The Vacant Throne: The Legend Of Kairu Vol 3 (26 page)

“
Soon,” I answered,
hoping it was true.

The flames started to weaken before
dying out. I dropped my arms and Cathy stood again. I felt the
staff fall off my back as the sheath holding it turned to ash. I
left it on the ground and maintained focus on the battle.

The Mages were breathing heavily but
reached out to a point in front of them. A stream of magic from the
three joined together to start building a ball of electricity. It
slowly grew bigger as wild sparks shot off of it into the sky.

“
Looks nasty,” Cathy
said.

“
Indeed,” I
agreed.

She turned to look at me. “You know
what is weird? When you cover yourself in scales, you can’t see
your junk anymore.”

“
Why are you looking
down there?” I asked.

“
Curiosity,” she
answered. “Plus all your clothes were burned off.”

“
Yeah, I’ll have to
take one of their robes after this,” I said. The lightning orb hit
maximum size and the Mages launched it at us. “Dibs.”

“
All yours,” Cathy
said, backing up. “Just don’t get any on me, I’m wearing
metal.”

The power raged
inside me as I summoned my strength into my hands. They started to
itch and when the orb was close, I raised both arms and launched
waves of Pulses at it. The orb slowed to a stopped in front of me,
and I took a deep breath and launched a massive Pulse at it to send
it back to the Mages. They dove out of the way and the orb struck
the barrier, causing it to explode and the Mages to scream out from
the force of the energy.

My head throbbed and I clutched it with
both hands and temporarily lost my balance. Cathy looked at me
worriedly for a second. “I’m alright,” I reassured her. “Things
like that were much easier to do when I had your magic to lean
on.”

She chuckled. “Shall I finish them
off?”

“
If you can,” I
smiled, lowering my arms.

“
Challenge accepted,”
she smirked.

Cathy lowered her
shield and took off like a shot. The furthest Mage to the right was
barely on his feet before Cathy’s sword was through his chest. The
other two started backing away from her to set up for a spell, but
she was already closing in. They were forced to use simple Pulses
and Ice Bolts to try and knock her back, but Cathy deflected them
with ease.

Cathy swung her sword
out at Mage #1 and he rolled out of the way. Mage #2 sent a Pulse
to try and knock Cathy off her feet and Mage #1 tried to shock her
with lightning. The lightning was easily deflected but the Pulse
left her staggering. Cathy swung out at Mage #2 and he jumped back
and launched another Pulse. I laughed at Cathy’s cursing, and
started towards the fight at a leisurely pace.

Mage #1 was back on his feet and
shocking Cathy from behind. She swung around quickly and bashed her
shield into his shoulder. He dropped to the ground and Mage #2 sent
a stream of fire towards Cathy, forcing her to defend herself and
allowing his companion to get back to his feet.

My hand grew cold as power raced down
my arm. I reached out and launched an Ice Bolt into the back of
Mage #1. He cried out and dropped to the ground and Mage #2 stopped
his stream of fire to back away. Cathy checked behind her quickly
to see the dead body and pressed her attack on the remaining
enemy.

With his attention
split between both Cathy and me, the Mage looked as if he was
having problems figuring out his next move. I sent a Pulse his way
and he side stepped and launched a Pulse at Cathy to prevent her
from catching him off balance. Desroche had done a good job picking
his Mages; these ones seemed highly experienced. I wondered if they
were the same Mages that worked with Desroche during his first time
in power at Ghanlar.

Cathy regained her footing and charged
at the remaining Mage. He rolled out of the way of Cathy’s sword
and I launched an Ice Bolt at him. He quickly rose to his knees,
barrier ready and deflected it. Cathy turned and used her
unnaturally superior speed to rush him from behind and drive her
sword through his back. Our last surviving adversary looked shocked
before dropping to the ground.

Cathy pulled her sword out and sheathed
it as I approached. “Dang,” she said. “Did I get soft overnight or
were those guys tough?”

“
Mages aren’t the
easiest to fight, even another Mage can have problems,” I said. “If
you are a non-magic user, you need to have numbers on your side to
defeat one.”

Cathy chuckled. “It looked so easy in
your head.”

“
We always had
numbers,” I said. “And frying pans.”

Cathy laughed. “I guess I owe you
thanks for helping and a smack on the back of the head for taking
so long to help.”

I shrugged. “You looked like you were
doing well.”

Of the three Mages,
the robe of the one to die first was the least damaged. I removed
it from him and threw it over my scaled skin. Fully protected from
any lingering eyes, the scales returned to my normal skin and I
walked back to pick up the staff from its resting spot. My barrier
was still holding up so I dispelled it and brought the staff to the
centre.

“
So what now?” Cathy
asked when I returned.

“
Let’s figure it
out,” I said.

What I thought was a tree turned out to
simply be a staff sticking out of the ground. Around the base was
the same runic symbol that was under Chieftain Harkis in
Scert’chak. Part of me just wanted to push it over to see if that
would stop it.

“
Maybe we should just
push it over,” Cathy suggested.

I chuckled. “I was just thinking the
same thing.”

Cathy reached out to touch the staff
but stopped and brought her hand back with a weird look on her
face. “Can you feel it?” she asked.

I reached out towards the staff and my
hand steadily got warmer until a burning sensation spread across my
fingers. I retracted my hand and shook it a bit. “Strange,” I said.
“I wonder if that is what the Nao have been feeling.”

“
It’s possible,”
Cathy said thoughtfully.

“
Well let’s put an
end to it right now,” I said, gripping the flowery staff with both
hands and aiming towards the staff.

I wasn’t sure exactly
how I was supposed to use the staff but Mistress Carlia said it
only had the one purpose so it shouldn’t be easy for me to mess up.
I pushed power through it and a yellow beam shot from the tip and
connected with the ground staff.

Cathy laughed. “Not
only is it flowery, but it shoots sunshine too?”

“
Shut it,” I said,
concentrating on my task.

The runic symbols changed from red to
yellow and the staff started to shake in the ground. I forced more
power through the staff and in a flash of white, the runes were
gone. The staff snapped in half and fell to the ground. I stopped
my power and the both of us looked at the broken staff.

“
Is that it?” Cathy
asked, disappointed. The staff burst into flames and turned to
dust. “I guess that’s better than nothing.”

“
The Nao must not be
big on cool explosions,” I said. “Can you feel its magic
anymore?”

Cathy reached her hand out and shook
her head. “We’re good.”

“
Then let’s go see
how the Nao are doing,” I said, heading away from the
camp.

“
How are you
feeling?” Cathy asked, following me. “Are the berries completely
out of your system?”

“
Yeah, thankfully,” I
answered. “I don’t want to do that ever again.”

“
I don’t know,” Cathy
smiled. “Those were some sweet dance moves.”

I grabbed my head. “I can’t believe I
did that.”

“
I’m still mad you
didn’t bring me out to dance,” Cathy said.

“
Nothing stopped you
from joining me after I started,” I said, playfully. “Unless you
were afraid.”

“
Psh!” Cathy scoffed.
“Next time I’ll show you what dance is really about.”

“
Can’t wait,” I
smiled.

Chapter
23

The Nao hunting party
was waiting for us when we entered the forest. They had made short
work of the Evenawks and Fawna made a joke about being full. It was
a little too much information for me, but it was good to see
everyone had made it out in one piece. They even confirmed that we
had successfully stopped the magical disturbance.

The journey back to Tanoba was more
pleasant but with frequent stops for me to water the local
wildlife. All of that water Cathy had made me drink had come back
with a vengeance. My comfort breaks didn’t stop us from arriving at
the Nao village by nightfall.

Night is an
interesting time for the Nao. Their inner glow shines brighter in
the moonlight and they become beacons of light in the dark forest.
Of course, this is part of their defence. You spend too much time
staring at the pretty colours that you don’t realise the others are
sneaking up behind you. But at least you can enjoy a beautiful
sight just before you die.

The village seemed empty as we
travelled to the large temple. Fawna’s hunting party broke off and
she led us into the building and towards the giant stone statue at
the far end. It was a depiction of the Tree God Alfoa, creator of
the Nao race. It looked like a giant Nao dressed in a horned
headdress and wolf pelt holding an orb.

Mistress Carlia rose from her kneeling
position and approached us. “You were successful?”

“
Yes, Mistress,”
Fawna replied.

“
Let me see,”
Mistress Carlia said, centreing in front of Fawna. Their eyes
glowed white as the images of the battle were shared between them.
Their eyes returned to black and Mistress Carlia took a step back.
“This is happy news indeed. Please go and expel the souls of the
dead, Huntress.”

“
Yes, Mistress,”
Fawna said with a quick bow. She turned and hurried out of the
building.

“
What do you mean by
expel the souls?” Cathy asked.

“
When we harvest a
soul from a body we carry it with us until we perform a ritual to
release the soul from our body and return it to the Spirit Plane,”
Mistress Carlia explained.

“
What end does it
come out?” Cathy asked.

“
Cathy!” I
exclaimed.

“
What?” she asked
innocently.

“
Are you curious?”
Mistress Carlia asked.

I waved my hand dismissively. “Not
right now. I think I just want to grab some sleep.”

“
Very well,” Mistress
Carlia said. “Did you find that the berries helped for your
quest?”

Cathy started laughing. “Oh, they made
things interesting. Tell her about the dance.”

I groaned and Mistress Carlia stepped
in front of me. “Let me see what you have seen,” she said.

“
Catch me, Cathy,” I
said, dropping the flowery staff.

Mistress Carlia’s eyes started to glow
white and my body jerked and collapsed into Cathy’s arms. She
squeezed me tightly before helping me back up to my feet. I scooped
the staff back up as Mistress Carlia’s face broke out into a smile
and her eyes returned to black.

“
Keskar Berries have
an interesting effect on the Human body,” she said. “You also have
some interesting dance moves.”

“
Is that what we are
calling them?” Cathy said.

“
Alright you two,” I
said, turning away. “I’m going to sleep. Is my old room still set
up?”

“
Yes, you will find
it like you left it,” Mistress Carlia said.

I left the main hall
and travelled down a short corridor to ‘my’ room. This had been my
residence while they grew me the tree on the edge of the forest. It
was a small converted storage room, but served its purpose
well.

Entering the room, Mistress Carlia was
right. The room was exactly the same as when I had left it behind.
The animal pelts on the ground and the opened box of spare robes I
had kept before switching to regular clothes. The only addition was
our pack of supplies we brought from Balendar.

I dropped the flowery
staff next to the pack and dropped down onto the pelts. They were
itchy and uncomfortable, but it was better than the hard ground.
Cathy entered the room and started to remove her armour.

“
You doing okay?” she
asked.

“
Yeah, just a long
day; those berries only made me more tired,” I answered.

“
I thought I had hit
a nerve out there,” Cathy said. “We were only screwing
around.”

I smiled. “I know. You are going to
have to do a lot worse than that to upset me.”

She smirked. “Is that an invitation?
Now, scoot over. Don’t give me that look. There is only one bed in
this village so that means we share. Spread out the pelts and start
scooting.”

I chuckled and rose to my knees. I
spread out the pelts to make the bed larger and ‘scooted’ onto one
side so Cathy could lie down. She settled in beside me and wiggled
around to try and get comfortable.

“
This works out if
you have another nightmare,” I said.

“
Exactly,” she
replied. “We will be back to separate beds by tomorrow.”

“
You know, it is okay
if you want to sleep close to me,” I said. “We’ve shared the same
body. A bed is nothing in comparison.”