Bacorium Legacy (28 page)

Luca was all she had. She had saved him, and that was the only thing that her life meant anymore. She had saved him from death, after living with the regret of causing the deaths of her family. She travelled with him because she had nothing else - the fact that he lived when he should have died meant that her life was not the pointless wandering she had so long thought it would always be.

What if he died fighting the Acarians? Then it would all be for nothing. She could not let that happen. She couldn't take the chance that the Soul Tether would protect him from death. She couldn't simply sit there anymore and hope.

She picked up her bow.

“I cannot take a life,” she said to herself. “I can't hurt anyone out there, not even the people trying to kill me. I'm here to save lives. That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to save him, even if it's from himself.”

Emila pushed open the door and ran out into the war-torn temple garden.

Chapter IX

The Gullibility of the Benevolent

Luca fell backwards, hitting the stone wall behind him.

Brand said something to him that he couldn't understand. He could hear nothing over the sound of the blood rushing through his ears, driven by the artificial heartbeat that was keeping him alive.

He was cold. He didn't know if it was the lack of real blood flowing through his veins, or if it was simply the wind, but he shivered.

No - perhaps it was fear.

There had been a sense of optimism earlier in their fight. Never once had they considered that they might lose, and that the Acarians might win and seize the temple. After all, Allma Temple had never fallen before, so why would it today?

But then, as they ran from one safe zone to the next, he had fleetingly seen the corpse of Austille, and he knew that they were fighting a losing battle.

Brand shouted his name again. There was something strange about his voice. It sounded like it was coming from underwater. Perhaps Luca was simply close to passing out. But if that happened - he would surely die. He had been wrong to think that the Soul Tether could save him no matter what. If he collapsed in the middle of this battlefield, Dreevius would take him and cut him into a thousand pieces, and no magick could save him from that.

His sword - the blade that the late dragon had returned to him - was sheathed now. They were no longer in the middle of the battle. The battle was over, and they had lost.

They were now simply trying to stay alive.

Luca and Brand had found themselves behind one of the buildings, unable to break free from the swarm of black-armoured Acarians that seemed to fill every square of the temple walls.

The Acarians were no longer killing Allmans where they found them, because there just were no more Allmans left to kill. Near the end, Tranom and several others had used magick to break down one of the walls, and a small group had escaped. It couldn't have been more than fifty students. That was about all that was left.

Allma Temple had fallen.

“Luca!”

He continued to ignore Brand. He had now spotted something - something that struck him to his very core and made his insides turn cold.

A pair of glasses, crushed by a heavy boot, nearly buried in the mud.

Somehow, that sight was what finished him. He felt like the very energy was drained from his limbs, as though he had been forcing through hours of fatigue with sheer willpower, and then he had stopped for a moment, and it all caught up with him. He just couldn't go on any more.

Brand shouted his name once more.

Finally, he responded. He slowly looked up, not at Brand, but at the black-haired girl approaching them.

She didn't run away...

“Luca,” Emila said, stopping just in front of him. Standing where she was, she was blocking his view of the glasses.

There was a worried look in her eyes. What was she worried about?

Ah, right. She wasn't supposed to be here. She was supposed to have left with Ash and the princess. And he should be angry about that, he remembered. He should be angry that she risked herself to come here, when he need her to be okay for his own sake.

Luca did not feel angry. Truly, he did not feel much of anything.

“Luca,” she said to him, leaning in close and looking him right in the eyes. “Luca, we have to flee.”

Flee? How could they possibly flee when he could barely move? His limbs were so heavy. He just wanted to lie down and sleep. He didn't care what happened anymore...

Emila slapped him across the cheek.

Luca drew back, startled and suddenly aware of himself. The underwater feeling was gone, like he had been pulled up into the air. Suddenly, he could hear and see everything again.

His cheek hurt where she had hit him.

“I'm sorry,” she immediately said. “But please, we have to go. The Acarians are everywhere. They will find us if we linger here.”

Luca looked over to Brand, who wore an expression of consternation. Brand noticed his staring, and nodded in affirmation.

He followed Brand's gaze up to the temple garden. Or what was left of it. The Acarians had taken the temple, there was no doubt of that. They were relatively hidden in their alley, but the Acarians were ruthlessly efficient in their searching. Emila was right. Eventually they would be found.

“But they're everywhere,” he said quietly. “Where can we flee to?”

“I've been thinking about that,” Brand said. “The main gate is out of the question, and the hole Tranom created is blocked off by Acarians now. Our only chance is through the underground caverns, but getting to Dori's house could be difficult.”

“I just came from there,” Emila said. “The path was clear. They don't seem very interested in Dori's house. It's like they don't even realise it's there.”

“Then let's not waste our chance,” Brand said, starting off. “We must make haste!”

“Wait...!” Luca said, placing his hand on Brand's shoulder.

Out in the open of the courtyard, illuminated faintly by the orange light of the setting sun, he could just barely see the shape of Dreevius making his way alone towards the centre sanctum. He pointed this out to Brand and Emila.

“What could he be going there for?” Brand questioned, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.

“Perhaps he's looking for survivors?” Emila suggested. “Where else could anyone have gone? They've raided every other building.”

“Not likely,” Luca said. “The centre sanctum would have been one of the first places they would have searched. And they would have found only one person in there.”

Emila turned to him. “What do you mean? Who is there?”

Luca and Brand quickly told her about Allma attacking Selphie, and how they had locked him up in the cell in the basement.

“So - what do we do?” she asked. “We cannot just leave him in there to die.”

“He left me to die,” Luca said in a low voice. “Why should I do anything more for him?”

Emila's eyes grew wide in shock. “Luca - that's not how it works. Just because someone does something to you, that doesn't give you the right to return that to them. That's the way people like Allma think, and I know you're not that low. No, the honourable thing to do now would be to try to help him.”

He met her gaze for a moment. She was pleading with him. She really wanted to go and try to save that man, in spite of the fact that he had all but given him up to be killed.

“Whatever it is that's going to happen to him, he's earned for himself,” he said, looking away from her. “If we tried to save him now, we would just get ourselves killed. Allma the third is not worth risking our lives for.”

“But...”

“He would not be in that cell if he had not tried to kill the princess,” Brand stepped in. “Luca is right. He got himself in this situation. Whatever happens to him, it is his own doing.”

“The path to Dori's house is clear,” Luca said to them. “It's now or never.”

Emila bit her lip. She sighed, and said, “Fine. Let's go.”

Luca took one final glance at the crushed glasses before they made their way towards Dori's house. He thought of the girl who had worn them, a person he had only met a single time. He had not seen her die with his own eyes, but the odds of her having survived were too low to have any real hope.

The thought of a young girl being killed was painful to him - for reasons that were all too clear. He had seen it happen, after all - and it haunted him as much as his father's death had.

And Emila had come back for him, which meant it could have just as easily been her instead of Wiosna.

So many others had died in the attack. The dragon had fallen - which meant Dori himself had likely not survived, either. And then there was Rael, who Allma himself had sacrificed to save his own skin. And the countless students and masters of the now-fallen temple.

If Dreevius' words to Allma were true, then he had known the attack was coming. Yet he had told no one, or done anything save for trying to frame Ash for it. Whatever Allma's game was, he had not hesitated to send everyone who followed him off to their deaths.

If Allma had gotten his way, Luca would be dead, Ash would be dead, Selphie would be dead...

He just couldn't believe that Emila thought it was right to risk their lives to save this man.

They would not. Even Luca could understand there were times when the only thing you could do was run away. And now was one of those times. They would leave Allma behind, along with the temple he had forsaken, the temple which was now in ruins and in flames.

The Acarians were going to burn it to the ground.

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“Ah, it is you,” Dreevius said with a grin. “My men informed me that you were down here, but for a moment I doubted that fate could be so generous to me.”

Allma looked up at Dreevius, trying not to let the fear in his heart show on his face. He had abandoned his honour many years ago, but he still had enough dignity that he would not resort to begging for his life.

He was trapped behind bars, with his mana sealed by a magick circle. There was no way to escape, and any effort he made to do so would just humiliate him. He would not give Dreevius the satisfaction.

But he did need to talk to his murderer - there were things he needed to know.

“How...?” he demanded of the Acarian before him. “How did you bring down the dragon?”

Dreevius stopped his pacing for a moment, and tilted his head to the side. “How do you know the dragon fell?”

“Even down here, I could hear the dragon's dying screams. And really, how could you have made it this far if it still lived?”

“Ah,” Dreevius laughed, his cocky grin returning. “Well, wouldn't you like to know?”

“I am a dead man,” Allma replied. “I just want to know where I made my mistake.”

Dreevius' grin vanished, immediately replaced with a scowl of rage. He stepped up to the bars, reached his hand through, and grabbed Allma by the collar of his shirt. Allma was pulled forward, his head striking the iron bars. Mana surged through Dreevius, taking the form of electricity as it flowed into Allma. He cried out, unable to control himself as his whole world went white with pain.

After a few seconds of hell, the mana faded. Dreevius released him, and Allma fell back into his cell, twitching feebly.

“Your mistake,” Dreevius spat, “was thinking so light of the Acarians. Did you really believe that we could be so easily tricked? That we were fools?! That you could just invite us here and double cross us, and that we would be oblivious to your goals...?” His voice rose with each sentence.

Allma did not answer.

“I suppose you did not.” Dreevius laughed again, hatred burning in his eyes. “This plan of yours? A fool could see through it. You told us of the princess' arrival, knowing that we would come here to take her. You planned to kill the princess yourself while your dragon finished us off, and then place the blame of her death of us. This would lead to a war between Sono and Acaria. Am I right?”

He paused, and when Allma did not answer, he continued. “Yes, of course I am. Because this war would line your pockets with gold, just as the first war did, twenty years ago. This temple exists in such esteem because the mercenaries you sent to Sono, specifically Dori and that dragon he rode, were what won that war.”

Allma, having regained enough strength to move, pulled himself up to a sitting position.

“So your mistake...” Dreevius said, getting close to the bars and smiling a wicked toothy grin. “Well, you just thought the old drunk and the dragon could fight off anyone, didn't you? And to a degree, you were right. An army with all the spears and arrows in Bacoria could do nothing to those two when they were working together.

“A dragon on its own is enough to wipe out a town, but when it lands to rest, the hunters will get it. Once those beasts hit the ground, they're finished. So having one at your disposal - well, in most cases that would be the perfect way to defend your fortress.”

Dreevius reached into his pocket and took out an orb filled with the black smoke. “Let me tell you a story. In the old days, Acaria had a lot of trouble with dragons. We're surrounded by mountains, after all, their natural resting place. This was long before the days of the truce, so these dragons attacked us freely. Our magi, in desperation, created these little devices. When mana is channelled through one, it sends out an aura field that makes the unique blood of dragons burn like fire. In those old times, they would use these to train captured dragons to be beasts of burden.”

He stood up, placing the orb back in his pocket. “A friend lent this to me, because we knew about your dragon from the very beginning.” Quietly, Dreevius said to himself, “I don't get why he was so reluctant to give it up - he's got three of them.” He returned his attention to Allma. “Remember those bandits you were so proud of defeating ten years ago? There were survivors. Those survivors came to us for refuge, and they told us all about your trump card. Those survivors joined our army, and helped bring this temple down.”

Dreevius walked away from Allma's cell, disappearing from his vision. A moment later, he returned, carrying the ring of keys for the cells. After finding the right key, the Acarian opened the door and stepped inside.