Heir To The Nova (Book 3) (34 page)

“Jules, Hons told us to hold here,” Lin said patiently, running her hand solicitously down the young druid’s arm. “I know it looks bad, but…”

Julia turned to face us both, her eyes aflame with anger and something else, something ancient; she had that same look in the burning forest. It was as if the world spirit was deeply disappointed and glaring out at us from those burning eyes.

“I am called…and I will no longer be pushed around or sent to the background for my own safety and others’ piece of mind. I am no mewing, helpless child!” she intoned, her voice several octaves lower than normal. The form change shrunk her down finally to dark glossy wings and a pointed beak with shiny gems for eyes. A carrion crow, a creature that feeds exclusively on death.

“Oh crap, not again!” Lin muttered and started her own change to a similar form. She launched herself after Jules who was already winging away.

I pondered for just a second. A dark elf has an ingrained sense of duty, and with that an almost slavish directive to follow orders at all cost. This was warring with my loyalty to my friends; but then, I guess I’m not a very good dark elf. I, too, took the form of a raven and followed, wings beating, pushing myself to catch up.

Flying up and over, we easily dodged the higher level bolter fire that was still taking down the occasional bat demon. Off in the distance, I could hear the fighting screams of the silvers as they hunted back around the rear of the keep.

Jules didn’t seem to pay attention to any of it. Single-minded, she flew the few hundred yards straight and fast. Touching down on the main wall just above the gatehouse on a spot relatively free of bodies, she reverted back to her human shape. We had been flying for several minutes and there was no breeze at all. It was as if the entire world was standing still with baited breath. As soon as Julia raised her arms to the sky, strong winds buffeted her robes and hair, but only hers; Lin and I still felt nothing save for the buildup of magical power. Whatever she was doing, it was drawing power from the planet itself, and just like in the burning forest, she was oblivious to her surroundings.

I looked at Lin, and she shook her head resignedly. As one, we reached behind us and grabbed the quarterstaffs strapped to our backs and brought them to bear. Lin grasped the base of hers with her offhand, her primary a quarter of the way up, and her dominant foot forward, exactly as I had been coaching her. She mumbled a few words of a charm, and both of our weapons glowed with a faint bluish light.

“More for luck than anything, Ry.” She grinned with feigned self-confidence. “But technically, it does make them magical weapons for a little while. Maybe give the demons a headache, I hope.”

From far down below us, outside the gatehouse on the undead-controlled side, I heard the familiar sound of Reginaldo ripping up out of the compacted soil. He started pulping undead, making a squishing slimy sound. A quick glance at Jules showed that she was still as frozen as a statue. That was my last chance at idle observation as our appearance had finally drawn the attention of some cat-faced demons, and they ran forward, arms and talons extended. The drool and blood running down their faces attested to the fact that they had already been feasting on our comrades farther down the wall somewhere where fighting still raged. We couldn’t see much of what was still happening farther down due to a silent, raised ballista station blocking our view. In a way, this was advantageous; if we couldn’t see them, they couldn’t see us. Unfortunately, we forgot about their sense of smell.

There were eight of them. Fortunately, their bodies lacked mass, and the fight was about what you would expect, short and violent. It was easier for us to knock them off their feet and kick them over the side than it was to try for head shots. The two-hundred-foot careening drop to the stony ground below would do much of the hard work for us. We had sent five of the eight back to hell when my ears picked up a dramatic change in the din of battle below us, outside the main gate where Reggie had been working. He was obviously locked in mortal combat with something huge. The feral snarls and screaming reached clearly all the way up to our position. The elemental worked silently save for the grinding of stone on stone, but the pounding was relentless.

With a last ringing smack along the head and a quick push by Lin, we sent the last mewling opponent tumbling downwards, and I earned a brief breather and a quick look around. Lin was just leaning on her now gory staff watching Julia with open astonishment. I looked over the side and Reggie was wrestling with a monstrous demon animal of steel and stone. At least the battle of the behemoths below us was keeping everything well away from the damaged main gate. Lin snapped out of it and touched me on the arm, gesturing toward the battlefield laid out below us.

I watched in fascination as a slow-moving zombie, having just crossed the river on one of the demon bridges, was suddenly transfixed. A spear shaft of green wood plunged up from the chewed up soil below to pierce the former soldier, driving through bone, clothing, and armor, and finally shooting out through its skull. Immediately, parasitic vines fished out from the main shaft, wrapping around the body so efficiently that no features or even the shine of armor could be seen any longer. A few seconds later, the tendrils retreated and what was left of the zombie; tattered clothes, pieces of armor, weapon, and leather belt, slumped to the ground as the remaining water from the carcass seeped into the thirsty ground. Its work finished, the green wood shaft retreated back into the soil.

“What are they?” Lin asked in disbelief. “I’ve never seen a plant move so fast.”

I thought about what to tell her. “The elder elf texts speak of a type of vengeful land spirit, a deep earth guardian called the Lyandvaettr. It is said that if the Earth Mother ever decides the children of men or elves have become a threat to the well-being of all creatures, these Lyandvaettr will be called up from the deepest bowels of the planet to render her righteous retribution. Basically, it’s a four-hundred-page saga detailing the end of the world as we all know it. I fear Julia may have summoned something she cannot control.”

Lin’s already fair skin paled considerably as she considered what I said. Finally, she glanced over at Jules, and I saw her wince and silently mouth some foul expletives.

Judging by the small forest that was magically sprouting across the landscape on both sides of the river, it looked like large chunks of zombie horde were being chewed up. Unfortunately, from what I could tell, the demons were either just too fast for the vines or too thick-skinned to be skewered. But large gaping holes were starting to appear in what had been an unblemished sea of foes.

“She’s called them,” Lin nodded fearfully, “all of them!”

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Alex

This badger beast was tougher than anything I had ever faced, and for its size, faster too by far. I tried to concentrate on the task at hand, but the sight of my love hurt and pinned under rubble was almost too much. I had to get it away from the women. It had sent me crashing through wood walls and against stone buttresses half a dozen times already. The armor could handle it, but the frailer, mostly-human body inside–not so much. Staggering from fatigue and pain, I tried to draw it away from Maya, and now Rosa, and lead it back closer to the gatehouse, which was more a pile of rubble than a cohesive structure anymore. Measuring the distance in bounds, I turned and triggered the ice enchantment on my hammer, pounding its face into the cobblestone courtyard and sending bricks flying.

The creature roared a challenge and ran right into the hoar frost wave trying to get to me. I danced around its lunges, waiting for the whiteness to climb its legs and do the real damage. Its feet frozen to the ground just infuriated the demon, but it was unable to move. The opening allowed me to score some decent hits on its head and neck with the spike as I closed further on the badger. I noticed the ice had slowed to a stop just above its feet and was reversing! Dammit! I was too close. Ripping its paws free left a good chunk of foot pad and fur behind but still left him with the nasty part, the ten-inch black steel claws. A slap downward drove me on my back and several inches into the courtyard, creating a depression that held me like a turtle on its back. It gently rested one set of claws on my chest to hold me there, and despite my desperate struggles, I couldn’t roll out of the hole. The other set of massive claws raised on high, ready to smash down on my head. A look of infernal glee flashed across its pointy snouted face…but then…confusion?

The giant set of claws that were poised to rip my head open instead shakily shifted to the side and dug into the cobblestones, plowing up the stones frantically. Releasing my chest, the other paw attempted to do the same as the creature’s shaggy head retreated from over me and not under its own volition either. Something had a grip on its back legs and was relentlessly dragging the demon badger through the portcullis gates and back outside the fortress. I would have laughed at its mournful expression if I didn’t hurt so bad and wasn’t so worried about Maya.

Scrambling once again to my feet, Maya and I hobbled toward each other, the brief respite allowing me to embrace her, as Rosa watched with concern-filled eyes from a short distance away. From outside, I could hear what sounded like a major dogfight taking place outside the ruined gate.

“Reggie…it was Reggie,” Maya said, hugging me gratefully. We were both still helmed, but at least I could see her emerald eyes. That alone rejuvenated me more than a dozen of Alera’s potions would. I watched as those lovely orbs changed from calm relief for surviving, to open alarm as she backed out of my embrace and pointed behind me.

“Alex!”

Whirling, I saw a black malevolent form slide out from the shadows of the ruined gatehouse and coalesce into a frightening figure that I had seen before in what seemed like a dream long ago…Lifebane was here!

The black-cloaked figure looked like little more than a skeleton with bits of putrid flesh still clinging here and there. The deep eye sockets were completely devoid of anything resembling eyes, but the leering skull still managed to convey amused distain at our expense. The cloak that hung indifferently over his desiccated shoulders had once been engineered out of the finest brocade, now it was just a stained and threadbare black shawl. A large black-spiked mace oozing green and yellow ichors hung in his bony right hand. Even from here, I recognized the stench of gangrene from my days helping my foster mother as a healer.

He shook his head as he considered us. “Pathetic, absolutely pathetic,” he said. His voice was low and gravelly, as if a last death rattle was translated into normal human speech.

“Rosa, get out of here,” I said, never taking my eyes off the Lich. I could feel through the link that she was going to argue, but this was not the time. “Rosa, leave now!” I demanded. I could tell she was startled by the force in my voice, but thankfully, she fled anyway in tears.

Maya joined me at my side, squared off with Winya at the ready. I could tell she was preparing to end this. I knew she was badly hurt just from the way she moved; and when she raised her faceplate momentarily to spit, I saw a flash of bright red blood. The Lich displayed all his teeth at the sight.

“Pity my pet couldn’t finish you two off, but it seems he brought you both much closer to my realm of the dead so it will have to do,” he said in the same chilling voice, which reminded me of a snake transfixing its prey with its eyes.

“You’re the one who’s going to die here, Lifebane, not us,” snarled Maya, and Winya’s scrollwork on her sides began to glow in anticipation.

“Oh, I think not.” He gestured expansively all around, and I noticed a ring of demons five and six deep appear out of the gloom surrounding us. These were higher level than the ones we fought at Xarparion. I even saw a handful of the bigger minotaur like I fought in the hell arena at the forefront. Strangely, they didn’t attack, just watched greedily as if this was a momentous event. I heard a gasp of panic from my dark elf; she was looking behind us at a struggling Rosa being restrained in the grasp of a shaggy, apelike creature. Apparently, she was to be made to watch as well. “Die? How ludicrous. You see I control the forces of death; you cannot kill what is already dead, and soon this world will join me, even you two.”

From above us in the clouds, as if someone had opened a door, the loud clash of battle resounded, and the voice of the Kerr screeched down. “Leave them to the demons! Destroy that crystal now and the game is over, we win!” she demanded.

“Plenty of time for that, I want to savor the moment,” the Lifebane growled, obviously annoyed at the intrusion. “Besides, this little girl here has something in her fancy sword that I’ve waited four hundred years to capture.”

“Idiot! Disobedience noted!” the Kerr seethed petulantly, and as if the door above slammed shut, the sounds of celestial warfare cut off abruptly.

With a growl of rage, the Lich closed the distance between us with surprising speed and grace. We both dodged out of the way of that mace, but it came quite a bit closer than I would have liked. Maya, even injured, countered with her superior skills and brought Winya slashing across his bony neck. I watched the blade pass through and past, ending what was easily the fastest exchange of the day.

“Impressive skills, child; but I think you will find that the final death will not take me this day.” Winya had cut right through him…but how? Lifebane just laughed as Maya followed up with another furious series of attacks that passed harmlessly through him as well.