Jason was impressed. The two remaining groll, unfortunately, were not.
The first one lunged forward, mercilessly hacking downward with its axe. The knight easily caught the blow on his shield, and somehow, either due to magic or his own impressive strength, he managed not to buckle beneath the impact. Pivoting dexterously, the knight then twirled on a heel, effortlessly evading the groll’s follow-up swing and positioning himself behind the now over-extended creature. With a single crisp slash, he lopped off one of the monster’s legs from the knee down, then calmly plunged his sword through its back once it flopped face-first into the ground.
Jason was no longer impressed. At this point he was downright awe-stricken, and if not for the sudden rage-fueled roar echoing across the parapets, he might have forgotten there was still one groll left. Not that it really mattered.
Ten seconds and a frantic blur of steel later, the monster’s severed head was rolling across the stone, a disgusting trail of blood following in its wake. Combined with the still-hemorrhaging corpses of the other Isen soldiers, the walkway was now a veritable river of gore. Jason had to turn away before he was sick.
The knight, thankfully, had a stronger stomach. Sheathing his weapon, he immediately strode over and knelt down beside Lieutenant Iouna’s unmoving body. His gauntlet-covered hands began to glow a faint blue, and he held them tightly against Iouna’s chest for several seconds before the man began coughing.
“What?” the young officer whispered, his blond hair plastered against his forehead. “Who…?”
“It’s all right, son,” the knight said, taking off his own helmet. It was a face Jason knew well—it was a face half of Torsia knew well. A forty-something man with dark skin, piercing brown eyes, and a graying beard, Highlord Tevek Dracian was a veritable legend everywhere outside the Imperium. Jason could scarcely believe he was actually here in person. Apparently, his father’s desperate missive had gotten through after all.
“Sol have mercy,” Iouna breathed. “Are you—?”
“We need to get the refugees into the cavern before more Crell arrive,” Dracian interrupted, helping the younger man to his feet. “Can I count on you and your friend here to help me?”
“Y-yes, sir. Absolutely, sir.”
“Good,” the knight said, turning back to Jason. “Your father is down on the forward battlements attempting to rally the other soldiers. My people will give him as much cover as they can, but it’s our job to help the civilians.”
Jason nodded and did his best to hide his trembling hands. A few seconds ago, he had been certain he was going to die. But now…now everything was different. With Highlord Dracian at their side, they suddenly had a real chance.
Or so he hoped.
“Let’s move,” Dracian said, glancing down to the bodies, clasping his hand around Jason’s shoulder. “We don’t have much time.”
Together, they dashed back up the walkway and through the closest tower. The refugees were already waiting for them at the rear of the fortress; they were huddled together for warmth and protection beneath one of the wide overhangs along the cliff face. They were reasonably well-hidden here, at least, and so far the Crell riders hadn’t bothered to fly in this deep. The problem was that the actual door leading into the Isen Pass cavern was nearly a hundred feet away across a makeshift bridge—a bridge with no cover whatsoever.
“The lever will open the doors,” Dracian said, gesturing towards the ancient metallic device on the opposite side of the bridge. “Once we’re inside, there should be a release to trigger a rockslide and bury us in.”
Jason swallowed heavily. As a small boy, he had been obsessed with exploring old ruins, especially the old, pre-Godswar tunnels that were so common in Galvia. But the thought of willingly burying themselves inside a cave with no way out…
“The lever might be stubborn after all these years,” the Highlord added. “I’ll need some help.”
“I’ll go,” Iouna volunteered. He tapped Jason on the shoulder. “Stay here with the refugees just in case.”
“Right,” Jason whispered, glancing back to the huddled masses piled behind him. Most were simple farmers forced to flee eastern Galvia as the Imperium continued its advance towards the Solarian border. They were haggard and terrified, but they were also surprisingly old…or very young. The men and women closer to his age had long since been conscripted to the front lines, leaving only small children and their grandparents behind. When all this was over, an entire generation of Galvians would have been decimated. The thought made him turn away and bite his lip.
As Dracian and Iouna set out across the bridge, Jason caught a glimpse of the blue-eyed girl he had rescued from the upper levels earlier. She was huddled tightly against the wall, staring down at the piece of wood still clutched tightly in her small hands. He couldn’t imagine the hell her mind was going through right now…but he could at least empathize. He had watched his own mother die less than two years ago, crushed beneath the toppling wreckage of a building destroyed by a squad of Crell Imperators. Sometimes, her shattered body still haunted his dreams…
The staccato groan of old, stubborn steel echoed across the bridge as Dracian and Iouna pulled at the great lever. The refugees stood anxiously, awaiting the signal to dash to safety. The men had cranked the door halfway open when the knight abruptly dropped to a knee and shoved Iouna behind him. Without warning, a sizzling ball of flame streaked down from the sky, and Dracian barely managed to lift up his arm and summon his Aetheric shield in time. The fireball exploded against the barrier, and for a horrifying instant Jason feared the knight’s magic wouldn’ be enough. But then the smoke finally cleared, and miraculously the two men appeared completely unharmed.
The refugees screamed, and Jason dove into the doorway and glanced upward. Hovering a hundred feet above the bridge, his left hand sheathed in magical flame, was another manticore rider.
“Stay back!” Dracian warned, his deep voice barely audible over the screeching manticore. A second fireball detonated over his shield, and the two men hunkered down against the door as tightly as they could manage. The knight’s shield seemed capable of repelling the attacks well enough, but they were still trapped—without aid, they would never be able to open the door or retreat back across the bridge.
Grimacing, Jason waved the refugees farther back into the tower before retrieving his crossbow and taking aim. His first two shots missed cleanly as the rider accelerated upwards and away in preparation for another pass. His third shot, however, clipped the beast’s flank just as it tried to turn, and the rider had to struggle to keep his mount steady. For a moment, the manticore vanished from sight entirely, but after a few seconds it soared back over the tower and hovered next to the bridge. Except that this time the rider was no longer staring at the pinned-down men by the cavern doorway—he was staring directly at the pesky little crossbow-wielding soldier.
And belatedly, Jason understood the problem. He had expected to provoke the Imperator’s attention, of course, but he hadn’t considered the fact that there were dozens of helpless men and women huddled in behind him. The overhang would offer them some protection, but it was no guarantee. The assault on the upper level towers had proven that beyond a shadow of a doubt.
And so Jason made a choice. Hopping to his feet, he sprinted out to the center of the bridge. The rider hesitated, obviously caught off-guard by the suicidal maniac willing to leave his cover and fight a channeler in the open. But the shock didn’t last long: a few seconds later, he flicked his wrist and chucked another volley of flaming death down towards the bridge.
For the second time today, Jason watched imminent death descend upon him…and for the second time today, it somehow never arrived. In the brief instant before the fireball exploded in his face, another shimmering orb streaked across the bridge and struck the first. The two spheres exploded in a blinding flash, and the shockwave knocked Jason from his feet and slammed him against the stone.
Distantly, he heard the ma
nticore shriek in pain, and as he squinted through the afterimage seared into his vision, he caught a glimpse of the beast’s underbelly immolated in pure white flame. The rider yanked hard on the reins in a desperate attempt to control the wounded beast, but it was too late. Blinded by pain and confused by fear, the manticore jettisoned away in a random direction…and then smashed directly into the top of the nearest stone tower.
Whether or not the beast survived the impact, it dropped from the sky like a sack of rocks, taking its rider with it.
Jason caught his breath and turned to the doorway where the refugees were huddled in shock. Standing there just like before was the little girl…but now her hands were alight with Aetheric flame.
“Unbound.”
Jason wasn’t sure if he actually spoke the word aloud or not, but regardless he and the refugees were all thinking the same thing: only an Unbound could channel Aether without aid from an Ascendant. It was a rare and dangerous gift, and in many places across the world renegade channelers were imprisoned or even killed on sight. Here in Solaria, most Unbound children were locked away in a hidden asylum to protect themselves and others. But somehow this girl must have avoided detection…right up until now, when she had just saved everyone’s lives.
Crawling back to his feet, Jason dashed over towards her. The fire in her palms faded, and she slumped down against the stone. “It’s all right,” he soothed. “You saved me. You saved all of us.”
She didn’t reply. For several long seconds, she didn’t even move. But then eventually she buried herself into his chest and began sobbing uncontrollably.
Jason had no idea how long he sat there holding onto her, but he was acutely aware of the hushed and terrified whispers from the refugees. Some of them were as frightened now as they had been when the Crell rider attacked, and he was a little surprised that none of them raced back into the fortress to try and hide.
Eventually, Dracian and Iouna managed to pull down the lever and open the massive door, and the bridge rumbled with the echoes of stone scraping against stone. The girl leaned up, tears still streaking down her face, and locked her eyes with his.
“It’s all right,” he repeated, rubbing a hand through her hair. “I’ll take care of you. My name is Jason. Jason Moore.”
He didn’t really expect her to respond, but eventually she choked back her sobs enough to speak. “Krystia.”
Jason nodded and forced a smile. “We need to move, Krystia. We have to hide inside the mountain for a little while.”
“I know,” she whispered, her eyes darting back and forth between the nearby peasants as if they were bandits with shivs in their back pockets. “Are they going to hurt me?”
“No,” he assured her. “No, they won’t hurt you. Do you see that armored man over there?”
Krystia nodded without looking.
“He’s a Knight of the Last Dawn,” Jason went on. “He will protect you—he’ll protect all of us. Don’t worry.”
The door finally crunched to a stop, and Dracian began waving the refugees over. At first, they remained in huddled in place, but eventually good sense triumphed over fear and one by one they hustled across the bridge. Jason waited until the last ones were across before finally standing and lifting Krystia up into his arms.
“Your father and the others should be here soon,” Dracian said once they finally reached the other side. “My knights will make a final push into the Crell lines to try and draw them away long enough for us to collapse the tunnel.”
“What about your people?” Jason asked, frowning. “How will they escape?”
The Highlord’s cheek twitched. “They won’t,” he said quietly. “Once Tavorus’s troops arrive, we’ll need to fortify Isen as quickly as possible. If the Crell can take this pass, they’ll have free reign into Solaria.”
“We’ll hold,” Lieutenant Iouna proclaimed, and it really sounded like he believed it.
Dracian nodded as his dark eyes drifted down to Krystia. “Hello, my dear,” he said. “I’m glad you were here to save us.”
The girl squeezed Jason so hard it hurt even through his armor, and she buried her face back into his chest. “Her family was killed in the first attack,” he said, switching from the Solarian tongue to one of the other languages his father had forced him to learn. If he remembered correctly, Highlord Dracian was a native of Tauros, one of the many powerful human kingdoms overseas in Calhara. “I’m not sure how she survived.”
The knight nodded distantly. “I’m surprised she was able to avoid detection for so long. General Tavorus will likely wish us to return her to the capital.”
“Where she’ll be packed away in a vault and never heard from again,” Jason murmured. “You know how they treat Unbound in Solaria.”
Dracian sighed as the last of the refugees took shelter inside. “Whatever King Areekan’s personal views on her kind, she just saved our lives. I won’t allow him to forget that.”
“I’m sure he’ll listen to you,” Iouna said. “He always does.”
The Highlord grunted softly as he glanced back across the fortress towards the forward battlements. “We can’t afford to wait forever. If the Crell advance any closer, we’ll have to shut the door.”
“They’ll make it,” Jason said, wishing he believed it. “Dad always finds a way.”
***
Ethan only managed to grab three soldiers before the battle on the lower wall became untenable. While the Crell remained focused on defeating the knights and their dragons, blasts of explosive fire were still randomly bombarding Isen’s walls. The last of the ballistae had already been destroyed, and there was nothing else here worth defending.
“Back to the cavern!” he ordered. “Now!”
They stormed across the battlements and wound their way up the stairs and walkways, but just as they reached the uppermost level a massive black husk plunged out of the sky and smashed into Isen’s central tower. The stone buckled beneath the dragon’s weight, and chunks of shattered stone showered the entire area.
“Move!” Ethan screamed as he scrambled for cover before anything else exploded and cut them off completely.
Hunkering down beneath one of the larger parapets, Ethan glanced back over his shoulder and saw Selvhara frantically attempting to lead a group of survivors to safety. A storm of rocky debris rained down over them, and her fingertips flashed with Aetheric power as she summoned a stiff gust of wind in a last, desperate gambit to deflect the barrage. The pebbles were willing to cooperate; the larger stones, unfortunately, were not. She made it halfway to the parapet before a fist-sized chunk of rock finally slipped past her defenses and struck her in the head.
Ethan was already sprinting towards her by the time his brain caught up and realized the tower was still collapsing above them. Another deluge of pebbles rained down across his back, but he barely even felt them. He crouched down on top of her, shielding her body as best he could, before flipping her over to check her pulse. She was alive, if only just; a stream of blood trickled down her face, and judging from the placement of the wound there was a good chance her skull had been cracked. But he knew if he could just get her to one of the knights, they would be able to heal enough of the damage to bring her conscious…at which point her own magic could take over.
“Get to the cavern!” he called over his shoulder as he hefted her up into his arms. “Now!”
Ethan turned and ran as quickly as he could. A few months ago, before the fall of Galvia and the death of its king, he could have healed Selvhara himself. He could have healed all of these soldiers himself and mounted a much better defense against whatever the Crell threw at them.
But not anymore. Now he was just a tired old man desperate to ensure that no one else died because of his mistakes. He had already lost everything…but he wasn’t about to lose Jason or Selvhara too. He would get them into that cavern even if he had to fight through half the bloody Crell army along the way.
Long minutes passed as they wove through Is
en’s exterior to the bridge at its rear, and his arms began to quiver from fatigue. Selvhara wasn’t exactly heavy—the slender elysian was half his weight at most, and her Aether-tempered scale armor probably weighed less than his sword—but age and injury were finally taking their toll. Clenching his teeth, Ethan ignored the pain as best he could, and eventually they passed the eviscerated bodies of several Solarian troops and a handful of groll. Mercifully, Jason’s body didn’t appear to be among the dead, and a few seconds later they finally reached the bridge—
“Dad!” Jason called out from cavern opening. He and Lieutenant Iouna were both standing there, bloodied but seemingly all right, and next to them was the familiar tall, barrel-chested figure of one of Ethan’s least favorite people in the entire world.
“Thank the gods you made it,” Highlord Tevek Dracian said, kneeling over to inspect Selvhara. “We weren’t going to wait much longer.”
“She’s wounded,” Ethan bit out as a previously forgotten pain spiked through his lungs and arms. “Can you help her?”
He needn’t have asked. Dracian’s hands were already glowing with Aetheric energy as he channeled healing magic into her wounds. For a few seconds nothing happened, and Ethan feared he hadn’t been fast enough…but then she coughed several times and her violet eyes fluttered open.
“Easy,” Dracian soothed, smiling down at her. “You were struck in the head. You’ll need to lie down for a while.”
Selvhara blinked several times, her eyes darting between the men looming over her and the massive door just behind them. She lifted a hands to her face and channeled her own healing spell, but she was clearly still too weak to stand. Jason leapt over and slung her arm over his shoulder when she faltered.
“Help me inside,” she whispered. “I will seal us in.”
While Jason and Ethan helped her walk, Dracian and Iouna raced over to the gate lever and pulled. Soon the unmistakable sound of metal grinding against stone echoed throughout the cavern and stirred the stale air. The refugees huddled together, and Ethan watched grimly as the door gradually sealed shut, plunging them into total darkness.
The Godswar Saga (Omnibus) Page 3
