Issue #70: Gold and Glory

This entry is part 12 of 16 in the series The Descendants Vol 6: Returns and Departures

(Part 6)
 
There was a moment of tense silence in the room before both Cyn and Melissa turned to the Sorceress.
 
The hooded woman knew precisely what they wanted to ask her. “This is not the ancient magic. There exist spells to speak with deceased spirits, to bind them, to preserve bodies, and to make golems of flesh—but there exists no spell to raise the dead in the way he described: not in the 4 Books, not in the Recovered Codices, not in the Book of Going Forth by Day.”
 
Cyn grimaced, “There’s no Device we know of that can do that either. A Neo-Device like the Scion’s stones?”
 
“It has never been established that those stones are actual Neo-Devices.” said the Sorceress.
 
Someone banged heavily and frantically on the door, causing them all to jump. Cyn laughed self consciously. “Just in time. That must be our resident expert on Neo-Devices now, along with Wil.” Without even asking permission from Melissa, she crossed the room and opened the door. “It’s about—”
 
“No time, Princess, there’s trouble.” reported Christina, who was standing on the doorstep, dressed drastically different than Cyn had seen before. Over her homespun dress, she wore a leather vest, studded with iron, reinforced by thin brass plates, and shot through with copper filaments and thin pipes. A wide leather belt covered with loops, compartments and hanging pouches were belted securely around her waist, and she wore the gauntlet Cyn had seen her working on earlier, along with its twin. Both gauntlets and belt were connected to the jerkin by filaments and pipes and the jerkin itself sent even more filaments up to a leather choker around her neck, then to an almost comically over-sized set of goggles, and finally up to the band that held her hair in place.
 
“Yes there is, we’ve apparently got zombies in the kingdom.”
 
“What’s a zombie?” Christina asked.
 
Cyn stared a moment. “I… have no idea.”
 
This cause Christina to give her a less than impressed look. “Well I think you should forget whatever a ‘zombie’ is and worry instead about the giant and his wolves.”
 
Again, Cyn stared for a moment, but then she just shook her head. “Because of course there would be a giant and wolves.”
 
“Wil scouted around the hill when we arrived a few minutes ago.” Christina explained, ignoring Cyn’s frustration. “She spotted them moving through the woods a few miles from here: a huge man accompanied by dire wolves as if they wee his faithful hounds. He will be here in less than an hour. Wil is trying to get numbers on the wolves.”
 
Cyn turned to the people in the healing house. “You all get that?”
 
The Sorceress nodded and rested her staff on her shoulder. “The search for the Neo-Device will have to wait until we determine if the giant is a threat. It is likely, he intends to attack this place for rare plants that might bring a great deal of coin in foreign cities.”
 
“It wouldn’t be the first time.” Melissa muttered, bustling about the room. Her first order of business had been to take down and old, battered satchel with many pockets and internal dividers from her loft. She then set about filling it with vials and powders from her shelves. “I’m sworn to care for anyone who comes under my care, but nothing in that says I can’t do things to them to put them under my care. There is a reason most people know not to try and take things from me by force anymore.”
 
Her tone made Cyn’s stomach turn a little. Melissa’s Device gave her significant control over biological functions and her studies gave her knowledge of those functions and what could disrupt them to terrible effect. The Queen had commented privately that fielding her in battle constituted a horrific breach in several treaties.
 
Sneak Thief eyed his own satchel. “How many other patients are here?” He asked.
 
“Eight.” replied Melissa, contemplating a jar of innocent looking salve before putting it back on the shelf. “But cast your eyes back down: you are too injured to fight anyone, much less dire wolves.”
 
Cyn, who knew the man better, piped up. “There’s only one way in. If you set up in the loft, you’ll have the high ground to defend the other patients if we fail.”
 
He gave her a cocky grin. “What makes you think I wasn’t thinking of robbing them in the commotion and running back to the city instead?”
 
“Because like you said before: I know you.” said Cyn.
 
No sooner had she said this than Willow rushed up beside Christina. She was breathing hard, as if she’d run the whole way, but she was by no means puffing and blowing. The cherubic face and less than petite figure were simply masks for her athleticism.
 
“Six wolves in all. Real dire wolves, not just Highlands hunting hounds. The giant carried a zweihander in a concealed crossbow—a simple Neo-Device that can fire multiple bolts and reload quickly.”
 
Christina scoffed. “That is simple. It’s almost just a machine.”
 
“Sometimes, I don’t really know the difference.” Melissa rolled her eyes.
 
“What matters is that our enemies will learn that difference—if they are indeed enemies.” When Christina turned to go, Cyn saw that on the back of the jerkin, between the other woman’s shoulder blades, there sat a strange contraption. All of the copper filaments and tubing led into what looked like an elongated scarab fashioned out of black iron and green glass. The Glass was lit from within and the whole thing occasionally threw a green spark.
 
If she didn’t know any better, Cyn could have easily mistaken it for a Device. Somehow, this realization only made her wonder if they had correctly identified the strange object captured from the Scion of the Warped Star.
 
She quickly shoved that to the back of her mind: there was a battle to be joined.”
 
***
The hill the healing house was both built on and in was not a thing conducive to either ambushes or sneak attacks. It’s flanks sported only the trees Melissa cultivated in her garden and were otherwise bald and open to the land around them. A few miles north, a sizable forest started, and there was small copses on the lower surrounding hills, but in order to reach the healing house, one had to cross hundreds of yards of open ground.
 
That was probably why the giant and his retinue of wolves choose to emerge from said forest and move forward at a leisurely pace. A charge would have been cut down immediately even with one bow between the women defending the place, and without the Sorceress exerting herself.
 
Garbed in a knee-length woolen coat, buttoned against the autumn chill and old, worn work boots, the giant would have looked like a woodsman. Or he would have were he not a giant. Not a storybook giant whose height was measured in dozens of feet, but a huge man topping nine feet and perfectly proportioned for that size. His beard was dark and cut uneven and his long, dark hair was mostly obscured by the crumpled, wide-brimmed hat he wore.
 
Behind him ranged the pack: six dire wolves, each not a great deal smaller than the party’s horses. Their legs were thicker and shorter than a smaller wolf’s and the bulging muscles in their shoulders made them appear hunchbacked. Normally shy creatures, these loped toward the hill with clear deadly intent.
 
As he reached the foot of the hill, the giant spied Cyn. She had positioned herself at a place halfway up the hill where erosion had provided a natural balcony. Slightly further up the hill was Wil, her bow at half draw in case the wrong things were said and correction in the form of an arrow was needed. Spread out around Wil were Christina and Melissa.
 
“Oy!” The giant called up. He swung that big blade of his off the shoulder it had been resting on and thrust it point first into the ground in front of him. “A fine bit of hospitality from May and her Princess, I see.”
 
Cyn’s hand was on the hilt of her sword, ready to draw. “Only seeing if you’re friend or foe. We don’t see many dire wolf packs in May. They tend to favor the mountains, so I hear.”
 
“Neither friend nor foe, Princess.” Replied the giant. “Only a messenger. M’lord sees fit to inform you that the yellow stone you sally forth to recover has now moved beyond your reach—and into his. It now belongs to the lord of the Canker-in-the-World and as such, your quest is at an end.”
 
“Oh really?” Cyn asked, “Well tell Master Kinky that he can bite me!” She heard a flat ‘what?’ from both Christina and the Sorceress.
 
The giant laughed. “M’lord predicted you would say such a thing. “I’ve been informed to in turn inform you that he will not,” he motioned to the wolves who growled in unison and started forward. “But they will.”
 
At the same instant, Wil loosed an arrow; not at the wolves, but at their master. With almost casual disdain, the giant swung his sword up and cut the missile out of the air. The arrow shattered with a sound like crystal breaking, leaving behind a frosty mist of cold air. “Weak Device, that.” chortled the giant before lumbering up the hill alongside his wolf pack.
 
Wil’s response was to unload two more arrows at him in rapid succession, not seeming to be bothered at all that each was being deflected with casual ease.
 
A wild grin came to Cyn’s face as the enemy advanced. “Finally.” She said under her breath. It seemed like forever since she’d set out on her mother’s mission and it was about damn time that she saw some actual action. Aloud she declared, “For my mother the Queen and the Kingdom of May—long may they both live!”
 
Out came her sword; three feet of lethal steel that contracted with her golden skin. Letting out an undulating war cry, she leapt from the hillside and spread her wings so as to fall into a glide directly toward the lead wolf. The beast snarled and leapt at her, teeth and claws and almost a ton of muscle brought to bear.
 
Against a normal foe, it would have won the moment it closed jaws around the woman’s shoulder, teeth slicing skin and muscle. But Cyn was bound to the Amulet d’Fac’smil, and through it, gifted with very fine control of her body. No blood came from those wounds and on function was lost. In fact,s he had offered her shoulder to draw the beast out.
 
Even as they crashed back down to earth, he sword was thrusting into its belly. Unlike her, it had no special powers to make itself whole again as the blade sheered through vital organs. It was dead before the settled and Cyn kicked it off her.
 
Nearby, she saw that she wasn’t the only one to have charged to meet the pack. Christina came down the hill at a full sprint. One of the wolves leapt to meet her, only for the woman to plant her feet and send a crashing blow into its snout with her gauntleted fist. The Neo-Device she wore must have given her phenomenal strength, as the punch broke its momentum and swatted the beast to the ground.
 
When the wolf rose again, it was met with another punch, this one solidly to the side of ts head. An orbital bone crunched and the wolf yelped in pain, backing off. One of its pack-mates went to avenge it, actually leaping over its injured brother. Christina answered with a mighty uppercut that launched it off the hill, sending it tumbling down to almost hit the giant.
 
The giant, forced to sidestep the injured animal, also sidestepped Wil’s next arrow, which landed at the bottom of the hill and turned a three-foot patch of grass into a frost-rimed waste.
 
Further up the hill, two of the wolves, which had headed to Melissa had turned on each other, growling, snapping and scratching at one another in a frenzy. The woodsman’s daughter strolled calmly past the pair as they savaged one another, headed for the giant.
 
Cyn scowled at how the others were getting to dispatch more wolves than her, especially as she watched the Sorceress meet the lone animal brave enough to target such an obviously magical creature. She merely outstretched her hand toward the creature, spoke a string of words that went unheard by Cyn, and a fireball sprang from her palm. The wolf didn’t even have time to yelp before it was transformed into a cloud of cinders and a crumpled heap of smoking bones.
 
Instead of despairing at his dying pets, the giant merely laughed. “You lot are a heap-a fun, yeah.” He said, slapping away another arrow in a puff of chill air. “But you are still no match to the lord of the Canker-in-the-World. M’lord has more monsters than you’ll ever hear sittin’ by your gran-mam’s fire, that’s a fact.”
 
He punctuated this by actually splitting one of Wil’s arrows in half lengthwise with his sword. A smile more wolfish than any of his pets could muster split his face and it seems as if the irises of his dark eyes lightened to yellow. “Not the least of which is me, so m’hap you best stop wasting you arrows shootin’ at me, Miss.”
 
Wil smirked and drew her bowstring back: a full draw this time. This arrow was surrounded by a sheath of blue power. “Actually, I’ve been aiming at your sword this whole time.” Her voice was sweet, but her eyes were anything but. Aiming for the center of mass, as loosed the arrow.
 
“Likely story!” the giant mocked and swung to cut that arrow down too. Except the weapon, weakened by sub-zero temperatures and the stresses of the giant’s own incredible speed with his swings, could not resist the force delivered by the newly imbued arrow. It shattered and suddenly a single iron arrow head became dozens of steel shards that exploded into the giant in a lacerating rain.
 
They didn’t have the force to do any lasting damage, but they didn’t have to: the giant screamed and tired to shield his face, providing a vital opening. Both Cyn and Christina rushed to exploit it.
 
Cyn came high, flying instead of gliding this time and aiming a sword thrust at the giant’s bulging belly. He kept just enough wits about him to parry with the stubby remnants of his broken sword and ram his shoulder into her stomach as her momentum carried her into it. She fell back and hit the ground, gasping.
 
Meanwhile, Christina went low, darting in while the big man was busy with Cyn to bury her powerful fist in his gut. It was the giant who came out of that one gasping, but not before backhanding her hard enough to dislocate her shoulder even through her Neo-Device armor.
 
He made to finish the two off when the Sorceress appeared before him. Though she was several yards up the hill from him, she cut an ominous figure and practically radiated threat. Before the giant could change targets, however, she brought the butt of her staff down upon the earth and spoke with a voice that rose to the heavens.
 
“Crystalline Reign!”
 
Jags of quartz crystal sprouted around the staff and rapidly grew in a ragged line toward him. There wasn’t time to act before a mass of the stuff had overtaking him, pinning his arms to his sides and growing wild up around his shoulders and most of his chest, trapping him.
 
With a groan, Cyn sat up. The blow that knocked her down had shattered her sternum and cracked a few ribs. They were all healing nicely by now. Her groan became a derisive laugh when she spied the captured giant. Before she got to him proper, she looked over to Christina who was already sitting up. “You alright over there, copper top?”
 
The filaments in the tinker’s jerkin had shifted around her shoulder and very sharply and with a horrific noise, pulled it back into place. Christina cried out, but shortly got a hold of herself, tears of pain streaming down her face even as she offered the Princess a smirk. “Is this what you do to my husband when you go off?”
 
“Usually worse.” Cyn said lightly, forcing herself to her feet. She turned her eyes toward the captive giant. “And now as for you: let’s hear some more of your high and wondrous master, hmm? I want to hear everything: especially what he wants with the Scion’s Neo-Device.”
 
The giant scoffed. “Neo-Device. Is that what you think it is? Sad, real sad. Ain’t no Device, Neo or not that can match m’lord’s bauble or any of his pretty yellow stones.”
 
“The scion.” Cyn said in a sharp his. “His body is covered in those yellow rocks. He’s the one that’s set him up in the wizard tower?”
 
At this the giant laughed again. “The Scion. Ha. Just a tool. Just a pawn. Just like you, Princess. What m’lord can do makes the Scions tricks seem like just that: cheap tricks done to make children clap and laugh.” That dangerous smile returned and so did the glint of yellow in his eyes. “What he does is wondrous.”
 
His demeanor shifted, and he suddenly whistles. “Here now, boy.” Up the hill, the wolf that Christina had cowed perked its ears up and turned its misshapen head toward its master’s call. “There’s a good lad. Now: angreifen.”
 
Something glimmered in on the wolf’s forehead and a rippled of glittering yellow began to travel from that spot, all long its body. Bone cracked and ground as the shattered orbital bone reconstructed just ahead of the creature’s muscles starting to bulge and the entire animal beginning to grow.
 
“God’s eyes.” Tink swore as two sets of black horns started to emerge from the monster’s head and spines began to pierce through the hide and fur on its shoulders.
 
“Your master.” the Sorceress spat with disgust, “Is a crass fleshcrafter.” With that, she took a square of silk from her hip pouch, wrapped it around one hand, then raised her staff overhead. She turned to face the transforming dire wolf and her voice echoed as she intoned a spell. “Air and water that circles above the earth, heat the call of heat and cold and rage. Bring forth a new power and deliver it to my enemy. I summon the Thunderstrike!”
 
At first nothing happened. Then, from a clear patch of sky fell a massive bolt of lightning. The zagged down to earth and found ground through the still-changing form of the dire wolf. The former animal screams like no natural creature could have and exploded into a shower of yellow sparks that smoldered in the grass.
 
A thin, humorless smile came to the Sorceress’s lips as she returned to facing her captive “Now that your hidden weapon had failed, we…” The words died in her mouth and the others remained silent.
 
For she was addressing a huge, skeleton that was rapidly disassembling into yellow dust.
 
To Be Continued in Descendants #71: Yellow (Cyn Quest Part 2)
Series Navigation<< Descendants Giant-sized #2 – After-PartyIssue #71: Yellow >>

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Landon Porter is the author of The Descendants and Rune Breaker. Follow him on Twitter @ParadoxOmni or sign up for his newsletter. You can also purchase his books from all major platforms from the bookstore
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