The Exodus Sagas: Book IV - Of Moons and Myth (51 page)

Farrigus paced the moat from the castle side, his urges to finish this lord were strong, yet his instincts would not let him clear the water.
His enemy was on the outside of the water, just twenty feet, but his body would not let him cross it.
He looked for a way around, but the bridges were up, the enemy siege bridges sunk, and he would have to go around south to get across.
Fear prevented him, an instinct he could not overcome.
He hissed and roared, gla
red with his feline eye and pale
dead eye at Alexei of Southwind, then ran to t
he south to find his way across,
and
to kill him.

The Lord of Southwind headed south as well, knowing it was his only way in. He looked to the ladders, most aflame or broken, the others made him an easy mark for archers. He ran to the south of Valhirst Castle, to rejoin the hopeless battle inside.
He thought of his father, Arlinne, and smiled. He knew it was what he would have done. Ogre or troll, panthers or shapeshifters,
a Lord of Southwind fears nothing more than defeat
. So,
he ran harder, because this surely looked like defeat
,
if ever he saw it.

The bodies moaned, so close to death as they lay dying in the blood and mud outside Valhera Castle. Alexei kept running, gathering no men to his side, as there were none to be seen besides the enemy
or those locked in desperate combat
. To the south, right as he went to turn past the rubble of broken stone that littered the only open gate, something caught his eye in the dark. Several somethings.

He saw a black robed woman across a horse, Kendrynn Shilde at the reins, turning and veering to get past soldiers and circling panthers. Arrows stuck out from he and Aelaine, even the steed. Past them, barely vivible with the low light of flames dwindling on the field, he saw someone sneaking east through the trees and hills. He saw a white tabard with a feathered cross, one of his men
helping someone walk
. Alexei squinted
more
, he saw Lavress Tila
niun in the moonlit shadows, helping the same ragged man with h
is knight. They headed northwest
, while Kendrynn and Aelaine
were trying to go southwest
.
He paused, they had rescued the prince, he was shocked.

The lord, like his father before him, felt what he must do. He knew it
was the prince they had, the only heir
. With the forces on the field, they would not make it an hour in their flight for survival, not without help. Or, without a distraction.
He fought his desire to fight for his king, and concentrated on saving his future king.
Alexei looked to a horse laying on the field, it was cut across the face and had an arrow in its side, yet it was alive. He grabbed the reins and helped it up.

“
Easy girl, easy
.” He rubbed the bloody mare’s face, then picked up a Chazzrynn banner. He looked north as he mounted the skittery steed. North was quiet, it was empty, and it had plenty of room to run. He raised his blade as blood ran down his arm and ribs.

“I am Alexei T’Vellon, Lord of Southwind Keep! Long live King Mikhail, true king of Chazzrynn!
I challenge
any man to try and match steel with me
!”

He yelled as if it were the last breath he may ever take.
He yelled for his kingdom, his rulers, and for the survival of a chance that some may live.
To his hopes, he attracted much attention. Just as he whipped the reins, archers pointed and began to fire. Panthers raised their heads, growled, and started to give chase. Soldiers hunting
in platoons
for strag
g
lers locked outside the castle
,
charged and yelled for his blood
, the hunt had begu
n
.

His mare charged north
and east
, leading the forces outside the castle away from Aelaine Lazlette and Captain Shilde
, away from the two brave men who had rescued Prince Bryant, and away from a battle that he desperately wished to rejoin. Alexei looked back in the glimmering night, hundreds on his trai
l now, and he sped faster north. Screams for mercy issued in the night breeze, swords clashed with shields, and many men were dying or dead. Thousands already ceased their breaths, and Alexei T’Vellon heard the enemy coming for him, and this time
,
he was
alone.

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Falling, both of them, their spells of levitation head been dismissed by the wizards inside Southwind Keep.
They had been caught off guard, surprised, and now their sure victory was a maddening array of explosive magical defeat.
At the last moment, Vanessa Blackflame and Eliah Shendrynn unleashed arcane forces that stopped their freefall, and they hovered inches above the ground.

They could see nothing, nothing hopeful on the field of battle
before them
. Blasts continued to rain in every direction, ogre forces were scattered and retreating from the keep. Trolls were screeching and attacking the ogre. Avegarne was dragging three green savages with him as he fled. Mun Par
r
was on foot, her
servants carrying her throne had been butchered by ogre soldiers.
Troll and ogre fought each other, seemingly under a vicious enchantment, and those that did resist and approach Southwind were decimated by arrows and conjured fires.

“
Class of three
forty six, give them another storm of ice and hail
!”

Vanessa heard the command, followed by a massive cooperative summoning that
covered the field in a bombardment of freezing projectiles.
She tried to stop it, but all she could manage against so many channels was to get a barrier of force over her head. Eliah did the same.
The chunks of ice pummeled their barriers, forcing them closer to the ground.

“
Three hundred forty seven, shower the wet field with sparks!
”

Another command echoed from the west, and the dazzling sizzle of electrified field flashed with the falling of countless ogre and trolls. Eliah lifted up, high into the air, just out of reach from the grasping electrical storm. Vanessa was not as lucky.

Her mind raced with sudden terror. She was back on the bridge in Valhirst, the lightning had struck her face again, and Vanessa froze. All her skills as Sapphire of the East, her deadly training with the blade, even her confident ability with the arcane was nullified. Flashbacks of her face being burned by the power of Gwenneth Lazlette, recalling the blast and the shock, she lay on the wet field as jolts of electricity caused her to spasm and cry. Soon, she covered her face and curled into the fetal position as the armies of ogre and troll fled and died.

Eliah looked down to her, there was nothing touching her, no spell nor source of pain. Yet, she was rubbing her face, sobbing and squirming as if she were being killed a thousand times over. He, Salah Cam in control of the body, looked at the battle. There was no battle. Ahead were the walls of Southwind and Elcram, and nothing of their forces tried to get through. To his right, ogre bodies by the hundreds, burned and charred and dead. His head turned left, ogre fleeing with their king, trolls fighting them, and complete chaos. Merciless flames still lobbed from the walls, dozens every moment, incinerating the trolls that tried to regrow and stand. It was over, it was a trap, and they had no army left.

Kill her, with my sword, and surrender yourself to these wizards. Then, they will get you out of my body…

Eliah was yelling in his head as Salah Cam stood dumbfounded on the field, in the middle of carnage, but over his scarred beauty.

“No, we need to retreat, with her.” Salah Cam spoke outloud. His voice was stronger,
he maintained control. Their allies grew less, soon they would be the only living beings on the field, soon they would be captured.

Turn yourself in, they can reverse what you have done to us…

“I have no body, remember? It is in that chasm, so the only thing left to do, is get rid of you, Eliah Shendrynn. But I will work on that with her, not alone.” Salah Cam picked up the twitching body of Vanessa, and began to float west. He cared not for the deals with Johnas Valhera. He cared not for Eliah, only his body. Yet for some reason, he felt something for the scarred Caberran girl.

You are thinking with my loins, not you
r
own. Yours rotted off long ago, fiend. Get out of my body! Take off that ring, get out! Get out now…

“Never.”

The cheers went loud, young cheers, few for such a battle. Yet Salah knew that without the armies of Avegarne and Mun Parr, they had no chance to regroup nor stay. He had sensed nothing, seen nothing of the sort with his vision, yet it happened. Floating above the ground, higher into the night sky, Salah Cam, in the possessed bdy of Eliah Shendrynn, carried Vanessa Blackflame to the safety of the Western Wastes.

Take off that rin
g! Let me have my body, bastard
, take off the ring…

Vanessa was awake, then asleep, then back into a strange
floating dream. The white moon was large and near full, the green moon a massive crescent, and the stars were out. She was in pain, yet did not know why. She was flying into the star filled sky, carried by a handsome highborne elf. No patriarch Johnas to demand of her, no Balric to question her love, and nothing to lie or betray about. For this moment, nearing the outskirts of Arouland high above the ground, she felt peace. She heard voices, voices calling to her. Muffled at first, then stronger. Each time Eliah looked at her, she closed her eyes, she wanted this moment of serenity to last forever.

She smiled, the voice knew she was awake, but Eliah did not. It told her sweet things, many things, and made promises. It was faint, but she could make out the words now. It was him now, his heart talking to hers perhaps, the only person besides Balric D’Vrelle that had a care in the world for her. She smiled, and did as he asked, his heart to hers. Vanessa knew that he was talking to her, even though his eyes looked ahead at the ruins. It was beautiful, the things he said to her.

Take my ring, take my platinum ring off, you may keep it. I will wed you oneday, and make you my queen, Vanessa. Take it off, sweet Caberran rose, my brown eyed goddess, take it…

“Yes? Yes I will.” She felt her age again, young and innocent, forgetting all of her past and her position in the White Spider. Just as they landed toward the ground at skyborn journey’s end, in front of the ruins, Vanessa took off the ring from the hand of Eliah Shendrynn.

“What did you say, what, what are you doing
!
?” Salah Cam felt it, something pushing him out of the body, he felt Vanessa touching his hand. Then, he felt nothing but a rush of pain. The body fell to the ground, hit hard, and Vanessa rolled over and over onto her back.

“Nooooooo!!!”

Black clouds erupted from the face and mouth of her highborne rescuer. Shimmering skulls of wicked gleams and a thousand ghosts poured from his body onto the ground. Thunder from nowhere boomed, the sky darkened with clouds that grew from nothing, and the earth was trembling with anger as the spirits dove into the cracks and crevices and out of sight.

“Thank you,
and farewell
Vanessa
. Enjoy your fate.” Eliah Shendr
ynn stood
, smiled, and vanished with arcane teleportation. A small flicker of purple dust settled to where he once had been. He was gone.

Still confused, she stood, ring in hand.
Vanessa looked around the empty ruins that shook in the night. Her scimitar was out in a flash as something broke the ground behind her, something large. Then ahead of her, and then on all sides it trembled and shook as many things ripped up through the very earth.

Shadows grew, like giant snakes from a horrible nightmare, and they came closer. She tried to magically vanish herself from her spot in between them all, yet her spell was disrupted by a strange whisper. The tentacles grew closer, it was no dream. As thick as castle towers, black and sickly gray with slime, the writhing behemoth tentacles encircled her. They did not touch her, just curled and moved to surround her, three of them, and they whispered yet had no mouths. They saw her, yet had no eyes.

Come with me, my scarred beauty, I am below now…come with me…
Do not make me take you by force…

It was a voice she had heard before. Raspy, old, it was Salah Cam. The tentacles could crush her in a moment, she knew, and she was alone. One of them wiggled and flattened a bit, and edged toward her feet. Vanessa felt a tear come to her eye, yet she held back. She had no choice.

Sapphire of the East sheathed her scimitar, and stepped onto t
he grotesque appendage, her boots
sinking in a bit
to the soft wet flesh. It flattened more, curled up around her as if to make a chair out if its tip in which for her to sit. She sat, her robes already wet, now covered with a film of slime. The tentacle, like the others, withdrew into the earth, slowly, and all went dark.