The beam of energy from the staff turned red as the Chieftain became surrounded by a blinding white light. The Evenawk guards started twitching as Bak cried out and grabbed his head.
“Run!” he shouted desperately to us.
“Don’t have to tell me twice,” I replied, pushing Ser Wilson and Lady Sandra towards the stairs.
We can’t leave! Cathy exclaimed. We’ll never make it out of the city. We have to fight; this is our chance to stop him.
He’s too well protected by the barrier.
That’s what your group is for, Cathy said.
He’ll call every Evenawk in the city to him. If we die here, the rest of the continent won’t know about what is happening until it is too late. We have to regroup and gather our forces.
Cathy sighed. You’re right. We won’t have enough time before we are overrun.
I don’t like it any more than you do.
The stairs and interior of the city hall passed in a blur as I ran at top speed. I opened the front door and held it open for the others to pass through. We needed to get back to the ramp Bak had led us up.
Screeches and pained squawks filled the city as the citizens fought to hold onto control of their minds. The group drew their weapons as a small group of armed civilians approached. I forced power through my arm and launched a Pulse at them to knock them off their feet. They were the innocents in this, and I couldn’t bring myself to hurt any of them. As the civilians dropped to the ground, we ran past them and through the city.
“We are really just going to leave Davenport here?” Ser Wilson called out.
“There’s nothing we can do here ourselves,” I answered. “We need to warn Balendar.”
“We can’t let Davalin or Thurlborn Peak be captured,” Lady Sandra said, breaking her odd silence. “We will regroup and march right back here to kill him.”
The once grand looking houses had taken on a more ominous tone as the brainwashed Evenawks slowly emerged from the front door. The marketplace had erupted into chaos as the brainwashed struggled against the few that were resisting. They spotted us and charged, screeching their unholy war cry. I forced power through both hands and fire covered the bridge connecting the marketplace to our location.
It would be silly to think that creatures that could fly would be stopped by a simple burning bridge, but given their mental state, it disorientated them enough for us to slip past them to the ramp and down to the ground.
The gate had been locked shut on Bak’s command and the group would have to hold the gate while I found the lock mechanism. The gate was designed by Mages and would have a way to unlock it in the watchtower or on top of the gate. Either way it was a long climb up the stairs.
I don’t remember seeing a way to unlock the gate when we were here last time, Cathy said. Of course, we blew up half the watchtower and weren’t looking for it.
Top of the gate then.
See if you can hit it from the ground with a Pulse first, Cathy said.
We arrived at the gate where the Gate Keeper and two other soldiers stood guard. They had already been fully brainwashed and stalked towards us. I unleashed a Fireball that streaked across the ground and hit the Gate Keeper in the chest. Lady Sandra had jumped one of soldiers while Bill engaged the other. The sky archers from the watchtower would quickly swarm the area and I called for Ronnie to watch for them while I searched for the switch.
I searched the entire gate, before stretching out with my mind to see if it had an enchantment on it. I felt a slight hum of a barrier surrounding a small portion close to the watchtower. Studying the barrier was tricky. Whatever it was, it was designed to prevent Mages from using magic on it.
Makes sense when you are trying to defend a city from Mages, Cathy pointed out.
“Hold the gate, I need to get to the top of the watchtower to open it,” I called out to the group.
“Be quick about it,” Ser Wilson snarled, swinging the hammer at an oncoming armed civilian.
By now the brainwashing would be nearly completed. The gate would be overrun in a matter of minutes and I took off at a full sprint towards the entrance to the watchtower, my body slowly covering with scales as I moved.
I ran up the stairs without breaking stride and pulled out my short sword. The spiral staircase was deserted as I climbed my way to the top. The brainwashing must not leave too much room for strategy in the minds of its hosts. We would have a chance at escaping if we could get outside and I cast an Illusion spell on us.
The top of the watchtower housed three Evenawk archers shooting through the hole in the wall. I charged up two Ice Bolts and shot them into the backs of two archers. The third one turned to me and jumped out of the hole, his arms starting to meld into wings. I ran to the hole and saw him aiming his bow with his feet towards me.
Maybe they aren’t as dumb as we thought, Cathy suggested.
I held up a Ward and deflected the arrow before shooting a Lightning Bolt towards the archer. It streaked through the air quickly and caught the Evenawk’s wing as he was trying to dodge. He shuttered and fell towards the ground, slowing himself down before landing on the ground. Vincent was on him quickly and I broke away from the hole to look for a way onto the gate.
A section of the watchtower looked like it had once held a door with stairs to the gate. The doorway was a little misshaped and the stairs were nothing but a single step and a memory. Both destroyed during my previous visit to Scert’chak. I surveyed the gate and saw the lever that would open it. I reached out and sent a Pulse at it. The Pulse deflected off the barrier surrounding it and flew off into the jungle.
“I guess we’ll have to do it the hard way,” I said, sheathing my sword.
Oh Void, Cathy groaned. Just do it right.
I jumped out of the watchtower, hit the top of the wall and almost bounced over the edge to the ground. With my legs dangling, the claws from my scaled hands dug into the wooden wall and I dragged myself back up on top. Sore everywhere from my ‘landing’, I staggered over to the lever and flipped it. The gate creaked slightly and started to open.
I scanned for a way down but my search revealed nothing. A sky archer was shooting down at the group as he tried to circle around behind them. I waited for him to get close and jumped off the wall, grabbing the archer’s legs. He panicked and squawked as he dropped his bow. Unable to remain in the air with my added weight, the Evenawk slowly descended.
When I was close enough to the ground, I let go, landing on my feet and falling over. The Evenawk also landed hard on the ground and I struggled to my feet to launch an Ice Bolt at him. The Bolt pierced his neck and he fell to the ground.
Breathing heavily, I ran back to the group and saw Bill covering Lady Sandra, who was down on one knee and holding her side. Ronnie’s body lay close by and Vincent was pierced from behind by a spear carrying Evenawk. Ser Wilson fought on valiantly, his hammer taking out two Evenawks per swing.
I ran up and with both hands released a massive wave of flames, burning a large group that was surrounding Ser Wilson. He took the opportunity to fall back to Lady Sandra’s position as more Evenawks were getting closer.
“Get her out of here,” Ser Wilson said to Bill. “I’ll hold them off her.”
“We can’t leave you behind, sir, let’s leave now,” Bill replied.
Ser Wilson shook his head. “They’ll be all over us in seconds. Go.” He turned to me. “Get her back to Davalin.”
I nodded and helped Bill lift Lady Sandra up. With an arm over each of our shoulders, she hung above the ground like a sack of meat, barely holding onto consciousness. Ser Wilson looked tenderly towards her before charging back into the battle.
“Come on,” I said to Bill, starting to move down the road and away from the once great Evenawk capital.
Once Bill started moving, he moved quickly. We ran down the road and as far away from the battle as possible. I searched with my mind and detected a group of three sky archers incoming.
“We have in
coming,” I said. Bill looked at me wearily and I nodded. “You be the shield, I’ll take care of them. We keep moving though.”
He nodded and readied his shield. I scanned behind me and caught sight of one of the archers. I reached back and launched a Lightning Bolt towards him. The bolt was inaccurate and the Evenawk dodged it easily.
The sound of an arrow hitting Bill’s shield drew my attention and I swept the area around the archer with fire. It squawked in pain as an arrow pierced into my shoulder. I spun my arm and sent an Ice Bolt towards the archer, dropping him to the ground.
My arm started to itch and burn as the scales repelled the poison. The scales did little for the arrow though, as it remained stuck in my shoulder.
I’ll do what I can to block the pain out, Cathy said. Just don’t do anything stupid to damage the muscles further.
The pain started to dull and I scanned the trees for a sign of movement. I had my free hand ready with a Ward for when the next arrow was fired. I felt around and found a life sign to my left. I brought my arm slowly to that side and set up the Ward behind Lady Sandra. Two arrows deflected off the Ward and I saw movement. I summoned my power and launched a Lightning Bolt towards the remaining sky archer. I heard a squawk followed closely by the rustle of the trees as it fell.
Two more were coming, but they were far enough behind that I was sure they hadn’t seen us. I planted the Illusion spell on them and pressed forward. We had reached the path down the mountain and I disabled the Sentry Stick I had set up and told Bill to hide.
Using the mountain side as cover, we dropped to the ground and breathed as quietly as we could. The two Evenawks flew over us and started scanning the mountain side. I motioned for Bill to stay still and he watched in horror, waiting to be found. The Evenawks finished their scan and disappeared in the direction of their capital city. The Illusion spell had successfully made us seem invisible to them and I breathed a sigh of relief.
“How’d they not see us?” Bill asked quietly.
“I hid us with magic,” I answered, pulling the arrow out of the scales.
I dispelled the area to make sure there wasn’t any more poison and my body returned to fleshy skin. I healed the small wound and muscles and went to check out Lady Sandra’s wound. My eyes opened wider as I noticed the arrowhead in her side with most of shaft broken off.
“Why didn’t you tell me she had been hit with an arrow?” I asked Bill.
He looked down and his eyes grew wide too. “She must have broken the shaft off herself. Is she going to bleed out?”
“That’s not what I’m concerned about,” I answered, cupping my hand around the wound. “The Evenawk were using poison tipped arrows.”
“What?” Bill asked shocked.
I started removing the poison through the wound and throwing it off to the side. After I removed two handfuls, I placed my two fingers on parts of her body to feel if there was anymore. I was confident that I had extracted most of the poison, but her life signs were really low and fading quickly. The poison had been in her system for too long.
She certainly is strong to have lasted this long though, Cathy said.
I healed the wound on her side and tried to strengthen her body, but she was still unconscious. No matter what I did, I wasn’t sure if she was going to pull though. I pulled my spell book out of my backpack and viciously flipped through it, hoping to find a miracle.
I have an idea that could help, Cathy said carefully.
We need all the ideas we can get.
See, she started but stopped. I could feel her trying to hide her emotions from me. She’s too weak to live. You can feel it and I can feel it. The poison is killing her and we don’t have a spell to bring her back from the dead. She is important to ensure that Balendar can be reunited and fight against Desroche and his Evenawks.
Very important.
Well then, what if we... I felt her shift around again. What if we transfer me into her?
Chapter 8
You want to transfer yourself into her body?
My face showed my shock and Bill looked at me quizzically. “What’s going on?” he asked, worried that something worse was going to happen.
“Still just absorbing what happened,” I answered, more truthfully than he would realise. I snapped out of it and looked at him. “We need to head back down the mountain and find some way to heal her.”
“Good idea,” Bill responded.
We picked up the limp body of Lady Sandra and threw her arms over our shoulders again. I wasn’t looking forward to the trip down the mountain. The battle and flight had left me pretty stiff everywhere in my body and returning to the forest had passed through my mind, but it would be up to us to stop Desroche.
I looked to Bill and the old guardsman had a look on his face that suggested he would never be the same again. It had been a rough few days for him, starting in Thurlborn Peak and ending with his friends lying dead at the gate of Scert’chak. When he gets back to Davalin, it wouldn’t surprise me that it would be the end of his fighting days.
Don’t get distracted, Cathy said. We have much to talk about.
I know. I just wanted to get moving again so we didn’t weird Bill out by staring at the wall.
Fair enough, Cathy replied, gathering her emotions and retreating to the back of my mind.
What are you doing?
Trying to remove my influence from you and vice versa so we can talk this out, Cathy answered, sounding further away. This is a huge topic and we need to be...clear headed would be the right word, I think.
Alright. I tried to form some mental walls to separate myself from her. What you are asking for is to kill her so you can take her body.
She is already going to die, Cathy said, keeping her tone even. If we lose her here, we don’t stand a chance of getting Balendar reunited. They will never trust another Mage again.
We were approaching the magical bridge and I connected to it through the bond and the bridge glowed brightly. We crossed quickly and I dropped the bond to conserve my energy. We continued down the path, watchful for any more flying patrols.
We would still find a way to get through to them. We did last time.
It would be too late then, Cathy countered. Lady Middleton’s support would speed things along. I’m sure everyone is aware of what happened to her father and her distrust for magic. If she walked in and supported you with what we’ve seen, people couldn’t ignore that.
Or they would think she finally snapped and went crazy.
Things are too fragile now, Cathy said. They would be fools to ignore any reports at this point.
The hesitation would be understandable. Desroche really did a number on people’s already fragile minds.
All the more reason to have me by your side, Cathy pointed out. I want to help you out more and you have to admit, me having a body would help out greatly.
There’s no denying that, but we can’t simply end a life for selfish reasons.
This isn’t selfish reasons! Cathy exclaimed in frustration. This is about stopping Desroche! Our only hope is dying on our shoulder and we have a way to fix that with a small sacrifice.
I sighed. It just doesn’t feel right.
Do you not trust me? Cathy asked sadly.
What?! Cathy, you are the ONLY person I have EVER fully trusted. We’ve spent two cycles together and know each other better than two people can.
So let me stand by your side properly, Cathy responded.
“Are you doing alright?” Bill asked. “You don’t look good.”
“I can’t believe what is happening,” I said to him.
“I know what you mean,” he said sadly. “We’ve lost a lot of friends today. I’m sorry about your friends being enslaved by Davenport, or Desroche as you called him.”
“I’m sorry I couldn’t do more for your friends,” I said glumly.
He nodded as we stepped into the Archanion Field. We had made it back to our camp area from last night. The danger of the
mountain was behind us and lingering too long would be a mistake, but we had to take care of Lady Middleton.
“They died protecting our Lady,” he said, his professionalism shining through. “We have to make sure she survives.”
“I’ve thought of something that could help,” I said to him. “Let’s set up a small camp so she can have shelter.”
Bill released Lady Sandra and I lowered her gently to the ground. We set up the small tent Bill had carried with him and placed her inside. Using my spare clothes as a pillow, I sat her up and checked her life signs. She was still incredibly weak, but not deteriorating fast. I applied some more magic to help try and stabilise her.
Are we going to do the transfer? Cathy asked timidly.
Yes. We will have a quick moment of silence for her, and then I will transfer your soul in.
Agreed, Cathy said, trying to contain her excitement.
With everything set up, I opened my Spell Book and flipped through the pages to the Spirit Transference spell. When I first found it in a dusty old tome in the archives, I added it as a novelty; like the Fireworks or Water Walking spell. I had already used the Firework spell to blow up a house and I was preparing to transfer a demon into another body. The likelihood of running across a lake of fire to escape enemies was growing quickly.
Cathy had stayed in her position in the back of my mind to continue to hide her emotions. I could still feel the waves of excitement coming from her as I studied the spell. Bill was checking over Lady Sandra, trying to do anything to save her. It was pointless though, there was little any of us could do. But still, he must have felt helpless being out of his element here.
“I need you to do something for me,” I said to him.
The Vacant Throne: The Legend Of Kairu Vol 3 Page 6
