The Marenon Chronicles Collection

Chapter Twenty-Nine





Alric and the others had barely made it to the slave quarters before the Nestorian and Stühoc soldiers reached them. The line of grappling guns that Ellis had set up did its job well, but it could only be used once. It gave the group of four enough time to reorganize themselves before the oncoming horde arrived. Each of them carried a weapon now, feeling less vulnerable than before, but it was a different story for most of the other slaves.

Alric had offered the orange-jeweled medallion to Nalani, but she had told him to hold on to it. He had been happy to reach out and grab the thing for her. He didn’t know what it was, but there was something about her that made him want to keep her safe. Now they were in the middle of a battle, and he could barely keep himself from being hacked to pieces.

Alric, Coffman, Nalani and Daewyn fought side-by-side with the slaves, pushing toward the western gate, but their lack of weapons worked against them. After an hour or more of fighting, the slaves pushed in a final attempt to fight the Stühocs back, and that’s when the sky went dark.

Alric had just cut through a group of five Stühocs when his attention was brought to the Pyramid. The pedestal that had once carried the Sphere had been moved into an opening at the top of the Pyramid and now Anithistor stood at the top, clutching the side of it. The pedestal was void of any Sphere and Alric thought that perhaps it was because all the souls now rested in the medallion somehow. The medallion was the pedestal’s source of power. What did Anithistor think he was doing?

The fighting came to a halt as a voice called out to them in each of their minds. It was Anithistor.

“It was foolish to rebel against me,” he said. Alric could see that the Stühoc leader kept his eyes closed but his mouth moved.

“Today, you will fail. The medallion is not the only power that can make this weapon come to life,” he said. With his words came a clap of roaring thunder as thousands of bolts of light shot from the pedestal and through the crowd of slaves. Alric jumped to the ground just before a bolt could hit him. Those that were hit, fell to the ground instantly and the bolts began to converge to the center. Finally, the center began to spin into a round ball until it moved back to the top of the pedestal. With another bright burst of light, the hundreds of bodies on the ground began to twitch, coming to life in a slow, rhythmic pattern. First, they began to breathe, then they began to move their limbs. Within minutes they were all standing again. Dread formed a pit in the bottom of Alric’s stomach as he realized that taking the medallion did not undo the power of the Sphere. Anithistor stood at the top of Pyramid, raised his arms high in the air, and called out his command for his new army.

“Soldiers of the Dead,” Anithistor said, “Destroy those who fight against us. Fight until you can fight no longer.”

Without hesitation, the new Soldiers of the Dead turned on what used to be their fellow fighting companions. Those with weapons began hacking away; those that had no weapons used their fingernails or their teeth. Anything that could draw blood.

*****

The first dead soldier to attack Coffman was Ellis. He had been struck fatally in the chest by one of the bolts. His soul was now stolen, and he was being used to quash the rebellion that he had organized. He swung his stolen sword at Coffman, narrowly missing him a couple of times. Coffman couldn’t bring himself to kill the one he had just been fighting next to.

“Stop it!” Coffman said. “You can’t do this! They’re using you!”

Coffman knew that Ellis either couldn’t hear him, or at that he didn’t care anymore. Ellis had only one mission: to destroy Coffman. Coffman ducked and swayed, trying to stay out of the path of Ellis’ fury, but the man was unrelenting. He knew what he had to do, but wasn’t sure he could bring himself to do it. He held up his own sword, deflecting a couple of blows.

“Please stop!” Coffman yelled once more. His cry was only answered with an evil scowl and a more vicious attack. Ellis was dead. His mind had been replaced by the hatred of Anithistor. Coffman knew that yelling at the man would produce nothing but more hatred and anger.

In his dead state, Ellis was not a very skilled fighter, just intense. Coffman easily disarmed him, but then he was fighting an unarmed man. No, he’s dead! Just take his body. As Ellis charged after him, weaponless, Coffman swallowed hard and closed his eyes, then swung the sword deep into Ellis’ chest. Almost as if he hadn’t felt the pain, Ellis kept trying to come after him, causing Coffman to pull the sword out and stab him again. The man was bleeding freely, but still continued his assault. Coffman went for the legs the next time, crippling Ellis. The man’s eyes still wanted nothing more than Coffman’s blood. With a scream of rage, Coffman stepped over to the crippled man, and stabbed his sword straight through the heart. Within moments, Ellis’ body refused to move. Coffman’s anger and desperation threatened to take over. How was Anithistor still able to do this? They had disarmed the Sphere hadn’t they? Had all of this been for nothing?

This had been the same story with most of the slaves. They didn’t want to fight their friends, but were forced to. Not only did the Sphere create new soldiers to join the Nestorians and the Stühocs, but it also cut down the numbers of the resistance significantly.

Coffman searched the crowd for his friends. He spotted Dink and Emma at a distance, fighting off several Soldiers of the Dead, and near them were Nalani and Daewyn. It was time for them to leave.

He charged through groups of mindless soldiers, Nestorians and Stühocs, to get to the others, hacking and slicing the entire way. When he finally reached Nalani, he grabbed her by the shoulders, looking her in the eyes.

“Use the whistle!” he nearly yelled. “This battle is lost, you’ve got to call the sarians.”

Nalani looked down at her chest as though she had completely forgotten about the device that Julian had made for her before she left him. She never thought she would need it, but now she was thankful Julian had insisted on her taking the gift.

She reached inside her shirt and pulled up the whistle on the end of the chain. The sound resonated in its low tone, causing too much attention to be drawn to their group. Dink, Emma, Daewyn and Coffman formed a semicircle around Nalani as she continued to call the sarians to her. They had been left alone for so many days; there was no telling if they would be near enough to hear her.

Wave after wave of enemies came after them. Dink cut some away with an ax he had found. Coffman used his sword and Emma drew back on a bow and arrow she had seized, picking off enemies one at a time. This went on for several minutes as they waited for the giant birds. They knew if they didn’t make it out, they would be dead in moments, and the medallion would be handed right back to the enemy.

“Where’s Alric?” Nalani called out.

Coffman scanned the terrain for their friend, finding him among a crowd of Stühocs, completely surrounded.

Then he saw the shadow of three sarians as they soared in, clawing at nearby enemies before landing to take the riders away. Nalani ordered Dink, Emma and Daewyn to take a sarian. She mounted Fury, and Coffman got onto the other one.

“We’re going after Alric,” Nalani said pointing to Coffman and herself. “You’ve got to get out of here now!”

She turned to Dink and Emma. “Get to Jekyll Rock and warn the Dunarian Council what they’re up against. Tell them about the Sphere!”

“What if you don’t make it?” Daewyn called out.

“Tell your father what you’ve seen here,” Nalani said. “Let him know your people are next if he doesn’t act quickly.”

“I can’t promise my father will do anything,” Daewyn said.

“Then you do it!” Nalani yelled. “If the Erellens and Humans don’t work together, we’ll all be defeated!” With that she pulled up on Fury’s reigns and tore into the air. Coffman followed quickly behind as they flew past scores of fighters going directly for Alric. The sarians slammed into the group of Stühocs. Coffman attempted to pull Alric up onto his sarian, but was grabbed by the legs and shoved back to the ground. Nalani came in for another swoop, but the Stühocs were ready. Before she could pull the bird out of reach, a net was thrown over her and her mount, and the Stühocs began dragging them both to the ground. She tried to reach for her sword again, but the net was too tight for her arms to move. As she frantically tried to find a way to escape, she saw that Coffman was in the same predicament. Both of the sarians tried to claw their way out of the trap, but it was hopeless.

As they lay in the dirt, Coffman accepted the fact that he was about to die. It had been a good run. He and his companions had made a good life of it. Now he and his best friend were about to meet a gruesome end. Part of him wished that Lorcan and Inga had been next to him during all of this, but he was glad they wouldn’t be subjected to the pain he knew he would soon be experiencing.

The crowd of Stühocs standing over them was so thick that they couldn’t even see the sky above them. He had been turned onto his stomach and could feel the fighters tying his hands behind him. What were they doing? Why were they not going to kill him?

After a few minutes, the noise of battle began to lessen as the slaves began to die out or be captured. The soldiers stood at attention as the leader of the Nestorians approached.

“You took something that belongs to us,” Mintuk said. “Anithistor wishes to speak with all of you.”