“We need your help,” Mind said. “I come from a world called Lumineia.”
A flicker of recognition registered in the eyes of the human woman. “There are whispers of a world kept secret from the Empire, a place of free humans. But we know that such rumors are Empire lies.”
The human man nodded. “They seek to draw you into a trap.”
Belrisa sniffed and shook her head. “A pitiful attempt.”
“Lumineia exists,” Mind said. “And it is unique for what it possesses.”
“Free humans?” one of the dakorians scoffed. “No such world exists.”
“Free humans,” Ero said. “And magic.”
“Magic?” Belrisa scoffed.
“A power only possessed by the race of man,” Ero said. “A power the Empire would fear.”
“Another myth,” the human jerked her head. “Tales for children so they do not see their plight as slaves. Mankind does not have any power.”
Mind reached his hand out and gathered the threads of gravity magic to lift the woman off the ground. She called out in surprise as her feet lifted free and the man grasped her arm. Mind relinquished his magic and her feet returned to the floor.
“A clever trick,” Belrisa said, but her smile was gone. “But gravity spheres can grant the same ability.”
“We speak the truth,” Ero insisted. “And we seek your aid.”
“A krey, a human, and a dakorian Bloodwall,” she shook her head in disbelief. “Every year the Empire gets more clever in their attempts to assassinate me.”
“Belrisa,” Tardoq said. “We are not with the Empire. Ero may be krey, but he protects Lumineia from discovery, and Mind is one of the most powerful mages on Lumineia. I’ve spent the last several months there, and learned the value of a free people.”
“You expect me to believe you are a friend to humans?” she scoffed. “A dakorian Bloodwall?”
“As hard as it is to believe,” he said, “it’s true.”
She raised her hammer and pointed it to him. “Prove it.”
Tardoq took a step forward and raised his sword, taking a combat stance. Mind noticed he placed his thumb on the highest rune, activating the magic embedded in the blade. Light flowed up the sword, making it heavier than normal. Belrisa noticed the enchantment and smiled as she started forward.
Chapter 24: The Bonebreaker
Mind retreated as the Belrisa charged Tardoq and the two dakorians locked into a duel. He’d battled dragons and reavers, great warriors and renowned kings, but the duel between the two Bloodwalls surpassed them all.
The Bonebreaker swung her hammer in a swing that would crush Tardoq’s chest. Tardoq sidestepped, narrowly missing the blast of power that erupted from the head of the hammer. Tardoq swerved around her flank but she spun and twirled her hammer, swiping for Tardoq’s legs.
Tardoq leapt into a rolling flip and retreated up the stairs to the second floor. Belrisa pressed the assault, driving him back, her hammer crashing through the railing and sending glass and metal cascading onto the floor. Tardoq swung his sword at her shoulder but she blocked, and then struck him with her free hand, sending his giant form tumbling into Ero’s quarters.
She lunged out of view, her hammer shattering the wall and knocking Tardoq through the next wall into Mind’s quarters. Tardoq bounced off the bed and caught the edge, heaving it into the woman’s path. She blasted it with her hammer, the energy tearing a hole through the mattress and sending it bouncing off the far wall. But Tardoq leapt and caught a fixture on the ceiling, an ornate swirl that allowed him to grasp the edge. Swinging his legs over the tumbling mattress, he struck back, his now weighted sword coming down across her arm, drawing first blood.
“Perhaps a sword has merit,” she said, and lunged, driving the hammer at his back.
Tardoq rolled forward, the hammer passing above his body. The motion carried him through the open door to the receiving room, the spikes on his armor bones catching the glass and shattering the door. He came to his feet on the balcony overlooking the room and leapt into a flip that carried him back to the floor by a couch. She skidded to a halt on the balcony and fired her lance, the power deflecting off his sword to burn a hole through the wall into the Bonebreaker’s quarters. Tardoq sprinted to the side, using his sword to deflect each subsequent lance, the deflections burning into cloth and glass, wall and stone.
“This room was expensive before the damage,” Ero said with a sigh.
“You’re worried about the cost of the room?” Mind scoffed. “She’s going to kill him.”
Ero swept a hand to the four dakorians and the two humans, all of whom had weapons pointed at them. The dakorians also carried lance hammers, while the two humans carried smaller weapons that fit in their hands, the end of which glowed with red light.
“Are you ready?” Ero asked.
“Of course,” Mind replied.
He started forward, and the group of dakorians raised their weapons. The one with a bone missing on his shoulder shook his head. “She will decide your fate.”
Mind realized the group had no idea about magic, just like the dakorians that had come with Tardoq through the Gate. All their training, all their vaunted skills, had not prepared them to find mages. Ero realized it as well because he reached to the two hilts hidden in the folds of his cloak and snapped them outward, the aquaglass enchantments flowing into two swords. The humans stared at the weapons in astonishment, while the dakorians scowled.
Mind took advantage of their confusion and reached for his magic. The gravity in the room extended through all of the combatants, but he reached for the gravity touching their weapons—and yanked the weapons to the ground.
The dakorians cried out as their hammers suddenly became four times heavier, the weapons thudding into the floor. One tried to pick his up, straining on the handle, while a second abandoned the weapon and charged. The remaining two joined the second, and Mind faced three furious dakorians.
They were too heavy to lift without the fragment of Power, so Mind reached for the objects in the room, the broken glass and metal. Raising them off the floor, he turned them into a whirlwind of sharp objects, the lethal wall rising up and carving back and forth. The lead dakorian tried to charge through the barrier, raising his hands against the glass and steel. They sliced him across his body, leaving him bloodied when he came out the opposite side. Mind leapt to his shoulders and jumped, flipping over the sharp wall and swinging the deadly whirlwind at the two dakorians, both of which darted to his two flanks.
Ero had engaged the two humans, and had destroyed their strange weapons, both of which sputtered on the floor, sliced in pieces by Ero’s aquaglass swords. They’d fired several times, burning holes into the walls. Mind turned the shards of glass and steel into long spears which hovered at the dakorians throats. They shifted and attempted to evade, but the six foot weapons drove them backward. One by one they were pinned against the wall.
The last swung his arm, attempting to bat the hovering weapon aside. It shattered, the shards turning into a dozen smaller weapons that leapt forward, pressing against the dakorian’s throat. His eyes widened in shock and confusion and he leaned away from the shards hovering a hairsbreadth from his vulnerable neck.
