Page 234 of Of Empires and Dust

Calen pulled their minds together and channelled Valerys’s rage through him, feeling the dragon’s fury in his blood. He slammed a ball of Air into the Chosen’s chest. The force of the blow sent the creature crashing into the wall of the building behind it.

The moment the Chosen hit the stone, Valerys unleashed a river of dragonfire. The flames crashed down over the creature and its gleaming silver plate, and for a second Calen allowed himself a flicker of hope. Until the dragonfire parted around the Chosen’s outstretched hand.

Calen didn’t hesitate. He pulled on threads of Fire, Earth, and Air, weaving them through the sand around him. With Earth and Fire, he pulled the grains of sand together and bound them into shards of glass with the heat of a dragon’s fury, then hurled them through the air.

The shards crashed into the Chosen like a raging storm, smashing into its armour and slicing through the grey flesh of its face before molten steel flowed from its collar and its helm reformed. Taking advantage of the moment, Calen dropped the satchels into the sand and charged.

He swung at the creature’s side but changed his course when the red light of a crimson níthral ignited in the corner of his vision. Calen twisted and caught the blow head-on with his sword, the impact jarring his arms.

A second Chosen stared down at him, crimson light misting in the slits of its helm. The pressure faded in the back of his mind as Valerys’s fire ebbed. A glance over his shoulder told him the first Chosen moved towards him.

Calen drew a sharp breath, opened himself to the Spark, and unleashed a shockwave of air, knocking both the monstrositiesbackwards. In that same breath, he sheathed his sword and pulled Valerys’s mind into his.Ayar viël. Ayar elwyn. Ayar nithír.

One life. One heart. One soul.

With the dragon’s power surging through him, Calen pulled on each elemental strand and felt a wash of relief as the purple flames burst from his fist, raging and thrashing before settling into the shape of a light-wrought sword.

The two Chosen fell upon him, crimson níthrals hacking and slashing. Calen fell into the movements of the fellensír, bursts of light igniting around him as the blades collided.

The Chosen to his right swung its blade downward in an attempt to cleave Calen in half. But Calen twisted, avoiding the strike by the breadth of a hair. Valerys’s rage swirling within him, he funnelled threads of Earth and Spirit into his left hand, then rammed the fist into the creature’s side. The impact jarred Calen’s arm, but it also spread a crack through the Chosen’s armour.

Before Calen could take advantage of the blow, the second creature sprang forwards and slammed something unseen into Calen’s chest. The force of the Blood Magic sent Calen tumbling backwards before he rammed a gauntleted hand into the sand and steadied himself.

Above, Valerys attempted to swoop down once more, but Uraks leapt from the rooves and grabbed at his feet and wings, trying to carve him open. The dragon split one from groin to throat with a swing of his tail and crushed another with his jaws, but the beasts kept coming.

Fly higher!Calen lifted himself to his feet. The dragon roared back in his mind, tearing the Uraks apart as he landed on the roof above, refusing to leave Calen. Calen was his soulkin, not his master.

The two Chosen charged again and a memory flashed through Calen’s mind, a memory that was not his own, a memory of Tarast, Soulkin of Antala, the world shifting around him. The light of his níthral flickered from purple to yellow, and it was as though Tarast moved through him. He drifted through the movements of a form he did not know, turning away strike after strike before he dropped to one knee in the sand, then spinning as a níthral soared over his head. He swung his blade as he spun and carved through the silver armour that protected one of the Chosen’s bellies. It was like slicing through parchment. Blood poured from the opening, but the creature kicked out and slammed its boot into Calen’s chest.

Calen lay on the flat of his back in the sand as the Chosen lifted its glowing blade and moved for the killing strike.

A roar erupted, and Valerys crashed down into the street, folding his wings in tight. The tip of the dragon’s tail burst though the Chosen’s chest in a spray of blood. With the talons of his winged forelimbs clinging to the stone around him, Valerys lifted the Chosen up, snapped his jaws around the creature’s body, and ripped it in half with a terrible wrench of his neck.

As the severed torso dropped to the sand, purple lightning streaked upwards and crashed into Valerys’s chest. The dragon shrieked, tearing chunks of stone from the buildings on either side, smoke pluming.

The surviving Chosen stepped forwards, the runes in its armour pulsing with a vibrant red light. Something coiled around Calen, an unseen rope constricting his limbs, crushing him and lifting him off his feet.

The Chosen’s helm receded once more, black eyes staring into Calen’s, rune-marked grey skin stretched tight across thick bone. The hairs on Calen’s neck stood on end as a voice like no other left the Chosen’s throat. Harsh, guttural, and deep, almost like its throat was bleeding. “Why did you return here? Didyour god send you for the Heart?” The invisible bonds clenched around Calen’s throat, and he screamed. The Chosen roared, two voices shouting at once. “Answer me! Where is the Heart?”

Calen tried to reach out to the Spark, but it was all he could do to hold on to consciousness as the threads of Blood Magic tightened around him, Valerys roaring, trying desperately to get to Calen as more Uraks leapt from the rooves above. And then, all of a sudden, he hit the sand, and the Chosen was gone.

Calen gasped for air, looking over to see the giant beast in silver steel plate pulling itself from its knees some twenty feet away along the sand.

A knight in dark green armour stood over Calen. In a flash of green light, a Soulblade ignited in his fist, the green glow sparkling in the sand. Then Calen heard his brother’s voice.

“If you want him, demon, come and get him.”

Chapter 52

Protect the Ones You Love

18thDay of the Blood Moon

Ilnaen – Winter, Year 3081 After Doom

Arden stoodbetween Calen and the Chosen, his Soulblade ignited in his fist. The others had said they’d seen rune-marked Uraks the night the Blood Moon had risen, seen them become hosts for the Chosen. The thing was a monster, a head and shoulders above even him in his Sentinel armour.

“Go.” Arden didn’t dare take his eyes from the Chosen, but he felt the sand shifting beneath his feet as Calen rose.

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