A rematch was in order, but Mykel resolved that this fight would go differently. He stepped past the shattered doors toward Cross with determination. Flanked on either side by a dozen soldiers, Cross motioned to the men, forbidding them to interfere.
Mykel did not have the staff, but he did have his runes. He squared off with the general while the soldiers moved into a circle to prevent his escape. This time, Cross wore plate armor and carried a monstrous sword, the likes of which Mykel had never seen. Good. Armor and big swords made warriors move slowly and Mykel needed every advantage to win this contest.
Cross charged first. Mykel flared protection, attempting to dodge, but failed. The giant's sword connected with the top of Mykel's shoulder, and he suffered a jarring blow that dropped him to his knees. It should have shorn him in two, but protection saved him, permitting the blade to leave no more than a painful bruise. Mykel spun out of the way, flared health, and both the pain of the blow and the bruise disappeared.
Despite the armor and the huge sword, this man was still fast. Flaring protection had drained much of his strength—several more blows like that and he would have no magic left.
Cross charged again and Mykel chose more wisely this time. He had no staff, but he thought back to the things it had taught him: counters, blocks, sidesteps, and moving inside the reach of a sword strike.
Although the knight tried to feint high with the sword, it was an obvious move—Gwyn had used this tactic many times. The sword would come low next, but the delay provided time to interrupt the transition. Mykel dropped protection and closed the distance quickly, getting inside the man's guard. He flared strength and punched Cross in the chest as hard as he could.
Somehow, the giant managed to turn, and the blow did not catch him squarely, instead impacting the man’s left shoulder. The sound of metal deforming and bone shattering accompanied the sight of the general spinning through the air and smashing into the wall behind, taking two soldiers with him.
"Attack!" Cross ordered as he struggled to his feet, wincing in pain from the crushing blow. The surrounding soldiers collapsed on Mykel.
Spears and swords came at him, and he flared protection as the weapons met his skin. Whirling, he managed to seize a spear from a soldier. He closed his eyes and flared both strength and protection, then swept in a circle, killing two as the spear cleaved armor and flesh. He opened his eyes in time to dodge another attack, then grabbed a soldier by the leg, flaring strength to use the man as a maul. He crushed others with the body, then threw the bloody carcass across the entrance into a wall.
The battle raged, with spears bruising him but never puncturing the skin. Even so, the pain grew. Without Nara's strength, he could only grab one rune at a time unless he closed his eyes. He could not afford to drop protection and flare health after every injury, so the injuries began to build, slowing him. He alternated between protection, strength, and health, but without the staff's sight rune, he couldn't time his blocks and dodges properly against so many opponents.
A spear impaled his side while he tried to heal another wound. The shock of it stunned him, then another pierced his calf, the shaft breaking, leaving the spearhead stuck in his leg.
"Fight me, coward!" Mykel screamed at the general as the swarm of spears continued to pummel and poke. He had defeated over a dozen, but more had joined them and at least nine soldiers remained. Mykel was awash with wounds, blood flowing onto the stone floor below. He had never trained to alternate between the strength, health, and protection runes, nor battled so many foes at once, and the effort was draining him.
He slipped on the bloody floor. A blow on his back from a soldier's cudgel dropped him to a vulnerable position on the ground, physically and mentally exhausted.
"You're done, young man," Cross said. "Too bad. There was much we could have learned from you. Had I been a blessed like you are, I would have been king. You failed, now you die."
The soldiers had stopped their attack when Cross began to speak, and he now admonished them for the delay. "What you are you doing, idiots? Finish him!"
Nara stood on the throne room floor next to Kayna and the king. Her plan to accompany Gwyn and rescue Mykel had fallen apart in the chaos. Gwyn was nowhere to be found. Following the loud concussions, the sisters had been brought to the room and now watched the king, who was livid as he stood in front of his throne. He screamed mindlessly at everyone, demanding to know who attacked him. They told Nara that this was the most protected part of the keep, but when another horribly loud crash sounded in the foyer, shaking the floor and walls violently, she questioned those assurances. In the chaos, she looked for a way to escape and rescue her loved ones.
A battle raged in the keep entrance, raging hot and loud but out of sight. People were hurting and dying, and although muted by the distance, she felt some of their pains. After a time, the sounds quieted.
Carefully, so as not to draw attention, Nara slipped out of her shoes and put her bare feet on the stone tile below, then closed her eyes. She flared earth and reached out with her awareness, finding Mykel immediately. He had escaped from confinement. He was close, but in so much pain! She felt the blows and punctures that he endured as if they were sustained by her own skin, and a panicked memory of the night on the plateau rushed back, accompanied by the resolve to prevent a similar outcome. She poured magic down through her feet, coaxing the earth to carry strength to her friend.
Face down on the stone floor, pierced by two spears, Mykel flared protection, his only option. If he suffered a single spear through his head or heart, he would never reach Nara. He gritted his teeth in anger and frustration, and though his spirit was not yet broken, his body was failing, and he held no idea how to survive this.
I will not die here. Dei help me.
With only protection flared, he climbed to his feet in the puddle of blood. His enemies stabbed and struck him, and he tried to block, but his footing was poor and his strength fading. He had no sight, no staff, and no hope.
Then a trickle of strength came up through the floor.
Nara.
The trickle soon became a river, then a flood. More strength than he felt during the battle on the plateau now flowed into him. Nara was giving much of herself, and he resolved not to waste it.
The increased power gave him command of all three runes, and he flared health, strength, and protection at once. He grabbed the broken spearhead that still impaled his calf and removed it, the wound closing immediately.
With it, he struck back, wielding the shortened spear like a dagger, dropping several soldiers before it slipped from his grip. He looked for another weapon, only to see Gwyn running toward the fray at full speed. At first, he thought she had come to fight, to finish what she had started. Then he saw what she carried.
In one hand she bore a blade, but in the other, she held something that was gleaming white.
35
Awakening
"Bring my armor!" Papa screamed, jarring Kayna with a strained, panicked voice. The man rarely yelled, his simple, quiet commands often carrying the necessary authority to make things happen.
Pandemonium reigned in the throne room as armed men scrambled in confusion between conflicting orders from their captains and their king. More soldiers trickled into the room from the side entrances to surround the royal family.
The armor was assembled around Papa in moments, the process having been rehearsed repeatedly since his return from Kavalin. A squire strapped Papa's sword to his belt. "At least something goes right around here," Papa barked, then turned to a captain. "Where is Cross?"
It didn’t take long for Kayna to notice that Nara stood motionless nearby, eyes closed as she flooded the stones with power. The energy flowed across the stone to the foyer. Interesting. So, the girl was not as passive as Kayna had thought! Earth magic, something Kayna had not seen before. Fire and air, sure, but earth? What could Nara do with this? Confident that Papa would resolve things, she chose to remain uninvolved and enjoy th
e spectacle unfolding before her.
Mykel caught the staff in his right hand just as he dodged a thrown spear from behind him. More soldiers flowed in, but he felt little fear—he had the staff now. Closing his eyes, he flared every rune, relying on Nara's strength to help grab them all. She did not disappoint.
The power encompassed him, all the runes were his, and he kept his eyes closed. He healed completely, even the nicks and scratches. Strength returned, and his skin became like stone. But sight, oh sight, how he had missed that one! Welcoming the design into his thoughts once more, his confidence surged. This battle would not be lost after all.
His staff whirled and spun, executing strikes and sweeps, crushing the surrounding soldiers. As more men trickled in from the throne room and outside, he saw every move before it happened, dodged every thrust, and returned them in kind with a ferocious strength. Helmets deformed under the staff's blows, and bones were shattered by the power of Mykel's assault. Every enemy attack was thwarted, and bodies flew about. More than once, those bodies sailed in the direction of Cross, forcing him to move aside to avoid being crushed. Soon, three dozen men lay piled in the foyer, leaving nowhere to step without blood, bone, or discarded weapon underfoot.
Cross stood still, obviously petrified at the devastation before him. Then, General Cross, commander of the armies of the Great Land and the most powerful soldier in the realm, turned and ran away.
Mykel snatched a fallen spear from the floor with his left hand and leaped after his enemy. Power flooded his muscles as he pursued his quarry down the corridor, catching him just after he entered the large room.
Vorick stood in the throne room among Kayna, Nara, Gwyn, and his guards. They watched in awe as General Cross ran from a nearly naked, unarmored youth—It was the cursed boy from the dungeon. Even more shocking was that the youth rammed a spear into Cross' back as the terrified man labored in panicked retreat, the steel tip emerging from the plate armor where Cross' heart used to be. Vorick's general fell to the floor dead, and the room was stunned into silence.
The young warrior wielded a long white staff, his dirty black hair and tattooed chest striking a memory in the king. The painting from the hallway. The Humble Guardian. He should have made this connection before. A reborn legend now stood in the center of his throne room—one who meant him harm.
"Nara?" the warrior said.
"I'm okay, Mykel. Let's just go."
"You're going nowhere," Vorick said, stepping in front of Nara. "So the little man killed my big man." He paused as he stopped to within ten feet of the Guardian. "Perhaps you're not little after all. Skinny, though." Directing words to the whole room, Vorick lifted his arms and circled about, trying to lighten the mood with a mocking joke. "Don't we feed the good citizens in my dungeon?"
He dropped both his arms and the smile, then took a more serious tone.
"Drop the pretty stick and surrender."
"Free Nara," Mykel said, seemingly undeterred.
"Why?"
"Because I love her."
"And why should I care about your adolescent infatuation, you insolent wretch?"
"Free her or die," Mykel said.
Vorick narrowed his eyes. "I found her when she was a babe, boy. I saved her life. She owes me everything."
"You are a monster, she owes you nothing, and you die today," Mykel said.
With cruel, deliberate emphasis, teeth clenched and eyes hard, Vorick uttered the next words as a piercing attack at the intruder who dared challenge his sovereignty. "You have no claim, filthy dog. She. Is. Mine!"
Then he closed the visor on his helmet and drew Flay from her scabbard.
Mykel looked at Nara as he considered how to attack. The expression on her face revealed her doubt whether Mykel could defeat the king. She clearly wanted to leave, not to fight, because she was not feeding him energy at the moment. Perhaps the confrontation with the king had distracted her. Or maybe she didn't have any strength left.
Without her help, multiple runes were no option unless he closed his eyes, which only allowed him access to two at a time. He flared sight and dodged the king's first clumsy swing while he took in the view of his opponent.
The king's coral armor was big and bulky but didn't seem unwieldy. The man moved as if it wasn't even there. His weapon was crafted from ivory, with a bright red gem on the pommel. The blade moved through repeated attacks, quickly but poorly aimed.
After dodging a dozen such swings, Mykel felt confident this would be no great fight. He lunged with the staff, keeping his eyes open and dropping sight to flare strength and deliver a powerful blow to the center of the man's armor. The power in the blow should have crushed the armor and sent the man flying across the room, but although the impact made a thunderous, almost metallic sound, the force of the attack was largely absorbed. The king moved back less than a foot, barely stumbling before catching himself.
"Well now, that wasn't very impressive, was it?" the king said. "Care to try again?"
Mykel could hear the mocking tone in the monarch's voice, even if he couldn't see his face through the armored helm. He used sight to dodge a slash from the king, then lunged with the tip of the staff, again flaring strength with all the energy he could bring to bear. As with the first time, it produced little more than a loud noise. His eyes widened in surprise at the continued, ineffectual nature of his attacks. His confusion created a deadly delay and he spun away too slowly, failing to flare protection in time.
When the king's sword came down upon his back, it cut Mykel open from mid-back to hip. The agony ran to his core, dropping him to the floor and almost forcing the staff from his grip.
Stories he had heard about Minister Vorick flooded back to him from his memory. Stories of the man’s blessed, legendary power. Mykel stumbled to his feet, fighting the shooting pain as the king came again. Mykel flared health and felt his flesh knit together, then flared sight to dodge the next series of thrusts and slashes.
It continued for a few more moments, then he felt Nara's strength come again. It was less powerful this time; she was weakening. Mykel flared strength and attacked with a dozen empowered strikes to legs, arms, and even the man's head. The ringing impacts from the blows seemed to have no significant effect, and Mykel imagined the king smiling under the helm, stepping one way or the other to keep his balance after a blow but taking the hits with no sign of injury. The armor didn't dent or deform. He heard no groans or cries of pain from his opponent. Mykel's hope began to fade.
Planning an attempt to sweep the monarch from his feet, or to find something heavy to pummel him with, Mykel circled around, but then the armored liege reached out with a gauntlet, pointing with a finger. It was then that Mykel felt his flesh pull apart from his bones.
Searing pain almost kept him from finding the protection rune, but Nara's strength helped, and he flared both health and protection with all his resolve. Nara's aid diminished further, weaker than ever, and he knew he must end the fight before they both expired.
But he couldn't. He didn't know how, and the pain from the king didn't stop—it only got worse. Mykel threw everything he had to flare protection, everything Nara gave him, still looking for a chink in the man's armor, a place to attack, a weakness, but the misery overcame him as his flesh struggled between the magic of his protection rune and the vast power of the evil man who was tearing his body apart.
Old doubts resurfaced in the midst of the paralyzing attack. He was fighting a blessed, the most powerful man in the realm, with nothing but an ivory stick and a few tattoos. Mykel didn't belong here, didn't deserve Nara, and could not protect her as he'd hoped. He was just a broken village boy with delusions of grandeur. A cursed. Destined for death. He was only pretending to be brave, pretending to be strong. He was out of his depth and about to die.
The disappointment crushed his spirit even as his enemy's magic crushed his body. Wounds opened upon his skin as the king began to siphon the essence out of him and he felt his personality, his will,
his very being fracture under the strain. The man's magic was a cold death grip, like the ceppit but many times stronger, and it was tearing his soul apart.
Feelings of fear that he thought had been banished by his training flooded back into his mind. The unstoppable magic of this monarch had overcome his protection rune, outlasted his strength, and shredded his resolve.
His vision blurred as he lost focus on the enemy. He heard Nara screaming something, but he couldn't make out the words. His arms and legs stopped obeying, and in a cloud of unimaginable agony, arms and fingers contorting in pain, he lost his grip on the gleaming white staff. Through the fog of torment, he heard it hit the stone tiles and his thoughts moved to Nara.
I'm sorry, Bitty. I’m so sorry.
Nara focused her sight to look at the king in his audacious red armor. The power emanating from the plates stunned her. Regardless of the energy she was channeling to Mykel, the power the king commanded was unbelievable, and the life of her friend was under threat.
"Impressive, isn't he?" Kayna said.
In the middle of her growing panic, Nara had no response.
"Even with help, your lover won't ever handle that," Kayna commented, smirking. "Papa is a very big deal, sweet sister."
Nara wanted to attack Kayna right then, who seemed to be enjoying Mykel's suffering, but she was running out of strength and had nothing to spare. Mykel was unable to do any damage to the king despite the incredible blows he had delivered. Nara's weakness grew, and a wobble in her legs made it difficult for her to stand. She implored the earth to yield up its strength to her. Flaring the earth rune with greater passion, she reached below deeply, but although she sensed its presence, little of its energy came to her.
The Godseeker Duet Page 29
