Luminescent (Inheritance Cycle and Beyond)

Chapter Fifty-Eight: Brilliant

"I will deal with your little outburst later, Eragon." My father spat out before turning to Murtagh. "You, however..."

My eyes went wide when I realized what spell my father had just cast. I raised my palm and cast a spell to block the dark magic. That spell took the last bit of energy I had in my body. Eragon drew Brisingr and leaped at my father as Murtagh started shouting what I assumed to be the Word.

Eragon focused on Galbatorix's mind and allowed the Eldunarí to use his mind to push memories into Galbatorix's mind.

"What have you done?" Galbatorix said, his voice hollow and strained. He stepped back and put his fists to his temples. "What have you done!"

"Made you understand," Eragon said, Galbatorix stared at him with an expression of horror.

"You will not get the better of me, boy. You ... will ... not. ..."

"We already have," Eragon replied.

Galbatorix let out a groan, and his magic holding Eragon's friends in the room disappeared. A deafening roar from Shruikan filled the chamber, and the huge black Dragon shook Thorn off his neck, sending the red dragon flying halfway across the room. Thorn landed on his left side, and the bones in his wing broke with a loud snap

"I ... shall ... not ... give ... in," Galbatorix said weakly as Arya started to sprint towards Shruikan. Galbatorix let out a growl and swung his sword at Eragon, he dodged it and pulled out Brisingr.

The two swords met with a loud crash. Saphira leaped high into the air and batted at Shruikan's enormous snout, bloodying it, then dropped back to the floor. He swung a paw at her, talons extended, and she hopped backward, half spreading her wings.

A spasm in Galbatorix's arm threw off his next strike, and he and Eragon ended up with their swords locked at the hilt. Galbatorix's face was twisted almost beyond recognition, and there were tears on his cheeks. A sheet of flame erupted over our heads, and the air grew hot around them. Somewhere the children were screaming.

"No!" Galbatroix cried. "I didn't. ... Make it stop!"

"Not going to happen." Eragon shot back, stepping away.

"Make it stop," Galbatroix whined, his tone more pleading than threatening. "The pain ..."

Another yowl, this one more frantic than the last, came from Shruikan. Behind Galbatorix, Eragon saw Thorn clinging to Shruikan's neck, opposite Saphira. The combined weight of the two dragons pulled down Shruikan's head until it was close to the floor. However, the black Dragon was still too large and strong for them to subdue.

Arya darted out from behind a pillar and ran toward the dragons. In her left hand, the green Dauthdaert glowed with its usual starry nimbus.

Shruikan saw her coming and jerked his body, trying to dislodge Saphira and Thorn. When they remained affixed, he snarled and opened his jaws and painted the area in front of him with a torrent of fire.

With three bounding steps, Arya leaped onto Shruikan's left forefoot, and from there flung herself toward the side of his head, trailing fire like a comet. Uttering a shout that could be heard throughout the throne room, Arya threw the Dauthdaert into the center of Shruikan's great, gleaming ice-blue eye and buried the full length of the spear within his skull.

Shruikan bellowed and twitched, and then he slowly fell sideways, liquid fire pouring from his mouth. Saphira and Thorn jumped clear a moment before the gigantic black Dragon struck the floor. Pillars cracked; chunks of stone fell from the ceiling and shattered. A number of lanterns broke, and gouts of some molten substance dribbled out of them. Eragon stumbled a little as the floor shuddered from the Dragon's impact.

Eragon took this chance to stab Galbatorix in the stomach. Galbatorix grunted and stumbled back, pulling himself off Brisingr in the process.

"The voices ... the voices are terrible. I can't bear it. ..." Galbatorix closed his eyes, and fresh tears streamed down his cheeks. "Pain ... so much pain. So much grief. ... Make it stop! Make it stop!"

"No," Eragon said as Alethea let out a roar. Eragon's head snapped to where Alethea was perched on top of Mal.

"Waíse néiat!" Eragon quickly drew upon the Eldunarí, and he slid everyone over to the block of stone where Nasuada was chained. Eragon cast a spell to stop or deflect whatever might harm them before he slumped to the floor. They were only halfway to the block when Galbatorix vanished in a flash of light brighter than the sun.

"We cannot maintain this spell for much longer," Umaroth said, his voice tense. Eragon groaned and stood up.

"You have to. If you don't, we'll die." Eragon responded before looking at the crater where Galbatorix had once stood. The incandescent stone pulsed like living flesh as breaths of air wafted over its surface. The walls of the room were cracked, and the pillars, carvings, and lanterns had been pulverized.

At the back of the chamber lay Shruikan's corpse, much of the flesh stripped from his soot-blackened bones. At the front, the explosion had shattered the stone walls, as well as the walls beyond for hundreds of feet, exposing a veritable warren of tunnels and rooms. The beautiful golden doors that had guarded the entrance to the chamber had been blown off their hinges.

"Where is Mal?" Eragon said as looked around frantically for his dark-haired foster sister. Alethea let out a keen, drawing Eragon's attention to Murtagh who was surprisingly, now healed. He was kneeling down next to Mal.

"Help her! Something is wrong!" Alethea screeched in all of their minds, causing them to wince. "Free Nasuada, we need to leave this place!"

Eragon walked up to the chained Nasuada.

"Jierda!" Eragon said, placing a hand on the manacles that held her to the block of gray stone. The spell had no apparent effect.

"You have to find the key!" Nasuada said. "Galbatorix's jailer has it on him."

"We'll never find him in time!" Eragon drew Brisingr again and swung at the chain connected to the manacle around her left hand. The sword bounced off the links with a harsh reverberation, leaving not so much as a scratch on the dull metal. He swung a second time, but the chain was impervious to his blade. Another piece of rock fell from the ceiling and struck the floor with a loud crack.

"Move aside," Murtagh muttered, getting to his feet and walking over to the large slab. Murtagh spoke the name of all names, as he had before, as well as jierda, and the iron cuffs opened and fell from Nasuada's limbs. Eragon helped Nasuada onto Saphira while Arya did the same with the two children.

"Are you going to pick her up or am I going to have to do your job?" Alethea said, looking at Murtagh with a glittering eye. Murtagh snorted, Alethea's personality definitely matched Mal's.

As Murtagh was picking up Mal, Thorn lumbered over and sniffed her body.

"Females, I will never understand their motives. But if she hadn't blocked that spell...."

"I know, we'd be dead," Murtagh replied as Thorn hunched down to the ground. Murtagh pulled himself into the saddle with Mal as Alethea grew to her full size.

"Wait!" Arya cried, and she leaped down from Saphira. "Where is the egg? And the Eldunarí? We can't leave them!"

"It's too dangerous!" Eragon shouted after Arya as she ran farther into the ruined castle. "This place is falling apart! Arya!"

Eragon cursed. At the very least, he wished she had taken Glaedr with her. He slid Brisingr back into its scabbard, then bent and picked up Elva, who was just beginning to stir.

"What's happening?" She asked as Eragon carried her up onto Saphira's back behind the two other children.

"We're leaving," he said. "Hold on."

"What about Mal?"

"She's with Murtagh, whatever magic she used was powerful, it drained her." Saphira had already started moving. Limping because of her wounded foreleg, she trotted around the crater. Thorn and Alethea followed close behind her.