by Dante King
The certainty Labu had shown the last time we’d fought was gone. It seemed that he wasn’t so comfortable away from his home turf and without his trusted friends to observe him. I’d already beaten him once, so he knew I outmatched him. Maybe that was something I could use against him.
“I knew you were an asshole,” I said, “but I thought you were at least an honorable asshole. Now, it turns out that you’ll betray anything if you think it’ll give you a chance to win.”
“You shut your mouth,” Labu snapped. “You don’t know anything about honor. You’ve just come to our lands to gloat about the might and power of the Radiant Dragon. You wish only to meddle in other people’s affairs for your guildmaster. One more outside force trying to tell us how to live. And yet you still act as if you’re some merciful overlord.”
“So, you’re a protector, are you?” I asked. “Some shining beacon standing between his people and… what, the empire, the guilds, passing strangers you don’t like the look of?”
“I stand between the clan and destruction. The destruction that comes when we’re too weak to defend ourselves.”
“I’m not the one trying to destroy your clan. Cadrin will do anything to get his way. He’ll tear apart your city, your father, and everything you claim to protect, just so that he can make himself and his guild more powerful. And you just bought him more time to do it.”
“My father has lived his day,” Labu said between gritted teeth. “Weak, passive, willing to let the world trample over us. We will grow stronger without him.”
“You can’t mean that!” Kumi protested. Her voice wavered with horror. “Not about our own father.”
Labu stared at her as emotion tore at his face. Kumi was right; he didn’t believe it, but he had convinced himself to act as if he did. Now that he’d set down that road, he was too proud to turn back.
“We must become strong again,” he said. “If that means letting stagnant water be washed away by fresh springs, then so be it.”
I glanced back over my shoulder. The others hadn’t emerged from the courtyard yet, but that didn’t mean I had time to fuck around.
“Enough of this bullshit,” I said. “We’re leaving.”
I made as if to step around Labu.
“I don’t think so.” He raised his spear.
“I don’t want to kill you. Move.”
“Stand on your honor, then, lo Pashat,” he challenged. “You’ll not find me an easy fight.”
I rushed at him, and our weapons met with a clang. The fire of the Sundered Heart and the ice coating Labu’s spear hissed as they met. A burst of steam flashed as I pulled back, feinted left, and struck to his right. Labu parried and counter-attacked. I was forced to frantically block a series of rapid blows. More clangs and hisses filled the air.
“I’ll slice you to pieces and feed you to the fishes,” Labu said.
He moved in the same smooth, flowing style I’d seen before. It was like Kumi’s healing dance but deadlier and more aggressive. I could see the pattern of his attacks, but every time I moved to break it, he flowed around, changed direction, and came at me from another angle.
I slammed into him, and the solid shoulder of my Frozen Armor knocked the breath from his lungs. He staggered back, and I went on the offensive.
I sprayed him with thorns from my palm and cut at him with my sword. He raised his spear one-handed to parry my attack as his other hand summoned an Ice Spear. He lunged with both, and I jumped back, unable to block two attacks at once. Labu threw his shard of ice, and it hit my leg. His projectile managed to penetrate my armor, but it was left with only enough force to graze my skin.
Before I could attack again, he summoned and flung another Ice Spear, then another. Each one left gouges in my protective ice.
I shot back another burst of Stinging Palm thorns. He cut most of them down with his barbed spear, but those that struck left bleeding wounds across Labu’s arms and chest. The injuries were small and not serious enough to slow him down.
Labu yelled and charged. This attack was less flowing than previous ones, but it carried far more fury. His hatred and his pride took over as he hacked and stabbed at me with his barbed spear. The attacks went left and right, high and low, and I never had a moment to recover or catch my breath. Pieces of my ice armor went flying before a barb caught in my side. As Labu pulled the spear back, I felt a terrible ripping sensation, and blood streamed out. I gasped in pain as I backpedalled away.
Kumi chanted and swayed behind me. She drew the rain together into an orb of water suspended between her hands and sent it to my side. It soothed my pain and stopped the blood loss. My flesh started to heal, and my energy level rose.
“Traitor!” Labu screamed at her. “You choose an outsider over your own brother!”
“Please, Labu,” Kumi said. “Think about what you’re saying and doing. You’re helping in our father’s murder.”
“Father is lost to us already. He doesn’t care about his people, just about meditating on his Path of Peace. Something has to change.”
“There are other ways to do that.”
“This is your fault.” He pointed his spear at me. “Putting ideas in her head. Drawing her favor away from her own people.”
“Just choose a side,” I spat. “In an ideal world, you could have both the clan and the guild. But Cadrin has taken this too far. He has to be stopped. Let me past you!”
Labu’s scream turned to one of incoherent rage as he charged. I called upon my Frozen Armor power to fix the gaps in my protection as he closed in. Lightning flashed when our weapons collided. The whole world was lit for a moment in dazzling white light, and our weapons locked together. I flung out my hand and blasted him at point-blank range with Untamed Torch.
Labu was thrown back, and his barbed spear skittered along the dock before dropping into the water. He staggered back with a hand to his chest where my magic had scorched him. He’d managed to weather a blow from a fireball, but his scaled flesh was blistered.
“See?” he said. “This one brings fire to the land of water. He would burn away our traditions and replace them with his own.”
“Enough words,” I said.
This time, I drew upon wood as well as fire and formed a flow of ash down my arm and out into the world. A black cloud ran from my hand, swirled through the air, and wrapped itself around Labu. He choked, gasped, and tried to stagger clear, but I kept the cloud moving with him so that he couldn’t breathe clearly or see where he was going. Step by uncertain step, he went closer to the edge of the docks.
In better conditions, I would have kept the cloud up until he fainted from lack of air. But the pouring rain carried the black dust down with it and formed dark stains across Labu’s tunic. In a few moments, my Ash Cloud would be gone entirely.
I ran at him, but Labu heard me and raised a long Ice Spear. He flailed wildly to hold me off as the remnants of my Ash Could fell away in black trickles down his chest. I brought my sword down and melted through his makeshift weapon. Frozen slices of spear tumbled to the ground with a bell-like tinkle.
Labu retreated further down the docks as he held his arm out. A tiny sliver of ice appeared in his hand before it melted away.
“Looks like you’re out of juice,” I said.
He stumbled over a coiled heap of rope, righted himself, and took another step back. I walked toward him as he finally managed to produce a frozen spike the size of a dagger. He raised the pitiful weapon, but I knocked it aside.
The back of his foot hit the edge of the dock, and he stopped. Waves crashed around him in the howling wind, but he stood steady on the brink, as if the ocean itself held him up.
I sheathed my blade, brought my hands together, and gathered all my Vigor into a fire pathway. An Untamed Torch coalesced between my hands. It grew in size as I fed it more Vigor. Then, I used Flame Empowerment to grow it into a blazing inferno I could hardly contain.
Labu blinked the last of the ash water from his eyes ju
st in time to see what I had made.
I hit him with the biggest damn fireball I could.
The blast struck him in the chest so hard that it hurled him from his feet. He hurtled out into the darkness, carried on a trail of flame that was extinguished as man and magic splashed down into the sea.
I stood on the dockside for a moment to watch for any sign of Labu’s return. It was hard to make out what was happening out there. Waves crashed wildly in the storm wind. Night was falling, adding to the darkness the clouds had caused, making it almost impossible to see anything away from the land and the lights that glowed in the windows of the guild house.
Kumi walked up beside me and clutched my arm.
“Did you kill him?” she asked in a hushed tone.
“He healed from a thorn, but a fireball like that is something else. It had to be done.”
“I know,” Kumi said. “But you didn’t kill him. The sea is our protector. I’m sure she’ll look after him and bring him home.”
I wasn’t so sure, but I didn’t have time to feel remorse or wonder whether Labu still lived.
“Are you still wounded under there?” she asked and tapped at my armor.
“Not seriously. It can wait until we get back to Qihin City.” I scanned the path leading from the guild house to the docks for any sign of my friends. I couldn’t see them, and I was starting to get worried.
“I must help Father,” she said. “Please, help me find a boat.”
My friends would have to handle themselves, at least for now. “All right,” I answered.
We marched along the docks, looking for vessels that hadn’t broken free, become flooded, or been smashed against the stones.
“There,” Kumi said as she pointed to one of the smaller boats, like the one that had first brought me to the island. “I know how to steer that.”
We grabbed hold of the ropes and hauled the boat in toward the dock. It was well-secured and covered with a tarpaulin that had kept most of the water out. Once it was close enough, I reached down and pulled the tarp aside to reveal enough seats for six people and the carving at the back that controlled the boat.
“Hop in,” I said. “I’ll cast off.”
Kumi shook her head. “I know boats and the sea better than you do. You get in.”
I wasn’t going to argue. I clambered into the swaying boat as the waves crashed around me, then grabbed hold of a ring embedded in the dockside to hold the boat steady while Kumi untied us. It rose and fell with the swelling sea, and it seemed like the little boat might be swamped at any moment, but I managed to cling on tight.
“Wait,” I said. “I can’t leave the others. Can you get back to Qihin by yourself?”
“I can,” Kumi answered.
Before I could disembark the boat, a shout went up from the gates. Vesma and Kegohr were sprinting from the guild house and running toward us.
“Quick!” Vesma shouted as she neared. “We have to go.”
They reached us just as Kumi finished unfastening the line holding the boat in place. Kegohr climbed down into the boat and almost overbalanced it with his weight just as he was followed by Vesma.
“Where’s Faryn?” I asked, ready to leap from the boat and find her.
More shouting came from the guild house as Faryn jumped down from the battlements and started to sprint for the docks. A stream of guards and initiates rushed out of the gates and pursued her. They waved their weapons over their heads as lightning flashed in the sky above them.
Kumi jumped into the boat. As she did, a wave lifted us up before it dropped us dramatically back down. I lost my grip on the boat and fell back against Kegohr. The surging sea carried us away from the dock as Faryn raced toward us.
I looked back at her across a widening gap. The massed forces of the Resplendent Tears Guild closed in behind her, but her face was one of determination and focus. She spread her arms, and leaves whirled around her in a vortex of motion. The mass of leaves lifted her off her feet, and she soared over the waves, leaving a trail of leaves behind her, and landed in the boat.
“Oh, yeah!” Kegohr slapped her on the back so hard that she almost fell straight into the water. “Go, Master Faryn!”
Kumi gripped the carving at the back of the boat. We began to pick up speed and cut through the waves instead of being flung about by them.
No one needed to ask where we were going. We all knew that Qihin City was the target of the guild’s schemes.
Horix had hidden his face from us. We hadn’t faced any guild members ranked above initiate either. I almost wondered whether coming to the guild house to rescue Kumi was all part of some master plan. It certainly seemed that way since we hadn’t faced the Guildmaster or any disciples or masters.
An uneasy feeling stirred in my stomach as I contemplated why Horix might have done this.
The trident. The Depthless Dream. Maybe it was far more powerful than I’d given it credit for.
Now, we were leaving the guild house without the trident, following after Cadrin like a bunch of fools.
But what else could I do? I couldn’t allow the king to die while I waged war on an entire guild with only four friends by my side.
Whether I liked it or not, the next step was returning to Qihin City.
The life of the king and the future of the clan depended on me.
Chapter Sixteen
We raced through the storm-tossed sea. Our little boat leaped from one wave top to the next as Kumi pushed us hard toward her home. My stomach churned as the boat was flung about, and Kegohr leaned over the side as he retched violently. The remains of his last meal vanished into the waves.
Kumi seemed unfazed by the speed or the lurching of the boat. She sat up straight in the back with a hand on the carving and her eyes on the horizon. Her low chant soothed our nerves and the worst of the raging water around us.
Water fountained into the air a hundred feet high. A flash of lightning illuminated a writhing pillar of darkness beneath the waves.
“Tidal wyrm,” Vesma spat as the creature snaked through the water.
“Cadrin’s lure must have stirred it from the depths,” Kumi said
Another writhing shape to our right caught my eye. The lightning flashed again, and revealed the shape to be another tidal wyrm. It moved through the maelstrom of storm and waves like a hot knife through butter. Scales glittered for an electrically illuminated moment, and dagger teeth shone against the howling night.
“They’re heading straight for Qihin City!” Faryn shouted over the roar of thunder.
Kumi’s song grew faster and louder. She bent low, stared across the waves, and both hands gripped the carving behind her. The water ahead was a chaotic blur of movement. Lightning shattered the sky again, revealing a path carved through the waves ahead of us.
We accelerated faster than ever as Kumi’s song rose to a crescendo. Her expression was strained, and her face paled in the roaring night, but she didn’t hesitate for a second. Blood trickled from her nostrils as she clenched her eyes shut.
We left the shadowy shapes of the tidal wyrms behind and soon, they were lost to view.
Lightning struck, illuminating the towering rocks and tall pagoda roofs of Qihin City.
Kumi’s voice cracked, and the waves crashed on the pathway ahead, but she didn’t slow us down. We shot up the side of a wave, flew off the peak, and hit the water less than a dozen yards from shore. The boat sliced to a halt in a heap of sand.
I knelt beside Kumi as rain poured from the heavens and ran in rivulets down her face.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
She nodded wearily and pushed herself to her feet. “No time to rest. My father is in danger.”
The princess leaped over the side of the boat without another word and sprinted up the short beach.
“She can’t keep that up,” Faryn said as we raced after the princess. “She’ll fall like a leaf in the wind.”
“One final push, and we can all rest,” I said.
The brightly painted woodwork of the city’s buildings became silhouettes broken by the light from windows. Few people had drawn their shutters despite the howling wind. Instead, they had placed lamps, candles, and glowing stones on the windowsills. Light streamed out toward the sea to guide home any sailors who were still out in the ocean’s rage. The lights illuminated our path as we raced through the streets. We couldn’t afford to pause, not for a second.
We would need something special to deal with the wyrms. Something big and unexpected. Something that would take some preparation. But we had to catch Cadrin and take the lures from him first.
We dashed across a bridge, through a square, and across a series of stepping stones.
“Look, up there!” Faryn shouted.
She pointed to an open-roofed shrine on top of a small rock plateau. It was the very same shrine where Vesma, Kumi, and I had fought a horde of monsters when we first came into the city. A shining point of bright blue could be seen on top of one of the pillars.
“That’s one of the lures,” Kumi said as we caught up to her.
“I’ve got it,” Vesma said.
She sprinted along the road, then flung her hands out and shot fire from them. The bursts of flame combined with her natural athleticism to propel her in a series of great bounds that grew higher as she came closer to the shrine. She leaped like a coiled spring as she neared the base of the plateau and fired off a final intense burst of flame. She soared through the air, landed on the shrine, and snatched up the lure.
It was time to do some fishing.
“Gather ‘round,” I said to the others. “I’ve got a plan.”
We stood in a cobbled square as the rain thundered down and cascaded off the nearby rooftops. Willows whipped in the wind at the corners of the square as I cast my eyes around for materials for something to fight the tidal wyrms with.
“We’re going to make a giant harpoon,” I said. “Faryn, you’ve spent over a century building a connection to the power of wood. I need you to call on that connection, to summon forth as much wood power as you can—from you, from me, from all around us.”
