Shadowborn Read online

  Liam stepped as if in a waking nightmare, his limbs moving of their own accord. They walked to the lift and rode down into the deep, deep heart of Heavenstone. The twelve keepers of the doors waited at attention, alerted by the creaking approach of the lift.

  “Open it,” Marius said, lacking the sense of fanfare of their last visit.

  The men pulled on their ropes, cracking open the doors with a deep, satisfying rumble of stone. Marius waited until they were finished, then gestured to the lift.

  “Leave us,” he said.

  The men glanced to one another, confused.

  “I said leave us!”

  They hurried past, abandoning their posts to crowd onto the lift. Marius remained locked in place, not moving a single step until the lift was gone and the two of them were alone.

  “The lightborn read emotions like you or I read words on a page,” Marius said, eyes locked on that glowing slant of light between the two doors. “You must keep yourself calm and controlled at all times. Do not think on your task, Liam. Simply enter, and when I raise my arms, perform the deed. Do not hesitate. Do not doubt. Let your heart be fully committed to the task.” He turned to face him. His eyes were wet with tears. “Can I trust you to do this?”

  Liam swallowed down the shards of glass lodged in his throat. He steeled his face and locked his body stiff, attempting to do exactly as Marius described.

  “I have always been, and always will be, a servant of the Lord and his angels.”

  Marius beamed with pride.

  “If only all the world were filled with faithful such as you,” the Speaker said. “Perhaps we’d have never found ourselves in a situation so dire.”

  Marius walked through the entrance and into the grand chamber of the angels, Liam at his side.

  The three lightborn were huddled low to the floor, their chains stretched taught. Waves of fear and sorrow washed over Liam, overwhelming in their power.

  “The shadowborn cometh,” spoke the feminine one in the center. “We sense his corruption. We feel the dead mounting. Why do you come to us, Marius? Why do you not lead your people?”

  Marius shook his head.

  “Because matters of terrible importance compel me before you,” he said.

  The muscles in Liam’s right arm tightened. His awareness of his metallic arm grew, and he felt the blade within eager to spring forth. Liam tensed, his mind reeling again and again.

  What must be done, he thought, not daring anything more specific than that. What must be done. What must be done.

  “Then speak them. The shadowborn must be defeated, and we will offer you any wisdom or counsel you desire.”

  “I have but one desire,” Marius said, lifting his arms. “And it is not your wisdom or counsel.”

  The signal given, Liam lifted his gauntlet. The four cannons split open and to the sides. The long blade ejected to its full length, its sharp point ripping through Marius’s back and piercing out the front of his chest.

  “I am the blade of the angels,” Liam whispered into the Speaker’s ear. “Not their executioner.”

  Fire burst from the four cannons, enveloping Marius’s body from head to toe. The flame swarmed over him, consuming him, purifying him. Ash and bone slipped free of the blade, collapsing at Liam’s feet. The lightborn looked on all the while, revealing no emotion beyond mild surprise.

  Liam stared at the remains, trying to push himself through the shock of what he’d done.

  “He would have me kill you,” he said, quiet at first, his voice growing louder with his increasing rage. “He would have me slay you to save us from the shadowborn. Is that what you want from me? Do you want to die and kill everyone living on Center’s soil just to hope the shadowborn dies with us in the fall?”

  They cast glances to one another, and Liam could tell by the shifting emotions and shimmering differences in light across their skin that they were conversing in a way beyond his understanding.

  “We have already given our lives for humanity’s,” the feminine lightborn said. “And we still have faith the shadowborn may be defeated. But no victory is worth the loss of humanity. Yes, let our hearts beat on, and let this jewel remain high in the sky. Now is not the time to give in to fear. We will offer what advice and aid we can.”

  Liam stared at the flaking black bits of blood drifting off his sword. Deep in his mind he felt a breaking.

  “Let others fight on,” he echoed. “You wish to offer aid? Then kill me, you lightborn bastards. End my misery now.”

  They lifted back as if appalled by the very notion.

  “Why would we do such a thing?”

  Liam laughed. The very way they phrased the question, so focused on themselves, the tone more curiosity than worry, broke him all the further.

  “Kill me!” he screamed. “I have slain he who speaks for God. What worth am I? To myself? To you?”

  He sliced his own arm and lifted it so they might watch the blood splatter scarlet upon their pristine marble floor.

  “The blood of demons flows through my veins,” he shouted. “I am an abomination, a botched experiment and nothing more. Kill me. End this. Show you still have the courage to do something besides sitting here hiding from the world!”

  Still they recoiled. As if dirtying their hands would be beneath them. As if they hadn’t witnessed the deaths of thousands over the centuries of their long lives. Liam felt tears trickling down his face. When he next screamed, his voice was hoarse and tired.

  “Is that it? You won’t do it? You cowards. You fucking cowards. Tear free of those chains and kill me. You say you have given your lives for humanity, but you will not lift a finger now in our time of need. Slay the shadowborn yourselves instead of relying on us to bleed and die for you. Haven’t we given enough?”

  Silence was again their answer. Pity swam in their golden eyes.

  “I tried to kill my son and daughter,” Liam said, lacking the strength to shout. “What worth am I?”

  “You are worth the life of a human,” said the feminine lightborn. “And that worth always remains unchanged.”

  “Liars,” Liam whispered. “Liars! So what we do doesn’t matter? All my sins, all my penance, neither changes a thing? Then what’s the point? What is the goddamn point?”

  The feminine lightborn lowered closer to him, outstretching her hand. Her emotions washed over him, full of compassion and hope but also an undeniable sadness.

  “To live for those who love you,” she said. “From the lowest of the low, to the very divine.”

  “Those who love you,” Liam whispered. “I have none left. I tried to kill them all.”

  He retracted the blade in his gauntlet and pressed the cannon against the underside of his chin. All his sorrow and rage drained away, leaving him a hollowed numbness.

  “The life of a human,” Liam said, tears streaming down his face. “Let’s see just how much that’s worth.”

  He ignited the fire prisms with the last dying bit of his passion. He felt the heat, felt the pain.

  Felt nothing at all.

  CHAPTER

  33

  Kael drained the last of his prism forming a constant line of light protecting a wide, shallow lake. The shadow retreated as if wounded, appearing thin and frail while it slowly regrew in size from the teeming mass of darkness climbing over Center’s edge. Kael reopened the wound on his hand, popped the compartment of his gauntlet open, and pressed the light prism against it to refresh it once again.

  “How the hell does Bree do this all the time?” Kael wondered aloud as he felt his energy wane, his strength flowing into the prism to banish the cloudy haze and the multitude of cracks. Gasping for air, he pulled it away and then jammed it into the compartment. Turning the knob to activate the gauntlet, he spun to the shadow for another series of blasts only to discover the shadow wasn’t there. It receded from the lake surface, swam through the tightly packed homes, and vanished into the dying trees of the forest.

  Baffled, Kael
lifted into the air in search of a better vantage spot. Had the shadowborn been defeated? So far it appeared that way. He flew higher and higher, the land becoming a vague green-and-blue shape below. There he followed the retreating darkness with his eyes. It flowed from all directions back toward a single focal point, and Kael felt his stomach tighten. He’d seen this before, with both the fireborn giant and the conglomeration of stoneborn and stormborn. Whatever the crawling darkness would become, he feared its form.

  Not a sound marked the shadowborn’s rise. Kael watched him lift above the forest on two long legs, his humanoid body stretching out his arms to push himself up from the ground. The sheer size baffled him. L’adim had to be four hundred feet tall, if not taller. His form seemed to consist entirely of condensed shadow. He bore no eyes, no mouth, no markings at all to mar the perfect sheen of black. Each step crushed buildings and trees. A lake of darkness swirled beneath his feet, spreading sickness and death wherever he walked.

  Kael wondered who could stand against such a thing. Was this it, then? Was this the demon who swallowed the world? He thought of the destruction the cannons waged upon Weshern, each blast now seeming so insignificant compared to swirling legs of shadow carrying L’adim across Center at a terrifying rate. The demon’s direction never changed, stepping across lake and grass and city and crushing them all beneath his gait. Kael traced the path to the obvious end: the fortress of Heavenstone.

  Seraphim and knights filled Center’s skylines, and every one flew to outrace L’adim to his destination. They would mass together before the shadowborn reached it, giving their final stand against the darkness. Kael flicked his throttle and soared over the land, desperately praying that their combined forces would be enough.

  Kael remembered his friend Loramere telling him to land a safe distance from Heavenstone lest he be attacked. It’d seemed good advice then, but now he flew right over its twin barrier walls without any fear. There were no nations anymore, no wars and alliances. There was but one enemy, and he marched toward them in a monstrous visage more suited to a nightmare. Kael looked for the familiar black jackets of Weshern and found them grouped together in a hover along the fortress’s western side. Their number was painfully smaller than it had been at the start of the day.

  “How’re we doing?” Kael asked as he hovered to Clara’s side. Few others looked ready to chat, and he couldn’t deny the relief he felt seeing her still alive and well.

  “Like shit,” Saul said, dropping down a dozen feet to float even with them. “How’s Bree?”

  “She was fine last I saw her,” Kael said. He looked to the shadowborn’s steady passage toward them. “Actually, I think that’s her now.”

  A silver-winged Seraph flew directly ahead of L’adim, a little speck of brightness amid the solid dark. Kael lifted his shield and let it shimmer with light several times to draw her attention. Her direction shifted slightly, her mad speed lessening over the next minute as she pulled up alongside them. Sweat dripped down her face. Her eyes were bloodshot.

  “Are you all right?” Kael asked.

  “I saw him,” Bree said. “I spoke with him. L’adim is in the heart of that monstrosity. He’s in there, and that means we can kill him.”

  “You say as if that’ll be easy,” Saul said, and he cracked a grin. “But I guess slaying a world destroying demon would just be another notch on your belt.”

  She appeared in no mood for any attempts at humor. Her wide eyes looked to the shadowborn, and her body shivered underneath her black jacket.

  “God, I hope so.”

  A tall woman with fiery red hair flew to the center of the gathered Seraphim forces of all islands and loosed several bolts of lightning directly into the air to summon them closer. Their little group of four followed Clara’s lead to join in.

  “I am Knight Master Allison,” she said once they gathered. A twist of her waist set her to gently spinning to face them all. “On behalf of my knights I thank you for coming to join us in this dire hour.”

  She pointed to L’adim in the distance.

  “That fucking thing needs to die. Our theotechs will assemble across Heavenstone’s rooftops with the last of our cannons. Our knight giants will be the front line along the ground, backing up our soldiers. I don’t know how they’ll face against the shadowborn but we must try. As for you all, I ask that you join my knights in protecting the cannons. We need every bit of firepower we can muster if we’re to defeat the damned demon. Can you do that for me, Seraphim?”

  Scattered calls of agreement from squadron leaders answered her. She nodded as if pleased.

  “I don’t know the fate of our worlds,” she said. “But I know that it is still within our hands. Fight like hell, my brethren. All of humanity depends upon it.”

  There were no triumphant choruses, no raised fists and boastful shouting, only tired, grim calls of agreement. Bree, Kael, Clara, and Saul broke off into their own formation of four, one squad of dozens hovering in the air before Heavenstone. The knights took up positions between the two long defensive walls, protecting the near one hundred red-robed theotechs readying defenses on the ground. Cannons rumbled among them, each one turning its aim toward L’adim. A flood of soldiers rushed out the open gates of Heavenstone, several hundred taking up positions in lines ten deep. All in all, it was an impressive defensive display, but the final pieces were yet to arrive.

  Stone crumbled from the mountain behind Heavenstone to reveal long tunnels dug into the rock. Platforms floated out from them, each one carried by two dozen ferrymen. Kael watched them drift into position in front of Heavenstone, their occupants slowly shimmering to life. They were the knight giants, humanoid in shape but tremendous in size. Kael could not see wherever the pilot was inside it, though most likely they sat in the machine’s heavily armored chest. Its armored plates were thick steel grafted with silver. Their heads were shaped like pre-Ascension armored helmets. Long, slanted eyes shimmered with thin pieces of embedded light elements. All nine swung gilded swords longer than any knight was tall. Their left hands ended not in fists but in cannons similar to the one that had been grafted on his father. Kael had seen only one knight giant in battle, but even its brief display had been incredible. Imagining all nine …

  He looked to the approaching shadowborn. Yes, all nine might be impressive, but how would they fare against the monstrosity coming for them?

  The platforms landed among the ground soldiers. The nine exited their platforms, their footfalls sinking into the earth with each heavy step. They lumbered forward to form the initial line of defense. Their swords swung through the air, a brilliant white light blazing from the four prisms linked together to form their hilts. A myriad of colors shone from the barrels of their cannons and wafted like smoke to the heavens. L’adim marched on, his hunched form taking up the entire sky. He showed no fear of the defenders readied against him.

  This is it, Kael thought. The best we have. If this isn’t enough, then only a miracle from God can save us.

  The knight giants raised their arm cannons. The war machines atop the walls readied their elements. Knight Master Allison swept across the battlefield, her golden wings passing mere inches from the giants’ raised arms. She screamed the same line again and again, readying them to fire.

  “We are the blade! We are the blade! We are the blade!”

  As she passed the last mechanical knight, with the great lake of shadow rolling ahead of L’adim’s footfalls about to reach their line, Allison pulled into the heavens and screamed at the very top of her lungs, her drawn sword thrusting into the air to give the signal.

  “What is holy must never break!”

  The arms of the knight giants rocked from the explosions. Cannons fired one after another, singing a great chorus of destruction. Knights and Seraphim added their own elements to the barrage, thin beams among enormous blasts. Kael held back his light, unsure of its strength at such a distance. With bated breath he watched the massive barrage approach L’adim.

>   The shadowborn welcomed it with open arms. The liquid darkness froze in spools larger than rivers. Stone pounded through the darkness, tearing at L’adim’s physical presence. The fire swarmed him, consuming great chunks at its touch before flaming out. Lightning crackled across his form, its golden light fighting the deep dark of the shadowborn’s essence. The great lake of shadow at its feet swirled up its legs, reinforcing the parts of L’adim that thinned or burned from the attack. For a brief moment Kael dared believe they stood a chance.

  L’adim’s retaliation was swift and terrible. His legs crumpled to the ground. Rivers of shadow burst from his knees, flowing with otherworldly speed between the two defensive walls. The knight giants turned their aim to the ground. Elements slammed the approaching waves, hardening it with ice, splashing it back with stone, and setting it alight with flame. The defense left Bree in awe, but the raw amount of shadow dwarfed their incredible display. The shadow hardened, shaping into sharp claws lunging upward. The soldiers lifted their shields and thrust with their spears. It did nothing. It changed nothing. The claws ripped through their lines, tearing men apart like they were made of paper. Only the knight giants withstood. Their swords cleaved the air, smashing the shadow, cracking it like ice.

  L’adim’s two arms became four, then eight. Each one thrashed a different direction. Each finger elongated, a thousand spears launching at the remaining knights and Seraphs. Kael flung up a wall of ice just to watch it shatter. He kicked his wings into full speed and weaved higher into the air, desperately hoping the other three might follow. Sometimes he dodged, sometimes not, his survival relying more on dumb luck than any skill. His meager beam of light felt worthless compared to the destruction erupting about him. His shield was but a plaything. Saul vanished somewhere amid the chaos, and Kael spared only a moment’s concentration to pray for his safety.

  The shadowborn lifted its foot and took another lumbering step. Light prisms flared within the mechanical joints of the knight giants as they closed the distance. Their cannons ripped into the shadowborn’s knees. Their swords slashed across its shins. The shadow broke, the shadow retreated, the shadow returned. Spikes shot from L’adim’s legs without reason or sense. Every inch of the demon was a threat. The pieces twisted and turned like tendrils, wrapping about the knight giants’ arms and legs. Metal shrieked and twisted. The ancient machinery broke, just another worthless toy before the swallower of worlds.