Hot damn! I whooped. Now that’s what I’m talking about!
‘The circle, Erdgeist!’ I yelled again, hoping he heard me this time. Dammit. The flames the necromancer had ignited earlier still burned and the unnatural markings still glowed, flickering in and out. It appeared to be still powered up.
He nodded grimly in my direction.
Raising his hands, thick stalactite spikes of jagged compacted rock burst out of the ground through some of the light markings and furrowed blood on his side of the circle. The broken circle caused the remaining lights around the burning animals to pulsate, flickering widely and then wink out.
He looked at me questioningly and I nodded, satisfied. He raised his other hand, preparing to destroy more of the circle.
CHAPTER 21
As Erdgeist prepared to destroy the dark circle and wipe out the animals still smoldering in the center of the circle, the remnants of the greasy smoke, still lingering in the air above them, started to coalesce, visibly thickening. Smoke and ashes writhed above the fire pit, sparking from within. It hissed and crackled, hot embers bursting with the sudden contact with the cooler air above. The mass suddenly expanded out in all directions, ballooning for meters, filling the space above the circle with frightening speed.
My head jerked up in surprise. Running back over to Erdgeist, jumping and weaving through the remains of the revenants, I slammed to a halt next to him, gesturing to the smoke-filled area.
‘What the hell was that, Erdgeist?’
He calmly took in the proceedings and shrugged slightly, ‘I do not know, Warder.’
The smoke abruptly thickened and with a rush of air formed a vast, frightening head. The mouth widened and teeth formed, blocky and thick. Its grin was vast and disproportionate to its face.
Crap, it was the bloody necromancer again, the same one that blew out my car’s windows — holy shit, we were fucked.
The mouth grimaced at me, ‘Measly human, interfering in matters that you don't belong in again. What have you done to my diabolist and the Hell Circle?’ Its eyes rolled and roamed in the smoky cavities. Taking in the scene around it, they focused and locked on Erdgeist and me.
‘You will die an agonizing death for this, human,’ it spat. ‘My master wants your head on a pike and your soul dragged into the depths of Hell.
But he can be merciful: join us help us, and the master will spare you. He will grant you immortality — you will feel no pain, or grief or sadness, just offer yourself to me and my master will take you and remake you in his image.’
I looked at the face slack jawed. The voice was hypnotic. A life without grief or sadness beckoned me. The prospect of living without fear of death or suffering was seductive. I swayed on my feet, staring into the necromancer’s eyes, its smoky irises swirling and undulating, matching the beating of my heart.
I startled myself with a sob, tears welling in my eyes. I wouldn't have that void in my heart that always seemed to be there after my mother died. It'd all go away, his voice seemed to promise. I couldn't look away. What the hell was he doing to me? I wanted to fall on my knees and abase myself before him, promise him my undying gratitude, and worship him and his master.
‘Yes, Warder, yes,’ he said, sensing my weakening. ‘Come to me, let me fill you with power, make you strong, so you can follow in my master’s shadow and worship him and his unholy work … Come, Warder, commee …’
I took a step forward before I could help myself, but as his voice washed over me, something he said stood out. He’d called me Warder, a protector of this Earth, and all that dwelled on it. I was following in my mother’s footsteps, knowing that she would be proud of me in doing so, avenging her name by being what she excelled at, having a destiny, not wallowing in her demise.
I shook my head hard, and realized that the tendrils of the dank smoke had curled over me and had wreathed my head in their embrace. I had been so enraptured by his words I hadn't even seen or felt them …
I shook my head again and they broke away. Looking over at Erdgeist, his head too was enveloped by the faint lengths of darkness. I reached over and pushed him, making him stumble onto one knee. The smoke snapped away from his head and ricocheted back into the necromancer’s face, making him recoil.
‘No!’ I snapped. ‘No, I don't want your empty promises, Necromancer. I will destroy you and lay your master low, you disgusting piece of shit.’ I was breathing heavily, sweat sticking to my clothing, my hair wet and plastered to my skull, as if my whole body had just performed a marathon.
‘Join us, Warder, join us,’ he continued, unabashed, his voice sickly sweet, wreathed in smoke and mirrors.
I was shocked at how easily I had been almost convinced. I thought I had come to terms with my mother’s passing, and my grief and loss. His words had struck a chord in my heart that I couldn't deny. But I came here to heal, and was stronger every day for it. I had a purpose here now, and I think for the first time I was actually realizing this. He had no power over me. I looked up, my eyes narrowing in hatred.
‘Fuck you, asshole, I will never join you,’ I panted, spitting my defiance back at him.
The necromancer’s head snapped back in surprise. His eyes widened, astonished in disbelief and shock. He floated closer, crossing the broken circle.
‘Twice you have defied me, you insolent bitch. I will not offer again.’
‘Never,’ I hissed.
‘Very well, Warder, so be it,’ he crackled. Embers and hot sparks swirled from the center of his head, pushing forward and forming tentacles of smoke and fire. They blazed, reigniting, feeding on themselves and lashing around his head, creating a bizarre Medusa-like crown. These thick appendages lengthened and rose into the air. The necromancer roared and drove them down on Erdgeist and me, catching us by surprise.
I raised a hand and, at my command, pillars of sharp rock were ripped from the ground in front of us, spearing up and catching the deadly barrage at their peak. The tendrils lashed harmlessly at the barrier, retracting immediately, then lashing out again and seeking a way through. They ripped angrily at the rock, but were defeated.
The necromancer roared again, screaming out his anger at being so easily thwarted.
I looked at Erdgeist, who seemed to be content with my defense. ‘How do we stop him, Elemental? He's just smoke.’
Erdgeist gave me that infuriating shrug of his.
‘This is your battle, Warder. You appear strong enough to stop him. I will help you if need be, but you can do this,’ he intoned, placing a hard hand on my shoulder in support and looking at me from beneath his rocky eyebrows.
I narrowed my eyes, my thoughts going a thousand miles an hour. So much for the back up, huh, I sighed. But he was right, which was infuriating as well. I had to do this; there really was no choice in the matter. If I didn’t stand up to the freak of a necromancer now, he'll think I’m weak and a pushover, and I definitely did not want to be seen as either.
I furiously scanned the scene — broken tombstones, animal parts and sepulchers of stone — desperately looking for an answer. Then I saw what might work: a pile of fine dirt near an unfinished grave. It appeared the hole was empty. I crouched and touched the earth, verifying in an instant that the workers were evacuating another site and that it was just a dig site. Feeling the earth beneath my scar, I willed myself beneath the ground, sinking rapidly and earth-travelling to the gravesite in mere seconds. This took me past the striated rock formation. The tendrils were still licking at the sides, scorching and melting it in places, but not really having much effect on it.
The necromancer spotted me as I broke free of the earth, and withdrew the fiery protuberances. He gathered them around his head, creating a nimbus of crackling force. I watched as he roared in anger and let them loose at me again. They flashed through the air, wickedly fast, trailing smoke and flickers of dying embers. I waited, and merely meters away I pulled my hand back and flicked it towards them, willing all the fine sandy soil particles to whip thr
ough the air, colliding head on at the incoming tsunami of fire, smothering it in a fine burst of dust and sand. The solidified smoke and ash disappeared under the onslaught and kept on going such was the force of my will.
I directed the sand to swirl and created a large hand, mimicking my own. Opening my hand I engulfed the necromancer’s head in a thick layer of soil and crushed it in one swift explosive movement. The necromancer didn’t even have time to be surprised. The live coals dimmed and died, not being able to survive the lack of oxygen they needed to continue burning. The necromancer screamed his frustration under my hand, but managed to burst free; he was furious.
‘Kill her! Make her suffer!’ Looking past me, into the woods, his gaze locking on something past the back fence surrounding the cemetery. I whipped my head around, while simultaneously crushing my hand into a fist, silencing the necromancer for good. I turned to see who he was talking to, the smoke dissipated and cleared behind me, the ash and fire particles drifting back down to the ground in a dark haze.
CHAPTER 22
From the murky depths of the tree line I watched as Agrona sauntered out. Her dark, lean form appeared moist, glinting wetly in the indirect moonlight, as she moved closer. I could see that she was composed of the rich loam of the forest floor; her eyes, though, were strange, overly widened, white and glazed. She stopped and surveyed the area behind me, taking in the scene and realizing that the ritual had been disrupted and destroyed and that the necromancer was nowhere to be seen.
Erdgeist, beside me, gave a sharp, gravelly intake of breath, surprise issuing from him at her eyes appearance.
‘You must die, human,’ Agrona spat at me, hissing in displeasure. ‘Always where you’re not wanted, interfering in things that are of no concern of yours. The master has decreed your death, so shall it be.’
‘Agrona, what the hell?’
I suddenly recalled that moment in the sorcerer’s grove when I had seen something flash between Agrona’s fingers. Now I understood what she had been up to. It was she who had deactivated the protections on the witch’s grove, allowing the wight to get through — a powerful magic that she must have acquired from the necromancer.
‘You backstabbing, stony-faced, bitch from hell,’ I yelled, ‘Why am I not surprised? Wait till Ghob gets wind of this …’
Erdgeist interrupted my rant. ‘She is not herself, Warder. Her eyes are not here own. Look!’ he pointed with one thick finger. ‘She is under a powerful compulsion of some kind.’
She paused in her tracks, tilting her head to one side in thought, looking at me like an insect mounted on a collector’s board, with those expressionless milky orbs. She held that stare for a moment, and slowly without breaking eye contact with me, slid into the ground beneath her.
‘Oh, fuck, Erdgeist, keep an eye out for her. She's a sneaky fucking thing.’ Just as I uttered those last words, Agrona came shooting up out of soil behind me, arms already outstretched and lunging for the back of my head.
Erdgeist moved like liquid, his speed astonishing. His sword flashed out and intercepted Agrona. She matched him, flicking herself around and catching Mahogany Death's etched blade in the palms of both her hands, stopping Erdgeist’s momentum with barely any effort at all, as I scrambled out of the way, keeping my eyes on the treacherous elemental.
They stood there in silence, pitting their immense strength against each other, both not budging an inch either way. Agrona let out one of her fucking annoying hisses and leaned into the hold on the weapon. Erdgeist grunted but didn’t move both of his thick-fingered hands stable on the hilt.
‘Why are you doing this, Agrona?’ I asked. ‘I thought you were loyal to Ghob. He trusts you. Even your stupid stunt during our training the other day made him think no ill of you.’
Gritting her teeth, she snarled, ‘I obey the master. He wants an end to all elementals and to end Ghob.’ She trembled as those words came out of her mouth, her eyes closing and opening, flickering momentarily to her normal black, beseeching me with her gaze.
‘Help me, Deirdre,’ she whispered as her eyes filmed over again.
Screaming, she pushed her weight into the hold she had on the sword. I watched her heels sink into the packed soil, slowly sinking.
Erdgeist, in a blur of motion, let go of his blade hilt with one hand and backhanded Agrona across the head. Losing her grip instantly, she went flying to the left of me, smashing headlong into the large leftover walls of an ancient, cracked-open marble mausoleum. She hit the wall and went straight through, throwing up billows of rock and fine white powder. Seconds later a muffled screeching came from her within the tomb. The top half of her suddenly liquefied and she pulled herself back out and through the stone. She reformed as she crouched there, her head and shoulders now the same composite as the mausoleum. She howled in fury — god, she was pissed.
‘You will not harm her, Agrona,’ Erdgeist intoned gravely.
Her eyes flashed and what looked like grief passed over her basalt features. ‘It doesn’t matter anymore, my real master shall inherit this Earth and all elementals, including Ghob, shall be brought low and destroyed.’
Throwing her head back, she let loose a defiant scream and launched herself again, coming straight for me. Panicking, I managed to define a circle of protection partially around me. She hit it at full speed, and was slowed immediately upon impact, so that when she crashed into me it was with minimal force.
We both went down. As she fell she grabbed one of my arms and with a deft twist, broke it with an audible snap. She then raised her other dense arm to smash me in the head, but Erdgeist appeared behind her, grabbed her by the neck and lifted her clean off me. Holding her there I could see him squeezing. Agrona attempted to veer around in his grasp so that she could hit him as well.
He threw her away again. She flew through the air, flipped and landed on all fours like some goddamn cat. Snarling, she braced herself again for another attack. I noticed some movement in the earth around her and up out of the ground popped six or seven small gnomes. One of them had gold buttons that were so shiny they sparkled — I recognized him as the messenger that had come to my store. Yelling little tinny war cries they launched themselves at her. Going for her feet and legs they brandished war hammers, tiny replicas of what Ghob used. Swinging them with much gusto, they walloped into her, crying out enthusiastic embellishments like ‘The stony bitch must die’ and ‘Down with the traitor’, hitting her in the legs. I watched as moist fragments of soil and earth started flying off in all directions.
‘You go, guys!’ I yelled in encouragement; damn, they were perky little buggers.
I then saw one slam down his tiny hammer onto the ground. It sparked, flaring into life like a small beacon. Swinging it back, his wrinkled face smiling he cracked it into Agrona's ankle taking out a fair-sized portion of earth and thankfully her balance, toppling her onto one side.
The gnomes rushed her, quickly surrounding her. As one, they all dashed their hammers onto the ground, lighting up the hammer heads in miniature coronas of brilliance. Screaming at the top of their lungs, they swung at her wildly, whacking her in numerous areas of her body, some smashing off pieces of her, clods of soil flying everywhere. Agrona swung at one, grabbing it by the collar and flung it off into the distance, flaying at the others, as they egged themselves on and giggling like, well, little gnome idiots.
Damn, they were good. Hollering and laughing they appeared to be having a grand ol’ time pissing her off.
Then it got serious. The gnome with the gold buttons over-reached, getting in too close to Agrona and getting snatched up. Agrona, her eyes full and opaque, grabbed its head in one grip and its legs in the other and tore the little guy in half, throwing both pieces away to either side; the halves hit the ground and broke into lifeless clay and rock.
There was a moment of complete stunned silence from the gnomes. Erdgeist's breath came out in a rush of surprise and disbelief. The gnomes scattered, diving behind rocks and rubble, disappeari
ng into the ground, their star-like hammers winking out left and right like dying stars.
Realizing that they were distracting her Erdgeist and me, I glanced at him and nodded grimly, launching myself forward. Using Earth to boost my speed, I concentrated, willing Earth to make my skin rock hard, while drawing strength from her as well. I burst ahead, my speed blurring everything around me.
I grinned, nearing Agrona, praying she hadn’t sensed my coming. I veered around a tombstone and grabbed her by one shoulder and wrist, lifting her clear into the air, then whiplashed her up and forward towards the fence line. Not realizing the amount of strength Earth had given me, her arm ripped off at the shoulder, and I was left holding it; the dangling fingers twitched and the whole arm disintegrated, spilling through my fingers in a rush.
Agrona, screaming, hit the wire fence, pulling out the galvanized steel posts either side. They both whipped in towards her, wrapping her in the mesh. She went tangling to the ground in a snarling heap. Writhing and shrieking in a classic Agrona hissy fit, she ripped at the wire with her remaining hand, jerking back and forward in frustration. Then she abruptly stopped struggling, looking around at us, her gleaming white eyes boring into mine. Looking down at her missing arm, she looked back at us, taking in all the gnomes, who had silently reappeared, watching with their solemn big eyes. Erdgeist, who by this stage had swelled to twice his size, whirled Mahogany Death in a figure of eight and looked like he meant business.
TERRA: Earth Warder Chronicles Page 14
