Of Killers and Kings

by Will Wight

  Shera hadn’t heard that the Luminian Regent was incoming. “When will she get here?”

  Jorin didn’t answer, which told Shera what she needed to know.

  They had no way of telling when—or if—Loreli would arrive. It was just a desperate hope of Jorin’s.

  They were on their own.

  Shera turned to her Consultants. “Pair off,” she commanded. Counting her, they had ten Soulbound Gardeners. If she could, she would have gone off by herself, but she knew it was foolish to split up in these circumstances.

  Meia immediately stood by Shera’s side, but Shera shook her head. “Not you. We can’t put our two biggest guns together.”

  The orange eyes in Meia’s face pierced the darkness just as brightly as the ones on her shears. “I apologize, Guild Head, but we have no time to argue.”

  More quietly, she added, “They won’t stop you from throwing yourself into an Elder’s mouth.”

  Shera didn’t find that entirely fair, but she didn’t protest.

  “Find Shepherds and take them with you,” she ordered the other teams. “Eliminate Elders. Save lives. Make it back in one piece. Any questions?”

  When there were none, she dismissed them.

  She and Meia stayed together beneath Jorin.

  “Should we be going somewhere else?” Meia asked.

  “Until I have a better target, we’re staying here. This is where Urg’naut will strike.” Syphren gave her a sense of the lives all around her, some more vibrant than others, but none so bright as the Regent.

  There was another presence nearby, a unique power that seemed as though it was blending into the darkness surrounding them, but even that didn’t stand out next to Jorin. “If you can think of someone else he might want more than…”

  Shera trailed off as a thought occurred to her.

  She remembered that unique presence. It was Darius Allbright.

  The man with a spawn of Urg’naut wrapped around his face.

  Cold gripped Shera’s heart and dripped into her voice. “Belay that. Follow me.”

  Meia would be surprised for an instant, but she could easily follow. Shera dashed across the paving-stones of the Palace streets.

  They had to lock down Darius immediately.

  He was a potential vessel for Urg’naut, they had always known that, but they had expected Kelarac to show up. Upon learning it was the Creeping Shadow, Shera had been too focused on her Soulbound project to spare a thought for Darius.

  Now, she had to make sure they weren’t too late.

  “Jorin…” Urg’naut whispered again. “Do not fear the inevitable.”

  Jorin’s voice echoed through the Imperial Palace. “You put yourself on a gold pedestal, don’t you? This is no advance of the inevitable. This is just a prison break.”

  The icy air slithered into Shera’s ears. “Such turmoil. Such fear. I will free you.”

  Shera glanced back as Jorin swept his sword upward.

  At that moment, Shera realized just how much the Regents had been holding back.

  She’d always known, on some level, that they must have restrained themselves when fighting humans. Estyr probably could have collapsed the foundations of the Capital instead of engaging the Imperialists in combat, but she had controlled her power to avoid hurting allies or bystanders. Jorin had chosen not to blight the entire Gray Island, constraining himself to only a corner.

  But it was one thing to assume as much and another thing entirely to see a single sword-slash unleash a river of putrid darkness up into an entirely black sky.

  It should have been impossible to distinguish black from black, but Shera had no trouble. Jorin’s Intent crashed against Urg’naut’s advancing shadow like two waves meeting.

  A splash of power erupted when the two Intents collided, sending droplets of darkness raining over the city…

  And Shera felt people die.

  Thousands of lives were extinguished in an instant like candles blowing out.

  One of those drops crashed to the ground in front of her, erasing a corner of a building as it fell. It landed on a group of fleeing servants, and they were swallowed up by the dark.

  The droplet didn’t disperse, though. It congealed, drawing itself together. It was black outlined in gray, so she could see it clearly, and as she watched it molded itself into a vaguely human shape.

  An eye—a round shape colored like an overcast sky—opened in the center of what she would call its head. It towered over the nearby buildings.

  With half-formed hands, the Elder of Urg’naut reached for her.

  Inside a locked and bolted room, Darius heard the whispers of the void.

  The moment he heard the cold wind of Urg’naut approaching, he had sealed himself into a basement. He had wondered if he should kill himself to remove the risk to everyone else.

  But he couldn’t be sure the Great Elder would target him. And, after all, who wasn’t afraid of death?

  “The end is the last thing you should fear,” the shadows whispered.

  Things moved in the corners of his vision, and he squeezed his eyes shut.

  The darkness was even stronger behind his eyelids.

  “Resistance only brings you pain. Let me in, Darius. Let me in, and I will bring sweet relief to all the world. Together, we will move beyond this tiny prison, and we will spread…peace.”

  Sweat broke out all over Darius’ body, because the Great Elder’s words were too sweet. He could feel the relief of a good night’s sleep after a day of hard work. Years of staring into the void weighed on him, day and night of constant terror lurking just out of view.

  He could let all that go. It would be so easy.

  He opened his eyes again. The darkness around his vision was still there, as it always was. Dark tendrils crept closer and closer, ink seeping down from the sky.

  The sky?

  Darius looked up, shocked. The sky boiled with darkness.

  Why was he outside? How had he escaped the room?

  He stood in the outer edges of an Imperial Palace courtyard. All around him, darkness did battle.

  Darius drew his sword and raised it against the darkness, tapping into its Intent. It shone brightly, fighting back the night.

  Unknown God, keep me strong, Darius prayed.

  “Come to me, Darius Allbright,” Urg’naut said to him. “Bring the end.”

  Meia struck the Elder first, leaping up to the height of its shoulders and slashing with glaring orange blades. Gray-outlined darkness sprayed into the air, and Shera couldn’t tell if the attack had dealt an injury or not.

  But Shera would.

  Her two Vessels shouted at her, and now the time for restraint had ended. This was what they were made for.

  She let them off the leash.

  Dense silver-blue mist surrounded Meia and Shera and the Elder, suppressing its power. With its strength reduced, when it struck against Meia, she only went flying one street over.

  And as its overcast eye searched through Bastion’s Veil, Shera reached the base of the creature.

  Syphren hungered, longing to taste a being of such power.

  Shera gave in.

  The second the green blade pierced the gray barrier around the living shadow, a surge of vibrant energy surged up through Shera’s Vessel and trampled her like a herd of horses.

  Syphren sang in ecstasy, drinking deep, and Shera felt the satisfaction in her bones. This was what she wanted.

  She wanted to hang on to the power like a child hoarding candy, but she knew from experience it would leave her exhausted afterwards.

  So she channeled it into Bastion’s Veil.

  This time, the Veil exploded over almost the entire Imperial Palace. She could feel her Consultants spreading out, Blackwatch and Luminians fighting side-by-side. She glimpsed Imperial Guards fighting smaller shadows that flitted between their feet.

  The Elder by Shera wasn’t entirely finished yet, but Shera was done with him.

  As she had d
one with the out-of-control Ayana, Shera tore the remainder of its energy out and let it hang in the air.

  The creature gave a hiss as it dissipated.

  Meia leaped down from a nearby rooftop and landed near Shera. She waved a hand. “I can see through the Veil! It looks…different than I imagined. Like spiderwebs.” She shook herself, returning to business. “Where now?”

  Shera gripped Syphren, staring into the center of Meia’s mass, where she could sense more life waiting. Leftover energy still coursed through her body, lending her strength. She could catch Meia off-guard…

  But Bastion’s voice balanced Syphren’s. Protect and cleanse.

  “Darius Allbright,” Shera called. “This way.”

  The Luminian Knight-Adjunct was nearby, in an external courtyard, but every step closer cost them more time than it should have.

  Shades slithered across the paving-stones, hungry to swallow Shera and Meia whole. Shera brought Syphren down on them again and again, dragging their strength from them in the form of hazy balls of green light.

  The light from each Shade was pathetic, less even than an ordinary person’s, but Shera would turn nothing away. She absorbed each one like a breath of fresh air, fueling her to continue fighting.

  Above, Jorin flitted all over the city, trading blows with the Great Elder that had darkened the sky. At first, he had been entirely on the defensive, protecting the city as best he could from the tendrils that crept down to devour life.

  Then a spear of white light crashed into Urg’naut.

  Shera felt the Elder’s scream like a fingernail of ice scraping along her spine. But the spear didn’t let up, continuing like a lighthouse’s beam.

  At first, Shera thought Loreli had joined the battle, and her spirits soared.

  But Syphren sensed no person behind the power. When Shera thought about the direction of the light, she realized the truth: it was coming from Hightower.

  The headquarters of the Luminian Order.

  With the support of the White Sun, Jorin took the initiative. Now he struck against the Great Elder, carving chunks of shadow away with every swing of his blade.

  Shera began to think they might make it after all.

  She couldn’t see much of the battle without borrowing the vision of Bastion’s Veil, but she felt it, a titanic exchange of power that had Syphren panting with thirst.

  Only with Bastion’s influence was she able to keep her mind on her task, and finally she and Meia emerged into the courtyard to find Darius Allbright.

  He was locked into a battle of his own.

  Darius was surrounded by Shades. Dozens of Elderspawn pooled around his feet like schools of fish, clung to nearby walls, and dripped from the eaves. Elders of Urg’naut lumbered over them, watching the Knight-Adjunct with their overcast eyes.

  White flashed against black as Darius resisted.

  He had his sword raised, and it flickered brightly, burning against the encroaching shadows. As its light waxed, the Elderspawn backed off.

  Then the sword would grow dimmer for a moment, and the Elders would take a step closer.

  Shera and Meia needed no discussion to know what to do. Their Vessels had been made for this purpose, and they could not allow Urg’naut a host.

  They waded in to break up the stalemate.

  Shera spun, Bastion burning Elderspawn even as Syphren tore away their lives. The Veil thickened around them, weakening the Elders, and the mist’s power was concentrated in the blade of her right-hand shear. The touch of the blue blade was like poison, bursting Shades from the inside.

  The green light Syphren drained fueled her, pushed her forward.

  She had to reach Darius in time.

  She’d made him a promise, but she had never intended to keep it. She had just wanted to reassure him. If she had been the one who might become the host to a Great Elder, she would have been relieved to hear that someone else would kill her.

  Now she had to break Darius free of the Elderspawn before she had to fulfill that promise after all.

  Meia had thrown herself onto the larger Elders, and though her Soulbound power was not specialized in destroying Elders, she was doing well enough with sheer physical strength. She tore strips of shadow away with her glowing orange blades.

  Darius dropped to one knee.

  His sword sagged. Its light weakened.

  Shera was almost there.

  I will not be your tool, Darius declared in his mind.

  But he could feel himself weakening.

  His body and mind were running out. His sword’s light was little more than guttering embers now, and he wanted nothing more than to rest.

  That was Urg’naut’s promise: rest unending.

  “Why not give in?” The Great Elder sounded genuinely curious. “Annihilation comes for all things.”

  In my body, you would be stronger. You would bring death to the world. I will not allow it.

  That was his last source of strength. His cornerstone. No matter how weak he grew, no matter how easy it would be to give in, his surrender would mean the death of all things. How could he ever give up?

  Urg’naut sighed. “And what if I did not?”

  The world around Darius grew quiet. The battle overhead, the seething Elderspawn around him. He could hear only the cold wind of the void.

  “I am not Kelarac. I see no value in…deals. Bargains. But when we merge, so will our desires. I wish to bring the end to far more worlds than this one. If the protection of this world is your final wish, then that desire will remain when we become one. We can leave this world behind us, whole and untouched, once we break free.”

  Darius’ sword-hand fell. How can I trust you?

  “Trust yourself. If your will is so strong, it will survive our union.”

  Darius could feel himself breaking.

  When there had been no way out, he could have stayed strong. He might have dissolved into nothing, but he could have done so without giving in.

  Now…there was one tiny spark of light he could cling to. Even if the shadow devoured other worlds, he could protect this one.

  And this was his. As far as he was concerned, this was all of existence.

  Urg’naut might speak of other worlds, but they had no meaning to Darius. This was all he’d ever known, and he had difficulty even conceiving of others.

  If he could protect the world…then he’d done his duty.

  A green light stabbed through the darkness around him.

  His eyes snapped open and he saw Shera fighting next to him. She whirled as she advanced, shredding her way through living shadows, eyes filled with determination beneath her gray hood.

  “Darius!” she shouted. “Stay right there!”

  Inside the void that surrounded his face, Darius smiled.

  He had fought to keep her from giving in to a foreign power taking over her mind as well, when he had tried to stop her from going mad and killing Magisters. What a twist of fate that now their positions would be reversed.

  And that she, like him, would also fail.

  Let them live, Darius thought.

  As he gave in.

  Shera had almost reached Darius when his light died.

  It was like standing next to the birth of a tornado.

  All the Elders of Urg’naut collapsed at once, melting into darkness and spinning around him in an instant cocoon. The wind of their motion shoved Shera back so violently that she would have crashed into a nearby wall if Meia hadn’t caught her.

  Bastion’s Veil, never touched by natural wind, was shoved away by the force of the Great Elder’s will. The darkness covering the sky began pouring down into Darius’ cocoon, like a river of ink funneling into a single bottle.

  The white beam from Hightower continued blasting into the dark mass overhead and Jorin worked his sword furiously, unleashing his power fully now that Urg’naut’s attention was focused elsewhere.

  None of it stopped the process.

  Despite the fear and rel
uctance of her Vessels, Shera channeled the life that she’d absorbed and pushed forward against the wind whipped up by the cyclone of shadow.

  Forward, she urged herself. One more step.

  She could do this. With Bastion to ward off the Elder’s power and Syphren to tear through it, she could strike a blow to the Great Elder.

  Urg’naut might recover, but it wouldn’t be in her lifetime. And Darius wouldn’t be his host anymore.

  She was the only one who could do it.

  Shera compressed the silver mist of Bastion’s Veil, surrounding herself with it until it was almost liquid. Her steps became easier until she reached the actual spinning vortex of shadow around Darius.

  Now it was Syphren’s turn.

  Jorin swooped down into the courtyard on his wood-and-paper wings. He must have seen her there, but he didn’t hesitate to slash his sword down and send a wave of shadow blasting out.

  That was good judgment. Shera approved.

  Rather than saving herself, she struck at the same moment.

  Syphren touched the dark tornado and it flashed with veins of green. The shear broke down the power of the Great Elder, absorbing a portion and turning the rest against itself. On the other side, Jorin’s blow hit like a cannonball.

  The cocoon around Darius vanished.

  So did Jorin’s attack.

  So did the wind pushing Shera back.

  With the force supporting her gone, Shera stumbled forward. She had only tasted a fraction of the energy in Urg’naut’s defense, but it ran through her veins like lightning. She raised her blades, ready to do battle.

  A Great Elder stood before her in Darius Allbright’s body.

  Above him, the sky had brightened. It was fully blue except for the one crack off to the side. The sun was bright. All the nearby Shades had vanished.

  Shera trembled.

  Darius still wore the same silver-and-white armor he always had, but now wisps of shadow rose like smoke from its gaps. His sword lay at his feet, and his hood was gone.

  The disc that had once concealed his face in darkness was now a sphere. It was not cleanly defined, but rather a ragged hole, a distortion in reality that led onto absolute black. His entire head was gone.