“They’re hiding! One there, on the move!” She tracked one man with her finger and Erizen fired green orbs again, but this time it went wide and missed entirely. Meanwhile, the other mage finally found that if he dismissed his shield, the orbs vanished with it. He’d been severely weakened by the attack, but now the orbs likely wouldn’t work again. Erizen cursed—he didn’t want to make a light, since that would mark them as targets to any other mages in the area too. No doubt Moloch’s underlings were under orders to kill them by any means necessary. On the other hand, at this rate they were attracting more attention anyways. Erizen was about to take measures when something massive descended from above.
The ground actually shook when the gargantuan stone creature landed between them and the mages. The dim light illuminated four reptilian legs, two stone canopies that served as wings, and a hundred spikes lining the beast’s back. It swung its head around, pointing its lethally-toothed head in the direction of the attacking mages. They could practically feel the terror emanating from the mages—the tables had just turned. Their attacks were now directed at the stone dragon, but nothing did much damage to solid stone.
Tseka remained wary, but she spared a moment to shoot an impressed look at Toman.
“Where did that come from?” she asked.
“It’s been tracking us from above,” Toman replied. “I’ve been keeping it handy every time any of us have gone out.”
“I thought we were as high as was safe to fly when Esset was flying us,” Tseka said, confused but still keeping an eye out for incoming attacks.
“They’re not alive—thin air means nothing to them. Plus I long ago figured out that they fly using magic, not natural means, so other factors don’t apply either. It was so high we would barely have seen it even as high as we were. Why do you think it took so long to get here?” Toman replied. As he spoke, he turned to look down the other side of hill, trying to locate Esset—how far had he been flung? Was he okay? He couldn’t see him amidst the rubble on the side of the hill. Toman finally turned and grabbed Tseka’s arm.
“I’m finding Esset,” he said. Without waiting for her to object—splitting up was dangerous, after all, even with the mages preoccupied with the stone dragon—he headed down the hill. He picked his way down carefully, keeping an eye out for danger even as he glanced back up the hill to try to track the trajectory Esset may have been flung in. But it wasn’t until he was almost right on top of him that he spotted him at all.
Esset was tangled in a bramble—his skin was scored by the thorns, but conversely, the bramble had saved him from more serious injury by catching him and cushioning his fall. He also looked scorched, but not precisely burnt. He was also unconscious. Toman rushed over to him as quickly as he could.
He was almost to him when he found himself nose-to-nose with a fiery wolf. Its breath stank of molten metal and ash. The heat of its proximity was harsh on his face, but more concerning was its snarl. Its teeth, glowing like super-heated metal, were clearly visible, and its growl sounded like fire devouring the dried grass of a field. Toman had never been so close to one of Esset’s more deadly summons before, having always given them a respectful distance in the past. He’d also never been the object of one’s aggression.
“Esset!” Toman called to his brother. He wanted to be heard by his brother, but he tried to keep his voice low enough that he wouldn’t draw attention them. To his great relief, the wolf vanished into a wisp of ash before him.
“Sorry. Didn’t know it was you,” he heard Esset say.
“I should hope not,” Toman grumbled, shaking off the cold chill of fear as he took the last couple steps over to the brambles. The first thing he did was put his hands out to try to animate the brambles to get them out of the way, but he couldn’t animate something that was already alive. Apparently, despite the pale, dry appearance of the bush, it was still very much alive. Abandoning the attempt, Toman instead got his belts to undo themselves from around his torso and flow into the bushes to carefully wind around the branches and pull them back, breaking them where necessary.
Esset waited patiently while Toman worked, knowing that moving prematurely would just earn him more scratches and further entanglement.
“Come on,” Toman finally said, holding out his hand to Esset. Esset grabbed his brother’s hand and let him haul him out, wincing as several bruises, scratches, and strained muscles were aggravated. He was going to hurt tomorrow. He hurt now. But he shoved thoughts of pain aside and concentrated on what needed doing.
Toman and Esset made their way back up to the top of the hill without drawing notice—they did it so well that Tseka nearly bashed them off the hill with one of her shields when they popped up beside her. She hissed at them, but both could tell she was glad to see them.
“Let’s finish this,” Esset said darkly. The alien syllables of summoning poured from his mouth, and half a dozen fiery panthers materialized around them. They opened their jaws and roared in unison, calling the sound of a fiery maelstrom and illuminating the entire hillside before them. Then they leapt into motion in a show of deadly beauty and sinuous grace—providing sinews could be made of fire. They left behind ashen footprints, unseen in the dark, as they surged down the hill unerringly toward their targets.
Suddenly a brilliant, unnatural light appeared in the sky above them. A silver glow was cast upon the hilltop, bathing them in an eerie light—and making them even bigger targets than they already were. Toman looked at Erizen.
“It’s not me!” the mage objected, seeing the accusation in the look. “But now I might as well make a few of my own.” He raised his hands and similar orbs flowered over the rest of the area, so everyone else was as illuminated as they were.
The little skirmish had transformed into a fully pitched battle. More enemy mages arrived by the minute, despite the bodies of their fallen comrades littering the hill. Esset’s stomach churned when he saw them; he hated war, hated killing. And although he had known they’d been killing the mages in the darkness, it was still a blow to see the results.
I’m sorry I’m not strong enough, Dad, Esset thought, but now it was definitely kill or be killed.
Four mages had congregated together and were working in concert to keep back Toman’s stone dragon and one of Esset’s fiery panthers. When the others saw their success, they began banding together too. Dark Mages—and particularly blood-path mages, which these no doubt were—weren’t usually very good at working together, but they were managing out of necessity. Still, their breed was too paranoid and greedy to work together to their maximum capability, which was all for the best, as far as Esset was concerned.
“This is turning into more than we bargained for,” Tseka hissed, warding off several more attacks that were coming their way.
“This is a boon,” Erizen said, conjuring another pair of green globes and sending them towards the shields of one group. The mage in charge of shields in the group started panicking; the orbs would suck him dry of magic if he didn’t dispel the shields, but if he did dispel them, the fiery panthers attacking their shields would get in. In the end he bailed on his companions and banished the shields, re-erecting personal ones immediately. One of his comrades died, failing to put up shields in time, but the other two were quick enough—still, their group was split again, and they couldn’t fight as effectively.
“How so?” Esset asked, watching Erizen repeat the tactic with another group.
“This is another portion of Moloch’s power-base. If we kill most of his mages, he is even weaker yet. He can’t be everywhere at once, so he needs these mages,” Erizen fired more green orbs at another group. These ones were smarter—as the one mage dispelled his shield, another created a shockwave to drive their attackers back for a few moments until a new one could be erected.
Beside Erizen, Toman finally finished animating the rough earthen golem he’d been making and sent it into the fray. It would be blasted to pieces in seconds, no doubt, but it was something. Really, E
sset’s summons were doing the most damage. The panthers threw themselves at shields with unbridled ferocity, knowing that if they battered them enough, they’d break open so they could access the vulnerable inner bits.
Erizen was helping, but Toman knew that he wasn’t fighting at his full capacity. He was about to growl something at the arrogant man when reinforcements arrived. Two more stone dragons plummeted from the sky, each targeting a group of mages and hitting their shields full-force. Toman was pleased with their timing—he hadn’t expected them so soon, since they’d been further afield. But it was just as well, since more mages had just arrived too—Toman wondered just how many mages Moloch really had. He never would have fathomed this many, and were they all even here? Then, with a shock, he realized that the four of them were holding off the entire crowd all on their own.
He remembered the Baliyan war, the icy hell consisting of battle after battle against undead legions and the necromancers who’d raised and commanded them. He and Esset had played a huge role in the war, but they couldn’t have fought it alone. Toman wondered if they could have had they been as strong as they were now. But there were more immediate concerns, and he didn’t have long to wonder. He glanced up, checking on his team.
Tseka didn’t seem to be tiring yet, although Toman was keeping an eye on her even as he put his gloves against the earth to animate another golem. Erizen kept to his limited contributions and Esset—Toman felt a moment of concern for his brother.
The gem embedded beneath the skin in Esset’s chest blazed with light, shining through skin and clothing alike with the flickering colors of fire. It cast an eerie light on his face as it competed with the silvery light from above that now lit the whole battlefield. Esset’s hair was wild, even more so than usual, after his tangle with the bramble-bush, and it was blackened with soot in the front. His whole face was smudged with ash, as were his clothes down to his toes, but the fire itself didn’t seem to have actually injured him—Toman wondered if that was a new ability of Esset’s or if something else was at play. The force of the attack he’d absorbed seemed to have done more damage than the fire in it. Still, Toman worried about him. Esset’s face was grim and his gaze was locked on the battlefield. His hands swept over the battlefield, directing his summons with unnecessary gestures and lighting fires of his own around their enemies. Toman wondered if his brother knew how powerful he’d truly become—and how frightening. In a way, he hoped not. But he didn’t have time to examine that fleeting thought either; another group of mages transported in.
“Erizen, quit slacking and let’s finish this!” Toman yelled at the mage, finally coming to the end of his patience with him. Erizen fired off another small spell and looked back at him calmly.
“And when Moloch finally shows up? Would you like all of us to be exhausted?” Erizen asked blandly. Toman stared at him, then cursed at himself. Of course. On the other hand, wouldn’t it be better to finish this and get away before Moloch arrived? Could they really face Moloch now, even with Erizen holding back to conserve energy? He felt a twinge of doubt, but he didn’t gainsay the mage. It did raise another question though—where was Moloch? Shouldn’t he have shown up by now? Toman found himself scanning the battlefield again.
The battle waged on. Stone dragons pounded on shields and stomped out any undead or constructs that came into range. Fiery panthers harried countless enemy mages, dodging or absorbing attacks as they persisted, until shields shattered and exposed those within. Erizen’s shield-disabling spells made matters more complicated for the mages, but in the end, they were slowly grinding into a stalemate. More attacks for Tseka to block were being flung their way.
“Erizen—” Toman began, but then he felt heat on his shoulder. Startled, he glanced over and saw Esset’s hand on his shoulder—his skin emanated heat as hot as an oven, but he seemed no worse for wear for it—there wasn’t so much as a single bead of sweat on his forehead. Toman wasn’t sure Esset knew how hot he blazed. He wasn’t sure that was a good thing.
“I’ve got an idea,” Esset said—at least he sounded like the normal Esset, more or less. Grim, but battle did that to him.
Out on the battlefield, next to one group of mages, one of the molten tortoises materialized next to their shields. A group of these tortoises, after going critical, had taken out a castle—a building meant to withstand attacks both magical and physical for an indefinite period of time. One flimsy mage-shield wasn’t going to make any difference.
The tortoise exploded, annihilating magical and physical defenses both and consuming those who had been nearest to it. All over the battlefield, tortoises materialized, each next to a target; after the smoke cleared, these was no more contest. Esset had targeted those mages banded into groups, for the moment ignoring those fighting alone. When the remaining mages saw their numbers halved in the face of a single attack, they knew they stood no chance. Chaos befell the enemy ranks as those remaining cut and fled. Some of them died even as they tried to run, falling to fiery claws or stone talons, but then Esset called his summons back to him. They were a flood of fiery streaks as they obeyed. Toman was shocked by their number. Previously, Esset had been able to call two cats at a time, at most. Now there were at least a dozen, if not more, but they vanished one by one before he could count them. Esset sagged by the time the last of them were gone.
“Hey,” Toman said as he ducked under his brother’s arm before he could collapse. At least Esset still had some limitations; that was comforting, somehow.
“I think you should be the one to get us out of here,” Esset said, exhaustion clear in his voice.
“Yeah, I think so too,” Toman agreed. His massive stone dragons were already coming towards them. One took off, climbing high to circle above them, but the other two waited for the four to mount. Tseka and Erizen took one while Toman helped Esset onto the back of the other—it was clear that Esset was having difficulty keeping his grip on consciousness. Shortly after they were in the air, he passed out completely. Toman kept Esset firmly in front of him until they reached Arxus. They’d planned to take out multiple castles tonight, but this had been a bigger blow to Moloch than they’d intended to deliver, and they were exhausted. The next battle could wait.
Esset woke with a familiar weight draped across his legs and torso; he kept his eyes shut, not needing to open them to know that Tseka’s coils were sprawled atop him. Despite the comfortable familiarity, a black mood settled over him.
“You’re awake, I know you are, so stop pretending you’re not,” Tseka said in his ear. When he tried to pass of as asleep for a moment longer, she gave him a rude prod in the ribs, causing his eyes to pop open. He frowned at her.
“Must you?” he asked drolly, trying to hide behind humor.
“I must,” she assured him. Then she propped herself up on an elbow for a moment and studied him, her inhuman eyes far too perceptive for his liking.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“I was just prodded awake by an obnoxious woman,” he grumbled, rolling onto his side so his back was to her. A moment later he grunted as the weight of her torso settled on his side and her face appeared sideways in his field of vision.
“No really, what’s wrong?” she asked. Evidently she had no idea how uncomfortable this position was for him.
“Nothing,” Esset said, knowing the futility of the attempt before he even made it. He winced when Tseka’s full weight shifted onto his side. At least she noticed that too and moved off him. Then, since his back was to her, she slithered off the bed onto the floor in front of him.
“I would have thought our victory last night was something to be celebrated,” she said neutrally. “We struck a great blow against Moloch.”
“Yeah,” Esset said.
“It’s the death, isn’t it?” Tseka asked.
Esset looked at her, surprised.
“Who do you think would understand better than I?” she asked. “Better than a warrior of the Nadra?” Esset hadn’t thought of it
that way, and said as much.
Tseka’s mouth twisted in a humorless smile. “We value peace above all things, yet we have warriors, because we see the necessity of them. And for those of us who are warriors, we struggle with our place in our society and in the world. In a way, we are sacrifices for the greater good…but even besides that. I value peace, yet I love fighting. Where does that leave me? You feel that way too, don’t you?”
“Exactly,” Esset confessed. “I hate taking lives. It doesn’t matter how evil the life is, or how necessary it is…I just hate it. And yet I love fighting. It’s the thrill, the adrenaline, the challenge. It’s incredible! I love how strong I’ve become, and like everyone, I like winning…but after a battle like that, I just feel sick. I feel guilty for liking fighting when that’s what happens. How can I be a good person and still like fighting?”
Tseka shook her head; so she knew no better than he. “So what do we do about it?”
“Maybe the Ashiier have it right. They remove themselves from all this. Maybe there’s peace in that,” Esset said.
“Maybe,” Tseka acknowledged. “And all this has definitely had me considering their offer even more seriously than before, but what do we do about it now?”
“Well, I’d planned to wallow in self-pity for a bit,” Esset replied.
“Until deciding that there was no point to that and acknowledging the necessity of what we’re doing and emerging to face the world again,” Tseka finished. There was a short silence.
“Yeah,” Esset finally said.
“How about we get breakfast instead?” Tseka suggested.
Esset still felt the weight of guilt on his shoulders and the black veil over his mood, but he shrugged.
“Sure.”
As it turned out, the decision had been wise.
“Color has already returned to Moloch’s kingdom.” Erizen—and his harem, incidentally—stood waiting for them in the kitchen. Well, Erizen stood, but his harem was arranged—Esset could think of no better word to describe it—around the room, some sitting, some leaning against the counters, all in provocative positions. Orchid winked suggestively at Esset, making him blush.
Fire Within: Book Two of Fire and Stone (Stories of Fire and Stone 2) Page 26
