by R. A. Miller
****
May notched an arrow and fired, hitting home in the skull of the nearest undead. It dropped to the ground, tripping up a few of the undead behind it. She fired a second time, and dropped another. She backed up a step and fired a third. This one also punctured a skull, dropping the undead man like a sack of flour.
"That's three,” she said.
“Where did ye learn to do that?” Borimar asked. He was familiar with her sword skills, but had never seen her shoot a bow before.
“Quin taught me,” May said, “Not all of our girl talk was actually girl talk. A girl’s gotta defend herself.”
“Ba.” Borimar dismissed her words with a wave of his arm. “Ye could have come to me, ya know.”
“Yes, but, I actually wanted to be able to shoot the thing.”
“Six months. Six months and ye never told me.”
Borimar adjusted his grip on his axes and turned on the undead behind him, sinking one axe into its abdomen. Guts spilled to the dirt below and the creature fell to its knees. The dwarf buried his other axe into the thing’s head with a satisfying thunk.
“Ye could have at least told me.” Borimar said.
With the speed and grace of a man twice his size and half his weight, he took out three more of them at the knees with quick swipes of his large axes. The dead things all fell to the ground and began to crawl.
The dwarf smashed two of the crawlers with the hilt of his axes, while the other one was shot in the head with an arrow.
"Four." May said.
"What the..." Borimar cursed under his breath. May’s newfound skill was helpful, but it was making him look less impressive.
He charged in again, this time burying his axe into another undead while chopping off the leg of another. As soon as the axe was through the leg, he pulled it up and threw it into the head of third before prying his first axe out and using it to gut a fourth one. The army of undead, however, continued to charge.
The army at their back ran in, swords swinging. The first wave went down as easily as they did for the dwarf. The soldiers cheered as they tore through limbs and necks, blood splattering everywhere.
Captain Vaughn brought his sword down on the neck of one of the undead, slicing through the collarbone and out the ribcage on the other side. The undead fell to the ground but began crawling with its one good arm.
The Captain stomped down on the thing’s head with his armored boot, smashing it like cold melon on hot stone.
Close by the Captain, a pair of soldiers was being forced to the ground by swarming undead. The Captain surveyed his surroundings, his eye catching three more men across the field falling to the same fate.
Three undead attacked the Captain from behind. One wrapped its arms around him and held tight. The other two each went straight for his face. He dropped to his knees, causing the undead to bang heads and stagger back. The one holding him loosened its grip on him when he went down, allowing the Captain to push it off.
Vaughn swung his sword wide and took out the two face eaters, cutting them off at the belly. The third undead grabbed for his sword arm, only to catch the steel in its mouth and out the back of its head. The scream of another soldier being eaten prompted him to survey the field again.
"We need a new plan." he called to the dwarf. “I don’t know how long we can keep this up.”
“This is all the manpower we have?” May asked, dodging the swipe of an undead.
“This is it, all the men we have for right now, a hundred strong.” Vaughn said.
“Then we keep fighting,” Borimar said between kills, “Don’t let up.”
Several screams from behind signaled the deaths of human soldiers. Not long after, Borimar heard two more. Each dying soldier was like a blow to the head for the dwarf, a blow he could not afford to take.
“It’s like they don’t stop.” May said. “I can’t see an end to them.”
"Agreed." Captain Vaughn said, “Ideas?”
A pair of hands grabbed the Captain from behind and pulled him to the ground, a second pair of hands did the same to May. Borimar, still standing, felt a tremendous heat shoot past his back. He stopped and turned around.
At the back of the undead mass stood the enormous red dragon, nostrils smoking and there was a trail of fire that led from the dragon to the dwarf. Six scorched corpses of soldiers lay amongst the charred undead.
The dwarf looked up and saw the two female vampyres standing next to the dragon, which was rearing back for another blast. The two vampyres laughed.
"Get down!" a familiar voice yelled for Borimar to drop, but they were too late. Another massive wave of fire passed over them, this time burning off some of Borimar's hair, and melting the undead in its path.
"I didn't sign up for no dragon." Borimar said.
"Ah, come on. You wanted your hair singed, right?" Quin’s smiling face peeked out from behind May. Borimar smiled back.
“Maybe if we live through this, I’ll let ye singe the rest of it.”
Captain Vaughn picked himself up and looked around to see who had saved him from the fire. The young woman standing behind him was a surprise.
“Are you alright, sir?”
“Indeed.” Vaughn said. “And who might you be?”
“This is Cora,” Quin interrupted, “She’s with me.”
“You’re quite strong for such a small girl.”
“Thanks.” Cora said. The young vampyre looked to the dwarf, but he said nothing.
Undead began filing in from the left and the right. May turned to the mass at her left, while the Captain and Cora turned to the right. Borimar and Quin were looking straight ahead at the dragon.
“We need ta kill the beast.” Borimar said.
“No,” Quin said, “First we need to kill the necromancer.”
“The neco-what?” the dwarf asked.
“The necromancer,” the hunter said, “One of the vampyres is controlling the undead with magic. Kill her and the dead go back to being dead.”
“Well Cora,” Borimar said, “Now would be a good use of your speed.”
“Aww,” Cora said, “You remembered.”
“Who is this?” May asked.
“An old friend of our dwarf.” Quin said. “They fought together at Sanctuary.”
“Sanctuary,” May said, “That’s where he fought the wolves, right?”
“Aye,” the dwarf said, “Cora here spent half the battle laughing at me.”
“We totally have to swap stories,” Quin said, “But right now, we have a necromancer to kill.”
“Archers ready!”
The command could be heard from the top of the wall. Vaughn and Cora looked up and saw a line of archers, thirty in all, drawing back their bows and aiming out away from wall.
“Fire!”
A black line of arrows left the wall and sailed together towards the dragon and the vampyres. Quin saw this as well and let loose her own arrow, this one pointed at the vampyre with long dark hair.
The nude, red haired vampyre waved her hand at the arrows, only a second too late. Half of them fell to the ground midflight, the other half found their target. Several went into the dragon's snout, while even more hit its throat.
The hunter saw one had penetrated the dragon's eye. The great red beast roared and attempted to swat away the arrow in its eye. None of the arrows hit the vampyres; Quin’s arrow fell to the ground just short of the dark haired one.
The dark haired vampyre put her hands above her head and began to chant. The dragon roared and beat its massive wings in frustration. Both women were knocked to the ground, while Borimar and his comrades were pushed back.
The dragon lay down on its belly, and again attempted to remove the arrow from its eye. The vampyres got back on their feet and began to chant again, this time in unison.
As they chanted, the dragon became more and more agitated. It swiped at the vampyres and beat its wings again. The two women continued to chant the same words over and over ag
ain, as the undead continued to attack the soldiers.
Borimar and the others fought back the undead, making a slow effort towards the vampyres. Quin’s arrow plunged into the skull of the undead that Borimar was fighting, dropping it to the ground.
Every undead around them dropped to the ground, alive no more. The heroes all turned their attention to the vampyre women. The dark haired one was now standing with her arms at her sides and was looking down at her own chest.
Even from far away, the dwarf recognized blood pouring from the vampyre’s mouth. The dark haired one looked up and out over the battlefield before collapsing to the ground. Standing in her place, was a young girl, arm outstretched and covered in blood. Her small hand was clutching something.
CHAPTER 16
Dremora didn't see the elf until it was too late. Once the girl got close to the necromancer, she shoved her fist through Tatiana’s back, ripping out the vampyre’s heart.
Tatiana began spitting up crimson before collapsing to the ground in a pool of her own blood. As the Necromancer’s heart was ripped from her chest, the great army of undead also fell.
The vampyre queen had never seen anyone, including elves, move faster than her kind. She looked around quickly for the girl, forgetting about the two figures that were now advancing on her position. Unable to find the girl, Dremora moved to the body of Tatiana and removed the spell book from the necromancer’s robes.
Flipping through the book she found a banishment spell and began to cast it. The elf girl was lifted into the air and held in place with magic. Dremora turned around to find the girl suspended.
"Myra!"
The scream came from the trees. Dremora paused to look in the direction of the scream and saw an even smaller elf running at her with a stick.
"How cute,” Dremora said, “Little brother is going to defend you with a stick."
“You leave him alone, vampyre filth.” Myra looked the queen in the eyes, no fear showing in the small elf.
Sammy tried to attack Dremora, who backhanded him, knocking the boy to the ground. The queen turned her attention back to the elf girl as an arrow pierced her shoulder.
She turned to see a smiling human holding a bow. A dwarf charged from her left, knocking her to the ground.
"It’s alright, lass,” the dwarf said, “This isn’t me first time.”
Dremora shoved the dwarf off of her and grabbed the elf girl. Putting the elf in front of her as a shield, she surveyed her surroundings and her attackers. She stopped on the young vampyre standing with the humans. She spit, her nails digging into the elf child.
“You,” she said to Cora, “You should come with me. It is unnatural for a vampyre to fight her own kind.” Dremora noted the amulet around Cora’s neck. The amulet she was searching for.
“I will never fight alongside you.” Cora said. “I was turned against my will. I hate what I am.”
The armored human backed away from Cora, sword drawn. The dwarf moved in front of the vampyre queen.
“Hold on there, Captain. She’s on our side.”
“She’s one of them?” the Captain asked.
“Yes,” Dremora said, “She is one of us. Turn her over to me and we will leave this place. I swear it.”
“No way.” Cora said, “You can go back to Hell.”
Dremora moved as fast as she could. Before the dwarf had blinked she was behind Cora, a hand on her throat. Cora struggled but the queen was stronger. The dwarf and the humans tried to surround them but seemed afraid to move. The queen ripped the amulet from Cora’s neck and ran for the trees.
As she ran, Dremora chanted another spell. Cora and her companions gave chase but Dremora was too fast for them. As soon as the queen entered the tree line, a red portal opened in front of her. Just before stepping through, an arrow knocked the spell book from her hand, leaving Dremora with only the amulet as she stepped through the portal. The portal closed behind her.
****
“Blasted vampyre!” Borimar cursed the vampyre queen. The dwarf stood at the spot where, moments ago, a red portal had been. He turned to find Cora behind him, with Quin and May helping the small girl off of the ground. With the disappearance of the vampyre queen, the spell that held the girl in the air had ceased, dropping her to the ground.
“I have failed,” Cora said, “The amulet is lost.”
“It ain’t over yet,” Borimar said, “We’ll get it back.”
“We have no way of knowing where that doorway took her.” May was walking in his direction.
“I might.” The little girl said.
“Who are ye?” the dwarf asked.
“My name’s Myra. That’s Sammy, my brother.” She pointed to the smaller boy a few feet away. We escaped the vampyre’s slave camps in Elvintika.”
“Slave camps?” Quin said.
“Yes,” Myra said, “They have been using us Gaelach as slaves for decades.”
“What’s a Gaelach?” May asked.
“Elves.” Borimar said.
Cora felt something familiar when she heard the proper elven name. She closed her eyes and saw a flash from her dream. A man was ushering her from bed, towards the window. Two unknown figures forced their way into her room and assaulted the man who was helping her. It was then she realized that the two figures were not unknown. She finally recognized the strange woman in her dream. It was Dremora.
“It was her.” Cora said aloud.
“What are ye going on about?” Borimar asked.
“The vampyre queen,” Cora said, “It was her. She’s the reason I was turned. It was her that attacked my father and had that other one attack me. All for that damn amulet.”
“The portal that she used takes the caster to the flower garden in Elvintika. It’s meant as a fail safe in case of emergency.”
The group turned their attentions to Myra. The young Gaelach was flipping through the spell book that Dremora had left behind, hand still dripping with Tatiana’s blood. As she read the pages to herself, her hands began glowing with blue mist. As it formed, the blood was removed, as if eaten away. The Gaelach paid it no attention, but Quin did.
“You have powerful magic in you.” She said to Myra. “How is that possible?”
“She is my vessel.” A booming female voice startled the group. As one they all turned to regard the red dragon.
“Now the dragon talks?” the dwarf said.
“At least it’s not trying to fry us.” May said.
“I am not an ‘it’.” The dragon said, “I am Brostaigid, The Great Crimson Dragon, God to all Gaelach, and keeper of the dark magics.”
Myra looked up from the spell book and watched some of the blue mist around her hands blowing in the wind towards Brostaigid. Quin saw this as well.
“You said this girl is your vessel.” Quin said, “What exactly does that mean?”
Brostaigid sat up straight and smiled at the humans.
“A century ago, at least I believe it’s been that long,” the dragon began, “One of the most vile creatures this world has ever known, the vampyre known to you as Dremora, took her army of vampyres and invaded the land of Elvintika. Of all the beings in Altlock, the Gaelach were the most versed in all magic. But the vampyres were too fast and too strong. The Gaelach could not withstand the assault and were defeated.”
“That’s what happened to me,” Cora said, “I’ve been having dreams of being attacked. But I’m not an elf. At least I don’t believe I am.”
“That is correct, young Cora.” Brostaigid said, “Dremora wanted the amulet you carried. It is part of The Source, a dark stone from which all dark magics come from. It is but one piece of three. With all three pieces, the vampyre queen could control not only all dark magic for herself, but all dragons as well.”
“Then what am I dreaming about?” Cora asked.
“I suspect you were one of the kingdoms Dremora invaded on her way to Elvintika.”
“What other kingdoms are there?” Quin asked. “Foxcrest?”
/>
“Elaria.” Borimar said. “We learned about it when I was a wee dwarf. Didn’t they teach you Altlock history in school?”
The hunter gave a sly grin to the dwarf. “That’s not a name I recall. Was it close?”
“If I remember right,” the dwarf said, “It was in the Briar Forest, to the north of Elvintika. Like the elves, it was wiped out. Nothing left.”
Cora bowed her head and fought back tears. For a hundred years she did not know where she came from, only that vampyres made her the way she was now.
“There are two more pieces?” Quin said, trying to change the subject.
“Yes,” the dragon said, “Dremora already had one, now she has two. The third piece is in the possession of the Dragon Lord, Draconis.”
“Draconis is dead.” Borimar said. “He died just after I was born.”
“So your elders told you.” Brostaigid said, “But he is very much alive.”
“How can you know?” the dwarf asked.
“As a dragon, I can feel him. His power is weak, but it is very much there. I might even be able to take you to him.”
“Hold on,” May said, “We’re getting off topic here. What did you mean when you said this girl was your ‘vessel’?”
“Ah,” the dragon said, “When the vampyres took Elvintika, the High Priestess Livistria cast a spell on the world, a spell that pulled magic from the world itself to cast. This spell removed all magic from Altlock and sent all dragons into a deep sleep that would last centuries. The spell was so tasking that it left a scar on the world and killed the High Priestess.”
“The Ghostlands.” Sammy said.
“Yes.” The dragon said, “But the spell had another side effect that I insisted on. Part of the power in each dragon God would be deferred to another living vessel. When the time was right, this vessel would be the only one who could awaken us and it would keep the magic hidden from the likes of Dremora.”
“So there be other vessels?” Borimar asked.
“Yes, sir dwarf. One for each of us dragons, so five in total.”
