his plan. He wasn’t in his own body, therefore he wouldn’t be placing his own hands on the Wardstone yet. Through Shaella, he could cause a breach. After he left the Nethers in his own body through that opening and embraced the Wardstone himself, he could destroy the boundary altogether. Some of his legions would leave with him by way of the breach Shaella created, enough to take the city before him. The rest of his horde would have to wait until he got there.
A few hours later the carriage stopped. The Warlord heard, through Shaella’s ears, the wagon master speaking with a stern-voiced man. A quick look out of the curtained window showed him that they had reached Xwarda’s southern gate. The confident urge to unleash his power, to try to battle for success, had to be suppressed. A soft knock on the carriage door helped push the thought aside, but did little to calm the Lord of the Darkness. Hands trembling with anticipation, Shaella reached and opened the door.
“My lady,” the guardsman said as he peeked into the carriage, “just a precaution.” He smiled at her. “We’re sorry to intrude.” With that, the door closed softly.
“Let them pass,” the man called out, and the sound of rattling chains and creaking gates followed.
If the castle gate is as easy to pass through, then I will be feasting on the terror of men by nightfall, the Warlord said to himself. He worked fervently to stay calm. His minions had worshipers here to aid him. They wouldn’t dare misstep as Lord Vidian’s patron devil had. He had made a clear example of the price he demanded for failure. He also made sure that the rewards for success were so great that none of the banished would leave anything they could control to chance.
From deep inside the Warlord stirred the tiny bit of Gerard Skyler that remained. He’d crawled into the depths of the Nethers seeking power. Now he had so much of it that it wasn’t him anymore. He’d been among the hellborn so long that he was like them now. Only, he had eaten the yolk of a dragon’s egg and had become something greater than all of them. He was the Warlord, the Abbadon, the Lord Master of Hell and Darkness and only one more gate, and a leisurely stroll into Queen Willa’s palace, was all that stood between him and his dominance of the mortal world.
For a moment, Gerard remembered Hyden and his cousins. He remembered the joy he had felt climbing the cliffs and dreaming of what he’d spend the money on that he earned for his harvest. But that memory was fleeting, for even the part of the Warlord that was still Gerard Skyler was lusting to bring the terror as much as the rest of the Warlord.
The guard at the palace gate was more cautious than the first. His steely eyes and the stripes on his shoulder showed he held some authority. Beyond him, on the wall the gate was set into, the Warlord saw the most peculiar sight. One of the Wedjakin was cursing angrily at a device made out of wood and steel that was mounted at the edge of the parapet.
“Don’t be alarmed, my lady,” the guard said gruffly, but in an obvious attempt to soothe her. “They are frightening creatures to look upon, but they fight for Queen Willa and the High King now.”
She nodded and made an expression of distaste. When she met his eyes, she dropped hers and smiled.
“Sir Hyden Hawk had Queen Willa put the wall guard on full alert. Unless you have legitimate business at the palace, my lady, I cannot let you pass.” He shrugged apologetically. “If you tell me why you’ve come, I’ll have a runner see if the castellan will let you in.”
Shaella smiled sadly and hugged herself in a somewhat ashamed manner. “My uncle, Lord Vidian, was arrested in Weir some days ago,” she said with her eyes focused on the soldier’s boots. “I must see him. As distasteful as his betrayal of the queen’s law is, I… I…” she stifled a tear and hid her face. “This is so embarrassing, so demeaning, sir. I’m ashamed.” After a long pause filled with sniffling and whining, she finished. “There are family matters, responsibilities both legal and personal, that his arrest has left unattended. I must speak with him to see what arrangements can be made.”
The sergeant was speechless. It was clear he felt Shaella’s embarrassment. The news of the Lord of Weir’s betrayal and arrest was common knowledge.
“Do you not have a husband to attend these matters?” he asked.
She shook her head in the negative and started to cry that much harder.
“You’re a strong and beautiful lady. I will see Master Dugak about the issue myself.” He reached into the carriage and patted her reassuringly. “If you will stay in your carriage, I will have your driver pull in and find somewhere out of the way for you to wait.”
“You are too kind, good sir,” the Warlord replied through Shaella’s roughened vocal chords. “Would you please be discreet? I… I…” She broke into another sob. “I can’t stand the embarrassment. If people know who I am, they will stare and whisper about my uncle. I just can’t.”
“On my sword, my lady,” the solider promised. “And Master Dugak may be an old, grumpy dwarf, but he is kind and wise. I’m sure he and I can help you put this nastiness behind you as quickly as possible.”
With an evil grin that was hidden by a down-turned head and Shaella’s long black wig, the Warlord sniffled and nodded. She softly sobbed until the sergeant closed the carriage door. The Master of Hell had to laugh, because the driver pulled the carriage through the portal into an open area of lawn. The Warlord was inside.
Soon, so very soon, all hell would come breaking loose.
Chapter 50
Hyden opened his eyes and blinked away the dizziness. A glance around told him that he was back in bed in the Afdeon apartment. As the memory of the dwarf’s death, the young green dragon, and the finding of the Tokamac Verge all came crashing back into his head, he jumped up in alarm. It was a mistake. A thunder clap of pain exploded behind his eyes, taking his breath from him.
Now sitting on the side of the bed, he held his head in his hands and gasped for air. The feelings of darkness and imminent destruction that plagued him on the trail were mostly gone. Only a deep clot of unease remained; that and pain.
“Take it easy,” Corva said from a chair in the corner of the room.
“How long have we been here?” Hyden asked with wincing concern.
“Only a few hours,” Corva said. “The sun has only recently set.”
“Where’s the crystal?”
“There.” Corva pointed to a small table along the wall. The crystal sat shimmering next to a single candle that flickered there.
“It magnifies more than magical energy,” Hyden said. “It took my fears and worries and compounded them until I was overcome.”
“When I took it from your pack at the teleportal, it did the same to me,” Corva said. “It showed me a hundred possible ill fates that Princess Telgra, Dostin, and Phen might have shared on their way to the Evermore. Luckily, I let Jicks take it from my hands.”
“Who took it from his?”
“Well, it seems that Jicks has a more positive outlook. He's not worried about much. The crystal magnifies his pride and his hunger. He hurried the Verge in here then marched through the kitchens to find some food.”
“We’ve got… I’ve got to get it to Xwarda.” The pain behind Hyden’s eyes was ebbing away. “I’ve got to get the High King to Xwarda, too. It will take him, Ironspike, and the power of the Wardstone, along with that crystal, to do what I must do.” The thought of all that raw magical energy in one place made him shudder.
A low, rumbling sound, a tremor of vibration, shook the room. Hyden looked up with alarm all over his face. “It’s coming,” he warned. He wasn’t sure how he knew, but he did. He could feel the nauseating presence of demon kind. Through the open door, Talon came gliding in from the apartment’s common room. The hawkling felt it, too.
Shouts of concern came from beyond the door, then a long, loud scream came from outside the shuttered window.
“By the Heart of Arbor! What is it?” Corva asked as the structure shook again.
The low, popping sound of fracturing rock threatened to drown out the elf’s voice.
Hyden began pulling his over clothes on in a frantic rush. “Corva, find Cade, or Durge!” he yelled. “We must teleport as close to Xwarda as we can and then ride like the wind. The fate of all the races depends on us defending
