by J C Maynard
Aunika sobbed and pleaded. “No! We can’t leave her!”
“You have to go! Now!” said Madrick as a violet fireball exploded near them. He reached forward to Calleneck’s shoulder. “Forgive me for what I did . . .” Madrick’s face showed sorrow like Calleneck had never seen, “you, your parents, everything . . . forgive me . . .”
Calleneck looked Madrick with watery eyes and nodded.
“Now go!” said Madrick.
Borius hesitated and then turned to the Bernoils. “Come!”
Ducking under a jet of silver light from Madrick, the Bernoils had no choice but to run after Borius, who sent yellow fireballs at five soldiers ahead of them. Calleneck turned back to see his little sister one last time as Aunika yanked his arm forward, “We have to go, Cal!”
They sobbed for their sister as they left her body behind. Both crying, Calleneck and Aunika each made shields of Taurimous to block themselves from the explosions. Borius sent wave after wave of yellow light ahead of them to pave a way for the Bernoils to escape. Running past the corpses of their friends, they turned into a hallway. Aunika wiped the tears from her face as they turned another corner, trying to get as far away from the Nexus as possible.
Pushing as fast as they could, they rounded another corner as an enormous wave of silver light-filled the Network tunnel, followed by a deafening explosion — Madrick’s spell. Borius yelled, “Run!” as the walls of the tunnels began to shake and crack. The noise continued as rock began to fall from the roof. And with a thundercrack from the Great Mother herself, the Nexus caved in, buildings and caverns crumbled under the weight, sending up a massive gust of air and debris.
Fragments of stone flew past them, hitting their back as they dove to the floor. The raging wind screaming past them blew out the torches of the tunnel, plunging their world into blackness. The earth shook below them and around them as the great goblin halls and underground towers came crashing in. A landslide of rocks filled the tunnels. For what seemed like minutes, the Nexus, the great goblin city, crumbled and roared until the last few pebbles tumbled down next to their feet. Then silence.
A small yellow light sprang up, lighting the rubble-filled tunnel. Borius groaned as he stood up, with bleeding legs cut by rock shards.
Calleneck slowly picked himself up, knocking off the smaller rocks that covered his legs and back. He looked around for Aunika, but saw no one, until a green light moved rocks out of the pile of rubble and Aunika gasped for air.
Calleneck rushed forward to help her stand up. “Are you alright?”
With tears in her eyes she nodded. The two looked to Borius. “Where do we go?”
Borius looked around, trying to breathe. The Nexus had collapsed, but the surrounding tunnels were still holding up for the time being. All of the other Evertauri — with the possible exception of Raelynn — were most likely gone, buried under stone and dirt. Calleneck and Aunika began to let it sink in as well. Their sister was gone. Madrick was gone. Everything was gone.
Borius swallowed, wiping tears from his eyes. “We need to get out of the city.” he said to the Aunika and Calleneck. “Xandria will no doubt be sending her troops down here to look for survivors.”
“Where will we go?”
Borius shook his head. “I don’t know . . . our best hope would be the mountain forest above Seirnkov. From there we’d be safe, but we could still look down on the city.” Borius looked down the tunnel. “Calleneck, lead the way. You know these tunnels the best.”
Calleneck nodded and mentally planned a route that could take them to the forest as long as the tunnels weren’t too badly damaged in that direction. “We’ll go right, southeast toward the mountains.”
Borius and Aunika followed Calleneck around the twists and turns of the tunnels, stepping over burned or bloody corpses as they went. Soon after, they reached another mountain of rubble on the edge of a cavern, and Calleneck stopped dead in his tracks. There in the rubble of fallen rock, trying in vain to get out from underneath a fallen stone building, was Gallien.
Gallien’s face was covered in blood and sweat, trying to pry the giant stone boulder off of himself. His arms seemed completely weakend, with no power left to lift the rocks off. Gallien cursed and hit the rock and as he tried to wrench himself free, but couldn’t.
Calleneck stepped closer, as Gallien clenched his teeth and yelled in pain, blood from his gashes and burns dripping into his mouth.
From behind Calleneck, Borius stepped in front with a swirling ball of yellow fire, his face filled with rage. Aiming at Gallien, Borius froze when Calleneck yelled, “Stop!”
Borius looked back at Calleneck and Aunika. “He’s a Phantom.”
Calleneck nodded. “Leave him.”
Borius’s fireball in his hands grew larger. “They killed our men!”
“-and we killed theirs!” yelled Calleneck. “. . . let him be.” Calleneck couldn’t bring himself to help Gallien, knowing that he had killed Tayben, knowing that his own sister lay dead underneath rubble, but he couldn’t watch his best friend die, even if Gallien never knew Calleneck. “. . . He can’t harm us.”
Borius thought of the Bernoil’s little sister and how much death they had already seen. He cursed and threw his fireball down at the ground in anger. “Then let’s go! Leave him here to die for all I care!” He turned and followed Calleneck and Aunika away from Gallien, taking the light with them. They knew that Raelynn was somewhere out there with the stone, and they only hoped she would survive the night. Borius stepped over a glowing rose petal as Calleneck lead them into the mountains above Seirnkov, leaving behind hundreds of bodies of friends and family buried in the Nexus beneath the city.
The Silence Before the Storm
Chapter Forty Five
~Hours Before Sunrise, February 26th
After narrowly making her way through Seirnkov with the stone in her pocket, Raelynn had stolen a horse and sprinted with it to the Ferramish troops, who were attacking the small town of Blackpine three miles from the mouth of the valley of Seirnkov. The Ferramish troops pressed into the town, battling against a regiment of Cerebrian soldiers there, hoping to take the city by morning to use as a base for their attack on Seirnkov.
Raelynn ducked behind a burning carraige as another volley of both Cerebrian and Ferramish arrows soared over her head. She looked back at her black horse lying dead with two arrows through its side. She checked to make sure the glowing stone was still in her jacket pocket. All around her, the Ferramish and Cerebrian troops were fighting, slashing swords and jabbing spears. Another volley of arrows whistled through the snowy air as Raelynn ducked. The Ferramish war horns sounded. I’m close. She figured that Prince Fillian would be near the horns, a heavily guarded part of the army. She darted into a side alley between two narrow shops and listened to the horns blare once more. They’ve got to be just a few blocks away.
Raelynn jumped out into the snow-covered street, running past the burning cart. She heard a Ferramish officer yell, “Get down!” and she ducked as a shop on the side of the street exploded. Glass flew at her and cut the skin on her right side. A plume of smoke from the explosion went up into the snowy sky as ten Ferramish cavalry charged up the street into Cerebrian pikemen. Citizens screamed from within their houses, unable to escape through the streets out of the city.
Raelynn dashed ahead and down another sidestreet, jumping over a dead Ferr. Turning the corner into more fighting, Raelynn knocked aside Cerebrian swordsman with the hilt of her dagger. Up ahead, she could see a wall of scarlet Ferramish shields forming a blockade.
Raelynn sprinted toward the blockade with her hands up. Someone shouted, “Fire!,” and suddenly, a volley of twenty arrows wizzed toward Raelynn from the Ferrs. Instinctively, she ducked behind a handcart as the arrows lodged into the wood. Realizing the Ferrs thought she was with the enemy, Raelynn shouted, “Fillian!”
The wall of shields and spears marched toward her as another volley of arrows came flying toward her and smacke
d into the wooden cart. Raelynn screamed again, “Fillian! It’s Raelynn!”
Just before the Ferramish archers loosed another set of arrows, Fillian shouted, “Hold fire! Hold fire! Let her through!”
The wall of red shields parted down the middle, forming an aisle. Raelynn quickly ran through it to the other side, surrounded by Ferramish troops. An explosion went off a block away, sending a fireball into the sky.
Prince Fillian, in full body armor minus a helmet ran up to her. “Raelynn!” he said. “I thought- well I don’t know what I thought . . . After Riccolo and the court trial and Eston and . . . you and Kyan were just gone.”
Raelynn frantically nodded. “We came back here, but I can tell you about that later. Right now,” Raelynn reached inside her pocket and pulled out the glowing stone, “there is something more important, but it has to be private.”
Fillian nodded. “Come quickly to my tent.”
Raelynn followed him through flanks of troops and wagons to the Royal tent, and the two of them slipped inside.
“What is it you wished to say?” asked Fillian.
Raelynn pulled out the glowing stone from her pocket.
Fillian looked at the stone with a mixture of curiosity and fear, staring into its starry light. “What is that?”
“It’s a stone of massive power.” said Raelynn. “Xandria wanted to us it against you and the Evertauri but Kyan stole it back. However, the Phantoms have infiltrated the Evertauri and were battling them under Seirnkov when I fled with the stone. My father wanted me to bring it to you. He said that you and your army could protect it.”
Fillian nodded. “We surely can do that.”
Raelynn breathed out deeply and handed him the stone.
For a moment, Fillian marveled at it until a general burst into the tent. “My Liege, we’re taking down Cerebrian troops, but we’re losing a lot of our own. I don’t know if we’ll have enough men left to take Seirnkov.”
Fillian felt sick to his stomach. “We could try and take our archers to the-” Suddenly, a massive crack like thunder rumbled through the valley. Fillian looked at Raelynn with a panicked face. “What in the world was th-”
Raelynn’s worried mind raced. The Evertauri . . . Without thinking, Raelynn rushed out of the tent. Fillian yelled at her to come back, but he lost her in the swarm of Ferramish soldiers. She was undoubtedly trying to get back in front of Ferramish lines and up the valley to Seirnkov.
Fillian shook his head and whispered to himself, “She’s not gonna make it back to the Evertauri alive.”
Fillian walked toward the center of his forces and opened the flap of his officer’s tent. Pulling out the glowing, starlit stone, he felt the power surging through it like a wave that builds higher and higher until it breaks on the shoreline. In the corner of Fillian’s tent, a white lion with massive wings stood up and walked over to Fillian.
“Hello, Fernox.” said Fillian.
Fernox the lion seemed transfixed by the stone and apprehensively approached it, grumbling low in his chest.
“What’s wrong?” said Fillian.
The lion’s eyes grew as he stepped closer, tilting his head at the sight of the stone. The reflection of starlight bounced off Fernox’s infinitely deep eyes. Suddenly, Fernox pulled Fillian into his eyes and spoke to him in the void, “That stone is not safe here . . .”
Fillian looked at the stone in his hands. “Yes it is. We have an army-”
Fernox pushed Fillian out of his mind and lunged forward at Fillian with claws and a growl. Tackled onto the ground and held down by Fernox’s paws, Fillian dropped the glowing stone on the ground. Before he could grab it again, Fernox snatched it in his paws and leaped backwards, keeping Fillian at bay with a flap of his wings."
Fillian lunged forward. “Fernox! What are you doing?!”
Fernox jumped out of the tent and Fillian followed him, only to see the dim white outline of Fernox as the lion took off into the night with the glowing stone.
◆◆◆
Kyan’s eyes shot open as a bucket of ice cold water poured onto his face. Gasping for air, he looked around at the dark chamber around him with a vaulted ceiling. He felt the tight pressure of chains on his wrists, ankles, and chest. An armored Cerebrian Guard stood in front of him, holding the empty water bucket.
Kyan shook his freezing wet hair to get it out of his face as the guard turned his head to the side. “The boy’s awake . . . get the branding iron.” he said to a few Guards outside the metal bars of the chamber, who, in turn, marched down the hallway.
The thought of trying to escape flickered into Kyan’s mind, but vanished as quickly as it came. The memories of the night before coursed like fire through his head — stealing back the stone, handing it off to Aunika, the attack on the Nexus, the Phantoms, the swarms of Cerebrian soldiers, Dalah, Madrick, the hundreds of Evertauri buried beneath Seirnkov. Who’s left to fight? A cloud of dread suffocated him as he strained his mind, telling his body to give out, wanting it to end.
The Guards reentered with a glowing red iron bar. Ripping Kyan’s sleeves, the Guards lowered the molten metal slowly. The Guard looked Kyan in the eye. “Tell us where the stone is.”
Kyan shook his head as the heat radiated from the red hot iron. “I don’t know . . .”
The Guard nodded and pressed the branding iron into Kyan’s forearm. Unimaginable, searing pain tore through Kyan, reminding him of the Evertauri brand on Calleneck’s chest. He couldn’t hold back his screams. The Guard lifted the metal and asked again. “Where is the stone?”
Kyan shook his head hopelessly. “I don’t know . . .” Kyan’s cry from the pain echoed through the chamber as the smell of burning flesh wafted up. Again, and again the agony of the pain hit him as his vision started to blur; and with a flash of light, his mind ripped him out of consciousness and he felt frigid mountain air on his face.
◆◆◆
The cold of the cloudy winter day sunk deep into Calleneck’s bones. Huddled by a fire, he looked around at the snow-filled forest, where the trees leaned from the weight of the snow beneath an ominous gray sky. Around the fire sat Aunika and Borius, as well as two survivors they had found on their way out of the collapsed Network — Sir Kishk the Trainer, and Sir Beshk of the Council, the one with a gray beard to his stomach. After finding a way out of the Network, the five survivors had made their way into the mountains above Seirnkov.
In the middle of the city, a crater of rubble four blocks wide marked where the Nexus beneath had collapsed. Buildings there had crumbled to rubble on top of the fallen earth. Powdery snow and dust from the Nexus covered all the roofs of Seirnkov and chimneys all over the city sent little smoke columns into the sky. Bells rang out across the valley, warning citizens to prepare for the coming attack. Looking southwest, he could see the Ferramish army approaching. In nearly every neighborhood, fathers were boarding up their houses as mothers collected their playing children, bringing buckets of water from the wells into their homes.
In the mountain forest overlooking Seirnkov, Calleneck’s breath swirled into the cold afternoon air like a puff of smoke. His body ached and protested with exhaustion. Looking over at Aunika, he could see her eyes were red and swollen from crying. They had lost everything. From the hundreds of sorcerers who could have fought against Xandria at the last hour, only five they knew — or hoped — remained, and Raelynn was still nowhere to be found. The little fire crackled and engulfed a log, melting the patches of snow off as it flickered from orange and yellow to green and violet.
Borius broke the long silence. “From what we can see in that clearing there below, the Cerebrian troops seem to have made multiple rings of barricades within the city. Xandria has set up trebuchets to catapult fireballs at the Ferrs if they breach the city. We destroyed most of Cerebria’s explosives at the Great Gate, but I’m sure Xandria kept some in Seirnkov. On the other hand, the Ferramish have three beasts with them that I’m sure will deal heavy damage.”
Sir Kishk th
e Trainer shook his head. “Xandria has at least as many troops in the city as the Ferramish have, if not a thousand more . . . you just can’t take a city with fewer men than the defender.”
“Are you saying the Ferramish are going to lose?” said Calleneck.
Sir Beshk shook his head and responded in a heavy, rough voice. “Xandria will walk over my cold dead body before I concede defeat.”
Sir Kishk turned the fire violet with an outburst. “The Ferrs cannot win. There’s no way for us to win. We’re outnumbered, we’re on the run . . . I mean look at us!”
Aunika’s head hung down.
Borius shook his head. “Madrick wouldn’t have collapsed the Nexus unless he thought we had a chance . . . we may not have many Evertauri left, but now the Phantoms are gone as well.”
Sir Kishk stood up. “But what if Madrick was right about Selenora . . . wh- what if she’s still alive and she’s with Xandria . . .”
Borius took a deep breath in. “There’s no way to know . . . All I know is that we started something that we have to finish. The Ferrs march on Seirnkov tonight. This is the silence before the storm. You may decide for yourselves whether or not it’s hopeless to fight; but as for me, I’m joining Prince Fillian and the Ferrs tonight. It’s our duty to avenge everyone who has fallen.”
The group sat in silence until they heard footsteps in the snow, walking through the forest up to their fire. Quickly standing at the ready for a fight, Borius and the old Sir Besk formed flames in their hands. The figure walking toward them was alone, blonde hair trailing down past her shoulders. Calleneck’s eyes strained. “It’s Raelynn . . .”
Raelynn reached the clearing of trees and stopped, staring at the group around the fire. Calleneck walked over to her. She looked like she had been on the run since the attack on the Nexus, but there was no stone with her. Her face was weary, her body at the point of exhaustion. At the sight of Calleneck, she began to sob with relief. She rushed forward through the snow and wrapped her arms over him, crying on his shoulder.
