Thanks to Aren, Calen, and Eshtak, the evacuation of Elatos was well underway.
“What do we do now?” asked Theyn.
“I must go face Cinolth.” Nardus touched her face and stroked her cheek.
Theyn leaned into his hand and kissed it. A smile curled her lips. “You mean ‘we.’”
He shook his head. “No, I must go alone.”
Her smile faded. “And what am I supposed to do?”
“You can stay here and fight or you can head to Borza and make sure Berggren and Niesha are evacuating the people there.” He could tell she didn’t like his answer, and he knew why. “Look, Theyn. You must learn to trust yourself when you’re away from me. And you also need to practice your shifting. Now is as good of a time to do that as any.”
Theyn growled deep in her throat. “If I lose myself again, I’m going to take it out on you when you find me.”
“Deal.” Nardus kissed her.
She turned to Prince Rictar. “What’s the quickest route to Borza?”
“Cross the bridge to the other side of Elatos and follow the road along the shoreline. It leads straight there.”
“Thanks.” Theyn took Nardus’s hands and kissed him goodbye. “Don’t go getting yourself killed while I’m gone.”
Nardus touched his forehead to hers. “Not possible. You’ve seen the future.”
Their fingers lingered together for several seconds, and then Theyn headed toward the bridge. Using his mezhik, Nardus called forth a mighty griffin that lived in the western Orbis Mountains. A few minutes later, the majestic creature swooped down from the sky and landed before him. Half lion and half eagle, the beast would’ve scared most people. Prince Rictar didn’t back away.
“My word, that’s a beautiful creature,” exclaimed Prince Rictar.
“To be certain. I must go and do what I can to stop Cinolth. I fear Elatos will fall soon. Fall back as soon as it’s evident.”
Prince Rictar clasped Nardus’s arm. “We will. Be careful.”
Nardus nodded and set his sights on the griffin. Through his mind, he connected with the creature and learned its name through a series of images.
Nardus patted the griffin’s feathery neck. “Streak it is.”
He hopped on Streak’s back, and Streak took to the sky in effortless fashion. Using his mind, he directed Streak toward the north end of the lake where Cinolth and Aria battled the water titan. The fearless creature darted north.
I’m coming for you, you scaly bastard.
† † †
Calen thought the time he’d been captured by the zhebəllin was the scariest of his life, but it paled in comparison to his current situation. Fire burned the great wall and blackened the sky with plumes of smoke. The citizens of Elatos ran around in a panic, none of them knowing what to do or where to go. Trying to direct tens of thousands of them toward the temple on the west side of Elatos proved extremely difficult.
“There’s an underground tunnel that leads to the stronghold,” shouted Calen. Aren, the soldier Prince Rictar sent with him and Eshtak, shouted and directed people as well, but their efforts seemed futile.
A thunderous explosion shook the ground and rocked the city. Everyone around stopped where they were, shocked by the sound. The great wall had fallen. Calen shook his head to snap himself out of the shock and started directing people toward the temple again. This time, the people listened. Word of the plan spread throughout Elatos like wildfire and soon droves of them entered the temple and the tunnel below it.
“Go with them,” shouted Aren. “They will need someone strong to keep them calm.”
Calen blinked. Had Aren just called him strong? As absurd as it sounded in his head, the compliment steeled his heart and swelled his chest. “What about you?” he asked Aren.
“I will stay here and continue to direct people to the temple until the enemy is upon us. Then, and only then, I will enter the tunnel and trigger the mechanism that will destroy the temple and bury the tunnel entrance.”
“And what if you’re killed before you can get to the tunnel?” asked Calen.
“If it comes down to that, gods help us all.” Aren put his right fist over his heart. “Now go, soldier.”
Calen returned the salute, and then he and Eshtak joined the throng down in the tunnel. Yellow stones lined the walls and filled the tunnel with their ambient light. Torches would’ve created toxic smoke and fumes in such a confined space, so the stones made perfect sense.
As scared as he was, Calen found his mind wandering toward their destination. He had no idea what to expect of an underground stronghold. In fact, he’d never heard of one before. With so many people heading there without the time to gather their belongings, he prayed that someone had stocked the stronghold with food, blankets, and other provisions.
And weapons.
Chapter Forty-Seven
Vallah should’ve been burning by now, but the water titan proved a formidable foe. Aria held on tight as Cinolth continued to evade its attacks. Nothing they tried seemed to work against the beast. With the lake being such a vast resource, she and Cinolth didn’t have the combined strength to boil away enough water to even make a dent in a single leg, let alone two.
She also couldn’t figure out how the beast hadn’t even begun to fall apart. The energy it had to take to conjure and maintain such a beast seemed impossible. To the south, she saw that more than half of Elatos burned. The thought of Pravus relishing such a victory sickened her.
“We need to do something different,” she mindspoke to Cinolth.
“Agreed.”
An ice ball the size of a large boulder slammed into Cinolth’s side. The surprise strike sent him careening right into the water titan’s arcing fist.
Thwack!
Tendrils of seaweed shot out from the water titan’s fist, ensnared Aria, and ripped her from Cinolth’s back.
Dazed by the two strikes, Cinolth plummeted straight into the lake.
Aria summoned fire and burned the seaweed that held her, and then she called upon the wind to catch her and suspend her in the air. She looked for the source of the ice ball and found Nardus riding on a griffin. They circled around the spot where Cinolth had plunged into the water.
Cinolth mindspoke to Aria, “Leave Cyrus to me. Go find the wizard conjuring the water titan and kill them.”
“They will not live for long.”
Aria flew toward the northern shore and the white walls of Vallah.
† † †
The light shield still held, but the attacks from Cinolth and Aria had drained more energy from the bracelet than Savric had wanted. Apparently, dragon’s fire was quite strong. So was Aria’s mezhik for that matter. Druden and Zerenity did well defending Vallah from Cinolth and managed to separate Aria from him just as Nardus had wanted, but it seemed like that was the only thing going well.
“What in the high heavens is happening?”
Savric turned to see King Zaridus approaching. “My king.”
“Where are my son and daughter? I’ve searched the entire palace and haven’t found them.” His glare burned with fire.
“Prince Rictar is in Elatos, and Princes Zelanora is helping evacuate Vallah.”
King Zaridus’s face turned several shades redder and fringed upon a purplish hue. “Was I not clear last night? Did I somehow misspeak? I said no one was to leave Vallah.”
Savric nodded. “Your words were quite clear. Everyone at that table understood that you cared only for your own hide.” King Zaridus looked like he might explode, but Savric continued, “However, your son and daughter do not share your self-preservation. They made their own decisions.”
“Everything I do is for their sake, not mine!” The man shook with rage, and saliva dripped from his lips. “All of you will hang for this!”
“I understand your rage, but you brought this upon yourself. I warned you long ago about an impending war, and you laughed a
t me and kicked me out of your palace. Had you heeded my warning, much of this could have been avoided. As it is, I am the only thing standing between you and certain death. Have some dignity and show me some respect. Be the king that the people need, not some coward afraid of his own shadow.”
King Zaridus marched over to the balcony railing and gasped. “Elatos is nearly gone! What of my son? What of Prince Rictar?” He fell to his knees.
Savric held his tongue. No words would change what had been done.
† † †
Smoke rose from far below and drew Zerenity’s attention. The light shield continued to hold, and they’d succeeded in knocking Aria from Cinolth, so what had caused the fires below? She withdrew her mezhik and released Druden’s shoulder.
“Something’s happening at the lowest level of the city. I’m going to go check it out.”
Druden nodded, his eyes never leaving the water titan. “I can handle the dragon, especially with the help of Nardus.”
“Good. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Zerenity spun around and teleported down to the main street on the first level of Vallah.
Fires burned in several shops and homes, and hay wagons blazed. Soldiers wearing the king’s sigil lay everywhere, their blood spilled upon the road. As far as she could tell, none of them were citizens. Princess Zelanora must’ve done a good job evacuating them. A stench she couldn’t quite identify hung in the air.
Zerenity teleported up to the city’s second level. Someone called her name as soon as she appeared. She turned around and saw Rayah flying toward her. Urza and another gnoll came running up the road as well, followed by a dwarf riding a large dog.
“The orcs are here!” cried Rayah.
“Orcs?” It explained the stench she couldn’t identify.
“They came from the north,” said Urza.
“We must defend Druden and keep them from reaching the King’s Palace,” said Zerenity.
Zerenity stumbled forward, and pain erupted in her right shoulder. “Auh!” A crude arrowhead punctured her robes and blood flowed from the wound it’d caused.
“Take cover!” yelled Rakzar.
† † †
The water titan held Cinolth underneath the water, but its strength weakened significantly when the seaweed died off. Nardus gathered sand and rock from the lake bottom and piled it on top of Cinolth but knew it wouldn’t hold the beast down for long. He circled and waited and readied another assault.
The water titan stumbled backward, and Cinolth shot out of the water, right for Nardus and Streak.
Nardus loosed fireballs and struck the beast with bolts of lightning but hadn’t anticipated the counterattack.
Cinolth flew dangerously close and hurled a large boulder at Streak. Streak didn’t have time to dodge it and took the blow square in the head.
Nardus hovered in place using air mezhik as Streak fell from the sky and splashed into the water below.
Enraged, he pummeled Cinolth with ice shards, but they didn’t slow the dragon down.
Cinolth roared and shot a column of fire at Nardus. The flames didn’t touch him, but they disrupted the air Nardus stood upon. He crashed into the water and Cinolth dove after him, but the water titan batted Cinolth away.
Nardus rose to the water’s surface. Cinolth stood on the western shore and shook off the strike from the water titan. Nardus loosed hundreds of massive icicles at Cinolth, but the beast melted them with fire and took to the sky just before the water titan stomped on him.
Nardus felt his energy getting low. He didn’t know how much longer he could battle Cinolth. The beast proved far stronger than he remembered.
It must be because of the bond he shares with Shanara.
Given Cinolth’s strength, he would never be able to defeat the dragon in such a battle. However, all he needed to do for now was distract Cinolth long enough to save as many people as possible.
Cinolth came hard and fast, wings back and head narrowed. Nardus stood his ground atop the water and braced for impact. At the last possible moment, Nardus turned the water’s surface into a thick layer of ice and teleported a hundred yards back.
Cinolth had no chance of pulling up or blasting the ice with fire and hit it with a sick thud. The water titan followed up with a fist to Cinolth’s head. The ice cracked, split open, and swallowed Cinolth.
Nardus poured his mezhik into the lake, freezing a sizable portion of it solid. It would hold Cinolth for a little while.
† † †
A loud clanging of metal drew Alderan’s attention to Vallah’s city gates. Mangled and ripped from their hinges, they laid on the road in a heap. He didn’t need a closer look to see that the woman who caused the damage was Aria. With bare hands, she tore soldiers apart. The sight sickened him, and anger swelled in his chest.
“Aria!” he screamed, knowing she’d never hear him from across the river or with the deafening roar of the water generated by the water titan.
Aria entered the city, and he needed to act. In a single step, Alderan moved from the western shoreline of Trivers Lake to a blood-stained road inside Vallah’s city gates. Aria climbed the steep road ahead of him.
“Stop!” yelled Alderan. The road in front of Aria cracked and groaned and rose up to form a wall.
She turned and faced him, mezhik crackling and arcing between her fingers. “Stay out of this, brother.” Her words slurred with rage, the usual green of her eyes glowed a menacing red.
He took a step toward her, his arms spread wide. “This isn’t you.”
“Stay out of my way.” A concussive pulse of air shot from Aria’s hand. The blast hit him in the chest, took him from his feet, and drove him into the road. His head snapped back and cracked against the hard stone. A groan slipped through his lips, and his vision doubled. When he tried to sit up his head pulsed with pain. Aria’s menacing face faded as the darkness pulled him into its clutches.
Chapter Forty-Eight
Berggren thanked Zhedäƨ Ƨʊn that Borza was significantly smaller than Vallah and Elatos. Only about forty-five thousand people lived within its paper-thin walls. However, he hadn’t expected to find the escape tunnel that led to the stronghold completely filled in and inaccessible. From the looks of it, someone had collapsed it recently. A few minutes time gave him the answer to the mystery. The city magistrate and her council were gone.
The unforeseen circumstance left them with three equally bad options. They could stay and help the measly Borza City Guard defend the city, they could flee up into the Reis’Duron Grasslands, or they could scatter into the Orbis Mountains. As an outsider, he had no say in what the people should do, so he gave them their options.
None of the people elected to hang back and help the city guard. That didn’t surprise Berggren in the least. The majority of the people decided to head for the mountains. Some would cross the Tamda River and head into the northern Orbis Mountains while the others would go south and into the southeastern Orbis Mountains. The handful left would also cross the Tamda River and head northeast, toward the Reis’Duron Grasslands.
Berggren took Niesha’s hand and peered down at her. “Given the choice, what would you do?”
She gritted her teeth and raised a small fist. “I say we stay and fight!”
Berggren snorted. “Figured you’d say that. That’s why you’re not in charge.”
“Nothing scares me.” She chewed on her lower lip.
“Shh,” said Berggren.
Geographically speaking, Borza was an anomaly. The bowl-shaped city rose up on a slight plateau around its edge and plummeted a good fifteen feet at its center. From Berggren’s vantage on the western end of the city, he witnessed the beginning of what he knew would be a slaughter on its east end. It didn’t take long for the cries of terror, screams of death, clashes of steel, and guttural, bone-chilling howls to reach them.
A thousand gnolls descended on the people.
Niesha stood on her tip
py toes and craned her neck. “What’s happening, big man?”
Berggren swept Niesha into his arms and over his shoulder. “Gnolls.” He lumbered toward the docks.
“What are gnolls?” Her voice vibrated.
“Massive, wolf-like creatures that can walk on their hind legs and talk.”
“Not gonna lie. That sounds interesting.”
Berggren shook his head. “Except that they have no regard for life.”
She patted his back. “What are we going to do about it?”
“Run. It’s the only thing that might save our lives.”
Berggren skidded to a halt. Smoke and flames rose from the docks ahead. The roads crawled with gnolls every direction he looked.
“Damn,” growled Berggren. He and Niesha had no choice but to hole up somewhere and defend themselves. The only question that remained was where.
She squirmed in his arms. “What now?”
“Be still, Niesha. I need to think.”
“We both know I’m the brains of this operation.” She managed to squirt out of his arms and landed hard on her feet. “That’s better.”
Berggren wiped beads of sweat from the top of his head. “We need somewhere to hide.”
Niesha grabbed his hand and yanked but Berggren didn’t budge. “Follow me!”
Berggren looked around. “Where to?”
“The temple.” She yanked on his arm harder. “I’ve never been in one that didn’t have catacombs. We can hide in one of those dead person things.”
“Sarcophagus.”
She smiled. “Yeah! Kinda surprised you know such a big word.”
“Funny.” He picked her up and headed toward the beige, three-story temple that stood right in the middle of the city.
† † †
Flames engulfed a good portion of Borza by the time Theyn reached the city’s edge. Howls and screams filled the air and prickled her skin. With caution, she approached what remained of the western gates. Beyond them, ungodly beasts chased people down and ripped them to shreds. She imagined that’s what it had looked like when she’d been the ungodly beast in West Hotah. The thought terrified and sickened her.
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