Chapter 84


    Enemy of my Enemy


    Smoke filled Daegan’s lungs and he coughed as they ran through the haze. Orange light and heat permeated through the smoke. They needed to get away from the fires or they’d all suffocate. He could discern the shapes of Tanlor beside him and the other men following behind.


    Daegan covered his mouth and nose with his sleeve but it did little to protect him.


    “Quickly!” Tanlor roared. The plan had fallen to shit in the moments following the horn. They’d fought another set of rakmen while the fires were growing on the battlements. But now the smoke was too intense for anything but fleeing.


    Daegan took another step and it was as though he’d stepped out through a wall. The smoke was held at bay by some invisible barrier. The others followed through, each of them with matching expressions of surprise.


    There was a clear dome within the smoke. Thick tendrils of orange and grey curled around the barrier but were unable to permeate through. Within it was utter chaos. The two crab-like creatures were scuttling about while a pair of human fighters leapt out of the way of strikes. Bodies of rakmen littered the ground. The two warriors moved like shadows with inhuman speed, zipping about and jumping at impossible heights. Who are these people?


    There was another human, also running about the dome. He conjured up stonespears and flung them at the crabs. Daegan watched as the man formed a set of three stonespears but before he could fire them, a pair of rak warriors moved to intercept him and he shifted the trajectory of the two spears to take them down, the third flying off into the smoke.


    A rak standing on the other side of the dome blew a rallying call into a horn. More and more of the rak warriors emerged from the smoke. Many of them were coughing and spluttering. Daegan began to lose count of how many. A dozen, maybe more?


    “We should help them,” Tar said, he’d picked up the sword that Tanlor had left. Daegan and Tanlor shared a look. They both suspected who these newcomers were.


    “I think that’s Misandrei,” Daegan pointed to the woman with short red hair skirting around the crab monster, teasing out weak points points in the carapace. “The others I don’t recognise.”


    “That man’s not Ferath,” Tanlor said, indicating the bald man, “but his runewielding is a match for his.”


    “This is something to do with those injuries you had?” Yaref asked them pointedly. Both Daegan and Tanlor nodded.


    “Not sure if they’re worse than the rak, truth be told,” Daegan said. Yaref sucked a breath through his teeth. “Enemy of my enemy?” Yaref offered.


    “Is still my enemy,” Daegan finished.


    The flames suddenly dampened. The bright orange glow dimmed noticeably, like a wind blowing out half the candles in a room. Smoke still filled the air outside the dome but it came in lighter whisps than before. The shapes of the towers were now visible again and Daegan could see that large portions of the wall had completely collapsed in heaps of ash.


    “The docks are that way?” Daegan pointed to an area of the wall that had completely disintegrated.


    “Aye,” Tar acknowledged, “I think I can see them.” The younger man was squinting through the smoke. Daegan glanced back at the battle unfolding in the dome. Misandrei had disengaged from the crab monster to fight three rak warriors. She moved through them savagely, cutting them down with ease.


    “These are Landryn’s soldiers,” Daegan said. His brother had given them some silly name that he couldn’t recall.


    “This is the quality of Reldoni soldiers?” Tanlor sounded worried.


    “I think they’re considered the elites,” Daegan replied.


    The other Reldoni warrior was a blonde woman. She moved like a shadow, ducking between blows of the crab monster and turning to dispatch rak as they approached. Daegan then spotted Baroc in the fray, taking down rak and mauling them. The beastman’s attacks were a terrifying sight but his aggression seemed solely targeted towards the rakmen.


    “We’ve lingered too long,” Tanlor asserted, “we should make for the docks.”


    “I agree,” Daegan turned to the others, “you lads can stay if you want but Tanlor and I are getting out of here.” The three men shared looks between them and none looked eager to join the battle happening within the dome.


    “We’ll follow you,” Yaref said.


    ***


    Ferath stumbled through the smoke. He’d lost sight of Endrin ahead of him and got turned around. Jaz had finally restrained his fires and the smoke was beginning to dissipate. The roaring flames no longer pulsing blasts of heat into the keepyard. Ferath could hear the sounds of battle. Could hear the blaring of the rak warhorns. The shouts and cries of them as they fell to the bloodshedders’ attacks.


    Ferath had to admit that he was impressed—and outmatched—by their collective skill. Misandrei, Loreli and Endrin had launched themselves into the battle and Ferath had been left straggling behind. Endrin had been forming four—sometimes five—simultaneous stonespears and striking the rak defenders on the walls. Ferath’s own stoneshaping granted him two, but even then he fumbled control when his edir would slip from his grasp.


    He saw shadow shapes moving about through the smoke and moved towards it. He stepped into an empty air bubble. He could feel Misandrei and Loreli’s edirs jointly maintaining it and keeping the stifling smoke at bay. The battle was in full swing and Ferath could see from the bodies of the rak that the bloodshedders were slowly gaining the advantage.


    The flames continued to dampen, and the clearing widened. The plumes of smoke drifting off into the sky. The outlined shapes of the moons could now be seen overhead. Ferath could see that there were little over ten remaining rak in the keepyard. Unless there was more hidden within the keep or towers, but Ferath doubted that. Then he spotted a group of five smaller figures running in the opposite direction of the battle.


    They ran towards a section of the destroyed wall. Through the clearing smoke, Ferath saw the reflection of moonslight illuminating the ice of the Nortara Sheet. And a thin dark outline of the dock. The frustrating memory of Daegan and Tanlor fleeing to the docks in Urundock entered his mind, and Ferath knew with certainty that Daegan was in that group.


    Ferath snarled and darted towards them. He was not about to let Daegan cowardly weasel his way out of his grip again. As Ferath ran, he caught sight of Endrin’s bald head. The man was turning to bark an order at Ferath. As if Ferath would ever take orders from the likes of him. Before the man had even made eye contact, Ferath conjured a stonespear and loosed it towards the man. Not anticipating an attack from his own allies, the hit landed and Endrin hit the ground. Ferath wasn’t sure if it was a killing blow or not—and he didn’t care. Daegan was his only objective.


    ***


    There was a high-pitched hissing screech. Daegan glanced over his shoulder as he ran. He saw one of the crabs buckling under a barrage of stonespears. They’ve taken one down. Daegan felt a rush of fear that they might not escape in time. Despite the monstrous nature of the crabs and the rakmen, Landryn’s elites instilled in him a far greater fear.


    They approached the smouldering heap of cinder and ash that was once the wall.


    “Puck, can you clear us a path?” Daegan directed towards the heap. Flames still licked up from embers. They didn’t want to run straight through an open fire.


    “Uh, yeah,” Puck stammered, “I’ll need a minute.” The man raised his hands to the fire and the flames began to recede.


    “This topaz is really small. The draw is slow, but I should be able to make a path through in a few minutes.”


    Daegan and the others waited impatiently, looking back at the battle with apprehension. A figure approached from the fighting, running towards them. Daegan could see an amber glow emitting from the man’s skin. In the smoky haze, the light appeared like a nimbus aura around him. Daegan didn’t need to make out the details of the man’s face to know that it was Ferath. His curved sword was drawn, it caught the light of the fires.


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    “No more running, Daegan,” Ferath’s voice cut through the sounds of battle, “this is the end of the road. This ends now.” There was unfettered rage in Ferath’s words. As though Daegan’s persistent reluctance to die was some grave insult to him.


    “What do you expect of me, Ferath?” Daegan spat the words. Hoping to delay the man long enough for Puck to make them a path through the flames. “You expect me to simply accept death?”


    “It is an inevitability,” Ferath replied. Ferath no longer had the cold impassiveness he once held. He was frayed… unhinged.


    “Stand down, Vitares!” Daegan recognised Misandrei’s voice call out. She appeared a moment later in a gust of wind that billowed forward. The gale washed away the remnants of smoke and fanned the embers that Puck was trying to snuff out.


    Tanlor took a step in front of Daegan, his rak sword raised. In that moment Daegan felt an overwhelming sense of love for the man for that. Tar and Yaref also raised their weapons despite neither man understanding the severity of the situation.


    “His death is mine!” Ferath whirled on Misandrei, an arm outstretched. In the blink of an eye a shell of stone formed around the woman.


    “You cannot escape me again Daegan!” Ferath shouted, “the fury of the earth flows within me.” The light grew in him. His eyes shining amber. With the smoke cleared, Daegan could see the features of Ferath’s face. Parts of skin had taken on the appearance of stone. It cracked and crumbled as his face twisted into a snarl.


    “You are nothing!” Ferath took a step forward. The earth at their feet began to rumble. “Weak… pitiful creature,” Ferath continued, “I am ascended. My power is inexorable. With your death comes the dawn of a new age.”


    “You’re not a god, Ferath!” Daegan shouted, “you’re just a man that’s lost his fucking mind.” Daegan wished he had his revolver. That egotistical rant would be cut short by a few bullets to the face.


    Ferath took another step towards them, his hand raised. Debris exploded out from him and coalesced. It began forming the length of a spear in the air. Tanlor rushed forward. The man closed the distance between them in two bounds and brought the large rak blade down on the forming stonespear.


    Daegan darted after, keeping his gaze on Ferath. He clutched at his hatchet. The weight of it in his hand gave him reassurance. Another stonespear formed and Tanlor smashed it. The ground cracked and shifted, trembling underfoot. Daegan jumped over a fissure that broke open in the ground, closing the distance between him and Ferath.


    Daegan was done running. He was done being afraid. Daegan was not nothing. He was not weak. He was not pitiful.


    Daegan swung his hatchet at Ferath. The man’s sword whipped up deflecting the swing and catching the hook of the axe blade. Daegan hung tight to the handle and twisted, freeing it before Ferath could disarm him.


    Tanlor appeared at his side. The thick dark metal of his sword blurring past. Ferath was suddenly pressed with the pair. Tanlor and Daegan worked in tandem in a series of blows that Ferath could do nothing but focus on parrying the attacks.


    The ground continued to shake, Feraths eyes glowing with brighter golden light. His movements slowed. More of the man’s skin took on the appearance of stone. Tanlor’s blade struck Ferath’s arm. The blade cut into the dragonhide armour and caught the flesh underneath. Only it wasn’t flesh. The blade crunched against stone. Hardened chips of Ferath’s flesh crumbled under the blade and fell away.


    “I am the power of the earth. The quiet resolute fury of stone and steel,” Ferath intoned. The light of eradite runestone emitted in the cracks of Ferath’s skin as he spoke. Ferath’s free hand grabbed at the blade of Tanlor’s sword. In the breadth of a second the blade exploded into dust.


    Daegan lost his footing as the earth shifted at his feet. A large rent opening between him and Tanlor. Tanlor had to jump back before the crack in the earth swallowed him.


    Daegan swung forward with his hatchet but as the blade approached Ferath’s head, the metal dissolved away to dust.


    Daegan followed through with the swing anyway.


    The wooden shaft of the hatchet connected with Ferath’s skull. The shaft broke and Daegan’s hand reverberated as if he’d struck a boulder. Cracks of light appeared at the side of Ferath’s head where he’d been hit.


    Ferath’s movements were slow and laborious. He bared his teeth at Daegan.


    “Accept your fate,” Ferath growled. Daegan tried to take a step back but he felt rock rise up behind him, penning him in. The rising mounds reminded him of the pillars of stone his father had once used. His chest locked and his throat tightened. Phantom pain flared in his shoulders.


    Ferath’s arm moved slowly, raising his blade.


    And then his eyes widened.


    The light faded from his eyes and the crumbling cracks of his skin like a candle under a glass. The tremors in the ground below abruptly stopped. The fissure that had been growing in the ground stopped deepening. Ferath staggered back. His sword was still raised above him.


    Behind Ferath, Daegan could see a brilliant white light. It tinged with the golden light that had been emitting from Ferath. Daegan wasn’t sure exactly what was happening but he could see that something was draining Ferath’s abilities. Sucking it away from him. If he had a moment to think about, Daegan likely would have remembered the bloodstone dagger that the rak chiefs had somehow used to negate runewielders.


    Confused horror painted across Ferath’s face. The stone-like appearance faded away, replaced by raw and broken skin.


    “W-what are you doing?” Ferath stammered. “How are you doing this?” The look of helplessness that covered Ferath’s face struck Daegan. It was not so different to how he’d felt the night Ferath had attacked him back in the Arch-duke’s Palace. He’d asked Ferath that same question. What are you doing… Daegan gritted his teeth. His fist closed around the broken hatchet handle. It had broken in a sharp spike.


    “It’s nothing personal,” Daegan said coldly and grabbed the back of Ferath’s head. With his other hand, Daegan rammed the broken shaft into Ferath’s neck.


    The blood flowed hot and sticky over Daegan’s hand and down his arm. He pushed deeper, shoving the wooden handle further into Ferath’s throat.


    “You’re not a fucking god,” Daegan hissed at him. Then let go. Ferath’s body crumpled at his feet.


    He reached down and picked up Ferath’s sleek curved blade. Daegan recognised the hawk embellishment on it. It was a gift that Landryn often gave to his most loyal soldiers. Daegan had known it for a while but the truth stung him hard. Landryn orchestrated this. His own brother had ordered his death. The sword was not evidence, but it was just another reminder of who these soldiers served.


    “Undak!” Daegan heard the deep angry voice of a rak. He looked up and saw one of the rak warriors approach. Daegan recognised him as Razef—the new chief. Well, I killed their last chief. Razef carried the bloodstone dagger as their last chief had. It now shone with an iridescent white light.


    “I killed your last chief, Razef. You would risk attacking me?” Daegan said coldly. He couldn’t escape. The cleft in the ground loomed to his left and The stonewall that Ferath had raised penned him. The only direction was forward. Towards Razef.


    “You deny the Khandamos his sacrifice,” Razef approached, he nodded towards Ferath’s body as he spoke, “The umbra of these ones is strong. The Khandamos will not be pleased that you have stolen this from him.”


    “I don’t give a fuck about your Khandamos.” Daegan realised that the word ‘fuck’ probably didn’t translate well in Old Tongue but he didn’t care. He gripped Ferath’s sword in his hand. He’d killed one rak chief already this week. What was one more?


    ***


    Tanlor watched in amazement as Daegan drove the hilt of the hatchet into Ferath’s neck. They were separated by a chasm in the ground. Too far to jump. He could see Razef approaching Daegan, the glowing dagger in his hand. He needed to pull Razef’s attention.


    Tanlor glanced back at Puck who was still focused on dulling the embers for a path through the fire. He realised he’d made a mistake given that one the topaz. He rushed towards him.


    “Puck! Give me the topaz,” Tanlor ordered.


    “I almost have—”


    “—it doesn’t matter,” Tanlor grabbed the front of his tunic, “give it to me.” Puck, in his surprise, offered out his hand and Tanlor grabbed the tiny chip of topaz. It glowed brightly and felt hot in his hand. Tanlor then pulled one of grenadier pouches from Puck’s belt. Tanlor didn’t waste any time, releasing Puck and darting back to the chasm.


    Daegan and Razef were speaking to each other in that strange language. Again, Tanlor was stunned by Daegan’s ability to communicate with the rakmen. He was having an actual conversation. Although he gripped that sword pretty tightly, and kept it pointed at the rak.


    Tanlor flung the grenadier pouch across the chasm. He focused his edir on the pouch as it arced in the sky. Sending out his edir and drawing on the heat of the topaz. There was so much fire around that there was no shortage to fuel it. He continued to feed in heat until…


    Boom!


    The pouch exploded. Razef was flown backwards and Daegan ducked against the stonewall. Daegan had still been far enough away from the rak that the blast didn’t reach him. Razef climbed to his feet quickly, recovering with surprising speed.


    “Undak Savara’an!” Tanlor heard Razef roar and the light of the dagger began to shine brighter.


    Tanlor felt the heat syphon from his edir. It was drawn from him like blood from a wound. It felt like someone was sucking his breath right out of his lungs. Tanlor staggered to his knees. Pain spread from his chest and out to his limbs. The burns on his skin blazed in agony. He looked up, across the chasm, and could see Razef standing with the dagger overheard. He could feel his life being drawn into it.


    And then a silver sword burst from Razef’s chest.


    An arced length of metal that caught the light of the fires. The chief slumped. The bloodstone dagger tumbling from his hand. Razef fell forward, revealing Daegan. The rak’s blue blood appeared black across the man’s face. Daegan bared his teeth at the fallen rak then reached down and picked up the bloodstone dagger.


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    END OF


    PATH OF THE STONEBREAKER


    BOOK 1


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