A grim-looking clan marched towards the kingdom by foot with fire, whips, chains, and the darkest magic. If Alexandal hadn’t poisoned the Hart River, this wouldn’t be happening. Indrid almost laughed at how easy it was for a king to declare war when the king, himself, didn’t have to fight it.
The first wave of the enemy approached. The half-dead army led the charge as Demitri Von Cobb trailed behind. As the dark master lingered in the shadows of vengeful men and women thirsty for civilized blood, streaks of slime trailed the steps of the preserved dead elders. They had hollow-black eyes with a twinkle of white. Demitri was captain of the elder’s vessels.
Riding konganroo, a larger, more aggressive relative of the kangaroo with flesh-piercing teeth, the living mages spread out in the sea of possessed bodies, surrounding themselves within the crowd for protection against the strong metal of Ikarus swords. Demitri would let the dead take the brunt of the initial strike.
The two armies were only yards from contact. General Indrid Cole led the charge. His survival instincts took over. His fear disappeared. He knew that he needed to fight to protect those that mattered most to him, particularly, Anna.
Apollo ran faster than the horses. Indrid felt the cat’s body rumble before she roared and they stormed into a carnival of deadly weapons. Apollo’s next lunge made the first strike in the battle of metal against magic. The cat’s huge paws crushed the charging line of dead elders like twigs. But then the konganroo of the mage clan stampeded through the frontline, kicking Ikarus men. Even with armor, a single strike to a soldier’s chest could kill him. But Apollo, twice their size, snagged konganroo after konganroo by the neck, flinging both beast and rider across the battlefield.
Indrid slashed at the spell-casters from the height of Apollo’s back. He stayed close to the brush of the small forest. But in the open field, Indrid saw some mages throwing small glass stones with a liquid inside that shattered off of men’s breastplates, setting only the metal on fire.
The soldiers’ armor would get so hot, some suffocated to death before their skin burned. Others were slain immediately after dropping their scalding hot weapons, while a few lucky ones managed to clear themselves of the burning metal. Other mages threw packets of deadly powder at Ikarus soldiers and horses that disintegrated their bodies straight to the bone.
Suddenly, Indrid was hit on the side of his helmet. His grip on Apollo’s thick fur came loose, and he slid off of her back, landing hard on the ground, patched with grass and gravel. He could tell that he was hit by something that had been thrown at him. It didn’t have power behind it and bounced off of his helmet. And it didn’t feel like metal. When Indrid looked around, he saw a bloody femur lying nearby.
Unable to remount, Apollo was quickly surrounded by konganroo.
Through the smoke of burning flesh, a man wearing a stitched mask charged him, carrying a trident. His lizard-like eyes flared. There was no doubt it was an elder mage—but he looked bigger and more focused than the rest.
The masked elder slammed his shoulder straight into Indrid’s chest, sending him through the air, crashing into the trunk of a tree at the forest edge. The blow knocked the wind right out of him. Luckily, Indrid never let go of his sword. It was clear to him that the much larger elder was also much stronger.
Indrid got up. He quickly composed himself by mentally scanning his body for injuries. But nothing felt broken. And he wasn’t bleeding any more than he was before, at least not externally. He ran towards the elder as hard as he could. It would be better to end the ancient mage quickly before he could cast a spell. Indrid couldn’t withstand many more strikes like the one he had just suffered.
As they raced towards each other, Indrid pointed his Graleon-forged sword forward, and the elder held out his trident that glowed orange. Just before impact, Indrid slid onto his knees, slightly to the elder’s left, and scythed him through the torso. But instead of the elder’s body splitting in half, it dissolved into dust. The particles then reorganized into five reptilian birds, each the size of a bear, flaunting large teeth. Indrid and his men around him stood in awe. They had never seen anything like this before.
Instead of having feathers, they had scales. The birds tore into the ground with their clawed feet, running off in different directions and biting men in the neck, ripping their throats. Indrid and his men surrounded three of them within a circle of torches and blades.
He could see in the distance that Apollo had broken free from the surrounding konganroo and was hunting the other two birds that had run off into the sea of battle.
Ikarus soldiers tried to rope the armored birds’ feet to cut their heads off. But when one bird raced straight at Indrid and flapped its large wings, slightly lifting off the ground, Indrid dropped his sword, jumping out of the way. The bird grabbed him by the breastplate with its talons and pushed Indrid into the ground, clawing and snapping at him. Its beak drooled with the flesh and blood of the fallen. Before it could tear into Indrid’s skin, his first officer shot an arrow through the bird’s chest. But the bird still pinned Indrid down and snapped at him. Indrid reached for his dagger with his other arm and slammed the bird through the heart.
All of the birds shattered into pieces, just like the elder’s original form did, but this time the dust reassembled into a monstrous fifty-foot crocodile. It immediately began to erratically thrash its tail, clobbering both Ikarus men and mage alike. The monster snapped and swallowed six grown men with a single bite.
Apollo jumped out from the tree line and onto the creature’s back, mauling at its armored skin. Even with the cat’s massive size it looked impossible to penetrate. There was no scale penetrated and no bloodshed. But when Apollo bit into the croc’s neck, squeezing it, its mouth opened wide. At that moment, Indrid considered a soft spot. “Arrows! Into its throat! Light them up!” Indrid yelled.
Indrid was relieved to see Apollo again. For all those years he had feared the giant cat, he now felt a great affection for her.
A cluster of flaming arrows fired into the back of the monster’s throat and choked the beast. When it collapsed, it felt like a tremor. Indrid approached the crocodile and pierced his sword into its eye just to be sure, and when he did it burst into dust again forming back into the body of the elder.
Apollo was thrown from the explosion.
Without time to react, the elder grabbed Indrid by the neck and raised him up off of his feet. Indrid’s men charged the mage from all angles, but the elder waved them off as an invisible force hurled them through the air, slamming against tree trunks and boulders. While the elder was distracted, Indrid reached for his waist, unsheathed his short sword, and slammed his tapered blade through the back of the elder’s skull.
Before the elder’s collapsing body could reach the ground, Indrid’s men roared in cheer. But Indrid needed a moment to catch his breath before he celebrated; his heart raced. A good number of his men and horses had survived the battle, but Apollo was again nowhere in sight.
Although Indrid’s small brigade was victorious, the rest of the Ikarus army had been slaughtered. The mages had made it to the Ikarus gates.
Now, there was nothing left to stop the invasion.
After the mages of Cobb stormed through the Ikarus army, Rayne Volpi, an entity of the higher dimensions caught between the world of the living and the dead, was now Demitri’s last obstacle. He stood in front of the stone pillars that surrounded the Ikarus kingdom ready to defend the people within the walls.
Demitri slowly approached, watching Rayne’s transparent form flickering in and out of view. He snickered. “This is fine architecture,” he said, walking right through Rayne without resistance. As Demitri grew close to the giant stones, the engraved writing on the pillars started to glow. He reached out and touched one, but it burned his hand and shoved him back. “You’ve decrypted my genetic structure without a single drop of my blood. Very impressive indeed!” Demitri said.
Rayne had put a spell on the stones that surrounded the kin
gdom, preventing Demitri’s body from penetrating the perimeter.
“This will only delay the inevitable, my lord. And after we conquer this kingdom I’ll need a bride. There are such pretty women within these walls. But I already have someone in mind.” Demitri turned to a small clan of his bloody-faced servants. “Get the Mern. I will handle the wizard.”
Rayne became furious. In the form of a black mist, he hovered toward the host’s pawns. But Demitri stepped in his path and grabbed the image of Rayne by the throat, and pulled him slowly into the material world. The pressure of Demitri’s grip was painful. Now Rayne felt vulnerable. He felt his flesh and blood again—exposed.
“Here we are. Gods among men, and yet we fight. For what? Peace? Peace among filthy mortals who claim to own a planet? They are all savages.” Demitri stretched his smile. “I don’t want to hurt Anna Lott. I just want to taste the sweetness between her legs before I gut her and decorate the kingdom walls with her blood,” Demitri said, his voice intensifying.
“If you touch her, I will make you and the ones you serve beg for death!” Rayne said.
Demitri threw Rayne to the ground. It was the first time since Rayne had come back that he’d felt victim to physicality.
“Welcome to a world of pain,” Demitri said.
Two dead elders surrounded Rayne. His body pulsed with faint light. They pulled out long chain-linked whips wrapped in barbed wire. At lengths end a series of smaller chains dangled off the tips with smaller metal hooks. They lashed at him; the hooks pulling dark matter from his cloak until reaching his flesh. Before long, Rayne’s bloodied physical form collapsed.
In a puddle of Rayne’s blood, Demitri dipped his finger and dripped a drop onto his tongue. “Volpi blood, how delicious. Thank you for the keys to the kingdom, Lord Rayne.” Demitri stamped his blood-covered hand onto a pillar, and the resistant vibration surrendered to his palm. “Collect the wizard’s body and bring it to the Ikarus castle,” he said to his clan. “I want to snap his limbs and crush his skull in front of his own people.”
Demitri once again walked freely onto Ikarus ground.
A BROOD of mages stormed through the south gate. Anna Lott crouched behind barrels that lined the front of the alehouse adjacent to their path into town. She carried a small knife for protection. She was terrified by the thought of killing someone, even in battle. But when she saw the wicked faces approaching from the distance, they looked more like rabid creatures than human beings. Some even looked more dead than alive. It made it easier for her to shut off empathy. Mage and elder alike raced up the street towards her. There was nowhere for her to go, to run; no one to hide behind.
My flute. How could she forget? It was in the pocket of her jerkin.
After Indrid had told her not to look at, A Wizard’s Guide, the book that Montague had urged her to read, she did anyway. She remembered what was on page two hundred, and sixty-four; where Montague had said to look. The chapter was filled with sheet music charting melodic enchantments. There was a specific progression of notes that would produce a compressed wave of sound that would stun an enemy.
Anna could only watch as the rest of her civilian fighters were taken down. The mages threw glass sphere’s that set fire when shattered and packets of powders that completely stripped men to the bone.
Before she was surrounded by the tips of staffs and wands, she brought out her flute and played out the notes. As the last note of the melody sustained, she noticed everything around her begin to slow down; the running people, the waving flags hanging from the kingdom walls, and the birds flying over them. Even the drops of drizzling rain became motionless.
Being the only life-form that could move she rose to her feet within the stillness. She could save so many civilian lives if she took the lives of the frozen mages before her. As hard as it was to convince herself that it was what she needed to do, it was still hard to think about driving her dagger into another’s chest.
Gaining courage, she approached an inanimate mage, the flute’s notes still ringing. But she saw someone else moving around besides her. It was Demitri Von Cobb. He was walking through the stillness, unaffected by the charm. He approached, forcing her back against the alehouse door behind her. She tried to push through the door, but it was jammed, probably bolted shut from the inside.
“What a neat trick,” said Demitri. He snapped his fingers and everyone was released from the paralyzing sound of Anna’s flute. Demitri’s reanimated servants continued to corral the civilians in the street. The mages would slit a civilian’s throat if they resisted.
“Take her,” Demitri said, pulling the flute from her hand. He snapped it in half.
Anna’s hands and knees shook. She was handed off to Demitri’s pawns. Where is Rayne? She wished for her stepbrother’s protection. She needed it, now.
Demitri walked the street looking around at faces filled with horror. Mages laughed at the cries of Anna’s people. And Demitri enjoyed the terror that he instilled, she could tell.
“Bring all citizens of Ikarus out onto the streets; men, woman, and children!” Demitri shouted.
Then Anna saw Alexandal, the king, limping into the upheaval towards Demitri, unarmed and unguarded. What in Gabriel’s name is he doing, she thought? He looked forlorn and unconcerned at the invasion. Mages ran right past him as if he wasn’t there. Alexandal was pale and clammy.
“You have done well, Lord Alexandal,” Demitri said, his face cringing with a tight smile. “You’ve been a fine servant.”
Alexandal remained voiceless. He could barely stand up straight.
“But you are no longer needed. I release you from my command,” Demitri said, waving his hand across the king’s face.
Alexandal deflated, falling to his knees. His bloodshot eyes slowly cleared. Demitri took the king by the arm and lifted him to his feet. “Thank you,” the king said, relieved of the controlling torment. But Alexandal appeared clueless about what had been happening or the actions he had been taking.
In that moment, as Alexandal wept, Anna saw the man she knew when she had first come to Ikarus; the caring, hopeful man who had once been general of the Ikarus army.
“No. Thank you for your service,” Demitri said then slammed his sword straight through Alexandal’s heart.
The onlookers gasped, holding in heavy breaths.
A sickening pain overwhelmed Anna. It hurt to see the king, her foster father, no matter how detached Alexandal had become, fall by the hand of a man known to have brought great suffering to their people.
Demitri addressed the filled street. “From this day forth, you will all bow to me. I, Demitri Von Cobb, am the ruler of Man, ruler of all land and sea.”
Demitri then set his attention on a frightened woman being held tight by her husband in the crowd. He took her by the arm from her husband and brought her to the center of attention.
“Why are you so fat?” Demitri coldly asked.
The woman, already scared and crying, cried even harder, “Because…I’m…pregnant.”
Demitri brushed her cheek with the back of his fingers, “Don’t worry. I’m not going to harm you.”
“Thank you, my lord,” she said, her voice trembling.
“Not yet,” Demitri finished. He turned to the crowd. “For too long now you’ve all led lives of sin. There will be many changes to the laws of this kingdom. Gabriel, our creator, made himself clear in The Book of Volpi. We are to be fruitful, responsibly. But our population has run out of control; too many nameless bastards produced from adulterous sex. For this, it is now a sin to procreate. You may fornicate. I will still allow that. See? I am a compassionate man,” he laughed, “No harm will come to those who have already sinned…not yet. But from now on if a woman gets pregnant, I will cut the thing out myself. You will all die sooner or later, but I assure you, your deaths will come at my leisure. For now you are my hostages. You see, humans are cancerous to planets. They consume both animal and plant life and create weapons that destroy their own h
abitats. And they do it all over again to the next planet. We have seen it happen again and again.” Demitri turned back to the pregnant woman, who was still weeping. “Now that you know the new law, tell everyone how ashamed you are for what you’ve done. Tell them how embarrassed you are to have that thing growing inside of you.”
The woman was crying so hard she couldn’t catch her breath to speak.
When she failed to respond, Demitri then set his eyes back to Anna. “My lady,” he said, walking towards her. “Please, join me in the temple.” The mages, pointing their staffs and wands at her, directed the way.
In the temple, Demitri stood under the red moonlight shining through the stained-glass skylight windows of the cathedral. Anna wanted to stay as far from Demitri as she could be, but he stepped closer, closing that distance. He came inches from her face.
Demitri spoke softly. “I have never been a king before and I don’t know much about politics, but I do know that a king needs a queen. And since I am the king—”
Before he could finish, Anna spat in his face.
Demitri grabbed her throat. “Tonight, you will become my bride whether you like it or not. And your gift for the wedding will be your stepbrother’s broken body. Lock her in here with the rest of them!” Demitri said to his clan. He let go of Anna and walked away to the rear of the cathedral. “And release all of the Ikarus prisoners!”
WHEN A dribbling mage arrived at the dungeons to release Montague La-Rose, his heart sank. He knew then that the kingdom had been taken by the enemy. Two women and a man wearing black gowns escorted Montague out to the street corners where Demitri was organizing the settlement of his army.
When Demitri saw Montague, he went wide-eyed. “Well. Now I’ve seen everything. Ikarus has locked up one if it’s most important contributing members,” Demitri laughed. “Montague La-Rose. I’ve been wondering where you were.”
Under a Veil of Gods Page 20
