by Mark Albany
“Golems,” Aliana said, hands clenched. “I guess we know what left the city in such a sorry state.”
“Agreed,” Braire said. I could see Norel already chanting a spell, gathering the power into her hands for her customary lightning strike. I looked over at Aliana. She already had my sword in her hand, which she tossed to me. I paused, making a note of the way the longsword twisted through the air before catching it deftly, spinning it smoothly a couple of times to get a feel for the weight and balance of it again before gripping it with both hands. Flooding the blade with my power seemed to be such a natural action now. Where accessing it used to be a trial as unreliable as it was powerful, now it was almost second nature. I was seeing benefits of dedicated training sessions.
I made a mental note to thank Aliana for taking the time to train me at a later date. She looked over at me and grinned, her knives in her hands. There was always going to be a part of her that loved the fight. She wanted it, needed it, even. It was a part of her nature as a djinn. I was once again impressed by the fact that she was able to control it as well as she did, unleashing it only when it was needed for survival.
And when it was unleashed, it was a beautiful thing to see. I grinned, gripping my blade, feeling some of her glee starting to seep over to me through our bond—and damned if it wasn’t infectious.
The golems saw us, isolated as we were in the ruins of Norel’s estate, and seemed to drop everything they were doing to march toward us. More joined their ranks as they came closer. They were all smaller than the ones we’d faced during our first battle with Cyron, but that didn’t really matter, considering there were at least three dozen of them coming toward us.
Once they got closer, they started to charge. The combination of all of the creatures rushing forward made the ground shake like it was an earthquake, to the point where it was difficult to keep our balance.
“Do we have a plan for how to deal with this many of them?” Norel asked, looking around at the rest of us. I could see the power glistening in her hands, the lightning jumping from one hand to the other like she was struggling to maintain it.
Braire nodded, closing her eyes. Her lips moved quickly as she formed a spell from the runes in the pebble I’d seen her working on before. She took a step and tossed the pebble forward. I saw it spark, like the air around it was causing friction. As it hit the ground, I saw the air around it warp in the same way it did when Aliana opened one of her portals, except this time, something moved through before any portal opened. It seemed like a summoning spell, and what was being summoned became very clear as a massive snake burst forth, quickly followed by a wolf that was larger than most horses. There was a third creature, I realized. A falcon, or eagle, only slightly smaller than the wolf. All three burst from the spell ready for battle.
“Well, that evens the odds a bit,” I said, moving forwards as the beasts engaged the golems before they reached us.
The golems seemed annoyed by the attacks from the snake, falcon and wolf, but saw them as less important than the four of us. A few stayed behind to try and keep the beasts at bay, while the rest continued running toward us.
I watched the runes lighting up all the way up my sword, gritting my teeth as the power that was being gathered was almost too much for me to handle on my own. I need to think about getting a familiar, I thought as the power started to form an impossibly bright white light, extending from the blade. If I did, I would have to treat them better than Vis had treated me.
What an odd thought to have at a time like this.
I took another step forward, focusing my energy at the golem closest to me, watching as the falcon rose above the golems that were trying to corral it and coming down to help as the three sisters engaged the rest.
I let out a pent-up roar as I took another step forward, unleashing the full power that had been gathered into the sword, watching as the brilliant blast of white light shot out from it faster than my eyes could follow. It impacted with one of the golems and I watched it fall to pieces under the strike. The blast continued, rocketing forward to hammer into another one, beheading it smoothly. I watched as the creature collapsed to the ground while recalling Oro’s advice that the spell keeping all that mass of mud and rock together was in the mouth.
A third golem was impacted, but it wasn’t enough to kill it. It dropped onto its back, but it quickly regained its feet, missing a right arm but otherwise untouched by the attack.
“Focus your attacks,” I heard Braire say to me, sounding irritated. “Pace them. You could have killed five or six of them with that attack.”
“Right,” I replied with a nod. I didn’t have much time to really absorb her advice. She was correct in her assessment, as most of the power had been wasted with the strike on the first golem that had been obliterated. I needed to pace myself or go dry at a point when I might need it the most.
Filling the blade up like that again required time. Time I didn’t have as a couple of the creatures closed on me. Their mouths opened in rumbling roars, showing the hatred of their master as they swung their club-like arms down at me. I took a step back to avoid the strike from the one on my right and then dove to my right to avoid the strike from the one on my left. I landed on my shoulder, rolling smoothly to my feet as I avoided the strike of yet another one, ducking under the swinging arms and slashing my blade across the leg, sending a pulse of power into the slash. It worked, partially anyway. The leg came away clean from the rest of the body, sending the golem stumbling to the ground.
“Hellhounds and golems,” Aliana said. “Does the man not have anything more creative to attack us with?”
“We’re having a difficult time with these as it is,” I replied, ducking another strike and jumping up to swing at the creature’s head, adding a blast of power to the strike like the last time. The head came away, and this time, the beast dropped to the ground in a pile of useless mud and rocks. “I’d suggest avoiding giving him any new ideas.”
“A good point,” Aliana agreed as she ducked around the strikes. As Braire’s beasts broke away from where they were being contained, the fighting became harder. I could feel myself getting drained with each strike I landed on the creatures. The sword itself wasn’t enough to deal the damage necessary to sever their heads, so I needed to dig deep, calling what power I had inside me to fight them back.
The numbers of golems were dropping, but not quickly enough. I realized what Braire had meant about conserving my energy. As satisfying as unleashing all that power in a single strike had been, I was feeling the effects of it now.
The four of us pulled into a tighter formation. With Braire’s control of her beasts and Norel’s ability to strike at the golems from afar with her lightning bolts, they were able to keep back as Aliana and I held the front. I could feel the sweat dripping from my skin, the burning of my muscles as I hacked and slashed at the creatures, trying to keep them from reaching the rest of the team.
“Grant, look out!” I heard Aliana say. I looked around, not seeing anything close enough to me to warrant that kind of warning. I realized they didn’t need to be close as I watched one of the golems hauling a massive boulder from the ground, a piece of one of the destroyed buildings. The boulder was lifted and thrown at me at an incredible speed.
As I watched the massive chunk of rock speeding toward me, I knew I didn’t have time to stop it. I raised my blade, pouring what little power I had left into it and swinging it to strike back.
I could feel the impact traveling all the way up my arm, shaking my whole body as I was knocked backward a few paces to land heavily on my back. The power was enough to make sure I didn’t feel the full weight of the boulder crush my body, but there was enough left over to tear the breath from my lungs.
“Fuck,” I gasped, looking around, trying to catch my breath. The chunk of building had exploded after I’d hit it with my sword, sending pieces everywhere. My hands were bleeding and there was a long gash up my right arm. I could also feel that one
of the pieces from the stone had hit and broken one of my ribs.
All in all, it could have gone a lot worse.
I pulled myself to my feet, gasping as I saw Aliana lying on the ground.
“Shit,” I cried, rushing over to her side. I could see blood pouring from the side of her head where one of the rocks had hit her, but from the way her chest was rising and falling, I knew she was alive, at least.
“We need to get out of here, now!” I called, picking Aliana up from the ground, careful to keep my sword away from her.
“We can’t leave!” Braire roared back. “We have them on the run!”
I turned around, inspecting her claim. They had given us a respite, that much was true, falling back since they had taken heavy casualties. I’d never really thought of golems as the type to use a tactical retreat, but as they did, I could see more coming from the rest of the city to join them. They would be charging again, and in greater numbers than before.
“They’ll be coming back, harder this time,” I said. “We won’t be able to push them back again!”
“Speak for yourself,” Braire snarled in response.
“Your sister is wounded!” I shouted as I walked over to her, still holding Aliana in my arms. “They’ve given us space. We need to use it to fall back, regroup, and recover. You complained about risking lives yesterday. Find that same logic in yourself now!”
Braire snapped out of her bloodlust, and even Norel seemed surprised that I was yelling at her. But both agreed. Without Aliana, not only did we lose a valued part of any kind of strategy we might have, but we also lost our ability to beat a quick retreat should it be needed.
“Norel, you need to cover our retreat,” I said, taking charge as we started heading toward the forest near the ruins of her former house.
She nodded, pausing and laying back as she gathered what power she still had in her. I watched as she stood alone against the mass of golems rushing toward her. She closed her eyes, lips moving as elvish words turned into spells. I could see the sky starting to darken despite the lack of clouds as she raised her hands, like she was calling something down. Sure enough, just as Braire’s beasts rushed past her, a lightning bolt flashed down, landing in her hands.
Amazingly, she absorbed the incredible amount of power. I could see it roaring and sparking across her skin, singeing her clothes as she extended her hands. With a roar that I felt more than heard, she unleashed it all at the surging horde.
For a moment, I was blinded by the attack. The light was so intense that it seemed to suck the brilliance from everything else in the world for a moment. I blinked to recover my eyesight. Some of it came back, showing a blackened crater where the first line of golems had been, with the rest rushing back for a moment in fear of another attack like it.
I could vaguely make out Norel rushing toward me, grabbing my shoulder and guiding me toward the forest as we took advantage of the distraction and made good on our escape.
3
I could still feel my body burning and aching from the amount of power I’d spent during the battle. Braire was running like she wasn’t feeling any such encumberment, not even bothering to mount her wolf.
Norel looked like she had taken the brunt of damage, though, I realized. She was exhausted, like that last strike had drained her of all the power she had, and it was all she could do just to stay on her feet. Eventually, as Braire took Aliana from my arms, I let Norel drape her arm around my shoulders, helping her as we kept on moving through the forest. I couldn’t help the feeling that we couldn’t know if the beasts would be following us or not, which made me wonder just how far we would have to run to get away from them for good.
Eventually, though, we needed to stop for rest. Nobody needed to say it, as even Braire was starting to look drained. Calling up her beasts from another dimension had required a lot of her power and guiding them through the fight hadn’t done much to help. We finally ground to a halt when we reached a small hill, the most defensible part of the woods we had encountered so far. I was gasping for breath, but took the time to help Norel sit down, leaning her back against a pine tree.
Braire set Aliana down on the ground gently, careful to lay her head on Braire’s pack before turning around to the wolf, snake and falcon that followed us. She whispered a few words that the beasts seemed to understand, and the three quickly broke away, heading back the way we’d come.
“They’re backtracking to see if our enemies are following,” Braire explained as she dropped next to Aliana, running her fingers lightly over the woman’s wound and whispering a quick healing spell. Another section of magic I wanted to discover. These three women were all experts in so many forms of it, I was almost jealous. Sure, they had however many centuries to train and practice in what could only be described as art forms, and I supposed that was the reason why I was jealous. Barring anything unforeseen, I would be looking at five or six more decades of it myself.
Aliana broke my line of thought as she gasped for breath, rising from the ground and coughing forcefully for a few seconds before she sank into Braire’s arms, holding the woman close to her.
“We need to find a place to regroup,” Braire said as Aliana recovered. “We’re too exposed out here in the open.”
“Won’t need to go far,” Aliana said, her voice soft but firm. “There are ruins of the old city near here that we can use to rest and recover in. There are spells and wards in the walls that should keep the golems from being able to attack us.”
“Should keep?” Braire questioned.
“That’s a better chance than remaining out in the open,” I snapped. “We shouldn’t delay.”
Braire opened her mouth to respond, but I had already turned away. I heard her say something in elvish, the kind that needed no translating, but I ignored her for the moment. I was still angry that she had wanted to remain and keep fighting even with Aliana hurt. Yes, we were fighting a war and I knew there were going to be casualties, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t be careful with each other’s lives. Recklessness at this stage of the conflict would not get us anything.
Later on, however? Who knew?
I dropped into a crouch next to Norel, whose eyes had drifted shut as she leaned back against the tree.
“Can you walk?” I asked. She took a deep breath and her eyes remained closed for a few more seconds until she finally looked at me.
“Five more minutes?” she asked, tilting her head.
“We need to move,” I answered, apologetically. “There’s no telling if those golems are still following us through here.
She nodded and reached out to me. I gripped her arms and helped her to her feet. She struggled for a few steps before I decided to take matters into my own hands, sweeping her from her feet and carrying her the way Aliana and Braire were already headed. I picked up the pace even though I could feel fatigue starting to fill my muscles, causing the burning to get worse and worse. The ruins finally came into view.
“I’m never going to be free of this place,” I said softly. Norel had wrapped her arms around my neck, holding herself close to me, but her eyes had closed again, her head leaning against my chest. I hugged her closer to me, slowing my pace as I saw Aliana and Braire waiting at the entrance of the ruins, looking around for me.
The falcon swooped down from the sky, flapping its wings faster to let it gently land on one of the arches as it looked down at Braire. It let out a long, low screech just as I approached the steps leading up into the ruins, panting and sweating and feeling utterly undignified.
“The golems pulled away from their pursuit just outside the forest,” Braire said as the falcon shot back up into the sky. “My darlings will stay on the lookout. There is enough food around for them to stay in the forest indefinitely, so we can rest easy for the moment.”
I nodded, finally reaching the top of the steps and setting Norel down. I had a hard time pulling myself back up, needing a moment to rest. I’d been more tired than this the day before, I
knew, but there had been something different about that. I felt exhausted, but now my whole body was radiating it.
As I moved back outside where Aliana and Braire were still talking, I looked up into the sky, surprised that the sun showed it to be less than an hour after midday. Of course, I had felt the heat and it had been a large part of the fatigue that filled my body, but for some reason, I felt like the battle had lasted longer than it had. It had only been three hours since we stepped into the portal away from the cave.
“What do you think, Grant?” Aliana asked.
I brought my focus back to the present, looking at the two women who were watching me and waiting for an answer to a question I hadn’t heard. I shook my head.
“Think about what?” I asked, deciding that honesty was the best route to take at this point.
“I was telling Aliana that we might want to use this place as a base for our operations,” Braire said, clearly forcing her tone to be civil as she turned to look at me. “Since we now know—thanks to seeing where their golems came from—where Cyron and Abarat are, it would be better to remain somewhere closer to them, should the situation we were faced with today happen again.
I nodded. “That seems reasonable to me. Do you think we could defend this place should they discover that it’s where we’ve hidden?”
Aliana turned back to Braire, who nodded, looking confident. “My darlings are more than capable of giving us ample warning should any attack come through the forest. With the wards and spells I see carved into the stones of this place, we should have a good deal of protection if it comes to a fight. They could always do with some retouching, but since we’re going to be stuck here for a while, it seems, it’s nothing we can’t handle.”
“Excellent,” I said, forcing a smile. “It’s decided. We’ll stay here for the time being. With that decided, should we talk about what we will do from here on out?”
