Avondale V

by Toby Neighbors

  There were shouts from officers, but the second bomb was already streaking toward the plaza. Rafe would have returned to the palace, but there was no way for him to get inside. He heard banging as the soldiers on the other three sides of the palace sought a way in. Crossbow strings thrummed, and the wounded screamed in pain, then the second fire bomb hit and exploded.

  Rafe watched it all, taking in the shock and horror of the situation and knowing that it was far from over. Leonosis had disappeared from the plaza, and Rafe was forced to use his sword as one of the king’s soldiers attacked him. The soldier had a saber and a shield, but his training was elementary, and Rafe anticipated his attacks, swaying out of the blade’s path. Then a crossbow bolt smashed into the soldier’s helmet, penetrating through steel, skull, and brain. The soldier dropped, dead before he hit the ground, and Rafe felt only sadness.

  There was no battle lust, no ringing in his ears as his blood pulsed through his veins in time to a song of war. There was only death and madness all around him. A crash from the servants’ side of the palace told Rafe that the soldiers had smashed through the palace’s defenses. His own men would be dying soon, their screams of agony, along with their blood, mixing with that of the king’s soldiers, who fought for a mad man.

  A rending sound filled the air, like the sound of fabric being torn. Rafe looked up and saw the balloon sail on Tiberius’ war ship collapsing. His heart almost stopped beating, and without a thought for his own safety, Rafe sprinted across the plaza. There was smoke and blood everywhere, but no one tried to stop the commander of Avondale. He ran past several soldiers from Sparlan Citadel, fully expecting to be challenged, but they merely looked away.

  When he reached the far side of the plaza, Leonosis was nowhere in sight. He raced into the street beyond, then saw an ivy-covered lattice on the side of one of the tall homes. He sheathed his sword and scrambled up the shaky lattice. The roof of the home was tiled with hardened clay shingles, and he pulled himself up onto the sloping roof. It took Rafe a moment to find a place on the building where he felt steady enough to stand, then he looked across the rooftops and breathed a sigh of relief. The war ship had fallen onto a home; the rough bottom of the vessel had broken through the roof and stuck fast, but there was movement on the ship.

  Rafe looked back down at the lattice, trying to find a way down from the rooftop, when he noticed someone standing in a narrow niche between two shops across the avenue. He recognized the long hair and willowy figure instantly. He scrambled down the building, throwing caution to the wind. There were king’s soldiers in the street, but they were fleeing, not fighting. Rafe ignored them and ran to Olyva’s side.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked breathlessly.

  “I’m here to lead you out of the city,” she explained. “The volcano is going to erupt at any moment.”

  As if to emphasize what she was saying, the ground shook, and smoke began to billow from the center of the volcano’s cone. Rafe looked out over the city. He didn’t have a good vantage point, but he thought he should be able to see traces of blue water at the center of the city—there was nothing but billowing smoke.

  “We can’t leave the earl,” Rafe said.

  “Or his troops. Help me get them out of the palace.”

  “Our best bet is the main entrance. Stay close to me.”

  They ran back into the plaza, avoiding the fires and the swarms of soldiers who were looking for someone to lead them. On the roof of the palace, fighting had broken out as a group of soldiers rushed across the causeway that led to the wall. Rafe waved his arms and shouted for his men to open the doors. He could hear chaos inside the palace. Then another tremor shook the entire city hard, and a crevasse opened across the plaza. For a moment the fighting stopped, the shouts died, and everyone was silent.

  “If you want to live,” Olyva shouted. “Come with me!”

  “Lead the way,” Rafe said as the door of the palace burst open and the earl’s war band came streaming out.

  Olyva turned and hurried back across the plaza. Rafe pointed to her and shouted at his men.

  “Follow her—she’ll lead you to safety.”

  The men did as they were told, and many of the king’s soldiers fell in with the throng of the earl’s war band, courtiers, and palace servants. Rafe looked anxiously for Earl Ageus, finally seeing him coming through the massive doors surrounded by his guardsmen.

  “This way!” shouted Rafe.

  “What is happening?” the earl screamed back.

  “It’s Tiberius,” Rafe shouted with a grin. “He’s back!”

  Chapter 40

  Leonosis

  The world was erupting in chaos all around him, but Draggah didn’t care. In fact, the foul creature seemed to thrive as things went wrong. The fire bombs from the war ship were completely unexpected and killed dozens of his own troops, yet the demon relished death and torment in any form.

  Leonosis felt a tiny spark of hope. When the first bomb dropped, he thought it was Queen Ariel, finally turning on the insane demon, but that hope vanished just as quickly as a snowflake over a bonfire. Draggah, invigorated by being drawn into the battle, rushed quickly down the curving street until he came to a gap between the buildings where he could see the war ship. He raised both hands, and Leonosis felt the pulse of magical power. The huge balloon sail tore, sending the war ship crashing into a rooftop that was only a few feet below the bottom of the vessel. The captain of the ship had been smart; keeping his ship as low as possible limited the range of the catapult, but it also made him a more difficult target. And because the ship was so close to the building below, Leonosis was sure that the crash did little more than shake the crew up.

  Draggah obviously thought the same thing, and he stalked toward the downed ship. He could have ignored the crew of the vessel, who were no longer a threat to him, but instead he wanted revenge. His glorious moment had been interrupted, and although he could still hear the chaos behind him, his fury was growing out of control.

  He had just come around a building when a girl with short hair almost crashed into him. Draggah raised a hand, planning to beat the young woman, but instead she fell to her knees, bowing before him.

  “My lord,” she said breathlessly. “I’ve been searching for you. I know where the wizard is hiding.”

  Leonosis felt his own ire rising, but he was jolted by the sense of joy that Draggah suddenly felt.

  “Tiberius?” the demon said, skeptically.

  “Yes, my lord. The earl’s third son. He’s a wizard. They’re hiding him down by the fields. I can take you to him.”

  She never looked up, just stayed on her knees, but she seemed completely sincere. Leonosis was suddenly afraid. He didn’t think anything could stop Draggah, but he didn’t want the demon to get what he wanted, either.

  “Rise,” Draggah said. “Tell me how you know this.”

  “My brother, he’s a stablehand. The earl was planning to move his son down to the palace by the lake before you arrived.”

  “Why would you do this?” Draggah asked.

  “I want to live, lord. I hate magic. I just want to survive the fighting,” the girl said, then her face hardened. “And perhaps have a little gold for my trouble.”

  Draggah suddenly laughed. The mountain shook around them, dust rose up into the air, and a loud rumble almost seemed to come from the demon himself.

  “Show me,” he said.

  Leonosis could feel the desire in Draggah. The demon wanted Tiberius and the Balestone, which Leonosis could only guess was some evil object that Draggah would use to further his power. Leonosis felt sick, and what he wanted more than anything else was to be rid of the demon. He would have gladly died rather than see Draggah get what he wanted, but Leonosis was powerless to stop the demon. And now, the very citizens of Avondale were turning against their own to help the evil being.

  If only they could see Draggah for what he truly was, Leonosis thought. If even just for a minute the king’s s
oldiers knew what Leonosis knew about Draggah, they would have turned against him. Even Ariel, the demon’s only confidant, didn’t know just how black the creature’s soul truly was. All Draggah wanted was to turn Valana into a nightmare of death and suffering. The demon was not from the world of men, and even though Leonosis couldn’t understand that, he knew it was true.

  They went down, winding through the streets, passing by piles of corpses, many of which had obviously been pilfered through for any valuables. Leonosis had heard many stories of the carrion birds that flock to the killing fields during war, but he’d not realized that humans were just as heinous. They may not be eating the bodies, but they were there, stealing from the dead before the soldiers were even cold.

  “Where is the wizard?” Draggah asked, when they were near the lowest level.

  “Not far, my lord,” the girl said.

  Draggah was following her, but she sped through the city, turning and twisting, leading him down alleys and across makeshift ladders. It was obvious the girl was familiar with the city; she knew routes down Avondale’s concentric streets that even Leonosis didn’t know. Smoke was billowing from the center of the volcano’s cone, but Draggah didn’t seem to notice or care. The smoke was thick and black, casting a dark shadow across the city.

  “Slow down,” Draggah said, but the girl ignored him.

  The demon lurched ahead, just as the lithe woman with short hair turned a corner ahead of him. He was going to teach her a lesson, and Leonosis felt his own terror at the thought of seeing Draggah beating the girl, but when they turned the corner they found themselves alone in a dark, narrow alley. The girl was nowhere in sight. On both sides of them, there was nothing but stone walls, and a flimsy, tattered awning covered the alley, blocking the light that would normally shine in from above. Draggah looked up, but the girl was nowhere in sight. He stepped back, looking up and down the street.

  Leonosis felt a sense of joy—the demon had been tricked, but then pain destroyed all conscious thought. Time lost all meaning. There was no sight, no sound, even though Leonosis was screaming in his mind, just pain. It was as if every fiber of his being was suddenly being torn apart.

  Then the pain vanished, and Leonosis cowered down into the darkest recesses of his own mind. He knew he was close to madness, but he wanted an escape, anything to get away from Draggah. The magic touched him as the demon concentrated his power. Leonosis heard a strange chanting as Draggah cast a spell. The two buildings on either side of the alley suddenly blew apart. Then there was pain again, this time in Leonosis’ side. It was a different kind of pain, more substantial and concentrated.

  Leonosis moaned in agony, but Draggah didn’t make a sound. The demon merely looked down, where a shard of wood from one of the buildings had stabbed deeply into the flesh he possessed. He reached down, yanked out the long splinter, then stuck his finger into the wound to stanch the bleeding.

  Leonosis felt so weak and dizzy, yet Draggah controlled his body. As the demon walked steadfastly back toward the upper levels of the city, climbing his way back toward the palace, Leonosis faded in and out of consciousness. He saw fuzzy images of the structures they passed, and at one point Draggah had to stop and empty the contents of his stomach. Leonosis felt his muscles cramping; his legs were so heavy they felt as if huge anvils had been tied to each one. His arms ached, and his side was a throbbing mass of fiery agony. His head hurt, too, and his eyes burned from fatigue and smoke. His tongue felt thick in his mouth, which was so dry that his throat felt like he had tried to swallow shards of glass.

  The demon didn’t seem to notice. Even though Leonosis was swooning, the demon kept walking, kept moving toward his goal. Nothing would keep him from finding the wizard and taking the Balestone. It was all that mattered to Draggah.

  Leonosis realized at some point that he might die, and if he did, the demon would simply use his body like a suit of clothes. It was horrifying to think that, even after he died, people would attribute the demon’s atrocities to him, but there was nothing he could do. Then the world went black, and there was nothing but pain.

  Chapter 41

  Lexi

  Leading Leonosis through the city was not difficult. The route wasn’t straight, but there was no straight way down to the lower levels. The broad, main avenue around the top level of Avondale was neat and clean, but each level below that became more crowded, the buildings less impressive, the waste and trash of a crowded city much more evident.

  When she had set out to find the demented king, she had no idea where to look and simply made her way toward the palace in her usual fashion. After years of traveling through the city in a way that would appear to most people like aimless wandering, she could cover a lot of ground rather quickly and without drawing attention to herself.

  She’d seen a few terrified faces hiding in buildings on the upper level, but for the most part, the city seemed deserted. She could hear the commotion near the palace, and then when the war ship launched the fire bombs toward the palace, she correctly guessed that, if she moved toward the ship, she would find Leonosis. Nearly running over him hadn’t been the plan, and she was shocked by the way the earl’s eldest son looked.

  Leonosis had always been a handsome man, fastidious about his appearance, but the man she met in the street was almost the exact opposite. He was wearing silky garments and the softest leather pants and boots, but his body could only be described as skeletal. His hair was thinning so much that his scalp was visible through the wisps of greasy hair. The skin on his face was pulled so tight that his skull seemed to show through the almost translucent skin. His gums were bleeding, his eyes bloodshot, and his body smelled of sickness.

  Lexi had no idea what had happened to Leonosis, and she had not known him before her adventures with Tiberius began. She had seen him in the city, but always from a distance, and they had never spoken. Yet she was certain that something had taken over his mind. She wasn’t sure if was some type of sickness or if he was actually possessed by an evil spirit.

  She didn’t even know that she believed in spirits. Growing up alone, she had overcome her fear of the supernatural at a young age. She had heard sermons from the priests of Addoni where angels and demons played a part in the lives of the people in their scriptures, but her concerns were surviving all alone on the streets of Avondale’s lower levels, not discerning the spirits of people long dead.

  Still, there was something about Leonosis that made her feel afraid. Tiberius and Rafe had talked about Olyva’s father being an animated corpse, controlled by some sinister force. It had been hard for Lexi to imagine it when they explained their struggle in Hamill Keep, but now she understood all too well.

  At first she’d been afraid that Leonosis wouldn’t believe her. After nearly running into him, she dropped to the ground, bowing before him. He could have struck her down, but when she looked up and asked for gold in return for betraying Tiberius, she saw that he believed her. Experience had taught her that having all the right answers wasn’t nearly as convincing as fulfilling people’s expectations of her. She was a young girl from the streets—poor, alone, and desperate for money. That’s what people thought of her, and when she played the part, she was utterly believable.

  She moved at a brisk pace through the narrow streets and down alleys that were barely wide enough for one person to walk through without turning sideways. She stopped occasionally, looking back to ensure that she wasn’t getting too far ahead of Leonosis. He looked so ill she was amazed he was even able to stay on his feet, but otherwise he showed no signs of having trouble keeping up with her.

  They were almost on the lowest level when she decided to make a run for it. She had gotten Leonosis away from the palace and given Tiberius the time he needed to help Olyva and the earl’s war band escape the city, but now she wanted out, too. She recognized an alley that had a hidden entrance, and she sped up.

  “Slow down,” Leonosis ordered her, but she ignored him.

  As soon as she tu
rned the corner into the alley, she sprinted ahead, ducking into the hidden door, which was covered with fake stones so that it looked exactly like the walls of the alley. The door was held closed with a spring, so that all Lexi had to do was push on the right place and the door opened. She slipped inside and let the door close, then she ran through the darkened interior.

  The owner of the building was not a criminal, but he had no love for the paladins and so allowed people to use the secret entrance to avoid trouble. Just inside the doorway was a long hall that led to a spiral staircase. Lexi hurried up the stairs, her heart pounding. She expected Leonosis to find the secret entrance at any moment and to come sprinting after her, but she reached the landing to the stairs without being followed.

  She was now in a small room with a sturdy-looking door that led out to the street one level higher than the alley she had ducked into. Lexi threw open the door and ran out. She was barely out the door when the entire building suddenly collapsed behind her. The sound made her jump, but she didn’t scream. Years of living on the streets had taught her that screaming when she was frightened would give her position away. A huge cloud of dust and debris billowed up, and Lexi ducked into another alley. The walls of the alley were narrow, and the claustrophobic space dead-ended against the side of the mountain’s concave volcanic cone. Lexi went to the end, spread her arms and legs, bracing them on the stone sides of the two buildings, and shimmied her way up the next level of the city.

  Getting to the upper level was not difficult, but on the main street of Avondale, things became much more complicated. There were soldiers everywhere—some were wounded, and others were simply desperate for a way out of the city. The smoke billowing from the center of the volcano’s cone was getting thicker and more ominous. Lexi hurried around the curving street, staying close to the buildings and out of the way of the soldiers. If any had attacked, she would have had to fight for her life, but they ignored her. Most were going the opposite way, and they didn’t give her a second glance.