The wind carried a bit of their chanting to my ears, and then I began to feel a drumbeat, soft at first, but deep and resonating through the earth itself and growing stronger.
The men were restless. I didn’t have the pipes or my lyre, but I don’t think I could have mustered a counter spell that would touch whatever was going on out there. I was as awed and unnerved by what I was witnessing as the rest of the men of Guldon.
As the deep heartbeat of the earth continued, at first I feared that the walls would fall as the result of a magical earthquake, but that was not the purpose of their conjuring.
The granite blocks were now almost completely ablaze with moving lines of runes that snaked across the surface of the stones like intersecting trails of fire. They began to shake in time with the earth beat, until finally fault lines appeared on the surface of the rock and something moved within.
In an explosion of sudden, fierce energy, the blocks burst apart, and great red reptilian forms stepped forward from within the granite shell— Dragons, chaotic beasts from the dawn of creation. I had heard of them in stories from my father, but I’d never believed. I had assumed they were bullshit like most of the stories he told. But there they were, rising in the distance,—six dragons, primal and powerful.
They immediately pounced upon the oxen that had pulled the carts. The dragon’s huge claws and talons easily wrapped themselves entirely around the bodies of the oxen as if they were apples. As the animals bellowed and hopelessly attempted to flee, they were grabbed and stuffed whole down the gullet of the great beasts.
The men of Guldon were mortified. Some wept, some moaned, some simply stood silently and stared, glassy-eyed at this demonstration of sheer and terrifying power.
The priests changed their chanting. The dragons, after finishing their meal of oxen, obediently lined up in ranks.
I realized what was happening too late. “Run! We’ve got to get back from the walls.” I ran unashamedly at full speed toward the center of town.
“Carl,” Olo called after me, “What’s wrong?”
I looked back over my shoulder in time to see the small farmer engulfed in the first blast of flame. He was utterly consumed in fire and the section of wall he stood upon crumbled like a child’s sandcastle in the tide. Poor, brave Otto became nothing more than ash.
The dragons were spitting volleys of flaming fireballs toward the city of Tunin. There would be no siege, no battle of attrition lasting months. The war would end tonight, and I had to get Angelina out of there.
“Carl—stop!” It was Captain Rosten. “Come back, we have to protect the walls!”
I observed him standing there, behind him great streamers of fire shot down from the sky. I was deserting him and the other men and I knew it. He looked as if I’d stabbed him.
“I’ll be back,” I yelled, then turned away and ran like hell toward the Black Rose. I would be back, truly. Somehow, after I delivered Angelina to safety, I would return and do whatever I could. But those thoughts sounded like a pale lie even to myself.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Behind me the outer walls were collapsing. The magical dragon fire burned the stone as if it were straw. I knew that before long the Jegu ground forces would begin moving forward, an irresistible force.
Panic spread as realization began to set in, soldiers and civilians alike were running for their lives toward the center of town. I could see the castle above me on the hill. The gates to the inner courtyard were closed and a crowd had already gathered to beat against them and beg for protection. Inside, the king and nobles were locked away. I doubted the king was going to be receiving any guests today, other than Jegu, that is. His own people might die at his doorway but those feeble defenses wouldn’t protect the royal house from their inevitable dark fate for long once the heavy troopers came.
I used the aether path to glide through the masses and made it to the Black Rose. I went to Angelina’s room and pounded on the door. “Angelina, open up. It’s Carl.”
She opened the door. Her face was bone white pale and expressionless. Oddly quiet, she seemed to be moving as if in a dream, as if unable to process the reality of the situation.
I saw that Molly and her children were in the room with her. She sat with little Sally on her lap, sobbing with her face turned toward Molly’s breast. Kip sat on the floor between her legs, a bewildered confusion upon his face. I thought of Olo—the brave little farmer set aflame. I knew it would soon be worse. They would all soon be dead. The Jegu knew no mercy.
“Carl, what’s happening?” asked Molly.
“The walls are falling,” I said and then turned to Angelina. “I told you what I was going to do, are you ready?”
Angelina looked down at Molly and the children. “Carl, how can we leave them?”
My voice was cold. “I’ll show you.”
Molly moaned “Please sir—please.”
I glanced at Molly’s face—the desperate fear. I didn’t answer her. I turned and I grabbed Angelina by the wrist and pulled her outside. She struggled with me. “But, they must come with us, and what about my things?”
I stared her in the eyes. “You can get new things. I can only save you. People are dying. We have to go now.”
She nodded and followed me down the back stairs. I gave a mental call to Blackflame as I walked with her Angelina into the stable. I heard the crying of Olo’s wife and children and hated myself. But, I had no way to save anyone else. If I tried, I would risk losing Angelina. There was the truth of it.
Blackflame was waiting for me, saddle and all, as we entered the stable. I mounted and pulled Angelina up behind me. She put her arms around my waist and I turned to her before we departed.
“You’ll see strange things, some beautiful, some horrifying. I’m not like other men, deep inside you knew this already. I want to you to remember one thing. I love you. I will protect you and get you to safety. Do you believe me?”
“Yes, Carl. I believe you.”
I gave Blackflame a kick and he broke into a dead run out the stable and into the street. Angelina screamed as we rushed into a crowd of people, then gasped as we passed through the mass of fleeing souls as if they were ghosts.
“We are in a special place between the world and nothingness, between here and there. Call it traveling behind the veils of aether, or on the Road of the Gods, but nothing can touch us. Close your eyes if you must because it gets worst from here.”
“Are you a devil?” she asked.
“Sometimes I think I am.”
Angelina did close her eyes, then. She stuck her face in my back as we continued. I could feel her fingernails dig into my flesh as she held on.
I pressed Blackflame hard. We raced through people and houses and finally through the city walls.
The Jegu had surrounded the city, and their dragons were moving in. I skirted around the beasts and away across the fields, far from the battle and death.
I had to push beyond even that, into the strange paths that I was accustomed too, but Angelina was not. I had to get Angelina so far away that no harm would come to her. even if after I returned to Tarnon I happened to fall.
I could think of only one place. It was far and away and there were many changes in reality to endure.
Angelina occasionally opened her eyes to look around. I would turn back and smile to reassure her that no matter what the world looked like, no matter what our mode of transport had changed to, that I was still me and she was still herself and we were together.
I suppose it worked, because she would smile back at me and close her eyes again. I was afraid that the trip itself might make her go mad, but she was taking it as well as I could expect anyone to. I realized that she was like Rosten, they always knew deep inside I was different. They realized that I was magic, but they would not go too far in reaching for answers. Like quietly watching a hummingbird and enjoying it for what it was without trying to approach too closely and risk scaring it away.
Maybe I was
flattering myself, maybe it was more like a child being afraid to look under his bed because the monster would have to then eat him. It was better to leave well enough alone when it came to monsters. Either way, magic was better ignored. Safer in the long run.
Eventually, I approached our destination. I slowed Blackflame and the chaotic paths we had followed changed to a quiet country meadow in a peaceful valley. A small sod cottage with a thatched roof stood near a brook. A flower garden grew in front of the house and a vegetable garden behind. A small barnyard held chickens and pigs. It was ready for living.
“We’re here,” I said and stopped Blackflame.
I dismounted and helped Angelina down. She was out of breath, shivering. But she slowly turned to take in the full panorama of her surroundings. She began to calm. She fussed with her hair and tried to make it behave a bit after the wild, timeless ride. “Where are we?”
I grinned and kicked at the ground. “Well, that’s a bit complicated. I’m not sure that it has a name. You can call it whatever you would like. Something pretty like Goldenmeadow or Fairhaven. Do you like the house?”
We walked forward. “It’s lovely. It’s just like what I’d always dreamed of,” she said. “Is it really mine? Ours?”
“Yes. If you like. Or, if you’d rather. I will go away and you can have this heaven for yourself. I would understand if you think me a monster now.”
She turned to me smiling. I could see her dark flowing hair, her red lips, her deep bright eyes. I knew with that look that everything was going to be okay. Behind her, was our home. The little white-washed cottage ready for us to move in. We could love, live and a spend years together in bliss, far away from Jegu.
And then I saw her smile change. It was slight at first. Her eyes went wide, her mouth opened and she stepped forward and suddenly pushed me with more strength than I thought she could have possibly possessed.
As I fell, I heard her scream “Look out, Carl!” and I saw something dark and fast impact against her body and knock her backward then her blood fountained.
It was one of Jegu’s cat men. He had pounced and would have gotten me if Angelina hadn’t pushed me out of the way.
I rolled and bounded back, leaping toward the cat creature. It was also turning, realizing that it had struck Angelina rather than me. We met head on. A dark wave of anger rushed across me. It charged me with a vicious, powerful spike of energy and gave strength to my limbs. The creatures claws slashed against my flesh and shattered like glass. A puzzled look flashed into its eyes.
I looked down and saw Angelina, broken and soaked red with blood. She was dead, I knew it without doubt. The final death from which no one, not even a god could recall her.
My bare hands latched hold of the creature’s head. It flailed and struck with terrible blows at my stomach and privates, but it was no use. The raw power of the war god was rushing into my body. I pressed and crushed the creature’s skull slowly, vise-like, until its skull shattered, and warm, soft, brain tissue oozed between my fingers.
As I squeezed, I felt my humanity leaving me. Angelina was dead. No one, no god and no man could bring her back. I saw the image of the Bright Blade clearly in my mind. It called to me from the primal abyss. The sword hungered for my grasp, and grasp it I did.
I tossed the remains of the cat creature down and went toward the beacon of the Bright Blade. My hand found its hilt. When my flesh touched the familiar metal It fused with my body. It was part of an indivisible symbiosis of weapon and wielder. The Shining Armor formed spontaneously about my body. Flesh of my flesh. The armor was like molten fire. It was as if I had been dipped in a lake of lava. I felt my mortal body burn away and turn to ash, but it was painless, in fact a release from pain. I was a god. The pain of mortality, the weaknesses. I was free from it all. Pity, love, friendship, I had no need nor any capacity for such things. I was Kaltron, god of war. I was beyond such things. I was Kaltron the god of war, and I had too long forsaken my birthright. There was a battle to be fought and there was no time to think of the fate of mortals.
I looked down at Angelina’s body and I saw only a dead animal, just so much roadkill.
I called Blackflame. He came to me in the barding of a warhorse. He hesitated, as if even he was wary of approaching me. I was death, I was war. I was all powerful.
I grasped his reigns harshly and mounted him, then rode toward Tarnon as fast as Blackflame could muster. I was merciless, digging into his flanks with cruel spurs as I drove him onward. His eyes turned to fire as the battle lust entered his soul as well.
We were riding to war as we had for eons. We were part of the same inevitable doom. There was no escape from our wrath, no quarter given. All would die who opposed us. I had an upstart god to kill and I didn’t care how many mortals it took to do it.
I didn’t look back at the eviscerated body of the mortal woman. I had a battle to fight. Such trivial matters meant nothing.
The God of War had returned.
The miles and realities passed in a blur as I raced toward Tarnon. When I arrived, the army of the Jegu were advancing upon the burning city. The dragons and their attendant priests were moving with the vanguard. Now their fiery breath was being used to blast the earth before the advancing army, destroying the defensive barricades, literally turning them to dust.
To the rear, the reliquary containing Jegu was slowly creeping ahead, hungrily consuming the souls of the fallen.
The few brave men who stood in the way of the Jegu were turned into groups of flaming dancers who ran into the night screaming until they dropped and finally turned to ash. I rode toward the dragons as I slipped back into the world of mortal men. There was a thunderclap and a flash as I appeared on the battlefield and all who saw me froze in place.
My armor glowed with blinding white light, my eyes burned like red-hot coals. Blackflame’s coat was like polished obsidian glass, his silver hooves struck sparks against the ground, his flowing golden mane sparkled with energy and his nostrils snorted flame. The mortal followers of Jegu were petrified with fear, but so were the defenders of Tarnon.
I was death come to kick ass.
CHAPTER TWENTY
INTERLUDE:
THE STABLES OF CITADEL
“Well, I hope you’re pleased with yourself. His woman is dead and in his grief he’s taken up the blade and lost his soul in the bargain,” Kevin said, his black robe clutched tight around his neck.
Yond, smiling, was leading his horse, an alabaster white war stallion with silver mane and hooves from the stall where it had been feeding from a pile of golden straw. The enchanted animal flickered with electrical energy, sparking here and there in a nimbus of power. Unlike Blackflame, the horse was not an aspect of Yond’s godhood, but merely a creature of fae, captured from the wild herds which roamed the sky fields of the storm realm and tamed through Yond’s talent to call the lightning. A cruel process at best.
“Who cares how it happened? We all knew it would. He’s too weak to stay away from all that power. It calls to him. He had to answer. Now we will join him on the battlefield,” Yond said.
Two fae servants took the horse’s bridle and began saddling him.
“He cares,” Kevin said. “He cared deeply about the woman. But, you don’t understand that, do you?”
Yond laughed, checked the straps of his blue cuirass and pulled on his gauntlets. “And you do, trickster? Birdbrain? What mortal, or immortal have you ever given two shits about?”
Kevin pointed a finger at the thunder god. “You have no poetry in your soul, Yond. You’re a selfish, petty little tyrant who has one trick up his sleeve. Kaltron has the spirit of war tempered by the soul of a musician. A subtlety you could never match.”
“Fine and mighty words from a fool.”
Kevin nodded in agreement. “I am but a fool. But in knowing my own true nature, I am wiser than you can ever be. And as for love. It isn’t a lack of caring on my part, but a lack of reciprocation. Alas, I don’t know when to shut
my mouth. Inevitably, those I love feel badly used as the brunt of my humor and end up hating me bitterly. Whereas in your case, they start that way.”
“Idiot,” Yond said and struck out at Kevin with a bolt of blue-white power. But where the trickster had stood was only a single floating black feather.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
I breathed in a great lungful of air to scream my war cry and command my armies to rise up against the Jegu, but a sudden thunderclap stopped me short. From the North, striking to the rear of the Jegu forces came my brother Yond.
He swept down from a thundercloud which swelled and glowed with blue lightning flashes. He flew over the battlefield astride a white horse, carrying twin handfuls of power that cracked and sang.
His armor was cobalt blue and his helm was crowned with electrical arcs. His full power had been released by my presence and he had come to use it.
“Fight, men of Guldon,” Yond proclaimed. His voice boomed over the battlefield like thunder rolling over the mountaintops. “The gods are with you!”
After a moment, a ragged cheer rose up from the city as the men rallied and came forth to meet the dragons of Jegu.
I knew what he was doing, challenging my role as war god. But, his pitiful attempts were merely comical to me. He had no idea how much power I controlled. He was clueless and petty.
Yond shot lightning into the ranks of the Jegu warriors. With each strike, ten men fell, burned to a crisp by the primal energy. The men of Guldon were ecstatic, more and more began to pour out onto the battlefield and face the Jegu troops.
Then the priests ended their silence and began again the chant that commanded the fire dragons. As one, the six dragons spat out a wall of flame that engulfed the wave of defenders that were rushing forward.
Duty Calls: The Reluctant War God Book 1 Page 11
