If Valinox had just one of his siblings on his side, just one, he would’ve been victorious.

  All of them had turned against him. Even Nijja. How could she betray him like this? She had always played with his heart when it came to love, but this was his life. This was everything that kept him going. Didn’t she know she was effectively killing him when she left Fyrren with Souriff?

  A while back, when Nijja had entered Dorrinthal and destroyed the gem that Valinox used to maintain his invisibility spell, Valinox had returned to the middle of Curdith Forest. She had to know he was coming for another gem, and this time he was angry. She would have her Fyrren people defend her, but in the end it wouldn’t matter. He’d kill as many as it took before she agreed to make another gem that would maintain his invisibility spell.

  Something had stopped him, though. It was a barrier made of hardened dvinia. He had never seen such a thing. He’d thought about attempting to destroy it, but he knew that the amount of power required would draw Souriff to him. That would be fine ordinarily, but she would bring Failina, and Jon would come as well with someone on his back. Valinox was not sure he could face four of them, even if he brought his best fire mage with him.

  I don’t need invisibility, he had told himself. All he had to do was get his loyal dark mages to the capital. It would fall.

  He’d been a day away from his destination when he’d suddenly felt Souriff hammering away at the barrier to Fyrren. He’d thought about taking the long trip there and stopping her, but she would flee when she felt him coming. He was too busy fixing the damage done to his supply chain to chase her around. He had to keep his people fed. He had lost more of them than he’d anticipated on the way to the capital.

  He would take the forest city and regroup. During the trip to Salbeth, he would let Souriff destroy her own barrier and allow Valinox access to Nijja. As soon as he had time, he would find her and force her to make him another gem.

  Then Lycast had surprised him by lining up their troops to attack. Good, he’d thought. We have the numbers to beat them. Even though his soldiers were going hungry, this would all be over in a day.

  Victory had seemed to be in his grasp soon after the battle had begun. He’d pummeled Failina unconscious with dense casts of dteria, then watched as his people stabbed her fallen body before Airinold arrived to protect her. Airinold had then busied himself foolishly, trying to keep Failina alive rather than stopping Valinox from tearing through Lycast’s forces. Nothing could stop him. And nothing did.

  He had not anticipated how weak the other side of his army really was. He had put his strongest swordsmen among some of his most powerful casters. He still didn’t know how the krepps had gotten through so easily. It frustrated him to his core.

  Valinox had just needed one other sibling to defend the other side of his army. If Nijja had joined him, it would be thousands of bodies of Lycast’s soldiers that littered the grassland and not the other way around.

  “Bitch!” he yelled as he thought through it again, kicking a loose rock off the top of the mountain. “How could you do this to me, Nijja?” He shook with rage. “Souriff I expected, but you? Fucking bitch! All of you will regret what you’ve done, but especially you!”

  Valinox had been confident he would win and had not taken the time beforehand to prepare for his transformation. It did not matter.

  Valinox cut his arm, spilling blood onto a flat rock. He held his hand over it and closed his eyes.

  There was not enough blood. He cut his arm again and squeezed out more blood faster than his wound could close.

  He began the curse, offering his body as the sacrifice.

  The loose stone on the top of the mountain rolled toward him. He looked around at it for a quick calculation. It was not enough.

  So he broke up the mountaintop with punches of dteria, splitting large slabs of rock to loosen them. He walked back to the center and lifted his arms again, sacrificing more of himself into the spell as all of his spilled blood disintegrated.

  Massive pieces of rock tumbled toward him and collected around his feet. His skin burned as it changed, taking on the properties of the rock as it magnetized itself to him. He screamed from the agony of his bones shifting and changing as he grew in size.

  With almost all of his dark mages now perished, he was quickly growing weaker. He would put all of his remaining strength into this transformation. He was to become too large for anyone to stop him, so he needed more. There was a small enclosure atop the mountain that appeared as if it were made by the hands of men. It was like an aboveground cave, with a roof and walls.

  Already partially transformed, Valinox wanted to test his strength. He felt his stone-skin cracking around his cheeks as he smiled. He walked over clumsily, still getting the hang of his new form. The loose stone of the mountaintop shook under each step. He swung his massive fist across the blemish on his mountaintop, shattering one of its walls.

  Valinox emitted a new sound to his ears, a deep and earthy uttering of shock, as a man rolled out of the wreckage.

  It was not just any man. It had been at least a century since Valinox had seen Caarda, but there was no mistaking this man for anyone else. Caarda was exceptionally tall, like Airinold, and rumored to be even stronger at a physical level. Valinox had never held any ill will toward his youngest brother. They had mostly worked in different circles before Caarda hid himself away. Was it here he had been all this time?

  Valinox had been so involved with Souriff and Nijja that he hadn’t stopped for even a moment to wonder if Caarda had ever finished his creation. I supposed I always thought he was dead, Valinox realized. Even when he was far from his siblings, he could feel their presence. Caarda was different. He disappeared from Valinox’s mental map long ago.

  Caarda picked himself up and glanced over with obvious disapproval. Valinox, in the midst of his transition, did not know exactly how his face appeared. He could see that his body had been transformed into stone, but it was not complete. His skin did not quite have the rocklike texture yet, looking more like a demigod’s skin that had been painted to appear like stone. He did tower over Caarda, but did any human features remain on Valinox’s face? Something had to be at least similar because there was recognition in Caarda’s bright orange-green eyes.

  “I’m disappointed in you, brother,” Caarda said.

  “What are you doing here?” Valinox did not recognize his own voice. It was rough and scratchy and jumping all over in pitch as if Valinox barely had control. His transition continued as he absorbed more stone and grew in size. It would take more effort to stop it at this point than to continue.

  “Long ago, I saw what might become of you,” Caarda said. His cloak whipped from the wind as he stood on the edge of the precipice, a long drop into the ocean below.

  “You saw me…how?” Valinox grew bigger still, the pain stopping his speech momentarily.

  “Through time.” Caarda seemed unafraid as he approached.

  Valinox felt power coursing through his new body unlike anything he’d felt before. He grew taller still. Caarda appeared small enough to be squashed like a bug.

  “Leeeaa…” Valinox tried to tell his brother to leave him alone, but the word morphed into a gravelly growl.

  “There is one way back from this,” Caarda said. “It begins with you undoing this curse. You still have the capability. I have seen it.”

  A familiar voice interrupted them. “Oh heavenly father,” uttered Souriff.

  Valinox turned to see Souriff setting herself down on the mountaintop with Airinold on her back.

  “Caarda, we have to stop him!” Airinold called out as he drew his long sword.

  It looked tiny now.

  Valinox knew he could defeat Souriff and Airinold easily, but he was unsure about Caarda’s capabilities. He turned back to his brother, and the force of his steps shook the mountain and sent Caarda to his knees. Nothing in Valinox’s long life had felt as good as the power he now possessed.

  Caarda seemed afraid as he quickly rose up. “End this curse brother, before it’s too late!”

  Valinox wanted to tell Caarda that fear was not a good look on his face, but he could no longer speak recognizable words.

  As if Caarda knew what Valinox wanted to say, Caarda replied, “I am not afraid for myself but for you. This is your last chance.”

  Valinox grew even larger. The pain forced him to set down one of his massive stone hands on the mountaintop for balance. He looked down at the giant instrument of destruction. His hand was as big as Caarda. Valinox got up and looked forward to crushing his three siblings, but as he turned to face Airinold and Souriff, he saw Jon touch down with Nijja on his back.

  “Vali, no.” She hesitantly moved toward him, her tiny hand reaching out. “You must undo this before it’s too late!”

  “I believe he’s lost control of his voice,” Caarda said.

  Valinox was losing control of more than that as he made a fist without wanting to and slammed it against the mountaintop to vent his building rage. Cracks splintered out from the dent.

  “You don’t have to talk, just listen,” Nijja said gently.

  It took all that Valinox had to keep from reaching out and crushing her.

  “He’s unstable, Nijja,” Airinold warned.

  Rage animated Valinox’s other fist. He pounded it against the mountaintop.

  “Then let me just say one thing!” Nijja was the only one who appeared unafraid as she came close enough to put her hand on his leg. “I’m sorry, Vali. I should’ve taken your love more seriously. It was always a game to me.”

  Everything always is.

  “Get back, Nijja,” Caarda warned.

  Valinox was glad they were all here, save Failina, who might already be dead. Once he disposed of them, there was nothing else in this world that could stop him. Then everything would be his game to play.

  He let go of his last semblance of control and embraced the rage. The rest of the loose stone on the mountaintop magnetized to his body and transformed into his skin. Valinox grew taller still, and stronger. His siblings were nothing but insects now. He was about to lift his foot to stomp on Nijja when he felt a huge surge of sorcery beneath his feet.

  It pulled him hard against the mountaintop, sticking his feet to its surface. It was extremely strong, too powerful to be real. It felt as if the mountain had come alive and taken hold of him. It pulled him so hard that he felt like his legs were about to shatter.

  The force moved its way up through his knees, nearly pulling them inside out. Then it moved up to his hips. It pulled him into a sitting position against his will.

  He let out a painful cry as his chest was pulled against his legs. Then suddenly, even his voice was gone as his throat and head were pulled down against his knees.

  It grew stronger, still, cracking his stone exterior and even snapping his bones underneath as he squished into himself. He had never felt pain like this before. It was as if the mountain had him in the palm of its hand, squeezing the life out of him.

  His bones broke and his blood burst out through openings in his body.

  There was just a fraction of a second when he could feel nothing.

  And then he was gone.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  I gaped at the mess before me. I had to look at it. I needed to make sure Valinox was nowhere among it.

  When we had killed Gourfist and seen a similar pool of blood and guts, we had found Airinold’s naked body among it all.

  “Where is he?” I asked as I waded through broken stone, bones, blood, and a bunch of other disgusting stuff.

  “He is gone,” said Caarda.

  “No, when we killed Gourfist, Airinold remained.”

  “Not this time. Valinox is gone,” Caarda repeated.

  I stopped my search. Caarda was right. There was no semblance of life left in this pool of guts. I picked myself up and lifted myself out. Is it really over? It was hard to believe, considering I still didn’t know what had happened to Valinox.

  “What was that?” I asked Caarda, figuring he was the one responsible. “What caused him to collapse against the mountaintop like that?”

  “Centuries ago, I initiated a trap of sorcery. I designed it to grow stronger over time but not to activate unless something heavier than any man stood upon it. I foresaw Valinox and his transformation. It is why I chose this spot.”

  “You knew this would come to pass?” I asked.

  “I cannot know for sure what will come to pass, only what might occur. I did see the possibility. I also saw the possibility of him surrendering. That is what I’d hoped for.”

  “What kind of sorcery allows you to make traps?” I asked.

  Caarda’s smile didn’t look right on his face. Perhaps it was because a smile seemed very human, yet his features seemed more foreign than human to me. He had a round nose, a small mouth, and a pair of bright eyes that, besides their color, looked familiar enough to pass as my kin, but there was something about the way all of his features were put together that made it obvious he was not at all like me. It had to do with more than his extraordinary stature. It seemed to be the way his mouth hardly moved, as if he communicated just as much with his eyes.

  “I saw you in many of my visions, young man,” he told me. “What is your name?”

  “Jon Oklar.”

  He nodded. “You were inquisitive in every future. I assume your strength has a lot to do with your desire to learn. My trap of sorcery is with gravity.”

  “You can control it?” I asked in disbelief.

  “I have some control over most things in relation to time.”

  “Then why didn’t you help us earlier?”

  Airinold put his hand on my shoulder. “Jon,” he scolded.

  “I would like to answer that,” Caarda said, and Airinold took his hand off me. “It is difficult to explain, but I could offer no more help. You see, I had to lock myself away from present time for many years because there wasn’t a single vision of the future in which I would be alive otherwise. I grieve too deeply.”

  I remembered then the stories Airinold told about Caarda. Souriff had killed his human wife. I shot a look back at her. She fell to her knees.

  “Caarda, I’m so sorry. Not a day goes by that I don’t regret what I did.”

  “I see time has changed you for the better. I may forgive you eventually, but I am not yet ready. Centuries might’ve passed through your eyes, but it has been less than a year since I lost my wife. I am not capable of anger, but I do see a need for change.”

  I felt a powerful presence behind me and turned to see Failina touching down on the mountaintop. “What happened?” she asked with wide eyes.

  “Valinox is gone, sister,” Caarda said. “It is good to see you again.”

  “And you…” She couldn’t seem to stop surveying the scene. Her gaze finally came to rest on Souriff, who got back on her feet. “You came, and you brought Nijja.”

  “I should’ve come back earlier,” Souriff said, then glanced at me. “I did have time. It didn’t take as long as I made it seem to rid Evesfer of the pox.”

  “You were afraid of Valinox?” I asked.

  “No, of you,” she said.

  “Me?”

  “Yes, of you and your people. I was afraid of how I was to be judged for leaving. I knew I did wrong. I misled myself into thinking I was something more. I ask for your forgiveness, too, Jon, yours and all humans.”

  “I think I can speak for everyone when I say that you are forgiven.” Souriff might not have been there for us every step of the way, but that was no reason to hold a grudge. I was fairly certain that without her help throughout this war, things would’ve turned out very different.

  I realized the same could be said for each demigod here. “On behalf of everyone in Lycast,” I continued, “we owe all of you our thanks.”

  “No, Jon,” Airinold said. “It is you who we should thank.” He glanced at his siblings. “This was a mess we should’ve cleaned up long ago, but Souriff wasn’t the only one who was misled into following the wrong path.”

  I found all of them to be nodding along.

  “Thank you,” Airinold said, lowering his head.

  “Thank you,” said the others. Caarda gave a slight bow as well…and so did Nijja. I was stunned.

  “Of course.” I was at a loss for what else to say, so I left it at that.

  Caarda spoke next. “Our father’s oath was the best thing he ever did for us, even though it was done for nefarious reasons. It’s time to make a new one. I will propose one now. We are not born of God. We are beings like humans, krepps, and elves. We are blessed with strength and a long life that separates us from other beings, but that does not make us demigods. Look at what this human has done with his strength.” He gestured at me. “It is damaging to our relationship with the other beings to believe that we are above them.”

  “Speak for yourself,” Nijja said.

  Caarda frowned at her, but she simply folded her arms in response.

  “Our father lied,” Caarda said. “I believe he came from a family of powerful beings who fought each other and decided to separate, carving out their own kingdoms and ruling over them with their offspring. Now can’t you see that the same has happened to us?”

  Nijja slowly unfolded her arms. “I suppose that’s true.”

  “Now consider the destruction we have caused,” Caarda continued.

  She let out a sigh and gave a slight nod.

  “Does that mean there are others out there like Basael?” I asked Caarda.

  “I have to presume so. That is why I plan to explore. I wish to find these other beings.”

  Airinold asked, “And do what?”

  “I’m not sure yet. Observe, at first.”

  “I can go with you,” Souriff volunteered.

  “No,” Caarda spoke forcefully, and Souriff dropped her gaze. “Let me finish the oath. I want all of you to agree that we are not demigods and that we will no longer attempt to rule over any other group of beings.”

  “I’m not going to agree to that,” Nijja said. “What could you expect us to do with our lives if not lead these mortals?”

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40