CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

  Battle of the Red Ruin

  “Hajime,” Bridget sighed exaggeratedly, “why’d you have to tempt fate?”

  “Eh?” Hajime cocked his head to the side. “When did I do that?”

  “You said we were running out of enemies,” Bridget reminded him. “What about now, huh?”

  The party was gathered at the mouth of the Red Ruirahough they’d yet to step outside because they weren’t sure if there was anything they could do.

  “I didn’t make this happen?!” Hajime protested.

  “You tempted fate.” Bridget pointed a finger outside. “This is fate showing off!”

  A battle raged beyond the steps of the Red Ruin. One so bloody that remnants of it were present even in the passage the party had just e through. The dead bodies they’d passed along the way beloo House von Galen—soldiers whose leather jackets were torn apart by savage cws and ravenous fangs. Surprisingly, not a single wearg had fallen ihe Red Ruin. In this, Scarfa his word. Oher hand, the opposite was outside the dungeon for the roar of dying weargs grated on the party’s ears.

  In the hours sihey’d st seen them, von Galen’s forces seemed to have doubled. Over a hundred soldiers were now locked in battle against the Fmetail Tribe throughout one side of the verdant clearing beyond the dungeon’s front steps.

  ‘Boom!’

  ‘Boom!’

  ‘Boom!’

  A round of explosions struck the clearing, causing aal storm to wreak havo the ground. Weargs unprepared for the assault were devoured by elements driven wild by ons’ sorcery. Those who mao escape the bombardment struggled against the swords and spears of soldiers seemingly more seasohan the ones Bram had sin in the fog.

  “This adventure’s starting to feel like a day at Biosoft,” Chris chuckled tiredly. “It’s one crisis after another…”

  “We didn’t even have time to rest…not really,” Bridget ented.

  It wasn’t just Bram feeling the fatigue. His friends had used up their magid abilities in the many phases of their battle with Loveless. They were running on fumes.

  Still, the prince, who watched the death of future allies with a grim face, couldn’t help but turn the cogs of his brain.

  “Ravi,” he called, “do you have enough magic for one more Falling Star?”

  He calcuted that a k of burning rock crashing onto the deck of a brigantine could help turide, but Ravi dashed Bram’s hopes with a shake of his head.

  “I no longer have enough magic to cast a fifth-level spell,” the Shamvan admitted. Then, as if he guessed what the prince would ask , Ravi added, “And I don’t have a summon that deal with that…”

  Ravi’s gaze was fixed on a sed skyship that had arrived to reinforce the one already patrolling the sky. This sed skyship was a slightly rger brigah its hull painted in the pale blue colors of House von Galen.

  “I ot stop the skyship either,” said Master Mina, her voice stronger now, “but I help the weargs defeat the army on the ground.”

  Bram gnced sideways.

  Uhe e rays of the te afternoon sun peeking in through the entrance, Bram could see a face that seemed to have aged a decade in the short time it took the party to leave the mad nymph’s ir and arrive here at the entrance of the Red Ruin. Of course, the reason for her ge was obvious. A while ago, the Stargazers’ master and the few survivors of their expedition saw the main hall that had bee a tomb for their panions. The young sorcerers had wept and wailed, though fate didn’t give them much time to grieve. Wounded weargs retreating into the Red Ruin had reported the situation outside.

  “We’re outnumbered and overpowered,” reported the tall woman with reddish skin and braided hair who’d been the same oo report when the enemy first invaded. “Our tribe needs aid!”

  “We’ll go reinforce them,” Bram had promised.

  After choosing to leave the young sorcerers behind to tend to the wounded—Master Mina had begged Bram not to involve them in any more fighting—the new party of seven raced to the entrao help prevent a massacre of their future allies.

  Now, Bram’s gaze drifted back to the battle.

  A wall of shields kept a line of weargs at bay, leaving their leader, the mighty Scarfang, isoted oher side of the wall while surrounded by spearmen. To his credit, Scarfang refused to go down. He fought on, his cws tearing through steel and flesh even as sharp bdes cut at his hide.

  “We need him alive,” Bram insisted.

  Without Scarfang, the Fmetail Tribe might not honor their verbal agreement of an alliance.

  “I’ll take care of it,” Master Mina promised. She then turo Ravi. “Vice Master, please assist Elder Bashar in proteg the weargs.”

  Not far from the steps leading up to the ruin, Kazem Bashar wielded his wooden staff to ere are shield formed of glowing lines and intricate patterns. He’d raised it over the heads of a wearg cluster like an umbrel that protected them from the on fire raining down on the field.

  “Yes, this I do,” Ravi answered just before he turo Bram. “The Loom guide your fate, Yhness.”

  “It guides us all,” he respohen, before Ravi could leave, Bram added, “Take Chris and Bridget with you.”

  He turo the two otherworlders and asked them to protect Ravi and Kazem with their lives.

  “We’ll lose more weargs without their shields…”

  Truthfully, her Chris net was in any position to proteyohey both looked as tired as Bram felt. Still, her objected to Bram’s order even though they khe prince was asking them to die in Ravi’s pce if things turned dire. It wasn’t su inhumane request though. Ravi had only one life to give while the otherworlders could survive a death on Aarde.

  “I’m still not pnning on dying today,” Bridget reiterated.

  “Ditto,” Chris agreed.

  On that encing he three brave souls left the Red Ruirao joitle outside.

  “What about me?” Hajime asked.

  While he sidered options, Bram’s gaze returo Master Mina.

  She looked away from him, and he couldn’t bme her. The guilt she’d had when they first met was still there. Just more promi now. No doubt, she bmed herself for the death of her members.

  Earlier, after he’d returned from Loveless’ husk, Master Mina had also fessed to Bram that she’d witnessed some of the mad nymph’s atrocities while a prisoner in her own mind, so Bram had little doubt that she had more scars than those physical ones hidden by the pale green sorcerer’s robe Ravi had given her.

  Bram couldn’t bme Master Mina for feeling the way she did. After all, she’d made choices that led to the expedition’s tragic oute. Only, as someone who couldn’t do anything but watch Loveless’ past ruin her future, Bram thought Master Mina deserved a ce at redemption. It’s why he offered her his hand now in a symbolic gesture.

  “Hajime will help you rescue Scarfang, so please show him the power of a true master of the sorcerous arts.”

  A word of encement might not seem like much, but it was a gulp of fresh air for a woman drowning in self-pity. When Master Mina’s gaze turo Bram’s, a small ray of hope was alight in her eyes.

  “We ’t ge the past.” Bram pced a hand on her shoulder. “What we do is make sure the future doesn’t end in tragedy… If not for us, then…”

  Bram’s gaze drifted to the outside where Ravi had just finished raising another intricate-looking shield over the heads of more weargs, ensuring they were protected from another bombardment from above.

  “…Perhaps for those who e after.”

  “You possess a wisdom that belies ye, Yhness…”

  Bram didn’t think he was wise at all because what wisdom he had now was earhrough the sacrifice of ahis thought made him gnce down at the bag slung over his shoulder and the pine e kept i.

  ‘Your life will be a much better one. I promise…’

  He was so focused on his thoughts Bram didn’t see the expression of expectation flitting aaster Mina’s face. If he had, he would have been quite embarrassed. Only oher Aarder still looked at Bram with hopeful expectation even after most of his former courtiers had abandoned him.

  “Novice Hajime,” she called.

  “Y-Yes!” Hajime stood to attention.

  “Stay within five feet of me,” Master Mina instructed. “My Ophiotaurus will protect us as we break through the enemy lines.”

  “Ophiotaurus…?” Hajime frowhat frown was quickly repced by surprise. “R-Really?! W-We’re going to attack the enemy lines from the front?”

  Master Mina nodded.

  The hand whose fingers were regrown through Sprite’s healing arts was already twirling in the air, drawing lines of starlight across space—lihat reminded Bram of Rowan’s summoning circle though this was more intricate aailed.

  “I-I don’t have enough magic left,” Hajime protested. “Isn’t there another way to—”

  Master Mina’s other hand tched onto Hajime’s wrist. “We o hurry.”

  This was true enough. Scarfang’s life hung in the bance.

  “After we save the wearg leader, we’ll head for the riverbank,” she expined. “If we make it there, then Ophiotaurus turide of battle. Literally.”

  Hajime had just enough time to gn Bram’s dire, but the prince pretended not to see his plea for help as Master Mina pulled him along. In Bram’s defense, Hajime often pined about things but never failed to step up when he prince didn’t doubt that this time would be no different. Such was the trust that had growween him and the Japanese man. Chris and Bridget as well. All three otherworlders have exceeded his expectations, repeatedly proving to Bram time and time again that enag his great uaking had been the right choice.

  “We were fortunate,” came Rowan’s voice.

  The trickster who was quietly from behind stepped out of the shadows. Rowan cast a dark look oside, her gaze fixed on the back of the Stargazers’ master.

  “If Loveless had tapped into Wilhelmina’s true power… You might not have won your duel, My Prince.”

  It didn’t take long for Master Mina to arrive at Scarfang’s side with Hajime in tow, because the soldiers who’d tried to block her way succumbed to a strange mady that caused their bodies to go into shock.

  “I disagree,” Bram said. “I wouldn’t have lost.”

  The prince could see the half-visible apparition rampaging at Master Mina’s side. It was a rge creature with the top half of a bull and the lower half of a thick python’s trunk. This tail whipped bad forth, passing through the bodies of unsuspeg soldiers, and taking from them the telltale sparks of sorcery that Bram guessed symbolized their magic reserves.

  “I barely have any magi me for her to siphon off.”

  Bram’s attempt at a joke earned him a harsh ugh he wasn’t used to hearing from Rowan.

  He gnced sideways.

  Rowan’s face seemed strange.

  There were dark circles uhe eyes that glowed like burning coals. She was frowning impatiently too, which wasn’t like the trickster who preferred to smile even when she was vexed.

  “Are you all right?”

  “A bit of iion has me feeling listless…”

  “Ah.”

  Though he’d shared her burden earlier, Rowan had taken in more of the Midnight Shard’s dark elemental energy than he did, and that much darkness would give anyoburn. Small wonder she hasn’t acted up until now.

  “I think I know a way to alleviate your disfort.”

  As a frequent victim of untrolled anger a-up angst which he often hid uhe guise of a smile or a tune, Bram knew just the kind of outlet Rowan needed.

  He looked up, his gaze drifting to the rger of the two ships, to the baron’s banner billowing alongside its prow.

  Rowan, who rivy to his mind, couldn’t help giggling, yet even this ughter seemed darker than usual. “I suppose that is why you and I remained here?”

  “I promised I wouldn’t ask you to fight…but you look like you need one.” He offered her a sheepish grin. “Besides, I ’t foresee our victory without—”

  It happened so quickly that Bram’s jaw barely had time to drop before Rowan had her arms around his waist.

  “My blood is boiling, and you’ve offered me a ce at release,” She whispered into his ears. “You do know how to woo a maiden i, My Prince.”

  They gazed at each other for a long moment. Then, before Bram’s inner desires could bee reality…

  “ch your jaw,” Rowan instructed.

  A blink of aer, the Red Ruin was gone, and they were s into the sky faster than even a on’s shell in flight. The harsh winds buffeted his face while the chill of the te afternoon air seeped into his bones. Bram didn’t mind these inveniences. Like the first time he’d flown with her, he ehe sensation of flying. The voyage was short though, and soon enough, they touched ground on an unfamiliar deck surrounded by knights clothed in full-bodied pte armor and eyes eager for flict. Unfortunately for these brave fools, Rowan was huo spill blood…and the knights of von Galen were all on the menu now.

  GD_Cruz