by Steve McHugh
“Be careful,” Kase said, running off toward the last trebuchet.
Mordred knew he couldn’t keep up with a horse at full run, but he used his air magic to increase his speed and agility. His lungs burned from running as fast as he could toward the fortress. He was not about to let Elizabeth escape.
By the time he reached the fortress and stepped inside, Elizabeth was long gone, but her horse was still in the main courtyard.
“They didn’t need me,” Kase said from behind Mordred, causing him to jump slightly.
He turned to her and smiled. “You did that on purpose. Go around to the rear of the fortress, I’ll go through the prison complex; hopefully we’ll flush her out.”
Kase ran off to the side of the courtyard, vanishing from view as she moved around the large prison building.
Mordred walked up to the prison entrance and pushed open the door. One of the prisoners who had escaped earlier had decided to return. He turned to Mordred and, with a scream, rushed him, moving faster than Mordred had anticipated. He hit Mordred hard enough to fling him back into the courtyard; only a shield of air saved him from a painful landing.
The prisoner had long, gray hair, a matching beard, and wore nothing except a loincloth. His body was a mass of scars and dirt, and his frame was just wiry muscle that didn’t look like it could contain the strength it did.
The prisoner ran through Mordred’s blast of air like it wasn’t even there, picked him up, and threw him again as if he weighed nothing at all. Mordred twisted in the air and landed on his feet some distance from the prisoner, who bared his dirty teeth and howled.
He sprinted toward Mordred, who drew his sword, trying to catch his attacker with it, but he simply swatted the blade out of Mordred’s grasp, sending it cartwheeling across the courtyard, before punching Mordred in the ribs. He felt them break as he was thrown against the nearest wall.
Getting back to his feet, Mordred avoided another punch, which destroyed the part of the wall where his head had once been, and tried to duck away, but the prisoner grabbed his arm. Pain shot through his body and he screamed in agony as the blood magic that was so prevalent in the prisoners went to work. He dropped to his knees, the sounds of the prisoner’s laughter blocked out by the pain that rushed through his body.
As his vision began to darken, he managed to grab the silver knuckles from his pocket and hurriedly slip them on. He turned and hit the prisoner in the kidney with everything he had. The prisoner released Mordred’s arm and scurried away, howling in agony.
The pain in Mordred’s arm began to subside, but it still felt numb, and his ribs still burned, even as his magic set to work healing them. He put the other knuckles on and got back to his feet.
The prisoner ran toward Mordred and tried to claw at his face. Mordred punched the prisoner’s elbow, shattering the bone, then punched his sternum, sending him to the ground.
“Should have walked away,” Mordred said as the prisoner clawed at his own chest in an effort to get at the broken bones there, his fractured arm already healed from the earlier punch.
Mordred punched him in the side of the head, knocking him back to the ground. He tried to move, so Mordred punched him again, over and over, tearing muscle and breaking bones until he was unrecognizable, his breathing wet and unpleasant.
Mordred’s hands were covered in blood as he drove a blade of air into the prisoner’s chest, pinning him there while he retrieved his sword. When Mordred returned, the prisoner’s face was already healing. Mordred decapitated the creature with one swipe before stepping over the body and walking into the prison.
Anger radiated from every pore of his body. He had not wanted to kill any of the prisoners. They hadn’t asked for what had become of them, just like he hadn’t asked to be tortured and turned into a weapon of evil. He had wanted to give them the chance to die honorably in battle against an enemy who had been a part of what created them.
Elizabeth stood at the doors to the rear of the prison and smiled as Mordred walked toward her. Fog poured out of her hands, swirling around Mordred, who combined his air and water magics together and continued walking in her direction.
“Is this meant to be something special?” Mordred asked.
“My fog will make you sick,” Elizabeth said with an evil grin.
Mordred took a deep breath. “It’s not working.”
The look of surprise on Elizabeth’s face was almost worth everything he’d had to do to get here. “How?” she asked, running at the door, flinging it open, and running out into the courtyard.
“My magic,” Mordred said, following her as she backed toward the dragon’s cave, her gaze never leaving him. Mordred circled her, until he stood in the mouth of the dragon’s cave, with Elizabeth’s back facing the rear doors of the prison. “Combining water and air lets me breathe in any conditions. You would have been better off just using bad language.”
Elizabeth stood firm, her hands balled into fists. “You won’t kill me,” she said, utterly sure of herself. “You couldn’t look at Layla the same way knowing you’d murdered her mother.”
“You’re not her mother,” Mordred said. “You’re a charlatan, a bad copy who got the outside bit right, but can’t hide the evil beneath the skin. But you’re right, I’m not going to kill you.”
Elizabeth’s smile grew. “I knew it—you care for Layla. It’s a weakness.”
Mordred shook his head. “Not a weakness, never a weakness to care. But I’m not going to kill you, because she is.”
Mordred pointed behind Elizabeth, who turned just as Kase plunged a blade of silver into her chest. “Eat shit and die,” Kase said, then she stepped around Elizabeth, who died before she hit the floor.
“You okay?” Mordred asked. He looked down at Elizabeth’s corpse and felt bad for Layla. He hoped she would be able to deal with what he and Kase had had to do.
“It needed doing,” Kase said, placing a hand on Mordred’s shoulder. “For Layla, it needed doing.”
Mordred looked away from Elizabeth, and knew that Kase was right. “Agreed, now let’s go win this war.”
24
LAYLA CASSIDY
Before the team left, they found the two remaining Fates. They were drugged, but alive, in a small room with rune-adorned walls just outside the main cavern. They helped all three Fates out of the tree and joined the rest of the team waiting below.
“Where’s Nabu?” Harry asked as they left the interior of the tree.
Layla looked at the ground and shook her head, pulling Harry into a hug for comfort. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered.
“He saved my life,” Hades said, looking more like the man that Layla had known for the last two years. “But at the cost of his own.”
“How many did you lose?” Lucifer asked.
The saber-tooth panther padded over to Layla and rubbed her head against Layla’s leg. Layla smiled. She was glad that her feline friend hadn’t been seriously hurt.
“Three of the dwarves,” Diana said, pointing over to the remaining dwarves, who had carried their kin toward the realm gate.
The bodies of the blood elves and giants would be dealt with at a later time, if anyone bothered to deal with them at all. Layla wondered if they’d be left to fertilize the tree.
“We need to get back to Helheim,” Chloe said. “There’s still a war to win.”
Everyone started moving back toward the realm gate that would take them from the Yggdrasil tree back to Helheim, with the saber-tooth panther carrying two of the Fates. Grace walked beside them, looking worried.
“They’ll be fine,” Hades said. “We get out of here and remove the drugs from their system, and they’ll be back to normal. It’s the same stuff she pumped into my body. Some kind of blood elf commander blood concoction.”
They reached the realm gate, and Zamek activated it as Layla gave her condolences to the dwarves. They thanked her, but appeared to be more interested in letting out their grief by hitting something they didn’t like. The dwarves
went through the gate with Layla and the panther taking up the rear.
“Thank you for what you did for me and my family,” Grace said to her.
“They will be fine,” Layla said.
Grace nodded. “I know. The drugs affected each of us differently. As the Fate of the present, the dose I got wore off quicker than the dose my mother and daughter received.”
“I didn’t know you were Cassandra’s daughter, and that your own child was a Fate.”
“It’s an exceptionally long story, and one that I am not fond of remembering, no offense.”
“None taken,” Layla said.
“What is your panther’s name?” Grace asked before they all stepped through the gate.
“You know,” Layla said as they arrived in the temple, “that’s something everyone keeps asking me. And I really have no idea what to call her. I get the feeling she has her own view on what she’d like to be called, so I guess I just have to come up with something she likes.”
“Shadow?” Grace asked. The saber-tooth cat shook her head.
“Yeah, apparently not,” Grace said, scratching the cat behind the ears as they reached the boats, where the sound of battle could once again be heard in the distance. They launched the boats and headed toward the fight.
“Not worried about saving some energy for Mammon?” Zamek asked as Lucifer used air magic to speed up their progression.
“No,” Lucifer said. “I know what will be there waiting for me. I can spare some magic.”
Layla looked at the stretched-out panther. “Tego. How about that for a name?”
“What does it mean?” Chloe asked.
“It’s Latin,” Layla said. “Servius was a Roman, so I know the language, and it feels like it fits.”
“What does it mean?” one of the dwarves asked.
“Protect, cover, defend, shield,” Layla said. “She defended us back there, and it wasn’t the first time. I think it fits.” The saber-tooth panther looked up as Layla sat beside her. “What do you think? Tego?”
The cat licked her hand and placed its massive head in her lap.
“I think she likes it,” Lucifer said as land came into view.
As they drew closer, the clash of weapons and thunder of voices were louder than anything Layla had ever heard. A mass of people fought just outside the city walls and on the rubble where it had been brought down. A huge block of stone flew through the air and smashed into one of the still-upright walls, which began to crack and fall apart. Layla couldn’t figure out where the object had come from.
“Trebuchets,” Diana said. “Three of them. Two of them.”
“Wait, what?”
“Someone is breaking them,” Diana said. “I assume Mordred is involved.”
“What makes you say that?” Zamek asked, coming up from the cabin. “The Fates are resting. I managed to scrub off the rune marks that someone had put on them, and which were keeping them asleep—it wasn’t just the drugs. The mark on Grace wasn’t completed before she escaped, or woke up. Either way, they’ll remain below until this is done. I’ll have some of the dwarves stay back and defend the boats. Unfortunately, Hades has other ideas about resting.”
“I do not need rest,” Hades said, exiting the cabin in full black-and-gold armor. While it resembled plate, it looked considerably more maneuverable, much like Zamek’s. Hades’ voice was tight, hard, and Layla wondered just how much he had left in him.
“Are you okay?” Lucifer and Diana asked in unison.
“I am fine,” Hades said. “I absorbed the souls of the deceased giants as we walked past. I feel much better.”
“You look like shit still,” Chloe said.
Hades sighed. “I feel like shit too, but I’m still not sitting this out.”
“Just don’t die,” Diana said. “I don’t want Persephone even more pissed off than she’s been since you were taken.”
“Or Sky,” Chloe said.
“Or any of your kids,” Lucifer said. “I’m not sure how much Persephone and Sky told them about your kidnapping, but I’m surprised they didn’t come rushing here.”
“They will stay where they are needed,” Hades said. “They trusted that the people I have around me would find me. Also, I’m certain that Persephone told them to stay where they are and let her do what she needed to.”
“And if we hadn’t gotten to you in time?” Layla asked.
“Then things would get much worse,” Hades said. “We are trying not to have open warfare spill onto the Earth realm. I do not believe that all of my children would be capable of such restraint.”
Mammon flew across the battlefield, spraying dark-orange-and-green flames over the fighters.
“We need to stop him,” Lucifer said.
“We will,” Hades replied, and Layla believed him a hundred percent.
“How?” Chloe asked. “Not that I want to rain on anyone’s parade, but how the hell do we stop one of the most powerful creatures who ever lived?”
“He won’t be at full strength,” Lucifer said.
“How is that not full strength?” Chloe asked, waving her arms in the direction of the dragon.
“We beat Abaddon because she was overconfident,” Hades said. “Her arrogance was her undoing. It will be Mammon’s too.”
“Speaking of Abaddon, do we even know where she is?” Chloe asked.
“Not a clue,” Zamek said. “The realm gate destination was somewhere I’d never seen before. I remember them though, so we can at least try to figure out where she might be.”
“So for now, she’s not a problem,” Lucifer said.
The boat landed ashore and everyone piled out. “I’m going to help with the dragon,” Layla said. “Which is not a sentence I ever imagined myself saying.”
“If we can pierce the scales, we can kill it,” Harry said. “Isn’t that how dragons work?”
“Those scales are several inches thick,” Lucifer said. “Our best bet is to force him to turn back to his human form. And to do that we need to hurt him. I’m coming with you.”
“I don’t see a lot of magic and elements being thrown around,” Chloe said.
“Abaddon’s forces are tightly mixed in with our fighters, and seeing as how most of the enemy appear to be wearing rune-scribed armor, it would be very difficult to throw around magic and not hit our friends,” Lucifer said.
Layla, Hades, Chloe, and Lucifer all ran toward the battle. Zamek had decided to stay behind and defend the city with the other dwarves, and Harry had been told to help them whether he liked it or not.
Layla changed her metal arm into a large, spiked shield, and charged into the fray, knocking blood elves over as the others with her cut their way through the throng of enemies. Griffins flew high above, dropping down to attack the blood elves before soaring up again, but Layla saw dozens dead on the ground, most missing their wings.
Hades threw a blood elf through the air using his necromancy and the souls he’d taken to increase his strength. The blood elf landed by Tego, who bit down on its neck, killing it instantly.
Layla was knocked to the ground and Chloe blasted a blood elf commander nearby with her kinetic energy, then helped Layla back to her feet. A few seconds later, Layla pushed Chloe out of the way of a blood elf who tried to stab her in the back, and killed the elf soon after.
Layla fought her way through the seemingly endless battlefield, staying as close to the edges as possible. She took a moment to catch her breath. Her armor was covered in blood, mostly the enemy’s, and she’d seen more death since returning to Helheim than she had since becoming an umbra.
Up ahead, Mammon and another dragon were locked in combat, both whirling around the sky above the battlefield, their plumes of magical breath ripping apart the earth beneath them. Dralas had grown to almost fifty feet in height, and was busy throwing anything he could find at Mammon, including huge boulders, and more than once a blood elf that wandered too close to him.
Layla reached the bridge befo
re anyone else and ran toward three blood elves who waited for her on the other side. As she got closer, she shot three spikes out of the end of her palm. Each of the foot-long metal spikes slammed into the heads of the blood elves, and they dropped to the ground. Layla absorbed the metal back into her arm, and looked behind her as Mammon flew over, roaring pure magic flame over the bridge, almost incinerating it. Layla threw herself aside as the other dragon, who Layla assumed was Nidhogg, slammed into Mammon, dropping them both into the freezing river.
The ground shook, and mud and freezing cold water sprayed over the battlefield, almost covering those closest to the river. Layla was far enough away to avoid most of the mud, but as the fighting in the river continued, small tsunamis of water were thrown over the battlefield, drenching everything around them. One such wave knocked Layla to her knees.
Being so close, Layla could now see the wounds that covered both dragons. She wondered just how much more either of them could withstand. Layla got to her knees as Tarron appeared beside her, offering his hand.
“Seems like you’re having a long day,” he said, helping her up.
“It’s not been brilliant,” Layla replied. “Looks like most of the blood elves over here have been dealt with.” The grass was now burned beyond saving and huge patches of blackened ground littered the area.
“The dragons have been indiscriminate in their use of power,” Tarron said.
Irkalla and Remy ran toward them. Irkalla gave Layla a hug and Remy bumped her fist.
“Hades and the others are on the opposite side of the river,” Layla said, looking over at the battle to see Vorisbo and Jomik, cut off from their allies, fighting several blood elves. One of the blood elves caught Jomik under the arm with a spear, and Layla watched in horror as he fell to the ground, her shouts of warning unheard over the din of war. Vorisbo killed the blood elf, and more swarmed them, but Hel, Sky, and others arrived and dragged Jomik away to safety.
“I hope he’s okay,” Layla said.
“Dwarves are made of stern stuff,” Irkalla said.
Layla was about to say more when Mammon exploded out of the river, dragging Nidhogg by his neck into the air. A second later, Mammon tore Nidhogg’s head clean from his body and let the corpse fall back to the earth. The impact knocked everyone off their feet as Mammon blew his pure magic around the sky in victory.
