A shout from Durge relaying the human wizard’s intentions gave Hyden the opening he needed. Some insectoid creature with beetle-like pincers on its antennaed head was half in, half out of the hole. It took the sudden pause in the giants’ attack as a chance to skitter all the way out of the breach. It almost made it.
Using the power of the ring he wore, and the magnifying crystal Verge, Hyden conjured up a sheet of ice slightly larger than the hole in the floor and easily a foot thick. Why he hadn’t thought of such a simple thing earlier was beyond him. The creature coming out of the hole was suddenly stuck. The lower quarter of its fat, slime-filled body was crunched and pinned in place by the massive slab. The big bug twisted and clicked and hissed, impaling a staggering swordsman through the chest with one of its pincers, and lashing the hand off of another with its flailing barbed forearms. The fit was quelled quickly, though, as other guardians carrying long poleaxes reached in and filled the bug’s exoskeleton with holes.
A sudden roar, so loud and powerful that even the Choska stopped battling for a moment, came from outside the castle. The Choska recovered its wits first and darted for the jagged opening to make its escape.
Hyden charged into a room where the door frame had been turned into an archway by the rumbling quakes earlier. He threw open the wooden shutters and climbed onto the enormous sill. When he looked out he expected to see the massive red dragon Claret. What he saw was as baffling as it was terrifying.
Two blue-scaled dragons, both more than a hundred feet from snout to tail, were spiraling through the pillowy steam. Both wyrms were drakes, and they seemed to be challenging one another to battle. Hyden sensed the territorial instincts roiling within them, almost as clearly as if he were thinking the thoughts himself. One of the blues came streaking by close, its sapphire scales glittering like sun-bathed jewels in the afternoon sun.
The Choska demon won free of the guardians and shot into Hyden’s view. It flapped its leathery wings frantically to carry it away from the giants’ castle. Then, seeing the dragons, it dove like a rock into the steam. Instantly, like a pair of winged canines chasing a thrown ball, the two blue dragons dove after it. The steam closed over their passage so quickly that the sky was now empty, as if they had never been there.
A distant roar came from below, followed by another and a short, high-pitched shriek. Suddenly, almost half a mile away, one of the blues shot up out of the steamy cloud with the limp, bloody Choska barely protruding from its mouth. The other dragon was right on its tail.
Brothers, Hyden decided. The two blue dragons were brothers, but why were they here? Where did they come from? The hope of riding one of them to Xwarda came and went as he probed their minds. These were wild wyrms that lacked the compassion and intelligence of a creature such as Claret. A yell full of pain came from inside the castle, drawing Hyden’s attention. Quickly, he ran back to the teleportal chamber and began healing those that he could. Most of those who were uninjured had gone on the lift to join one of the other battles still raging in the castle. When Hyden was finished healing, he went after them. Not far from another skirmish, he saw Cade talking to one of the captains of the guardians.
“Will you ice over this one, like before?” Cade asked.
“It won’t work here,” Hyden answered.
“Why not?” the giant asked, as if all of his hope escaped with his sighing breath.
“The hole I made in the castle up there keeps the cold air flowing over the ice slab,” Hyden explained. “Down here, the ice will just melt away. The closer to the cauldron we get, the faster it will melt.”
“Is there nothing else you can do?”
“I have an idea,” Hyden said, pondering cause and effect. Judging how much the Tokamac crystal’s power would exaggerate spell-formed stone, versus frozen water, was impossible to say. “You’ll have to clear the level below the teleportal just in case. Better yet, two levels, immediately under where the symbols are carved.”
Cade nodded and strode off to pass the order. The guardian captain led Hyden to the battle. Hyden wasn’t surprised by the amount of damage he could see as they approached. The loud clang of steel and beast, and the yells of excited giants filled the air. What looked to have once been a floor full of walled storage rooms was now nothing more than a rubble-filled expanse.
“We need a healer, wizard,” someone yelled. “Durge has taken…”
Hyden tuned out the rest of the words. It didn’t matter who it was. Knowing that it was one of his friends could only distract him from his efforts.
More than one giant needed healing. Hyden moved around them, and Jicks came staggering up only to collapse on the floor at his feet. Through the dusty chaos, Hyden saw Corva darting gracefully among the giants. The elf loosed an arrow here and there at a massive, tentacled creature that was destroying everything it came across. After making the healing gestures and speaking the words over Jicks, Hyden stood and started toward the hellborn monster with a purpose.
Hyden’s hopes were plummeting. Not about Afdeon or the battles raging around him, but about Xwarda and the Wardstone, and the fact that his brother had found his legions. The old bone reader had told them he would. She told them a lot of things. Without the teleportals, Hyden’s hope of getting to Xwarda in time to keep the Warlord from the Wardstone seemed nonexistent.
A wave of anger passed over him and he focused the emotion on the demon beast with all he had. He held out the Tokamac crystal and unleashed a crackling bolt of energy that charred nearly half of the creature’s flailing tentacles to ash. This allowed several giants the chance to charge in and attack. A heartbeat later, the creature used its own reserves of magical power and pummeled Hyden backward through the rubble as if he were a leaf in a storm. Hyden landed well, almost cat-like. The power of the crystalized dragon tear dangling at his neck added to his agility and kept him from crashing. Then, out of nowhere, a hot, concussive blast sent all of his thoughts from his brain. The Tokamac Verge fell to the floor with a clunk as Hyden went stumbling down with it. He tried to stand up and get air back into his lungs, but stumbled back over. A pair of guardians rushed past him to divert the powerful devil’s attention. Then Jicks grabbed Hyden and the crystal from the rubble and dragged him behind a partially fallen wall.
Blackness flooded Hyden’s vision, save for a single white swirl that found the center and forced the darkness back. He heard Jicks’s voice cry out in fear, and the deep, gasping sound of someone as they suddenly sucked air. Cade’s voice spoke out, but the words spun away to the edges of Hyden’s sanity.
Slowly, a misty shape began to form. In his mind’s eye, a curvaceous woman appeared. Her arms beckoned him closer, and her eyes softened in welcome.
The goddess.
Bathed in her presence, Hyden’s thoughts regathered themselves. She was there for him; there was reason to hope, but still, something about her was changing. It was like he was with her instead of just envisioning her in his mind’s eye. For a moment, Hyden panicked. He felt his body somewhere in the distance as it slowly let go of his soul. Then all he could feel was a frigid mist and the goddess’s loving embrace.
The Warlord’s hordes found no easy victims in Castlemont, but that didn’t stop the slaughter. The breed giants of Locar spotted the demons from their watchtowers and came to King Jarrek’s aid in force. With tree trunk clubs, spear-launching dragon guns, and savage intent, they raged into the hellborn like the half-primal beasts they were.
King Jarrek’s soldiers had become builders. Neither they, nor the dwarves helping them, were prepared for the sudden attack. Using tools and anything else they could find, they defended themselves with all they had. Eventually, the weapons that had been cached were found and distributed, but even with their axes, swords, and crossbows they were no match for the ever-growing number of hellspawn. The breed giants’ attack brought them time, though.