Chapter 46: Eternal Flow
A wicked black blade was placed against Wyatt's throat. With each breath he took the razor-sharp edge sawed against his neck, drawing tendrils of blood. The dark knight—Yuber—had his hand on Wyatt's shoulder, holding him in place.
Ignoring the dark knight, Wyatt focused on the others. These he did not recognize. One of them was a pretty girl wearing a temple acolyte's robes, but appearances must deceive, for the girl held a staff about which a plethora of powerful runes spun. A powerful rune sage, for sure. The third and last of the intruders was a young man in a Harmonian bishop's cassock. Again, he would've been easy to discount on account of his boyish face and young age, but anyone who had achieved the rank of bishop of Holy Harmonia was not to be trifled with.
This was a True Rune bearer.
Wyatt focused on the bishop. "Nice company you keep," he said, managing a smile in spite of the blade at his throat.
The bishop took two steps towards him. "I do what I must," he said.
"I doubt that. There's a reason the Sindar hid away these ruins. That machine should never be used."
The bishop glanced over his shoulder at the humming machine. Five spheres hovered within the spinning rings, three of them already imbued with brilliant color. Two more remained gray and slumbering.
"It's just a tool. Tools are made to be used."
Wyatt barely managed to stop himself laughing. He didn't care to feel the black blade's bite any more than he already had. "Tool? It's a weapon. A weapon strong enough to destroy an entire city."
"Or a nation," the bishop said, in a voice so cold, it sent a chill down Wyatt's spine. A thoughtful frown creased the young man's brow. He approached, slowly, each step measured. "I'm going to need your rune, please, Wyatt Lightfellow."
A feeling of dread filled Wyatt's heart. This madman meant to topple nations? Three of the machine's five spheres already glowed with the power of their respective Elemental True Runes. Two more remained. At least Geddoe's True Lightning Rune was safe, somewhere far from this place.
"Wait. Why are you doing this? You seek power? Revenge? Tell me that much, at least. Give me a chance to talk you out of whatever it is you're trying to do!"
The bishop hesitated, then shrugged. "I suppose I owe you that much, seeing as how you've just made my task a lot easier. You're a hard man to track down, Wyatt Lightfellow. My goal is nothing so crude as power or revenge. I seek oblivion. And I seek to prevent our terrible, inevitable future. The Sindar machine is the anvil, and the Elemental True Runes are the hammer. I will use them to SHATTER the True Wind Rune."
Wyatt seized up with the cold horror of the statement. "You're insane… The True Runes are the building blocks of creation! To shatter one would send shockwaves of devastation throughout the entire world… And the rune itself… the explosion of power would wipe out all of the Grasslands!"
The bishop shook his head sadly, as if this line of reasoning was something he'd gone over many times. Perhaps he had. "You do not understand. How could you? You have not seen what I have seen. You are a True Rune bearer, but you have been hiding from your rune for so long. You have not heard its voice as I have. I was created to be a copy of the Perpetuator, Hikusaak. A vessel for the True Wind Rune. But something went wrong. I was fractured. A failure." The bishop lifted a hand to touch his temple. "The True Wind Rune, it speaks directly in my mind, without a barrier between my consciousness and its voice. I have seen what is in store for this world. The True Runes make slaves of us all. Eventually, their task is to bring this world into perfect alignment, realizing the immaculate design of Dharma. When they do, our world will be an empty and lifeless wasteland. By destroying one of the twenty-seven True Runes, I can avert that future, forever."
There was such sadness and fatigue in the young man's eyes. Wyatt felt a wave of pity wash over him. "Listen to me. The True Rune has poisoned your mind. It's driven you insane. You must know this. Let me help you, let me—"
The bishop lifted his hand and invoked the power of his rune. The emblem of the True Wind Rune glared like an evil eye on the back of his palm. The bishop released its power. Wind stirred to life.
A sudden sharp pain shot through Wyatt's arm as a blade of dense air sliced through his wrist. Wyatt howled in pain. It was so intense, his vision swam. When he came to, he was on his knees and teetering, about to fall forward. The dark knight must have released him, he realized. Feeling a dizzy sense of disorientation, he looked down at his hand.
He found a bright red stump where his wrist and hand should have been. He screamed. The cavern danced in his vision. He fell to the ground, shivering and shaking.
He managed to turn his head to look up. The bishop stood above him, staring into the True Water Rune's gentle blue glow. "At last…" the young man said.
Wyatt managed to raise his head. He felt numb. Red liquid dripped from the stump of his hand. Somewhere at the back of his mind he knew that he was bleeding out. But that didn't seem the most important thing, right now.
"Bishop," he said, teeth clacking from the cold. Each breath he took felt like wildfire in his veins. "What you're doing… it will kill thousands of innocent people. Are you prepared… to have all that blood on your hands?"
The bishop looked down at him, and Wyatt thought he saw a hint of sadness in the young man's eyes. "I have made my choice. There's no turning back, now." He gestured to someone—the woman beside him, Wyatt realized, though the thought came slowly, his mind sluggish. The female rune sage approached the True Water Rune and reached out her hand to attune herself to it. She began her work of preparing the rune for the Sindar machine.
Wyatt stared up at the young woman's back. "No… Stop…" he groaned. He shifted onto his side and tried to stand. He only managed to lift his head from the stone floor. He no longer had any feeling in his limbs. But he could still move his left arm. He reached down, fumbled along the side of his leg until he found a pocket in his breeches. He stuck his hand in, dug around, and managed to free a dagger from its hidden sheath. He crawled forward, pushing onto his knees, and prepared to—
A blast of wind knocked him onto his back. The dagger went clattering against the stone and disappeared somewhere out of sight. Which was everywhere, since all Wyatt could see was the shadowy cavern ceiling above him, and the glow of the True Water Rune, somewhere just outside of his field of view. Even all that was going blurry.
His mind was playing tricks on him. He thought he heard footsteps echoing down the corridor outside the chamber. Distant footsteps, but fast approaching. He heard them as thought through a window open to the street below. The bustle of the town square, with its hawkers and criers, its craftsmen and errand boys. He saw himself back in the manor house in Vinay. Anna sat in the rocking chair, smiling, radiant, their infant daughter in her lap. She was singing a lullaby for Chris.
"Ah." The bishop's voice snapped him out of his delusions. "Perhaps I am not the only one who's been looking for you, Master Lightfellow."
Wyatt couldn't quite grasp the meaning in the words. His mind was slipping into darkness, groping like greasy hands on smooth stone for understanding. His eyes stopped seeing. The last sound he heard was the beating of desperate footfalls, racing towards him.
In the distant past he'd left behind, his wife was singing a lullaby to their child.
This was a vision of the past. Chris knew that much. Through her father's eyes, she saw herself appear in the mouth of the dark corridor, racing into the chamber where the Sindar machine stood. Then the vision faded.
Time stood still. Images from other places flickered through Chris' mind, faster than she could process them. Some part of her instinctively understood what was happening to her.
The memories stored in the True Water Rune—the recollections of its past bearers, and the rune's own experiences. The memories were pouring into her. They would drown her, if she could not control them.
A thousand voices from a thousand memories screamed at once, each one demanding her attention. She saw herself as floating in a formless void, surrounded by indistinct images of people and places. Each one was a single memory, she guessed. They all called to her, trying to burrow their way into her head. She spun around, eyes tracking the flashing images, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. The images were too insistent. The voices were too loud. She had to find some pattern. The scenes all seemed unconnected, and each one would vanish in a moment when she focused on it.
She had touched the True Water Rune, and now the rune was trying to communicate with her. Chris felt lost, like a child left in a dark forest and made to find her own way back. She felt as if she would drown in the void. She needed something to anchor her.
She found her anchor in a familiar face. It was a face that conjured sorrow and regret, and those strong feelings helped to ground her. When she focused her attention completely on the young girl's face, the storm of images and voices calmed. She lunged at the image, and the void gave way to another memory.
The moon hung low in the sky above Alma-Kinan, its bright silvery disc partly occluded by swaying branches in the surrounding woods. Wyatt lounged on a stone bench set on a rise at the edge of the village green. From his seat, he had a perfect view of the village, but the moon and the black branches playing on its surface had him spellbound.
"Tell me about her," said the girl sitting beside him.
Wyatt realized his mind had been wandering. He tore his eyes from the moon and smiled guiltily at the girl. "Sorry, Yun. You were saying something?"
"Tell me about her," Yun repeated patiently. "Tell me about your daughter."
He gave a start, then laughed. "Where's that coming from?"
Yun pouted. "I want to know."
Wyatt shrugged and said, "Fine." He reclined on the bench. "I miss her, you know. Every day."
"What was she like?"
He laced his hands behind his head and looked up at the night sky. The wind soughed in the branches. He found the sound comforting. "Stubborn as her mule of a father. Beautiful as her mother. Brave and clever. She was my princess."
Yun hesitated for a moment before saying, "You left her."
Wyatt grimaced. There was no reproach in the girl's words, but they still stung. "I'm not sure I like where this conversation is headed."
The girl was silent for a time. At length, she said, "Do you think she remembers you?"
This was a familiar question. It'd been tossing around Wyatt's head for near twenty years. "I don't know. She didn't get to hang around her old man for too long. But… I hope so."
"It must have been hard… Leaving your wife and daughter behind."
Wyatt opened his eyes and propped himself up on one elbow. He frowned at the girl. "This was shaping up to be a perfectly nice evening, you know." Yun regarded him evenly, one eyebrow lifted ever so slightly. He groaned, sitting up and scratching his head. "The True Runes, you know. Once you have one, it's hard to give it up. The rune pulls and prods. The whole world turns around the runes. Who controls them, who wants them… Whoever wields one becomes a player in the game. And giving it up…" He shook his head. "Who would take it? Who could I place such a burden on?"
"So you left because of the rune," Yun said.
He shrugged. The good spirits had left him. He was feeling like a wrung-out washcloth right about now. "There was no future for my family. The True Rune bearers bring chaos and destruction to everyone around them. As long as I have the rune, people around me will never be safe."
He eyed her suspiciously. "Why all these questions? Is something the matter, Yun?"
The girl's eyes darted away. She smiled, but it looked forced. Fake. "You left to protect your family from those who wished you harm."
"It was about time," he said. "Immortality's a load of shit. It grinds down the people around you. I would've stayed with the knights if I could. It was a good life, and we did good things. But if I'd stayed, people would've started asking questions about the knight who refuses to grow old. Runes! By the time I faked my death, I was supposed to have been with the knights for twenty years, and still not a single gray hair on my head! It was time to retire." He rubbed at his chin, thinking. "I honestly never thought she'd follow in my footsteps."
"Chris," Yun filled in. He nodded. "You didn't expect her to join the knights?"
Wyatt chuckled. "I guess I should've known she'd be too stubborn not to follow her old man. Captain of the Knights! That's a damn fancy title, isn't it?" He tried to keep the grin off his face—no one likes a smug man—but he couldn't help it.
"You're proud of her, aren't you?" Yun asked.
"More than words could say." A wistful feeling chased away the smile on his face. He sighed. "I wish I could tell her that. She'll probably never know."
Yun shifted in her seat. The girl's eyes swung from Wyatt, focusing instead on a spot in front of her—as if sharing a candid look with a hidden watcher. A secret smile played on Yun's lips. "Oh, she will. One day, she will know."
The memory shattered into a million pieces. Eternity ended. Time lurched back into motion.
Chris stumbled to her knees in front of her father's body. An eternity had passed in the blink of an eye as the True Water Rune's memories washed over her. Tears streamed down her cheeks. Yun. Oh, Goddess. Thank you, Yun. Thank you!
The sounds of a battle were all around. Swords and rune magic clashed, filling the chamber with a deafening racket. The stone barrier had been shattered, and she could hear her companions' voices raised in shock and pain and desperation. But Chris hardly noticed them. She only had eyes for one man.
She stared into her father's dead eyes. Through the rune's memories, she had seen him die. She had seen the Masked Bishop murder him. She—
An invisible giant's fist slammed into her. The blow launched her in the air, threw her back across the chamber, and sent her tumbling and sliding across rough stone.
Dazed, she pushed herself onto her elbows. First order of business after getting knocked down in a fight: get on your feet. Captain Galahad's mantra from the sparring field. She got to her feet. Her whole body ached, and her ribs hurt, but nothing seemed to be broken, thank the Goddess.
The Masked Bishop faced her across the cavern. Her mind boggled at the distance between them—had she really been thrown that far? The True Wind Rune hit hard.
With rising horror, Chris felt the pieces come together in her mind. The Sindar machine. The five Elemental True Runes. The Masked Bishop's terrible plan. She had not wanted to believe it, but Yun had been right. They mean to destroy a True Rune!
She realized now that they had been played for fools. The Destroyers had set a trap in the Sindar ruins, and Chris and Geddoe and the others had walked eagerly into it. If they fell here, the Masked Bishop would have all five runes. They had to win. No matter what it took.
The Masked Bishop readied another attack.
This time, Chris was ready.
The True Water Rune shone like an angry star on her hand—ancient and terrible. The True Rune whispered in her mind, showing her images from its storied past. She suddenly knew how to respond.
Awakening the emblem branded on her right hand, Chris channeled the power of a True Rune. The power of creation surged through her body. She felt breathless, as if she were soaring high in the sky. The rune's power was so great, she struggled to control it. It was a torrent, a roaring waterfall, pulling her along like a twig in a raging river. But in the rune's memories, she could feel its past bearers. She could feel her father's guidance.
Just as she was about to drown, she stopped fighting the torrent. She let the raging river carry her along. And suddenly that vast power was hers to command.
She threw up a barrier of ice. Giant crystals manifested from thin air between the Masked Bishop and her. The full force of the True Wind Rune struck her barrier. The ice cracked, but held. The wind forked around the ice, like water flowing around a rock, whipping her hair back as it passed. The wind struck the back wall of the cave with the dull crack of fracturing stone.
Chris shattered the ice barrier with a flick of her wrist. She took in the situation before her. Geddoe threw blasts of lightning against Sarah, who shielded the blows and responded with fire and shuddering earth. Rina supported the mercenary captain with her runes, but they were both tiring. Near the exit, Nash fought a desperate duel against Yuber. The Harmonian spy looked ready to fall over. If not for Yumi exhausting her Earth Rune to keep the dark knight distracted, Nash would have already fallen.
The fate of the Grasslands was dancing on a knife's edge.
Chris drank in the power of the True Water Rune. The air shivered, and ice crystals danced around her. She should have felt a biting chill, but she did not. The True Rune's embrace shielded her from the cold. The power of the True Rune was absolute.
You are a True Rune bearer now, woman, she told herself. So use that power!
She hesitated. She thought about turning the rune's magic on the Sindar weapon. Destroying the machine would make the Masked Bishop's plot impossible. She could end the conflict in one blow. The resulting explosion would almost certainly kill everyone in the chamber, but their sacrifice would save the Grasslands. It would be worth it. Only, who was to say that destroying the Sindar machine would not set off some terrible chain reaction, causing a cataclysm equal to what the Masked Bishop intended?
That was a risk she could not take.
Drawing on the rune's power, Chris summoned great spears of ice and flung them at the Masked Bishop and the Chimera in a deadly barrage. The Masked Bishop raised the winds in his defense. One by one the ice spears slammed against an invisible barrier and shattered into fragments. Step by step the Masked Bishop staggered back.
From the mouth of the tunnel leading into the cave, a voice shouted, "NO!" Nash's voice. Chris dared a glance to the side. What she saw made the blood chill in her veins.
Nash was on his knees, chest heaving with each breath. His arms were splayed out to his sides, hands limply clutching at the strange whip-swords he had been using against Yuber. The dark knight's living shadows danced through the chamber, and the consequences were dire. Yumi and Rina were on the stone floor. Yuber's black blades had done the reaper's work, and the two women lay where they had fallen. From this distance, Chris could not say whether they still lived.
Nothing I can do, she thought bitterly. They have their battle, I have mine. Grimly, she turned her attention back to her own battle, surveying the effects of the True Water Rune's assault.
Frost rimed the Masked Bishop's face and chest. Calmly, he wiped it away with his hand. The True Wind Rune gleamed angrily. The wind howled as the Masked Bishop launched his counter attack.
Chris matched True Rune's might with True Rune's might. The cave shuddered with the force of the clash of the two elemental powers. Frost and ice danced in a gale between Chris and the Masked Bishop. Pain flared throughout her body. The Crown Rune in the pommel of her sword strained against the True Wind Rune's might, but it was a child pulling at a stubborn ox. Even with its help, it was all she could do to hold on. And the moment she let go, the True Wind Rune would tear her to shreds.
Only the madness of Grosser Fluss kept Nash on his feet. The cursed blades drew him back up, refusing to let him yield. They were not done.
Yuber's shadows flickered in the gloom, weaving in circles around him. Each copy bore the same demonic grin. The dark knight was toying with him.
Nash stumbled into a fighting stance. Sweat matted his hair against his face. His shoulder felt stiff where Yuber's blade had caught him off guard. The wound stung each time he moved his arm. "Come then, fiend," he said, spitting his defiance. "I'm just getting warmed up!" The empty bravado settled over him like a warm cloak. He knew it was pointless, but it felt good to die with a grin on his face.
He glanced at the others. Chris was locked in her battle with Luc. Geddoe and Sarah fought their own duel. Yumi and Rina weren't moving. He felt a twinge of regret. How deeply had the dark knight's blades cut them? He prayed their lives could still be saved.
All eight versions of Yuber approached him at a leisurely walk. Thank the Absolute One for arrogant foes, he thought. If he could just keep the dark knight busy, distract him long enough for… for what? Who was he kidding? They were losing, and losing badly. In gambler's terms, all that was left was to decide how to split the pot.
To think he'd unseal Grosser Fluss, and still lose! It was just so embarrassing, he couldn't help but laugh.
"Losing your mind?" Yuber asked. "Don't worry. Your suffering is almost over. You've been dead for a while. I just didn't want to finish so soon." The dark knight shrugged. "I must admit, you gave me better sport than I've had from a human in decades. Those blades you carry are very entertaining!"
"Why don't you come a little closer," Nash said, voice cracking, "I'll show you something even more interesting."
A monstrous grin split Yuber's face. With his eyes hidden by the visor of his horned helm, the smile looked thoroughly inhuman. "I've changed my mind, little human. I'm leaving you for last." The dark knight remained facing Nash, but three of his shadows turned suddenly towards the back of the chamber—where Chris was standing. "Let's see how entertaining you find this!"
Three living shadows raced across the chamber towards Chris. They wore the same black armor and wielded the same twin black blades. Nash knew all too well just how real those blades were.
"CHRIS!" he shouted. "WATCH OUT!"
The Silver Maiden's head turned, but it was too late. All she could do was watch death speeding towards her.
A dark shape came sprinting out of the tunnel leading into the chamber. At first, Nash mistook it for another of Yuber's shadows. It wore the same style of black armor, though chased with silver instead of gold. The blades it wielded, too, were of the same night-black metal. Then Nash recognized the shape of the blades in the stranger's hands.
Karayan daggers.
Chris turned at the sound of Nash calling her name. Hope died in her chest as she saw the three living shadows converging on her. Her rune could not save her—diverting even a fraction of the True Water Rune's power from her desperate defense would mean certain defeat. She did the only thing she could.
She drew her sword.
Yuber's shadows charged her from three directions. One hand raised to fend off the True Wind Rune's assault, she launched a desperate defense against three pairs of black blades. She sidestepped one blade and parried its twin. Ducking, she just barely dodged another pair of blades. She turned to the third shadow, slapping one blade aside and swaying to avoid an overhand slash. The blade clipped her shoulder, drawing blood.
There was no time for panic. Every instinct she had honed in ten years of grueling hard practice was put to work in her mad dance. Every shred of experience from dozens of battlefields guided her steps. A part of her knew the struggle was futile. She could not hope to match Yuber. The dark knight was just playing with her. But another part of her—that obstinate, headstrong girl that had defied all their expectations and all their presumptions to become not just a knight but the captain of the knights? Sherefused to yield. She would make every second count. She would die on her feet.
Stubborn as her mule of a father, Chris thought, with fierce pride.
The dark warrior sprinted into the great chamber. A fight was playing out there. At the back of his mind, he recognized the faces around him. The Harmonian spy. The mercenary captain. The Chimera and the Masked Bishop. The chieftain of the Safir, and the Kinese warrior shaman, their bodies tossed to the floor like ragdolls.
Once, his heart would have leaped at the sight of them—he knew that much. But the person he had been then was dead. Since then, the dark warrior had endured a lifetime in the dark void of the World of Emptiness, honing his fighting skills. He had died a thousand deaths. Only one thing mattered to his cold, dead heart.
The servant of chaos. Yuber.
The enemy had awakened the Eightfold Rune. Seven living shadows were spread about the chamber. The true Yuber—to the dark warrior, the distinction was as simple as telling red from blue—hung back in the corner of the room, while his shadows carried the fight. Three of the shadows had converged on a woman at the opposite end of the chamber. Though hopelessly outmatched, the woman fought like a demon with sword and rune. Her lithe body danced with each thrust and parry. Her hair shone like silver in the light of the Sindar machine.
The woman's face sent a thunderbolt through the dark warrior's cold heart. Distant memories thundered through his mind and made his head spin. Murderer—enemy—friend—ally—lover—
Chris.
The person he had been was dead. But some part of him—a memory—remained at the bottom of his cold heart. Some part of him refused to leave.
The dark warrior charged.
He struck the first of the three shadow from behind. He thrust one dagger through its back and sliced the other across the back of its neck. The shadow exploded coils of smoke. The other two shadows turned to face him. The dark warrior ducked and wove past a flurry of blades, came out past the left shadow's guard, and plunged King Crimson's dagger through armor and breast. Another shadow turned to smoke. The last of the three shadows whipped its blades at his head, forcing him back. He danced outside of the shadow's range, waited for it to overextend, then wove past its defenses and cut its throat. The third shadow vaporized.
The dark warrior stood facing the woman. Their eyes met. The woman's lips parted in confusion. Her eyes went very wide. "What—?"
From behind, Yuber howled: "YOU! You shouldn't be… You can't be here!"
The dark warrior turned from the woman and smiled at the true Yuber. "Did you think you were the only one who gets to break the rules?" Behind the dark warrior, the woman gasped in recognition, but he paid no attention to her. He strode towards the dark knight. "Come, servant of chaos. The final hour approaches. Are you ready to settle this?"
With a roar that evoked the madness that exists in the dark places between worlds, the dark knight launched himself—and his four remaining shadows—towards the dark warrior.
Chris thought she might faint. Even in the face of death, she struggled to focus on her defense against the Masked Bishop's True Wind Rune. She found her attention split between her own fight and the duel of the two dark figures in the center of the chamber.
Her mind reeled with emotion. There had been something familiar about the stranger even from the first moment she had lain eyes on him. When he spoke, his voice removed all doubt. The voice was as cold as the grave, but it was his voice. It was Hugo.
My Hugo.
But how? She could not allow herself to hope. What she was seeing was impossible. Was it another one of the Chimera's tricks? If it were, why was the illusion fighting against the black-armored demon?
Even though she knew it was a terrible mistake and she would suffer for it, she allowed hope to blossom in her heart. She did not have a choice—the feeling was so strong, she thought her chest would burst.
Alive. Hugo is alive.
Suddenly, the fate of the Grasslands seemed a little less important. Suddenly, it did not matter so much to her if she lived or died.
She wanted to help him. But resisting the Masked Bishop's assault took everything she had. She could only watch, and endure.
Nash gaped. He couldn't believe what he was seeing.
The stranger matched Yuber and his four shadows blow for blow. The two black-armored figures fought with the power and ferocity of the storm. Their steps were a dance too intricate to follow, their blades were a blur too fast for human eyes. Crimson light sparked with each parry. Each time the blades met, the black metal wailed as if alive. The sound made the hairs stand up on Nash's arms. Something vast and terrible was building in the air as the dark ones fought.
Nash had the distinct sense that he should not get involved in their fight. Instead, he limped over to where Yumi lay, and knelt beside her. He transferred both hilts of Grosser Fluss into his left hand. He didn't dare seal the ancient weapon—its power coursing through his veins was all that kept him conscious. He held his hand by Yumi's mouth, feeling for a breath.
When he felt the warm air touch his hand, he heaved a sigh of relief. It was faint, but it was there.
He moved on to Rina. The Safir chief lay on her stomach. He had to shift her onto her side first. When he saw her pale face, a sick feeling settled in the pit of his stomach. He held his hand to her mouth, and waited.
Nothing. His heart dropped. He was about to give up when a tiny puff of air misted his fingers. A breath! Rina was alive, but only just barely. She was fading away. They both were.
An animal shriek of pain shocked Nash out of his thoughts. Turning to the middle of the chamber, he saw Yuber stagger back. The dark knight touched a hand to his side, and it came away glistening with dark red liquid. The look on the demon's face was more shock than fear. The living shadows had all returned to the void, leaving the dark knight alone with his assailant.
And his assailant pressed the attack.
Yuber turned, and ran from the chamber.
The stranger followed hot on his heels.
Luc watched Yuber depart from the chamber with a sinking feeling in his stomach. The Silver Maiden was tiring—her body was quivering and her outstretched hand trembled like a leaf. He was winning. But the True Lightning Rune's wielder kept up a tireless barrage of magic, and Sarah was tiring. Without Yuber to aid them, victory seemed more of a gamble than a certainty.
Beside him, the Sindar machine hummed and whirred. At its core, four glowing spheres mingled with one gray, lifeless sphere.
So close. Close enough to graze it with my fingers…
He turned to Sarah. "Oblivion can wait another day. Take us away from this place."
Sarah laid a hand on his arm. With the other, she lifted her staff to summon the power of the Blinking Rune. The magic coursed through them, opening a rift in space and time. She released the spell.
The mercenary captain dashed forward. The man's face was a mask of determination. A gloved hand reached out. Luc's first instinct was: An attack. He's trying to follow us through the teleportation spell. He diverted the power of the True Wind Rune, ready to knock the man back.
But the mercenary captain was not reaching for Luc or Sarah. Instead, his gloved hand closed around one of the runes that hovered around Sarah's staff. Before either of them could react, the Blinking Rune had taken them away.