Drem froze for a moment, staring into the chamber. Fire and smoke, blood and death. Momentarily he had been pleased to step out of the relentless claustrophobia of the tunnel, the sense of weight all about him constricting his chest and causing him to walk with one hand almost permanently taking his pulse, but the rolling black clouds of smoke and the snarl of bodies in the chamber made his relief short-lived.
He had been here once before, brought by Byrne. That journey had started from Byrne’s chamber high up in the keep. On that visit the oak and stone table had been set before a stone pedestal and upon that had been a thick leather-bound book. A guarded, treasured secret of the Order of the Bright Star, from which a select handful learned the ways of earth magic and became Elementals, able to exert some measure of control over earth, air, fire and water.
The pedestal was enfolded in smoke and flame.
“No,” Byrne gasped.
She moved forwards, sword and shield in her fists. Utul, Shar and a dozen others spreading behind her like a trailing cloak. Byrne looked back at Drem.
“Find Arvid,” she growled.
Drem was moving, Cullen and Keld beside him.
Byrne and her companions hit the Revenants like a silent wave, an explosion of blue fire as their blades struck. The Revenants had their backs to them, their attention focused on the figures swooping down from the rooftop. There must have been more of these winged warriors holding the tunnel exit at the far side of the chamber, because Revenants were congested there, a heaving mass trying to break through, some using their talons to scramble up the walls, trying to reach the tunnel that way. Drem saw a dark-winged warrior filling the space, stabbing with a spear, a flare of blue light.
They have rune-marked blades.
What are they? They have feathers, but they are not white, like the Ben-Elim. Are they half-breeds, like Riv? Drem remembered his only visit to this chamber, how he had felt that he was being watched, and how a huge brown feather had floated down out of the darkness.
They are the guardians Byrne spoke of.
Then he was amongst the Revenants, his shield slung across his back, seax and hand-axe in his fists. He chopped and stabbed left and right, ripples of blue fire stuttering around him. For half a dozen heartbeats he and his companions carved a wedge into the Revenants, but then the creatures were turning, realizing they were attacked from behind, throwing themselves at Drem and the others in frenzied fury.
One leaped at Cullen, talons reaching, and Drem chopped one of its hands off at the wrist. The creature howled; Cullen smashed it in the face with his shield, sending it staggering backwards, and Keld stepped in and buried his sword in the thing’s belly. They fought together, the three of them, Drem losing track of the chamber around him, Byrne and the others lost from view as he, Keld and Cullen formed a half-circle and step by step cut their way into the Revenant rearguard. Two Revenants forced a gap between Drem and Cullen’s shields, broke them apart, another creature clawing at Drem, blood appeared on his thigh below his mail coat. Drem struck at its head; his wrist was caught in a taloned grip, pale face and gaping maw lunging at him.
An arrow crunched into the creature’s skull, a blue flash, and dark wings swept over Drem.
I need to find Arvid. No point just fighting blind.
He quickly glanced around. All was smoke and chaos, flame-cast shadows, Revenants all around him, giving no sense of how the fight was going. He searched the room, glimpsed the stone pedestal ahead of him.
“Keld, Cullen,” he called as he lurched forwards, cutting into the skull of a Revenant rolling on the ground with one of Byrne’s honour guard. Keld and Cullen pushed forwards either side of him, the three of them breaching a way through the havoc. Flames from a burning chair gave a little space—Revenants were avoiding it. Drem leaped over the chair, through the flames, ran on through a black cloud of smoke billowing off the table, and then he was at the pedestal. It was as broad as a tree at the base, with a flat top about as high as his chest. He slipped his axe into a leather loop on his belt and gripped the top, shook his foot at Cullen.
“What?” Cullen said, then stabbed a Revenant.
Keld stepped forwards and cupped his hands for Drem’s boot, hoisting him up. He clambered onto the pedestal, stood straight, wobbled a moment, then found his balance.
Directly ahead of him he could see the bulk of Balur and Ethlinn, black figures swarming them, Balur bellowing. Byrne was close to them, a handful of her honour guard about her, another island in a sea of Revenants. To his right Drem caught the flash of Utul’s flaming sword, Shar fighting with her back to him. Bodies were piled around them, but there seemed like no end to the creatures. Winged warriors were still swooping in and out of the darkness above, loosing arrows, stabbing with spears. Drem saw a Revenant scale the mound of the dead around Utul and Shar and leap, slamming into a winged warrior, the two of them spinning and crashing to the ground.
There are too many of them.
A Revenant hurled itself up at Drem. Cullen crunched his shield into it, sending it careening away, rolling, scrambling on the ground. A shouted order from Keld, and Fen and Ralla rushed in from the shadows, tearing at an arm and leg, Keld stepping forwards and chopping into the Revenant’s face.
“Whatever you’re doing up there, make it quick,” Keld called up to Drem. “You’re making a target of yourself.”
“Stay up there as long as you want,” Cullen said, grinning as another figure launched itself at Drem. He swung his sword, chopping through its neck into clavicle bone. The Revenant collapsed in a heap, dragging Cullen’s trapped sword with it. Keld stepped over Cullen, covering him with his shield while Cullen tried to wrench his blade free of the dying creature.
“Ignore the idiot who can’t even keep hold of his own sword, and hurry up,” Keld shouted up to Drem.
Drem kept searching, and then he saw her.
“ARVID!” he bellowed at the top of his lungs. He saw Ethlinn’s head turn towards him, Utul’s as well, and he pointed towards the far end of the chamber, to the right of the exit, where Revenants were crammed tight, all of them fighting to get at whoever was holding the tunnel’s entrance.
Arvid was there, a knot of motionless Revenants guarding her. It was their stillness that had drawn Drem’s eyes. He saw a winged man swoop down out of the shadows, thrusting a spear close to Arvid. She pointed with her axe and half a dozen of the stationary guard around her burst into motion, scuttling up the wall, stabbing their long talons into the earth of the walls and then launching themselves into the air. Four of them missed the flying warrior, two of them crunched into it, teeth and talons raking. The warrior fell from the air in an explosion of feathers. Drem watched as the man was dragged struggling to Arvid. She reached down and grabbed him by the throat, effortlessly lifting him up in front of her. The man kicked and punched. Arvid opened her mouth unnaturally wide and bit into his face. A high-pitched scream cut through the clamour in the chamber, then the warrior’s arms and legs were slumping.
Arvid threw the corpse away.
Drem felt a wave of nausea, and anger.
He jumped from the pedestal, landed unsteadily and broke into a run. He heard the thump of Keld and Cullen’s boots behind him, the snarling of Fen and Ralla. A Revenant loomed out of the smoke and he chopped and slashed, axe into the face, seax across the chest. It reeled away and Drem was holding his breath through billowing smoke, bursting out of it to see Arvid and her guards, twenty or thirty Revenants. He kept running, knew there was no time for stopping and thinking now.
Speed and surprise are my best chance. Like a predator’s strike. He’d been on enough hunts to know how this worked.
Get in amongst them fast, don’t slow to fight. Cut, stab, move until Arvid is in front of me.
From the right he glimpsed Ethlinn ploughing through the chamber, from the left a flare of Utul’s flaming sword and Shar fighting silently alongside him. They were all converging on Arvid, but Drem was there first.
Arvid didn’t see Drem coming, and in a handful of heartbeats three Revenants were dead or dying, Drem carving through them. Another went down with Drem’s axe in its skull, wrenching his arm as the blade stuck. He slashed with his seax as he juddered to a halt, tugging on his axe.
There was sudden pain in his left leg: talons raking him, blood welling. He stabbed down, his seax slicing through flesh, grating on bone. Another leaped upon him, mouth wide, teeth snapping at his throat. He jerked away, rotten breath washing over him; he lashed out with his seax, a crackle of blue flame.
Drem limped forwards, the pain in his leg burning. Cullen and Keld had been brought to a standstill a few paces ahead of him. Revenants were swarming them, a frenzied mass of teeth and talons. Drem felt wounds opening up, links in his mail tearing. Beyond them a snatched glimpse of Arvid, her black eyes staring at Drem. She lifted her axe and strode towards him.
More Revenants threw themselves at Drem, Keld and Cullen. He saw Cullen drop to one knee as one jumped onto his back. A frozen moment as Drem tried to reach them, the Revenant’s head coming back, mouth wide, teeth bared. Keld turned, swung his sword, but another Revenant slammed into the huntsman, the two of them crashing to the ground. Fen and Ralla leaped in.
Cullen screamed. The figure on his back was biting the red-haired warrior, jaws clamping between his neck and shoulder. Cullen was wearing mail, but Drem saw the spurt of blood.
A flash of flame and Utul was there, his sword leaving a trail of blue fire, the Revenant falling away from Cullen, dead before it hit the ground.
Revenants hurled themselves at Utul, but Shar stepped into Drem’s view, her curved sword making short work of Utul’s assailants. Shar stood with her sword raised in stooping falcon, guarding Utul as he dropped to one knee to check on Cullen.
The Revenants parted. Arvid appeared, standing half a head taller than any around her. She met Drem’s gaze and he saw recognition flare in her eyes.
“Fritha did not catch you, then,” Arvid said, her voice somewhere between a whisper and a hiss, somehow cutting through the din of battle straight into Drem’s head.
“No,” Drem said, straightforward as always.
“Good, Gulla will be well pleased with me, when he hears of your death at my hands.”
“Come on and try,” Drem grunted. He rolled his hand-axe, shifted his feet.
Arvid’s eyes shifted from Drem to Cullen, Utul and Shar, who were only a few paces before her.
Faster than expected, her axe swiped at Shar. There was an explosion of sparks as Shar parried hurriedly and took a step backwards. She ducked another axe blow, stepped in with her own sword slicing at Arvid’s belly, the Revenant’s mail tearing, but deflecting the blow. Shar stepped away on light feet, but Arvid surged after her, axe sweeping low in one hand, talons clawing with the other. Shar caught the axe, deflecting it with a clang of iron, but Arvid’s talons raked across her face, blood spattering, sending Shar spinning with the strength of the blow, falling, Arvid striding after her.
“NO!” Utul yelled, exploding from his crouched position.
He threw himself between Arvid and Shar, who was on her knees, spitting blood.
Utul’s blade flashed, an incandescent rain of fire as he struck at Arvid; she stumbled backwards, blocking Utul’s attack with her axe. Blue light flared as Utul’s blade slashed across her chest, cutting through mail and flesh. Arvid screamed, Revenants around her leaping to her aid.
Utul dropped two Revenants in as many heartbeats, but another raked him with its claws. Utul slashed even as he staggered away, his flaming sword opening its throat. He took a few stumbling steps, trying to right his balance, blood sluicing from the claw marks.
Arvid surged after Utul, axe swinging and crunching into his hip, biting deep, then she ripped it free in a spray of blood and mail. The Revenant’s taloned hand grabbed Utul’s throat, holding him upright. Utul slashed with his sword, Arvid smashed the weak blow away. The sword clattered to the ground, flames sputtering and going out.
Arvid squeezed. Utul spat in the Revenant’s face, even as his eyes bulged, veins purpling. An audible crack as his neck snapped.