Crystal Throne (Book 1) (21 page)

CHAPTER XXIII

Thad and Jarrod walked in silence back toward the main gate of the arena. Thad had accomplished his goal; he had risen to the rank of a champion, now all he had to do was prepare a fight that the scion mage would attend and find a way to get his friends there, so that they could end the beast’s danger and work to close the portal.

“My lord,” an older man, who Thad had seen a few times around the area, said grabbing his attention. “The great lord wishes to have a word with you alone.”

“Guess I will catch up with you later then,” Jarrod said with a weak smile. “Once everything has called down we will have a party to celebrate your new position.”

“Thank you,” Thad said, wishing he could convey his true sentiments to his friend. “We don’t want to keep the great lord waiting,” Thad said, turning back to the messenger.

Thad was led to a large sitting room and quickly took a seat. He had spent years in the court and knew that waiting was part of the game. Champions were considered high rank, but most likely the scion mage would keep him waiting for over an hour to show him how low he truly valued him. Thad had never liked the game, but it was one that held a purpose and that Thad could understand. He just wished that the others could be here so that they could put an end to this now. As it was, he would have to play his part. He doubted that he could win a battle against a scion mage alone, even with the aid of his magic.

Thad was only left to wait a scant few moments with his thoughts before someone entered the sitting room and announced that the great lord was ready to see him. Thad was surprised to be summoned so quickly and hoped that it didn’t hint at trouble brewing.

When Thad entered the scion mages throne room, he found a great pressure leaning on him. The magical pressure wasn’t as bad as it was out beyond the boundary of the city, but it was still extremely strong. Thad looked around the room through his mage sight and noticed the source of the power. A man shaped tower of crystal sat in the middle of the room radiating ethereal energy.

“That answers one question,” Thad said to himself as his eyes scanned the rest of the room. From the news he had heard, the scion mage went through the portal without trouble and he didn’t know before now how. If the scion who moved into his own world worked the same way, the magical energy of the other world would not be strong enough to support it. Thad didn’t know how the tower worked, but it mattered little. It did, and that meant it had to be destroyed just as the mage would have to be.

The mage himself was unimpressive. He looked like any other scion, with the exception that he wore stately clothes and a thin silver crown shaped to look like a laurel reef. The throne he sat upon through was anything but normal. It was made of crystal, but it did not have to normal multicolor of the crystals found outside the city; instead it glistened a light transparent golden color with small swirls of silver. It was beautiful and Thad found himself marveling at it until a small noise drew his attention away from it.

“I thought I would get a good look at the man that has roused such talk among the people,” the scion said thoughtfully. “A man out of his youth who had appeared as if by magic, fighting with the skill of a hardened warrior. At first, I thought you had just passed attention, but now I can see that assumption was wrong. I knew all the kinds of people who have been admitted into my realm and none such as you has been allowed to wander free.”

Thad grimaced at the scion mage’s words. He knew that his game was up, he didn’t know how, but he knew.

“I see surprise in your face,” the scion mage said, almost chuckling. “I can see the magic running from your eye and foot brightly. I can also see a small stream of it going elsewhere. Did you not know that I am made of magic? I can see where it calls home and it defiantly runs through your veins. Now why don’t you tell me why you are here and I will see if I should have you killed or brought into my service.”

Knowing that there was little he could say, Thad did the only thing he thought he could. He attacked; not at the mage more than twenty yards away from him, but at the tower standing in the middle of the room. Thurman heeded his call and appeared in his hand, sending a strong stream of pure energy into the crystal tower. The pressure that he felt soon began to ebb, though he didn’t get much time to notice the difference as the room was filled with an ear splitting yell.

“What have you done?” the scion mage asked, jumping to his feet and ranking a line of energy at Thad that threw him from his feet and throwing him into the far wall.

The breath was knocked out of Thad, but his armor had saved him from any further damage. Thad quickly got to his feet and rushed the mage, putting the last of his already waning strength into his legs. Just as before, his sword seemed to move of its own thought and stuck the scion mage. Thad had doubted at first the blade would have much effect on the scion, but the second the blade touched the scion he burst apart into a fine dust.

Pulling himself from the floor, Thad looked at the blade as if it had betrayed him. Not even Bren’s sword had worked so well against the scions. Sure, it had cut through them easily, though it had not completely destroyed them. As he looked at the sword, he pulled himself up to sit exhausted in the only seat in the room, the throne.

“Magic find its own place within the weapons,” Crushers words echoed in his mind. He had said it long ago when he asked about the dwarven method of working metal. He had never truly understood what he had meant, though now he was starting to understand. His thoughts and the purpose of his working the metal helps to mold just how the magic will change the metal. When he had made this sword, he had thought of nothing but the scion mages, so it had found a way to aid him in that quest. It would take a lot of studying for him to figure out how it had worked, but once he did, he might be able to make more of the weapons or a least a semblance of them.

Seconds later the doors to the throne room were thrown open and four human guards rushed into the room. “Where is the lord?” one of the men asked with a stern look.

“Beneath your feet,” Thad said with a weak laugh. He could fight though he doubted that he could escape the palace unaided.

The guard shifted his foot in the crustal dust that scattered the ground and when his face raised he held a smile. “It would look like we have a new lord then.”

EPILOGUE

Thad was surprised to find that no one liked the scion lord and were more than willing to let him assume control of the city. The party that was held at the passing of the scion mage was larger than anything Thad had ever seen held before.

With the help of Humanius, it didn’t take him long to settle things down and get to work on sealing off the portal. The scions that had come with them found the portal different than they expected. It wasn’t a rip, it was more like a real door that could be open and closed with little effort once they figured out how it worked. Still, given time it would turn into a full rip and that meant that it had to be sealed.

The scions moved quickly, bringing in large amounts of glass to be used. Thanks to the artisans with the town it didn’t take long for Thad to start making the glass bricks. The hard part was figuring out how to enchant them, but he had been working on that for months. It would take only a scant few weeks to close the rift, the real question was what to do with the people who wished to follow him instead of returning to their homeland.