The Broken Sword

Stricken with inspiration, Gregory raised his wand and cast a spell before his target was out of range. Nathanial shuddered as he felt Gregory's spell hit him, filling him with energy and making the world slow down around him. Yet, in spite of the slowness of things, his movements remained normal. Nathanial grinned and reared back for another punch.

Bobo realized that the statues towered over him and were tireless. At his top speed he could almost match theirs, but his stamina was nowhere near what it needed to be. He came to a junction of streets and slowed briefly, trying to figure out where to go. To his right a path led up, back towards the palace as it curved, but more importantly towards the waterfall where the stream that left the fountain fell hundreds of feet to the lake below. He grinned at the absurdity of his sudden idea, then glanced back over his shoulder. They were closing on him rapidly. With a deep breath he was off, running up the hill.

The bronze dragon that Nathanial was pummeling tried to turn the corner and follow Bobo, but the damage the priest had inflicted by then was extensive enough that one of its forelimbs crumpled under the weight shift. Nathanial flew off of it, landing and skidding unceremoniously in a heap. He looked up and, terrified, rolled to the side barely in time to miss the descending foot of the next dragon in line, a brass, that had leapt over the bronze. Nathanial finished his roll by standing up, just in time to catch the tail of the brass dragon in the arm, sending him crashing back to the ground.

The silver dragon came next, rounding the corner somewhat more gracefully. More importantly to Nathanial, it posed no threat to him in its maneuver. He rose shaking his arm to try and return feeling to it, and ran after the dragon. He realized that while he seemed to be running no faster then usual, he was covering the distance faster than the metallic automatons were.

Yamara saw Nathanial take off at an amazing speed after the silver dragon. The copper she rode leapt into the air clearing the inert body of the bronze dragon. She swung her sword a final time, hacking into the neck, and grinned ferociously as the metal gave way and collapsed, the weight of the head and neck to great for it to support it any longer. Still the dragon moved forward, though its head now was being dragged on the ground. She ground her teeth in frustration and hacked at it from the other side, shearing it free with two swings. The dragon stopped then, losing all momentum and animation. It collapsed atop the bronze, sending her forward with her momentum. Only her tight grip of her dagger kept her from flying forward.

Yamara hung in mid air, kept from falling the eight feet to the ground only by her dagger. She looked up as she felt it move, then cursed as it lost its purchase in the metallic corpse, dropping her to the ground abruptly and unpleasantly. Yamara stood back up and scowled at the now inanimate statue, or what remained of it. Copper and brass lay before her, still ahead was the bronze, silver, and gold.

Yamara laughed, it coming out in a single harsh sounding breath. A few years ago and she would have been feverish with excitement over the thought of a lump of metal the size of these things made of pure silver or gold. Worth enough to live in decadent luxury for hundreds or thousands of years, now she just wanted to destroy them.

A shadow passed overhead, sending chills down her spine. She looked up and saw the gold dragon flying above them and angling straight for where Bobo was running. She cursed and took off running, using every bit of her strength and her talent to make up the ground. Around her neck her ruby amulet blazed with a fierce light.

Bobo made it up the hill only a few breaths ahead of the bronze dragon. Breathing hard and acutely aware of the pain in his side, he ran for the stream, hoping in some way he could make it his salvation. A quick glance over his shoulder and he realized he had seconds left before the metallic jaws of the dragon clamped down on him. The cliff was there, however, on his left. Thirty strides to where the stream plunged over the cliff and into the lake below. Bobo lunged and jumped over the edge, praying as he went over the edge.

Nathanial leapt upon the back of the silver dragon and saw Bobo jump over the edge. His breath caught in his throat and then he screamed in outrage and pounded down on the back of the dragon, sending shockwaves of force through it. He realize a second later what Bobo's intention had been, for the bronze dragon followed him over the cliff. He looked at the silver beneath him and then looked up, understanding his sudden predicament.

Nathanial leapt to the side, hitting the ground hard and rolling into the swift flowing stream. He broke the surface and swam to the side, ignoring the fresh bruises with a rush of adrenaline caused by the realization that he was less then a dozen feet from being swept over the cliff. He pulled himself out of the water and realized that he was alone on top of the grassy plateau area outside of the palace; the silver dragon golem had plunged over the edge as well.

"Run!"

Nathanial looked over at Yamara, seeing her running towards him. She pointed up and he glanced at the sky, noticing the gold dragon bearing down on him. He stood his ground defiantly, earning him a few unpleasant thoughts from Yamara, but determined to fight to the bitter end, now that Bobo and the seal were gone.

The gold flew over him though, all but ignoring him as he stood shouting defiantly at it. It cleared the edge of the cliff and flew in a tight circle, impossible without the heavy usage of magic. It pulled up short and hovered, staring at the edge of the cliff a moment before it reached its head in. A double blast of thunder startled both Yamara and Nathanial. The dragon recoiled, two side by side black marks on its snout showing the result of the noise.

Nathanial ran forward and looked over the edge of the cliff, joined shortly by Yamara. Fifteen feet down Bobo was hanging with his arm draped around a jutting piece of rock, the crown clutched in his hand. His other arm, the one ending in the twin pistols, was pointing at the dragon, although now ineffectively.

The dragon statue reared its head back and then thrust it forward, a cone of impossible flame blossoming forth from it and washing over the face of the cliff. Yamara grabbed Nathanial and pulled him away from it as the flames climbed up and threatened to wash over them. They fell to the ground, the air stolen by the fire from their lungs.

Bobo saw the flames coming and cringed, trying to hide behind the small rocky outcropping he was hanging from. There was no escape, he was doomed and he knew it. With the flames less then a second from engulfing he had a sudden realization. Fire. Pure fire. He flung the crown into the air, using every bit of strength his wrist muscles could provide. The crown met the flames less then six feet from him, drawing in some of the energy and heat and then exploding violently as the hottest fire in Thoragloorin overpowered the magic of the seal.

Chapter 11

Panting heavily, Gregory half jogged and half stumbled up the road and came onto the small plateau. His second wind kicked in when he saw Nathanial and Yamara rolling on the grass beside he road. Already Yamara was struggling back to her feet, though she seemed more then a little disoriented. By the time he reached them she was on her feet, if a bit unsteadily. He offered Nathanial his hand and helped his friend up. He followed their gaze to the cliff, from which smoke and waves of heat rose.

They approached the edge and looked over it, squinting as the heat from the fire baked rocks rose upwards. Fifteen feet down Bobo hanged by his arm draped over a spindle of rock, though he hung limply and only because his arm was wedged into another rock. His clothing was blackened or missing, and much of his hair was singed to his scalp as well. The smell of burnt flesh rose to meet them, making both Gregory and Nathanial pull away. Yamara stared for a moment longer, then looked down, beyond Bobo, to see the golden dragon statue nearly completely immersed in the lake below.

She began to pull away when he saw Bobo move. Looking back wide eyed, she realized that he moved because he still lived, even if only briefly.

"Look!" Gregory said, drawing her attention. He pointed to the sky, where the shimmering blue shield of the sky was thinning out and disappearing to reveal a clear sky filled with a nearly full moon and clear view of the stars.

"Rope!" Yamara snapped, thankful that the shield was disappearing, now she could leave the city and return to a semblance of normality. But before that she had a debt that she owed.

"What?" Nathanial asked, turning to her and away from the sky.

"The Prince still lives, give me a rope so I can climb down and get him," she said calmly and evenly, but with a tightness to her voice that brooked no question.

Gregory rifled through his backpack quickly, pulling out a length of silk rope. Yamara studied it briefly, making certain it was sound, before she handed one end of it to Nathanial then tossed the other end over the edge of the cliff. Gregory watched, wide eyed, as she followed it over climbing over it quickly and without the aid of the rope, her bare fingers and toes touching the still hot rocks.

"How does she do that?" Nathanial asked, amazed. Gregory just shook his head, unable to explain it. He could sense no magic about her, it defied everything he knew about the laws of nature and the laws of the arcane.

Nathanial felt a tug on the rope a few moments later, then glanced over at Gregory who was peering over the edge. He nodded and grabbed on to the rope as well, helping Nathanial haul the roasted Prince up. Yamara climbed beside him, helping when she could to keep any further damage from being done to him. Her face was a mask of intense concentration throughout, though it had nothing to do with the several hundred foot drop to the lake below.

On level ground again they saw that Bobo was breathing shallowly and with great difficulty. In a few places the damage was so bad that his bones showed through where the skin had been eaten away by the flames. Without magic of an extreme caliber he held on to life only by the hardy nature of his unique heritage.

Yamara sat beside him on the grass, her nudity ignored and all but forgotten by all three of them. She reached out and placed her hand on Bobo's chest, ignoring the crackling of his tunic and skin and the wetness of the blood that seeped through. She closed her eyes and focused on feeling his heartbeat, slipping into a trance as she felt it and focused her energy on it, strengthening it as she once had long ago for another man on the brink of death.

Nathanial saw Bobo's breathing strengthen, although only a little, and the blood staining the grass under him grow thicker. He knelt beside him and began a chant of his own, preying to Alto for the healing magic to bring Bobo back from the brink of death. Enough of the soothing energy poured through him to lessen the pain of the Prince's wounds and to make his blackened eyelids flutter open. His eyes were a milky white, blind to the world. His mouth opened, the skin of his lips and cheeks cracking with the movement. Gregory leaned forward, the only unoccupied at present, and listened as Bobo struggled to speak.

He whispered broken words in Elvish, garbled with the ruin that had been done to his body. Gregory heard enough to hazard a guess though. He reached into a pouch at Bobo's side that had been shielded from the fire and he opened it up, taking out a wooden token emblazoned with the image of a moon rising over crossed swords. He threw it down on the ground and stomped on it, grinding with his heel and breaking it in half.

Gregory stepped back and waited. His wait was short lived, for within seconds two figures appeared before him, startling Nathanial and making him rise up and back away in surprise. Kelnozz and Alesha stood before them, looking around hurriedly and then noticing the ruined body of their son. Alesha flew to him, kneeling down where Nathanial had been and placing her own hands upon him. She let out a pained gasp as she sent her power into him, searching out his condition and learning what his immediate fate would be.

"He will die in minutes," Alesha said, looking up to Kelnozz with tears running freely.

Kelnozz stared down at his son, his hands and jaw clenched to reign in his pain. "Save him," he ordered.

"The cost will be great," Alesha warned him. She too wanted their son to live, more then anything, but she feared what making him live might cost them all.

"No matter the cost, save him!"

Alesha looked up and saw Yamara. She gasped in surprise, not having realized fully she was there a moment before. Yamara looked back at her, though the look in her eyes showed her mind was elsewhere. Alesha nodded to her. "As before, Yamara, give him strength to make him hold on."

Yamara nodded slightly, then closed her eyes and focused her will. Around her neck the ruby glowed brightly, casting a reddish glow over them. Alesha looked at the others and said in a soft and tired voice, "Who will share their strength with him?"

Nathanial and Gregory looked at each other, not entirely understanding. Nathanial stepped forward after a moment and opened his mouth to speak. He fell silent when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"He came because of me, I will bear the burden," Kelnozz said. He knelt beside Alesha and she took his hand and laid it upon Bobo's forehead, her own hand on top of his. Her other hand she laid beside Yamara's on his chest. Her eyes closed and she reached inside herself calling upon the darkest of her powers that she had locked away decades before.

Kelnozz gasped as he felt an icy vortex open in his palm, sucking the heat and the life from him. He pushed down, ignoring his instinctive reaction to pull away, knowing somehow that breaking the connection would seal his son's fate.

Yamara's eyes widened as she felt the power rushing through the Prince and through her because of their temporarily linked life-force. She gazed at Alesha in equal parts admiration and fear. She had never witnessed such raw naked power in her life. It made her shudder. Alesha glanced up, her eyes a pure glowing black with no sign of her pupil or iris. Yamara could faintly see the outline of lips on her forehead as well, glowing as though it were under a black light. Her mouth moved, uttering words silently of names and things best left unknown. Around Yamara's neck the ruby grew brighter and brighter, until finally it flashed so brightly it seemed it had exploded. When the flash had faded Yamara was truly naked, the ruby had disappeared and the leather thong that held it had fallen to the ground.

Yamara picked herself up from where she had fallen, noticing as she did so that almost everyone else had been knocked to the ground by the pulse of power as well. She glanced down, not feeling the familiar weight of the amulet and gasped. She reached out with her mind, trying to sense it, but again she met with emptiness. Yet her power remained unchanged, or perhaps even more stable and sure then before. Her eyes widened as another possibility occurred to her. She sent her senses inward and found it, though the ruby was gone the spirit within it had merged with her. In contacting the darkness and the planes of the dead a tunnel had been opened. Brina, or a part of her, had been drawn to her and now she was truly a part of her. Dead and gone forever, but she lived on within her. Thankfully unseen, a tear fell from Yamara's eye.

Alesha alone remained kneeling over Bobocateya. She rose slowly, her skin glowing with non-light. She looked to the sky and raised her hands almost beseechingly. Then she fell to the ground, her hands touching the ground and causing an unseen tremor as she released the stored up energy into the earth. She looked up at last, breathing heavily, and stared at her son.

Bobo's clothing remained charred and blackened, or just absent. His skin was healed, however, and a slightly darker hue, as though the burn had left him with a permanent suntan. His chest rose and fell evenly as he slept.

Kelnozz stood up slowly. Weakly. He looked at his son where he slept and nodded, a thin smile coming to his face. He looked at his own palm and saw that it was pale and thin, almost emaciated looking. He clenched his feet and felt the weakness within it. Throughout his body he felt bone tired.

"Thank you," he said, walking over to Alesha. And placing his unmarked hand on hers. She looked up at him and nodded. Her eyes had gone back to normal but a haunted look remained in them.

"I had to open a portal to dark places to give him life. Many things tried to follow me through that portal," she said softly. "I fought them off, but some may have come through and touched him before I dispatched them."

"You healed him?" Nathanial asked, staring at the smooth and unmarked skin of the Prince. He was astonished to think that such a thing could happen without the holy blessing of a God. It shook his system of beliefs to the core, in fact.

"I can not restore life," Alesha said, turning to him. "Only trade it. That and I gave him a touch of my power, enough to understand the darkness that threatened him and to live with it as an ally instead of an enemy."

"I felt it," Yamara said, speaking at last. She hugged her arms about herself, not for modesty, but because she felt more alive and aware then ever before. "Some of it came into me."

"How?" Alesha hissed, staring at her with a sudden curiosity.

"To keep him alive I had to link our life force. To long and he would have died, pulling me with him. But we lived together for a brief time. I saw everything about him and within him, from his earliest memories to his fondest dreams," Yamara said, turning to Kelnozz and looking at him fondly. She smiled and shrugged.

"It will fade from me, but the memories will remain," she said. "What touched him touched me as well. Already I can see better in the dark, what else may have happened to... us, I do not know."

A noise behind them drew their attention. Kelnozz spun about first, his senses dulled slightly by his encounter. His hands went to the swords at his hips, but his left hand could not grasp the hilt strongly enough to pull it free from his scabbard. His jaw twitched as he realized his sudden vulnerability. He left both swords sheathed, concealing his weakness.

Doguren approached, numbering in the dozens before they could no longer count. They took up positions along the rode and parted to let their Queen through. She strode boldly forward, moving so smoothly she seemed to be floating rather then walking. She studied the small party of people and smiled widely when she saw Kelnozz, recognizing him instantly for who and what he was.

"Hello mother," Kelnozz said, hiding his trepidation and uncertainty well.

"At last, my son has come to free me from this prison!" She said, walking towards him and smiling widely. "All these years... I knew you would come eventually."

"You have done well for yourself, I see," she continued. "King of the reunited Elves. Such a destiny beyond what I dreamed."

Kelnozz hid his scowl. "Release your servants, mother, and return with us to Innowendyn. See that which the elves have made their home."

Kalista shook her head emphatically. "This is the home of the elves!" She insisted. "I'll not go into exile as they did! Belurian belongs to our kind, it must be reclaimed!"

"Many will return to Thoragloorin," Kelnozz said evenly, "but only those who wish to do so and only those who understand that while Thoragloorin will again be a safe place for elves on Belurian, only Thoragloorin will be under their control."