Crown of Crystal Flame (49 page)

The first lines of Fey tried to stand their ground, spinning hundredfold weaves, filling the pass with blazing magic. But the revenants were too many. For each one they destroyed, ten more were there to take its place. The revenants reached the Fey lines and began leaping off the mountainside into the thick of the Fey.

Screams broke out as needle-filled mouths and acid skin ripped and dissolved shining Fey flesh.

“Earth masters! Bring down the mountains!”

Earth masters combined their weaves, tearing the sides of the mountain down and sending avalanches into the pass, burying the revenants beneath countless tons of broken rock.

For a chime, the Fey began to breathe easier. But then came the sound of shifting rock. The rubble moved. Clawed hands reached up from the shattered stone into the open air.

“Fey! Retreat! Retreat!”

Celieria ~ Orest

Rain soared across the sky, banking rapidly from left to right, soaring and diving. Another of those scorching Rainseeking bowcannon bolts was on his tail. How many of the flaming things did the Eld have?

Below him, Fey dead littered a battlefield crawling with revenants.

«Shei’tani, how’s your aim with a Fey’cha?» «Getting better by the chime.»

He curled back his lip and gave a growling chuff of tairen laughter.
«That’s what I wanted to hear. If I fly low enough, do you think you can grab some of those Fey’cha harnesses with a weave?» «I know one way to find out.»

He chuffed again and blew smoke. Flying with her in battle had shown him an entirely different side of his
shei’tani.
Gone was the frightened, nightmare-stricken girl, gone too was the strong and powerful
shei’dalin
healer. In their place was a fierce Fey warrior—one with a good eye for strategy, unhesitating courage, and a deadpan sense of humor that would put Gillandaris vel Jendahr to shame.

«Then let’s find out. And weave a shield around your hands in case the red Fey’cha slip their sheaths. There may be Shadar horn in your bones now, but I don’t want to put it to the test.»

He felt the brief burst of magic.

«Done,»
she said.
«Let’s go.»

He dove. Behind him, the bowcannon bolt followed suit. His wings spread wide and they soared low over the revenants. Fire boiled from his muzzle, incinerating a wide swath of the hideous creatures. Bright, blazing weaves shot out to his left and right, aiming just beyond the perimeter of his fire, and a collection of Fey’cha harnesses lifted up into the air.

«Got them.»

«All right. Then here’s what we’re going to do.»
He sang her the images of what he had in mind in tairen speech.

«Can you manage that?» «I think so. Let’s give it a try.»

Rain put on a burst of speed and soared up, heading straight for Orest. A frenzy of bowcannon bolts launched from the ramparts, but he flamed the incoming, rolled and dived to avoid those that survived his flame and kept to his heading. On his back, Ellysetta flung out spinning weaves of Air and Fire to clear a path. As they crossed the walls of Lower Orest, Rain veered sharply left then wheeled around back to the right and came in nearly parallel to the mountains.

On the ramparts of Upper Orest, the bowcannon were loaded, bowstrings cranked into firing position. Just before the sheer mountain cliff gave way to the stone ramparts of the upper city, Rain put on a burst of speed and said,
«Now, shei’tani.»

Ellysetta launched from his back in an Air-powered leap. She shot up into the air, her own forward motion and magic carrying her over the tops of the cannoneers and Mages gathered on the ramparts. Red Fey’cha spit from her fingertips in a hail of death. Below her, Rain engulfed the battery in a boiling jet of tairen flame, consuming cannon and cannoneers alike. He Changed into Mist at the last chime so the bolt that had been following him plowed into the open portal to the Well of Souls, taking half a dozen screaming Mages and Eld with it. He changed back into tairen form in time for Ellysetta to land securely in the saddle. His wings angled sharply and they shot up in a near vertical climb, soaring past the falls of Orest, leaving smoldering fires and corpses in their wake.

They burst into the open sky over the Rhakis. In the distance, no longer hidden by the Mists, he could see the pass of Revan Oreth, where hundreds of thousands of revenants covered the canyon walls like insects.

The Eld hadn’t brought bowcannon to the pass yet, so Rain took a few chimes to send a sea of boiling flame racing through the canyon. High pitched shrieks from burning revenants filled the air. Beyond the fire, Fey warriors cheered and raised their blades into the air. The echoing cries of
“Miora felah, ti’Feyreisen! Miora felah, ti’Feyreisa!”
followed him and Ellysetta as they banked around the column of steam rising from the first volcano of the Feyls and returned to the battlefield of Orest.

They burst from the pass over Upper Orest and dove back into the missile-filled skies.

«Rijonn, Tajik,»
Rain called as he swooped down for another strafing run.
«Gather the Earth and Fire masters. I have a plan.»

The Fading Lands ~ Dharsa

The sound of running and alarmed voices woke Lillis. That and a strange, icy cold that made shivers race down her spine. She sat up in bed, suddenly frightened. “Lorelle?” “Lorelle’s not here anymore.”

A shadow lunged at her from the darkness. She opened her mouth to scream, but something stung her chest. Her head went dizzy and the world went black.

Den Brodson threw Lillis over one thick shoulder and headed into the Well, following the Black Guard who was already carrying Lorelle back to Boura Fell.

Behind him, before the portal to Lillis and Lorelle’s room closed, the first screams broke the peaceful silence of the night as the others who’d come with Den to Dharsa opened more portals and an army of Mages,
dahl’reisen,
and Eld rushed into the Shining City.

Celieria ~ Orest

Bel snarled and hammered the revenants with powerful weaves of magic, all the while wishing he were slicing them to oozy green bits instead. Fey were used to fighting without magic. The Eld’s fondness for
sel’dor
made certain of that. Warriors were far less accustomed to fighting without their steel. And despite the Elves’ warning, he had to struggle to keep from reaching for his.

The foul stench of the revenants filled the air, making his eyes water and his stomach heave with each gagging breath. He was a master of all magics save Earth, which he could not weave at all, but his strength in all the other branches was exceptional. Even though his most powerful branch of magic, Spirit, was useless against these creatures, Bel was not.

He reached deep into the source of his power, drew it up into his body until his cells burned and light crackled around him in a glowing nimbus. He wove the vibrant threads into thick, sizzling ropes of power—Spirit, Fire, Air, Water—and fed those ropes into massive hundred-twenty-five-fold weaves that he and his brothers slammed into the endless wall of revenants.

The monstrous creatures shrieked their ear-splitting wails. Many of them dissolved, but more still came.

«Well done, kem’jeto,»
Gaelen complimented after a particularly fierce assault. Gil and Gaelen fought nearby, along with a grim-eyed Lord Barrial, who had enough Elf-blood in him to make use of the Light arrows he’d retrieved from fallen Elves, and enough Fey blood to spin a decent weave or two of his own.

Tamsin Greywing was mounted on the back of a Shadar and firing Light arrows as fast as he could. No matter how many he fired, his quiver never ran dry. As Bel watched, a revenant leaped toward Greywing, but the Elf cried something in Elvish and his mount reared up to impale the flying revenant on its spiraling silver horn. The creature exploded, enveloping Greywing and the Shadar in a foul, but harmless cloud of black dust. The Elf coughed and spat, patted the Shadar’s shining neck in approval, then began firing off Light arrows again.

To the northeast of Bel’s position, Azrahn surrounded Farel and his
dahl’reisen
in a shadowy cloud that glowed dark red in the night. Instead of twenty-five quintets spinning hundred-twenty-five fold weaves, thirty-six
chamas
—groups of six
dahl’reisen
spinning six-fold weaves—combined their power into massive two-hundred-sixteen fold weaves that pounded the revenants like steely fists.

Where the Fey’s weave took out a dozen revenants in a single blow, the
dahl’reisen’s
weave dusted a full score. But even that was not enough. For each revenant they destroyed, four more erupted from the ground to take its place.

Fey weaves and Elvish arrows set the air over the battlefield aglow, yet still the revenants advanced, pushing the allies back handspan by handspan.

Bel swore as more boreholes burst open and even greater numbers of the revenants boiled out of the earth. The supply of the thrice-scorched things was
jaffing
limitless. In unison, as if directed by some inaudible voice, the back lines of the creatures scrambled over the front and began leaping through the air to land in the midst of the allied lines. Where they landed, screams erupted as razor-sharp claws sliced skin down to bone and acid slime dissolved flesh on contact.

«Retreat!»
Bel cried.
«Retreat!»

They scrambled back, dragging the wounded with them. Bel slammed vortexes of Air and Fire at the creatures to buy his brothers time, and sent a private spirit weave arrowing across the battlefield.
«If you’re going to do something, Rain, now’s the time!»

«Damn it, ‘Jonn, Taj, are you ready yet?»
Rain snapped the question across a private weave to the two warriors of Ellysetta’s quintet.
«We’re getting slaughtered here! I don’t know how much longer we’ll be able to hold out.»

«Ready, Rain!»
came the dual responses.

«Then tell them to go! Now!»

«Order given, Feyreisen.»

The ground began to shake and rumble. In Upper Orest, rocks broke off the surrounding peaks and tumbled down into the city. Rain saw buildings sway, and Eld Mages stagger as the ground beneath their feet became unstable.

The earth cracked. Steam vents opened in Upper Orest. Mages fell back in fear and began to flee as the rumbling of the earth grew more violent and the steam erupting from the vents grew hotter. With a sudden, deafening roar, the entire city of Upper Orest exploded into the sky. Black clouds of smoke and ash billowed upward and fountains of glowing orange molten rock shot into the air and began pouring down the mountainside into Lower Orest.

How do you get an enemy out of a fortified mountain haven?

You had Earth and Fire masters turn the mountain into an active volcano.

«They did it!»
Ellysetta cried.
«They really did it!»

His triumph and hers didn’t last long. Barely a chime later, the cries rang out on the Warrior’s Path.

«Dharsa is under attack! They’re in the city! Fey! To arms! Dharsa is under attack! They’re in the palace!»

«Rain!»
Shocked into sudden sobriety, Ellysetta dug her fingers into the fur at the back of his neck.
«My family.»

Rain instantly sent a Spirit weave racing across the distance to Dharsa.
«Marissya… Dax… get Ellysetta’s family to safety.»

And then, several long chimes later, Rain’s wings faltered and she felt sorrow and concern well up inside him. Even before he spoke, she knew he’d received a private weave, and she knew the news wasn’t good. Inside her chest, Ellysetta’s heart turned to stone.

«Shei’tani… »
Rain hesitated.
«I’m sorry, beloved. Your father is safe, but your sisters are gone. Dax says a portal was opened in their room. They’ve been taken.»

“No.” She said. Her lips felt numb. Her whole body had lost all feeling. All she could think of was the dream, that horrible, hateful dream of Lillis and Lorelle, their eyes black as pitch, dancing in a shower of blood. And she knew, just as Sheyl knew when she had a vision, that her dream would come true
«Ellysetta.»
Rain turned his head as he flew.
“No.”
She said again, louder.

«Ellysetta, we will get them back. I promise you, shei’tani. As soon as this is over, as soon as we’ve defeated this army, we’ll find out where he’s taken them and we’ll get them back.»

“NO!
” This time she screamed it. The sound ripped from her throat like a tairen’s roar. Rage blasted up from that place deep inside, the cold, Lightless place where the beast lived. Ice enveloped her. Hatred consumed her. She wanted these Eld and their foul creatures dead. She wanted this battle to stop.

She wanted her family back.

Now.

Her body began to shake.

On the battlefield,
lu’tan
and Fey cried out as their magic spun out of their control. One moment, they were spinning fierce weaves to hold back the revenants, the next moment the shining flows of their magic headed skyward, sucked away by a power greater than their own.

Standing between the retreating forces and the revenant hordes, Bel, Gaelen, and Gil all looked up towards the sky, knowing instantly what was happening.

“Ellysetta,” Bel whispered.

Half a tairen-length away, Gaelen saw in shock that even the flows of Elvish and Elden magic were pouring into her.

“Bel, Gaelen,” Gil called, “we have no magic and those revenants are still coming. I suggest we run,
kem’jetos.”

Dragging their gazes away from Ellysetta, they ran.

Hissing, the revenants followed.

The magic didn’t burn inside Ellysetta, it froze. Her whole body felt encased in a block of ice.

«Shei’tani?»
She heard Rain’s call, but it came as if from a great distance.

These Mages liked death? Murder? Destruction? Well she would give them a taste of their own evil ways.

Her hands shot out, fingers splayed. Concentrated magic roared down her arms, setting her palms ablaze. She knew the weave. She’d seen it often enough. Fled from it often enough.