“Be gone from me!” Velixar cried, yanking down his arms. Power exploded from him, shoving the darkness back. Six fingered hands ripped up from the black, some smaller than a child’s, some as large as houses. Each one lunged to the sky, clutching and grabbing at the elves that circled above.
“Retreat!” one elf shouted, banking as black fingers tore through the air just before his mount. Another screamed as a hundred tiny hands enveloped him, crushing the life from his body. Dieredon clutched Sonowin’s neck as a hand the size of a tree swung open-palmed at him as if swatting a fly. Sonowin spun, diving closer to the darkness and underneath the giant hand.
Cries of pain filled the night as more and more elves fell to the reaching black magic.
Dieredon held on tight, trusting Sonowin with his life. He scanned the battlefield as they whirled up and down, over one hand and then dancing away from another. Just as Sonowin pulled higher and higher into the air, outracing more than seven growing hands reaching up for them, the elf spotted two lone figures amid the sea of dead.
“Sonowin,” he shouted to his steed. “There, you must get to them!”
The horse snorted, banked around and dove straight for the approaching hands. A quick spiral avoided the first wave. Dieredon clutched his bow as he held on for dear life, his eyes locked on the man in black who stood perfectly still, his arms at downward angles from his body. The rest of the elves were in full retreat. He was the only one left.
Qurrah watched Dieredon’s approach with a gnawing fear in his chest. It seemed no hand could touch this one, the horse possessing dexterity beyond what any creature that size should have had. Velixar showed no sign of being aware of their approach, his eyes rolled back into his head as he controlled the multitude of magical hands.
“Be gone,” Qurrah said, firing several pieces of bone. All pieces missed. He tried to cast another hemorrhage spell but the words felt heavy and drunk on his tongue. His mind ached, his chest heaved, and when the spell finished it created nothing but a wound the size of an arrowhead in the side of Sonowin.
“Master, defend yourself!” Qurrah shouted as loud as he could. Still nothing. More and more hands curled in, surrounding Dieredon and Sonowin in a magical maelstrom, yet still they came.
“Fly, Sonowin,” the elf shouted. “Fly safe!”
Dieredon leapt from Sonowin’s back, the blades on his bow gleaming. He fell through the air, the long spike on the bottom aimed directly for Velixar’s head.
“Master!” Qurrah shouted again, shoving his body against Velixar's. His concentration broken, Velixar lost his control of the black fog. The darkness swirled inward as if Velixar were the center of a giant drain. The blackness filled him, surrounded him, and consumed him. When all returned, and Dieredon about to land, a wave of pure sound and power exploded outward. Velixar was awaking, and he was angry.
Qurrah flew through the air from this wave, crashing against a giant undead man still wearing rusted platemail. The collision blasted the air from his lungs. When he hit the ground, stars filled his vision. Dieredon fought but could not resist that same wave of power. The point of his blade halted a foot from the top of the black hood before he flew back. In the distance, Qurrah watched his master glaring at the damned elf that had fallen like a mad man with his bladed bow.
“Scoutmaster,” Velixar growled, his voice deep and dark like an ancient daemon of old. “Twice you have looked upon me and lived. No more.”
Dieredon twirled his bow, his face calm and emotionless.
“Too many have died at your hand. What life you have ends tonight.”
Velixar roared, a sound that made Qurrah shiver and avert his eyes. His master’s back was to him so he could not see the face that Dieredon saw, full of rotted skin and crawling, feasting things.
Suddenly Dieredon pulled back. The blades in his bow snapped inward.
“Arrows cannot hurt me,” Velixar mocked. “They did not the first time. Why do you hope so now?”
“Because these arrows are different.”
He fired three at once, all burying deep into Velixar’s chest. The man in black screamed as the blessed water covering them burned his skin. He fell to one knee and vomited a pile of white flesh and maggots.
“You will suffer,” he gasped. “For ages, I will make you suffer.”
“Try it,” said Dieredon.
Two more arrows flew, but they halted in mid-air. Velixar stood, his hand outstretched, gripping the projectiles with his mind. The elf fired two more volleys but all the arrows froze beside the others.
“Fool,” Velixar hissed. At once, the arrows turned and resumed their flight, straight at Dieredon. The elf dove, rolling underneath the barrage. Not an arrow had hit earth before the elf tucked his feet and kicked. The blades sprang from his bow. He crossed the distance between the two in a heartbeat.
Velixar accepted a stab deep into his chest. A pale hand grabbed Dieredon’s throat, its grip iron and its flesh ice.
“It will be painful,” Velixar said. Vile magic swirled about his hand, pouring into Dieredon’s neck. The blood in his veins there clotted and thickened, flooding his mind with pain.
A toss of his hand and the elf flew through the air. He rolled across the ground without the usual grace he had shown in combat.
Qurrah glanced about, paralyzed with fear. The remaining elves were returning, deadly and furious, and the darkness that had protected them was gone.
“Do you feel it?” Velixar said, stalking over to the dying elf. “The blood in your throat is clotting. Your mind will starve and your heart will burst trying to force blood through.”
He knew he should speak. He had to warn master. But he could not open his mouth. He could not move. The pegasi were closer. They were readying their bows. He had to speak!
“Can you feel it?” the man in black asked. “Can you feel your heart shudder and throb? Here, let me help your pain.”
Dieredon lay on his back, staring up at him. His chest was a mess of pain, his mind light and dizzy. As Velixar reached down, his maggoty face smiling, his hand dripping with unholy magic, a wave of arrows rained upon him. Five buried into Velixar’s back. Six more found his legs and arms. He arched and shrieked as the blessed water flooded his wretched body with pain unimaginable.
Dieredon staggered to his feet, his bow still in his hands. The man in black reached around and tore out the arrows from his body. Still no blood flowed.
“My name is Dieredon,” the elf gasped. “Know it before I send you to the abyss.”
He fired two arrows, one for each eye. They shattered into fire, and finally blood did flow. It ran down the dead flesh and bone that was his face, over his black robes, and pooled in the grass below. He fell prone, still screaming out his anger and fury. Five hundred years he had walked the land of Dezrel. All that time, all those killings, and this was how he would fail.
“Karak!” he shouted, all his power fleeing him. His undead minions collapsed, their souls released. The gates to the abyss opened before his eyes, and he felt the pull on his soul. The dark fire already burned. He saw the face of his master, and the sick grin there horrified him.
“I will not die!” he shrieked. “I will not die!”
His flesh burned in fire, his bones blew away as dust on the wind, and only an empty robe remained of the being that was Velixar. Yet, still haunting the wind, was his final cry, a promise to the world of Dezrel.
“I will not die!”
17
Miles away, Harruq awoke screaming. Aurelia rushed to his side as he curled into a ball, shuddering greatly.
“He’s dead,” he said. Cold sweat covered his body. Remnants of his nightmare floated before his eyes, the icy voice of Velixar rolling over him in his vengeful fury. All he’d known, all he’d ever loved, was dead and gone. Only Karak had remained, furious at the loss. Through it all, one single fact pulsed as an undeniable truth.