Darkblade Guardian

by Andy Peloquin

  He pressed a kiss to her lips. “You and me against the world, right?” He stared into her eyes—those midnight black eyes he knew so well. “Together, nothing can stop us.”

  A little smile played at the corners of her mouth. “Together.”

  He turned to stride toward the steps, but something stopped him. “Kharna said that if I couldn’t do what needed to be done, he’d find another. He was talking about you, right?”

  Taiana hesitated, then nodded. “He was the one that released me from the Chamber of Sustenance where the Warmaster locked me away.”

  The Hunter’s eyes widened. “If he can do that, why hasn’t he done that to any of the other Bucelarii in Enarium?”

  “He is too weak. The battle with the Devourer is destroying him. He used up what little of his power remained to set me free so I could help him.”

  “And why you?” the Hunter asked. “Did he choose you in particular, or was it just a random chance?”

  Taiana met his eyes. “He chose me because of Jaia. Because he saw in my mind that I would do whatever it took to find my daughter.”

  Mention of Jaia sent a shiver of horror down the Hunter’s spine. “The Keeps! Did you find her in time?”

  Taiana shook her head, and tears rimmed her eyes. The Hunter felt as if a giant’s axe had chopped his legs out from beneath him. He had never known his daughter—never had a chance to hold her in his arms, see her smile, watch her take her first steps—and now, thanks to the Sage, he never would.

  Fury smoldered in the Hunter’s chest. The Abiarazi would pay. He could not kill the Sage, but the demon would spend an eternity locked away in the Chambers of Sustenance. Let’s just hope it’s a bloody painful eternity!

  “We need to get to the top of the Illumina and stop the Sage,” he said when he finally recovered enough from his shock to speak. “He’s got Hailen with him.”

  “And as many of his Blood Sentinels as survived the battle with the prisoners.”

  The Hunter’s eyebrows rose. “What? The battle’s over?”

  Taiana nodded. “An hour ago, the Sage sealed the tower when the fight was turning against the Elivasti. None of them survived.”

  “An…hour ago?” His eyes flew wide. How long was I talking with Kharna?

  “Kalil, Cerran, and I got as close as we could, then made a break for the Elivasti lines. We were wearing the armor we took from the Elivasti you killed. We were attacked by the prisoners, and I barely managed to get through the chaos of battle to slip inside shortly before the tower was sealed. I didn’t see what happened to Kalil and Cerran—they were right behind me, but the melee was brutal.”

  “What hour is it?” the Hunter asked. “How much longer do we have until the Withering?”

  Taiana’s brow furrowed. “It’s nearly the eleventh hour of the morning.”

  Ice froze in the Hunter’s veins. He’d been trapped speaking with Kharna for THREE HOURS. Too much time had elapsed—the Sage could have already put his plan into motion. At the very least, he’d have Blood Sentinels stationed between himself and the threat.

  But it didn’t matter how many enemies stood in the way. The Sage had Hailen. In activating the Keeps, he had killed the Hunter’s daughter. There weren’t enough Elivasti in Enarium to stop him from reaching the demon.

  “We’re going to the top,” the Hunter growled. “Even if we have to fight every step of the way, we’re going to get to that chamber and stop him.”

  She nodded. “Let’s do it.” She drew Soulhunger and stared down at the dagger with a sorrowful expression. “I tried, Drayvin. I tried my hardest to get to her in time.”

  The Hunter gripped her hand and squeezed it hard. “I know you did.”

  She locked her fingers in his and looked up, fire flashing in her eyes. “We’ll make the bastard pay for our baby girl.”

  “He will suffer, this I swear.” The Hunter bared his teeth and took Soulhunger from her, hanging the dagger on his belt. “Death is too kind a fate for him—eternal imprisonment is a far better reward.”

  She smiled, and it was as hard and cold as his. Once again, he caught a glimpse of the woman he’d seen in his vision upon arriving in Enarium. Taiana the soldier, the captain of a company of Bucelarii, the fierce warrior he’d fallen in love with all those years ago. She was the one he wanted fighting beside him.

  The Hunter’s resolve hardened and grim determination flooded him. He turned and raced up the stairs, leaving the black stone chamber—the final resting place of a god—behind. Taiana’s boots pounded in time with his own, her pace matching his.

  He slowed as they reached the ground floor of the Illumina and peered out of the stairwell. Through the transparent gemstone walls, he could see the horde of angry humans outside, pounding fruitlessly on the walls and now-sealed doors of the tower. Ten blue-armored figures blocked his path to the ascending stairway. Exhaustion lined their faces and they leaned against the blue-glowing central column or sat on the floor, drained from the battle and covered in blood—doubtless belonging to friend and foe alike.

  With a roar, the Hunter charged. He crossed the distance to the nearest Elivasti in three steps and, before the man could whirl around, drove Soulhunger into the man’s side. The blue-armored man cried out as the gemstone in the dagger’s hilt flared bright, filling the ground level with crimson light. The Hunter tore the blade free even as the fingers of his right hand closed around the spikestaff on the dying man’s back. He spun, whirled the staff once, and thrust it one-handed into another Elivasti’s face. Soulhunger opened a third’s throat, spilling red blood on the pristine floor.

  “Die, you bastards!” the Hunter snarled.

  The fourth man actually managed to half-raise his spikestaff before the Hunter slammed into him. The force of his charge knocked the man backward, a long, ragged gash carved down his forearm. The Hunter kicked the fallen man hard in the face—he’d bleed out long before he regained consciousness.

  A shout of rage accompanied two cries of pain to his right. He turned in time to see Taiana drive the metal-tipped end of a spikestaff into an Elivasti’s chest. Behind her, a man sagged to the ground with a shattered knee and crushed nose, while a second lay sprawled unconscious. Taiana spared a moment to drive her heel down into the senseless man’s neck before laying into the next Elivasti.

  The Hunter bared his teeth in a snarl as he advanced on the next blue-armored warrior. The man managed two quick thrusts of his spikestaff, which the Hunter deflected before bringing the metal-shod end whirling around in a blow that crunched the side of his skull. Blood and grey matter stained the spikestaff’s tip as the Hunter turned to bring down his next opponent.

  And found himself with no one to kill. Taiana had made short work of the remaining Elivasti, brutal in her efficiency. Blood covered her hands and trickled from the spiked ends of the weapon she’d ripped from a now-dead Elivasti.

  The Hunter thrust his chin toward the stairs. “We go up.”

  She nodded. “Watch my back.”

  The Hunter grabbed her arm. “I have Soulhunger—” he began.

  “The Sage killed my daughter.” Her expression hardened and fury blazed bright in her eyes. “I will break every bone in his body before we lock him away.”

  The Hunter met her gaze. She could teach a mountain a thing or two about stubbornness; nothing he did or said would dissuade her.

  “I’ve got your back,” he said. His best hope would be to watch her back and keep her alive. That meant keeping a level head even though he wanted nothing more than to tear the Sage and his Blood Sentinels to pieces with his bare hands.

  Taiana stalked up the stairs like a desert greatcat hunting its prey. When they ran into their first four-man company of Blood Sentinels halfway up to the first level, she didn’t hesitate though all carried Scorchslayers. Before they could level on her, she closed the distance and thrust her spikestaff with bone-crushing force into the first man’s knee. The Hunter threw his spikestaff at the second man, and it
punched through his armor hard enough to send him staggering into the Elivasti behind him. The lightning bolt flew up into the ceiling of the staircase as the two collapsed. Taiana’s spikestaff drove in and pulled free of the man’s eye almost too fast to see.

  The loud humming of a Scorchslayer echoed in the spiral staircase. The Hunter threw himself flat to the ground just in time for the lightning to sizzle through the air above his head. Taiana snapped the man’s wrist before he could get off another shot, tore the Scorchslayer from his limp hand, and pounded his teeth in with the butt end. When the man collapsed, she dipped two fingers into his blood and pressed the weapon’s trigger. The Elivasti’s head exploded in a spray of gore and bone.

  “Taiana!” The Hunter seized his wife’s arm. “We got lucky there, but we can’t count on luck. There will be more above us, and they’ll know we’re coming now.”

  “Good.” Her face twisted into an animal snarl and she made to continue the ascent. “I want them all to know we’re coming for them.”

  The Hunter gripped her arm, stopping her in her tracks. “Damn it, Taiana, wait!”

  She whirled on him, eyes flashing.

  “Let me go first.” The Hunter raised Soulhunger. “Kharna must be fed. These deaths ought to count for something.”

  Fire blazed bright in Taiana’s eyes and, for a moment, the Hunter thought she’d attack him. He knew the rage coursing through her—an inferno burned in his own chest over the loss of his daughter, worry for Hailen, and disgust at what the Elivasti had done to the people in the Pit—yet he couldn’t allow it to take control of either of them. No matter how much they wanted to tear him limb from limb and stain the Illumina with his blood, Kharna needed the Sage alive. He had to stop her from giving in to the blood rage.

  After a long second, she drew in a breath and nodded. “Go.”

  The Hunter raced up the stairs as fast as he dared. Through the transparent gemstone walls, he caught a glimpse of the horde of freed prisoners outside the Illumina. Covered in the blood of their captors, their eyes ablaze with hatred and fury. They laid siege to the massive tower, but they would find the Serenii construction far too strong. The spire would hold, at least long enough for him to deal with the Sage.

  Another company of Elivasti waited at the second level, this one ten-strong. Eight bore Scorchslayers and breastplates emblazoned with crossed red fists, while two wielded only spikestaffs. The Hunter dove beneath a volley of sizzling lightning bolts and rolled to his feet just before the front rank. Soulhunger opened two throats with a single slash, and Taiana’s lightning punched into a third’s chest hard enough to hurl him backward. The man bowled over two of his companions and, before they could recover, a second bolt plowed through their unarmored legs. The stink of charred blood, the tang of lightning, and the screams of the men echoed loud in the landing.

  The Hunter didn’t slow, didn’t stop moving long enough to give the Elivasti a target to aim at. He drove Soulhunger into one man’s chest, then released his grip on the dagger to bring the spikestaff whirling in an upward strike that carved a long gash across an unarmored throat. He ducked a lightning bolt aimed at his head, and a moment later another crackled in the opposite direction a hand’s breadth from his shoulder. The man immediately to his right crashed backward, smoke rising from his breastplate, and bowled over the man behind him.

  Evidently the Elivasti blood only lasted long enough for Taiana to get off two shots, for in a heartbeat she was beside the Hunter, striking out with the spikestaff. Within the space of a minute, all ten lay dead or dying on the landing.

  The Hunter’s heart hammered in his chest, adrenaline coursing through his veins. He scanned the second floor for any more threats, but found only silence and death.

  Something beyond the corpses of the fallen Elivasti caught his eye. An errant Scorchslayer bolt had punched a hole through the door to his right—the only feature visible on this floor of the Illumina. Through the aperture, the Hunter could see a faint blue glow within the chamber. Curiosity burning, the Hunter pressed Soulhunger’s hilt to the gemstone locking mechanism and the door slid open.

  Two Chambers of Sustenance stood within, the light of their blue gemstone lids filling the room with a gentle radiance. A thick tube of that flexible material connected the Chambers to the thick gemstone pillar in the heart of the room. The floors hummed with such force the Hunter could almost feel his teeth rattling.

  A gasp sounded behind him. The Hunter whirled, Soulhunger held ready for an attack.

  No Elivasti had appeared, but Taiana stood pale-faced, her eyes wide, a hand to her mouth.

  The Hunter crossed to her in two steps. “What is it? What’s the matter?”

  Disbelief filled her eyes, and she raised a hesitant finger toward the door. “There,” she breathed. “Jaia is in there!”

  Chapter Forty-One

  The Hunter froze, the breath suddenly sucked from his lungs. He turned back and found himself at a loss for words as he stared through the open door into the room which held his child.

  “You…are certain?” He struggled to form the simple question.

  Taiana hesitated. “I-I think so.”

  Taiana strode past the Hunter, her brow furrowing as her eyes fixed on the blue-glowing column. “I remember that. And the humming, it sounded like this. Louder than in the Keeps.” She turned back to the Hunter. “A room like this one.”

  Her tone sent the Hunter’s heart plummeting into his stomach. “But not this one.”

  Confusion sparkled in her eyes but, after a long moment, she shook her head. “Not this one.”

  The Hunter’s shoulders slumped. He’d all but given up hope of seeing his child the moment he’d seen the Keeps activated. Below, Taiana’s revelation that she hadn’t managed to reach all the Keeps before the Sage’s Blood Sentinels powered them up had all but confirmed that Jaia was gone. A child he had never known and would never see.

  This new twist of fate proved far crueler. Taiana had revived his hope only to shatter it a moment later.

  “Come on.” Taiana’s voice took on a new urgency. “She’s somewhere in the Illumina. We have to find her before the Sage activates the power of Enarium.” Without hesitation, she turned and rushed from the room.

  “Taiana, wait!” the Hunter called, but she didn’t hear him as she raced toward the spiral staircase. The Hunter pounded after her—he couldn’t let her face the Blood Sentinels alone. Cries of pain sent worry spiking through his gut. A heartbeat later, he caught up to his wife and found her locked in a furious struggle with four blue-armored Elivasti.

  The Hunter took in the scene in an instant. Taiana’s spikestaff was buried in one man’s throat, one hand clutching the arm of a Blood Sentinel trying to bring his Scorchslayer to bear on her. The two behind her held their rune-covered weapons ready for when one of their comrades fell and gave them a clear shot at Taiana.

  Without slowing, the Hunter flipped Soulhunger in his hand, caught the blade, and whipped his arm forward. The dagger hurled through the air and crashed into the unprotected face of one Blood Sentinel. Cartilage crunched beneath Soulhunger’s heavy pommel and blood spurted from the man’s nose. He fell back, crying out, his Scorchslayer pointing away from Taiana’s head.

  But one Elivasti remained. The loud humming filled the stairwell as the blue runes on his weapon flared to life. Acting on instinct, the Hunter seized the collar of Taiana’s armor and shoved her forward, right into the struggling Elivasti. They collapsed in a clattering pile of tangled limbs and heavy armor. A moment later, lightning sizzled from the Scorchslayer’s tip and crackled a hand’s breadth above her head. The Hunter leapt over Taiana’s prone form and lashed out with a flying punch that caught the Elivasti square in the jaw. The man’s head twisted and his neck gave a loud snap.

  Before the body hit the stairs, the Hunter whirled, scooped up Soulhunger, and drove it into the man with the bleeding nose. Crimson light blossomed in the stairway and a finger of fire etched another scar
into the Hunter’s chest. Power flooded through him as the dagger consumed the man’s life force. Yet there was no scream of delight, no pounding intensity in the Hunter’s head. Soulhunger no longer cried in his mind. The voices had fallen silent.

  Long ago, in a lifetime he couldn’t recall, he had sworn to aid Kharna in protecting the world from the Devourer. Soulhunger was the tool not to bring about the end of Einan, but to forestall its destruction. He had forgotten—no, the Illusionist Clerics had ripped it from his mind with the rest of his memories—but his conversation with Kharna had restored that knowledge. He no longer needed the voice of the demon to drive him to kill, or Soulhunger’s bloodlust pounding in his head. He knew what he had to do.

  A hint of sorrow panged in his chest at the thought. Those voices—Soulhunger, the dagger, and the part of him that kept him in check, in touch with his humanity—had been a part of him for so long. Parts of him that made a whole. Without them, he would be alone.

  No, not alone. Realization pushed the sorrow away, replaced it with blossoming hope. His eyes sought out the bloodstained, rage-twisted face and flashing eyes of his wife. He had found Taiana after all these years. They could find their daughter and be reunited as a family once more. Whatever came next, they would face it together.

  No longer alone, he repeated to himself.

  With a furious snarl, Taiana gave a savage wrench that snapped her opponent’s neck like a twig breaking in a hurricane. She released the man’s limp body and tore the Scorchslayer from his hands. She dipped her fingers into the blood of the Elivasti she’d impaled, then leapt over the lifeless bodies.

  “Taiana, wait.” The Hunter blocked her way. “We need to be smart about this.”

  “The time for thinking is over, Drayvin.” Her teeth bared in a snarl and she reached out to shove him aside. “Now is the time to act. The Withering is just minutes away. Once the Sage activates the Illumina—”