"Idiots!" Ashiyn rolled his eyes and jumped off the stable to stalk back toward the castle. He ignored the Nthir consuming Errance's body. "I told them the light wouldn't save them. No one listens."
"What will you do now?" Soryn asked as he followed, his eyes wide.
"What I would have done before if they had gotten out of the way. Take back this world and make it mine." Ashiyn waved to them. "Come inside. We prepare for war."
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
After spending most of the night planning an attack, Ashiyn’s small group headed into the center of the magical darkness now covering the land. Ashiyn’s plan was to destroy the leader of the monstrous armies, so they went directly to the fortress where the creature was rumored to dwell.
Illusion’s hooves rang against the stone as the winged equine came to a halt on the balcony of the massive fortress. The darkness surrounded them like a thick, heavy blanket. Even though Ashiyn’s magic gave him the ability to see in the dark, it still looked like a veil covered everything around them.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Soryn asked, as the magus slid off his griffin to stand next to Ashiyn.
“The easiest way to end this is to cut the head off the snake. So to speak.” Ashiyn rolled his shoulders as he pulled Sihtaar from his back. The sword came to life at his touch, black lightning racing up and down its length and tickling at Ashiyn’s hand. “If I kill whoever is the leader of this darkness, then I will become the leader of it. At least that’s how the armies have worked.”
Seraphine and Ember fell in step behind them. Neither said anything, but Ember drew his daggers. Seraphine looked like she might be strutting into a party. She strolled past Ashiyn and Soryn as if she owned the place.
“Seraphine,” Soryn warned, nervous.
“She can take care of herself,” Ashiyn said, as he crossed the balcony that led into a large room. “Can you get rid of this darkness, Soryn?”
“Possibly,” Soryn stopped and closed his eyes as he started to glow white with released magic. He whispered a word, and everything around them seemed to still.
Ashiyn had the sense to pull Seraphine and Ember both back behind the magus right before the magic broke loose like a hurricane through the room. The wind swept away the darkness leaving only a very empty throne room.
Ashiyn tilted his head, feeling a bit disappointed in the anti-climatic sense of it all. “Where are they? They should be here.” The darkness was rumored to bleed directly from whatever evil had created it, so his magic told Ashiyn the monster should be in the room with them. His magic was never wrong about these things.
“Maybe they’re out looking for breakfast?” Ember snickered.
Ashiyn rolled his eyes. He strode up to the throne and slammed Sihtaar’s point in between two of the stones in the floor. He uttered the dark command to release his magic, and shivered when it used his body as a conduit before exploding around the room. Even the powerful reveal spell didn’t show them anything.
Your enemy walked in with you, Sihtaar warned.
Ashiyn spun around to look at his companions. Could that be true? Which one? Ember surely wasn’t the leader of the armies of darkness. His son wasn’t that powerful. He looked between Soryn and Seraphine. He didn’t want to believe either of them was his enemy, but after what the sword had said, doubt filled him. Rhadamanthus had insisted Soryn would be Ashiyn’s doom and Seraphine had some strange power to persuade him.
Seraphine slid past him and, with a smirk, sat down on the throne. “Oh, it’s a comfortable throne. It’s too bad they’ve abandoned it. You look troubled, my love.”
“Which one is it?” Ashiyn thought toward Sihtaar, as he took a few steps away from Seraphine.
I can’t tell you that.
Ashiyn fought irritation at the sword again. What good was its power if it was never any help when he needed it? That was what he got for picking a sentient weapon. “The enemy is in this room,” Ashiyn declared.
“There are just the four of us. Are they cloaked?” Soryn asked, as he looked around.
Ashiyn turned his back on Seraphine. That was a mistake. Her giggle was the only warning he got before she attacked him. Chains of water surged at his arms and legs. It was too quick. She grabbed his hair and yanked his head back, slitting his throat with her wicked dagger, even as she chanted words to invoke a powerful spell from his spilling blood.
Ashiyn fell to his knees as darkness rushed to meet him. He leaned heavily on Sihtaar. He could see Soryn and Ember rushing to his defense, but he could no longer hear anything over the rush of blood in his ears. “Thanks a lot, sword,” was his last conscious thought.
He got the sense that the sword made some sarcastic reply, likely about his immortality, before he collapsed into darkness.
The next thing Ashiyn knew he could hear voices. The argument between Soryn and Ember sounded a thousand times louder than it should have.
“I can’t find a way out.”
“Be quiet! It will hear you.”
“Do snakes hear? I think they just smell you with their tongue.”
“He’s coming back,” Ember said, and Ashiyn heard the two of them scramble to kneel at his side. “Get up, father. We need you.”
Ashiyn groaned and shoved Ember away from him as he rolled over onto his side and tried to open his eyes. His neck throbbed. His entire body ached. He felt weak from the blood loss and the temporary death. “Where are we?”
“She threw us in the basement to feed her pet. It’s a giant snake. We lost it for now
