Chapter 130

  As I joihe pany for breakfast, I didn’t feel immortal. Quite the opposite. Even with my slow aging active, I was stantly in danger being part of the legion. I realized I had bee somewhat numb to a fear of injury ah—it was just part of my daily life now.

  Castile was watg the dire wolf as she ate some dried fruit and salted crackers. “Bze, you hit it? She asked the marksman.

  Bze looked up, excited at the prospect of finally getting his wish. He rushed to stao Castile, and studied the dire wolf for a few moments, “No, the arrow’s arc most likely would not make it through the branches. Maybe if we entered a clearing.”

  Castile studied the massive wolf and said, “Take the shot if you think you get it.” Bze nodded emphatically ahrough his arrows, seleg the best one for when the opportunity arose.

  It was a long breakfast and a slow time pag up the camp, and Delmar did not rush us as normal. My suspi was everyone was dragging because they kneould be close to the Caelora and the specters this evening. Castile had me open one of the salves to give to Lirkin. He was using small swabs of the gel on the worst blistering and chafing of the pany. Some men had gained weight in Sobral, and their armor did not fit perfectly anymore. It was a luxury we could afford now that we had a supply.

  As we started the march, the dire wolf followed us but remained irees far baot giving Bze an opportunity to take the shot. It appeared much smarter than it should be. During a rest, I heard Konstantin talking with Castile, “The dire wolf will stop following us whe withie of the ruins. I am surprised it has followed us this far, but they are smart creatures and know not to approach the undead city.”

  Castile muttered with some snark, “I am assuming you are suggesting we are not as intelligent as a dire wolf foing into the city?”

  Konstantin shrugged aed with his own snark, “I have never met a smart human before. We all eventually do something stupid—more often than realize.”

  Castile shook her head, smirking at the ent, but nodded in agreement. She looked back at the wolf, on her face, “Do you think you and Fvius could hide and ambush it when it passed? I am certain there is only the one.”

  Konstantin studied the dire wolf, its yellow eyes seeming to glow from the distance. “With five of us, maybe? Eryk, Maveith, Bze, and Fvius,” he named his choices for the ambush. I let out a low grunt from nearby but was ignored. Why was I always being volunteered?

  Castile ended up shaking her head, “No. Perhaps it is as you say and will leave us as roach the elven ruins.”

  The afternoon wore on, and the road got wider as we passed over familiar stones. In one break of the trees, I could see the mammoth tree jutting out of the city ruins. Konstantin said the elves maintained gardens of special trees. Schor Favian also noticed the tree, “That must be a Hearth Tree—a ceremonial tree where the elven dead were buried among the roots to be returo the earth. The roots run deep, and they op growing. The First Legion supposedly cut all of them down within the Empire’s borders. The lumber was used to struct the Emperor’s Pa the capital.”

  “How?” Maveith asked, awed by the tree as well. I would think it would take a hundred men to circle that gigantic tree.”

  As he stepped from behind a tree, Konstantin answered the question, “Magic felled the trees, of course, goliath.” He looked up at the opy, which was odd as it was the only tree that still had all green leaves while every other tree in the forest was turning fall colors and losing its leaves.

  Konstantin had a sour look on his face because I had not spotted him sneaking up on me. He noted, “Giant eagles were ing in it the st time we passed.”

  Adrian reyed to everyone in his and voice, “Giant eagles are a danger and lift a man a hundred feet in the air and drop them to their death.” He made eye tact with everyone, “Do not wander in the open unless you want to test your ability to fly.”

  We broke into the clearing around the city. Looking at it now, it felt like the forest respected the city’s territory, and there was no rowth from the road toward the city. It had been fifteen hundred years, yet the four hundred yards to the city were utterly unobstructed up to the walls.

  Konstantin gave the orders, “We will stay uhe cover of the trees as we circle to the western gate.” As we moved uhem, few leaves were left on the higher brahe pany made a slow pace as we sed the skies and the woods. I was not the only oo see the dire wolf off in the distance woods, still keeping track of us. I guess the city did not scare it off.

  On ht, it was easy to see the city walls were crumbling. Large ses of the ramparts had colpsed. Some a foundations could be seen outside the city wall, with the wooden structure they once supported long since colpsed and rotted away. The sense of death was strong, with the vegetation refusing to grow and only the massive green tree jutting out of the city.

  When we reached the western gate, we found a rge wooden gate the height of two men and wide enough for six horses to ride abreast through. Delmar questioned aloud, “Why has the gate not rotted to dust?”

  Schor Favian answered, “The elves treat their wood with a preservative that st the lifetime of an elf. Elves live more than a millennia.”

  Bze, who had incredible eyesight, said, “It is not in good dition. It looks to have some rot, and there appears to be a gap on the right.” He pointed, but I could not see anything ihe city.

  Castile studied the sky. “We will make camp further away aer the city in the m with an exploration group posed of those of you that have runic ons, the Schor, and myself. Everyone else will guard the camp.” I almost ughed when Brutus realized that g the runic sword prize came at a weighty price. I had obviously fallen into the trap as well. Although I suspected even if I didn’t have a runic on, I would have volunteered.

  We moved two miles from the city and found a small ruined watch tower simir to the oayed on the river. There had once been a road that passed by this tower, but the forest had long since recimed it. Most of the walls had colpsed, but it would be easily defensible, and with the dire wolf still watg us, the added security was wele. While men moved rge stones in the rubble to clear space for tents and make it more defensible, Konstantin had Brutus and I practice against each other.

  I was finding the bck bde’s added length more suited my strength. Without using my air shields, Brutus and I were good training partners. Konstantin and Adrian gave us pointers as they supervised the clearing of the ruiower’s interior.

  I actually preferred this practioving the rge stones with everyone else. Benito pined, “I thought after a month of moving those cursed white marble markers, I would never have to move a stone again.”

  Kolm cpped him on the back, “But you are so good at! I bet you could roll that sto at the entrance.”

  Firth quickly doubted Benito’s ability, “I don’t know. He is the smallest man in the pany.”

  Benito leaped at the opportunity, “I bet you a rge copper I could!” I don’t know if I should feel bad for Benitetting tricked into doing the extra work; after all, he got a copper out of it.

  Everyone was famished as the su and a strong fire burned in the camp’s ter. The walls around us were between twelve and twenty feet, so we felt safe. Dark clouds had moved in to cover the moon and stars, making it pitch bck out in the woods. We established a shit pit going into the old basement of the tower, as no one was going out into the woods tonight. I heard Bze tell Delmar he could see the yellow eyes of the dire wolf in the dark.

  I had a choice wheered my dreamscape amulet ter that night. I could start w on a new spell form or practice with my new sword. I opted for sword practice as I didn’t want to get distracted trying to learn a new spell form during our exploration. I kept my practice short to just three hours. Wheed the dreamscape, all was quiet, and the weather had gotten very cold.

  I pulled out my heavy rain cloak and ed myself to sit by the fire. I was not the only ohree men were guarding the archway into the tower, and two other men were at the fire. I sat with them, gd for the heat. I was not surprised; one of the men was Konstantin, and the other was Delmar. They were talking quietly and just me as I sat across from them. The crag of the wet wood made it impossible to hear what they were talking about.

  Castile came and sat o me uedly. Delmar asked her, “Is something wrong?”

  Castile looked to the sky, “The wolf is still out there, watg. And these clouds are not natural.”

  Konstantin shook his head irately, “The summoner?”

  Castile nodded slowly, “I think so. Some type of storm elemental is causing the clouds.”

  Delmar cursed, “An e’s ass, Castile. If it is Traeliorn, we should run now.”

  Konstantin stirred the coals calmly, “It is probably too te. Depending on what he summons to attack us, we might have to take refuge iy.”

  Castile offered some hope, “It might just be another of his apprentices. We will see how strong the elemental is when it ges the weather.” As if she had cursed us, a few snowfkes started falling, quickly being bigger and heavier. The fire sizzled as rger and rger fkes were ed on the coals.

  No one spoke until Konstantin finally said, “Seems like a powerful elemental to me.”

  The camp was quickly awoken, and everyone was ordered to pack. I was close enough to Castile, Adrian, and Delmar to overhear. Delmar wao retreat, “We should get ba the road and race back to Sobral.” He added,“If we are going to run, we could also head east. Parvas is much closer than Sobral.”

  The wet snow was accumuting quickly, pulling the heat from my body, and my toes were getting numb. My breath was a solid cloud every time I exhaled. I just hoped they decided soon. My gear acked, and I was ready.

  Adrian thought staying was wiser, “If we mar this snow, at the rate it is falling, it could be a man’s height in half a day. We should fortify the torepare for the summoner.”

  Castile finally decided, “We don’t know how far the storm reaches. The dire wolf knows we are iower. I think the storm elemental is creating the snow, so we don’t move from here. Whatever beast he is pnning to summon, it will know where to find us. He might be holding us here so he has time to summon a creature. We ot deal with a wyvern,” she said emphatically. Relutly, she decided on a course of a. “We march for Parvas.”

  When Castile mentioned a wyvern, I thought Castile would give me a look, but she didn’t. Delmar called out, “Three days food. Lighten your pack of non-essentials.” Delmar was giving us the freedom to decide what we wao drop. The snow, already three inches deep after just fifteen minutes, was soon littered with legion gear and food. The falling snow quickly covered cookis, tarps, spare clothes, discarded food, and hatchets.

  Everyone was fused about the snow and marg before dawn. Glowstones were out, lighting our way through the deepening snow. Adrian moved among the meing them know what was happening so rumors would not spread. Visibility was only about thirty feet, and we marched three abreast and in close formation. The front of the line suddenly stopped.

  Everyone moved forward to circle a blue spectral form of a child. It was thrashing at the snow, frustrated. Konstantin already had his bde out and was flexing his forearm, eager to strike down the undead. He was sing the snow further away, and you could see more figures moving. Castile had dropped her pad removed a rge bronze urn, the kettle of souls.

  Konstantin looked down at her, “They are wandering far from the walls. They must be killing the vegetation at night. We should be safe on the road.”

  Castile stood with the urn. “Destroy that specter. Let’s firm this will work if we .”

  Konstantin eagerly stepped forward. The specter looked just like a child, just translut. When it looked up, its face was twisted in pain as it lu Konstantin. His ssh left a blue line on the specter, pushing it back as his sword sparked. A sed strike followed, and the apparition deformed aed slowly into the ground.

  Castile moved forward, holding out the urn. Her feet ched on the snow, and her breath created rge clouds in front of her. The urn had blue sparks fsh over it as she focused aether into the device. Where the specter had melded into the ground, wisps of blue-violent smoke flowed up and into the urn. It was simir to the smoke from f an essence, but it had a deeper purple color.

  Castile breathed a sigh of relief as she capped the urn. Konstantin asked, “What happens now that it is ihat?”

  She shook the urn, but we couldn’t hear anything. She expined, “It is destroyed. Aether crystal dust with a neantic affinity for alchemy. I had never used one before, and it just felt like it was draining the heat from my hands.” Adrian rushed forward to attaother specter of an older woman who was more white than blue and had blended in the snowfall.

  “Runic ons to the front. Do not fire any of the arrows unless you absolutely must!” I drew my bde and formed the front lih Adrain to my left and Brutus to my right. Castile was drawing the sed dead specter into the urn.

  My first oppo was the image of a guardsman. He wielded a spectral bde, and my ssh passed through the bde and ected with his body. I did not get the same sparks as Konstantin’s bde, but it felt like I had struething akin to a training dummy. I stabbed with my strike, pushing it back. My third attack was an overhead swing onto its head, and it finally started to meld into the ground.

  Blue wisps of violet smoke from my defeated foe flowed back toward Castile. Nine specters were killed before they stopped ing. Adrian was breathing heavily and ating for all twenty-three men and Castile. Delmar barked, “It is getting heavier, Castile.” He was right, as the fkes were rger and the line of sight decreased.

  Konstantin advised, “We will never make it if the snowfall is this heavy all the way to Parvas.” Everyone’s helm had an inch of snow on it. The snow also melted on our necks from our body heat, soaking our clothes uhe armor. Hypothermia was going to be a real problem soon.

  Castile’s hands were blue from the cold as she held the bronze urn. I produced leather gloves from my dimensional spad hahem to her. She took them absent-mindedly. She was sideriering the city, and we all k. Finally, the words came out with vitriol, “Cursed summoner. We make for the city’s gate.”

  ? Chted 2024 by AlwaysRollsAOne

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