A Battle Between Blood: A Legend of Tal Novella by J.D.L. Rosell

Author:J.D.L. Rosell [Rosell, J.D.L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rune & Requiem Press
Published: 2024-05-14T00:00:00+00:00

10

RASH

The silencing of her song pierced deep as any nightkin's claws.

"Wren!" Garin cut down the ghoul before him and stumbled back from the line, searching for her. His eyes fell on the tear in reality, still issuing forth its nightmares. He looked beyond them. She had to be fighting the dreadknight still. Foolish as it had been to challenge it on her own, she couldn't have fallen to it.

But the dreadknight stood alone, gleaming dark eyes staring over the melee. A white sword with golden runes, bright amid the black, lodged in the monster's hip.

"WREN!"

Their nightmarish enemy had to have sent her through the rift. He hadn't heard dying in her final notes. Even in the chaos dominating the Worldsong, he wouldn't mistake that.

But if she lived, how could she hope to survive whatever lay beyond without her sword?

He needed to reach the portal. Needed to reach her. Panic made his hands shake and his legs unsteady. He couldn't lose her. Not now. Not after all they'd suffered through.

Steady, lad, steady. You'll help no one by losing your head.

Tal. His lost mentor spoke in his mind as if he were there beside him, guiding him, as he had so often done in life. It didn't matter if he'd ever spoken those words or if Garin invented them.

The thumping heart of sorcery at the middle of the world had swallowed him, yet Tal Harrenfel remained with him.

Garin wrested back control. Wren needed him. He might not have her brashness to try flying over the battle, but he had other assets. His will remained strong and the Worldsong flowed through him, lending its power to his summonings. He held Helshax, whose thirst for sorcery remained unslaked.

It had to be enough.

Garin shoved through the front line of soldiers, sword leading the way. A ghoul leapt toward him, impaling itself on his blade and nearly pitching him back. Teeth gritted, he held back the beast as its struggling lessened, then grew slack on the sword.

He threw up his free hand before the witiko behind could strike with its enormous claws. "Gef thasht!"

The Worldsong roared and energy crackled from his hand. Lightning leapt forward, enwrapping a line of nightkin before him. The entire row fell, stunned or slain in an instant. Those around them scattered, holding back the onslaught.

A hint of numbness from the spell crept over him, costing him a moment's delay. Before Garin could speak the next incantation, the dreadknight turned to him. Raising its strange, curved sword into the air, the black blade became engulfed in violet light.

Then it shattered, shards of light shooting into the fallen nightkin, seeding through them. Those that had been corpses rose, doubling their numbers.

The renewed horde pressed forward once more.

Garin fell back with the elves beside him, struggling to calm his thoughts. Destroy them so they wouldn't rise again: that was the only way any of them might survive. Spells leapt to mind, all of them born of fire. Dangerous when fighting in the belly of a kintree.

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