The Archimage Wars: Wizard of Abal (47 page)

“
You would deny ME! I am
Medrod, the reborn, ruler of Abal! You have lost your World! This
is Abal, and it is MY World! Do not stand between me and my prey,
or I will do unto you as I did to my father!”

The Dragon actually laughed at that.
“I taught you how to trap your father, but do not think you can do
the same to me, Medrod!”

Medrod suddenly gestured at The
Dragon, and some kind of crystal started forming around the feet of
the Dark One.

The Dragon looked at Medrod darkly and
then gestured down. A blackness seemed to flow outwards from his
feet, coloring the floor in an expanding circle. As it touched the
crystal the green substance seemed to explode. The black expanding
circle continued to move outwards, and everyone, including Medrod,
took a step back from the pitch black flowing void.

But that’s when Morgain’s
reinforcements arrived, over thirty necromages poured in through
the double doors and into the chamber.

Medrod grinned and said, “Even a First
can fall!” Then he gestured to the statues at the sides of the
hall, and they all came to life.

“
Destroy The Dragon!”
Medrod screamed insanely, pointing at the Dark One.

Thirty golem statues headed for The
Dragon.

Hydan spoke, “And that’s what you get
for getting in bed with a crazy mage, they will turn on you every
time!”

But The Dragon just scowled and a look
of concentration came over his face, and he spoke to Medrod, “Don’t
be a fool, Medrod; together we have the upper hand
here!”

Morgain spoke to me, “Nicholas
Sivaeral, tell your companions to stand down or die!”

Medrod was almost foaming at the mouth
and he spoke to The Dragon, “I am the ruler of Abal! You will
depart Abal immediately, or die!”

The Dragon snarled, “Oh, it’s not that
easy, Medrod, you invited me in, and now I am calling my payment
due. I will take Nicholas, though you may have these
others.”

“
Ah, we might have
something to say about that,” Hydan noted dryly.

Myrka had been silent, but now she
started drawing a Star on the floor of the chamber.

But The Dragon’s blackness flowed out
and when it touched the red flames of the Star, the fire winked
out.

“
We will have no
interference here!” he noted. Then a new StarWard appeared next to
him, blocking any kind of Five Point travel.

Morgain’s thirty necrosouls were
slowly approaching us now, and cutting off any chance of escape
while the golems were closing on The Dragon. Medrod started toward
me with death in his insane eyes.

The Dragon spoke to Medrod, “You will
back away from Nicholas, or I will become quite vexed.”

“
He is MINE!” Medrod
thundered.

The Dragon’s voice grew louder,
“Medrod Sivaeral, if you attack Nicholas, I will consider that the
end of our ‘relationship’, and deal with you directly. Do not test
me!” His last line boomed out so loudly some of the pillars
cracked.

Medrod snarled at The Dragon, but he
stopped his advance. I think he wanted to see how The Dragon dealt
with the golems before he started anything.

The first three golems to reach the
black circle around The Dragon sank into the blackness, and then
black hands reached up and pulled the rest of them down. But the
black circle retreated. As each golem was dispatched, The Dragon’s
dark circle got smaller. But then The Dragon roared, and lifted a
hand to point at three of the approaching golems. Derkaz power
lanced out, and they exploded.

In a few moments he had dispatched
them all, and then he turned on Medrod, “I am growing impatient
with your lack of respect, Second! Do NOT attack Nicholas, or my
next attack will fall on you!”

I was surprised he hadn’t destroyed
Medrod already, but then I realized he had invested a lot of time
and energy in this Sivaeral Second, and he probably didn’t want to
destroy his tool if he could help it.

But then a sly smile appeared at the
corner of Medrod' s face, and I liked that even less than his
snarl.

He turned to face me again, though he
did not raise Caliburn. “I will give you to The Dragon, to do with
as he wishes, but I will keep your little sorceress as my personal
pet! Do you know what I did to your little Ziny?”

My eyes narrowed, which made his smile
grow even wider.

Medrod added, “No? Well, I see even
the thought has made you angry!”

“
You have never seen me
angry,” I answered. I’d figured out Medrod’s game, he wanted me to
attack him, and then he could kill me without going against The
Dragon’s orders.

“
No?” he said, and then
smiled, “Well, here is your little friend now.”

Right then, a very small form entered
the chamber through the double doors, flanked by two necrosouls.
Their small prisoner had a hooded cloak up, so I couldn’t yet see
if this was really Ziny.

When she drew near to me she suddenly
reached up and pulled down her hood with both hands, and then
smiled. It really was Ziny. But that’s when I saw her milky white
eyes and drawn skin.

I whirled to face Medrod, “You sick
murderer!” I screamed, realizing the truth, Medrod had already
killed the little girl and then had his wife bring her back. Ziny
was now one of their undead necromages.

Ziny leaped at me, and at the last
moment, she drew a knife and slashed at my throat with a snarl on
her little saeran face, now so dry and hard in death.

“
STOP THIS!” The Dragon
bellowed.

But Ziny continued to
attack.

I parried with my Bowie knife, but she
turned and leaped in again, trying for a disemboweling
thrust.

“
This is not Ziny, not
anymore,” Toji yelled to me. “Fight!”

But I couldn’t bring myself to harm
the little saeran girl I’d known and loved. I remembered her
little-crooked smile and happy laugh, and her compassion for Myrka
when another would have let the Tarvos sorceress die. Something
deep inside me started to boil.

Then Ziny slashed with her knife,
catching me across the upper thigh and drawing blue saeran blood.
In my moment of sharp pain, she had me distracted and leaped for my
throat, her knife extended to stab.

Without conscious thought, my blade
swept sideways in a move which was part of my past skills, a very
deadly move. The thick and weighty Bowie knife’s sharp edge raced
for Ziny’s throat. At the last instant, I knew what was happening,
and tried to stop my natural reaction, but I was too late. The
blade hit her in the neck, and Ziny’s little head leaped from her
body. To my mind it all happened in slow motion, her head tumbling
down, and then her body standing for a moment more before slowly
falling to the side in an uncoordinated fall.

I’d killed Ziny. The thought rang
through my mind.

Everything seemed to be frozen in
time. The thirty-some necromages were waiting for a command to
attack, The Dragon was frowning angrily, Medrod was grinning
wolfishly, my companions were ready, but held in check by the
numbers they faced. Morgain was snarling in triumph.

And that’s when I finally and truly
got really mad. I felt the churning power deep in my gut surface
through all the pain, and white hot anger flooded into my
mind.

I turned to Medrod and spoke softly,
holding on for only one more moment as I hissed, “You wanted to see
me angry?”

Then I ran toward Medrod.

I heard The Dragon bellow something,
but I did not know or care what the Archimage of Sheol had said, I
only wanted one thing, to see Medrod dead for murdering Ziny, and
forcing me to end her undead life forever.

Dimly I heard The Dragon bellow, “You
will NOT slay him, not yet!”

I guess he was talking to
Medrod.

But Medrod came at me with Caliburn
ready for the kill.

“
Desist, or I will end you
all!” The Dragon commanded in an earth shaking deep
voice.

But Morgain screamed, “Kill them
all!”

And her necromages
attacked.

Almost instantly, The Dragon’s black
void flowed out again, encompassing many of Morgain’s necromages.
Dark hands reached out of the stone and pulled them down,
screaming, into the floor where they were never seen
again.

Morgain howled at The Dragon, “You
would fight AGAINST us!”

“
I warned you!” The Dragon
answered in a cold voice.

That’s when I saw Myrka send the
largest lance of Derkaz energy I had yet seen her attempt, and it
went straight at The Dragon.

He swatted it aside like a mosquito,
and her blast struck the ceiling, causing many stones to fall,
along with molten lava from the Derkaz heated rocks.

But I had to ignore the rest of the
fireworks, Medrod was coming at me with Caliburn, and I was headed
at him in a dead run. I dimly heard Morgain ordering her remaining
necromages to attack The Dragon. That actually helped, now the
Archimage of Sheol was busy, and so were a lot of Morgain’s
necromages.

In the periphery of my vision, I saw a
white armor clad warrior run into the room from behind Morgain. It
was my mother, The White Enchantress. But Morgain sensed her and
spun to face her attack.

The sorceress and the necromancer
exchanged several magical attacks, but these were easily defeated
by these two House Seconds, so they drew knives and met in hand to
hand combat.

At another time, I’m sure I might have
tried to do something, but right now I had only one goal, to kill
Medrod for what he’d done to Ziny; my mother was on her own. I
reached Medrod, which meant he was also near enough to try and
separate my head from my shoulders with Caliburn, but I ducked
under his swing and tackled Medrod, driving him backward, my
strength fueled by my anger. I drove him to the ground like a
lineman sacking the quarterback.

In grabbing him, somewhere I dropped
my knife.

But he clouted me in the head with the
pommel of Caliburn which dazed me, and I fell to the
side.

Medrod regained his feet, and I
staggered up. The blow had cleared a little of the anger from my
mind, pain can do that. I leaped back away from Caliburn’s
range.

“
You cannot run forever!”
he bellowed.

I saw my mother drive Morgain to her
knees with a blow to the head with the pommel of her knife and
Morgain was dazed and defenseless. But my mother did not strike the
finishing blow; instead, I saw her start to put some kind of
magical binding around Morgain.

All this was distracting me, so when I
turned my attention back to Medrod, I was too late, his next
downward hack with Caliburn got through. I tried to dodge again,
but the blade cut down into my left shoulder about three inches.
The pain drove me to my knees. Blue saeran blood spewed up and out
of my wound, though it wasn’t immediately mortal. It was, however,
severe trauma, and I was dazed from the pain. If I didn’t do
something, I would bleed out in minutes.

Finnabair saw all the blue blood and
cursed, and then she was running toward me, abandoning her attempts
to bind Morgain.

Medrod tried to finish me off, but
just before Caliburn could slice across my neck, and sever my head
from my shoulders, I managed to believe there was a hole forming
under me. The floor beneath me opened and I tumbled down a slope.
Caliburn cut through empty air where my neck had been a moment
before. Medrod was then forced to face the oncoming wrath of The
White Enchantress, a mother who had just seen her son severally
wounded.

But fatal wound or not, I was still
pissed, and again I saw red. I snarled, shrugging off the pain, and
then clawed my way up the slope and back out of the pit I had made
to save myself from Medrod. I left a thick trail of blue blood
behind me, but there was a burning need to get to Medrod in my
mind, which overrode all other trivial issues, like terrible
bleeding wounds.

Just as my head came up out of the
hole, I saw Morgain coming at Finnabair from behind.

Hydan was busy with three necromages
and Toji with two. The Dragon had a flock of them, but they were
being pulled down by the black hands, and not one had managed to
get close enough to The Dragon to do him any harm.

I stumbled to my feet and staggered
toward Morgain, where I would get to her before she reached my
mother. Morgain did not see me coming.

My mother had abandoned all her
weapons, which did no good in the presence of Caliburn, and she was
attacking him with blows from her fists and feet. She was very good
and very coordinated. She did a spin kick which made Medrod stagger
back and then fall. That’s when my mother saw me, and yelled, “No,
Nick!” She turned away from the fallen Medrod and ran to deal with
Morgain.

Warned by my mother’s call, Morgain
turned to face me, and a wall of stone shot up from the floor right
in my path, cutting off my attack. I wasn’t good enough with magic
to react and remove the wall, so I hit it with medium force,
causing pain to shoot through my wounded shoulder.