The Crimson Claymore (33 page)

“I should have never left,” came a raspy voice from behind him.

Searon turned around to see Xython grabbing at his short, curly black hair. His bright teeth were gritted behind his ebony lips. He looked around at the carnage in disgust as he clenched the hilt of his mace.

“You would have been dead as well,” Searon whispered.

“An honorable death, with more than just one creature dead around me.”

“At least ten would have been dead by your spiked mace, old friend, but it would have done everyone little good. You are much more valuable alive. Now you will be able to kill much more than ten, and with enough deaths you can avenge all those whom we lost today.”

Xython cursed under his breath, “Yeah, you are right. I still don’t like it.”

“Neither do I.”

Karceoles urged his horse forward, where he stopped by the sign of the Dancing Donkey. It had fallen off the brass chain that kept it above the door and lay crooked on the ground at the step. Most of the walls had been burned down, and dozens lay dead near half-charred tables. The wizard didn’t get off of his horse but led the animal into the ruins of the bar, where he poured himself a tall mug of ale from the only untouched barrel. When he finished, he slammed the mug on the bar, where it crumbled underneath his touch and collapsed to the ground.

He turned to the stage where a lone body was burned and bloody under a tangle of black hair. Karceoles got off of his horse and walked slowly forward with his zylek shaking in his hand. He rolled over the body, and recognized the face as Annettera’s, one of the dancers. She must have been entertaining during the attack.

Searon walked up next to him and clasped his shoulder in comfort. He offered the pipe he had stolen from the wizard, which Karceoles took violently. After a few puffs, the wizard drew in his breath and sighed.

“Are you all right?” Searon asked.

“Where is Berethana?”

“Who?”

“Her sister, the other dancer. She should be here with her sister if they were on stage together.”

Searon looked around but saw nothing. “I do not know, my friend.”

Karceoles began frantically looking around, moving around rubble as he searched. There was a determination about him that Searon knew he wouldn’t be able to mellow. Instead of fighting it, he began to look around as well, joining the search with the wizard; the other warriors began searching as well. A small group of men went up the creaky steps to search the rooms of the inn.

Within a few minutes, a man hollered from upstairs, and the team of them came down holding a naked woman with blonde hair who shivered in their arms. Tears fell from her eyes, and blood streaked her face. A few scrapes and tears fell across her naked body but nothing severe. It seemed she had survived the attack almost unscathed.

“Please…” she whispered. “Please, don’t rape me, please, please…don’t.”

Karceoles walked up and took her out of the warriors’ arms. “Quiet, girl, nobody here will harm you. I promise you.”

She looked up into his eyes and brought her shaky hand to his face. “Wizard? Is that you?”

“Yes, Berethana…it is I. Everything will be okay.”

“It was horrid, fire was everywhere, people burned—my sister…she screamed from the fire that consumed her before those creatures came in and…and—”

“The fire came first? Why are you not burned?” he asked.

“I-I don’t know. It was all around me. My clothing was caught on fire, but I didn’t feel the heat. When the creatures came, I hid, but the only place I could hide so they couldn’t see me was in the fire.”

Karceoles’s eyes flickered, and he looked around until settling his eyes on Searon’s. “Shh, it’s okay now. Everything will be okay.”

He brought her over to his horse and tucked her in blankets before turning around to look at Searon. After a long breath, he walked forward with his eyes glancing around at the others surrounding the warrior.

“Survivors…search the village for survivors,” Searon said. “Go, now!”

Everybody scattered out of the pub and into the streets. Searon took a step toward the wizard while glancing at the young dancer bundled up in blankets. He looked around at the carnage and the smoldering wood.

“What’s wrong?” Searon asked.

“She’s not burned. She hid in the fire…and she’s not burned.”

“What does it mean?”

“It means that my seed is inside of her. The seed of fire.”

Searon nodded. “So what does this mean?”

“She must be protected. Fire cannot harm her, but our enemies can. She is the first to hold the seed of a child in near a century.”

“What happened to the rest? I know for certain that she has not been your only conquest.”

Karceoles’s face turned grim as he looked toward Searon. “They have disappeared, or the seed hasn’t taken. It is already very rare that a seed will hold; not all wombs are suitable for wizards.”

“Disappeared?” Searon asked.

“Killed sometimes, or vanished. Wizards are a near-extinct race. Besides a few novices or those who keep themselves hidden, I am the last remaining wizard.”

“Will you protect her?”

“Yes, she will be safe with me.”

Searon nodded and walked out of the pub. He nearly walked into the mage in the chaos of the village. Everybody scurried from one place to another, and to Searon’s surprise survivors were being found everywhere. He watched as they were being pulled from crumbled buildings and rubble.

“How many survivors have been found?” Searon asked.

“Thirty one, five of whom won’t survive the night,” Sh’on said.

Searon nodded. “Give those five a tall mug of ale and some food, and make them as comfortable as you can with bales of hay. Then we march; there is no time to waste.”

“One is a small child, a girl, no older than the age of twelve.”

“A child…Charlotte…” Searon whispered.

“Charlotte?” Sh’on asked.

“Nobody, do not worry about it, she is not from this village. Is there nothing you can do? All this magic that both you and Karceoles have, and you can’t even save a small girl?”

“I am limited with healing, Lord Searon; what I can do I must save for those who can survive. Besides, I can only heal what is there…and some of her insides are…missing.”

Searon’s stomach twisted in disgust, and he spat on the ground. He sighed heavily until shaking his head and turning to the mage. “I will see to her, but you must take care of these other four. If there is to be any chance of Legain surviving, we must make haste.”

“As you wish.” Sh’on bowed and pulled his cloak to his side as he turned and strode off.

Chapter 34

S
earon stared into the distance toward the gates of Legain. An army of daerions crowded its front gates, laying siege to the walls, and yet relief spread across the captain’s face. They hadn’t broken through the gate yet, and Legain’s defenses were strong. His brother had made sure of that. He watched in pride at the crossbow men along the wall’s crenellation as they fired down upon the creatures. He knew they wouldn’t be able to hold long as fires had begun on the stone. In the midst of all the blue creatures, he noticed something amiss. There was a lone person on a black stallion with a long staff who appeared to command them.

The number of daerions was more than Searon could have imagined. At least three thousand fought at the gate of Legain, and many of them tried climbing the thick walls. Whoever sat on the horse appeared to be a magician and used his power to create black fires on the walls of the great city. The gate seemed to be weakened, and a few hundred of the creatures carried crossbows that killed several of the humans atop the walls and towers. He watched as the hundreds of creatures trying to break down the gate suddenly moved away. The magician stood alone against the gate and shot magic from his staff that shattered the gate into a thousand pieces of metal and stone.

“A dark wizard?” Searon whispered.

“A warlock,” Karceoles said at his side.

The thousands of creatures began flooding into the gates of his home city. Rage pulsed through Searon’s veins. He was already uneasy as he watched the young girl die just the other day in the small destroyed village. There was little he could offer her except comfort and a small taste of the wizard’s last jar of peanut paste.

He turned around and raised his claymore to cavalry and infantry alike. “Men, these creatures are slaughtering your families. Show them no fear, show them no mercy! Destroy them all! Charge!”

Searon quickly sheathed his weapon and kicked the side of his striped stallion. He was hoping to delay for a time while the rest of the men on foot could catch up, but there was no longer time. The gates of his former city had been demolished, and to make matters worse, some sort of warlock appeared to be leading them.

Starlyn ran at his side and thrust her golden hammer into one foe after another. She pulled her shield up high to deflect scimitars as the strikes came at her. Rain began to fall from the cloudy sky and covered her in large droplets of water. Searon wondered why she cared so much. He knew that she was desperate to find her sister, but she had bonded with him and the rest of the humans. She would protect them with her life and he wasn’t quite sure why. Lightning illuminated her golden shield with scattered designs of blue leaves across the front. Searon fought by her side, making sure that she was well defended.

Searon slid on his crimson-and-gold helm before making his first slash with his glowing claymore. In the heat of battle, he looked like every other warrior, with no significance toward his leadership. He was careful not to be on the front lines to bring attention to himself, although his cunning swordplay as well as the striped stallion he rode gained him enough unwanted attention. Starlyn stayed by his side on the ground and kept him well defended as well as a few of his guard. Karceoles the wizard wasn’t too far away, either fighting alongside the mage Sh’on with complimentary magic spells, though each focused on different directions.

The daerions were strong creatures in spite of how short they were. Most carried short swords, yet their brute strength was all they needed. Searon watched as one of the daerions reached and grabbed one warrior off of his horse by the neck and crushed the man with bare hands. Arrows soon took the creature, but it took nearly a dozen before it dropped to the ground with dark-sapphire blood pouring from its twisted mouth.

Etherond and Andron fought east of Searon and brought a lot of attention to themselves as Etherond blew through a ram’s horn. The sound rallied his men to him to fight in an oval, and yet at the same time it caused the creatures to suspect him as a leader. Searon wasn’t as worried about delivering deathblows as he would have been in the past. He knew there were warriors behind his ranks that had the sole task of making sure fallen foes caught their last breath. His mission was to injure them and knock them onto their feet.

No matter how hard they fought the creatures from behind, it did little to stop them from flooding into the gates of Legain. The warlock was in their center, but he stayed by the gate to usher the creatures in. He shot magic out of what Searon could only assume was his zylek toward any human that seemed to be a threat. Searon wasn’t so sure he could stop the magic, and was wary about approaching the dark magic user. He knew that some form of defense was needed to prevent as many of the creatures as they could from entering the gates. Noraes would have his defense ready for sure, but against the savage beasts the casualties would be hefty. There were a few thousand of them, and while Searon had at least four times the number, his men were still forming rank toward the city with many still a league away. He looked around until he spotted both the wizard and the mage.

Searon rode his stallion up to the mage. “Can you reinforce the entrance to Legain?” He half screamed to be heard.

Sh’on turned to look at Karceoles, who only nodded in response. The wizard clutched his zylek tight and shot a flame of orange energy into the daerions that caused them to separate long enough for both Karceoles and Sh’on to ride through the middle of their ranks toward the gate.

When he turned back around, he noticed Starlyn was fenced in by five daerions and having a tough time defending herself with only a hammer and a few humans around her that seemed to drop like flies to a frog. Searon jerked his stallion’s reins, causing his companion to gallop back toward the kheshlar.

He reached the kheshlar in what seemed like the nick of time as he decapitated a creature that she hadn’t noticed behind her. Her eyes bulged as she stepped over the severed head to dodge another strike. Six humans lay dead around her; that had died protecting her. Searon pushed a few of the creatures back, but it wasn’t until Leinard appeared by their side in his green-and-black kilt that the tide seemed to change to their favor. Leinard had a claymore similar to Searon’s except its hilt was silver and green in color and its blade didn’t glow crimson as Searon’s did in battle.

Half of the daerions seemed to be through the broken entrance before the wizard and mage reached it. A small flash of greens, oranges, and blacks appeared as they fought the warlock before the man garbed in black cloaks backed off with his black stallion. He didn’t appear to want to fight against two with magical powers.

Karceoles began weaving his zylek into complex patterns, creating an orange horizontal barrier in front of him in place of the shattered gate. Sh’on spent his time sending green flurries of power out in front of them to push oncoming daerions away. He didn’t bother using large amounts of energy when it appeared he would need to save his strength for whatever the wizard had planned. Searon knew that they would need help and Sh’on would eventually have to combine his powers with the wizard for a secure defense.

He galloped his striped stallion forward and grabbed Starlyn by the elbow as he did, lifting her onto the back of his steed. At first, she protested, but he didn’t allow her an opportunity to object further. Searon rode back north and away from the force of confused daerions.

“To me, to me!” he cried. “Create a path to the gate; we must defend it!”