Rise of the Blood Royal

by Robert Newcomb

  “So,” Khristos said, “I see that you did not escape the fighting in Tammerland unscathed after all! You and your wizards likely do not know it, but there is no known cure for viper venom. By the way, I’m informed by my lead vipers that your herbmistress bitch named Abbey died like the squealing pig that she was. Partial adepts aren’t like you and me, are they? They’re really little more than pretenders to the craft.”

  Finally choosing to move, Khristos raised his silver staff. “But worry not about your injured eye, Princess,” he said. “You are about to die, and your darkness will become eternal. The same will soon be true of your Minions and mystics. I come to this happy conclusion because I can readily see that my forces outnumber yours. Either we killed far more warriors then we first believed, or you left a sizable force behind to guard the palace. Even now my vipers slaughter your warriors.”

  As Shailiha stood her ground, Khristos smiled again. “Ah, that’s it, isn’t it?” he asked. “Determined to never make the same mistake again, you made an even greater one by not bringing your entire force to search us out. Once you and the winged freaks you brought here are dead, taking the palace and ransacking the Redoubt should be easy.”

  Pausing for a moment, Khristos casually spun his staff as he started circling Shailiha. Just as Tristan had taught her, she pivoted in place as he moved, saving her energy while Khristos expended his.

  “Your method of finding us was very clever indeed,” Khristos said. “We nearly escaped forever into the Sea of Whispers. But heating the tributary in order to kill us was not so effective, I fear. Did you not realize that we could simply emerge in order to save ourselves? While it’s true that we are scalded, we are still quite able to defeat you. It seems that your vaunted Vigors mystics have finally miscalculated after all.”

  Shailiha remained quiet as she glared into his eyes. No longer sleek and smooth, his olive skin was covered with red, angry boils. The vertical pupils embedded in his almond-shaped yellow irises still seemed vibrant, and they missed nothing. His black robe lay in even greater tatters and scarcely clung to his body. As she watched, his bright red tongue slithered in and out of his mouth, testing the night air.

  “We did not heat the river water,” Shailiha said at last. “You and your vipers did that. I allowed you to emerge so that I might kill you personally.”

  Khristos threw back his head and let go a wicked laugh. “The Pon Q’tar told me that you were not trained in the ways of the craft,” he answered. “Even so, I never dreamed you were so stupid! I am a powerful wizard, you fool! Do you believe that I can be tricked so easily?”

  “It’s quite true,” Shailiha answered. “The spell that we used was of Failee’s making. She hid it in her grimoire for safekeeping, should she need to kill you and your horrible servants. It wasn’t the water surrounding you that first became heated.” Smiling slightly, she widened her stance a bit more, putting Khristos on notice.

  “You are the victim of a Blood Pox,” she added quietly.

  At the mention of Failee’s name, Khristos looked stupefied, as if he had been struck across the face.

  “You’re lying!” he shouted. “The First Mistress would never have done me harm! We loved each other!”

  “No, Khristos,” Shailiha answered. “You might have loved her, but I doubt that she ever really loved you. From the time she went mad and left Wigg, she loved only the Vagaries.”

  Her expression becoming darker as her memories of the First Mistress surfaced, Shailiha glared hatefully at Failee’s reptilian creation.

  “I should know,” she said menacingly. “For a time, I too was under that bitch’s aegis.”

  “I still say you’re lying!” Khristos raged. “And you are about to pay for those lies with your life! I’ll enjoy watching my vipers eat your liver! It is a prize to which they have aspired for a long time!” Taking a step closer, he pointed the tip of his silver staff directly at Shailiha’s chest.

  To everyone’s amazement, Shailiha lowered her sword and stepped toward the Viper Lord. Holding her arms wide, she brazenly offered herself up for the killing.

  “Then do it, if you’re so sure!” she hissed. “Kill me now and prove the First Mistress’s love for you! Kill me, you twisted freak!”

  Shailiha’s taunting finally put Khristos’ hatred into action. Summoning all his power, he called the craft.

  Shailiha tensed as she watched the craft’s power slowly build in the tip of Khristos’ staff. With a wicked smile, he let it loose.

  The azure beam that streaked toward Shailiha was narrowly focused, yet far slower than any she had seen before. Whirling to one side and trying to ignore her pain, she avoided it.

  Screaming with frustration, Khristos began to grasp the terrible truth. Again pointing his staff at the Jin’Saiou, he did his best to call the craft. This time the results were even less powerful, and the azure bolt that erupted from the staff’s point fizzled in midair and crashed to the ground between them, knocking clumps of dirt and grass into the air.

  Shailiha took a deep breath, then raised her sword again. “It’s over for you, Khristos,” she said. Although they were lessening, from time to time she could still hear the sounds of her warriors struggling with the vicious vipers.

  “Kneel before me and I promise to grant you a quick death,” she offered. “I suggest that you do it. It’s a far more compassionate way to die than being impaled on a stake and disemboweled.”

  Seething with anger, his powers all but gone, Khristos glared viciously at her.

  “Never,” he whispered.

  Screaming wildly, he raised his staff like a sword and charged straight at her.

  Whirling on her heels, Shailiha sidestepped Khristos’ staff as it came flashing down, then brought her blade around swiftly. Her sword cleanly severed Khristos’ head from his shoulders and it fell to the ground, its reptilian eyes still wide open. The lifeless corpse crashed down beside it.

  The Jin’Saiou took several precious moments to look around. The azure bolts had stopped raining down, and it seemed that Khristos’ Blood Vipers had been all but vanquished by her Minion warriors. Given the monsters’ depleted condition, she had gambled that they could be defeated by a lesser force, and she had won. Wanting to be sure, she called out for Traax.

  The Minion commander was by her side in seconds. He appeared exhausted, and his dreggan blade was covered in blood. Hissing and screaming still pierced the cold night.

  “What is our situation?” she demanded.

  “Viper stragglers are being killed as I speak,” he answered. “Given the enemies’ weakness from the Blood Pox spell, our losses were light.”

  Shailiha nodded as she sheathed her sword. “See to it that every viper head is taken,” she said. “Not one of those creatures is ever to walk the earth again.”

  “I live to serve!” Traax answered, then quickly turned away to carry out his orders.

  Shailiha watched the Minion litter descend and land nearby. As Faegan and Adrian disembarked, Shailiha approached them tiredly. The look on Faegan’s face told her that he was relieved but perturbed. Scowling, he folded his arms across his chest.

  “You took a great chance, did you not?” he asked. “After all, I said that I couldn’t be sure about Khristos’ waning powers.” Then the wizard looked at the beheaded corpse and he let go a quick smile. “But don’t think we’re not glad to see him dead,” he added.

  “I trust your judgment,” Shailiha answered simply. “I always have.”

  She looked up at the nighttime sky. “It will start soon now, won’t it?” she asked.

  Faegan nodded. “No matter how many times I witness it, I remain amazed.”

  “As do I,” the princess replied.

  No sooner had she spoken than lightning streaked across the sky, accompanied by thunder so loud she thought her eardrums might burst. On and on the display continued as Khristos’ many forestallments left his blood to go and find their way back into the Well of Forestallments. The
wind howled, the trees shook, and the gentle waves that had once hidden Khristos and his Blood Vipers turned into swiftly moving whitecaps. And then, as quickly as it had begun, it was over. Shailiha placed one hand on Faegan’s shoulder.

  “Let’s go home,” she said.

  Saying nothing, Faegan grasped her hand and nodded.

  CHAPTER LI

  AS TRISTAN AND HOSHI’S BARGE PLUMMETED DOWNWARD, at first the Jin’Sai could see nothing but snow as it rushed toward him. Soon the snowfall became so dense that it became difficult to see Hoshi, even though she stood at his side.

  For a few terrifying moments Tristan wondered how the katsugai officer piloting the barge could possibly see through the blizzard, then he remembered that the warrior was a Shashidan mystic. The wind was bitter cold, and had Tristan not been so intent on wanting the barge to clear the blizzard, he would have realized that his body was trembling and his teeth chattering.

  Although he couldn’t see them, Tristan knew that thousands more tataki fune were flying down the mountain slopes from every direction. Thousands more would be unloading their katsugai divisions at the north and south valley entrances to claw their way through Vespasian’s legions.

  Just then the barge burst from the squall to reveal the lush valley that the Shashidans called the Tani Kinkiro. The valley was so spectacularly beautiful that Tristan forgot his fear. The rolling pastures were lush and green, the river running through the valley’s center majestic and swift. Even from such a great altitude Tristan could see gold veins glinting in the mountainsides and nuggets twinkling in the riverbed. Then he got his first glimpse of the Rustannican legions, and he gasped.

  Rustannican soldiers blanketed the valley floor. Even now they were hurriedly gathering up all the gold they could steal. Vespasian’s war tents stretched for leagues toward each end of the valley. Great herds of exotic beasts could be seen hauling the purloined gold toward hundreds of whirling azure vortices. Tristan couldn’t begin to imagine how much plunder Vespasian had sent to Ellistium.

  Nor could he guess why the legions had yet to notice the thousands of katsugai-laden barges that were streaking down the mountainsides, until he grasped how silent was their approach and how intently the Rustannicans toiled at their labors. But that would soon change, he knew, and he would be the catalyst of that change.

  On Hoshi’s command, their pilot leveled the barge, then caused it to stop and hover about two hundred meters above the valley floor. None of the other barges was stopping, but Tristan expected this. His first salvo of the craft was to come straightaway. The goal was for Tristan to cause as much devastation to the Rustannicans as possible from above, before Vespasian guessed what was happening and responded in kind. When Tristan unleashed the first of his new powers, the Rustannicans would immediately realize that they were embroiled in a battle of unprecedented ferocity.

  Hoshi turned to look at the Jin’Sai and pointed toward a group of canvas tents about four hundred meters away, their tops adorned with bright red battle flags.

  “There!” she shouted. “That is Vespasian’s compound! Strike there, Jin’Sai, and with all your power!”

  Although Tristan knew that he must do this thing, he couldn’t escape the feeling that he was committing murder. How many unsuspecting people would die during his first attack alone? he wondered. Then another concern gripped him.

  “What if Julia Idaeus is killed?” he shouted.

  “That is a risk we must take!” Hoshi shouted back. “She knows the time of the attack and she promised to be near one of the hundreds of Rustannican portals when it starts! You must attack, Jin’Sai! The time is now, before they see us!”

  Tristan closed his eyes, raised his arms, and called the craft. Just as Mashiro had foretold, the craft obeyed him effortlessly, and he felt its power rise in his veins. Soon hundreds of elegant spell calculations came roaring into his mind’s eye. Singling out the one that Hoshi and the Inkai wished him to employ, he caused the others to vanish. Concentrating fully on the lone spell, Tristan opened his eyes and loosed the first of his wondrous gifts.

  Twin beams shot from his hands, their brilliance nearly blinding. Some Rustannican legionnaires immediately noticed the bolts streaking across the heavens, and they started shouting urgent warnings to their officers. But it was already too late. Concentrating harder, Tristan called forth the second part of the spell.

  Subtle matter exists everywhere, Mashiro had taught him. Like the energy of the craft, it can be gathered. But while the uses of azure beams are limited, subtle matter’s applications are many. Use it in the name of the Vigors, Jin’Sai, for only you can do so. Reclaim the Tani Kinkiro and send Vespasian’s invading legions fleeing back to Rustannica.

  Despite Mashiro’s careful instruction, when Tristan looked to the sky he could scarcely believe what he saw. Near where his beams streamed, dozens of great meteors were forming from subtle matter collected by his spell. Bright azure in color and burning and revolving with the immense power of the craft, each meteor was easily one hundred meters across. As they grew in size and their surging power begged to be unleashed, Tristan quickly pointed one arm downward, sending the first of them plummeting straight toward Vespasian’s command post.

  The monstrous ball landed with a great crash, destroying everything within its sphere. Tents, legionnaires, horses, gold, great mounds of earth, all went flying hundreds of meters into the air and were vaporized. When the smoke cleared, nothing remained where the meteor landed save for a great smoldering crater.

  With Tristan’s first attack the entire valley came alive. Hundreds of thousands of legionnaires stopped working and quickly formed military ranks. Bugles were urgently blown and war drums beaten. This instinctive assembly of Vespasian’s legions was just what the Inkai had hoped for. As soon as the forming legions presented more compact targets, Tristan caused another meteor to come barreling down out of the sky.

  The second one landed directly in their midst. Tens of thousands of legionnaires were killed on the spot, the body parts of those not instantaneously vaporized flying through the air like so many dried leaves on a stiff wind. Like the time before, when the smoke cleared there was nothing to show for the many brave soldiers who had once assembled there, save for another great crater and a quickly growing odor of burning flesh.

  Tristan was about to send another meteor crashing down when Hoshi grabbed his arm, stopping him. “Wait!” she ordered. Then she pointed toward the valley floor. “Look!”

  As Tristan gazed down into the valley he quickly grasped why Hoshi had ordered him to desist. Had he sent another meteor plummeting down, it would have killed as many attacking katsugai as Rustannican legionnaires. From now on his targets would be fewer because the battlefield was changing by the second, breathtaking in its vast scale and terrible in its quickening ferocity.

  The thousands of Shashidan war barges had landed on the valley floor to discharge their katsugai. Screaming madly, the Shashidan warriors flooded against the still-forming Rustannican legions in mighty clashes of muscle, armor, and steel. Mystic officers on each side of the struggle soon began using the craft against each other, and the resulting carnage was stupefying.

  Aside from hand-to-hand combat, azure bolts crisscrossed the battle scene, killing hundreds at a time. Explosion after explosion rocked the valley, sending dark smoke hundreds of meters into the air. Endowed archers from either side launched so many shafts that sometimes the sky went nearly black with them, each one invariably finding an enemy soldier by way of the craft.

  And with the death of so many craft mystics, there soon arrived the stunning atmospheric phenomena always associated with passing of their blood and the forestallments that that blood carried. Lightning ripped across the sky and the wind howled violently, threatening to overturn Tristan and Hoshi’s barge. Tristan had seen these phenomena before, but never with such fury as this.

  Wondering when his fellow Eutracians might join the fight, Tristan looked toward the southern end of the
valley. To his surprise, the Tammerland and the Ephyra had arrived and were soaring northward, low over the valley floor. The ships must have flown over the legions guarding the southern pass, Tristan reasoned.

  Even from this distance he could see his mystics’ azure bolts streaming down from the ships and tearing into the swarming legions, and he could imagine Tyranny prowling the topside of the Tammerland, anxiously shouting out orders. Then he watched the ships suddenly come to a stop and hover over the green pastures south of his and Hoshi’s position. As ever more azure bolts streamed down from the Black Ships’ decks, Tristan saw his Minion phalanxes take flight to attack the nearest legionnaires. He smiled grimly as he realized that Vespasian’s troops were about to confront a new and more ruthless foe than they had ever seen before.

  As the battle raged and lightning continued to tear across the heavens, Hoshi saw something that made her breath catch in her lungs. Not far from where her and Tristan’s barge hung in the sky, a host of legionnaires were running furiously toward the Bedeviler pens. Thousands of the enchanted beasts were being held there, waiting their turns to haul the stolen gold. Screaming and pawing the ground, the monsters clearly wanted to be unleashed against the flood of attacking katsugai. Hoshi knew all too well that the pens were craft constructs, their glowing azure bars impervious to even the massive Bedevilers. Only the legionnaire mystics could release the beasts, and it would happen in moments.

  Hoshi again pointed downward. “There!” she shouted. “That is where you must strike next! Kill the Vagaries monsters before they can be freed!”

  Without hesitation Tristan raised one hand and called down another azure meteor. With a thunderous crash it landed squarely in the center of the Bedeviler holding area. The beasts and the frantic legionnaires trying to free them simply disappeared in an eruption of earth and smoke, never to be seen again.