Rise of the Citadel (The Search for the Brights Book 2) (66 page)

“Raise the gate!”
he commanded.

Far below, Wells
echoed his orders and men scurried to lift the gate. When it was no more than a
finger's length from the ground, Max slipped under it, leaving no dirt behind.

“Lower the gate!”
he commanded again. The gate lowered and he looked out on the lake searching
for the army that Max had fought last night.

He saw only a few
signs of burnt trees or torn ground from where Max had fought the army single
handedly. Max, in a smaller form, joined Kilen and Joahna on the tower. They
were alone on its battlements and Jace pushed past, nearly knocking Kilen over.
Where Max had fought, stood a creature made of stone so perfect that it looked
to be a statue made by a master artisan. It stood the height of two houses, and
three times that in length, not counting the pointed tail wiggling in the air.
The beast had wings made of sections and a neck and face like that of a
serpent. Kilen had never seen such a creature in all his life.

“What is that?”
Kilen asked straining to see the statue.

Max leaned in, “It
is a dragon. They roam the deserts in packs. They look fearsome and are one of
the largest creatures I know-” He cut off as Kilen turned his head to the sound
of footsteps coming up the staircase.

Twilix emerged
from the square hole in the center of the tower’s roof, “My lord. What should
we do now?”

“I do not see any
signs that the army will attack today,” Kilen said, looking out into the
distance.

She joined him
at the battlements and gave a yawn, laying her head on his shoulder holding his
arm. “I think I would like to see our castle.” She looked up at him and smiled.
For a moment, they looked out over the empty fields watching the sun rise over
a kingdom reborn.

  Even during
the hottest days of summer snow clung to the summit of Calcult Peak. The soul
wizard’s dark clothing stood out against the mountain’s white surface but she
cared not. None tried to enter the Wind Realm from this direction. She needed
to sneak in unseen and this was the only way.

  Crossing the
mountain alone was all but impossible. Luckily her ability to share her health
and life with her subjects made it easier for her. The two empty shells of men
that followed her carried the supplies she would need to survive the trip. They
would surely die before they made it down from the mountain top. In a way they
were dead already. Dead and soulless.

  Sahera pulled
her raven-feathered cloak's hood tight around her face as she met the
blistering wind of the realm's defenses. Putting on the wind-imbued necklace
had done little to stifle its harshness. Beyond the next mountain range laid
Zepher, the capital of the wind realm.

  She knew her
husband would be there. He would be preventing anyone from taking the throne by
sitting there as a puppet and letting the realm be ruled by fools. She knew
before she attempted to take him from the throne she would need an army. She
looked to the south and spotted a small village by the smoke tendrils coming
from chimneys.

  Carefully she
stepped out into the snow knowing that any small slip would cause disaster. Any
loud noise would cause an avalanche at this height. Her former master, a man
without age, had taught her to use disasters to build an army. Ripping the soul
out of those that were close to death was easier than those full of life.

She checked her
cloak for her poisoned blade. She could heal the wounds of her minions, but at
a great cost. The wounds spread out amongst her soldiers and the soulless took
longer to heal. Poison, however, required no healing from her magic. Since her
victims were already dead, the poison could not kill them again.

  She turned,
taking one last look at the Earth Realm, knowing that her children were on the
other side of this mountain. Her husband had left her to raise them and she was
almost happy to be rid of them so she could catch him. Dylan Everheart was a
dangerous man: a spirit wizard able to capture thousands of spirits. If a
wizard of Sahera’s talent claimed the life of a spirit wizard they gained
control of the bodies of each and every spirit they had claimed. Dylan had
grown too strong, collected to many spirits, and been too bold in his actions
to continue unnoticed. Only a whisper need reach her former master's ear and
the elemental realms would be destroyed in his fight to find Dylan.

  She did not
want to kill him, but she would not allow her former master to gain that kind
of power again. Sahera had been successful in hiding from him and the Elders
for well over a hundred years. Her former master had searched every island in
the sea thinking she would escape the elemental realms with the pirates to whom
she was born.

  Sahera knew if
she was able to kill her husband her power would rival dark former master’s.
Sahera would become the thing of nightmares. A dark shadow that came to snatch
children from the night. She would be powerful enough to topple all the realms,
gaining strength at each battle she fought. The power she did not want, she was
scared that it would overwhelm her, as it had in the past.

  One of her men
collapsed in the snow his body dead from the cold. She cursed into the wind and
far away one of her minion's health was leached away to help the fallen rise
again. Once she was away from the summit both would regain their strength.

She felt a warm
presence in her chest. She was close to someone who had just died. She closed
her eyes and searched. There, in the village she watched as a grown man cried
over his mother's dead body. He had no idea that someone now watched him
through the glossy fogged over eyes. She had gained some strength from this
death, and another soldier. Even if the woman was old and frail, she had begged
on her deathbed that her life be taken to end her misery. Where a soul begged
for death, Sahera would accept.

  It would not
take her long to cleanse this realm of her husband and set straight the
elemental realms. She hoped that if she stopped Dylan, a king would soon find a
seat on each of the elemental realms’ thrones. If an elemental king raised his castle
and ruled over all the lands her former master would be wary to travel here to
find her.

She smiled at a
thought. She would finally be able to come out of hiding.

End of Book Two of “The Search for the Brights.”

To be continued in “Leviathan’s King”