He shook his head and a smile forced itself to curl on his lips when he remembered Davvy putting two arrows in a fat bird in flight once when they were younger. A glance at the fletching on the shaft sticking out of the snow confirmed the arrow had come from his childhood friend.
Davvy was ready.
Now, each moment he wasted, the more people died around him. He took a deep breath and gave the dwarves behind him the signal. The two of them took off running down the tunnel as quickly as they could.
"Forgive me, Nixy, if I fail you this day," Braxton said as he slipped into the void. He then pulled the head-sized summoning stone from the pack slung over his shoulder, drew the old sword he’d found in the same cavern he found the jewel in, and walked out into the midst of the fighting.
He caught a glimpse of Cryelos and felt a small bit of reassurance knowing his elven friend was in position and watching out for him. His was in the void now. His eyes were like that of the hawk's, and everything around him now seemed to be moving slower than he was. He heard Taerak's words going through his head over and over again.
The nature of the jewel is brutal, but you are true of heart. Choose the battleground wisely when you finally make your stand against the demon for his rage and hatred will be his undoing, and those who witness the confrontation shall determine the future of this land.
At least there are gothicans, dwarves, elves, and humans to witness what is about to happen, he thought. If they don’t kill each other, or get killed by the demon, maybe they can determine the future.
Out of nowhere, a handful of dwarves broke into his peripheral vision just as an angry gothican stepped in front of him. A glance told him this was no ally. There was no red sash, and he was moving to attack. Braxton wasn't even sure he was holding his sword correctly. The few lessons he had gotten from Sorrell and Vinston-Fret in the Wilderkind Forest were but distant memories. Somehow, he managed to block the gothicans powerful first swing, but only because the world around him felt as if it were moving slower than he was.
He ducked and swung, but missed and nearly toppled trying to keep a good grip on the summoning stone he was hugging to his body with his left arm. Then he felt the gothican’s steel slice into him, and in that instant, he remembered the dream he had the first night after he found the medallion.
He was a giant among the dwarves around him, fighting an even bigger gothican warrior while in the shadow of the Ancestor's Dream. For the first time in a long time, he was certain he was in the place he was supposed to be. As the cold pain of the gothican's blade sliding across his skin shot through him, more of Taerak's words echoed through his head.
Why jump blindly off a cliff when there is a ladder available?
Braxton had to duck again to avoid the next blow. Already, he was cut through the meat outside his ribs, but it was no mortal wound.
This time, instead of attacking or defending with his sword, he focused on the gothican’s blade, and as it came around, he shimmered it into the point of fluctuation, and just as he had changed a pewter goblet into a flower, he turned the shining steel into so much water. It happened just in time, for he felt the cold liquid splash across his neck the same instant the thought left his mind.
The gothican was thrown off balance by the sudden lack of weight in his hands, and he stumbled to the side into a group of dwarves who quickly cut him down.
Braxton was moving again. He had to get to the landmark ahead before summoning the demon. Positioning was everything to his plan, and he was running out of time for the dwarves below were going to spring the trap any moment.
Another gothican stepped into his path but several arrows hit him, and he fell before he could engage.
All Braxton had to do was make it twenty more paces through a full-out battle between giant gothicans to a black granite boulder that had been designated as the place where he would summon Pharark.
Davvy had loosed the arrow to warn Braxton to hold up, not to signal him to go, but it was too late to worry now. Davvy had sent Dendle and some of his gothicans to try and warn those on the forest side of the landmark to retreat, but he ordered his group of archers into place even though they would probably get caught up in the battle and be killed before they could get there. It was all Davvy could think to do. The dwarves, though, cleared a way for Trenka and her company of archers.
Davvy looked for Braxton and saw an arrow fly out from the far side of the crowded bloody field. It killed the gothican in Braxton's path and was followed by a few more arrows that put him down.
He knew none of his archers or Trenka's were in that area, and none of them could hit a specific target in a battle like that save for Trenka herself or Braxton on a good day. He wondered, but not for long, who'd let the arrow fly.
Dendle barely made it around the edge of the forest. His breathing was labored, and he was favoring the ribs Craggon had broken with his club. The injuries he'd taken while in his feline form felt worse now that he was back to normal. He was coughing up blood and wondering if he would be able to speak when he got close enough to warn Karthick's warriors.
When he finally reached them, he conveyed the message, but they didn't seem to understand the significance of it. Some of the red-sashed gothicans were working their way around to get between the city walls and the main battle. Others just casually defended themselves, keeping their focus on the battle between Karthick Gruel and his father going on in the midst of it all.
Pharark's eyes snapped open when he felt the summoning stone’s call, and a grin spread across his giant-fanged maw. When he saw Braxton Bray looking expectantly into the stone, Pharark could see behind him. Had he not caught a glimpse of Camberly, he would not have been sure where Braxton and this battle were taking place. A flash of alarms swept through him for that was his army that was under attack behind the cursed Warrior of the Void.
His concern quickly turned to anger, and he opened the door of the cage dangling before him and pulled the half-conscious girl out of it. There would be no tricks with the chain this time. As a matter of fact, just to make sure his superior power was understood, and since the girl was no longer needed as bait, he decided to use her to break the boy's will just as soon as the dust from his grand entrance settled.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Braxton didn't notice the change in the wind or the sudden, but faint darkening of the sky. He was staring intently into the deep blue glow of the summoning stone.
When the little dots inside the stone began to swirl, a strange sensation from the void told him to clear out. While he backed away, the change of the weather and the still darkening sky let him know Pharark was coming.
Braxton took a deep breath for things were about to be happening at full speed and a moment's hesitation could ruin any chance of helping Nixy from the cage.
He didn't know yet what all great commanders and planners eventually learned, which was, things rarely ever go as planned, and even the most carefully made plans usually went right out the window.
Pharark, being the Demon of Destruction, knew it was only fitting that the first thing he did was destroy something, and as he spun into the battlefield, the force of his tornadic coming reached out wildly and uprooted a massive section of the Gothful Forest, which happened to be right where Trenka Shawl and her archers were hiding.
He didn't stop there. His path of destruction ripped right through his own army, tearing into the eastern gate. A spinning mass of warriors, trees and earth went right through Camberly until half of the new palace was crumbling down onto the helpless people trapped inside the crumbling outer wall.
The whirlwind spun back out of the city in a different place, tearing another massive breach through the primary walls and leveling another section of the outer barrier.
The twister centered itself back on the summoning stone and began to slow. After seeing the demons power, Braxton abandoned all hope of saving Nixy. This evil thing had to be stopped, and if cost him his lover and his unborn child, that w
as but a small price compared to the thousands who had just died and would continue to die if Pharark was allowed to live. Braxton was about to throw up his arms and give the signal for the archers when the demon's giant purple body came to a halt, but Pharark's deep blasting voice, and the sight of the limp girl in his giant hand broke Braxton's heart, and he froze.
"Here!" The demon yelled down at him. And then, just like Nixy was a piece of dried meat, he raised his hand to his mouth, bit off her head and shoulder with a crunch, and then threw her leather-clad body into the snow at Braxton's feet.
Davvy and Cryelos both wondered why Braxton hadn't thrown his arms up to signal them, but as they watched in horror, they understood. Both knew how much he had loved the girl, and that she had been with child. Davvy nocked an arrow, and as loud as he could, he yelled for his men to loose.
Braxton fell to his knees. While pain, grief, and horror washed over him, so did the power of the jewel. He understood, in that moment, the complete anguish felt by the great dragon he'd dreamed about who'd lost his mate and his hatchlings. The jewel he wore was no jewel at all. It was that exact same tear the dragon shed.
Taerak was right. The nature of the jewel was as brutal as the demon himself. Braxton's grief turned to anger, and he vowed that Pharark would do no more damage in this world.
Cryelos saw Davvy's archers loose, and he gave the order to let arrows fly as well. Chureal, from her position near the landmark, saw what happened to Nixy, and it scared and shocked her so badly that a few minutes after she started turning the arrow tips and the giant, dwarven-made steel-tipped stalactites into blood crystal, she burst into tears, lost all concentration, and couldn't continue.
Immediately, the dwarves panicked. Chureal was supposed to shatter the single support column that held up the ground that the demon was currently standing on. It was obvious she was too distraught to do it, and they didn't know what to do.
Big H let out a long slow sigh, then told the other dwarves to take her back to the reinforced river bend cavern. He then he picked up his heavy war hammer and started into the pit underneath the landmark.
"No!" Chureal screamed at him as he went. "It will fall on you!" But Big H was already gone.
At the sound of Chureal's voice, Cobalt came awake. He was in his smaller size since they were in the dwarven tunnel system. Instantly, he flew to Chureal's shoulder, and the dwarves let her go when the tiny dragon snarled at them. Then, Chureal, with Cobalt flapping his wings to stay balanced on her shoulder, charged out of the hidden dwarf hole onto the battlefield. Within a few heartbeats, Cobalt shifted to his normal size, and with Chureal mounted on his back, he leapt into the air.
Braxton rose up from his anguish, extended his hand toward the demon, and a blast of hot blue light shot into Pharark's gut. It startled him as much as it did the demon, and where it touched the demon's scales, smoke swirled and the meat beneath blistered and sizzled. In response, the demon screamed, took a half step, and kicked at Braxton. Braxton was forced to dive out of the way to avoid what would have surely been a deadly blow.
Pharark had felt the tremendous pain Braxton’s magic had caused. It showed in his evil expression. He also looked satisfied that he'd caused enough death and terror for the moment. He began to swirl away back to wherever it was he went. But, a sudden horrified look crossed his visage stopping him still. The sudden feeling of blood crystals sticking into his back, shoulders, and thighs made him incapable of leaving. Braxton watched as the demon spun around just in time to see a second flight of arrows, all tipped with sharp blood crystal shards flying at him. When he tried to avoid them, the ground gave way beneath his clawed feet. Another flight of arrows came from a third direction, all of them raining down on the wobbling demon, who was having to use his little wings to avoid falling. The dozens of shafts that struck him were sizzling his flesh and leeching away his power. In a panic, he spun back, sending a horrible gray blast of energy across the battlefield, which killed hundreds of gothicans and dwarves. Then he focused his rage and started for Braxton.
Braxton had just gotten back to his feet when the demon reached for him. He raised his sword defensively and wanted to run, but knew he couldn't. He had to make sure Pharark didn't move from where he was. Braxton found the void again while reaching back with both hands on the hilt of his weapon. He hurled it up at the demon's chest with all the strength he had and used the power of the jewel to guide it.
Pharark's hand smashed into him hard, but he was so deep into the void he didn't feel it. Picturing the sword in his mind, he guided it along the path he intended, and when it hit, he used the magic to push it deep into the demon's heart, and just as if it had been planned that way, Cobalt swooped between Braxton and the falling demon and Chureal used to power of her jewel to turn the sword into blood crystal as it sank into Pharark to the hilt.
Deep below the surface, Big H took his third mighty swing at the support column, and he knew it was enough as soon as he hit it. The thin layer of earth above him stopped rumbling and shaking, and he prayed for speed for he had a long way to run to get out from under it all and into one of the reinforced tunnels as it broke apart and collapsed completely.
Pharark was spraying blasts of gray death every which way his arms flailed, and his little wings beat furiously to stop his fall, but when he hit the ground on the surface, it gave away beneath him.
Already, the blood crystal sword was dissolving his punctured heart. The poisonous stuff pumped through his veins, mixing with his thick black blood. It was burning and draining him from within, but he wasn't dead yet. In the middle of his panicked fall through the ground, he managed to swipe out at Braxton, who was fighting mightily to avoid falling into the giant pit with the demon. The big purple claw was about to grab hold of him, but at the very last moment, Cobalt swept by again, latched Braxton by the shoulder, and with all the strength the young wyrm could manage, he lifted Braxton clear of the crumbling pit.
Pharark's eyes went wide, and he screamed out long and loud while he fell the nearly three hundred feet between the battlefield and the bottom of the pit the dwarves had dug. The scream ended abruptly, though, when nearly a dozen needle-like spikes, half of which had been turned into blood crystal, pierced his body. When he impacted the bottom. The earth shook so violently that every man, dwarf, and gothican on the battlefield was thrown to the ground.
In the astonished silence that followed, only two sounds could be heard. One was the clanging of steel on steel. Not an army in combat, but only two gothicans fighting, and all eyes turned from the smoldering pit where the demon had met his fate, to see Lord Ulrich Gruel and his son still battling each other. Both gothicans were worn and bleeding and seemed to be oblivious to everything around them. They were locked in what was clearly a fight to the death that neither wanted to lose.
The other sound was an odd crackling noise that only Braxton and a few of those around him seemed to hear.
One of the dwarves shouted, "What kind of stone is that cracking?"
"Look," said another dwarf, and all eyes followed his pointing finger toward the city, and even higher to the massive statue called the Ancestor's Dream. Cobalt landed next to where he’d dropped Braxton, which was beside the area Cryelos had been concealed in one of the dwarf holes. Already, the elf was running their way. Braxton watched in sorrowful silence as a magnificent work of art that had once made him feel free and capable of anything, slowly tilted and started its long slow fall toward the battlefield.
Chureal was about to tell Braxton that Big H was trapped under the demon, but the sight of the falling statue stole her words.
Lord Ulrich's gothicans, and the few trolls that remained, had thrown down their arms, seemingly awaiting the outcome of the battle between Lord Ulrich and his son. They and Karthick's red-sashed gothicans, along with the dwarves, all stood and watched Lord Ulrich and his son trying to kill each other. The dwarves however, were warning the red-sashed gothicans to clear back out of the path of the falling monum
ent. Lord Ulrich's warriors caught on and also cleared away. Several of Karthick's goths tried to warn him to get clear, too, but it was no use. He was so caught up in the fight against his father he couldn't hear them.
Out of the crowd, Dendle took off running. His injuries were obvious, but he didn't stop until he was close enough to get Karthick's attention. All he had to do was point, and when Karthick saw, he stopped fighting.
He then turned and ran away from his father, who had just landed a solid blow.
Lord Ulrich’s expression was wide-eyed and full of rage. His chest swelled with a warrior’s pride, and he looked at all the gawking gothicans, trolls, dwarves, and men staring at him and raised his sword in victory. He shouted loud enough that all could hear, "By the power of Goth, I have avenged the cruelties of men and now we shall make them feel the same pain we—"
No one ever heard what he was going to say, for the flat of the massive stone sword once held aloft by the Ancestor's Dream slapped the ground right over him, flattening him into the bloody field as it hit.
Still in the void, and now feeling the full grief and anguish of losing Nixy, Braxton reached to where Chureal sat on Cobalt's back and took her hand. He felt a hand on the shoulder Cobalt hadn’t clawed and knew it was Cryelos.
What sounded like thunder boomed right there among them. It was followed by a brilliant white light that enveloped them all. Braxton, the dragon, along with Chureal and Cryelos, were consumed by the flash, and they disappeared from the battlefield completely.
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