Chapter Twenty Four: Betrayal
Ajihad saw the beam impact Brom in front of him and he saw in slow motion as his body impacted the ground, his eyes still transfixed on the man who had launched the assault. Overcome by rage he launched himself against the nearest soldier of the Empire. He was so overcome by blind rage that he didn't notice another bright violet beam that impacted his chest. He felt the energy burn through the wards that had been placed upon him and felt the icy cold energy touch his chest, his life energy leaving him, falling to the ground he faintly heard Trianna and a few other sorceres of Du Vrangr Gata scream as their life energy was janked from their bodies. Unlike most Kings and Leaders, he didn't tie most magicians and sorceress powers to his personal wards leaving them free to put their power to better use not that tying them all to his wards would have changed anything as the enemy magician was to powerful.
With a shout of anger Eragon hopped on Saphira's back and flew toward the enemy magician while assaulting his mind. He found himself unable of powering through the magician's mental defenses even when he added the Eldunaris extra mental powers, he was too well trained to let his mental defenses down. Saphira crashed against the metal Dragon but her claws merely scratched the surface as the metallic dragon hit her with its tail, sending Saphira crashing down. Stopping her free fall Saphira tried to gain altitude but she couldn't as the metallic dragon had closed the gap between the two and was now bearing down on Saphira trying to hit her with his tail, while Saphira dodged. As a last resort Saphira used a trick that she had perfected with Harry exactly for this kind of situations when she was to close to use a column of fire, - and with a breath she unleashed a fireball the size of Eragon's uperbody, blowing the metallic contraption away, his metallic body slightly melted in the chest area where the fireball impacted.
Saphira reasumed the altitude even faster than the metallic dragon, she was the fastest flyer of the three, thanks to her extensive weight training,- and blew a column of fire toward the metallic contraption. This one was expected and the magician cast a spell to defend himself and the metallic dragon. The metallic dragon opened his mouth to show his metallic teeth and from down his throat light of different shades and colors came but they didn't have the time to admire the view as a wave of force, originating from the metallic dragons mouth, - hit Saphira squarely in the chest, sending her back and slightly dazing her. Wondering why the other two Riders hadn't come to his help, he drew upon the power of the Eldunari as he cast a spell that caused a part of the steel scales to rust, the good thing about this spell was that it didn't even cost that much energy and he only needed the power of the Eldunari to make sure that in that his opponent couldn't capitalize on that moment that he wasn't fully focused.
The other magician stopped the spell but that left him and his metallic dragon open to an attack especially as the damge to the metallic body caused something within the metallic dragon to stir up and he had to quell it down. Saphira tried to roast him again but he stopped it with a simple spell, the only problem, it wasn't meant to roast them and when the flames died down, Saphira was standing next to the metallic dragon and clawed at him with magically enhanced claws this time scoring more than mere scratches and causing the metallic dragon to once again shake uncontrollably. Eragon jumped in the metallic dragon back and taking out Du Blothr abr Andlat and transforming it into a spear, with that he stabbed the metallic dragon and transforming the upper half of the spear into a whip made out of metal; - he launched himself forward toward the magician with Brisngr in his hand. Whispering its name the sword burst into sapphire flames and the magician lost his hand before he could react. With his other hand the magician blasted Eragon away with a violet blast but the metallic whip stopped him from falling down.
The magician quickly grabbed his arm and whispered a short verse he reattached it and then turned toward Saphira and with a spell froze her in mid-air. His victory was short lived as Eragon got back up from the side of the metallic dragon and with a swipe of Brisingr, he damaged the metallic dragons wing, once again causing it to shake and the magician had to abandon his spell on Saphira to reign the dragon and raise a protective spell to defend from a downward swing of Eragon. While the spell to protect from a Riders sword should theoretically take a lot of power the magician barely flinched but when he saw a familiar green glow emanate from his robe he understood, Galbatorix had given one of his magicians, a pretty good one if withstanding his mental assault was any indicator of it,- an Eldunari and this metallic contraption that was probably powered by Eldunaris like Cuaroc was.
With a spell the magician pushed him back and shot a beam of violet energy against him. Batting the beam of light away using the flat of Brisingr, he rushed the magician but at the last moment he slid underneath, avoiding another beam of violet light but before he could impaled him the magician hit him with a wave of force, hard enough that he could swear he heard one of his ribs crack and he had to let go of the whip. The magician watched with glee as Eragon fell with a look of dread until his face changed into a smile and he understood that something was wrong as Eragon threw a piece of cloth that ripped itself until it was a whip wrapped around the metallic dragons throat and he pushed himself towards its head, where he stabbed the metallic dragon in the right eye.
Using the momentum provided by the thrashing of the metallic dragon, he hopped on its back and ran toward the magician. Seeing him the magician quickly raised a shield upon which Brisingr was stopped but instead of being frustrated Eragon smiled as he punched him in the nose with all his strength. Normally a punch to the nose wasn't deadly not even with elven strength but Eorr hadn't just taught them swordsmanship, he also taught them to use a variety of weapons and hand to hand combat and this was one of the twenty ways to kill a man into a single hit that he had taught them, by hitting them on the nose hard enough to sent the bone in the nose straight to the brain. He cursed as he felt the pain in his knuckles, he had put to much strength behind that blow, carried away from the adrenaline in his body and he had most probably broken his knuckles.
Pushing that though away he slammed Brisngr down on the metallic dragons back, he also called back Du Blothr abr Andlat to him and transformed it into a blade identical to Brisingr, minus the unearthly glow that all Riders swords had and than he stabbed that too into the metallic contraptions back and with a spell he sent them in opposite direction, creating a cut that spanned the entire length of the metallic dragon. With a noise like that of massive amounts of water rushing back into the bed of a river or a sea, the metallic dragons back exploded into a shower of multi-colored lights as the body was melted by the lights though no heat came from them, the contrary actually as the air around him became colder as the anger and wrath emanated from the now melted metallic body.
Eragon should have fallen, now that that there was nowhere to stand but the two hundreds globes of light kept him levitating in mid-air. He immmediatly realized what the globes of light were, Spirits, though he assumed them to be all golden colored but apparently he was wrong in his assumption, it was just that Harry only summoned golden colored Spirits. He could feel them go through his mental defenses but since he also felt that the Eldunari let them do so he relaxed, the Eldunari would never let them hurt him, for no reason in the entire world. After a few moments the voices spoke to him within his mind.
"It seems that once again we owe you our fredomm" said the collective voices of the Spirits.
"Apparently, though as you may understand both occasions it was in fight for mine and Saphira's life" replied Eragon.
"Nonetheless we still owe you and we always pay our debts"said the voice.
"Thank you for your consideration" said Eragon.
"Don't worry young one, we wills end you down momentarily but now we give you this flower, it possesses the power of peace, it will help solve any quarrel fought in its presence, it can also be planted anywhere so more can be born" said the Spirits as a golden lotus appeared in his hands "once the war is over, you'll need our help once more, summon us again and we will answer your call, Spirit Friend"
"This gift is invaluable, I don't know how to thank you" said Eragon.
"Just stop the Darkness from winning" said the Spirits as the put him on Saphira's back, her wounds from fighting the metallic prison all healed and her armor repaired.
Loking at himself Eragon found that all his wounds were gone also, his armor repaired and his energy reserves replenished. Looking down at the battlefield he understood why no one came to his help, his mind had been to clouded by rage at his father death and then he was solely focused on the battle to understand that they Vardens and Surdans would have been demoralized by Ajihad's and Brom's death, they had been to euphoric so their sudden losses had been even harder to accept and had almost fully destroyed the Varden morale and it had been only the presence of Murtagh, Aria and Harry what had stopped them from being routed completely. The good news was that the Dwarves were finally there and their arrival had once again helped the morale as another war hero was there with a pretty large and what was more important fresh army.
The bad news, it wasn't enough to defeat the Imperial army as while they were pretty much even on the numerical side their position was more favorable. While the magician wasn't Galbatorix, the death of two the two Varden legends hadn't been planned and the effect on the morale had been the same as if Galbatorix's himself had come down raining fire and destruction on them. Anything could swing this battle in the favor of one side or another. Gaining altitude Eragon saw it, a large host of Kulls approaching quickly toward the rear of left flank of the fighting. This hadn't been planned at all, this Kulls could truly shift the fate of the battle in the favor of the Imperial army, though how Galbatorix had achieved to enslave them again was beyond him, as they would have surely put wards to block that.
Saphira flew toward them at her top speed, they were many but he wasn't the most powerful and skilled of the three new Dragon Riders and that was without putting the Eldunari in the equation, speking of which, the magicians Eldunari had been absorbed into the pocket of space by the other Eldunari and he could feel the newly added strength, apparently it was pretty big and powerful so it meant the fool hadn't even been capable of creating a proper pocket of space. A few minutes later the Kulls saw him and he felt the minds of their magicians try to touch his but stangely he felt no ill intetn and was motivated to open his mid to them, albeit partially, then again even if they tried to overhelm him he could always use te extra power of the Eldunari to overcame them all and easily kill them.
"What?" asked Eragon mentally.
"Our chieftain Nar Gazhvog is here to help you, o mighty Firesword, in defeating the lying and treacherous scum of the Empire" said the magician, hate seeping at the mention of the Empire.
"Why didn't you come earlier then?" asked Eragon, suspicious at this turn of events.
"We couldn't go to Surda or to the Dwarves, or they would have killed us on sight, and when you came within the Empires territory, our magicians lost you from their sight until a few hours ago" replied the magician.
"Umm, that makes sense, I totally forgot about Harry's wards" said Eragon "so what is it that you are going to ask, in exchange?"
"Land, for our tribes, so that we no longer need to fight over land" answered the magician.
"I shall do my best, you have my word as a Dragon Rider but before I let you go, I must control your minds for any betrayal" said Eragon.
"I expected no less and as show of goodwill our leader Nar Garzhvog is willing to be the first to be controlled" said the magician.
Not wasting any time, he entered the minds of over thirty different Kulls, at the same time, the Eldunaris enhancements making it a piece of cake. What he found there surprised him quite a bit, the Urgals and their stronger brethren, the Kulls,- weren't evil beings, warriors and hunters by nature, yes but not evil per se. Of course he had read about their culture in the elven libraries but he was reluctant to believe it but before him stood the proof that he was wrong. Before finding his True Name, he wouldn't have accepted it and would be paranoiac nearby any Kull but now that he fully knew himself he could truly accept it and would only be wary when around them. When he was finished, he sent a mental message to the other two Dragon Riders and the magicians of the allied forces.
With that done Saphira lifted of the ground generating a small dust cloud and then fly at her top speed toward the battlefield, the Kull company following her with glutural shouts of battle. His return served to put more fear into the remaining Imperial soldiers. As Saphira shot fire to anywhere she could do so without damaging their allies, Eragon opened his mind searching for any enemy magician, in doing so drawing upon the power of the Eldunari further boosting, his already massive mental powers. It took him a full ten minutes to find one, his defenses were at this point a mere bother as he took over his mind, found what troops he protected and killed them and the magician with a few words.
The Kulls arrival had already tipped the battle in their favor, the Imperial forces leaving, having already realized that they couldn't win, tried to escape but upon finding their escape route totally blocked by the Dwarven forces, many deserted and the rest scattered in the plains surrounding Feinster. Not many would make it out alive, as Orrin dispatched his famed knights to take care of them, accompanied by a large portion of the Varden cavalry led by Harry. As the fighting died down, a portion of the Varden tried to kill the Kulls, on their defense, they didn't even blink at their threats, - but a massive wall of fire and three really pissed off Dragons changed their minds and forced them to begrudgingly accept their presence. Not finding the metal strength to join the Varden council, King Orrin and Hrothgar in the commanders tent,- he continued to heal all the wounded he could, those that he couldn't, he drained them of their energy, giving them a quick and painless death,- and used their energy to save even more lives. After a few hours of healing all that he could, he feel tiredness settle over him, not having used any energy from the Eldunari in the healing but only his own and what he absorbed by those he couldn't help,- that was totally normaly.
Deciding to walk back to where the camp was placed, he took off at a leisured pace, finally allowing himself to mourn for his father and Ajihad, though he had know the man for a relatively short time, he liked him well enough. He knew that he couldn't have done anything for his father from the distance at which he was but at least he had avenged them, by killing the man who had done this to him. While he had never taken pleasure in the death of other people, the death of this man awoke in him a sadistic pleasure that frankly scared Eragon, though knowing himself, that was natural, his base instincts had required him to extract revenge on someone harming those close to him and that's why he was content to have taken his life.
In fifteen minutes, Eragon found himself in front of the entrance of the command tent. Slowly he entered and found the entire Varden council, King Orrin and Hrothgar, deep in argument over the successor of Ajihad, while Aria and Murtagh stood to the side, covered in grime and blood. As soon as they saw him enter, they were by his side, faster than the human eye could follow,- placing their hand on his shoulders, the look on their eyes told him everything, the knew each other well enough not to need words. The other occupants looked at him, their faces expressing sympathy but he knew that each and everyone of them was calculating the best way to profit from his grief too gain a better position for their people.
"Our condolences to you, Shadeslayer, Brom was our greates leader and most devoted supporter of our case and his death pains us all" said Falberd.
"So do the people of Surda mourn the loss of such a great man" said King Orrin, Eragon beliving him a bit more because he was almost inept at such kind of deception and his mind leaked that his emotions were true.
"Our people give their their condolences to you" said King Hrothgar, his eyes showing true grief for the loss of Brom and Ajihad, them having been true friends and not some vassal of his trying to gain his favor.
"Thanks to all of you but we have other matters on which to focus on right now" said Eragon surprising everyone except for Aria and Murtagh, who knew him well enough.
"Yes, we have come to the conclusion that the one best suited to lead us would be you" said Umerth.
"They want to tie us to the Varden and by consequence Aria and Murtagh too" said Eragon to Saphira mentally.
"I agree, so what about disprupting their plots a bit" replied Saphira enraged at the though of being binded by a bunch of meat sacks.
"I'm afraid that the Order of Dragon Rdiers must keep their neutrality" said Eragon casuing the elders to seethe in silent rage and looks of triump appear on the faces of Orrin and Hrothgar.
"Do you have anyone in mind, Eragon?" asked Hrothgar.
"Nasuada, I think would be perfect" replied Eragon, causing the council to mentally cheer thinking they won, while Hrothgar and Orrin who knew that Nasuada had been grommed for years now by Ajihad to take his place,- smiled lightly.
"They think they have won a puppet" said Saphira.
"But they have only won a ruler as strong or stronger than Ajihad" added Firnen.
"I'm going to love seeing their asses handed over to them" said Thorn with the dracoic version of a smirk.
"Me, too" replied the three Dragon Riders at the same time.
"If there is nothing else, I will be retiring to my tent, the battle is taking its toll on me" said Eragon.
"Of course, rest, you'll need your strength, but before you leave when do you want for Broms funeral to be arranged?" asked Jormund.
"I'll make the arrangements myself, you don't need to worry" said Eragon going out of the tent.
Walking through the rows of tents stretching through the entire field, he caught the admiration the humans and dwarfs in the camp had for him and he was disgusted with himself, because they admired him for taking the lives of other people, for destroying the potential that everyone he had killed possessed, the worshipped him for healing those that he had directly or indirectly had caused to be harmed in the first place. His mind caught the presence of Angela and Solembum approaching him and stopped in a deserted part of the camp.
"Your prophecy was right you know" said Eragon.
"How?" Angela asked cofused at his statement.
"Brom promised to me in Tronxheim, that he would live until the war ended and we would be a true family afterwards but he died as his promise was broken, he betreayed me" said Eragon laughing hysterically as tears run down his face.
"Prophecies have the strangest way to come true" said Solembum as he shifted into his human form.
"That they do" said Eragon.
"I suggest not showing any weakness in Brom's funeral" suggested Solembum walking away.
"He is a bit excentric but I suggest you head his advice" said Angela.
"That is weird, a were-cat giving such a clear advice" said Aria walking out of the shadows as Angela and Solembum left.
"The situation must be dire indeed" said Eragon.
Eragon was supporting one of the shields upon which Brom's body was being carried on, toward his last resting place. To his side stood Harry, his face showing regret at the fact that he didn't save Brom's life during the battle. Behind him stood Orik, as in Ajihad's procession a dwarf was present to show the great respect their race held for the two great leaders and Orik was chosen because he and Brom ad grown to be great friends during his stay in Tronxheim. Next to him stood the elf named Tehlmar, his stance was abit crouched so as to allow for Orik to touch the shields, well that and he was the tallest of them all. Behind the Orik and Tehlamr stood two human warriors, one from Surda the other a Varden, thus making sure that all races were represented in the funeral.
Behind Brom's procession came another procession, this ne belonging to Ajihad. After hours of discussions the Vardens had come to the conclusion that Brom's funeral procession would go first as he was the founder and the first leader of the Varden and then Ajihad procession would come behind. Holding the shields were Jormundur, Blodhrgram, a dwarf Fildrul Gravelson, a memer of the Durgrimst Ingetum and a distant relative of Hrothgar,- and three other human males, all of them having at one point served under him or had been saved by Ajihad during various occasions.
Before the procession stood two pyramid-like structures that the Dwarves had carved out of the rock present in the plains. Inside the structure stood a small room large enough to fit four people inside and in te middle of the room stood a coffin carved out of rock, the coffin was rooted to the ground as the rock had just been carved in the semblance of a human coffin but the rock was never digged out of the ground. The stone slab that would cover the body would require at last four strong men or dwarves to move it, lifting it would require at least twenty strong men or dwarves. In the doorway were engraved a small dedication to the two leaders,- written in three languages, Dwarfish, the Ancient Language and the human language.
On the side of the two stone structures, stood Aria, Murtagh, Nasuada, the Varden council, Horthgar and Orrin. Behind them stood the three Dragons, all the three of them having decided to attend the funeral and stay immobile for hours on end in their positions, which went in direct contrast to their draconic nature, which required them to be free to move whenever they wanted. This was, according to the elves and Eldunari, one of the greates shows of respect that Dragons could give to a being not of their own race, there having only been three other occasions that this had ever happened in the entire history of Alagaesia. The road leading to the stone structures was filled with people mourning the death of Brom and Ajihad, among them stood even the Kulls, their heads and horns discernible even in the massive crowd gathered around them,- and only a narrow corridor was clear of any person. On the sides of this corridor stood Varden guards dressed in full body armor, only their head being exposed,- holding spears to block people from approaching the procession thought hat was only for show as nobody would even think of disrupting the procession in any way.
After placing their bodies inside their final resting places, Harry activated the two runic arrays inscribed around them to forbid anyone wanting to defile the bodies of Brom and Ajihad from approaching while the second array gave a similar protection to the graves of every Dwarf and human who had died in the battle, thus allowing them to protect the Vardens, though dead ones, - even in death as they did in life. Afterwards for two hours straight, speeches were given by all who knew Brom, even Harry, who normally hated this kind of things,- gave a speech in Brom's and Ajihad's honor. Then the unimaginable happened, though Eragon knew he should have expected something like that anyway.
The three young Dragons, moved forward and unison they touched with their snouts, the top of Brom's and Ajihad's graves. Before the eyes of everybody present, the rock started to change with the sound of breacking glass. The stone blocks that made up Ajihad's grave became transparent amethyst and even his stone coffin became of amethyst and was thus forever sealed by the Dragons magic, which would preserve the body until the end of times. Brom's grave became a pyramid made out of transparent sapphire, just a shade lighter that the shade of Saphira's scales, matching the color of the scales of Brom's Dragon,- his coffin, like Ajihad's,- was transformed into sapphire and forever sealed to never be opened until the world ended.
The entire people present began to cheer or in the case of elves just clapped politely (which was the equivalent of wild cheering for them) at the piece of nigh-impossible magic performed in front of them to honor their fallen the confusion nobody noticed a young-looking man, wearing a vest and a loincloth, the young-looking man was also missing two fingers. The man passed unnoticed among the crowd and even bypassed the guards surrounding the procession unnoticed until the three Dragons turned their heads around and so did their Riders while everybody seemed oblivious to the mans presence except for Harry who had been watching him since when he first appeared.
While the other two Riders took out their weapons from their scabbards, Eragon looked calm while Harry smiled slightly as Eragon approached the young manwith a neutral face.
"Welcome, Grimmr" gretted Eragon surprising the other two Riders "If I may ask, what is your business here?"
"I'm here to offer the help of the were-cats in this endavour" replied Grimmr.
"What is it that you want in exhage for your help?" asked Eragon.
"Armors" answered Grimmr.
"Armors?" asked Eragon surprised.
"Yes, you see we might be capable of chaging shape but we are still vulnerable and no smith accepts to make armors for shagy cats or weird looking men and womans" explained Grimmr.
"That can be arranged though you would have to negotiate it with the new Varden leader" said Eragon.
"Ahh, young Lady Nasuada, she is going to be a tough negaotiator, that's for sure" said Grimmr.
"You can call you bodyguards out Halfpaw" said Harry approaching the were-cat.
"So you're the Traveler, the Wandering Sage?" asked Grimmr amused at Harry sneaking up on him.
"Yeah, I've been called that too, though I prefer Harry Potter"replied Harry with a smile of his own.
"Seriously, what does that mean, they call you that all the time" said Eragon referring to the Eldunari calling Harry the Wandering Sage.
"They are referring to my world-hopping tendencies" answered Harry not even bothering to hide it from the were-cat, which he was sure already knew about him.
"Ohh that makes sense" said Eragon.
"So you're the one holding the Eldunari's" said Grimmr looking with interest at Eragon's form.
"They know?" Eragon asked directing it at Harry.
"We were-cats and Dragons share a similar connection to the world and a such they know us and we know them, though I still am a bit hurt they didn't trust us enough not to cast a spell upon us" answered Grimmr before Harry could "Now when are we going to meet your mortal leader?" aked Grimmr as two other human-looking were-cats joined his side.