Chapter 47: The Lodestone

Note: Thanks to B0b and WRC 264 for beta reading this!

Sven Falk

The treemen lumbered closer and closer. I stared at the Lodestone. Light flashed above. My hands clenched. We were so close. I wanted to just draw my sword and hit the stone. To break it apart and free all those humans behind them.

“Master,” Zanyia yowled. She bristled at my feet. “They’re getting closer.”

“I can hear that,” I snarled. I threw a look over my shoulder at the two approaching treemen towering over the stocks.

An idea popped into my head.

“You take the one on the right,” I snapped.

“Of course, Master.” She paused. “How?”

“I don’t know. But you’re creative, Zanyia. You’ll think of something.”

“And you?”

“I have a dumb idea,” I said, the treemen splitting apart, navigating through the pit traps. “It probably won’t work.”

“I hope it does. I would hate to have to find a new master.” Zanyia gave me a toothy grin. “Where would I find one with a cock as amazing as yours?”

I grinned back at her. “You know just what to say, don’t you?”

“I’m your slave, Master. Swelling your ego is part of the job!” Then she sprang onto the nearby stocks occupied by a naked woman with gray hair. She leaped to the next one, yowling like an angry bobcat.

I took a deep breath as violent light exploded to the right. I winced as more innocents died. I wished I could do something about the duke, but Aingeal would have to handle him. I had my own problems to deal with.

A big problem.

The treeman lumbered closer, towering over me.

Aingeal

Such anger boiled through me at the spirits. I focused it, ripping at them, whipping them with my will. I cajoled them to lance at Duke Gallchobhar as we danced through the sky. But my attacks were so feeble. He hardly had to think to get the abjuration spirits to disrupt it.

And the evocation spirits...

They were so happy to try and kill me for him.

I swooped to the right, to the left, dodging streams of the spirits. I could feel the delight they took in serving the lord of this land. Tears stung at my eyes. To think even the land would acknowledge Duke Gallchobhar’s usurpation. I thought they would remember my father.

Remember me.

The wind whipping by me as I soared over the field swept off the tears from my cheeks. This wasn’t my home any longer. He poisoned it against me. Turned the land, the spirits, to his side. They gave him fealty and tried to murder their rightful ruler.

This should be my land. My father was dead. I was his heir.

I hated Duke Gallchobhar. I screeched in impotent fury as I dodged and dived. I struggled to together more spirits. While a horde of them danced around him. They were so thick about him, a sea of reds and blues swimming back and forth, I could hardly see him in the middle now. As we flew over the lands, he swept up even more, pulling them to him. They rose from the ground, from the sky, from the forest.

But less and less came for me.

The beams came faster and faster. I clutched to the few abjuration spirits I had, kept them behind me. I couldn’t do anything else. I couldn’t attack any longer. Not with his defenses. Every attack that struck my shield knocked off an abjuration spirit or two.

He seized them.

My defenses dwindled bit by bit. How long could I fight against him? How long before he killed me?

It wasn’t fair. I returned. I should have been welcomed back. They should have helped me overthrow him. It was the right thing to do. They shouldn’t help him with the perversity he committed in Faerie. If the Queen knew about this, she would have him executed.

More tears fell as I dodged another beam. They came so fast. Firing with hardly a heartbeat between them. The sky blazed with streaks of purple light arching in every direction. I zigged, I zagged.

I was dead. I couldn’t keep this up.

Sven Falk

I dove forward. The branch-like arm of the treeman slammed in the ground behind me. Clods of earth sprayed in the air. Such force in that blow. But would it be enough? I rolled and came to my feet, hacking with my short sword.

I slammed into the woody bark of the treeman’s shin. My sword gouged in an inch. A spray of splinters flew. My weapon rebounded. A jarring ache shook through my hand and into my arm. My elbow creaked.

A short sword was not the right weapon to use here.

The treeman let out a creaking, puffing wheeze. Heezzz-heezzz-heezzz. Laughing at me. “Tickles, little man.”

I sheathed my blade and sprang between his legs, racing behind it. The treeman lumbered to turn around. The ground shook as he followed after me. I raced around the Lodestone as it swung again. I heard the air rushing at me. I ran faster.

I poured my all into it. My legs pumped. My boots thudded on the trampled grass. The air whooshed behind me. A wind swept over me. The ground rumbled beneath my feet. I tripped, sprawling hard and rolling as sprays of dirt flew over me.

Heezzz-heezzz-heezzz. “Did you trip and fall, little man?”

A shadow fell on me.

“Las’s putrid cock!” I snarled and rolled to the side, crashing into the base of the stockade. The branch-like arm slammed into the dirt where I had lay. The force of the blow sent a hard gust of wind sweeping over me, ruffling my blonde hair. The ground shook. More dirt flew in an explosion from that branch.

It hit hard. Now I just had to get it to strike the right spot.

I stood up as the branch swung laterally across the ground at me. I leaped, pulling my legs up into the ball. The arm surged beneath me, crashing into the stock. I winced as the young man’s body burst free and crashed with a sickening crumple into another stock.

I landed, anger surging through me. “Hit me, you wooden oaf!”

“Nimble, little men. Like grasshopper.” Heezzz-heezzz-heezzz. “Me smash you good!”

Foot raised. I darted away as it slammed down hard. The ground shook. I fought to keep my balance, stumbling into another stock. I gripped it for a moment, then cursed, darting away from it. I couldn’t stay near them. I couldn’t let this thing kill the helpless people I was here to rescue.

I darted around the lodestone. My plan better work. I had no idea how else to kill one of these damned walking trees. I wasn’t a lumberjack.

Zanyia