The Chosen, Kris Kramer [reading e books .TXT] 📗

sister, and losing him had been a blow neither of them had truly recovered from. But even though he was reticent at first to go through with this trip, he felt sure he could serve with a man like Aiden.

The tower shook again, and this time the pounding was joined by a roar of Anduain voices, followed by a cacophony of screeching and crashing below. From where he stood, Malcolm could only see the area of the bottom floor where the stairs reached the ground. But he knew what had happened as soon as he saw sunlight pour into the bottom of the stairwell. Shadows danced on the ground below them, and Malcolm gripped the wooden spear shaft tightly. The Anduains were in the tower, and he would be face to face with them in seconds.

Now was the time to make his uncle proud.

 

~~~~~

 

Kat had never been more terrified in her life. She'd curled up in a ball behind one of the battlements at the top of the tower, making herself as small as possible and hiding for dear life. Arrows whistled over her head constantly while black and red magical bolts crashed into the stone around her, sending pieces of rock skittering across the roof. A stone platform, about waist-high, stood in the center of the tower roof, supporting a giant stack of wood that was now covered in flames, a signal for the neighboring towers and keeps that they were under attack. Kat desperately hoped that a Calderan army was nearby, and that they’d seen that signal fire and were on their way already. She knew it wasn't likely, but right now that hope was the only thing keeping her from losing her composure and embarrassing herself, or worse, fainting.

Finias crouched to her left, at the next battlement, calmly firing arrow after arrow at the Anduains below and only casually moving or dodging away from return fire. She wondered how he could do that so easily, so unafraid. He couldn't be that much older than her, but he carried himself like he'd been fighting out here for years. His cold, dark eyes showed no fear or worry at all. Meanwhile, she was so completely petrified that she couldn't even muster the courage to peek out from behind the wall to see how many enemies were attacking. She felt the trembling vibrations that shook the entire tower, and wondered for the eighth time how much longer it would be before they broke the door down and started pouring in. And that, of course, made her wonder how her first real trip past the walls had gone so badly, and so quickly.

Kat was a wizard. Perhaps not a fully-trained one, but she was a wizard nonetheless, capable of using the earth itself to attack her enemies or defend her allies. But all she could do right now was flinch at every nerve-wracking whine, pop, rumble or hiss around her. Kat closed her eyes and tried to concentrate on her progressions. Her abilities were mostly defensive in nature, providing support to those around her, and her uncle had helped her devise a set of progressions, skill checklists basically, to go through in different situations. She could imbue melee weapons with tiny bits of earth that made them more jagged, or she could sharpen blades to help them penetrate armor. She could lighten the weight of the heavy metals those weapons were made of, allowing their wielders to swing them faster. She could even create a flimsy magical barrier that would sometimes protect against a sword strike or an arrow. All of those spells were far more useful to the men defending below, though, like her brother, and she wished she'd thought of that before coming up here.

She had some other spells, though, ones that might at least distract the Anduains below, which would in turn give Finias and the other archers here on the tower a few better shots. But she'd need to see the Anduains to cast those spells, and that meant leaving the protective confines of this battlement for a few precious moments. She swallowed and counted to ten, taking a deep breath at each number, another trick her uncle taught her, then slowly moved toward the edge of the battlement. She hoped to find someone near the edges of the crowd, away from the other casters and archers. Even better would be finding one that wasn't paying close attention to the tower roof. She just needed enough time to concentrate without getting killed.

Just as her eyes reached the edge of the stone, however, an explosion rocked the tower behind her. Kat ducked without even thinking, fearing the worst, but as soon as she realized she wasn't hurt she turned to see the crossbowman to her right lying on the ground a few feet from her, clutching his arm and gritting his teeth in pain. She couldn't see a wound, but she knew he’d been injured because blood slowly seeped through his chain armor near the shoulder. Her first instinct was to grab him and pull him back against the wall, or maybe to the ladder, but her body wouldn’t cooperate. Stepping away from the battlement meant exposing herself to the enemy below, and just giving them a second could be enough to get her killed. She needed to do something, though. She'd gone through too much to get here. She needed to prove herself. But even though Kat knew all of this, she couldn't make herself leave that wall.

"The door's coming down!" Kat heard a shout, and turned to see another soldier on the ladder, poking his head up through the roof panel. He disappeared a second later and at first she didn't know what to do, but when she saw the other archers around her packing up their bows and arrow bags, she realized that everyone was leaving the roof. One archer ducked over to the injured crossbowman and helped him up to his feet, and Kat felt disappointment welling up inside her as someone else helped him to safety. She needed to get back inside, where there were walls and a roof that could protect her. But now her conscience balked at the thought of looking like a useless failure by scurrying off the roof before the others. So she sat still and waited as everyone else grabbed their gear and moved down the ladder. Everyone except one.

"Finias!" she shouted. "Come on!"

He either didn't hear her or he was ignoring her, because he hadn't moved from his spot, still firing away with a look on his face that suggested he enjoyed this. Kat held her breath, then lunged away from the battlement, toward the ladder. She refused to crawl on the ground, even though it was safer, and for once her will dictated her actions instead of her fear. She quickly stepped down a few rungs of the ladder, and relished the protection she now felt with stone walls around her, but when she glanced back at Finias, she saw that he still hadn't moved.

"Finias!"

He slowed his assault just long enough to glance back at her in annoyance. "Go! I'll catch up!"

Kat almost heeded him and stepped down the ladder to safety, but then she thought back to the injured archer, and she knew she couldn't just run off and leave anyone else to their fate. She'd failed during a critical moment, and she needed to make up for that. A loud crash came from below mixed with a roar of Anduain cheers, and her stomach twisted again. The door must be down. Her brother was down there, and he needed her help. There was no more time to be indecisive.

"Finias!" she screamed at him as she climbed back up onto the roof. "We have to go! Now!" She lunged toward him and grabbed his arm, intending to pull him back toward the ladder, but what happened next was lost to the blackness that suddenly overtook her.

 

~~~~~

 

Riordan stared blankly at his old friend, lying weakly on the centnar's cot, and wondered if he'd found him after all this time, just to see him lost to madness.

"Damhran is dead, Landon," he explained, like a parent would to a child. "He died almost twenty years ago."

Landon shook his head. "I saw him. He told me he was in trouble. He said he needed help."

"You saw him... in a dream?" Riordan asked hopefully.

"No! No, he was there. I could – I could touch him."

Riordan sighed heavily. As a sentinel, he’d learned spells that muddled the mind, but not any that reversed such a state.

"Let me heal you. It will help you relax, and clear your mind. You'll feel better."

Landon smiled weakly and laid his head down. "He told me others were coming, Riordan. I knew it was you."

Riordan smiled back as he started casting his spells. "I'm glad you thought so." A question came to him just then. "What about Andreas? Or Tholstan? Did you see them, too?"

Landon closed his eyes and grimaced as Riordan clasped his left hand and let his healing magic course through the Wizard's body. "No. Are they still down there?"

Riordan tried to be careful with his answer. He wanted to know if either of them had been spotted going back to those caverns, to help prove his suspicions, especially about Andreas. But he didn't feel the need to get Landon caught up in his worries until he knew it to be true. "They escaped with me."

"Are they here, too?"

"No. " Riordan shook his head. "It's a long story." Riordan pulled his hands away and watched as Landon opened his eyes and slowly lifted himself up. His strength seemed to be returning quickly, Riordan noticed, and his eyes were clear and alert. He sat on the edge of the cot and rubbed his face.

"How long was I down there?" he asked.

"About three months."

His expression didn't change at first, but then understanding slowly seeped in and Riordan saw surprise on his old friend's face. "Are you sure?"

"I am," Riordan nodded.

"It didn't feel that long."

"It did for me," Riordan whispered, thinking back to his captivity. He heard muffled shouts outside the door, and the sound of armored footsteps running by, and he knew the significance of that.

"What's that noise?" Landon asked. He looked around the room as if he'd just realized where he was.

"Anduains are attacking. Sounds like they're almost through the door." Riordan raised an eyebrow at his old friend. "If I remember correctly, this is the kind of situation where your talents are quite useful."

Landon stared at one of the maps on the wall nearby, though he seemed to be looking through it rather than at it. "How was I gone that long?"

"I don't know." Riordan was suddenly jealous of Landon, envious of the fact that he'd not known the passage of time during his ordeal. But that only steeled his resolve. Once he returned, he could do the same, and his pain would be forgotten. "Do you remember your dreams?"

Landon looked confused at that question. "What dreams?"

"You don't remember what you dreamt of down there?"

"I, uh... " he began. His eyes darted back and forth, as if remembering something, but then he blinked and snapped out of it. "I don't really remember much of anything. I don't even remember sleeping. But I must have, somewhere down there."

"But you remember Damhran? Alive?"

"I do," he nodded, not looking at Riordan. "That wasn't a dream, Riordan. Everything that happened down there is still hazy. But I remember that at least. He came to me, and he told me I would be the one to save him. Me, Riordan." Landon shook his head at the thought. "He said I'd find help, and I have. So now it's up to us to do what comes next."

"What comes next?" Riordan asked carefully.

Landon stood up slowly and groaned, stretching his sore muscles. Riordan stood to help him, but the wizard waved him off. "I'm going to go kill some Anduains." He smiled then grabbed Riordan by the shoulders, suddenly confident in his demeanor. "And then we're going to save Caldera."

Landon opened the door and walked out. Riordan frowned. His entire plan had just become much more complicated, and he worried how it would affect those around him. And what he might have to do if they wanted to stop him.

 

~~~~~

 

Somehow, Finias knew it was coming before it even happened. His arrows weren't especially effective against the heavy armor of the Anduains manning the ram, so instead