Shard Knight (Echoes Across Time Book 1)

by Ballard, Matthew

  “Okay. Let’s hurry,” Danielle said.

  “Agreed,” Rika said.

  Danielle opened the front door and left the guardhouse.

  A blanket of fog shrouded the small muddy lane leading from the camp’s front gate to the guardhouse. On the horizon, the first streaks of dawn penetrated the darkness turning the fog a dim pale gray.

  Keely and Rika changed into twin saber cats and prowled through the heavy fog. The wild saber-toothed forest cat controlled vast sections of the Heartwood and stood as an apex predator in the forest’s food chain. Besides its obvious ferocity, the cat held other unique attributes. Its eyesight rivaled the Heartwood’s winged predators that held dominion over the forest floor.

  “I’ll follow, but don’t move too fast,” Danielle said. “I can’t see three-feet in this fog.”

  Keely led the way slinking along the guardhouse’s stone wall. The deadly sound of fighting grew louder with each step.

  As Danielle rounded the rear corner, the cats stopped.

  Ahead lay a field of chaos. Tangled vines trapped five guards just a few feet away.

  Danielle recognized the warden’s vines. The thorn’s barbed tips produced a toxin that warden’s used to disable or kill an enemy. Brendyn and maybe Arber fought for their lives against Pride’s forces.

  Beyond the tangled vines came the sound of desperate fighting. The din of steel colliding with steel rang through the predawn mist, and glowing light from hazy blue spirit shields marked the locations of shard knights pitched in battle. Streaks of ethereal light from active shard blades danced in time with the clash of swordplay. Shielded knights buzzed like hornets around a hive engaged with an unknown enemy obscured by the mist and the building’s edge.

  A slick layer of filmy sweat coated Danielle’s palm as she locked her hand around her staff. Arber and Brendyn didn’t use swords. Had they enlisted a rogue shard knight for help?

  A half-dozen bubbled knights bounced like ricocheting marbles. A knight’s silhouette leaped ahead claiming the surrendered ground. An amber streamer of light blurred like a scythe in a wheat field shattering the nearest translucent spirit shield. The blue shield light flickered then disappeared. Scarlet blurred, and a shriek of agony pierced the morning mist.

  Rika changed into her human form. Her lower lip trembled, and she reached for the scarlet knight with a shaking hand. Tears streaked her face, and a desperate scream crossed her lips. “Ronan!”

  Danielle’s chest tightened, and a sharp tingle ran along her spine. Had she understood Rika? Could she mean her Ronan? She wanted to believe with her whole heart she’d heard correctly. She grabbed hold of Rika’s arm and stopped her from running headfirst into the fray. “Rika!”

  Rika pulled from Danielle straining toward the scarlet knight as if her life depended on reaching him. Danielle needed to calm her. “Rika. Stop and think. You’ll die if you run in unarmed. Who’s the knight bearing the red sword? I need to know.”

  Rika spun on Danielle. Tears ran in a river down her bleary face. “He’s the prince and Meranthia’s true king. He’s my best friend, and I love him. Don’t stop me Danielle. I’ll die before I see him harmed.”

  Danielle stood frozen too stunned to react. Her brother fought in the fog of the morning light. She could almost touch him. “Rika, use your cat form.” Her words came fast and urgent. She slipped the book into a harness in her belt pouch. “He won’t die Rika.” She held her staff toward the heavens and embraced a raging river of magic flowing through her body. “Today we fight!”

  Unleashed

  Warmth radiated through Ronan’s body, and a surge of adrenaline raced through his blood. He’d heard Rika’s voice cry out his name. Power surged inside him, and he faced the onslaught of attackers with fresh determination.

  Kelwin’s barbed vines ringed the trio lashing out at charging attackers like a den of poisonous vipers.

  Never ending volleys of energy blasts blew apart chunks of the warden’s defense spraying woody shrapnel like enraged hornets.

  Kelwin held firm replacing destroyed plants and wrapping up battle knights as they burst through thickets of venomous vines.

  A pair of battle knights paced Kelwin’s ring of death searching for an opening against the snapping vines. The knights focused yellow shard blades on a single section of vines reducing it to ash with a few swings. The first knight rushed through with his blade flashing and swung with blinding speed at Ronan’s head.

  Ronan ducked the swing of the shielded knight. With perfect balance, he planted his feet and swung his blade upward angling his blade toward his attacker’s waist.

  The sheba blade hummed like a blur of crimson lighting popping the knight’s spirit shield with mocking contempt. The red blade showing the hallmark signs of speed, strength, and accuracy never slowed as it melted through the knight’s plate armor. It vaporized steel and sought out the shard knight’s soft flesh. The molten blade continued its path of destruction severing the battle knight along a line from his waist to his shredded rib cage.

  An expression of horror froze on the warrior’s face as he looked down and watched his body slide apart. His torso slipped away dropping to the soft earth beneath. A moment later, his legs followed teetering and falling like a freshly cut pine.

  Shard energy swirled and fled the fallen knight’s lifeless corpse coalescing into the familiar glass shard. It tumbled forward joining five other shards scattered across the battlefield.

  “Did you hear that Patron?” Ronan said whirling to avoid an incoming blast of energy. “She called my name! Rika’s in camp!”

  Tyrell’s focus never wavered as he parried an attack from the second knight through the breach. “I heard it lad.” He spun counterclockwise to avoid the thrust of a knight attacking from his rear. “Watch your back Ronan!”

  A blade hummed, and Ronan whirled catching a flash of the knight’s blade in motion. Ronan dodged but the blade adjusted tracking his path.

  Like a thief in the night the black saber cat leaped slashing its extended claws across the knight’s chest. The beast locked onto the battle knight’s throat sinking its razor sharp canines deep into the warrior’s neck.

  The blade’s swing turned erratic and drifted off course whizzing past the tip of Ronan’s nose missing by an inch.

  Ronan jumped backward and crouched. He jerked his blade up in a defensive position ready to take on the black cat.

  The big cat pulled the knight down and tightened its massive jaw around his throat. The battle knight screamed and flailed trying to break loose from the cat’s death grip.

  Ronan fought the urge to flee and watched in fascinated horror as the predator performed its grizzly work.

  With two neck-popping shakes the knight swung limp like a giant play toy from the jaws of the enormous cat. The warrior shrieked in helpless terror followed by the bone crunching snap of his neck

  A frozen shiver ran along Ronan’s spine, and he tracked the beast with a wary eye.

  Shard energy escaped the lifeless body of another fallen member of Pride’s guard. The big cat stood atop the knight’s corpse and stared down Ronan.

  Ronan pulled in short shallow breaths and stared into the soul gripping gaze of the gray eyed cat. A spark of recognition flickered in the cat’s eye and tugged at his subconscious mind. He knew the cat, but couldn’t understand how.

  A roar from a second cat shattered his moment of reverie and raised the short hair on his hand. He’d never seen beasts like these in Meranthia.

  Beyond Kelwin’s thicket of barbed vines, somewhere lost in the fog, a second beast hunted. A feral scream of desperation marked the beginning and end of the second cat’s attack.

  Ronan held his breath and tracked the ebony cat with his sword. He’d swear the beasts fought on his side, but didn’t understand how.

  Kelwin’s staff glowed with green fury as its shape melded into a heavy battering ram. He sent it screaming toward the spirit shield of a battle knight attacking Tyrell’s le
ft flank. It smashed into the shield cracking it open like an egg leaving the knight’s backside exposed.

  Ronan sensed intelligence in the cat’s decision making. It picked its path using careful deliberation and waited for Kelwin’s staff to split open the knight’s shield.

  The dark cat surged forward locking its jaws around the battle knight’s sword arm the moment Kelwin’s attack destroyed the protective shield.

  The knight screamed and flailed his arm trying in vain to pull it free of the cat’s fangs.

  Kelwin’s face lit with a rapturous smile. “Guardian!” He raised his gloved hand, and a vine twisted around the knight’s neck. “Ronan! Tyrell! She’s a guardian. She fights with us!”

  Sharp tingles spread across Ronan’s arms and back, and he stared awestruck at the black cat. Rika had told him stories of Ayralen guardians, but he never dreamed he’d meet a shape-shifter, much less fight alongside one. “There’s another guardian beyond Kelwin’s defense? She’s alone?”

  “Go help her,” Tyrell said. “We can manage these two.”

  Beads of sweat rose on the brows of Pride’s ashen faced battle knights, and a mask of dread descended on their wide-eyed faces.

  Ronan leaped ahead, rolled through the burned opening in Kelwin’s defensive ring, and crouched.

  The golden cat sidestepped right as an energy blast opened a gaping hole in the soft earth near its front paws. As chunks of wet mud flew, the guardian whirled tracking the source of attack. She sprang off her hind legs and disappeared around the guardhouse’s corner.

  The air surrounding Ronan crackled and grew heavy with the stench of burned oranges.

  Ronan’s nostrils flared from the bitter stench, and he froze.

  A low humming sound started low and grew louder by the moment.

  By some ancient instinct Ronan pitched hard to his right and rolled.

  A stone walkway next to Ronan exploded in a spray of flying rocks and ricocheting debris. Hundreds of granular bits of stone lodged into Ronan’s leather tunic while many more found soft flesh beneath.

  Adrenaline surged and panic rose as he scanned the fog seeking his attacker.

  The surrounding air filled with the telltale stench of burned citrus, and a blue globe of light streaked inbound towards Ronan.

  Ronan sidestepped the attack and channeled more shard magic increasing his vision. The first touches of fatigue set in from overuse of his shard magic. He’d spent an enormous amount of energy, and he’d have to conserve his strength if expected to find Rika and escape.

  A dozen yards from Ronan, a shield knight crouched behind piles of refuse. He squinted through the fog, but went without his spirit shield. Five yards behind the knight, the familiar green glow from a warden’s outstretched hand extended toward the oblivious knight.

  Ronan’s mind raced wondering how Kelwin had beat him across the courtyard.

  Thick vines raced around the hapless knight as his frightened eyes went wide with shock. Each vine thickened, and shiny black barbed thorns glistening with deadly venom pressed against the knight’s armor.

  The panicked knight tried to pull free, but the plants wrapped around his arms and neck locking him in place. His plate mail armor groaned under the assault as the vines tightened and squeezed inward.

  An agonizing scream filled the courtyard as the thorn’s lethal venom pierced the shield knight’s flesh and injected its deadly dose. The knight’s armor popped like hail on a tin roof, and thorns drilled through steel tearing open tracks of exposed flesh.

  Ronan stared slack-jawed as he watched the savage attack wreck the shield knight.

  Convulsions wracked the knight’s body, and foamy white froth poured from his gaping mouth. A harsh gurgle escaped his throat, and his face went rigid from the poison’s effect. The knight’s neck slackened. Life fled the warrior’s body as blue light swirled from the corpse forming a sparkling glass shard near the tangled heap of vines.

  A cold shiver touched Ronan’s neck. The vines moved with speed and ferocity he’d not seen Kelwin deliver. The size of the poisonous barbs and their incredible power of destruction left Ronan stunned.

  Stillness fell over the battlefield as the fever pitched screams fell silent. Morning light broke over the camp’s walls burning away the dense fog that had carried Ronan’s party so far.

  Ronan slowed the flow of shard magic, and sharp pain flared in his ribs.

  A spray of jagged rocks had embedded into Ronan’s armor and blood oozed through open flaps of ripped leather.

  Ronan channeled shard magic siphoning his already strained reserve and deadened the pain throbbing in his side.

  Through the fog a golden haired goddess appeared like an apparition. She carried at her side the ever-present heartwood staff marking her station as a warden of the Heartwood.

  Ronan stumbled staggering backward away from the ghost. Had he taken a blow to his head? The woman standing before him died five years ago. “How…are you real?” A harsh strain peppered his voice as he choked out the words.

  The blond woman’s brow wrinkled, and her eyes flickered toward the wound in Ronan’s side. A pained expression washed over her face. “Are you okay?”

  Visions of his mother’s bloody body lying in his lap haunted his memory for the first time in years. He stood anchored unable to move and tried to find a logical reason explaining his mother’s presence. He reached out, hand trembling, and touched the young woman’s cheek.

  Warmth radiated from her soft skin and spread through Ronan’s fingertips.

  He gasped, and his heart raced. The woman before him consisted of real flesh, and relief washed over him. His sanity remained intact.

  She trembled beneath Ronan’s touch but made no effort to push him away. Her mouth parted as if to speak, and she stopped. Her eyes found Ronan’s and held his stare. Tears welled in her deep blue eyes, and she blinked once sending a fresh tears cascading down her flawless skin.

  Heat from her teardrops rolled over his fingertips, and he eased his hand from her face. “If this is some trick, I -”

  “No.” She shook her head, and her voice quivered. “It’s no trick. I promise.”

  His thoughts froze before he collected himself enough to speak. “You must know you look exactly like my mother.”

  She let the tears roll unfettered down her face. “I’ve heard, but I had no idea…”

  A deep voice resonated with compassion behind Ronan. “She’s here to help us Ronan. She’s a friend.”

  Ronan whirled to find Tyrell standing a few paces away.

  On Tyrell’s left, a young woman with short cropped dark hair stood wearing a tattered dress. Long rips in the midsection exposed lean abdominal muscle beneath.

  Kelwin stood on Tyrell’s right with a grin plastered to his face. His arm stretched around the shoulder of a young woman next to him. A beautiful smile stretched across her face exposing her gleaming white teeth.

  Ronan’s heart drummed, and heat spread like a brush fire through his face. His knees weakened as he tried to speak, but the words wouldn’t come.

  Rika’s eyes danced as she sprinted toward Ronan with a smile stretching so wide it touched the moon.

  His legs wobbled as she approached, and a two-ton weight fell from his shoulders. Genuine laughter bubbled up from a space he’d thought long dead. He opened his arms, and she leaped wrapping her legs around his waist.

  Rika embraced Ronan with an urgency and need he’d never experienced. As her arms wrapped around his neck, she pulled him into her. Ronan’s insides turned to butter as he held her and breathed in her intoxicating scent of lavender and cinnamon.

  She ran her fingers through Ronan’s dark wavy hair. “I love you with all my heart Ronan Latimer. I’ve loved you since the day we met, and even if you don’t love me back, I’ll still love you.” Rika’s breathy words came fast and urgent as she embraced him.

  The sweet sound of Rika’s voice sent chills running along his neck, and his toes curled. Those words he�
��d longed to hear sent him drifting on a cloud. Ronan understood, in that singular moment, the depth of his love for Rika. Without her, he lived half a life. He pulled her tight and whispered. “Rika, you’ve my entire heart, top to bottom, and I love you with the whole thing.”

  Rika pulled her head back and found Ronan’s lips.

  Her lips, soft and full, sent a jolt through his body and nearly overwhelmed him. Ronan closed his eyes and returned her kiss while time stopped.

  An impatient sigh cut short their reunion. “I’d love to sit and watch you lovebirds trade slobber, but we’ve worn out our welcome. We need a way out of camp.” Keely said.

  Heat spread through Ronan’s face as he and Rika took a step back. “Uh…” He cleared his throat. “Sorry.”

  A deep red blush covered Rika’s face. She gazed downward staring at her camp issued shoes, but she kept a tight grip on Ronan’s hand. “I guess I got a little carried away.”

  Ronan faced the blond woman and extended his free hand. “I’m Ronan Latimer. Thank you for saving my life.”

  Danielle took his hand and smiled. “I’m Danielle Deveaux.” She tipped her head. “You’re welcome.”

  “Miss Deveaux -”

  “Please. Call me Danielle.”

  Ronan nodded. “Danielle…I’m afraid to ask how you so closely resemble my mother.”

  “I’ll answer all your questions. I promise. But, first we need to escape camp,” she said. She gestured toward Keely. “Ronan, this is Keely Bouchard.”

  He turned toward Keely and extended his hand. “Thanks for your help Keely. I doubt we’d of made it otherwise.”

  Keely shrugged. “I’m glad we made it in time.” She shook his hand. “Good to know you.”

  A smile tugged at Ronan’s lips as knowledge bloomed in his mind. “Those gray eyes,” he faced Rika. “You’re the dark cat aren’t you?”

  Rika nodded.

  Ronan gave her a slight bow. “Then I owe you a debt of gratitude Guardian Finn. You’ve saved my life…again.”

  Rika smiled and flashed a slight smile. “Keely and Danielle helped me.”