Something happened as AJ stared into those cold, cold eyes. Eyes that had lost their white, and were now just pools of blackness. Instead of being transported back to that place of fear as he’d thought he would be, he found he was growing calmer, steadier. There was a trace of fear, yes. He was not so foolish as to not be afraid of this man, this day. But it wasn’t an overpowering, all-consuming fear. It strengthened his resolve and hardened his determination. “Hello, Roth.” He said; his tone was calm and cool. “I wish I could say it was nice to see you too, but my people are pretty big sticklers on lies.”
The darkness in Roth’s eyes seemed to grow even darker for just a second and a presence flashed behind that darkness. But his tone stayed in that false cordial tone. “Such a flippant tongue you still have, Alyck. Such a shame. Bold as ever, too. You and your mate stand here to challenge me all on your own? Where is your family? Where is your army?” He spoke tauntingly, as if he really thought they were alone. AJ knew better. He knew that Roth knew.
But this whole thing was a giant game to Roth. That was what he had to remind himself. It was a giant game, and they were all the game pieces. However long he could stall here would be another moment that his people had to get themselves into position. To prepare themselves. Plus there was always the hope, no matter how slim it was, that their barrier would hold him out. If not the first, then the second barrier that Tadhg, AJ, and Brian had put up in secret. One that was strengthened in different ways. More than anything they wanted to win this, but they had fall back points prepared for any eventuality.
“I am not so foolish as you to keep my army in your sights for easy plucking.” AJ replied, resting his hands on his hips. A corner of his mouth curled mockingly. “Unlike you, who has your entire army waiting to walk like cattle to slaughter.”
Roth threw his head back and laughed. Even his laughter sounded wrong; like something that creeps in the night. “You are as bold as ever! How I’ve missed our conversations, Alyck!” he said, smiling in a way that curdled AJ’s stomach. “I told myself I would not, yet I cannot resist asking one last time. Won’t you give up this foolishness, Alyck Tuian? Just step across this barrier and take my hand. Together we could rule! The power we would wield! All would bow before us, and we would be Gods!” Those dark eyes slid to Brian. “You too, oh young one. There is such life in you! Would you join me, and bring your lover? The three of us would be an unstoppable force.”
Before he could think about it, disgust had Brian’s lip curling. He instinctively took a half step back, one hand coming up to rest on the pommel of his sword. “Join with you as you destroy everything in life I hold dear?” Brian spat out. “Go against everything I believe in, and that I know to be true? Turn on those that I love? You’re mad.”
AJ raised a cautioning hand toward his partner, urging him to silence. Once he was sure Brian would stay quiet, he turned his attention back to Roth. “You say ‘the three of us.’ Yet I know that there is one other who resides here. One who has beguiled you with his lies, and turned your head with promises that he has no intention of keeping. I see him in your eyes.”
“What lies do you speak of, Alyck of the elves? What has your King filled your head with? Nursery stories made to frighten children into going to bed?”
The mocking tone in Roth’s voice was meant to put AJ’s back up; he refused to allow it. He would not give this man what he wanted. But in that sentence he saw more than Roth had ever intended to reveal. Those with him did not know about Twyla. He had convinced them that anything that was said along these lines would be a trick.
Of all of them, the Goblins should know better. With his heart breaking a little, AJ looked to where Grhg stood in the front lines, his back straight and stiff. Calling out in the goblin tongue, AJ spoke to him. “This is not where I expected to see you, Grhg, champion of the Goblins. Seek you to walk with the darkness? To bind yourself to one who seeks to bring back the spirit of the one whom almost destroyed you once?”
“Your lies will not work here!” Grhg called out loudly, raising the hand that held his spear. “We have been shown the truth of what you do! We were shown how you brought him to us in an effort to trick us! You brought that spirit there and claimed it was him, hoping to make us fight on your side. We are on the side that is right. He will restore us to our former greatness!”
Sadly AJ shook his head. “You have been deluded by lies, Grhg. Look into Roth’s eyes, pools of blackness just as Twyla’s were. Look at the darkness that is there, and what is behind it. You are better than this. You know better than this. Do not let the Goblins be destroyed because you could not see the truth behind the lies.”
Impatient with this, Roth drew attention back to him. Maybe it was impatience, or maybe a fear that if AJ continued to speak, he might lose one of his allies. “The time for talk is done! We will not listen to your lies. Either join me, or die before me. But either way, I will have that castle!” Roth cried out.
So, this was how it would be. AJ drew his swords, holding one in each hand. He let his power fill him, until he was fair to vibrating with the strength of it. It echoed in his eyes, a warning to all who could see such things. “I give you all one last warning. Turn back now. As trulion, I demand that this war stop. I seek to bring peace to the world, not war. Turn back now, while you still can. For once you start this, it will be finished. We grant no quarter.”
“I will have what I want.” Roth said in a voice gone mad. He raised his hands on either side of him, embracing his own magic, filling the air with the stench of the taint of blood magic. The look behind his eyes was not his own. Seeing this, AJ let his body and mind relax. He had tried to stop them. They refused to yield. Now, he would fight to the death to protect those he loved and cared for. He would protect his people. “So shall it be.” He said softly, bracing himself as Roth spun magic never seen before.
In an instant the barrier was gone. AJ felt its passing like a pop in the air, but mentally, not physically. Before Roth could even marshal his troops to move, AJ raised the sword of the trulion and shot a bolt of fire into the air. They thought it was to frighten them. They had no idea that it was his signal. The war had begun.
Everyone had their job to do. AJ knew who he had to go after. He was the only one that was a match for Rothalo.
A cry went up from Roth’s troops, and they started their forward charge. Like a flash, Brownies and Centaurs came barreling up from the forest, swords and spears and scythes flashing in the sun. AJ didn’t bother to focus on anything else other than Roth. He knew that Brian was by his side, working to keep the area around AJ safe.
But Roth didn’t stay with his troops. Up into the air he shot, a giant leap taking him high up, bonds of air taking him higher and holding him there. Out of the air formed some of evil, so dark that for a minute it seemed to fill the sky. It was the same dark cancer that had infested the Tree of Life. The same darkness that filled Roth’s eyes, and his soul. Even as he rose, it formed into a simile of a dragon. Like, yet not. It was too long, and oozed darkness, chasing the light away anywhere that it went.
There was no hesitation in AJ. He gave a mental call even as he pushed himself into the air. As he rose, he heard the cry that let him know his call had been heeded. With a smoothness like they had practiced this move a million times before, AJ flew into the air and Tripha dove underneath him .A just the right moment AJ released the bonds of air and dropped himself onto the dragon’s back. They opened their minds to one another in the same instant, communicating without words.
‘He has resurrected the sha’darth.’ Tripha hissed into his mind. It took AJ a moment to translate the words. They meant final dark. The name for the dragons of darkness that Twyla had created. Beings with no true mind, and only one purpose. Death.
Bellowing his rage to the sky, Tripha shot after Roth, who was flying toward the castle. AJ left behind the troops, left behind the main battle, and prayed that those he loved would be safe. A prayer was all he could offer. They could defeat all the ground troops, but it would mean nothing if Roth was not defeated. That resolve firm in his mind, AJ sheathed his swords and raised his hands, gathering weaves together to send at Roth’s back.
With a burst he sent fire flying. At the last second it was deflected, bouncing off into the sky. AJ didn’t waste time, but sent each element on their own, one right after the other. Roth was prepared for each one, and turned to fling his hands out and put up his own defenses.
Tripha caught up to the sha’darth and closed his mouth over its tail, giving a sharp yank. That brought them close enough that Roth tried to send his own fire to burn AJ out of his way. AJ shielded with one hand, sending air with the other, a solid wall to try to knock him over. The sha’darth roared to the sky and spun, trying to go for Tripha’s head, but he had already released him and was diving under, twisting to breathe fire against its soft underbelly. As they came out the other side, AJ sent up his own fire.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Brian spun at just the last moment, deflecting the blade that came too near to his head. He followed it with a jet of fire, taking his opponent in the face and dropping him to the ground. There was no time to check if he was really dead or not. Bodies pressed in around him, each one trying to take them down. Centaurs fought on either side of him, so Brian had to fight to keep them clear of his blade.
He knew what he needed to do. Many nights when they’d been cuddled together he and AJ had discussed their own personal plans. For the moment, this was his army, though, and he needed to keep his mind in the game.
The troops were starting to overwhelm them among the trees. Seeing that, Brian raised three rows of fire and shot them into the air. It was the sign for them to fall back to the other side of the forest. To give them the plains to fight on, and to get them in position for the dwarves to strike from behind.
As the others fell back, Brian mimicked what AJ had done and shot himself into the air with weaves of air. This would be the only chance he got for this, where none of his people were in the mix to worry about hitting. Toward the back of the army he shot balls of fire. To his right he saw Howie floating, doing the very same. Some of it was shielded from, showing that there were spell casters in the army. But some hit their mark, and whole fists of Krutas collapsed to the ground in burning piles of flesh.
They fell back, not daring to send more fire for fear that the dwarves would come from their tunnels and be hit. So Brian fell back, landing at the head of his own army. His own warriors. They made a line; Centaurs, Satyrs, Elves, all armed to the teeth, all ready to do what needed to be done.
As the first wave burst through the trees, Geoff stood tall on the cliffs and gathered water, assisted by the merfolk. They’d imbibed the water with their own magic. With a loud cry Geoff flung the wave, spilling it over the troops. Not only did it knock them over, and mess up their line, but it paralyzed them for just a moment. Once it had crashed, Howie and Brian used their magic to soak the water into the earth so that none of their own troops would be touched by it as they rushed in, slicing down paralyzed opponents.
He raised his claymore and let out a loud battle cry, screaming it as he dove into the mass of flesh, cutting a path around him. To one side he saw Howie fighting with both sword and magic, his hair flying wild. On the other was Richard, an axe in one hand and a sword in the other, creating a mass of destruction around him.
Screams from the back of the army showed that the dwarves had emerged. Their battle chants echoed amid the smoke and the screams. Everywhere there was death. In the back of Brian’s mind was the knot that was AJ. It was rock hard and steady in its determination.
To one side, over the troops, Brian saw a few ni’shia break free. Their lithe bodies sliding through the air, they were surrounding Isleen, who was standing with nymphs. The area around Brian was doing well, so he used air again, leaping over the Krutas. Not many were talented enough to fight a ni’shia.
But before he was even halfway there he saw something so much more monstrous. The creature that walked from the forest was something born of nightmares. Standing almost ten feet tall, and as wide as a school bus, it was the most terrifying thing that Brian had ever seen. Not just its size, but its looks as well. The thing was as black as the sha’darth, seeming to suck the light from the air around it and fill it with its own darkness. There were only small bits of color. On a face with no features there were simply two burning red eyes. It had its arms stretched out to either side, but instead of arms they were giant bat like wings, with the hand at the end of each wing. The wings themselves were black, but it looked as if blood ran down them, creating red streaks. It was like watching terror walk.
He forced the air to carry him faster, but fear ate at Brian’s heart. He let out a hoarse cry when he saw Howie streaking the ground underneath him, racing to get to her side.
Whatever the thing was made a loud, crooning sound, and Isleen froze. That moment was all it needed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Clinging tightly to Tripha’s back, AJ rolled with him, trying to keep his seat as the two dragons grabbed hold of one another, legs and claws wrapping. It took a split second for AJ to make his decision. Instead of the magical attack that Roth expected, AJ braced his feet on Tripha’s sides and launched over, landing full body on Roth and knocking him into the open air. The two fell from the sky.
A cushion of air made by Roth softened their landing some, but it still jarred the teeth in AJ’s head. He didn’t give it time to settle, though, but sought to grab a sword even as he hit and rolled, coming to his feet with a sword in one hand, and fire in the other.
Roth recovered just as fast, and he held his hands out as well. He formed a sword of pure fire, clasping its hilt without being burned. He raised it high and laughed. “Just you and me, young Alyck!” he taunted. Suddenly the ground by AJ’s feet rose, trinyg to swallow him in it. He didn’t flinch, but used his own mind to push up out of it and end up standing on top. Then he used it as a footstone to push from, launching at Roth.
Their swords met, metal and fire, with a clash and a hiss.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Horror filled Brian when he saw the ni’shia reached out, grabbing Isleen with one hand and physically throwing her to the beast. The creature did not hesitate, but opened its maw wide. Just as Brian reached them, he saw the creature bite. Blood spattered everywhere, across Brian’s face. He felt as if his heart was breaking.
A loud, feral cry filled the air as Howie came in just enough time to watch the beast devour his love. Another cry rent the air, and suddenly fire was there, compact with spirit, then woven with the other elements in a way that Brian didn’t recognize. But all the beings before them flashed bright and strong, turning to ashes on the ground.
He heard Howie’s anguished cry and reached to him, catching his arm to hold him steady. There were no words he could offer in comfort. Nothing that he could say to him to make it better.
When Howie’s eyes raised up, there was death walking in them. “She will not have died in vain.” He hissed out. “It’s the last thing I can give her.”
Instead of trying to soothe him, Brian let his own pain fill his heart, and harden his resolve. “So shall it be. Let us go, brother.”
Together the two men headed back to the war, death riding in their hands, their eyes, and their hearts.