Circle of Reign (74 page)

Shilkath felt the flames crawl up his flesh and beard and smelled the redolence of burning hair. The incendiary cloak engulfed him and flared the numerous trophies woven in his beard, these becoming ornaments of fire and ashes. Ascending his beard, the fire turned his long-grown pride to stubble. Hawgl writhed and flapped his
wings wildly, throwing his head back and forth, screeching a horrific cry as the beast’s scales melted in the intense heat.

The Borathein Deklar did not scream when the end came. The explosion tore him and Hawgl apart, spewing their smoldering ruins in all directions.

FIFTY-TWO

Reign

Day 6 of 2
^nd
Dimming 412 A.U.

THE SUN HAD NOT YET RISEN
above the horizon. Reign Kerr was at the top of a Triarch tree at the northwestern Arlethian border along the edge of the Tavaniah Forest with five hundred Warriors of Light. All Arlethians. All Gyldenal. Their spears and arrows were tipped with heads of a dark metal, their sword blades crafted from the same material. Jarwynian ore. Each arrowhead, spearhead and sword was infused with Lumenati Light—not a visible light, but a power harnessed by those who lived after the Lumenatis. A soft hum emanated from the infused weapons.

Reign felt all the life around her. A leafling taken from the Tavaniah provided her a link to a well of Influence that felt boundless. It frightened her to know she had access to the Lumenatis, to those ancient trees that concealed the very Influence of life for the world.

The currents of sentience she allowed to pass through her so as not to overwhelm her. When she recognized a current or found one she wanted to focus on, she tapped into it fully. This current of Light was flickering in pain.

Aiden
.

Two other currents near Aiden’s flowed to her mind’s awareness and she knew that there were only moments.

You must go
, her father said.
Now!

Reign was not ready, not fully. The power she had was not something she understood well enough, but she had little choice. She felt Hedron’s current as well and knew he was also in danger. It was no different than all those who fought, and from the periphery of her mind she felt the cessation of dozens of currents every second. Death, she realized.

With the Triarch leafling in her hand she sucked in the Living Light from the trees, as much as her capacity would allow her. She strode forward across the trees at incredible speed. Her strides became longer until she was leaping the distance of twenty men at once, then fifty, then one hundred. The air around her started to glow as her speed increased and a loud crack of thunder followed. After that she heard nothing, though she felt incredible pressure around her. She saw the swarm of Borathein and Alysaar less than a league away and Aiden standing alone at the top of petrified trees. A large Alysaar with a single rider dove toward him.

Now!
her father shouted in her mind. Reign launched into the currents of the Alysaar and Borathein bearing down on Aiden from a sturdy bough just before she reached the edge of where living trees became nothing more than statues. The world folded around her in a supernal view as she expended the Living Light within her, it propelling her forward through the air. Heat built up around her as she approached the Alysaar and she began to channel the power into her blade. It hummed loudly.

“Faerathm!”

The explosion as she collided with her prey was brilliant and stentorian all at once. The infused blade sent forth a torrent of energy that became fire as it was transferred from the sword to the demon as soon as the tip made the slightest puncture through the scales. She was traveling too fast for the explosion to catch her and she didn’t hear its report until she slowed several seconds later. Landing on a group of stone branches, she
turned and saw other Alysaar and their riders falling from their sky-bound perches, some by explosions such as she had caused but on a smaller scale, others contorting in unnatural motions as they fell; still others turned to stone themselves and crumbled as they hit the hardened trees. On the horizon from the direction she had come, Reign spied the Gyldenal sprinting and jumping, throwing spears and loosing arrows. Others were leaping and stabbing flying targets with swords and short blades. It had begun to rain Borathein.

Aiden was nearby where she had come to rest, looking up to the heavens in what could only be described as wonderment. She looked upon him; his wounds were grave and she felt his current in the Light weaken as he struggled for breath. His ribs were broken, a lung pierced. But this man stood all the same, alone against thousands. He was not alone any longer.

She quickly grabbed a rolled, three-pronged leaf from a side pouch and gently held it up to his face. Aiden flinched but held his ground.

“Mylendia shaul,”
she whispered as Thannuel said the word in her mind.

Aiden’s face mended, the tissue and muscles finding and reknitting themselves. The restoration was complete in a matter of seconds, but a long scar remained. She repeated the process on his shoulder and then the left side under his arm.

“How?” he asked.

“It is an Influence of the Living Light,” Reign said. “It promotes life, lengthens lives and restores corruption. All elements of the Lumenatis work toward these ends.”

“The what?”

“It is the power of the Ancients. What they lived by. The Living Light.”

A Borathein rider swooped low and swung a flail at Reign. She felt his current before he neared too close and moved just enough out of reach to be missed by less than an inch. Slashing her sword above her head, her blade cut up through the Alysaar and into the
rear rider’s thigh. They lost control and crashed into the trees at terminal velocity.

“You move like…like—”

“Like my father?” she asked.

“Aye, lass, but so much more graceful.”

She smiled. “He’s not offended you said that, don’t worry.”

Aiden took a deep breath and worked his arm. “Restores corruption?”

Reign took the Triarch leafling in the palm of her hand and knelt down upon the petrified tree canopy. There were small chasms and cracks where the once green leaves had not completely filled in and she could see down to the ground hundreds of feet below. It was also petrified. She put her hand around a cold rock branch with the leafling between it and her palm. She concentrated, focusing the Light within her and drawing in more from the Lumenatis, so much more than she though possible, more than should be possible. Thannuel gasped in amazement within her and she began to sweat with the unprecedented effort.

“Reign, you’re trembling!” Aiden exclaimed.

Father, I need you
.

The sentience within her added his capacity and focus to hers, acting as a reservoir for her to store the excess Light she drew in. Thannuel’s capacity seemed unfathomable to her.

Aiden stepped back, wonder and disbelief emanating from him. Reign Kerr was alight.

“
Mylendia anthpetra shaul!”

Her voice carried the authority of the ages as a burst of energy flew out from her. Aiden’s black hair was blown back from the gust. Below them came the sound of an avalanche. From the core of the rooted perennials sprang a resurgence of life as stone split and crumbled. The spark of life within the trees was reignited by Reign’s injection of Lumenati Light and lush foliage shone through, resurrected.

“I can feel their currents return,” Reign said.

“I don’t know what you mean, or how this is done, but it is
incredible!
” Aiden stood upon vibrant treetops once again that swayed and flexed under his weight, the way the living forest should.

“I have reversed the Dark Influence that plagued the trees, breathing Light back into them and eradicating the Dark.”

“Light?” Aiden asked.

“Draw it in,” Reign commanded.

“Draw what?”

“The Light. You have done it before but didn’t know it.”

When the master of the hold guard continued to look confused, Reign said, “When you speak with trees, feel the forest, it is because of the Living Light in the trees.”

“I—”

“Don’t interrupt,” Reign ordered. “Those who live among the trees, wood-dwellers, have this sensitivity because of our connection to the Ancients. We are the descendants of those who did not turn away, those that continued to live in harmony with the Lumenatis. We have lost much of their ways, but the Light is still strong in this land.”

In the midst of her explanation, arrows flew toward her and Aiden from a half dozen Alysaar riders making a sweeping run. They easily dodged the missiles and saw their assailants struck down by Light-infused arrows released from Gyldenal bows. The air was still cluttered with thousands of Alysaar but their numbers had decisively thinned. A few score currents of the Gyldenal had ceased, but overall their weaponry of Light was proving superior.

“Simply open yourself the way you do when speaking with a tree. That connection you feel is an effect of the Lumenatis. You have a portion of its Light as well, a spark. Draw it into yourself where your Light resides.”

“I have no idea—”

“Do it! Focus!”

Aiden knelt down where he perched and lay his palm flush against the bark. For a few moments there was no change. Then, she saw his frame stiffen and felt his current thicken.

“It is like friction,” Reign said. “You can channel the forest’s power as you wish.”

He stood, taller than before with understanding in his eyes.

“Get back in this fight!” she cried.

The smile that so often came upon Aiden’s lips in anticipation of the thrill of battle found its way there once again. “Gladly.”

Reign bolted across the renewed canopy. The aerial battle had changed but become no less deadly. The Warriors of Light struck down enemies with Light-infused steel and arrows with great effect and Alysaar began to fall in scores and crash into the trees. Eight Alysaar chased Reign as she ran, approaching on all sides. The roars were menacing. She slowed her dash and came to a stop while the Alysaar closed in and surrounded her like a demonic noose tightening its hold.

Focus
, Thannuel commanded.
Think of nothing but this moment
.

She felt her father’s concern in the midst of the peril, but also his faith in her. It was not misplaced.

The rear Borathein riders shot arrows, hurled spears, and slung stones. Reign felt them all. The stones came first, fractions of a second ahead of the rest of the volley. She swung the flat side of her sword and sent the projectiles back from whence they originated at increased velocity, striking the stones at the exact same angle at which sailed toward her. Short cries of pain and surprise sounded as the stones crushed the skulls of those who had cast them. Her form was perfect, no more or less motion than was precisely necessary.

The arrows she easily dodged and parried two spears but caught a third. She allowed the momentum to spin her around, adding her own force as she released the spear back at the rider who threw it. The rider slumped forward in his saddle, a smoking hole in his chest. Several Alysaar swooped in, attempting to impale her on their bladed beards as they whipped their necks back and forth with amazing speed. They found nothing but air. Reign let herself fall beneath the canopy and shot back up as the belly of one flying beast flew directly over her position. Her sword found
purchase and she continued up and through the demon, emerging from its backside with a large section of spine impaled on her sword. She was covered in demon ichor. The creature fell dead with its riders through the trees to the forest floor. At the apex of her flight, she felt the air change behind her and curled into a ball, narrowly missing the swipe of a sword. The wing of the passing Alysaar collided with her back and sent her sprawling downward through the air. Her father’s concern flared within her. She hit the branches hard, but her light weight did not carry her too far before they stopped her fall.

She lay dazed for a moment but nothing more than bruises and a few cuts found her.

“Are you all right?” a small voice asked.

“I’m fine, father.” She was still dazed.

I know. But that was not me…

Reign looked to where the voice had come from and saw a little girl and boy, obviously related, huddled below her.

“You healed Aiden,” the girl said. “We saw it. Are you one of the Ancients?”

Reign shook her head as she climbed out of the crude nest of branches that had broken her fall. “No.”

“You look like a demon!” the boy said, only to be cuffed by the girl. Reign thought she probably did indeed look like a monster, covered in blood and innards. Chunks of intestine were lodged in her ebony hair.

“No, not that either. Just one of you,” Reign said.

Aiden came into view, jumping from tree to tree below the cover of the canopy.

“Reign! Are you hurt?” he asked.

She shook her head. “But I’ve had about enough of this.” She sprang to a Triarch and put her palm flush against it, drawing in Lumenati Light. She channeled some of the Light into her Jarwynian sword and it sounded its now familiar low hum.

She emerged from the canopy where the seven remaining Alysaar who had pursued her waited, circling. An image flashed
through her mind from her father: a beach with black sand, fiery rocks raining down around him and ice shards streaming toward him at incredible speed. Some got through his defenses and impaled his arms. She felt faint stings from the ice shards, enough to make her look at her own arms.

It is from the Orsarian War
, Thannuel said. And then she saw what he wanted her to.

“Faerathm
!” She said and threw her sword through the air like a spear, catching a forward rider in his neck. Flames burst from him as he fell from his mount. Crouching down and tightening her muscles, Reign launched, unsheathed her sword from smoldering ruin of a man as it fell past her. She reached the Alysaar and grabbed a leg, being sure to avoid the razor-sharp talons. It was nearly thin enough at the base just above the talons for her hand to grasp all the way around. She felt Aiden’s current close to her and saw him attack another Alysaar as she dangled off the leg of her own. Aiden, masterful in his movements, soon cut the beast and its riders down. Fear friction ran through her as the creature swooped and dove, trying to shake free of her grasp, but she captured the friction, and, along with some of the Living Light within her, directed the energy to become increased strength. She twisted her wrist that held the limb and heard the soft pop of bones snapping. The creature’s other leg started clawing frantically for her. Reign reached up higher on the broken leg with her other arm to secure her hold and again twisted her other wrist in the same place she had previously. The demon screeched in pain. She continued to pull and twist until the flesh tore and the foot with its claws came free. They tore into the Alysaar’s skin as Reign dragged her makeshift bouquet of short blades across its underbelly. She dug deeper until the opening was large enough and she saw the monster’s viscera hanging free outside its body. Quickly, she scaled up the dying Alysaar to face the second rider, but he lay dead with a crater in his forehead.