by R A Oakes
“That’s strange,” Black Scarlet said. “With Balzekior dead, the medallion should come off easily.”
“Maybe we need to get farther away from her body. We could go outside the castle walls,” Lord Pensgraft suggested.
“It’s worth a try,” Chen replied. And so, with Black Scarlet carrying Dylancia, the two fire-breathing giants put some distance between themselves and the old crone’s emaciated body. Balzekior had always been anorexic, but she was even more shriveled since collapsing onto the courtyard floor. Quickly following the two black crystal warriors were Aerylln, Baelfire, Zorya, Marcheto, King Tarlen, Genevieve, Chen’s warrior women and Chaktar.
Beyond the castle walls, the crack in the earth’s crust was still oozing red-hot lava but had slowed considerably and no longer appeared to be much of a threat. Firecrest Castle was going up in flames, but no one seemed to care, though they were pleased that Swarenth could no longer use it for a regional power base.
And General Zarkahn wouldn’t need it. When he’d seen Balzekior murder Lord Ridgewood and the old pirate’s men, the general realized the evil hag was totally insane. General Zarkahn had grabbed the grizzled old warrior, the one who knew where the entrance to the secret tunnel was, and snuck out of the castle with his own men.
Valkira had escaped with them, and no one had any intention of telling Swarenth what happened over the last few weeks. The grizzled old warrior couldn’t be trusted to stay mum, but that was unimportant. He was dead as soon as they’d reached the end of the tunnel. The toothless old scoundrel had served his purpose and was no longer needed.
However, what Lord Pensgraft needed was to get the Crystal Medallion off and to break the Trinity of Darkness. So after walking several hundred yards away from the castle entrance, he tried to remove the medallion once more. The black crystal giant tugged on the thin gold chain around his neck, but he still couldn’t pull it over his head.
“I don’t understand,” Black Scarlet said. “It should come off.”
What Chen, her husband and the others failed to notice was that even though lava from the split in the earth’s crust was no longer shooting high into the nighttime sky, the crack itself was lengthening and inching towards the castle’s front wall. However, it didn’t stop there.
A slit less than a foot wide crept under the wall, across the courtyard floor and made its way to Balzekior’s ravaged body. Flames flickered up from the thin fissure, and the crack widened just enough for Balzekior’s corpse to fall through and sink below the surface. When it did, the ground began to rumble and tremble ominously, though not loudly enough to be too noticeable, yet.
Out by the main crack in the earth’s crust, Black Scarlet and Lord Pensgraft continued to puzzle over why the Crystal Medallion wouldn’t come off. Then, while everyone was facing away from it, a stream of lava once again came surging out of the expanding fissure.
“Last time, at Crystal Castle, as soon as we’d gotten far enough away from Balzekior, we were able to break the gold chain and get the medallion off of you,” Lord Pensgraft recalled. “So what’s different now?”
“I don’t know,” Black Scarlet said. “Maybe we should just head on down the trail and try to take it off once we get a few miles away.”
“I don’t like it,” Andrina said. “Did anyone think to check and see if the old hag was really dead?”
“Of course she’s dead,” Corson said.
“Did you check for a pulse?” Lord Pensgraft asked.
“Are you serious?” Corson replied. “Balzekior was covered with that slime she’d sprayed all over Eldwyn. I wasn’t touching that.”
“Does it really matter?” Aerylln asked. “I mean, we all saw the sword sticking two feet out of her back. What else could she be but dead?”
What else, indeed.
With Balzekior no longer using her demonic power to create lava-rock warriors or flaming skeletons, she’d quietly put her energy into something else. As Black Scarlet and the others had been pondering the Crystal Medallion, a 30-foot-tall monster began rising up from the fissure which was now a deep, wide pit of lava. Gloating with evil anticipation, the creature hovered over them making the back of Aerylln’s neck hot and sweaty. When the young woman turned around and saw the towering lava woman, she said, “I think I know what the problem is.”
Balzekior took that moment to explode in all her fiery glory. Roaring and flexing her muscles, she stepped out of the pit and said, “Give me Dylancia, and I’ll let all of you live.”
Corson looked at Aerylln with new respect when, rather than backing away, the young woman glared defiantly at the huge lava monster and said, “Why don’t you go back where you belong?”
“Be careful what you say, girl. With one swipe of my hand, I could incinerate you.”
“Go ahead, I don’t care. But killing me won’t hide the fact that you’re not as all-powerful as you think you are. The way you keep trying to terrify people just shows how weak and desperate you really are. You’ll always be second best to the Creative Light, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Time is running out for you. This physical world is temporary, so you’re scaring people into accepting you and forcing yourself on them in what time you have left. Your evil bluster just shows how insecure you are.”
“Don’t talk nonsense,” Balzekior sneered. “The one thing people believe in is the presence of evil. I’m the one constant in this sorry existence. Show me something that lasts. Show me something that endures. Show me something that touches every aspect of life everywhere in the kingdom, and I’ll show you the living presence of evil.”
“Nice speech, but how about this?” Aerylln said, ignoring the demon’s rhetoric. Standing directly in front of the enormous fiery monster, looking small and frail by comparison, Aerylln lifted her face up towards the stars, leaned back, spread her arms wide and closed her eyes.
“Creative Light,” she whispered, “I yield totally to you. Take me now, if it’s my time, but if not, then come to me, master, in my moment of need.”
Balzekior began to mock the young woman, at least until the sky opened up and a wide circular beam of light slammed down upon Aerylln filling her once more with the power of the universe. However, surprisingly, after a few moments, the Creative Light vanished.
Balzekior almost laughed out loud. “Well, that was short lived.”
“Don’t be confused by time,” Aerylln said. “To the Creative Light, a hundred years can be collapsed into an instant or an instant can seem like a hundred years.”
Next, Aerylln looked up at the nighttime sky, smiled and, though appearing to talk to no one at all, said, “I’m glad you’re here. I could definitely use your help.”
With that, Aerylln leapt onto Zorya’s back and unsheathed Baelfire, the Sword of Light. Pointing her sword at a seemingly empty spot in the sky, the young woman unleashed the power of the Creative Light flowing within her and recoiled as a brilliant white light shot out from Baelfire towards an invisible tiger.
Prophet absorbed the universal energy and was so filled with the power of Light that he became visible in the darkness as a radiant being. Prophet began growing and growing until he was almost as big as Balzekior. A tiger warrior angel who had wanted to explore how much damage a good angel could do looked at his lava adversary and asked, “Are you the one who took away my life, the one who made me live in captivity?”
“I do that to everyone,” Balzekior sneered.
“Prophet,” Aerylln said. “Get rid of this giant bore. She’s blocking my view.”
The tiger angel spread his wings and leapt at Balzekior catching the lava demon with a vicious swipe of a paw, clawing her down the whole left side of her body. Next, Prophet sunk his teeth into Balzekior’s right shoulder and bit down hard.
The demonic monster let out a howl of pain and swatted at Prophet with both hands but nothing Balzekior did could blunt the intensity of the warrior angel’s attack. Prophet was relentless and went up on his hind legs, catching the giant
lava woman with both paws and clawing her chest and stomach from top to bottom. Balzekior became almost hysterical. She fought to get away from the massive tiger, but Prophet kept coming at her.
Finally, Balzekior knocked the huge tiger aside and dove back into the pit of lava. Prophet stood for a while on the side of the pit growling, but as he turned away and put his back to the pool of lava, a huge hand of fire reached out and grabbed the tiger by one of his hind legs. Shocked and surprised, Prophet desperately tried to claw the hand away but found himself being drawn inexorably into the flaming split in the earth’s surface.
The warrior tiger looked to King Tarlen for help but realized his master was human and no match for a giant lava demon. However, he was looking to the wrong person for help. When aid did arrive, it was in the form of a very determined young woman.
“For the king!” Aerylln shouted with all her might as she charged towards the pit of fire. Grasping Zorya’s mane, the young woman leaned down and slashed at Balzekior’s giant hand severing it at the wrist, and Prophet sprang free.
As Aerylln turned away from the flames, Balzekior rose waist high above the lava surface and swung a huge fist at the young woman. Rather than panicking, Aerylln leaned back and slashed at the demonic monster with Baelfire catching her across the forearm. Instantly, the flames went out in the wounded area, turning it into a slash of gray cinders. Aerylln swung the Sword of Light at Balzekior once more, slicing across her stomach. Again, the flames went out along the length of the wound leaving a charred slash.
Balzekior retreated and sank beneath the surface while screaming, “This isn’t over!”
“You’ve said that before!” Aerylln shouted back.
Zorya stepped away from the edge of the lava pit and was surprised to see the sides slam back together. Then, Aerylln, Zorya and Baelfire looked over towards Lord Pensgraft and were relieved to see he’d been able to remove the Crystal Medallion.
Aerylln was also greatly relieved to discover that her parents had returned to human form. The young woman rode over to Chen and Lord Pensgraft, jumped off Zorya and wrapped her slender arms around her father.
“I’m so glad you’re okay. I don’t ever want to lose you,” Aerylln cried.
“I’m not going anywhere. I’ll always be here for you,” Lord Pensgraft reassured her.
“What about me? Don’t I get a hug?” Chen asked.
“A hug? You want a hug?” Aerylln asked surprised that Chen was willing to show physical affection.
“Yes, a hug, unless you’d rather not,” Chen said a little defensively.
“No, no, that’s great,” Aerylln said as she wrapped her arms around her young stepmother and gave her a big squeeze.
“It looks like Balzekior’s gone, at least for now,” Andrina observed.
“Yes, but we know she’s heading towards Dominion Castle,” Aerylln said.
“How are we going to face down 10,000 gargoyles and a giant lava woman?” Andrina asked no one in particular.
King Tarlen walked over to Genevieve and said, “Soon, Dominion Castle will be ours, and I’ll be marrying this woman in the home of my forefathers.”
“How do you know this?” Andrina asked.
“Because of Aerylln,” King Tarlen said pointing at the young woman who looked down at the ground, unsure of her ability to meet the expectations being placed upon her.
“Isn’t that too much to ask of anyone? Can you truly pin your hopes on her?” Andrina asked.
“Yes, for as I’ve said, Mother Protector prophesized about her.” King Tarlen fell silent for a few moments pondering the prediction, and then said aloud for all to hear, “Fifteen years ago, Mother Protector told me of a young woman who was to come.”
“But what did she say specifically?” Andrina asked.
King Tarlen squared his shoulders, looked southeast in the direction of Dominion Castle, and said, “Her name will be White Angel, and she will lead you to victory!”
