The Chronicles of Lumineia: Book 02 - The Gathering (41 page)

“What do you
think?” Trin whispered, not addressing anyone.

After a
moment, Siarra replied in an undertone, “Doesn’t feel right.”

Several
murmured agreements came from the others, including Mae. Taryn also found
himself agreeing. Looking at the still meadow leading up to a thin gap in the
peaks left him feeling unsettled. Something was out there, waiting.

“Feels like
battle,” Kell growled, and Taryn heard a trace of excitement in his voice.

“I have an
idea,” Jack murmured, and Taryn turned towards him. “Why don’t Taryn and I walk
up the field? If something is there, we are the fastest and can lead them back
to an ambush.”

Siarra
considered it for a moment, and then nodded her ascent, but Taryn thought he
heard a rumble of irritation from the giant rock troll at being left out. Taryn
shrugged and nodded at Jack. Gathering his courage, he walked into the light.
For several tense minutes they worked their way across the meadow until they
came to a tiny crevasse that split the stone. Tall and thin, the break would
allow a single person to pass through to the other side of the mountain, and
Taryn could see a column of light at the other end.

Jack caught
Taryn’s eye and shrugged. Taryn didn't see any sign of trouble either, but he couldn't
shake the growing sense of foreboding. Even after the rest of the group arrived
and they began filing through the corridor, Taryn refused to accept that
nothing was amiss. In his gut he knew someone was nearby, and he didn’t want to
be caught unaware. After a subtle glance at Liri, he slipped into the lead.

Their quiet
footfalls resonated in the tall corridor, and occasionally Taryn heard the
scrape of Kell’s rough skin against the narrower walls, but the stubborn rock
troll made no complaint. When Taryn approached the end, he slowed to get a
better look as the path began to widen. With his senses tingling, he reached
the light and stepped out into a small clump of trees on the edge of a broad
field—but Taryn’s eyes were drawn upward, where he saw a dark shadow rather
than the afternoon sun. One by one the others gathered around him, all of them
looking up at the sky as well. For as far as he could see south and east, a
cloudlike darkness hovered, giving a gray tinge to everything in sight. Only to
the west above the great lake did the sun shine.

“What is it?”
Trin asked.

“It’s the
effect of Draeken’s army,” Siarra said. “Everywhere their army resides, they
will block the light of day.”

“How is that
possible?” Liri breathed.

“You don’t
want to know,” she whispered.

Mae growled.
“Darkness will never be stronger than light,” she said with uncharacteristic
vehemence. Kell snarled his agreement.

“No choice but
forward,” Jack said, and flashed a ghost of a smile. “It’s up to us to pierce
the dark with the light.”

Siarra
snorted, but her eyes carried a trace of softness. “A thief with a cause?”

Jack shrugged
but the smile didn’t fade. “Let’s go.”

During their
conversation, Taryn had eased his way through the small stand of trees until he
could see the whole field. Although he’d felt uneasy on the other side of the
gap, the tightening in his chest had increased tenfold on this side. Glancing
back at his friends he saw that just Kell was still paying attention. Their
eyes met and the large rock troll inclined his head, his eyes glittering in
anticipation. Taryn thought he understood.

They are
here
.

“My friends,”
Taryn said in a tone that drew all eyes to him, “ready yourselves for battle.”

After a
second’s pause, Siarra collected herself, seeming to draw energy from the very
air. “I am sorry I didn’t notice it before,” she said. “Now that I am paying
attention I can feel their presence.”

“Fiends?” Mae
asked.

She nodded. “A
full contingent of five hundred quare, along with a hundred sipers and two
skorpians, all led by a kraka. They are in the trees across the field, but they
don’t know we are here yet.” During the past weeks she had shared everything
she knew about the enemies they would be facing, so she didn’t need to
elaborate.

“Any way to go
around them?” Liri asked, but Siarra shook her head.

“They are
watching the open area. The minute we step out they will flood towards us."
She paused, her eyes clouding with concern. "We will have to kill them
all. If even one gets away, they will warn the whole army, and then our attempt
to reach Draeken will be over before it begins.”

Taryn slid his
pack to the ground and eased his mother's weapon from its scabbard. “I’ll take
the east flank,” he said, and Liri was quick to join him.

“I’ll cover the
west,” Kell growled, drawing his massive curved sword. Trin and Mae moved to
stand next to him.

“Then we will
hold the center,” Siarra exclaimed, raising an eyebrow at Jack, who nodded in
agreement. Seeing that everyone was ready, she added, “If anything happens to
any of us, it’s been a pleasure knowing you, and anyone who survives knows what
they have to do.”

“Find Draeken,
kill him,” Jack said, and she frowned at his easy tone.

“We know
Siarra,” Mae murmured. “We will do what is necessary.”

Siarra let her
breath out . . . and then strode into the field. Ten feet from the trees she
stomped her foot, raising a block of earth twenty feet across. Twirling, she
sent it careening across the field to shatter into the trees on the opposite
side. Cries of pain and outrage rang out, bearing testament to her accuracy. Then
the dark mass lunged from the trees, snarling and howling for blood. The faster
sipers took the lead, their lean dog-like forms leveling out into top speed,
but the quare were not far behind—all of them heading straight for Siarra.

Taryn sprinted
southwest with Liri at his side. On the other side of the stand, Kell, Trin,
and Mae also streaked away, heading to attack the northern flank. Behind him he
could hear Siarra sending magical attacks into the large group of fiends, but
it was her taunts that goaded them to come after her.

Taryn came to
a halt a hundred yards away and turned to Liri. “Bows out?” He asked and she
smiled at him.

“Of course,” she
said, her eyes twinkling.

Taryn nodded, lifting
his mother's sword. Morphing it into the magical bow, he sent a blistering
barrage of arrows into the front dogs. Beside him, Liri added to the volley. One
by one, the arrows sank into dark hounds, sending their lifeless forms tumbling
to the ground, but others leaped over their bodies, their jaws snapping at the
delay.

In a rending
of trees and snapping wood, two giant Skorpians exited the trees and came into
view. Snapping their monster claws, they whipped their tails back and launched
their black spears. In a blur, they streaked towards Jack and Siarra with an
accurateness that stunned Taryn.

Siarra reached
out and her hand smacked the air downward. A half-mile in front of her, both of
the black spears tipped to the ground and impaled a pair of unfortunate quare.
Taryn felt a wave of relief and reminded himself of his sister’s skill. Turning
back to the mass of fiends, he saw that nearly the entire contingent had come
into view. Then a single hulking Kraka charged from the rear, bellowing in rage
as it dragged a massive obsidian sword.

In his gut
Taryn knew that this was insane, taking on such a group of fiends by
themselves, but if Siarra's prediction was true, they had to. Even as he sent
magical arrows of green light towards the host of black forms, he dwelled on
the outcome.

Peeling away
from the main group, several Quare and a few Sipers headed towards Taryn and
Liri. The ground shook under Taryn’s feet from the paws pounding the earth, but
he found peace stealing into his heart. Whatever the result, he was committed.
This was what he'd trained his whole life for.

He would not
fail.

A hundred feet
closed to fifty, and then to twenty, and then Taryn blurred into motion.
Leaping forward he twisted through the two lead sipers, striking both of them
down. Before they’d struck the ground he’d slain another. In a deadly spin he
whipped both of his swords out, striking flesh and cutting through bone so fast
that corpses piled in his wake.

Behind him,
Liri caught the few stragglers that managed to get past his searching blades,
and her own sword quickly drew blood. In moments the twenty or so that had come
for them were dead, and Taryn began to run towards the pack even as another,
larger mass broke off and headed his way.

A wall of
stone burst into his peripheral vision. Tumbling down the center of the army, it
crushed into fiends until it cracked against the trees. Then a fireball began
gathering above the thickest mass, held together by a cord of flame that led
back to his sister. He glanced towards Siarra and saw her face furious, her
hair billowing as she reached towards the fire with a clenched fist.

At the same
time he caught a glimpse of Kell on the opposite side. His sword mowed down
fiends like wheat. Whirling at a quare behind him, he seized its throat and
lifted it off the ground. Roaring into its face, the huge troll cast him into a
knot of enemies, and then charged into them. Mae and Trin guarded his flanks,
but kept a healthy distance as they fought.

Taryn felt a
surge of pride as he dodged a siper’s lunge, cutting into it as it flew past
him. Its snarl turned to a wounded cry, but he'd already turned away. Sweeping
his swords towards the next group facing him, he picked up his pace. Dogs and quare
were so thick that he saw no opening in their line, so he leaped high. Coming
down on one of the dogs, he smashed both his feet into it, crushing it to the earth.
Before it could rise, Mazer’s tip found its neck.

Quare and sipers
alike jumped at him from all sides, but he bent low and leapt into a slow back
flip. Sailing over the furious group, a flurry of strikes killed the closest
three before he landed, and another two died as soon as his feet touched the
ground. A massive explosion signaled that the fireball had dropped. Avoiding
the inferno, he swept through the black horde like an avenging angel.
Everything that came close died under a blur of sharp blades.

Angling back
towards Liri, he came from behind to wipe out several that had gotten around
him. Once she appeared safe he spun on his heel—and sidestepped a skorpian
spear, its tip cutting into the sleeve of his tunic. Furious, he bounded
through the black fiends, his blades leading the way.

A trail of
corpses behind him, he reached the offending skorpian. Even as it grew another
spear Taryn jumped and twisted in midair to avoid a claw as big as a
wheelbarrow. Landing on the hard back, he dodged a strike form the tail and
swept his sword through it as it extended past him. Blood spurt as the severed
tail fell away, and the giant beast flailed in pain and anger. Fighting to stay
on its back, Taryn kept his seat long enough to plunge his swords through the
shell.

The flailing
became frantic, and Taryn jumped so he wouldn’t be hit by the bleeding tail.
Mortally wounded, the skorpian gave chase, stumbling and clawing his way
forward, but Taryn was too quick. Ducking under a quare’s outstretched hands,
he killed it with a high slash and then lunged to the side to avoid the
charging skorpian. As it passed, a lightning blow sliced a pincer off. A
gut-wrenching squeal of pain rang out as the skorpian crashed, but its strength
was gone. Feeble and weak, it clawed its way through the dirt until a curving
arrow from Liri struck it between the eyes and it collapsed.

Thundering footsteps
caused Taryn to spin on his heels. A thick mass of quare had charged him,
attempting to crush him by sheer weight. Both his blades blurred as he cut the
first row to ribbons. Then he bull rushed into the second line. Smashing into
them with all of his strength and force, his shoulder crushed the chest of the
first, and he smashed his forehead into the skull of another, knocking it flying.
His long katsanas snapped out, reaching to slay all those left standing, and then
seeking the ones struggling for breath. In moments the entire group lay still.

A blast of air
streaked past him, catching black forms and tossing them like leaves before
smashing them into the ground. Like a controlled weapon, the wind honed in on
the thicker knots. Fiends filled the sky, until the wind died and they fell from
hundreds of feet off the ground.

Without
warning a giant black blade smashed into the earth where Taryn had been a
heartbeat before. Whirling he saw the kraka already sweeping his sword low,
intent on cutting through his midsection. Ducking at the last second, he
managed to get underneath the weapon and flicked one of his swords outward.
Ianna struck the white bone armor at the fiend captain's side. The strike chipped
a piece off, but didn’t penetrate. Instead it succeeded in angering the twelve
foot behemoth, and he bellowed in outrage.

Quicker than
Taryn thought possible, the great fiend reversed his heavy sword and sent it whipping
towards his head. Ducking again, he rolled between the fiends legs and cut both
blades into the armor behind the ankle. Again his mother’s sword couldn’t make
it through, but his father's enchanted weapon glowed blue as it sliced through
the bone and penetrated flesh.

The Kraka
stumbled, but somehow managed to turn around and send its sword into an upward
strike that would have cleaved Taryn from knee to skull—but he side-stepped and
darted close. Sheathing Ianna, he grasped Mazer with both hands and plunged it
through the protecting thigh-guard.

The hulk bellowed
in pain but Taryn was forced to dodge again as the huge form dropped to one
knee, bringing a massive fist down to crush him. Anger at all the fiends and
their master flooded Taryn, and he struck the obsidian blade with all his
might. Blue magic cascaded across Mazer as it cleaved the great weapon in two.
Before the Kraka could recover from the blow, Taryn grabbed a piece of bone on
the fiend's arm. Launching himself into the air, he landed on the wide shoulder.