by Eric Vall
I summoned up my magic, and then I shut my eyes as I willed it into the animatron before me. In my mind, I slid into his metal skin, and then I deployed the sword on his left arm while his right unhooked the shield from his chest and extended it out in front of him. The limbs of the loaded crossbow folded just as I meant them to, and the long-range weapon was now hidden behind the shield, out of use for the moment, but nocked and ready when needed.
Then came the hard part.
While I maintained my connection to the machine, I tried to split my power into two different veins. One fed Big Guy, and the other snaked into the cobblestones at our feet. It was like trying to pat my head and rub my stomach at the same time, only a thousand times harder. I felt pulled in so many directions that my power was pulled taut like a stretched rubber band. I started to worry about what would happen if it snapped, but I didn’t have time for doubts or concerns or failings. I needed to control Big Guy. He was our front cover and our battering ram, and we also needed the rear shields. There was no doubt about that. Even though it felt like I might pass out at any second, I had to push through.
King Davit, Cayla, and all of Cedis were depending on me, and I’d be damned if I let them all down.
So I gritted my teeth, bared down, and pulled the cobblestones up out of the street and formed them into a rock shield around our backs. It hovered inches from the ground, stretched up and over to hang partially above our heads, and then wrapped around to the left and right to protect our sides. Most of our peripherals were blocked, but that was fine because we had to move forward. Always forward.
I gasped as the stone solidified, and then I swayed on my feet with my eyes still clenched shut.
Cayla’s hand wrapped around my elbow, and her warm breath brushed my ear as she leaned forward.
“Mason,” she breathed, but I cut her off.
“We have… to go,” I grunted. “It’s… so hard to do both. We need to get… in the castle. Now.”
Before anyone could respond, I willed Big Guy forward and stumbled after him. I heard the others’ footsteps as they followed me, and I could feel the shields bob in the air directly behind Aurora.
We emerged out of the alleyway, and I pushed everything I had into Big Guy to move us quickly toward the gate. The sprint was a blur because suddenly we were crossing the bridge, and a cry of alarm went out from atop the wall’s parapets.
“Aurora!” I barked, and then the familiar arc of magical static crackled in the air.
“Duck!” the Ignis Mage shouted, and as I followed her instructions, an intense heat welled at my back, so hot the nape of my neck felt scalded.
But then I heard Aurora grunt, and I cracked open my eyes just in time to see a huge fireball fly over our heads and rocket toward the castle gate. The ball of flame crashed into the wooden door with the sound of the world ending, and fire and splinters and rocky debris exploded into the air.
Aurora made sure none of the fire touched us, and I gritted my teeth as I kept our rocky shields in place. Then, all together, we burst into the castle courtyard with guns metaphorically and literally blazing.
The scene was absolute chaos around us. Smoke was thick in the air, and dozens of voices yelled and screamed as the bandits scrambled to respond. There were a handful of bodies scattered around the courtyard, blown back by Aurora’s fireball, but Big Guy rolled right over them as we continued to press forward.
Suddenly, the retort of a gun cracked through the smoke, and a bullet buried itself in Big Guy’s shield. I stumbled as we all ducked and covered behind our various defenses, but we kept slowly inching forward.
“They have guns,” Cayla cried, and then her rifle went off with a bang behind me as she returned fire.
I spared half a thought to the fact that maybe giving out guns, no matter my intentions, hadn’t been the best idea since now bandits fucking had them, but it was too late for regret. I would simply have to collect my weapons off these bastard’s corpses.
After the first shot, the bandits seemed to get their bearings because then it was an all-out firefight. Arrows and bullets alike assaulted our shields, and debris still burned behind us and filled the courtyard with thick smoke. I coughed as the acrid air burned my throat, but the doors of the castle suddenly appeared out of the smoke thirty feet ahead of us.
“Almost there!” I shouted as we crawled forward under our shield.
Of course, that’s when the castle doors opened, and twenty bandits came pouring out, armed to the teeth with swords and axes, and my fucking guns.
“We can take them,” Cayla snarled behind me, and I heard as she cranked the rifle’s lever and loaded a new round into the chamber.
“Save your ammo,” I grunted. “Big Guy’s got this.”
Then I closed my eyes and let my magic pour out of me.
Instantly, stone rose from the ground around us and added to our shields until we were almost completely covered from head to toe in a protective egg made of rock. Then I shut my eyes, willed the shields to stay solid around us, and then pushed them to the back of my mind as I slipped back into my animatron.
As I embodied Big Guy, I held his right arm out in front of him and raised his left sword hand. I could hear the bandits’ uncertain shouts and commands, and I could “see” them shift uneasily on their feet as Big Guy rumbled forward, but then one of them decided to be brave, and he darted forward with an axe raised above his head.
I lifted Big Guy’s shield and deflected the bandit’s blow, and then while the sorry bastard’s arms were still lifted high, I drove the animatron’s sword deep into his exposed belly. I actually felt as the blade nicked the bandit’s spine, and then I ripped the sword to the side and cut clean through half of the man’s body. His body slumped to the ground, and the animatron’s treads rolled through the entrails spilled across the cobblestones as his pressed forward.
Terrified by the display of power, the remaining bandits tried to retreat back into the castle doors, but I pushed Big Guy to dart forward and cut them off. Then I slashed with the machine’s sword as he passed the bandits, and then I whirled him around so his back was to the castle and he faced the dozen or so men left standing. They tried to backpedal, but our huge stone egg was behind them, and they had nowhere to run.
Big Guy cut through them like autumn wheat, and the cobblestones ran with rivers of crimson blood that pooled into a lake near the far wall.
When the last bandit between us and the castle was in pieces on the ground, I turned the animatron around and had him hold open the door. Then I lowered the stone shield in front of us enough for my companions to see.
“Move,” I grunted, unable to form any more words, and then I stumbled forward with my team hot on my heels.
There were a few more bandits just inside the entryway, and as we reached the door, I spun Big Guy around and unleashed him on his next opponents. Some bandits screamed as they ran away from the blood-soaked machine. Others tried to stand their ground, cocky and arrogant with my guns in their hands. But they didn’t know how to shoot properly, and they apparently didn’t know how to reload, because one bandit aimed his stolen rifle with a snarl but when the gun clicked empty, he gazed down at the weapon in confusion.
I took advantage of his hesitation, and Big Guy darted forward, knocked the rifle out of the bandit’s hands with the metal shield mounted on his right arm, and then he thrust the sword on his left in a quick jab. The blade caught the bandit in the juncture between neck and shoulder, and blood burst out of his mouth before he crumbled to the ground.
The rest of the bandits took off running deeper into the castle, and then I heard the doors slam behind us.
“Flynt!” Mayard barked. “Unless you want to fight a battle on two fronts, I need help barring these doors!”
“Get in front of me,” I gritted out, and when my companions darted forward and out of the way, I raised my hand and sent out a pulse of power.
The ceiling above the doors cracked and then crashed
down to the floor with a sound like overlapping thunder. Dust billowed in the wake of the collapse, but when it finally cleared, a wall of boulders fifteen high blocked the entrance. A bit messy and loud, but it was a quick solution. No one was coming in after us.
“Well, I guess that’s one way to do it,” Mayard grumbled.
“Come on, we have to… keep going,” I struggled to get out. By this point, I was basically standing by sheer will and adrenaline alone. “Dred knows… we’re here. We need to reach him and the king… as soon as possible.”
“Then let’s go,” Cayla said as she brandished her rifle in front of her.
Aurora nodded in agreement, and a flame sparked to life in her hand.
“My men could help us,” Mayard said quickly, “they might be alive in the dungeons.”
I shook my head, and my vision doubled and flickered and went dark around the edges. “No… time. If they’re… alive, we’ll free them once Dred… is dead.”
The captain pursed his lips but didn’t argue.
The five of us quickly fell back into line, and then we pressed forward into the castle. Big Guy rolled out ahead of us with his shield extended and his sword at the ready. I still had the rock wall behind us to cover our six, but as we jogged toward the throne room, well, I mostly stumbled, the stone began to crumble into sand as my magic continued to drain at an alarming rate. I bit my tongue until I tasted blood, and the rock shield solidified again, but it was half as big now, basically enough to reach over our heads and to the back of our knees. I wouldn’t be able to keep this up much longer. Both King Davit and I were on a tight deadline, a ticking clock. Our fates were going to be decided by how quick I was.
Nemris, I hope I was fast enough.
We barrelled through the hallways as swiftly as I could. As we came around the next corner, half a dozen bandits appeared to block our way.
“Don’t… stop,” I snarled, and then Big Guy blasted forward, and his bloodstained silver sword flashed in the hall torchlight.
The animatron took out half the men in a few moves, but some escaped his reach and darted toward us instead. Without the machine before us, our fronts were exposed. I was about to try to bring our stone shield up from the rear, but then fire shot out over my right shoulder and engulfed the bandits in flames. They screamed in agony as the fire ravaged them. Then Cayla ripped the top break revolver from the holster at my hip and fired several times in quick succession. The bullets struck the burning bandits in the chest, and they fell to the side dead as we rocketed past them.
“Thanks,” I gasped to the princess.
“The throne room is close,” she panted in reply, “we don’t have time for delays. Keep pressing forward. We’ll take care of any bandits.”
I nodded silently in acknowledgment and concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other.
We ran into several more batches of bandits in the halls, but they all passed in a blur of bullets and fire. The next thing I knew, we rounded a corner at a fast clip, and the throne room appeared at the end of the long hallway that stretched out before us.
Relief began to flood through me, but then Big Guy barrelled down the hall, and I felt something tangle in his tracks. Before I could realize what had just happened, I heard something snap, and then something fell from the ceiling above our heads. I craned my neck back in time to watch a silver bucket tumble through the air before it landed on Aurora’s head with a crack.
The half-elf stumbled with a cry of alarm, and liquid cascaded over her hair and shoulders as the bucket crashed to the floor. Aurora careened into the wall, and she reached up to cradle her forehead as blood sheeted down her brow from a nasty looking gash.
I was confused for a split second before the familiar sharp and pungent smell reached my nose.
“Barbil oil!” I shouted, but it was too late.
Just as I raised my voice, the door to the throne room burst open, and a man stood in the threshold with a flaming arrow nocked in his bow. He took aim and fired in the blink of an eye, and the projectile flew through the air before it buried itself in the carpet several feet in front of us. A roaring fire immediately sprang to life, fueled by the oil, and it rushed forward to consume us.
“Mason!” Cayla screamed behind me, and I tried to yank the stones out of the walls to protect us, but then I stumbled, and my vision went black.
I was nearly at my limit.
“Flynt!” Mayard bellowed, and I shook my head as my vision returned.
The fire licked at our feet as it encircled us. The skin of my face already felt singed, and as I tried to backpedal away from the flames, I fell sideways into some more. My shirt immediately caught fire, and I yelped as my arm was burned.
I was about to crumble the stone shield behind us into sand in an effort to put out the flames when suddenly they began to peter out on their own.
No… not on their own.
I whipped my head around and saw Aurora propped up against the wall with her arm raised and extended and a snarl on her face. Blood still poured from the wound on her brow, but the fire lowered around us until there was nothing left but ash and soot.
“Are… you okay?” I gasped as the Ignis Mage shoved herself off the wall.
“No,” she spat as she shook her head to flick blood out of her eyes. “I am sick, and I am tired, and I am done with these games.”
Then she hauled her hand behind her like she was getting ready to throw the first pitch in a major league baseball game. As I watched, an orb of blue flame sprung to life between her fingers. It was hotter and brighter than any fire I had ever seen the half-elf produce, and it swirled violently in her palm before she took a running leap forward and flung it with all her might at the throne room doors.
They exploded inwards with a sonic boom and a shower of splinters. Then Aurora turned to us with a fierce scowl.
“Let’s go save your father,” she growled to Cayla before she looked at me expectantly.
“Hell yeah,” I snarled, and I summoned up every ounce of strength left in me. Big Guy lurched into motion and clattered down the hall at top speed, and I stumbled in is wake with the rest of my team hot on my heels.
Chapter 16
We burst into the throne room with weapons out, and all our shields pulled tight around us. The dust was still settling from Aurora’s explosion, but through the chaos, I counted maybe twenty-five bandits between the man seated on the throne and us.
I immediately moved to attack, but then a voice cut across the room clear and sharp as glass.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” it said. “You move one more inch, and Davit is going to need a new neck.”
Movement behind the throne caught my eye, and as I lifted my head, my breath caught in my throat, and Cayla gasped in horror beside me.
King Davit stood on a shoddy scaffold at the back of the room directly behind the throne. His face was a swollen and bruised mess, but my gaze was drawn to the noose pulled tight across his throat. A bandit stood at the base of the scaffold, half obscured by the throne, but I could see that the other end of the rope was clenched tight in his hands.
“You might be good,” the voice that addressed us spoke again, “but you can’t kill me, all my men, and my executioner at the same time. So why don’t we all just calm down and have a little chat, hmm?”
As much as I hated it, the mocking voice was right. We couldn’t take them all at once. I needed a plan, or the king was dead. Until I had one, I kept Big Guy in front of us with his shield extended, and I kept the rock wall at our backs. Then I gritted my teeth in fury as I dragged my eyes off Davit and followed the voice back to its source.
A tall and slender man dressed in dusty but fine clothing sprawled arrogantly across the throne. His brown leather breeches looked brand new as did his boots and the silver sword that hung on his belt. The clothing on his torso looked a little worse for wear though. He wore a scuffed leather vest with a high popped collar that seemed to be padded with an
imal hide armor at the shoulders and chest. Below the vest, he wore a shirt much like my own, but his was the deep scarlet of freshly spilled blood, and it looked like he had torn the sleeves off to showcase his muscled upper arms marked with scars of every shape and size. On his head, he wore a wide-brimmed hat that covered the top half of his face and shielded his eyes from view.
But then the man lifted his head, and his eyes immediately went to me.
They were dark and beady and full of smug malice.
This was Camus Dred.
Dred smiled slow and easy as he took in our ragtag group. Then he pushed himself upright, tipped his hat back, and gave me a steady once over.
“Well, now,” he drawled loud enough for his voice to carry across the throne room, “so this is the famous mage that has caused me so much damn trouble.”
Dred’s voice was raspy and deep, and when he grinned at me, dimples flashed in his sallow cheeks.
Objectively, he wasn’t an ugly man, and I’d bet my bottom dollar he was charming as hell. It was probably how he gained power so quickly, too quickly for King Davit and his men to counteract. And by the smug aura that he emitted, Dred knew this too. His swift rise to infamy and riches had made him arrogant. He was the biggest dog in Cedis, and he had spent the last few months making sure everyone knew it.
Gods, I couldn’t wait to knock him off his pedestal of bones.
“Looking for me?” I replied as I lifted my chin and squared my stance.
“I was,” Dred said with a slow nod. “Kind of you to answer my summons. I wasn’t sure if you’d be stupid enough to do so.”
“Not like I had much choice, now did I?” I growled as my hands clenched into fists.
“No,” Dred chuckled with a sly grin, “but good to know that you’re a smart cur who can follow orders.”
I ground my teeth together harshly but forced myself not to rise to his bait.
“Let King Davit go,” I demanded as my eyes slid from the bandit and went to captive sovereign above him.
“Now, now,” Dred replied with a frown, “where are your manners? We haven’t even been properly introduced.” The Bandit Boss slid to his feet and swept the hat off his head as he executed a low and mocking bow. “My name is Camus Dred. I am the proprietor of this dusty little kingdom you find yourself in.”
