Teagys Carbon: Wh...where or when did I say I have a fear of long words? I have hemophobia, blood fear, but I didn't say I have a fear of long words. And I think I've said this five or six times now, to different people whose names I will not say at their request- BloodFire carries a moderately unimportant role in this, the second and maybe the third book, (which is primarily why I choose to name this book after it) but I promise you that if you just let me write my story it will be addressed. I promise that with or without your pointing out how much little sense it makes it will make sense eventually. Maybe not this chapter, maybe not the next. But it will. I promise you that. If I just go off and explain what it is it will lay waste to three future books and maybe a year or two of writing time.
Valkyrie-chick: :) No that won't be happening for another two books or more.
Owltalon: :) UPDATE!
Alice Prince: :) Thank you. Appreciate that, my awesome beta reader.
Antclift: 1. her ears are ultra sensitive and thus the noise of a battle pains her, so putting them away helps that. 2. You bet your sweet honey mustard I am. :) That truth needs to be heard.
The sound of Aesire's feet flying down the stairs echoed through the halls. His thoughts raced as he tried to come up with some strategy to make his plan work. Two hours had passed since he sent Eragon out to aid in the battle. Everything's has been set up for me; why can't I think of some way to make it work? Despite the Varden's overwhelming advantage in regards with Aesire's trap, the Empire's solders were doing a marvelous job of repelling them. There were a fair number of men who feel no pain, but the larger portions of the men were ordinary and had little more to rely on than their swords.
Aesire stopped beside an open window and looked down from the vantage point onto the city below. Buildings burned like bonfires throughout a third of the city. Bodies vestured the ground so heavily one could not walk in a straight line for more than a few feet in any given direction.
Finally, he thought as he saw a black speck plummeted towards him. Eragon! He called with all his might. Though he could not use magic, the skill of telepathy had come to him with Eragon's help in the past weeks.
What? came the curt reply. Just as he responded, he felt Eragon slash open a man from head to toe.
It's ready.
Shall I send for Saphira?
Yes. It's crucial she distract Shruikan. By my blood and honor, that dragon will be freed from Galbatorix this day.
Aesire tightened his grip on his sword, preparing himself. Everything is where I foresaw it would be. Today it ends. Fifteen years, he thought in a distant way. Fifteen years I have been playing this game, but today I mean to win it.
He took off running once more as he saw Eragon run through a passageway that would take him to the spot Aesire could be waiting for him. As they rejoined, Shruikan let out a resounding roar as Saphira barreled into him. Everything is in place, he thought as Galbatorix jumped off the back of his dragon and caught himself on one of the tiers of the citadel, not five hundred feet from Aesire. Today it ends.
With effortless grace acquired from years of experience, Zodion caught the tip of a sword and deflected it to one side. The man he was fighting staggered forward and as he did, Zodion opened his palm with the shard of the Floating Crystal tied to it released a small blast of the oceans of energy stored within it. The blast of energy worked like a pulse of destructive force that could not be stopped, slowed, averted or dodged, which was why it was his weapon of choice. The shard absorbed the energy of whatever was close to it, including his own, and stored all of it with nearly no limit to how much it could hold. It then held the energy until whoever wielded it sent a thought through and released however much of the energy they desired, resulted in the blast of pure energy. He loved the shard over all else, for on a weak day it was enough to rip every fiber of a man's body apart so that he disintegrated like sand. And that was of great help when the bounty he was after had guards. He had held the shard for nearly ten years and he had learned how to focus the blast so that it went straight at a single spot and did not destroy the entire area.
The shard did have one drawback, however. It attainted energy from its surroundings, and once it held that energy, it refused to let go of it without recompense. Therefore, every time he used it he had to replace the energy he had used with something. That was one of the primary reasons he wore it on his hand; so that he could stop any magic directed at him and sate the shard's incredible appetite. If he fed the shard before he had to use it in battle, it would not draw on his strength to replenish its stock. It was an utterly invincible weapon, unspeakably superior to swords and arrows.
The shard was not his only means of supernatural magic. Contained in a transparent bottle was one of the werelights of Aroughs. If the light met a man's eye under the right circumstances, it would blind him for several hours. That weapon, however, he used sparingly and only as a last resort defense, for each time it was used, the werelight faded.
Zodion leapt to the side as a bear of a man attempted to crush him with an axe. Rather than use the shard, which would take a large amount of energy, he jumped past the man's guard and punctured one of the pressure points on his neck. The man collapsed, unconscious. It was a trick he had picked up from many bounty hunts which required capturing the target alive. He looked up at the citadel's tower as the black and blue dragon collided in a vicious battle of teeth and claws. A black form jumped off the back of the black dragon and caught itself on one of the tears of the citadel. As it climbed up out of his view he thought, There goes the man I've taken sixty seven hunts for. He had no time to dwell upon the observation as Nasuada rode up beside him and said, "Come, quickly!"
Without a word, he jumped up and onto her horse. "Surprised you joined us with the condition of your arms."
"We need all of our arms to fight this battle, including those that are injured."
Letting the matter drop he said, "Where are your guards?"
"They are off fighting. I will not deprive the Varden of the victory they have been waiting to taste for nigh on eighty years because I wanted a few more hands to defend me."
"Thus, the reason I am now on this horse and not bathing the ground in the blood of your enemies."
"Aesire said that you were one of the three best strategists in the world; is that not so?"
"Intelligence is impossible to quantify on a level sufficient to establish rank. However, if you mean to call into question my intellect and not my rank in compared to others thereof, yes, I believe so."
"A simple yes would have sufficed."
"Now where would the fun be in that? As you were saying?"
"There are a fair number of men who feel no pain in the Empire's troops. Can you think of anyway to stop them from-" then, they rounded a house corner and Zodion saw out of the corner of his eye a solder crouched in the street beside them, a raised crossbow to his shoulder. As the soldier pulled the trigger, the dart buzzed towards them at an incredible speed. Zodion's years of hunting those who knew they were being hunted had sharpened his reactions to an almost feline level, but even so, he had hardly anytime to react. A fierce fire leapt up in his stomach as he twisted in his saddle and held out his left hand in the bolt's path. He uttered a pained cry as the arrow embedded itself in his flesh, splitting through his hand and protruding out the other side. He relaxed his right hand and sent a command through the shard and it released so much energy that it obliterated not only the solder but everything that had been beside him for a fifteen foot radius.
Nasuada gasped, for the entire span of the solders attack and Zodion's subsequent injury had lasted all of five seconds. She pulled on the reins of her horse until he slowed to a stop. "What happened?" she asked in a startled voice.
Zodion gripped the arrow in his hand and ripped it out, gritting his teeth against the pain. With his right hand, he reached into the collar of his shirt and took out a vial as white as the moon attached to a string that held it around his neck. He unclasped it and poured a single drop onto the gaping wound in his hand. Steam roiled up from the gash and the cut mended itself, almost as if it had evaporated. He flexed his hand experimentally then replaced the vial to where it had. Nasuada noticed that the container matched the one she had been wearing the night she had been with Aesire in all but color. She looked up as Zodion said, "What?"
"That...vial. It looks identical to the one that man gave me before I seduced Aesire."
"Does it?" he asked sarcastically. He took a deep breath and pulled the container out again. "The veil itself is made from crystal that's been growing since the Beor Mountains were mere hills. It's as hard as any substance known to man. The liquid inside," he said with evident pride, "is water from the Dream Wells of Mani's cave. One drop can cure any injury short of death." He tucked it back into his shirt. "As for this alleged man, his vial is not mine. I carry it everywhere I go, day and night. There are many more than this one."
She looked down at his hand. "You took an arrow for me. If not for you, I would be dead right now."
"Any other man in your army would do likewise."
"No other man in my army would have seen the bolt coming and react in time.
"You should not disregard those that would give their lives to save yours so freely. Every man in your army would sacrifice himself for no other reason other than you would do likewise."
"Even so," Nasuada said, "I am grateful to you."
Zodion raised his arm out past her and sent a pulsing force of energy at a group of solders, sending them falling back in a clamor of armor clanging against armor. "The store of energy in my shard is almost drained and soon it will start drawing on my energy; so please, may we go? I wish to use some of it on these painless solders you were speaking of."
Nasuada kept his gaze for a moment, then jabbed her stead's sides and sent him galloping of into the fray.
Galbatorix straightened his back as he saw his old general run down one of his citadel's main passageway. Run, Aesire, he thought. Run as far as you can; what little good it will do you. I must admit, though, he thought as Aesire pulled himself up into a small compartment and dropped down on the other side. He knows my palace better than I do. Regardless, today will have the same outcome. With no caution as to any danger, he pressed his mind into Aesire's, feeling his every thought before he had a chance to think it.
Saphira let out a resounding roar, drawing his attention as she collided with the wall and snapped at him. Dispose of her, he told his mind slave black dragon. Do not kill her. Distract her until I capture Eragon.
Shruikan barreled out of the sky and rammed into Saphira broadside, pulling her down to the city. Now which one will I go after first? he thought as he returned his attention to Aesire and Eragon. He scowled as he felt the two of them regroup a thousand feet away. Why did they separate if they only meant to regroup? He shrugged. Little good it will do either of them. I can dispose of Aesire before I capture Eragon; he is obsolete. He stepped up to the side of open archway, looking down on his warriors. Every last one of them had been forced to swear loyalty to him in the Ancient Language. Pawns. He felt with his mind for Aesire and Eragon, finding them running up stairs to the tip if the citadel. My throne room, he thought with a sneer. Yes. That would be a very appropriate place to do away with Aesire. With a sweep of his cape, he set out after them, brandishing his long black sword.
What now will you do? he thought to Aesire when he started up the stairs that set Eragon and Aesire in a trapped position. There is no way down from here but past me. You cannot depend on your dragon, Eragon; or your logic, Aesire. You are trapped with no way out and soon I will kill you Aesire; and enslave you Eragon. What now will you do when I know your every thought before you think to think it?
This is the beginning of the end for the free peoples that remain in this world.
Put up a new poll on my main page. Love to hear your opinion on the question.
So why do chicken nuggets taste so incomplete without ketchup? Obvious! Without the ketchup the nugget gets dry. Ketchupless nuggets are like dry water! A happy thief! And other such oxymoron's such as these!
:0 HOLY CRAP! GALBATORIX POV! I did not see that coming.
Did you know that jay used to be slang for stupid? So when you walked across a busy street you were referred to as a jaywalker. Did you know that Al Capone's brother was a cop? Did you know that John Wilkes Booth's brother once saved the life of Abraham Lincoln's son?
Since we did a really odd fact last time, may as well do it again.
Did you know that in the movie Braveheart, during the battle scene at the end, the entire scene had to be cut and then redone because the producers realized that dozens of the people playing the men in the movie were wearing sunglasses and digital watches?
Oh, irony, how I love you so.