Mind Forged: Book One of the Enchanters of Xarparion (33 page)

“
Nia designed it just for you. As you can see, it doesn’t have as much armor as mine, but you get to keep your speed and flexibility. That’s not to say it won’t protect you; in fact, Winya couldn’t even pierce that armor. It will also grant you speed and strength to match me outside of my armor.”

I could
feel myself tearing up, it was just so beautiful! “I’ll be able to run like you did on the way here?”

“
Yes, and much more, but to show you the rest, we need to get you into it.”

……………………………………………………………….

Alex

M
aya was ecstatic with the armor I made for her and was very excited to suit up. Thankfully for her, this set didn’t require the user to have the ability to shape metal. The chainmail went on first, and then all you had to do was snap the plates in place where they fused themselves in place automatically. We got her fully armored in half the time it takes me. With everything positioned, she looked in a tall mirror and was surprised at her appearance. I thought that she looked best in a dress, but I had to concede the way she looked now was incredible.

“
How does it fit?”

She
smiled, “It’s perfect, no pinching or rubbing. So what now?”

“
Now look at your left arm.” She did and found that all the plates on her left arm and shoulder were much thicker than on her right arm. On her forearm, there was also a round hole set into the surface. “As you can see, the armor is a lot thicker here so you can use your arm to block. It’s made the same as my shield, so you don’t have to worry. Also, that slot is for you to put Winya in.” She placed the bracelet in the hollow, and with a flash of light, the metal filled in around it and smoothed out making it look like nothing was ever there.

“
Well, this is strange. I feel like I have a real full body back.”
Winya said, as spikes shot up out of the suits arms and shoulders.
“Oops, sorry about that, Mistress!”

Maya looked at me
questioningly. “Winya now has control of your armor in some ways. She can shape it as she just did, make light pass through you to make you very hard to see, assist you in climbing walls. You can also make use of all her forms at the same time, like having a dagger in one hand and the crossbow in the other. She will even be able learn other things on her own, the enchantments in the armor follow her will.”

Maya didn
’t say anything, just wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me. A minute passed before she released me. “Come on, handsome, we have an army of undead to kill, or re-kill…you know what I mean.”

I took her hand
. “Are you going to be ok with this? I mean with the undead nightmares and all?”

She paused to evaluate and then squeezed my hand and nodded
. “Alex, I know this sounds weird, but it is as if those horrible dreams were a training exercise of sorts. Night after night, I fought them or,” she blushed slightly, “we fought them. Anyway, I probably have more experience fighting the undead than anyone on the planet! I know how they move, react, fight, and best of all, die. And with you and Winya by my side, I will never fear them again. Now I need to get back to my guardsmen.”

We got back up
stairs to find that the twins were ready in suits of silver scale mail that I made for them. I had already given them the rundown on how to use their suits this morning, after getting them done the previous night. Basically, the armor changes with them when they change forms. So as dragons, it protects their heads, necks, and undersides that don’t have the same amount of natural armor as the rest of their body. They appeared to be eager to try it out.

A few seconds later
, Nia charged in and flew right over to us. “Darroth is on his way, and he says that his project is completed and on its way as well.”

“
Good work, Nia.”

She looked Maya over from head to toe
. “Looking good, Warrior Princess!”

“
Thank you, Nia. I’m told that you designed this set for me.”

She was beaming
. “Yep, and I say I did an excellent job, too!”

Rosa came charging down the stairs with a bag full of
scrolls. She was about to go right past us but stopped when she saw Maya. “By the gods, you look hot!” Then went right back to what she was doing. Old elves…go figure.

Ten minutes passed
before Rosa was ready to go. We all went outside and found that Darroth was there in traditional dwarven scale armor and wielding a large two-handed axe. With him were both of our horses, armored and armed to the teeth. They both had large scale mail coats running down the back of their necks flowing all the way down their backs to their tails. The chest plates were nearly solid with just enough joints to maintain mobility. The equines looked like they could run over a hill giant without slowing down. Their legs were also armored with joints built in and had full movement, but the most noticeable thing was the massive plate with a one and a half foot long spike on their heads making them look like unicorns.

Maya gasped and covered her mouth when she saw them
. She turned quickly to me and whispered, “Silver and white armor, riding a unicorn! Alex, the dream!” I shrugged, not really having time to think about all the ramifications right now. As we approached the stallion and mare, they seemed to know what was about to happen. Both of them were tense and ready to fight. I turned to Darroth, “Excellent job with the armor.”

He snorted
, “Took a bit longer than I thought. But the thing that really got my beard in a vise is that they put that armor on themselves!”

“
They what?” How could they do that if they don’t have hands?

“
You heard me. I don’t know why I’m surprised by this crap anymore. Ever since I met you, it’s been one episode after another of things that shouldn’t be possible!”

Time was running out so all of us mounted up
on the two massive warhorses and rode off for the east gate. We arrived just in time, the first wall was completely overrun, and the guards had already fallen back to the much stronger second wall. We got as close as we could before I dropped the twins off on the ground, but I stayed on my horse. Darroth and Rosa got off Maya’s horse and joined the twins.

The
soldiers were in formation at the gate and saluted us as we approached. Corporal Higs marched up to us. “Ma’am, thank you for volunteering command.”

“
My pleasure, Corporal”

“
That’s not all, Ma’am. Well, the men talked and with a battle of this size coming, we may not all make it out. We feel we should clear the air. Ma’am, we know you are a dark elf, we’ve known for quite a long time.”

Maya was totally floored
. “But how? I was extremely careful!”

Higs smiled.
“True, you never showed your face, but sometimes we would catch a glimpse of skin at the top of your gloves or through a break in your armor. We never made an issue of it and, in fact, we all helped guard your secret from the other troopers.”

“
Why?” she stammered.

“
Because we didn’t care by that time. We already knew the kind of person you were, how much you cared about giving us the best possible training advantage to keep us alive. Hell, you even volunteered to go out on several patrols with us and ended up saving some of the boys when they got in over their heads.”

“
I don’t know what to say.”

“
We do have one request, if it’s not too impertinent, Ma’am. We’ve seen your illusionary face at the dance and the tournament, but with this being the last battle for some of us; could we see your real face for once? It would mean a lot to us.”

She p
aused a moment, and I knew she was choked up and stalling for time to compose herself. Slowly, she reached up and removed the helmet and smiled at her troops. All of their jaws dropped. I know how you feel, guys; she’s stunningly beautiful. Rosa sent me a mental message, apparently their respect for me just shot up even more.

“
I...um...wow!”

She leveled her gaze at the troopers
and raised her voice, “And as far as this being the last battle for some of you, I won’t have that! We have trained too long and hard for that to even be considered. So do your jobs, watch each other’s backs, and we will make them pay dearly for attacking Xarparion! Your report, Corporal?”

He
snapped out of it. “Sorry, Ma’am. The first wall has already fallen, but it was never really meant to do much anyway, just to keep siege towers at bay. But it looks like all they brought is ladders thankfully. Reports coming in say the main force is about four thousand strong.”

She thought on that
. “Four thousand is ok; we should be able to take on four thousand. How many are left?”

“
Reports say fewer than three thousand, but we have about five hundred at this gate alone.”

She looked around again before turning to us
. “Ok, here’s what we’re going to do. Darroth, I need you and your axe on the wall. Chop down any ladder they set up.”

He
grinned. “You got it!” And ran up the ramp to the wall.

“
Dawn, Dusk, I need you two to do what you can to limit their movement, keep them here, where we can see them.”

“
Yes, Mistress!” They both hissed in unison, already transforming into dragons and launching themselves up and over the wall. Their demeanor was drastically changed from the shy awkward girls who lived with us. In their scaled form, with their wings and claws extended, and fully the fierce dragons of legends, they caused a visceral chill to run down the spine of every human there. It was easy to see why dragons were so feared; their keening screams washed over the walls.

Corporal
Higs was flabbergasted by what he just saw. “Those two are dragons? Some of the men were working up the courage to ask them out!”

Maya
laughed. “Yes, so make sure none of the men shoot them, like right now.” He stumbled as he ran off and those of us remaining shook our heads. She continued, “Rosa, you said you had things to do?”

She
snapped out of it. “Oh yes, I was going to enchant the walls to burn ladders, it should affect the entire second wall but it will take time, so keep them off me.”

Maya
nodded as Rosa ran to the base of the wall and got to work. She then assigned two guards to protect Rosa as she worked. That only left the three of us.

“
Alex, I have a fifteen-foot-wide hole in my door that I need you to plug. Nia, I need you to go with Alex. I’ll also have five guards and five reserves for you two as well. Too bad this isn’t an open battlefield so we could make full use of the horses. Those two would crush these undead into dust.”

“
You can count on us.” I started walking to the gate.

“
One more thing, Alex.” I stopped and looked back at her as she murmured, “I love you.”

I
took a couple strides back and took her hand, bringing it up to my faceplate. I leaned in and whispered, “I’m but a simple blacksmith, and I do not have the words for a queen, but I have loved you long before seeing your face.” And with that, I dashed to the gate. Once there, I checked that my guard support was ready, and they were, but a bit scared. Nia was also ready and in her armor on my shoulder. I looked out at the sea of undead before us. Most still wore clothes and armor that appeared to be from faraway lands, as I didn’t recognize their gear. Many of the “older” minions must have been in multiple campaigns, as they were ragged and missing various parts, but were still mobile and deadly. Their weapons ranged from rusty swords and pole arms to merely sharp rocks. Some of the fresher looking corpses still had a semblance of coordination and carried better gear; a few were even still capable of loading and firing crossbows! Mixed in with the common foot soldiers were a handful of wights and ghouls. Great, there’s never a paladin around when you need one! One thing was missing, however; there didn’t seem to be any officers or other trappings of command structure. The scary term ‘hive mind’ came to my thoughts immediately.

The undead were
approaching steadily when Dawn and Dusk leapt off the nearby guard tower and breathed ice along both sides of the horde, funneling them to the section of wall that had the most guards on it, and also where I was. Nia fired off a few fireballs that destroyed many in the front lines but still only managed to break them up a bit.

Soon as they were close enough
, I sprung into action. I activated an enchantment in my hammer that made it glow with a white light. The first few were no problem for me, but as more and more approached at the same time, some started to get past me. The guards behind me were doing ok for now, but I could tell they weren’t going to last long. Seconds later, one of them went down with a ghoul on him. But before I could help him, my horse kicked the ghoul off him, and then stomped on its head busting it open like a rotten melon. The guard was very fortunate not to have been bitten and was able to continue fighting with a warhorse watching his back.