Immortal Swordslinger 3

by Dante King

  I unstrapped the Depthless Dream Trident from where it hung across my back and headed into the thick of the fray with both weapons in hand.

  “Dual-wielding?” Nydarth asked. “You continue to impress, Swordslinger.”

  Yono whispered something in return, but I barely heard her. Concern for my new students had every ounce of my focus.

  A snatcher had knocked Drek over and pinned him to the ground with a clawed foot. He snarled as the beast raised its beak ready to swing down and crack his head open. While the dwarf writhed beneath the bird, I lunged in with the trident. The weapon’s gleaming points plunged into the snatcher’s flank, and I twisted it before pulling it out. The snatcher collapsed in death while Drek climbed quickly to his feet.

  “Don’t just batter at it head on,” I said. “Think about how you can use your powers or other attacks to throw your opponent off balance.”

  I lunged again, this time aiming the trident at a snatcher’s face. As it swayed back, my sword came in low, fast and flaming, and sliced off one leg. The creature fell, and Drek finished it off with a crushing blow to the skull.

  “Someone on the left, summon a Sandstorm,” I called out to the others. “Don’t try to take them out with it; drive them toward the center.”

  There was a hiss and whirl of sand on the edge of the fight. Sure enough, the snatchers veered away from it, bumping into each other as they went. They became bunched up in the center and so were less able to maneuver.

  “Work in pairs again,” I shouted, confident that the monsters couldn’t understand what I was saying. “One distracts while the other goes on the offensive. Alternate roles and try different attacks.”

  I charged headlong at the central snatchers, aiming to keep them busy while the initiates regrouped. One monster slashed at me with its long claws, but I parried the attack with my trident, then counter-attacked with my sword, leaving a deep wound across its front. The giant bird responded by stabbing with its beak, and I stepped aside, let its head shoot past, and brought my blade straight down on its neck. Blood spurted as another snatcher fell headless to the ground.

  My pupils had rearranged themselves, so I took a step back to observe them in action. Everyone was following my instructions, with varying degrees of success. The most effective were Onvar and Zedal, fighting to my right. Zedal was fighting with a heavy quarterstaff while Onvar wielded a two-handed sword. They were taking turns feinting and letting the other get in for the real attack. As I watched, Onvar drew a snatcher’s attention while Zedal caught the bird with a heavy blow that caved in its chest.

  It was clear that the unvaried approach the initiates had taken at the start wasn’t due to a lack of skill or attention. The priests who taught them in Tahlis’ absence had done little to encourage the varied attacks needed to win a fight.

  By now, most of the plumed snatchers were down, either dead or dying, but a few fought furiously on. I stowed my weapons and held my hands out in front of me to channel a Burning Wheel. A whirlwind of fire formed between my hands, spinning faster and more intensely with each moment. I released it, and it ripped through the middle of the snatchers. One went down in flames while the rest squawked in terror and turned wildly around, looking to see where the fire went. I drew my sword and joined the initiates in finishing off the last of the monstrous birds.

  “Yeah!” Drek and Fig high-fived each other. The others smiled and looked around in satisfaction.

  “We’re not done yet,” I said. “Knives out and gather the cores.”

  We sliced open the corpses of the plumed snatchers and retrieved their magical cores. Choshi explained that I would need five to learn the Sandstorm technique, so I kept five for myself and shared the rest out among the students who hadn’t learned it yet. While the others stood watch, we each absorbed our cores, and I felt the power of earth grow stronger inside me. It took a lot longer for the others to consume the cores, but I didn’t want them to feel bad, so I sat there with my eyes closed until they were all done.

  “Well done, everyone,” I said. “You all have areas where you need to improve, but you put in excellent work there. Onvar and Zedal, that was some particularly fine teamwork at the end.”

  “Thank you, Master,” they said and bowed their heads.

  “I’m not sure I qualify as a master,” I said.

  “Are you kidding?” Drek exclaimed. “The way you sliced through those beasts like they were nothing at all?”

  “And your powers,” Elorinelle said, her eyes wide.

  “Thanks,” I said. “Remember, this is what comes with practice.”

  “Yes, Master,” they said, all nodding eagerly.

  I surveyed the Vigorous Zone that lay open before us. I needed to find somewhere I could take my pupils, somewhere that would offer them more challenges and opportunities to develop their skills. And, of course, somewhere I could acquire more cores. There was also the possibility of learning combination techniques, the kind that could combine earth with the other elements I’d mastered.

  Across the valley was a particularly desolate patch of ground. The earth was barren and dusty, with pale bones scattered amid the dirt. Stone cairns rose in irregular lines across it, the remnants of some ancient cemetery. It had clearly not been occupied for centuries, but I could feel the power radiating from it.

  “We’re going there,” I said as I pointed to it.

  “The desert boneyard?” Elorinelle stared at me. “But it’s supposed to be haunted. No one goes there.”

  “Actually, the higher guild members do,” Onvar said. “They go there to gain more powerful cores and attune their abilities. I’ve heard them talking about it.” He squinted across the valley. “But we’re not high guild members, so maybe we shouldn’t.”

  “Listen to me,” I said. “Right now, you’re the highest members of your guild after Master Tahlis. You’re the only ones with any backbone, the only ones who walk a true path, and so, you are the only ones who count. You’ve shown me twice now that you can handle yourselves, and you’re getting better every time you fight. You can do this.”

  “Yes, Master,” they said, and even Elorinelle smiled as if she believed it.

  We tramped down the valley, across the dried-up river bed, and up the far side. The journey was another reminder of what was at stake here. The withered remains of rushes and parched skeletons of fish in what had once been the river’s muddy bottom were an unmissable testament to the fact that this had been a lush, healthy land before it was brought to ruin by the abuse of magic.

  A wind blew down the valley, rustling the dead reeds and blowing the dust around. But as we walked up from the river bottom toward the boneyard, it died away. The air gained an unsettling stillness, as if we were walled off from the outside world, untouched by time.

  Walking into the boneyard, I could see why people thought it was haunted. The bones and the cairns, relics of people lost to time, were all around us. I could almost imagine their voices whispering, coaxing me to lie down and let myself pass from this life.

  But were weren’t there to give in to the void. We were there to find strength and life.

  “Look for tracks,” I said. “See if you can find earth beasts for us to fight.”

  We had spent a lot of the afternoon walking, so it was growing late in the afternoon as we set about exploring the boneyard. We moved in twos and threes so that no one would ever be caught on their own, and the groups stayed within a short dash of each other. Our voices drifted between the cairns, and I was sure that anything in the area would soon come and find us.

  “Over here!” Elorinelle shouted.

  We ran over to find her crouched in the dirt.

  “It’s a plumed snatcher footprint,” she said. “But larger than the ones we fought before.”

  Now that I looked at the dirt, I could make out what she meant. It seemed that I’d found one of Elorinelle’s strengths, one I would want to encourage as she grew in skill and confidence.

  “A plume
d snatcher matriarch,” Drek said, his voice husky. “The biggest of these beasts.”

  Elorinelle led us along a trail of dusty footprints toward the far side of the boneyard. Soon enough, we saw something between the cairns, a feathered body nine feet tall, with that familiar long neck and deadly beak. It was tearing at the half-rotted corpse of a mountain goat, gulping chunks down, bones and all. As we approached, it looked up with a vicious gleam in its eyes.

  “You practiced working together earlier,” I said to my students. “Now, it’s time to really show me what you’ve got.”

  Choshi looked at me, her mouth wide open. “You’re not coming in with us?”

  “If you need me, I’ll be here,” I said. “But I believe in you guys. You’ve got this.”

  Emboldened, they advanced toward the snatcher, with Choshi in the center. At her signal, the others spread out in a semicircle around the beast.

  The snatcher matriarch screeched and ran at Zedal, who was holding one end of the line. Before the creature got close, Fig and Zedal raised their arms and released Sandstorms. Individually, neither would have been powerful enough to drive the snatcher back, but together, they were a potent combination. It flapped its stubby wings and staggered away from them, screeching in frustration.

  The matriarch turned its attention to the center of the line, where Choshi stood. Again, it spread its wings and charged at her, beak wide and ready to bite. This time, it was Choshi and Drek who flung up Sandstorms, stopping the snatcher in its tracks.

  In a sudden, swift movement, the creature lunged sideways. It snapped at Fig, who raised his shield just in time to block the attack. The beak slammed in, and he was flung to the ground.

  The snatcher matriarch reared over him, head raised for another attack. But now, all the initiates closed in, arms raised to direct Sandstorms at the beast. Battered about from every side, it wailed and flung its head back but couldn’t even see Fig as he wriggled clear and joined the others.

  “Now!” Choshi shouted.

  All six initiates sank to one knee. Together, they slammed their fists to the ground. The earth trembled, and stones tumbled from the tops of cairns as six focused Ground Strikes were launched. They all slammed into the snatcher at once, waves of earth hitting it from every direction. There was nowhere for it to dodge or be thrown back to. As the magical impacts hit, the creature’s lower body exploded under the pressure, scattering the dried ground with feathers and blood.

  “Woohoo!” Choshi jumped to her feet, and the others did the same. Everybody cheered and high-fived each other, indifferent to the blood and viscera that had rained down on them.

  Elorinelle drew a long knife, sliced open the remaining part of the plumed snatcher matriarch, and pulled out the core. The initiates huddled together for a minute in conversation, then came over to me.

  “This is for you, Master,” Elorinelle said, bowing her head over the core.

  “You were the ones who killed it,” I said. “One of you should have the power.”

  “We couldn’t have done it without your teaching and encouragement.” Elorinelle looked at me shyly. “Please, take it.”

  “If you insist.” I accepted the core and bowed to each of them in turn. “Thank you.”

  The sky was darkening, and we needed to find somewhere sheltered to rest and eat. I also needed somewhere I could meditate, to make the most of the power I had gained.

  We headed for the back of the boneyard, where a series of small caves lined the bottom of a cliff. Drek and Elorinelle gathered dried bushes while Fig chopped up pieces of meat and vegetables, which he put in a pan together with some of our water. Soon, a stew was bubbling over a fire, and by the time dusk came, we were all eating a fine meal in our cozy shelter.

  “How did you get so powerful, Swordslinger?” Onvar looked at me over his wooden bowl.

  “I don’t entirely know,” I admitted. “I was brought here from another world, and that might be part of it. But I worked hard. And I killed a lot of monsters. I still have a ways to go, though.”

  “If we kill enough monsters, we could be like you?” Drek asked eagerly.

  “Maybe,” I said. “It’s certainly a good way to become strong.”

  I figured the group could use a little philosophy lesson to iron out what the cult had done to them.

  “Let’s talk about the paths through life,” I said. “What do you know about them?”

  “I know the Path of Peace isn’t for me,” Drek said as he toyed with his club. “I like action. It’s what makes all the study worthwhile.”

  “Peace isn’t the only valid path,” I said.

  “Yeah, but we can’t all follow the Path of the Swordslinger.”

  I laughed. “A fair point but not what I meant.”

  “I remember when the Unswerving Shadows started explaining the Straight Path to us,” Elorinelle said. “At the beginning, it made sense. The idea of going straight for what you want; that’s appealing. They talked about not wasting time and potential, about making a big difference in the world. It sounded like the sort of things I’ve heard other elves say. It sounded good.”

  “I felt the same,” Zedal admitted. “So much talk about mastering ourselves and our powers.” Her forked tongue shot out in an expression that had a certain thoughtfulness to it. “Sometimes, you miss the important details when you hear a big story like that.”

  “Exactly,” I said. “The Straight Path sounds impressive, but it’s an impressiveness built on cruelty. Its road is lined with the dreams of others, even with their blood and bodies. The Path of Peace isn’t for everyone, but the Wandering Path can be. It’s all about flexibility, the sort of flexibility you started showing in combat today, the sort of flexibility that can turn you into truly great Augmenters. The Unswerving Shadows show in their name that they can’t think like that. That’s why they do terrible things, and it’s why they’ll lose in the end.”

  Around the fire, half a dozen young heads nodded. Drek stifled a yawn. They all seemed eager to continue talking, but I figured they needed rest if we were to continue our training tomorrow.

  “Time to sleep,” I said. “You set watches between you and then get some rest. I have something else I need to do first, but I’ll be at the back of the cave if you need me.”

  While the initiates laid out their bedding and made plans for the night watches, I got up and headed into the darkness. I settled into a meditative pose, with the plumed snatcher matriarch core beside me. The Sundered Heart Sword and the Depthless Dream Trident lay together across my lap.

  I didn’t need another core to learn Sandstorm, but I intended on fighting another spirit tonight. I closed my eyes, picked up the core, and pressed it to my chest. Energy rushed through me, a steady beat of power that made my whole body feel more solid and grounded, connected to the earth.

  “Oh, that’s good.” The voice of Nydarth rose from the sword straight into my head. “Well done, my sweet man. You’re simply throbbing with energy, aren’t you?”

  “And look how much you’ve achieved,” said Yono, her voice low and steady as the ocean, reaching from the trident into my mind. “Learning more techniques, gaining strength. It won’t be long before you have the power to release us from our confinement in these weapons, if that’s what you want.”

  “Is it what you want?” I asked them silently, the words a thought inside my mind.

  “It would certainly have its advantages.” Nydarth shot an image into my head, a memory of a dream from months before, the two of us naked and entwined. “There are things that only a body can enjoy.”

  “Although, there’s a lot of pleasure to be had in being your weapon,” Yono said. “Feeling your firm grip around me and the hot thrust of action. Hmmmm.”

  That last throaty hum sent a shiver up my spine, and I smiled. “I’m glad I can bring you pleasure. But right now, I need your guidance on something else.”

  “We’re listening,” Yono said.

  “Fill us with your q
uestions,” Nydarth said.

  “I fought the earth spirit in the temple. I sensed power there, and I sense the same power here. But there is no Earth Core in this Vigorous Zone. That seems like an inconsistency. When I fought other spirits, I did so near the hearts of Vigorous Zones.”

  “Even without their cores, Vigorous Zones can develop places of great power,” Nydarth said. “Like the temple, this boneyard is one of them.”

  So, I’d been right earlier. The cores must leave an impression upon the land, even after they were stripped away. It also explained why there were still magical beasts in this desert.

  “Feel the power flowing through you,” Yono said. “Like a great flood wanting to be released.”

  I emptied my mind and opened up to the flow of Vigor around me.

  “The snatcher matriarch’s core will help if you wish to fight a combination spirit,” Nydarth said. “It will let you draw in more of the power, reach deeper into it, and tap what could be. The strands of Vigor that might be lost to others can be found by you.”

  As she spoke, I sensed those strands as well. The scattered threads of strength that the Earth Core would have brought together, kept close by the power of this place. I wound them in, drew them close to the channels within me, and let my own water energy flow. With my eyes still closed, I drew the trident from over my shoulder and placed it across my knees. With Yono’s spirit weapon, my water channels strengthened. Water and earth churned together to form a new kind of magic.

  I took deep, steady breaths as the world around me faded. Another one came into view, and I entered the spirit realm.

  I stood on the edge of a lake. It was littered with bones, some bobbing on the surface of the water, others embedded in the bank.