Dark Moon: The Wizard's Scion, #4

Prologue

King Tybold, the 38 th , looked up from the citadel’s massive gatehouse, the most fortified position of his walled fortress. Floating in the sky was an unholy abomination unlike anything he’d ever seen before.

He was a dwarf with a long, brown beard, wearing the ancient, iridescent plate armor that had become synonymous with kingship. He carried an ax and shield of the same glittering metal. They were long-rumored to be made of mythril, but in the past four-hundred years, it had become known they were actually made of a special sky metal called iridium. The armor and weapons had been a clever ruse by old ‘Two-Minds’ Tybold, the first bearer of the old family name. The ruse united the dwarves, leading to a peace that lasted right up until it was discovered. Lie or not, however, the armor was still a symbol dwarves could rally behind.

Feeling unnerved by the unnatural phenomenon in the sky, he’d dressed in the ancient armor, since it was the best in the kingdom, still unscratched after nearly a thousand years, the very reason it still commanded respect, for it was the finest armor ever crafted.

It was night and the stars shone as normal, providing enough light to see by, but in one spot there was a large, dark void, with a slightly silvery crescent, simply hanging in the sky, much the way the sun did. He had no idea what it was, but knew it had been foretold by the great sages that studied the stones of the land.

The king turned to his gray-bearded chief sage, asking, What do ye call this nightmarish abomination?

The gray-robed dwarf bowed his head and responded, Me king, according to the records left by the Sky Children, they called it a ‘moon’. It’s like a small world, but much closer than the worlds the Sky Children came from, many eons ago.

What else can ye tell me about it? Tybold asked, obviously disturbed.

According to myth and legend, the appearance of this ‘moon’ is accompanied by dangerous creatures great and small.

After a moment’s silence, the king demanded, How do we get rid of it?

Me’s afraid that’s beyond the power of even the greatest wizards. However, me would advise keeping yer armies on high alert until it passes.

The king grumbled, Me already ordered that.

Weeks passed and the silvery sliver grew larger, until it became a terrifying, complete circle in the sky, a bad omen displayed for all to see.

During the start of the first night of the ‘full moon’, the king looked up and saw dark specs appear. He watched over the course of half an hour as they grew larger.

One of them, in particular, grew larger than the rest and then began to glow, filling Tybold with a sickening dread!

He shouted, All soldiers, prepare for battle!

He heard the shout pass down the line of the citadel’s gatehouse, knowing runners would be dispatched to inform the entire citadel, both soldier and commoner, alike. He was confident other fortress commanders would behave the same, sensible way.

The glow of the object gradually faded and it became obvious the hulking mass falling from the sky was aflame, spilling out great plumes of smoke!

Seeing the angle the thing was falling at and the way it kept getting larger, King Tybold groaned, No! Not in me city!

Thunder roared out of the object, which slammed into the heart of the citadel with earth-shattering velocity!

As the ground rumbled and the earth quaked, Tybold worried about the many tunnels below the citadel, where many an honest dwarf made their living, mining. Seeing the crater, he was certain many of those still below had been killed.

Following prior orders, the armies of the king were organized and began their march inward, to the center of the citadel!

Desiring to inspire his army by leading from the front, Tybold climbed down through the gatehouse, joining them. After twenty minutes of forced marching, the king’s personal regiment was first on the scene!

Much to his surprise, he saw a giant pill bug, about thirty feet across, curled up on itself, its armored shell made of dark metal that was still glowing red-hot in places!

The huge creature slowly uncurled, revealing a great many legs of the same dark metal.

Unsure if the beast was animal or machine, Tybold ordered, Ballistas and crossbows, one volley!

As ordered, the soldiers of his regiment raised their weapons and fired, releasing a veritable hail of bolts, which ineffectually clattered off the armor of the giant bug, even those that had been fired at the belly! The bolts were rapidly followed by a dozen shots from cart-mounted Ballistas! Unfortunately, even siege weapons appeared ineffective!

Seeing the failure of long-range fire, King Tybold shouted, We’ll give them a taste of our axes!

Screaming their defiance in unison, the king’s personal regiment threw themselves at the giant beast!

Tybold lay on the battlefield , wounded and struggling to breathe, having been left among the dead and dying. Many of his ribs were broken, where he’d been kicked by the great beast. The ancient, glittering armor had finally been marred and bore a dent where he’d been struck.

Ironically, the armor had denied him a glorious death in battle, unless he perished by his wounds, which would still count.

Tybold lifted himself up to see the progress of the battle, one last time, fighting the fire of his ribs for the sake of the view.

He was disappointed to see his personal regiment had been reduced to a group of thirty, working away at the beast’s legs, cutting them off, one at a time. The survivors all bore weapons forged of sky metal, for honest iron easily shattered or blunted against the beast’s armor plates.

That unfortunate discovery had cost nearly half the regiment, before the others retreated and took on support roles, firing crossbows in the hopes of finding a weak spot, but the beast’s armor was segmented and layered, making it almost impregnable. Only the joints of the legs seemed to be weak enough for strong melee blows with sky metal weapons to penetrate.

Tybold felt disgust as he realized the beast was toying with his soldiers, consuming them one by one. As he watched, another victim was snapped out of the melee and held, struggling against the creature’s great mandibles! The dwarf screamed in agony as he withered away, his very life drained through some form of sickening, dark magic! The beast finished the meal and the dwarf’s remains showered down over the other dwarves, hitting them with black ashes and stray equipment!

As Tybold had seen before, the beast regrew its severed limbs, renewed by the burst of dark magic!

The beast was unbeatable through martial force, though his dwarves still stubbornly tried. Tybold subsided to the ground and coughed up blood, unable to maintain his posture.

He hoped the wizards of the Order of the Dawn, at their nearby tower, were faring better, angered by the irony of it: he hated magic with all his heart, but if dwarven might wasn’t enough, then magic was all that was left. Unfortunately, three of the monsters had fallen outside the city, in the plain surrounding the tower, which also explained why no reinforcements had come; the rest of his forces were surely engaged defending the walls, because who could have predicted the king’s personal regiment to have trouble with any beast, regardless of the size?

Tybold spat blood and cursed as he stared up at the abominable moon, only able to manage a whisper, Ye evil thing and yer evil beasts! May ye fall to the blows of honest dwarves!

Dawn burst upon the land, like a sudden fire lancing across the landscape and he heard a monstrous shriek! Propping himself up again, despite the pain, he saw the great armored creature struggling, as though it had been wounded by the light!

His few remaining soldiers rallied and quickly took advantage, severing many legs on one side, causing the beast to lose its balance! Just as Tybold was cheering, the great bug curled up into a ball and landed on them, crushing the life from them! His cheers turned to curses hurled at the monster, but to no effect.

It lay still for a time and then began to float into the air, soon streaking back toward the sickening moon it had come from. Other such creatures also rose through the air, all heading back to their home.

Tybold lay back and watched, confused. Is it over? What was been the point of attacking? Will me ever know?

While he lay and thought on the events of the night, civilians picked through the bodies, looking for survivors. Tybold was soon discovered and rushed away, for medical attention.

As he listened to reports of the damage to the citadel and surrounding lands, all he could think of was the sage’s prediction about how long the full moon would last: two more nights! The kingdom was a tattered mess and his armies had largely been consumed! How could we survive two more nights? Is it even possible? Even worse was the fact entire fields of crops had been drained of life and turned to ash, just like his soldiers.

In the end, bed-ridden Tybold gave a series of desperate orders, Release the criminals from the dungeon and arm them. Arm the women and the children, too. Call in the retired and elderly to serve and arm the sages. Let the last kegs be rolled out and prepared, for we win or go down fighting! Let the wounded bear the kegs!

As night fell, Tybold was behind the reigns of a stripped-down wagon, loaded with four, thirty-gallon kegs of strong, dwarven ale, each prepared as the traditional ‘last keg’, readied in greatest strength, then purified by the alchemists. It tasted like a drunk’s piss, but that wasn’t the point: it was the most flammable form of dwarven ale, designed to be used as a last-ditch weapon, based on an old drinking song, titled Last Keg , about a dwarf with too many enemies and an excess of ale. By the end of the song, the dwarf was down to his last keg, but still had too many enemies to fight, so he strapped it to his back, stuck a rag in the opening and then lit the end, taunting and fighting to draw his enemies close, for one final trap, with explosive results.

Tybold was strapped to the wagon, having once more volunteered to lead the offensive. His broken ribs had been carefully looked over by the healers, who’d told him he’d be maimed for life, if by some hideous chance he managed to survive his suicide mission. They’d done their best, binding his wounds, and in the end, they’d soaked his bandages in strong herbs to keep the pain down, making him feel giddy and cheerful, with occasional fits of manic laughter, because everything was amusing looking, even though he knew it shouldn’t have been.

As night fell, Tybold watched the sky. Where the night before, there had been a small handful of dark specs on the moon, there were hundreds, if not thousands! King Tybold smiled in grim satisfaction, for those were odds in favor of the dwarves: with so many enemies, it would be almost impossible to miss!

The first creature to land was again one of the large pill bugs, falling in the crater from the night before!

Tybold screamed, Charge!

As he screamed and yelled, whipping his horses to maximum speed, Tybold raced ahead of the army! He was surprised by the appearance of many, many insects surrounding the great pill bug, each with dark, metal skin, just like the big one! They came in many shapes and sizes, with a small number walking on two legs, appearing armed with crude weapons!

Tybold’s battle horses fearlessly charged right through the ranks of the insects and at the last moment, he let go of the reins, then reached down to pull the pin that would release them from the wagon, allowing them to escape!

As Tybold careened toward the giant pill bug, he tugged on the ropes attached to the barrel stoppers! Eye-stinging alcohol vapors blurred his vision as he reached for one of the wagon’s torches!

Tybold could contain himself no longer, so he let out a great, howling laugh, hoping it would unnerve the enemy!

On collision with the beast’s legs, he slammed the torch into one of the kegs! One-hundred-twenty gallons of strong alcohol ignited as the vapors lit and then blew back, into the barrels!

The night was alive with burning, shrieking insects and the final echoes of the king’s howling laughter!

Three more wagons, driven by other lethally-wounded dwarves did the same, right on his heels!

The commander of the local unit, young King Tybold, the 39 th , dressed in the iridium armor of office, was both saddened and satisfied by the sight of his father’s death, knowing the old king’s wish had always been to die in battle. He was also glad to see the three explosions that had been on target, doing what hadn’t been possible the night before: the great pill bug’s already red-hot armor appeared softened, while the fourth wagon had lit a great many of the bugs on fire!

Ballistas and crossbows, open fire!

Ballista bolts the width of small tree trunks, tipped with iron, slammed into the glowing armor of the beast! Each strike produced a burst of black smoke and then the great creature slumped on its side, dead! The dwarves cheered!

The king shouted, Now, ready yer ale and prepare to throw!

Several hundred dwarves raised a bottle of ale with a rag in the end, lighting them with torches.

When the time was right, as the insects surged forward, the bottles were thrown, inevitably producing shrieks of insectile pain!

When the leading soldiers advanced, armed with sky metal weapons, they shredded the ranks of the insects. It wasn’t more than twenty minutes before the battle for the city center was won!

As young Tybold surveyed the corpse-strewn field, confident the city center was safe, he turned to direct his dwarves to fortify the walls.

Behind him, the corpses began to deflate with flatulent sounds, releasing black gasses into the air, like smoke! The young king turned just in time to be engulfed by the cloud! Before the black mist fully surrounded him, he took a deep breath!

Brief screams of pain erupted around him, coming from other dwarves that hadn’t been able to suck in a breath, instead forced to breathe the mist!

Feeling his eyes and nose begin to burn, he pinched his nostrils shut and kept his eyes closed as tightly as possible! The dark mist was damp and even though he wasn’t a wizard, he could feel the toxic magic of it, it was so strong in the air!

After a minute and a half of holding his breath, he felt the sensation pass and cautiously opened one eye. It stung, because the mist was still visible in the air, but it was nearly gone. Within ten more seconds, he released his nose and took a cautious breath.

The air stank of old death and decay, so thick he nearly vomited! Looking around, he noted the sad result of the dark magic: every dwarf that breathed the mist had been killed. He watched one of the last victims rapidly age, the hair of his neatly-trimmed bead growing three feet in length as his body became feeble and withered, briefly resembling one of the gray-bearded sages, just before crumbling as black ashes!

Rising from the ashes of the dead dwarves were translucent dwarves clad in white armor, with brilliant-white weapons! He’d never been one to believe in ghosts, but seeing hundreds of them rise into the air, Tybold wasn’t about to argue the point! Each spirit grumbled and fought as they were drawn along with the remnants of the dark mist toward many floating, cylindrical, white stones, with evil-looking arcane symbols carved into them! Their souls screamed and were absorbed by the stones, which zipped up and away, streaking toward the moon!

Staring in disgusted horror, he knew there was nothing he could do to save the stolen souls of his men!

Of the rag-tag army that faced the invaders, only a handful had survived.

By the start of the third night, the dwarves had retreated into their tunnels, sealed the entrances and then collapsed them, entirely abandoning the surface, save only a few well-hidden ventilation shafts.

King Tybold, the 39th, didn’t like hiding like a coward, but since his citadel had gone from millions of dwarves to just a scant few thousand in just two nights, he wasn’t about to take any more risks to fight the invaders. The surviving humans and elves from nearby villages, a tribe of ogres and even some wretched goblins had opted to join them, as well.

He didn’t care for sharing his tunnels with ogre and goblin scum, but in the face of a common enemy, he preferred strength in numbers and it was clear they felt the same. Fortunately, with the population decline, the citadel’s deep food reserves meant there was enough to feed everyone for the duration of the invasion and then re-build.

It took them months of work to dig their way back to the surface, where they were able to confirm the catastrophe was over and the moon had gone, just as mysteriously as it appeared.

To keep the peace in the short term, Tybold gifted the ogres and goblins with enough rations to feed themselves for a year. Ironically, with the reduced population, he had enough to last a decade, even after the gifts.

Reports soon came in from every corner of the kingdom. The surface had been ravaged, with between eight and nine-tenths of all plant-life dead, turned to black ash. Barren lands had fared the best, seeming ignored by the invaders, while lush lands had been hit the worst.

Trees and grass became precious resources that everyone tended to and cutting down trees became a crime with a severe punishment. In the end, the elves used their great knowledge of plants and worked with the few remaining wizards to magically encourage plants to multiply at a phenomenal rate. It was also fortunate the ashes left behind were excellent fertilizer. Everyone, rich, poor, young and old, peasant and king alike, worked to care for the land, because it was necessary for their survival.

Chapter 1

Eden

Eden woke feeling violently ill and unable to see. She sat up, slowly.

Chink! - The link between herself and the tube she’d been laying in disconnected.

Drink this. Her father commanded and pressed a small, plastic bottle into her hands.

She remembered her training, poked a small hole in the foil cap with one of her teeth and then sipped from it. Immediately, she gained a blurry view of a brightly-lit space. The cocktail of drugs in the bottle was incredibly bitter and was supposed to have been mixed with fruit juice, but that part seemed to be missing.

Her father moved away and in the background, she heard the little sounds a computer made when someone was using it, including the soft, audio feedback of the touchscreen. Her parents were also whispering back and forth.

Over the course of ten minutes, she sipped from the bottle until she took in a mouthful of concentrated fruit-flavoring, which she spat out, gagging on it! All the fruit juice had settled at the bottom and the drugs were floating on top! Ugh!

Sorry, Eden, I should have warned you about that. Her mother apologized, The juice got a bit stale while we were out.

Within moments, her vision finally cleared and she remembered she was in the back of a shuttle. Unlike most, it held a few suspension tubes used for keeping people asleep for years at a time, which had been patched into the shuttle’s power systems. She was sitting on the open bed of one of them. There was also a small reactor and one of the big energy banks from the colony ship, all patched into open panels in the walls, floor and ceiling, giving the room a dangerous look. Her father and mother were in the cockpit.

Just thinking of the colony ship brought back memories of her old life. Eden remembered living in the Northwestern Empire. Her father had once been a prince, in line to inherit the throne, but he’d married a common engineer, in defiance of his father’s wishes. As a result, he’d been stripped of rank and title. For the first ten years of her life, she’d been comfortable. Her family was wealthy and she’d never lacked for anything, but then, one day her father came home looking very worried, with a cut on his cheek. It hadn’t even become a scar before her parents volunteered for a colonization mission.

Eden’s father tried to get her excited about the prospect of exploring a new world, but Eden hadn’t been interested. She’d wanted to stay in the only home she’d ever known. The unwanted ‘adventure’ began with a long sleep in a tube, only to wake to a garden full of fruit, like the one she’d been named after, from scripture.

After a while it really had become fun, seeing a colony constructed, but then people got sick. She didn’t know why, but in the middle of the outbreak, there was a huge, city-wide panic, leading to everyone running away from their new homes.

When it happened, Eden and her father had just returned in the shuttle, having been out to collect some equipment from the remains of one of the old colony ships. Strictly speaking, a ten-year-old girl hadn’t been assigned the job, but her father wanted a bit of company, so she went with him.

When the big panic started, she stayed in the shuttle and watched as people fled, while her father went for her mother. When they were together, they left in the shuttle. She didn’t know why, but her father immediately flew it down into the water of the ocean. It wasn’t long before there were huge explosions in the distance, which even through the water were painfully bright, followed by a series of shock waves that jarred the shuttle!

They stayed underwater for the next few days, while her parents argued about what to do next. Eden didn’t understand most of what they said, but it was clear they hadn’t made much of a plan beyond escaping the city. They eventually made a decision to connect the reactor and energy bank to the shuttle, then hooked up three of the tubes.

Eden didn’t know why, but they’d slept again, just like on the colony ship.

Trying to shake the remnants of sleep from her mind, Eden rubbed her blue eyes and ran her fingers through her red hair, which was much longer than it had been when she fell asleep. She experimentally got to her feet, finding her stomach had finally settled. She ducked under some cables, stepped into the cockpit and noted they were still underwater.

Eden’s father had black hair, while Eden looked much more like her mother, with almost the same shade of hair.

How long were we asleep? Eden asked.

Dad responded, A lot longer than I intended. The alarm I set didn’t wake me.

Why?

Mom shrugged, The shuttle computer shut down, so we woke when power ran low, instead.

How long? Eden repeated herself.

Too long.

She watched in silence as they worked, not truly understanding what was going on, but she could see how worried her father was. Something was seriously wrong, just like the day he’d gotten his scar.

Looking out through the window, she stood on her toes, to get a better view. She could see the shuttle was at the bottom of the ocean and appeared half buried in mud. She imagined they were stuck.

After a long discussion about safety between her parents, her father fired up the engines, producing a quick series of loud popping sounds that rocked the whole shuttle! On the control console, a red warning light began flashing and her father used a string of bad words she’d been warned never to use! However, the shuttle started to drift upward, having been freed of the mud!

Will it be enough? He asked.

After a minute or so of watching the screen, her mother shook her head, We’ll have to swim!

As a result of violently coughing up water, Eden woke, lying on her back in a bright orange, inflatable boat. Her chest ached on the left side, where she’d recently been jabbed with a needle. She was freezing and her hands were blue, but her mom soon gathered her up and held her close, warming her. She remembered the airlock of the shuttle filling with water and despite all the coaching from her parents, she’d panicked! When the doors opened, they dragged her upward. She held her breath until she felt like she’d explode and then breathed in water, quickly blacking out after that.

We thought we’d lost you! Mom sobbed and squeezed her, just a little too tightly.

Looking over Mom’s shoulder, she saw Dad, looking scared. He threw a used syringe overboard and then hugged them both.

When they finally let her go, Eden looked all around, noting they were in the middle of the ocean, with no land in sight.

Eden stared across the boat to a blue, plastic tarp as it fluttered on the wind. She’d tied it down and tucked it under, but couldn’t forget what lay beneath. She desperately wanted to forget, but couldn’t tear her eyes away from the macabre sight. She was alone on the raft and her parents were...under the tarp.

They’d given her all the water, because the filter in the emergency kit was broken. They’d eventually curled up and fallen asleep, side-by-side and then after a long time, just stopped breathing. Her father had been first and then her mother. Eden didn’t know what else to do, so she covered them with the tarp.

She eventually fell asleep staring at the awful scene, wishing things were different, but starting to feel sick and feverish.

Eden woke to a night full of stars so intense, they illuminated the ocean like moonlight. As she stared up at the sky, she observed colorful ribbons swirling around, some seeming aimless, while others moved with apparent purpose. The night was alive with them, like hovering fireflies.

As a blue one came down and floated just above her head, she reached out to touch it, finding the ribbon rapidly drawn into the tip of her finger, which started to glow. As she withdrew her finger, the glow stayed in the air, illuminating the raft in a soft, flickering, green light.

Feeling transfixed by the strange sight, she reached out to another ribbon, producing a soft, red glow. With a third try, she produced a blue light.

Applying a bit of imagination, the next became a fluttering, glowing, yellow outline of a butterfly that flew off, into the night.

She entertained herself for some time by making glowing images in the air, until her fever surged again, making her feel absolutely exhausted, so she laid back and fell asleep, watching the lights fade away, unsure if she was dreaming or awake.

Eden was slapped awake by rough, calloused hands! She wasn’t on the raft anymore, but was instead on the deck of a wooden sailing ship! She looked up into the faces of three-foot tall, green-skinned men with sharp teeth, who smiled wickedly at her! It was still night.

She immediately half-crawled away from them, only to find herself bumping into more of them, because she was surrounded! The ones behind her laughed and shoved her forward, causing her to stumble and fall at the feet of the one that woke her.

They were speaking and jeering at her, but she couldn’t understand them. One of them shouted a command, but when she failed to respond, he punched her! Just as she was rising to her feet, another shouted something and then swept her legs out from beneath her with a kick! Yet another shouted, laughing and pointing at her as she lay on the deck of the ship.

Eden had no idea what was going on and no idea who or even what her captors were! She just wanted it all to stop!

As one of them roughly grabbed her wrists and pinned them to the deck, while another began clawing at her clothing, she started to get angry instead of just frightened, screaming in their faces! They laughed, but in that moment of white-hot anger, she knew she had the power to make them stop. She remembered the ribbons and the lights, knowing she’d shaped them with imagination, so she imagined the black, greasy hair of her two tormentors bursting into flame!

After a second or two of intense concentration, she was half-surprised to see it happen! She began to sweat profusely, the intensity of her fever growing!

The green men with burning hair ran around the deck of the ship, screaming in pain, while the others stared in fear, stepping away from Eden!

Having gained the upper hand, she paused to collect her thoughts and then rose to her feet, screaming, Who’s next?

Looking around at the strange, green men, colorful ribbons came into focus, swirling around everything, almost as if everyone and everything was secretly composed of them! They consumed her vision and Eden fell to the deck, sweating and unable to stand, her fever having spiked to a dangerous temperature!

Staring up at the stars, she took in a view