by Sever Bronny
“Palm light,” Augum commanded. “Shyneo.” Their palms lit, one coursing with lightning, the other fire. “Hold it up like a torch.” They raised them skyward, beacon fires inviting death. “Now this is really important, Naoki. Look at me.”
She looked over, tears frozen on her cheeks.
Two … one. “I’m sorry, but find the dagger,” Augum said, and shoved at her, shouting, “Baka!” She soared into the blizzard with a shocked expression.
Augum turned in time to witness a giant black shape, darker than the night, take up the entire sky before him. The massive wings flapped powerfully to halt its forward progress, sending snow flying … and uncovering Burden’s Edge.
It was twenty feet away, near the body of the brute who had nearly choked him to death. How close they had come to finding it!
Augum extended a hand and summoned it to him, taking his time sheathing it, not wanting to show fear even though he was shaking inside.
Orion landed before him on its great hind legs, shaking the ground. Augum looked up and gasped. It was a colossus, gleaming with black Dreadnought steel, its scales encrusted with ice. Its internal arcane gears trundled with a low rumble. Its maw was a cavern.
“That little witch of yours,” Katrina’s voice growled, a sound not unlike two boulders grinding together. “Where is she. Where is your woman.”
“Somewhere you can’t get her,” and he readied himself for a bold casting by focusing on the details of his surroundings. The snow underfoot. The blizzard flakes melting on his hot face …
“I will use you both to crack the academy open like an egg. I shall rescue my uncle. I shall rescue my future husband. When that is done, you will scream in impotent agony as you watch me pulverize your beloved into a meaty pulp.”
The deep clanking of the engine. The howl of the bitter wind …
“And finally, when you are a broken and blubbering heap, I will come for you. But you will not die right away, Augum. It will be a long and painful and poetic death. And it will be a public death—I want everyone to see how far you have fallen, Arinthian!”
The anxious pounding of his heart. The blood pulsing through his swollen eye …
“Or maybe I will consume her soul like I did so many others. Here doth I stand in new form, a mighty Von Edgeworth reborn.” She paused, a growl rumbling through her. “Your silence says to me that you are lying, Augum. She will return for you. But you underestimate me, for I know, I know,” and she opened a giant scaly palm.
Augum’s heart jammed in his throat, for within that palm rested the dagger.
“Curious how a plain dagger is crammed with Object Track enchantments, no?”
Daringly, and without thinking, he telekinetically swiped with his hand. She snapped her palm shut, but his reflexes had been quicker and the dagger zipped over to him. He caught it, ducked low like a prowling cat, and hissed, “Centeratoraye xao xen.” Centarro, his most powerful spell, an ancient Leyan spell, thundered through his soul, sharpening his focus to a lethal point.
He became the reactive moment, a war-focused mind, a freshly sharpened blade.
“Tricksy, tricksy,” Katrina boomed, and beckoned with her claw. An enormously strong force sent Augum hurtling toward Orion’s scaly palm. And he instantly knew why—the siege engine amplified arcanery in the same way scions—the most powerful arcane artifacts ever crafted—had!
It was a stunning revelation, though Augum didn’t let it divert his concentration. He shot his arms out mid-flight and pulled on the enormous snout, heaving his telekinetic muscle and sending himself flying over the monstrous hand toward Orion’s scaly chest, where he latched onto one of the shield-sized scales.
“Amusing little worm.” Katrina’s Orion flexed its haunches and jumped into the air, and Augum could only hold on for dear life as snow stung his face. The wind alone was beyond freezing, like plunging into an ice bath. Ancient and highly advanced arcanery thrummed within the engine like a monstrous mechanical heart. Dreadnought steel scales ground against each other as the enormous wings flapped.
“I’m going to enjoy this,” she boomed, soaring in a wide oval.
But those flapping wings also cleared aside the blizzard enough for him to glimpse the circle of enemy bodies, and he used the opportunity to throw the dagger as hard as he could at the spot. He did not see it land though, for Katrina abruptly angled upward and the blizzard closed in once more.
She kept rising skyward and Augum knew he had to try something—anything. But what could one do against such a mighty behemoth?
He resolved to try gouging out the eyes. But in order to even attempt the maneuver, he needed to protect himself from the vicious cold. And so he focused his Centarric mind on casting Elemental Armor, flexing every muscle in his body while visualizing the enveloping process—all while clinging to the flying behemoth like a tick to a raven.
“Armari elementus totalus.” His body cocooned with a malleable black lightning crust, warding off some of the cold.
He needed more strength for his next move and so he stiffened once more. “Virtus vis viray.” Then he began hauling himself up toward the head, one flexing and cold scale at a time. He was conscious of how many heartbeats had passed and how many remained before the deadly side effects of Centarro rendered him senseless.
But Katrina rose higher and higher, and it got colder and colder to the point that he was unable to keep hauling himself up, for his fingers, unprotected by the cocooning, had numbed in the icy gale.
She burst through the clouds and it was as if someone yanked a blindfold off, for Augum glimpsed an awesome sight—a sprawling field of stars, twinkling in the darkness of an absent moon. He felt like he was atop a mountain. He could barely comprehend the sheer beauty of the sight, so cold and peaceful and vast.
And still they rose higher, leaving behind a soft blanket of clouds. It quickly became difficult to breathe. His limbs weakened and a deep shiver began, beyond the control of Centarro, though his mind was as sharp as Leera’s wit.
And then Katrina’s voice boomed over the wind. “Time for you to enjoy the impossible, honey. Time for you to learn to fly.”
Orion flipped in midair and the engine shook, discarding him like refuse. His stomach lurched to his throat as wind roared in his ears, whistling through the gaps in the elemental armor. Katrina dove after him, a hawk that had playfully dropped its prey. He watched, limbs flailing, as she closed fast, jaws snapping.
Augum spun as he fell, desperately trying to breathe. Suddenly he felt an enormous whap as Katrina smashed him with a claw, accelerating his downward fall and obliterating his elemental armor. His robe immediately began flapping madly, slowing his fall a tad.
Augum used that robe and his arms to right himself, with his back to the ground. As Katrina reached out to telekinetically grab him, he did the same in reverse, latching onto her claw and attempting to keep himself at bay of her. A plan began to form in his Centarric mind.
A brief telekinetic tug-of-war ensued, with his stamina draining rapidly from the immense strain. Yet as mighty as his Telekinesis was, hers was amplified to a whole other level, and she began reeling him in, making Augum realize the effort was nothing but a waste of stamina.
Only one chance remained, though the casting would be challenging. But he had to get there before she did. He had to.
The dragon reached out. Augum closed his eyes, picturing the exact spot and envisioning himself standing amidst the circle of bodies. He could almost feel the cold snow underfoot, the hard ground, the bitter wind upon his face.
“I’ve changed my mind,” Katrina growled. “I’m going to pulverize you now.”
A clawed hand caught him. Crushed him. Squeezed the air from his lungs. His previous failures broke into his mind like thieves in the night. The wall he had smashed into, breaking half his bones. The pig trough and the laughter as his undergarments lay exposed to all. A ceiling loomed, oppressive and heavy, ready to halt his arcane progress—
B
ut Centarro coursed through his soul, and he did not want to give up. He shoved the fears away and used his last breath to utter the sacred phrase, “Impetus peragro,” and his body yanked violently.
He appeared in the blizzard with a thwomp amidst strewn bodies and blood and chaos.
Except pain instantly exploded from his left foot, and he screamed. He tried to move his foot but it would not budge, instead shooting eye-watering pain. He frantically dug the snow aside only to discover that the outer side of his shoe—and thus, the foot inside—had fused with the frozen ground.
For a moment he could only gape in disbelief. He had failed with Teleport when it had most counted, a mouse caught in a trap of its own making.
Then, as the fog of Centarro began knocking on the door of his consciousness, he touched his throat. “Amplifico. Secretary Klines! Naoki! I’m here! Hurry!”
He kept shouting until Naoki and Klines finally emerged from the blizzard like snow-encrusted ghosts—and by their side was his beloved.
Katrina had been right—she had come back for him!
“Leera—!” Augum shouted. “NO!”
The derangement in his voice startled her, but she only sprinted faster to him, outrunning the other two.
A terrible shrieking began from above, the sound of a vicious dive, getting louder by the heartbeat.
“What is that horrible noise!” Naoki asked, slowing her run.
“Holy Unnameables,” Klines uttered, huffing as she ran only to trip on her own robe, for she was a tiny woman and the snow too high for her stubby legs.
It was then Augum knew they’d never make it. Orion was roaring in too quickly for Klines to teleport them out in time.
This was it.
This was how it ended.
All because of his inability to master Teleport.
Leera skidded before him, grabbed ahold of him, and shouted to a struggling Klines, “Hurry!” But when she tried to get Augum to move, he didn’t budge, and instead mournfully shook his head.
She looked down, saw that blood had pooled around his stuck foot and gazed at him in horror as the shrieking intensified to a high-pitched whine.
Augum wanted to tell her to run, to save herself, but found his throat parchment-dry. Instead, their hands clasped and she drew herself near. They locked gazes and he saw everything they had been, everything he wished they’d become. In his mind, they were holding each other, kissing. They were married and living a happy life, content around a fire, each reading a good book. And she was in his arms, his amazing girl, his one and only love.
A shadow began to form around them. Death screamed from above.
“I love you,” she mouthed.
“I love you too.”
He felt his thoughts thicken as the fog of Centarro pounded on the door. He would have to resist for as long as possible.
Augum shook his head. No, I won’t let her take you. His eyebrows knit together as he readied to do what he had done to Naoki. Yet just as he was about to shove his beloved to safety, Leera’s grip on his arms tightened like a vise, her nails sinking into his flesh and preventing him from performing the casting. Somehow, she knew—he was always an open book to her.
They would die together.
Klines at last stumbled to them and shouted, “Naoki—!”
But Naoki, who had come to a halt watching Augum and Leera, instead abruptly whirled about and tore away from them. She burst into flames, acting as a moving beacon fire.
“Naoki—NO!” Klines called again, but Naoki kept sprinting.
The shrill scream of the diving siege engine was one of the loudest things Augum had ever heard, rattling everything from his thoughts to his very bones.
Klines—bless her soul—nonetheless began casting Group Teleport. Except, Augum realized in horror, he’d be torn asunder if she tried to teleport him with his foot caught, for he had forgotten to inform her in his ever-thickening Centarric fog.
What took place next, although it happened in the blink of an eye, felt like slow motion. An enormous shadow darkened the blizzard above Naoki’s burning form before the windy scream reached its apex and Naoki’s fire, burning with daring bravery, snuffed in an explosive instant. The ground shook so violently that Klines’s casting was interrupted and she and Leera were thrown into the air. Augum, held firmly by his stuck toes, was jerked up and flung right back, slamming into the ground, the air knocked out of him. As Klines and Leera landed with painful “Oofs,” a massive plume of snow and dirt blasted over them, knocking the blizzard back and killing all noise.
For what felt like an age, it was as quiet as a snow-laden forest.
Then the ground shook with new tremors and the fog of Centarro turned to kicking on the door of Augum’s consciousness. In heartbeats, the hinges would fail and all would be lost.
Augum hauled himself to his feet and saw Orion’s gleaming blackness galloping toward them like a giant panther. He calculated five heartbeats until Katrina got to them.
He looked to his stuck toe. A vestige of Centarro gave him an awful idea …
Klines grabbed Leera’s right hand and Augum’s left and began the spell that would teleport them to safety. “Impetus—”
Augum unsheathed Burden’s Edge.
Four heartbeats.
“—peragro—”
Leera frantically grabbed his right elbow, breath coming in short gasps. Augum turned the blade around to face point-downward.
“—grapa—”
Three heartbeats.
Augum roared and plunged Burden’s Edge through his shoe and toes. He screamed from the pain.
“—lestato—”
Two heartbeats.
Leera joined his scream, hers a terrified shriek. He wasn’t sure if it was because of what he had done or because Katrina was about to pulp them with her charge.
One heartbeat.
Orion loomed as the hinges failed and the fog burst in. Darkness he had been holding at bay with all his mental might rushed in so quickly it stole his breath.
He heard the echo of two final words.
“—exa exaei.”
Solace
Augum groggily woke in a candlelit room that smelled of tallow and peppermint. High above him, the ceiling was paneled with fine oaken carvings—he was somewhere in the bowels of the Antioc Library. And there was a soothing silence to the place that blanketed his troubled soul.
Surprised to be alive, he sat up and swung his legs over the cot. His bare feet touched a cold stone floor. Around him was a room filled with laboratory instruments. Glass beakers and potions and jars filled with what looked like organs sat on long stone tables, along with open books and scrolls. Bookshelves lined the walls between inset stone candle sconces. A single black oak door stood opposite him.
He was still dressed in his robe, although it had been arcanely cleaned. Augum’s Defender, his Dreadnought breastplate, had been removed, probably placed in his room. Burden’s Edge hung snug in its sheath by his side. And he could see with both eyes.
He touched his face. No swelling, no cuts, no cracked cheek. He looked down at his feet … and saw that the two smallest toes on his left foot were gone, the flesh expertly healed over.
The site throbbed dully and he reached down and massaged the discomfort away a little. Then he stood up and tested the foot, feeling only the slightest awkwardness in his stance, one he knew he could work with. What was done was done, and whoever had healed him had plainly done what they could. He would simply have to get used to it, though he wondered if it would affect him in combat. His injuries were piling up—first his scarred back, then his locking elbow, and now his foot.
A pair of new fur-lined leather turnshoes sat underneath the cot. He flicked a couple fingers at them and they slid over just as the door opened. Good, he needed to see that Leera was all right.
Except it wasn’t Leera, it was Maxine. She closed the door behind her and strode toward him, face a stone mask, flaxen hair bouncing with each step.
<
br /> “Hey, Maxine, where’s Lee—”
But after drawing near, she spit in his face. Stunned, he gawked at her.
“For nothing more than a damn sword?” she hissed.
The moment flashed before his mind, the moment Naoki’s light had been so brutally snuffed.
“For a sword,” she repeated. “A stupid piece of sentimental steel.”
Augum looked down at what remained of his toes. Here he was worrying about how they would affect him in combat … and Naoki was never getting home, would never take a breath or utter a single word again. He glanced at the blade hanging from his hip. “For a stupid piece of sentimental steel,” he whispered.
“And I thought there might be a chance that you had it together, that the heralds were right, that you were this great future leader brimming with good judgment.” She shook her head, the words a whisper. “You sacrificed a soldier for nothing. For nothing. You disgust me.” She turned her back on him and strode off, letting the words hang between them.
The door opened again, revealing Leera, wearing her spectacles once more. Maxine shouldered roughly past her.
“Watch yourself,” Leera snapped. “And what’d you want with him? Huh?” But Maxine strode out the door, slamming it behind her. “Jackal,” Leera muttered, and went to Augum, who wiped the spit off his face with the back of his sleeve. When she reached out, instead of taking her hands and drawing her to him as he usually would, he slumped down on the cot.
“For a stupid piece of sentimental steel,” he whispered again, knowing the truth of it.
Leera placed her hands on her hips and sighed, then let them fall and sat down beside him. “Excuse me, but it’s not ‘just a stupid piece of sentimental steel.’ You know that. It’s more than just a sword.”
That’s what Naoki had said too. Naoki, who had sacrificed herself for him … for them. Naoki, who had looked upon them in that last moment and realized what truly needed protecting.
Leera placed a hand on the pommel. “This—this right here—once belonged to Arinthian himself, given to him for releasing the Dreadnoughts, same as our breastplates.” She gently cupped his cheeks, whispering, “My sweet prince, you’re doing it again. Drowning in self-recrimination. Always taking on the burdens of others. You went in search of the sword not knowing that the dragon would come, nor how quickly Katrina could get there. Had you left without it you would have been haunted with regret for the rest of your life. Maxine looks for fault. She’s malicious like that. Don’t let her get to you.”