Can't Look Back (War for Dominance Book 1) (17 page)

“Time just ran out,” said Dantes. “We can help defend the ship until we get to sea,
but
you’ve got to go now!
”

“Aye,” said Captain Meyer. “Indeed I do.” He turned and started up the gangplank, stopping suddenly as he made a decision. “Come along,” he added. “I’ll take you where you need to go.”

“You heard the captain,” said Dantes, “let’s go.” He started up the gangplank.

“No,” said Lady Ellyn, “not this time. I have overlooked much in this quest so far, but this I cannot abide. That knight must die.” She strode down the pier.

“Be right back,” said Father Telenor as he broke into a run to catch up. “This won’t take long,” he yelled back over his shoulder. “I hope.”

Dantes looked up and saw that the black knight had begun killing the fleeing civilians. As he watched, the knight caught up with a man that was running down the hill away from him carrying two long loaves of bread. The knight’s saber flashed as he passed, and the man’s head was separated from his shoulders in a spray of red.

“I challenge you by the one true god,” called Lady Ellyn, reaching the shoreline. “Come and fight me!” Somehow her voice or her presence carried to the dark knight; he wheeled his horse in her direction and charged. Lady Ellyn held her ground as the knight galloped down the hill, building speed.

“She’s dead,” said Ghorza, who had witnessed such charges before. Ghorza turned away. She didn’t want to watch.

“No!” said Dantes. “Look.”

Lady Ellyn had chosen her position for a reason; a broken piece of spar from one of the ships had come ashore where she waited. With only seconds until impact, she bent down and grabbed the six-foot long piece of wood. As big around as her forearm, the spar was jagged on one end where it had been broken off the ship. The other end was smooth, and she slammed that end into the ground and braced it with her boot. She tilted the jagged end toward the charging knight at a 45 degree angle.

The knight’s horse saw the improvised pike at the last second and tried to shy away to the right, but it was too late. Instead of impaling itself in the chest, the spar lanced into the horse’s left shoulder, stopping the majority of its momentum and catapulting the dark knight over its head. The knight somersaulted through the air to land on his back in about six inches of water, momentarily stunned.

Although it broke the knight’s charge, the spar wasn’t up to the task of stopping the horse completely, and it snapped. The upper piece was driven into Lady Ellyn’s chest armor, and she flew backward through the air to land in the water also. Neither knight got back up.

“M’lady,” said Father Telenor as he ran up, “are you all right?” He lifted up the visor of her helmet and saw that her mouth was open and she was gasping for breath like a fish out of water. “
Ostium Mortis,
” he said, casting his Death’s Door spell to determine her condition. He was relieved to see that she was not near death.

“Just...got...wind...knocked out...of me,” Lady Ellyn said. Father Telenor could see a three inch dent in the center of her chest armor; she was lucky to have only had the wind knocked out of her. It could have been much worse.

“Look out,” yelled Dantes.

Father Telenor looked up to see the black knight rising from the bay, water streaming from his armor. Father Telenor started to cast a Hold Person spell on the knight.

“No,” said Lady Ellyn. “My challenge. I will finish this. No helping.”

Both knights made it to their feet at nearly the same time, but Lady Ellyn fell into the throes of a violent coughing fit and leaned forward, her hands on her knees. The black knight couldn’t take advantage, as he had lost his sword when he flew over his horse. He searched through the water near his landing spot and, after a couple of moments of looking, found the saber. Picking it up, he turned and charged the paladin, drawing his dagger as he ran.

Lady Ellyn overcame her coughing fit and took a defensive pose, drawing her sword and dagger to meet the dark knight, who was similarly armed. Although difficult to determine in full plate armor, the dark knight appeared to be at least six inches taller and a good deal more massive.

Disdaining finesse, the dark knight came in fast, hoping to overwhelm the paladin before the cleric could help her. He tried an overhead slash, using his momentum to try to break through Lady Ellyn’s defense. Used to fighting men that were larger and physically stronger, Lady Ellyn knew that her best defense was speed and maneuverability, not meeting the dark knight in a battle of strength versus strength. She feinted right and then dodged left, guiding the knight’s saber to the side with her sword.

The knight hadn’t expected her maneuver and overextended himself, and she stepped forward and thrust her dagger up into his right armpit where there wasn’t any armor. Sensing what she intended, he used his momentum to roll away, but was only partly successful. She wasn’t able to stab him deeply enough to kill him, but the blow still landed. Blood began flowing down the side of his armor.

The dark knight disengaged, so that he could switch his sword to his left hand. Having made the swap, he came back in on the attack. Wounded, he moved more cautiously this time. He knew time was on his side; the rest of his unit would crest the hill shortly. When that happened, they would slaughter all of the people trapped in the port area.

Lady Ellyn saw the knight’s eyes twitch toward the hill and knew he was expecting additional forces. Regretting her choice to come and fight the knight, she advanced on him to end the battle. Recognizing her intention, the dark knight began backpedaling to stay out of reach and stall for time. This worked for a bit, but there was too much debris in the shallow water and he stepped on something, lost his balance and went down.

The knight twisted as he fell, landing on his left side, rather than his back. He rolled to his stomach and pushed himself up, trying to rise before she could get to him. Lady Ellyn knew she was out of time so, disdaining protocol, she stepped forward and swung her sword with all of her might at the defenseless knight. Killing the knight from behind was against her code, but that was not her intention. Instead, she turned the sword as she swung. With a loud ‘clang,’ the flat of her sword hit the knight’s helmet, putting a large dent in both the helmet and his head. Unconscious and concussed, the knight fell face forward into the water.

“M’lady, we’ve got to go,” said Father Telenor running up. Lady Ellyn looked up to see civilians streaming down the hill…and three more dark knights coming over the crest.

“Yes, I believe we should, at that,” she said, reaching down to take the knight by the collar. “By the one true god this knight is heavy,” she added as she pulled him forward three steps to get him out of the water. Dropping him to the sand, she broke into a jog.

More screaming ensued as the knights on the hill began slaughtering the town’s citizens. Lady Ellyn tried to shut out their shrieks, but they went through her ears and into her soul. She knew she would hear them for the rest of her life.

“Run faster!” yelled Dantes as she reached the pier. Lady Ellyn could see that he was looking behind her, and she put on a last burst of speed. With a splash, the top half of the
Pole Dancer’s
mainmast was hacked loose and fell overboard, righting the ship. She reached the gangplank and slowed to go up it. When she reached halfway, the mooring lines arced over the side of the ship to the pier, and the ship started to move.

The gangplank started to slide off the ship and Dantes didn’t think that Lady Ellyn would make it aboard, but with a small jump, she cleared the side of the ship as the plank fell away to splash in the growing gap between the pier and the ship.

“Couldn’t wait for me?” she asked.

Dantes was once again staring behind them. “No,” he said. “Look!”

Lady Ellyn turned. The three knights were no longer slaughtering the town’s inhabitants; instead, they were galloping toward the ship. “They’re not going to make it,” Dantes asked. “Are they?”

“No, I don’t think so,” she replied.

As the knights reached the pier, the two trailing ones pulled up short, but the one in the lead only spurred his mount faster, urging it to greater speed. A massive warhorse, it was black as night and was moving swifter than anything of its bulk had a right to go. Halfway down the pier, Lady Ellyn realized it wasn’t a horse. She could see flames wreathing its hooves, and smoke streamed from its nostrils with every giant breath. Two strides later, she saw its bright red eyes…which matched the gauntlets of the knight riding it. 

“Oh gods,” she swore softly. “
Kazan!
”

She knew he would never give up. It wasn’t in his nature. “He will make the jump,” she forecast, drawing her sword.

“He can’t make that jump,” said Ghorza, judging the distance and the ship’s rate of movement. “We’re 10 feet up, and the gap is going to be easily 20 feet across when he gets to it.”

“He will make the jump,” repeated Lady Ellyn, drawing her dagger.

“Not if I can help it,” replied Dantes. “
Globus Incendi!
” A bead of fire streaked toward the knight, detonating into a fireball just in front of him. If the knight noticed or cared, he didn’t give any indication, nor did his nightmare steed; the two took three more strides and, reaching the end of the pier, launched themselves into the air.

“Boarders incoming!” yelled Dantes. All eyes turned in time to see the dark knight and nightmare soar over the port rail of the ship, smoke trailing from the nightmare.

The horse and rider crashed to the deck. Although they made the jump, the ship was narrow, and the nightmare immediately began skidding as it tried to stop itself from going over the opposite railing. Trailing flames from its hooves, the horse turned left to change its momentum, but there wasn’t enough room. It hit the side rail, its momentum carrying it overboard.

The knight, however, was more agile. Seeing that his steed was going over, he pulled his feet from the stirrups and pushed off the saddle, vaulting from the beast. As the nightmare went over the railing, the Dark Lord Kazan landed next to the starboard rail. He still had some of the momentum of his steed, and he flailed his arms to regain his balance. It looked like he was going to make it.

“
Molaris!
” Dantes shouted, and two force missiles shot out from him. The large missiles didn’t have enough room to grow to their full size, only achieving eight inches before striking the knight in the chest, but they were big enough. The missiles exploded simultaneously, denting the knight’s armor and overbalancing him. He followed the nightmare overboard, making a large splash as he hit the water.

The companions looked back to see the knight treading water. Although they couldn’t see his eyes, they could feel the heat and force of his gaze as he stared at the ship. After a moment, he turned and began swimming toward shore in the wake of his steed. “Shouldn’t he sink in all that armor?” asked John.

“No,” said Lady Ellyn, a far off look in her eyes, “it’s magic armor and barely weighs anything.” She turned to Dantes. “You should hope that you never meet him again. You have just made an enemy of the most powerful man in the world.”

“You took time off during the attack to go swimming?” asked Solim, walking into the former mayor’s audience hall to find Kazan removing his armor. Water dripped from all of it. A piece of seaweed dangled from one of his boots. “Did I have the attack planned out so perfectly that you had time to sun yourself on the beach, too?”

“No,” replied Kazan, dumping out a boot. “I tried to kill the outlander for you, but only ended up in the bay for my troubles.”

“You let them get away?” asked Solim. “I thought you were so tough, you and all of your dark knights. You can kill
anything
.” Sarcasm dripped from every word. “I heard the paladin bested one of your dark knights, too.”

“I no more let them go than you did, every time you had the chance to kill them but failed,” said Kazan. He pulled off his other boot and turned it over, dumping out several ounces of water that hadn’t drained out on their own. He glared at the seaweed, and he removed it, before looking back at Solim. “Be warned, pipsqueak, that my patience has limits. Even though our masters have bid me not kill you out of hand, if you sneer at me again, I
will
kill you, regardless of my instructions.”

“Really?” asked Solim. He met Kazan’s eyes and focused his power through the crown. “You will not do anything to harm me.”

Kazan dropped the boot, stood up and walked over to stand in front of Solim. “I will not do anything to harm you,” he intoned.

“That’s more like it,” said Solim.

Kazan laughed, long and hard, before reaching over to take the crown off Solim’s head. He inspected it for a minute and then threw it aside. It made a soft tinkling sound as it came to rest against the wall. “Don’t ever try to control me again, either,” he said, looking down at Solim. “It won’t work because you are
not
my intellectual equal. All it’s going to do is piss me off.” He started to turn away, but then faced back toward Solim. “One last thing,” he said. “If you ever say anything disrespectful about my troops again, I will personally pull off each of your limbs and beat you to death with them while you watch. Do I make myself perfectly clear?”

“I hear what you’re saying, Kazan, and you may scare everyone else, but you
don’t
scare me. I have power, too, and am not afraid to use it on you.”

“This power that you speak of... is it the same power that you’ve used to kill the outlander? If so, I’m confused, as it hasn’t worked very well. How many times have you tried to kill him now and failed? I’m afraid I’ve quite lost count as there have been so many.” He poked Solim in the chest with his index finger. “We are supposed to co-rule...for now. At some point, though, something unfortunate may happen to you, and there’s nothing your ‘power’ is going to be able to do to save you. Don’t. Piss. Me. Off. Again.”

“My mistake was counting on others to kill him for me...like you, who failed so miserably that you were tossed into the bay. This time, I am not going to rely on anyone else. I have a ship coming that I will use to chase him down before he reaches the Mountain of Frost. After I kill him, I will claim the prize he is after as my own, and I will bring it back here. When I return, all will bow down before me.”

“If you return,” said Kazan.

“
When
I return,” said Solim, “even
you
will bow before me.”