by Tony Johnson
“Quick, behind this wall” Steve grabbed the neck of Shana’s plate and Ty’s tunic and pulled them back against the protection of a five-foot thick, granite memorial wall listing the names of people killed in the Fall of Casanovia in the year 940.
Copper and Steve peered around one end of the wall while Ty and Shana poked their heads around the other side. Together, they all watched as the phoenix tore free of the net binding it.
“It’s right there! There’s nowhere for us to go. We’re stuck here. If we run out from either side, the phoenix will see us and kill us.”
The feathered monster stood on its legs and tried to spread its wings to fly, but with only one wing working, it sent the phoenix off balance, stumbling into a collection of abandoned vendor carts. Shrieking in pain, with smoke billowing out of its nostrils, Steve noticed that just above its snout, the phoenix only had one eye.
A red and yellow-feathered fire phoenix with one eye? He immediately realized who the monster was. Kari mentioned this monster when she told us her account of the siege. Steve wasn’t the only one that recognized the phoenix after getting a better look at it.
“That’s Skyfire,” Shana whispered loud enough so Steve and Ty could hear, but soft enough to remain undetected behind the monument wall which served as a barrier between them and the monster. “Skyfire’s a phoenix who’s served as a plague in our jurisdiction ever since surviving the collapse of Draviakhan’s Army. After continuously attacking one of our towns two years ago, it killed many of our warriors sent against it. The commanders had long meetings with the mayor and us, his staff, to decide what to do, but Skyfire ended up disappearing.”
Probably because the Hooded Phantom recruited it to join his army, Steve imagined. He seems to have acquired quite a collection of strong and savage monsters.
Skyfire looked to the top of the tower and hissed, then sent its fierce flames as well as a lightning blast towards the warriors who had shot it down.
Its attack isn’t even close to hitting the warriors. The phoenix is only fifteen feet high on all fours. Its elements will never be able to reach all the way to the top of the hundred-foot watchtower.
With the monster turning its focus to its suroundings, Ty anticipated the direction of the next attack. Around the watchtower plaza were houses. People were visible in the windows, having left the cover deep within their homes to see what the giant thud followed by ear-piercing screeching was.
Get back to cover! It’s not safe! he wanted to warn them, but there was nothing he could do.
Not realizing how dangerous phoenixes were, many of the civilians found out firsthand, as Skyfire’s fire and lightning elements crashed into their homes. The monster attacked relentlessly in its rage, not caring who it killed, just as long as Alazar’s creations suffered.
“We have to do something!” Steve cried out, watching two of the buildings containing people destroyed and set up in flames within seconds.
“My element won’t have much of an effect,” Ty said, “Skyfire also controls the element of electricity. If I jump out to attack it, it’ll easily protect its body with its element, making my attacks ineffective. Then it’ll consume me with its fire breath.”
“We may not need to do anything,” Steve exclaimed, pointing to the windows of the watchtower, where warriors were firing at the monster with arrows and bolts.
“And look, there, at the top of the tower,” Shana pointed, seeing a familiar looking dark-haired Halfling. “That’s your friend Kari! She’s attacking with the warriors!”
The southwest watchtower nearest the heart of Casanovia was a quadrilateral-sided tower. Throughout the stone structure, there were various windows in the sides, but at the top, the roof of the tower was open, covered only by a makeshift tent to protect warriors who were posted there from the sun. It was here Kari had come, climbing the stairs inside the hollow square tube to defend Casanovia in the attack against the aerial monster.
Alongside the Halfling were three archer warriors, each with a specific job. One would blow a variety of sounds into a horn to send messages to warriors throughout the city. Another served as the launcher of the mini-catapult on top of the tower that shot nets. The final warrior was in charge of the stack of barrels, some containing blackpowder, others containing pitch, as well as maintaining the small, contained fires on the tower-top.
For minutes, Kari and two of the warriors with her had been firing arrows into the monsters attacking the city, but their targets changed to a singular one when the warrior manning the net catapult brought down a red and yellow-feathered phoenix that began attacking the buildings in the plaza below them.
That’s the phoenix that attacked me in Celestial! Kari knew, seeing the monster’s blind eye. I thought it had died when Ty’s gryphon Wildwing crashed down into it, but I guess it survived.
As she looked down on the monster, she saw Steve, Ty, Shana, and Copper all taking cover behind a memorial wall. The phoenix is making its way in their direction and they have nowhere to go. “We have to do something to stop it!” she told the warriors.
“Here, dip your arrowheads in pitch, light them, and let them fly,” one of the men demonstrated as he spoke. He aimed down to the plaza and loosed the arrow, striking the back of the phoenix.
Kari was confused by the warrior’s strategy, knowing the arrows were mere pinpricks to the large monster. The fire did nothing more than set a few feathers on fire in the section they hit. “I didn’t think you could hurt a monster who controlled the element of fire with a fire arrow.”
“You can,” the warrior grabbed a handful of arrows, dipping the cluster into a barrel of pitch, and handed them out. “Monsters are only immune to attacks of the same element they have as long as they’re employing that element.”
Another of the warriors simplified it, “If fire is covering its body, fire can’t harm it. If we keep hitting it with arrows of fire, it’ll be forced to cover itself in its own flames as a defensive measure. It can still attack by emitting flames from its mouth, but it will tire quickly from exerting all that energy.”
Kari nodded, understanding, but instead of the phoenix doing what the warriors predicted would happen, Skyfire allowed itself to get hit by the fire arrows while not turning its feathers into flames to defend itself against the attacks.
The more pain we can cause it with fire, the more chance there will be its forced to use its element defensively and runs out of energy.
Looking at the available options around her, Kari saw the many barrels of pitch lying around. “Here, help me push these over the edge!” she commanded the archer next to her.
“Why?”
“Just help me!” Kari refused to take the time to explain herself, pushing her back against one and driving with her legs. The warrior pushed with his hands and together they sent the large barrel rolling over the edge. It plummeted down, crashing into the phoenix, breaking open, and spreading its black, molasses-like substance all over Skyfire’s feathered back.
“Pitch burns for a long time,” Kari explained. “If the fire from the arrows isn’t enough to cause it to use its element defensively, then pitch might do the trick!”
“It’s worth a try!” the warrior commended her strategy while moving to another barrel. “Let’s cover it in as much as we can and light it!”
From the plaza floor, the heroes watched as Kari and the warriors pushed barrels of pitch over the ledge of the tower. Four barrels were successful in their attempts, but the others missed Skyfire entirely and slammed into the sand.
“It’s too smoky now, they can’t see it,” Steve said while coughing, realizing the cause of their inaccuracies. The building fires had created a dense, gray smoke that had quickly spread and filled the plaza and was rising upwards. This is exactly what Skyfire planned. It forwent defending itself from the fire arrows because it knew focusing on attacking the buildings would cloak it in smoke.
“It’s stopped attacking,” Shana
called out to the two warriors, her eyes watering from the smoke and embers blowing into her face. “Do you think its energy is depleted?”
“If it is, I can attack,” Ty said, unsheathing the swords from his back and summoning electricity to run through their blades as he stepped out into the clearing.
“No! Wait!” Steve pulled his brother back, saving him from an assault of pitch-tipped, flaming arrows that whistled down through the smoke and slammed into the sand right where Ty had just been standing. “Careful! Kari and the warriors are firing blindly, hoping to ignite the pitch they dropped on it.”
“Dang it! You saved me!” Ty realized, not actually disappointed his life had been saved, but the fact that Steve had just come one point closer in their game of saving each other’s lives.
As soon as Ty was safe, Copper let out a deep growl, then took off, sprinting into the smoke, into the barrage of fire arrows before anyone could stop him. Although Steve, Ty, and Shana, couldn’t see him, they watched the direfox jump and attack Skyfire. The shadows of the two monsters battling shifted in the smoke, made jumpy by the dancing fires in the four, fully-engulfed buildings on the side of the plaza.
Pouncing onto the enemy monster’s unbroken wing, Copper sunk his sharp teeth into the wingskin. Viciously twisting and pulling, he refused to let go until a seam of the wing tore apart. In pain, Skyfire shook off the beast, who retreated back to the heroes.
“Ty!” Steve called, now knowing the general area of where the phoenix was thanks to Copper’s bravery. “I think it’s trying to climb to the top! Blast the side of the tower!”
Stepping out from behind the cover of the memorial, able to do so now that Kari and the warriors had shifted firing their arrows to other parts of the plaza, the Elf pointed his lightning-infused swords at where he thought the tower was and fired two steady blasts. Both failed to connect with anything but the stone of the tower.
“He must be climbing up the other side!” Shana called out to the Elf.
They’re not going to see Skyfire until its right at the top of the tower, Steve looked up hopelessly into the billowing smoke.
Above, the three warriors and Kari panicked as they recognized what the phoenix’s plan was, but none of them had a visual on the broken-winged monster. They fired flaming arrows down every side of the tower as fast as physically allowed, but not a single one ignited the pitch that would burn the phoenix to death since it appeared to have used up its elemental powers and had no way to defend itself.
Please god, Steve prayed, Kari is about to die. Either let one of their arrows hit or let me save her. I’ve seen the visions you gave to your other elect. If that means I’m one of your elect too, grant your power in me now. Please Alazar!
At that moment, similar to when Grizz and Ty had acquired their elements in the previous days, Steve, like the rest of the heroes, experienced everything around him slowing down. His vision was taken over by the same bright, white light, just like each time before. But, like the past two occurrences, it was not Steve who would end up with an elemental ability following the vision.
Chapter 85
Two days after the deaths of Caesar and Sarah Canard, their caskets were lowered into six-foot holes in a graveyard outside the Celestial City. Malorek stood at the burial site with a host of civilians who knew the Canard family as well as two hundred warriors who had known Caesar from either Warrior Training or the watchtower he served in.
“They still haven't caught the murderer,” a warrior near Malorek whispered to the person next to him. “They're not sure if it was related to the orphanage murders or not. No evidence has been found and no one's coming forward. It might end up being a cold case.”
Malorek smiled to himself, knowing he was going to get away with the murders. In front of him, Titus Thatcher and his wife Olivia stood closest to the caskets. With one arm, Titus held a sleeping, two-year-old Ty against his shoulder while Darren stood at his side. The Thatchers had promised Caesar and Sarah they would adopt their kids should anything happen to them.
Titus handed Ty to his wife and grabbed a shovel, tossing fresh dirt down onto the two wooden caskets. He passed the shovel to Quintis Quinn who did the same, who then passed it to another warrior. One by one, warriors tossed in a scoop of dirt, slowly filling the hole.
Malorek shook his head as he grabbed the shovel, picked up some dirt from the nearby mound, and helped bury the Canards. You two brought this upon yourselves. If you weren't so selfish, your two boys would have grown up knowing their birth parents. Now, for their entire lives they'll be haunted by the idea of an unknown killer.
Following a somber reception in a nearby mess hall, Malorek headed down an alley to go home to his apartment.
“I know it was you!” a voice called out behind him that Malorek knew belonged to none other than Quintis Quinn. A drunken Quintis Quinn, he reasoned, based on the slurring of the warrior’s words and his staggering walk.
“You're the only one with a motive to kill them both,” the archer warrior accused his former friend. “You're angry she said no to you and that he had everything you wanted. A wife, kids, and success.”
Malorek walked back to face Quintis, smelling the alcohol on his breath which grew more pungent the closer he got. “Even if it was me, there's no proof,” the twenty-two-year-old slyly smirked. “I can never be found guilty of the murders.”
“Believe me, no matter what it takes, I'm going to find evidence. There has to be some shred of proof that you were there, that you're the cause of all this.”
“That would be very unwise of you. You wouldn't want the same thing to happen to your wife, now would you?”
The intentional threat pushed the already-on-edge Quintis past confrontation to violence. He pushed Malorek up against the brick building behind them, took his bow off his shoulder, and went to strike Malorek with his blue, steel weapon. Quickly and efficiently, Malorek slipped out of the attack and threw Quintis to the ground. He kicked the warrior repeatedly.
“Malorek! Stop!” A voice echoed down the alleyway. Titus was standing at the end with his greatsword drawn, hoping it’d be enough to prevent Malorek from attacking Quintis. But, in an act of defiance, the disturbed warrior delivered one final kick, knocking Quintis unconscious. Just in time, he pulled out his scimitar to block Titus' deadly swing.
With sparks bouncing off the crossed blades as both warriors pressed against each other, Titus gained the upper hand as he pushed Malorek back with a quick force of strength. Now with room between them, Titus sheathed his sword, risking the fact that Malorek could kill him in cold blood if he wanted to.
When Malorek sheathed his weapon, Titus breathed a sigh of relief. As Quintis stirred, Titus helped the drunken warrior to his feet. The archer had to put nearly all his weight onto his friend because he was so lightheaded and dizzy.
“It’s been a long time,” Thatcher unblinkingly stared at his foe. When Malorek did nothing but stare back in response, Titus continued speaking, “We know you’re the killer. We've already been searching for something that will incriminate you. Lucky for you, the other warrior at the orphanage didn't see your face, otherwise we'd already have you. Don’t worry though, we won’t stop until you hang for what you’ve done.”
Once again, Malorek smiled his dark grimace. “If,” he annunciated the first word of his sentence, “I was the one who killed them, then I wish you could've seen Caesar's face as he died. He must've been so surprised when my blade tore through his stomach. He must’ve gone ghastly pale and spent his final moments of life in sheer terror, begging me to tell his wife and kids that he was sorry for failing to stay alive for them.”
Titus closed his eyes, trying to prevent himself from conjuring the images of what took place. Every part of him had to restrain himself from attacking. When he opened them, Malorek was leaving the alley at the far end.
“You're going to pay for what you've done!” Titus shouted.
“Don’t worr
y, we’ll get him,” Quintis whispered. “His time will come.”
Chapter 86
In the following months, Malorek continued working as a warrior, patrolling the city and enforcing the law in a unique and strict manner. He loved being a warrior, especially when criminals were foolish enough to fight back against him. Any chance to enforce violence was an encounter Malorek thoroughly enjoyed. Defeating someone is a way a person can prove, ‘I am stronger than you,’ he once thought to himself after maiming someone who tried to attack him during an arrest.
Even though Malorek enjoyed his life, he wasn't content. The quest for more power became his mission in life which always left him unfulfilled and wanting more, even when he achieved it.
“Guess what? I get to guard Princess Kyra tomorrow,” Malorek overheard a warrior announce to his friends as he sat eating lunch alone in the watchtower. “Apparently, she wants to shop around this area, so she asked for a local warrior to help show her where some of the best shops are, and Captain selected me,” the man explained, which was met by the rest of the warriors going around, discussing Princess Kyra's features and her attractiveness, some of which were rather crude comments.
“You know,” one warrior joked with the lucky guy, “if you and the princess get married and have a boy, your son would end up being the king.”
“Yeah!” one of the veterans piped up, “The king has to be male, and Zoran and Evalyn only have a daughter. It'll have to be her son that takes over whenever the king passes on.”
Never before giving much consideration to the future state of the kingdom, Malorek recognized the opportunity that lay before him. That night, he secretly poisoned the warrior's drink who was supposed to guard the princess, not enough to kill the man, but enough to make him so sick and unable to work the following day. In addition to the concoction, paying a handsome sum of gold pieces to his captain allowed Malorek to skip rules of seniority and be selected as the warrior to escort Kyra for the day.
