Maylin's Gate (Book 3) (58 page)

The world sped up and he focused on the girl's face. “What?”

An insect’s high-pitched drone buzzed overhead.

Rika shifted into some exotic forest creature. A hairless ape with long limbs and short squat legs. Rika swung a hand broad enough to hold two of his and batted the insect from the sky.

“You have to save us,” the girl said.

He studied the girl’s exquisite face and expected to find fear. He noticed something else altogether. Steady determination.

“I saw you,” he said. “Earlier. On the rooftop.”

The girl’s jaw clenched. “You have to stop them.”

He gazed across the battlefield. How? If he knew, he would’ve done it by now.

Insects swarmed the monastery, the library, and the government building. They slaughtered defenders by the hundred.

The insects speed and ferocity left him breathless. He faced the girl and shook his head. “I don’t know how.”

Rage blazed in the girl’s eyes and he flinched.

Fingers of gold light flared from the center of the teenager’s gray soul light.

A battle knight. The thought struck him like a smith’s hammer. How many others like this girl? How many others could fight back? He scanned the gray soul’s dotting the square. Fingers of blue came from a balding guard near the library. White threads laced a gray souled monk fighting beside the guard.

Ten paces ahead, General Demos’s sword flashed. “Form ranks behind me. Archers stand at the ready.”

He spotted two shield knights holding dim shields around him and Rika. “Shield that man,” he said pointing toward Demos.

“Yes, Your Majesty,” a sandy haired knight said. The knight directed spirit toward the baerinese general.

A thin shield formed around General Demos.

“Now fall in line with his troopers,” he said. “We’ll need every ounce of magic you can bring to bear.”

The knights saluted and fell in beside a wide-eyed baerinese archer.

Thin shields appeared around the troopers in the makeshift line.

“Archers take aim and fire at will,” Demos said.

Insects’ stingers flashed against the spirit shields. A shield knight launched a spirit orb into the belly of an approaching insect. A fist-sized hole melted through the bug’s abdomen. Yellow fluid poured from the wound while the insect spun to the ground dead.

A few feet away, Rika swatted insects buzzing within range.

Insects continued to pour through the gateway.

He needed a way to close the portal or they had no hope.

“Your Majesty, look.” The teenage girl pointed toward a grouping of bugs battering General Demos’s shield.

He tugged on the troopers' soul threads standing behind General Demos. He gathered and combined the soul energy. With a thought, he flung the energy toward the swarming mass.

A flash of orange lit the sky and the insects, twenty-strong, burst into flames and dropped from the sky.

General Demos stumbled backward wearing a stunned expression. Behind the general, the three troopers he'd used fell dead.

His heart sank while the living troopers behind Demos cheered. He’d killed those troopers like he had Devery Tyrell.

Beside him Jo cheered. “Do it again, Your Majesty. Do it to all of them.”

All of them? That would cost the life of every man, woman, and child in Prynesse. He couldn’t live with himself.

Connal, using the same form as Rika, bounded across the square. A half-dozen insects trailed behind.

He wouldn’t use Connal’s soul thread. He wouldn’t take the risk.

Near his father, a pair of gray-souled warriors hacked at the incoming swarm.

He pulled on each man’s soul thread and directed a trickle of energy toward the bugs. The men staggered but remained upright.

A mist gathered above the swarm and coated each bug’s wings. Their buzzing stopped and the insects dropped.

A surge of triumph welled in his chest.

The insects stood on their hind legs and scuttled toward his father.

His joy faded.

“Fire,” Demos said.

A salvo of arrows and spirit energy shattered the scuttling insects. Bits of torso, wings, and legs littered the cobblestone. Yellow insect fluid splattered the square like an artist’s macabre painting.

Breathless, Connal reached his side before swatting away a nearby bug.

Could he form a shield from the collective souls like he had over Freehold? He discounted the idea. The thought of trapping the bugs inside a shield made his skin crawl.

“Ronan,” Rika said and pointed toward a line of insects forming halfway across the square.

Numbering in the hundreds, the bugs flew toward him. Each bug appeared intent on his destruction. The swarm ignored the troopers and knights attacking them from all sides.

“Rika, get away from me and take them with you.” He pointed toward the girl and his father.

“No,” Rika said.

“I will not kill you too,” he said. “Move. Now.” He thrust a finger toward Demos and the knights gathered at the foot of Elan’s Great Library.

Anger flared in Rika’s eyes.

Connal hooked Rika’s arm and they sprinted toward Demos. The girl followed close behind.

He sprinted across the square and stood amid the yellow fluid and insect parts left from his first attack. “You want me?” He shouted to the gathering swarm. “Come and get me.”

The insects circled him and their buzz grew to deafening levels. As one, they attacked.

He sank to one knee and drew on his own life force. He pulled more energy than he'd ever dared and concentrated it into a pinpoint.

The first line of insect attackers reached him with stingers out. The stingers gashed his spirit shield. With a sickening zap, three bugs exploded.

Yellow fluid oozed across the shield’s outer shell and greasy smoke curled skyward.

The second wave of insect’s slammed against the shield. Like the first, they exploded raining down bug parts and gallons of inky fluid. The shield held a moment longer then disappeared.

He launched his trapped soul energy outward in an explosion. Like a thousand shooting stars, radiant slivers of energy eviscerated the swarm.

Insect legs, heads, and fluid scattered in wide radius. Pink pulpy meat and slimy organs rained down on the square. Thirty yards around him, the square stood empty of life.

Blackness swept across his vision. He staggered sideways before slipping on a puddle of yellow fluid.

“Ronan.” Rika scrambled across piled bug carcasses.

Mind thrumming with black, he fell and landed face first atop a mountain of insect parts. The putrid stench of severed limbs and steaming guts set him gagging.

Rika tugged on his arm and pulled him over.

He breathed in a pocket of fresh air, and his head swam.

Rika gasped. “What have you done to yourself?”

“Have to save you and the baby,” he said voice slurred. Blurred shapes moved around him and he squinted trying to focus his vision.

“You’re killing yourself,” Rika said.

Through the portal, insects swarmed. The buzzing set his teeth chattering.

“Move away,” he said staggering to his feet. Shapes swirled and a warm hand touched his neck. “Who’s there?”

“Healing,” Demos said speaking in a low reassuring tone.

White flows wrapped his body and his vision sharpened. Demos, Rika, and his father huddled around him. A healer had touched him. He glanced over his shoulder and found Sir Alcott standing behind him. “Thank you, Alcott.” His words came easier than before, but his muscles throbbed with pain.

The buzzing intensified and a fresh wave of insects swarmed through the portal.

Shoulders stooped, he staggered. Strong hands held him. Demos, he knew. “Gregor, the portal…have to close it.”

Across the square, defenders engaged the approaching horde. But, thousands lay dead while hundreds of insects lined up forming ranks for a second assault. One that would finish him.

He opened his mind to his own soul energy. Dimmer this time by half. Taking a long steady breath, he gathered the energy.

“No Ronan. Please don’t,” Rika said through sobs. “I can’t live without you. Please God. Please help him.”

He turned and found Rika’s eyes. Tears stained her cheeks. Despite it all, a face as stunning now as ever before. He touched her cheek letting his fingertips linger. “So beautiful.”

Rika’s chin quivered. “There has to be another way.”

He dropped his hand. “Tell the baby I love her. Tell her I’m sorry I couldn’t watch her grow up.” A dull ache throbbed in his chest.

Rika broke down sobbing. “You can tell her yourself Ronan Latimer.”

“I love you Rika.” He glanced past Rika and found Demos standing beside his father. “Father, after…after I’m done, you must reach the portal and knock one of those spheres loose. It’s our only chance.”

Tears stained his father’s face. “I’ll make sure it’s done.”

Tongue flickering, General Demos gave a single nod. “I’m proud to have walked by your side Ronan Latimer.”

He offered a weak smile and turned his back on them. “Please get to safety Rika. If I harmed you, I couldn’t live with the consequence.”

Rika, Demos, and Connal moved to safety near the library steps.

The buzzing reached a crescendo and the insects formed another circle three deep.

He collected the last shreds of energy his body had to give and the bugs attacked.

Over Elan’s Great Library, a roar shook the sky. Loose body parts bounced from the cobblestone.

A great pair of black wings sent a gust of air billowing across the square. Insects bounced sideways and backward breaking formation.

A thirty-foot arc of fire sprayed from a dragon’s snout. The fire torched a group twenty insects nearest him.

The dragon’s sapphire blue eyes shimmered and a toothy grin curled the dragon’s lip.

“Thoth,” he said screaming into the sky. Fresh energy washed over his body.

Riding atop Thoth’s saddle, Danielle’s golden hair streamed. Behind Danielle, sat a second woman with a long blond braid that streamed like a kite tail caught in a spring storm.

The woman appeared familiar, but a name escaped him.

War birds encased in spirit shields rushed overhead. Jeremy sat atop one of the guardians while Brees Broderick sat atop the other.

“Keely, Arber,” Rika said and rushed forward.

The remaining defenders cheered raising bloody swords.

Fire blazed from Thoth’s snout and another dozen insects went up in flames.

The insect swarm surrounding him a moment earlier split. A dozen separate swarms buzzed in tight circles. Hundreds more insects gathered across the portal.

He turned and glanced atop Elan’s Great Library. A portal stood open inside a triangular shaped structure. At each of the triangle’s intersections, an orb of power hummed. Elan’s, Lora’s, and Trace’s.

Through the gateway, giant moth-like creatures appeared. Riders wielding red bows flecked with gold sat atop the moths. Like the woman riding Thoth, the riders had smooth pointed ears.

Goose bumps flared along his arms and down his neck. “Heartwood bows,” he said under his breath. He let the gathered soul energy sink into his body.

Dozens of archers loosed arrows tipped with electricity. The arrows hummed across the square. Two-dozen arrows struck home sinking into the abdomens of the swarming insects.

Electricity arced over spines and bug-eyed heads. Each insect shook with violent tremors.

A fresh wave of insects buzzed through the gate. Each insect larger by half than any that came before.

Danielle dropped a handful of seeds across the square. Green energy flowed from his sister’s fingertips.

The woman behind Danielle reached inside a flowing robe and pulled out a pendant.

He tracked the woman across the square searching for a name.

Insects flashed behind Rika and he whirled.

His mind froze. Rika didn’t see them coming. “Rika.” He screamed but couldn’t raise his voice above the droning insects.

Thoth’s head pivoted toward the swarm and an arc of fire leapt across the dragon’s forked tongue.

His heart sank as he watched the fire stream behind the assault. He dipped into his own life force and latched onto Rika’s green soul energy.

Keely dipped low gliding behind the insects and the shaman’s amulet glowed red.

He pushed his life force through the bond and fused Rika’s soul with his own. Dizziness swept over him leaving his head spinning.

Under Brees’s command, the dragon fire swirled then shifted direction. Flames smothered the advancing insects. The swarm ignited in a ball of flame except for a single insect at the lead.

The insect's wings buzzed. Its abdomen shot forward exposing a massive stinger.

“Rika,” he screamed again.