Etheric Apocalypse

by C M Raymond et al.

  The only response was another massive wing flap, which sent them surging toward the ship.

  "I'm going to take that as a yes."

  The ship grew from a dark blur in the distance she had to squint to see into a colossal shape directly below her feet. She knew she'd only one chance to get this right.

  Sal dove straight at the ship, as he'd done with Storm Warrior. Abbey waited, clutching him tightly, then, just before he crashed into the main deck, he pulled up sharply.

  That was her moment. Though her instincts told her to cling to the dragon, she forced herself to let go and rolled to her left. For a gut-wrenching moment she fell, then she hit the ship's main deck, still rolling. Her sword was already in her hand as she sprang to her feet.

  The sailors on deck blinked at her in shock. She knew exactly how they felt, having experienced the same thing only a few hours earlier. Not only had a strange creature appeared in the sky, something had fallen off its back and landed on their deck. It would take them a moment or two to recover their wits, and she would use that time to her advantage.

  "Hi," she said, her sword held at her side. "I'm looking for Morton. Care to point me in the right direction?"

  They continued to stare at her in stunned silence for another moment, then one of them, a heavily muscled man with a head as bald as Captain Syd's, turned to the others. "Get her!"

  Abbey almost grinned. As much as she'd hoped to confirm quickly that this was in fact Morton's ship, she didn't exactly hate that a little swordplay was going to be involved—and the fact that there were sailors spread out all over this deck only made it more fun.

  Two sailors charged and Abbey stepped to her left, putting both attackers on her right. In her experience, the key to fighting multiple combatants was to avoid being attacked from multiple angles. You could use it against them if you kept everyone on one side of you.

  She positioned herself so the first attacker's body protected her from the second. The secondary attacker would need to either push through his comrade or move around him. Abbey intended to work quickly enough that there wouldn’t be time for either.

  As the first sailor attacked she deflected his sword with her own, then slipped in close and grabbed his sword arm with her free hand. She smashed the hilt of her sword into his face and blood burst from his ruined nose as he tumbled into the man behind him. That sailor would have trouble both breathing and seeing for the next few minutes, which effectively took him out of the fight.

  Abbey wove around her fallen assailant to the man behind him. He was still wobbling, but she had no intention of letting him regain his balance. When he tried to bring up his sword she stomped on the flat of the blade, sending it crashing to the deck, and again she slammed the hilt of her sword into her attacker’s head. He fell to the deck, his muscles suddenly limp as consciousness fled.

  She turned to the others, most of whom still stared at her in shock. "I’ll ask again, where's Morton?"

  The muscular bald man glared at her. "You'll find out soon enough. We're going to drag your bloody broken body to his quarters. Then you'll get to know him real well."

  Abbey's face brightened. "Ah, so this is his ship. Thanks! That was what I needed to know." With that, she charged the muscular man.

  He brought his sword up, but it was too little, too late. Clearly, he hadn't expected such a direct attack, and he didn't have time to get into a properly balanced stance before she reached him. She quickly knocked his sword aside and punched him in the face with her free hand.

  Now that she'd confirmed this was the Storm Raider ship, there was no need to hold back. As the bald man staggered backward, she brought up her sword and sliced his throat. He fell to his knees, blood spurting from his neck.

  Abbey took a quick look around. While many of the sailors still had their eyes on Sal as he circled the ship, quite a number were shifting their focus to her. Enough fun. It was time to go.

  She dashed up the causeway, heading for the prow. Only one sailor blocked her path, and he didn't even bother to fight. As Abbey charged toward him, he dove over the side of the causeway and onto the deck below.

  One man, however, stood at the prow. Their Storm Caller.

  She stalked toward him. "Elrick, isn't it?"

  He stared at her a moment, then his eyes brightened. "I know you. You're Abbey. First mate of Storm Warrior. You're the girl who brought down Tor and Dahlia."

  She raised her sword. "And you're the wannabe piece of shit trying to take Dahlia's place."

  He chuckled. "I don't think so. Morton is much smarter than Tor ever was. As you'll soon find out." He paused a moment. "I hear you're Dustin's property now."

  "Property?" she growled.

  "If you ever want to know what a real Storm Caller can do, I'd be happy to spend the night belowdecks with you."

  A joyless grin crossed her face. "No need to go belowdecks. We can tussle right here and now."

  Before he could answer, she had her sword through his chest.

  As he fell, she glanced over her shoulder. At least eight sailors were charging across the deck toward her.

  "Shit," she muttered. Then, in a louder voice, "Sal! I'm ready for my ride now!"

  She glanced around but was unable to spot the dragon in this driving rain. It would dissipate soon now that Elrick was dead, but she didn't have time to wait for that to happen. She heard a noise that may or may not have been the flapping of wings.

  There was no time to second-guess herself now. The stormship sailors would be on her in a moment.

  "I hope you're there, Sal!" she shouted, then jumped over the rail.

  She only fell a few feet before landing on something scaly. Clutching the dragon tightly, she tried to maneuver herself onto his back as he raced away from the ship, quickly gaining altitude.

  Once she had herself situated and was confident she wouldn’t fall off, she leaned forward and shouted into the dragon's ear.

  "That's the stormship we're after, Sal. Mission accomplished."

  The dragon flapped his massive wings, sending them rapidly back toward Storm Warrior.

  Abbey glanced back at the ship. The plan had been for Sal and her to confirm the location of the vessel, then return to Storm Warrior. Now that Abbey had killed their Storm Caller, these raiders would be easy to catch.

  Although, since they were already here, it would be foolish of her not to try to handle things herself.

  “Bring us back around, Sal.”

  The dragon hesitated only a moment, then pulled a quick one-hundred-eighty-degree turn.

  This would be Abbey’s first time stormcalling without touching water, but she knew the water was just a mental trick, not a necessity. When she closed her eyes, she could feel the Etheric energy the same as when she stood on the prow of her ship.

  She drew on that power harder than she ever had before and cleared her mind of everything but the power and what she wanted to do with it. Time ceased to exist for her. It might have been a moment, or maybe it was ten, but suddenly the Etheric energy stopped fighting and simply obeyed.

  A bolt of lightning struck the stormship’s jib, then another bolt hit the mainsail. A third struck the foresail.

  Three fires consumed the sails, and the rest of the ship soon followed.

  A slight smile crept onto Abbey’s lips as she watched the ship burn. "That's how you deal with Storm Raiders, Sal."

  Chapter Nine

  “That’s a big freaking castle. You sure you can pull this off?”

  “Meh,” Arryn, the Arcadian druid, said in hushed tones. She had no desire to alert the guards to their presence. “I’ve seen bigger.” She gave her new friend a slight smile. “Haven’t you?”

  Arryn and her team had seen bigger lately. Much bigger.

  Leaving Brenin, their latest place of adventure, was bittersweet for Arryn. It was an island country Northwest of the Arcadian Valley and Terres Forest. After arriving, she’d learned the country had different names, depending on where pe
ople were from.

  The ancient architecture had been incredible. Not only had some beautiful buildings from the new ancients survived, but some castles predating the new ancients still stood as well.

  Arryn had learned a great deal about the people there while fighting a king who had enslaved everyone under his rule. It had once been a kingdom to many countries, but after the Age of Madness, it had fallen to nothing more than a single land with a mad ruler.

  Nothing she hadn’t seen before.

  They’d fought and triumphed, but the battle wasn’t over. The main castle had been secured, and most of the kingdom had been liberated, but the usurper’s brother, Duke Archibald, resided in another castle a few days’ ride away. He’d made off with almost thirty captives, mostly children, although there were a few adults as well.

  A young woman had managed to escape and had run back to report about Archibald’s evil deeds. The plan was for the guards to drop the prisoners in the dungeon with constant surveillance. They were ordered that when Arryn came for them—and the duke knew that she would—they were to kill the prisoners immediately. As revenge for what she did to his brother, he wanted Arryn to pay. He assumed she would break under the pressure of her failure to save the innocents.

  She wasn’t about to let that happen.

  As fate would have it, a newcomer showed up who was more than willing to help. Someone who had extensive knowledge about sneaking in and out of places and being overall very stealthy. A man Arryn had heard of many times while talking with Amelia on the streets of Arcadia. His work had become legend, and Arryn never imagined she would actually meet him.

  Parker… Hannah’s Parker.

  When he first showed up, Arryn couldn’t believe it. Her amphorald communicator had become damaged more than a month back in a battle, so if Amelia or anyone else had tried to warn her about his impending arrival, it was long lost in the distance.

  She’d tried to fix it, but that proved pointless. It made only sketchy connections that resulted in one bitch of a headache. So, she decided to wait and fix it once she went back to the Valley. With Parker’s arrival and the message he brought along, however, that plan changed. It seemed she would have the opportunity to have Julianne herself help her fix it.

  “Yeah,” Parker answered her. “I’ve seen bigger and stranger things since I left Arcadia. But one wrong move and all those captives die. You don’t think we should wait for backup?”

  Arryn and Parker knelt behind a large bush at the edge of a forest just outside of Duke Archibald’s castle—an asshole who had a room full of hostages and another room full of jewels stolen from the people she and her friends had rescued several days prior.

  She shook her head. “Definitely not. The fewer people going in there, the better. Besides, who better to help me break in than you? You and Hannah do this shit all the time, yeah? Didn’t you guys grow up on the Boulevard? This is kinda your thing, sneaking around and getting the best of people.”

  Parker sighed. “Yeah, but doing something like this with Hannah is different than doing something like this with anyone else. No offense. But she’s like, a total kickass.”

  Arryn gave him an angry glare. “Trust me, I’ve been known to kick some ass myself. Hannah wasn’t the only badass to be born in Arcadia. So stop whining. You want me to go to some weird summit thing? Well, you have to help me tie up my loose ends first.”

  “First of all, that’s the Founder’s doing, not mine. He’s the one sending us out to recruit everyone. So, it’s not my weird summit thing. Secondly…” Parker paused. “I don’t think I have a secondly.”

  Arryn scoffed. “Probably because you whined too much in the firstly. Tuck those ovaries up. We’re going in.”

  Parker grumbled something unintelligible, and Arryn smiled. She watched as Snow and Dante made their way into the clearing, each one stumbling and faking a limp while covered in deer blood.

  Before arriving, Arryn had sent Snow and Dante to hunt. Her team had a camp just a few miles away—close enough to keep an eye on the castle, but not close enough to be found. Once they’d cut the deer apart, Arryn used her magic to freeze the meat in a large block of ice to wait for them until they returned. The blood had been saved for their attack on the castle.

  There were four men out front, and Arryn wanted them taken down as quietly as possible. It would require both tigers, Arryn, and Parker.

  Cathillian, Bast, Cleo, and Corrine were all scouting the area to make sure no surprise attacks were made. Not-Rodney the rabbit and Echo were sent even farther out since they were the fastest.

  Once the castle was in view, Arryn and Cathillian had splashed blood all over the tigers to make them appear injured. The big cats would have to complete the illusion all on their own. Arryn was getting better with mystical magic all the time, but it had been the slowest to progress out of all the various forms. She would need it to see the attack through and didn’t want to overextend herself.

  Snow and Dante limped and groaned as they stumbled into the clearing. Snow made a good show of falling to the ground, and Dante nuzzled her and purred as he tried to help her stand again. Within a few moments, Snow was on her feet again, and the men guarding the front of the castle had taken notice. Arryn was quite shocked with the quality of the tigers’ acting.

  “I’ll remember this the next time they gang up on me for something they want,” Arryn said quietly.

  Parker snorted. “No shit. They’re better actors than I was back in the Boulevard trying to hustle. All our druid has is a stupid little squirrel...but don’t tell her I said that.”

  “Are those… tigers?” one of the guards at the castle entrance asked. “Those are the biggest animals I’ve ever seen! They’re bigger than my damn horse!”

  They looked at one another in wonder before turning back to Snow and Dante. It was Dante’s turn to collapse now, and as the bigger of the two, it was quite dramatic. He made a loud thump as he hit the stones, and Arryn gritted her teeth as she watched the castle. If anyone had heard him, more people would come.

  The goal was for Arryn to do as little damage as possible. The big guy inside was her target. She wasn’t sure who in his guard was truly dark, and who had been forced to act in such barbaric ways. Because of that, she didn’t want to just run in killing everybody. But if too many people rushed her, she worried she might not have a choice. Every move had been carefully calculated beforehand to save as many lives as possible, and the slightest mistake could undo everything.

  She sighed in relief when no one else ran outside. Three of the men gave off worried energy. She could sense their compassion for the tigers. They seemed more worried for the animals than themselves, which told her those men were more than likely kind. At the very least, it was possible they were worth saving.

  The fourth man stood back as the others carefully approached Snow and Dante. “They’re half dead already. Whatever took on animals that big is the primary concern here. Just put ‘em outta their misery already.”

  “How can you say that?” another of the guards said. “Their injuries might not be as bad as they seem. Maybe they’re just exhausted. We might be able to save them.”

  The guard who didn’t seem to care at all scoffed. “Skin ‘em and cook ‘em. You ever had tiger? I sure as hell ain’t. I wonder what they taste like. At that size, I’m bettin’ they could feed us for a damn long time.”

  “I’ll take Happy over there,” Arryn said. It had only taken a quick glance into his mind to see he was a very dark soul, guilty of many things Arryn couldn’t in good conscience allow to continue. “You take the shorty over there. Snow and Dante can take the bigger guys.”

  “Aim to kill, or stun?” Parker asked.

  “Those guys seem okay. Knock them out if you can. I’m going to keep them focused on the tigers. They won’t even know they’re being taken down. Less risk of a scream or grunt that way.”

  Arryn focused on her tigers as her eyes flashed green. She told them to avoid inju
ring the two larger men coming their way, but to incapacitate them. She could feel their understanding through the bond.

  Taking a deep breath, Arryn’s green eyes lightened as the white glow of her mystical magic mixed with that of her nature abilities. Within just a few seconds, she was inside the heads of the three men approaching the tigers.

  “I’m in. I have to do this very carefully. That guy over there needs to be taken down before the others. I can’t control all of them at the same time—not with him being a royal asshole. He’s going to be a fighter. Once he’s down, make your move.”

  Parker nodded in response, and Arryn stood as she carefully made her way through the edge of the forest. With the flick of her wrist, vines spilled down from the trees and lifted her. Teleportation would be the fastest, but it would also require the most magic, and she had to save all she could. Without knowing the type of situation she would run into inside, she couldn’t risk it.

  Once she was off the ground, Arryn began to send images to the three men who were now daring to lean down next to the large tigers. The shortest of the three—Parker’s target—stood back a few feet, but he still looked on with concern.

  Arryn had them exactly where she needed them. They were intensely focused on the injured beasts before them and oblivious to everything else.

  Her target leaned against a post several yards away from the front of the castle. He shook his head in disgust at the other three as he inspected his knife. Arryn took another deep breath as she prepared to swing herself toward the ancient building. The walls were covered in ivy and would give her a safe place to land.

  With a wave of her arms, the vines launched her high into the air as she prayed she’d calculated the arc correctly. As she began to descend, she used her magic to manipulate the ivy. The plants reached out for her, immediately enveloping Arryn as they caught and pulled her tight against the wall.

  While she’d managed to move silently through the air in the space between her target and the castle without bringing attention to herself, her landing had been a little louder than expected. The man turned and looked around, his vision naturally drawn to the ground first. By the time he looked up, Arryn was completely hidden by the ivy.