The Twilight City Read online

  Chapter 31

  The Pale Lord of Nexus rose from his throne of bones, unwinding his tall, spindly frame like some great, pale spider slowly unfolding itself. Nera thought she could almost hear the creak of ancient joints forced back into motion after years of disuse. As the Pale Lord stood on his dais, towering above them all, she could feel his awful majesty as a palpable fear in her guts. The effect seemed to roll off the ruler in waves. Even the Magehunters felt it, as indicated by their darting eyes and nervous adjusting of grips on their swords.

  It’s only foul wizardry… Have courage. Despite knowing the unnatural terror was magical in nature, she couldn’t help feeling a harrowing certainty her life would soon be ended.

  “Who dares to destroy that which I have wrought in this city of mine?” The words thundered inside Nera’s skull, making her grasp her temples at the sharp pressure, as if her head would explode.

  The Pale Lord’s gaze fell on them like the beam from some infernal lantern, and she fought the urge to fall to her knees and quake in terror.

  Nera could only watch in astonishment as Malek stepped bravely forward. His words came without fear.

  “My master is dead at the hands of your underlings after being reduced to a gaping half-wit! What gives you the right to enslave those men and women in that warehouse, deprive them of their will and dignity, and leech the mana from them as one would milk a cow? I would see all of the others freed.”

  “You know nothing, mortal. Those of which you speak were condemned for crimes of the past and serve their sentences as penance. They submitted willfully to their fate. I would have you join them as punishment for your destructive magic wielding, were it not for the fact you have little mana of your own, rendering you useless in that regard. I find it ironic you level charges against me and mine while your very nature is to leech and steal mana from the world around you. Corruptors prey upon others as vampyres, sucking life from them.”

  “I think not.” Malek glanced around at the Magehunters surrounding them. “I am nothing like you. I do not seek power for my own means—I merely wanted to save my master before it was too late, but alas that is not to be. Allow us to withdraw, and I will not tear this fortress down on top of you.”

  Ashamed of her cowardice, Nera stood a little straighter, clenching her teeth to keep from quailing like a green cutpurse on her first attempt at a pickpocket.

  “Arrogant dog,” the chamberlain snapped. “Show respect and fall to your knees before the Lord of Nexus!”

  “He is no lord of mine,” Malek retorted, “nor will I respect one who animates corpses to serve as guardians, who enslaves and violates men, pilfering their vitality for frivolous displays of magic!”

  “Malek—” Nera began, taking a step forward. Impressed as she was by his courage and stubbornness, her common sense was ringing, a deafening alarm bell. Insulting the Pale Lord and his minions would not improve their lot.

  The Pale Lord’s glowing yellow eyes suddenly fastened on Nera, as if he had just noticed her, pinning her in place. “You.”

  “Me?” Her response came out as little more than a startled squeak. A shiver ran down her spine, under the Pale Lord’s baleful stare. She sensed a sudden pressure inside her head, and she grew dizzy, stumbling back into Endira, who steadied her. After a moment, the pressure relented. Nera thought she sensed puzzlement from the Pale Lord, as if some type of telepathic connection had been established.

  “You are touched… What is your purpose? Has he sent you to me?” The voice boomed in her mind, and a sense of apprehension also bled through the mental connection.

  Nera opened her mouth, but terrified as she was, no words came forth. Her mind raced, but the only thought she could seize upon was that of fleeing.

  Malek was suddenly beside her. He put his hand comfortingly on her shoulder, and Nera’s terror subsided a bit.

  “Leave her be. If you seek reprisal, then deal with me. Nera is my companion, as is Endira. They are here by no fault of their own, simply because I sought their aid in locating my master, who was abducted by your minions.” He turned to Nera and Endira, his face softening a bit. “Ladies, I urge the two of you to withdraw for your own safety.” His tone was resigned, as if he knew he would not walk away from the encounter.

  Nera opened her mouth to protest, but she could not find any words. Foolish wench, what are you doing? Run!

  Despite her urge to flee, she didn’t. Taking a deep breath, she summoned enough courage to fight off her terror. The feel of Lightslicer’s hilt was comforting in her hand. She wouldn’t be a coward and run, leaving her friends behind. “I reckon we’re in this together now.” The words slipped off her tongue before she could stop them. “I hope you know what you’re doing, fool mage,” she whispered to Malek.

  “My master has foreseen these events,” Endira said. “Let our fate play out as it will. I stand beside you as well, Malek.” She seemed cool and collected as always, her psionic abilities undoubtedly providing some relief from the unnatural aura of fear generated by the Pale Lord.

  Nera envied her two companions their steel resolve. Cold sweat trickled down her back as her eyes darted nervously between the Magehunters and their lord.

  Lassiter glanced over at the Pale Lord. Some silent communication passed between them, and the commander gestured at the three companions. “Take them!” he barked.

  Everything seemed to happen at once. The ring of Magehunters charged them, swords drawn. Malek’s hands glowed with power. Endira’s head became limned in an orange glow. And Nera drew and unleashed a handful of throwing knives at the nearest Magehunters.

  A wall of force slammed into the group of Magehunters, knocking many down and forcing the rest back. Crossbow bolts flew at the companions, many going astray or deflecting off the force Malek was generating.

  Nera ducked sideways, and a bolt that made it past Malek’s shield impacted off her left horn, ricocheting astray. Her first volley of throwing knives mainly glanced off the Magehunters’ plate mail although one of them penetrated the earhole of a soldier’s helm. The man stumbled and fell, blood leaking from his helm.

  The chamberlain raised his hands, and lightning crackled between them. With a command word, he unleashed a bolt that struck Malek. The young mage absorbed it and returned the favor. Nera cheered as the bolt took the blue-skinned bastard right in the chest and dropped him. The cheer died quickly as the Pale Lord’s lackey got back to his feet with a sneer, apparently unharmed.

  Endira was surrounded by a glowing sphere that seemed to repel the soldiers’ assault. Her arms were slender blades limned in a red glow, which she stabbed and slashed into the Magehunters, attempting to pierce their enchanted mail.

  A sword swept toward Nera’s head, forcing her to duck and back away. The wielder said, “You should’ve surrendered when you had the chance, wench. You and your brother would still have many years of life ahead of you yet. Now, you shall join him in an early death.”

  Nera found herself face to face with Arron’s killer.

  ***

  Despite the confident face he was trying to show, Malek was secretly terrified. Chances were very slim he or the women would escape. He wasn’t afraid for himself so much as for Nera and Endira. His quest had failed—Magellan was dead. Malek had had no plans beyond seeing his master returned, and therefore no longer cared if he was slain. His friends, however, didn’t deserve the punishment he had brought upon them all.

  The Pale Lord’s power is immense… This is not going to end well. I must cause a distraction to allow them to escape. His invisible wall of force was holding the majority of Magehunters at bay while the women dealt with the remaining warriors that spilled around the sides and attacked. His protective wall sparked and crackled, casting an amber glow where the Magehunters struck it as they hammered away, trying to break through.

  Knowing he wouldn’t be able to hold off the warriors indefinitely while dealing with the Pale Lord and the other spell caster, Malek changed the form
of his wall. Remembering the battle against the Magehunters in the flat, he focused his will upon the magical wards embedded in their armor. With a violent wrenching, he drained the energy from the Magehunters’ protective spells and used that power to reform his wall of force. He collapsed it into a narrow bar and then further into a thin line until it was as keen as the sharpest sword. With a surge of power, he thrust that invisible blade through the warriors.

  The charged line of force cut through the warriors, slicing through their torsos and limbs as if they were soft clay soldiers. Blood sprayed from cleft arteries, and severed body parts flopped on the flagstones as the majority of the Magehunters were carved apart into many pieces.

  “Nera, Endira, run now! I’ll hold them off!” He glanced over his shoulder at his companions, but either they were too busy fighting to hear, or they ignored him.

  A blast of power struck him and flattened him to the floor. The Pale Lord advanced on him, black flames pouring from his upraised hands. His eyes shone like malevolent lanterns, illuminating the path to Malek’s damnation.

  ***

  Nera screamed a curse and sprang at Lassiter. Her long daggers twirled in her hands as she attacked. The commander still seemed slightly off balance after having been thrown back by Malek’s earlier attack—either that or her sheer ferocity was too much. As it was, he wasn’t quick enough to defend against Nera’s furious attack.

  She nimbly dodged inside Lassiter’s guard and buried both daggers in his side. Lightslicer slid in to the hilt while the other dagger barely pierced his mail. He hissed in pain, stumbling backward. Nera tried to thrust them deeper, trying to pierce his heart, but her opponent recovered. A mailed fist struck her cheek, causing her to see double for a moment, but she retained her grip on her daggers and pulled them free. Lassiter’s wicked longsword struck at her, and Nera was narrowly able to parry aside the blade. She lost her grip on her second dagger, and it clattered away across the flagstone floor.

  Sensing motion behind her, Nera dodged to one side, evading the grasping arms of a Magehunter seeking to tackle her. She made him pay, with a deep stab of Lightslicer to the man’s back. Blood spurted, and she knew she had gashed his kidney, likely a fatal blow.

  Lassiter snarled at her as he stepped over his wounded man. Pale, milky fluid leaked from the deep wound in his ribs. “I will put you down as I did your brother, bitch.” He lunged at her with a mighty cut that would’ve cleaved Nera nearly in half, had it landed.

  Instead, she leaped high into the air over his attack, her feet striking his face and shoulder as his momentum carried him under her. She scored a deep gash across the top of his head before springing away. She landed and spun around, finding herself momentarily back to back with Endira. Lassiter dropped to his knees, one hand probing the wound on his head.

  Nera tried to take in the battle with a quick glance.

  Endira was hard-pressed, trying to fend off a Magehunter swordsman. She was bleeding from a few minor wounds. The elf paused a moment, her head suddenly glowing with a red aura, then her attacker screamed. He dropped his sword and clutched his head. The warrior staggered and slammed into the keep wall face-first. He stumbled away, his nose crushed and blood pouring down his chin. The man tripped over a corpse and fell and did not rise again.

  She looked for Malek and gasped when she saw him enveloped by the Pale Lord’s black flames.

  ***

  Malek fought to contain the power raining down on him. Simultaneously, he felt his mind under attack from the Pale Lord as well. He belatedly realized the ruler of Nexus was both a powerful sorcerer and mind-bender.

  He lay paralyzed on the ground for a moment, agony tearing through his head. He thought he was dead until a sudden comforting presence filled his mind and the brutal assault on his senses lessened until it was tolerable.

  “I’ll try to shield your mind, but I won’t be able to hold up long against his sheer power.” Endira’s comforting voice spoke in his mind. “Find us a way out of this.”

  The majority of the Magehunters were down. Endira and Nera were standing back to back, facing the remaining few. The chamberlain was readying another potent spell to unleash on them while the Pale Lord’s hands spewed the black flames still flowing over Malek.

  He recognized the same negative energy he had faced from the Warders. Gritting his teeth at the sickness he felt from that power, Malek redirected it into a blast toward the ceiling. Stone crumbled, sending huge slabs to collapse atop the spellcasting chamberlain before he could unleash another spell.

  The Pale Lord’s flames continued, and Malek was filled with power even as the negative energy weakened him and roiled in his guts, making him want to vomit. He stumbled, dizzy and ill, but knew there was no turning back. If he faltered, he died, and his companions along with him.

  He saw the face of Magellan, in his mind—transformed from a kindly teacher into a drooling half-wit. He could only imagine what they would do to Endira and Nera once they were finished with him. Rage lent him the strength needed to control the negative energy and redirect it. Thoughts of escape quickly fled his mind as anger and raw power overtook him. He unleashed a mighty attack on the Pale Lord himself. When the negative energy attack faltered, Malek drew from the power seized from the keep and deep within the fabric of Nexus itself.

  He ignored Endira’s plea to get them out of there and pressed his assault, managing to drive the Pale Lord back a step as their magics collided.

  ***

  Nera saw Endira wobble on her feet, obviously drained from using so much energy. The elf placed a hand against the wall to steady herself.

  “You should flee, Nera. I think it likely the path is clear for now. Reinforcements could arrive soon, however.”

  The thought of escape was appealing, but Nera refused. Not this time. She was sticking with her friends. “I won’t turn my back on Malek,” she said. “You either,” she hurriedly added at Endira’s surprised look. For some reason, the elf’s surprise irritated her and strengthened her resolve. “We see this through.”

  “Very well, although I don’t see a satisfactory outcome for us. He is too powerful. My strength flags, trying to shield Malek from his psionic barrage. Once I fail, he will fall, and we will be executed.”

  Executed or something worse. Nera pictured the wasted figures in the horrific mana factory. She shuddered at the thought of the three of them being strapped into those iron chairs. Our only hope is if Malek wins. She scanned the blood-soaked flagstones for her lost dagger but couldn’t see it.

  “If Malek somehow wins, Nexus falls, and we all lose,” came Endira’s voice in her head.

  Nera jumped in alarm at the intrusion into her thoughts. Get out of my head, elf!

  Endira didn’t respond.

  Malek was struggling to hold his ground against the Pale Lord, the two of them bathed in magical energy colliding in a roiling mass of black-and-blue flames. Nera gaped at the body parts littering the floor, having just noticed the fate of the remaining Magehunters. Whatever Malek had done had been viciously effective. Rubble littered the area where the chamberlain had been, and she hoped the bastard had been crushed to death.

  The skeletal Pale Lord stopped his magical assault, and Malek stumbled back and nearly fell but caught himself. He was obviously winded and likely injured. He looked ill again, and Nera realized he must have absorbed too much of the dark magic, as he had in the mana factory.

  The Pale Lord raised his hands and cast a spell, shouting a command word, and suddenly a tremendous concussion reverberated throughout the hall, a deafening shockwave of sound that threw all of them to the ground.

  After a moment, Nera groaned and slowly sat up, ears ringing, only to see the Pale Lord extend a hand, and his black flames burst forth anew.

  “Nooo!” Nera cried, watching helplessly as Malek was bathed in the Pale Lord’s magical assault. The mage cried out as he was enveloped in the flames of darkness crackling around him. Only the edges of the flames showed any
illumination, a sickly glowing green. The flames themselves stole all light, and looking at them was like looking into a void.

  Nera snapped back to her own plight as Lassiter lunged back to his feet and stabbed at her. Forced to retreat, she dodged and parried away his blade with Lightslicer. A series of slashes opened a wound on her thigh, another on her forearm. Lassiter smirked, obviously enjoying toying with her. The left side of his face was coated in the pale blood leaking from the deep gash on his head. His blade swept in and scored her rib cage. Nera spun away and slashed him across the wrist. He chopped down and caught Lightslicer, knocking the dagger free from her grasp and sending it spinning away across the floor. Nera stumbled over a severed leg on the floor, twisting her ankle and landing on her backside.

  “Savor your last breath.” Lassiter brought his sword up for a final strike.

  Nera extended her hand, and Lightslicer appeared in it with a silvery flash of light. She buried it deep in Lassiter’s calf. Shocked by her sudden strike, he awkwardly lurched backward a couple steps.

  Nera scooted away, noting her freely bleeding wounds. She knew she didn’t have much fight left before Lassiter would have her head.

  Endira gestured at a burly Magehunter who had regained his feet, and the man’s helmet flew off. He gaped at Endira, and his eyes went blank as her nimbus turned red. The man clumsily turned and launched himself at Lassiter just as the commander prepared another strike at Nera. The two went down in a heap, the bigger man on top, raining clumsy blows with his mailed fists at Lassiter’s unprotected face. The commander bucked, trying to throw his man off, but couldn’t. After a moment, Lassiter’s black blade suddenly burst through the side of the other warrior’s neck. Blood poured from the wound, and Lassiter beheaded his own man with a quick sweep of the blade. He shoved the corpse aside, fury on his battered face.