Rune Destiny (Runebound Book 2) Page 20

  What are you doing? It’s just a cat!

  He twitched his fingers—light flared from the gauntlet and turned the runebound into living, quivering statues.

  “Come on,” Remus communicated to Pricker. “Let’s deal with these and—”

  Remus’s message was cut short when a dark form hurtled out of the sky. At the far end of the alley, a Drathani prefect landed in the street. He brandished a wicked polearm tipped with a foot of gleaming steel.

  “He dropped out of the sky like he was flying!” Remus said in his mind.

  “They can do that,” Pricker’s response was deadpan, distracted.

  Remus glanced back—a second prefect had landed behind them. Pricker was fighting for his life, his twin daggers flashing so fast the sparks flew when his weapons clashed with the enemy.

  “Run, if you can,” Pricker sent through the circlet. “I don’t know if I can win this.”

  They were trapped.

  Because you tried to save a damn cat.

  The Drathani prefect with the polearm raised his gauntlet. At his command, the thralls broke out of their stupor and turned toward Remus.

  “You’re not the only one with tricks,” the Drathani prefect said, the voice echoing in Remus’s mind.

  Frantic, Remus tried to stun the thralls a second time, but as long as the Drathani prefect resisted him, he was powerless to stop the runebound. All but one thrall advanced on him. The last thrall stalked the cornered cat which yowled at the top of its lungs.

  Remus took a step back, and then another. There was nowhere to go. He parried a blow and then lashed out with a counterattack. One thrall dropped, but there were still nine more. The next instant, his back was pressed against the same wall as the cat. A whirlwind of claws, the feline had become a screaming ball of fury. The snarling cat sliced tendons and exposed bone, and still the thrall came. The runebound seemed to feel no pain.

  The Drathani prefect with the polearm started toward Remus. With his raised gauntlet, the prefect spurred the thralls on harder—they charged Remus, pushing him back with the weight of their bodies. He was pinned. He clenched his gauntleted fist. The vessel stone flared. The thralls had him immobilized, but they could not overcome his gauntlet’s resistance to tear into his unprotected flesh. This insignificant mercy would only buy Remus a few extra heartbeats of life. In ten steps the Drathani prefect would slam that gleaming point deep into his guts.

  “Pricker!” Remus shouted in his mind.

  “Can’t. Help,” Pricker responded.

  Remus’s pleas attracted Savaroth’s attention, who observed the situation and laughed.

  “Now the boy learns the consequences of defiance,” Savaroth said, his tremendous voice pounding in Remus’s head.

  Remus struggled with all of his strength, but it was no use. He thought of Tethana and felt a profound sadness. Tears sprang to his eyes as he watched the Drathani prefect march toward him.

  And then the wall on the far side of the street exploded. A massive voice thundered out, overpowering even Savaroth in Remus’s mind.

  “THE FOREST DEMANDS BLOOD!”

  The biggest Volgoth Remus had ever seen crashed into the street. The building never stood a chance—the enormous barbarian obliterated it with his bulk. Instead of armor, the warrior was covered head-to-toe in wood. On his head was a tree stump with holes cut out for the eyes. Leafy branches reached for the sky atop his head. His weapon was a tree trunk longer than he was tall.

  Even the Drathani prefect stopped, stunned by the Volgoth warrior’s sudden appearance. The wooden-clad barbarian bellowed a challenge at the prefect and his thralls. Before the prefect could react, the warrior swung his massive weapon. Air whistled around the wooden trunk. The Drathani parried, but it was a useless defense. The tree trunk maul smashed into him with a terrific thud, sending him flying out of the alleyway.

  With the prefect’s concentration broken, the thralls pinning Remus to the wall stepped back. The trunk swept them aside like a broom. One instant there were nine thralls staring at Remus, the next they were smashed and broken against the far wall.

  The Volgoth was still yelling about the cat. He cornered the runebound who had threatened the feline. He brought his huge weapon crashing down in an overhead swing, reducing the last thrall to paste. Again and again he pounded his giant wooden club into the dirt, screaming incoherent obscenities. When he finally stopped, the alley was quiet. Both Drathani prefects had retreated. Every last thrall was dead.

  Stupefied, Remus stared in awe at the Volgoth warrior. He was bigger than even Goregash. As he watched, the barbarian knelt and spoke softly to the cat. To Remus’s absolute befuddlement, the cat hopped up onto the warrior’s wooden shoulder and perched there like it belonged.

  The giant rose and looked at Remus. “He tells me you saved him. For your selfless act, I will lend you my strength.” From inside his tree stump of a helmet, the warrior’s voice boomed huge and hollow. The cat stared at Remus with a peculiar intelligence.

  The cat talked to him?

  “You’re the warrior from the forest,” Remus said. “This is the second time you’ve saved me.”

  “It is indeed,” the Volgoth boomed. “My name is Monsturian, and I guard the Wilds and all who call them home.”

  “Monstur. Your name is Monstur.”

  “You may call me that, if you wish.”

  “We need to move,” Pricker said in his mind.

  From elsewhere in the city, horns began to sound. It was the signal to abandon Delgrath.

  “The city is lost,” Remus said. “We have to catch up with the main host in the plains to the west.”

  “I will follow,” Monstur said.

  Remus, Pricker, and the hulking, tree-wearing Monstur exited the alleyway and ran for the outskirts of the city. Ahead of them, Remus could see the last of the defenders running into the plains. Runebound thralls poured from side streets into the main road. Monstur lead the way, clearing a path with his great tree trunk maul. Remus stunned as many as he could with the gauntlet. Pricker loped along, slashing any thrall that got too close.

  They fought clear of the city, hacking their way out of the swarming thralls. When they were in the open, the runebound fell back, letting them go. Remus thanked the gods and kept running. An overcast sky unleashed the first drops of rain as the three of them sprinted toward the mob of survivors. Half a mile from the city, the Volgoth and Ethari stood between the remaining villagers and Delgrath. Remus’s heart sank when he saw how few had survived.

  In the front rank, an exhausted Promost Lister leaned on his two-handed mace. Pikon was at his side, bleeding from a gash on his face. Ellion stood with them, his face pale and drawn. As Remus approached, Tethana came forward, pushing her way through the wall of soldiers.

  Remus stopped in front of Promost Lister and Pikon. “Why have you stopped? We have to keep going!”

  “To where?” Pikon asked. “Look behind you.”

  Remus turned and looked back toward Delgrath. His heart seized in his chest. The ruined town was crawling with runebound. Ten thousand thralls covered the city like a carpet. Overhead, a clap of thunder sounded. Lightning split the sky. In the instant of illumination, Remus saw seven Drathani prefects standing on the tops of buildings. Their dark robes whipped around them in the growing winds. Seven gauntleted hands were raised, pointing at where Remus stood. They were preparing to charge into the plains and overwhelm the last of the survivors.

  “But we killed so many…” Remus said, his voice trailing off.

  “It’s never enough,” Pikon said.

  “The closest fortress is Umgragon,” Ellion said. “Behind its great walls and with the help of the First Legion we might hold off this horde, but it’s at least six days away with this mob.”

  Thunder rumbled again, and the sky opened up. Rain poured down. Monstur’s cat crawled inside his tree stump helmet to hide from the storm.

  “We’d never make it,” Remus said.

 
“We have to try,” Tethana said.

  “There has to be something we can do,” Remus said to Pricker through the circlet. “We can’t let all these people die!”

  “That gauntlet is a great and terrible weapon,” Pricker responded. “You’ve only scratched the surface of its power.”

  “What are you not telling me?”

  “There’s something you could try, if you’re strong enough.”

  “And if I’m not?”

  “You’ll die.”

  “Show me.”

  Thoughts, images, and ideas flashed across Remus’s perception as Pricker answered. In the time it took draw a breath, Remus saw the astonishing power of the gauntlet laid out before him. He also saw the danger.

  Remus looked at Tethana. The rain had plastered her hair to the sides of her face. She looked scared, but determined. He knew she was strong. She would never surrender.

  “What is it?” Tethana said, meeting his gaze.

  “I can save us,” Remus said.

  After Remus spoke, a great roar overpowered the noise of the storm. Every head turned toward the sound. The runebound charged forth from Delgrath, ten thousand bodies moving as one.

  Remus tore his gaze from the terrible sight and looked back into Tethana’s eyes. “Run,” he said. And then on impulse, he grabbed her by the waist, pulled her close, and kissed her. Without waiting for her response, he turned and sprinted toward the onrushing enemy horde.

  “Remus!” Tethana shrieked.

  On the open plain, under a sky filled with the angry power of the gods, Remus’s lone figure raced headlong toward an entire army. He worked the gauntlet as he ran, passing the complex sequence of commands Pricker had shown him to the stone. When the order was complete, the gauntlet shifted on his arm, changing in shape. Metal bit into his flesh. He screamed in surprise and pain, almost stopping to tear the thing from his body, but Pricker’s voice urged him on.

  “The pain is normal,” Pricker communicated. “Keep going.”

  Remus gritted his teeth and ran harder. When he was so close that he could hear the enemy’s footsteps, he stopped. He planted his feet wide, thrust his sword to the sky, and passed one final command into the stone embedded on the back of the gauntlet. Thunder boomed overhead, and in his mind Savaroth’s voice spoke with the same awesome rumble.

  “So the boy wants power,” Savaroth said. “Then let him have it!”

  Lightning shattered the sky. The strike slammed into Remus’s outstretched sword with the force of a hundred avalanches. Scathing energy coursed through Remus’s body. He threw his head back and screamed. The sound was inhuman, even to his ears, but the lightning did not kill him. Instead of retreating back into the sky, the lightning strike did not end. The gauntlet on his arm was sucking power from the thunderheads above. He was tethered to the storm.

  “Use it you fool!” Pricker shouted over the maelstrom in Remus’s mind.

  Remus looked down. The fury of the storm poured out of his gauntleted hand, gouging a burning crater in the wet earth. He swung the arm upward, sweeping it across the first rank of runebound. The bolt of energy cut a burning swath through the thralls. Thousands died on the first sweep of his arm—thousands more on the second. In an instant, rune circlets fused to skulls. Any thrall that was not outright destroyed fell to the ground, clutching the superheated band of metal clamped to its forehead.

  As Remus channeled the destruction of the storm into the ranks of the enemy, the sky above Delgrath lit with lightning. Seven bolts shot from the heavens into the ruined town, but like his, they did not vanish back into the sky. Seven thin pillars of burning white connected Delgrath to the clouds.

  Oh no.

  Remus tried to shout a question to Pricker through the circlet. “What do I—”

  His thought was blasted apart. Seven beams of lightning shot out from the Drathani prefects, arcing out over the plain. Each bolt slammed into Remus with incredible force. The first one felt like it would rip him apart. The second set him on fire. By the seventh, he was dead on his feet. He only remained standing due to the titanic forces tearing through his flesh. His mind floated free of his body. He waited for the world to go black.

  And then a voice in his mind said, “No.”

  The voice was calm. It felt like home, like love. It felt…green.

  Remus surged back to consciousness. Tethana was at his side. In her right hand she clutched her vessel stone—with her left she gripped Remus’s arm. The power of her stone flowed into him. With her aid, he had the strength to withstand the assault. The enemy’s lightning intensified, trying to annihilate him with one final blast, but Tethana’s stone repaired the damage to his body before it could be reduced to a cinder. His flesh bubbled and melted, but did not fall off. The pain was unbelievable, yet he was alive and unmarked.

  The lightning blinked out. At the same time, he lost his connection with the storm. Tethana sagged. He caught her before she fell. Remus was shocked to see her fist covered in blood. Gently, he pried her fingers away from the stone and saw a rune carved into the flesh of her hand. That rune had been activating the vessel stone.

  Savaroth raged in his mind. “Kill him! Take that gauntlet and then tear him apart. Scatter his remains for the vultures to feed upon!”

  Seven dark shapes rose into the sky over Delgrath. They hovered for a heartbeat and then launched themselves through the air straight at Remus. He lowered Tethana to the ground and stepped in front of her prone form. He could feel the power of the storm raging in the gauntlet on his arm. The stone on the back of his hand shone like a star, more radiant than he had ever seen it.

  “Come on!” he screamed into the whirlwind, brandishing his sword.

  The lead prefect hurtled through the air, his polearm aimed at Remus’s chest. Remus braced himself, hoping to twist out of the way at the last instant.

  “The sturdy oak fears no tempest!” a voice bellowed from behind Remus.

  Monstur charged into view, winding up a devastating swing with his tree trunk maul. The streaking Drathani prefect could not change course in time. Monstur’s weapon slammed into him—Remus heard the gruesome snap and crunch of shattered bones. The prefect was hurled back, crashing to the earth a hundred feet away.

  The remaining six enemy prefects dropped to the earth several feet in front of Monstur. They did not hesitate, dashing forward and surrounding the huge warrior. Stones on gauntlets flashed. Rune fire burned on brutal points of steel. Remus cringed as the enemy stabbed at Monstur’s chest, back, and legs. He was about to watch the giant barbarian die. But everywhere metal met wood, the wood held strong.

  “The forest protects me!” Monstur shouted.

  One of his massive hands lashed out, completely encircling the neck of the nearest Drathani. With a terrible roar, Monstur smashed the enemy prefect into his tree stump helmet once, twice, and then a third time. The prefect went limp—Monstur tossed him aside like a broken toy.

  Remus lunged forward, gauntlet raised. With a twitch of his fingers he unleashed an explosive blast of stored energy. It caught one of the prefects in the chest, flinging him back and out of the fight.

  Pricker sprinted in from the right, spinning and slashing as he zig-zagged through the enemy.

  “Enough!” Savaroth’s voice ripped through Remus’s consciousness. “Leave them to me.”

  With one last flurry of attacks, the Drathani prefects surged forward and pulled their fallen comrade from under Monstur’s feet. Then they turned and ran. When they had gone ten paces, they leapt into the air and streaked through the sky back toward Delgrath. The seventh was still lying a hundred feet away where Monstur’s strike had tossed him.

  Remus stood with Pricker and Monstur. Thousands of dead and dying runebound littered the plain. Fire smoldered on the fried corpses. Rain swirled, the wind blasting them from all sides.

  Savaroth spoke in his mind. “Fate delivers surprises to us all. The traitor hides himself from me, but I sense his connection to you. He show
s you how to play with lightning? So be it. Prepare to reap the whirlwind.”

  The sky above Delgrath darkened. Thunder crashed so loud it rattled Remus’s teeth.

  “We have to run,” Remus said. “Now!”

  Monstur picked up Tethana. The three of them ran for the mob of survivors.

  “Run!” Remus shouted to Promost Lister and Pikon. “We have to get away from the city!”

  The people did not need further prompting. What remained of the Volgoth and their Ethari allies fled across the plain. Behind them, the clouds turned black over Delgrath. Thunder cracked the sky with earth-shattering force. The heavens erupted as lightning poured forth from the heart of the tempest. Remus sensed that the forces of nature were being guided, controlled by a terrible and malevolent force. At Savaroth’s dark bidding, a killing storm was born.

  Chapter 17

  ESCORTED BY COMMANDER NARIN and her soldiers, Aventine and Holmgrim ran through the night. Holmgrim carried Saffrin in his arms. She clung to him, both arms wrapped around his neck. They stopped frequently, crouched and tense in the darkness, as a scout checked over the next hill. When the all-clear was given, they dashed like mad through the open, hoping to avoid stumbling into an enemy ambush.

  More than once they waited behind a rise as an enemy patrol crossed in front of them. But Commander Narin knew the land and led them safely through to the fortified border of Amalt Province. When the morning sun lit the sky behind them, they got their first glimpse of the white stone wall that separated the entire province of Amalt from the rest of the empire. At least twenty feet high, its whiteness blinding in the light of the newly risen sun, the wall’s battlements were manned by Emperor Pontius’s own soldiers. They were challenged immediately.

  “Identify yourselves!” a voice rang out. “Take one more step and you're dead.”