Heir of Shandara (Book 4) (11 page)

“You know you could try what you’re suggesting as well,” Aaron said.

“Me?” Verona gasped. “I’m afraid my connection to the energy isn’t quite as strong as yours, my friend.”

“How many times have I told you it’s not about strength? It’s about focus. I may be Ferasdiam marked, but what I really am is the possibility of what anyone can achieve,” Aaron said.

They noticed Bayen standing near them, clearly listening to what they were saying, but it was the look in his eyes that piqued Aaron’s curiosity. The young man had been so guarded with them, it was rare to see him look almost untroubled.

Aaron nodded to Bayen. “Do you think the new armor will help against the Forsaken?”

Bayen thought about it for a moment, glancing at the soldiers around them. Most were wearing the thin, dark armor of Hythariam design. Some elected to stick with their chainmail and gauntlets, not trusting something so flimsy. “Protection can only help these men. As you’ve seen, it doesn’t take much for the Ryakul virus to turn people into the Forsaken.”

“Indeed that is the case,” Verona said.

“We can try to fight them at a distance, but eventually we’ll find ourselves in close-quarters combat. I hate to think of the Forsaken running loose in a city,” Aaron said.

Bayen clenched the haft of his bladed staff, and the tightening of his eyes was the only indication of the fear Aaron sensed in him.

What does he know? Why won’t he tell us?

Bayen had the look of a seasoned soldier, which wasn’t much of a surprise given the world of Safanar. It was his familiarity with Hythariam technology that made him stand apart. Technology was still new to most Safanarions, but with Bayen it was as if he had seen it before. Familiar with it as if it had always been around him. Aaron would need to keep an eye on him. He didn’t know if he trusted him or not. What if Bayen was some type of spy put in their midst by Halcylon? He had fought well before. One might say he was ruthless, but what made him so?
 

Aaron turned his attention northward and signaled to the others. It was time to move out. They carried little with them. They needed to move swiftly and with minimal noise. The army of the Zekara was coming. Even if the Zekara had managed to somehow evade detection so far, his instincts told him that Halcylon had prepared enough. Now the war would begin in earnest. Verona handed him the rune-carved staff, and Aaron reluctantly took it.

They left the Watchtower of Elden Hold, moving swiftly on foot. A portion of them used the Hythariam gliders strapped to their feet but stayed low to the ground. Others were former Elitesmen who had no issue with setting a pace that no ordinary fighting force could match. This was an elite fighting force armed with plasma rifles and crystal-tipped arrows. A fair number carried Shandarian shields found in the weapons caches. For a moment, Aaron wished Braden was with them, but the Warden of the De’anjard had his task with defending Shandara.
 

The former Elitesmen still carried their blades, and many were highly trained in using attack orbs. It was a skill that Aaron hadn’t learned yet. He had spent enough time dodging those types of attacks that he didn’t want to learn it.
 

The rune-carved staff felt light in his hands, but he sensed the energy gathered within it. Along the fringes of his senses, he almost heard the rumbling of the Eldarin. Death was the only release for a Dragon infected with the Ryakul virus, but did the same apply to the Dragon lords?
 

Tanneth scouted ahead of them with two Hythariam trailing behind him. Aaron wanted to join him, but as Gavril and Verona would constantly tell him, he needed to learn to let others share in the task of protecting their world. It was probably for the best because Tanneth was more adept at sneaking around than Aaron was.
 

His fist clenched around the haft of the rune-carved staff. Would the Zekara sink into disarray if he took out Halcylon? If he could cut the head off the proverbial snake, as it were? Would Halcylon’s thirst for vengeance die with him, or would some other take up the reins? Aaron pulled in the energy around him and ran ahead of the others. Verona and Bayen were nearest him, with the rest of the FNA following closely behind.
 

The landscape passed them in a blur, giving way to forest. Their plan had them circling around, using the forest as cover so they could sneak up on where they suspected the Zekara to be. Aaron glanced behind him as their elite force moved through the forest. The speed and efficiency with which they moved was impressive. Now that they
were
on the move, Aaron wondered what they would encounter from the Zekara. Gavril had briefed them on the known capabilities of the Hythariam military before the barrier had separated Safanar from Hytharia. They didn’t know what General Halcylon was able to bring with him though the portal. Even though Aaron had been held captive at the time, he’d been in no position to actually see what they brought with them.

The miles flew by, and the sun shone overhead. Aaron’s comms device vibrated upon his wrist, and he answered.

“We’ve taken up position on the far side of the valley. We set detonators that should evade detection by anything the Zekara would use,” Tanneth said.

“Good,” Aaron said. “Hold position. Maintain comms blackout. After the first detonation, we’ll move in and begin the attack.”

Aaron called for a halt. They were several miles east of the valley and more than thirty miles north of the Watchtower of Elden Hold. They settled down and waited. Verona and Marek joined him.

“I need someone to keep an eye on Bayen,” Aaron said quietly.

Marek frowned. “Do you suspect foul play?”

Aaron shared a glance with Verona. “I don’t know. That’s the problem.”

“We could remove him?” Marek asked.

“No,” Aaron said. “I don’t believe Bayen means us harm. I’m just not sure about his motives. I want two eyes on him at all times. Especially during the attack.”

Marek saluted with a fist across his heart and left them.

Aaron caught Verona watching him from the corner of his eye. “You don’t approve?”

“About keeping an eye on Bayen? No, I think that’s a good idea. However, I don’t think he will stray far from your side, my friend,” Verona said, and strung his bow.

They were quiet after that, waiting in silence. Most of the soldiers kept their attention to the west, the direction they had to go. The former Elitesmen were easy to spot among them as they radiated a calmness. To them, battle was a way of life. A way to establish dominance. The few weeks with the Free Nations Army couldn’t rid them of that. The others with them were made up of the best soldiers from the various nations. All were battle hardened, with some having faced each other upon the field in the not too distant past. Aaron hoped he wasn’t leading them to their deaths. No amount of preparation could rid Aaron of the angst he felt in his gut. What if he was wrong? To allow the Zekara to march upon Rexel unopposed was most certainly not the right thing to do. They all agreed, but there was still a gnawing doubt that there was something he was missing.

“Verona,” Aaron said.

“I’m with you, my friend,” Verona answered.

The barest hint of a smile tugged at the corners of Aaron’s mouth. “Til the end?”

“Yes, but Goddess willing, it will be many years from now. When we’re old, fat, and have no hair left,” Verona said.

Aaron extended his senses away from him. Subtle vibrations from the ground sent tiny alarm bells that the Zekara were approaching. Almost at the same instant, Bayen caught his gaze and nodded to the west. Aaron held up his hand and signaled to the others. Weapons were checked and held ready. The rune-carved staff was held loosely in one of his hands and a small curved throwing ax in the other. Aaron glanced above them. There was a small whirl of air as something passed his field of vision, momentarily distorting it.

Drone!

Aaron motioned for the nearest soldier armed with a plasma rifle and pointed overhead. The soldier nodded and peered through the scope, scanning above them. A Hythariam near him checked his comms device and shook his head. It wasn’t one of theirs. They hadn’t deployed their own drones due to the risk of alerting the Zekara of their presence.

The Zekara, however,
were
using drones to scout the area. Aaron couldn’t be sure if they had been detected or not. Several FNA soldiers had their rifles trained upon the drone targets above them, waiting for the order to shoot them down. Aaron waited, his throat thickening as the moments passed by.
 

An explosion from the valley caused them all to spring into action at once. The FNA soldiers fired their rifles, taking out the drones above them. Aaron leaped up, going from tree branch to tree branch. The ones that could follow him up into the dizzying heights of the trees did, while the others raced along the ground. As they closed in, they passed through a translucent shroud. On the other side, shifting through the shadows, were dark shapes. The soldiers fired their weapons. An ear-piercing alarm was raised, and the dark shapes lifted themselves from the forest floor.

The thinning forest in front of them became a sea of glowing yellow eyes. Blackened, deformed heads cocked to the side like a hunter catching the scent of its prey. Then the Forsaken charged.

How could the Zekara have hidden so many of them?

A volley of crystal-tipped arrows was unleashed into the charging Forsaken. The explosions stalled the charge for mere moments before the Forsaken began to attack again in earnest. FNA soldiers fired their rifles, and former Elitesmen sent attack orbs, but the Forsaken kept coming even as they were being mowed down. The Hythariam among them charged forward, attempting to shield their human counterparts. The Forsaken all but ignored the Hythariam, with a singular focus on the humans.

Emerging from the smoke came towering, black-armored Zekara soldiers. A maelstrom of bolts belched from their weapons, and it was all the FNA soldiers could do to scramble for cover. Several pockets of FNA soldiers were left exposed, and heavy fire from the Zekara kept them pinned down. Aaron heard the guttural roars of the Forsaken, followed by the rapid clicking of snapping teeth closing in on them. Aaron leaped down. The runes along his staff flared to life as it whirled through the air. Aaron released a jolt of energy with each blow to the Forsaken. His appearance upon the battlefield drew the attention of all the nearby Forsaken. Glowing yellow eyes shifted toward him. He was surrounded by hundreds of Ryakul-human hybrids devoid of anything they were before, except for a faint whisper of what they’d once been.

FNA soldiers charged toward him, and the Forsaken renewed their frenzied attacks, bringing down soldiers as they tried to reach him. The soldiers that went down began writhing. Their eyes bulged in fear as they looked to Aaron to save them.
 

Bayen landed near him. “Shield!” he shouted, slamming his bladed staff to the ground. A barrier shimmered into existence, rapidly extending to either side.

Aaron drew in the energy and pushed outward from the rune-carved staff, forming a second barrier that quickly overtook the one Bayen had formed. The Forsaken hurled themselves at the shimmering barrier, but it held them at bay. In a frenzy, they immediately fanned out to the side, trying to find the barrier’s end. Bright flashes of light slammed into the barrier, but Aaron felt none of it. He tethered the barrier deep beneath the ground in the same manner as the barrier that had stood at Shandara, holding the Zekara at bay for over eighty years.

“Fall back!” he shouted.

The soldiers began retreating, but for the ones writhing on the ground. Bayen moved away with the others but kept watching him, waiting to see what he would do with the doomed FNA soldiers caught on their side of the barrier. Clenching his teeth, Aaron grabbed a plasma rifle from a nearby soldier, took aim at the dying men, and fired. Others joined in and kept firing their weapons until their fallen were nothing more than charred husks.

Finding the end of the barrier, the Forsaken threw themselves around the edge. Verona fired crystal-tipped arrows at them. The towering Zekara charged toward the barrier and in the last second leaped into the air, clearing its height. The powered armor housing the Zekara barely showed any signs of weakening as they dropped down to the ground. Aaron tossed the rifle back to the soldier and ordered him to retreat. He turned back to face the charging Zekara, creating a smaller barrier in front to deflect the bolts fired at him. He only needed to buy the FNA some time to retreat, and then he could catch up with them.

As the Zekara passed by a rocky outcropping, one of them went down as if his legs had been cut out from under him. A figure half their size pounced on the fallen soldier. Gleaming claws tore through the armor with blinding speed. The Zekaran soldier cried out in pain before being cut off. The translucent figure atop the dead soldier charged forward, closing the distance on the two others.
 

The surrounding forest blended in around the creature, and a dim memory tugged at the edges of Aaron’s thoughts, taking him back to being held captive on Hytharia. A similar creature had helped him escape the dying world.
 

Thraw!

Aaron grabbed the small curved ax that hung on his belt. Summoning the energy, he sent the ax streaking across the way. The ax slammed into the charging Zekara with such force that he was blown back several feet.