Angst Box Set 1

by David Pedersen

  “Let’s go!” Jaden said, anxiously pressing against Rook.

  “Soon,” Rook said, holding up his hand for Jaden to wait, his eyes analyzing the fight.

  Jaden didn’t understand but followed Rook’s lead, biting on his lips impatiently. He held onto Rook’s arm as he watched the fight, distractedly thinking of the ideal spell that could end this mess. The mess became messier. Jaden felt Rook tense, and focused on the fight in time to see a soldier in front of the queen skewered by a large curved dagger. The purple Fulk’han woman licked her broad lips with a hungry smile as she pulled her blade free.

  The Nordruaut roughly threw her gray man aside, attempting to make her way to the purple Fulk’han. The gray man slammed into Tyrell. His attacker swung down hard, sinking his thick, arched blade deep into Tyrell’s arm. He roared in pain, instinctively pulling back. Tyrell made eye contact with Rook and Jaden, shaking his head.

  “No!” Rook yelled, ready to attack.

  Jaden followed Tyrell’s cue, throwing his free arm around the large man, struggling to hold him back. It was like restraining a wild bull as Rook wrenched and elbowed.

  “You said to wait,” Jaden whispered loudly in Rook’s ear. “You were right!”

  “Enough!” yelled the gray man towering over Tyrell, his curved sword pointed at the man’s neck.

  Fighting stopped. Maarja released a strangling grip from around the pink woman’s neck, letting her drop helplessly to the ground. The woman lay on the tile floor, both hands cradling her neck as she rediscovered the greatness of air.

  “It’s time!” the gray man standing over Tyrell yelled over his shoulder.

  The purple woman facing Queen Isabelle snarled in frustration before pulling away and spinning on her heel. She ran out of the room, knocking over several guards en route.

  “You made a grave error, Your Majesty,” the man yelled. “Killing our Ambassador was a mistake, but sending your entire army into battle was greater still.”

  “What is this?” Isabelle screeched.

  The gray man smiled at Alloria. Queen Isabelle turned her head to look at the young princess. Alloria was cool, contained in an envelope of knowledge that none in the room expected. She nodded at the Fulk’han slowly, as though this was part of a greater plan.

  “You have left your capital unprotected.” The man laughed. “As I speak, Fulk’han troops are marching the streets, killing your people, and your scant, remaining soldiers.”

  “No,” the queen said pleadingly. “Why?”

  “Why?” the gray man yelled. “You sent spies into Fulk’han! They killed our Takarn on the cusp of our rebirth as a nation of power!”

  “They weren’t spies,” Isabelle pleaded. “Your Takarn...Ivan was nothing more than—”

  “Silence!” the Fulk’han gray man spat as he cut her off. “Unsel is now ours!”

  A dozen Fulk’han soldiers marched into the hall, their weapons dripping in red. Six giant gray men circled the outskirts of the room while the others marched through to the center. They stopped before the queen, pointing polearms and swords at the guards shielding the crowd. One Fulk’han placed his polearm on Rook’s shoulder.

  Rook counted quietly in whispers.

  “What are you doing?” Jaden asked.

  “Counting the different ways I can kill this bastard,” Rook replied under his breath.

  56

  “We had no choice! That thing was going to kill us!” Angst yelled desperately, holding Dulgirgraut aloft with one hand while reaching behind him with the other to protect Victoria.

  “I don’t think it’s listening,” Tarness said.

  Fire stopped his approach, turning his sooty head about. Blackened lava rose slowly through his constantly roiling body, reaching his head to disperse in the blue flame surrounding him. A thick layer of choking ash hovered about the element, landing heavily in each footprint like dirty snow. Fire took several steps back to the dragon and kneeled to pet remnants of the beast like a dog passed. Gripping a horn of the half-dragon head, he held it aloft and stared at its hollowed eye socket.

  “You killed my child!” Fire roared with the ferocity of a volcano. Flame and lava shot up from small cracks in the ground, sleet hissing all about him as the very earth around Fire heated with his anger.

  “That was one ugly child!” Angst quipped.

  It was all the element could stand. Fire screamed, spinning about and leaning forward to face Angst. A beam of white heat shot from the element’s mouth, leaving Angst scant seconds to erect a shield of air. Even with Dulgirgraut’s help, he was barely able to protect his friends from the blast. It wasn’t a mere gale of fire, it was a constant battering and Angst lost footing as he struggled to keep his ground. Another stream of blinding fire blasted from the element’s mouth and hands as it dropped the dragon’s head and strode toward them.

  “You think that foci protects you?” Fire taunted between attacks.

  “We’re still here,” Angst replied, taking another cautious step back. He held both hands outward, protectively guiding his friends back as well.

  “So I see,” Fire continued, his voice crackling deeply. “You think you can take me?”

  “Your brother Magic wasn’t so hard, and I understand he’s the worst,” Angst taunted. “What are you...second in line? The one that’s almost as powerful as Magic?”

  “Ooh,” Victoria said worriedly. “That was the wrong thing to say.”

  The stream of fire and lava was ferocious, and Angst could feel his shield cracking as he continued to protect his friends.

  “Why do you say that, Princess?” Tarness asked. “What makes you think you even have a clue what’s going on—”

  “Your mom didn’t hate you,” Victoria said, facing the large man with a stern gaze. “She left you behind because she had no choice.”

  “What?” Tarness asked, stuttering weakly. “How do you know that?

  “She knows,” Angst said over his shoulder, “everything.”

  “Magic lives, and hates you almost as much as Water—though I doubt any of us hate you that much,” Fire warned. “How does it feel, Angst, to be hated by almost all elements?”

  “Like this!” Angst yelled as he willed the ground beneath the element to disperse.

  Fire dropped out of sight, falling into the hole Angst created. It wasn’t near the size of the sinkholes attacking Unsel, but large and deep enough to swallow the giant, living element. Angst took a moment to look back and face the distraught, exhausted, panicked faces of his friends. Angst smiled at them hopefully, baring his teeth with all the cocky he could muster before looking forward once again to see a black and bluish hand crawl from the abyss he had created.

  “Run,” he yelled, as he expanded the hole.

  His efforts only delayed the inevitable. Fire laughed, continuing to move forward as lava rose from the hole, pushing the element out. Angst stood his ground while his friends retreated. He reinforced the shield of air, protecting himself from the advancing element and sought help and intelligence from Dulgirgraut, only to be disappointed again. He continued to retain the power without the knowledge to wield it, and hoped Fire was unaware of his dilemma.

  “If all you’ve got is some hate, I’m pretty sure I can handle that,” Angst replied defiantly. “I’ve been married for a long time!”

  The ball of flame came from Fire’s entire body. It was the same height as the element, three times as large as Angst, and enough to encompass all of them. Angst threw out a bubble of air to surround the fireball, hoping to slow and smother it. Even with all Dulgirgraut’s power, it took every ounce of his considerable will to disperse the missile. A pile of hot coal and cinders dropped mere feet from them.

  “Not impressive at all. That took you far too long,” Fire said, still walking toward him. “Did you not bond, or does that foci hate you like everyone else?”

  Fire threw three more balls of flame in succession. Angst felt a hand on his shoulder again, and knew it to be D
allow. His friends had stopped retreating, each of them reaching out with magic to help him stop the element’s attack. Angst stopped two of the fireballs, Dallow and Victoria stopped the third.

  “You learn quickly,” Dallow said to the princess.

  “That’s because she’s amazing,” Angst stated.

  Angst went on the offensive. He willed the ground to rise beneath Fire, throwing him up in the air and back toward the dragon’s carcass. Angst drove his will to create a mound of earth. Stone and dirt landed on top of the element, covering it in an ever-growing pile. Angst stopped and all went quiet, leaving only the sound of sleet hissing on lava.

  “No way it’s that easy,” Tarness stated.

  “Keep backing away,” Angst advised, his voice scratchy as he swallowed dry, hot soot.

  “Where to?” Tarness asked. “Unsel?”

  It could have been laughter, the crackling sound of a forest fire, or lava destroying everything in its path. Fire stepped through the pile of dirt and stone as though covered in mere feathers. It was as if nothing had happened.

  “I thought you wielded a foci,” Fire said dismissively. “Has magic become so weak, or is it just you?”

  “We’ll keep doing this until you are finished!” Angst yelled.

  “You don’t even understand!” Fire roared. “I am finished!”

  The element lifted both arms out horizontally, his hands pointed upward and his head lowered in concentration. Shadows rose in the distance, dozens of shapes in dozens of sizes. They flew about recklessly as they approached like an angry swarm of bees.

  Dragons.

  Dozens of dragons flying toward them. Red and brown and dark and gray, all with bright yellow eyes and hungry expressions. The dragons appeared large, though none as large as their mother. They carried the weight of revenge, an inspired ferocity.

  They wanted nothing more than to destroy everything, starting with Angst.

  “You killed their mother, and now they hunger for you,” Fire taunted. “How can you do it, Al’eyrn? How can you protect your friends, and this city, from my wyrms while fighting me?”

  A fireball the size of the mother dragon, larger than Melkier castle, grew from Fire and slowly flew at them. The moment was surreal. This was no mere mushy fireball haphazardly sewn together from old spells long forgotten. This was the entire innards of a volcano, a piece of the sun, and it moved so slowly it seemed they could run away but the ball of flame was so large there was no time to get free.

  “I can’t stop this one!” Angst yelled, gripping Dulgirgraut’s hilt as though throttling the foci.

  Dallow’s hand was still on his shoulder, and he knew the others remained behind him. This was a losing battle, and Angst was desperate for his friends to run. He threw air and earth at the fireball to no avail. The ball of flame continued toward them, and in spite all his efforts, in spite all of the power from Dulgirgraut, there was nothing he could do to stop it.

  Yards became feet, feet became inches and just before the mass of flames ripped apart the fragments of Angst’s defenses, the fireball smashed into a giant stone statue. Angst stopped moving back, stopped tripping awkwardly over his friends. Rock and sand from the impact pelted his air shield, shooting fast enough that they would have ripped Angst and friends apart. Angst looked up to see the familiar stone woman standing tall before him. Earth.

  “This is how he protects himself, brother! Angst does not stand alone!” Earth roared, lifting her arms as though directing a choir.

  The ground around them, the entire city, shook violently. Gamlin of all sizes leaped from the ground to attack the dragon horde. They bored into the flesh of the young dragons, ripped away the scale of elders, and fought through dragonflame to attack the rest. For every dragon supporting Fire, three or four gamlin attacked.

  “No!” Fire yelled.

  “Yes!” Angst replied, his jaw setting in anger.

  “That’s where the earthquakes came from!” Tarness said with a worried smile.

  Angst and his friends threw more mounds of dirt at Fire. Earth assisted, creating a whirlpool of ground beneath the element’s feet. Fire sank into the whirlpool, but the ground burned as it succumbed to his lava.

  “This is beyond us, Angst,” Dallow yelled. “Their fight isn’t ours!”

  “I agree!” Hector said. “This war has nothing to do with us. We need to get out of here!”

  “I won’t argue,” Angst stated. “I can’t protect everyone. But where do we go?”

  They were surrounded by madness. Gamlin were pulled apart by dragons. Dragons were split asunder by gamlin. Earth and Fire came to blows, punching and clawing like angry children. Angst, Dallow, Tarness, and Victoria continued willing their tornado of lava and earth beneath the elements.

  “Run!” Earth yelled.

  “Where?” Angst asked.

  “Enough!” Fire roared, lifting a hand high into the air. “I’m not limited to Ehrde! I’m not one planet! I am all of them!”

  Angst and his friends looked up into the blinding sky. A bright ball of flame streaked toward Ehrde, growing as it approached. It was the source of all power and chaos combined in a singularity.

  “Eat a star!” Fire said to Angst.

  “Protect yourselves!” Earth yelled as she pulled at Fire’s arm.

  57

  “What are you doing?” Earth yelled in panic, her voice loud enough to make Angst’s eardrums vibrate painfully. “Do you want to destroy the entire planet?”

  “I will not lose to this human, sister,” Fire retorted. “Nor to you!”

  The star roared loudly as it plummeted to Ehrde. The sound shook the very innards of their ears like a thundering waterfall gone mad. Angst could only imagine how panicked the people of Melkier felt. He was bad at measuring from a distance, but as it came closer, the star appeared roughly the same size as the great dragon he and Victoria had killed. Which meant it was massive.

  “But you shall kill so many,” Earth said, genuine concern in her gravelly voice.

  “I couldn’t care less,” Fire said sharply. “These humans you fawn over are like parasites. Kill a few, and more take their place.”

  “Stop this madness, or my gamlin will destroy every dragon in your flock,” Earth warned.

  Fire laughed at this hollow threat, his lava-formed body churning wildly.

  “I will merely create more,” Fire finally said.

  Earth marched forward and drove two balled fists directly into the other element. Fire tried to pull back but the darkness churning through his body expanded. Soot that normally left his body in dusty clouds now fell to the ground in solid chunks. Dark rock poured into the element as he struggled to push away. Fire screamed as his body was cooled by the injection of new minerals. Bright light shot from his hands and eyes, blasting at Earth relentlessly.

  “We need to get out of here!” Victoria pleaded, pulling desperately on Angst’s arm.

  “Where do we go?” Hector asked helplessly, looking up to measure how much time remained before impact. “Even on swifen we can’t ride fast enough to run from a star!”

  “It’s got to be a night-stone,” Dallow said. “Stars are much larger, and couldn’t possibly get here that fast.”

  “That doesn’t help,” Tarness grumbled. “It’s still enormous.”

  Brainstorming was nigh impossible as their eyes flitted upward nervously. Angst sought his friends for advice. Tarness and Victoria continued staring at the sky falling. Hector looked at Angst and shook his head.

  “Can you slow it?” Dallow asked. “Can you give Earth a chance to beat Fire?”

  Angst grimaced at the thought. Earth had fought them this entire trip, attacked them at every step. She’d covered people in stone and sent them to kill Angst and his friends. She’d almost succeeded at killing Victoria in the sinkhole. But here she was, protecting them from an element Angst had no chance of destroying with a broken foci. It made no sense.

  The elements were damaging each other.
Chunks of stone flew from Earth’s marble facade, and tiny cracks glowed bright, dripping with hot lava. Fire shuddered violently, unable to melt all the cooling stone and dirt Earth forced into the element’s body. It was almost too much for Angst to fathom, and his mind numbed trying to comprehend this madness. He swore to himself that if he were able to help her, if he could buy Earth enough time to destroy Fire, he would do everything possible to finish the job Fire had started and destroy her too.

  “Fine,” Angst said coldly.

  “If it’s a night-stone, and not actually a star, it will be made of rock,” Dallow advised.

  “How does anyone know this?” Tarness asked in panic.

  “It’s only theory,” Dallow answered sheepishly, “but small, oddly shaped rocks have been found embedded in large craters. Many feel they come from up there, so we call them night-stones.”

  “Go on,” Hector encouraged. “Quick.”

  “Alchemists believe stars are made of fire, so if it’s a star we’re all dead. And I mean everyone in Ehrde,” Dallow said analytically. “If it’s a night-stone, it will be element covered in fire. Reach deep and you’ll find what you need.”

  Angst looked to Victoria for some hint that this could possibly work. The worried look on her face said everything, either she couldn’t see what was going to happen, or she could and it was going to be bad, but he had to try. Angst pulled his arm free from Victoria’s grasp and wielded Dulgirgraut once more. His burgundy pupils glowed brightly as did the light surrounding the foci. Angst pointed the blade at the night-stone and reached with his mind. It was like shoving his hand into boiling water, but when he finally reached in to his elbow, he felt rock.

  “It’s a night-stone,” Angst grunted.