Movement drew his eye to the assassin Kori, whose beauty would make any man stare. Did she use it to kill them? Many a man might stare helplessly until she plunged a knife into them. Large hazel eyes, an upturned nose, and full lips would mesmerize, the depth of her gaze riveting for the mystery it promised within. It might even draw attention away from a sexy figure that her attire only accentuated. For someone dressed to kill, she had still painted her fingernails blood red, neatly bound her hair with a lace tie, and applied makeup. He wondered if she poisoned her ruby lips for a kiss of death, and he knew that he only saw the menace of her because she wanted him to, not because she couldn’t hide it with ease. This was the most dangerous woman he had ever seen.
And beside her stood a man who spoke with the dead, raised them, and had their allegiance. Aeron’s deep set, pale blue eyes shone from a black face that he had ritually scarred using something circular and hot and the size of a pencil, curving patterns of welts on his face and hands and rising over his bald head. They stole any charisma that his round face might have given, and when he blinked, Matt saw his eyelids had eyes drawn on them in white and blue. Did it help him see into the underworld? What role did the scars play? Similar designs on the tunic were now close enough to be seen but still not understood. And Matt didn’t want to know.
“Are you wondering what happened to Novir?” Eric taunted them, breaking Matt’s thoughts.
For an answer, Kori threw a knife toward him with a flick of her wrist and the rogue barely dodged it. She was as fast as him, Matt saw, remembering her blades were poisoned. She cast a brief glance at the lone enthralled warrior who had reached them, hanging back.
“I’ll tell you anyway,” offered Eric. “We fed him to trolls, just like we’re going to feed you to the dragon.”
The sorcerer remarked, “I see you are short two dragons from when you started. Pity. But no more of you shall fall, by our lord’s order. We will ensnare your feeble minds for him after we amuse ourselves with you.”
Matt nodded to himself. So it was a trap to ensnare the Ellorian Champions. As if they didn’t have enough to worry about, now people were trying to capture them. But at least they did not face death. Garian was a fool to admit that, but anger at the threat grew. Matt began gathering magical energy.
Eric continued baiting the lords, for reasons Matt didn’t really understand, but he trusted the rogue. “Like he ensnared yours?”
Garian smirked. “He already has our allegiance and needed no orb to gain it.”
“Was it like Novir? Did you sell your soul for a pint of ale, or maybe a petty fiefdom somewhere?”
The smirk deepened. “We’re already lords, fool. And we will take what kingdoms we want.”
“Yes, but if you or he were so powerful, you wouldn’t need the Orbs of Dominion to do it, now would you?”
Lord Voth pointed an imperious finger at Matt. “Bow before your king, Soliander of Aranor.”
Matt tried to stay in character, amazed he was about to have a conversation with an undead knight. “You are no King of Aranor. You bow to another. Care to share who has enslaved you?” Lord Voth ripped his sword from its scabbard in one smooth motion. Maybe pissing them off wasn’t a good idea after all.
The rogue asked, “Are you sure you don’t want to rest a minute before we kick your butts through the portal? You must have traveled all night to get here. You look like you need a nap.”
Kori answered in a rich alto. “We have ways to get our energy back. Show him, Aeron.”
The necromancer gestured for the nearby enthralled warrior approach, and once the man did so, he put one hand on the man’s shoulder and began whispering words Matt couldn’t hear but which made his skin crawl. Rather than light appearing as when Anna channeled a god’s touch, a darkness gathered around the necromancer’s black hand and spread over the warrior, whose face registered horror. He moaned, soiling himself as his hair turned white, his skin wrinkled and became spotty, and his posture stooped. His life’s energy drained away into a ball of shimmering darkness in Aeron’s hand. The warrior fell face first to the stones, dead. Glittering blue eyes turned toward them as the necromancer made a thrusting gesture with that hand. The ball of blackness separated into three, one absorbing into him and the other two racing toward Lord Garian and Kori, striking both and disappearing inside them. The assassin looked at them with a renewed blaze of energy.
“That’s fucked up,” Ryan muttered, scowling.
Matt had to agree and thought Aeron needed to be destroyed. He decided the time for chatter had ended. According to lore on Earth, ice had no effect on undead, but fire was another matter. Given that dragon’s ice had killed and encased Lord Voth, and Matt had melted ice in a vial from Brazin, he wanted to test a theory. He opened a vial of ordinary water and poured some as he spoke.
With ice and frost I bind your flesh,
May time stand still, in peace you rest
He thrust the vial toward the target and watched as the water soared toward Lord Voth, growing expanding in volume. That it chilled in flight became apparent from the tinkling of ice shards that dropped on the stones as it flew on, finally striking Lord Voth, who hadn’t bothered to move. Would arrogance be his downfall? Matt saw the water freeze around the undead knight’s entire body, encasing him in inches of ice like he was a sculpture.
“Fool!” said Lord Garian, chuckling. “So much for the Majestic Magus.”
Matt responded by putting the vial back in his pocket and retrieving the one with dragon’s ice water. He wasn’t surprised by what happened next. A crack in the ice appeared, then another bigger one. The knight was flexing his limbs inside it, and a third crack made a huge chunk fall to the stones and slide away. With a final wrench, the undead knight freed himself, sending ice pieces scattering.
Far behind the lords, Jolian breathed another round of flames to keep the enthralled away, and Matt’s glance revealed their numbers had greatly reduced. Where had they gone? The obvious answer was to find another way to the plaza. Countless other entry points existed, but he had more pressing concerns. He repeated the spell, this time more hopeful of the result. Once again, the undead knight had been encased in ice as Garian and Kori stood smirking at him like he was an idiot. They waited. And waited. And waited. But Lord Voth did not appear to be moving. Not until he yelled with his mouth frozen shut did anyone realize he wasn’t getting out this time.
Matt returned their smirk until a sudden gesture from Kori toward him made his breath catch. He barely saw the blade flying, instinctively raising his hands, words of magic struggling to form as the twirling knife reached him—and fell with a clatter at his feet. Kori screamed and doubled over, a splash of blood already leaking between her fingers at one shoulder. She staggered and fell to one knee, reaching for the necromancer and calling his name as she tumbled to the pavement, body going limp. Matt had forgotten one benefit of Soliander’s staff—any physical blow intended for him caused the wound to appear on the victim instead. It only worked so many times, but sometimes once was enough. Whatever poison Kori was using didn’t give one long to live, apparently. Aeron kneeled over her.
A roar of flame attracted Matt’s attention, but Garian directed at Lord Voth, his Dragon’s Fire Wand rapidly melting the dragon ice. Matt hadn’t thought of that. Were the flames truly like that of a dragon and therefore an effective counter to his spell, or would regular fire melt the ice, too? Once Lord Voth had been thawed enough to crack the ice on his own, Garion turned the wand toward Jolian despite the distance. She didn’t move as the flames reached and struck her, giving Matt the impression that she knew nothing would happen to her. And it didn’t. When flames stopped, she bared her teeth at him as if smiling.
Having healed Kori, who rose with fury on her face, Aeron again seemed to whisper, one hand rising to the sky. That surprised Matt. A necromancer would reach for the earth to get dead things to rise from it. What was up there to care about? He found out when a loud screech split the air and
a green dragon flew over the courtyard, barely above the buildings, a rider upon its back. Both were close enough to see that they were dead, large puncture wounds in the dragon’s neck, ghastly ones in its body, and a broken wing hampering its flight. Just as Matt recognized Sebast and the missing Novir, they turned toward Jolian and spat a fountain of green liquid at her. The red dragon ducked behind a building as steaming acid began melting everything around her. She seemed unscathed and leaped into the sky to pursue the undead dragon.
“Holy shit,” said Ryan, turning to them. “Did you see that?”
“More like unholy shit,” said Eric, reaching into a pocket. Matt saw one vial of green acid he’d collected from Sebast’s corpse hidden in the rogue’s reappearing hand, so he turned and sent a blinding flash of light from his staff at the Lords of Fear, who shielded their eyes. Eric threw the vial, which smashed on Garian’s leg. Horrible screaming erupted as it ate away the sorcerer’s flesh so quickly that the bone had already appeared. Lord Garian staggered and fell, Aeron running for him even as the sorcerer’s blazing eyes turned toward Eric, the Dragon’s Fire Wand raising. Matt ran to Eric and put up an invisible wall just as sustained blasts of lightning struck, crackling the air amid thunder that deafened him. From the corner of his eye, Matt saw movement, as did Eric, but neither were fast enough to dodge the knives that Kori threw at Eric, one hitting his shoulder, the other his leg. The lightning cut off from Garian cut off. Anna ran to Eric. Matt swung the top of his staff in anger, causing a half circle of fire to roar up from the ground in between the combatants.
He glanced down at Eric, relieved to see Anna succeeding at healing the rogue, but there was no time to feel satisfaction. The sound of heavy footsteps preceded Lord Voth running through the wall of flames directly toward Ryan, who advanced.
“Matt,” yelled Eric, “drop the flames. We can’t see what they’re doing.”
“Right.” He killed the spell and swore. With Jolian gone, the enthralled warriors had advanced, and the ones that had gone around were now entering the plaza from the sides. Undead would soon surround them except from behind. Aeron had healed a livid Garian, who now strode toward them, the dark Orb of Dominion in one hand and the wand in the other. To one side, Kori had drawn her sword and ran at Eric, who quickly drew his.
“Fall back!” shouted the rogue. “To the hall! Anna! Matt! Keep the enthralled away.”
The loud clang of Ryan’s sword blocking Lord Voth’s split the air as they traded blows, Ryan steadily backing up and risking glances at the others to as if to measure the pace of their retreat. A flurry of more frequent and lighter clangs sounded on Matt’s other side as Kori and Eric fought. Garian raised his wand at Ryan and Matt threw a brief shield up, so close to the sorcerer that the energy wave meant to strike the knight rebounded and knocked Garian into Aeron so that they fell in a heap. Matt smiled despite the tension in the air. Somehow, Eric and Kori were now fighting without swords or knives, each spinning, kicking, punching and sometimes throwing the other, still moving steadily toward the Hall of Worlds. Matt thought to get Eric’s dropped sword for him,
3 but there was no time.
A scream of warning from Jolian made him look up as Sebast bore down on them, a blast of Jolian’s fire into his path making Sebast bank to avoid it, his spray of green acid missing the champions and striking the stone behind them. The green dragon had fresh burn marks on his head and one wing, but Jolian seemed unhurt. On his back, Novir was too small to see much of from here.
As Garian and Aeron tried to rise, green grass rose from between the stones beneath them, wrapping around their arms and legs, pulling them down. Startled, Matt turned and saw Anna with her arm extended toward them, fist closed and surrounded by white light. He moved toward her to protect the priest as the grass grew longer, blades encircling Aeron’s throat but not Garian’s. This suggested that the necromancer was the true source of ire for the goddess of life Anna was channeling. But Aeron shouted a word he didn’t understand before being strangled into silence. Some of the enthralled who were approaching ran at them, and Matt realized that each was undead.
Anna saw it, too, her eyes wide. Matt thought maybe she could just make more grass spring up and grab each of them, but she dropped her hand before turning it on the undead to one side. Those undead staggered as white light suddenly shone from their eyes, mouths, and ears. They stumbled and fell face first, unmoving. Anna whirled around and did it again to those on the other side, and then the ones running up behind Garian and Aeron, who had freed themselves and began to rise.
“Thank you,” said Matt, reaching into his pocket for the vial of dragon ice water. Then he saw Sebast circling back toward them, Jolian once again in pursuit. “Anna, do you think you could hit the dragon with that?” To one side, Ryan appeared to be holding his own against Lord Voth, retreating steadily.
With a gleam in her eye, Anna said, “Let’s see.”
She made the same gesture at Sebast as he neared. The white light appeared in his eyes for a moment and caused him to turn sharply just overhead, but it seemed Anna wasn’t strong enough to take him down. Something fell from his back and Matt recognized Novir’s corpse as it plummeted, white lights shining from within his orifices until he smashed into the pavement yards from them, bounced once, and stopped moving.
Matt turned toward Garian and cast another spell of dragon ice, this time foot-long shards of ice hurtling at the sorcerer, who waved his Dragon’s Fire Wand and melted them. But one struck a glancing blow off his shoulder and made him drop the wand. Matt struggled for a spell to levitate the wand to himself, but couldn’t think of one as the sorcerer picked it up and looked at the sky. Matt followed his gaze, and this time only Jolian was coming, a jet of flames whirling in her mouth. He was about to run for the Hall of Worlds when Garian shouted behind him.
“Enough games, Ellorians! Meet your new master!”
Matt turned and saw that the Orb of Dominion now glowed with a golden sheen along its edges, a darker image within and moving but too hard to make out from here. Then a voice spoke from within it, far louder than he expected.
“Obey and serve,” the voice commanded, and Matt wondered if those words acted like a spell to ensnare minds. “Fight no more. My will be yours. Follow the Lords Garian, Voth, Aeron, and Kori as your masters after me.”
“Thank you, my Lord,” said Garian, gazing at them in triumph.
Jolian flew past without breathing fire, and Matt saw that his friends had stopped fighting. Had the Mind Shield spell worked? He didn’t feel any different. How should they behave? He looked at the enthralled to see what they did, as he was supposed to be one of them now, but they had just stopped advancing and stood idly by. For a moment, he wondered if the others were ensnared or safe like him, but then Eric caught his eye and the knowing look in them calmed him. Neither Anna nor Ryan was looking at him, and he sensed he should stop looking around like that or risk attracting attention.
“Ellorians,” began Garian, glaring as he advanced, “stand together.”
Since Matt stood in the middle of everyone, he didn’t move as his friends moved toward him. He tried to seem complacent and just hoped they quickly went to the portal so he didn’t have to pretend for long. The others stopped beside him and turned to face the Lords of Fear, who came within arm’s reach before halting. Waves of cold from Lord Voth made him shiver, the hand closest to the undead knight feeling numb, but the sorcerer directly before him got his attention. Garian handed the Orb of Dominion staff to Kori without looking, his gaze fixed on Matt’s staff.
“The famous staff of Soliander,” he said, eyes alight despite the anger still on his face. “I have always wondered.” He reached for it.
“Do not touch that,” said a calm, menacing voice from within the orb.
Garian’s hand instantly stopped as a look of fear took hold. He retracted his hand. “Yes, my lord.”
“Bring them and the orb to me without delay.”
“Yes, my lo
rd.” He raised his voice for all and said, “To the Hall of Worlds. Follow.” He pushed past them, leaving the orb with Kori, who slipped her hand into Eric’s. As Matt turned, he caught Ryan’s eye and saw the big guy wink at him, sword still in his hand. The other enthralled all waited until the eight of them passed by, then fell in behind, a growing legion of warriors approaching the nearby hall. He listened for Jolian and thought he heard a distant whoosh of flames, but that was all.
“I think I’m going to make you my consort,” purred Kori to Eric. “You disappointed with your sword skills, but the rest was great fun. Maybe you’ll do better at poking me with something else.”
“It is the Lady Eriana who should be a consort,” said Aeron, his voice deep.
“Yes,” agreed Lord Voth, in smooth tones. “Aranor needs a queen.”
“I will raise one from the dead for you,” suggested Aeron, “but she is mine.”
Sounding amused, Lord Garian said, “You will wait in line. I understand our master has a special interest in her.”
Despite the risk, Matt took Anna’s hand to lend a supportive squeeze and found his hand being crushed by the strength of hers. The lords were in front and couldn’t see, but he disengaged as they stepped into the shadow of the Hall of Worlds, a white building painted with planets of blues, yellows, and greens all along it except the tall wooden doors. These now swung open slowly, as if heavy, pulled by more enthralled. Matt suspected the lords knew that the path before them had been cleared so that they couldn’t use the orb on more people, but were they surprised to meet no other resistance to accessing the portal? Garian commanded all but two dozen enthralled to wait outside. As they entered, Matt looked around. Where was Talis hiding?
The Light Bringer: An Epic Fantasy Adventure Novel (The Dragon Gate Series Book 2) Page 15
