“Luke has good friends and a deep sense of purpose, which makes him happy,” Aedyn says after some thought.
“I’m just happy that he has some stability with a fiancée. It makes me feel like he actually listened to me when he was younger,” Ilan admits with a broad smile. “I hope to meet Miss Grasdon and see how good a match she is for Luke.”
“Kira is definitely one of a kind,” Aedyn claims, stretching his sore neck. “One moment she will be a spoiled brat with a superiority complex and the next she will act like your best friend.”
“She sounds two-faced. I don’t know if I like it,” Ilan grumbles.
“I will not deny that there are two sides to her personality, but I have been lucky enough to have real conversations with her,” Aedyn rambles in an attempt to repair the damage that he believes he just caused. “The spoiled, bratty side is a façade that she uses for her family and the nobles. Unlike Luke being who he is no matter what is going on around him, Kira is willing to play the game of high society while keeping her true self concealed. She lets her façade down when she is with Luke, so I can safely say that you have nothing to worry about. They compliment each other perfectly.”
“I will take your word for it, Mister Karwyn,” Ilan says, his voice growing low and distant. “Now, I have to start the difficult part of this project. Please, do not tell my son that we had this discussion.”
“Yes, sir, I will leave you to your work,” responds the priest.
Ilan silently nods toward Aedyn and puts his full attention to the glowing pieces of metal before him. Aedyn bows slightly and slips through the nearest door to the sun-bathed streets of Haven. His eyes blink in the bright light and he coughs at his first breath of smoke free air.
*****
“How did you get up there?” Nyx asks, jumping in place on the grass. She can barely see Luke sitting cross-legged on the slanted roof of his parents’ house.
“Childhood secret,” Luke drones, his voice void of all emotion.
“Guess I’ll have to make my own way up,” Nyx mutters.
A wave of her hand creates a gust of hot air under her feet. Her black hair stands straight up while she is lifted off the ground by the powerful updraft. Turning away from the rooftop, Nyx gently exhales toward the calm forest. Her hovering body is slowly pushed through the air and she gracefully lands on the roof next to Luke.
“Looks like you’re learning some subtlety with your spells,” Luke says without looking at the caster. He lies down with his arms folded under his head and his legs bent to brace him against the roof.
“I’ve been practicing various styles,” Nyx explains, clumsily straddling the peak of the rooftop. “Isaiah asked that I learn the truth behind my magic, but I’m not sure what he means. I thought the answer was that I could cast spells without effort, but that doesn’t explain how I can do it. It also doesn’t explain how Trinity has the same ability. I think I’m going to stop dwelling on it until we can return to Gaia. Cyril and Willow might be able to help me.” Nyx pauses to lie across the roof like a lazy cat. “So, what’s on your mind?”
“Far too much.”
“I doubt that.”
“I’m not in the mood for teasing.”
“I’m only half teasing,” Nyx claims, her smile fading into a serious frown. “You know, I was able to understand you being depressed over Fritz and Nimby. That’s only natural, but there is nothing here to make you this moody.”
“Don’t talk about what you know nothing about, Nyx,” the irritable warrior snaps.
“I know more than you give me credit for,” Nyx says after she fights the urge to flick a fireball at Luke. “You and your father were rather open about your problems last night. It isn’t hard to figure out that your fight with him deals with what he wants you to do and what you want to do. He still sees you as a reckless child and you see him as an overbearing warden. Correct me if I’m wrong here.”
“Why should I? You sound intent on making up your mind on what is going on in my life,” Luke grumbles.
Nyx angrily glares at him. “I’m just concerned about you, jackass.”
“Well, stop being concerned,” Luke demands. “It isn’t your business.”
“We’re friends and allies,” Nyx states. “Your problems become my business when they leave you a depressed heap of gloom.”
Luke rolls off the rooftop without a word and lands on his hands and feet. He gently brushes dirt off his hands and rubs his stiff neck. Nyx watches him start to walk away before she makes a running dive off the rooftop. Using wind magic, the caster aims directs her descent at the retreating forest tracker. She tackles Luke and the pair skid along the ground until they stop in front of a small oak. Nyx groggily gets to her feet and steadies herself while she looks back to the rooftop. A proud smile crosses her face seconds before Luke sweeps her feet out from under her and she lands with a dull thud.
“Don’t mess with me, Nyx!” Luke shouts threateningly.
“Then, stop acting like a damn child!” Nyx screams at the top of her lungs. “I’m sick and tired of you acting depressed. Bad things happen to everyone, Luke. There is no reason that your life should be any different. In fact, you have nothing to complain about compared to the disasters that have happened to me. So, grow up!”
Luke gets to his feet and brushes the grass from his shirt. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Nyx jumps to her feet and punches Luke in the stomach before he realizes what is going on. He is falling forward, gasping for air, when Nyx roughly grabs him by his ponytail. The caster yanks him back to his feet before she snaps her fingers and three ghostly figures begin to form in front of him. Luke quickly turns away when he recognizes the transparent statues of his parents and his grandfather standing in the grass.
“I have no idea what I’m talking about? Look at that, Luke,” Nyx lectures, her voice nothing more than a choked whisper. “You have an actual family. These are people who care about you no matter what you do. They protected you and loved you months before you ever saw daylight. Most importantly, you can return to them no matter what you do and where you go. They will always be waiting. You should be thankful that you have people like them in your life. There are many in Windemere who can only dream about your kind of life. They would gladly accept your problems if it meant they would have a family waiting for them . . . Instead, they have this.” Another snap of her fingers causes the illusions to vanish into rainbow mist.
Luke waits a few seconds, impatiently tapping his foot. “I don’t see anything. You forget to cast another spell?”
“What you see before you is what a lot of people have to live with,” Nyx explains. A trail of vapor rises from her violet eyes as she evaporates her gathering tears. “They live with nobody that they can call family. There is nobody for these people to go home to. No room of their childhood filled with their parents’ warmth. No memories of being held by their mother or yelled at by their father. They’re lucky enough to have vague recollections of the people who brought them into this world.”
“You think you’re one of those people?” Luke asks, refusing to look at her.
“I know I am,” Nyx replies before she lets go of him.
The forest tracker rubs at his sore scalp. “You have Willow and Cyril.”
“Don’t even try to make it sound the same,” she says, a few tears rolling down her cheeks. “I love both of them, but they are my teachers. Even though they adopted me, there will always be a part of me that feels abandoned. We will never have a parental bond as strong as the one you have with your parents. I live with the knowledge that my parents are dead and that I will never see them. Even Rainbow Tower doesn’t feel like my real home anymore, so going back won’t have the same effect returning to Haven has on you.”
“When we first met, you refused to leave Gaia because you said it was your home,” Luke mentions.
“I guess I misspoke,” Nyx admits with a weak shrug. “I wish I had an easy way
to explain myself. All I know is that Gaia is missing something that I need for me to call it my real home.”
“At least, you don’t have anything tying you down. You’re free to go and do whatever you want,” Luke stubbornly contends.
“You might enjoy the idea of having a life that resembles a leaf trapped in a hurricane, but I want some level of stability,” Nyx argues, wiping her eyes with her sleeve. “I don’t even know where my birth village used to stand before it was destroyed. Can you imagine not knowing where Haven stood?”
“I’m sorry. I guess you have had a harder life than me,” Luke softly says.
“Damn right, but you don’t see me moping around. I enjoy what I have at the time and I accept that I can’t change my past,” the caster says with a friendly punch to Luke’s arm.
“I promise to stop being moody. It’s a stupid reason that has me down today anyway,” Luke claims, gently pushing Nyx’s shoulder.
“Then tell me, so I can tell you that you’re being stupid,” Nyx requests, a hint of forced happiness in her voice.
Luke nervously adjusts his sabers and rubs the hilt gems with his thumbs. “Alyssa is engaged to a man who slept with Kira.”
“Oh,” Nyx coughs with a stunned expression.
“I told you it was stupid,” Luke warns her.
“That’s rather complicated,” the caster admits. She runs a hand through her ebony hair and takes a deep breath to calm her shaky nerves. “Did he sleep with Kira before or after you? I know you’ve explained that whole Bor’daruk culture and multiple partners thing, so I’m not sure how bad this is.”
“I was with her first. I understand why this happened, but I just don’t know what to do about it,” Luke says while he grinds his toe into the ground.
“Then, why don’t you find another woman?” Nyx helpfully suggests. “Kira expects it and she might get angry if you don’t. She could feel that by not being with other women like she wants you to, you fear that your feelings for her are false.”
“I have no idea what you mean,” Luke sighs, his brain starting to hurt.
“Keep in mind that I’m just guessing here,” Nyx says with a heavy sigh of frustration. “Basically, you might come off as scared that your love for Kira is false because you refuse to test them. According to her culture, it is better to test your love before marriage than to take it for granted and risk discovering that it is false when it’s too late. The way to prove that you truly love Kira is to find another woman to sleep with. It will show you the difference between love and lust. By the gods, I hate explaining this mess to you. It is not my job to handle your love life, little brother.”
“Where am I going to find another woman, Nyx?” Luke asks, turning to look at her.
She slaps him across the face. “Don’t look at me.”
“I wasn’t looking at you for that!” Luke exclaims while holding his head. “I’m talking to you, so I’m going to look at you while we’re talking. This would have been easier if Alyssa wasn’t taken. By Uli’s blades, that sounds so . . . piggish to me. I hate this entire situation!”
“I don’t blame you for getting frustrated,” Nyx says, a wry smile appearing on her face. “Kind of funny how you and Alyssa are both engaged to people from Bor’daruk. Gabriel sure has a sense of humor some times.”
Luke is about to say something when an explosion shakes the entire town and throws Nyx to the ground. They quickly turn toward the northern clearing where a plume of black, sparkling smoke is rising to the sky. The sounds of people screaming and running to their homes are barely heard over a loud, droning bell. A small sigh of relief escapes Luke’s lips when he sees a glimmering barrier of yellow light rise at the northern end of town. Another explosion shakes the town and the barrier shines brighter in response.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Nyx mutters. She begins running toward the growing sound of battle.
“That son of a troll is attacking my hometown. I swear I’m going to rip the Lich’s head off for this,” Luke angrily growls.
Luke is yards ahead of Nyx within seconds and he has both of his swords drawn by the time he skids to a stop next to Aedyn. The priest is already sweating while he uses all of his strength to maintain a holy barrier around the northern clearing. On the other side of the holy barrier is a swarm of hungry undead. Skeletons and zombies are struggling to their feet after getting knocked down by an earth-shaking spell. At the distant tree line, zombie archers fill the air with poorly aimed arrows. They succeed in taking out some of their other undead before they begin hitting the barrier. A group of blue-skinned, decaying creatures with webbed extremities and crimson slits in their throat occasionally leap out of the river and spit steaming acid at the glowing barrier. Above the mass of undead, the pale, white form of Kalam and the vibrant, red form of Isaiah fly in a circle while tossing deafening spells at each other.
“Haven was lucky that I happened to see Isaiah and raise this barrier in time. Though, I do not know how many more attacks I can withstand,” Aedyn gasps. The undead collide into the barrier and get tossed several yards away.
“You should have put the barrier around the town instead of the clearing,” Talos says as he approaches the three half-elves. He casually rubs the pommels of his twin longswords while he analyzes the scene before him.
“I know. It is less straining to deflect with a barrier than to contain your enemy inside,” Aedyn responds through gritted teeth. “Sadly, with those two casters about to fight, I did not have time to think before I acted.”
“Switch your barrier over the town once you let us through. I will take the middle,” Talos declares, moving to within an inch of the barrier.
“No. Nyx will go down the middle since her magic can affect a greater area of the battlefield than the rest of us,” Luke announces, licking his lips in anticipation. “I will take the right side and you can take the left, grandpa. This way the two of us can escape into the forest if we start to get overrun.”
“This is surprising. My grandson has learned to think ahead. You really have improved,” Talos says with a grin.
Aedyn impatiently shouts, “Fight now! Praise later!”
A howling screech catches everyone’s attention as one of the water creatures erupts from the river and charges at the barrier. It crashes against the glimmering shield and sticks to it. The warriors are slightly confused until they notice that the monster succeeded in pushing the tips of its fingers into Aedyn’s barrier. It doesn’t take long for it to force its head through the barrier and begin gargling a mouthful of acid. Luke is about to leap in-between Aedyn and the beast when a glistening, blue arrow slams through its nose. The slimy creature is sent crashing and rolling into the advancing undead army as if a giant had kicked it.
“I hate water ghasts,” Ilan mutters, limping over to the small group. The mass of undead shrinks away from the barrier while they examine their defeated comrade.
“Dad? What are you doing here?” Luke asks, genuinely surprised to see his father holding a weapon.
“I’m here to protect my home, my people, and my family. I’ll guard the priest while you fight,” Ilan swears, his voice calm and confident.
Talos smiles proudly at his son. “You are using your old gear, son.”
“Yes, father. I might not like adventuring, but I’d be a fool to throw away these items,” Ilan claims with the hint of a smile on his face. “They might not be as fancy as most magical tools, but they get the job done.”
Talos turns away from the others and draws his twin longswords. “Here they come again. Nyx will hit them hard once Aedyn drops the barrier. If anyone else arrives to join the battle then make sure that they stay near the front with Ilan. Most of the people of Haven have been trained in basic dual weapon fighting, but they are nothing compared to Luke and myself. Give us the signal when you’re ready, Mister Karwyn.”
“Now!” the priest shouts before he claps his hands.
The army of undead is scattered by a massive
fist of fire that launches from Nyx’s arm. She is several feet ahead of the others as she lets loose with as many explosive spells as she can think of. Aedyn quickly stumbles back and creates a new barrier that covers the entire town. Ilan stops a few feet ahead of the priest and begins taking out the zombie archers with amazing accuracy. Several times, he knocks their in-coming arrows out of the air with his own shot. Along the left side of the undead army, Talos becomes a blurry whirlwind of steel that sends limbs and bones flying in all directions. It isn’t long before he vanishes into the thick mass of enemies, but an occasional laugh of enjoyment tells the others that he is fine. On the right side of the battlefield, Luke is nimbly dodging and slashing at any openings that he can find. Unlike his grandfather, the young forest tracker finds himself unable to easily hack his way through the undead. Many of the ravenous undead notice that he is slower and they turn their focus on him. A water ghast leaps over the grinning skeletons to attack Luke, but an arrow to the head nails it to a tree. Luke manages a quick wave at his father before the undead army surrounds him completely.
*****
Isaiah can barely hear the warning bell and the screams of Haven’s citizens as he dodges a black lightning bolt. He swiftly responds with a barrage of silver stakes that sail wide of their target. The old caster isn’t aware of anyone else on the battlefield until a wave of intense heat from Nyx’s fire blast warms the soles of his feet. The red-scaled caster takes a risky second to see who has come to help protect the city. He quickly disperses a barrage of acid claws with a wall of sound before a blurred form on his right distracts him. For a brief instance, Isaiah can see Talos carving through the undead army. He looks the other way to see a pile of bodies starting to form on Kalam’s side of the battlefield. He can only assume that Luke is responsible. The undead army has already begun to turn into a chaotic mob as more and more of the monsters fall.
Legends of Windemere: 03 - Allure of the Gypsies Page 19
