Halls of Power (Ancient Dreams Book 3)

by Benjamin Medrano

  “Come in, Elissa, and close the door behind you. You are letting the heat out.” Tyria’s voice was oddly mild, considering her appearance. The priestess numbly obeyed, closing the door behind her and carefully setting her things to the side.

  “What happened to you, Your Eminence?” Elissa asked, feeling stunned and somewhat terrified. Anything that could hurt a goddess to that extent was shocking.

  “I underestimated the city of Beacon. The light atop the city is not merely decorative, but is a weapon of some kind,” Tyria told her, swirling the water gently. “Where I landed may be a decent-sized pond one day. Much depends on the course water takes. Regardless, I now know the weapon is there, which will aid in future attempts to breach the city.”

  “Oh, I… what kind of weapon could harm you to such an extent, Your Eminence?” Elissa asked, feeling breathless now.

  “Elissa. You called me Tyria before this, you can once again. It will not anger me.” Tyria’s voice was mild and she gestured Elissa forward. “Now, into the water with you. I’m certain you came here to take a bath.”

  “Y-yes, of course,” the priestess agreed, beginning to undress.

  Even as she watched, she saw the bruise across Tyria’s body beginning to fade along with the other injuries. The goddess’ armor was also repairing itself slowly, which made Elissa wonder just how badly hurt Tyria had been when she’d been hit. It took a minute, but finally she was undressed and slid into the water, gasping as she found it was just barely cool enough to not burn her.

  “I vaguely recognized it as a defensive weapon from before the Godsrage, though this one was much larger than any that I can recall,” Tyria said at last, her voice calm. “I believe they had a variety of names, but such an easily activated version of that strength is unusual. I believe I have a few methods of bypassing it, however, and doubt they would destroy their own city with it.”

  “I… I see. That’s good to hear,” Elissa murmured, trying to relax.

  “Indeed. Now, Elissa… what is this?” Tyria asked, standing up and pointing directly at the vivid purple slave brand on her lower body, complete with the purple gemstone it framed.

  For a moment Elissa forgot to breathe as she looked at her goddess and the brand which controlled her. At least in theory. After a few moments she swallowed and replied softly. “That is a slave brand, Milady. It allows… allows the Archon or his lady, a demon lord named Irethiel, to give you orders and control you.”

  “I see. I do not recall this being done of my own accord, which means that it was done as I slept. Perhaps they even did more than that to me,” Tyria mused, her eyes narrowing as she looked down, then snorted. “No matter, I suppose. While irritating, at least I can ensure that if they wish to give any orders, they will have to find me and do so in person.”

  Elissa was about to say something, but paused as the goddess flicked a finger and a series of symbols rippled and flowed across her body like a shell. Moments later the symbols vanished, and Elissa asked, “May I ask what you did?”

  “Of course. I blocked the ability of others to send me messages. I will still hear prayers, but prayers cannot convey commands like you speak of,” the goddess replied readily, smiling thinly. “Perhaps they will be put out, but it is only what they deserve.”

  “Why is that? I mean… you’re the Goddess in Chains, aren’t you?” Elissa asked, feeling quite confused.

  “Yes, I am. However, my creed is that one should possess a worthy master. The Archon has yet to prove himself worthy of my regard in any way, and his Lady even less so. Should they prove themselves, I will acquiesce utterly, but until that time I will not,” Tyria explained, settling back into the water. “Remember, Elissa, I believe that the master should be worthy of the follower. What kind of master makes to claim via subterfuge and dishonesty? Not one that I would choose. I would rather face them and, should I fail, submit at that point. In that, those in Beacon at least impressed me, as did the elves. They showed courage.”

  “I think I understand. I just… it was not what I was teaching the congregation, My Lady,” Elissa replied, sinking into the water up to her neck.

  Tyria smiled in return, shaking her head as her wounds continued to vanish, her voice filled with confidence. “Ah, but it was. You may not have realized it, but it was what you were teaching, Elissa.”

  Elissa’s didn’t dare say anything more, simply staring back at the goddess as she smiled and relaxed. The priestess thought back to her lessons, and began to wonder if she’d possibly miscalculated in her decisions when talking to Ulvian. If she had… well, at this point she didn’t consider it a bad thing.

  Chapter 46

  “She’s coming.” Sistina’s voice was soft, but her words made Phynis stop in the middle of the hallway.

  “Are you sure?” Phynis asked, her voice trembling. “I’d hoped that after yesterday she’d just leave us alone, if she survived the strike.”

  “Yes. Her power is strong, I can feel it,” the dryad confirmed, and she frowned as she added, “She is being careful. I must prepare.”

  “If you say so. Be careful, Sistina.” Phynis swallowed hard as she embraced her beloved. Sistina hugged her gently in return, and then Phynis asked, “Is there anything you want me to do?”

  Sistina held Phynis for a moment, but finally pulled away, holding Phynis’ shoulder as her deep green eyes stared into the Queen’s. Her voice was quiet but firm. “Be careful, defend the city. Be ready to run. If I have not died in an hour, come to me. Bring the Jewels. Medaea, or Tyria, will be difficult.”

  “If you haven’t died?” Phynis couldn’t help her voice from rising at the suggestion, her eyes wide. “I don’t want you to be doing something that dangerous, Sistina!”

  “I won’t. That is…” Sistina paused, then flushed ever so slightly. “It’s the easiest way to be sure. If I’m alive, then it’s safe to enter. Don’t want to use a message stone.”

  “Oh! So, how good are your odds, then?” Phynis asked, her eyes narrowing as her nerves calmed. “If you used your last resort, I mean?”

  “Almost certain. Without… they are decent. Not certain, but good,” Sistina replied, shrugging and dropping her hands to hold Phynis’. “I will do my best.”

  “Good. I’ll do as you say, Sistina. I’m also going to let Farris know,” Phynis murmured, and finally let Sistina go. “Go get ready. We’ll do our best.”

  “Yes,” Sistina murmured, smiling and turning to leave.

  Phynis watched her go, chewing her lower lip nervously. Then she headed toward the stairs leading up to the beacon itself. She’d rather Farris knew what was coming.

  It was quieter today, Slaid had noticed. Kelvanis’ army seemed more subdued and less aggressive since the attack the previous day. It was quiet enough that Vendis had taken the day off, which he totally understood. She’d been getting exhausted lately, even if he did rather enjoy her company.

  Still, as he surveyed the fields outside he couldn’t help but frown. It was obvious that the enemy was expecting something. The question was what were they waiting for?

  “Umar, I want you to go talk to the men, make sure they’re ready. I’m not sure what’s all going on, but something about the situation has me on edge,” Slaid told his lieutenant, scanning the enemy army nervously. The siege engines on both sides were firing, but sporadically due to how few could reach one another.

  “Alright, I can do that, boss. Do you have any idea what it is, though?” Umar asked, glancing out at the Kelvanis army curiously. “I think the men would be happier with something specific.”

  “I have no idea for sure. It just looks like they’re waiting for something. It’s possible the goddess is going to be back,” the rebel commander explained, shrugging. “If she does come back, I hope she gets nailed to a mountain again. Preferably twice, to make sure she doesn’t get back up. I wouldn’t put money on it, but it’s something I can hope for.”

  “Right, that would be bad. I’ll get right on it,” Um
ar replied, quickly jogging off to talk to the officers on duty.

  While Umar was busy, Slaid approached a couple of the magi, only to blink in surprise as he realized he recognized one of the elves. “Hey, you’re Cortin, right? One of the teachers at the Academy, from before the Godsrage?”

  “Yes, that’d be me,” the blond young elf replied, grinning as he offered a hand to Slaid. “And you’re the rebel commander from Kelvanis, Slaid Darkeye. I remember you.”

  “I’m flattered that you bothered remembering me,” the human told Cortin, shaking his hand and asking. “What’re you doing down here, anyway? I haven’t seen you on the walls before.”

  “Well… I suppose you can blame Kassandra,” Cortin replied ruefully, running a hand through his hair sheepishly. “She said that she’d had enough of us hiding from what had happened, and that I needed to get out into the city for something other than flirting. Since I’m a pretty damned good fire mage by current standards, I figured I’d come down and help.”

  “That’s great news! What sort of things can you pull off?” Slaid asked, his eyes brightening. Most magi didn’t have a huge repertoire of attack spells, it was more the utility effects they had that would really give them flexibility.

  Before Cortin could reply, the city beacon fired, the gold-cored crimson beam illuminating the entire city and sky as it shot out into the mountainside to the south. The rumbling crash in its aftermath made Slaid wince, and he shook his head. For a moment he thought his ears were ringing, which they were, but after a moment he realized that the alarm bells were ringing too.

  “It had to be Tyria they were trying to hit! Did they get her?” Slaid demanded, rushing toward the other side of the gatehouse with Cortin at his heels. Part of the mountainside to the south was collapsing in rubble, making it hard to see anything, but Slaid scanned the area hopefully.

  He was still scanning it when a flicker of movement caught his eye to the east, and an angelic figure seemed to melt out of thin air no more than fifty yards away, a flaming sword in both hands as she swung it hard.

  From the sword erupted a massive sea of purple flames. They exploded outward in an enormous wave, seeming to eclipse the very sky itself as they descended on the city. Slaid barely had time to catch his breath before the city’s shield flickered into existence, an immense crimson dome that crackled as the fire struck it. He could feel the incredible heat of the attack, and Slaid’s eyes widened as he saw the far edge of the parapets begin to blacken and bubble under the immense heat.

  Fortunately, the fires died off before the walls could begin melting, but the human found himself covered by a sheen of sweat, and worried at the absence of any sign of their attacker. Slaid quickly spoke, looking everywhere. “Where did she—”

  The sound of something hitting the gate was accompanied by the shriek of twisting metal, drowning out his question as the goddess’ voice echoed. “You should open the gates for a goddess, but it is no matter. I shall do it myself.”

  With another impact the gates shrieked again, then clattered across the ground, broken. Slaid paled and swallowed, then glanced at Kelvanis’ lines. “Ah, shit.”

  While they’d been distracted the enemy army had surged forward eagerly, and most of the hesitation he’d seen before was gone. Slaid winced again as he heard something hit the inner gate, shaking his head and yelling. “Ignore her! Kelvanis is attacking, stop them!”

  “Isn’t that a bad idea? She’s going to rip us apart once she’s inside!” Cortin protested. Fortunately most of the soldiers weren’t paying attention to him, and as the gates and most of a portcullis were launched across the courtyard, Slaid looked at him and scowled.

  “There isn’t a single gods damned thing we can do to stop her! She could’ve broken through the shield if she really wanted to, so focus on the people we can stop,” he growled, gesturing outside the walls. “Sistina said to leave Tyria to her once she got inside, so damned well leave her to it! We’ve got enough problems with mortals outside the gates, so show me what you can do!”

  “Are you kidding? She’s… oh, fine!” Cortin threw up his hands, glancing back toward the woman who’d just emerged into the courtyard nervously. He relaxed when she didn’t pay them any mind, and started casting a spell.

  Slaid impatiently paced, wishing that he had his other eye. The lack of depth perception made aiming a bow or crossbow incredibly difficult for him, which meant that he wasn’t able contribute meaningfully until his opponents were closer. Even so, his eye widened as Cortin cast his spell, and a twenty foot across column of fire formed outside the city and began to slowly spin faster and faster.

  “What in the hell is that?” Slaid asked.

  “A firenado,” Cortin replied smugly as the flames began to spin more quickly, turning into an actual tornado with fire blazing throughout it, and Slaid barely heard the elf mutter under his breath. “Block this, you bastards.”

  Slaid turned away from the blazing twister bearing down on their attackers just in time to see Tyria fly into the dungeon entrance and winced, muttering softly, “I hope you’re as prepared as you claimed to be, Sistina.”

  Though Sistina didn’t realize it, she was hoping the same thing as Slaid. Her body had reached her tree not long before, and the rumble of the beacon firing had told her that things were about to go badly. Even so, she felt surprisingly helpless, waiting for others to come to her. It had almost been a relief when she’d felt the goddess touch her domain, even if she’d retracted her senses from the area in question.

  Tyria was like a blazing sun that had intruded into her domain, a being of fire and power that was impossible to ignore. Sistina couldn’t tell what she was doing until the woman entered the dungeon, but the difference between them was different than she’d expected.

  Sistina had expected to feel largely suppressed by the deity’s power, yet that wasn’t happening. While Tyria was capable of channeling her power more directly into magical effects than Sistina and had more raw power at her command, she didn’t feel like she was more powerful in general. Sistina didn’t feel like she was less than the goddess, and that puzzled the dryad. According to her memories, no dryad, dungeon, angel, or even demon should be able to face a deity at all.

  Still, the thought vanished from her mind as Tyria entered the dungeon, her eyes blazing. Sistina winced and quickly moved all the defending monsters she could out of the path of the goddess, knowing they wouldn’t do much good. That was what one of her recent summoning spells was for.

  That she had moved things was good, because Tyria didn’t pause or try to go through the maze. With a blast of fire, she began to bore a hole directly through the dungeon walls, burrowing through the dungeon directly toward Sistina herself.

  At least that meant that the adventurers who’d been on the second floor wouldn’t run into the goddess, Sistina reflected. That would have likely gone badly for them.

  If the alarm hadn’t warned Daniel that there was something wrong, the gates getting kicked off their hinges by a goddess had certainly done the job. Seeing the twisted metal doors go skidding across the stone courtyard had been a sight that he’d never wanted to observe, yet there was nothing to be done about it. As Alfred had directed, he waited as the glowing goddess flew across the courtyard and barely folded her wings in time to not clip the walls of the dungeon before she vanished within, and he finally managed to find the ability to breathe again.

  While part of him had wanted to just sit and relax for a while, the gaping hole that was the front gate indicated that such wasn’t a good idea. That was why he and the other adventurers were waiting when Kelvanis’ soldiers managed to break through the fountains of water, murder holes, and arrow slits of the gatehouse, and into the city itself.

  The soldiers were ragged when they first broke into the city, but Daniel found himself relieved when Beacon’s soldiers and a mix of Sifaren’s army and Kelvanis’ rebels engaged them. He didn’t find himself quite ready to fight his former countrymen just ye
t, and so he watched the bloodshed with a growing sense of horror in his stomach.

  Only a year before he hadn’t really cared about warfare, at least not that much. It was simply part of life, yet now he was watching people brutally murder one another and he wondered what had changed. Was it that he had a relatively happy life with Sina and the others? Was it the camaraderie of the Adventuring Guild, and how despite their many differences the people there defended one another with their lives? In all truth, Daniel couldn’t figure out what it was. All he knew was that war was horrible.

  Eventually, after nearly a quarter of an hour the attacking army had forced back the defenders enough that they began to spill over toward the Guild’s lines. As they did, Daniel saw Darak step forward, and the dwarf cleared his throat and bellowed out a warning. “Hey, numbskulls! This area is controlled by the Western Adventuring Guild, and we want no part of your war! Step into this courtyard and we’ll cut ya to ribbons! Or fry ya like ducks! So back the hell off!”

  “How can he yell that loudly?” Eric asked nervously from nearby.

  Joseph chuckled as he replied, loudly enough to be heard over the clamor of battle. “His father was a drill sergeant in his hometown. You might say it runs in the family.”

  “Fair enough, I… aw, dammit.” Eric’s voice trailed off before his curse.

  While the Kelvanis soldiers had paused, they hadn’t stopped, and they rolled toward Daniel and the others implacably. Bracing himself for the battle, Daniel pulled out a throwing knife, hefting its familiar weight as he watched them come, his stomach tensing as several men came straight for him. Any second and—

  Daniel didn’t see the first of the soldiers step across the invisible line that Alfred had set. What he did see were the flagstones in an area ten feet across suddenly turning into angled stone stalagmites that punched straight through a half-dozen soldiers. An instant later, Darak let out a war cry and charged, his massive axe in both hands as he bodily sent three more soldiers to the grave. He heard a roaring blast of flame to his right, but Daniel didn’t have time to look. Even as the handful of soldiers in front of him began to react, he threw his dagger into the throat of one, and Nirath finished her spell.