Chapter 33

The rain of rock and stone and tree did not cease until a bit after sunrise. The fields surrounding the entire fort had disappeared under the unrelenting barrage. No paths existed for man or beast to make their way out from the gates to any direction.

“The best battlefield we could ask for,” the captain said as he surveyed the landscape from the southwest tower. “Assassins can dig a hidey hole quickly and easily in this mess. Now, all we need is our target.”

Aden gazed out at the edge of the forest, waiting for the monster to emerge. “There!” one of sentries cried out, pointing due west.

“Would you look at that,” Ezza said. “It’s still pink. It still got little bitty limbs and blobby head too. I would have thought it would ... grow them or something.”

All Crestfall gathered on the ramparts to watch the mad king approach. He appeared to glide over the top of the mayhem, as if he did not need his useless limbs. He sputtered and jerked at odd times, after which a silver sheen would race over his body and disappear. His pace was slow and awkward, contradicting the proof of his enormous power strewn across the fields.

The creature came to stop about fifty paces in front of the gate. “Here the voice of your doom, Kagani Mages. You could not kill me, and you could only contain me for a short time. I have come to collect on the promise to slay the last of the blue evil that has contaminated my empire. You will die the most painful of deaths. Your agony will be recorded across the annals of the empire. Pitiless death is your only end. I am Death. I am Death.”

Aden puzzled over the mad king’s words, unable to form a response to his threats. What he could understand is that the creature below had no context of the world as it stood this day. The mad king thought there were a number of mages and he did not realize that five hundred years at least had passed. He stood out there fighting a battle that he assumed only ended a short time ago. How could Aden use it against him?

“Do not answer him,” the captain sent down the line. “No one say a word. The less he knows about us and what we have, the better our strategic position will be.”

The captain began his strategy conference on top of the tower, with his officers, the governor, Ezza and Aden. Glancing down at the mad king as he continued to shout threats and curses, while waving his diminished limbs. The threats and insults became louder and then demands that the mages speak began. All stayed silent and continued to stare.

One of the limbs gestured and a small boulder rose, shining silver before it flew at the wall. The sound was huge but the no one felt the wall quiver. A tree trunk lifted off the ground and again, a slight shiver of silver and it flew towards the gate. The gate never shook from the impact. A shriek of frustration filled the air.

“The blue defense holds well,” the captain said. “Will it continue to hold?”

“Easily, phyzeec flows unimpeded,” Aden said, coming to stand next to the captain. “May I have your permission to try my weapon the next time the creature throws something at us. I’ve only faced this silver power three times, and only once was I effective. I think I know why.”

“Have at it,” the captain said. “He might as well know that we can bite.”

Aden drew the mage’s sword and charged it. After several more harangues, the creature hoisted another boulder above its head. Aden took aim and fired a salvo from the end of his sword, jerking his shoulders backwards. The shaft of blue sluiced the side edge of the boulder, causing it to wobble and topple on top of the mad king, who disappeared underneath.

“Yah!” the soldiers and townsfolk cheered from their viewing stations. A moment later, the boulder shuddered and rolled to the side. The pink head poked up and then the rest of body raised itself. “Aah,” they cried from above.