Horizon (In the Absence of Kings Book 3)
Page 27
“Is this the victory you were hoping for? Your capital lies in ruin around you, and your general is dead upon the throne,” Malic spoke before showing a toothy grin.
“You, Malic. The reason I am here is you,” Garreth stated, pointing his blade forward.
Over the cry of the earthen chaos around him, Garreth could not hear the dry chuckle rise from Malic’s throat, but he could see the flaring of his eyes a split second before Malic dove towards him.
With a quick lunge, Malic locked Darkbreaker between the hilt and blade of his right dagger and turned on his heel, twisting around with a backhand strike at Garreth’s side. Garreth leapt towards the parapets as the twin daggers snapped closed like a viper’s bite. Sparks grinded past his blade as Malic stabbed at the battlements where Garreth had fallen only moments before. Finally recovering his balance, Garreth stepped forward with two sideways slashes. The first, Malic barely dodged. For the second, he tightened his grip on the left blade and parried the strike, allowing the force to send him rolling over the blade. Malic landed on the ground crouched and bounded off again, pointing both daggers forward as he leapt towards Garreth. Garreth would not be fooled again, and he stepped back and plunged his sword downward towards Malic’s path. The assassin had no choice but to cross his blades and meet Garreth’s sword head on. For a moment, the light from Darkbreaker was too strong for any of their weapon to absorb.
By the time, Garreth had stabbed through the light, Malic had rolled back onto his hands and pushed himself from the ground onto his feet. Garreth’s sword screamed like the wind over that high wall as he flourished it around himself and approached Malic with the wide sweeping of his blade. Although he paced back and forth, Malic could not break Garreth’s steady glare as Darkbreaker spun between them. The moment that Malic put his eyes on the blade’s hypnotic path, Garreth stepped in with a forward slash. After the blade whipped above his head, the Malquian unwound a lunge. Although his body had not begun to tire, his will had all but faded, and Malic resigned himself to fulfill the duty he was sworn to do. As Darkbreaker ran him through, Malic leapt forward to meet the blade and buried himself to its hilt. In an embrace of blades and bodies, Malic plunged his daggers deep into Garreth’s back and would not let him go.
“Is this what you would die for? Is this a fitting death for the warrior of light?” Malic sputtered and bared his bloody teeth.
“Now it is,” Garreth uttered, looking towards the sea.
Malic had only turned to look for a time, but he had soon seen more than he had the remaining stomach for. From the north and New Deepshine, came the Malquian trade galleons. The Dutiful, The Seeker, The Gallant, The Magnanimous, and all the other ships fitted with the siege weaponry from the Battle of Deepshine rained a rocky barrage upon the Vandarian ships before their enemies could respond in turn. The catapults and ballistae ripped through the outlying ships of the Order, trapping the rest of the panicked invaders within a ring of wreckage and debris. When a Vandarian man-of-war dared to drive through its sinking fellow and shortly capsized, Malic closed his eyes and turned from the scene. The assassin growled, the blood bubbling through his clenched teeth, when the grinding of Vandarian siege weaponry finally came to an end.
“Ready to die?” Malic taunted.
Garreth squinted his eyes to look over the sun that had just met the horizon. Although he had seen that fiery, resplendent sight countless times, it now shined with a new light. As Malic growled and twisted his blades, Garreth dared to crack a small smile on his face. The Malquian took his hands off Darkbreaker and gripped the assassin by the shoulders. As they fell from the height of the wall into the water below, Garreth relinquished Darkbreaker from his foe and pointed it towards the sea that rushed upwards to meet him. Garreth followed the blade of sparkling sunset into the ethereal mist, and he remembered no more.
To the readers,
Thank you for reading Horizon. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. The continuation of this exciting story depends completely upon support from fans, supporters, and fellow readers. If you’d like any more information on the series or myself, please feel free to check out the arrangement of online resources as listed below. I’d love to know what you thought of the book; please leave me a review on Amazon or Goodreads.
Truly,
-Lee LaCroix
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Copyright © 2015 by Lee LaCroix
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