Aegis of The Gods: Book 02 - Ashes and Blood (16 page)

C
hapter 24

H
eart sinking into the bowels of his stomach, Ancel shook his head in denial. Ryne had to be mistaken.
I destroyed one of the Kassite’s wards? I weakened one of the Nether’s seals? I possibly exposed Denestia to dangers the world had not seen in millennia?
Stuff of legend and myth, much of it not even told in the stories?
He cringed, picturing the destruction he possibly wrought.

Most faces around him displayed pity. All except Kachien’s and Mirza’s. Kachien’s expression was of genuine concern. Mirza’s eyes smoldered, and his clenched fist shook.

“All you Ashishin make me sick,” Mirza said. A few people gasped at the disrespect. “You get your hooks in a man, and you don’t let go. My father, my mother, now my best friend.” He hawked and spat. “All the world is a plot to you … a great game to be played, and we,” he cast his hand out, “the pieces to string along. Well, you know what? Fuck you. Fuck you all. I’m here for my friend, my family, and my people. If it takes me until my dying day, I’ll see them free.” He stalked off.

Ancel ached to walk away also, leaving the dead and dying, the stench of blood and burning pitch, the suffering, the lies … all of it behind if he could, but if things were as Ryne said—he had no reason to doubt the man—this was his responsibility. He held himself straighter, molding his spine into steel. “How do we kill them?”

Ryne smiled, a hint of pride in the way his lips curled. “Simple as that?”

“Death’s always simple.” Ancel recalled the saying from the Chronicle of Undeath. “Aren’t those your words?”

“Indeed.”

“How do you fight something that devours the power which drives the world?” Stefan arched an eyebrow.

Ryne touched his sword hilt. “With steel. Mater can’t touch the creatures as far as Forging goes, but simple metal, imbued or not, will do the task.”

“And how do we get close enough?” This from Guthrie.

“First, we must discover how many of the beasts Sakari commands,” Ryne answered. “Right now, the best course is to flee, but to do so we need a distraction. It’s the only way to buy time to get your people free of this place and for me to scout them out.”

“If he even allows us,” Irmina said.

“Why can’t we leave like the Tribunal’s Matii did?” Ancel asked.

“Only two people here are strong enough to be High Shin.” Ryne’s eyes shifted from Irmina to Galiana. “Two High Shin alone couldn’t hold portals long enough for everyone. And the Tribunal would know where we Materialized to anyway. To make things worse, we don’t have enough Dagodin to defeat the creatures, but if we had more Matii we could keep them occupied for most of you to escape. Vasumbrals are glutinous by nature. As long as there’s a chance of a Forging, they will remain.”

Irmina spoke up. “I may know how to get some more Matii … a lot more.”

All attention shifted to her. Galiana wore a pensive frown.

“I’m sorry,” Irmina mouthed to him. She inhaled and then blew out a slow breath, her shoulders drooping. “I was sent her by the Exalted.” That brought a hiss from Galiana. “As a Raijin, my task was to kill the council.” Her gaze hardened. “And to kill you, Ryne.”

Her intentions came as no great surprise to Ancel. The way she cried the night they made love had left him suspecting something of this nature. Ryne nodded as if he expected no less. Stefan tensed. Lips pursed, Guthrie shook his head slowly. Devan placed himself firmly between Irmina and Shin Galiana, looming over her as he did so, his fist clenched near his sword. The other council members put more distance between themselves and Irmina, edging closer to the Dagodin out of earshot near the wall.

“When I found out who you were … I couldn’t—” Chest heaving, Irmina turned away from them.

Ancel glanced from her to Ryne, narrowing his eyes. What was he missing? There seemed to be more between those two. For a moment, he pondered if they’d been involved, but dismissed the thought. What he witnessed in Irmina’s eyes was raw pain. Only one thing ever affected her like this: her parents’ death.

Ryne had nothing to do with that. Or did he?

Brushing at her face, Irmina composed herself and faced them once more. “Rest assured, I no longer intend to follow their orders against the council.” Her omission of Ryne was troubling. “However, if we need more Matii, the easiest solution is for me to signal the Tribunal that the deed is done. They’ll attack within minutes only to find the shadelings outside the walls.”

“What if they decide to ignore them and leave us to our fate?” Guthrie asked.

“They may be a lot of things, Guthrie,” Galiana leaned up off her staff, “but the Tribunal
will
fight
the shade. The threat makes them weaker against the Sendethi and Barsonian rebellion and might be a precursor to their demise if left to fester.” She paused for a moment. “To everyone’s demise.” The last came out a whisper.

“Do we trust her?” Devan nodded to Irmina.

“Yes,” Galiana said convincingly, “I do.”

“Why?” Guthrie glanced from Galiana back to Irmina.

“She has been an agent for me and Jerem for years. As I said at the inn, she knows now we had nothing to do with her family’s deaths. Besides, Jerem would never allow her to come here if he thought she was a threat to our cause.”

Guthrie gave a slight bow of his head. “I’ll submit to your judgment then.”

Devan shrugged and went back to stand next to Stefan.

“So,” Ryne stretched to his full height, “prepare the people to leave and send the signal.”

Galiana stood erect now and looked around at them. “I am staying to greet the Tribunal’s Ashishin when they arrive. Who else?”

“I’ll have to stay to explain myself.” Irmina looked to him with sorrowful eyes.

He wanted to go to her, hug her. Deep inside, he couldn’t help the feeling that fate fought against him. Why did he keep losing the things that mattered the most? He was about to speak when he noticed his father’s expression. It gave him a sinking sensation down in his gut.

“All the council members will remain also,” Stefan declared, “including me.”

Ancel choked back a cry. “Da, you mustn’t do this.” He’d lost his mother, and now he was losing his father too? He clutched his mother’s pendant, his knees weak.

“There isn’t much choice, son. When the Tribunal’s army arrives and we’re gone, they will come after us.”

“But … but, defeating the shade will take some time,” Ancel said. “Maybe enough for us to be long gone.”

Stefan shook his head. “I know the Tribunal well. What we’ve done here, plus your actions at the winery won’t go unpunished. If they don’t find us, they’ll fight the shade, as well as send a contingent with Pathfinders and Ashishin after us.”

As much as he wanted to disagree, Ancel recognized the truth of his father’s words. “Let them stay then.” He nodded toward Javed, Rohan, and the others in desperation. “Come with us. We need you. I need you.”

“No.” Stefan walked over to him and placed a firm hand on his shoulder. “The Setian need you now, son. They are your people. My time’s come and gone. I won’t risk any more lives. I’ve seen enough death, enough of my loved ones reduced to nothing more than husks. I won’t let them suffer anymore, not when I can prevent it.”

“Da—”

“Son, listen to me. This has been coming for centuries. A time existed when I thought I would be the one to bring us together once more, but that’s your job now. You were named after your brother and sister, Anton and Celina, as a way for me never to forget the suffering I have been a part of. The Tribunal’s actions and Nerian took them away from us. In ways, I played my part as did your mother, and I’ve had to live with that knowledge.” His father’s face was grim, and then he cracked a smile. “I promise to tell you about them one day.

“Your mother and I raised you for this. Ever since those painful days, we prayed, and the gods gave us you. You just needed what we couldn’t provide. To be nurtured. To be trained. Now, you have your true mentor.” His father glanced over to Ryne. “Use everything me and Galiana taught you, and apply it to what you learn.

“
The Disciplines.
Remember them. Obey them. They’ll be your guide. Let today be the prime example. I see fear in you, uncertainty. Demand bravery by conquering your fear. Demand perseverance, but first show determination. You see, son. Even now, I live by two of them. Make all of them a part of your life.”

“Da, I can’t, I can’t …”

“Yes, you can. You’re a Dorn. Like all us Dorns, you’re strong. The strongest of us all. You’ll get past this. Demand they overcome after you prevail. Demand discipline by first showing mastery of self.”

Hearing his father’s voice so calm, so steadfast, lent Ancel strength. He wiped away the tears he hadn’t realized he shed. “Lead by example,” he whispered.

“Exactly,” his father replied. “Now it’s time for us to prepare the troops and gather our people for exodus.”

C
hapter 25

R
yne stood atop the tower next to two Dagodin with a clear vantage point of the northern expanses around the town. Snow fell in ever thickening swirls. Dark clouds hid Denestia’s twin moons, but they made no difference. The barrier around Eldanhill bled its own silvery blue glow onto the land for miles. Beyond the nebulous luminance, shadelings gathered, their forms turning the virginal white of the snowy fields and forest into seething black rot. A vasumbral wailed.

If Sakari was out there, what was he waiting for? The vasumbrals should already be devouring the shield while the shadelings convened. Along the lines, darkwraiths glided back and forth keeping wraithwolves in check. Evenly spaced between those ranks, Ryne picked out the blur of rapidly beating black wings, fleshy locks, mandibles, and the many-faceted eyes of four daemons, their matching legs and arms gesticulating wildly as they passed instructions. Despite their distance from the wall, the fetid stench of death and decay was palpable.

Four daemons meant four shadebanes, each bane divided into a herd controlled by a darkwraith. At four thousand per shadebane against less than five thousand men and women in Eldanhill, the numbers proved more than daunting. They were downright scary.

The sight of Amuni’s minions brought the voices of the essences rolling up into his head. His Etchings writhed, forcing the presences back down so he wouldn’t need to enter the Shunyata. With what he’d expended destroying the Chainin, relinquishing any of his sela to appease those greedy wretches might be too costly if he planned to help here and live.

The thought of life made him ponder Sakari’s possible survival. Contrary to what many believed, netherlings were not immortal. A powerful enough
divya
through the heart or brain could kill them as dead as any other. He could have sworn Irmina’s sword through Sakari’s chest had struck true. Sakari had opened a portal to the Kassite, but his doom should have been certain.

Tired of speculating, Ryne leaped from the tower and landed softly on the ground forty feet below. He wouldn’t find out more before the attack began. Until then, he intended to help while keeping an eye out for Irmina. The woman had made it plain she still intended to kill him, despite knowing her chances were less than slim. He let out a relieved sigh that she still kept his identity a secret. Ancel was too fragile right now to deal with such a revelation.

Irmina’s death would be the easiest solution to his dilemma. A slight smile touched his lips. Funny how his mind returned to what occupied it when he first met the woman. Even so, carrying out the act wasn’t an option. The stability she meant for Ancel was a thing he refused to disturb, much less sever.

“Feel like sharing?” Ancel said from next to him.

Carelessness will get a man killed
, Ryne thought of his inattention. “Just wondering why they haven’t attacked yet and how much time before we leave,” he answered, as if aware of his ward’s presence the entire time.

“The other council members were bickering about staying, especially when my father decided Galiana would be leaving with us.”

“And?”

“My father took out his sword and dared any of them to leave. That pretty much settled it.”

Ryne chuckled. So many years later and Stefan was still the same. Whether it was his soldiers or citizens, he took full responsibility, refusing to risk lives foolishly and willing to sacrifice where necessary. Ryne recalled a time the man was different, when all that mattered was glory. Nerian and the Tribunal had killed that Stefan. They’d given birth to a better man.

“How do they plan to escape?”

“That’s what I’m here to discuss with you,” Ancel said.

“Let me guess … I’m the decoy.”

Lips pursed, Ancel gave a slow nod.

“Tell them I say that after I do this we’ll need to make a detour on our way to Torandil.”

“Are you sure you can manage? When we linked earlier, I could tell how weak you were. I’d rather take our chances, all of us together, than to lose you.”

As touching as Ancel’s sentiments were, Ryne understood the reality of the situation. Their escape route would be out across the Kelvore River where no wall existed. The shade hadn’t covered the area yet, but sooner or later they would. Unless they found something else to chase after first. “Whether I can manage is irrelevant. There’s no other way.”

Ancel kicked at a patch of snow.

“What they asked isn’t all that’s bothering you, is it?”

“No.” Ancel looked up to meet Ryne’s eyes. “Why does Irmina want you dead?”

“Did you ask her?”

“Yes. She said the reason was yours to tell.”

Ryne nodded. “So it is, but this is neither the time nor the place.”

“Two of the most important people to me want to kill each other, and I can’t get a straight answer from either. What’s worse is, both of you are risking your lives for me.”

“Who said I wanted to kill her?”

Ancel looked at him askance. “What if she attacks you?”

“Not even then.”

Tension drained from Ancel’s face. “I’ll go tell them you agreed.”

The vasumbrals released a keening wail, this time higher and longer.

Ryne tilted his head, judging their distance. “Tell them they only have a few minutes.” Snow crunching underfoot, he began to jog toward the northern gate. “The attack is commencing,” he called over his shoulder. When he reached the tower to the right of the gate, he shouted for the basket. A wealth of shaking and creaking later, he stood next to the two Dagodin guards.

Out beyond the barrier, a fountain of dirt and snow shot into the air with a dull rumble. The tower itself shook. A hole at least thirty feet across appeared in the snow.

Before the debris hit the ground, a form snaked up, black against the snowfall and tenuous light of the barrier. Rocks, dirt, and snow struck its ridged surface before falling to the wayside. A screech resonated from the silhouette, the sound crawling across Ryne’s skin. The dark, wormlike form split down the middle from the top to where it disappeared into the hole, revealing an opening to swallow the night itself. It was not just black; it was an absence of light, a devouring of shadow. The vasumbral made the mass of shadelings beyond it appear bright by comparison. Hundreds upon hundreds of feelers reached out from its interior, sampling the air.

Several thousand feet away, the process repeated. Then again, and again, and again, until Ryne counted a dozen. He understood now why the person controlling them waited. Stretching over a hundred feet into the air and at least a quarter of that distance wide, the creatures were still half-grown.

Ryne sensed a spike of power then. Someone Materializing, a portal opening. First one, two, and then so many at once he lost count. Mater surged from the northeast. The Tribunal’s Matii had arrived.

A few of the vasumbrals turned their eyeless forms toward the convergence of elements. The vertebrae joining each section of their bodies glinted where they humped into ridges. Together the beasts screeched, coiled back, and dived down, crashing into the earth with a rumble before their tails pulled out of one hole to disappear into the new ones their heads made. Snow bubbled up into a swell of white waves rolling across the ground in the portals’ direction.

Ryne waited, but only the equivalent of two shadebanes followed. The other vasumbrals continued to eat into the barrier. “Leave now,” he said to the two guards. “Tell Shin Galiana I said to take everyone with her.” He leapt from the tower over the wall.

A cold wind rushed by his face, sweeping snow in stinging swirls as he fell. Without the benefits of moonlight, he drew on the barrier’s luminescence instead and added that to the corresponding element within his Etchings.

He Shimmered.

One moment he was falling, and the next he reappeared at the shield’s edge without crossing it. He stepped directly into the glow, his skin tingling slightly as he did so. Light essences raced up into him, his Etchings gobbling them up greedily. Ryne’s body replicated the barrier’s blue luminance. The prickling sensation increased to a burn. Energy filled him to near busting. He threw his back.

“SAKARI!” he bellowed, using the wind to increase and carry the sound.

Everything stopped as if the entire world had come to a halt. The vasumbrals and shadelings alike turned slowly to him as if of one mind.

A blur of motion announced Sakari’s presence. “You called, master?” The smirk on Sakari’s face was as out of sorts as his appearance in the form of a typical milk-skinned Granadian.

The essences Ryne held brimmed, leaking from him like blood. “You won’t get what you want. Not now. Not ever.”

“And what is to stop me and mine?”

Ryne gave the netherling a ghost of a smile. “Yourself. We pose no threat to you.”

“Smart, but not smart enough,” Sakari said. “I could have sworn a certain someone shot me with an arrow, and another someone stabbed me. Their actions give me the right to breach any contract to defend myself.”

The breath Ryne wanted to suck in remained between his clenched teeth. Sakari had deliberately goaded people close to Ancel into attacking him.

“I see you understand. I do not need to fight you to get what I require.” Sakari’s eyes changed color, going through several hues of blue to gray to black. “As has always happened, you, like the other Eztezians before you, will lose.”

“Why are you doing this? The people of this world have done nothing to you or your kind.”

“Come now, Ryne.” Sakari shrugged. “What drives the world? What drives man? Power. Freedom. Love. A combination of all three or a lack of one or the other. In our case, we simply would love the freedom to use our power.”

“So the Nine will destroy an entire people to have something as meager as that?”

“They will destroy whoever stands in our way. Is that not what you and your brethren have done for millennia?” Sakari cocked his head marginally. “We gave you Eztezians the means to deliver the world to us, and not your so-called gods, but too many of you became smarter than was good.”

“Trading one slave master for another was never an option,” Ryne said.

Sakari chuckled. “You cannot fight the inevitable. We can give you the same choice we gave the others though. Join us. Enough of humanity will survive. We do need them, and people to rule, to keep them providing us with what we require.”

“Never.”

“Then I wish you the best of luck, and may your gods help you.” Sakari’s form Blurred away. “But not even they can save you.”

Netherlings. Forever arrogant.
Ryne smiled. As always, the chance to gloat, to declare superiority had proved impossible for the netherling. The weakness gave him exactly what he needed.

Coiled in the air from where Sakari had blurred was a concentration of Mater. Stronger than normal, the essences combined to form primal elements almost as potent as those within an Entosis. Ryne delved into the Shunyata, reaching out to the elements before him as he did so. The voices screamed promises of power into his head, and he obliged.

He fed the essences Sakari’s Mater.

The glow around his body grew to a blinding incandescence. The heat built to an inferno raging within him. Ryne’s body trembled with the strain of holding the power in. Allowing the Etchings to help stabilize all he held, he drew in more until he had gained the last bit of residue left by Sakari’s own Forging.

Then he released it all at once.

Light and energy shot into the sky in a cylindrical cone a dozen feet wide. If he had not rooted himself to the earth beneath his feet, the explosion would have thrown him back. Instead, it blew away snow, dirt, debris and everything else before him. Unable to bypass the protective barrier, the power expanded in a semicircle with him at the center. The ground steamed. It smelled of char and wet earth after a rainstorm. Tiny fires fluttered on grass once frozen solid.

“No!” Sakari’s voice bellowed in the distance.

But it was too late. The release of that much Mater had already gained the vasumbrals’ attention. They screeched as one. In response to the issued commands, the shadelings howled and wailed. The ground churned toward Ryne.

Body still aglow, he Shimmered toward the location of the opening portals. When he reappeared, he began sprinting. The snowfall had become a squall now, but through the winter white, he made out the rolling earth of the vasumbrals snaking to follow him. They ate up the distance between them within seconds until swaths of earth and snow twenty feet tall swept behind him like an ocean heaving in angry throes.

He whipped his head around. Rank upon rank of Dagodin spread before him, armor crimson like fresh blood. Ashishin and High Ashishin stood behind them, portals opening and closing to allow in more of the Tribunal’s troops.

Someone yelled a command. In a synchronized dance, the army formed into columns. Gleaming lances pointed toward Ryne and the creatures behind him.

Another command bellowed. Lightning split the sky, striking near Ryne, sending earth and snow showering up. Debris peppered him. Undaunted, he pressed on.

Links bloomed between the Ashishin, spanning from one to the next in continual concentration. They grew until the air itself hummed with their power. He imagined what the scene must look like to them. Some terrible wraith glowing in slivery-blue followed by creatures of the purest black that they had never seen and could not begin to fathom. Not to mention the thousands of howling and wailing shadelings charging in their wake. His lips curled into a smile. The timing needed to be perfect.

The release of Mater from the Shin came in an ear-splitting roar. Whatever Forging they unleashed surged toward him in an overheated torrent from straight ahead and above. The air blazed, the clouds in the heavens lit up, and the ground heaved. Snow and rock melted. Despite the miniature shield around him, his hair began to sizzle, the scent of its burning becoming stronger and stronger.

At the precise moment when the Forging would strike him, and the vasumbrals reach him, he Shimmered. He reappeared among the Ashishin, next to a portal, and stepped through.