Heir To The Nova (Book 3) (10 page)

He spotted me and his eyes widened. “Maya! You’re alive! We thought for sure they killed you, too.”

I smiled slightly. “Believe me, for the past few days, I was wishing they had. But now is not the time; we have to get you both out of here. The way is clear; we will help you up the hill to the wagon. Grandfather and Ryliss are waiting up there for our return.”

He straightened up from his slouch against the wall. “Oh no, that’s not happening! I see you brought our weapons, and we will kindly take them from you and cram them into the chests of these traitors. Holding the King and Queen prisoner! How idiotic can you get?”

Lin and Julia drew back, all their healing spells exhausted, as Dawn entered the room carrying a tray with bowls of stew, bread and cheese. With a deep, respectful bow she learned from the nebulia, she served the Queen first, followed immediately by the King. That accomplished, she winked and handed each of the druid girls a large cheese sandwich. The two girls retreated gratefully to the far corner of the cage and sat cross-legged eating their food. Dawn hurried away once more and refilled her tray with more food and tankards of fresh water.

“Brave little girls,” my mother said warmly between eager bites of stew. “They do fine work, too. I still feel like I got run over by a herd of elk a few dozen times, but I’ll manage.”

I smiled. “Reginaldo? If you can hear me, would you kindly take Jules and Lin out of here and back up to the wagon?”

“As you command, Child of Darkness,” a rough, gravelly voice intoned from the very ground beneath our feet; and a cone of earth rose up, swirling like a brown whirlwind. “Hold your breath, Lin,” Jules laughed. The two of them giggled and held onto each other tight as the dirt encased them and then drew them down like water in a drain. Just like that, it was as if they had never been there.

“Ok...that was just incredibly weird,” Mother said, her jaw dropping. My father just looked slightly dazed, but he still continued to eat quickly, shaking his head in disbelief. “Bel? Do you know about all this?”

The noble female vampire stepped closer to her friend and shrugged. “I know enough not to dream of challenging your daughter, or her intended mate. I have also received credible reports from some of my human staff who have journeyed to their fortress, and they confirm much of my suspicions of what she is capable of.” She reached down and pulled my mom to her feet and gave her an uncharacteristic hug. “That said, Renalla, I have grown rather fond of your daughter, and Sir Alex, of course. You raised a very smart girl, and right now I suggest you step back and allow her to finish up this operation.”

Mother looked both puzzled and taken aback by her friend’s advice. “If you say so, Bel.”

Smiling to myself, I reached down to pull my father to his feet and gave him a pat on the shoulder. “This should be fun! Dawn, Dusk…” The twins drew close and, with a quick bow, stood waiting for their orders. “Alright, you two, we will take the main building. Effective immediately, you are off guard duty. I want you to let loose and have some fun; basically, I don’t want to see a building left standing in this place.”

They both smiled gleefully and changed their appearance back to the silver-eyed human girls that I was used to seeing at Xarparion and Sky Raven, chuckling as they bowed and left the room. It didn’t take long for the sounds of massive leathery wings and keening screams to fill the air outside, along with the panicked shouts of the few remaining compound guards. I could literally feel the air pressure from their flights pressing inward on the walls, and the mud chinking between the logs began to loosen and fall like rain. The whole place sounded like it was starting to shake itself apart. Even as familiar as I was with the twins, deep in my bones I still felt a visceral twinge of instinctive primordial fear.

Smiling, I turned back to my wide-eyed parents, who were looking around nervously.

“Dare I ask?” Faeron frowned. “But who or what are they?”

I shrugged. “Just my handmaidens; a small gift from Alex’s mother. Now come on, if you’re feeling up to it, let’s finish this.” My parents nodded and grabbed their weapons from Belrothe, following me past the card-playing statues and outside. We all ducked and ran quickly across the dirt street to the larger longhouse. We ducked because there were two real-life monsters strafing the outer edges of the compound, only pausing occasionally to rip the roof off a building and freeze everything within. The ice expanded and virtually exploded the wood walls from within.

As we reached the main door, I motioned my parents and Belrothe to the sides, as crossbows appeared in both of my hands, courtesy of Winya. “I’ll go first,” I snickered, kicking open the door. Of course, the remaining guard force was ready for me. Immediately, I felt arrows impact my armor, kind of like light rain on a window pane. Walking forward confidently, I had Winya open up with her special bolts. The dark elves in the front row, all firing from one knee, dropped like sacks of oats to the floor. The guards in the second row looked down in dismay as the same bolts that blasted through the throats of their kneeling comrades also sailed through their own thighs and stomachs. Winya changed back to her long sword form and we put them all out of their misery. I hummed happily as I stepped across the dead bodies before me.

My father was the first to peer around the corner of the door frame. He looked from me to the dead men and back to me. He noted all the arrows stuck in the door frame and lying broken on the floor having impacted my armor and shattered.

“I know these men, and they are hardened warriors, not to be trifled with…and yet you cut them down like they were nothing. Maya, dear, when this is all over, we are going to have a talk,” my father said, still wide-eyed as he followed me into the antechamber.

“Indeed,” Mother added, stepping carefully over corpses.

Bringing up the rear, Belrothe decided to chime in with her opinion. “Actually, these are probably the cleanest kills I have seen her do.” Both of my parents did a double take on that one. “Do you remember that huge party of vampires that your spies said were about to attack the capital during the siege?”

My father nodded and whispered, “Yes, that was a very worrisome point for us. According to the reports, there was supposed to be over three hundred of them. There is no possible way we could have kept the undead hoard out of the city if we had been fighting three hundred vampires inside our ranks. Thankfully, the report must have been a fallacy, as they never showed up.”

Belrothe smirked and pointed a long elegant finger at me. “The report was accurate Faeron; in fact, it may have been a tad on the light side numbers-wise. The vampires were intercepted before they reached your city. Trust me; you don’t really want to know what went on in that cave.”

“Thanks, Bel,” I growled. “I was trying not to tell them that one.”

She simply tried to play innocent. “I’m so sorry; I had no idea.” You could cut the sarcasm in the air with a dull sword. But she was smiling, and I knew she was just having fun. Drawing everyone’s attention back to the here and now, I motioned for silence as we crept forward. Fortunately, the door leading farther back into the longhouse was well-oiled and made no fuss. Once through, we could hear voices, so I gave them the wait signal and activated the stealth on my armor, disappearing from sight.

Like the other longhouse, this one opened up into a large public room at the far back, and the voices turned to all-out arguing as I approached. Inside were about twenty dark elves. Judging from their clothing and armor, I would have to say this was the remaining hierarchy of the three rebel clans. Damn, I thought I had made a more profound dent in their numbers in the arena, but they must have been holding out on me. Oh well, I would take care of that small detail presently. They were all standing around a large wooden table, and one of the oldest clan chiefs was holding one of the amulets that had sucked Alex into hell. In one corner of the room, an open portal glistened; but unlike the soothing pink or blue ones that Alera casts, this one had a decidedly red, fresh blood tone. On the table was a chunk of stone that no one seemed to want to touch.

“Maya, that stone is our quarry. I can feel the magic radiating off of it in waves. There is also something profoundly evil in this room, as well. Be careful!”
Winya said edgily.

Ghosting into the back part of the room, I caught a glimpse of what the clansmen were arguing with. There on the floor, less than three feet tall, was a hunched-over creature dressed in rags. It had bony, skeletal hands and a face that was, thankfully, hooded from my view; but you could almost physically feel the malevolence rolling off it. It shifted angrily, turning its head from dark elf to dark elf.

One of the clan chiefs pointed a finger at it and shouted, “Your lord and master promised us manpower and dark magic! We are under attack; bring forth your demons and slay our enemies!”

The creature rustled like dead leaves in the fall before replying, “My master finds your demands for additional support a sign of weakness, and he despises weakness. The terms were for you to serve him without question in exchange for power, and now you foolishly attempt to bargain for a better deal using the dark elf King and Queen! They should already be dead, and now you also defy his commands by not handing over the key stone!”

One of the dark elf elders paled considerably and growled, “No, we did everything as you said. It is the Duke who has not kept up our bargain. Where are the undead hordes you pulled back out of the siege? What happened to the vampires that were supposed to wreak havoc in the city? Your Lord’s contributions have been lukewarm at best. You also failed to warn us about that damned crazy daughter of Faeron’s!”

“The arrangement stated that you kill the King, Queen and the Child of Darkness; you have accomplished nothing!” the ragged being howled angrily. “You were told to recover and return the key stone immediately to my Lord. And yet you seek to hold it as a bargaining chip while you attempt to sweeten the deal. You play a very dangerous game, my idiotic friends.”

Having heard enough, I slid back down the hallway to my waiting parents and Belrothe. Reappearing and speaking in hushed tones, I quickly acquainted them with the situation, including descriptions of the dark elves present.

Looking at the vampire, I said, “Bel, they have one of the amulets.”

She smiled, showing off her fangs and not in a happy way, either. “Excellent, it saves me the trouble of tracking it down.” Reaching inside her leather armor chest piece, she pulled out the modified amulet that Alex had created for her and let it dangle from her neck.

“Okay, I’ll go in first and take care of the creature and the clansmen,” I started to say, but was interrupted by a violent shake of the head from my father, the King.

“Maya, as much as I would enjoy seeing you dice them into tiny bits, it is the prerogative and the responsibility of the King to deal with traitors to the crown.”

“Besides,” my mother added, her eyes hardening, “one of the bastards you described was the one who murdered poor Kalah, and I will have my revenge for what they did to our poor sweet girl!”

Bel seemed to think on that for a second, and then nodded. “Then I implore you to be the instrument of our vengeance and kill them all. Maya and I will step in if things get too rough. I will also collect the amulet.”

Winya reactivated my armor to make me transparent again, and I slid into the chamber where the debate still raged, circling around the other side of the table. After conferring a moment on tactics, my parents glided into the room, catching the group in mid-shouting match.

It was amazing to watch them work; the two of them have a grace in battle that even I haven’t mastered yet. Where I would have hacked, lunged, and leaped around keeping my enemies off guard and confused, they took down the traitors as easily as if they were ballroom dancing. My mother using her spear point to jab, but she would sweep it side-to-side as well, using the blood red, heavy spear blade almost like a sword. Her grace was amazing to watch. My father’s sword work was impeccable, and I could tell he was taking full advantage of the extra spring and other enchantments that Alex had built into the sword. The clan chiefs were unable to muster any kind of organized defense as my parents circled around them in an ever tightening circle of doom. While I hated their guts, even I had to admit that these elder clansmen went down as warriors. There was no begging for mercy to be heard, nor would any have been granted.

I tried to keep my eyes on the creature as I saw him dart under the table during the battle. Suddenly, I saw a clawed hand reach up and snatch the key stone off the table. Immediately ordering my crossbow, I appeared to materialize out of thin air at one side of the room, which caused a moan of dread to run through the opposing elves. They knew who I was and what I could do; by this point, they also knew to a man that they were dead.

Circling the table and crouching low, I spotted the ragged creature stuffing the stone into his clothing. As soon as it was secured, he scuttled toward the end of the table and launched himself toward the still open portal with surprising speed. My first, second and third crossbow bolts passed harmlessly through him as he cackled madly and leapt.

As I watched him in horror, from behind me I heard the scream of what could only be described as babbling straight from hell itself as Belrothe’s amulet sucked the clansmen’s amulet dry. All lights in the area dimmed ominously, and then the portal snapped closed with a puff of brimstone.