by Mark Albany
Night Queen
The Elven-Trinity Book 6
Mark Albany
Mark Albany
Copyrighted Material.
NIGHT QUEEN Copyright (c) 2019 by Mark Albany. Book design and layout copyright (c) 2019 by Mark Albany. This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission from Mark Albany.
Contents
Foreword
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
About the Author
Foreword
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1
They weren’t moving like an army would. They were pushing in on top of each other, rolling through the rough terrain, some of them even snapping and roaring at one another as they got a little too close, or pushed too hard.
Then again, they weren’t an actual army. More like a horde, a mass of creatures that had been given life for the singular purpose of killing as many as they could before being killed themselves.
I could understand why Abarat would prefer to have an army that he didn’t need to feed, give shelter to, or overly control. As far as tactics went, from my recollection, they had relied mostly on their superior numbers and the fact that fear never factored into a force that consisted of the undead and powerful beasts made of clay and rock.
The undead themselves weren’t too difficult to handle. They posed a threat but were fairly easy to dispose of. The golems and the hellhounds that had been raised to lead them were what gave me pause.
They hadn’t seen me yet, perched up on the trees as I was, and I wasn’t going to be giving my position away just yet. Their numbers were still comparatively small, and they didn’t appear to be led by anything more than a direction to move in. Even so, attacking them single-handedly would prove to be a mistake, and likely the last that I would make.
With that said, I couldn’t help the burn that I felt inside myself, the need to make them pay. Maybe they weren’t responsible for the pain that had been cutting into my chest over the past three weeks, but they were responsible enough. I wouldn’t mind taking it out on them, and they likely wouldn’t mind it either.
I took a deep breath, just like Norel had taught me, maintaining my perch, my silence, and my position, and I forced the rage that was building up from my stomach back down, feeling it simmer and retreat to where I could summon it quickly when it was needed.
And it would be needed soon.
Norel was supposed to be holding the position to the south, covering the position that Braire and Faye were going to be defending. Those two would be able to take care of themselves, especially with Norel raining literal fire and lightning down on our enemies, with Lyth using her bow to make sure that none of the larger beasts slipped through their gauntlet and attempted to flank Norel’s position.
It was my business to make sure that they were too distracted to try.
Our shared connection told me that the small horde of undead and monsters were in their view now too, heading due south as they were hunting down the groups of refugees that were pulling away from the northern towns and villages in the light of the marching army. The mass in the north had proven to be too slow to hunt the people down, and Abarat had taken to sending smaller, faster groups of them to try to close the gap.
And we were here to stop them.
My hand moved to the sword hanging from my hip. Some might question the decision of sending only five people to stop what could only be described as literally scores of monsters. But those who asked could not have been aware of just how much power those five had.
Even though we were missing a member of our team.
Another deep breath. The four that were still with me needed me to focus.
The monsters moved underneath me without realizing that I was above them, watching, waiting, letting the others know how many there were, if only by sheer emotional impact. It wasn’t fear that was racing through my veins.
It was anticipation.
The beasts suddenly grew excited, roaring and screeching below me as they caught sight of the women below. They were ahead of their leaders and needed to wait for the command from the golems and hellhounds among them before they could start to rush forwards. I could see bolts of lightning already starting to fire off at the front lines, and Braire’s beasts, a wolf and a snake, suddenly jumping into existence to take on the first wave.
This was the worst part, to my mind, anyways.
I drew the blade, feeling the anger that had been simmering starting to rush forward, filling the weapon in my hands. The runes in the steel started to fill with a white light, and I could feel a burning in my left hand. Those runes would be glowing a dull red for now.
It wasn’t all the power I had, but it was as much as I could spare for an opening strike as the creatures continued to swarm around under the tree that I was hiding in, pressing towards where the fighting was starting to get fierce.
I released my hold on the trunk, jumping away from the branch, feeling the power in my body that had been aching for release suddenly build inside the sword as I dropped towards the ground.
Twenty feet up in the air fell away in a moment as I hit the ground, screaming, feeling the intensity of the power tearing through me as I planted the sword down on the ground, releasing it all in a blast. The ground sunk around me as the power was released all around it and, in a moment, the blast was heard, and felt, by the monsters that it was intended for.
Flashes of light arced up from the ground as the earth itself churned under the impact, rolling forward, tearing down the stones, trees, and monsters in its wake.
Another flash of light as the power all came surging into the air, filling it with rocks and splintered wood, tearing through the monsters that were still alive after the first wave. I raised my left hand, the red rushing out to form a shield in front of me, blocking those few that had flown in my direction.
Another deep breath. I could feel my whole body pulsing with barely controlled energy, to the point where it felt like even my eyes were glowing as I pushed myself back to my feet and rolled my shoulders, twirling the sword in my hands as I advanced on the golem that was slowly pushing itself up from the ground in my path.
Those assholes were harder to kill than most, but I felt no fear as I advanced on the creature towering over me, at least two feet taller than I was.
It roared at me, making the ground shake with the noise.
I couldn’t help a small smile from creasing my lips as it raised its fists and brought them down on where I was standing.
Even with a shield, the cre
ature would be able to beat me into the ground without so much as a passing thought. I formed the shield in my left hand anyways, pulling my right foot back behind my left and spinning out of the way as the shield deflected the strike away from me.
Even while taking just a fraction of the power of the blow, I could still feel it in my bones in the form of a dull ache as I twisted out of the way, watching sparks fly up from where the massive, clay fist impacted on the shield. Without so much as a pause, I brought my blade up under the creature’s jaw and pushed it in. The monster shuddered as the power that kept it going was suddenly interrupted and another fluctuation of energy into the blade took the rest of the head off.
No sense in being careless about these things. I couldn’t tell if it was just going to be getting right back up again.
It wouldn’t be now, of course. The power that maintained it was kept in a small scroll, either in its mouth or near the throat. Once that was gone, the golem reverted back to its original, clay form.
More of the monsters were turning around, trying to engage the new threat arriving from behind, allowing Braire to launch her wolf and snake forward. Norel, for her part, continued to rain destruction on them from above, as Faye used her sword and blasts of power similar to my own. Hers had a bit of a golden hue, I noted as she moved forward, cutting into the monsters that were trying to come at Lyth, who was picking them off with her bow with unerring accuracy.
The undead were having trouble containing themselves. Once again, it appeared as though they were awaiting orders from the golems and the hellhounds, but as those were dropping one by one to the surgical strikes from my comrades, they would likely be waiting a long time. There were still a couple of them left, but they seemed almost as lost as the monsters that they were supposed to be leading.
One of the hellhounds drew itself up from the ground, it’s glowing eyes focused on me. I stood alone, appearing to be the vulnerable member of our party, and it decided that it was going to take its chances alone as the rest of the undead attempted to attack Braire and Faye.
Memories of the last time I had faced one of those creatures flickered across my mind. That encounter had left me with a very memorable and literal impression, represented by the branded runes on my left hand. If I had stood alone, there would have been very little that I could do other than run the other way.
But I was not alone.
“Norel!” I shouted. I wasn’t sure if she could hear me over the din of the battlefield, but the connection between us was enough to drag her attention towards me. She could see the beast bearing down on me and, seeing into my mind, she knew what I was thinking.
There was a hint of hesitation in her, but she moved past it quickly as I took a step towards the hound bounding towards me. I could feel the ground shaking with every step that it took, bearing down on me quickly as I gripped the sword with both hands and then launched it as hard as I could.
The light flashing through the runes grew in intensity even once the weapon was separated from my hands, spinning through the air before finding its target in the hellhound’s eye, burying itself halfway to the hilt as the blast of power knocked it to the ground.
I stood my ground, now unarmed but certainly not defenseless as the beast slowly regained its feet, shaking its head as if it was shaking off the effects of the blast from the sword.
Another smile touched my lips as the forest around me suddenly lit up with a bright, white light. One of Norel’s lightning bolts was sailing through the air. I could feel its power, strong enough to make my hairs stand on end even from the distance that was maintained.
I closed my eyes as the bolt landed, filling the whole area with light, as it grounded onto the sword that I had impaled the hellhound with, tearing through it from the inside until it exploded, pieces of it blowing off in every direction, quickly enough to tear through the remaining undead.
Not all of them, however. Those that were close to me saw the same weak, vulnerable target that the now dead hellhound had seen, and tried to attack.
I raised my left hand, feeling the runes branded there burning as a blast of light tore through a pair of them, knocking them back and searing their bodies.
The one that remained was unfazed, screeching hellishly as it raised its battle ax to try to cut me down.
The runes burned again, and a shield formed up around my hand. I gripped it like an ordinary shield, raising it to block the strike from the monster standing in front of me, sending a shower of sparks flying across the forest as I brought my hand in, hammering my shielded fist into the creature’s unprotected face. I could feel bones breaking and I drew back and smashed it in the head again, watching the skull cave as the creature dropped to the ground.
The shield disappeared from my hand and I made my way to where my sword was still buried in the ashes of what had once been a hellhound, drawing the weapon up and cleaning it quickly. No warrior worth the name would fight with a dirty sword if he could help it.
Aliana had told me that.
The rage rushed inside me once more as the undead started to run away. They were leaderless, with all of the golems and hellhounds gone, leaving them with only the knowledge that they were standing alone, decimated and without any chance of succeeding in their fight.
I advanced on a small group of them, cutting and slashing my way through without even pausing in my step, rushing power into the runes on the blade and slashing it forward, feeling another scream of agony rush up from my lungs, watching the power arch forward, cutting cleanly through a group of trees, sending them tumbling to the ground to crush the undead that were using them to cover their escape.
My heart was still thudding in my chest, the need to keep hunting the beasts down, killing them all, taking them all away like that would somehow fill in that hole that just wouldn’t go away from my chest.
But less than a dozen of them rushed off into the woods, heading up north where the still small voice of their master was calling them back to where the hordes were still assembling. As I watched them scrambling, there was nothing that I could do to chase them down. I could feel a light trembling touching my hands as dropped down to my knees, picking some loose dirt up from the ground, cleaning the blade carefully.
I could hear the other four approaching as I finished, and slipping it into its sheath at my hip once more.
“How are you feeling?” Faye asked, dropping down to one knee next to me.
“Like they got away easily,” I said, shaking my head.
“It felt like you were taking it a little too far,” Faye said, placing her hand on my shoulder. “Like... well, like you were taking some pain out from yourself, pushing it into them.”
“Why wouldn’t I let them feel the pain that we’re all feeling?” I asked.
“It’s his grieving process, apparently,” Braire said, rubbing behind her wolf’s ears. “I would say that there are worse ways to take one’s pain out. At least it’s being useful.”
“There’s nothing to grieve,” Norel said, keeping her voice low. “Aliana is still out there. Waiting for us. Alive.”
There was no response to that. None of us could say any differently, even if we suspected it wasn’t so. We had to believe that it was true.
She had to be alive, even if she wasn’t going to be the same Aliana that we all knew and adored. My mind went back to the Dark Djinn that we had fought when still dealing with Cyron and his ilk. I had seen the change that had come over Aliana as she disappeared through that portal with Abarat.
I wasn’t going to give up hope, though.
“We’re finished here,” I said. “These creatures are the furthest south of the whole of Abarat’s army. It’s time to tell the emperor about what is happening here.”
2
There were a whole variety of reasons why I missed Aliana. She was the one who had driven me to the heights that I could reach with my power, my confidence and the strength that I could feel rushing through my body.
A
ll that power that hadn’t helped me even one little bit against Abarat. Sure, I had put up one hell of a fight, as much as a youth my age could against an all-powerful elven mage with hundreds of years of experience in war and combat. In the end, Aliana had needed to step in and save the day, at her expense.
There had been nothing to do. Abarat would have killed me if she hadn’t done it, and honestly, so long as the other five had a chance against the elf, it would have been worth it. But now, everything was jeopardized.
With all that on my mind, it had been almost impossible to realize one of the lesser side-effects of her not being at our side anymore; the fact that we were unable to use her portals to travel from one point in the world to the other in the blink of an eye.
Without her, we were forced to travel the way that everyone else did, either on foot, or on horseback.
The elves were less than pleased about having to use horses to travel, but considering the shadow looming over the empire, it was a necessary evil. Braire said that she’d spoken to the horses that we were riding, and they appeared to understand the necessity of it, and forgave them for it.
For herself, however, Braire preferred to stay on the back of her wolf rather than ride on the horses. It had the less-than-pleasant effect of spooking the horses that we were riding, but it didn’t take long for the beasts to grow accustomed to the wolf, especially when Braire could talk to them.
