Bacorium Legacy (24 page)

“So it is the Princess Selphie that you're after,” Allma said. His voice was flat - so flat, in fact, that it sounded as though he were reading from a script. “Well, you should know that she falls under our protection. She was sent here by her father, the king of Sono. She is our responsibility, and thus she will not be given to you, under any circumstances. We will muster all forces that we have to defeat you, in order to protect her.”

Luca let out a sigh of relief. Surrendering the princess to the Acarians while she was in Allma's care would have only made things worse for everyone.

“As for the hostage you have...” Allma continued, glancing at Luca for only the briefest of moments. “It is the Torachi custom, and the custom of this temple, to never abandon those who can be saved.”

Dreevius raised an eyebrow. “Is that right?”

“But those captured by the enemy are already considered dead,” Allma said. “We do not bargain with those who attack us. Kill him if you wish. He was lost the moment you took him.”

Luca's breath caught in his throat. Dreevius had moved his sword away from his neck. His heart was beating in his chest, louder than a drum.

Dreevius started to laugh. “You're a cold son of a bitch. Very well, then. Never let it be said that Acarians are not men of their word.”

Luca only had a half of a second to think before he felt Dreevius' sword plunge through his chest. He choked as blood came up in his throat. As everything went cold, he looked down and saw a sword blade where his heart should have been.

It was getting hard to think. Everything was growing cold.

Luca didn't even feel a thing as Dreevius kicked him away and he fell face-first in the dirt, blood running freely out of the hole in his chest.

Somewhere in the distance, Emila was screaming in pain.

Chapter VIII

People Die All the Time

For one single fleeting moment, there was a hushed, awed silence. The masters and students of the Allma Temple watched, as the Acarian commander stabbed the son of Lodin through the chest. Red blood flowed, staining the emerging silver of his blade. The man pulled his sword out of Luca, and then kicked him aside like a piece of trash.

Brand's was pale. “No...”

The silence was broken by Emila's scream of pain. She doubled over, dropping her bow and clutching her chest in pain, at the very spot where Luca had been stabbed. All eyes on the rooftop turned to her.

And then, in a single moment, the shock turned to rage. Pure, blind, white noise. She picked her bow back up, and the ice arrow she had been holding, which until then she had been terrified of using, was drawn and fired before anyone could stop her.

“No!” Tranom shouted, knowing full-well the consequences of what would happen.

“He killed him!” Emila cried out, clutching at her breast. She shook, as tears ran from her eyes. “He killed him!”

Brand ran to her, pulling her away from the edge of the building and the image of Luca's death. She broke down, sobbing uncontrollably into his chest.

He did what little he could to comfort her.

<> <> <>

Down in the temple yard, Dreevius cried out as Emila's arrow struck him in the leg, just above the knee, hitting the narrow gap in his armour. Then, he cried out again as the ice burst open, the shrapnel within the armour cutting his skin.

“Yeah!” he shouted through his teeth. “Now it's a party!”

Dreevius rolled to the side, the wounded leg doing nothing to inhibit his mobility. As he vanished out of the way, half a dozen Acarian archers stepped up where he had been standing. Their bows were already drawn, the arrows pointing directly into the temple entrance.

Right where Allma and Rael were standing.

“Wait!” Allma cried.

The Acarian soldiers were like machines - they carried out their orders without a moment's hesitation - not even the words of their leader would have given them pause once they were already in action. Six arrows sang through the air.

Allma was nicked on the arm by two of the arrows, and the other four managed to miss him by sheer luck.

“Fire again!” Dreevius called out from the sides, holding his wounded knee and grinning like a madman.

It took the Acarians less than three seconds to draw and fire a second round of arrows. But this time, Allma was prepared. He dashed behind his squire Rael, and grabbed the boy from behind, using him as a human shield. All six arrows struck the unsuspecting boy in the chest. Rael was unable to cry out from choking on the blood in his throat. Allma pushed the boy forward and ran for the safety behind the behemoth corpses.

“Get him!” Dreevius ordered his men. “Do not let him escape!”

The Acarian leader rose up and marched forward into the temple with an unsteady gait. “Raid the temple! Kill any who stand in your way, but bring me the princess of Sono alive!” His men poured in behind him, their weapons already drawn.

“Austille!” Allma shouted, as he ducked into safety behind a behemoth leg. “Austille! Alert Dori! Where are the damn earth magi?!”

Dreevius started to laugh. “No more arrows, huh? Well, we've still got plenty. Their strategy doesn't quite work for sustained battle, does it? This'll be all too-”

He froze. Something had happened. Something he had not expected.

A hand had grabbed his ankle.

<> <> <>

“Apprentice! Look at this!”

He looked up from where he was, holding Emila as she wept in grief. Tranom's eyes were as wide as a gold coin. Brand couldn't have cared less. Whatever was happening, there was nothing he could do. Not now. The best use he could be at this point was to help Emila.

“Master, I-”

Somebody from another roof shouted out, “The son of Lodin lives!”

Emila's eyes shot open.

<> <> <>

Dreevius stared, the grey skin of his face growing pale, while the boy he had killed not a moment ago, pulled himself up, holding Dreevius' armour for support. There was a small hole in his chest where his heart should have been, out of which flowed a stream of blood. More blood than a human should have been able to lose and still live, actually - his fur coat was absolutely drenched in it.

The boy's face was just as pale as Dreevius' was. The blood loss had left him shaking and sickly. He had to hold the sides of Dreevius' breastplate just to stand. He looked like he was about to kneel over and die, were it for the fact that he was rising to his feet in spite of that death.

And yet, and the boy raised his head and looked Dreevius straight in the eyes, there was the fire of life in them.

The Acarian soldiers charged past them, all of this meaning nothing to them.

The people of the temple were cheering the boy's name.

“
Lu-ca! Lu-ca! Lu-ca!
”
 

Dreevius was in shock. He could not move. He wanted to push away the walking corpse in front of him. There shouldn't even have been a corpse. Humans didn't leave bodies - only monsters did. Even Allma's squire, the boy who had died in his place, had turned to mana only moments ago. Only his white robes remained now, being tread over by the mechanical Acarian soldiers.

He couldn't be human. So then... what was he?

Dreevius wanted to do something, but he was frozen. He wanted to push the boy away, to stab him again, to kill him over and over until he stayed dead.

But he couldn't.

He was stuck, frozen in place by fear. The fear of something he had never before seen.

The boy was growing stronger, in spite of the continually flowing blood that was even now staining Dreevius' armour.

The cheering was growing louder. It was like they were cheering him back to life.

“H-how...?” was all Dreevius could bring himself to say.

The boy answered by bashing his forehead hard again Dreevius’.

<> <> <>

There was a sick crunch as the top of Luca's skull connected with Dreevius' nose. Blood began to gush out immediately. The Acarian fell back, collapsing in the dirt on his wounded leg.

Without the support, Luca stumbled, but he was feeling a bit more sure of himself. Blood was still running out of the hole in his chest, but not as much as before - he must have been starting to run out.

“How?!” Dreevius cried out, holding his broken nose in his hand. “How do you live?! I killed you!”

“It seems you did it wrong,” Luca muttered.

He too, was wondering how this could be. He already had an idea, but even that was far-fetched. He would have to wait to figure it out, though. There was still a battle going on. Thankfully, the Acarians swarming past him were ignoring him, focusing only on Dreevius' orders, for some reason.

“You should be dead!” Dreevius said hysterically.

“And yet here I stand!” he answered.

Dreevius grabbed the hilt of his sword. “Then I'll kill you again. I'll kill you as many times as I have to!”

Dreevius took a single step forward, before the ground started to shake. “What the-?”

A deep rumbling sound filled the air. The magick of a dozen earth-form magi was what shook the ground, but that was not the sound they heard. There was something else. Something beneath them that was waking up.

The already unnerved Acarian went into full-blown panic at that.

“Retreat! Get out the temple now!”

His small army of Acarian soldiers froze, turning on the spot and running the way they had come.

The ground was shaking with a violent intensity now. Cracks were growing from the centre of the front garden now. A heavy aura of mana filled the air, radiating from the ground beneath their feet.

As Dreevius and his men retreated from the temple interior, a large hole opened up in the ground, revealing the deep darkness of the caverns below. Luca ran past this as quickly as his lethargic body could, jumping over the rapidly growing cracks, racing for the safety of the sanctum on the other side of the dead behemoths.

He was knocked down by a powerful wind. From within the hole, a creature began to emerge. The first thing Luca saw was the wings, long and powerful. With each heavy beat, they cast another wind about the temple. He was pushed back, unable to rise against this current.

Then he saw the creature's back, and the ragged form of Dori, who rode on its back. And after that emerged the long neck, followed by its legs and tail.

The dragon landed at the temple entrance and leaned forward, opening its massive jaws. A stream of fire flowed forth, filling the broken entrance and the grounds just outside the gate. Luca heard orders being barked by Dreevius. The Acarians could not advance while the dragon stood at the gate - not without being roasted alive.

“That'll do, Austille,” Dori said once the dragon pulled his head back. “I think they get the message.”

“There are yet some who live,” the dragon replied, his voice deep and resonant. “Many of them have fled beyond my reach. Some were not as swift, yet the armour they wore protected them from the flames. I would like not to prolong their suffering.”

“Very well then, put them out of their misery,” Dori said.

As the dragon, Austille, leaned forward and let out another stream of fire-breath, Luca rose on shaky feet.

“Luca!”

He turned to find a large group of students and masters emerging from the rooftops. At the front was Emila, who ran heedless of danger to him, knocking him down again with an embrace.

Luca's muted groans were unheard. Emila wept as she held him so tightly he could not move. He wasn't worried of her hurting him by accident - his life clearly was in no danger after what had happened.

Once Emila had calmed a bit, they were joined by others. Brand and Tranom were there, along with Wiosna, the girl who had been picked to join Selphie's group. There were many others who he did not know.

“Luca...” Brand said, as he knelt by Luca's side. “How - how are you...?”

“Alive?” he muttered, with a wry chuckle. “Is that what you mean to ask?”

“Well, yes,” Brand said uncomfortably. “We all saw what happened - Dreevius stabbed you in the heart.”

Emila's eyes wandered down to his chest and she gasped as she saw the hole. It was no chasm, being no wider than the thickness of Dreevius' sword. But if one looked directly at it, they could see out the other side.

Her hand found his neck. She felt the veins in his throat, and her eyes grew wide.

“He has no pulse...” she said in a quiet voice.

Only Brand and Tranom seemed to hear her. At the moment, everyone's attention was on the dragon Dori had flown out of the caves. Still, Tranom's expression grew grim, and he looked around to make sure no one was listening.

“Do you think it's the-” Luca started to say, but Emila gave him a look that told him to stop talking, an expression he had never seen from her before. Still, the damage was done.

“The what?” Brand asked.

“We can talk about this in private,” Tranom said, quickly and discreetly. “Heal his wound. We can't let anybody see that.”

“Of course,” Emila said. She drew up her mana and placed her hands over Luca's chest. “I can't believe I forgot. I'm so sorry, I just-”

“It's okay,” he told her. “There's a lot going on right now.”

Emila blinked, confused. “That's strange... My mana is running low.”

“Do you have enough to heal him?” Brand asked.

“Yes, it will be fine,” she said. “Or rather - I can close the wound, but...”

“My heart isn't beating,” Luca said for her. “I'm alive, even though I shouldn't be. There's blood flowing through me.”

“No, there is.” Emila had finished healing the wound. “But it's not - blood. It's some sort of substitute, made entirely of mana. It flows through your heart, passing right through like wind. It has no substance, but it keeps you alive. I don't know what to think of it. I've never seen anything like this before...”

“This is a day of many firsts,” said Brand.

Tranom asked him, “Can you walk?”

“Yeah,” Luca said. “I feel heavy and tired, but I can manage.”

“Good,” Tranom said. “If anyone asks, you deceived Dreevius. You pretended to be killed, so that you could catch him unaware. Tell no one the truth. It is a thin lie, but it does not take much to draw a connection between your survival and your brother's treachery, so for now it's all we have.”