The Path of Destruction (Rune Breaker) (9 page)

He paused to watch a pair of minotaurs unfold iron legs tipped with spikes from the sides of one fodder wagon and begin to pound said spikes into the earth while a mixed human/half-elf team offloaded the bales of hay, bags of oats and the barrels of tripe and slurry they fed to the spiders and ornises, then turned to the minotaur Jaks Nullner, his second in command.

“Have the battlemagi construct gathering and storage arrays for
flaer
. There's not much here, but I don't want to rely on torches for ignition. Thirty-five foot increments should be enough. And have the sergeants make sure everyone has javelins; I don't want to take this to close range if I don't have to.”

Jaks huffed and tilted his head so the beads hanging from his horns jangled. “I would rather tear him open personally for Rumeddo and Flar's deaths, but I agree. Any idea what the thing is?”

Percival flared his wings, flashing the blue tattoos on them and shrugged. “Divinity spark is my guess. Some poor wretch at the Murderyard got sparked and transformed into that thing. Though I've never seen a newly sparked spirit beast summon up things like those stone creatures. When I was selling my sword in Rizen, I would have said Kimeans, but we're too far inland and too far east for them.”

A flick of his ear was Jaks's way of showing his uneasiness. “I would be more comfortable if we knew more about this thing. Spirit beasts new to their power can be tricky things to put to an end in the best of circumstances.”

“I am in complete agreement.” said Percival, “But I trust Liytheed when she says that farmstead is a death sentence for any scout. She has good senses for magic; better than you or I by far.”

“General!” a call came from above and Percival stiffened at the title. They'd found General Galvanner shortly before sunrise. His ribs had been crushed and one of his arms torn off at the shoulder. Confirmation of his passing and the deaths of all the Royal Guards sealed Percival's promotion to the position and that it required the death of such a man as Galvanner made him feel like a child dressed in his fathers' clothes, pretending at his work.

But he fought the feeling down and turned his eyes skyward. One of the Air Guard, a hailene named Emmara, was coming in low from the perimeter, escorting a familiar looking hailene with orange-red plumage. The guard pulled up gracefully and fluttered once or twice to land with a salute in front of him. The visitor, who he knew as Taylin, came down like a barrel dropped from an airship, landing in a crouch with her wings fully extended for balance.

“One of the ones that's been following us, sir.” Emmara said with the eagerness of a woman certain she's done something worthy of promotion—which was also how she announced that she was going on patrol, or taking tea. “She says she has information we might need.” Her tone and the sidelong glance she shot Taylin showed that she had no faith in any such information, but was gambling on it in hopes of a promotion.

Emmara was a relative newcomer to Solgrum's army, raised in the Eastern hailene tribes. She'd only just recently been forced to swallow her attitudes about minotaurs and wasn't ready to let go of the same regarding ang'hailene.

Percival recognized that she would be a determent to getting whatever knowledge Taylin possessed and saluted her sharply. “Very good, Air Guard. Back to perimeter post; I have a message I want you to pass along to the others up there: they are to shift the patrols eastward over this line and stand ready to form up. Off you go now.”

The Air Guard returned the salute and hurled herself into the air, quickly becoming lost in the gathering darkness overhead.

Once she was sure the other hailene was gone, Taylin frowned at Percival. “You already know then?”

“I try not to assume I know anything well enough that I can't add to my knowledge.” Percival started walking the line again with Jaks at his side. He gestured for Taylin to come with. Once he was sure she was, he continued, “The situation as we know it is that a powerful creature, possibly a spirit beast, attacked King Solgrum's gathering at the Murderyard, ultimately assassinating the King, plus the entire military upper echelon save myself. It then led us here, taking great care to pace itself and leave plenty of signs for our scouts to discover.

“That is, until we reached here: a place where the trail disappears, but the bridge is out; a place where my battlemagi tell me our mystical combat capabilities are severely blunted, and our freshly promoted Warden tells me it is adjacent to an abandoned homestead crawling with dark anima.

“It wants us to think it is a stupid, obvious beast, but it identified King Solgrum immediately and slew him and his defenders with maximum efficiency, then led us into a trap where a conventional army of Novrom would be almost defenseless. It has a military mind, but so do I. And my mind tells me that it intends to ambush us in the night.” He turned inquisitive eyes to Taylin. “Now. What can you add or disabuse me of?”

Taylin gawked for a moment, shocked that they had already discerned so much.

Jaks flicked an ear in her general direction. “We weren't always getting fat at a politician's trough. Up til a few years ago, we were mercs. Maybe the grunts that get their ranks handed to them can afford to be stupid, but a merc can't.”

“Right...” Taylin said guiltily. “You know most of it then. But I can tell you it isn't a spirit beast. My friend the chronicler... well he came up with a lie I was to tell you as you won't believe me, but I won't insult your intelligence. Do you know the Church of the Threefold Moon?”

“Kayda. Small god with a lot of city churches. There's few towns dedicated to his name, as I hear.” Jaks answered for Percival. Taylin marveled a moment at a hailene and a minotaur getting along and mentally elevated Percival's measure yet again in her book. “Nothing much to tell.”

“They have demons.” Taylin ventured cautiously. The looks the two gave her told her more explanation was needed. “I'm not the person to give you the whole story, but their god... makes demons.”

Percival shook his head. “A demon is a summoned spirit from the Seven Interlocking Hells. They don't have affiliations with gods of any type.”

“Maybe it's just a name then.” Taylin said, her feathers starting to stand up while she wrung her hands. “But the long and short of it is that Kayda makes and is served by monsters. Powerful monsters like the one that killed your king.”

Now she had their attention. Percival turned on his heel to face her fully. “Assuming they do have such creatures, why attack Solgrum? They have no church in Daire City; never approached him about it. As far as I know, King Solgrum was likely unaware of them.”

“I...” Taylin trailed off as her mind kicked into gear. Why
were
the demons doing these things? Backing the King of Flame and Steel in Taunaun, assassinating Solgrum, and... kidnapping Motsey? How did any of it fit? Did they just like chaos? No, that couldn't be it, that was lunacy.

She felt his arrival just as Percival, Jaks and all the soldiers in the immediate area put hand to weapon.

Ru had teleported in directly behind her, such that his voice actually reverberated in her rib cage. He floated, as he was wont to do, just off the ground, framing himself inside the curve of his scythe.

“It hardly matters, does it?” he said. Yellow eyes swept the assembled soldiers, daring them to come at him. “A creature of immense power lies in wait for you, intending to strike at you in a place where traditional battle magic is next to useless. Do you truly believe you have time for religious philosophizing?”

He gave them no time to argue. “Because if you are, allow me tell you something: you have limited
flaer, ere-a
and
vitae
reserves in this place. He is under no such handicap thanks to his connection to his god. I'm sure you've seen battle-priests and paladins on the field, yes? Well
every
demon of Kayda is a priest, drawing their power from him, only their very forms have been honed and transfigured to his purposes. And this one: Bashurra the Crevasse, is one of the eldest of their number. You are not fighting a monster; you are fighting a demigod.”

Murmurs rippled through the soldiers that had heard and was quickly relayed in whispers through the surrounding rank and file. Hardened though they were, none of them had come prepared to battle something like that.

Taylin sent Ru her thanks and stepped up in the lull. “But!” She shouted the word, louder than she knew she even could shout and in doing so, shocked herself into temporary silence. She recovered with a nervous cough because now everyone was looking at her. Something in the hailene part of her blood made her straighten to her full height and open her wings, projecting confidence.

“But my friends and I know how to cut him off from that power. And we have a plan to lure him out of the homestead and make him fight on open ground.” Now that she was going, the confidence became real and she started moving her hands, speaking with increased animation and vehemence. “I came here to rally you and ask for your aid. While we can cut him off from his source of power, he will notice us long before the seal is complete. We must give him something else to be concerned about long enough for it to be done.”

Percival nodded subtly and then it was his turn. He turned a slow circle, looking to his troops. He quirked a wry, cocky eyebrow—a mercenary's eyebrow—at them. “Sounds about like what we were going to do to this trull-dung smelling beastie in the first place, wasn't it?”

The disquieted murmurs stopped almost instantly, replaced by equally quiet mutterings of agreement. The army of Solgrum had been together longer than Solgrum's reign, and they all knew Percival; trusted him.

The newly minted general raised a leather-encased finger toward Ru. “What he said right off is all you need to know: It hardly matters. It hardly matters if this thing is a demigod or a demon; a spirit beast, or a conjuring. It hardly matters how powerful it might be, or if we need to rely on someone else's plan to put it in the ground.”

The agreement was louder now, punctuated by a few hearty 'yeah's'. Taylin watched with great interest as his words hit home, visibly bolstering the troops, and inwardly, she wondered if Percival knew about the Word and Song like Kaiel did.

“But I'll tell you what does matter.” continued Percival, “Solgrum is dead. Galvanner is dead. Trudrick, Almaize, Coltannic, Earthhammer. All dead. And the one responsible for it drew us out here and thinks he's going to kill us like a bunch of ignorant lap-bears. Not even lap-bears; like helpless cubs.”

Jeers came from the soldiers along with the banging of weapons on armor and shields.

“Ashing right we're not.” Percival nodded. “He thinks we're helpless? He thinks we're like Nov's own men back in Kinos, or the Ocean Guard down Rivenport way; too fat and slow from more big dinners than weapon drills? He
thinks
that we don't know how to send him back to whatever made him in neatly butchered pieces without the perfect conditions for spellworking?”

He popped his knuckles and raised a fist. “Let us show him how we bury an enemy. And tell him he can turn to ash!”

The soldiers roared their approval, a noise added to by clanging weapons, jangling minotaur horn ornaments, and hunter's horns.

A grim smile on his face at his army's loyalty, Percival turned back to Taylin and Ru. “We'll follow your plan then. But I will warn you: we're not as vulnerable as you believe.”

“Heh.” said Ru, as Taylin fished out the clay icon Kaiel had given her to signal him with. She gave him a glare, but couldn't stop him from mouthing off. “Pray tell what you plan to do against him with almost no magic?”

Percival met his eye with a smirk. “The best we can.” He tilted his head, already knowing his second would be there. “Jaks, have them raise and arm the
hwachas
.”

The big minotaur grinned, displaying filed teeth and turned to the forming line. “Wagon crews to the fore! Raise and arm! Check the braces!”

Other minotaurs, and to the man, they were all minotaurs that responded, leapt into action, fitting heavy cranks into hidden slots beneath the now empty fodder wagons and set their backs to turning them. Slowly, what had seemed to be the bottom of each cart began to rise up on gear-enabled arms, revealing that they were actually constructed of a thin tarp strung over a frame that held hundreds of wooden tubes.

Ru regarded them carefully and with mounting intrigue. And at the same time, Taylin broke the clay disk.

***

“I've seen wood walls like this before.” Rai said, settling into a comfortable spot where a thick branch met a tree's trunk at an angle. Once she was secure in her spot, she unslung her rifle and slotted a complex array of folding lenses and mirrors onto a notch on the barrel. “The trees never just all die like this.”

Kaiel was standing on a branch just a bit further down, hugging the trunk carefully, but not fearfully. He'd switched clothes to simple leathers and a woodsman's cloak like scouts wore. He was watching Brin's progress toward the farmhouses through a small, folding telescope. “It's the
nekras
contamination. They're not actually dead, they just look that way because they're not natural trees, but ones quick-grown with
vitae
.

“So the farm will come back once Brin puts up the seal?” She was flicking different lenses and mirrors into and out of her line of sight as she sighted it across the dark fields.

“If people choose to come back.” he nodded, “Which they might not after hearing what happened to the people here. No one's ever going to believe the Church of the Threefold Moon had a hand in this; they'll think the area is haunted by spirit beasts or something. That's the depressing thing about being educated at the Bardic College: you know the truth, but to everyone else, Kayda's just another small god; nothing to take note of.”

“We know.” Rai pointed out, locking in her chosen configuration with thumb screws.

“The
nir-lumos
seem to know everything, I've noticed.” Kaiel smiled. Then his smile faltered as a sound reached his ear. No one else would have been able to pick it out amid the creaking of the trees or the night breeze, but Kaiel's connection to the Song, and sympathetic connection with the icon he made ensured that he couldn't miss it.