“I trained with Haver since childhood. I fought alongside him in thousands of battles. That’s how I recognized you immediately, my Prince. His shadow follows you. You even hold your sword the same way he did. Others may not see it, but I do.”
Seeing that the King had left his back wide open, dozens of nomads rushed to attack him. Elizabeth rushed to defend him. She was a fiery whirlwind sweeping the enemies in her way. Not a single blade or arrow could even touch Haver. However, the enemies weren’t deterred. They kept coming
The sky darkened from all the explosions and fire. Hundreds, thousands of the dead and dying lay across the riverbank. Suddenly, in the midst of this orgy of death and agony, Atikus sensed something... inhuman. Something demonic.
That was the beginning of the end.
Chapter 238
Atikus was bleeding to death and the world seemed hazy, like the air was being distorted by a huge bonfire. The mountain to the west turned into a castle. The black sky took on a scarlet and purple hue.
The fleeing nomads were shouting something. They were leaving weapons, prisoners, even their own comrades behind. Those who didn’t have horses tried to cling to others’ stirrups, but were thrown off. Everything around him was filled with the cries of people dying under the hooves of horses mad with horror.
Suddenly, something that very faintly resembled a man was hovering over Atikus. An odd, incomprehensible armor hung from the creature. Its long, scabby arms hung to below its knees. Instead of teeth, it had black fangs. Its eyes were redder than hot coals. Atikus prepared to die, but it never happened. The creature growled as black and green blood spurted from it. Primus had outrun his brother and impaled the monster on his sword. Throwing the body off his blade with a kick, he grinned at him and jokingly said: “You owe me, General.”
Atikus knew that if they survived, this joke would come true. He really would owe Primus, the man he trusted the least in this world. However, it was unlikely that either of them would get to go back home. The terrifying creatures had replaced the nomads, who had managed to escape this hell, as their foes. They looked like nightmares come alive. They tore through people, devouring and killing anyone they could reach.
Atikus remembered how he’d thought of them as ‘demons’, and mentally laughed at his foolish assumption. Then the laughter in his head was replaced by sorrow. He would never be able to return to the day of the little Prince’s birthday celebration and give him his father’s dagger. It had been passed on in their family for hundreds of generations. But Fate was cruel. After Atikus had gone through five wives and divorces, the healers had said that the Gods hadn’t given the General the ability to carry on his family line. Therefore, Atikus had been planning to pass on his only legacy to his most beloved student and someone he’d thought of as his nephew — the little Prince. He had been certain that, despite all the efforts of Haver and Elizabeth, their boy wouldn’t grow up to be a scholar at all, but a warrior. A great warrior. Maybe the greatest one that had ever lived.
A hundred people crowded around Atikus, protecting him. Among them were the King, Primus, Elizabeth, and a beautiful girl with turquoise hair. Bathed in the light of the lilac sky, her hair almost seemed to glow. She fought with a short blade and was graceful in her deadliness. No wonder Primus loved the girl so much... The bride of the King’s brother was named Leonora, a swordsman famous in all the northern areas of the Kingdom. She’d never joined an army until the day she’d met Primus and started fighting side by side with him. They made a good couple. It was a pity that that would soon end.
Suddenly, it seemed to the General like a miniature sun had flashed before his eyes, and then the world froze. After a moment, Atikus realized that he had been mistaken — it hadn’t been a sun at all. Nevertheless, the world really had frozen: the terrible creatures hung in the air, Elizabeth’s fire Technique looked like a bloom of flame that would never blossom, even Haver had been stopped mid-swing. It was a haunting and unnerving sight.
Primus’ blade, called ‘Moon Wind’, inherited from his father (may the forefathers judge him kindly), turned into ghostly moon silk. Atikus had always liked it when Primus called on his ‘Moon Wind’. It was so marvelous that it often won not only battles, but also drew oceans of female attention.
Leonora, despite the fact that she fought with a simple short blade, seemed to conjure entire tsunamis of power with each strike. They swept away the beasts, bent age-old trees, and cut stones in half. Atikus often wondered what it would be like if Leonora wielded a heavy sword, not a short one.
“Hold on, poor General,” a melodious, childish voice whispered.
Through the veil of death and the call of his ancestors, Atikus beheld a miniature girl. Woven from threads of light, she flapped her butterfly wings and held Atikus’ finger. That was the only thing that kept him from going to the house of his forefathers where he would always be welcome.
The General looked at the miracle that had appeared before him. He recalled the old stories South Wind used to tell — in this world, across time and in the wind, through the moon and sun, along the earth and fire, fairies flew. They were creatures endowed with unprecedented power and punished for it by the Heavens with endless loneliness. They served the Gods as their envoys. Any story in which these creatures appeared was doomed to end tragically. Fairies were feared. There were songs about them. They were loved and hated in equal measure.
“You shouldn’t have been
