Silverbrook

by J C Maynard

  Trying to speak through her tears, her body shook. “I- I thought that everyone was gone- I gave the stone to Fillian and I got back and the Nexus — it was all rubble, and I thought everyone was gone. I looked and looked to find you until I found snow tracks up into the mountains.”

  Aunika stepped forward and embraced Raelynn, beginning to cry with her. Raelynn raised her chin and wiped tears off her face. “Where’s Dalah? Kyan?” Raelynn looked around at Borius and the others. “My- my father?”

  Borius stepped forward. “He was the one who collapsed the Nexus . . . he held off the Phantoms and the Cerebrian Guard long enough to let us escape. By that point, most everyone else had been killed. Raelynn . . . I’m so sorry.”

  Raelynn stood there in shock, trying to hold herself together. Anger coursed through her veins that bulged on her temple. She shook her head with teeth clenched. “We’re gonna kill her . . . Xandria . . . we’re gonna kill her.”

  Borius nodded. “At nightfall, when the Ferrs march up to Seirnkov, we’ll join their front lines.”

  Calleneck looked over to Aunika. “We’ll stay by each other's' side.” Calleneck turned to Raelynn. “Your father made his sacrifice so that we could finish it.”

  Raelynn looked through the trees down at the snowy, glistening city below, where platoons of troops marched through the streets. “Then let’s finish it.”

  ~Nightfall

  The sky had turned black by the time Prince Fillian and the rest of the Ferramish forces reached the edge of Seirnkov.

  “We’re almost there.” said Borius to the surviving Evertauri as they descended through the snowy forest.

  Calleneck stepped through another snow drift and between two tall evergreens. Above their heads, the green auroras of the night sky cast an eerie glow over the snowy valley. The city of Seirnkov, glowed with lights in the mountain valley. The city bells clanged and chimed, warning people to stay inside, as flanks of Cerebrian infantry marched through the streets.

  Up ahead stood the Ferramish army, with flickering torches and waving scarlet banners. Dressed in their scarlet armor, thousands of soldiers stood at attention in the fields and evergreens outside of Seirnkov. Near the front of the force was the Royal Guard, the Prince, and the three beasts. Rows and platoons of Cerebrian cavalry, archers, pikemen, and infantry stood in their formations, while Prince Fillian, the Generals, three of Silverbrook’s beasts behind him, each releasing reptilian roars.

  In just another minute, the group of six Evertauri broke through the trees and into the fields where the thousands of troops stood, approaching the side flank of the army. Immediately, a sentry spotted them and called out an order. Fifty soldiers turned toward them. Following Borius’s example, all of them raised their hands above their heads. Borius produced a glowing yellow flame in his hand to show who they are. A few seconds later, a general called out, “Let them through to the Prince!”

  Platoons of soldiers lowered their weapons, sheathing them in one synchronized movement, and parted down the middle. Calleneck, Raelynn, and the others then lowered their hands and ran down the aisle of soldiers to the front of the army, where Prince Fillian sat atop a massive black stallion, with three of Silverbrook’s hellish beasts behind him.

  Prince Fillian dismounted his horse as they approached. The troops reformed to their positions and the six Evertauri stood before Fillian and the beasts.

  Fillian removed his helmet and stared at the six sorcerers in front of him, seeing them distraught, covered in snow and dirt. “What happened?”

  Raelynn, the only one who had met Fillian before, spoke. “Xandria captured one of our own, who led her army into our Network. It was a surprise attack, and we lost almost everyone. My father collapsed the tunnels to kill the remaining Phantoms.”

  Fillian stared in disbelief. “You’re the only ones left?”

  Raelynn nodded.

  Fillian looked at Calleneck and the others in anger. “You were supposed to fight with us, help us take the city.”

  “We are.” said Borius, low and rich.

  Fillian shook his head. “I meant all of you. Hundreds of sorcerers, that’s what we were counting on going into this battle.”

  Borius nodded. “We were too . . . but Your Majesty, we’ve only got one shot at this and we’re here to help.”

  Fillian looked toward the city and back to the Evertauri. “Thank you . . .”

  “Where is the stone?” asked Raelynn.

  Fillian’s insides turned, knowing the stone was gone, taken by Fernox the lion. He nodded and lied, reassuring her, “It’s safe.”

  Raelynn breathed a sigh of relief and stepped forward, marveling at the three massive beasts before her with Calleneck at her side. One with four enormous wings shimmered white like it was made from millions of icicles; another grew straight out of the ground like vines and branches twisting together to form an enormous creature; and the last seemed to have no edges at all, while its teeth and its body were made from sparks and embers of fire. The beasts all turned to her, looking deep into her soul through their transformative eyes. Raelynn received the powerful impression that they knew her somehow.

  Fillian interrupted her with a hand on the shoulder. She turned around to behold a glistening longsword in Fillian’s hands.

  Calleneck instantly recognized the sword.

  Prince Fillian extended the hilt to Raelynn. “You may want this.”

  She took it in her hands. “Thank you-” She stopped when she saw the intricate Royal Crest on the handle, with the letter E inscribed. She looked up at Fillian. “This was Eston’s, wasn’t it?”

  “He’d have wanted you to have it.” said Fillian.

  Calleneck’s heart tug at him. “I think so too . . .” he said.

  Raelynn nodded and hugged Fillian as the sound of Cerebrian troops marching towards them through the city grew near.

  Calleneck’s body turned cold, fearing the inevitable fight, the closeness of death. He ignited a crimson flame in his hand, at the ready for any arrows from enemy archers.

  With bells chiming in the distance, Prince Fillian turned to his generals. “We’re ready.”

  The generals nodded and turned to the thousands of Ferramish troops behind them. “Sound the battle horns!” A single thundering note blasted from giant horns and echoed through the valley. Another, higher pitched note sounded from the city — the Cerebrian horn.

  Fillian climbed onto a black horse and looked up at Xandria’s looming fortress at the center of the city. With thousands of troops behind him, he breathed in deeply and raised his sword, yelling, “Bring them hell!”

  The thousands of troops behind him bellowed and marched forward toward the city. The ground shook with every step the army took, and the beasts roared towards the night sky, sending a rattling thunderclap through Seirnkov. Ahead, the Cerebrian troops marched through the streets toward them, swords raised. But all at once, they stopped, frozen in the streets.

  Calleneck looked to Raelynn and Aunika in fear. What are they doing?

  Fillian repeated his thoughts. “Why aren’t the Cerebrians marching-”

  He stopped and froze. “Halt!” he commanded the army; and in a few seconds, the Ferramish came to a stop.

  Calleneck looked forward at the hundred feet between their armies and his body turned cold. Floating in the night air were dozens of glowing rose petals, suspended in the ice cold breeze. Slowly, they began to spin around each other. More and more petals appeared out of thin air, swirling in a vortex around each other until they stopped, and silently drifted to the ground, revealing Selenora Everrose.

  The Army of the Dead

  Chapter Forty Six

  Selenora silently stepped towards the Ferramish army as the snowy winds blew sideways. Behind her, rose petals flooded the streets of Seirnkov like a fog, revealing her hundreds of masked followers, who began to march forward. All dressed in the same eerie, crimson cloaks, sparks shot out from their boots as they clinked down the cobblestone. Ce
rebrian soldiers ran aside into shops and smithys as the horrifying army of dead walked through the streets. Their skin seemed to be made of ash, and large flakes of gray peeled off in the cold breeze, drifting in clouds behind them. The hundreds of dead sorcerers chanted in low, hypnotic voices and colored fire and smoke flashed from their fingertips as they marched.

  On the other side of the field in front of Seirnkov stood the Ferrs and the Evertauri.

  Borius looked back at Prince Fillian and Raelynn. “Get behind us, now.”

  Fillian snapped the reins on his horse and turned it back as Raelynn stepped behind the other Evertauri.

  Calleneck’s blood felt frozen inside him like ice. She’s back. They were right . . . Selenora’s face too seemed to be made of ash. Deep, black cracks lined her translucent skin and her mouth was but a black hole beneath her skeletal nose with gnarled, blackened teeth. All her form embodied death, except her eyes, which shimmered black, gold, and crimson. She’s halfway between life and death . . .

  Borius ignited a yellow flame in his hand, ready to fight. He turned to Calleneck. “She did it . . . she and her followers have been existing in limbo this whole time.”

  Raelynn trembled. “She just waited until my father was dead to come back . . . she knew that he was the only one who could challenge her again.”

  Selenora raised her hands of bone and ash, and her voice echoed across the army, amplified my her magic. “You have come to kill a Queen with whom you are displeased . . . Kneel before me — your true Queen — and no blood other than Xandria’s will be spilled.”

  Behind Calleneck, Silverbrook’s beasts rumbled. In the distance, dozens of Cerebrian soldiers began to kneel.

  Fillian looked back at his army. “Stand your ground! Weapons at the ready!”

  Selenora smiled with her flaking, gray face. “Then you have made your choice . . .”

  Borius looked at the other Evertauri — Calleneck, Aunika, Kishk, and Beshk. “Now.”

  At once, five fireballs shot through the air towards Selenora. But instead of colliding with her, they passed seamlessly through her body as if she were a ghost.

  Calleneck’s stomach dropped as he sent another stream of fire at her, and it sailed right through her into the mass of masked sorcerers behind her, where they dissinigrated it in a shower of little flashing lights.

  Prince Fillian raised his sword. “Archers! Fire!” A volley of arrows sliced through the air towards Selenora and her followers. As they whistled towards her, crimson fire surrounded them, and they slowed to a halt in mid-air, levitating above the ground. Selenora raised her hand of ash with crimson fire circling, and turned each of the arrows backwards. With a flash of light the arrows whistled back through the air towards the Ferrs. The sound of arrows piercing through armor followed, along with the screams of pain from fifty soldiers, who writhed and fell to the ground, dying slowly.

  Selenora smiled with blackened teeth and sent a crimson shockwave through the ground, knocking down a battalion of cavalry and infantry. Fillian shouted for the men to hold their ground.

  Calleneck turned to Fillian. “The beasts!” They had taken down Phantoms. They could buy them time.

  Fillian turned back to the massive monsters. “Forward!”

  The horned beast made of smoking embers shot forward twenty feet over Calleneck, sending a wave of heat down to the ground. Landing in front of Selenora, it roared, sending a firestorm of embers and sparks into her sorcerers. Truly like a monster from hell, the beast of molten rock slashed at Selenora and dodged a blast of her fire. A flash of crimson light shot out from within the beast, and it exploded into the air in a shower of sparks and rock that came falling down from the sky like a volcanic eruption. Fire circled around Selenora as she stepped forward, followed by a hundred masked sorcerers.

  Calleneck looked to Aunika for comfort, but she shook in fear. He turned to Borius, who yelled in full fury, and charged forward.

  Sir Beshk followed, sprinting ahead of the troops toward Selenora, his long white beard trailing behind him. Aunika too began to rush forward, sending green fireballs towards the masked sorcerers. Summoning what courage he had left, Calleneck ran forward into the snowy night towards Selenora. Soon, the safety of the Ferramish troops was behind him as he sent a volley of embers toward Selenora.

  An explosion threw him back as Selenora deflected all of the spells from the Evertauri. Borius threw a massive disc of light toward Selenora, who severed it in half like a splitting river and spun it back around at Borius, knocking him to the side. A violet fireball soared over Calleneck’s head as Kishk tried to distract Selenora.

  Vainly sending blast after blast, Calleneck’s body began to freeze up after every crimson light passed through their ghostlike bodies without any effect. We can’t kill them . . . we can’t kill them.

  The snowfall began to intensify, and behind him, Calleneck heard Fillian call out behind him. Following the order, the ground began to rumble like an earthquake, and Calleneck fell to the ground as a moving tree root sliced through the ground below, digging its way through at unimaginable speeds. Fifty feet in front of him, a house-sized giant made of roots blasted out of the ground, sending a cloud of dirt and rock flying into the air.

  The beast’s roots rippled and reformed, trying to stab and surround Selenora, who sliced through the roots with discs of light. The beast’s roots quickly grew back, trying to lock Selenora into a cage of branches and crush her into the ground. But with a thundercrack of sound and a flash of crimson light, a shockwave of light rippled through the system of roots and turned everything to ash that crumbled and drifted away in the wind.

  Fillian turned back to the remaining beast — a dragon of ice. “Stay, we can’t lose you.” He shouted to the army once he saw fire from Selenora. “Shields up!”

  Crimson Taurimous coiled around Selenora’s ghostlike form, as she sent fireballs toward the Ferramish troops.

  Calleneck and Aunika sent shields of light into the air to block the attack. Selenora shot a cloud of embers like a flock of burning ravens screeching toward the Ferrs, flying around Calleneck’s and Aunika’s defenses. The fire birds sailed like arrows into a platoon of soldiers, who screamed in pain from the fire as they thrashed on the ground.

  Borius and Sir Beshk sent blasts of yellow and blue light into the mass of undead sorcerers, vainly hoping that they would have an effect. But they kept marching forward, fire scorching the earth wherever their ghostlike bodies stepped.

  Sir Kishk yelled and rushed toward them with violet flames circling him. Barrelling himself into the disfigured, masked sorcerers, he knocked several down as they tried to push on. Green and yellow fireballs soared past him as the undead fought back. Overrun by magic, Kishk formed a cloud of purple light, enveloping the near battlefield to obscur the vision of Selenora’s followers.

  Calleneck’s world turned into that same violet fog, and he strained to see the other Evertauri around him. A glowing, green fireball whizzed by his ear and he turned to where it had come from. A crimson cloaked sorcerer formed another ball of fire with skeletal hands and hurled it at Calleneck, who ducked beneath it. Calleneck blasted the mask off the sorcerer, revealing the rotting, ash face of Grennkovff. Calleneck focused his crimson Taurimous into a glowing longsword of fire and stabbed it up into the massive undead sorcerer. The blade crashed through bone and blackened flesh, but Grennkovff looked down at Calleneck with a deformed smile from hell and effortlessly pulled out the sword from his abdomen and stabbed back. Calleneck barely jumped back enough to avoid the swing, and as he ran away, a massive spell lifted the violet fog from the battlefield.

  As the fog lifted, Sir Kishk found himself surrounded by undead sorcerers. “Borius!” Kishk called out for aid, but the others were held off by Selenora far closer to the Ferrs — he was stuck behind enemy lines. A torrent of spells flew at him, and he tried to hold off the storm of fire until someone came to help. But the fire circled around his limbs and slammed him to his knees, bendi
ng his body until it snapped and he fell lifeless on the ground.

  Standing before Selenora Sir Beshk moved in front of Borius and Aunika with a giant blue shield, trying to block the others from her. To his side, Beshk saw Calleneck running towards them. “Get behind me!” yelled Beshk, but Selenora turned her gold and black eyes away from Sir Beshk and toward Calleneck. Beshk ran towards Selenora to block her and as she raised her hand, he sent out a disc of blue light; but with a flick of Selenora’s bone fingers, it came spinning back at him and sliced straight through his body.

  Aunika covered her mouth at the horrific sight and stumbled backwards as Calleneck and Borius formed crimson and yellow shields of their own.

  Desperate, Fillian ordered another volley of arrows that Selenora’s followers disintegrated in the air. She moved closer to the Ferramish army, sending blast after blast, knocking Calleneck, Aunika, and Borius back. Calleneck stood up from the cold, snowy ground only to be hit by another fireball that singed his arm. Weak and broken, Calleneck pulled himself back up again, grimacing in pain. Selenora locked eyes with Calleneck, and at that moment, Calleneck knew it was over. A beam of crimson light soared toward him, blinding him until it was replaced by a flash of green, and then went dark. Calleneck looked beside him, and the glazed-over eyes of Aunika stared lifelessly back at him.

  The battlefield was muffled in his ears as a blast went off between Borius and Selenora. Calleneck stared at Aunika, whose face still held the fear and pain of death. The light had died . . . light that had been there his whole life. Another explosion of yellow and crimson Taurimous shook the air as Calleneck reached forward and placed a hand on Aunika’s face and closed her eyes forever. The whole world seemed to move in slow motion.