The King's Summons by Adam Glendon Sidwell & Zachary James

Author:Adam Glendon Sidwell & Zachary James [Sidwell, Adam Glendon & James, Zachary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781944452841
Publisher: Future House Publishing
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13: Cernonos

The great jotnar was surrounded by no less than two hundred orcs, all armed with long-bladed spears. The jotnar moved its leg, and immediately a dozen guards jabbed their weapons at it. The jotnar convulsed as the dark magic of the blades flowed into it, assaulting its very nature.

Blaze knew the feeling.

She was withering. She didn’t know how much longer she could survive with the cold net wrapped around her, cutting into her. Its magic cables were draining every degree of heat she could summon.

And then the creature stepped from behind the jotnar. Blaze stared in horror.

She had heard of chimera before—half-man, half-animal demons. Long, obsidian black horns grew upward out of his skull. Ornate metal ringed his horns halfway down their length. His chest was shielded by metal armor plates, and his shoulders were covered in brown matted fur. His hands were massive, nearly the size of Blaze’s entire torso. His feet and legs resembled the hind legs of a goat.

His face was just human enough to make the entire repulsive creature look intelligent. The most disturbing thing was his eyes. They glowed bright blue, stark and terrifying against the dark, wintry night.

Rune tattoos covered his armor, powerful spells that would repel harm and grant him supernatural strength in battle.

“Cernonos.” An orc captain took a knee in front of the demon. “We have the Ember Mage that attacked Hetsa, and last of the Crook-Eye traitors.”

Dreck is alive.

“Good. The sacrifice of these prisoners will only bind the Iron Collar stronger,” said Cernonos. His voice dripped with malice.

Whatever hope Blaze had clung to was draining fast.

“Our Midnight Queen requires an army of dark jotnar. This will be but the first.”

The Midnight Queen. That was the same name that the ice kobolds had mentioned when Blaze first arrived in the Frostbyte Reach. Was that some new sorceress in league with the Dark Consul? Could that be the one who was behind the expansion of dark influence spreading through Crystalia?

Crystalians had turned to darkness before: the Consul, the Usurper King . . . and now perhaps there were some turning to this Midnight Queen.

And how powerful was this being if monsters like Cernonos served her?

“The Frostbyte Reach will soon fall to our might,” said Cernonos. “Then all of Crystalia—and all too easy. The power to destroy them was here all along, waiting for us to claim it. Take the prisoners to the rune marks! Their strength will be mine to command. The binding curse will be unbreakable!”

Two Rimefrost Orcs seized Blaze tightly around the arms and dragged her across the ice. They dropped her into a triangle drawn on the ice with a black substance that looked like pitch.

The jotnar was less than four yards away. To her right and left, four Crook-Eye Orcs bound by thick cords were each shoved into their own triangles. Lines of pitch linked the triangles together in a semicircle around the jotnar.

This can’t be happening, Blaze thought, as she trembled with shivers. Orcs behind her laughed.

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