The Nightstone (23 page)

“Follow me,” Kehet yelled. “Don’t stop to fight, don’t impale anything. Threaten with the horns but hit with your shoulders. Shoulders and trampling are our weapons today.”

“Don’t hit them too fast,” Silon said. “I know we can move fast, but impacts at those speed will hurt us.”

Kehet hadn’t thought of that, but it made sense. He nodded in agreement then shifted. Most of the people around him did as well. The street, which had already been crowded with the thousands of soldiers, was suddenly packed even tighter. Kehet didn’t even try to count.

He just turned and bolted out the gate. He noticed Pantros and one of Reginald’s knights come in through the gate. He didn’t know why the boy had been outside the gates, but assumed that his returning was a good thing. Whatever the reason was, it wasn’t as important as making it out of the siege.

Outside the gate, Kehet took a sharp left, away from the monument and away from where a couple of Reginald’s knights still fought. The Vulak were converging on the knights and Kehet wanted a shallow place in the battle line.

The first rank of Vulak had time to prepare. They set spears and locked shields. Just before he would hit the spear points, Kehet turned sharply to the side. He cut into the spears, allowing a few to cut his flank, but using his horn to push the hafts of the spears aside. He ran through the hafts of the spears then pushed into the Vulak force, jumping the locked shields. The Unicorns behind him did the same, though some of the larger ones just hit the shields sending the Vulak behind them sprawling only to be trampled. The Vulak behind the first line scattered. When they were clear of the initial battle line, Kehet glanced back to see not a single Unicorn had fallen though many had bloody wounds. He turned again and ran towards the next group of Vulak. All but one of those scattered. The remaining one held a crossbow level at Kehet.

Kehet increased his speed heading straight towards the crossbow, but the Vulak didn’t falter. He remained steady in his aim and released the missile when Kehet was only a few paces away. Before Kehet could react, a white form passed before him. Kehet heard the scream and Chelle fell before him. Kehet, unable to stop, leapt over her and pierced the crossbow wielding Vulak through the throat then tore his horn out. He stopped and looked back at Chelle, but could sense she was dead. There was nothing he could do for her.

He ran on, seeing no other Vulak before him, he increased his speed to one he knew Silon could keep up with. After a few minutes, he stopped and changed form. The other Unicorns did so as well as they approached him.

Silon approached him and said, “Remember what she did for you, please. That’s all I ask.”

“Why did she do that?” Kehet said. “I would have healed.”

“Maybe,” Silon said. “But such a wound would have dropped you long enough for the other Vulak to get close and strike you with their weapons. You might heal from all those attacks too, but you’d never make it away from them. They’d just keep wounding you. In the best case, we’d have been forced to defend you until you could run again. Others would die. We lost one Unicorn; it’s tragic but not as bad as it could have been.”

“I’ll remember Chelle,” Kehet said.

Silon nodded. “Our first stop will be the Unicorn Meadows, our country. There will be Unicorns there that have fled from the Vulak incursion.”

Kehet turned to the other Unicorns present and said, “I don’t have time to run across the continent and introduce myself and rally our people. I need each of you to run to where you know the local Unicorns and have all of us meet…” He didn’t know where to have them meet. He tried to think of somewhere everyone would know.

“At the Spire, in the Meadows.”
Silon finished for Kehet.

Most of the other Unicorns assumed their natural forms and darted off. A few remained with Kehet, including Silon.

§

The Spire was a modest tower compared to the towers of Melnith. Silon explained it as Kehet’s palace. It spiraled upward like a Unicorns horn, reaching perhaps a hundred paces into the air and gleamed pearly silver. Inside, the palace was bare other than a single dais in the center of the large main room that took up the entire ground floor. A stairway spiraled up the outside wall leading to rooms above. The walls of the palace were just translucent enough to allow the sunlight to illuminate the hall.

“There aren’t even doors,” Kehet said.

“Unicorns in their native form cannot turn doorknobs,” Silon said. “What use do we have for doors?”

“I suppose I’m the type of guy that doesn’t care to keep people out?” Kehet said.

“Keep who out?” Silon asked. “The nearest town is forty leagues from here. There’s nothing to take here and no food other than the particularly tasty varieties of grass we’ve cultivated in the Meadows.”

“Have I done anything like this before?” Kehet said.

“Not in my lifetime, but there are probably a couple dozen precedents in the last ten thousand years,” Silon said. “Pacifism is not usually the nature of Unicorns; we are a passionate race often prone to rash decisions.”

“So, what do we do now that we’re here?” Kehet said.

“You wait here, the rest of the Unicorns are spreading the word of the call. As they arrive, you greet them.” Silon said.

“Should we send scouts to Melnith, to keep apprised of the enemies’ placement, their strong points and their weaknesses?” Kehet said.

“I wouldn’t have thought of that,” Silon said. “I think you should go ask for volunteers.”

The four hundred league journey to Melnith would take a Unicorn four hours to run, so Kehet assigned the scouting missions on two day rotations. Everyone present volunteered, but Kehet only sent twenty.

He didn’t know how many days it would take to gather the Unicorns, nor did he know how long he had until the Vulak pressed the defenses of Melnith. All Kehet could do was hope that his actions would ultimately help the Abvi.

CHAPTER 29: PANTROS

Again in possession of the Key, Pantros found himself sitting alone in the best cell in the King’s dungeon. He had three rooms and a private bath with running water. The two servants insisted on assisting him in everything he did. If he went to sit down, one would fluff a cushion and thrust it under him as he sat. When they brought him food they set his table and offered to cut his meat. He’d tried to send them away but they told him they served the King. The two guards standing by the doorway day and night ensured Pantros couldn’t even sustain an illusion of privacy. He’d spent the morning on the battlements, watching the Vulak’s progress in building their siege towers. The sight was depressing.

Without the hope of the Archmage taking and protecting the gem, the only alternative was the inevitable battle. The Vulak had backed away from the city again. Only a handful of archers could hit them at that distance, and they were saving their arrows for when targets might have tactical value. Well over a hundred demons were concealed among the enemy. Sheillene and the Sorcerers and Wizards had been striking at the foul creatures whenever one became visible.

Bryan, Marc, Tara and Thomas came down to join Pantros. “The Vulak have started moving their Siege Towers closer to the city. The Wizards are unable to keep one burning without concentrating and the flame arrows are not doing anything,” Bryan said. “The Vulak used green wood.”

Thomas said, “Mirica and a couple other Sorcerers have the power to blow them over, but that only worked twice and now the Vulak have braced them with ropes.”

“Didn’t Lucian say something about having a Wizard that would turn the tide of the battle?” Tara asked.

“He did, but he also said that Wizard might be too dangerous to expose to battle,” Thomas said. “Wizards, it seems, come with nasty side-effects, such as exploding and leveling buildings or anything else around them. If the Vulak are getting ready to attack, and it looks like they are, I do hope that Lucian’s secret weapon will be able to help us. Sheillene and the archers are on the wall and she is worried they won’t have enough arrows.”

“We don’t,” Sheillene came up behind Thomas. “I was coming down to warn you that the Vulak have started an attack. They are launching stones into the city, but the sung marble construction of all the buildings seems to be mostly undamaged. When the stones hit people, it’s bad, though. You guys should stay inside.”

“Shouldn’t you be on the wall?” Thomas asked.

“Now that the Vulak are closing, any archer can hit them.” Sheillene said with a shrug. “They have their orders. I am staying down here to keep Pantros and his gem safe.”

“You don’t think Bryan and I can handle it?” Marc asked.

“I didn’t know you would be down here,” Sheillene said. “But even so, adding my bow to your blades can only improve his odds of surviving.”

“I’m fifty feet below ground and there is only one stairwell up from here. I think we can defend that,” Pantros said. “The only real risk to me here is dying of boredom.”

“You have a neat stack of books there,” Thomas pointed to the desk in Pantros’ sitting room. “How could you be bored?”

“I don’t read Abvi,” Pantros said. “I did find an interesting picture.” He went to the desk and retrieved a book titled ‘The History of the Sword by Col.V.Venusheart’. “There’s a picture of a sword here,” He opened the book to a marked page and showed everyone the drawing of the sword on that page. “Look Familiar?”

Bryan gasped. “That’s my sword!” he said. “Well it’s the blade of my sword. My guard, hilt and pommel are just plain iron. That’s a fancy mold or carving and clearly some kind of huge gem in the pommel.”

“The Blade of the Baron?”
Sheillene read. “That would be a proper translation but the dialect of the book is over twenty thousand years old. “It says the blade is of human origin, making that blade over twenty five thousand years old.”

“And not a spot of rust,” Bryan said. “I already know it’s enchanted.”

Sheillene continued to translate the text near the picture. “It says here that the sword was disassembled because the combined enchantments on the various parts made a weapon that would cut an armored horse in half. It’s also too heavy for an Abvi to carry, which explains why it was disassembled. At that time humans with potent swords would be a threat to the Abvi nation.”

“You mean nations?” Pantros said. “I thought there were four: Melnith, Grenlith, Valencia and Rahvenna.”

Sheillene then explained, “Twenty five thousand years ago there was one and it was called ‘Enlith’. That country stretched across the continent from one ocean to the other. Relarch didn’t exist; there were no humans because the Abvi had purged them around that time.”

“Why did
they
…” Pantros started to ask about the Purge when a crashing sound echoed through the dungeon. Snarled battle cries filled the halls. Dust filled the air and Bryan picked up his sword and rushed out of the room. Abvi Guards were yelling, but Pantros still didn’t speak enough of the language to understand them.

“Vulak!”
Sheillene snarled. She stood and strung her bow.

Marc beat her to the hallway and chased after Bryan.

“I suppose I shouldn’t let them have all the fun,” Pantros said. He reached in his shirt and pulled out the Nightstone. He placed it in Tara’s hands and then drew his sword. He didn’t try to explain to Tara what she should do before following the others into the dust filled hall.

Deeper into the dungeons a wall had collapsed revealing a tunnel behind it. The tunnel was filled with Vulak, all pushing and shoving to get through the hole. Once through the hole they met Bryan and Marc. Marc’s swords were knocking the Vulak weapons aside and occasionally striking at the Vulak. Bryan’s sword lay on the floor behind him, as he simply grabbed any part of a Vulak he could. He then twisted whatever he’d grabbed and tossed the Vulak into the nearest wall.

Pantros heard the bowstring snaps and shafts appeared in the chests of the rushing Vulak. He knew better than to try to find a place in the fight between Bryan and Marc. The scar on his ear reminded him not to get between Sheillene and her targets and she had claimed the gap between the giants, though from ten paces back.

“You need to get into that mine,” Sheillene said. “We need to push them back and collapse the tunnel.”

*That one, on the floor over there, it’s still breathing,” his sword said.

Pantros looked around and saw one of the Vulak starting to roll to his feet. Pantros thrust his sword through the Vulak’s heart.

*It’s not the most honorable kill,* the sword said. *But we can’t afford to have Vulak standing up behind us. The Vulak would not be so kind to you if your positions were reversed. They’d break your legs, then your hands, then give you a gut wound, the kind that will kill you slowly and painfully.*

Bryan picked up a Vulak and swung it around then flung it back into the tunnel knocking a few others to the ground. Marc took the opening to step into the tunnel and Bryan followed after. The tunnel was wide and braced. The Vulak had spent time building the mine. Marc and Bryan could stand side by side with enough distance between them to fight and more than enough for Sheillene to shoot through. Pantros accepted the job of delivering the Coup-de-Grace on any Vulak that managed to survive as the two giants pushed into the tunnel.

“Hey Pan, Bring my sword with us,” Bryan said. “If this widens out, I’ll need it.”

Pantros picked up his friend’s sword. It weighed as much as a feast day turkey. He could hold it in one hand, but couldn’t swing it effectively with both. So he held it in his left hand by the ricasso with the blade nearly dragging behind him. He could still use his rapier to finish off the occasional enemy. Fewer survived for the giants to step over once Bryan had a wall right next to him to crush the Vulak against.

“Someone went for help, right?” Pantros asked Sheillene.

“I hope so,” Sheillene said. “I can re-use my arrows, but not always and I will run out and I will tire. And one of those Vulak might get lucky against the two big guys up front.

“I can help if you tire,” Prince Aven said as he approached from behind. “I can also heal so any Vulak would have to get extremely lucky.” He nodded behind him to a cluster of Abvi. “And, just in case, I brought forty of my best soldiers.”