The Tomb of the Dark Paladin (36 page)

Lady Laresse gave Ederick an appraising smile and nodded to the helm that the knight was now holding. "May it bring you glory, Sir Ederick." Then she turned and stalked out of the clearing and back towards her troops. Her men, professional soldiers, did not complain for lack of a fight, they merely turned to follow their leader, warily watching their backs.

Ederick signaled to the leader of the Jaguar warriors. With a nod, two men leaped into the air and took the shape of great birds of prey, while a third took the shape of a sleek panther. After Ederick was certain they were not being followed, they went in search of Carym.

Bart collided with Hessan in an earth-shattering assault. The Rider was knocked to the ground. Bart returned quickly into the air, the Headless Rider blinked out of existence, only to reappear on his nightmare seconds later. 

"I have you now," came the voice as cold as the grave; fog drifting from where the creature's mouth should have been. "I will wear your flesh!" he shrieked in anger, hurling a barrage of deadly stone missiles. As the missiles hurtled across the empty space between the combatants, a space which the undead knight had thus far been denied, the bard threw a magical vortex of wind back at the headless creature. Deadly magical assaults met in that open space. The missiles faltered as they struck the swirling wall of air, then fell to the ground with impotent, muffled thuds.

"Go back to Hell!" shouted the bard, cold fury in his voice. Hessan emitted a sound the bard took as laughter, the bard had expected no less. "Did you finally learn a spell to help you speak without your little corpse-thing?" No answer came to the bard's taunt because just then Bart surprised him, rushing forward through the air, a powerful buffer of wind surging before him like a shield; his twin blades danced with magical speed. The nightmare was not immune to fear as its master seemed to be. The bard's magical assault caused the great beast to rear up, and as it did so, Bart lunged in and stuck one of its legs with a singing blades. He quickly danced out of the way as Hessan's vicious whip flicked out striking the ground where the bard had been a second before. When the tip of the whip struck, it caused an explosion which peppered the bard with rocks and dirt but the bard leaped into the air and out of harm's way. The nightmare was severely injured and hobbling under its rider's great weight. The bard was tempted to close in and finish the evil mare but he knew the knight's whip would surely bring him down. On the periphery of the battle, the bard could hear the throaty roar of a great cat, and he knew Hala must be making short work of the oroks.

"Come to your death, bard!" hissed the voice of the dread knight with another crack of his whip. The bard darted nimbly out of the way but another score of oroks had appeared in the tree line beyond the headless warrior. He wondered briefly where Genn was as Hessan dismounted from his infernal horse. With one simple gesture the beast disappeared in a puff of black smoke, the smell of brimstone and sulfur lingering in the air; Bart hoped it was far away.

"Are you pleased I have returned your friend to you?" The evil knight reveled in the bard's sorrow and grim laughter erupted from where his head should have been. "Will you die as badly as he did?"

"You will pay, so you will!" the bard said with grim determination. He hooked his swords to his belt and backed away, planning his next move.

"You will squeal and beg for mercy like your little friend. How he shrieked and begged as I pulled his fingers and then his limbs from their sockets. And he gave such a squeal as I ripped his head off with my own hands!" the dread knight laughed triumphantly. Bart knew that the deathly knight wasn't so foolish as to believe that his taunting would actually weaken the bard's resolve. Rather, it was more likely that the undead knight was trying to weaken Bart's concentration and thwart his use of the Tides. It was harder than Bart thought, however, seeing the pained expression on Kharr's face, his decayed head lying in the dirt. He forced the sight from his mind, directing his anger at the dark beast before him.

"What do you think you can do to harm me?" came the raspy, cold, sarcastic voice. "Will you douse me in honey scented rain water as you dance about the air like a wood fairy?"

Bart said nothing. He placed his hand on the Airstone and felt a wild surge of power as he bent the Tides to his will. A flash of light from his side revealed the power of Gennevera's wand as she popped up from behind a boulder, a beam of light struck Hessan where his head should have been and forced him backward. Again and again she sent brilliant beams of light at the undead knight, enough to disrupt his deadly magic, then a group of oroks closed in on her.

The skies darkened in a reflection of his own dark mood. Wicked thunderheads reappeared and the darkening skies grew darker still. Thunder rumbled, echoing the powerful Sigilist's mindset. A barrage of lightning struck down around the clearing, blasting a few creeping oroks from the trees in which they lurked. Everywhere bolts of lightning stuck in blinding flashes as the bard hovered in the air with his arms out, reveling in the power of the storm.

A barrage of hail struck the knight all over as the powerful winds pummeled him. Though the giant hail chunks struck the dark knight, he powered his way through the deluge, lashing out wildly with his whip but failing to strike his fleeting foe. Then a dazzling lightning bolt struck the dark knight, clearly penetrating all magical protections. The power of the blast knocked him to the ground. His whip now gone, the dread knight pulled himself to his feet and advanced again, swinging his long scythe in great sweeping stokes. Bart called another bolt of lightning and struck the undead knight again, this time the knight's left arm vaporized, yet the malevolent being continued toward him. 

Bart focused more intensely on the stone, its power coursing through him like a river of energy. Seeing the dark knight's weakness, he charged and attacked, swords singing with thunder, blades dancing with streaks of lightning. Although the knight was missing an arm, he was still able to swing the great scythe. The oroks saw their master weakening and began to slink closer toward the fight. Gennevera assaulted them with her wand, trying to hold the oroks at bay, but she knew there was little magic left in its stores for her to use.

Bart was encouraged by the dark knight's slowly failing strength. Nevertheless, he knew Hessan wasn't going to stop until one or the other of them was dead. He ducked below a deadly sweep of the scythe aimed for his head and dealt two quick sword blows to the knight's knee. The first cut through the outer layer of armor protecting Hessan's leg while the second strike caused his limb to explode in a thunderous shower of bone and pieces of metal armor. Bart rolled quickly out of the way as the crippled knight swung feebly at the bard.

But the bard would show no mercy. Again he lunged at the now hobbling knight, striking more often than he missed. The knight lost his grip on the scythe and fell on his back. Seizing the moment, the enraged bard drove both charged blades into the dread knight's back.

The result was catastrophic.

The ensuing explosion was so powerful that trees were knocked over and boulders moved from their homes. Even Gennevera was thrown backward and lost the powerful wand. Oroks, too, stunned by the blast, were picking themselves up. Spying the woman's plight, the oroks sensed an easy victim and began to close on her.

C H A P T E R

S I X T E E N

~

Ederick and the Jaguar Knights were forced to run or fly in the direction that Carym had gone. He was fortunate, however, that the Jaguars had been able to call on more giant raptors to aid in their search. The great birds, eagles of some sort, searched for their friends from the skies above. When Ederick began to tire, one of the great birds picked him up in its massive claw and carried him gently through the air. It was cold, very cold, but it was better than running.

After what seemed an eternity of flight, the soaring eagles spotted a dark, low hanging cloud hovering near the base of a high ridge line. From that cloud lightning blasted the ground and thunderclaps echoed through the air. Ederick had a feeling that this was the work of the Storm Lord, Barthal, and that he must be in trouble.

Within minutes, Ederick and the Jaguar Knights arrived at the scene. The magical battle was over, but the fighting was not. Ederick spotted Bart lying on the ground, seemingly unconscious, near a pile of bones and pieces of armor. Nearby, Gennevera was fighting off a horde of oroks that seemed to think she would be easy prey; time was not on her side.

The great eagle swooped down low and dropped Ederick onto the ground near the oroks. He charged headlong into the group surrounding Gennevera as several warriors arrived in their enhanced shapes. Within minutes, every orok had been mauled by a Jaguar Knight or pummeled by Ederick's fists. Hala and another Jaguar leader returned to the base of the mountain, battle-weary but ok. She and her knights conferred quietly amongst themselves.

"Are you all right?" the Sword Knight asked Genn.

"Yes," she said, breathing heavily. "But I've lost my wand and I haven't been able to check on Bart."

He and Genn found Bart and knelt by their friend's side. Though he was bruised and battered and bore a few serious whip injuries, the wounds would heal on their own. Ederick noticed a silvery colored, marble-shaped stone on the ground near Bart's hands. He picked it up and was immediately overcome with a sense of power so intoxicating he almost fell over. He dropped the stone and shook his hand as though it had scalded him.

"What was that?" he asked.

Gennevera shook her head, saying nothing as she stared at the stone now lying on Bart's chest where it had been flung. Instinctively, the bard's hand reached up to grasp the stone. Slowly, Bart's eyes opened and he looked up at his friends.

"Better late than never, eh?" he groaned with a painful smirk. Ederick laughed and extended a hand to help the bard up.

"Where is Carym?" asked the knight.

"He went to find the tomb," Genn said, looking perturbed; the men didn't notice. "The princess said he must go alone."

"We got a visit from that bastard Headless Rider, so we did." Bart's face lost his jovial demeanor immediately as he looked toward the gruesome object which was once his friend's head. "Had to protect Carym's back from the monster and his nasty oroks. But we made the bastard pay, didn't we?"

"I'm sorry, Bart," Ederick placed a consoling hand on the bard's shoulder. "Kharrihan was a great man, selfless. He died for this cause and he surely rest's in Zuhr's paradise."

"Aye, so he was."

"Why don't we give Kharrihan a proper burial? It would be fitting here, in these sacred lands."