by Ben Hale
Her hair in disarray, her clothes torn from the battle with Siarra, Alice no longer appeared in control. Apparently she had found her match in the ancient oracle, and neither had emerged victorious.
"This is not possible!" Alice screamed. "I destroyed you!"
"You failed," Tess said, and continued to stalk forward.
Alice struck with a massive current of luck, but Tess did not deviate. The magic of luck split against her will and fell away to either side, evaporating into nothingness. Alice froze, her eyes widening in horror. She struck again, and then again. Each desperate attempt dissipated against Tess's will.
"Luck has no weakness!" Alice shrieked.
Tess closed to twenty feet, and Alice stumbled backward. "Luck runs out," Tess replied. "Those who refuse to yield are those who ultimately claim victory."
Her face rigid with disbelief, Alice struck with other types of magic. Tess deflected each, and continued to close the gap between them. Realizing her helplessness, Alice frantically leapt into the air. Tess cast a gravity well and laced it with will. Alice struck the barrier and crashed into the snow.
Before Alice could rise, Tess cast a second spell that lifted Alice to her. Bound with her arms spread wide, Alice came to a stop in front of Tess. Alice's gaze burned with shock as she struggled to break free from the immovable bonds.
"I am the Master!" she screamed. "You cannot kill me!"
"I should," Tess said, and she thought of her father. Her will wavered, and Alice's arms moved an inch. Then Tess regained control. "But I'm not like you."
Tess brought her hands together and closed her eyes. Recalling the feel and touch of the horrending dagger, she shaped her magic into an ethereal blade. When she opened her eyes, a long smoky knife had filled her hand.
"No," Alice fought her bonds. "This cannot be."
Tess cast the charms she'd learned when taking Drake's magic, and yellow light spilled from Alice's body. Drops squeezed from her skin and coursed away, pooling into an orb between them. It continued to swell as Tess drew every bit of luck magic from Alice.
"You don't have the magic of luck," Alice growled, but her voice had gotten weak. "You don't have the power to take a magic you lack."
"Even if I can't wield them, I still have all magics," Tess said, "for I am the Oracle of Lumineia." The strain of holding the magic of will was taking its toll, and she sensed it would falter soon.
"I made you," Alice said in sudden vehemence.
"No, Alice," Tess said, and stepped close. "My parents did." Then she plunged the horrending dagger into Alice’s chest and cast the hex.
Alice screamed as her body sealed against the magic it had once contained. Anti-magic and memory charms pierced her flesh, forever erasing her magic. The yellow sphere of luck fell to the stone and shattered. In seconds it faded into nothing. Alice fell to her knees as Tess's magic weakened, and Tess let her power fade. A wave of weakness washed over her, but she managed to keep her feet.
"Do you know what you have done?" Alice said, and raised an accusing glare to her. "My generals are dead. Without my power The Dark and its army have no leash. They will not stop until every soul on this planet is slaughtered."
Alice's searing gaze condemned Tess. "You have doomed us all."
Chapter 46: Dying
Wolf pulled the pin on a grenade and tossed it out. "Frag out!" he shouted. Then he picked up an M60 and its belt. "Get them out!"
Of the ten thousand soldiers tasked with guarding the Arc, less than five hundred remained alive. Men and women hustled through the shrinking Gate carrying the wounded. The SEALs, dark elves, and the German team had formed a line of flesh, fighting to keep the horde of Twisted at bay. The Dark had reached the summit, allowing its army to flow right onto the peak. Each man that went through the Gate was one more saved—but one less to help them fight.
Wolf kept firing—but the next bullet failed. After millions of rounds passing through the barrel, the weapon had given out. Cursing the manufacturer, he leapt backward and pulled the assault rifle from his back. Whirling to the horde, he fired the 40mm grenade launcher into the teeth of his foe. The blast was so close it rippled the skin on his face.
He ejected the shell and slammed another grenade into the smoking breach. "Five steps!" he bellowed.
In unison, the perimeter retreated five steps, closing the gaps against the losses and drawing closer to the Arc. Wolf fired his assault rifle as fast as he could empty the magazine, but the Twisted were climbing over each other in their haste to reach him. Then Knisenik appeared.
Driving through the writhing horde like a snow plow, the black reaver knocked them aside. The spikes across his body were covered in the blood of his foes, but his body was equally covered in wounds. Even with the power of his enemies within him, Knisenik was on his last legs. His breath came in ragged gasps, and foam dripped from his maw.
"Peterson!" Wolf shouted over his shoulder. "Status!"
"Wounded are out," came the reply. "Thirty of us left!"
Wolf spared him a glance. "Five seconds to evac!" he roared.
The allied army leapt through the Gate at Peterson's direction, and Wolf retreated until he felt the Arc at his back. Then he issued his order.
"Linda, get down here! Everyone else, GO!"
He kept firing as the last two members of his SEAL team dived through the shrinking hole. Urilian was quick to follow, and the other dark elves leapt behind him. The last was caught by a Primate and dragged out of sight. His scream was abruptly cut off.
Linda landed next to Wolf and he bellowed for the black reaver. "Knisenik!"
With their backs to the Arc and the Gate flickering, they blasted the crowd of Twisted with everything they had. Then Knisenik raced to answer Wolf’s call. Twisted were launched into the air as it charged for the Gate, their bodies shredded. As it closed to ten feet Wolf prepared himself to dive through the Gate . . .
—with the sound of a balloon popping, the Gate disintegrated. Knisenik unleashed a bellow and skidded to a stop, tearing the soil as it slid. His chest crushed with despair, Wolf felt Linda pick him up and carry him to the top of the Arc. From there he opened fire.
Wolf stood beside Linda, firing down on the Twisted as they attempted to clamber up to them. Linda's tiny gravity shield shuddered as bats struck them from above, and Knisenik cut through the throng around the base of the Arc. Alone, they defended the last sliver of light as the Dark crept closer.
***
With his sword in his hand, the Swordsman stood at the edge of the Stacks and fought for his life. At his side Indigo spread fire and gravity, preventing the Twisted from entering the gap between shipping containers and reaching Robar's body.
Every second the Swordsman expected to be overrun. Even if they could hold this gap forever, the soldiers holding the other openings could not. The wall of Dark had approached to within a mile of the Stacks, and many Twisted had penetrated to the center. Amidst the screams of women and wails of children at his back, it was the snarls of Twisted that the Swordsman heard. Each reminded him of Robar, spurring him to ever increasing fury.
Without thought, without care, the Swordsman buried his blade in the endless swarm of Twisted and unleashed his hatred for what their general had done. Bloodied and cut in a dozen places, he sought to quench the loss by the death of his enemy. He knew they would eventually overwhelm him, but for now he did not care.
***
Holding the hands of her boys, Rivena pushed her way through the mob of terrified civilians. Her container had been struck by a swarm of bats, forcing her to abandon it. Racing toward the center of the Stacks, she sought for a place of refuge for her children. Her desperation mounted when she found none. Then the Twisted appeared.
Having broken through the barriers around the Stacks, the trio of primates opened their fanged jaws and released a primal roar of victory. Then they lunged at the civilians. The old mage that had guarded their quad cast a fire hydra that burned one to ash, and then he
was torn apart by another. It tossed the corpse away and then caught sight of Rivena. Slamming its fist down, it lunged into a charge.
Rivena raced to the side—but it proved to be a dead end. Releasing her boys, she whirled and called on her magic. Water deep in the earth lifted up and pierced the dirt in a ten foot shard of ice. The primate struggled to stop, but its momentum drove its body onto the spike. The primate issued a strangled cry as the ice impaled him. The ice broke from the force, and the dying beast tumbled to a stop.
Rivena heard a thud, and spun again, her heart in her throat. To her surprise the third primate lay dead on the ground, killed by her boys as it was about to jump down on her. She yanked them away before they could climb onto its body, and they howled in protest. She froze as she exited the dead end, and saw that hundreds of Twisted now filled the alleys of the Stacks. Her boys finally fell silent, and that hammered her fear home . . .
***
Iris stood in Oakridge, casting curses as fast as her mind could conceive them. After Tess had Gated them out, they had been left without a place of retreat. Every second that passed the Dark continued to surround them, closing off their route to the Stacks.
In the back of her mind she felt the threads cut as the members of her army were killed. The distractions that she had come to know gradually went dark as radios, computers, and people died. She felt her magic weaken as the very threads were exterminated.
Barricaded inside the Terminous launcher, the mages and soldiers stood on the wall that ringed the launcher, firing at the Twisted that had gathered around them. With Kate at her side, Iris stood among them, forcing her magic to shock the Twisted climbing up to her. The horde of Twisted terrified her, but she fought anyway. Part of her mind watched Tess through a satellite on Mt. Everest, and willed her to succeed . . .
Chapter 47: The Forge of Light
"Where is it?"
Tess ground the words out as she searched the endless snow and ice. The compass had helped them find the location, but not what they were looking for. Beneath the thick snow and ice there was only endless rock.
Tess and Siarra split the snow and shoved it off the cliff, clearing the rocky summit of the great mountain. The huge piles of ice crashed into the slopes below, setting off avalanches that rolled into the Dark and caused the mountain to tremble.
"What are we even looking for?" Derek asked. He was on his knees and touching the stone. Even with Tess's protective charms, his hands were shaking from the cold.
"We're running out of time," Siarra said.
"You have killed us all," Alice shouted at her. "You and your defiance has—"
Siarra stabbed a finger at her, and Alice's mouth locked shut. Feeling the weight of millions of desperate lives, Tess heaved the snow clear until the top of the mountain was exposed to the night. The icy wind howled around her, cutting into the charms that kept her warm.
"Here!" Derek's voice barely reached Tess through the wind.
Darting into the air, she raced to his side, and found him kneeling against the rock. Activating her magesight, she peered into the frozen mountain, searching for what he'd seen.
Her breath caught as she saw it. Leaping away, she streaked a hundred yards up from the pinnacle and turned back. Her eyes widened as she realized the truth. The Forge of Light wasn't on the mountain.
It was the mountain.
Embedded in the greatest mountain on Earth, a massive, triangular crystal lay hidden inside an enormous cavern. Each of the three sides matched the three faces of Everest, while the top and bottom came to a sharpened point. Siarra's expression revealed her own surprise, and she flew up to join her.
"You didn't know?" Tess asked.
Siarra's gaze did not leave the mountain. "The Forge has lain dormant for forty thousand years, forgotten. You know as much as I."
"Does it work?" Derek asked.
"We're about to find out," Tess said.
Then Tess noticed that the top of Everest bore an almost invisible outline in the stone. Partially obscured by the snow and the damage from Siarra's duel, the lines formed a sprawling rune that covered the entire summit.
"What is that?"
Siarra let out a breath. "That's an eyenis rune. It activates in the presence of magic."
Tess flew down with Siarra and together they placed their hands on the gigantic rune. It glowed to life. Tess retreated as a series of lines flickered to life around the summit of Everest, burning the lingering snow as they traced a symbol on the three sides of the peak. Then the rock began to shift.
The three sides of Mt. Everest split open, cracking from the summit to the enormous base. Thousands of feet wide, the trio of openings began to sink into the earth, revealing the hollow nature of the mountain. Snow and rock clattered off the opening doors and fell away into the Dark, causing a tremendous avalanche. Roaring down the slopes, the wave of snow crashed out of sight. In its wake the rune glowed brighter and expanded across the breadth of the mountain. Then the summit itself began to lower.
Tess caught Alice and pulled her to the group. The peak retracted like the doors on a hanger, lowering them into the enormous cavern. Where they stood became a platform that separated from the retracting peak and gradually extending toward the center of the cavern. Then they passed the top of the crystal, and Tess sucked in her breath.
Thirty thousand feet tall and several thousand wide, the Forge commanded attention. Its surface appeared translucent and smooth, reflecting the moonlight with subtle power. Its top sharpened into a point that had lain hidden beneath the peak. The three ridges that had led to the summit remained, arching upward in huge curving spires.
The lowering doors passed the threshold of the Dark, and the cloud poured into the gap. It quickly filled the base of the Forge, pooling until it reached its upper threshold. Still extending to the crystal, their platform joined with two matching platforms to become a ring that surrounded the Forge. Then it came to a grinding halt and everything fell silent.
"I can't believe it," Siarra breathed. She advanced and touched the crystal. Her eyes widened. "It's unlike anything I've ever seen—energy or material."
Tess joined her, and hesitantly reached out to it. To her surprise the crystal was not solid, and she pressed her fingers into it. It felt like the weight of water, but her hand came out dry.
"How do we activate it?" Derek asked.
Tess opened her mouth to respond, but a high keen drew her gaze down. The sound rose until it became deafening, and she instinctively knew its source. She darted to the edge of the platform and looked down. Her eyes adjusted to the night—and then she saw it. The Dark was climbing up the crystal. Swelling like the ocean rising up, the Dark crept upward, intent on reaching them.
Patches of Dark turned gray as the altitude began to kill the cloud, but it kept rising as if it sensed Tess's effort to activate the Forge. Then Tess saw movement within the Dark. The leading edge churned with flesh as the Dark lifted up millions of Twisted. Rising like flotsam on a wave, the horde neared their platform, their collective growls joining the Dark's cry of rage.
"It knows why we're here," Derek said from her side.
Tess darted to Siarra. "Whatever we're going to do, we'd better do it fast."
"I think it requires magic to activate," Siarra said.
On impulse, Tess reached out and sent a thread of white magic into the ethereal crystal. It brightened instantly, and a faint rumbling emanated from the crystal. Tess pulled back, and the Forge returned to normal. Her gaze connected with Siarra's, and together they reached out their hands to pour magic into the Forge.
The light coming from the crystal brightened, reflecting off the trio of spires and shining out into the night. Tess struggled to keep it up, but her fatigue overpowered her, and she slumped to the platform.
Gasping for breath, she looked at Siarra, who had stumbled back as well. "I don't understand," Tess said. "Why isn't it working?"
"We're running out of time," Derek said in a risi
ng voice.
Alice struggled in her bonds, as if she too sensed the end. Her gaze locked on Tess and conveyed only blame. Tess turned away from her and returned to Siarra. Then she had an idea. Reaching out to the Forge, she thrust her hand into it, and ignited a tiny flame of white magic inside. The burst of light forced her to clench her eyes shut, and she withdrew her hand.
"It had to be done from inside," Tess said, and her heart sank in her chest. She knew what was required to activate the Forge.
A sacrifice.
Siarra touched her arm, drawing her gaze. Siarra bore a soft smile on her face.
"It's me, Tess," she said. "I'm the second talisman."
"But the compass—"
"Was part of it," Siarra said, "but not the whole. Jack stole me as well. My mother foresaw the need for an oracle's sacrifice, and knew I would become a guardian. "
"It will consume you," Tess said, her voice strangled. "I can't let you do it."
"The madness of the guardian magic is growing, Tess. Even now it presses against my thoughts, stripping me of my will. This is my purpose, Tess. This is why I waited eons of time, so I could die here."
Tess met the gaze of her ancestor and saw the truth in her eyes. Tess's hands shook as she reached out and embraced her. When they parted Siarra touched the pendent on Tess's neck.
"I am still in the Book of Oracles," she said and then smiled. "Goodbye, young one. In the wake of this war mankind will need you. Do not fail them."
Her throat too tight to speak, Tess gave a nod, and Siarra stepped into the air. Drawing a breath, she glided into the Forge. Her smile did not waver as she drifted down and out of sight. Struggling with her emotions, Tess turned to find Derek standing beside her and allowed him to fold her into his arms.
"Goodbye, Siarra," she whispered.
From deep in the crystal, Siarra spread her arms out and allowed her magic to flow. The crystal brightened until it rivaled the sun, forcing Tess and Derek to shield their eyes. Still more light came, until the Forge released a sound. The tone of power grew louder and louder—until suddenly it reached a climax.
