A Lich's Love (Death Knight Series Book 5)

by Michael Chatfield

  “Clan Fox!” A beast kin roared. The attacks suddenly ended.

  Tommie lowered his shield. The chaotic beasts had been hit with several spears, their blood leaking on the ground.

  Tommie looked to the sorcerers.

  The horde closed in on the crystalline camp that was fighting back.

  The first sorcerer grabbed their staff and jumped off their mount, rolling down on the ground and running forward, sending their elk away. Other sorcerers dismounted.

  Shit I didn’t know they could move that fast.

  They dodged incoming attacks, forming barriers to defend themselves and sending out attacks. All of their faces were focused as they ran through the embers on the burned ground and past the chaotic beasts. They had a goal in mind, and no one could catch a slippery elf in a forest, even in a burnt-out one.

  Tommie watched the sorcerer he saved slide down a hill and then jump forward. A white spell appeared under his arms and along his body, allowing him to glide and miss a Drafeng’s attack.

  Tommie ejected the half-melted shield. His skinnier arms turned into twin bows, holding arrows wreathed in purple flame.

  Before the Elf landed, two arrows pierced through the defending Drafeng.

  The looked down at his body two more arrows passing his shoulders as he collapsed. The chaotic beasts that had been around him didn’t touch the hem of the Elves’ robe, purple flames consuming their bodies.

  The Elven sorcerer stabbed her staff into the ground, a light blue formation appeared around the staff and caster. Other staffs were stabbed into the ground by the other Sorcerers. Light raced out from the formations, connecting to one another.

  Other staffs were stabbed into the ground, the formation spreading faster to reach one another and cover the crystal camp.

  Tommie watched the barrier enclose the entire Crystal camp, separating it from the battlefield outside.

  Without the fear of the camp, the army redoubled their efforts.

  Tommie ran towards the nearest sorcerer, standing beside other warriors that had made it this far. They stood together ready to fight.

  Charging familiars Bedars and mounted forces crushed Chaotic beasts under their claws and weapons flashed in the sunlight, attacking the chaotic creatures.

  “Box them in!”

  “Don’t let them shoot out their beams! Use the powder!”

  Gnomes tossed small bean-bag sized cloth sacks that hit Chaotic beasts in the face and covered them in powder. While coughing and sneezing, the beasts couldn’t open their mouths to shoot out their beams.

  Tommie worked with the others around the sorcerer, nothing made it past their weapons.

  Forces were breaking down into groups, boxing in the chaotic beasts, hitting them from every direction.

  Their fate was written in stone as Drafeng and their chaotic beasts inside the camp attacked the barriers, but they weren’t able to make them even shudder.

  Esteban used a shrill whistle and people moved to the side.

  Dwarven cannons were rolled out as massive heavy Familiars stepped forward from their masters.

  The Dwarves readied their cannons and yelled, their lines belched fire they passed through the barriers, creating ripples.

  Beams of familiar’s power emanated from their bodies or the air around them.

  The cannonballs exploded against the crystal defenses. Beams smashed through them or burned holes in the surface.

  The once safe camp turned into a hell.

  The Patrolling units were dealt with. Units pulled back together, staying in the lanes that the siege weaponry wasn’t firing down.

  The Crystal walls turned into shining shrapnel, hitting the barrier a few meters from Tommie.

  He could see the doorway in the middle of the camp.

  Drafeng were tossed to the side with the explosions. Chaotic beasts charged the barriers. They hit them full force. Spears stabbed through, piercing their bodies.

  Their camp turned into a prison.

  Proud walls were cracked, torn open before the United Army.

  A horn sounded out the cannons and familiars fell silent. Esteban’s shrill whistle sounded off.

  The cannons and siege weapons pushed forward. Archers and mages attacked the doorway directly, cutting down anything that tried to come through.

  The Familiars were re-summoned. Attacks of the elements and beams of pure power tore at the doorway. The power fluctuation should crack the Locus stone with enough attacks.

  Cannons stopped their advance, close enough to see their target themselves. Cannon balls went through the doorway or hit the ground around it, destruction covered it.

  It took a full ten minutes of concentrated fire before the doorway succumbed. It sounded like a book being slammed shut, the doorway disappeared. A whistle called out, the siege weapons fell silent and the Infantry units advanced.

  Tommie followed them, leaving ripples that ran across the barrier.

  The Infantry units, ignoring the smells of explosives and the dead made sure that the Drafeng and their beasts were dead, grimly advancing into the camp.

  There were bursts of fighting as a Drafeng that had been faking their death attacked the infantry.

  There were only a few that could give a token fight.

  Tommie walked inside, checking the area there was nothing left alive. The beautiful crystal camp was a shelled out ruin.

  He stood there, looking at it. He didn’t know when Cecilia or Esteban walked up beside him.

  When she pulled out a map, using a section of broken crystal as a table Tommie and Esteban stepped up on either side.

  “This doorway is only a few hours ride from here, we don’t think it is open yet. Esteban, head over there with your mounted forces,” Cecilia said. “Reports say they have only just started to form a camp. Tommie go with him.”

  “Where will you go?” Esteban asked.

  “I will head to this location to the North, while the dismounted aren’t as quick as you we have more of them. Take some of the siege familiars with you. I’ll take the cannons, they move at the same speed as the dismounted.”

  “Yes Guardian.” Esteban saluted and turned back to his group.

  “Make sure you reload,” she said to Tommie.

  Tommie nodded and followed Esteban back to the mounted forces. Healers were rushing across the battlefield, field tents were being thrown up as the wounded were treated.

  How many have been wounded or killed so far? How many will fall in the future?

  Chapter: Kin Revival

  “So, where are we going?” Penelope asked as Bracegar came into view, appearing to have been carved from a large sandstone outcropping, the city was nestled into the red sands of the Selenus desert.

  A city had grown around it, defending it.

  The top of the stone was covered in a fog-covered forest. Greenery sprouted around the outcropping and water flowed down its sides, feeding the city below.

  “To the beast kin’s shrine,” Bruce said.

  Damien looked at Bracegar as he rode on the back of Penelope. Her speed was the fastest of all Anthony’s familiars.

  They cut through the skies and people started to look up.

  “Is it just me or is it getting a little heavy up here?” Damien asked.

  “Let us pass.” Bruce’s words passed through the air and the weight lifted off them all. People started yelling all across the city of Bracegar as Penelope headed for the top of the stone outcropping—the holiest land of all the beast kin, the place where their heroes and proud ancestors were put to rest.

  “That’s going to go over well,” Damien muttered as he grabbed the hammer on his back.

  Penelope slowed as they got closer to the ground.

  They cut through the fog and Damien felt revitalized. She batted her wings and she came to land on a path.

  Even though it was day outside of the fog, underneath it, darkness greeted them.

  “I’m running out of power to sustain myself.. I�
�ll wait till you’re finished.” Penelope’s form became smaller and Damien felt her power dwindle. “Once I dissipate then I’ll return to Anthony and update him.”

  “Thank you, Penelope.” Bruce bowed his head before, leading the way with his hands clasped behind his back.

  They walked along the path. Motes of light flit around, illuminating their path. In the bamboo shoots and trees, there were masters of different races talking to one another and then dispersing with a passing wind. Others were fishing in ponds.

  Some sparred with one another or did alchemy.

  They reached the end of the path. An ancient stone rested in the middle of the rock outcropping. It didn’t have harsh edges; it was just an oblong stone with carvings in it. Damien felt peaceful as he looked at the stone.

  “You! You have come here to kill one of your fellow clan spirits! Forcefully removing Remus like that—do you know what that could have done! Our generals on the front need all the strength they can get against those Church of Light bastards!” A wolf kin man appeared from the fog. His eyes flashed viciously in anger and other eyes appeared in the area around Bruce.

  “Oh, it seems that Remus is too weak to tell you everything.”

  Bruce pulled out his staff. “He told me what you did, Ulrick.” He smacked his pole on the ground and chains appeared around the stone. Runes glowed on those chains as spell formations appeared around it, floating in mid-air.

  “What we did? We saved our race! The humans were gearing for war but no one would listen. We needed to be ready. We were the victors and then they treated us as slaves!”

  “Victors? We fought together—did you forget that?”

  “What do you know? We thought that you were one of us, one of the warriors, the leaders and alphas. But you were just a weakling, looking to put your weapon up as soon as someone gave you an excuse. You were a human’s familiar.” Ulrick spat on the ground.

  “Step aside, Ulrick. The clan spirits are not just the war faction. All deserve to have a voice,” Bruce said.

  Ulrick let out a growl as he lunged forward, going from all fours to his rear legs. Twin swords appeared in his hands.

  Bruce jabbed out with his pole, hitting one blade, and then swiped with the other end of his pole, shifting the other blade’s attack. He turned the pole between his hands, grabbing one end and sending it flying out. He lunged forward, his attack missing; a sword passed where his legs had been, sticking into the ground and dissipating into smoke.

  Bruce was off-balance; his last reaching strike opened him up. Ulrick cut back, attacking with his remaining blade.

  Bruce released his pole, dropping to the ground. He swept with his leg, taking out Ulrick’s leg. He grabbed his pole and advanced. A flick sent Ulrick’s other blade flying as two strikes kept him off-balance and on the ground. Bruce dropped to the ground, on top of Ulrich’s back, pinning him there with his pole along Ulrick’s neck, tilting his head up and at an angle, at Bruce’s mercy.

  “See, war runs in your veins. You’re like us. The weak remain weak while the strong need to fight to grow,” Ulrick said through gritted teeth, the pole stopping him from opening his mouth all the way.

  “I did not like war. I fought to save, not to say it grew our strength. Death creates losses, no gains. Working together, building and growing. You may not have seen it, but right now what use is our anger, our want for war? It has come upon us anyway. Or did you not know you had sided with the Drafeng?”

  Bruce’s words came out as a growl and the other eyes and half-formed clan spirits recoiled.

  “Drafeng? Prove it!” Ulrick said through gritted teeth.

  Bruce turned his head to the side and looked at Damien.

  Being a human, the other spirits hadn’t paid attention to him and he moved closer to the main stone.

  His hammer glowed with purple flames as he swung it at the chains. The purple fires spread over them. The chains shivered and shook. Lines of chaotic power ran down them with words that weren’t part of Dena’s languages.

  Everyone felt the devouring nature of the power held within those chains.

  Ulrick’s expression was tight.

  Bruce knew that he wouldn’t be able to admit to himself that he had betrayed the clans, the spirits, their kin—that he had brought in the power of chaos and the Drafeng into the heart of their society, into the Spirit Garden.

  The whole garden started to shake as the clouds above the temple trembled.

  Beast kin started to rise across the garden, released from the shackles that had prevented them from appearing in their corporeal form and cutting them off from the world.

  They stood, looking at the war faction members who had been part of the plot.

  “You turned on the people in your own faction.” Bruce looked at some of the war faction faces that were filled with fury.

  Four beast kin stepped forward: a male mole kin, a female cat kin, and squirrel kin, and a Umagi kin, a rare type of land octopus kin.

  Each of them released a powerful aura as they stepped forward.

  “Thank you, Guardian.” The mole kin was blind and walked with a staff but his weak eyesight didn’t seem to affect him. “There are a great number of werewolf spirits who grace our garden, valiant warriors who have stood with us since the beginning. With the persecution of your people, we have watched as a line of Kin were wiped out.” The mole’s voice shook and the betraying war faction had a mix of expressions.

  “They were half kin!” one cried out.

  “And you are no Kin of mine!” The mole hissed and the air seemed to turn solid. He reached out his hand, plucking out the hyena kin. Using his staff, he slammed them into the ground.

  “Betrayers of the Kin! You broke our vows to our people, to the Guardians, to Dena itself! The humans might have started this war, but you kept it going, dancing to the Agent of Chaos’s tune. Clan spirits are meant to guide and assist their descendants, not ruin their futures by driving them into war again and again to try to amass power and greed! Do you not see the corruption within you!”

  “Guardian, we are in need of your assistance.” The cat kin bowed her head. The mole looked to Damien as well.

  “Please help remove the chaotic power within our fellow spirits.”

  Damien smiled at the cat kin’s request.

  He pulled out a hammer. The air within the garden stirred. The power atop the garden seemed to be drawn into the center and Damien dropped his hammer. It rang out through the spirit lands and through Bracegar. People stopped in their tracks as a purple light bloomed from within the foggy lands above the garden.

  Around Damien, a courtroom formed, with legendary leaders appearing as part of the council. The Umagi was pulled forward as the representative of the beast kin .

  The different members of the courtroom were revealed. Some of the war faction spirits made to run but were chained in place.

  “How are you so strong? You were never able to restrain us before!” Ulrick yelled.

  “See, the war faction always saves a little bit of their strength each time they join with one of our descendants. You do this to grow stronger. While we, the other factions, give all of our strength to the Kin we bond with. We are much weaker once we return to the garden, meaning that we need to recover for more time before we join with our Kin. With you not allowing us to join with any more of our Kin, we recovered and although you stopped most of the offerings getting through to us, some still did. While you were fighting with your wars, you were growing slowly, but as we had drained ourselves each time, recovering our complete strength took time, but we are stronger than ever before,” the squirrel kin said.

  “With the extra offerings, we were able to get stronger and were going to challenge the chains that trapped us. But centuries went by and we waited. Until today.” The mole kin turned to the others who were around them.

  Bruce looked at them all. There were hundreds if not thousands of corporeal forms standing there.

  “What are yo
u waiting for? The Kin need our help—go and find your champions.” The mole kin tapped his staff on the ground.

  Some of the clan spirits dropped into the ground; others opened doorways and passed through them.

  Bells started to ring in the distance, announcing the return of a clan spirit.

  Spirits shot out of the garden, descending to the clans below or creating groups that flew through the skies toward their ancestral homes.

  “Our Kin’s power will grow and we will devote ourselves to increasing their strength, to winning this war. To defeating the Drafeng and teaching them the past. The true past, with our wins and our losses,” the mole said.

  He turned and bowed to Bruce. “Thank you.”

  The remaining spirits all bowed to Bruce and he bowed back to them. They faded away to tend to their tasks.

  The courtroom remained, with the court looking at the bound clan spirits.

  “Let us cleanse them first,” the hob judge said.

  “Better to work with the raw materials,” the dwarven judge agreed.

  Flames shot through the chains and into the clan spirits. They let out a yell. Their bodies became more insubstantial as the chaotic power that had infected them over time and affected their minds waged a war with the Guardian Flames.

  Watching them scream out, seeing how far the chaotic power had reached into their bodies, Bruce gritted his teeth.

  ***

  “What happened?” Emperor Klyn demanded as he walked out of his private quarters and into the main hall.

  “A phoenix coming from the west shot across the skies and entered the Spirit Garden. We dispatched guards to protect the garden but then there was a flash of purple flame as they were trying to get up there—” The commander was cut off as spirit bells started to ring out across the city.

  Klyn looked out of the hall, his brows pinching together.

  “What is happening? So many clan spirits have returned!” The others in the room were all confused by what was happening.

  “Find out what is happening. Have the guards head into the garden. They should find out what is happening before attacking.”