Honor Bound Trilogy Box Set

by Jon Kiln

  “I’m more concerned about it controlling me,” Berengar admitted.

  They topped the rise and looked down on the armies battling one another. Flashes of light marked soldiers from both armies shifting positions.

  Berengar reached into the satchel and drew out the half Eye, holding it tightly in his grasp. He tried to concentrate on the reality around him. Some of the men turned around, but most continued with the battle. He was not sure how much he was helping, but there seemed to be fewer disappearances.

  He looked down and wondered to himself, “Can I heal my ankle?”

  He felt the wound vanish and reappear several times in succession. One time the foot vanished and a wooden peg appeared in its place. The foot and boot reappeared and Berengar decided it was best to stop trying.

  Nisero touched Berengar’s shoulder. “Captain, on the ridge.”

  Berengar lifted his eyes and saw another group had topped the rise. Berengar spotted both Caffrey in his triple hoods and Solag, with her one arm and sharp eyes staring down upon them.

  Berengar dismounted and limped forward a few steps.

  He said softly, “Come down and face me.”

  “I think not just yet.” Caffrey’s voice was not much above a whisper, but it echoed in Berengar’s ear. The Captain was not sure if anyone else could hear it.

  “This battle is merely a distraction,” Berengar said. “The final conflict is between you and me. It is over this piece of stone and all the dark things it shows you. It is about what I hold that you want, and that I keep away from you.”

  Caffrey lifted his own half of the Eye which lit the hillside in red and competed with the rising sun. A few eyes rose from the conflict on the battlefield, but the warriors continued to fight.

  “You taunt me,” Caffrey whispered. “You could be a worthy opponent along some paths, but you know you are outmatched facing me. You know this to be true. You feel it in your soul.”

  Nisero stepped forward. He faded until Berengar could see through him and then became solid again.

  “Can you hear them?” Nisero asked. “Or are you having another vision?”

  “I hear him.”

  “What can I do, sir?”

  “Stand back and be ready for whatever is next,” Berengar said. “Because I don’t know what that might be.”

  Nisero stepped away, keeping a close watch on the Captain.

  “This is what you were pulled broken and useless from that barren cliff for,” Berengar heard Caffrey say to someone. “Go take his life as you were always meant to do. Take your first act of vengeance.”

  Berengar was still able to hear them from this distance, even though Caffrey was not whispering to him. He supposed it was a small wonder compared to hearing the voices of the dead that should no longer be able to speak.

  Solag lifted her eyes and Berengar could sense her staring directly at him, though he could not make out her expression.

  He looked toward Nisero to see if the Lieutenant was hearing any of it, but Nisero was nowhere in sight. The Captain could not tell if the Lieutenant was engaged elsewhere or if he had been swept aside by one of the waves of reality.

  Solag’s words came to Berengar’s ear from across the battlefield. “I don’t understand, sir. You want me to cross the field to attack Berengar myself, or lead the charge?”

  “There is no charge, fool,” Caffrey spat. “You will be surrounded by the power I put on you to protect from his ability to shift reality. You will end him in blood. We will take his family as we take the capital. Then, I will have the power of the whole Great Artifact to bring your father and whoever else you wish back to life. Go fulfill your role.”

  Solag dismounted and walked along the slope toward Berengar’s position. Swords from the east and south clashed against the weapons of the army of King Ramael. This was much, much deeper into their territory than any battle previously fought in this war. Berengar was intently aware that failing here probably meant the fall of the kingdom.

  If Caffrey obtained the entire Eye under his control, it would mean the end of the world and the beginning of endless darkness.

  Caffrey lifted his half Eye and a bubble of pink energy surrounded Solag.

  Warriors approached her on both sides with blades drawn. They made to swing and pulses of light lashed out at them and through their bodies. Berengar saw one reappear at a distance along the battle lines in a flash of light. The warrior seemed dazzled and confused. The others vanished and Berengar did not spy where they reappeared, if at all.

  Another man charged her with his spear leveled, even having seen the fate of the others. Solag made no motion to defend as she approached Berengar, surrounded by her bubble of energy. The spear tip touched the outer edge of the bubble and the warrior with his weapon was consumed and disappeared from the scene.

  Berengar lifted his own section of the Artifact and felt it hum in his grasp. He tried to imagine her forced sideways, in the same manner that the King’s men that attempted to attack her were doing under Caffrey’s power. He saw her bubble waver and the power traveled through his body and mind, but she was unmoved.

  He tried again, but then felt himself pulled forward. Berengar lifted off his feet and soared toward her. He heard Caffrey’s laugh echo all around him.

  He stood in the midst of Solag’s energy bubble in the center of the battlefield. She seemed as surprised as Berengar felt.

  She drew her broadsword with her one hand. Berengar tucked the half section of the Eye under his arm, afraid to release it with Caffrey watching from the ridge above. Berengar drew his sword in his right hand.

  For all the power of the Eye, having to hold onto it had reduced him to being evenly matched with a one-armed warrior.

  So, he faced Solag again.

  Chapter 17: All Paths Darkness

  Solag bent her knees and swung overhead. Berengar stepped in and swiped at her open side with his blade. She sliced down and Berengar realized she had faked the overhead strike. He dodged backward away from her cut with no contact between them as far as he was able to retreat, but the edge of the bubble had him contained.

  Berengar regained his footing with his ankle throbbing and realized that Solag and Caffrey appeared to have him trapped. He tried to imagine himself free of its power. The bubble wavered and thinned, but did not break.

  Solag swung again and Berengar brought his sword up in time to parry. The metal edges had barely touched when a burst of white light enveloped them both.

  As the world melted back in around them, they both staggered trying to regain their footing with the ground sloped at a different angle. They were outside the bubble and standing in cold wind howling off the side of the mountain.

  The sky was a massive Eye shifting focus and color as tendrils of energy peeled off of it, blasting the edges of the world.

  Berengar holding the half Eye and Solag standing before him, both stood frozen in a film of sparking blue and white energy with their swords still touching in the air between them at their angled edges. They could not move now.

  Extending out along the slope of the mountain overlooking the ruins of Faithcore castle, pairings of Berengars and Solags engaged in bloody battle. Most were injured in various ways. Many of the Solags still had both arms as in their first battle.

  Berengar looked at the castle. It flashed to new stone overlooking a healthy lake and a spread of live forest. It flashed back to ruins just as quickly. The collapsed wall which led to Berengar’s and Solag’s battle up the mountain popped back and forth from whole to broken. The bandit army flashed in and out existence as did the Elite Guard formed by men that were all supposed to be dead.

  Berengar turned his attention back to the replays of the battles on both sides of him. On his left, Solag got a lucky slice across Berengar’s throat and the Captain watched himself fall in death at Solag’s feet. The next Berengar over continued the fight, but a group of bandits came up behind him and cut him down. To the right, Berengar watched himsel
f get the best of Solag and run her through. Half the Solags retreated up the mountain as she had done before. As they reached the top, none of them surrendered.

  “This is where it should have been settled before in one way or the other,” the Solag in front of him said.

  “I thought it had been,” Berengar responded.

  “You should pay for the things you have done.”

  “We have all paid. The debt is never fulfilled. We fight and bleed and die and it never ends.”

  “Your path to victory has closed.”

  Her voice echoed and the mountain shattered under them.

  They found themselves suspended above diverging paths over thousands of fields where Berengar and Solag battled below as Caffrey laughed, shrouded in darkness. Berengar fell in death as often as Solag did. When he died, the half of the Artifact he held vanished into the darkness around Caffrey.

  Then, Solag fell in death over and over again. Sometimes it happened on the field. Sometimes it was in the invasion of the capital. Sometimes it was over the city walls with Ramael and the other enemies of Caffrey.

  “Lies.” Solag’s voice echoed out thousands of times over. “You are making this up to trick me.”

  “I do not know how to use the power of the Eye to lie any more than you do,” Berengar returned.

  Thousands of Solag voices below them asked over and over. “You promised to bring back my father. When will that happen?”

  Sometimes Caffrey answered first. Sometimes he just laughed. But every time he killed her. The responses and laughter overlapped each other in unintelligible noise, but she was killed every time along every path. Berengar could not see one where she lived.

  “He lied,” she whispered.

  “Always,” Berengar agreed.

  Her hand peeled open off the sword and a blast of energy surrounded them.

  Berengar realized they were standing on the battlefield again outside the bubble. Their swords twirled away in the air.

  “What is happening?” Caffrey shouted from above.

  Solag reached for a knife on her belt. Berengar was not sure what she intended.

  Colored tendrils of light blasted out from the half Artifact under Captain Berengar’s arm. Solag lifted in the air and soared away backward.

  Berengar tried to watch where she went, but the Artifact was trying to pull loose from his grasp. He held on with both hands. The energy pulled him along the grass toward the slope. He looked up and saw Caffrey being pulled down the slope holding onto his half of the Artifact. The energy between was drawing them together.

  Chapter 18: The Universe on a Tiny Blade

  The energy rippled out between the two halves, drawing Caffrey and Berengar together from across the field. Berengar felt the piece trying to pull free of his hands, but tightened his grip despite the vibration and heat. The last thing he wanted was for Caffrey to have the entire Eye for himself.

  Berengar tried to focus the energy and power of the half Artifact to move Caffrey to the side, but could not. He tried to shift himself as he had inadvertently done before with Solag. The Eye would not respond. The full energy of the Artifact seemed to be focused on the draw between the halves in the form of the colored lightning.

  The colors of the jeweled portions in the Eye halves were shifting faster than Berengar could register. The colors they had held in their quartered states back when they seemed solidly grounded within the real world were forgotten as power pulsed around them and ripped away the fabric of the world.

  Caffrey’s voice echoed across the closing expanse. Unlike the layered tones that Berengar heard in the range of his voices from across the multiple paths of reality, all of Lord Caffrey’s voices from every path seemed to shout with combined evil and hatred. There was no path left to him that was not consumed in darkness and destruction. Caffrey growled a thousand times. “You will suffer along with everyone you love and everyone that ever made the mistake of believing in you.”

  “I will stop you,” Berengar’s voice echoed around him. To his right he heard anger and sinister undertones. To his left, he heard noble intentions and triumph. Berengar still could not move himself out of the center between. “I will destroy myself to destroy you, if needed. You are unwilling to make any sacrifice. That is your weakness.”

  “You are a fool.” Caffrey’s dark chorus sang out at Berengar in rage. They were close enough that Berengar could stare into Lord Caffrey’s eyes and see his bared teeth. The last few feet of air between them wavered with the pulsing energy like heat off the wastes, creating mirages. Berengar tried to dig in his heels, but the pull of the closing Artifact dragged him along, digging furrows through the grass into the dirt. It was the last touch of reality around them. The pain in his ankle felt very real.

  The dark clouds lined with overly bright energy blocked out the rest of the people and the world around them. Berengar could still sense Solag close by. He could feel the paths that led to her death over and over again. Berengar feared that she might still be near enough in the preternatural fog to reach out with her blade to find his kidneys. If what they had seen through the half Eye was true, then she had nothing left to lose. Berengar was afraid to look aside with Caffrey so close and the power of the whole Artifact on the line.

  “I will happily let you sacrifice yourself,” Caffrey’s voices declared all around them. Berengar felt he could reach out and grab the villain’s triple cloaks, if he dared to let go of the Artifact to do so. He did not dare. “That is all you have ever wanted, is it not? You want to fall in death on the battlefield finally like all your friends and underlings before you. Like all the men you have taken to the grave among your allies, enemies, and family, so you too wish to go. Victory is almost secondary to you now. I can see it, Captain. I can see in you and through you and I know. You are tired and all you desire is rest. Let go and rest.

  “With the unified Artifact, I can erase you and every murder you committed or that was committed because of you. I’ll erase you and Solag and Zulag and Marlex and even Ramael who you must now realize is no man worthy of any crown. There would be no path where upon you slayed the man, if there was no reason for you to do so. Even you must see that. All the suffering ever delivered by your hands will be corrected. Look through the Eye one last time to see what I tell you and what I offer you is the truth. I will erase them all for you and in honor of your final, ultimate sacrifice. I allowed this moment to occur because I always knew that it would come to this. This is both our destinies, Captain. You know it to be true, so finally… let go.”

  The smooth cleave between halves was less than a hand span wide. The energy roaring and crackling between was nearly a solid thing and felt like the weight and heat of the sun. Berengar could no longer feel his hands and fingers to know whether he still held the Artifact at all. He only saw his hands still upon it and the final separation paused. He was not sure if that sight was real or some possible path the Eye forced him to see.

  He did want to let go. He did want to cease to exist just to be free of the swirling unreality between worlds. He could not let Caffrey triumph, but he did not know how to prevent it.

  After all the irresistible pull that drew the two of them together, the final distance would not close as if the Great Artifact was now repelled instead of attracted. Berengar wondered if the thing could not close with two men set upon it. Caffrey was after all trying to convince Berengar to let go instead of forcing him to do so in some way. Maybe Lord Caffrey required Berengar to let go now for his dark plans to be complete. One of them would have to relent eventually from exhaustion unless they were somehow trapped apart from time and the touch of age. Maybe they could be here between worlds forever, with the rest of the universe waiting upon two stubborn men to wait one another out.

  Berengar smiled and he stared through the wavering air at Lord Caffrey. He saw the man’s expression falter. Perhaps this was the answer. If Berengar wanted to sacrifice himself to stop Caffrey, all he had to do was hold on, keeping
the villain trapped between worlds where he could never touch another life again. This was the sacrifice Caffrey was unwilling to make. Berengar held on to keep the world safe from Caffrey’s evil. Caffrey held on out of greed for ultimate power. Berengar won as long as Caffrey did not win. For all he knew, they had already been here holding the Artifact apart for untold millennia with the world safely frozen outside this disconnected struggle.

  “Let go.” Caffrey’s chorus broke. Half the voices raged while the others sounded desperate and afraid.

  Berengar’s voices replied calmly. “You destroy everything you touch, Caffrey. I will see that you never touch anything again, even if we have to stay here together forever.”

  “You will break, Captain. You will.”

  “We have all the time in the universe to see, don’t we, Caffrey?”

  “I should have killed you sooner. Now I see that. You will make a mistake. You always do, Captain.”

  “We all have our blind spots,” Berengar said.

  The clouds erupted to Berengar’s left. The figure emerged into their supernatural clearing enveloped in white hot energy. The charred clothing folded away from the body in flaked ash. The flesh underneath split to the raw muscle from the tendrils of energy cooking the body. The figure forced itself through into the pocket of unreality with Berengar and Caffrey. Captain Berengar saw the one arm holding the short blade with white energy lacing off the metal like lightning. He saw the wild eyes fixed upon them.

  Berengar braced himself to feel the metal connect with his kidneys and drive him back painfully into the real world. He would lose his grip, he thought, and let go the way Caffrey had always intended. This was the blind spot that Berengar had mentioned. He would suffer just as Caffrey said he would.

  Solag drove her blade in under Caffrey’s ribs and he screamed with a thousand voices. The energy destroying Solag wrapped around Caffrey. His own flesh split and hot steam and smoke rose off of him.

  “Why? How?” he roared.