The Aether Knight

by E A Hooper

  Pyre nodded at the duke. He’s right. My brothers and sisters need a good influence in their lives. My son will too when he’s older. I’m sorry, Radu. I don’t think I can leave with you. Maybe the gods wanted me to get captured, so I’d end up here. There’re so many people I haven’t been able to save, but maybe I can save my siblings from Reaper’s influence.

  Chapter 19

  Valx awoke to a cry in the distance. He climbed from underneath the quilt but found it difficult to stand with his head throbbing in pain. Too much. I drank too much. He took several steps toward the trees and vomited on the grass.

  The sobbing grew louder, and he thought he heard it coming from the great hall. Oh gods, what’s happening? Did Northerners attack? Did the king’s heart give out in his sleep?

  “Valx, my love,” Lilan’s voice called from the quilt. “Where are you going?”

  Valx turned and stared at Lilan, realizing she had been sleeping naked beside him. He looked down at his own nakedness. “What did you do?” he shouted.

  “What did I do?” she asked, confused. “It was you. After you finished that wine, you went wild over me. You didn’t even want to train anymore.”

  The sobbing called again, and Valx gnashed his teeth. He saw his trousers lying nearby and ran to grab them. “Gods-dammit, Lilan. You got me drunk on purpose, didn’t you?” He quickly pulled his trousers to his waist.

  “I swear I didn’t,” she said, innocently. “I was only trying to help you achieve metamorphosis.”

  “You liar!” he shouted.

  The cries in the great hall grew louder, and even Lilan turned her head in the direction of the door. “Is somebody hurt?” she asked, standing with the quilt wrapped around her body.

  “Wait here,” Valx told her. “Don’t you dare tell Mil this happened. We’ll discuss it after I find out what that crying is about.”

  He created an aether blade in his hands and charged to the door. When he stepped into the great hall, he saw a large group of people gathered around the king and queen. King Thod held his wife in his arms as she screamed and sobbed. Her body jerked nervously before each shout.

  “What the hell is happening?” Valx asked.

  “She started screaming for no reason,” Jocy said, sitting beside the door. It looked like she had fallen asleep there the night before.

  “What is it, my love?” Thod begged. “What did you see? Please, tell me.”

  “Terrible news,” Silvina cried. “They’ll bring the most awful news.” She buried her face into her husband’s chest, and her entire body trembled.

  “The war?” Thod asked. “Will there be news that our lieutenant generals were harmed or captured?”

  “No,” Silvina sobbed. “It’s—it’s—They’ll be here soon. They’ll knock soon.”

  A solemn look fell over the king’s face, and he continued to hold his wife.

  Barthlomex walked toward Valx, and Mil followed behind him. “Whatever the queen saw in her vision, it’s not good,” the physician said. “Keep your aether ready, Valx. We might be in danger.”

  “She seems more sad than scared,” Mil said. “I don’t think we’re in immediate danger.”

  Valx let his aether blade vanish. “We’ll see.”

  Mil looked at Valx’s shirtless chest and messy hair. “Did you sleep in the garden?”

  “I—I stayed up late training,” he answered. “I think I’m close to learning metamorphosis.”

  Jocy gave him a suspicious look. “Where’s Lilan?”

  “She’ll be right out,” Valx said, nervously. “Give her a minute.”

  “You two slept alone in the garden last night?” Mil asked, glaring at him.

  “Mil, it’s not like that,” he defended. “I promise.”

  “I was almost ready to forgive you,” Mil said, her voice growing louder. “I was starting to think I’d overreacted.”

  The door to the garden opened, and a fully dressed Lilan stepped into the great hall. She stared at Silvina as the queen sobbed and then turned her attention to Valx. “Did she have one of her prophetic visions?”

  “You haggard whore,” Mil uttered at Lilan.

  “Excuse me?” Lilan asked, smirking at Mil.

  Across the great hall, a heavy knock rapped the door, and everyone turned their gaze. Nevin and Ilona approached to open the door, which had been rebuilt since the battle a year ago. Yahn readied his spear as the door flew open and someone stepped inside. Even across the great hall, Valx recognized Myamere as he stepped through with Roz in his arms.

  “Roz!” Valx shouted, hurrying toward them.

  Odestrog followed next, and the dragons pursued them into the castle.

  Yahn lowered his spear. “What happened?” he gasped, staring at Roz. “Did Northerners do this to her?”

  “No,” Myamere said, gently placing Roz on the ground. “It’s a long story, but her sword froze her in time to prevent her from dying. We flew all the way from Snowchapel to Direlight, only to find out you’d all left. We need the medical guildsmen to look after her.”

  “Snowchapel?” Thod said. “Why were you in the North?”

  “Bastion sent us there,” Myamere told them.

  Thod gaped at him. “Why? And where’s my son?”

  “Don’t say it,” Silvina cried. “I know what you’re about to say. Don’t say it.”

  Myamere lowered his head. “Bastion has been watching the future. He saw a ship would arrive from a foreign land that would change the fate of Ter’al.”

  “The Feyans?” Thod asked.

  Myamere raised his head. “They told me in Direlight that Reaper’s daughter warned of the Feyans. Sadly, Reaper was telling the truth this time.”

  “But my son,” Thod said. “Is he with Bastion?”

  “No, he’s—” Myamere started.

  “Don’t say it,” Silvina shouted. “Don’t say it.”

  “Mulcir’s dead,” the Godblade said, struggling with the words. “The Feyans killed him. We brought his body to Direlight and left him there to be buried.”

  A solemn expression fell over the king’s face. He stared at Myamere and then turned to his wife. Silvina collapsed into his arms and cried.

  “Our son,” the king sobbed, holding his wife. “They took Mulcir. Those Feyan bastards.” He turned his furious eyes to Lilan. “Did your father know this would happen? Did he know they were coming so soon?”

  “I swear he didn’t,” Lilan replied, fearfully. “My father thought they wouldn’t find us for another decade or longer.”

  All the fury left the king’s eyes, and he placed his forehead on his wife’s head and cried.

  Barthlomex and several of the medical guildsmen approached Roz. The masked physician looked over her wound. “It’s bad. Terrible even. She wouldn’t have survived if this sword didn’t save her. We’ll do everything we can.”

  “Thank you, doctor,” the Godblade replied, his voice weak.

  “Roz,” Valx uttered, slowly approaching. He glared at Myamere. “Feyans did this? You didn’t stop them?”

  “I fought as hard as I could,” Myamere said, noting his own scars. “We killed all but their leader, and he left on a ship with Islanders.”

  “Islanders?” Yahn wondered. “Why’d he go with them?”

  “He was trying to find allies,” the Godblade explained. “They want to claim Ter’al for their own.”

  “It’s like the girl was saying,” Ilona said. “Lilan was right. Reaper really is trying to save Ter’al from the Feyans.”

  “I told you,” Lilan said, following Valx. She looked down at Roz. “Can I assist? I could fix her injury like I did Valx’s.”

  “Don’t touch her,” Myamere said, narrowing his eyes at her. “I won’t let you poison her like you did Mulcir and Valx.”

  Valx stared at the Godblade, but when he turned to Lilan, he saw fear in her eyes. “What’s he talking about?”

  “I-I don’t know,” Lilan replied, nervously.

  “
What did you do to him?” Mil shouted. “I knew you were corrupting him somehow. You put your power in him and did something, didn’t you?”

  Lilan glared at Mil. “I saved him. He’d be dead without me.”

  “He’s going to die anyways,” Myamere shouted. “You gave him a blood disease. Bastion said you got it from a slave you killed. The slave got it from a mosquito bite in the Wetlands. However, Bastion lied and told us that Mulcir would find a cure if he went to Snowchapel. We thought we’d find a cure for Valx too, but there isn’t one.”

  “Miss Lilan,” Jocy said, walking toward her. “Maybe we should leave.”

  “Don’t try to touch her and flee,” Yahn shouted, pointing his spear at Jocy.

  Ilona and Nevin readied their weapons and joined the Silver Knight.

  “I didn’t know it would spread to you,” Lilan said. “I was keeping the disease contained with my power, but some of it escaped by mistake. You’ve only recently started coughing. You surely have a couple of years to live. We can still get married. We can still have a child, and I’ll use my power to prevent the blood disease from corrupting it. I swear, Valx.”

  Lilan tried to step closer to Valx, but Mil jumped between them and pushed the Northerner away.

  “Stay away from him!” Mil screamed. “Don’t touch him you monster. He doesn’t love you.”

  “He does,” Lilan cried. “Do you remember anything from last night, Valx? I could tell you were falling for me.”

  “Last night was a mistake,” Valx said, his eyes full of hate. “I’ll never love you.”

  With all the Westerners glaring at her, Lilan trembled. She gaped at Valx, and her breathing grew heavy. Tears pecked at her cheeks as she stared into Valx’s hateful eyes. “You were supposed to fall in love with me. It’s our destiny.”

  She lowered her head and cried. Tears dripped to the floor, and the armed Westerners showed a moment of empathy and lowered their weapons.

  Everyone stood silent for a while, but then Mil spoke. “You should leave. Get out of here, you monster.”

  Lilan’s whimpering slowed. “This is your fault. If you weren’t here, he would’ve fallen in love with me.”

  Jocy’s body tensed. “Miss Lilan, please don’t.”

  Lilan raised her hand, and a line of red shot from her wrist and through Mil’s heart.

  Jocy vanished and appeared next to Lilan, grabbed her by the arm, and disappeared again as the Westerners raised their weapons.

  Valx caught Mil as she collapsed. He could hear Barthlomex screaming in his ears, but all the surrounding noises seemed distant. Mil looked up at Valx and tried to say something, but then her eyes became dull. The entire room seemed to fade away to Valx, but then Barthlomex reached for his daughter.

  “Mil!” the physician cried. “Mil! Mil! Gods, no! No! My daughter!”

  Valx handed Mil to Barthlomex, and then without a word, he turned to the door.

  “They went that way,” Yahn called, looking at the open door.

  Valx aether-jumped to the doorway. He heard a whisper from the corner of the castle. He aether-jumped again to the side of the castle where he saw Jocy and Lilan just before they vanished again. They appeared farther away, and Valx pursued them. He aether-jumped to each spot where they appeared, and with each jump, he felt a wave of emotion crashing through him. He’d been angry before—he’d wanted to murder someone before. But he’d never felt such an all-consuming hate.

  His aether sparked around him, glowing hotter and brighter. He fired blasts of aether where the two Northerners appeared, but they disappeared just before the ground exploded. Valx screamed as they appeared at the start of the forest. He released a wave of aether that engulfed a tree.

  “Stop, Valx!” Lilan screamed between Jocy’s whisper-stepping.

  Valx replied with a terrible bellow.

  “Don’t make me use metamorphosis,” she shouted in fear.

  They moved deeper into the forest, disappearing and reappearing behind trees and rocks. Each time, Valx followed and launched aether where they stood. He burned holes through rocks and trees. He left gaping holes in the ground where they had been standing moments before. He screamed like a wild animal as he chased them through the forest, destroying everything in his way.

  “That’s it,” Lilan said, pulling her arm away from Jocy.

  The young Northern woman flexed her body, and lines of red exploded from every inch of her skin. It was as if most of her blood had left her all at once. The strings of red glowed and enlarged with pink aether and took a monstrous shape around her. Lilan’s shriveled body disappeared within the thicket of aether-charged blood.

  Valx raised his hand and released sparks of aether at her. It struck the ever-growing wall of pinkish red, but the attacks didn’t faze her monstrous metamorphosis. Valx created an aether great-sword and swung at the glowing vines, trying to reach her body that he knew was hidden inside. The vines caught his aether and pushed back, knocking him to the dirt.

  Lilan’s monstrous form raised an arm made entirely of glowing strings. It pointed the hand at Valx, and a hundred strings stabbed forward at once. Valx flinched, but the strings stabbed into the ground around him, creating a cage.

  “You’re mine,” Lilan’s voice called from within the wall of aether-charged blood. “You belong to me. We belong together.”

  Only one thought came to Valx’s mind, even as he stared at the wall of pinkish red that could stab him a hundred times at once.

  Kill her.

  Blue aether exploded around Valx as his rage built, however, the cage around him held steady.

  Kill her. Kill her.

  The blue light turned into an intense white glow, and the aether around Valx became dense until it solidified. White, crystalline aether formed over his body like armor. The last of his aether flowed into his hand, forming into a crystalline sword.

  Kill her. Kill her.

  Valx swung his white sword around himself, and the blade cut through each of the blood strings that formed the cage.

  Kill her. Kill her.

  Lilan’s monstrous form reeled back its arm. “Valx!” she screamed. “My love, you’ve done it. You’ve achieved metamorphosis. I told you I’d help you unlock it. If we find a way to cure the blood disease, you can use that power to destroy any Feyan army.”

  Valx’s body propelled forward. He couldn’t aether-jump in his armor-like metamorphosis, but he felt he could control the aether and move it at will. He moved faster than the fastest swordsmen he’d ever seen and sliced through the arm of glowing vines Lilan had made.

  The monstrous form leaped backward, bouncing across the ground. “No, Valx!” Lilan screamed. “You don’t want this.”

  He leaned forward, propelling his armor to pursue. The armor glided across the forest at a high speed, chasing after the monstrous wall of pinkish red as it bounced past trees. Lilan spread lines of red to her side and cut down trees in Valx’s path.

  Valx tore through the trees, barely slowing at all. The long, crystalline blade cut through them even easier than his aether great-sword.

  Kill her. Kill her.

  “We’re supposed to be together,” Lilan screamed. “Deep down, you know this. Please, don’t hurt me, my love.” She wrapped aether-charged streams of blood around a boulder and hurled it at her white-armored pursuer.

  Valx raised his crystalline-armored hand and caught the boulder. He willed the armor to throw it back, and he tossed the wagon-sized rock back at her.

  The stone collided with the massive shape of reddish lines, slamming Lilan into the ground. Valx could see that her lines had formed a ball to cushion her from the impact, and he knew her fragile body lay within it somewhere.

  Kill her.

  He charged at high speed, cut through the entire stone, and drove his crystalline aether through the ball of red vines. The vines squirmed and twitched, trying to push him away. The aether-charged blood whipped and spiked at him, but his armor stopped all the attacks. He cou
ld see the ball of red expanding more and more to prevent his blade from reaching Lilan’s body. For a moment, he saw her shriveled shape within the web of red. All the lines still connected to her body, and she wriggled and tensed trying to control them.

  Valx slashed through the thickest red lines, and Lilan fell backward. All the lines rushed back inside her body, leaving bloody-dots across her skin. She fell to her knees, trembling with wide eyes. Her face held only horror, and she could barely mumble. “But I love you.”

  The crystalline figure raised its sword without a word. Kill her!

  Jocy appeared beside Lilan, grabbed her, and vanished just as Valx swung. He cut through the ground and then spun around, trying to find them. He heard a whisper and pursued it, but even with his armor gliding across the ground, he wasn’t as fast as when he was aether-jumping. He chased after sounds and shadows for several seconds, but then found himself alone in the quiet forest.

  She killed Mil. You can’t let her live. She must die.

  He bellowed and cut down the nearest tree. “Where are you?” He sliced down another tree and another. He ripped a boulder out of the ground and hurled it across the forest. “Come back. Come back and die!”

  The crystalline figure came to a halt. Valx stood still and gasped for breath. Despite the white-armor covering his face, it didn’t seem to impede his vision, hearing, or breathing. However, he started to feel suffocated by the power.

  Mil’s gone. She’s really gone.

  The crystalline sword shattered into pieces, and the pieces vanished in flashes of light. His armor crumbled around him, and Valx dropped to his knees, gasping for air. His fury disappeared under the crushing waves of sadness, and tears ran down his cheeks.

  Mil’s dead because of me.

  Chapter 20

  Pyre wandered back into the garden of the inner courtyard as the sunset started. The servants that tended the garden had left for the evening, and he found himself almost alone aside from the guards at the gatehouse. He could hear them chatting and joking whenever he neared the open gate, but most of the garden felt silent and lonely to him.

  A little bit of loneliness isn’t a bad thing, he thought, resting against a tree. This is a huge improvement from sitting in a dark, underground cell. He closed his eyes and listened to the wind pass over the courtyard. His chest rose and fell with slow breaths as minutes passed, and he almost fell asleep against the tree.