The Destroyer Book 4

by Michael-Scott Earle

  The smell of the burning monsters reached my nose as I jumped up to the last switchback. It combined with screaming of slow dying monsters and the small battle above me to create a horrific landscape against the backdrop of the fortress. Before I reached the Elvens I wondered if these steep roads had ever seen a battle quite like this.

  The Elvens had managed to kill a few of the last lizard creatures, but when I sprang to my feet I saw that only the empress’s sister and my lover were still standing. Vernine’s right leg was bleeding from a massive bite above the knee, while Fehalda’s right arm, shoulder, and chest were smoking from what I guessed was a spray of the disgusting creature’s acidic tail projectile.

  Several of the creatures feasted on the dead bodies of Elven warriors. They may have been intelligent animals, but hunger was clearly their primary motivation as they paid me no attention when I approached.

  I kicked up a sword from the ground and rushed past them to attack the ring of monsters that made ready to pounce on the women. My first strike beheaded two of the creatures and then I slammed my shoulder into the next in line. The unexpected movement threw the creature’s jump wide and it missed mauling Vernine by a few feet and tumbled off the cliff.

  The sword was too light in my hand, but I used its speed to split another lizard creature in two where I guessed its spine protected the stomach. There were a dozen of them intent on killing the last two Elvens, but with my previous attack the creatures realized I was in their midst and half turned to face me. Rage and hunger was clear in the monster’s intelligent eyes.

  Fehalda and Vernine used my interruption to dash a few feet away from the creatures and move farther down the switchback. It meant that their backs were no longer to the edge, but now I was separated from them by a dozen hungry monsters and they exposed themselves to any creature that might still be alive and above them.

  One of the lizard-spiders gathered up its massive legs and made a jump toward my neck. I spun to the side and lashed out with the blade. The edge caught the creature square in the mouth and split its wide face in half. My dodge carried me close to the small group of monsters feasting on the body of two of the fallen Elvens. I risked three strikes with my sword where I guessed their brains hid in their skulls before turning back at the beasts that were intent on eating me.

  Two of the remaining five had their oozing tails pointed toward me and I dove out of the way of a stream of sickly smelling acid. I rolled across the blood-soaked cobblestones and then leapt up, over a creature that was attempting to bite my legs, and then slashed down on the back of the lizard I landed upon. The monster screamed and tried to maul me, but I twisted the blade around and felt it sever the thick spinal column and the creature’s rear end went limp.

  Two monsters shot toward my right side, their teeth-lined maws open. I pulled my leg up away from their bites and a satisfying snap of their jaws assured me that I was lucky to still have my leg. I swung my sword down into the head of the closest one, but the blade was dull and dripping with too much gore. It dug into the side of the creature’s skull and it screamed in distress, yanking backward and tearing the hilt of the weapon from my slippery grasp.

  There was another Elven body behind me and I rolled back on the ground to avoid a stream of toxic acid. I kicked my legs up and floated to my feet as I grabbed the discarded blade next to the Elven corpse.

  There were four monsters left concerned with me, one was swinging its head back and forth frantically in an attempt to dislodge the stuck sword. Past the group I saw that Vernine and Fehalda had limped down to the bottom of the next switchback, but they were still pursued by the other seven beasts. Vernine looked like she could barely walk and Fehalda’s sword dragged against the ground while she tried to pull the other woman with her left arm.

  I turned and sprinted back toward the entrance of the keep. It only took me a few dozen steps to reach the next group of monsters feasting upon fallen Elvens. Some of them had already cleaned the flesh from the carcasses and were lolling around in a bewildered state of overfed stupor.

  The lizard-spiders barely acknowledged me as I ran into their midst and kicked a fallen sword up from the ground with my running foot. I snatched the blade from the air with my right hand and then sprinted the last few steps up the slope toward the burning mass of monsters.

  Then I threw myself off of the ledge.

  Fehalda and Vernine stood forty feet below me. The white-haired woman leaned against the wall of the switchbacks and held up her sword with an outstretched left arm. Vernine stood in front of her and swung her own weapon with two hands. One creature dashed at the legs of the pewter woman but she managed to cut it down with a swing. She couldn’t reposition herself on her wounded leg and another monster jumped on top of her.

  I raised the swords, reversed the grip in my hands so the blades pointed downward, and braced myself for the impact of the fall. This was a fucking terrible idea, but the two Elven women were short on time.

  One spider-legged lizard bore the brunt of my blow. The creature’s spine shattered into a hundred pieces like a dropped crystal glass. Blood exploded out of its mouth and eyes like an overripe fruit. The beasts were packed so closely on the road that my blades easily found homes in different skulls on each side of me.

  I quickly ripped the right weapon free, stood, and flung the blade toward the creature Vernine wrestled. She had dropped her sword and was using both hands in a valiant attempt to keep the dripping maw from devouring her face while one of its overly clawed arms tore open her chest.

  My right hand was not my dominant one, and I was not very skilled at throwing long swords, but the lizard target was only fifteen feet away and my aim held for that distance. The blade spun horizontally for a full rotation before sinking into the monster’s neck right where the spine connected to the skull.

  I knew the attack was coming from behind me, but I didn’t have time to throw the sword and then dodge. I did manage to roll slightly to my left, and one of the lizard-spider asshole fuckers only ripped my skin open with a deep claw cut. I held back the scream and harnessed my anger by killing the first creature in front of me when I came out of the bloody roll.

  Three of the seven remained here. I glanced up while I moved myself between the lizards and the Elven warriors. I did not see any above us.

  The one that had clawed my back raised his tail and pointed it at me, but I dashed toward the creature and sliced off the appendage cleanly, eliciting a howl of pain and rage from the monster. I jumped onto the haunches of another and drove my blade into the top of its skull. The muscles on my back screamed every time I moved, but my injury was not critical and I could already feel the wound beginning to knit back together.

  The uninjured monster surprised me by feinting a chomp at my right leg and then really going for my left. If he would have been a hair faster the move might have been successful, but I pulled my other leg back and sliced his wide skull from his shoulders with a downward chop.

  The last fucker must have realized his fate. He actually tried to scurry away with the hacked off tail spilling sticky blood across the cobblestones up the switchback. I caught up to him easily and ended his retreat with a quick thrust to his brain.

  I continued up the mountain and found the four remaining monsters devouring one of their dead brethren. One still had the sword stuck in his skull. The weapon scraped against his companions while he grunted and tore into the flesh of the corpse.

  They were too consumed with their feast to notice or care that I approached. A few quick sword thrusts ended their miserable existence and I sighed in relief.

  I turned back and met the Elven women. Vernine had pushed the lizard monster off of her, but had not been able to get to her feet. She moved up onto her elbows and licked her lips when she saw me approaching. Blood soaked the front of her armor and a pool spread beneath her prone body.

  Fehalda sat against a wall. Her breaths came out in painful gasps and tears poured down her beautiful white face. I
walked toward her and she struggled to raise her sword in defense.

  “Fine, O’Baarni. You won. Again. Kill me and be done with it.” Her lips curled into a sneer, but it was obvious she was experiencing an unbearable amount of pain.

  “I’m not going to kill you, Fehalda. Can you walk?”

  “No.” She coughed and her body shook with agony. “This is eating my flesh. If you aren’t going to kill me in victory, do it out of pity.” She grimaced again and tears flowed with renewed vigor.

  I turned to Vernine and realized she had not moved either.

  “Can you stand?” I asked Vernine.

  “No.” She gasped in pain and her pale skin whitened with the words so that her skin tone almost matched Fehalda’s.

  “Where is the Ovule?”

  “I dropped it up in the courtyard.” She raised her head slightly.

  “Lie back down.” I moved over to her and she complied with my order. The armor on her chest was in tatters. I knew Elvens could heal much faster than humans, but they weren’t as immune to wounds as O’Baarni.

  I carefully unbuckled the latches on the front of her armor and pulled it off. Blood spurted from the wound. I could make out the white bones of her ribs poking through her skin. I’m sure the situation was similar beneath the leather armor that protected her thigh. She was losing blood quickly.

  “Your facial expression is telling, O’Baarni,” Vernine said in her usual emotionless tone.

  “How is your pain tolerance?” I looked into her ruby eyes and smiled.

  “The pain can’t get much worse.” She glanced over at Fehalda. “Or maybe it can.”

  She had a dagger sheathed at her side and I used it to cut off the rest of her armor at the buckles and ties. The process took me half a minute, but I was all too conscious of the ragged breaths of agony coming from Fehalda.

  “I’m going to sit you up.” I leaned away and removed my tunic. Her red eyes flashed to my chest and she managed a pained smile.

  “Why are you doing this?” I moved to her side and wedged an arm under her back. I slowly raised her until she was sitting. I tried to make it as painless as possible, but a slow whine escaped her lips.

  My tunic was one of Janci’s, and although it was ink stained, it was densely woven. I wrapped it around Vernine’s chest under her breasts and tied the sleeves tightly across her back. The tension made her cry out, but there was no way around it. I didn’t want her organs to fall out of her body while I carried her.

  “We tried to kill you,” she muttered. I grabbed a few of the leather straps from her armor and used the cords to bind the bottom part of the tunic around her waist. I imagined this hurt her, but she managed to keep from screaming.

  “Could you hold onto me if I carried you on my back?” If she could, it would make my plan easier.

  “No. I am tired. Kaiyer.” The words came out between gasps and blood dribbled out of her mouth. The liquid was the same color as her eyes. Fuck. My ties must have punctured a lung.

  I reached down to her belt and pulled it free of her pants. It was too short for my plan, but I moved over to Fehalda and saw that she had a similar weapon harness.

  “What are your intentions?” Fehalda wheezed and coughed between each word.

  “I am trying to save both your lives.” I pulled the belt free and walked back over to Vernine while I laced the two together.

  “Impossible.” She gasped and coughed again. It was wet and full of the rattle that preceded death. I was suddenly very glad that I escaped without any of the acid touching me.

  “This is going to hurt again.” I slid under Vernine’s left arm and hauled her upright. She grunted and spat out a mouthful of blood while I carried her to the wall that Fehalda rested against. I leaned the pewter-haired woman on the stone and then wrapped the belts around her hips. I stood in front of her with my back pressed lightly to her bleeding chest and fastened the ends of the belt around my own waist. I reached over my back and grabbed her arms, pulling them over my shoulders so she rode me piggyback.

  “I’m tired, Kaiyer,” she whispered in my ear.

  “No you aren’t. Keep talking to me.” I squatted next to Fehalda and slid my left arm under her legs while I cradled her back with my right so the acid on her chest would not touch my bare skin. I stood and took a second to get used to their weight before I started down the switchbacks.

  “Why?” Vernine asked again in my ear.

  “He wants to see us suffer.” Fehalda’s voice quivered and her body shook with a fever.

  “If I just wanted to watch you die, I wouldn’t be going through this.” Vernine’s blood was slick on my bare back and I worried that she might slide off of her perch. At the bottom of the next section of the road I saw the monster I had thrown off earlier. It had landed on its skull and died instantly.

  “I killed you.” Fehalda’s voice was a whimper. “I cut your head from your body. You died.”

  “You didn’t do a good job then. Here I am.”

  “No. I did a perfect job. You won’t die.” She shivered again and it lasted for much longer than before.

  “He is Kaiyer,” Vernine whispered again. “I didn’t want to follow you here.” She coughed and blood slid down the side of my face and landed on Fehalda’s stomach. I was trying to step carefully, but I imagined it was agonizing to have her injured chest pushed against my back.

  “What do you mean?”

  “You are Kaiyer. The Destroyer. The signs were there, but I never believed it possible.” They both gasped when I accidently set my foot down wrong on a cobblestone and the jolt ran through the three of us.

  “I don’t know how it worked. The humans woke me. I did not remember my past. I just knew my name was Kaiyer. The memories have returned slowly.”

  Vernine moaned and I felt the tension in her arms relax.

  “Wake up!” I yelled and they both startled with a gasp. Fehalda had closed her eyes as well. Her body was a furnace in my arms. The acid would claim her in the next few minutes, but I couldn’t walk any faster without jarring them.

  “You can’t save us.” Fehalda’s black eyes stared into mine. “You are wasting time. My sister wants you to leave this world. Find the Ovule and do so. She won’t know that you fought on our behalf. She won’t know that you tried to help us. Just end our pain Kaiyer.”

  “No.”

  “Fuck you.” She coughed again and wheezed a rattle. The smell of the putrid acid and her melting flesh suddenly overpowered the scent of Vernine’s blood.

  “You just need to stay awake for five more minutes.” We were walking through the town now. I passed a few carts that I might be able to use to carry the Elven women, but I reasoned that my destination was close enough that switching to a cart now would probably cost me more time and be bumpier than walking.

  “Five minutes? The castle is weeks away. I can’t stay awake much longer,” she hissed through the pain.

  “Wake up, Vernine!” I commanded. Her arms tightened around my shoulders a bit and she grunted.

  “Why did you kill Isslata?” the pewter-haired woman whispered.

  “I didn’t want to.” I sighed.

  “She loved you,” Vernine gasped.

  “I know.”

  “It is part of the reason my sister needs you to leave. You killed Isslata and destroyed the hope of our people.” Fehalda’s voice was softer than a whisper and her black eyes were closed.

  “I don’t want to kill your kind anymore. There has been enough death in my life. I want to come to terms with Telaxthe.” Fehalda didn’t respond and I shook her slightly. She gasped in pain and her jaw clenched with frustration.

  “You don’t understand what Isslata was to us. My sister will not forgive you so easily.” The white-haired woman glared at me but I couldn’t tell if her expression was angry or just pained.

  Vernine began to cough again and more blood spilled across my shoulders and onto Fehalda.

  “Stay awake you two. I am not done wi
th you yet.”

  “I always imagined I would die in battle. Not in the Destroyer’s arms. And no one will know of this irony.” Fehalda’s teeth chattered as she spoke.

  “We are almost there, stay awake. Hey! Stay awake!” I shouted and Fehalda’s eyes opened a crack. Vernine’s arms were still tight around my neck, but she had stopped coughing or moving. The house was a hundred yards down the road. I was almost there.

  “Where are you taking us?” Vernine’s voice was hardly recognizable. I heard the liquid in her lungs when she spoke.

  “We are here.” I passed the house and did my best to slide down the grassy slope beyond it in a controlled manner. I looked down into Fehalda’s eyes but they were closed.

  The river received us with cold arms. I carried both of the women with me into its deep icy depths. The current was strong. More powerful than Earth, angrier than Fire, and more substantial than Air. I pulled the Water into me and wondered if these forgotten Gods the Elvens worshiped even cared that I was saving two of their people.

  I hoped I wasn’t too late.

  Chapter 18-Iolarathe

  “Another beautiful work, Iolarathe.” Relyara stood behind me on my balcony and looked at the painting over my shoulder.

  “Thank you.” I sighed inside and set down my oil brushes. I thought the piece was a failure, but didn’t feel like arguing with my servant. Her opinion mattered little, and no matter what garbage I produced she would praise it effusively.

  “How do you imagine such wondrous landscapes?”

  I shrugged my shoulders and turned to face the beautiful woman. She wore her usual light-blue gown and seemed to float above the stone of my veranda. I had lost track of the day, but the position of the sun and heat on my back indicated that it was probably lunch time.