The Vacant Throne: The Legend Of Kairu Vol 3 (38 page)

Over the ramp and
into the city, I was pleased to see that nothing had changed. There
were no signs of damage or modifications and the Evenawks could
easily pick up where they had left off. A few citizens wandered the
streets, conducting whatever business they had planned. At the
sight of us, they stopped and stared.

“
Time to run,” I
said.

As we ran, the citizens made a loud
ruckus and threw whatever they had on them at us. Berries, pots,
pans, clothes, sticks, rocks, a wooden sculpture of a duck,
everything seemed to be fair game and was used without mercy. The
soldiers were able to use their shields to deflect the attack and
only I was ‘lucky’ enough to take a papaya upside the head, leaving
me sticky from its juices.

When the city hall was visible, I
scooped up a couple of the sticks that were thrown at us and
entered the minds of the pursuing citizens. It was easy to plant my
spell in their minds and I turned and threw the sticks towards
them. The sticks turned into three metre long snakes with sharp
teeth and a taste for bird. The citizens scattered, squawking in
fear and we crossed the remaining distance to our destination.

Three Evenawks stood
outside and slowly retreated as we approached. One let out a
disaproving squawk before they all entered the city hall,
confirming my suspicion that Desroche waited for us inside. We
slowly walked up to the door, trying to regain our breath and I
tried to remove the bits of papaya from my hair.

Cathy went first and
opened the door. We followed her in and were met by Desroche and
twelve spear wielding Evenawks, the last of Desroche’s guard. I
would have loved to instantly send a Fireball or something
Desroche’s way, but he had strategically placed himself in the
back. The Fireball would still take down a decent number of
Evenawks so I crossed my arms behind my back and slowly built up my
power.

“
Welcome,” Desroche
said pleasantly. “I knew it was only a matter of time before we met
face to face again. You can only kill off my minions for so
long.”

“
How many more Mage’s
have you tricked?” I asked.

“
Tricked?” he asked
amused. “They volunteered. In the Tower’s void there is no place
for magic users anymore. Non-magic users have made their feelings
towards us very clear. The Mages you have killed simply wanted to
be free.”

“
By enslaving the
world?” I asked.

“
By bringing order,”
Desroche corrected, continuing his pleasant tone. “Give people a
choice and they will waste it pursuing selfish means. Take away
their choice and give them a purpose and they will be happy. I am
only bringing them happiness.”

“
You’ve lost it,” I
said.

“
Are you sure it
isn’t you that is being the delusional one?” Desroche asked.
“Surely your life hasn’t been sunshine and happiness since you
destroyed the Tower.”

“
No, but it hasn’t
been unbearable,” I answered. “People’s reaction to magic is
misguided right now. They only need to be shown that we can live
side by side. Trying to rule over people and force them to live a
certain way has only put us in this hole. We will get past this and
a new way of life will replace it.”

“
And how long do you
expect that to take?” Desroche asked. “Better question. How long do
you see your patience lasting? People don’t change unless you force
them to. How long do you honestly expect to teach tolerance before
you simply snap and start forcing it on people? With our power we
were predestined to rule. It is our right. Put a non-magic user in
charge and you get nothing but words because the person doesn’t
have ability to make change happen. Put a Mage in charge and stuff
will finally get done.”

“
Look where it’s got
you now,” I responded.

Desroche smiled. “I’m
on the verge of winning. My army will defeat Balendar and its new
king on the Archanion field because the one who can stop me stands
before me waiting to die. I kill you and it’s all over. Every step
you have taken has led you right into a trap.”

“
Don’t listen to
him,” Cathy whispered. “He’s all talk.”

She’s right. He is
all talk. But the fact still remains. When I first arrived in
Scert’chak, Desroche had trapped me in a dungeon with the Binds of
Silence, a device that blocks a Mage’s ability to connect with
their magic and leaves them simple-minded, wrapped around my
wrists. If it wasn’t for Cathy I wouldn’t have been able to escape
and Desroche would have defeated the Evenawk rebels. Two cycles
later, I bring another army to fight Desroche and walk right into
his hands.

*

Although this time, a set of bars and a
pair of binds didn’t stand in my way.

I brought my flaming
hands in front of me and launched a Fireball towards Desroche. The
five Evenawks protecting him took the brunt of the attack and
Desroche turned the remaining fire away.

“
Kill them all!” he
called out, running towards the secret door that led down to his
machine.

With five of the
twelve already handled, I summoned power into my foot and stomped
the ground to disrupt the Evenawks. Cathy and the Davalin soldiers
attacked afterwards and I rushed in with my short sword
ready.

I picked my opponent and approached
him. He had been in the back and had avoided both the Fireball and
blast. It felt wrong to leave him out of the action. He swung his
spear towards me and I sidestepped, deflecting the spear with my
sword and launching an Ice Bolt with my free hand. The Evenawk
dropped and I took out one circling around Bill with some
Lightning.

The remaining Evenawks were no match
for us and the last was defeated quickly. All that was left was to
head back down into that secret room where this adventure began.
There would be no taking prisoners, justice system or trials.
Desroche must die.

“
Are you ready?”
Cathy asked.

“
Yeah, let’s head
down,” I said.

“
We should be
careful,” Bill said. “Last time he had the barriers set up and
there could be more birds.”

I was convinced that
his guard supply had run out, but it still didn’t make sense to me
why he would run to a room with only one escape. We would have to
be cautious.

I started towards the staircase and
stared down into its dark depths. “Anyone else want to go first?” I
joked.

“
We’re behind you
every step of the way,” Cathy replied.

Walking down the stairs was like
descending into another one of Cathy’s nightmares. Every step
brought you closer to the hell that waited. Swallowing my fear, I
focused on each step, getting more pumped up for the fight. This
was the end and it was about damn time it happened.

We emerged into the
darkened room of Desroche’s madness. In the same spot we left him,
Chieftain Harkis hung suspended above the runic symbol on the
ground. There were no guards or barriers and after searching the
entire area, no Desroche.

The Davalin guards
spread out along the room to ensure that no one could sneak around
us and bright white lights emerged on the floor underneath them. In
a second, Cathy, Bill, Rob and Gina hung suspended under a
different runic symbol.

Laughter filled the room as Desroche
emerged from a dark corner, wielding a large staff. “Even after I
told you that you were walking into a trap, you still fell for it.
I’m embarrassed to think of you as a worthy adversary now. You’ve
been just coasting by on your unusual luck, haven’t you?”

“
If I had any luck,
wouldn’t I be living in a grand house with many servants?” I
asked.

“
I said you were
lucky, not bright,” he snapped back. “My goal was to put you in
suspension too but after the Binds, I know there is more to you
than you let on, Daison.”

I smirked. “I’m always full of
surprises.”

The runic symbol
under Cathy started to flicker before disappearing and dropping her
to her knees. She stood up, readied her sword and shield and smiled
playfully like a cat about to attack a rat.

“
Oh, Lady Middleton,”
Desroche said amused. “Well, isn’t this a surprise. How did this
happen?”

“
You can say that I’m
not the same girl you met last time,” Cathy replied
playfully.

This was it. Desroche’s trap had once
again been foiled by Cathy. His face turned from that pleasant grin
to a frustrated scowl as everything started to click into place. If
we continued to follow pattern, Desroche’s defeat at my hands would
come next. He turned to me. “Did you want a frying pan for this
fight?” he asked.

“
Not this time,” I
smirked. “But thanks for offering.”

“
It doesn’t matter,”
Desroche said, pointing the staff at me. “Two against one just
makes this more fun. Shall we begin?”

Chapter
34

I made sure my scales
were at their maximum strength. Desroche was a master of the
Spirituality, but that didn’t mean he knew how to defend himself.
He didn’t rise through the ranks of the Tower and become head of
Ghanlar because of his looks. Though I’m sure in his head it’s a
different story.

His staff was still
pointed right at my chest. It was of standard Tower design but that
didn’t make it any safer in his hands. Cathy’s and my first goal
was to remove or destroy that staff. The longer he had it, the
smaller our window of advantage.

“
So, is someone going
to be the first to attack,” Desroche asked, “because I have better
things to do if we are just going to stand here?”

“
I thought because of
the ‘unfair’ advantage, you should fire first,” I
replied.

“
Aww,” he said in
mock sadness. “How stupid of you.”

The staff tip glowed
white and I was knocked off my feet by a Pulse before I could
react. The diversion had worked though, and Cathy had rushed him
fast enough that he was forced to defend himself with the staff.
The sound of sword clashing with staff filled the tiny room and I
jumped back to my feet.

Cathy was at a disadvantage as Desroche
used Pulses to keep Cathy unstable. I launched an Ice Bolt towards
him and he stepped back and held his hand out. A Magic Shell
covered the area around him and deflected my ice and Cathy’s
attack. With Cathy vulnerable, Desroche dropped the Shell, extended
the staff and covered Cathy in flames.

I rushed forward, summoned a large
amount of power and launched a Lightning Bolt with both hands. The
current hit the staff and Desroche screamed as it jumped from the
iron to his body. From the flames, Cathy emerged and kicked the
staff out of his hands.

Desroche staggered back and cast the
Magic Shell around him again. Cathy kept her distance and sized up
the Shell, looking for a weakness. I, however, had seen enough of
these at the Tower to know there was only one thing to do. I
charged up and launched a Dispel. The Shell wavered and I charged
up another. Before I could launch the spell, Desroche made the
Shell explode, taking Cathy and I off our feet.

I jumped to my feet in time to see
Desroche pick up his staff and launch a wave of ice at me. I
crouched down and covered my bare head with my scaled hands. I felt
the cold pile onto my scales and make my whole body stiff. The ice
stopped as he turned his attention to a rushing Cathy. Desroche
turned the staff towards her and a barrier appeared in front of
her. Cathy ran straight into it and fell to the ground.

“
Hey, kids,” Desroche
smiled, “want to see something they won’t teach you in
school?”

He extended his arm
towards one of the Davalin soldiers. The rune under the soldier
exploded and an electrical stream ripped out of the soldier and up
Desroche’s arm. His eyes glowed temporarily white before returning
to normal. The lifeless soldier collapsed onto the ground and it
took me all of my strength to remain focused on
Desroche.

“
You’re possessed?” I
asked.

He laughed. “Do you
really think I would let a demon into my perfect mind? Being able
to steal another’s life force isn’t the work of demons, just people
willing to extend their power to extraordinary limits. Now come at
me; I’m just starting to warm up.”

I shot a quick look
to Cathy. She looked equally worried by what she had seen. Desroche
was having way too much fun toying with us. If we didn’t start to
turn the tables then we would be doomed when he decided playtime
was over.

Cathy and I tried to
get to our feet but were immediately knocked down by Desroche.
“Sorry, I really should give you the chance to stand up,” he
chuckled. “Here.” We were pulled off the ground and thrown towards
him, landing on our stomachs at his feet. “Please, please, no need
to bow before me.” Cathy jumped up to her feet and Desroche held
her in stasis. “We should play the same little game we played with
your father. Wouldn’t that be fun?”

“
Try it,” Cathy
squeezed out.

I started gathering power and climbing
to my feet as Desroche concentrated on Mind Controlling Cathy. His
face changed when he realised that Cathy’s mind wasn’t what he
thought. I cast an Ice Bolt right into his chest and he staggered
back, releasing Cathy from his hold.

The ice was stuck in
a ripple in his chest. He looked down at it and pulled it out. It
should have occurred to me that he would have some sort of shield
protecting him from magic, but it was still enough to free Cathy
and maybe earn a little respect from Desroche.