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Authors: Adam Blade,Adam Blade

Call to War (5 page)

BOOK: Call to War
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T
anner and Castor backed away as Varlot's legs bulged and his muscles thickened. There was no way past him to the girl in the river.
No
, Tanner thought,
this can't be happening.
Varlot was expanding fast, his skin spreading over giant bones and limbs. As the evil Beast balanced on his hind feet, he rose higher than ever. Even his armor looked new, glowing like a polished statue.

“What is happening to him?” Gwen gasped.

“I don't know, but it's not looking good for you two,” replied Castor. “I can keep him off, but …” He threw a doubtful glance toward Tanner and Gwen.

“Oh, shut up, Castor!” Tanner said. “Can't you see? Every time he survives another fight with us, he's getting bigger and stronger. It's like Derthsin's repaying him or something.”

“Fools,” Varlot said, his head whipping around to face them. “You are helpless.”

Gulkien growled and snapped his fangs, stretching his wings wide. Nera stalked closer, poised low to the ground, her massive tail skimming the air. Firepos took flight, shrieked a piercing war cry, and circled over Varlot, her talons open and ready, flames flickering at the tips of her wings. Tanner saw Firepos's proud eyes glittering in the daylight. Anyone left beside the river was running toward the horizon, terrified by the sight of Varlot growing before their eyes. All but two of the men abandoned the girl they had come here to kill.

We have to stop Varlot
, Tanner thought.
Firepos …

I will fight by your side.
The flame bird's words echoed back to Tanner.
But what of the girl?

Firepos was right. “One of you!” Tanner whispered to the others. “Go and save that girl.”

“I feel for her, but I'm not leaving a fight against Varlot!” Castor replied, full of outrage.

Gwen shook her head. “I'll go. If you think you can —”

“Just go!” Tanner told her. There was a flash of her cloak, and an ax flew through the air toward Varlot. As he cried out and crouched over the wound, she slipped past the huge Beast toward the river, her cloak billowing. She called back a final message to her friends: “The Beasts,” she said. “They're attacking!”

I fall on the unnatural Beast, Varlot, with my claws, shrieking into his face. My talons scratch at his mask, slipping and scraping, but I cannot find purchase; even as I hook the edge of his eye socket, he twists free and swings a giant fist. I dodge and come at him again. Nera attacks his back, while Gulkien springs for his legs. The air is thick with a foul taste. I can smell Varlot's flesh as he grows larger. He is a Beast of filth and treachery. His magic infects the air like the stink from an open grave, but somehow his armor spreads to hide his hulking skin and muscle. Gulkien sinks his teeth into Varlot's leg, slipping and losing his grip, as Varlot roars and kicks — just missing Gulkien's skull. Nera slashes and wrestles on Varlot's back, her claws finding holes in his armor, but when she draws blood, Varlot swings his whip — Nera leaps over the coil — and his wounds close. He is twice our size now.

Varlot raises his whip to strike Gulkien, and I close my talons on his hand, pecking the gap in his armor-joint; my beak slips deep into his flesh, and he drops the whip. He swings his other fist, and I bolt back, out of reach. Nera is on Varlot's back again, but still Varlot blocks Tanner and Castor, and now, as Gulkien climbs to his feet, Varlot laughs in a ragged gurgle. He is still growing. He picks up his whip. Soon it will be too late. We cannot win, not like this. When Nera leaps again, Varlot cracks his whip across her side, knocking her to the ground. His hoof is raised, ready to smash her skull. I dive at his face and pull heat from deep within me, preparing a fireball. Gulkien flies into Varlot's raised leg, Nera leaps free, and as Varlot's fists force me away, I lock eyes with Tanner below.

As their Beasts attacked Varlot, Tanner turned to the river. Gwen stood thigh-deep in rushing water, her cloak streaming out behind her in the current. In each hand she held an ax, the blades flashing in the sunlight. The men had let go of the girl, and she was now dragging herself through the water toward Gwen.

“Look!” Tanner called to the men, pointing at the evil Beast. “
That
is the enemy of Avantia! That is what evil looks like. You're blind if you can't see it.”

The men murmured nervously, and Castor pushed past Tanner, waving his sword at them. “Follow the others. Go home!” When they hesitated, Castor charged into the river like a madman, lashing the air with his blade. “Go!”

The men clambered up the slippery banks, running for the nearby hills.

Tanner started to go to Gwen and the girl when Castor shouted and went after Varlot again.
Doesn't he have any sense?
Tanner thought.

Varlot snapped his whip over Castor's head. Nera let out a ferocious, protective roar and pounced on Varlot's back. Varlot lunged, taking her by surprise, and she flopped backward in a cloud of dust. Firepos dove for Varlot's face.
We'll break him!
Tanner felt his Beast say. Tanner ran forward, wanting to warn Firepos.
Be careful!
Too late — Varlot sent out a fist, connecting with Firepos below her wing: her old wound. She shrieked and spun, her wings flailing.

Tanner's vision became blurry, and Firepos's pain flooded his stomach. He doubled over, dropping his sword. He tried to look up: A blurry hoof swung toward his face, and a shape — Castor — lunged and swiped it with his sword. Through bright, swimming spots, Tanner saw the flash of spinning metal as Varlot knocked Castor away, moving too quickly for the good Beasts to stop him.

Tanner reached for his sword. Varlot loomed toward him on bronze hooves, a huge shadow against the clouds.

“Fool!” he spat, raising a giant fist.

It's too late
, Tanner thought. But as he clutched his chest, his fingers brushed something glass beneath his tunic: the vial.
I don't have a choice: I have to try. I have to do this for the sake of Avantia. I have to trust that Hilda was speaking the truth before Vendrake possessed her.
He fumbled, pulled out the cork, and raised the red liquid to his lips….

I taste salt and something else: a tang of iron. I squeeze my eyes tightly shut and swallow, dragging the back of my hand across my mouth.

My eyes snap open as I feel my pulse quicken, my heart beating so strongly that it's almost coming out of my chest.

What have I done?

I gaze around me with new eyes, pulling back my shoulders. The fear that flickered at the edge of my vision ever since Esme's death — it's gone. I want to do battle, to lunge with my sword, and see the red trickle of death at its point. I am a warrior, ready to fight. I've never felt it so strongly.

I am Tanner, son of Forton. I'm unstoppable.

“Come here and fight me!” I call out.

But panic comes next. This can't be right, can it? To be so brave that I'd throw myself into battle, recklessly ready to die? I slow my breathing, shift the weight of my sword in my hand. That vial contained an unnatural strength. It flows in my veins now.

Varlot reared back to face Tanner. “Thief!” he cried.

Thief?
Tanner thought, shaking his head clear. He threw the vial aside. Looking back, he met Gwen's glance. She stood in the river with the girl. Gwen had saved her, but what was the terror Tanner saw in her face? Tanner followed Gwen's stare down: The back of his hand was smeared with blood.
Blood? The vial — what did Hilda give me?
For a moment, he squeezed his eyes shut as the horror hit him. He should never have drunk the liquid. Those sensations that had coursed through him — they weren't human.

I made the wrong choice
, he thought, angry with himself. But it was too late now.

When he looked back up he saw Nera on Varlot's left, crouched into a hunting pose, ready to strike. Gulkien rose to his right, and Firepos sat directly behind him. She flapped and tested her wings, as if she were still in pain.

“Beast's blood,” Varlot said. “You drank a Beast's spilled blood!” Then he looked at Firepos and let out a huge roar of laughter.

“What do you mean? How can you know that?” Tanner asked desperately.
I can't believe it
, he thought.
I'm asking Varlot to tell me the truth about myself.

Abruptly, Varlot stopped laughing and turned to Firepos, who watched silently.

“Can't you guess, you dumb Beast? Are you so slow? The Gathering of Five …”

How can he know about that? I feel my mind turn over as I remember. He talks of the momentous day when five Beasts gathered, back before we were first torn asunder. Nera, Gulkien, Falkor, and I gave gladly of our blood in order to power Anoret. How could we have known that our loyal leader would be torn from us? The blood once collected to give power to another … where did it go?

I look at Tanner, hastily closing my thoughts to him. The vial … no!

Has he drunk the blood of a Beast
— my
blood? Does that explain the twisted surge of powers I felt in him? If so, then Varlot is right to mock. A Beast's blood should never run in a rider's veins. I will be weakened, and Tanner is … I dare not even think it. But my rider is no longer the boy who once sobbed beside his dead father's body. He's something else entirely.

Tanner watched his Beast writhe as though trying to escape something. He'd heard her reliving the start of her story, about a gathering of five Beasts, but then she'd closed her mind to him.

What is it? Tell me!
He sent the message hurtling through the air toward her. But there was no answering message. Firepos was keeping her thoughts secret.

Furiously, Tanner turned to Varlot, who reared above him.

“You tell me, then!” he challenged.

Varlot raised a fist and pointed to Firepos. “You drank her blood. You have some of the powers of a Beast!”

Gwen had run up from the river. “What does he mean?” she said. “What's wrong with Firepos?”

Tanner couldn't answer her. He felt anger welling in his chest, flooding past the nausea and horror.

You
, he thought, and steadied his sword toward Derthsin's creature.
I am going to kill you.
If he had the powers of a Beast, then he'd use them.

Tanner threw himself at Varlot, striking out with his sword so that the blade rang off a panel of the Beast's armor. But Tanner didn't feel thwarted; he felt a stubborn determination to keep on fighting. Varlot sent a massive fist swinging through the air toward him and Tanner just managed to duck out of range, hurling himself onto the ground. Within moments he was back up, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

“By Avantia, I'll see you fall!” he called up. But even as the last words left his mouth, Varlot's eyes narrowed and his fist made a low swing through the air, cracking into Tanner's chin and sending him flying. Pain shot through his skull and he landed badly, shaking his head clear.
I might have some of Firepos's powers
, he thought.
But I'm still nowhere near as strong as Varlot.
Carefully, he climbed to his feet, listening to his body for torn muscles or broken bones. Fortunately, he still seemed able to move.

You must manage your new powers
, Firepos told him.
Don't become reckless.

Tanner sent a message back through the pain.
Hurt Varlot. Do what you must.

Firepos silently rose above Varlot. Nera and Gulkien creeped behind him. Varlot was still gloating, confident in his great strength.

A fireball immediately blossomed in his Beast's talons. Gulkien swooped onto Varlot's back, slamming him off balance, and Nera tackled his face, claws slashing and stabbing between his armor. Varlot groaned and fought back — and Firepos dropped a ball of flame.

“Get back!” Tanner shouted to his friends. He, Castor, and Gwen dove aside as the fire erupted across Varlot, exploding in a flash of yellow heat and smoke. The blast scorched black, smoking rings into the dirt. As the smoke cleared, Tanner saw Varlot doubled over, his jaw clenched. His burns were already beginning to fade.

“No!” Tanner shouted. “Don't let him heal!”

Limping, Varlot ran toward a distant hill. Firepos dropped so Tanner could climb onto her back, and Gwen hurried onto Gulkien's fur, while Castor ran to Nera. Firepos flew after Varlot, with Gulkien and Gwen right behind. Still bloodied and weak, Varlot saw them coming. He dropped to all fours and ran, transforming back into a magnificent stallion. His arms became legs and he picked up speed. They followed him to the top of a hill, and on the other side, Varlot leaped high over the next valley, clearing trees and streams.

Their Beasts were exhausted, weak from the fight, and Varlot was galloping too fast. Below, Castor sat on Nera's back atop the hill, and Gulkien slowed in the air beside Firepos, their wings beating steadily. They watched helplessly as Varlot disappeared over the horizon. Tanner loosened his grip on Firepos's feathers.

“It's all over,” he called to the others. “Retreat!”

BOOK: Call to War
11.52Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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