The Sorcerer's Destiny (The Sorcerer's Path) (49 page)

The dragon immediately went on the offensive as they approached the site of the gate. Aggie struck out with some moderately powerful spells until her mount wheeled away to avoid the dragon’s return strikes. Turning in her saddle, she sent arcane orbs streaking out behind her, but they were little more than an irritant to the powerful beast.

Allister guided his hawk toward the gate, but the dragon quickly broke off its chase and dived after him. Aggie looped around and struck at the creature’s back, but it was not going to be deterred. Allister was forced to break off his attack, but Aggie stayed true and tried to reach the obelisks as the dragon gave chase. Seeing what was happening, the dragon twisted in midair and attacked Aggie with its magic.

Knowing what the human wizards were trying to do, the dragon sent its arcane power into the sky. Black clouds formed above the gate and fierce winds swept across the gorge, forcing the blood hawks to constantly dip their wings one way and another to maintain flight. It made for a very bumpy ride and the already difficult task of casting magic from their backs all but impossible.

“We cannot do this from up here!” Aggie shouted.

“Well, we can’t go down there! The instant one of them sees us, the whole lot of them will turn around and swarm us.”

Aggie looked serious as she nodded. “I know.”

“Blast your wrinkly old hide, woman! I told you it was a suicide mission.”

“We’re not dead yet, you old coot! Do you want to live forever?”

“That was the plan!”

“Well, plans change!”

Allister jerked the reins of his aerial steed with a loud, unintelligible shout at the wind and rain, and the two mages raced for the stone pylons once again. The dragon’s defense was simple but strong. It knew the wizards were unaccustomed to flying and could do little to harm it or the gate as long as it did not allow them to land. Even if they did manage to reach the ground, the disgusting ravagers would likely tear them apart within minutes if not seconds.

The blood hawks flew wide as another jet of fire scorched the air between them, but instead of trying to draw the dragon away, they regrouped as the dragon sped past and continued to dive at the gate. The wyrm flipped around with incredible grace for a creature so large and quickly pursued. Allister and Aggie aimed for the area behind the pillars where it was largely free of ravagers. Less than a hundred feet from the ground, the two wizards released the straps securing them to their saddles and threw themselves over the side. A quick spell arrested their uncontrolled fall to the speed of a quick jog. The dragon, finally taken by surprise by the unexpected maneuver, continued to chase after the blood hawks until it realized neither of them held a rider. It tried to loop back around, but the giant birds attacked it mercilessly, tearing out scales and digging into the flesh beneath with their formidable talons.

The archmages took a moment to study the obelisks and found them heavily warded against magic. It would take a powerful spell to bring them down, one in which the ravagers were not going to afford them the time to cast. It took only seconds for the first creature to become aware of the intruders and even less time for it to relay the alarm to the rest.

Ravagers stopped in their tracks and spun around by the hundreds to kill the interlopers before they could bring down the gates. For now, the gate gave the wizards two advantages. The ravagers on the other side could not see or reach them from directly in front of it, and the ones pouring out of it hampered those racing back up the gorge to attack them.

“Aggie, you need to shield us until I can bring this infernal thing down.”

“How long will it take you?”

“At least a minute, but not much more. This thing has some formidable wards carved into it.”

“I’ll do my best.”

Aggie conjured her most powerful ward as scores of ravagers leapt at their exposed position. The creatures howled and slashed at the barrier with fervor when it prevented them from reaching their foes. Sweat began streaming from her brow almost instantly as she continued to pour power into the shield in order to maintain it. Every pounding fist and slashing blade weakened it, causing invisible cracks in its surface, and these required a continual flow of energy to repair.

“How much longer, you old coot?”

“About twenty more seconds, thirty if you keep nagging me!”

Aggie shut up and focused her attention on the barrier, shifting her sight between the magic making up the ward and the creatures clawing to get through. She blessed Azerick for his foresight and courage in creating the Source pool. Had he not, she would never have been able to create and maintain such an impassable barrier.

She gasped as several smaller, blue-skinned creatures leapt at the barrier without impediment. She summoned arcane energy to her hand and lashed out, striking down three of the vile creatures but failed to stop a fourth before it leapt onto Allister’s back and plunged a bone-bladed knife into his neck. Aggie cried out and struck with her magic, and the creature’s head exploded like a lanced boil. Anger and anguish drove her to draw in more power. A ring of flesh-rending magic and nearby stones swirled around the outside of the barrier in a powerful vortex.

Aggie dropped to her knees and pressed a wad of her robes against Allister’s neck in an attempt to stop the bleeding even as she maintained her focus on the powerful spells.

“What are you doing, woman?” Allister demanded as he gazed past Aggie at the spell swirling around them. “You’re gonna burn yourself up.”

“I’m going to get you out of here,” Aggie promised desperately as sweat beaded and dropped from her face.

“Don’t be stupid. That nasty critter hit an artery. I knew your nagging was gonna be the death of me one day.” Allister coughed, flecking his snow-white beard and mustache with blood.

“Shut up, you damned old coot. It’s going to be the death of us both.”

“You can still get away.”

“I can’t cast a portal far enough to get past those creatures even if I wanted to. Besides, I can’t leave without destroying the gate, and I can’t work a strong enough spell to do that without losing control of the ones keeping those creatures away from us.”

“Are you saying you can’t…take down…the gate?” Allister struggled to ask as he began losing consciousness.

Tears flowed down the old archmage’s face and spattered onto Allister’s wrinkled forehead like rain. “There’s one way, my love. Go stand at Solarian’s side. I’ll see you very soon.”

Aggie gently laid Allister’s head onto the ground and stood. She faced the furious horde but looked far beyond them to the shimmering well of power residing far away in another dimension. The archmage opened herself completely to the flow of magic, holding nothing back.

“Damn…fool…woman,” Allister mumbled, coughed, and breathed a final shuttering breath.

Aggie’s tears burned with silver light, blinding her as the Source poured into her body far beyond her ability to control. She struggled to contain the power as long as she could. Brilliant, argent light shot from her eyes and mouth as she released a silent, anguished scream. Unable to contain the magic any longer, the pent up energy exploded with cataclysmic violence. The powerful blast destroyed the gate and scoured the gorge clean for half a mile in every direction.

***

Jarvin and Yusuf’s forces were unable to hold the pass. The relentless Ravager assault had pushed his men out of the gulch and into the expanding basin just beyond it. The human front stretched thinner as the ravager lines widened, and every minute the horde pushed them back farther and thinned their lines closer to the breaking point.

A titanic explosion shook the ground beneath them and was so powerful it was visible even over the tall butte. The sky above the horizon lit up with a light bright enough to force anyone looking at it to turn away and shield their eyes despite being a clear afternoon, and a huge column of dust rose into the sky like a colossal mushroom.

“I think the wizards have done it!” Jarvin shouted excitedly.

Yusuf nodded grimly. “Yes, surely good news on the whole but likely too little and too late for us.”

Jarvin’s excitement evaporated under the heat of reality. There were still tens of thousands of ravagers trying to shove through the pass, and more were climbing over it and descending into the gulch to decimate his people. Their soldiers fought valiantly, their morale and courage bolstered by their Kings fighting alongside them. Most armies would have broken ranks and retreated under such disparaging odds and brutality, but his and Yusuf’s men would fight to the last knowing their leaders would die beside them for a cause greater than the lives of any man, even a king.

The trembling ground shuddering from the cataclysmic blast ceased, but another source of shaking replaced it and it was growing stronger. Thunderous battle cries and shrill trilling resonated across the battlefield as a horde of ogres, orcs, and goblins poured over the eastern hills and descended upon the human’s left flank like an avalanche.

“Damn cowardly jackals!” Jarvin shouted furiously as he helplessly watched doom fall upon his already beleaguered forces.

His mouth fell open and his eyes narrowed in confusion as the first of the brute horde fell upon the ravagers climbing over the butte to their front before slamming into those filling the valley.

“I think you judge too quickly,” Yusuf hollered with the laugh of a man pardoned just before the headman swung his axe.

Goblins sprinted around and through the legs of ravagers, leaping onto their backs, and plunging their blades into them with psychotic fervor. Orcs and massive ogre warriors waded into the fight with more organization and discipline but with equal brutality. What truly held Jarvin’s attention were the three figures wearing plate armor of incredible blackness.

“By the gods, they wear Dundalor’s armor,” Jarvin said with reverence and a bit of fear.

“What is this?” Yusuf asked.

“They wear the armor created by the dwarven master smith Dundalor Ironforge and gifted to my ancestor to fight the dragons during the Great Revolution. How could they have such a thing?”

“It appears yours was not the only ancestor gifted, nor the only hero to stand and fight.”

Jarvin slowly wagged his head. “How much of our history has been forgotten? How much of it is an outright lie?”

“Let us be more concerned with the truths of today than the lies of yesterday.”

“You are a wiser man than I, Yusuf.”

“Better-looking as well!” The Sumaran King chortled. “Yet another truth of today.”

Jarvin’s laugh was cut short when a ravager’s blade went spinning over the forward ranks of warriors and slipped between the narrow gap of the King’s helm and breastplate. Yusuf dropped from his mount and caught Jarvin as he swayed and fell from his saddle. The Sumaran gently lowered the King to the ground and slipped off his helm.

The knife was buried in the hollow of Jarvin’s throat and was bleeding profusely. His jaw worked up and down but the blade made it impossible to speak. Several of his Blackguards tightened their defensive ring around the King and pulled him and Yusuf away from the press of battle. Jarvin reached for the handle of knife protruding from his throat but Yusuf held his wrist fast.

“No, my friend, if we remove it, you will surely die.”

Jarvin pulled his hand toward the hilt again and pleaded with Yusuf with his eyes. They had no Chosen with them, and they both knew he would never live long enough to return to the main camp. Jarvin waved forward the Blackguard who had retrieved his fallen sword. The elite soldier placed the hilt of the saint sword in his King’s hand. With another beseeching look to Yusuf, the Sumaran gently extracted the lethal blade.

“For…my…son,” Jarvin said in a raspy, gurgling voice. “He knows…what must…be done.”

Yusuf gripped Jarvin’s fist tightly in his hand. “I will see he gets it, my friend. You have my word.”

Jarvin forced a smile onto his face and squeezed Yusuf’s hand. Yusuf knelt at Jarvin’s side until Solarian’s life-giving flames went out in his eyes and his soul ascended to their god’s celestial palace like a cinder born upon the wind.

The ring of Blackguards suddenly tensed and lifted their blades high as an enormous shadow draped itself across the knot of humans. Yusuf did not even have to stand to see the source of their unease. Towering above the group stood a massive figure bedecked in gleaming, black plate armor from head to toe. Yusuf instantly found himself lost in its depthless ebony sheen. The Sumaran forced himself to focus, stood, and motioned Jarvin’s elite warriors to stand aside. Yusuf stepped boldly to the outer ring of men and stood before the hulking ogre.

Sefket doffed his gold-trimmed onyx helm and held it in the crook of his arm just above the handle of the massive battle axe hanging from his thick leather belt. “Are you the human king?”

Ogres were little more than folklore in his kingdom, but the stories regarded the creatures as subhuman brutes, barely more intelligent than animals. But when Yusuf looked into the piercing yellow eyes of the creature standing before him, he did not see an animal or even a savage tribal chief. He saw a being of strength, pride, and nobility every bit the equal to his own.

“I am Yusuf Sabaht, King of the Sumaran people.” Yusuf extended an arm toward Jarvin’s body. “There lies Jarvin Ollander, King of the Valerian people.”

Sefket turned his huge palms toward the sky and growled something unintelligible to the humans’ ears. “He died defending his kin. There can be no more honorable death than that. I am Sefket, King of all the Kin. Your people are too few, and a king has fallen. Take your soldiers and return the King to his people. The Kin shall defend this pass and wipe this scourge from our world.”

“Thank you, Sefket. We owe your people a great debt. I hope we can repay it one day.”

“There is but one way your kind can show their gratitude.”

“How? Name it and it is yours if it is in my power to give.”

“Remember today. Remember what the Kin have never and will never forget.”

“I will, Sefket,” Yusuf swore. “Your deeds will be written in a hundred books and upon a thousand scrolls. We will carve it into the walls of our greatest cities so that all will be reminded of what you have done for us.”