“It is odd to find us here,” Sara began as Ashton nodded his agreement. “Potentially our final battle upon the same field where we fought our first. This time, don’t transport us to some land we’ve never seen before.”
“Honestly I wish it were an option. There are many lands on Thurr I’ve not seen with my eyes yet,” Seth admitted.
“Then how do you know they exist?” Sara probed.
“I have felt them. I have felt their people. There is so much more to Thurr than what we know. The gods influence it all. I hope we are able to change that and really become free.”
“If anyone can, it’s you,” Sara grinned.
“I hope you are right.” Looking over his shoulder, Seth smiled wide at the approaching orc. The man’s green face was painted with white under the eyes in three stripes.
“Welcome home, Ashton. I’m sorry it took so long for me to realize.” Seth hugged the orc hard, patting him on the back.
“How did you know?” asked the orc containing Ashton.
“Yeah, how did you know it was him?” Sara seconded.
“It is a long story,” Seth admitted. “The short version is that Ashton was abducted the last time we battled here, and the orc king used his ability to put Ashton’s essence inside an orc body, and sent an imposter back with us to Valdadore.”
“Bloody Abyss,” Borrik growled. “How is such a thing even possible?”
“That is a rather difficult question. Ashton, I’m glad to have you back. As soon as I am able I will restore you to your body.”
“No,” Ashton replied. “My body was weak and this one is strong. The orc people needed a talented healer, and I gave them that. I enjoy serving their needs. It is my duty.”
Seth had not seen the response coming, but there was no time for argument. He needed to focus on the task at hand.
“Very well, Ashton. I pray we do not need your talents this day.”
Seth reached out with his power. Garret’s full force was on the move again. They’d stopped for the night at the keep, but once rested, they marched to war. The time was upon him. He dismantled his body within his cloak as his bones and flesh altered, each fiber realigning, becoming as he willed.
* * * * *
Garret led the army with Anna on one side and Kanth on the other. It had been a long journey hindered by the need to feed such a large force. The path through the ancient forest had been too narrow and had stretched his lines out for miles and miles. Now, however, the army marched as a cohesive unit once more.
Topping the rise where he had camped over a year ago with the previous king, his mentor, Lord Sirus, and his good friend, Zorbin Ironfist, he sighed in relief when he noted the army opposite the valley. As promised, the orcs, goblins, and trolls had come.
Raising a hand to command the army to stop, he looked back to be certain his command was heeded. To a man, the massive army froze. Grinning, Garret kicked at his mount’s flanks and thundered down the side of the hill towards the center of the valley with Kanth and Anna hot on his heels. Opposite him he could see an orc accompanied by a Lycan and one other making their way down as well. Reaching the bowl of the valley, Garret was surprised to see that the world had once again claimed it. Gone were the mud and gore and in its place was brush and grass as if the battle a year ago never happened. Pulling back on the reins of his mount he slowed it to a trot as the beast stumbled, the earth beneath it beginning to pitch and quake.
Cursing, Garret brought his massive steed to a stop, peering across the expanse. Ahead, perhaps thirty yards, a vast eruption of soil launched into the air as jagged rocks reached upwards towards the sky like giant skeletal fingers. Dust and soil was caught in the breeze casting a haze upon the valley as the earth was wrought in two, a great jagged void opening up across its entire length. Garret had seen such work before. The demon king.
Peering across the void he could see the glow emanating from the hands of the orc who approached. He could now see it was not one of his Lycans, but his brother’s foul beast, Borrik. The demon queen was there as well. Scowling at those across the new gorge, Garret watched in awe as the orc’s features melted away, replaced by those of the demon himself.
“You think you can stop me with such a small force, demon?” Garret spat, invoking his blessing to carry his words.”
“No, brother. I wish there was no need for armies at all.”
“You know I can leap this gorge,” Garret threatened.
“Yes, if you invoke your blessing. But how well would you fare against an entire army?”
Garret was fuming. The demon had stolen hundreds of thousands of men from him, or had it been a trap all along? What game was the demon playing?
“Come and fight me, you wretch!” Garret boomed.
“I’ll never fight you, Garret. I love you. I love Valdadore. I love Thurr.”
“You lie! What game is this?”
“I am sorry for all the pain and loss you have endured. I have suffered as well. We all have. There is a true enemy, but I am not him.”
“Then surrender,” Garret offered. “I’ll execute you, your whore, and all those you have tainted. The rest may go free.”
“I can’t do that, Garret. I would gladly sacrifice myself if that is what it took to fix everything. But it isn’t as easy as that.”
“Then come and fight!” Garret demanded once more.
“Do you not have it in you to forgive, Garret?”
“You deserve no forgiveness, creature.” Garret kicked his horse’s flanks, driving the beast forward. Jerking on the reins at the last moment the steed leapt, as Garret rose and placed one foot on the saddle. Waiting until they reached the apex, Garret summoned his blessing as he pushed off of the beast, knowing full well it would fall into the chasm. Exploding in size as his great blades sprang from his wrists. Lashing out, the tendrils of lightning flashed about before him, wrapping about the demon who now stood only twenty foot away. It sizzled and snapped as the demon caught fire, but then, as quickly as it had come, the tongues of electricity were gone and the demon stood unharmed.
“Stand down, Garret. Think about what you are doing and why.”
Garret began a reply, but was cut short by motion out of the corner of his eye. Twisting his giant head he witnessed as Anna lunged across the gorge, dagger in hand, barely touching the ground on the other side before springing atop the demon queen. They went down in a tangle of limbs, rolling with fangs and blades flashing. Garret took one last look at his queen before charging the demon.
Twisting backwards, the demon queen grabbed Anna’s wrists and kicked out in one mighty blow, casting Anna backwards, her limbs flailing. She screamed, her voice cut short suddenly as she collided with rock somewhere below. Garret bellowed out a battle cry. They’d killed her again. Leaning forward, he began pumping his legs.
* * * * *
Seth watched his brother come. Rage had consumed him, driven him mad. No longer did the brother he remembered exist in the shell of the man who had lunged across the gorge. Even so, tears ran from Seth’s eyes as he raised his hands, extending his power to rip away Garret’s blessing.
“Gather your wits, Garret and denounce Ishanya! You are too good for her sick ways! Forgive me my wrongs, command your army away and lay down your weapons!”
Even in his natural human state Garret barreled towards him screaming, “For Valdadore!”
Seth swallowed the lump in his throat, his entire body shaking. “I’m sorry, brother. Some must be sacrificed.” Reaching out, Seth snuffed the life of his brother, the act bringing him to his knees as it felt his very soul were breaking in two.
Sara grabbed his shoulder, hefting him back to his feet, but he couldn’t see her through the tears. It was the only way.
Ishanya had to die.
As the ash of Garret’s remains settled into the grasses ahead of Seth, he could feel the world around him changing. The goddess was on to his plan. Reaching out across the gorge, Seth snuffed the lives of every Lycan on the field as
more power than he had ever felt infused with his own. He felt awash in a river, drowning, the loss of his brother and the power threatening to overcome him. His aura swelled and with it his power. Seth reached out again and snuffed the lives of the remaining Lycans in Valdadore, a thousand leagues away.
It was hard to concentrate. It was hard to see, with his eyes or his power and she was coming. Seth gasped, having forgotten to breath, everything was moving so slowly. The man across the gorge from him, Garret’s only remaining companion, jumped off the cliff, having lost all hope. Seth watched him plummet those first few feet and it seemed weeks passed. Each breath seemed an eternity. He could count the droplets of water in the clouds passing above. He felt her nearing, but she remained on the other side of the veil.
His heart felt as if it would explode, yet seemed not to beat. Swelling. Everything seemed to be swelling. Distorted. The world felt like a second skin, crawling all over him as his gargantuan aura touched everything.
He left his mortal shell.
Transitioning into the realm of the gods, Seth could feel Ishanya like never before. He willed her into physical form and she appeared to him as such. He was nearly her equal, so vast was his power now.
“You would kill your own brother to wage a war against beings you cannot defeat?” Ishanya taunted him. “The same brother who taught you to lace your boots and who made you a prince?”
Even in his spiritual form Seth felt the words like daggers. She was trying to make him feel ashamed, weak, scared. Because she was scared. But there was nothing to protect her now. He was an abomination. Her abomination. Seth reached out and grasped at the aura that was Ishanya and began to pull.
Piece by piece he tore at her as she shrieked, altering her appearance to that of his father, James, and then to that of Garret. But Seth steeled himself to his task. Her aura was like a drug, intoxicating and devastating. It was overwhelming. He could feel himself failing. It was too much. He had misjudged his ability to contain so much power. He was not yet strong enough. He could feel her tendrils tearing him apart from the inside. He couldn’t contain so vast an entity. Every fiber of his being was being torn. He felt himself waver and buckle. He needed more power. Not taken, but freely given. He’d misjudged and for it all would be lost.
* * * * *
Sara shrieked as Seth’s legs gave out from beneath him. He was sweating all over, trembling, and crying. His body was wracked again and again as blood sprayed from his breath forming little droplets on his lips and face. She knew not what had overcome him, but knew that he was fighting for his life. “Seth!” she screamed at him, slapping his cheek. “Seth, what is it?”
His skin began growing gray and cold. Borrik towered over them both, casting them in shadow. “Seth, you have to tell me what to do. What’s wrong?” she pleaded.
“Not enough,” Seth mumbled.
“Not enough what?” she pleaded.
“Power. I’m not strong enough.”
Seth was not in their world. He was fighting, and she could guess who. Sara watched as Seth’s skin began to split, literally being torn apart by something she would never understand. Tears poured down her own face as she cupped his cheeks in her hands.
“Turn me back, Seth. Make me human. Can you do that?” she screamed into his face. She knew it was what he needed, what he wanted. Not like this. Not in these circumstances, but his pale hand raised to her face and the euphoria of his power washed over her and she felt for an instant as her body changed, the organs in her gut altering slightly, the fangs in her jaw retracting. She let him drop to the ground. “Borrik. It’s up to you to take care of him now.”
Sara stood and turned. She no longer had the ability to heal. Though she was filled with a hundred thousand years’ worth of life, she was frail. She flung herself over the edge of the gorge. She was full of power, and the only god she believed in was her husband. Closing her eyes before she hit bottom, Sara whispered, “I love you.”
* * * * *
Seth felt the end of Sara’s life as if it were his own. So connected to her and so used to her aura was he that he realized too late what it was she had done. Her power rushed into him like a tidal wave, becoming one with him, and the pain of his task subsided. Seth redoubled his efforts as Ishanya flung images of his dead wife at him, showing him her twisted, ruined body. But he drew her power into him, slowly twisting it to his will and consuming it, becoming one with it. Sara had bought his salvation with her life. And though her loss devastated him, he could see now that it had been the only way. As Sara’s final power ebbed into him, he turned his gaze on the withering goddess. “You’ve taken everything I loved! You’ve taken my life, a life I could have had with Sara and our children. No longer will I allow the gods to meddle in the affairs of men!”
Reaching out with his power he drew what remained of Ishanya to him and let her fear wash over his pain for a moment before snuffing out all that remained of her. Taking the goddess’s power and infusing his own, he knew now the only path to set Thurr free. Seth summoned all the gods to him. There were more than he had even known of. Some were minor beings, and some, like Lorentia, Gorandor, and Ximlin were mighty. Even so, he dwarfed them all. It was Gorandor who nodded his understanding and knelt before Seth.
They had been right all along, Seth’s closest companions. He was a god, but not like those they had grown fearing and respecting. No, he had walked among men and learned the most important lesson of all. Compassion.
But for the world to be free, some sacrifices would have to be made.
Seth killed the gods. One at a time at first, consuming the weakest as his power grew, and then all together. So vast was his power, Seth could feel other worlds. He’d never imagined such a thing before, but he understood them now. He could see fate and time as if they were his own hand. He could recreate Thurr as he wished and bring back his wife, brother, and father. Even his mother. He could do as he wished and live whatever life he chose.
But he couldn’t. It was wrong. Not to want the life that was stolen from him, but abusing the lives of every living thing on Thurr to suit his own wants. No matter how much his heart yearned for what could be, he had to let them go. If he wanted the gods gone for good, and wanted to do better than they had, there was only one way…
Shifting back to the mortal plane, he looked up at a giant beast of a man, who was weeping like a beaten child. Wracked by uncontrollable sobs, Borrik didn’t even notice when Seth opened his eyes. Securely held in the man’s furry arms, Seth patted Borrik on the arm and watched as realization came to his friend’s face.
“By the gods, you’re alive!”
“I am.”
“Can you bring her back?”
“I can bring them all back, but I won’t.”
“What? Why?”
“I’m sorry, friend, I have to hurry.”
Seth reached out across the world of Thurr and dismantled every temple to every god on every continent of the world. He destroyed every book and every bible associated with the gods. He reached into the hearts and minds of all men and other manners of intelligent creature and removed all memories of the gods, including himself. Gnak had shown him the way and his vast power had given him the means. There was nothing he couldn’t do. Reaching out to his men, he restored their humanity, undoing the meldings he had done of necessity. Then, reaching up to rest his hand on Borrik’s chest, he siphoned all the changes he had put into the man back into himself, restoring the human he once knew.
Borrik was no longer a priest, but neither would there be need for him to be a warrior. Either way, Seth had given the man his word. He would be powerful and live a long life. Seth left his friend all the power that he contained. He would live for a thousand years if nothing befell him.
Moving so fast no other being could witness his doings, Seth smiled at his friend before stepping off the edge of the chasm he had created only minutes before. Reaching into himself, he unleashed the core of his being, the part that gave him the
ability to destroy, and set it loose inside himself. As his mortal shell plummeted, that which bound his power together was broken and his magic was unleased, unrestrained upon the world of Thurr where it would remain for all time, wild. No longer would a god control the fate of the world and its beings. Seth vanished from existence.
Epilogue
Kanth clung to the cliff face, climbing down slowly. Looking down over his shoulder, he released his grip and plummeted the final twenty feet. Already she had healed and stood there watching him as he approached. “Queen Anna, ok?” he asked, seeing a confused look on her face.
“Yes, but I’m having a hard time remembering why I’m here.”
“Kanth too. Was battle. We fell?”
“I think so.”
“Kanth head hurt.”
“Mine too. What about Garret?”
“King die. Sorry, my queen.”
Kanth was surprised Anna didn’t cry. She showed no emotion whatsoever. It was as if she didn’t care her mate had died. Maybe it was why she had other mates and fed on them. It was not important. If she was not upset, then she was not upset.
Looking around, Kanth could see another body as well. It was of a woman. He recognized her, but didn’t know her. She was twisted at odd angles, and blood was pooled about her head and lips. Approaching the body, Kanth admired the woman. She had been beautiful. But the dead didn’t need luxurious clothes.
Reaching down, Kanth stripped the woman of her jewelry. Admiring her boots, he walked around the corpse and gasped. Never in a million years did he expect what he was seeing. There, between the woman’s mangled legs, a babe hung half in, and half out of the woman’s body. It was fully formed, its mouth opening and closing before it coughed once and began to wail.
* * * * *
Anna pushed off the gorge wall where she had been leaning and rushed to Kanth’s side. She recognized the woman though her fangs were gone. It had been the enemy’s queen. The one who had changed her. But if she had died, then Anna should have changed back. Something had gone wrong. The enemy queen had been altered somehow and died a human, leaving the link between them broken. Anna would remain a monster forever. And this… This was their child. She should kill it. But it was valuable. If they won the battle, she could use the child as a means to rule Drakenhurst. If they lost she could use it as ransom.
Age of the Gods: The Complete, twelve novel, fantasy series (The Blood and Brotherhood Saga) Page 208
