Rise of the Champion (The Sword of Kirakath Omnibus #1) (31 page)

A girl around his age was sitting, leaned against the wall next to the ladder.

She was a thin girl with deep red hair that fell to her shoulder blades and skin that was so light it was almost pale. Black leather boots, black trousers, and a sleeveless black tunic contrasted sharply against her light skin.

It was Katie.

“I should have known you’d show up,” she said with a weak smile. She cringed once the words were out, and her hands went to her stomach.

Caleb cringed as well as he saw that the front of her tunic was covered in blood. He could tell that she had been stabbed in the stomach several times from the holes in her clothes. The blood on her and on the ground between her legs made it clear to him that she was dying.

That thought nearly destroyed him. He had lost his mentor to a personal hunt, he had lost his best friend to a difference in goals, and he had lost his parents to bandits. They were all gone. It did not matter that they were gone for different reasons or that he only knew that his parents were dead for sure.

He could not lose Katie.

He quickly moved and kneeled next to her with concern in his eyes. “Katie, what happened to you?”

“The Night Blades,” she answered with a weak laugh. “I take it they’re after you too. That’s the only reason you’d be here. I didn’t realize they were after you too. If I had, I would’ve tried to find you so we could deal with them together. It would’ve been just like old times.”

Caleb felt the weight of a mountain fall on his shoulders as he heard her words.
They were sent after us both? Damn it, I never considered that possibility. I guess it’s connected to Cain Fell’s death after all.

“It still can be,” Caleb said as he put his hand on her shoulder reassuringly and gave her a weak smile. “You’ll make it through this.”

“No I won’t,” Katie said sadly. “I found their base, and they outnumbered me. I killed a dozen of them, but I eventually ran out of knives. Once that happened, they hit me with a few knives of their own. It took all I had in me to get away. I lost them in the tunnels, but they weren’t trying too hard to chase me. By the time I got here, I had lost too much blood and was too weakened to climb the stairs. I’ve been here for a few hours now.”

“Don’t give up,” Caleb said quietly. “I can’t lose you.”

“I’m sorry,” Katie said as she closed her eyes and laid her head back against the stone wall.

“No, you can’t die!” Caleb yelled, hitting his fist against the wall to his left. “You just can’t die. I won’t lose you too!”

Despite his yelling, Katie’s eyes did not open and she did not speak.

Tears began to bead in his eyes as he felt truly helpless. Once again, someone he cared about was dying and he could not do anything about it.

This is not like what you went through with your father. She can still be saved. She is only unconscious.

Caleb’s eyes widened, and he began to look around for the speaker.

I’m in your head. Stop looking for me, and pay attention.

While most people would have lost it if a voice entered their head and began speaking to them, Caleb was not most people. He had heard a voice speak in his head once before. It had happened when he was in the throne room in Draesa. “Can she really be saved?”

Even before the land of Terra was renamed as the land of Kyran, it was possible to save someone who sustained such an injury. You underestimate the true power of magic.

“Magic,” he muttered. “I don’t have magic, and she’d be dead by the time I could find a mage who could heal her.”

You are not a mage. I will give you that. However, that doesn’t mean you don’t have magic. You have  one of the greatest sources of magic in the world in your possession. That is the key to saving her.

“I can heal her with the Sword of Kirakath?” Caleb asked skeptically.

No, don’t be silly. The Sword of Kirakath is for killing, not healing. Mundane items like swords and armor cannot heal. The Blood of Kirakath, however, can be used to heal someone if you know how to and are willing to accept the consequences.

“What do I need to do?” Caleb asked. Though he was not absolutely sure that anything could be done to heal her, he was willing to try anything.

All you need to do is embrace the magic and place a hand on her head. All you’ll have to do from there is to think about her healing and will it to become reality. If it is your strongest desire, it will come true.

“Is it really that simple?” Caleb asked, more to himself than to anyone else.

It is simple, but there will be consequences for saving her. That magic was not intended for such a use. Using it for such a purpose is possible, but that doesn’t make it something that can be done without consequence. Only proceed if you are willing to do anything to save her.

“I’d do anything to save her,” Caleb said as he closed his eyes. His blood felt as though it was on fire immediately after the words were out of his mouth. A sudden impulse came over him to hunt down the ones who put her in the state she was in, but he pushed it aside with surprising ease and focused on his desire for her to be healed.

Placing his right hand on her head, he said, “I want you to be healed.”

Over and over, he repeated that one simple sentence. Every time he said it, the fire in his blood grew stronger and stronger. After he said it for the tenth time, it felt as though the fire consumed him completely, but only for a few seconds.

Suddenly, the magic grew dull. Still, he repeated the sentence over and over.

He only stopped when the magic fully left him. At that time, he opened his eyes and saw that Katie was no longer bleeding. On a closer inspection, he saw that her stab wounds had been closed.

“It’s a miracle,” Caleb breathed softly as he leaned against the wall to his left, tired from using the sword’s magic. “She’s going to make it.”

With that, Caleb passed out from exhaustion.

* * * * *

Caleb woke up sometime later, looking around in a daze. His entire body felt sore, but the important thing was that he and Katie were both fine.

He slowly stood up and faced away from Katie, his eyes darting around the tunnels.

At least no one showed up when we were out of it.

He stretched his arms out as he glanced back at Katie.

I’m pretty lucky that I was able to save her. If that voice hadn’t revealed itself when it did, I’d probably be starting another quest for revenge right about now. Still, I wonder what consequences it was talking about.

Shaking his head, he idly touched the hilt of his sword and closed his eyes.

It’s getting easier and easier to draw on the sword’s magic, but I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

The next thing he knew, he was embracing the sword’s magic. Like normal, it felt as though his blood was on fire, but there was something different.

Thoughts of fighting and killing overwhelmed him. The urge to run down the tunnels after the assassins and kill them all single handedly actually caused him to dash forward.

His hand quickly left the sword, and the magic faded away. As it left, his mind returned to its normal state, and he leaned against the wall, out of breath.

What in the world just happened? I didn’t even mean to use the sword’s magic, and the bloodlust was worse than anything I’ve ever experienced. Could this be the consequence that the voice spoke of? If so, I’ll have to avoid using its magic when I’m around Katie or Nicolas. It would destroy me if I hurt them by accident.

“What’s going on?”

Caleb’s attention suddenly turned to Katie as she blinked repeatedly and looked around with confusion clear on her face.

“How am I still here? Those injuries should have killed me… and if they did, this is a pretty screwed up afterlife.”

“You’re still alive,” Caleb said with a smile as he turned around and faced her. “I wasn’t about to let you die.”

“You saved me again?” Katie asked, clearly surprised. “How did you do this though? I don’t even feel sore. The only things stopping me from dismissing it all as a nightmare are the blood all over me and the knife holes in my tunic.”

“I’ll tell you how once I figure it out myself,” Caleb remarked with a sigh. He knew how he instigated the healing, but he still did not know how it worked. “What matters is that we’re both alive.”

“You’re right,” Katie said as she slowly rose to her feet. “You don’t know how glad I am to see you. I should never have insisted on parting ways.”

Caleb smiled at her words. “I’m happy to hear that, but we needed to part ways. I needed to find out that I couldn’t go back to living a normal life after everything I’ve done. That’s just not who I am anymore.”

“I guess it wasn’t a total waste after all,” Katie said with a little laugh. “Still, it seems that we were both hunted for taking down the Black Crows.”

“Yeah, I came to the same conclusion,” Caleb remarked. “They first attacked me a little less than six weeks ago.”

“How many did they send?” Katie asked curiously.

“Three,” Caleb answered. “I killed them, and then I headed away from there. I refused to accept that I needed to take care of the problem. Because of that, a man died a month later when seven assassins came for me. After I dealt with them, I sought Nicolas out so I could ask him for help.”

Katie looked surprised at that. “You took out ten assassins before you decided to deal with the problem? And you sought Nicolas of all people out?”

“Yes,” Caleb said, ignoring the look of astonishment she shot him. “I was hoping he had seen you recently so I could get your help, but he said that he hadn’t. And then ten assassins attacked us at the Black Raven Inn. We killed them all. Afterwards, Nicolas agreed to figure out who was after me. A day later, he told me that the Night Blades of Umbridge were after me, so I headed straight here to deal with them. I’ve already killed ten since I’ve been there.”

“You are by far the most confusing man I’ve ever met,” Katie said, shaking her head in exasperation. “You’re responsible for the deaths of thirty members of the Night Blades, and you’re just now somewhat close to their base.”

“I’d have killed more, but I decided to take care of them before anymore of their men could find me,” Caleb said firmly. “So what’s your story?”

“Two months ago, I was attacked by three assassins,” Katie said after a couple of minutes. “I was travelling towards Zabryan when they found me. After I dealt with them, I realized they I couldn’t just run away or hide, so I headed to Carek. I did my best to obtain information on my attackers while maintaining secrecy. I wasn’t hiding, but that doesn’t mean I could afford to announce my presence.” She shook her head at that point. “After I found out that it was the Night Blades behind the attempt on my life, I headed here to deal with them.”

“How close did you get to their base?” Caleb asked.

“I couldn’t quite see it yet,” Katie admitted. “They had five assassins patrolling the tunnel that leads to their hideout, and they called for some backup when they saw me. I took out the first five assassins and seven of the ten that came as backup.”

“We’ve taken out forty-five of them together then,” Caleb said with a bit of confidence in his voice. “Nicolas said that they only have a hundred men, so they probably only have twenty-five to thirty-five at their base.”

“You want to deal with them now?” Katie asked in surprise.

“Yes,” Caleb answered. “We can deal with them together. It’ll be just like old times.”

“I don’t have any knives,” Katie said with a frown. “Knives are the only weapon that I really use, and without them, I’m kind of useless.”

“Assassins carry knives, don’t they,” Caleb asked with a thoughtful look on his face.

“Yeah, that’s how they injured me,” Katie said, confused. “I shouldn’t have pulled the knives out and tossed them to the ground when I ran away, but I didn’t think I’d live very long.”

“So if I killed all of the assassins outside of the base, then you would be able to take their knives off of their bodies and use them, right?” Caleb asked.

“I guess,” Katie answered with a frown. “But you’re not going to be able to take on all of the assassins that they keep outside of the base. They normally only keep a few from what I’ve heard, but they have to know you’re in the city by now. They probably searched for you on the surface immediately. After they didn’t find you, they’d bring all of their men in the city down to their base just in case. Their leader might be prideful, but he is also careful.”

“You worry too much,” Caleb said with a light smile. “Just trust me. We’re not going to die, and we’re not going to fail.”

“Okay,” Katie said after a few moments. “I know how to get to their base from here. I’ll take that torch and lead you there. I’ll hang back and let you deal with them since I don’t have a weapon yet.”

Caleb nodded, but then he stopped and looked down at his belt.

I don’t know if I should do this, but I want to.

He suddenly unbuckled his belt and slipped his knife off of it. He carefully buckled the belt back before he held out the sheathed knife.