The Vitalis Chronicles: Steps of Krakador (55 page)

“
You insult me with your presence. Your precious army will die. Even your boy, in whom you've placed so much faith, has failed you.”

Tristram picked himself up and began repairing his defenses as quickly as he could.

Oscilian joined him, his voice still projecting like thunder in spite of his damaged state.
“
You cannot win this war, Relequim, even should you take this battle.”

“
And yet again you're wrong, Oscilian, you fool. I've turned everyone in this world to my purpose. Even those sworn to defeat me have come to my aid. Charsi, Merodach, those filthy pirates, and even the master of this little king's bodyguard. All of them were swayed with as little as the simplest suggestions, and all of them have fallen the same as the generations that came before them. Even your wretched boy, Ardin, will follow me in the end and betray your cause.”

The Relequim brought his hands together, a resistance growing between them the closer they got until he shuddered to try and bring them closed. Deep black mist grew within them, and then a rune flashed red from within his hands.

“
A shame my gloating must here end.”

In the same instant Oscilian, Tristram, and the Relequim all launched their attacks. The white fire of the Brethren blazed so hot that the stone beneath them began to smoke as the white mists poured out of them and away from the conflict. The Relequim's black fire held them both at bay, and slowly a red streak of flame began to grow at its very center.

“
'Into the abyss we commend thee.'”
the Relequim quoted.
“
Those were the last words I heard before you sealed me in that forsaken tomb! Well, now into oblivion I send thee, and may you never again return!”

The Relequim flexed again as he pressed forward, the red fire flaring to new life as it pressed into the white and shattered it like glass. Oscilian and Tristram tried to move. They turned quickly to dodge the flames by pulling away, but were overcome in an instant.

“
Servants of my hated rival!”
The Relequim screamed as he burned them both alive.
“
To oblivion I send thee!
AND MAY YOU NEVER AGAIN RETURN
!”

And with a final flare of red in the darkened night sky, the Brethren were no more.

A
RDIN MADE HIS WAY UP THE BROAD STAIRS THAT LED INTO
K
RAKADOR WITH A CERTAINTY HE DIDN'T FULLY UNDERSTAND
. The red lights cast shadows in so many hundreds of ways that it became difficult to tell which was cast by what, and though the lights never flickered, they dimmed and wavered in ways that made the structure look alive.

The stone itself was black, a marble that was not naturally so colored but had become so over time. The veins that ran throughout glowed a dull crimson that was their own, as if the life of Krakador was carried in phosphorescent blood. Its gaping windows and arches were simple, but overlaid with metal spikes and fused with the stone likenesses of the Demon's creations. Every face on every statue looked to have been captured in an undying torment, and as Ardin passed them, he could feel them wailing as if the very souls of their subjects truly had been captured within.

The depths of Krakador were not silent, though upon first impression he had imagined them to be so. The sensation that the statues were somehow distantly alive held true to the very bowels of the fortress. He wondered whose cries he heard and if the enslaved builders had truly poured their blood into the mortar.

“
Ardin.” Rain grabbed his elbow, her strength returned enough to move well on her own. “We can't go in there. This is the very cradle of evil. No one has ever set foot in here and returned.”

“
No one has ever set foot in here,” Ardin corrected gently as he took her hand in his own and continued up the steps. “And after today it won't exist. Its sole purpose was to guard the Relequim's greatest weapon, and now that it's complete, there is no reason for him to keep Krakador.”

He clicked his sword free in its sheath and drew it slowly out with his free hand.

“
We should turn back!” Rain whispered as they neared the first arches that would take them inside the fortress. “He wouldn't leave it totally unguarded, Ardin.”

“
You're right. But you're safe with me.” He turned to stop her. “Just wait here a moment.”

He walked up the rest of the stairs into the brooding darkness beyond the arch. There were no lights in Krakador, at least not within these first few layers. His eyes adjusted quickly, the Shadow within him coming to life in the dim red darkness.

He walked another ten feet forward until he was at the center of the entryway, the vaulted ceiling arching to a point directly above him. He heard the light scraping on the stone before he knew with certainty what he faced. He struck out with his sword. The first Parnithon to land found its face opened wide by the cold steel, and its three companions landed where nothing now existed. Ardin had made the jump as soon as his blow connected, seeing the slightest blur in the dark as the others dove straight for where he had been.

He made the jump back, whirling his sword from behind the next Parnithon, splitting its spine at its haunches and jumping again before they knew he had been there. He jumped in and out, again and again, hacking, slicing, and killing the beasts. There were well over a dozen, perhaps more, but he just kept at it until he was certain no more waited in the darkness to attack.

He stepped back into the blood light of the exterior of the fortress, sword in hand as he beckoned for Rain to follow. “It's safe.”

She came forward as much from her lack of options as from any sense of real safety. Her eyes were trembling, he realized; it was no trick of the light, so he took her by the hand again and turned to enter Krakador.

“
How can you see?” she asked as they pressed forward. “Where are we going?”

“
Just hold my hand,” he said with a smile in the darkness. “It's calling me.”

They entered a grand hall lined with statues along the columns that ran its length, and illuminated dully by wicked looking chandeliers of black wrought iron that hung by chains from the shadowy heights. The faces of gargoyles stared down at them, barely visible from where they stood. The space to either side of their path remained open for a grand audience with the distant throne. The throne itself was tall and crooked, cast from the same iron as the chandeliers. Its leather seat looked inviting in spite of the spikes that roamed its edges.

“
It's a powerful throne,” Ardin whispered as they came to a halt halfway down the hall.

“
It is a throne that should never be filled.” Rain looked away.

Ardin paused a moment longer, then turned to the side. “There are stairs over here; they'll take us where we need to go.”

They crossed the broad space to their left, the tile reflecting the red points of light above so that it looked like they were traversing some sort of blood galaxy. Ardin pushed on the wall between two tapestries, the monsters depicted upon them causing Rain to shy away as she saw them. He squeezed her hand reassuringly, then pushed again until the wall gave way to reveal a dark passage beyond. The stairs spiraled tightly downward, the way so narrow that they were forced to mind their step and their shoulders simultaneously.

Ardin stepped into the passageways beneath the grand hall and held out his hand for Rain to wait. The light from the hall above just barely leaked from the stairway here.

“
There are more in here,” he whispered as he drew his sword again and vanished into the dark.

A scuffle sounded in the dark, followed by squeals of anger and howls of pain before silence settled on the passageway anew.

“
Those were different,” Ardin said as he appeared only feet in front of Rain.

“
You startled me!” Rain put a hand on her chest involuntarily. “What were they?”

“
I don't know.” Ardin took her hand again. “They were like bats, but bigger, and a lot stronger. Watch your step, there's another stairway over here.”

“
How can you see all of this?” she asked again, baffled in spite of the overwhelming closeness of the stone overhead.

“
When I made it to the Tomb, I was too late to stop the Shadow King from opening the Gates.” Ardin pulled her around a corner at the base of the stairs and led her down another long dark hallway. “But I wasn't too late to kill him. When I did, he sort of... well, I guess he inhabited me.”

He could feel her grip loosen slightly as he said it. “It's nothing to worry about.” He squeezed her fingertips. “I won. He's gone, but he did try to control me. That's what he did to Silvers, his last host, and he would have controlled me too if I hadn't been able to destroy him. Now I am as fully Shade as I am human, and with the transformation has come some helpful gifts.”

Ardin led her up a short flight of steps to a door that was locked to them. “Like this.” And he vanished.

“
Ardin?” Rain was left in the dark, suddenly alone. “Ardin, where are you?” Her panic began to rise as the walls seemed to close in on her. She could see the veins in the walls now, glowing so dully it had taken her until only a few minutes before to finally see them. But they were unable to illuminate anything around her, so faint that she had thought for the longest time she had been imagining them. “Ardin!”

The door clicked as the latch was released, and she felt a slight movement in the still air as the doors were swung open and away from her. “Ardin?”

“
C'mon,” he said gently as he took her hand. “We're almost there.”

They walked down a broad set of stairs. Ardin came up to another door and shoved it open to reveal a brightly-lit chamber beyond. There were real flames here interspersed with the Relequim's orbs, and they cast long, flickering shadows off of the strange contraptions both large and small that were littered about the room.

“
This, I believe, is the Relequim's private workshop... of sorts.”

Rain lowered her eyes as they adjusted, but began to breathe heavily against the smell. There was death everywhere in this room. The unrecognizable corpses of dozens of strange monsters lined the walls and lay open on tables around the room. She had never seen anything like these before, and grew frightened that living ones might not be so far off.

“
This is where he makes them,” Ardin thought aloud as he drew her after him. “This is where he learns from his mistakes and alters his breeding plans to suit.”

“
How can you stand the smell?” Rain asked as they wove through massive iron cages and chairs in which she would never wish to sit. “This place is horrible.”

“
It is,” Ardin admitted. “But so full of knowledge, too.”

“
This is evil, Ardin!”

“
And we should learn from it.” He stopped short as a giant stone table came into view. From its edges hung all kinds of tools that Ardin had never seen before, meant for purposes he was only beginning to imagine. On the table itself lay the most beautiful stone he had ever seen, nearly transparent yet filled with the rush and sparkle of captured energies within.

“
This is it.” He released Rain's hand and stepped forward. He could feel the pulsing life of the stone emanating through him as he approached the table. “It's amazing.”

Even Rain couldn't help but stare at it as she followed tentatively. “What... what is it?”

“
There are nine components.” He placed his hands on the table. He could see through it clearly, as though he understood its very molecular structure from the briefest of glances. “There are nine stones within it, each containing a different power... like there are living beings inside.”

Rain stood just behind him, as if hiding behind Ardin could keep her safe from a stone she didn't even begin to understand.
As if she could understand it,
Ardin thought as he reached out to touch it with his hand.

“
This is what he has been making all of these years?” He felt it respond to his touch like a child in the womb. “Each...” He closed his eyes to better see. “Each is younger than the last, as if he started with one and has been working on them in turn ever since.”

“
Younger? Is it magic?”

“
No.” He ran his fingers along the contours within the stone. “It's something else all together.”

And then it flared to life under his fingertips, rushing through him with an energy unlike any he had ever known before. With it came a clarity he could never have imagined possible. The world was laid bare and, suddenly, he was linked to the stone.

“
It's a spiritual weapon,” he said to himself as much as to Rain. He was losing himself to the power as it washed over him again and again, each time bringing new knowledge, each time freeing him from what he had thought he knew. He could see through the stone, and through his hands somehow, in a way he couldn't fully understand yet. He could even see what it was in him that blocked his connection to the Atmosphere beyond his Shadow form. And he didn't care. “It's so beautiful.”