by A L Wright
Hielrich’s skeleton crashed into the mountainside, causing the very earth to shake. Mortul stood his ground against both that and the gusts of wind the beast's wings had stirred in trying to course correct. He held the circle intact, even after the tail swung back around and swept him from the ledge.
The shriek from Hielrich the Deep Dweller was cut short, but if that was because the circle had done its job, Mortul never found out. Blackness took him before he reached the ground.
Chapter 21
The shriek of the wyrm cut short, but a scream rent the air. Nikka cut off her power and dropped to her knees, the screams tearing from her throat of their own will. She clawed at her hair, feeling helplessness and despair. Hands grabbed hers and pulled them down and away. She turned into her friend’s arms and sobbed and choked, all life draining from her limbs.
The end of the war no longer mattered. Having watched Hielrich’s bones stripped of its very flesh in midair was a harrowing sight in itself, but nothing compared to watching her grandfather fly through the air, his body bouncing against the ground like a straw doll, the bones of the beasts landing scattered around him. The scene played over and over in her mind, for what felt like hours, until she heard Yosan and Hudreia speaking above her.
“Take her out to the horses, Friesa. She does not need to be here right now.” Yosan’s voice floated over her.
“Yes, get her some water. Splash her face and get her to drink and lay down.” Hudreia added.
Nikka was pulled to her feet by Friesa, and her strong friend dragged her away into the tall grass. It was all she could do to put one foot in front of the other, and in her concentration of just walking, she didn’t hear what words were passing between Friesa and another.
An arm slid around her other shoulder, and she looked up into her Father’s face. Nikka couldn’t bear the look there and began to sob again. Her legs turned to jelly, but her father swung her up into his arms and carried her to the horses.
He sat her on the ground and tucked a blanket over her that Friesa handed him. He got her to stop crying just long enough to take a few sips of water. The drink cleared her head just a touch, but even then, she was powerfully tired. She curled up into a ball and closed her eyes. The sound of footsteps moving off signaled her father walking away to join the other warlocks. Friesa sat down and took Nikka’s head into her lap, stroking her hair until the world faded around her.
Two days later, Nikka and the others caught up with Victor and Tynen and the remainder of their army. Even after Hielrich was slain, the goblins continued to attack. But without the focus from their leader, they fell back into old habits. Attacking in small groups, no sneaking or element of surprise. They were obviously upset their master was dead and had no reason to care how they fought.
The warlocks cleaned up the scattered enemy forces brutally and efficiently, Nikka in the lead. Her need to claim at least some small vengeance for her Grandfather’s death and sacrifice came before a full reunion with Victor. Even then, Victor fought along beside her, supporting her, sometimes physically, as she exhausted herself and her powers burning down the goblins around her.
Friesa followed along, picking off stragglers so that Nikka could concentrate on the larger groups. Her friend understood the burning need to wipe the creatures from the earth.
When finally Nikka fell to the ground, exhausted and spent, Tynen dispatched small groups of rangers to spread out and track down any possible escapees. She let Victor help her climb onto her horse and lead her away from the Lothnau Forest, now littered with nothing more than bloody remnants of the once mighty goblin hordes.
EPILOGUE
Dartein had insisted the skull of the Deep Dweller be taken home to Noble’s Rest with them. He insisted it be placed above the crypt that his father would now be sharing with his mother.
It was a signal of the end of the long war, where the Noble race had begun.
It was a monument to their leader, who had paid the ultimate blood price to protect them all.
The Nobles moved onward with their lives, adrift without a cause. It took Victor speaking up to make them all realize they needed to move forward. He questioned their purpose now, what good were they as long-lived warriors now that there was no war to fight?
Dartein thought long and hard about that question and concluded that his father would now want them to do what he himself had done 1100 years previous. The Nobles should now guide the humans once more. The humans had lived for several hundred years under the threat of war, whether they had known it or not. The Nobles had kept the humans limited in their growth in order to be able to protect them from the goblins. Now it was time to show them how to truly live free.
A new council formed, headed by Mortul’s most trusted adviser, Kurmeina. She wrote down all the suggestions and apportioned labor to them, as the Noble warriors now had nothing to do and had plenty of time to be put to tasks.
Friesa suggested roads be built between towns. She also suggested some of the Nobles be taught trades. Tradesmen had been killed, and knowledge had been lost before in the old war, but they could learn it between them and keep it alive.
The Nobles built the roads and learned trades like carpentry, masonry, blacksmithing, and smelting to start. Eventually, some branched off and learned other skilled trades. It was a time of true freedom for everyone.
Dartein had no want to take over his father’s seat at the Palace. Too many memories lingered there, and every moment spent inside of it was painful. He asked Kurmeina to take up the mantle of leadership, and she agreed, but only if Dartein would help.
So it was declared that the lands be split between the two rulers; the Southern Reaches led by Kurmeina, and the newly apprised Central Plains would be led by Dartein from the Keep.
The Northern reaches were declared a free land and given to Yosan and Hudreia, who quickly reassigned them to Nikka. The three of them, along with Victor, Friesa, and Tynen, gathered a retinue of Nobles to re-settle the old abandoned village where their race had begun over a millennia ago.
They quickly rebuilt the rotted village to house all the Nobles who had followed them and began to carve out stone from the foot of the mountains to build a stronghold. The new village became a haven for Nobles who felt they no longer had a place in the world of humans, and the Northern Reaches steadily grew in population. Nikka and Friesa welcomed them all with open arms, and Victor and Tynen kept them in line.
Yosan and Hudreia moved back out to the plains near the Keep, to continue their passion of breeding fine horses, and left the ruling of lands to those who were better suited to it. They tucked away the knowledge of their magically gifted mounts and kept to a mortal type of husbandry. Even then, their horses would be known as the fastest and most clever a soul could come by.
Immortal lives meant that the Nobles who were new to crafting eventually became experts and over the decades, masters. The work of a Noble was immaculate. Blades were twice as strong and plow heads cut twice as deep. Friesa oversaw all their training, and her praise was hard earned but worth more to the craftsmen than any gold. Merchants traveled from farther away than the local reaches and paid high for their workmanship.
The Chambers once used to turn humans into Nobles were no longer needed and sealed underground, only able to be accessed by the blood of a warlock.
The lands now knew peace and prosperity like nothing they had ever known before, thanks to the long-lived efforts of a Patriarch who had protected and sheltered them, through love and loss, life and death. Who paid the ultimate Blood Price in the end.
While this may be the end of this story, it is not the only story to tell. Please keep an eye out for short stories featuring other characters from this trilogy.
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A. L. Wright, Noble of Blood Trilogy Box Set: All 3 books; Blood Price, Blood Ties, and Blood War in 1 set
