Flames of Awakening: Faemoch Cycle Book 1 (6 page)

Chapter Ten

The strong smells of sulfur and
woodsmoke permeated the small round room at the top of the tower. A fire roared
in the fireplace opposite the door. To the right of the fireplace sat an altar
that emanated evil. Skulls, candles, and other, viler, ritual implements
perched atop the altar. These religious symbols, carved of bone and wood, bore
the signs of age-old dark secrets.  A table in the middle of the room held
numerous blood-spattered knives and bowls of various sizes. Some of the bowls
spilled their noxious green gels onto the table; some sizzled and smoked yellow
or red mist into the air. None of that sickened Jaxius. Not nearly as much as
the  vision of Bergar suspended in the air directly across the room from the
devilish altarpiece.

The young barbarian's flesh was
stripped away in many spots. His limp body spun there in mid air, ripped and
torn. A steady trickle of blood pooled slowly below him. Jaxius watched the
witch. The hag was crouched down between him and his friend, still carving her
vile symbols in Bergar's pitiful flesh. She giggled and mumbled to herself
while she worked her magic.

Jaxius, his attention focused on the
plight of his young friend, did not have time to respond when a hammer caught
him in the side of the face, nearly ripping his jaw off. Jaxius turned to face
Morgrys, the witch's barbarian raider who had taken Bergar that awful night two
weeks prior. All of his reigned in anger and hate began to roll and roil in his
gut. He could feel it burning and seething. He launched himself at Morgrys with
all his pent-up fury. He struck furiously at the barbarian.

Morgrys had been prepared for the
onslaught; he parried or dodged every deftly placed strike.

Jaxius' hatred grew deeper the longer
their battle raged. He continued to thrust and parry, trying to make his way to
Bergar. It wasn't until the table was at his back that Jaxius came up with the
beginnings of a plan. He needed to distract both the barbarian and the witch.
He adjusted his fighting style to be much more defensive. He focused his entire
fight on parrying each of the barbarian's mighty blows. Jaxius slipped each
parry bit by bit, hoping to draw his opponent in. Morgrys' hammer still came
swinging in, getting more aggressive with each blow.

Jaxius' plan was working. His huge
foe was getting cocky. When the barbarian took a deep breath, preparing for his
final death-blow, Jaxius knew that his chance was now. Morgrys heaved his
mighty warhammer with all of his strength and slammed down in an overhead arc.

Jaxius dove to the side, toward
Bergar and away from the table, just as Morgrys crashed recklessly into the
table covered with the witch's magical and alchemical mixtures. A loud hiss-pop
crackled behind him. The barbarian's screams confirmed that the accidental
explosion struck something sensitive.

"Ah! My face!" Morgrys
screamed. "It burns. It burns! I will kill you, mongrel!"

Jaxius ignored the barbarian and
followed through with his plan of rescue.

Finally within reach of Bergar,
Jaxius leaped for the crouching hag, slicing with his
viortassi
at her
exposed back. She whirled away just before his strike landed home. One hand
raised, she sent a bolt of white light crashing into Jaxius' face. The magical
attack flung him across the room, smashing him into the wall. His elven blade
was torn from his powerless hand, clattering away across the stone-floored
room. The half-elf crumpled weakly to the floor, smoking like a spent ember.
His vision reeled, the room spinning out of control. The witch, satisfied with
her temporary reprieve, quickly turned back to her dark work on the young
barbarian's flesh.

In his delirium Jaxius heard the
witch chanting softly to herself. He realized at length what the witch was about.
She wasn't simply torturing the boy. She was using his pain and anger. Bergar
was the centerpiece of whatever appalling spell she was casting. Jaxius had
encountered such infernal magic before, but he wasn't sure where. He did
remember that the stronger the spell the more anguish the caster had to cause
or take upon herself. The latter, Jaxius was all too glad to grant her. He just
had to find his missing blade.

He opened his swollen eyelids as far
as they would go, only to see the menacing barbarian standing over him. Jaxius'
sigh was immediately followed by a cough. A fine mist of crimson sprayed from
his mouth to the already blood-stained floor. Jaxius pushed up onto his hands
and knees, attempting to stand up. He was cut short by the searing pain of
Morgrys's boot kicking his ribs. He felt the bones crunch and collapsed back to
the floor.

Morgrys raised his warhammer high
into the air.

Jaxius knew he was finished; the
witch's magical bolt had taken too much out of him. His vision was coming and
going, blurring with every slight, pain wracking movement he made.

The huge barbarian's muscles tensed,
and Morgrys struck. He stopped mid-swing, grasping at his side. He felt the
handle of a throwing knife jutting from between his ribs and angrily ripped it out.

Tolian stood in the doorway looking
little better than Jaxius. One of his eyes had swollen completely shut and his
lip was split and bulging as well. Numerous small scrapes and nicks covered his
fine-fingered hands. Both his hair and cloak were caked with clotted blood, and
there was a large tear in his shirt that exposed a deep gash in his side.

"Hey," Tolian said. He
pointed at Morgrys. "I don't believe you want to do that."

"Oh? And who are you to stop me,
runt?"

"Funny you should ask,"
Tolian answered with a lopsided smile. "I am Tolia..."

That was all that Tolian could say
before Morgrys flung the knife back at him. The nimble song master caught the
blood-covered blade inches in front of his face. "Now, that wasn't very
nice at all. Was it? Quite rude, I should say. I shall most assuredly repay the
favor."

Tolian stepped into the room, focused
on helping his friends.

Jaxius looked up at Tolian and
mouthed, "Run." He stretched a hand out to drag himself toward the
bard.

Tolian pulled back into a defensive
stance and taunted the barbarian again. "What? You can't beat a man who is
standing at the ready? Pity, really. Of course, everyone knows that the
Nordrasians are the greater warriors, anyway."

"You shut your mouth. Better, I
will shut it for you." Morgrys stepped across the room, readying his
warhammer to strike down the mouthy bard.

Jaxius capitalized on the distraction
Tolian provided to drag himself to his feet. He wearily looked around the small
room and spotted his
viortassi
, which was partially under the altar. He
hobbled quickly to it and snatched it up. Now, the half-elf had to choose: help
Tolian, who was very much alive and in danger, or aid Bergar, whose unknown
condition could render a whole new set of problems.

Tolian dodged and danced around the
giant barbarian's swings. Bergar hung suspended upside-down several inches from
the ground by some invisible magic, his lifeblood spilling to the floor. The
choice was not a difficult one at all.

* * *

Tolian dodged and ducked the Morgrys'
advances. His foe moved quickly, but Tolian knew that he could eventually wear
down the brute. His conundrum was that he wasn't sure exactly how long the big
man could keep up his pace. On the one hand, Morgrys' face appeared scalded,
but on the other, he and his men had run unnaturally fast and long from
Nordras. There was also a witch, engrossed at the moment in casting her evil
spell, still inside the tower room. So, there was no sure way of knowing if the
barbarian still had any magic on his side. If he did not, Tolian estimated that
Morgrys would wear out in rather short order. If there was a magical
enhancement cast on the barbarian, then the bard could very well be performing
his last dance.

Morgrys swung his hammer again and
again, barely missing the fleet-footed songster with every heavy swing. That
was Tolian's intention. Every time the barbarian's arms brought the hammer
close enough to Tolian, he scored another tiny cut to the forearm.

"Now, witch, you die,"
Jaxius said. He leveled his
viortassi
at her.

Fylzia, now unprotected, turned to
face the lone half-elf. She snarled and glanced at the dagger in her hand,
still dripping Bergar's blood. Her yellowed eyes came back to meet Jaxius'
gaze. She launched another white hot bolt of energy at Jaxius.

Jaxius saw the bolt leave her hand
this time and felt his muscles tense as he dove to the side. The bolt whistled
past his head as he narrowly escaped its burning punishment. A second bolt,
hurled just in front of his face, caused him to stutter step and fall backward.
Her magical barrage came too fast for Jaxius to react to each one. He focused,
wishing that he could slow time like he had before. He felt the air grow thick.
The witch's movements began to look lethargic. But Jaxius was too late. A
single bolt of the white energy that he had not accounted for was at his chest.
He watched the room slip past him as he was again uprooted and flung across the
room.

This time, however, he saw everything
slowly and with perfect clarity. As he sailed across the room, he saw Bergar
breathing shallowly but steadily and Tolian making a good showing against the
witch's guardian. Jaxius could smell his own flesh searing from the heat of the
magical blast. He was able to keep his wits enough to hold fast to his blade
this time. Just as he felt his back slam into the wall, he noticed the gaudy
mirror tucked away on an unattended side of the room. He saw in that mirror a
robed figure standing pale-faced. A hood largely covered the figure's face and
only enough light reflected into the mirror to show Jaxius  that the man had
one eyebrow lifted questioningly. The hooded man's eyes glowed an eerily bright
red.

Jaxius slammed into the wall like he
had been discharged from a trebuchet. The blow winded, but thankfully did not
kill, him. However, he slumped to the floor in an attempt to make the watching
witch believe he was defeated. Jaxius reasoned that the mirror had to be
spelled in some way, because the man was obviously not in the room. Perhaps,
this was the place that gave the witch her power.

Jaxius abruptly abandoned his plan to
fool the hag. Instead, he surged up from the floor, prepared to sprint before
his feet ever settled. He lunged for the mirror, heavy blade extended. He
connected, and for an instant, it felt as if the elven-made blade might slip
through, into the magic. Then the glass shattered into thousands of tiny
pieces, each smoking in blue-green wisps.

Tolian's plan eventually worked as he
had hoped. His deadly dance never abated and finally the barbarian slowed. His
thick chest heaved with ragged breaths. Small beads of blood trailed down his
arms. His blows came weaker and with more strain.

When Tolian was certain that he had
broken the beast, he lunged in for his final thrusting attack. He pushed up and
through Morgrys's defenses piercing his flesh right at the ribs. Blood wept
from the wounds like spring rain from a newly-made roof.

Morgrys faltered and hugged his
sides. Bent double in pain, he skittered to the right, then careened into the
wall beside the door. Using the wall for support he stabilized himself and spit
a mouthful of blood to the floor.

Tolian, seizing the opportunity to
end the fight once and for all, lunged with his sword, thrusting to pierce
Morgrys' throat. The barbarian had one last surprise for the wily bard; he
leaned away, dodging Tolian's onslaught. His hefty fist shot up and brutally
connected with Tolian's chest. With the last of Mondgys's strength, he thrust
Tolian into the ceiling. The stonework fissured from the impact. The bard fell
lifelessly to the dust littered floor, his flame extinguished.

Morgrys, his lifeblood spilled to the
floor, paled. His pale eyes rolled into his head. Losing consciousness, Morgrys
fell through the gaping door into the stairwell.

Jaxius stood, turned, and looked over
his shoulder at his young barbarian friend, dying, then to the crone. His eyes
flashed a bright emerald green, and he stalked deliberately toward the witch.

That's it. Remember.
Chlora's voice came from nowhere and
everywhere all at once.

The accursed witch hurled another
magical blast at Jaxius.

He snapped his blade up and parried
the magical bolt harmlessly away. Static filled his long black hair which began
to stand out from his head. Energy crackled throughout the room. Jaxius' eyes
blazed like emerald suns at high noon on a summer day.

Remember
.

The witch turned and fled, breaking
for the open door.

Jaxius launched his massive, curved
elven blade through the air with one hand. It carved through her, all the way
to the pommel.

"No, you do not escape this. You
die here, tonight, witch. You die for your injustice. You die for your
atrocities against that which is natural. You die by my hand. At my
judgment," Jaxius thundered.

The witch fell to her knees and
turned. The
viortassi
blade scraped the ground in front of her as she
did so. Blood and bile flowed down its length.