Darkblade Guardian

by Andy Peloquin

  Her voice cracked, and a torrent of tears slipped from her eyes.

  “Oh, Drayvin, I failed our daughter!” Great heaving sobs shook our shoulders. “I gave you up, gave up everything that could have saved her. My fear…my worry…I failed her.” She repeated the words over and over, rocking back and forth on the bed. “I failed her.”

  The Hunter collected her in his arms and held her tight as she wept. Long minutes passed as she clung to him, letting out the sorrow and remorse she must have kept bottled up for years. In that moment, he saw the woman he had loved his entire life, even if he couldn’t remember it. She was the battle-hardened commander, the passionate wife, the concerned mother. She was all those things and so much more.

  Something nagged at him. How did the Warmaster get into Enarium? The curse of the Empty Mountains would have shattered the demon’s mind long before he reached the lost city. The question filled him with doubt. The Sage had used a sob story to deceive him; was Taiana doing the same?

  No, her sorrow was as genuine as the anger in her eyes when she’d spoken of the Warmaster locking her away. But that didn’t explain how the Abiarazi had bypassed the curse without giving up his demonic powers as the Sage had. Try as he might, he could find no answer to the question.

  Nearly a minute passed before the flow of Taiana’s tears dried up and she managed to continue.

  “The moment I was awoken from my Chamber of Sustenance, I tried to search for her. But without my Bucelarii weapon or a resonator stone, I could not get into the Keeps.” Her brow furrowed. “I don’t remember how I even got out of my Chamber and onto the street. It’s hazy, like so much else of our past. But one thing was clear: I had to keep searching the Chambers for the sake of our daughter.”

  She swallowed and wiped the moisture from her cheeks. “I tried everything I could to get into the Keeps, but you saw for yourself how useless all my efforts were. Not even the best steel spikestaffs of the Elivasti could do more than scratch the surface of the stone. But from our time hiding from the Cambionari and Elivasti, I knew of the tunnels the humans built beneath their houses. So I used them in an effort to get into the Keeps. I dug my way into the Keeps.”

  “Alone?” The Hunter’s eyebrows shot up. The tunnel he’d used to get into the Northwest Keep had been at least twenty paces long, all through hard-packed earth and stone. “It must have taken you months to get through!”

  “One year and three days,” Taiana said. A shudder ran down her spine. “One year and three days on my own, without a friendly face, dodging Elivasti and spending every spare moment digging those tunnels. But I got lucky. The first Chamber I tunneled into held a living occupant. Cerran.”

  The Hunter felt a momentary stab of envy. The red-bearded Bucelarii had spent years in close proximity to his wife, while he hadn’t even known she existed.

  “That was four years ago.” Taiana let out a long, slow breath. “Four years of searching for Jaia, of trying to find more Bucelarii survivors. In all that time, we have found just four more. Neroth, Arudan, and Kalil. And Nostok.” The way she spoke the name reminded him of the way he spoke of Bardin or Farida.

  “What happened to him?” the Hunter asked.

  “She fell to a Scorchslayer, just as Neroth did today.” She scrubbed at her face, which had grown suddenly weary. “We have not always been able to evade the Elivasti hunting us.”

  “Hunting you?”

  Taiana shrugged. “They know we are here, but have proven unsuccessful in finding our hiding places. We are careful to remain hidden when we are out and about. There are too few of us, and we have no weapons beyond what we can take from the Elivasti we kill.”

  “No one else has a weapon like Soulhunger?” The Hunter couldn’t imagine being parted from the dagger permanently.

  “The Cambionari claimed them when they captured the others. Where they have taken them, I do not know.”

  The Hunter knew. All the Bucelarii weapons claimed by the demon-hunting Beggar Priests sat within a vault beneath the House of Need in Malandria.

  Taiana sighed. “With no weapons, we have no choice but to remain in hiding.”

  “Until today.”

  “Until today,” the woman said, nodding. “Until I felt your presence drawing near.”

  The Hunter’s eyes went wide. “You…felt me?” Since leaving Voramis, he had been aware of her presence pulsing faintly in the back of his mind. It had drawn him ever onward, beckoning him closer to finding her. She had led him to Enarium. Could it be that she had felt the same?

  “Our souls are bound forever,” Taiana said, and a bright smile spread her lips. “The day we spoke our vows of love, the magick of Enarium joined us as one. No matter how far apart we were, that link would always bring us back together.”

  A lump rose to the Hunter’s throat, and he pulled her into a fierce kiss. She returned it with passion, and the familiar fire burned within the Hunter. Only a superhuman effort of will and his burning curiosity to know more enabled him to break off the embrace.

  “From the moment I was awoken from my Chamber of Sustenance,” Taiana said in a breathy voice, “I felt your presence in the back of my mind, far, far to the south. I knew you were alive, but our baby girl was not. I’ve spent the last five years searching for Jaia.”

  The Hunter squeezed her hand. He would have made the same choice—fiery hell, he had made the same choice when he put aside his desire to find her in order to return to the Advanat Desert to free Hailen.

  “But then I felt you drawing near,” Taiana continued. “I thought it was my mind playing tricks on me, so I pushed it from my mind. Until today, when I felt that tremendous burst of power coming from the west, outside the city.”

  “The Dolmenrath,” the Hunter said. “Hailen activated it with his Melechha blood to save me from the Stone Guardians.”

  She winced at mention of the stone-skinned monsters that guarded the path to Enarium. “When I saw you on the ground, I was certain I was dreaming. But the moment I saw your face, and Thanal Eth’ Athaur hanging from your belt, I knew my dream had come true.” She clasped his face in both hands. “Fate has brought you back to me, Hai'atim.”

  The Hunter wanted to scoff at the idea of fate or destiny. For so long, he’d resisted the notion that he had been chosen by some divine force or existed for some purpose beyond simply existing. Yet right now, staring into those black eyes that mirrored his so perfectly, he could say nothing. Words would never express the true depth of his feelings for her.

  So he kissed her. That told her everything he wanted to say, everything she needed to know.

  Chapter Nine

  The bed was far messier than it had been half an hour earlier. They lay spent from their passion, his arms around her, bodies pressed together. He breathed in deep of her scent, basked in the glow of their lovemaking.

  “He’s dead, you know.” The Hunter spoke in a whisper. “The Warmaster.”

  Taiana rolled over in bed, so quickly that she elbowed him in the face. “What?”

  The Hunter pressed a hand to his bleeding lip and rattled off a string of curses that would have been at home in any dockside tavern in Voramis.

  “You killed the Warmaster?” Taiana pressed, ignoring his invective.

  “Yes.” The Hunter glanced at the red staining his finger. His body would heal, but damn she was strong!

  He told her about his time in Kara-ket and his encounters with both the Warmaster and the Sage. He kept the details of his torture at the Warmaster’s hands to a minimum. Her eyes sparkled as he recounted his final battle with the massive Abiarazi.

  “You’re certain he’s dead?” Taiana asked, a hard edge to her voice. “Our forefathers have a nasty habit of surviving even mortal wounds.”

  “Thanal Eth’ Athaur has sent him to the deepest, darkest of the hells.”

  “Good.” Her tone held not a shred of mercy. “It’s no less than he deserves.”

  “But the Sage still lives.” The Hunter’s brow fur
rowed. “And he’s here in Enarium.”

  “An Abiarazi, here?” Taiana shook her head. “That cannot be. The curse of the Empty Mountains would have turned him into one of the Stone Guardians long before he ever reached the city gates.”

  “He is no longer Abiarazi.” At her confused look, he continued. “He relinquished the last of his powers to fully embrace the form of a human. It is how the demons have hidden from the gods all these millennia.”

  His words brought a strange expression to her face, one he didn’t understand. Does she doubt me?

  “I used Soulhunger’s ability to track his heartbeat,” he explained. “I was pursuing him from Kara-ket, but lost him somewhere in the Whispering Waste a little over a week ago. He would have looked like any normal human arriving in Enarium.”

  Taiana frowned. “The purple-eyes would have collected him at the front gates. The only humans that arrive in Enarium are in the company of the Elivasti.”

  It was the Hunter’s turn to be confused. What are humans doing here in Enarium? And why are the Elivasti bringing them? He shoved the thought aside until later. He had more pressing matters to worry about, like how he’d find the Sage.

  “The Elivasti serve the Abiarazi,” he said. “With the Warmaster dead, he would be the only master remaining.”

  “But you said he was human.” Taiana’s brow furrowed.

  “I doubt he mentioned it.” The Hunter snorted. “The Sage only revealed his plan to me in his attempt to get me to confront the Warmaster, a battle he didn’t expect me to walk away from.”

  “Which means he is with the Elivasti,” Taiana said, her expression falling. “He’ll be ensconced safely in Hellsgate with the rest of them.”

  “Any chance Hellsgate is a nice grassy plain with lots of great vantage points for long-range assassinations?” Sarcasm laced his words.

  “Sorry to disappoint, handsome.” She shook her head. “Blasted huge stone fortress would be an understatement.”

  The Hunter mused. “Even if we could lure him out of hiding, get him in the streets so we could take a crack at him, he’d probably surround himself with way too many of those Elivasti and their bloody Scorchslayers.”

  Taiana lifted her hands in a hopeless gesture. “You have Thanal Eth’ Athaur and your sword, but all we’ve got are the spikestaffs we took from those slain Elivasti. That’s not enough to face an army with.”

  “No, it’s not.” The Hunter let out a long breath. He might have considered a head-on assault; he could tear through the Elivasti’s armor and steel weapons. But the Scorchslayers made that idea suicidal at best.

  He sighed. “First order of business is finding Hailen. We can’t let the Sage use him, especially with the Withering—or what did you call it, the Er’hato Tashat—so close at hand. Once he is free of the Sage’s clutches, we can find a way to eliminate the demon once and for all.”

  “And what of Jaia?”

  The question, spoken in a quiet voice, struck him like a charging ox. He’d been so focused on Hailen that he’d forgotten about his true child.

  He opened his mouth, but he could find no answer. The scale was weighed too heavily in both directions. On one hand, he ached to find the daughter he’d lost millennia ago and hold her in his arms. If he didn’t find her before the Withering, she would be destroyed by the surge of power running through her Chamber of Sustenance. On the other hand, he had to stop the Sage from using Hailen’s Melechha blood to activate the Serenii magick of Enarium. If he saved one, he’d condemn the other.

  Chaos whirled in his mind, and he could find no answer to the predicament. He knew he ought to go for Hailen; the Sage would doubtless use him to return the Destroyer and thereby condemn Einan to destruction. But could he sacrifice a chance at finding his daughter? He would save the world, but condemn himself and Taiana to a life of misery. How could she ever forgive him for making such a choice?

  He met her gaze, his expression pleading. One look in her eyes told him which she’d choose. She was a mother fighting to save her child, and nothing would stop her. Yet, in his heart, he knew which choice he had to make.

  “I…” He could not summon the words.

  “I know,” she said in a whisper. She took his hands and laced her strong fingers through his. “You will do what you must, no matter what it costs you.” Emotion glimmered bright in her eyes. “It is the reason I fell in love with you all those years ago.”

  “I’m…sorry,” he managed to choke out. “I promised I would keep him safe.”

  “And you will do what you must.” Sorrow echoed in her voice, but no recrimination.

  An idea struck him, and he acted before he could reconsider. “Here,” he said, picking up Soulhunger and thrusting it out to her, sheath and all. “Take Thanal Eth’ Athaur.”

  Her eyes widened a fraction, though she didn’t take the weapon. “You would give up—”

  “I would give up everything for the sake of the ones I love.” Fire burned in his gut, but he knew he was making the right choice. “I cannot let the boy suffer, but I will not let our child die.”

  “You understand the choice you are making?” Her gaze searched his. “You face an army of Elivasti with nothing but steel. Without Soulhunger, you are reliant upon your body’s natural healing abilities.”

  “Which, I’d like to point out, I’ve gotten quite adept at using.” He tried to infuse his voice with humor, but it just sounded bleak.

  “You face weapons powerful enough to kill even you.” Concern for his wellbeing filled her eyes. “I would not see you die any more than I would our daughter.”

  “Our child needs her mother.” The Hunter wrapped an arm around her strong, bare shoulders and pulled her close to him. “This is a sacrifice I can make for her sake. And for yours.”

  She nestled closer and laid her head on his chest. “Don’t you dare die on me, Drayvin. I just got you back.”

  “You won’t get rid of me that easily, Wife.” The word sounded strange, but somehow…right.

  Silence stretched on for long moments as they lay in bed together, reunited after thousands of years spent apart.

  “It’s not just her I’m searching for, you know.” Taiana spoke in a hesitant voice. “If we can find more Bucelarii, we’ll have more reinforcements to fight the Elivasti. With Soulhunger, we can search the Keeps in hours rather than months. It’s why I was brought back now. To stop the Elivasti and their masters from using the power of the Serenii.”

  “Brought back?” The way she said it sounded strange. He glanced down at her with a frown. “What do you mean by that?”

  She hesitated. “My Chamber was…opened for me.”

  “By whom?” the Hunter asked.

  “The one I want you to meet,” Taiana said quietly.

  The Hunter’s mind raced. Who could she be talking about? Another Bucelarii, perhaps? No, she would have mentioned another of their kind if that had been the case? An Abiarazi? The way she’d spoken of the Sage, it was clear there were no demons living in Enarium, and none could have come through the bubble. If the Sage and the Warmaster controlled the Elivasti living here, who else could it be? One of the humans she’d mentioned? Something wasn’t adding up.

  “What aren’t you telling me?” He disengaged from her and sat up.

  Her face hardened. “I told you, he needs to explain everything to you for yourself.”

  “So take me there now,” the Hunter said.

  “I can’t.” Taiana shook her head. “Kalil will return with word from Garnos at any moment, and it’s more important that you find your boy.”

  “When, then?” The Hunter narrowed his eyes. “When will you introduce me to this mysterious man?” Something akin to jealousy swept through him. Who could she be concealing from him?

  “As soon as I can, I swear.” She reached for his hand. “You promised you’d trust me, remember?”

  The Hunter nodded, but a nagging suspicion took root in the back of his mind. There was something she wasn’
t saying, something she was afraid to tell him, perhaps? That worried him a great deal.

  Once again, he was struck by how silent the voices in his head had fallen. He’d half-expected to hear his inner demon shrieking at him not to trust her, to kill her before she betrayed him again. Yet, nothing. Silence.

  He rolled onto his back and stared up at the glass ceiling. Sunset bathed the sky in brilliant hues of reds, purples, and gold, and he was struck by the startling clarity of his view even through the glass. Voramian artisans produced glassware that turned objects blurry, distorted their shape, details, and color. The Serenii glass was perfectly transparent, with not a single distortion or alteration. Indeed, he could almost forget it was there until he reached out to touch it.

  He stood and padded naked over to stand by the room’s western wall. The city of Enarium stretched out around him, like a three-layered crown of white bedecked with sapphires. Twenty-four shining gemstone Keeps, one at each point on the compass.

  Below and off to the north, he caught a glimpse of blue-armored figures trotting through the stone streets of the Medial Tier.

  “They can’t see us, can they?” he asked Taiana without looking back.

  “No,” she said, and he couldn’t help noticing the tightness in her voice. “The glass is transparent from this side, but a mirror on the other.”

  “Marvelous.” The Serenii temples in Kara-ket had had the same glass-like exterior.

  He turned to look back at her, when something in the far distance caught his eye. He strode toward the opposite wall and looked out across the city.

  Far to the east, beyond the Eastern Keep on the Prime Echelon, stood a building that could only be Hellsgate. Squat and blocky, six stories tall, it was made from a stone so dark grey it was nearly black. The threads of red stone running through the construction lent it a sinister air. It had no soaring spires or lofty towers, just a single, unbroken fort built to withstand an army. Whoever had built it—it lacked the grace and elegance of a Serenii structure—had cared more about fortification than architectural artistry and refinement.