Gripping her paired swords tightly in her hands, glaring defiantly in her fury, Avani shouted, “Ethelberd, Emperor of Sechs! Return the rune spheres to me!”
The silver-haired despot slowly turned, a malevolent smile twisting the corners of his mouth. “So, you have come at last, Earthmate of Selphia. Relax! I have something… most interesting to show you.” As he pulled out a rune sphere, laughing darkly, I decided I had a really bad feeling about this.
**************
It had taken several long, hard days to catch up to Ethelberd. First, we had to take the Maya Road over the dangerous mountain pass that was the sole link between the two kingdoms for hundreds of miles in either direction along the border. The road alone was bad enough, with its many ferocious monsters. Man-sized heracles beetles attempted to impale us on their long horns. Foul-tempered trolls tried to crush us with their massive war hammers. Enormous black birds that strove to blast us off the many ice-slicked precipices with the wind generated by their powerful wings. Enraged hornet queens as big as my leg, relentless planchoas, vicious airrors, and wily green fey attacked us at every turn, not to mention the natural hazards—freezing temperatures, strong gusts of wind, and boulders tumbling down from the slopes around us, threatening to crush us or blow us off the mountains all together. But all of that was as nothing compared with the dangers that had lurked below in the unmapped caves deep within the mountains.
The caves beneath the Maya Road were dank and dark, dimly lit by weird, spongy growths on the cavern walls that glowed with a sickly, unnatural light. A few caverns also had large outcrops of rune crystals, the largest of which cast a faint blue light that reflected off the smaller clusters of crystals.
The caves were populated with trolls, giant beetles, slimes, and fairies that all seemed to be much stronger and hardier than their aboveground counterparts. They were all characterized by a common, vile appearance—skins and shells all shades of green and blue and purple, calling to mind heavy bruising or decay. Upon closer inspection, Avani decided that these bizarre monsters were undead—zombie forms of the creatures that dwelled along the Maya Road and some areas of the Autumn Road, probably reanimated by some spell or perhaps the result of some toxin. We all felt a singular repulsion—coupled with not a little dread—towards the denizens of the caves, though, and I know I shuddered whenever we found ourselves below ground yet again—whether forced to go beneath due to a blocked path or falling through one of many holes or weak spots in the ground.
Initially, we had returned to town each night to rest and mend our equipment, but progress was so difficult, so agonizingly slow, that we soon abandoned that plan. Instead we huddled together in whatever shelter we could find from the icy winds, or occasionally, when desperate, we camped down in the caves, staying close to the stairs carved into the rock leading down from the surface. We took it in turns to keep watch, since fires were impossible—there was too little fuel at that altitude, and anyway the surface was too windy and the caves too damp. We also gave up on cooking, instead relying on dried and preserved foods eaten cold and on hardtack. Fortunately there was adequate potable water—we even found a tiny but deep lake near the summit of the highest peak, Mount Maya itself.
After a many days, we finally reached the end of the Maya Road and caught up to the Sechs soldiers. However, by that time, they had already summoned a clone of the Divine Fire, Fiersome. This clone, though certainly challenging, was easier to defeat than Terrable’s clone had been. Although Fiergaenger, as one of the soldiers named him, was more powerful than the Terraclone had been, we three had become stronger and more skilled in the interim. Furthermore, we now had better equipment. So although we were exhausted, scorched, and wounded at the end, nevertheless we defeated him with no critical injuries among us.
We spent that night in the very place where Fiergaenger had fallen. The following morning, we cautiously crept across the border into Sechs territory, keenly aware that we were now in the enemy’s demesne—a small but tenacious invasion. Mountainous and harsh, the terrain just beyond the border crossing was perpetually covered in ice and snow. A contingent of Viking orcs and ogres awaited us as we cautiously proceeded—larger, stronger, and far more vicious than their smaller kin, they fought with a ferocity as savage as the landscape around us. We slashed our way through hordes of ogres, orcs, mammoos, tundras, and many lesser monsters, before eventually reaching a cave with two openings in the floor. After a rest and a meal—the first time we’d managed a fire and an actual hot, cooked meal in days—we examined the openings in the ground and decided to take the hole to the west. We leapt down to the ground below and worked our way through the lower caverns, exiting somewhere far north and west of the border crossing.
After slashing our way through an onslaught of golden hunter wolves, silver wolves, icy plant monsters, and sealies, we finally arrived at the summit of a small, snowy peak, where we found Ethelberd standing at the cliff’s edge, his back to us as he stared intently at something below.
Avani approached him, her footsteps muffled by the newly-fallen snow, and Dylas and I fell in on either side of her. I looked at her, wondering why she hesitated, and was surprised by the play of conflicting emotions across her face: fury, fear, sorrow, disgust, curiosity, and confusion. After a moment, she seemed to pull herself together and steel herself, and she called out a challenge to her foe.
**************
Ethelberd held the rune sphere out before him, taunting her as he laughed. “You should feel honored, Earthmate. I’m going to show you something few have seen—something beyond the ken of mere mortals!” With that, he incanted the Omni Gate spell, and a small green dragonlet appeared before him, hissing and flailing his wings angrily.
“See this dragon? It’s small, ordinary—weak!” he crowed, contemptuously kicking a foot towards the youngster, who thrashed its tail and snapped its jaws. “But,” the emperor continued, with a triumphant gleam in his eyes, “I happen to have a part of a Native Dragon here. Watch closely!”
He pulled out a deep blue scale or fin and threw it to the ground near the dragonlet. Stepping back, he incanted the forbidden Etherlink spell, and we watched in both fascination and horror as the dragonlet and fin drew together and merged. In a flash of blinding light, a massive blue and gold dragon appeared in their place: a copy of Aquaticus, the Divine Water.
“Behold my creation, Earthmate: Aquameleon! See how I now create Native Dragons at will? Not even you and your kind have achieved the like!” He cackled with glee or insanity as he stepped back. “Now, Earthmate, let the games begin!” And with that, he turned and scrambled down the icy slope, leaving us to the dragon.
The clone soared up and spun around in a tight circle, then with a booming roar, she hovered, towering over us. As she twisted to the side and circled around us, undulating through the air, Avani charged at her with her lightning-quick dual swords. I cast a Flame Wheel, knowing that she would be most vulnerable to the element of fire, and Dylas flew in with a powerful series of rapid punches, striking the monster in her neck before she could glide past. With a sibilant howl, she whirled and dove, striking at us with her huge fins and horned snout. Scattering to dodge her blows, we quickly regrouped and again moved in to attack, only to have her once again shimmy just out of reach.
The battle lasted over two hours. Whenever we’d close in to attack, the beast would heave out of our reach to throw spells at us or to whirl around and lash us with her serpentine tail. Her spells were devastating—small globes of water that shot water lasers at us, larger globes with water laser that swept across the field, and worst of all, clusters of bubbles that attacked us, paralyzing us or putting us to sleep altogether. Several times, one or more of us was near death. Yet each time, either Avani or I managed to heal everyone before it was too late—a testament to our improving skills.
We were nearing the end of our strength when, sensing our exhaustion, the dragon hovered in close and reared up, preparing to deal a final blow. Avani summoned the last of her strength, and with a shout, executed her whirling dual blade attack, slashing across the monster’s vulnerable belly scores of times in a matter of minutes just as she started to crash down upon us. Dylas and I leapt out of her path as she crashed on top of the spinning blades, bellowing and thrashing in her death throes before vanishing in an explosion of light, her runes returning to the primeval forest from whence she had been summoned.
I darted in to Avani’s aid, with Dylas close on my heels. “My Lady!” I shouted as I reached her, crumpled and unconscious on the red-stained snow. I carefully rolled her over onto her back, and I saw that she had been badly injured by the dragon’s horns and clawed fins during her final attack. None of the injuries were critical in themselves, but blood seeped from a profusion of wounds, both major and minor. I had little strength left for healing after that battle, but I used what little I had. Casting a healing spell on her, I could see her wounds begin to close before my eyes.
Meanwhile, unable to assist with healing, Dylas dug through his rucksack for whatever food supplies he had left. He found a couple of sandwiches that he hadn’t yet eaten and fed them to me, restoring my strength enough to cast another healing spell on her. Her eyelids fluttered and opened as she regained consciousness, though she still appeared dazed. I cast one last healing spell on her, and she rose and stood, somewhat shakily, and looked around her. She was still weak from blood loss, but at least her wounds were now closed and the bleeding stanched. Still, it would take at least one more healing spell before she was entirely healed, and a few days of rest before she recovered from the loss of so much blood.
As Dylas and I joined her, we heard cackling behind us. Turning in unison, we faced Ethelberd as he dropped down from whatever perch he’d hidden in to watch the battle. He paced around us to the far side of the field, near the edge of the precipice, chortling all the while. Finally he turned and stared at Avani. “Well done, Earthmate,” he growled. “You’ve even defeated my Aquaticus clone. Very interesting, indeed! Now, then.” He turned his head and gave a loud shout. Turning back to us with a malevolent grin, he said, “I’ve prepared the ideal battleground, just for you, Earthmate of Selphia! Join me, high above the clouds!”
As he spoke, a distant rumble grew louder and louder, then an airship hove into view above the craggy cliff. With a roar of laughter, Ethelberd turned to leap onto the extended gangplank of the ship. However, before he could take a step, Doug suddenly burst onto the scene. “Not so fast!” he shouted, charging at the emperor.
Without even turning to acknowledge Doug’s attack, Ethelberd rapidly sidestepped, dodging Doug’s blow, then cast an energy spell that knocked him clear across the field. Turning with a glower of disgust, he snarled, “Keep your filthy hands off me, dwarf!”
Avani raced to Doug, who struggled to sit up, cursing weakly. Dylas ran up right behind her, and kneeling next to him, checked him for injuries. “Bah. How… disagreeable,” Ethelberd snapped. Turning again to Avani, he said, “I will await you in my floating fortress, Earthmate. Of course, you have no choice but to follow me. If you fail to come of your own accord, I will ensure that you come without it.”
“Wh-what are you saying?” Doug groaned, leaning against Dylas for support.
Still staring intently at Avani, Ethelberd replied, “You will find out soon enough, wretched creature.” Again addressing Avani, he continued, grinning evilly. “Know this: I will hunt down every last Earthmate, and I will torture and ravage every single one of you—men, women, and children alike—until your kind is completely and utterly eradicated from this plane of existence.” Then he swung himself up onto the waiting airship with an exultant laugh, and the ship soared away.
Avani leapt after him, but he had moved too quickly. Standing at the very edge of the precipice, she screamed “Son of a bitch!” after his rapidly vanishing ship, the echoes of his laughter still reverberating through the hills. She turned and looked at us, and there was desperation in her eyes. “He’s insane! Even the children…. He’s no longer merely a threat to Selphia, or even to all of Norad. He means to wage all-out genocide.”
Doug struggled to his feet with Dylas’s assistance as she scrambled and skidded back down the icy path. “Are you all right?” she called out in concern.
“Y-yeah, I’m fine. And I’ve got something here for you,” he panted. Reaching into his jacket, he pulled out a glowing blue stone.
“A-a rune sphere!” Avani gasped, looking at him in astonishment.
“Yeah,” he said with a feeble attempt at laughter. “I managed to sneak one from him. Serves the bastard right….” And then he collapsed.
Dylas grabbed him and kept him from falling to the ground. Avani cried out his name as she and I both sprang forward to catch him. “My Lady! The sphere!” I reminded her as it slipped from his hand. She caught it, and Dylas and I supported Doug as she cast Escape until we returned to town.
At the clinic, Doug revived briefly. As Jones mildly lectured him for his recklessness, Arthur burst in. “Avani! Doug! I hear we’ve recovered one of the rune spheres!”
“Yes, thanks to Doug,” Avani said, smiling down at the groggy dwarf.
Arthur turned to him, saying, “Well done, Doug. You have our thanks.” Doug smiled and gave a thumbs-up before falling back on his pillow with a groan.
Turning back to Avani, Arthur said, “It would be well to return it to one of the rune spots as soon as possible. However, if we don’t post an adequate guard, there’s a good chance the Sechsons will just steal it again. Once the reinforcements have arrived….”
Before he could complete his sentence, there was a violent tremor and a loud crashing sound. “Earthquake?” I exclaimed. Just then, Xiao Pai came running into the clinic, looking terrified.
“Avani!” she cried. “It seems that there is something in the sky! Come quickly to the observation tower, yes?” She turned and ran out again, the four of us close behind.
At the top of the tower, we found Forte focusing on something in the distance to the southwest. “Look, over there!” she shouted as we burst out onto the observation deck. Our eyes followed her gesture, and over the Selphia Plains, we saw what appeared to be an island hovering high in the sky.
“What the hell is that thing?” Dylas exclaimed, his eyes widening.
“I have no idea,” Arthur replied. “I’ve never seen or heard of anything like this before.”
“Impressive. How do they keep something so massive afloat? Truly technology has advanced far beyond anything my people ever dreamed of or imagined,” I reflected in awe.
“Don’t praise them!” Forte snapped at me, her eyes flashing with anger.
“No, he’s right,” Arthur said in his gentle voice. “It is impressive—and terrifying.”
“This must be what he meant when he mentioned the ‘ideal battleground’ and his ‘floating fortress’,” Avani murmured, staring at the monstrosity speculatively.
I looked quickly at her. “Yes, I believe you’re right. And that means….”
“That means that smug bastard is up there waiting for us,” Dylas interrupted, glaring skyward.
Avani shook her head slowly as she quietly corrected him. “Waiting for me.”