Chapter Twenty-Nine

The two of them ran back to the temple, leaping through one of the newly-formed gashes in the wall into the temple. Inside, they found a contingent of militia and battle-priests beset by a swarm of wraiths. The villagers were making a valiant effort, but their numbers were dwindling rapidly, three of four of them dying for every wraith they managed to kill.

Ven dove into the fray, cutting and thrusting her way through one beast after another. She couldn’t save all of these people, but she could save a few. In every fleeting glance she caught of one of their faces, she saw Mikken or Old Havard or Anders or her mother. That fed her anger and her focus, and before long the mound of wraith bodies around the little group of survivors had grown to the point that she could no longer see over it to the rest of the temple interior.

Soon enough, the flow of wraiths began to slow, then faded to a halt. Ven stood in the middle of the little group, heaving from exertion, her hair plastered to her head with sweat. Looking around, she suddenly realized Master Eujin wasn’t with her. Feeling a surge of panic, she scrambled over the wall of wraith corpses, looking for any sign of where he went. A flash of movement caught her eye, and she looked up to find him on top of a section of the battlements that still stood, Scarlet Whisper in his hand. Sevastian hung in the air a couple dozen feet above him, suspended by great flaps of his bat-like black wings that blew Master Eujin’s red scarf flapping behind him.

Master Eujin was saying something to him, but she couldn’t hear what it was. Then, in a flurry of action too fast for even her to follow, they were on each other. Great thunderclaps rocked the air as they both streaked through it, colliding in flashes of steel and magic until an explosion tore them apart. Master Eujin fell from the air, tumbling roughly several times on the cobblestone before springing back to his feet a short distance from her.

He gave Ven a glance, a thin line of blood trickling from his head down one cheek.

“Little help, kid?” He asked.

Ven’s face hardened, and she nodded. With a sweep of one hand she beckoned all of the knives she’d already drawn while she freed every other dagger she carried with the other. Within moments, a dozen blades hung around her head like a halo. She fell into stance beside him as she felt a surge of Thaumaturgy pulse through her veins.

“Let’s do this.” She said.

Sevastian landed a short distance from the two of them, his wings displacing the air in a rush as he settled to the ground. He sized the two of them up, seeming almost amused.

“Well Vast, I must say, when I gave you the choice to save her or fight me, I didn’t expect you to end up taking her as an apprentice.” He said. He gave Ven an almost cordial nod. “It’s good to see you still alive, child. And Awakened as well, it seems. I do regret what happened to your village, despite its necessity. I’m sorry it had to happen.”

“Swive off.” Ven said hotly, her fingers whitening around the handle of her sword.

“Now now, there’s no need for that.” Sevastian said, shaking his head. He looked back and forth between the two of them.

“I have no interest or desire in fighting either of you. I am here solely to collect a few Unawakened. Let me have them, and I will leave you two and every other remaining villager in this place in peace.” He said.

“That’s not going to happen, Lecrae.” Eujin said.

Sevastian’s smile faded.

“You have no idea what you are trying to stop me from doing.” He said coldly. “The very existence of this country’s future is at stake. If I don’t get-”

“You should know damn well what I think about this country.” Master Eujin said. “It and every single one of its rulers can go to the hells where they belong.”

He pointed Scarlet Whisper at the man, his face hard and unyielding.

“But I am not interested in hearing your excuses of why slaughtering hundreds of innocents to get your way is somehow acceptable. Now leave, or we will ensure you die here, buried among the corpses of the lives you’ve wasted.” He said.

Sevastian scowled. The air around him seemed to darken, then congealed around each hand before igniting in a flash. In each hand he now held a viciously curved sword of a material black as midnight. He gave each a deft spin as he fell into a combat stance.

“Then I’m afraid you leave me no choice.” He said.

He closed the space between them in an instant, and the only thing that kept Ven’s head on her shoulders was a trio of the daggers orbiting her catching and deflecting the blow. She pivoted into a cross slash with her sword as she willed the rest of her daggers into action. She launched into a counter attack, all of her blades moving in a coordinated flurry. Sevastian moved in a blur, seeming to be in three places at once as he deftly knocked each of them to the side. Then, just as she was about to make contact with her sword, he was inside her guard. He drove the pommel of one of his swords into her stomach with enough force to knock her flying backwards a dozen feet. She tumbled to a halt on her back, utterly unable to breath. She rolled onto her side and coughed heavily, sending a thick gout of blood onto the stone as she struggled to her feet.

Master Eujin was hard-pressed. He was keeping pace with Sevastian’s attacks, and even countering with some of his own, but it was obvious even to Ven that he was nearing the edge of his abilities. She dumped what felt like an extreme amount of Thaumaturgic energy into her veins, willing her body past any limit she’d ever found for it as she rushed back into the fight with a roar. There was some small part of her in the back of her mind that told her she was going too far, that she was going to kill herself if she pushed herself this hard. But she couldn’t find the will to care. All she could think of were the face of those she’d lost, and the life that had been taken from her. She would kill Sevastian Lecrae, or she would die trying. And if she succeeded and died anyway, what did that matter anymore?

She leapt, landing atop two of her dagger blades, and rode them into the air, diving from the sky towards Sevastian. She struck out with her sword as she fell on him, her blade narrowly missing his face as he shifted out of the way. There was a look on his face of surprise, and he snarled at her as he deflected it to the side. He did not, however, have time to get out of the way of all of the daggers she brought raining down with her. Four of them bit into him, one in the shoulder, one in his stomach, and two in one of his thighs. He howled in pain and stumbled back a pace. Ven landed, preparing to strike again.

She did not get the chance. Searing pain roared through her body as a blinding flash engulfed it. By the time she realized what was even happening, she found herself airborne. She crested through the air until she slammed into the remains of the sanctuary ceiling fifty feet off the ground. Her vision exploded in a sea of stars as she felt things break inside her. Now she was falling, the stone floor rushing up to meet her. She reached out for a few of her knives to catch her, but found nothing but empty gaps where their Names had been only moments before. With less than a second left, she threw a concussive blast at the ground. It slowed her, but not enough. Something else in her leg shattered, filling the left side of her body with a new wave of agony and causing her to cry out uncontrollably.

She tried to power herself up, to pull enough magic into her body to make herself able to keep fighting. But it seemed that no amount of magic could power her through her pain any longer. If she was going to keep going, it was going to have to be through willpower alone. She pulled herself up enough to see what was happening, but even this was almost too much for her to bear.

Wounded as he now was, Sevastian was hard-pressed as Master Eujin fell on him, Scarlet Whisper flashing in a vermillion blur, relentlessly seeking any gap, any momentary lapse in attention, to deal a killing blow. For a brief moment, it looked like he was about to succeed.

Then everything went wrong.

Master Eujin brought his blade down with terrifying force, as if he were trying to cut Sevastian by splitting the world in half. The cut was true, but there was no Sevastian there to receive it. Instead, the illusion dissolved as the real Sevastian appeared behind Master Eujin, and Ven screamed as a jet-black sword pierced her master’s back.