Rising of a Mage: Book 03 - A Mage Risen (24 page)

Rundo watched as his two friends came toward him. Jabaal was practically car
rying Grizzle, but it looked like he was using him to steady himself as well. They were both covered in black blood. Grizzle’s own red blood mixed with the black in his hair and beard. It made for a disturbing sight. Jabaal had lost his blue glow when they had come free of the orcs. He seemed to have a limp, and the bottom of one of his pant legs was soaked in red blood. They were a haggard sight, but a welcome one.

Vingaza watched from the tree line as Anwar summoned the storm. He had fired his strongest ball of dark magic at Anwar
, and it had shattered against his shield like glass on stone. He had no way of fighting an opponent like that. Anwar’s brother’s final words echoed in his head now as he watched that storm. “You don’t know, do you? Anwar didn’t challenge your god. He pulled him into the mortal plane. The other gods had to come and stop Anwar from killing him. Your god is afraid of him. Killing me only guarantees that the Black Dragons will be destroyed. My life for all of yours? That is a sacrifice I am happy to make.”

As he watched the storm
Vingaza realized that the man had been telling the truth. Lighting was raining down where not long ago there had been a sunny sky. A tornado tossed orcs through the air where there had been no clouds. He couldn’t even imagine how to begin to do magic like that. The amount of power it would take was unimaginable. He knew if he went back to Ambar, Anwar would come after him. The only option he could think of was to stay with the orcs. Malvagio and Cattivo had stayed with him. Once they got away from here he would send them out to bring word back to him.

Anwar continued to let his magic pour out into the storm. The tornado split
into several and chased down the orcs. Lighting was crashing down still. The sky flashed over and over as hundred of bolts came down. Anwar finally was feeling the pull of magic again. It was ecstasy. He poured more power into the storm. The field was filled with lightning, orcs were dying by the thousands, and he split the tornadoes again. Some of the funnels darted across the field of battle while others chased down the escaping groups of orcs. Before he knew it there were a dozen tornados. He could feel the power. He finally was feeling his magic again. After everything that had happened, he was able to feel something besides pain. He relished his revenge. He shouted up into the sky.

“
Is that all you got, Delvidge? Was this the best you could do?” He split the tornadoes again. He began to laugh. “Come on back, Delvidge, you coward! Let us finish this. Are you such a coward that you are too scared to face me?”

Rain and lightning came down so hard that Rundo’s golem was coming apart. The wind was so strong he could barely hold himself in place. He called the golem back. When it was close enough he let it go. The dirt and stone fell to the ground leaving a hill with his staff sticking out of the top. He rushed up to grab it. Lightning came crashing down less
than fifty feet away. He ran back to Anwar’s side. He tried to yell. His ears were ringing. He couldn’t hear anything, but he screamed at Anwar.

“
Anwar! Anwar! You have to stop! We have won! They are retreating! YOU ARE GOING TO KILL US ALL IF YOU DON’T STOP THIS!” Anwar didn’t even seem to notice him. Jabaal came up next to him.

Rundo was trying to help Grizzle, but there wasn’t much he could do. He helped him to the ground as Grundel came running over. The storm
seemed to be getting out of control. A few minutes ago it had been an angry storm directed at the orcs. Now it seemed to be ready to destroy the whole valley. He heard Anwar screaming, but he couldn’t hear what was being said. When he looked up, Anwar was laughing into the sky. He was going mad. He saw Rundo standing next to him screaming, but Anwar didn’t seem to notice. Anwar was going to kill them all.

There were dozens of tornado
es now. Lightning crashed everywhere. Dwarves and orcs alike all ran for cover, the fighting done. All parties were trying to escape the storm that Anwar was feeding. Jabaal ran to his side. He let his own voice join that of Rundo’s, but Anwar didn’t seem to notice. He grabbed his friend and tried to shake him, but Anwar didn’t even acknowledge his presence; he just laughed into the sky as the storm grew more violent. Anwar was going to kill them all if they didn’t stop him. Rundo tried hitting him, but his hand slammed into the shield wrapped around his body like armor. He hated what he was about to do but he had to stop him. He looked at Rundo then raised his sword hilt and tried to slam it into the back of Anwar’s head. It bounced off the shield. Lightning was crashing down around them know, dangerously close. Jabaal felt the hair on his head and arms stand on end. He ran and picked up Grizzle’s hammer. If anything could get through the shield it was the blessed hammer. He apologized to his friend before swinging the hammer at his back. The hammer rebounded off. Anwar didn’t even flinch.

Then a man appeared next to him. Jabaal looked at him
in confusion. He had to be some kind of wizard to have appeared out of nowhere like that, but Jabaal had no idea who he was. The man had dark brown hair down to his shoulders and a short beard along his jaw. There were hints of grey showing in both. He looked at Jabaal, and somehow he knew the man was a friend. Then he reached a hand up to Anwar. There was a flash of light and Anwar fell to the ground. Then the man raised his hands to the sky. The clouds began to spread apart, and the tornadoes began to recede from the ground and fade back into the clouds. Minutes later the black clouds faded to gray and retreated across the sky away from Evermount. A minute later the clouds were gone altogether and the bright sun was shining down on the blood-soaked battlefield. The man looked down at Jabaal and Rundo as they knelt beside Anwar.

“I will be back for him soon. Tell him not to worry. I will help him control it,”
he said, and then the man was gone.

Dwarves were gathering around. Grundel stood over the dead body of his grandfather. Grindel Stoneheart was lying on the ground, surrounded by dead orcs. His hand was buried in the chest of the biggest orc Grundel had ever seen. Yesterday that might not have meant anything, but now he was surrounded by tens of thousands of them. All of them were dead. Thousands had been thrown in every direction by the storm, but not these. This image was here for all the dwarves to see. Their king had fought the biggest orc on the field and killed him. He had killed countless others, but he had died in single combat with this huge monster. He already was hearing the stories of the dwarves who had been nearby. The huge orc had killed dwarves and orcs alike. One of the dwarves was saying that the orc had cut down other orcs just for interfering. In the midst of chaos these two champions had gone to war, and found each other worthy.

Grundel’s father was the king now. He was being carried back to the lost tunnels. Other dwarves had been sent out to
retreive the dwarves who were leaving for Shinestone. Jabaal was being taken back into the mountain as well. His father had fallen to the ground unconscious soon after making it to him, relief and exhaustion overwhelming him. Jabaal had tried to stop Anwar from destroying them all. Then that man had come and done something to Anwar, who was also being carried, unconscious, into the mountain. When Jabaal had realized they were all okay, he, too, had slumped to the ground and soon fell unconscious.

Rundo had begun treating him right away. He had taken a bad gash in his leg
and had lost a lot of blood. Rundo had cut a piece of his shirt off, and then he had tied it tightly over the wound. He had wrapped his belt around that and tightened it down to make sure there was enough pressure to stop the bleeding.

The dwarves who were still able
-bodied were searching the field looking for other dwarves. Dwarves found alive were carried back to the lost tunnel; the dead were carried to the edge of the tree line. Any orc that was found still alive was killed. They couldn’t even think about trying to clear the battlefield right now. All they focused on was gathering their wounded. The dead would be brought up after the wounded were tended to.

Grundel ben
t down and pulled his grandfather’s arm out of the chest of the huge orc. There was a sucking sound as the air that had been trapped inside came out. Black blood poured onto the already blood-soaked ground. The skin around the steel hand was ripped to shreds. Grundel lifted the king onto his shoulder and made his way toward the tree line, on his way to the lost tunnel. Every dwarf was important, but the body of the king was not going to be left there on the field of battle. Dwarves he passed stood and watched solemnly as their king was carried off of the battlefield. The cheers followed him into the forest. “Bordin take the king,” and “Stoneheart.” He even heard a few “Long live Grizzle, son of Grundel.” That one stung him the most.

The last time he had seen his father
, he had a dozen cuts and gashes on his head. He was a prisoner in his own armor. He didn’t know how he was breathing with that huge dent in the back. His plate had to be squeezing him. He barely knew his father, since he had been exiled for getting his mother pregnant—for “tainting the line of kings.” His father had been sent away from his home because of him. Now he was being carried back into it, as his son carried his father behind him.

Grizzle woke up in his own bed. His wife was lying next to him. She was asleep and gingerly holding his hand to her face. He had been so caught up in what was happening that he hadn’t even thought
about how this was affecting her. He had given her a child and then left her with that child in a mountain full of dwarves for nearly two decades. Then when he returned it was to fight off a monster from the planes of hell. After barely surviving that, he had run headlong into battle, expecting to sacrifice himself in order to save her and all the other dwarves. He decided that when this was all over with he would set aside some time for just her. Then he realized: He was the king now. He had watched his father die in that battle. He had watched him kill the huge orc in his last moments. The pain came saddled with duty.

This would never be all done. He looked at his wife. She was the queen, the human queen of the dwar
ven kingdoms. That was, of course, assuming that the dwarves allowed it. There was really no way to know how this was all going to work out, now that his father was gone. Even assuming that the dwarves of Evermount could be persuaded, there were still three other kingdoms. Then there was the fact that one dwarven stronghold was empty. They could not leave Shinestone uninhabited. Whoever sat the throne in Evermount would have to coordinate the resettlement and reconstruction of Shinestone. If what he had seen today in Evermount was any indication, Shinestone would likely be a mess of collapsed tunnels.

He tried to sit up. He felt like
one of those giant, orc-killing boulders had rolled over him. Now that he thought about it, that might have been better. Anna woke when he moved, and she helped him lean forward. He looked into her beautiful blue eyes. They still threatened to hypnotize him every time he looked at her.

“Grundel? Is he ok
ay?”

She rested her hand on his shoulder. She might as well have hit him with a hammer, but he tried not to let her see that she was hurting him. He was battered and bruised,
and his head felt like it was going to explode, but all in all he felt like he was okay. There was nothing seriously wrong that he could feel.

Anna moved her hand from his shoulder to his forearm. “Grundel is fine. We should get someone to help you to see Jabaal
, though.”

“Jabaal? Why, what happe
ned after I fell?”

She shook her head. “They say that you fell after the fighting was over. Jabaal fell soon after
that. He took a wound to his leg and lost a lot of blood. They say that his life is not in danger anymore, but his leg is in bad shape.”

Anwar woke up in Evermount. Sitting in a chair next to hi
s bed was Rundo. “Rundo, is everyone okay? What happened?”

Rundo looked at him with
concern, but didn’t answer. Anwar thought back to the fight. It started coming back. When they had got there the dwarves were nearly lost. They had snuck up behind the orcs, but they were outnumbered nearly a hundred to one. He had burned away the orcs trying to get into the mountain. Then he had brought down the lightning. Then he remembered the power. The terrible power. He remembered letting the storm go. He had gone mad. He had been challenging Delvidge. He looked at Rundo, concerned himself now. “Rundo, tell me. What did I do?”

Rundo saw the concern in Anwar’s face. “Anwar
, you saved them. You sent a column of flame down the steps, burning away the orcs with the ram. You called a storm that killed thousands. When your tornadoes came the orcs scattered.” He paused. How do you tell your friend that he went mad?

“Rundo, just say it. What happened? What did I do
?” he asked.

“Anwar, no one really understands. All of a sudden you were just laughing at the sky. The storm was out of control and growing. We tried to stop you. I was yelling, but you didn’t hear me. Jabaal. Jabaal even…”

Now Anwar was really concerned. “What, Rundo? Is he okay? Jabaal, I didn’t...”

Rundo wasn’t sure how to explain it
, but he couldn’t let Anwar think that. “No, no, no, you didn’t hurt him. Jabaal is okay. He is wounded, but not by you. He took a nasty wound to the leg before we arrived. They say he should be okay. Anwar, when we couldn’t stop you, Jabaal tried hitting you. He even swung Gorgon’s Hammer at you. Nothing worked. Then, well, then a man appeared.”