Titans nest, p.43
Titan's Nest, page 43
Give me King, a dark voice roared clearly in my mind. I couldn’t help but grin.
You sure. Now.
“We challenge Thunderforge and King,” I stepped forward after interrupting Ravyn, who now scowled fiercely. The Vault fell silent.
“Sparks, Maxy,” Sampson said nervously. “What’d you have for breakfast today?”
“So eager to die?” Ajax scoffed.
“Scared, Thunderforge?”
The room shook as he stepped forward onto the platform. Ravyn and Yul both moved backwards and joined their fellow Bitten Knights. Once we were both in position, the crystal floor beneath us rumbled and lifted us a few feet higher than the rest of the class. My fellow Wards and our instructors took a few steps back.
We now stared down Ajax Thunderforge and King thirty strides across from us. The bronze dragon roared mightily from Ajax’s neck. Tenebros said nothing, but I could feel his claws tightening around my shoulder.“Remember, you are only trying to push each other off the ledge,” Yul reminded us, obviously aware of the hostility flaring between us.
Sweat began to pool in my palms and my heart began pounding savagely in my chest, but I wasn’t the frightened boy from Hunt's Burrow anymore. That boy was dead in the bottom of the Shattered Gulf.
No, I was Maximus Duskfell, Bitten Ward. And it was time for the world to meet him. “Begin,” Ravyn declared.
My ears popped as Ajax clapped his hands together in front of him, his eyes flashed like lightning in a dark cloud. I rolled left and Tenebros sprung to the right towards the ceiling.
A wave of thunder rippled between us. The attack boomed violently in my head and an unbearable heat rushed over my body.
I spun back to the middle.
Tenebros dove straight above me and flared his wings outward. And for the first time... I truly felt his Fury.
My bite mark stung on my shoulder.
My hair rose. My spine shook with energy. My heart exploded with each thump.
Ajax lunged forward, driving his fist down the middle of the platform. Another thunderous attack rolled towards us.
I drew my hand back, it shook with a savage power, then I thrusted my fist forward just as Ajax had.
Everything Tenebros had been keeping from me all this time erupted within my veins, then out towards my opponent.
All sound vanished from the vault as if time froze. Our Furys collided at the center.
Whatever I had released split straight through his thunderbolt like an axe through a log. Golden lighting danced on either side of Tenebros and I, but none of it so much as singed the edges of my Scale. Ajax was launched from the lip of the ledge like he had been flung from a catapult. He and King skipped across the crystal floor the way a flat stone flicks across the sur- face of a still lake. Wisps of smoke rolled from his Scale and the power left his eyes.
I stood frozen at the center of the stage, my fist out in front of me shaking with power, Tenebros glided around me like a black halo.
Sound snapped back in and I could hear my own heavy breathing, but no one else dare flinch.
Yul hurried to Ajax’s side, but when he tried to pull him to his feet, the Ward screamed, “I don’t need your help!” He and King stumbled to their feet like so many of the drunken fools I had seen at the Bat Belly. A sizzling and smoking rip had been torn across Ajax’s chest, exposing his skin.
I finally lowered my arm as Tenebros landed on my shoulder.
I looked to the dragon resting on my Scale and I didn’t recognize him. His eyes were glimmering like golden stars. Painted across his neck, sides, and tail were jagged stripes of what appeared to be melted, molten gold, shining against his matte black scales. A golden plate now covered his head like a custom forged helm with sharp slits for his fierce eyes. He spread his wings and the obsidian membrane looked like a twinkling night sky between his sharp, finger- like bones.
I stared at him for a moment and took in his stunning appearance.
After a long spell of silence, Ravyn spoke up and declared, “That will be all for today.” She took long strides towards the exit. “We need to speak with the Lord Commander, all of you stay here until I send for you.” Yul nodded in agreement and followed her out the exit; Indigo shot me a look of either excitement or terror. Soon Flint and Aragor followed them out of the Vault as well and it slammed with a mighty thud.
That can’t be good, I thought to Tenebros. He tilted his armored head. Every Ward, and their dragon stared at us, their lips parted.
The ledge lowered itself so it once again became flush with the floor. Everyone except Ajax approached us wearily.
“What do you think that was about?” I asked nervously pointing towards the exit. “You’re joking, right?” Kaia laughed, a confused but chipper look on her face. “How did you do that?” Acheel asked leaning close.
“I didn’t really do anything, I guess. Tenebros did most of it.”
“You didn’t see it, did you?” Nyphea asked inquisitively.
“See what?”
“What your Fury was.”
“No… I couldn’t tell. I could just feel it. I kinda closed my eyes,” their concerned glares made my stomach sink. “Oh no… what was it?”
“Black lightning,” Sampson said, pulling his hands through his crimson hair in shock. “Black, colorless, yet vivid, lightning,” Acheel added.
“It tore straight through Ajax’s attack, like a hot blade through butter,” Sampson gawked, still clinging to his hair.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Nyphea agreed.
“How long have you been playing us, Duskfell?” Ajax pushed through the other Wards and poked a heavy finger at my chest. His normally uniform hair had fallen in his face and his eyes were red with rage. Tenebros and King snarled snout to snout.
“Playing you?” I snarked. “You think I’ve enjoyed being tossed around by all of you since the day I arrived?”
“You’ve—” the moan of the Vault door interrupted his thought.
We all hurried near the entrance, fascinated to see what Ravyn would say.
To our surprise, a girl named Mary, one of Doppler’s assistants, stepped through the obsidian doorway. A Rimerun native, her black hair was pulled back tight and she stood high on her toes. She seemed uneasy and didn’t look any of us in the eyes as she spoke.
“Lord Duskfell,” she squeaked, my chest felt tight. “You are needed back in the Bitten Ward’s common room.”
That’s odd. Everyone looked at me.
“Lord Shadecrest ordered that I stay here until she sends for me.”
Mary’s lips pulled together tightly and she bounced on her toes again, keeping her arms tight to her sides. “I understand. But your mother is here and she’s quite upset. I think it best-”
“My mother?” I barked in confusion, already darting towards the exit.
I sprung from the Vault and ran as fast as I could drive myself forward.
I knew this day would come, but I didn’t think I’d have to explain to her so soon, Tenebros drifted from my shoulder and flew beside me as I hurried down the hallway towards the stairs. What will she say? What will she do?
Tenebros passed a warm feeling across my back, I think in an attempt to comfort me, his now sparkling eye looking down at me. I suddenly felt the knot in my chest loosen, I nodded to him as I ran.
I slid into the stairwell. We only had to go down two stories to reach the Ward’s common room but every step felt like an eternity as I scrambled down the tower. I wanted to see her so terribly, I had missed her dearly. The only reason I hadn’t written to her was because I knew I would have to do it as Maximus. I couldn’t lie to her anymore. So, after the first message I sent to her, telling her about the shipwreck and that Darren had perished, I never wrote her again.
She’ll be so angry…
I burst into the fifth floor ready to dive into the common room and face her, but someone else stood there talking with her. The conversation we were about to have could not happen in front of anyone else. I forced myself to stop and slide across the floor just before the entrance.
Tenebros fell down onto my shoulder. I tried to control my breath so I could hone in on their words.
Mother was crying, sniffling between each word. “I already told you; someone sent me an anonymous letter saying that their ship had been destroyed.” Aye, me. “The letter said that Maximus’ younger brother was killed in the wreck.”
“I’m sorry but we have no account of a younger brother in Maximus’ paperwork,” a young, unfamiliar voice, said uneasily. I could hear him flipping through pages of parchment.“You’ll have to forgive me, Master Doppler usually handles such matters, but he seems to be away from the Nest today.”
Doppler never leaves the Nest…
“Yes, I know, he wouldn’t be registered,” Mother said hesitantly. “Darren, my youngest, is Maximus’ half-brother.” I fell against the wall. “My husband refused to register him under our name.”
Half-brother… all the times father said ‘he’s not one of us’... I’m not a Duskfell… a bastard...
I could feel Tenebros eyeing me tensely, unsure of what I might do. I needed answers, I needed them now. I marched around the corner.
Mother had been dressed in her travel garb, simple and dark. Her black hair had a new silver streak across her bangs that wasn’t there when I left. She looked tired, almost ill. Beside her stood Captain Ollak.
He’s alive…
“Ah, Lord Duskfell,” the young servant said thankfully as I appeared.
“Max—” Mother stopped herself. She squinted her eyes, then blinked them twice as if they deceived her.
“Lord Duskfell, thank goodness you're alright—” Ollak stepped back, his face nearly as bewildered as Mother’s, his mustache sprung up.
I never broke my stride the moment I entered the common room, I turned them both around, placed my hands on their backs and forced them towards my door.
“You’re excused,” I said to the servant boy with an unconvincing smile as I shoved them into my room before they could protest.
I slammed the door behind me and pressed up against it with my back as if someone might try and barge in. Mother and Ollak both stared at me with empty, desperate eyes.
“Spad’o? Is that you? Darren?” Mother finally said, her hands falling in front of her.
Darren, I hadn’t heard anyone else besides Gerard say that name in a long time, it felt foreign. I dove forward, Tenebros dropped to my bed, and I wrapped Mother in my arms. For a long moment she just hung limply in my hold, then with all her might she squeezed me tight.
“I thought you were dead,” her voice broke and she began to weep.
“No, mum. I’m alright,” I assured her, still holding her tight. I then pulled off of her, I rested my hands on her shoulders, she never seemed so tiny and fragile to me before. “But… but Maximus died in the storm.” Her face shattered my heart and I thought we might both collapse to the floor. I pulled her close again.
“My Maximus,” she moaned and she buried her face in my chest. Ollak put a gentle hand on her shoulder. “How… how did this happen?” Mother gently pushed herself from my hold and gestured at me with tears in her eyes.
“Tenebros and I washed up on the shore together,” I said wiping away a few tears from my own cheeks. “I tried to bring him here, to Titan’s Nest, so they could care for him. But we were attacked on the road. Tenebros bit me to save us… I thought to honor Maximus, and support you, I should take his place.”
Mother stared at me for a long while, trying to make sense of all that had happened.
Eventually, as Ollak and I helped her sit on the bed, she asked, “Is… is this Tenebros?”
Tenebros sat proudly beside her and flicked his black tongue twice. “Aye.”
“He looks so different.”
“You both do,” Ollak finally spoke up, his gaze fixed on me. Mother nodded in agreement. “It was you, wasn’t it?” the soldier asked. “That night in the wreckage, I thought it was Maximus, but it was you who pulled me free.”
“I’m glad to see you alive, Captain.”
“You as well, lad.”
Mother fanned herself with her hand and tried to fight back more tears. I knelt in front of her and took her hands in my own.
“Mum… I overheard you talking in the common room.” Her mouth clamped shut and her eyes grew large. “You said I was Maximus’ half-brother?” Mother’s head fell and she stared at her lap.
“I’m sorry, Spad’o,” she sniffled. “I should have told you a long time ago,” she trailed off as if she couldn’t continue.
“Mum, I need to know.”
She nodded stiffly, and after a few shaky breaths she began; “Your father had blackened my eye something fierce, one of the worst. Then he went out with some friends to play some Hornet’s Cup in the city. He left me to work the Bat Belly alone that night… A soldier came into the tavern alone,” Mother’s voice shook and she struggled to go on. I rubbed my thumbs across the back of her hands. “He was kind to me. He listened to me. He laughed with me… I was in a dark place with your father, and,” she pulled her hands from me and buried her eyes in her palms.
“It’s okay, mum,” I said as gently as I could. “I have to know. Who was he?”
She ran a hand through my hair and stared into my eyes. “He had your wavy hair. He had your bright, beautiful, star-like eyes,” she kissed me on the brow. “It wasn’t until,” she struggled to regain her breath. “It wasn’t until the light of the morning that I noticed the bite mark on his forearm.”
“Bite mark?” I fell back from her onto the rug beneath me, Tenebros and I exchanged a puzzled glance.
Then I heard it in my head as clear as the moment Maximus declared it on the skull of the Verdour so many years ago; “Did you forget why we came, little brother?... It’s been twelve years since he came to do battle in the skies of Eclipto… I give you... Kage Thunderforge, Lord Commander of the Bitten Knights!”
Twelve years since Commander Thunderforge came to Eclipto… I was twelve that year…
I covered my mouth. I’m a Thunderforge.
Four swift knocks pounded against the wooden door, startling all of us in the silence. “Lord Duskfell?” Mary’s voice arose again.
“Not now,” I said stiffly.
“The Lord Commander is requesting an audience.” My heart fell, of course he is.
“Fine, fine. One minute,” I cleared my throat and tried to hide my terror.
“It seems urgent—”
“One minute!” I barked, my voice cracking as I rose to my feet. “I’m half Voltarian and half Eclipton,” I said in awe as I looked at the black dragon coated in golden markings before me.
I could always smell the lightning in your blood, Tenebros said fiercely.
“Spad’o,” I parted my lips thinking about how I had been the only child in all of Eclipto to have honey-colored eyes.
Mary knocked on the door again. “Lord Duskfell, it’s best to not keep the Lord Commander waiting.”
“Coming,” I snarled. “Listen,” I said to Mother and Ollak, “I have to go for a little. Please, please don’t tell anyone about any of this. I am Maximus Duskfell.”
Darren Thunderforge, Tenebros and I thought the name at the same time, it made me shutter.
Mother nodded, still brushing away a few stray tears.
“I owe you my life, Darren,” Ollak nodded. “I will defend your secret with that life.”
“Thank you,” I sighed. “Stay here, I should be back soon.” I kissed Mother on the head one last time then opened the door as Tenebros leapt onto my arm and pulled himself up to my shoulder.
Mary’s face looked taut with tension and she gave me an anxious scowl as I stepped back into the common room. “Where would the Lord Commander like to meet me?”
“Tenth Floor, the Bitten Hall.”
The Bitten Hall. Wards aren’t permitted there until they're apprentices, I thought. Don’t imagine you could fly us up there.
Don’t know how, Tenebros shook his head as we left the common room. “Stairs it is.”
43
DARREN DUSKFELL
I attempted to force everything I had just learned deep into the back of my mind. I could think about my lineage later, right now I simply needed to be Maximus Duskfell. I blocked out my thoughts by counting the steps as I conquered them, the only noise in my head became my heavy breaths and the echoing of my own footsteps. I reached the tenth floor. Four members of the Silver Guard stood at attention with large, single sided axes. Two of them opened the arched doors for me.
A stone slab carved perfectly into a hexagon sat at the center of the room, a chair with a different nation’s crest for each Knight sat around it. Towering windows that overlooked Daza- wrath flooded the space with warm light and the symbol of the Bitten Knights hung on a silver banner down the middle of the dramatically large room.
Five Bitten Knights stood near the table. Their chatter vanished once I stepped into the room. They stepped aside, revealing a man dressed in a golden Scale sitting at the head of the table.
The Commander was not what I had envisioned in my mind. In my thoughts I saw a high born, well-groomed political leader with immense wealth, poise and prestige. The man that sat proudly in the throne before me did not carry those qualities in his features. The Commander resembled a gritty barbarian. He wore all the splendors of a mighty king that he himself had conquered in a gruesome pillage. His beard hung in a thick square around his cliff-like chin. Wavy hair, like mine, covered his skull in blond streaks and beads decorated loose strands that dangled beside his face. Golden eyes, like mine, sat beneath a bull-like forehead that could split stone in two. The Commander’s shoulders were larger and stronger than even Gerard’s and his arms were knotted with veiny muscles.
