Chapter 10 Iefyr #2
The five of them headed towards the Armory’s doors.
Once more, there was an engraved scene on the two doors.
Helgrom nicked his thumb and let the blood flow.
This time it flowed from Illithor to Xrdatha.
And at that moment, she had a thought. Were they in Illithor now?
Was the Armory not actually in Xrdatha, but sunk deep below the ancient Kindreth city, only accessible by a magical door in the dwarven city?
At least, only accessible to an heir of the Draesiwen king through Xrdatha?
Maybe there would be a way for Vex to access this Armory any time he liked from Illithor using his own blood.
That would explain many things like why Helgrom was only allowing them to take certain weapons and armos and not others.
Maybe these were Draesiwen treasures as opposed to Kindreth ones.
If that is the case and Darcassan stole something that Helgrom didn’t give to us… oh gods!
Snaglak and Glom had already disappeared through the door.
Helgrom was waiting for her and Darcassan to go through.
She spun around and gazed at her brother with meaning.
He stared back at her blankly and gestured for her to go through the doors.
She reached for the sack. He caught her hand. She pleaded with him with her eyes.
“Darcassan, this could be Illithor! You can’t steal from here!” She cried even though her voice was completely silenced by the spell. She vainly pulled on her hand to try and get into his sack.
He stared at her blankly but then his brows drew together.
He stood up straight and tilted his head up.
Offended. He was offended that she thought he would steal!
Her heart tumbled. Was she wrong? Maybe she was wrong and he’d taken nothing.
She was basing everything on fleeting expressions on his face!
She caught Helgrom staring at them both out of amber eyes, stroking his beard, but making no comment or gesture.
“Please, Darcassan! Show me what’s in the bag!” she begged.
She’d sworn to Rhalyf that she would ensure her brother took nothing from Illithor. Even if this wasn’t Illithor, the thought of him stealing from the Draesiwen–from Helgrom–was just as horrible, but likely to have less consequences than stealing from the Night King.
Her brother stared at her stonily. But finally, with a silent huff, he opened the bag at his waist and indicated for her to look in. She did so. Nothing. There was nothing there. Shame caused her cheeks to flush a hectic red.
But I know I saw guilt on his face!
She reached into the bag. Her brother looked even more affronted, but made no move to stop her.
She swished her hand inside of the bag, feeling only the silky material that made it up.
She reached down until her arm up to the elbow was lost in the bag, but she found nothing.
Relief and grief filled her at the same time.
She pulled her arm out and breathed in quick little gasps.
Her chest felt so tight. She looked up at her twin’s face with an apologetic look.
He, however, wasn’t looking at her. He tightly tied the drawstring shut.
His lips were pressed into a thin line as he did so.
He brushed past her coldly without a backwards glance. Her shoulders slumped.
She’d just accused her brother of stealing and she’d been wrong. She’d done it in front of Helgrom, which would have humiliated him more. He was clearly furious with her and rightly so. She’d allowed Rhalyf’s suspicions of him to taint her view of her own twin!
But it wasn’t just Rhalyf’s suspicions. I had them, too. I have to be honest about that. This isn’t Rhalyf’s fault.
She felt sick to her stomach and wanted to vomit. She had no idea if this breach of trust between them could be fixed. The fact that she had only done this, because the stakes were so high and her brother had been so intent on taking something from Illithor…
I don’t even know if we are in Illithor!
But it didn’t matter. There was a chance and that chance had been more than zero. She’d had to do what she did. Cara would tell her that.
“And if Darcassan can’t see that you were looking out for him and the whole Empire then he’s the foolish one!
” She imagined Cara saying as the human woman slid a hand across the table and laid it over hers in the cafe.
Their favorite mugs would be filled with steaming tea or coffee.
But the warmth would be simply from being near Cara.
Suddenly, Helgrom’s hand was on her arm.
Her head jerked up and she met his eyes.
She was crying. She hadn’t realized it. She quickly tried to wipe the tears away, but Helgrom stopped her by squeezing her arm.
She saw in his amber eyes kindness and understanding.
Though she could not hear him, she knew what he was trying to tell her, “You did the right thing. All will be well.”
She wasn’t so sure that would be true. But she mustered up a shaky smile.
She preceded him through the magical doors.
The moment she was sent through to the other side, she was surrounded by the smells and sounds of battle.
Snaglak was roaring–she could hear him!–and Glom was hissing.
Her brother was cursing under his breath as he flung fireballs towards the Australs.
There weren’t just two like there had been when they’d left. Oh, no, there were dozens.
The magic her brother had been using on them had broken likely when he’d started flinging fireballs, but it seemed that the Australs had known they were coming back.
She remembered Helgrom’s words about the Australs having a hive-like mind, which meant if one of them knew a thing then all of them did.
Clearly, one of them guarding the Armory had noticed them somehow.
But some part of her worried that she was being punished for her lack of faith in Darcassan.
She took out those magnificent daggers. They glowed white in her hands as if she were indeed holding stars. She spun into battle, cloaking herself in a shield to protect her from the disease that the Australs spread with a simple touch.
There were so many of them that it didn’t matter where the dagger sliced.
The air was full of Austral flesh. Shrieks, hisses, and groans filled the air around her as the daggers growed a hotter and hotter white with each death.
It seemed as if they were killing the Australs before the blades actually touched them.
A wave of white light exploded out all around her and, for a moment, the hallway was clear of living Australs.
The dead carpeted the ground. Breathing heavily, she glanced up at her companions.
Snaglak’s lower jaw jutted out. His two long curved tusks glistened with saliva as if he wanted to bite the Australs.
Helgrom’s hammer was stained purple with Austral blood.
Her brother leaned against the wall, white faced and perspiring.
The spells to hide them had taken everything out of him.
She should have noticed that and offered to give him some of her own strength. But he was always so proud.
But being proud here is a death sentence!
Her more rational side shouted inside of her head.
But, like always, she pushed that down. When it came to her brother and her father, if she was honest, she gave them more latitude than she would anyone else.
Them doing something foolish was not foolish even if it was objectively so.
She loved them. So much. That love is going to lead you somewhere terrible if you don’t watch it.
She blinked at that last thought. It had sounded like her own mind voice, but it had been so different from anything she normally allowed herself to think. Nothing like that had ever slipped out before. But it had now.
“We need to get out of here,” Helgrom said as he helped Darcassan stand up.
“But go where? To Illithor? That’s five days away!” she protested even as she stared at the doors to the Armory that were now closed. Had they really been in Illithor? Why couldn’t they have just left the Armory a different way then?
Because it is closed to Helgrom. He can only go from Xrdatha to there and back again. No where else.
“Should we go back into the Armory?” she asked even as she thought the earlier bit.
“No, there is only one way in or out for us,” Helgrom all but confirmed. “We go back in there and we’ll be entombed in there.”
“But can we really make it out of Xrdatha?” she asked helplessly.
“Vex did not bring us here to die,” Helgrom said, but it was more to himself than to them. Maybe he was trying to convince himself of it now.
The end of the hallway was suddenly filled with shrieking, flying Australs.
They spat strange fluids through the air.
In a desperate move, Elasha threw up a shield at the last moment.
The fluids impacted it and left them alone.
But her shield looked like abstract art, but she kept it up.
She looked over her shoulder to the others, her brother especially.
He was swaying on his feet. His right hand was gripping the top of his bag.
He had nothing left to give. She was the only magic user here with any magic left.
“We have to…” he got out then swallowed, “we have to get out of here.”
“Must kill or die,” Snaglak growled, looking ready to fight the whole Austral army himself and Elasha imagined that he would do it. He might go down under hundreds of the creatures, but he would fight to the bitter end.
It’s not right that he should die like that. We have to get out of here. We have to!
“Can you keep that shield up until we get to the end of the hallway?” Helgrom asked.
She swallowed. Could she? She had no idea. But she had to try. No, she had to do it. “You want me to use it as a battering ram?”
“Yes, let’s go!” Helgrom thrust his hammer towards the mass of Australs.
With a war cry of her own, Elasha started running towards them.
The daggers in her palms, glinting as if waiting to be filled again.
The shield flowed ahead of her. The Australs flew like arrows towards it.
She prepared for them to hit it. It would be like smashing into a wall.
The shield would naturally want to shatter, but she would have to hold it.
No matter what!
Ten feet separated them.
Then five.
And then…
She closed her eyes as the impact came.
Except it didn’t come. Her eyes flew open.
She was still running, but she staggered to a halt as she realized that she was no longer in the Armory’s hallway at Xrdatha.
Instead, she was in some kind of huge cavern where a glowing city with purple towers perched on the edge of a massive lake that flowed between them and it.
Illithor!
But that wasn’t what stunned her.
Nor was it the rift that closed behind Helgrom as the dwarf trundled through it as the last of her party from Xrdatha. It closed leaving the hundreds of shrieking Australs without a foe.
Nor was it Rhalyf and Finley who suddenly teleported beside them. Both staring wide-eyed at what did grab her attention like a hand around her throat.
It was Declan. She could see him and her uncle in the massive Leviathan nest that filled almost the entirety of the other half of the cavern. She’d never seen one so massive. Her mouth opened in an “O”.
But then Declan lifted Ardreth. The jewel in the hilt glowed like a red star. It was so bright that it hurt her eyes. She blinked rapidly as her eyes stung with its brilliance. But she couldn’t look away.
Aquilan spun around to go back to Declan who was surrounded by Leviathan. It looked like every Leviathan was converging upon him. But when he lifted Ardreth, they started to flee.
But they didn’t get very far.
She heard Prince Declan shout a single word, “Iefyr.”
The word cut through her like the sharpest of blades.
And then he swung Ardreth. There was an avalanche of crimson light that consumed the nest and blinded her for some time.
She fell to her knees and brought her arms up to cover her head.
When her vision returned, she saw that she was not the only one.
All of her group had done the same. Her brother was flat on the ground, even Snaglak hunkered down beside Glom.
Helgrom was down on one knee and she thought she heard him whisper a prayer.
Rhalyf had grabbed Finley and was using his body as a shield for the young man.
After such a powerful magical blast, there should have been some sound. But it was utterly quiet. She looked back at where Aquilan, Declan and the nest had been. The nest was no more. The entire cavern was clear. There was no trace of the nest. It was like it had never been.
No… that’s not true.
It was then that she saw the single cocoon that had been left over. It began to fall and Declan moved to catch it. But it shattered in his hands, turning to ash as his arms closed around it. Declan collapsed on his knees as the remnants of the cocoon danced around him in the cavern’s currents.
“Good gods, he is Vex’s son,” Rhalyf whispered and looked stricken as he clutched Finley to him.
Elasha looked down at her daggers. She had done something similar, but on a miniscule scale to that. She could have never done what Declan had. She thought of the amount of power it would take to do such a thing with a single swipe of a blade. A single spell…
He is the Night Prince. She watched as her uncle dashed to Declan’s side and caught him as he collapsed. And the Sun King loves him.