The Last Druid (32 page)

Dranl’s eyes blazed with fury at the insult; Calla struck a nerve somewhere.  Not taking his eyes off of her, he cast off the outer layer of his robes and reached for the black hilt of the sword at his side.  Slowly he drew it from its sheath to reveal an equally black blade.  Calla felt a tingle of fear at the sight of the weapon—adorned only with a single blood-red ruby at the end of the hilt—but refused to let herself back away.

Dranl pointed the sword at her.  “If you value your life,” he said coldly, “you will submit.  Kneel before me.  Beg for my forgiveness.”

“Like hell I will.”

“Then if I cannot have you alive, I will
have to settle for keeping your corpse.”  He threw the sword at her.  Calla bent over backwards as it spun through the air towards her but couldn’t dodge it entirely—the very tip of it scratched her right arm.  She hissed as blood started oozing from the wound; it wasn’t a deep cut, thankfully, but the pain from it was distracting.  She looked up in time to see a fist flying towards her face.  Dranl struck her hard under her chin, and before she could blink she had landed next to the dead Brilken by the willow tree.

Cal
la was back on her feet quickly.  A new idea formed in her mind, and wanting to test it she reached over and snapped off a short section of the willow branch hanging next to her.

Ouch—hey!
its spirit protested rather loudly.

“Sorry,” Cal
la muttered.

Dranl, his sword back in his hand, took one look at the switch in her hand and burst out laughing.  “Do not make me die of laughter!  You do not seriously think you can hurt me with that?  What are you going to do, scold me like I am a naughty schoolboy?”  He kept cackling.

Calla paused to think for a second.  “You know, you’re right—it is rather
short
.”  Stretching her arm out to the side she focused on the energy still contained in the switch.  She started to stretch it, forcing the branch in her hand to grow until it had become a long willow whip.  She flicked it through the air for him to see.  “Is that better for you?”

His laughter died abruptly. 
“Witch!”

Sword held upright in both his hands Dranl charged.  Ca
lla flicked the whip towards him, wrapping the end of it around his sword hand before pulling back on it sharply; it slid hard and fast across his skin.  In shock he dropped the blade, staring at the trickle of blood going down his wrist.  Calla laughed and abruptly stopped herself; she was enjoying this and she shouldn’t have been.  She had been playing with him all this time, the exact same thing he had done before to her.

This needs to end
, she thought.  She dropped the whip and held both hands out to either side of her, summoning the earth to rise.  Large pieces of rock started emerging from the ground, clattering together as she started to arrange them into two separate masses.  After a few more moments of careful thought two massive stone cats, acting as though of flesh and blood, stood on either side of her.  The glowing yellow orbs in the hollows for eyes were fixed on Dranl.

For the first time she thought he actually looked scared.

She was about to set them on him when there was a loud crash of water.  All eyes turned towards the river to see the waters churning violently, the spray flying high into the air.  A single column rose up and proceeded to move up the riverbank, growing in height and darkening in color as it came closer to them.  Calla thought this was some kind of monster from the Dead Lands that no one had told her about, but the look on Dranl’s face suggested this phenomenon to be new and perhaps alarming to him as well.

After coming halfway across the meadow in their direction the column
stopped and water fell hard to the ground, leaving a strange man to stand in its place.  He was tall and wore dark blue robes that shimmered in the light like fish scales.  He appeared to be an old man with his weathered face, his gray beard and hair, and from the way he leaned on the coral staff in his hand.  Water continued to drip off of him.  His gaze shifted back and forth between them.

“Stand, mortals,” he said sharply.  “The rest of us have yet to gather.”

Something about that made Calla nervous.  “The rest…”

“
We are all gathering, young one.”

Cal
la whirled around and thought she felt her heart stop.  She had been intimidated by Elenia’s appearance when they had first met, but as the Lady stepped out from the trees she seemed almost terrifying.  She was clad in armor from head to foot, all of it in red and brown tones with a touch of green and blue.  Crimson feathers flowed down from the helm she wore on her head.  The image of a phoenix was on her shield.  A long sword hung sheathed at her belt, while in her right hand she carried a long spear blazing with fire at the tip.  Calla couldn’t help but take a step back at the sight of Her.

The old man bowed to Her, water still dripping from his hair.  “Sister, Elenia,” he said.

“Brother, Kar,” she replied.

Thunder and lightning broke through the sky.  Dark clouds were building overhead, slowly spiraling down towards them
as the wind whipped through the clearing.  Calla first thought it was some kind of tornado until the very end of the funnel broke away from the rest of the clouds and drifted slowly to the ground behind Dranl.  The stone cats on either side of her shifted about uneasily.  The cloud dissipated…

She swore the young man was smiling wickedly at her now.

The demon lord Bralon now stood before them, looking exactly as Calla had seen him in that nightmare from long ago.

—Well, well
. —  As the chill voice spoke Calla felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end and she wanted to run.  –So everyone is here.—

Cal
la looked around at each face in the group.  It was her and Dranl, two mortals, and Lady Elenia, Bralon, and an old man she didn’t know, at least two of them major deities of the world.  She finally felt she understood the meaning of the prophecy.

It had foretold the war of the Gods—the last battle had come to earth
.

XXXIX

Elenia

Elenia’s hand tightened around the shaft of her spear.  The air grew heavy as the five of them stared at each other in silence.  She kept her eyes on her brother’s face.  He was so pale now, and he looked unnaturally thin—how much damage had the demon done to Ronan that she couldn’t see? 
He was almost unrecognizable.  She cast a sidelong glance at Kar, her older brother; the latter didn’t return the look, just kept his fierce gaze on the demon-possessed Ronan’s ghostly white face.  The grass around Bralon’s feet was withered and black.  She wrinkled her nose at the stink of decay coming off him.

The demon Bralon tilted his head slowly to one side as he stared at her.  –Hello, sister mine.—he said, projecting his words with his mind rather than actually saying them.

She swallowed and felt a single tear sliding down her face.  “Brother…Ronan.”

—That fool is dead.—the demon hissed.  Elenia flinched at the words.

Bralon turned his attention to Kar.  –And what of you…Kar?  On whose side have you decided to be on?—

“Be assured that it is not yours, demon.”  Kar brought his coral staff up so he held it in both hands and took one bold step forward.  “You stole our brother; we intend to take him back, one way or another.”

—We shall see.—

Bralon’s gaze shifted again to focus on something behind Elenia.  Elenia felt a knot forming in her gut—Ca
lla was still standing back there.  She turned to look at the girl.  She was buckling under the strength of Bralon’s shadow, standing rooted to the spot: she was wide-eyed with fear, had gone at least three shades paler and looked like she might faint; threads of her energy were flowing away from her as Bralon attempted to drain her with his demon power.  Rage swelled up inside Elenia’s chest and she leaped between them, blocking the child completely from Bralon’s view.  Calla gasped for air as soon as Elenia stood in front of her.  Her stone cats growled and scraped their feet through the dirt.  Elenia could hear the hammering of the girl’s heart; Bralon had tried using fear to stop its beating.

Elenia planted her feet firmly apart.  “You can try your tricks on us, demon,” she snapped., “but not on the children we protect.”

—You are no fun.—  Bralon pulled back his black hood to reveal short, dark hair that looked gray, as though filled with dust.  –I like playing with mortals.  They can be so entertaining sometimes.—

“Of course you do,” Kar said bitterly.  “You delight in
manipulating mortals into killing each other, demon.  It is in your nature.  You feed on death and bloodshed.  You would turn this whole world to ash just to sate your foul appetite.”

—Bold words for an old man
. — Bralon sneered.  –Since when did you care for the lives of mortals, old fool?  You never paid them any heed before unless they strayed into your domain.  Go back to your little sandy hut at the bottom of the sea and stay there—you might last longer.—

Elenia pointed the flaming tip of her spear at him.  “How dare you.”

—And you, dear sister.  You sit in your mountain of molten earth and watch the events of the world unfold around you.  And when something happens that displeases you what do you do?  You leave your high throne to create and then abandon a Halfling child among the mortals below, until such time as you want something done without having to get your hands dirty.  Then you reclaim them only to send them to die.—

Elenia had to fight to keep herself from losing control.  Keeping secrets from her brothers was impossible—they could always sense the things she did.  Ronan was still alive in there; he had to be if the demon was hinting at her greatest secret,
the one she refused to share with anyone.  “Enough!” she shouted.  She couldn’t have him continue.  She couldn’t let the girl find out—not like this.

—Oh do deny it if you want, but it is the truth.  It is all you have done these past few thousand years.  Why shouldn’t the little one behind you know of it?  After all, you are—

“I said enough!”  Elenia vaulted towards him, brandishing the spear over her head and sending sparks flying everywhere.  She heard Kar cry out but couldn’t hear what he said.  She let the fiery energy from her soul ignite so she was completely wreathed in flames.  She acted out of rage, abandoning all attempts to control it.  She brought the spear down towards Bralon’s chest; he simply caught it in one hand, ignoring the flames that licked at his skin.  He held out the forefinger of his other hand and attempted to touch the skin over her heart but she brought her shield up hard into it.  He hissed in pain as he was pushed back.

Kar didn’t give him a chance to recover his footing.  Twirling his staff through the air over his head he brought a column of water up from the river and drove it hard into his possessed brother.  The demon was undeterred, digging his feet into the ground as he took the full force of the attack.  When Kar finally let it up Bralon was thoroughly soaked but still standing.

—A little water?—he mocked.  –Are you serious?—

Elenia answered by throwing her spear at him.  Bralon drew his dark sword and swung at the projectile in one motion.  The wooden shaft was shattered instantly, splinters raining down around him.  He held the sword up in front of him.  Elenia could see the dull silver blade was serrated on both edges up until the very tip.  From the corner of her eye
she saw Kar step back, his knuckles white as he gripped his staff tighter.  She held her shield directly in front of her as Bralon lunged at her, thrusting the sword towards her shoulder.  Her shield had been made of a metal alloy fused with magic in the molten heart of her mountain and yet it still shattered on impact; the very end of the demon’s sword pierced through the armor on her left shoulder and sank into the flesh beneath, scraping against bone as it went.  She bit back a cry of pain as she fell back to the ground.

Seeing his sister hurt Kar sprang towards them, bringing his staff down on Bralon’s head.  The blow had no effect, but the magic Kar had bound about the shaped coral had to have been incredibly strong to keep it from breaking.  Infuriated Bralon swung his sword at the old man who bent back far enough that he only received a minor scratch above his left eye.  Bralon came back around and plunged the blade deep into his right thigh before he
could get back up, the jagged edges sawing through the skin and muscle.  Kar dropped down onto one knee as blood started pouring from the wound.

Bralon laughed at them.  –Pathetic rulers of the cosmos
.—  He pointed his blade at them.  –No wonder it was so easy to take this one.  Is this the best you can manage against us?—

Elenia supported herself on her right arm.  “Ronan, listen to me!” she pleaded.

—He cannot hear you.  Your beloved fool is busy having fun killing you all.—

“You are the fool!”  Kar leaned all his weight onto his staff as he stood up;
the right side of his blue robes were stained with blood.  “The brother we knew and loved had his quarrels with us, it is true, but he would never wish to take any life for his own amusement.”