Keeper of the Eye (The Eye of the Sword Book 1) (2 page)

“It may be nothing, sir—”

“You don’t look like it’s nothing,” Queen Magdalene stated, her son snug in the fur-lined sling, cooing in her arms. Aldar wished for the hundredth time they had left him in Dalarhan.

“Three of my best scouts are missing. They wanted to return with a stag for you, but something’s not right. I can’t explain it exactly. We’re a full day within our own bord...” Aldar’s voice trailed off confused. The sense of danger had vanished. It had not diminished or grown weak. One moment it was there and the next it was not. He stood up in his stirrups, eyes darting in every direction.

“Commander, what is it?” Tobias demanded, scanning the open area.

“My deepest apologies Sire.” Aldar sat back in his saddle. “I must be jumping at ghosts. One moment I felt like a battle was about to pour down on us and the next it...it just vanished.”

King Tobias’ face dropped. His head whipped in every direction, scanning the circular tree line. Queen Magdalene mirrored his alarm. “Rally, Commander! Rally the men to the center. Now!”

Horns beckoned the Fist to action. The long serpentine procession compacted into a round mass as they raced to the center of the Heart.

“I want three rings of lances!” Aldar commanded, reigning in. “Archers in the middle!” The Fist surrounded the king and his family in circle upon circle of lances and arms.

The deep, bass of drums emanated from the north.

Boom, boom, boom.

Then more from the south.

Boom, boom, boom.

Sound erupted from the forest as the shrill of horns and yelling men added to the drums.

The blood drained from Aldar’s face. If a wizard had been ambushed in this place long ago, then history was repeating itself.

Men stepped out of the forest bellowing and rattling weapons on shields. A lone flag bearer carried a green banner with a golden falcon in flight on it. Aldar was certain it was a falcon though he could not tell from so far away.

“Treylan,” Magdalene gasped.

Tobias’ younger brother was a weasel. Lustful with a taste for cruelty, he cajoled, schemed and destroyed lives to gain what power he could. Publicly, Treylan was charming, winning people over with a well-practiced smile and a witty tongue. Privately he seethed with contempt for Tobias, conspiring against him though Treylan was far too skilled to leave a trail to himself. Anyone with a potentially wagging tongue met with an uncanny accident. He must have prepared the ambush while the Fist was in Cintaur. Had the invitation from Cintaur been a ploy? A dangerous course of thought.

“My Lord,” Aldar said, “I don’t know how they were hidden to us.”

“Spell of illusion,” Tobias growled, eyes burning with rage.

“Impossible,” Magdalene said. “The enormity of such a spell...”

“Apparently, my brother has aligned himself with warlocks.” Tobias twisted the last word like a curse. “Aldar sensed what was hidden to us. We have grown complacent, believing we were safe. We made it easy for such a spell to work. It’s the only explanation.”

Reaching over his shoulder, Tobias drew the Sword. “Sing your song of death for me, my friend.” The Eye awoke changing from pitch black to a shimmering crimson red.

A jewel imbued with incredible power and fused into the blade of a sword, few relics compared to the power of the Eye. To touch the Eye was to bear one’s soul. Created to safeguard Shaladon from oppression by an unjust ruler, the Eye named its own Keeper. When the Eye found one worthy to wield it, the marquise jewel glowed purple. To be named Keeper was to be named king. When called on, the Eye glowed red, infusing the Keeper with far more power than any magichae could wield alone.

“I’m going to separate my brother’s head from his body like I should’ve years ago. Then I’m going to find his warlock friends and put an end to their illusions.” The last word came out close to a snarl.

Magdalene’s gentle touch brought him back. “Tobias,” she said, glancing down at their son cradled in her arm. “He must survive.”

Aldar eyed the army amassing at the edge of the Heart. “Whatever you’re going to do, you better do it quickly.”

The sun glinted off their mismatched weapons and armor. Mercenaries. Aldar clenched his jaw. Ten thousand strong by his estimation. Facing ten to one odds a standard battalion would be decimated quickly, but the Lion’s Fist was no ordinary battalion. The odds were almost even. Almost.

“Captain Tersh, the north is yours,” Aldar said. “Captain Lamond, nothing gets through from the south.”

Tobias looked at the impending onslaught then back at his wife. For a moment, he looked lost in her eyes. She placed a hand on his cheek and kissed his lips. Raising their son to float between them, she placed her hand on his head. The air around the baby shimmered, creating a shield as she manipulated Air and Water, the elements at her command.

The baby giggled when the shield took on alternating hues of red, green, and orange as Tobias’ elements of Fire and Earth coalesced with Magdalene’s magic.

Tobias held the Eye to the shield. They were both powerful Elementals, but the Eye contained the Spirit needed to complete the complex barrier. His voice lowered, almost to a whisper, sounding close to a plea. “Guard my son.” The shield glowed brightly as a ripple of blue shimmered over the surface then turned invisible.

Magdalene gazed into her son’s blue eyes–the same striking shade as her own–then floated him to the carriage where one of his bodyguards took him in her arms. The woman shared a knowing look with Magdalene then disappeared inside the red frame.

The anguish on the queen’s face caused Aldar to shrink inside, but his resolve roared back stronger than before when her countenance turned to steel as she laid eyes on the battle approaching. She was a mother defending all she loved; she was the most dangerous woman he had ever seen.

The sky darkened with arrows racing toward the Fist. Magdalene threw her hands and face toward the sky, causing the air above the Fist to shimmer then solidify. Men ducked their heads or raised shields as the shower of arrows bounced off the invisible dome mere feet above their heads.

“That will protect us from arrows,” the queen said, resting on the pommel of her saddle, breathing like she had run a mile at a dead run. “For the moment.”

The mercenary army paused.

Aldar smirked.
Bet they didn’t expect that.

Few magichae rivaled Magdalene’s ability with Air. Aldar’s mirth faded. Judging from the exertion on her face, she could not maintain the shield for long. Expending all her power to delay the inevitable would prove a waste.

Tossing bows aside, the mercenary army charged headlong yelling as they ran.

“Protect the king!” Aldar bellowed.

“Protect the king!” his men roared.

“Archers, fire on my command!” Magdalene yelled.

Releasing the shield, she cried, “Fire!”

Six hundred arrows rained down on the charging enemy. Men fell only to be trampled by others behind them. Arrows continued to fly, slowing the mercenaries, but not stopping them. How close were they now? A hundred paces. The Heart no longer seemed so large an expanse.

“Hold!” Aldar bellowed.

Fifty paces.

“Lances ready!”

Ten paces. Aldar’s hand tightened around the haft of his axe.

“Now!”

The first ring lunged forward, an expanding ring of steel-tipped lances. The forces collided with a crash; bodies impaled, lances shattered and the screams of war rang through the air. Men who dodged the first ring of lances realized too late they had been funneled to become easy fodder for the lances of the second ring.

The Fist fought fiercely, but sheer numbers pushed them back, their formation breaking. Tossing bows and lances aside, the battle turned into a melee. Steel rang against steel; swords slashed, axes ripped, and the white snow turned red.

Aldar and Tobias locked eyes, words unnecessary to convey their mutual respect and appreciation. Aldar raised his half-moon war axe and roared, “Protect the king!” Tobias and Magdalene unleashed their magic as he charged into the fray.

Aldar beheaded his first opponent and cleaved his second as his destrier kicked a third man who tried to sneak up from behind.

Magdalene raised her hands chest high. The space in front of her blurred slightly as she sent a razor-thin sheet of Air speeding toward four attackers, severing them in half. Aldar moved to dispatch a man charging her from behind when the man’s chest exploded. He gaped in disbelief. A twenty-year veteran yet he had never seen someone destroyed in such a way.

“Protect Tobias,” she yelled above the melee.

Aldar split a man’s head with his axe. “Someone has to watch your back.”

Three more men fell to invisible blades. “Go!” she said.

Aldar cut his way through the mercenaries, cursing the ebb of battle that had separated Tobias from them. He found the king creating his own wake of destruction. Not only was the Eye glowing red, but the Sword and Tobias were bathed in crimson light as well. With the Eye increasing his abilities, the Keeper countered every attack with blurring speed. Chills swept down Aldar’s spine as several men fell to the red aura extending out from the Sword in a single stroke. He had never seen the Eye reach out beyond the blade. Tobias stretched out his free hand and sent the ground rippling like waves to explode beneath another group of attackers. He was in a rage unlike any Aldar had ever seen.

“Protect the king,” she said. It did not look like he needed it. Legends claimed the Eye was even more powerful when it turned blue, but the stories were vague about both the power and how it was accomplished. At the moment, Aldar could not imagine the Eye being fiercer than now.

“Get us to Magdalene!” Tobias yelled.

Happy to oblige, Aldar cut a new path toward her, men falling to his axe and war-horse. Tobias laid devastation of his own, wielding fireballs from his left hand and the Sword in the right. As they reached Magdalene, the ground shook violently, debris shooting up around them, throwing them from their horses.

Aldar had no time to question what had happened. He rolled to his feet, instinct driving him, as a curved blade struck the ground where he had been. His axe felt little resistance as it ripped open the man’s left side. Dancelike, Aldar pivoted and ducked as cold steel sliced the air an inch above his head. The strike left his new opponent exposed.

“Poorly trained,” Aldar thought, driving the great spike of his axe through the man’s breastplate with a sickening sound. He stepped on the man’s body to pull his axe free, but another man charged him with a yell. Releasing his cherished weapon, he spun with the man’s charge, drawing the short dagger sheathed on his forearm, and stabbed the man in the back as he passed. With a final heave, the axe pulled free, and Aldar continued his wake of death on foot.

The fighting raged, but the Fist faltered. Littered with bodies, horses, and broken weapons, the ground itself appeared to bleed. Separated into smaller groups, the Fist killed men two to one, but the mercenaries’ numbers were too great. Tobias, Magdalene, Aldar, and fifty men pushed together near the center of the Heart, encircling the red carriage.

Snow shot outward in a powdered spray as Magdalene sent a concussion of Air into the crowd of attackers. Bones splintered and bodies flew back as the wave hit their front line like a hammer. Her knees gave way and she slumped to the ground, blood dripping from her nose. Tobias sent a wave of fire into the pack of mercenaries before they could recover. Men fell screaming, trying to quench the flames engulfing them.

Aldar and his men met the next wave of mercenaries. They fought bravely, but eventually, one by one, they fell. Ducking to avoid a blow, Aldar backhanded a bearded man, the spikes along the knuckles of his gauntlet slicing deep gashes across the man’s face. The momentum turned Aldar around where another mercenary waited. He felt the sword slice through his armor. Falling to his knees, arm held across his mid-section, he leaned heavily on his axe.

The man bent down with a sneer. “Hurts, don’t it?”

Rage surged through Aldar. As life flowed from his body, he pulled the dagger from his belt, slashing the man’s face. Forcing himself to his feet, his axe sang its song of death one last time, eviscerating the man.

“You tell me.”

Aldar’s knees buckled. The last thing he saw was Tobias and Magdalene, back to back, beside the wagon.

Long live the King.

***

Tobias saw Aldar fall and knew it was hopeless. He could barely stand, and Magdalene had fallen once already. He heard his son crying in the carriage and it steeled him for what he must do.

“Maggie, shield yourself and the wagon.”

The air around them shimmered then solidified as she formed a dome around them and the carriage. The mercenaries beat against the invisible barrier.

“If we’re going to die then we’re taking every one of them with us. If you die, I die.”

“Maggie I can—”

“There’s too many. If a death spell’s going to be cast, then we do it together.” She kissed him to prevent his objection. “Neither of us has the strength left to do it alone.”

“You are the magic that completes me,” he replied. The words felt like lumps in his throat. He had always been amazed at how much their powers complemented one another. It had become their term of endearment.

She smiled weakly. “You complete me in every way.”

The shield shook. “It will break soon. We must do it now,” she said. Their son’s crying had stopped with the shield muffling the roar of battle. Magdalene leaned into the carriage and kissed him on the forehead, tears streaming down her cheeks. She could not make the words come out.

“Goodbye, my son,” Tobias said.

He held the Sword up before them. His brown eyes gazed into hers one last time. So many times, he had lost himself in their blue beauty.

She slid her hands over his, a smile pushing the corners of her full, red lips up to meet a tear as it slid down her cheek. Her heart melted the first time he ever looked at her. Her heart melted still.