by Tiger Hebert
Then, like the howl of a tornado, the dragon announced its presence once more. Vacinne looked back over her shoulder, only to see a massive white dragon diving down toward them. Terror gripped her.
“Light keep us!” she cried.
“This way,” shouted Renlar as he waived for her to follow his lead.
Renlar began to weave his horse behind and around some of the many out-buildings that stretched out ahead of the main gate of the old ruins. Vacinne followed him as they cut a zig-zagging path away from the dragon’s pursuit. The dragon was diving hard and would be upon them in no time.
“Behind the walls!” commanded Renlar as he drove his mount to make for the main gates.
The old gates lay in tattered ruins, much like everything else. The shattered remnants lay scattered about, but it wouldn’t be enough to deter them. Their horses leapt the wreckage and darted behind the wall right as the massive white dragon roared over the city’s walls. The dragon cried out and snapped its tail. The tail struck one of the towering spires like lightning. The forgotten tower exploded into a swirling storm of stone and mortar.
They did not need to urge the horses onward; the beasts charged ahead on instinct, fleeing the danger of the dragon and the crashing debris. Their hooves thundered upon the overgrown cobbled streets of Esboralis as they raced through the east side of the city. Vacinne didn’t know where they were going and didn’t care as long as the direction was away.
The dragon beat its powerful wings and launched itself skyward again. The creature shot upward in a rapid ascent away from the ruins and up toward the mountain top. In seconds, the dragon had vanished into the cover of clouds and was gone again. The roaring could still be heard, but slowly the sounds grew fainter.
They reined in their horses in the midst of the ruins. Ellie still shifted about, and whinnied. She was clearly uneasy still, and Vacinne couldn’t blame her.
“Phew, that was close,” said Renlar with a laugh.
“Why in the Nine Hells are you laughing?” Vacinne demanded.
“Because we are alive! We probably shouldn’t be, but we are! That, my dearie, is cause for a celebration,” said Renlar as he mysteriously managed to pull a flask from somewhere and prepared to take a swig, then stopped as Vacinne eyed him disapprovingly.
“Where are my manners? Ladies first.” He proffered the flask.
Vacinne was visibly unimpressed, but she politely declined.
“Suit yourself,” said Renlar with a shrug before swilling some of the rum. “Ahh! Nothing like the sweet bite of Sixteen-twelve Bartle Hill.”
“Well, let’s not indulge too much. We’ve got a demon to kill, in case you’d forgotten.” Vacinne studied her surroundings.
“Gods, woman, did you pinch your chuff? Loosen your girdle a bit,” he said flippantly.
“What?” asked Vacinne, clearly confused.
“Never mind,” he said with a dismissive wave. “Let’s see if we can find any traces of this demon.”
“Very well, but how do you propose we do that? The city is quite large.”
“Well, if it’s a vorthor demon, it’s going to want to lay its eggs. That means somewhere dark, and somewhere out of the elements,” replied Renlar.
“The mines,” said Vacinne.
Renlar nodded. “Or something similar, perhaps a keep, a vault, or a cave.”
“We could be here days searching! That’s too long!”
Renlar smiled. “Agreed.”
“Ugh, why are you smiling?” roared Vacinne.
“Because I’m pretty sure I know where it is.” Renlar’s smile only grew at her agitation.
“Where?” said Vacinne, excitement filling her voice.
Renlar pointed to a snowy ledge high above the northern end of the city where a large tunnel was cut into the side of the mountain. “In there.”
“How do you know?”
“I told you, sometimes I know things,” he said with a shrug. “Besides, the tunnel was closed off, and the snow up there has been blocking the door for weeks.”
Vacinne realized he was probably right. It wasn’t quite winter yet down in Ketabo and Dunmorrow, but these elevations were higher, and much of the mountains had been getting snow for weeks.
She asked, “Is that a mine too?”
“No, it’s the old Esboralis Tunnel. It was one of the first tasks King Esbor commissioned. It used to be a highway that went all the way through the mountain to South Road, which will take you to Drenamere. It’s been closed since before the fall of Esboralis, but it sure makes for a nice hatchery.”
Vacinne asked, “How do we get up there?”
“I came through here back in the spring, and the old elevator system was still functional. If it hasn’t been destroyed, we should still be able to use the cranks to raise the platform. If it’s been damaged, then we’ve got to take the long way around, and it’s going to cost us a good few hours to go around and make our way up the old road. It’s not terribly long, but as I mentioned, there’s the snow.”
“Well, let’s hope the elevator things you mentioned still work, whatever they are.”
They didn’t waste any time. Renlar led Vacinne through the still crumbling ruins of what was once a city of splendor. She’d heard tales of the marble spires of Esboralis and how the light danced across them. She’d heard tales of great statues of the demi-god twins Osiron and Denaron, the patrons of fortune and favor. The statues once towered over sixty feet in the air. Now she was able to stare the demi-god right in its lifeless eyes as she passed by. What remained of one of the statue’s heads lay half smashed on the street ahead of her, with the remnants of a hand nearby.
Are you Osiron or Denaron? In either fashion a fitting end for a false god, she mused.
No, Vacinne didn’t know which deity was which, but seeing the statues of the youthful and androgynous twins torn down and smashed did give her some measure of satisfaction. Whereas some might mourn the statues’ destruction as a loss of great art and craftsmanship, she simply saw it as things being made right in the world.
There were many religions throughout the world of Kurein. Too many to be counted. Vacinne was a Warden. That meant that her life was dedicated to the service and worship of the Light. Her belief, and many of the world’s religions, was that the Light was a holy and powerful being that created the universe. That was usually where the similarities ended. Hundreds of religions from one end of Kurein to the other subscribed to the notion of the Pantheon, a belief that the Light bore children whom now rule the present world. The theories and beliefs as to how and why varied widely from sect to sect, but people of all different types wholly pledged their lives, and sometimes even their deaths, to their patrons, the demi-gods of the Pantheon. Osiron and Denaron were two such patrons.
Vacinne spit on the face of the broken statue as she passed, and then offered up a prayer to the Light.
Renlar turned back and raised an eyebrow. “That’s not very ladylike, your grace.”
Righteous indignation swelled within her. “These statues are a grotesque mockery of everything I stand for. Their existence is a blasphemy of the Light, and the very presence of these and other false gods has led countless souls astray for thousands of years!”
“Vacinne, I admire your passion, but have you ever stopped to consider that maybe some of those lost souls are pushed away far more than they could have ever been led?”
Vacinne was taken aback. “What are you saying?”
“Forget it,” said Renlar with a dismissive waive.
Vacinne insisted. “If you’ve got something to say, say it.”
“Look, all I’m saying is that the Wardens say they believe in the Light, but their actions don’t always paint a very accurate reflection.”
Vacinne glared at him, and the venom seeped from her tongue. “Which god do you serve, bounty hunter? Heckor, the patron of greed? Or maybe Kritheo, the patron of assassins? Yes, that might work. Or better yet, what about Bender, the patron of spiri
ts? You do like a good strong drink. Can’t seem to go without one for more than twelve hours.”
Renlar’s expression grew cold. “You’ve known me for, like you said, less than twelve hours, yet you think that places you in a position to judge me? You Wardens are all the same. Constantly, you are taking your teaching of the Light and using it to size up the souls of the entire world when that was never your mandate. You know nothing of me, girl, and from the sounds of it, you know nothing of the Light either.”
Renlar turned his horse around. Vacinne’s mouth fell open as she watched him slowly ride away. She wanted to say something. She needed to say something.
You can’t leave. Stop. Don’t go. You’re right. I’m sorry. I’m an ass. I need you.
But those words just never left her lips, and she was left alone in the Ruins of Esboralis.
6
Friendly Fire
Renlar groused, “That nerve of that arrogant, disrespectful, self-righteous little brat!”
He couldn’t wait to be away from her, but he wasn’t about to put his horse through any more. He fumed as they slowly rode away. It didn’t seem to help. The more he thought about it, the more pissed he got.
“I came all the way up here for what? For nothing! No—thing! We didn’t get paid. We didn’t get to kill any demons, and we sure as hell didn’t get the girl,” said Renlar, making air quotes with his fingers.
His horse snorted at the last remark.
“Alabaster, we don’t want to get the girl. Not that one at any rate,” he said to his horse.
The horse snorted again.
“She thinks she knows everything, and that she’s the only one in the world who has any sense about anything. That and her precious order. Come off it!”
There was no talking to him when he got like this. Gerald knew it well. Heck, even the horse knew it. Renlar would need to blow off some steam before he’d be reasonable about anything. He wasn’t unaware of his penchant for getting wound up like this either, rather he embraced it like a full-grown child. He would rant and rave till he nearly foamed at the mouth, and then his blood pressure would finally ease back down, and he would become a mostly sane human being once again. He wasn’t ready for that just yet though.
“I’m done. No more helping people. The world is going to hell in a hand basket and we’re just going to sit back and watch it all burn. Maybe, just maybe we’ll finally get to the end of this new generation of ignorance and entitlement. When I was that age...”
And still, the rant continued to no one in particular, as even Alabaster stopped listening.
Vacinne was slammed into the tunnel wall. She grunted at the impact but reflexively pushed herself back from the wall and spun to her left. With her left arm extended, she swung out with a wild back handed strike. Her kite shield slammed into the face of the demon hatchling. The sickening crunch of cracking and snapping filled the dark corridor. And the hatchling wailed, then hissed at her before attacking a second time.
Vacinne brandished her sword and taunted the young crawler demon. “You got the drop on me, but it won’t be so easy this time demon.”
The centipede like demon writhed and shrieked in response before it struck.
Vacinne lunged to her right, pulling her shield up just in time as the demon’s dagger like appendages raked across the drenamine alloy shield. Vacinne hacked at the creature’s long body with her blazing runeblade. Her blade slammed against the carapace, to little effect. The demon hissed as it doubled back on her. She pivoted and met its fanged maw with the Wardens’ insignia that was finely engraved in her shield. The crawler demon staggered backward, the damage showing as several of the half dozen mandibles were now snapped.
The demon seemed to snicker at her, before rushing up the tunnel walls and spiraling around. Quicker than the snap of a bowstring, the demon was behind her again. The demon rose up tall, like a viper poised to strike. There was a bright flash of light in the distant dark tunnel. Everything turned to fire.
“By the Light!” shouted Vacinne in the face of the roaring flames.
“Alabaster, you don’t have to agree with me, but it’s time. Just let the whole damn world burn!”
Renlar’s horse neighed at the sound of Vacinne’s charge, and the roar that accompanied it. He turned back to watch as a torrent of fire shot out of the tunnel on the ledge behind them.
“Fool! She’s gotten herself killed already!”
Then he heard her distant shout.
“Back to the Nine Hells with you, demon!”
“She is rather defiant,” he added, to Alabaster’s snort. The horse took off. Bolting in the direction of the battle. Renlar barely managed to catch the reins as Alabaster made for the nearby ramp that would take them to her.
“Whoa, what are you doing? Stop. She made her choice!” shouted Renlar, but the white mare ignored his protest as she dashed up the gently pitched road.
“You won’t be able to make it through the snow up ahead, you stupid beast!”
Alabaster snorted in defiance, and doubled down, charging ahead faster.
“Damn you! You females are all the same, you insufferable, stubborn, mule-headed fools. Damn you, damn you,” shouted Renlar, as he spotted the first sign of snow up on the road ahead.
Renlar’s hands twisted in a wild gesture, and then he thrust his hands forward like a storm gale. The air began to roar and howl before turning violent. Gusts of powerful air surged past them and pummeled the snowy roadblock. The frozen powder exploded into the air, and everything went white. Renlar ducked low and held onto Alabaster for dear life as they charged into the blizzard.
“Just follow the wind, girl,” he shouted.
Alabaster neighed and charged ahead.
The flames hungrily lapped at Vacinne’s magical shield, but the spell held. The demon’s shrieking had stopped, but the flame lasted another few seconds. Seconds that lingered on forever. The magical barrier that protected her now thrummed with a new potency, something Vacinne had never seen before. The sound grew in her mind, eclipsing the sound of the fiery roar. Then the assault ended.
Vacinne relaxed her magical ward, and as the yellow pallor of the shield faded with the magic, the absence of light tricked her eyes. In those next seconds, darkness overwhelmed her. Then it came. A brilliant flash of light filled the tunnel. Two massive fireballs flew toward her, one after the other.
Vacinne cursed. I’ll repent later. Then cursed again, as she threw up the magical shield once more. The fireballs slammed into the barely visible wall of magic that extended out from her shield. The flames harmlessly rolled off the shield.
“With a fiery assault like that, it’s either a bregadarian or a liconith,” guessed Vacinne as she weathered a new storm of fire. “What do you do when you don’t know which one you’re fighting? Think, Vacinne, think!”
Her head ached as the thrumming of the magic had hit new levels. Pain shot through her as though an unseen dagger of pure energy had been driven into her skull. Vacinne screamed.
A voice whispered to her. “Let go.”
Before she even realized what she’d done, she’d heeded the call of the strange voice. In a way that she didn’t even know possible, she let go. Of what or how, she didn’t know, but she let go. The last remnants of her power that held her protective shield in place were released. In an instant it was gone. The power she once felt, and so much more, was released in a massive detonation. Magical energy, unlike anything she’d witnessed before, reverberated through the tunnel as it surged forward, quenching the fire and everything in its path. The mountain shook.
A gout of flames shot out of the tunnel as Renlar and Alabaster raced toward it.
“I know that fire!” shouted Renlar.
No more flames erupted, but tremendous power was still being released in the tunnel. That much was for sure.
Boom!
Renlar dismounted and sprinted toward the tunnel, but as the mountain shook the ground moved beneath his feet. He made
his way into the tunnel. The tunnel curved away from the entrance, so the light of the outside world couldn’t penetrate very deep, but he knew the tunnel well. He raced ahead into the darkness, rounding the first corner just in time to watch the last traces of yellow light shine in the tunnel’s darkness. He watched as Vacinne and her glowing runeblade pulsed with energy, then flickered away.
His hands flew about in rapid gestures that called upon his magic and he screamed as he ran. “Nooo!”
Vacinne’s sights were set. Her blade was poised to strike, and her target was stunned by the magical counter-attack. Somewhere in the dark, someone screamed. She ignored it.
“It’s time to end this.”
Vacinne disappeared. Her phase strike positioned her right behind her attacker. She lunged forward, thrusting her runeblade in for the kill.
A howling gust of wind was a tidal wave force hitting her. The blast of air slung her backward. She tried to fight forward against the gale, to end her adversary, but the wind’s assault was overwhelming.
A powerful voice thundered in the dark, rising over the winds. “Stand down! Both of you!”
When Vacinne resisted, the wind bit back and the voice roared, “Now!”
A new, feminine, voice replied, “I yield.”
Stunned, Vacinne hesitated for a moment before reluctantly lowering her blade. “Me too.”
The wind seemed to die off in an instant, leaving the two combatants breathing hard in the scantly lit darkness of the tunnel.
With the lazy dialect of the western hill-country, the unseen female said, “’Ey, tha’ you Renny?”
“Sutara, no doubt,” he replied with confidence.
Sutara replied, “Tha one an’ only!”
Renlar said, “Can you give us some light—without burning anyone?”
Sutara’s voice became smooth as silk. “You used to like it hot...”
