“I’m sure. It’s where I can help the most,” Thomas said.
“Be safe,” she said.
“Make sure she doesn’t get carried off by any demons,” Thomas said to Bo.
Bo raised an eyebrow in surprise.
“You know I can take care of myself,” Kirsten said. She brought her brother in for a hug and whispered, “I love you, Thomas.”
“Love you, too, sis,” Thomas replied and backed away from them, making his way to the medical tent.
Kirsten and Bo filed in with the soldiers as they grouped into formations on the field. Before they finished lining up, Nadir, Remli and Britt rang above the others. They shouted the orders for their reinforcements to charge. The men, elves and dwarfs ran in a widespread mob east toward the enemy. Kirsten stayed at Bo’s side, moving fluidly with the crowd. The tides of orc and kurr slammed into the humans and dwarfs and the battle launched into full swing.
Chapter 98
Desperation
“You killed my boy!” Tony bellowed as he rushed Max on the battlefield.
Max fought among the allied ranks against Merglan’s army late into the night. Hearing Tony’s threat before he attacked gave Max enough time to pull his hand with the sapphire off the hilt of his sword. Blocking him just in time, Max deflected Tony’s sudden attack. Max exchanged two more blows in self-defense before leaping away from him and shouting, “Stop!”
“You tricked him into using magic and it killed him!” Tony spat in a blind rage.
“Evans made his own choices,” Max managed to get in before Tony struck again. He backed away from his foster father, bumping into a hard body. Glancing, Max saw the mottled skin of an orc. He narrowly ducked the orc’s swinging blade. As it followed through, whiffing over his head, Max slid the tip of his sword into the thing’s gut and rose to meet it face-to-tusks. Before the orc had fallen dead at his feet, Max was already swiveling back toward Tony. He found him exchanging blows with an orc. Hoping he would be too distracted to come at him, Max turned his attention on the moshing crowd that had once been the shield wall front. He scanned quickly for Britt, but still couldn’t find her.
“Max! Don’t you walk away from me, boy!” Tony cried.
Max looked to see Tony lopping the head off of an orc as he charged through the gap in the fighting directly toward Max. Defending himself as best he could, Max tried to apply the defensive maneuvers he’d learned from the Rollo Islanders. It became clear, however, that Tony was superior with a broadsword.
“Tony! I don’t want this!” Max shouted as he desperately managed to block several deadly swings.
“You are a demon in human disguise,” Tony growled through clenched teeth.
Max’s arms were growing numb, already heavy from the fighting. Without the aid of the crystal’s power, he was quickly feeling the effects this warring had on his body. Seeing the hate burning in Tony’s eyes, Max knew he had to stop him or Tony would kill him.
“Enough!” he shouted at Tony as he sent out a small pulse of energy that pushed Tony back onto his rear.
Tony stared up in surprise for a moment, then started to scramble to his feet, broadsword in hand.
Max spoke quickly while he had the chance, “I didn’t kill anyone in your family. You hate me because I came from a different place than you, because my parents worked in that castle. You rejected me before you ever gave me a chance. Well, you finally get what you want because guess what, Tony, I hate you, too!”
Max put the crystal in his hand against the hilt of his sword. The next swing at Tony would be the last. His blade would cut through Tony’s and pass easily through his body, ending their rivalry once and for all. This was what Britt warned him would happen, they had to face each other and only one of them would walk away.
Before Tony could come at him again, orcs attacked them. Max cut through an orc’s blade, the momentum of his swing passing clean through its body, just like he would’ve done to Tony. Max cut down two more to see Tony pulling the tip of his sword back out of an orc’s chest.
When Max faced Tony again, he stood squared off with the man and held the magically fueled sword with both hands. Tony stabbed at Max. Max swiped his sword across Tony’s cutting it in half and then side-stepped the man, letting him stumble past. Tony spun swinging his blade, not yet realizing it had been cut in half. He fell short of his mark by several feet.
Tony looked at his broken sword in surprise.
Max said, “I have the power to end your sad, miserable life. With this power, I will return the hate that you have directed at me every day of my life.”
Max then pulled the sword back to kill Tony. As he did, he saw the look in Tony’s eyes had changed from unbridled rage to fear. In that moment, Max felt as though he was seeing directly into Tony’s soul. He hesitated with the follow-through thinking, I can’t do it.
Before Tony reacted, Max’s eyes darted to a figure appearing behind Tony. It was his brother, Bo.
“Stop!” Bo shouted, lunging between them and holding them both at arm’s length. “Max, you don’t want to do this.”
Max shook his head and took the crystal off his sword, “No, I don’t. I can’t.”
An orc pushed through a soldier behind them and Max quickly reacted, turning his back to Tony and Bo.
“Let it go, Tony,” Bo said.
When Max cut down the orc and looked back, he saw Tony still held the half blade and glared at Max.
“He hasn’t done anything wrong. He just wants to protect us,” Bo said.
Tony didn’t retaliate, he stood, seemingly in thought.
Bo stepped away from him and joined Max in pushing through the mosh of fighting and away from Tony. While Bo followed Max, finishing off orcs and enemy humans as they moved, Max spotted Kirsten facing down a group of kurr. When Bo saw her, he shouted, trying to push through the orcs to reach her. Max joined him, cutting a swath through the enemy. With the help of his crystal, they reached Kirsten in time to help her.
“I could’ve taken them on my own,” Kirsten said, finishing off the last of the kurr surrounding them.
“We know,” Bo said, sounding relieved to be near her.
I need to find Britt, Max thought. Just as he turned to look back, he saw Tony. The man stumbled over the last of the dead orcs that he and Bo had left in their wake. He had rage and murder in his eyes. Max didn’t have time to react in self-defense. He moved his arm to block the stabbing thrust of the half-blade, but he was too slow. Max braced for an impact that never came. As the steel moved to finish him, a flash of armor passed in front of his eyes and took his place. “No!” Max screamed, dropping his sword and crystal and reaching to grab his brother.
He fell to his knees where Bo had fallen. Grabbing him by the shoulders and leaning him back into his body, Max saw Tony’s sword sticking out just below Bo’s rib cage. Blood poured from the slit in his armor where the blade had entered. Max looked up at Tony in a panic. The man stood in shock, looking down at them. Max’s ears were filled with Kirsten’s screams and knew she had just realized what had happened.
