This story is protected under international and Pan-American copyright conventions. Please remember to donate to Nifty if you're financially able to do so.
MY WEBSITE: http://slckismet.blogspot.com/p/books.html
My email: kavrik@hotmail.com
Pictures of the characters in this story: http://slckismet.blogspot.com/p/my-artwork.html
Full story chapters and discussion: http://slckismet.blogspot.com/p/discussion-board-for.html
For those of you who can't wait for new chapters, please visit my forum where I post months ahead. The chapters are bigger there than they are on Nifty. To see for yourself please go to
http://slckismet.blogspot.com/p/discussion-board-for.html
and find the folder that says "The Orb of Winter" and then open that up to view the chapters. Please note that the chapter order here will differ from my forum because I cut the chapters into smaller chunks for Nifty's audience. Also, if you aren't on my mailing list and want to be, please shoot me an email.
Please check out my books on my website.
Chapter Nineteen
Kian crouched atop the wall listening to Tomoluk bluster down below. He felt sorry for Salina and blamed himself for not getting here soon enough to prevent her death. But he also knew he couldn't allow himself to be distracted by grief because Ephram's life now hung by a thread.
In his mind Kian had already worked out how to defeat the stone-skinned Minotaur. So now he devoted his time to studying Cirumoghel, and he chose a place that he could strike that would do the most damage. Kian always attacked from behind if able to do so. Knights or those obsessed with honor referred to such an attack as dirty and exploitative. He didn't care just as long as it netted him the result that he wanted: death.
Now he just needed to get their attention.
"I give you all one choice," Kian said, standing up from a crouch and balancing with ease atop the stone battlement. "Let Ephram go right now, and I'll let you keep your worthless lives."
"Kill him and I'll split the bounty three ways!" Tomoluk screamed.
In a flash, Kian disappeared.
He reappeared behind the Nevrenachtur lord's right shoulder and the song of cibrian steel rang out from his left arm as he released the wrist blades from their sheath. He caught Cirumoghel unawares and lanced through the side of the giant's breastplate and cut him through to the flesh of his stomach—a fatal wound.
To add insult to injury, Kian twisted his dual blades forty five degrees, making hamburger out of Cirumoghel's innards. Blood squirted from the death giant's flesh. Kian knew that cibrian burned, and he relished every howl of anguish coming from Cirumoghel's lips. However, Cirumoghel also reacted as no one should. Kian expected paralysis. Instead, Cirumoghel withdrew from Kian's weapon with speed that did not belong in a being of this size. He struck Kian in the faceplate with his huge elbow; sparks showered the flagstones. The violent blow threw Kian toward the barn almost ten feet away. Right before he collided with the wall, he vanished into the sidestep and reappeared several feet to the left, his shoes carving six-foot long tracks in the snow as he dug his heels in to bring himself to a stop.
Undaunted (and a second later), he ran forward and engaged Cirumoghel.
The Black Dragon Assassin of the Silver Rose defaulted to clicking lotus style, executed a perfect leg sweep, and dropped the Nevrenachtur lord prone before him. Kian leapt up and thrust at the fallen giant with his wrist blade. Cirumoghel deflected Kian's blow with a snap to the wrist. The punch struck Kian with such force it nearly dislocated his shoulder. A split second later, he gripped Kian about the collarbone with the fingers of his right hand and threw the assassin to the ground like a dirty dishtowel. Kian landed like a cat, sprung to his feet, and massaged his shoulder, flexed his fingers, and then drew Bloodbane from its sheath.
In the meantime, Ephram sprung up from the ground. The Valion knight bull-rushed Mara Kano, ducked under a swing from her cadel, and came up into her midsection with his bladed gauntlet. The giantess doubled over, and Ephram kicked her in the chest. This sent the giantess sprawling, but she managed to stop herself as she slid into the shadow of Nasharwyn's huge wings.
"You'll pay for that," Mara Kano said, standing up. "No man strikes me and lives."
"No man that you've ever met, at least," Ephram said, drawing his sword.
In front of Kian, Cirumoghel rose on the wings of souls. The ghastly things howled and moaned in permanent suffering. Without remorse of any kind, the Nevrenachtur lord destroyed some of them to fuel his power. When he did so, flashes of light coursed through his shawl.
The cape of souls spun about him and stretched out nearly twenty feet, floating just above the tops of the snow. Sunlight briefly turned the horizon an odd shade of red. Before Kian's eyes, he saw the wound he had made only a moment before completely repair itself. Then, Cirumoghel's armor stitched itself back together.
"That's impossible," Kian said, mouth agape inside his helmet.
"Soul magic," Cirumoghel replied, as if in those two words lay an explanation to the madness he had just witnessed. Kian swallowed nervously as he realized he would have to remove Cirumoghel's head in order to kill him. But now, he understood the purpose of the black cadels.
These are soul reaping weapons. "Eph! Don't get hit with that cadel!" Kian yelled.
He had heard of the accursed axes, forged on the Plains of Lice that trapped the souls of all that they slew so that the users could destroy the spirit shards in exchange for the use of powerful necromancy. The giant swung the obsidian cadel at Kian, and he blocked it with Bloodbane. He used prancing cheetah style which favored defense and tremendous speed against foes that possessed size as an advantage.
However, the force of the repeated blows stung his hands and raised welts on his skin beneath the armor.
Kian swallowed the pain behind clenched teeth.
Sparks showered the snow and steam billowed forth in a noxious cloud. Cirumoghel swung again and again, flicking the cadel back and forth at Kian three times in a single breath. It was everything Kian could do to turn the blade aside, deflect, parry, and block. The reign of terror staggered him as did the discomfort from limbs that he felt might have fractured under the attack. He teleported again; this time Cirumoghel gestured with outstretched fingers. Claws from the soul shawl grabbed Kian in midair and tore him from within reach of the Nevrenachtur lord's back and hurled Kian into a stone staircase.
At least two ribs snapped in his chest. Kian tried desperately to ignore the hurt. He lay prone for a few seconds feeling ice pelt his back. He vomited blood onto his visor and his lungs burned. Kian refused to allow his body to stop moving.
Tomoluk cackled. His voice had that same smug tone to it as the day he'd bested him at the granite bridge on the far side of the Bone Wall. "And to think, I once feared you," the minotaur taunted. "I'm going to keep your skull to drink from and remember these fun times."
Kian staggered to his feet.
He tasted bile in his mouth; his hands beneath his gauntlets had split in multiple places. They bled from between the grooves and left red spots on the snow. Kian translocated, but this time he attacked Tomoluk. He appeared out of the sky, popped the jewel on the end of Bloodbane's pommel, and threw forward two chains attached to hooks. Kian managed to get them wrapped around Tomoluk's upper arm, confusing the minotaur. As Kian landed he ran under the minotaur's axe swing and leapt at the barn wall, kicking off and sailing up and over the windlass trailing the chains behind him. As he fell, he looped the chains over the windlass and when he landed a second time, Kian slammed Bloodbane into the ground to an inch from the hilt. He flicked a switch on the pommel and Bloodbane started drawing in the chain, effectively hauling Tomoluk into the air.
The minotaur panicked as his hooves came free of the earth and the power that made his skin solid granite vanished. Screaming and kicking, he swung at the chain with his axe, but it didn't break. Before Tomoluk changed targets to the windlass itself, Kian teleported with wrist blades extended and came out just behind Tomoluk's neck. With one swing, he decapitated the minotaur, whose body crashed into the flagstones like a sack of potatoes. As he landed on the balls of his feet, Kian kicked the minotaur's body with visible contempt.
A second later, the head of the great minotaur crashed onto the ground openmouthed and eyes still blinking. Steaming blood showered the clearing in a ten-foot circle. Then Tomoluk's eyes went dark. Kian had killed Tomoluk so suddenly that his body reared up, sprayed more blood around in the early morning, and ripped at the air with its claws. Then it collapsed next to the barn door, resting on its axe.
Cirumoghel seized Kian around the throat and lifted him off the ground. Exhausted and injured, Kian struggled with the giant man's grip, kicked at him with cibrian cleats, and swung his wrist blades about to slice off his captor's hands.
Behind them, Mara Kano rushed forward and grabbed Ephram by the wrist before he could amputate one of her limbs. She bent Ephram's arm, and the Crimson Guard howled in pain. An inch more and she'd break it at the elbow. Ephram's grip loosened and the knight's sword fell into the snow.
Kian landed his blow and took both of Cirumoghel's hands off at the wrist. When he landed, Kian rolled on the ground, came to a stop in front of Bloodbane, and grasped the handle. All of the chains withdrew into the pommel and Kian flicked the jewel closed. Then he yanked the sword from the ground and held it in front of him protectively.
The giant assassin burned more souls from his cloak and within a few seconds, new hands sprouted from his shorn wrists.
"Eph, if you've got a plan to defeat these two I'm all ears!" Kian yelled through his helmet. He limped toward the Crimson Guard while the two Nevrenachtur assassins rejoined each other to kind of circle their prey. That's when Nasharwyn attacked, and Kian didn't even see it coming.
A loud cacophony sounded in his ears, and both Kian and Ephram were swept off their feet by the full force of the emerald dragon's breath weapon. The force of the cone of sound was the same as that which tore the façade of the keep down. This time it broke a hole in the outer wall and turned huge barrels of provisions into matchsticks. Kian felt bones break as he landed, and rocks and then the front of the barn came crashing down on them both. Pinned by a large wooden beam, Kian knew he wasn't going to get up. And the pain was excruciating.
Ephram bloodied, but in much better condition, glanced at him through a hole. He thrust his hand inside and grabbed onto Kian's shoulder. "Come find me," he whispered. And then Kian felt something strange. He knew that some powerful and very holy knights could call upon the grace of their gods to heal themselves, but he had no idea that it could be used to heal others.
Warmth that Kian could only describe as a "holy light" filled Kian's body, and he instantly felt better. He felt strength return to his limbs and his broken bones knitted together. "Eph...what are you doing? Save yourself," he pleaded.
The Crimson Guard shook his head. And then he got snatched away by Cirumoghel who, with Mara Kano in tow, leapt upon the back of Nasharwyn. They slung Ephram's broken body across the saddle and he lay there like a dead fish. A moment later, the two assassins soared into the sky and disappeared from view in a swirling cloud of snowflakes.
"Fuck!" Kian swore, kicking his legs at the rocks pinning him down.
Grinding his teeth, he pushed on the beam holding him in place enough to wedge his body out from where the beam had him restrained. Then he teleported into the clearing and sheathed his sword. Gingerly, he pressed his hand to his ribs but felt nothing but strength there. He didn't want to take off his armor, but Kian was fairly sure all of his bruises had vanished too. Ephram's magic was strong, stronger even than Henna's. But Kian didn't know if Ephram could call upon it as often as Henna did. In the end, he suspected the Valion knight couldn't. Otherwise he'd have healed himself too.
Frustrated, Kian sunk to his knees and stared into the snow that swirled around the now broken wall. In the silence of the morning, he heard a "Tap Tap Tap." It caught his attention, and he actively listened for a follow up. That's when he heard a muffled voice call out for help.
"Is anyone out there? We're in here! Help!"
"Bloodbane, do you hear that?" Kian asked.
"I do," his sword replied. "I think it's your companions."
That gave Kian a start, and he turned toward the rubble pile that used to be a rather formidable entryway. Some of the blocks looked like they might weigh a thousand pounds, so he steered clear of those. But Kian was no stranger to hard work, having toiled in the rock mines of the mind lords beneath the Icewall Mountains while still on the quest for his fabulous sword. He used his visor to scan for heat signatures, but once again the cracked glass sputtered and went dead.
"Tethyr's teeth!" he swore. Then he kicked at a huge boulder and sent it tumbling. "Okay, Kian try to keep your temper in check," he muttered to himself, realizing that by acting recklessly, he could further endanger any of Ephram's team that was currently buried alive. Nimbly he picked a path among the fallen blocks, only scrambling atop those that looked like they had good support, and listened for the tapping noise to continue.
When he heard it again, Kian teleported over to the nearest granite block and started lifting: it easily weighed several hundred pounds. When he managed to get that free, he worked on several others. After about fifteen minutes, he uncovered a big air pocket and practically every muscle in his body burned from the workout. Several pairs of eyes stared back at him.
"Thank Djoser we've been saved!" Jareck exclaimed.
"Who's all with you?" Kian asked, peering in.
"It's Hunter!" Jareck yelled back. "We all survived thanks to Henna. Have you seen Salina?"
Kian saw several shadowy shapes crouched under what looked like the remnants of a big tree whose branches had been absolutely crushed. Near its base sat Henna, cross-legged, and in deep meditation.
"She's been like that since she cast a spell from an acorn and made that tree sprout almost instantly from the ground," Jareck said.
Kian tipped his head to one side and said, "Must be nice to have magic. Salina was killed by Tomoluk. I'm sorry, but there was nothing I could do."
"What?" Jareck asked. Kian didn't immediately answer. Instead he grabbed the dwarf by the wrist and pulled him through the opening and then set to work to widen the hole for more to come through. "What do you mean Tomoluk killed Salina? You can' leave a dwarf hangin' like that?"
"I saw it with my own eyes," Kian replied, pulling Fiver, Akagi, and Dallin free. Then he went inside to get Henna. In the meantime Annie and Brunhilda brushed past him on their way toward the courtyard.
"Leave me," Henna said. "My presence is all that's keeping this rock from caving in. If I move even a couple of inches toward that opening you made, this spell fails."
"Oh I'm not leaving you, druidess," Kian replied. "Not even if you begged me to. You're far too valuable to leave behind." He bent down and scooped her up in his arms. "You ready?"
"I didn't think you could carry anything with you when you...teleported...if that's what this is called," Henna said.
Kian shrugged. "It's called a quantum sidestep, but teleport works. It's extremely short range. I found the limits of it as a matter of fact...and only recently to boot."
"You haven't been doing this for long, have you?" she asked him, green eyes staring at her reflection in the shattered glass of his visor.
"Is it that obvious?" Kian asked.
"Not really. Just you kind of gave it away with the range comment. Someone more experienced than you would have learned how far they could push their powers."
"Yes, well, you see a lot with those big eyes of yours. Please don't tell anyone. I'm working hard on building a reputation, and thus far it hasn't been going so well."
"I won't say a word," Henna replied.
"So I ask you again, are you ready?"
She nodded and Kian teleported her out into the courtyard. As soon as she left the base of the tree, all of the wood splintered into nothingness, and the rest of the stone walls and roof collapsed in on the air pocket the tree had created with its branches.
"Well that's a bit of a surprise, isn't it?" Henna asked, catching her breath from going through the dimension Kian used when invoking his sidestep power.
He set her down. Now more than ever he felt tall because Henna stood almost a foot shorter than Kian.
"Thank you," she said.
"Don't mention it," Kian replied. Then he looked at the others who were silent and staring at the sky. Only Fiver seemed to be his usual spry self, hopping around the courtyard and recreating the events of the last hour simply by examining the tracks. "That goes for all of you."
"We owe you our lives, Hunter," Akagi said.
"I know," Kian stated. "But that's what I was hired to do. And now I've got to go after Eph."
"Who took him?" Henna asked.
Before Kian could answer, Fiver spoke up. "Tomoluk came out of the barn over there with Salina, whom he'd split down the middle. The bastard tossed her there and there," he said pointing at the ground. "Then came the battle with some impressive foes to boot, and a great winged dragon let loose with its deadly breath and caused all of this destruction. Shortly after, it took to the sky weighed down by three riders. One of them was probably our captain."
"Is that how it went down?" Brunhilda asked.
"Pretty much," Kian replied. "Your tracking skills are impressive," he said to Fiver who shrugged his shoulders as if to say "I know."
Shae sank to her knees in the snow and sobbed. Annie went to comfort her. "There, there," Annie said, patting Shae on the shoulder. This completely surprised Kian because he thought if anyone fell apart, it would have been the redhead.
"So what's the plan then?" Akagi asked. "We have no mounts. The only map we had was with Ephram. I don't even recall what this place is called."
"It's called Alsamarax," Dallin Christopher said. The bard walked up, cradling his harp. His face looked dirty with clay and dust from the collapsed building. His brown hair hung thick and matted around his shoulders, and some beard had grown in since the last time Kian had seen him. But Dallin's eyes and teeth both looked bright, and he looked grateful to be out in the open once more. "I have an ear and an eye for details. It's the way of the bard." Then he strummed the harp and the tune it produced made Kian smile, despite the setbacks of the day. "I started on a song dedicated to you, Mr. Hunter," he said. "The first verse goes like this: `It was a cold day when from out of the sky came a bird, no a dragon, no a fierce evil cry! Its breath came a blowing and it ripped down the wall, and our poor captain went alone to the outside; he faced down three devils whilst the rest crouched horrified. Buried alive we stood no chance at all, but brave Mr. Hunter powerful and tall, rescued us one by one from a perilous downfall.' How do you like it thus far?"
Kian shook his head, beaming with amusement, but of course no one could see that. The others said nothing. Annie even went so far as to roll her eyes in visible disgust.
"Too soon?" Dallin asked, with a little bow and a flourish.
"Somewhat," Jareck said, speaking up. "But I like the tune. It's very melodious, if not a bit depressing. Maybe you could punch it up a bit and make us seem more heroic."
"Are we really talking about songs?" Shae asked. "My best friend and sister elf, Salina, has been murdered. I can't even begin to say how awful this is. How did this happen? How did Eph not know how evil Tomoluk was? We need to bury her. Please."
"And you!" Annie exclaimed, pointing a finger at Kian. "You're just soaking this up when this is all your fault."
"My fault? How is this my fault? I didn't ask him to write it!" Kian yelled.
"You could have saved Salina," Annie said. "But you were too busy taking your time on getting here."
Kian stared at her helplessly. Of course no one could see his facial expressions, so he said, "I-I tried. I got here as fast as I could run."
"Well you didn't try hard enough. Because of you Salina and Eph are dead," Annie said, and then broke down weeping. This time, Shae gave her a hug, and the two women had a good cry fest at Kian's expense.
"I'll go get a shovel. Care to help?" Akagi asked to anyone listening.
"Of course," Jareck, Brunhilda, and Fiver said. The remaining crew just nodded, too emotionally exhausted to comprehend what was going on with Eph's kidnapping and the loss of yet another team member.
They're going to leave Zanda, Kian thought. But I can't leave, and I can't stay here. Fuck them. "I'm going to take off," Kian said. "I'm sorry, but I need to go after Eph right now. There's not a moment to waste."
"You're an asshole," Shae said, tears staining her muddy cheeks. "Eph's fucking dead. We need to leave this god forsaken country."
Kian nodded. "You're upset. I can see that, and I'm sorry for your loss. I really am. If I could have done something about that, if I could have gotten here sooner and stopped Tomoluk, I would have. I swear this on Tethyr himself. I came here as fast as I could. Tomoluk turned on me back at the stone bridge that crossed the river on the other side of that bloody wall. He was just as strong as he boasted, and I'm lucky to even be alive. As is, he's banged up my killsuit quite a bit and with this cracked glass visor, it's practically useless. I got nothing to ride on so I'll have to run the entire way. Maybe I can steal a mount at the next village. I don't fuckin' know what's coming next, and it scares the shit out of me to go into Zanda alone. But that's what I have to do. I made a promise, and I always keep my promises. I won't blame any of you if you all turn and leave here after you bury Salina. The ground's frozen and hard, it'll take the rest of the day to give her a proper burial. In that time, I could run the entire distance from here to the Holy City."
"That's over thirty leagues," Jareck said. "That's not humanly possible. Not in one day."
Kian shrugged. "I ran twenty five miles once in ninety minutes. It made me puke, but I could do three times that in a day. I'm fast, have rations designed to provide a lot of energy, and I've a lot of stamina. Obviously it helps that I'm a disciple of Tethyr. But even before being knighted by the god of thieves, I was one of the best athletes in the world."
"At least you're humble," Akagi said, sarcastically.
"I deserve that," Kian said. "I'm not trying to toot my own horn. Please trust me on that. I'd much rather not have to sprint from here to Zanda. There's uneven ground and snow and I'll have to leave the road whenever I see someone coming."
"Your visor is cracked?" Henna asked.
Kian nodded and turned his head so she could see the fissures in the sunlight.
Dallin whistled. "It looks like he almost split your head open. You can see the scarring on the brow there and across that prominent piece that sits over your chin, assuming you're human under that. Gods your face must be battered and bruised."
"I'm human," Kian said. "Flesh and blood like the rest of you. And I bleed too when cut. But I'm actually completely healed thanks to Eph. He touched me and this warm light raced through me like hot tea on a winter day. It swept away all the pain, mending my broken bones, and knitting my skin closed. I could feel it all happen in real-time. I felt touched by his god."
"Eph used his only `lay on hands' on you?" Annie asked. "You fuckin' bastard. You cost him his life."
Henna reached up and tried to touch Kian's helmet but he jerked away at the last moment. "Sorry," he said. "I just don't like people touching me."
"I think I can fix it," she said. "With a mending spell. If it's just glass, it should work."
Kian swallowed, not wanting to get his hopes up. "As far as I know, it is. I pressed it back into place with my fingers."
"Will you let me try?" Henna asked.
Kian nodded. "Yes. I've got nothing to lose, right?"
Henna reached up and pressed her fingers gently to Kian's visor and started mumbling the words to a spell. A little green energy spread out from her hands, and Kian closed his eyes to the glare.
"All done," Henna said, after about ten seconds. "It looks good as new."
Kian opened his eyes and tapped on the nose pad. The heads up display on the inside came to life. So did all his vital readouts and the controls for his energy net and for unsheathing his wrist blades. There was no sputtering either. It essentially behaved good as new.
"Druidess," Kian said, "I'm in your debt."
She smiled and brushed the snow from her hair. "I can cast another spell on your boots. It will last twelve hours and allow you to run atop the snow. At least it will keep you from getting bogged down and may help speed your journey."
Kian looked down at his shoes. "Please...I-I'd be so grateful for anything."
Henna knelt down and started to cast magic on the leather boots Ephram had lent him.
"Where will we find you in the Holy City?" Akagi asked. He looked around at the others who had questioning looks on their faces and said, "Look, you're all free to go if you want. I understand how some of you may think that this mission ended with Ephram's kidnapping. And yes, that's what I'm calling it. I don't think they killed him. Not until they get what they need from him. That gives us a window, but time's ticking. If we can get into Zanda and rescue him and his lord, well we have something. Hunter's leaving now, and I'm sure he's faster on foot than we'll be. But I want to know how we can get in touch with him once we get to Zanda."
Kian watched Henna enchant one boot and then started on the other. The soles of his feet glowed green for a moment, but that soon faded. "Once you're in the city, find the thieves' guild. I'll make contact with them, and you can get a message to me through one of the lads there. You can find them by finding Tethyr's holy symbol, which is a dagger lying in a pool of blood." He looked down at his breastplate and tapped on the symbol that rested above his sternum. "It'll look very similar to this. You may see it on a door, on a necklace, or painted somewhere so that it matches everything else around it. It may be difficult to spot, but believe me, every city of any size on this planet has some kind of active thieves' guild."
Henna stood and said, "All done, Hunter. That enchantment should serve you well."
"The next town is called Kalek Haru," Brunhilda said. "I remember that much. It means `the throat of hell' or something like that in Zandan."
"That sounds suitably terrible," Kian said. Then he saluted the group gathered there in the courtyard of the ruins of Alsamarax keep and vanished. He teleported to the far side of the now ruined wall and immediately broke into a sprint, flying over the snow as fast as his fleet footedness could carry him.
Chapter Thirty-Nine is now available to read at http://slckismet.blogspot.com/p/discussion-board-for.html under the label "The Orb of Winter" if you care to read ahead.
Are there any artists out there willing to draw some pics for my story? If so, please email me. There is an "Orb of Winter" map now in both the NEWS section of my website and in the FORUMS of my website.
If you go to my website directly from this posting, you will want to begin with "CHAPTER Fourteen" in the forums.