Bloodlust (44 page)

"And what would you do as golempress?"

"Lead my people to a golden age."

"How can that be possible?"

"It can be. After the trolls and barbarians are dealt with."

"Good." A crackling sound filled the air, and Lukor glanced around the tree to see the hellebarde glow blue in her hand before reverting back to its normal metal. "Go and achieve your goal, O Golempress."

It felt as if a presence left them.

Karrina stared at the blade with wonder, her teal eyes wide with dark joy. Lukor slipped the sword to the ground and retrieved the dagger he had tucked inside his boot. The goliatha moved to the left, so Lukor eased to the right, alternatingly looking at her and then at his feet so as not to trip or step on leaves or twigs. A tree blocked his view of her, and he darted forward around it. Karrina whirled around, but Lukor had already thrown the dagger. She brought up the hellebarde, but too late. The dagger sank into her flesh.

But she did not die.

Ten elves — five females, five males — surrounded Ivy. Despite her height, they all stood taller than her. She stared at the one she had spoken to previously, her vision hazy from the lingering effects of the Bloodlust. "Where is Lukor?" Her words slurred together.

"I do not have time to worry about him right now."

Ivy gaped at him, some aspects of the Bloodlust lessening in her grief, others sharpening, and she struggled not to attack him with her bare hands. "Is he alive?"

"A new race is no longer our concern," a female said. She wore a majestic blue gown with sheer lace overlay. Her pale face contrasted with her ice blue lips, her eyes so faintly blue.

The barbaroness wanted to rage, to scream... to kill. But she could not allow her Bloodlust to control her, and she forced it deep within her.
Lukor...

"Where are the rest of the elves?" she demanded.

The elves faded from sight, the blue one last to leave, save for the male. "You must distract Black Ruby."

"How?" She wanted to do nothing to help the elves, but what choice did she have if this Black Ruby truly was the one behind the destructive ways of the races?

"Prevent the races from fighting. Go. It will not be easy."

The elf disappeared, and Ivy had no choice but to exit Celestia Forest, to where the races were mingled. Full scale fighting was breaking out in small patches, with barbarians, goliaths, and trolls all at war.

Ivy climbed the tree nearest them. She had lost her silverbow early on in the battle, but she had several more daggers on her person, and she grabbed two.

"Barbarians!" she called, but none looked at her. "Goliaths! Trolls! Stop this madness!"

If anything, the fighting, the killing, increased.

Ivy slid down the tree and entered the fray, elbowing and pushing her way. Most of the barbarians were lost in the throes of Bloodlust and beyond her reach. Trolls and goliaths both attacked her, and she struggled to protect herself, even as she continued to reason with them.

She was failing.

Ivy could not fail. She would figure out a way to succeed.

Somehow.

A weaponless Lukor backed up as Karrina withdrew the dagger from her stomach. Blood gushed from the wound before slowing to a trickle. The hole in the leather showed her torn skin, and Lukor watched, transfixed, as the gash sealed up, bloodied but healed.

Karrina glanced up from her stomach and grinned evilly. She tore after him, and Lukor wove between the trees back to Varo. Without his axe or another blade, he'd be dead.

But with each step he took, his strength ebbed away. Blood still oozed from his wound, and he placed his hand there to try to staunch the flow. He misjudged how close he was to a tree and slammed into it. Bouncing off it, he continued forward and ran into the skuleader, who held the cane he had given Lukor in his hand.

"You lose this." He sounded displeased but handed it to Lukor.

The golock grabbed it, pivoted, and held it up in time to block the hellebarde. The cane held despite the blade pressing down on it, and Lukor managed to lift his leg and kick Karrina's stomach. She winced and staggered back. The cane pushed the hellebarde tip toward the ground, leaving her torso exposed, and Lukor smacked the cane against her shoulder before pulling back, ready to repierce her stomach wound, but Karrina dropped to the ground, eyes glassy, no longer breathing.

Dead. From one touch of the cane.

Lukor glanced over at the skuleader, who grinned. "Do you have more like this?" He held up the cane.

The skuleader pried the hellebarde from Karrina's grasp. "Now. Return people."

For some reason, Lukor did not feel frightened or worried that the skuleader had such a powerful weapon. Any other troll, yes, even a few goliaths. Barbarians did not need the extra help the weapon provided.

They hurried back to the battle scene, with the skuleader paving the way and Lukor trailing behind due to his injury. Only no one was there. The cries of a fight still raging had them continuing through the forest and leaving the tall trees behind.

Utter chaos greeted them, with goliaths, trolls, and barbarians all attacking one another.

Lukor glanced at the skuleader. "If we go in with these, many..."

The skuleader snapped the tip of the hellebarde in half and eyed the cane.

Without hesitation, the goliath did the same.

"No magic." The troll nodded to the ruined weapons.

Lukor grinned. He had seen several trolls engaging elves with broken weapons and had thought naught of it. While Trakil had had no shred of honor or decency, perhaps this troll actually did.

"Cheating." The skuleader shrugged. "Now stop." He rushed into the teeming bodies, pushing and shoving and yelling, brandishing the spear tip of the hellebarde and the blade still attached to its hilt in the other.

"Darcia!" Lukor yanked on her arm, tugging her from the fray. Her face was flushed from fighting, her chest heaving for breath. "Stop this."

"They have to die," she said, her voice flat despite her violent struggles against him. Her eyes looked strange, unfocused and far too light.

"Darcia." He shook her slightly.

His cousin shoved him away from her, jerking backward. Her head collided with a troll's elbow. Dazed, she tossed her head from side to side, and her eyes appeared normal.

"What happened?" she asked.

"We have to stop the fighting."

Darcia was already yanking on Golic's arm. Heated words were exchanged, and Lukor grabbed the nearest goliath — Thul.

"Halt," Lukor demanded.

Thul shrug him off. "The trolls have killed too many goliaths. They have to be punished."

Unlike the other barbarians and goliaths who Lukor glimpsed at, Thul's eyes were their normal hue. Thul was just being his obnoxious self.

With the two halves of the cane, Lukor managed to disarm Thul, and the axe fell to the ground. "Varo and Karrina are dead. How many more goliaths have to die, whether by goliath or troll or barbarian hand?"

"Karrina?"

Lukor wrapped his arm around another goliath's neck, forcing him down onto his knees. "Look at his eyes. Possessed. Maddened. The others all are." He thought fast, reasoning how these people could be so influenced and came to one conclusion. "This is the elves' doing. Today, the elves are the enemy."

Thul rubbed his temple, where a large bump sat. "Fine. For today." He slapped the goliath upside the head.

Lukor sighed and helped the dizzy goliath to his feet. "Find a safer way to wake them," he demanded.

The goliath bared his teeth. "What of the trolls at least?"

"Safer," Lukor reiterated.

Unfortunately, Lukor soon learned that the quickest way to stop the madness was indeed to hit those afflicted on the head, and a light tap wasn't sufficient either.

But with thousands of them gathered here, it would take them all night to regain them to their senses. At least no elves were nearby to hinder them, which in and of itself was beyond strange.

Lukor tapped the two halves of the cane onto the heads of a barbarian and a goliath when a monstrous barbarian with a triangle patch of skin missing above one of his ears barreled into Lukor and slammed him to the ground. His eyes were not dazed or lightened like those Lukor assumed were influenced by the elves, but crazed with Bloodlust.

Thick, meaty hands wrapped around Lukor's throat, and despite the heavy weight on his chest, Lukor lifted his head high enough and fast enough to headbutt the barbarian.

Flesh and dark gray leather flashed in front of him and struck the barbarian's triangle. His grip loosened, and Lukor jerked free, lifting with his hips and legs to knock the barbarian from on top of him.

"Pike, listen to me. Stop this. Turn it off." Ivy pressed her hands to either side of the barbarian's face. "It's me. It's Ivy. Your barbaroness. You're safe."

Pike blinked a few times, and his eyes cleared. "Ivy... O Barbaroness..."

"One elf is responsible for all of our ills. One elf. He wants us all dead. If we can stop fighting each other, we can hinder his plans, and maybe we'll have a chance to save the world for us all."

"Including the trolls," Lukor added.

Ivy flashed him a surprised look, pleased as well. Then her gaze shifted to above Lukor's shoulders, toward the forest, and she swallowed hard.

Lukor turned around to see a tall figure standing on top of a deep purple, almost black dragon.

"He is our enemy, not our fellow allies." Ivy whipped out a morning star.

A sudden cold air burst around them, and Lukor shivered. This elf was not going to be easy to take down. Death, on their accounts, was not an option.

Where were those elves? Here was Black Ruby.
Go and get him. Kill him.

Ivy grabbed a bow from the back of a barbarian. The dragon was far too high for her to have a ghost of a chance of striking the elf. Of course he could just burn the arrow before it could touch him.

The barest traces of sunlight graced the sky, but it disappeared beneath a veil of clouds. Water fell from the heavens in huge droplets. One landed on Ivy's head and beaded down her cheek. Warm.

Behind her, the sound of fighting, of arguments and shouts, all halted. Could the rain have ended Black Ruby's influence? If so, why hadn't the elves done that earlier?