “Though you had a different name back in Arna.”


  “Emi,” Ness growled.

  “Shut up, Ness. You can’t seriously think I’m leaving you here.”

  Ness took in a deep, shuddering breath. “When we escape, I’m going to give you one of those spankings you used to love,” he said with a strained smile.

  Emily narrowed her eye before jabbing his burned shoulder with a finger. Ness yelped.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you,” Emily said, as she shifted her position, their backs now flat against one another as the guards began to surround them.

  Mehrazeen pointed an open palm at them, and luminous golden mist seeped from it.

  “Division Leader!” someone shouted, and Emily stiffened as four more guards in Gold Serpents armor emerged from behind the command tent. “There are too many, we can’t—”

  The soldier paused, noticing the situation.

  A long, amused laugh came from the cage behind them, redirecting everyone’s attention. There, behind the bars stood two vampires, their red eyes glowing in the dark. “Look at them,” a woman with hazel-colored hair said idly. “Such savages.” The other vampire, a dark-haired male, continued to laugh as the five or so thralls behind them growled.

  Mehrazeen barely gave them a glance. “Be good little pests and keep to your cage,” he said. In response, the woman bared her teeth at him.

  “Remember this day, Ejani scum,” she hissed. “Remember it when I start cutting pieces off you and feeding it to your family.”

  The division leader ignored her, focusing only on Ness and Emily.

  “Should we release them?” Emily whispered. “They hate them more than us.”

  Ness coughed, then hissed in pain. “They will kill us all in equal measure,” he said before Emily felt his back rise against hers as Ness took a deep breath. “I’ll take him, you keep the rest busy,” he said before suddenly sprinting forward—his lunge causing the rest of the guards to charge in, weapons held high.

  Emily crouched down and ran at the first guard, her dagger reaching for the gap in his armor just below his armpit. Her blade stabbed through the chainmail and cloth before she ducked and rolled, narrowly avoiding getting sliced from behind. She sidestepped a spear thrust and grabbed its shaft, reorienting it to meet a full-on charge by another soldier. On the now-icy ground, he couldn’t stop his forward motion and let out a guttural grunt as he impaled himself on his colleague’s spear.

  Then Ness let out a groan, and Emily glanced to her right. Her eyes went wide when she saw Mehrazeen’s hands around her partner’s throat, his other hand squeezing Ness’s burnt arm.

  She gripped her dagger tighter and twirled around another solider before tossing it as hard as possible. The blade spun before sinking deep into Mehrazeen’s side. The Gold Serpent bellowed in pain and released Ness, her partner falling to the ground with a grunt before he began to drag himself clear. Just as she was about to run to him, a spear was thrust at her. Emily stepped back but was only narrowly able to avoid being skewered—instead, the spear head slashed across her stomach. Emily squealed as she fell back, avoiding yet another spear thrust.

  “It’s over,” Mehrazeen said, causing the guards to stop their attacks. Emily struggled to her hands and knees as the division leader held his blade against Ness’s throat where he lay on the ground, his face contorted in pain from his burns. Mehrazeen himself did not look so good; her dagger was still stuck in his side.

  “Emi…” she heard Ness say, his voice low, tired. “Just run, please.”

  “She isn’t going anywhere. After I dispatch you, I’ll take her to the provincial capital to be questioned. I’m sure Lord Helis would love to speak to the famed Cyclops who assassinated the Satrap,” Mehrazeen said, laughing. He raised his sword, intending to strike the final blow, but paused when a bitterly intense chill iced the air around them.

  A deep throaty breath sounded from nowhere as dust and frost began to swirl a few inches from the locked door of the vampires’ cage. Seeing it, the vampires inside stepped back, concern painted on their features; even the mindless thralls were huddling in the far corners. The cold had Emily shaking—everyone was.

  The swirling dust and frost intensified and soon that same throaty voice sounded from within it.

  “From the Abyss I come, hear my call,” it said as a silhouette began to from. “Enshroud my path in a curtain of frost. Bring forth your ire, your fury, your hatred.” With its words, a wave of ethereal blue and green light formed and rotated around the figure, slowly rising. “May they cry, may they beg for the refuge I bring,” it continued as the swirling dust and frost began to dissipate, and a black-robed figure stood in its place. A hand gripped an ashen staff, an orb crowning it with a bright green eye within.

  The figure turned, its skeletal face and decaying skin causing Emily’s blood to run even colder as its night-dark eyes gazed at them. The rising ghostly light slowly fused the higher it rose, and soon there were countless spectral skulls swirling in the sky above them, forming a whirlpool of sorts. The magical cannon-shots slammed into them and caused huge explosions, but their sheer numbers meant they were undiminished.

  The black-robed creature took a step forward and raised its staff. “With clarity, I reap,” it intoned, and an utter silence fell upon the clearing.

  Then the wind howled with the screams of the restless undead. Emily looked up in shock as the swirling whirlpool of spectral skulls descended upon them, a waterfall of whistling death.

  The skulls went through the fabric of the tents, and into every living thing they could find. The vast majority of them flew to the east and the battle ranging there. Emily noticed Muhrazeen take a few steps back to avoid a skull, the movement forcing him to release Ness from his control. She stumbled back as she watched one of the soldiers trip, a skull disappearing into his chest. For a moment, nothing happened, but then he began to scream and cough. There was so much anguish and pain in his squeals, it made her skin prickle.

  Not wanting to witness it any longer, she rushed to and pulled Ness closer before sweeping his cape over them both. “Ness,” she said urgently, “I know you’re hurting, but I need you to activate the enchantment.” He only gazed around himself, his eyes distant. “Ness!” she cried as she saw his injuries clearly now. The burns were worse than she’d thought.

  He didn’t reply, but instead began to mutter something she could not decipher before the cape flickered.

  “Is it working?” Emily whispered. Nothing seemed to have changed; she could still see her surroundings through the cloth. But if the enchantment had worked, they would be invisible.

  A spectral skull hovered over them. Emily held her breath, gripping Ness tightly as he fell in and out of consciousness. The skull lingered, twirling around before moving on.

  Emily let out a relieved breath, her gaze shifting to the black-robed undead. It was a lich, she was certain of it. But even a lich wasn’t powerful enough to command so many undead.

  The lich stood utterly still amid the howling chaos, only the green eye atop his staff rotating slowly before it blinked, and a shadow emerged from it. The shadow landed on the ground just behind the staff and began to expand into a creature of nightmares.

  The creature stood several heads taller than the lich and was made of pure shadows. Its two long arms ended in sharp sickle-like claws, while its feet ended in hooves. Its eyes were a clear crystalline green, just like those in the orb atop the staff, and a pair of massive horns arched upward from its head. The creature reeked of death and malevolence.

  A pillar of light lit the small clearing once more as Mehrazeen growled. “By His Brightness’s will—be purified!” he shouted, as a beam of light shot out of a small formation he had weaved. Just as the beam was about to strike the lich, the shadow creature reached for with it long and spindly arms.

  The beam ripped into its hands, but the shadow reformed just as quickly. The light winked out.

  Mehrazeen took the still glowing symbol attached to his hand, whose glow appeared to keep the s
pectral skulls away, and swiped it over his blade. He charged, his blade now pointed forward and emitting a brilliant yellow light.

  The shadow creature stood straight, its height dwarfing everything surrounding it, before it melted to the ground. Noticing this, Mehrazeen paused in his charge and eyed the ground warily, before shifting his attention back to the lich—and that was when Emily knew it was over. The creature reappeared once more, reforming in the blink of an eye behind the division leader. Its arms swung forward like whips, and its sharp claws cut into his armor as if through paper. Mehrazeen screamed as his blade dropped to the ground, its light fading. He hung limply in the shadowy figure’s claws, its ink-black muscles flexing as it presented him to the lich like a trophy.

  The lich leaned forward, a strange smile forming on its rotting face as it gripped Mehrazeen’s chin and lifted it up. The division leader’s expression was haunted, his once-piercing green eyes clouded. “Do not fear, accept the enviable,” the lich said, and Emily realized with a sickening feeling that Mehrazeen was still alive—though barely.

  “Accept this gift, and serve a higher purpose,” the lich continued as shadows formed along Mehrazeen’s body. The shadows spread, and once they covered him wholly, the creature which had held him withdrew its hand. Emily tried to comprehend what she was seeing.

  Mehrazeen was turning into another one of those shadow creatures.

  Seeing the transformation was complete, the lich turned, his gaze fixing on the two vampires and the thralls in their cage. Apart from Emily and Ness, they appeared to be the only ones spared by the spectral skulls. The lich raised one hand, before forming a fist.

  The thralls screeched as a wave of skulls washed over them, and they fell as a group. Black tar began to leak from their eyes, their noses and mouths. They shook and struggled, letting out pained moans before they all fell still.

  The lich came slowly forward, until he was standing just before the cage.

  “Nevani, where is she?” the lich asked softly as he gripped the bars.

 

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