Kings, Queens, Heroes, & Fools

by M. R. Mathias

  “Good,” said Jarrek giving the two dwarves a nod of appreciation. “I don’t know how to thank you.”

  “When the battle is over you can get us drunk,” said Oarly with a grin.

  “Why wait until the battle is over?” General Diamondeen asked seriously. “Everyone knows a dwarf fights better when he’s drinking.”

  “If you can find it, you can drink it,” Jarrek laughed. “I have to get to the front.” With that he strode off to find a horse.

  As everyone expected, the Dakaneese came hard. The Seaward forces under Jarrek’s command held them for a long time, but finally, around midnight, the call to retreat rang out. After that it was all about fighting on the run. The Dakaneese swarmed into the passage and pushed with mighty force. By dawn they controlled the position completely. The Choska demon came tearing through the ranks and the bald-headed wizard riding its back was strangely trying to keep King Jarrek and his troops from retreating. In between attacks, the wizard reined the Choska around, flying low over the Dakaneese and calling out to them. Soon they too began trying to retreat out of the passage too.

  King Jarrek saw what was happening and cursed in disbelief. Somehow the wizard knew about the trap. Still, several thousand Dakaneese infantry were in the passage. Jarrek knew that it was now or never.

  “Retreat! Full retreat!” he called out to his men. He turned his horse and charged back toward Low Crossing. As he went, he commanded the attention of the torch bearing dwarves on the ridge. “Let it go!” he ordered as loudly as he could scream.

  The dwarf waved a flaming brand in a certain motion. Another dwarf up the way repeated it, and so on, until Oarly’s group, who were positioned underground, saw the signal and went to work.

  For a long time, nothing happened, but then a great rumbling shook the earth. The Dakaneese hadn’t been expecting the sudden lurching of the ground beneath them. In the seconds of their initial fear and confusion, King Jarrek’s men broke from all engagement and charged away from the battle with breakneck fury.

  From overhead, Flick tried to stop the retreat. He knew he couldn’t save the Dakaneese troops, but he figured he might cause quite a few of the enemy to get caught up in the trap.

  The earth shook again, and this time the passage collapsed right out from under the Dakaneese fighters. Huge chunks of rock and earth fell away beneath their feet. Cracks shot across the earth that grew and shifted until it seemed the whole world was caving in. A loud roar filled the morning. Horses and men screamed and scrabbled but to no avail. As the ground beneath them was crumbling and falling, water from the mighty river was rushing in to fill the void. Armored men sank away and horses thrashed in the flow. King Jarrek and his Seaward soldiers had to fight through rows of thorny vines and treacherous thickets that hadn’t been there before. Flick also hindered their way by sending great exploding blasts into the earth in front of them, causing the horses to rear up or balk. A wall of fire erupted, cutting about half of the retreating force off before they could get away.

  Those that kept themselves and their horses calm were able to leap through the flaming obstacle, but many were lost as their animals turned and ran into the expanding hole that was forming where the passage had just been. Jarrek went back, his horse leaping through the wall of flames as if it wasn’t there. He took the time to urge many of the men past the burning barrier, but soon he could wait no longer.

  The caving pit had collapsed into the Leif Greyn River’s deepest channel and a wall of water and churning muck was rushing in with alarming force. Jarrek charged his horse straight back through the flames and up to higher ground as swiftly as he could. To his surprise, Bzorch and his dragon gun crew were there. They said they hadn’t been able to cross back into Westland because their ferry was destroyed. Streaking spears, followed by uncoiling lengths of rope filled the air and the Choska was forced to carry Flick away from the area.

  Jarrek surveyed the scene. He took his time, letting his men catch their breath as he did. The bottleneck passage, and most of Seareach, was gone, as was most of the land that stretched from there up toward Low Crossing. It was all under water now. A great lake now blocked the southern border of Wildermont from Dakahn. The only way between the two countries now was over the Wildermont Mountains, and they were far too steep and craggy to allow any sort of sizable force to pass.

  The first part of the plan had mostly worked. They could have drowned twice as many of the Dakaneese soldiers, had Shaella’s wizard not caught on to the plan. Considering this, Jarrek decided that the mage had to have been informed. There was no other way their movements could have given away what was going to happen.

  Either way, it was time to start the second phase of the dwarves’ brilliant idea. King Jarrek was glad to see Bzorch and their big heavy weapons. When his forces came out of the earth on the other side of the secret mountain tunnel he was sure the dragon-guns would prove to be useful. If they moved swiftly enough, the breed might be able to catch up with the dwarves and the Highwander men who were already trying to come up behind what was left of Ra’Gren’s force. It would be a rout if they could pin them against the new body of water.

  Jarrek glanced to the west. Already the Shark’s Tooth and a few other vessels were moving into the new lake from the river. As much as Jarrek didn’t like sell-swords, he’d grown fond of Maxrell Tyne and Grommen. The ships under Tyne’s Command were to spend the day transporting archers into the mountains, where the dwarves had cleared positions overlooking the confused Dakaneese.

  Jarrek nodded to himself that he was ready, and went to round up and count the survivors of his Seaward front. Once they were regrouped they’d have a long ride underground and a few more battles to fight. As much as he hated to, he broke up the reprieve and ordered them to move. He found the troops eager to comply. None of them forgot how the Dakaneese had trapped and killed their kinsmen. In moments, they were following the breed giants into the dwarven tunnel.

  It was time to take the battle to Dakahn.

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  “I can’t help you get around out there without getting caught,” Phen said. “You’re invisible, I’m not.”

  Hyden sucked in a deep breath and let go of the boy. Standing on his own, he had to reach down deep to muster the strength to stay upright, while doing his best to block out the pain. “Where’s Mikahl?” he asked through gritted teeth.

  Phen peeked out the door and Spike shot between his legs into the grassy garden area. The lyna found a thick shrub and hid beneath it. From there, Phen watched through his familiar’s eyes. The sun would be setting soon, and the bailey was already bathed in shadow. The garden was bustling with people, though. The red-robed priests were lighting torches and candles, and making preparations. Queen Shaella was standing amongst four white clad men—no, they were statues. The statues from outside her bedchamber, Phen realized. She was speaking to them with closed eyes and making subtle hand gestures. She was in the middle of some sort of spell, he guessed.

  Beyond her in the gazebo, he could see one of the red-robed priests lifting the Silver Skull from its podium. He recognized part of Rosa’s dress on the floor nearby.

  “In their temple,” said Phen. “I can see Princess Rosa lying there. Surely they’re together.”

  Hyden peeked around the edge of the door and used Phen’s shoulder to hold himself steady. “Where will the seal open?” he asked. His vision was blurry at best. He could barely make out the structure on the lawn.

  “Can you see where they burned the symbols in the grass?” Phen asked.

  The marks were nearer to the door, and Hyden could see the shape. He recognized the ancient symbol that was burned inside the circle. He had eradicated a more permanent version of it in the Dragon’s Spire, so that Mikahl could kill Pael. “Here,” he grunted, pulling Loak’s ring from his finger. “Put it on. Go see if you can help Mikahl and the Princess.”

  Phen took the ring and watched as Hyden leaned heavily on the wall. He looked like he had s
weated all the liquid from his body, as if his eyes were sinking away. Outside, the priests were beginning to chant. Phen gave Hyden a quick hug then wiped the tears from his eyes. He wanted to speak, to say goodbye or something, anything, but no words would come.

  Hyden forced a smile. “Put it on, Phen,” he said weakly. “Be sure and destroy the skull after.”

  “After what?” Phen asked, as he faded from sight.

  “You’ll know when it’s time.” A tremor shook Hyden. “When she... she comes for you, tell her what hap... happened to me. Now go. Ta... take care of Talon.”

  Hyden didn’t wait for Phen to respond. He shoved Phen’s invisible body gently out the door and quietly latched it closed behind him.

  ***

  Phen had no idea what ‘she’ Hyden was talking about. Hyden was obviously feeling the effects of the poison and not thinking clearly. Hyden was about to die. Phen knew he would never be able to laugh or joke with him again. Phen was so overcome with grief that he had to fight to keep from sobbing out loud. He couldn’t...

  A deep whooshing sound blasted from somewhere under the seal. It was so deep and powerful that it startled Phen out of his grief. The rush of fear-driven anxiety hurried his pace across the garden. Just as they had before, the red priests had moved the skull from its place atop the podium to a small altar built at one end of the symbol they’d burned into the lawn. The skull sat so that its wicked jade eyes looked over the place where the world would soon fade away into blackness.

  Phen noticed that Shaella’s statues had taken up new positions. He hadn’t seen them move. Two of them now stood guard on each side of the short set of wooden steps that led up into the makeshift temple. He had no choice but to go between them. He glanced at Shaella as he passed her. She was fidgety, yet focused. Her eyes were glued to the place where Gerard had appeared before. Just as Phen started into the gazebo the whooshing sound came again, only this time it took on a deep thumping that pulsed in time with the diminished harmony the priests were chanting. He knew he had to hurry. He could feel the static drawing in.

  He didn’t want to have to tangle with the marble guardians. He had no idea how formidable they were, but he was sure that they were plenty capable of stopping a terrified boy from getting by if they had to.

  Remembering that Spike was about, he called to his familiar. The lyna shot toward him across the yard like a startled rabbit. It bounded up into the gazebo without a thought. Phen watched the statues carefully, but saw nothing, not even the slightest of flinches. Through Spike’s eyes, he looked about the inside of the structure and saw that the walls were nothing more than heavy curtains. If he had to, he could get out through the seams where they overlapped. Mikahl and Rosa were lying as still as the statues that were guarding them. A shining glint on the altar caught the lyna’s eye. It was the tip of a blade. Phen hoped that it was Ironspike. Hyden had told him once that all of King Mikahl’s powers were held in the blade. If Mikahl ever lost it, or dropped it, he would be vulnerable. Hyden explained that this was why the High King trained so rigorously and regularly with it.

  Phen heard Shaella gasp and glanced back toward the seal.

  It was opening. He had to hurry.

  He took a deep breath and charged between the statues. He didn’t look back. If he had, he would have been frozen with fear. Both marble guardians were starting in right behind him.

  Phen saw that it was Ironspike on the altar. He snatched it and started over to where Mikahl lay beside the Princess. The weight of the sword caused him to drop it when its blade slid off of the altar. It hung in the satiny tablecloth that was draped over the table. Phen grabbed that and pulled a candelabra and a statue onto the floor with a clatter. The first marble guard that came in charged at Phen as if it could see him, but it got tangled in the tablecloth and fell face first. Its reaching hand fell just short of Phen’s ankle. The second one stumbled over the first, buying Phen just enough time to boot the sword against Mikahl and wrap the High King’s hand around the hilt.

  Phen wasn’t sure what he hoped would happen, but he’d expected more than nothing. His heart sank. It would apparently take more than just the sword to pull Mikahl out of the spell he was under. Phen looked back, and one of the guardians was on him. He wasn’t sure what happened next, but he knew that Ironspike’s blade flickered blue for a moment. He dove over the wooden rail of the gazebo into the drapery that hung there. His weight tore the heavy cloth from its hangers and he fell the few feet to the ground on the back side of the building.

  Thinking that the stone-formed guard was right on his heels, Phen rolled to his feet quickly. He ran to a place a few dozen feet behind Queen Shaella. There he began silently reciting the words to the spell he would use to destroy the skull.

  It was getting darker, but the hole in the world was far blacker then any Westland night had ever been. Already the seal was opened wide, and over the physical roar of power it caused, Phen could hear something coming up from within.

  ***

  Mikahl felt the rush of Ironspike’s magic. It didn’t come on like a symphonic tidal wave this time. The sound came slower, the trickle of whistled melody, an echo of a reverberation that was eventually joined by another strand of audible power, and then another. Slowly it worked its way around and through the spell that was cast on him. The thick muck he felt trapped in gave way to a more viscous resistance. Then gradually he was able to move and stretch his limbs.

  The first thing he did was raise the blade up into the strange white-painted man that was charging over him. Even when he’d been spelled, he could see. Knowing that Phen had the ring that made him invisible, he assumed that it was Phen who’d moved his sword across the floor and put it in his hand. The man over him wasn’t a man at all, he found, when his blade sent a showering of stone chips across his face. The sword cleaved through a stone leg, though, leaving the heavy granite limb to crash into his body. The rest of the animated statue crumbled into gravel as it fell.

  Mikahl shoved the leg away and sat up. Another of the stone men was untangling itself from an overturned table and cloth. Mikahl wasted no time. He sat up and lunged with his sword so that its tip punctured the marble man’s chest. He saw his stupidity as the man cracked apart and began to crumble over them. He had to roll and crawl over the limp form of Princess Rosa to keep the heavy chunks of stone from bashing into her delicate body. Luckily, the back of his head and shoulders took the brunt of the damage.

  A few heartbeats later, Mikahl started down the wooden steps of the gazebo only to see the thing that was once Gerard Skyler standing over a black hole in the lawn. Mikahl saw the back of Shaella’s half-scorched head reflecting the flickering torch flames, just as two more of the marble guardians came closing in on him from either side. The eyes of the beast in the hole locked onto his. He felt a chill tear through him when the striking resemblance to Hyden registered in his brain. Shaella whirled on him as well, with the makings of a spell already on her lips.

  It was all Mikahl could do to call Ironspike’s magical shield forth from its symphony as he spun with his blade extended to slice a complete circle around him. Both of the marble guardians shattered at the sword’s touch. Then a hot crimson blast shot forth from Shaella’s hands hitting his crackling blue shield in an explosion of prismatic light. But the concussion of raw power that Gerard sent hurling at him was far more potent. Mikahl went flinging backwards through the gazebo and right out the other side of the structure. He came to a tumbling halt on the lawn on the other side, so entangled in drapery that he had to fight just to extend his legs.

  “Gerard,” a weak voice called out from behind the thing standing in the seal. It was Hyden. “What have you done to yourself?” he asked. The tears flowing from his eyes were bloody. Inside the thick plated body of the thing before him, he could plainly see his little brother, and the idea of it ripped at his heart like a jagged claw.

  “Hyden?” the thing said in a voice so big and deep that it shook the walls of the ca
stle.

  “What have you become?” Hyden asked, as he fought to stay on his feet.

  The recognition in Gerard’s eyes was fleeting. The voices and thoughts of too many powerful entities were swirling around his brain. The minute part of him that was still human could find no purchase to grasp hold of.

  “I am the Warlord now,” Gerard boomed. He stepped forward, moving his gaze from Hyden to the depths of the black hole beside him. “I am the Master of Hell and Earth,” he called down into the Nethers. “Come, my pets, relish the freedom you have been denied.”

  A huge black thing with a buzzard’s head and wide leathery wings crawled out of the darkness and leapt into flight. Behind it, a trio of hellcats shot straight up into the air. They were followed by another winged creature that might have been part insect.

  “No!” Hyden yelled as he charged across the few feet that separated them.

  Shaella sent a spiraling strand of yellow force streaking out at him. It wrapped around Hyden and squeezed him tightly in place. If she’d let the force go, he would have fallen into a heap. He didn’t have the strength to struggle. Instead, he said a prayer to the White Goddess to help him find the chance, and the strength, he needed to do what she had told him must be done.

  ***

  Phen had the last word of his casting on the tip of his tongue, but held it in his mouth. He could see what Hyden intended to do now. He whirled and looked back to see King Mikahl kicking and crawling out of the tangle he was in. Relief flowed over him. He hadn’t been sure if the vicious blow had killed the High King or not. His attention was pulled back to the scene before him as the buzz of a few dozen sheep-sized insects came skittering out of the hole like swarming ants. Fear swam through his veins as two of them started toward him. They looked like giant roaches, or water beetles, with sharp pincers extending from the sides of their clacking beak-like mouths.

  Phen could cast a spell against them, but he would lose the one he needed to destroy the Silver Skull. As one of them darted forward to attack, indecision froze him. Out of nowhere, Spike leapt onto the creature’s swiveling head and started clawing and tearing at its red glowing eyes. As the thing behind it started forward, another lyna came leaping out of the shadows, then another, and another. Before long, the two demon bugs were in a frenzied battle with a half dozen of the small quilled felines.