The Obsidian Palace (Through the Fire Book 3)

by Benjamin Medrano

  Ruethwyn’s rage had cooled slightly, but it was only a slight difference. Instead, her anger was cold and precise. She quickly spoke to Luminous while the others were distracted. “Luminous, I’m going to try calling for another elemental at the same time. It’s a little risky, but I think I can manage it.”

  The elemental seemed to pause at that, in the midst of casting another spell. She completed it, launching a bolt of fire at a cultist who’d strayed a little too close, replying calmly. “Risky indeed, but you’re the one in danger. If you believe it worth the risk, so be it. Be quick, this battle is perilous, and I fear the kitsune are not winning.”

  Ruethwyn spared them a glance and blanched inwardly. Dozens of kitsune were down at this point, and she could see Sir Pendas in combat, at least delaying one of the huge monsters on his own. A good number of the attackers were down as well, but the man in the back kept disrupting the defenders’ formation with well-placed spells that entangled in conjured thorns, stunned, or outright injured them.

  Ripping her attention away, Ruethwyn murmured softly. “Zaria, I have need of you, come to my call.”

  The frozen thoughts of Zaria hit a moment later, and as they did, Ruethwyn gasped. A wave of blazing heat blasted through her, searing all the way from her toes to the crown of her head, feeling almost hot enough to blister, then it subsided before an equally bitter wave of cold. It was like being stuck in the middle of the blizzard on the other side of the portal in Valisair again, and Ruethwyn felt her fingers curl as she grunted, and she saw the symbols along her arms start flickering and fading between blue and golden white as wave after wave of heat and cold ripped through her, splintering her mind.

  “Ruethwyn, what do you think you’re doing? This isn’t—” Zaria began, then paused as she took in the sight and the presence of Luminous. Then she spoke, somewhat disapproving, as she focused on Hekara. “Oh, her. Again. What do you think you’re doing, though? Are you trying to rip your body apart?”

  “No! I’m trying to defend from fire and be able to attack!” Ruethwyn replied, then lunged to the side, dodging as Hekara spun toward her, her arm swiping through the air and creating claw-like blades of flame that ripped through the air savagely. One clipped Ruethwyn’s shield, which dimmed as it lost strength. It felt like Ruethwyn’s stomach was twisting into knots, and she felt herself beginning to sweat as the two opposing energies warred in her mind and body. “I thought since my body was aligned with both, I could handle this!”

  “I thought you said that I made a mistake. Instead, you’re scrambling around like a panicking mouse,” Hekara mocked, grinning as she gestured toward the fallen figure of Korima, twisting her claws to redirect the blades of fire toward Ruethwyn. “Maybe I should finish her off? You seemed rather upset, and I’d love to see you suffer more, girl.”

  The blades hit Ruethwyn’s shield this time, and the barrier shattered, throwing her sideways into a nearby fence. It extinguished the blades as well, but Ruethwyn hissed in pain.

  “Overconfident, isn’t she?” Luminous observed. “Combat isn’t the best time to experiment.”

  “Shush, you. You obviously don’t know Ruethwyn very well. She does best under pressure,” Zaria retorted, and Ruethwyn could feel Luminous’s shock.

  “Do you have any idea—” the phoenix dragon began, but she was interrupted by Hekara throwing a bolt of fire at Ruethwyn, and the young elf barely managed to dodge, seeing that Tadrick had only managed to inflict a few cuts on his opponent.

  “Hah! You’re not worth my time, even with atavism! I’m going to kill you now, and that stupid dark—” Hekara crowed, but as she did so, Ruethwyn felt her hair slightly stand on end.

  The night lit up as a brilliant bolt of lightning descended from the sky to strike the demon with unerring accuracy. The resulting thunderclap was immense, and Ruethwyn staggered, somewhat shocked as she saw Hekara stagger backward, a black scorch mark down her entire left side.

  A single look to the side left Ruethwyn half in shock, though. Sella was standing there, but she didn’t look like she normally did, as some of her hair was standing up like from static electricity. A few blackened scorch marks played across her skin like the jagged outlines of lightning, but more pertinent were the glittering, whirling marks of atavism across her arms and up her neck and face, each of them glittering with barely restrained lightning, and Ruethwyn could see the anger in Sella’s glowing eyes.

  “Rue, pull yourself together!” Sella said, her voice taut. “What in the hells are you doing?”

  “She’s right. Ruethwyn, are you really so foolish?” Zaria spoke tartly. “You’re relying on me and elementals too much, when you don’t truly need us. Think, girl! You were reborn in Our Lady’s garden, and given the body of an elemental yourself! Why do you need to summon me when you can draw on the power of your own body? Fire and ice exist within you, yet you’re ignoring them. Magic is part of you, not some separate element you need to control so excessively, girl, so stop using us as a crutch, or I’ll end our pact entirely!”

  Ruethwyn almost recoiled at the harsh comment, but at the same time her eyes went wide from the successive shocks of Sella’s use of atavism and Zaria’s admonishment. Her voice was a murmur as she spoke, feeling dazed. “I’m… part elemental. Gods, why didn’t I realize that?”

  “That hurt! Sella, is it? I’m going to rip you apart and feed your tongue to my hounds!” Hekara shouted, and her fingers wove through the air, creating a dozen bolts of glowing fire that launched toward Sella.

  Sella’s shield burst under the assault, but the glowing blue barrier reformed moments later, and she replied bluntly. “You’ll try, maybe.”

  Lightning gathered in Sella’s hands, then blasted toward the demoness, who quickly dodged the blasts as she started casting again, this time taking much longer to cast. Beyond her, Ruethwyn saw Tadrick fall back, bleeding from a wound on his side as he panted. At the current rate, things weren’t going to go well for them, she realized. So she swallowed hard, closing her eyes… and relaxed her grip on her magic and atavism.

  Mana and elemental energy entwined within Ruethwyn and erupted suddenly. This wasn’t some mild eruption, either, but more like the rumble of an oncoming avalanche combined with the eruption of a volcano. Yet this time there was something different, and as the elements escaped Ruethwyn’s control, she communed not just with the two elementals within herself, but she also extended her senses into her blood and body.

  Fire burned within her veins, extending throughout her entire body. It was surrounded by cold, yet that cold didn’t extinguish the fire. The frozen energy within her flesh was all-encompassing, wrapped around the veins that spread fire through her body like the roots of an ancient tree. It was strange that they didn’t burn her, but the two existed in harmony. They were in balance. As she sensed that, Ruethwyn felt the raging elements… shift with her understanding. A whole new world of understanding felt like it opened before her, as the energy from both elementals fell into balance.

  “Rue!” Tadrick’s voice cut through her concentration, and Ruethwyn opened her eyes to see a glowing ball of fire racing toward her from Hekara’s grasp. Several options flashed through her mind, but instead, Ruethwyn smiled and went with the simplest of them.

  With a flick of her wrist, the wand popped out of its sheath and into her hand and she murmured the word to activate it. The shard of ice that lanced out from the wand was tiny, not enough to hurt Hekara, but that wasn’t what she’d aimed at.

  The shard struck the orb in mid-flight, and it exploded in a violent eruption of flames that stopped just short of Ruethwyn.

  “Much better,” Zaria said, her voice filled with satisfaction.

  “Thank you, Zaria. I… didn’t realize,” Ruethwyn murmured, then smiled at the surprised look on Hekara’s face. “Now, let’s try this again, shall we?”

  Chapter 26

  “That… was different,” Luminous murmured, sounding surprised.

  “Rue has issues w
ith overthinking things, and I finally lost patience with her,” Zaria replied absently. “It’s adorable to watch her flounder about much of the time, but eventually she needed to get over paralyzing herself by trying to plan things and just do what needed to happen.”

  “You need to learn some respect,” Luminous growled, obviously annoyed with Zaria’s tone.

  The frost nymph simply seemed to grow amused, retorting. “You need to earn it, first. I’ve seen stronger things than you.”

  “Rue, what did you do?” Sella asked, looking startled.

  “Help Tadrick,” Ruethwyn replied shortly, her eyes focused on Hekara, who had started on another spell already. Considering the demon, Ruethwyn sent mana from her bracelet into the ring she’d intended for Resvarygrath’s breath. It took a bit of effort, but she managed to ignore the bickering between Luminous and Zaria in the background.

  Sliding forward two steps, Ruethwyn drew on her magic and began weaving her spell, her anger receding slightly as she focused, weaving fire and ice together. Hekara’s spell finished and a blast of brilliant flame as narrow as an arrow lanced out at Ruethwyn. Smiling at the sight of it, Ruethwyn didn’t move, instead calmly completing her spell as she allowed her first shield to die and the second, wedge-shaped one to spring to life.

  The arrow split on hitting the wedge, as the shield cut the flames apart and redirected them up and outward. Compared to the blast of the dragon’s flames, even as a shade in the Halls of Trials, the attack was nothing. Ruethwyn’s own attack was a simple orb of blue-white fire, or at least that was what it looked like. As Ruethwyn launched it at the demon, Hekara sneered.

  “Fire? You dare use fire on me?” she said, dodging to the side, but her movement was more halfhearted than it should’ve been. “You can’t hurt a fire demon with—”

  Ruethwyn twitched her fingers, and the orb turned in mid-flight, redirecting to hit Hekara in the shoulder. There was a sizzling sound as the demoness suddenly screamed in pain, and Ruethwyn saw the horned demon Tadrick was fighting falter, and the opening allowed her friend to open a gash in his arm just as a bolt of lightning from Sella sent the creature staggering to the side for a moment.

  Hekara’s right arm, on the other hand, was blackened and bubbled, as if it’d been burnt horribly, and Hekara was clutching at it, her face pale now as she stared at her arm, then at Ruethwyn in horror. Her voice was filled with pain as she demanded, “What in all the hells was that?! It wasn’t fire, but it wasn’t ice, either!”

  “Call it frostfire, I suppose,” Ruethwyn replied coldly, conjuring fire in one hand and ice in the other. “I’ve been overthinking things, from what people have told me. Fire and ice can coexist, if one figures out how. And that… that’s ideal for you. Ice that does not fear fire, and fire which isn’t diminished by ice.”

  “No, that’s not possible! I’m stronger than you are, and I’ll destroy you!” Hekara growled, and her wings lit up even brighter as she began chanting loudly.

  Ruethwyn’s attention focused more, and she began murmuring a chant of her own, quickly dancing to the side to ensure that Korima was behind her. The battle was going poorly, but she couldn’t let herself focus on that, instead focusing on winning the fight.

  Hekara was stronger than Ruethwyn was, but that was only if they compared raw power. With the ring to protect her from fire and the frostfire, Ruethwyn held an advantage, and the overconfident demon had allowed herself to be injured already. The key was to keep her attention focused on Ruethwyn to keep the demon from injuring her friends or interfering with the kitsune.

  They completed their spells at virtually the same time, and Hekara’s exploded violently. Fire and molten spears of stone erupted from the ground in a cone in front of the demon, shredding earthen berms, fences, and gardens in its path as it rolled toward Ruethwyn. Ruethwyn’s spell was different, though, and she brought the fire and ice in each hand together to create a tightly focused blast of frostfire. A trail of burning ice lashed out across the ground, and the two spells hit one another harshly, but neither stopped the other. Hekara’s spell destroyed the trail of Ruethwyn’s, and Ruethwyn’s froze the glowing spears solid. Ruethwyn threw still more mana into her shield as she saw the fiery wave coming, and Hekara’s wings crossed in front of her in a barrier of flames.

  The wave of fire split when it hit Ruethwyn’s shield, but the spears were an entirely different question. Their tips shattered on her shield one after another, but at the same time her shield shuddered under the assault, as layer after layer of it began to fail. Just as Ruethwyn thought it was going to shatter, the spell came to an abrupt end.

  Ruethwyn’s gaze rose to the demoness, and as Ruethwyn watched, the flaming wings dimmed, then flickered out of existence. Behind them, Hekara’s skin was bubbled and cracked, but her eyes still had some fire to them. Fire that was dimming, and the figure hissed as Hekara spoke. “I… hate you, girl. No matter how long it takes, I will have my vengeance.”

  With that, the demoness’s body shattered like broken stone, dissolving as she collapsed to the ground and the color of her skin and the burning lines along her arms dimming, then going out.

  Collax bellowed in rage, and Ruethwyn spun to see him charging toward her. She was just raising her arm when she heard both Sella and Tadrick’s voices rising in chants. An instant later, there was another brilliant flash of light as a thunderbolt struck the demon, so bright that Ruethwyn almost thought she could see his bones through his flesh, and there was the sound like a blade hitting flesh.

  When the light passed, the horned figure wasn’t charging but was instead swaying in place. After a moment, it slowly slumped and Ruethwyn saw a spray of metal shards buried in the back of its neck, while Tadrick stood behind the demon, panting loudly.

  “That’s… why you don’t turn your back…” Tadrick managed, looking completely winded.

  For a bare moment, Ruethwyn and the others stood there, winded and tired. The next instant, Zaria snapped. “Look out!”

  Ruethwyn’s gaze rose quickly, and she blanched as she saw almost all the cultist magi facing her direction and casting. The only ones who weren’t would be just enough to keep the kitsune magi busy, and Ruethwyn threw mana into her shield as she called out. “Sella, Tad!”

  The kitsune who’d been guarding their flanks were coming to reinforce the main battle, but Ruethwyn winced as she saw that better than three-quarters of the defenders were down. About that many attackers had fallen as well, but only one of the huge monstrosities was gone. An instant later, the spells were launched, though, and Ruethwyn couldn’t spare attention for the kitsune as a half dozen spells lanced out toward her.

  In the lead was a cluster of bright blue bolts, and Ruethwyn saw Sella pour mana into her shield as Tadrick tried to take cover and started on a shield of his own, but just a bit too late. The bolts split to head toward each of them, and Ruethwyn braced herself for the impact.

  Unlike what she was expecting, there was no resounding impact as the bolts hit her shield or Sella’s. Instead her eyes went wide with horror as it splattered across her shield like liquid and her shield dissolved under the assault, leaving her without time to create a new one. She did try to aim her wand at one of the oncoming spells, but she wasn’t quite quick enough.

  The second spell was a dull brown, and it hit the ground just in front of Ruethwyn to disappear, then the ground beneath her rippled and launched her into the air. Ruethwyn yelped, trying to activate her other shield and almost lost her grip on the wand. The problem was that the spells were coming too quickly, as evidenced by the last one, which exploded into a spray of sticky white webbing as she flailed in midair. The webbing wrapped around her in the time it took Ruethwyn to blink, stifling speech as it struck her face and covered one of her eyes as it wrapped around her. Ruethwyn let out a muffled sound as she hit the ground, the air blasting from her nose, and all her limbs restrained.

  “Letting your guard down in mid-battle is somewhat foolish,” Luminous comment
ed, not sounding terribly impressed.

  “Lay down your arms and we’ll make this painless!” The cultist who’d arrived last called out, his voice magically amplified. “Most of your allies have fallen, and you can’t stop us.”

  His words incensed Ruethwyn, and without a moment’s thought, she called to the two elementals within her, and she felt their surprise as the lines between them blurred, then vanished.

  The fire in Ruethwyn’s blood grew from embers to a full-on flame, and her body’s ice grew colder still, and she could feel the power within her grow as her body shifted. Heat surged across her body, and Ruethwyn almost recoiled as the webbing around her ignited, burning away in seconds. The magical webbing burnt to nothing, and she climbed to her feet, seeing Sella was wrapped up as well, while where Tadrick had been was a round stone hemisphere taller than he was.

  “I think not!” Sir Pendas growled, his armor dented and his axe missing, though he was now using a sword. Ruethwyn hurried over to Sella, noticing that her skin looked like ice, while the patterns across her skin were blazing with fire. She laid a hand on her friend and flinched as the webs went up in flames like tinder, but their blaze was so brief it shouldn’t hurt Sella. “We won’t give in to evil monsters like you!”

  “This isn’t good,” Sella gasped, swallowing as the patterns of her atavism began fading. “I don’t have a ton of mana left, and Korima…”

  A sharp sound split the air from nearby, and Ruethwyn saw a blade punch through the stone sphere like it was made of cheese. She’d almost forgotten how sharp and hard adamantine alloy blades were. Glancing back at Korima, Ruethwyn let out a breath of relief, seeing that her friend was still breathing.

  “We know. She’s not in immediate danger, but… tend to her? We’ll try until we run out of options,” Ruethwyn murmured. “Tadrick looks like he’ll be fine.”