Obsidian Ridge (28 page)

Mariko shuddered under the touch of such a hideous

creature. Glancing to Quinn, she nodded.

“Here we go,” Quinn whispered to Evelyne.

Mariko seized Xeries’s wrist with both hands, dropping to one knee and pulling him off balance. Taking in a huge gulp of air, she let out an earsplitting shout. The sound grew and grew, filling the chamber and rising quickly to the level of painful noise with the aid of her magic.

The room shook with the reverberating sound. The walls, already vibrating from the natural buzz of power, wobbled under this new force. Three huge cracks formed in the stone floor, radiating out from Mariko and her tremendous scream.

Beasts in front of her dropped to the ground, their hands over their ears. Their spiky claws shattering under the sonic assault. They rolled in agony against the terrible sound.

Xeries, catching the full power of the princess’s spell right in the face, tipped himself out of her grasp and stumbled backward. He grabbed his head in his hands, shaking it as if trying to free something lodged inside. He tripped over his robes and fell to the ground, writhing right alongside his black beasts.

Quinn and Evelyne dropped into defensive stances, ready to take on a flood of the citadel’s defenders, but none of the beasts moved. Only those in pain showed any reaction. The rest simply stood still, their heads bowed, waiting as they had when their master arrived. They didn’t look around. They didn’t even sniff the air. It was as if they didn’t notice the attack.

Quinn bolted to the creature holding his weapons. Balling his fist, he prepared for a fight. But the beast didn’t seem to notice him, and it made no effort to keep him from his things.

Strapping his sword to his hip and his gauntlet to his hand, Quinn pushed the creature over sideways. It simply allowed itself to fall, lying on the ground, its eyes blinking, and its chest moving as it breathed.

Mariko’s spell came to an end, and the chamber fell silent

except for the persistent hum that rattled the floor.

“They’re all stunned,” said Quinn. “Quick, up here.”

He took two steps then leaped toward the nearest alcove. Grabbing hold of Xeries’s statue inside, he pulled himself up. Reaching back down, he offered his hand.

“Come quickly before they—”

The beasts started to move.

“Get-get them-them!” shouted Xeries. His words no longer echoed, but two distinct voices—one male one female—filled the room.

In an instant, a sea of blackened flesh swallowed Evelyne and Mariko.

Quinn pulled back. The beasts threw themselves at the alcove with absolutely no regard for their own safety. Three and four at a time leaped into the air, colliding with the carved statue of Xeries, bashing their own heads in and falling back to the ground.

A few managed to get their limbs past the statue. But they were cut away by quick swipes of Quinn’s four blades. The area was small, but it worked to his advantage as the creatures’ numbers counted for nothing in such a confined space. Quinn slashed his gauntlet back and forth, back and forth, severing obsidian flesh from the stark white bone beneath.

Down on the chamber floor, Xeries regained his feet, and he pushed aside his beasts to get at Mariko and Evelyne. Taking their wrists in his hands, he turned around and matched off, dragging the two women behind him as if they were no more than rag dolls.

“Open!” shouted the arch magus. And the wall before him transformed into a shimmering portal.

Stepping through, he disappeared from sight, Mariko and Evelyne with him.

+++++

Quietly, a shroud of magical darkness crept away from the closed bridge that had led into the Obsidian Ridge. It had evaded notice likely because the attentions of the creatures inside the citadel were focused on other guests. Blending into the black walls, Jallal Tasca stood at rapt attention as the beastly denizens of this place tore after the man he had come to kill.

+

How do you feel?” Senator Divian took the king’s arm, touching him softly on the chest.

“How should I feel?” asked the king.

“I’m sure it was difficult. But you did the right thing.”

The king nodded. The sun had still not come up, but the riders had returned from delivering Princess Mariko to the Obsidian Ridge. His daughter was once again out of his reach.

“The kingdom will be saved,” said the senator. “You’ve done right by your subjects and countrymen.”

“I did-he only thing I could allow myself to do.” Korox took Divian’s hand.

“You are a good king. You put the needs of your people ahead of your own. You will be remembered for that.”

“Will I?”

“Of course, you will. You sacrificed your daughter for the good of the kingdom. Your selfless act will go down in history.” She ran her finger up his forearm. “You might even be remembered as Erlkazar’s greatest king.”

The king squeezed her hand. “Or its worst.”

The senator gave him a funny look. “Why would you say that?”

“Because I didn’t turn my daughter over to Arch Magus Xeries,” said the king. “I complied with his demands only as a means to fighting him.”

“What?” The senator stepped back, dropping his hand. “What have you done?”

“My daughter and Quinn are inside the Obsidian Ridge. If anyone can find a way to bring down that citadel, it’s them.”

“Are you mad?” shouted Divian. “You’ve risked the fate of the entire country.”

“I have done what I thought best for Erlkazar and—” “For your own personal gain.”

“I did not take this decision lightly,” said Korox. “This isn’t just about the safety and well-being of the people. It’s also about us—all of us—being able to live the lives we choose, not pressed into service or lorded over by an arch mage in a floating citadel. Today it was my daughter, but what happens tomorrow when Xeries comes back, demanding that we turn over all the daughters of Erlkazar? Where does it end, Divian? Where do we draw the line?”

“The citizens depend on you to make the choices that will keep them safe. They cannot rule themselves. They need a strong hand, someone who can tell them what they want and when they want it. They don’t want freedom. They don’t want choice. They want to be kept safe, and you’ve put your own needs ahead of theirs.”

The king shook his head. “My responsibility as king is to weigh the options and make the hard choices. I made a choice to fight for our way of life. It has its risks, bur I would rather see our home destroyed than held hostage.”

“Then you have doomed us all.”

“Wait,” said the king, remembering their earlier conversation. “You were the one who told me it was only natural to want to save my daughter’s life.”

“Yes. But I didn’t tell you to launch an assault on the Obsidian Ridge.”

“This plan will work, Divian. Quinn isn’t just my bodyguard. He’s the Claw!”

A stiff wind blew in from the open balcony. Then the

mage-lit stones all blinked out, dropping the king’s chamber into total darkness.

Korox heard some rustling and running feet. The twanging sound of a repeating crossbow echoed through his ears, and something large and soft collided with his chest. Tumbling backward, he hit his head on the stone floor, and a sky full of tiny white stars flashed in front of his eyes. Somebody was on top of him, and the inside of his skull throbbed, threatening to break out of his ears and through his forehead.

The doors slammed open, and Magistrates poured in to check the commotion. The mage-lit stones re-illuminated, and the king found a man in a large hat lying on his chest.

“Vasser? What are you doing?”

“I was saving you from assassination,” replied Vasser, getting up off his king.

Korox sat up to find Senator Divian lying unconscious on the floor, a bloody gash across her forehead. Five smallish crossbow bolts pierced the inner door.

“Divian!” the king crawled over to the senator and put his hand on the side of her face. “Divian!”

She moaned. “What happened?”

“I’m opt sure. Did you see anything?”

Divian struggled up to a seated position and shook her head. “No. The lights went out, and that’s it. I woke when you touched me.”

Korox turned back to Vasser. “What did you see?”

“Nothing,” said Vasser. “I heard a crossbow being cranked, and that’s when I dived on you.”

“And how about you?” he asked the Magistrates searching the room and the balcony.

They shook their heads. “Nothing, my lord. No trace of the assassin.”

Korox got to his feet and helped the senator up. “You should have a healer look at that,” he said pointing to the gash in her head.

“I am a healer,” replied Divian, giving him a weak smile.

“I’ll be fine. You worry about the assassin. I’ll worry about my head.”

“You mean assassins,” said the king. “It’s just a guess, but based on the number of attempts on my life in the past few days, I’m still in the running for worst king of Erlkazar.”

“Don’t fret too much over it,” said the senator. “You’re only the second king. It’s not all that hard to be worst.”

+++++

Quinn pushed himself deeper into the alcove, kicking at the teaching beasts with the heels of his boots. They clawed at the statue of Xeries. They gnawed at the stone with teeth like boat’s tusks. They whipped the wicked barbs of their tails into the space. But nothing they did could dislodge Quinn from his spot.

He used the statue as cover, defending the narrow openings on each side to keep himself from harm. But the black beasts outnumbered him thousands to one, and they never seemed to tire. If he was going to defeat Xeries, he was going to have to find a better way than fighting his minions one at a time.

Slashing down on the claw of a nearby beast, he severed it at the joint, sending the creature sliding down the wall to the floor below. Two just like it filled the empty space. They climbed over the fallen beast to get around the statue and inside the alcove. They wedged themselves, shoulder to shoulder, into the confined space, reaching and hissing. They shoved at each other, trying to get to their prey.

Quinn scrambled, kicking, punching, and slashing as fast as he could. His blades hit the sides of the alcove as often as they hit the creatures, but he continued to battle. He was not going to die here and leave Erlkazar to these foul creatures.

Clang, clang, slash.

With the flick of a wrist, his blades sank into a fleshy throat, coming out the other side. The creature’s blood spilled

in a great gush down the floor of the alcove and out into the chamber beneath. The beast twitched as its life drained away, its body slumping sideways, creating further cover for Quinn.

Xeries’s beasts were hulking masses of unrelenting muscle, bone, and claw. The alcove had not been intended to hold them—cramped for one, impossibly small for two.

The second black beast lunged deeper in, its obsidian claws grinding at the stone. But the corpse of its recently slain ally blocked the way, and the angry creature got stuck—unable to push in farther, unwilling to go back.

Quinn planted his foot on the head of the slain monster and kicked off, pushing himself up higher and deeper into the alcove. The creature growled and reached again. Its persistence allowed it to press in a few inches closer, and it was rewarded for such tenacity. The tips of its claws slid down the side of Quinn’s leg, cutting into the leather of his boot. He winced and scrambled back, his head smacking against the stone behind him. The alcove was deep, but it did indeed end, and there was nowhere else to go.

The black beast continued to harass him, its long arm slapping to one side, grasping desperately at anything it could reach. Quinn’s arms weren’t as long, and he had to pull himself up into a tight ball to stay out of the monster’s range.

Unbuckling his scabbard from his belt, he flipped it over and let his long sword slide out.

“Swallow that,” he said as the weapon came free. Then he jammed the blade in the beast’s face.

With so little room, there was no place for it to dodge, and the tip of the sword plunged past the creature’s huge fangs and into its open, salivating mouth. Putting his foot on the hilt, Quinn stomped it into the creature’s brain.

The black beast convulsed once, choking on the sharpened steel. Thrashing mightily, it died on the sword, its body jammed against the other dead creature. Together they

blocked out the orange light from below.

For now, their corpses clogged the opening, a temporary blockade against the hundreds of other beasts. Quinn could hear the rest of Xeries’s monstrosities clamoring into the bottom of the alcove. It wouldn’t be long before they simply managed to dig through the dead flesh and mount a new attack.

Reaching behind him, Quinn pressed his hands against the wall that had smacked his head. It was smooth, just like all the other exposed obsidian, except in the center. The stone had a large crack, an opening of crumbled rock that lead all the way down the wall toward the floor below.

“Mariko’s shout,” whispered Quinn. The spell the princess cast had damaged the stone in the lower chamber, but it must have reverberated up into this alcove as well. „,

“As you wish, Princess Mariko.” His palm lit up, and he peered into the cracked obsidian.

The wall behind him wasn’t very thick—just enough to close the alcove off from a much larger space behind. Rolling backward, Quinn braced his shoulders against the beasts he had just killed and slammed his boots against the broken stone.

The bodies slipped down with the blow, threatening to dislodge and clear the passage. Quinn slid along with them, that much closer to the hungry monsters below. Bits of broken stone rained down as well, a large chuck tumbling against the wall and smacking Quinn in the face.

He kicked and kicked again. More stone came away, a small hole opening in the wall. Obsidian shards fell on his head, and with one final kick, he broke the crack open wide.

His effort was successful, but the blow finally knocked the dead beasts free. Their bodies slid away, pulled out of the space by the killers who wanted in. More of the creatures climbed into the alcove, teaching for Quinn.