The Brightest Shadow, page 33
He wasn't there. Tani took a shaky breath and climbed her way down the side of the house, not trusting herself to jump. She didn't know what to do and so decided to go find Veron. Maybe she was injured and could use help.
Someone was yelling at her. A Deathspawn. He was charging toward her. Waving a sword and screaming. Compared to the carnage she'd witnessed, he looked slow and clumsy.
Before she could think about it, Tani stepped to the side of his attack and cut his throat with her sickle knife. That should have made her pause, since she knew nothing about the Deathspawn man. She might even have met him while in Bundlin. But after what she'd seen, what did one more death matter?
Tani made her way along the street until she found Veron, who had crashed through an awning and fallen into a cart of hay. She still lay there, staring at the sky without expression. Had Xetsu known the cart was there and made that exact throw? The sight of the older woman helped Tani focus more and she rushed to help her.
"Veron, are you okay?"
"I'm fine. Barely bruised." Veron sat up and looked at her with hard eyes. "They're all dead?"
"Yes."
"We're getting the fuck out of here."
"But..." Tani wasn't sure why she was objecting, only felt that she should. Veron pushed past her forcefully.
"You saw what happened. We're getting out, now."
Tani staggered after her, knife hanging at her side, still dripping blood.
~ ~ ~
Slaten stumbled out onto the street, not sure if Kolanin was following him. The Deathspawn... no, the mansthein man had looked crushed when he'd explained it. Most likely Slaten looked similar himself. He could hear the fighting beginning to hit the city and realized that it was too late. What they could have done differently, he wasn't sure.
Clenching his eyes, Slaten tried to feel absolutely nothing for one moment. No fear, no glory, no pounding heartbeat. Just nothing.
When he opened his eyes, the city was still in chaos, but he had a bit more clarity. Trying to stop the battle was useless - it was too late for that. If he didn't want to give up, he needed to choose one thing. One simple thing that he might be able to salvage.
Before he realized what it was, Slaten was already running. Toward the clinic, where he was sure Teren would hide if she had been outside during the attack. If he could save one child from his village and return her home, then it would be worth it. Or at least it would be something. Something to make all his effort have some meaning.
Running through city streets was different from running over grasslands. He managed to avoid the core of the battle, but couldn't move faster than the violence that had spread all throughout the city. A man rushed at him with a cleaver - just a normal, human man, wearing a butcher's tunic.
For a moment Slaten froze, then he simply dodged around the man and ran past. He didn't have time to think about that, he needed to get back to the clinic.
The door had been shattered, fragments hanging by one hinge. Slaten rushed inside and found it emptier than usual, as if the patients had been gone before the attack. But there were several human and Deathspawn corpses on the floor. Vanna's body lay slumped against the wall, almost normal except for the blood that had flowed from her slit throat.
She was dead, but her blood looked fresh. Slaten heard a sobbing sound and rushed into the next room.
Teren crouched on top of a high dresser, crying and moving from side to side as two Deathspawn tormented her. They were laughing and stabbing at her with their spears, trying to skewer her instead of kill her as quickly as possible. He could barely understand their Futhik, some sort of joke about human rats.
Slaten's sword took the first in the back, hitting bone and snapping through. While Slaten withdrew his sword the other turned, too slowly. His sword moved in the pattern he had practiced so many times. The slash meant to pierce a Catai's skin sliced most of the way through the Deathspawn's chest effortlessly. He collapsed, blood flooding over the floor from his opened heart.
For a moment Teren stared at him, terrified, then she leapt off the dresser. He barely managed to pull his sword aside and catch her with his other arm. She babbled wildly, half in Coran and half in Okeni. Slaten knelt down beside her, stroked her hair, and tried not to think about the bodies still warm beside them.
Calming the girl helped him calm down as well. Judging from how the violence spread, trying to escape by land would be futile. The ships were coming up the river from the south, so that wasn't an option either. But there was a chance he could take a smaller boat and head north, away from Bundlin.
As Slaten escorted Teren out of the clinic, her tiny hand clinging to his, he tried to think if there was any way to help the others. Given how their group had scattered, they could be anywhere in the city, assuming they were still alive. Maybe some of them would have the same idea of using the river. All he could do was hope, and do everything he could to save one child.
They reached the river without having to fight anyone, but the violence had already spread past it. One of the large Nol ships floated closer, fighting raging on and around the deck as warriors leapt between the ship and the shores to attack one another. Slaten moved his cloak to shield Teren from the sight and they moved in the other direction to look for a boat.
Only to face a man walking toward them on the river.
He simply walked toward the battle, his footsteps leaving few ripples in the chaotic waters. There was a sein trick to it, yet the skill it required was completely beyond Slaten. The man didn't walk like he was showing off, just as if moving over the river was the shortest path to his destination.
Though he seemed close to human, Slaten felt certain that the cloaked man was a Deathspawn. His body was too tall and thin, even wrapped in his dark robes. The skin that could be seen on his face, hands, and bare feet was white. Not like a Coran, but white like clouds. His eyes were blue, yet they glowed with an unnatural light even through the shadows of his hood.
As the man got closer, a Rhen warrior leapt from the side of the river, spear held high. The attack was almost entirely silent, the spear aimed at the back of the dark cloak between the shoulder blades.
Ice covered the warrior while he was still in midair. His entire body froze in position, continuing to fly on the same trajectory. The Deathspawn in the black cloak stepped to the side, let the body fall into the water without even looking at it.
Slaten realized too late that he was trapped between the cloaked Deathspawn and the battle, both of which closed on him from opposite directions. If he had fled straight away from the river, perhaps he could have taken his chances in the chaos of the city. Now it was too late, the ship drifting closer and the battle surrounding it blocking their retreat.
Scooping up Teren in his free arm, Slaten dodged back, past a pair of warriors struggling in an armlock. They tumbled over each other, falling closer to the Deathspawn in black...
He glanced up at them, and both warriors froze solid. Even though the sun blazed down, the ice showed no sign of melting. On the other side of the river, a woman in a fisherwoman's outfit ran and screamed, fleeing a Deathspawn warrior behind her.
A moment later the woman was covered in ice. The Deathspawn behind her crashed into the statue-like corpse, knocking it over. He stared at the Deathspawn in the black cloak and then sprinted in the other direction in pure terror. Meanwhile the Deathspawn simply kept advancing, eyes filled with apathy. Nearly everyone who got near him immediately froze, and though his eyes might fall on them briefly, he didn't seem to care.
When he passed underneath one of the great bridges over the river, he seemed to ignore those fighting on top of it. But after he passed, the bridge began to crumble, dropping the screaming combatants into the water.
Though he knew he should keep running, Slaten found himself trembling. This wasn't combat. It was like nothing he had heard of before, even the rumors of Estronese witchery. Nothing he knew could stand against this.
When the Deathspawn in black neared the side of the ship, he raised a thin arm toward it. There was a crunching sound but no visible change at first, until abruptly ice exploded from the core of the ship, shards impaling many from both sides who had been fighting on the deck. One man was speared through the leg - he dangled and screamed before his body froze solid as well.
The burst of ice had sent the ship colliding with the stone shore, breaking one of the walls and part of a house. More importantly, it moved out of the man's way. He kept walking.
Just as Slaten was beginning to think that the Deathspawn in black would pass them by, he heard a roar behind him. Grabbing Teren on instinct, he lunged away, avoiding several Deathspawn who thrust at them... but also stumbling down the steep slope toward the river.
He barely managed to stop their movement against the cobbles by the edge of the river... but he'd tumbled near the cloaked Deathspawn. Those empty eyes turned on him and it was all he could do to wrap Teren in his arms and spin to protect her with his torso. All the sein he could muster, he threw toward his back, desperately hoping that he could stop the ice from taking her as well.
Though he braced himself for the pain, none came.
His back ached and he wondered if that was how it started, until he realized it was just the normal ache from concentrating too much sein. Slaten looked over his shoulder and didn't see the Deathspawn in black. For a moment he didn't understand at all.
Slowly he remembered that there had been a child running among the others earlier who hadn't been frozen. Every other human who had entered the Deathspawn's vision had died, but not the child. It didn't seem like there could be any mercy in those eyes, but could there be something else? Slaten kept Teren tightly against him and started to rise.
The black cloak fluttered in front of him.
"There are worse things than death." A thin voice, ancient. Slaten tried to move, but his body refused.
A finger extended, touched him on the forehead. Then everything fell away.
~ ~ ~
Melal ran through the streets, laughing and whooping. A Deathspawn warrior rushed down another street, saw him too late, went down to a vicious chop. Throwing the body off his sword, Melal charged onward.
They could do this. The Hero was no longer near, but his presence could be felt inside each and every one of them. Soon they would exterminate all the Deathspawn within the city and then Bundlin would be theirs for the first time in years. A glorious victory, and yet only another step on the path of the Legend.
When he looked up, he gasped and then laughed. A brilliant ring of light glowed around the sun, a halo that shimmered with a hint of a rainbow of colors. The sun itself pulsed pure white in the center, bathing the entire city with its light and filling him with new purpose.
Since the heart of the fighting seemed to be near the river, Melal headed there, moving lower toward the docks. He could meet with the warriors on the ships there, then they could surge over the river and take the Deathspawn side as well. But as he drew closer, he realized that something was wrong.
Fighting swung back and forth over two of the ships. Another one appeared to be... filled with ice, lying on its side? The sight was so strange that Melal stared, slowing his run and feeling a moment of uncertainty. Had the Hero done this? What was going on?
Stranger still was the enormous Deathspawn man with a strange staff, walking up beside the ice-filled ship. Though he looked like he wore armor, Melal knew in his bones that this was Deathspawn filth. Even if his eyes were the wrong color, he was the enemy.
The Deathspawn examined the frozen ship, then abruptly jammed his entire arm through the wood and into the ship. He then began to lift, the ship rising into the air and starting to break. Melal realized numbly that he was lifting it carefully not because it was difficult for him, but to avoid the ship falling apart. Why he would do such a thing, Melal didn't understand.
At least until the Deathspawn swung his arm and hurled the entire ship.
It smashed along the river, crashing directly into the other two ships. Wood and ice and bodies exploded in all directions, the sound alone making Melal flinch. The armored Deathspawn chuckled to himself, as if mildly amused.
Two men charged at him from behind, their weapons landing on his back. The blows accomplished nothing and the Deathspawn turned to swat them aside, their bodies crumpling as they crashed into the water. The Deathspawn didn't even look at them, his gaze fixed on something else somewhere in the town.
"You will die today, Deathspawn!" Melal screamed out the words and charged, whirling his sword over his head. The Deathspawn turned, his armor-like face twisting in amusement.
Then a shaft of light pierced from the side, so blindingly white that Melal was knocked back. Though he fell, his eyes were riveted to what had happened.
The Hero had appeared between them, arm thrusting out with two fingers toward the enemy. And the Deathspawn had dodged the attack, twisting his body aside to avoid the fingers.
A moment later he turned back, his staff lashing out in a blow that shattered the stones, but the Hero flipped backward and out of range. The Deathspawn gave an interested grunt and advanced on him, striking repeatedly and smashing apart the stones as the Hero retreated up the steep side of the river.
No, not retreating. New hope filled Melal's heart as he realized that the Hero was luring the Deathspawn into a better position. Rather than the uneven ground next to the river, they moved to the flat plaza that had once been the market beside the harbor. Now it was covered in corpses and smashed fragments of wood. A perfect battleground to kill such a brutal opponent.
Unfortunately, other Deathspawn still lurked there, and they rushed to attack the Hero from behind. Yet the Hero slipped aside from the first attack and swung his hand - an arc of light tore through the Deathspawn's body and left scorched halves dropping to the ground. The others fared no better, torn apart by the light.
"Not bad." The huge armored Deathspawn watched appreciatively as he stepped out onto the level market area. Then he stomped on the ground. Raw strength swept out in a way Melal had never seen before, knocking him off his feet. When he climbed back up, he saw that the gust of wind had blown all the debris from the plaza.
That left nothing but the Deathspawn and the Hero, facing each other from opposite sides.
Though this was the Hero's fight, Melal couldn't resist watching such a historic battle. He crept closer to the plaza to get a good position to watch. And quite a show it was.
At first the Deathspawn lunged forward, but then he was pinned in place by a flurry of movements. The Hero began to dance, weaving around him with efficient movements that made the Deathspawn look like a lumbering fool. He swung his staff a few times, forcing his way closer to the center of the plaza, but failed to land a hit.
Until without warning, his free hand struck the side of the Hero's head. He bounced twice, tumbling across the stones before laying still. Melal's heart leapt into his throat.
"If you can't do better than that, this will have been a waste of time." The Deathspawn set his staff on the ground beside him and folded his arms, waiting.
As Melal watched and hoped, he saw Efeinas slowly rise to his feet. Though the blow looked like it should have crushed his skull, he only had a few cuts from where his face had struck the cobblestones. Melal couldn't help but let out a cheer as the Hero straightened, then raised his hands in combat position.
"You cannot defeat me, monster. It has been foretold!"
The Deathspawn didn't answer except to pick up his staff and wait.
Now the Hero moved with even more blinding speed, sprinting around the Deathspawn in a white blur. Occasionally he rushed in for a strike at the joints, yet somehow each blow was deflected. Impossibly, the Deathspawn was keeping up with the attacks, but they were growing ever more intense. When he struck, the Hero's hand actually glowed, searing energy lashing out.
Again and again, the dull stone staff intercepted the Hero. Energy exploded back from each blow, searing the stones of the plaza black. The scorched lines almost seemed to be forming a pattern, a testament to how intense the Hero's assault had become.
"Oh, fuck."
The low voice shook him from his awe and Melal glared to the side, only to find Eraes. She lurked beside the house behind him, as if she'd been trying to approach him, but now she just stared at the plaza. Her horror didn't make sense, so Melal looked past her. He saw a small boat floating in the water with Laeri inside it, smiling and gesturing for him to come. But Eraes still stood frozen, dark eyes wide.
"What is it? The Hero is about to win this!"
She shook her head slowly, unable to tear her gaze away. "No. Do you see the pattern the burn marks are making? That's the Futhik rune for 'warrior.' He's... he's intentionally deflecting all the sein to burn the pattern deeper. This is a game to him."
That was utter nonsense. Melal wanted to punch her in the face but settled for looking back to see the Hero obtain victory. He was still rushing around his opponent, striking with no sign of slowing down. No one would dare come close to such an intense battle.
A barefoot figure wrapped in a tattered black cloak stepped off the water onto the stones, heading toward the plaza. That finally made the armored Deathspawn glance to the side, though he made no comment, just kept defending himself. Of course. That was the most he could do. Melal considered joining in to stop the cloaked Deathspawn, keep the fight fair, but the cloaked figure was already past them.
The new Deathspawn extended a hand, and suddenly the Hero's flashing movements stopped. He stared down in shock as ice began to form around his legs. Though he struggled, cracking some of it, the ice began forming more quickly, binding him in place. As the cloaked Deathspawn approached, he came to stand beside the other.
"Waste of time," the armored one said. The cloak's reply was barely audible.
"Maybe."
"Enough of this!" The Hero let out a loud cry, his sein welling up inside him brighter than ever before. His eyes burned white hot and his entire body began to glow... and the ice began to melt. It peeled off him, making the armored Deathspawn grunt and the cloaked one shift his posture. "You may think you have won, but hope will always burn in the hearts of-"
