Ky’Ro shot his hands out forward, and dozens of stones heeded his will. He sent the stones flying through the air in a blur. Zander moved a hand in a wide circle, taking control of them from the exhausted dwarf easily. The stones twirled a circle away from Zander and sailed like leaves on the wind, slamming into Ky’Ro and dropping him to the ground. Raene gave a cry and charged Zander with her heavy shield leading the way. She slammed into the dark elf with all her might and stopped dead, as if she had hit a stone wall. Pain shot through her body as the dark elf easily sent her flying, end-over-end, to slam into the northern wall.
Raene slowly opened her heavy eyes and saw her fallen brother lying motionless upon the rubble. The dark elf was circling Ky’Ro. He looked down upon his victim with a pleasant grin on his face, as one might admire their own artwork.
“Ky’Ro,” Raene tried to scream, but less than a whisper escaped her battered body.
The dark elf raised his blade and stabbed her brother through. Raene screamed in rage within, but her body could only respond in chaotic spasms, and blood-gurgling grunts. The dark elf retracted his blade and began a low chant. Raene could not hear the words as a translucent, shimmering energy shield enclosed them in silence, a shield upon which many dwarven weapons pounded in rage. Spell-light began to glow in the palms of the dark elf, and soon, large, green balls of pulsing energy swirled in the palms of the dark elf. He clapped his hands together and snaking green energy shot like lightning and hit the chest of her brother. To Raene’s horror, Ky’Ro rose from the ground within the embrace of green, writhing tendrils. His eyes began to glow the same hellish light, and he stood on his feet once more. Ky’Ro’s dead eyes looked to Zander, and waited, unmoving, as if awaiting orders.
*
Dirk and Chief protected Krentz from all sides, as she in turn extended her consciousness to connect with the dwarven army. When she sensed a wound, she found the victim and quickly set his body to healing. It was not intricate work, patchwork really, but it would do. If the dwarves won, there would be time for more personal treatment. She excelled as a healer in her youth and learned how to heal large groups. This was her largest by far, for she watched over nearly a hundred dwarves, and they took their share of injuries.
Dirk soon found himself idle. Krentz remained far from the main force as the dwarves held them back. He whistled to Fyrfrost and left Krentz to her healing. A disturbance in the dust and smoke above told him Fyrfrost heard his call. When she swooped for him, he leapt into the air to be caught by unseen talons.
Fyrfrost lifted Dirk into the air and performed an aerial somersault throwing Dirk high into the air. He twirled like an acrobat as Fyrfrost leveled out below. Tucking his legs in and quickly kicking them out again he twirled, spun, and fell into Fyrfrost’s saddle. Dirk howled triumphantly and gripped the saddle’s horn.
“Let’s find some trouble,” he called to Fyrfrost.
They flew high over the Ky’Dren Pass, getting a good look at the battle below; the fight did not go well for the dwarves. The collective armies of the dark elves, Draggard, barbarians, and undead had driven the dwarves back nearly a mile into the pass. For the moment, a bottleneck in the pass held the dark hordes at bay. Farther back awaited another such bottleneck, this one with a large metal door. Dirk doubted the door would hold long against the dark elves.
Below, a collection of shields like the giant, metal shell of a turtle protected the dwarves. Over the dwarven shields, stones flew to land among the attacking Draggard. The stone-wielding dwarf reminded him of Roakore; he stood upon a pile of rubble surrounded by his dead kin. Big hands reached out into the air, and stones and boulders alike flew through the air killing many.
One of the dwarf’s hurled boulders sailed past a decorated Barbarian women: Aurora Snowfell. She had indeed made her choice, Dirk realized. On a large horse, she watched the advancement of her barbarians. Beside her, on a steed of black, sat a dark elf lich lord with a staff of bones in her left hand. The stone-wielding dwarf had gotten their attention. The lich lord pointed, and the dark elf at her side leapt from his horse, turned to black smoke, and shot off toward the dwarf.
Looking back the many hundreds of yards into the pass, he determined that Krentz was still safely behind the dwarven line aiding the warriors in their attempt to hold the narrow expanse. He spurred Fyrfrost into a dive and flew toward the northern wall. The dark elf landed and was met by flying stones and boulders that he easily turned back on the dwarf. Another dwarf barreled in shield-first. The dark elf sent him flying into the northern wall. Fyrfrost brought Dirk directly over the elf and he leapt from the saddle.
Dirk landed as Zander dove to the side and came up in a defensive stance. The assassin was on the dark elf in a flash, striking with sword and dagger. Zander growled and summoned a spell to his right hand. Dirk dove to the left, avoiding the fireball, and hurled a dart at Zander’s feet. The dart was one of Krentz’s newest creations, made to absorb any nearby spell energy. A humming globe opened beside Zander as he backed from it cautiously. Dirk threw another dart, this one exploding near his head. With a cry of rage, Zander shot spells from each hand in rapid succession. They flew toward Dirk, but soon curved and surged into the globe of Dirk’s enchanted dart.
A call went out nearby, “Ky’Ro has fallen!”
Dozens of enraged dwarves rushed toward Zander with weapons held high. Dirk attacked the dark elf, not wanting the dwarves to mistake his allegiance. A cry of alarm went up from the dwarves as they learned of Ky’Ro’s fate. The fallen dwarf now stood before them, his eyes lit with the hellish green light. Zander deflected a slash from Dirk and twirled away. He shot a spell from his right hand that quickly turned and disappeared into the globe. Dirk pressed the attack, knowing the dark elf was frustrated and confused by the spell-absorbing energy globe. The globe would gain power with every spell, and soon pull the dark elf’s energy shield into it as well.
“Kill them all!” Zander ordered the undead Ky’Ro.
The angry dwarves reached Zander and struck wildly, sparks exploded with every blow to Zander’s back as the dark elf fended off Dirk’s attacks as well. Zander leapt over Dirk when he found himself trapped, but the leap brought him too close to the energy globe. He landed and his energy shield was pulled into the globe. Dirk attacked mercilessly, his sword and dagger coming from all angles too quickly for Zander to block. The dwarves pressed the attack as Dirk scored a hit to Zander’s face leaving a long slash from chin to ear. Zander called Ky’Ro to him, and the undead dwarf charged to his master’s side. He had taken up a dead dwarf’s mighty double-headed axe, and cleared a swath to his master, felling any dwarf in the way.
Zander rushed to Ky’Ro and quickly put the undead dwarf between himself and Dirk. Lich lord and undead slave fought back-to-back. Zander killed any dwarf that dared get too close, and Ky’Ro tried to chop Dirk in half with the big axe. The dwarves could not take it upon themselves to strike their fallen prince, but Dirk had no qualms about it. He dodged the lumbering strikes and stabbed the dwarf through the chest with both sword and dagger. The blows had no effect on him and Dirk quickly rolled to the side to avoid the swing of the axe. Again the axe came and Dirk leapt into the air flipping twice to land ten feet away. A Draggard jumped from the northern wall and Dirk swatted the leading spear to the side and struck twice, leaving the Draggard to land legless. He threw an explosive dart at the dwarf that hit him in the shoulder and exploded. Through the smoke of the blast, Ky’Ro came on still. His right arm and shoulder were gone, yet he came on.
*
Raene was left to watch helplessly as the man in black fought off the dark elf who killed her brother. Ky’Ro rose from the dead and turned his blade against his kin. The man in black possessed a magic about him, it was in his armor and blades, and in his darts. Frustrated with her inability to move, she was yet entranced by the man’s attack. He opened a globe of energy that seemed to pull the dark elf’s spells to it, and eventually stripped him of his energy shield. Ky’
Ro came to the dark elf’s side just as the man in black was about to deal the final blow.
Beside Raene sat a large shard of stone. Her body was broken and useless, and though pain wracked her mind, she fought for the clarity that would help her to focus. Determination set her mind aflame, determination to inflict any damage she could to the murderous dark elf. The shard beside her began to vibrate and teeter as Raene focused her will upon it. Through the pain and tears, she took hold of the shard of stone with her mind and floated it just above the ground. She gathered what strength she had left and waited for the moment.
*
An explosion shook the earth, and dozens of dwarves and shields flew through the air, mangled and broken. Another blast sounded, sweeping more dwarves aside. The ground rumbled as the barbarians and undead charged the broken line.
Dirk ducked an axe and managed to throw a dart at Zander past the one-armed dwarf. The lich lord twirled away from a dwarven war hammer and swatted the dart away into the dwarven ranks. A surge of human undead hit the dwarves and chaos ensued along the northern wall of the Ky’Dren Pass.
Zander chopped down a mace-wielding dwarf and turned to strike another. Behind him came the cry of Raene, and he turned her way as a shard of jagged stone flew into his chest. The dark elf staggered back and gripped the shard with one hand whilst parrying the blow of a dwarven axe. With a cry of pain Zander pulled the shard from his chest and broke it over the head of a dwarf.
*
Aurora charged through the sea of shields with twenty undead soldiers leading the way. Something forced her to disregard Veolindra’s advice to stay back: Dirk Blackthorn. He stood on a pile of rubble battling an undead dwarf. A strange glowing globe tethered to the dark elf Zander as he frantically fought off the dwarven attack.
Aurora’s undead guards cut a swath through the dwarves as more explosions sounded behind her. The dark elves began peppering the sea of shields with fireballs, and the dwarven line faltered. Chaos ruled the Ky’Dren Pass as the dwarves fought frantically to hold the enemy at bay.
Along each wall, similar battles played out, as the Draggard and dark elves attacked the dwarven towers and balconies from which dwarven harpoons, spears, and metal bolts rained down upon the enemy ranks. The dwarves fought bravely, but the overwhelming numbers and the spells of the dark elves proved too much. The Ky’Dren Pass would be lost in short time. Already, thousands of dwarves had poured into the Pass from the southern wall, and a steady stream of warriors poured still. But the dark elves began to concentrate their spells on the dwarven tunnels and doorways into the mountain. Fireballs blasted chunks of stone from on high to rain down the side of the wall, closing off many of the passages. Water too was used by the dark elves. They summoned it from their surroundings and forced it to creep into the cracks and crevices along the wall. The water was then frozen solid, splitting the stone and causing deadly avalanches. Worse yet for the dwarves was the raising of their fallen kin. Dark elf lich lords walked the smoldering battlefield, which glowed green in the dreary sunlight. Their ragged cloaks blew in the hot wind of the ravaged land, and, everywhere they went, the dead rose behind them, Draggard, barbarian, and dwarf alike.
Aurora spurred her mount and undead on faster and was soon plowing through the dwarven ranks like a tidal wave. A lone dwarf recklessly leapt to block her path and planted his heavy axe into the chest of her horse. Her mount lurched forward and threw her through the air, but Aurora was ready, she used the momentum to her advantage. She leapt high and came down with the Dragonlance of Ashai upon the head of a dwarf. Leaving him bleeding on the stone, she hurried on to Zander’s aid.
*
Krentz redoubled her efforts as the dwarves−led by King Ky’Ell−pushed the Draggard back from the bottleneck. Dwarves rushed from the southern wall and joined their king in the charge. Krentz became hard pressed to cover them all and refocused her efforts on the king and the front line. She flew as a wisp around the battlefield, making sure to steer clear of the dark elf necromancers. She had sent Chief to aid Dirk, seeing that he had engaged a dark elf. Ever confident he could hold his own, she still felt better knowing Chief had his back. She had seen the barbarian woman take notice of him as well. She saw too that Chief was almost to them. The spirit-wolf glided as glowing mist over the battlefield, his sights set on the charging barbarian.
*
Dirk cut through the leg of the undead dwarf and severed his head. Three undead soldiers rushed at him as the dwarf fell to the ground. Dirk withdrew a dart and hit the center soldier in the chest. The three undead exploded in a shower of blood and gore, and through the fine mist and smoke of the explosion, Aurora Snowfell charged. She thrust forth her long dragonlance, which Dirk prepared to deflect, but before the weapons met Chief slammed into Aurora from the side, and the two went tumbling over the pile of fallen rock.
Zander turned from the dwarves as the undead soldiers and barbarians crashed into the scattered dwarven ranks. He charged Dirk, heedless of the energy globe that absorbed his energy shield. The spell couldn’t reach him now. Dirk sprinted to meet the charge, but came to an abrupt stop as a shadow moved across the sun. Zander noticed it as well, but too late. A giant slab of stone soared through the air and crushed him. Dirk followed the direction the slab came and found King KyʼEll and his dwarves charging toward him.
“All dwarves to me!” the king bellowed, his voice no doubt lent strength from Krentz.
Dirk leapt over the stone pile Chief and Aurora had disappeared behind, and came face-to-face with the barbarian Chieftain as she climbed to meet him. Dirk ducked low as Aurora’s dragonlance sailed over his head. Beyond her, he saw Chief in the clutches of a dark elf necromancer.
Chapter Thirty-three
Deeds of Legend
Whill flew over white peaks, approaching the Ky’Dren Pass from the south. He pulled back the power of Adromida and slowed as he approached. With mind sight, he peered through the stone of the mountain to the living creatures within, and observed thousands of dwarves deep inside. The army was steadily filing north to the Pass. Whill came to land upon a ridge overlooking the pass, and what he witnessed infuriated him.
A grand battle took place below him. The banners of Shierdon and Uthen-Arden flapped violently in the spell winds. Even from the height of the ridge, he sensed something not right about the human soldiers. With his mind sight, he peered into them, but did not find the usual glow of life-force, but, rather, a dull-green, pulsing light. Green tendrils of energy tethered them to their masters, the dark elves. The undead soldiers numbered in the thousands. They, along with the hordes of Draggard and barbarians, had taken the eastern mouth of the pass and drove the dwarves back with spells of fire and ice.
Whill leapt from his perch and descended toward the line of skirmish casting fireballs in every direction. The spells engulfed the circling draquon, sending them flailing and screeching to the stone below. He landed like a lightning bolt atop a group of Draggard just inside the enemy line. His energy shield crushed them into the earth, and the shockwave that followed his landing knocked down any within a hundred yard radius. Adromida glowed at his command, radiating like the sun itself there in the pass. Silence followed his arrival as everyone in view became blinded by the glow. Confident that he had gained everyone’s attention, he let the sword’s sheen lessen until it was tolerable, yet still brilliant.
He turned to face the Draggard, dark elf, barbarian, and undead armies. No bodies remained on the ground in the dark elf army’s wake, for they had all been raised from the dead, and now stood before him. A shrill voice bellowed out in a foreign form of Elvish. The undead and Draggard responded by rushing Whill. Dozens of spears sailed toward him, along with arrows and streaking spells from the dark elves. Adromida’s power coursed through him as he brought up his left hand. A web of energy formed before him that trapped the spears and spells. Whill chanted a spell learned from one of the Elven Tomes, a spell that would send back the projectiles to their wielders. A small shock
wave rippled through the air before him, and the missiles floating in place turned and shot back toward their owners. The spells erupted in explosions, and the spears and arrows found their marks.
Inside his pulsing energy shield, Whill conjured a fire spell. He held the form of the spell in his mind and forced ever greater amounts of Adromida’s vast power into it. Soon, a storm of fire formed above his head. Like storm clouds of flame, spewing lightning and licking fire, the spell grew above him in a vortex, reaching high above the Pass walls. Whill unleashed the spell of whirlwind fire and lightning upon his enemies.
“Veorack un arrek var talthous!” Whill bellowed, his voice shaking the earth below him.
The cyclone of fire and lightning grew nearly as wide as the Pass, and rolled over the attacking army, cutting a swath through the center all the way to the mouth. When the flame and lightning receded in a rumbling of thunder, thousands of charred and smoldering Draggard, human undead, and barbarians littered the ground.
“Charge!” the dwarven cry rang out in many voices.
The dwarven army split off on both sides of Whill like a parting river, and crashed into the armies that remained along the southern and northern walls.
*
Dirk ducked below the dragonlance and leapt into a backflip as the tip came flying past once more. Aurora wielded the lance with great agility and strength, but Dirk was faster. Undead climbed the pile of rubble and reached for him with milky green eyes. He held his ground, easily felling the slow abominations as Aurora stalked toward him with hate-filled eyes. Dirk threw two darts in her direction that she batted away with the tip of the lance. The darts exploded on contact and bathed her in flame. Aurora kept coming, unhurt by the explosion. A shimmering energy shield surrounded her, the work of a dark elf.
Whill of Agora: Epic Fantasy Bundle (Books 1-4): (Whill of Agora, A Quest of Kings, A Song of Swords, A Crown of War) (Legends of Agora) Page 129
