He looked down, seeing Tommie trying to break from Aila’s hold, his eyes wild.
Anthony sheathed his sword.
It’s time to stop this infighting. Dena will come together, even if I have to force it with my own hands.
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A Skeletons Duty Death Knight Book 4 By: Michael Chatfield
Chapter: Ascen Changes
Anthony dropped from where he had been standing in the air. Tri- als were continuing across Ascen, through the capital and the sur- rounding land. Chains were struck off the slaves as people from the different races looked up with fear, with excitement. Most looked around in disbelief. Some stood there, thinking it was a trick; oth- ers fled.
Anthony looked from the top of the tower, seeing the chaos in the streets, the hundreds who were called to trial, the chains that wrapped them up.
“Just how far have we fallen?” He couldn’t keep the sadness out of his voice.
*** Aila watched as Anthony landed.
“What he said about Laisa, is that true?” Tommie demanded, his eyes wide and disbelieving.
“Not even the Drafeng can lie to a Guardian,” Anthony said.
“We need to go there now!” Tommie turned for the door. “What are you waiting for?”
Seeing that despondent look on his face, Aila’s heart twisted.
“We need to stabilize Ascen first. The trials will judge the peo- ple here. We need to stop the fighting. It will take us nearly a week to reach Laisa and the attack has already happened.” Claire’s voice
2
was dull and tired, as if she had seen and been in this situation be- fore.
“We’re just going to give up on him?” Tommie yelled, his pain turn- ing to anger.
Anthony put a hand on his shoulder. “We didn’t say that, but we need to come up with a plan.”
Tommie didn’t know how or couldn’t express himself. He let out an angry noise and turned around, throwing Anthony’s hand off.
“What now?” Anthony looked at Claire.
“We need to stabilize Ascen, wake up the Guardians and bring this war to an end,” Claire said.
“Well, if you and Aila stay here to stabilize Ascen and then wake the Guardians, Damien, Tommie, and I can head to the south to start working our way through the war front,” Anthony said.
Claire moved her lips. “Fine,” she spat, stepping into the air and us- ing her Fly spell to go to the top of the tower.
“Damien, Aila—let the people of Ascen know what is going on, calm them down. Find Tommie and tell him we’ll be heading out tomorrow.” Wings extended from Anthony’s back and he went after Claire.
“Let’s get to work,” Damien said, his voice dull.
Aila just nodded as she followed him, looking out at the Guardian Tower, which was rebuilding itself. Chains were pulling the bridges back into place. The white flames at the bottom of the tower had more than tripled in size and were purple now. Proof that the Guardians had returned.
Aila and Damien looked out of the doors of the Church of Light, looking at the people gathered there.
They were followers of the Church of Light. They had seen the peo- ple of the church dragged out and the truth pulled from them. There were those who were innocent, just misguided.
Most of them weren’t bad people; they were just forced into a bad situation.
Seeing those lost eyes, Aila felt a deep sense of responsibility.
***
Anthony walked into what had been his and Claire’s quarters. She stood inside the doorway, her back to him.
“You said that we would be together for our entire lives but you ran off, against my orders, and got yourself killed. Now, centuries later
when I have just got you back, you’re running off again!” Claire howled. The air around them crackled with mana. She turned around, her face twisted in anger.
Anthony could see right through her, knowing her anger came from her love for him.
He walked forward and pulled her into a hug. “You were there with me the entire time. I’m sorry for the time I wasn’t there for you. It’s our duty. You might not have the emblem but you’re more Guardian than me.” Anthony’s voice was soft and low.
Claire slumped. The power in the room deflated as she did. She put her arms around him, wrapping him up tightly.
“You know how to make the Guardian Flame enchantments. Using the saints and the guilty to carry them across Radal and place them into the cities will speed up the process of restoring and pro- tecting Dena.”
“While you head to the war front,” Claire said.
“I’ll head straight for Laisa, get in contact with the elves, then push through the war front,” Anthony said.
“How?”
“That’s something I’ll figure out as I go,” Anthony said.
“Okay. I’ll stay here for two weeks, then I’m going to head to where the other Guardians are and see if I can do anything to raise them,” Claire said.
“How can we raise them?”
“That’s something I’ll figure out as I go.” Claire looked up at An- thony.
Anthony felt her heart twisting and his own twisting emotions. He wanted to just carry her away from this all, to find Todd healthy and fine and that this was just all a weird dream.
***
“Still nothing from the group that went down to Laisa?” General Fysh- er asked.
“Nothing. They should have reached the city last night,” Vice Gen- eral Spiros said. The two men looked at each other.
Fysher let out a tired sigh. Or they were too busy “cleansing” the vil- lage to send a message.
General Fysher looked out of the tower and over the battle- field, pulling out a gnomish telescope to survey the battlefield.
A small trail of dust lifted up into the air behind the human armies as they moved forward with their large siege weaponry.
The legions based between the different beast kin fortresses had at least half their number ready and waiting.
“It should be soon,” Spiros said. “Now,” Fysher said.
Along the lines of the advancing humans, familiars appeared. The regular soldiers tossed off their outer robes, revealing them as familiar riders. They shot forward, forming up into their units. The beast kin units were alert but seeing half of the enemy army now mounted and charging them was an alarming sight. They started to use their ranged ballistas and their trebuchets launched attacks at the charging human mounted force.
The ballista aimed for packed groups of the riders. The large spears stuck out of the ground, or pierced through familiars and humans.
“Looks like they’re using Orcahlium metals, killing familiars like that,” Spiros said.
Fysher looked at a rider whose mount was hit. The man screamed out as his familiar bond was severed, going limp as all the power in his body was drained. A trebuchet rock smacked into him, killing him.
“Looks like it.” Fysher turned his eyes to the remaining half of the force that was moving forward. They ran forward, using their familiars to prepare positions in the ground, while other familiars were used to increase the speed that the army moved forward.
“The Lord of Light’s work will be completed sooner or later.” Bryce’s voice came from behind.
Spiros half swore underneath his breath. “Sorry, Father. You scared me, as stealthy as you are.” Spiros chuckled.
“All the better to catch those who need to be cleansed unaware.”
All the better for you to sneak up on children, babes, and scared farm- ers. Fysher was studying his lines as he saw it: a movement from the hu- man fortress as several of the Church of Light armies charged forward. “Seems that the Church of Light has taken to
the battlefield?”
Fysher asked.
“We are always at war, General Fysher,” Bryce said in a severe tone of an elder lecturing a junior.
I wonder how far the Lord of Light would let you fly before you hit the ground. Fysher kept his thoughts and emotions off his face as he looked at the Church of Light rushing forward. The beast kin legions were deploying and moving forward. One of the castles was fighting on as familiars grabbed onto the walls and cried out in pain. Ladders and hook ropes were deployed; attacking familiars were released, distract- ing the defenders and allowing some of the attackers to try to establish a foothold.
He saw a particularly large elephant kin on the walls. She held a staff, looking unaffected by the chaos around her as she controlled the flow of battle.
Fysher pulled the telescope from his eye and looked at the bat- tle unfolding and the clear path of the Church of Light to the beast kin fortress.
“Gnome telescope? Those tools are the work of Agents of Dark- ness,” Bryce said lightly.
“Best to use the tools of darkness against them,” Fysher said.
Bryce smiled darkly and pulled out an elven dagger. “It’s poetic, isn’t it?”
***
Commander Tysien looked out into the distance, seeing the new caval- ry charge.
“Looks like those church freaks are joining in,” Raul said from her side.
“Yes, seems that they thought it would be fun to join in.” Tysien forced her muscles to relax as she moved around and turned her head to survey the rest of the battlefield.
“Looking weak on the south side. Get ready to disperse that famil- iar powder,” Tysien said.
An aide nodded and headed off. “I hate being up here,” Raul said.
“Afraid of heights?” Tysien asked as she kept on scanning. “They’re pushing around to the east side,” Raul said.
“If they surround us, then they’ll make nice targets for the legions.” Tysien looked at the group of bedar riders approaching from the two closest legion camps that were deployed between the fortresses.
“Looks like two armies from the church coming our way,” Raul said.
“You didn’t answer my question—fear of heights?”
“Nope, just hate how you can see around instead of be in the fight,” Raul said.
“Yeah, that’s the curse,” Tysien said.
“Aren’t those two armies a problem?” Raul asked.
“They’re from the church—they might be sneaky shits. Their saints might be powerful, but they’re not a real army,” Tysien said.
“What the?” Raul muttered.
Tysien looked over again, about to tell Raul to stop staring at the Army of Light when she frowned and then her eyes went wide. “Purple flames,” she said under her breath. Isn’t that the same
color as the purple power that Guardian Anthony used?
“What the hell are those things?” someone yelled out as among the ranks a beast appeared, expanding. Those around it started to attack.
It cried out in pain, and attacked those around it. It had four limbs that contained great strength and a mutated head; its body glowed and flashed randomly with light that illuminated it from inside.
The creature killed dozens as several other beasts appeared and at- tacked those around it. The human army saw what was happen- ing and retreated in fear.
“Cut them down as they run,” Tysien yelled, coming out of her shock.
Her legionnaires responded, using their bows, getting the bal- listas and trebuchets back into action.
The Church of Light was in disarray. Their white-covered mounts lay across the ground, dead lying with them.
They killed the creatures, but their shameful charge... How readily they had fallen apart, one even leading a beast back to a camp.
At least they’re not on our side. Tysien sneered.
“What the hell is that, some new weapon from the Church of Light?” Raul asked under his breath.
“I don’t know, but whatever it is, it went wrong for them,” Tysien muttered and turned to a messenger and waved two more forward.
“Each of you write a report on what you saw. Do not talk to one another. You will write for ten minutes. Understood? Not a missed de- tail.”
“Yes, Commander.” The three pulled out their writing materi- als, writing what they had seen.
“Once they’re done, send them back to headquarters with the re- port. I’m going to check on our people and the camp,” Tysien said.
“Commander,” Raul grunted.
Chapter: The Divided Humans
“Be good now,” Anthony said to Ramona’s little ones Ryan and Rachel. Ramona let out a mewling noise, wanting to come along. Rachel and Ryan turned their best sad eyes on Aila and Tommie.
Tommie pulled out a snack and gave it to Rachel. She snapped it down with a pleased expression and nudged him with her head. Her head was nearly as big as Tommie.
“We’ve almost gone around the world with them—some well- trav- eled beasts.” Aila scratched Ryan’s scales just right, making him lean in- to her hand as his back foot kicked with her scratch- ings.
“From the Deepwood to Ascen—maybe the next time we come back, we can take them back down to the Deepwood again.” Anthony rubbed his hand on Ramona’s back. She had grown big and strong while carrying his heavy armored ass around.
He put his head against hers, closing his eyes. Their bond still re- mained between them. He released his part of the bond and opened his eyes, stepping back.
She looked to him, blinking as she felt the bond weaken.
It would just take a thought from her and the bond would be bro- ken.
She touched her head to his chest. The bond didn’t break but was stronger than before.
“You...” Anthony patted her neck and scratched it.
There was a twinkle in her eye as she let out a pleased snort. “Look after them,” Anthony said to Aila.
“Always. See you soon,” Aila said.
Anthony and Tommie said their last good-byes and then climbed up toward the roof of the tower.
***
16
“I’m sorry about what I said the other day,” Tommie said to Antho- ny. They stood on the roof of the Guardian Tower. Above them, the purple flame stood above the city.
Ascen was quiet. The people of the city had their sentences handed out. The emperor and his family had been cleared out of their ancestral home and were now paying penance for their ac- tions.
They now worked in the fields to produce food for the people they had allowed to be enslaved. They taught people how to read and write. Others were transformed into other races and sent out across Dena.
The whole city was stunned; in a night, it had transformed. People were still scared. Claire had sent out word to her people along the coast. More Guardians as well as people from Epan and Ilsal would arrive soon.
“You were angry and you didn’t know if you had lost your fa- ther or not. That isn’t an unreasonable reason to get angry,” Antho- ny said.
Tommie gave a weak smile.
Anthony raised his arm. In a golden light, Dave appeared in his dragon form, much larger than before.
“I’ll help you with those.” Damien helped Tommie with the sup- plies and boxes that were off to the side.
Tommie nodded. He didn’t think that they were worth bring- ing; Anthony and Damien were stronger than any
technology he had.
Aila had made him take it. She knew how much it meant to him.
Anthony and Claire walked away from the group, talking to each other. They hugged before Anthony returned to them.
They had everything stowed. “Let’s get going,” Anthony said.
Damien and Tommie mounted up behind Anthony. “Stay safe,” Claire yelled.
“Don’t destroy any cities while I’m gone, without good rea- son!” Anthony replied.
“One time!”
Anthony laughed as Dave flapped his wings and dropped, coil- ing around the Guardian Tower before his wings snapped out.
Tommie held onto Dave’s back, terrified. His stomach dropped and then flipped as they shot over Ascen.
He heard people yelling and pointing up at the dragon above. Dave flapped his wings, raising them higher and going faster.
The ground appeared distant as they shot through the clouds.
Tommie closed his eyes, trying to not think about how tilting to the right or the left too much might cause him to drop hundreds of me- ters to the ground.
A shiver went through his body but he was determined. This was the fastest way back to Laisa, back to his father.
***
Aila had been able to find somewhere to sleep. When she woke up, she followed the sounds of building. She found golems bringing materials into a work room. Inside, Claire had several more com- plex golems carv- ing into metal plates that were brought into the room and assembling different components together to create en- chanted metal plates.
Death Knight Box Set Books 1-5: A humorous power fantasy series Page 48
