Sevenfold Sword: Unity Read online

  It was a horrible way to die, but Tamara knew exactly what the muridachs would do to them if they were victorious, and she felt no remorse.

  Then the remaining kalocrypts drew close enough to strike, and Ridmark, Tamlin, Calem, Krastikon, Third, Kyralion, and Magatai attacked.

  The muridachs had no doubt thought to overwhelm them, tramping them beneath the kalocrypts’ spiked legs and snapping pincers. It took only a second to see that the muridachs had miscalculated grievously. Ridmark dodged to the side at the last second, moving with the uncanny speed that his sword granted, and brought Oathshield hammering down in a two-handed blow. He hewed off the head of a kalocrypt, and the creature collapsed, its muridach rider catapulting out of his saddle with a shriek.

  All her life, Tamara had heard tales of the terrible power of the Seven Swords. As Swordborn, Tamlin and Krastikon could not use the full power of their Swords, and Calem could only use the minor powers of his, lest he trigger the spell of dark magic that bound his mind. Yet the Swords’ deadly edges cut through anything, passing through flesh and bone and armor as if they were not there, and the chitin of the kalocrypts proved no match for the Swords.

  Prince Krastikon caught the pincers of a kalocrypt on his shield, the golden metal pulsing with purple light. Like the others, he had taken armor from the long-dead warriors of the Tower of Nightmares, but he had also taken a round shield, and the ancient metal fused with his earth magic proved strong enough to resist the pincers of the kalocrypt. The pincer rebounded from his shield, and Krastikon brought the dark blade of the Sword of Death up and then down in an overhand stroke. The Sword bisected the kalocrypt’s head, and the big insect went into a jerking dance. Its muridach rider roared in fury and leaped from the saddle, spear raised to stab the Prince, but Krastikon stepped into the blow. The gray elven armor he wore turned aside the bronze point of the spear, and the Sword of Death opened the muridach rider from throat to navel.

  Kyralion and Magatai hung back from the battle, bows in hand, and sent a steady stream of arrows at the enemy. Magatai bellowed imprecations in the Takai tongue as he loosed arrow after arrow, and Tamara knew just enough of the Takai language to recognize that Magatai challenged the morality of the muridachs’ mothers, the faithfulness of their wives, the muridachs’ ability to satisfy their wives, and the legitimacy of their children.

  The Takai regarded battle insults as an art.

  Tamara cast another spell, hurling a sphere of acidic mist at a muridach lancer atop a kalocrypt. The kalocrypt twisted aside at the last second, and the sphere of mist expanded across two of its right legs. The creature let out a clacking shriek and went into a mad dance as the acid burned into its carapace, and the rider fought to get its mount back under control.

  Third seized the opportunity to attack. Tamara was a little frightened of her, though that had lessened after they had survived the Tower of Nightmares together. Nevertheless, there was no denying Third’s skill. She moved with the speed and fluidity of a striking serpent, and her blows landed with the force of a hammer. Even with her ability to travel blocked by the three Swords, she was still a terror on a battlefield.

  Which she proved by leaping onto the side of the kalocrypt, scrambling along its carapace, and killing the muridach rider before the ratman could draw his sword.

  Tamara had always been able to handle herself in a fight, but she felt like a clumsy child next to Third.

  She focused on another kalocrypt and cast a spell, engulfing the creature’s head in a sphere of acidic mist. The kalocrypt went mad with pain and threw its rider. The muridach hit the ground with a thump and rolled to its feet, its sword flying from its scabbard, its beady eyes fixed on Tamara.

  She started to work another spell, and Tamlin intercepted the creature.

  The Sword of Earth was a green blur in his hand, and the muridach jumped back in time to avoid the blade. The creature snarled and came at Tamlin, chopping its bronze sword with a two-handed blow. Tamlin raised the Sword of Earth in a lazy, one-handed parry, and the bronze sword shattered against the mighty weapon. The muridach stumbled in surprise and Tamlin’s movements became much less lazy as he whipped the Sword of Earth around and cut the muridach in half.

  And as he did, two of the kalocrypts converged on him.

  “Tamlin!” shouted Tamara, a surge of fear going through her, but he was too far away to hear her shout.

  Fortunately, it didn’t matter.

  Tamlin moved at the last possible instant, his right hand sweeping the Sword of Earth before him. The blade sheared through the pincers of the kalocrypt on his right, and the pincers that would have bitten off his arm instead fell useless to the ground. He thrust his left hand, and a bolt of lightning arced from his fingers and slammed into the kalocrypt on his left. The lightning coiled around the creature like the lash of a whip, and it reared back, jerking and twitching.

  Before either kalocrypt could recover, Tamlin moved. He chopped the Sword of Earth in two quick slashes, taking off the head of the kalocrypt he had wounded. The muridach rider howled in outrage and leaped from its saddle, and Tamlin dodged and took off the muridach’s head. The second kalocrypt shook off the lightning attack, and Tamlin whirled and cast another spell. This was a spell of elemental air that let him leap higher and faster than the strength of his muscles would have allowed, and he soared through the air, swinging the Sword of Earth as he did.

  The muridach rider’s head rolled away, and the insect turned and skittered away from the battle, losing interest without its rider to guide it.

  Tamlin had dealt with both kalocrypts in the space of about five seconds.

  Tamara felt a surge of admiration. He was so quick and skilled. She knew his childhood had been a brutal torment of pain and fear, but it had made him into a ferocious warrior. And she had never seen him undressed, but she knew the body beneath the armor and clothing would be lean and scarred and heavy with muscle, and Tamara had a sudden, vivid memory of running her fingers down his back, feeling his skin beneath her hands…

  She had never experienced that, but she remembered it as vividly as if she had done it this morning.

  Tamara pushed the thought out of her head. A battle wasn’t the time or the place for such musings, no matter how pleasant. Worse, another wave of kalocrypts rushed down the slope of the valley. Between the Shield Knight, the bearers of the Seven Swords, and the magic of Calliande and Kalussa, they had driven back most of the first wave of muridach riders, but the second one might prove more formidable.

  And then a flare of blue light caught her eye.

  On the hilltop overlooking the valley, where the first kalocrypt rider had sounded that horn, stood three muridachs. From this distance, Tamara could not make out details, but she saw that all three muridachs wore cowls and mantles the color of blood. They carried wooden staffs, and Tamara knew that those staffs would have been topped with the mummified heads of muridachs, or if the priest was particularly powerful, the mummified head of a human slave.

  She knew that because the three muridachs were priests of the Lord of Carrion, the muridach god, and they would be powerful dark wizards. The muridachs had a natural inclination to dark magic, an inborn talent to it, and while their priests were never very skilled, they nonetheless had considerable raw magical strength.

  Three would be enough to kill everyone in the valley.

  The blue light brightened as the muridach priests worked their spell, joining their powers to strike.

  “Lady Calliande!” called Tamara.

  ###

  Third whirled through the battlefield, killing at every opportunity.

  She was at home in battle, almost at ease, or at least as close to it as she came. She did not discount the danger, nor was she foolish enough to think herself invincible. A warrior who failed to respect her foes would soon end up dead. A single misstep and not even Calliande’s magic could save her.

  But her father had bred her and shaped her for battle. The Traveler was dead now, and
Queen Mara ruled over his realm, trying to teach his enslaved Anathgrimm warriors to live as free men. Third was no longer an urdhracos, no longer enslaved to the aura of a dark elven lord.

  But she had still been made to fight and kill, and that was what she did best.

  She scrambled up the side of another kalocrypt, her short swords drawn back to strike. The insects were fierce beasts, but Third suspected they only went to war when goaded by their muridach masters. Likely in the Deeps the kalocrypts lived on carrion and preferred to scavenge rather than risk a direct confrontation with prey that could fight back.

  And it was far easier to kill a muridach warrior than a kalocrypt.

  The muridach rider turned and tried to stab her with his spear. It was a clumsy thrust, and Third used her right-hand sword to beat it aside. Her left sword plunged into the muridach’s throat, and she ripped it free, crimson blood glimmering on the blue dark elven steel of the blade. Without the muridach to guide it, the kalocrypt skittered away from the battle.

  Third leaped from the creature’s carapace and landed, her swords coming up in guard. She glanced at Kyralion, but he was safe, his face hard and focused as he sent burning arrows at the muridach riders. Third had to admit that she thought he looked splendid in the armor that Kolmyrion had given him, that she felt a flicker of pleasure as she looked at him.

  It was a new feeling for her, one she had never experienced until she had met Kyralion, and she didn’t know what to do about it.

  But she did know what to do about the kalocrypts and the muridachs, and Third set to work.

  She joined Ridmark as he carved his way through the foe, and they fell into their usual pattern of fighting, one that had served them well against the Frostborn and the Enlightened and so many other foes. Third was strong, but Ridmark was stronger even without Oathshield’s power, and she distracted the kalocrypts, drawing the attention of their riders. And as the muridachs turned towards her, Ridmark delivered hammer blows with Oathshield, killing their mounts and letting Third deal with the riders.

  A flare of blue light caught her eye, and Third looked up just in time to see the three muridach priests cast their spell. Something that looked like a whirling disk of shadow and blue fire shot across the valley. Third had seen spells like that before and knew it was an attack of dark magic designed to leach away the life of anyone it touched. But the Keeper of Andomhaim was ready, and Calliande’s staff burned with white fire. She shouted and gestured, and a wall of translucent white light rose up from the ground. The muridachs’ magic slammed into it with a thunderclap, but the will of the Keeper of Andomhaim proved the stronger.

  Third looked at Ridmark. “I will deal with them.”

  Ridmark nodded. “Go.”

  He turned to face another kalocrypt before the word had even gotten all the way out of his mouth.

  Third sprinted across the valley, leaving the melee behind. As she drew closer, she saw the red-mantled muridach priests focus on her, saw the grisly mummified heads hanging from their staffs. Their cowls turned in her direction. They saw her coming, and no doubt they would draw upon their magic to strike her dead.

  It was a race, then.

  Third ran faster, the blue light brightening around the muridach priests.

  A faint pressure inside her skull vanished, one that she barely noticed unless she happened to look for it.

  She had gotten far enough away from the Swords of Air, Death, and Earth that they would no longer block her ability to travel.

  Third reached for the fiery song in her blood and traveled.

  Blue fire swallowed the world, and when it cleared, she stood atop the hill. It had been a long jump, right at the edges of her ability, but she had done it. Third had reappeared behind the three muridach priests, who gaped at the battle in the valley, no doubt trying to figure out where she had gone.

  Third raised her swords and started killing.

  She plunged both blades into the back of the nearest muridach priest and then ripped them free in a single smooth motion. A quick step to the left, and she killed the second priest, driving her swords into the side of his furred neck. Blood sprayed from the wounds, the coppery smell overwhelming the musky odor of muridach fur, and the creature went down.

  The final priest started a spell, pointing his staff at Third, the mummified muridach head bouncing as the priest gestured. Blue fire burned up the length of the staff, so Third hooked one of her swords behind the staff and yanked. The priest stumbled forward, still trying to work his spell, and the point of Third’s second sword found his throat and ended his life.

  She wrenched her blades free and looked around, but she had accounted for all three of the muridach priests, and there were no others nearby. For that matter, while Ridmark and the others still fought ten kalocrypts, Third did not see any more of the creatures in the distance.

  But she saw something else from this height, something that disturbed her far more than more kalocrypts or even muridach priests.

  Dust clouds.

  The foothills of the Gray Mountains were dusty, but they supported many small trees and a large quantity of tough, resilient grass. For a dust cloud that large to rise into the air meant a large number of men were moving through the hills.

  Men, or perhaps muridachs.

  Even worse, Third saw the clouds to both the east and the west.

  She drew on her power to travel and rushed to rejoin the fight.

  ###

  Ridmark dodged to the side, avoiding the snap of the kalocrypt’s pincers. As he did, he slashed Oathshield, hammering the soulblade at the knobby joint in one of the kalocrypt’s left legs. The legs, Ridmark had discovered, were the weak points of the giant insects. The chitinous carapaces that covered their bodies could take a pounding, and the pincers themselves seemed at least as hard as steel. But the joints in the legs were not nearly so well-protected, and Oathshield lopped off the limb. The kalocrypt shuddered and started to spin towards him, and Ridmark dodged and took off another leg. That was enough to make the creature lose its balance entirely, and its muridach rider shrieked as it lost its balance. The ratman recovered in time to get his bronze sword free of its scabbard and intercept Ridmark’s first swing.

  His next swing crunched into the muridach’s neck, and the ratman went down, sword clattering away. The injured kalocrypt dragged itself towards Ridmark, pincers snapping. He dodged around the pincers and drove Oathshield into the creature’s head. He didn’t know if the kalocrypts had brains or not, but stabbing them through the head proved fatal. The kalocrypt collapsed as Ridmark ripped Oathshield free, its remaining legs curling up beneath it.

  He stepped back, breathing hard, and looked for his next opponent, but couldn’t find any left.

  Dead muridachs lay on the ground, and the slain kalocrypts lay motionless. The creatures gave off a strange, greasy smell that reminded Ridmark of olive oil that had gone rancid. He looked to see if any of the others had been hurt. Calem and Krastikon had both taken minor wounds, but Calliande and Kalussa were already casting healing spells.

  Kalussa was healing Krastikon, while Calliande healed Calem.

  “God and the saints, but these things stink worse than the muridachs,” said Tamlin.

  “They do,” said Tamara, staring at one of the dead kalocrypts.

  “You’ve fought these things before?” said Ridmark.

  Her mismatched eyes turned towards him. “Yes. But, Lord Ridmark…not that often. And I have never seen so many kalocrypts gathered in one place.”

  “Nor has Magatai,” said Magatai, who had dismounted to retrieve his arrows from the dead muridachs. “From time to time Magatai has fought three or four muridachs riding kalocrypts, but never this many.” He looked around and blinked. “How many did we kill? Magatai lost count.”

  “Seventeen,” said Calliande, her voice grim as she straightened up. Calem followed her like a white shadow in his cloak. He seemed to be taking care not to look at Kalussa.

  “Seventee
n,” repeated Kyralion. “The only time I have ever seen that many kalocrypts at once is when the muridachs gather together in an army.”

  “An army?” said Ridmark, remembering the tracks he had found.

  “An army,” repeated Third’s voice, cold and controlled.

  Ridmark turned his head as Third jogged to join them, her short swords in their sheaths at her belt.

  “Any trouble with the priests?” said Ridmark.

  “None,” said Third. “They had clearly never dealt with someone like me before.” Her black eyes met his. “I saw large dust clouds to the west and to the east.”

  “Dust clouds?” said Tamara.

  “Such as the sort,” said Tamlin, “raised by a large group of marching men?”

  “Yes,” said Third. “I fear that we are caught between two muridach armies marching south towards the Illicaeryn Jungle.”

  “Two?” said Tamlin, taken aback.

  “Is Kalimnos in danger?” said Tamara.

  “No,” said Kyralion with a shake of his head. “If the muridachs have come forth in such numbers, they are marching to the Illicaeryn Jungle. My people were in dire straits when I left. It seems the situation has worsened since.”

  “If we cannot continue to the east and we cannot retreat to the west or the north,” said Krastikon, “what shall we do?”

  Ridmark looked around, thinking. “That hilltop where Third killed the priests? Head there, and we’ll have a good vantage point. Third and I are going to scout to the east again, and Magatai and Kyralion are going to go the west. Don’t go more than five miles, and get back here as soon as you can. We’ll decide how to proceed once we know more. Krastikon, you’d better get the scutians moving.”

  Krastikon nodded and used a spell of earth magic on the lizards, Calem aiding him.

  “Ridmark,” said Calliande. “The Sight…there is a lot of dark magic nearby, to both the east and the west.”