Shard Knight (Echoes Across Time Book 1) (49 page)

“The ring? But what about the heart?”

“They’re broken Danielle. They have been all along,” Ronan said in a whisper. “The rings will remove the taint.”

Pride placed the hearts in the sand and reached into his white robe pulling forth a pair of golden rings. He held the rings high above him. “These rings belonged to Elan, and he gave them to me. They are the means by which He will send his will through me activating His magic in my name alone.”

Ronan squeezed Danielle’s hand once more, and she lowered her ear to his mouth. “Do you still have it?”

She pulled a ring from her index finger and placed it in his hand. “You were right. Devery’s copy turned out perfectly, but it won’t do him much good.” She placed the ring in Ronan’s palm.

He smiled and wrapped his hand around the ring his mother gave him. Blackness crept in at the edge of his vision, and he knew he had mere moments before unconsciousness took him. “Now Danielle. Focus on your ring.”

Danielle gazed on the ring stretched high above Pride’s head, and her breath caught as she gasped.

Ronan opened his palm and concentrated on the heaviness of the ring touching his skin.

Pride twitched as Danielle’s ring pulled free from his fingertips and levitated a foot over his head. “Behold the power of Elan!”

A gasp rose from the crowd and soft murmured conversations replaced the icy hatred from a moment ago.

A wide smile stretched across Merric Pride’s stunned face as he gazed in wonder at the floating ring.

The ring nestled in Ronan’s palm rose floating skyward several feet over his prone body. As it moved higher, stark awareness dawned in his thoughts. The smells drifting on the late summer breeze grew sharper, the faces of those gathered inside the coliseum crystallized as individuals rather than a nameless mass of thousands. He watched the strands of Danielle’s golden hair float on the wind and saw the tear stains drying on her cheeks leaving behind tiny crystals of salt.

Both rings stopped their ascent and froze suspended in air held by an invisible hand.

“It’s as Elan wished. His power flows into me. I give you salvation!” Pride ignored the ring still resting in his right palm and focused his full attention on Danielle’s ring suspended just out of reach.

Danielle’s mouth hung open, and her eyes glazed over as she sat on the arena sand hypnotized by her ring hovering above Pride’s head.

The rings began a slow rotation looping in place end-over-end.

Ronan’s conscious mind slid from his broken body and hovered unrestricted by physical limitation. Ronan looked down on his battered body lying motionless in the sand. His glazed over eyes carried the same expression of hypnotic intensity as his sister’s. The pain that had dominated his thoughts a moment earlier fled. He existed as pure thought floating on a summer breeze toward the ring spinning a few yards above his mangled flesh.

Danielle’s eyes fluttered as the ring above Pride’s head drifted toward Lora’s Heart half buried in sand a few feet away.

A stunned Merric Pride gave up trying to explain the unfolding events and watched with childlike awe as both rings drifted through empty air.

Ronan’s mind intersected with the whirling ring, and he joined in union with another presence inside the ring.

Ronan’s ring spun faster and tracked closer toward Elan’s Heart.

Danielle’s ring hovered over Lora’s Heart spinning so fast it appeared as a solid golden sphere. Her ring emitted a faint aura of green light as it continued to spin faster.

Pride staggered forward two steps, stretched his arms out wide, and raised his head toward the spinning rings, his face a contorted mask of jubilant awe.

Ronan’s conscious mind floated above Elan’s Heart. The ring he’d joined morphed into some other entity he didn’t understand. He reached inward as he would to channel shard magic, and his mind jerked away as if touching a hot stove. The power within the spinning ring felt concentrated, alien, and pure.

Ronan’s ring spun faster changing into a golden white ball glowing with a faint aura of white light. It spun faster building a field of white light that stretched outward growing in size and intensity.

Danielle’s ring radiated an aura of forest green light that grew brighter and more intense as each moment passed. Shifting shades of green swirled and swam inside the aura as the golden sphere at its center spun ever faster.

Pride continued to spread his arms wide as he stood beneath the bright swirling auras of white and green light. “By Elan’s light, He speaks to me now and calls me forward to claim His power.” Pride yelled the words to the stunned coliseum audience as they stood in unison watching with silent fascination.

The shard knights surrounding Pride dropped to a knee and bowed their heads in the holy presence.

Bryson wiped the blood and sand from his face and knelt with the other knights in reverence to Elan’s power.

Blood drained from Lord Randal’s face and fear marked his expression as his hands trembled before the unleashed power. He tiptoed backward from the spectacle before a heavy hand grabbed his wrist, and he jumped startled at the contact.

Knight Jeremy stood on the arena sand with Rika next to him as his grip locked around Lord Randal’s wrist. “Where do you think you’re going?”

Lord Randal’s eyes widened as he tried to wrench free of the knight’s grasp. “I won’t be a part of this.” A shield sprang up around Lord Randal, and he screeched in horror pounding without effect on the detention shield imprisoning him.

The aura surrounding Ronan thickened and divided into swirling patterns of yellow, white, and blue. Elan’s Heart shuddered, and the aura surrounding the spinning ring grew larger and engulfed Elan’s Heart still lying in the sand.

Lora’s Heart glowed with bright green light at its core before the ring’s aura surrounded it. A shaft of green light opened between the spinning golden sphere and Lora’s Heart.

A shaft of white light opened between Ronan’s spinning ring and Elan’s Heart. A third shaft of light appeared connecting Danielle and Ronan’s rings. The light’s beam ran from shades of green to flickering shades of yellow, white, and blue.

“I give you life!” Wide-eyed, Pride yelled with a manic smile twisted across his face oblivious to his surroundings. “I feel the power take hold within me flowing like a mighty river!”

Elan’s Heart danced with pinpoints of light as the surface disintegrated traveling upward through the white beam of light.

Ronan’s mind raced with a new understanding of healing, shields, and battle magic as information flowed into his mind through the ring’s cleansing aura.

Lora’s Heart underwent an identical transformation as its core crumbled bit by bit flowing upward through the bright green beam of light.

At each aura’s center, a new heart appeared growing thicker with identical swirling lights as their predecessors. Unlike the old hearts, the new ones pulsed light outward in waves through the thickening aura surrounding them.

The final pieces of Elan’s Heart flowed upward through the conduit leaving behind a single golden ring lying atop the arena sand.

Ronan’s mind joined with the newly formed heart filling his mind and spirit with the power and knowledge it contained.

The auras surrounding the twin hearts thickened and condensed into separate orbs radiating colors unique to Elan and Lora.

Ronan’s conscious mind disconnected from the sphere floating above the arena floor. A moment later, he blinked and stared out at the blue Meranthian sky.

Enormous birds of prey by the score blotted the afternoon sun casting long shadows over the arena sand. Falcons, hawks, and giant eagles circled above each carrying a rider covered in a tangle of living armor.

The largest predator, a martial eagle with a twenty-foot wingspan, glided high above Ronan and Danielle before perching on the arena’s stone rim. Bird and rider by the dozen settled on the coliseum’s rim forming a long circular line stretching around the entire stadium. The eagle’s yellow and black eyes locked a murderous gaze on Merric Pride’s pasty white body as it perched waiting.

Danielle gasped as she locked her gaze on the martial eagle looming overhead. “Papa!”

With his mind back inside his broken bleeding body dying on the arena sand, pain blossomed fresh, raw, and intense. Through blurred vision Ronan’s eyes flickered toward Connal Deveaux’s hulking silhouetted form perched in front of the afternoon sun. A slight smile touched his lips as adrenaline coursed through his veins.

Ignoring the circling guardians and wardens, Merric Pride took a tentative step toward the repaired sphere containing Elan’s magic. “I take this magic into my body by the right given me by Elan, the creator Himself!” Pride closed his eyes and touched the thick glass-like surface of the sphere.

Raw energy crackled racing along Pride’s extended arm. Blue light flowed over and around his body as a look of extreme pain twisted his face. His eyes widened and bulged as his face spasmed. Pride’s thin dry lips flapped, and white frothy spittle seeped from his mouth. His body seized as the power of the sphere electrified him.

With Pride’s eyes rolled back into his skull, the sphere’s power repelled him a dozen feet before crashing in a white silk mound atop the sand. Pride’s shield cushioned his fall, and he sat stunned staring with incomprehension etched on his face.

Blackness crept at the edges of Ronan’s vision, and he strained to breathe through his broken mouth and nose. With his life slipping away, Ronan sought the reservoir of battle magic he’d grown familiar using.

Ronan’s heart raced as he discovered a vast ocean of power raging just under the surface. Tingles of exhilaration raced along his spine, and the pure sweet energy came to him in a flood decorating his vision with yellow, white, and blue colors. Ronan found the familiar battle magic inside with its strength magnified by a hundred.

Beside the battle magic, he found a vast healing power and Ronan sent torrents of white healing magic flowing through his blood and bones repairing the damage to his face, shoulder, ribs, and legs. With the healing magic, he found the third leg of Elan’s power, protection magic. With thought alone, Ronan pressed a transparent shield around his body hovering inches above his skin like melted glass.

A hushed awe passed over a hundred and fifty thousand witnesses as Ronan jolted upright and leaped to his feet. He stared down on his startled sister, and deep understanding passed between them. Danielle had gained the powers of both warden and guardian.

Pride pushed himself to his feet and pointed a crooked finger at Ronan. “By Elan’s law I order this traitor seized!”

Shields flashed on the half dozen knights surrounding Pride as they stood ready for combat. Knights by the score poured in through the arena’s open gates and circled Ronan, Danielle, Rika, and Jeremy.

Yellow magic flowed through the shard blades of no fewer than thirty battle knights. Dozens of healers and shield knights mingled with battle knights, and a hundred shields flickered to life surrounding Merric Pride’s shard troops.

Ronan’s gaze flickered toward the giant eagle perched atop the arena, and he stared into his father’s piercing golden eyes.

Seated atop the ring of guardians, every warden raised their glowing heartwood staffs in unison and looked down on Ronan awaiting his signal.

Ronan didn’t want the blood of thousands on his hands. He held his father’s gaze and shook his head.

Connal Deveaux shifted on his perch and let loose a short screech. The guardians and wardens atop the arena held their position waiting.

“Ronan, there are too many knights,” Danielle said.

As Pride had done a moment ago, Ronan formed a shield around his mouth magnifying his voice for thousands to hear. “This man who calls himself king murdered my mother in cold blood five years ago. I watched him carry out this crime with my own eyes. By Meranthian law and as the realm’s true king, I order Merric Pride arrested and tried for his crimes.”

“Liar!” Murder flashed in Pride’s eyes. He extended his hand as a dark blue orb blazed to life in his palm. “I want this man dead! He has betrayed Elan!”

Doubt flickered in the gathered knights’ faces, and none dared move toward Ronan or Pride.

Ronan closed his eyes and opened his mind to the floating sphere hovering a few feet away. Bright yellow flashed on the sphere’s surface as Ronan drew in its strength. When he opened his eyes he gasped as a cold chill crept along his spine.

Streaks of white, blue, and yellow energy stretched from the sphere outward to every knight standing inside the arena’s walls. Dimmer strands of energy stretched outside the arena walls to faraway knights.

“I offer sanctuary for any knight or royal guardsman that offers the courage and honor to stand with me,” Ronan said. “Come forward now or stand with the king and seal your fate. I freely make this offer only once.”

The knights inside the arena froze unwilling to defy their king before thousands of Freehold’s citizens.

“I stand with you Ronan Latimer, the true and rightful king of Meranthia.” Jeremy raised his voice loud enough for all to hear and crossed the arena sand. Rika followed Jeremy, and they stood shoulder to shoulder with Ronan and Danielle facing down a legion of shard knights.