A Thunder of War (The Avalon Chronicles Book 3)

by Steve McHugh

  No one spoke. Layla wasn’t sure what to say to being told that a friend was going to die in the next forty-eight hours.

  “There has to be a cure,” Zamek said. “You’re immortal. That’s got to mean something.”

  “Unfortunately, immortal is not impervious,” Nabu said. “There’s nothing to be done. The dwarves tried numerous things, but nothing is even slowing it down, and I can tell you right now that there’s not a single thing to be done back on the Earth realm. Scientific medicine doesn’t work on me like on you. And using magic or runes will likely just make it worse. To be honest, I’ve never needed anything other than my own natural healing ability.”

  Layla took a deep breath. “So, you’re just giving up?”

  “Not at all,” Nabu said. “Giving up implies that I have something to lose by dying. I am an och. Death is another part of life. And not in that way that religious people say they go to heaven. No, I mean literally. I die. I am reborn.”

  “Wait, what?” Zamek asked.

  “I die. I come back,” Nabu said. “I’m not sure I can put those words into an easier context. When we die we become pure energy, which is scattered across the realm we’re in. We become part of the landscape itself. Giving power to life all around us. When I was a child, one of my teachers, another och, suggested that the various magical species around the realms come from the death of an exceptionally powerful och. After several centuries as pure energy gifted to so many different forms of life, I will begin the process of rebirth. A human woman and man will have a child, and that child will eventually become me. I will regain my powers and memories, but I will not be Nabu as you know me. But no matter who I am, I will be an och.”

  “So, it’s not really death,” Zamek said. “But it’ll be centuries before we meet again.”

  Nabu nodded. “It could be, yes. My one sadness is that I must leave all my friends and loved ones to continue my journey. I have seen and done miraculous things, and it’s time to move to the next step.”

  Layla hugged Nabu. “You’ll be missed.”

  Nabu smiled. “I will miss you too. I will accompany you all to Helheim. I might not be at my peak fitness, but I’d at least like to help defeat Abaddon.”

  Zamek hugged Nabu with all his strength. “You are a good friend,” he said. “And let’s go give Abaddon a kicking before you have to leave this world for a while.”

  Jomik led the group to an armory that was so large it required three floors, where they were all told to take what they needed. Layla picked up a silver-bladed sword, with a blue-and-silver hilt and grip. She was already wearing armor, and declined to change it for anything heavier.

  Everyone grabbed a few weapons, while Zamek took black plate-like armor, although it weighed next to nothing when Layla picked it up.

  An hour later, several thousand heavily armed dwarves gathered just outside the human part of the city.

  “No humans?” Layla asked Jomik, who wore black-and-silver plate armor, and carried a huge war hammer.

  “They wanted to come,” Jomik said. “But they’re used to fighting animals or the occasional blood elf. Everyone here today fought the blood elves when we lost the mountain.”

  Layla wished Jomik good luck, and found Zamek and Chloe by Leonardo’s creation. It had no roof, just roll bars, and both doors were gone. The back seats had seen better days, and blood was splashed around the front of the vehicle, which also happened to be smashed in. The saber-tooth panther lay beside the car. Several dwarves eyed her suspiciously. Someone had placed armor on her body, reminding Layla of the kind of armor she’d seen dogs wear when they went on missions with military teams. It looked like leather etched with dark-blue and gray runes and was the same color as the cat.

  “You used this to drive over blood elves. Did you also drive through a wall?” Layla asked.

  Zamek patted the beat-up vehicle affectionately on the side. “She’s done me proud.”

  “You drove through a wall, didn’t you?”

  “Technically it was not a wall, but there were rocks involved, yes. She might need some work when we get back to Shadow Falls.”

  “We’re driving your car into the mountain?” Layla asked.

  “Well, I can’t leave her here.”

  Chloe and Layla shared an expression of humor as Nabu walked through the crowd of dwarves and climbed up onto the truck, sitting in the shotgun position. He wore deep-red plate armor and carried a sword at his hip that was in a black-and-gold sheath. The hilt of the sword was in the shape of a white dragon. He turned to Zamek, Chloe, and Layla. “We going, or what?”

  Layla climbed into the back of the jeep and looked at the dwarves gathered around her. Vorisbo stood in full armor, hopping from foot to foot as if she were eager for what was coming next. Dralas and Tarron were in the crowd. The giant had grown to massive proportions and towered over everyone around him.

  “For the dwarves,” Jomik shouted, raising his double-edged battle-ax high in the air.

  The dwarves all around him did the same with their weapons, their shouts echoing all around them. Jomik motioned for Layla to say something.

  “Thank you,” Layla said, unsure what someone in her position was meant to say. “Thank you for helping us. We will take back your home. We will take back your land. And we will make those who took it pay for every drop of blood they spilled as they stole it from you.”

  The dwarves let out a war cry that forced Layla to hold on to the roll bars. She looked down at Zamek, who was in the driver’s seat. “Let’s get your home back.”

  They’d driven only a few feet down the hill when they spotted a dozen dwarves running toward them from the entrance to the city of Hreidmar. Several soldiers ran to meet them and then hurried over to the jeep looking anxious.

  “They were scouting inside the mountain,” he told them. “One of the scouts got captured and they couldn’t get to him before he revealed the location of Hreidmar. A woman, who looks human but isn’t, tortured then killed him, and now they’re mobilizing, probably on their way here.”

  “What did this woman look like?” Layla asked.

  The soldier shouted over to one of the dwarves who’d just arrived, who described Abaddon perfectly. “They’re carrying some kind of metal poles,” another dwarf scout added.

  “This just got a lot shitter,” Zamek said.

  “Okay,” Layla said, her mind racing. “There are innocents here—people who can’t fight. We can’t let Abaddon and those elves attack the city.”

  “We can defend Hreidmar if we need to,” Jomik said.

  “I don’t think that will work,” Layla said. “Those poles might be the weapon that Abaddon used in Norumbega. If they get it to work, a lot of people could die.”

  “How does it work?” Jomik asked.

  “It absorbs life energy and puts out some kind of purple mist.”

  Jomik paled. “The Devil’s Venom? That’s a myth. My grandfather used to tell us a scary story about the devils and how they tried to take over all of the realms.”

  “I’ve seen it,” Layla said. “It certainly isn’t a myth, and if she gets it to work then we’re all screwed.”

  “Do you know more about it?” Zamek asked.

  Jomik shook his head. “No, just that it puts out a mist that removes powers, makes non-humans weak. Humans weren’t exactly much of a concern when the devils were first created. They were barely able to keep fire going without burning themselves.”

  “We need to stop them,” Chloe said.

  “Agreed,” Tarron said. “We take the fight to Abaddon. How long to get a lot more of your dwarves ready to fight?”

  “You sure they know where we are?” Jomik asked the scout.

  “Not exactly, no,” he said. “We shadowed those elves for some time. They certainly sounded like they know we exist, but they didn’t mention the city by name. When you escaped, one of the elves activated the realm gate. It went through and then came back with Abaddon and several dozen more el
ves.”

  “Which means they have a way in and out of the mountain,” Jomik said.

  “There’s a north passage,” Vorisbo said. “We never use it because there are tens of thousands of blood elves between the entrance and the mountain itself. It’s the closest way out of the mountain to here, but it takes you up to the top of the forest.”

  “I have a plan,” Layla said.

  Everyone turned toward her.

  “Right now the elves are inside the mountain,” Layla said. “Any idea how long before they’re planning on leaving?”

  “Nightfall,” the dwarven scout said.

  “How long until nightfall?” Layla asked Vorisbo.

  “Eight hours or so,” she said.

  “Abaddon is stuck here if that gate goes,” Zamek said.

  “And I don’t think she wants to be stuck here,” Chloe said. “She’s got a war in Helheim to win.”

  “How do you know she’ll run after us instead of coming to the city?” Jomik asked.

  “We’re going to have to piss her off,” Layla said.

  Chloe smiled. “Shame Remy isn’t here—he’d be great at that.”

  “We’ll just have to channel our inner Remy,” Layla said, “and make a devil want to kill us. So, I want you to get your dwarves to the mountain and make a lot of noise. A lot. We need Abaddon to think you’re coming back to take that realm gate and are bringing reinforcements.”

  “And what will you do?” Jomik asked.

  “We’re going to go to the mouth of the tunnel Vorisbo was talking about and check that not one of those staffs have made it out. And then we’re going to collapse it on as many blood elves as possible.”

  “I like your plan,” Vorisbo said.

  “You’re welcome to join us,” Layla said. She turned to Jomik. “How long before you’re ready to get your forces to the mountain?”

  “We’ll be good to go within the hour,” he told her. “We dwarves don’t need much time to get ready for a fight.”

  “True story,” Zamek said to no one in particular.

  “How long to drive around to the pathway into the mountain?” Layla asked Zamek.

  “There’s no way to drive the whole distance. I can get us to the mountain and then we’ve got a few hours walk through the forest to the plains where the entrance is. We should be able to spot any elves walking out with staffs.”

  “I’m going to need your dwarves to do something else,” Layla said. “How long would it take half a dozen dwarves to make a tunnel big enough for all of us that will go from outside the mountain where we’re going to be to just beyond where the tunnel collapses?”

  Jomik brought over six dwarves and asked them for estimates on time.

  “Twenty minutes per hundred feet,” Jomik said.

  Layla thought about it for a second. “I need this tunnel to go about five hundred feet around the side of the current one. When Abaddon and her elves spot us inside the main tunnel, we’re going to lure them out and collapse it on top of them. Then we’ll use the new tunnel you’ve dug to get behind them and fight there. You’ll have about an hour to dig this tunnel. Can you do it?”

  The dwarves huddled together for several seconds. “Point us to where you want it,” one of them said.

  Zamek couldn’t hide his smile.

  “Let’s get going then,” Layla said. “I don’t want to keep Abaddon and her elves waiting.”

  15

  LAYLA CASSIDY

  Zamek drove the six dwarves to the clearing before coming back for Vorisbo, Chloe, Tarron, Nabu, and Layla. Dralas and the panther followed them. The giant increased his size to keep up with Zamek’s driving, which could have been described as haphazard. Layla soon began to wish there were seatbelts, airbags, and on one particularly unpleasant two-wheeled incident, she just wanted to walk the rest of the way.

  It didn’t take long for Zamek to reach the clearing outside the mountain. He parked the vehicle and everyone disembarked. Layla hoped she never had to get back into the death machine ever again.

  “Zamek, you suck at driving,” Chloe said, looking a little green.

  “It’s my first time,” Zamek told her with a smile. “I’m quite impressed by the speed I got up to.”

  “I’m quite impressed I didn’t throw up,” Layla told him.

  “Will the dwarves you dropped off have enough time to do what they need to?” Layla asked.

  “You made it a question of pride,” Zamek told her. “They will get that tunnel made, trust me.”

  “How long now?” Tarron asked, looking like he wanted to get a move on after the panther and Dralas arrived.

  “Follow me,” Vorisbo said.

  The group moved through the forest at high speed. Vorisbo occasionally motioned for everyone to stop while she pointed out one predator or another that lived there. It turned out that Vorisbo was an exceptional guide, as none of them had to defend themselves against anything more dangerous than low-hanging branches. Layla was sure that having the panther with them probably deterred other predators from attack.

  Even so, Layla caught the occasional glimpse through the forest of other saber-tooth panthers, or a bear that was twice the size of a grizzly back on the Earth realm. And, at one particular moment, a spider that was about the same size as an SUV. Zamek and Chloe both shuddered at the sight of the spider as it scuttled up an enormous tree into the darkness of the forest canopy high above them.

  Eventually, the group made it to the edge of the forest, which looked out at an expansive plain filled with two-foot-tall green and yellow grass. They all crouched down and scanned for enemies.

  “Any chance there’s anything in there that won’t be happy to see us?” Tarron asked.

  “No,” Vorisbo said. “The predators stick to the forests because the blood elves are so close.” She pointed across the plain. “There are dozens of small camps dotted around the plains, but it appears that the blood elves have all gone. Normally you can smell the fires and cooking, you can hear the din of elves. With them gone, it’s actually quite peaceful.”

  “Where’s the tunnel?” Dralas asked.

  Vorisbo pointed off to the left. “It’s down a hill over there. There’s a bridge and then the tunnel. You can’t miss it.”

  Layla looked over at the mountain looming high above them, and then across the plains to check for movement. A shriek to the right caught her attention.

  “What was that?” Chloe asked.

  “Blood elf scream,” Nabu said. Layla was impressed that, despite being poisoned, Nabu had kept up with the pace of the group with ease. Not once had he asked to slow or rest, and Layla wondered how much he was running on empty. She hoped he wasn’t trying to push himself too much to keep up, but he knew his own body better than anyone, so she trusted him to let them know if he had any problems.

  “Let’s go find out,” Vorisbo said, removing the battle-ax that was hung from a holster on her back and moving through the tree line toward the noise.

  The shriek happened twice more as the group moved toward it. The panther growled low.

  “She doesn’t like whatever it is,” Layla said, keeping her voice to a whisper.

  Zamek went ahead a little way, then slowly returned to the group. “Blood elves,” he said. “Don’t worry about whispering. Looks like six of them, and they walked into a web. The screams are them being attacked by exceptionally large spiders.”

  Layla had a very real desire to walk the other way.

  “I saw a large, black staff-shaped thing too,” Zamek said. “I think they were meant for the Devil’s Venom. If anyone wants to go into that nest and retrieve the staff, they’re more than welcome to, but I’d really rather not.”

  “Can it work without being properly set up?” Layla asked.

  “The runes would need to be activated,” Vorisbo said. “They won’t work if they’re just left in there.”

  “Do you think it would work with fewer staffs?” Zamek asked Nabu.

  “The
Devil’s Venom was a weapon I never actually saw used. I heard about it, but that was thousands of years ago before the Titan Wars. I don’t recall anyone mentioning the number of pillars or staffs, or whatever it is they’re using.”

  A blood elf burst out of the tree line not far from where the group sat and ran into the grass, before tripping and falling as two large spider’s legs came out of the darkness of the forest, followed slowly by the rest of it.

  Vorisbo motioned for everyone to move back into the trees. “They have really bad vision,” she said. “If you don’t move, and don’t disturb the web, they can’t see you.”

  “I’m getting some serious Jurassic Park vibes here,” Chloe said.

  “I don’t know what that is,” Vorisbo said.

  “Just nod,” Zamek whispered as the spider crept slowly toward a scrambling blood elf.

  “We could really use that elf to help us get information on the weapon,” Layla said.

  Before anyone could act, the huge black spider pounced and sank its fangs into the back of the blood elf. The elf dropped to the ground and the team crept away, having no desire to watch what happened next.

  They followed the tree line for several minutes, then headed down a hill toward a fast-flowing river with a stone-and-wooden bridge crossing it.

  “We could just drop the bridge,” Dralas said.

  “They’d rebuild it,” Layla said. “And it wouldn’t force Abaddon back into the mountain.”

  The ground on the other side of the bridge was dark and littered with the remains of a huge camp.

  “It still smells of burning,” Layla said as they crossed the bridge.

  “And death,” Dralas said.

  The entrance to the mountain was large enough for a passenger jet with room to spare. Crystals flickered inside. One of the dwarves who had arrived before them stood outside the mouth of the tunnel. Zamek and Vorisbo went over to talk to him, and the dwarf ran off around a large boulder a short while later.

  “They’re almost done,” Zamek said as everyone else joined him. “They’re not exactly proud of their work, and they asked for more time to make it smoother inside, but I told him it wasn’t necessary.”