Chapter 17: Sacred Stone
Wide stairs led down a hall, down, down, down, until we were well below the ground. Seth trotted up behind Eirika and me, carrying a torch.
Lyon was waiting for us at the bottom of the steps, at the front of a vast dark stone hall. We halted, and we looked at him as he looked silently at us.
“Eirika…” he said, finally. “Ephraim…”
“There’s no need to say anything, Lyon,” I said, and I found it was true. I had forgiven him everything. “We know everything, and we’re sorry.”
“You must kill me now,” he said earnestly. “The Demon King will use my body to revive his own…” He paused, then continued quickly, strain rising in his voice. “You don’t actually know everything. When the Demon King first reached out to me… there was… I must say it… jealousy and envy in my heart. I did not resist as I should have… I am to blame for my unforgivable weakness…”
“No, Lyon. You are not to blame,” Eirika told him. I nodded. Everyone has depressive episodes once in a while. Most people don’t end up unlocking the end of the world, but hey. It happens. “Everyone has weaknesses. I know I do. I’m certain my brother does.” Well, thanks, Eirika. “We do, we do forgive you.”
“Even now, you are so kind to me…” And his voice and face changed. Lyon was gone. “Are you done yet? Huh, making your life over into some sort of epic tragedy… Booooring!”
I shook myself out of my forgiving reverie. “We are going to kill you now.”
It laughed, a harsh, arrogant laugh. “Yes? You think you have the strength to do it?”
I glanced at Eirika, received a matching glance. “Yes, we can and will do it. You will die this day.”
“I am the Demon King! I cannot die!” With another triumphant laugh, it teleported to the back of the hall, and I saw that as he had been talking, monsters had been creeping up out of the black depths below the temple to take defensive positions on the narrow walkways that led us to him.
“Let’s go, Ephraim!” Eirika cried, seeing as I did that there were two routes to go. “You can go that way. I’ll go this way.” I almost told her off for giving me directions, but I saw a certain logic in her impetuous outburst: if we took both routes simultaneously, no monsters would escape to attack the wounded in camp.
They were advancing on us, and I gave quick orders. “Myrrh, with me. Kyle, Forde, escort the healers. General Seth!” He’d been looking distractedly at Eirika. Discipline would centre him in the moment. “I’m counting on you to keep Eirika alive.”
“Sir!”
“Deussel, if you would take point in the charge?”
“Certainly, Ephraim.”
“I’ll be right behind you. Charge!”
We smashed into their first wall, scattering skeletons into the depths. I guess they weren’t entirely out of zombies, as there were a few of those lurching around, too. Sigmund pierced skeleton heads one after another, thok thok thok. They smouldered as they hit the floor.
“Incoming!” Forde shouted, and Myrrh launched herself into the air and breathed fire at another zombie dragon, but this one was much smaller than the one we had faced out side. Another bright flash was Innes firing an arrow at it, hitting it squarely in the eye. It fell apart into a pile of bones that showered into the darkness beside the path.
There were Gorgons up ahead, surrounding Lyon’s platform. I glanced across at Eirika; her group was perhaps slightly behind mine, but we were both about halfway there.
“Fight on!” I called to my fighters. “We’re winning!”
Even as I said that, I found myself facing a skeleton with a strangely shaped lance. I challenged it, and it dodged. Tricky one. I was rather close to the edge of the path; I would have to pull back or risk accidentally riding off the cliff.
It was taking advantage of my predicament, and it had allies lined up behind it.
Fortunately, so did I. “Innes! Little assistance here?” I knew he would rub that in later, but in battle that did not matter.
My problem was solved, and having manoeuvred Lila into a position from which I could charge again, I did so. Bones clattered to the flagstones as my lance clove through them like a hot knife through butter. A sword glanced off the leather armour on my thigh, and then an arrow pierced my off arm. I gasped but did not stop, intending to make a loop and return to the group to get that looked at.
Then I was met with a wall of purple and yellow scales, and Lila skidded to a halt. I looked up; I had never truly looked at these things before. It raised a claw and I batted it away with my lance. It hissed in pain and lunged at me; I spun the lance to hold it at bay. But it didn’t attack me with teeth or claws.
I caught a glimpse of blackness, its eyes, of a void darker than dark magic spells…
I heard L’Arachel shout from across the hall, and a bright blue glow surrounded me. The Gorgon reared back, whatever spell it was casting on me broken, and hissed again.
I took advantage of its distraction and sliced upwards with Sigmund; the creature fell in a twitching purple heap.
Breathing somewhat heavily, I turned back to the group to get my arm… Wait. My arm was healed. Whatever L’Arachel had saved me from, she had healed me as well.
Only one more Gorgon to deal with, and we would have broken through to Lyon, who was patiently waiting for us, sprawled in a stone throne at the back of the hall. I gave orders, and Knoll’s magic sucked the thing down into oblivion, assisted with some light and anima magic from other mages.
Seth was just cutting down the last Gorgon on the other side as I rode to confront Lyon, who rose to meet us. Eirika came swiftly to my side, and we came at him together, our weapons ready.
A spell enveloped us, rising from the floor to cover us in a black shroud. It was filled with lace-like patterns and filigree swirls – but I felt like I was having a heart attack. Lila stumbled beneath me. “Come on, boy,” I urged him with a gasp. I felt the power behind the spell, somehow – it was mocking us.
And our weapons cut into the source of that mockery.
The darkness vanished, blown away into the back of the temple. Lyon coughed, tottered, and fell to the ground.
I leapt down from my horse and pulled him into a sitting position. His head fell back onto my shoulder. Eirika was also down, kneeling beside him.
He knew it was me. His eyes opened, his own violet eyes, staring into the distance. “Ephraim… I’m sorry. Everything’s all right now, though, right?”
“It’s all right, Lyon,” I assured him shakily. He was dying. Oh, Stones, he was dying. By my hand. “I only wish… I guess sometimes I’m too ambitious for my own good, huh?” I tried to laugh, to put him at ease, but my mind was running down the paths of memory, flashing back over our short life together, the days when the three of us had been inseparable.
If I had known then, when I was so young and stupid, what I knew now… I could have helped him… Shown him he had no need to be jealous… Shown him he was strong… Eirika had tried. She knew better than I.
Lyon smiled. “That’s not true, Ephraim. Ambition is a good force… Only when it turns to darkness – true darkness, not dark magic – it is not so good… I wouldn’t want to keep you back just because I’m not as athletic as you are… Not as good as you are in various things…” But in anything else than athletics, he was better than I was, didn’t he see that? He raised a hand as if he knew my mind. “I’m glad we were friends, though.”
My throat constricted and I couldn’t speak.
After a pause, Lyon managed to focus on Eirika, reaching for her hands shakily. “Eirika, you… are in love with…” He knew too? So much for Seth wanting to keep it secret. Everyone and their grandmother’s evil dog knew it.
Eirika confirmed it silently, but her face was bright red.
“That’s good,” and he relaxed a little in my arms. “You’ll be happy, I think… I have heard of him. Eirika… I just want to say – I never had the courage to say it – I wish I had – but…” He took a deep breath. “I love you.” Good on him. That took more courage than many men had.
“Lyon…” Eirika said, distraught, then suddenly leaned forward and kissed him.
And he died.
I laid him down gently and stood, helping Eirika up. She was now white, but she did not cry.
I was about to reach out to her – twins should support each other, even if they’re not showing signs of weakness – but the ground began to shake alarmingly.
“We’re in a swamp, for crying out loud,” I muttered, as Lyon’s body crumbled and evaporated. An inhuman roar thundered through the temple, and I thought I saw something moving through the passage behind the throne. I waved to the army. “It’s showtime!”
Not even bothering to remount Lila, I ran into the passage, Eirika at my heels. If we needed to leave in a hurry, yes, I would take the horse over my feet any day. But I just might be more mobile on my own two feet.
In the very back of the temple, there was a darkly glowing cloud, which was fading as it drifted towards the ceiling. Its passing revealed something hideous, something massive, something I had no suitable words for. Well, I did, but they were soldier words, and not fit to say aloud. Not with an army that included children.
A trickle of sweat ran down my face as I looked at it. It towered over us, perhaps three stories tall, with bulging iron grey muscles, enormous black wings and a great heavy tail, and an indescribable face framed with a pair of horns.
“Formortiis!” cried L’Arachel, bringing up a name I dimly remembered from history lessons in sunlight Grado with a lavender-haired prince and a cranky but kind old priest… “The Demon King!” Yes, I got it, thank you, L’Arachel. It was slowly becoming aware of us. Its movements were unsteady. I guess it wasn’t used to its body yet. Well, I didn’t intend to give it that chance.
“The Sacred Stone!” called Innes, unnecessarily. I reached out my hand to Eirika, and together we held it up. It floated up a little, and there was a piercing flash of light. If anyone had been unconvinced of the power of the Sacred Stones before, they would be convinced now that it was doing its job. Multi-coloured pale flashes and blackness streamed from where the monster’s heart might be into the stone.
It settled back down into my hand, and in an instant I’d slipped it back into its bag and handed it off to L’Arachel. I figured the light-wielding Princess of Rausten would be the safest keeper for it.
Now free to fight, I cried to Eirika. “Come, Eirika!” The beast was still moving; I hoped the Sacred Stone had done its job properly. If it had, this giant lump of flesh was still going to put up a terrific fight.
I ducked and rolled, just in time to miss a sweeping blow of razor-sharp claws as long as my leg. I sprang up and plunged my lance in somewhere, anywhere. The tightly-bunched muscle resisted heavily, even with an enchanted lance. I guessed that ordinary weapons would be worse than useless against that. Speaking of which…
“Seth!” I shouted. “Get the army out of here! Only the Sacred Twin wielders can stay!”
“You’re right,” he said. What did that mean? But the army began slowly leaving, not wanting to miss the spectacle. Joshua flitted past me on the right, catching the Demon King’s arm and getting a free ride into the air, where he dropped on its shoulder and disappeared down its back. It roared.
“Flies! All flies!” Well, it didn’t seem too intelligent…
A light filled my vision, but it was not the healing light I’d known, or even the light magic spells sometimes used against me by Grado clerics. This was Hell in its purest form, and I think I staggered back, stunned, overwhelmed, blasted.
The curse ended as suddenly as it had begun. Myrrh was blocking it from me, sitting back on her hind legs, breathing fire in its face.
“Oh, daughter of the one I killed, you will regret that,” growled the Demon King.
I gulped in air and took a moment to collect myself. “General Seth! What are you still doing here? Get them out of here! They can’t stand an attack like that!”
“They’re gone, Prince Ephraim. I think they have been convinced.”
“Then why the blazes are you…”
“Ephraim. I must protect you and Eirika.” He took a step closer to me – the horses were all gone with the army – and the look on his face spoke plainer than words. “I can’t hurt him, but I can distract him.” He was gripping his silver sword so tightly his knuckles were white.
“…Thank you. In that case, run!” We scattered in opposite directions as a claw came down on us from above.
Ice and light and black bolts shot at it, harming it. I dashed in close again, meeting unexpectedly with Eirika. We glanced at each other, and each stabbed it as high and as hard as we could reach. Above our heads, one of Innes’ arrows shot at its face.
I staggered back as it let out a howl that felt like it blasted right through me as if I were paper. It didn’t hurt nearly as much as the curse, but I was ready for whatever happened next.
Although I was not prepared for Myrrh’s paw to shove me out of the way as she poured fire onto the… shrinking Demon King?
There was a terrific noise. I couldn’t tell whether it was dark or light or both. Everything was all confused. Was I dying?
Silence.
I picked myself up off the floor cautiously. To my left, no Demon King. To my right…
Eirika flung herself into Seth’s arms.
The Demon King was dead.
Long live peace and freedom from supernatural fear.
Someone whooped, and then the air was filled with more noise – laughing, talking, sighs of relief. I was not prepared for Eirika to tackle me, but I managed to keep my footing and hug her back, tightly. The most important person in my life was still alive, and her lover was alive, and we were all alive dangit…
We came out back into the swamp, and found everyone waiting for us. When they saw our victorious faces, they too began to talk and laugh and run around hugging each other. The sun had come out, just as it was setting. We’d have to stay the night there.
Myrrh came up to me, holding Saleh’s hand. “It’s all right, Ephraim,” she said, as if she knew what I was thinking. “The monsters are gone. With the Demon King’s second death, they were all destroyed.”
“Really? That’s amazing. So we won’t be bothered during the night, is what you are saying.”
“No. We won’t.”
“Thanks, Myrrh!”
She smiled, and then wandered off in the direction of the bones of her father. I wondered if I should follow her along with Saleh, but she knelt in front of them, whispering something – telling him about the victory? And then she blew, and the bones blew away into nothingness.
She stood again, and saw me looking at her. She gave me a sad little smile, and while Saleh was lost for words, I came back over. “Myrrh. I know your home is here in Darkling Woods. But how would you like to come visit Renais sometime?”
“Visit… Renais?”
“Yes. You’d be honoured by the whole country, of course, but the important thing would be – you can visit Eirika and me. We’d love to have you and Saleh come stay with us.”
“And Caer Pelyn is always open to you, Lady Myrrh,” Saleh said.
“Yes, Caer Pelyn is a lot closer than Renais,” I said.
“But you have people to visit,” Saleh said earnestly. “Please don’t be lonely, Great Dragon.”
She turned to him. “Saleh…”
“Great Dragon?”
“Just call me Myrrh, like Ephraim does. I like it.”
Saleh looked at her in amazement, and then at me, grinning like a brat over her head. She gave him a hug, and his face slowly blossomed into a shy smile of his own and he hugged her back.
“My work here is done,” I said, and stood, looking back towards a new burst of cheering in the camp, just in time to see Eirika and Seth making out in full view of everyone.
Oh, Eirika. “Heh,” I said aloud, and leaned against the side of the temple entrance.
The days ahead would not be easy. For one thing, King Ephraim sounded really weird. For another thing, Renais still lay in ruins, and though the monsters were gone, the bandits would still be causing problems. And there was the question of just how Grado was going to get along with no ruler at all.
The Demon King was finished. But our own lives were just starting.