Hemlock And The Wizard Tower (Book 1) (18 page)

Hemlock was reassured that her speed still seemed superior in relation to the
wizard
that pushed through the barrier first.  He was running t
oward Gwineval and raising his morning s
tar in preparation for a great strike.  As he noticed Hemlock on an intercepting course, howeve
r, he refocused the strike toward her
.  Hemlock
judged
that she had
little
margin of error against
him.  I
f her speed failed her
,
then the first blow from that weapon would be
a death blow
.

She saw Safreon moving toward the br
each in the barrier as another w
izard burst through.  Then her attention
returned to
her
immediate foe–and the morning star that was descending toward her head.

Hemlock’s long
knife was in her hand.  She knew that the wizard’s heavy strike had forced him to
commit himself.  She hesitated on the commission of her own
counter-
strike
,
preferring to
make sure that
her opponent
didn’t surprise her
.  Suddenly
, the tattoos along the w
izard’s body seemed to pulsate and she realized with only a moment to
spare that the morning s
tar was hurtling toward her at
a magically enhanced
speed.  Her only option
was to vault over the wizard;
her momentum was such t
hat to remain on the ground would result in her certain
death.  With a grunt
,
she thrust against the ground with all of her might
and launched herself upwards
.

As she sailed
over the w
izard, she kicked out her feet to strike
his head, but the w
izard was agile
and he ducked under her kick,
leaning back and toward the floor.

Still in mid–air,
Hemlock
then used
her trailing arm to throw
her
knife, catching the w
izard in
the throat as she flew over him.  S
he landed
,
crouched
,
some feet distant a
nd close to the energy barrier.  The energy from the barrier
made her hair stand
up from her scalp
.

Hemlock
drew
her second knife
and turned to take in the situation.  Safre
on was engaged with two of the w
izards and a third was pushing through the barrier.  One
w
izard was falling to the floor after a grapple with Safreon which had left
the wizard’s
shoulder badly dislocated and hanging at an odd angle.  He shouted out in pain as he writhed to the floor.  The other was
in the process of swinging his morning s
tar
toward Safreon’s large frame.
Hemlock feared that he might not be able to dodge
the blow, but knew that she needed to intercept the next wizard
. 

As she sprinted toward the fourth
w
izard pushing through the barrier, her heart skipped a beat as the strike
against Safreon
missed
his
head by less than a finger’s width.  She could see that Safreon was now in
a position to grapple with the w
i
zard, as the savage morning star swing had compromised the w
izard’s position
, leaving him vulnerable to a counter-attack
.

Hemlock approached the
remaining w
izard
that was on her side of
the barrier
,
and va
ulted into a somersault as the W
izard’s tattoos glowed
.
He
aimed a heavy blow toward her
airborne
form.  Suddenly she straightened and thrust
forward heavily
with her arms. 
Her horizontal pose allowed the morning star swing to pass harmlessly below her and then her
leg kicked down,
over
the startled Wizard’s
hastily raised arm,
and straight
into the side of his head
. 
The wizard fell to the floor, unconscious
.

As she landed on the floor, s
he heard a sickening snap of cracking bone
behind her.  Turning, she saw
the
other w
izard me
e
t his end in a death embrace with Safreon.

The w
izard with the dislocated arm
had managed to leap
back through the barrier
to the other side
,
as the breach
in the barrier
closed
.
Hemlock saw that
Falignus
, on the other side of the barrier,
was lowering his arms
.

As
Falignus
let
the crimson rays that had sprung from his hands fall dark, time seemed to lose its odd slowness and Hemlock felt a measure of normalcy return.

The
magical
strain
finally
took its toll on the Atrium, however.  Many of the glass pane
ls shattered in that instant–
both above
Hemlock
in the ceiling and in the
high
walls around
the room
.  Safreon and Hemlock had to avoid falling shards of glass, but fortunately for Gwineval
,
none impacted in his vicinity
, as he was still immobile while concentrating on his spell
.

Whatever force had provided a comfortable, even light in the Atrium had also failed, and the room was bathed in the darkness of the night.

Something
clicked
within Hemlock
’s awareness, identifying with
the
shattering of the glass,
and she knew
that
it was time for the culmination of her mission.

The storm that had been raging outside was now streaming into the Atrium.  An infernal wind blew and a driving rain soon drenched Hemlock
,
as a bolt of lightning cracked and cast
the remaining occupants of the Atrium in a fell light. 

Grasping a morning s
tar from one of the fallen
guard-w
izards, she
ran
toward the tall Machine
in the center of the Atrium
, the destruction of which represented the completion
of
her quest.  The look in her eyes was cold
–
colder even than the rain which now drove against her skin
,
relentlessly.  Thunder
again
rumbled from the heavens as she approached the humming machine, the reassuring weight of the
morning s
tar borne in both hands
giving her confidence that she would succeed in her destructive aim
.

She became conscious of a fantastic beast of some sort on the outer balcony
to her left side,
now visible through some shattered panes. 
The beast
cried and the c
ry was birdlike–
and it sounded like a pained cry.

"
The Griffin
is wounded.  Wait! Hemlock, what are you doing?" s
he heard
Safreon say from some distance behind her. A
pparently he had moved
off toward
the creature
before noticing what Hemlock intended to do
.

She saw
Gwineval’s
magical barrier waver as she
ran toward the tall machine,
fearless in the face of
an
emanation of
magical energy which
unexpectedly
e
rupted from the base of the machine at that instant, and
burst
upwards
along the inner metal beam of the glass shafts to the metallic tip of the machine, which protruded
through the hole in the now damaged roof.
  Suddenly the night air crackled with an unidentified power.

"
Hemlock, NO!
"
she heard Gwineval cry as the
magical
barrier
that he had cast
shimmered and then failed entirely.

The last thing
that
she felt
,
before s
he spun twice and launched the morning s
tar with all her might
,
was pity.  She pitied Gwineval and his misguided allegiance to the
wizards,
which was apparently showing through.  He
evidently
feared for the safety of the machine
despite his recent betrayal of the wizards
.

But it was too late. S
he
threw the morning star as hard as she could.  She
aimed
it
at the union of the clear base
of the machine where
the strange ironwork tendrils that stretched upwards
diverged from one another
.  Her aim was true and the
glass
base
of the machine
shattered
under
the impact.

Hemlock’s vision was filled with a blinding whiteness as a massive explosion shook the entire Wizard Tower.

Hemlock was thrown backwards some fort
y feet, to the very edge of the A
trium
.  Then
the initial flash of the magical explosion receded and large
fragments of the machine were falling
with a crash
.
A
thundero
us boom off to one side of the Atrium sounded as
the edges
of the metal rods
smash
ed
through the
remnants of the
glass
walls,
jutting out over the edge of the Tower.

Hemlock stood up and saw that Gwineval and Safreon were standing uninjured
– both star
ing at her.

"
Hemloc
k,
you headstrong young fool!
"
shouted Gwineval as
small
debris continued to fall around
him
.

"
Never mind that,
"
shouted Safreon
"
we need to find a way out of here and the Griffin has flown off
,
wounded!
"

Hemlock saw that the
remaining guard-wizard
was gathering several more squads of
guards on the far side of the Atrium, as Safreon and Gwineval
discussed their next move. 
She also noticed that
Falignus was getting to his feet some distance from the
guard-wizards
.

"
Run for the cage!
"
shouted Gwineval as he pointed
toward the large cage that Hemlock had seen earlier
.

Not waiting for an explanation, Safreon and Hemlock foll
owed Gwineval in a sprint toward the polished brass object
.

"
Stop them!
"
s
houted Falignus.  The muscular guard-w
izards numbered around twenty
now,
and
they charged
toward the cage as well
.

Hemlock paused only a moment before she grasped the side of the large cage and entered
it
to stand beside Safreon
, who had already entered through the open, barred door of the contraption
.

Gwineval
entered, quickly closed the door, and reached up,
mut
tering some incantations as he ra
ng the ornate bell which hung
from the top of the cage
.

Falignus shouted (although Hemlock thought that it sounded strangely faint) and
bolts of
lightning spr
ang from his hands towards them;
but as
the lightning
struck t
he cage, it passed through it and
did not harm them or the
brass
structure
that enclosed them
.