Dawn of Chaos, page 13
Caldor grabbed him by the shirt. He thrust his face directly into Orion’s.
“You don’t get a vote,” he said flatly. “I’m the ranking officer here, and we do this as I say. Clear?”
Orion’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not under your command,” he told him carefully.
“You are now,” Caldor replied menacingly. “I’m an officer of the guard, and I have conscription authority. I’m using it.”
“Oh, for Light’s sake, Kieran!” Diana yelled. “We don’t have time for a bull-rutting contest!”
The lieutenant ignored her. “You’re going to stick with us and help protect the students,” he continued, still looking at Orion. “Now, where’s the best defended position in the academy? Where will the rest of the staff go?”
Orion took a deep breath, trying to hold down his anger. He pointed to a tall building that looked like a fortress.
“The Deans’ Library,” he said at last. “There’s an exit into the courtyard at the far end of the garden. From there, you can’t miss it.”
Caldor nodded to the two guards. “Orion and I will lead the way. Trevane, Jenkins, bring up the rear. The rest of you, double time it!”
Diana stepped up to him. She slapped him, hard, across the face.
“You idiot!” she screamed. “You’re going to get us all killed!”
Before he could react, she turned and bolted across the lawn. She was halfway to the wall before Caldor had even raised his hand to his cheek in shock, and scaling it before he started to move after her in pursuit.
“You’ll never catch her,” Orion said.
The lieutenant stopped. Diana was using the vine like a rope, grasping it with both hands and walking up the wall with her knees bent.
“Not in that armor, anyway,” Orion added. “She’s too fast for you, and you know it.”
Caldor looked at him acidly.
“Then you get her,” he ordered. “Bring her to the Deans’ Library. Knock her out and carry her if you have to, but bring her back.” He looked menacingly again into Orion’s eyes. “If you don’t, I will see you in the dungeons when this is over. Do you understand me?”
Orion took another deep breath. He nodded.
“I understand you perfectly, Lieutenant Caldor,” he said tightly.
He turned and ran toward the wall. Dame Marjeune at his side, Caldor led the rest of the group toward the exit from the garden.
Diana was already on top of the wall by the time Orion started his ascent. She was racing along it to the east, looking for a place to climb down. He scaled it quickly and was soon running after her.
She heard him and turned. She stopped, waiting for him to catch up.
“Quick — what’s the best way down to the street?” she asked.
“Caldor ordered me to bring you back,” he said quietly. “I’m risking prison if I don’t.”
Diana glanced down into the garden to see the others running through the exit and into the courtyard. Then she turned back to Orion. Her green eyes met his brown ones and held them for a long moment.
“You know we’re right,” she said at last.
She looked down into the city and pointed. “They’re heading straight for us. If we don’t go right now, we’ll be cut off. If we go back, we’ll be killed. And that’s if we’re lucky and aren’t captured. You know as well as I do that no one’s going to get here in time to save us.”
He followed her gaze. He saw the line of Hellmen coming up the road. There was no mistaking the figure of Lord Zomoran now, walking at the head of the column. One of the fire elves marched close at his side.
“What is it that Hellmen do to prisoners, Instructor Deneri?” she asked. “I’ve heard stories, but a scholar and a journeyman adventurer must know them in gruesome detail. Do you want that to happen to us?”
Orion sighed. He shook his head and pointed in the direction she had been running.
“Keep going. There’s a tree near the wall up ahead. We can jump to its branches and climb down from there.”
Diana smiled. “Then let’s go.”
A minute later, they were sprinting across a road that led further into the Upper City. There were estates on either side of them, surrounded by low hedges. They hopped over one and cut across the lawn. After a short time, they emerged on a street that led east, parallel to the firth.
As they did, the first lines of the Hellman force ran up the road from the Lower City. With ruthless efficiency, they surrounded the Grand Academy.
Chapter 4 - The Hunt Begins
The Hunter
The ground shuddered with the heavy thud of Gorath’s feet as it lumbered up the palace road. Behind it, a second wave of demons rushed forward to block escape from the High City.
An agonized roar keened through the air above. It looked up to see the enormous form of Incanus Thad flying toward the hellgate, its great wings beating frantically away from the palace.
Gorath threw back its head and laughed. As with most of the larger and more powerful demons, its voice was loud, and it reverberated menacingly. It had a grating edge that made it difficult to listen to, like the sound of nails being raked across a chalkboard.
“So, the royals aren’t so soft after all,” it said aloud. “And once again you overestimate yourself, Captain of the Horde. I don’t know what Lord Borr sees in you. Without that axe of yours, you’re just a second-rate Deman with pretty feathers.”
It turned toward the palace, and what it saw made its eyes narrow dangerously. The remnants of the winged strike force were being driven back by a disciplined line of soldiers with gleaming pikes. A fusillade of arrows rained down on them from the upper walls. Alchemical bombs and bursts of magic launched from the tower above exploded in their midst. Many of the monsters were already leaping from the lower walls to escape. The attack was quickly turning into a rout.
“So much for the ‘decapitation strike,’” it growled angrily. “Thad’s fleeing and we’re losing the bailey. It won’t be long before the rest come limping out as well.”
It was quickly proven right. Demons appeared around the corner from the north side of the castle, where the walls and ceiling of the conference room had been breached. Some were so badly wounded that they could barely fly. The rest of the attackers took to the air as well. They fled the palace, wings beating away from it to the east.
Gorath raised a scaly hand. A burst of flame erupted from it and flew into the sky. Some of the demons immediately banked toward it. Before long, many of them had landed nearby, regrouping around it.
One of the larger creatures stepped toward it with a salute. Gorath did not return it.
“Report, Barzoun,” Gorath ordered.
Barzoun bowed, eyes lowered. “The strike force has been repelled, Captain Gorath,” it said.
Gorath grabbed the demon’s head and slammed it into the ground. It grunted in surprise and pain as its face struck, hard, against the paved stone of the roadway.
“Do not tell me what I can plainly see for myself, worm-brain,” it growled. “Tell me what I do not know. And tell it quickly, lest I become even more displeased with you for wasting my time. What resistance did you encounter, that forced you to withdraw, instead of readying the palace for my forces to secure?”
Barzoun was among the demons that had assaulted the conference room. Face held in the stone and dirt of the palace road, it explained what had happened, up to the arrival of the rescuers. It told the story with remarkable speed and conciseness.
Gorath released the monster’s head when it had finished, and it rose unsteadily to its feet. By then, more of the creatures had landed around them. Others had run up along the road from behind.
“Barrier formation,” Gorath ordered. “Form a line across the valley here. Nothing gets out of the High City.”
“Should we send fliers to surround the palace on all sides?” one of the winged demons asked.
“No. The cliffs and the mountain will keep them in.”
“What about the pegasi?” the demon countered.
Gorath turned to glare at it. “Explain,” it demanded impatiently.
“We slew a pegasus in the air above the palace,” it said in a suddenly shaky voice. “We thought it might have arrived to carry off some of the royals.”
Gorath smiled with interest. “You saw only one, then?” it queried. “And it wasn’t mounted?”
“No. It came in over the ridge to the south and slew one of our scouts.”
“And then flew right to the palace?” Gorath demanded. Its grating voice was incredulous. “While it was being attacked by your force?”
“Yes,” the creature replied.
“Bring me one of the wyverns to serve as steed,” Gorath ordered. “You will show me where it attacked this scout.”
It turned to one of the others as the demon flew off.
“Nagoth, you will remain here,” it commanded. “Carry out my orders while I investigate this incident.”
Nagoth grinned. “Just the blockade?” it asked.
“Just the blockade,” Gorath confirmed. “Any attempt to escape by flight has already been accounted for in Lord Borr’s plan.”
Chaos in the Streets
Orion and Diana ran along the road to the east. This part of the city was dominated by homes, mainly for the capital’s more affluent citizens. High hedges blocked their view of an estate as they sprinted past it on their right.
The panic in the marketplace had reached the Upper City. Terrified shrieks and wails rose around them. To their left they could see people looking out of windows, or standing on porches and lawns, staring into the air and pointing in horror.
Winged shapes circled above, laughing and mocking them with fell war-cries. Occasionally an arrow or a ball of fire would arc down, striking an unwary soul or igniting a conflagration. Flames were spreading as the people ran for cover, afraid to come out into the open to fight them.
For the moment, though, the demons were making no concerted attack on the city. Aside from the force moving on the academy, they seemed content simply to spread fear and panic.
A bow twanged to their right, and an arrow shot up from behind the hedge. It flew true, striking a demon as it passed overhead. There was a harsh cry as one of the creature’s wings twisted awkwardly, and it fell toward the ground.
A cheer went up all around them, but the celebration was short-lived. The demon spread its injured pinion, arrested its descent, and yanked out the arrow with a clawed hand. Black ichor dripped from the air as another demon circling nearby turned to join it, and the pair banked toward the source of the shot.
Twin balls of fire rocketed down and exploded with a deafening roar behind the hedge as Orion and Diana ran past it. The verdure absorbed the brunt of the blast, but the concussion still staggered them. Shrieks of death rose from behind it as demon-fire rained again and again on the grounds within.
“They’re sending a message,” Orion gasped. “Resist, and die.”
Diana huffed agreement. “We can’t keep running in the open like this. We need to find cover!”
“Not here,” he said. “We’re still too close to those troops coming for the academy. We need to get further away.”
She spared a glance to their right. The burning hedge ended as their road curved toward the edge of the terrace. They were running past the lawn of a small park now, and the Lower City was once again in full view.
She pointed. “Trouble,” she panted.
Orion looked. Small groups of Hellmen were running east along the streets on the terrace below them.
“They’re making for the road from the docks,” he huffed. “If we don’t get there first, they’ll cut us off!”
“It’s all or nothing, then!” Diana cried. “Run for it!”
They sprinted down the road along the ledge of the terrace. The ground to their right fell away in a forty-foot drop, and they could plainly see the chaos in the Lower City below. Screaming people were running, most of them away from the amphitheater along the line of the firth. Smoke and fires dotted the marketplace and the docks. The sky was thick with winged demons.
The next few minutes faded into a haze of pain and terror. Orion once again found himself grateful for his time at the Silver Star. He would never have been able to run as fast or as far before his adventurer’s training, with its strict regimen of physical conditioning. Yet Diana was still outstripping his pace. She held her skirt hiked up above her knees, her athletic legs pumping as she ran. She pulled ahead of him despite his efforts to keep up.
A fork appeared in the road before them. One way ascended steeply to their left, rising to the next level of the Upper City. The other descended in a switchback that wound down over the lip of the terrace to their right.
Diana came to a stop and turned, heaving huge gulps of air. She tried to speak as Orion caught up with her, but barely got out the words.
“Wha — wha — way?” she whuffed.
He raised his hand to point to the right. He didn’t even try to speak.
Diana nodded. Her green eyes were wide with a look of desperate trust. She fell in at his side as he turned onto the fork.
The intersection was halfway up the terraces on the north side of the city. The road dropped away in a series of winding coils that traveled all the way down to the docks and the firth. The first level of the Upper City cut across it below them. Flights of stairs ran down the center of the switchback.
Diana pointed as they reached them. On the level below, a group of Hellmen was jogging in their direction. They were about to be cut off.
Orion didn’t hesitate. He ran along the length of the first switchback to its far side. Then he turned, vaulted over the low railing, and launched himself into space.
The jump was nearly eight feet to the next curve of the road below. He hit the ground hard and rolled, coming back to stand in a single, fluid motion. He turned to help or catch Diana as she followed, but there was no need; she had already landed on her feet beside him. They ran wordlessly together across the road and jumped again. Orion held his breath as they repeated the dangerous move, knowing that one bad leap and landing would finish them.
They made it. Three times they jumped and rolled, crossed the street, and jumped again. In less than a minute, they’d descended most of the way to the terrace below.
After their last jump, he caught her arm and turned to the left. They ran a short distance and stepped over another guardrail. On the far side they saw a steeply descending hill that ended in a ledge.
They looked down. A copse of trees grew along the face of a sheer rock-wall that lay beneath them. Twenty feet below they could see the yard of a house nestled under the shoulder of the terrace. The boughs of several trees were within jumping distance.
Diana nodded and raced ahead. She clambered recklessly down the slope and leaped, grasping wildly for the nearest branches. For a moment she fell, suspended in space. Then, one of the boughs caught under her arm. It held, and her body swung. One of her legs landed on another branch, and she came to a painful halt amid the leafy limbs.
She looked back at Orion. He’d stopped at the ledge and was looking carefully at the branches. His eyes settled on one, and then he leaped to follow her. He landed neatly in the nook between it and the bole of the tree.
They descended quickly out of view from the road. The yells of the Hellmen grew louder, along with the harsh sound of boots on the roadway. They stopped and waited, desperately trying to quiet their labored breathing. Long, tense seconds passed until the noise receded, clattering up the stairway to the terrace above.
They climbed the rest of the way down and dropped to the ground. Then they ran together across the yard. They didn’t hear any sounds of pursuit.
Eventually, they reached a gate. Dizzy with exhaustion, they climbed over it. They saw that the little wood ended there, and that a series of densely packed buildings blocked their way forward. They followed the cobbles of an alley that ran to their right. When it ended, they found themselves on Tribute Street, a main road running east.
Orion looked around. They were on the lowest level of the Upper City, in a commercial neighborhood dominated by shops and peddlers’ stands. The carts were abandoned and there was no one in sight. Outside the cover of the trees, he could once again see demons circling in the air above.
“Hey! You!” a voice hissed.
They turned, startled. The door of the building next to them was slightly ajar, and a hand was gesturing to them through the crack. Above it hung a sign that read: The Smiling Nymph Inn and Tavern.
“Come in off the street!” the voice called softly. It sounded panicked. “The monsters are killing anyone they see in the open. If they spot you, you’ll bring them here!”
Orion and Diana exchanged glances.
“It’s as good a place as any,” Diana breathed. Her lungs were heaving, and Orion saw her sway unsteadily. “My legs are like lead and I’m about to collapse.”
He nodded. He took her arm protectively to support her, and they stepped together toward the door.
The Sky Chamber
Palanad Lantar knelt at the King’s side and laid a hand on his shoulder. “Your Majesty,” he said gently. “We need to see to the defense of the palace.”
Danor looked up through tear-stained eyes. Slowly, he released his wife and surviving son. He rose unsteadily to his feet, still swaying with exhaustion.
The court mage slipped a shoulder under his arm. “Are you injured, my liege?” he asked. “I can provide you with healing if you require it.”
Danor shook his head. Gerard rose beside him and helped his mother to stand as well. The Queen looked broken and exhausted. She had difficulty staying on her feet without leaning on him.
“Thank you, Palanad,” the King said gratefully. Then he turned to his son.
“And you too, Gerard. Never in history did a rescue arrive so in the nick of time.”
Gerard shook his head.
