Amidst The Rising Shadows (Book 3) (34 page)

***

The lines of the armies blurred, and Sarah sped across the battlefield, which had become a place of madness. Elitesmen fought Elitesmen. Ryakuls swarmed anything that moved. Airships littered the ground in burning wrecks. There were still some in the air that continued to fight however they could, but the FNA fleet of airships had been cut in half. The airship captains were careful to avoid the Dragons, who threw themselves at the Ryakuls with reckless abandon.
 

Sarah continued on, heading toward the heart of this battle being fought between the man she loved and the man who had been her father. Aaron had been careful to avoid the topic that one of them would die in this battle. He would have found another way if it were possible, but Sarah knew that her father was a monster. None of them would be safe from her father the High King until he was stopped. The Resistance in Khamearra had tried to rebel and resurrected the old call of the Faergraces, her mother’s line. Even now she heard the rallying cry, and her heart wept at the death upon the battlefield below. If they didn’t stop her father here, they would all die, for her father would offer no quarter, and (truth be told) the alliance that had become the Free Nations Army would never surrender. Aaron would never yield to her father, and it wasn’t a prideful plea for power that pitted Aaron against him. It was his indomitable will to survive and protect those around him. To step up when fate called upon him. The Goddess had marked her champion well, and the Eldarin honored it. She knew deep in her heart that Aaron wouldn’t call on the Eldarin again, believing that they had given enough, but she wondered if they would be drawn to this battle anyway. Too many of the Dragons had died along with a horde of Ryakuls for them not to appear. She needed to be at Aaron’s side. To fight beside him for their future. This war would plunge Safanar into a time of darkness that they might never escape from if it didn’t end here. She raced onward, drawing steadily toward the source of the bladesong that could be heard by all.

***

Aaron wielded the Falcons, unleashing the bladesong in a battle medley that adapted his style to thwart the attacks of the High King. This battle had taken him out of time. They blurred in and out of the vision of the men around them, but all could hear the wild cracks like thunder splitting the sky open when their blades met. Aaron gave himself over fully to the dance and opened himself to the wisdom of souls past. Ancestral voices sang in unison, lending their skill to his blades beyond what anyone could achieve in one lifetime, but it wasn’t enough. In the back of his mind, Colind's warning of too much death corrupting the heart of the Ferasdiam marked kept coming to his mind. Dead Elitesmen and soldiers littered the ground at his feet, but it wasn't until soldiers from the FNA began to attack him did he suspect that the High King was exerting his influence over them.
 

“I am a god among men,” the High King bellowed and leaped into the air. He landed with such force that a small crater dotted the battlefield. “I hold the lives of men at my fingertips.” The High King gestured with his free hand, forcing a handful of soldiers from their hiding places. The tips of their feet dragged across the ground. A Hythariam soldier shot at the High King with his plasma pistol, but the shield he had in place deflected them.

“You’re no god,” Aaron said through clenched teeth, slamming his swords down.

The High King whirled out of the way, and the soldiers dropped to the ground. Aaron swept out with his leg, but the High King leaped away. Aaron bounded after him. Each attack was deflected. They would land, and the dance would begin again. The High King and Aaron were lost within a cocoon of blessed steel and the energy of a raging storm.

“We have no right to control the lives of men,” Aaron said.

“We have every right,” the High King answered, lashing out with his sword. He dashed forward and seemingly appeared at Aaron’s side.

Aaron scrambled out of the way, but the High King kept coming.
 

“You’ve felt it, haven’t you. The thirst. That feeling of holding people’s lives in your hands. They are so easy to manipulate and control,” the High King said and smirked.

Aaron risked a glance to the side. Verona stood with a crystal-tipped arrow drawn, his face was a mask of struggle and apprehension. His body shook, straining against the force of the High King.

“Let him go,” Aaron said.

Verona’s fingers shook as he struggled to hold the bow string taunt. “I can’t hold it!”

The arrow flew from his bow, and Aaron dove out of the way. The arrow exploded as it hit a cluster of soldiers upon the field. Aaron moved toward the High King, but Verona called out to him. He had another crystal-tipped arrow drawn. The shadow of a Dragon flew overhead, and Verona cried out as the crystal-tipped arrow was let loose. The arrow struck the Dragon, and the explosion took out part of its wing. The Dragon let out a mournful wale as it tumbled to the ground and the Ryakuls pounced.

Aaron raced to the High King. The crystals set in the Falcons began to glow. Aaron unleashed a barrage of attacks. The High King deflected the blows, but Aaron kept coming, driving him back inch by inch. The High King feinted to the side and backhanded Aaron, sending him sprawling to the ground.

“No, you don’t,” Sarah cried, startling the High King.

The High King stepped back, blocking Sarah’s attacks until she stopped in mid-swing of her blade.

“You see, Shandarian. There are none beyond my power,” the High King said.

Verona cried out, aiming a crystal-tipped arrow at Sarah.

“You’re so high and mighty, Heir of Shandara. The only way to save them is to control them. If you don’t, they both will die,” the High King said.

Aaron reached out with the energy to his friend and the woman he loved. The power was there. He could manipulate the lines of energy and had done so to save Sarah when she was infected with the Nanites, but this was different.

“Do it, Aaron!” Verona cried.

Aaron couldn’t. If he did he would become like the High King. The soldiers around them from both armies stopped fighting and circled around them. They had blank expressions, and the High King grinned. The soldiers came closer and held whatever weapons they carried to the throat of the people nearest to them.
 

The bladesong churned within Aaron, and he felt the energy around him that connected every living thing. He couldn’t move, paralyzed at the scene before him. He couldn’t protect them all. The knowledge of souls past couldn’t help him here. None of them had been Ferasdiam marked. He silenced them, clearing his mind of their influence.

“This is not your purpose,” Aaron said.

“My
purpose,
” the High King spat. “An accident of birth gave me these powers, the same as you.”

“Maybe, but it doesn’t take any great insight to know that forcing people into subservience is a weak man’s ploy. You would burn this whole world if it didn’t function as you saw fit.”

“Weak, am I? I hold the armies on this field within my grasp. Your own friends turn against you,” the High King said.

Aaron smiled, “You haven’t turned anyone against me. They are your actions through them. You have no followers, but those who are too afraid to do otherwise.”

“Fear
is
power!”

Aaron pulled the energy inward and poured all his focus on the High King, whose eyes widened in shock. “I don’t need to control anyone on this field. I just need to keep you from doing it.”

The crystals in Aaron’s sword flared to life. He shot forward, circling the High King and slicing through the web of energy extending from him. The lines of energy melted away as Aaron pushed forward and prevented new lines from forming. The High King howled in rage, slamming his dark blade down. Aaron came to a stop and crisscrossed his blades, blocking the High King’s attack. Aaron pushed up, knocking the High King backward and spun, slashing through his armor with glowing blades.

The High King looked both down at the shallow wounds that bled from his torso and up at Aaron in disbelief. Then his face twisted in rage, and he threw himself at Aaron, roaring as he came. Aaron stood his ground, relying upon the strength that came from a calm, focused mind, and met the High King’s attack. Each time Aaron knocked the High King’s blade aside, he would swing again wildly and with little skill, but still the he charged forward. Aaron stepped back just enough to allow the blade to breeze by, and in a moment his feet were kicked out from under him. Aaron toppled to the ground and scrambled to his feet, but could already feel the downward swing of the High King’s blade bearing down upon him.

The death blow never came. Sarah stood over him, catching the blow with her own sword. The High King regarded his daughter with baleful eyes. In the blink of an eye he knocked her sword aside and held her up by the throat.

“No, don’t!” Aaron shouted.
 

The High King’s gaze switched between Sarah and Aaron. Sarah grabbed the dagger from her belt and plunged it into the High King’s shoulder. She dropped to the ground, and Aaron rushed forward, plunging his swords through the High King’s chest. The High King’s eyes widened in shock and his gaze slipped to Sarah before falling to the ground.

The soldiers around them all seemed to move at once and shook their heads to clear them.

Aaron reached out to Sarah and pulled her away. She resisted for a moment and then buried her face in his shoulder.
 

“I couldn’t let him take you,” she whispered.

Aaron just held her amid the stunned silence of those around them from both armies.

A dark vapor rose from the High King’s body and lifted away along the breeze. A large swath of wind blew, carrying a deep resonance of the Dragons around them. The Ryakuls had scattered and quit the battlefield with no one there to control them. The Dragons banded together, with some groups flying off to the east while others pursued the Ryakuls.

News of the High King’s death spread among both armies, whose generals raised the white flag despite the protest from certain groups within the Elite Order. There was so much infighting among the Khamearrian soldiers and Elitesmen alike, that had the FNA chosen to do so they could have decimated the once-superior force.
 

C
HAPTER
22

AFTERMATH

In the days that followed, Sarah was proclaimed the High Queen of Khamearra with fealty being sworn by the surviving generals of the army. Rordan along with a faction of the Elitesmen Order were nowhere to be found. Other factions of the Elitesmen Order had fought their brethren during the battle, confirming what the former Elitesman Isaac had suspected. Without the High King and certain Elite Masters, the already crumbling Order would fade away. Sarah’s first order as High Queen was to formally disband the Elitesmen Order and revoke all their authority. They were to be absorbed into the Free Nations Army and were to be watched carefully. The former members of the Elitesmen Order were offered a choice: to serve in the FNA or stand trial for their crimes and abuses of power. A number of them fled and were being hunted, but the bulk of them had chosen to take the High Queen up on her offer.

In Shandara, Braden reported minimal losses and that the Hythariam were instrumental at defeating what had come to be known as the High King’s diversionary army. The term was used loosely, because they had learned that while the army was sent there to divide the FNA forces at Rexel, they had orders to take the city if they could.
 

Prince Cyrus of Rexel was all too happy to see the Khamearrian army return to their homelands using the portals created by the Hythariam. A sizable force did stay to integrate with the Free Nations Army, but there were already plans to move them as the strain on the natural resources in the area around Rexel was proving too costly. Many eyes drew toward Aaron as the option of moving the bulk of the Free Nations Army to Shandara was discussed.
 

There were still many people missing, with Colind being most notable among them. Some believed the Lord Guardian of the Safanarion Order would turn up, but Aaron felt a deep-seated fear in the base of his stomach that Colind had not survived. Mactar was also absent, and Aaron firmly believed it wasn’t happenstance that those two were missing.
 

At Iranus’s urging, Aaron returned to Shandara with Sarah and Verona. There had been no Zekara activity since Aaron returned to Safanar, and while the threat of High King Amorak was gone those high up in the FNA knew it was but a temporary lull in a larger storm. Aaron had no doubts that Halcylon was preparing for his attack at this very moment, which was one reason Aaron was in Shandara. The other reason being a pressing need to get away from the battlefield. Amorak had turned the gift of being Ferasdiam marked into something monstrous, and he was left wondering if he was walking the same path. Amorak had referred to it as being an accident of birth, but too much of what Aaron had seen led him to question things of that magnitude being up to chance. Was his being here an accident of birth, or was it destiny that brought him to Safanar?

The combined Shandarian and Hythariam defenses of the city could only be unlocked by a member of the Alenzar’seth line of which Aaron was the last. Aaron’s great-grandfather, Daverim, had insisted that if they were to give shelter to the Hythariam that what they accomplished together would be freely shared with the people of Safanar. When it came to Shandara’s safety its defense and control would fall to a member of the Alenzar’seth. For better or worse it was agreed and was a primary reason why Iranus was so keen to get Aaron back to Shandara.