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  As with all hosts this one would begin disintegrating over time. It was also unproven in sunlight and could be as vulnerable to it as goblins were, which would make a dwarven body more useful when he led his army onto the surface world.

  The first group of dwarves arrived and spreading out in a semi circle facing him. One of the dwarves shouted a command and they raced forward to attack. Katar allowed the weapons to hit his carapace armour to demonstrate its invulnerability to their rune weapons. The dwarves backed off as he sent one of his hind legs straight through a dwarf’s chest as if the breastplate didn’t exist at all.

  He flicked the limb and the body flew across the room to land at the powerful dwarf’s feet.

  The leader of the first group shouted commands and the dwarves backed away and began searching the room for weapons of greater power, ones not yet tested in battle or had been found to be too powerful for normal battle and had been placed in this secure area where they could only be used in times of great need.

  The wraithlord suddenly felt a twinge of fear but he squashed it like the next dwarf that raised a weapon against him. His clawed hand came away covered in blood and flesh.

  They formed a ring around him, attacking from all sides at once. Katar smashed the leader’s shield with a clawed hand and sent him reeling backwards.

  Another dwarf struck with a spear into a leg joint and a burst of lightning shattered the joint but drained the spear’s crystal as well. Enraged, Katar grabbed the dwarf and sliced him in half with his pincer. A hammer blow shattered his front right knee unbalancing the dweller’s body. A sword deflected off his arm as he righted himself. He drew on the life energy around him and the dwarf carrying a sledgehammer dropped to his knees as his strength left him. The sword wielder wobbled on his feet but remained standing long enough to throw the sword at the dweller’s face breaking Katars’ concentration.

  Katar lost track of the second group of dwarves as more weapon blows hit him.

  He swept his arms wide killing two dwarves instantly and sending others stumbling backwards.

  Another leg was damaged, leaving him leaning sharply to the side. The leader regained his feet holding an axe unlike any other weapon the wraithlord had ever seen or felt. Its double blades gleamed golden with rows of intricate runes moving constantly across their surfaces so fine that when they began to glow no runes could be seen.

  The wraithlord killed two more dwarves without taking his eyes off this new threat.

  Drawing life energy from around him again the other dwarves dropped unconscious, except the leader. The axe seemed to be protecting the dwarf as it closed in on him.

  Katar lifted up the dwellers hind legs and tried to launch its pincers forward in a blinding attack.

  The dwarf stepped aside and sliced cleanly through the dwellers right pincer.

  Pain welled in the dweller’s body filling Katar with power. Using the blood spraying from the pincer like a weapon he sprayed the dwarf in the face.

  The dwarf stumbled backwards as the blood burnt his skin and blinded him.

  Feeling confident the wraithlord stepped forward and grabbed the dwarf around the waist. The pincer clenched, crushing armour and the bones until the dwarf dropped the axe. Deciding to feed before it finished the rest of the dwarves the wraithlord raised the dwarf to its mouth.

  The golden axe blade came out of nowhere slicing off the pincer holding the wounded dwarf and without stopping it arced around and opened the dweller’s chest.

  The dweller’s mind overwhelmed Katars’ forcing him into a fight for control as the dweller fled deeper into the armoury.

  Only when the dweller’s heart finally stopped beating was Katar freed from its body and it angrily swept after the dwarf that had deprived it of a meal.

  CHAPTER 47

  Tasha

  Waves gently washed across the rocky beach in ever increasing size and distant thunder boomed across the sea as the sky turned from blue to grey. Birds no longer swooped across the water in search of fish but called out warnings of the coming storm.

  Tasha continued her slow steady walk around the bay as the breeze gently blew her ponytail back and forth. In her hand she held a crystal and she followed a tendril of power just beneath the ground and watched the magic burst apart in an explosion on sparks as the water touched it. The water itself seemed to glow gently and Tasha reached down to scoop some up and let it run off between her fingers.

  Tasha was studying the crystals’ power trying to learn how to heal with it. When she had first experienced their power she had been scared and awed. She had hidden the crystals at first and only used them to sense patients’ internal wounds so that the doctors would have a better idea of the damage they had to deal with.

  The other doctors weren’t fools and had asked her where she was getting the information about the patients. She had dodged the questions at first but eventually she had shown them the crystals and the dust. The doctors had tried to use them but without success and the crystals had been returned to her with strange looks. Even she could not get the crystal dust to heal anymore.

  While the other doctors did not understand how she could see internal wounds in patients they continued to rely on her even more as machine after machine malfunctioned. Their confidence in her made her want to do more than just assist them in their work. She still believed the dust had healed the soldier and that she could get it to work again if only she could figure out how.

  Tasha continued her walk and could feel the rock beneath her feet change to sand that sank beneath her weight. She had learnt that the crystals drew energy from the earth by direct contact and she was able to tap into their stored energy supply to see inside people’s bodies. She also realized that if she could do that much without practice then she had the potential to do more if she could unlock their full power.

  She tried, but the crystals stubbornly refused to do anything but let her see with the other sense. After days of useless experiments she felt frustrated and needed to clear her head.

  She sat down on the damp sand and stared out at Central’s first fishing ships bobbing in the waves. The first catch had already been brought in and the biologists had tested and approved the fish for eating. She had heard them discussing the similarity of the DNA of Earth fish to the fish found on this planet and that the similarity didn’t end there. They had tested trees and grass and even the occasional animal that had been caught. All had the same basic genetic structure as Earth creatures although they weren’t all in their proper environments, some seemed to be adapted for climates other than where they would have been found on Earth.

  What scared the biologists were the creatures that didn’t resemble Earth creatures. Goblins seemed to be primates, possibly cousins of man on the evolutionary tree, but there were also creatures that were closer to fiction than reality. Their DNA seemed to be a mix of different animals’ DNA bound together to create a new species.

  The corpse of one species, a giant sized wolf had parts of human DNA sequences that were believed to be related to intelligence. There was even a witness who claimed to have spotted a unicorn in the forest.

  The wind picked up spray from the ocean and her hair began to whip about behind her.

  A few days ago a flying creature had circled high above Central. One of the last working cameras had been used to take a picture and it had been enhanced by the mainframe. The biologists were still speculating on what it could be but Tasha only had to see it once to realize it was a dragon. Most literature tended towards dragons being predators which didn’t bode well for Central or Blackrock Keep.

  Tasha finally allowed herself to think of Gabriel and her finger traced lines in the ground disturbing the flow on magic that ran beneath making it branch around her finger and rejoin on the other side.

  In the time they had been together since arriving on this planet she had grown closer to him than any other man she had ever met. He was kind and gentle with her but strong and ruthless when it came to f
ighting. Gabriel had gained the loyalties of the soldiers who had fought with him and the admiration of the civilians he protected.

  The sky turned darker and lightning struck the sea beyond the cove and the thunder vibrated the air.

  Tasha had been with Gabriel when General Esperanza had confirmed that his father had stayed on Earth to destroy the gateways. Gabriel had held out hope until then that his father might have taken one of the other gateways to Aurora. Tasha realized that his father’s sacrifice would hold Gabriel to an ideal that would put the life and happiness of others before his own. He was doomed to sacrifice himself one to many times. She realized now why he had not said goodbye to her. He could not let another take his place and he could not give her the chance to change his mind.

  The crystal in her hand grew warm and she felt the power of the crystal erasing her fatigue. She realized that she had broken the barrier to the crystals’ power and tried to hold onto it.

  As Gabriel began to fade into the back of her mind she began to lose her hold on the power. Thinking back on the boat ride to Central and the moment she had first seen with the crystals power she realized that her mind had been focused on saving the lives of the soldiers on the boat - perhaps that feeling of wanting something so badly had unlocked her sight. Was Gabriel somehow the key to unlocking the crystals full power she asked herself.

  She concentrated on him - his face, his body, the way he moved and spoke, and when she thought of what he meant to her the crystal finally awakened in her hand. She could feel its power radiating heat and she grasped hold of it ignoring the pain. She realized she had only moments to test the crystal and the only body to test it on was her own.

  She let her disembodied sense enter inside herself looking at the flow of energy and studied the function of her organs trying to find something she could do to test the power. Her body was completely healthy which was not what she wanted at the moment. She felt a flash of fire in her hand and opened it to see what had happened. Where the crystal had been only a red mark remained.

  Rain began to fall as Tasha searched the ground in case she had dropped crystal but it was nowhere to be found. Confused and suddenly tired she struggled to rise off the ground feeling the cold rain soaking into her clothing. She walked back to the caves and made her way to her room feeling weariness seep into her body.

  Tasha lay back on the hard mattress without the energy to take off her wet clothing as her body grew weaker and weaker. Her mind slipped into darkness and her body became as still as death.

  CHAPTER 48

  Laisarus

  The blizzard blew sleet and snow across the mountains but it melted as soon as it hit the grounds and ran in streams to the valley below. Climbing became treacherous and the elves huddled within a crack in the rock face barely large enough to call a cave. Visibility dropped to zero and despite Laisarus’s protests Amelia built a fire to warm them.

  For two days Laisarus lay shivering at the slightest breeze next to Tagier before his exertion finally wore off. Amelia tended both of them with herb lore as best she could and by the time Laisarus had the strength to match his will, Tagier was ready to move again. Scars lined Tagier’s back and wept blood every so often but Amelia was convinced that no poisons or infections were present.

  While they slept, Carthus guarded them with subtle spells to lead goblins away from their hiding place.

  The blizzard finally cleared and the last of the snow melted. Laisarus forced himself to apologize to the others, “I failed in my duties to lead the expedition. I won’t let my own needs become our downfall again, you have my word.”

  Tagier saw the change in Laisarus and said, “Your word is good enough for me.”

  Amelia tried to placate him. “We all make mistakes, Laisarus.”

  Laisarus replied, “But a leader’s mistakes affect everyone. I vow that until we reach safety, I will not allow harm to come to one of us again so long as I have the strength to prevent it.”

  Carthus spoke up, “Then lead us, ranger.”

  They broke camp leaving no trace behind for goblins to stumble upon. Ranging ahead within sight of the others Laisarus led the expedition through rougher trails and over more treacherous ground than before to throw off any pursuit.

  Once more they travelled during the day and camped out of sight at night.

  They spotted dozens of columns of goblins below them moving towards Stronghold, but the goblins were too intent on their destination to search the mountains.

  During a rest break Tagier said aloud, “The dwarves won’t stand a chance when the goblins reach them.”

  Laisarus watched the valley below and replied, “I heard a tale once about the goblins. Apparently they were human once, corrupted beneath the earth by wraithlords to serve as armies on the surface while the wraithlords remained below to feed on their fear and pain. One day one of the wraithlord quarrelled with the others and a war broke out beneath the earth. Eventually the wraithlord fled for his life with the remains of his armies and sealed the entrance behind him. In the darkness the armies trapped behind grew stronger and eventually they broke free appearing as the goblins we know today, only to find no trace of the other wraithlord.”

  Carthus listened with interest and asked, “This rebel wraithlord, was it the Corruptor?”

  “Yes, but that’s another tale. Now free of their prison the wraithlords sent their hordes of goblins out into the mountains and down the valleys searching for the Corruptor. They found the dwarves and declared war without hesitation. They grew in numbers and filled the forest from the north to the south, eventually destroying the dwarves Citadel beneath Broken Pass Keep.

  “In retribution the dwarves moved into the mountains and found the goblins’ homeland. Using their first rune magic they constructed gates and in a series of brutal fights pushed the goblins deeper into the earth. Tunnel after tunnel, never letting up until the dwarves had claimed most of the goblins’ previous lair. Over time the dwarves improved their ward gates until the wraithlords were again trapped beneath the earth and separated from their goblin armies above.”

  Laisarus paused as he spotted something moving down below, then continued, “Stripped of the influence of the wraithlords’ power the goblins fell on each other in a battle for supremacy until a dozen of the strongest goblin leaders rose to become their gods. While they had no protection Gaia cursed the goblins to everlasting darkness, making the sun deadly to them, in the hopes that this flaw would eventually be their undoing. Below the earth the wraithlords sensed the battles but could do nothing to reclaim their power or protect their servants from Gaia’s curse.”

  When Laisarus didn’t appear to have anything more to say Tagier asked, “You mention this because?”

  Laisarus looked at Tagier for a moment and said, “The goblin gods don’t want to be overthrown by the wraithlords, they’re sending their armies to destroy the dwellers and the wraithlords before they attempt a coup. The dwarves will be caught between two armies intent on destroying each other. If they stay out of the way they may survive to fight only one weakened enemy.”

  Laisarus turned back to look at the valley below and announced, “We have a visitor.” Below them a figure stumbled along the rocky ground.

  CHAPTER 49

  Commander

  The commander worked in the darkness deep beneath the rocky ground of Central. Assisted by a chosen few he had been studying the goblin’s blood magic and experimenting with it.

  He had discovered that while the power crystals naturally charged when left in contact with the earth, they took too long for his purposes. But they could absorb almost instantly the life force from blood and cells separated from a living host. The donors used for the testing didn’t survive being drained of blood and life but they were easy to replace during the frequent assaults.

  Using knowledge gained from the mainframe hidden in the cave he had developed a way of making wands that held the rune combinations of every shaman staff that had been gathered. Eac
h wand was powered by a core of crystal running its length which recharged from a removable blood canister at its base.

  This new wand was his finest work so far and promised to be far more powerful than the others. It used principles he had been devising from the shabby rune structures the shamans had created. All he needed to do was test it to see its full potential.

  All the commander’s preparations were made to sail down the coast and make his way up a cliff face far enough away that he could test the full range of the wand’s power without being disturbed by the General Esperanza’s soldiers. Four of his apprentices would come with him to keep watch. Bottles of blood had been prepared for the trip and more mundane supplies as well. He had even gone as far as to get the General Allister’s permission although he could have easily done without it.