Wayne Batson - The Final Storm

The tornadic clouds surrounded Paragor and lifted him high in the sky. Then the Wyrm Lord swooped down and carried him in the direction of Alleble.

“Leave them alive?” Aidan thought aloud. “Who is he talking to?”

Then they heard the steady march of many soldiers. Aidan, Antoinette, and Robby found themselves staring at a surging mass of Paragor Knights, a thousand or maybe a legion strong. The ring of soldiers closed like the tightening of a noose. There was no escape.

Kaliam quickly found Lady Merewen. She ran to him. “What news, m’lord?” she asked.

“The main gate is lost,” Kaliam said. “We have managed to contain Paragor’s horsemen, but they may break through the ranks and win the fountains-especially if the Seven Sleepers are loosed in the city. But no one has seen them since Warriant’s venture into the murk. The battle in the skies is slowly tilting in Paragor’s favor. He has so many riders, and they wield fear along with their blades.”

“It is time then,” Lady Merewen said, taking his hands into hers.

“It is time. But, m’lady,” Kaliam objected, “what if I am wrong?

“It is the King’s will, my husband,” she said. “You will not be wrong.”

“But without the Scroll of Prophecy? There is so much more-”

“You have known in your heart without the Scroll! How often have you told me of their visions?”

“But-”

“Cast away the doubts!” Lady Merewen implored him. “Did not King Eliam say that one would come who would call them? Kaliam, you are the Herald of the Three Witnesses!”

Kaliam shook his head to argue, but there came over him then such a tangible sense of peace that all doubts fled. Kaliam nodded, embraced his wife, and departed the barracks. He sprinted through back ways and hidden avenues until he came to the bell tower behind the northern wall. Aside from the ninth level of the Library of Light, the northern tower was the tallest vantage in the city. Kaliam raced up the staircase and found himself in an open-air room with a huge bell and a balcony on both sides.

He looked out over the kingdom. The strange ethereal darkness of the Wyrm Lord was beginning to dissipate, and he could now see the size of Paragor’s army. Kaliam was amazed. Already there were more than a thousand enemies within the walls, but there were still tens of thousands teeming, railing to get in. And somewhere out in the shadows lurked the Seven Sleepers, the Wyrm Lord, and Paragor.

“King Eliam,” the Sentinel said aloud. “By your power, I herald the Three Witnesses to come forth and be known throughout The Realm.”

Then Kaliam took hold of the chime rope in both hands and gave it a tremendous tug. The bell sounded a clear note that traveled through the city and out into the plains. And to Kaliam’s astonishment, it seemed as if the battle halted below. Fires still burned, smoke trailed into the sky, and dragons still flew, but the fighting had stopped. Kaliam felt as if the eyes of The Realm were on him.

Kaliam stepped to the edge of the balcony with no thought for what might come out of his own mouth. “Children of Alleble and of The Realm!” he said, and his voice resonated and traveled like that of the bell. “I speak as Herald for the mighty King Eliam of Alleble. I speak with his authority. And I speak with his conviction. Today, I call forth the Three Witnesses of Alleble! I call, and they shall come forth and rid the land of darkness!”

It became deathly silent-even the storm seemed to calm.

“I call forth Lady Antoinette the Child of Storms! I call forth Sir Robby the Dragonfriend! And I call forth Sir Aidan the Seeker of the Lost! Come forth, Witnesses! Throw down evil and declare truth by the might of King Eliam the Everlasting!”

The Paragor Knights had tightened the noose around Aidan, Antoinette, and Robby when the bell tolled. All heads turned toward Alleble, and it seemed that the entire Realm was suddenly hushed. A bell-like voice rang out from within the kingdom, and all wondered how it could be heard from such a distance. Aidan, Antoinette, and Robby knew it was the voice of their Sentinel.

When Robby heard his name, the sword began to tingle in his hand. “I am the Dragonfriend,” he whispered.

“I am the Child of Storms,” Antoinette whispered.

“I am the Seeker of the Lost,” Aidan whispered.

The Paragor Knights froze at the call but soon regained their wits. They brandished their weapons and closed in.

Suddenly, Robby yelled out, “I am the Dragonfriend!” He raised his sword in the air and charged the Paragor Knights, confident that King Eliam was with him. It looked absurd to the enemy: one lone knight rushing recklessly toward more than a legion of foes. But before Robby reached the first enemy, there came the noise of many wings flapping. And up from the back of the hill flew a hundred dragons. No one knew from whence they had come, but they slammed into the ranks of the enemy, obliterating their front line.

Antoinette stepped forward, trusting King Eliam, and declared, “I am the Child of Storms!” And she held her sword aloft. At that moment, lightning streaked down from the sky and struck Antoinette’s blade. But it was not the sickly green lightning that had come from the prior storm. This lightning was as pure white as the white stone of Pennath Ador. Antoinette raced toward the enemy knights, and they charged up to greet her. She swept her sword across them, and electricity jumped from the blade, striking each enemy in turn.

Aidan put his hand inside his tunic and felt the parchment touch his hand. “I am the Seeker of the Lost!” he cried out. And then he charged at the enemy knights, and they were sorely afraid.

In only a few moments, more than a hundred enemy soldiers were laid low. Three of Robby’s dragons came and bore the Three Witnesses away to the city of Alleble.

W hat has happened?” Kaliam asked the moment Nock and Mallik emerged from the stairs.

“Lady Trenna and Queen Illaria,” Nock replied, “their dragons fell in the aerial assault-”

“And King Brower,” said Mallik. “He was overcome as he defended the gate.”

Suddenly, a mournful howl rose over Alleble’s outer walls. Sir Warriant looked out from their vantage point atop a wide turret near the fountains. “What is that sound?” he asked. “Wolves?”

“Worse,” said Thrivenbard. “They are the Seven Sleepers!”

“If those beasts are coming now,” said Warriant, “it was wise, Kaliam, to order the knights on the front walls to fall back to the fences.” Kaliam nodded, but pensively looked upon the fences.

In the days before Paragor’s attack, the crafty Glimpses of Yewland and the Blue Mountains had erected special palisades. These fences they made tall with extremely sharp points on top and no gaps between poles so that, unless airborne, none could see beyond them. They stretched north to south all the way across the main thoroughfare of the city.

“Will they see what we have planned?” Nock asked apprehensively. He pointed to the Deathreapers still in a chaotic dogfight with the combined dragon riders of Alleble high above the city.

“Nay,” Lady Merewen replied. “The riders of Paragory do not have the keen eyes of Yewland’s Braves. And Queen Illaria’s riders will keep them too busy to search behind our palisades.”

“I hope you are right,” Kaliam said.

Suddenly, the shriek of the Wyrm Lord shattered the silence.

“The walls!” cried Mallik. There was a tremendous flash and an agonizing cry, but the wall split and began to crumble. “I hope the faercrag killed that foul serpent!” Mallik groused. Then something grabbed the first murynstil portcullis at the gate and tore it from the stone. Then the second was gone… and the third. The combined forces of Alleble gasped, for Paragor now wielded fire hot enough to melt adorite and might strong enough to tear murynstil!