"Heart of the Crown" Chapter 38

[seymoure]

Chapter 38

A New Challenge

The Count was beside himself with anger. The attack squad he had sent to bring back the child was reduced to three men, all badly wounded.

“That damn amulet,” he screamed at the magician. “It led us into an ambush by those cat monsters!”

Robez stood peering into the smoke from his fire pit, looking for an answer that refused to come.

“She knew,” he muttered. “The bitch child knew!”

“Is that a conclusion that your spell of genius brought to you?” the count raged. “Because I could have told you that the moment my men told me of the raging battle they barely survived. The question is, what do we do now?”

“We attack again, but this time,” the aged mage growled, “we know more than she does.”

“How do we do that?”

“I will lead the charge,” the old man said. “I shall use my power to follow her and bring about her doom.”

“Ha!” the mercenary spat. “What can you do that a legion of my men was unable to do?”

“I shall become my own army!” the magician said, “I will become a force so terrible that the allies will die of fright.”

He turned from the fire and swept the smoke with his hands. As he turned he began to grow, his robe becoming flame, his eyes becoming a source for lightning. From his finger tips came rays of light that cut into the walls of the room with their red blades.

The Count stepped back, not a man to give in to fright, but neither one given to false heroics.

The roar that came from the giant magician’s mouth was something those present would spend a great amount on enough ale to try to forget.

Then the left hand of the sorcerer motioned, and a second of his kind rose from the fire pit.

Behind it came a third and then a fourth.

The four of them stood side by side and then rose from the ground.

“We go,” they said in unison, “And she will die a horrible death, but only after she has seen those with her die.”

Thunder cracked in the room.

And they were gone.

The sound of the thunder resounded for a moment, and then it was gone.

The silence of the room was profound.

© 2008 C. Wayne Owens
Chapter 39 is here.