The Marenon Chronicles Collection

Chapter Twenty-Five





After the fifth blast of light from the Sphere at the top of the Pyramid, Nalani knew they had to move. The ones that had been hit by the soul-sucking beams now attacked their previous allies.

“We’ll have to move quickly,” Alric told her.

Nalani could see the sarians huddled together in a small alcove. Dink and Emma had taken shelter with them. She couldn’t see Coffman or Darius. Daewyn lay silently behind a mound of dead bodies, but his eyes revealed that he was very much alive.

She peeked her head above the rock, and instead of seeing a large fighting army in front of her, she was overshadowed by a giant Anwyn who snarled sharply at her appearance. She let out a gasp and fell onto her back, knocking the wind out of her lungs in the process.

Alric tried to help her up, but the Anwyn leapt over the rock and smacked him away like an annoying fly. Nalani rolled to her right when the green warrior slammed his fists against the ground. The savage’s attempt to crush her had nearly succeeded. The Anwyn forced her to maneuver several times before she was able to reach for her sword.

In a last attempt to end her life, the Anwyn went for her throat with his sharp teeth. Nalani held her sword sideways and caught his mouth with the blade. The Anwyn didn’t even seem to notice that the sword was killing him.

Nalani was finally able to roll to her feet, and with a swipe, she carved a large gash into the Anwyn’s side and he fell to the ground. She turned the sword downward and stabbed him through one more time to make sure he wouldn’t be going after anyone else again.

Alric made his way to her. “Are you alright?”

She nodded. “Go get Daewyn.”

Alric nodded and took off. Nalani hunkered against the rock one more time. She peered over this time to see Darius a hundred feet in front of her, commanding his soldiers to push forward and take down anyone hit by the bolt. To the left she could see Coffman fighting off three crazed Erellens.

She was about to run and help him, but before she even moved, the man had all three of them crushed on the ground, lifeless.

“Coffman!” she yelled.

He looked up, searching for the voice until he spotted Nalani waving her arms.

“Grab Darius and get to the sarians!”

He nodded an affirmative and took off. Nalani charged toward the sarians. First an Erellen attacked her, then an Anwyn. They seemed to chase her with a ravenous hunger. She was glad that most of their minds were gone, because in a normal state, they would have been much more skilled opponents.

She cut through the first and spun to meet the second. Both were on the ground in seconds. Thankfully, she encountered no more enemies the rest of the way to the sarians. Dink and Emma waved her in behind Skarret, and she ducked low and scanned the area for Alric and Daewyn. At first she didn’t see them, but then noticed that Soldiers of the Dead had surrounded them. Though the numbers of the undead army could quickly escalate into an overwhelming force, they lacked the ability to think in terms of fighting strategy so Alric and Daewyn were able to easily cut through them.

Both of them finally made it to the group of sarians, and within a minute, Coffman and Darius had also joined them.

“We’ve got to do this now!” Darius said. “My soldiers are ready to retreat.”

“Everybody know what they’re doing?” Nalani asked them. Each of them nodded. She looked at Alric. “You’ve got the medallions?”

He felt his pockets. “I do. I’ll be flying high.”

“Good, let’s go.”

The seven of them mounted a sarian of their choice. Nalani found Fury and patted her neck. Alric pulled up beside her on Cole and grabbed her arm.

“I don’t suppose I can talk you out of going up there, can I?”

“Not a chance,” she said.

He looked at her for a long moment. She didn’t really even know when she started to have feelings for Alric, but in that moment, she couldn’t imagine losing him. He had been in her life for such a short period, but somehow he had stolen her heart away.

“I love you,” she told him. “I don’t know why, but I do.”

Alric grinned widely. “I never thought I would say these words again: I love you too.” He leaned over from the top of the sarian and kissed her firmly on the lips. She returned the kiss, grabbing his face with both hands.

The kiss finished too soon and before they knew it, they were in the air, dangerously exposed to the Stühocs and Nestorians who seemed to have incredible range with their arrows.

Dink flew atop Skarret and Emma flew next to him. Coffman, Darius, Daewyn, and Nalani flew in various directions as Alric instructed Cole to fly as high as possible.

The devastation below them was incredible. The craters that the Anwyns had created in their grand entrance had left massive dark holes all around the landscape. Most haunting was the countless number of bodies that lay scattered across the ground. Stühocs, Humans, Erellens, Anwyns, Nestorians; all people groups of Marenon were represented in their own mangled way.

Nalani looked over her left shoulder and up, watching Alric fly farther and farther up into the air. Eventually, he disappeared into the clouds.

*****

The gray and white mist that surrounded Alric felt cool in the hot, dusty climate of Mudavé. For these few moments he was alone in the surreal silence. He grabbed the feathers of Cole. He had never thought he would be in a full-scale battle of the ages for the freedom of Marenon. All he had ever cared about was his own freedom. His independence had never been threatened before, but now he felt like he was doing something honorable; a word he would have never before used to describe himself.

But here he was, about to attempt something that could kill him. For the first time in his life, he was ready to die for something. It felt good.

Looking at the sarian, he thought of Kaden, and was glad that he hadn’t killed him to try and save Coffman and Nalani. If he had gone through with it, he didn’t know where he would be right now. He might have tried to go back to save Nalani and Coffman and only gotten himself killed. Now he was with Nalani and Coffman and was about to be killed alongside them anyway. It seemed the more honorable choice didn’t necessarily provide the best outcome.

He reached to his pockets and felt the medallions. The two items would have fetched him a fair price – a thought that had entered his mind on more than one occasion. But now, all he wanted was to use them to blow up the Sphere.

All he had to do was place them in the correct slots and Silas would take care of the rest from some unknown location. He shook his head at the thought. He hoped Silas was right. He would get up there, fight off the Stühocs, try to kill Marcus and put the medallions in their slots, but that was all he could think to do. He had no words, no thoughts that could make them explode like Silas did. He wished he could do more.

Cole was untiring. Alric had barely made it above the gray clouds when the bright sun blinded him for a moment. Cole flapped to keep them steady, waiting for Alric to give the order to dive.

He scanned the peaceful cloud cover below him for a moment, taking in one last picture of beauty before diving back into battle. He breathed in the fresh air and then snarled.

“Ah, this is boring,” he said to himself. “Come on, Cole.”

At the command from his rider, the sarian dove back into the clouds and Alric felt his stomach leap into his throat. In moments he was through the clouds and could see the tiny specks of people warring against each other. He scanned the area for other sarians and their riders. With a careful eye, he could see all six of them aiming their way toward the top of the Pyramid.

Alric kicked the bird into a sharper dive, hoping to reach the Pyramid at the same time as the others. One or two arrows whizzed by his head, but for the most part, the Stühocs on the Pyramid’s platform were preoccupied with the others.

One sarian went down with an arrow, but he couldn’t tell whose it was.

Please not Nalani!

Alric was basically standing on the sarian’s back as he came closer. At about the same moment, the sarians converged on the top platform. The Stühoc soldiers let out another flurry of arrows.

Before landing at the top, Alric looked one more time at the five remaining sarians. He spotted Nalani to the right, and further up was Coffman. Another arrow landed in Dink’s shoulder, knocking him off the back. Emma’s sarian was quicker than his fall, as she whipped around to catch her husband from the deadly plunge.

Alric and Cole dropped to the top of the Pyramid with a crash. Most of the Stühocs hadn’t even seen him. Cole slashed his talons through two of them instantly, while Alric hopped off the back and slammed his shoulder into another Stühoc, throwing the unsuspecting creature over the edge.

Coffman came in next, jumping off the top of his sarian before it even landed, tumbling into a group of Stühocs. Nalani flew in, then Darius. At first, it looked like they had the upper hand, but the Leapers soon sprang into action.

Darius was the first to take on the two towering monsters. Their claws thrashed and swiped, and he parried each blow with masterful precision.

Marcus had become distracted from the Sphere and watched the fighters as they took over his platform.

“Get them off!” he yelled at the Leapers.

Alric joined Darius, as Nalani and Coffman continued to fight the Stühoc regulars against the Pyramid’s edge.

Angry at the intrusion, Marcus pulled out his sword and stomped toward the Leapers. He came up to Darius from behind and brought his sword to swing down, but Darius spun and met him head-on.

Marcus bared his teeth as he swung again and again, but Darius was unfazed. Alric, however, was doing everything he could to keep his balance against the Leapers. He ducked low as a set of razor-sharp claws missed his head by mere inches. He swung upward and caught a Leaper on the side of the face, only adding fuel to its fiery anger.

With the anger came a tenacious ambition to dice Alric like vegetables on a cutting board. The other Leaper fell back as the one Alric had cut put all of its strength into decimating its enemy.

Moving back, inch by inch, Alric tripped over his own feet and fell to the ground with a thud. The Leaper pounded the ground with it claws, aiming for any part of Alric’s body, but either missed because of Alric’s ability to move quickly, or was deflected with a parry.

With one swipe, Alric repelled the set of claws, but swung too wide to recover and the Leaper shoved a hand full of spikes into his leg.

Alric cried out in anger and pain as he looked down at the claws that had gone through his leg, ripping the skin and shattering bone. He tried to swipe with his sword again, but the Leaper shoved it away. It brought up its hand to finish the job, and Alric prepared himself to leave this world – this second life. He closed his eyes to accept the blow, but it never came. When he looked up, the Leaper had a black arrow protruding from its head and when it fell, he could see Nalani standing behind it, aiming a stolen Stühoc bow.

For a brief moment, he smiled, but his smile turned into a look of horror when another Stühoc pulled up his bow and arrow from the ground, aimed, and released.

Before Alric could yell out to her, the arrow sailed through the air and landed in her chest. Her weapons dropped to the floor when she instantly fainted and fell over the side of the platform.

Alric couldn’t find his voice. He watched as the sarians Fury and Cole jumped into the air, determined to catch the falling victim, but there was no way for Alric to know if they were successful.

He wrenched the dead Leaper’s clawed fingers out of his leg, numb to the pain. He was probably in shock, but he didn’t care. He dragged himself to his sword using his arms and good leg. He watched the last Leaper walk up behind Darius who was too engrossed in his fight with Marcus to ever notice the creature.

“Darius!” Alric called out.

He didn’t hear him. Alric tried again, but this time it was too late. The Leaper walked behind him, unhurried, and shoved his bladed fingers through the Dunarian commander’s back. The man fell to his knees and Marcus flipped his sword around and stabbed him through the chest to finish the job.

This was it. It was ending. The war was over and Alric had failed. Everyone below them would soon be Soldiers of the Dead. He looked to his right to see a sarian going after Marcus and the Leaper, but it was shot down immediately by another Stühoc. To his right, Alric saw Coffman pick the Stühoc off the floor and toss him over the side.

Everyone who had attacked the top of the Pyramid was either dead or severely injured except for Coffman. That left the four of them: Marcus and the Leaper, and Alric and Coffman.

The Leaper wasted no time in attacking. It jumped for Coffman’s throat from the other side of the platform. Alric then saw that Coffman was empty-handed, but it was too late to throw him a weapon. The big man threw up his arms to block the Leaper. He stopped one of its arms with his hand, but was unable to block the other as its claws buried deep into his shoulder.

Coffman screamed out in pain, but wasn’t deterred from the fight. He brought his hand up to the creature’s throat and squeezed as tight as possible, but the Leaper jerked away and slashed with its other clawed hand and ripped through Coffman’s side. This brought him to the ground as the blood ran from the fresh wound.

Alric couldn’t bear to watch his good friend die like this, but there was nothing he could do. He tried to drag himself to Coffman, but his movement was too slow. One quick glance to Marcus showed that he cared nothing about those on the floor of the platform. He was done with them and ready to let out another blast of light from the Sphere.

Coffman struggled to stay alive with the Leaper on top of him. Another swing of the claws caught his upper leg, spraying a fresh geyser of blood in the air, but he wasn’t giving up yet. The Leaper stabbed downward, but this time Coffman caught its wrist with his right hand, and with his left, he rammed his palm into its elbow. The Leaper howled in pain. Coffman lifted his non-injured leg up and gave a smashing kick into its gut, causing it to double over. With the same foot he kicked it again in the face. It never knew what killed it as it stumbled backward, slipping in and out of consciousness, finally tumbling over the side of the Pyramid.

Alric and Coffman knew they would be no match for Marcus in their injured state. Coffman was bleeding freely, and Alric could barely move. He felt the medallions in his pockets, unsure if he would actually be able to do it. But he had to try. He had to at least get the medallions to the pedestal and end this mess.

As he crawled, he finally made it to Coffman.

“You alive?” Alric asked.

“Not for much longer,” Coffman said. A smile came to his lips when he turned his head to Alric. “Not unless you can hold these wounds closed for me.”

“We’ve got to kill Marcus.”

“We can’t even walk.”

“We’ve got to try!”

The two of them turned their heads to Marcus whose only focus was on the Sphere as it churned into its weapon form again.

He didn’t know how he was going to do it, but Alric was going to get the medallions to the pedestal. He knew it would probably kill him but he had to try.