Crown of Steel (Chaos Awakens) (33 page)

This second horror was worse to look at, though it did share a similar body style. The inclusion of a human torso as opposed to the fore-body of a horse made it all the more macabre. The dead and glowing glass eyes protruding from the once human sockets were horrifying to behold. This one didn't spit acid, but it did carry two swords mounted to its arms, and it moved with far more articulation than the first one had. Kassa met it first with a flurry of sword strokes and parries. Xandrith watched with a critical eye, looking for a failure in the things tactics. Its movement was so precise and deadly that it wasn't easy to find a weakness at first. The difficulty was compounded by the fact that the metal parts of its body were a complete mystery to Xan. Something in there might have been vulnerable, but if it was, it didn't appear to be to Xan's trained eye. At one time his knife would have shown him the weakness in his enemy, but their dynamic was different now and Xan wasn't trained in killing mechanna things. Assuming he survived everything else, including the impending apocalypse, he would have to make a point of learning more about the mechanna and their creations.

Xan stepped into the battle. He didn't have a precise plan in mind, but he wanted to take some of the pressure off Kassa. The Drayid shifted its fighting style almost immediately. It had to back off its attack patterns, but it was still managing to fend off both Xan and Kassa with a surprising flair. The first few moments of the fight were confusing. Kassa's attack patterns were exactly like Xan's, but it only took them a few passes to adapt their motions to a flow that worked with their identical fighting styles. They fell into a beautifully dynamic pattern of attack. Xan had never fought alongside someone so smoothly before. It felt like art.

Art or not, they were losing ground. Of course both Xan and Kassa were landing minor hits, blows that would have destabilized and injured a normal opponent. Those same blows had no effect at all on the mechanna. Its metal crafted arms shrugged off cuts, and the rotting human torso swallowed straight stabs and ignored them. It was going to win by attrition if nothing else. More mechanna could arrive at any time. The longer Xan and Kassa fought in one place, the more likely it was that they would die in the Reach. Xan took a deep breath and poised himself to make a critical strike.

The razor sharp legs rose poised for another attack, but Xandrith didn't wait for them to fall. He charged forward and threw his entire body into his next strike. It was a move of desperation that would leave him completely vulnerable, but if he and Kassa were going to do any harm to this monster they needed to get it off center and vulnerable. On all four of its mechanical legs it was too sure footed and stable to allow for effective attacks. Xan's body struck the metal surface of the creature's underside and for just a moment he feared he hadn't gotten enough momentum behind his attack. The Drayid stood balanced on its rear two legs, teetering back and forth. If it fell forward, Xandrith would be crushed between its body and the ground, trapped with all those terrible, bladed legs.

Instead of jumping away as his instincts were screaming for him to do, Xan drove his knee heavily into the monsters exposed underside. The toppling happened all at once then. It flailed, trying to correct itself, but its legs became ineffective weapons. The assassin struck at every vulnerable spot he could find and in less than a second Kassa was at his side slamming her sword into the beast as well. A metallic scream echoed from the dying monster, but Xan and Kassa didn't quit until they were certain it was dead and it lay silently upon the ground.

They stood over the corpse breathing heavily. "We need to get going again." Xandrith panted.

Kassa just nodded, and they both took off down the road once more. It was all too clear that the horde was closing in on them. Two had been manageable, but they would be hopelessly outnumbered before long.

Xan's red knife had vanished again, and if Kassa had any questions as to its nature or as to why Xan seemed to be back to form in his fighting, she didn't voice them. It was just as well. They didn't really have time to talk, and Xan wasn't sure how to explain the situation anyway. It would have been nice to have explanations to give, but the assassin was as much in the dark as Kassa was. The trip through the gray had changed things.

They ran for another two blocks before another of the mechanna creatures found them. This one slipped from an alley behind them and managed to attack before either of them had time to notice they were pursued. The blast of magical energy struck Xandrith squarely in the back and lifted him from the ground to throw him forward several feet. He landed on his chest and slid forward onto his face. For a moment he couldn't get up. His body was convulsing and his arms and legs didn't want to respond to him. His hands were curled into claws and he couldn't get his fingers apart. Four strong convulsions tore through his body and then he was finally able to begin moving his right hand. He immediately began to struggle back to his feet. Kassa was standing between him and the humanoid figure that had come up behind them. She had her sword drawn and ready, but the creature was stalking ever closer. It was surprisingly human looking. It might well have been one of the mechanna masters before the Drayid took it over. It had a single metal arm that ended in a three pronged claw, but other than that it seemed to be a human man. Xandrith could see the crackle of magical energy surrounding the creature, though it wasn't human magic so he couldn't make out the exact nature of what was being done.

"Listen!" Xan shouted as he hobbled back to his feet. "We've come here for an important reason. I can help the Drayid be free of their prison."

The magical energy building around the mechanna man surged, but this time Xan was ready for it. He grabbed his opponent’s life force and formed it into a wall between them and the mechanna. The barrier settled into place just as the surge of magic from the mechanna struck it. Xandrith could feel the links of his magical shell shake and split at the ferocity of the Drayid's attack. The assassin took a deep breath and focused more of his stolen magic back into the shell. He was terrible with crafting barriers. He knew this one wouldn't last long.

"I have knowledge about the workings of the Great Vault. I can free all of your people. You needn't struggle through existence loosely tied to husks." Xandrith insisted, hoping that this more human creature might be better capable of listening and communicating. Xan knew that the Drayid were not mindless monsters. He'd spoken to one of them before, though that hadn't exactly ended well.

Another surge of magical energy struck the barrier spell. This one almost tore it to pieces. Using his magic was drawing out Xan's dark side, even though he wasn't using it directly for violence. His patience was running thin. "I know you can hear me, damn it! Do you really want to exist the way you do now?"

To his surprise, the other answered. "We will take your knowledge as our own. Humans are not to be trusted."

"It won't do you any good to take my knowledge. I have abilities that you can't replicate and that are needed to perform the task of setting you free." Xandrith tried to explain, hoping that he was getting through to the Drayid. "You have to have learned something of the sanguine mages, correct?"

The Drayid didn't respond, but neither did it continue its attack. From the corner of Xan's eye he saw more of the creatures crawling from side streets and alleyways. There was nowhere for Kassa and Xan to run to. They'd used up all their time and Xan didn't have the bargaining chip he'd hoped to have.

Xan went on. "I am a sanguine mage. I can access magic that most human mages cannot, and with that power I can set right what the mages did to your people."

"Words are pretty things, human, but you have no proof of what you claim. We know who you are, Xandrith Dalt. We have the memories of all those we've taken, or did you forget? You are the assassin wanted for countless murders and acts of violence against your own people. What would make us trust you when you would turn your back on even your own kind?" The once human creature was questioning, but the fact that he hadn't yet restarted his attack told Xan that he had at least gotten the Drayid's attention.

"My past is what it is. I'm not here to make excuses for those things I've done. I'm here to try and find hope for all the people of this world, myself included. I am doing this because no one else can. You can trust me because if I fail at my task, we will all be lost." Xandrith pleaded.

The Drayid seemed to shrug as one, their various metal bodies gesturing their group indifference. "So you speak, but we know much of what is happening in the world. The humans are suffering from a plague, and trolls are rising to the surface and wiping out the remains. Is this the destruction you so fear? We do not fear this change. We will wait for the trolls to decimate humanity, and then we will take them as we have taken you. We have all the time in the world. We cannot die."

The assassin tried again. "The trolls destroying humanity is only the beginning. There is a force behind the trolls that wants to wipe all creation from this world. If it is allowed to reach the pinnacle of its power, we will all be unmade. Even those things that remain of your own culture, the cities you built, the art and history you've left behind, all of that will be gone forever. This enemy wants only our complete annihilation."

"And what do you want, Xandrith Dalt? You've come to us for the Great Vault, that much is clear, and with the power to free us, so you say, but that certainly isn't your goal. Is it? Are you here to be our savior, little human?" There was a mocking tone in the voice.

"I'm not here to save you, but what I need to do will free you in the process. Do you really want the rest of your existence to be spent borrowing time away from the Great Vault, but never truly being free of that prison? I understand how that magic works. Even when you're in these bodies your existence is still tied to the void in the Vault. Is that what you want for your people?"

The entire audience of mechanna creatures seemed to swell up, and for just a moment Xan was certain they would descend to destroy Kassa and himself. The moment of tension passed. "You don't know what suffering is, human. For thousands of years we have sat in a shifting void of suffering and pain surrounded by nothing but the anguished screams of our own people. Women, children, loved ones, strangers, echoes of suffering strung out through a terrifying blackness that was without end." The creature in front of Xan raised its metallic hand and closed the three clawed fingers. "This stolen flesh is agonized. It screams as we bend it into submission, and it aches and burns as the flesh rots from the metal we've forced together, but even this is nothing compared to the void. Seated in this decaying shell, we can look out at the world again and feel the light and life that has been denied to us. Still the void waits behind us. We are never truly free, but after the long years of suffering in darkness, suffering in the light is preferable. What alternative are you offering us? Will you free us from the void and give us back our bodies, human?"

The words of the mechanna were hard hitting and filled with an immeasurable amount of pain. Xandrith had thought the Drayid were insane, and he might have even been right, but they had every reason to be completely mad. What was Xan really offering them in exchange for their cooperation?

"I'm going to break the Void entirely. When I'm done it will be gone, and the Great Vault itself will falter shortly after that." Xandrith answered, skirting the question.

"What of the Drayid? What happens to those trapped within that void when you destroy it, Xandrith?" He took a step forward and placed his metal hand against the surface of Xan's barrier. "What exactly are you offering us, assassin?"

"I don't know." Xandrith said quietly, almost too quietly to be heard.

"You do know, human. If you won't speak it plainly then we're done talking. What are you, the representative of humanity standing at the end of the world, going to offer to the only people who can help you get what you want?" The Drayid emphasized his last four words with a tap against the barrier on each word.

Kassa spoke first. "There is no way to answer that question. What do you want from us?" Her voice was dark and calm.

"We want the truth from you!" The Drayid's voice was metallic and harsh, echoing from his modified throat. "You destroyed our people, now tell us what you intend to do to us next!"

Kassa looked about to speak again, but Xan put a hand on her shoulder and shook his head. This was his burden. He'd come a long way, had done many horrible things, but this would be the pinnacle of the evils he'd committed.

"I'm going to kill you. All of you. I will release you from the void into nothingness." Xan said with a voice that didn't waver as much as he feared it would.

The Drayid took a step back from the barrier. "Yes. You're going to kill us. And you want us to agree to this?"

Xan nodded before speaking. "If you don't agree to it, I'm still going to do it. I have to."

"Honesty from the mouth of a human. We are surprised." The Drayid turned in place, apparently looking at his fellows, and then at the sky above. "We will welcome oblivion, Xandrith the Assassin. We will welcome an end to the eternal suffering, but you will not be so lucky. Our lives, all of them, will rest on your shoulders until the day you die. The mages began our destruction, but you shall mark its end."

"That is a burden I will have to carry. No one else can." Xan answered flatly.

The Drayid turned back to Xandrith and gave a single nod. "Indeed. Follow us." He went out and around Xan's border as though he could see exactly where it stood. Xandrith and Kassa exchanged looks. Kassa's seemed to be asking, "What do we do now?" Xan answered her with an uncertain shrug. This is why they'd come to the Reach. It was too late to back out.

"What happens if Xandrith fails?" Kassa asked, cutting through the strained silence. "What he's doing is a monumental task. What if something goes wrong?"