William King - Shadowblood

“What have you done?” he shouted. Winds swirled through the confined space like a hurricane. A thunderous roar built up all around them. The walls of the Palace themselves had started to vibrate. Their attackers paused stunned.

“I have shattered the binding spells on the Gate and broken all the spells connected to it. There was no time for anything more subtle or controlled.” Asea had to shout to make herself heard. “With all the power flowing through it, it will explode taking this entire Palace with it. Go! Get as far away from here as you possibly can. You might survive.”

A look of horror passed over Tamara’s face when she understood what was happening but she also understood that now was not the time to argue about it.

Rik came to a decision. He strode over and grabbed Asea. He was going to take her with him or die trying. He opened the way into the Shadow realm. In the presence of the out of control Gate, it was surprisingly easy. He reached out through the shadows, stretching his perception to the ultimate limit and then pushing them a bit further, using ever iota of the power he had stolen from Xephan. He knew that when the Gate exploded the results would be catastrophic. Anything close to it was going to die anyway.

He reached as far as the harbour, saw the outlines of the ships. He beckoned to Tamara. “Take my hand. I can get us both out of here.”

Tamara did not argue. She reached out for Rik. His fingers closed around hers and then he jumped into the Shadow realm. Behind him he sensed a titanic explosion.

Gigantic waves of magical energy pulsed even through the paths of shadow, propelling him forward, weightless as a leaf.

Sardec braced himself, prepared to die. There was only enough room at the head of the stair for one person and he thought it might as well be him. The Barbarian would have edged him aside if he could but still had enough respect for his commanding officer not to lay hands on him. The wicked, glowing eyes of the undead looked up at him, filled with unnatural hunger. The leading creature paused for a moment but then the weight of his fellows behind him pushed him forward and up the stairs.

This was it, Sardec thought. This was where it all ended.

A change came over the walking dead. The light in their eyes flickered and for a moment went out. Sardec wondered what was going on. For a brief instant it appeared that they had lost all animation and were about to fall over. Perhaps the miracle he had prayed for had come.

Then the light returned to the eyes of the walking dead and with it animation and mobility. Hope turned to ashes in Sardec's mouth. Then he noticed that there had been a significant change. The animated corpses no longer moved in unison. Something seemed to have gone wrong with the spell animating them. They began to turn on each other and claw at each other and rip each other to pieces. Some of them struggled to get away, others pushed on up the stairs.

He was not exactly sure what had happened but he felt that there might just be a chance if they could hold out a little bit longer. He shouted encouragement to the Foragers. They could not see what he saw that they took courage from his tone. He stepped back a little from the head of the stairs so that there was more room and braced himself for the fight.

From the rooftop above he had Weasel shout, "They’re turning on each other and some of them are running away."

Sardec threw himself into the melee with renewed frenzy.

Rick stood on the docks, looking back towards the Palace. He felt completely and utterly drained. Asea and Tamara stood nearby shivering and looking worse than he felt. At first, he thought that nothing was happening and that they had failed in their mission. He was really too tired to care.

Then he saw that a halo of witch-fire played around the Palace, covering the cliffs and the massive structure in green shimmering light. The whole city was bathed in the eerie luminescence. The cliffs shook as if in the grip of an earthquake. Rocks tumbled. The mighty walls of the Palace shivered. A few seconds later, the earth itself began to quiver. From around the city, he could hear the sound of screams and shouts as the night-time revellers realised that something terrible was happening.

Nearby some sailors turned and began to point at the supernatural illumination. A few, with more presence of mind than the others, began to run up the gang planks and on to their ships. Rik thought that was a very good idea but he did not have the energy to emulate them.

The light around the Palace intensified. The rock of the cliffs glowed like magma flowing from a volcano. They shimmered and began to run like lava. The glow became worse and a wave of heat passed across the city, a hot desert wind striking in the Northern cold. Something hotter than the Sun burned in the heart of the cliffs, a thing so bright that it could make even a rock seem translucent.

“What have you done?” Tamara asked. There was a note of utter horror in her voice. The demonic Sun continued to burn, and the great Palace atop the cliffs crumbled inward, as if the mouth of a volcano had opened underneath it. The heat intensified and the stone of the Palace liquefied and was blown upwards. It struck Rik then that everyone in the Palace was dead and that he had helped murder them.

“We’ve got to get away from here,” said Asea.

“I’ve taken us as far as I can,” said Rik. “I don’t have the energy to take us any further.”

“There’s a small boat down there, get aboard.” Rik saw the vessel she had indicated and began to clamber down into it. Asea and Tamara joined him and began to pull up the anchor. He continued to watch the destruction of the Palace, certain that it was about to get much worse.

The hot winds screeched around them and the earth shook like a waking titan. The screaming reached a new pitch of intensity and he could smell burning now. Most of the buildings near the Palace had caught fire.

Asea had raised the sails and begun to chant a spell that seemed to guide the wind into them. The little boat started to move out of the harbour very quickly but he paid almost no attention to it. His eyes were drawn towards the final stages of the dreadful spectacle that was unfolding in the heart of Askander.

The light burning beneath the Palace had become so bright as to be unbearable. All of the buildings had vanished, devoured by the new sun being born beneath them. There was a moment of absolute and utter stillness and silence, as if the night held its breath, and then a thunderous roar as if a hundred thousand barrels of gunpowder had exploded.

The enormous cliff ripped asunder. Gigantic chunks of burning rock, each weighing tens of tons, were hurled into the sky and then arched down in fiery meteors of death, smashing into the buildings, and shattering them like eggs hit by a sledgehammer. The earth rippled in a huge wave that transferred its energy to the sea, and came rushing and roaring towards them. He thought for a moment that their little craft might be swamped, but somehow it managed to climb the wave and stay afloat, and Rik found himself looking back at the ruins of what had once been a mighty city, in the centre of which a new volcano burned, it’s light turning the night into something like a hideous, infernal day.

"What happened, sir," Toadface asked. "Why are we still alive?"

"I don't know," said Sardec. "But I'm glad we are."

He turned around and hugged Rena. She did not flinch away from him even though he was covered in the black blood of the walking dead. She was just as surprised and delighted to be alive as he was. She kissed him and then again and then she echoed Toadface's question.

Sardec considered the matter. All he could think of was that something had gone wrong with the spell animating the walking dead. They seem to have lost much of their energy and a good deal of the intelligence that had guided them. He had no idea whether this reprieve was temporary or permanent and at that moment, he was too tired to care. He looked around to see if anyone was badly wounded. Pteor and his wife were already bandaging wounds and making sure that everyone was all right. Sardec ordered the Foragers to begin clearing the corpses out of the ruined farmhouse. They would stay here the night and then move on in the morning.