Chapter Twenty-Five
THE GENERAL
The brisk wind from the mountains did little to cool my agitation. I shouldn’t have allowed myself to get that close to her. Her scent overrode my better judgment. Some mix between those cherry candies she’s always eating and fresh snow. And I hate snow. Foka.
I needed to stay the course. My people depended on me, and despite the wider ignorance to the veil that spread across all realms, even the people of Haluma would soon cry out for help. They just hadn’t realized that their king was no savior.
Liora was the key to my success. She would take us to the Nereids, and I would finally be able to call on my allies beneath the sea. With Liora’s aid we would strengthen our army and fortify our weapons cache. I just needed to stay the course.
Finn appeared at my side, keeping pace with my pressured steps.
“Tough night?”
I grunted, not ready to discuss all that had transpired.
Finn didn’t prod. “We have a situation you need to come see.”
I glanced at my second. He wore his scaled leathers, all his weapons in place. I sighed. Evil never slept. The portal opened with a whir, and we stepped through.
We emerged in a barren area high up in the Auren Mountains. Pickaxes, shovels, and hammers lay discarded around us. A faint acrid smell hovered in the air.
We stepped around mounds of dirt and shattered rock.
“This was one of Nolan’s mining operations.
My spy reported a massive Berine supply here, and the intensive underground extraction brought in significant numbers of dreki.
I had been working on a way to get us in, but now…
” He gestured to the scene before us. Deserted.
The entrance to the mountain had been demolished as if it had collapsed in on itself.
Why had this shut down so abruptly? The twin moons offered just enough light to reveal char, the residue of death magic. Although with dreki abounding here, that wasn’t a surprise.
“Surely they hadn’t cleared out all the Berine in such a short amount of time. It’s usually embedded in kimberlite magma; extraction is tedious.” I kicked at one of the mounds of dirt, sending plumes of sand into the air.
Finn froze, staring at my feet. I followed his gaze to a part of a hand protruding from the land. My shadows whirled out of me, leveling the mounds around us.
In the eerie silence, the weight of dread pushed down on us. My shadows responded before the clouds of dust had settled. All around were bodies, or their parts. We stood among the dead.
One of the dark creatures sprawled lifeless and mangled, its spikes still dripping with acid. A child with blackened veins lay exposed beneath the starlight. The bodies were mostly children. Some had dreki scales and all bore blackened veins. The smell was overwhelming. I suppressed a gag.
Nolan had unleashed death magic throughout the realms and most were completely oblivious.
The descent into darkness was slippery and subtle.
Few had their eyes open. The land was the first to wither, and there were many logical arguments to explain it away.
His prolific accumulation of orphans, these new acid-wielding creatures, not to mention his army of dreki, were all signs of horrors to come.
I squinted toward the collapsed entrance of the mountainside.
“How do you know this was a place of mining extraction if you had never seen it before today?”
“I had taken our spy’s word for it.”
My rings flared. “Nolan is experimenting on children. There’s no other reason for them to be here, and with their veins infused with char. Either they shut it down, or they tunneled far enough to close this entrance and continue their work elsewhere. I assume your spy is still alive?”
Finn nodded in affirmation.
“We need to know everything. What he saw, what he really knows.”
Movement caught our eye. The dark creature opened a charcoal eye, moaning toward the sky. A metal sword formed in my hand and my shadows poured out. I was at the monster’s side immediately, blade to throat.
It curled in on itself in fear, but its injuries prevented it from fully retreating. “Dominussssss,” it hissed. Finn and I exchanged glances. It continued its weak attempt at crawling away from us. “Don’t send me back to him.”
“What happened here?” I demanded.
The beast fell limp, giving up on its effort at self-protection. “His army grows. He will conquer what is his.” It coughed up a glob of black blood and fixed its beady eyes on me, studying. “He will do whatever it takes to get her back.”
Liora. Seeing her at the mercy of Oster had unleashed something within me.
I would destroy the realms before I lost her again.
Nolan’s obsession with her disturbed me at the deepest levels.
The blade in my hand flared and sharpened, turning glassy.
Nolan used stolen power, and I knew mine would be enough to take him down.
It was up to me to stop him. It always had been.
Ilayah prophesied it, and Xuri confirmed it.
I would go to whatever end to protect Liora from further harm, and free our world from his dark clutches.
“Why does he want her so badly?” I asked.
The creature trembled. “She belongs to him. He covets her power.”
“The King has his water refinery. What does he need a water wielder for?”
The beast cocked its head at me, a small smirk forming along its thin lips. “Surely you have felt it, Dominus. Your shadows should know.” It began coughing again. Its use of my name unnerved me, and his cryptic words seemed more baiting than truth.
“I’ve heard enough. End him.”
Finn snuffed its life before the breath from my command had dissipated. I turned away.
“We have to be strategic about this. They’re hunting her, Dom.” Finn eyed me warily. “We could use her to lure Nolan from his guarded castle.”
My teeth clenched at his words. “We are using her. Her magic will get us to Queen Thaleia. She has a connection in Vorkut for unique weapons. I am being strategic.”
Finn’s somber tone was laced with concern. “We don’t know how much time we have left, and we can’t lose sight of our goal.”
He was right. I knew he was right. But I couldn’t shake how wrong it felt.