Hail to the Queen (Sage Trilogy, Book 3) (13 page)

“So what are you going to do about it? I’ve seen your work in Quietus. You going to build me a house? Can I get an apple tree and
maybe a chimney while you’re at - OOO! And a nice soft bed! Listening to you ramble has made me pretty tired.”

“I’ll show you,” James said as he sighed heavily and closed his eyes. He had only seen it once, but that was enough. He had plenty of time to think about it when he was stuck in Quietus with Catherine. It was
the only thing that made sense.

T
he only way Chloe could transform.

James heard a thunderclap in the distance, a rumble from above, and then
he saw it envelop him. It was like someone had taken a pitcher the size of a building and just poured a liquid made of light right over him. It splashed at his feet and drowned him in its substance. Once he felt the first drop, he concentrated. His fingertips, his hands, arms, shoulders, chest, neck, head, stomach, hips, legs, feet. Everything was baptized and born anew in raw power and pure energy. His soul had not just erupted from his hands and into the shape of a blade. No, it had exploded and painted his skin. It was only at the end, when he felt that the transformation was complete that he took a small part of that energy and fashioned it into his standard eidolon, though even this was no longer the same. He could already feel that it was more durable, its senses a little more acute. And what he sensed was disturbing…

Jester…wasn’t human. No…worse…he wasn’t even
there. Well, he was there, but…it was like he wasn’t. It was more like a mound of dirt was standing before him, powered by…something strange. He was nothing like anything James had ever felt or met before. Even the Quietus had a soul and essence powering their core. Yes, they may have been made differently, but they were still organic. Jester was more like a rock than anything else in substance. But how was this possible?

“It’s not nice to peek beyond someone’s clothes,” Jester chuckled. “So you’ve figured it out…kind of. I had no clue you were capable of such a transformation. If we knew, you
would have been killed with Chloe. I couldn’t show myself until she was gone. She would have figured me out. But no matter. Even with your little change, I just have to make sure you don’t survive. Then our plans will still be in motion.”

“Whatever you are, it doesn’t change the fact that I’ll stop you.”

Jester snickered and relaxed his face, focusing on becoming more serious.

James relaxed his shoulders and stared straight ahead, feeling his new body reverberate with purpose. He was now clothed in a white robe, laced with gold on its edges. His hair had not changed like Chloe’s but a hood
now covered it and draped over the upper half of his eyes. His muscles didn’t expand in size but he was undeniably stronger. His thoughts were sharper and clearer. He could see the little vibrations in his enemy’s movements, microscopic shifts under the skin that even he couldn’t know about.

They spoke volumes of his next moves.

He couldn’t read Jester’s thoughts, but he could see the electric sparks, the synapses firing off in the right places. He could tell what “emotions” he was feeling, what kind of actions he thought of taking. He could smell the changes in the air, when a warm current was coming from a literal mile away. He could sense the age of the trees below, how much the pebbles at his feet had eroded. He could sense that Catherine was in a deep sleep, but whatever she dreamed of, it was making her nervous. Most important, however, James understood the Quietus’s King’s proposal to Chloe. It was all so clear.

Nothing less than a thousand of their Kingdom’s bes
t had any hope of defeating her, but even with that, she was just too powerful. With the thousand alone, she would not have lost. Her senses would have been overloaded for sure, but it was the equivalent of facing an army of Terr. Nothing for a Sage to be concerned about.

It was her wound that ultimately killed her. She probably sensed no danger coming from the King and made her move. But since he had absorbed a Sage, he may have had all those years to adequately study them, including their transformations. When she attacked, he was able to wait for the exact moment he could take the advantage, a half a second before her senses sounded the alarm. With such a wound keeping her focus divided, the thousand were able to slowly but effectively cut her down.

Because based on what James was feeling now, he was confident of one thing:

Jester could not win on his own
.

“Be gentle,” Jester cackled as he ran forward with his silver eidolon stretched out before him like he was jousting. James waited until it was just about to hit his neck, then he swung his arm up from his side and parried Jester’s eidolon with his own. He continued sliding the blade across Jester’s until it reached the clown’s neck and through it. Jester’s head came clean off but James di
dn’t take it as a sign of victory. He swung around and let his arm embrace a mind of its own, lashing at the clown’s falling body like a whip until he was nothing but pieces of colorful cloth and flesh. He was amazed by how there was no blood or organs spilt, simply chunks of him, as if James had been chopping wood from a tree.

To his horror, the pieces began quivering and moving towards one another, fusi
ng and regenerating at a frantic pace. Every time he blinked, it seemed like a new appendage had been made whole. James searched for the core of Jester’s essence with his eidolon but found none. How could he die if he wasn’t really alive to begin with?

James considered chopping up the pieces even more but decided to let Jester make himself whole. Maybe he could get some information out of the madman as to how he could perform such a feat.

“What are you doing, James?” a deep voice shouted from behind, interrupting his thoughts. He recognized who it was before he turned to face him. It was his mentor and friend, one of the few adults he actually respected:

Arimus.

But his teacher had definitely seen better days. James’ eyes instinctively glanced at the lost right arm, only an empty sleeve remaining. He noticed his teacher’s skin was singed beyond repair. Though his face was relatively untouched, his forearms were scabbed and cracked. His beard had lost much of its hair and his eyes were weary. Even as he climbed the last of the mountain to reach his pupil, his body audibly ached in James’ ears.

“Arimus, what di
d they do to you?” James asked out of concern, but Arimus shook his head.

“Do not worry about me,” he said. “You should be more concerned about your enemy. Why are you allowing him to regenerate?”

“I need more information about Zen-echelon.”

“You won’t receive anything from him. He’s psychotic. If Prattle couldn’t uncover his secrets, how will you?”

“I plan on forcing them out.”

“I see your newfound power, but you’ll need more than that. You’re not invincible. Evidently, none of us are.”

“It doesn’t matter what you do,” Jester laughed, his upper half completely formed now. “It will all be over in a matter of days.”

“Say your last words,” Arimus said. “Then we will allow
you to know peace.”

“The ether,” Jester smiled. “
It’s done spreading.”

“Quit your lies,” Arimus barked as Jester’s smile stretched to its limits.

“No lies to tell,” he said. “The ether has spread over all of the Kingdoms. Why? Is it sooner than you anticipated?”

“If this is true, w
hat happens now?”

“My master makes his move,” Jester chuckled. “And if I kill two of the last Sages here and now, I’ll probably be given one of the Kingdoms for my own. I’ll make sure to request Allay. It will be fun subjecting your family and friends to all the delicious tortures I can think of.” He licked his lips. “And don’t worry. I won’t kill Catherine. I’ll make her my queen. We’ll have a lot of little Jesters running around in no time.”

James took off the clown’s head for the second time. Arimus placed a hand on James’ shoulder.

“Allow me to assist you,” he said as he unsheathed his windmill
-shaped eidolon from behind him. “Though I can’t be sure, I suspect this creature has a regenerative property that will surpass the limits of our human body. I fear that simply chopping him into pieces will end up with us hacking away for the next month.”

“What do you suggest?” James asked.

“Go ahead and do your work. I’ll call upon my winds to finish it. Even blades have their limits. In which case, you need to rely on more finesse and gentler tactics to get the job done.”

James cut Jester down to the best of his ability and then let Arimus take over. The winds coming from the center of his windmill eidolon wrapped aroun
d each piece like a ring and then squeezed, slicing each chunk into finer and finer dust until there was nothing visible. When Arimus was finished with that, he sent a large gust to wipe off the top of the mountain like a broom, sweeping the ash and dust into all directions. When he was finished, they both sheathed their eidolons.

“
If he can regenerate after that,” Arimus replied. “It will take a very long time.”

“Then we’ll have to-“

A sucking sound was heard from the sky above, and they both followed the source. Catherine had been released of her binds and was now falling past the mountain and to the surface. Still unconscious, there was no way for her to catch herself.

Arimus began to speak but James had already started running. Still in his heightened state, he only had to take three strides before he catapulted into the air, directly toward the Princess. He caught
her in mid-air and held her tight in his arms, caring little for what lay below him. They were still falling and picking up speed, but all James could do was hold her and get ready to bear the force of their landing. He dared not stick his eidolon into the side of the mountain for fear that he may hurt her with the sudden jolt.

But thankfully he didn’t have to worry
long as Arimus caught them with one of his winds and brought him back to the mountaintop in one swoop. He let them down gently just as Catherine’s eyelashes began to flutter. She smiled when she saw James looking down at her, holding her in his lap with a cheesy grin on his face.

“You look rested,” she smiled. “I’m glad, but –“ She rushed to her feet and glanced around angrily. “WHERE IS HE?”

“Dead,” Arimus said. “Or so we hope. James and I dispatched him.”

“How did you find me?”

“Eidolon,” James replied as Arimus nodded.

“Same. Once I caught on to your location, I made my way here as fast as I could. James was here first. Did he hurt you at all?”

“No,” she groaned, rubbing the back of her head. “But he knocked me out once we got to the mountaintop. I don’t remember anything after that, but I did feel myself falling. Lucky someone caught me…so how’s the mission going? How’s Kyran, Scarlet and Dominic? I assume they made it out of Quietus okay.”

“Kyran said that Dominic and Chloe had died.”

“But Dominic was alive the last I saw him,” Catherine said. “Did he say what killed him?”

“No, just that he had died. He didn’t seem very talkative, even for him.”

“And Scarlet?”

“Both Scarlet and Kyran headed to Zen-echelon. I’m confident they arrived by now. From here on we’re just waiting for their return.”

“And the stones?”

“In my care.”

“Then we head for our last destination: Prattle. That way, once we meet up, it will all be over.”

“I think we have more to concern ourselves
about than that. Before he died, Jester said that the ether was complete and Zen-echelon was prepared to make its move.”

“All the more
reason why we should head to Prattle. Let’s finish this by getting the last stone.”

“And what if Zen-echelon
attacks Allay in our absence?” Arimus said calmly. “Everyone would be lost.”

“If Allay falls, then we’ll be forced to align with another Kingdom, but either way, we will have a people. There should be no more
division if Zen-echelon starts attacking openly. The entire world would see what he’s doing and respond accordingly. I think that if anything, we’ll be attacked personally like with Jester.”