The Exodus Sagas: Book IV - Of Moons and Myth (68 page)

“
Thalanaxe,
you and yours killed my hydra,
you owe me a sentinel for my eternal halls. Behold, you brought me a minotaur though. Perhaps you are not as useless as I had thought.”
Her whisp
ering laugh entranced, and Mudre
n Sheldathain laughed with her.

“I brought ye’
a war
hammer
for your
head
, will that suffice
, witch
?” Azenairk walked forward, felt something
enchantingly
warm from his helmet, the helm of Saint Tarumin from Ansharr. Her words did nothing to him.
As he stepped, he glanced back, he
saw his four companions were struggling
.

“
All alone you challenge me, Thalanaxe? For it seems your friends are busy with their thoughts
.” Arabashiel sauntered down the stairs
, but twenty feet from the dwarven priest. Her
graceful
steps echoed with a resonating power.

“What have ye’ done to
them, demon!?” Zen roared
, his friends unbl
inking, unmoving, and Mudre
n laughed from his cursed lips.

“
Some
endless
wine for the drunkard, perfect and delicious indeed.”
A small ripple, without color nor sound, washed through the air as she spoke.

James looked to his hands, there was no shield nor glistening griffon hilted broadsword. In his right was a goblet, golden and shining full with red wine. In his left was a bottle, uncorked, and flowing gently over as if divinely enchanted to never stop. He smelled it, pouring over his hands to the floor, everything else was still. There was nothing else moving, his surroundings were hazy, and he slowly lifted his hands.

“
Let them go!”
Zen pounded his warhammer to the floor, a massive echo tore through the ominous dread of the throneroom, and she laughed more.

“I think not. Eternal
glory and blo
odshed for the horned savage
maybe?
.”
Arabashiel stepped closer and the dwarven priest so full of courage was now backing away.
Her words carried dark
curse and the embrace of
desire through the air.

Saberrak heard his name being chanted by tens of thousands, the world was still, but to his left was an arena. He looked at his body, covered in golden armor, his hands held the heads of defeated foes, and the crowd wanted more. He started to walk to his left, everything else around him a blur.

“
James, Saberrak
, what ye’ doin?!
Wake up! Wake up!”
Zen smacked the two staring warriors with his shield, their arms were at their sides, and they seemed to not know he was there at all. Nothing happened.

“
It is of no use, priest of Vundren. Forbidden love and noble dreams for the elven princess.”
Again, the air rippled with force, the shadows danced furiously on the walls, and the brave dwarf before her was backing up further, all alone.

Shinayne was in the grove, the sacred grove with Lavress, her hands held no blades. She was queen of Kilikala, and her king was
dressed just as a noble highborne elf. Thousands bowed as she passed, hundreds of griffon riders saluted in airborn honor, and she walked with her beloved to a majestic castle of elven antiquity. She forgot everything else.

“
All the known arcane powers and wordly fame for the hungry wizard
.” Arabashiel stretched her wings wide, smiling wickedly at Azenairk. “
You see, it was never meant to be, Thalanaxe. I was meant to be, sent here by God, and you are but a mortal who worships a lesser thing. Now, for you, what is it you desire?”

Gwenneth was in a daze, she heard the words, felt the power of this immortal being. Yet, the tempatation was not there, she resisted. She sensed the
infernal magicks
at work, she looked to her left hand, and the ring of Kalzarius was glistening as the air rippled around her and the others.
She thought of what he had said, that the ring would absorb dark arcane powers, she blinked but did not move.
She waited.

“I desire ye’ let me friends go, and we do this fair. How bout’ that?” Zen shook Shinayne’s arm, then Gwenneth’s, still recoiling from the winged woman over twice his height. The air wanted to tempt him, but nothing got through his sacred helmet.
He lowered his head, looked to the demon, and stopped his frantic attempts to wake his friends. His warhammer twirled, he turned to face her alone, yet Gwenne’s fingers caught his sleeve.

“
They are mine, forever. All I need is to take away that flesh
.” Arabashiel fanned her fingers on her right hand, shadow swirled, flames smoldered, and a curved scimitar over seven feet in length
grew solid. It glowed like embers of a dying fire, it smoked with shadows, yet the black blade and golden hilt were perfect. She raised it over Saberrak, and smiled at the last Thalanaxe. “
You seem most resistant to temptation, little priest, so
y
ou choose. Who dies first?
”

“
Suirazlak!
” Gwenneth said the word, the name of the arcane master that had created the ring,
backwards
. The ring flashed white, all through the room, and Arabashiel turned her purple gaze to Gwenneth. She smiled to the twelve foot Gimmorian not fifteen feet in front of her with an immortal blade raised high. “Wh
at you offered,
I already have
, demon.”

“
Shesh uzhul camiradius eth vazhles ur!”
Arabashiel roared, not like a graceful immortal woman, but as if a horde of demons were chanting through her chest. Her eyes flashed bright, as did her blade, and the air rippled wi
th a force that shook the walls, infernal powers unleashing all around.

“
Suirazlak!”
Gwenneth held her staff forward, even though it was the ring of Kalzarius that absorbed the dark powers directed at her and her companions. The ring glowed white, small sparks pulsed out of the enchanted band, letting her know it was
near
full of
stolen
energy.

James looked around, he had his blade and his shield, the wine
had
disappeared. Shinayne blinked, her blades were in her hands, the grove
had
vanished. Saberrak roared and staggered back, his arms held his axes again, the arena vision faded away. Gwenneth winked to Zen, he winked back, and they walked forward.

“
Impossible!
” The Gimmorian mistress of curses screamed and pointed her fingers, more rippling air issued, the walls cracked around them. The golden floor buckled, the braziers exploded with skull and green fires, and debris whipped across the throneroom
from her mere whims
.

“
Suirazlak!
” The power was absorbed once more, into the ring, a ring that now throbbed and burned Gwenneth’s finger.

“
How ye’ doin’ that?”
Zen stood in awe as his friends woke up
and Gwenne dueled the demon with words and magicks
.

“
Divine defiance through better arcane practices, but I cannot do it again. Shall we?”
Gwenneth took off the ring and hurled it toward the throne.
She focused on it, striking it with arcane force as it neared Arabashiel. The white glowing band exploded with a tremendo
us flash of power, sending Mudre
n Sheldathain to the far wall and incinerating the skulls that littered the steps.

They all covered their faces with their arms, turned their heads away, and the deafening blast echoed from the throne where Arabashiel had been. The dust settled, the shadows still danced, and in the dark aftershock and smoke, two purple eyes opened and glared down at them.

“
Your blasphemy will not go unpunished
.” She spoke with anger, with hate, and leapt off the stairs toward the five defilers of her sacred dark eternity
, without a mark upon her
.

Saberrak lowered his horns, raised his axes, and dove at the charging demonic woman. His axes crossed, meeting her curved smoldering blade in midair. They crashed together, blade to axes, and the minotaur held her
advance
as she pushed down with all her force. His legs pushed ahead, her form nearly twice hi
s size, yet he held her, barely
.

Lightning ripped through the air, striking Arabashiel in the face, then again, Gwenneth unleashing all she had. James rolled under her striking wing, blade glowing blue and gold, and cut deep into her side with a quick slash. Shinayne
feinted to roll low, then sprung up over her grabbing hand, and cut across her ribs with both blades. The cuts were deep, she bled red, and the highborne elf landed on the steps. Azenairk slammed his hammer into her hip, then swung again, but her dark feathered wing slammed his c
hest sending him backwards
. As he recovered, the other wing did the same from the other side, and knocked him over sideways
, then again, and to the ground he went
.

Arabashiel let up on the mighty minotaur, tired of the standoff, and kicked forward. Her naked foot hit him solid, sending him end over end for twenty feet or more
, and he tumbled onto the broken stone walkway with a crash
. Another cut in her side, never had she been injured in her immortal life, and she slashed her curved blade toward the knight. His shield blocked it, but still he flew back into the wall from the force
of the blow
. Another burning cut, then a painful thrust of enchanted steel into her back, the blades of the elven woman hurt her as well. She caught another lightning bolt with her free hand, then another, dissipating them harmlessly in her fingers.

Shinayne slashed with Carice, meeting the giant curved scimitar as it parried, then she dove Elicras high, in feint, and drove it into Arabashiel’s thigh. T
he scream burned her ears, yet s
he managed to sidestep the counterattack as the scim
itar smashed the stone where Shinayne
had been.

A blast of fire erupted over her head, and Arabashiel ignored it. A line of green acid whipped through the air, and she caught it with the palm of her hand, dropping the harmless liquid onto the steps. She swung her blade at the elf, who leapt over it. Again, and her elven foe ducked under. She raised it up high, then rushed her.

Shinayne lunged ahead, rolled between her legs as a clawed hand
grabbed
, a blade larger than her crashed the stone, and two mighty wings slammed toward her. She rose up, behind the demon, and sliced both blades twice, each attack severing the marble flesh on the backs of her legs.
Arabashiel screamed again and fell to a knee.
She noticed her blades had a strange golden glow, and that she was alone up her
e
. Jus
t as she went to strike
again, an immortal backhand caught her face and sent her spiraling down the stairs.

Arabashiel stood and turned toward the five mortals. The hammer had not hurt her, the arc
ane powers were but annoying
, only the blades of the knight and the elf held her attention. She smiled, concentrated, and her injuries slowly began to heal with
green glowing
immortal force
. She walked the steps quickly
, as her enemies gathered themselves to their feet.

“
Servant, call the demons of judgement, we have victims to offer.”
She caught an orb of freezing cold from the wizard with her palm, it did nothing
, and she let the ice fall from her fingers
.

Mudre
n Sheldathain shook his head from the explosion, stood, and staggered to the throne. He felt weak, he heard the crying of women and children
faintly nearby
, yet he had to obey his mistress. He sat in his once throne of gold, and let his red glowing eyes roll back, then focused on the shadows.
The dancing shades on the wal
s
l began to collect, take
form, and scream from the stone.
“Yes, my Gimmorian queen, I will summon them.”

Zen pulled Shinayne to her feet, Gwenneth took her first breath after her barrage of at least a dozen spells, and James staggered toward them. Saberrak stomped up from his far off landing, rolling his
shoulder and grow
l
ed
low
in pain
.
They all backed up toward the forges together, Arabashiel stalking toward them, with no visible wounds from all they had inflicted. Shadows from the walls leapt toward the throne, demonic screams erupted from where the cursed dwarven king sat, and the five companions backed up more.