Chapter 2

Fiona Sparks slumped against the gunwales as the fleet finally crested the Carcain Mountains. She massaged the wand from her white knuckle grip and rubbed her aching wrist breathing deep the crisp yet thin high altitude mountain air. The cold air filled her lungs the heat of the Mage Fyre subsiding. Pulling on the string that bound her hair a bundle of deep red curls tumbled down floating just above her shoulders.

Twelve hours ago it began. In the dusk of the setting sun, on the banks of the river Gorl, the fishing docks of Arnow, the shadows had gathered. The Wisps, dark phantasms smaller than one’s hand, swarmed in vast multitudes as they evicted themselves from the trees and plants that had served as their shelters from the light of the sun. They came to possess the bodies of the living, to blot out the light, to blot out life, and they came not alone. From the depths of the forests and the dark of caves had come the Shadow Beasts, animals of every kind fully taken by the Sorn and warped into monstrous forms. There were bears twice their usual size, wolves that burned in a white fire, birds with razor wings, and rat swarms that moved as one their fangs dripping with a poison.

In the shadows of the setting sun the Sorn had lined the banks, still weak as the light shone, preparing their assault. Fiona and her squad stood to face them as the citizens ran to the Sky docks. They needed time to board, time they didn’t have, time that Fiona and her fighters needed to gain.

The danger of Sorn is not in their toughness but in their madness and multitudes. Like a blight upon a crop they come swift and in vast numbers with no direction behind them. They throw themselves forward upon their quarry heedless of the danger before them with one desire, to snuff out. The Vigilant’s job was to keep the light.

As soon as the sun dropped off the horizon they surged forth and Fiona and her squad sprang to action. Draven, Yvonne, Gaius and Fiona herself served as the first line. Bending the elements to their will and with the aid of Gaius’ rifle the four created a barrier of death. Whirlwinds, gouts of flame, water spouts and bullets battered into the vanguard of the Sornic host. At a distance they blasted the enemy whittling the horde’s away grinding the beasts into nothing.

The few that made it through their barrage were dealt with by Raheem, Eugene and Tara. Raheem’s bladed spear spun with a fury, a whirlwind of movement as it cut through beast and wisp alike. Eugene’s dual axes, and Tara’s sword and shield moved with speed and efficiency as the two worked in tandem trading targets and fighting back to back.

Dark carcasses littered the docks and river bed as the beasts were cut down quickly as they came. The smell of rotting flesh filled the air and a dark mist fell about them as Wisps burst apart. Like wolves in a chicken coop they decimated the Sorn, so much so that the host moved away to find a new way into the city as this squad wouldn’t yield.

Within her mind Fiona heard the order of the Lord-Chamberlain relayed by the telepaths to fall back to the second barricade. The outer limits had been vacated, no need to defend empty buildings.

They hurried through the stone laid streets through the brick and mortar buildings. A small few of the Shadow Beasts pursued only to be slaughtered by their ‘prey’.

Their station for the second barricade was an old town square ten blocks in from the docks. At the north end was a large municipal structure made of white granite and slate. A sentencing square, Draven told them, punishment was public in Krovia.

Two other squads met up with them, one two members short. Being the highest ranking Fiona immediately took charge. The bulbs in the electric street lamps were switched on illuminating the square. The marksmen, of which there were four, were placed in the municipal building on the second floor. Brawlers stood at the road mouths weapons at the ready and the magic users took residence upon the raised platform in the square center.

It was a good half hour before the Sorn came giving the Enchanters plenty of time to set traps. Buildings collapsed atop the monsters, stone pavement flipped over crushing them in their tracks, and fire traps incinerated their bones.

Sounds of gunfire and magic filled the air and mingled with the bestial screams of the Sorn. In the distance the first of the airships rose above the buildings and made its way to the outer limits. Orbs of red and orange Mage Fyre fell upon the city, buildings bursting into clouds of rubble with the impact.

As the city burned on the edges the number of Sorn dwindled and soon the onslaught in the Sentencing square came to a halt.

Bodies and dust filled the streets and air, the Vigilant exhausted from their exertions. Cleaning their weapons and drying their brows they prepared to fall back to the third barricade, when something changed.

Down the south street the light seemed to darken, no, the shadows seemed to grow. A cold wind rushed down the street kicking up dropped newspapers, garments and trash and carrying them down the road to the square. A reverberating maniacal laughter followed, echoing off the stone roads and buildings. The voice was human though not one that any man or woman could possibly make. It resounded in notes both high and low, a voice of gravel and of lemon, the sound of a child and of a dying elder, an eerie chuckle of many yet one.

Fiona’s heart stopped. It did not skip, it did not quiver, it stopped. As if frozen in time and space, like a stick through the spokes of a wheel, her heart ceased beating. The pain started in the middle of her chest causing her fists to curl and her limbs to lock, the hairs of her neck stood stock still. Slowly the pain rose to her throat, to her mouth, behind her eyes, a single tear forced its way out along the tear duct and down her ash covered face. And then the fear took hold.

A cold fear, a deliberate fear, a fear unlike any other. Philosophers say fear spawns of ignorance, but this fear, this terror, could only be felt by one with true knowledge. The dread filled her, dread consumed her filling every crack and crevasse of her being gripping onto her heart and taking root in her mind. Then it began to dig. Deep, deep through her memories clawing through the years. Memories surfaced and faded one by one until the one it searched for was found.

He was there, standing right in front of her, for the first time in years. The darkness grew about him consuming the torches in the wood pressing down upon her and turning her face into the shadows, into its eyes, she saw the red smile in the black…

She tore her mind away from the nightmare and looked down at the cobbled stone. Slowly she raised her head and looked into the ever growing black void of the south street. Red teeth gleamed in the pit.