The Light of Burning Shadows

THIRTY-TWO

Alwyn grabbed his chest. Yimt! Something terrible had just happened to his sergeant and his friend. He tried to focus on the feeling, but it was impossible. The magics continued to war inside him, and now the sounds of battle echoed off the canyon walls as Rallie continued to draw.

Alwyn took in a few deep breaths and began walking toward the outcropping of rock. Above him, the air thrummed with blue light while underneath something ancient and dry clawed to be heard. It was the thing in Rallie’s sketch. It was the source of the white fire. He felt that magic in him flaring as the voice grew louder and more insistent. He was being drawn to it, as were the skeletons that continued to flow from cracks in the mountains, carrying their grisly cargo.

“Alwyn.”

He turned, expecting Rallie to try to stop him, but she smiled at him instead. “Remember what I said. You are a good man.”

Alwyn said nothing. He turned and walked toward the out-cropping. It was all going to end. One way or the other, it was all going to end tonight. The white fire burned hotter inside him and the frost fire flared in response. The pain staggered him, but he kept walking. His body was now a pyre of white and black flame, but still he walked. He rounded the outcropping and stood face to face with the heart of the white flame that would break the oath, or kill him.

Above him, the Jewel of the Desert burst into being, its light casting everything in brilliant, blue shadow. The white flame flared in response and clawed into the sky after the Star. Alwyn smiled, opened his arms wide, and ran headlong into the fire.

The Iron Elves tore through everything before them, bayoneting, shooting, clubbing, and burning. The shades of the dead slashed with swords of black frost fire, cleaving fire creatures and sarka har with grim precision.

Black ice flowed through Konowa’s veins and all the weeks of pent up frustration poured out through his saber. Nothing stood before him. He ran faster, letting loose his anger on anything he found. White flame washed over him in sheets and he grinned and cut the drakarri in two, never pausing. A hollow carapace of a scorpion the size of a camel lumbered forth, its pincers clacking. Konowa simply ran between its outstretched claws and drove his saber into its head to the hilt. The beast shuddered and blew apart as frost fire burned it to nothing.

Two more scorpion shells scuttled across the sand, each with a huge stinger four feet long hanging above its head. Before Konowa could attack, soldiers of the 3rd Spears charged the creatures, their sword bayonets flashing as they thrust and hacked at the scorpion bodies.

One soldier was caught between pincers and shorn in two, but the others only redoubled their efforts, as several began climbing up onto the scorpions’ backs to hack at them from above. Soon both stingers had been cut from their tails, and the scorpions collapsed under the assault.

Every emotion inside Konowa poured out of him in a flurry of saber strikes. Limbs from sarka har snaked toward him. He turned and cut them with vicious strokes of his blade. The trees screamed and writhed. Konowa slashed and burned until no memory and no feeling was left.

For a time, he was only death.

His shoulder muscles screamed as he hacked through more sarka har, but it only drove him harder. All the lies and deceptions were vanquished with every slash of the blade and every burst of frost fire. Mountains would have crumbled and seas parted in the face of his fury.

More skeletons marched toward him, and Konowa leaped forward, grabbing the closest grinning skull. White flame brightened in the skull’s eyes, then was blown out as black frost shattered it into hundreds of pieces. The rest of the bones clattered to the ground. All around him the shades of the dead scythed through the skeletons, extinguishing their unholy light with cold efficiency.

Konowa ran forward and almost stopped when he saw Rallie with her sketchbook, but he felt the power that surrounded her and knew she was in no immediate danger, so he kept going.

Everything before Konowa became a blur, and he cut things down he barely saw or understood. Nothing was going to stop him. Nothing.

And then no more creatures stood before him. Konowa knew without looking that the regiment was behind him, and he slowed to a walk, his eyes bulging and his lips twisted into a sneer. Frost fire licked between the fingers of his left hand and bathed the saber in his right.

At that moment, Konowa was a god.

His was the only power. Nothing could stop him.

Blue light from the Jewel of the Desert bathed him-he knew he had won. He walked around the outcropping of rock and looked up into the burning eyes of a dragon.

“Oh, sh-”

The flame in Konowa went out. He stared with his mouth wide open.

It was a dragon made of bones.

The dragon opened its jaws wide. Instead of teeth, white flames arced between its upper and lower jaw. More flame burned in the eye sockets of its skull. Deep within its chest a fire of white and black flame twisted and burned, but Konowa had no time to puzzle about that as the dragon stretched out its wings, then stumbled and righted itself as it moved toward him. The bones that made up its body twisted, and several clattered to the ground. Sand swirled around its frame as if helping to keep its hideous form together.

Its jaws opened wider and a blistering torch of white flame issued forth. Konowa rolled out of the way, but some of the soldiers behind him were not so lucky. Konowa turned and saw only ash where several Iron Elves had once stood.

He looked at the drake again and saw that the wings were not yet complete. As Konowa got over his shock he realized that much of the skeleton was incomplete. He looked closer. He recognized partial skeletons of camels and even humans, elves, dwarves, and orcs. But that wasn’t the worst of it-the skulls of the dead had flickering white flames in their eye sockets, and their jaws were open.

They were screaming.

Konowa recoiled from the sight. Were some of his elves part of this monstrosity? It then dawned on him that this wasn’t Kaman Rhal’s work at all. This was the she-drake married to Kaman Rhal. She had always been the power behind the throne. The Suljak hadn’t called back Kaman Rhal’s power at all-he had called back hers.

And now it was rebuilding itself as best it could, with the bones of the dead.

As Konowa watched, more skeletons scrambled over the dragon. They were tearing themselves and other bodies apart to construct her wings. Konowa looked up where the Star hovered in the sky above the canyon. If the dragon was able to fly, it would easily seize the Star.

Konowa called on the frost fire and let it course through him. He still had no idea how to attack a creature such as this.

The regiment grouped around him, the staccato fire of muskets chipping away at its bones, but it would take a thousand muskets days before they could whittle it down to nothing. Without cannons they could never shoot it apart.

The night sky blazed with the light of the Star. The metal of the muskets gleamed with it as they fired. Smoke gushed forth from the muzzles, adding red and orange flame to the night. Musket balls flew forth, scything through the bones of the dragon. It made no difference.

There had to be another way.

The dragon lurched forward, the fire in its chest turning whiter as it came on. Konowa felt something, but the air was awash in energy and there was no way to pinpoint anything.

The shades of the dead moved toward the dragon, tearing through its skeleton army. The dragon shook its skull and opened its jaws even wider. Flame poured out like a molten river. Frost fire burst like sparks wherever the river of flame touched a shade. Screaming filled Konowa’s head. The shades could not go forward. They began to retreat.

“Attack!” Konowa shouted. Black flame climbed higher around the shades and they moved forward again, but again the white flame pushed them back.

“I command you to kill it!”

The shades of the dead hesitated, even as white flame scoured their ranks. Konowa felt their pain, but there was no choice. They were already dead.

A black fissure opened up in the chest bone of the drake, and out stumbled the figure of a man. Before Konowa could determine if this was indeed Kaman Rhal, the figure raised its hands and pointed them at the drake. Black frost fire of a magnitude to rival the white fire of the drake blasted every skeleton crawling over the bone dragon to dust.

The drake staggered on her claws, then righted herself and directed her massive head down at the figure standing below it. It opened its maw wide and white flame gushed forth. The figure disappeared within the column of flame.

When the flame subsided, the dark figure no longer stood before the drake alone. Now there were two. Konowa recognized Her Emissary at once.

“Gwyn?!”

Her Emissary and the figure both raised their hands and throbbing, twisting coils of black flame began to build around them. The air in the canyon reeked with its energy.

Konowa was driven to his knees as the power grew. It pulsed deep inside him until he thought his ribs would surely break. The acorn against his chest became pure, black frost, drawing the last vestiges of heat from his body. His vision began to gray, and he had opened his mouth to speak when the world tore apart in front of his eyes.

The drake reared up on its legs and flapped its now-rebuilt wings once in preparation to seize the Star that hung in the sky, waiting.

Her Emissary and the figure thrust their hands forward, sending a maelstrom of frost fire at the creature.

It blew apart into thousands of shards as the roiling jet of black frost fire seared it to the core.

Konowa was knocked to his back as the blast rolled over him. For a moment he lost all sense of sight and sound. Images flashed before his eyes.

His mother. Yimt. Visyna. The Shadow Monarch. The Star.

His elves.

Sound roared back into his ears, and he realized it was screaming. His vision cleared. The wall of approaching sarka har was incinerated by a sheet of obsidian flame. Drakarri and the drake’s skeleton army of the dead burned with the same black flame. Frost fire was cleansing everything in and around the canyon. Konowa got to his feet. Only the regiment remained, surrounded by frost fire. Among them Konowa spied the survivors of the 3rd Spears. Nearby, the Prince and the Viceroy stood looking in the same direction, their eyes wide. The shades of the dead were gone.

Konowa looked back to where the dragon had stood. Two pillars of frost fire now occupied the space. They reached up into the sky and enveloped the Star, and brought it back down to earth. The flame guttered and went out, revealing the figure of a soldier wearing a caerna and Her Emissary both holding the Star in their hands.

“Renwar!” Konowa said.

“I hope so,” Rallie said, emerging from around the rocks and walking toward Alwyn. She stopped a few paces away from him and smiled. She ignored Her Emissary. She was looking at the Star. “You’ve been away a long time, haven’t you?”

The Star gleamed in Renwar’s hands.

“Away with you!” Her Emissary shouted. “The Star is Hers!”

“Rallie, what’s going on?” Konowa asked, taking a few steps forward.

She raised her hand to stop him. “This is no longer our fight, Major.”

Konowa took another step. “Renwar! Free the Star! Her Emissary only wants it for Her designs. You must know that.”

Private Renwar looked at Konowa with eyes shining blue starlight.

“I…I know,” he said.

“Then do as I command. We can defeat Her Emissary.” Muskets grounded as soldiers began to load another round.

Alwyn raised one hand while keeping the other on the burning Star. “No, you can’t defeat him. I…I have struck a deal.”

Her Emissary laughed. “You see, Swift Dragon, you were defeated before you began.”

The import of what Renwar was about to do struck home. Renwar was going to break the oath. “Wait! Her forest is still out there, and it’s growing. And my elves! We came here for them. I have to save them. We have to save them. The Star must stay here.”

Renwar looked down at the Star. “And who saves us, Major…? Who saves us?”

Konowa’s heart ached. He felt the eyes of every soldier on his back. Why was the answer never simple? Why did it always have to hurt this much? Tears flowed freely down Konowa’s face. Anguish filled every part of him until he couldn’t breathe. “I will. I swear it. One day the oath will be broken, but not here, not this way. You know that. A deal with Her Emissary is a fool’s deal.” He turned to look at the Iron Elves behind him. “You all know that. We can’t break the oath, not this way.”

“They deserve better,” Alwyn said. “We all do. Would it be so wrong to end the suffering? Why not us, Major? Why not end this?”

Konowa wiped the tears from his face. “Because we’re soldiers. And before this oath we took another one. We swore to defend the Empire…to protect the people we love. That’s an oath that we can never break. No matter what the cost. We give our lives so that others may live. It’s not fair, but it was never supposed to be.”

“That oath is for fools!” Her Emissary said. “The deal is done.”

Konowa suddenly realized something. “Renwar, you cannot trust him. Why would he allow you to break the oath for all the Iron Elves? Think about it. It’s a trick.”

Alwyn looked at Her Emissary, then at Konowa. “You misunderstand…you both do.”

The shades of the Darkly Departed reappeared to stand around Alwyn. Konowa recognized the soldier Meri, and Regimental Sergeant Major Lorian. More and more shades appeared. Their hands reached out to Alwyn, and Konowa heard their cries in his head. “Save us…save us.”

“You’re a good man, Alwyn Renwar,” Rallie said, her voice radiating calm. “You know what you have to do.”

Every soldier in the Iron Elves watched the Star in Alwyn’s hand. Their fate rested in a ball of blue light none of them understood, just as it had before with another Star.

“You struck a deal with Her,” Her Emissary said.

Alwyn turned and looked at Her Emissary. “Yes, with Her…not with you.” Black frost fire shot from his hands and enveloped Her Emissary in a sheet of twisting black flame. Her Emissary screamed and tried to grab for the Star, but its body was torn away in a gale of flame until nothing remained.

Alwyn calmly looked up, his eyes staring at something only he could see. He lifted the Star up to the sky and let it go. Blue light cascaded outward in waves. Konowa raised his arm to protect his eyes as the light flared like a million suns, then vanished.

When Konowa lowered his arm, a massive tree stretched skyward, its limbs wide and strong. Energy pure and clean radiated from it, washing away the remnants of the ancient power that had poisoned this land for centuries. From deep within the sarka har, Her Emissary screamed as the Jewel of the Desert began to push back against Her power. Her Emissary’s vice broke with inconsolable rage at Private Renwar’s deception, and Konowa wondered, perhaps fear at the rise of a new force.

Konowa wanted to find a way to feel glad, to feel something, but nothing came to him.

“Renwar? What have you done?”

The soldier lifted his head and walked forward. When he emerged, the shades of the dead clustered around. His eyes no longer reflected the blue Starlight, but were now gray. The acorn against Konowa’s chest flared in recognition of a power it understood.

“Alwyn’s dead,” Renwar said, his voice now an eerie match to the former Emissary’s.

Konowa shook his head. “I made a vow, and I will keep it. The oath will be broken and one day you will all be free.”

“I know that,” Renwar said. The shadows continued to hover around him.

Dread filled Konowa. What had Renwar done? He looked around him at the Iron Elves. Konowa looked down at his own hands and called forth the frost fire. It sparked to life as it always had. “You didn’t break the oath,” Konowa said.

“Yes, Major, I did,” Renwar said.

“I don’t understand,” Konowa said. “What oath did you break?”

“Don’t you see, Major,” Rallie said, smiling sadly as she looked at Alwyn. “He did break the oath, only not yours, and not those of the living. He’s freed the dead.”

Konowa looked at the shades. He tried to call them forward, but they ignored him. “Why?”

“She must be destroyed if the oath is to be broken. I could not save you as you live, but I could save those already gone. Now it is up to you to finish the fight.”

The Iron Elves stood in stunned silence. Konowa realized that in a way he never expected he had achieved what he wanted. The power of the oath’s magic remained.

“But what of my elves?” he asked.

“She searches for them still, though she has not found them…yet.”

It was small comfort, but it was something.

“Renwar, I-”

“Alwyn’s dead,” Renwar said.

Rallie held up her hand before Konowa could reply. “Then who are you?” Rallie asked.

Renwar turned to look at her. “I’m all that remains.”

“Who are you?!” Konowa shouted. “Tell me who the hell you are!”

Renwar closed his eyes for a moment. A cold clarity gripped Konowa. The shades pressed closer around Renwar, their hands resting on his shoulders. When Renwar’s eyes opened again, Konowa already knew the answer.

“I am Their Emissary now.”