An open cabin waited to the left, a closed cabin to the right. The glow stretched now to the horizon, a column of golden light rising to the sky. That rising column of light was where Kara was — Trell felt that in his frozen bones — and he charged that way.
A pair of glowing golden statues clomped from side streets, raising silver swords. Statues that moved rushed them both, statues carved like soldiers. The Alcedi.
“Do you have a plan?” Abaddon shouted.
Trell spun his sword in a wide arc and cut both statues apart. “I really thought we'd just kill them all!”
As Trell halved the golden statues he caught a glimpse of human eyes inside their T-slit helms, but then those eyes vanished. Pieces of statue clattered apart on the road, revealing their armor to be hollow, and pale smoke rose from inside. Abaddon clattered to a stop.
“So this is the best they have?” Trell kicked the remains aside and strode down the main road. “I'm not impressed.”
“Those were blessed men, fodder.” Abaddon walked beside him now, lightning sword crackling. “Peons who serve the Alcedi, worship them, and die at their spoken work. When their most devoted of followers beg to serve as thralls, the Alcedi mummify their human bodies and smelt them into golden statues.”
“Why would anyone beg for that?”
“Because when one gazes upon the face of an Alcedi, one loses one's mind and one's will. To love a golden god, you must discard everything you are and everything you ever were. These creatures have no use for people. You see now how our rule is preferable, don't you?”
Trell might, but he wasn't going to admit that. “You're the expert, general.” He stomped forward. “What else will they throw at us?”
“These fodder would be led by a Lord of Dawn, a golden giant twice as tall as I am. I took my blade off one I killed a millennia or so ago. That was quite the war. So many glorious battles!”
“Is a Lord of Dawn here?”
“It's likely waiting at the portal right now.”
“How about we race?” Trell asked. “That will be our duel. I've killed two Alcedi already. I'm going to kill many more and if you can outpace me, you win.”
“A race!” Abaddon sounded excited. “Really?”
“Can you defeat me?”
Abaddon roared with laughter and thrust its lightning sword to the sky. “If we slay another Lord of Dawn today, you may keep the blade!”
Trell grinned as more blessed men stumbled from every side street ahead, drawn to them by who knew what. A blinding light rose at what had been a town gate, once. Now it was a portal to another world.
That world was nothing like this one. It was a land of swaying honey wheat and a sky of brilliant green, so beautiful. It was unlike any world Trell had ever known and it looked so warm. Abaddon shattered blessed men and stomped past broken statues as Trell stared.
A slim figure knelt motionless before the gates. Kara. Glowing golden soldiers marched by her in armored columns, different from the stoic blessed men Trell had fought before. Light poured from every opening in their glittering armor, light wrapped in an armored shell.
“The ordained!” Abaddon shouted. “Or as I call them while they flit about, the extremely annoying!”
Whatever these soldiers were, ordained or not, they took no notice of Kara. Trell charged and raised his icy greatsword. “I'm going left!”
Abaddon's lightning sword spun through the right column, slicing through ordained until all twelve exploded in brilliant pulses of light. Pieces of smoking armor exploded in all directions.
“Thirty to two!” Abaddon shouted. “Are you even trying?”
Trell howled and rushed as the other ordained scattered. These soldiers moved in short, blinding bursts of speed, zipping from place to place as balls of lightning. They surrounded Trell, striking in waves and tearing pieces off his icy armor. Far too fast.
Trell stopped looking at where the ordained were and anticipated where they would be, spinning and slicing as their silver blades glanced off Life's frozen armor. Soon the entire column was down, pulses of light burned away in explosions of armor, and the gate was clear.
Kara knelt before the portal. Trell picked her up in the crook of one arm and wielded his greatsword with the other, trusting Life's monstrous strength to allow that. A deafening war horn sounded beyond the gate and the volume sent Trell stumbling. What was that?
A giant armored figure stepped through the gate, eyes blazing so brightly it made Trell squint. It wore the same armor as the ordained, but this was no mere soldier. This giant's armor was far more intricate, and it carried a lightning sword like Abaddon's. Its flesh was flecked gold.
“Kneel!” the gold-skinned giant shouted in a voice pursued by rumbling thunder. “Repent!”
Trell frowned under his icy helmet and set Kara down behind him. He raised his greatsword. “You first.”
“Hold!” Abaddon clanked between them. “That giant imbecile would be a Lord of Dawn. They really are insufferable, but you probably shouldn't attack it head on. That thing will murder even Life's Champion.”
The Lord of Dawn stomped forward, raising its lightning sword above its head and pointing it at them in a fighting stance. “Repent!”
Abaddon tossed his lightning sword but the giant parried it with its own. Abaddon's sword returned to its fist and then the Mavoureen general charged, shouting with delight. The Lord of Dawn charged back.
Just before they collided, Trell threw his arms and icy body around Kara. When Abaddon's sword collided with the Lord of Dawn's, the impact of those blades shattered buildings and uprooted palisade walls. Trell rose as Abaddon and the Lord of Dawn battled, blasting the world around them apart, and stumbled away shielding Kara.
As the monsters dueled and Knoll Point exploded, Abaddon's skull-helm spun backward like an armored owl. Trell knew if Abaddon could grin at him, the demon would be doing that now.
“This one counts double!” Abaddon shouted. “You've lost our duel!”
“Then you've bested me!” Trell shouted back as he stumbled away with Kara. “You win!” He clutched Kara close and tried not to stare at the bloody tear in her cheek, or the drool on her lips.
“Best keep running then!” Abaddon forced the Lord of Dawn toward the portal. “I'll be after you when I'm done!”
More glowing warriors zipped out in flashes of lightning, ordained supporting their Lord of Dawn. Chunks fell from Abaddon's crimson armor as he took them down one after the other, a swordsman in his element. Every twist and step and thrust Abaddon took was balanced, perfect. The demon moved like Trell wished he could move.
The Lord of Light fell, cleaved in half, and Trell remembered how to run. Abaddon's laughter followed him as Trell searched desperately for Aryn, for Byn, but if they had come here with Kara they certainly weren't here now. He did not have time to look for them.
Even powerful as it was, Trell knew there was no way Abaddon could stop all these Alcedi. It was going to fight alone in this ruined village, killing blessed men and ordained and Lords of Dawn and Five knew what else. Taunting their shattered golden corpses.
Soon enough those Alcedi would carve Abaddon into tiny pieces, and Trell knew the demon would delight in every moment of this carnage. A legendary last battle. Honorable death amidst mortal enemies.
Really, what warrior could ask for more?
ARYN THUMPED STORM’S FLANKS, pushing the tired horse hard. The others followed, exhausted as their mounts. They had followed his tireless davenger the entire night, and day broke with them still on the road.
Even the sight of the morning sun glittering on Pale Lake could not raise Aryn's spirits. Ona rode silently behind him, eyes red and puffy. No matter what they accomplished today, her husband was not coming back.
Aryn still could not believe Xander was dead. Kara's father had seemed unstoppable, invincible. Without Xander to lead them their chances of saving Kara from the Mavoureen dwindled dramatically, but Aryn would not give up. They owed t
his rescue to Xander.
Some time ago a massive glowing column split the horizon. It showed in Aryn's dream world sight like the beacons often caused by astral glyphs. No one had any idea what it could be, but none of them dared slow down.
Knoll Point was barely visible through the trees. Thunder crashed as bolts of lightning burst from within. What was happening in there?
A tall, glittering figure slammed through the distant palisades and sprinted up the hill. It smashed trees aside as it ran. It looked to be formed of pure diamond, or some shiny type of ice.
Aryn called a halt and slid off his horse. He sliced open one finger and prepared to scribe a Finger of Heat. “To arms!”
It was only then Aryn realized the man rushing toward him was covered in green energy. There was a slim orange form collapsed in his arms. Kara.
“That's Trell!” Aryn shouted, and he held back the urge to whoop and pump his fist. “It’s Life’s Champion!”
Trell had escaped Abaddon and found a way to once again claim Life's power. Might Heat return to Aryn as well? Could he feel that power again?
The palisades around Knoll Point burned hot, cracked, and fell open in distinct chunks. Two columns of warriors in golden armor marched out, moving in lockstep. The sound of their distant boots filled the hills.
Trell reached them at the speed of a good horse and stumbled to a stop. Aryn realized then Kara wasn't moving and Trell cradled her close. Was she injured? In the distance, golden soldiers marched.
Ona rushed forward with a tiny cry. Trell gingerly placed Kara in her mother's arms, no small feat for a man covered in icy armor. Kara breathed but did not react. Her eyes were open, staring.
“Talk to me!” Ona clutched her tight. “Kara!”
Aryn stared at the columns of golden warriors. “What are those things?” Something about the sun glinting off their armor made him cold.
“Those,” Trell said, turning on the oncoming horde and raising his icy greatsword, “are Alcedi.”
Aryn blinked at him. “Those don't exist.”
“You tell them that.” Trell stepped forward. “I'll hold them here. Take Kara and run, fast as you can. You may defeat the blessed men, even the ordained, but the Lords of Dawn will make an end of you.”
“Are those the golden soldiers marching below?”
Tania stepped up beside Aryn. “I like this man's clever thinking. About the running.” She looked to Aryn. “We've rescued Kara. Shall we be off?”
Kara stirred in her mother's arms. She gasped and cried out, shrieking and flailing. She was finally awake, but she did not look entirely sane.
Trell collapsed, icy armor melting in crackling chunks. When it was done a ragged, naked man with icy blue skin lay prostate in the grass. He tried to rise, thumped backward, and blew out a frosted breath.
“I'm sorry,” Trell whispered. “I have to die now.”
KARA OPENED HER HEAVY EYES with great effort. She was in her mother's arms, and Ona was alive. “Mother!” Paymon had lied to her!
Ona held her close. “I'm here.”
Kara wriggled and fought, desperate to break free. “Where's Xander?” She looked around wildly, pushing at Ona. “Where's my father?”
Paymon's terrifying lies echoed in her mind. If Ona was here Xander must be too, so where was Xander? Where was the father she loved?
It was only when Ona said nothing, when Ona just stared with her puffy red eyes, that Kara realized some lies were truth. Xander Honuron was dead. Kara had murdered her own father.
“Kara,” someone whispered. “A moment of your time?”
That's when Kara spotted Trell, blue-skinned, and her breath caught in her throat. She broke from her mother's arms and dashed over, sliding to her knees at his side. She pressed her hands to his frozen cheeks.
“Trell? Trell! Talk to me!”
“I am.” He almost smiled.
Kara tried to lift him, tried to hug his frigid torso, but he was so heavy! Her mind replayed a distant memory of Trell coming for her, dragging her from a tunnel of light. He always came for her.
“There is a glyph,” Trell whispered, “in the room where we fought Cantrall, at Terras. That glyph binds the Five.”
“What are you talking about? How could anyone bind the Five?” Kara needed his arms around her. She needed someone she loved alive.
Trell breathed icy breath through purple lips. It chilled Kara's face. His cheeks felt cold as snow. What had Life done to him?
“Listen,” Trell whispered. “You must find Jyllith.”
“What's happening to you? How do I stop it?” Kara looked down at Knoll Point. Golden statues marched through the woods carrying silver swords, cloaked in glowing armor.
“Jyllith knows how to close that gate,” Trell whispered. “She can stop the Alcedi.”
“Jyllith's gone!” Kara shouted. “I don't know where Byn is, but I think Anylus killed him too. Sera's soul is lost to the Underside, and Xander is ... my father is...” Kara's words failed her. Saying it would make it real.
She felt adrift in a chilling sea. This was not any sort of dream and there was not going to be any waking up. Kara was going to live in a world she had doomed, where she had murdered those she loved, and that sad life might not be very long at all.
“Go back to Terras,” Trell whispered. “Muss Cantrall's glyph and contact Jyllith's soul. Together, you must save our world from the Alcedi.”
“I can't!” Kara had just destroyed everything and everyone she had ever loved. She was helpless. Paymon had made that abundantly clear.
“You can do anything,” Trell said, smiling through purple lips now caked with ice. “You're amazing. I have absolute faith.”
“You're coming with me.” Kara struggled to lift him, but he weighed as much as a statue. “Up, damn you! We'll run together!”
Trell coughed, a sound like ice cracking. “I wish I could come with you.”
“Then do it! Don't die!”
“Already tried that.” Trell's mouth quirked. “Promise me you'll live, and I'll regret nothing.”
Kara threw herself against his freezing chest. “I love you, dammit!” Tears froze on her bleeding cheek. “Don't go.”
“If you love me, you'll live for me.” Trell shuddered. “Now run.”
Ice crackled so loud it stabbed her ears. Kara jerked away from Trell's chest, staring as his eyes froze over. Cracks spread across the sheets covering Trell's lips and face and neck, rippling across his frozen body.
Kara shrieked as a crack split Trell's frozen face. More cracks opened and then his body fell apart, flesh and blood and bone snapping like ice over a thawing pond. Trell's broken body crumbled before her.
He was dead now.
Strong hands pulled Kara to her feet and she fought them with all she had left, screaming at the world. She couldn't hear, couldn't see, couldn't breathe. She fought and thrashed and trembled until she heard her mother speaking from somewhere far away.
“I'm here. I love you. Come back.”
Ona was still here with her. Ona still loved her, and her mother was in terrible danger. That more than anything allowed Kara to keep thinking, keep moving. She had broken the world today and someone had to fix that.
Kara turned to the blond woman standing with Aryn and ignored the quaver in her own voice. “You.”
“Tania,” the woman corrected with a smile.
“You're an Earther?”
“Among other things.”
“Then we need to work together now.” Kara clutched Tania's hand and took the dream world, staring at the devastated mountain. “We have a mountain to bring down.”
“You can do that?” Aryn whispered.
“We're going to need a little while,” Kara said. Her body trembled and her mind ached but she refused to die, refused to stop fighting, no matter how many voices inside her screamed at her to do just that.
Dying was not her way, no matter how horrible her nightmarish world became. So long as there w
as even one person alive she could fight for, Kara Honuron would fight. She owed her father that. She owed Trell.
She took the dream world and scribed a Hand of Land.
Chapter 28
ARYN DID NOT KNOW if Kara and Tania could bring a mountain down, but if anyone could, it was the two of them together. It was up to he and everyone else to buy them time to finish their complex string of glyphs.
“Dynara!” Aryn shouted. “We protect them no matter what! Agreed?”
“That's obvious.” Dynara stepped between Kara, Tania, and the golden horde below. Mat and Zell moved to Dynara’s side, planting shields and raising spears. If only they had twenty more just like them.
The twin columns of golden armored soldiers started up the hill. Blessed men, Trell had called them. Or was it ordained? These soldiers marched without taunts or battle cries. Aryn wondered if normal weapons could harm them. He wondered how many Trell had killed already.
He really wished Trell was still alive.
“Hold steady!” Aryn ordered. He turned to Tania. “Raise yourselves,” he thought. “Even if we die, it may keep these demons out a bit longer.”
Tania diverted from the string of glyphs she was scribing with Kara, scribing another, shorter string below. It ignited and then a platform of earth rose beneath them, throwing Dynara off-balance. She leapt off the earth as it rose, barely keeping her feet.
“A little warning!” Dynara shouted.
“Keep going,” Aryn thought. “We need it higher than they can climb.”
He felt a brief flicker of amusement from Tania. “If I die up here, skewered by a golden man, how are you going to get Kara down?”
“You're not dying.” He couldn’t even think about that. “I know Kara. Follow her lead. If you work together, she can save us.”
“Well, it is her turn.”
The columns of glowing soldiers were not running, not hurrying at all. The only sound was the clomping of dozens of golden armored boots. Were they even aware of the people waiting for them atop this hill?
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