by B. T. Narro
She tackled him as he started to get dteria around himself, the two of them rolling toward the edge.
I was running there as they tumbled, but so was Pearson. He swatted me away with dteria, sending me spiraling through the air.
I landed on the grass and rolled a while before coming to a stop. One of my fingers seemed to be badly dislocated.
I healed myself, then ran back toward the fight. I watched Souriff pin down Cason physically as she hoisted Pearson up with dvinia.
But her success at stopping both of them was short-lived.
A quick back and forth broke out as the siblings hit each other with mana. Most of their battle took place in the air. Souriff was the busier of the two as she tried to keep Cason pinned down with dvinia while keeping herself from flying off too far every time Pearson struck her with dteria.
I was just about there when Pearson struck her so hard with dteria that she couldn’t seem to stop herself. She spiraled a hundred yards off the cliff and out toward the sea below.
I made it there and grabbed Cason’s dteria with my three octaves of G as he tried to lift himself. I was more ready for it this time, preparing my mind for the strain as he tried to take off.
An incredible pain went through my head, but it didn’t take me down to my knees. Cason lifted about a foot before he fell forward.
But then Pearson grabbed him with energy, and there was nothing I could hope to do.
Cason shot into the sky, growing smaller and smaller as he flew up. Soon his trajectory changed as he arced toward the southern forest. But then Souriff intercepted him high in the air. Together they spiraled back down.
Pearson made a sound of shock as he took off toward them. I was helpless as I watched from far below. Now it was Pearson who intercepted Souriff and Cason, the three of them defying gravity as they engaged in some sort of high-altitude battle. There were too far away for me to make out much.
Suddenly, Cason was tossed out of the group. He was in freefall as he spiraled toward the mountains where I remained.
But he started to gain control of himself. His momentum shifted at the last moment, and he came down gracefully.
When I noticed Michael’s sword in his hand, I realized in horror that he had come down toward me on purpose.
I had barely enough time to heal my minor injury, dissolving the pain in my head, before he started walking toward me.
“You could’ve escaped,” I said as I finished subtly healing.
“Valinox will hold her until I’m done with you. Then I will escape just fine.”
“I didn’t know I was so important to you,” I teased, hoping Cason was wrong about Souriff not coming down to help.
“You might’ve been, had you chosen the winning side. Now you are just an inconvenience.”
He came at me confidently as he lifted his free hand, picking me up with dteria.
I grabbed his energy and pushed it down and away. It broke apart, allowing me to land.
He stopped with a look of frustration, then picked me up again.
I broke the thick ring of dteria once more.
I couldn’t help but smirk. “Starting to realize you’ve made a terrible mistake?”
But then I was hit with such a force of dteria that it knocked the wind out of my lungs. I flew back, rolling across the ground as I gasped for air.
As soon as I stopped, I managed to get my sword up to prevent Cason from slicing open my skull, but my weapon was taken out of my hands.
I threw him away from me with dvinia. My breath returning, I fetched and picked up my sword. But he struck my shoulder with dteria before I could turn to face him.
It felt as if I’d been punched by a giant with a soft hand. It still hurt like hell and sent me a few yards closer to a ledge. It wasn’t a straight drop down to the rocky ground, but it was steep enough that I would have no hope of stopping until I bounced and rolled all the way down the slope.
I charged Cason mostly to create some distance from the edge. I made a wall of dvinia in front of me.
It just about negated his next punch of energy. I quickly made another defensive barrier to block another attack, and then a third after.
By the fourth, I had lost too much stamina. His dteria broke through and knocked me onto my back.
I wasn’t used to casting continuously. It was exhausting.
Cason looked as if he was just getting started as he rushed me at a sprint.
I rolled out of the way of the swing of his sword, then got to my knees and fell backward to avoid another mighty swing, which gave me just enough distance to get to my feet. I blocked his third swing, but then he punched—his fist falling short and energy coming out from his hand.
The blow was so powerful that I knew I wasn’t going to be landing on the ledge. I dropped my sword to put all my focus into casting as the ground came at me quickly.
I waited until the last moment, tucking my arms underneath my face as I formed a thick barrier of dvinia between the ground and myself.
I struck the cushiony energy hard, the pressure on my mind too much to bear.
I awoke with a horrible pain in my head. I had multiple cuts, blood in my eyes. I couldn’t seem to wipe it away.
I wasn’t going to be able to see until I healed myself.
By the time I finished closing the gash over my eyes and wiping away the blood, I found Cason right in front of me about to jam his sword through my chest. I had no weapon to block it, no time to find the four familiar notes of dvinia, at least not with any power behind the spell.
All I could do was turn and take the stab into the side of my arm.
I screamed as I felt it break through my bone, the force of it sending me stumbling away as Cason pulled the sword free. He swung hard at my head, but I ducked as I grabbed my horrible wound.
He probably thought I would heal, but I had only one option, surprise. I suddenly stopped retreating. Lowering my good shoulder—my stronger, right shoulder—I charged into and bashed Cason in his chest as he tried to swing at me.
Continuing with all my strength, I hoisted him off the ground and slammed him down. He might’ve been stronger than me with mana, but I was stronger in every other way.
I put my good arm across his throat and leaned on it with all my weight as I healed myself.
He tried to get me off physically at first, but soon he gave up and blasted me with dteria.
I didn’t care. I had healed my arm by then, and there was no ledge to fall off anymore. He’d picked up my friend’s weapon again.
I looked around and found my sword near the bottom of the slope. I ran for it, but so did he.
He tried to strike me with dteria on the way there, but I was ready with my wall of dvinia.
Negating his attack, I picked up my sword.
He tried to engage me with a stab of his blade, but I easily swept his weapon out of the way.
He seemed scared for the first time as I took the offensive and showed him just how much better I was with the sword. He couldn’t keep up as I jabbed and swiped, never giving him an opening to counter, never giving him a breath to cast.
It took just about no time for me to get through and jam my sword up into his ribs. He screamed as he stumbled backward. Dropping his sword, he put both hands over his wound, no doubt to heal.
Go ahead, I thought as I charged. I didn’t care about him closing the wound near his stomach so long as I pierced his heart.
He tried to strike me with dteria, but I had my own wall of dvinia up.
His eyes widened in shock as he clearly realized this would be the end of him.
Something heavy came down on top of me and slammed me to the ground. I felt a man on top of me after, as heavy as a boulder. He grabbed me by my hair and exposed my throat.
“Kill him.” It was Pearson’s—no, Valinox’s—voice.
Cason had closed his wound by then. He bent down as if to pick up his sword, but stopped in obvious shock as he noticed something behind me.<
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“There’s no time,” Cason said as he moved his hands to his sides in some spell.
Then I noticed the dteria around him.
Thinking I had some idea what he saw behind me, I knew I just had to stop him for another moment and this would all be over. I reached out my free hand as Valinox sat on my back, casting with lG, G, and uG to grab Cason’s energy with as much strength as I could.
He went nowhere.
“He’s holding me down! You need to lift me!” Cason said as he panted in exhaustion.
Pearson jumped up from me. I felt a great surge of dteria around Cason.
I cursed inwardly as I wasn’t sure exactly what this was going to do to me, but I wasn’t about to let him go free after all of this if I could help it. I grabbed Pearson’s energy with all the strength of my mind.
Something in my skull tore.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
I heard animalistic noises that made little sense to me as I faded in and out of consciousness. I wanted to get up and fight, but there was a blinding light in front of my eyes and a searing pain through my head.
I put my hands up to my temples and focused on the notes I needed, pushing my mana to the right frequencies until I felt it was ready. Then I pushed the spell out of me.
My mana went back into my body through my head, coursing through me with incredibly painful healing power. It was almost too much to bear.
Cason was just a bloodied corpse on the ground, I saw, and a group of male krepps was hissing with great smiles as if proud. Grufaeragar leaned down in front of me.
“Jon, you hurt?”
I shook my head. “What happened?”
“We kill Cason! Other fly high.” His yellow eyes found something behind me. “Souriff!”
I turned to see her landing gracefully near us. The rest of our army was quickly approaching.
“Good work, krepps,” Souriff said. “Any slower and Cason would’ve escaped.”
“We happy please Souriff and human allies. Great honor!”
“Honor!” echoed many of the other krepps as they beat their chests and hissed.
Souriff then told me, “I don’t know how you kept Cason from escaping, but I’m sure it wasn’t easy.”
I nodded and looked around, still in a daze from everything that had happened. Through blurred vision I could faintly make out more people coming our way, allies most likely.
Souriff pulled me up as I asked, “So Pearson is Valinox, the demigod of mtalia?”
“Yes.” She looked over at the dozens of soldiers almost to us.
I gasped as I realized something. “Michael!”
“Who?”
“If Valinox used Michael as an illusion, then where is Michael really?” I was angry I hadn’t thought of it earlier. “He’s probably hurt.” I couldn’t bring myself to suggest another possibility, that perhaps the traitor had killed him and hid his body.
“Where might he be?” Souriff asked.
I thought back to the last time I had spoken with him. It was just before we’d gone into our rooms to prepare for the execution.
“The castle—the apartments. I’m sure his body was hidden somewhere in there.”
I felt sick using the word “body” for my friend.
“Let’s go.” She turned around and allowed me to climb on her strong back.
Reuben was just arriving, the first of the army. He was the best rider, though he’d had to leave his horse a ways back.
“Jon, what happened?” he shouted between gasps of breath. “What are you doing on that woman’s back?”
“Michael’s hurt back at the castle! Let’s go, Souriff.”
“Hold on tight.”
“What? Wait!” Reuben yelled, but we didn’t have the time.
I almost slipped off from the incredible speed in which she hurled us upward with dvinia. What a feeling, though, now that I was a little more used to it. We soared much higher than even the tallest of trees.
Just as we started to slow in the air, I felt another ring of dvinia wrapping around my legs and her waist. She hurled us higher and farther, the city wall passing so far below that it was just a thin line.
Soon we started to come down. It didn’t look like we would make it to the castle, but there was another shift of momentum, a burst of dvinia throwing us sideways.
We were coming down straight onto the apartments of the castle. My jaw was aching again, making me realize that I was gritting my teeth together in fear, our speed much too fast.
“Keep holding tight,” she said and encased us with dvinia.
We slowed suddenly at first, then more gradually as she pulled her dvinia up against gravity. By the time we reached the roof of the apartments, we were drifting at a slow enough pace for her to land safely with me still on her back.
I had only guesses as to what might happen to a demigod who fell from such a height without slowing first. I assumed they could die, given Valinox’s threats against Souriff earlier, but I imagined it would take a lot more to kill one of them compared to a human.
I climbed down from the roof to Michael’s windowsill. His window was already open. Pearson had probably come through here, maybe even while cloaked. I still had to ask Souriff exactly what he was capable of. I really hoped she wouldn’t leave as I checked Michael’s room.
“Jon!” I heard the king shouting from somewhere on the battlements. “What happened? Who is that woman?”
I yelled over my shoulder, out the window, as I looked around Michael’s room, “Michael’s in trouble. And she’s Souriff.”
I didn’t see him anywhere. I got to the ground to look under his bed.
My heart dropped. There he was, motionless.
I couldn’t drag him out because he was face down, his limbs bent awkwardly. Clearly, he was thrown under the bed without care.
“Michael?” I crawled under the bed.
My breaths were deafening in the confined space. I pulled on his shoulder to turn him over. He flopped lifelessly.
I put my ear over his mouth. I heard breathing.
I checked his pulse. It was faint.
I patted his cheeks roughly. “Michael.”
He didn’t reply. I put my hands on his chest and pushed out my mana to see what it would tell me. There was a curse inside of him. I was just about to engage it when a voice interrupted me.
“Is he alive?” Souriff asked near the bed.
“Yes, but he’s cursed.”
“I might be able to remove the curse for you.”
“No, I’ve got this. Just help me get him out from under the bed.”
“You can remove curses?” she asked as we took hold of his legs and pulled him out.
“I can, and I have.”
“You are quite young to remove curses, are you not?”
I didn’t want to tell a demigod to be quiet as I focused, so I just chose not to answer her.
I casted the three octaves of F, pinpointing my mana at the curse keeping Michael unconscious. It took just a moment for me to destroy it.
The curse wasn’t as bad as I’d feared. In fact, the one I had removed from Pamela seemed stronger. It made me wonder. Was it not Pearson—Valinox, I corrected myself—who had cursed Michael? It might’ve been the traitor, who was still with us.
“Jon, what happened?” asked the king as he rushed into Michael’s room. Then he crouched over Michael. “Is he all right?”
Before I could answer, Michael awoke, one eye squinting open. His face showed that he was in great pain, probably from how roughly Pearson had handled him after he fell unconscious.
While he was still groggy, I quickly healed him one limb at a time. His injuries weren’t severe, but they were prevalent.
He stopped groaning by the time I finished. His eyes opened fully.
“What the hell?” There was a drunken slur to his words. “I must had had too much da-drink last night. Wait!” He glanced around in alarm. “Not issince morning. I memember tha morning! The
hellsis going on!”
“You were cursed,” I explained.
“So das why I was so happy so suddenly.” He was starting to sound a little better. “I memember happy, then so tired.”
“You should lie down,” I said as I guided him toward his bed.
“No! I dwill enjoy dis.” He chuckled.
“Michael,” the king said. “I’m very glad you are all right, but I need you to sit down and be quiet. Can you do that for me?”
Michael suddenly looked very serious. “I’ll do that. For you, sire.” He stumbled over and fell into the chair near his desk.
“It’s past time we met,” the king told Souriff as he offered his hand. “I’m Nykal Lennox.”
“Souriff.” They shook hands.
The handshake lasted a while, the king not uttering a word. Eventually, she looked a little concerned.
He cleared his throat as she dropped his hand. “Forgive me,” he said. “I have never met a demigod before. I am a little stunned.”
It was starting to sink in for me as well. It was one thing to witness a demigod and another to shake hands with her.
“Yes, there’s a reason we have been so elusive. Our father told us not to interfere with human warfare, but that has changed recently because Valinox has involved himself greatly in this war. You may know him as Pearson.”
The king nodded.
“Allow me to explain myself,” Souriff said.
“Please,” the king replied.
I noticed a few guards shyly entering Michael’s large quarters, others watching from the hall. Barrett was among them. My peers would be disappointed that they would miss this conversation, as I imagined Souriff was probably too busy with her own affairs to stay for long, so I would have to make sure to remember as many details as I could for them.
“My visit to the krepps was the first time in many years that I identified myself to a mortal,” she explained. “It was only because I didn’t have another choice. My brother had already begun interfering. I knew Lycast would not be able to survive a war against Rohaer, which has Valinox’s support because they promote the spread of dteria. Especially if the krepps turned aggressive toward you as well.”
