The Unseen Tempest (Lords of Arcadia) (31 page)

Dammit, now I have to piss.

As I climbed the stairs to the western rampart, I took a second to look over the battle. What was once a perfect winter wonderland was now littered with corpses and fighting, with no end in sight. Is this what people do to the world? We destroy it wherever we go? All of this to decide who is going to plant a tree. So many lives lost over a shrub.

A squad? Company? I don’t know. A bunch of Oberon’s troops came over the hill and were heading straight toward the castle.

I closed my eyes and steadied my nerves. Then I reached out with my mind.

This was it, do-or-die time. I come up with something that would stop those guys or they would stab me and throw my corpse to freeze in the snow below. There was a fleeting moment of fear, and then I thought of my mom and how she had seen this coming and thought I could handle it.

And the fear went away.

These guys want to play fairy tales? Then let me introduce you to my own personal nightmare. The one villain that kept me awake for days when I saw it as a kid. You want a fight? Then, as she put it, fight all the powers of hell.

The shadows of the trees quivered as my mind touched them. In fact, every single shadow in the immediate vicinity came spilling out, making a pool of darkness in the snow below me. Oberon’s men paused, not sure what was happening.

My eyes opened, and a serpent’s head burst the surface of the shadows. Oberon’s forces stumbled backward when a massive dragon made of shadow climbed out of nowhere. A woman’s laughter cackled from its mouth as it looked down at them with neon yellow eyes.

“Run,” I snarled through the dragon’s mouth.

And then I breathed fire on them.

O
BERON
CAME
out of his tent at the ever-louder sounds of screaming and looked out over the horizon. He saw the dragon breathe fire down on his troops, destroying them instantly, and lost the last of his temper.

“What in the Nine Realms is that thing?” he asked out loud. No one had an answer. “Don’t just stand there looking at it!” he bellowed at the nearest officer. “Get your men over there and kill that thing!”

The officer saluted and called out his men, knowing he and they were, most likely, not coming back.

H
AWK
BECAME
lightheaded and grabbed the edge of the table to steady himself.

Olim helped him remain standing. “Kane’s power, it comes from life force—a life force that he shares with you now, doesn’t it?”

Hawk said nothing as he watched Kane scatter Oberon’s troops like they were gnats. “I’m fine,” he whispered, barely able to talk.

Olim shot a glare at Adamas. “Someone needs to get up to Kane and warn him if he keeps this up, he’ll kill Hawk and then himself. I warned him his powers came with a price.”

Adamas looked at Hawk and watched the color drain out of the prince’s face. He sped out of the room without a word.

O
KAY
,
SO
this is what power is like.

I made the dragon fight, and the dragon made the men run like little bitches. Why didn’t I do this earlier? I could have just made this thing and sent it out and saved everyone a lot of trouble. The dragon wasn’t alive, so it couldn’t be hurt, which meant they could hack away at it all they wanted. All hacking at it did was piss me off.

The guards had guts; I will give them that. They made a barrier with their shields, all
300
-style, which protected them from the fire. What it didn’t protect them from was my incredibly large hand with its even larger claws that came slamming down on their little shield fort and sent them sprawling.

I started to pay attention to the front of the castle, looking for some way to help there too, when Adamas came flying up. “Kane, you must cease what you are doing. Now.”

Where everything Ruber says sounds like he is annoyed or just British, everything that comes out of his father’s mouth just sounds like a command. I don’t like people telling me what to do.

“Go back inside,” I said to him through the dragon’s mouth. “This fight will be over soon enough.”

“Stop what you are doing, or I will stop you,” Adamas countered, sounding like he was threatening me.

“Oh, will you?” I asked him, not impressed.

A beam shot from his core and hit me right in the face. I’m not going to lie. I don’t even remember hitting the ground, I was out so fast.

A
S
SOON
as the dragon vanished, the battle began to turn badly for the heroes.

The eastern flank was captured at a high cost, since most of the Dark troops lost their lives attempting to take down Tinker and Jones’s insane creations. Without Kane or the gemlings, the western flank was locked down, which only left Ferra’s people in the rear and Olim’s forces in front.

Only when his victory was assured did Oberon appear on the battlefield.

Magically amplifying his voice, he called out to the castle. “This is your only chance to live,” he boomed. “Send Hawk’keen out, or I will not stop until every single one of your subjects is dead. You know I will do it, Ice Queen.”

Olim looked over to Hawk, who was putting a cold compress on Kane’s forehead. “He will do it. Make your choice, young prince. Do we surrender, or do we fight till the end?”

“There is always passage back to my lands,” Adamas suggested.

Hawk stood up and shook his head. “Get Ferra’s people away. If I don’t go out there, countless more will die.” He looked down at Kane. “So much for the kindness of strangers.”

“He will kill you,” Adamas told him.

“Get Kane and Ferra’s people out of here,” he repeated, ignoring Adamas’s words. “And then collapse the portal behind you.”

It was impossible to gauge the diamond’s mood since he had no expression, but his voice sounded very tired. “It was an honor fighting by your side.”

Hawk smiled at him. “The honor was mine.” He turned to Olim. “Tell your people to retreat. I’m going out there.”

She just nodded.

“And thank you for not saying I told you so,” he added as he knelt down and kissed Kane’s cheek.

Not wanting to waste any more time, he got up and walked out of the castle.

O
BERON
SAW
his “son” walk out of the castle, and he knew he’d won. He looked over to his field commander. “As soon as I engage him, take a squad into the castle and seize whoever you can find. This reeks of a stalling tactic, and I don’t want the rest of these traitors to slip out the back door.”

The commander nodded and walked away.

Oberon waited for Hawk to make his way to him.

H
AWK
GOT
a few yards from Oberon and paused. “Let these people go,” he said. “Your fight is with me and not them.”

The fairy king cocked his head and smiled. “If it was between you and me, then they shouldn’t have become involved. Come now, haven’t I taught you there is always a price?” He held his hand out. “Give me the seed.”

Hawk summoned Truheart to his hand. “If you want it, come take it.”

Oberon shook his head and sighed. “Always the hard way.” He summoned his own blade and brought it up en garde. “Do you really think you can beat me?”

Hawk just stared at the man. “I already have.”

Oberon snarled and lunged at the younger man. Sparks sizzled when the two magical blades struck each other. Oberon’s blade was known as Thanthos and was a soul blade like Truheart. Each sword was bonded with its owner. A piece of his soul resided in the weapon, giving them their magical powers. The blades were evenly matched, which meant the only real difference in the fight was the skill of the combatants.

And in this case, the advantage was distinctly Oberon’s.

Where the young prince was in peak physical condition and well trained, he did not possess the centuries of experience. At first, both men seemed evenly matched, but then Oberon gauged Hawk’s skill and began to really attack. By the third pass they made at each other, Oberon’s advantage was readily apparent.

Hawk stumbled forward as Oberon sidestepped his son’s attack and took the time to slash open Hawk’s cheek as he went by. “Always rushing headlong when you should be observing,” Oberon chided as Hawk turned around and brought his blade up again. “Always been your problem—your mother’s too, for that matter. Too much fight and not enough brains.”

“You talk too much, old man,” Hawk said as he lunged again.

Oberon slapped Truheart aside and took a slice across Hawk’s chest for good measure. “You seem winded. Are you sure you’re up for this?”

Hawk tried not to let the pain enter his voice. “I’m waiting for you to really fight.”

Oberon stared at him like he was from another planet and brought his blade up. “Very well, you want a fight.” Oberon’s hand flashed out, twice hitting Hawk’s sword and knocking the weapon out of the youth’s hand. The third strike slid past his third and fourth rib. Hawk cried out and fell to the snow.

“Now,” Oberon said, pacing around his foe. “One more time. Give me the seed.”

Hawk refused to look up at him. “You want it, take it yourself.”

“Oh dear God,” Oberon said, reaching down into the boy’s shirt, grabbing the golden chain around his neck. “Now it’s mine!” He yanked the chain free and raised his prize skyward.

Hanging from the chain was a polished piece of solid black obsidian.

“Explode,” Hawk commanded, and the gem glowed.

Oberon cried out as the shock threw him back into the snowbank. Hawk scrambled to his feet, ignoring his pain to grab his sword and tried to thrust it into his father’s prone body.

Which was when one of Oberon’s guards grabbed Hawk and pulled him away.

The fairy king got up slowly, soot and ash marring his features. “Where is it?” he roared, grabbing Hawk’s tunic with his fist. “Where is the seed?”

Hawk smiled at him defiantly. “Gone. Where you will never find it.”

Oberon summoned Thanthos to his hand and held it to Hawk’s throat. “Tell me, or I will kill you.”

The prince let out a short bark of laughter. “You’re going to kill me anyway. You’re going to have to work on your negotiating skills, Father. They are sorely lacking.” Oberon glared at him, searching for another way to make his son talk. “The seed is long gone, where you will never find it. So threaten to kill me, torture me. I will never tell you.”

Oberon looked past Hawk and then back to his son. “You gave it to that filthy human and sent him away with the Crystal Court.”

Hawk’s smile wavered a fraction and told Oberon all he needed to know.

“It’s a good plan, but did you think I would just let them escape?”

A
DAMAS
’
S
GEMS
were ferrying the rest of Ferra’s people through the portal when Oberon’s people rushed into the room.

“Keep casting!” Olim yelled to Adamas as she wheeled toward the troops, her eyes glowing the same white as freshly fallen snow.

The first dozen men were frozen so quickly that the men behind them had no time to pause before slamming into them. The frozen men shattered into a million shards of red ice as they scattered across the floor.

“Witch!” one of the fairies cried.

“I. Am. A. God,” Olim decreed as she brought the temperature in the room to absolute zero. The men in front were well armored, clad in the finest mythrel armor crafted on Faerth. It was designed to protect the Arcadian guard from most forms of physical damage. Save the dwarven metal adamant, there was nothing stronger in the lower realms.

What the armor was not designed for was to be instantly frozen while being worn.

The metal cracked and then shattered as it contracted around the men, crushing their limbs and torsos. The men behind them cried out as the magical shrapnel whizzed past them, cutting even more troops down in the process.

The barbarians were clear now; only Olim and the human remained.

Adamas had cast a carrying spell to move Kane and was halfway across the room to him when a cold iron crossbow bolt came flying from the doorway, striking Olim in the chest. She screamed, and a gale-force wind exploded from her. The winds grew stronger as her pain increased, and hurricane-force gusts of ice rushed out, pushing everyone away from her. Adamas was buffeted about as he tried to reach the boy, and he couldn’t make headway.

He noticed a slight glow around Kane, probably his power subconsciously protecting him, but it was growing dimmer.

Knowing there was no way to save Kane while Olim remained in the room, Adamas turned and flew at the ice queen instead. Riding the winds to maneuver around her, he waited until he was behind her and then shot himself at her back with all his power. He struck her solidly, and the two of them went flying into the portal.

The winds died instantly, leaving the throne room empty save for the unconscious human.

O
BERON
SAW
his lieutenant emerge from the palace, carrying Kane in his arms. “My people already secured the castle.” He nodded for his guard to turn Hawk around to show them carrying the unconscious body out of the castle. “Now what, dear son?”

Hawk’s mind spun as he realized they were all about to die, and his father was going to gain the secret of ascension. He let out a defeated sigh and wondered if he could beg his father not to kill Kane….

Two pillars of light came thundering down from the sky, one striking the guard holding Hawk, the other hitting Kane’s captor. Hawk fell to the ground, dazed, and looked behind him. All that was left of the guard were his two severed arms and a pit of blackness where his body had stood.

Oberon wheeled around, and his jaw dropped open in shock.

Nystel stood on the ridge, surrounded by a hundred elven warriors. Her voice echoed out across the battlefield as easily as Oberon’s had. “Fairy King, you have been accused of murdering hundreds of elven civilians in an unprovoked attack on Stygian. How do you plead?”