A Dagger of the Mind (The Imperial Metals)

by Daniel Antoniazzi

  “Yeah, and...”

  “So let’s do the math together. Your parents were married in early January. You were born in late August. Or eight months later, if we’re going to use numbers.”

  “Maybe I was early.”

  “Ten pounds, five ounces. Healthy as they come, according to the midwife’s journal.”

  “You read my midwife’s journal?”

  “Took some digging. Look, it’s simple. Alexander Deliem liked to import mistresses. And his last mistress before his death was your mother.”

  “Putting aside for a moment that you just called my mother a whore, I’m still younger than Michael would have been by a couple of decades. I’m not the first son in a line of first sons.”

  “If you were Alexander’s son, yes. But Lady Vivian spent three years in Deliem. For the last six months of her stay, Count Deliem was out of the country.”

  “And you think she slept with Michael? You think she just switched from father to son without a thought?”

  “I don’t know if it was without thought. But I do think it happened. And your mother confirmed the story when I asked her about it.”

  “What?! When?”

  “Oh,” Jareld said, sheepishly, “I paid to have her brought here to Anuen. She’s actually staying in a guest room at the Baron’s Estate.”

  “You mean your estate?”

  “Details, details. The point is, I think you’re Michael’s first and only son. So I think you are the answer to Flopson’s riddle. I think you’re the only one who can connect the steel with the blood.”

  “You’re saying I have to go fight Grimsor?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’m not really a fighter.”

  “I’ve tried that excuse before. It never works.”

  ---

  Grimsor and Vye exchanged steel strikes over and over as the battle raged on in their minds. Each clash rang louder than the last. The metal flashed in the light with each flicker of the blade.

  “I am eternal,” Gimsor said. “You cannot make me afraid. For I cannot be undone.”

  “You can be banished.”

  “But I can also return. Now that I know this realm is here, I will forever seek it out. For it is mine to conquer.”

  “Then you haven’t learned your lesson,” Vye said. “I will introduce you to death, because you have never had to think about it.”

  And suddenly they were somewhere else. A cliffside, overlooking a forest. The full moon beamed down upon them. The Lunapera. Vye’s nightmare of it. In the Land of the Dead.

  ---

  Duncan lined up with the best unit of armored knights left in the Castle. Landora and Nuria rode behind them, the Twins taking a pair of smaller, faster horses so they could remain mobile. And they charged into the fray.

  It was everything Duncan could do to keep the unit moving forward. He shouted orders to every standing soldier to form a phalanx around them. The knights rode ahead, scaring off Grimsor’s soldiers, battering them aside, and then galloping ahead to Duncan’s position, letting the enemy close in around them. They could only move forward. If they wanted to get back to Anuen, they would have to fight their way back.

  Landora stayed on Duncan’s flank, using small spurts of magic to clear the path. But she was trying to conserve her energy. She was the strongest and most capable of the mages present, and she suspected she would need every ounce of strength to cast the spell.

  The Twins also tried to conserve their energy, but it was harder for them on the outskirts of the forward unit. They shot flashes of light from their hands, hoping to blind or distract the enemy momentarily. They couldn’t harness their full training if they hoped to contribute to Grimsor’s end.

  Finally, they arrived at the rear of the battle. The knights scattered, turning full around and forming a barricade behind Duncan and the others. They would fend off Grimsor’s soldiers as long as they could, but they would be facing incredible odds. They could probably only hold the enemy off for a minute before they were overrun.

  “So,” Grimsor roared, spreading his wings and raising his sword, “You have come to fight me?”

  ---

  But in the Land of the Dead, Grimsor’s certainty was beginning to falter. He wouldn’t let it show, but there was a crack in his assured veneer.

  “It doesn’t matter if you take me to the Land of the Dead,” he sneered at Vye. “You have been here and come back. I can do the same.”

  “Perhaps,” Vye said, “But I can hold you here.”

  “Then I will destroy you. Your soul will no longer exist, in the world of the living, the dead, or even The Abyss. You will cease to be. You will become one with oblivion.”

  “You bet,” Vye said. “Come on. Destroy me.”

  “This maneuver is futile,” Grimsor growled. “You cannot keep me here forever.”

  “I don’t have to,” Vye said. “I just have to keep you here until they open the portal back to the Abyss.”

  Grimsor glared at Vye. What was she getting at?

  “Are you not following me?” Vye taunted. “Your mind is trapped in the Land of the Dead... Your body is returned to The Abyss... Your two halves are sundered... Any of this scaring you yet?”

  Grimsor growled, realizing the trap Vye had set. Of course it was ridiculous to think that the puny mortals back in the living world could open the portal. When Helios and Selene and the others had done it, they were the four most powerful mages in the world. The four who had met him in battle outside Anuen were runts by comparison.

  But he did not want to take that chance. If, by some miracle, they did open a portal, Grimsor wanted to get back to the Dreamscape. His mind would go through the portal with him if he was in the Dreamscape, since the Dreamscape connected to his realm. But if he was here...

  Grimsor charged at Vye, but before he could reach her, another man appeared in his way. A man who used to be his follower. Johann Frost.

  “Frost!” Grimsor shouted. “What are you doing here?”

  “Getting my revenge!” he said, and he and Vye attacked Grimsor together.

  ---

  Grimsor took the first swing. His blade cut through the air, forcing Duncan and Landora to dive from their horses, lest they lose their heads. Nuria slipped to the side, hanging onto the saddle like a sidecar to her horse. As soon as the blade had passed, she hopped back in her seat and steered the horse away.

  Duncan tumbled through the sand. Landora rolled next to him, wrapping her arms around him and pulling him away, just as Grimsor’s sword plunged into the ground. Everything was moving so fast that Duncan couldn’t process it. He was not used to fighting, and this fight was at the highest level of skill.

  Nuria and the Twins spun around Grimsor, blasting him with jolts and bolts of magical energy. But Grimsor wasn’t even distracted by them. He shrugged off the attacks, concentrating on Duncan and Landora, who he rightly perceived to be the main threats.

  Duncan hopped to his feet and held the Saintskeep up in front of him. Grimsor’s falchion hammered down on him, but Duncan held his ground. Grimsor battered again, but Duncan just held both hands on the blade, trying not to lose his grip.

  “Strike back!” Landora shouted. “Don’t just stand there! Hit him!”

  “I can’t!” Duncan shouted back. It was just too much for him to take in. Grimsor’s strikes came faster and faster, and with each one, another day was subtracted from Duncan’s life. He didn’t have the reflexes to deal with this kind of fight.

  “Do you trust me?” Landora shouted.

  “Yes!” Duncan said.

  “Close your eyes!” she returned.

  Duncan didn’t think about it. He did what she said. He shut his eyes, and suddenly he wasn’t alone. In the darkness, he could tell there was someone else with him. Someone familiar.

  “It’s me,” Landora’s voice said in his mind, “I need you to let go completely. I need you to surrender your mind to me.”

  When he opened his eyes, half
a second later, he was just a puppet. He was in the same place, but time seemed to slow. He could judge Grimsor’s movements. His arms moved without his aide. He was doing more than standing and surviving. He was lunging, striking, dodging...

  For a brief moment, he glanced behind him. Landora’s body was on the ground, unconscious. She was in his mind. She was puppeting him. But she was also vulnerable. Grimsor must have figured that out, for he leapt into the air, flapped his wings, and dove for her body, ready to crush it.

  The Twins stepped in, grabbing a hold of Landora’s body and sliding it along the earth, out of the reach of Grimsor’s strike. Duncan charged at the monster, Saintskeep sweeping down on the Demon. But Grimsor turned just in time to parry the assault.

  The fight had reached parity. They stood, toe-to-toe, exchanging blows. Neither could get the upper hand. But Duncan could feel in his body as Landora’s mind faltered. She was fatiguing fast from this mental exercise...

  ---

  Vye and Frost were in a similar situation, battling with Grimsor’s mind. Even in the Land of the Dead, trapped as he was, Grimsor was a formidable opponent. Eventually, he landed a blow across Frost’s chest.

  “Foul Spawn of the Nine Hells!” Frost shouted. “What have you done?”

  “I have removed you,” Grimsor shouted. “The wounds I deliver, even here, cannot be healed. There is no recourse for you.”

  Indeed, Frost’s chest was bleeding heavily. Even in this dreamlike state, there was no stopping it.

  “You should have been loyal to me,” Grimsor said as he fought with Vye. Frost collapsed to his knees, and the blood turned to light. And the light spread over his body until he was just a silhouette of glowing energy. And then he was gone. Forever.

  “The same fate will now be yours,” Grimsor said. “You could not defeat me with help, what makes you think you can defeat me alone.”

  “Still not alone,” Vye said, “Flopson!”

  Flopson popped up from behind the cliff. Where had he been? Who knows. How did he get there? None of your business. All we need to know is that he ran between Grimsor’s legs, somersaulted, and kicked his boots up into the demon’s crotch. As Vye had pointed out, there was nothing there to hit, but Flopson’s mischievous giggle was enough to infuriate anyone.

  Grimsor swung at the agile jester, grunting with frustration. He missed, of course, as everyone does when they try to hit Flopson. And in that blink of a distraction, Vye landed a blow in Grimsor’s side...

  ---

  Duncan felt his arms tire as Grimsor landed another strike against the Saintskeep. It wasn’t really his arms tiring. It was Landora’s. But Duncan knew his arms were nothing without her mind. Grimsor’s sword descended on Duncan one more time...

  And with the hit, Duncan felt all the energy dissolve from his body. Landora had run out of juice. Her mind had collapsed out of him, and Duncan felt like a new tidal wave had hit his body alone. He was dizzy, disoriented... He had never been this drunk during his years at the Academy...

  But something else happened at the same time. Grimsor doubled over. As though someone had jabbed a sword in his side. Duncan didn’t know that Vye was fighting him in his mind, but he knew an opening when he saw one.

  He staggered forward, zig-zagging to his target. With each step, he overcompensated to the left or the right as the world spun around him. But he got in close, lifted the Saintskeep, and jabbed it into Grimsor’s heart. His hands crackled along with the sword. A roaring gust of wind blew over the field.

  “Nuria!” Duncan shouted as he dove to the ground, “NOW!!!”

  ---

  Grimsor recoiled in the Land of the Dead as Vye’s sword hit him. And a second later, he recoiled again as Duncan’s sword hit him in the real world.

  “No!” he shouted, “No, I must return to my body!”

  “Not gonna happen,” Flopson said, juggling three balls. Because, you know, why not?

  “Let me through!” Grimsor pleaded as he fell to his hands and knees. He flapped his wings, but even those couldn’t lift him from the ground.

  “Why would we allow you to leave?” Vye asked.

  “I will hunt you!” Grimsor shouted. “I will punish your families and your descendants! I will pursue your bloodlines forever!”

  “You don’t have forever,” Vye needled him. “You don’t even have a minute. And I want you to spend that minute understanding that after today, there will be nothing left of you.”

  ---

  Nuria felt the energy the second the Saintskeep broke Grimsor’s skin. She didn’t even have to reach out for it. It was so evident that there was energy there, she just reached out and grabbed it.

  It was a fully-realized spell. Complex. Powerful. But it was already formed. She didn’t need to learn it. She just needed to cast it. So she dug her mental fingers into the waves of energy and shaped the explosion to her liking. The Twins stood beside her, redirecting any energy she missed the first time around.

  A bolt of lightning struck down on Grimsor, but instead of dissipating in an instant, it stayed. A strand of pure energy crackling down from the heavens. As though the Gods were holding him in an electrical leash. The demon howled in pain. He tried to move, but he couldn’t. He tried to fight back, but the Spell was so vast and commanding, he could do nothing against it. He was fighting against two thousand years of power.

  The base of the lightning bolt widened, much like the smoke doors did when the mages used Shadow Portals. It opened up into a round circle of pure white-blue light. Blinding. Even hours before sunrise, the field was aglow brighter than any summer noon...

  ---

  Vye stood beside Grimsor, who howled in this world as well. Flopson strolled over to the cliffside.

  “Good seeing you again, stinky,” he said to her. “But I think I’m gonna wake up now.”

  “Don’t be a stranger,” Vye said.

  “I can’t be a stranger,” he retorted. “I’m Flopson.”

  And he casually hopped off the cliff. Not to his death, of course, but back to the Dreamscape. And from there, to awaken in his mortal body. It was thousands of miles away, but it was safe and sound. And perhaps, Vye thought, now that the conflict with Grimsor was over, he would live a normal life.

  Or, at least, normal for Flopson.

  “You have defeated me,” Grimsor grumbled, as his body collapsed, “But I have one final victory. When I am destroyed, I will take you with me.”

  “Sorry to rain on your parade,” Vye said, “But I’m not going to let you.”

  “You will have no choice,” Grimsor managed to cackle, even through his intense pain. “Did you think you could just destroy a demon without consequence? When I am undone, there will be a great release of energy, both here and in the living world. And you will be utterly disintegrated by it.”

  “I’ll just leave,” Vye retorted, but now she was unsure.

  “If you do, then I will also leave to the Dreamscape,” Grimsor said. “If you want to be rid of me forever, you have to hold me here with your will. And then you will be gone as well.”

  Vye looked around the Lunapera. Was it true? Was Grimsor trying to trick her? Did he just hope to take her out as he became oblivion himself?

  But she knew it was true. She could feel his essence trying to force its way out of this realm. And she was holding it at bay. Locking him in. If she let up, even for a second, he would be gone.

  “Very well,” Vye said, “Others died to defeat you. I get to die twice and finish the job.”

  ---

  Nuria and the Twins held the forces of the epic spell together, opening the gate wider, forcing Grimsor’s body through it...

  For a moment, the spell faltered. Just for a second. And Nuria could see that one of the Twins had dropped unconscious. He had passed out from over exertion. She and the other Twin redoubled their efforts, holding the spell formation together, but a second later, the other one dropped.

  Nuria was alone on the field. The spell
was almost done, but now she was casting it herself. And she knew she couldn’t do it. Not alone.

  Around her, the armies had all stopped fighting. There was nothing to do but watch the light show. Duncan took advantage of the momentary lapse of battling, and got the remaining knights to carry Landora and the Twins away from Grimsor. They retreated up towards the Castle, nobody bothering to stand in their way.

  Duncan rode one of the lighter horses up to Nuria. He dismounted behind her and put his hands on her shoulders.

  “It’s too powerful!” Nuria shouted over the constant wind. “I can’t do this alone.”

  “You’re not alone,” Duncan said, “I’m right here with you.”

  “You can’t help with the spell.”

  “No, but I believe in you, Nuria. You’re a remarkable young woman. You’ve already done the impossible. There’s nobody I would want on this battlefield right now more than you.”

  “Not even Landora?”

  “Not even her. She would never have thought to bring Vye back by invading her body. She would never have taken over a Statue to fight a mage. If Vye had chosen anyone else to train, anyone with less imagination, we would all be dead right now. It’s you. Only you...”

  Nuria smiled. There was a look in her eyes that spoke of mountains of courage and self-assurance. She believed she could do anything now.

  And so she did. She reached out, captured the full essence of the spell, and finished it. The Portal crackled with energy, opening to its full size. And Grimsor’s body was vacuumed into The Abyss...

  ---

  Vye could feel the energy building up. The residual sensation of the Portal in the waking world was echoing in the Land of the Dead. And she knew Grimsor’s demise, and her own, was imminent.

  “I’ll take it from here,” said Argos, who was suddenly standing behind her.

  “What are you doing here?” Vye asked, startled.

  “As Grimsor weakens,” Argos answered, “I am beginning to remember a time before he was in my life. Ages ago. And I think he led me astray.”

  He marched up to the ailing demon, like an executioner stepping up to the gallows.