own head. His movements became considerably quicker after that. Is he just seeking to escape? I wondered. Dorian couldn’t possibly have appeared with his arms and armor by chance. “Take them and get out!” I yelled at him as loudly as I could, gesturing at Rose and then Elaine. I would have liked Dorian safe as well, but there was no way Cyhan could have carried them all and at least Dorian was armored.
Celior smiled chillingly, “Save your breath mortal. I will only hunt them down once I am finished with you.” Reaching out, his hand pressed against my shield causing brilliant sparks to fly. “Your shield has improved. I might have to exert myself slightly to break something like that,” mused the shining deity, “though I know an easier way.”
I hardly liked the sound of that. Glancing backward I noticed one of the giant stones from the ceiling lay beside Penny and me, forming a natural barrier. “Get behind the stone Penny,” I ordered quietly. Turning back to Celior I tried to buy some time. “I’m done listening to your pathetic childish threats,” I said loudly.
The god laughed, “One small taste of the earth and you think you have a chance, I begin to doubt your intelligence Mordecai.”
For a moment I doubted my resolve. Obviously bear-baiting an angry god wasn’t among the smartest things I had ever decided to do. Stupid never dies, I thought inwardly, and then I replied, “Intelligence is overrated. I don’t need wits to see that you are nothing, despite your power. You are a parasite, a plague upon humanity, a figment of some man’s demented dream, drawing your sustenance from the hearts and souls of those who mistakenly worship you.”
As I spoke Celior’s face went from amused to thunderous and I put even more power into my shield. Whatever was coming would be bad. “I will show you the folly of your fool’s tongue,” the god replied and then I discovered my error.
A flash of light illuminated the room and for a split second it was as though the sun had touched the earth. It centered upon Celior and so intense were those rays that everything they touched burned and turned instantly to ash. The cloth furnishings in the room burned so rapidly they didn’t even have time to catch fire. Even the very stones smoked where that awful light played across them. My shield, on the other hand, was transparent, for light had never been a danger.
Staring up at Celior my skin and clothing crisped and vanished almost instantly from the half of my body facing him. My eyes shriveled and burned so quickly it was a mercy to no longer have to see the light. A scream rose in my throat but failed to escape for the pain had taken my breath away. As quickly as the light had appeared it vanished.
In its wake I was left a smoking ruin. The outer layer of clothing, skin and fat on the side of my body that faced the shining god was gone. If it hadn’t been for the cauterization that occurred simultaneously I might have bled to death, but instead I was left in a horror of agony and pain. Collapsing to the ground I knew I was dying already, but it might take hours unless Celior decided to hurry it along.
“Mort? What was that flash? I can’t see anything!” That was Penny’s voice. Though my eyes were gone I could still see her with my magesight, shielded by the lee of the stone. “Are you alright?” she asked.
Oddly enough the pain faded. Most of the nerve endings are gone, I mused. “It’s alright,” I tried to answer her but though my voice worked my ruined lips made the words sound almost foreign.
“Now you more closely resembled the blind worm you truly are,” said Celior mockingly, “when your whore’s sight returns she may thank me for improving your appearance.”
Anger was all I had left to drive me, that and a stubborn desire to somehow save my wife and child. The drumbeat of the earth quickened in response and I sought refuge in its rhythm and solace in its rage. “I don’t need eyes to see your ugliness Celior,” I answered and then I began to stand once more.
Something struck the back of my head like the blow of a forge hammer, sending me back down against the stone floor. Moira, help me! I cried mentally. Somehow I began rising to my feet again, though another hammer blow sent me reeling to one side. Celior was battering me with his fists now.
I can do nothing against the might of a god Mordecai, came Moira’s words in my mind.
Another strike sent me flying across the room to strike the wall, and yet again I started to rise up. Not me! Hide Penny. Take her away, through the stones if you must. Save her! My attention was fully engaged by Celior’s fists then.
Though his blows struck ever harder they seemed to hurt less. I was larger now, though Celior had kept pace with my growth. At a guess we both towered a full twenty feet above the floor now.
“You should stay down,” Celior’s voice told me. “You only delay the inevitable.”
His next blow swung toward my head but I was ready for him and this time I brought up my own arm to block it. Before he recovered I drove my other fist into his stomach. Without realizing it my hands had grown massive stony spikes and they pierced the shining god’s belly, spilling blood that looked like liquid gold upon the ground. “I am so tired of hearing that,” I replied in a voice that was reminiscent of the grating of two massive stones. “You’d think you would find some original threats during your eons of immortality.”
Celior stumbled back and then tried to counterattack. Ignoring his strikes I grabbed his head as he leaned in and jerking it downward I brought my massive stony knee up to meet it. With a crack like the sound of thunder I felt the bones in the shining god’s face break. Drawing his head back I repeated the motion, pulverizing what was left of Celior’s beautiful face. Then I reached down and grasped the limp god by the legs and swung him bodily into the wall.
Unfortunately I lost my grip on him at that point and he flew from my grasp. Despite the grievous injuries he recovered faster than I could reach him and leaping upward fiery wings sprung from his back. Several desperate wing beats sent him soaring above my head and through the ruined ceiling of the palace. That was not in the damn rulebook! I thought, cursing him mentally.
Taking advantage of my brief respite I scanned the area for my friends. Only Dorian was near, still lying unconscious in the stone rubble of one wall. Cyhan was almost out of the palace now, carrying Rose over one shoulder and Elaine over the other. Of Penny I could find no trace and I took that as a good sign.
I decided to get some fresh air. Raising my fist I demolished one wall and pushed my way through the rubble until I stood in one of the palace’s inner courtyards. Given the relative size of the dollhouse I was destroying I must have stood over forty feet tall at that point. As soon as I emerged from the fallen stone and timbers I discovered what Celior had been up to. A searing beam of pure sunlight bore down on me, burning into my stone skin.
Above me the god flew on his flaming wings, like some grotesque parody of a phoenix. He kept the light focused upon me and parts of my body began sloughing away like bubbling magma. Even in my rocky form I began to experience a sensation that my human self might have labeled pain and I tried to shield myself with my arms to no avail.
Drawing upon my magic I sent a bolt of pure force at my antagonist but the distance and his maneuverability made it impossible to hit him. “Fool!” Celior screamed down at me. “Your power cannot last, but mine is eternal.”
I was beginning to think he might have a point. As his assault continued it was becoming more and more difficult to reconstruct my body and even my thoughts were growing sluggish. The more power I drew from the earth the less I cared. I was beginning to forget myself. If I could just get my hands on that glowing bastard, I thought desperately.
A shadow crossed the sun and in the distance I saw something impossible. It was too far for my magesight, but my stony eyes could see what appeared to be a huge bird diving from the sky, down toward Celior. Apparently the god sensed something as well, for he broke off his laughter and glanced up and behind himself in alarm. His measured wing beats became frantic strokes as he tried to gain speed and altitude, but it was far too late. The bird… no it was a dragon, had far too much speed already from its dive.
It struck him with such force that they both plummeted from the sky and Celior was driven into the street beside the palace. The ground shook and the dragon tore at the god’s body, ripping into his belly. For a moment I was still, staring on in complete shock. Could that be Gareth Gaelyn? According to the story Moira had told me dragons were the stuff of myth and fairy tale. The only one that had ever existed was the result of an archmage gone mad and that was over a thousand years ago. He had also slaughtered his own people.
The dragon was at least a hundred feet in length from nose to tail and armored in glistening grey-black scales. His body was sleek and streamlined yet as he moved I could see powerful muscles rippling under his skin. The dragon’s wings were folded tightly against his body now that he was down on the ground, but they had been vast when they were unfurled a moment before. He held Celior with his jaws and two powerful forelimbs while his
