Death

by Rosie Scott

  The life guard finally dissipated when Varian landed in a heap. The god of alteration stood, favoring one arm. He watched Rek approach, summoning paralyze again. But this time it was weak and nearly colorless. Though Varian still had his absorb magic shield, I'd thrown no spells his way in a while. He was out of reserves.

  Varian realized this, so he ran. A few of Hades's corpses hobbled along behind, but they weren't nearly as fast as the living. As Rek pursued the other god, he passed by the corpses as a green blur, roughly grabbing the closest one as it gurgled in confusion. Holding the feisty corpse in one hand, Rek launched it forward.

  The corpse sounded as baffled as I felt watching the scene as it tumbled through the air at Varian's retreating back. Even in mid-air, it sensed a foe and reached out for the god as it crashed into him. Varian sprawled over the ground face-first, a zombie holding onto his arm with gusto. The god paralyzed the corpse despite the spell's weakness. Rek caught up with them, nonetheless. Varian scrambled to stand again to flee, but Rek thrust the head of his ax toward his right kneecap, breaking the leg backwards. Varian screamed in agony and fell back, his head hitting the ground so hard it dazed him. Rek stood over his torso, ripping his ax from the skies and straight into the center of Varian's face.

  Pop!

  Varian's head exploded like a grape from the location of his nasal bone. Chunks of skull and glistening giblets fanned out from the area, splattering over nearby corpses with a sound reminiscent of sudden torrential rainfall. Rek stood over the corpse while tugging out Terran's metal blades, unleashing torrents of his own blood. He lifted his ax again, bringing it down in the center of Varian's chest. With one jerk, the blade tore through to the groin, and the opened body cavity offered its selection of organs. Rek dropped his weapon and squatted down over the body to feed and regenerate.

  Terran's face fell with panic and horror as he watched Rek consume Varian. My ally destroyed his greatest secret weapon, and now I was closing in. His retreating men were just now catching up to him as they ran around the breaks in the earth, and they slowed as they saw their leader prepare to face me.

  “Go!” Terran screamed back at his men. “Reunite with the others in the west! Retreat north to Sera. Defend it as best as you can. We are defeated here.” Some of his men followed the order while others refused to leave their prince. As Terran heard them coming toward him, he yelled, “Go, I said! Kai will use your energy against me!”

  The soldiers retreated west, finally convinced. Terran watched my approach and yelled over the chasm, “Retreat west, Raphael! Do not fight the dead; they will never stop coming! If I die today, I leave my children in your care.”

  Raphael panicked, still fighting off Hades's surrounding corpses. “Don't dare speak of death, Terran! You must survive this! I won't leave you!”

  Terran appeared frustrated by Raphael's persistent loyalty, but he focused his attention on me. We were alone on this segment of broken earth. Two super-powered shields protected my brother, but the gods who gave them to him were out of the way. My protections weren't nearly as strong as his. I had a powerful high, but I had no methods of regenerating and Terran could use any energy I threw at him against me. We were as equal on the battlefield as we would ever get.

  Terran summoned no magic as I neared. Perhaps he was low on reserves again. A conflicted expression took over his face as he said, “Let's finish this, sister.”

  I released two death bombs. The black magic hissed as it fanned over Terran's guard and absorbed. My brother threw out a surreptitiously prepared invisible spell, proving he had something summoned after all. I tumbled forward to the ground when it rapidly indented below me.

  Shing! Shing! Shing! Terran screamed with effort, tearing his sword through the air to relentlessly attack my life shield, quickly weakening it with his furor. I regenerated the shield and rolled over onto my back, reaching to the skies.

  BOOM!

  A lightning bolt cracked out of the heavens, funneling pure electricity into Terran's shield and rendering him temporarily blind. I tumbled back from the spell and squinted my eyes against its blinding light. Only when the bolt retracted into the sky did I open my eyes and stand. Terran was frazzled and disoriented, but his hair once again floated on static. I refreshed my alteration shield to prepare for incoming magic.

  Thunk!

  I flew vertically up into the air, at the mercy of a stone wall Terran rose directly under me. The power of its emergence alone forced my shield to flicker, and when I violently hit the ground with a thud, it disappeared.

  My brother stalked over the grasses toward me, a sword in one hand and sand swirling in the other. I summoned two spells, but my disorientation from the fall ensured Terran was quicker.

  Psst!

  Terran threw the sand in my face, and I blurted a pained curse. Granules grated against the moist flesh of my eyes and collected in clumps over my tongue. Rendered temporarily blind, I could only rely on my other senses. I heard Terran grunt as he lifted his sword, so I regenerated my protections.

  Shing! Shing! Shing!

  Terran hacked at my new shield with a frenzy. I continuously regenerated its power with my left hand as I summoned water in my right, frantically clearing my eyes of grit. Each time I tried opening them, they squinted shut protectively against sand I'd missed. After more cleaning, I dispelled the water and tried clearing the rest out of my tear ducts with my fingertips. Some granules remained, but I could no longer take the time to get them all.

  I thrust a spell at Terran's boots, using his own strategy against him. The earth abruptly indented and my brother fell back. I scrambled to stand and backed away rapidly, throwing magma at him as he tried to recover. The dense hot orange liquid sizzled as his shield absorbed it, but the weight kept Terran down for now. I threw more death bombs at him as he struggled to get up, desperate to get through his alteration shield once and for all.

  By the time Terran stood, his guards persisted, but the environmental energy within them was so virulent that his hair lit up in static flashes. I doubled my efforts into building new protections, expecting his fury.

  The crackling of stone and shrill ringing of metal preceded a barrage of earthen projectiles that beat on both my shields with a vengeance. I refreshed my protections over and over as the onslaught continually overpowered them, waiting for the right moment to turn this back around to my favor. My high was no longer painful, which was a brutal reminder that my reserves were running out. So much of my energy was funneling into building shields, for earth magic was the hardest element to defend against.

  The barrage didn't stop coming, so I took a chance and summoned water between refreshing my protections. The wave roared toward Terran, crashing against his shields with a splash. They absorbed much of it, but the spell's power forced him back, and he dispelled his magic. Terran didn't yet fall, but I stopped the torrent of water anyway. For my brother's barrage had been too powerful, and choosing to attack instead of regenerating my defenses was a grave mistake.

  Blood shot out of my underarm like projectile vomit from a severed axillary artery. The metal blade that caused the injury glistened red beside my boot. Lightheadedness plagued me as I realized the serious nature of the wound. I could heal it like any other, but I needed energy to do it. If I instead used that energy to kill my brother, I would be dead within minutes.

  Terran shambled forward after regaining his balance. The water from my spell slowly spread and absorbed into the ground. His eyes found the spurts of blood escaping my wound. Though my brother wasn't a healer, he understood I was on the edge of death.

  Terran screamed and ran forward, unsheathing his sword again as he neared. I refreshed my life shield because I had no choice, using precious energy I needed for healing. I couldn't collect energy from Terran while he had a guard, and Hades was far from me fighting Raphael. For the first time, I sought to regenerate using a spell I'd only heard someone use once years ago in Eteri.

  Famiin. I threw the death
magic down to the ground. The sickly green and black energy rapidly expanded over long grasses, crawling across the blades to their roots and stealing power. The grasses wilted and released excess energy like spewing gasses just as Terran sliced his sword into my shield.

  I scurried back from the intense hit, falling to the ground at the mercy of imbalance from my injured arm. The released energy from the plant-life raced toward me, slipping around Terran as if it could sense his presence. When it imploded in my chest, it wasn't even enough to get a high. Famiin was helpful in a pinch, but it was no replacement for enervat.

  Terran quickly caught up to me, bringing his weapon down with a vengeance. I rolled to the side, watching the blade's tip tear through grasses to the mud beneath. I reached out desperately, turning steel to sand.

  My brother cursed as his blade crumpled into dust. He started to build earthen projectiles in his hands, but they faltered until he dispelled them. Terran needed energy. Since I kept my reserves to heal, he couldn't regenerate.

  Terran turned and stalked over the battlefield, searching for weapons. He grabbed a sword from one patch of grass and an ax from another. In the meantime, I dispelled my shields and went invisible, crawling back while trying to keep my wound from bleeding out at a noticeable rate over already red grasses. I was light-headed with blood loss.

  My brother turned back, though he stilled with confusion when I was gone. “Not now,” he breathed, anger and desperation growing in his eyes as he searched. “Not now! Sister!” Terran ran back over to where I'd been and searched more. I stayed still mere yards away, breathing as quietly as possible and putting as much pressure on my arm as I could.

  “Where are you?” Terran screamed, thrusting his looted sword into the ground where I'd been. When it hit nothing, he stabbed the dirt beside it, then the dirt beside that. “Where the fuck are you? Why won't you die?!”

  My nostrils flared as I watched the scene, waiting to heal my injury because the bright life magic would be noticed. It absolutely tore at me to be the one to retreat, but I was severely wounded and only fueling my brother. Terran still had the alteration shield. Even though Varian was dead, his power had been immense.

  “Terran! Terran!” Raphael's terrified voice echoed from the north. Terran spun, and as he was distracted, I began healing my wound. Raphael's shields had finally been overwhelmed, and Hades directed his one remaining vampire to carry the god over the crevasse between them. The creature carelessly dropped Raphael at its master's feet. Hades grabbed Raphael's head with both hands, holding him still.

  “Don't you dare!” Terran shouted, rushing back to the north even though he was far from his one remaining ally. “Leave him be! Take me!”

  “Don't let the other god eat me. Please don't let him eat me,” Raphael pleaded to Hades, eyeing Rek from across the chasm.

  “Give me what I want and I may spare you,” Hades murmured, ignoring my brother's cries. The offer was uncharacteristic of him so I assumed it was a lie.

  Raphael shook with fear in Hades's hands. “What do you want?”

  “The shield spell. The one that rejects magic and melee.”

  Raphael's golden eyes flicked between Rek and Terran. “What use does the god of the dead have for life magic?”

  “Rek,” Hades began, applying pressure on Raphael's temples with his hands as he yelped with pain, “are you hungry?”

  “I always in the mood for eating enemies,” Rek replied, blood dripping from both axes.

  “Okay! Okay!” Raphael put his hands up in surrender under Hades's grasp. “Sheel a ula offinse. That's it. That's the—”

  Raphael slumped with death, black life force escaping through his temples directly into Hades's hands. Terran's horrified screams tore through the air. I didn't know how close the two had been, but they'd refused to abandon each other and Terran trusted Raphael with his children. I imagined Raphael's death was a horrific loss for my brother.

  Terran glanced to the south once more, teary eyes double-checking for signs of me. When he found nothing, he broke into a run to the northwest, where his larger western force retreated. My brother disappeared into the blackness as my heart tore with my failure.

  “Where is life?” Hades murmured. His last vampire turned its hollow glare to me, but I dispelled my invisibility so the god could see me himself. Hades noted my injured state and pointed northwest to direct his minion. “Follow him.”

  The vampire spread its wings and ascended into the air, flying in the same direction Terran fled. Hades stalked toward me next and mused, “Protection-based gods are the worst to fight. So much time, work, and annoyance for such little gain.”

  “I need energy,” I pleaded. I felt faint, and though my wound was mostly closed, it still bled.

  “Take it,” Hades replied as he neared.

  I directed enervat to him and sighed with relief when an abundance of energy refreshed me. Newly alert, I focused on finishing healing.

  “Did you hear the spell you wanted?” Hades questioned, watching me work.

  “I did. Thank you for remembering to get it.”

  “Ah. So it was a new one. I wouldn't have put it past him to give me a spell you already knew.” Hades looked off to the north. In the distance, the screech of a vampire pierced the air before it degraded into sizzling gurgles. “Your brother is intelligent, half-breed. Out of that entire fight, he was the only foe of the eastern army who made it out alive. Two gods are dead, yet a simple mortal lives.”

  An ache rolled through my gut. “Don't remind me.”

  Wheezy gusts of air echoed out as Hades chuckled. “He has no tricks left to pull. You will kill him in Sera, and it will feel ever more glorious after such a wait.”

  “Is that why it sometimes takes you centuries to kill someone you follow?”

  Hades smirked and flipped his hood up over his head. “Either that, or I am just no good at tracking.”

  Forty

  “Brother.” I dropped a heavy history book on the surface before me, and its musty pages expelled puffs of dust. Terran glanced up from a set of documents across the table from me, one eyebrow raised in a humored expression that indicated he knew I was in a philosophical spirit. He kept his long hair back from his face in a lazy ponytail, showcasing his sharp jawline and elongated neck. Terran's green eyes were glassy with a hangover, and a suspicious bruise marred the skin below his ear.

  “Sister,” Terran replied teasingly, his voice rough and fatigued.

  I plopped down on the bench opposite him and flipped through pages of my book. “You were partying again?”

  “Yes,” Terran mumbled, knowing better than to lie.

  “Why? You don't seem to like it. You always end up bruised and beaten.”

  Terran laughed shortly and rubbed at his neck. “Some bruises aren't made out of anger.”

  “That's not all I was talking about.” I circled a finger in the air to encompass all of him. “You look miserable.”

  “I feel miserable.” Terran's nostrils flared as he blew through them. “I don't ask you about all the times you exude of drink, sister. I have never said a word to father.”

  “Nor have I,” I replied. “I'm just asking what ails you.”

  “Father,” Terran replied matter-of-factly.

  A sour feeling settled in my chest. “At least he treats you well.”

  “Does he? I hadn't noticed.” Terran blurted before exhaling thickly. “Apologies, sister. Father is harsh with you, but I envy your ability to get up and leave when you wish. Spending time with him and learning my responsibilities is overwhelming.”

  “At least he trusts you with them,” I replied.

  Terran huffed and looked down at his hands on the table. “If I could switch places with you, I would. You have a mind for this sort of thing.”

  “As do you.”

  My brother shrugged. “I learn quickly and do my work well, but it isn't what I want. I was born into a role to fulfill, Kai. A role I don't want and am not ready
for.”

  “When you become regent, I will help you,” I offered.

  Terran chuckled. “You aren't trained for any of this, sister. You would take one look at what I'm expected to do and balk.”

  “I know enough.”

  “From your books,” Terran teased.

  “You'd be amazed at the things you can learn from books, brother. Try reading one.”

  Terran chuckled at my jab. “What's that one about?”

  “Valerian the Undying.”

  Terran groaned and rolled his eyes. “Here we go again, sister. I will never understand your obsession with the forbidden and macabre.”

  “Why is necromancy banned?”

  Terran sighed and stared at me. After a moment, he said, “You know why.”

  “It is dark and scary and gross,” I rambled with mockery. “But it is also useful. You should read about Valerian, brother. The strategy he used to fend off navies and navies of men—”

  “Our men, Kai!” Terran exclaimed, silencing me. “Those were Chairel's navies sent to kill him, and he murdered them all! Scores of people died, and for what? One man's immortality?”

  “They bested Valerian. He was not immortal,” I argued.

  “Oh, please,” Terran breathed. “Valerian was human and he was hundreds of years old. If that's not immortality, I don't know what is. What is your point in all this, sister?”

  “My point is that we can learn from the strategies of our enemies. Valerian was killed, but only after we sent masses of men to him like a slaughter. Using different strategies, the victory may not have come with such loss.”

  “Like what?” Terran asked. “What strategies can we learn?”