The Sword that Binds (Book of Worlds 1) (21 page)

Uckey didn’t even slow as they passed under the shadow of the leg. It began its descent as soon as they were underneath it, making Sarena’s heart skip a beat at the sight.

All around them stone shot into the air, creating a passageway through the shadow just wide enough for them to fit. It continued to rise well over their heads until it met the leg on its way down, instantly shattering under the immense weight. Shards of stone and dust filled the passage, cutting into Sarena’s skin and making her cough.

She had never tried to control so much stone so quickly before, and the drain it caused was beyond even what she was expecting. By the time the stone collided with the leg she was already almost spent, but her efforts paid off. While it may have only slowed the treant for a moment, it was enough for them to reach the other end and escape just as the leg crashed to the ground.

“Faster Uckey,” she gasped. “I can’t do that again.”

She called on the wind with the last dredges of her strength, using it to cling to Uckey’s back. Just that alone was taking most of her concentration. Her vision blurred slightly as she looked forward. There were still over half a dozen treants in their way, but none of them were anywhere near the size of the one they had just passed.

The treants may be fast in a straight line, but when it came to turning they may as well still be trees. As long as they could dodge one attack – which so far had never deviated from an outstretched arm, aside from the giant they just passed – they would be in the clear.

Uckey was able to easily avoid the clumsy swings of the treants as he ran, closing in on the Sky tree rapidly. When there was just one mid-sized treant left in the way Sarena heard Tyrus cry out a warning.

“The giant one is back! We need to move faster or we’re not going to make it!” He yelled.

“I’m going as fast as I can already!” Uckey replied.

Sarena stared forward at the Sky tree. It would only take another ten breathes of time for them to reach it, and the treant in front of it was already moving towards them. Uckey pranced around the usual swing, but Sarena risked a glance back as he did so.

Her breath caught in her throat as a dozen of the roots from the giant treant’s left arm rushed through the air straight at them. Each one of the roots was as thick around as Uckey was tall, and they all ended in a sharp point. If even one of them touched them they would have no chance of survival, and there was no way they would reach the Sky tree in time.

Her mind was in a panic as she called on as much wind as she could, feeling it rush to every corner of her body. It felt like she would burst if she called anymore, so she did the only thing she could think of. She placed the palm of her hand on Uckey’s back, and
willed
the power in her to fill him instead. Nothing happened at first, but after a moment Sarena felt a warmth in her chest, and like a dam had burst she felt the power inside of her rapidly gush out of her hand into Uckey.

A searing pain blossomed in her left shoulder as they darted forward. Only a few heartbeats had passed, but it felt like an eternity to her. A roaring sound filled her ears as the wind rushed by. Sarena could feel the ground buckle as the roots crashed into the earth right behind them.

Relief flooded through her as she saw them enter the small doorway of the Sky tree. It was barely large enough for them to fit through on Uckey’s back, and it lead straight into a large stairwell to their left.

Finally we’re safe.

“Just keep going,” she mumbled while struggling to hold her eyes open. At some point she had lost a hold of her power – probably because she had none left – and had fallen forward against Uckey’s neck. “I...just need to rest for a while. Don’t stop for me.”

Once again she felt the world fade away around her.

Am I ever going to sleep normally again?

*****

T
yrus knew Sarena was still right next to him, passed out as usual. But she had never taken the pendant off, which left him woefully unable to check on her core. She had used far more power than she should have, and he wasn’t entirely sure what had happened at the end.

“Uckey, what just happened? Is Sarena alright?” He asked while inspecting their surroundings. The inside of the Sky tree was fairly bland. Just a staircase that wound around the tree until it reached the branches far above them. The Sky tree itself thrummed with power, but aside from giving him a mild headache it didn’t seem to do anything else.

“I think so, but we won’t know for sure until she wakes up,” Uckey said.

Tyrus waited a few moments before speaking up. “This...How is using her power like this going to affect her? It can’t be normal to lose consciousness every time she does anything.”

Uckey sighed. “No. It isn’t normal at all. It’s a miracle she hasn’t shattered her core already; most likely your bond has something to do with that. Straining herself like this would take weeks, if not months, to recover from for anyone else. The strength she has gained in the past two days surpasses what most would achieve in as many decades.”

At this rate it doesn’t even matter if we reach the book in time. She’s going to kill herself before we get there.

“What about that burst of speed you had? I thought I could feel her wind magic in you for a moment, but that can’t be right,” he asked.

“I think she enchanted me!” Uckey said. “That usually takes much more training to manage! I wonder how she did it.”

Didn’t he say that only mana mages could enchant things?

“What do you mean? I thought her wind magic was internal only? And aren’t mana mages the only ones that can enchant things?” He asked.

“Technically yes, but internal magic can be used to temporarily enchant something. It’s mostly used to enchant your weapon, but it’s not easy to do. Usually only Masters are capable of it,” Uckey answered. “It takes quite a bit of power, and once you run out the enchantment dissipates. Enchanting a living creature is even more difficult than that. I’ve never heard of someone below the rank of Archmage that could do it.”

“What are all these ranks about? You’ve mentioned them a couple times, but never explained them,” Tyrus asked as they trotted up the stairs. He wished he could see at times like these. There were regularly spaced openings in the walls that would give a fantastic view of the city.

“They are shavren rankings for mages. Most shavren have very specific magic and are useless for anything else,” Uckey explained.

“Right, like the brewer we met back in Tovern,” Tyrus interjected.

“Yes, exactly! Shavren with that kind of magic aren’t really considered mages. Only those that have true magic are granted a rank. The lowest, and most common, is a battlemage, followed by Master Mages, then Archmage, and finally Highmage. There’s usually only one Highmage and a handful of Archmages at a time, but with just their power they are stronger than all the battlemages and Master mages combined,” Uckey said.

“So Sarena is as strong as an Archmage already?” Tyrus asked in surprise. “How come there are so few if it only takes time to reach it? You said that most shavren live to be over three hundred.”

Uckey snorted. “Ha! If it were that easy then everyone would be an Archmage! Everyone has their limits. You should have felt the empty space within Sarena. Once it fills up, her core will stop growing. And aside from that, strength isn’t everything. It takes decades of training to gain the control necessary to be considered an Archmage. I’ve never heard of one that didn’t have at least a century of experience under their belt. Living enchantment is something that requires a very thorough understanding of magic to accomplish, and not just your own. No matter how strong Sarena is, she shouldn’t have been able to do it yet.”

“What would your rank have been compared to the shavren then?” Tyrus asked. He had a feeling he knew what the answer would be already.

“Highmage of course! Even among the gnomes I was without peer!” Uckey answered proudly.

Tyrus couldn’t hold back a chuckle. “Is that why you were an emissary to a forest that nobody lived in?”

“That - I was the only option! Those buffoons on the council were so incompetent that they would never have been able to fight off any of the Godwoods creatures!” Uckey sputtered.

“That doesn’t answer the question of why they sent you to the Godwoods of all places,” he said.

Uckey didn’t answer right away. They were so far up the tree that Tyrus was beginning to have trouble sensing anything on the ground, yet there was no sign of them reaching the top any time soon.

“I may have had some...disagreements...with several members of the council,” Uckey said weakly. “They were under the impression that my research was a waste of time! I’d like to see the looks on their faces when they find out how wrong they were!”

Ugh. Why did I bring this up? Now I’m going to have to listen to him rant about the council all day.

Tyrus tuned out the sound of Uckey’s voice the best that he could as they continued their trek upwards. Nothing changed at all until they were high enough that he could sense the branches spreading out above them. There was no warning when the attack came.

A green aura in a shape similar to a goblin emerged from the wall on the inside of the stairwell. Before Tyrus could do more than register it had appeared, it was already leaping toward them. Tyrus was able to swing put between its outstretched arm and Sarena, but the force of the lunge knocked him backwards into her. They fell from Uckey’s back, and finally the gnome realized they were under attack.

Dozens of green auras started to pour out of the walls of the Sky tree, surrounding them in a heartbeat. Tyrus could feel an insatiable hunger within all of the auras. It almost felt like they were all part of one large monster, but there was no mistaking their numbers. For some reason their aura felt somewhat familiar to him.

This is bad.

He could sense Sarena’s location through the bond, but the pendant was stopping him from doing any more than that. She hadn’t cried out or made any sound other than when she hit the stairs, so it was safe to assume she was still out cold. They would never be able to get her back on Uckey. And the gnome was utterly useless in a fight.

Three of the auras separated from the group around them and launched themselves forward, one from behind and two from the front. Tyrus shot toward the one behind him, bisecting it at the waist. Without losing any momentum he shot backward, twisting at the last moment and catching the second creature with the flat of his blade just before it reached Sarena. It staggered to the side and crashed into the third, sending them both tumbling down the stairs. The rest of the creatures parted for them as they rolled past them.

Dammit. If I could just use my power for
anything
this wouldn’t be a problem at all.

He called deeply on his power, more than he ever had before, letting it rush through the channels that stretched throughout his prison. It was the first time he had ever called on his power purely for himself, and the difference compared to Sarena was staggering.

The world slowed to a crawl around him, so much that the creatures looked to be barely moving at all. It took every ounce of self-control that he had to stop himself from giggling at the heady rush he felt.
Why have I just ignored all this power before? I could destroy this enchantment with a thought. But...No, I don’t need to destroy it. I just need a window.

He stretched a tendril of power towards one of the many cracks in his cage. At least, that was his original plan. Even while trying to hold back, with the amount of power he was holding it was impossible to fully control it. Instead he had a torrential river of pure mana writhing in his grasp, desperate to break free from his control. It took all of his concentration to wrestle it into position at the crack.

As soon as the mana touched the crack, a glowing hole appeared the same size as the river of power. All across his prison he could see more cracks appearing, leaving the enchantment looking like it would shatter at the lightest touch.

Well. That was unexpected. What exactly is this enchantment made of? If it wasn’t for those cracks I wouldn’t even know where to look for it.

He was planning on using his power to widen the crack so he could slip some of magic out and affect the outside world, but he didn’t count on it simply crumbling away like that with just a touch. At the rate it was deteriorating he doubted it would last longer than a couple more days.

Putting the thought of his weakening bindings out of his mind, he focused back onto the window he had created. It was bigger than he intended, but it would still work. As he watched though, it started to shrink. He shoved the river of power through the hole right away, and finally felt the world around himself the way he should have been. His senses exploded outward, reaching so far that even he could even feel the Gateway.

Hundreds of the small green creatures were surrounding them, and more were still slowly pulling themselves free from the tree. Barely any time had passed at all since he had delved into himself. Half a dozen of the monsters were just starting to leap forward to attack. Uckey was scrambling through the horde, bowling aside any of the creatures in his path. For some reason he was running away from him and Sarena.

Good, that will make it easier to take care of them all. There’s no stone around here to use, and I don’t think fire would be a good idea in a tree...
An idea popped into his head at that thought. Uckey had never mentioned it as an element before, but he thought it
should
be possible. And his instincts were agreeing.

The river of power he had sent out was much smaller when he had a better perspective. It was only as thick as Sarena’s wrist, but that was still more than he should need. His tentacle of mana stretched out halfway to the creatures before stopping.

Time froze.

The tip of the mana stream exploded into thousands of threads of power, all of them twisting through the air in a complicated weave. They stretched in an arc, circling around him and finally connecting before stretching down to touch the stairs.