Chapter Eighteen #4
Shaar lashed his hands out again with a feral cry, and more pink energy funneled out of his palms and wrapped around the crystal. My body locked up once more, and my arm remained stuck in its outstretched position holding my sword.
I gritted my teeth through the agony and tried to fight against it, but Shaar was using everything he had to try to quash the shard’s power. The rings rippled out less frequently now, and when they did, it was with a weaker purple energy that flickered in and out of existence.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see one of the bandits that had avoided the mole massacre creeping toward Aila. The soldier’s back was turned as she picked off some of the frantic stragglers attempting to flee from the creatures’ claws.
I tried to move my mouth to warn her, but the only sound that came out was a panicked grunt. My hand shook as I tried to move it as well, but my legs remained frozen in place.
Everyone else around me was too wrapped up in their own fights to notice as the bandit twirled his bloodied blade in one hand and inched closer to the unsuspecting half-elf with a predatory gleam in his eye.
Shaar wasn’t going to let up, but I couldn’t let Aila get harmed.
Something warm and heavy swelled in my chest. It burned through my veins like lava and crawled down my body, and then sensation ignited my frozen limbs until I felt the cool press of the sword hilt in my hand.
With a feral growl, I finally broke free from the invisible hold Shaar’s power had on me, just as the pink prison surrounding the shard exploded in a burst of light.
I dropped to one knee for a brief second before I lunged forward, and I tackled the bandit who had raised his sword in preparation to strike Aila. Both of our bodies tumbled to the ground, and Aila whirled around with a gasp as she realized what I’d just stopped from happening.
I straddled the bandit and brought the hilt of my sword down against his nose, over and over again. Bone crunched beneath the metal, and blood sprayed up onto my face, but I didn’t let up until the hilt plunged straight through his skull.
I spat the coppery liquid onto the ground and staggered off his corpse with a grunt.
“Noah,” Aila breathed as she stared at me with wide eyes.
There was no time for gratitude right now, so I put my hand on her shoulder and nodded once before I turned my attention back to the massacre behind me.
The moles had made quick work of the extra men who’d appeared, and their mutilated bodies were strewn around the cavern, alongside chunks of mushroom that had gotten in the way of the creatures’ claws.
Shaar was nowhere to be seen on his ledge, but the shard had dropped down from its prison and was idly floating in the center of the raised podium.
As Raeth, Ellyn, Vilrun, Kri’osh, Rennick, Tirii, and Karrida picked off the last of the men, I skulked around in search of the missing bastard.
When I heard a broken cackle come from behind the podium, I knew exactly who it belonged to.
Shaar was sprawled across the ground, with his limbs bent at odd angles, and he was resting among charred chunks of mushroom that had been destroyed in the blast.
His skin was gray and completely shriveled like a raisin, and it made the gouge in his face look even more horrific. He was practically swimming in his clothes now that his body was so emaciated, but despite it all, he was still cackling.
The shard had completely sucked the life out of him, but he was still sticking around long enough to get the last laugh.
“Ahhh, I’m ready,” the withered husk wheezed as he clutched his stomach. “My job is done. I… I’m ready to die.”
“Ready?” I asked as I stopped beside him. “That’s rich, coming from you.”
“Kill me now,” he rasped. “Do it, Noah. I know it’s what you’ve been wanting to do ever since I stepped foot in Gladewood.”
I heard the others step up behind me, and no doubt they were waiting to see what I would do. Shaar was right. I’d wanted to kill him ever since he stepped foot in our town, but killing him would mean he would take all the answers I wanted to the grave.
He looked pathetic now, like an old man who’d lived through one too many battles. His dark brown eyes were completely bloodshot and surrounded by dark, heavy bags. His bottom lip trembled as he waited for my inevitable blow, but I wasn’t going to give him that satisfaction.
Bulbs of yuriel surrounded us and glistened like pockets of gems. Every other bandit was dead and killed by the moles who’d scurried back into the holes out of our sight.
We were alone, and Shaar was the last connection I had to Drakar.
“Ellyn, see if you can melt down some of this ore,” I said to my wife. “Fuse it around his hands.”
“I’ll try my best,” Ellyn said as she walked to the closest piece and placed her hands on top of the ore.
“What are you doing, Noah?” Raeth asked as she took a step forward. “Why aren’t you just ending it here?”
“Because he and Drakar had a plan,” I said as I coldly glared down at the trembling old man. “And I intend to find out what it is.”