Heir To The Nova (Book 3) (26 page)

She nodded and watched them stride off in the direction of the main courtyard. As we approached closer to the keep, the sound of arguing overcame the normal sounds of day-to-day bustle. Finally, we found the source.

“I’m telling you, you’re talking to the wrong man,” Captain Jarsin growled at the small group of wind and water teachers who had him surrounded.

“You’re the Captain of the Guard, aren’t you?” one of them prodded, getting angrier by the minute. The rest of them nodded in agreement.

I looked at Maya and we both sighed. She unhooked her helmet from her belt and began to raise it up to put it on.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Covering up, I can’t imagine my being a dark elf will make this conversation any friendlier, “she said, looking away.

I stopped her, shook my head, and lifted her chin so that she was staring into my eyes. “This is our fortress. I will not have you hiding your face in shame any longer. Any issues with your people are past history; they are allies now and damn good ones. If I have anything to say about it, they will remain our friends for a very long time. But that all starts right here, right now,” I said, snatching the magic scarf from around her neck, which she had forgotten about.

Her eyes shining, she nodded and hooked her arm through mine. We walked forward a few more paces and then stopped to listen to the argument.

“I’m not the captain anymore; all I worry about are the civilians here. So unless you’re looking for a meal, a job, or a place to sleep, you got the wrong man.”

“Not the captain? Then who the bloody hell is?”

“Higs is the new captain now. But even so, he’s not the one you need to talk to about your demands. Those two standing behind you are in charge of this place.” The five of them turned around, and I silently watched as their faces filled with rage.

“You put an apprentice enchanter and a dark elf in charge? Is this some kind of joke?” the wind wizard who seemed to be the self-appointed leader of the gang sputtered. His outburst was actually quite hilarious, and I’m sure Maya and I both had smirks on our faces as we watched his eyes bulge out and the veins in his neck start hammering.

He was literally frothing at the mouth as Jarsin answered contemptuously, “Yes, we did. Without them, we would all be dead and you would still be trapped in your towers.”

“Yeah well, we were making plans to escape,” one of the blue robes interjected, but Jarsin rounded on that individual.

“Escape? To where? You do realize that the only reason you were left alive at all was to be bait? Bait for them!” he said, thrusting his arm in our direction. “They fought off undead, demons, and even an adult dragon to save your ungrateful asses! So, by the stars, start showing some bloody respect!” And with that, he stormed off and started barking orders at some staff still moving boxes around.

For the most part, the teachers looked stunned by the old captain’s outburst. One even grabbed a young healer girl who was passing by and asked her who was in charge of this place. She turned around, and when she saw us, her face lit up in a big smile as she attempted a demure curtsey. Pointing shyly at us, she answered, “Those two are, the Prince and Princess!”

Before anything else could be said, Higs showed up almost out of breath, probably called to intervene because of all the yelling. Seeing us, he skidded to a halt and saluted Maya.

“What’s all this about?” He eyed the teachers with some distain. “Are these wizards causing problems, Commander?”

Maya grinned, “A bit, yes. They seem to have issues with something, but they’re too busy screaming at people to even say what it is. Also, we have been standing here for ten minutes and they have yet to even address us, so they don’t seem to be truly interested in finding any real answers.”

Higs turned to them with his arms crossed. “So what is it, then?”

“We demand that an immediate counterattack be made! The undead have walked our halls for too long already!”

“That’s not going to happen,” Higs answered shortly.

“What? Why not?”

“Because I said so! We don’t have the manpower or the resources to do something that stupid. Look, even if we gave every man, woman, and child a weapon, we would still have less than five hundred fighters to their twenty thousand. And that’s just the undead; it doesn’t count the demons.”

“We are wizards! We can take on more than that any day!”

Higs rolled his eyes and sighed, turning to us. “I’m sure you two are tired, so why don’t you go on into the keep and relax. I’ll deal with these people and get you a report later tonight.”

“Carry on then, Captain,” Maya saluted, and the two of us began to leave.

“Wait just a minute,” one of the wind wizards barked brusquely. “If you two are really the ones we need to talk to, then I demand satisfaction.”

“Make an appointment,” I shot back flippantly over my shoulder, and we left them there fuming.

As Maya and I walked through the main doors of the keep and slammed them behind us, we were finally able to relax. Just being back inside the walls of this place felt like home. I took the opportunity to steal a kiss from my lover, and she retaliated by trapping me in an embrace that I never wanted to end. Finally, she drew back with a satisfied grin. “You know you weren’t very nice at the end back there, not that I don’t approve…”

“It’s like having to deal with the fire wizard jerks back at Xarparion all over again,” I hissed. “They’re either going to have to learn to fit into the system we’ve built here or there are going to be problems. With any luck, today’s operation will cause the Duke enough heartburn to make him come after us. And what we don’t need now is a bunch of spoiled-rotten wizards causing dissention.”

Maya laughed, hugging me enthusiastically. “Wow…you can actually get angry, can’t you? I was beginning to wonder if I was engaged to a holy man of some kind; I like it!”

“Hmmm, it’s a good thing you weren’t around to see me when I left the dark elf capital after you were named ‘Queen’. Now that was angry!” I growled, remembering that night.

“Oh, I think I received a report about something like that from Ollis. It gave me a much-needed laugh in my darkest hour during that time.” We both grinned and then yawned. “Whew, I’m beat.”

“Yeah well, remember, healing still takes its energy from the host,” I said, “and that dragon was not a pushover in the slightest. We deserve at least a nap, I think.”

She smiled, gave me a quick squeeze, and then tapped me flirtatiously on the tip of my nose. “Yeah, but first I want to try something while we’re alone in this throne room that I’ve been thinking about a lot.”

“Really?”

“Not that, you dolt!”

She led me over to the thrones, perched high up on their platform. “I have a hunch about these things and I want to test it real quick, so take a seat.” I shrugged, but still did what she asked. The chairs had a low padded back, but the upper half of the back rest was tall and very narrow. I was expecting it to be kind of uncomfortable; but, in fact, they had plenty of support and were surprisingly soft.

“As I suspected,” she said with satisfaction. I looked over at her and she had her wings out again. But instead of hanging awkwardly out the side like they do in normal chairs, they were perfectly positioned and naturally comfortable.

Taking her lead, I extended mine; and they hung normally off the back and didn’t brush the floor because there was a drop off behind the thrones. “These thrones were made for people with wings.” She continued excitedly, “So that either means there were people before us with wings or the more likely option…the crystal guy lied to us about what we would become. This place was tailor made for us right from the beginning, wasn’t it?”

“It would seem like it, yes.”

“But why lie to us then?”

I thought on that one for a second. “Well, my father said we were an experiment, a trial. In the lab, working with Rosa, we set up everything we need for the experiment before we actually try anything in case it works. If it doesn’t, we try again. But if it is successful, then we are ready to move immediately onto the next step.”

“Indeed.” The booming voice came from the entire room around us; it was the familiar voice of the blue crystal. “I have been listening and watching. As you have surmised, the Nova built this place long ago for just this purpose. It has seen other uses and has been used in other wars. But like you, it is unique and has been waiting patiently for the special key and its true rulers’ order to awaken. It has issued the call, will you answer it?”

“The key?”

“Something that no being with a mind bent to evil could ever possess; the unparalleled love and extraordinary devotion of another, even beyond death itself.” The voice died away and it was clear that the conversation was over.

I looked at Maya and she was pointing at something. “Alex…”

A few feet in front of us a stone pillar had risen out of the polished flagstone floor. It was angled toward us and the surface was smooth and flat. Writing formed and scrolled across the stone, similar to the way that my parents’ letters had. ‘In the season of darkness, the comets will take their rightful place in the sky. Their splendor will drive away the blackness from this world.’ And…that was the entire message…really?

There was a grinding sound and a second pillar of stone rose from the floor; this one was smaller and directly in between the two thrones. It wasn’t like the other; it only had a slot in it about three inches wide.

“Ok, this is getting too weird,” Maya whispered.

“No kidding,” I said absently. Then I heard a scraping sound and looked over at Maya. She had Winya out and was sliding the sword blade into the slot on the stone. “What are you doing? Is your solution to every problem stabbing it?”

She eyed me and winked. “Yes…yes, it is. And guess what, Magic Boy; it works!”

The sword slid all the way in up to the hilt. At this point, we heard a thump sound from deep below us. And the text on the scrolling text pillar changed. ‘What better defense than one’s greatest defenders?’

“Ok, now what?” I asked.

“Winya is the key!” she said excitedly; and I watched as she turned the sword carefully, the center of the pillar turning like an inset cylinder. At the half turn mark, another loud thump resonated from the stone beneath our feet. Slowly, both pillars retreated back into the floor, leaving Maya holding Winya once again. She set her across her lap, and we waited, looking around to see what would happen next.

The suspended star projector that normally shines a star field onto the upper walls of the throne room spun rapidly above our heads. Its buzzing reminding me of a certain pixie when she’s angry. I was really hoping this wasn’t going to end up being another one of those episodes where I would have to explain why we left her behind. But instead of taking us somewhere, its flashing generated two cerulean blue portals that winked into existence, one on each side of the thrones.

Two golden-armored figures marched out of the portals. They wielded short spears and huge kite shields, and wore plate armor that looked like it was two inches thick. It made my armor set up look like light training gear. Clearing the portal, they immediately sidestepped and took up guard positions alongside our thrones. Except they weren’t taking up positions to keep us from leaving; rather their postures and stance spoke of protecting us from all attacks.

As soon as they froze into place, more armored figures marched out of the two portals. These warriors wore field plate, also golden in color, but not as heavy as the first two. My armor smith’s eye noted that this was some finely-crafted armor, and it undoubtedly afforded the wearer not only fantastic protection, but also good maneuverability. Almost all of them were outfitted with long sword and shield, but the last of them carried the largest great swords I had ever seen, the blades were at least two inches thick!

I would guess there were about eighty of them in all. They marched half way down the Great Hall before doing an about face and reforming their ranks into two columns of eight soldiers wide with practiced ease.

I pulled my eyes away from the spectacle and glanced over at Maya. She was crying at the sight, but they were tears of joy. I looked more closely and she was petting Winya in her hands.

“
What’s wrong?”
I asked the sword.

I heard sniffles come though the link. “
Wrong? Nothing is wrong. This is possibly the greatest moment of my afterlife. Alex, don’t you see? These are my girls! These are the Iron Maidens!”

That came as a surprise; they were all supposed to be dead. But then again, the crystal did say something about storing their souls. The soldier up front stomped once as another group of individuals marched out of the portal, but these weren’t even close to the same. This group looked to be elven longbow men and women. They were clad in gold-colored leathers with thick metal plates on their left arm and upper chests only; very ornate longbows clung to their backs as did loaded quivers. In addition to the larger quiver on their backs, they had two smaller quivers strapped on either side of their belts and two short swords in the small of their backs. There looked to be fifty of them, and they took up positions beyond the Iron Maidens.

Not more than a few feet behind them was an impressive line of sixty-five golden dwarves; but these weren’t warrior types. Rather, they carried specialized tools and heavy bags. I got the impression they were builders or artisans of some type. They, too, formed up in ranks with the Iron Maidens and the elves.