The Marenon Chronicles Collection

Chapter Twenty-Three





Nalani pulled Alric and Coffman close to her and they hunkered low in the dirt. The fighting around them was intense, but their chief concern was preventing the Sphere attack that was sure to come.

“I’ve got the two medallions, but there’s not much more to go on than that,” Alric said. “Silas said he can blow them up if we can get them to the pedestal.”

Coffman shook his head. “That’s not going to be easy.”

Nalani looked all around her. Erellens and Humans had all fallen under one banner with leaders working together to direct their troops onward. Bursts of magic lit the air as Erellens used their weapons and magical attacks and Humans stabbed unrelentingly with their swords, driving deeper into the heart of the city, though the sheer number of Stühocs seemed to never end. As she watched the Pyramid creep toward them from the east side of the city, she knew the soldiers would be in trouble soon.

She remembered all too well what had happened in Voelif. The bolts of light that shot out from the Sphere and into the chests of the unexpected prisoners were terrifying. Being hit by one of those bolts meant instant death, and then instant enslavement of the soul.

Nalani shuddered at the thought, and shook her head vigorously. “We’ve got to ride a sarian to the top of the Pyramid and take out whoever is up there before he uses the Sphere.”

“It’ll take some fancy maneuvering,” Alric said. “But I’m with you.”

“Wait,” Coffman said, holding up a big hand. “It can’t just be one of us. The Stühocs will shoot one of us down in a second.” He looked back at the sarians and counted. Nalani did the same, and for the first time, noticed that Julian’s sarian, Eden, was among them. She wondered silently why he hadn’t taken the bird with him, wherever he was.

“Eight,” Coffman said. “There’s eight birds so I think eight of us should go up at once.”

“They’ll take us all down,” Alric said.

“Maybe,” Nalani nodded. “But it’s a good bet that one of us will make it through to the top and be able to kill whoever is up there.”

“One of the sarians belongs to Darius,” Alric said. “He’ll go up with us.”

“That’s four,” Coffman counted.

Nalani searched the mass of soldiers. It was difficult to see any specific person. It all seemed like such a blur, but then she spotted the next two riders. “There!” she said, pointing in the distance. “Dink and Emma.”

“And I’ll get that idiot, Daewyn, to fly up with us,” Alric said.

“We need one more,” Coffman told them.

Nalani felt the whistle that hung from a string around her neck. Julian had given it to her before her previous mission to Voelif. She knew that he always carried one with him as well, and had used it on occasion to call his faithful sarian to him. Though it hadn’t saved Nalani from being captured in Voelif, it had possibly saved the lives of three others.

“Leave Eden here for Julian. He might need her.”

Alric obviously disapproved of the decision. “He’s not even here!”

Nalani didn’t know what it was. Something inside her mind was telling her that Julian would need Eden for some reason. Even if he didn’t, she didn’t feel right about taking her away.

“We’re leaving her behind,” she said with finality. “Meet back here when you have the other riders.”

Alric looked at her with concern in his eyes, but she paid him no mind. The Pyramid was nearing the city’s center and they had to be ready to go before it reached the soldiers.

Without looking back, she waded through a sea of bloody green and gray warriors. Often, she had to use her sword to cut down the Stühocs or Nestorians that got in her way. She didn’t know why she was going after Dink and Emma, but she felt like she could trust them. Choosing fighters from the Dunarians would be easier too. An Erellen or even a soldier from Farlaweer would be less likely to abandon his or her comrades in the heat of battle to attempt a suicide mission. She doubted that Darius would join them, but she didn’t see the commander easily giving up his sarian for such an endeavor without being the one to ride it to the top.

When Nalani came near, she reached a hand out and grabbed Emma’s shoulder. Emma spun around with her blade in hand and almost took a swipe at Nalani, but stopped short.

“Nalani!” The woman was covered from head to toe in gray and red blood.

“I need your help!” She pointed at Dink. “His too.”

Dink turned when he had heard his wife’s voice. She briefly told them the plan of attack and showed them where the sarians stood huddled amongst each other.

“Stay there, and stay low!”

She pushed past them until she reached the front of the Dunarian line. Every soldier was pushing forward into the middle of the city of Mudavé, inching ever closer to the mountainside that housed the Stühoc fortress.

She had never before seen the ugly city, but she had little time to take in the scenery. The misty skies and brown-red hues of the sand and stone left her with the feeling that she wasn’t missing anything by battling instead of exploring.

Naturally, at the front of the line, she found Darius Umar. The dark man slashed in fury without tiring. He had led the Dunarian Order with a determined fierceness, and today it had paid off.

When she told him of her plan, he knew it was something that he needed to help with personally. Nalani knew he could have sent one of his other men to do it for him, but this part of the battle was essential.

He instructed his second in command to take over and to keep pushing the soldiers forward. He and Nalani ran together, past the eager warriors and to the sarians. Dink and Emma had found a spot near the sarians to lay low. Coffman and Alric soon came in with Daewyn following behind.

“What’s the plan?” Daewyn asked.

“Simple,” Alric said as he pointed to the Pyramid. “The seven of us fly to the top of that thing.”

“We’ll go at it from different directions and hope we don’t get shot down,” Nalani said.

Darius held up a hand. “Just one problem. Only one of us will have the two medallions. That’s you, right Alric?”

All of them stood in silence, perplexed by this oversight. Alric finally said that the best way to go about it would be for six of them to come at the top of the Pyramid from the sides to distract anyone that might be protecting the top, while one of them would dive from a much higher distance straight down to the top.

“It’s not a safe move for anyone,” Alric said. “I think it presents an equal danger to all of us. I’ve got the medallions, so if you want, I can dive from the higher distance.”

It was decided. Each of them was about to mount a sarian when they noticed something strange on the horizon.

The Pyramid. It moved much faster than before. The seven riders stood in stunned silence, realizing that they had failed to notice the Pyramid’s rapidly growing speed. Though the top of the Pyramid reached a great height, they could clearly see what, and who was at the top.

Unlike a typical pyramid, this one had a flat platform at the top where there would normally be a pointed tip. On that platform was the enchanted pedestal that had conjured up the Sphere of captured souls.

Commanding the Sphere was the Sleeper, Marcus. A group of ten Stühocs surrounded the edge of the platform, forming a wall around Marcus and the pedestal. Each of them was armed with bows, ready to take on any kind of assault.

On both sides of Marcus were two Leapers guarding the Sleeper from any who should get too close.

“This just got a little bit harder,” Alric exclaimed.

Before another word could be spoken, a burst of light exploded from the Sphere, shooting a flurry of bolts through the opposing army.

Each strand of light nailed its target in the chest, dropping them to the ground in an instant. It didn’t matter who it was. Anwyn, Erellen, and Human alike dropped like flies at the commanding words from Marcus.

With the burst of energy, the sarians scattered and their riders ducked for cover, as did anyone else with the ability to move. The Stühocs in front of the freedom fighters backed off a considerable distance as not to be in the way of the Sphere’s relentless destruction.

One bolt sailed directly over Nalani’s head and into the face of an Anwyn soldier, his spear dropping to the ground next to his lifeless body. She was able to put her back against a rock, hoping the bolt couldn’t pass through the thick stone. Alric crawled on the ground toward her, and finally sat up against the rock inches from her.

“Did any of the riders get hit?” she asked. “Where’s Coffman?”

“I didn’t see anything, I just dove.”

She rested her head against the rock, praying that the opportunity for them to escape to their sarians would arise. With another exploding sound, a second bolt shot through the soldiers, dropping hundreds more at once.

She wondered what it felt like to be hit by one of them. Did it hurt? Was it instant blackness? At first, she thought it might not be as bad as being stabbed or cut through by the enemy, but her thoughts quickly went away when she saw the Anwyn in front of her begin to twitch.

Alric gave her a long look, then pulled out his sword and sliced through the Anwyn warrior. He hacked again and again until there was no more twitching. Though this may have gained them a few moments of safety, it didn’t stop the others who had been hit. Within moments, victims of the Sphere stood, waiting for the command of their new master.

Like Alric, many of the soldiers began hacking away at their new enemies, but their efforts failed to gain them any ground.

If Nalani thought Human Soldiers of the Dead were bad, Anwyns and Erellens were far worse. The Anwyn’s brute strength with the mix of uncaring ferocity, made them extremely deadly, and not so easy to kill. Nalani watched as just one of them tore through a group of Erellen soldiers. It took more than ten arrows to take him down, and even then he was still thrashing.

Another burst of light; another group of felled soldiers.

“We’ve got to get to the sarians!” Alric said to her.

He was right. If they didn’t stop Marcus and the Sphere, there would be none of them left. It wouldn’t even matter if Silas killed Anithistor.