The Vacant Throne: The Legend Of Kairu Vol 3 (8 page)

“
That’s enough,” an
eerily familiar voice called out.

A barrier appeared dividing the room
and separating us and the Evenawks from Davenport. Bak released his
arrow and it deflected off the barrier and fell to the ground. The
Mage, Davenport, stepped out of the shadows and towards the
barrier. The barrier lit up his face and I could feel the look of
shock slowly spread across my face as he smirked.

“
I had a feeling it
was you that was chasing me, ‘Diason’,” he said, staring right at
me with hatred. “Do you recognise me?”

“
Desroche,” I
whispered.

Chapter
7

Desroche was the Mage in charge of
Scert’chak while the Tower still controlled the Ghanlar Plateau. He
had given himself the title of ‘The Great Desroche’ and, I was
told, ruled over the city with an iron fist. It also appeared that
he was a master Mind Controller, something I should have connected
last time I was here.

I had left him alive so the Evenawks
could put him on trial and execute him. By the look on Bak’s face,
they had done just that. Or at least he thought they did.

“
You were Davenport?”
I asked, unable to form an intelligent question.

“
Genius isn’t it?” he
replied. “After my escape, I headed back to the Tower to report my
failure, but it wasn’t there. Your handiwork, I’m assuming?” He
paused for me to answer but I stayed quiet. “Well if it was you,
you did me a favour. My goal was to get rid of the Tower and unite
everything with me as the ruler anyhow. I wanted to have the
Evenawks as my backing army when I marched on the Tower, but plans
have a way of changing.”

“
So you went to
Balendar?” I asked.

“
Indeed,” he
answered. “Balendar’s armies are the strongest in the land. The
Evenawks have their purpose, but they are not a sufficient fighting
force to take on Balendar.”

Bak stiffened at the insult. “We
overthrew you.”

“
Your spirit is
wonderful, but against the heavily armed troops of Balendar, well,
there is a reason the small group of Humans made it this far,” he
said, looking over the group and stopping when he saw Lady Sandra.
He smiled. “It is good to see you again, Lady Middleton. Have you
come back for another game?”

I was expecting her
to snap at him but when I turned to look her in the face, I could
only make out her fear. After the entire journey and all that tough
talk, she was paralysed by the sight of her target. I turned back
to Desroche as he chuckled in triumph.

“
We had a lot of fun
with your dad last time,” he continued. “I thought you had learned
your lesson but here you are again RUINING MY PLANS!” He started
pacing back and forth along the barrier. “FORCING ME TO COME BACK
HERE AND ACTIVATE THIS BEFORE IT WAS TOO SOON!”

Aww is someone
upset?
Cathy mocked.
Maybe we should get him a cookie and lay him down for a nap.
I’m sure he’d feel much better.

“
How’d you escape?”
Bak asked, still baffled.

“
More importantly,
what are you doing to the Chieftain?” I asked.

Desroche smiled and stopped pacing. He
was no doubt excited to be able to talk about himself again.

He sure does love the
sound of his own voice,
Cathy
agreed.

“
Escape was easy,”
Desroche answered. “I’d experimented with suggestive phrases in
Mind Control for years. I have sleeper agents all over this city.
Even in the daze caused by the magic sucking powers of the Red
Jacket wasp honey, I was able to activate a couple of the guards
you had sent to execute me and was able to Mind Control the others.
At the cost of my loyal servant Spencer, I was able to send you a
jar of ashes that bought me my freedom. Sneaking back into the city
was just as easy. What I really want to know is how you, Diason,
escaped.” He turned to me. “Why, that’s the answer right in your
name, isn’t it, Demon? Only a demon can escape the Binds of
Silence. Am I right?”

I crossed my arms and smirked. “A
secret is only valuable if it remains a secret.”

“
How cryptic,”
Desroche smiled. “But you are mistaken in thinking that you have
any value to me.”

“
Are you going to
explain what you are doing to the Chieftain or do we have to listen
to you droning on all day?” I asked.

Desroche’s face
hardened and he walked back to the Chieftain and grabbed the staff.
“This is my crowning achievement; the result of decades of Mind
Control research. Using the blood of the Last Great Chieftain and
this focusing crystal, I will control the entire Evenawk species
with one spell. I may not have seized Balendar, but I left it
crippled.” The more he talked the more excited he became. “I will
march and reclaim Thurlborn Peak and with the combined power of the
Evenawks and Balendar, the rest of Kalenden will fall. And it
starts today, with the fall of Davalin.”

The beam of energy from the staff
turned red as the Chieftain became surrounded by a blinding white
light. The Evenawk guards started twitching as Bak cried out and
grabbed his head.

“
Run!” he shouted
desperately to us.

“
Don’t have to tell
me twice,” I replied, pushing Ser Wilson and Lady Sandra towards
the stairs.

We can’t
leave!
Cathy exclaimed.
We’ll never make it out of the city. We have to
fight; this is our chance to stop him.

He’s too well protected by the
barrier.

That’s what your
group is for,
Cathy said.

He’ll call every Evenawk in the city to
him. If we die here, the rest of the continent won’t know about
what is happening until it is too late. We have to regroup and
gather our forces.

Cathy sighed.
You’re right. We won’t have enough time before we
are overrun.

I don’t like it any more than you
do.

The stairs and interior of the city
hall passed in a blur as I ran at top speed. I opened the front
door and held it open for the others to pass through. We needed to
get back to the ramp Bak had led us up.

Screeches and pained
squawks filled the city as the citizens fought to hold onto control
of their minds. The group drew their weapons as a small group of
armed civilians approached. I forced power through my arm and
launched a Pulse at them to knock them off their feet. They were
the innocents in this, and I couldn’t bring myself to hurt any of
them. As the civilians dropped to the ground, we ran past them and
through the city.

“
We are really just
going to leave Davenport here?” Ser Wilson called out.

“
There’s nothing we
can do here ourselves,” I answered. “We need to warn
Balendar.”

“
We can’t let Davalin
or Thurlborn Peak be captured,” Lady Sandra said, breaking her odd
silence. “We will regroup and march right back here to kill
him.”

The once grand looking houses had taken
on a more ominous tone as the brainwashed Evenawks slowly emerged
from the front door. The marketplace had erupted into chaos as the
brainwashed struggled against the few that were resisting. They
spotted us and charged, screeching their unholy war cry. I forced
power through both hands and fire covered the bridge connecting the
marketplace to our location.

It would be silly to
think that creatures that could fly would be stopped by a simple
burning bridge, but given their mental state, it disorientated them
enough for us to slip past them to the ramp and down to the
ground.

The gate had been
locked shut on Bak’s command and the group would have to hold the
gate while I found the lock mechanism. The gate was designed by
Mages and would have a way to unlock it in the watchtower or on top
of the gate. Either way it was a long climb up the
stairs.

I don’t remember
seeing a way to unlock the gate when we were here last time,
Cathy said.
Of course,
we blew up half the watchtower and weren’t looking for
it.

Top of the gate then.

See if you can hit it
from the ground with a Pulse first,
Cathy
said.

We arrived at the gate where the Gate
Keeper and two other soldiers stood guard. They had already been
fully brainwashed and stalked towards us. I unleashed a Fireball
that streaked across the ground and hit the Gate Keeper in the
chest. Lady Sandra had jumped one of soldiers while Bill engaged
the other. The sky archers from the watchtower would quickly swarm
the area and I called for Ronnie to watch for them while I searched
for the switch.

I searched the entire gate, before
stretching out with my mind to see if it had an enchantment on it.
I felt a slight hum of a barrier surrounding a small portion close
to the watchtower. Studying the barrier was tricky. Whatever it
was, it was designed to prevent Mages from using magic on it.

Makes sense when you
are trying to defend a city from Mages,
Cathy pointed out.

“
Hold the gate, I
need to get to the top of the watchtower to open it,” I called out
to the group.

“
Be quick about it,”
Ser Wilson snarled, swinging the hammer at an oncoming armed
civilian.

By now the
brainwashing would be nearly completed. The gate would be overrun
in a matter of minutes and I took off at a full sprint towards the
entrance to the watchtower, my body slowly covering with scales as
I moved.

I ran up the stairs without breaking
stride and pulled out my short sword. The spiral staircase was
deserted as I climbed my way to the top. The brainwashing must not
leave too much room for strategy in the minds of its hosts. We
would have a chance at escaping if we could get outside and I cast
an Illusion spell on us.

The top of the watchtower housed three
Evenawk archers shooting through the hole in the wall. I charged up
two Ice Bolts and shot them into the backs of two archers. The
third one turned to me and jumped out of the hole, his arms
starting to meld into wings. I ran to the hole and saw him aiming
his bow with his feet towards me.

Maybe they aren’t as
dumb as we thought,
Cathy
suggested.

I held up a Ward and deflected the
arrow before shooting a Lightning Bolt towards the archer. It
streaked through the air quickly and caught the Evenawk’s wing as
he was trying to dodge. He shuttered and fell towards the ground,
slowing himself down before landing on the ground. Vincent was on
him quickly and I broke away from the hole to look for a way onto
the gate.

A section of the
watchtower looked like it had once held a door with stairs to the
gate. The doorway was a little misshaped and the stairs were
nothing but a single step and a memory. Both destroyed during my
previous visit to Scert’chak. I surveyed the gate and saw the lever
that would open it. I reached out and sent a Pulse at it. The Pulse
deflected off the barrier surrounding it and flew off into the
jungle.

“
I guess we’ll have
to do it the hard way,” I said, sheathing my sword.

Oh Void,
Cathy groaned.
Just do
it right.

I jumped out of the watchtower, hit the
top of the wall and almost bounced over the edge to the ground.
With my legs dangling, the claws from my scaled hands dug into the
wooden wall and I dragged myself back up on top. Sore everywhere
from my ‘landing’, I staggered over to the lever and flipped it.
The gate creaked slightly and started to open.

I scanned for a way down but my search
revealed nothing. A sky archer was shooting down at the group as he
tried to circle around behind them. I waited for him to get close
and jumped off the wall, grabbing the archer’s legs. He panicked
and squawked as he dropped his bow. Unable to remain in the air
with my added weight, the Evenawk slowly descended.

When I was close enough to the ground,
I let go, landing on my feet and falling over. The Evenawk also
landed hard on the ground and I struggled to my feet to launch an
Ice Bolt at him. The Bolt pierced his neck and he fell to the
ground.

Breathing heavily, I ran back to the
group and saw Bill covering Lady Sandra, who was down on one knee
and holding her side. Ronnie’s body lay close by and Vincent was
pierced from behind by a spear carrying Evenawk. Ser Wilson fought
on valiantly, his hammer taking out two Evenawks per swing.

I ran up and with both hands released a
massive wave of flames, burning a large group that was surrounding
Ser Wilson. He took the opportunity to fall back to Lady Sandra’s
position as more Evenawks were getting closer.

“
Get her out of
here,” Ser Wilson said to Bill. “I’ll hold them off
her.”

“
We can’t leave you
behind, sir, let’s leave now,” Bill replied.

Ser Wilson shook his head. “They’ll be
all over us in seconds. Go.” He turned to me. “Get her back to
Davalin.”

I nodded and helped Bill lift Lady
Sandra up. With an arm over each of our shoulders, she hung above
the ground like a sack of meat, barely holding onto consciousness.
Ser Wilson looked tenderly towards her before charging back into
the battle.

“
Come on,” I said to
Bill, starting to move down the road and away from the once great
Evenawk capital.

Once Bill started moving, he moved
quickly. We ran down the road and as far away from the battle as
possible. I searched with my mind and detected a group of three sky
archers incoming.