by Victor Kloss
Natalie had arrived before him and Joshua was climbing up now. Charlie, Dagmar, and Abigail were just a few paces behind. Ben felt a quick burst of pride and relief to see that his best friend wasn’t slowing the rest of the group down at all — Charlie was breathing like a bellows, and his face was bright red, but he was still moving and showed no sign of stopping. As the three charged the hill, Ben moved to the edge, leaning down and out, and offering his hand to haul each one the last few feet to the top once they were close enough to grasp.
Several dark elves were right behind them, black horses labouring up the steep incline.
Ben shouted over his shoulder, “Get ready! Natalie, I hate to say this but aim for the horses!”
An instant later Natalie and Josh stood beside him, and they let fly silver streaks which wrapped around the horses’ legs. With a crash the five knights that had made it past Krobeg went down, still far enough away that the Guardians would make it into the castle now.
The rest were farther back, all clustered — or strewn — about a certain silver-clad, silver-haired figure.
Krobeg was certainly making the dark elves earn their pay. Ben could see that his friend was laying about him with his silver axe, knocking aside blade after blade and hacking through defence and armour. His other arm was hardly idle — instead Krobeg would sometimes lash out with his fist, punching a dark elf hard enough to send the warrior off his feet. Not all of those struck so hard rose again.
Even with such skill and strength, Krobeg could not face an entire army on his own. As more soldiers appeared to join the fray, the dwarf became more and more outnumbered.
Ben scowled down at the scene and studied his spellshooter, wondering what spells he might have that could make a difference here. There had to be something! He punched his leg in frustration.
As fast as he came up with an idea he cast it aside as unworkable. His other friends stood by, just as helpless.
Finally, Dagmar touched him on the arm. “Ben, it’s time to go.”
Ben shook his head. “There has to be something we can do!” He had attack spells, of course, but most of them required a much closer range. And the few longer-range spells he had weren’t well suited to the conflict or the terrain.
No, he’d have to think of something else.
If only, Ben thought, watching his friend fight alone down there, he had a way to safely transport Krobeg here with the rest of them, now that they were all here safely.
And suddenly he realised that at least one of them did.
“Charlie!” Ben shouted, startling his best friend, who stood only a few feet away. “Remember that spell you used once, the one like a whip that wrapped around someone?”
Charlie nodded. “The light-lash? Sure. I’ve got one of those loaded right now. You never know when it’ll come in handy.”
“Perfect!” Ben grabbed Charlie with one hand and pointed with the other. “Use it now on him. But not like a whip, like a lasso.”
Charlie’s eyes narrowed with understanding. “Got it.” In a second Charlie had his spellshooter up and was aiming — right at Krobeg. The spell he fired was a long, thin, glowing yellow strand, like a tiny stream of concentrated sunlight. It arrowed straight for the dwarf, and wrapped at last around his right arm, shoulder, and torso.
And then Charlie yanked his arm back and the burly dwarf went flying, the recoiled spell tugging him through the air and straight at their little group.
“Scatter!” Ben shouted, and dove to the side. The others did the same, rolling out of the way, dodging aside or leaping back as Krobeg hurtled towards them. The dwarf hit with a loud crash right beside Charlie, and Ben was quick to offer a hand to lift both of them back to their feet.
“Thank you,” Krobeg told him once he was standing again. “Another few minutes and I could tell even Elizabeth’s Armour would have buckled.”
Charlie dusted himself off. “Well, I couldn’t let that happen. There are still a considerable number of recipes you have yet to cook for me.”
The dwarf barked a laugh.
Dagmar came over, a frown on her face. “We need to move. It is commendable you saved Krobeg, and we wouldn’t have any chance at all without Krobeg holding off the knights, but we still need to make our way inside. There is a small door perhaps a dozen yards south of us,” she reported, pointing to the right. “We should make for it at once.”
Ben nodded. “Let’s go!”
They sprinted in that direction, but had gone only a few feet before the first of the remaining soldiers crested the hill and charged. Others were right behind.
“Keep moving!” Ben ordered, firing a spell to tangle one soldier’s feet and sweeping the sword at another. “Don’t let them pin us down!” Everyone had weapons in hand now, and it became a running battle as the Guardians struggled to reach the door. They had to get inside! A few purple bolts shot out, but they all gravitated towards Ben and just bounced off. After the first attempt failed, followed by some surprised shouts, the dark elves dropped that tactic in favour of arrows, which began intermittently raining down.
Krobeg began slowing, clearly intending to buy the rest of them more time again. But Ben grabbed the dwarf by the arm.
“Help Abigail,” he instructed instead. “We can’t afford to lose her.”
The Guardian of the Helm was not only the youngest of them, she was also the weakest physically, and she’d had the least spellshooter training. Everyone else could at least defend themselves. Krobeg nodded at once and turned to place himself beside the young blonde girl, his silver axe flashing as he blocked a dark elf’s sword and knocked it and two others aside.
Next Ben called to Natalie and Josh. “Get to the door,” he shouted across the clash and noise of the fighting about them. “Don’t worry about the soldiers. Just get there and be ready to open it.”
The two of them nodded and dashed on ahead, concentrating purely on speed. They were the two fastest members of the group, and now that they weren’t worrying about fighting they quickly outpaced everyone else, but that was fine. Ben knew they’d have to be through the door the instant the whole group reached it.
He, Charlie and Dagmar continued to fight their way across the hill, as did Krobeg. Abigail was doing her best as well. With the dwarf shielding her, she had enough time and space to fire off spells that slowed or downed several of their attackers. And foot by foot the little group advanced.
The sun was setting now, the sky beginning to darken, the forest they’d so recently stepped from already nothing more than a blotch of shadow on the horizon, the castle a massive wall of darkness behind them. Their weapons and spells, and the energy blasts of the dark elves, were vivid in the twilight — but so was something else. Ben blinked, then looked again to make sure he was seeing correctly. But he definitely was.
Each of his friends was glowing!
That wasn’t quite true — it was Abigail, Krobeg, and Dagmar who were glowing. Up ahead he saw a similar patch of illumination he guessed to be Josh. Glancing down, Ben confirmed that he had that same glow. It could only be Elizabeth’s Armour. Arrows started raining down from the castle walls as they got close enough, followed by stones and other objects.
A dark elf attacked, swinging his sword and firing a burst of purple right at Ben’s chest. The spell bounced off, of course, but the sword seemed to slow as well, its full effect blunted. The arrows from the walls all somehow swerved and missed.
So it was protection, Ben thought as he knocked the dark elf’s blade aside and fired a stun bolt directly into the soldier’s chest. Elizabeth’s Armour was shielding them.
Perhaps it sensed that they were close to Suktar, and near to completing its mission.
Whatever the reason, Ben was happy to take as much help as they could get. He grabbed Charlie and pulled him over.
“Stay close to me!”
Charlie’s eyes widened as he saw that Ben was now glowing with a white light, but he didn’t argue.
They skid
ded to a stop at the little door beside Natalie and Josh. The others were right behind him.
“Open it,” he gasped, and Natalie nodded. She fired her key spell into the lock right below the door’s heavy iron ring, and Ben heard the click as it worked. Sweat trickling down her forehead, she yanked the door open. It groaned on its hinges as it swung outwards, revealing a dark hallway beyond.
Joshua went first, Elizabeth’s Shield held out front to protect them from any unseen attack, and the rest followed — all but Krobeg.
“Get inside!” Ben ordered, waving towards the small door. Instead the dwarf walked over and shoved him, hard.
Right through the open door.
“Get moving!” Krobeg ordered. The burly dwarf took one large step and placed himself squarely in the doorway, filling it from side to side if not top to bottom. “I will stop any pursuit.” And he raised his silver axe, facing the soldiers already beginning to rush towards him.
“Krobeg…” Ben started. He knew at once that, if the dwarf stayed here to block the door, there was no way they could pull him to safety this time. And that, even with Elizabeth’s Armour, it would be impossible for him to hold off all of Suktar’s soldiers forever. He would either have to defeat every warrior who came at him — or die trying.
The silver-haired dwarf nodded, parrying one blow and turning another. “I know,” he said, his tone heavy but his voice calm. “Go. This is my task. I am the Guardian of the Breastplate, and I stand here to protect the rest of you from harm.” He swung his axe in a mighty arc, clearing the doorway for a second, then turned and met Ben’s eyes. “Go,” he said again. “Finish the mission. Complete our task, Benjamin Greenwood. End the threat and save the world.”
Ben blinked back sudden tears. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. “I will,” he promised. “We will.”
Then, without another word, he did the hardest thing he would ever do. He turned and left his friend there and started after the others.
The sounds of battle echoed after him long after he had rounded a corner and lost all sight of the door, and of his valiant friend, the Silver Dwarf.
— Chapter Twenty-Seven —
Help From Surprising Places
The others were waiting for Ben a few yards farther around that bend, tense and expectant, and with weapons still at the ready. When they saw him, they relaxed a little. But only for a moment.
It was Abigail who voiced it first. “Where’s Krobeg?” she asked, peering past Ben as if the dwarf might emerge at any moment. “Are we waiting for him?”
Ben wiped a hand across his eyes and steeled his voice. “He is doing his duty in order to let us do ours. It’s the only way, so we need to get a move on to make his sacrifice count.”
“What?” Abigail glanced around at everyone else, her eyes going wide. Natalie had tears running down her face, and Charlie looked like he was in shock.
Joshua nodded and rolled his shoulders. “I’m going ahead so I can keep the tunnel clear,” he declared, his voice husky. “If Krobeg can hold the army back, it’s the least I can do.”
Dagmar stepped up to Ben and leaned in close. “Ben, you made the right decision. Being in charge, you sometimes have to be the one to make the hard choices.” She put her hand on his shoulder. “It looks like the boots took us to an unused entry, the only safe way to get in. That said, I don’t think it will take Suktar’s soldiers long to find out where it goes and trap us from both sides.”
Ben took a shuddering breath. Joshua had gone on ahead, but the others were looking at him in various degrees of shock or grief. “We need to keep moving,” he said softly. “There’s no telling… how long it will be before they get through that door.”
Abigail sobbed again at that, but finally nodded. They all understood. The worst thing they could do right now was to make Krobeg’s sacrifice be in vain.
“Dagmar,” Ben said, and the stocky Institute member stepped to his side. “We need the fastest way to Suktar,” he instructed.
She nodded. “This place did not want me to find it,” she stated, indicating the castle with a wave of her hand. “But now that we are inside, it has no fight left. I will find him for us.”
“Good.” Ben glanced at his friends. “We’re going to need to be very careful,” he pointed out. “We’re in their stronghold now, and we have no idea how many Suktar has here, but we can assume it’s a lot. Plus we’re… not as strong as we were. So we’ll have to be on our guard.”
They set of at a rapid pace, and quickly caught up to Joshua, who nodded a silent greeting. They moved ahead quickly, conscious of the fact that Krobeg had bought them this time to get away and wanting to honour his courage. The tunnel went on and on, Dagmar reassuring them that this was definitely the way the boots were directing them. After some time they came to a hallway that split in two. One path seemed to go down, and dampness came from that direction. The other went up and they could see lights along the corridor. Ben started that way, surprised at how different the two tunnels were, but Joshua grabbed his arm, stopping him.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Josh asked, a hint of hope clear in his tone. “We’re in Suktar’s palace.” He paused a second, but when Ben didn’t reply he continued. “You know, his palace? Where he keeps his greatest treasures, and his most important prisoners?” He nodded to the damp, dark corridor off to their right. “That looks an awful lot like the way to a dungeon to me.”
Ben straightened like someone had just thrown a bucket of cold water on him, his eyes locked on Joshua’s. In all the attention on finding this place and getting to Suktar, he had intentionally locked such thoughts away in order to remain focused on the bigger picture. Ben knew his parents were here somewhere. They had gone after Suktar themselves and had almost died as a result, surviving only by transporting themselves into the Void. But when you went into the Void you left your physical body behind, wrapped in an impenetrable mystic shell. Suktar couldn’t get to them, but he would have guards posted to take advantage of that shield dropping the second they returned to this plane.
The fate of Josh’s dad was less certain. He was a high-ranking Warden, one of Draven’s most trusted lieutenants, and had led a critical raid against Suktar and his forces. The raid had failed, and all of the other Wardens had been killed, but Josh’s father’s body had not been recovered. It made sense that he would have been captured if at all possible. If he had been, he very well could be here.
“We need to go get them,” Josh said now. “Your parents. My dad. We can save them!” The older boy sounded half-excited and half-desperate. “Now, before Suktar realises we’re here!” He looked ready to charge down the corridor this very second.
Ben found he couldn’t blame him. “Maybe you’re right,” he agreed slowly, the idea gaining traction the longer he considered it. “We could sure use their help.” From what Ben had heard, his own parents were among the best Spellswords the Institute had. Between the two of them and Josh’s dad, they would be able to provide a lot of additional firepower.
Ben’s parents might be protected, but Josh’s dad probably wasn’t. And if Suktar killed him because he discovered they had come for him, Ben knew Josh would never forgive him. And for good reason.
When he turned to face his other friends, all he got was a mixture of concern, glares and blank stares.
“You’re not serious,” Natalie said. “Are you? We finally make it all the way to Suktar’s castle and you want to go wandering off to find your parents?” She turned to Josh. “And your dad, too?”
“You don’t get it,” Josh argued. “If it was your parents—”
“I would do anything I could to save them, sure,” Natalie agreed. “I’m just a bit shocked that, less than an hour after Krobeg gave his life to hold this tunnel so we could carry out our mission, you are considering throwing all that away to go off on a wild goose chase. Ben, tell him, will you?” When Ben didn’t immediately answer, Natalie sniffed. “Really? You too?”
Ben
raised his hands in defence. “It’s not that, Natalie. I mean, of course I can’t think of anything I’d want more than to save my parents, so I understand Josh on that, but it’s also that the three of them would be a formidable force. We could use all the help we can get in here — isn’t that right?”
Charlie had his arms crossed and was frowning. He could see both sides of it, but in truth it didn’t feel right to turn from their course after they had come this far. As they quieted down, he spoke.
“I know Ben’s parents, remember? I’ve met Joshua’s dad, too. They’re all good people, and they deserve to be safe. From what I’ve heard they are all very good Spellswords as well. At the same time, that is the very reason we should not turn aside to find them. They would expect us to complete the mission.”
Dagmar added her voice. “What happens if we lose too much time getting to them?” she asked. “What if Suktar gets away because of that? What if he wins the war? How would your parents feel if they knew that all those other people died, that the Institute fell, because of them?”
Ben grimaced as the point hit home. His parents had let everyone think they were traitors to the Institute rather than give up the secrets of Elizabeth’s Legacy — not because they wanted it for themselves but because they knew that Suktar was gaining in power and almost ready to move against the Institute again. The armour was the only thing that could stop the dark elf king. They had sacrificed everything — including being with Ben — to save the kingdoms. He couldn’t let them down now by wasting that sacrifice, any more than he could squander Krobeg’s.
One look at Josh told him that the older boy felt the same way, which only made sense. Josh’s dad had already been heavily committed to this war. He would want them to see the mission through to the end, to protect the greater good, even if that put him at risk.
Josh nodded heavily. “Okay, yeah, I get it,” he agreed slowly. “Save the world first, then our parents.” He managed a small, sad smile with that.
