Beyond the Hell Cliffs (55 page)

More cracks formed in the man’s armor.  Raegith attacked Tiberius’s legs, flames now growing with his rage to cover most of his body.  The man’s greaves splintered under the force of Raegith’s kicks and his knees buckled.  Raegith caught his arm in a lock and slammed an open palm into his elbow with such force that it snapped in half.

Tiberius cried out in agony and tried to retreat, but Raegith was too powerful.  He blocked a wide-sweeping hook and reached to grab the general’s collar.  With a jerk, Raegith wrenched the armor away from
the man and tossed it into the dirt behind him.

Eight
punches per heartbeat; that was how many Raegith could throw when he blasted a wooden dummy with his Flurry Strike, before he found the Junrei’sha.  He had never bothered to count how many he could throw afterwards.  When Raegith used his Flurry Strike against the exposed chest of Tiberius, fueled by a volatile combination of rage, adrenaline and the power of the Path, there was no one in attendance who could have counted for him.  The hits sounded more like a hum than a beat and Raegith felt the man’s ribs melt away under the pressure.

It took only a few seconds for Raegith to pulverize Tiberius with the Flurry Strike, but it incapacitated him.  Tiberius crumpled to his knees and Raegith reached out
and snatched him by the throat to keep him from falling over.  His right hand rose high over his head, his rigid fingers curled like a dragon’s claw.

“Know that you will not wait long in the afterlife by yourself, Tiberius,” Raegith said.  “Soon, all of Rellizbix will be there to keep you company.”

“Helfrick…” Tiberius whispered.

Raegith cut the man’s words off with a
n ear-splitting roar. His flames pooled around his right hand and flared as bright as the sun.  The strike tore the general’s head from his body and Raegith shoved the man’s corpse over with a finger.

Raegith let the general fall to the blood-caked dirt and felt no remorse.  He did not feel anything, not even relief.  All around him his warriors cheered, for the Empire and
for the Grass-haired Demon to give them a purpose and commit them to his rule. 

“The bald general is dead and the Army is defeated!” Hitomi cried out.  “Send men back to the Citadel and get those fires put out before the whole place collapses…”

“Let it burn!” Raegith yelled, halting the group that was about to move out toward the capitol.

“What?” Hitomi asked, along with several other officers in Raegith’s small army.

“I said let it burn… it and everything else from here to the Hell Cliffs.  Leave it all in ruin.  We’re going into the north, to claim a new, fertile home or to die in glorious battle. We’re never coming back here.”

He was the most adored man in all of the Greimere and his people were going to follow him into the north, to gift him with his ultimate revenge.  He should have been happy or felt some modicum of content, but it was not there for him as he had hoped.  He could put on the mask of joy and drink and fuck all night in victory; but
inside, where no one else could see, there was only rage.

Chapter 54

Helfrick stood outside the entrance of the castle as the guards brought the Twileen hunters forward.  They were a ragged group and looked exhausted and mortified.  On a stretcher between them, they carried armor that looked as if it had been crushed under a toppled building
.  All of the hunters looked downward, unable to meet eyes with the king as they approached.  Once they were close enough, he realized why.

The armor belonged to Tiberius.

“What has happened?” Helfrick asked.  “Raise your fucking heads and look at me!  What happened to my friend?!”

“He was murdered, my lord,” one of the hunters replied, on the verge of tears.

“Who?  Who did this to him?  Who destroyed my Royal Guard and sent you miserable cowards back, alive, when my general… my best friend is dead?”

The hunters looked at each other and back at the guards.  The one who first spoke looked up at him.  “My lord, perhaps we should go inside first…”

Helfrick stomped down to him and lifted him off the ground by his collar.  “I will snap your neck right here, in front of all of these witnesses!  That is how little I care about secrecy now, do you understand?”

“Tiberius knew him,” one of the other Twileens said.  “He was young and spoke our language.  He even talked to us for a spell, asking if any of us knew what he was.”

“What he was?  Why would a Rathgar ask you if you knew what he was?”

“Not Rathgar, sir… he was Rung’un.”

“What the hell is that?”

“A Rung’un… a halfbreed.
  He was half Twileen, half Saban, my lord,” the hunter said.  “Lord, we really should retire inside the castle for this.”

Helfrick could not move.  He could not even breathe.  The entire world was spinning around him and he was sure that he would black out right there in front of everyone.  He tried to move his legs, to pull every one of them inside the castle and out of earshot from anyone, but he could not move.  In his desperation, the words came out of his mouth before he could pull them back.

“What was his name?”

The hunter
clenched his jaw and wringed his hands before him.  “The General called him Raegith.  He claimed that the man’s name was Raegith Caelum and that he was your son, my lord.  The man acknowledged this as true… sort of.”

“What do you mean by that?” Helfrick asked.  “Was he or was he not Raegith Caelum?”

“Sir, the man with the green hair; the one who claimed to be Raegith Caelum… he told the General that he had died on the day the Empress of Greimere was killed and that he was no longer your son.  Then he forced General Tiberius to fight him and he killed him using his bare hands.”

“Raegith killed Tiberius with nothing but his hands?” Helfrick asked, stunned.

“He was like a monster!  His limbs were bathed in blue fire and he could crush armor with his fists.  He removed the armor, sent it with us to bring to you, then… then he impaled the General on a spike and made us watch.”

“This is unbelievable,” Helfrick whispered.  “Why… why did he send you back with the armor?”

“He wanted us to pass a message to you,” the hunter said.  “He wanted us to warn you to prepare for him.”

“That’s not the words he told us to use!” the other hunter said.  “He was very specific on how he wanted it worded to the king.”

“What are you getting on about?” Helfrick asked, dropping down to sit on the steps of his entryway as the guards stepped forward to assist him.  “What did he tell you to say?  What were the words?”

“He said he was coming
for you and Pyrrhus and Vi-Sage Falfa,” the hunter answered.  “He said to tell you… to prepare for a
real
war.”