All Things Impossible: Heartstealer, page 33
The wizard leaned on his staff, leering. "Fire magic, too dangerous, especially when you don't know how to protect it from being cast inside your own body."
Kelin stumbled down to his knees and dropped his sword. It had already proved its uselessness. He held her burning hand. "I don't care that you lied." Unchecked tears sizzled as they landed on her skin. He looked up at the wizard and waited for his turn.
* * *
Spike leapt over Kelin and Mora's body, his hooves kicking up dirt in the wizard's face. His alicorn flared into life.
A few feet away, Jakkobb roared as he picked up his axe.
"I don't have time for this. I need to harvest her now!"
He spun his stave in front of him, and in a stench of death, he vanished.
Around them, the battle was fast becoming an unorganized melee. Some troops from Urael still had to cross the river, and there was no good way for an army to cross the river, especially with archers on Thealith's side. There were no bridges. Both armies tried the few fords, and the desperate combat in the middle of the water. Heavy armor, loose gravel, and rushing water proved the mightier foe, and soldiers were washed away in some of the deeper areas. Other spaces, the braids of the river were shallow enough to cross, but easy enough to drown in armor if one put a foot down wrong.
Some parts of the battle were on one side, others across the river. In the mud, it was hard to tell one uniform from another. All hope of formation flowed away downstream.
* * *
An arm of lightning spat up sand on the riverbank as the bolt crashed into it. Der turned her back and did her best to shield the children. She tottered and tried to keep her balance against a wave of dizziness. She'd lost too much blood at the monastery. She froze as she heard footsteps behind her.
"Tsk, tsk."
Der whirled, but kept her sword low at her side. It was the wizard, who else could it be? And, he was here to kill this innocent little girl. Tom's girl. And, in some strange fashion, Der felt as if she was her girl too. She found herself wishing that Tom had lied about his promise to walk away. They both could use his aid right now.
She stuck her boot on the raft, and kicked it back out into the current. Slowly, Chloe, Erastus and Thalon spun back out into the river.
"Stop!" Alcomm thrust out his arm.
"I'll stop you!" Der shouted, lunging with her sword.
The wizard was only a few feet away. However, a few feet could have been a continent. She watched him raise his stave. She ran as fast as she could, but it seemed to take aeons for her feet to respond. She'd had no plan; she'd just hoped to be fast enough.
He pointed the crackling staff at her. Her mouth dried instantly as the lightning erupted like a vengeful dragon. She watched it coming to claim her. She held the Pallens sword in front of her in and cringed behind it.
The electric bolt lanced the sword. She knew her entire body lifted off the ground, but didn't feel anything in that white, even blissful moment.
The lightning broke off and she smashed to the ground. Her hand still clung to the sword, but now that hand was glistening with sweat despite the fact that it felt as cold as ice. In fact, her entire body was. Der wasn't at all certain what exactly was going on, but she thought sluggishly, being prone on the ground wasn't good. She tried to push her knees underneath, but her legs moved in the wrong direction.
She tried again, but she couldn't quite get it to work right. She made it to her elbows.
She looked down at her sword, firmly cradled in her hand. The sword, she mused, it hadn't gotten past the sword. The lightning had stayed there, it absorbed the spell. She was sure the blade was shining more too.
Wobbling, she managed to stand. She tried to raise the sword, but her arm twitched and she only got as far as her waist.
Distantly, she heard cries of surprise - she wasn't sure from whom. But, she couldn't distinguish any of them. They all sounded like a muted hum.
The magician retreated a single step. "What the hell is that thing?"
With her other hand clutching her wrist, Der was able to lift the sword. The sunlight flashed harshly against the sapphire. The blade positively glowed blue and gold.
The wizard stared. "Pallens!" He stumbled back another step. "Impossible!"
Derora barely heard any of it. She kept her narrow field of attention on her target and lurched another step toward him.
"There's no such thing as a Pallens weapon anymore!" the magician shrieked.
She reeled forward another foot.
Snarling, he pointed the staff at her again. "You'll meet the same fate as the Empire!" This time, the roaring head of a lion burst forth. It was a real lion, with thick fur, muscles and definitely teeth. But, the rear half was only made of a blur of light rooted in the staff. It swiped at her with its paws.
She felt dragged forward by her weapon. Fairly clumsily, Der ducked to the side and ran at the wizard, vaguely remembering something she learned in her first fight. You fought your opponent, not his weapon. She would be a fool to fight the lion. She whacked the staff with her sword and the roaring creature vanished. Light sprang up from the sword's screeching contact with the stave. The wizard staggered back. She barely staggered forward.
She shifted her hands on the hilt as she tried to focus. The wizard began chanting. Der leapt forward, aiming the sword for his chest. He moved to block with the staff.
She dropped to her knees from the magically amplified blow.
The magician smirked. "Now..." The staff lowered at her, and she braced to roll when it was batted aside. The fireball shot up to the sky and the wizard tottered away.
Der smiled at the hooded figure in front of her. "Thanks, Thi- Tom!"
She stared. That was Tom in front of her, and she couldn't deny it.
The vampire looked down and grinned. "Can't stay out of trouble, can you?" He leaned most of his weight on a thick iron rod slightly taller than he was.
"What are you doing here? How did you get here? You said-"
He shook his head and looked back to the wizard.
The magician pointed the staff at him. "You'll die too!"
"How, exactly?" And then the vampire smiled that special vampire smile.
"Ah!" He fumbled his robes. "I can handle you! But, you're helping her... Pallens! And you're undead!" His eyes raged with confusion.
Tom shrugged.
"It doesn't matter! I will destroy you both!"
He smirked. "Don't try to fight with death, I'll win." He winked one emerald eye, and it reopened blazing red. Suddenly, so was the other one.
"Sennha protects me!" The wizard flailed with the staff.
Tom advanced deliberately, and his iron staff stamped so hard into the ground that it left furrows. "Want to find out how much?"
The wizard swung, and Tom moved his iron rod lazily to intercept. The wooden shaft splintered. Lights and human screams spilled out from its pieces. The vampire hopped backward and out of the paths of the errant shards. The follower of Sennha screamed and fell backward.
He grabbed up a fallen sword that had somehow landed there. Probably from one of the soldiers passing through here before the battle.
Tom advanced another step as his opponent dragged himself to his feet. The once stately robes were speckled by dirt. This time, the magic user held up his free hand and lightning screamed from his fingers at Tom.
The vampire chuckled and caught the bolt in his hand. He pointed back and the lightning fired at the magician, who gaped and barely dodged. "How can you-?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Tom's vicious grin remained fixed on his face. Inside his chest, he felt the stone heart drumming.
The wizard tried again with a fire spell. Halfway between the two of them it turned into a golden chalice and crashed harmlessly to the ground.
Tom leaned against his staff. "Um... that's not what I intended. I'm not used to this thing yet." He shrugged. "No matter." He advanced another step. "Would you like me to draw all of the magic out of you? Want to find out what that will do to your body?"
He took another step, eager as a puppy to play. He held out one hand, bracing for whatever spell was next when the wizard thrust with the sword.
The blade caught Tom's outstretched hand at the wrist, and tore it off. The appendage spun free.
The vampire yelped and clutched his dead end wrist. "My hand!"
The magician lunged again. It found no target as the vampire had suddenly vanished. Then, Tom set his feet down on the extended blade. He smiled at the wizard's expression as he balanced on the sword.
The world paused. The magician gawped, too in shock to move.
Grinning, Tom pulled the metal staff back and swung. The wizard's body folded around it and bones crunched against the iron. He flew across the river bank.
Tom lightly glided down to the ground. He limped over and tested the body with the butt of his staff.
The wizard tried to cough. He opened one dark eye. "Doesn't... matter. Can't stop this." He hacked. "My lord's will cannot be stopped."
Tom shrugged, raising the iron rod. "Sennha doesn't frighten me."
"Not - only... him." The wizard raised an arm over his face. "I was not the one who demanded the child. There is another behind me. We have been waiting for one such as this child."
"You know what? It's not my problem."
And, he thrust the rod back down.
* * *
Der limped up and rested her head against Tom's arm. She didn't even look at the corpse at his feet. "Thank you."
He snorted. "I told you-"
"I don't care. Thank you."
He sighed, and studied the stub of his wrist. "Here, help me. I need to tie a tourniquet around this thing."
"What? Why? You can't bleed to death."
"We can, in fact, if we don't heal in time. But, before that, the blood loss affects vampires differently. We get, ah, hungry. You should hurry."
"Oh." She looked around for some string, and settled for cutting free the late wizard's bootlace.
"Hurry, Derora."
"Right, right." She quickly surveyed the corpse. "What's this?" She grappled with the dead man's finger, and pulled off a large gold ring. It had a wolf's head, with jeweled eyes, on a snake's body. The snake circled around the finger, until it turned into the wolf.
"Hurry, Der!"
"Um." She espied Tom's hand near on the sand and leaned over to pick it up. She pulled the beautiful platinum ring from the dead finger. She stared at it for a moment. He had been so protective of it. The picture of the castle cut into the gem looked hauntingly familiar, kind of like Moonrise Castle, but that was one of the few castles that she'd actually seen. She waved his severed hand toward him. "Do you want this back?"
"No." He shook his head. "Believe me, I know where that has been."
"Oh." She brought it level with her own face. "So, I'll just, uh, set it down then."
"I'll grow a new one in a week or two, and in a few hours, that will be nothing but ashes. But, for now, the tourniquet, please." He held out his wrist that ended in a bloody stump. She even saw the arterial blood leaping from the wound.
"I didn't know vampires actually bled like humans."
"Yes, we do, now you've got to hurry. I'm already starting to feel- just hurry. Where the hell is my flask?" He groped at his belt.
She prised Tom's ring from the dead finger and dropped it in her pocket as she shuffled over to help him. Quickly, she knotted the bootlace around his wrist.
"DERORA SAXEN!"
She flinched and whirled. Jakkobb marched toward her with his face almost as red as his armor. She looked around, and saw Spike flying low over the riverbank - low enough to look as though he was walking to the casual eye. He had his non-casual eyes trained toward the soldiers. Thalon, Chloe and Erastus perched on his back.
"Where's Thistle and Peyna?"
Jakkobb pointed silently to where Peyna still lay unconscious at the treetop. Thistle, on the other hand, was finally pulling himself to his feet. He limped over.
"We won,"
"No." Thistle nodded toward the soldiers. "It's not over."
The knight glared at the vampire. "Now, what the hell is he doing here?"
Der glanced over. "Pouting, sir."
"What?"
"I do not pout, little girl."
She pointed. "Yes, you are. Look at you!"
He ran his tongue over his fangs, and in a voice barely above a whisper, he hissed, "You will rue the night you met me."
Der laughed in his face. She rested a hand on his shoulder for support. "No, you're the one regretting meeting me. Line your stars up right, pointy!"
Tom batted her hand away. He tried to exclaim something, but no sound came out of his open mouth.
Thistle leaned back, watching the imaginary steam rise from Tom. "I wonder if a vampire can have an apoplexy."
Jakkobb growled. "I don't know. If his head pops off, I'm going to throw it at the both of them." He nodded to the armies and his face darkened even further. "Thistle, Der, you are honorary dragoon soldiers of Silver Dawn tonight." He paused, gazing at Tom.
The vampire shook his head. "I do not need you to insult me tonight as well, elf."
"Good, I wasn't going to. But, Der, Thistle, you are."
Thistle's face twisted, and he looked as if he'd just been told to wear someone else's dirty underwear.
Der raised her sword. "Um, exactly what does that mean, sir?"
"Whatever you do tonight, the Order will back you up." He slid the visor on his helmet down. "Provided one of us gets back to tell the Order."
"Kelin!" Thistle called softly, but his voice carried far enough.
The young man was crying as he pried himself free of the ground. He picked up his sword, and in a daze, walked over to them. It was his duty.
Once again, trumpets sounded, and now the soldiers of both sides fell back to reform their lines.
"Is it over?" Der cocked her head. "No, they're reforming lines. Oh, no, they're going to fight again. But- but, we stopped it! We killed the wizard and he was the one steering this whole disaster!"
The chemman shook his head. "This is beyond words now."
"Meaning what, Thistle?" She propped her weight on her sword by sticking its tip against the soft mud.
Jakkobb sighed. "People have died, no negotiations can satisfy this now. No unexplained miracles are going to hold this flood back for long." He caught her hopeless expression. "You knew it was a slim chance before this. I'm sorry, Der. We can't stop this now."
Her shoulders slouched. "I understand, sir."
She flinched as she heard the metallic beast roar as combat reared its head. It sounded distant, but the beast approached as its roar grew louder by the heartbeat.
Its roar suddenly became a background buzz to the absolute silence that stood between them and the soldiers now advancing upon them. Neither side was certain whose side they were on. Urael's troops edged closer, they had just killed their wizard after all, and the truth about his real allegiance hadn't gotten around. They moved cautiously though, in case Thealith decided to protect them.
Their mismatched weapons came on guard in a line. Tom held the iron crutch out as if it were a sword.
He leaned behind Der's shoulder. "I could fly the pair us to safety, but I already know your answer."
"Good. Now, can you answer this one? What the hell are we going to do?"
He sucked his tongue and finally shook his head. "No, I can't."
"Anyone?" Der asked loudly. "There's hundreds of them." She glanced hopefully at Thealith's troops, but their sergeants were holding them where they were.
"Uncle!" Chloe cried, leaping off the unicorn's incredibly high back. Tom immediately lifted her off the sand with one arm.
Spike pawed the ground as Thalon and Erastus dismounted. The unicorn snorted, I could distract them.
Goldie thrust his head out of the saddlebag. With his long neck, he swiveled around to get a full view. He buried himself back inside the saddlebag. "Oh no!"
Jakkobb groaned. "Sometimes, I hate being me. Spike, come here." When the unicorn trotted forward, he plunged his hand into the saddlebag and dragged the dragon out. Goldie had rolled himself into a shivering ball. "Look at me, little one."
"No! I don't want to! It's scary! I'm tired!"
"I know, I'm frightened too." He turned the dragon around until he could see his eyes. "I need you to stop the battle. You can do it, just like you saved the children and the old man."
Goldie tried to dig his talons into Jakkobb's armor. "No! I'm too hungry now!"
"Just fly up there, and tell them to stop, please. You can do this."
He squirmed desperately, claws scrabbling over the armor. "No! Nooo!"
"You can!" He hurled the dragon into the air with all his might. The little dragon expanded and expanded until he took up the entire sky.
Der gawped and watched as the dragon filled the heavens. Gods above, she thought, some of his scales are larger than my parents' house!
The magnificent dragon laughed as large as mountains and flamed. The fires of the gods ran forth from his mouth like a winding, relentless river. The sky became an orange furnace, and it was a long time before it faded back to blue. He focused his attention on the river, and the river became two worlds at once - one of fire and one of water. The water writhed and boiled against the flames on its surface, but the river continued to burn.
The armies below dropped their weapons, and as one, stared heavenward. The dragon was the horizon and beyond.
Sergeant Lynon felt his knees give way without consulting him first. The sword slipped from his grasp. His eyes fell back to the ground with the battlefield around him. Many had already died, and many more were wounded. Some had washed downriver, and would never be found. Behind him, he heard some of his men drawing back their bows. He held up his hand to give the signal, even though he was sure a storm of arrows couldn't puncture this dragon. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. The tales he had grown up on, dragons had been evil, or at the very least, venal and avaricious. But, the sight of the golden scales in the sunlight burned through those stories. He felt a tear slipping down his cheek.
